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American Morning
Sludge Reaches Florida Beaches; Tornado Kills Seven; California's $100 Million Primary; BP Funnels Some Oil, Still too Late for Florida Panhandle
Aired June 07, 2010 - 08:00 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 and thanks for being with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. It's Monday, June 7th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us because we have an awful lot to tell you about this morning.
And here are the big stories we'll be covering in the next 15 minutes.
Sucking up the oil. BP says it was able to funnel out around 441,000 gallons of oil on Saturday, but it looks like it may be too late now for the Florida panhandle. Sludge is washing up on the white sands there. We're live in the beach where the entire summer season may now be slipping away.
CHETRY: A string of powerful thunderstorms kicking up tornadoes across several states. Seven were killed in Ohio, a nuclear power plant was shut down in Michigan, and homes destroyed in Illinois.
And now, this morning, a new round of watches and warnings to tell you about. A full look at the violent storms is just ahead.
ROBERTS: And longtime White House reporter, Helen Thomas, feeling the heat for saying that Israel should, quote, "get the hell out of Palestine." Thomas says she regrets her remarks but that has not stopped calls for her to resign or be fired.
CHETRY: And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. Go to CNN.com/amFIX.
ROBERTS: First, though, a disaster spreading both ways this morning. We've got a live look for you this morning, a mile under water.
Oil is still bubbling out from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. BP claims it's only about as half as bad as it was on Friday when they put that so-called top cap in place. But no one knows for sure whether that's just the company line.
CHETRY: The spill is now affecting every state bordering the Gulf of Mexico, dead, oiled birds have been found reported for the first time in Texas now and there may be even more danger lurking under water. Scientists say they've discovered a second oil plume in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Mexico.
And that's more bad news for Florida which is now starting to see the first signs of the oil slick. The governor is saying they, quote, "as ready as we can be" with 250,000 feet of boom now surrounding the shorelines.
And Admiral Thad Allen, the president's point man, went after BP for saying it was pleased with the progress over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": The president says he is furious about this. What is Admiral Allen about this?
ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: I think everybody is anguished over this. You know, I've been working on the water for 39 years. This is -- this is -- this is completely distressing and it's very frustrating because the spill has dissipated across southern Louisiana, clear to Port St. Joe, Florida. It's like an insidious enemy that just keeps attacking in different places. It's going to be there for a while.
But we have to redouble our efforts, we have to be right on the game, and we have to support local folks there. I've been dealing with the governors, the mayors, the parish presidents. You know, we all understand how frustrating this has been. We just have to stay on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And Jim Acosta is in one new place where the oil appears to be attacking today. He's along the panhandle. He's in Destin, Florida.
And, Jim, anybody who's been down there to that part of the country knows how beautiful those beaches are, and just how badly they could be soiled by that oil coming ashore.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. And here's an example of what we're talking about here. We picked up this tar gunk. It washed on to this piece of bark yesterday over on the Gulf Islands National Seashore near Pensacola.
And I don't want to give the impression that we just found a small amount. We found a whole football field of sand littered with these tar balls, tar paddies up and down one stretch of beach. We're not seeing as much of it down where we are here in Destin, about 50 miles down the coast. But more may be coming and Florida officials fear it's just a matter of time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMES HUGHES, FLORIDA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION DEPT.: We're in between Big Lagoon State Park right here to our right.
ACOSTA (voice-over): On the inter-coastal waterway and 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 this remote each on the Gulf Islands National Seashore, brown foam and bands of oil sheen are closing in. And dotting the pristine sand: tar balls, lots of them. This blue heron walked right through them.
(on camera): One thing we've noticed on this remote beach outside of Pensacola is that the tar balls here are actually darker in color than the ones found in Alabama. And these tar balls, these globs 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 (voice-over): Eric Schulze came to Pensacola to visit friends who were life-long residents here. They all worry BP will never be able to fully restore this majestic coastline.
ALLISON CRAMER, PENSACOLA RESIDENT: BP keeps saying that they're going to, you know, pay every legitimate claim. How do you, when you take away all of this and you can't get it back overnight. I mean, it could be years.
ACOSTA (on camera): How do you pay that back?
CRAMER: Yes. How do you put a price tag on that?
ACOSTA (voice-over): By air, right above these beaches and on the ground, state environmental officials are on the lookout for any traces of the spill. This mobile command post in Destin is set up like a mini-war room, tracking the oil slow-motion assault on a three- county stretch of the panhandle.
(on camera): That's a lot of ground to cover.
GRAY BEVIS, CHIEF INVESTIGATOR, FLA. DIV. OF WILDLIFE: It truly is. But we've got a lot of hard chargers. And people are dedicated to this fight.
ACOSTA (voice-over): But the experts say that fight will be hard to win. There's not enough containment equipment to protect white sand beaches and turquoise waters that are so awe inspiring they lure wedding parties to these shores weekend after weekend.
JAMES ESTES, DESTIN RESIDENT: I'll probably cry the moment I see it.
ACOSTA: James Estes has played on Destin's beaches since he was in diapers.
ESTES: Still beautiful, isn't it?
ACOSTA: The oil moves in, he's considering moving away, as in to another state.
ESTES: I've gone places in my life but I always come back here because this is where my heart is. And these white sand beaches raise me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, Florida environmental officials say these beaches are still safe to use. They are urging tourists not to abandon their travel plans to come down here and there are still just hundreds and hundreds of miles of this beautiful pristine white sand to enjoy. But ask any local around here and they will tell you these beaches are not as crowded as they should be this time of year -- John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: A few people in the water there, but not usually what you see.
Jim Acosta for us in Destin -- beautiful place. Thanks, Jim.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: Well, at least seven people are dead after a string of violent tornadoes and thunderstorms. One of the funnel clouds in Illinois was caught on camera. It shows debris flying everywhere in its path. Seven people were killed by another tornado that touched down in Ohio, including a 5-year-old child.
ROBERTS: Dozens of homes were either damaged or destroyed. The damage in Michigan is even forcing a nuclear power plant to shut down briefly.
One mayor in Illinois is not mincing words about the damage to his town.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR JIMMIE LANSFORD, STREATOR, ILLINOIS: It does look like a war zone. If you've seen any pictures where they have went in with the clustered bombs to clear out sites in Vietnam, for example, that's where these trees are snapped off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Let's bring in Reynolds Wolf right now in the extreme weather center. So, we take a look at just some of those pictures -- unbelievable, a lot of damage, and seven people killed in that extreme weather yesterday.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, hard to believe.
You know, you mentioned earlier this morning, Kyra, about how many of the -- Kiran, rather -- how many of the storms popped up by late in the afternoon and into the evening, where people didn't have the visibility. They didn't have the benefit of seeing these storms develop and move in their direction. So, if they didn't have, say, a weather radio or they weren't tuned in to a local television affiliate to warn them, they had no idea the storms are coming. So, certainly, they didn't have a lot of time to take cover.
Let's go right to show you what's happening this morning. We have another round of strong storms that are developing across parts of the Central Plains. Wichita has been under the gun. Same deal with Bartlesville, just north of Oklahoma City.
What we're going to be seeing is the potential of more of these storms develop later on in the day. These storms are packing not only some large hail and some heavy rainfall, but also 70-mile-per-hour gusts. We're talking tropical storm force winds and you see some smack-dab at the middle of the Central Plains, areas shaded in red, that's going to be your weather bull's eye for the rest of the day.
OK. John and Kiran, it looks like it could be a very busy day. And, of course, we'll keep you up to speed with the very latest. Let's send it back to you.
ROBERTS: Reynolds, thanks so much for that.
WOLF: You bet guys.
ROBERTS: Well, she has covered the White House for decades -- all the way back to the Kennedy administration. But this morning, veteran journalist Helen Thomas is the story, under fire for remarks that she made about Israel in this interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any comments on Israel? (INAUDIBLE)
HELEN THOMAS, HEARST NEWSPAPERS COLUMNIST: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ooh. Any better comments on Israel?
THOMAS: Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German. It's not Poland.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, where should they go? What should they do?
THOMAS: They go home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is home?
THOMAS: Poland, Germany.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, the Jews should go back to Poland and Germany.
THOMAS: And America and everywhere else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, former White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, is among those calling for Thomas to be resigned or be fired. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, FMR. WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: She has crossed all lines, all boundaries, and has said something that is just horrific. Can you imagine the uproar there would be if somebody said that all blacks need to leave America and go home to Africa? They would have already lost their jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, Thomas' remark led a Bethesda high school to drop her as a commencement speaker and she's also been dropped by her speaking agency as well.
ROBERTS: Well, a containment cap is offering a little bit of hope even as oil continues to spew into the Gulf of Mexico. So, what's next? And will this actually work? We'll talk with an expert coming right up.
It's nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Live pictures from the ocean floor there. And you can see the top of that blowout preventer -- it's got a cap on top of it. BP says it's collecting a lot of oil, maybe anywhere between 80 to -- 50 percent to 80 percent of the amount of oil that's coming out there. They hope to be closing some vents in that cap a little later on to capture even more of that oil.
So, is this all going to work? Not sure at this point.
So, let's turn to the experts this morning.
Don Van Nieuwenhuise is Professor of Petroleum Geoscience at the University of Houston. We've got him on before. He joins us again.
It's great to see you, Don. So, what do you think of the capping operations so far? Does it look like it's going to be a success?
DON VAN NIEUWENHUISE, PROF. OF PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCE, UNIV. OF HOUSTON: Right now, it looks it could be extremely successful. What we've heard most recently is that the flow rate is 10,500 barrels. But my guess is they may have higher numbers to report as soon as they report again because they ramped up the volume pretty quickly on Friday.
And another thing, they have another trick up their sleeves, so to speak, is the two hydraulic lines that they used to pump mud into the well board during the kill operation -- the top kill approach. Those things could actually be reversed in flow and they could produce an additional 5,000 barrels.
ROBERTS: Right. So, there's anywhere between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels flowing out of that blowout preventer every day. That's the latest estimate. So, they're getting any where between 50 percent and 80 percent.
Now, they are leaving the vents open because they don't want those hydrate crystals to form and hope to slowly close those up. They also don't want it to be so much pressure that they blow the cap back off.
How much of the success of this operation relies on them being able to close those vents?
VAN NIEUWENHUISE: Well, I think, if they close those, they'll be able to capture a larger and larger percentage of the flow actually. And one of the issues, of course, is that they need to pull on that pipe as slow as possible so that they don't overdraw the oil and bring some water in with it. And that's why they're ramping up the production rates carefully and slowly, because they do not want to pull water in, because that would increase the chance of them having cluterate (ph) crystals form.
ROBERTS: The national incident commander, Admiral Thad Allen, said yesterday that he expects, even if they get these kill wells drilled and can manage to cut off the flow of oil, that we're going to be with this probably through the fall. But how confident are you, Don, that these kill wells are going to work?
VAN NIEUWENHUISE: I am extremely confident that they should be able to work with these kill wells and actually have a termination of the flow with that. I believe that, you know, they have got two kill wells. They should be able to do it with one. But they have a backup one just in case.
ROBERTS: Right.
VAN NIEUWENHUISE: So, I'm very confident that that will work.
ROBERTS: Because, you know -- and, you know, this is being talked about. I guess there have been a lot of articles written about it. It's all sort of the rage on the Internet. People are going back.
And we found what we believe is some propaganda video here from the Soviets, either late 60s or early 70s. We haven't been able to individually verify. But it certainly looks authentic of the Soviets killing a runaway gas well in 1966 by using a nuclear weapon. And now, people are talking about, well, if nothing else works, might you use a nuclear weapon to close off the video. Let's just listen to a little bit of this video. At the moment, we understand, according to this video at least, that they pulled the trigger on the nuclear explosion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The explosion is only seconds away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And so, immediately after the explosion, that plume of gas which had been raging for three years finally diminished. They said that they collapsed the strata around the bore hole and finally shut off that well. Is that something that anybody could really even conceive of doing in this case?
VAN NIEUWENHUISE: It actually could work but, you have to realize, it would probably take at least six months to a year to actually figure out how to implement that. Because, you are going to have to place a nuclear device, actually under the ocean floor. You are going to create a considerable amount of havoc on the surface. And, if you don't get the nuclear device far enough into the ground, you are going to have radioactive material all over the Gulf of Mexico.
ROBERTS: So, there are some scientists saying, hey, this might be a good idea but you would caution against that?
NIEUWENHUISE: As I said, it would work. It would take a long time to plan to do it properly. I think the kill wells will be completely finished by the time they could actually plan to do something like this.
ROBERTS: But what happens if the kill wells don't work? And there is a chance of that, because you are drilling down 18,000 feet, an area where nothing has ever been tried like that before?
NIEUWENHUISE: Well, you know, it hasn't been done at 5,000 feet of water. But once you get under the surface, there have been kill wells drilled at 18,000 feet below the surface. And so when you get to that depth, it really doesn't matter that you have that water column on top of you. So, this has really been done before at these depths of the earth, just not at 5,000 feet of water. But at this point in time, they are drilling through rock. And so the water column is really not important.
ROBERTS: So, you would put faith in the kill well before bringing out the nuclear option?
NIEUWENHUISE: Absolutely. I think they could probably drill five kill wells before they could do the nuclear option properly.
ROBERTS: All right. Don Van Nieuwenhuise, good to talk to you this morning, as always, thanks for joining us, appreciate it.
NIEUWENHUISE: Thank you.
ROBERTS: All right. And don't miss a special night of coverage on the Gulf oil leak. Nine o'clock eastern, Director James Cameron, who has done extensive work with robot submarines and underwater filming in his movies is going to be joining our Larry King. His solution to the Gulf oil problem leak, the Gulf oil leak rather, and why he thinks that BP doesn't want to hear from him.
Then, at 10:00 Eastern, Anderson Cooper live from the Gulf speaking to the survivors of the deep water horizon explosion. How they got off the rig alive. Could it have been stopped, because there were some warning signs before the well hit boil. All of that tonight here on CNN -- Kiran.
CHETRY: I wish that were the case. Also, still ahead, airlines raising fees, tacking on fees, raising fares just to survive. Right? Well, not necessarily. We will explain coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning, 21 minutes past the hour right now. Time for "Minding Your Business." We are watching your money. The Dow futures in positive territory despite a selloff in Asia. Japan's Nikkei closed down 3.5 percent. That is its worst percentage lost this year. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 2 percent. Concerns over Hungary's debt prices helped fuel the decline in Asia.
ROBERTS: Well, talk about a turnaround for the world's airlines. The International Air Transport Association says, the industry expects to post a $2.5 billion profit in 2010. That's after a nearly $10 billion loss last year. Renewed surge in demand for air travel is helping fuel the comeback, not to mention surcharges for just about everything under the sun.
CHETRY: This afternoon, Apple is expected to unveil its new iPhone at a conference in San Francisco. Insiders say it will have a flatter shell, dual cameras, one of course for videoconferencing. You can Skype from this new one. And also a higher resolution display.
ROBERTS: All right. Move over Italy, if you thought the Leaning Tower of Pisa was wild, check out the Capital Gate building in the United Arab Emirates. It is now the world's furthest leaning tower, according to the folks at the Guinness World Records. Now, what is most amazing about it, is it is supposed to be that way. It is not that they built it on sand and it started to shift. The 35-storey building was engineered with an 18-degree slope. That's nearly five times greater than Italy's naturally tilting Leaning Tower of Pisa.
CHETRY: Pretty cool. Well, still ahead we are going inside the child's mind, understanding how the autistic brain works and cutting edge research that could help in the future figure out which children are most at risk and get them into therapy soon.
ROBERTS: Big news on the terror front. Two suspected terrorists from New Jersey set their sights on American troops. Peter Bergen, our CNN National Security Analyst, coming up with "The Threat From Terror Here At Home".
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: "Top Stories" just minutes away now. But first, an "A.M. Original.", something that you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. For any family getting an autism diagnosis can be devastating. But, it is happening more and more. Centers for Disease Control now says nearly 1 out of every 100 children is being diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. CHETRY: And now doctors are making some impressive advances trying to understand the brains of autistic children. In our special series, "Inside The Child's Mind", I got a firsthand look at the research that's being done at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that could one day help unlock the secrets of the autistic minds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's a big word.
CHETRY (voice-over): 8-year-old Zander Pridy has no trouble reading big words.
CHETRY (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 show called nova.
CHETRY (voice-over): Today, Zander is helping scientists make some discoveries of their own. Zander has an autism spectrum disorder known as Asperger's syndrome. Researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are using this mag-machine, short for magneto- encephalography, to study the brainwaves of children like Zander with autism disorders.
TIM ROBERTS, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: We are trying to study how the children's brain responds to stimulus, to sounds, to words, to speech.
CHETRY: Hoping to unlock the mysteries of how an autistic brain works. Lead researcher, Tim Roberts, says, new clues are already emerging.
ROBERTS: When you hear a sound, your brain responds. When the child with autism hears a sound, their brain responds too, but a little bit later. So what we are seeing is a fraction of a second, a split second delay in recognizing that sound.
CHETRY (on camera): And then how does that play out in how children with autism learn and communicate?
ROBERTS: Well, 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 words.
CHETRY (voice-over): For Zander, those delays mean that too many sounds can be a real distraction, especially in the classroom.
TARA PRIDY, ZANDER'S MOTHER: His teacher has an amplification device she wears. And he has a speaker on his desk.
CHETRY: Tara Pridy says her son also struggles with conversation.
PRIDY: He will monologue, he will get going and someone has to tell him, the person is not interested anymore. They were interested but you are speaking for too long about this subject. So we say, TMI, too much information.
CHETRY: It is an example of some of the difficulties that kids like Zander have in relating to their peers.
ROBERT SCHULTZ, HEAD, CENTER FOR AUTISM RESEARCH: Kids with autism have a difficult time with social perception, understanding people's expression, what does that mean? What are they thinking and feeling?
CHETRY: Robert Schultz is head of the hospital's Center for Autism Research. He is introducing 13-year-old Garrett Hannon to a mock MRI to help him relax for the real test. Schultz is using MRIs to understand the biology of the autistic brain.
SCHULTZ: When we ask children with autism to do specific tests that we normally have difficulty on, those areas of the brain which normally do those tests are underactive.
CHETRY: In this scan of a typical brain, the red areas show activity in the parts of the brain that understand faces and expressions.
SCHULTZ: This is now an average of a group of boys with autism. You can see, when they are looking at faces, they have much less activity in red.
CHETRY: This research won't answer the question, what causes autism but Dr. Schultz says it may lead to better diagnosis and earlier intervention.
SCHULTZ: The ultimate goal is to understand at the level of the cell, the nerve cell in the brain, why are those cells functioning differently. If we can understand why they are functioning differently, there is probably going to be a combination of treatment.
PRIDY: I really hope it helps us understand some of his strength and the ways that we can help him over any weaknesses.
CHETRY: Zander has his own idea about what tests on his brain will reveal.
CHETRY (on camera): So when they looked at your brain, with the mag machine, what did they see?
PRIDY: Geniusness.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Then again, one of the goals of the research is to figure out if there is a biological mark or any indication in the brain that a child has autism and that way doctors can try to develop a standardized way to diagnose the disorder even before symptoms appear. They have found in extensive research, the sooner they get kids into therapy and the sooner they start with the behavioral analysis, ABA as they call it, the better outcomes that they usually find.
ROBERTS: Taking advantage of the plasticity of the young brain, trying to shape it in different ways. Cute kid, too.
CHETRY: And coming up in our second part of the series, we will examine what early intervention can mean for children with autism and their families. That's "Inside the Child's Mind" tomorrow here on the Most News in the Morning.
ROBERTS: We are crossing the half hour, which means it is time for this morning's top stories.
New surveillance video links Joran Van Der Sloot to a young woman murdered in Peru. Police says the video shows Van Der Sloot and the 21-year-old victim entering his hotel room. Van Der Sloot was previously a suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba. He was never charged for that. The Alabama teen has never been found.
CHETRY: This morning, more severe thunderstorm watches and warnings in both Kansas and Oklahoma after a string of deadly weekend storms. In Ohio, seven people were killed from one tornado. Dozens of people were injured in Illinois as well as Michigan. The storms also destroyed several homes and forced a nuclear power plant in Michigan to shut down.
ROBERTS: And you are looking live a mile under water, oil and gas still gushing from the well at the bottom of the gulf of Mexico 49 days and counting now. This doesn't look like success but BP is saying that efforts to cap the leak may have cut the flow in half based on how much the government says is coming out.
CHETRY: Along with the oil, a sense of helplessness is spreading across the Gulf of Mexico. Many people who have fished these waters, a trade passed down for generations in some cases, are now worried it could be over for good.
ROBERTS: Our John Zarrella went out with oyster men for what could be one of the final catches in a very long time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): John, Kiran, I'm on Apalachicola Bay. The oil isn't here yet but these people fear it is coming, and their way of life may be threatened.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Sunday on Apalachicola Bay, for the oystermen here, it is not a day of rest. It can't be. Not now. They are racing against tides and winds, racing to beat the oncoming oil.
VICTOR CAUSEY, OYSTERMAN: I keep telling them, it's getting closer and closer.
ZARRELLA (on camera): So are you trying to get as much done as you can now before it gets here?
CAUSEY: Yes, sir, get as many as I can until it gets here.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Victor Causey has been working the bay for years. The work is back breaking. He may have enough oysters to get 10 or 15 60-pound bags by days end. In the oil makes the Bay, Causey he says, it is over.
CAUSEY: If it comes in here, it will kill it.
ZARRELLA: Steven Petersen works with his dad, Lawrence, who has been oysters in these waters for 30 years. Steven only works weekends for extra money. But for his dad, this is all he knows.
ZARRELLA (on camera): What about you? If you're not out on this water doing this, are you going to be able to make it?
LAWRENCE PETERSON, OYSTERMAN: I doubt it.
ZARRELLA: What would you do?
PETERSON: I don't know. There is nothing here to do, really.
ZARRELLA: Many of these oystermen have already gotten $5,000 checks from BP, a monthly advance on any oil or any losses. Some locals were out on the water looking for any signs of oil. Bp is paying them, they told us. It's hard eking out a living here, and now this, says Sandra Powell.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is what we want to do. We choose to do this. It is not something we have to do. We want to do it. We love it. This is what we are happy with.
ZARRELLA (on camera): And now it is threatened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is more than threatened, yes, it is. It's really just devastating for all of us.
ZARRELLA: Oystering alone is an $80 million a year industry. Throw in shrimping, crabbing and fishing, if all that is shut down, there won't be much left. John, Kiran?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Imagine what those people will do if that happens? John Zarrella, thanks so much.
Two New Jersey men arrested on terror charges. Peter Bergen, our CNN national security analyst coming right up. It's 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back. In just a couple of hours, two Americans will be in court to face terrorism charges. They were arrested over the weekend at New York's JFK airport before they could leave the country. CHETRY: Yes, and authorities had the two men under surveillance for years. They say they were headed for terror training in Somalia. Let's bring in CNN's national security analyst Peter Bergen live from Washington. Welcome, Peter.
Apparently, this wasn't the first time they attempted to leave the country for terror training. One of the two men, Carlos Almonte, was allegedly quoted saying, "I was born here, raised here, and I just want the troops to come home safely and cozily in caskets." What did the FBI learn about how they became radicalized and what they had planned?
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They have been the subject of investigation since 2006. And in the 17-page indictment against them, there is a great deal of information, but it doesn't really help their case, not only the quote that you just mentioned but the other person who has been indicted saying that if he was prompted by a leader in Somalia to go back to the United States to do some kind of terrorist action, he would.
So these guys over the period of the last several years certainly undertaking a number of actions, for instance, buying camping equipment or tactical equipment used for fighting in the war zone and also making incriminating statements to investigators. ROBERTS: In 2007, they went to Jordan they went to Jordan, they tried to get into Iraq because they wanted to join jihadists there. They couldn't get in. They were turned back. And they went over on the way to Somalia. They didn't have any contacts there. They didn't speak the language. How much of a threat were they, really, do you think?
BERGEN: They are amateurs until they do something that's dangerous. As we saw with Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomber, if he succeeded, he wouldn't be an amateur.
So I agree with you, John, in the sense that these guys weren't top tier. In the indictment, it is clear that they were actually did some interviews with law enforcement along the way. So if they had been smarter, they would have realized they were the subject of law enforcement interest.
However, you don't have to be a brain surgeon to do a terrorist attack necessarily. Certainly these guys, by their own statements, were planning to go to Somalia to get training and willing to come back to the United States to do damage.
CHETRY: And it seems to be part of a disturbing trend, as our Jeanne Meserve alluded to in the last hour, 14 such cases of homegrown terror that police have talked about and many more that perhaps the indictments have not yet been unsealed.
And she said the common link seemed to be this radicalization over the Internet. In your opinion, how big of a problem is this in the United States?
BERGEN: It is a much bigger problem than it was two years ago. Kiran, if we had had this conversation, I and I think many others would have said that the United States was pretty resistant to these kind of ideas, the American Muslim community well-integrated, generally a higher income, better educated than most Americans on average.
But we've seen so many of these cases. I mean, the Somali case, now, two dozen Americans who have gone to Somalia, not all of them Somalis, to participate in the jihad. We have had a number of people attacking U.S. military bases, Ft. Dix, New Jersey, a military recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas, Major Nidal Hasan, the list goes on and on.
So I think the idea that the United States was going to be resistant to this has turned out not to be the case. We have seen a lot of cases in the last 18 months of this kind.
ROBERTS: This duo, Peter, was said to be listening to tapes from Osama bin Laden but also Anwar al-Awlaki, the American cleric who now is believed to be hiding out in Yemen. How influential is he becoming? Is he potentially becoming the new bin-Laden?
BERGEN: According to a top FBI official that I've been talking to, they are very, very concerned about him. He is an American that grew up in New Mexico. He was at a mosque in Virginia during the 9/11 time period. He speaks excellent English.
There is no indication he has actually been involved in planning an actual operation, it seems, as yet, although, he certainly seems to be encouraging them. He is also, John, as you know, the subject of a shoot to kill order. He is a big problem.
CHETRY: Well, we are going to continue to follow this case and see what they learn, if anything else, about these two suspects. Peter Bergen for us, national security analyst, thanks so much.
BERGEN: Thank you.
CHETRY: Still ahead, we will check out the latest on the extreme weather, clusters of thunderstorms and they are headed east. Reynolds Wolf will have the latest. It's 42 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: A beautiful shot of Cleveland this morning; Cleveland, Ohio partly cloudy, 61 degrees, high of 70 degrees today as traffic rolls along in Cleveland.
ROBERTS: A beautiful day to get back to work in Cleveland there.
Reynolds Wolf, checking out the weather across the rest of the country and unfortunately, we had some really horrible weather yesterday and we've got a little bit more today.
WOLF: Absolutely. You know most, much of the focus yesterday was south of the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley. Today, it's mainly the Central Plain that is the bull's eye for the rough weather. And it's kind of hard to miss right now on radar. You can see it's lined up just north of Oklahoma City at this time.
And also, you are noticing a bit of a box that has popped up. That box is a severe thunderstorm watch that's going to be in effect over the next couple of hours. And with that, you can expect a couple of things: heavy rainfall, possibly some large hail and then some damaging winds. Some wind gusts going up here to around 70 miles a hour. That's right at tropical storm force winds.
So again, a very rough stuff to say the least and we might see more of that into the afternoon because you have all the components there. You've got the warm, muggy air coming in from the south, the daytime heating which will be very high going up to the 90s, some place heating up to a 100. And this area of low pressure is going to be a lifting mechanism which is going to help some of this pop.
Good chance of strong storms in parts of the Central Rockies back into portions of the Central Plains and then even into north of the Show-Me State of Missouri and the south of -- well, actually right along the border there in Iowa. So it could be very rough.
Also something to mentioned, flash flooding may be an issue in parts of the Midwest and Central Plains so keep that in mind. So drivers might have some issues. What about if you're flying?
Well, unfortunately you might have some issues too in places like New York, all your metros: Philadelphia and Miami, and Orlando due to thunderstorms. Denver, low clouds and fog and you might throw in a thunderstorm near too which will give you a little delay anywhere from 30 minutes to maybe up to an hour. Same deal in Seattle and San Francisco and Los Angeles and San Diego; mainly low clouds and fog can be the big culprit there.
That is a quick snapshot of your forecast across the nation, easy for me to say. And we'll have more updates coming up throughout the morning and more about that severe weather potential.
Let's send it back to you in New York.
CHETRY: All right, Reynolds Wolf for us. Thanks so much.
WOLF: You bet.
CHETRY: Well, for the first time since filing for divorce after discovering her husband cheated, Oscar winner Sandra Bullock is back. And she's having a little bit of fun.
Last night on MTV and Movie Video Awards, Bullock locked lips with Scarlet Johansen, the wife of her co-star from the "Proposal" Ryan Reynolds. Bullock and Reynolds were up for the Best Kiss Award.
Since Reynolds couldn't be there, his famous wife took his place. Bullock also spoke about the tabloid attention she's gotten over her breakup with estranged husband, Jesse James.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SANDRA BULLOCK, OSCAR-WINNING ACTRESS: Can we please go back to normal because therapy is really expensive. Go back to making fun of me. I don't care. It's time to get back to normal.
And I think when we all go to bed tonight, we should think about all the people that are being affected in the Gulf and just say a prayer for them and hope that everything is going to be ok.
Good night. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Bullock was there to accept the MTV's Generation Award. And there is Betty White also. See, right?
ROBERTS: Betty White is everywhere.
CHETRY: I know and she just, I mean, you know, for so long, she wasn't around and now, she is everywhere.
ROBERTS: I love her.
CHETRY: So congrats to Sandra Bullock as well. It hasn't been an easy time for her, bittersweet. She just adopted a little baby as well from the New Orleans area.
ROBERTS: She did, maybe another one on the way too, right?
CHETRY: Yes, perhaps.
ROBERTS: I don't know who I love more, Sandra Bullock or Betty White? It's a toss up.
CHETRY: And then throw a Scarlet Johansen in there and then you are really confused.
ROBERTS: She's too young.
And there's outrage from some in the gay community over Rush Limbaugh's wedding, not because he got married, but because hot legend Elton John sang at Limbaugh's wedding reception. John hasn't said why he chose to perform but some reports indicated it could have been for the money. He made $1 million, according to some reports, for that gig.
CHETRY: Good work if you can get it.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: Well, so what's causing more frequent headaches in high schoolers, your "AM House Call" next.
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ROBERTS: It's 52 minutes after the hour; time for your "A.M. House Call" and stories about your health. A German study says high school students who mix alcohol and cigarettes are more likely to experience migraine and tension headaches.
CHETRY: That's a no-brainer.
ROBERTS: It's serves you right, it serves you right. Researchers also found teenagers who drank coffee and are less active tend to have more migraines. Ok, that one, all right that one is legitimate. But you know --
CHETRY: Yes, if you drink a lot and smoke is cigarettes, you might get a headache. Wow, a shocker there.
ROBERTS: Yes, here we go, stay off -- stay off the cigarettes and the alcohol, two good tips from your Uncle John here.
CHETRY: There we go.
Well, a good sleep may be the key to improving your child's intelligence by the way. Researchers say that preschoolers who have regular bedtime tend to score better in language, reading and math assessments. They also found they have much happier parents.
They also found that sleep -- I was joking with that one but you know it's true -- sleep habits having a regular bedtime was the most consistent predictor of positive developmental outcome.
ROBERTS: All right, now here is one the high school students will really want to hear and college students as well and maybe a few adults.
Too much time on Twitter, Facebook and the Internet could be taking a toll on you. Some experts tells the "New York Times" that technology causes people to become impatient, forgetful and if it were possible even more narcissistic.
One reason they say that everything is saved from meaningless e- mails to angry instant messages. And that makes it hard for some people to just let go.
CHETRY: There you go. That was a whole medical -- a little medical segment of common sense package in there.
ROBERTS: That was from the medical journal, duh.
CHETRY: There you go.
ROBERTS: Its true report, honey but we can see. It's 54 minutes after the hour.
California Republicans make history record for spending in a state primary. And you'll never guess who was involved.
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CHETRY: Welcome back. Three minutes to the top of the hour.
Californians will be headed to the polls tomorrow. They're going to be picking a Republican candidate for governor. And the state experienced so much economic pain the campaigns have already spent tens of millions of dollars, in fact, it set an all-time record.
ROBERTS: Amazing.
It seems that no one in the state can escape the ads. And as our Jessica Yellin reports, voters are finding the whole process is just a little hard to swallow.
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JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Meg Whitman is formidable. Former e-Bay CEO, self-made billionaire, she has invested $70 million of her own fortune in her campaign to be California's governor.
MEG WHITMAN, CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I just refuse to believe that California cannot be better than it is. We can make the Golden State golden again.
YELLIN: Add in spending by state insurance commissioner, Steve Poizner, and the avalanche of cash tops $100 million. That's a new record for spending in a state primary.
So what does that look like.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: You like Arnold.
WHITMAN: You will love Meg Whitman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Steve Poizner says that California is heading over a cliff. Guess who was driving when it happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whitman's entire fortune is intertwined with Goldman Sachs. She helped manage Goldman and received sweetheart stock deals so unethical they were outlawed.
YELLIN: Voters just can't get away from the ads.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have all heard it. We are tired of it. Let's get on with the election.
YELLIN: It is not all attack ads. They have debated what to do about the state's $19 billion budget deficit, 12.6 percent unemployment and approximately 2.6 million illegal immigrants. In these closing days, second-place Poizner has tried to put Whitman on the defensive over immigration.
STEVE POIZNER, GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE, CALIFORNIA: I am the one who supports the Arizona immigration law. I'm the one who's going to take tough stands on stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into California. She is not.
YELLIN: She stepped up her get-tough language but refused to embrace the controversial Arizona law.
WHITMAN: My plan in California I think is better suited for California.
YELLIN: -- no doubt with an eye on the state's Latino general election voters. One issue that won't die for Whitman -- why is she spending all that money? She has been dogged by union-backed protesters calling her Queen Meg trying to buy democracy.
That kind of money could have hired more than 700 police officers, month than 750 teachers. Does that bother you?
WHITMAN: Well, you know, what I am doing is running for governor of California so I can turn this state around. What I need to do is every voter I want to understand where I stand, what I want to do to turn this state around. That's what it costs.
YELLIN: She said she'll spend up to $150 million to win the seat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Jessica Yellin reporting for us this morning.
And continue the conversation on today's stories. Go to our blog at cnn.com/amFix.
That will wrap it up for us today. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you back here again bright and early tomorrow.
CHETRY: Sure will. Meantime the news continues, "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now.
