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American Morning
Primary Results; Investigation Continues Into Alaska Plane Crash; Four Crash Survivors Rescued; Food Insecurity; Addicted: Prescription for Danger; Air Crash Kills Former Senator Stevens; A Summer of Extremes; Alzheimer's Test Breakthrough?
Aired August 11, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Thanks so much for being with us on the Most News in the Morning on this Wednesday, the 11th of August. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us. We have a lot to talk about this morning.
We start with the latest today on the investigation into the plane crash in Alaska. Investigators will be sifting through the wreckage of the plane that killed former Alaska senator, Ted Stevens, as well as four others. They're hoping to learn why the plane clipped a mountain near the Bering Sea as the passengers were on their way to a fishing camp Monday afternoon. Four people did survive that crash, including the former administrator of NASA and his teenage son.
ROBERTS: Rocky mountain high, Colorado's incumbent senator, Michael Bennett, wins the Democratic primary. It's a major political victory for Bennett and his chief supporter, President Obama. Bennett's opponent was endorsed by former president, Bill Clinton. It is the first time that Bennett actually has appeared on a ballot. He was appointed to fill a vacancy last year.
CHETRY: And this summer of 2010 going down on history as a season of extremes. Unbearable heat waves gripping much of the U.S., searing heat torching parts of Russia and catastrophic flooding killing 1,500 people in Pakistan. Could all the weather events be linked? What about the iceberg in Greenland? NASA scientist Tom Wagner is going to tackle those questions for us in the next half- hour.
ROBERTS: First this hour, extreme weather may have caused a deadly plane crash that killed former Alaska senator Ted Stevens and four others on Monday night. Investigators plan to examine the crash site today.
CHETRY: We have some of the first pictures from the scene, the wreckage of a single engine turboprop plane scattered on a remote mountain side in southwest Alaska near the Bering Sea.
ROBERTS: Four people onboard did manage to survive, including the former administrator of NASA and his teenage son. They were rescued to rushed to providence hospital in anchorage. That's where our Casey Wian is standing by live with the very latest this morning. Good morning, Casey.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John, Kiran. It has been 36 hours now almost since that crash happened. We don't have the exact time. We know it was Monday night. We know that the survivors of that crash were up in that remote area for around 12 hours before help was able to reach them.
As you said, they're now here at providence hospital. Former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe is listed in critical condition. His son Kevin is listed in serious condition. One of the other survivors, a gentleman named Jim Morhard, is also in serious condition, and a 13- year-old boy whose father perished in the crash, we have no information on his condition.
Now, we have been speaking with pilots who came across that crash scene Monday night and described what they said was a horrific scene with a plane that had gone into a steep mountain, rugged terrain. The plane sustained significant damage, though there was no fire, and some of those folks who were first on the scene expressed surprise that anyone survived. Here's what one had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEBORAH HERSMAN, CHAIRWOMAN, NTSB: There were a lot of people who were applying their skills and also supporting those individuals who were trapped on the hillside. Obviously we don't know what would have happened if they had not been there, but we do thank the lord that they were there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIAN: That was actually the chief of the National Transportation Safety Board, not one of those pilots. They held a press briefing late yesterday and some of their investigators were able to reach the scene.
And what they were talking about there was the fact that so many volunteers deployed rapidly to this crash scene where official rescuers could not reach. There was one physician who was airlifted in to the area. She could only get to within about 1,000 feet of the crash scene in that airlift.
She cut through brush, slippery terrain. She had a satellite phone with her and was able to reach that scene and provide some aid to those survivors until help actually arrived and they were able to get those folks off of that mountain about 12 hours later. John, Kiran?
CHETRY: All right, Casey Wian for us with the latest update from anchorage, Alaska. Thanks, Casey.
And also we are going to get the latest on the crash investigation when Deborah Hersman, chairman of the national transportation safety board joins us in just about eight minutes. John? ROBERTS: It was a big night in politics last night. Several key races posting results late into the night. Primaries in four states last night to tell you about.
Big win for Michael Bennett, the incumbent senator in Colorado. He was facing a strong challenge from Andrew Romanoff, who was Bill Clinton's chosen candidate. Bennett was being supported by the White House, so Bennett does come away with a win there in the state of Colorado.
There is a race was too close to call going on in Georgia right now. Nathan Deal as well as Karen Handel, who was the candidate backed by Sarah Palin for the Republican primary dueling it off last night. Here are latest results we have from last night -- 50.2 percent for Nathan Deal, 48.9 percent for Handel. Looks at the very least like there is going to be a recount there.
I'm sorry, these things just are not cooperating. The state of Minnesota -- we are having problems with the magic wall this morning. State of Minnesota, former senator Mark Dayton, the Democrat, goes up against Tom Emery, the Republican.
And of course the big race here, if this thing wants to cooperate -- it doesn't. Linda McMahon, the former CEO of WWE World Wrestling Entertainment -- I'm going to pull a Steven Slater in about three, two, one -- she is going to go up against the former lieutenant governor Blumenthal in the election in November, and Linda McMahon is going to be joining us in our next hour to talk about her win and what it means to the Republican establishment, because certainly she didn't have them behind her.
Really Blumenthal's kind of an anti-establishment candidate as well. This is a state that has not voted in a Republican senator since Prescott Bush left in 1963. So it will be obviously a challenge for her, but she's got a big war chest behind her -- $28 million, Kiran. So she has a lot of cash to throw around in this race.
We'll take this in and get it serviced and see if we can wrap this thing up again next hour. Back to you.
CHETRY: All right, John, thanks.
Well, the developer of a controversial mosque and Islamic center in lower Manhattan has reportedly rejected an offer from New York governor David Paterson. Paterson offered to be a mediator and try to find a new location for the center. The governor says he's "very sensitive" to those who are against the center being so close to ground zero.
But the developer told our affiliate, New York One, quote, "This has always been about serving lower Manhattan."
Meantime, early government tests into the sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles finding no evidence of bad electronics. So far federal regulators have tested 58 of the vehicles that crashed. They say it is still early and they haven't reached any conclusions yet. Toyota has claimed that the drivers mistakenly pressed the gas pedal of the brake in all of those cases.
ROBERTS: Also new this morning, the JetBlue flight attendant who grabbed a couple of beers and slid down the escape chute has been released from jail. This is new video of him walking out of jail last night and into the media frenzy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That scar on your head, is that from the suitcase falling? Is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to lose your job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than likely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you care about that anymore?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No comment at this time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me about rude passengers. Talk about that for a second.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of wonderful people out there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Tell me about the magic wall.
CHETRY: "A lot of wonderful people out there," apparently the ones who are now Facebook friends, tens of thousands of them, fans he didn't have just 48 hours ago. We'll take a look at his meteoric rise to fame later this hour, even talk of a reality show already.
And as the anger management specialist that you had pointed out, in some ways this is rewarding bad behavior. You flip out, do the wrong thing in a situation, and get rewarded.
ROBERTS: Which is why I didn't pull the escape slide on the magic wall a few minutes ago. It would have been the wrong thing to do.
CHETRY: Probably.
(WEATHER BREAK)
CHETRY: Still ahead, former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens among five people killed when their plane crashed into a mountain in southwest Alaska. And this morning the search for answers continues. What caused that tragic accident? We're going to get the latest on the investigation when the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board joins us live after the break. It's ten minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 12 minutes past the hour right now. We get the latest on the investigation into the Alaska plane crash that happened yesterday. We now have our first pictures of the wreckage of the plane that killed former senator Ted Stevens and four others on Monday.
This is the single engine turboprop plane that slammed into a mountain near the Bering Sea. There were clearly visibility problems at the time these pictures were taken, leading the National Transportation Safety Board to determine whether the same kind of weather could have been a factor in bringing the aircraft down.
Joining us on the phone right now to discuss the investigation, Deborah Hersman, chairwoman for the NTSB. Thanks for joining us this morning.
HERSMAN (via telephone): Good morning.
CHETRY: Just update us, if you will, on what you've learned so far about this crash.
HERSMAN: Well, we're in the very early stages of our investigation, so we're really putting a lot of the factual information together right now. I did have an opportunity to talk with a physician who spent the night on that hillside with the survivors -- the emergency responders that tried to get in early, actually get weathered in and they ended up spending the evening on the mountain before they could get rescued the next day.
There were many challenges certainly that they were facing, but what we're trying to figure out what exactly what happened leading up to the accident -- what time they left, what time the accident occurred, when they realized that they were missing, and how the search and rescue operations worked.
And so we're certainly looking at weather but everything is on the table right now and we haven't ruled anything out.
CHETRY: You have a bit of a unique situation here in that there were four people who survived. Tragically five people lost their lives. But have you been able to talk to any of the survivors of the crash to get a better timeline?
HERSMAN: We have not yet talk to any of the survivors. We were in Dillingham when they were being transported to Anchorage. And right now our first priority is to make sure that they get the medical attention that they need.
And certainly we'd like to talk to them and will do that if and when it's kind of appropriate for them as far as their health goes. They'll be able to give us a good picture, but we have a number of interviews that we need to conduct, both at the lodge where they departed and people who might have communicated with them before they left to understand what their decision was and what they might have been facing.
CHETRY: Some of the witnesses described the wing still attached to the fuselage. We can see these pictures -- they're taken at a bit of a distance though. They say the front of the aircraft was pretty heavily damaged. It didn't catch fire though, and no one was ejected. Describe what rescuers or investigators saw when they arrived on the scene.
HERSMAN: Well, our investigators haven't been able to get to the site because of the weather, but those first responders who were on scene did share some observations with us. Some of them that you relate I think are very important. There was no post crash fire.
And I think that contributed to the survivability of the accident for those four survivors, but definitely a lot of challenges. It was very slippery, very wet, muddy. The terrain was very challenging for the responders and the survivors and the people who were trying to evacuate them off the mountain, it was a real challenge for them. I know a lot of work still to do.
CHETRY: Heard you say in a prior press conference yesterday, thank the Lord that those rescuers were there because they were able to reach them, the volunteers, before the actual rescuers were able to get there.
Do you have any idea from people who were able to see the scene how is it that four people were able to survive, yet five others lost their lives? Were they in different parts of the plane? Was it and amount of luck perhaps?
HERSMAN: Well, there are many accidents where we see people survive. Sometimes we lose the whole aircraft and the people on- board, and sometimes everyone survive survives, such as the miracle on the Hudson or in Denver.
We had a crash where everyone walked away even though the airplane was a complete loss. You know, there are many accidents that are survivable and it really does depend on a lot of factors, you know, where people are seated.
If they're using their restraints, you know, what the damage to the aircraft in the vicinity is. And so we're going to build that picture. We need to talk to people first and certainly talk to the survivors. They'll help us determine that.
CHETRY: Do you have any indication, quickly, whether or not the five -- any of the five who eventually died survived the initial crash or died waiting to be rescued?
HERSMAN: We don't know that information at this point and it's going to be up to the medical examiner to determine the cause of death.
CHETRY: All right, Deborah Hersman for us, chairman of the NTSB, thanks so much for your time this morning. I know as you said it is early on in the investigation and you still have a lot of work ahead. Thanks.
ROBERTS: A dramatic rise in food insecurity in this country. Almost 50 million Americans, 17 million children, are fighting a daily battle with hunger. What can be done about it? We'll find out, 17 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" now. The numbers are staggering. Nearly 15 percent of American households have experienced food insecurity at some point according to the latest government data.
Why are so many people having trouble putting food on the table and what can be done to reverse that trend? David Beckman is the president of Bread for the World, and he joins us now.
David, great to see you this morning.
REV. DAVID BECKMAN, ECONOMIST AND LUTHERAN MINISTER; FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF MULTI-FAITH ALLIANCE TO END HUNGER: Thank you.
ROBERTS: First of all, how would you define food insecurity?
BECKMAN: Well, those figures are collected by the Census Bureau and the way, basically, food insecurities is a technical term. It means either you're hungry or you're on the edge of being hungry.
ROBERTS: So we're not talking about starvation here?
BECKMAN: No. What we're talking about is a lot of families, 50 million people in households, 1 in 4 kids in our country in a household that sometimes runs out of food, eats crummy food.
ROBERTS: Those numbers are staggering. What's the net effect on that to people?
BECKMAN: Well, the damage is huge especially the damage to small children because that kind of hunger keeps kids from concentrating.
So little kids are supposed to be learning machines, but they really can't pay attention when any go to kindergarten. They wiggle and they're naughty.
So the long-term damage of widespread hunger, especially among little children, is huge.
ROBERTS: So is this a daily thing? Is sort of, you know, this as a family gets toward the end of the month and money starts to run out they start cutting back?
BECKMAN: It's that. It's mainly intermittent hunger so it's when they run out of food stamps or they run out of the wage check.
But then also all month long they don't have quite enough so they have to skimp and eat cheaper foods which are often crummy foods so --
ROBERTS: When it comes to the food assistance program as well, it's run into some hard times. This new state aid bill, the $26 billion, they're taking money away from the stood stamp program to pay for some of those programs.
The other bill that's out there now, which cleared the Senate, the Hunger-Free Kids Act is also paring away money from the assistance program.
So what's the - over it's kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul here, but you want to make sure that the kids get good nutrition in school.
BECKMAN: Exactly. What Congress did yesterday is pass this Aid to States Act, which is a good bill, but they paid for it by making deep cuts in food stamps, $12 billion. That's a lot of food.
Lot of us are involved in trying to help food banks, food charities. What the Congress did yesterday was took away twice as much food as all the charities in the country will mobilize over the coming year. So it's big decision.
They're also working on this child nutrition bill, which will set policies regarding school lunches and programs that help low- income kids with food.
They ought to do a better job. Ironically the Senate's proposing to take money for -- more money from food stamps to pay for school lunches.
ROBERTS: So the pressure is increasing on families, maybe you get relief for schools when this bill passes and that gets implemented.
But when you look at the unemployment rate, when you look at the number of people who are suffering from food insecurity, it's a large number of people, increased pressure, what do you do about it?
BECKMAN: Well, hunger is a fixable problem. This is not that hard to do, but to fix it, part of the solution is the national nutrition programs. Instead of cutting those programs, we should be strengthening those programs.
ROBERTS: All right, David Beckman. It's great to see you this morning. Thanks for dropping by.
BECKMAN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Appreciate it.
CHETRY: Still ahead, down a slide and into the spotlight, the flight attendant who flipped down and then became an overnight sensation.
He's now out on bail. He's talking. We'll have more on what happened on that plane and on his rise to fame. He's become a folk hero, especially on the internet. Twenty four minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty five minutes past the hour.
In our continuing series "Addicted," something you'll see only on "American Morning," we're taking a look at prescription pill addiction.
It's become an epidemic in this country and it can be deadly not just for the addict abusing the prescription drugs, but for the doctors who come between them and the fix. Carol Costello has this A.M. Original for us from Washington.
Good morning, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. It is easy to sit back and shake your head when you hear stories of people addicted to prescription drugs.
It's sad but it don't touch me life. But that's not exactly true. Prescription drug abuse is so pervasive and so dangerous for doctors. He may refuse to write you a prescription no matter how much you're hurting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Small town America with a big problem -- pill poppers.
DANIELLE SANDLIN, DAUGHTER OF DR. DENNIS SANDLIN: I didn't really realize how bad it was getting until after I've gotten out of college.
COSTELLO: Danielle Sandlin grew up in eastern Kentucky. Her father was a doctor who like other doctors in this part of the country watched prescription drug abuse spiral out of control.
(on camera): In December, things came to a head here in Cornettsville, Kentucky, population is 792.
(voice-over): In this clinic, Danielle's father, Dr. Dennis Sandlin, refused to prescribe painkillers for a man he suspected was an addict. Police say that man, John Combes, left angry and came back with a gun.
SANDLIN: My dad was writing in a chart at the nurse's station and they -- someone heard my dad say, "You don't want to do this, I take care of a lot of elderly people." And he said, "Well you didn't help me" and that's when he shot him.
COSTELLO: Dr. Sandlin's murder didn't come as a shock to Dr. David Greene. He works at a family practice clinic in Buria (ph).
Addicts often come to his clinic to shop for doctors. They use every trick in the book to get him to prescribe powerful pain medication like Oxycontin. It can get ugly.
(on camera): So have you had people come in and scream at you?
DR. DAVID GREENE, WORKS AT FAMILY PRACTICE CLINIC IN BURIA (ph): Yes.
COSTELLO: Physically push you or touch you?
GREENE: I have less of a problem because I'm male and I'm taller. But one of the things we have to do in our office, because I'm the only male doctor, is I'm sort of on call for situations like that that involved anybody else and I'll deal with them.
COSTELLO: But some doctors do refuse to deal with it. They no longer write prescriptions for pain medication for anyone, regardless of need.
Detectives in Louisville can understand that. They arrest two or three suspects a day who routinely call in fraudulent prescriptions to pharmacists.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a forged prescription that you went and picked up. Not just once but a bunch of times. Do you know who's calling these in? I know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it you? Claiming to be in this --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It wasn't in the beginning, but yes.
COSTELLO: It's become an old, tired story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's actually her at the pharmacy.
COSTELLO: Detective Steve Watts is dedicated to fighting just one kind of drug crime -- illegal prescription drug use. He's looking at surveillance tape after woman who allegedly used a doctor's name to call in a prescription for Xanax.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There she is with the same distinctive bag. Her Walmart bag, walking out.
COSTELLO: We rode along with Detective Watts. It wasn't long before "she" appeared. Along with her father, and that purse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I could make this her worst day of her life so that tomorrow she will seek treatment, then I've won.
COSTELLO: Back in Cornettsville, there are no winners. Dr. Sandlin's alleged killer has yet to face trial. He says he's not guilty.
SANDLIN: He has to see what he's done. He has to look at my family and know what he did. It's somebody's life. It's the lives of his patients, that community. You know, it's everybody.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: It is everybody's problem. Danielle is working with a number of groups to make it safer for doctors to practice medicine.
Dr. Greene is working, too. His clinic has informed every pharmacist in Barea, Kentucky they are no longer calling in prescriptions.
Kiran, they're going to do it via computer. It seems to be safer that way.
CHETRY: It's just a shame to see how explosive this problem has become. We've seen it grow exponentially just in the past decade.
COSTELLO: It's true and the difficult part for doctors -- let's say you go to a doctor and you say I'm suffering, I'm in pain, I need a prescription, there's really no way for the doctor to tell if you're telling the truth.
He just has to trust you and they are in lies the problem. If you're addicted to prescription drugs, you can be a pretty good actor. As you well know from the stories you've done the past two days, Kiran.
CHETRY: They figure out how to game the system, unfortunately and it ends up affecting everyone and end their lives as well. Carol Costello, great story this morning. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Crossing the half-hour now, it means it's time for this morning's top stories. Investigators in Alaska heading to the scene of a deadly plane crash that killed former Senator Ted Stevens and four other passengers. Four of the passengers did survive the crash, including former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe and his teenage son. Their plane went down Monday afternoon near the Bering Sea.
CHETRY: Toyota has stopped shipping cars to Iran. The company says that the move came after more sanctions were imposed on Iran in June to put an end to its nuclear program. Toyota says it will continue to monitor the international situation and has not decided when exports will resume.
ROBERTS: And a big decision here. Hundreds of lawsuits filed against BP and other companies over the gulf oil spill will be heard in New Orleans. A judicial panel saying that is the geographic and psychological center of gravity of the disaster. BP had asked for the cases to be heard in Houston where its headquarters is located.
CHETRY: Well, the JetBlue flight attendant who became enraged, then bailed out down the escape chute, has now been released on bail. Steven Slater, certainly ready for his close-up, smiling for the mob of media and cameras waiting for him when he was finally released.
ROBERTS: No doubt his rage is resonating with a lot of people who now see him as their working class hero. Our Allan Chernoff joins us now with more on Steven Slater's 15 minutes. When his name becomes a verb you know he's made it. I'm going to go Slater on you. ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: He's there. Steven Slater has gone viral. In fact, have a look at his Facebook page, more than 95,000 fans. Yesterday it was growing by the tens of thousands. Some hours we had more than 10,000 people joining up.
It was simply incredible. He certainly has struck a chord with Americans. As we said, last night he did get out of jail. He had been held in the south Bronx, posted $2,500 in bail. And he told me, boy, he's really appreciative.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVEN SLATER, JETBLUE FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Very, very appreciated and it seems like it's something here has resonated with a few people. That's kind of neat.
CHERNOFF (on camera): You going to lose your job?
SLATER: More than likely.
CHERNOFF: Do you care about that anymore?
SLATER: No comment at this time.
CHERNOFF: How about this? Tell me about rude passengers. Talk about that for a second.
SLATER: There's a lot of wonderful people out there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: All of this, of course, after what happened on Monday. Mr. Slater, flight attendant for Jetblue, had been on a flight. He was hit by some luggage and was engaged in an argument with a passenger. Didn't want to sit down, that passenger did, and he was then cursed out. Well, Mr. Slater responded by getting on the public address system, repeating that curse to the entire plane, and then he set off the slide, that basically allowed him to jump out of the plane.
He grabbed some beers, grabbed his luggage, and then slid down that emergency slide. Of course, you're not supposed to do that. Not supposed to ignite that slide. But he, nonetheless, walked away and drove home and shortly afterwards the police showed up at his door. But I think what he did there really is a fantasy, maybe - I don't know - hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people would just love to say "take this job and shove it." He did it his way.
ROBERTS: There was a long about that, wasn't there?
CHERNOFF: Yes, there was.
CHETRY: So, Allan, yesterday at this time when we had you on, we hadn't heard from him yet. Was it everything you hoped for and more when he finally talked? CHERNOFF: Yes, that was late at night. And he was taken away first in a van, and then our affiliate Channel 7 caught up with him. But I can assure you, you will be seeing more of him in the media. And frankly, you have to wonder is this the beginning of yet another reality TV program.
CHETRY: He had a great line though, "are you going to lose your job over this?" "More than likely."
CHERNOFF: Well, he is on leave from Jetblue.
CHETRY: Suspension?
CHERNOFF: They are investigating the incident.
ROBERTS: But he can't be fired because he quit. Right?
CHERNOFF: There you go. That's it.
CHETRY: Well, heat waves across America. We've been talking about them all summer. Also these deadly floods. First in China, Pakistan, wildfires ravaging Russia as they deal with heat some 30 degrees higher than normal. The summer of 2010 setting records for extreme weather. Could all of these events be connected? NASA scientist - ice scientist Tom Wagner will be tackling that question next.
It's 35 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. You know, it's been a summer of painful extremes when it comes to weather. We have another heat wave now suffocating temperatures for millions of Americans. 16 states had a heat warning or advisory in effect yesterday, for example.
And over in Russia, they're also fighting scorching temperatures. They have wildfires spreading out of control there now as they deal with heat way higher than normal this time of year. In Pakistan, two weeks of flooding killing 1,500 people and impacting some 14 million more.
And take a look at the before and after picture. This is a massive iceberg. It broke away from a glacier in Greenland. Before on the left, and then the after as you see that huge chunk break away. It is about four times bigger than Manhattan. It is raising concerns among scientists about the world's warming oceans.
NASA scientist Tom Wagner joins us this morning from Washington. Thanks so much for being here. You know, a lot of people are wondering are these freak weather conditions, just a coincidence or are they somehow linked? What's your take?
TOM WAGNER, NASA ICE SCIENTIST: The take is this - is that all these things are the kinds of things that we would expect to happen as the planet warms up. And what we're seeing is that overall the planet's warming about 0.35 degrees per decade and places like Greenland are warming up even faster, like 3 1/2 degrees per decade.
And all these events from heat waves to stronger monsoons to loss of ice from around the world, they're all consistent with that. Where it gets a little bit tricky though is assigning any one specific event to say, oh, the cause of this event is definitely global warming. That's kind of where we get to the edge of the research.
CHETRY: I got you. But when you take a look at the numbers, the combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for June 2010 was the warmest on record. Before that the record was June, I think, 2005. Is there a larger conclusion to be drawn or is this part of a cycle?
WAGNER: Oh, no, there a definitely a larger conclusion to be drawn. You know, we're seeing things that haven't really ever happened on this planet before like warming at this specific rate. We think it is very well tied to increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since the late 1800s caused by humans.
One of the best places to look for information on this, you can go to climate.nasa.gov and see the graphs for yourself that show the correlations between these things.
And also remember it is not just the last 10 years or the last few years we're talking about. We have pretty good satellite records that go back 50 years. We combine that with information from weather stations around the world, we have a pretty good record going back to the late 1880s that tells us all about how the planet is warming up. On top of that, too, remember, it is not just evidence from that. We have evidence from the geologic record. We have ice course, we have sediment course in the ocean floor. All these piece together tell us about how the planet is changing.
CHETRY: And so when you take this information and you talk about this increase, as you said 0.35 degrees per decade, what does that tell us about what eventually is going to happen? Can this be reversed? Can this cycle be reversed?
WAGNER: Yes. And those are really the million dollar questions right now, what is it that we can do about climate change? Well I think one of the things we have to think about is the planet is going to change and we have to deal with that.
For example, we look at satellite studies, the ice around Antarctica and Greenland, we're losing ice into the ocean from all those outlet glaciers. Sea level is right now, today, rising at about three millimeters a year. If you just extrapolate those for the next 100 years, we're going to get at least a foot of sea level rise.
But there is the possibility that we'll get more than that. And these are the things we need to really think about and come up with mitigation strategies to deal with it. And we're doing research to try to nail down these questions a little more tightly. You know, we're trying to understand just how much is sea level going to rise, just how much is temperatures going to go up and how are weather patterns going to change.
CHETRY: Let's take a look at these pictures of the ice island because it was pretty amazing, this ice loss from the Peterman Glacier, the largest such event in nearly 50 years. You see the before on the left hand side. The chunk that broke off, it looks small on that picture, but four times the size of Manhattan.
Now there are concerns it could make its way into some of the shipping ports in the north. What is the impact for folks at home that this has broken off up in Greenland?
WAGNER: Yes. This is a very, very interesting event. There were some cracks that formed last year and people thought it might break off last year but it took until this year. This glacier has been thinning for some time. But the most important thing is that now this glacier has broken out, it's further back, it's receded further back than it's ever been.
And we've got data from explorers that were there back in the 1920s to tell us what's gone on. But also too, recent studies have said we used to just be losing ice from the southern part of Greenland, the warmer part. Peterman is actually on the northern part of Greenland, the colder part and that area is known to be losing lots of ice right now, too.
In terms of implications, this big iceberg flows into the Mares Strait. That's an area where ice and water is exported from the Arctic Ocean to the south so it may block that up. There's also now people talking about this massive iceberg, what's going to happen as it gets further south, gets into shipping lanes and gets around oil rigs and other things.
CHETRY: Well, certainly a lot of implications there. Tom Wagner, thanks so much for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.
And quickly, I just want to bring in our Rob Marciano as well. I know that you've done a lot of stories on climate change and you've certainly covered your share of individual events.
I mean, when you take a look at the earth, we know it's dynamic. We know we've gone through natural warming and cooling periods. But when we talk about the hottest record set for the warmest time ever in the history since they've been keeping records, June 2010, has a lot of people scratching their heads.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It certainly does. In 1998, we had one of the warmest years as well. That was fresh off an El Nino. I got to say I appreciate Tom's enthusiasm and plain speak. It is good to see a climate scientist who can connect with every day people.
I'll just add this, that it's, you know, the earth, the land, the water and the air, it is a complex system. Very complicated. And there's layers and layers and layers of feedback systems. Certainly when you warm the polar regions, that's probably the worst feedback system there is when it comes to global warming and climate change. But as far as every day weather, it's the circulations and the longer-term oscillations that really control our every day weather. Remember last summer we started off really cold, this past winter was pretty harsh as well. What climate change does to those every day circulations and longer term oscillations is still yet to be seen. It is going to be interesting in the years to come.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it has certainly gotten the attention of a lot of folks. Tom Wagner, Rob Marciano, thanks to both of you.
MARCIANO: Thank you.
CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. 44 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: It's time for a check of the weather now. Forty-seven minutes after the hour.
Rob Marciano is in Atlanta with all eyes on the Gulf of Mexico and whether or not we're going to have another tropical storm. Good morning, Rob.
MARCIANO: Good morning, guys. The name would be Danielle, and it is yet to be named because it doesn't have winds of 39 miles an hour or more, actually. It looks like it's down to 30. This 8:00 update must have snuck up on me.
So, it's not strengthened at all in the last 12 hours, and we can see the satellite imagery here. It doesn't look all that impressive, and that's certainly a good news.
The tropical storm warnings, though, are in place because the forecast is for it to become a tropical storm here later today or tonight and then make landfall somewhere between Destin, Florida and Appalachia Bay, Louisiana. So tropical storm-force winds may be interacting with the coastline here as early as later on tonight regardless of whether or not it becomes a tropical storm.
So there's the depression itself. You could see the rotation. You can see the showers and thunderstorms already beginning to swirl into the mouth of the Mississippi. It's about 250 miles east- southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
The other big weather story, of course, is the heat. We talked about that in the last segment. It's hot again today across the central part of the country, 105 to 115-degree heat indexes in this area. I think this will be the last couple of days, and then we'll see an overall pattern shift that will bring slightly cooler air into this area later on this weekend and next week.
They'll take it in Delaware and in D.C., almost 100 degrees there yesterday. Trenton, New Jersey, seeing 96, so hazy, hot and humid conditions. A little bit cooler for you folks today and certainly cool out west. But the tropical depression, we'll have to watch more carefully, and these numbers, boy, look at that magenta, 103 in Dallas, 99 in Kansas City.
We'll see a little bit less of that deep, deep red, I think, come next week. But, until then, folks are going to be sweating it out again.
John, Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: It's - it's funny, because until you reminded me in that last segment, I forgot that last summer it was off to a cool start. That's a distant memory.
ROBERTS: Oh, yes. That -
MARCIANO: Yes. Exactly.
ROBERTS: It actually was the summer without a summer, right?
MARCIANO: At least in the beginning, yes. It warmed up towards the end, but it certainly - I remember you guys complaining about it not being beach weather.
ROBERTS: Oh, yes.
CHETRY: Yes, but we complain so much we can't really remember day to day what we're complain about. So last year is a distant memory.
ROBERTS: Hey, I'm - I'm not complaining. You haven't heard me complain about the heat. As long as you stay in the shade, you're OK.
MARCIANO: That's right.
ROBERTS: All right, guys.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
All right. Well, this morning's top stories just a few minutes away, including the former first lady of the WWE now a Republican nominee for Senate. Linda McMahon of Connecticut will be joining us live.
ROBERTS: At 35 minutes after, the dream team in South Beach. Chris Bosh tells us about playing with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Are the only things that can stop them, themselves?
CHETRY: And at 50 minutes past the hour, something none of us here know anything about. Dr. Sanjay Gupta goes inside the brain for the secrets of how to get a sound sleep? What the heck is that?
Those stories and much more, coming up at the top of the hour.
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CHETRY: Fifty-two minutes past the hour. It's your "A.M. House Call" now, stories about your health and the possibility of a real breakthrough in the fight against Alzheimer's. It's creating a huge - huge buzz in the medical world.
ROBERTS: A new study shows that a spinal fluid test can diagnose the disease with near 100 percent accuracy. We talked about it yesterday, but there's still a whole lot of questions to be answered, so let's bring in the man who can answer these questions, our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who just happens to be - we're fortunate enough to have him - as a neurosurgeon.
Sanjay, you've done hundreds of spinal tap procedures yourself. Show us how it works.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, this is the procedure that people are talking about with regard to trying to - to do this test for Alzheimer's disease.
First of all, let me show you here. I've got a little model. Hopefully this will make sense for you. This is a model of the spine. This is the front of the spine. Over here, you see the - the hip bones over here.
When you do a spinal tap, and - and women will know what this feels like a little bit if they've had an epidural during labor, for pregnancy. This is the back of the spine over here. Essentially, what is done is a needle is placed in between a couple of these bones in this area, in the lower part of the spine.
A couple of - a couple of choices over here. You put that needle right through and - and in front of these bones is where the spinal sack is. That needle opens up that spinal sack and that's where you get that fluid, that cerebral spinal fluid that people are talking about.
That's a spinal tap. It's also called a lumbar puncture. Typically it takes about 10 to 15 minutes or so, and it costs you anywhere between $300 and $500.
So that - you know, that - that's what happens. A lot of times people have to be at rest for a little bit after the procedure, but just (ph) send that fluid off. That's how you get the test results.
CHETRY: You know and you explained that it is a little bit more of an involved procedure than let's say getting a blood test.
GUPTA: That's right.
CHETRY: And so, you know, people were weighing in about that with some questions.
Nate wrote on our blog saying, so that's all well and good, but are you going to conduct a spinal tap on every middle-aged bloke who walks into your office complaining of mild memory loss? I mean, part of this is determining who may be at risk and who may benefit, potentially, from getting this procedure.
GUPTA: Yes. That - that's right, and it's - it's a very fair point. And it's worth pointing out, you know, we - we are obviously reporting this as it is happening. This is - this is a very important study that was conducted, and it's going to need to be duplicated.
But, you know, a lot of people have a lot of faith in the results so far. So, after it's duplicated, it - it may become a more widely available screening test, but we're not there yet. This is literally unfolding right now over the last couple of days.
Right now, if people wanted to get this test, they could probably go to their doctor and get the spinal tap that I just showed. And those tests that - that type of testing is actually pretty readily available in most hospitals, testing for those specific proteins. But - but the - if you wanted to go to a research center, for example, where they're conducting research because you have some sort of family history, you might be able to get it done that way as well.
But as things stand now, it's not a widely available screening test by any means. They think it will be over the next several years if those studies pan out.
ROBERTS: Sanjay, another viewer writes and asks this question. Is your insurance going to pay? Ah, now they get to note that have you a pre-existing condition. Great.
GUPTA: Oh, yes. Both - both good points. First of all, with regard - we did some digging on this, and I talked to lots of folks, including folks at the Alzheimer's Association. As things stand out, spinal taps, these lumbar puncture procedures, are covered for certain things. Like, if you're trying to rule out meningitis, for example.
But for this, we're trying to figure out if you have these proteins that might indicate Alzheimer's disease, it's probably not going to be covered. Again, the cost is about $300 to $500.
If it becomes a more widely available screening test, those guidelines may change. And you have a family history or some sort of risk factor, you may be able to get it covered.
As far as pre-existing conditions go, you know, we talked about this a lot over the last year or so with regard to health care reform. The way that health care reform is sort of set up by the year 2014, people should not - adults should not be discriminated against based on pre-existing conditions.
So, you know, if that - if that holds, we get a test like this that comes back positive, it should not lead to discrimination to get further health insurance or - or get those costs covered.
CHETRY: All right. Sanjay, a lot of good info. I know that this is a topic people care very much about, and that you're continuing to explore as well as new research becomes available. Thanks for joining us this morning.
GUPTA: Anytime, guys. Thanks, guys. You got it.
CHETRY: All right. We're going to take a quick break. Your top stories just three minutes away.
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