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Oil Spill Reportedly Reaches Coast: Crisis Could Eclipse Exxon Valdez Disaster; Obama Promises All-Out Response to Spill; Criminal Investigation Launched Against Goldman Sachs; Blessing a Bad Investment; Immigration Law Supporters; Dealing with a Disaster; Helping America's Heroes; iPhone Finder "Regrets Mistake"; Leaving Arizona
Aired April 30, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning to you. And thanks so much for joining us. It's the Most News in the Morning. It's the 30th of April. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
First, we're covering breaking news. There are reports this morning that the massive oil spill comes ashore in Louisiana and unless it's stopped, it is on track to become one of the worst environmental disasters on record. Engineers are racing now to try to stop the flow. A massive federal response is under way. And right now, fragile marshland as well as hundreds of species of wildlife are threatened. We're live from the gulf, all the way to Washington as well this morning.
ROBERTS: Their executives were just grilled by U.S. lawmakers. Now Goldman Sachs could be the target of a criminal investigation. The reports say the Securities and Exchange Commission has referred the case to the Justice Department. Our Christine Romans will be here to explain what this all means for the Wall Street giant.
CHETRY: Plus, in Phoenix, Washington and across the country, opposition to Arizona's strict new immigration law is hard to miss. But head closer to the border and you'll hear something different from a lot of locals. We're in Arizona to talk to people who say this new law could save American lives.
And the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the conversation right now. We want to hear from you about anything that's on your mind this morning at CNN.com/amFIX. We'll read your comments throughout the morning.
ROBERTS: We begin, though, with breaking news this morning and what's turning into a colossal crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. Right now, a monster oil spill that is threatening to eclipse the historic Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989 has reportedly reached the Louisiana shoreline. The onslaught of crude now threatening fragile marshland, wildlife and the fishing industry. State of emergency has been declared by the governor. The White House is now involved. And the military is prepared to move ships and personnel to the region.
This morning we are covering the story like no one else can. Our Suzanne Malveaux live for us at the White House. Rob Marciano in the weather center tracking the winds and where the oil might go. But we start with Reynolds Wolf. He's live in Venice, Louisiana, for us this morning.
What's the latest from where you are, Reynolds?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The latest we've got for you is that despite reports, the Coast Guard has not yet confirmed that the oil has made it to shore. Plain and simple, it's still dark outside. They're waiting for sun up. And at around 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time, they're going to make an aerial reconnaissance of the area, and especially track some of the wetlands just a little bit farther to the south to see if the oil has actually made it to shore. So that's just a little ways off before they make that confirmation.
I can tell you from this exact point it's still been very active in this area. This happens to be Venice, Louisiana, one of the major points where they've been moving supplies around the region. But this is certainly not the only one. There are many ports just like this.
And yesterday, as you mentioned, Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency for the state of Louisiana. And with that, they put out 170 feet -- rather, 170,000 feet of the emergency booms. And get this guys, I think they're putting out another half a million before the next couple of days. So certainly they're acting very quickly to try to stem the flow, the advance of this tremendous oil.
Back to you.
ROBERTS: Reynolds, you went out there on a boat to try to get a closer look at the oil slick and how it's moving around in the wind and the currents. What happened to that trip?
WOLF: Well, yesterday we went out, as you mentioned. We did go out on the crew runner, the 65-foot boat, a work boat right up in parts of the Mississippi Delta right into the Gulf of Mexico. And we made it just about a mile off the coast of Louisiana. And that is where we ran into an area of convergence. We had the Mississippi going right into the gulf and the water, of course, from the gulf was actually being forced northward with that strong wind from the south. So actually, it was like moving inside a giant washtub, so to speak. And it was pretty rough to say the very least. And unfortunately, we were forced to turn back.
ROBERTS: All right. Reynolds Wolf for us in Venice, Louisiana, this morning. Reynolds, we'll keep checking back with you. Thanks so much.
CHETRY: The weather is also making the cleanup effort more difficult this morning. There are high winds making for choppy seas and that means it's even harder to contain the more than 200,000 gallons of oil spewing into the gulf each day. Our Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center this morning with more of what we can expect today for the hundreds of vessels that are out there trying to help.
Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the winds -- good morning, guys -- not favorable at all for this operation, pushing everything on shore. We talked about this yesterday. That winds depression (ph) and indeed they have and that just takes the top surface of the water and anything on the top surface of the water, including oil, in the direction the wind is blowing to. So that would be the Louisiana coastline, also the Mississippi coastline and the Alabama coastline and the Florida coastline not out of it either.
Coastal flood warning have been posted again, not because of the oil slick itself, but because that the water is going to be rising up, because of the winds. So this is not an ideal situation to say the least.
Today's forecast does bring it onshore to the mouth of the Mississippi River and some of the barrier islands just to the east of Lake Pontchartrain. And then Saturday's forecast brings it even closer to the Mississippi coastline and maybe even towards Alabama.
Looking what the Google Earth forecast shows, these lines indicate though what the forecast -- what NOAA thinks the oil is going to do come the weekend. Saturday, Sunday, you notice the shift over even to Pensacola on Monday. So we are talking about hundreds of miles of coastline and thousands of people and certainly hundreds of species of animals that are going to be affected by this, and over the next several days, several weeks, several months unfortunately the way it looks right now.
We'll absolutely be talking more about this throughout the morning. John and Kiran, back up to you.
ROBERTS: All right, Rob. We'll see you soon.
Meantime, the federal response to the oil spill disaster is growing. The massive oil slick comes at a time when President Obama is pushing for a major expansion of offshore drilling.
CHETRY: Our Suzanne Malveaux is looking at the political fallout as well. She's live at the White House this morning.
And first of all, the White House holding a press conference promising an all-out response to the growing disaster. What's the latest this morning, Suzanne?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's quite amazing because we saw at least a half dozen officials at the briefing yesterday, essentially saying that the federal government is doing everything that it can.
But what was striking about this briefing, Kiran, was the fact that they knew so little information just when exactly it was coming, how much damage it would do to wildlife, what type of preparations people needed to make, because they say they don't how what has caused it. They don't know how bad it's going to be. But certainly we heard from the secretary of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano who said that this is of national significance, that this really is a state of emergency.
So what has the president done? He has reached out to the five governors of the states that are likely going to be impacted by this. We know that the secretaries of Homeland Security, Interior, as well as the administrator of the EPA, all of them heading out to the region to do a flyover to see just how quickly that oil is going to get to the coastline. And they have mobilized federal resources to make sure to mitigate at least some of the damage here. Here's how President Obama put it yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have ordered the secretaries of Interior and Homeland Security, as well as administrator Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency to visit the site on Friday to ensure that BP and the entire U.S. government is doing everything possible not just to respond to this incident, but also to determine its cause.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And, Kiran, it is fair to say that the Obama administration is on the defensive this morning. They had an administration official put out a statement specifically to push back on some of the criticism already that's coming from local officials. People who are saying, OK, you're preparing for the worst-case scenario, why didn't you do this from day one, not when we saw this yesterday, this full mobilization?
Well, an official saying, look, on April 20th, that was when the Coast Guard was out there. It was an emergency response to try to find those missing miners who were out there missing and now considered dead. And that that was the initial response and that they had set up these teams and that they have been working very closely with that oil company, BP, to try to figure out what's going on.
But clearly, they have new information indicating this is much, much worse than they thought. But the administration, Kiran, doesn't want this to be Obama's Katrina and they are fighting, pushing back very hard that they're not responding fast enough.
ROBERTS: Suzanne, what about the broader issue of offshore drilling in total? The president has made an expansion of offshore drilling and exploration a key issue. And now there's a battle going on in the Senate over whether or not there should be a moratorium on for their exploration. This has to be a real setback for the White House.
MALVEAUX: Well, it's certainly is a setback. And I actually asked, I said is there anybody on the podium or on the stage who is giving second thoughts or pause to the wisdom, the efficacy of expanding offshore drilling? I got two responses. One, which is that, look, this is one example, clearly, a catastrophic disaster, but one example of what was not safe, what didn't work. There are many hundreds of other oil rigs that are out there that are just humming along and everything is fine. So they're not concerned necessarily about the overall safety of those oil rigs out there and this kind of accident happening again.
And then, secondly, they say, there is a process here. And this is true. There is a process that will take years before you have expanded offshore drilling. You've got to have private contractors out there who are going to be bidding on these contracts. They've got to want to get out there and do this, make sure it's profitable, make sure it's safe. And that is something that is going to take -- they said up to five years.
And so this debate can continue and perhaps it will never happen. Perhaps the expansion of offshore drilling will never happen because we're at this point and because there's plenty of time before you get to the point where you have this expansion to begin with. That is something they're emphasizing. Clearly, a much more cautious tone from this administration because of this serious accident -- John.
CHETRY: All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning.
MALVEAUX: Kiran.
CHETRY: Thanks. And you know, the fallout, already starting clean-up in about two hours. We're going to be speaking with Florida Senator Bill Nelson about his effort now to block the president's planned expansion of offshore drilling.
ROBERTS: New this morning, President Obama whittling down his short list of candidates to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Sources tell CNN Solicitor General Elena Kagan is considered to be a front-runner. Federal appeals judges Diane Wood, based in Chicago, also said to be a top choice. The president wants to nominate someone by the end of May.
CHETRY: NASA's latest venture into space goes terribly wrong. Strong winds sent a helium balloon and a state of the art telescope crashing through a fence on takeoff. It forced spectators in Australia to run for their lives. No one was hurt. The balloons -- there you see it smashing an SUV actually because of the excessive winds.
Well, the balloons are launched into the stratosphere carrying these cutting-edge telescopes and then astronomers get a much clearer view of space. Now, it looks like NASA scientists have to pick up the pieces of years of work and it's not clear whether anything can be salvaged. So they're very down about but they are promising another launch.
ROBERTS: Just a minor setback and they'll get back on their feet again. Well, a man named Leslie Buck has died. You may not know who he is, but if you have ever picked up a coffee to go in New York City, he helped to perk up your day, keep your shirt clean, and maybe put a smile on your face.
Mr. Buck designed those blue and white "we are happy to serve" paper coffee cups that you see everywhere, from the Battery up to the Bronx. His son says he died of he complications from Parkinson's disease in his home on Long Island. So when you grab your coffee to go today, raise one in memory of Leslie Buck. He was 87 years old.
CHETRY: Well, still to come on the Most News in the Morning, a criminal investigation now launched against Goldman Sachs.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Yes, tell us how to be a millionaire. Well, it's 14 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Shame on you was the message as thousands of workers and union members descended on Wall Street waving signs chanting enough is enough. The protesters were demanding big banks own up to their role in the recession. Organizers also called on the financial giants to rethink their lending practices and foreclosure policies.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans is here now, 14 minutes after the hour. She's "Minding Your Business" talking about the launch of a criminal investigation against Goldman Sachs. This is something that goes well beyond the SEC investigation.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And the reports late last night and this morning, indeed, by numerous news organization that, indeed, the Feds are now looking at those securities fraud charges into Goldman Sachs.
You know that the SEC has already charged them with fraud. It is not unusual in such a high profile case for the SEC to refer a case to the Feds and that's exactly what has happened here.
This is what Goldman Sachs says about it. "Given the recent focus on the firm, we're not surprised by the report of an inquiry. We would fully cooperate with any request for information." That's Samuel Robinson over there.
Now, this is the crux of the matter. This is still this trade -- this particular trade between Paulson & Co., a hedge fund, and another investor that Goldman Sachs put together. The allegation here is that Paulson & Co. was allowed to handpick securities for -- security for Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs did not reveal that to other investors, did not reveal Paulson's interest. This is something that Goldman Sachs has denied in his testimony this week before Congress, before a Senate subcommittee.
Hank -- Hank Paulson's former Treasury Secretary. Sorry. Lloyd Blankfein was very clear that he didn't think they did anything wrong but admitted that it was a very complicated case. What does this matter to you? Why does it matter to you? Well, so many of you are telling us, why isn't somebody in handcuffs? Why aren't -- why isn't anybody in jail because of all of this and what's been going?
This is just the next step in investigations into what went wrong. This particular -- particular case, though, not necessarily the cause of all of the problems in the economy. It's one case that they're investigating about CDOs, a complicated derivative a couple of years ago.
ROBERTS: When we talked to the -- the chairman of the investigations committee, Carl Levin, the other day, and he was talking about all of the stuff that was going on at the -- the company, he said he didn't know if it was illegal. He said if it wasn't illegal, though, it should have been.
ROMANS: Yes, and that seems to be the crux of what's going on here, a lot of people --
ROBERTS: But it should have been -- I mean, you can't charge somebody with should have been --
ROMANS: No. No, and here's the thing. I mean, Goldman Sachs, for the past 10 years has been making an awful lot of money, and that's what all that Goldman Sachs has ever said it was to do. That's its mission --
CHETRY: Right. That was its mission, to make money.
ROMANS: -- is to make a lot of money.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: So the question is, did they break laws in making that money? And many people say the SEC have a tough case ahead of them.
Another quick point, a couple of lawyers have said sometimes you have the Feds and the SEC on a big case that they think they can get. They -- they announced charge at the same time.
This time, the SEC announced it and now has referred it to the Feds, and now the Feds will begin their investigation. So it's not -- it's not clear how strong the case is.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: Thanks.
CHETRY: Still to come, we're going to give you an update on the latest in the oil spill disaster off the Gulf of Louisiana.
And also coming up, companies like Goldman Sachs are often blamed, as we're seeing here, for the economic problems that we're dealing with, but there is another group of companies that also played a role. Credit rating agencies, and our Allan Chernoff is going to join us to show just how big an impact they have.
Seventeen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty minutes after the hour now.
The Wall Street scandal that brought our financial system to its knees has focused a lot of attention on mortgage-backed securities. This week, Congress grilled Goldman Sachs executives for allegedly selling them while at the same time betting against them.
CHETRY: Yes, but there are other financial players who played a role in the near collapse of our economy, and one in particular, the credit rating agencies.
Our Allan Chernoff is here with an "A.M. Original", something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING, to break down for us just big -- how big of an impact these credit rating agencies have on the financial world and our pocketbooks as well.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It's been huge. There has been pain across the country, really. In fact, that pain stretches all the way from homebuyers to the way that pensioners depend upon their monthly checks.
It's a result of the way that Wall Street sold mortgage investments. To do that, the investment firms relied on endorsements from the credit rating agencies -- Moody's, Standard and Poor's and Fitch.
Our story begins with a homebuyer in the Bronx, New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Giselle James got a mortgage she couldn't afford.
CHERNOFF (on camera): Did you think you could afford this house?
GISELLE JAMES, HOME ON FORECLOSURE: No. No.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): But when James fell behind on her payment, the lender didn't have to worry. That lender, Alliance Mortgage, has already sold the mortgage to investment bank Morgan Stanley.
PROF. LAWRENCE WHITE, STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: The basic idea was let's take a bunch of mortgages --
CHERNOFF: Professor Lawrence White teaches Economics at New York University's Stern School of Business.
WHITE: Here's these hundred mortgages. They've been packaged up into what we're now going to call a security.
CHERNOFF: Securities consisting of anticipated mortgage payments that Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms then sold to investors. That's where the credit rating agencies come in.
There are three players, Standard and Poor's, Moody's and Fitch. It's their job to rate the credit worthiness of those mortgage investments, to tell investors what's the likelihood James and other homebuyers can make their monthly payments, which are supposed to flow to the investors.
CHERNOFF (on camera): The rating agencies said homeowners like James were likely to pay their mortgages, very likely. So they gave those mortgage securities their top marks, an effort, critics say, to generate more lucrative deals from Wall Street.
SYLVAIN RAYNES, FORMER MOODY'S ANALYST/ R&R CONSULTING: The rating agencies, if you want, betrayed the people by relaxing their standards, by having models that -- that did not recognize the objective risk conditions in the field.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Giselle James was a poor credit risk. She fell into foreclosure, just like millions of other of homebuyers who also could not afford their mortgages.
WHITE: It turned out that, no, this wasn't so safe. These got -- the rating firms had been way over-optimistic.
CHERNOFF: Some analysts at the rating agencies knew it.
Based on AAA ratings, Ohio's pension funds bought 263 of the mortgage securities. When the housing bubble popped, the investments plummeted.
S&P, Moody's and Fitch quickly cut their ratings from super safe to junk, but it was too late. Ohio's pension plans lost $456 million.
RICHARD CORDRAY, OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL: Our investors and retirees were certainly victims of what the rating agencies did here.
It's very upsetting for our investors and retirees. Many of them know the systems have been hurt. They worry about getting their checks every day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: Ohio is not alone. Connecticut and California also lost millions of dollars and they, with Ohio, are suing the rating agencies.
Those agencies say they're going to defend themselves, but they're getting heat in Congress. And the financial reform bill, now before the Senate, that would create a new office that the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, to require oversight and more transparency of those credit rating agencies -- John and Kiran. CHETRY: And it also goes back right to Giselle. I mean, you asked her pointblank, did you think you could afford this house and she said no.
CHERNOFF: She's a smart woman, but she wasn't smart in the way of finance, with regard to her mortgage. She's a librarian, if you believe it.
But she was convinced by a mortgage broker that, don't worry, it'll be OK. The payments will come through. You'll be able to afford it somehow.
She didn't believe it, but she believed the mortgage broker, and then the dominos just began falling.
CHETRY: What a tangled web.
Allan Chernoff, thanks for breaking it down for us.
ROBERTS: Coming up on the Most News in the Morning, the debate over Arizona's immigration law is now impacting the national past time. Wait until you see what happened outside of Wrigley Field.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like an undocumented immigrant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour now.
The fierce debate over immigration spreading to America's past time. A few dozen Chicago area activists protested Arizona's new immigration law outside the Cubs game at Wrigley Field yesterday. The Arizona Diamondbacks were in town.
There are also marches planned this weekend in at least 70 cities.
And the new Arizona law requires police to check whether a person is in the United States legally if there's a reason to suspect that he or she is not. Critics say it will foster racial profiling.
But if you get closer to the border, you'll find many supporters, some loud and angry, who say that this law will actually save American lives.
Senator John McCain heard from some of them and our Casey Wian has this "A.M. Original".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, opponents of Arizona's tough new law targeting illegal immigrants have marched through the streets of big cities like Phoenix and Tucson.
We're in Casa Grande, about halfway between the two. It's in smaller towns like this one where support for a crackdown is strong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a normal citizen, what do we do? What do we do besides sitting here, you know, worrying and wondering and frustrated?
WIAN (voice-over): At a town hall meeting with U.S. Senator John McCain and local police chiefs, one resident addressed the violence from smugglers of illegal immigrants and drugs by proposing a violent solution of his own.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoot, shovel and shut up.
These people are herded up like could cows and horses and driven across the border. They know what they're doing, and they know where they're going. They pay good money to do it.
Why don't we make a few examples and maybe the rest of them will get the idea, that, hey, them son of bitches shoot back.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I understand your passion, but that -- that's not, I think, frankly, in the tradition of -- of America.
WIAN: Casa Grande is the largest city in Pinal County, Arizona. It's more than 100 miles from the Mexican border. Yet, the sheriff here estimates 80 percent of the illegal immigrants who enter the United States in Arizona pass through Pinal County.
In one month, sheriff's deputies were involved in 64 high-speed pursuits with suspected smugglers of illegal immigrants or drugs.
SHERIFF PAUL BABEU, PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA: We've seen the tactics change just over the last couple of months here and it's become increasingly dangerous.
WIAN: Sheriff Paul Babeu has become the voice of the county's exasperated residents. At the state capital --
BABEU: Everybody across America is watching Arizona right now, and we live in this, and the violence is off the chart.
WIAN: At the nation's capital --
BABEU: I wouldn't dare speak for anybody else. But most of us in law enforcement welcome this legislation.
I am going to stay.
WIAN: And at the local VFW where he's treated like a celebrity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I liked you when I first saw you and I even like you more now.
WIAN: Babeu and others here say Arizona's new law is the natural reaction to what they consider the federal government's failure to secure the nation's borders and solve its illegal immigration crisis.
(on camera): Babeu says he is not focused on the politics of illegal immigration. His main concern is the safety of the county's residents and of his deputies. And that safety is being compromised every day by smugglers -- John, Kiran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Casey Wian for us this morning -- thanks.
So, you know, the closer you get to the situation, the opinions are very different than what we've been seeing in other places of the country.
ROBERTS: Yes, absolutely.
CHETRY: Well, right now, 31 minutes past the hour -- a look at your top stories.
Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs reportedly the focus of a criminal investigation now. Sources are telling the "Associated Press" that the investigation is as a result of the referral by the SEC. The SEC, as we know, has already filed the civil fraud charges against Goldman for its marketing of subprime mortgage-related securities.
ROBERTS: The daughter of one of the 29 men killed in West Virginia's Upper Big Branch mine says the mine's owner, Massey Energy, is offering each family a $3 million settlement. Massey said earlier this week that accepting a deal would not bar families from taking legal action. The Upper Big Branch mine disaster was America's worst in 40 years.
CHETRY: And a state of emergency in Louisiana this morning. A 600-square mile oil slick from the leaking offshore well has reportedly now reached the coast. So far, robots working under water have not been able to stop the leak that's spewing more than 200,000 gallons of crude into the Gulf each day. Other strategies to stop the leak could not -- could take as long as months to set into place.
ROBERTS: It's all hands on deck for the Obama administration, responding to what it calls the spill of "national significance."
CHETRY: And the president is promising more military help.
And Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon for us this morning.
Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. Good morning, John.
Well, some booming equipment already on the way there, some of the cleanup gear. But also, there could be things showing up like C- 130 aircraft to drop dispersing -- oil dispersing chemicals on the spill. Even troops could go if the spill reaches the shoreline and it becomes the type of disaster that's expected. They may need troops to help clean it all up.
But, you know, really, the bottom line here is, this is now a signal that this is far beyond the scope of civilian agencies or the companies involved. That's when the military gets called in, when the rest of the government can't deal with it anymore. So, it's really heading to looking to be a major problem -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: You know, British Petroleum says it asked the military for help. A private company appealing directly to the U.S. military to come in -- that's a little unusual.
STARR: It really is. I have to tell you -- that got a lot of raised eyebrows around here yesterday after British at they made that public statement it was coming to the military to ask for more of that underwater robotic technology to scope up the spill.
You know, the military, of course, doesn't do offshore drilling. So, they may not have anything that's really going to be useful for the company. But it has to all go through the civilian agencies. The U.S. military does not respond to private industry requests. Certainly, there's no ability in the law to do that and nobody would really want that to happen.
But it kind of shows how this is all beginning to layout. BP is saying they need massive help now. The military responding, but still, there has to be this matchup, what is the real need, what can the military actually provide? And it may, in fact, at the end of the day be very limited. They may not have the technology to help BP in this disaster -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Barbara Starr for us this morning -- just such a tragedy this morning.
Well, we're continuing to follow the major story. We're going to have much more coming up at the hour, on the efforts to contain the spill.
ROBERTS: Meantime, still to come on the Most News in the Morning -- here's another tragedy: 18 American military veterans take their lives every day. In the time of war, what more needs to be done to save these American heroes? We'll put that question to the assistant secretary for veteran affairs, Tammy Duckworth -- coming up next.
It's 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Last year, more than 6,000 U.S. veterans died by suicide. That's about 18 every single day, brave men and women who have survived danger on the battlefield only to surrender their own lives back home. Many of them are dealing with mental illness like post-traumatic stress order, and the numbers obviously impossible to ignore.
Joining me now to talk more about this problem -- Tammy Duckworth. Her helicopter was shut down north of Baghdad six years ago. She lost both legs and partial use of one arm. Now, she's the assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Good to see you again. We both get together for the Fisher House fundraising tournament on Monday. It's just outside of Washington. Thanks for coming in.
L. TAMMY DUCKWORTH, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: We did. And thank you for you and for CNN for being great supporters of that. You know, I spent nine months in the Fisher House and my husband was there 13 months. And I don't know that I could have thrived and recovered without that wonderful place.
ROBERTS: We raised $625,000 for them. So, it was a good day.
DUCKWORTH: Yes.
ROBERTS: But let's turn to this issue of military suicides because it is such an important, it's such a tragic issue. Six thousand members of the military, either active duty or veterans, kill themselves each and every day of the -- every year, 18 every day. And of those 18, five are under the direct care of the Veterans Affairs Administration.
What more does the V.A. need to do to try to attack this problem?
DUCKWORTH: You know, John, I'm so glad you brought this up because it's such an important issue. It is something we are working very closely on.
I'm not a mental health expert. I'm certainly not a suicide prevention expert. But, you know, I still serve in the military.
ROBERTS: Yes.
DUCKWORTH: And here's where I see it from a soldier's perspective, but also as a member of the V.A. team. We need to do more. We need to have better dialogue that takes away the stigma of mental health issues. We also need to increase access.
In V.A., we now have over 20,000 mental health experts across the V.A., led by people like Jan Kemp, who's really a leading voice in this issue. We started our suicide prevention hot line in V.A. And then just this past year, we now have a chat room -- which is critical. It's about getting the care to the veterans where he or she is.
ROBERTS: Congressman Harry Mitchell, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Oversight Investigations for the Veterans Affairs Committee, is pretty critical of the V.A. He wanted to have a hearing last Wednesday. He asked you to attend, the V.A., indicated that you weren't going to come.
Why didn't -- why wouldn't you comply with the request?
DUCKWORTH: Well, actually, the hearing was on suicide prevention outreach and advertising. And we wanted to send him the expert, somebody like Jan Kemp. I'm always happy -- I've testified before Congress many times --
ROBERTS: Yes. But he still wanted to see you there, though.
DUCKWORTH: But -- and I'm happy to go. But let's -- I want to make sure that we have a good dialogue about suicide prevention and what needs to be done. And to do that, you know, I can speak from layman's terms. We can talk about the fact that anybody that attempts suicide, that's unacceptable. Any veteran that's waiting for care, that's not acceptable.
But we need to do more as an organization. We need to do more as a society. And so, that's why we wanted to make sure that we had the right people there to answer those key questions of how do you increase suicide prevention among this population.
ROBERTS: In canceling that hearing, here's what Congressman Mitchell said. He said, quote, "Many of the returning veterans and those who served in past generations bear wounds that can't be seen and are difficult to diagnose. We can't wait for them to come to the V.A. The V.A. needs to go to them, be held accountable for their action or inaction, and be transparent with the progress of their efforts." He says -- to him -- clearly, you're not doing enough here.
DUCKWORTH: We are not doing enough. Other society is not doing enough. But we're doing more now than where we were a year ago. We had 6,800 saves from the suicide hot line. Two hundred and twenty- five thousand telephone calls and we started the chat room.
I still, you know, personally, when I watch too much news coverage, I still think of -- and dream of Iraq.
ROBERTS: Yes.
DUCKWORTH: And so, we have to have this real strong dialogue in our country about mental health and what we need to do.
ROBERTS: I talked to Steve Robinson, who you know well, from Veterans for America. He says that one of big problems is the hand- off from the Department of Defense to the Veterans Affairs Administration. There are these warrior transition units at army bases across the country. They have been criticized roundly by some people.
There was an article in "The New York Times" last week that said this of the warrior transition unit at Fort Carson, Colorado, for many soldiers, they have been warehouses of despair where damage men and women are kept out of sight, fed a diet of powerful prescription drugs and treated harshly by noncommissioned officers."
Now, these WTUs are mostly under the purview of the Army. But at Fort Carson, at least, there's a pilot project where V.A. is involved with them to assess soldiers before they transition out of the military -- I guess designed really to speed up them receiving benefits.
But what do you think of these WTUs, are they doing the job they need to do? They are headed up not by health care professionals but by regular military. Do those need to be looked at to ensure that the transition between active duty and veteran status is smoother?
DUCKWORTH: Well, I think, whether that organization falls under DOD, or anything that falls under V.A., we need to keep a close eye on this because this is the most vulnerable population of veterans, which is the ones who are not doing their mission in combat but are waiting to transition. They have a health care issue. They may have mental health. They may have a physical wound as well. And we need to make sure that that access is there.
And so, having V.A. there is critical. We're watching and we're trying to increase that access. In fact, as a member of National Guard, you know, we're using National Guard and reservists so much more now in this war than we have in previous wars. We're there at the reintegration program when they first come back to get that handoff. It needs to be better.
I'll be the first to say that and I have that frank discussion. We're doing better but we still have ways to go. And that's why Secretary Shinseki and President Obama have done many things to improve access to care, increase our budget, get more V.A. staff into these facilities, to make sure we get that very positive handoff.
My experience with the handoff back in 2005 when I was injured and recovered would have -- would be very different today. We have things like women's health care coordinators at every one of our V.A. facilities now. We have OIF-OEF coordinators -- people that didn't exist when I was going through six years ago. And they have made a great big difference.
We have -- we have more to do but we're getting there.
ROBERTS: Tammy Duckworth, it's good to see you this morning.
DUCKWORTH: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Thanks so much for coming in.
Rob is going to have the latest on weather conditions in the Gulf as efforts are underway to control that oil leak there. Plus, this morning's travel forecast right after the break.
It's 44 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Shot of Atlanta this morning where it's 53 degrees and sunny. A little bit later, it is going to be 81 and sunny, so shaping up to be a gorgeous day this morning in Atlanta.
ROBERTS: Who did that song originally?
CHETRY: Who? I don't know.
ROBERTS: Minding your business this morning, the memory of 6:46 in a Friday morning. This is isn't normally what it is. We now know who found the missing iPhone prototype in the California bar and sold it for $5000. To the Tech blog, Gizmodo, he is a 21-year-old Brian Hogan at Redwood, California. Hogan's attorney says his client regrets his mistake in not doing more to return the phone and emphasized that Gizmodo told him there was nothing wrong in sharing the phone with the tech press. Investigators talked to Hogan, but he has not been charged at this point with a crime.
CHETRY: Is he going to return the $5,000 he got?
ROBERTS: He would have to return that to Gizmodo. I don't know.
CHETRY: There you go. We'll have to see what happened. At the end of the day, we thought that it might have been a fancy little marketing ploy from Apple, but really, it did get left in a bar.
ROBERTS: But I still haven't given up on that.
CHETRY: Let's see. Meanwhile, it's --
ROBERTS: It's accidentally left in the bar.
CHETRY: Forty-eight minutes past the hour. Rob Marciano is keeping track in the headlines for us this morning. He is in the Extreme Weather Center. Hello there, Rob. Do you believe it was just accidentally left in a bar, the prototype of the iPhone?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know one thing, if they're looking to get the $5,000 back from a 21-year-old, it's gone.
CHETRY: Yes. He spent that all the next night at the bar.
MARCIANO: Exactly. In his bread, he's had a really good party. Either way, it's not exactly bad publicity for Apple. That's for sure.
All right. We got a storm that's rolling across the midsection. It's going to stall out at least the southern and central part of this thing and now causing a number of problems, including threat for severe weather all in these highlighted red areas. So, we go the arrows going. We got warm air coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, and temperatures are going to get into the lower to mid-80s as far north as Memphis, 76 degrees in Chicago and 73 degrees in Kansas City. So, that will set the stage for some severe weather today.
We did have some yesterday. I feel it would be a little bit more widespread today. We might even get into a moderate risk category for this one prediction center upgrades that (ph). Nonetheless, a lot of real estate, including parts of Northern Louisiana, so thunderstorms could get as far east and south later tonight and tomorrow as Baton Rouge. So, we're watching that carefully. Right now, just some light showers and thunderstorms all wrap up throughout the day today. Kansas City, south, you're seeing a little bit in the way of rough weather right now, but nothing too extreme.
Four to eight inches of rainfall over the next several days as the middle part of the system kind of stalls out and disturbance after disturbance rolls over the mid south air, and it's going to be a flood issue I think right on through Sunday afternoon. So, that is a lot of rain that is expected to fall. Also, coastal flood watches still in effect for coastal Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama. We have the strong steadily south easterly wind bringing the waves wind and also the oil slick likely onshore, if not already across parts of Southeast Louisiana. Much more on that at the top of the hour -- John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: Thanks. The band we were looking for is Talk Talk. They originally did "It's My Life".
CHETRY: But we only remembered the "No Doubt" version, at least this morning.
ROBERTS: This morning's top stories just minutes away now including the oil spill in the gulf, bigger and closer than anyone imagine. We'll show you what it looks like right now and why it's a virtual lock to become the biggest spill in U.S. history.
CHETRY: Dubious distinction. Twenty-five minutes after the hour, living in fear town, Latinos in Phoenix going back to Mexico fearing the backlash from a new immigration law. Those stories and more at the top of the hour.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See, right now, we're sending food to Somalia, but it's not getting to the people who need it because it's being intercepted by war lords. Your McNuggets, originally from Great Britain, to Somalia, intercepted by war lords.
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ROBERTS: Classic "Saturday Night Live" skit. Chelsea Clinton got a pre-wedding request for her dad, can you slim down before you walk me down the aisle? Former President Clinton's long time battle with his weight is no secret. Clearly, SNL has had some fun with it over the years, but his daughter wants him to lose 15 pounds ahead of her summer wedding.
CHETRY: That's so mean.
ROBERTS: And what dad could say no to that. Apparently, he says he's halfway there.
CHETRY: I think he looks great. He looks trimmer than he has in a very long time.
ROBERTS: I guess other people close to him don't think he looks that great.
CHETRY: That's mean. Oh, man, I guess, you know, a bride wants to control every aspect of the wedding, right down to the waist size of her dad's tux.
ROBERTS: How do you go to dad and say, dad, you're a little pudgy. Can you slim it down just a little bit? Come on, get with the program.
CHETRY: All right. Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey sat down to talk with Rielle Hunter, the now infamous mistress of John Edwards. Hunter talked about the former presidential candidate's quote, "life of integrity".
ROBERTS: She also says that she is not a home wrecker because, quote, "It is not my experience that a third party wrecks a home." Oprah asked Hunter how she felt when the affair ended and about the sex tape that the couple made together.
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RIELLE HUNTER, HAD AFFAIR WITH JOHN EDWARDS: I assumed that she was standing there when he said that. And he was, you know, traumatic state, his worlds just collided, and he hung up the phone.
OPRAH WINFREY, HOST: And what did that do to you?
HUNTER: I didn't cry. I had the thought, what do you mean we're over, we're just getting started?
WINFREY: But you didn't cry?
HUNTER: Not then. I cried a number of times over the next few days.
WINFREY: OK, but you didn't --
HUNTER: I cried hysterically a number of times over the next few days.
WINFREY: OK.
HUNTER: It was a terrible time.
WINFREY: Why did you all decide to put yourselves on tape having sex? I'm assuming that's what's on the tape, right?
HUNTER: There is sex. I don't think there was a lot of thought going on in the heat of the moment. It was something behind closed doors that was private, and I believe should remain private. So, it was meant for that. And then after the fact though of doing this, because of being a public person and because of it being taped, we've said, that was not a great idea. Let's do something to prevent anyone from seeing it because we don't want anyone to see our private business.
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CHETRY: Go ahead.
ROBERTS: What did they do to prevent people from seeing it?
CHETRY: I don't know. I mean --
ROBERTS: It's in a courtroom right now.
CHETRY: Yes. Exactly. In the beginning, I think what she was referring to also was when John Edwards said the only woman I ever loved is Elizabeth Edwards. And I think that's what Oprah was asking her, what did you think and she --
ROBERTS: I'm stuck on this tape thing. We didn't want anybody to see it so we kept it. If you don't want anybody to see it, throw it in a fire, run it over with a bulldozer. Get rid of it -- bury it. Throw it to the ocean.
CHETRY: Or how about this, don't tape one in the first place? But, maybe I'm crazy.
ROBERTS: She said, you know, they got caught up in the heat of the moment so --
CHETRY: Exactly. Exactly. It sure did. Anyway --
ROBERTS: Come on.
CHETRY: The reviews of that have been pretty harsh, by the way. "The Washington Post" TV column called Hunter the queen of denial. "The New York Times" compared her to Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, because they both say, quote, "preposterous things in a calm, complacent tone, and both are serenely impervious to contradiction or sarcasm.
ROBERTS: It was nice to see, though, that Dora the Explorer, Kermit the Frog, and Barney the Dinosaur wasn't sitting with her this time.
CHETRY: Exactly. Just Oprah.
ROBERTS: Top stories coming your way after the break. Stay with us.
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