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Pennsylvania Showdown: Dems' Key Primary Looms; McCain on the Stump in Selma; DNA Testing Starts on 416 Children
Aired April 21, 2008 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning again, everyone. Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: Developments keep coming into the CNN NEWSROOM on Monday, April 21.
Here's what's on the rundown.
WHITFIELD: Finally, Pennsylvania. After six weeks without a primary, the Clinton/Obama fight is on the ballot tomorrow.
HARRIS: DNA testing for hundreds of children. Texas authorities try to match them to parents from a polygamist sect.
WHITFIELD: A company accused of selling defective equipment to the FBI. This hour, a federal indictment. Agents in danger -- in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: A key showdown on the road to the White House today. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are scrambling for votes in Pennsylvania. Tomorrow's primary could be critical in deciding the Democrats' nominee.
There are 158 delegates at stake. It is the biggest single state windfall remaining this campaign season.
CNN's Jim Acosta is in Philadelphia. And Dana Bash is with the Republicans' presumptive nominee, John McCain, in Alabama.
Let's begin with Jim.
Hillary Clinton in Scranton. That's a town she knows pretty well, Jim. Was she sounding familiar themes on this long road to the Pennsylvania primary? We're almost there.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Tony. Scranton, she's been there, done that. And Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, they are stepping up their attacks on one another as they barnstorm the Keystone State in search of those last-minute undecided voters.
As you mentioned, Hillary Clinton was in Scranton, Pennsylvania, earlier this morning. She is out there trying to appeal to those blue collar workers in the heart of this state. She emphasizes time and again out on the campaign trail that her grandfather once worked in the mills in the state. And she is hoping that emphasizing that economic message to distressed middle class families in this state will win over some of those last-minute undecideds.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I hope you'll go out and make the case for my candidacy. If there are still people who are trying to make up their minds -- I think a lot of folks in northeastern Pennsylvania have already decided, but there may be some other people who need to be convinced.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: As expected, both Democrats are airing scores of negative TV commercials, while at the same time accusing each other of hitting below the belt. Barack Obama is accusing Hillary Clinton of slash-and-burn politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I hear Senator Clinton's campaign say they're going to throw the kitchen sink strategy at us, and they try to manufacture or exploit fake controversies instead of talking about what is important for the American people, how we're going to deal with the energy problems, how we're going to deal with the mortgage lending crisis, I'm thinking, well, you learned the wrong lessons from those Republicans who were going after you in the same way, using the same tactics all those years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And the Obama campaign, which has spent the most money in Pennsylvania, is trying to stay confident that they can pull off an upset here in this state, while Hillary Clinton is taking nothing for granted. She has seen her big double-digit lead dwindle down to around 7 percentage points. That's according to the latest CNN Poll of Polls.
While at the same time, we should mention, there is a healthy chunk of undecided seven percent of Pennsylvania Democrats say they are undecided at this point, which explains why Barack Obama is ending his campaign day out in Pittsburgh, where she runs very strong. Whereas she will be spending the night here in Philadelphia, which as we all know, is Barack Obama's base of support -- Tony.
HARRIS: Jim Acosta in the great city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for us this morning.
Jim, good to see you. Thank you.
And how do the candidates stack up on this eve of the Pennsylvania primary? We've crunched the numbers. So the various surveys that have this Poll of Polls, it shows Clinton with a thin lead. She has the support of 48 percent of the Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, compared to Obama's 43 percent.
The critical number may be the undecided, Fred. The number here, nine percent haven't chosen their candidate yet.
WHITFIELD: Pretty significant.
Also on the campaign trail, Republican John McCain. Today he's promising change, and his backdrop is a landmark city in the civil rights movement.
CNN's Dana Bash is in Selma, Alabama.
Why Selma?
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, what Senator McCain and his campaign are trying to do this week is to basically figure out how to use their time wisely by trying to get attention for going to places that Republicans rarely go. And the fact that you asked why Selma, is a perfect example, from their point of view, is why they thought it was interesting and important for John McCain, the candidate who is trying to appeal to Independent voters, trying to create his own Republican brand, if you will, to start here.
So he gave a rather vivid description and detailed speech about what happened here in Selma, the march across the bridge behind me, the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March of 1965. Talked in detail about the bloody day, the bloody march that that was, particularly when it came to John Lewis, a civil rights leader then and, of course, a Democratic congressman who happens to back Barack Obama today.
But the point that Senator McCain tried to make in his brief remarks here in front of this bridge is that, for Republicans or Democrats, it's important to focus on the past and focus on not forgetting the people who are still living here, and perhaps in poverty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My friends, Americans change things. We always have. We don't hide from problems or mistakes or history. We change things and we make history.
Hope in America is not based in delusion, but in the faith that everything is possible in America. The time for pandering and false promises is over. It's time for action.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: But Fredricka, all you had to do was look at the crowd to really get a sense of the challenge that Senator McCain has in really making his message heard in communities like Selma, and African- American communities. Because the people who came here to hear him speak, they were by far predominantly white. It was a white crowd, even though Selma has a very large African-American community.
And I asked Senator McCain about that challenge, and he said, look, the African-American vote has been in very small favor of the Republican Party. He said he's aware of those challenges, and he understands the fact that there will be many people who will not vote for him. That is something that is understood, Fredricka, inside the McCain campaign, but they insist that this is one way for him to illustrate with pictures, like the one we saw here today, and some themes that he's going to have throughout the week, that he wants to be a different kind of Republican -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And the next stop, Dana?
BASH: The next stop, he's actually going to make his way throughout the state of Alabama today. But tomorrow he's going to go up to Youngstown, Ohio.
There, his theme is going to be focused on the fact that there are many people who are suffering from the steel industry, which has basically gone away there. Then he's going to go to Inez, Kentucky. That was the place basically where Lyndon Johnson began to talk about the Voting Rights Act, and his war on poverty.
And then he's going to go to New Orleans, the Ninth Ward. No need to explain why he's going to go there, in terms of people who may have been forgotten in this country.
And he's going to finally end up in Little Rock, Arkansas. There he's going to be joined by somebody who is an old rival of his, Fredricka, Governor Huckabee.
WHITFIELD: OK.
Dana Bash, thanks so much, from Selma, Alabama.
All right. Well, out of Washington, D.C., a high court decision this morning that could lead to more executions.
The U.S. Supreme Court says it will not hear appeals from three death row inmates, one each in Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. The court had blocked their executions seven months ago pending a high court ruling last week that lethal injection did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
HARRIS: Who are the parents? Court-ordered DNA testing begins today in Texas. The state child services agency says it could take days to collect samples from the 416 children. They were removed from a polygamist compound after allegations of abuse.
CNN's Susan Roesgen is in San Angelo, Texas, this morning, in front of the building where most of the children are being housed right now.
And Susan, whenever the testing starts, it is going to take some time to complete. And for results, and ultimately determinations. SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's really true, Tony. It could take at least a couple of weeks just to have the actual test results completed. But beyond the logistical hurdles of going into that coliseum behind me there and testing some 400 children, you also have to understand that the parents themselves, they've been ordered to undergo this DNA testing, but no one's going to go round them up at the ranch in Eldorado.
The men and women there, if they want their children back, they have to voluntarily come in to Eldorado, to court authorities there, and get the test. And who knows how long that will take, how compliant those men and women will be?
So the whole process could take a while. And in the meantime, while this DNA testing is going on, there's this investigation into a woman in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and this phone call that apparently started this whole investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROESGEN (voice-over): For days now, we've seen the forlorn- looking followers of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Marva's (ph) bed.
ROESGEN: The women have lost custody of more than 400 children, and a phone call from this woman might have led to the raid that took the children away. Texas Rangers believe 33-year-old Rosita Swinton claimed to be an abused teenager on the secretive Yearning for Zion Ranch. Texas Rangers say they found several items in her Colorado apartment, items they say indicate a possible connection between Swinton and phone calls made to authorities about the Eldorado ranch and another one of Warren Jeffs' polygamist colonies in Arizona.
STEPHEN SINGULAR, AUTHOR: There's less chance of being noticed out here. They don't believe in American society, secular society, and they want to get away from it as much as possible.
ROESGEN: Stephen Singular just wrote a book on the world of Warren Jeffs called "When Men Become Gods." Walking outside the guarded ranch gates, Singular says Jeffs' polygamist group is based on male domination and white racial purity.
We don't know yet what connection Swinton might have to the polygamy cult or why she might have wanted to tip law enforcement to allegations of sexual abuse. But Stephen Singular calls Warren Jeffs as racist as Hitler, and he says it would be incredible if a woman who's black brought the cult down.
SINGULAR: If that imploded this entire situation, that would be a fantastic irony for Mr. Jeffs, who was so terribly afraid of the black population.
ROESGEN: Texas authorities say even if the original phone call was a hoax, they found more than enough evidence of sexual abuse at the ranch to go ahead with their case. (END VIDEOTAPE)
ROESGEN: So the next step in this, Tony, is probably actual criminal charges. They have not been filed yet. But just listening to some of the testimony in the custody hearing last week, you could get a sense of what kind of case the state is going to lay out, a very detailed case involving several young women believed to be underage when they were forced into arranged marriages, and forced to have children -- Tony.
HARRIS: Susan Roesgen for us in San Angelo, Texas.
Susan, appreciate it. Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, Tony, in the line of spreading wildfires, strong winds now pushing the flames closer to communities in central New Mexico. People in more than 100 homes being asked to evacuate.
Those high winds kept firefighting aircraft on the ground as well. Wildfires have now charred at least 1,500 acres just southeast of Albuquerque. But so far, no homes have been damaged.
Well, that's some good news, right?
HARRIS: What do you say we get a check of the weather?
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: Eighteen quakes in three days. The ground won't stop moving in Illinois.
It started with a 5.2 magnitude earthquake that rattled the Midwest Friday. Since then, at least 17 aftershocks have been reported. The latest happening just after midnight this morning.
The epicenter is in southern Illinois, in the same general area as the original quake. This morning's aftershock measured 4.5, one of the strongest yet.
WHITFIELD: FBI agents seriously hurt. A company accused of selling them defective equipment. Our Special Investigations Unit is on the story straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Moments ago, a federal indictment against a Georgia company. It is accused of selling defective gear to the FBI, leaving some agents seriously injured.
Special Investigations Unit correspondent Abbie Boudreau is here.
And Abbie, we're clearly talking about more than simply bad business practices here.
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: Oh, yes. I mean, this indictment -- this is the indictment, and it's full of some very serious allegations of a cover-up to deceive the FBI, bribes to a federal official, and a visit to a strip club to influence government contracts.
The indictment is against a company called Pyrotechnic Specialties Incorporated, also known as PSI. It manufactures different types of ammunition including stun grenades or flash bang grenades.
When a flash bang is detonated, it produces a bright flash and a loud bang, just like you're seeing now. They're used to confuse and disorient a potential threat. They're considering non-lethal weapons, though they can be very dangerous.
Now, PSI had a multimillion-dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to supply these flash bangs. The indictment charges that some of those flash bangs were defective. But instead of fixing the problems, PSI relabeled the defective flash bangs and sold them to the FBI and other local law enforcement agencies, claiming they were safe. The indictment also charges that at least three FBI agents had suffered serious injuries when those detective flash bangs went off prematurely.
We tried contacting PSI. They have not gotten back to us at this point.
HARRIS: Well, clearly, Abbie, this is a story that you've got a lot of information on, which means you have a lot of contacts on this. So give us a little bit of your back story on this case.
BOUDREAU: Well, when I was a reporter in Phoenix, I actually investigated these flash bangs and how they were injuring Marines. And that's how I first learned about PSI. And that was about a year ago. And it's taken that long for the investigation to be completed and for the indictment to be handed down. There are obviously a lot more details to this case that we'll be following up with throughout the day.
HARRIS: OK. And again, we're at the indictment phase of this case at this point?
BOUDREAU: Right. So, you know, at this point, these are all the charges that are being made -- Serious, serious charges.
HARRIS: OK. Abbie, appreciate it. Thank you.
WHITFIELD: In a small South Carolina town, accusations of a suicide bombing plot. A teenager in court today.
Police in Chesterfield say 18-year-old Ryan Shallenberger (ph) was planning an attack on his school. The high school senior was arrested Saturday night.
His parents called police when 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home. Ammonium nitrate was the chief ingredient in the Oklahoma City bombing. The town's police chief says that the teen kept a journal outlining all of these plans. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF SAM PARKER, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA: He's admitted to some of my investigators and myself that he's -- in the past he's experimented with pipe bombs, and in the experimental stage of making explosive devices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The sheriff said Shallenberger appeared to be inspired by the attack on Colorado's Columbine High School. And he had made an audiotape explaining why he wanted to attack his school.
HARRIS: A trip to see the girlfriend. Not usually big news. Even for a prince. Unless you arrive in a major piece of military hardware.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
HARRIS: An Iowa teen providing prom dresses for girls who can't afford them, and now getting a little help herself.
Reporter Cynthia Fodor, of affiliate KCCI, has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RACHEL CASTANER, BECCA'S CLOSET: We have two-piece ensembles...
CYNTHIA FODOR, KCCI REPORTER (voice-over): Rachel Castaner has a special closet.
CASTANER: We have everything from dark colors to the nice pastels.
FODOR: Unlike any other teenage girls.
CASTANER: If I was that size, I would have worn it, but...
FODOR: Rachel realized buying a prom dress for one night is more than many can afford.
CASTANER: Especially when times are hard, and not everyone can give up $200 or more for a dress. Then come and take one and wear it, keep it.
FODOR: So she set up a Becca's Closet to collect and give away used dresses for free.
CASTANER: There's no sign saying these dresses have been worn before, so why not give them a second run?
FODOR (on-camera): A teenage girl named Rebecca Curtman (ph) came up with this idea to help out a friend who couldn't afford a prom dress. She was then killed in a car accident while delivering dresses to a high school.
(voice-over): It became a national program, with designers sending dozens of new items. So many, Rachel ran out of room.
CASTANER: This year we had to leave about 500 dresses out of, you know, visualization for girls, simply because we had none of the hanging room.
FODOR: When carpenter Kevin King heard they needed more space, he came to the rescue.
KEVIN KING, DONATES SPACE: We are Christians, I think, and it just seemed somebody put their -- needed some help. So...
CASTANER: We needed a Prince Charming and we got King instead. That's kind of a nice trade.
FODOR: King, whose wife is named Rebecca, is remodeling his garage for girls to try on gowns.
KING: We're going to put rods on both sides. It will be just a changing room.
FODOR: The new Becca's Closet will be right across the street from the high school.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Besides prom dresses, the program also provides wedding dresses for free.
WHITFIELD: Well, they're young and restless. And they're talking to CNN's Rick Sanchez. First time presidential voters in Pennsylvania, their opinions in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Bottom of the hour. Welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.
WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
A search and rescue mission is happening right now off the coast of the Bahamas, the Coast Guard is looking for survivors of a boat that apparently capsized. So far they've plucked 20 dead from the water. Rescuers have only found three survivors. Most of the people on the boat were migrants from Haiti.
HARRIS: Two tornadoes touched down in Maryland, causing some damage, but no deaths, thankfully. One twister tore off part of a roof of an elementary school outside Washington, DC. The tornado struck yesterday afternoon. Just a couple of hours after a school event, debris from the school hit a nearby church and winds blew over a trailer. Another tornado hit south of the nation's capital, knocking trees onto houses and cars. Pretty dramatic video there.
In Philadelphia this morning, look at this scene, a massive fire raged through a four-story warehouse. These pictures, amazing. The blaze caused part of the building to collapse, leaving a hollow burned-out shell. Fire officials say no one was inside the warehouse when the fire started and there are no reports of injuries. And they're investigating the cause.
WHITFIELD: All right. Among those watching the run-up to tomorrow's primary in Pennsylvania, our own Rick Sanchez. Well, he recently spoke with some young first-time voters about the three presidential hopefuls.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you're planning to vote for John McCain, raise your hand. Hillary Clinton, raise your hand. Barack Obama. Not a single one of you is interested for voting for Hillary Clinton.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm on the fence about who I'm going to vote for.
SANCHEZ: Most of the people you talked to are energized?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's people that I've met are totally not into politics whatsoever. Just because of this they're fired up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a reaction against Iraq, it's reaction against the economy, education.
SANCHEZ: Change?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Hope?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly. All I know for elections is, well, I'm going to vote for the least of the two evils. I feel like, especially for the Democratic campaign this year, that's not how it is.
SANCHEZ: Why Barack Obama?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He came and sat on our lawn and spoke to 22,000 people. I mean, it was incredible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think Barack Obama is inexperienced. I don't feel comfortable with putting a man who's only spent three years in the United States Senate in charge of all that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Barack Obama were to become president and we were to pull out all our troops immediately, we would leave it in chaos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe it's our influence there to causing them to do anything wrong. If we leave them with a government, maybe all the problems will go away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I made a mistake, I try to fix the problem, don't just try to walk away and pretend like it's not going to be a problem anymore.
SANCHEZ: Should we have gone to Iraq in the first place?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, killing thousands of his own people. He used weapons of mass destruction against his own people.
SANCHEZ: John McCain says if we have to be there 100 years, we should be there. Do you agree?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn't say Americans are going to be there for 100 years fighting and fighting and fighting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to have a presence there until it's done. But I think it's really hard to ask Americans to keep giving lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do the people living there feel? I get the feeling that I would not be too happy were in their shoes.
SANCHEZ: Do you think John McCain's going to have a tough time with it because he's trying to please Peter to pay Paul?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he's alienating all of the swing voters that probably would have voted for him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The religious right may not love John McCain. He might not have been their guy. I don't believe they're going to vote for Hillary, for Obama over ...
SANCHEZ: No. But they'll stay home. They won't vote.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the scary part.
SANCHEZ: You're having real hesitation about voting for John McCain. Why is that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's kind of backed away from gays and lesbian.
SANCHEZ: He needs the base of the Republican Party. The base of the Republican Party is not gay.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he wants those people he doesn't have me.
SANCHEZ: Go, Dane. That's good. That's good. Excellent.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, for more on what many first-time voters are saying, and to become a member yourself, go to CNN.com/league. HARRIS: A trip to see the girlfriend, not unusual. Certainly not huge news. Even for a prince. Unless you arrive in a major piece of military hardware.
WHITFIELD: "Fortune Magazine" is releasing its list of top 500 companies this week. And we're highlighting some of the names behind the numbers. But before we tell you who they are, we'll give you a chance to guess.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This "Fortune 500" leader is an immigrant who put his Ph.D. studies on hold to become the youngest CEO on the list. Who is the force in the dot-com world? Find out after the break.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's the young Internet mogul who put his education on hold? Thirty-nine-year-old Jerry Yang was studying electrical engineering at Stanford when he helped start Yahoo! Yang was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. when he was 10 years old. Although his mother was an English teacher, he only new one English word -- shoe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Former President Jimmy Carter, talking peace today. Mr. Carter says Hamas is prepared to accept peace with Israel. That is, if the Palestinian people approve any agreement negotiated with Israel. Hamas is an Islamic fundamentalist group, the U.S. State Department calls it a terrorist organization, its military wing blamed for several terrorist attacks on Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The present strategy of excluding Hamas and excluding Syria is just not working. It only exacerbates a cycle of violence of misunderstanding and animosity between the two and among all those that I've mentioned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: U.S. and Israeli officials have condemned the former president's meetings with Hamas officials. They believe the meetings will achieve little and could harm efforts at peace in the region.
WHITFIELD: Royal indulgence? Or legitimate military missions. Questions aimed at Britain's Prince William. The story now from ITN's Nick Thatcher.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NICK THATCHER, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you want a sure-fire way to impress the girlfriend, then landing your helicopter in her back garden might be hard to beat. William, who was recently awarded his RAF wings touched down in a field in the middle of Kate Middleton's family's home earlier this month.
The prince was flying a Chinook helicopter similar to this one. It was the same aircraft he used on a separate occasion to pick up brother Harry en route to a stag party.
Defense officials insist it's all part of his training, but the nature of the flights have raised a few eyebrows in military circles.
COL. BOB STEWART, DEFENSE ANALYST: I think behind the scenes they're furious. This is a shot in the foot you don't need. Quite honestly, it's not a big deal, but they're upset because it's an unnecessary piece of adverse publicity at a time when we're so short of helicopters in Afghanistan.
THATCHER: The prince has been on attachment with the RAF as part of preparations for his future role at the head of the armed forces. In a statement, the Ministry of Defense said helicopter crews routinely practice landing in fields and confined spaces, as a vital part of their training for operations.
And it adds, this was very much a routine training sortie that achieved essential training perspectives. William is due to complete his flying training at the end of the month, and his next attachment with the Royal Navy will see him swap the helicopters and planes for the ships.
Nick Thatcher, ITN News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Take a look at the live pictures from New Orleans. Where just a couple of moments ago, the president arrived. And he is there for what's being billed as an economic summit. The fourth North American Leaders Summit. It opens today, obviously.
This year, the United States obviously hosting the two-day meeting in New Orleans. The president seemingly upbeat. Also meeting there, Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexico's President Calderon. The meetings actually beginning at about 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time and we'll, of course, monitor the meetings for you in the CNN NEWSROOM.
WHITFIELD: Back now to presidential politics, Pennsylvania politics that is, as diverse as the state itself, CNN's John King takes us on a tour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Philadelphia is the state's population and political anchor. Where America's democracy took route and now where Democrats count on huge margins to make them competitive statewide. So in a tough Democratic Party, gritty ethnic neighborhoods are the big urban battle ground.
Nearly half of the city's electorate is African-American, an Obama advantage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get one of these. Read all about it. He's the man for the job.
KING: To roll west is to leave the gleaming office towers and the poverty for the Philly suburbs. Wealth is easy to find here. But also more traditional middle class neighborhoods. Crucial now and again in November.
TERRY MADONNA, FRANKLIN & MARSHALL COLLEGE: Middle class, lower middle class, typical suburbs, these are people who are in pharmaceuticals, they're in real estate, they're into the financial industry, they're in high tech, they're in service. The one thing about southeastern Pennsylvania is the diversity of its economy.
KING: Just an hour away, though, the corridor that helped give Pennsylvania its blue collar label. Bethlehem is synonymous with steel. Allentown up the road another scrappy place where signs of difficult change are everywhere.
The roads west from here bring us to central Pennsylvania. Some of America's most fertile farmland, and it can seem a trip back in time. To the north, not too far from the New York border, America's pastime has a special home carved from a hillside.
(on-camera): Williamsport is home of the little league world series. This is conservative country. President Bush twice carried Lycoming County by a two to one margin. But if the Democratic primary is especially close, rural communities like this could make a difference.
(voice-over): It's been 32 years since Pennsylvania's presidential primary mattered. Jimmy Carter clinched here back in 1976.
(on-camera): And this year, it can seem like a long way. Six weeks separate Pennsylvania from the last Democratic contest. And so listening to the candidates of late, it seems a bit like Groundhog Day. That's part of Pennsylvania's tradition, too.
(voice-over): Bill Cooper says count Punxsutawney Phil as undecided, or uninterested.
(on camera): Not going to tell us Clinton or Obama, huh?
BILL COOPER, PUNXSUTAWNEY, P.A.: No. Doesn't matter to him. He's only a groundhog.
KING (voice-over): Pennsylvania countryside unfolds like a history book. Valley Forge, of Revolutionary War fame. Gettysburg, a bloody and defining Civil War test. Shanksville, where the crash of Flight 93 shattered the quiet on a September morning and began a war on terror that is now a major political fault line. The railroads blossomed here and carried the loads in hopes of a nation expanding west.
MADONNA: Once you get beyond the Blue Mountains, you have the old mining and mill towns that were famous in the 19th century, as part of the industrial revolution. There the conservative blue collar working class voters. Forty percent of the voters of our state tend to be these more conservative blue collar working class Catholic Democrats that we now just euphemistically refer to as the Reagan Democrats.
KING: Pittsburgh anchors western Pennsylvania, tiny compared to Philadelphia, but still important politically. Everywhere reminders of Pennsylvania's industrial past. And if it's crucial, present-day politically.
John King, CNN, Pittsburgh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And so the day before the Pennsylvania primary, presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are flooding the airwaves with some would say negative ads. Find more on the candidates at CNNPolitics.com. CNNPolitics.com is your source for everything political.
HARRIS: Some would say comparative ads.
WHITFIELD: OK. That's a good word.
HARRIS: Gas up, oil up, getting worse. Get used to it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Are we there yet? You know that question asked in the car on the road trip. Gas prices setting another record surging to an average of $3.50 a gallon for unleaded regular, $3.85 if you're into premium. In today's AAA survey, oil, it's now more than $117 a barrel. It is issue number one and some economists say you've reached the tipping point. That's when gas costs so much that you actually start cutting back.
Prices are up nearly 16 cents a gallon in just the past two weeks, according to the Lundberg survey. And you're paying 60 cents more a gallon over last year. Analysts predict that summer demand could drive prices even higher.
HARRIS: On Wall Street, another big bank is getting a life line. Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange with the details on National City.
Susan, a lifeline? We're not talking about a bailout? Let's use your terminology. Lifeline.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think in some lexicons, they're interchangeable, Tony. And you know, it's just like a different player, different week, different player. Big bank. And it all points to the same thing, a lot of financial distress.
Just three months ago, National City's chief executive said the nation's 10th largest bank is sound. Today's news seemed to be a clear sign today that's no longer the case. Cleveland based National City says it's raising $7 billion in additional capital and it's slashing its dividends. Wachovia and Washington Mutual have each also said in recent weeks that they would turn to outside investors to strengthen their balance sheets.
National City is heavily exposed to the mortgage market and has branches in some of the hardest hit areas. The Midwest and Florida. Because of that, the bank has already cut thousands of jobs and shut down its wholesale mortgage division. Today, National City shares, while they're not reassuring to investors, down 25.5 percent.
This comes on the same day that Bank of America reported a nearly 80 percent drop in quarterly profits. Bank of America shares down near two percent. That and record oil prices, hurting the overall market after a strong week last week. A little bit of reversal here.
The Dow is down 55 points. The NASDAQ is down just two points -- Tony.
HARRIS: You know what, Susan, it's -- it seems the same story, different bank from day to day. Why do these banks and their issues have such an impact on the markets?
LISOVICZ: Because they have such a profound impact on the economy. And that's what investors are responding to, Tony. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said big banks and investment firms need to stay afloat or it could wreak havoc on an already troubled financial system. That was his rationale with the Bear Stearns situation.
Analysts say these weak earnings from banks could be a sign that a recession is here. The National Association for Business Economists says 30 percent of its economists believe the U.S. will shrink in the first half of the year as the housing recession deepens. That's up 10 from just percent who thought so in January.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago says economic activity is at levels there that indicate a recession has begun. A lot of talking about it. We all know the same thing, the economy is slowing down big-time -- Tony.
HARRIS: There she is at the New York Stock Exchange. Susan Lisovicz for us.
Good to see you, Susan.
LISOVICZ: Likewise.
WHITFIELD: All right. Time to take a look at some of the most clicked-on videos at CNN.com.
Prince William, well, he dropped in the backyard of his girlfriend, and so, of course, that means he's also dipped into a bit of controversy. It all took place in a military helicopter.
Plus, life-changing surgery. One woman's struggle to drop hundreds of pounds.
And a New Hampshire high school student is busted in a drug sting set up by his principal.
For more of your favorite video, go to CNN.com/mostpopular. And of course, don't forget you can take us with you anywhere you want to go on your iPod with the CNN daily podcast. See some of the stories that will have you talking. The CNN NEWSROOM podcast available 24/7, right around the clock right on your iPod.
HARRIS: And going with the flow, how students stop pollution on a creek by taking a cue from nature.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Earth Day is tomorrow. And this lesson now on taking back a river.
CNN's Miles O'Brien reports.
All right. Sorry about that. We're having a little problem with that tape. But of course we'll get it to you when we can. We can talk a little kind of sports now.
HARRIS: Love the story.
WHITFIELD: Race cars considered a sport, right? Sporting event.
HARRIS: Grab a sports page and put it right in front of you this morning.
WHITFIELD: I know. It's fantastic.
HARRIS: We're talking about a young woman who is smashing barriers. Over the weekend, Danica Patrick became the first female ever to win an Indy Car race. There she is. How emotional is that moment, huh? Patrick grabbed the checkered flag almost six seconds ahead of the pole sitter in this particular race.
On AMERICAN MORNING today she talked about the history-making moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANICA PATRICK, RACE CAR DRIVER: Relief. I was really happy. And then I just kind of let it all out. And I didn't let it all out as loud as my mom did, but I let it all out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: So how did Patrick do it? Well, while everyone else was making last-minute pit stops to refuel, Patrick pushed her car to the limit. On her last gallon of gas. WHITFIELD: Woo. That was a huge risk.
HARRIS: At these prices.
WHITFIELD: But it paid off. Congrats to Danica Patrick.
Earth Day, again, it's tomorrow.
Miles O'Brien now tells us about how you can take back a river.
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MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CHIEF TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There was a time when city planners thought the concrete solution to the challenge of allowing rivers and cities to co-exist was, well, concrete. But times have changed, and the experts now are paying more attention to Mother Nature's blueprints.
CURTIS RICHARDSON, DUKE UNIVERSITY: What we're trying to do is use an ecological approach, that is lower tech but also is more sustainable and more ecologically friendly.
O'RBIEN: Curtis Richardson is head of the Duke University Wetland Center. For the past three years he and his students have reengineered a polluted stretch of creek that flows through the campus without calling in the cement mixers.
RICHARDSON: This is really a very novel way of trying to treat using Mother Nature's environmental services.
O'BRIEN: The problem was runoff. Whenever it rained, all kinds of bad chemicals, from fertilizers to pesticides, would flow straight into Sandy Creek with nothing to stop them. So Richardson and his students started digging, changing the contours of the land, planting trees, creating a wetland and building a storm water reservoir behind an earthen dam.
RICHARDSON: This gives you sort of a natural system where the water actually can flow out over the banks and the sediments and nutrients can be maintained in the wetlands.
O'BRIEN: It's nature's way of cleaning up a mess and it's working. Three years later this creek is much cleaner than it was before and it sure costs a lot less money than pouring all that concrete. Apparently it's smarter to go with the flow than fight it.
Miles O'Brien, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And the CNN NEWSROOM continues one hour from now. You don't want to miss it.
I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. "ISSUE #1" with news on the economy begins after a quick check of the headlines.
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HARRIS: More news at the bottom of the hour. Now, a special edition of "ISSUE #1" with CNN's money team, Ali Velshi and Gerri Willis.
