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American Morning
Fukushima on Maximum Nuclear Alert; Airbus Bang-Up at JFK; Serial Killer's 9th Victim in Long Island Beach?; Japan's Nuke Threat Level Rises to Max; Are Credit Score Sites Misleading?; Live from Space; Fukushima: Maximum Nuclear Alert; The Fix Was In?
Aired April 12, 2011 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING, Japan's nuclear crisis has been raised to a level seven. That's the highest level on the international scale matching the 1986 accident at Chernobyl. Only this disaster is far from over.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A collision last night on a runway at JFK airport between a giant Airbus A380 and a small commuter jet. It's all on tape and a CNN reporter happened to be on one of those planes.
VELSHI: And a search for a serial killer intensifying on Long Island after investigators discover a skull along a highway near a beach.
ROMANS: Plus, how new spending cuts are going to impact your life. And we're breaking down Burger King's new meat monster sandwich on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: I'm Ali Velshi. A lot happening overnight. Let's get you caught up.
Maximum nuclear alert. We're now officially talking about another possible Chernobyl. Japan raises the nuclear crisis to the highest level on the international scale and engineers are losing the battle to make sure the risk doesn't become reality.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. The world's biggest commercial jet bashes another plane on the runway in New York. Not only is there video of this but we had a reporter on the flight, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
VELSHI: Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Tuesday, April the 12th. We'll tell you about that airplane incident. That was quite remarkable.
ROMANS: It really was. We had a reporter on the flight. We can tell you all about that. A big bumper planes --
VELSHI: Yes. ROMANS: -- if you will, at JFK. But first, we begin this morning in Japan where officials have now declared the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant a major accident. The threat level has been raised from a category five to a seven, the maximum on the international scale. That's on par with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. The accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island in 1979, it was a level five.
Meantime, there's been a new round of aftershocks in Japan. CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Tokyo.
Paula, this just continues to be just nerve shattering for people who are there in the country and now the latest news about the nuclear crisis and the level there. What's the latest?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, it would certainly have been a bit of a shock for many people in Japan hearing that change in number. This Tuesday morning, they were on a level five and then all of a sudden they skipped a level. There was no six. They went straight to the highest level that there could be, that level seven which constitutes a major accident. It constitutes a major release of radiation with widespread health and environment effects. That's according to the IAEA, the nuclear watchdog. That's what they call it.
Now, this doesn't mean that there has been a sudden deterioration in the situation. It basically means that the government has caught up to what is happening and they've now realized that this could be on the level of Chernobyl. And, of course, that's going to panic people. It's going to make the concern that this is as bad as Chernobyl, which is the worst nuclear disaster from a plant's point of view that we have seen in the past.
From that logistical point of view, it doesn't actually make a difference to those on the ground. There is still an evacuation zone. Those people within that 12 mile evacuation zone are still living in emergency shelters. We understand from the government that further out to 18 miles, people are being encouraged more forcefully now, to move within the next few weeks or so because they're worried about the longer term radiation effects. So certainly it is a concern, but it doesn't constitute an immediate and a sudden deterioration in the situation.
ROMANS: OK. Paula Hancocks in Tokyo. Thank you, Paula.
And in just a few minutes, we're going to talk more about Japan's maximum nuclear alert with Michael Friedlander, a former senior nuclear power plant operator, Ali.
VELSHI: Here at home, a runway collision involving the world's biggest passenger jet, the Airbus A380 and a commuter plane. It happened at New York's JFK airport last night. It was captured on tape. Look at this.
Amateur video posted on the WNBC New York Web site shows the Air France -- wow -- the Air France plane hitting a Delta connection flight as it taxied out for takeoff. Now that Delta plane is a CRJ- 700, about a 70-seater. It's not a tiny plane, but compared to that A380, it sure is.
CNN's Jim Bittermann was one of the 500 passengers on board the Paris bound flight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pull away from the gate and was going probably five, seven miles per hour, something like that. Made the turn away from the gate and there was a slight rumble and it felt to me like, you know, maybe they hit a rough patch of pavement or something like it. But the pilot immediately stopped the plane and within I would say a minute or two, the fire trucks started arriving around the plane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: No one was injured in the accident. Both planes are now being inspected for damage.
ROMANS: All right. There's been another horrifying discovery on the beaches of Long Island, New York. This time a human skull found by police yesterday. The ninth set of remains, the ninth possible victim of a suspected serial killer. Jason Carroll with the latest developments this morning -- Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And what they've done is they basically called off temporarily suspended the search this morning so they can focus on making identifications. You know, again, investigators did find more remains late yesterday afternoon near a bird sanctuary in a remote beach area. Police found the remains after spending the day searching the brush along a parkway for more victims of a possible serial killer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. KEVIN SMITH, NASSAU COUNTY POLICE: It's all been very startling. All of it has been. I really -- I don't have a reaction to you because it's just amazing that we're finding these things. So, obviously, we have a lot of work to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Well, the discovery comes on the first day authorities expanded their search. Since December, police have found the remains of eight people, all eight in the same area. That area located just a few miles from where police found yesterday's remains. So far, four victims have been identified. All worked as prostitutes who advertised on Craigslist. Police suspect a single person may be responsible for the murders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED MANGANO, NASSAU COUNTY EXECUTIVE: Collectively, we want to bring to justice this animal that has, obviously, taken the lives of a number of people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Well, the missing persons case that prompted the investigation involves Shannan Gilbert. Gilbert was an escort and last may she was seen in the area when a witness says she banged on his door, begging for help, saying someone was trying to kill her. He called 911. Gilbert ran away and has not been seen since.
And there is another bit of an update on the search out there yesterday. Police did find another set of remains, but they could not confirm if that set of remains are human. So what they're going to do is they're going to continue doing their testing and if that next set of remains also proves to be human, that would bring the total to 10.
VELSHI: You know, if you live in this area, you've seen a lot of coverage of this in the newspapers, but there's some sense that police have been saying they're wondering who this serial killer might be and whether it might even be somebody in law enforcement.
CARROLL: Right. And you know, what they need is they need more evidence at this point.
VELSHI: Right.
CARROLL: And we've heard some of those reports out there. But, you know, what they've got to do is they've got to collect their evidence and it's difficult when you're dealing with a lot of these remains.
ROMANS: A bird sanctuary where you've got, you know, sandy dunes.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: Who knows how long the remains have been there.
CARROLL: Right.
ROMANS: If they were killed someplace else and then dumped there, how far. I mean --
CARROLL: And still trying to -- and still trying to confirm if it is in fact one person that they're dealing with.
VELSHI: One person, right.
There's some sense that the remains are not all from a type timeline.
CARROLL: Correct.
VELSHI: They were for a while.
CARROLL: Over a long period of time here that we're talking about. VELSHI: Yes.
CARROLL: So that also adds to the, you know, the challenges they have to identify the remains.
VELSHI: Yes. All right. We're on top of it. Thank you.
ROMANS: Thanks, Jason.
CARROLL: You bet.
VELSHI: New details coming in this morning about that last- minute budget deal that stopped a government shutdown. It cut spending by more than $38 billion. Now we know what's actually going as a result of those cuts. The bill trims $10 million from the food safety and inspection. The EPA's budget, Environmental Protection Agency's budget will also be cut by about $1.6 billion. Also for the first time, the amount of money going to the Department of Homeland Security will be going down. The bill eliminates about $2.9 billion for high-speed rail.
The House is scheduled to vote on the bill tomorrow. The Senate will vote on it shortly thereafter. And as of now, looks like it's going to pass.
ROMANS: All right. In Libya this morning, no deal. A cease- fire proposal offered to opposition leaders has been rejected. Under the African Union plan, Gadhafi would have agreed to stop all hostilities and allow international forces to enter Libya to help keep the peace. The rebel leaders say any plan that does not include the removal of Gadhafi is simply unacceptable.
After weeks of NATO air strikes, the U.S. military believes a long, drawn-out stalemate may be emerging in Libya. That's according to a senior U.S. official who also says one-third of Gadhafi's ground armor has been destroyed as well as most of their defenses. But in the eyes of military officials, either the rebels or Gadhafi's forces have the manpower or resources to make any significant advances from the positions that they happen to be in right now.
VELSHI: This is pretty incredible. The National Weather Service now confirms 10 tornadoes touched down in Wisconsin during a severe storm on Sunday.
ROMANS: Wow.
VELSHI: We were talking about the tornadoes and the weather in the upper Midwest.
ROMANS: That's right.
VELSHI: The town of Merrill took the brunt of it. That's about 200 miles northwest of Milwaukee. Homes were leveled. Trees were uprooted everywhere. The governor toured Merrill yesterday. He says he's considering asking for federal help. That would mean declaring a state of emergency. And more than 20,000 people in south central Alabama lost power during a violent storm overnight. A lot of destruction is being reported in Jefferson and Shelby counties where dozens of homes and cars have been flattened by uprooted trees.
ROMANS: Our Jacqui Jeras is in the Extreme Weather Center. She knows extreme Midwestern weather --
VELSHI: Yes, I'm sure.
ROMANS: -- upper Midwestern weather quite well. And has the system moved on through or are there still more dangers today?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, they're done in the Midwest so for the most part, the major severe weather is over with. We'll be watching places like the Delmarva, across parts of Virginia as well as North Carolina. We think later today for that threat, but it's very much reduced compared to what we saw yesterday and over the weekend.
Now the squall line that caused that damage in Alabama has kind of run its course too. And there you can see it kind of fizzling out across parts of Georgia and South Carolina. So things will be better there and just some spotty showers. But watch out for a little bit of lightning this morning. And you're definitely going to need to leave early if you live in Nashville up towards Louisville into Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, because the rain is going to be heavy and we might see some urban flooding. So those roadways especially some of those intersections could get covered in water.
There you can see that red area. That's the spot we're going to be watching for severe weather. I think wind damage is going to be our primary concern. And we'll also be watching the threat of those wildfires continuing to grow across parts of Texas and Oklahoma. That orange area highlighted because the winds are going to really be gusting.
New storm system on the horizon, guys. Looks like Thursday and Friday could be rather brutal across parts of the plains and the east once again. We'll talk more about that and your temperatures. You know, you mentioned the Midwest. They hate to mention the "s" word, guys. Might see a little bit of that later on this week.
VELSHI: Not the "s" word that usually doesn't happen after winter, not that "s" word. Wow.
JERAS: That's the "s" word we're talking about.
ROMANS: How could -- oh, man.
VELSHI: Wow. Boy, it's -- I mean, I know you folks, both of you, from the upper Midwest are hearty, but that's -- and I'm Canadian. I mean, I'm used to cold weather and the "s" word, but this is crazy.
JERAS: I know. It's hard when you warm up and you go back down. ROMANS: Doesn't mean we can't complain.
VELSHI: I'll tell you.
All right, Jacqui Jeras. Thanks, Jacqui.
VELSHI: Good to see you, Jacqui. Thank you.
Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING, while this one almost surprised me coming a month after the nuclear --
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: -- the earthquake in Japan, but the severity of Japan's nuclear crisis is now on par with the meltdown in Chernobyl. We're going to talk to a nuclear expert about what that means. What does that maximum threat level mean at the Fukushima Daiichi plant?
ROMANS: And in Ivory Coast, strongman out. After weeks of bloody fighting, another civil war comes to an end after the world steps in.
VELSHI: And back here again, D.C.'s mayor arrested, protesting outside the capital. He says the new federal budget has handcuffed his city. We'll tell you why.
Eleven minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: The death toll this morning rising after a rush hour subway blast in the nation of Belarus. Officials say 12 people were killed in this explosion after another victim died at the hospital. More than 120 people were also injured. Russia's president is calling it a terrorist attack and has offered help in the investigation.
VELSHI: There's some celebrations of liberation in the Ivory Coast. The African nation's president calling for calm this morning after the arrest of strongman Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo's refusal to step down after losing an election last year plunged that nation into civil war. An assault last week by French and U.N. warplanes was the beginning of the end for him. He surrendered yesterday after French troops stormed his compound.
ROMANS: But he certainly held out for an awful long time.
VELSHI: He stayed in that bunker. He was surrounded several times. He is the definition of a -- of a strong man, but he's out now and the duly elected president is in.
ROMANS: All right. D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray released from jail overnight after he was arrested on Capitol Hill yesterday. He was one of about 40 people protesting a part of the budget deal that Congress struck over the weekend, protesting in particular banning the district from spending its money to provide abortions for low income women. Under federal law, the city's local budget needs approval from Congress.
VELSHI: And this is something we were discussing last week with their delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton --
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: This is just a frustrating matter for -- for D.C.
Japan's nuclear crisis has gone from bad to worse officially. Government officials are raising the threat level at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant from a five where it was, to a Category 7. Now that indicates a major incident. It's the highest level on the international scale for nuclear accidents and on par with the Chernobyl disaster.
ROMANS: So what does the shift really mean?
Michael Friedlander is a Nuclear Expert, a Former Senior Operator at three power plants. He joins us now from Hong Kong.
I mean, we're told that the amount of radiation emitted from this plant is not as much as Chernobyl, but it reaches this level, I guess, because of the long-term implications of just how serious this disaster is. To you, what does a seven mean going forward?
MICHAEL FRIEDLANDER, FORMER NUCLEAR PLANT OPERATOR: Well, it's a very good question and I think probably the question that people are most worried about are -- is this a signal or somehow a sign that things have dramatically taken a turn for the worse or could potentially get worse? And I think that, you know, of course, it's difficult to predict the future.
But I think as much as we can say, the power plants are in a stable configuration right now and what this really represents is the authorities having gone back and looked at data that was -- that what they thought was going on several weeks ago, when the releases were going on, they have probably it should have been categorized as a seven back then and just now that they're coming to the realization.
ROMANS: So it's playing catch-up with the events that we already know and the disintegration and the deterioration of the events as we know.
I mean, I'll tell you, Michael, Ali and I both, the day after this -- this earthquake and the tsunami, right away there were assurances from the IAEA and others that all four plants have been shut -- reactors had been shut safely down. From the very beginning, they've been behind the crisis a little bit.
FRIEDLANDER: Yes. There's absolutely no doubt and it's been one of my frustrations as well. You know, sitting here from a distance trying to piece together information like a -- like a jigsaw puzzle where the -- where there's piece missing, I've been as frustrated as you are. So I understand it.
VELSHI: Michael, when we -- when we think about Chernobyl, we think about miles and miles, tens of thousands of miles, uninhabitable for -- for a long time. What is happening to this? As we go to a 7, we've also concurrently increased the amount of space around that nuclear plant where they don't want people to live or where they're evacuating. Is this -- is this going to be habitable again?
FRIEDLANDER: Yes. Let's -- we should separate the two topics.
VELSHI: OK.
FRIEDLANDER: The issue in terms of the amount of radiation that has gone into the air is sort of a good news-bad news. We now know from an analytic perspective that it was probably worse than we thought it was three weeks ago.
The good news is that we've had meters on the ground and we've got people walking around. So it's not a theoretical issue anymore. We actually know, I have a pretty good sense of what's actually on the ground. And so from the standpoint of a public health matter or public health policy, we're actually in a pretty good position to make some recommendations for the long-term health of the public.
Now, in terms of the evacuation order that has been issued, and I've heard a lot of dialog going on in terms of, gees, maybe we should have evacuated earlier. When the protective active recommendations are made, you take a look at the circumstances that you're presented with in the moment and you're trying to make a judgment call in terms of are people going to be better served or better protected by staying put in shelter as opposed to evacuating. And it has takes into consideration the passage of a radioactive cloud and things like that.
What the PARs don't address and where I think where we sit today is what do you do afterwards. You know, after the clouds have passed and after the radiation has deposited on the ground what do you do now? And I think that that's the issue that the authorities are struggling with.
ROMANS: What do you do you now, Michael?
FRIEDLANDER: Yes.
ROMANS: I mean, that's the big question here. Now, they're trying to contain the crisis, but what's next?
FRIEDLANDER: It's a great question. And, again, if we can make a bit of a leap of faith and I believe that there's substantial justification for it, that the crisis at the power plant proper is not going to degrade materially any further. In other words, there's not going to be any more major releases of radioactivity.
The operative question now becomes to your point, exactly, what do we do with these thousands and thousands and thousands of square miles of contaminated ground? And the reality is, is that there's only one solution and that is we have to get heavy equipment in there, we have to remove topsoil. We have to remove the tons of debris. Because remember we had a tsunami as well as an earthquake. We have houses that are collapsed. We have cars. All of that is contaminated with low level contamination --
VELSHI: Well, Michael --
FRIEDLANDER: -- and it all has to be disposed of properly.
VELSHI: -- you say let's assume it's not going to degrade further. Yesterday, we heard of, you know, more aftershocks, more problems at the plant. What is -- what could make it worse? Is it these continued aftershocks? Is it possible another earthquake with another tsunami?
FRIEDLANDER: It is -- it is exactly that. You know, the power plant was severely damaged. We don't exactly know what the condition it's been in, but just one data point, the fact that we're sitting here a month after the event, we're still not on a long-term situation of core cooling. We still don't have a backup emergency power supply, and we're still injecting off of water that was brought in by the U.S. Navy several weeks ago, is a disturbing situation.
And so what that indicates is that the power plant has been severely damaged. And absolutely exactly how you characterize another earthquake or another tsunami, could absolutely put us back where we were a month ago.
ROMANS: All right. Michael Friedlander, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate your perspective.
FRIEDLANDER: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
ROMANS: It's like a script to a horror movie --
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: -- but wouldn't be believable, because it's just -- it's so --
VELSHI: And the horror -- the horror movie would end.
ROMANS: Right. Right.
VELSHI: Yes. It's very sad to see how this continues.
Just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, you've seen their commercials, you know their jingles, but is the credit score that these websites are selling the real deal? A lot of people have been asking about this. We've got an answer for you.
ROMANS: Yes. If you're paying money to monitor your --
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: -- your credit score you have to see this next story.
And if you thought KFC'S Double Down was a beast, check this out. It's the newest creation from Burger King, and wait until you hear what's in it. Oh, wow. It's 21 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. You know --
ROMANS: It's awful early in the morning for this next story.
VELSHI: Yes, I know. And the two of us like -- like fast food, we're not scared of unhealthy things. This one intimidates me a little bit.
It is a meat lovers dream come true. Check this out. It's Burger King's new Meat Monster. Two burger patties --
ROMANS: What is in there?
VELSHI: It's incredible. Two burger patties, a chicken breast, topped with bacon and cheese. This edible heart attack is only available in Japan, by the way, where it will cost you a little less than $10 and certainly get your mind off of other issues in Japan.
No calorie count. Yes. But if you do the math, it comes to about 1,160 calories, 24 grams of saturated fat and a little less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium.
ROMANS: Any chance that thing is going to come here, because that looks so American to me.
VELSHI: It's America. I was just going to say.
ROMANS: That was so -- I mean, there's nothing more big in America than that.
VELSHI: I cannot see the dignified Japan enjoying that, but I -- the Japanese enjoying that. I think it's on its way here soon.
ROMANS: All right. You've no doubt seen the commercials for a free credit score.
VELSHI: Oh, yes.
ROMANS: I mean, yes, you've seen them. Exactly what score are they selling you and do you even need it?
Carmen Wong Ulrich is "Minding Your Business." I know you're --
CARMEN WONG ULRICH, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: I don't. You don't need it.
ROMANS: I don't think you need it either.
ULRICH: Just so you know, you don't need it. But here's what we're talking about. There's a lawsuit in California, regarding experience selling their plus credit score. Now, this is attached to those ads that you see and I wouldn't even repeat the name. But you know you've seen them.
Now, there really are no free credit scores of use. Unless -- and here's what the new Card Act and legislation, if you've been rejected for a loan, then you are allowed to see for free the credit score that the lender was looking at. Now, credit scoring is a big, big business, for over a dozen credit scores available and more even growing. But only 80 percent of lenders only use FICO scores. Now, that's from your TransUnion and your Equifax credit reports.
Now, credit scoring is a big business. If you need to check your credit, for free, once a year, look at your credit reports over at AnnualCreditReport.com, the only place to go, because this is through federal mandate. So go there and look at it and you can get an idea of the shape of your credit.
Now, if you need to look at your scores before applying for a big loan, then you go to myFICO.com, which are the scores most lenders actually look at. But be careful. Don't subscribe to ongoing services. A lot of times they like to wrap you up in monthly credit monitoring services.
VELSHI: It's very hard to negotiate through that site, because there's every page there's an option to sign up for something.
ULRICH: There is one link you can go to --
ROMANS: Don't give your credit card number.
ULRICH: -- to go look and look for. Don't look for the -- here's a hint, don't look for the $14.95. Look for the $19.95. It does cost more but it keeps you from paying every month --
VELSHI: Right.
ULRICH: -- for a service that you don't need.
ROMANS: Now, if you pay your bills on time, if you don't need to borrow money, and if you are just minding your own business, what in the world do you need to know your credit score for?
ULRICH: Exactly, minding your business. You really don't. That's the thing. If this has turned into a big business, because people like (INAUDIBLE), people like to see the numbers go up and down. Key here is you're applying for a loan, look at your credit reports and that's all you need to do.
ROMANS: If someone has stolen your identity usually your credit card companies give you a heads-up anyway.
ULRICH: You'll be getting a lot of e-mails from angry scoring people --
ROMANS: I know. I know.
ULRICH: -- but that's the facts.
VELSHI: All right. Carmen, thank you.
ULRICH: Thank you.
VELSHI: Just ahead, an about-face from President Obama. He wants to raise the nation's debt limit now. We've been talking about that. Five years ago, he voted against that. The White House tries to explain, next.
ROMANS: And Olympic Champion Carl Lewis is running again this time for political office.
It's 28 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Good morning. Thirty minutes after the hour.
Let me bring you up to speed with your top stories.
Japan raises the threat level at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the maximum, a category seven. It was a category five. Now, that puts it on par with the Chernobyl disaster and new aftershocks rattled Japan overnight, including a magnitude 6.3 in northern Japan.
ROMANS: David meets Goliath on the runway at New York's JFK airport. An Air France Airbus A-380 collided with a commuter jet as it taxied out for takeoff. The video of the incident was posted on WNBC's Web site.
VELSHI: It's moving it like a toy.
ROMANS: I know. I mean, imagine sitting on that plane holding a baby, unfortunately, standing up to get something and you shouldn't have been. The regional jet had just arrived from a flight from Boston and was waiting for a gate. No injuries were reported. The super jumbo A-380 is world's largest passenger plane.
VELSHI: I often think to myself, why do they need you to stay still until it's over?
ROMANS: That's why.
VELSHI: That's why.
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: Details of last week's budget deal are being made public this morning. The bill cuts the EPA's funding by $1.6 billion. Food Safety and Inspection Services would get $10 million less than last year. Funding for high-speed rails will be slashed by $2.9 billion.
And the House is scheduled to vote on the deal tomorrow. The Senate will vote on it shortly after. It is expected to pass.
Now to the president's about-face on raising America's debt limit. In 2006, Senator Barack Obama voted against doing that, calling it a sign of leadership failure. Those are his words. Fast forward five years and now, President Obama is lobbying Congress hard to do just the opposite and raise the debt limit -- leaving White House spokesman Jay Carney to offer up this explanation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president, as David Plouffe said yesterday, regrets that vote and thinks it was a mistake. He realizes now that raising the debt ceiling is so important to the health of this economy and the global economy, that it is not a vote that even when you are protesting an administration's policies, you can play around with and you need to take very seriously the need to raise the debt limit so that the full faith and credit of the United States government is maintained around the globe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: America will reach it debt limit of $14.3 trillion by May 16th. The Congress doesn't raise it. The government could default on its national debt and that's pretty serious -- Christine.
ROMANS: Ali, we were talking about the budget and debt ceiling and throwing around figures in the billions, in the trillions. It's tough to digest. And let's be clear: $1 trillion is an awful lot of money.
Let's take a closer look here. By law, the U.S. caps the amount of debt it can carry. Congress sets a limit and it's currently at $14.294 trillion. The problem: right now, our debt stands at $14.208 trillion or just $86 billion shy of the limit. That means the United States has to keep borrowing money to keep funding itself, to keep going. But it's hit that debt ceiling.
It's always been moving higher here. Our debt ceiling always hasn't been this high, though. Look at November 1990. Way back here, it was about $3 trillion. The first debt limit was set in 1917 at $11.5 billion.
But if you look at the last 20 years, you can see how the debt limit has gone from below $5 trillion to almost $15 trillion where we are now. That's a big number.
So, we're going to try to break down what $1 trillion looks like. It's get our head around what $1 trillion is. If you look at $1 trillion in one dollar bills, all of them stacked on top of each other, you'd be able to circle the globe with them 2.75 times. Together, stacked up, Ali, 67,866 miles.
I know it sounds silly. Why are you looking at just $1 trillion? Just to try, Ali, to get a sense of how much money this is in the context of a $14 trillion economy, a very big economy --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- with a very big pile of debt. Things we've already spent that we haven't paid for, Ali.
VELSHI: Excellent explanation. Thank you, Christine.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
VELSHI: Mitt Romney has taken the first official step in his bid to become president. The former governor of Massachusetts announced yesterday that he is setting up a presidential exploratory committee. He is the second major Republican candidate to do so. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced an exploratory committee three weeks ago.
And former Olympian Carl Lewis is still running for a living. But these days, the finish line is the New Jersey state Senate in Trenton, New Jersey. The 10-time Olympic medalist said he decided to run for office because his charity work wasn't solving enough of the state's problems. He's on the Democratic ticket and says he plans to focus on two big issues: education and making the state more affordable.
ROMANS: All right. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING: Red River rising. Right along with the National Guard, we're going to take a look at one of the worst spring floods ever in the North.
VELSHI: And an out of this world flute duet. I was going to say that didn't sound right. You're looking at it right there, astronaut Cady Coleman, as you know, we've been tracking her mission for months, we're going to talk to Cady about it live from space and that duet she's doing right now.
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ROMANS: All right. As you know, we've been following astronaut Cady Coleman's journey to space for the past year. She has been on board the International Space Station now for almost four months. And we want to find out what it's like up there.
VELSHI: So, Cady joins us live from the International Space Station, 220 miles above the earth, along with Commander Dmitry Kondratiev, flight engineers Paolo Nespoli, Ron Garan, and Andrei Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyayev.
Thank you for joining us. It's great to see you.
Cady, you welcomed on Wednesday evening -- I don't know how you guys keep time up there. But Wednesday evening, you welcomed some new guests to the International Space Station. Tell us about that and how it's going up there?
CADY COLEMAN, ASTRONAUT: You know, it is so nice to have these guys up here. I think when we're up here for a long time, we actually begin to take it just a little bit for granted and when new people come and they're so excited about being here and it reminds us of all the things that are just unique, looking out the window, floating, and just loving every minute of living almost on a different planet.
ROMANS: My next question to the flight engineer Ron Garan. I want to ask you about a warning that we heard last week that the, you know, headlines, maybe there was a piece of space junk that you guys were on the lookout for, for the International Space Station. First, NASA warned of an evacuation but, clearly, nothing came of that.
Do you get a little nervous up there with all that space junk?
RON GARAN, FLIGHT ENGINEER: Well, no, we've got many people on the ground that track all that. And so, they keep us advised when anything gets close. We have procedures we can take shelter in our Soyuz spacecraft if something gets too close or need be, we can move the station and boost it to a higher orbit, or, you know, do other maneuvers to get out of the way of anything that might be coming our way.
VELSHI: Cady, I want to ask you about the flute duet that we saw a little bit, our viewers saw a little bit, we'll show them a little bit more. You recently made history by playing the first ever space/earth flute duet with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. This is fascinating. I don't know how you worked that all up. But tell us about this.
COLEMAN: Well, there's a delay in the communication, which makes it actually quite challenging for us. And so, what we had to do was he recorded on the ground the base track, you know, the sort of the guitar rhythm and things like that, and we agreed what we would play and then I recorded to that track up here, sent my flute track down there, and then he's actually playing these in concerts in Russia this week, where he sees me on the video and playing and he plays along with me.
So, it's the way that we worked out to play together and I think it just shows that music is universal and that real people live up here and we have hobbies and things we love, just like people down on earth.
ROMANS: It's truly amazing that we're speaking to you all.
The flight engineer, Paolo Nespoli, I wanted to ask you that, you know, last Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of man's first journey into space, the 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch. What does it all mean to you guys to be up there together from different countries, astronauts and cosmonauts, who are, you know, together in space exploration?
PAOLO NESPOLI, FLIGHT ENGINEER: Well, the month of April, it's a very important month. It's also my birthday. So, but -- no -- 50 years ago, 50 years ago, the humankind kind of leaped forward outside of this world and the journey, the exploration, has continued then and keep bringing -- bring us and pushes us forward. It is one of our things that we do and we do best.
It's really interesting how altogether we can feel like a human race, not any more any single country, and it's very nice and fascinating all these countries up here on the station, but also overall on the ground, can work together and build something that transcends boundaries and societies and pushes us over. This is really nice.
VELSHI: Hey, flight engineer Ron Garan, a lot of parents watching us getting ready for work and their kit kids are no different than we were as kids, saying that they want to go into space and become astronauts. But the space program is changing so much. Pretty soon, it will be commercial vessels shuttling astronauts to things like the International Space Station.
Can kids still dream of being astronauts? And what will it be like 20 years from now, what will kids who decide to be astronauts be doing, Ron?
GARAN: Yes. Of course, kids can still dream of becoming astronauts and, you know, hopefully, you know, what we're trying to do is, you know, NASA and the other government agencies want to get out of the business of lower earth orbit and we want to go beyond that, we want to explore further and further into the solar system and that's what, you know, the big organizations, big governmental organizations do best. They can push the engine of the envelope and that's what I see, you know, the astronaut in the future doing.
And just as you said, you know, hopefully very soon, going to lower earth orbit will be no different than getting on an airplane and flying to a different country or, you know, flying somewhere else in the world. It will be commonplace. And so, hopefully, when that happens, you know, we will see further and further exploration, and we'll always have room. You know, the universe is a really big place so we'll always have some place to explore.
VELSHI: Good. Well, you guys stay safe up there. Great talking to you -- Ron, Katie, Paolo, Dmitry, Andrei, and Alexander, good luck up there.
ROMANS: Bye, everybody.
All right. NASA is announcing later today that where you'll be able to see the retiring space shuttles. Our John Zarrella is live next hour with details on which cities are in the running.
We'll be right back. It's 44 minutes past the hour.
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VELSHI: A lot going on this morning. Here's what you need to know to start your day. Maximum nuclear alert. It's a threat level at Japan's crippled. Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has been raised to a category 7. That's on par with Chernobyl. Officials have widened the evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant.
Trouble on the tarmac at New York's JFK Airport. Check this out. An Air France Airbus, A380, the world's largest passenger plane collides with a commuter plane as it taxis out for takeoff. No one was injured. Investigators are trying to figure out what happened. We know that ten tornadoes touched down in Wisconsin on Sunday. Lincoln County, 200 miles northwest of Milwaukee got battered. Dozens of homes damaged or destroyed. The governor is considering asking for federal help.
Jurors in the Barry Bonds perjury trial return for a third day of deliberations this morning. Bonds is charged with lying to a grand jury in 2003 when he said he never knowingly took steroids or human growth hormones.
The next time you see them, they'll be getting married. Prince William and Kate Middleton made their final public appearance yesterday before the royal wedding which is now just 17 days away. You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back in 60 seconds.
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VELSHI: Yesterday, we were looking at those pictures out of Iowa.
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: The tornado that occurred on Sunday. Now, we got news of ten tornados in Wisconsin also at the same time. Jacqui Jeras covering all of the extreme weather, and there is extreme weather in the country today. She's at the Extreme Weather Center. Hi, Jacqui.
ROMANS: Good morning, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, guys. Yes. It's the same storm system. It's still on the move. It could produce more severe weather today, but we're going to be looking at this area, North Carolina, Virginia, in the parts of Maryland and the Delmarva Peninsula. That's the spot where we could see things trigger up later on this afternoon. Now, one of the other things we've been dealing with with the system has been putting down a lot of heavy rain and heavy rain along with snow melt means a lot of flooding.
We've been dealing with a lot of that across parts of the Midwest. Take a look at these pictures out of the Fargo and Morehead Area, out -- this is along the Red River of the north which crested this weekend. So, that's the good news that we hit the crest. The bad news is it hasn't budged a whole heck of a lot since then. So, very little recession on this river, and it's going to stay at flood likely for at least the next week.
So, they still really need those sandbags to continue to hold. Now, the northeast, we're going to be a little concerned about some flooding for you as well as this rain begins to move in along with that snow melt. So, New England, a lot of those major rivers are going to start to rise in the days ahead. Tough travel conditions for you today in Louisville as well as Cincinnati down towards the Nashville with this heavy rain.
If you're going to be flying today, expecting delays this afternoon, New York City, D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta. The wind is going to be a problem for you. Charlotte, thunderstorms later on, and a couple of delays, maybe, for you in Orlando and Tampa because of those thunderstorms, as well. Cooler air on the back side of this system and windy conditions again in parts of the southwest means that fire danger remains high today.
And a new storm system moves in from the west and that's going to mean more severe weather western when it hits into the plains later on this week. In the meantime, enjoy those temperatures above average. Sixty-eight degrees today in Minneapolis.
VELSHI: It was nice and toasty yesterday and today, even in New York. I got to go to Atlanta later on today.
JERAS: Oh, good.
VELSHI: You saw this wind. Is that going to be an issue?
JERAS: You know, maybe 15 to 30. Go ahead, but I'm not too worried about it.
ROMANS: Thanks, Jacqui.
VELSHI: Jacqui is never all that stressed.
ROMANS: No, she's not.
VELSHI: That's good.
ROMANS: She's seen it all.
VELSHI: The weather. Isn't that right?
ROMANS: Jacqui has seen it all.
All right. The morning's top stories minutes away.
Also, she was stopped by a security guard at the Masters on a thrilling Sunday. A female reporter barred from the locker room, by the way, at a club that still doesn't allow female members. Now, she's angry and speaking out.
VELSHI: And an eye-opening poll about the civil war that started 150 years ago and a line still divides some of us. We'll tell you what I'm talking about. It is 51 minutes after the hour.
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ROMANS: Ten people, including a former coach and two former players at the University of San Diego have been charged with trying to fix the school's basketball games. The indictment alleges they operated an illegal sports book-making business and distributed marijuana, using the proceeds to bribe players to alter the outcome of games. The school's all-time leading scorer, all-time leading scorer, is among those indicted.
VELSHI: All right. Top stories coming your way after the break. We'll be right with you.
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JONATHAN LEE IVERSON, RINGMASTER: Hi. I'm Jonathan Lee Iverson, and I spend 48 weeks out of the year with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey as the ringmaster of the greatest show on earth.
Living on circus train, it's so unique. Your backyard can be anything at any time. My trip for traveling with the family is simple. Your community is magic. Kids at that age, they're looking for an adventure. You know, to be honest, we're all looking for an adventure.
I like the GPS for the simple fact that it has plenty of little treasures on here, you know, parks, live theater, amusement parks that you can just find with the click of a button. Exercise is not merely important. It's a necessity. Fortunately, we travel on the world's largest privately owned train. So, I know if I run about two or three laps so to speak, I'm running a few miles, and, so that's how I get it.
Thank you so much for joining my family and me here at our home on the Ringling brothers and Barnum & Bailey train.
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