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American Morning
Going Nuclear in Wisconsin; France Recognizes Libyan Rebels; Michigan's Fennville High School Basketball Team Advances to District Finals; Rep. King Set to Hold Muslim Hearings on Muslim Extremism in America; Forbes' Rich List; Wisconsin Senate Vote; Hummingbird Drones; Dalai Lama Steps Away from Spotlight; Rumors of the Royal Wedding Cake
Aired March 10, 2011 - 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: On this AMERICAN MORNING, reeling in New Orleans. Three tornadoes touched down yesterday. Two inches of rain fell each hour, and now they're bracing for severe flooding in the northeast this morning.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Also, a stunning turn of events in Wisconsin. Republicans find a way to strip unions of most collective bargaining rights even without Senate Democrats. We're live in Madison.
CHETRY: And just a day after burying their fallen teammate with an entire nation pulling for them, Michigan's Fennville High School wins again, advancing to the district finals. They'll play for the title tomorrow with their sixth man looking down on them.
HOLMES: Also, a four-time Oscar nominee is going rogue. One of Hollywood's biggest stars is set to play Sarah Palin. And we will tell you who on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, hey there, everybody. Good morning to you all. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING for this Thursday, March 10th. I'm T.J. Holmes.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us.
We're following major developments this morning in Wisconsin in the standoff between the governor and Senate Democrats there. We'll have more on that coming up in just a moment.
First, though, we begin with destruction in the Deep South after a band of severe tornadoes and thunderstorms rolled through the Gulf Coast. There was extensive damage in suburban Mobile, Alabama. This is from an apparent tornado that touched down. Homes and stores are wrecked. Roofs ripped right off. One witness called it 30 seconds of pure hell. Four people were treated for minor injuries.
HOLMES: Also, just outside of New Orleans, just east, reportedly three tornadoes, three hit there. You can see the damage that was done. At least one woman had to be treated for minor injuries. And listen now to the people describe the scene from last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard a big boom and next thing I knew, there was a tree through my bedroom.
I jumped up and I saw the ceiling starting to kind of cave in so I wanted to get out of the house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And like at 6:30, my doorbell started ringing. And I come out and looked and all I can see is storming and wind blowing. The wind was blowing that hard. It was ringing my doorbell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Also, flooding to tell you about in gulf states, Alabama, and parts of Mississippi as well. They are dealing with flood warnings today.
CHETRY: And the threat of flooding has parts of northern New Jersey under a state of emergency this morning. If you look at the pictures, this is from the last storm that rolled in Sunday through Monday. And now, they're expecting more of the same today. People are still trying to recover from this deluge. That combined with the snowmelt and more rain in the forecast has people along the Delaware and Passaic Rivers bracing for the worst. In some communities, they actually had prisoners helping in the sandbagging effort to try to prevent more flooding.
HOLMES: All right. Let's turn to Rob Marciano and say good morning to him for the first time.
Rob, rough night. Still, the danger not over for some parts, at least some of this flooding?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, you know, this storm has so much moisture with it, and it's all transporting north and eastward and it's slow moving. So you've got kind of a double whammy with this thing as far as where it's going to go and how much rain it's going to dump.
Let's look at the history of it as far as how much rain has come down, over seven inches in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. Alexandria, in the central part of the state, over seven inches as well. Seven inches in Meridian. Unbelievable stuff. Even Chattanooga seeing over -- over three inches. Widespread flooding across the south and this is going to continue across the northeast, as far as where this moisture is headed.
Look at all, they're coming to the northeast right now. And it really just started. The heaviest now in Pennsylvania that will be sliding off to the east and getting over the areas that you mentioned. The perennial flood areas along the Passaic River which are going to see the waters rise today, as we could see two, three and four inches of rain. HOLMES: Sorry, we lost our Rob Marciano there. We'll check back in with him in Atlanta. But, of course, a lot going on as far as weather goes here. So we'll check back in with him.
Also, another story, we'll get to this in just a moment as well. Happening in Madison. But a major development. Nobody was really expecting this.
CHETRY: This was an amazing turn of events last night, yesterday afternoon actually, where -- what basically happened is the Senate Republicans made a legislative end run around the Democrats. They passed a bill to strip the collective bargaining rights from public unionized workers without needing that two-thirds majority that they had needed. Democrats fled the state, as you remember, three weeks ago to prevent this vote. The GOP, though, employed a so-called "nuclear option" and they were able to push it through.
CNN's Ed Lavandera is live for us in Madison, Wisconsin, right now with more on how all this went down and what's been a pretty virulent reaction to it as well.
Hi, Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran and T.J. It was an amazing night here last night at the Madison, Wisconsin, capital as word started trickling out around 4:00 Central Time that Republicans were going to hold a committee hearing meeting and bring this new version of the bill to the Senate floor and vote on it. And several thousand protesters quickly descended here on the capitol last night.
It was a tense situation outside of the committee room, which only had room to hold about 20 people. Several thousand people inside the capitol chanting "you lie, shame on you." It was intense as officers were blocking the entrances into the Senate chambers and into that committee hearing room. It was a very cramped area and it was incredibly chaotic as all this quickly passed. But essentially what happened is, you have the Republicans through technicalities of what they say they're able to do legally is strip away the nonfinancial issues that were part of this budget repair bill. And just voted on the collective bargaining issue and also increases to help insurance and pension funds as well. So because of that, they were able to vote on just those aspects of the bill and it passed through 18-1. And there were several hundred, maybe, probably maybe even 1,000, 2,000 people outside the capitol that remained here throughout the late- night hours last night protesting this.
It was an incredible scene as all of this has unfolded. And now it moves to the assembly side of the legislature. And we anticipate here, perhaps even today or within tomorrow at least that this bill will end up on the governor's desk -- Kiran and T.J.
CHETRY: So a couple of questions, number one, will this survive a court challenge? Because I know the Senate Democrats have threatened that, you know, they're going to take this all the way to court. Secondly, if this was something they could have done, why wait three weeks? LAVANDERA: Well, the Republicans are saying, look, we wanted to give the Democrats a chance to come to the table. And that's -- they said that that was just not going to happen, so they decided to go down that way. That's what they were saying last night.
As far as the court challenge, Democrats and a lot of these union leaders here are saying that this vote was essentially held illegally, that they did not give enough time and enough heads-up that this committee hearing was going to take place and ran this through in their words as quickly as they did, that they should have had a lot more notice. So they will be talking that up extensively and challenging, perhaps, the outcome of this law in the courts. We'll still -- you know, we'll probably get a better sense of how that's going to play out throughout the day, as people start kind of figuring out what to do next.
CHETRY: Yes, absolutely.
Ed Lavandera for us in Madison this morning. Thanks so much.
Also coming up at 6:30 Eastern, we're going to be speaking with Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach who is still in Chicago. Debated whether or not to come back for this vote. We're going to talk to him about what's the next step is for Democrats.
HOLMES: Let's turn now to give you an update on what's happening in Libya and what's seen as a big boost for the rebels there. According to Reuters, France will recognize the Libyan National Council as the sole representative of the Libyan people and not Colonel Moammar Gadhafi.
Meanwhile, Gadhafi's forces, they have launched fresh attacks on Ras Lanuf. That is a very important oil-rich city that is now controlled by rebels. This is a place where we saw that oil storage tank there. It was apparently hit and saw this huge explosion. But it's still not clear which side was responsible for this.
CHETRY: Government could shut down next week if lawmakers don't reach a budget agreement. I know it seems that we talk about this every couple of weeks, but it's again the case.
Yesterday, the Senate voted down two competing spending bills. It rejected a House Republican bill that would have cut $61 billion from the budget. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the bill, quote, "mean-spirited." Republicans blasted the failed Democrat bills as, quote, "meager," and said that their proposed cuts did not go deep enough. So negotiations continue and if a plan isn't reached by Friday, the government will begin a shutdown.
HOLMES: Well, just a day after having to bury their fallen teammate, Michigan's Fennville High School basketball team advances to the district finals. They beat Bangor High School 79-50 last night. You see them wearing those t-shirts. They never forgot wearing their fallen teammate's number and his name on the back. But they played a pretty good game. Clearly blew out these other teams. Their second straight win since the death of junior Wes Leonard. He collapsed and died on the court last week after scoring a game-winning bucket that gave his team a perfect record for the regular season. And once again, last night, another emotional night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IVAN GONZALEZ, FENNVILLE HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: It just goes to show how big of a person he was. You know, he was -- he was a very humble player on the court and school, and he was a funny guy. You know, a lot of these schools recognized him for that, for being humble, for just the great guy that he was. And, I mean, I'm thankful that they're showing that respect for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And listen to this, the young man who replaced Wes Leonard in the starting lineup, Xavier Grigg, actually scored 25 points last night after being put into that starting lineup. They will play now on Friday for the Class C championship. That's the district championship. The opposing coach said it felt like playing six against five in that game last night.
CHETRY: Good luck to them. It's a tough time and they're doing a great job through it all.
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: An update is expected tomorrow morning on the condition of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Doctors at the Houston hospital where she's undergoing rehabilitation have scheduled a news conference for 11:00 a.m. Eastern. Doctors say that Giffords is continuing to improve. Giffords was, of course, shot in the head, you may remember January 8th. Six people were also killed in that attack and 13 others injured.
HOLMES: And the man accused in that shooting, Jared Lee Loughner, he is pleading not guilty to all 49 charges, including murder and attempted murder. He did enter a plea in federal court yesterday. The judge also scheduled a competency hearing for May 25th. He says he wants to make sure that Loughner is able to assist in his own defense. If convicted, Loughner could face the death penalty.
CHETRY: Well, the CEO of National Public Radio is stepping down amid the latest controversy. Vivian Schiller announced her resignation yesterday. Now her departure comes after the release of an undercover video in which a former NPR executive calls the Tea Party racist and scary. He also said that the NPR -- that NPR would be better off without federal funding, something its leadership strongly denounces.
Well, a Canadian family is taking care of five newborn lambs, after their mother gave birth to quintuplets earlier this week. Cherry is somewhat of a prolific mother and that she's already given birth to triplet and she's a triplet herself. Female lambs usually give birth to either single lambs or twins. Four of the five lambs are said to be strong and healthy. And the father lamb has a new nickname "stud muffin."
HOLMES: OK.
CHETRY: She does all the work and he gets the nickname. That's fair.
HOLMES: Even applies to lamb. All right.
Well, coming up here, it's something we are keeping a close eye on. It's been reported about plenty this week and we're going see this in the next several hours come up.
Hearing on Capitol Hill that some are calling similar to the McCarthy hearings we saw some 60 years ago in this country. Others are saying this is a matter of national security. It comes when Peter King holding those hearings on Muslim extremism in America. Our Dana Bash will be live for us in just a moment.
CHETRY: And they're making a movie about a big political book "Game Change." Well, one of Hollywood's biggest stars is set to play Sarah Palin in that new flick. So we'll let you know who landed the role, coming up.
HOLMES: Also, a lot of people are familiar with the drones that are used in Afghanistan and Pakistan, like the one you're seeing there. But the military now working on a much smaller version of the spy planes.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Unmanned drones the size of a small bird. It's fact (ph), not fiction.
I'm Chris Lawrence in Southern California. And I'll have that story coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: It's now 13 minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
New York Congressman Peter King, his much anticipated and highly controversial hearings are set to start in just a bit. 9:30 Eastern Time this morning. These hearings, of course, spark so much controversy because they're about the radicalization of Muslims in this country and the Muslim community's response to it.
Our Dana Bash is live with us in Washington this morning with a preview of what we're going to see.
Dana, good morning.
DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
HOLMES: It's hard to imagine that with all the controversy and so much that has been sparked leading up to it, are they actually going to deliver the controversy, if you will, that so many think that it might?
BASH: Peter King insists you just wait, it won't. But you know, I've got to tell you I've been covering Congress for a long time. I don't remember the last time an anticipated hearing caused this much controversy and stirred up this much anger and emotion.
The Homeland Security chairman we were just talking about, Peter King, he says he's simply trying to start a public dialogue that even top administration officials say is a huge concern, and that is the radicalization of Muslims here in America. But King flat-out says he doesn't care if it's politically correct.
Now the main witnesses that we're going to see that he has invited are family members of American citizens who were inspired to get into terrorism. And also a Muslim-American who will likely talk about the culture of his community that allows radicalization to happen.
Now, T.J., last night, eight Democrats who are on this committee wrote King asking him to cancel the hearing, saying it to narrowly singles out the Muslim community. And listen to the attorney general, Eric Holder. He took a not so swipe at King for holding this hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We don't want to stigmatize. We don't want to alienate entire communities. We need to focus on individuals or groups of individuals, who might band together and who would try to harm American interests or American citizens. That is what this Justice Department is doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, I spoke with Congressman King last night to get a response to this. He insists he does not want to demonize the Muslim-American community. But he also said, "Look, if my job is to look for radicalization from al Qaeda, where else am I going to look?" That was effectively what he said.
Now, T.J., one of the issues that King says really drives him a report that he says he gets from his friends in the law enforcement community at home in New York and around the country that Muslims leaders are not helping to root out terrorist suspects. But Holder and other enforcement officials dismissed that. They say they've gotten tips that have had disrupt terror plots.
And, you know, King says that that's the public line. Privately, he hears something different. And that those are the kinds of things that he wants to explore by talking to people in the Muslim community or people who are at least close to the Muslim community today.
HOLMES: Well, we shall see. Highly anticipated. We'll see what happens, though. 9:30, Eastern Time. Just a few hours from now.
Dana Bash, we know you'll be covering that for us. We'll be seeing you plenty throughout today on CNN. Thanks so much. And -
BASH: Thanks, T.J.
HOLMES: -- one person who will be testifying is Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison. He's the only Muslim member of Congress. He will be here with us on AMERICAN MORNING in just a bit. Also, keep it tuned to CNN at CNN.com. We'll have extensive coverage of the Peter King Muslim extremism hearings. You can see those all day long and that coverage all day long right here on CNN - Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, T.J. Thanks.
Well, four-time Oscar-nominee Julianne Moore has landed her next role, and it's an interesting one. She's going be portraying Sarah Palin. A new HBO film about the 2008 presidential election, it's an adaptation of the best-selling book "Game Change." Jay Roche has been tapped to direct the film. He directed "Meet the Parents". No other cast members have been announced yet.
One of the hottest politicians in America is apparently sexy, too. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie held a town hall meeting last night to discuss health care and pension reform. And the loudest ovation of the evening came when a woman in the audience called him smart, hot and sexy. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I'm going to ask you before you leave here to write a note to my wife. I tell her that things like this come up with these meetings and it was our 25th anniversary yesterday. So - so, see, comments like that after 25 years will keep her on her toes. She wouldn't take me - she wouldn't take me for granted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: He seemed very happy about that.
HOLMES: Well, it's funny.
CHETRY: All right. Well, on a more serious note, Christie told the audience that he wants public workers to pay 30 percent of their health care premiums, instead of contributing 1.5 percent of their salary, which is, I guess, the case now in New Jersey.
HOLMES: And he does. He has that effect on women. Remember, we had him in studio, and I had to do the interview because you couldn't control yourself.
CHETRY: Is that why?
HOLMES: That's why. We understood, Kiran. Just looking out for you.
Well, television advertising in schools. Toronto lawmakers now, they're trying to make a big decision or had made a big decision about expanding a controversial program into 72 schools across the city.
CHETRY: And "Forbes" magazine now with its annual list of the world's richest people, it includes a record number of billionaires, including that familiar face.
Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Twenty-one minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good news here, Christine. Foreclosures feel in February, dropped 14 percent compared to January. This is according to Realty Track. Also dropped 27 percent compared to February of 2010, biggest year-over- year decline that Realty Track has ever recorded. Also, robo-signing fall out and harsh winter may have exaggerated some of these findings, but still some good news.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The state attorney generals are investigating, too. So the services are very careful about foreclosing on people because they do not want Attorney General Tom Miller or somebody else comes after them. So that's also part of it.
HOLMES: That's any good news with that? I mean -
ROMANS: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
HOLMES: -- if we can (INAUDIBLE), right? I mean -
ROMANS: Fewer people are going to turn out their houses. Yes. There you go.
HOLMES: That's - so that's a good thing. All right.
CHETRY: There's a controversial plan to bring television advertising to 70 schools in Toronto. It will not move forward now. The school board voted down the proposal that would have brought in $1,300 per school. The pilot program currently shows students generated content, class information and noncommercial advertising in four city schools. Supporters of it say that they will bring the plan back to the table soon because they need the money.
HOLMES: Well, Honda now admitting to a spider infestation in some of its cars. This is similar to the same problem that led Mazda to recall thousands of cars last week. Honda is now saying that these yellow sac spiders have been found in vent pipes on their 2008 and 2009 Accords. But the company did not issue a recall. They're just telling their engineers how to correct the problem.
Meanwhile, Mazda recalled 52,000 cars after finding these spider nests in the same area. But in those Mazdas they actually caused cracks. Neither Mazda nor Honda is saying exactly how the spiders got into the cars in the first place.
CHETRY: Well, it's the second day of Lent for many Christians. And this morning, many are choosing to give up something other than - perhaps their favorite food this year. How about social networking - Facebook? Some experts say it makes sense because social networking has become a big part of people's lives and also a big problem or - or source of tension in many people's lives.
Lent is the - I'm just telling what my friends say - Lent is a period of 40 weekdays from Ash Wednesday to Easter. You know - and there were a couple - we did a couple of stories about people actually asking - pastors actually calling on people to give up the social networking and disbanding their own accounts and saying good, because a lot of people are fighting with their spouses over all the time that they're on the Internet, not necessarily what they're doing, but the time.
HOLMES: Well, to that preacher, I say amen.
ROMANS: But you feel guilty, too. But you can go online to find out the Holy Week hours for when there's going to be Good Friday service is up, too. So if you're not -
CHETRY: Yes. That's still - that's your (INAUDIBLE) in Yellow Pages.
ROMANS: I know. I know.
HOLMES: Well, let's say good morning, once again.
ROMANS: Good morning.
HOLMES: "Minding Your Business," Christine Romans. This is - what do we mean when we say the rich are getting richer?
ROMANS: Oh, boy, they are getting a lot richer.
HOLMES: OK.
ROMANS: And there's some familiar names on the "Forbes" list of billionaires this year.
Carlos Slim tops the list again for the second year. He is the Mexican tycoon, telecom and a lot of other things now, too. He - "Forbes" calls it astonishing how much money he made over the past year. He is now worth $74 billion. That is up $20.5 billion in one year. He picked up $20.5 billion in just one year. He owns big stakes in Saks, "The New York Times," a vast art collection. But what helped him were Mexican stocks, stronger peso and also mining and real estate ventures. So there you go. He is number one on the list.
And the reason he's number one is because Bill Gates is number two. And why is Bill Gates number two and not the richest man in the world? Because Bill Gates is giving his money away. He has given about $30 billion away, Bill Gates has. He's now worth $56 billion. He has what is basically the most influential foundation in the world. He, you know, choosing to do a lot of -
CHETRY: He has (ph) the largest private charity?
ROMANS: It's the largest private charity. And, in fact, his friend and bridge partner, Warren Buffett, has said that Bill Gates has done such a good job giving his money away that - that Warren Buffett is going to give his money away through Bill Gates rather than start his own big foundation because Gates and his family have been doing such a good job at that. So, you know, tackling malaria, tuberculosis and other things. Warren Buffett, meanwhile, he's worth $50 billion. You know him as the Oracle of Omaha. This guy, by the time he was 12, he had read every single investing book in the Omaha Public Library. He's worth $50 billion. Berkshire Hathaway shares - that's the iconic company that he found, which is everything from food, insurance, utilities, industrials, just recently bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the railroad company in 2009. Those shares gained 15 percent last year, adding a cool $3 billion onto his network.
As I said, he plays - he plays bridge with Bill Gates. I should learn bridge. It seems like all the rich guys play bridge.
And you can see, there's a French man, who's number four. The first woman is Liliane Bettencourt, number 15. And Zuckerberg - Mark Zuckerberg, who gets all of the accolades just founding Facebook, he is number 52 on the list in case you're wondering of the "Forbes" billionaire.
CHETRY: Slipping. Slipping. Slipping. Poor guy.
ROMANS: The rest of us, our family's worth is $62,000. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. But I'm just saying that - when, you know -
CHETRY: I know.
ROMANS: -- that's - that's like an hour's worth of spending money for -
CHETRY: Well, you - you told - you said at the beginning of all of this, you know, the economic downturn that for people that have money, I believe you say -
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: -- bold and sold (ph), there's a ton of money to be made.
ROMANS: Yes. When you have a lot of money, it's easier to - it's easier to take risks with your money.
CHETRY: Right. Of course.
ROMANS: And if you're just trying - if you're - if for us, our income - what our worth is in our house and in our job. And those are two things that have not - have not come back.
HOLMES: Essentially right now.
ROMANS: When your - when your wealth is in mining, real estate and vast collections of world's art, you know -
CHETRY: It's a different story.
ROMANS: It's a different story altogether. The rich is not like us.
HOLMES: And we'll be like them, though. All right. Christine Romans, thank you this morning. CHETRY: Next on AMERICAN MORNING, authorities say that it was human error behind the destructive wildfire in New Mexico, but some are still asking this morning was it deliberately set?
HOLMES: Also, Wisconsin Democrats, they finally plan to return to Madison. But it might be too late. Senate Republicans found the way to get things done without them. A stunning turn of events.
We're going to be talking to one state senator about their options now.
It's 27 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Bottom of the hour here on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Give you a look at some of the stories making headlines -- including out of New Mexico. Officials there now say they know what caused a massive wildfire earlier this week. The fire you see in the pictures here. It started by heated auto parts from a vehicle. Specifically, they say this were pieces of a catalytic converter somehow that sparked this whole thing. Not saying whether, though, any of this was intentionally set.
They did, however, say, of course, that they thought all along that some human activity caused this. It has burned about 1,800 acres. This has happened near Albuquerque -- 1,600 buildings destroyed. Some 200 others still at risk until that fire is completely contained.
CHETRY: Well, an end to capital punishment in the state of Illinois. Governor Pat Quinn says that signing legislation to abolish the death penalty was, quote, "the right and just thing." Illinois halted executions back into 2000, after two dozen, nearly two dozen condemned inmates ended up being exonerated. The governor commuted the sentences of 15 inmates currently on death row. Thirty-four states still have the death penalty.
HOLMES: Also, an arrest in the attempted backpack bombing at a Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Washington. Thirty-six-year-old Kevin Harpham has now been charged with trying to set off a weapon of mass destructions. The bomb was found alongside the parade route and disarmed. Harpham has been linked to a neo-Nazi group.
CHETRY: Well, a stunning move by Senate Republicans in Wisconsin last night has a standoff over unions in that state boiling over. Democrats are crying foul after the GOP passed a new bill in the Senate without the 14 members who left town to stall the measure. One lone Democrat tried to stop the bill's passage. Take a look at what went down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STATE REP. PETER BARCA (D), WISCONSIN: Mr. Chairman, this is a violation of law. This is not just a rule. It's the law.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're adjourned.
BARCA: No, Mr. Chairman, this is a violation of the Open Meetings Law. It requires 24 -- at least two hour notice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What have you done?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, this story changed in the blink of an eye last night. Here's how it unfolded:
At 4:00 in the afternoon, the Senate met and convened a conference committee on what's been called a budget repair bill. They'd been given about two hours' notice -- they've been given about two hours' notice of that meeting.
At 6:00, the committee itself met and, with no debate, advanced a new bill. That new bill eliminates most collective bargaining but stripped the financial measures that would have required the Democrats to be there to have a quorum.
Ten minutes later, at 6:10, the Senate, minus the Democrats, passed that bill with no debate and it now goes to the assembly where again it's expected to pass.
And, of course, there was no debate because Democrat weren't there. Most of them still out of town trying to stop all of that from happening in the first place.
One of them is State Senator Jon Erpenbach. We've talked to him many times on the show. He is still in Chicago and joins us now this morning.
Thanks for being here.
STATE SEN. JON ERPENBACH (D), WISCONSIN: Good morning.
CHETRY: Were you surprised that this happened yesterday?
ERPENBACH: A little bit, but when you take a look back -- excuse me -- at the past couple of days, probably not. Governor Walker spent about an hour with the Senate Republicans I believe it was yesterday, to try and keep in line, we thought, or they were going to come out with a major announcement. Obviously, they were coming up with the idea of "let's go -- go ahead with the conference committee and take out all of the non-fiscal items."
This was actually something we had suggested before we left Madison, was that we didn't think the collective bargaining language was fiscal. They said it was and it needed to stay in the "budget repair bill" and they were not going to take it out and vote on it separately by any means. Well, apparently, they've been less than honest with the taxpayers of the state and they took it out last night and they voted on 18-1 vote and passed it on to the assembly. And the assembly will take it up today. CHETRY: So, the bottom line is, what is the point now of you and 13 other Democrats in the Senate staying out of the state now? Are you going back now?
ERPENBACH: Well, we don't know. We're going to get together today, I would imagine somewhere around noon and just talk about whatever our options are.
There's a pretty strong legal argument, even though I'm not a lawyer, that they did violate Open Meetings Laws in the state of Wisconsin. And we take that very seriously. Everybody does. You have to post it at least two hours ahead. Usually 24 hours ahead, and they didn't do that.
So, I would assume this would end up in court. If we were to go back to Madison this morning without discussing our options, they could always basically do a call of the house, lock us up in Senate chambers, bring up the "budget repair bill" and force a vote on it just like that right away. So, we're going to get together and see what our options are. And we'll take it from there.
CHETRY: In your opinion, what does this mean for this debate?
ERPENBACH: Well, I think what it means for the debate is it really engages the entire state of Wisconsin in this debate. What it also means in this debate is the recalls, especially on the Republican side, will generate an awful lot of attention now.
People are very, very upset about this. Poll after poll shows that the majority of people support collective bargaining in the state of Wisconsin. And, obviously, just by the amount of people who showed up at the capitol last night, as soon as this happened, and then spent the night -- needless to say, a lot of people are upset about this. They're expecting about 200,000 people up in the square in Madison this Saturday for another big rally.
So, this -- what it does for the debate is it really -- really gets it going is what it does.
CHETRY: You know, there are certainly differing opinions, but -- and very strong opinions on both sides. I mean, even the feedback that we're getting when we said we're going to be speaking to you.
Some are saying these are not collective bargaining rights. They have not been stripped. It was a vote -- referring not only to the vote that happened but also the voting in of Governor Walker who campaigned on this very issue. And then there are others --
ERPENBACH: No, he didn't. That's actually wrong. He didn't.
CHETRY: Well, he says that he was very up front about the fact that they had to do something about collective bargaining --
ERPENBACH: No, he was very -- no, absolutely not. He never once campaigned about taking away collective bargaining rights. And some people don't see it as a right, but if you read the law, the law says a person, an individual, has the right to collectively bargain their job.
So, no, he never once talked about stripping collective bargaining rights. Had he done that, he wouldn't have been elected.
CHETRY: All right. Well, you know what? I understand that the situation is still very tense, and we're -- you're still at an impasse in deciding whether or not you return to the state today. We'll see what happens.
But thanks so much for joining us and giving us your point of view this morning.
ERPENBACH: All right. Thanks.
CHETRY: Wisconsin's State Senator Jon Erpenbach.
All right. Well, still ahead, we're going to be talking at 8:30 Eastern with one of the chairs of the House Budget Committee. We'll talk with Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan about the budget showdown that's happening in Washington -- not in his home state.
HOLMES: Also, we're talking drones this morning. When you hear that, you might think of those plane-like things, little small planes.
Well, look at this. This is a lot different -- drones the size of a hummingbird. New military program that could give American forces a tiny eye in the sky. Critics have concerns, though.
CHETRY: Also, check this out, a magical cake for a fantasy wedding. Can you imagine the pressure for being the cake-maker for William and Kate's wedding?
Chefs are hard at work on that royal cake. The couple won't even get to eat it. Find out why, coming up.
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HOLMES: Well, 40 minutes past the hour now on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Check this out, U.S. military creating hummingbird-shaped drones. Could they actually change the way the U.S. fights wars?
CHETRY: Well, it say prototype, not ready to go just yet, but certainly fascinating.
Chris Lawrence is in L.A. with more.
I just love that preview of seeing that hummingbird fly all around you. How are they makes this work?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Kiran and T.J., this thing is pretty amazing. I mean, it moves like an actual living thing and it weighs less -- less than an AA battery. So, Imagine this thing perched on a telephone wire, and you can really, you know, start to imagine how difficult it would be to even know it was watching you. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Imagine a drone as small as a hummingbird, same shape, same sound. Wait -- don't imagine. It's here in this California lab.
MATT KEENNON, AEROVIRONMENT PROJECT MANAGER: It looks more or less like an indigenous small bird and it can fly through small clearings and through trees and seeing inside.
LAWRENCE: AeroVironment's Matt Keennon says this is how the bird sees us from above.
(on camera): Right now, the hummingbird can only fly a little longer than 10 minutes. But at that size, imagine what it could do in 10 hours.
(voice-over): The Defense Department has spent $4 million with that dream in mind. American troops armed with an unmanned vehicle that blends into the other birds or insects in a given country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It operates (ph) and hovers the aircraft around until it finds an opening.
LAWRENCE: Perhaps even buzz into a room, drop a payload and leave.
But most of the unmanned vehicles, the hummingbird included, still depend on man to control their cameras or movements.
LT. GEN. DAVID DEPTULA, U.S. AIR FORCE RETIRED: But that's a vulnerability. That can be interrupted. That can be hacked.
LAWRENCE: Retired General David Deptula says future enemies will cut the operator's connection unless drones become more autonomous. He says sure, drones have worked in Iraq and Afghanistan because there's very few missiles to shoot them down.
DEPTULA: But if you fly these same vehicles where there is an air defense, those MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers, would be falling from the sky like a bird (ph).
LAWRENCE: Compared to other drones, the hummingbird has a six-inch wing span and weighs less than AA battery. But the designer needs to add intelligence to its small size.
KEENNON: It could be much more useful if the aircraft could keep itself safe.
LAWRENCE: If so, the military has designs beyond battle, it envisions the bird helping to find victims, weaving through crevices created by an earthquake.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Well, now the Defense Department has to figure out whether it wants to keep investing and spend more to keep moving this sort of technology along. But you could see if it was adapted to, say, firefighters or police officers around crime scenes, you know, some of the legal issues that would have to be worked out when you're getting smaller and smaller in things that you would never even notice could be watching -- Kiran, T.J.
HOLMES: Well, that is fascinating. Maybe the next wave we are seeing there.
Chris Lawrence for us early this morning out in L.A. -- good to see you as always, buddy. Thanks.
CHETRY: Hey, he gets a jump-start on the day. Everyone is asleep out there except for Chris.
Thanks, Chris.
Still to come this morning: a large storm making its way eastward. It's going to cause big problems, perhaps flooding as well. Many parts of the East Coast bracing for this. Rob's going to have the travel forecast after the break.
HOLMES: Also, it is time for March madness. And your boss is upset because that's going to cost your boss a whole lot of money because of your lack of productivity. We will explain.
It's 43 minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
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HOLMES: What are you looking at there?
(LAUGHTER)
HOLMES: Right here. I think this page got dropped, and I missed something. I can throw that away? OK. We'll show that picture of New York later, but hey, about a quarter to the top of the hour. Checking with Rob Marciano. Rob, save me, please.
MARCIANO: Don't you worry your pretty little head, T.J. We'll take care of it here. Listen, weather moving across the northeast.
CHETRY: It is pretty, isn't it?
MARCIANO: It is. Very much so. A large system and a slow-moving system and it's go a lot of moisture with it, so that combination is not going to do well for folks who've already seen a tremendous amount of rainfall in this area. This is the same system that brought that severe weather across the deep south yesterday. Sixteen reports of tornadoes. Significant damage from Louisiana back through Mississippi, Alabama especially, and then rolling through into the Florida panhandle, and a couple of injuries.
No fatalities, thankfully, without round the storms. All right. Here we go. How much rain do we think we're going to see here? Here's the forecast. The bright red does never good thing on weather maps. You get in through Jersey, just east of Scranton and through parts of Upstate New York into the Catskills could see anywhere from two to four inches of rain, maybe isolated higher amounts side from that.
So, flooding expected in these areas. We have flood watches that are posted from New England all the way back down to the Deep South, but I think Pennsylvania and Northern New Jersey, especially along the Passaic River there which floods seemingly almost every year, and it's already flood state now will be increasing with that moisture and probably cresting on Saturday.
And between now and then, it's going to get a little bit hairy in places like Hawthorne there in Northwest Jersey. All right. Leftover storms now moving through Tampa. These are not severe, but they're certainly packing a punch. You know what, Florida will take any rain it can get. So, a decent amount of rain with this, actually, most of its rained down at least across the south.
Calcasieu, Louisiana, 7.72, are you kidding me? New Orleans got like almost four inches in just a couple of hours yesterday. So, torrential rains with this system. It's having moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. Obviously, we're drying out behind this. Another system coming in into the Pacific Northwest, but that won't get into the central part of the country for some time.
If you are traveling today, it's going to be a bit of a pain, especially across the northeast, New York metros, Boston, especially in Philly because of the rain and wind that's moving in. Kind of a nasty day for you guys. Not exactly warm either, but that's what happens in March. Be prepared. T.J., Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: You're right. All right. Thanks, Rob.
HOLMES: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, the Dalai Lama is stepping down as the political leader of Tibet. He said that Tibetans need a leader elected by the people.
HOLMES: Our Zain Verjee joins us now from our London bureau. Zain, good morning. Always good to see you. He's stepping down from one position, but he's still going to be a leader in Tibet, the Dalai Lama.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's still going to be called his holiness. He will be the spiritual leader, but he wants to step away from the political spotlight, he says. And this is no big surprise, although, it's a dramatic move, but everybody expected this to eventually happen. He wants there to be an elected political Tibetan leader. So, he's going to put forward some amendments, and then, he wants a vote to happen on a successor.
It's not really clear who would succeed him in on that role. You know, I was looking online, guys, and a lot of people are saying that the Dalai Lama has done so much for the cause. He's worked so hard. The guy just needs a break. One other thing I want to just point out too that this is just kind of symbolic, really, because it's so important that this is happening, but actually, the Tibetan government in exile has not really made a lot of political progress in terms of what they want over the last few years.
CHETRY: Of course, we can't get enough of the talk of the royal wedding. Every day, it seems like a new detail trickles out, and today, it's about the cake, Zain?
VERJEE: Yes. I am working the cake beat for you very hard here on the royal end. Yes, you know, there are reports that the cake may be adorned with dragons and harps and the Welsh flag. There's a suggestion that a group of Welsh chefs wrote to Buckingham Palace and said that they wanted to make the cake. Now, there's been no confirmation officially. No official announcement about the wedding cake, but Prince William is actually stationed in Wales. He's a pilot with the royal air force, and so, it's perfectly conceivable that the cake could be from Wales.
HOLMES: All right. And we got one more. And I'm kind of concerned about it, Zain. Every day, we do this segment with you. The last story you give us has something to do with somebody being half naked, and here you go again. All right. It was Vladimir Putin one day, the party with some strippers, and now, this guy.
VERJEE: Well, it's purely coincidental, I would like to stress that, OK? But, hey, let's go straight to that video so I can show you the streaker who was running around a football -- or as you would say, a soccer field. And the guy, you can see him, you know, he's half naked, he's wearing these lime green, Borat-style, a mankini, and he runs around for about 30 seconds.
And you just see him, you know, he's just running around. And the players are just staring at him. And then, one guy decides he's had enough. One of the players just tackles him to the ground. And the referee then comes in and gives the football player, the soccer player, a red card and then kicks him of the pitch. And then, there's this whole huge rile. And everybody's lost sight of the streaker by then. So --
CHETRY: Hey, I don't even follow -- OK, that's the world sport. That's so wrong to give him a red card for stopping that lunatic in a lime green mankini. That's not fair.
(LAUGHTER)
VERJEE: No, it's not fair. But, you know, Kiran, these things happen. That streaker was entertaining, you know, but there were a lot of people really annoyed for exactly that reason. I'm just wondering, you know, Kiran, who would you like to see in a mankini?
CHETRY: I have no idea.
HOLMES: This is why, Zain. We're going to have to stop you at two stories, all right? We give you a third and you take it somewhere we don't need to go.
CHETRY: Poor team. They got the red card. Did they lose or did they win?
(LAUGHTER)
VERJEE: Actually, I'm not sure.
CHETRY: That is so wrong.
VERJEE: I don't know. I lost focus at the mankini.
CHETRY: Because of that Borat. All right. Zain, thanks so much.
HOLMES: Thanks, Zain.
CHETRY: You can catch Zain, by the way, every morning, 5:00 a.m. on "World One" right here on CNN.
HOLMES: As you know, today, emotions are expected to run high on Capitol Hill because of some highly anticipated and highly controversial hearings. You've heard about him by now, Representative King holding hearings on Muslim extremism that some simply say is Islam on trial. Our Dana Bash covering this for us.
CHETRY: Coming up also, the White House taking on in the subject that's intensely personal to one man. He'll be joining us live on this AMERICAN MORNING. It's 53 minutes past the hour.
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HOLMES: All right. The madness is about to start. This is just a holiday.
CHETRY: It's exciting.
HOLMES: It is. And you know --
CHETRY: No, I love it.
HOLMES: OK. Just checking.
CHETRY: Back to back here is my alma mater and my husband's won the NCAA championship. It was great. Yes. Maryland and Syracuse.
HOLMES: That's a fun time. See, she's into it, too, and that's going to cost this company money, OK? This is the official start of the NCAA tournament next week. We got playing games for us with the Madness going to begin next Thursday, really, but the problem here is that all you bracketologists out there, all that turny talk at your company, it's costing time.
A consulting firm says the workplace distractions because of the tournament could cost businesses nearly $200 million. It estimates at a total of more than 8 million hours at work are spent watching tournament games. What do you do?
CHETRY: Wow. That's when multitasking comes in handy. We're going to take a quick break. Your top stories coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
