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American Morning
Mosque Debate Goes National; U.S. & South Korea Launch War Games; FDA OKs "Five-Day After" Pill; Pop-Tarts World; Extreme Health Care Markups; U.S. Covert Operations Against Terrorist Organizations; Heat Relief and Severe Storms; Food GPS
Aired August 16, 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 to you. Thanks for being with us on this Monday. It's August 16th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us. A lot to talk about this morning. Let's get right to it.
Washington and South Korea launching a new round of war games all under the very watchful eye of North Korea. The North is lashing out, promising a merciless counterblow, heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula. A live update from the Pentagon just ahead.
CHETRY: And a heated debate in New York over plans to build an Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero has gone national now that President Obama has weighed in. Republicans are on the attack, promising to make the president's position a ballot box issue. We're live at the White House with more.
ROBERTS: And medical costs that will make you go mad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: A thousand dollars. Can you believe it? A thousand dollars for a toothbrush.
A hundred and forty dollars for one Tylenol. Can you believe it? A hundred and forty dollars for this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: How hospitals are getting away with charging pretty much whatever they want for whatever they want, and how we're all going to pay for it one way or another. It's an A.M. original series, "Medical Waste."
CHETRY: And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation now. Go to CNN.com/amFIX.
ROBERTS: We'll start this morning with President Obama wading into the debate over a plan to build an Islamic community center and mosque just blocks from Ground Zero. The president says Muslims have the right to do it.
CHETRY: And that position took the president off-message, you could say, from his visit to the Gulf Coast this weekend.
Our Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House.
And it looks like the president has certainly elevated this to a national debate after the White House originally called it a local matter.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You are absolutely right, Kiran and John, because what happened was is that Robert Gibbs, we're asking him for weeks on end whether or not the White House had a position on this, they insisted it was a local issue.
Now, White House aides are saying that the president has wanted to weigh in on this particular issue for some time, that they were waiting for the right timing of all of this. That timing took place on Friday -- that was a dinner the White House had for Muslim guests celebrating the opening of the holy month of Ramadan.
The president made it very clear in that friendly audience that he believes that it was Muslims' right to build that mosque at the Ground Zero site.
Now, fast forward -- there was a lot of criticism that happened within a 24-hour period. Ed Henry caught up with the president on Saturday to ask him about the position.
Now, I want you to take a listen to how he put it on Friday and then what he said his comments were regarding that mosque on Saturday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Muslims have the right to practice their religion, as everyone else in this country.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: And that includes a right to build a police of worship and community center on private property in Lower Manhattan.
I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
MALVEAUX: So, call it what you will. If it's a recalibrating, clarifying, but it seems to me when you listen to those two comments, the president did weigh in on the controversy and then talked about not weighing in on the controversy after he already had.
This is -- it seems to be classic Obama, when you think it, sometimes the one hand this, and one hand that, trying to cover all position, and now, it is just getting muddier and murkier. And he is getting criticized on both sides for this.
Republicans see an opening, an advantage here, saying that they're going to make this into a midterm election issue.
There are some frustrated Democrats and lawmakers I spoke with over the weekend who are also quite annoyed by this because they say it's taking them off-message. They want to talk about health care reform, the economy getting better, and they're stuck debating this and they also feel like though might be trying to defend the president on an issue that just doesn't seem so popular. And, certainly, it is very controversial -- Kiran, John.
CHETRY: All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning at the White House -- thanks.
Also developing this morning, the U.S. and South Korea starting 11 days of war games and it's making North Korea quite angry. Pyongyang says both Washington and Seoul face, quote, "severest punishment ever in the world."
ROBERTS: The North also vowing to deal a merciless counterblow to the U.S. imperialist and the South Korean traitors. So, it just harmless saber-rattling or is this really something to be concerned about?
Our Chris Lawrence is live at the Pentagon tracking this developing story.
And how are the generals and the admirals feeling about this, Chris? Is it just much Pyongyang playing like the petulant child?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, first, let me tell you what the official line is from Pentagon spokesman. He said these are annual exercises that reflect the U.S. commitment to the stability and security of the peninsula.
I also spoke with a defense official who's also aware of the situation. He felt that yes, you know, obviously, they've heard this before, he said. They take these threats, you know, somewhat seriously, especially in light of what happened with the South Korean ship, the Cheonan, just a few months ago.
The sinking of that ship and the subsequent blame of North Korea by an independent investigation and by the South Korean investigators, that is really what has placed a lot of these exercises in a different light. The official said that, you know, without that sinking, you might chalk it up to just, you know, more North Korean threats.
You know, back in February, he mentioned that, you know, North Korea put out a threat that they would mercilessly destroy its enemies if the U.S. and South Korea went through with exercises they had planned back in the spring. But because of that sinking of the ship, obviously, tensions in the area are heightened.
We also heard over the weekend that the South Korean president put forward a plan for a proposal for reunification.
So, even as the exercise has somewhat raised tensions, the South Korean president saying, you know, eventually, there has to be some sort of reconciliation between us. He even went so far as to propose a tax on the people to sort of raise some money that would with eventually pay for the cost of trying to bring the two nations together -- John.
ROBERTS: Chris, we're also learning this morning from talking -- at least from "Politico," they're saying General Stanley McChrystal, beginning to learn what he's going to do post his military career, to do some teaching up at Yale. You heard anything about that there at the Pentagon? Any idea what he'll be teaching?
LAWRENCE: Haven't heard -- haven't heard anything here from the Pentagon. But, you know, just from -- it seems like he's going to be teaching a leadership course. I know General McChrystal does enjoy sort of the -- a good intellectual debate. You know, he's very well- versed on policy, on leadership styles -- and, you know, he maybe just, you know, teaching a class on leadership and what he's learned over his very long military career.
ROBERTS: Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon this morning -- Chris, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Thanks, Chris.
Also new this morning, an autopsy scheduled for today on the accused Craigslist killer. Boston officials say that former med student, Philip Markoff, was found dead in his jail cell Saturday. He's reportedly discovered with a plastic bag over his head and a cut artery, an apparent suicide. Markoff was suspected of killing a masseuse who advertised services on Craigslist.
ROBERTS: An off-road race in Southern California turns deadly, killing eight people this weekend. A truck crashed into a crowd of spectators before flipping over. Most of those spectators were standing right along the edge of the course.
The driver, 28-year-old Brett Sloppy was not hurt. On his Facebook page, he says he's devastated about what happened. Police say he faces no charges.
The race's governing body, Mojave Desert Racing, says it urges crowds to keep at least 100 feet away from the race course, but as a state trooper pointed out, difficult to tell where the race course begins and ends.
CHETRY: Right. And it goes for so long.
Meanwhile, Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem is free on bail this morning. The 30-year-old Haslem was arrested and charged with marijuana possession after a traffic stop in Miami-Dade County yesterday. Also, a passenger in the car was charged. Haslem just signed a new contract with the Heat last month, opting to stay with the team so that he could play with LeBron James, our buddy Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade.
ROBERTS: And talk about the agony of defeat. Golfer Dustin Johnson lost a chance to be part of a three-way playoff for the PGA Championship when he grounded his club in a sand trap that he mistook for a footpath on the 18th hole. He was leveled a two-stroke penalty. It cost him a share of the lead. Meantime, Germany's Martin Kaymer won the playoff, beating Bubba Watson. It was Kaymer's first major title.
CHETRY: That happened very often? Is that very weird to happen?
ROBERTS: It typically happens by accident. But this time, Johnson had no idea that he was in a sand trap. And you got to think -- when you look at that course, when you look at Whistling Straits, it's a traditional type of Scottish links course and difficult to tell where a bunker begins and where the rough ends, and et cetera, et cetera.
And he saw a patch of sand. He thought it was a worn-down area. He touched his club to the sand, which you're not allowed to do in a trap -- two-stroke penalty.
CHETRY: Wow.
All right. Nine minutes past the hour right now. We'll check in with Rob Marciano.
See? See how it can all change for you in the blink of an eye like that?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm just glad he didn't make that putt to win it and then, you know, think that he won the tournament and then have it --
ROBERTS: Can you imagine?
MARCIANO: That would have been heartbreak.
Beautiful course right along Lake Michigan. It was certainly a fun tournament to watch. The interesting weather they had last week has now moved off to the east.
And it's getting interesting in Upstate New York. I want to show what's going on up there severe thunderstorms rolling across central New York, Utica, Rome, heading up towards Vermont as well.
Some of these packing a punch as far as some gusty winds, and some hail and certainly, some heavy downpours -- all with this front that's rolling across the country, and thank goodness -- bringing a little bit of relief to the heat-stricken states of the Central Plains. They'll see temperatures, in some cases, 20 degrees cooler today, tomorrow than they were just a week ago. But the heat down South still remains.
And also, what still remains is what's left over of tropical depression number five, and it had done a loopty-loop, a pirouette of sorts. And it's now back in the Gulf of Mexico. And the National Hurricane Center is looking into that. And we will talk more about that in the next 30 minutes.
John and Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: All right. Rob, thanks.
MARCIANO: All right.
CHETRY: Well, the FDA approves a new emergency contraceptive drug called Ella, that can be taken up to five days after unprotected sex. How does it work? Is it controversial? And is it safe? We're going to be speaking with a fertility expert -- coming up.
ROBERTS: It's probably one of the worst-kept secrets in the world, the secret war against al Qaeda in Pakistan. It's also going on in Yemen and Somalia, but nine other countries as well. The covert wars that America is waging against al Qaeda -- we'll talk about that a little bit later on this hour.
It's coming up now at 11 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Thirteen minutes past the hour right now.
And we are looking at your health this morning in an "A.M. House Call." A new prescription-only contraception has been approved by the FDA. It's called Ella. The biggest difference is it works up to five days after unprotected intercourse. It's been available in Europe since last year.
Here to tell us more about it: Dr. Jamie Grifo, an OB/GYN and head of NYU's fertility center.
Thanks for being with us this morning, Dr. Grifo.
DR. JAMIE GRIFO, DIRECTOR, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY FERTILITY CENTER: Good morning.
CHETRY: So, we have out there what's called Plan B, right? That's to be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, and that is available now over the counter, correct?
GRIFO: Correct.
CHETRY: What Ella now apparently can work five days. What's different besides the duration?
GRIFO: Well, it's not clear if it has a different mechanism of action. But what is clear is that it works. It prevents unwanted pregnancies. And that's a big problem in this country, and abortion isn't the solution.
So, this is one more option for patients who don't want to have -- get pregnant and they've had unprotected sex.
CHETRY: What is the -- I mean, usually in that time, would it be that they wouldn't be able to get to a health care provider in the 72-hour window of what's currently available. I mean, why -- what is the practical need for an extension of up to five days?
GRIFO: Well, it just gives patients more options and a little longer timeframe. Sometimes people, you know, hem and haw and don't make quick decisions. And this gives them a little extra time to not have an unwanted pregnancy.
CHETRY: You talked about whether -- about us not really knowing exactly how it works, how Ella works, the FDA is approving it. It's considered safe and effective.
But how exactly does it work? Is it more similar to the Plan B which is said to, I guess, interrupt ovulation or affect ovulation in some way, versus the much controversial RU486, which is known as the abortion bill, which can also terminate a pregnancy after an egg has been fertilized?
GRIFO: Well, it is kind of in between. It works as a progesterone antagonist, that binds the progesterone receptor which is important for the pregnancy to continue and also it interferes with ovulation. So, whether it particularly stops ovulation or stops implantation is the issue, it is not really clear and there is no study that you can prove which way it works but we do know it works. If you give it to women up to five days after unprotected sex, 70 percent of them have fewer pregnancies, so there you have less unwanted pregnancies that is a good thing.
CHETRY: There are some who are going to be upset because they believe that it perhaps can terminate a pregnancy that's already happened. But there's no way to sort of prove that or there is no way to scientifically show that?
GRIFO: There is no way to scientifically know that is how it works in the human system. I mean, those studies would be impossible to do. But, people always tend to politicize contraception. This is a much better alternative than having an unwanted pregnancy or facing an abortion. So, it is one more opportunity for women not to have unwanted pregnancies and we need that.
CHETRY: Is there any reason why this is prescription and plan B is available over the counter in most places?
GRIFO: I'm not sure why the FDA decided to make this prescription versus the plan B which is not. Perhaps because of its long effect, they don't want people taking it even beyond that and then not knowing the consequences to a pregnancy. But in clinical trials, it was very effective, it was safe, had very minimal side effects and it works.
CHETRY: What about any potential side effects? Is there anybody who should not be taking it? GRIFO: Well, there is a group of women that it doesn't work as well on, and that's women who are obese, overweight, body mass index over 30, this is less effective and maybe not effective at all. So, that is the one caveat.
CHETRY: And this is also something that should not be used as a regular form of contraception. I mean this is -- these are considered emergency contraceptions for a reason. I mean is there a physical danger in taking this too many times?
GRIFO: I don't know if there is a physical danger, but it is designed to be used at the time of unprotected sex so you couldn't just take it continuously. There are much better alternatives, oral contraceptive works that way. If you are going to have that form of contraceptive, that works. But women who have unprotected sex, this is an option.
CHETRY: Dr. James Grifo, thanks for shedding some light on this today. We appreciate it. Thanks for being with us. John.
ROBERTS: First it was M&M's, now Pop-Tarts have their very own store? Where else, in the heart of Times Square. Boy, wait until you see what is on the menu, too. Alina Cho goes for a visit and tells us what she found, coming up next. Eighteen minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty minutes after the hour, we are back with the Most News in the Morning. And time now for an A.M. Original, something that you will see only on AMERICAN MORNING, so remember that. From Battle Creek to the Crossroads of the universe, Pop-Tarts world, now open for business in New York Times Square.
CHETRY: Yes, that's right. And Alina Cho paid a visit to the Kellogg's flagship store. She joins us now. She brought goodies.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of my tougher assignments, I might add.
CHETRY: I learned something new about you. I can't picture you eating Pop-Tarts but strawberry's your favorite?
CHO: Strawberry's my favorite. And then again, I remind you guys that there is a debate, frosted or unfrosted, which do you like? Think about it while the piece rolls.
CHETRY: All right.
CHO: Anyway, honestly, guys though, who doesn't love Pop-Tarts? It is that food that instantly takes you back to your childhood, so iconic, in fact, we wanted to see for ourselves what this Pop-Tarts store was all about.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is exciting. It is swirly. It is sweet. It is chewy.
CHO (on camera): Did you eat one?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CHO: Which one?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is good.
CHO (voice-over): This is what it is like to take a walk inside the world of Pop-Tarts.
CAROLINE RHEA, POP-TARTS BRAND AMBASSADOR: Hi, welcome to Pop- tarts World, do you like what I've done with the place?
CHO: Comedian and actress Caroline Rhea is the brand ambassador of Pop-Tarts, the simple breakfast snack that has ballooned into a half billion dollar business. We are here for a tour and then some.
RHEA: Pretend you have eaten any of these before.
CHO (on camera): Do you like frosted or unfrosted? I happen to like frosted?
RHEA: You know, it is all about your mood. Alina, why do I feel like that is your entire calorie content for the entire day? Oh, my god, I had a sushi Pop-Tart. I am done for the whole day.
CHO (voice-over): That is right. Sushi Pop-Tarts, no fish just crumpled pop tarts in a fruit rollup, one of many treats selling here.
CHO (on camera): So, why a store devoted entirely to Pop-Tarts? Well, this is New York Times Square, the Crossroads of the World, one of the biggest tourist attractions in America. It is why over here there is a Hershey's store. And across the street this one for M&M's.
CHO (voice-over): A far cry from 1964, when Pop-Tarts launched.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eat them in the morning, eat them in the evening, Kellogg's Pop-tarts.
DANA COWIN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "FOOD AND WINE": A Pop-Tart is a childhood memory in a rectangle.
CHO: A breakfast food you could toast and eat, at the time, an innovation, an ode to pop art, all the rage in the '60s. The gimmick worked.
ANDREW SHRIPKA, SENIOR BRAND MANAGER, POP-TARTS: There is really nothing else like it, we ask consumers all the time if it didn't exist what would you replace it with? And really, they have a hard time coming up with anything.
CHO: Today, Kellogg's sells 2 billion Pop-Tarts a year. the food has a Facebook page with nearly 2 million followers.
MARION NESTLE, NYU PROFESSOR OF NUTRITION: They are an iconic junk food.
CHO: So should we be eating them? Marion Nestle is a Professor of Nutrition at New York University and author of the book "What To Eat."
NESTLE: First of all, it violates my rule of healthy eating, which is you never buy anything with more than five ingredients. This one has dozens of ingredients.
CHO: Kellogg's says it is all about balance and food that's made for fun.
CHO (on camera): I'm seriously going to pass out from too much sugar. So good.
CHO (voice-over): 6-year-old Mychael Estella is going home with a variety pack.
MYCHAEL ESTELLA, POP-TARTS FAN: One thing I like about Pop-Tarts is 'cause there are flavors.
CHO (on camera): Did you know there were so many flavors?
ESTELLA: No, I did not.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: No, she did not. You know what started as four flavors back in 1964 has actually grown to more than 30 different varieties. The best selling flavors, by the way, two of the originals, strawberry and brown sugar cinnamon and frosted Pop-Tarts, by the way, were introduced in 1967. So three years after the original, which really, if you think about it, guys, was really -- looking at me dubiously, which is really an innovation at the time because you could put this in the toaster and the frosting wouldn't melt.
CHETRY: And I love the microwave directions. Microwave on high for three seconds.
CHO: Well, we microwaved some, so, please be my guest this is strawberry for me. John wanted the --
ROBERTS: I want to try this cookie one. Somewhere down the line, might have been a meal ready to eat, or something.
CHO: I know there is some rule like never eat on TV but --
CHETRY: Really? I think it is never drink, you can eat.
ROBERTS: Yes. Still tastes like cardboard. Sandwiched around sugary fruit-flavored something.
CHETRY: My mom was a nutritionist.
CHO: It is all about balance, John. All about balance, they say. Exercise, you know, three square meals, once a week. CHETRY: Just get on Poppy's food reading.
ROBERTS: I don't know, Neopolitan Ice Cream is 92. Thanks, Alina.
CHO: Welcome.
CHETRY: Still ahead, how about $1,000 for a toothbrush. Medical waste and we are all paying for it. Elizabeth Cohen shines a light on just what hospitals are getting away with in some cases, still ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Half past the hour now. Time for a look at your top stories. Worse than the tsunami, worse than the Pakistan earthquake combined, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he has never seen anything that compares to the devastation from the flooding in Pakistan. Right now, close to 1500 people are dead and a fifth of the country is under water as 20 million people struggle to cope with the disaster.
ROBERTS: Plus, a look at the space walk outside the International Space Station. NASA says the crew is trying for the third time to fix a faulty ammonia pump and bring the space lab's cooling system back to full capacity it has been broken since July 21st. This, by the way is the 150th ISS space walk, since assembly started back in 1998.
CHETRY: President Obama hit the Gulf Coast this weekend to let the world know that the water is clean, the beaches are open for business and during his brief visit with the family, the President insisted that even though the oil is no longer flowing, the cleanup is far from over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, the well is capped. Oil is no longer flowing into the gulf. It has not been flowing for a month. And I'm here to tell you that our job is not finished and we are not going anywhere until it is.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
CHETRY: It was President Obama's fifth visit to the region since the April 28th explosion of the Deepwater Horizon that sparked the oil disaster.
ROBERTS: Well, now an A.M. Original. We have a huge response when we first brought you this story back in March, so much so that it deserves at least a second look. The mind-boggling hospital charges that might show up on your bill. How about this, $400 for one of those bland hospital dinners?
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Today, we are looking at something hospitals have been getting away with for years. Elizabeth Cohen has our special report live from Atlanta this morning. Boy, when he started doing some digging, you found some of the most outrageous charges.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, we sure did. What we found is sort of a few examples of what Price Waterhouse Cooper says is $1 trillion of wasteful spending in the United States. I challenge you, look up a hospital bill and you will see how all those little numbers add up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: When you or I go shopping for a toothbrush, how much do we pay, $2, $3, maybe $4? Guess what one hospital once charged a patient for a toothbrush -- $1,000. Can you believe it, $1,000 for a toothbrush? You know who ends up paying for that? You and I, we end up paying for it. It comes out of our pocket one way or another.
And that is not the only crazy hospital cost I have run into. Come on, come with me.
At the store, how much does a bolt of Tylenol cost? $10 for 100 bills. We know of someone who at the hospital was charged $140 for one Tylenol. Can you believe it, $140 for this?
Now, here is a box of disposable gloves. You buy them here at this store they come out to 24 cents a pair. But I know of a hospital that charged $53 for a pair of gloves. That's right, $53 for a pair of disposable gloves. What the heck is going on here?
So, I'm here in the home office of a medical billing advocate. This is Cindy Holtzman (ph) and she helps people cull through all of these crazy charges, and she has all sorts of examples. I have to tell you, Cindy, this is one of my favorite ones. This is just like a little alcohol prep swab. How much did the hospital charge for these?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It charged $23 a apiece.
COHEN: For this little tiny piece of cotton.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And on one bill there were 44 of them. It becomes very expensive.
COHEN: My goodness. This isn't even the craziest thing you have ever seen. Tell me about one of your crazier charges.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Recently, I had somebody that was charged for 41 IV bags when she went to the ER for a two-hour visit.
COHEN: Oh, yes, you heard that right. A woman went to the emergency room with a migraine headache and they gave her one bag of saline and then they charged her for 41 bags of saline to the tune of $4,182.
Now, the really crazy thing about this is that her insurance company actually paid this bill. They didn't even question it. So why did her insurance company pay for this when it was obviously wrong? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is not many people working at these companies anymore. They are very busy and usually any kind of bill that's under $100,000 they don't look at the detail.
COHEN: So they just write a check?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They just write a check.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: Now that woman who was charged the $4,000 for the saline bags she never had, she brought it to the attention of the hospital and they did reverse those charges. John, Kiran?
CHETRY: Yes, you got to have an eagle eye, I guess. and check that out, make sure you are looking at your bill. You have a book out called "The Empowered Patient" trying to help people navigate this. If someone gets stuck with a bill like this, how do they avoid paying it?
COHEN: You said the first thing, which is you have to have an eagle eye. Go through the bill and see if you can catch anything crazy like 41 beings of saline.
Secondly, even if the charge is legitimate, it is a real charge, please do challenge it absolutely, you should go ahead and challenge it, because I have been told when people try to negotiate with hospitals, it usually works.
And you should remember that even if you have insurance, you still should challenge it, because let's say off 20 percent co-pay. Of course you would rather pay 20 percent of a smaller bill than a big bill.
ROBERTS: That $140 for the single Tylenol pill was really amazing. That would make that bolt of 100 worth $14,000. Why do hospitals think that they can get away with this? I guess maybe it is because they can.
COHEN: That is exactly why they do it, because they can. As we heard in the story, insurance companies are kind of too busy to challenge something like $140 Tylenol pill.
And another thing to keep in mind is that hospitals know that they probably wouldn't get everything that they are charging. Insurance companies say at the outset, I know you charge $140 for Tylenol, but we are not going to pay that you much. Patients challenge them. So they know they are not going to get what they ask for. So they ask for something this high knowing they might get something this high.
CHETRY: Unfortunately it seems like a waste of time and administrative, you know, costs on top of it all. Are there any, you know, caps on how much you can market something?
COHEN: In most of the country, no. Maryland has some laws that would control how much the cost are, but for the rest of the country, they can pretty much charge what they want.
ROBERTS: If you run into these unreasonable hospital charges, talk about it on our blog, let us know the hospital. We can maybe track it down for you. Great story this morning, Elizabeth, thanks so much.
COHEN: Great, thanks.
ROBERTS: Coming up at 36 minutes past the hour, the secret war against Al Qaeda -- we know it is going on in places like Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, but you might be surprised to hear that we are in at least a dozen countries around the world. Mark Mazzetti from "The New York Times" is going to break it all down coming up next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 38 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
NATO officials say than an Al Qaeda cell leader who may have been training suicide bombers was one of two insurgents killed in an air strike in Afghanistan over the weekend. According to the "New York Times," the Obama administration is engaged in a secret war against Al Qaeda in many countries.
ROBERTS: Yes, drones and commando teams are said to be tracking terrorists in about a dozen countries, nearly all of it in secret with potentially little or no oversight. Paper tracked some of the clandestine and covert actions.
Mark Mazzetti is national security correspondent for the "Times" and he join us now. Mark, great to see you this morning.
MARK MAZZETTI, NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Great to see you.
ROBERTS: Great story as well.
MAZZETTI: Thank you.
ROBERTS: So it's a badly kept secret that we are doing this in Pakistan. We know we are doing it in Yemen and Somalia as well. But there are plenty of other places around the world that maybe we don't know about. How widespread is this, and what are we doing?
MAZZETTI: What we said in the story is that in places like north Africa, in other parts of the Middle East like Lebanon, the U.S. has expanded intelligence gathering sort of tracking Al Qaeda, other militant groups that could ultimately pave the way for future strikes against Al Qaeda.
The head of the White House counterterrorism team, John Brennan, has talked about this as a scalpel approach as we opposed to the hammer, which we saw in Afghanistan and Iraq. The region of Algeria, Morocco, Defense Secretary Robert Gates talked about Sudan last week. So there's a whole region of the world that the U.S. is expanding operations in beyond what we know about in Pakistan and Yemen.
CHETRY: You know, we talk about this being started under the Bush administration, but definitely expanded under the Obama administration. Why is that largely? More targets, better drones, more of them?
MAZZETTI: I think it's a combination. I think with the drone campaign in Pakistan, they have become very comfortable with the technology. Their intelligence seems to have improved in that they can -- they can track militant leaders. They have got human sources on the ground who are leading them to target, and there is -- the CIA says has fewer civilian casualties involved in the strikes. So I think it is ramping up the intensity.
At the same time, we're also seeing an increased threat level. We saw last year a number of potential attacks on U.S. soil. I think that is something they are very concerned about, so they are erring on the side of being aggressive.
In Yemen, we saw on Christmas day an attempted terrorist attack coming out of Yemen, so that is something they are focusing on very closely.
ROBERTS: By law, any covert activity that's carried on by the CIA has to be approved by the president. Congress has to be notified of it in a timely fashion. But there's stuff going on in Yemen that the Pentagon is engaging in pretty far off the radar screens.
MAZZETTI: That's right. It's actually harder to find out about what is going on in Yemen, which is not a covert action, than it is in Pakistan, which is a covert action. The Pentagon doesn't operate under covert action authority. They have special access program, they are clandestine versus covert. There is a legal distinction there.
ROBERTS: Make the distinction between covert and clandestine.
MAZZETTI: "Clandestine" means ultimately the U.S. government has to at some point acknowledge their operations. "Covert" activity, the United States can deny entirely.
So right now the U.S. military is operating in Yemen with the approval of the Yemeni government. This is not done entirely in secret. And there has been a series of discrete strikes in Yemen since December hitting suspected Al Qaeda leaders there. So this has been a campaign that has really ramped up this year.
CHETRY: It is interesting, though, because the legality has been questioned. You had one U.N. official came out in June saying the U.S. should stop the drone campaign saying there is no international accountability.
The argument from the administration is that when Al Qaeda is involved, we consider this self-defense. But it is far from a settled issue going forward of how does that impact what the international community thinks or feels about whether or not what we are doing is legal? MAZZETTI: You are going to get a big debate among international lawyers about what exactly is legal outside declared war zones. Right now, Afghanistan and Iraq are settled war zones, there are hundreds of thousands of troops.
Outside, the Bush administration argues and the Obama administration argues that the world is a battlefield because Al Qaeda is there. And so it will be a case-by-case basis in terms of country. They will try to get the support of that country to allow U.S. operations. That's what happened in Pakistan and what is happening in Yemen.
If there's countries where there really isn't a functioning government, like Somalia, I think you will see the U.S. effectively act at will and try to bring in other allies to do so, so they have a bigger coalition.
ROBERTS: How effective, Mark, is this campaign really? We have with seen some successes in Pakistan, acknowledged by the Pakistani government and other sources. In Yemen, there was a recent strike. The Yemeni government came out and said, hey we killed a couple of the top leaders in Al Qaeda, and it turned out, no, it wasn't a couple of the top leaders in Al Qaeda, it was five lower level Al Qaeda leaders.
MAZZETTI: I think Yemen, it is a mixed picture now. And I think administration officials will admit that it's still early in their campaign. And it's not a question of do you have the technology to hit something from far away? The U.S. does. It's the question, do they have the intelligence to figure out where militant leaders are at the time?
And right now they're relying on a fairly untrustworthy government in Yemen, and the U.S. doesn't have the ground operations like they do in Pakistan. So it's going to take some time, the administration argues, to make this a success.
CHETRY: But at a time when we are fighting two costly wars, both in terms of human cost and also just the fact that it is very expensive, with no end in sight, at least in Afghanistan right now, you would think that this is something they would want to ramp up that has a lot of support within the administration and within the Defense Department because it can be done, as you said, surgically as opposed to a hammer.
MAZZETTI: That is -- the argument is certainly that it is a smaller scale, more surgical strikes. You will see Congress endorse these as well, because, again, Congress has turned off to these long costly wars we've experienced the past decade.
Whether they are effective or whether they are a better solution I think it still remains to be seen, and I think the jury is still out, at least in a couple countries where the U.S. is operating.
ROBERTS: Mark Mazzetti, great to see you this morning. Thanks for dropping by. Great article as well.
MAZZETTI: Thanks.
CHETRY: Thanks, Mark.
It's 45 minutes past the hour. We are going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll check in with Rob Marciano. He will tell us where there are some severe thunderstorms in the forecast today and other places that could finally see a break in the triple- digit heat.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You're looking at a picture of a tornado that touched down in south central Minnesota over the weekend; look at that thing. Hayfield, Minnesota, about an hour or so south of Minneapolis, this was rated an EF-1. A little bit of damage but no injuries to report, certainly a dramatic video though, as that tornado touched down late in the day on Friday.
Good morning again, everybody, I'm Rob Marciano, in the CNN's Severe Weather Center. We do have the threat of severe weather as the northern part of that front makes its way east. It is bringing some relief to the central plains but some rough weather this morning rolling across the I-90 in upstate New York.
This severe thunderstorm watch in effect for 1:00 this afternoon; they may drop it sooner than that but some of this individual cells are rolling eastward about 35, 40 miles an hour and they could have some gusty and damaging winds.
All right, some rotation, a little bit of a circulation here, this is what's left over of tropical depression number 5, which kind of did a loopy-loop and is now kind of meandering here in the Gulf of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center is watching that for potentially getting back to tropical depression status; airplane flying in there later today.
A hundred to 105 degree heat indices here in eastern Texas and parts of the Deep South. Notice that most of the real hot air has been pushed south where it belongs but also across parts of the Pacific Northwest, where heat advisories and excessive heat warnings are in effect for Seattle, where they set a record yesterday of 96 degrees, it was 97 degrees in Olympia. They don't have the oppressive humidity, but folks who live in this part of the world, not everybody has air conditioning. So it is enough to take the body by surprise, for sure.
One hundred today in Dallas, it will be 87 degrees in St. Louis, 88 degrees with afternoon thunderstorms in New York City. But 89 in Kansas City and 79 in Minneapolis, that is definitely cooler than it was around this time last week.
That's a quick check on weather. AMERICAN MORNING is coming right back.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning, eight minutes to the top of the hour right now. It's time for your "A.M. House Call," stories about your health hospital.
Who needs the food police when there is a food GPS to help guide you through the fat and sugar?
ROBERTS: It's a new nutritional ratings system called NuVal, it ranks foods in a number scale to determine just how healthy they really are.
Poppy Harlow talked to the man who created it, she's here with us now. And -- and even he is a little confused about this whole thing.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes, I mean, you'll see in the piece what we're talking but you know, 64 percent of Americans say they are making changes to improve their diet. You see the major food manufacturers jumping on that. You'll see healthier labeling across the food aisle wherever you go.
But the inventor of NuVal, he's a Yale scientist and he says you have to dig a lot deeper than that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW (voice-over): Food companies inundate us with healthy- sounding slogans: reduced fat, whole grain, no sugar added; that means healthier, right? Not necessarily.
DR. DAVID KATZ, NUVAL FOUNDER: The packages all have claims. The claims are often misleading and deceptive.
HARLOW: Yale scientist Dr. David Katz created NuVal. It's a nutrition rating system he claims cut through the food industry's marketing machine.
KATZ: The higher the number, the more nutritious the food, it's GPS for the food supply.
HARLOW: NuVal ranks food from one to 100 using a complex algorithm weighing unhealthy things like Trans Fat against nutrients like fiber.
KATZ: Almost everything in the produce, are -- almost everything will be above 90 -- between 90 and 100. You have reduced fat Jif Peanut Butter it gets a seven and the regular Jif Peanut Butter gets a 20.
HARLOW (on camera): So higher fat is actually better for you here --
KATZ: Well --
HARLOW: -- according to NuVal. KATZ: -- well no, -- not because it's higher fat. The reduced fat version is considerably higher in sodium, it's also higher in sugar. This is pretty good --
HARLOW: This is what I ate growing up.
KATZ: Sure ok.
HARLOW: Twenty six.
KATZ: Yes.
HARLOW: What this gets. No, wait, look at this. This Neopolitan ice cream says it's a 91.
LISA SASSON, NYU NUTRITION AND FOOD STUDIES: To me that is the flaw of the system. Something such as the ice cream, which is -- all probably chemicals and all these additives I don't think really adds to the diet and people shouldn't be getting their nutrients through the ice cream.
And something like raisin bran, yes, the raisins may be sugar-coated but at least it's a good source of fiber.
HARLOW (voice-over): Dr. Katz says the value isn't to compare ice cream to cereal but how similar products stack up against one another.
KATZ: Ok. So let's find Cheerios and Fruit Loops.
HARLOW: None of the major food companies we contacted would go on camera to discuss NuVal. But in a statement, Pepsi told us, quote, "consumers can make more informed choices through fact-based front of package labeling."
General Mills said, quote "Criteria for NuVal are not available to the public making anything informed discussion of it very difficult."
(on camera): Why do you think it is that there seems to be this push back from the big food manufacturers?
KATZ: Not everybody making and selling food really wants people to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. NuVal almost tells that truth.
HARLOW: Junk food is big business for these big American food companies.
KATZ: Right.
HARLOW: If the NuVal system is adopted all across the nation, will it be the end of salty, fatty snack food?
KATZ: You know, I certainly hope it would be the end of junk food. HARLOW: That is billions in revenue for these companies?
KATZ: Well, but it could be billions in revenue by making better versions of these same foods.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: And you know, I think the jury is certainly out on NuVal, as you saw. Ice cream rated higher than traditional breakfast cereal. They have graded about 70,000 items so far in 750 grocery stores across the country.
As you saw in the piece, none of the major food companies will talk us to. John and Kiran, you got to wonder why, we really pressed them to get them on camera, they wouldn't come on camera. But, look, the snack food industry, which they all partake in, is a $26 billion industry. Anything that could shake that up, likely they are not going to want to take part in.
ROBERTS: He says that NuVal shows the truth, but in the case of that ice cream.
CHETRY: Did it really?
ROBERTS: You can never convince me that ice cream even if it's no sugar no fat is good for you.
HARLOW: Exactly. And that is what the opponent said in the piece. Look, she said, there may be sugar on the raisins, but they are raisins and there is fiber in the flakes there. The reason that the ice cream rated highly, the doctor thought, was because it has calcium and it no sugar, not a lot of sodium. So, this is an algorithm, this is a mathematical way to look at your food, it's not judgment-based per item.
CHETRY: I mean, you know, this could be a helpful guide. You have to use common sense as well. You know. You have to use common sense.
HARLOW: Everything in moderation.
ROBERTS: I still fully believe that Haagen-Dazs five is the most nutritious food in the world.
HARLOW: Me, too.
CHETRY: Then eat up.
We are going to take a quick break. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It looks like Dustin Johnson thought that he was one putt away from tying for the PGA championship and getting that playoff and then the official comes up and says, "No you grounded your club in that sand trap back there; that's a two-stroke penalties." What sand trap?
CHETRY: I know. As you say, he should have asked. Right?
ROBERTS: If you are in doubt, ever in doubt, ask. I guess he wasn't in doubt. His ball was on a piece of sand dune. Any time there is a piece of sand, maybe you should ask.
CHETRY: We should have had played a song "You Had a Bad Day," poor guy. Hey, there's always the next one.
ROBERTS: Exactly.
CHETRY: Well, we're going to take a -- we are going to say good- bye. We're going to take a long break, a 24-hour break.
Thanks so much for being with us though and continue the conversation on today's stories by heading to our blog, CNN.com/amfix.
ROBERTS: See you back here again, bright and early tomorrow morning.
The news continues on CNN with Kyra Phillips in the "CNN NEWSROOM". Good morning Kyra.
