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American Morning
State of Emergency in Arkansas; Rich & Poor: The Education Gap; Advances in Robotics Allow Automatons to Perform More Human Actions; Gun Crash Sidelines NFL Pick; All the Stops
Aired April 26, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Tuesday. It's the 26th of April, not quite as sunny but more typical London weather today.
And we wanted to give you a look from the street view of where we are. This is called the mall. This is an area that is going to be teeming with people three days from now for the royal wedding. People gathered along this route, ready and excited to get a chance to see it.
But also, one exciting thing that's happening today -- take a look over there. That's St. James Park. This is one of the public parks in downtown London. And the beauty of this is they are going to be opening it up for people to start camping out today. And, oh, yes, there are people already camping out.
In fact, we have our first royal watcher, this man who loves and follows the royals, 56-year-old guy. We're going to show you him a little bit later. He is already camped out in his sleeping bag, the first person outside of Westminster Abbey. He wants to get a grand view of the royal nuptials getting set to take place in three days.
A little bit later, we're going to walk you through the royal wedding route and show you exactly what path they're going to take as the royal couple as they say their "I dos." Back to you guys in New York.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Kiran, thank you.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Kiran.
VELSHI: We begin with weather triggering a state of emergency in Arkansas. But the thing is, for all this weather we have had overnight, the worse may be yet to come. Violent thunderstorms ripped through Arkansas last night. Seven people have been killed in the state, several of them dying in cars that were swept away by floodwaters.
ROMANS: And Jacqui Jeras was saying, that is the scariest place to be, driving through floodwaters. More people are killed in floods out there and tornadoes and the original storms.
Jacqui Jeras is live in the extreme weather center.
Hi, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Hey, guys. Yes, you never know, you know, how deep that water is and you never know if the road beneath it might be washed out. So, be very cautious. There are literally hundreds of roads that are closed across parts of the U.S. today because of that high water.
Severe weather is also a threat today. At this hour, you can see that little yellow watch box just expired. So, that's the good news, is that the severe weather threat diminishing now. But it will increase late this afternoon and into tonight. That dark red circle there, that's where we have the greatest threat of tornadoes developing late today in northeastern parts of Texas and into Arkansas, as well as into northern Mississippi and western Tennessee.
And a slight risk stretches all the way up into the Great Lakes where we could see damaging winds, large hail and, yes, more floodwaters rising because of all the rain. We are talking two to four inches, easy on some of these really flooded areas.
The risk continues into tomorrow. A moderate risk once again. Nashville up towards Louisville into Huntsville, all seeing that chance of rotating thunderstorms. Atlanta, later in the day, as well, even into Washington, D.C.
Now, I do want to talk a little bit more about this flooding. Take a look at the large area. Mississippi River Valley, Ohio River Valleys and the mid-South is where we'll continue to see these waters rising. And we may see some record crests in the upcoming days.
Travel, of course, is difficult on the roads because they are wet. But the airways having issues as well. We got foggy conditions in New York City. So, a ground stop there in LaGuardia. Chicago, 25- minute delays. Nothing really severe for you in Chicago. But showers throughout the day. In Ft. Lauderdale, looking at delays around 30 minutes.
Guys, remember that little tropical disturbance I was telling you about a couple of days ago, see that stuff there on the map over the Carolinas and into Florida, that's the remnants of that little tropical disturbance. So, some of that moisture is getting caught up into our big severe weather event the next couple of days.
And, by the way, you know, I'm optimistic in saying Friday is going to be a lot better in terms of not having any severe weather. And I may actually get to smile on this program.
VELSHI: Yes. You've done more than your share of giving us not great weather news across the country. But you're keeping us informed. Thanks, Jacqui.
JERAS: Important information about, be careful when you're driving through that water.
All right. They are calling in the National Guard in southeast Missouri this morning. Thousands of people in the town of Poplar Bluff helplessly watching a disaster unfold. The Black River is still rising. It's already overflowed the town's levee in three dozens places we're told.
Everyone is concerned that that levee is about to collapse. Part of the city already badly flooded and more than 1,000 people have been evacuated so far. Officials are warning everyone to prepare to leave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED STERENFEL, BUTLER CO. COMMISSIONER: This could be imminent danger within minutes. If the levee was to break, you will have a very, very short time to get out of the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Right now, the police in Poplar Bluff are going door to door, ordered people to get out of their homes.
VELSHI: Texas Republican Ron Paul feeling out another round for president. Later today, the congressman is expected to announce that he has started one of those exploratory committees. Now, the timing is important because a GOP presidential debate is coming up and you need to have an exploratory committee in place to be part of it. Ron Paul has run for president twice before, most recently, in 2008.
ROMANS: Meantime, the governor of Mississippi is not running. He is bowing out. Republican Haley Barbour has decided against a White House bid. Experts say he just couldn't come up with the campaign cash. Barbour says he'll continue to work to elect a Republican president.
VELSHI: And Donald Trump is still not saying whether he is getting in the race. But he is keeping the birther battle alive. He now says President Obama's birth certificate is, quote, "missing." Trump claims he sent private investigators to Hawaii to find out the truth about the president's birth place. Anderson Cooper pressed him on the facts last night on "360."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, REAL ESTATE MAGNATE (via telephone): I've been told very recently, Anderson, that the birth certificate is missing. I've been told that it's not there and it doesn't exist. And if that's the case --
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Who told you that?
TRUMP: -- that's a big problem. I just heard that two days ago from somebody.
COOPER: From your investigators?
TRUMP: I don't want to say who. But I've been told that the birth certificate is not there. It's missing.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VELSHI: So, CNN sent its own team of investigators to Hawaii. They spoke with the former director of Hawaii's Department of Health who says she has personally seen the certificate and that the one the president has produced is the official birth certificate that is accepted in Hawaii, accepted in the court of law.
ROMANS: The legal document -- certificate of live birth is the legal document.
The State Department is calling the security situation in Syria unstable and unpredictable. It's now urging Americans to leave as soon as possible. This comes after the latest government crackdown on protesters in Daraa. Witnesses say 11 people were killed when tanks and snipers opened fire on demonstrators. The White House says it is considering a possible range of sanctions trying to pressure the Syrian government to end the violence.
VELSHI: After pulling off their own version of the great escape, authorities in Afghanistan have recaptured the 65 of the more than 400 inmates who broke out of a prison in Kandahar. They escaped through a quarter mile tunnel dug beneath the prison compound. A manhunt, the hunt continues to find those still at large. And many of them are Taliban fighters.
ROMANS: Former President Jimmy Carter trying to play peacemaker for North and South Korea. Right now, according to state media, he is in the North, hoping to revive failed talks about its nuclear weapons program and to ease tensions along the country's border. The border has been simmering over the past year when the South blamed the North for sinking its warship and killing 46 people.
VELSHI: Coming up next: sleeping on the job. The FAA fires a third air traffic controller. We're going to go and find out what it takes to be an air traffic controller.
ROMANS: And I wish I could do this next tease in a robot voice. But I'm not really very good at it. But they walk, they talk, they dance -- a demo from humanoid robots live in our studio.
VELSHI: Seven minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: It is all systems go this morning at the Lambert St. Louis Airport four days after a direct hit from a tornado, packed winds up to 200 miles an hour.
VELSHI: Sending everybody running.
ROMANS: Look at that. This is incredible surveillance camera footage. Windows, the main terminal blown out, the concourse roof, part of it ripped off. The airport was shut down for about 24 hours over the weekend. Back to full operating capacity today.
Officials, though, say it's going to be weeks, maybe even months to clean up all the damage from the storm. A lot of those windows blown out, glass everywhere.
VELSHI: I am impressed by how quickly they got that up and running.
ROMANS: Yes. That no one was seriously injured or killed.
VELSHI: Yes. A third air traffic controller out of a job. This time, it's Seattle's Boeing Field. The FAA says the controller twice fell asleep on a job. Last week, two other controllers were also fired for napping, one of whom work in Knoxville, Tennessee, the other in Miami. Another one in Reno was suspended after he fell asleep when an air ambulance was trying to land.
And a Cleveland, Ohio, controller was caught watching a DVD on duty earlier this month.
ROMANS: Samuel L. Jackson's "The Cleaner," we are told, was the film.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Yes, that was the film.
The Feds are now trying to find out why the roof of a Southwest jet ripped open earlier this month. The NTSB zeroing in on flawed rivets, saying some were loosed, misshapen, misaligned. Rivets are, of course, used to bind together the Boeing's aluminum skin. The investigation is ongoing. Boeing launched inspections of its own and found similar cracks in five other Southwest jets out of the 79 that the airline grounded.
VELSHI: I'll be much happier when they actually have a definitive, this is why it happens and this is why it's not going to happen anymore.
ROMANS: That's right. That's right.
VELSH: All right. A dangerous stunt goes terribly, terribly wrong. It happened at a daredevil show outside of London yesterday during a human cannon ball routine. A 23-year-old stunt man was fired 40 feet into the air before plunging to his death. He later died in the hospital. Officials say his safety net malfunctioned.
ROMANS: And over to Kiran in London now where she is counting down three days to go until the royal wedding.
CHETRY: Right. Three days to go for us. It seems like an eternity. But for the police that are trying to make sure this goes up (ph) without a hitch, the countdown is certainly on. We are going to check in with the first royal wedding super fan. He is already camped outside Westminster Abbey and we are going to get the latest dish on what's going on in terms of preparations. All of that with our own Cat Deeley and Mark Saunders, our royal watchers, are joining us when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back right now. A beautiful shot this morning of Queen Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace in the background. We're just counting down to the royal wedding under 72 hours away now. We have some new details about William's best man. What Prince Harry has planned for an after party of sort, also about Harry's plus one.
Joining us again, CNN's royal wedding watchers and contributors, Cat Deeley as well as royal biographer, Mark Saunders. Great to see both of you again this morning. I feel like there's even more buzz today than yesterday.
CAT DEELEY, CNN ROYAL WEDDING CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.
CHETRY: I think there's a lot more people out on the streets.
DEELEY: Yes.
CHETRY: All the excitement is building, and of course, people love to talk about Prince Harry. What does he have planned for this after party?
DEELEY: Well, it's not even just an after party. It said after the after party.
CHETRY: Survivor's breakfast.
DEELEY: Eventually, it's for the people who pushed on through, way through the night. They get bacon butties the next morning when they start to get munchies.
MARK SAUNDERS, ROYAL BIOGRAPHER: You see, that's quite traditional amongst the upper classes that they have a full English breakfast at 6:00 in the morning. The days of me being gone at 6:00 in the morning, long gone, but Harry, he's having this bacon butties bit. He's also promised not to embarrass Prince William with his best man's speech. But I think he's likely to say, I won't make a big entrance.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: Well, of course, he's his younger brother. He's going to embarrass him a little bit.
DEELEY: Yes, of course, he will.
CHETRY: And he's also bringing -- they were making a big fuss about his plus one, his on and off girlfriend, Chelsey Davy.
DEELEY: Yes. I mean, she's going to be a lovely, lovely lady. We don't know if they're together or not together.
SAUNDERS: I keep asking this question. Apparently, they are together. She is his date, and you have a date for a wedding, but she is his date. They've also been through a lot together. I mean, they really do appear to be a couple to me. DEELEY: Yes, absolutely. So, I think it would be strange if she wasn't there.
SAUNDERS: Well, she's a lovely girl. She's a lovely-looking girl. And remember, Harry, he can marry when William and Katherine have produced an heir and a spare. He can marry who he wants.
DEELEY: An heir and a spare. I like that one.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: That's where they used to discuss for Prince William and Harry back in the day. Well, at least the pressure is off to Chelsey. She can have some fun. It's not her problem, right?
DEELEY: Exactly.
CHETRY: What about Kate Middleton's dress? You said it was actually made in Buckingham Palace.
SAUNDERS: It designed here at Buckingham Palace. That was for security reasons. When Prince Di -- you remember Princess Diana's dress being designed in a place in London, the press surrounded it. They were going through the dust bins. It was pretty amazing that they did that, all of that.
CHETRY: All right. So, it's here.
SAUNDERS: Yes, it's been moved today, apparently, to another room. Now, we've been discussing to try to figure out why.
DEELEY: We tried to come up with the idea of idea. We've talked about maybe it's being moved to be seen --
SAUNDERS: Big train.
DEELEY: Big train or had the paparazzi maybe caught sight of it through a window or something like that, but Nancy Drew (ph) here is still working on the actual reason.
SAUNDERS: I'm going with the train because Katherine's arriving by car.
DEELEY: Yes.
SAUNDERS: That's we know. And I think that may be because there's going to be a big train. Princess Diana made a big mistake, because they went by the coach, and they couldn't get -- they didn't -- it was only about four foot by four foot, and they couldn't get the train in. So, it's like trying to park a jumbo jet in an average size family carriage or get Mariah Carey into a size zero or something like that.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK) CHETRY: She is expecting twins.
SAUNDERS: Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't -- I didn't know that. Well, that makes it worse.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: That does make it much worse. Well, I got to tell you what, there are some people who are just so obsessed with the royals, they'll stop at nothing, including their personal comfort. So, we have the first shot. This is John -- I think his last name is pronounced Lafry. He is one of the ultimate fans, but he's already outside of West Minister Abbey in a sleeping bag, ready to go. He's wrapped himself in union jag and he is ready to go, but how many other people are going to be doing that crazy stuff?
SAUNDERS: We expected tomorrow night that that would start because I spoke to a guy who called in (ph) who pretty recognizes as the best royal family fan. The queen knows him, actually. And he said that they're all arriving Wednesday night. And so -- but they're going to need some refreshments.
CHETRY: To camp out?
DEELEY: Yes.
SAUNDERS: Yes.
DEELEY: Apparently.
SAUNDERS: Sorry.
DEELEY: It's all right. And is he on his own, as well? Is he just camped out all on his own?
CHETRY: I guess so. For now.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: No, I'm sure there's a lot of TV cameras keeping him company right now, but boy, there he is, having a blast, doing interviews. Boy, he is quite a patriot.
DEELEY: Isn't he?
CHETRY: Well, it was great to talk to both of you again. We'll be joined by you, guys, again tomorrow as we find out new and interesting details leading up to the big day. Cat Deeley and Mark Saunders, thanks so much.
DEELEY: Thank you.
CHETRY: Also, if you want to be part of our big global viewing party, our special royal coverage starts at 4:00 p.m. eastern time on Friday. And of course, you can get all your royal wedding information at any time at CNN.com/royalwedding or you can check out the new blog "Unveiled." It has everything you need to know about the nuptials, the ceremony, the dress, the menu.
Again, you can check that out at CNN.com/unveiled. We also want to know where you're going to be watching the royal wedding. We want you to join our special coverage, but we also want to see what you, guys, are doing that day. Send us a wedding iReport at iReports, CNNiReport.com. Back to Ali and Christine in New York.
Would you guys camp out? I mean, it doesn't have to be the royal wedding, but is there anything that you guys love enough that you would camp out for?
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I camp out for camping. Like I'm happy --
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And that concert tickets?
VELSHI: No. There's nothing I will wait in line for overnight.
You keep talking about this dinner, the menu. What are we menuing? What's the thing? Is it for the dinner that everybody is invited to the day off or the night before?
CHETRY: Yes, well, they have that huge -- everybody who's been invited to that, they go to something separate at the palace. And this is a huge to-do.
VELSHI: Got it.
CHETRY: So, you know, that, of course, is another closely guarded secret.
VELSHI: Got it. OK.
ROMANS: All right.
VELSHI: Fair enough. I've never been all that curious when I go to a wedding what the menu is ahead of time, but OK.
ROMANS: I'm trying to imagine Ali Velshi staying up all night for baseball ticket (ph) or something. I can't imagine what it would be that you would in a three-piece suit.
VELSHI: It gets dump, and then, you get a --
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: All right. We got some serious stuff going on across this country. You know, it sounds like we've just hit rewind and play again, but there really are some serious threats of storm and destructive weather and some real violent storms in Arkansas overnight that ended up killing some people.
ROMANS: Everything you need to know about the weather in your neighborhood next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: All right. State budget cuts. It sounds like a big, I don't know, political story, right? But it's not because kids are caught in the middle of this fight across the country right now. One state cut a whopping billion dollars from its education budget.
VELSHI: And now, top officials there are facing a lawsuit. Deborah Fayerick takes a look at education in America from New Jersey this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kindergartner, Camani Davidson (ph), is learning to read. She is still very young. Because she lives in a high risk neighborhood in new jersey, educators here at P.J. Hill elementary provide a literacy coach to make sure she doesn't fall behind.
RAYMOND BROACH, TRENTON PUBLIC SCHOOL: It's sort of like being in a race to assume we all start at the starting line together. It's not American even.
FEYERICK: Acting superintendent, Raymond Broach, oversees the Trenton School District. It has a higher number of at-risk kids and is supposed to receive a larger share of state funding than schools in wealthier neighborhoods. Last year, the state gave him no extra budget money. Incredibly, he wishes the same were true now.
BROACH: When you've had $12 million cut from your budget, you've just made that race for some learners almost next to impossible.
FEYERICK: A 2008 state law and funding formula was designed to close the learning gap between rich and poor students, but first-time Governor Chris Christie cut $1 million from New Jersey's education budget. At a town hall meeting, he said tough times call for tough choices.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) NEW JERSEY: Maybe we have to eliminate aid to all hospitals in New Jersey. I wonder how many hospitals will close, and we have to do that.
FEYERICK: The problem, (INAUDIBLE) maybe unconstitutional.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governors all across the country are saying the same thing, and they're wrong.
FEYERICK: David Sciarra's (ph) Education Law Center and others are suing the governor and state Supreme Court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really a matter of policy choice, it's a matter of commitment, doing what I have strong public schools or not.
FEYERICK: The state argues court should let the legislature decide how much money is spent. As for Superintendent Broach, his choice was to keep reading coaches. Instead, he cut nurses, social workers, substance abuse counselors, custodians, and others. His reasoning -- BROACH: To know you can't read often turns students' attention to being discipline problems. Those are the students that we fear we need to put a web of support around so that they don't drop out of school and not a drop out of society.
FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Trenton, New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: I mean, it's clear, budget cuts are something that will affect schools across the country.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: So, this is really how you feel finances on the state --
VELSHI: I think actually the closer you get to whether it's state or municipal is where you really feel it --
ROMANS: Oh, yes.
VELSHI: The state budget cuts affect municipalities which where you get your garbage taken out or do your snow clean from your streets or, you know, ambulances.
ROMANS: Right. Or be the garden (ph) program and the like. OK. Be sure to watch "Don't Fail Me: Education in America." It's a Soledad O'Brien special report. Taking a look at our public education system and how it may affect the financial future of America. "DON'T FAIL ME" premieres Sunday May 15th, 08:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.
VELSHI: Your top stories now. The latest bloody crackdown on protesters in Syria has the U.S. considering a range of sanctions against the Syrian government. Tanks and snipers were sent in to crush an uprising in the city of Daraa, which is where it started in Syria. The State Department says the security situation there is unstable. It is advising Americans to leave the country now.
In Libya this morning, Moammar Gadhafi's forces continue to shell the city of Misrata. A western journalist who has witnessed the bloody battles inside Misrata described the bombed-out shell of the city as "hell on earth."
The governor of Arkansas has declared a state of emergency. Seven people in the state have been killed in the extreme weather. Thousands lost power during violent storms. In Garland County in central Arkansas there were so many calls for help they had to bring in medics and ambulances from other counties.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was raining so hard, you couldn't see nothing. Then, it started doing all this. It happened so fast.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We al, ended up in the closet. Then, you could just hear crashing and stuff being knocked around and blown around. It just tore us up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: CNN iReporter Colin Wakefield shot this video. Check that out. Look at how deep that water was. He shot it from a second floor apartment in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the street below was covered by two feet of water.
Jacqui Jeras in the extreme weather center. She looks at pictures like this and keeps cringing. She says, no, don't drive through that.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It makes me so mad. You can't drive through it. You don't know how deep it. You don't know how strong it is. All it takes is six inches. It will wipe you off the feet. A foot of water can knock that car over and it can float away. It is a very dangerous situation. That is going to be ongoing at least for the next week or so.
There is so much water out there. Take a look at this map. This is the rainfall that we have seen in the last seven days. The big area I want to show you is right here. All that red and all that purple here, that's anywhere between six and 12 inches of rain. Some places have seen a foot or more of rainfall in the last seven days. That's why flooding is such a concern. That's why it is so widespread and, sadly, more flooding expected in the days ahead as we get more of that rain.
The rain has been heavy at this hour across parts of the lower Mississippi river valley. New Orleans getting hit with very wet weather, just off to your west, moving through Memphis. It has been a rough start this morning. It heads on up into the Ohio valley.
Severe weather, a big deal again today. Today, I think, it is probably going to be near or worse than what we saw yesterday. In parts of Arkansas. There, you can see that darker red. That's where our greatest chances for tornadoes developing late. We heard that story, guys, from that man, who was saying, it was raining so hard, you couldn't see anything, and then, all of the sudden, it started doing this. That's what we call a rain-wrapped tornado. And especially at nighttime you can't see these things either.
The system moves east tomorrow. We will be watching Nashville towards Huntsville. We will take a sigh of relief towards Friday. Still watching the fire danger. We don't want to forget about those folks. The worst weather conditions for fire in west Texas than what we have seen in two weeks unfortunately.
VELSHI: Jacqui, thanks so much.
ROMANS: New video of a motorcycle wreck that was caught on tape. The accident captured by a surveillance camera last month on the north Texas toll way in Dallas. You can see the car in front of the motorcycle slows down, but the car behind it does not.
VELSHI: The bike was sandwiched. The 25-year-old motorcyclist, you see it again here, was tossed in another lane of traffic. He was hospitalized with broken bones and torn muscles but he survived. He said the driver who hit him didn't have a license or insurance.
That worries me as a motorcycle rider when I see stuff like that. You never win, no matter how good -- the most important thing, when you have a motorcycle, the fact is that someone else who doesn't know how to drive properly.
ROMANS: Distracted driving is just so scary. Even going slowly, people look down and they try to change the radio.
VELSHI: You have seen people driving you near you and they are texting while they are driving. I used to be one of those people. I think we have really got to crack down on it.
ROMANS: You have changed your evil ways.
VELSHI: Let's take it over to Kiran in London. Hi, Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, guys. You are right. That guy is so lucky that he actually survived it. There have been many people not so fortunate.
We want to bring you up to date on what's going on here. We are very excited about the three days coming up until the royal wedding. We have decided we are going to walk through and let our viewers get a chance to see what the route is going to be, that Kate and William and the queen and all the other royals are going to be taking. We are going to get a look at that. As we look at the sun coming up over Buckingham Palace. We will be back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: More and more robots these days have what we know as a more human feel. Technology is so good these robots can even bust a move. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: You are looking at a Nao robot, two feet tall, cameras, moo I crow phones, touch centers and Wi-Fi.
ROMANS: Believe it or not some of what's developed here might make its way into your life sooner than you think. Frank Soqui is from Intel. Intel supplies the computer chips inside the humanoids. Tell me, what can this little guy do? He can do more than the robots of the '80s or the '90s.
FRANK SOQUI, INTEL: These robots are very exciting. They can speak to you, listen to you, they can react to the environment, move things around. They have the ability to see and manipulate object. They're very exciting. VELSHI: Let's do a little demo of this one. Let's activate him and tell us what you use this robot for?
SOQUI: So these robots are used very extensively in education and university research. In education, you are going to see the robots actions right now very, very engaging for the students, get them involved, wanting to learn about science and technology, helps the teacher engage the students in class, keeps them interested.
And in the case of research capabilities, because they are so engaging, they are excellent in the fields of autism where you are teaching verbal and nonverbal communication skills, and for elderly care, for example.
So there are practical applications. It is not just a fun tool in some talented and gifted programs. This is something you hope will have practical applications.
SOQUI: Yes, it's already demonstrating many practical purposes even beyond --
ROMANS: How do you use it with autism or developmental education? Explain to me the advantages of this robot would be?
SOQUI: In this kind of case, the robot can interact with the individual who is autistic and train them on verbal and nonverbal educational skills and have that motion repetitive, have the patience to work with the child or the adult with autism and teach them those kind of interactions.
VELSHI: It is an interesting idea.
ROMANS: Oh, yes.
SOQUI: In hospitals, they can help with physical therapy, can help with people who are on their own, health care. That type of research is really --
ROMANS: We are watching this guy. He can stretch, stand up, balance, kick a ball. That's what he can do. Do you expect him to have more kind of abilities? Could we have this in our house? Is he going to do my dishes?
VELSHI: That's what I want to do.
SOQUI: I don't know that they get to the point they actually do the dishes. The vision for this type of personal robot is becoming personal to you. You would be able to customize it for the things you want it to do. It can speak to you, supply you information.
The simple example is computers used to be in a situation where they were not personal. They were for business, expensive, hard to use. As they became personal, a lot more exciting things happened. It was the way I get my entertainment, the way I interact with my friends and family, the information I get. And yes, I can still do work. Robots are becoming personal. We can expect those things to come into your life as well.
ROMANS: How smart are they? Do they know the difference between kicking a ball and a brick wall? Can they have judgment?
SOQUI: You can build judgment and some programming into them. They can touch and get feedback. So if they bump into the wall or fall over, they can turn around and pick themselves up and start moving again. They actually recognize a ball in motion.
VELSHI: Frank, good to see you. Thanks for coming by and telling us about this.
SOQUI: Thanks for having me on.
ROMANS: We are both a couple of technology geeks. So that's a real interesting segment.
Up next, we are checking stocks less than an hour from the opening bell.
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VELSHI: A lot going on this morning. Here's what you need to know to start your day.
The U.S. is now considering sanctions against Syria after the government's new crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators and the State Department now advising Americans in Syria to leave ASAP.
Seven people are now dead in Arkansas; violent thunderstorms, tornadoes and flooding have forced the governor to declare a state of emergency.
They're calling in the National Guard in Missouri; the Black River is still rising and has now overflowed a levee that may collapse, threatening the entire town of Poplar Bluff.
Procter & Gamble announcing it's raising the price by up to seven percent on Bounty and Charmin products along with Pampers diapers and wipes. The company says it's merely passing along the higher prices it has to pay for energy and raw materials.
The markets open in 45 minutes; right now, Dow NASDAQ and S&P 500 futures all in positive territory as investors gear up for another round of earnings. We've already had a few this morning; Ford has had one of its best earning quarters in more than a decade.
Nintendo planning to replace the WII with a new system next year; fans will get a sneak peak of what the video game maker has up its sleeve when Nintendo previews the new system this summer.
You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: This morning, we could be a little closer to having a football season. A federal judge has ordered the NFL to end its lockout immediately. The NFL says it will appeal. Meantime, players say they've received e-mails suggesting they should report to work today.
The players and owners are fighting over how to split up $9 billion in annual revenue. The NFL Draft still scheduled to begin Thursday here in New York -- Ali.
VELSHI: And with this week's NFL draft in mind, we want to introduce you to a young man lucky enough to be drafted by the New York Giants a year ago but he never played a single game.
CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains why in today's "Human Factor."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Each day Chad Jones spends hours in the gym working to get in shape so he can play football again. Jones was a star athlete in college, he's been dreaming of joining the NFL since he was seven years old.
CHAD JONES, NFL DRAFT PICK: I just loved it. It was just the most important thing ever.
GUPTA: His father was an all-American at Tulane. And his older brother was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals. Chad is one of only two college players to win a national championship in football and baseball.
Last year, the junior from LSU was drafted by both the New York Giants and the Milwaukee Brewers. Jones chose the NFL.
JONES: It was the greatest -- one of the greatest days, you know, I just feel like an ultimate achievement. That's one of the first times I just cried for no reason.
GUPTA: But the rookie safety has yet to play a single down in the NFL. That's because the day he came home to New Orleans from minicamp, Jones crashed his brand new SUV into a street pole after his tires got caught in the street car tracks.
JONES: And my car actually wrapped around the pole and the axle split in half it shot straight up my leg.
GUPTA: Severely injured, he nearly bled to death.
JONES: I shattered my tibia and fibula bone, you know; I sliced through all the veins in my leg, nerve damage. You know, I -- still to this day can't feel the bottom of my foot.
GUPTA: Doctors thought they might have to amputate his foot. He says he was told he wouldn't walk again. But Jones had a different plan. JONES: I knew I was going to be able to walk again. In the back of my mind, I said, I'm going to play football again.
GUPTA: In that first month, he had 12 operations and there are still more to come. Incredibly, less than two months after beginning this intense therapy Jones was walking again without crutches. And today against great odds, he is running. And he plans to be back on the field next season.
JONES: Well, you just have to stay the course. You know, a curveball is thrown at you. And you just always have to get up and just keep going.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: It's just intense.
VELSHI: Yes. Let's take it back to Kiran who is in London. Hey Kiran.
CHETRY: Hi, guys. When we come back, we're going to just take a quick look at what the royalty route is like from leaving Buckingham Palace and Clarence House to making the way around all of this famed London landmarks and then finally ending up at the Westminster Abbey.
We're going to walk you through it and show you what millions of people are going to be watching on Friday. We'll be right back.
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CHETRY: And welcome back, we're live in London this morning. All week AMERICAN MORNING is here. We've been giving you a taste of every aspect of the royal wedding. And we want to give you now a look at what the happy couple will see along the royal carriage route from Buckingham Palace and Clarence House -- that's where the bride and groom will be leaving -- to the Westminster Abbey where they will marry in front of the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: It's so exciting.
SOPHIE, LONDON TOUR GUIDE: Well, we're really glad you're here, Kiran. And welcome to London.
CHETRY: Thank you so much.
SOPHIE: And to Buckingham Palace.
CHETRY: It is just beautiful. Tell us a little bit about what's going to be happening at Buckingham Palace the day of the wedding.
SOPHIE: Well, it's going to be a hive of activity because all the royals are going to be getting ready to leave for Westminster Abbey. And they're basically are going to go in order of precedence.
And so obviously the Queen and Prince Philip will be the last senior royals to leave. But before that, you're going to have all the princesses and the cousins and they are all going to be leaving in carriages. So it is going to look fantastic.
CHETRY: Right here is Clarence House. What's going to be happening here the morning of the wedding?
SOPHIE: Well, I think you're going to have a very nervous groom getting ready. And luckily he's got a brother, he's going to be franticly searching for the ring and the two of them are going to leave here at 10 past 10:00 on the way to the abbey. So they're going to be the first really major participants in the wedding that the crowds are going to.
And Clarence House is the cream-colored building just behind us. And that is actually Prince William and Prince Harry's home in London.
CHETRY: We are standing here right now at Force Guard (ph); one of the most breath-taking views. You can see the London Eye in the background. Tell us, Sophie, a little bit about is going on here?
SOPHIE: This will be used for Kate to come across here and she's going to go through that arch under the building. Now, only royalty can drive through that arch. The rest of us are not allowed to do so.
CHETRY: So that is quite symbolic. Kate as the commoner --
SOPHIE: Yes.
CHETRY: -- making her way through here --
SOPHIE: She's going to be welcomed in as royalty.
CHETRY: -- welcomed in as royalty to become Princess Catherine.
SOPHIE: Absolutely.
CHETRY: And so this is actually where they are going to drive through, right where we're standing.
SOPHIE: This is where they're going to go through.
CHETRY: So this is where our tour ends, Westminster Abbey. All of the excitement culminates here.
SOPHIE: Where they are actually going to be getting married is at the crossing, the most famous part of the abbey where the coronations take place and where our Queen today was crowned.
And you know, it is very intimate there because actually all they will be able to see, because there are screens that block off the main congregation. So people aren't just going to see them directly. They are going to be under the illusion that they are getting married in front of about a few hundred family and friends.
CHETRY: That's fascinating.
SOPHIE: Yes. Really nice. So they won't be aware of the entire world.
CHETRY: Right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: She was actually an official tour guide, Sophie, very excited like many people here are. And a lot of people who have followed the royals are actually very happy they are getting married in the Westminster Abbey. They feel it's a beautiful place, a little bit more intimate than St. Paul's Cathedral. And it just allows people, because it is a smaller area, either they have to go from Buckingham Palace to the abbey to be able to really experience it on that day. So they are thrilled.
VELSHI: You said it is a little bit intimate. There is an intimate part of it but there is 2,000 more seats in there than those in the inner parts?
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: I think that's what they will be seeing actually from where they are standing. But St. Paul's was even more vast --
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: And more humongous, it takes about far more people. And that's where Prince Charles and Diana got married.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Yes, so, the abbey, a place where they've coronated every -- where the coronations have taken place for all the royalty. And also right outside the abbey -- we just want to show you this picture really quickly. I don't know if you guys have some time in the last hour to think of what you would actually camp out for a week for?
This is John Lafry (ph) a super fan of the royals. And he's been there. He slept on the pavement last night. He's going to be there every single night camping out to get his prime spot out front of the abbey. Have you thought of anything yet that would possibly bring you to do that?
VELSHI: Let me tell you. I wouldn't but I might consider camping out for something that you are going to get in return. He is camping out for his spot. That's what he's getting in return. He is not getting an iPad or something like that. He is camping out to get to be right there when it happens.
ROMANS: You know what is interesting, too, I think Kiran, for so many people who go to Westminster Abbey as visitors, as American visitors, you always hear about the famous poets and jurists and historical figures who are buried there and the things that have happened there.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: But now, this will be the latest thing. Now, that tour guide will be able to say, right here is where Will and Kate were married in front of I don't know how many billion of people who will be watching. So that will be the sort of the latest history, the storied history of that beautiful, beautiful abbey.
CHETRY: Yes. And far more swag to sell at the Westminster Abbey gift shop outside which is already full which we'll be bringing you back some stuff. Don't worry.
It is all Will and Kate right now.
Just a reminder by the way, CNN's special royal wedding coverage starts at 4:00 a.m. Eastern time, Friday. You can check it out at CNN.com/royal wedding. Also while you are on the site, you can click on our new blog, "unveiled". It has everything you need to know about the royal nuptials, cnn.com/unveiled.
And hey, if you are one of these people like John Lafry, here in London, doing your best to get a chance to sort of make your mark at the royal wedding, send us an iReport -- ireport.com. We are going to be airing some of those as our special coverage of the royal wedding continues.
Back to you guys in New York.
ROMANS: All right Kiran.
VELSHI: We're going to look forward to it, Kiran. You look like you are having a good time there and looks like a lot of fun behind you, a lot of action developing; can't wait until the big day.
ROMANS: Nice work. I mean hopefully, she has a little bit of time to do some sightseeing today and not just filing all these reports.
VELSHI: I don't think there is a lot of down time for them either.
ROMANS: I don't think so either.
VELSHI: They're working real hard out there.
ROMANS: I think the sightseeing is the story.
(CROSSTALK) VELSHI: That's what it is. But at least it is a fun story to cover because we have a lot of other stuff that we have to cover for you on the news that isn't so much fun. So both the good and bad -- we're going continue with our coverage on "CNN NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.
It starts right now. Good morning Carol.
ROMANS: Hi Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Good morning. And you're right. A little bit of sunshine in an otherwise dark world, so we're happy for that.
