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American Morning
BP Releases Video of Leak Source; Tornadoes Ravage Oklahoma; Dangerous Classroom: First Responders Learn to Deal With Terror Attacks; Behind the Big Dow Plunge; Medical Cure or Medical Hoax for Spinal Injury Patients?; Mothers Can Visit Hikers in Iran; Wildlife in Jeopardy; Supreme Court's Make-Up; A Night of Terror
Aired May 11, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It's Tuesday, May 11th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us today. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
It was a terrifying night in Oklahoma. Five people killed. Tornadoes taking out dozens of homes, thousands of people remain without power this morning, and the horror may not be over because more extreme weather is on its way today.
CHETRY: Here's the first look at the underwater oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. BP releasing the video three weeks after the explosion and catastrophe. We're taking a look at why the company has been good at controlling the flow of information, obviously, no so good at finding a way to stop the flow of oil. It's the story you'll see only on CNN.
ROBERTS: And stay seated and keep your hands inside the car at all times because it could be another rollercoaster ride on Wall Street. After falling last week, the Dow bounced back finishing the day 400 points higher. That's not the Dow but it sometimes feels like that.
So what's next? Our Christine Romans breaks it all down for us this morning.
CHETRY: And of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation now and go to CNN.com/amFIX.
ROBERTS: Five people are dead and thousands of people are without power today. The sun about to rise over Oklahoma, and we're getting a clearer picture of the damage that's being done by a series of terrifying tornadoes that ripped through the heart of the state last night.
Take a look at this incredible video from Medford, Oklahoma, south of Kansas border. Even seasoned storm chasers were stunned when twisters began dropping from the sky before their eyes. Dozens of injuries reported in the area, at least 40 homes destroyed, and more than 100 others damaged.
CHETRY: And they call this one the elephant trunk twister. It touched down at the dinner hour near the city of Norman in Oklahoma. Three people were killed and one victim found underneath an RV.
All of that extreme weather is by no means over. Jacqui Jeras is monitoring it for us this morning. What a mess. It's so heartbreaking to see people lose their life and so much property damage from the extreme weather.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's the kind of situation where you really need to be underground in order to keep yourself safe in these types of situations. These were such strong and violent tornadoes. We knew it was going to be a big outbreak day yesterday. We saw more than 37 reports of tornadoes now.
Take a look at these pictures again out of Medford, Oklahoma. They are incredible. This helps tell the story of why this was a unique situation yesterday. These are multiple vortex tornadoes. Take a look at this video. We actually see four different twisters -- you'll hear them call it "twisted sisters." When you get the multiple vortexes they can cause quite a bit of damage.
Sometimes you'll see damage on one home then another one next to it just fine. They storms sit out there all by themselves and suck in the energy and spin in the atmosphere and stay on the ground for a very long period of time. Out in the plains where everything is flat, you can get pictures like this because you can see for miles and miles.
Today we have a severe weather threat again. Hopefully we won't be seeing more pictures like these. We do expect to see things firing up this afternoon and evening again, this time into western Oklahoma and panhandle of Texas.
We'll also be watching parts of Kansas and central parts of Missouri. We could see twisters today but don't expect to see nearly as many. And we also expect to see quite a few hail makers.
We do have the remnants of that storm system in the plains, made its way across the upper Midwest. Nothing severe with this weather here today from Minneapolis through Chicago down towards Cincinnati. That will move into the northeast.
So we have another piece of energy coming into the plains this afternoon. It's that dry line, that hot air blowing off the desert meets up with the warm moisture from the gulf of Mexico, and that's when things fire. We expect that later on again today.
ROBERTS: Jacqui, good to have you on the job for us today. Thanks.
Whose fault is it? Oil executives from four different companies including BP and Halliburton will be called to Capitol Hill today. There are three hears on tap today, two in the Senate, one on Louisiana over the oil rig explosion that triggered that environmental disaster.
And before it was a disaster it was a human tragedy. The deepwater horizon rig sank two days after it exploded in a massive fireball on the 20th of April, and 11 of the 126 people on board at the time are now presumed dead. Last night I spoke to one of men who barely got out alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS CHOY, RIG EXPLOSION SURVIVOR: When I first woke up, I woke up to an explosion, I didn't know that's what it was. I kind of turned and sat on the edge of my bed. And I sat there and waited to see if there was another sound or what the deal was. And then there was a lot bigger explosion after that.
When I saw the derrick on fire, I knew that there was no way we were putting that fire out. I knew we were more than likely going to abandon the rig.
I was still in shock. I didn't expect to see that. That was the main thing going through my head. It hit me in my stomach. I just all of kept thinking, there's no way I'm getting off of here. We're all dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Chris Choy was a roustabout on the rig. He also served as a firefighter and said he and another crewman tried to save a crane operator who had fallen 40 or 50 feet to the deck, but things just kept blowing up and there was no way they could get to that crane operator. He says leaving him behind was the hardest thing he ever had to do in his life.
CHETRY: It has to be so tough. Happy that he made it out alive, but probably feeling an immense amount of guilt as well.
ROBERTS: And people were overcrowding the life boats as well and people were jumping off the rig into the water. For a split second Chris unbuckled the seat belt and actually thought I'm not going to burn to death in the life boat. I'm going to jump too. Then they got the motor in the life boat going, so a very close call for him and other people.
ROBERTS: BP is finally giving us a look firsthand at one of the three leaks. This is a shot 5,000 feet underwater during an operation by the robotic submersibles trying to plug the third leak. In the background you can see the oil gushing out, leaking at the astonishing rate of 5,000 barrels a day.
Now critics are blasting the company to control the flow of information better than the leak. Ed Lavandera is live in New Orleans with a CNN exclusive. That video they showed was what was considered to be a success as to the failure to cap off the biggest leak. That was how they got the third leak, a much smaller one, actually shot off. ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That was done last week in the video showing that portion of what was going on underwater. Of course in the background, you can see presumably some of that oil leak.
But environmentalists and scientists we've been talking to over the past couple of weeks say the biggest danger they see right now is deep under the surface. That sheen and oil we're seeing on the surface is just the tip of the iceberg.
The problem is being able to assess that kind of damage is very hard, because the only people that have video images of what the oil leak looks like is BP, and they are not sharing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: This is the most revealing image we've seen so far of the actual oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The short video shows robotic arms from an underwater vehicle tapping one of the leaks.
Look closely. In the background you can see a dark cloud shoot into the water. Three weeks after the explosion, this is the only glimpse of the leak BP has released.
BP is in control of the video recorded by the underwater robotic vehicles. We're told by multiple government sources that these cameras have captured extensive video images coming from the site of the leak 5,000 feet under water.
LAVANDERA (on camera): CNN has asked BP repeatedly since the explosion for video of the leak. But company officials will only tell us they'll look into it.
But environmentalists and scientists say BP's unwillingness to share the video highlights a bigger problem with the company's response to the oil spill. And the critics say that the lack of transparency about the extent of the disaster.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Aaron Viles is with a environmental advocacy group called the Gulf Restoration Network, a group that's been critical of BP's response to the oil spill.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Why do you think we haven't seen much of the video yet?
AARON VILES, GULF RESTORATION NETWORK: If I had to guess, it's that BP doesn't want the public to see what's happening. They want to control the message and information, but I think the public needs to see what's happening both at the surface and sea floor.
LAVANDERA: On Monday we asked BP officials again about releasing the video and once again they said they would look into it. But BP insists this isn't about controlling the message.
DOUG SUTTLES, BP, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: We're being extremely open and sharing tremendous amounts of information. LAVANDERA: A BP spokesman also told us it is a question of priorities. When it comes to putting out videos, the BP public relations team is finding time to post videos on the company's website, touting its disaster response.
TONY HAYWARD, CEO BP: This is another report from the frontline.
LAVANDERA: That's BP's CEO Tony Hayward. He shows up in at least four videos.
HAYWARD: I'm in the mobile incident command center. I'm incredibly proud of the way in which I can see BP and the people of BP are responding to this terrible mistake.
LAVANDERA: The BP videos do show the company's widespread response to the disaster, but these videos don't show you what it looks like when 5,000 barrels of oil a day spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: John and Kiran, environmentalists and scientists we've been talking say they think the release of the video would help them on various fronts, either have independent sources, maybe offer up ideas on how to get it under control.
But they also want to use it as a gauge to determine whether or not the actions that the oil company and BP specifically are taken to stop the oil leak are actually working. They says being able to get a sense of what's going on under the water would help them determine that over the course the next few weeks. John and Kiran?
CHETRY: Interesting stuff. Ed Lavandera, good piece this morning. Thanks.
Coming up at 7:30 eastern, we'll look at the growing threat to rare wildlife and why some animals may have to go back on the endangered species list because of this spill. Rob Marciano is going to join us live from the Gulf Coast town of Gulfport, Mississippi at the bottom of the hour.
ROBERTS: And preparing for the worst -- we'll show you how thousands of first responders train for terrorist attacks. We've got dramatic video from a classroom in the middle of the New Mexico desert. We'll share that story with you coming right up. It's 11 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
There are new developments in the case against Faisal Shahzad as the State Department reveals that he looked for help from the Taliban to plot an attack. Sources tell CNN that Shahzad may have already had a plan to set up a car bomb in Times Square when he traveled to Pakistan. The White House believes that the Taliban, a close ally with Al Qaeda, coordinated and likely helped pay for that attack.
And more than a week later, Shahzad is still a no-show in the courtroom. Federal authorities say that he voluntarily waved his right to a first appearance on terror charges. Although he's cooperating, legal experts recommend that the government assign Shahzad a lawyer and put him in front of a judge very soon. John?
ROBERTS: Now it's 14 minutes after the hour. To an "A.M." original, something that you will see only on "AMERICAN MORNING."
It's hard to know how bad the Times Square bombing could have been. The device itself was not sophisticated and may have never detonated even under optimal circumstances. But we're about to give you a look at the powerful force of a potential car bomb in an urban area like that.
Our Ted Rowlands takes us to the New Mexico desert where first responders quickly learn how to assess the danger.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Imagine if this blew up in Times Square. What you're watching is the result of 300 pounds of explosive grade fertilizer. Because the Times Square SUV had non- explosive grade fertilizer, this blast is likely more intense than what could have happened in New York, that's according to the experts here at New Mexico Tech who conducted the explosion as part of a training course for first responders.
(on camera): Knowing what you know was in that vehicle in Times Square, what kind of damage would that have done?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From what we've seen on the news, it was a very amateur device. The detonation, if it could have gotten something to detonate would have probably been pretty low order but it would have spread stuff all over the street and had a lot of fuel. There's a lot of a gas and other things associated with that. So while we would have a small explosion, it would probably have been a very big fire.
ROWLANDS (voice-over): The federal government has trained more than 300,000 first responders through this explosives course in New Mexico Tech. They see firsthand what explosives, like this briefcase bomb can do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, the more damage to our mannequin. (INAUDIBLE) more damage to the ceiling. This is going to be a rich environment right here. We want to make sure we protect that.
ROWLANDS: We spent the day with the class that had law enforcement from D.C., Detroit, L.A., Atlanta and other places. Most of the teaching is in a classroom setting. But seeing the explosions and the aftermath is what really hit home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you hear that?
ROWLANDS (on camera): You can see the circular, the circular blast, maybe. You can actually see it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right over here we have probably an axle shaft, spring hangers. So just by that, we can tell exactly where the explosives were placed inside this vehicle.
ROWLANDS: It's worth it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Because the people who are going to go to any type of event, they're going to be your very first responders, your police officers, your firefighters, paramedics. And they need to have at least some idea what they've come across and the dangers that that poses and also evidence issues. So we have a chance of catching whoever is involved.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROWLANDS: While nobody knows exactly if that bomb in New York would have gone off, how much damage it would have caused. If it was anything close to what we saw here, it would have been devastating -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Ted Rowlands for us this morning.
CHETRY: Scary sight.
ROBERTS: When you think that's just 300 pounds of fertilizer, you know, if somebody got a hold of a really, really sophisticated explosive, packed it full of that, what the extent of devastation could be.
CHETRY: Yes, makes you think.
Well, four days after the Dow mysteriously dropped nearly a thousand points in just half an hour, regulators say they still don't know the exact cause of the heart-stopping plunge, but they may have a plan to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning. Hey, Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, guys. And we have a pretty good idea of what happened now. They're calling it the flash crash, computers driving down stocks, 998 points last Thursday. We'll tell you about this tale of man versus machine right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 20 minutes past the hour. Christine Romans here "Minding Your Business" with a little tiny window into what may have caused that big plunge and how to prevent it in the future.
Hey, Christine.
ROMANS: Hi, guys. You know, it's a little troubling. It's been five days now and they're still trying to figure out exactly why the market went down 998 points last Thursday. But we have some pretty good clues and it looks like it's not many of the things that the market was chattering about on Thursday.
There was no computer glitch. This wasn't some software problem that sent stocks lower. We know for sure there was no fat finger trader. You remember before the market was even down almost 1,000 points, people were already speculating that somebody hit the button. It never really seemed very likely to a lot of people who are veterans of the market because you can't really just hit a button and send the market down 1,000 points. And that's looking less and less likely. In fact, many of the exchange chiefs are saying they've looked and there's no fat finger trades that sent us down.
This was mostly man versus machine during a crisis. So what do I mean by that?
Well, it used to be that the New York Stock Exchange controls almost all of the big cap stocks and much of the stock market trading. But now you have the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq and then all of these electronic exchanges that are trading the same stocks at the very same time. The problem is they have different rules at different venues.
And what happened to the New York Stock Exchange, when you have the market down very, very sharply, suddenly you have the stock exchange, the NYSE, because of all the high volatility in Greece, the market was down almost 500 points, you remember, the New York Stock Exchange started to slow some trading of some key stocks. But on those other exchanges, they were still trading those stocks. And the computers were sensing the differences here and started to sell voraciously.
So you had computers in some places that were selling stocks like crazy. There simply were no buyers, but things were slowed down at the stock exchange. Many of these computer models detect differences, even slight differences between stocks and relationships. Suddenly you had one cent bids for stock like Accenture, stocks that have traded at $40 earlier in the day, and all hell broke loose, quite frankly. And you have the computers trading like nuts and that's why you had a mark sell-off.
So it really does come down, you guys, to man versus machine. Everyone is working together to try to fix this to make sure it doesn't happen again, but it shows you how quickly things have changed over the past few years. It used to be it was people who were trading stocks. Now, it's computer programs trading stocks and that seems to be what all the evidence is pointing to.
CHETRY: It's all part of the big matrix. It's not really our money either. ROBERTS: They should go back to writing it down in a piece of paper.
ROMANS: And a stone tablet with a hammer.
ROBERTS: I like that idea better. Thanks. Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
ROBERTS: A California clinic seems to be giving spinal injury patients amazing results with simple basic treatments. Is it a miracle cure or is it a medical hoax? Alina Cho with the "A.M. Original" just ahead.
Twenty-three minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Five minutes to your top stories. First, though, an "A.M. Original," something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.
For people with severe spinal cord injuries, the ultimate dream would be, of course, to walk again. But for many that's not possible. Spinal cord patients were given a very famous and public advocate, of course, with the late actor Christopher Reeve.
ROBERTS: Reeve frequently pushed for more studies involving stem cells, but a controversial clinic in California is taking a far simpler approach than that. The results seem to be, and we're stressing the word "seem to be" medical miracles.
Alina Cho has our "A.M. Original" this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Your eyes are not deceiving you. These are spinal cord patients, told they would never walk again, taking steps, moving their legs. It looks like a miracle. But is it?
(on camera): It's not brain surgery.
TED DARDZINSKI, FOUNDER, PROJECT WALK: No, I tell everybody that. It's not brain surgery. It's -- when I try to explain it, everybody is like, well, it's too simple. Why isn't normal? Why isn't everybody doing it?
CHO (voice-over): Ted Dardzinski founded Project Walk in 1999, a controversial outpatient rehab facility for the paralyzed, in Carlsbad, California.
DARDZINSKI: Relax.
CHO: He's not a doctor. He's a trainer who believes as long as you can wiggle your toe, there's a chance you can walk again through lots of exercise. The idea? Repetitive motion can help train the body to remember how to walk. On a limited basis, it appears to be working. Like this man, who is walking with ski poles, even drives on his own. One of more than a half dozen people we spoke to who claims similar success.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they're really on to something.
CHO: Dr. (INAUDIBLE), director of Spine Services at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego, says he has sent patients to Project Walk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traditionally, these type of injuries are very hard to treat.
CHO: The key, there must be some feeling below the point of injury. That's the case with 29-year-old Kendell Hall. The former volleyball player is paralyzed from the chest down. Six months ago, the car she was riding in crashed on a Dallas freeway. Everyone walked away but her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, KENDELL HALL'S MOTHER: They told us that the most we could ever hope for is that she would be able to feed herself.
CHO: Look at her now.
DARDZINSKI: Up.
CHO: After just a month of therapy at Project Walk, Kendell is already freely using her arms. That's not a surprise. But this is.
DARDZINSKI: Stick them out.
CHO: Lifting her legs.
DARDZINSKI: Good.
CHO: With help, she's even standing.
(on camera): Kendell, how does that feel?
KENDELL HALL, SPINAL INJURY PATIENT: Good.
CHO: Mom, when you see Kendell today --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm blown away.
CHO (voice-over): Kendell says getting out of the wheelchair on her own is next.
HALL: I think the thing that I've gotten back the most is realizing I'm not so fragile. And then once you have that attitude, you're not scared to push yourself. And then it's like, wow.
CHO: But doctors say statistically there's a slim chance Kendell will ever walk again. CHO (on camera): Based on your expert opinion, is this giving people false hope?
DR. JOSEPH CIACCI, SPINE SURGEON, UC SAN DIEGO MED. CTR.: I think there is a huge potential for abuse of people's hopes.
CHO (voice-over): Dr. Joseph Ciacci, a spine surgeon at U.C. San Diego Medical Center, says he's never heard of Project Walk and worries patients are being taken advantage of and losing their money, too, thousands of dollars a month. We showed him video of Kendell's workout routine and he was not impressed.
CIACCI: This looks like a show to me where someone is holding someone up and everyone is standing back saying, look, she's standing.
CHO (on camera): You freely admit, you've been called a con artist. People call this voodoo.
DARDZINSKI: That was five years ago. People are now accepting it. We have doctors referring. We have researchers coming here.
CHO (voice-over): Dardzinski says he never guarantees his clients will walk again and adds, if they weren't doing something right, nobody would come back.
(on camera): What's your dream for Kendell?
JAY HALL, KENDELL'S FATHER: (INAUDIBLE) with her other leg, get her life back.
K. HALL: It's up to me and I'm going to make this happen. I will walk again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: She has a great attitude. You know, to be clear though, only a very small percentage of those who train at Project Walk actually walk out of there on their own. But again the key question is, was the patient's injury complete or incomplete? Guys, with Christopher Reeve, his injury was complete, meaning he had no feeling below the point of injury. That does not mean that his spinal cord was severed. That's a common misconception.
Now, Kendall Hall, the woman we profiled in the piece, her injury was incomplete, meaning there was some feeling below the point of injury. And with that, there is a very, very small chance that she can walk again. Now, every doctor we spoke to say, very, very slim chance that she will walk again on her own. But proponents of Project Walk say at the very least this exercise is beneficial.
In Christopher Reeves' case, doctors tell us it actually lengthened his life because it made his breathing capacity better. He was able to fight off disease for far longer than he would have had he not done the exercises. So but it is very, very controversial. Listen, it is just lots of exercise. Some people think it works. Others do not. ROBERTS: All right. Just the caveat enter, I guess, and then decide whether or not you want to go for it.
CHO: That's right.
ROBERTS: Alina, great piece this morning. Thanks so much.
CHO: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Crossing the half hour now. That means it's time for this morning's top stories.
Five people dead in Oklahoma, a series of powerful tornadoes sweeping through the state last night, destroying 40 homes and damaging more than 100 others. Dozens of people are hospitalized and there's more rough weather on the way today.
CHETRY: Iran says it will allow the mothers of three jailed American hikers to visit them in a Tehran prison. Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal have been behind bars for nine months now. They are charged with espionage and crossing Iran's border with Iraq illegally. Iran's foreign minister says visas have been ordered for all three mothers on humanitarian grounds.
ROBERTS: And new video this morning of that leaking oil well deep at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, as oil executives get ready to face Congress today, we're getting our very first look up close at the source of the leak. BP finally releasing the video three weeks after the oil rig explosion that triggered this environmental disaster.
CHETRY: And a developing story out of one of the states dealing with the disastrous impact of the BP oil spill. Many animal species are in jeopardy. Now, you might think that their wings could carry them away from the danger. But rare birds are finding it very hard to escape the brown sludge. Wildlife experts in Mississippi are calling the situation "catastrophic" this morning. And that's where Rob Marciano joins us live now. And these were the pictures most of us hate to see.
It's heartbreaking, these animals have no idea what is happening to them but they are, you know, covered in this oil. And in some cases they could be back on the endangered list because of it.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Kiran, you know, the brown pelican, the state bird of Louisiana and certainly a mainstay here on the Gulf of Mexico recently came off the endangered species list. They have been thriving relatively speaking but those birds are certainly flying around the Gulf of Mexico and in some cases nesting around some of that oil.
You know, the impacts of this oil spill at least on humans, not necessarily happening right now for sure. But on what's going on in the wildlife and certainly the sea life there in the Gulf of Mexico is more immediate. And the birds that feed on that sea life, well, they could be in trouble. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, folks, we have some dolphins coming up. If you look a little bit to your right -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw another one!
MARCIANO (voice-over): West Chip Island is the destination, part of the gulf islands national seashore and home to more than 300 types of birds. Captain Louis Skrmetta's family runs this tour company for the National Park Service. The oil spill now threatens his protected paradise just 10 miles offshore.
CAPT. LOUIS SKRMETTA, SHIP ISLAND EXCURSIONS: They can't get this thing capped off, this is going to be a catastrophe for our natural resources in this region. Katrina is long in our past. That's nothing compared to what's out there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have a good time, today.
MARCIANO: The scenery here has definitely changed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The main thing they want to know, is the oil here?
MARCIANO: Not yet so the beach tours continue.
SKRMETTA: We're just going to go this direction down the beach and see what we find.
MARCIANO: Only minutes later, the site of a motionless (inaudible) brings more uncertainty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not sure that that's an oil casualty.
MARCIANO: Rangers believe the death was natural.
Meanwhile back on the mainland, life begins anew.
(on camera): As common as traffic is along highway 90 are birds. Lots of them. Between this road and the Gulf of Mexico lies this nesting area of least terns. This is the time of year where they lay their eggs and nests. And like most parents, they are pretty protective.
(voice-over): Speckled gray eggs dot the landscape, as hundreds of mommies and daddy swirl above the sand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They migrated from many, many miles away.
MARCIANO: Alison Sharpe rescues injured animals and says birds don't have an anti-oil instinct.
ALISON SHARPE, WILDLIFE CARE AND RESCUE CENTER: They will probably still die, they are looking for fish. They are out there trying to survive and I don't think that they are really looking at oil. They are looking at, you know, what could potentially be their only meal for that day.
MARCIANO: So far just one oil pelican has been rescued and released back into the wild.
SHARPE: You may not see this directly right now but there is going to be an impact.
MARCIANO (on camera): Not even the tip of iceberg yet?
SHARPE: No, it's going to be like, almost in a sense like a domino effect.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: This is one of the nesting areas of, at least these terns hang out and although this year it looks like they've gone down the beach just a little bit. There are so many of these areas, where not only these birds but other birds nest here along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It is just teeming with wildlife.
As far as the rescue efforts are concerned, yesterday they sent out eight field crews to go out and search and recover in some cases wildlife from Cameron, Louisiana all the way to (inaudible). Four helicopters sent out and still, remarkably, only two oiled birds have been rescued and recovered. So therein lies the good news. But not one expert that I've talked to on this story, Kiran, has said that that's going to be the end of it, even if we don't see any more oil birds and we certainly hope we don't. The longer term effects of these birds feeding on the wildlife out there and their nesting area is affected. They'll certainly have a long-term effect and that's what has everybody nervous here along the Gulf of Mexico.
CHETRY: So can't get that leak plugged, that's the most upsetting thing of all. Rob Marciano, thanks so much.
Well, some four million gallons may have leaked into the gulf water since the explosion last month and at this rate, it would surpass the Exxon Valdez disaster as the nation's worst spill. At 8:40 Eastern time, we're going to be talking to the EPA, about the far-reaching effects on the ecosystem and food chain.
ROBERTS: President Obama says his Supreme Court nominee would make the high court more reflective, more representative of America. But forget about gender, what about religion, education and geographic diversity? We'll take a look at what could be the court's new makeup, right after the break. It's 37 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 39 minutes after the hour.
President Obama says his pick of Elena Kagan to be the next Supreme Court justice will help the court be more reflective of America. While Kagan's confirmation would mean more women on the court, consider this, Kagan who is Jewish, would join six Catholics and two Jewish justices, meaning there would be no Protestants on the court for the first time ever.
The court would also be made up of all Ivy Leaguers who were either born on the East Coast or the West Coast and one in Georgia. So is this really a reflection of America?
Let's bring in Joan Biskupic, the Supreme Court reporter for "USA Today" and Dahlia Lithwick, he is a senior editor and legal correspondent for slate.com. Good to see both of you.
Joan, why don't we start with you. No protestants for the very first time in the court's history, when you consider 50 percent of America is Protestant, a quarter of the population is Catholic and 1.7 percent is Jewish. What kind of effect could that have in the court?
JOAN BISKUPIC, SUPREME COURT REPORTER, "USA TODAY": It really is stunning when you think of how much Protestants have dominated the leadership in America. It really might not have any difference on the law though, John. Because you figure the justices are not supposed to be a representative body the way, you know, members of Congress are supposed to be. They are looking at the law. They are looking at the facts of the case.
It's more what it signals to people in America. And I think that for the most parts, what people want to see are folks who are fair, folks who can understand the law and be empathetic. I was thinking about Justice John Paul Stevens who himself is the last remaining Protestant and who seems to be able to identify with a lot of people who are poor and disenfranchised and unrepresented themselves.
ROBERTS: Dahlia, what do you think this religious persuasion have any effect on how a justice would rule?
DAHLIA LITHWICK, SENIOR EDITOR & LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, SLATE.COM: I don't think there's much evidence that there is a Catholic jurisprudence or Jewish jurisprudence. I think Joan makes a good point, which is one has a need to see oneself reflected on the court. And whether that comes up through religious diversity, gender diversity, racial diversity, when you see a court that in no way looks like you, people do get anxious. But I think on substantive matters, there's just no evidence that religion makes an enormous difference to the way judges rule.
ROBERTS: So what do you think, Dahlia, does this court in its make-up if Elena Kagan does become the ninth justice, does it look like America?
LITHWICK: Well, I think it depends on who you ask. I think President Obama would say "look, I massively diversified the court because for the first time in 40 years I put someone on the bench who doesn't come off the bench, somebody who isn't plucked off the Courts of Appeals, somebody who comes up through academia."
So I think it depends on how you define diversity. He would say this is much more diverse than the bench we've seen where every single person was formerly a judge. But I think you're quite right. If you define diversity geographically or if you define it based on Ivy League education, this is one of the least diverse courts in history.
ROBERTS: Joan, what do you think about that particular point, the fact that she has no experience as a judge, first time since 1972? William Rehnquist was one of the final people who had no judicial experience to be named in the court and we should point out that Republicans weren't saying much anything about his lack of experience at that time.
But you know, it was taken during that time that somebody who had a more diverse background wasn't from the "monastery" as the cliche goes, might be good for the court. What do you think this time around?
BISKUPIC: That's absolutely right. In fact, when you think of the court that we have mostly in the last century. They weren't former judges as we - lower court judges as all nine members of the bench are. And I think it cuts both way. I do think it's good to have people with varied experience. But then it also takes them a little bit more time to get up to speed on the law and the cases before them.
That will not be a problem with Elena Kagan. Because even though she hasn't been a judge, she's been in this setting arguing before the justices, writing legal briefs. She is so imbued (ph) in the kind of legal matters that the justices will be hearing, that I don't think she'll have trouble getting up to speed. And I think that for many observers of the court, any kind of breadth of experience brings a little plus factor to the court itself.
ROBERTS: Dahlia, what about geographical diversity, there used to be a lot of it on the court with Justice John Paul Stevens leaving, there goes the lone Midwesterner. Now you have six people who are from either New York or New Jersey, a couple from California, one from Georgia. There's a big swath of America that's not represented. Is that important? Is that significant?
LITHWICK: You know, it's so interesting because historically there was a time when geographic diversity on the court was determinative. I mean, there was a western seat, there was a New York seat. It was the most important thing to have a broad swath of the country represented. I think it's interesting that we talk about it almost not at all know.
You know, we're talking about it now but most Americans care much more about other forms of diversity. They care about racial diversity. They care about gender diversity. And I think it's because we're not anxious about geography the way we used to be. The country has become so homogenous, that we sort of think Chicago, California, it's all the same.
But gender, uh-oh, that matters. So I think we just go through these cycles where we care more about one form of diversity than the other.
ROBERTS: And Joan, quick final point to you. Are you worried at all that all of these justices come from either Harvard or Yale? BISKUPIC: Well, there were a couple of candidates in the mix with state school degrees. It does send a signal that you have to be on a certain path to get to the Supreme Court. But as Dahlia says I think that's a lesser marker for people than race and sex before the justices. So that when school kids come in they see a court that looks a little more varied now.
ROBERTS: Yes. It's a shame that none of them could find a good school to go to.
Jo Biskupic, Dahlia Lithwick, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much.
LITHWICK: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Forty-five minutes now after the hour.
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CHETRY: Forty-eight minutes past the hour right now. Time to get a check of this morning's weather headlines.
Jacqui Jeras is in the Extreme Weather Center and some of the areas hard hit yesterday by that storm system could again get a storm system passing through.
JERAS: Yes, absolutely. We do have that severe weather threat out there again, not till afternoon and then into this evening, but it wouldn't be nearly as widespread and we don't expect nearly as many violent tornadoes. But a few could spin up, as well as some hail makers and we'll be watching parts of Texas and Oklahoma, especially western parts of the state, into Kansas, as well as into the nation's midsection.
But the main energy is pulled up to the north now, and we're looking at that wet weather, pushing into the Great Lakes and eventually making its way into the northeast. And that is not severe, but it is certainly going to be a nuisance for you if you're trying to travel today. It will be a rough go of it from Minneapolis down through Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati getting in on it, and most of that will push into the northeast then, I think, as we head into the later evening hours and into the overnight.
So if you're traveling in, say, along I-80, along I-94, expect some wet roadways. And we do expect some travel delays at the airports as well for all of those cities that I mentioned, and Chicago is already getting into the action, nearly an hour delay. That's to arrive into Chicago, and, you know, when you start out of the gate that early with problems, that tends to last throughout much of the rest of the day.
Our other top weather headline today, guys, is that the temperatures are way below where they should be for this time of the year, particularly the northern third of the country. We're looking at 10 to 20 degrees below where you should be, so grab a sweater.
ROBERTS: Really? Hadn't noticed, Jacqui.
CHETRY: Or, in my case, the down coat -
JERAS: Yes, 40s (ph) today in New York.
CHETRY: -- zip up the down coat, throw in the hood. It was pretty cold this morning at 3:00 A.M.
Thank, Jacqui.
JERAS: We had a couple of records, by the way, too. Islip (ph) 30 - 38 degrees this morning.
ROBERTS: Thirty-eight degrees? Oh, my goodness. Wow. The poor folks out in Long Island.
CHETRY: Thanks, Jacqui.
Well, it's 50 minutes past the hour right now. Your top stories just minutes away, including the first look at the underwater oil leak weeks after it started spewing.
JERAS: (INAUDIBLE) New York.
CHETRY: Why isn't BP letting us see more of the effort to stop it?
ROBERTS: Twenty-five minutes after, teens hooked on pills, overusing and abusing prescription drugs. How one girl nearly died from her addiction and managed to come back from the brink.
CHETRY: At 50 minutes past the hour, getting tips for your first triathlon from Lance Armstrong. How cool is that?
We're going to check in with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Team A.M.
Those stories and much more at top of the hour.
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CHETRY: TV legend Barbara Walters surprised her audience when she announced that she's taking some time off to undergo heart surgery. Here's what the co-host of ABC's "The View" had to say about her health.
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BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": Later this week, I'm going to have surgery to replace one faulty heart valve. Now, lots of people have done this, and I have known of this condition for a while now. And my doctors and I have decided that this is the best time to do the surgery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from Atlanta, and so she explained that this is elective, in a way, and that it's not an emergency, that she has to have it done right now, but what exactly is she getting done with this heart valve?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. What she's going to have done is, we're told, replace a heart valve, and we don't know exactly which one.
But there's something I want to say here, because a lot of times when people hear about heart disease, they think, oh, someone didn't eat right or didn't exercise right. That is not the case at all with heart valves.
Heart valves are basically a wear - something that basically is worn out. With age, valves just often stop working the way that they should. And so, this is a very common operation. This is done all the time.
And so, again, we don't know which valve is being replaced, but it's likely that it's the aortic valve because, often, that is the one that needs to be replaced. That's the last valve that the blood goes through.
Now, when it's working well, the blood just flows easily. However, when it's not working well, the little flaps that are supposed to close, they don't close all the way, and that's a problem because, then, some blood can leak back into the heart and the heart does not pump efficiently.
Now, the valve she's going to get, again, we're not being told a lot of details. We don't know if it would be from a pig. Sometimes they use pig heart valves to put into human beings. Or it might be a plastic valve - Kiran.
CHETRY: How long does the recovery take? I think she said she was going to be gone for three months.
COHEN: Right. That's - that's definitely possible. That's in the realm of what usually happens. She'll likely be in the hospital for about five to 10 days, and then her recovery, sort of her out-of- commission time, will be about six to 10 weeks, about up to three months. That - that's normal for this procedure.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we wish her the best, and if she wants to come back, she's ready to go. So hopefully everything goes well.
Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Four minutes now to the top of the hour. Top stories coming your way after a quick break. Do not go away.
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