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American Morning: Wake Up Call

Huge Protests in Greece; Giffords Receives Standing Ovation at First Public Appearance; Muslim Woman Suing Abercrombie and Fitch

Aired June 28, 2011 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Ali Velshi. It is Tuesday, June 28th. This is your A.M. WAKE-UP CALL, joining you from New York.

But let's take some -- let's take a look at some pictures coming out of Greece right now. These are live shots from Greece, where workers in that country have begun a two-day, a 48-hour general strike, as the parliament there debates a decision to raise taxes, to cut government spending, to cut wages for government workers.

It's something they have to do in order to get a bailout to keep their banks alive. And if their banks fail, we are looking at another credit crisis around the world.

Christine Romans will be with me momentarily to tell you what that means to you here. Diana Magnay is there, in that group of people. Anna Coren is joining us from Hong Kong to tell us what the effect is right now on world markets because of this. We'll be keeping a very close eye on what's going on live right now in Greece.

Here's a quick rundown of other news that you're going to hear about today.

Starting with a wildfire getting uncomfortably close to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Look at these incredible pictures. We're talking about an inferno moving toward one of the federal government's top national security research facilities. Hazardous and radioactive materials are stored in there.

Now, the facility is closed again today, about 10,000 people have been evacuated from the area. Firefighters have a battle on their hands. The winds and heat -- are conspiring to make their jobs a little bit tougher. Government officials are saying, however, that the dangerous material there is safe.

Now to Nebraska, you're looking at it now. The flooded Missouri River has been threatening a couple of nuclear power plants. One plant has been shut down since April for refueling. Officials say protective measures like floodgates and sandbags are working.

Now, the other plant is still up and running. And it's just a few feet above the waterway. A reactor operator there says everything is going to be fine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRIAN HASSELBRING, NEBRASKA PUBLIC POWER PLANT: I'm 100 percent confident we're not going to have an issue here. If it continues to -- if the river level continues to rise, we'll follow our procedures. We'll shut down the plant. We'll do whatever is required to maintain our safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: And here's a fantastic piece of news. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords made a public appearance a few hours ago. Now, we don't have pictures of it, but it marks the first time that she has been before a crowd since the shootings in Tucson.

These pictures were released by her staff about a week ago. We don't have pictures of the new event. She was with her astronaut husband, Mark Kelly. He received an award at space center in Houston.

And our affiliate there, KTRK, reports that Giffords got a standing ovation. She stood up from her wheelchair and she kissed her spaceman husband.

How do you think Rod Blagojevich is sleeping right now? The former Illinois governor could be sleeping on a prison bunk for a long time, for trying to sell President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. A jury found Blagojevich guilty on 17 corruption charges yesterday.

Listen to his reaction. He couldn't believe it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROD BLAGOJEVICH (D), FORMER ILLINOIS GOVERNOR: Patti and I obviously are very disappointed in the outcome. I, frankly, am stunned. There's not much left to say other than we want to get home to our little girls and talk to them and explain things to them. And then try to sort things out. And I'm sure we'll be seeing you guys again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: CNN's Jeffrey Toobin thinks Blago could spend up to 10 years in prison.

Now, why would anybody need 10 pipe bombs? Why would anybody need one? Well, that's what authorities in Louisiana intend to find out from a 53-year-old man. He crashed his truck into a drainage ditch yesterday. Police say they found the bombs and some fireworks during the crash investigation, trying to figure out what it's all about.

Now, your Casey Anthony murder trial update. The trial was stopped over the weekend, but it is moving forward now. The meter reader who found Anthony's daughter, Caylee's remains, might testify today for the defense. Not one, not two, but three psychologists examined the defendant over the weekend, and then the judge made this announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE BELVIN PERRY, ORANGE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT: Based upon the reports that the court has reviewed, the court will find that the defendant is competent to continue to proceed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: So, we move into week six of the most notorious murder trial in America. We'll have full coverage of it on CNN today.

Our other big story this morning is happening now in Athens, Greece. I showed you this a moment ago. Huge protests against anticipated austerity measures, that's government cuts, tax increases, let's get right to it.

CNN's Diana Magnay, live on the phone from Athens.

What are you seeing, Diana? What's different than what we've seen in the last couple of weeks?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi, Ali.

Well, there's a 48-hour general strike that started a few hours ago. And already, as you've seen in those pictures, there are thousands of people on the streets, but you can expect them to grow in number. The two main private and public-sector unions are out, the communist union also. Tens of thousands of people who are complaining at these austerity measures that are a condition of the E.U. and the IMF giving Greece further loans.

When you talk to these people, they say, we've suffered enough. We've had a year of this already. We've had our wages cut. We've had our pensions cut. We can't cope with higher taxes. We feel as though we're bankrupt already.

But, of course, there is a very real possibility, if Greece doesn't get this money, if it does go bankrupt, as early as July, that these people will have to suffer even worse austerity than they've experienced already -- Ali.

VELSHI: All right, Diana. We are all watching it very closely with you and we will check in with you frequently throughout the morning. Diane Magnay is in Athens, watching these protests develop.

Let's go straight to Hong Kong now where Anna Coren has been following the effect of these protests are having on markets across the world.

Diana put it very succinctly, Anna. Good morning. She said if Greece doesn't pass these austerity measures, we could be heading toward a crisis for Greece, a crisis for Europe. And we all know that that could catch on around the world.

How are markets treating this?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's quite interesting, Ali, because despite all of this volatility in Greece, it would seem that the uncertainty in the markets is easing. There's a belief that perhaps these austerity measures that currently being debated will, in fact, be pushed through. Well, let's pull up the markets around the world. Certainly, here in Asia Pacific, they've all been in positive territory for most of the day. Japan's Nikkei has been the highest performer, up three quarters of a percent, a near three-week high.

Ali, U.S. markets, as you know, up almost 1 percent overnight. And European markets now that are open for business, they're mostly following those gains that were made on Wall Street. The German DAX only slightly down, but relatively flat, quite volatile there.

So, Ali, you have to say that confidence as far as the markets are concerned, is building, that Greece will actually get through this debt crisis. But I think someone needs to tell that to the tens of thousands of protesters due to take to the streets of Athens.

VELSHI: You make a good point. There's a remarkable disconnect between the people in the streets who are very worried about their taxes going up and cuts to their services and the rest of the world who thinks what parliament is doing is very necessary. We're looking at live pictures there on the right of your screen. Those are -- that's the beginning, the first few hours of a 48-hour strike.

Anna, you're watching that closely. I'll check in with you later this morning. Always a pleasure to see you -- Anna Coren for us in Hong Kong.

Let's bring it back to the United States, Rob Marciano now live in Atlanta.

Rob, what's the weather looking? And any flight delays for travelers?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I think we will see some in the bigger cities this afternoon, especially, Ali, a slow-moving front is going to bring some showers and thunderstorms. Not seeing a ton on the radar right now. But as we go through the day, obviously, and heat things up, we'll start to get the atmosphere percolating just a little bit.

A little rain heading into the I-95 corridor in through the Beltway as well, and from D.C. to Baltimore, up through Philadelphia, you'll start to see some thunderstorms that will not all should be rough and tumble, but there will be enough to create some problems.

And, in general, New York metro will see delays, more likely in the late morning to early afternoon. Philadelphia, same deal. D.C. metro will see thunderstorms and you saw those on the radar, as well Atlanta. So, a lot of big cities, especially on the East Coast are going to see some air traffic problems.

So, just plan ahead. Give yourself an extra 10 or 20 minutes and that should do the trick.

VELSHI: I walked out this morning and I felt it. I felt that sort of humidity in the air, that summer New York things thing that says rain is probably coming.

MARCIANO: Yes. It is true.

VELSHI: I remain a rain denier, however. I still never carry an umbrella. But I got a little hat with me.

Rob, stick around for this. Watch this next story. You've got to see this video.

Folks at home, take 15 seconds to stop what you're doing, come over to the TV and look at this clip.

MARCIANO: Oh, come on. Come on!

VELSHI: That is Willie. The Willie, the amazing, dancing Chihuahua.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: I don't even know what to say about this. It's nine minutes after 5:00 in the morning. And you and me are watching a dancing Chihuahua named Willie.

MARCIANO: It looks like he's being held up by a puppet's spear (ph).

VELSHI: It doesn't look natural, does it?

MARCIANO: No, it doesn't. And that's the first Chihuahua I've ever seen that's not yapping.

VELSHI: He's not yapping. He seems very still. He's not struggling to keep his balance. He just seems quite normal.

All right. We'll think about that. Rob, good to see you, my friend. We'll check in with you in just a moment.

MARCIANO: All right, Ali.

VELSHI: All right. Remember the story we told you about yesterday, the 95-year-old cancer patient whose adult diapers were apparently creating some red flags in the airport security area. How do you forget something like that?

Anyway, I've got an update. Since then this is what we've heard.

I'm going to read you a quote from a newsmaker. Quote, "Just like John Wayne" -- I've got an update. This is a different story I'm going to read you a quote on.

This is our quote of the day. "Just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that's the kind of spirit I have, too." Who said that?

I'll tell you on the other side of the break. It's got some tongues wagging, some eyes rolling, and some blogs exploding.

Eleven minutes after the hour. We're coming right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Happy Tuesday. It is 14 minutes after the hour.

Here's the newsmaker quote I told you about just before the break. Here's the person who said it as she said it. The quote was, "Just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that's the kind of spirit I have, too."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELE BACHMANN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, what I want them to know is, just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that's the kind of spirit I have, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Michele Bachmann, just one problem, the Duke was from Winterset, Iowa, 150 miles away. See it there on the map.

Some critics said Bachmann, that was Michele Bachmann, she's running for president. She confused John Wayne with John Wayne Gacy. John Wayne Gacy is a notorious serial killer with creepy clown makeup and a crawlspace full of bodies. Gacy who was from Chicago, but lived in Waterloo for a little while.

Whatever, I doubt the story will be Michele Bachmann's Waterloo or, for that, her Winterset.

Time now to talk to our good friend, Tim Farley. He's the host of "Morning Briefing" on Sirius XM POTUS, live from Washington.

Good morning, Tim. Good to see you.

TIM FARLEY, SIRIUS XM POTUS: Ali Velshi, it's all about jobs today, my friend.

VELSHI: It is all about jobs. It is all about Iowa and jobs for that matter. The president is going to be in Iowa as well, talking about jobs, with a company that's creating them.

FARLEY: As a matter of fact, it's Alcoa. He's going to Betancourt (ph). That's where he's going to be pushing his AMP program, which Alliance of Marketing Partners and Manufacturing Partners.

In addition to that, Sarah Palin is also in Iowa. Sarah Palin is there for the premiere of her documentary, "The Undefeated." It's not hers, but it's about her -- the life and times of the former Alaska governor.

And also on the campaign trail today, the former governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty is going to be making his big pitch in New York City. He's speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations this morning on what his advisers are saying is a response to the president's flawed May 19th speech about the Middle East.

VELSHI: What's your sense --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Just talk about this for a second, the foreign policy stuff. And we've got John Huntsman in the race, who is somebody with a lot of foreign policy experience, obviously. He was the ambassador to China, he speaks Chinese. Tim Pawlenty, while he's polling very low, he's being taken serious by many people on a policy front.

So, he's trying to beef up his idea of foreign policy and his strength in that area.

FARLEY: Exactly. He's trying to be taken much more seriously and get more attention. He is not exactly a charismatic individual. He's very serious. He's actually delivered more policy speeches than anybody else.

But at this point, it's hard to get noticed in a field that includes Michele Bachmann and some of the things that you alluded to before, like John Wayne Gacy comments.

VELSHI: Right.

FARLEY: One of the things, I'll quickly mention, the Senate talking about Libya, the kinetic military action as it has been called even by the secretary of defense and how the president should relate to Congress, the War Powers Resolution. Senator John Kerry taking that up in the foreign relations committee today, something else we're watching very closely.

VELSHI: Kinetic military action -- Tim, good to see you. Good morning to you. You have a great show and we will talk to you again tomorrow. Tim Farley, "Morning Briefing," Sirius XM POTUS, joining us from Washington.

All right. Comedy's finest takes jabs at New York's passage of the gay marriage bill. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

JON STEWART, THE DAILY SHOW: It's a perfect time to roll out my new Jon Stewart brand, tux Speedos.

(LAUGHTER)

DAVID LETTERMAN, LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN: Anybody here for the gay pride parade yesterday? I went dressed as Michele Bachmann.

(LAUGHTER)

STEPHEN COLBERT, COLBERT REPORT: Anything goes now -- bigamy, polygamy, trigonometry. The ancient Greeks invented it, it's got to be gay.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIPS) VELSHI: I want to update you on the most controversial story at the TSA that we told you about yesterday. This is the Transportation Security Administration. I told you about a 95-year-old cancer patient whose depends ran afoul of TSA agents in Florida. There she is.

The TSA says, quote, "No, our people did not make this woman remove it for security reasons," end quote.

Now, the lady's daughter tells CNN that's true, that it was her idea to take the diaper off, so security could have a closer look. And so, they could make their flight. Hopefully, there's a teaching moment here somewhere. I doubt the incident was the highlight of anybody's day.

This next story is all about the spotlight. Multi-Grammy winner Beyonce knows a thing or two about that. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT: Why don't we get one of these, here.

BEYONCE: Winning.

MORGAN: It has. This is the perfect t-shirt.

BEYONCE: It is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: CNN's Piers Morgan, along with the pop superstar's fans get a glimpse of her in London. She tells him what she's done that's made her mother the proudest.

And do you remember the day honoring the mathematical formula for Pi? Pi Day on March 14th. Well, today is Tau day. It's the holiday -- it's the math holiday that celebrates Tau. Basically, if you're a Tau fan, you believe that the mathematical theory of Pi should be doubled in order to be correct. And I agree.

So, in honor of Tau Day, I have two slices of pie. I'm doubling my pie today. And in this coming up break, I'm going do attempt to eat them. So, give me about a minute and a half. And I'll be right back.

It's 19 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Almost 22 minutes after the hour. Here are three things that you need to know today. Have these on your radar.

First of all, President Obama is going to be in Iowa today, talking about manufacturing jobs and how crucial they are to the American economy. That's at 2:05 p.m. Eastern. He'll be at Alcoa, a company that is adding manufacturing jobs in the United States. The International Monetary Fund board is expected to vote today on a new managing director to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn. And NASA is holding a news conference today to talk about the final preparations from the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, which is scheduled to take place on the morning of July the 8th.

Let's go around the world

Zain Verjee live with us from London.

Zain, good morning to you, the Amanda Knox murder conviction appeal is now underway. So many of us were riveted to the initial trial of this American girl who went to study in Italy and got accused and convicted of a murder, along with her boyfriend and another man. And now, that is all coming back to play out.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes, Ali. It continues to be really dramatic in court and pretty explosive.

Just to update you on the latest. A man by the name of Rudy Guede got on the stand. He's an Ivorian guy, and he testified that Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend, did kill Meredith Kercher. Now, this guy was also convicted for the killing and he was placed at the scene of the crime when it happened.

Now, Amanda Knox was totally pale as described by various reports and she was visibly upset. When he left the room, she got on the stand and she said, she was pained and anguished and it was just not true. She said he knows we were not there, and we had nothing to do with it.

This is an appeal trial. It continues to take all sorts of twists here. But we're going to continue to follow it.

And what the defense is hoping is that when there's this reexamination of some of the forensic evidence, that they say was mishandled, it could work in their favor.

VELSHI: All right. We'll continue to follow that.

Hey, Zain, yesterday you showed me something about protesters in Chile dancing. Now you've got something about a Chinese cheerleader?

VERJEE: This is my favorite video, Ali. Got to show it to you. It is making the rounds on the Internet. It has gone totally viral.

Check out this guy, all right? This is Chinese guy doing a cheerleading diva dance routine. And it is an absolute hit.

It was uploaded on Youku.com. And there were hundreds of thousands of hits; he's doing a pretty good job, Ali.

VELSHI: He's doing a very good.

VERJEE: Yes.

He's apparently a major at a Chinese university. But nobody knows his identity, exactly. But he's doing a pretty good job. His name is nicknamed extremely coquettish brother. I think that's probably accurate.

I was reading one article, Ali, that said, you know, regardless of his sexuality, it takes a real man to know how to wear a sequined top and wear crop top that way. What do you think?

VELSHI: He's moving. He's in this team. The troop is all women, other than him. He's moving. He's -- I've got to say, I'm impressed. That's pretty good.

VERJEE: We all are.

VELSHI: I think we're going to have Zain is going to have a dance of the day on the show. Zain, we'll check in with you a little bit later.

VERJEE: You might be next.

VELSHI: No, that's not going to happen -- Zain Verjee for us in London.

VERJEE: All right.

VELSHI: Hey, take a look at this video. This is from -- this is the view from China's sweet new bullet train. It zips along at 186 miles per hour. That's more than twice the speed of the fastest train in the United States.

I got to tell you, though -- if we can see that shout-out the front again, I would have thought 186 miles per hour would look faster. This looks less like a bullet, a little bit more like a bee-bee (ph). But then, again, it's early. So, I'll take another look after I have.

Doesn't that -- I mean, it looks fast. It doesn't look like 186 miles an hour. It's great for China. The train is going to get travelers from Beijing to Shanghai in fewer than five hours. They serve chicken sandwiches from KFC on board. KFC? If that's not a reason to take the bullet train, I don't know what is. I'm on record to saying KFC is one of my favorite foods out there.

OK. Imagine this, if you can, more than $1 billion sitting in a vault apparently because nobody wants it. Nobody wants $1 billion, I'll tell you why on the other side.

And if you got paid on Friday, congratulations, you survived. I'm going to tell you why payday can be hazardous to your health.

It's 26 minutes after the hour. Happy Tuesday to you!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Good morning. It is Tuesday, June the 28th. This is A.M. WAKE-UP CALL. I'm Ali Velshi, joining you live from New York this morning.

It is 30 minutes after the hour. So, let's get you caught up on what's going on around the world.

Right now, protests under way live in Greece. This is -- look at these pictures. This is phenomenal. This is in Athens. We're a few hours into a two-day strike, protesting a debate that's going on in the Greek parliament right now that is aimed at increasing taxes and cutting government spending, something that the Greek government has got to do in order to get its bailout. It's second bailout.

OTHERWISE, Greece gets into a lot of trouble and so does Europe. So, look at the people in Greece protesting what's going on. We've got Diane Magnay live covering this for us, and I will get to her in just a moment after I tell you what else you have to have on your radar today.

Let me tell you some very interesting information -- great information. Overnight, we learned that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords made her first public appearance since being shot in the head in January. Giffords received a standing ovation after accompanying her husband, astronaut, Mark Kelly, to an award ceremony last night in Houston. We don't have pictures -- we don't have video of that event.

These pictures were released earlier by Gabrielle Giffords' office a couple of weeks ago, but our affiliate, KTRK, reports to us that Giffords stood up from her wheelchair and kissed Mark Kelly after he received a space flight medal.

Meanwhile, there's a legal tiff over the man accused of shooting the congresswoman. Jared Lee Loughner is at a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri. Doctors there want to give him medication to treat his mental illness. Now, attorneys representing Loughner say, wait a minute, forcing him to take mind-altering drugs violates his rights. So, they filed an emergency legal challenge. A federal judge ordered the government to respond by later today.

We, of course, at CNN, we'll keep you up to date on that story.

A new push to get the Dream Act through Congress. You will remember, that is the proposal to allow students who came here illegally with their parents to stay in the country or children of illegal parents to stay in the country. It passed the House in December, back when the Dems were in control, but it fell short in the Senate. Today, a high- profile Senate hearing puts it front and center again.

Democrats say passing the Dream Act will help the country economically. Republicans say they will not even consider it until the borders are made more secure.

The nation's highest court, the Supreme Court has taken up cases that could affect your kids' video games, could affect GPS tracking, and what you watch on TV. First, the Supreme Court handed a big win yesterday to the video game industry, striking down a California law that would have banned selling violent games to kids. So, your kids still get to play those games.

Next, the court decided to hear a case about whether police need warrants to track your car, including with GPS. And finally, when it comes to profanity and sexuality on TV, the justices say, they will take another look at what you can say and do on broadcast television. As you know, there are greater limitations on broadcast TV than what you can do on cable TV. Don't worry. I'm not going to burst into profanity in just a few minutes.

All right. A billion dollars that no one wants. So, you know those Sacajawea dollar coins? Congress has required the U.S. to mint them and other dollar coins for the past four years. The problem is no one uses them. $1.2 billion worth of coins are stacked away in Federal Reserve vaults. The fed even told Congress in a report it could hold more than $2 billion coins by 2006.

Our big story this morning is happening right now in Athens, Greece. Huge protests against anticipated austerity measures, cutbacks in spending, increases in taxes. Let's get right to it. CNNs Diana Magnay is live from Athens. Diana, the parliament has been given an ultimatum. They have got to pass this in order to get assistance, to get a bail out. Clearly, the people of Greece, where you are, are not that interested.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're very angry, and they believe that the EU and the IMF basically blackmailing them and blackmailing the parliamentarians, Ali, so that they can get that $17 billion they need to stop defaulting as early as the middle of next month. That's why people are out on the streets now to protest. They're angry.

You know, Ali, they've had already a year of austerity because this isn't the first bailout they've needed. They now need a second, because the first bailout didn't suffice. And so, the EU and the IMF is saying, look, we want to see you actually make good on those promises (ph). We want to see you as a country start privatizing as much as $20 billion (ph) worth of state assets.

We want to actually see you make some progress on taxes. And you know, about a third of the tax in this country isn't actually declared. And they haven't seen enough progress on that, and they want to see cuts in public spending, cuts in the public sector, but so many people here say, look, already, my pension has been cut. My wage has been cut. V.A.T. is up. I can't afford the taxes, and I can't afford any further austerity, and that's why they're out here today, Ali.

VELSHI: All right. Diana, we'll keep an eye on this with you again. I point our viewers to the right side of the screen. This is, as you said, a few hours into a 48-hour general strike. The numbers are astonishing. It looks quite orderly and peaceful. About a week ago, we were looking at pictures from Greece that included water cannons and what looked like it could have been tear gas.

Right now, it's orderly. Diana is there on the story, and of course, we're covering the market side of things as well. Diana, thanks very much. Let's go to Christine Romans. She's got her eye on the financial side of things both this and otherwise. Good morning, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Ali. You're right. So, what happens in Greece with the vote and how orderly this is and whether there's progress on Greece and its debt problems. That will probably direct the futures in the U.S. We've got futures down. The U.S. Stock Index Futures are down right now.

The Dow futures is down about 24 points, but look, it's early. We've got a good four hours here before we'll know how stocks are going to fair up today. The problem here or the issue, I should say, Ali, is money funds now in the U.S. You've got traders and fund managers closely eyeing European debt held in those money market funds. This is the safest of the safest investments.

There is European debt exposure, bank debt exposure, those banks exposed to Greece and a potential default there. So, that's what we're watching right now, Ali.

VELSHI: This is the important part, that it does actually matter to viewers here in the United States that that bill passes in Greece, because if Greece doesn't get its bailout, we got problems all across Europe with credit, with banks, and that can affect your money market funds here in the United States as well as other financial matters.

ROMANS: And it's also the contagion -- you've heard them called -- so many people call this the Lehman Brothers of Greece.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: And Lehman Brothers, you know, it was the domino that really hurt the U.S. in the financial system.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: Some are saying that's a little bit maybe overly dramatic. There's not a run on a country like there's a run on a bank, but look, this is at a time in the global economy that it is still nervous. The financial system is still fragile. Greece getting its act together is incredibly important for the contagion for Portugal, Italy, Ireland and others. So, you know, Greece matters. What's happening in Europe matters. These pictures matter to your money and stability in the U.S. as well.

VELSHI: I'll see you in 25 minutes on "American Morning."

ROMANS: All right. Bye-bye.

VELSHI: Christine Romans, thank you so much.

All right. We try to find the special nugget of business news for you every day. We call it our businessman's special. If you got paid on Friday, congratulations, you survived. Now, why would I say something like that? Here's why, because a new study shows that people are more likely to die on payday or shortly thereafter than on other days. The direct deposit of death.

Why is this? Researchers say it's because you tend to do more risky things once you have money in your bank account like take road trips, drink, or do drugs. It's important to note the study only looked at people with government jobs and people on Social Security.

All right. Baseball fans, if the team files bankruptcy, do the game stop? What the L.A. Dodgers bankruptcy means for the baseball season in just a minute.

And, Bill Clinton talks about nightmare moon. Sound dominos (ph), but it's not a tough secret mission. It's not a national security code word. It's a "my little pony" term, and it's our word of the day. Find out what it means right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: It is 41 minutes after the hour. Exactly before the break, I told you our word of the day, two words, really, "nightmare moon." Now, nightmare moon is a Pegasus unicorn from the "My Little Pony" series. NPR quizzed Bill Clinton about the cartoon. It turns out the former president, remember, he's a Rhodes Scholar, got a perfect score.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pony's most powerful enemy is which of these, A, Christos the glue-maker --

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: B --

VOICE OF BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If he's not, he ought to be.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know. B, the evil pony nightmare moon, or C, the cynical grown up, Chester.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: B.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: B, you're going to go for the evil pony nightmare moon? You're right, Mr. President.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: I can't see his face. I can't tell if he was, if he was guessing or he really knew the answer to that, but whatever, he won. It doesn't matter.

All right. Let's go to "Political Ticker." Let's find out what's going on in politics today that you need to know. Political coverage manager, Steve Brusk, is on the phone in Atlanta. Steve, good to talk to you, my old friend.

STEVE BRUSK, CNN POLITICAL COVERAGE MANAGER (via telephone): Good morning. You knew the answer to that, right? VELSHI: Of course. Nightmare moon. Whatever that was. Let's talk about things I might actually know the answer to. Talk to me about the Sarah Palin movie premiere.

BRUSK: You know, it's not every day that the president of the United States goes on a road trip on a major political trip to a state like Iowa and risks being overshadowed as the big political story, but that could play out today. Sarah Palin has decided to go to Iowa. This movie is about her. This is a $1 million movie made by conservative filmmaker, a very flattering movie about Sarah Palin's career, being premiered tonight in the small town of Pella, Iowa, a picturesque, really, campaign-like setting.

The movie will be premiered tonight at six o'clock. Sarah Palin has decided to attend it in person. She'll be there in the audience and do a little cookout with the folks in town afterwards. Not a campaign trip per se, but this is one more of those things that has everyone wondering exactly what is Sarah Palin up to. Is she looking at a campaign? Is she in the process of trying to make herself a king- maker?

The sort of, you know, end up in a powerful position in the party and raise her stature again. Anyone who tells you, Ali, they know exactly what she's up to right now are flat lying. I don't think anybody really knows what she's doing.

Meanwhile, 152 miles to her east, President Obama will be in Iowa today. He's going to Bettendorf. He's going to visit a factory there. This is a plant where their employment levels have risen. They've gone back to the levels were before the recession started. (INAUDIBLE). The president will try to spread a national message at that event.

We'll see him there this afternoon. Part of his busy political day in Iowa. Sarah Palin may not be a candidate at this point, but two people who are, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum will both be campaigning in Iowa today. Tim Pawlenty, who is struggling mightily in Iowa, where he absolutely has to win, he won't be in Iowa today, but he's got what for his campaign is a very important event.

He's in New York City, addressing the council on foreign relations. He's going to deliver an address there that is going to both target President Obama, criticizing him for flawed foreign policy, for being timid and slow in his response to the Arab spring, but he also is going to deliver a very pointed message towards some Republicans who he says are going down a path towards isolationism.

What is thought to become a pointed comment towards Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, he's going to say that the party should not shrink from the challenges of American leadership. So, they'll be a closely- watched speech.

VELSHI: OK. So, we're watching Sarah Palin, we're watching Barack Obama, and we are watching Tim Pawlenty today. Good to see you, Steve. Well, good to hear from you, at least. And Steve Brusk is in D.C. for us today. I said Atlanta, but he's in D.C.

All right. Let's go to sports right now. Pablo Torre is a reporter for "Sports Illustrated" live now from New York. Pablo, L.A. Dodgers -- I'm a baseball fan. L.A. Dodgers filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now, a lot of people, that means shutting down, game stopping, but in reality, bankruptcy for a baseball team is a lot like bankruptcy for a company. How rare is this, first of all?

PABLO TORRE, REPORTER, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: You know what, it's pretty rare. I mean, a couple of teams have done it. The Texas Rangers did it most notably last year, but what's different in this case is that it's just historically acrimonious and embarrassing for everyone involved. It started with the divorce proceedings of Frank McCourt.

VELSHI: Right.

TORRE: The owner of the Dodgers and the parking lot magnate had a divorce last year that opened up all the books, as we all know, divorces can do. And we had hundreds of millions in dollars of debt. We had spending of team assets on lavish lifestyles, I mean, the hiring of a psychic named, Vladimir Schpunt, to send positive energy to the Dodgers.

Really, it's perfect Hollywood tell-tale story. All of the cautionary ingredients you'd want for a horrible, horrible sports tale gone bad.

VELSHI: All right. What happens to fans? Do games get affected by this?

TORRE: Well, the games go on. I think if you're a Dodgers fan, you're pretty depressed right now. This is one of the great American brands in sports that's been almost completely tarnished really since they moved to L.A. It's really been a model franchise until the McCourts took over.

And so, the players will be paid. Contracts in MLB are thankfully guaranteed. You will see the games, but it's hard not to seep out into the field. The team with the loosest purse strings tends to win in baseball.

VELSHI: Right.

TORRE: You won't see big trades or moves for the Dodgers, so the fans won't be pretty happy about that.

VELSHI: So, they're kind of stuck. There'll be games, but they're kind of limited in what they can do. Hey, I saw this coming across yesterday afternoon, news that both Venus and Serena Williams both had upsets at Wimbledon, knocked out. What's the deal?

TORRE: Well this is something that sports fans aren't used to. We're trying to chart all this on si.com right now, but the bottom line that Serena and Venus have both been knocked out. That hasn't happened in a very long time in about five year. They have been knocked out in the same day, in fact, in nine of the past 11 Wimbledon finals. And so, really, that's an epic collapse for the Americans. Something we don't really get a sense of how dominant the William sisters (ph) has been until they're both gone.

VELSHI: Sure.

TORRE: And now we have a field that's devoid of big names. Caroline Wozniacki, the number seat is also (INAUDIBLE) yesterday. And so, Maria Sharapova probably the best candidate come out with this thing, but Venus and Serena, those two sisters, you wonder if that dual reign is coming to an end pretty soon.

VELSHI: Pablo, good to see you, as always. Thanks for waking up for us. Pablo Torre is reporter for "Sports Illustrated" live from New York.

OK. Listen to this, a woman wears a religious head scarf to work and leaves with a pink slip. Now, she's talking about a lawsuit against a company that we're all familiar with. It's 48 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Good morning. It is Tuesday, June the 28th. This is A.M. WAKEUP CALL. I'm Ali Velshi joining you this morning live from New York. It is 50 minutes after the hour. Let's go around the world to Zain Verjee who's live in London. Zain, the Amanda Knox murder conviction appeal is under way. What's going on there?

VERJEE: It has been pretty dramatic and pretty explosive, Ali. It's all centering around this guy, an Ivoirian guy, called Rudy Guede. He got on the stand and testified that Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend did commit the crime. Now, he was also convicted in the killing, and he was also put at the scene of the crime. When he took the stand, he said this, it is absolutely true.

Knox was watching all of this. She was in the courtroom. She was pale. Afterwards, when he left, she got on the stand and said that she was really shocked and really anguished, and then, she said this, "he knows that we were not there, and that we had nothing to do with it." So, there are a lot of twists and turns happening in this appeal hearing. She continues to maintain her innocence.

She's been sentenced to something like 26 years in jail for the murder. The defense team is hoping that when they look again at some of the forensics that were mishandled according to the law there, that it can work in their favor, but we'll keep watching.

VELSHI: All right. I was in Paris last week. As you know, the air show was on there, and that's where everybody goes to see the late. They go to buy planes, but they go to see what manufacturers are building for the future, and there's something that was unveiled there that was quite revolutionary.

VERJEE: Yes. You know, if you don't want to fly your private jet any more, Ali, there is something else that you could look into, an electric passenger jet of the future. It's by volt air. VELSHI: Look at that.

VERJEE: And this is an airliner that is zero emissions. It's cool, right? Just look at that.

VELSHI: Yes.

VERJEE: It's really aerodynamic there, and it's got kind of the wings turned up like the Boeing designs, but what's interesting about this picture is that they have superconducting motors that don't actually waste electrical energy. So, when you take from the plane, you know, you're not going to see the fumes belching out in the air like that.

VELSHI: Right. VERJEE: They actually have this battery designed, and it's mounted in the cargo hold. And so, all they need to do is keep swapping it rather than plug in the plane for 16 hours.

VELSHI: Yes.

VERJEE: They can do that.

VELSHI: So, the problem is that the electricity conducting wires have to be cooled so it takes more mechanism. It takes more equipment to keep it cool, but there's no loss of electricity. So, it would be not only would it be electric, but it would be highly, highly efficient. When do we think we might see something like this? I think we're talking about decades?

VERJEE: Right. Decades away. You know, at the Paris air show, there were all these cool designs that said, you know, you can fly halfway around the world in two and a half hours. And then, there's a design like this. Again, decades away. So, nice to talk about it, but it's hugely expensive to execute and also to make commercially viable. If they could have done it, they would have done it by now, but it's good to vision.

VELSHI: All right. Zain, good to see you as always. I'll see you on "American Morning" in a little while. Zain Verjee in London.

I want to tell you about a lawsuit against Abercrombie and Fitch. A young Muslim woman in the San Francisco area is suing the company. She worked at their Hollister store in San Mateo. She claims the store fired her because she wouldn't take of her religious head scarf at work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Growing up in this country where the bill of rights guarantees the freedom of religion, and I felt let down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No worker should have to choose between their religion and a job.

(END VIDEO CLIP) Abercrombie is not talking about the lawsuit. Now, as you know, this is a company where a lot of their staffs don't wear too many clothes at all, and they sort of prided themselves on creating a catalog that some people say borders on being soft pornography. The company did say it complies with the law when it comes to, quote, "reasonable religious accommodation." We'll continue to follow this story.

Let's go to Rob Marciano. He's live in Atlanta right now. People getting to the airport, getting ready for flight. Any delays this morning, Rob?

MARCIANO: We've got thunderstorms that are going to pop up if they haven't already across the eastern section of the country, and those areas where there's going to be rough weather this morning across the Tennessee valley, that's where the severe thunderstorm watch is in effect right now where we expect to see the most travel delays, the highly most traffic that we see across the New York metros, low clouds and rain eventually.

Right now, it's fairly dry, but the visibility is low. Philadelphia, D.C., Atlanta, and San Francisco, all are on the list. And there's some big cities on the list, obviously, of seeing some airport delays. But once the front is through, Ali, a lot of us will get rid of the humidity. Get rid of the soupiness. Get rid of the heaviness that's in the air that's making you schvitz (ph) on the way out the door.

VELSHI: And have a nice, cooler summer afternoon. Rob, good to see you as always. I'll see you on "American Morning" in just a few minutes.

All right. In this day in history, in 1997, it was a story that had everyone talking. Mike Tyson bit off part of Evander Holyfield's ear after three rounds of their WBA heavyweight title fight in Las Vegas. It's hardly to believe that was 14 years ago. It is 55 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Just a minute away from "American Morning." We've been watching those live protests taking place in the streets of Greece. Let's go right to Hong Kong. Anna Coren is following world markets reacting to that. Good morning, Anna. What's it looking like?

COREN: Hey, Ali. Well, in fact, markets seem to be behaving themselves. If anything, they're showing some confidence that the Greek austerity measures currently being debated will, in fact, get through. Here in the Asia Pacific, markets still ended the day in positive territory. Japan's Nikkei was the highest performer, closing at almost three quarters of one percent.

And Ali, in your part of the world, U.S. markets were up almost one percent overnight. European markets seem to be following on Wall Street's gains. They're all up except for the German DAX. It's down slightly. So, there certainly appears to be optimism, Ali, at least, at this stage, but as we know, it's only early days. VELSHI: There's a big disconnect between what the people in Greece are feeling about the fact that they'll face higher taxes and some government cutbacks. Those are the live pictures we're looking at, and of course, what the rest of the world, including the rest of Europe is looking for, and that is for those austerity measures to be passed so that Greece can get that bailout.

Anna Coren, thanks for covering this for us today. We will see you back on WAKE UP CALL tomorrow morning. Anna in Hong Kong. And "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.