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American Morning
Chi-Clone Rips Midwest; FBI Opens Probe on Shooting at Military Sites; One on One with Sir Michael Caine; Marriage by E-mail; Vitter Not So Vulnerable; Every Tackle Hurts; Missionary Builds Flying Car
Aired October 27, 2010 - 06:00 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. Sorry about this, I'm a little thrown off by the new desk. We're all ready for elections.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Change is good, right?
CHETRY: It is. It is.
ROBERTS: It's a little difficult to get used to, but we got a new look because we've got less than a week now until the election. And the Election Center is up and running here at CNN. And so we're in a place that we haven't been before, but it's a great place to be because this is where all the news will be made.
CHETRY: Exactly. And it's Wednesday, October 27th, we're glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Let's get you caught up on what happened overnight.
They're calling it the Chi-clone. An epic storm on the move right now after spotting at least 24 possible tornadoes mostly in the Midwest. We're going to go inside one with incredible surveillance video and show you what's ahead for the east and what's in store for travelers today. Unfortunately, not very good news.
CHETRY: Taking shots at U.S. Military buildings around the nation's capital, there's been three of these incidents in the past two weeks. The latest is a shooting at a Marine Corps recruiting station. Is there a connection? We're live in Washington with the latest.
ROBERTS: And a new eye-opening study that every parent with a peewee football player should hear. Forget the big hits, a player's brain may be getting knocked around on every play. The results so stunning that the man who wrote the article for "Sports Illustrated" is having second thoughts about putting his child on the field again. He's going to join us along with the doctor who conducted the study later on this hour.
CHETRY: Up first, though, we talked about it yesterday on the show. A lot of warnings about what could be the worst storm we've seen in 70 years. Well, it was maybe the worst to hit the Midwest in decades. At least 24 possible tornadoes spawned, 10 confirmed right now. Many homes destroyed, and at least 200,000 people have no power. ROBERTS: It even caused 27-foot-high waves on the Great Lakes. And this giant storm system on the move right now unleashing on Tennessee and the Carolinas and leaving people stunned every step of the way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's that rare of an event.
ROBERTS (voice-over): Everyone has a storm they'll talk about for the rest of their lives. For many folks, from the Dakotas down through the south, this was it. Their hurricane, their nor'easter. It even had a name. The Chi-clone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It sounds just like a train like they say it does. And it just -- as fast as it came is as fast as it went.
ROBERTS: A historic storm stretching a staggering 1,200 miles from north to south that had it all. Hurricane-force winds, monsoon-like rain, blizzard warnings and tornadoes reported in at least seven states. This surveillance camera kept rolling inside one possible twister in Indiana as the tin roof came off a barn and a boat went airborne. Trees snapped and crushed cars in Kentucky. A rogue gust of wind tipped over a semi and tore off its roof in Michigan. And in Ohio, someone came home to find only half their house was there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were at work. Got a phone call that you better get out to your house, the roof's gone off of it. And I said, yes, right.
ROBERTS: Now, the dangerous storm is moving on, but thousands of fliers aren't as grounded airlines struggle to catch up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to leave today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Well, this is a giant storm system as we've said. It could unleash on the East Coast and it may have a few more severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in it.
Our Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center following all of it this morning. Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. You know, what was striking about this storm, not only the size, the intensity, and the amount of real estate it covered, the number of tornadoes that we have in such a wide range of states from Wisconsin all the way down to Alabama, but the speed in which it just moved across the U.S. These storms at one point moving between 70 and 80 miles an hour. You see as that severe weather rolled across the Appalachians.
Where is it now? Well, it is heading into the northeast. But as we said yesterday, much of the punch, at least the northern part of it has been lost. From New York to Philly to D.C., these are just kind of your run in the mill showers and thunderstorms, some of which will be heavy at times and certainly slowing down the morning rush. Where the severe weather threat is, though, right now is across the I- 85 corridor, from Richard back to Danville, Charlotte and Greenville. This is where we have the threat for seeing thunderstorms that may produce tornadoes and this tornado watch is in effect until 10:00 this morning. You see the back side of this front really hasn't rolled through just yet.
Look at the snow coming down across parts of the Dakotas. And we do have blizzard warnings up in through here. Just several -- just a few inches of rain, snowfall expected. Maybe as much as 10 in spots, but the blowing and the horizontal nature of which this is coming through is the big issue. And of course, that would include some wind.
We still have wind, watches and warnings for a good chunk of the Western Great Lakes, including Chicago, including Minneapolis. Winds through this morning and through this afternoon could still gust to 60 miles an hour. And this has nothing to do with a thunderstorm. This has just -- this is all about that strong, strong low pressure that either ranks one or two in the nation here as far as the history books are concerned. That's way up in Canada now. But so strong is it that the winds could still gust to 40 to 60 miles an hour throughout the afternoon today.
Certainly an impressive storm and definitely one from the record books. And we'll talk more about it and track that severe weather threat throughout the morning.
John and Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: Stakes are high and time is getting shorter. The candidates across the country, the marathon is now a sprint. There's just six days and counting before America votes, and as things heat up, "The Best Political Team on TV" will be bringing you the most comprehensive reporting on the issues and races that impact you.
ROBERTS: It's going to be a busy stretch run for President Obama. He has already voted filling out an Illinois absentee ballot in the West Wing of the White House yesterday. This weekend, he'll be stumping for Illinois Democrat Alexi Giannoulias when he makes his stop in his home state. He's also going to be in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and has just added Virginia to his itinerary. The president is going to be in Charlottesville on Friday to support struggling Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello.
CHETRY: Well, Frank Caprio, you remember him? He's the Democrat from Rhode Island who told President Obama to take his endorsement and really shove it is not backing down. Caprio debated independent former Republican Lincoln Chafee and Republican John Robitaille last night in the Rhode Island governor's race and he got slammed by his opponents for his tone with the president. Caprio though insisted he has nothing to apologize for.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK CAPRIO (D), RI GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: If it takes telling someone to shove it, I'm going to tell them to shove it because I'm going to fight for Rhode Islanders every day when I'm off of that state House.
JOHN ROBITAILLE (R), RI GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: This is either a man who is not mature enough or doesn't possess the temperament to make good decisions and act like a potential governor, or it's a petulant little child reacting to not getting his own way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: They seem to like it though. No word yet whether Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina will be able to resume campaigning in California today. She spent the night in the hospital. She's a breast cancer survivor and is being treated for an infection related to reconstructive surgery that she had back in July. "The Los Angeles Times," University of Southern California poll has the former Hewlett- Packard CEO trailing Democrat Barbara Boxer by eight points now.
CHETRY: Well, an Army investigation is now underway after a reporter in Alaska was handcuffed by private security guards. It happened at an event for Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller. Two of the guards are active-duty soldiers. And while it's not against Army rules for soldiers to take outside work, it's not clear whether both men had permission from their commander.
ROBERTS: Police said he quit his job, told co-workers he was throwing on the ground his guns and kill former President George W. Bush. The suspect, the 23-year-old from New York has been arrested. If convicted, he could get up to 10 years in prison.
CHETRY: Former First Lady Laura Bush getting some big laughs at a women's conference in California last night. Remember we talked to Maria Shriver yesterday about it. Well, she was speaking to 1,400 women. And Mrs. Bush joked about the surreal life of living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA BUSH, FORMER FIRST LADY: When you live in the White House, when you're a bobble head inside a bubble, reality can get a little warped. When you're married to the president of the United States, you don't worry too much about him leaving his wet towels on the floor. But in Dallas, things are different. Memo to the ex-president, turmoil in East Timor is no longer an excuse not to pick up your socks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Probably is a complete 180 from what it was like in the White House.
ROBERTS: I guess the ex-president is leaving a lot of things on the floor these days.
Well, this morning, the FBI is looking into a third shooting in a military facility. Is there a connection between them all? Chris Lawrence live from the Pentagon just ahead.
Seven minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Eleven minutes past the hour. The FBI is an opening an investigation into a string of shots fired at U.S. Military buildings. The latest happened sometime during the overnight hours yesterday. It was at a Marine Corps recruiting station in Virginia. The third incident in two weeks.
Our Chris Lawrence is live in Washington with more on this developing story. Anybody injured in any of these shots fired?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: No. Nobody injured, Kiran. And you know, right now, police and investigators in the FBI are now saying at least two of those three shootings were connected, and they're looking into the possibility that a third one at the recruiting station could also be connected, as well.
Let's back up a minute and tell you why they think that. The first shooting occurred basically at the National Museum of the Marine Corps that's out there sort of near Quantico, Virginia. That happened about 10 days ago. Then two days after that, someone took shots at the Pentagon. Several of the bullets lodged themselves into a window. Then, just about a day ago, also overnight, someone took shots at this recruiting depot. They're all up between 20, 30 miles apart, all accessible from the highway. Police have now determined that the same gun was used in the first two shootings. And right now, they're trying to match some of the ballistics to see if that third shooting was also connected, as well. And if it's one person out there or one group of people taking shots early in the morning.
CHETRY: Wow. Sounds like they have at least some leads to try to get to the bottom of it. There's another kind of curious story this morning. Over the weekend, the Air Force now confirming that they lost partial communications with nearly 50 nuclear missiles for the better part of an hour? What happened there?
LAWRENCE: Yes, this happened on Saturday. It happened out there at Warren Air Force Base out in Wyoming. Basically what happened was there was an equipment failure. One defense official said it had something to do with an underground cable. And basically what happened was the folks in their bunkers who normally communicate with those missiles, they lost that ability to communicate. Again, it lasted for about an hour. We're told that they never lost the ability to launch. Even, though those people lost the ability to communicate, some backup systems kicked in so that there was never a danger of say the missiles launching on their own, or that if the president needed to launch those missiles, you know, he still would have been able to from a different command.
But again, 50 missiles. There's about 450, so you're talking about one-ninth of the U.S. arsenal, and it was serious enough that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense were both notified of what had happened.
CHETRY: Wow. All right. Chris Lawrence for us this morning, thanks so much. Funny, because remember the retired Air Force?
ROBERTS: Oh, yes. I wonder if there were any UFO sightings.
CHETRY: Yes. He said it was UFOs.
ROBERTS: That was back in, what? '60 something?
CHETRY: He said that UFOs actually dismantled the communication system for a nuclear weapon.
ROBERTS: Maybe they were back. Who knows?
Other stories new this morning, the federal government putting educators on notice that they have a legal obligation to protect students from being bullied or harassed. In a new Obama administration guideline, schools that fail to properly deal with the problem could be cited for contributing to the violation of a student's federal civil rights and could risk cuts in federal funding.
CHETRY: A teenager in El Paso, Texas, charged with assault after police say a cell phone video shows him bullying a substitute teacher who happens to be a nun. In the footage, the 16-year-old seems to be taunting the teacher as she sits at her desk. Police say that the assault charge stems from the student throwing salt. There you see it in the nun's face.
ROBERTS: A federal judge orders a Mississippi school district to pay more than $81,000 in legal fees in a case involving a lesbian student prohibited from bringing her girlfriend to the prom. Constance McMillen (ph) sued to challenge the ban on same-sex prom dates. In response, the high school canceled its prom. Earlier this year, the school district agreed to pay $35,000 in damages and changed its policy.
CHETRY: Still ahead, marriage by e-mail. In this day in age, it's very easy to fire off e-mails to your loved one.
ROBERTS: More than one or two e-mails.
CHETRY: Exactly. We're talking to a woman who realized when her husband didn't write back, she had been sending him 20 e-mails a day on average, everything from what's for dinner to don't forget so and so has a soccer game tonight. Very surprised when he didn't write back.
She's going to join us to talk about why it may not be the best thing for marriage.
Fifteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Nineteen minutes past the hour.
You know, he's been Batman's butler, Scrooge and Dr. Emile Shuffhausen. Yesterday, I had a chance to sit down with Sir Michael Caine. Here's a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: What is it like to be known for such vastly different roles -
SIR MICHAEL CAINE, ACTOR AND AUTHOR: Well, you know -
CHETRY: -- by different generations?
CAINE: It was very funny - it was a funny scene the other day in Piccadilly, in - I was walking along Piccadilly, in London, and there was a group of about 12 Japanese girls, all about 14, 15 - all cute little Japanese girls. And, suddenly one looked at me and she went, "Alfred! Alfred!" And they all started going, "Alfred! Alfred!"
And I'm - and I'm standing there, signing, you know, this old man - but those young girls, they were going, what the hell are they asking him for? You know?
But when - but with autographs, there is a thing that happens is when - when you're very young, you get mothers asking you for autographs for their daughters. I now get daughters asking me for autographs for their mothers. There's a way for them (ph) - CHETRY: You know you made it.
CAINE: Yes. You - but Alfred, you know, I'm recognized by youngsters all over the place because I'm Alfred to Batman.
CHRISTIAN BALE, ACTOR, BATMAN: You've crossed the line.
CAINE: You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed him, you hammered him to the point of desperation. And, in that desperation, they turned to a man they didn't fully understand.
BALE: Criminals aren't complicated, Alfred.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: There it is.
I think it's funny because he talks about, you know, being recognized for "Alfie". He won an Academy Award for that years and years and years ago. And - and then he was just in "Inception" in 2010. So, you know, a career that just spans the decades.
ROBERTS: And - and there was a time when he thought kind of it's - it's over -
CHETRY: Oh, yes. In the mid-90s, he thought, well, I had a good run.
ROBERTS: And - and who was it who talked him back into it?
CHETRY: He said Jack Nicholson. He said very few think of Jack Nicholson as a fairy godmother, but he was his.
ROBERTS: There you go. Well, lucky for him. CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: I - I talked to him years ago. Gosh, I can't remember. It was a long time ago. But he's just such a pleasant person (INAUDIBLE) -
CHETRY: He is.
ROBERTS: -- isn't he?
CHETRY: He just - he talked to us for an hour. He would've stayed even longer. Just pleasant - just a good guy.
So we're going to hear a little bit more from him at 7:50. He talks about, you know, his latest ventures, how - how life has changed. And he also gives some advice for budding actors out there that's pretty funny.
ROBERTS: Well, looking forward to that, coming up a little bit later on this morning.
Meantime, forgive and forget. It seems that voters in Louisiana are willing to let bygones be bygones. Incumbent Republican Senator David Vitter with a double digit lead over his opponent.
We're live from New Orleans, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-four minutes past the hour right now.
You know the drill. You're at work. You remember you forgot to tell hubby something. Pick up your daughter. Pick up your son at daycare. Don't forget the dry cleaning. Hey, we're out of milk. So you fire off an e-mail.
Well, our next guest says that managing your marriage by e-mail might not always be a good thing. Paula Szuchman found that out when she sent 21 - yes, I had to double - I had to read that twice, Paula - that's a little - that's overkill, in one day. She finally called her husband because he didn't write back. Paula's a reporter for the "Wall Street Journal" and joins me now.
PAULA SZUCHMAN, REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Hi.
CHETRY: Hi, there. So 21 - was that a rare day for you? Twenty-one e-mails to your poor husband?
SZUCHMAN: I - I want to say it was, it probably wasn't. But it was a little bit of an outlier, yes.
CHETRY: So he didn't write back to any of them. What happened next?
SZUCHMAN: I just - at some point I called him and I said, hey, how come you didn't respond to any of my e-mails? And he said here's why. He sent me an e-mail with the image of his inbox said every single one of my e-mails is highlighted and said I just overload it. I have no idea where to start, so I just shut down. I couldn't deal with it.
CHETRY: We're going to hear from him, by the way. He's home via Skype right now because he's watching their baby.
But the interesting thing when you asked around and you talked to people. Because I also we all did our internal checks after reading your article.
SZUCHMAN: Right.
CHETRY: Probably e-mail back and forth 10 to 20 times a day and - and many people do that, as well. And you're right, from big things, you know, long-term -
SZUCHMAN: Right.
CHETRY: -- planning to little things, hey, did you check this article out? But what is the net effect of doing this?
SZUCHMAN: Well, it's - it's information overload, basically. I mean, you cannot overload your - this is what I learned. I should know this, I wrote a book about it, actually. But the more information you give to your spouse, the less likely they are to be able to process it. And it kind of just erodes the romance after a while. And you get home at the end of the day, you've been e-mailing all day, you've been texting all day, you've been calling all day. And it's like, you know, it's just too much.
CHETRY: There's nothing to look forward to?
SZUCHMAN: There's nothing to look forward to. Yes.
CHETRY: I thought it was interesting, because when you said that you - after this happened, you sort of did a gut check every time you were sending an e-mail. And you found there's a lot of things I don't even need to be e-mailing him about.
SZUCHMAN: Right. I don't need to e-mail him every single story I find interesting. I definitely don't need to re-e-mail him to see if he's gotten the last e-mail. That's a big no-no. And, you know, it gives us kind of something to talk about at the end of the day, you know?
CHETRY: The other interesting thing I realize is in - with this onset of social networking, this oversharing in general.
SZUCHMAN: Right.
CHETRY: I mean, you do lose a little bit of the mystique. If you can check the Twitter page -
SZUCHMAN: Right.
CHETRY: -- to see what your husband or -
SZUCHMAN: Right. CHETRY: -- wife is up to.
SZUCHMAN: Well, we actually, I mean, I wrote this post with "The Juggle" blog on the "Wall Street Journal" and the response was outrageous. I mean, people - first of all, people called me OCD. They call me neurotic. They felt - they felt sorry for my husband. But a lot of people said, you know, we have a policy of only sending one e-mail a day, a digest e-mail or a subject line that says time sensitive. Or just only calling if the house is on fire. That's it.
CHETRY: Got you.
Well, let's bring in Nivi right now. Nivi Nord is Paula's husband, so we can get the guy's perspective. The 21 e-mails, you just - you couldn't even write back to one of them. Nivi, what happened?
Can he hear me?
SZUCHMAN: I don't know.
CHETRY: Hi, Nivi. Can you hear me? He's a lot cuter in person, right? He doesn't look pixilated.
SZUCHMAN: Yes. He's actually pretty handsome for a sec.
CHETRY: You know, he's not responding to us right now.
SZUCHMAN: Oh, no. Too bad. Well, it's really - because I wasn't sure what he's going to say. His philosophy is basically you don't actually need to share everything that's in your head and I think it's a good policy.
CHETRY: It is interesting that you also liken this to what happens when a couple fights and you talk about how you sort of do this download dump of every transgression they've ever committed -
SZUCHMAN: Right. Right.
CHETRY: - for the past month, week, whatever the time frame may be. And is it a guy thing? I mean, do you see it more of a guy thing with the glazed over look and, you know, you've lost them?
SZUCHMAN: Well, in the reporting of this book (INAUDIBLE) are released - economic principles and we apply them to your marriage on how to improve it, we talked to a lot of women who did say they do things like information dumping, flooding their husbands, and a lot of guys who said, you know, I can't handle five phone calls from my wife during the day.
I hate the gender stereotype, but unfortunately in some cases it seems to be true. There was even woman on the blog yesterday who said my husband says the reason we've been married so long is because I don't talk as much as other women. Now, if the men need to talk a little bit more, but I do think women can gut check themselves, like you said, sometimes and it's probably a good idea.
CHETRY: We have your husband back, by the way.
SZUCHMAN: Oh, OK.
CHETRY: Nivi joins us this morning. He's doing some babysitting duty that's why he's not here. What was it like receiving throughout the day those 21 e-mails? Nivi, what was going through your head?
NIVI NORD, PAULA'S HUSBAND: Well, there's a certain point where I just stopped looking, I think. The first couple, I was like I was reading and kind of watching and gradually as - as paralysis set in, I shift to, you know, pretend they don't exist mode.
CHETRY: You said that - this actually ended up with a happy ending, right? Because she sort of realized what she was doing and now you guys have a much better time communicating.
NORD: Yes. And we were able to laugh about it. That's - I think that's one thing that we do pretty well in our marriage that we're - we're able to laugh about incidences like this. But, yes, I mean, I'm actually not sure what - what actual changes Paula has made in her e- mailing pattern.
CHETRY: Well, she made it seem like she - she was changing.
SZUCHMAN: Yes. What about the Derek Jeter e-mail?
CHETRY: That's funny. We have to leave it on this note, which I think is hilarious.
You said if you really want to make sure your guy reads an e-mail, put - did you hear about Derek Jeter in the subject line. That's a guarantee it will get read.
SZUCHMAN: It does every time.
CHETRY: The book is interesting, too - "Spousenomics" (ph). Paula Szuchman and Nivi Nord, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
SZUCHMAN: Thank you.
CHETRY: A lot of people can relate, I'm sure.
SZUCHMAN: Thanks, Nivi.
NORD: Yes.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: Boy, are you in trouble also gets people's attention.
Crossing the half hour, that means it's time for this morning's top stories.
An intense storm belting the Midwest with hurricane force wind gust and 24 possible tornadoes. Many travelers are hoping to get moving this morning after the wind grounded hundreds of flights at O'Hare alone yesterday.
A bizarre string of events in Belize after a hurricane slammed the region. A jaguar escaped from its cage in an animal rescue center and mauled an American man. A tree fell on top of the cage. The jaguar broke out. The cat still has not been recaptured.
And a federal appeals court overturning part of the controversial Arizona immigration law. The court struck down a requirement that residents prove U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. Residents still have to show identification before voting. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer blasted the decision, calling it an outrage and a slap in the face to Arizonans who care about the integrity of elections.
(MUSIC)
ROBERTS: Well, the clock is ticking. Americans go to the polls in just six days now, and the stakes are high.
CHETRY: Yes, particularly in Louisiana where the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Charlie Melancon, is hardly making a dent against Republican David Vitter. In fact, in a recent poll for WWL-TV in New Orleans, Vitter has a 12-point lead.
Our Brianna Keilar is live this morning in New Orleans.
So, it's a big debate tonight. Hopefully, at least for Charlie Melancon, he's hoping to make a dent in these numbers.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He's hoping so. This is the first live debate, Kiran and John, here in Louisiana.
And this is such an interesting race because you can actually ask the question, is it better to be a Democrat in Louisiana or a family- values Republican linked to a prostitution ring? And the answer may surprise you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR (voice-over): Just how tough of a year is it to be a Democrat? Take a look at the Senate race in conservative Louisiana. You've got Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon, who touts his votes against Democratic priorities, including health care reform and the cap-and-trade energy bill. He also opposed President Obama's moratorium on drilling off the Gulf Coast.
Melancon is challenging incumbent Republican Senator David Vitter, who you might remember from this 2007 press conference.
SEN. DAVID VITTER (R), LOUISIANA: I want to again offer my deep, sincere apologies to all those I have let down and disappointed with these actions from my past.
KEILAR: That was his vague apology after being linked to a prostitution ring, one by the so-called D.C. Madame, Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Three years later, Vitter is up in the polls over his Democratic challenger -- even as Melancon takes Vitter to task for his alleged indiscretion.
REP. CHARLIE MELANCON (D), LOUISIANA SENATE CANDIDATE: It's hard for me to believe -- because I grew up in a house with three sisters, no brothers -- that those same women are going to go to the poll and pull the lever for David Vitter, who is the antithesis of what they're preaching to their children every day.
KEILAR: The ad Melancon is running features a New Orleans prostitute who alleges Vitter was her client.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WENDY CORTEZ AKA WENDY ELLIS: He went in. Took a shower, spoke very little to me at first. He did his thing. He wasn't there 15- 20 minutes at that. I was $300.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Pretty shocking stuff. And Vitter has called it a desperate act by Melancon to distract from his own record. But talk to Louisiana voters, and many of them just don't care.
ROBIN FALCON, LOUISIANA VOTER: That's between him and his wife.
KEILAR (on camera): Even though he ran on family values, it doesn't affect how you feel about him at all?
FALCON: Well, his opinion might be on family values, but he just didn't follow it. But it's between him and his wife.
KEILAR (voice-over): Many who see past Vitter's apparent hypocrisy told they can't see past Melancon's party affiliation.
Stephen Sabludowsky is a political blogger here in Louisiana.
STEPHEN SABLUDOWSKY, PUBLISHER, BAYOUBUZZ.COM: Charlie Melancon is wearing the albatross of President Obama around his neck. It's just going to be and is an uphill battle.
KEILAR: Vitter, who denied multiple requests from CNN for an interview, is running ads that tie Melancon to Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: Charlie Melancon, he's voted for Obama's endless bailouts, reckless budgets, and trillion-dollar stimulus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Melancon told me that he's been down before in state and federal races where he's managed to pull it off on Election Day. But guys, that latest poll, 12 percent down from Senator Vitter according to the WWL poll, that is a widespread and certainly, even Democrats say, if Melancon were to pull this off, it would be one of the biggest upsets of this election cycle -- John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: It really is interesting, though, isn't it, Brianna, the degree to which many people just don't care about David Vitter's peccadilloes?
KEILAR: Yes. They just don't care and what you heard that woman say, I can't tell you how many times we heard that from people there in Houma, Louisiana, which is south of New Orleans, outside of this more liberal area. And they just said it's between him and his wife.
And when you talk to, you know, Melancon, you talk to some Democrats, they say there's kind of a double standard, that there are Republican voters who didn't feel that way, for instance, about Bill Clinton. But certainly, they're looking the other way. And as one Democrat even told me, but wouldn't go on camera, said he thinks a lot of people maybe even, him included, will hold his nose to vote for Senator Vitter.
CHETRY: Well, when you're worried about pocketbook issues, sometimes you're not as concerned about it.
ROBERTS: (SPEAKING FRENCH)
Brianna, thanks so much.
Make sure to join "The Best Political Team on Television" all next week. AMERICAN MORNING will be on an hour early Monday and Tuesday. We'll be starting at 5:00 a.m. and we'll be starting at 3:00 a.m., three hours early on Wednesday morning to bring you all of the results of the election.
Well, football concussions. It seems that now even a small hit on the football field, one that you wouldn't even think would be a problem, could be big reason for concern when it comes to head injuries, particularly among young people. We've got the results of a surprising new study coming right up. This you're going to want to see.
It's 36 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Thirty-nine and a half minutes after the hour.
It's a new study that any mom or dad with a peewee football player really wants to hear -- so stunning that you might want to think twice about sending them on the field again.
We've seen how big devastating single hits can change the rest of the player's life, and we know about the NFL's crackdown on those plays, those illegal hits. And we've seen a lot of those in recent weeks.
But now, experts on traumatic brain injuries are warning that smaller hits, tackles that you see on every player, even the linemen colliding into each other, the ones that get up from each and every time, could cause just as much damage to the brain over time.
It's part of "Sports Illustrated's" special reports on concussions.
And joining us now is "S.I.'s" David Epstein and Dr. Steven Flanagan, professor and chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the NYU Medical Center.
Great to talk to you this morning.
This really is fascinating, because, David, we all thought that it was these devastating hits, these major concussive impacts that were the real problem with football. But this study found out it's on a much lower level than that.
How did they test? And what did they find out?
DAVID EPSTEIN, STAFF WRITER, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: Well, they were testing -- they wanted to look at concussions, right? Not these little hits. And so they put accelerometers that would measure forces in the helmets of a group of high school players with the goal of seeing how hard that hits had to be to cause concussion, what the effect would be.
And what they found was that the kids were having problems on these neurocognitive tests were kids who were not taking the big hits, but kids who are taking lots of kind of middling hits to the kind of front of their forehead area.
ROBERTS: All right. So, these neurocognitive tests, Dr. Flanagan, explain that for us. What were the effects that were seen in the testing? And was this frightening to you?
DR. STEVEN FLANAGAN, NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Yes, actually, it really was. So, not surprisingly, the kids who were concussions had these problems
ROBERTS: Sure.
FLANAGAN: -- with cognition, with their thinking.
ROBERTS: Yes. Your head gets smacked around, the brain kind of bounces around inside the skull.
FLANAGAN: What was surprising, though, was that these kids who took a lot of hits repeatedly over the season, they also had cognitive tests, and when we put them in the FMRI machine to see what areas of brain were active during these tests --
ROBERTS: We should just say FMRI is functional MRI. You look at the brain's operation in real time.
FLANAGAN: That's exactly right. Those abnormalities were similar to the kids who have concussions, as well. Yet, they were flying under the radar. No one knew that they had problems.
ROBERTS: So, they were never symptomatic.
FLANAGAN: No, they were not symptomatic. They weren't detected by anybody.
ROBERTS: Right. That's amazing.
So, David, is there a particular group of player that's particularly at risk here?
EPSTEIN: Yes, it was -- it looked to be linemen, because these were the kids who were taking about 150 hits a week or so, and their impairment correlated best with the number of hits they took that week, generally regardless of the magnitude. So, it looks like these linemen kind of just butting heads, you know, not necessarily the hit where guys are lining for 20 hour and crashing into each other.
ROBERTS: So, just in that fraction of a second where, you know, the ball is snapped and the linemen come together like that, that's enough?
EPSTEIN: Right. I mean, run blocking, high school kids are taught to run block because you put three points of contact on the defender, hand, hand and your forehead. So, any time there's a running play, you're looking to put your head on somebody.
ROBERTS: So, you know, when we talk about accelerometers here measuring g-forces. What was the scope of the impact that these kids were experiencing?
FLANAGAN: Well, I think it was not only just the impact but the number of impacts they were having. So, with accelerometers not only measure but also provided a precise number of impacts they had over the course of the season. And that's what really correlated with the degree of cognitive dysfunction.
ROBERTS: Right. But, David, weren't they finding that they were taking tremendous impacts at what most people would think would be relatively low speeds that wouldn't have much effect?
EPSTEIN: Yes. So, I mean, they even found actually higher than they thought magnitudes 80 to 100 Gs for just head butts, like celebratory head butts. Those are probably be left out. But based on NFL-sponsored literature, they thought they were going to see concussions at everything over 80 Gs, they saw 289 Gs in one case and the kid was concussed.
ROBERTS: We want to put some really interesting graphics on our big wall here, because it really tells the tale. This is a functional MRI that we were talking about. We can get those up here.
The orange measures brain activity. And you can see in the preseason, there's lots of orange in the functional MRI representing a lot of brain activity. In season, it starts to decline. By the end of in-season two, you're seeing that there's very little activity in some of the orange. In the post-season, it seems to come back a little bit. Dr. Flanagan, is that an indication that the brain can heal itself? Or will there be lasting damage from these things?
FLANAGAN: Well, we really don't know if there's going to be lasting damage or not. I think it's encouraging that some of these tests return to a baseline. But the repeated concussions or repeated blows, over the course of time, we don't know what impact that's going to have. But we do know, for instance, in boxers who get repeatedly hit, they do have problems later on in life. So, it will be interesting to see what happens.
ROBERTS: So, David, we know that these helmets can protect these players against the big hits. But recent studies have shown that they don't protect them against the little hits. So, what can be done?
EPSTEIN: It's difficult. There's no perfect helmet, right? Because it's that glancing billiard ball effect that stops people from getting spinal injuries that causes the brain -- you know, the head to shake around to the side. So limiting the number of hits is kind of one of the best recommendations I came up with because when they saw kids who were getting 50 hits a week, those kids weren't showing impairments. But the kids who were having 150 hits a week were.
In the NFL, you see there's not much contact in practice. Maybe high school should start moving that way.
ROBERTS: Now, David, I know you played football in high school. You don't have children yet.
But based on what you've seen here in this study, would you let your son or daughter play football?
EPSTEIN: I love football, but I'm at the point where I think I'd tend to doubt it because even if they're -- even if they return to baseline every year and there's no lasting impairment, you're talking about a kid that has to go to school. So, I don't even want temporary impairment if it's my kid.
ROBERTS: Doctor?
FLANAGAN: I would say running's a very nice sport.
ROBERTS: Really? So, you'd caution people to stay away from football based on these results?
STEVEN: I think we need to see more results before we make broad recommendations, but I think that these results are concerning, and they really do need to be repeated.
ROBERTS: Wow. Certainly a point of discussion going forward. Thanks so much for coming in.
EPSTEIN: Thanks for having us.
ROBERTS: Really great to have you.
FLANAGAN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Coming up on 45 minutes past the hour, we're going to be joined by Rob Marciano. He's tracking that major storm that hit the Midwest that's heading the east now. How would it affect this morning's travel forecast? We're going to get details right after the break.
Also, coming up in ten minutes, it really looks like something from the Jetson's, a flying car? A look at one Florida man's intention to revolutionize the way we get around.
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CHETRY: Just got out of the elevator. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's 66 degrees outside. And as you can see with our shot of Columbus Circle, it's a little wet out there, as well. It's going to be a high of 70 today in New York, but they are expecting thunderstorms as that big storm that we've been talking about from the Midwest heads east.
ROBERTS: They used to play music in the elevator. Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano in the Extreme Weather Center. The rain sort of arrived about 3:00 a.m. here. What's the rest of the day going to be like?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Lucky for you guys, the storm system, the center of it is definitely not close. It's moved up across the Great Lakes into Southern Canada. This thing just bombed out yesterday becoming the lowest pressure recorded from a non- tropical system in the lower 48 and the winds cranking around this certainly representing that kind of intensity. Greenfield, Indiana, 77-mile-an-hour wind gusts, Sherwood, Wisconsin, Monroe, Indiana 75, Mackinaw, Illinois 70 and Union Center, South Dakota, 70.
That not even a thunderstorm wind gust. So, we had some of these winds that were from thunderstorms, some just from the actual center itself. I want to show you some video from Kentucky to Ohio, parts of Indiana. I mean, it's just so widespread is the damage from this. So many trees down. Huge decades-old trees taken down, and it's a wonder that not more people were hurt from this system.
As far as where it is right now, we do have severe weather this morning. So, I want to run through that. Talladega and Claiborne Counties in Eastern Central Alabama, this is a tornado warning indicated by Doppler radar, moving much slower than yesterday's storms because it's so far south to the east northeast of about 35 miles an hour. This actually not even within the tornado watch that the storm prediction center has issued. This watch along the I-85 corridor in effect until 10:00 this morning.
So, that's where we think the majority of the severe weather is going to be. D.C., Philly, and New York, a little bit of wind, definitely some rain over the next couple of hours will slow down your travel both on the ground and in the air. Farther to the west from Chicago up through Milwaukee and Minneapolis, winds still could gust 40 to 60 miles an hour at the center of this thing.
You saw it on the satellite picture, still pretty close and still very, very, very strong. And the backside of this could see some snow about that. Blizzard warnings up for parts of North Dakota. Here it is on the radar. Yes, a little bit of white on the scope. Bismarck and Jamestown, shouldn't see a ton of snow pile up, but just enough to say, hey, even though it's not November 1st yet, we got winter coming close.
Here you go. So, New York, Philly, a lot of air traffic delays today. Chicago and Minneapolis, we'll probably see some because of the rain and the snow and the wind there. And here's your cool air. 50 in Denver, 41 in Minneapolis, and 69 degrees in New York City. You'll get out of the rain later on today and looks like the northeast was spared from this beast of storm, just like (ph) everybody else or maybe about a third of the population of the U.S. saw some taste of this thing as now it rolls up into Canada. John and Kiran back up to you.
ROBERTS: It was a big one, no question. When it comes to the barometric pressure, if that were a tropical system, what would it have correlated to?
MARCIANO: Well, you know, lower pressures like that in the tropics will correlate to higher wind speeds. So, it would be the equivalent of a cat three category hurricane. But that far north is not quite that. We certainly had winds to a cat one hurricane here across the Midwest. So, that's something to brag about for the folks there.
ROBERTS: Incredible.
CHETRY: Devastating in some areas, man. All right. Rob, thanks so much.
MARCIANO: All right. You bet.
CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, our top stories, including hacking the vote. Students put D.C.'s new internet voting system to the test. They say they can pick it like a cheap lock. We're going to find out why.
ROBERTS: And he's been nominated by an Oscar in every decade since the 1960s. Kiran talks to Hollywood royalty, Michael Caine, about his new memoir and a half century in Hollywood. Those stories and more coming your way beginning at the top of the hour.
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CHETRY: The car of the future is here. It gets about 30 miles a gallon on the road, but get this, 5 gallons per hour in the air.
ROBERTS: It's the work of a visionary missionary. Our Kate Bolduan's got a closer look at this car. It can be driven, flown, even floated, in this morning's "Edge of Discovery."
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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We've all dreamed of a flying car, but Steve Saint, a Florida missionary --
STEVE SAINT, I-TEC: We could probably get you flying this by noon.
BOLDUAN: Really?
SAINT: Really.
BOLDUAN: He's making it a reality.
SAINT: Anybody who's ever been in a traffic jam, anybody who's ever been some place where, you know, trying to get out of the parking lot at Disney has thought about, you know, if I could just fly, and this one will.
BOLDUAN: It's called the Maverick. On land, zero to 60 in under four seconds. By air, it glides at 40 miles per hour. The first of its kind to get FAA approval. Its biggest success, it's intuitive.
SAINT: For driving, you have a steering wheel and a brake and accelerator just like an automatic car.
BOLDUAN: Just like a car.
SAINT: Which you probably have.
BOLDUAN: Yes.
SAINT: Now, when you're going to fly, you see this one little button that says fly?
BOLDUAN: Yes.
SAINT: All you do to fly is you flip this up.
BOLDUAN: What is the biggest selling point of the Maverick versus another type of hybrid machine?
SAINT: There is no other machine that will do what this one will. There is no other car that will fly and go on water and go on snow.
BOLDUAN: Saint and his crew at I-Tec, a non-profit organization, developed the Maverick in part to solve a transportation riddle for frontier areas like the Amazon in Ecuador where Saint grew up. What do you do when the road ends?
SAINT: What we're doing here at I-Tec is we're reinventing the technology so it fits the people so that they don't have to become like us.
BOLDUAN: The next step, commercial production. Look for a flying car to be coming soon to a garage near you. Kate Bolduan, CNN, Dunnellon, Florida.
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ROBERTS: And there she is taking off.
CHETRY: I mean, it's just a problem. Where do you land? I mean, if you're going to be able to fly over a traffic jam. Let's say you're going to cross the Bronx, where do you land then?
ROBERTS: On the white stone bridge.
CHETRY: I think you might get in trouble for that. I don't know.
ROBERTS: I love it. It's just got one little toggle switch that says fly. Very high-tech.
Top stories coming your way right after the break. Stay with us.
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