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American Morning
Heat Wave Washes Over Northeast; Justice Department Brings Suit Against Immigration Law; Obama vs. Arizona: Administration Sues State Over Immigration Law; Internet Redefining Your Reputation; Lady Gaga Gives Back; Sixty Percent of Oily Birds Collected Already Dead; Poised to Plug the Well?; Addicted to Love
Aired July 07, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Glad you're with us. It's Wednesday, July 7th on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm John Roberts. Thank you for being with us today. We've got a lot to talk about this morning. Let's get right to it.
A dangerous heat wave hanging over the northeast today, sweltering triple digit temperatures shattering records from New York all of the way down to Virginia. Power companies pleading with people to conserve energy or face outages. The heat will not be breaking any time soon.
CHETRY: Also the heat is on in Arizona but not the mercury. We're talking about the Obama administration now suing the state over its new controversial immigration law that critics say admits to racial profiling. But public opinion seems to be on the side of Arizona. Is that going to be a political hot potato for the White House?
ROBERTS: Grammy awards, number one hits, and a following that's global. To many Lady Gaga is an icon, but she's teaming up with a serious fight. How Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper are teaming up to battle waves.
CHETRY: Today is day three of a record breaking heat wave suffocating the northeast. Triple digit temperatures setting historic highs in several states yesterday. The kind of heat that literally makes it hard to breathe and unfortunately it's not letting up any time soon.
ROBERTS: It was 103 degrees in Central Park yesterday. Record temperatures also recorded in states like Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania. And in Philadelphia a 92-year-old woman was found dead in her apartment by a neighbor. She didn't have any air conditioning.
CHETRY: Rob Marciano has been tracking the heat wave from the CNN extreme weather center and will let us know what to expect today and for the rest of the week in just a moment. We begin with Jason Carroll on the outskirts of New York's Central Park. Hey there, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kiran. We're expecting more heat today, 99 degrees as a high in New York City, yesterday, 103 degrees. It was the hottest July 6th ever in the city. But there's a little bit of good news, the heat is not going to last.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Those on the east coast didn't need to see triple digit temperatures to know how hot it was. They felt it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm melting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very hot. We're not used to this.
CARROLL: So hot in New Jersey a state of emergency is declared, while in New York City, Con Edison is concerned the customers will crank up air in their homes and strain the system. But for those living without air conditioning, Alfred Roblero lives without it in a six-floor walkup apartment.
ALFRED ROBLERO, LIVING WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING: The elevator doesn't work.
CARROLL (on camera): Not only do we have the heat but you now have to walk six flights up to your apartment.
CARROLL (voice-over): City officials don't keep records on how many people there are like Alfred without air conditioners suffering in the heat. But they do know when the temperatures hit the hundreds living in apartments like this can be dangerous.
CARROLL (on camera): How difficult is it for you?
ROBLERO: It's terrible. Most of the time my heart is bumping like needs air because of the heat.
CARROLL (voice-over): Alfred and his wife keep lights off, fans on, windows open. It helps, but not much.
CARROLL (on camera): How hot would you say it is in here?
ROBLERO: I don't know, probably 98 degrees.
CARROLL (voice-over): Buying an air conditioner is not an option. Instead the extra money is needed to buy supplies for their college bound daughter.
ROBLERO: I need something for my daughter. She needs a book or something. I need to make the decision. I prefer to take the heat and provide to her.
CARROLL: The city's mayor encouraging people like Alfred and his wife to spend their days if possible in libraries, theaters, or cooling centers like this one, 480 operating in New York City. Similar sites set up in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. But there's always those who sweat it out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had a pair of pants made out of talcum powder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't mind it. I just remember what it is like when the snow is on the ground and it doesn't bother me that much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Kiran and John, by this weekend we're expecting things to cool off by a few degrees. As both of you guys know, every degree helps when it gets this hot. Kiran, John?
CHETRY: You feel for them. Couldn't he and his wife go to one of the cooling centers? We talked about how there's nearly 500 around the city, or try to go to the mall or someplace where there's a little bit of air conditioning.
CARROLL: The problem is for Alfred is that his wife can't make it down those six flights. And so he doesn't want to leave her at home by herself. So it's very, very difficult for him to head out and leave her there alone. So going to a cooling center isn't really an option for both of them, at least not right now.
ROBERTS: There has to be something we can do to get them some help. Can you post their story on our blog and maybe somebody can reach out?
CARROLL: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Jason.
(WEATHER BREAK)
CHETRY: Meanwhile, also new this morning, it was too late for tears. Lindsay Lohan is going to prison. A judge sentenced the actress to 90 days behind bars and 90 days in rehab after that. She asked for mercy and then broke down sobbing when reality hit.
All of it stems from two drunk driving arrests in 2007 and then for playing games with the court in the three years since those arrests. Lohan is expected to only do a quarter of 90 days in jail and she will be kept from general population in prison.
ROBERTS: It kind of reminds you a little bit of the Robert Downey Jr. situation, and extraordinarily talented actor, actress, just couldn't get it together but finally did. Maybe this will be the thing that shocks her back on the straight and narrow.
Terrifying sight but strategy was averted at a Texas Rangers- Cleveland Indians game last night. A fan who was reaching for a foul ball fell 30 feet from the second deck to the field level. The incident itself wasn't captured on video, but you can see players and umpire were visibly upset by it. Look at that. Goodness. The game was stopped as the fan was treated and taken to a local hospital. The fan, so lucky, reportedly only suffered a broken ankle. A couple people in field level seats were injured but only minor injuries. It could have been so much worse than that.
CHETRY: He got lucky for sure.
Still ahead, President Obama versus the state of Arizona, a huge immigration showdown coming to a courtroom. Does the federal government have a case? Could it cost the White House down the line? We'll speak with Jeffrey Toobin, our legal analyst, in just a couple of minutes.
It's eight minutes past the house.
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CHETRY: It's President Obama versus the state of Arizona, the administration taking a bold political stand and a big political year.
ROBERTS: It's suing the state over its new tough and very controversial immigration law. How is this case going to play out in court? CNN's senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us now.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has quickly become the face of immigration reform in this country, says "our state is under attack from the federal government." But what do you make of the Department of Justice case here?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's a really interesting strategy the Justice Department pursued. It's not a case where they are claiming racial profiling or violation of the rights of the people targets of the law.
They are saying the federal government is the victim here, that this law violates the separation of powers between the states and the federal governments and that under the is u supremacy law in the constitution which says that federal law always trumps state law, that immigration is an area uniquely reserved to the power of the federal government.
We can't have states having patchwork sets of immigration laws around the country, so the court should declare it unconstitutional on that ground alone.
CHETRY: It's interesting, because when you talk about immigration enforcement, it usually is a state and federal and sometimes local levels all working together to enforce those laws.
TOOBIN: Correct. And that's why the federal government's claim here is not a slam dunk. That's why it's a hard case because usually the states and localities do have some role in enforcing immigration laws. It's usually cooperative.
But here the government is claiming that this will interfere with federal efforts and therefore has to be struck from the books. ROBERTS: Law enforcement agencies in the state of Arizona say that they are very careful to make sure that people's civil rights are not being trampled on and resist the notion it's racial profiling in any way. The argument in the state of Arizona is the federal government is not doing its job so we have to pass these laws because there's a trickledown effect.
Is there precedent for that?
TOOBIN: There's not a direct precedent on this case. The fact that the federal government is not doing its job is not really a complete answer to this lawsuit because there are certain areas of the constitution that are simply reserved to the federal government whether it does a good job or not.
For example, if Mexico were violating the border sending troops across, Arizona could not declare war in Mexico. Declaring war is something only the federal government can do, whether it's smart, dumb, right, wrong, that's reserved to the federal government. That's the argument here.
You may not like the federal government is behaving here but this is an area that you simply can't have 50 states litigating in.
CHETRY: We talk about how it is controversial. The latest CNN opinion research corporation poll shows nearly 60 percent of people favor Arizona versus 37 who oppose it. There is something unseemly about the federal government coming down on the side of not enforcing law regardless of all of the issues at stake.
TOOBIN: I think that's an interesting point. I'm a little skeptical of that poll, to tell you the truth. I don't know how much people know out there in the world follow the Arizona law in and of itself. That poll strikes me as people just sort of voicing general --
CHETRY: This isn't the first one where people said -- our other poll in May said people want immigration policy to focus on enforcement and deportation over a comprehensive path to citizenship. That seems to be the mood of the country.
TOOBIN: That is, although another way of looking at this politically is Hispanics are the biggest growing minority in this country. The Republican Party has essentially sided with enforcement over immigration reform. This is an attempt by the Obama administration to remind Hispanics who are frustrated by the lack of an immigration reform bill that we're on their side. The Democratic Party is a party that cares about Hispanics. That may be in the long run more important than whatever is said about this particular poll. So I don't think the politics of this are obvious one way or another.
ROBERTS: Do you expect that this is going to make its way all the way to the Supreme Court given the makeup of the court? How do you expect it may roll?
TOOBIN: This is a really tough case because there are different crosscurrents. The conservatives generally believe in strong federal power. But conservatives also believe in a narrow conception of what constitutes discrimination, racial profiling. There are immigration groups, Hispanic groups who are filing lawsuits against this law on the grounds of racial profiling. So undoubtedly, they'll be merged together. The law doesn't even go into effect until July 29th. Another problem with the federal government's lawsuit is that a lot of judges prefer to say, hey, let's let --
ROBERTS: They can't show injury.
TOOBIN: Yes, let's -- let this law go into effect. Let's wait until you want to make an as applied challenge as opposed to what's called the facial challenge, so there are a lot of crosscurrents, a lot of legal strategizing going on. I expect it will certainly go up to the circuit court of appeals, probably the Supreme Court. But, I what's so interesting about it is that it's as much a political issue as it is a legal issue.
CHETRY: All right. Jeffrey Toobin, great to get your take as always. Thanks for being with us this morning.
TOOBIN: Thank you.
CHETRY: It is for sure.
Well, coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, the Internet as well as social networking may be redefining and redefining how we do business. But watch out because they also maybe redefining you and your reputation. Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" next.
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CHETRY: Nineteen minutes past the hour. Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" this morning. We're talking a little bit about how the Internet is changing not only the way people do business but also your online reputation.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is fast. And we've had some other studies that have shown that maybe we're becoming more shallow. Maybe we're not having these deeper relationships. But this, well, you've heard of this.
ROBERTS: Oh, come on.
ROMANS: Oh, John. You know, we're jumping around, we're multitasking. How's Internet changing our life?
Well, the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life study is really fascinating, finding that mostly people think it's good. The Internet is making our life better.
Is it a positive force? Eighty-five percent say it's a positive force for reasons like the ease of communication, no geography, no time constraints, lowers --
ROBERTS: Online shopping.
ROMANS: -- lowers the cost of communication. Fourteen percent say it's a negative force. So we know that the Internet is something that's changing at least by this survey for the better our lives. But one of the interesting side notes here is this concern about what it's going to do for our reputation? What is the reputational risk of all of the ease of this information?
One of the comments in this report was fascinating. I want to read it to you. "As information shrinks our world, it will become easier for one's misdeeds to return to them or for outburst of regrettable behavior to be reported and shared. For better or worse, technology makes the citizenry its own Big Brother. Some will welcome this as transparency; others will feel oppressed."
Another commentator in this report noted that some people like to live in a little town. Some people like to live in a big city. The Internet makes everything kind of a big city. And so some people are going to be a little uncomfortable and not know how to navigate it. But we're just learning really about all of this shared information, this availability of information and how the longer term effects will be.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: Do you think it makes you --
CHETRY: Oversharing? Young kids we talk about it. I mean, if we had pictures and Twitter chronicling every single thing we did in high school and college --
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: -- it may not be a good thing for some of us.
ROBERTS: We keep reminding young people don't let anybody take a nude photograph of you because it's going end up on the Internet.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: If not the front page of the newspaper as we saw.
CHETRY: That's right.
ROMANS: Which brings me to my "Romans' Numeral," which is 79 percent. And this is a cautionary tale for anybody looking for a job -- 79 percent.
CHETRY: Seventy-nine percent of employers Google you before hiring.
ROMANS: Yes, either Google or look at LinkedIn or look at Google Images to see what kind of blog posts you've put up. Seventy-nine percent of recruiters check online information that is available about you.
CHETRY: And this has made a whole new business out there. Have you heard about Reputation Defender?
ROBERTS: Reputation Defender, yes.
CHETRY: And other ways that you can clean up your reputation online.
ROMANS: Really?
CHETRY: That's a fascinating thing.
ROBERTS: Oh, yes.
CHETRY: They'll move articles down and expunge certain pictures. I mean, it's really interesting.
ROBERTS: Because if you Google your name -- I know you've never done this before. But if you Google your name --
ROMANS: I don't want to know.
ROBERTS: -- things come up in a certain order.
ROMANS: Right.
ROBERTS: Reputation Defender will take the ones that you don't like and move them down to the bottom.
CHETRY: Like your Halloween costume from 2000. Just stuff like that.
ROMANS: Poor example.
ROBERTS: Do tell.
CHETRY: You know. Anyway, Christine --
ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine.
ROMANS: Food for thought today.
ROBERTS: She's topping the charts but also teaming up for an important fight. Coming up in our series "Big Stars, Big Giving," we talk to Lady Gaga about her mission to spread AIDS awareness. That's coming right up. It's 23 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Twenty-five minutes after the hour. Your top stories just a few minutes away now. But first, an "A.M. Original," something that you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.
In just a short two years, she's become a Grammy award winner with several number one singles, a fashion icon and rich beyond her wildest dreams.
CHETRY: You're fascinated with this. ROBERTS: $62 million she made last year.
CHETRY: Transformation.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: She went from playing coffee bars where nobody was coming to see her, you know.
CHETRY: Yes, it's all about the outfits, I guess you have to say. But it's Lady Gaga, and she's teaming up with another famous face to spread awareness about AIDS. Alina Cho joins us with part three of our series "Big Stars, Big Giving." And lately, there really is no like Gaga.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There really isn't. Think about it. As you said, two years ago, nobody really knew who she was. Stefani Germanotta, she used to be called. Now, she's Lady Gaga and everyone knows her.
You know there is no denying, guys, that Lady Gaga is one of the biggest stars on the planet. A unique ability to influence her fans. She calls them monsters through her music, her fashion choices, and a philanthropic partnership with MAC Cosmetics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LADY GAGA, GRAMMY-WINNING SINGER-SONGWRITER: I'm your biggest fan. I'll follow you until you love me, papa-paparazzi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO (voice-over): The paparazzi is gaga over Lady Gaga.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gaga --
CHO (on camera): What do you say to your critics who said this is all about shock value?
LADY GAGA, GRAMMY-WINNING SINGER-SONGWRITER: You are right.
CHO (voice-over): Gaga, as she likes to be called, is the master of performance art. A music and fashion phenomenon at age 24. Two Grammys, six number one hits, more than 15 million records sold. A bona fide talent. But this is what gets everyone's attention.
(on camera): How do you even decide what to wear?
LADY GAGA: For me, it's important to always keep that connection with my fans. So no matter what I'm wearing, whether it's high fashion that it was on the runway last week or it's a leather jacket that I found at a vintage shop, I need to create things and wear things that they can always replicate.
CHO: But the truth is that most people in the world can't do this, right?
LADY GAGA: It's not exactly true. The last thing you want to do as an artist is create something that feels like you can't touch it, or you don't deserve it, or I can't have that. My hair bow, you can make a hair bow for $2.
CHO (voice-over): And Gaga fans, she calls them little monsters do try to replicate her look, whether it's that bow made entirely of hair, or this red latex Elizabethan dress, which she wore to meet the queen, Lady Gaga's fashion choices always inspire even make headlines around the world.
(on camera): And so what do you think the biggest misconception is about you?
LADY GAGA: I don't feel like there's any misconceptions about me. I am whatever you perceive me to be.
CHO (voice-over): Today, she has the House of Gaga, advisers who consult with her on her look. And yet when asked who inspires her, she says her mother. But it's another mentor, Cyndi Lauper, who Gaga is teaming up with to promote AIDS awareness through sales of lipsticks made by MAC Cosmetics.
CYNDI LAUPER, SINGER: Did she do stuff like me and a little stuff like Madonna and a little stuff like David Bowie "Ziggy Stardust" and a little bit of Elton John. But that's what it is.
CHO: Gaga recently sang for free at this black tie affair benefiting amfAR, the foundation for AIDS research. Her outfit made of crushed pearls is meant to blend and be one with the piano.
Her outfit made of crushed pearls is meant to blend and be one with the piano.
LADY GAGA: It's not about money. It's not about prestige. It's not about class. It's about having an identity. And the trick is through pop music, through makeup, through femininity, you sort of encourage young people no matter who you are, and where you come from, harness your identity.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Listen, you can't say she's not passionate. And if there was any doubt about Lady Gaga's influence, listen to this.
Just this week, she became the first living person on the planet to get 11 billion fans on Facebook. That even beats President Obama who has 9.9 million fans. Also, that Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper from our lips campaign from MAC Cosmetics has been the most successful campaign in that company's history. Sales of Gaga and Lauper lipstick, guys, surpassed $5 million globally. That's a lot of lipsticks. And the great part about it is all of that money goes to the MAC AIDS fund, rather, and that goes towards AIDS research. So it's just incredible stuff.
CHETRY: It is.
CHO: She is giving back.
ROBERTS: Well, that's good that she's giving back.
CHO: She is at such an early age.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHO: She's 24 years old. And to sort of have that --
CHETRY: Kids love her.
CHO: Oh, my gosh, her concerts are sold out. She's playing three shows in New York just this week.
CHETRY: Was it strange, though, to interview her with that getup on?
CHO: You know I have to tell you, she's fascinating. I mean, there's no denying she's fascinating. I was just as excited to meet Cyndi Lauper. I have to say I grew up listening to Cyndi Lauper.
CHETRY: Me too.
CHO: So girls just want to have fun.
ROBERTS: I have an old picture of me with Cyndi Lauper that unfortunately hasn't hit the air.
CHETRY: What color was her hair and how long was yours? All right, thanks, Alina. What? The mullets were in back then.
ROBERTS: Even bono had one. I reminded him of that when he came in a year and a half ago. You used to have a mullet too.
CHETRY: Well, it's 30 minutes past the hour. Time for your top stories this morning. They are feeling the heat. We all are across the northeast today and it's continuing. Triple digit temperatures. They shattered records yesterday from New York to Virginia, 103 degrees yesterday in clocked in Central Park. So when will we get some relief?
ROBERTS: Waiting for the verdict on climate gate. An independent report is due out this morning. It examined whether scientists were hiding and manipulating data on climate change. You may remember this all started after e-mails from a leading climate research unit in England were hacked and leaked online. Back in April a separate independent panel found that scientists weren't sketchy just "disorganized."
Oil in the Gulf, crews are working to connect the vessel Helix producer to BP's ruptured oil well. Military retired admiral Thad Allen says it should collect up to 53,000 barrels of oil every day once it is hooked up. It was only partially put up yesterday because rough seas have been delaying the work there. Officials are also eyeing another storm that could cause problems, this one near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
Also developing this morning, a new report from National Geographic raising more red flags about the impact that it is having, the oil spill, on threatened and endangered birds.
Experts say the cleanup crews working in sensitive areas could be causing adult birds to abandon their young and in some cases chicks and eggs being accidentally stepped on. So far the feds say more than 22,300 birds have been collected. Sixty percent were already dead.
Crews though are working feverishly to save the ones they found alive. Our John Zarrella is live in Pensacola, Florida, with more on the rescue mission that's going on right now. A true labor of love for these volunteer workers, John.
JOHN ZARELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's no question about it. You know, these wildlife rescue teams, they work 24/7 as does the rehabilitation center and we visited one yesterday.
You know, the weather has been terrible here so the animal rescue teams haven't been able to get out on the water for several days. In the meantime, the numbers of birds that they're seeing at this facility coming in has gone down and they are hoping that's a good sign.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARELLA (voice-over): This northern gannet struggles with its caretakers. If it only knew how lucky it was to be in their hands. Cleaning is just part of the treatment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It would be provided fluids both orally and IV much like it would happen in a hospital setting or an ICU.
ZARELLA: This is a rehabilitation facility for oiled birds here in Pensacola. It's one of four such centers across the Gulf. Today, there are 52 birds here. Those closest to being released back into the wild mostly (loons and gannets) hang out in swimming pools.
The others not quite so far along in their rehab, sit in pens where they can be watched more closely. They've treated about 100 birds since this facility opened in early May.
(on camera): And now the past couple of days they haven't gotten any birds and that is a good sign.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's wonderful for the wildlife.
ZARELLA: But it's not - it doesn't necessarily mean the worst is over, does it or does it?
HEIDI STOUT, TRI-STATE BIRD RESCUE AND RESEARCH: Well, you know, the geographic magnitude of this spill makes it difficult to really predict what's going to happen a week from now.
ZARELLA (voice-over): The lull right now gives the rescuers and caretakers a chance to catch a breath and just catch up. The numbers they've been dealing with in the four-state area are overwhelming, 157 sea turtles rescued, 444 found dead, 53 of 58 mammals including dolphins and whales found dead.
About 1,000 birds have been rescued, 410 released, nearly 1,400 found dead. No one knows how many have died their remains never found. At least this gannet will live to fly another day. Washing the oil from feathers is a meticulous process. To be waterproof, each and every one of its feathers must be cleaned.
STOUT: It's kind of like shingles on a roof. If one them is damaged then there's going to be water that penetrates through to the skin of that bird.
ZARELLA: When our northern gannet's bath is over, the soap is rinsed from his wings and body with a little tender care in just a couple weeks, it should be free to fly.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
ZARELLA: You know, that washing process is just fascinating. When you watch those people do it and how careful they have to be washing that bird's entire body holding it down.
And you know, Kiran and John, they only wash the bird one time. That's it. They have to get all that oil once. They have to hit every single feather because as I mentioned in the piece, if they don't, just a little spot of oil left there will mean that the bird is no longer waterproof and it wouldn't survive in the wild. John, Kiran --
CHETRY: Right, and they can only wash the bird one time because they don't to put it through all that stress again.
ZARELLA: Right. The stress. Yes, exactly.
ROBERTS: That gannet definitely looked stress when it was being cleaned. John Zarrella for us this morning in Pensacola. John, thanks so much for that.
So the relief wells for the (INAUDIBLE) well that's been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for almost 80 days now. We hear they are within feet of the well bore. So why is it going to take another couple of weeks to get that relief well in place?
We're going to talk with a professor of Petroleum Engineering and lay it all out for you and explain exactly what BP is doing to try to kill these wells. We'll give you information this morning that you can take with you, 36 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty nine minutes after the hour now. After 70 days in an estimated 190 million gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, BP says it is ahead of schedule and it may have the first relief well drilled by the end of this month.
It's believed to be the company's best hope to stop the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, but now there is talk of backups to the backup plan. Here to walk us through the process of killing the well is Gene Beck. He's an associate professor of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University. He's got more than 25 years of experience in well design and operation.
Jean, it's good to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you, John. Good to be here.
ROBERTS: So we've heard from BP that they're within 20 feet of the well bore that they're having the problem with, but it's still going to be at least another couple of weeks maybe a little bit longer before they can get that kill well drilled. Can you explain for folks at home who have no concept of this process why it's taking that long to go a few feet?
GENE BECK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, PETROLEUM ENGINEERING AT TEXAS A&M: Well, you know, the 20 feet that they are talking about is lateral feet from the well bore so going sideways into the well bore. They still want to drill vertically into the well several hundred more feet, but the real key is not the distance right now.
It's the fact that, you know, at this stage of the well, they're going to take their time and make sure that everything is absolutely safe. You know, for the crews drilling the well and for the rig and to make sure that this well bore maintains its integrity through the kill operation.
Because this is not a one-shot -- this is not a one-shot process. We hope it works in one shot, but the relief well will give them access to try numerous methods for killing the well. Numerous fluids that they could pump in.
ROBERTS: You know, Gene, I think that some of the graphics that have been shown over the past six to eight weeks have been somewhat misleading in terms of what this kill well will do. Many of the graphics had it coming in from a 90-degree angle.
But we've got one here that we want to bring up to show folks. It's actually -- when they drill down and this sort of compresses the scale, but they drill down and then they drill over at an angle then they go down straight again parallel with that well bore.
So they may be within 20 feet, but it would actually be maybe several hundred more feet before they intercept the well. Why do they do it at an angle opposed to coming in from the sides?
BECK: If you're coming in vertically and you're paralleling the well, you have a much greater opportunity to gently nudge the well a few inches or a few feet at a time to get close to the blowing out well bore.
If you come at it horizontally, it's like a jet coming in for landing. If you miss the runaway, you have to go around and come back and the way they're doing it, they're giving themselves a very long runway to land this well to get it very close to the blew out well bore.
Coming in parallel to it, you know, if they make an attempt to drill into the well bore and miss, they're just going to be able to continue forward and nudge it in the opposite direction and try to bump into the well. This gives them --
ROBERTS: I was going to say once they bump into the well that's when they start pouring in the heavy fluids down that relief well bore. How does that kill the well?
BECK: OK, so when they do drill into the blowing out well, probably the first thing they're going to see is they'll start losing fluid or drilling mud from the relief well and they'll be prepared to do that and that mud will start entering the blowing out well bore.
And what it will do is seek the same path that the oil is flowing. So if they can get close to the formation where the oil is and start adding mud to the oil at that point, the mud is heavier. It's more dense so it generates more pressure than the oil does.
So you start mixing the mud in with the oil, that mud will follow the same path up the well bore and out to the sea floor or up production systems and as it does that, it begins to generate extra pressure and that pressure is what balances the pressure in the formation and as it overwhelms that pressure in the formation, you will slowly begin to slowly the rate of oil flow down and increase the rate of mud flow.
ROBERTS: So is this a for sure thing? Is this 100 percent?
BECK: I never say a 100 percent in the drilling industry. That doesn't exist in anything that we do. Everything is risk related. I think that the well plan is set up to give them multiple opportunities and not just short it term.
Long-term opportunities to kill the well. I have been saying -- this is purely intuitive. I would say 80 percent chance that the relief well alone will work and I think fairly quickly once they establish communication with the blowing out well.
ROBERTS: All right, Gene Beck.
BECK: Once that happens -
ROBERTS: I was going to say, sorry, Gene Beck, thanks so much for joining us this morning with that. I think you have given people a good perspective on it and a better understanding of how all of this works.
BECK: Well, thank you. You guys have a good day. ROBERTS: All right, thanks. You too. Appreciate it. Kiran --
CHETRY: Forty four minutes past the hour, more triple digit temperatures across the northeast and up and down the east coast actually. Rob Marciano is going to tell us when we're going to get to see a bit of break from this heat wave next.
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CHETRY: Forty-seven minutes past the hour right now. Time to get a quick check of the morning's weather headlines, Rob Marciano in Atlanta.
Boy, if you have an air conditioner, it's cranked. They're even paying that the power grid could be pushed to its limits along the northeast today.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I believe that we had a handful of power outages yesterday and I today we'll have similar, if not more. Temperatures are already in the 80s in some cases, just to start things off, 82 in D.C. and 84 degrees right now in New York City.
So we're starting things off rather warm and things will only get warmer from here. Where the relief is, well, it's really up in Canada. This is some of the hottest times of the year. What we're seeing, rain across parts of the central part of the country and in some cases flooding rains in parts of Oklahoma. Oklahoma City yesterday saw some bad flooding with rescue efforts being made there.
Some of the high temperatures for records, 105 in Baltimore, 104 degrees in - in Trenton. In Central Park, 103. Can you believe that? Some of these numbers we haven't seen in over a decade.
What's going on? High pressure aloft, kind of just sinking that air and creating not a whole lot of wind. Humidity is going to crank in today just a little bit more. We'll have a little bit more of a southerly component to the wind, so instead of it just being that dry heat with over 100 degrees it will be a little bit more moist, a little bit more humid, so that means heat indexes will be very dangerous from Philly to New York and also air quality's going to be a big deal.
We're also starting to see this expand to Detroit and down across parts of the Ohio River Valley, so this is becoming a larger event even though we're starting to see a little bit more relief and that temperature will be maybe two or three degrees cooler today than they were yesterday, a more significant cool down for places like Boston, New York and it's slowly making its way south as we get through, you know, the next couple of days.
Speaking of south, here's the Gulf of Mexico, Yucatan Peninsula and the Northwestern Caribbean, this area of disturbed weather bringing some heavy rain and wind into the Yucatan, getting into the Gulf of Mexico. Now, this will probably gather some strength and could become a tropical depression or even a tropical storm, the track of which heads towards the Brownsville and Northern Mexico direction. We'll be watching this of course very carefully as we go through the next few hours and few days.
John and Kiran, stay cool up there in New York. Back to you.
ROBERTS: We'll do our best. Thanks, Rob.
CHETRY: Well, this morning's top stories just a few minutes away, including when you ask most people who have kids what brings you the most joy, most people say the kids. But why are so many American parents so miserable?
We're going to talk to the author of a New York magazine cover story on the issue.
ROBERTS: First, though, right after the break, might as well face it, you are addicted to love. New proof that love is the drug, and why it may explain those messy breakups.
Those stories and more, just ahead.
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ROBERTS: Well, truer words were never spoken or sung.
Time for your "A.M. House Call" this morning, stories about your health. They say that breaking up is hard to do, but how does your brain react to hearing this? Well, things just aren't working out, or let's just be friends, or it's not you, it's me. Not that I've ever spoken those words before. A new study looks at what's going on in our brains after breakups, breakups that can sometimes turn violent, even deadly.
Ellen Fisher led the study. She's a research professor at Rutgers University. She joins us now. Good morning to you.
HELEN FISHER, RESEARCH PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY: Good morning.
ROBERTS: I am so fascinated by this. I can't tell you.
FISHER: And so am I. I mean, when you think of the amount of stalking and suicide and homicide and clinical depression, I mean, this is one of the most powerful brain systems that we've ever evolved.
ROBERTS: You - you found through your research - and this is extensive research. This has gone on longer -
FISHER: Yes. It took years.
ROBERTS: It gone on longer than a decade, that a breakup affects a profoundly sensitive area of the brain.
FISHER: Right.
ROBERTS: What part of the brain does it affect?
FISHER: Many parts, but the most important part, I think, is a long pathway associated with profound cocaine addiction. Also, an area associated with nicotine addiction.
So it is an addiction, a perfectly wonderful addiction when things are going well and a perfectly horrible addiction when things are going poorly.
ROBERTS: So - so when Robert Palmer sings "You're Addicted to Love", or Roxy Music "Love is the Drug" -
FISHER: Yes. They are right.
ROBERTS: -- it actually is - is true.
FISHER: Absolutely. And in fact, not only that, but you - another part of the brain becomes active, that is intense romantic love. So you're intensely in love with this person. You're really craving them. Other areas associated with pain, physical pain, and the distress of pain and deep attachment to this person. So, you know, I mean, you're really in a bind.
ROBERTS: So - so this really is now - a breakup is really no different then than if you were to go cold turkey off of a bad cocaine addiction or a bad heroin addiction.
FISHER: Absolutely, and this is why you've got to face it as an addiction. I mean, you know, throw out the cards and letters. Don't call. Don't write. Don't try to be friends for at least three years. Go out and do something exciting with friends that drives up dopamine in the brain and makes you feel better.
I mean, just anything instead of ruminating, sitting there and thinking over and over and over about all your pain.
ROBERTS: So - so this idea of distracting yourself -
FISHER: Yes.
ROBERTS: -- that's a good one.
FISHER: Absolutely. In fact, we found that when you think hard about what went wrong, what you can learn, what - what you could do differently, you don't actually get terribly depressed because you're working, you're learning. You're learning about this experience so it doesn't happen next time.
ROBERTS: Now, you - you took 15 subjects.
FISHER: Yes.
ROBERTS: College aged men and women who have recently gone through some pretty bad breakups.
FISHER: And I would have taken older people, but that was the population that I had. But it will happen at any age. That's true.
ROBERTS: And you put them in a functional MRI machine -
FISHER: Right.
ROBERTS: -- so you could actually see the brain working in - in real-time. How did you stimulate the responses?
FISHER: I asked them to bring in two photographs, one of the - of the person who had just rejected them -
ROBERTS: Oh, this was the photograph they're supposed to get rid of?
FISHER: Yes. And -- yes. As they handed this photograph to me, some of the - some of them would say, well, here's the jerk or they would say - they were really suffering, these people. Everybody suffers in love.
But anyway, we'd also have a neutral photograph. So they would look at the positive and they would look at the neutral and we would put all of those scans together, cancel out what they have in common and you're left with the rejected brain.
ROBERTS: And so what did you find out about the rejected brain in terms of where it lit up? Because these functional MRIs could light - light up like a Christmas tree.
FISHER: Yes. All parts of the brain. But very old pathways, pathways - pathways that evolved millions of years ago associated with wanting, with craving, with obsession. Somebody's camping out in your head. But also, areas in the cortex associated with decision making, trying to decide what to do about this.
ROBERTS: Right. You mentioned this right at the very top. Does this explain why - I mean, some people deal with bad breakups. They get sad for a while and they get better.
FISHER: Yes.
ROBERTS: Others just go off the - the deep end and it's stalking or it's even murder, you know, homicide/suicide. Who are the people who are particularly at risk for that? If this is an addiction, could you say that somebody with an addictive personality or the, quote, "gene for addiction" -
FISHER: Yes.
ROBERTS: -- might be really susceptible to that?
FISHER: That's what we've got to find out next. Now that we're beginning to understand what these pathways are, we don't know whether in fact people who are addicted to drugs are hijacking the system and less sensitive to it or stimulating the system and more addicted to it. We don't know your childhood, the role that plays, your sense of self-esteem, your other opportunities. Now that we're beginning to know what some of these pathways are, we can start in that long process of understanding this profoundly basic human problem.
ROBERTS: And - and what about treatment, too? If you understand that - that love is an addiction -
FISHER: Yes.
ROBERTS: -- and breaking up is like going off of a - a bad cocaine addiction, as you said at the top of this, could that give therapists more ammunition to - to deal with somebody with - or, I mean, could it even be pharmaceutical? You take a - a drug that might help get you off of a bad addiction and that will act as a valium. It might help you through it.
FISHER: I think that both could work. One of the problems with things like, oh, serotonin boosters, Prozac, Paxil, it's that people stay on them too long -
ROBERTS: Right.
FISHER: -- and that really blends the emotions so that eventually they can't find somebody new. But short-term chemical therapy could probably work.
But I think what we really found in our study with Lucy Brown (ph) (INAUDIBLE) and the rest of us is that talking therapy really can work because when these people were in the machine and actually working, looking at that photograph and working out what could I have done wrong, what - how could I have done this differently? When they're learning about the experience, they do tend to feel better.
ROBERTS: And (INAUDIBLE).
FISHER: And if that they came out of our machine feeling better because they had done some - done a job of trying to get better.
ROBERTS: Ellen Fisher, it's just fascinating stuff. Thanks for coming in this morning to explain it, and we'll look forward to your next venture research.
FISHER: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: Thanks, John.
All right, well, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, your top stories, including we're going to be speaking with a representative from Con Edison. We're talking about the possibility of blackouts in the northeast because of the heat wave and the high usage of air conditioners.
We'll be right back.
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