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American Morning
Kim Jong-Il Visits China; How Farms Keep Eggs Safe; The Toll on Home Values; Katrina Then & Now; Through A Child's Eyes; Gov. Bill Richardson in Cuba Negotiating Prisoner Release
Aired August 26, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Carol Costello in for Kiran Chetry this morning.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you. It's Thursday, 26th of August. Thanks for being with us. Lot to talk about this morning, let's get you right to it.
A CNN investigation leads to a crackdown on Craigslist. Seventeen states are now demanding that the website shut down its adult services section after not living up to its promise to block the ads that sell sex. We're live with the new and exclusive developments this morning.
COSTELLO: North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-Il is reportedly in China. The exact purpose for his visit is unclear. China is North Korea's strongest ally, and CNNs Beijing bureau reports he could be there to ask for supplies and introduce his son, an heir apparent. And of course there's lots of talk about the timing of this trip. We'll have a live report for you just ahead.
ROBERTS: And experiencing the aftermath of hurricane Katrina through the eyes of a child. CNN's Soledad O'Brien and filmmaker Spike Lee gave kids a camera and told them to capture everything. A look at their lives after the storm and how they are doing now.
COSTELLO: But, first, a CNN exclusive -- sex for sale on craigslist. The website promised to police itself, but earlier this morning CNN's in-depth reporting uncovered the illegal trade is still posted for all to see.
ROBERTS: Now several states, citing CNN's investigation are demanding that they crack down on these ads immediately. Joining us now is Amber Lyon who has been reporting on this story from the beginning. And Amber, the attorneys general mentioned your reporting specifically in their letter to Craigslist.
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning John and Carol. Attorneys general from 17 states across the nation sent out this letter to craigslist in it. They cite several results from our investigation as reasons why they say Craigslist needs to shut down their adult services section of their site. That section makes up about a third of the sites revenue.
We spoke with victims' advocates and law enforcement, and they say minors and women are being sold for sex against their will under this adult services section for craigslist, sometimes forced to perform sexual acts with ten guys a day.
We spoke to a woman who was being sold for sex on craigslist by a pimp. The woman had bruises all over the side of her face. She said she got those after her pimp beat her up when she tried to leave him. She says the pimp tells her he owns her, she cannot leave him or he will kill her. He also takes the majority of the money that she makes.
In the letter, the attorneys general also say they are deeply troubled about the responses from Craigslist's CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark. The prosecutors say they are ticked off craigslist keeps placing blame for the sex trafficking on others.
Law enforcement, at one point victims for not providing proof this is happening, and I even had the finger pointed at me. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYON: Look at this ad. It says "Young, sexy, sweet and bubbly." She writes $250 an hour. What do you think she's selling in her bra and underwear, a dinner date? And she's in her bra and underwear?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you reported this to us?
LYON: You say you screen all of these ads manually in her blog.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have never said -- I don't know what this is.
LYON: In Jim Buckmaster's --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you reported this to us?
LYON: Why do I have the responsibility to report this to you when it's your website? You are the one reporting this on line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LYON: CNN did contact Craigslist for a response. They say "We strongly support the attorneys general desire to end trafficking in children and women through the Internet or by any other means. We hope to work close well them as we are with experts in nonprofits and law enforcement to prevent misuse of our site in facilitation of trafficking and to combat such crimes whenever they appear online or offline."
Craigslist also does not mention any intention of shutting down its adult services portion of its website. Sites like craigslist are not responsible for what users publish on them. John, Carol.
COSTELLO: So the man we saw you talking to was Craig Newmark, the head of Craigslist, and he looked kind of clueless about why these ads keep appearing on craigslist. And I know you posted an ad on the site to see what kind of response you would get. Tell us how that went?
LYON: Carol, what's been going on is Craigslist has says continually they are manually screening these ads and will reject any that it appears a minor might be being sold or appear that someone might be selling sex.
So in our ad we put in these red flag words that victims advocates say indicate a minor could be being sold, words like "young," "sweet," "innocent." We also clearly put a price on the ad for how much we would charge for an hour. And frankly the ad posted and the calls started coming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYON: We put some words in here, "sweet, innocent new girl." We'll see what happens. We'll see if craigslist will let our ad post and also see what kind of calls we get.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw your ad on craigslist.
LYON: Hello.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. What's your donation for an hour call?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Donation?
LYON: That is the "g" rated version of that conversation, I have to tell you, John and Carol. You have no clue what these guys were asking me on the phone. It was disgusting personally, so --
ROBERTS: What really surprises me is that Craig Newmark when you cornered him there said have you reported this to us? Aren't they the ones to do the reporting? They are the ones taking the ads, putting them on their website, and they pledged any time they found an ad that didn't seem right, they would report it to the police.
LYON: John, you're right, and that's exactly why the attorneys general are so upset. They say they have been promised the past two years that craigslist will clean up the site. They say Craigslist is the only entity with the power to shut this down, and that's why they are calling on them to do so.
COSTELLO: I know you'll follow up on this story. We look forward to future reporting. Amber Lyon, thank you this morning.
LYON: Thank you.
ROBERTS: New this morning, a surprise trip to China by North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il. It's his second visit there in three months. The exact purpose of this visit is still a bit of a mystery. Our senior international correspondent John Vause is live in Beijing for us this morning. So what is the Dear Leader doing there, John?
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, John. No one really knows why. Officials in China and North Korea are refusing to confirm that Kim is even here. That's fairly normal practice. They'll release details after the Dear Leader has left. They say they do that for security reasons.
But there are a lot of reports that Dear Leader crossed into China sometime maybe last night, maybe this morning local time. There is also reports that he visited a middle school in the northeast of the country to meet with teachers and students there for about 20 minute, apparently the same middle school his father attended in the 1920s.
But no one knows how long he'll be here or who he plans to actually meet with. This is his second trip to China in a couple of months. That's unprecedented. What's also unusual are reports that he is traveling with his third and youngest son who is widely tipped to take over the family business of being the dictator of North Korea.
So then why come to China? The speculation is to introduce the young son to the Chinese leadership because there is a succession plan in the works. It is a mark of respect to China because the Chinese are the last best friend in the entire world to the North Koreans.
And the question is why now? Kim Jong-il is in pretty bad health, that is closing down the timeframe of transition of power to the youngest son. And we are told by state media in North Korea that they are planning this very big party meeting next month. They haven't had too many of these party meetings before in the history of the country.
And it's expected at that party meeting that Kim John-un will be nominated as number two within the party, essentially paving way for him to take over for his dad. John?
ROBERTS: Kim John-Il continuing to preserve the enigma today. John Vause in Beijing, thanks so much.
(WEATHER BREAK)
COSTELLO: You know I'm a Detroit Lions fan, so this next story touches my heart. It's crazy, but it touches my heart because these Lions haven't had a winning season in 2000, and they went 0-16 in 2008. Why --
ROBERTS: It was a perfect season.
COSTELLO: So to speak. It was clear the Detroit Lions need something.
ROBERTS: They didn't sully it with a win.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: OK, enough of that already. One man walked all across the state of Michigan to deliver a message to the Detroit Lions. His name is Joe Pacquette Jr. He is 63 years, has arthritis in both knees. He walked 425 miles in 18 days from the upper peninsula to the Lion's facility in Allen Park, Michigan just to attend practice. Life-long Lions fan.
He did it to inspire his team with "sisu," which is a finish word meaning "strength of will," "determination," and "perseverance." I think he should walk for the Cleveland Browns too.
ROBERTS: What is the joke about tornadoes and the Lions stadium.
COSTELLO: I don't want to remember those jokes. Because the lions, things are looking up.
ROBERTS: They are.
COSTELLO: They really are, because it's Matthew Stafford's second season. He's a great young quarterback. He's got Calvin Johnson. Jim Schwartz is showing signs of being a great coach, and we've got to go.
ROBERTS: Boy this is amazing, you hate golf but you love the Detroit Lions.
COSTELLO: I do love the Detroit Lions.
ROBERTS: What's going on inside there?
With more than a half-million eggs now pulled from store shelves, what can the nation's egg farmers do to keep more people from getting sick? In a story you'll see only on CNN, we'll take to you an Iowa farm to get some answers.
COSTELLO: And some of hurricane Katrina's youngest victims show how they survived after the waters subsided. The story of victory and the tragedy, that's just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's coming up on 15 minutes after the hour now. As are you getting the breakfast ready, here's some news for you. It turns out state and federal health agencies knew an Iowa egg company was a likely source of salmonella two weeks before any of us found out, that admission coming from an interview that health officials gave to "USA Today."
The CDC even considered reminding the public that it's dangerous to eat undercooked eggs in late July, but they decided to wait until the FDA completed its investigation.
COSTELLO: Oh, so that brings up a very important question? What should farmers be doing to keep the eggs safe, safe for us to eat? And who better to ask than a chicken farmer.
ROBERTS: Only on CNN, our Casey Wian is at a small family farm in a town of Waukon, Iowa. And he's joining us now to give us a first-hand look.
Good morning, Casey. CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John and Carol. You know, you've been talking about -- we've been talking all week about these giant corporate farms here in Iowa that are suspected to be at the center of the salmonella outbreak. We're at the exact polar opposite of that.
We're at a small family farm in northeast Iowa. You can see the chickens behind me are not in cages like they are in those big corporate farms. There are about 700 laying hens at this farm. There's another 200 what they call pullets which are chickens -- if my photographer can show us over here, we'll walk and show you where the pullets are. These are chickens that are not fully grown, not ready to lay eggs yet, but are getting close. So this small family farm, not only raises chickens, it also raises fruit -- or vegetables and other crops and that presents some food safety issues. They have to keep these operations completely separate from each other. You can't bring the eggs from the chicken coop along the same path that you use to bring the vegetables in from the fields. You have to be very careful about changing your clothes going from one area of the farm to the other.
There's a lot of food safety precautions that these farmers take. And let's talk to the owner of this small family farm. His name is Kyle Holthouse.
Kyle, tell me a little bit about what it's like to try to keep your food that you produce for your customers safe these days?
KYLE HOLTHOUSE, FARMER: It's a challenge and we've had to rearrange some things as far as paths of bringing stuff in. But we try to keep everything separated. And wash your hands, change clothes. When we leave anything to do with the chickens, we change clothes and boots so that we don't have, you know, cross contamination or the risk thereof. And we try to do everything that we can to make sure that everything that leaves our farm is good for people to eat.
WIAN: One of the things that you're a big advocate of, you were telling me about is locally grown. And the fact that all of the produce and the eggs that you put out here are sold within 90 miles of where we are. Why is that so important in terms of food safety, do you think?
HOLTHOUSE: Well, food safety because with it being like that, nothing that leaves our farm has been picked for more than two days. The eggs that we picked up last night, they'll go out today, and so it's never more than three days old when it leaves our farm. And so when you're getting it, you're getting all of the good nutrients because it's ripened and it is, you know, made in its best form by the time it leaves our place.
WIAN: But the bottom line as you were telling me earlier, though, the only way you know that your eggs don't have salmonella is how?
HOLTHOUSE: Well, we actually -- the eggs that have slight cracks and stuff, when we candle them, we take the ones that are non-salable into the house and we eat every morning for breakfast, and so that is our test. We're still doing good, and we love eggs. So --
WIAN: Thanks for your time.
That's food safety on a small farm. We'll have more on this from this farm. We'll show you the outside and how these chickens are actually able to roam around free a little bit more than they are in some of those big corporate farms. John and Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Yes, I know. The problem is those big corporate farms are so big, there are so many chickens, you couldn't possibly do what this farmer does on those farms.
WIAN: Absolutely. It's really a different environment. I mean, even the smell, you know, is just -- if you've ever been in one of those big corporate facilities, it's overwhelming. This is nothing like that.
ROBERTS: Well, you talk about candling eggs, haven't heard about that for a while, too.
Casey Wian inside the hen house for us this morning. Thanks, Casey.
WIAN: That's right.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Casey. We'll see you again soon.
WIAN: OK.
COSTELLO: Your home, likely your biggest asset, your biggest investment, and the biggest debt you will ever take on. And this morning, there are new concerns about the price of your home. Is it really smart to buy these days?
It's 19 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Oh, it's 22 minutes after the hour. New this morning. NASA is announcing some exciting news today. It's the latest findings from its Kepler Space Observatory, including information about, quote, "the discovery of an intriguing planetary system."
COSTELLO: Oh, why can't they just say new planet?
ROBERTS: Yes, because in an intriguing new planetary system.
COSTELLO: OK.
ROBERTS: These are the latest images from Kepler. Cutting through the geeks speak, here's why this is so exciting. Kepler searches for planets that, like earth, orbit stars and that sweet spot that can support life. Not too hot, not too cold. Just right.
COSTELLO: Oh, can you say aliens?
ROBERTS: It's like the "Goldilocks" planet, right? Just right. COSTELLO: Oh, yes. Oh, yes, from the three bears. I remember that. Took me a little bit.
ROBERTS: Goldilocks. Goldie Hawn? No.
COSTELLO: Yes, Goldie Hawn.
OK. A skydiving snag at the Texas Rangers ballpark at Arlington. Check this out.
A member of the Golden Knights Army Parachute team got tangled on a flagpole on the way down to the field before the game. He was able to unclip himself. However, he climbed down the scoreboard and the fans cheered.
ROBERTS: Wow. What a surprise.
Google setting its sights on Skype. The Internet giant announced that Gmail users can now make phone calls over the web. The landlines, all calls in the U.S. and Canada free for now. International calls range from two cents to 98 cents a minute.
COSTELLO: And remember the elderly woman who sued McDonald's back in '94 after she got burned?
ROBERTS: Oh, yes.
COSTELLO: Well, you know, she spilled the hot coffee all over her lap? Now a Chicago mother is suing the fast food giant because back in 2009, her daughter burned her leg after spilling her hot chocolate. The lawsuit states they bought the hot chocolate from a drive-through window and that the lid was not secured properly.
ROBERTS: Well, it's been a tough week for the real estate market. Existing new homes sales are down significantly. And now there are concerns about home prices and what it's going to do to the overall economy.
CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow here with us this morning "Minding Your Business." This is a bad week for homeowners, people selling homes, builders, all of that.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: I think anyone when it comes to our economy, this is maybe the truest sign out there of how bad things really are. I mean, we learned this week that new and existing home sales fell dramatically in July. It was really the end of the sugar rush. There was this big government-induced tax credit that ended, and people realized how the housing market really looks, which is incredibly sour.
But I want to tell you about a new report. Let's take a look at the graphics. You can see what's going on here because the big concern among economists now is what about home prices? This is a 2010 macro market survey. About 100 economists and real estate experts weighed in on this. They saw three main things. First of all, a massive weakening of confidence in the overall U.S. housing market. The fact that the majority, almost 80 percent of them did not expect that home prices will increase at all this year, and they said between 2011 and 2014, home prices are only going to go up modestly.
Now, what you have, economists say, Robert Shiller, the Yale economist who's the head of the study, basically said you have buyers expecting prices will go up, but the experts don't. Well, of course, buyers right now expect the prices will go up.
I think one of the other big headaches here is the fact that we have major problems across the economy. So let's look at some of the other problems weighing on the housing market in general.
You have a glut of unsold homes. You have massive, massive foreclosures. That problem really isn't getting any better. There's an aid by the administration, but it's not getting a lot better. You have incredibly high unemployment, what the White House calls stubbornly high unemployment. And you have an incredibly volatile economic recovery. The stock market, the job market, the housing market -- nothing is showing us that the housing market in general should get any better.
COSTELLO: Can I just like, I don't know, throw maybe an optimistic note into all of this?
HARLOW: Absolutely.
COSTELLO: You know, as far as home prices are concerned, I mean, they had that tax credit thing going, so might this drop be kind of artificial?
HARLOW: I think that the boost was artificial. With the sugar ration, interest in that economist from Yale said to me on the phone yesterday, look, what we had from 2006 to 2009, home prices fell. Then there was this unusual government intervention that we don't usually see. We saw a rebound. Now, we're seeing the realistic fall, and that's here to stay. That's the concern for economists.
We have some buyers coming in, but they're not real buyers in the sense that we're going to see it month and month again. What we're seeing now is the first real month of numbers. The big concern is going in to Friday.
ROBERTS: Yes, we got the GOP coming up.
HARLOW: Of course. You've got a horrible GDP number expected on Friday. And Ben Bernanke, the Fed Chairman, will talk for the first time tomorrow since the Fed meeting. Why does that matter? He's going to talk about the recovery, how's the effort going? What other stimulus programs might the government put forward? How might they intervene to turn around the housing market, the job market, et cetera?
ROBERTS: Poppy Harlow this morning. Poppy, thanks. HARLOW: You got it.
COSTELLO: Easing a travel ban and opening up trade. Things could be warming up between Washington and Havana. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is in the Cuban capital right now. He'll join us live.
It's 27 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Crossing the half hour. It's 7:30 Eastern. Time for this morning's top stories.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il reportedly in China today. The exact purpose for his trip unclear at this point. China is North Korea's strongest ally. And CNN's Beijing bureau reports he could be there to ask for supplies and to introduce his son and heir apparent to Chinese leaders.
COSTELLO: Sex still for sale on Craigslist. The Web site promise to police itself. Now a special CNN investigation has forced a new crackdown. Seventeen states now demanding the Web site shut down its adult services section after not living up to its promise to block the ads that sell sex.
ROBERTS: And Ken Mehlman, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, the man who ran President Bush's successful re- election campaign has told "Atlantic" magazine that he's gay. Mehlman says the process of coming out to friends and family has made him a happier and better person. And quote "it's something I wish I had done years ago."
COSTELLO: It was the storm they always fear. The one none of us will ever forget. And this week, CNN is going back to New Orleans to take a look at what's changed and what hasn't five years after Hurricane Katrina.
ROBERTS: Of course, those images are going to be etched in our minds forever. The water rising. The desperate people begging to be rescued, the absolute squalor and suffering at the Superdome. This was "The Times-Picaynne" cover on August 29th, 2005. Ground Zero. People lining up in front of the stadium, the so called shelter of last resort, the only option for so many who couldn't afford to find a way out.
COSTELLO: Terrible times. Five years later though there are signs of rebirth. Rising homes, reinforced levees. More restaurants than before the storm. But still so many unkempt promises. We'll be live in New Orleans tomorrow morning to show you how far we've come and how far we still have to go. CNN also has a special web page devoted to Katrina, called "Then and Now," where you can see what five years later actually looks like in every corner of New Orleans. Just follow the link from the home page of cnn.com.
ROBERTS: Some places look very similar to the way that they were before, and some so unbelievably different. Some of the most heart- breaking stories of loss and survival come through the eyes of Katrina's youngest victims. Soledad O'Brien and filmmaker Spike Lee gave a group of kids a voice by simply putting a video camera in their hands and asking them to capture their lives after the storm.
Soledad joins us from New Orleans this morning. Tell us how they are doing now. Good morning, Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Good morning to you. Yes, we called them our children of the storm and years ago we gave them cameras and asked them to tell their story. We brought Spike Lee in, of course, the famous documentarian because we wanted him to explain to the kids, here's how you tell stories with the camera. And he did that but he also told them shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. And remember what you're doing is for history. It's not just for yourself. Here is what we found out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SPIKE LEE: Very diverse group here and you've each been given a camera.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Three years ago, we gave kids in New Orleans a chance to document their lives in the aftermath of Katrina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello my name is (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Samantha.
O'BRIEN: Our children of the storm pointed their cameras at friends, family members and themselves to capture the long road to recovery. Amanda Hill lived in one of the worst hit areas.
AMANDA HILL, HURRICANE KATRINA SURVIVOR: I live in a FEMA trailer with my grandma. I live with my grandma because my mom died when I was 11.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm opening a letter from FEMA. It's saying we can - we have to try to move out of this trailer. They are trying to get us out of here to be put into a house. The house is not even livable. It's not even ready to live in.
O'BRIEN: The affects of the storm were taking a toll on her grandmother's health.
HILL: I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you, too.
HILL: I'm scared that I'm going to lose her and she's all I have. All I can say was it's going to be OK. When I don't think it is.
If god's will and the creek doesn't rise again, May 2012, I'll graduate from LSU HSC School of Nursing. I'm very excited about that. My grandma is still working. I'll let her retire when I graduate. I'll take care of her now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You, sir, if you can hear me. We are marching because the violence has gone too far.
O'BRIEN:: When we met Deshawn (INAUDIBLE), he was a high school senior fighting against the crime and violence infecting his city.
DESHAWN: Senseless act of violence are murdering our teenagers. I don't want to be dead at 15 when I have a whole life to live. I have dreams. I want to be this huge entertainer.
This is my high school diploma. My grandmother died a few months right before my graduation. So when I walked across the stage and received this, it was pretty much in honor of her. Grandma, this is for you. I have been trying to live out my dream with the whole theater thing. I'm actually a theater arts major here at (INAUDIBLE) University. And I've been pushing to get that big role. Still haven't gotten a big huge one yet, but the trend is going to keep going up, up, and up like, you know, some stairs. So hopefully that will happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You wouldn't believe, the man looked just like his daddy. I'm too proud.
O'BRIEN: And then there was Brandon Franklin. Our 19-year-old father, trying to get his music career off the ground.
BRANDON FRANKLIN, HURRICANE KATRINA SURVIVOR: Who we have here is my - I'm going to say my second daddy. I can't even call him band director. My second daddy named Mr. Wilbert Ross.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was trained since the eighth grade. He wanted to be a band director, he told me that.
FRANKLIN: One through seven.
I think life is going to turn out now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.
FRANKLIN: How good?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So many people that are missing Brandon Franklin right now, it's ridiculous. Brandon came into our lives. He not only touched my life. He touched so many other people's lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ashes to ashes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This nice guy lost his life. Due to the same violence that I was fighting and still am fighting today. It's just terrible.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: The students were stunned when they heard that Brandon had died. He was shot and killed. And we at CNN also were stunned and very saddened, obviously, he leaves behind two children that he was responsible for. But the young people we talked to, both Amanda and Deshawn said that one thing that Katrina did for them, the silver lining, if you will, was that, it made them stronger.
That they felt like now they are in a position where they really could tackle anything as young people heading out into the world, because they had been through so much and played it through Katrina, they knew they were positioned to survive something even bigger than Katrina. They said that, you know, they knew that they could lose anything in a moment's notice. That's sort of the lessons that Katrina had taught them. They felt very prepared as young people to go out in the world. John.
ROBERTS: Well, Soledad, what happened with Brandon? Here you had this terrific young kid who is a responsible father, who is living out his dream. What were the circumstances of his death?
O'BRIEN: The circumstances were idiotic. Brandon had broken up with his girlfriend, and he was visiting her, helping her change the locks on her door, because she was in a dispute with someone else, a new guy she was dating and that guy came by and apparently offered Brandon the opportunity to leave. "My beef is not with you, I want you to go." And he would not leave his ex-girlfriend there with another young man who was very angry and enraged and he chose to stay, and he was shot and killed. He was just literally in the wrong place at the wrong time. And a guy who just would not give up on somebody. It's terribly tragic, tragic story.
ROBERTS: Wow. It's going to be an amazing story to see it all play out. Soledad O'Brien for us this morning. Soledad, thanks so much.
AMERICAN MORNING, by the way, is going to be live in New Orleans tomorrow starting at 6:00 a.m. Eastern. I'll be there with a special look at how the city has recovered in the past five years. What work needs to be done. It's coming up now at 39 minutes after the hour. We're back in just a couple of minutes. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBERTS: Just about 18 minutes to the top of the hour. We're back with the most news in the morning. It's (INAUDIBLE) worst nightmare. Tomatoes flying everywhere. Pelting everyone. Tens of thousands of people pasted. It's Spain's tomatia festival. The town brought in some 100 tons of ripe tomatoes on trucks for the event. It looks like a lot of fun.
COSTELLO: Actually, it does for some reason. And I know Jacqui, you agrees with me.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm going to agree. It looks like a good time.
ROBERTS: Jacqui, who, we should tell you, this is not known to everybody. Jacqui who was once engaged in a strawberry fight. JERAS: I worked at an apple orchard during strawberry season and we pick the strawberries and they were bad, we would chuck them at each other.
COSTELLO: It was better than the apples, because that would hurt.
JERAS: Yes, that wouldn't feel good at all. Well, a great day to get outside, pick strawberries, blueberries, do whatever you want to do. Throw a tomato or two. We've got our first in the series of fronts that already passed through across the northeast. The second one waiting in the wings. But for the most part, it's going to be a dry front. We're going to see some isolated showers here. And I think further up north in New England that we get better your chances that we'll see some of that rain.
The second front should sweep through by this afternoon, and just bring in some gorgeous, gorgeous conditions, especially tomorrow, it's going to be great. The southeast, the front kind of lingers down here. And so we're seeing some showers and thundershowers across the gulf coast states. Most of it is going to be around 1-10 and southward and all across the Florida Peninsula.
This is going to be heavy at times. You can see a little bit of flash flooding as a result of it. If you are trying to travel today, those delays expected into the northeast. Mostly because of the wind here, looking for those Florida delays as well, and then out west, we might have problems due to some low clouds and some fog, but for the most part, the west is going to be dry. It's going to be hot, and it's going to be windy as well. And we've got those red-flag warnings that are continuing to flag the temperatures in the 90s to triple digits.
The tropics getting very active. Here, we've got Hurricane Danielle, a category 2 storm right now. And it looks like it's going to curve on up to the north. But Earl, which is a tropical storm and expected to intensify and become a hurricane could take a much more southerly track, so we're going to have to watch Earl very closely in the upcoming days. John and Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Thanks, Jacqui.
Still ahead on the most news in the morning, her son was driving this car. And you'll see it in a second. And you'll remember this. It crashed into concrete at 100 miles per hour. Well, guess what? The driver lived. Hear what his mom had to say about her son's miraculous survival. It's 44 minutes past the hour.
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COSTELLO: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Washington and Havana thawing the ice a bit. The White House expected to ease a strict travel ban between the United States and Cuba, and Cuba possibly set to release some political prisoners, including one American whose been jailed there for nine months.
New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson is in Cuba working on some issues and more. He joins us now, live from Havana, from our bureau there.
Good morning.
GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: Good morning.
COSTELLO: I know we have you by phone, we tried to get you on camera but it didn't work. Thanks for joining us this way, we appreciate it.
I know this is a trade mission but you've also worked to get political prisoners released, And I was wondering about Alan Gross, a U.S. aid worker whose been held in Cuba behind bars since December. We have a picture of him from the "Washington Post." His wife has been really fighting to get him out.
Are you going to be talking to Cuban officials there working with aid officials to try to get this man released?
RICHARDSON: Well, I'm working on it. I've already discussed it at pretty high levels. I'm going to do it again today. I don't know what the outcome will be, but I am pleased with the current atmosphere.
It seems in the last year, relations have improved with Cuba. They've been released prisoners, I think a total of 32 out of some 56 through the Catholic Church and the president of Cuba and the Spaniards. So the atmosphere is better.
The Obama administration is considering relaxing travel restrictions, so that helps. I'm sensing a better mood, a better atmosphere. But I'm going to be working very hard today to see if we can get Mr. Gross out. He's been here eight months.
COSTELLO: Governor, you say it's a better atmosphere, but Alan Gross was -- he was a contractor and he was delivering some equipment to Cuba's tiny Jewish community. I mean, why did Cuban officials detain him? Why did they have him in prison? What are they saying to you?
RICHARDSON: Well, what they are saying is he may have brought in equipment that is not permitted under the embargo. Look, I agree with you. I believe he's an innocent person who was here on a mission and my objective is to try to get him out.
Now, it's not certain that I'll be able to. I've been able to do that here in the past. My point is that just in general the relationship with the United States and Cuba seems to be a little better. You know, whenever you improve relations with Cuba, it's always small steps. If we concentrate on this humanitarian issues, like the release of Alan Gross, like the release of those other Cuban dissidents, then we make small progress. I believe travel restrictions, if they are lifted for Americans, for religious groups, for academic groups, also improves the atmosphere in a small way. And that's what I'm hoping will really help.
I'm here. My last day is today. I leave tomorrow. So we'll know more probably by the end of the day.
COSTELLO: Did you meet with Fidel Castro? You know, he's made these sudden appearances. His health has been bed, we know that. But he's been in the spotlight lately. Is that sort of taken things a step back? Because you know, relations were going along pretty good when his brother was completely in charge. But Fidel Castro made these appearances and suddenly things have come - well, they've gotten a little slower.
RICHARDSON: Well, there's no plan to meet with him. You know, I'm a governor, I'm here on a trade mission. I have met with the foreign minister and that's pretty high up. I don't expect to meet with the Cuban leadership at his level.
What I'm trying to do is to convince him that this will be another good step forward. This is one individual who is very important to a lot of people in the United States. I met with his wife in Washington. His health is not as good as it should be. But I understand he's been kept in a hospital here in Havana and the Cubans are telling me he's getting good treatment.
Again, my objective will be to try to get him out. But I don't know if we'll be able to. Again, I'm here on a trade mission but we still have 24 hours to go so I haven't lost all hope.
COSTELLO: OK. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
Governor Richardson, thanks for joining us live this morning. We appreciate it.
ROBERTS: Well, we've \been talking about the surprise visit to China this morning, by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. Kim has reportedly made a stop at a Chinese school and is traveling on a private train with his son. Could the visit have something to do with the country's future rule? A live report from Beijing just ahead. Stay with us.
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COSTELLO: Welcome back to the Most News of the Morning.
New this morning. The Pentagon's survey on Don't Ask, Don't Tell wants to know what spouses think of openly gay members of the military. 150,000 survey went out on Friday. But some call the survey about repealing the policy bias and derogatory. The University of California researcher says the questionnaire suggests gay and lesbian soldiers are, quote, "second class citizens."
Here's one question, and this is how it reads.
"If a gay or lesbian service member lived in your neighborhood with their partner you would stay on base or would you try to move out?"
The Pentagon has not responded to any of the survey's criticism.
ROBERTS: More monsoon rains have been hitting flood-ravaged Pakistan this morning. The United Nations says 800,000 people are stranded. And more helicopters are desperately need to reach them. Three and a half million people do not have clean drinking water. And officials estimate at least four million are homeless. The Pakistani and Taliban is also threatening to attack foreign aid workers, including Americans, who are helping in relief efforts.
And the mother of a 19-year-old who launched and crashed his car into a bridge pillar is speaking out about her son's miraculous survival. Listen.
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ANDREA EDEN-SHINGLETON, CRASH VICTIM'S MOTHEROBERTS: From what the police and doctors have told us, we really feel this is a miracle, that Brendon (ph) is alive. This is a very traumatic time for our family. The sincere love and prayer of our family and friends is what's sustaining us at this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Brendon Eden crashed his car on morning. The horrific accident caught by a police officer's dashboard camera. His mother says his condition has been elevated now from critical to serious.
ROBERTS: It's amazing. He was going about 100 miles an hour on that freeway, veered to go around the police officer, hit that -
COSTELLO: Pillar.
ROBERTS: Well, he hit that bridge guardrail, I guess. There's a guardrail so you don't go into the bridge and it just launched him.
COSTELLO: Well, he's lucky on so many levels that he didn't hit anyone else.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us.
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