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American Morning
Mild Earthquake Rattles the Nation's Capital; Oil Leak Capped, Well Being Tested; White House Reacts Cautiously on BP's Latest Containment Effort; Wall Street Reform Passes Senate; Jobs Knew About iPhone Problem; Buried Treasure at World Trade Center Site; Feinberg to Administer BP Fund in August; Conspiracy of Silence; A Disaster on Hold
Aired July 16, 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 so much for being with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. It's Friday, July 16th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Acosta. John Roberts is off today. There's a lot to talk about this morning.
And a big picture to show you. Right now, it's unbelievable to think about this. But this picture right here, what is right with this picture? I guess that's the question this morning.
CHETRY: No oil is spewing out.
ACOSTA: That's right.
CHETRY: Thank goodness.
ACOSTA: Is our long national nightmare over? That is the question this morning.
Plumes of oil replaced by tears of joy. The spill has been stopped for now. Pressure tests on BP's ruptured well in the Gulf now moving forward and hopefully in the positive direction. We're not clear if we're in the clear yet, and the hours ahead will be critical. A live update from the Gulf in just a moment.
CHETRY: Also ahead, overhauling Wall Street. The Senate passes the most sweeping set of changes to financial regulations since the 1930s. This bill now heads to the president's desk, but will this reform prevent a repeat of the economic meltdown two years ago?
ACOSTA: And after bad press, a thumbs down from "Consumer Reports" and rumors of a costly recall. A new report says Steve Jobs was warned that the iPhone 4's antenna could cause problems. Apple is expected to break its silence at a press conference later today.
What will they say? What should they say? We're talking to the experts this morning.
And the amFIX blog is up and running, and so is Kiran's computer. Join the live conversation right now. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX.
CHETRY: I think it just woke up.
ACOSTA: I think it just woke up.
CHETRY: But we begin with breaking news this morning. A 3.6 magnitude earthquake hitting in a place that you don't necessarily think of earthquakes hitting, the nation's capital in the last hour.
ACOSTA: Wow.
CHETRY: It hit just after 5:00 this morning and our --
ACOSTA: Not a serious one.
CHETRY: Right. A small magnitude quake, but still perhaps something that people there are not used to feeling. Rob Marciano following this developing story from the CNN extreme weather center.
There are fault lines everywhere, but D.C. is not a place that you usually think of earthquakes.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, certainly not a major meeting of tectonic plates but nonetheless there is weakness in the earth's crust just about everywhere. And certainly the jokes will run amok throughout the day today getting an earthquake this close to our nation's capital with all those politicians stationed there.
Ten miles from Rockville, Maryland is where this epicenter is. As you mentioned, 3.6 magnitude. As far as the depth is concerned, pretty shallow at three miles deep. So it was felt. As a matter of fact, we have a map that highlights that. People have actually reporting to the USGS to report the shaking.
A little bit of light shaking felt in some spots of D.C. because it was so shallow so -- but we don't expect any sort of damage to be reported from this. A 3.6 is certainly minor but in this region of the country, I would consider it to be major.
We'll let you know if we're getting any aftershocks on this one. If you had some rumbling in D.C., don't worry, the world is not coming to an end. And we don't expect a 7.0 or 8.0 magnitude aftershock following this one. We'll talk more about this and, of course, weather later on in the program.
CHETRY: That's interesting. I grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I don't think we ever felt an earthquake there before. So, first time for everything.
MARCIANO: There you go.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: I got you.
ACOSTA: Good old Montgomery County. CHETRY: Yes.
ACOSTA: Still there. I don't ever recall any earthquakes.
ACOSTA: No, absolutely. That area is what I thought to be earthquake proof.
CHETRY: Yes.
ACOSTA: But evidently not. So, there you go.
CHETRY: Well, it's been -- yes, it's been more than 14 hours since they finally were able to cap the ruptured well and prevent the oil from spilling into the Gulf. In fact, we've seen this live feed before for 87 days now.
ACOSTA: Not like this.
CHETRY: It's amazing to see it.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: Just look like the ocean.
ACOSTA: A beautiful sight.
CHETRY: It really is. Well, this is a live feed a mile down. Very serene looking on day 88 of this unprecedented disaster. And the fingers are crossed in the Gulf and really everywhere that this will mean this is finally coming to an end.
ACOSTA: Yes. It's promising because this is held up overnight, which is a good thing, too. Because you know, we could have gotten up this morning to something that didn't look this good.
Integrity tests on BP's ruptured well are moving ahead. So far, so good. The spill now appears to be completely stopped. At least we hope so. That's the big question this morning. Can that ruptured well withstand the enormous pressure that's now building up inside of it?
CHETRY: Well, our Ed Lavandera has been tracking the latest developments from the Gulf Coast. He's live in New Orleans this morning.
And they were very careful to say that, yes, it has stopped for now. So where do things stand and what should we be looking for this morning?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it really depends on what kind of information the experts and the scientists that are in the room constantly monitoring the pressure readings from the containment cap and what kind of information they're getting. So this could play out in a couple of different ways.
And officials have been telling us really the next step, what will happen next hasn't been -- that decision hasn't been made yet. So it really depends on what we're seeing but we do know that going into this integrity test, the longer that it lasts, the longer it lasts -- it was supposed to last about 48 hours in best case scenario -- the longer it goes, the better news that is. They could have easily have shut this down last night had there been any major problems or concerns with the pressure readings and what kind of damage that could have done to the well casing that goes deep into the earth. So for now, everything is looking good.
The fact that we're still talking about this and looking at these amazing pictures from the bottom of the Gulf waters and not seeing any oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico says that everything is going smoothly. Yesterday afternoon, Doug Suttles with BP said that from the information they had seen early on, was that everything was intact in that well bore and that is a key part of this process.
CHETRY: All right. Well --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG SUTTLES, BP CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: We don't have any leaks. We don't have any oil coming out that we know of. And it's the beginning. You know, we've got another -- hopefully we'll continue it for the next 48 hours which puts us well into Saturday afternoon. But of course, it is good to see that there's not any new oil coming into the Gulf. But you know, Wolf, I got to stress, and you know, being out here on the Gulf Coast today, we're far from the finish line here. We've got a lot of work left to do. We're going to be here for a long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: And guys, really the question now becomes if this holds, how exactly are they going to handle the situation? Are they going to be able to leave the containment cap and let that do the work by itself?
That doesn't appear to be the most likely scenario. The most likely scenario appears that they would re-open some valves and then reconnect the riser pipes and start the collection process in bringing up all of the oil to ships on the surface. But the fact, I got to say it again, the fact that it's gone on this long, 14 hours now, is a great sign.
CHETRY: It really is. And we're going to be breaking down a little bit more with our physicist that we talked to yesterday who said there is some optimism.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: But you know, fingers still crossed this morning. Ed Lavandera, we'll be checking in with you. Thanks.
ACOSTA: President Obama calls the breakthrough in the Gulf a positive sign, but White House officials insist they're not celebrating just yet. The president has suffered politically from his handling of the Gulf crisis. His senior advisers believe their momentum was building earlier this spring before the oil started gushing. Senior White House correspondent Ed Henry is in Washington this morning with that part of the story -- Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president was giving a statement on the South Lawn of the White House reacting to the fact that the Wall Street reform bill passed in the Senate, but I shouted him a question at the end about these developments in the Gulf. And he told me that he sees this as a positive development.
But as you noted, these tests are still ongoing so the president said he doesn't want to get ahead of that. He's planning to make a statement in the morning before he heads out on a weekend vacation to Maine with his family. Told by White House aides that's because he's been briefed and he has been told by his senior aides that they are not certain that this is going to hold. They're not certain that 24, 48 hours from now, we are going to know for sure that the oil is still not leaking. So they want to be very careful.
You noted the political damage. This president has taken a beating on this. I'm told that a couple days ago when we met behind closed doors at the White House with some Democratic senators, he said he felt, in private he was saying, he felt that he was getting some momentum late March, early April after the health care reform bill was signed into law, but then he said he was hit with these two "Gs," the Gulf oil spill and the Greek debt crisis. The Greek debt crisis has sort of stopped the momentum in the economic recovery, and the Gulf oil spill has sort of stopped his political momentum.
And so they desperately want to turn the corner on this. And I talked again with a senior aide to the president. He said their latest briefings are that they still don't know if this is going to stay, you know, with the oil not flowing. They want to be very careful not to get ahead of this.
ACOSTA: The president is expected to make a statement about the Gulf oil shutoff before going on vacation. It will happen during the 9:00 a.m. Eastern hour. Of course, we'll have it live for you right here on CNN.
CHETRY: Also this morning, claims of racism flying back and forth between the NAACP and the Tea Party. And this morning, perhaps another shot across the bow by members of the Tea Party.
Right now, the civil rights group is accusing the grassroots movement of putting up with racists in their ranks. Some of these pictures taken at rallies, you can see what they're talking about. But Mark Williams, a Tea Party leader, suggests it's the NAACP that's racist and he's sparking new controversy by writing a satirical blog in the form of a letter from the head of the NAACP to Abe Lincoln. And again, this is a satirical letter that reads in part, quote, "Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us colored people and we demand that it stop."
Now, we spoke to Mark Williams last night and he did confirm that he wrote that blog posting.
ACOSTA: Right.
He did. And we're trying to get him on the show this morning because, obviously, you know, we want to know what the context of that letter is. It was a mock letter to Abraham Lincoln and he was writing it saying that he was Ben Jealous, the head of the NAACP. Obviously, he doesn't excuse the content of that letter. I mean, it's extremely offensive I'm sure to a lot of Americans.
CHETRY: There will certainly be -- right. There'll be a lot some fallout to this. The extent of that we're not sure of this morning. And we've been making calls to other leaders in the Tea Party who have denounced racist talk.
ACOSTA: That's right. Hope he'll never come on --
CHETRY: Right.
ACOSTA: -- this morning.
CHETRY: We'll see what happens.
ACOSTA: Exactly.
Also coming up at 8:30 Eastern, we'll get reaction to Williams' blog from Hilary Shelton. He's the director of the NAACP in Washington.
We want to know what you think of all this. Our live blog is up and running. You can find it at CNN.com/amfix -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead at nine minutes past the hour, major changes are coming to Wall Street after that financial reform bill passed the Senate. It's now on its way to the president's desk for a signature. But will it head off another financial meltdown and what could possibly be some of the unintended consequences of the legislation? We're going to be joined by Jill Schlesinger, editor-at- large with CBSmoneywatch.com, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twelve minutes past the hour right now.
President Obama chalking up a major domestic policy victory. It's the biggest financial reform since the Great Depression and it's now passed the Senate.
Well, you're looking at the video right now. Exclusive video of the bill -- there it is.
ACOSTA: At least we hope it is. We hope that's the bill.
CHETRY: Right.
ACOSTA: And not just some blue box.
CHETRY: And heading to the president's desk for signing. This is very formal.
ACOSTA: It is very formal. But you know what? They like these pictures over at the White House. Among the changes the new law will usher in, a new protection agency for consumer, new regulations for banks.
So what does it all mean for you. Joining us now, Jill Schlesinger, the editor-at-large for CBSmoneywatch.com.
Jill, thanks for joining us. Good to see you.
JILL SCHLESINGER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE AT CBSMONEYWATCH.COM: Great to be here.
ACOSTA: And I guess, you know, the question on a lot of Americans' minds after everything that we've all been through is will this work.
SCHLESINGER: Well, you know, it's intended to prevent the next big financial crisis. I don't think it does that. I don't think it really goes hard enough on the banks. And the way you limit that exposure is to say banks can't be over a certain size.
ACOSTA: Right.
SCHLESINGER: And they can't take more than a certain amount of risk. They went part of the way there. They just didn't finish the job. So I think in that way --
ACOSTA: Because of all that pressure that was coming in from all sides.
CHETRY: $600 million worth of lobbying.
SCHLESINGER: 2,500 lobbyists against, you know, hundreds of lawmakers. Guess who won? And so the reality is I don't think it does that. It does do some good things. This Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will oversee the mortgage market, will oversee the credit card industry. They will have some rule making power. And so for us in our real lives, that may be a good thing. But from the big picture I'm disappointed.
CHETRY: I want to ask you about that because how much do we really know about how this bill will play out; meaning, you can write all the rules you want, 2,300 pages in this bill, but in practice, are there loopholes? Are they going to be used, and are there unintended consequences of the bill?
SCHLESINGER: There are about 100 zillion lawyers on Wall Street right now who are looking through this bill. And some of them that I've spoken to say there are very big loopholes. For example, derivatives, which kind of formed the crisis, the core of the crisis -- ACOSTA: Right.
SCHLESINGER: -- these really esoteric instruments. There were $615 trillion worth of derivatives that we wanted regulated. Well, the bill actually exempts 500 trillion of them. So there are some big huge loopholes here. I promise you that Wall Street attorneys are looking through this bill. They have told me they're doing it. They are looking for ways to legally live within the confines of the bill but find ways around it at the same time.
ACOSTA: And this idea of a consumer protection agency, it sounds good and there's talk that Elizabeth Warren, who has been a big, you know, critic of the banks and the banking industry over these last couple of years, that she may head that agency. It's not certain whether or not that will happen. What is your take on whether that agency is actually going to be a help to consumers?
SCHLESINGER: Well, I think anything that helps consumers kind of makes sense of their own financial lives is a good thing. Now, a lot of other regulators have consumer areas, but there's no one agency that looks out specifically for us. So that is a good thing.
ACOSTA: Right. We had this agency called the Office of Thrift Supervision.
SCHLESINGER: Yes. They did really well.
ACOSTA: It's sort of an outdated thing.
SCHLESINGER: Yes.
ACOSTA: Yes.
SCHLESINGER: Exactly. But the thing which is interesting about this agency is it does have rule-making power. And I also want to point out that this bill actually -- it doesn't actually write as many rules as it tells other people to write rules. That is also a big concern to me, because regulators haven't done a great job in the past, so we're asking them to write 533 new rules to protect us.
ACOSTA: Right.
SCHLESINGER: I don't know if they're going to do it. I think, in the end, when consumers have more information and it's concise and clearly articulated, it's better. But at -- in the -- at the end of the day, everybody here should know this bill is not going to do what you need to do for yourself -- educate yourself, protect yourself and ask a lot of questions.
CHETRY: And that leads me into what I was asking about a glaring omission, many say, which is reforming Fannie and Freddie. These are the government-backed mortgage giants that today have cost U.S. taxpayers $145 billion. You know, all this screaming about the bailout, I mean, that's $145 billion.
So how do you find a way to tackle this? Because I know they didn't with this bill, because it's complicated, without doing more harm to the housing market, which is fragile right now in the broader economy.
SCHLESINGER: Barney Frank has said that -- he said we're going to deal with Fannie and Freddie. This is going to happen. I call these two institutions the dead men walking. You know, this is --
ACOSTA: Right.
SCHLESINGER: -- these are terrible, terrible companies that really need to be wound down.
ACOSTA: We basically own them.
SCHLESINGER: We do own them.
CHETRY: But back 50 percent of the mortgages in the country, right? Or more?
SCHLESINGER: More, 80 to 85 percent. So what's going to happen is they're going to have to deal with it, but they're not going to deal with it now, certainly not after we got these foreclosure numbers yesterday that say that 3.2 million foreclosure filings will be made this year, will be a record.
So in the year when we still have a fragile housing market, they're going to punt on this. And, you know, I know I've heard of it in the past, Congress doesn't like to tackle really hard things too often. We've done two big things this year. I wouldn't expect a lot more.
But they do need to fix the estate tax. That's my last -- that's my last little bid there. That's in honor of George Steinbrenner.
CHETRY: Right. And the estate tax is for a whole another day, but it is very fascinating to figure out how that's working.
ACOSTA: We'll bring you back on to talk about that, Jill.
SCHLESINGER: Sounds great.
ACOSTA: Thanks so much.
CHETRY: Thanks, Jill.
ACOSTA: Appreciate it. Good talking to you.
Well, there is new word this morning that Apple's CEO Steve Jobs was tipped off in the early stages of the iPhone 4's development that the antenna could be a problem. Is a recall next? An Apple iPhone recall -- can you imagine that?
That's coming up. Seventeen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: All right. Welcome back. "Minding Your Business" this morning.
You've heard about this little issue with the iPhone.
CHETRY: Who hasn't?
ACOSTA: We've been talking about this. There's another crack in the wall of secrecy surrounding tech giant Apple. "Bloomberg News" is reporting that when the iPhone 4's design was still in its early phases, the company's senior antenna expert -- yes, they have one of those -- told CEO Steve Jobs it could have antenna problems and dropped calls.
Apple's holding a press conference later today and is expected to address customer complaints, including some from "Consumer Reports", which is not good. There's even a talk of a full recall, but according to the tech blog CNET, that would cost Apple $1.5 billion. Yes, billion, and, no, there is not an app for that.
So just how big of a P.R. nightmare is this for Apple? At 7:20 Eastern, we will talk to Eric Dezenhall of Dezenhall Resources, a P.R. firm. I think Kiran will be talking to him. His firm has helped companies through these kinds of rough patches.
CHETRY: Right. And he also has the new iPhone 4, so he's -- we'll get his personal take, too, on what he thinks.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: But the interesting thing is even though a lot of people have been talking about how this is, you know, a big problem for Apple and its image --
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: People aren't turning this thing in in droves.
ACOSTA: No.
CHETRY: They're keeping it.
ACOSTA: Yes, you know, and -- and it -- to me, I don't want to celebrate this, but it does make me grin a little bit, only --
CHETRY: For waiting?
ACOSTA: Well, no. Only because this -- this whole thing of built-in obsolescence that tech gadgets are obsolete every year and you have to go out and buy the latest thing.
CHETRY: I know.
ACOSTA: And so to see this little problem makes me think, OK, maybe we should put that in check a little bit.
CHETRY: Yes.
ACOSTA: Just my thought.
CHETRY: Well, they're always improving. They're always getting better. But, yes.
ACOSTA: Yes. That's true.
CHETRY: Well, we're going to talk much more about that, coming up.
Still, things are firing on all cylinders in Detroit. Actually, for the first time in 13 years, Americans are happier with American cars than imports.
ACOSTA: Wow.
CHETRY: If you take a look at the JDPower survey, and the top two sports cars -- Chevy's Camaro, followed by the Dodge Challenger. These are like the old-school muscle cars, redesigned --
ACOSTA: The Camaro is hot.
CHETRY: Yes. My husband wants one of those, by the way.
Ford won big with its sedans. The top mid-size car, the Fusion, and the large car went to the Taurus. And then for trucks, a split decision, the Chevy Avalanche topped the large pickup category, while the mid-size pickup went to the Ford Explorer Sport Trac.
So what a turnaround after an --
ACOSTA: Who would have thunk it?
CHETRY: -- auto bailout just a couple of years ago?
ACOSTA: I know. Well, you know, our family -- we're thinking about going American on the next car because they're doing so well now.
CHETRY: There you go.
ACOSTA: They're doing very well.
CHETRY: Well, hidden for hundreds of years, a rare piece of history uncovered at the World Trade Center site. We're going to find out why crews think the giant hull of a ship was buried under Lower Manhattan and the reasons behind it.
Twenty-three minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-six minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
It's a story that sounds like the stuff of urban legend, but it's real. Workers at the World Trade Center site uncovered the hull of a ship pretty much intact, dating all the way back to the 1700s.
ACOSTA: Amazing -- amazing pictures. We first told you about this yesterday. Now the big question today, why was it there?
Our Mary Snow took a trip to go see the ship up close and personal and she's here now with an "A.M. Follow-Up". Good morning, Mary.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, you guys.
This really is a truly amazing story. This is part of the new World Trade Center, not the original site. Now, construction is underway on what will eventually be an underground security center for vehicles. And that's how workers unearthed the ship.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW (voice-over): At the construction site at Ground Zero, a rare find -- remnants of a ship dating back to the 18th century. We were allowed to climb down 25 feet to the site and see firsthand what archaeologists stumbled upon Tuesday.
MOLLY MCDONALD, ARCHAEOLOGIST, AKRF: Two curved timbers that were pulled up by a backhoe and immediately thought that looks like a ship timber. So we stopped the backhoe and started excavating with shovels and uncovered a portion of this hull. And -- and since then have uncovered the rest that you see.
SNOW: And what we can see is believed to be half of a ship. Marine historian Norman Brouwer was brought in to take a look.
NORMAN BROUWER, MARINE HISTORIAN: You know, it appears to be an ocean-going vessel and probably at some time in the 1700s. It's heavily built, very solid frames close together.
SNOW: One mystery, the circular structure that Brouwer says may have been used as a fireplace. An anchor was also recovered.
SNOW (on camera): How significant is this find?
MCDONALD: I mean, I think it remains to be seen, you know, what this ship really is, but it's -- it's pretty significant and it's pretty exciting. There's -- there haven't been that many ships found in Manhattan. You know, it was something that occasionally -- ships were occasionally used as part of land filling, so it probably was part of a filling in this land, so it's not unheard of.
SNOW (voice-over): Because of the history here, archaeologists have been monitoring the construction site. The Wildlife Conservation Society shows just how much of Lower Manhattan was under water hundreds of years ago in its Mannahatta Project. Compare that to now.
ELIZABETH MEADE, ARCHAEOLOGIST, AKRF: But mostly it just tells us about the landfill structure of this particular area and how they were reusing things like old boats to build out the land. The shoreline was originally at Greenwich Street about a block that way. SNOW (on camera): Because what -- where we're standing now at one point was just the Hudson River.
MEADE: The Hudson River, yes.
SNOW (voice-over): The site is just south of where the World Trade Center towers once stood, this rare relic hidden for more than 200 years.
MEADE: This is the kind of thing that archaeologists are always hoping to find and very rarely actually do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW: Now, you might imagine the pieces of remnants of this wooden ship are very fragile. Archaeologists are continuing to excavate it, analyze these pieces, taking samples, recovering what they can. The hope is eventually that parts will wind up in a museum.
CHETRY: It will be interesting to see if they're going to be able to excavate it intact given that it's (INAUDIBLE) a very unheard (ph) operation.
SNOW: Very difficult. And what they were saying is now that the pieces are exposed, I mean, this has been under the earth for how many years.
CHETRY: Right.
SNOW: One hundred (ph) to 200 years. So it's deteriorating very quickly once now that there's sunlight on it.
CHETRY: Right. Amazing that you climbed all the way down there to get a firsthand look.
Thanks, Mary.
SNOW: Sure.
ACOSTA: Digging that story, Mary.
SNOW: (INAUDIBLE).
CHETRY: He digs it.
ACOSTA: I was about to say that.
CHETRY: You couldn't wait.
ACOSTA: I couldn't wait.
CHETRY: Well, it's half past the hour right now. We're checking our top stories this morning.
A new report says that Apple's top boss, Steve Jobs, was warned about potential problems with iPhone 4's wraparound antenna design. That coming from Bloomberg News this morning.
Apple is giving a press conference later today to deal with this issue. They're expected to talk about problems with their new generation smart phone and there's even talk of a full recall. Tech blog CNET estimates that could cost Apple $1.5 billion.
ACOSTA: And speaking of big bucks, Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay a record $550 million fine. Goldman was accused of duping people into investing in subprime mortgages that were essentially designed to fail. By the way, $550 million is just about four days of revenue for Goldman. So, it's just a drop in the bucket for them.
CHETRY: Well, the cap is holding. And that's the good news this morning. Not a single drop of oil is leaking, at least for now, from that ruptured wellhead. It's been that way for 15 hours now. The oil giant and the government are now conducting integrity testing on that cap to see if the well is holding up under the pressure that's building inside.
ACOSTA: And handling enormous financial pressure has become a way of life for thousands of hard working people on the Gulf Coast. But help is coming. Payouts from BP's $20 billion oil fund will start in early August. They'll include lump sum payments to individuals for up to six months, lost wages. And the oil giant will have nothing to do with that process, so we're told, beyond funding it.
CHETRY: Right. So, how that $20 billion will be paid out is actually up to one man, Kenneth Feinberg. He's the same man who administered millions in settlement funds to the victims of the September 11th attacks.
ACOSTA: Feinberg held a town meeting in the New Orleans area yesterday to explain how the process will work.
Amber Lyon is in New Orleans this morning.
How is this all going to work, Amber, and did the people like what they heard from Feinberg? I'm sure it was a -- it was a lively crowd.
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, above all, the shrimpers, fishermen, local business owners just want to know how Feinberg is going to keep them from going broke. As of now, BP's been handling this claims process. Feinberg says, in about three weeks, he is going to be completely taking over.
Yesterday, he made a point to tell everybody that the money is there. Also that he's working independently of BP or the U.S. government.
Feinberg says he's also going to make the process easier. We spoke about with a lot of fishermen who say in the past they really didn't know what's going on. He says now he's going to cut six-month checks to these workers. In the past, BP was just cutting checks on a month-by-month basis. Feinberg also says he's going to try to pay out legitimate claims within 24 to 48 hours.
Now, we caught up with him as he was speaking to a standing room-only group of shrimpers and fishermen in Lafitte, Louisiana. This was around the same time that news broke that no more oil is leaking into the Gulf. There was a cautiously optimistic attitude.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
KENNETH FEINBERG, ADMINISTRATOR, GULF CLAIMS FUND: It's fabulous, because if the oil has stopped flowing, that makes it easier for us to begin to corral the type of claims because we'll know better where the oil is going to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I feel like I can get back to a little normal and I don't have to roll and no sleep at night, and it's a big relief off a lot of people and shrimpers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This isn't a complete stop. We don't know how long it is going to last. When they -- when they can tap into that well and totally turn it off, then we're going to light fireworks, we're going to celebrate.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
LYON: And as of this morning, none of that $20 billion escrow has been given out. Feinberg says he's going to take over in three weeks and start doling out the money. He did also make a point to give credit to BP for giving out almost $150 million, money independent of the $20 billion escrow so far -- Jim, Kiran.
ACOSTA: Thanks, Amber. We'll all be watching that process unfold. That's for sure.
Now, here's a question for you. You are a doctor and you find out your colleague has a drug problem. That sounds like a problem. Do you report him or her?
Well, you may be shock to learn just how many physicians say they would not do anything about that. They'd keep it to themselves. We will talk to the author of a new study -- that is coming up next.
It's 34 minutes past the hour.
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ACOSTA: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Do no harm -- for doctors, they are words to live by. But a new study suggests there maybe some gray areas in that credo -- had found more than one-third of doctors would not report a colleague who -- get this -- is incompetent or has a drug problem.
Dr. Catherine Desroches is the lead author of this study. She's professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and she joins us now from Boston.
Dr. Desroches, thanks for joining us. Good morning.
And we want to talk to you obviously about this.
DR. CATHERINE DESROCHES, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL: Good morning.
ACOSTA: But, first and foremost, let's go over a couple of the key findings in this study because they are very alarming. We have a graphic to show you and our viewers. And this is what your study found that 36 percent did not -- of these doctors who were surveyed -- did not completely agree they should report fellow colleagues; 17 percent had direct knowledge of an incompetent or impaired colleague; 67 percent reported that individual to a relevant authority, which means about one-third did not.
And so, I guess, Dr. Desroches, what led you to pursue this study to begin with? I guess you or your colleagues may have learned that this was a problem.
DESROCHES: Well, we wanted to see what had changed since a prior study that we did a few years ago. After -- there's a lot -- there's always a lot of news media coverage around egregious physician stories. And we wanted to get a more systematic look at what was happening.
ACOSTA: And -- I mean, what -- what should people take away from this? Should people be concerned when they are admitted to a hospital that they may have a doctor who's impaired? I mean, that's obviously the concern that is -- that is coming out of this study.
DESROCHES: I think that what people should take away from this is an understanding that medicine's not necessarily going to regulate itself, so if you do have an interaction with a physician where you believe that that physician may have been impaired, then you can report that physician yourself as a patient.
ACOSTA: And how the doctor -- how did the study define how a doctor would be incompetent or impaired? What did -- what did that boil down to essentially? We're talking about drug and alcohol abuse in terms of the impaired part of this?
DESROCHES: Well, when we talked to physicians prior to doing the survey, we asked them what they thought about the word "impaired," what that brought to mind. Then most of them thought about substance or alcohol abuse problems.
ACOSTA: So, is there a code of silence in the medical profession, would you say, regarding bad behavior?
DESROCHES: I don't think I would say that there's a code of silence. I think that what I would say is: most physicians see this as a very complicated issue and it's not something that's easy to take on.
ACOSTA: Right. Well, I mean a lot of us -- I mean, almost all of us, I would say 99 percent of us, have a great deal of faith in the medical profession. So, what -- what are you hoping to accomplish with this study? What problem do you think needs to be addressed here? I mean, obviously, you would not have put out these findings if you did not think that they were important for the public to know about.
DESROCHES: Some of the things that we're hoping will happen are more education for physicians around their responsibilities around this issue. That it is their responsibility to report.
Also, perhaps some changes to the way reports are made, so greater confidentiality protections for physicians, and perhaps even some kind of confidential feedback system for reporters so that they know what happened to their report when they made one.
ACOSTA: And you hear about this issue of medical errors from time to time.
DESROCHES: Right.
ACOSTA: Could this be a contributing factor to medical errors?
DESROCHES: Well, this can clearly be a contributing factor. I think most research suggests that most medical errors are a result of system failures. But some -- some portion of those errors can be attributed directly to physicians.
ACOSTA: And did you fine in the course of your study that people were harmed as a result of doctors who were impaired or incompetent?
DESROCHES: Well, so this study didn't actually look at that. We just look at physicians' attitudes and behaviors.
ACOSTA: And so, what -- what do you think should happen going forward here? I mean, do we need greater policing in this profession, within this profession?
DESROCHES: Well, we don't really have a good alternative system to self-regulation at this point. So, what we're --
ACOSTA: Yes. That's not a good thing.
DESROCHES: -- what we suggest -- well, what we suggest in the paper are some strengthening of that system. So, more education for physicians, more confidential for reporters, and perhaps more patient education around their own -- what they can do if they feel they've had an interaction with a physician where the physician may have been impaired or shouldn't be practicing for some other reason.
ACOSTA: Well, Dr. Desroches, that's a very important study that you put out. We appreciate your time this morning and thanks for sharing that information with us. We appreciate it.
DESROCHES: Thanks very much.
ACOSTA: All right. Back to you, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, 42 minutes past the hour.
Rob Marciano is coming along with a look at your travel forecast just in time for the weekend.
Also in 10 minutes, find out who's having quite a hard time accepting the news that Levi Johnston is officially off the market.
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ACOSTA: All right. Welcome back.
CHETRY: Look at that.
ACOSTA: Yes. It says it's sunny and 77 degrees. If that's sunny --
CHETRY: We have about five seconds to clear up out there in New York.
ACOSTA: -- I hate to see what foggy is.
CHETRY: Well, no, clearly, we're seeing some haze out there. It will probably burn off by the end of the day because we're looking at a high this afternoon of 94 degrees, and sunshine.
ACOSTA: It's hot in the city.
CHETRY: Yes, it is.
ACOSTA: We'll take it. That's right. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
A follow-up now that has us all feeling pretty good this morning. Randi Kaye told us about this yesterday. My goodness, these pictures, these faces will break your heart. She told us about the hundreds of pets now being abandoned at animal shelters in Louisiana. The fallout from the Gulf oil spill is making it impossible for many people to afford to keep their dogs or cats. After our story ran, you responded. Yes, you, our viewers, responded.
The shelters were bombarded with hundreds of calls and e-mails yesterday, Kiran, from as far away as Hawaii and Guam. I'm not sure how those puppies and kitties would get to Guam, but they were all calling. All from people looking to donate.
CHETRY: That's right. Either adopt or donate. So, you know, if you're far away and you just feeling like you want to do something, you can always donate because what they're also trying to do at these shelters, you know, is say that they want assistance right now, so they can help the people who are saying they may have to give up their animals if they can't keep their jobs.
ACOSTA: Right.
CHETRY: And so, they want to be able to offer free spaying and neutering and also free food donations for the animals.
ACOSTA: Absolutely.
CHETRY: So, every penny counts. And if you'd like to do a good thing, go to la-spca.org. And also, we're going to link it up with our blog for more information on how to lend a hand. Go to our blog, CNN.com/AMFix.
ACOSTA: And moving on to a very different subject here, but one that we've also been talking about. Baskin Robbins marking its 65th anniversary, get this, by putting the deep freeze on five of its signature flavors. So, what's out? If you look at their website, get this, it's caramel praline cheesecake. I'm not sure I've ever tried that one but it looks pretty good. Campfire s'mores, that one is a shocker to me. Apple pie a la mode and super fudge truffle. The biggest outrage -- and this one had our staff talking this morning -- French vanilla. A Baskin-Robbins staple since 1945.
CHETRY: So, are they bringing new ones online or they have to change the name to 26 flavors?
ACOSTA: I think tomorrow, French vanilla will just be vanilla, and the ice cream --
CHETRY: Barry (ph) has vanilla.
ACOSTA: That's right. I'm sorry (ph).
CHETRY: My husband's favorite apple pie a la mode is going bye- bye, too.
ACOSTA: As long as they don't get rid of chocolate chip. I think they will be all right. The five flavors will be replaced by new ones, although, there's no word yet on what those will be.
CHETRY: They are going to keep 31 flavors.
ACOSTA: There won't be 26 flavors.
CHETRY: Good.
ACOSTA: That's good.
CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour. Time to get a check of this morning's weather headlines. I see Rob as sort of a mint chocolate chip kind of guy. No?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not a big fan of mint, you know -- not that, but anything with a little chocolate in it, you know. If I'm going to do a green ice cream, I think a little pistachio, but the mint thing kind of throws me for a loop. Anyway, guys, good morning. Ice cream will be in high demand today across parts of the northeast, as you mentioned. Temperatures are going to get into the mid 90s. Heat advisories are in effect for New York, Philadelphia area, and also for D.C., and right now, the temperatures are already feeling like they're near 80 degrees in the D.C. area which had, as you may have already heard, a 3.6 magnitude earthquake just outside the district of Colombia. We'll talk more about that in the top of the hour.
Meantime, this low cool front is trying to ushering some cooler air, but before it does that, it's going to continue to deal with heat. And a lot of it is going to be across the same places that have seen it in the past couple of days. The nation's heartland, pressing down to the south. We're starting to squeeze the number of advisories today, but we've increased them across the northeast and still across parts of southern California and the desert southwest. So, a lot of people getting into the act once again with heat indices up and over 105, 110, 115 degrees. That's what it's going to feel like later on this afternoon.
Because we had humidity coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, that will also pose a threat for seeing some severe weather. We saw a little bit yesterday, and we saw some heavy rain in some areas, Owensboro, Kentucky over 3 inches, Waukesha, Wisconsin almost three inches, Terre Haute, Indiana 2-1/2, North Myrtle Beach, again, a wide smattering of locations that saw some heavy rain. Thunderstorms are rolling across the Eastern Great Lakes right now.
This will probably increase some intensity as it head across the (INAUDIBLE) into the I-95 Corridor, so watch those for future development. Double scoop always. Never the single and plenty of napkins, especially on a day like today.
CHETRY: I know. It will melt before you even get to it. You know, I thought I knew you, Rob, but no mint chocolate chip for you?
MARCIANO: If I want to brush my teeth, I'll break out the toothbrush.
CHETRY: Listerine flavor, that's the new --
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MARCIANO: That'll be the new one. That will be one of the 36.
ACOSTA: OK. This lost my taste for ice cream.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: See you, guys.
ACOSTA: This morning's top stories just minutes away, including it took 87 days for BP to finally stop the oil spill in the Gulf. And boy, we hope this is it. The disaster is not close to being over. So, what happens next? Our team along the Gulf is covering this developing story like no one else can. And later today, we got other news.
CHETRY: Apple breaking its silence. You know, a lot of people are wondering, are they going to really recall the Generation 4 phone?
ACOSTA: I say no way.
CHETRY: I don't think so. But you know, there are some who are saying that that's really what they have to do to bring their reputation back online. But we're going to be talking about it with a tech expert and public relations expert. What will the bosses say at the press conference about the antenna problems with the new apple iPhone 4?
ACOSTA: That's right. Steve Jobs, can you hear us now?
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ACOSTA: Something tells me they won't be playing that at the wedding, but who know. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 6:53 and that means it's time for the Moos News in the Morning. Word of Levi Johnston's surprise engagement to ex-girlfriend, Bristol Palin caught most of us by surprise.
CHETRY: That's right. Apparently, at least, reportedly including Sarah Palin.
ACOSTA: That's right.
CHETRY: But now, it seems that a lot of people --
ACOSTA: That's a different story.
CHETRY: Yes -- having a hard time accepting that Levi Johnston, the hunk, is off the market. Here's Jeanne Moos.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She is heartbroken over news of the engagement between Bristol and Levi. No, not Sarah Palin. We mean Kathy Griffin.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My lover, Levi. I woke up this morning in your arms, spooning.
MOOS: So, what if she made it all up? Her imaginary affair with Levi is part of her comedy stick with her playing off his "Vanity Fair" photo shoot on the ledge of a building.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was all harnessed up, but yes, it was a little scary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: By the way, we're going to recreate that later tonight at my place.
MOOS: Or going ice fishing with Levi. Part of her "Life On The D-List" reality show. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Holding Levi close, I realize this is where I'm meant to be. For three days. And then get me the (EXPLETIVE WORD) out of here.
MOOS: And now, she's forced to hear Levi gushing about his fiancee, Bristol and their baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love them both very much.
MOOS: No wonder Kathy Griffin has posted her suffering on her website.
Poring over Levi's Playgirl spread while listening to a tear jerker by Celine Dion.
Ripping out Levi's pictures, but Kathy Griffin wasn't the only one thrown for a loop.
MOOS (on-camera): This cover is how Levi's own sister and mother discovered that he's engaged to Bristol Palin.
MOOS (voice-over): In a post entitled "who needs coffee when you wake up to news this shocking," Levi's sister, Mercede (ph) blogs about how her crying mother woke her up with the cover of "Us Weekly" on her laptop. Not exactly the image I wanted to come face-to-face with when I first opened my eyes. There seems to be bad blood between the Johnstons and the Palins. Johnston still want to be invited to the wedding. Levi's mom told "Inside Edition" don't leave us out of it. That would kill me.
MOOS (on-camera): But it's not just women mourning the news that Levi is getting married.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Levi is really hot. I'm pretty jealous. Major crush.
MOOS (voice-over): Levi may be hot, but Kathy Griffin is already moving on to another hottie -- Taylor Lautner from the "Twilight" films. Levi, you dumb (ph), how could you just dump Kathy?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just going to be looking in his beautiful chocolate eyes, all night, and waiting for magic to happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The same thing, yes.
MOOS: A man of few words, but "I do" will apparently be among them.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Do you think he called --
ACOSTA: That is so disturbing.
CHETRY: Did he call Kathy and break up with her before, you know, let her know?
ACOSTA: It must have been a surprise to her, too.
CHETRY: Poor thing. She'll get over it.
ACOSTA: She'll get over it.
CHETRY: She'll find a new man.
ACOSTA: There are other fish in the Alaskan sea.
CHETRY: That's right. And you know, she knows how to operate the ice fishing drill. So, there you go. Top stories coming up.
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