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American Morning
Security at G-20 Summit; Gulf Storm Threat?; The Storm Over the Spill; New iPhones, new iPhone problems, In Short Supply; Attorney Claims Dr. Conrad Murray Did Not Administer Lethal Dose to Michael Jackson; Activists Organize Worldwide Demonstration Against Offshore Oil Drilling; Troops React to McChrystal Piece; "Some Good will Come Out of This"
Aired June 25, 2010 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning. It's Friday, June 25th. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. I'm Jim Acosta.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello in for Kiran Chetry. He's in for John Roberts.
ACOSTA: That's right.
COSTELLO: They're in L.A. waiting to pick up AMERICAN MORNING's Emmys because I'm sure we're going to win.
ACOSTA: That's right.
COSTELLO: Lots to talk about this morning. Let's get right to it.
Downtown Toronto on lockdown this morning as the World Economic Summit comes to town. The price tag to protect President Obama and other leaders this weekend said to be $1 billion. That's just it. We're live in Toronto. That's just ahead.
ACOSTA: Parents, listen up. The makers of children's Tylenol is saying there may not be enough of its children's medicine to go around. So, why the shortage? That's coming up.
COSTELLO: Storm threat rising in the Gulf -- something that could really disrupt the cleanup effort there. The National Hurricane Center monitoring a system moving through the Caribbean, right now, saying there's a 60 percent chance of it becoming a tropical depression over the next two days. We'll ask Admiral Thad Allen how much of a setback this could be.
ACOSTA: And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX.
COSTELLO: In just about an hour, President Obama leaves for Canada where he will spend the weekend hunkered down with other world leaders at the G-8 and G-20 summits.
ACOSTA: Security is intense in Toronto. Our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, is live in Toronto this morning.
Good morning, Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jim. Hi, Carol. You can get a flavor for the secure behind me, you can see the police, the fencing, and jersey barriers that are falling into place here in downtown Toronto.
Thus, far things have been fairly calm. There are a couple of people who have been arrested on weapons and explosives charges. And then there was a 53-year-old man who caused quite the security scare in downtown Toronto yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): A car outfitted with a makeshift roof carrier is pulled over in downtown Toronto. Inside, the police find a loaded crossbow, pellet guns, a chainsaw, sledgehammer, jugs of gasoline and more. It turned out not to be a threat to the G-20 but police were more than ready to respond. The city is swarming with security.
Demonstrators tore through Seattle in 1999 and authorities do not want a repeat here.
On Thursday, a demonstration highlighted the issues of Canada's indigenous people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Addictions, suicide rates, but education being at the forefront of all of those.
MESERVE: Several thousand stormed through downtown.
(on camera): This demonstration is pretty large and pretty loud, but also pretty peaceful, perhaps because of all these police lining the parade route.
(voice-over): But this is just the beginning. More demonstrators and more trouble are expected this weekend when the G-20 is underway. Twenty thousand police and security personnel have been brought in from across Canada, roving to detect and deter trouble.
Businesses are slapping up plywood to protect windows, some will be forced to close altogether. At the hockey hall of fame, the statues on the front lawn are encased in wood to protect them from graffiti. Sound cannons are on hand for communication, police say, but some claim they could cause hearing loss.
The price tag for security for the two summits is about $1 billion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So far, there's been no violence at all and I don't know. It's just -- I think it's ridiculous.
MESERVE (on camera): Waste of money?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Waste of money, for sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I find it insulting that they wasted that much money on it. It's far and excessive of what it --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't believe they are spending $1 billion on security. Why can't they do it over the Internet, like Skype?
MESERVE (voice-over): What government officials say, with so many world leaders descending on the area, they have to be prepared for anything -- and they are.
POLICE OFFICER: We want to ensure the delegates are safe and as well as the citizens.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: On those sound cannons that you heard about in that piece, civil rights group and labor group have gone to court to try to stop their use. We'll find out this morning whether or not they get an injunction to prevent they're being used against demonstrators here.
Back to you, guys.
COSTELLO: Thanks, Jeanne. Jeanne Meserve live in Canada, Toronto, this morning.
What exactly is the G-20 anyway? Here's more in our "A.M. Extra." It's an annual meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 countries and the European Union. The meeting combines industrialized and developing nations that are vital to the global economy.
ACOSTA: And G-20 nations represent 90 percent of the world's economic output, 80 percent of the world trade and two-thirds of the world's population.
COSTELLO: So, now you know.
ACOSTA: Now you know.
COSTELLO: Before getting down to some of the business this weekend, President Obama got a head start with the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev. The two men shared a cheeseburger and decided just how many relations have improved on President Obama's watch.
ACOSTA: That's right.
COSTELLO: On the front page of every newspaper.
ACOSTA: That's on the front page of "The New York Times" this morning.
Let's bring in our chief political correspondent Candy Crowley, to talk about that and more from the world of politics. She's in Washington.
A burger summit. How did the Russian president, you know, how did he make out on that? Did he OK eating that burger?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He did, but he turned into the food place when they had the news conference afterwards. He said it was tasty but not quite healthy. Thank you very much.
But anyway, he seemed to like it. And look, this is about imagery, as you point out. It's about those front page pictures. It's about we are working together. This is no longer a huge conflict.
The president -- the administration believes that there is a real hope here in the U.S. relevant relationship with Russia in particular with this president. And -- this is sort of the continuation of -- if you don't want to call it a friendship, at least a working relationship. So, the images say it all back home in Russia as well as in the U.S. here. They talked so much when they got into office about resetting the relationship with Russia, and this is the ongoing part of that.
COSTELLO: And something else that might be talked about during this summit is, of course, Afghanistan. And going back to General Petraeus taking General McChrystal's place in this July 2011 exit date from Afghanistan, the president actually seemed to give himself some wiggle room at one point yesterday, saying we don't need to switch the lights off and close the doors behind us. What's your read on that?
CROWLEY: Well, I -- the administration got itself into a little bit of trouble. When the president gave his speech in December, he had to two things. He had to keep his Democrats onboard. Many Democrats now looking at this war thinking we got to get out of here. We've been there nine-plus years. It doesn't look as though it's going that well.
So, within that speech, when he was talking about putting more troops in -- something that would satisfy the more conservative and the more hawkish people -- were really going to make a play in Afghanistan, when he was striking that balance, he put in that 2011, July, deadline, if you will. However, what the administration wants is that wiggle room you talk about because he did not say, I must say, in December. And so, all the troops are coming home in 2011, July.
But it tends to morph into that kind of thing. We saw General Petraeus do that last week up -- on hearings on Capitol Hill. And now, we see the president doing it. And that is, we're not just going to leave willy-nilly and say, OK, it's July, we're all going home.
The fact of the matter is, this is intended not just for U.S. audience to kind of, you know, set the table here and say wait a second, let's not expect that we're going to leave. And it's also aimed at Afghanistan, because one of the big fears they know of Hamid Karzai is that the U.S. is just going to leave in the lurch. So, this is intended not just for home audience but for the audience in Afghanistan.
ACOSTA: And, Candy, with everything going on with Stanley McChrystal's departure, plus, what's happening down in the Gulf, it's easy to forget that there is a Supreme Court nominee who's waiting to be confirmed up on Capitol Hill, Elena Kagan, the former dean of the Harvard Law School. And there are some rumblings up on Capitol Hill, are there not, that this actually could be a bruising confirmation battle.
CROWLEY: Generally, you see some chest-beating at about this time. We're going to hear -- they're going to start the hearings next week. As yet, there's not some huge thing that you think, boy, this is going to be tough.
Will there be tough questions? Yes. Is she still likely to be confirmed? Absolutely.
I think the question here -- one of the things I find interesting is: a lot of times, the paper trail tends to get nominees. It tends to be, oh, well, you know, we found this document and that document. And in terms of jurisprudence, Kagan has not been a judge. So, she doesn't have that long of a paper trail.
What's happened though is when you flip the paper trail theory on its head is that when you don't have paper, every little thing is writ large. Well, she said this when she gave this public speech, and she said that and what does that mean. So, I think you'll see a lot of people sort of probing that, trying to get an idea of where she goes judiciously.
But you know how these things go. In the end, you never know much more than we knew at the beginning.
COSTELLO: That's because they never answer the questions in the confirmation hearings.
CROWLEY: Just trying to prepare you.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: OK. Now, to the most important question of morning for you, Candy Crowley. What's on "STATE OF THE UNION" Sunday?
CROWLEY: One of the things we're going to have, we want to talk a little politics, you know, it's getting to be the season. We have a long hot summer, a lot of these candidates eager to get out, especially those on Capitol Hill and the incumbency year. So, we're going to talk to John Cornyn and Mel Martinez, both of them head of the Senate committees trying to get the Republican or Democratic senators re-elected or elected in various places.
But we're also going to have a lot of talk about Afghanistan. You know, it is -- it is rough over there. So, we're going to bring together some experts and ask them what's going on, and whether the U.S. can win and what's win mean. ACOSTA: The all important questions. And Candy Crowley will be exploring those on Sunday. Be sure to catch Candy Crowley on "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning -- Sunday morning at 9:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.
Thanks, Candy. Appreciate it.
COSTELLO: A tropical wave is strengthening right now in the Caribbean. Could it threaten the Gulf Coast? Bonnie Schneider is tracking developments from the extreme weather center in Atlanta.
Good morning.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol and Jim.
I do have an update. The 8:00 advisory is in from the National Hurricane Center. And now, it looks even more likely that this tropical system will develop into a tropical depression as it gets closer to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
Take a look at the latest satellite perspective, and you can see, as loop plays, watch the flare-up of thunderstorms. That's one of the factors that's indicating this system is getting more organized. So, the National Hurricane Center says, now, there is a high chance, 70 percent -- that's up from 60 percent, from earlier this morning -- of the system becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours.
Now, an Air Force reconnaissance plane is scheduled to investigate this disturbance later today at 1:00 Eastern Time determine whether a tropical cyclone is formed. They're really looking for a center for circulation and also measure the winds and get other meteorological data that will really help us into determining the track of this system, because right now the movement has been really slow to the northwest, mostly west-northwest.
As the system advances to the Yucatan within the next two days, once again, it is likely to become a tropical depression. It is possible it could enter the Gulf of Mexico, but really, the track is uncertain as we go into the weekend and early next week because the storm hasn't actually formed yet. Once, we have an actual depression, we'll have a better way which way it will go. But, right now, we are monitoring it.
And anyone who lives in the Gulf Coast area needs to also be tuned to CNN because we're going to give you the updates. As soon as we get them in, we have a better idea of the intensity and track of this system. The first name of the season for the Atlantic would be Alex. So, we're monitoring it very carefully here in the weather center and we'll have more as we get it.
Back to you.
COSTELLO: Thanks, Bonnie.
Someone else monitoring that tropical depression if it becomes a tropical depression is Admiral Thad Allen. He's out there in the Gulf. He's the leader out there.
ACOSTA: Right.
COSTELLO: And is there a plan in place to get all of those boats out of the Gulf that are skimming oil off the surface out of there?
ACOSTA: We're going to ask him. Admiral Thad Allen -- coming up next.
Twelve minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: And as we've been talking about all morning, there is a developing threat right now in the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters say a system is getting stronger in the Caribbean. It could become a tropical depression in the next few days. We heard Bonnie Schneider say just a few minutes ago that that likelihood is becoming greater over time.
COSTELLO: But even if it turns out to be nothing, this is how it's going to be all summer, with every tropical wave and disaster unfolding.
Admiral Thad Allen is the national incident commander. He joins us live from Washington.
Thanks for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.
ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, with what could be a tropical depression developing out there -- you know, we wonder, is there a plan in place that you have to get all of those boats out of the Gulf? Because you have hundreds of boats out there skimming oil from the water.
ALLEN: Carol, it's actually thousands and we do have a plan. We've been working very, very hard for the last six to eight weeks.
Generally, if we think we are going to encounter gale force winds 120 hours out or five days, we start at that point redeploying equipment and redeploying people and getting assets into a mode where they can be returned to their parent units, especially the Coast Guard for hurricane recovery work. And that includes stopping production at the well site and moving those vessels to safe shelter and our vessels of opportunity as well.
COSTELLO: So where do those vessels go?
ALLEN: Well there are a couple of options. They can move to a quadrant of the storm that is less dangerous. There are there four quadrants of a storm, some are more dangerous than another. Sometimes they can take evasive action and actually deploy as a group to the backside of the hurricane and come in behind it. Those are the normal tactics for vessels at sea. It's not a good idea to stay tied up to the dock when a hurricane is coming to shore if you have the ability to be at sea.
ACOSTA: And, Admiral, you know, I guess since we are seeing this catastrophe unfold in real time and it's something that is unprecedented, I suppose -- I mean, it just goes to reason that having to react to a tropical storm coming into this area will be something you will be going through for the first time. Is that the case? I mean, there is really - there is really no preparation for something like this.
ALLEN: This will be the first time and there is no playbook, but I will tell you there has been an extraordinary amount of planning being done between the folks at the National Incident Command, the Unified Area Command and our incident commanders on the ground. They are working very closely with Craig Fugate from the FEMA and, of course, Secretary Napolitano and also our DOD counterparts.
ACOSTA: So if there's no playbook, I mean, are you confident that all of those vessels, all of those vessels of opportunity, all of those people will be on the same page when you have to execute this plan to get people out of there?
ALLEN: It all amounts to our ability to communicate and have them break off in time to seek shelter, get to the right side of the storm and we certainly intend to do that. What we are going to try and do is merge two response structures. One has proven effective in the past and that's a simple coordination of search and rescue, how operations are conducted, and that's done out of Tindal Air Force base in Florida for hurricanes. And we are in the process of integrating our planning processes so the oil spill response is -- is integrated fully within the search and rescue recovery operation.
COSTELLO: So this particular weather disturbance right now, how worried are you about it?
ALLEN: Well, Carol, I think we should be worried about any tropical, any troth, any depression, anything that's working down there and keep our eyes very closely peeled (ph) to it to make sure we can move as rapidly as we can should we need to do that. We are watching it very closely.
COSTELLO: So at what point? I mean, if it becomes a tropical depression, do you start your -- do you start implementing the plan? At what point do you decide do that?
ALLEN: The threshold is when we are 120 hours away from predicting gale-force winds. And that threshold could be different geographically, depend on the track moving in the speed of the storm. But 120 hours in advance of gale-force winds.
ACOSTA: And, Admiral, another story we have been following all morning is the apparent or now confirmed-suicide death of a Gulf Coast cleanup worker down there, I'm sure you heard about it yourself. And I'm just curious, how are the workers doing down there? Can you give us an assessment? Do you think that this could potentially become a greater problem as the days and weeks go on? ALLEN: Well, of course, you know, we extend our heartfelt condolences to the families that are involved. We actually had another drowning death as well. These are catastrophic events for these families to just add to the misery the spill has created down there. We are mindful of that. We looked at our folks that are working down there. We are closely working with OSHA, worker's safety and health issues. This is a trying time for everybody and we really need to be watching out for each other and be good shipmates.
COSTELLO: You mentioned there was a drowning incident, can you tell us more about that? And how many deaths have there been altogether?
ALLEN: It was just an off-duty event at a swimming pool at a motel. I'd leave the details to the family and the officials to deal with that. But neither one were directly related to the response, but we all know this is very stressful work. Folks are under tremendous financial pressure and --
ACOSTA: Do you feel have you enough resources in place, enough people in place to deal with this?
ALLEN: Well we are flowing all the resources we have. I don't think we anticipated the need for a boom and skimming equipment that is or is in because we are fighting this across several fronts extending from south central Louisiana to Port Saint Joe (ph), Florida. But as things are coming out of manufacturing, whether skimming equipment or boom, it is being sent straight to the front.
COSTELLO: Admiral Thad Allen thanks for joining this morning, we appreciate.
ALLEN: Thank you.
ACOSTA: And coming up next, medicine shortages. This is something you are going want to know about. Tylenol, Motrin, and other drugs important to you and your family. Little kids as well. Christine Romans with that coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL SHOW": Thousands of people were lined up at Apple stores across the country, waiting for. Some even camped out overnight. I'm actually envious of that kind of enthusiasm. I can't really think of anything that I would sleep overnight at a mall for. Maybe a unicorn that flies and is made of lasagna. But that's about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: There was a big line, yes. Yes a unicorn made of lasagna. That is something we would all wait in line for, Jimmy Kim. That was awesome.
COSTELLO: Yes, talking about the iPhone 4, there are -
ACOSTA: Yes.
COSTELLO: There are already some complaints about it. People waited in line for all those hours and paid all that money.
ACOSTA: Woops.
COSTELLO: And it turns out there is a metal ring around the iPhone and when you put your hand over it -
ACOSTA: Right.
COSTELLO: The reception appears goes away. The bars disappear.
ACOSTA: Oh my goodness, is there an app for that?
COSTELLO: There should be. Some people say that it doesn't matter the bars go away. It is just -- you know, put your hand over it and the bars go away. But there is still reception. But other people say there is no reception.
ACOSTA: There's also an issue with the -- the screen has a --
COSTELLO: No, the retina display screen.
ACOSTA: Right.
COSTELLO: It has this yellow tinted spots that come up. And people --
ACOSTA: It's not supposed to do that.
COSTELLO: No, I don't think so.
ACOSTA: Not for that amount of money.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You are not supposed to hold on to dear life for phone, you know. Like the death grip. You have the Apple, iPhone death grip. You are not going to have reception -- hold it lightly.
ACOSTA: And meanwhile, we should also note there is another story we want to tell you about, President Obama, you know, he has - a lot of issues to deal with these days. Did you know that another one is Lady Gaga.
ROMANS: I know.
ACOSTA: Consider this on Facebook, apparently there is a race as to who will become first to get, what, 10 million fans on Facebook. The president is at 9.92 million. Lady Gaga has a slight 10 thousand fan lead. And so the question is, who is going to reach the finish line first. The president of Lady Gaga.
ROMANS: They will probably be talking about that at the global summit.
ACOSTA: At the G20, I would think so. That's a good idea. And but we should note that the person who has the record is no longer with us, Michael Jackson, at over 13 million.
COSTELLO: How does he answer his fans Christine? Michael Jackson has 13 million Facebook fans.
ROMANS: I know, he made more money in the last year than he did the year before that.
COSTELLO: I know, I know.
ROMANS: It is a strange world we live in.
COSTELLO: It is.
ROMANS: I'm here to tell you about Tylenol, children's Tylenol. It's a strange world if you are a mommy, daddy, grandma, or grandpa trying to --
ACOSTA: This is unbelievable.
ROMANS: This - if you go to a pharmacy -
ACOSTA: This is crazy.
ROMANS: You will have very many choices -
ACOSTA: It's not there.
ROMANS: This is all you get. You get --
ACOSTA: I didn't know you clipped coupons, Christine.
ROMANS: No, I got this because I had to return some children's Tylenol that was poor quality, that was recalled by the company. And you get this back. Or you got some money. I got money, too. The $7 coupon. But you can't use it anywhere because there are still shortages in the store. A McNeil is the subsidiary for Johnson & Johnson that makes the different children's medications that have been missing from the shelves because of quality problems at this plant. And now yesterday quietly on Johnson & Johnson web site, was an update that it could be shortages through 2010.
ACOSTA: Wow.
ROMANS: That they are going to have problems with the sources for the supply for some of the products throughout the rest of the year. As they handle their quality control issues. This is a big money problem for Johnson & Johnson.
ACOSTA: Yes.
ROMANS: These drugs that were pulled, $650 million annually in revenue over the past three years. I mean think how much money that is that they are trying to figure out how to fill, you know, fill those shelves and fill that problem. So if you are a parent who is still looking at those children's medicine shortages, it looks as though that will persist. A lot of people are switching to store brands. They are switching to other things.
ACOSTA: Right.
ROMANS: Or doctors are kind of looking around trying to find out what other kinds of things they are. But this is really a brand nightmare for Johnson & Johnson, and for Tylenol. Tylenol, Benadryl, it's children's Motrin. It's infant Motrin drops.
ACOSTA: I know and think about this. I mean when -- during the summer you may not think about the quite as much. But heading back into school when all those kids go back to their, you know their little Petri dishes -
ROMANS: All those toxic kids.
ACOSTA: -- schools, yes, you know.
ROMANS: Sharing their germs and bringing them home.
ACOSTA: Right, you are going to need that - that stuff on the shelves in your drugstore.
ROMANS: Yes, this is something a lot of people have been talking about, from school nurses to parents to caregivers trying to figure out when Johnson & Johnson is going to fix this problem. And it looks as though they are still addressing their quality control problems. They had over the past few months five or six different recalls of drugs, and adult drugs, too.
ACOSTA: And as a mom, several times over, we know you care about that.
ROMANS: Several times over, that is really --
ACOSTA: Not to rub it in.
ROMANS: No, I mean everybody should care about it. So yes, if you are waiting for those to show up next week on the store shelves, they are not going to.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Christine.
ROMANS: You are welcome.
ACOSTA: Thanks Christine. Well coming up next, fans around the world are going to remember Michael Jackson one year to the day that - the king of pop passed away. Can you believe that? Do you remember this Carol? One year ago when they were all of those people out in California?
COSTELLO: Do I remember it? Do I remember it? For two - what for a week we went wall-to-wall. ACOSTA: You went wall-to-wall coverage.
COSTELLO: Wall-to-wall coverage but there are still so many unanswered questions about how you he died. We are also going to get into that. Twenty seven minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Just about 30 minutes after the hour. Time for a check up with this morning's "Top Stories." More than 900 firefighters are in Arizona digging in as they battle a wildfire that's already scorched more than 14,000 acres. There's a real concern this morning. The winds will pick up. And you know what that means, the flames will fan. So far the fire only 25 percent contained. Officials say it started Sunday from an abandoned campfire.
ACOSTA: Ahead of this weekend's G-20 summit in Toronto, police arrested a man on weapons charges near the site inside of the suspect's car. Get this -- they found pellet guns, a chain saw, a sledgehammer and gasoline. We are not sure if he was coming back from the hardware store or what.
But police say there's no evidence the incident was related to the summit. Canadian authorities, by the way, have spent $1 billion to protect the world's leaders there.
COSTELLO: General David Petraeus says he you supports President Obama's July, 2011 deadline to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. The four-star general has been tapped to replace General Stanley McChrystal as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
ACOSTA: And where were you one year ago today after the world lost Michael Jackson? There's still plenty of questions surrounding the king of pop's death. Jackson's former physician Dr. Conrad Murray is charged with involuntary man slaughter.
COSTELLO: But CNN has learned his lawyer will argue Murray did not give Jackson that fatal overdose of the powerful drug Propofol. Our Ted Rowlands talked with Murray's attorney and joins us live from Jackson's final resting place in Glendale, California. Good morning.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol and Jim. Behind me is where Michael Jackson was laid to rest here at the cemetery in Glendale, California. And they are expecting thousands of people here today. They have barriers up, doors open, gates up here in the next hour. The sun is just coming up here on the west coast.
On the other side of the investigation into Jackson's death, we had an exclusive interview with the lawyer to Dr. Conrad Murray. His name is Ed Chernoff. He's based in Houston, Texas. Hay told us that there's no way that -- this is what he said -- there is no way that his client was the person that gave Michael Jackson a fatal overdose."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED CHERNOFF, DR. CONRAD MURRAY'S ATTORNEY: Dr. Murray did not cause the death of Michael Jackson.
ROWLANDS: Ed Chernoff says when Dr. Conrad Murray went to work as Michael Jackson's personal doctor he had no idea that Jackson was, in Chernoff's words, "addicted to Propofol," a drug normally used to put surgical patients to sleep. Murray started giving Jackson the powerful drug in Jackson's home.
ROWLANDS (on camera): Doctor after doctor gets up and says this should never be used outside of a clinical setting, outside of a hospital or clinic.
CHERNOFF: The fact that the circumstances may be unusual, may be demonstrated to be unusual, does not make it egregious. That alone does not make it egregious.
ROWLANDS (voice-over): According to the coroner's report, Jackson had the same amount of Propofol in his body when he died as is used for major surgery. But Murray says he didn't give Jackson that much Propofol.
CHERNOFF: There's no way that Dr. Murray would pump Michael Jackson full of Propofol sufficient for major surgery and walk out that room. It's not going to happen. That's not the doctor that Dr. Murray is.
ROWLANDS (on camera): How did it get in him?
CHERNOFF: Well that's a good question, Ted. Do you have any idea how it got in him?
ROWLANDS (voice-over): The only other scenarios, someone else gave Jackson the fatal dose, or Jackson woke up and injected himself, which the coroner addressed but concluded would be a long shot.
CHERNOFF: But is it possible? Absolutely it's possible.
ROWLANDS: This is Michael Jackson rehearsing two nights before he died. Murray says he got Jackson to sleep without Propofol after this rehearsal. But the day Jackson died on June 25th, it was a different story.
According to an affidavit filed in the case, Dr. Murray gave detectives the following timeline -- 1:30 a.m. Murray gives Jackson a 10 milligram valium, 2:00 a.m. Murray injects Jackson with two milligrams of Lorazipan (ph), another sleep aid. An hour later he give him two milligrams of another drug Versed.
At 5:00 a.m. Jackson is still wake. Murray gives him more Lorazipan, at 7:30 a.m. more Versed. By 10:40 a.m., after nine hours of trying to sleep, Jackson is still awake and Murray gives him an IV drip of 25 milligrams of Propofol.
Where Dr. Murray was from 10:40 until noon when the coroner's report says Jackson was found unconscious is unclear. It is the only window of time where someone else, including Jackson himself, could have administered the fatal dose of Propofol. Prosecutors say the evidence points towards Conrad Murray as the person responsible for the overdose, but Chernoff maintains that Murray had the expertise and the equipment to safely give Jackson small doses of Propofol, and he says the doctor had the knowledge not to give him an overdose.
CHERNOFF: Whatever he did was to help. He took the necessary precautions and then something happened that is unexplained.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROWLANDS: Dr. Murray, of course, pled not guilty. He's facing involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Michael Jackson. You can see behind me, a lot of flowers. We were talking to a security guard earlier. They said they get flowers here every day, but a lot more have come in the last few days in anticipation of the one-year anniversary.
There are some sunflowers here, 1,000 of them apparently sent by Lisa Marie Pressley. The family will be here in a few hours as well to pay their respects to Michael Jackson.
ACOSTA: And Ted, what did you think when the doctor's attorney sort of snapped at you there in the middle of that piece? We were all struck by that.
ROWLANDS: Well, you know, he -- it was during the interview. That happens, obviously, as you know, when you are doing an interview. One of the things they wanted to hammer through was that, you know, they are basically saying that this guy, this Dr. Murray, was smart enough, knew exactly what he was doing, and that he never in a million years would have given Jackson the amount of Propofol which ended up in his body.
And while they won't talk about their defense strategy, I think it is clear the way they are going is possibly Jackson woke up and injected himself because the IV was there. That's probably the way they are going go in terms of a defense. It testy in the interview, but that's part of doing business.
ACOSTA: It happens.
COSTELLO: It is surprising that Michael Jackson had so many drugs in his body and he still couldn't sleep. That's just amazing. But all of this will come out in the trial.
ROWLANDS: Imagine trying to put him to sleep. For nine and a half hours he was trying to get him to sleep and he was still awake. Apparently he had an insomnia problem which was just a complete nightmare.
COSTELLO: Ted Rowlands, live from Glendale, California, thank you.
ACOSTA: And tonight Don Lemon speaks exclusively with Michael Jackson's friends and family members as they remember the man and the legend, Michael Jackson. His final days premiers at 8:00 eastern. And then at 9:00 p.m. Jermaine Jackson's first interview from his brother's final resting place. That's tonight on "LARRY KING LIVE."
COSTELLO: Hands Across the Sand. It's in protest of offshore oil drilling. And supposedly thousands and thousands of people not only across this country but in 20 or so other countries will join hands in protest of offshore drilling. It's 37 minutes after the hour.
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COSTELLO: Welcome back to the Most News of the Morning. A federal judge has again denied the government's request to halt deepwater oil drilling. And that does not sit well with people who are now seeing their beaches threaten.
ACOSTA: This weekend people from across the globe will join hands and take a stand against offshore oil drilling. The Hands Across the Sand event was founded by Dave Rauschkolb. He joins us now from Pensacola this morning. Dave, thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Tell us how you came up with this idea.
DAVE RAUSCHKOLB, FOUNDER, HANDS ACROSS THE SAND: Well, I created Hands Across the Sand in response to the Florida House of Representatives trying to lift the ban on near shore drilling in Florida. That's just three to ten miles off our coastline.
On February 13th, we organized over 80 beaches and we had is 10,000 Florida citizens joining hands creating human lines in the sand all across the Florida beaches from Jacksonville to Miami and from Key West up to Pensacola.
COSTELLO: So you planned another event similar to that one, and then the Deepwater Horizon exploded. What happened after that? Had you a lot of interest in this event, right?
RAUSCHKOLB: Well, I just felt that it was important. This is an opportunity of national importance and really global importance to bring this event to such a very simple expression for Americans and for people of the world to stand and draw a line in the sand against expanding offshore oil drilling and camping and clean energy and renewables.
So, yes, it caught on very quick, about four and a half weeks ago. The website went live. If you like I can tell you how many locations we have across the world.
COSTELLO: Go for it.
RAUSCHKOLB: OK. Let me --
ACOSTA: Don't tell us all of them. I don't know if we have enough time.
RAUSCHKOLB: We have 841 total events across the world. We have 725 events in the U.S. in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. We just signed up France as well.
ACOSTA: They will be displayed in front of the White House as well, correct? That's obviously a message you would like to send to the president.
RAUSCHKOLB: Absolutely -- under the arch in St. Louis as well.
And really, the call to action is for Americans, you can go to the website and handsacrossthesand.org. There is a button there and they can send a message directly to the president and to Congress telling them that now, not later, is the time to change clean energy and renewables. And expanding offshore oil drilling especially after what happened in the Gulf, is just pure folly.
ACOSTA: And Dave, what do you say to folks in Louisiana, though? Governor Jindal has been you on in front talking about this, you know, these are jobs we are talking about here. And, yes the environment is important, and yes, those beautiful beaches on the panhandle are important. But folks have to eat. People have to put clothes on their kids and put a roof over their head and pay the mortgage. What do you say to those folks?
RAUSCHKOLB: Absolutely. It is always unfortunate when anybody loses their jobs.
But these folks lost their jobs due to an accident but never should have happened and an industry that really didn't have a solution to that accident. So it is very unfortunate, there is no question. But it is my hope that we steer towards cleaner energy industries, and certainly there will be a lot more jobs available there.
And let's just talk about the number of jobs across the Gulf coast states that are going to be lost and the homes that will be foreclosed on. And you peel away the economic and emotional layer of that onion, it just goes on and on and on.
How long are we going to allow an industry to endanger the coastal economies of our nation and in our environment and as well as the wildlife and our waterways?
COSTELLO: Yes. That's going to take a while for people to not depend on oil quite so much. Dave, thanks so much for joining us. We will be watching your event this weekend. Good luck. Thank you.
RAUSCHKOLB: Join hands with us on the beach. Thank you.
COSTELLO: Thank, Dave.
It's 44 minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.
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SCHNEIDER: Good morning everyone, I'm meteorologist Bonnie Schneider with a check of your weather. We are tracking the threat for severe weather across much of the northeast today. Just some strong thunderstorms in upstate New York right now. But as the day gets going, with the heating of the day, especially, this cold front may trigger severe storms across areas from Maine to Virginia and that does include Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Hartford, Connecticut, all under the risk for severe weather for today. We could see some strong downpours.
The only good thing with this system is that it will help break the heat that's out there. Heat advisories all the way from Oklahoma to Memphis, Tennessee down to Charleston, South Carolina and certainly up into the mid Atlantic. It's 86 degrees in Philadelphia right now. The temperatures going up about ten more degrees; but it'll feel like 100.
Hot temperatures across much of the eastern half of the country, a little cooler for areas into Minneapolis and Chicago after some rough weather brought some strong storms in that part of the country earlier yesterday.
That is a look at your national forecast. Stay tuned, AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": General McChrystal was relieved of his duties because of derogatory comments he made about President Obama and other White House staffers. In fact, when you heard that Joe Biden was shocked and he said what? You get fired for saying something stupid? When did they start that? Is that new?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: General McChrystal's profile in "Rolling Stone" magazine did bring a swift end to a stellar career.
ACOSTA: Michael Hastings is the reporter who sealed McChrystal's fate. And he spoke last night to Anderson Cooper about how American troops in Afghanistan are reacting to the article.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL HASTINGS, CONTRIBUTOR, "ROLLING STONE": A number of soldiers actually had printout copies of the story and were discussing it and not knowing that I was the guy who actually wrote it. And I didn't necessarily volunteer that information.
But -- but at this point most of the feedback I have gotten from soldiers on the ground has been very positive. And specifically relating to the part of the story that deals with the new rules of engagement from General McChrystal's tactical directives which restrained the use of force among ground forces here which have been -- which are widely, widely unpopular and that General McChrystal gets blamed for that. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, AC360: I mean, when you were writing this article and you were hearing him and his -- his advisers say this stuff, did it ever cross your mind that it could lead to -- to him basically being fired?
HASTINGS: No. In fact, I believed -- and this is talking to U.S. officials who even said this to me, that General McChrystal was unfireable. I didn't think this story would have had this kind of immense reaction.
For me the most important thing about this story has been the fact that we now have a chance to discuss the Afghan policy that America is pursuing here.
And in terms of on a personal level about how do I feel about -- how his career has ended, you know, this is -- the war is very serious business. And, you know, what is one career versus one life? And lives are being lost here on a daily basis.
I would -- I would love to profile General Petraeus and would love to interview him and ask him about, you know, what he plans to do in the war in Afghanistan. It's actually quite an incredible moment. We've now had two -- President Obama has now fired two top commanding war time generals in the space of a year.
And I don't even know -- I think we would have to go consult the history books to find out when there was a situation where someone like General Petraeus already a war hero is being called back to sort of save the day for a second time. That's Petraeus, the sequel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: You know, it doesn't, though you know -- obfuscate the fact that a very, very, very good general's career has come crashing down as a result of all of this.
COSTELLO: Well, but you have to wonder about his judgment in saying these things in front of a reporter. He clearly knew he was there. So maybe he wasn't so great? Is that a fair argument?
ACOSTA: Well -- I mean, I wasn't there. So I don't know what the situation was. But I don't think that you can deny that he was a tremendous warrior and did bring a lot to this country. This will be debated for some time to come. And you know, I think one of these days McChrystal will write a book about it and we'll get to hear his side as well.
"Building up America": Americans on the Gulf Coast remain hopeful despite the oil spill disaster.
Tom Foreman going across the Gulf Coast; we've got the latest installment of his "Building up America" series, coming right up.
Fifty-four minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ACOSTA: The full impact on the environment from the Gulf oil crisis still impossible to know at this point. The toll of this disaster is taking on businesses along the coast in dollars cost, still growing.
COSTELLO: So with all of the worry and heartaches, some people think this crisis could bring out the best in people in the region.
Tom Foreman talked to one such optimist and joins us live from Apala -- Apalapa -- Apalapa, you know I could never pronounce Apalachicola.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you trying to say Apalachicola, Carol.
COSTELLO: Apalachicola. I'm going to say it 500 times when you start your story, Tom.
FOREMAN: Yes.
Yes, it's a great town, Apalachicola, Florida, a wonderful place. I have been coming here for a long, long time. And I've got to tell you, this is absolutely right.
People in towns like this that live on shrimping and fishing and oysters that are particular for Apalachicola have spent their entire lifetime dealing with what they are dealt.
You get out on the water and there aren't any fish to catch, a big storm blows up. You simply react to it. Particularly as you get off the edge of the spill, more and more people are saying that's what they have to do with this catastrophe. Position themselves the best way they can and deal with what they have in front of them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN (voice-over): Heading out from Port St. Joe to hunt for scallops, Gary Hites has plenty of reasons to worry. His company Seahorse Water Safaris counts on tourism.
GARY HITES, CO-OWNER, SEAHORSE WATER SAFARIS: This has impacted everybody on the coast --
FOREMAN: Yet, even as reports of oil creep closer, Gary remains hopeful that this calamity will bring out the best ideas, the best innovations, the best efforts to people of the Gulf have to offer.
HITES: If the problem is cleaning up then let's go on.
FOREMAN (on camera): you think some good can come out of all of this?
HITES: Some good will come out of it. I see people working the oil spill that have never worked in their lives. I think that the U.S. can benefit from this in the long run.
Me personally, I will figure a way to survive.
Give me about 50 feet more. There lay it down.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Fueling such optimism for some folks, especially at the edges of the spill, is what they are seeing locally. Sure, the fear of oil has cut charter fishing reservations but it has filled hotels and restaurants with disaster response workers.
Yes, the fishing might be shut down if the oil gets closer but --
(on camera): -- the scalloping season was actually open about a week and a half early this year. Specifically to help people replace any lost income and to stay ahead of the threat of advancing oil.
HITES: There's not a lot there that's big but that's what we are finding out there.
FOREMAN (voice-over): And, of course, it is easier to be hopeful when the spill is still miles away. But folks like Gary believe building up these Gulf communities even as their neighbors struggle is critical.
(on camera): So all things considered another good day.
HITES: Another good day.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Because that may help the whole region come back whenever the oil finally goes away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: And that's just the attitude for many people in places like Port St. Joe and Mexico beach. Of course, Carol, right here in Apalachicola.
COSTELLO: I apologize to all the Apalachicolans.
FOREMAN: They are understanding folks, they'll be cool with it.
COSTELLO: They are and I'm glad there are optimists out there in those parts. That's great.
(CROSS TALKING)
FOREMAN: There's no oil here, yet, either. They're happy about that.
ACOSTA: Good to hear this morning.
Tom Foreman thanks so much.
Continue the conversation on today's stories. Go to our blog at CNN.com/amFIX. That's going to wrap it up for us. But we'll see you back here again bright and early tomorrow morning.
COSTELLO: Hey, Kyra. Take it away.
