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American Morning
Flood Danger Heads South; Seeing the Bin Laden Photos; In- Flight Security Scare; Cost of the Mississippi Record Flooding; Inside Spanx
Aired May 11, 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: Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING today, there is massive flooding along the Mississippi. The river has now crested and parts of Memphis are submerged. Thousands of others evacuating as the raging waters threaten Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Pictures of Osama bin Laden after the U.S. killed him. A private viewing at CIA headquarters is in the works. We'll let you know who's been invited.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And millions of Americans say thanks to Spanx. The modern day girdle has become a force in fashion. Our Alina Cho sits down with the woman who shaped an idea into a $350 million empire.
CHETRY: Right. We couldn't do the show without them.
Plus why prices, home prices, are plunging on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: A lot happening overnight. I'm Kiran Chetry. Let's get you caught up.
Watching the levees and preparing for the worst. Flood danger heading south right now. They're opening the gates in some cities, but will it be enough to stop the surging Mississippi.
VELSHI: I'm Ali Velshi. You and I are not allowed to see them, but the Obama administration is inviting a select few to look at those photos of bin Laden dead. We'll let you know who's on the list.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. Newt Gingrich is in, but can he win? The former House speaker and Republican powerhouse of the 1990s is about to announce he's running for president on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And welcome, so glad you're with us on this Wednesday morning. It is May 11th. A lot going on today. We're following the latest on the floods.
VELSHI: And a new decision now that some members of Congress and others will get a private viewing of some of the pictures of Osama bin Laden after he was killed. ROMANS: But first let's start with the flooding now because this is a problem that is just raging down the nation's midsection. The Mississippi River right now, people are working hundreds of miles ahead of where the river crested near a record high yesterday.
In Memphis, Tennessee, thousands of people have listened to warnings to get away, but thousands more are gambling that the levees, in some cases built -- their flood walls built decades ago, will hold.
VELSHI: As you can see on this map, the worst is still ahead for several counties in Arkansas. Also much of western Mississippi. And Louisiana, where they have already opened 72 floodgates, and that's sending millions of gallons of water rushing into Lake Pontchartrain.
CHETRY: The small community of Tunica, Mississippi is already devastated. Some neighborhood blocks are already under three stories of water. River front casinos in the area are now part of the river and they could be closed for weeks, perhaps even months. It's certainly bad news for people who placed the bets and also for those who take them. There are nine casinos in the town and they're really the hub of the economy there.
Rob Marciano is on the ground in Tunica right now with the very latest for us.
Hi, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. The crest of the river now moving south into this part of Mississippi and yes, the folks here worried and as you mentioned most of the casinos at least for now, are closed. And, you know, along the Mississippi, they're floating. So that's where the casinos hang. But where the resorts are, where the people sleep, like here at the Gold Strike Casino, well, you know, that's on land and part of those areas are flooded.
Well, they're taking unique stances in order to battle that fight. Yesterday, they're using sandbags but as the sun comes up a little bit later, we'll show you exactly how this particular casino is fighting. It's a unique technology that at least for now seems to be working.
But around Tunica and especially south here in Tunica proper where there's some fishing areas, some of those areas completely under water and that's not good news. So this is going to have the same effect, guys, as we saw in Memphis. A very, very slow rise at a very, very slow fall. So it's going to be a long-term deal here with millions of dollars lost in revenue with all the casinos being closed, at least temporarily. They do have, of course, expect to reopen as we go through the next several weeks. But like every town that we've talked, we've visited throughout the Mississippi, it's going to be a long-term struggle and that's -- the mayor here agrees with that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR CHUCK CARIKER, TUNICA, MISSISSIPPI: It is devastating. It's painful to watch the slow rise of the water. We can't start the recovery and you can't start the healing process until the water goes down. And that's the part that is painful and for their safety, for safety of others, they're not allowed back in there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: Well, we didn't break the record crest in Memphis and that's the good news in Memphis. Obviously good news here just downstream in Tunica. And no rainfall in the immediate forecast at least that would make these rivers rise even further. But nonetheless, this casino is surrounded by water and we'll show you exactly how they're battling it throughout the morning.
Back to you guys.
CHETRY: Still a long road ahead. Rob Marciano for us, thanks so much.
ROMANS: Alexandra Steele is in the Extreme Weather Center with more on all this.
Hi, Alexandra.
ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, good morning to you. You know, as long as it's going to take for this to crest, this bulge of water, it will actually take way longer for this to really come down and really months certainly to clean up.
So who's up next? You saw Rob there in Tunica just surrounded by all the water. Well, of course, this bulge of water heading south, oh, so slowly. About 200 miles of fertile farmland in the Mississippi Delta, that's what's coming up next. Shelters there already poised, already open. Hundreds already there in shelters. Farmers actually in advance of that already applying for aid. And also, people really taking things into their own hands. Farmers building levees on their own to protect their own crops. There's wheat and corn and cotton. So certainly a lot there to protect in this very fertile farmland. So we're going to watch this record flooding.
Again, as you heard Rob say, just shy of that crest in Memphis, but we're talking about records going back to the '20s and '30s and some even 1915. So we're going to watch again this bulge and swell of water slowly make its way down, kind of like a ball being thrown down the river. It will slowly crest and look at what we're going to see and when it is.
Today is the 11th. So as we head towards Vicksburg, and this is really where a lot of that fertile farmland is, we're going to watch this crest.
Look at these numbers. Above flood stage, 16 feet, 17 feet. Baton Rouge over a foot and a half above flood stage. And you can see the time line on this. Through the weekend, we're going to watch this through Mississippi and then slowly you can see May 22nd in Baton Rouge and then winding in New Orleans, getting this wall of water all the way down here into the delta then into the Gulf of Mexico. Certainly a long way to go and certainly a lot of hardship along the way.
Back to you guys.
ROMANS: All right. Alexandra Steele, thank you very much.
VELSHI: Well, we can't view them but a select group of lawmakers will get to see the photos of Osama bin Laden after he was killed.
CNN has learned members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Intelligence Committees will be allowed to see the pictures at CIA headquarters in Virginia. Members of similar committees in the House will also be invited. A date for the viewing hasn't been scheduled yet.
After a stop in El Paso, Texas, yesterday to talk about immigration reform, the president attended a couple of fund-raisers in Austin, Texas. These are his first campaign appearances since bin Laden's death and the paying crowd showed their appreciation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for getting bin Laden.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There you go. Case in point. It should inspire us to finish what we started. We're taking the fight to Al Qaeda and because of the extraordinary bravery of the men and women who wear this nation's uniform and the outstanding work of our intelligence agencies, Osama bin Laden will never again threaten the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: The Obama administration was hoping to raise $2 million from those two Texas fund-raisers. Really it's the Obama campaign. Tickets averaged about $1,000 each with some going for nearly $30,000 apiece.
And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is about to announce that he is in. Gingrich is expected to break the news that he'll run for president later today on Facebook and Twitter. But if Gingrich wants to win, he'll have to work on his reputation. According to a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 44 percent of Americans have a negative view of him while just 30 percent favor the former House speaker.
ROMANS: Another unruly passenger story, you guys. An unruly passenger aboard a Delta flight from Orlando to Boston is in custody this morning. Authorities say this man tried to open an emergency door mid-flight. The crew and an off-duty policeman jumped in and subdued him. There were 148 people on board. The plane landed safely in Boston late last night.
You know, this is the fourth in flight security incident in just the last few days.
VELSHI: Now, and we were talking about this earlier. That if somebody goes to open a flight door, what an alarming thing, right, you're in mid-flight and somebody goes to try and open an exit door. The fact is because of air pressure, if you're basically above 10,000 feet, you won't be able to do it.
CHETRY: And but -- I mean, the fact that these people keep trying, I mean, what's going on?
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: And secondly, you can't even just plan on taking a flight anymore. You have to turn into a would-be security officer.
VELSHI: You have to be. You're right.
ROMANS: I know.
CHETRY: I mean, in all of these cases, it was -- I mean --
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: It's not just the flight attendants, but fellow passengers, men had to get out of their streets and restrain these people.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: The sheer volume of people who are flying there's likely to be someone off.
VELSHI: And I'm always -- I'm always in an exit seat because I like the extra room. Now, you know, I take my shoes off and settle in and go for a little nap, put the eyeshades on. Now I'm going to have to stand there.
CHETRY: Yes. You have to stand at the ready to fight. But the other thing, why don't we hear about this on -- you know, we don't hear about this on the Amtrak. We don't hear about this on the highways, in the planes.
VELSHI: Right. Somebody wants to open the door, do it on the Amtrak train. You're not going to bother anybody.
ROMANS: Serious questions being raised this morning about the safety of our sea ports. According to a new report by the Government Accountability Office, undercover investigators were able to get into some of the nation's busiest ports by flashing fake worker I.D.s. At one point, according to this report, government investigators were even able to get a fake explosive into a secure area of a port. The I.D. cards have been touted as one of the most important layers in a multilayered system to protect ports from terrorists. They're a bit concerned about security in our ports since the days after September 11th.
VELSHI: Sure.
ROMANS: And people are concerned about potential nuclear material and potential dirty bombs and the like in the very busy American sea ports because frankly, there's so much coming in, very little is actually screened.
CHETRY: That's right.
Well, how about this one? You get your jetpack together and you fly over the Grand Canyon. Come on. This guy did it.
Swiss stuntman, Yves "Jetman" Rossy is his name. I think he's sponsored by Breitling.
Anyway --
VELSHI: Which, by the way, is quite associated with flight, right?
CHETRY: Yes. With aviation.
VELSHI: With aviation, right.
CHETRY: Well, he dropped out of a helicopter this past Saturday. There he is. He flew for eight minutes, crossing the Grand Canyon in his jet pack.
VELSHI: That is cool.
CHETRY: Two hundred feet above the rim of the canyon.
ROMANS: Wow.
CHETRY: And then he deployed his parachute. Ended up landing on the canyon floor. That's even crazier, right?
ROMANS: This is to remind of how big the Grand Canyon is.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: If you watch how small he is against the --
CHETRY: Beautiful.
ROMANS: Wow.
VELSHI: That is great.
ROMANS: All right. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, how you will pay for the floods even if you're nowhere near the Mississippi from food to filling up, all the things that rely on this very important artery.
VELSHI: And the president's next commencement address is not going to be in front of college grads. We'll show you about the high school that earned a visit by winning the race to the top.
It is 10 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Even if you don't live near the Mississippi River, there's a high probability that you are affected by the massive floods. Here's why. The Mississippi River moves about 500 million tons of cargo per year. That includes chemicals, coal, timber, iron, steel, and more than half, 60 percent of the nation's grain exports would go out to Louisiana and get shipped out from there. Ninety-two percent of the nation's agricultural exports are grown along the river in the basin areas of the Mississippi.
Let's just take a look at Arkansas, for instance. One million acres of crop land are under water right now, which could cost the largest rice producer in the country $500 million. Just in Arkansas. All that farmland that is under water is going to take time to dry out. If it is submerged for more than a month, the entire year's crop could be threatened.
Now the waters are likely to wash away seeds. They're likely to wash away mineral rich topsoil and that puts a strain on future planting. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that U.S. stockpiles of key crops like cotton and corn are already at or near historic lows. That's because of growing global demand in India, China and other places.
Let's talk about oil prices as well. Oil refineries are bracing for potential shutdowns and disruptions as the water nears the Louisiana refining corridor. There are lots of refineries there. They also can't operate if they're heavily flooded. The floods have already stalled some river traffic and that could also force companies to halt pipeline flows or they could lead to congestion on a railroad. All of the railroads, all of that contributes to higher prices at the pump if that river traffic is stalled. Remember, the Mississippi River is a key transport hub in this country - Kiran.
CHETRY: Absolutely. We're feeling the reverberations very far from where those floodwaters are.
Meantime, to Libya, where rebels are fending off heavy shelling and rocket attacks by government troops in Misrata. A western journalist inside of the city tells CNN that the rebels are making slow advances despite the fact that Moammar Gadhafi's soldiers are shelling residential neighborhoods, and we're being told that emergency rooms are now packed with injured women and children.
Nearly three quarters of a million people have fled Libya since this fighting broke out. The U.N. says thousands more are displaced or they're simply stranded at border crossings. We're getting reports that a ship carrying more than 600 refugees from Tripoli has capsized and it's not clear how many people survived that.
ROMANS: In Iran, there's been another delay in the trial of two jailed American hikers. It was supposed to start today, but for some reason Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were not brought to court. They're charged with spying and illegal entry into Iran and face the death penalty.
This is the third time their trial has been delayed now.
Yesterday, Fattal's mother told CNN's Brook Baldwin she wants her son and his friend to know that they're not going through this on their own.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA FATTAL, JOSH FATTAL'S MOTHER: So we are very, very, you know, concerned that, you know, they - they should not feel alone. So, in a way, I know Josh knows his whole family is with him. Shane knows his whole family is with him. And I think both of them know that the entire world is watching.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Save their opening statements -
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Fattal and Bauer have been in prison now in Iran for 22 months.
CHETRY: And attorneys for Lindsay Lohan expected to enter a no contest plea at a court hearing today. This is the case where she's accused of stealing a $2,500 necklace from a Los Angeles jewelry store.
Officials say that the plea deal will likely mean a short jail sentence or home confinement. Lohan will not be attending the hearing in an effort to save the court from having to pay for extra security to handle the media mob scene at her courthouse arrival.
ROMANS: You know, it's been a rough spring for Memphis. It's been a rough last few days for Memphis, the Mississippi River going over its banks.
But one high school there in the city is celebrating right now. Booker T. Washington High beat out thousands of other schools to win the 2011 Race to the Top challenge. That means President Obama will head to the school next week to deliver the commencement address, and the vice president called the school to deliver the good news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At first he had - he had made it sound like we had lost or something, and then when he said we won, I screamed so loud that I think everybody in the whole entire office heard us all.
People were crying. People fell. It was like a very exciting moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Good for them.
ROMANS: So here's how come they won, you guys. The school has gone from a graduation rate of just over 50 percent a few years ago to a graduation rate of more than 80 percent last year. And the president, by the year 2020, has a challenge. He'd like the U.S. to have the best graduation rates in the world, so really pushing on schools to figure out ways to do that.
VELSHI: And - and Tennessee school reforms have been among the nation's best. It's one of those states that got that race for the top money.
CHETRY: Yes. That's a good story. Yes.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: One of the things they do for the freshman class is they separate them out into academies of - of women and men, girls and boys, to prepare them for high school and then puts them together again in sophomore year. So they're kind of really -
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: -- transition to go, yes, from middle school to high school.
ROMANS: Really to do the transition better.
VELSHI: All right, let's talk about houses. We talk about them a lot here. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, those empty houses in your neighborhood, the ones that are for sale or being foreclosed, are crushing the value of your own home.
We've got a new report with some news on home prices. Depending on where you stand, it might be good news, it might be bad news.
CHETRY: Hey, I could use this, a car that drives itself.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Not that far off. The state may allow them soon. What state? We'll find out, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-two minutes past the hour right now. We're "Minding Your Business" this morning.
And we're talking about housing - housing numbers this morning. Foreclosures that have been priced to move are really essentially crushing home prices and the first three months of 2011, home prices fell 4.6 percent from a year earlier. That's according to the National Association of Realtors, which also reports that the median price for a single-family home is now $158,700.
How does that compare? Well, that is down 30 percent from the peak -
ROMANS: Wow.
CHETRY: -- of 2006.
VELSHI: And so you've got that - that 30 percent down, and you've got from the peak and you've got mortgage rates of below five percent for a 30-year fixed mortgage. Again, to me, that spells buying opportunity.
ROMANS: A lot of the buyers are paying cash, they're paying cash because they have money in the bank and they've decided that these prices are so low they're going to be renting out the house -
VELSHI: It's good news, yes,
ROMANS: -- or they're going to move. So that's where the action is for cash buyers.
VELSHI: General Motors is announcing it will invest $2 billion into 17 plants across the United States. It's a move that's expected to save or create 4,000 jobs. I - I hate this word "save or create".
CHETRY: The term "save or create". Like you how do you - how do you quantify that?
VELSHI: Now, everybody uses it.
It's just another positive sign of GM's road to recovery, however. Last month, sales were up 26 percent from last year.
ROMANS: OK. Driverless cars, folks. Google - Google wants you to legally be able to drive its driverless hybrids in Nevada. "The New York Times" is reporting the Internet giant quietly pushing for legislation that would make it OK to drive cars on Nevada public roads. A lobbyist hired by Google argues the technology is safer than human drivers and offer -
VELSHI: Sure.
ROMANS: -- fuel-efficient cars and promotes economic development.
CHETRY: So what do you do? You basically you just sit in the passenger's seat?
ROMANS: Well, the driver - the driverless car doesn't text anyone while driving.
CHETRY: But you just sit in the passenger seat and hope for the best?
VELSHI: I - we must try one.
CHETRY: I mean, that would drive me crazy.
VELSHI: Anybody who's out there got one?
CHETRY: I mean, I'm sitting there and pushing on an imaginary brakes. I love how their test marketing this in Nevada. Hey, let's pick a state. All right. They'll say yes. All right.
VELSHI: (INAUDIBLE).
CHETRY: Well, we'll see what happens.
Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, trying to hold back the water. Hoping the levees hold. We have Casey Wian with the Army Corps of Engineers to give us an update. VELSHI: Also this morning, should kids go to school year-round? Coming up later in the show, we have a guest who says summer vacation is obsolete. It was meant for times when kids work the farm, had to help their parents, had to do chores before and after.
What if they stayed in school all year? Boy, I know there are a lot of parents who would think that would be -- that would be helpful to them. Tell us what you think. E-mail us, tweet us, go to our blog. Find us on Facebook. We're reading your comments later on in the show.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Twenty-eight minutes after the hour. The top stories we're following right now.
The swollen Mississippi River rolling south this morning. The river crested in Memphis just shy of a record high set over seven years ago. Look at these pictures. Now, that crest, that high point in the river, is moving downstream and areas downstream are in the danger zone.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal says about three million acres in his state could be affected by the flooding.
CHETRY: And so now they've dealt with, you know, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, the oil spill -
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: -- and now this flooding. Louisiana is bracing for this, but they're saying that it's going to cost a lot of money.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committees will be allowed to see photos of Osama Bin Laden dead. This viewing will take place at a CIA headquarters at the CIA Headquarters in Virginia. It has not been scheduled yet. Members of similar committees in the House are also being invited.
ROMANS: And former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich will make it official today that he's running for president. He's going to make this announcement on Twitter and Facebook. Gingrich has told reporters - supporters, rather, he hopes to raise $100 million for his campaign.
VELSHI: CNN going in depth now on the manmade effort to hold back the mighty Mississippi. You're looking at video of the river rolling through the Bonnet Carre Spillway in Louisiana.
CHETRY: Seventy-two flood gates -
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: -- have been opened, sending millions of gallons of water rushing into Lake Pontchartrain, converting (ph) 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools from the Mississippi every minute.
ROMANS: Wow.
VELSHI: Wow.
ROMANS: Casey Wians live for us in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the Army Corps of Engineers is - is working to fight back the flood. And, you know, and (INAUDIBLE), we would say opening the flood gates. This is really opening the -
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: -- flood gates, Casey.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. The Army Corps of Engineers has been working very, very hard over the past several weeks to try to minimize the impact of this flood that they know is coming to this area very soon.
Now, behind me, I'm actually standing in the parking lot of a river boat casino called Diamond Jacks, the employee parking lot. You can see it's now completely flooded. There's a road that is under water that goes back behind there.
And behind that, you can see a marine business that has by itself over the last couple weeks put up all of these sandbags, these water barriers. There is some water starting to leak over that barrier and it's only going to get more -- it's only going to get deeper. We're expecting four to five more feet of the river raising by next Thursday when it's going to crest in this area.
Now, the Army Corps of Engineers, though, and we can show you some pictures that we shot earlier, has been working hard on some of the levees and some of the tributaries of the Mississippi River. They're very concerned that some of those levees could break and what they've been doing, what we're showing you here, they've been laying polyurethane sheeting along a four-mile stretch of that levee that will hopefully prevent the erosion if the levee is breached, if that river level increases so much. It goes over the top of that levee, which they're expecting could happen. They're going to use that sheeting which will stop the erosion and, hopefully, stop those levees from breaking and ruining the farmland that's on the other side.
Now, of course, the Army Corps of Engineers came under a lot of fire after Hurricane Katrina and one of its biggest critics is Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson. His district stretches along 280 miles of the Mississippi River, and he spent several hours yesterday with the Army Corps of Engineers. And here's what he had to say about how they've changed since Katrina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D), MISSISSIPPI: Well, there's no question, they mishandled Hurricane Katrina. They mishandled communicating with state and local officials. They mishandled part of the response in terms of handling the water. And they kept making mistakes upon mistakes, rather than admitting that we made a mistake.
But what I've seen since Katrina is a Corps that reaches out, talks as far as I know to every local entity that's interested in what they are doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIAN: Now, of course, the flood is expected this time to be of historic levels above the 1927 flood that killed 500 people and left 700,000 people homeless. The Army Corps of Engineers says the devastation is not expected to be anywhere near that this time because of that levee system that they have built and fortified over the past several decades.
Back to you, guys, in studio.
ROMANS: All right. Casey Wian -- thanks, Casey.
You know, coming up in just a few minutes, we're going to speak with Andrew Fahlund. He's an advocate for healthier waterways. He's working with the Army Corps of Engineers. He says the levees should be our last line of defense, not our first line.
CHETRY: Alexandra Steele is in the extreme weather center for us for a look at where we're talking about these water levels and what we can expect today.
Hi, Alexandra.
STEELE: Hi. I can't wait to hear what he has to say, what the first line of defense should be.
Well, guys, in addition to the flooding, of course, few weather stories to talk about -- one in some big areas in the Midwest and the Plains, the threat for severe weather -- isolated tornadoes, really damaging hail, and some strong gusty winds. Some big cities, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Chicago, even south to Dallas. Again, we'll see the potential for isolated tornadoes today.
Also, believe it or not, this crazy dichotomy of temperatures -- intense and record heat. In the Southeast, from Kentucky and Tennessee to Florida and Georgia, temperatures 10 to 20 degrees above average in the 90s. And on the back side of this, which is actually firing up the severe weather, in places like Denver, Colorado, they should be in the low 70s and they're going to have 47 degree temperatures.
So, really chilly to the West, steam is on them in the Southeast, and, of course, thus that explosion of severe weather from Dallas all the way, north to Chicago today.
We'll, of course, have more on the flooding and the impacts of that coming up in just a little bit.
Back to you.
VELSHI: Alexandra, thanks so much. We'll check in on this with you on all morning.
Until further review, by the way, the Navy is now suspending guidance that would have allowed same-sex marriages at military chapels once the military ends its ban on gays in the military.
CHETRY: This is strange because yesterday --
VELSHI: They were all about it.
CHETRY: They were talking about how they were going to do this.
VELSHI: Yes. The policy, by the way, was still in the planning stages and there were several conditions, including the decision to perform the marriage being up to the individual chaplain, which we told you about yesterday. It would have to happen in a state where same-sex marriage is legal. That part we also reported to you yesterday.
Some critics of the plan said it violated the Defense of Marriage Act.
CHETRY: All right.
VELSHI: So, unclear as to where we stand as much now. And when we get more some clarity, we'll bring it to you.
CHETRY: President Obama is touting immigration reform during the first trip he made to the U.S./Mexico border since taking office. He spoke in El Paso, Texas, and the president said the border is more secure now and that's reason enough for Congress to put politics aside and to try to reform a broken system.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The question is whether those in Congress who previously walked away in the name of enforcement are ready to come back and finish the work that we started.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Immigration reform plan includes creating a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.
VELSHI: Heavy hearts at CNN this morning. We've lost a dear friend and the world lost a pioneer. Burt Reinhardt died yesterday after suffering a series of strokes. You probably never heard of him. Burt always shied away from the spotlight, but he is the man who singlehandedly spearheaded the evolution of 24-hour news coverage in this country.
He was president of CNN from 1983 to 1990. He also served as a combat photographer during World War II. Our founder, Ted Turner, said, quote, "I'm not sure CNN would be here without him."
Burt Reinhardt dead at the age of 91.
We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: The Mississippi River now is surging further south. City after city has been devastated by historic high water. Engineers are trying to manage and contain the water with a system of levees and flood gates that were, in some cases, created after the last big one back in 1927.
But is the answer really to just set the river free?
Joining us now is Andrew Fahlund, senior vice president for conservation for the American Rivers movement.
I mean, what are our choices here? We're looking at a system, Andrew -- welcome to the program -- that's really been tested since its creation, its whole creation back in the '20s. Are we learning that we should have other lines of defense that aren't blowing up levees or opening flood gates? Are there other things that we can do?
ANDREW FAHLUND, SR. VICE PRESIDENT FOR CONSERVATION, AMERICAN RIVERS: Well, I think there are a lot of other things we can do. We have basically got 40 percent of the nation's landmass kind of funneling down into this very narrow area, and we've basically built up to the edge and farmed up to the edge of our rivers and streams, giving them very little room to move. We've paved over and farmed over millions of acres of wetlands which are natural sponges.
And so, we really need to restore and protect some of those natural defenses which in addition to making investments in levees.
ROMANS: You know, it's interesting, because the horse is sort of out of the barn. You have chemical plants. You have nuclear power plants. You have sewage treatment plants. You have towns, cities, very rich farmland, huge, you know, animal processing facilities -- all right along the Mississippi River.
How practically could you reclaim that for more green space or reclaim it for more marshland? It would be very difficult, wouldn't it?
FAHLUND: Well, it would be difficult. And we have really made a lot of, you know, sunk investments, if you will, in terms of developing in flood plains, especially along the Mississippi River. But we have a lot of opportunities throughout the tributaries and we really don't have much of a choice here. We're going to have to find land to store some of these waters during these big catastrophic events.
ROMANS: You know, Craig Fugate, who runs FEMA, told us yesterday that, essentially, the system is working as it was designed, blowing up a levee. That was how the system was designed to work -- opening flood gates and having to flood farmland instead of flood a town, that is -- that is a system that is working.
But are there other things that we can do as well, or is this all we can do right now without big investments elsewhere? FAHLUND: Well, I think there are a lot of things we can do. What we're witnessing right now are some of the big, huge, solutions like these floodways. But if you imagine, we can do a whole lot more with a whole lot of smaller, similar kinds of solutions.
If you think about pressure relief valves throughout the system before the water gets to the main channel of the Mississippi River, which is very hard to manage, we could -- we could achieve great deal more and actually turn -- create some benefits for communities along the way.
ROMANS: How does the lock and dam system fit into here? Because you have locks and dams all the way down where they're really managing from the upper part of the Mississippi, they're really managing flow to keep barge traffic moving and keep commerce moving?
FAHLUND: Yes. Well, you know, the lock and dam system is critical to maintain commerce and that's an important asset for the nation. But the lock and dam system actually does come at some costs when it comes to flood management. Those locks and dams and actually a whole lot of other structures within the channel, actually raise the flood level over time and actually make matters a bit worse when it comes to flooding.
ROMANS: Let's talk about this ecological damage because you talk about -- I mean, I mentioned sewage treatment plant, and I mentioned all these other things that are along the banks of the Mississippi River. You know, it used to be that flooding replenished the topsoil when it was a natural process. Now, flooding really washes away and hurts the topsoil. Is that a fair assessment?
FAHLUND: Well, I think, you know, you think about the fertile heart of this country and it really is a result of this kind of flooding and that kind of -- the levee system currently deprives all of that farmland from being replenished with that topsoil. So, you know, there are -- is erosive qualities to the river right now and it does take away some of that topsoil.
ROMANS: Are you concerned at all about chemicals and petroleum and sewage and all these things that are most likely going directly into these floodwaters?
FAHLUND: Well, as you said before, a lot of sewage treatment plants and industrial plants and so forth have built up along the river and many of those are now overwhelmed and flooded. And so, suddenly, the waters are carrying pretty nasty stuff. It's going to be really interesting to sort of see how this all falls out. I think it's still too early to tell just what the consequences of all that -- those pollutants in the water will be.
ROMANS: It really is a man versus nature story. I mean, going back to '27, when all these competing political interests tried to figure out how to harness this river and now, here we are grappling with trying to harness a river which by definition you can't -- you can't hold back Mother Nature.
FAHLUND: No. I mean, it's sort of like trying to grab hold of a snake. It wants to wriggle its way out. Yes, that's the word I'm looking for.
ROMANS: All right. Andrew Fahlund, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate your perspective on this -- the senior vice president for conservation for American Rivers. Thank you, sir.
FAHLUND: Thank you.
ROMANS: Ali and Kiran?
CHETRY: All right. Poor Ali, why should I make you talk about Spanx? You don't have any need for them, do you?
VELSHI: I don't know if I have any need for them. I just don't use them. I don't really know much about them.
CHETRY: They're basically a girl's best friend when it comes to looking nice in your clothing, you want to hold some stuff in, you know what I'm saying?
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: Smooth stuff out.
VELSHI: That's why I wear a vest.
CHETRY: This is the vest -- the Ali-type vest for women around the world. Not your mother's girdle. Alina Cho talks to the founder of this fashion empire.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 47 minutes past the hour. Look at your top stories now.
The flood danger heading south. The worst is still on the way for Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Flood gates are opened and thousands of people have been forced from their homes.
Select members of the House and Senate will get to see pictures of Osama Bin Laden after he was killed. These viewings will happen at CIA headquarters in Virginia. The date is still being decided.
A passenger on a Delta Flight from Orlando to Boston charged with interfering with a flight crew after he pulled a handle on one of the emergency exits mid-flight. The plane ended up landing safely. Witnesses say the man appeared to be drunk.
There is another delay in the trial of two American hikers who've been jailed in Iran for 22 months now. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal charged with spying. They face the death penalty.
General Motors says it will invest $2 billion in 17 plants across the U.S. It's a move expected to save or create about 4,000 jobs.
And a Swiss stunt man soaring over the Grand Canyon with only a jet pack. Yves Rossy flew for eight minutes above the rim this past weekend before he deployed his parachute executing a perfect landing on the floor of the Canyon.
And now, you're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right.
CHETRY: Talking about men's Spanx --
VELSHI: Yes, and I got my vest Spanx on.
ROMANS: Ali wants to cover something he puts on a vest, he says.
VELSHI: This is why this one doesn't match my suit because of the Spanx vest.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: Spanx.
VELSHI: That's all I know about Spanx. And this is on the Spanx vest, but we're talking about Spanx which apparently are quite popular. Does somebody else want to take over --
ROMANS: Yes. Alina Cho joins us this morning with more on the woman who shaped this idea into a $350 million business. Shaped the idea that woman don't want to wear a girdle like the 1950s, but they do want to look good in clothes.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right. I mean, Spanx, basically, is to women shape wear, what Kleenex is to facial tissue, what Xerox is to copies, and it's already made women feel OK wearing what used to be called a girdle. Right now, it's called Spanx, Ali. Some of us are familiar with it on this set. Others are not. We'll teach you about it, you know?
Here's the bottom line. You know, if you want to lose those five extra pounds, drop a dress size in a hurry, Spanx certainly can keep a secret. It is that shape wear phenomenon that is also a mega brand, and it's not just for women anymore. Hey, men out there, there's hope for you, too.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just put on my Spanx, and I'm ready to go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many people know Spanx?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They called Spanx.
CHO (voice-over): It's the butt of jokes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why you need baby Spanx. The super-elastic share wear that smooths out all of your babies (ph) and slightly bumps and bulges. CHO: But there's no denying the power of Spanx. The open secret that keeps celebrities looking svelte on the red carpet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've tricked my body into thinking it's thinner. Spanx.
SARA BLAKELY, FOUNDER OF SPANX: Hi. I'm Sarah, the founder of Spanx.
CHO: Sara Blakely invented Spanx, and it's not your grandmother's girdle.
How did you come up with the idea?
BLAKELY: Honestly, my own butt. I mean, let's just tell it like it is. I did not like the way my own rear looked in white pants.
CHO: Out of frustration, Blakely cut the feet out of her control top pantyhose, put them on under her white pants, and the first prototype of Spanx was born.
BLAKELY: And they worked wonders, but they rolled up my legs all night. And I thought, you know what, if I can comfortably figure out a way to keep this below the knee, this could be a home run for women.
CHO: This is the product that launched it all.
BLAKELY: This started it all.
CHO: Footless pantyhose. Nine million have sold. Blakely started the company a decade ago with $5,000. Money she saved from selling fax machines door-to-door. Today, Spanx is a mega brand, more than 200 products in 10,000 stores in the U.S. alone and in 30 countries, generating $350 million in sales.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They changed my world. They changed my world a couple of weeks ago when I had a dress on that I probably should not have been wearing.
CHO: Now, there's Spanx for men.
BLAKELY: I think guys are just waking up and saying why wouldn't we do something that just makes us look and feel a little better too in our clothes.
CHO: Yes, why just the girls?
BLAKELY: Right.
CHO: The invention that sparked a revolution and made Blakely a celebrity, too.
BLAKELY: The other day I was in the airport, and this woman's running by me, and she clearly just had a moment where she recognized me and she goes, Spanx, and wheels on luggage, two greatest inventions in the last 50 years.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (on-camera): Ain't that truth or as one top retailer told me, some people believe that Sara Blakely's invention is on par with Thomas Edison. Hey, why not? And as promised, I brought along some for all of you. You know, the interesting thing, you heard me say that they have more than 200 products.
ROMANS: Right.
CHO: Blakely said the staff is mostly women.
VELSHI: Right.
CHO: They really developed products based on what they feel like they need, what they're missing, right. And suddenly, they started hearing from men, men started saying hey, don't leave us out, which is why we have Spanx for men.
CHETRY: I see extra-large.
CHO: There are directions in the box as well for men.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: To the rescue. Targeted compression and cooling.
VELSHI: Nice. Wow.
CHO: There's Spanx underwear, but this is --
ROMANS: Underwear.
CHO: Out of my comfort zone --
CHETRY: Streamline fit and innovative 3D pouch. I'm not going to ask.
(LAUGHTER)
CHO: That's right. Footless shape wear, this is the product that launched it all. Nine million have sold.
CHETRY: There are people out there wondering what's the difference between this and any other thing I can buy, I have to say, I know that she started by just cutting the things off of her own hose, but whatever fabric --
CHO: And call it the Spanx magic.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Because it works really well.
CHO: You know what's interesting is they developed a bra. She told me I was four years in the making, and by the time they finished it, they were so happy with the product that they all said, (SINGING) bra- lelujah. And that's the name of the product. bra-lelujah. There you go.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Go change into these and look like a new man after this.
CHETRY: I love this.
VELSHI: All right. Tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, Alina sits down with Tori Burch. Her name is synonymous with ballerina flats, but she's selling a lot more than shoes and that is tomorrow right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
We're going to take an extra-long break because we're going to be trying the Spanx on. Don't miss this, by the way. Alina is going to host a half-hour special called "Fashion Backstage Pass" this Saturday, May 14th, 2:30 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.
CHETRY: Top stories just minutes away.
China reportedly wants to take a look at the top secret U.S. chopper when it went down. There were analysts that said this right when it happened.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Reverse engineer that chopper.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: Can Pakistan be trusted with Washington secrets? We're going to ask an expert on U.S./Pakistani relations coming up. It's five minutes until the top of the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rehearsal day for director, Ge Wong, and his performers are tuning their instruments. Their laptops. Meet the members of SLOrk, Stanford University's laptop orchestra.
GE WONG, DIRECTOR, STANFORD LAPTOP ORCHESTRA: We are here to make whatever music is fun to make, but also takes advantage of both humans and computers.
TUCHMAN: Founded in 2008, the Mac books music making mission is pretty simple.
WONG: Everyone is kind of in a sense getting their hands dirty, programming designing the sounds. We found the interactions with instruments and just putting it altogether into a piece of music, in crafting it as a performance. TUCHMAN: Each performer has a laptop, a controller, and a uniquely designed speaker made from an IKEA salad bowl. A low-tech amplifier for some high-tech playing, and conducting this in sound was also a lesson in various gestures. More charade like than baton style.
WONG: This is actually a slider. This is zero, and this is one or 100 percent. And you're giving people, basically, a signal where you are in that range, and you can then say map that gesture to any number of parameters.
TUCHMAN: Whether you're in the laptop orchestra or the audience, the parameters of music are certainly changing.
Gary Tuchman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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