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American Morning: Wake Up Call
FBI Arrest Ex-NBA Player; FEMA: 5 Million Without Power
Aired August 30, 2011 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It is Tuesday, August 30th. This is your A.M. WAKE-UP CALL.
I'm Carol Costello, joining you live from New York this morning.
Let's start with breaking news, shall we?
Federal agents were looking for an ex-NBA player for several days. Last night, they found him. Javaris Crittenton is accused of killing a mother of four in Atlanta. Police think he meant to shot a man he thought robbed him, but he hit this young mother instead.
The FBI arrested Crittenton before he boarded a redeye flight from Orange County, California, to Atlanta. He was in the news about two years ago when he played for the Washington Wizards. He and a teammate pulled guns on each other in the locker room.
The power is still out for about 5ive million customers courtesy of Irene.
Today, a White House team will visit some of the hardest-hit areas, including the state of Vermont. Floodwaters were still cresting there late last night. Waters has damaged or destroyed more than 200 roads and bridges and trapped hundreds of people in their communities.
Intense flooding wrecked the town of Prattsville in New York's Catskill Mountains. A group of people trapped there were rescued yesterday. It took crews four trips and a helicopter to get them out of there. A reporter told CNN that she can't get out of Prattsville now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEGAN CRUZ, YNN NEWS: Let me just give you an idea of the flooding so you understand why we were trapped here last night. If you just can follow me over here -- can you see where the creek is right now? Imagine where I'm standing, that creek flooded to this point and actually a mile out of town even more.
So, definitely, this is flooding that no one has ever seen here before. And yes, all the other smaller roads around this area have been flooded. So, we're being told that there's no way for us to get out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So the residents got out, but the reporters are now stuck. The storm is blamed for at least 27 deaths in nine states. And some people, like those in Prattsville and parts of Vermont, have lost everything. If you'd like to help, check out the "Impact Your World" section on our Web site, that's at CNN.com/impact.
Warren Jeffs is out of prison and is in a hospital, in critical condition. He has not been eating since his conviction in Texas on sexual assault charges. The polygamous leader was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. He told prison officials that he wasn't on a hunger strike, he was just fasting.
August of 2011 is now the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, 66 American troops have died this month. That's the most since the war began nearly 10 years ago. Until now, July of 2010 had been the deadliest when 65 troops died.
In other news this morning, just imagine nobody home at the International Space Station. That might happen for the first time in more than 10 years. The crew has to leave in November, but they're not be anyone to replace them. Russia has also had problems with its rockets. The rockets that would help bring up a fresh crew. If those problems are not fixed before the astronauts have to leave, the station will be empty.
If you ever find yourself having lunch with Michael Vick, let him pick up the tab. The Philadelphia Eagles has signed him to a six- year, $100 million contract. Not bad for a guy who was in prison and bankrupt just about two years ago. The deal makes Vick the highest paid Eagle ever.
Rob Marciano, that's an amazing comeback.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes it is. And Philly recently was hit by a hurricane or at least grazed by one. So, I don't know if that was anything to do with Michael Vick's contract -- but congratulations to him and congratulations to NFL fans who have themselves a season. For a while this past summer, it didn't look that great.
We are looking at something that -- well, has our interest. First off, let's show you what's going on in the tropics. Irene is gone, remnants are gone. It's dry and the clean-up effort is under way, which will be painstakingly slow.
This is tropical storm Katia. Winds of 40 miles an hour. It's west-northwesterly moving at 17 miles an hour. So, there you go. The next storm is on tap.
Actually, we already had Jose. But that's long gone quickly.
This one is forecast, as you can see, to become a hurricane fairly quickly as it makes its way across the southern Atlantic off towards the west, potentially becoming a major hurricane, category 3 by Sunday. But note the trajectory of this path is a little bit farther to the north than that of Irene, which made its way into the Caribbean and then peeled off towards the north.
So, there is some hope that this thing may be a gutter ball. If it shoots the gap between the U.S. and Bermuda. Still a long ways off to make that call, obviously.
Let's take a look at the track of Irene. This is some cool imagery showing you the beginnings of Irene -- making its way across the northern Caribbean, the Bahamas, and then making a northerly right turn. And you notice that the cloud canopy really doesn't shrink at all -- even when it makes interaction of land, even when it gets downgraded from a category 3 to a category 2. You see the eye well- defined there when it's a major hurricane.
But the cloud canopy, the size of this thing only expands when it hits North Carolina and obviously bringing all that wind and all that moisture as we've come to see across northern New England where they are the hardest hit there across the state of Vermont. Still, a head-scratcher to think that a hurricane hitting so many miles of coastline, and so many millions of people, the hardest hit, the most impact its had, really is the furthest inland it was and the second northernmost point of the U.S., or at least second northernmost point -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know. Poor Vermont. Thank you, Rob Marciano.
MARCIANO: You bet.
COSTELLO: To cope, we joke about things that are sometimes tragic. And, of course, the comedians had a field day. Here's your punch line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
DAVID LETTERMAN, COMEDIAN: Hurricane Irene came whipping through here, 800,000 residents of New Jersey still without power. But it's OK, they've hooked them up to Governor Christie's back-up generator on his refrigerator, everything will be fine.
Anyway, good news after Hurricane Irene, Wall Street is up and running as usual. The bad news, Wall Street is up and running as usual.
And you folks in the balcony, are you here for the show, are you just here looking for high ground? What is going on?
Time for a brand-new segment, ladies and gentlemen, when we call this hurricane warnings are better in Spanish. Hurricane warnings are better in Spanish. Take a look.
(SPEAKING SPANISH)
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
COSTELLO: That was truly strange to watch, New York's Mayor Bloomberg trying to speak Spanish. But I guess at least he tried, right?
Beyonce and Jay-Z's baby news is all the talk. And I'm not kidding, it is all the talk. Her announcement, their announcement breaking all kinds of records, we'll explain.
But before we go, here is your quote of the day. Quote, "He's completely out to lunch," end quote. Coming up in 90 seconds, find out who said that about Ron Paul and his criticism of FEMA.
It's seven minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It is nine minutes past the hour. This is your A.M. WAKE-UP CALL.
Now, back to our quote of the day. Quote, "He's completely out to lunch," end quote. That came from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. He said this about presidential candidate, Ron Paul. And you remember Ron Paul said that FEMA is useless.
Sanders went on to say, quote, "We are a nation. We're not 50 individual states. Vermont stands with other states when they're in trouble and other states stand with us. That's what being a nation is all about." Now you know.
Let's head to Hong Kong and Kristie Lu Stout.
Let's talk about Apple, because it's waging a big battle in China and apparently, it's losing.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well and it's all being revealed through these new WikiLeaks cables, we've learned that Apple hired a team back in 2008 to fight the explosion of fake iPods and fake iPhones. So, the report says Apple recruited security experts from Pfizer after they battled fake Viagra production in Asia.
And in these new WikiLeaks cables, Apple security director and former Pfizer security chief, John Theriault, who is based in Hong Kong, he said he was, quote, "afraid" of the volume of Apple fakes being made in China. But, Carol, three years on, after the crackdown, the piracy is still a major issue.
You may recall last month those five fake Apple Stores that were uncovered. Since then, only two have been ordered to close -- Carol.
COSTELLO: China is a big country with lots and lots of people, it's tough to track everything down.
I want to talk about Beyonce and Jay-Z's baby news because boy, is it the rage?
STOUT: I know. We just keep talking about it. Here's a new excuse to talk about it. The great news for the happy couple, a new Twitter record has been reached, thanks to the Beyonce baby news, when she announced her pregnancy at the MTV music awards, her bump gave Twitter a big bump. In fact, the Beyonce baby news birthed a new Twitter record of over 8,868 tweets per second, otherwise known as TPS. The previous TPS record took place during the final moments of the U.S. women's soccer game against Japan back in July.
But, Carol, all this Twitter talk aside, it's great news for Beyonce and Jay-Z. Back to you.
COSTELLO: Oh, yes. The happy couple. That's amazing, though. So many people are interested and congratulatory to Beyonce and Jay-Z. Kristie Lu Stout, many thanks to you.
Hillary versus Barack, it's so 2008, right? But wait a minute? The White House is talking about whether the president could face off against Hillary Clinton again for president.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: So -- actually, let me give you the time check, because I know it's important, it's 13 minutes past the hour. This is your "A.M. WAKE-UP CALL.
So, I was going to say, have you heard about former Vice President Dick Cheney's new book? He dishes on Washington and shares his take on policies.
Well, this didn't sit too well with David Letterman. Your punch line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LETTERMAN: Former vice president -- this is great. Dick Cheney, you all remember, Vice President Dick "Kaboom" Cheney? He's written a book and in the book he says he would do it all over again, the same way. He would make no changes.
He said he really, he would still honestly, he still feels strongly about this, he would still invade the wrong country. He is so confident.
Dick says that the reason he wrote the memoir is because friends encouraged him to do it. What? This guy has friends? What?
Remember, Dick Cheney had the -- he had the heart attack? And during one of the heart attacks, he was unconscious for two weeks. Two weeks. He was clinically dead for two weeks.
I know a lot of you are saying, that's not long enough. That's not long enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Time now for your Political Ticker with Tim Farley, host of "Morning Briefing" on Sirius POTUS, live from Washington.
Good morning, Tim.
TIM FARLEY, SIRIUS POTUS: Good morning. How are you this morning, Carol?
COSTELLO: I'm good. Let's not talk Dick Cheney, because we know how polarizing he is. Let's talk about someone else, shall we?
Because Texas Governor Rick Perry, wow, his campaign is really taking off. A new poll out, a CNN/ORC poll shows he leads the field by a lot. I'm talking about a lot over Mitt Romney.
FARLEY: Double digits, and this follows up the Gallup poll that showed the kind of the same thing last week. What's interesting is if you look at the numbers from the CNN poll you're just talking about, 27 percent, that's an awful lot.
What's even more fascinating is when you drill down. And this is from Republican voters -- these are people who call themselves Republicans. This isn't just the general public, is that if you take away the numbers, if you include Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani, you see the numbers there. But if you take away Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin, you see that the numbers are even better for Rick Perry. He's like at 32 percent.
I think what you're seeing, of course, is -- you and I talk about this -- national polls don't mean as much. What it does mean is that Mitt Romney is going to have to look at that strategy that he's had of playing long and look carefully at Iowa, and New Hampshire and South Carolina and figure out where he can do well. I don't think that the typical model of having to win at least one of the first two, either the caucus or the primary, that's usually proven to be a winning ticket, if you will, for the presidential candidate eventually. You have to win one of those two to get the nomination -- I'm not sure that's going to hold true this time around, though.
COSTELLO: I think you have a bit of sound for us. Is it from Mitt Romney or is it from Rick Perry?
FARLEY: Yes, I actually -- I'm not sure.
(LAUGHTER)
FARLEY: I --
COSTELLO: OK. Well, let's skip over that. I think the strategy is, is that his campaign people say that let Rick Perry dig his own hole. We really don't have to work very hard to defeat him because he's going to make mistakes.
FARLEY: Yes. Again, this is something that it may or may not be that Rick Perry is able to sustain what he's done. There are some people who are comparing this to what happened to say, Wesley Clark when he was going for the nomination for the Democrats.
But, you know, you remember 2004 and Howard Dean was the leader at this point, too. So I'm not sure if these national polls are indicative of anything except that it makes it a lot more exciting to talk about the back-and-forth between the candidates.
COSTELLO: OK. We do have some sound from White House spokesman Jay Carney. And he was thrown a question about Hillary Clinton being a primary challenger for Barack Obama. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He has no --
LESTER KINSOLVING: Running away from this question. I mean, can you guarantee that -- I mean are you sure that Hillary is not going to run?
CARNEY: You'd have to ask her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I don't think Hillary Clinton is going to run. Do you?
FARLEY: No. And I think if you look at the two names beside there, you got Bernie Sanders, who is a senator, who is not considered kind of a mainstream Democrat with the quote and Lester Kinsolving asking the question. Lester is kind of considered the sort of kicker story, if you will, in each briefing each day, because he asks those kinds of questions.
It's funny, it's interesting, but there's no way Hillary Clinton is going to be running for president in 2012. She's already said that and that would be a disaster for the Democrats, if even anything like that were to be considered.
COSTELLO: Yes, it probably would. It certainly would split the vote. Maybe not in a good way for Barack Obama, but that depends on the economy. If the economy gets better, then maybe Barack Obama is OK. Who knows?
FARLEY: This is not Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter in 1980, though. This is two people who actually work in the same administration. And I think that, again, this is just, this is a little goofiness getting out of hand at the White House briefing room yesterday.
COSTELLO: All right. Tim Farley, host of "Morning Briefing" on Sirius POTUS -- thank you so much, as always, for being with us this morning.
A penguin who ended up 2,000 miles from home is heading back to Antarctica and he's hitching a ride. We're plotting his journey. But before we go, make a campfire and make some s'mores. Today is National Day of Toasted Marshmallows.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Twenty-one minutes past the hour. This is your A.M. WAKE-UP CALL.
Here are three things to put on your radar today.
Today at noon Eastern, the president makes a speech to the nation's largest gathering of wartime veterans and their families. It's happening in Minneapolis.
Also today, the Congressional Black Caucus hosts a job fair in Los Angeles. Record numbers of people have been showing up in previous job fairs in cities like Detroit and Atlanta. And to learn more details about Michael Vick's $ 100 million deal with the Philadelphia Eagles at a news conference set for 2:30 Eastern this afternoon.
Moammar Gadhafi's family members have reportedly crossed the border out of Libya. The wife of the fugitive leader is believed to be in Algeria, along with his children and some of his grandchildren.
So, let's go around the world with Zain Verjee. She's live in London.
So, Moammar Gadhafi remained behind?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: We don't know. And if I knew the answer to that, Carol, I'd be -- I'd be the most popular person in the world. But nobody knows where Moammar Gadhafi is right now, whether he's in Algeria or still in Tripoli. U.S. sources have said they have nothing to indicate that he is out of Libya.
But the family, wife, kids, grandkids, all taking an armored convoy across the border into Algeria. Algeria is saying that they allowed them in on humanitarian grounds. The National Transitional Council in Libya that the rebels are basically saying that that was an act of aggression by Algeria against Libya and the Libyan people.
The other thing that the rebel commander, Carol, has said is that one of Gadhafi's other sons, Khamis Gadhafi, has been killed. Now, he headed or heads up the 32nd Brigade, that's this brutal and feared brigade that was effectively believed to protect the Gadhafi regime. But, you know, we need to take this with a little bit of a grain of salt because we don't really know, this could be just the rebels trying to psych out the Gadhafi loyalists to say that Khamis is dead.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about something good now, shall we? And a little light, there's this emperor penguin named Happy Feet and, apparently, he's heading home after getting lost in a big way.
VERJEE: Yes. Happy Feet ended up in New Zealand, he wasn't supposed to be there. He was sick, weak, he ate sand, thinking that it was snow. Had to go under a massive operation, he's taken a couple of months to recover. But now, the scientists are taking old Happy Feet on a boat, about 420 miles or so, heading back towards Antarctica. They're going to put him there. They've put a tracking device on him as well. Just to make sure Happy Feet ends up OK.
And we maintain our relationship with the penguin -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That's good, I'm so glad to hear that. You're such a humanitarian. Zain Verjee, live in London, thank you.
VERJEE: I am.
COSTELLO: You are, yes. Thanks, Zain.
Show up at work, chill out in the break room and then head home. It's a sweet deal for me employees. Hear how many millions the Postal Service is paying for workers to do just that -- nothing.
It's 24 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Good morning to you. It is Tuesday, August 30th. This is your A.M. WAKE-UP CALL.
I'm Carol Costello, joining you live this morning from New York. It's just about half past the hour.
Hurricane Irene's legacy in the Northeast, not punishing winds, but gushing water. FEMA Director Craig Fugate heads to Vermont today, the state where flooding has knocked out bridges and cut off entire communities. Irene now blamed for at least 27 deaths up along the East Coast. Millions still without power this morning.
Critics still calling dire warnings about Irene overkill, though. Newark Mayor Cory Booker responds with a Jay-Z lyric.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR CORY BOOKER, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: You know what? For us still in the trenches trying to help people out, there's a song that goes, "I've got 99 problems and that's not one." Those debates to me are academic, we still have people still without power. we still have people that are dealing floods, sewage in their homes. There's a real crisis on our hands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: In addition to Vermont, President Obama -- actually, White House officials, I should say, are heading to North Carolina and Virginia today to check out the damage.
Dick Cheney says he still backs waterboarding, secret prisons and wiretapping with appropriate approval. The former vice president is promoting his new book, "In My Time," and he's talking to "Dateline" about his private dealings with President George W. Bush on September 11th. Cheney claims responsibility for recommending that the military be authorized to take down hijacked passenger planes, but President George W. Bush says he's the one who made that call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think there's no question, but what the president wasn't charged on that day. My version is in my book. His version is in his book. We agreed that we'd authorize our pilots to shoot down hijacked aircraft that refused to divert.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you recommended it to him.
CHENEY: I did recommend it. That's my recollection of it. His is somewhat different, but that's not surprising. I mean there were fog of war that morning, all kinds of things going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Another revelation, Cheney says he kept a secret signed resignation letter stashed away to be delivered if he suffered an incapacitating heart attack in office.
A grizzly bear mauled a hiker to death at Yellowstone National Park. It's the second deadly bear attack at the park, so far, this summer. Rangers say the body of 59-year-old John Wallace was found friday In a closed-off area less than ten miles from the last mauling.
Most Muslim-Americans feel singled out by terror policies. More than half say they're targeted for more surveillance and monitoring. Three in ten say someone has been suspicious of them in the past year. Two in ten say they've been called a name But even so, most Muslims in the U.S. say they're satisfied with their lives, and they like the communities in which they live. That's according to a survey by the Pew Research Center out today. The final day of Ramadan.
Evidence in the manslaughter trial is looking a little thinner than the defense had hoped for. The judge has banned several witnesses from Jackson's inner circle as well as evidence from his molestation trial. That hurts Conrad Murray's defense, at least, according to his lawyers. His lawyers are working to paint Jackson as a drug addict, and they say the banned evidence shows Jackson has propofol -- had propofol, rather, at his house as early as 2003.
The surgical anesthetic was part of the drug cocktail that killed Jackson in 2009. Murray is accused of administering it.
The U.S. postal service is expecting about $9 billion in losses this year, but it's still paying thousands of workers to do nothing. Labor agreements keep the post office from reassigning workers if there's a lull or if equipment is broken. So, workers show up and lounge around at a cost of about $4 million, so far, this year. That's according to the inspector-general. Sounds bad, but it's less than last year, which I guess is still really bad.
Coming up in 60 seconds, FEMA making some tough choices when it comes to handing out disaster funds. It's 32 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Thirty-three minutes past the hour. For morning money news, let's check in with Christine Romans. She's live in New York with me. The big headline on CNNMoney.com this morning, FEMA almost out of money to help disaster victims. Can you put this in perspective for us? CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, we had spring storms, remember. We had a horrible winter. We had Joplin, Missouri and terrible tornadoes there, actually, a spate of tornados in several different states. And then, you put a big hurricane, the first big hurricane of the season, and Rob Marciano would say it's not even a big one. It's not even a major storm, and you have a real test of the funding that we have in the Federal Emergency Disaster Relief fund.
Now, Craig Fugate has said before, and he said this is the kind of country, we are the kind of country that we are going to be able to make repairs. We are going to be able to rebuild when something like this happens, when Mother Nature happens, but when you look at the climate in Washington and you look at what some people say that this is an agency that is quote-unquote "running on fumes," you have some concerns about whether or not you have the political unity to make sure that you keep this a fully-funded disaster relief fund.
Now, we'll see if politics gets in the way, but I will say that Craig Fugate has told us many times, he thinks that we are the kind of country that will be able to pay for its natural disasters. And this time should be no other, but no question that already we can repair, we can afford to repair the damage. It's rebuilding. Will there be enough money in those funds to rebuild? That's what we have to go through and make sure.
COSTELLO: I guess we'll have to see. Let's talk about tablets and e-readers, because this statistic really surprised me.
ROMANS: Yes. This is from "Wired" magazine. And Carol, you think of the early adapters of new technology as young men, in particular, but guess what's growing pretty quickly? More seniors. Seniors are buying tablets and e-readers. I'm actually not surprised. For a couple of reasons, one, you can make the text big. You can have a lot of different books or a lot of material and newspapers on one device, easy to carry.
Very organized. But 13 to 18 percent more seniors getting into tablets, it went from 13 to 18 percent from 2010 to 2011. That's according to "Wired" magazine. So, there you go. Technology infusing all parts of the demographic. Women and seniors starting to get more into these, into these gadgets, Carol.
COSTELLO: They're pretty hip.
ROMANS: I know. I still have an old blackberry.
COSTELLO: Me, too. I want get myself an e-reader. Thanks, Christine Romans. We appreciate it.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Michael Vick will be able to buy a lot of cheese steaks right now. Philly has signed him to a new deal that will pay him more than the 12 cents an hour he made in prison. More on that story coming up. But before we go, check out today's smart question. Earlier in the show, we told you about Beyonce's baby news breaking records for the number of tweets per second. So, what was the last tweets per second record holder? A. U.S. versus Japan, the women's soccer game, B. Osama Bin Laden's death, or C. the royal wedding? We'll have the answer for you in two minutes. It's 36 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour. This is your A.M. WAKE-UP CALL. Now, back to today's "Get Smart" question. Earlier in our show, we told you about Beyonce's baby news breaking records with more than 8,000 tweets per second. So, what was the last tweets per second record holder? Was it A. U.S. versus Japan women's soccer game, B. Osama Bin Laden's death, or C. The royal wedding? The answer is -- it would be A. the women's soccer game between the U.S. and Japan. It had more than 7,000 tweets per second. Now, you know.
Now, it's time for a "Political Ticker." So, let's bring in our deputy political director, Paul Steinhauser. He's live in Manchester, New Hampshire this morning with a GOP poll that's really good for Rick Perry.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR (via telephone): You got it, Carol. I tell you, our brand-new poll just out yesterday. This is really rocking the seal because Rick Perry, a late entry into the race, has really changed the race. Our Gallup Poll last week, Carol, same thing, Rick Perry is on top now. Twenty-seven percent in our poll for the support among Republicans, independents who lean towards the GOP for the Texas governor.
That's 13 points ahead of Mitt Romney. Keep going down there, Sarah Palin at 10 percent, Michele Bachmann, the congresswoman from Minnesosta at nine percent, and Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor at nine percent. Carol, listen, Palin and Giuliani, they've been flirting with the race, but they have not announced. So, that's not been out of the poll. What does it look like without them just the announced candidates?
Perry at 32 percent, Romney 18 percent, Bachmann 12 percent, Newt Gingrich, you remember him, the former House speaker at seven percent, and Ron Paul at six percent. Rick Perry, a late entry into the race, but he has definitely changed the complexion of this battle, Carol.
COSTELLO: Let's talk a little about Michele Bachmann, because, of course, she won the Iowa straw poll. Why is she -- I mean, I guess, her percentages are still kind of good, but she is fading.
STEINHAUSER: Isn't this interesting because when she won that straw poll, which is pretty crucial. It was an important enough to knock Tim Pawlenty out of the race. We all thought that, you know what, she would bask in the limelight, in the media spotlight after that victory, but guess what happened the same day of that straw poll, Rick Perry announced for president, and he's kind of stolen the spotlight away from her in a way. They're going after a lot of those same voters, Carol. A lot of those Tea Party activists and supporters. A lot of those grassroots conservatives. They're battling after the same voters. Right now, at least, he's grabbed the spotlight, but there's a long way to go. Remember, we've got five presidential debates over the next two months, including two CNN debates. A lot could change between now and the end of October, Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, let me ask you this. Michele Bachmann did pretty well in the first debate. We have not heard Rick Perry in a debate yet. What do you think?
STEINHAUSER: Yes. And that is the big question. How will he do? Listen, of course, he's just jumped into the race, and he's got big splashy numbers. He's the shiny new guy. So, of course, yes, he's doing very well in the polls, but he's going to have to prove himself now. Five debates in two months, and we will see if he can keep those numbers up. This will be a huge test for Rick Perry over the next two months, Carol.
COSTELLO: Paul Steinhauser, thanks for waking up early. We appreciate it as always.
If you ever find yourself having lunch with Michael Vick, let him pick up the tab. The Philadelphia Eagles have signed Vick to a six- year, $100 million contract. About $40 million of that is reportedly guaranteed. I think he gets that up front. 40 million bucks. Not bad for a guy who was in prison and bankrupt just two years ago. The deal makes Vick the highest paid Philadelphia Eagle ever.
The U.S. Open is under way in New York. The men's defending champion, Rafael Nadal, plays tonight. I got to talk to Nadal about playing in New York at the U.S. Open.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAFAEL NADAL, PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYER: I love the cup here. I think they -- I had the big support from them last year, and hopefully, this year, I will have to. I feel a lot of passion when I go on this court. It's the biggest court on the tour. And the crowd is hard. So, I love playing here in New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The crowds are tough, though. He was the fittest man I have ever seen. I also learned a lot more about Rafael Nadal. He told me he's shy and that he's actually scared of the dark. I'm serious. You can see more of Rafael Nadal's interview coming up on cnn's "American Morning."
And now, maybe the most important story you'll hear all day long, the cast of this season's "Dancing with the Stars." Women's soccer goalie, Hope Solo, Laker's forward, Ron Srtest, and Chaz Bono are among the dancers so HLN's Nancy Grace. We'll see just how much grace Nancy has on the dance floor. Piers Morgan talked to her -- actually, he talked to Mark Cuban who was a former contestant on "Dancing with the Starts" about Nancy Grace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK CUBAN, BUSINESS MAGNATE: More power to her. She can do the work. She already has a nickname. Apparently, it's "Tot Mambo."
(LAUGHTER)
CUBAN: I went to (ph) mambo. You know, it took me a whole day. I had to do the mambo, and I had to learn how to do a booty shake, and they spent a whole day of teach me how to do a booty shake. So Nancy, good luck with your booty shake.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: It's a scary thing, isn't it?
Space could become a lonelier place this fall. NASA might bring home the space station crew but not replace them, because, no, there are U.S. astronauts onboard the International Space Station. We'll have more on that story after the break.
But, before we go, this day in history back in 1967, Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African-American Supreme Court justice. Forty-four minutes past the hour.
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COSTELLO: Good morning to you. It is Tuesday, August 30th. This is your A.M. WAKE-UP CALL. I'm Carol Costello live from New York for you this morning. It's 47 minutes past the hour.
Moammar Gadhafi's family members have reportedly crossed the border out of Libya. The wife of the fugitive leader is believed to be in Algeria, along with two of Gadhafi's children and some of his grandchildren. So, let's head around the world with Zain Verjee. She is live in London. So, what, I mean, put this in perspective for us. What does this mean that the Libyan rebels allowed Gadhafi's family to escape?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they took an armored convoy, which was heavily protected over the border into Algeria. The rebels are saying that they're really angry with Algeria, that they've actually taken them in. They said this is an act of aggression against Libyans as well as Libya. Now, the Algerians, themselves, Carol, are saying that they took the family in on humanitarian grounds.
What everyone is asking is, where is Moammar Gadhafi? Is he in Algeria? Is he planning to head to Algeria? U.S. sources have said that's not the case. They have no information to indicate that Moammar Gadhafi has left Libya. The other thing that one rebel commander said, too, Carol, was that Khamis Gadhafi, one of the other sons of Moammar Gadhafi had been killed in battle. We need to take this with a little bit of a grain of salt, though.
It could well just be that the rebels are trying to psych out the Gadhafi loyalists and say that the guy is dead, and he may not be. So, we don't really know, but we do know that he commanded what was called the 32nd brigade that was really brutal force and is still being used to protect the Gadhafi regime -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know. It's not like we've had, we've not had bad information from this rebel opposition group before.
VERJEE: Right.
COSTELLO: So, we are taking it with a grain of salt. Let's talk about these WikiLeaks cables. They've hit the internet now, but these are different because they contain uncensored names.
VERJEE: Yes. This is a really worrying development. Over the last few days, WikiLeaks has put out more documents about a little over 30,000. And the difference is, is that sources and names where it was labeled strictly protect them have actually been revealed. So, you've got people around the world that have confidentially spoken to U.S. diplomats, doing their job around the world, and now, their names are out there.
And the fear is there could be some kind of retribution, they could lose their jobs, they could be killed, they could be some kind of a target. So, this is what's different, because a lot of the other documents that came out, the names were redacted, and these are not.
COSTELLO: Zain Verjee live in London, many thanks to you.
The power is still out for about five million customers courtesy of Irene. Today, a White House team will visit some of the hardest- hit areas, including the state of Vermont. Floodwaters are still cresting there. Water has damaged or destroyed more than 200 roads and bridges, trapped hundreds of people in their communities. Intense flooding also wrecked the town of Prattsville in New York's Catskill Mountains. A reporter showed CNN some of the damage and says, she can't get out of a town now.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let me just give you an idea of the flooding that you understand why we're probably trapped here last night. If you can just follow me over here? Can you see where the creek is right now? Imagine where I'm standing, that creek flooded to this point. And actually, a mile out of town even more.
So, definitely, this is flooding that no one has ever seen here before. And yes, all the other smaller roads around this area have been flooded. So, we're being told that there's no way for us to get out.
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COSTELLO: Storm is blamed for at least 27 deaths in nine states. And some people, like those in Prattsville and in parts of Vermont, they've lost everything. If you would like to help, check out the impact your world section on our website. That's at CNN.com/impact.
August of 2011 is now the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Sixty-six American troops have died this month alone. That is the highest number since the war began nearly ten years ago. Until now, July of 2010 had been the deadliest when 65 troops died.
Warren Jeffs is out of prison and in a hospital in critical condition. He has not been eating since his conviction in Texas on sexual assault charges. The polygamous leader was sentenced earlier this month to life in prison plus 20 years. Told prison officials he wasn't on a hunger strike, he was just fasting. Whatever, he's in the hospital now.
Federal agents have arrested a former basketball, an NBA player. Javaris Crittenton is accused of killing a mother of four in Atlanta. Police think he meant to shoot the man he thought robbed him, but he hit that young mother instead. The FBI arrested Crittenton last night before he boarded a red-eye fly from Orange County, California to Atlanta. Crittenton was in the news about two years ago when he played for the Washington Wizards. He and a teammate pulled guns on one another in the locker room.
Just imagine, nobody home at the International Space Station. That might be the case for the first time in more than ten years. The crew has to leave in November, anyway, but there might not be anyone to replace them after they leave. Russia has had problems with its rockets, and those rockets would help bring up a fresh crew and fresh supplies. If the problems with those rockets are not fixed before the astronauts leave in November, the International Space Station will be empty.
Now let's head to Rob Marciano. I know -- pardon?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And then what happens? I mean, they turn the lights off? I mean, who comes to water the plants? How is anybody going to go back there? I'm curious about this now.
COSTELLO: I know. I know. All that research equipment up there and all that work they've been doing may come to a screeching halt. We don't know. I think that Russia will probably figure out the problem with its rockets, and things will be fine, but who knows.
MARCIANO: You know, we've gotten some pretty amazing pictures of some tropical systems from the International Space Station. You know, astronauts are taking snapshots. It's pretty impressive, because our satellites are so much farther -- so much higher than the orbit of the space station. So, you get a different perspective. These pictures coming to you, infrared style from about 22,000 miles up, and the International Space Station, I think, is around 600. So, it's a lot closer.
By the way, Katia, if you just waken up, has born or is born. It is a tropical storm with strength of winds of 40 miles an hour. It is way out there between the Caribbean Islands and West Africa, but it's moving rapidly to the west-northwest at 17 miles an hour, and it's already a fairly large circulation. It's got decent organization, and we do expect it to strengthen fairly rapidly to a hurricane.
Potentially, becoming a Category 2 or 3 storm by the time this weekend rolls around. There's the track. Maybe getting just north of the Caribbean Islands. We like to nudge that further north, if that's the case, it would become a better chance of becoming official storm, but until it does that, we've got to watch this thing carefully, Carol. It could take aim at the U.S. at some point.
COSTELLO: Any flight delays to tell folks about this morning?
MARCIANO: You know, we've got volume issues again. Yesterday was a big deal with that, but the weather will be relatively quiet today, especially across the northeast, calm there. Maybe spots out west and Chicago and down across Houston is where we might see some travel delays, but other than that, it should be a better day today, traveling by air, sea or train than it was yesterday.
COSTELLO: A better day, but I think Amtrak service from New York City to Washington is still canceled. So, I would call ahead --
MARCIANO: All day long?
COSTELLO: Well, it is as of right now. So, I would call. Other Amtrak, like if you take the north to Boston, you're fine. But I think south is still having a problem. So, I would call ahead if you're taking an Amtrak train today.
MARCIANO: That's good advice, Caro. I know you're familiar with that Amtrak train. So, listen to Carol, people.
COSTELLO: It's my second home.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
MARCIANO: OK.
COSTELLO: Let's take a look at the word of the day, shall we? Actually, it's not exactly a word. Here it is. It's H5N1. Find out what it means and why you need to know about it right after this break. It's 55 minutes to the hour.
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COSTELLO: Two minutes to the top of the hour. This is your A.M. WAKE-UP CALL. Now, back to the word of the day, which is H5N1. That's actually another name for the avian bird flu. When it mutates, it can infect humans. You need to know this term today, because the United Nations is warning about a possible resurgence of the deadly avian flu virus. They tell us that a mutant strain may be spreading in Asia, not in the United States, so far. Don't worry.
Now, let's head to Carter Evans for a look at your money this morning. He joins us live from the NASDAQ MarketSite here in New York. Good morning, Carter.
CARTER EVANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Things aren't looking as good this morning as they were yesterday. We are going to get the 20-city Case-Shiller Home Price Index today. Also, a report on consumer confidence and minutes from the fed's most recent meeting. All right. Let's go ahead and take a look at futures right now. Dow futures down 64 points. NASDAQ off 13. S&P 500 down about 8.5.
Finally, today, Carol, I wanted to point out that Irene is not just a hurricane, she is a wedding crasher. Irene put a stop to thousands of weddings according to theknot.com. More than 6,000 weddings were in the path of Irene while she was coming ashore this weekend. The average cost of a wedding, $26,000. Many of those couples lost their deposits. Back to you.
COSTELLO: Oh, that hurts. They're going to start their marriages off right when, of course, when they reschedule. Carter Evans, many thanks to you.
"AMERICAN MORNING" continues right now.
