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American Morning

Cameras Go Deep for Images of Slick; Seoul Says North Korea Will Pay a Price; Fugitive Cleric Warns of New U.S. Attacks; Outlook For Your Money; Cost of College; Royal Scandal Unfolds in Great Britain; Arizona Education Department Seeks to Fire English Teachers With Accents; Arizona's New Immigration Battle; Home and Away; BP Prepares for "Top Kill"

Aired May 24, 2010 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It is Monday, May 24th. 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.

And here are the big stories we'll be telling you about coming your way in the next 15 minutes.

Dozens of ships headed to the site of that oil spill in the Gulf, preparing for a top kill operation, as it's called, to try to plug the leak. The process could begin in a couple of days. They are trying for Wednesday morning.

Plus, we got some incredible pictures to show you of the slick from beneath the surface of the ocean.

CHETRY: Also, a growing crisis in the Korean peninsula. South Korea is promising North Korea will pay a price for sinking one of its ships. No more trade, no more sharing waters. The White House is weighing in as well. We're live in Seoul and Washington -- just ahead.

ROBERTS: Plus, a radical cleric born here in the United States on the run from the feds and believed to be in Yemen, he has a new warning for America: "We will kill your people."

Our Jeanne Meserve is tracking the chilling details for us this morning from Washington.

And the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX.

CHETRY: Well, dozens of ships are steaming toward the site of the oil spill in the Gulf this morning. In two days, they're expected to begin a top kill operation -- an effort using mud and then cement to plug the spewing well once and for all. Meanwhile, the debate over dispersants is raging right now as well. The EPA has ordered B.P. to switch to a less toxic product that the oil giant is refusing. Here's what they said when we talked to B.P. this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG SUTTLES, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, BP: As of today, it's still the best product available. It is on the approved list. It is safe to use. It is the most widely used.

But I can tell you, we've met with the EPA again last night. We are continuing to look to see if there is a better alternative. Some of the products that are out there have problems with long-term impacts on fish and wildlife that we're not willing to use.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Dave Mattingly joins us live from New Orleans this morning.

And we've seen the damage has been done on the shore and on the ocean surface. But you actually have some exclusive pictures of what it looks like hundreds of feet below sea level.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran. We've been able to see that slick on the top. We've been able to see the oil spewing out at the bottom of the ocean.

But all that area in between has been a great unknown. The satellites can't see it. We haven't been able to see it with the human eye until now. We got our own submersible, our own little ROV, about the size of a suitcase. We put it in the water about 20 miles away from the source of the leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

We went under the water. First of all, we saw these huge plumes, these bands of emulsified oil that we're very familiar with now stretching up from horizon to horizon on the Gulf. We went down in the water, right into one of those bands. We saw the emulsified oil after it's come in contact with the dispersant.

What we really were surprised to see here was how deep it went. We were seeing these particles of oil, these emulsified particles, going down 50 feet down into the water column. So, that was a little bit of a surprise for us.

We also continued to go down very deep. We took this submersible all the way down to 1,000 feet below. We went all the way down to the bottom where we were.

And we were able to see some sea life. It was minimal. We saw a couple of fish. We saw some squid. We saw some plants down there.

We didn't see any particular signs of oil. But it was unusual, we thought, that we saw a very little amount of sea life.

Of particular interest to us was a coral reef, also about 20 miles away from the source of the leak. We went to that coral reef. That was about 200 feet down.

When we took our camera down there, we did see some sea life. There wasn't abundance of it. But we did some fish.

The corals seemed to be healthy. But we did see some particles down there that looked similar to the particles we were seeing on the surface, those reddish pieces of oil. We don't know what they were. We're letting some experts look at our video to let their learned eye tell perhaps, give us a little more context of what we were looking at down there.

But at this point, it was a very interesting trip through this camera to see what's underneath that oil slick.

CHETRY: It is amazing. All right. David Mattingly for us this morning -- thanks so much.

And for complete updates and full coverage of the oil spill and its impact, head to CNN.com/oilspill. You'll see the latest reports as they come in to CNN.

ROBERTS: South Korea is taking a hard line towards North Korea as tensions flare in the peninsula. The South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, is telling Pyongyang that there would be a price to pay for sinking one of its warships. It's an attack that North Korea continues to deny.

We're tapping into CNN's global resources to cover this developing story this morning.

Our Ed Henry is live at the White House with reaction from the president. But, first, our senior international correspondent John Vause -- he's in Seoul, South Korea.

And, John, there were some strong statements from President Lee over the weekend as to this entire situation. And what may happen as a result.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. Very strong statements coming from President Lee Myung-bak -- probably the strongest response he could have made short of a military strike, suspending trade between North and South, closing the sea lanes for North Korean ships.

At one point during his nationally televised address today, he talked about regime change. And what this means is that the relationship now between North and South has dramatically changed. Gone are the days of the sunshine policy of Lee's predecessor when the South tried to engage the North politically and through trade, tried to improve relations between North and South.

And during his address today, President Lee said that the South Korean people had made a mistake. They had forgotten that their nation faces the most belligerent nation in the world. And as a result of that, this country will now upgrade its military capabilities and further attacks by North Korea will not be tolerated -- John. ROBERTS: All right. John Vause for us in Seoul in morning -- John, thanks so much.

CHETRY: The White House is also weighing in this morning on how South Korea is handling the crisis.

Our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry, is live on the North Lawn this morning.

And what are we hearing from the administration about this very delicate, diplomatic issue?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kiran.

You're absolutely right. It is delicate. And the White House has been saying for days now that they believe North Korea is going to isolate itself even more over this whole incident.

And overnight, the White House put out a blistering statement in the name of White House spokesman Robert Gibbs saying in part, quote: "Specifically, we endorse President Lee's demand that North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior. U.S. support for South Korea's defense is unequivocal, and the president has directed his military commanders to coordinate closely with the Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression."

Now, to give you an idea of how enormous the stakes are here -- North Korea has threatened what it calls "all-out war" if South Korea retaliates at all for the torpedoing of this ship. I can tell you that in recent days, White House aides have privately and publicly tried to sort of tamp down all this talk about a possible war.

But that statement overnight here from the White House saying that the president has directed his military commanders to essentially be ready, work with South Korea to do whatever they need to do to stop any North Korean aggression shows you how big the stakes are, Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Ed Henry for us this morning at the White House -- thank you.

And coming up on the Most News in the Morning, it's a new warning for an American-born Muslim cleric, coming from him actually. Jeanne Meserve joins us with more on the video he's posted online and what the U.S. response could be.

It's nine minutes past the hour.

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ROBERTS: An American-born cleric on the run for the feds has a new warning for America. He says, "We will kill your people." That and a whole lot more are coming in a video from Anwar al-Awlaki that he's just been posted online.

CHETRY: Well, he thought to have inspired recent terror plots, including the deadly shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. U.S. officials also think he's hiding out in Yemen.

For more, we bring in our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve.

Good morning, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Kiran.

In the video, Anwar al-Awlaki justifies and encourages the killing of American civilians, because he says they elected this administration and are financing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Al Awlaki, U.S. born, living in Yemen, is believed by intelligence officials to be playing an increasingly operation role in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and has been linked with several recent terror attacks. He exchanged e-mail with the alleged Fort Hood gunman, U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan.

And in the new video, he calls Hasan heroic and great, and he asks every Muslim in the U.S. Army to follow suit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANWAR AL-AWLAKI, RADICAL MUSLIM CLERIC (through translator): If the American crimes continue, we will see a new Nidal Hasan. There are now mujahedeen in the West and from America fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. And this phenomenon will grow because of the criminal acts committed by the Americans in the Arab and Muslim world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: In the video, al-Awlaki also praises the man who tried to bring down a plane on Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He says those who could have been killed in that plane are a drop in the sea.

U.S. officials suspect that Abdulmutallab and al-Awlaki had contact when Abdulmutallab traveled to Yemen last year -- John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: So, has the U.S. government responded at all to al-Awlaki's comments?

MESERVE: Well, al-Awlaki is on a list of suspected al Qaeda leaders targeted for capture or assassination. In Sunday, White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, had this to say -- .

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president will continue to take action directly at terrorists like al-Awlaki and keep our country safe from their murderous thugs.

BOB SCHIEFFER, CBS NEWS: Are we actively trying to find this guy?

GIBBS: We are actively trying to finds him and many others throughout the word that seek to do our country and to do our interest great harm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Al-Awlaki was reportedly the target of a December air strike in Yemen. But in his video, the cleric claims to move freely through that country and says, "If the Americans want me, let them come and look for me, and God will protect me."

John and Kiran, back to you/

ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve for us this morning with the very latest on that -- Jeanne, thanks so much.

Also new this morning: another bizarre twist in the story of late actress, Brittany Murphy. Her screenwriter husband, Simon Monjak, was found dead in his Hollywood Hills home last night. Police are investigating, of course.

Murphy died five months ago after going into cardiac arrest at the couple's home. No suspected cause of death of her husband at this point.

CHETRY: And check this out. It's an enormous tornado. It's caught on tape when it touched down in South Dakota this weekend. This monster twister took out everything in its path, including tornado sirens across Edmund County.

ROBERTS: Next, on the Most News in the Morning: after last week's wild ride on Wall Street, what can we expect this week? Our Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" -- coming up next.

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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Seventeen and a half minutes past the hour right now. The State Department issuing a travel alert in Jamaica. Police in the capital city are going toe to toe with armed gangs. Members attacked at least three Kingston police stations and set up blockades across the capital city. They are trying to prevent a drug kingpin from being extradited to the United States.

ROBERTS: Christine Romans is here "Minding Your Business." She joins us now. And the big question is, after last week's wild ride, where is the stock market going this week?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I wish I knew. Look, the futures this morning are pointing to a lower open. But, as we know, Friday, we thought that there would be a lower open on Friday and there was. Then, you got really aggressive buying and the stock market actually closed higher on Friday.

Let us talk about the mode we are in here. We are in a correction mode. Stocks are down at least 10 percent. The S&P 500, which is the broadest gauge of stock market health, and quite frankly this is most likely what you are mimicking in your 401k portfolio. April 23rd it hit a 19-month high of 1,217. Since then, it has gone down 10.7 percent. That is officially a correction.

The next step after a correction, you either find buyers and things go up again or you are in a full-blown bear market, you go down 20 percent. I asked Nouriel Roubini, also known as Dr. Doom, I asked him, so what happens, we have had a 10 percent correction in stocks, lots of concerns about things happening around the world, not necessarily here. What happens next? This is what he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOURIEL ROUBINI, AUTHOR, "CRISIS ECONOMICS": I would say that since the markets are going to be volatile at least in the next few months because of all this economic policy, political and regulatory uncertainty, it is better to be safe rather than sorry. I would say more cash and less risky assets like equities. Maybe even getting insurance with options for a risk of a significant bear market.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The risk of a significant bear market. Some people say that he is Dr. Doom. Except, he has been very right over the past few years. So when he says you can see 20 percent decline in stocks, that means we would have more pain to go. I asked him though, beyond stocks, the things that we feel, our jobs, our houses, our taxes, our standard of living in this country, you know, are these all things that are sort of up for grabs? He said yes. He said, we are looking at budgets that are going to have to be cut. We are looking at taxes that are going to have to rise. And you look and you see what is happening in Europe. We need to look and, you know, soul-search in this country and see we have some big decisions coming down the pike. So, these are all the reasons why he thinks the stock market could be in trouble.

CHETRY: I thought about you this weekend, because we were talking last week about your credit score and the importance of all that. For people who are long-term unemployed, there was a proof of this woman who had a job, she paid for houses that she could afford, she got prime mortgages, she put 20 percent down, credit score was 800. She lost her job, tried to get the mortgage company to work with her, could not. And now she is one of the many people who, really, I mean, through no fault of their own, except that they got laid off, can't pay their mortgages anymore?

ROMANS: And there are millions of people with different situations. And that's something that could hold back an American recovery. Yet, 1 in 10 people with mortgages are late now. I mean we have never had a number like that. 1 in 10 people who have a mortgage are late on their mortgage payment. All of these things are against the backdrop of the economy. But, companies are doing well and companies are starting to make money. And we just heard, I told you about the National Association of Business Economics, they say that we are going to have a solid recovery. So, we are right here kind of, you know. ROBERTS: From your lips to god's ears they say.

ROMANS: I know.

ROBERTS: All right. Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business."

ROMANS: Sure.

ROBERTS: Thanks.

CHETRY: Coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, he is a valedictorian, he is a star athlete. So why is he passing up Boston College and headed today a state school instead? Alina Cho with an A.M. Original, the Cost of College still ahead.

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ROBERTS: Time now for an A.M. Original, something that you will see only on "AMERICAN MORNING". With the cost of college skyrocketing and the recession raging, you just heard Christine Romans talking about, you know, people losing money and losing jobs, et cetera, it is not just about getting into the best schools these days.

CHETRY: Right. For a lot of students and their cash-strapped parents, prestige is taking a back seat to price and reality. Alina Cho is here with the first part of our week-long series, the Cost of College. You know, it used to be, you got into the best school, you find a way to pay for it.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is right.

CHETRY: But people are having to rethink that.

CHO: They are rethinking that. You know, with real estate, it is location, location, location. With college these days guys, it is value, value, value. Right, and here is the bottom line. More and more kids are graduating from college. They can't find work. Many are in debt. And at the same time colleges and universities are feeling the pinch too. Endowments are down. So tuition is up. So, what we are finding is that some kids are actually turning down those top-tier schools in the name of value.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHO (voice-over): Liam Coffey is a college admission officers' dream, valedictorian, varsity hockey, honor society. His pick of schools. He got into Boston College, was waitlisted at Brown and Cornell. But his choice, TCNJ, The College of New Jersey, a state school.

LIAM COFFEY, FUTURE TCNJ STUDENT: Four years of TCNJ is less than one year of Boston College. That right there is the point that sold me.

CHO: Especially now.

DENNIS COFFEY, LIAM'S FATHER: But I think that with this economy, it is a lot more real to the kids and the parents because the money is just not flowing the way it used to.

CHO (on camera): The reality is, in this economy, kids can't find work. So, in growing numbers, they are going to or staying in school. 7 in 10 high school grads now go straight to college. That's a record. But they are also paying more. Average cost in a private institution including room and board is more than $35,000 a year. At a public school, it is $15,000. That's why the buzz word these days is value.

CHO (voice-over): Liam's school where applications are up 8% this year, even has a value comparison calculator on its website. Perspective students can click on any number of schools in competition with TCNJ and see just how much money they will save over four years. In some cases, it is more than $100,000.

LISA ANGELONI, DEAN OF ADMISSIONS, TCNJ: We do say that this is what you are going to get for that $1.

CHO (on camera): Value?

ANGELONI: That's right. And it is comparable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am able to sit back and relax, you know, at the end of the day, I have a little extra cash, you know, to go out on the weekend, or see a movie or something that, you know, just --

CHO: Have a life?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CHO (voice-over): Other institutions like Manchester College in Indiana are offering three-year bachelor's programs as a way to save on time and tuition. Cost-conscious community colleges are bursting at the seams. But what about the prestige of an Ivy-League education. Doesn't a Harvard degree mean something?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We still live in a world where these institutions do open doors. It is not the only way into some of the finest companies and graduate schools in this nation but it is still a way.

DENNIS COFFEY: There you go. There is your college list right there.

CHO (on camera): That is still entree, right? You don't ever think about that?

DENNIS COFFEY: Well, I am not going to lie. We wrestle with that a lot. And I think that there is a lot of peer pressure to say, among his friends and our friends to say wow, why aren't you going to Boston College, or, you know, why didn't you more aggressive in going to one of the Ivys?

CHO (voice-over): For Liam, first in his class, it is a choice that makes dollars and sense. He is planning to go to medical school and wants to start in the black.

LIAM COFFEY: I was just looking for a great education. Whatever school that may be. And at a better value, that's just more reason to go.

DENNIS COFFEY: They are calling it Ivy School on a budget. So it's a great education for less than half the cost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: And how about this? Liam got a $28,000 merit scholarship from The College of New Jersey. He also received two other scholarships totaling $8,000. That is all over four years. He couldn't transfer those scholarships, by the way, to a private institution.

So, guys, it really does make sense for him to do that. He is saving a lot of money. Listen, other people will say, you can't put a price tag on an education, particularly an Ivy League education, which does provide entree to certain companies. Still, Liam's dad says, over four years, with the money I'll save, I could buy him a car or a house.

ROBERTS: And there was no possibility of scholarships to either Boston College or Harvard?

CHO: I don't believe he was offered scholarships to those other schools.

ROBERTS: Because they get a million people who have 4.0s or 4.6s or whatever.

CHO: That is right. And listen, as a Boston College grad myself, it was tough to see him make that choice. But I mean, overall, it does make sense for him financially. Listen, you know, the other thing too is that, you know, when you look at, even if he would have gotten a scholarship at Boston College or one of these other schools, Brown or Cornell, had he gotten off the waitlist, it still would not have offset the overwhelmingly large cost of going to a private institution. For him, being in state just made sense.

CHETRY: And some kids are doing, they sort of splitting the difference, going two years to a community college and then transferring into a four-year private school. But, I mean, these are tough decisions that families have to make right now.

CHO: That's right. More and more in this economy.

ROBERTS: When it comes to medical school too, it is really not the undergrad work.

CHO: That's exactly, and you know what, Liam's a smart kid, that is exactly what he said. I'll go to a name-brand medical school.

ROBERTS: There you go. Alina Cho, for us this morning. Thanks so much. Tomorrow, on part two of the Cost of College, it is Buyer Beware. Alina profiles a man who turned down a scholarship at one university to attend a more prestigious school and expensive school. And he says that decision left him buried in debt. It will take him decades to pay off. His story tomorrow right here on "AMERICAN MORNING". CHETRY: All right. Meanwhile, it is half past the hour. Time to check our top stories.

It is Day 35 of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf Coast. And Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is blasting B.P. for missing all deadlines for sealing the well. The White House, under fire from critics for not taking full control of the operation to plug the leak. A senate delegation to assess the spill.

ROBERTS: Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is calling on North Korea to change its behavior to avoid, quote, "the kind of escalation that would be very regrettable". Seoul accusing the North of sinking South Korean warships killing 46 sailors.

CHETRY: And men have had a little blue pill to lift their libido for the last dozen years or so. Will women possibly have one, too? Next month an FDA panel will consider backing what's being called "Pink Viagra." A German pharmaceutical company wants to sell the drug.

It was initially developed as an antidepressant. They found that it didn't work for that but a side effect was increasing women's libido.

ROBERTS: Now to a developing story out of London this morning, the Duchess of York and her royal indiscretion. A British tabloid posted a web video showing Sarah Ferguson offering access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, in exchange for money.

The prince denies knowing anything about it. As for Fergie, she is calling it "embarrassing and inexcusable." Our Phil Black is live outside of Buckingham Palace, where there are an awful lot of meetings going on today to determine what to do about the situation. Hi, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John.

Yes, it appears that Fergie has done it again. She has unwittingly given the newspapers of this country an excuse to take a running kick at her. The newspapers love that here. It is something of a national sport.

In this case, she was outwitted by a fairly sophisticated sting operation. A reporter from the Sunday tabloid "News of the World" went undercover, pretending on a tip-off, pretending to be a wealthy businessman.

He met her a number of times and together they set up a deal whereby she offered to introduce this undercover reporter to her ex-husband Prince Andrew. The final meeting took place with hidden cameras rolling.

This was not a deal whereby he would just get to meet the prince for an autograph and the thrill of meeting royalty. He wanted to meet the prince in his capacity as this country's special representative on business and finance. He essentially travels the world selling big business deals.

So, obviously, very improper in that sense. Fergie is caught on tape demanding a $40,000 deposit, which she receives on the table in front of her. She then demands a further sum, a further, well, more than $700,000, to make the meeting happen -- very embarrassing.

As you say, the prince has had to deny all knowledge that any of this was going on. But a lot of critical headlines in the British newspapers directed towards Sarah Ferguson.

ROBERTS: What is going to be the upshot of all of this, Phil? She is already ostracized. Would it be just another public statement by the prince to say, again, no involvement in this?

BLACK: Can she recover from this? That's the big question. As you say, she has been essentially ostracized from the royal family going back to 1992 when the first scandal broke, the so called toe-sucking incident. She was photographed on a beach in public having a feet kissed by a man who was her financial adviser at the time, deeply embarrassing.

There have been so many since regarding her love life, her financials, even her weight. She was once cruelly branded by a British tabloid here "The Duchess of Pork."

In this case she is trying to make amends with a written statement. Let me share it with you in its entirety. Her language is pretty fulsome. She says "I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused. It is true that my financial situation is under stress.

However, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment, and I am very sorry this has happened. I can confirm that the Duke of York was not aware or involved in any of the discussion that is occurred. I am sincerely sorry for my actions.

The duke has made a significant contribution to his business over the last ten years and has always acted with complete integrity."

This is not going to do herself any favors in terms of redeeming herself in the eyes of the royal family. The key question perhaps is public sympathy. She has always been able to maintain a degree of that. That is going to be tested as she now tries to come back from the latest big hit.

CHETRY: Phil Black for us this morning. Thanks so much. They are divorced, but they still live under the same roof.

ROBERTS: Times are tough, I guess. Maybe he jacked up the rent. Maybe that's why she needed the money.

CHETRY: It's embarrassing to say the least.

This next story is a great one. He reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro when he was just nine years old. Now at the age of 13, he has broken the world record by being the youngest to tackle Everest.

He is on his way back down, but Jordan Romero is going to be talking to us from advanced base camp coming up next. It's 34 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back, 37 minutes past the hour.

Cable company service has been the butt joke for years, but now two big operators are trying to clean up their image and actually treat their customers better.

ROBERTS: Can you imagine? Comcast is going to give you a 30 day money-back guarantee if you are not happy with your service, a $20 credit if the cable guy is late, and you'll be able to call to get the text eta at your house.

CHETRY: That's what I don't get. A $20 if they're late, and they just say they'll be there sometime between 9:00 and 5:00.

ROBERTS: So if they don't show up until 5:15, you get your $20 cable.

CHETRY: That sounds great.

Well, Cox Cable will close that two-hour appointment window, and they will let you set a specific time. This is if you have Cox Cable for the company to come by and arrive. And they will e-mail you a confirmation of your order.

ROBERTS: Look at that, customer service as its best.

(WEATHER BREAK)

CHETRY: There's a new immigration debate in Arizona -- why schools are cracking down on English teachers who speak with accents. Thelma Gutierrez has an "A.M." original for us coming up. It's 40 minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: It's 42 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

It has been a month since Arizona passed its controversial immigration law that sparked protests from coast to coast. Now state immigration officials want immigrant teachers who have heavy accents removed from the classes where children are learning English.

They say they are simply following federal guidelines set up by the Bush administration in 2002. But critics are calling it an ethnic witch hunt. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez looks at the new great debate in this "A.M." original.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some people are saying that teachers like me should not be teaching students who are learning English. THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some teachers, like Kristina Parsons, in Tucson, believe they are being targeted by the Arizona Department of Education because they have accents.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): A state monitor came into your class?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

GUTIERREZ: They audited you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Parsons, who was born in Brazil, has taught ELL, English language learners for more than 20 years. She has two university degrees. This is the first time she has been audited, and she resents the extra scrutiny.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can have a Ph.D. and be a bad teacher.

GUTIERREZ: State school superintendent Tom Horne says as part of No Child Left Behind, he has been monitoring ELL teachers for bad grammar and mispronounced words for the past few years.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): Are you going after a particularly accent?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not going after any accents, including Spanish accent. It has to be faulty English. If students are being taught English and they're going to refer to a comma and a "coma," people are going to misunderstand them.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): English professor Rosanna Gonzalez disagrees, saying studies actually show that non-native speakers make better English speakers.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): Are you saying a teacher's pronunciation of specific words is not important?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right, because language is very contextual.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would tell somebody who could not be understood that they need to go into another profession.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Of the 1.500 teachers who were monitored last year, 25 were found to have pronunciation issues. That worries teachers, Charles Collinwood, from Trinidad, who wonders who's judging.

CHARLES COLLINGWOOD, TEACHER: You can't say there's one way to pronounce anything in America.

IAN KEITH, TEACHER: seeing what kids are learning, those are more important thing than if I say think instead of think.

GUTIERREZ: Horne's critics say he's going after immigrant teachers. TOM HORNE, STATE SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: It's totally idiotic. I grew up in a house where my parents spoke Polish and they certainly spoke English with a heavy accent.

GUTIERRIEZ: But here you are superintendent.

HORNE: Right.

GUTIERREZ: So, it didn't hurt you.

HORNE: No, but my teachers spoke proficient English.

GUTIERREZ: Kristina Parsons says she's also proficient.

KRISTINA PARSONS, IMMIGRANT TEACHER: The Arizona Department of Education gives us a certificate saying, yes, you are certified to teach. After that, they say, no, I don't think you can do it so I'm going to go into the classroom and see if you are doing a good job.

Let's go.

GUTIERREZ: Parsons is still awaiting results of her audit. If she doesn't pass, she could be reassigned to another position somewhere else in the district.

Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Tucson, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Forty-nine minutes after the hour. Welcome back to "The Most News in the Morning."

Now to a new initiative from CNN.com, it's called "Home and Away." And it honors U.S. and coalition troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan by tracking the lives of these gallant warriors up until their untimely deaths.

Today, we're remembering Private First Class David John Bentz. DJ was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, that was three years ago. His mother chooses to remember him through the game that he loved most.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIMBERLY GEONNOTTI, MOTHER, PFC DAVID JOHN BENTZ III: My name is Kimberly Geonnotti, mom of Private First Class David John Bentz, III; killed in action in Iraq, June 20th, 2007. And this is his story.

Everyone that knew D.J. knew he loved soccer. This is DJ's soccer jersey in high school; 11 was his favorite number. He was not out for himself. He's really played with the team, he believes in the team. He didn't care who got the goal or whatever. Even if they lost, he'd say that's all right, oh, well, next time.

I looked forward to going to his games and I'm watching him. We are here at the DJ Bentz Memorial Soccer Complex that was dedicated and built in honor of my son who loved soccer. He's first phone call when he got to Iraq, he called, and yes and I said, do you want anything? And he said, no, all I need is my soccer ball he said, they are losers over here. He said, they don't know anything about soccer. Everything is football. That's all they want to talk about.

I've got to show these guys. He said, send me my ball. He could play by himself hours at a time, I mean, just in the backyard by himself, kicking against the wall, kicking against the shed, kicking against the shed, kicking against the shed.

I would yell and stop kicking the shed. You know busted windows outside then.

The soccer field really just brought it home for me. This is where I know he is. And I know he's playing it. Because I know he sure as hell is playing somewhere in a good place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Well, "Home and Away" also features a place for you to share soldier tributes to the iReports; users can post messages and memories by text, audio or video. Check it out by visiting CNN.com/HomeAndAway.

It's coming up now on 52 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Fifty-four minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

Dozens of ships are headed towards the site of the Gulf oil spill. In two days, they are expected to begin an operation they call "top kill."

ROBERTS: Yes. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, we spoke to BP's chief operating officer for exploration and production, Doug Suttles. He says if the government pushes him out of the way and tries to plug the gushing oil well themselves, they won't be able to do a better job than BP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG SUTTLES, COO EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION, BRITISH PETROLEUM: I don't think anyone else could do better than we are. I know that's frustrating to hear in our performance to this point I wish was better. I wish this was done. But we are doing everything we can. I don't actually believe anyone could do any better unfortunately.

ROBERTS: Sometime in the next couple of days, you are going to try a top kill, pump some mud and then potentially cement down into the drill hole to try to stop it up. What's the likelihood that that's going to work? SUTTLES: The challenge here is, of course, what we don't know; the details that you can't measure when something is on the seabed. I have been asked this before.

People have asked me on a scale of 1-10, what would I say? It is not a 10. It is not that certain. It is above a 5 in my own personal view. I think a 6 or a 7.

We are going to give it every shot. We are going to make sure everything is ready before we go because we need it to work. We are going to make sure every piece of equipment, every piece of planning is done, every resource is available. Right now, our forecast has that happening first thing on Wednesday morning.

ROBERTS: You've tried so many things. You've tried, first of all, the containment dome. That didn't work. You tried the top hat. That didn't work very well. You tried the pipe inside the drill riser. That hasn't worked extraordinarily well.

If the top kill doesn't work, what's left other than these relief wells that are being drilled and they won't be ready until August?

SUTTLES: Well, we do still have some remaining options both to stop the flow and contain it. If the top kill procedure doesn't actually work, then the next step we will take is the next containment device, which is a tool we will place over the top of the riser. We will cut and remove the riser where it comes out of the top of the blowout preventer and put the next containment device we believe quite tightly over the top of that piece of pipe which we think will capture even more of the flow than we are doing now.

And then we still have a number of other options to kill the well. Those include the junk shot technique you have heard about but there are also techniques where we could put another blowout preventer on top of the existing ones.

CHETRY: Each of these, it seems, the likelihood gets less and less that they would work? Right. It's the least preferred of the options as you go one down. Because obviously, you would have done that first if you would thought it would work. So this doesn't sound reassuring that you guys sort of have a handle on what's happening.

SUTTLES: The challenge here is, of course, what we need to do is we need to make sure that every option we take it either makes things better or solves the problem completely. We don't want to take any action which could make the situation worse.

And so some of the options we are pursuing now, why it is taking this long to get to them which we had to get the data. We had to be able to do the analysis to make sure that in the event we tried them and they didn't work, the situation wouldn't be worse. That's what's taking the time.

And some of them are even more complex. They take more planning and they take more engineering to do. So the timing is more about what it takes to prepare for them and the risks around those jobs than anything else.

ROBERTS: BP CEO Tony Hayward said in recent days that he thought when all was said and done, the environmental impact of this spill is going to be very, very modest. And obviously, that's raising a lot of objections from environmental groups from state officials; these territories are in harm's way there because of this oil spill.

Do you believe, Mr. Suttles, that the environmental impact from this is going to be modest?

SUTTLES: You know, what you can know right now is that it is not modest to the people who live here. It is not modest to me. And until we get this thing capped and until we get this thing cleaned up completely and until we go through the monitoring, which is going to take years, we don't know.

I do know, though, that there have been large spills in the Gulf of Mexico before. I do know there are natural seeps out and I do know the Gulf of Mexico has been robust with those. But it's way too early, I think, to say that. And I can tell you, to the people who live here and to me and my team this is a very, very serious event.

CHETRY: I want to ask you quickly about the dispersant because the EPA ordered you guys to find a less toxic dispersant than the Corexit 9500. They say there are 18 others on this approved list that may be less toxic and more effective on certain creatures. Why are you still using the Corexit?

SUTTLES: We are still using it because actually as of today, it is still the best product available. It is on the approved list. It is safe to use. It is the most widely used. But I can tell you, we have met with the EPA again last night. We will continue to look to see if there is a better alternative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And there you go. We were also going to bring you the interview with the 13-year-old, the youngest person to climb Mt. Everest, Jordan Romero (ph). Unfortunately, we had a little bit of trouble getting the Skype signal working for us. So we'll try again.

ROBERTS: We can't get our computers and our desktops to work most times. He is at advanced base camp 21,000 feet.

CHETRY: Exactly. I'm sure you can forgive him for having a little bit of trouble with that. We will try to get him on tomorrow. I don't know if we will be able to.

But wow. He is climbing the seven highest peaks on all the continents; there's actually 8 of them but they still call them 7 summits. And Everest is the second last one and he's going to do the Vinson Massif in Antarctica and then he's done. So --

CHETRY: Accomplishing all that at the young age of 13.

ROBERTS: You're almost done at the age of 13. What's next? Well, I'll tell you what's next. The news continues on CNN this morning, "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now.