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American Morning
Fallout From Sleeping Controllers and Proper Pat-Downs; More Jobs for College Grads; Mom Drives Van Into River; Gas Prices: Up, Up and Away
Aired April 15, 2011 - 06:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): One town turned upside down after deadly weather and possible tornadoes tearing across the south. Weather that's on the move right now. A look at the damage and where it could hit next on this AMERICAN MORNING.
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ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning. April 15th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING.
ROMANS (on-camera): New this hour. Outraged parents posting pictures and videos of their kids getting airport pat-downs. Now, the TSA rethinking whether it's really necessary to screen a six-year-old little girl like that.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Rethinking it. OK. Maybe your diploma will pay off this year. More jobs for college graduates are opening up. Jobs that they actually studied for.
VELSHI: And he threw the immaculate reception and won four Super Bowls, but Steelers great, Terry Bradshaw, says the hits he took on the field still linger today. Dr. Sanjay Gupta digging deeper into the problem of concussions in the NFL.
ROMANS: Up first, extreme weather, violent storms across the country right now, tornadoes possible this morning in parts of at least seven states. Funnel clouds caught forming across Oklahoma. At least five deaths have now been reported across the plains and the south.
Some storm chasers in a pick-up truck found themselves a little too close to the funnel cloud in Stonewall, Oklahoma. They almost drove right into a mile-wide tornado.
(WEATHER BREAK)
CHETRY: All right, so we have one budget battle down, but the House and the Senate still have some work to do. But let's just celebrate what they were able to do. They approved the deal struck between the President and Congressional leaders last weekend, the one that just got in before the deadline that would have shut the government down.
But about a quarter of House Republicans and more than half of Democrats oppose the deal. The Republican House meantime is expected to begin considering Congressman Paul Ryan's plan to slash the deficit. It would cut about $6 trillion from federal spending over the next ten years.
ROMANS: Meantime the president hitting the campaign trail for the first time since he announced he's seeking reelection. He was in the friendly confines last night of his hometown of Chicago where he has had many fundraisers. Earlier in an ABC News interview, President Obama took on opponents who continued to question whether or not he was born in the United States.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Over the last two and a half years, there has been an effort to go at me in a way that is politically expedient in the short term for Republicans, but creates I think a problem for them when they want to actually run in the general election where most people feel pretty confident the president was born where he said he was, in Hawaii. He doesn't have horns.
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CHETRY: The president has an unlikely alley on the birther issue, Karl Rove, who says this debate is hurting Republicans.
VELSHI: Later today an FBI helicopter with high resolution photography equipment onboard is going to fly over Long Island's south shore beaches. They're trying to find more victims of a suspected serial killer. A massive search yesterday turned up no clues. So far eight bodies have been found along with two sets of human remains discovered this week.
Jason Carroll is joining us this morning. Jason, I mean, are they looking for more bodies for a reason or are they just trying to get something that's going to crack this case?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Both. Both, to be honest. What it's going to take, it's going to take hard work to crack this case and a bit of luck. You know, as the search on Long Island intensifies we spoke to a former detective who knows firsthand what it takes to track and capture a serial killer.
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CARROLL: As investigators search for more clues to lead them to a suspected serial killer or killers on long island, one former detective who helped find one of America's most infamous serial killers watches every development.
JOSEPH COFFEY, RETIRED NYPD DETECTIVE SERGEANT: These cases are very wearing on detectives. These guys out here, I feel for them because I went through the same thing with the Son of Sam. CARROLL: "Son of Sam," that's how David Berkowitz identified himself in 1977. The serial killer shot 13, murdering six before getting caught.
COFFEY: I had a certain amount of rage in my heart regarding Mr. Berkowitz.
CARROLL: Joseph Coffey led the task force created to catch him.
COFFEY: Emotionally you have memories coming back to you all the time.
CARROLL: Reporter: His background, giving a unique perspective into the Long Island investigation.
COFFEY: Keep this in mind, these bodies were hidden for a purpose. Whoever this is, didn't anticipate that these bodies being found.
CARROLL (on camera): What does that say to you?
COFFEY: When he started his crime wave, if you want to call it that, it was a vendetta, he was afraid of getting caught.
CARROLL (voice-over): Finding evidence here, a challenge, the brush too thick even for police dogs. But Coffey says more leads may develop by learning how the four identified victims got there. All were known prostitutes.
COFFEY: Interview cab drivers, not necessary as the perpetrator but as witnesses because these women had to have transportation to get to and from their Johns.
CARROLL (on camera): Do you think the person or persons responsible for what's happening out here, wants to be caught?
COFFEY: No. That's a fallacy.
CARROLL: Is it?
COFFEY: No. They say that all the time. He wants to be caught. That's boloney.
CARROLL (voice-over): Coffey is reminded of another serial killer, Joel Rifkin. He also targeted prostitutes and convicted of killing nine but confessed to murdering 17.
COFFEY: Whoever is doing this knows this area. Whether he was born and raised here, or whether he still lives here, you couldn't do what this person is doing without knowing this area.
CARROLL (on camera): Why not just leave the area and go quiet for a period of time?
COFFEY: Because they love the game, and this is a game to them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, coffee says detectives are doing a good job in not releasing too much information to the press. He says the mistake they made in Son of Sam was being too quick to release information. David Berkowitz was watching and used that to his advantage.
VELSHI: The assumption is somebody who's responsible for this is watching.
CHETRY: Is aware of the coverage.
CARROLL: You have to make that assumption.
CHETRY: And the police know more than they're saying.
CARROLL: That's a very good point, Kiran, because Coffey believes that police actually do have more substantial leads and are not letting on for obvious reasons.
ROMANS: All right, Jason Carroll, fascinating story, thanks.
The FAA official in charge of taking the fall for controllers sleeping on the job, Hank Krakowski, was forced to resign as head of the nation's air traffic control system. The FAA says it's begun a top to bottom review of the system, this after the latest incident with where a sleeping controller forced a medical emergency flight at Reno-Tahoe airport to circle for 16 minutes before landing on its own with a very sick patient on board. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood calls the incidents totally unacceptable.
This morning every public school teacher in Detroit is getting a pink slip. Layoff notices went out to nearly 5,500 union members in the city's troubled public school system. Officials are preparing to close as many as 25 schools in June. It's unlikely that all teacher jobs will be eliminated. Last year the district sent out 2,000 layoff notices, a fraction of those teachers actually lost their jobs.
CHETRY: It's the end of an era in daytime television, ABC now canceling two of TV's longest-running soap operas, the ones I have to admit I watched. "All my Children" which made had its debut in 1970 is going off the air in September, and "One Life to Live" is going off the air. It's been on since 1968.
VELSHI: I used to watch these with my grandmother.
CHETRY: It was a bonding experience.
Well, the network is planning two unscripted lifestyle shows, one about food and the other about weight loss. So there are a lot of people --
ROMANS: Cheaper to produce.
VELSHI: Soap operas were expensive to produce except they became bigger. But back in the day the struggling actors. ROMANS: They have three or four soaps per network and they had a continuing following throughout the date through decades. No other kind of franchise that may be able do that. Now if you have eight seasons of anything it's a big deal.
CHETRY: Jason is yawning. You don't like soap operas.
CARROLL: Little boring.
CHETRY: You never know if it's a dream, amnesia, an evil twin, she could come back.
CARROLL: Excuse me.
VELSHI: Nobody ever really dies.
CHETRY: They always come back. It was a dream.
ROMANS: Suddenly the next season, the actor changes but it's the same character.
CHETRY: Exactly.
Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, a PR nightmare for the FAA, air traffic controllers napping on the job and these pat-downs, cell phone video, kids as young as six get enhanced pat-downs as they stand there crying. We'll take a closer look at these issues.
VELSHI: Let's not taint this thing. Not everybody thinks it's all that controversial.
ROMANS: Let's take a break.
VELSHI: We'll take a closer look at these issues from all perspectives.
Good news for this year's college grads. They have better job prospects than any graduating class since they were freshmen.
ROMANS: Great. That's good.
VELSHI: We're minding your business.
ROMANS: A new report out. Most meat and poultry is covered by a dangerous bacterium. How could you spot the warning signs? Is there a way to protect yourself? We'll have those answers for anyone who prepares meat. It's ten minutes after the hour.
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ROMANS: Welcome back to "American Morning." A string of problems at airports across the country. Safety in our skies is important but a pat-down of a six-year-old, some say the TSA is taking it too far.
VELSHI: You may need to continue this because Kiran and I are continuing our argument from the break. Air traffic controllers, we're not arguing about this, sleeping on the job, a problem that's happening all it too often. Here to weigh in on these issues, legal analyst Sunny Hostin, aviation security expert Billie Vincent. Good morning to both of you.
Billie, let's start with you, air traffic controllers asleep on the job. I'm of the mind we are overcomplicating this conversation about having extra air traffic controllers and people resigning from the FAA. Sleep on the job, you get fired. Why is it any more complicated than that?
BILLIE VINCENT, AVIATION SECURITY EXPERT: It probably isn't. And having been a controller, I'm embarrassed by what's happening. And there's really no excuse for that. I worked those shifts and a mid-shift every other week for 15 or 16 years and never encountered that problem. There has to be something else afoot here.
ROMANS: Do you think, Billie, they're talking about putting another $161,000 a year air traffic controller in the tower with them, saying yesterday is that just expensive babysitting. Shouldn't there be policies in place where you don't go to sleep on the job?
VINCENT: As I said, there is something underlying all of this that is a major problem. It's not -- the solution is not to add another person. As you say, a babysitter. That doesn't make sense.
CHETRY: The other question, we have Sunny here, about this, you're a lawyer. What about the legal implications of this? In the latest incident, I mean this was a medical flight that was coming through. They said the patient was in bad shape. They had to circle for an extra 16 minutes. If that patient worst case scenario died or health was affected because of that, I mean is the FAA liable?
SUNNY HOSTIN, LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR, TRUTV: I would think so. There's significant civil liability. Not only FAA but certainly the person that's asleep would also be civilly liable. No question about it.
CHETRY: Interesting.
VELSHI: Billie, what's the issue here? There's sort of a larger percolating issue you got a view on about air traffic controllers. Is there something fundamentally changed over the last several years with air traffic control or air traffic controllers?
VINCENT: Well, there's two things that have changed. One is, the FAA changed it rather than changing air traffic control to a private organization, which everybody opposed in the Congress and I personally opposed. They set up a different organization within the FAA and brought in outside heads. In this case, two pilots. That was a part of the problem. The other part of the problem goes back for several years now, and having to do with the amount of control a union has over the scheduling and the activities of an air traffic control from a management standpoint. A lot of that was given away in the '90s, taken back in the early 2000s, and then given away again in the most recent administration, which is pro-labor. In other words, they shot themselves in the foot.
ROMANS: Well, certainly, the management and sort of the trajectory of the air traffic control system and the FAA under the microscope, no question.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROMANS: Because nobody wants to get on a plane that's circling and circling and circling because you can't reach the tower. I want to just switch quickly to Billie and I'll ask you first, this 6-year- old being patted down. We've seen a couple of different videos that have surfaced and parents who've been saying that they're very small children have been patted down.
This particular video, I think this was -- I can't remember if this was in Knoxville or where this was, but this little girl is 6 years old. She was crying. They had to calm her down. She said she didn't want to be touched, but she'd gone through the electronic imaging machine and something had come up and she had to be patted down. Is the TSA doing this properly? Is it really necessary to pat down a little girl on a domestic flight?
VINCENT: Well, first, four- and five-year-old children have been used to move grenades and guns through screening points. And that happened in July 4th in 2000 in Amman, Jordan. And the father of those children, subsequently, tried to highjack the airplane and was killed by an air marshal, but the grenade in his hand detonated and injured several people. So it is a legitimate concern. But this case, over the day before yesterday I believe it was, appears to be a TSA screener acting on a standard process without the option for any independent judgment and the TSA head, John Pistole, has been trying to solve that problem --
ROMANS: Right.
VINCENT: -- but is constrained by congressional constraints.
CHETRY: Yes. They say that they can't take a cookie cutter approach to this. But, Sunny, this little girl's parents are saying she was traumatized by the incident. They're saying that, you know, she's very upset because you teach your children strangers aren't supposed to touch you and then in these cases strangers are touching them. So what are your rights?
VELSHI: Don't you think that's a little unfair characterization?
HOSTIN: I think it is.
VELSHI: These aren't strangers. These are security people.
CHETRY: Strangers are touching your child.
VELSHI: Then you have to teach your kids strangers can't touch you, except law enforcement officials.
HOSTIN: I'm not troubled by this. I'm not troubled by this from a legal perspective. I mean, the bottom line is flying is a privilege not a right. If you don't want to be screened, then you don't fly. You drive your minivan to Disney World as opposed to flying. I just -- I'm just not troubled by it at all and the law isn't either.
ROMANS: Is it really necessary though because of an event that happened 10 years ago in Jordan? Is it necessary for thousands --
HOSTIN: But look at this video, but look at this video. I mean, everyone has seen it. She wasn't really groped. It wasn't a sexual assault in my view -- it's appropriate.
CHETRY: For me -- for me, it's more the question of are we really being smart when it comes to security?
VELSHI: Billie, you have something to say about that.
CHETRY: Are we doing the smart thing by holding up and treating everybody as a one-size-fits-all approach.
VINCENT: No, no, we are not being smart. And John Pistole and others and me personally have argued for years that we need to do more in the way of risk management, which means applying profiles. But the moment you mention profiles, people think racial. But that isn't the case in aviation. But we've got to get around to doing that and the profiles work.
CHETRY: Right.
VINCENT: Ten of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were identified by profile, but we had a flawed security measure put in by the FAA and the airlines. Profiles work. We ought to get around to doing that and avoid having to do this.
HOSTIN: But they don't work legally though, they don't work legally.
VINCENT: They do.
CHETRY: But you just said -- you just said I'm troubled by it. You just said it's a privilege to fly.
(CROSSTALK)
HOSTIN: You can't racially profile people, so I am -- I am.
CHETRY: He didn't say racially. He said profile.
HOSTIN: Well, when he said profile, though, he talked about sort of the racial makeup of --
VINCENT: No, no. I did not.
HOSTIN: -- of the folks.
VINCENT: That is what is wrong. The moment you mention profiles, people immediately think racial. In aviation, you do the profiles by a computerized process. You do not collect race, you do not collect religion. Therefore, you cannot apply a racial profile in aviation.
HOSTIN: So what is the profile made up of then?
ROMANS: One-way tickets paid in cash, that kind of stuff, right?
VINCENT: No, it's made up of about 15 or 20 different elements and they work. They work.
HOSTIN: Are any of the elements racially based?
VINCENT: No, they are not racially based.
HOSTIN: Not even one?
CHETRY: And I don't think any of the elements are 6-year-old children either. But, I mean --
VELSHI: But the fact is, if a 6-year-old -- small child, as he said, did once do it, then I think we have to accept the fact that it's possible that a 6-year-old child --
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: -- taking off from a domestic flight in the United States that's never happened.
VINCENT: Well, look, women have been used to put bombs on airplanes, old women, young women. You use whatever necessary to beat the security system. Our adversaries are very, very innovative and they're smart. They will look at holes in the system and exploit those holes. So we have to have, first we've got to back to risk management system.
ROMANS: Yes. It's interesting, though, I'll say -- I'll say and I think you guys will agree. It seems what we do is what has already happened. We don't do things that haven't happened yet.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: And so that's the other thing. I mean, we -- they're very smart. They're going to exploit holes in the system. And then we'll come up with something for it after it's already been exploited.
I mean, that's just the way it feels as a traveling public.
VINCENT: That's not quite correct. We think in the system and have for years in advance of what our adversaries may do and try to anticipate that and close those holes. The problem is we're dealing with an arcane system that you see some of it, but most of it you don't know about.
ROMANS: All right. Certainly so many -- just so many different fascinating angles.
Billie Vincent, Sunny Hostin, thank you guys for a really interesting discussion this morning.
VELSHI: Good discussion, yes.
VINCENT: Thank you.
CHETRY: All right. Coming up, before you put your college down payment down, what should you be majoring in to get the best bang for your buck? We're "Minding Your Business" this morning with some answers.
ROMANS: And gas prices keep climbing. Is big oil sticking it to us? We're going to ask the tough questions when the president of Shell Oil joins us live from Houston.
It's 21 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-five minutes past the hour right now. We're talking about the class of 2011. They're going to be graduating and they actually have a better shot at landing a job than people who graduated while these kids were still in college. Carmen Wong Ulrich is joining us now.
We were talking about how tough it was for graduates over the past several years with the recession and everything.
CARMEN WONG ULRICH, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: Yes.
CHETRY: But things are looking up.
ULRICH: Bleak. It was very, very bleak.
Well, a new survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers says that employers are going to hire 19 percent more college grads this year. The job openings, well, they're finally opening. Last year, 40.5 job like applications existed for every one job opening. This year, that's about half, only 21 applications per opening. The executive director of the NACE says this is the first time they've seen a double-digit jump since 2007, since before the recession. And the increases are across all regions and most industries. However, of course, there are some college degrees that have much better job prospects and pay than others.
We know that. Engineers.
CHETRY: Let's guess, right?
ULRICH: The top ten paying college majors, seven out of the 10 are in engineering. Topping the list, number one, chemical engineering over $66,000 starting pay. Computer science number two. Five, computer engineering around 60,000 starting pay. Nice high salaries. And the NACE spring salary survey showed that overall the average salary offer for this year's grad is up almost six percent from last year to over $50,000.
ROMANS: Good. Good.
ULRICH: Which is I think a little high but pretty amazing.
ROMANS: You know, one thing about all the engineering things that people who are not interested in engineering go oh, great. But there are companies where there's a lot of engineering jobs and there are other jobs.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: I.T. and --
CHETRY: Tech support.
VELSHI: All the other things that feed you into it.
VELSHI: Right now, the industry is growing. That's right.
ROMANS: So that's good. There are other --
ULRICH: I have to say, not all of us can do that sort of thing.
CHETRY: Exactly. So where do all the philosophy majors go?
ULRICH: Grad school.
ROMANS: English majors and --
ULRICH: This morning some market check with the Dow up 14 points and the Nasdaq down 1.3. The S&P, kind of flat there.
ROMANS: All right. So we'll see how it shakes out today. Thanks, Carmen.
Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, Ford expanding a recall over air bags with an itchy trigger. We're going to have the details of that.
CHETRY: Also, football great turned broadcaster, Terry Bradshaw. He's talking about how a career full of concussions is affecting him now and how he's trying to help save his own brain. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will have more on that.
VELSHI: It's 27 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Top stories now. Five people confirmed dead in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Severe storms sweeping through the plains in the south right now. Violent storms and twisters possible now in parts of at least seven states this morning.
Moammar Gadhafi's forces shelling the city of Misrata again, a place where civilians have been under siege for weeks. The director of one clinic in the city says Gadhafi's forces attacked a port and a residential area killing 23 people, wounding 100 others. And pink slips are going out to every public schoolteacher in Detroit. Fifty-five hundred union members are now on notice that they could lose their jobs. Officials are preparing to close as many as 25 schools in June.
CHETRY: There are new developments this morning in the tragic case of a distraught young mother who drove her family van into the Hudson River in upstate New York, killing herself and taking three of her four children with her. Details of their final horrifying moments are coming from the sole survivor of that tragedy. The boy you see there, 10-year-old LeShaun. A good Samaritan actually stopped to help him as he stood at the side of the road shivering, trying to call for help.
Deb Feyerick joins us now with the very latest.
I mean, it's such a tragedy but this amazing aspect of it, that this little boy was able to save his own life and actually tried to save his siblings.
DEB FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was really courageous and really brave and apparently able to at least stay calm under this extraordinary pressure that he was facing. Think about it, this young mom, Leshanda Armstrong, so vulnerable, so fragile, she felt the only way out of her pain was taking her life and the lives of her children.
Now a Facebook posting about 30 minutes before she drove into the frigid waters shows her asking for mercy. It says, "I'm sorry, everyone. Forgive me, please, for what I'm going to do. This is it!" She bundled her young kids ages 10, five, two, and 11 months old and sped down to the river blocks from her home. Here's the thing: seconds before the car sank, it appears she may have come to her senses.
According to an eyewitness who spoke to that little boy, Armstrong's 10-year-old son Leshaun, the only survivor, says the car was slipping into the water, his mom climbed into the back seat cradled her four children saying if "I'm going to die you're all going to die with me." Then as the 10-year-old broke free, she had a change of heart saying "Oh, my god, I made a mistake." But when she climbed back into the front seat and tried to put the car into reverse it was simply too late.
Now, the 10-year-old boy you see there he managed to escape through a car window and run to the road, desperately flagging down drivers. The woman who stopped Meave Ryan, says the little boy was frantic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEAVE RYAN, PASSERBY: (INAUDIBLE) he wanted to (INAUDIBLE) them this year, so he kept saying "You know, it's my fault. I should have teach them to swim." He blames himself for not getting his baby sister out because the buckle was too tight. And he was just literally blaming himself for everything that went on and that he didn't get help fast enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: So clearly he was trying to get his siblings out of the van. People we spoke to say 10-year-old Leshaun was a great, responsible kid. He was helping his mom with his younger siblings. He would take the two brothers to a nearby church, help out at the day care center where the kids stayed while his mom went to work.
The day care director told CNN that the day the tragedy, the mom picked her kids up unusually early, that she really looked out of it. In fact, one of the teachers told the mom that if she needed any help, that she should call. Clearly she didn't do that.
CHETRY: And the little boy apparently also told Meave, who saved him at the side of the road that she had been fighting with his stepfather. That she was concerned he was, perhaps, cheating on her.
FEYERICK: Yes, the father of the three youngest children. So, but you know again, she was so quiet and she had just disengaged. She pulled out of it. So she wasn't looking for help. She was just trying to figure out a way out. That was the only thing she could come up with.
VELSHI: We had Jeff Gardere here, and he was saying if you know somebody like this, you work with somebody like this, reach out and help. But it's unclear what you're supposed to reach out and help and say because as you said, sometimes it's not the manic thing that you would immediately identify with.
FEYERICK: It's a quiet desperation.
VELSHI: It's a quiet desperation.
FEYERICK: It's a quiet desperation. You feel so vulnerable that you simply sort of circle, you know, the wagons and try to pull up the draw bridges so that you can perhaps get through it and hoping that maybe a light will shine somewhere and you'll be able to get through to the other side.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: I don't know what's sadder, she did it or that she seems to have decided after it was done that she wanted to reverse the whole operation. I mean it's just a devastating story all around.
ROMANS: There's no reason to take the children. I mean, to be so desperate to take your children is just --
FEYERICK: Unless you couldn't imagine another life for them.
CHETRY: Yes, right.
FEYERICK: Unless she couldn't imagine another life because hers was so bleak at that point.
VELSHI: All right. Thanks.
FEYERICK: Of course.
VELSHI: OK. Coming up next, gas prices continuing to climb. They're getting near record levels. Is there an end in sight for gas prices? We're going to ask a man who should know because he's the president of Shell Oil.
ROMANS: And former football great Terry Bradshaw, now speaking out about the effects of a career's worth of concussions. We're going to talk to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about it. 33 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Right now gas prices are nearing an all-time high and frankly they show no signs of slowing down. Every day this month they've been up. Read it and weep. The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gas is now $3.81. That's up $0.25 in a month and nearly a dollar since a year ago. In some come cities it's already over $4. Where will it go?
We got the right man to ask among other things, and let's talk to him, Marvin Odum is the president of Shell Oil Company and joins us live from Houston this morning. Welcome to the program.
MARVIN ODUM, PRESIDENT, SHELL OIL: Good to see you, Christine.
ROMANS: All right. So is it going to cost me 51 bucks to fill up the minivan in the next few weeks or is this the worst? Tell me why oil prices which keep going up and gas prices which keep going up are up so much. You run an oil company. Why are they up so much?
ODUM: That's an interesting question because there's adequate supply of oil in the market, so that actually hasn't changed very much, how much supply relative to the demand. What's happening with the price is that those that buy volumes of oil around the world are looking at all the risks that they see. They see the disruption in the Middle East. They think about, you know, with economies in the Far East recovering and more demand in the near future, they're accounting for that risk in the price. So that's what we're seeing.
And what we have to do is find ways to address the longer term picture for oil and other types of energy so that we can be sure we meet demand. That will bring it back to a normal price.
ROMANS: So addressing that, is that relying less on foreign oil, is that energy efficiency? Is that new kinds of technologies? How do you address that?
ODUM: Well, it's yes, yes, yes, and yes. So I mean in the near term, meaning when I say near term, because I have to define my time scale, I'm talking about several decades.
ROMANS: Right.
ODUM: I mean there's going to be a tremendous amount of oil needed around the world, much more than we have today. I mean, think about energy demand around this globe, potentially doubling between now and the middle of the century, so oil will be a big part of that well into the future. But so will natural gas. And if you think about North America, the natural gas that's been found over the last couple of years has actually completely changed the energy picture and the energy security, if you will, for the United States. It's a huge opportunity for us.
ROMANS: We talk about some of the big fast growing middle classes in Brazil, Russia, India, China, all of these big countries, they're all going to be consuming more even as the U.S. is still the biggest consumer of oil. So oil is still the biggest game in town but you're talking about some of these other energy streams, if you will.
I know you guys are involved in this eco-marathon going on right now. Tell me about that. Because this is interesting, this is where you're getting these teams of kids basically to go as far as they can on the least amount of oil. Tell me about it.
ODUM: Right. So this actually goes back to your first question. This is one way to address that over time, because we're going to need significant efficiency gains in energy usage as we go forward. And so what we do is we sponsor this event called the Shell Eco Marathon where we bring together literally in this case today, nearly a thousand students who have designed, built and now will actually race their vehicles in a controlled setting to see how far they can go on a certain quantity of fuel.
And we leave the boundaries pretty wide open here because this is all about innovation and coming up with new ideas to be more efficient. So they can use gasoline, they can use diesel. We have cars that can use solar, hydrogen, plug-in hybrids, they have all different types of models. What we're looking for, though, are those innovative breakthroughs that can ultimately be applied to the larger transportation system.
ROMANS: Let me ask you a little bit -- we're talking about budgets lately and how we're going to get our fiscal house in order. President Obama has said he wants to end subsidies for oil companies. It's something that liberals and progressives say a lot, that if the government could save billions of dollars a year in an industry that makes an awful lot of money, meaning the energy industry seems to make money whether oil prices are going up or going down, and have made a trillion dollars over the past decade and a half or so, what about oil industry subsidies -- subsidies for big oil, is this the right place to be looking for federal revenue?
ODUM: Well, I think as someone who follows business like you do, you know that we go through pretty steep business cycles where times are good and times are not so good. So we see that same cycle as consumers do and other businesses do. But I think the way to look at this is, just making sure that there's adequate supply there in the market and doing everything we can to make sure that it's there.
On the subsidy question, I think this is where we need to have a serious conversation of where does the revenue flow from this industry come from as it goes into the government and where it really comes from? The big money comes from royalties and bonuses that we pay as we buy new leases.
So let me give you an example. In Alaska where we bought a number of leases to drill offshore, we have some independent studies there that show that pursuing those projects would create something on the order of 50,000 jobs in the U.S. and it would result in something like 140 or more billion dollars of revenue flow into the federal government. So finding ways to develop more of our own energy --
ROMANS: Right.
ODUM: -- producing our own oil and gas is the way to get more revenue into the government.
ROMANS: I tell you though the top five oil companies turning combined profit of a trillion dollars since 2000 and this -- in this political climate it's going to be hard to convince taxpayers that they should be -- that the energy industry shouldn't be sharing some of the belt tightening. Are you prepared for that fight? There's going to be a political fight over this.
ODUM: Well, I think certainly we look at that. I mean we get asked this question and we face this question all around the world. And actually how capital gets allocated around the world for investment has a lot to do with one of the overall economics of a certain country looks like and part of that is tax rate and other revenues of the government.
But think about what we do with the money that we bring in. I mean Shell is investing on the order of $25 to $27 billion a year in new energy projects. Energy that the world is going to need. So that revenue cycle where the cash comes in and gets reinvested is critically important.
ROMANS: Marvin Odum, let's leave it there. President of Shell Oil Company, thanks so much for your time this morning. Very early in Houston, thank you, sir.
Kiran and Ali.
VELSHI: Just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, the badly damaged nuclear power plant in Japan is now ordered to pay up. How much people who were forced to flee, how much are they going to get?
CHETRY: Also, the last place you want to be if you spend the entire spring sneezing. Some of the worst cities for allergy sufferers. We'll break them down, coming up.
Forty-three 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. This year's budget is on its way to President Obama's desk. It's the deal that stopped the government shutdown last weekend. The House and Senate passed it yesterday.
A defiant Moammar Gadhafi popping out of his sun roof in Tripoli. This as President Obama and the leaders of Great Britain and France all say he has to go in a new op-ed this morning.
Japan now ordering operators of a badly damaged nuclear power plant to pay $12,000 to each family forced to evacuate.
Delaware becomes the eighth state to legalize civil unions. The measure passed in the state's house of representatives yesterday. The governor says he will sign it.
Ford now recalling 1.2 million full-sized pick-ups because the air bags might go off when they don't need to. It involves mostly Ford F-150s built between 2003 and 2006.
Wheezing while whistling Dixie. For the second year in a row, the Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America chose Knoxville, Tennessee as the worst place to be for spring time allergies. Four other Southern cities followed it on the list.
And today is tax days most other years. You get three extra days to file your taxes this year. They'll be due on Monday, April 15 -- 18th. That's because it's Emancipation Day, a little known Washington, D.C., holiday, that celebrates the freeing of slaves. It's in the district that's being observed today.
You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back in 60 seconds.
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MARCIANO: Coming into the CNN NEWSROOM from Garland County, Arkansas, three fatalities from trees falling in that state. Also a couple fatalities in eastern Oklahoma yesterday from tornadoes. Severe weather a threat that continues today.
Good morning again. I'm Rob Marciano.
We are looking at a tornado warning right now in effect for parts of extreme northeast Louisiana, southwestern parts of Mississippi, and this is all moving to the east fairly rapidly, anywhere between 30 and 50 miles an hour. And severe thunderstorm warnings that are posted along this line that continues to barrel east now through Memphis. We've got some trees and power lines down across that area. Western Tennessee getting it as well, and this tornado watch in effect for the next couple hours. It will likely be extended eastward toward eastern Mississippi and Alabama as we go through time.
Northern part of this system, rain through St. Louis. This will spiral up into Chicago, backside of that, that is white. That is snow. So, definitely a dynamic system with cold air driven from the north.
Memphis a ground stop until 7:30 local time because of the storms rolling through. They have for the most part pressed east of Memphis. But nonetheless, still rocky weather in that area.
The bull's eye today is going to, again, eastern Mississippi, parts of Alabama later on this afternoon. Potential for damaging winds and potential for seeing some tornadoes as well. Some warm, humid air out ahead of this. Temperatures in the 70s there.
It will be 55 degrees in New York City. The Northeast will get part of this system roundabout Sunday -- Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning.
That's a quick weather check. AMERICAN MORNING is coming right back.
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CHETRY: Welcome back, 52 minutes past the hour. In this morning's "A.M. House Call," a stunning revelation from football great-turned-broadcaster Terry Bradshaw. He's suffering now from what he says is a career's worth of concussions.
ROMANS: Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been reporting on the effects of concussions on athletes and the damage that can be done to their brains if they sustain many concussions. He joins us from Atlanta now.
Interesting, because here's somebody who is a gifted communicator. To this day, the best keynote speaker I ever saw is Terry Bradshaw --
VELSHI: Really?
ROMANS: -- and he's saying his brain may be harmed. What is he dealing with?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, and it's amazing. He's exactly saying that. He was very candid about it as well. So, he says, you know even as a broadcaster, if you listen to him closely, a lot of times, he won't mention certain stats. He won't recall certain players' names often because he says he just has problems with his memory. It was remarkable how candid he's been about this.
A lot of football players are talking about the memory problems they start to suffer after they leave football, referring to something known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. It's a big word. People call it CTE, but it basically is a result of many concussions, many blows to the head.
He was asked specifically about concussions as well. This is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRY BRADSHAW, FORMER NFL PLAYER: One of the questions, obviously, is how many clear-cut concussions have you had. I'm trying to think. You know, clear-cut, totally KO'd, my entire career, I could name six. Six, that I -- you know, that I could remember.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: Talks about six concussions. Let's look at one of them there. This is back from 1976, Joe "Turkey" Jones, Cleveland Browns, look at that. Just smashes Bradshaw to the ground. Totally knocked out after that. That type of hit, they becomes more and more common. It's become something we see more often nowadays as players become bigger and stronger.
Part of the concern here is that players play through it. That brain took a hit, takes another hit again, that's a real problem. Bradshaw said he would take smelling salts, just smell those salts, and get right back in the game again.
CHETRY: They don't allow some of those hits. I mean, that one we just saw, nowadays you would be penalized nowadays, right?
GUPTA: There have been increased safety regulations, including the types of hits. Something else that's happening this season for example -- you'll notice this if you watch football is the where they kick the ball off for the start of the game is moved up five yards to the 35 yard line. The importance of that is there's more balls that are going into the end zone, and that cuts down on the number of kickbacks, which is one of the most dangerous parts of the game.
VELSHI: Sanjay -- CTE. Chronic traumatic encepha --
GUPTA: Encephalopathy.
VELSHI: What is that, and how does somebody know whether or not they have it?
GUPTA: Well, it's an interesting thing. Because mostly it's a clinical diagnosis. People develop certain symptoms after they've taken these hits. People who are retired from football for even a few years, depression, rage and usually memory problems. Those are the three things they develop.
It's very reminiscent of dementia. But you see it at a very young age. Let me show you a picture here if I can. I went to this lab. It's part of the Sports Legacy Institute. But take a look. They've been examining brains of athletes. On the left, you see a 45- year-old athlete. Look at that brown area. That brown area is significant, compared to the brain on the right, again, brown area.
The one on the right is actually of someone who has diagnosed dementia and is in in their 70s. You shouldn't see those same changes in a 45-year-old, but you do as a result of -- they say in this case, as a result of multiple concussions or multiple blows to the head. You're basically accelerating, speedstarting the dementia process at a very young age.
ROMANS: So, what was that, depression, rage and memory loss.
GUPTA: And memory problems. Right. ROMANS: And some of those things, memory problems, is what Terry Bradshaw says has him concerned.
GUPTA: That's right. He's even talking about seeing a clinic on the West Coast about this. Trying to look at his brain. Obviously they look at brain with an MRI scan, but trying to get some therapy for those memory problems.
ROMANS: Sanjay.
CHETRY: Great he's being so up front about it. Maybe other people get help as well.
GUPTA: Yes, I think the NFL is starting to pay attention to this. We're obviously keeping on top of it as well.
CHETRY: Great stuff. Sanjay, good to see you. Have a great weekend.
GUPTA: Thanks, guys. You too.
VELSHI: Your top stories are coming your way, right after this quick break.
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