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American Morning
Gulf Oil Disaster: Drilling Ban Denied; Security Being Prepared for G-20 Summit in Toronto; Top Brass on McChrystal's Comments; No Help for Unemployed; "It was Like a Nightmare"; "A Battle for a Way of Life"
Aired June 25, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. And welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It is Friday, June 25th. I'm Jim Acosta.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello. John Roberts and Kiran Chetry are off. Actually they're in Los Angeles because, you know, AMERICAN MORNING is up for an Emmy.
ACOSTA: That's right.
COSTELLO: And they're hoping to win.
ACOSTA: That's right. And you slipped them a check, right? You did something to grease the skids a little bit.
COSTELLO: I did. It did.
ACOSTA: Good.
COSTELLO: It cost me a lot. I did it because I have no shame.
ACOSTA: Great.
COSTELLO: We have a lot to tell you about this morning so let's get right to it.
A judge now telling the Obama administration it has 30 days to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling saying the economy along the Gulf Coast just can't take another hit. We're live along the coast with reaction.
ACOSTA: Toronto hosts the G-20 summit this weekend, and officials are preparing for the worst. The city is swarming with security as President Obama and other world leaders make their way there. A live report from Toronto is just ahead.
COSTELLO: And the top brass at the Pentagon speaking out after reading General McChrystal's profile in "Rolling Stone" magazine. Hear what they have to say and whether a change in command will lead to any policy changes in Afghanistan.
And the amFIX blog is up and running this morning. We want you to join our conversation right now. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX.
ACOSTA: But first, some major developments to tell you about in the gulf oil spill now day 67 of the disaster. And the battle continues between the locals and leaders in Washington. The Obama administration has lost its appeal to keep the ban on offshore drilling in place. The judge did not budge citing the local economy and the nation's need for domestic energy.
COSTELLO: So many gulf residents also stunned by the tragic news this morning, that a charter boat captain from Alabama took his own life. Allen Kruse (ph) was working for BP on clean-up duty after the oil spill took away his livelihood.
ACOSTA: And BP now says it has spent $2.35 billion on the oil spill response. That includes claims, cleanup, containment, the federal bill and drilling a relief well. Chris Lawrence is live for us in New Orleans this morning. And, Chris, how are people in the gulf area reacting to this ruling on the drilling moratorium. I suppose it's mixed but we've heard from a lot of people in this industry who want to see that moratorium lifted.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jim. And now really for the first time, BP also says that. You know, you never thought you'd see that. A lot of people here in the gulf agreeing with something that BP says. But now, you have some BP official has come out and says he also thinks that the moratorium should be lifted.
Obviously there are some people here who think it should be, too. You know, the state claiming that anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 jobs could ultimately be affected here. And really when you talk to some of the workers, that is the real key and they feel that really, they are being hurt by this. In fact, we talked with one man who said his company has already started the process of starting to lay people off.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DWAYNE REBSTOCK, CEP ALLPORT SERVICES: I have to sit across the table from employees and tell them that I know you have husbands, I know you have wives, I know you have children, but I can no longer afford to keep you on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: So the government says it's already started to send letters out to the oil companies telling them, OK, you are now free to drill. That is not going to happen because these companies are not going to spend that kind of money and invest that much in restarting these rigs, recalling all their crews while the threat of the government's appeal is hanging out there. It would just cost them way too much to have to shut down all over again.
Now, the government says that while these companies are looking at the short-term economic impact, the government is looking long-term at the environmental impact, the long-term economic impact to the gulf. And environmental groups were also not happy at all with this judge's decision to lift this moratorium again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're disappointed with the decision. Clearly, deepwater drilling has been shown to be a high-wire act without a net. And it seems to me as this, you know, forest fire is raging out there, that we want to at least take away the matches from the kids who started the fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: Now, ironically, the state of Louisiana agrees with the federal government and that, you know, deepwater drilling could be a threat to public safety. They just disagree on the length of this moratorium. Governor Bobby Jindal offering some sort of compromise with the government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: For example, why not put a federal inspector on every rig that can shut down production. Or for example, why not allow the 33 rigs that were impacted by the moratorium to drill but not up to the reservoir because that's where the greatest dangers are? Or, for example, why not only allow them to drill in areas where there are known pressures so they know exactly what they're dealing with?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: But again, this is not just about one company because the same official at BP, the chief operating officer who said that the moratorium should be lifted, admitted that what BP does, its practices, are pretty much uniform throughout this region by the other companies as well -- Jim, Carol.
ACOSTA: And, Chris, you know, another looming concern down there in the gulf I have to think is this possibility that there may be some tropical storm activity coming your way. I mean what are people saying down there? I mean, obviously, this is -- you know, this is a community that had to deal with the aftermath of Katrina and Rita. How are they preparing for this possibility?
LAWRENCE: They're very, very concerned about that. You know normally down here, Jim, you've been down here a lot, you know a tropical disturbance, a tropical depression, people wouldn't bat an eye over something like that. You know, even a category one hurricane doesn't get people down here all that worked up. But now there is the real fear that this is going to push the oil in directions that normally it wouldn't, that it will disrupt some of the oil collection process. So I think it is a real race against the clock to try to get some of these additional systems online so that they can disconnect and reconnect a lot faster if they get bad weather coming through this area.
ACOSTA: Chris Lawrence live in New Orleans for us this morning. Thanks, Chris.
COSTELLO: I want to get some more specifics on this storm -- ACOSTA: Yes.
COSTELLO: -- where exactly it's going to hit and when, how serious of a threat is it. That's the question we want to answer this morning.
ACOSTA: Right.
COSTELLO: Let's go to the weather center and Bonnie Schneider. Bonnie, tell us about this storm. What might happen?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Carol and Jim, right now, we are tracking an area of low pressure that is in the Caribbean. Now, it's been a very slow moving system and has been slow to develop as well. You're looking at a massive thunderstorm. You can see right now, what we're calling this area of low pressure is about 150 miles east-northeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios (ph) in Honduras-Nicaraguan border.
So, it's still very disorganized. But I can tell you this. Watching it over the past few days has gotten a little bit more organized especially yesterday afternoon. And because of that, the National Hurricane Center in Miami upgraded the chances of tropical cyclone development to 60 percent. That had been down to about 30 percent yesterday morning, so it's more likely categorized as high that we will see a depression develop as it gets closer to the Yucatan some time within the next two days.
Note the system is moving very, very slowly, kind of drifting slowly to the northwest. And as it heads to the northwest, obviously the concern is the Gulf of Mexico. The past track of the system, as you can see, has been a very slow north-northwest movement. Some of the computer models are taking it across the Yucatan. Some are dissipating it. Some are taking it into the Gulf of Mexico. There's a real wide swath of area that we're watching in terms of what will happen in the future.
The most important thing to note is that a hurricane hunter aircraft is scheduled later this afternoon around 2:00 to investigate it. And once we get the data readings from that flight, if indeed it does take place, it had been canceled twice before because the system didn't develop. But today, I'd say the likelihood is good that that flight will take place. And once we get the findings this afternoon, we'll know whether or not this indeed is a tropical depression and that will give us a lot better understanding as to the future path of the storm.
Any residents along the Gulf Coast from Texas to even to Florida need to always keep monitoring the situation because these tropical systems particularly before they've actually developed are very unpredictable. The conditions though are conducive for development. Low wind shear and very warm water temperatures -- Carol, Jim.
COSTELLO: The wait is agonizing.
ACOSTA: Yes. COSTELLO: We'll just have to wait and see what happens. Interestingly enough, coming up in our 8:00 a.m. Eastern hour, we're going to be talking to Admiral Thad Allen. And we want you to send us your questions for him because, you know, are they prepared for this storm?
ACOSTA: Right. Exactly.
COSTELLO: Do they have a plan in place? I mean, how do you disconnect the enterprise from, you know, the leaking oil underneath --
ACOSTA: Exactly.
COSTELLO: -- and get it out of there and get everybody out of there safely?
ACOSTA: That's right. And we're going to press the admiral on that coming up in the 8:00 hour.
And speaking of weather, we have some other amazing video to show you. Check this out. An incredible scene of destruction in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In a matter of minutes yesterday, a thunderstorm packing 75-mile-per-hour winds knocked down trees and power lines, blew out windows and damaged homes and businesses. The city's mayor has declared a state of emergency. At least 25 people were reported injured, although none of those injuries are life threatening. And I was on the Amtrak yesterday, Carol, coming up here. And that train was delayed an hour because of this weather system that came through here.
COSTELLO: That was really frightening.
COSTELLO: Unbelievable.
COSTELLO: More than 900 firefighters in Arizona are digging in as they battle a wildfire that has already scorched more than 14,000 acres. There's a real concern this morning the winds will pick up and fan the flames even more. So far, the fire is only 25 percent contained. Officials say it started Sunday from an abandoned campfire.
ACOSTA: And on the CNN security watch this morning, President Obama will spend the next three days in Canada attending both the G-8 and G-20 summits.
COSTELLO: Toronto is the site of the G-20, and officials have reportedly spent $1 billion to protect the world leaders. Still, there's already been a security scare despite all that money.
Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is following developments. She is live in Toronto. Tell us about this security breach, Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, first let me show you a little bit of the security behind me. You can see here some of the fencing, the jersey barriers that are put in place. Heavy police presence here in Toronto. And it's because of this economic summit that's coming to town.
There have been a handful of arrests, a couple of people picked up on explosives and weapons charges. And then as you mentioned, a real scare yesterday when a car was pulled over. It had a makeshift carrier on top. Inside police could see some suspicious things. They weren't happy with the answers the man inside gave them so they pulled him out, took him into custody, and then investigated. They found inside there a chainsaw, a loaded crossbow, pellet guns, sledgehammers. They were concerned.
In addition, there were also five big containers, three of them with gasoline inside, an unknown substance in the other two. They investigated, discovered there wasn't any hazardous substance involved. And in fact, they discovered it wasn't even a threat to the G-20. The man, however, has been charged. He's expected to be in court today.
There also was a demonstration yesterday. There have been demonstrations going on all week. We were in the thick of the one yesterday, saw absolutely no problems. There was a very, very heavy police presence. Police on bikes and on foot lining the whole parade route. Police on horses behind making sure there was no action in the back. There are about 20,000 police and security personnel who are being brought to bear on this security for these two events. You see a lot of them roving through the streets of Toronto, trying to prevent any sort of flash mob action by any of the demonstrators.
The price tag for all of this is expected to be, as you said, about $1 billion. A lot of Canadians feeling that is simply excessive. There also were some points of controversy. There are some sound cannons that have been brought in that could be used against the demonstrators. Police say, hey, these are only for communication. That's the only way we're going to use them. But civil liberties and labor groups have gone to court to try and stop their use saying they could hurt hearing. We're expecting a decision on whether or not there'll be an injunction against their use sometime later this morning.
Jim and Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: I only have to say, the guy with the car, if he was doing something nefarious, it really wasn't very subtle. Was it?
ACOSTA: He wasn't traveling stealth.
MESERVE: No, not at all. No. No, not at all. And I think that's one reason why when we got there yesterday, there wasn't a huge security zone around this vehicle. I think that there were some signs there that this just may have been something else all together.
ACOSTA: All right.
COSTELLO: Jeanne Meserve live in Toronto this morning, thank you. ACOSTA: Thanks, Jeanne.
And you know, we often think that the only action in sports these days is at the World Cup, the soccer, that's happening down in Africa.
COSTELLO: What? What action there is in soccer?
ACOSTA: Well, that's true. Man, we're off to a good start. Yes, that's good. I think that can be the case sometimes. But I was going to make a little segueway here to tennis and that this was something else yesterday.
Normally you would think that, you know, the first couple of rounds of the Wimbledon tournament are pretty boring. Check this out what happened yesterday. Not the case yesterday. This was unforgettable.
An American, John Isner, beating France's Nicolas Mahut in the fifth set, 70-68. That's 70-68. Their match spanned three days and more than 11 hours. It's the longest ever played beating the previous record by 4 1/2 hours. They say the records are meant to be broken but I think this one is safe. Isner, by the way, is set to play his second round match in about an hour. And there's just no way I would have lasted that long. I would have been gone.
COSTELLO: They turned the whole 11 hours. They ran a total of what? 28 miles or 24 miles?
ACOSTA: Unbelievable.
COSTELLO: It was unbelievable.
ACOSTA: What about the ball boy? That was my question.
COSTELLO: You know, I had that concern myself. We'll check that later.
You know, there is lots of reaction coming in to an article that cost General Stanley McChrystal his post. We're going to hear what top military leaders are saying about that "Rolling Stone" profile. Some of them were pretty emotional.
It's 13 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Stunned and sick. The top brass at the Pentagon are reacting to comments made by ousted General Stanley McChrystal and his aides.
ACOSTA: Yes. Those comments brought about a change in command but a new top U.S. commander in Afghanistan does not necessarily mean a change in policy.
Here's Barbara Starr. BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Jim, Carol, there's plenty of support for General David Petraeus to take over the war in Afghanistan, but the Pentagon is still coping with this mess.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADMIRAL MICHAEL MULLEN, CHAIRMAN OF JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Honestly, when I first read it, I was nearly sick.
STARR (voice-over): Admiral Michael Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates just a year ago urged the president to choose General Stanley McChrystal to lead the war in Afghanistan. But now, they're furious at disparaging comments in "Rolling Stone" by the general and his aides about the administration.
MULLEN: It made me -- I literally -- physically, I couldn't believe it. So I was stunned.
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The statements and attitudes reported in the news media are unacceptable.
STARR: Gates initially thought McChrystal should stay, a senior Pentagon official told CNN. He worried the war could not afford a change in command.
But then --
GATES: It was the president who first raised Petraeus' name, and -- and it immediately, to me, answered a lot of the concerns that I had.
STARR: General David Petraeus was on Capitol Hill Thursday to talk to senators in advance of his confirmation hearings. Gates and Mullen say there's no change to the overall war strategy, but the new commander could decide to ease rules restricting combat that were put in place by McChrystal, rules some troops believe put their lives at risk.
GATES: General Petreaus will have the flexibility to look at the campaign plan and the approach and -- and all manner of things when he gets to Afghanistan.
STARR: Petraeus and McChrystal do see eye to eye on the counterinsurgency strategy, but will there be a difference in their style of leadership?
MICHAEL O'HANLON, SENIOR FELLOW, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Not much. You know, that's the main point. I think that both of them are extreme workaholics, very energetic. Both of them are good communicators.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: Still, there will be growing pressure for a troop drawdown. This has already been the deadliest month of the war for the coalition and General Petreaus knows there will be pressure for him to show progress -- Jim, Carol.
COSTELLO: Thanks, Barbara.
ACOSTA: Thanks, Barbara.
Coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, the Senate fails to extend unemployment benefits for nearly a million people. Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business." She's here now for a preview. Interesting stuff.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Snip, snip go the cords of the safety net for about a million people who will lose their jobless benefits. They wouldn't be able to apply for an extension.
This is the third time the Senate has failed to extend these benefits and there's a big debate starting to brew and you can see right there in the Senate a big debate about just how long are tax payers going to pay to help people who are out of work.
I'll have that for you right after the -- right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: Welcome back, 6:22. Time for "Minding Your Business." Christine Romans is here.
We were just talking about this before the break, this issue of whether or not to extend benefits for the unemployed. Part of this is probably a political issue.
ROMANS: Yes.
ACOSTA: They're, you know, playing politics with this up on Capitol Hill. But, at the same time, a lot of people suffering. What do you do about it?
ROMANS: And there's a big debate, how long do you continue to pay people who are out of work when 46 (ph) -- a record number of people have been out of work for six months or longer, and we know that some employers are simply saying you need to have a job to apply for this job because we're not interested in people who've been out of work for a long time.
Well, here's the news. The news is the Senate for the third time has failed to pass an extension for unemployment benefits for people who've been long-term unemployed. This is going to mean the last jobless check for about a million people this week. I mean, this means very near term. There are a lot of people who are going to find that the jobless check is going to stop coming.
There are some other provisions that are still active, however, food stamps, there's Medicaid, there's also home energy assistance, school lunch programs, community-based emergency help. So some of the, quote-unquote, "emergency stimulus" for the unemployed, the long- term unemployed, is still out there. But it's so interesting because the president a couple of weeks ago sent a letter to Congress saying, you know, you need to keep up the spending. We need to make sure that we have money flowing to help the states and to help people. And in the Senate there's a different debate happening here. It's can we pay for it --
COSTELLO: Well, part of the debate is enabling. I mean, how long do you give people unemployment benefits? And as painful as it is, you know, taxpayers can't keep footing this bill forever. And that's how a lot of lawmakers think.
ROMANS: And specifically there are people on the Republican side who feel that way. They also feel we just can't pay for it. Some -- some on the Republican side feel like, no, we should be giving these benefits, but we have to find out a way to pay for it.
And there are some economists, quite frankly, who say you've got maybe one percent of the unemployment rate is because people are on unemployment benefits and not going out and getting jobs. We also know the economy is very slow to create jobs. If you have an economy creating more jobs, we wouldn't be having this huge debate as well.
So the number one thing is we need to get some more jobs going. We need more jobs. We need more -- more private sector jobs.
ACOSTA: And that's just not happening fast enough.
ROMANS: It's not happening fast enough and that's leaving us with this really painful discussion as a country about what we're going to do for people who've been out of work for six months or longer, how, as taxpayers -- how long and how --
ACOSTA: We've run through all the ideas for priming the pump. The home buying tax credit's expired.
ROMANS: Yes. Done.
ACOSTA: The cash for clunker's done. Unemployment benefit's maybe hitting the end of the road.
ROMANS: Yes. And so when -- where does that leave --
ACOSTA: No appetite for another stimulus.
ROMANS: No appetite for another stimulus. And when the president goes to the G-20, it's going to be fascinating because --
ACOSTA: All these guys --
ROMANS: -- some of his allies are saying hey we need to be -- deficit reduction, deficit reduction. And --
ACOSTA: And Britain is trying all these austerity measures.
ROMANS: No (ph) spending. Yes.
COSTELLO: That's a sad situation.
Christine Romans, thanks.
ACOSTA: Thanks, Christine.
COSTELLO: One year ago today the world lost a legend. Coming up next, we remember Michael Jackson, the King of Pop.
Our Don Lemon talks with his brother, Jermaine.
It's 24 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: Remember that tune? Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
It's hard to believe, but exactly one year ago today the King of Pop died. There are still a lot of questions surrounding Michael Jackson's sudden death. Our Don Lemon sat down with Jermaine Jackson to talk about the day Michael died and how he's coping with the loss of his brother.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JERMAINE JACKSON, BROTHER OF MICHAEL JACKSON: This is hard. My brother, the legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson, passed away on Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 2:26 p.m.
I couldn't believe that I was announcing my brother's death for the world. I was numb, very numb, because it was like a nightmare.
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you take the people who love you and Michael Jackson through that -- that evening?
JACKSON: CNN called my wife and said, do you know anything about Michael being rushed to the hospital? And so I said no, and I called my mother immediately. She said she's on her way to the hospital.
And so then I spoke to Janet and she didn't know what the details were and so I called my mother back and I heard her say, he's dead. And I couldn't believe to hear my mother say her child is dead, my brother.
And I got weak, very, very weak. My wife, she was driving. And as we got closer to the Westwood, I mean, I'm crying and the phone is ringing off the hook. I see all these helicopters in the sky and it was all taped off and roped off. And as soon as I got through, they let me through and I rushed in and I saw my mother sitting there like in a daze, and I just consoled her.
I wanted to see him and so I walked a few doors down into this room and he was lying there, and to see Michael lifeless just tore me apart. I never experienced that. So close, a brother who we grew up doing everything -- everything. The memories -- that's what hurt to know that there would never be another Jackson Five. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Yes. Perhaps it's a sign that Michael Jackson is still so sorely missed by so many --
ACOSTA: Absolutely.
COSTELLO: -- a Facebook page dedicated to Michael Jackson: 14 million members.
ACOSTA: Wow.
COSTELLO: Fourteen million people.
ACOSTA: And hard to believe this was one year ago today. I mean, remember all of those people who lined up in Hollywood to watch that all unfold. It was -- it was quite an amazing event.
COSTELLO: And they're spending money too, even now, because I think that the Jackson estate is making more money than Michael Jackson did when he was alive.
ACOSTA: Unbelievable. Not surprising to hear that.
And, tonight, you want to join our Don Lemon as he speaks exclusively with Michael Jackson's friends and family members as they remember the man and the legend, "Michael Jackson: The Final Days" premiers tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
COSTELLO: Thirty minutes past the hour. That means it's time for this morning's top stories.
President Obama heads north of the border this weekend to meet with world leaders at the G8 and G20 summits in Canada. The first sets of meetings have been held in tandem. Security in Toronto and in Huntsville, Ontario, is tighter than tight. The summit will focus on the global economic crisis and they're expected to draw thousands of protesters.
ACOSTA: And this is disturbing. Police in Peru say they have found skin underneath the finger nails of Stephany Flores, the woman that Joran van der Sloot is charged with killing. They say the sample is quite small but they are performing DNA tests on it. Police say van der Sloot admitted killing Flores, but he then later reportedly recanted that confession in a jailhouse interview with a Dutch newspaper.
COSTELLO: And a major development along the Gulf Coast with potentially tens of thousands of jobs in limbo. The Obama administration has lost its appeal to keep the ban on offshore drilling in place. The judge is saying the economy along the Gulf Coast just can't take the shutdown.
ACOSTA: Meanwhile, the Coast Guard is using another 20,000 gallons of dispersants in the Gulf, 670 vessels trying to skim crude off the surface.
COSTELLO: And still, the oil keeps coming. The frustration keeps growing. And now, officials are confirming that one Alabama fisherman took his own life.
Our David Mattingly has his story. He joins us live now from Orange Beach, Alabama.
Hi, David.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol and Jim, he was just one captain out here among many on the Gulf Coast, but his friends and family are now saying that his death should be telling everyone that there's something wrong out here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY (voice-over): People who knew him say Allen Kruse lived to fish, and those closest to him say that life unraveled when the oil spill hit the Gulf waters where he worked.
(on camera): He thought it was dead?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MATTINGLY: He said that to you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MATTINGLY: And that there was no hoping that the fishing was ever going to come back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not in his lifetime.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Among charter boat captains in Orange Beach, Alabama, Kruse was a leader, drumming up business in good times -- and voicing the frustrations after community in the bad times.
ALLEN KRUSE, GULF FISHERMAN: The day that the oil entered the Gulf, my phone quit ringing.
MATTINGLY: Just a month after that interview, Kruse was found on his boat dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. For 14 days, he had worked for BP hauling boom and looking for oil. His brothers say he felt like his role in the clean-up as a BP vessel of opportunity was worthless.
(on camera): That's what he told you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MATTINGLY: That he felt like he was being put out there just for show?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That's what he told his wife. He didn't tell me that. That's what he told his wife. That's what she told me just a while ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He told me it was madness.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Kruse's friends tell me he felt overwhelmed by the enormity of the disaster and that they're all feeling the stress.
CAPT. BEN FAIREY, FRIEND OF ALLEN KRUSE: This has been a long- term situation. This started in 2004 with a direct hit from Hurricane Ivan, then the next year was Katrina, then skyrocketing fuel prices, fishing regulations, and then an oil spill. This has been six years that this area has really suffered a lot of stress.
MATTINGLY: Stress that his friends believe finally became too much for Kruse. And now, they're worried about others.
(on camera): Are you afraid that maybe one of your other friends out there might be thinking about something extreme?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
FAIREY: We worry about that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We worry about that every day.
MATTINGLY: What are you going to do about it?
FAIREY: That's why we're trying to get the word out.
MATTINGLY: As a gesture to the community that's now grieving for him, Kruse's family thought it would be best for his boat to be brought back here to home port in Orange Beach. And here it is right now, The Rookie. His friends say that there's really no better way that they could think of to pay tribute to a man who loved what did he for a living and loved the waters where he worked.
(voice-over): It's The Rookie's final voyage, carrying a cargo of uncertainty and sorrow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: And this is Kruse's boat right here behind me. Everyone is expecting this spot to become a memorial here in Orange Beach, Alabama -- back to you.
COSTELLO: David, is there help for people out there with these issues?
MATTINGLY: Well, the CDC did put out a warning. It was in a lot of the information that was given out to the workers out here, warning them that fatigue and stress could lead to problems like post- traumatic stress. But friends of Kruse say that they knew he was upset, they knew he was under stress, but they didn't see anything like this coming.
COSTELLO: Such a sad story.
ACOSTA: What a shame.
COSTELLO: David Mattingly, thanks this morning.
The Obama administration loses another effort to put a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf, but does lifting the ban serve our nation's best interests? We're going to talk about it with author Tom Bower.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ACOSTA: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Seventy-one degrees and sunny right now in New York City. It is gorgeous outside. I went outside for just a couple of minutes before the show, Carol.
COSTELLO: Actually, he went out and got us all a cup of Starbucks.
ACOSTA: That's true.
COSTELLO: We love Jim for that! We do.
ACOSTA: Well, you were the one that came up with the triple shot latte which I have to say --
COSTELLO: Are you feeling good?
ACOSTA: I could use three more -- I could use a triple of a triple shot latte at this hour, but it was really good.
COSTELLO: Oh, don't do that, it's dangerous. It really is.
It's 39 minutes past the hour. We want to get a check of this morning's weather from Bonnie Schneider. She's in Atlanta.
Good morning.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol and Jim. I'm sure it does look and feels fantastic outside in New York City.
The only problem is we had some really strong thunderstorms that rolled through the I-95 corridor yesterday and they were intense, big-time wind damage, over 150 reports of wind damage. A lot of this was along the I-95 corridor from Virginia straight to Maine, but now, it's looking terrific, nice and clear and dry.
We also had strong intense winds earlier in the week in Chicago. There was that one system that really rolled on through. So, now, what's happening is the front is stalled. Oh, no. This means hot conditions across the southeast. It also enhances the chance of severe weather for parts of the Carolinas, particularly coastal areas, including cities like Charleston and Wilmington. You may see powerful thunderstorms later today.
Now, behind the system, we do have another area of low pressure in the northern plains that may bring about some severe storms today. So, we're watching that -- windy weather as well behind the system.
I mentioned the heat. The heat advisories don't want to seem to let us. Notice Oklahoma City currently under a heat advisory at this hour. That will go straight through this evening. At 11:00 this morning, heat advisories will pop up in place in Memphis, and, of course, in Charleston, all the way up into Virginia. It's going to feel like 105 once again today.
And, finally, we are still monitoring the tropics. This broad area of low pressure is starting to get a little more organized so the National Hurricane Center is scheduled to send an aircraft to investigate it. Hurricane hunters are scheduled to fly in this afternoon to get more data.
There's a 60 percent chance -- according to the hurricane center -- that this will develop into a tropical cyclone within the next 48 hours. We are monitoring it to see its progression. It's a slow-mover right now. We'll have more coming up.
Back to you.
ACOSTA: All right.
COSTELLO: Bonnie Schneider, thanks.
ACOSTA: Thanks, Bonnie.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
COSTELLO: The Obama administration loses another effort to put a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf. But does lifting that ban serve our nation's best interests? You know, Bonnie is talking about this storm coming in.
ACOSTA: Yes.
COSTELLO: Wouldn't it be a good idea if they continue to stop drilling on those 33 rigs -- you know that are affected by --
ACOSTA: It's another potential complication for this whole thing.
COSTELLO: Yes. We're going to get really into that with author Tom Bower, who has written a lot on BP and the oil industry.
It's 41 minutes past the hour.
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ACOSTA: Excellent choice for Friday, Elvis Costello there.
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. You know, a showdown looms this morning over offshore drilling. A federal judge denied the administration's request to postpone an order that would end a six-month moratorium.
COSTELLO: That means if anyone wants to start up the deep water drills, they certainly can, but the White House says it will introduce a new ban in a few days. We wanted to know what a moratorium really means for safety though. Is it really necessary?
Joining us from London this morning: Tom Bower, who is the author of "Oil, Money, Politics and Power in the 21st Century."
Good morning, sir.
TOM BOWER, AUTHOR, "OIL, MONEY, POLITICS AND POWER IN THE 21ST CENTURY": Good morning.
COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about this moratorium because -- and I'm just going to play devil's advocate here. Let's say -- I mean, what's wrong with these oil companies to stop drilling in the deepwater, these 33 wells, for four more months? Because that's all we're talking about when you take the moratorium in its entirety. What's wrong with that?
BOWER: Well, the cost. We see each oil platform, each rig costs at least half a million dollars a day, and often more, and they just can't afford that sort of equipment lying idle and the contractors will find other places around the world who want the rigs, and they'll just take them there, so there's just no choice.
COSTELLO: But isn't safety more important than money? Because -- I mean, these oil companies make massive amounts of money each day.
BOWER: Of course, safety is critical. As we've now seen, the catastrophe follows if these are not safe. But on the whole, all the oil corporations are working safely. This is just an aberration.
COSTELLO: But that's what they say, it is just an aberration, but the BP disaster happened. Nobody thought that could happen either. So, it's just not logical, is it, that argument?
BOWER: We don't stop driving on the road because of a car crash. People carry on driving and people walk up staircases and fall down them, but we still walk up stairs. So in the end --
ACOSTA: Totally different when you're talking about an entire body of water as important as the Gulf of Mexico. I mean, the question that I have is we heard the governor of Louisiana, and I'm sure you watch him closely as well, Bobby Jindal, you know, talk about why this moratorium should be lifted for the sake of jobs and so forth.
But at the same time, the governor is saying we need to built berms. We need to do all these other things to protect our coastline, and I'm just curious, you know, is there a little bit of having your cake and eat it, too, when it comes to some of these Gulf Coast politicians saying we want the jobs and the protection from any environmental impact at the same time?
BOWER: Look, I'm not an apologist for the oil industry, but I must tell you that on the whole, their record is very good. And America needs the oil, it needs the gas, and the product in the Gulf has been superb, and they're doing very good job down there on the whole. So, you know, just like we don't stop fly when a plane crashes, you just got to improve the regulation --
ACOSTA: What do you mean they're doing a very good job on the whole down there? I don't know what that means. In what sense? You know, I mean, this entire body of water is at risk right now. It has been poisoned. And I'm just curious, what do you mean by doing a good job? Because the other day, there were CEOs from the entire oil industry testifying on Capitol Hill saying that if they were to also engage in deepwater oil drilling, they essentially have the same plan of action in place if there is a major catastrophe, which is, well, we just have to, you know, see if we can plug the hole.
BOWER: Look, again, I can only say I'm not an apologist for the industry, but they are extracting amazing amounts of oil from the most difficult conditions. You got to ask why they're in the Gulf and not getting it from Mexico, Venezuela or Russia. That's one of the great issues.
ACOSTA: Are you saying that --
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ACOSTA: Are you saying that we basically put ourselves in this position? I mean, is that your point?
BOWER: I think the countries have gotten the oil to put America in that position. But on the whole, they have done a very good job in the Gulf and the executives who testified on the Hill like (INAUDIBLE) have not had these sort of catastrophes that BP is just having. So, I got to repeat on the whole, they've done an amazing job to find oil and gas there, and they are bringing it out safely. The point is that the administration discovered that the regulators, the MMS have done a very good job so the government has got some of the blame here.
They let the oil corporations get away with murder for too long. They've now learned a lesson. They'll clearly have much better regulations down in the Gulf and elsewhere as well, because, believe me, they're going to have to start digging for oil and drilling for oil off other coastlines around the U.S. again in the near future because America needs the oil.
COSTELLO: Funny you mentioned that because BP is doing that, you know, off the shores of Alaska and it's doing this maneuver where they're drilling its three miles offshore, they drilling down very deeply, and then they're going to make a horizontal line, something that's never been done before. So, BP, itself, is being allowed to go ahead with this process when we know that BP doesn't have it together when it comes to extreme disasters and how to fix things. BOWER: You're absolutely right. The horizontal drilling is really quite well established now. There's nothing new on that. That is a very effective way of getting huge amounts of oil out which previously we got lost. But I think BP has learned a lesson. I don't think they're going to make that sort of error again. They're going to be more careful than ever. They can't afford another catastrophe nor can any other oil corporation.
I mean, you just got to set the seed that of course oil is a very risky business as I showed you in the book. What they've done down in the Gulf is quite phenomenal. This is a catastrophe which never should have happened. Everyone is learning lessons. They're going to do their best to prevent it from happening again, but the government got as much responsibility now as the oil corporations to make sure that the regulations are there and enforced.
COSTELLO: Tom Bower, many thanks to you this morning. We appreciate it.
BOWER: Pleasure.
ACOSTA: I'm not sure I agree that they're doing a bang-up job down there, but that's just my take on it.
COSTELLO: You mean BP or the oil industry as a whole? Because I think he was separating them out.
ACOSTA: I think he was trying to separate it, but it just doesn't feel right, you know, to say that as a whole, the industry's just doing a great job down there.
COSTELLO: It's sort of like you have to trust them. That catastrophe similar to what's happening with BP doesn't happen again. And the oil companies are saying, well, we have a great safety record. But BP said that, too.
ACOSTA: Yes. We can't go on like this. We'll move on. This morning's top stories just minutes away, including one year ago today, the world was shocked by the death of Michael Jackson. We are at his final resting place and have new details this morning about the doctor's defense strategy.
COSTELLO: Also, iPhone failed. Now that the lines of people waiting for the iPhone 4 are gone, some complaints are rolling in.
ACOSTA: And it's President Obama in a new race with Lady Gaga? Yes, who will be the first to reach 10 million fans on Facebook. Those stories and more at the top of the hour. Stay with us.
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COSTELLO: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 54 minutes past the hour. Time for the Moost News in the Morning. Americans don't usually get all worked up over soccer.
ACOSTA: We know you don't. As you said earlier in the show. The matches are long.
COSTELLO: They're long and nothing much happens. But it was exciting after 90 minutes or so --
ACOSTA: Send your comments to Carol Costello.
COSTELLO: Stop it, you're getting me in trouble. Anyway, the World Cup is changing that, Jim. More Americans are excited.
ACOSTA: That's right. And Team USA's game winning goal against Algeria may have had a defining moment. Here's Jeanne Moos.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): May be more refreshing than even a moment of zen -- the moment of goal. The kick that beat Algeria was like a kick in the pants. Making Americans jump up in bars from Seattle to Nebraska.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was like I needed to take a Xanax. OK?
MOOS (on-camera): True. Some Americans are probably more familiar with disco balls than soccer balls.
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST: Soccer, the sport for fourth-graders that foreign people take seriously.
MOOS (voice-over): Now, even Stephen Colbert is a soccer convert and flurry videos of the moment of goal -- being uploaded like mad. To YouTube. Who's watching all these moment of goal videos online? How about the guy who kicked the goal? Landon Donovan told CNN he'd been surfing the web.
LANDON DONOVAN, TEAM USA: I spent all morning watching all the reactions in the bars around the country.
MOOS: Even far from TVs, the moment of goal could be heard ever so distantly on the Senate floor and at the White House. President Obama told the U.S. team he heard cheers are up while he was meeting with General Petreaus discussing General McChrystal's fate. Most folks watching were thrilled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With the exception of one terrified patron.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Toward the winning goal and even secure (INAUDIBLE) at the same time.
MOOS: Some put the moment of goal to music. And some singletons enjoyed the moment of goal alone.
MOOS (on-camera): Sometimes, you can tell a lot by focusing on one great face -- no, not that face.
MOOS (voice-over): Faces like the lady in pink's. She went from being prayerful to patting her chest and pumping her arms. Mouth open so wide a soccer ball could almost fit holding her face, practically worshipping, heaving a sigh, and finally smothered under the jersey of Donovan, the guy who made the kick. One announcer stretched the moment of goal. A full 11 seconds. Then, when he finally, finally ran out of breath, he did it again. For a moment of goal this rare, it's worth getting down on your knees.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
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COSTELLO: And look what it did for Landon Donovan on "The New York Post" this morning, he got back with his wife because he scored that winning goal. She knows he's going to be very wealthy now.
ACOSTA: There you go. Very good.
COSTELLO: Top stories coming your way after a break.
ACOSTA: Stick with us. We'll be right back.
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