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Record Foreclosures; Soldier Charged With 5 Murder Counts; GOP Infighting Escalates; Chasing a Storm Chaser; Cheapest and Most Expensive Colleges

Aired May 13, 2009 - 09:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We've got a lot to cover in the NEWSROOM this morning.

CNN's Cal Perry is live in Baghdad with the very latest on the sergeant accused in the shooting death at Camp Liberty. We are also learning more about his victims this morning.

And also, we are learning more about the Taliban and the way that they are upping the stakes with their battle in Pakistan. Our Ivan Watson is reporting on threats being made against politician's family members.

And also, why did this commuter plane crash near Buffalo? This hour a panel focuses on crew fatigue and training.

Let's get started with the story that's shaken many members of the military and their families. The killings on a base near Baghdad. Cal Perry is in the Iraqi capital now with the very latest.

So, Cal, what do we know about Sergeant John Russell?

CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know he's 44 years old. He's previously served three tours with the U.S. military. This was his third tour. He deployed here roughly about a year ago. He would have three months left on what would have been a 15-month tour.

He's serving with the 54th Engineering Battalion based out of Germany. And we also know from speaking with his family down in Texas, Sherman Texas, his hometown, they say the Army meant the world to him. The Army was his life and it meant everything to him.

We also know that his commander had him pegged as a potential problem and took his service weapon away from him just a week prior to that very deadly shooting incident -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Well, if his commander knew Russell had a problem and, of course, took his weapon, as we have reported, how did all of this escalate into -- into where we are now?

PERRY: Well, that's -- that's the big question. We know that he managed to wrangle a weapon from a fellow soldier and in some kind of scuffle before returning to that clinic. But this is why the military is launching not just one investigation but two investigations.

The first, of course, is a straightforward criminal investigation into the shooting. They'll be going through that shooting scene, going through forensic evidence. All this sort of normal things you would see in an event like this.

The second investigation is really an internal look inside the military so they can decide for themselves how this incident could have been prevented and, more importantly, of course, how to prevent further incidents like this from happening in the future - Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, CNN's Cal Perry for us live in Baghdad this morning.

Cal, thank you.

We are learning about another side of the army shooting suspect, Sergeant John Russell. CNN's Ed Lavandera talked with his father and son.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It started with a fight inside this combat stress clinic in Camp Liberty, Baghdad between Sergeant John Russell and other army officers. Russell was being escorted back to his barracks when he snapped.

His father talked about it for the first time.

WILBURN RUSSELL, SOLDIER'S FATHER: As soon as they got a little ways from the facility, he beat the crap out of guy. Took the gun away from him.

LAVANDERA: Military officials say Sergeant Russell then drove back to the clinic and killed five U.S. soldiers. But Russell's father says it wasn't combat stress that made him kill but fellow soldiers who pushed him over the edge.

W. RUSSELL: His wife told me that he overheard (ph) and said, he had the worst two days of his life because some of the officers are threatening (ph) him.

LAVANDERA: John Russell's father and son spoke extensively with us about the Army sergeant's experience in Iraq.

W. RUSSELL: They stressed him. They broke him, you know? They ruined his life. They told him, You're an idiot. You don't belong in here. We're going to break you. We're going to get you out of here.

LAVANDERA: Russell was on his third tour of Iraq. His family says the 21-year-old Army veteran never showed signs of post-traumatic stress and even if he did he wouldn't have talked about it.

W. RUSSELL: He wouldn't have asked for help if he had to.

LAVANDERA (on camera): He would have?

W. RUSSELL: No, would not have. No.

LAVANDERA: You think that's maybe why they...

(CROSSTALK)

W. RUSSELL: He takes to John Wayne, you know? A man's man. You know he's -- he's laid back. He's real quiet.

JOHN RUSSELL, SOLDIER'S SON: Something in his mind just -- just went off and he just had no control over it is what I think.

LAVANDERA: You said earlier he's not -- he's not a violent guy.

J. RUSSELL: No, not at all. Not at all.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Military officials in Baghdad say Sergeant Russell was ordered to undergo counseling last week because of unspecified words and actions.

MAJ. GEN. DAVID PERKINS, U.S. ARMY: Just know that his chain of command had concerns about him. He had been undergoing counseling within the command. Again they had already taken the immediate measure of our removing his weapon.

LAVANDERA: Wilburn Russell says his son feared some army officers were trying to run him out of the military with a dishonorable discharge five years before he could retire.

(on camera): Sergeant Russell's son says he last heard from his father on April 25th in an e-mail wishing him a happy birthday and saying that he was looking forward to the end of his deployment when he was supposed to come home here for a short visit in less than two months.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Sherman, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: We are starting to get reaction from members of the victim's families as well. A cousin of Navy Commander Charles Springle had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALTON DUDLEY, COMMANDER CHARLES SPRINGLE'S COUSIN: It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking to see it, to see how needlessly his life was taken. Basically, when it was by a fellow soldier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Private First Class Michael Edward Yates, Jr. was also a victim. His mother said this . "I think Sergeant Russell just had a lot on his mind and had a hard time adjusting to civilian life. I do have some sympathy and I do know that I can forgive him. I kind of blame the Army for not protecting my son. Someone should have helped this sergeant way before he got this bad."

And we are expecting to hear more from the Yates family in a news conference that's coming up next hour. We will bring that to you live.

Health care, the Supreme Court and college. All in the president's agenda today. In about 25 minutes, the president meets with top House Democrat and health care reform is among the topics they're expected to discuss. The president is going to make comments after that meeting.

And later this morning, President Obama welcome top senators from both parties to talk about the next Supreme Court nominee. Top members of the Judiciary Committee will be there.

And tonight, the president will be in Arizona. He's giving the commencement address at Arizona State University.

Now to Pakistan this morning. While fighting rages on between the Taliban and Pakistan's army in the Swat Valley, the militants are also engaging in psychological warfare. Now threatening members of Parliament and their families.

CNN's Ivan Watson is joining us now live from the capital of Islamabad.

So, Ivan, what exactly are they threatening?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the spokesman for the Taliban, the face of the Taliban in the Swat Valley is a man named Muslim Kahn. And Heidi, you may be interested to know that he says he lived in the U.S. working as a painter for four years up until 2001 in and around Boston.

Now speaking on the phone with me today from the Swat Valley, he said that anybody who is a member of the national or provincial parliament who is from the district of Mingora in northwest Pakistan, anybody from those parliaments, must resign in three days. Otherwise their relatives who are still living in that area will be kidnapped and their properties will be destroyed -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Wow. You've got to wonder what kind of effects these threats are having on those people.

WATSON: I've been speaking with some of the more than half million refugees that have poured out of northwest Pakistan in the last 11 days, Heidi, and many of these people are terrified of the Taliban because they've heard of the daily kidnappings of people whose throats have been slit at night, of schools for girls that are systematically bombed and sabotaged by Taliban fighters.

On the flip side of that, however, there are many supporters of the Taliban among these refugees. People who say the Taliban are good people. They're honest. They're fighting for Islam.

COLLINS: Wow.

WATSON: One example that one boy told me, they've dropped the price of public transport in the village that they live in, just to give you a sense of how split the society is. COLLINS: Yes.

WATSON: Heidi?

COLLINS: I mean, that is quite dichotomy. All right, very good, Ivan Watson for us live from Islamabad this morning.

Thank you, Ivan.

We could get new reaction to the Taliban threat when Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hold a joint news conference about two hours from now. Our Paula Newton is covering their meeting and if we hear any news from there we, of course, will bring it to you.

At least seven people are dead this morning in a suicide bombing targeting a U.S. military base. It happened outside of the entrance of Camp Solerno. That's near the city of Khost. And the U.S. military says no international troops were among the casualties; four Afghan security guards are dead.

The attack at Camp Solerno comes one day after militant launches a series of suicide attacks on government buildings in the city of Khost.

Pope Benedict XVI is calling for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East. Palestinian authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, hosted the Pope as he spoke today in Bethlehem in the West Bank.

The pontiff urged Palestinians and Israelis to put aside their, quote, "grievances and divisions." He says he supports the right of Palestinians to a secure and sovereign homeland. The Catholic Church leaders is on a weeklong visit to the holy land.

I want to get on over to Jacqui Jeras now standing by in the Weather Center with the very latest.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Just before the crash, new details coming out about the pilot of the flight that crashed in Buffalo. Ice may not have been the only problem.

And a patent on an invention is common practice but what a about a patent on parts of the human body? It's more common than you might think. Now the legal fight is on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: A legal fight over human genes. The U.S. government is being sued for granting a company a patent on two genes linked to breast cancer. That's right, patents on human genes. It sounds kind of weird.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to sort it all out. Hey there, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

COLLINS: Maybe we should first try to understand exactly what the plaintiffs are suing for?

GUPTA: Yes. What they're suing for, the ability to patent genetic materials as you mentioned. The idea of owning genetic material and the idea that, you know, other companies don't have some stake in this. Aren't able do something with this genetic material. Use it for discovery.

It's exactly as you say. These genes called the breast cancer 1, breast cancer 2 genes, BRCA-1, BRCA-2. People may have heard of it like that -- if you haven't increased your likelihood of breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

So if you're a woman who's concerned about this because of a family history, you go to your doctor, you get tested for and it comes back positive and you say, you know what, I want to get a second opinion or get tested somewhere else, you can't, because there's one company that owns the patent on this -- on these particular genes.

COLLINS: Well, OK, so back up just a second. If I understand you right, what this means is somebody who discovered something that they were maybe surprised to discover, like a gene, they then basically own it and they're the only people who can research it. Nobody else can go in this route?

GUPTA: Well, yes, I mean, you know, they will make the argument that it's not quite that simple, they didn't sort of simply stumble upon about this. They were doing -- you know they were doing research and they sort of found this particular code of genetic sequence here. But also they also define the techniques to be able to isolate that particular gene, to determine what it meant and to develop the testing for it as well.

And the idea, you know, sort of -- and this is not a new argument by any means, Heidi, is that if you allow patents like this to go forward, it inspires innovation. It inspires companies, incentivizes them to do work like this because they can patent it. Obviously that's the biotech sort of argument here.

COLLINS: Sure.

GUPTA: The flip side of the argument is, well, what about other companies who want to offer new tests? What about the idea of more progress and more innovation? Is that somehow stymied if a single company has a patent on this?

COLLINS: Yes. Exactly. And what if another company is better at it or smarter?

GUPTA: That's right.

COLLINS: I mean how does this affect the future of genetic research?

GUPTA: Well, you know, what we're sort starting to hear is this idea that look, you can patent it but it may be not -- shouldn't be so broad-reaching so as to exclude possible progress and innovation.

I don't know exactly how they're going to do that, frankly, but it's a really interesting convergence between medical science, brand- new technology, and of course the legal aspect of it, driving up the middle but I think in the end, you know, they're suing on the basis, saying this is unconstitutional.

They're suing on the basis saying you can't -- you shouldn't be able to patent this sort of thing but this isn't new. I mean out of genetic material, the genes that exist, about 20 percent already patented.

The first patent was over 30 years ago when it came to genes so we're hearing about this sort of for the first time because of this lawsuit but this has been something that's been ongoing for a long time, Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, I certainly think it will be a surprise to a lot of people.

All right, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Nice to see you, Sanjay, thank you.

GUPTA: Thanks, Heidi.

COLLINS: Not the way it was supposed to end. Passengers sent scrambling down emergency slides when their plane's tire catches on fire.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN, the most trusted name in news. Now back to the CNN NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Love that song. The shuttle Atlantis crew waking up to Jeff Johnson's "Upside Down" this morning.

Now, it's on to the difficult and dangerous task at hand. Atlantis' in place alongside the Hubble space telescope. They'll grab it with a robotic arm in just a few flowers now but NASA is afraid the shuttle could be hit by some of the large amount of space debris in the Hubble's orbit. The shuttle Endeavour is standing by if a rescue mission is needed.

Engineers back on Earth are taking a closer look at these pictures today. The white spots are dings on the heat shield. NASA doesn't know right now if they'll end up being a problem during re- entry.

Why did Continental connection flight 3407 go down near Buffalo earlier this year? That could be the accident that left 50 people dead and having many questions answered and asked, I should say. Could it have been prevented?

The National Transportation Safety Board hearing on the crash is going on right now in Washington. Today they are focusing on pilot fatigue and hiring and training practices. Meanwhile, we're getting new details about the moments before the crash.

Here now, our Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Jesus Christ, we're down," exclaimed pilot Marvin Renslow. Then First Officer Rebecca Shaw screamed as Flight 3407 crashed into a private home near Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

Those are the final 20 seconds of the cockpit voice recorder. Only minutes before, Shaw told Renslow of her fear of crashing in icy conditions. That was a violation of cockpit rules requiring all discussion to focus on landing the aircraft.

Why couldn't Captain Renslow save the plane?

The National Transportation Safety Board is examining Renslow's training at Colgan Air, the regional carrier that operated Flight 3407. Renslow never received hands-on experience with the safety system in the Bombardier Q400 aircraft. Called a stick pusher that activated to prevent the plane from stalling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know of any stick training or stick push or training that was done in the actual Q400 prior to the accident?

PAUL PRYOR, COLGAN AIR: In the simulator, no. In grounds proportion it is covered so it's information that's not practical experience with handling anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): The airline doesn't have to provide that training according to the FAA.

TINA SINISCALCO, SISTER OF CRASH VICTIM: This should not have happened, no. 50 people should be enjoying their lives right now.

CHERNOFF: Captain Renslow was fully FAA certified. But he had failed five pilot tests. Three of which occurred before he joined the airline. Colgan Air says Renslow revealed only one of those failures to the airline. Those facts led the safety board to ask an official from the aircraft's manufacturer if a more experienced pilot could have saved the plane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe this was a recoverable stall?

WALLY WARNER, BOMBARDIER: My opinion is yes.

CHERNOFF (on camera): Pilot fatigue is another issue the NTSB is examining. Captain Renslow had 22 hours off before reporting to work at Newark Airport where the flight began but he was seen sleeping in the crew room there. And the first officer, Rebecca Shaw, she commuted through the night to get to work at Newark.

Allen Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: A scary landing for some Southwest Airline passengers. It happened in Houston. You can see one of the rear tires there on fire. The plane blew the tire when it landed.

When it finally stopped the passengers were evacuated on those inflatable emergency slides. Nobody was seriously hurt. The plane was reportedly ready to fly again after a tire change.

The big topic on our blog right now, how hard it is for the members of the class of 2009 to find a job? We asked you to tell us what you think. It turns out there's some good news sprinkled in with the bad.

Our first comment is from Michael in North Carolina. He writes, "I just graduated with my master's degree in accounting and I do have a job lined up. The majority of my graduating class secured jobs before this past Christmas."

But Clarissa from Kansas writes this, "I will graduate this Sunday with a degree in political science and international studies. I spent all summer interning with the State Department and spent nearly two years working on campaign. But these experiences have not been enough to help me find a job. Graduation will not be quite the celebration for most of us this year."

Then from Stephanie, "I'll be attending Clemson University to get my PhD. Grad school definitely seems like the better bet at this point."

And from Sam in West Virginia, "I will be graduating Saturday with a degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering. Fortunately, I've spent the past two summers as an intern with an oil company and was offered a job upon graduating."

Lots of stories out there. We want to hear them. We want to hear about all of this from you and our other stories as well on our blog. Make sure you check it out, CNN.com/newsroom.

If you thought foreclosures were bad in March and they were, just wait until you see April's numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins.

COLLINS: On Wall Street, investors get an update on the health of the U.S. consumer. There have been a number of signs, recently, that the economy is stabilizing. But is that enough to get Americans shopping again?

Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange now with the very latest on that and how it will affect the trading day today.

Hey there, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.

Well, buyers weren't shopping and investors aren't going to be buying. At least at the open. We learned an hour ago, Heidi, retail sales fell by nearly half a percent last month. That was worse than Wall Street was expecting.

To make matters worse, the March numbers were revised lower. Signs that the economy may not be recovering as quickly as many of us had hoped. You know it's just not going to be a smooth process getting out of here and sometimes I think the hopes are a little unrealistic.

There's the opening bell. No applause perhaps for Macy's. But drop in retail sales pushed the largest department store operator in the U.S. to an $88 million first quarter loss. That's more red ink than it reported in the same period a year ago. Macy's shares right now are down 3 percent.

No coincidence, retail sales down, foreclosures are up. Realty Tracks says the number of homes facing foreclosure jumped 32 percent last month compared to a year ago. Christine will have more on that in just a minute.

European regulators, meanwhile, slapping Intel with a record fine of nearly $1.5 billion. The European Commission said the chipmaker violated antitrust laws by paying computer makers to delay or even cancel products that contained ships made by AMD, Intel's biggest rival. It was unsportsmanlike behavior, according to the European Commission.

Verizon, meanwhile, selling its traditional phone line business in 14 states to Frontier Communications. The price? More than $5 billion in stocks. The deal narrows Verizon's focus to its more profitable wireless broadband and Internet services.

And one minute into the trading day. Yes, we're seeing some consistence here in three major averages. They're all down by about one percent.

Didn't like the retail sales, Heidi?

COLLINS: Yes, I don't think so.

All right, Susan, we'll check back later on.

LISOVICZ: Yes. I'll be back.

COLLINS: Thank you. More people lost their homes last month than possibly any other month before. April's foreclosure numbers reached a shocking record high.

Joining us now live to talk about that, Christine Romans in New York.

Hi, there, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Heidi.

It was pretty shocking. Three hundred and forty-two thousand homes got foreclosure filings just in the month. I mean, you think of that, that's like every day 2,100 homes. The padlocks going on the front door and the bank repossessing them by the time you get down to the bank repossession.

So everything from the default notice, all the way down to lock in the front door, a shocking number according to RealtyTrac. That's their word. We knew that March was an explosion of these things. And then in April, it just continued. And frankly, a lot of people think these numbers are going to continue to be bad.

COLLINS: Yes.

ROMANS: Because the banks are now -- they've now stopped their moratorium on foreclosures. And they have to go through the process of finding people who just can't pay these bills, just can't afford these homes. Those are the hardest hit states you're seeing there. Florida, Nevada, Arizona, California, Illinois. A lot of these states have seen these numbers mounting. And, frankly, just getting worse.

One in 374 homes got notices in the mail in April. Everything from just being told, you're late to being -- you're in the middle of the process to here's your court date. Some parts in Florida, for example, there are courts, Heidi, where they're doing a rocket docket of just, you know, 12, 16 hours of just, boom, foreclosure filings. You've got 30 days to get up-to-date, or you're going to be out. Boom, you've lost your house, you know. There are really a lot of activities on this front.

My sources are telling me they think that the government's program, the making home affordable programs won't take root for a few more months.

COLLINS: Right.

ROMANS: In the meantime, the banks have started going through the process again of trying to fine the people who they think they can save with refinancing modifications, but there are some people who they can't. And those people are losing their houses.

COLLINS: Yes. Boy, and there's going to be a lot more of them it sounds like, too, especially if you don't have a job. I mean, you're really not going to be able to afford that house payment. ROMANS: And that's -- it started with bad mortgages. Now this is with loss of jobs. So, you're right. As home prices declines, it just feeds on itself, Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, no question.

What about "Romans' Numeral" today? Anything uplifting there?

ROMANS: Actually yes. And it's uplifting out of the wreckage of the housing number.

COLLINS: OK.

ROMANS: I'm going to give you a number, Heidi. I want to see if you can maybe venture me a guess.

COLLINS: OK.

ROMANS: One hundred and sixty-nine thousand dollars. What do you think that number represents in the housing market? Any guesses from you?

COLLINS: Average price of homes -- I don't know. I'm looking at your face on the monitor here.

ROMANS: You're right. It is the median price of a home in this country, $169,000.

If you're one of the high-cost, you know, coastal city -- you're like, wow, that's a great number. But that number has been falling, falling, falling. And here's the hope. When you look at an $8,000 first-time home buyer credit, when you look at mortgage rates that have been around five percent, in some cases less, you are seeing about half of the homes purchased by first-time home buyers. As that price of a home falls, it hurts the value of our biggest asset, oh, boy. And it hurts other people as your neighborhood value declines.

But it is providing some opportunity for the first-time home buyers, who got priced out of that runaway real estate market of the late 1990s and 2000s. And some economists are telling me if you can get stability, just people getting in there and starting to buy homes, it might help stem the declines and be the first kernels of stability in the housing markets. So that's -- that's the hope. There are people who are finding some opportunities in the wreckage of this foreclosure crisis.

COLLINS: Oh, sure. Sure. Definitely.

All right. Well, we're always looking for that good news.

Thank you, Christine. Appreciate it.

ROMANS: Yes.

COLLINS: AIG took billions of your tax money to stay afloat. And today, the company's top executive has to lay out a plan to pay it all back. CEO Ed Liddy is going before a House Committee at the top of the hour. The government gave AIG a $182 billion bailout saying it was too big to fail. AIG nearly went under because of risky derivatives trading.

It's been tough trying to get the nation's big banks to pick up their lending. So today Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is turning to the little guy. He's speaking at a convention for independent community bankers this hour. Smaller banks have less of those toxic assets than the big banks, but they're also getting demands for tougher lending rules.

The father of the soldier accused of killing five other troops in Iraq hopes his son is found temporarily insane. Sergeant John Russell is charged with five counts of murder. According to his dad, Russell snapped when he thought officers were trying to drive him out of military. Russell's commander ordered him into counseling last week, but it is not clear why.

We can expect Defense Secretary Robert Gates to be asked about the incident during his hearing on Capitol Hill today.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joining us now live.

So, Barbara, how is the Pentagon handling this case? I mean, where does it go from here?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Heidi, I think still days later around the Pentagon, around the U.S. military, just extreme shock at this very tragic incident. Really unprecedented what occurred here.

Sergeant John Russell now charged with five counts of murder. So the military justice system will now proceed with those charges against him, and we will see how all of that turns out. What case his defense makes. What case the prosecution makes. And, of course, five families of those who died in this incident who were killed, mourning their loved ones and the Russell family, obviously, in a good deal of shock.

There are two investigations under way, however. The criminal investigation into what exactly happened in that mental health facility where the shooting took place. Precisely, what happened and how it happened.

But separately, a fact-finding investigation under way, if you will, looking at, what was behind all of this? What were the procedures people followed? How could it possibly ever be kept from happening again?

That's something when these very serious incidents happen, the military always does. They go step by step, who knew what, when, how did things transpire? How can they possibly ever keep something this awful from ever happening again? And, of course, the issue of mental health, post-traumatic stress.

COLLINS: Sure. STARR: This continues to be a major issue in the U.S. military. I think it's a safe bet. Secretary Gates may reference it on the Hill later today. Constantly looking at that issue. How longer these tours of duty? How many tours of duty in the combat zone before it's one too many? - Heidi.

COLLINS: Right. And that all-important downtown in between tours, obviously, something to talk about.

Barbara, you may not know the answer to this, but something we are talking about here in these cases. You know, maybe something that they'll learn from this is whether or not a soldier who is determined to be disturbed or stressed, at what point would he or she need to be taken out of theater?

STARR: Well, that's right. That's exactly right. At what point? You know, they talk a lot about the buddy system. If you see a buddy out there who's in trouble, we'll take them off the line for a while. But at what point should someone actually be taken out of the combat zone and be sent back home? And is that enough?

I think one of the things we're beginning to hear now from top commanders is the notion of cumulative tours of duty. Year after year after year. At some point, no matter how much time you spend back at home with your family, at some point, is it just one tour too many? - Heidi.

COLLINS: We will be watching for answers on all of that, certainly.

CNN's Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent.

Barbara, thank you.

STARR: Sure.

COLLINS: And more on who knew what, when, about alleged torture during the Bush administration? A source close to Nancy Pelosi tells CNN the House speaker was briefed in February 2003, that waterboarding was used on CIA detainee Abu Zubaydah. Pelosi has said she was never told that actually happened, only that it was being considered. Some Republicans are calling for Pelosi to testify before Congress.

Next hour, a former FBI agent who interrogated Abu Zubaydah will be testifying.

Recently, the Grand Old Party has been trying to portray a grand new image. Some, though, see only grandstanding and a lot of infighting.

Our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley now with a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is the latest in what some party officials see as an unsettling, unhelpful string of Republican-on-Republican assaults: GOP chairman Michael Steele on why Mitt Romney did not win the Republican presidential primary.

MICHAEL STEELE, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: It was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life. It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism.

CROWLEY: Suggesting the most reliable Republican voters are intolerant is called being off-message. Suggesting the most reliable Republican voters are intolerant of a man likely to run again is called a double oops.

John McCain does damage control.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I think the fact that Mitt Romney succeeded as much as he did and remains an important and central figure in our Republican Party -- and I wouldn't be surprised to see him run again -- is a testimony, I think, to the inclusiveness of the Republican Party.

CROWLEY: Circular firing squads are a Democratic specialty. It's new for Republicans, who are rudderless and leaderless and fighting over how to win elections. Some think the party can win with ideological purity. Others argue, you can't make the party purer; you have to make it bigger.

ED GILLESPIE, FORMER REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: In a country of 300 million people, for one party to have a majority of the voters, you have to be, inherently, a coalition. You have got to assemble a lot of different groups of people. And not all of those groups of people will agree on every plank in the platform.

CROWLEY: And that split explains why the more moderate Mitt Romney sniffed when told that the more purely conservative Sarah Palin made "TIME" magazine's 100 most-influential people list.

MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR: Was that the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people?

(LAUGHTER)

ROMNEY: I'm not sure.

CROWLEY: Party purity versus the big tent also explains Colin Powell's observation that Rush Limbaugh hurts Republicans, Rush Limbaugh's suggestion that Colin Powell leave the party, and Dick Cheney's statement that he thought Colin Powell had already left the party.

Not to be left out, '08 wannabe Mike Huckabee -- he launched a rocket at a new Republican group set up as a kind of mini-think tank to push the party forward. The group includes Romney, Jeb Bush, John McCain, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, all big-tenters. Steamed that they seem want to downplay social issues, like abortion, Huckabee denigrated the group's plan to go on a listening tour, writing that it was "hard to keep from laughing out loud." He called it sad that Jeb Bush thinks the party needs to get past Ronald Reagan.

The hits just keep on coming.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Another U.S. state moves a step closer to legalizing same-sex marriage. The New York State Assembly last night approved a bill to legalize gay marriage. The vote was 89-52, with five Republicans backing it.

One GOP assemblywoman told "The New York Times," a lesbian couple who lives on her street helped changed her vote to, yes. The measure now moves to the New York State Senate. If it becomes law, New York will be the sixth state to allow same-sex marriage.

Parts of the Great Lakes region and Midwest could see some nasty weather today. Our Jacqui Jeras will tell us when it may hit just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Jacqui Jeras standing by now over in our severe weather center to talk about -- boy, I'm looking behind you at all of those graphics, and it certainly does not look good.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Meanwhile, it's usually a case of hurry up and wait, but that could change today. Chasing the path of a storm chaser.

CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano on the roads of north Texas somewhere chasing the chasers of the next big storm.

So, yes, it looks like you might have some action today here, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we saw some action yesterday actually. It didn't look all that good, but we traveled a couple of miles across the Texas panhandle and caught up with a couple of storms with these guys with their -- all their instruments and fancy radar manage to sample some data. So it wasn't a complete bust after starting out with crystal blue skies. Here's a look at a little adventure.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Shortly after 10:00 local time. Just had the weather briefing and the decision has been made to travel, a couple to - three hours, actually.

So, activities ramped up here and everybody is on the move. We've got one more live broadcast in about 20 minutes. So we'll be behind the eight ball, but we hope to catch up. And if conditions ripen, see our first storm.

Well, it's a whole other ball game over here. Couple hours west of Texas now. Shed a couple of layers. Sunny, severe, clear. Temperatures into the mid-80s. We've pretty much moved the staging area into this truck stop parking lot. Kind of see those clouds out there in the distance. I assume that's what they're scanning.

There's DOW7. You see the radars whipping around there, probably scanning those clouds off there in a distance. Let's go see what they're looking at.

ERIK RASMUSSEN, VORTEX2 TEAM LEADER: There's some convection or showers trying to form out there where it's a lot drier. If that happens, there could be some cold air and spreads out on the ground and initiate some more storms. If those storms can move off to the area behind me, where it's more humid, potentially it may become a super cell.

MARCIANO: What kind of odds are you giving for this to continued to grow, (INAUDIBLE) and develop?

RASMUSSEN: I think probably better than even we'll be chasing it later today.

MARCIANO: I'll take those odds.

Those puffy white cumulus clouds earlier have grown somewhat. Now blocking out the sun. We've kind of moved our position, moved the entire armada actually to this other town just to the east. And now we're waiting for this thing just to grow a little bigger and we'll probably get those dopplers working again, scanning the storm.

Visually, this is a pretty cool storm. We're following (INAUDIBLE) into this area that has some rain, actually verga (ph) and some downdrafts just coming down and just kicking up this dust. That may be as close as we get to a tornado. This dust from the downdraft.

Well, no tornadoes. But, got a couple of cool storms and beautifully back lit by a setting sun. So maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: They were gorgeous, though, Heidi.

No tornadoes. Didn't intercept any severe thunderstorms. But the storms across that part of Texas, the way the landscape is laid out and the way the skies were clear was certainly gorgeous.

Today, moderate risk as Jacqui Jeras probably has told you. So it looks to be an increasing likelihood to see at least some hail, possibly some tornadoes.

It's important to note, Heidi, that for these guys, you know, it's just as important for them to sample data from that thunderstorm that doesn't produce a tornado as for one that does.

COLLINS: OK.

MARCIANO: Because they're trying to figure out the difference.

COLLINS: Right.

MARCIANO: They want to able to predict in the future more accurately, which ones will drop a tornado and therefore be able the warn people more accurately - Heidi.

COLLINS: OK. Got it. All right.

Well, good luck with the chase. Of course, stay safe.

And we should always remind everybody, these are professionals out there doing this work.

Rob Marciano, we'll keep up with the chase. Check in with you later on.

Thank you.

Location, location. Not for buying a house, though, but for picking an affordable college. We'll tell you where to find the cheapest colleges.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Our National Transportation Safety Board hearing into that commuter plane crash near Buffalo that killed 50 people continues today in Washington. The focus will be on the pilot's training, and whether or not the crew was suffering from fatigue.

New details emerging on the crash finds the pilot may have lacked the proper flight simulation training he needed to handle the situation.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expected to be the keynote speaker at NYU's commencement ceremony scheduled for 11:00 this morning. It's being held this year at New York's new Yankee Stadium. More than 6,000 graduates and about 20,000 guests are expected to be there. Secretary Clinton will also get a doctor of law honors degree at the ceremony.

And supermarkets across the country thinking food safety. The industry announced today it plans to improve the quality of the food they sell. They hope to improve food safety by implementing a better warning system. Finding better, sure ways to detect problems and impose tougher processing standards.

And we want to get back to our 2009 segment that we have been talking about. Graduates this year. It is that time of year, in fact, high school students in the class of 2009 are getting ready to head off to college. And parents know it's going to cost.

Ever wonder, in fact, which states have the cheapest and which have the most expensive colleges?

Well, personal finance editor, Gerri Willis, is just the gal with all the answers.

So, Gerri, let's go ahead and get the bad news out of the way. Where do people pay the most for their state school?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: All right. Well, good morning, there, Heidi.

Yes. We got these from the National Center for Public Policy of Higher Education. Here are the expensive states. Pennsylvania, where it takes 41 percent of an average family's income to pay for one year of tuition fees, room, and board at a local public four-year college. Ohio wasn't far behind with 39 percent. And in Delaware, it takes 37 percent of a family's income for one year of college. Now, these figures exclude financial aid.

And Heidi, you may be wondering, why these states? That makes no sense to me.

Remember, these packages, these tuitions are highly correlated with how well these states are doing in the recession. Are their budgets tight? Are they not tight? So that's -- that's how these two ideas connect.

COLLINS: OK. Got you. So what about the cheapest states for the college now?

WILLIS: Tennessee, where it only takes 13 percent of a family's income for tuition fees, room and board. Louisiana is next. And finally, Georgia, your own state of Georgia, 15 percent of an income there goes to college tuition.

So if you're looking for a bargain, a deal, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia. Those are the places to go.

COLLINS: All right. Interesting.

So this is the time really when parents are getting their financial aid award letters, right?

So what's the best way to compare these offers?

WILLIS: We may think it's easy, but it's not easy to compare since colleges have their figures and costs in different formats. You'll want to look at what's called expected family contribution. That's the bottom line. The amount of money your family will be expected to contribute.

You'll make the judgment about whether you can afford this amount. But some colleges will include loans in your total aid, financial aid package to get down to the true cost to you of the school, subtract out these loans for the financial aid packages. And remember, these loans, obviously, have to be repaid. Consider not just the cost of tuition and fees, but also out of pocket expenses like books and room and board. And that, of course, can differ depending on where you live - Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, of course.

All right. Well, Gerri, some very interesting information.

Thank you so much.

WILLIS: My pleasure. Thanks.

COLLINS: As always, a lot going on this morning. We want to check in with some of our correspondents now to see what they're working on.

First to you, Barbara, at the Pentagon.

STARR: Good morning, Heidi. More details on the latest tragic murder of five U.S. troops in Iraq. We'll have more at the top of the hour.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dana Bash on Capitol Hill, where Senate Democrats are preparing for their first hearing on harsh interrogation methods since Bush era memos were released. We are going to hear from a former FBI interrogator who simply says waterboarding doesn't work. I'll have that story at the top of the hour.

LISOVICZ: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange, where stock prices are declining and the fury over executive pay is growing. Well, the chairman of Citigroup said it would be a mistake to curb compensation on Wall Street.

Heidi, we'll hear Dick Parson explain why in an exclusive interview in the next hour.

COLLINS: Yes. We know who that is.

All right. Susan Lisovicz, thanks so much, and everyone else as well.

Also, a cereal young children adore and adults are encouraged to eat under fire now from the Food and Drug Administration. We'll tell you.