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American Morning
Islamic Center Dispute; Dr. Laura Done with Radio; Blagojevich Guilty on One Count; Five Guys Voted Best Burger in U.S.; Blagojevich Found Guilty on One Count; International Aid Slow to Come in Pakistan; Better Care is Cheaper Care: Hospital Saving Lives and Cash; Schools Failing Black Males; Public Discipline -- How Far is too Far?; "Are You Listening to Me?"
Aired August 18, 2010 - 07:00 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 and welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Wednesday. It's August 18th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes sitting in today for John Roberts.
Let's talk about this fight over the Islamic center and mosque. We'll be leading this with our top stories today. The one that's planned down at ground zero. The word of a new meeting going to take place in the works with the governor possibly to move the mosque somewhere else? We got the new details just ahead.
CHETRY: And Dr. Laura's radio days are gone. The talk show host planning to walk away from the microphone over the next few months after taking a lot of heat for using the "N" word many times with an African-American caller. Why Dr. Laura said she had no other choice in a moment?
HOLMES: And a health alert to tell you about this morning. You might want to have cereal. A nationwide recall of 228 million eggs due to a salmonella outbreak. Thirteen brands of eggs included in this recall. We'll have all those details for you as well just ahead.
CHETRY: First, new developments though in the fight over the planned Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero.
HOLMES: A high-level meeting could happen soon about an effort to move it further away from the site of the September 11th attacks. Mary Snow has been covering this story for us, has the new details.
Hello, will it or won't it happen? Still up in the air about whether or not the meeting is going to happen at all.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Still up in the air, there's talks it could happen in the next couple of days. New York Governor David Paterson is renewing efforts to hold talks with the developers of the Islamic center near Ground Zero.
This comes one week after he suggested that state land perhaps could provide an alternative site. A spokesman for New York Congressman Peter King says Governor David Paterson spoke with him Tuesday and told him he plans to meet with the developers to discuss plans to move to an alternative site later this week.
The governor's office would not elaborate only saying there have been no formal discussions between the imam or developer but there are expectations for a meeting to be scheduled in the near future.
Now, the developer of the 13-story building isn't budging saying he's not aware of any meeting but that conversations with many officials continue. The center is slated to be 13 stories that will house a mosque along with things like a performing arts center and gym.
The developer says the project has always been about serving lower Manhattan and in an exclusive interview with our affiliate New York one, he says he is not planning on moving and calls this a defining moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHARIF EL-GAMAL, GROUND ZERO ISLAMIC CENTER DEVELOPER: We are nowhere near the world trade center site. It's a really sad day for America when our politicians choose to look at a constitutional right and use that as basis for their elections.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Sharif El-Gamal has at least one powerful ally in this fight, that's New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Earlier this week, the mayor told an opponent of the Islamic center to go to the library and get a copy of the bill of rights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK: It is not the government's business to get involved in religion and religious organizations, where they are or what they say or how they're funded. This is the fundamental right that Americans have to say and pray the way they want to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: The public opinion is clearly not on the mayor's side about this center. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll taken last week shows that two-thirds of the country is against it.
HOLMES: All right, I want to clear something up for our viewers and I know you're going to tell us -- I know you're in the neighborhood.
A lot of people all across the neighborhood might not know what's in that neighborhood, but the developer, you just heard in that sound bite, says we are nowhere near. That is just not a fair statement. Is it?
SNOW: No, I mean, this center is two blocks away from Ground Zero. There's been a lot of debate though. Some people have been calling it the Ground Zero mosque.
Clearly it is not at Ground Zero, but on the other hand, as you just mentioned, it is close to Ground Zero. It is two blocks away from it. But there's also been a lot of debate because people said this is hallowed ground and it should not belong here, people need to tend to the sensitivities.
As this debate has grown, we took a walk around the neighborhood just to show people outside of New York where it is exactly, again two blocks.
Some of the stores, retailers, businesses in the area, you can see that was some of the footage we took the other day. One of the things that we did find just around the corner from this center was a strip club that is three blocks from Ground Zero.
CHETRY: Some of the other things include off-track betting and other things. I guess people would call unsavory at the same time that we're talking about hallowed ground. Some of those were here before.
SNOW: A lot of them were businesses that were there all along.
CHETRY: The other interesting as this debate continues as Mayor Bloomberg said, it's not the government's business to get involved in anything having to do with religious rights or religious institutions, yet at the same time if Governor Paterson's talking about the possibility of state land, then they would be getting involved.
SNOW: Absolutely and that would open up a whole new set of questions and debate. We have to make clear also that the governor hasn't been specific about what site he might propose.
He said that he was suggesting that if the developers were open to moving, that he could find perhaps state-owned property. But along with it comes a lot of other questions.
Because right now the center is slated to be built on private property, it was an old business that had -- old Burlington coat factory. It was private money.
CHETRY: All right, we'll see how the meeting turns out, if it indeed does happen.
SNOW: Yes, that's the big "if" right now. We don't know.
HOLMES: Mary, thank you.
SNOW: Sure.
CHETRY: Well, we want to hear what you think about the controversy. Should they consider moving it a little bit further away from the site of the 9/11 attacks or should it be right where it is? CNN.com/amfix.
HOLMES: Dr. Laura says her radio days are done. The embattled talk show host insists she will not renew her contract when it expires at the end of this year.
She's taken a lot of heat lately after repeatedly using the "n" word last week in an emotional exchange with a caller. In an exclusive interview with CNN's Larry King last night, Dr. Laura said she needs to walk away from the microphone in order to exercise her right to free speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LAURA SCHLESSINGER, HOST, "THE DR. LAURA SHOW": Well, I'm here to say that my contract is up for my radio show at the end of the year and I've made the decision not to do radio anymore.
The reason is, I want to regain my first amendment rights. I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Dr. Laura used the "n" word 11 times in five minutes during a conversation last week with an African-American caller. That caller was asking for advice about dealing with racist comments from her white husband's friends and relatives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CALLER: How about the "n" word?
SCHLESSINGER: Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic and all you hear is -- I didn't spew out the -- word. I said that's what you hear.
CALLER: I hope everybody heard it.
SCHLESSINGER: Yes, they did.
CALLER: I hope everybody heard it.
SCHLESSINGER: They did and I'll say it again -- what they say on HBO -- why don't you let me finish a sentence?
CALLER: OK.
SCHLESSINGER: Don't take things out of context. Don't double N -- NAACP me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: No matter what you may think about Dr. Laura and that "n" word rant, a lot of people call it. She's a big deal on the radio. Her syndicators call her the most listened-to woman in radio broadcasting history.
Her show reaches more than 9 million listeners a week or about 200 stations also heard on Series XM radio. Right now, Dr. Laura has more listeners than any other radio host on the air except Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
CHETRY: Well, prosecutors say that they're ready to go today if need be to retry Rod Blagojevich after a jury found the former Illinois governor guild and only one count, lying to the FBI.
No corruption charges was he found guilty of by the jurors who were deadlocked on the 23 other counts including racketeering, attempt at extortion and wire fraud.
Blagojevich could still face up to five years in prison for that single conviction, but outside of court yesterday he continued to maintain that he's told the truth from the very beginning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROD BLAGOJEVICH, FORMER ILLINOIS GOVERNOR: Let me also say to the people of Illinois that from the very beginning when this all happened I told them that I did not let them down, I didn't break any laws.
I didn't do anything wrong. The federal government, this particular prosecutor, did everything he could to target me and prosecute me, persecute me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There you go. In less than 10 minutes, we're going to break down the case, where it goes from here with Paul Callan, former New York City prosecutor and defense attorney.
And also an inside look at Chicago politics and how are things are going down in that city after this Lynn Sweet, Washington Bureau chief for the "Chicago Sun Times" and columnist for "Politics Daily."
HOLMES: Let's take a look at what's happening out there Jacqui Jeras is keeping her eye on the weather headlines. What are the headlines today? Jacqui, good morning.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. Super soakers. A lot of the headlines today across the mid-Atlantic and the southeast. A lot of extreme weather the last couple of days. We have amazing pictures that we need to share with you.
First one's coming out of Phoenix area from yesterday evening. Strong thunderstorms kicked up the dust in the area. There you can see how poor the visibility was. It knocked out power to thousands of people and a lot of flash flooding reported in Apache junction and Chandler where almost two inches of rain fell in just an hour.
More monsoonal thunderstorms expected in the Phoenix area for today. And we're going to take it to Colorado now where storm chasers caught this tornado on Monday. This is actually what I would call a landspout.
Take a look at that column of rotating air. Landspouts are kind of non-super cell types of tornado, kind of a different breed and a lot of times you can see them from their debris cloud before you can actually see them in the air. It did cause some damage to some out buildings. This was in northeastern parts of the state, but no injuries reported.
The severe weather threat today across parts of the upper Midwest, and then we'll see that heavy rain and flooding from the southeast to the mid-Atlantic states.
Dry weather for the most part across the west with the high fire danger and a whole lot of heat relief for a whole lot of folks unless you live say maybe in Texas. Back to you, Kiran and T.J.
HOLMES: Right, Jacqui, we appreciate it. We'll check in with you again here in a bit.
CHETRY: And this will make you hungry, Jacqui, by the way. A new champ in the burger biz. A new survey out says Five Guys is America's favorite fast food burger. It's a surprise considering there are only about 500 in the U.S. right now.
HOLMES: This beat out some bigger competitors. In and Out burger came in second. Wendy's, Burger King, McDonald's. You can't have the burger without the fries, so how did they stack up in fries?
McDonald's the top spot. They made up for it. Took first place in the French fry category that apparently Kiran is excited about. Five Guys took second place in the fry category. Something you want to tell us?
CHETRY: I mean, McDonald's fries. Love. I've never had a Five Guys.
HOLMES: We have them in Atlanta.
CHETRY: How are they? We do have them here? Well, I don't get out much.
HOLMES: Stick to McDonald's.
CHETRY: In-and-Out burger when I'm out in California, though.
HOLMES: Yes, of course, out in California.
CHETRY: All right, well, everyone expected it to be a slam-dunk. Instead, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has for the most part pretty much survived the federal corruption trial. What went wrong?
HOLMES: Also coming up, America's classrooms are failing its black male students. Would you believe there's one state where only 1 out of every 4 black males graduates from high school. The startling numbers coming up, it's 11 minutes past the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Fourteen minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Prosecutors in Chicago are vowing to take another shot at former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on 23 out of the 24 counts against him.
The outcome, something of a victory for Blagojevich even though he is facing jail time in connection with the one charge, the one conviction. He continued though to maintain his innocence despite being found guilty of making false statements to the FBI.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLAGOJEVICH: Let me also say to the people of Illinois that from the very beginning when this all happened I told them that I did not let them down.
I didn't break any laws. I didn't do anything wrong. The government, the federal government, this particular prosecutor, did everything he could to target me and prosecute me and persecute me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Here with more on exactly what happened, Lynn Sweet, Washington Bureau Chief for "The Chicago Sun Times," columnist for "Politics Daily" and also Paul Callan, a former New York City prosecutor and defense attorney.
Welcome to both of you. Lynn, let me start with you. I know we have a little bit of time to mull this over. Your reaction to knowing that after all of that, the high-profile, the two weeks of deliberation, everything, it was one charge and it had nothing to do with the actual original corruption allegations?
LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF OF "THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES": He was convicted on the cover-up, not the crime. The government just couldn't make their case stick to him on the 23 other charges. Now once the jurors really get -- give good interviews if they're all willing, we'll know more.
The government almost had their case. They couldn't get it unanimous. But it's very tough when you have allegations as you did where you have attempted crimes, an attempted extortion. It's a tough charge to make. But by no means is it a victory because the government says that they want to retry him.
CHETRY: So he's still going to be caught up in legal troubles for years, Paul. I mean or -- at least several months. Maybe years when you go through prosecutor vowing to go right back to the table and try to, you know, retry this. Of course, the appeals process that he may have as well. So what is the upshot of how things are going to go for Rod Blagojevich in the wake of this decision, this hung jury?
PAUL CALLAN, PROFESSR OF MEDIA LAW AT SETON HALL UNIVERSITY: Well, he's still facing a very, very tough road ahead. Let's remember that even though this is being portrayed as a great victory for him and a loss for the government, he was convicted of a five-year felony count. He's facing five years in prison. Now, he may not get a full five years but he's certainly facing a prison sentence. He also is facing retrial.
And what happens ironically in these cases, you think you've won the case because it's a hung jury. They come after you again. You have millions of dollars in legal expenses and ultimately, even if you're acquitted, you face financial devastation and destruction. So I don't think the prospects for his future are very, very bright. But of course, unless he lands a new reality show, which knowing Blagojevich, he'll find some angle to try to make money out of this.
CHETRY: And, Lynn, that's the other interesting thing. I mean, this case has obviously taken on many bizarre elements that we've seen. And the latest seem to be that there were 11 people in that jury room who felt that, you know, they probably would convict on some of these other counts and there was one lone juror who held out and said the case wasn't proven. In fact, it was very strange when they went back to the judge they wanted to know what the jury oath was. They want that read back to them, not any testimony. What do you make of how that ultimately happened between the one juror on one side and the 11 others who may have gone for more convictions?
SWEET: Well, even before that, they had thought -- at one earlier point there was thought that there was agreement on two counts but that melted away as the deliberations went on. So the case got weaker. But it doesn't matter if it's 11-1 or five -- you know, 6-6 on it. It's still not a unanimous agreement.
Now both sides if there's a retrial will learn from this and do it better. Remember, the prosecution cut short its case. Didn't put on everybody they could have and Rod Blagojevich mounted no defense. So there's quirky aspects on both sides on this. What Rod Blagojevich said afterwards he never said in trial about those counts he was convicted on, that he wanted a court reporter present when he gave the statements and ended up convicting him, those false statements.
OK, the jurors never heard that. They never heard what he might have wanted to say himself. They did have a chance to cross examine the agent who said what -- you know, who testified against Rod. You could have a trial where everybody gets smarter. But when you talk about the money, federal government has unlimited resources. Rod Blagojevich is out of money now. Has asked if his lawyers need to get paid by the public, you know, to have further trial. So there's a lot of pressure on any defendant at this stage. Who knows what could happen? Whether or not you would then go into a plea deal or what. With Blagojevich knowing him, I would doubt it.
CHETRY: All right. So you don't think a plea either, Paul?
CALLAN: Well, you never know on this. I mean, I think a plea where he was getting probation, there might be something he wants to consider. I mean, what you have to keep in mind is that first of all, hung juries are very rare. Fewer than two percent of federal trials result.
CHETRY: Right.
CALLAN: Secondly, in Chicago, over a 90 percent conviction rate in political corruption prosecutions. So on retrial, he's looking at that statistic. So he's not really going to be wanting to go into a retrial situation so eagerly if they offer him a deal that would be attractive. And of course in the end, if you have no money and you've been financially devastated by a prosecution --
CHETRY: Right.
CALLAN: -- where are you at that point? So there's a lot to come in this case and I don't think we really know at this point how it will turn out.
CHETRY: Paul Callan, Lynn Sweet, thanks to both of you for joining us to talk about this. Appreciate it.
SWEET: Thank you.
CALLAN: Nice to be here.
CHETRY: T.J.?
HOLMES: All right, Kiran. Well, coming up, Pakistan devastated by floods and desperate for the world's help. Taking a look at what the U.S. is committed to the relief effort. That's just ahead.
It's 20 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: It's 21 past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
As many as 20 million victims in flood-ravaged Pakistan. A fifth of the country under water and the threat of disease growing worse by the day. The international community has been slow to respond. Disaster aid described as trickling in.
CNN's Barbara Starr tracking the U.S. response, live for us at the Pentagon. And a lot of money people always talk about being donated but the U.S. doing more than just sending money.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Sending money, sending aid, sending military assistance, T.J. but so far the international effort is reaching thousands of Pakistanis. It needs to reach millions. As you said, 15 to 20 million Pakistanis now affected by this flood of epic proportions. Maybe one-fifth of the country literally under water at various points.
Let's look at just a couple of numbers here about what the U.S. assistance is looking like. $90 million in U.S. aid and assistance. U.S. helicopters have helped rescue about 5,000 people and just over 500,000 pounds of relief supplies being delivered. But again, it's a trickle in a literal flood. Millions of people, tens of millions now, impacted by all of this.
In some areas, roads are washed out over wide ranging parts of the country. Bridges. It's very tough for the helicopters to get in. The rains have continued. So even getting the assistance, the little that there is, to the places it's needed is proving to be very tough, T.J.
HOLMES: And, Barbara, certainly first and foremost, it's a matter of lives and humanitarian outreach. But at the same time, there could be a consequence, a welcome one by the U.S. here to help the people of Pakistan out, a country that not necessarily always views the U.S. or its leaders very favorably. This could be a good advantage for the U.S. to be seen and viewed by the Pakistanis as coming in and helping out.
STARR: Well, certainly. The U.S. military is there. The U.S. government is there for humanitarian reasons. Also, as you say, the benefit is perhaps the U.S. will be viewed in a more welcoming fashion by the Pakistani government. But, make no mistake, the Pakistani government still very sensitive to the issue of outsiders coming in and having any foreign face, if you will, on aid assistance. The government in Pakistan is very fragile. People are very unsettled quite understandably by what has happened. And if the government shows it cannot take care of it and it needs a lot of outside help, there's a lot of concern that the government may not survive this crisis in Pakistan -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right, a lot of things at play here.
Barbara Starr for us from the Pentagon. Barbara, we appreciate you, as always.
And for more information on how you can help Pakistan's flood victims, visit CNN's "Impact Your World" web page, CNN.com/impact.
CHETRY: Well, a hospital that says cheaper care is actually working out better. How it's saving money delivering babies the old- fashioned way. Could it be a new blue print for other hospitals? A model of sorts? We're going to take a look.
Twenty-five minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: After our best burger segment, by the way, I didn't know there were so many Five Guys locations in the wonderful city of Manhattan.
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: Now I know.
HOLMES: Just look out the window. You'll see one.
CHETRY: Very funny.
HOLMES: There's a lot of them.
CHETRY: I could look out the window, I would not see one. I'll tell you. We're in Lower Manhattan. Lower Manhattan, that's the problem.
All right. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty-seven minutes past the hour right now. Your top stories a couple of minutes away.
First though, an "A.M. Original," something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. We got a huge response when we first brought you our series about medical waste back in March about the mind boggling prices that hospitals are charging and in many cases getting away with. This morning, Elizabeth Cohen shows us one hospital that's trying to solve the problem instead of add to it.
Hey, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Kiran. Kiran, the mission of this hospital in Utah is so simple, higher quality care at a lower price. When you see this story, I'm sure you'll ask yourself, gee, why aren't all hospitals doing this?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: We're here at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah where Haley Nelson is about to have a baby. How's the labor going?
HALEY NELSON, PATIENT: It's going well.
COHEN: That's good. Any pains yet?
NELSON: No. We're good to go.
COHEN: Did the epidural kick in?
NELSON: Yes.
COHEN: OK. We're going to catch up with you in a bit. I want to say something that's going to sound a little bit crass. But how Haley has this baby affects my pocketbook and yours, too. Let me explain.
I'm here at Intermountain with Dr. Brent James who's the chief quality officer. It looks like Haley is doing well in there.
DR. BRENT JAMES, CHIEF QUALITY OFFICER: Very well. I think in about an hour we'll have another citizen of the state of Utah.
COHEN: All right. Now, here at Intermountain you are very focused on not wasting money. So, can you take me on a little tour of the hospital, show me how you do it?
JAMES: I'd be delighted. COHEN: So you found that you had a lot of CT scans that were unnecessary, wasting money. How much money did you save when you stopped doing repetitive scans?
JAMES: We dropped the total number by about 20 percent. It would have been measured in the tens of millions of dollars. And it's not just CT scans. It's other imaging exams.
COHEN: And here's another way Intermountain saves money. And I'll tell you, it's so much cuter than an MRI.
Here at this hospital, 2 out of every 10 babies are born via Cesarean section. However, the national average at hospitals around the country is that 3 out of every 10 babies are born by C-section.
Now you might think, OK, one extra baby by C-section, what's the difference? Well, a C-section costs about $2,000 more than a vaginal birth. So if you do the math, if every hospital in the country had statistics like this hospital, the nation would save about $1 billion. So by instituting all of these changes to get rid of waste, how much money are you saving?
JAMES: We estimate that we're saving a minimum of about $150 million dollars per year.
COHEN: That's a lot of money. So why can't all hospitals do this?
JAMES: Frankly, they can.
COHEN: I got to tell you, it makes me a little bit nervous when I hear that hospitals are trying to save money. Because I want you to spend money on me when I'm sick. So you're saving all this money but are you delivering good care?
JAMES: It turns out that in almost all circumstances, better care is cheaper care.
COHEN: How could better care be cheaper care?
JAMES: Well, you avoid the complications so you don't have to pay for the complication. We have a great way of saying it -- the best patient outcome at the lowest necessary cost.
COHEN: OK. So Dr. James, I'm going to go check on Haley now.
JAMES: Wonderful.
COHEN: So congratulations, Haley.
JAMES: Thank you.
COHEN: She's beautiful.
JAMES: Thank you. We think so, too.
COHEN: So she was not born by C-section.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
COHEN: So she saved everyone a little bit of money. Huh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It is a good way to look at it. Huh?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: Now if you want to check out some hospitals and try to see who's doing a good job or not, there are a couple of web sites that I have in my new book "The Empowered Patient." The first one is "U.S. News & World Report." They rank hospitals and also the Leapfrog Group, all one word, group, also does some ratings of hospitals. And those are just two places that you can look to try to see how hospitals are doing.
T.J., Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Sounds great, Elizabeth. Good advice, very useful advice. Thanks so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
CHETRY: Thirty-one minutes past the hour. Time for our top stories.
There is hopefully a high-level meeting that should be taking place in the works over the planned Islamic center near Ground Zero, possibly to move it somewhere else. This may or may not be happening. New York's governor has suggested that state land could provide an alternative site.
HOLMES: Also, Shirley Sherrod making peace with the NAACP. Sherrod, as you remember, is the ex-USDA officials who lost her job when her comments about race were twisted and posted on a web site. Well, Sherrod and the NAACP president, Ben Jealous, scheduled to appear together at a rural development conference in Alabama on Saturday.
Jealous sent out a statement saying her comments were "shameful and intolerable." Based on the edited tape. That's what he said at the time. Then the NAACP apologized, saying it was "snookered by a right wing blogger."
CHETRY: New data showing that American high schools may not be doing enough to prepare teens for college. The "Wall Street Journal" reporting that just 24 percent of 2010 grads who took the ACT College Entrance Exam have the skills needed to pass college entry level courses. That may sound bad but sadly, it's actually up from last year's rates. Slightly, last year it was only 23 percent.
HOLMES: And another heat problem facing America's public schools. The national graduation rate for African-American males is at 47 percent, according to a new report. Some of the worst figures coming out of Philadelphia, Detroit, two counties, including Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, down in Florida, and also right here where we are in New York City.
Mary Snow is tracking this story for us. And alarming just the report.
SNOW: Absolutely. I mean, these numbers are just staggering. And along with that finding that T.J. just told you about, the report also found wide gaps between graduation rates for black and white males. T.J. just mentioned New York City.
Here in New York City for example it found a roughly 40 percent gap.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW (voice-over): Taking a look inside America's classrooms, a new report finds some of the lowest graduation rates for black males in districts with a large black male student population. Only 28 percent of black males graduate on time in New York City. The same is true in Philadelphia and Detroit. John Jackson is the president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, an advocacy group working to level the playing field in education.
JOHN JACKSON, PRESIDENT, SCHOTT FOUNDATION: It's when you look at states with 10, 15, 20, 30 percentage point gaps between the graduation rate for black males and white males, what it says is we know how to educate our children, we just don't extend those conditions and resources to this certain population.
SNOW: Jackson notes exceptions with Newark, New Jersey at the top of the list after officials more effectively targeted resources. Newark now has a 76 percent graduation rate among black males. With Fort Bend, Texas, and Baltimore are not far behind. One key to success -- Jackson says early education.
JACKSON: If we don't ensure that students, not just black males but all students are literate by third grade, you will begin to see some of the factors that are really the result of their inability to read, coming to play. Whether they're behavior factors, whether it's having them get behind in other subjects.
SNOW: And there are lessons learned from schools like the Frederick Douglass Academy, a public school in Harlem where the motto is "Without struggle, there is no progress." Principal Gregory Hodge says nearly 75 percent of his students are black. All 225 students in the class of 2010 are going to college.
GREGORY HODGE, FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY, PRINCIPAL: The student here was accepted to almost every Ivy League in the country.
SNOW: Besides starting college prep in the sixth grade, Hodge says he keeps the school open seven days a week with clubs for everything from sports to robotics.
HODGE: What happens is when you open up the school and you know, every child's different. You got to find something that the child's interested in so that you can hook them in and keep them off the streets.
SNOW: And while this school and others are considered beacons of light, the Schott Foundation says the problem is they are exceptions.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW: The Schott Foundation says it focused its findings in this report on black males. This report is a call to action for all students. It shows graduation rates for white students in many locations are also alarmingly low and that the U.S. is falling behind other countries when it comes to education. And where it ranks.
HOLMES: It is scary.
SNOW: Absolutely.
HOLMES: You know, we've known the numbers were low for so many years but to get this, a lot of people say definitive report put together, 47 percent.
SNOW: Unbelievable.
CHETRY: When you see some of these places like the Frederick Douglass Academy, the other school that we profiled in New York City a few weeks ago, I mean, there are things that work and obviously putting (INAUDIBLE). He said all of his graduating class has been accepted to college.
SNOW: Right.
CHETRY: That's amazing there's just such a big difference.
SNOW: The point that John Jackson made, the head of the Schott Foundation, he said, you know, we see these beacons of light. We often focus on them. It is good to focus on them. But he said the story that really needs to be told is that thousands upon thousands of kids that are falling through the cracks and are being neglected.
HOLMES: All right. Mary Snow. We appreciate you this morning. We're not done with this topic though. At 8:40 Eastern time, I'm going to be talking more about this with our education contributor, Steve Perry. He'll be here live with us. He's the principal and founder of Capital Prep Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we look forward to it. Mary, by the way, is a lifelong New Yorker. I have to say, who also didn't know that there were Five Guys Burger joints around this place.
SNOW: No, I didn't.
CHETRY: See? Lifelong New Yorker.
HOLMES: OK. It's a big city.
CHETRY: Apparently, we haven't been looking hard enough because we've been getting a little ribbing. We did the top five fast food joints. And Five Guys came up, I joked and I said, because I thought there were none here. And of course, our lovely studio crew was able to quickly locate not only one but four to five Five Guys that are within a few blocks from here.
HOLMES: We can almost see it by our window. But we're talking about this because they were voted the best burger by fast food joints, Burger King, few others came in behind.
SNOW: Yes. They're getting a lot of free advertising off of us this morning.
HOLMES: Well, thanks to you.
CHETRY: I didn't mean it, McDonald's. I'm sorry.
HOLMES: Thirty-seven minutes past the hour. Quick break. We'll be right back.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Forty minutes past the hour now.
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant appeared to have taken matters into her own hands earlier this week when she reportedly took a crying baby from her mother after the mother allegedly slapped the 13-month-old child. The incident is raising questions about when and if you should intervene in situations that you view as potentially abusive.
Dr. Dale Atkins is a psychologist and parenting expert and she joins us now. Such a touchy subject, by the way, when it comes to what parents do to discipline their children. And in this case there is a little bit of a discrepancy, was it a slap, was it a "pop," what was this mother actually doing with her crying 13-month-old baby. But in this instance what would have been the right thing do?
DR. DALE ATKINS, PSYCHOLOGIST: I think the right thing to do is to always try and protect a child, especially when people are traveling, you know, it is very harrowing when you're traveling with children. And you never know whether a child is crying because their ears might be full or because they're feeling contained.
And the child is obviously in distress. So I think it is really fine if you offer assistance. If you're a person sitting next to a person who has a child who's crying, say is there any way I can be helpful, you know, might I hold the baby's hand, why don't you take a breath. Can I just be of assistance? And I think that if this flight attendant was doing that, to say can I help in some way, then you take the child out of harm's way, you give the parent a moment to calm down and you also are giving the approval that, you know, it's hard, it's kind of hard to raise a kid, it is hard when somebody's crying.
We're here to help you rather than be judgmental, rather than be critical say, "oh, my god, you're a terrible parent." But rather, it's really hard and I know it is difficult, let me see if I can be of assistance. I think we all have a responsibility to do that.
CHETRY: You do.
ATKINS: Yes, I do.
CHETRY: It is a touchy subject. You look at it from the standpoint of -- I'm a parent of two young kids myself. You are sometimes in situations where your kids are melting down in public and it is difficult. On the flip side, I would also say as a mom it would be difficult to watch somebody slap a 13-month-old child.
ATKINS: I think it should be difficult --
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CHETRY: -- and not have a reaction.
ATKINS: I think it should be difficult to watch someone slap a child and I think that what we need to do is to pay attention to the fact that we kind of are all in this together and we need to be advocates. And I don't think that you're imposing yourself. I think what you're doing is you're trying to say I'm here to be helpful.
And to say to the parent I know it is really hard, I have kids or I've been traveling with kids or it sometimes gets totally out to lunch or what is this, the terrible twos. And you know --
CHETRY: You're saying diffuse.
ATKINS: Diffuse and distract.
CHETRY: But in this case, you would -- I mean, this what the flight attendant said, I'm going to read the statement of Southwest Airlines. "The flight attendant came to the aid" -- this is how they are describing it -- "of a couple on-board the flight 879 from Dallas to Albuquerque involved in a verbal altercation. The couple had a small child who the flight attendant offered to hold while the dispute was settled."
Out of an abundance of caution she asked that authorities meet the flight and talk with the family. The couple later cleared to take a later flight to their destination. So they hadn't taken off, they were actually taken off the plane. In this instance was it right for the flight attendant to actually physically take the child away if the parent is saying, "No, I don't want you to take my child?"
ATKINS: If the parent says no, again, where is the line? And every situation is different. I think, you know, if you're having a tussle with the child, that's really not a really good thing to do and the child is probably going to be harmed more. But if you say, let me just -- I'm just going to be standing here, let me take the child while you two figure this out, and maybe I'll bounce the child. I'll walk the child and I'll try and calm your child down. I think that there are very few parents who would not say OK to that. The issue is when someone has a crying child, they feel as if everybody's looking at them, everybody's judging them and everybody's saying, "oh, what a terrible parent." But when someone raises a hand to a child and someone else sees it, it is in fact our responsibility as a bystander to stand up for that child.
It also gives the child a message -- this child is very young but an older child that if someone is going to stand up for me and that it is not OK to be hit. And that's really the message. And I think that what we really need to do is pay attention to that and understand that each of us raises our children differently. Each of us parents differently.
But that there is a line that we really don't want to cross and that we can say it in a gentle way and say, let me help you out, you're having a hard time, take a breath, do something.
CHETRY: And for the most part what would -- you would not -- I mean, you would recommend what for parents? I mean is -- is corporal punishment the right way to go especially at the age of a year?
ATKINS: No. It is not the right way to go. And what the right way to go is to contain yourself, to control yourself, to try and never, ever discipline out of anger. You're more likely to hurt your child, you're more likely to -- to send a message that violence is the way to deal with issues and conflict, and the children end up feeling poorly about themselves and it just is a terrible road.
What you really need to do is to try and take control of yourself, your emotions, calm yourself and understand that there are wonderful alternatives to being able to discipline your children and deal with them in a way that's very positive. And everybody needs help in doing this, and there are places where we can learn how to do this even better.
CHETRY: All right. We all know it's frustrating sometimes --
ATKINS: It's very frustrating.
CHETRY: -- but, you know?
ATKINS: It's very frustrating, and it happens to everybody. So what we need to do is understand that we're not alone in raising our kids and feeling frustrated.
CHETRY: Dale Atkins, thanks for your insight today.
ATKINS: You're welcome.
CHETRY: We appreciate it.
HOLMES: And also, coming up, parents have been complaining about it for a long time. Teenagers just seem to be ignoring them.
Well, it turns out maybe your teenager can't hear you. A new study shows an increase in teenagers with hearing loss. We're going to be talking to the chief author of a new study to find out why this is coming -- why this is happening. That's coming up.
Also, a big rainmaker could be coming your way. Jacqui Jeras has the morning's travel forecast after the break.
It's 46 past the hour.
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JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. You're looking at a live picture of Washington, D.C. where the rain continues to come down. Seventy-two degrees. You can see poor visibility and there's a flood warning in effect for the district and surrounding areas.
We're already seeing two to three inches come down and there is standing water on some of the area streets. Even a few road closings, so use a lot of caution if you're out and about today.
You're definitely going to need the umbrella across much of the mid-Atlantic states, that's because the rain is going to continue throughout much of the day today. Not just a morning event for you. This is going to last well into the evening. You can see another wave here across parts of the Appalachians and into Tennessee Valley today.
If you are trying to travel, this will cause a lot of problems, and you can see it's trying to make its way up towards the Philadelphia area. New York City, we think you'll get a few light rain showers later on today, likely after the noon hour. As we take a look at the flood warnings and watches in effect, you can see they stretch all the way down to the Appalachians.
And then we've got another storm system here, the remnants of TD- 5, remember that? This is creating some flash flooding across the Lower Mississippi River Valley. And there you can see those airport delays, abundant, particularly across parts of the mid-Atlantic and then the southeast as well. A slight risk for severe thunderstorms this afternoon across the upper Midwest.
That's a look at the nation's forecast. We will see T.J. and Kiran back on AMERICAN MORNING right after this break.
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HOLMES: Time now for an "A.M. House Call", stories about your health.
Now, a lot of parents out there probably feel like once your kid becomes a teenager they just stop listening to you. Well, according to a new study, it may be because they can't hear you very well. A new study finds a huge jump from the mid-'90s in hearing loss for teenagers.
Joining us now to talk about what's happening, the lead author of the study, Dr. Josef Shargorodsky, joining me this morning. Sir, thank you for being here.
Clearly, it's got to be the iPods these kids walk around with constantly. Surely that's it, right?
DR. JOSEF SHARGORODSKY, LEAD AUTHOR OF NEW STUDY IN HEARING LOSS IN ADOLESCENTS: Well, good morning. It's my pleasure to be on the show.
You know, that is the question that everybody seems to ask. Is it the iPod? It's -- from our study, it's specific. It's actually -- we cannot say what the causes of this increase from our data.
Of course, the world around us is getting louder. You can stand in a busy intersection in New York, for example, and get sound levels that are dangerously high if you -- if you are exposed to it for a prolonged period of time. You can also get it from driving a convertible on the highway.
And so, of course, teenagers are using headphones and are using portable music devices now that they have not been using previously, and so that's certainly one possibility.
HOLMES: Well, Doc, let me go back a little bit here now. How significant of a jump is it between how many kids used to have, back in the day the last time we had data, had some kind of hearing loss, versus the kids today?
SHARGORODSKY: Well, the jump of -- and any hearing loss is actually about 30 percent, and the significance of that is that basically in -- in an average American classroom now, several students are going to show evidence of hearing loss. About one in five adolescents is showing evidence of hearing loss which is -- it's an alarming number.
HOLMES: Well, we -- let's go back to the iPods now, the alarming number there. But, again, so many people might naturally go towards iPods. Is there a difference as well between -- and maybe this is not something you all even looked at, but the ear buds you stick in your ear versus the old-school headphones used to have on top with the old walkman? Is that -- can that have an impact on hearing?
SHARGORODSKY: Well, there -- there are several different types of -- of headphones and things that you can use. Certainly the ear buds will get the sound closer. It can get it more directly into the ear. But there are different devices now, such as noise canceling devices that actually are -- are good because they can -- you can lower the volume on those devices and -- and drown out the noise around you and hear the -- hear the music more clearly.
In addition, actually, Apple has a function, and it's one of the few times you can actually limit the amount of noise you're getting. They actually have a function on their Web site that you can download for the iPod where you can set a limit for the -- for the volume on the iPod. So there actually are options out there.
HOLMES: Well, Dr. Shargorodsky, tell me as well, how loud should an iPod be? Is it really a matter of volume or is it a matter of maybe the kids are listening to the stuff so much longer now?
SHARGORODSKY: Well, it's both. The recommendation is the 85 decibels over a prolonged period of time is that that -- that's the level that can damage your hearing. It's a little bit different for everyone, and it's hard to say exactly how loud you're listening to your iPod or to any other device.
You -- kids, for example, aren't good at telling us if a -- if a sound is loud or if it isn't loud. And so it's a -- it's hard to say exactly how to -- where to set that iPod unless there's a number that's showing it to you.
HOLMES: Well -- and last thing here, doc, and certainly nobody wants hearing loss, and certainly there are some signs if kid is having a -- a hard time hearing or maybe a drop in grades as well, some warning signs to look out for. But are those really the real -- the consequences there? Kids could suffer in the classroom. What are some of the real consequences of hearing loss in our young people?
SHARGORODSKY: Well, there are several consequences. One is that once you lose your hearing, chances are you're not getting it back. And, as we see in adults, it actually tends to progress. So these early signs of hearing loss -- and most of the -- most of the adolescents in our study had slight hearing loss. So these are probably early signs. And so these early signs can progress into bigger problems later in life.
Two is that there have been studies in the past showing that these kids are getting -- are doing worse in school. Kids with hearing loss actually have problems with language development.
HOLMES: Yes.
SHARGORODSKY: They have problems with social situations. If you're speaking in a -- in a group, if you're -- if you're in a crowded area, it might be hard to hear your peers.
HOLMES: Yes.
SHARGORODSKY: And so there are developmental issues with this as well.
HOLMES: Yes.
SHARGORODSKY: And so things to consider. And, of course, education is very important as you spoke on in the previous segments and --
HOLMES: Oh, yes.
SHARGORODSKY: -- so this definitely does seem to affect that.
HOLMES: Well, doctor, I appreciate you coming in. Important for people to pay attention to, to maybe turn down the iPods or whatever it may be. The world is getting louder. But, Josef Shargorodsky, Doc, we appreciate you coming in. Important stuff. SHARGORODSKY: Well, thank you very much.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we're going to take a quick break. Your top stories coming your way in just 90 seconds.
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