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American Morning
Flight Attendant Flips Out; Plane Lands, He Takes Off; Female Power; Pakistan Ravaged by Floods; Serial Stabber in Flint, Michigan; Meditation as a Behavioral Tool?; Dangerous Belly Fat; How to Buy Happiness
Aired August 10, 2010 - 08:00 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. It's Tuesday, August 10th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for joining us today. A lot to talk about. Let's get you right to it.
Take this job and shove it. JetBlue flight attendant now facing criminal charges for allegedly going off, cursing out passengers, cracking a beer, and then sliding down the emergency chute at JFK. We'll speak to one of the passengers on the receiving end of that tirade just ahead.
CHETRY: Women in politics. We've seen female leaders elected to public office around the globe. But in the United States, women have yet to really break through at least in big numbers. Why is that and could the trend be changing.
ROBERTS: Plus, if you're a parent with a screaming toddler or two, you'll try just about anything to calm them down. Time-outs, prayer, bribes, maybe the threat of, God forbid, of no dessert.
What about meditation? Not for you, but for your kids. Deepak Chopra says it works and he'll be here to tell us how -- just ahead.
CHETRY: Of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join a living conversation right now. Go to CNN.com/amFIX.
ROBERTS: First, the fallout from the flight attendant who was as mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
CHETRY: Yes. A JetBlue employee now facing charges, though, of criminal mischief and reckless endangerment after giving passengers a bye-bye that will go down in history.
Allan Chernoff has more on the meltdown.
And papers that I see in your hand (INAUDIBLE). You have a little fun with this.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, perhaps a little bit of meditation might have helped here. But the flight attendant is well on his way, I think, to becoming a folk hero. Talk about a dramatic exit.
Flight attendant Steven Slater told the passenger to sit down when JetBlue's flight 1052 from Pittsburgh pulled up at the gate at JFK yesterday afternoon. The passenger refused, continued removing his luggage from the overhead bin. And that luggage accidentally struck the flight attendant. Mr. Slater demanded an apology. The passenger declined, using not a very nice four-letter word.
And that set Slater off. He turn order the public address system and used the same four-letter word in front of all of the passengers, in particular directed to that man, that refused to sit. Then he activated the inflatable slide, grabbed some brewskies, and sleighed his way out of a career as a flight attendant.
Mr. Slater got home quickly. It wasn't long before the police showed up to arrest him.
He is now facing two felony charges, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, and theoretically could land him in prison for seven years. It is safe to say, he's not a flight risk at this moment.
ROBERTS: The flight attendant is going to be able to keep his cool, particularly under emergency situations. This didn't appear to be that.
But I also have a question about, you know, the person who was removing the luggage. Hit him in the head. Could that person potentially face some action?
CHERNOFF: Well, no action has been taken against him just yet. I mean, of course, the flight attendants are trained to remain cool and they have to deal with unruly passengers all the time.
Ironically, just last week, "The Wall Street Journal" had an item about JetBlue hires many retired New York City firefighters, police officers, and for that very reason, because they know how to stay cool on and they know how to defuse a tense situation.
Now, Mr. Slater apparently didn't have that skill. It seems he also was dealing with quite a bit of stress, Kiran, for a very ill mother.
CHETRY: Right. And the other interesting thing is that a lot of people have sort of cheering him this morning, saying that he's a folk hero for doing what many have perhaps dreamed of doing but would never do.
CHERNOFF: Absolutely. Go online and have a look at Facebook. There is now a free-Steven Slater site. There's also a T-shirt being promoted online to free Mr. Slater. I think he is going to be a name we'll remember, at least for a few days if not a few weeks.
CHETRY: And Jeanne Moos has her story all lined up for today.
CHERNOFF: You can -- you got to stay tuned to CNN because Jeanne will do this justice.
ROBERTS: In a sense, he did diffuse the situation and he removed himself from it in a rather dramatic way.
CHERNOFF: He defused it by inflating the slide.
CHETRY: Everybody else wondered what they were for if it wasn't an emergency. There you go, get out of Dodge.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Allan.
CHETRY: Well, you don't want to miss this. Coming up at 8:15, we're going to be actually speaking to a passenger who witnessed the meltdown and also riding back on what's called the air train out of JFK with the flight attendant who had the meltdown. So, we're going to be talking to him coming up.
ROBERTS: Also developing this morning, Defense Secretary Robert Gates taking aim at the Pentagon's budget and expecting some belt-tightening. The centerpiece of his austerity plan: getting rid of the U.S. Joint Forces Command. That's a move that could cut 3,000 jobs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of savings and restraint. Towards this end, I'm directing that any new proposal or initiative, large or small, be it policy, program or ceremony, come with a cost estimate. That price tag will help us determine whether what we are gaining or hope to gain is really worth the cost, either in dollar terms or in the diversion of limited manpower and resources from other missions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Secretary Gates is also proposing cutting down on the use of private contractors and even trimming the number of generals and admirals. The Pentagon's budget costs you, the taxpayer, more than $530 billion every year.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, the White House is saying that President Obama is totally fine if Democrats running a more conservative areas don't want to be seen by his side. Senior adviser David Axelrod spoke to Wolf Blitzer about campaign politics yesterday in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID AXELROD, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: These candidates have -- they're running now. They're on the ballot. They're going to make the judgments they think are best for their campaigns. And I'm totally fine with that. The president understands that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, this became an issue after gubernatorial nominees in both Texas and Georgia decided to campaign somewhere else while the president was in town.
ROBERTS: And while the president was in Texas yesterday, a Dallas police officer in his motorcade crashed his motorcycle. Senior Corporal Michael Manis is said to be in good condition. Doctors kept him hospitalized overnight for observation. The president was in Texas for yesterday's big speech on education in Austin, University of Texas there, and also to raise money for Democratic candidates.
CHETRY: Jimmy Johnson, former NFL head coach and current FOX football analyst, is now a survivor. Sixty-seven-year-old Johnson will be part of this year's "Survivor" Nicaragua cast. He tried get on the show twice before. The last time, though, he had a physical which showed he had two blocked arteries. He ended up getting a stent put in there and that actually trying out for "Survivor" saved his life.
ROBERTS: You know, they do have good medical attention there.
CHETRY: Oh, yes.
ROBERTS: Remember when -- I forget it was -- fell in the fire, of the early episodes, burned his hands. They got him out right away.
So, good to Jimmy Johnson at least discovered that he had a problem.
Rob Marciano is discovering the problems potentially in the Gulf of Mexico with a low that's developing.
Could turn into something serious, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It may very well be enough to mess up Jimmy Johnson's hair. And if there's a reason to watch "Survivor," that may very well be.
CHETRY: It couldn't be that strong. No way.
MARCIANO: Exactly. He's got to quite the helmet. And it will be interesting to watch.
This has been interesting to watch. And just in the last few minutes, the National Hurricane Center has upgraded the probability of this becoming a tropical depression or tropical storm today. And they are sending a recon aircraft in to investigate it.
You see the circulation, that's really from a broader area of low pressure. Not quite tropical but becoming that as we see it get into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. And any time that happens, we certainly get worried and we'll be watching it closely. Computer models bringing it towards the upper Gulf Coast line, just how strong, is the question.
How hot, is the question. Hazy, hot, humid across the central part of the country again today with thunderstorms in the northern tier. Some of those could become severe.
Couple of showers across the northeast to start your day. But that's only going to add to the humidity. And the temperatures in the mid to upper 90s in some spots: 97 in D.C., 92 in New York -- that's going to be steamy -- 100 in Kansas City and 103 in Dallas. Number of heat advisories and heat warnings out to the central part of the country once again.
We're going to get through this month of August and eventually cool down. But then, again, we have to deal with hurricane season. We'll talk more about that in about 30 minutes -- John and Kiran.
CHETRY: It's always surreal to see Las Vegas, 101. And then San Francisco, 53. So close yet so far away.
MARCIANO: Exactly. It's been unusually cool out there in California coastline. So, if you're really -- if you are feeling like that flight attendant, you should need to get out of the heat, head west.
ROBERTS: All right, Rob. Thanks so much.
Speaking of the fed-up flight attendant who made the dramatic getaway on the tarmac at JFK, he cursed out fliers, exited JetBlue by the emergency slide. We'll talk to an eyewitness who was onboard that plane and also rode to the parking lot with the flight attendant -- right after the break.
Eight minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBERTS: Eleven minutes after the hour. Our next guest was one of about 100 passengers who were cursed out yesterday by a fed-up flight attendant who absolutely lost it on a JetBlue flight that just arrived at JFK.
CHETRY: Yes. The passenger who joins us now who witnessed it: Phil Catelinet. He joins us this morning.
Thanks so much for being with us. You thought you were just taking a routine flight, right?
PHIL CATELINET, JETBLUE PASSENGER: Yes.
CHETRY: Fifteen minutes to Pittsburgh, to JFK.
CATELINET: Yes.
CHETRY: When did you first realize that something was going on with this flight attendant?
CATELINET: At the very end, as we were getting off the plane, he got on the intercom and made this announcement that he swore at -- that he swore at a passenger. And we didn't know what that was about, the rest of us that were still waiting to get off thought that was just very strange. Nobody ever gets on the intercom and, you know, swears.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CATELINET: And so, we thought he was in trouble at that point just, you know, he's having a bad day there. I didn't know anything about the slide until I got off the plane and was on my way out of the terminal. I heard people talking about it.
And then I ran into him on the air train. I saw him. I didn't talk to him. But I saw him on the air train. He was talking to another passenger about it.
ROBERTS: So, what was he saying on the air train? He just -- he flew out the side door. He didn't notice that the slide was deployed?
CATELINET: I noticed, the door -- we were going out on the left --
ROBERTS: Right.
CATELINET: -- and I noticed the door on the right -- looked like it was open. But I was really just focused on getting off the plane. And so, I didn't know he used the slide. It didn't occur to me.
ROBERTS: So, he went from the slide, along the tarmac, back in the terminal, caught the air train. What was he talking about on the air train?
CATELINET: He was -- he had flung his tie off. He was happy that he said, "I quit my job. I'm done with this." And he was happy. It wasn't like he was mad. He seemed relieved and excited that his career was, you know, taking a new turn.
CHETRY: Wow. Well, even in some of the pictures of the arrest, because subsequently, police did catch up with him. He was charged with two felonies --
CATELINET: Right.
CHETRY: -- for deploying that slide. It could hit somebody, I guess --
CATELINET: Right.
CHETRY: On the ground. And he seemed to be all smiles there. You see right there in the purple, he's also smiling.
CATELINET: That's the guy I saw. He was smiling like that.
CHETRY: Also, you can see -- they had a close-up picture of it in a couple of the newspapers, the dailies, today, that he seemed to have a cut on his head.
CATELINET: He did. Yes.
CHETRY: And apparently, this passenger that cursed at him, he claims, pulled his luggage down earlier and hit him in the head. And when he asked for an apology, he instead used a curse.
CATELINET: That's -- I heard all of that. I didn't see any of this happen because as soon as the plane pulled up to the gate, you know, everybody stands up. Everybody wants to get off the plane first. I just stayed in my seat because I'm halfway back. I'm not going to get out for another five minutes, so why stand up and get in the way.
And it wasn't until about my turn to get off -- it cleared out, that I heard him make this announcement.
ROBERTS: So, you know, deploying an emergency chute in an aircraft when you're not supposed to, unless it's a complete accident, of course, is a crime and is punishable by substantial jail -- time in jail.
CATELINET: Right. Yes.
ROBERTS: Did this fellow give you any indication that maybe he was worried that what he did wasn't going to sit well with the authorities?
CATELINET: No, he didn't seem to have thought that through at all. In fact, the other passenger that was talking to him asked him what happens with the slide, what happens to the plane. And he said, oh, that plane is out of commission for at least the rest of the day. It will probably miss three flights. And I thought, oh, my, all those people that were waiting to go from JFK back to Pittsburgh, because they just turned the planes around, they are stuck there for another, you know, hour or two while JetBlue finds them a new plane.
He seemed -- he was -- you know, happy that he'd done that. Or at least didn't seem to have thought that he was going to get in trouble.
CHETRY: So, clearly, this was somebody who had a lot of frustration and was sort of basking in the glory of his moment. Not necessarily looking at the consequences to come.
CATELINET: Yes. He said something as we were sitting there either wait for the train or on the train, something about, you know, this is -- the mark on -- the scratch on my head, this is, you know, just part of a really bad day, or this is just, you know, one thing that happened today.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CATELINET: So, it sounded like he just woke up and, you know, this was --
ROBERTS: Well, apparently, he's caring for an ailing mother as well. I mean, that was truly one of those network moments, only this time he didn't throw open in a window, he threw up in a plane door and screamed, I meant to tell him, I'm not going to take it anymore.
CATELINET: Right.
ROBERTS: Have you seen him on the flight prior to that? Did he serve you? Did you see him on the aisle?
CATELINET: No. I saw him in the aisle right after I got on. I think it was one of the first ones on and he was just walking up and down the aisle. But he was in the front of the plane, and I was right around the wings. So I was right in the middle.
I had a couple of other flight attendants that walked by during the flight, but I recognized him when I got off the plane that -- when I was at the air train. I -- that's the guy. It was -- and -- as he was talking, I recognized his voice from the intercom.
And so that's where I -- this is -- OK, this is the guy. I sat there and had my phone out and I was -- ready to tweet about this because this story just got more and more interesting.
I wanted to make sure I got it right. At first I thought it was passenger that pulled the chute. I didn't want to get the wrong thing out there.
CHETRY: Well, that's good you took some time to think about it. It's better to be correct than first, right? What do you think should happen to him?
CATELINET: Well, I mean, you've to face the consequences of your actions. You know, it's funny to say we can all, you know, quit our jobs and, you know, tell the boss to shove it. But I would not want to get arrested in doing that.
So - and he just didn't seem to have thought this through. I mean, I don't -- I don't really see him as a hero. I'm starting to feel sorry for him. Clearly, there's a lot more going on here and he did not expect any of this to happen and --
ROBERTS: Definitely the heat of the moment kind of got away with him.
CATELINET: I think so, yes.
ROBERTS: Phil Catelinet, great to see you this morning. Thanks for dropping by and better luck on your next flight.
CATELINET: Thank you.
CHETRY: At least you made it on time.
CATELINET: I did.
ROBERTS: Better luck on your next arrival.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, women in politics. Not as -- well represented as other countries or in other fields here in the U.S. Now, there is a group of activists hoping to train a new generation of female candidates. It is called the "2012 Project." We're going to talk to one of the creators still ahead.
It's 17 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Despite so many women running strong campaigns this election year, women in general actually have not been able to crack the glass ceiling of politics the way they have in other professions.
In fact, women make up only 17 percent of Congress and just 24 percent of state Houses nationwide. One national nonpartisan campaign is hoping to balance those numbers.
Debbie Walsh is the director of the Center of American Women and Politics. She joins me to talk about the "2012 Project."
Thanks for being here.
DEBBIE WALSH: Thank you for having me.
CHETRY: So tell us a little bit about what the theory behind not as many women. When you hear 17 percent or -- in statewide offices, you know, about a quarter of women are the leaders of their states and their representatives in their various states. It seems like a very small number.
DEBBIE WALSH, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR AMERICAN WOMEN AND POLITICS: It is a small number and we can do better in this country. We rank about 74th in the world for the percentage of women in our national legislature.
And the problem is we are not seeing enough women running for office. We are seeing some of those big marquee races, names that everybody knows. But when you dig down a little bit, we are not seeing the numbers.
That's reflected in the numbers you talked about, 83 percent of Congress being male and 76 percent of all state legislators in this country being male. So we can do better.
CHETRY: It's interesting because it doesn't necessarily follow the same trend as many other fields where you've seen women excel and lead in a lot of fields.
WALSH: Well --
CHETRY: Why doesn't it translate to politics?
WALSH: We still don't have a lot of women who are CEOs of major Fortune 500 companies so there's a long way to go all the way around. But women have been building their professional careers. They are still the primary caregivers at home and so running for elective office has not been the same kind of priority.
We also know that women are much more likely than men to need to be asked to run. Men are more likely to wake up one morning, look in the mirror, say, boy, I'd be the best congressman that my state has ever seen.
Women don't think that way. They are busy doing their work and they have an issue that they care about and then maybe they think about how can they solve it and they might think more along the lines of volunteering, going the nonprofit route, but they're not thinking about politics in the same way.
CHETRY: You're right. I mean, you have to almost think of yourself differently. You have to have a lot of self-confidence and not be afraid to sort of get out there and say I'm the perfect person for this, which isn't necessarily always what you see some women willing to do.
WALSH: Exactly.
CHETRY: On top of that, when you take poll after poll, people aren't that enthralled with our leaders now.
WALSH: They are not that excited about politics, and that does add to it. That's actually why we are developing the "2012 Project," to go out there and identify and educate and inspire women who are 45 and older, women who are sort of - their family responsibilities have lessened. They have achieved leadership in their fields.
We want to identify those women and in 2012, we want to encourage them to run because 2012 is a year of redistricting. It's the year when we're going to see the most leveled playing field in the electoral politics, districts across this country at the state legislative and congressional level will be redrawn. Creating open seats and those open seats are the possibilities.
And we want to target women from professions that aren't necessarily well represented in government. So professions like science and technology, energy, environment, finance, people who will come into elective office with new ideas and a knowledge base that this country needs as we move forward.
The new challenges we are facing are going to require that kind of expertise so why not have women who have that expertise come into government.
CHETRY: And it doesn't matter whether they're Republican or Democrat.
WALSH: This is a nonpartisan national campaign. We are looking for women across this country who can run for office and who are ready to think about what's that next step. These are women who've broken their own glass ceilings and in the professions they are in. Now we want to find -- ask them why not think about politics as your next step, your next big thing and the place where they can really make a difference.
CHETRY: Well, despite being sometimes divisive characters, Sarah Palin, in the world of politics, she has thrown her weight behind other women. She called them the so called "Mama Grizzlies," endorsing a lot of women for 2010.
You have Carly Fiorina who's running for the Senate in California as well as Linda McMan in Connecticut, Sharon Angle in Nevada for senator race there, Meg Whitman, Nikki Haley so there's a pretty list of many women who have a decent shot in 2010.
WALSH: There's some exciting races out there for women, some marquee races. We have two women versus women governors races. We are going to see women elected for the first time in New Mexico and Oklahoma.
But those big names mask what I think is the reality of where we are right now with women in politics. Our numbers for women running for the United States House of Representatives and for the state legislatures in 2010 are about the same as they were two years ago and four years ago.
We have a lot of work to do and with the "2012 Project," we want to go out and make sure that in 2012 when we have a year of real opportunity, that we have lots and lots of women running. Women who will bring different perspectives and new ideas to governing and it's really a patriotic movement.
CHETRY: Well, if you're out there listening, and you think they are talking about you, go for it. The "2012 Project," is great initiative. Thanks for joining us to talk about it, Debbie Walsh, the director. I appreciate it - John.
ROBERTS: Series of stabbings in Michigan, Virginia, and Ohio may be linked. Is there a serial killer on the loose? Our Jason Carroll with that story coming up next. It's 25 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: This morning, we have an extraordinary first happened look at the devastating floods in Pakistan. The torrential rains had affected more than 14 million people.
CHETRY: Unfortunately, more heavy rain is predicted in the coming days. The United Nations says that this disaster is worse than the 2004 tsunami. Our Reza Seyah is live in Islamabad, Pakistan for us today.
Reza, you traveled to some of the hardest-hit areas. What's it like there now?
REZA SEYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kiran, when you go to some of the areas, it really drives home the scope of this disaster zone and the suffering these flood victims are facing and the challenges of getting them out.
Remember, in parts of central Pakistan, these floods hit more than a week ago. But today there are still people, thousands of them, in need of help who are stranded. The Pakistan Navy has been working around the clock to get them out. In one of these rescue missions, we were fortunate enough to ride along.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEYAH (voice-over): This lake that you see didn't exist about a week ago. These are the flood floodwaters that have buried entire villages in the district of (Godki) in northern Sindh Province. Thousands of people still stranded in some of these villages.
(on camera): And the Navy special services here in Pakistan has been using about 20 boats of this region on rescue missions. We are on their hover craft and we are along for the ride on this mission. It looks like we have arrived at the village, as you can see, most of the homes under water.
What is he saying?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's saying that -- take the people out.
SEYAH: A lot of the people didn't want to go a few days ago. But now you can see most of their village is under water and now they are saying all right, it is time to leave. These are conditions. These people have lived in for about a week now.
About 40 to 50 people in this village being rescued and they keep coming. Most of them are children. They are grabbing the belongings that they can. We saw what it appeared to be a newborn wrapped in a blue blanket and they just keep coming.
They're saying about a thousand more people left in this area stranded, but this hovercraft simply does not have any more room. They are just telling them we are going to come back. Just taking a few more people, but they are going to have to wrap up here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SEYAH: Just an unforgettable few hours with the Pakistan Navy who has been working for about seven, eight days around the clock. What's staggering is the number of children who are among these flood victims. It's very common for Pakistani families to have five, six, seven, maybe more children.
You first off wonder how do they survive the floods. You also wonder how will they continue to make it if they don't get help soon? John, Kiran?
ROBERTS: Reza Sayah this morning, thanks so much.
Crossing the half hour now, time for this morning's top stories. A new test may predict whether you are likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. A study in the Archives of Neurology found spinal fluid can real proteins that are telltale signs for the disease. These biomarkers researchers say were found in 90 percent of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
CHETRY: The plane landed and he took off. A JetBlue flight attendant facing criminal charges after he allegedly had enough, flipped out on passengers, grabbed some beer, slid down the emergency chute on a flight at JFK. He now has a Facebook fan page this morning. He has been dubbed a folk hero already. It is growing by the second.
ROBERTS: The dragnet for an excepted convict and his lover now expanding to Canada. Police fear John McCluskey, who has been on the run since last July, and his suspected accomplice will not go down without a fight. The two are suspected of killing a couple in New Mexico, and authorities believe that they are now in western Montana or possibly southwestern Canada.
CHETRY: And no onto another manhunt to tell you about. Police in three states as well as the FBI are searching for a suspect believed to be behind a series of brutally stabbing deaths. These attacks started back in May, the 24th of May, in fact, in Flint, Michigan.
ROBERTS: Now police in Leesburg, Virginia, and Toledo, Ohio, say crimes committed there fit the same pattern. Our Jason Carroll is tracking this developing story and is here with us this morning. This is quite a tale. Police have no idea where this guy is.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And you heard the investigators early this morning describing this man as "evil." This is a story that has people on edge in several towns. Investigators are calling these "crimes of opportunity," saying they believe the suspect is, quote, "very desperate and dangerous."
Police in Flint say they now think that 15 attacks there are linked, five of them deadly. The suspect is described as a white man, a sketch you see of him there, in his late 20s, early 30s. He's stocky, unshaven, and muscular. He's six feet tall, about 180 pounds and usually wears a baseball cap.
Police say in some cases the man first lured his victims to his car in material morning hours by asking for directions or help. Most of the victims are African-American, so police think that race could be a motive. We talked about that with the county prosecutor in flint, Michigan, earlier on "American morning."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LEYTON, PROSECUTOR, GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN: Well, the evidence suggests that we've had now 16 incidents here and 14 of the 16 individuals who have been attacked are African-Americans. Flint, where most of these crimes have occurred, is a predominantly African- American community. In Leesburg, you have three stabbings. Two of the individuals were African-American, one was a Hispanic, Latino, it's my understanding. It is also my understanding also Leesburg is a predominantly white community.
So the evidence would suggest that, but we don't know what's in the mind of the assailant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Well, the attacks started May 24th in Flint. The most recent in Michigan was August 2nd. By the next day the stabbings in Virginia started, possibly leading up to the one in Ohio on Saturday. We heard from one woman who talked about how her nephew was attacked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was stabbed. He's still in the hospital. He's not doing good at all.
He's a serial killer. He is crazy. He needs to be locked up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LEYTON, PROSECUTOR, GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN: Authorities were able to link their crimes after interviewing the victims. They gave similar descriptions of the attacker and the vehicle he drove described as a dark green early '90s Chevy blazer.
At this point investigators have already received more than 175 tips. That was as of 3:00 yesterday. So by now they received more. They are confident they are going to be able to catch this guy.
ROBERTS: They've got a pretty good description on this guy and the vehicle. So maybe somebody sharp out there will discover it and call in a tip.
CARROLL: We'll see.
ROBERTS: Jason, thanks.
A new parenting trend is on the rise. Does meditation really work for unruly toddlers? Deepak Chopra ought to know, and he's joining us coming up next. It's 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 37 minutes after the hour. Parents know when the kids act up you will try pretty much anything to try to calm them down. But what about medication? Not for you but your kids. Could that work?
Here to talk more about it is our good friend Deepak Chopra. He is the author of "The Ultimate Happiness Prescription, Seven Keys to Joy and Enlightenment."
First of all, what might the benefits be if you can teach a child to meditate of doing the meditation?
DEEPAK CHOPRA, AUTHOR, "THE ULTIMATE HAPPINESS PERSCRIPTION": There are lots of benefits. The best way to calm a child down is settled, centered parents because children, young children, particularly mirror the neurons of their parents. It's a physiological thing.
Having said that, there's a lot of experience with meditation in children and, they focus more. They are easy and relaxed. They have better grades. And they have better health, even physical health.
ROBERTS: First of all if the child is misbehaving or acting out for parent to be tearing their hair out, that is the wrong approach.
CHOPRA: They mirror. I was seeing a case of it in the dog, you know. He was -- peeling his skin and destroying his, you know --
ROBERTS: Told "bad dog, bad dog" all the time.
CHOPRA: When the owner got therapy, the dog improved.
(LAUGHTER)
Now we recognize it. Children and pets mirror their parents.
ROBERTS: People begin to look like their pets after a while, maybe vice versa is true as well.
OK. A toddler, three-year-old, most parents will tell you, Deepak, is not typically associated with tranquility and focus and the things you need to do for meditation.
CHOPRA: Make a game of it. You can tell the toddler mentally repeat the word "happy" for three minutes, four minutes, five minutes. And it becomes a game. I did it with my children. I now have done it with my grandchildren. They love it.
ROBERTS: So how do you do it? You have to get them quiet, obviously.
CHOPRA: No. A three-year-old, four-year-old, you can't get them quiet. You say just for five minutes, keep silent. Don't say anything. Don't close your eyes. Mentally keep repeating the word. It can be "peace," "happy," "joy," "love," whatever.
ROBERTS: So this is the mantra?
CHOPRA: This is --
ROBERTS: When you are doing meditation -- an adult, when they meditate, focus and focus on their breathing, focus mentally and repeat a mantra over and over.
CHOPRA: When the child is about 10 years, you can sit the child down, close their eyes. And then you will form a mantra meditation. ROBERTS: All right, so if a child won't say something like "happy, happy, peace," or whatever, are there other things you can get them to do like making sounds?
CHOPRA: Yes -- sounds, words. Ah, e, o, ooh. If they make these sounds, again, has similar effect on the brain.
There's some very interesting studies now both on adults and children. Attention deficit disorder improves, attention span improves. Very specific changes in the brain waves, feeder waves, and alpha waves. There's evidence that you might turn on things like serotonin. They modulate the activity of the system.
ROBERTS: So if can you get a toddler through those early years --
CHOPRA: Make a game of it. I look at my five-year-old, granddaughter, what are you doing? Don't disturb me. I'm meditating.
ROBERTS: So if you get them through the early years and get them into the idea it is fun to do, and it is calming to do, what are the benefits somebody reaches, you know, teenage years? As you said and have done this with your children.
CHOPRA: My kids started when they were five, six, and their teen years were not turbulent at all. In fact, they wondered why everybody at school was so distraught. They never had a problem throughout their teen years.
ROBERTS: There are a lot of parents out there that probably meditate themselves. If somebody isn't really into meditation, does than know the source literature and they are saying this sounds like a good idea, something I would like to get involved in, where can they start? What do they need to look for?
ROBERTS: Go to a yoga center. You can read, teach meditation throughout the world. We have 2,000 teachers trained at the Chopra Center. These days, every yoga center offers some kind of meditation, breathing meditation, lots of breathing techniques that you can do. They are simple to do and should be part of the yoga routine, too.
In New York City, there's a yoga center every two blocks.
ROBERTS: Of course, but out there in the center of the country, what some people like to call flyover country, there aren't yoga centers every few yards. So is there a book? Is there something else you might suggest, an Internet source.
CHOPRA: Yes, even phone apps. It teaches people how to meditate. You can find many sources of meditation -- CDs, books. In fact, there's "Meditation for Dummies," "Idiot's Guides to Meditation." It is mainstream.
ROBERTS: That's where I will start. Deepak, it is great to see you, as always.
CHOPRA: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Thanks for coming in. Good tips this morning. Kiran?
CHETRY: If Deepak could tame my four year old, in a tantrum, that would be a good one.
ROBERTS: I'm not sure Barnum & Bailey could do that.
CHETRY: But there is an app for that.
(LAUGHTER)
All right, 43 minutes past the hour. Coming back, we are going to check in with Rob Marciano. Dangerous heat is back in many places. He will take a look at that, and also a tropical system forming out in the Gulf of Mexico. He'll take a look at that as well.
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CHETRY: Well, look at Atlanta, Georgia, this morning where it's partly cloudy at 15 minutes to the top of the hour; 77 degrees right now. And it's going up to a high of 95. Well, it'll certainly be steamy on an August day in Atlanta.
ROBERTS: Rob Marciano checking out the weather across the rest of the country. He is here with us now from Atlanta. Good morning Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning John and Kiran. I want to touch on what's going on in the Gulf of Mexico. As I've mention 20 minutes ago or so, this area of disturbed weather has been bumped up to a high probability of becoming a tropical depression or tropical storm here in the next day, maybe even today.
They're going to fly an aircraft recon mission out there and check it out. You see the flare-up of thunderstorms around Key West and the rest of the Florida Keys. So this has been problematic really this entire broad area of low pressure for the past couple of days.
And we have some heavy rains especially across central and south Florida. Even some water spouts across the West Coast. And this kind of activity is going to continue today. And it looks like it's becoming a little bit more active.
So be on guard. West Coast of Florida, all the way up to the upper Texas coastline, this thing could develop into something here and it's going to obviously impact folks fairly quickly.
Speaking of quickly impacting folks, a couple of showers across the New York City and tri-state area especially north of town; Once those go through the sun is going to come up. It will start to bake that concrete and if it's wet it's going to feel steamy. Especially from Philadelphia up to New York, we have heat advisories in effect for these cities with temperatures well into the 90s. Heat warnings up for these pink highlighted areas; in the central part of the country 105 to 120 is what the weather is going to feel like in these spots.
And just to get your mind on the cool side, 50 degrees yesterday morning in Woodland Hills, California; Santa Barbara, 51 degrees if that places isn't pleasant enough -- record low temperatures yesterday morning.
These folks out here complaining that it's too cool -- I guess we all have our problems.
John and Kiran back up to you.
ROBERTS: All right, Rob thanks so much.
MARCIANO: All right.
ROBERTS: Well, no matter what you weigh, whether you're a normal BMI or whether you are overweight, a thick waist doubles your risk of death. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has got some information you want to hear about coming right up.
Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: Everybody got the idea. And there are some toddlers in there who do need to meditate. So we're glad to see that they are picking it up.
If you're among the millions of older Americans who are just a little bit overweight, a new study says just a few extra inches on your waist could increase your risk of death from heart disease, diabetes, even some cancers.
CHETRY: Yes, our chief medical correspondent is here, Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Atlanta. We always talk about the danger zone. And it's getting that belly fat, right? What do they consider though, a few extra inches -- Sanjay?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, when talking about belly fat, the number that they are sort of paying attention to here, is four extra inches for men and women.
Again, that's measuring the waist circumference. You know, it's -- we have all this -- this equipment in hospitals. Things to measure all sorts of different things, but the thing I found so interesting about this study was that simply measuring the waist circumference did give you a pretty accurate predictor of how likely someone will die early of all sorts of preventable problems.
And also it didn't seem to matter how much you weighed or what your body mass index was. You can have a normal body mass index but if you have a big waist that seems to be a real problem.
Specifically here, take a look at the numbers: expanding waistlines by an additional four inches -- again, men and women alike -- earlier mortality dying, 18 percent increase for men and 25 percent for women.
And, you know, the thing about it is, if you think about fat and if you think about the stuff here, the subcutaneous fat. But what's -- what's problematic and what the studies really point at is something known as visceral fat, or the fat on the inside of your body.
I don't know how well you can see that. But think about the fat on the outside of your body, being a predictor, of how much fat is on the inside of your body and how much of it's strangling sort of your organs and accumulating that way. That's -- that's the biologically active fat, increases your risk for heart disease, for diabetes, for stroke therein lies the problem. So again, about four inches on the waist.
ROBERTS: Diet and exercise are always key in maintaining a healthy weight and a healthy physical shape. When it comes to this -- this visceral fat, this -- active body fat that you talk about, are there particular foods or exercises that are better than others for reducing it?
GUPTA: Well, people think about, you know, doing things like crunches or sit-ups for example because they want to get rid of this -- this subcutaneous fat. That -- that probably isn't the right answer here.
What you want to be doing is total body exercises and not even intense necessarily but rather moderate exercises, just doing it consistently. What you're trying to do is burn calories, sort of consistently as much as possible.
And also, John and this may be a little bit counter-intuitive. But actually, doing some strength training, some resistance training, building up some muscles in the upper body, the legs, the big muscle groups, that helps burn calories even at rest.
And you can have some fat. And it's not to say that you shouldn't eat fat whatsoever. But healthy fats and the term to look for on the bottle if you're buying it in a bottle is monounsaturated. Those are going to be the healthiest fats of all.
So it's really -- it's all the stuff that you might expect, with a few non-intuitive things thrown in there.
CHETRY: Well, first of all, you know in some cases it's hard to get guys let's just say to go to the doctor in general. But when you actually get there they throw you on a scale. I have never seen my doctor take out a tape measure.
GUPTA: Yes and you know it's interesting because they actually -- did a survey to try and find out how many doctors actually do this. You know, again, I think a lot of people are guilty of this. We spend a lot of money on all sorts of diagnostic tests.
But a tape measure which costs nothing and probably takes hardly any time to do; it could be one of best predictors. So maybe Kiran, maybe they'll start doing it more after reading studies like this.
CHETRY: There you go. You've got to start somewhere. Right?
GUPTA: That's right.
CHETRY: And I know that there are a few people out there just asking wait a minute, can I go get lipo and get rid of that inside stuff and will I be fine? You know people are always looking for a shortcut.
GUPTA: Yes. No doubt. It's actually not a bad question. To get rid of this and reduce your waist, is that going to help, you know, the problem later on. The answer is as you might suspect is no because sort of going back to this picture again, it's not the subcutaneous fat, that's really the problem, it's the fat on the inside.
And you can have normal weight and you can have normal body mass index. If you do lipo, you get your weight back down to size, but this stuff is the real problem. So I think in this case the shortcuts probably really don't apply.
CHETRY: All right. Sanjay Gupta for us this morning -- thank you.
GUPTA: You got it, guys. Take care.
CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Minding your business this morning. Whoever said money can't buy happiness apparently just wasn't spending it right.
Researchers say buying a new television or gadget may not do much for your spirit.
CHETRY: Instead they found that people who spend money on an experience like taking a vacation or going to even a local park in your area tend to be happier. We spoke to Thomas Gilovich; he's a psychology professor at Cornell University earlier today to talk to him about why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS GILOVICH, CHAIRMAN, PSYCHOLOGY DEPT., CORNELL UNIVERSITY: Many people have the intuition that, well, the vacation will come and quickly go, but I will always have flat-screen television. But one of the great enemies of happiness is adaptation. We get a lot of satisfaction out of the things that we buy initially but then they sort of disappear psychologically. We don't much notice them.
But strangely, the experiences, even though in a material sense, they come and go, they tend to live on in the stories we tell, the memories we have and they provide more long-term satisfaction. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Professor Gilovich went on to say that it is true that people in wealthier countries tend to be happier than citizens of poorer countries but he also said that it is not how much money you have to spend. It is what you do with it.
ROBERTS: Continue the conversation on today's stories. Go to our blog at CNN.com/amfix.
That will wrap it up for us. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you back here again bright and early tomorrow.
CHETRY: Meantime, the news continues. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts now -- hey Kyra.
