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American Morning
Unlocking the Autistic Brain; 'Race to the Top'; Terror Training Ground
Aired June 07, 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. Happy Monday. Glad you're with us on this June 7th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for joining us. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes and we got a lot of them.
The oil fight may last now until the fall. That's the warning from the man in charge of the federal government's response in the Gulf. This comes as the first signs of oil wash up on the Florida panhandle. A sheen of crude a mile offshore, much thicker sludge right behind it. We're live from the summer beach where the entire season may be slipping away.
CHETRY: A string of powerful thunderstorms kicking up tornadoes across several states, very severe in parts of Ohio where seven people were killed. A nuclear power plant had to be shut down in Michigan. Homes were destroyed in Illinois and tornado watches triggered from New England down to Virginia.
We'll get a full look at the violent storms just ahead from the CNN weather center.
ROBERTS: And the trail of evidence linking Joran Van Der Sloot to a woman in Peru is growing this morning, police releasing new video showing Van Der Sloot and his alleged victim entering a hotel room. We're live in Peru with the very latest details. CHETRY: First a disaster spreading. We want to update you on all of the latest developments on the oil leak. There is a live look right now for you a mile under water, oil still erupting from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. BP claims it's only about half as bad as it was on Friday. But no one knows for sure whether that is BP's PR.
And 49 days in and now Florida panhandle beaches are starting to see the first signs of oil slick. Tar balls on Pensacola shore, and a sheen of oil right behind it. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says despite the progress at the source, the efforts to stop the leak will not end what happens on the surface on the beaches any time soon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: This will only end when we intercept the wellbore and pump mud down to overcome the pressure and put a cement plug in. It's what I would call bottom kill rather than top kill.
The spill will not be contained until that happens, but even after that, there will be oil out there for months to come. This is a siege across the entire Gulf. This spill is holding everybody hostage not only economically but physically, and it has to be attacked on all fronts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Florida unraveled 250,000 feet of boom to stop the oil now threatening some of the most treasured beaches in the country. Our Jim Acosta in like for us in Destin, Florida, this morning. And Jim, if ever there was an incredible piece of beach, it's right there in Destin.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John, travel experts say these are the best beaches in the world. Here's why, this beautiful pristine white sand, it's almost like powdered sugar in some parts of the coast. And it just goes for hundreds of miles.
Right now there are no signs of tar balls here in Destin, but Florida environmental officials fear that's just a matter of time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: On patrol with the Florida department of environmental protection, the soaring pelicans are a sign the wildlife is still thriving in this state, but for how long? Looming just off the remote beach, brown foam and bands of oil sheen are closing in, and dotting the pristine white sand, tar balls, lots of them. This blue heron walked right through them.
The tar balls here are darker in color than the ones found in Alabama, and these tar balls are scattered all over this beach.
ERIK SCHULZE, TOURIST: It breaks my heart -- sorry -- because it's so beautiful down here. Anyways and I know it's going to devastate this area for a decade, two decades.
ACOSTA: Eric Shultz came to Pensacola to visit friends who are lifelong residents who. They all worry BP will never be able to restore this majestic coast line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: BP keeps saying they are going to pay every legitimate claim. How do you, when you can't get it back overnight, it could be years?
ACOSTA (on camera): How do you pay that back?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you put a price tag on that?
ACOSTA (voice-over): By air and on the ground, state environmental officials are on the lookout for any traces of the spill. The mobile command post in Destin is set up like a mini war room, tracking the oil's slow motion assault on a three-county stretch of the panhandle. ACOSTA (on camera): It's a lot of ground to cover?
GRAY BEVIS, CHIEF INVESTIGATOR, FLORIDA OF WILDLIFE: It truly is. But we have a lot of hard chargers and people dedicated to the fight.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The experts say the fight will be hard to win. There's not enough containment equipment to protect white sand beaches and turquoise water that are so saw-inspiring they lure wedding watchers.
James Estes has played on Destin's beaches since he was in diapers. The oil moves in, he's considering moving away, as in to another state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've gone places in my life, but I always come back here because this is where high heart is. And these white sand beaches raised me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, Florida environmental officials say the beaches are still safe here. They are urging folks not to abandon their travel plans to this region, but ask any local around here and they will tell you the beaches here or not as crowds as they should be this time of year.
ROBERTS: Obviously, which is a shame for everybody. Jim Acosta for us this morning in Destin. Jim, thanks.
CHETRY: On to another tragedy due to severe weather this time. At least seven people are dead after a string of tornadoes and violent thunderstorms over the weekend. One of the funnel clouds was caught on camera. It's in Yates city, Illinois. There you see it. Even with dark sky and clouds, you can see the debris flying everywhere.
All seven deaths coming from one tornado in Ohio, the youngest victim a five-year-old child. One man was found dead in the street. That twister ripped across two different towns after touching down in the middle of the night.
In Michigan, dozens of homes were badly damaged, debris thrown on top of cars and everything else in the storm's path, and the damage in Michigan even forcing a nuclear power plant to shut down. At least 11 people in the area were injured.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROBERTS: This morning investigators are building their case, trying to link a long-time suspect to Natalee Holloway's disappearance in Aruba to the murder much another young woman in Peru.
Police have released new surveillance video showing Joran Van Der Sloot and 21-year-old woman walking into a hotel room. It's the last time she would ever be seen alive. Our Rafael Romo is following developments live for us in Lima, Peru this morning. Good morning, Rafael.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Joran Van Der Sloot arrived here in Lima on Saturday but he has yet to be formally charged in the murder of 21 year old Stephanie Flores. And now the judge in charge of the case has given prosecutors seven more days so they have time to gather more evidence and build a stronger case against the Dutchman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMO: The seven-day extension will enable Peruvian authorities to gather more evidence in an effort to build a stronger case against Joran Van Der Sloot. The criminal attorney says prosecutors will seek the maximum sentence for the suspect if he is convicted of killing a 21-year-old woman found dead in his hotel room who police believe may have been beaten by a tennis racket.
ROBERTO MIRANDA, CRIMINAL ATTORNEY: According to Peruvian law, a person who has committed that kind of assassination must receive between 15 to 35 years in the jail.
ROMO: Is there capital punishment in Peru?
MIRANDA: No, there is no capital punishment.
ROMO: Van Der Sloot, a Dutch national who was a suspect but never charged in the killing of Alabama high school student Natalee Holloway in Aruba five years ago, will spend his days in a cell. He has not been formally charged in the case but authorities say he is the only suspect.
The Peruvian interior ministry says Van Der Sloot was in Lima to play in an international poker tournament. He met the victim Stephanie Flores at the casino where the tournament was being held. So far the strongest evidence Peruvian police have is a video showing Van Der Sloot and the victim, Stephanie Flores, entering a Lima hotel on May 30th at 5:16 in the morning.
Van Der Sloot leaves alone more than three hours later and tells hotel staff he's coming back and orders an employee to not to disturb the woman whom he calls "my girl." Even if he pleads guilty, there would be hearings to determine what the sentence could be, and Miranda says those could take months. At this point Van Der Sloot does not have an attorney.
ROMO (on camera): If you were his defense attorney, what would be the best defense for him at this point?
MIRANDA: If all of the evidence that the police have collect and the result is that he's only the one person who was with Stephanie, I think that he must do a separate charge.
ROMO: The family of Stephanie Flores says all they want is justice. CAROLINA JORGE, VICTIM'S SISTER-IN-LAW: We need justice for our family, for Natalee Holloway's too. I think he's psycho, a murderer, and he has to pay.
ROMO: If the case goes to trial, it would be decided by a three- judge panel. There are no jury panels in Peru but there would full media access, including TV cameras.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMO: And Joran Van Der Sloot will remain here in the Peruvian criminal investigations building of the national police. According to the interior ministry he has requested to see his mother. John?
ROBERTS: Rafael Romo for us in Lima this morning. Rafael, thanks so much for the update.
CHETRY: Still ahead, Americans turned accused terrorists busted before they could board a flight out of the country this weekend. Our Jeanne Meserve is tracking developments in our Homeland Security watch. It's 11 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 14 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
In just a few hours, two Americans will be arraigned in federal court on terrorism charges. The two were arrested this weekend as they tried to board a flight out the country, allegedly to get training that they would then use to kill fellow Americans.
Here's Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Somalia was the intended destination for the two men from New Jersey, who claim their mission was to wage violent jihad in name of al Shabaab, a terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda. Their hope, officials say, was to kill U.S. troops who might eventually be deployed there.
Mohammad Alessa and Carlos Almonte are charged with conspiring to kill, maim, and kidnap people overseas. But New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is among those expressing concern that they could have eventually reentered the U.S. on their American passports.
RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: Commissioner: And it's not unlike other cases that we've seen recently where individuals who express an interest to do, quote, "Jihad," go overseas and are turned around and come back to attempt acts of violence here in the United States.
MESERVE: Search warrants were executed at the suspect's New Jersey homes. Alessa's landlord says, he was the only child in a religious family. HEMANT SHAH, ALMONTE'S LANDLORD: I was surprised that nothing -- he went to his sister and then he was leaving, I had talked to him. I said, hi, I heard you're going away? He said, yes, I'm going out. And I said, for how long? He says probably about six months.
MESERVE: According to court documents, in 2006 authorities were tipped off about the men. In 2007, the pair allegedly traveled to Jordan but was rebuffed. When they tried to release this new Jihadi. There Jihadi operations eventually focused on Somalia in recordings made by an undercover New York Police officer, Alessa allegedly discusses shootings and beheadings saying, we'll start doing killing here, if I can't do it over there. The court document say that the men practiced combat skills with paint ball guns and computer software. But there are no indications that they bought real guns or posed an imminent threat to the U.S.
(on camera) Commissioner Raymond Kelly, a Law Enforcement Official says, Alessa is a U.S. citizen, his parents Palestinian and Jordanian. Almonte is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in the Dominican Republic. They are scheduled to appear in a Newark courtroom later today, they could face life in prison. Back to you.
CHETRY: So, we're dealing with here another case of homegrown terrorism. Some of the same signs seem to be there. At least recording of some of the reporting there. Friends and family say that they became increasingly radicalized, that they sort of shunned their old way of life. Is this happening more and more or are we just hearing about it more and more?
MESERVE: Officials believe it's happening more. A law enforcement official provided me with the list yesterday of U.S. citizens charged with terror charges just since the first of this year, with these two, the total number comes to 14 and those are just the cases we know about. There could be other cases that are under seal. Why is this happening? Officials really want to try and figure that out. But they know one factor is the internet, which makes it easier for people to access propaganda that's been posted. Back to you.
CHETRY: All right. Jeanne Meserve reports this morning. Thanks so much.
A little bit later this hour, 7:55 Eastern, Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr is going to be looking at the going concern over Somalia's rule as a training ground for terrorist. It's 17 and a half minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 20 minutes past the hour right now. Christine Romans joins us this morning minding your business. And were talking about airlines, a bit of a turnaround for the airlines.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: A bit of the turnaround. Usually, we're talking about airlines, we're talking about a new fee for you. But I don't have a new fee for you today. I have a surprise, if you will, some international air transport association, they expect global airlines to actually make money in 2010, which is a sharp reversal from big losses last year and losses frankly since 2007.
They have had to deal with this, they've put it a recession, a volcano, international incident of swine flu, terrorism, all of these things that they've had to worry about. But they've been able to turn it around because of better demand, better demand for business travelers too and it looks like they will be in the black for this year. U.S. air carriers expected to be in the black for the first time in a while. They lost a lot of money last year. They are expected to make maybe 1.9 or $2 billion this year. But Europe, not so much. They have a lot to worry about, including its own economic problems and the volcano, quite frankly.
CHETRY: So, it's interesting how quickly things can turnaround. I mean, you saw them down just as much as they are up this year. So, how are they going to do that in a year?
ROMANS: They would say it hasn't been quick. They would say that it's been pretty painful for four or five years. And over the past 15 years on average, they have lost money every single year when you average it out. It is a return in demand. It is an economic recovery starting to come back. Cargo is up, traffic is up. And, well, in this country at least, fees. They are finding all these new ways to get the money out of your pockets.
And I thought I would just recap some of them for you since you always give me such great e-mail and viewer response. We're talking about 15 to $25 for your first checked bag, number of spirits and its carry on bags, meals and snacks, 3 to $10. Don't forget you're pay for seat assignment, for some airlines, you pay for window or an aisle seat. You can pay it for up to board earlier, you can pay for all kinds of little things. And that is also helping revenue for the industry.
ROBERTS: Do you have a Romans numeral this morning?
ROMANS: I do. The number is one.
ROBERTS: I know what this is, you just like to be on one flight that left on time, doesn't get stuck on the runway, didn't have to divert, because it will start screaming babies on board.
ROMANS: Screaming babies?
ROBERTS: Two of them our yours.
ROMANS: I know, two of them are mine.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: They also kick the seat ahead of you. One, the only -- the number of days this summer, only one day you will not have a peak summer travel fee. CHETRY: Right. The whole summer is peak?
ROMANS: The whole summer is peak. This is my favorite or my least favorite depending on how you look at it fee for the airlines.
CHETRY: It's up for the fourth of July, so.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Fourth of July is the one day, that is not a peak. How can the whole summer be a peak? I still don't get it but...
ROBERTS: They saying, one is the loneliest number, right?
ROMANS: It's true.
ROBERTS: Thanks Christine.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead. We'll have talking about going inside the child's mind, autism, a disorder of that is on the rise. At least for diagnosis, the cause is still baffling doctors but they are learning more and more about the autistic brain. We're going to take you to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where they are doing some cutting edge research to try to figure out how to unlock this mysterious disorder. It's 24 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty six minutes past the hour. Your top stories just four minutes away. First though, an a.m. Original, something you'll only see only on American morning. For any family getting an autism diagnosis is devastating, but it's happening more and more. The CDC now says that nearly one out of every 100 children is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Well, now doctors are making some impressive advances understanding the brains of autistic children. In our special series, "Inside the Child's Mind," I got a first hand look at the research, it's being done at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that could one day help unlock the secrets of the autistic mind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good job.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: That is a big word.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is a big word.
CHETRY (voice-over): Eight-year-old Zander Pridy has no trouble reading big words.
(on camera) What are your favorite things to read?
ZANDER PRIDY, DIAGNOSED WITH ASPERGER'S SYNDROME: Well, I read books of science and watch this cool called of Nova (ph).
CHETRY (voice-over): Today, Zander is helping scientists makes some discoveries of their own.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, this is the meg machine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Zander has an autism spectrum disorder known as Asperger's Syndrome. Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are is using this meg machine, short for magnetoencephalography to study the brain waves of children like Zander with autism disorders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM ROBERTS, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Were trying to study how children's brain responds to stimulate the sounds towards the speech.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Hoping to unlock the mysteries of how an autistic brain works. Lead Researcher's Tim Roberts says, new clues are already emerging.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM ROBERTS: When you hear a sound, your brain responds. When the child with autism hears a sound, their brain responds too, a little bit later. So, what we're seeing is a fraction of a second, a split second delay in recognizing that round.
CHETRY (on camera): And then how is that play out and how children with autism learn and communicate?
TIM ROBERTS: What happens is as speech becomes more complicated, we have more and more sounds building up and these delays cascade on each other leading to a difficulty perceiving or recognizing the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY (voice-over): For Zander, those delays mean that too many sounds can be a real distraction, especially in the classroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TARA PRIDY, ZANDER'S MOTHER: His teacher has an amplification device she wears and he has a speaker on his desk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Tara Pridy says, her son also struggles with conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRIDY: He monologues, I'll get going. And, you know, someone has to tell him like, the person is not interested any more, they were interested by you're speaking for too long about the subject. So, we say "TMI", too much information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: It's an example of some of the difficulties that kids like Zander have in relating to their peers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT SCHULTZ, CENTER FOR AUTISM RESEARCH: Kids with autism really have a difficult time with social perception, understanding people's expressions, what does that mean? What are they thinking and feeling?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Robert Schultz is head of the hospital Center for Autism Research.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: So, this is going to be just like the actual MRI.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: He's introducing 13-year-old Garrett Hammond to a mock MRI to help him relax for the real test. Shultz is using MRIs to understand the biology of the autistic brain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: When we ask children with autism to do specific tasks that we know they have difficulty on, those areas of the brain which normally do the tasks are under active.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: In this scan of a typical brain, the red areas show activity in the parts of the brain that understand faces and expressions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: This is now an average of a group of boys with autism. And you can see, when they are looking at faces they have much less activity in red.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: This research won't answer the question what causes autism, but doctor Shultz says, it may lead to better diagnosis and earlier intervention.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: The ultimate goal is to understand at the level of cell, that the nerves cell in the brain, why are those cells functioning differently? And if we can understand why they are functioning differently, there's probably going to be a combination of treatments.
Tara Pridy: I really hope, it helps us understand some of his strengths and the ways that we can help him over any weaknesses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Zander has his own idea about what tests on his brain will reveal.
ZANDER: Genius, miss.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Well, one of the main goals of the research again is to figure out whether or not there's a biological marker, any indication in the brain that a child has autism. That way doctors can try to develop a standardized way to diagnose the disorder even before symptoms appear and start intervening even sooner.
They've done a number of studies that show the earlier the child gets intervention and gets into therapy and behavior analysis, the better the outcome. So that's what they are really trying to do is figure that out as early as they can.
ROBERTS: So many mysteries that still remain about the human brain.
CHETRY: It's fascinating.
ROBERTS: It's not like plumbing. It's not like a heart. You can look at it and say this is wrong here - so much plasticity and all of the different structures. It's pretty incredible.
CHETRY: It's quite a mystery and they are continuing to try to figure it out and also figure out ways to make it work better. We're taking a look at what early intervention can mean for children with autism as well as their families. That's tomorrow on "Inside the Child's Mind."
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that. Crossing the half hour now. That means it's time for this morning's top stories, tornado terror across the Midwest. The violent weather tearing a path of destruction across several states yesterday. The worst of it in Ohio where seven people were killed, including a five-year-old child.
In Illinois, another tornado damaged more than 30 homes and injured more than 50 people. One mayor there says it looked like "a war zone." CHETRY: Well, the man long suspected in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway will remain in a Peruvian jail for at least another week. That gives police more time to gather evidence after a young woman was found dead in Joran van der Sloot's hotel room last Wednesday. Police have now released video showing van der Sloot and the victim entering the hotel and hours later Van der Sloot leaving alone.
ROBERTS: And science is testing water samples at the University of South Florida confirm a second plume of oil beneath the gulf surface. BP denies the existence of even one of them. Scientists say they are concerned about the effect of the plumes on marine life and that is leaving fishermen angry and uncertain about the future.
Our Rob Marciano is live in Pensacola Beach this morning. He is in Florida along the panhandle. Rob, part of the argument is BP says there's no actual plume of raw crude oil, that a lot of oil was dispersed throughout the water column but it's on the way out. It's being degraded down. Scientists say well it's still going to be a problem for marine life.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It certainly is. And if it goes down as far as 3,000 feet, that water column, as you mentioned, has a lot of marine life, a lot of little young marine life that feed the rest of the food chain. So any sort of chemical or oil in that bay area is going to do some damage.
We here on Pensacola beaches for three or four days now, tar balls and globs of oil have been rolling up and down this beach. And you know, for a state that doesn't get a whole lot of economical benefit from the oil business, they feel like they are paying the price. And as one fisherman told me off camera, if you're not PO'd, you're not paying attention.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (on camera): Nobody wants to charter a boat?
No, we've had multiple, probably 35 cancellations already and we're getting three to four a day every day.
MARCIANO: (voice-over): Josh Forsythe and crew man Kevin Ross showed up around our cameras over the weekend with signs begging BP or anyone to hire them.
We decided to find out who they were and what the story was.
(on camera): So guys, good to see you again. Josh, Kevin. It's good to have the boat back in the water?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hope so.
MARCIANO (voice-over): This 22-year-old has grown up on these gulf waters.
(on camera): When did your father first take you out fishing? CAPT. JOSH FORSYTHE, "BONE COLLECTOR" CHARTERS: Probably still in the womb. But I've been on the waters since I was one or two years old, on a boat.
MARCIANO (voice-over): Now Captain Forsythe owns the "Bone Collector" but the boat and the family business have been out of water since first try at red snapper on the first day of the season.
FORSYTHE: The first thing we saw, we were actually looking in the prop wash (ph) and it all turned brown.
MARCIANO: These pictures were taken by the crew.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were about 13 miles southeast of the pass is where we first started noticing oil on the lines and we started picking up some snapper and about 120 foot of water that actually had oil on them.
MARCIANO: Oil on the lines and oil on the fish not good for the family business.
FORSYTHE: My grandfather was a mullet fisherman. It was started three generations ago and my father, he was first chief of police and ran a charter boat as well.
MARCIANO: But right now, the only business is cleaning up the oil and BP is in charge. Josh's father Ted Forsythe feels commercial vessels should be the first ones hired.
TED FORSYTHE, FATHER: You have licensed captains here begging, begging to go to work and we can't get anywhere.
MARCIANO (on camera): And you know the waters better than anybody?
TED FORSYTHE: Absolutely, fished these waters all of my life. All of my life.
MARCIANO: Frustrated sitting on your hands.
TED FORSYTHE: Absolutely frustrating. There are many emotions - frustration, anger, despair, uncertainty of the future.
MARCIANO (voice-over): But it's his son's future that worries him the most.
TED FORSYTHE: My son was smart enough and good enough to earn his captain's license at 18 years old. He's been running this boat for his fourth year.
MARCIANO: And it's been a bad year. After weeks of calling with no response, finally BP took the bait.
(on camera): Shortly after we put your son on the air, BP called to hire you?
FORSYTHE: Absolutely, 5:30 last night.
MARCIANO: Do you think that was a coincidence?
FORSYTHE: I don't believe in coincidences.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Well, we're happy to help if we did so indirectly. We're told by Ted that the BP schedulers promised to call today or tomorrow to schedule them for training. We reached out to BP several times to see their take is on who they hired first, commercial or recreational boaters. No word back from them yet.
This is day four of tar balls rolling up and down the beach. I did take a walk and there were less today than there were yesterday. But when we were on the boat just a mile offshore, and a few hundred yards that way, there was lots of oil. There was lots of oil still floating in the water. John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Certainly lots of oil out there in the gulf to wash ashore over the coming weeks too. Rob Marciano for us, Pensacola Beach. Rob, thanks.
CHETRY: It seems like they are still having trouble though figuring out how they hire these boats. We heard the same thing, the frustration echoed by the local fishermen in Louisiana saying we know these waters better than anyone else and our boats are sitting here.
ROBERTS: Do you think that they would hire just about anybody who had a boat given 200 feet of boom and tell them get out there and sap up this mess.
CHETRY: All right. Well, still ahead 36 minutes past the hour. Reynolds Wolf will be along with the morning's travel forecast. We have some extreme weather yesterday. More could be in store today. We'll be right back.
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(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: President Obama is heading to Michigan today. He's going to be giving a commencement speech at Kalamazoo Central High. The school actually won the president's "Race to the Top" challenge.
ROBERTS: As a start of a major education push by the administration this week, joining us now live from the White House is Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Mr. Secretary, good to talk to you this morning.
Let's talk first of all about Kalamazoo Central High and how it got picked. You had more than 1,000 applications. The president made the decision himself.
Why did he think that Kalamazoo deserved the honor? ARNE DUNCAN, EDUCATION SECRETARY: This is an extraordinary school and there are thousands and thousands of great high schools around the country who put their best foot forward. This school really stood out. The entire community rallied behind it. The entire community is behind education, helping every student to be successful. These students are graduating from high school, college and career ready and some of the stories of the individual students were simply remarkable.
So I'm so proud that the president is going there today, later this afternoon, to give the commencement in Kalamazoo tonight and he was really moved by the absolute commitment of both the adults and the students there to education. It's a remarkable high school.
CHETRY: Yes and it's very interesting. We're going to be looking at some of the images from the video essay. There you go. That they sent in, at Kalamazoo Central High.
Of course, it wasn't just the creativeness of the essay but what is it that Kalamazoo Central High is doing correctly that some other schools could possibly emulate?
DUNCAN: Well, there are so many great high schools out there but you want these kinds of experiences to be the norm. There's just an absolute culture of high expectations. Every adult there believes that every student can be successful. Students are helping each other is what I call positive peer pressure.
We talked about teenagers. We talked about negative peer pressure. There's such a thing as positive peer pressure. These young people are helping each other. It's not just the high school, the entire communities rally behind these students and we see that kind of collective commitment to education, great things happen and that's what exactly happened in Kalamazoo.
ROBERTS: You know, on that point where the entire community rallies behind the school, they have a very unique program there called the Promise, where anonymous donors have built up a pot of money that's big enough that every graduating student is offered four years tuition to an in-state public university.
So when you're picking Kalamazoo, are you kind of giving a nod to a group of students who already have a leg up? Are you sending the right message by picking a school like that as opposed to one that's pulled itself up by the boot straps really with the students and the teachers doing it together to Excel?
DUNCAN: Well, I think this entire community is pulling itself up by its boot straps and we want that kind of civic engagement. We want the business community, the philanthropic sector, non-profit, social service agencies, everybody rally together. That's what's happened here. These are students who are working very, very hard who are committed to getting great education and again the entire community rallied behind them. We would love to see that happened around the country. CHETRY: Now, you guys have gotten some kudos for "Race to the Top" and of course, it's not without its critics as well. There have been some teachers who say that the program relies on gimmicks that some of the stuff lacks real solutions that actually work in the classroom. And in fact, interestingly enough, there are some states that were unsuccessful in winning the federal money the first time around that they've decided not to bother seeking funding in the second round.
How do you respond to that?
DUNCAN: Well, I think the president's just own tremendous leadership and courage to face the Congress' support. We've seen just unprecedented reform around the country in the past 18 months. We have 48 states working together to create higher standards, college and career ready standards for every student. They're going to stop dummying down, stop lying to students. You've seen 30 states remove impediments to innovative schools and drive reform.
About 47 states have applied to "Race the Top." We had two award winners in the first round, Delaware and Tennessee. We'll probably have 10 to 15 winners in the second round. We have 36 applicants and the amount of change you're seeing around the country in the past 18 months is more than what was probably seen over the past decade. We couldn't be more proud of how hard folks are doing, how hard folks are working around the country to raise standards, to get great teachers and principals in underserved communities and to challenge the entire country to educate our way to a better economy. That's what this is about.
ROBERTS: Well, let's take a moment to look at the bigger picture then, Mr. Secretary because there are plenty of people who say that this "Race to the Top" program is a very good program but it certainly doesn't do enough when you're looking at some of the lingering problems out there.
Just reading an article this morning, it does nothing to solve the problem, assigning poor quality teachers to poor students who are desperately in need of the really good teachers, how America tolerates dramatic differences, for people (INAUDIBLE) because - if I could just lay this out - dramatic differences in (INAUDIBLE) funding in rich and poor school districts that no other advance nation would tolerate and the way that this nation will put students into debt that they may never be able to pay off to get a good college education, so how do you address all of that?
DUNCAN: So, we've done a number of things. As you know, we made an unprecedented investment to make college much more affordable, part of the Higher Education Act, an additional $36 billion in Pell grants over the next decade for disadvantaged students. So this has been the biggest investment in higher education since the G.I. bill. The president's provided huge leadership there. Actually, counter to what you said, a huge part of Race to the Top, the greatest number of points in this competition is around teachers and leaders and how we get the most talented, the most committed principals and teachers into historically underserved communities, be that intercity, urban or rural. So we're actually making a massive investment there.
Beyond Race to the Top, we have an additional $4 billion -- $4 billion in school improvement grants to go to the bottom five percent of schools in this country, trying to turn around those drop out (INAUDIBLE).
So none of these one thing by themselves is going to cure decades of ills, but there's an unprecedented commitment here for the country to get dramatically better. We're putting out resources in those places that we think could make a difference, around great teachers, around great principals, around making sure college is accessible and affordable.
And, again, we have to educate our way to a better economy, and we have to do that with a real sense of urgency.
ROBERTS: Good luck to you, because we're falling behind. No question about it.
Secretary Duncan, good to - good to see you this morning. Thanks so much.
CHETRY: Thanks.
DUNCAN: Thanks so much for the opportunity. Have a good day now.
CHETRY: Thanks for joining us. You too.
ROBERTS: Strong storms, fresh watches and warnings posted in parts of the Midwest this morning. Reynolds Wolf tracking the latest forecast. He's up after a quick break.
It's 46 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Well, it's now 49 minutes past the hour. Time for us to get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines.
Reynolds Wolf is in the Extreme Weather Center for us this morning and yesterday rough weather - tremendously bad weather across parts of the country's midsection. How about today?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. It looks like you may see more of the same. In fact, parts of the Central Plains, there may be people without power this morning, trying to get things going. They're not going to need the alarm clocks because Mother Nature's waking them up.
Take a look at this, strong, intense thunderstorms developing in parts of Kansas, and back in Oklahoma, people tuning in from - should I say (ph) Tulsa or Bartlesville, just north of Oklahoma City. You can see right here in the radar, some of the most intense storms driving your way to the east and southeast. Some of the areas that were shaded by the yellow box, where we have our severe thunderstorm watch, warnings will be in effect for the next hour or so.
The strongest right now, south of Fairfax, moving towards Tushka (ph) and also towards Cleveland. We're talking about large hail, damaging winds - winds, in fact, going up to 70 miles per hour. This is really rough stuff.
And there's a reason why we're seeing these intense storms this morning. We've got this area of low pressure right here. It's going to just pull its way to the east. And you'll notice also a little bit of a boundary, the warm front. The warm front (ph) is a line of two very distinct air masses. You're going to see those reflected in today's temperatures, where you have that intense heat, 90s in Dallas, 88 in Houston - all surging to the north.
On that other side of that boundary, you have temperatures that are a little bit cooler, say 84 degrees in Kansas City, then 72 in Minneapolis, but it's going to be right at that area where we have our best chance of rough weather. And, with that, we could have some delays right smack dab at the center of the U.S. In fact, some of the delays popping up on the screen, as we see very quickly, some places we're going to see some backups, New York metros, Philadelphia, back into Denver.
I would say in Dallas we could expect some, also Seattle and San Francisco, low clouds. We're looking at for about a 30 to - minutes to about an hour wait also in San Diego and Los Angeles. Not due to thunderstorms, but just low clouds.
So that's the latest. We got more coming up throughout the rest of the day on this weather forecast. Let's send it back to you in the studio in New York.
ROBERTS: Always good to have you on the case. Thanks so much, Reynolds.
WOLF: You bet, buddy.
ROBERTS: Fifty-one minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Fifty-three and a half minutes after the hour. We're back with the most News in the Morning.
In the last half hour, we told you about the weekend arrest of two Americans allegedly en route to Somalia for terror training. A specific case reflects a bigger picture of the growing concern that U.S. officials have about Somalia's potential role as a training ground for extremists.
Let's go to our Barbara Starr, live at the Pentagon. And I guess the big concern, Barbara, is that people who are bent on jihad could go to Somalia, get training, then come back here to the United States and launch attacks on the homeland.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, it really does underscore that issue. We know that Somalia has been a safe haven for terrorists for many years, but now, there is growing indication that terrorists inside Somalia are turning their attention to U.S. targets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): CNN has learned the U.S. now estimates as many as 200 foreign fighters may be in Somalia, fighters posing a possible threat to the U.S. after joining the Somali-based al Qaeda group known as al-Shabaab.
President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser says Somalia is part of the overall U.S. threat calculations.
JOHN BRENNAN, WHITE HOUSE COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: We will take the fight to al Qaeda and its extremist affiliates wherever they plot and train - in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and beyond.
STARR: Concern has risen steadily as Osama bin Laden call for fighters to go to Somalia.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: When you've got anybody going to a jihadi war zone, hooking up with an al Qaeda affiliate, getting training, that's a problem because these guys are going to get training and attack American or other western targets overseas.
STARR: Iraqis, Pakistanis, Afghans and Saudis are among those at training camps across Southern Somalia, a core group training others in bomb making and small arms. Any U.S. military action to stop this al Qaeda movement brings bitter memories of October, 1993, when 18 U.S. troops were killed in Mogadishu after two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down.
But the U.S. has approved plans to send commandoes into Somalia, part of a stepped up campaign already underway. Last September in Southern Somalia, U.S. troops swept in by helicopter and killed senior al Qaeda operative Saleh ali Saleh Nabhan, wanted for his role in attacks against U.S. embassies.
In 2007, AC-130 gunships fired against al Qaeda targets in Southern Somalia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: So if these fighters have targets and goals outside of Somalia, what is the U.S., the Obama administration doing about it? Well, sources tell us, look for more of these special operations raids, these commando raids inside Somalia if the U.S. can find the targets - John.
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon this morning. Barbara, good to see you. Thanks.
CHETRY: All right. And your top stories are coming your way in just two minutes.
Fifty-seven minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.
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