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American Morning

Heat Wave Expected in the Northeast; Oil Misery Spreads: Tar Found in Texas and Lake Pontchartrain; "A Whale" Dives In; Retailers Get Creative to Attract Customers; Big Apple Welcomes Queen Elizabeth; Bear Market Coming?; Tennessee's (Not So) Superhero; Summer Jobs for Inner City Teens

Aired July 06, 2010 - 06:00   ET

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


KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks for being with us. It's Tuesday, July 6th. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us. A lot to get to this morning, so let's talk about it right now.

It's crazy hot. The northeast in the middle of an extreme heat wave. And today is expected to be the worst day of them all. It could hit 100 degrees in New York, Philadelphia and D.C. It's the kind of heat that can be dangerous or even downright deadly for some people.

CHETRY: And the oil that's been gushing into the gulf now washing up on previously untouched beaches. The latest target, Texas. Tar balls found along the shores of Lake Pontchartrain as well. That's the lake that flooded during Hurricane Katrina. In a moment, we'll take you there live for new details on where the oil is headed.

ROBERTS: The British are coming. Well, at least the royal couple, anyways. Her Majesty, the queen, will be in New York City today. She's going to speak at the United Nations for the first time since 1957. We'll tell you how New Yorkers are preparing for the visit.

CHETRY: And the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. Go to CNN.com/amFIX.

ROBERTS: But first, it is going to be another scorcher today. Maybe a heat wave for the history books. And today is expected to be the hottest of the hot. Right now, the mercury is rising across the country, especially along the Eastern seaboard. The National Weather Service is warning of a dangerous situation as temperatures approach and shoot past 100 degrees.

CHETRY: Well, in places like the nation's capital and New York City were 500 cooling centers and also water stations are going to be open to the public. For some, it may be just a nuisance. But for others, especially the very young, the elderly, people who have to work outside, people who don't have air-conditioning, the heat can be deadly. We have Jacqui Jeras in the extreme weather center for us this morning. Jim Acosta live for us on the National Mall where you guys could be looking at triple digits today.

Hey, Jim?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. This is what we get for the founding fathers building the nation's capital on a swamp. It is going to be hot down here. A good old-fashioned heat wave is upon us from Richmond, Virginia, all the way up to New York City. Triple digit temperatures are in the forecast. Record highs could be broken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): There is little doubt these are the dog days of summer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now the dog needs to have fun too. She needs to cool off. I will go to the pool later.

ACOSTA: From this creek in northern Virginia to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to the beaches of the Jersey Shore, the city pools in New York and Pleasure Bay in Boston, the goal was simple.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to beat the heat.

ACOSTA: But while some people enjoyed a long holiday weekend, not everyone got to lounge around. This construction crew in New York put in a day of hard work under a blistering sun building scaffolding on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really tough. You sweat all day and it's not good. You have to stay hydrated.

ACOSTA: The threat in the city is serious. During a 2006 heat wave, 46 people died of heat stroke in the city. Most of them were older New Yorkers or had known risk factors. But lack of air- conditioning also contributed to a number of deaths. So today, the city will again open scores of cooling centers like this one. And with people snapping up air conditioners of their own at holiday sales and businesses opening back up after a long weekend, the local power company, Con Ed, is working to make sure it's ready.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't pay to worry. We just kept prepared and we all prepared. We prepared as much as we possibly can.

ACOSTA: Some 17,000 customers in New Jersey got a taste of what could happen if the grid fails, spending four hours Monday without power.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very uncomfortable. And we're just trying to -- we hope that the food doesn't spoil.

ACOSTA: With the weekend serving as just a warm-up and temperatures expected to hit the triple digits along much of the northeast coast today, it's a good time to remember the old adage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the humidity that really gets everybody. You know, you really have to be careful.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Now, the National Weather Service has issued heat advisories for several cities along the East Coast. That means people out there need to be careful. When you combine the heat and humidity, it can be a dangerous situation. But if folks can just hang in there for a couple of days, there is a break in the forecast that should cool down into the mid-90s for portions of the East Coast by Thursday -- John and Kiran.

CHETRY: Nice and cool.

ROBERTS: Well, that will be a relief.

CHETRY: Yes.

ROBERTS: Yes, from 100.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: Exactly. That's right.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Jim.

Quite a few cities are under heat advisories today. A steamy blanket of humidity lays over the entire region this morning. Jacqui Jeras in the extreme weather center.

We saw those temperatures that Jim was talking about. Those are downright frightening for many people.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it really is. Dangerous is not putting it -- you know, we couldn't emphasize that anymore today because when you start waking up and your temperatures are already in the 80s, you know, you wake up to the day in uncomfortable conditions. Eighty-four, New York right now. Eighty-three degrees in Boston. And the entire megalopolis is under the heat advisories or heat warnings and pretty much everybody in this area is going to be feeling like temperatures between about 105 this afternoon. So you want to stay indoors in the air-conditioning if you can.

There are some people unfortunately without power. Long Island has about 800 people without power. And they're just under 1,000 across the northeast in total. High pressure and control, that humidity will be increasing throughout the day and that's why today is going to be so dangerous. A little area of low pressure going to try to develop there for tomorrow to try and help to cool us down just a little bit.

The temperatures on the thermometer easily reaching the triple digits. New York City, 101 expected; 101 is your record in Central Park. One hundred degrees in Philly. The record is 98, will likely beat that one there. D.C., 102. Your record is 103, so it will be a close call there. In Baltimore, 103. Your record high, 101. So this is certainly of historic proportions. Make sure you stay indoors. You drink lots of water and don't exercise or exert yourself.

One other thing when we get temperatures like this and a high pressure system and control, guys, we tend to have very bad air quality, especially in the afternoon hours. So "code red" in effect for many of these cities as well, meaning it's unhealthy, not just for people with respiratory problems but really for everybody. So don't expose yourself to that air for a prolong period of time today -- John and Kiran.

CHETRY: Jacqui, we want to ask you a quick question because Jim was saying it was going to be 99 in New York on his map. Do you think we're going to hit triple digits here in New York?

JERAS: I think we very easily could top 100 today, yes.

CHETRY: There you have it. Thanks, Jacqui.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Jacqui.

The oil keeps spewing. The mystery keeps mounting along the Gulf Coast this morning. On day 78 of this agonizing disaster, a Navy blimp is on route to Alabama. It can stay in the air for up to 12 hours. A lot longer than helicopters or airplanes and much lower cost as well. It will be used to monitor slicks and try to find threatened wildlife as well.

CHETRY: BP is also talking about its oil recovery effort. Well, it's falling short of the pledge to regulators. According to the "Washington Post," the oil giant had said that it had the capacity to collect nearly 500,000 barrels of oil a day. Well, after this disaster, it's only collected roughly 60 percent of that. Authorities are confirming also that tar balls from the ruptured BP well have washed up near Galveston, Texas and also along the southern part of Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain.

Our Brooke Baldwin is live near Lake Pontchartrain this morning. Hi, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, good morning. Yes, if this city needed this message in the story-driven home for them here, it most certainly has.

You mentioned those tar balls. They are officially here in Lake Pontchartrain. I know it's dark and I know I wasn't able yet this morning to grab a tar ball to really show you. But as they've been described to me, they're somewhere between the size possibly of a marble to as big as say this rock. They're highly weathered, which is a good thing. They don't really smell. They can kind of smear in your hand. It's about -- you're about to see. But it's significant because this is the farthest inland we have now seen any evidence of this oil. And yes, it's not really a huge amount. Estimates put it somewhere in the 100 barrel range. But imagine for fishermen who love this lake, who enjoy this lake over the holiday weekend, imagine to their surprise and in some cases, devastation, seeing tar balls washing up. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like resin, almost. Fiberglass resin. It's on your fingers. You wash it and wash it. It smears. It smears.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Didn't think we'd see it in here, but it looks like we're going to. And that's sad. You know, it really is. What else can you say about it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, some people are certainly alarmed by the presence of the tar balls. But you talk to other people and they're not necessarily surprised. I spoke with John Lopez who's with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation who has been preserving this water since it was highly polluted back in the 1980s. And he's basically been doing these reconnaissance missions the last couple of weeks, just preparing for what he had termed the inevitable. And so just this past weekend in the Rigolets (ph) Pass, which is essentially the pass in between the Mississippi Sound and here at Lake Pontchartrain, he started spotting some of its oil and some of these tar balls. And he said really what's to blame right now is the wind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the sea wind (ph). We have the last few days kind of pushed it back toward the lake. It's certainly not something that represents a catastrophic oiling or threat, but it does -- is maybe the kind of the leading edge of maybe something larger that could be coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, of course, the good news if we can term it that, because it's not a huge amount of oil and not a huge amount of tar balls, it's not yet posing quite the ecological damage, the threat. But, you know, people were certainly out yesterday and they will be out today in the fishing boats with their fishing nets, Kiran, trying to skim this oil, skim the tar balls, of course, weather permitting -- Kiran.

ROBERTS: Hey, Brooke, it's John here. You know, down around Grand Isle, they've got a plan to put in place some large barges, maybe some rock jetties to try to narrow down the amount of water that's flowing into Barataria Bay and keep the oil out of there. In the past, it links the Mississippi area with Lake Pontchartrain. Is there anything that they can do to try to keep the tar balls out of there?

BALDWIN: Yes, they're more or less, John, terming this a multiple layer of defense, kind of like a term of waging war really against the oil. And they're talking booms and they're also talking barges. And specifically when it comes to the booms, they're also talking about more permeable booms. That's the kind of boom where the water can pass through and continue on here to the lake, but it hopefully will stop the oil. And then, you have the barges which essentially act as walls in these passes. And the good news of the barges, as you're talking six feet deep. So hopefully, the oil at this point in time can't travel under. But the biggest, John, you know as well as I do and the people around here, the big one word that people talk about, hurricane.

ROBERTS: Yes, another storm brewing in the gulf. We'll see where that one goes. Brooke Baldwin for us along Lake Pontchartrain this morning. Brooke, thanks so much.

New technology is in the gulf, could soon double the amount of oil being captured. About 30 minutes, we're going to talk with Owen Krantz. He is the CEO behind a new production ship that's going out there. We'll find out when they hope to have it in place. Some bad weather and high seas have been keeping it from hooking it up to the oil. We'll find out when it can.

CHETRY: Also new this morning, Lindsay Lohan could be looking at six months in jail if a Los Angeles judge decides that she violated her parole stemming from a 2007 drunk driving arrest. A full hearing was scheduled for today after the judge ruled that there was probable cause to believe that Lohan was not completing her alcohol monitoring classes.

ROBERTS: New research suggests that pushing back school start times by just 30 minutes improves alertness, mood and health for students. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that teens rest between 8 1/2 and 9 1/4 hours every night. Researchers in Hasbro Children's Hospital tracked the private school that shifted its start time from 8:00 to 8:30. After the study, the school kept the 8:30 start time, something that they hadn't originally planned to do. Maybe that's -- we could take a lesson from that.

CHETRY: That's right. I'll start at 6:30.

ROBERTS: Start the show at like noon maybe.

CHETRY: Well, there is another study, though. We can't do that because we're the best and brightest apparently, according to a new study. It says that morning people tend to be more proactive and better rewarded than night owls. Now we ask whether or not this is people who like to get up this early or do so because of their job. What defines a morning person?

ROBERTS: I've never been much of a morning person. And I'm not much of a night person now either. So it's, you know, it's kind of like --

CHETRY: Everything is going.

ROBERTS: -- 11 minutes after 6:00. That's right.

CHETRY: I hear you. Well, published in the Harvard Business Review, though, the research found that the biggest reason is that corporate schedules are actually geared to a morning person's peak performance hours. The silver lining though for night owls, you're promptly watching us before heading to bed. The study found that you're more likely, by the way, to be more creative and intelligent. However, that's not going to get you that far in the business world, according to this study.

ROBERTS: Unless, of course, you're working on a schedule where you are on the West Coast or Hawaii or something like that, and you can stay up all night and you're actually catching the beginning of the business cycle here in the East Coast.

CHETRY: That's right. So they can tap your creativity and you're working on the business cycle.

ROBERTS: I'll just go back to sleep.

The recovery of tens of thousands of barrels of oil held up by rough weather in the gulf. We've got an update on that mammoth skimmer called "a whale" that's just ahead.

It's 12 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Of course, we've been talking about it for months now one set back after another in the cleanup efforts in the gulf.

ROBERTS: The crews are still doing a test run on that massive skimmer ship, the "A Whale" to determine exactly how much oil it can actually pick up. So far, it has not produced mediocre results with probably has been because of the high waves.

CNN's Allan Chernoff takes a look at the ship from New Orleans this morning.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, the "A Whale" so far has been more of a minnow when it comes to cleaning up oil. Rough seas have harpooned its ability to skim oil near BP's gusher.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Test of "A Whale's" abilities so far are inconclusive. Meaning the massive converter oil tanker, three and a half football field long has yet to prove its Taiwanese owner's claim that it can skim between 15,000 and 50,000 barrels of oil off the sea in a day.

CAPTAIN BRIAN KELLEY, COAST GUARD CHIEF OF STAFF: It is supposed to be able to skim greater quantities than any other vessel on the planet. That's what they claim.

CHERNOFF (on camera): That's what they claim.

KELLEY: Yes, and that's why we are testing right now?

CHERNOFF: So far it has delivered. KELLEY: Right now, they are under a testing evaluation. We haven't completed that yet. As a matter of fact, the ship just asked for an extension to their testing evaluation period, which we accepted and approved. So they are going to be able to continue that test until Thursday morning.

MARK WILCOX, COAST GUARD COMMANDER: We haven't seen a very large amount of product. Early indications indicate that's not a lot was collected.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): That so-called product, crude oil floating in the sea hasn't been concentrated enough according to BP for "A Whale" to skim effectively, even though it appears the ship has been surrounded by pools of oil just a few miles from the gusher.

HANK GARCIA, BP SPOKESPERSON: We've got oil coming up from over a mile below the surface. It doesn't always come up in one spot.

CHERNOFF: "A Whale" may still have to prove itself, but the vessel will have to do so before BP officially hires it to join the cleanup fleet and if that's to happen, the sea will need to cooperate.

GARCIA: When you've six foot, eight-foot seas, it is not going to lend itself to a good capture of the oil.

CHERNOFF: As crude continues gushing into the Gulf, skimming has been scant. Only 1,100 barrels of oil were skimmed in a 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday, less than the amount pouring out of the blown-out well in an hour using the most conservative estimates.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see two barges.

CHERNOFF: The coast guard has been able to pinpoint traveling pools of oil from the sky.

KELLEY: The aircraft get on top of the oil. They can identify what type of oil it is and then they can vector in the skimmer vessels right to the spot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: The Unified Command anticipates seas will soon calm, which should give skimmers, including "A Whale," an opportunity to more effectively do their jobs -- John, Kiran.

ROBERTS: We will see if it works. Allan Chernoff for us this morning in New Orleans. Allan, thanks so much.

CHETRY: All right, we're going to take a quick break. We will be right back. Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" this morning. Eighteen minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty one minutes after the hour. Christine Romans here with "Minding Your Business" and for those of you who do have some money retailers finding new and ever more creative ways to separate you from it, right?

CHRISTINE ROMANS: Yes, devising all kinds of strategies to find the money from the people who have the money and get them to spend it again and I think that is going to be the reality for the new normal folks. Whether bank or retailers, or anything that's tied to the consumer dollar, they want your money and are finding creative ways to do it.

Some interesting ways - especially as up to 2 million people are going to lose their jobless checks so these people have to focus in on the folks who have money and those are people with jobs. There is a shopper stimulus, if you will, from Sam's Club.

Sam's Club, of course, founded basically to serve small business owners. Sam's club is partnering with another group and being backed by the Small Business Association for a loan program to provide loans for $5,000 to $25,000 for Sam's Clubs members, current interest rates, about 7.5 percent.

Some are slightly higher there so they're wanting to get money in your pocket --

CHETRY: So is that better than --

ROMANS: -- so that you can go spend it at Sam's Club.

CHETRY: Is that better than you would get from a bank?

ROMANS: Well, some banks aren't doing this business. You know, quite frankly so 7.5 percent is pretty much in line if you have good credit and a good business model that's pretty much in line --

ROBERTS: Can that money be used for anything or only --

ROMANS: It could be used for capital expenses, but the whole Sam's Club's hope is that you're going to be using that to buy supplies for your small business there.

Also, shoppers stimuli from target, a 5 percent discount for cardholders. Target also is going to be unveiling this new kind of pharmacy card where if you fill five prescriptions and you get 5 percent coupon for your next purchase anywhere in the store. Toys 'R' Us has a holiday fund for Christmas savers they say, where you can put up to $2,500 on a Toys 'R' Us card and then you get up to 3 percent, you get a bonus there. Of course, at the end of the year, you spend it on your little darlings at Toys R Us. So Toys 'R' Us trying to get you to save so that you'll spend money there.

Staples has also a program with some free items and penny sales. Again, the idea here is to get money out of the pockets of people who have it and get it spending again. I think you are going to be seeing some very interesting and creative ways for them to try to separate you from your money if you have a job. This is a cash crop for these retailers and they want to try that two years after a recession, to get it.

CHETRY: They have to fight for your business. They are offering you incentives to do it at their place.

ROMANS: Absolutely.

CHETRY: Do you have a sample this morning?

ROMANS: I do and it's $75 a day.

CHETRY: $75 a day, this is how much people are spending at --

ROMANS: Yes, it's the disposable income of somebody with a job is $75 a day. This is what we're dropping out of our pockets every day. This what Sam's Club, Target, Toys R Us, this is what they want.

CHETRY: So daily spending for employed Americans. Where does it go to?

ROBERTS: Whole foods.

ROMANS: The gas tank. They want a little piece of that and they know that they're all fighting for that $75 a day.

ROBERTS: $70 to whole foods. The other $5 to --

ROMANS: If you are underemployed that number is only $48 so you can see the big difference.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine.

Prince Harry always wins hearts when he is on this side of the pond. So can a visit by a royal couple trump that today? Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edenburg's New York tour more than 30 years in the making just ahead. Stay with us. It's 24.5 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty seven minutes after the hour. New York City is going to have a regal look today as Queen Elizabeth makes her long- awaited return. It has been more than 30 years since her majesty hit Manhattan and was declared by mayor to be an honorary New Yorker.

CHETRY: Over five-hour tour, it's just five hours actually, it's going to be jam-packed. She will be making her first address to the United Nations in 50 years and also her first ever visit to Ground Zero. Our Richard Roth is here to talk about all the buzz and excitement that accompanies a royal visit. Truly, London is calling.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN U.N. SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Right, good morning. I'm still trying to get over the mention of a beam. I haven't heard his name on "American Morning" in a while.

Good morning. It is a short visit as you mentioned there, John, compared to her week-long Canadian tour she is completing, but New York will take what it can get. Many people weren't aware she was coming, but when prompted, didn't hesitate to offer their welcome thoughts. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH (voice-over): It will be queen for half day in New York City.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her majesty, the queen of England, will be here, going to visit --

ROTH: Her first visit since 1976.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She has not been to New York in 30 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She hasn't been here since 19 -- does she now like New York?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She will love it, she will love it. Why not?

ROTH: At Tea and Sympathy in Greenwich Village, the queen is already here. Owner and dual citizen, (Nicky Perry) is upset she won't be here for the queen.

NICKY PERRY, OWNER, TEA & SYMPATHY: I would love to offer her a nice piece of (inaudible) and a cup of tea.

ROTH: I try to prepare the former (inaudible).

(on camera): Could you bow for me? Not bad. What would you tell her?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would I tell here? That you are beautiful.

ROTH: Don't you tell that to all the women on the street in the summer here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do because there is a different beauty involved here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If she's around and wants to get high tea with me, just give me a call.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would try and sell her a diamond watch.

ROTH: Do you think she needs jewelry?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone needs jewelry.

ROTH: What do American not know, I mean, we don't know what it is like to have a queen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have plenty of queens in America.

ROTH (voice-over): A queen could have some royal fun in the big city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She makes highly scripted visits. She isn't going to be doing what Prince Harry did the other day in New York, getting on a polo pony and falling off, which made news all around.

ROTH: Some New Yorkers would rather the grandkids stayed longer.

(on camera): You would like to have tea with her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, or her grandsons.

ROTH: The queen will first speak to the world at the United Nations as she did in 1957. She was 31 years old then she noted the U.N.'s problems.

QUEEN ELIZABETH: Time has, in fact, made the task of the United Nations more difficult than it seemed when the terms of the charter were agreed at San Francisco 12 years ago.

ROTH: Then, it's a motorcade trip downtown perhaps passing this musician.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she would just go like this like she does to everybody instead of like that, which would be pretty cool.

ROTH: The queen visits where the Twin Towers stood and a garden where the 67 British citizens who died on 9/11 are remembered.

RODNEY JOHNSON, VICE-CHAIR, BRITISH GARDEN MEMORIAL TRUST: This is the place for the British. And it's also about the unity of our two nations. You know, we've been -- ever since we got over 1776, we've been shoulder to shoulder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll say, God bless the queen.

ROTH: What about God save the queen?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God save the queen, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: The queen speaks to the U.N. after 3:00 east coast time. Today, the U.N. has greatly expanded its roster since the last time the queen was there in 1957, but it's beset by even more global issues.

CHETRY: How come 30 years have passed or more?

ROTH: Not sure on that. Maybe we'll find out later. I think she is the head of state of 16 countries, ruling the commonwealth, 54 nations. I think she has other countries she has to worry about visiting.

ROBERTS: Well, she has -- she has been to the United States --

ROTH: Right.

ROBERTS: -- in 1991 and she was here in 2007.

ROTH: Right. Jamestown and she's been in the Kentucky Derby a few times. It's New York that --

CHETRY: Thirty-three years since she's been in New York.

ROTH: Yes, 1976. Thirty-four.

CHETRY: Time flies. It will be great to see her though.

ROTH: I wish it was '76 again, don't you?

CHETRY: No.

ROBERTS: I wish it was 1776, you know, we could start all over again.

ROTH: That's right. I think we have a Declaration to read in the prompter by the way on that day.

ROBERTS: Richard, thanks. We're going to bring you back with Richard Quest a little bit later on.

ROTH: OK. Great.

ROBERTS: All right. It will be like soccer, you and Max Kellerman.

ROTH: Yes, I'm always with a partner. It seems like a buddy crime film I see you guys running here.

ROBERTS: Exactly.

CHETRY: Since you work so well with others.

ROTH: Yes, that's right.

CHETRY: Thanks, Richard.

ROTH: Yes, I try. Thank you.

CHETRY: Well, it's now 31 minutes past the hour -- time for a look at our top stories this morning.

President Obama will be focusing on improving relations between Palestinians and Israelis as he meets with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu now says that he is ready to meet with Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas. Settlements and ongoing security issues in Gaza continue to be big sticking points for negotiations.

ROBERTS: Tar balls from the Gulf oil spill are turning up in new places. Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana is now off limits to fishing. Oil has also washed up on the beaches in Galveston, Texas. That's more than 400 miles west of the oil spill.

CHETRY: And blistering heat is expected across the northeast today. Dangerously hot in many areas -- 100 degrees and higher possible in places like New York, Philadelphia, D.C. And the heat wave may not break for the rest of the week. It was actually 10 degrees warmer in Philadelphia than Atlanta yesterday.

ROBERTS: So, it's going to be a hot one for the queen today. She'd better be wearing a sun hat all day.

CHETRY: She will be. I'm sure.

ROBERTS: After a long holiday weekend, things could get nasty on Wall Street when trading starts in just a few hours.

The Dow, the NASDAQ, the S&P 500, are all down double digits from recent highs. We are teetering closer and closer to a bear market.

CHETRY: And so, what does that mean for you? What should you do with your retirement fund, with your kids' college accounts?

The CNN Money team is asking the experts. Many who say that the best advice right now: Don't panic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, just about the only thing that experts agree on right now is on certainty, with stocks heading their lowest levels of the year on Friday and talk surfacing of a potential double dip recession. Investigators are looking for guidance.

We sat down with one financial adviser here in New York to find out what he's telling his clients.

(voice-over): Similar to advice you would be given by coping with a heat wave, staying cool in the financial markets is key right now, say some advisers, as the market lurches lower.

GREG OLSEN, LENOX ADVISERS: If there's one bit of advice, it's take the emotion out of investing. If you have a long-term time horizon, stick to that time horizon. And if you read "The New York Times" on a Sunday and it said, going to the mountains with your guns and your cans of soup, that's not something to panic about. So, it's one person's opinion. You want to make sure if you have a long-term view, you stick with that long-term view.

SNOW: Greg Olsen is a partner with Lenox Advisers, who's been fielding calls from investors as doubts mount about the economy's recovery, tumbling stock prices.

The S&P 500, the index that mirrors many investors' mutual funds, is down 16 percent since April.

And the outlook is murky as worries mount over Europe's debt crisis, and the job market in the U.S. is sluggish and housing market is weak.

(on camera): What's the biggest mistake somebody can make right now?

OLSEN: Selling at the wrong time. Taking your money out when the market is doing well, not after it pulls back by 15 percent. And if you're pulling money out of the market now, only do that if you needed the money and it shouldn't have been in the market in the first place.

SNOW (voice-over): Where to put that money for your kids' college or retirement? Olsen now puts 50 percent of investments in stock, 30 percent in bonds, and the rest in alternatives, like pressure metals that include gold.

OLSEN: Gold is a great inflation hedge. And you have to think that one of the only ways that the governments, not only ours but in Europe, are going to get out of the banking crisis is by printing money, and gold is the only currency that you can't print.

SNOW (on camera): With so much uncertainty, Olsen does expect the markets to move another 10 percent to 15 percent, but he doesn't know in which direction. He's just one financial adviser. But most would agree, the closer you are to retirement age, the less risk you're likely to take with your money -- John and Kiran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Mary Snow for us in this morning -- Mary, thanks so much.

BP has got a plan to trap a lot more of the oil that's gushing into the Gulf. And in just a moment, we'll talk to the CEO behind a new platform that's on scene there that could double the amount of oil captured. Is this a way to finally sop up all of that oil that's spewing into the Gulf? We'll find out.

It's 36 minutes after the hour.

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ROBERTS: Thirty-nine minutes after the hour now.

There's a new plan to dramatically increase the amount of oil that BP is recovering from its gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico. The company has brought in a new vessel, the Helix Producer I. It's a floating platform that's able to process as much as 25,000 barrels a day. The system is also designed to easily disconnect and reconnect in the event of a major storm.

Joining us now is Owen Kratz. He's the CEO of Helix Energy Solutions Group.

Owen thanks for being with us this morning.

I guess -- the flexibility of this ship is also at the moment its downfall. You're supposed to be able to easily connect or disconnect from that floating riser in the Gulf of Mexico. But the weather has so far prevented you from doing that?

OWEN KRATZ, CEO, HELIX ENERGY SOLUTIONS GROUP: Unfortunately. Thank you for having me this morning. Good morning.

Unfortunately, that is correct. But I think it highlights one of the difficulties of responding in a situation like this. Typically, you would have a design and build the hardware that connects the ship to the wellhead made far in advance with methodologies and procedures in place for setting during rougher weather.

Unfortunately, following an accident like this, we've had to look around at the industry and source the materials and put them together in a way that allows us to connect here in a way that works. Unfortunately, the way that it's been built here is not optimized for --

ROBERTS: Yes.

KRATZ: -- in -- you know, installing it in rough weather. So, we're going to have to wait for the weather to drop down to about four to six foot seas.

ROBERTS: Got you. Yes, you know, it's been sort of likened to Apollo 13. A lot of this has been done with duct tape, spit, and bailing twine.

When do you think that you'll be able to connect up and when you do connect up, how much extra oil will you be able to process daily?

KRATZ: Well, we're watching the weather closely right now. I think we have weather building through this week and the indications are in the forecast that it should be laying down this coming weekend. So, we're hopeful for getting it installed at that point. But we're just going to have to watch the weather.

Once we do get it installed, the ship itself can handle 60,000 barrels of liquids, 45,000 barrels of oil a day. But the way that it's being connected here is a little restricted. So we're hoping to get 25,000 a day out of it -- combined with the 25,000 that's currently being collected, that should be getting pretty close.

ROBERTS: So, does that mean, Owen, that we'll finally see all those bubbles and that extra oil that's coming around from underneath that top cap finally disappear because it will all be going up that riser pipe to be processed.

KRATZ: That's the plan. And I believe Bp even has more capacity in the works coming on after this, just to get more redundancy in the process. But hopefully, that's the plan. And nobody wants to see the day where we announce that there's no more oil coming out more than the people involved.

ROBERTS: You know, last week, Hurricane Alex came through and we saw what it did to the oil recovery efforts there, although they were able to keep with those big platforms still drilling the relief wells and still collecting most of their oil. But the skimmer ships all had to go home.

There's another storm that's brewing down there off the Yucatan Peninsula now. And with an extraordinarily active hurricane season forecast by NOAA, what impact do you think that's going to have in the ability in the efforts to contain all of that oil?

KRATZ: Right. The BP and the Coast Guard have a plan in place whereby, you know, the systems of ships starts peeling away like layers of an onion --

ROBERTS: Yes.

KRATZ: -- starting, I think, it is 120 hours before gale force winds are forecasted. We can actually stay on site a lot longer than the skimmers can. For instance, this last storm, we didn't depart the location at all.

ROBERTS: And, yes, because we should point out that your company already has that Q4000 unit out there. That was the one that just for reference purposes was involved in the top kill operation.

You know, before the disaster, BP said that it was capable of skimming 500,000 barrels of oil per day. Over the course of 77 days, it's only come to 60 percent of that. Did BP just wildly overestimate what it could do or in the wake of this, does the industry fundamentally have to rethink its capabilities?

KRATZ: Well, I think there's a lot of rethinking that goes in place. A lot of the oil spill response was put in place with OPA '90, following the Valdez incident. That's a completely different style of incident and a different order of magnitude.

ROBERTS: Right.

KRATZ: Once the oil gets way from the wellhead, it's going to disperse geographically, compounding the difficulties of collecting it immensely. I think that highlights the importance of having a system in place at the wellhead where you can collect the oil.

It's a little misnomer about, you know, trying to kill the well. Sometimes that's not the most prudent thing to do. But the first priority should be to collect the oil. And for that, there definitely needs -- I think we have the building blocks in place out there. And like I said before, trying -- the biggest problem here is trying to design, engineer and then procure and fabricate everything you need.

ROBERTS: Yes. And we should point out too that you have suggested putting together a response consortium so that if there's ever another deep water blowout, you do have things in place to be able to tackle it immediately. Now, there was, obviously, a learning curve here in BP ramping up its efforts to collect the oil.

But have you really learned anything where you could have all of the equipment in place to go in there and stop the oil? Or is it just basically still to contain it until you can get a relief well drilled?

KRATZ: Ultimately, the relief well is your surest bet of killing it. And when you have an incident like this, you have some uncertainty about the well integrity. So, you don't necessarily want to stop the oil. You definitely want to collect it, though.

And in that regard, there has been a lot learned here. A lot of the hardware could be saved. A lot of it reused. It's a matter of putting it under say the auspices of the Coast Guard.

And for this incident, the Coast Guard didn't have the resources to respond. Following this, I think they will. It would be simple. It's not that hard working in a mile deep of water. The problem is just having the hardware to install when you need it.

ROBERTS: All right. Well, hopefully, if there's another episode like this in the future, and we're hopeful that there won't be, there'd be a better response to it.

Owen Kratz from the Helix Energy Solutions Group -- thanks for being with us this morning. Good to see you.

KRATZ: Thank you.

CHETRY: Right now, it's 45 minutes past the hour.

We have Jacqui Jeras in for Rob today. She's keeping an eye on the extreme heat that we're going to seeing up and down the east coast today. She has also the morning's travel forecast for you right after the break.

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CHETRY: Billy Idol certainly had it right today. Forty-eight minutes past the hour. At 5:00 in the morning, it was 84 degrees already, still 84, but that's going to feel like nothing compared to later on today in New York when it's going to be sunny, 101 degrees and high humidity to boot.

ROBERTS: Good thing about New York City is that there's plenty of shade from all the tall buildings, and I'm sure (ph) you walk on the shady side of the street.

Here in New York City, we have Spiderman, in Metropolis, it's Superman, Gotham City has Batman, and now, a small town of Columbia, Tennessee, Southern Nashville (ph) has a crime fighter of its own. A 20-year-old college student is patrolling the streets dressed in a mask and a super hero costume calling himself --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The viper, I believe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The viper.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe the masked viper. I don't know. He needs something to do. Probably needs a job. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope it's coming from the aspect that he's just wanting to do something fun and maybe entertaining to grab some attention.

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ROBERTS: The viper who's actually Christian Hardy. He told the local paper that he loves comic books and was just looking for crimes to report to police adding, quote, "I'm just a guy trying to do what's right in tights.

CHETRY: What is he doing?

ROBERTS: Just walking around looking for crimes, reporting them to police. Oh, I saw Kiran jaywalking today. Let me call the police.

CHETRY: Yes, he appeared to be in a mug shot himself. That was just his photo?

ROBERTS: I think they caught him in this. They didn't like somebody walking around in a mask or something.

CHETRY: I don't know anybody that's going to be able to wear that costume today anywhere all around (ph) the east coast.

ROBERTS: Or maybe it was the tights?

CHETRY: Yes, maybe that either because -- it looked a little hot for this time of year, especially. Fifty minutes past the hour.

Jacqui Jeras is checking out the forecast for us. Can you imagine trying to wear that today walking down any street in Boston, Philly, New York, or D.C.? Forget it. It would not right off you.

JERAS: I would not recommend it, certainly not. In fact, go with the lightweight, loose-fitting clothes. Cotton would be recommended highly today and maybe as little as possible, but of course, always be appropriate, right? You know, the temperature on the thermometer today, guys, not quite as important as what it's going to feel like to your body, and you know, you can pretty much add five degrees to what it says on the thermometer. And that's the temperature your body is going to be feeling. So, a large area will be feeling the temperature like 100 to 105, maybe even pushing 106 in places like Philadelphia today.

So, it really will be brow tall (ph), kind a short-lived heat wave as this is going to be dying out by Thursday, and we'll see improving conditions here, but in the meantime, we could see some records today, 101 New York, 102 in Washington, D.C., even hot down there in Raleigh. You might be asking yourself why is it going to be cooler into Atlanta. The core of the high is a little further north and we have more descending air. When air descends, it compresses and it helps to heat it up. So, that high pressure has taken in place across parts of the east for today. The nation's midsection still dealing with stormy conditions. Flight risk with severe weather for parts of Colorado into South Dakota today. And check out these pictures out of Colorado from yesterday. Man, some large hail was coming down. (INAUDIBLE). Baseball to golf ball size hail, damaged quite a few vehicles, and it was thick as about a half a foot in some places. Also, keeping our eye on the tropics, a little area of low pressure developed yesterday into northern Gulf and kind of made its way on shore without becoming terribly eventful. So, we didn't get a tropical system there.

And we're also watching an area of disturbed weather near the Yucatan and the models bringing on the very similar path as Alex, guys. Something will have to watch. We don't think the chances of it developing are terribly high, but certainly will continue to churn things up in the Gulf of Mexico, of course, not good for that oil area.

CHETRY: Not at all. Looks like a mess out there. All right. Jacqui, thanks so much.

This morning's top story is just a few minutes away including a large scale disaster, large scale solution. It is the world's biggest oil skimmer ready for the Gulf oil spill. We're in the Gulf with answers.

ROBERTS: And an "AM Original" this morning. Big stars, big giving. Alec Baldwin on the ups and downs of Hollywood. Why he is ready to give it all up and how he's giving back in a big way? Those stories and more coming your way beginning at the top of the hour.

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CHETRY: Fifty-five minutes past the hour now. With the job market already stressed, it's been really hard for teenagers to find summer work. And the Congressional Black Caucus says the problem is even worse for African-American teens in big cities. So, what they're doing is pitching a plan that they say will level the playing field and possibly create up to 400,000 jobs. Brianna Keilar tells us Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate are worried about the price tag.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kyle Flora grew up in one of the roughest parts of Washington, D.C. in the shadow of the capital.

KYLE FLORA, DC SUMMER JOBS PARTICIPATING: As soon as I turned 12, I was able to work.

KEILAR: Coaching children in the city's homerun baseball camp, a job he got through D.C.'s youth employment plan. Many teenagers in Kyle's neighborhood spent their summers much differently.

FLORA: They would be getting into trouble, I know that.

KEILAR: What kind of trouble? FLORA: I mean, in my neighborhood, it would be the things, you know, selling drugs and, you know, it wouldn't be the right things. It wouldn't be things that I'm interested in.

KEILAR: He says working kept him off the street. Unlike Kyle, a lot of inner city teenagers can't find a job. 23.2 percent of young white Americans are unemployed, but almost 40 percent of African- Americans of the same age are out of work.

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, (D) D.C. DELEGATE: Unemployment should not be a racial issue, but that's what it's become.

KEILAR: Washington, D.C.'s Congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton along with other members of the Congressional Black Caucus fought to get $1 billion for youth employment programs approved by the House of Representatives, but it's a cost that would add to the deficit. And in the Senate, a few fiscally conservative Democrats along with Republicans could strip out the funding.

SEN. SCOTT BROWN, (R) MASSACHUSETTS: Of course, we want to help with summer jobs. We also have to have tough choices, and we also need to live within our means.

KEILAR: What do you say to critics who say this is a good cost, but this shouldn't add to the deficit?

NORTON: Are we going to reduce the deficit on the backs of unemployed people and unemployed youth at back (ph)? How much do we contribute to the deficit by getting $1 billion out for youth unemployment?

KEILAR: Across town, Kyle Flora is teaching kids to feel the baseball, working his last summer job before heading to college. He's concerned these kids won't have the opportunities he's had, and he's certainly not concerned about deficit spending.

FLORA: This saves lives, I feel. Is that important? I mean, the money is needed. The money is going to a good cause.

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KEILAR (on-camera): I spoke with Republican sources who agree, but they say you still have to pay for it. There are, of course, a lot of voters who are extremely concerned about government spending right now and those midterm elections are just around the corner -- John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: Brianna Keilar for us this morning. But is there another way? Still ahead on the Most News in the Morning, meet one teen who created her own summer job. Find out how she did it. We'll also talk with the program leader trying to help other teens find their inner entrepreneur. That's at 8:40 eastern right here on the Most News in the Morning.

CHETRY: Sounds pretty cool. Hey, if you can't get one, make your own. ROBERTS: Make your own. Exactly.

CHETRY: Your top stories coming your way after a quick break.

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