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American Morning
Obama's Deficit Slashing Plan; Trump for President in 2012?; TSA Defends Security Scanner on Pat-Down; One Year After Oil Spill; One-on-One with Gordon Brown; Giant Airbus Just Too Big?; Mubarak and Sons in Custody; Carrier Classic
Aired April 13, 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, the president is ready to lay out his plan for tackling $14 trillion in debt, changes to Medicare and Medicaid. We'll also let you know what's on the chopping block and how it could impact you.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: He's been talking nonstop about the president's birthplace and it might just be working because Donald Trump is now a front-runner for the Republican nomination in the latest CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll.
CHETRY: Also, the TSA in the spotlight again, defending an airport screener in New Orleans who patted down a crying 6-year-old girl. We have the tape and the TSA's take on their latest controversy.
ROMANS: Plus, how you could wind up owning a piece of the Empire State Building. That's right, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. A lot happening overnight. Let's get you caught up.
With the entire country on a collision course with a $14 trillion debt ceiling, President Obama will lay out his plan for long-term spending cuts today. Republicans already saying, more must go.
CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. The TSA is defending a security screener in New Orleans who patted down a 6-year-old girl. The child was crying. She said she didn't want to be touched. We have the video and the TSA's explanation ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ROMANS: All right. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING, Wednesday, April 13th. Ali has the morning off. A lot of news we're following today.
CHETRY: Yes, good to see you this morning.
ROMANS: You too.
CHETRY: Up first, your money and probably the next generation's money as well. President Obama laying out his plan to try to tackle massive mounting deficits and the national debt. He's going to be speaking today about it.
ROMANS: Dan Lothian live for us at the White House this morning.
Dan, the president's plan, it's expected to include changes to programs like Medicare and Medicaid. That's always risky in an election year. Frankly, in any year it's risky to talk about changes in Medicare and Medicaid, Dan.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. But as you point out, especially risky now looking ahead to the 2012 elections as the president is trying to court those independent voters. So he will be making what is a critical speech. What the White House is saying he'll be laying out a vision for this future fiscal responsibility.
They're, no doubt, going to face some hits from both sides. Both Republicans and Democrats are offering some criticism ahead of the president's remarks. I'll talk about that more in just a moment. But a White House official says that here are some of the themes that the president will be touching on in that speech this afternoon.
First of all, he'll talk about keeping domestic spending low. He'll touch on finding additional savings in the defense budget. The president also will touch on something that's quite controversial that is reducing some of the costs in health care and also strengthening Medicare and Medicaid and then finally, revising the tax code.
So these are some of the themes, sort of broad themes that the White House is laying out there that the president will be touching on today. What Republicans are saying is that they want to hear some specifics. As you know, last week, the House rolled out the Ryan plan which is something that this administration has said that they're not willing to embrace. But they want specifics and there's also the warning from Republicans, we heard specifically from House Speaker John Boehner that if the president is going to talk about raising taxes, then that is a, quote, "nonstarter," that is unacceptable.
On the Democratic side, they're concerned that the president might be offering up too deep of cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. They don't want the president to touch social security. So it would be a very careful balancing act today when the president rolls out that speech as he will be getting pressure from both sides -- Kiran.
CHETRY: They're going to be fighting about the similar themes that we heard about last go-round, whether or not these Bush-era tax cuts should expire on people making over 250,000 and then also the questions about touching these so-called sacred cows, the entitlement programs.
LOTHIAN: That's right. And you're talking about the tax -- the tax cuts for the wealthy. Republicans are saying that they don't want that to be -- to be touched at all. The Obama administration saying that this is an area where they can get some revenue and not touch middle-class Americans. They want to protect middle class Americans but certainly see wealthier Americans as a target to boost revenues. So, you know, this will be a very sort of careful balancing act that the president will have to walk.
And I'll tell you, in addition to sort of the concerns on some of these more meaty issues, Democrats also upset that they didn't even find out about this meeting or rather this speech that the president was making, until over the weekend. They weren't directly informed. And so, you know, that's one of the reasons we're seeing that the administration is having a meeting pre-speech this morning where Speaker Boehner and other Democrats will be coming here to the White House with the president to lay out the vision to them before making his speech.
ROMANS: That's right. And Steny Hoyer and others, a couple of those participants we'll have here on the program later on to try to get a sense of what it's going to take for them to be sold by what the president is going to sell later this afternoon.
Dan Lothian, thank you so much.
CHETRY: That's right. As Christine mentioned, we're going to be talking about this today. We're going to get reaction to the budget deal that leaders struck over the weekend from people who've actually seen it. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is going to be joining us at 7:10 Eastern, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will be joining us at 7:45. And, of course, we'll have complete coverage of the president's speech from George Washington University. That's taking place today, this afternoon, 1:35 Eastern Time.
ROMANS: Well, it looks like another Republican officially threw his hat in the ring last night. That is before the hat rolled out of the ring or was snatched out of the ring. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty told CNN's Piers Morgan that he's in the race. He was responding to a hypothetical question whether he would serve as Donald Trump's vice president if Trump earned the GOP nomination in 2012. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": Would you accept that honor?
TIM PAWLENTY (R), FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: I'm running for president. I'm not putting my hat in the ring rhetorically or ultimately for vice president. Thus so, I'm focused on running for president.
MORGAN: In a hypothetical --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: But later, Team Pawlenty released a statement basically saying he didn't say what he just said, that his comments were not an official announcement of running for president.
CHETRY: So it's interesting the parsing of words.
ROMANS: That's right. CHETRY: You know, it's like just run already.
ROMANS: I know. All these rules.
CHETRY: All these people haven't really declared and we're not that far away, actually. It's a very, very interesting election year.
ROMANS: But Donald Trump has already been banging the drum about his own campaign and banging the drum for the so-called birthers questioning whether President Obama was born in the United States. And it's been a boost for Trump's presidential ambitions.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll has Trump tied with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as the top Republican choice for nominee in 2012. Nineteen percent back Trump for president. Another 19 percent support Huckabee, followed by 12 percent for Sarah Palin. Trump is up nine points in the last month. Wow.
CHETRY: Well, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons are in the custody of Egypt's public prosecutor this morning. They're being detained for 15 days while investigators look into corruption and abuse charges against them. Mubarak was seized just hours after he was reportedly hospitalized with heart problems.
And in Libya where NATO air strikes are taking out Moammar Gadhafi's tanks one by one. We have video now of a brimstone missile destroying a tank in the city of Misrata. Nine tanks in all were targeted yesterday. There you see the explosion and the destruction of that tank. The fighting between government troops and the opposition said to be very intense in Misrata. British and French officials are calling for more aggressive NATO strikes in Libya.
ROMANS: This morning, the Transportation Security Administration says an agent who performed a pat-down on a 6-year-old little girl in the New Orleans airport was following proper procedure. Now someone filmed the whole thing, put it on YouTube. It happened on April 5th.
The girl was crying. She said she didn't want to do it. But she was calmed down and she complied. The TSA says the pat-down was necessary to resolve an issue that came up when the little girl went through a body imaging machine.
CHETRY: Well, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and four city councilmen hit with record fines for ethics violations. They were fined for accepting free tickets to a variety of award shows, including the Oscars, the Emmys and the Grammys. Villaraigosa will have to pay $42,000. He says his failure to report the freebies over a five-year period was unintentional. Fines for the city council members range from $2,100 to $4,800.
ROMANS: Two sets of remains discovered along the beaches of Long Island, New York, yesterday, are human. But police are not saying if they're connected to eight murders that are believed to be the work of a suspected serial killer. Police say four of the victims who've been identified had advertised prostitution services on Web sites like Craigslist. CHETRY: Heavy rains, powerful winds causing severe flooding and property damage in central Kentucky. Lexington getting soaked with another 2 1/2 inches of rain yesterday after nearly an inch and a half fell the day before. Powerful storm system is also expected to move in at the end of the week and cause even more flooding.
ROMANS: Amazing pictures there. Let's get a quick check of the morning's weather headlines to see if any of this is going to last. Jacqui Jeras is in the Extreme Weather Center.
Good morning, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, guys. Yes, that system continuing to hit the U.S. and that's what we're dealing with in the northeast today. A system that was in Kentucky, now bugging you guys across the megalopolis.
Take a look at the radar picture. You can see most of the heavy rain, upstate New York and then also offshore, but it's just going to be a rainy and raw day. A much weakened storm, so that's the good news, and not really expecting severe weather, but certainly will have an impact on your travel. Might want to head out the door a little bit early this morning. And we're certainly expecting airport delays at many of these airports later on in the afternoon hours.
It's kind of a lingerer. This should be out of here, we think, about 24 hours from now. And then the big concern is when we start to focus on our system out west. This is going to bring in some incredible winds in the southwest today, concerned about blowing dust in those areas as well, and it's going to bring extremely critical fire conditions across New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma and areas that already have hundreds of thousands of acres, literally burning, as we speak. It's also going to bring a lot of severe weather tomorrow too. So today kind of the calm before the storm guys. Get ready for some big changes once again in your forecast and enjoy those warm weather in the south as we stay a bit coolish across the northeast and the northwest.
ROMANS: All right, Jacqui Jeras. Thank you, Jacqui.
CHETRY: Well, NASA has selected retirement homes, I guess you could call them, for four of the remaining shuttles, space shuttle orbiters. Of course, these are huge, much sought-after for various museums around the country.
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: Because wow, what a draw. The shuttle program as we know is shutting down this summer and more than 20 facilities around the country were trying to land one of the orbiters. The space shuttle "Atlantis" was awarded to the Kennedy Space Center, the visitor complex in Florida. And the "Endeavour" is going to be on display at the California Science Center in L.A. "Discovery" goes to Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. And the final stop for the test shuttle "Enterprise" will be the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum here in New York. So wow, a lot of different places across the country to get a chance to check them out.
ROMANS: I know. So many of us grew up watching the "Apollo" artifacts, if you will.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: And now, this is a new era of space discovery that hopefully will inspire a new era of science and astronauts.
CHETRY: I still remember it. It was the coolest thing when I was younger to go to the Air and Space Museum.
ROMANS: Oh, yes.
CHETRY: And to actually go inside of that capsule.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: And see what they ate.
ROMANS: Anyway, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, one on one with Gordon Brown. Kiran and the former prime minister of Britain talking global economy, the special relationship between Britain and the U.S. and, of course, the royal wedding.
CHETRY: Exactly. Well, one year after the gulf oil spill, disturbing status report on the state of the wetlands. This is what they were very concerned about from the very beginning.
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: So now we do a check back and see how things are going.
ROMANS: Also, a gator goes for a dip and he's hungry. We'll show you what he tried to eat.
It's 11 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Nearly a year after the start of the oil spill in the gulf, some wildlife is rebounding but many species may need significant help to recover. According to the latest study by the National Wildlife Federation, the current status of the gulf's coastal wetlands is poor and if there isn't a massive coastal restoration, Louisiana will lose an area of wetlands larger than the state of Rhode Island by the year 2015.
CHETRY: Yes. This is the breeding ground for all the species.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: You know, the breeding ground for even the shrimp and for the fish and everything, the crabs, and so I mean it's vital. They were petrified about this. You can't clean wetlands.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: You can't clean oil out of the wetlands. They're destroyed. So it's a very tough situation. We'll see what they do with it.
Meanwhile, don't dip your toe in the water because you might lose it. We're not talking about the gulf here. We're talking about Port Ritchie, Florida, where someone went in the pool and when he came home for lunch, there he found an eight-foot long gator.
ROMANS: Oh, my --
CHETRY: It's between the doggy paddle. I don't even know. And I think that it was probably more than a doggy paddle. It bit down and took chunk out of the tile before a trapper came and actually was able to drag it out of there -- literally drag it out of there. They're used to doing this in -- in Florida a lot. You know, there's a good business for that.
ROMANS: The gator is like I've been waiting for you guys all morning.
CHETRY: I know.
ROMANS: Gee, can you imagine?
All right. This story gives a new meaning to higher learning. Ray Logan of Portland Maine has launched Marijuana State University. It's a three-hour class that teaches student how to grow the plant for medical purposes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY LOGAN, LAUNCHES MARIJUANA STATE UNIVERSITY: I think it's important that people know it's a medicine now, not just a recreational drug, so to say, as some would classify it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Logan says most of the people who attended the first class were patients registered to use medical marijuana and they were looking for a cost-effective alternative to expensive treatments.
CHETRY: They had those classes in -- I forget, somewhere near Berkeley or something in California, hugely popular as well. Yes. They had Cannabis University or something like that.
ROMANS: Higher education --
CHETRY: Yes. Get it.
ROMANS: Very funny.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it was the worst of times with the world economy on the verge of collapse back in 2008. But it was also a bright moment for then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown whose efforts helped push leaders towards a global solution to the financial crisis. Brown wrote a book about that and his time at 10 Downing Street. It's titled "Beyond The Crash."
I had a chance to sit down with him earlier in the week. And we began by asking what lessons we learned from the collapse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: You recently said in an interview that you made a big mistake in the way you tackled financial regulation before the banking system collapsed. What would you have changed?
GORDON BROWN, FMR. BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I said everybody made a big mistake. I said the whole -- the whole problem was that we looked at individual institutions and said, are they credit worthy, are they safe? And it looked on the surface as if that were the case, but they were entangled with each other and we had a shadow banking system that wasn't being regulated at all.
But the one thing we know now is we're in a global economy and if you simply have national regulators and national supervisors trying to manage what is a global entity of institutions, it's not going to work. So you've got to go global.
CHETRY: Looking back, what are some of the biggest lessons learned about what happened?
BROWN: I think the big thing to learn is that we're in a huge transition, a massive restructuring of the world economy. The world used to be a world where America had the biggest single market and the biggest number of consumers. Actually, it's going to be Asia in the future and Europe and America have got to get used to that. But it's a huge opportunity to sell to the world.
And in this new world where you have three billion people in your middle class, two billion of them in Asia, America has got to sell to these markets and America can be really successful in the next Asia- led (ph) history by being a great exporter to the rest of the world as well as having great prosperity within its own country. And I think you've just been too pessimistic about your prospects for the future.
CHETRY: What do you think is the single biggest threat right now to financial security globally?
BROWN: I think the danger at the moment is that huge amounts of money are going into Asia because the Asian economy is expanding. So you've got hot money in a sense going into Asia and you've got the danger of people speculating the danger of inflation in Asia, the danger then of another bubble bursting.
But the long-term danger is not actually understanding that you're living in this global economy, and so America tries to do something, Europe tries to do something, China tries to do something and you end up getting into a situation where there's no global minimum and, therefore, the banks actually can do exactly what they want. That's a real problem.
CHETRY: What do you make of what we've -- what we've been seeing when it comes to these protests and revolutions in some of these countries that have been led by dictators or autocrats for decades?
BROWN: Well, I think it's amazing, because everything predicted has not happened. People thought that you would move to theocratic, Islamic extremist governments. People thought that the people of these regions were not interested in democracy, but we've found they are. People thought that there would be anti-American protests, but there are not.
And so I think it shows that young people right across the world have similar aspirations about their dignity, but also about the freedom and opportunities they can have. One of the features of Egyptian discontent is the large numbers of young people who can't get a job, even if they've got a graduate degree, 45 percent in Tunisia where there was a revolution as well, even in Saudi Arabia, 30 percent of young people are unemployed.
So you've got this problem around the world where we're not generating enough opportunities for -- for young people. And yet at the same time, you can see there are unmet needs and there are unused resources that could actually put young people to work and give them the training and education that's necessary for jobs.
So I think we've got to separately tackle this problem of young people's unemployment and make sure we don't allow this generation to be the first for many, many generations where young people can't really say that their prospects are going to be better than their parents.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: And while that seems to be a little bit of a pessimistic note, overall he was largely optimistic that when we do get a handle on these major imbalances globally when it comes to emerging economies like China and India that things will actually get better. He's very fascinating and he did have a lot of optimism for the future.
ROMANS: Yes. It's amazing that he was sort of the treasurer, if you will, for so long for the U.K. and when the crisis hit, he found himself in the Prime Minister chair and he had a lot of experience many on Wall Street and the banking system worldwide. We're glad that someone who knew the system was there --
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROMANS: -- trying to figure out how to fix this.
CHETRY: So it would also be interesting because we did talk to him a little bit more about why Americans are so obsessed with the Royal Wedding and with the --
ROMANS: Oh, yes. CHETRY: -- Royals in general on the monarchy when we fought to get away from them.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: So he weighs in a little bit about that. We'll be showing that later in the week.
Coming up, the heated debate over this ad. Some critics are saying it's gender-bending propaganda. It's a woman painting her little boy's toenails bright pink. Others say it's just cute. We'll tell you what the buzz is all about, coming up.
Twenty-one minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: We've been talking about gas prices. Not just inching up but really shooting up.
ROMANS: It's the thing you feel every single week, you know? I mean, there's so many economic stories that, you know, maybe eventually you're going to feel, but this is the one that you feel every week.
CHETRY: Food shopping, too.
ROMANS: That's the other one.
CHETRY: Right. $5 for Cheerios now.
Well, anyway, it's getting closer and closer to $4 a gallon this morning. Overnight, we saw the 22nd straight increase. According to AAA, the national average is now $3.81 a gallon, up about two cents from yesterday.
ROMANS: You could soon own a piece of the Empire State Building. Are you bullish? I want to go along the Empire State Building.
CHETRY: Do you believe this?
ROMANS: "The New York Times" reporting the family who owns the New York City landmark is going to create a publicly traded company to allow people like you and me to invest in the world's famous skyscraper. You can buy shares in it, I guess. But it's always the devils in the details.
The Malcolm family first has to get the OK from partners, partners including the estate of Leona Helmsley.
CHETRY: Those are the two dogs, right? So they'll get (ph) the OK from the dogs?
ROMANS: Bark yes -- once for yes, twice for no.
CHETRY: Well, Cisco Systems is shutting down its flip line of camcorders. You know, flip cams.
ROMANS: Wow.
CHETRY: This is interesting. They say that it went, you know, bye-bye because of the iPhone 4. Coming two years after it bought the start-up that created the groundbreaking camera, growing sales of smartphones with video cameras have basically cut into the flip camera sales. And one of our writers, Rick (ph), was saying, I had the flip cam and then I got the iPhone 4. And now I haven't touched the flip down.
ROMANS: It shows you how fast technology is changing. They paid -- I mean, I think a few hundred million dollars for that company --
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: -- just a couple years ago -- just a few years ago and now they're saying, no, we're going to close the whole -- whole shop.
OK. A J. Crew ad with a little boy wearing pink toenail polish sparking a -- a debate online over gender identity. Here it is. It shows a mom painting her son's toenails with a caption "Lucky for me. I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink."
This all started with FOX News asking if it crossed the line, saying some parents were outraged that J. Crew was blurring the lines between little boys and girls. But many parenting bloggers responded by saying what's the big deal.
It's also another issue here. I mean, when I first saw this, I immediately thought, well, we're letting our kids grow up too fast. Never a gender issue, but, you know, should all kids be wearing -- I guess, you know, it just raises a lot of questions.
CHETRY: Right. Toenail polish. Yes. Well, I mean, my younger son -- my son wants to get his nails done because we go -- you know, because he sees his sister get his nails done.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: So my husband and I have a compromise. It's pinkies only and it's blue or green. But what are you going to do? To each his own. We'd love for you to weigh in anyway.
ROMANS: Yes. Please weigh in.
CHETRY: So the largest passenger plane in the world, too much of beast for our runways? Well, you saw the amazing video of the huge Airbus just spinning around another regional jet when it was clipped on the runway. You're about to see it happen here.
New questions being raised. This is the A-380. It was a collision at JFK. We'll talk to a pilot who knows the airport inside and out, coming up.
It's 27 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Good morning. Top stories for you.
President Obama will lay out his plan to tackle massive mounting deficits and the national debt in a critical speech today. It's expected to include changes to programs like Medicare and Medicaid. He's also expected to say bluntly attacking the deficit means raising taxes, renewing his call to get rid of the Bush-era tax cuts for the highest tax brackets.
CHETRY: So, now that he's a birther, how does Donald Trump stack up against the other potential Republican nominees in 2012?
Well, pretty good, at least according to the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. Trump tied former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for first place, 19 percent each. Sarah Palin down in third with 12 percent. And this is in the poll of Republicans White House favorites.
ROMANS: The TSA is defending a security screener who gave a 6- year-old little girl an intense pat-down at a New Orleans airport. It happened last week. Someone filmed it and posted it on YouTube. You can see it here.
The TSA says it was necessary to resolve an issue that came up when the child went through a body imaging machine.
CHETRY: And it just came plowing through. You've probably seen the video by now, a huge Airbus A-380. It is the heaviest and most expensive commercial passenger jet ever built, clipping the tail of a much smaller commuter jet. This was on Monday night at JFK airport. You see, it just spins it around like a toy.
ROMANS: No one was hurt. But our next guest says this was an accident just waiting to happen.
John Lucich is a commercial airline pilot familiar with the layout of JFK and other major U.S. airports.
Welcome to the program.
An accident waiting to happen, why? Because a huge plane on airports that haven't really expanded with increased air traffic?
JOHN LUCICH, LICENSED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR: Yes, absolutely. First of all, commercial pilot, never an airline pilot.
ROMANS: Got it.
LUCICH: Flew cargo and flew passengers.
ROMANS: Got it.
LUCICH: Number one, there's about -- before the A-380 appeared, there were five categories, five aircraft design groups, one through five. One through three were for small, medium and large regional aircraft; category four is for wide body; and category five was for jumbo jets.
The A-380 created -- the FAA had to create a new category just for this aircraft.
ROMANS: It's a super jumbo. I mean, seven stories tall. I mean, the wing span is unbelievable. At least three times what this plane is, the little plane.
LUCICH: So, JFK actually is designed as a group five. And the FAA had to give it special permission to actually be able to use those facilities. Now, when you take a look at a 747, which has approximately almost 200 feet wing span, this airplane, the A-380, has a 262-foot wing span. Much, much larger.
CHETRY: So, in this video, what you can make out from it, what went wrong? I mean, who's to blame, if anyone is to blame for how this happened?
LUCICH: There's a lot of facts we don't know. Number one, the CRJ aircraft, the Bombardier 700 series airplane --
ROMANS: You can see that truck scooting right in front of it. So, it looks as though that little, that CRJ, it had something in front of it, too, and couldn't pull forward.
LUCICH: Absolutely. And if the controllers saw that, the ground controllers saw that, they should never let the jumbo jet -- that super jumbo jet go by that. But if that CRJ wasn't pulled up as far as it should have been pulled up, then that may have been the problem. Was the A-380 going -- when you use those jumbo jets in this type of airport, they're restricted in how fast they can go. So, they're going to be taking a look at that.
There's a lot of facts that we don't know. So, I don't want to be able to place fault yet because we don't know enough.
ROMANS: Right. The thing is so big. I mean, as you said, 262-foot wing span, three times wider than the regional jet that was hit. What is the pilot inside that jumbo jet seeing? I mean, it's dark. He probably didn't see that jet, did he?
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: It's raining, I think, too.
LUCICH: It's a wing swept jet. So, all of a sudden the crash actually happened behind him, the impact happened behind him. But you can see he reacted right away, he knew what happened right away when you can feel that jolt and you get -- and clearly, that smaller airplane, which is not so small, but in respect to the bigger one, the CRJ is 75,000 pounds max takeoff weight. The A-380, 1.2 million max takeoff weight. It is a massive airplane.
ROMANS: So, these airports have to get special waivers to be able to even land this A-380 and some more airports want to be able to land this A-380. It's a big plane that's coming in, with a lot of passengers, lot of business. And this is the way some of these big international flights are going.
Is this a wake-up call that maybe our airports aren't ready to handle this kind of traffic?
LUCICH: Well, the FAA knew that. If you take a look at the FAA Web site, they started taking a look at this in 2003, years before the A-380 even hit the market, even entered the air. So, the FAA started to move forward to that.
But when you look at a design group five airport which has 75- foot taxi ways, and this is where this happened. It didn't happen on a 200-foot runway at JFK, that's where the issue -- that's where it became an issue.
I think if we were looking at this in 2003 and then again in 2007, it's also already 2011, why aren't changes been made to JFK?
CHETRY: We talk about it all the time, why don't they? Why is it -- what is that aging infrastructure allowed to be in place when it comes to that?
LUCICH: Airbus is a great airplane and it is the wave of the future.
CHETRY: Right.
LUCICH: We have to make sure our airports now meet that new technology.
ROMANS: But neighborhoods have built around them, and many of these airports are in big cities where -- you know, I mean, politicians can't get the support to make them bigger and widespread. It's -- you know, we're going to see much more air travel over the next few years.
CHETRY: Well, luckily, in this situation, no one was hurt. It could have ended differently.
LUCICH: Separation was an issue.
CHETRY: John Lucich, thanks so much for joining us. Always great to see you.
LUCICH: Thank you.
CHETRY: Up next: stunning developments out of Egypt. We're going to tell you why former President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons are being detained for the next 15 days.
ROMANS: Also, the two jewelry store thieves who decided to leave the diamonds behind.
It's 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour.
Police in Hawaii now are looking for two burglars who broke into a jewelry store Saturday night but they left empty handed in a matter of seconds. That's a good thing, right?
ROMANS: I guess so. Right.
CHETRY: Well, here's the store's surveillance video. One of the men hit several display cases with a hammer but was unable to break them. The other guy then opened fire on the displays, but the bulletproof glass didn't give way. So, police say the men left without any jewels in a stolen car.
ROMANS: Egypt's public prosecutor ordering former President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons detained now for 15 days to investigate them for corruption and abuse allegations.
Zain Verjee live in London.
Good morning, Zain. So, 15 days investigation for these two.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, guys.
This is a really huge deal. I mean, nobody in Egypt thought months ago something like this would ever happen. They are saying that this is justice.
What we heard was that Gamal and Alaa Mubarak are now in this place called Tora prison. They're going to be there for 15 days, and they are going to be here held on suspicion of being involved in killing protesters that were out on Tahrir Square during the uprising, and also on suspicion of corruption.
As for Hosni Mubarak himself, now, he's also been questioned but he's actually admitted into hospital. There are reports that say that he had a heart attack, but it's likely that the questioning of him will continue.
And, you know, guys, just a few days ago only, there were more people out again in Tahrir Square and they were protesting and saying, look, we want Mubarak investigated, we want Mubarak held accountable and charged for any crimes that he's committed. And it's happening. So, people are happy about this.
CHETRY: This is interesting, though, because this country -- I mean, the reports out just yesterday were that he may have had a heart attack and that he was in the hospital. So, he goes from being hospitalized to being detained?
VERJEE: Right. Well, it's not clear whether he actually had a heart attack, but he's in Sharm-el-sheikh and he was at a hospital. What we're hearing is that the questioning of him and him being detained and investigated on allegations of corruption is still going to push ahead.
ROMANS: All right. So, meanwhile, Zain, another -- something big happening and I can't for the life of me I can't place what it is. Kiran, can you help me out?
VERJEE: I don't know.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: I'm headed to Zain in just a couple short weeks now for the royal wedding.
They're really, I mean, of course, doing a ton of preparations. I can't even imagine what it must be like to be trying to pull this thing off. But they're going through the dry runs I guess you could say, Zain.
VERJEE: They are. And it is a massive logistical operation. Now, we're going to take you around and you're going to see for yourself, Kiran.
But you know what? The other thing is that they're doing in all of this, while they're planning the logistics for this wedding, they're actually also planning the logistics for a funeral, the queen's funeral. And the reason they're doing this, is that because you've got all these dignitaries, you've got all these world leaders coming in, you're going to have to deal with security. Were she to die, it would be the same route that the coffin would take as the wedding is taking.
And so, they're kind of just making sure that they know what's going on and they can do kind of like a dry run. Guys, the queen knows about this.
CHETRY: That's so morbid.
VERJEE: I know.
CHETRY: The grandson is getting married.
ROMANS: She seems so (INAUDIBLE) healthy. Why cast a pall over the whole thing?
CHETRY: It's terrible.
VERJEE: Well, nobody is expecting it to happen any time soon, but, you know, she's 84, you know? And she's pragmatic. She knows this is happening. And she said, go ahead, work out the details, whatever you need to. You know, the route is going to go from like Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall and then lay in state for three days and then go to Westminster Abbey.
This is the practical side of everything because so many people are going to be here and, you know, they just need to check that everything is working. I know, it's not a -- it's not nice, but she's being pragmatic about it.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: You may think this is your fairy tale wedding, Kate Middleton. But this is a rehearsal.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Zain Verjee -- thanks, Zain.
VERJEE: Thanks guys.
ROMANS: You can watch Zain every morning at 5:00 a.m. Eastern on "WORLD ONE" right here on CNN.
CHETRY: All right. Still ahead, don't miss CNN's coverage of the royal wedding. It's Friday, April 29th, that's the wedding -- beginning at 4:00 a.m. So, set your alarms, get up early. Find out everything you could possibly want to know about the big event by going to CNN.com/royalwedding.
ROMANS: All right. Quick check of the morning's headlines right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Quarter to the top of the hour. A lot going on this morning. Here's what you need to start your day:
The case for making cuts: President Obama today will lay out his plan to tackle massive mounting deficits and the national debt in a critical speech today. It's expected to include changes to programs like Medicaid and Medicare.
Outrage this morning after a crying 6-year-old girl got an intense pat-down at the Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans last week. Someone caught it on videotape. The TSA says the agent followed proper procedure, but issued a statement saying they need to move beyond a one size fits all system especially with kids.
The National Wildlife Association says the Gulf Coast wetlands are in poor condition a year after the BP oil spill and a massive restoration project is needed or Louisiana will lose an area of wetlands larger than Rhode Island within 40 years.
Fined for taking freebies: the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has agreed to pay more than $40,000 in fines for accepting free tickets to sporting events and award shows, and failing to report them as gifts. Four city councilmen also hit with similar fines.
And a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll suggests Donald Trump is a serious contender, at least for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Trump and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee tied for first place in the poll of who should receive the GOP nomination.
Well, now, you're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back in 60 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Forty-six minutes past the hour. Time to get a check of this morning's weather headlines. Jacqui Jeras is with us in the Extreme Weather Center. For the northeast, I can just say it's just rain, and I don't think it's ever going to stop.
ROMANS: It was big thunderstorms last night, though.
CHETRY: Yes. Pretty intense.
ROMANS: Noisy, noisy.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not a lot of thunder anymore for the rest of today but just kind of miserable. It's rainy. It's raw. It's cold.
CHETRY: April showers bring May flowers.
ROMANS: I know.
JERAS: Thank you for that optimism.
(LAUGHTER)
JERAS: Let's take a look at New York City, shall we? For all of you that don't live there, you want to know how bad it is. Not terrible. Could be worse, right? It could be snow. Forty-three degrees. We've got some mist out there. Low clouds. And we're going to see rain on and off throughout the day today. And that's going to make for a slow commute as the roads are going to be a little bit on the wet side. And yes, you can bet your bottom dollar we'll have some delays at the airports today, as well.
The winds are going to be picking up in the afternoon in the northeast as well. This is our storm system that's had quite the hurrah, so to speak, across the country as it moved in from the West Coast, pushed in across the plains, brought that severe weather. Remember Iowa and Wisconsin both heavy rain and flooding yesterday in Kentucky. And today, it doesn't quite have that umf to it anymore, but it will bring in some occasional rain for you.
So, you can see those temperatures and feeling cool with the dampness. Forty-six in Philadelphia, about 50 in Washington, D.C. You're just going to get the light rain there. The heaviest stuff coming in around providence over towards the cape, and Boston, I think, you're going to get lucky with this one and the worst of the weather is going to stay off to your east, but we get, you know, ten miles to the west. So, you guys are going to be in for it.
We could be talking one to three inches instead of maybe a quarter of an inch to half of an inch. All right. Let's talk about the airports and what kind of delays we can expect today. Probably going to reach over an hour, we think, for the New York City metro airports. Boston and Philadelphia, a little closer to 30 to 60 minutes, but it could get more than that in Boston if you get in on those heavy bands. Fifteen to 30-minute delay is expected in Denver today.
Low clouds and fog this morning with some occasional showers this afternoon. San Francisco, the rain moves back in for you, and Las Vegas, let me tell you, it is going to be a windy today in the southwest. We got wind advisories in effect from California all the way over towards parts of Nevada. We're expecting to see those winds push maybe 50 miles per hour, maybe even 60 miles per hour as you get in some of those mountain peaks.
And this is the beginning that what's going to be a huge storm system that we're going to be tracking into the week ahead. This is our next big weather maker. So, enjoy today, guys, because it's kind of the calm before the storm. The other element that we have coming in with this next storm is that we've got cool air that starting to advance in from the north.
So, it's going to be a much chillier day for you say in Minneapolis over towards Green Bay, and so, as that next system pulls in, we could see some snow in the upper Midwest say by Friday, but we'll be watching for that threat of severe thunderstorms for tomorrow. This is that big risk area from Nebraska stretching down to parts of Texas and this dark red area, guys, that means a moderate risk.
So, we really could see some large tornadoes. It could be very destructive and stay on the ground for a long period of time, and this will start taking place, we think, by tomorrow afternoon.
CHETRY: All right. Jacqui Jeras for us with a look at the national weather, thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. The morning's top stories minutes away.
Also, are these the nails used to crucify Jesus? A filmmaker says they are authentic, found in a tomb in Jerusalem. He says he has solid proof. Are you buying it? It's 49 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right. This is a first for NCAA basketball. Michigan State in North Carolina will play next season on board an aircraft carrier? That's pretty cool, actually. They're going to meet in the carrier classic. It's taking place on Veteran's Days.
ROMANS: The San Diego Sports Commission says the two schools have committed, and they're expecting approval from the U.S. navy. Organizers haven't announced which aircraft carrier will host the game on November 11th, but there's plenty of room to landing.
CHETRY: You know how huge they are.
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: Plenty of room for a game and the fans.
He thought he was pretty smooth. Check out this viral video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY (voice-over): It shows Czech Republic president, Vaclav Klaus, we have him circled, the poor guy, slipping a precious stone encrusted ceremonial pen into his pocket during an official visit to Chile. There it goes. There it goes. You can almost hear him say to himself, I got to play this cool. Play it cool.
And he slips it in his pocket, then he closes up the case, and he puts on his worst poker face in the history of bilateral meetings. A spokesperson for Chilean president, Sebastian Pinera, who was hosting the meeting did say that, come on. Guests are welcome to take the pens.
ROMANS (voice-over): That was a very classy way to handle that. I like that.
CHETRY: Yes. You mean on Pinera's part?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Top stories coming your way right after this break.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The nuclear crisis in Japan is raising safety concerns around the world. Information from inside the Fukushima Daiichi Plant is needed, but radiation levels pose a risk to human lives. So, they're turning to robots for help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they're using them for the incident right now. We can send in these robots and get a good initial assessment of what is the situation, is it safe for people to go in?
FEYERICK: Two different robots have been sent to Japan. One travels by air. One by land. They're equipped with cameras, sensors, and the packbot even has a movable arm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're sending back radiation level. They're sending back what is the oxygen level, and they're sending back are there any toxic gases in there.
FEYERICK: The Georgia Tech Robotics Lab helps research and develop these robots. They believe when disaster strikes, these robots could be an essential tool, whether it's looking for survivors or helping first responders. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very motivating. It has a clear humanitarian value. We are helping people. The fact that we can help them be a little bit safer, making sure they come home at night.
FEYERICK: Artificial intelligence, thinking about humans first.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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