Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Detainee Photo Release Debate; Astronauts Headed to Hubble Telescope for Refit; Severe Weatehr Hits Midwest Again; Obama and Arizona State University; Calgon Flight Hearings Look at Pilot Fatigue and Training; Forced to Flee in Pakistan
Aired May 14, 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: Severe storms rip through the heartland. This morning new images of the destruction plus find out what part of the country could be under the gun again today.
And a camera fix in outer space. Astronauts heading for a major repair on the Hubble telescope. A live report ahead.
And police off target. School kids are tear-gassed accidentally. It is Thursday, May 14th. I'm Heidi Collins. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We begin with the hot button issue of detainee abuse photos. President Obama now coming out against their release. The president's change, of course, is sparking criticism now from both conservatives and liberals.
Let's hear what the president said yesterday and then what a spokesman said just last month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There was a lot of back and forth. In his mind over the course of several weeks about insuring that this protected those that keep us safe, that it protected our national security, and the president came to the determination that the decision that he made was consistent with all of this criteria.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: So you see that policy change there.
Our Barbara Starr at the Pentagon is working on this story. We'll be talking with her shortly on that.
Also this. The bodies of five soldiers killed at a combat stress clinic in Iraq are now back on U.S. soil this morning. The plane carrying their flag-draped coffins arrived after midnight at Dover Air Force Base. Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen was on hand for the somber homecoming. Three of the soldiers families allowed photographers to record what is normally private. Now home, Army Major Matthews Houseal of Amarillo, Texas, Army Sergeant Christian Bueno-Galdos of Patterson, New Jersey, Army Private First Class Michael Yates of Federalsburg, Maryland, Navy Commander Charles Springle of Wilmington, North Carolina and Army Specialist Jacob Barton of Lenox, Missouri.
Their accused killer, a fellow soldier, Army Sergeant John Russell, now in custody in Iraq.
President Obama did not shy away from the so-called snub by Arizona State University. Instead, he made light of the honorary degree flap as he delivered his first commencement address as president last night.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is joining us now live from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where President Obama will hold a town hall style meeting today.
Good morning to you, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
Well, really, the audience rose to its feet. It was a standing ovation when President Obama, essentially, took that controversy head- on, not getting an honorary degree at Arizona State University.
He said, instead, that the title was really not that important. That he, as president, faces many challenges that the graduates will also face many challenges and that they shouldn't be complacent, that they should not actually fall into the trappings of success.
It is one of these things where you have the president essentially turning the controversy on his head. I want you to take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I come to embrace the notion that I haven't done enough in my life. I heartily concur. I come to affirm that one's title, even a title like president of the United States, says very little about how well one's life has been led.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Heidi, as you know, before the commencement, it was quite a bit of dust-up over or not -- the reason why they weren't giving an honorary degree. A university official saying that he had not yet developed a body of work, initially, in his presidency to deserve such an honor.
And the university came back, decided to rename their scholarship program in his name. They said they thought that was more fitting. They had expanded the scholarship program. I talked to quite a few students there who said they really didn't think it was that big a deal. That is was overblown. But a lot of people certainly appreciated the fact that he dealt with this issue head-on, Heidi. COLLINS: Yes. You know, there's more controversy coming. Actually a lot of people have been talking about what's going to happen at Notre Dame. A lot of people understanding that the president has at least been invited to come and give that commencement address. He's also going to be giving an award.
Some of the students there against it, some of them for it. We are going to be talking about a lot more here today on our show. How does he plan to handle this one?
MALVEAUX: Well, we're surely going to be covering that, Heidi, on Sunday. And, obviously, that even some people are boycotting this. There are protests, this type of thing. They are protesting because of his point of view when it comes to abortion -- abortion rights and stem cell research.
We understand that the president is not going to shy away from this either. That this is something where he is going to emphasize look, there may be disagreements but this is the perfect time to talk about and be very open about the debate around those issues. And he's also going to try to reach out, not just to Roman Catholics, but to others and say we do have common ground, perhaps not on those issues but on things like human rights and ending the Iraq war, on expanding health care, those kinds of things.
So, Heidi, do not expect for this president to shy away from that controversy. We expect that it's going to be a much hotter scene there at Notre Dame over the weekend than what we saw at Arizona State.
COLLINS: Yes, I think you're probably right about that. OK. Our Suzanne Malveaux on the stories for us today regarding college graduations.
Also we do want to know your thoughts about President Obama's upcoming commencement address at the University of Notre Dame and the planned protests over his support for abortion rights.
Now you can post a comment on our blog on this and make sure you log on to CNN.com/newsroom and then just click on "Heidi". We're going to read some of your comments coming up next hour.
Let's go ahead and bring in our Barbara Starr now at the Pentagon.
Barbara, talking a little bit more about this military decision, or maybe perhaps the political decision, regarding the detainee photos and their release. There has been quite a switch here.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: About-face any which way you want to look at it, Heidi. Indeed, yesterday, the president surprising a lot of people when he came out and said that now, no, his administration would oppose the release of perhaps hundreds of photos showing the alleged abuse of detainees at the hands of the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It was just a few weeks ago when the Obama administration's Justice Department signed an agreement with the ACLU saying, OK, we're not going to fight you anymore in court. We've made a legal decision, we will let the photos be released.
There were background briefings here at the Pentagon. We're not so happy about it, but we'll let the photos be released, we can't fight this in court anymore.
Suddenly, now, the about-face. Apparently by all accounts, three top generals, General Petraeus, the head of Central Command, McKiernan, the headman in Afghanistan, and, of course, General Raymond Odierno in Iraq, all weighing in, saying it's not a good idea, that this could just lead to a backlash of violence against American troops in those two war zones.
A lot of political controversy, however, of course. A lot of people saying this is another effort by the administration to hide a very sorry chapter, pardon me, in U.S. military history. Heidi?
COLLINS: But how do we know that? I mean, do we actually know what these photos show?
STARR: Well, many of us, including myself, we've talked to senior officials who have seen the photos and what they tell us is the photos fall into two categories. Personal photos taken by cell phone or cameras by soldiers, illegal, not supposed to happen. You cannot take personal photos of the people you detain in a war zone.
But the other photos are forensic photos, if you will, taken by military investigators when allegations of abuse turned up. Taking photos of evidence of detainees in trying to carry through and determine through the military justice system whether crimes were committed.
The bottom line here, of course, is this issue that has never gone away which is abusive detainees, the so-called few bad apples, the whole Abu Ghraib case that people made. Or was this in the early years of the war? More systemic, more widespread. The ACLU, which wants these photos out in public will tell you that's one of the points they're trying to make. Heidi?
COLLINS: Understood. All right. A lot more to come on this, I do believe. Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, this morning.
Thank you, Barbara.
STARR: Sure.
COLLINS: President Obama narrowing his choices now for the Supreme Court. Sources telling CNN the short list may be trimmed down to just one name by the end of the month.
CNN's Jill Dougherty is joining us now live from the White House this morning with more on this.
So, Jill, we're hearing all but one are women, right? JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. That's what we're hearing from sources and -- you know, there's a tight group of staff who are whittling down these names. But, of course, the president who taught constitutional law is ultimately the person who has to decide and so he is talking with them, but he's also going to be meeting with these candidates.
So let's go through the list, although I have to question that Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, just the other day hinted that this may not be the full list, that there could be some surprises out there.
But this is what we know so far. Beginning with the first one, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. She is a Second Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals judge in New York. Born in 1954, named by George Bush back in 1992. She's a moderate liberal and if she were chosen she would be the first Hispanic on the high court.
Then there's Elena Kagan. Solicitor general. That's the top lawyer for the administration when they argue cases before the Supreme Court.
COLLINS: Right.
DOUGHERTY: Born in 1960. Served in the Clinton White House. And she doesn't have any experience as a judge but actually that is not a requirement. Former dean of Harvard Law, named several conservatives to the faculty at that point, so that could score points with conservatives.
Then there is Judge Diane Wood. Seventh Circuit Court, U.S. Appeals in Chicago, born in 1950, moderate liberal and highly regarded and teaches at the University of Chicago.
One man on the list, Justice Carlos Moreno. He is California's Supreme Court, born in 1948. And you know, I'm saying the names -- the ages because there is a factor. You want to have a judge on the bench as long as possible.
COLLINS: Of course.
DOUGHERTY: So the older they are...
COLLINS: Yes.
DOUGHERTY: ... sometimes that can be a problem.
Then we have Jennifer Granholm. She is the governor of Michigan and she also attended Harvard Law School. And then finally, Janet Napolitano. We know her because she is the Homeland Security secretary and former Arizona Governor, early Obama supporter.
So that is the list. And the president, just yesterday, met with some senators, both parties, over here at the White House. Kind of picking their brains on these candidates. He would like, according to his press secretary, to have the nominee or actually the judge sitting on the Supreme Court by the time they start up for business in October. COLLINS: All right. So after hearing all of them, their names and, of course, some of their credentials there, what exactly is the criteria that the president will use to make his decision?
DOUGHERTY: Well, as we said, he taught constitutional law so he's looking at this...
COLLINS: Right.
DOUGHERTY: ... from many different aspects but one thing that sets him aside is he said he wants people with life experience, people who know what it's like to be on the outside.
COLLINS: Ah-ha!
DOUGHERTY: So we could have some interesting criteria that he, himself, will be setting.
COLLINS: Yes, very interesting. All right, Jill Dougherty for us out in front of the White House this morning on that Supreme Court pick. Thanks so much, Jill.
The middle part of the country can expect more of this today. Sheets of rain, hail, and fierce winds. The violent storms raked Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri yesterday. This is how it was late in the afternoon in Malvern, Kansas, to be specific. It was even worse, though, in northeastern Missouri where at least four tornadoes were reported.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could see a funnel-shaped cloud behind the Chevrolet dealer over here. And my wife said, I'm going to the basement. And I said, oh I don't believe it's going to be that bad. And she said, "I'm going to the basement, come on." So we went to the basement and we got in the corner down there and we probably hadn't been down there three or four minutes and we could heard everything falling in up above.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: This couple was lucky. They survived the storm which tore through that part of Kirksville. And two of their neighbors were killed. Another woman in a nearby county also died. Thirty to forty homes are heavily damaged and thousands of people are without power.
Our own Rob Marciano is actually right in the middle of all of these storms.
Rob, we understand you just made it back to Norman, Oklahoma, right?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. We've been traveling with the VORTEX 2 Research Mission which, yesterday, was chasing north of I-40 across northeastern parts of Oklahoma. We tracked down several cells that started to develop outside of our chase area across extreme north central Oklahoma. There was some -- a tornado touched down in Ponca City. I think you should be looking at some pictures out of that area right now. A little bit of damage from that particular cell. That was the only confirmed tornado in Oklahoma, but I think now, this morning, that light is coming up. We'll probably have confirmation of a second one.
Check out this still picture that I shot out of Watonga, Oklahoma.
COLLINS: Wow.
MARCIANO: A cell that we were chasing that was getting a little bit more developed. With all the technology here we have, we were having trouble feeding the video but that still picture kind of tells a story. It did not develop further until after dark and that's when the VORTEX team stops chasing because it is just too dangerous.
And sure enough, I think we're getting aerial pictures in now, Heidi, of a town called Anadarko which is just to the west of Norman here and south of that where I took that picture yesterday evening. Last night around midnight is when they got hit. Likely a tornado.
The images coming out of here this morning certainly startling with cars flipped over, trees uprooted, well-built homes and business structures seeing a significant roof damage from this particular cell that rolled through last night.
Norman, Oklahoma and Oklahoma City, I should mention, were under tornado warnings last night around midnight, around the same time with the sirens going off. So a rough night across parts of central Oklahoma and I think the larger story will be those folks just to the west of here as they assess the damage from that probably a tornado that came through last night. Heidi?
COLLINS: Yes, yes. It certainly looks like it. Of course, I know we always have to wait for a while to figure out the amount of damage.
So, our Rob Marciano for us in Norman, Oklahoma, kind of right in the middle of it all. Rob, thank you.
Children crying, fainting, scared out of their minds. That's the scene in Turkey today. Local media say police mistakenly fired tear gas into a school sending about 10 children to the hospital, including a 4-month-old baby.
Police were dispatched to the area to control hundreds of angry residents of a shanty town near Istanbul. They were protesting attempts to tear down unlicensed buildings.
My space telescope. A couple of the shuttle astronauts are out there right now working on the Hubble putting a new piano-sized camera in place while looking over their shoulder for dangerous space debris.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Repair work is beginning this morning on the Hubble space telescope. We've been telling you about it for a while now. A short time ago, though, two of Atlantis' astronauts left the shuttle for the first of five planned spacewalks. Today they are replacing one of the Hubble's main cameras.
CNN's John Zarrella joining us now live from Miami.
So, John, we've been talking about this. This is a pretty dangerous work that they're going to be doing.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. There's no question about it. And what we're looking at there is some pretty spectacular images. Actually the picture we're seeing is from the helmet cam from Drew Feustel's helmet cam.
COLLINS: Wow. Cool.
ZARRELLA: And -- yes. We're going to be seeing a lot of that. Now they -- that's another helmet cam shot. I think that one is off of John Grunsfeld's helmet cam. And the way we can tell the difference is...
COLLINS: I was going to say, how do you know?
(LAUGHTER)
ZARRELLA: Ah, the trick. The bottom right of the screen which is, of course, covered by our -- yes, there is a number there and if it says 19. It's Feustel's...
COLLINS: I can see it, yes.
ZARRELLA: It's Feustel's -- there you go. It's Feustel's helmet. So that's what we were looking at there. And if it's 20, then it's Grunsfeld's helmet. Now the other way we can tell the difference is that Grunsfeld, who is the veteran now, this is his sixth spacewalk to Hubble, his third mission to Hubble, the sixth time he has done a spacewalk for repair.
He's going to be wearing the suit that -- he's wearing the suit that has the red stripe and Drew Feustel, who's on his very first Hubble repair mission, first-ever spacewalk, he's wearing the solid white suit.
The first thing that Feustel is doing there is going over to what you had referenced as that piano-sized...
COLLINS: Yes.
ZARRELLA: ... wide field camera three. He's beginning the work there. He's got to pull some latches and ungrapple that and get that ready to be -- to move over to where he can replace the old camera with the new camera. So that's the first order of business.
Grunsfeld is preparing, literally, what's called a platform that Feustel will stand on at the end of the remote manipulator arm, that shuttle arm, and he will be literally anchored. Feustel will be into that arm while he's doing the work on replay replacing that piano- sized camera which, of course, in space really doesn't weigh much at all.
They actually exited, which really some pretty neat shots of the two of them as they came out of the air lock which was just now about 20 minutes ago, just before 9:00 Eastern Time here and, of course, the EV1, who is John Grunsfeld, was the first of the two astronauts to exit the air lock, followed a few minutes later by Feustel, and they gave Drew Feustel a little bit of time to orient himself because he's never done this before.
COLLINS: Sure.
ZARRELLA: So he's been a few minutes kind of walking around out there or floating around and there, of course, we can see the images of the two astronauts as they made it out of the hatch. Heidi?
COLLINS: Yes. I got to tell you, the pictures are just incredible. I mean, wow. Some of the stuff that, obviously, we've not seen before. Also, I wonder, John, how will the work that they're doing and these five spacewalks, again, this is the first of many, actually going to affect the Hubble?
ZARRELLA: Well, you know, it's interesting because if you look back at Hubble, 1990, this was called the techno turkey, a terrible disaster. A lot of people remember there were problems that really didn't -- the lens was ground wrong so that started the first repair mission.
I've been told that between 1990 and when they are finished now, the Hubble will be a thousand times better instrument and by replacing this wide-field camera, which is the primary camera that has sent back all of those spectacular images of galaxies and stars, and some 880,000 images, some 29,000 celestial objects, that they've looked and taken pictures of with Hubble, that they will able to press the boundaries even further back in time looking deeper into literally what we call now, what, the universe's 13.7 billion years old.
They'll even be able to look further back in time once they get this wide-field camera 3 installed, replacing number 2 today. That was the first priority.
COLLINS: Yes.
ZARRELLA: This is a big deal today, getting this done.
COLLINS: Wow. All right, John. Well, we will continue to monitor these pictures because, as I said, they are incredible.
ZARRELLA: Just spectacular.
COLLINS: Thanks so much for the...
ZARRELLA: Sure.
COLLINS: For the context. Love watching for these little numbers of which guy it is. Thank you, John. Also, the shuttle Atlantis may be coming to a museum near you. NASA has already announced plans to retire the three remaining shuttles and now museums are lining up to give them a home. Among them is the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum in New York. They've put the shuttle in a glass enclosure on Tier 86 in Manhattan there.
Actually 20 institutions in the running for the Atlantis, Endeavour and Discovery. The Smithsonian in Washington, the Museum of Flight in Seattle, also mentioned. The Intrepid, unique in all of this simply because involved many different times in the recovery of space shuttle astronauts upon re-entry.
Now the cost for all of this would be about $42 million. And they are expected to be ready for display in 2012. We'll keep our eye on where they go.
There is a global health crisis. Blame it on climate change. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta details a new report that's out. Want to tell about it, too.
Marijuana with a bigger kick. New tests. How pot is now more potent and scientists say more dangerous.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: More potent marijuana. Researchers are finding today's pot is much stronger than in years' past. They say that is leading to more emergency room visits and higher admissions to drug treatment clinics.
The potency level has actually more than doubled since the mid 1980s and officials say higher level of THC, that's the active ingredient in marijuana, can lead to various different problems like paranoia and irritability.
Climate change. A new report says it is now a big threat to global health. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live in New York with this new report to talk a little bit more about it.
Sanjay, tell us exactly how climate change affects our health. I mean I imagine there are a lot of different instances, a lot of different things we could talk about here.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, right. But it's not completely intuitive. So a very fair question. And they're saying it could become the biggest threat to global health in the 21st century so some pretty strong words coming from "The Lancet."
And this is a medical journal, Heidi, so this is a message for doctors and medics alike sort of sounding the alarm really in a few different ways. They say the climate change is going to lead to more extreme weather. That one you could probably predict, but also lead to more uncertainty when it comes to food and water supplies and lead to differing patterns of emerging diseases.
So for example, seeing malaria make its way from the tropics and other places around the world, and more exotic diseases like tularemia popping up in places where you wouldn't expect it. That's what they say that's going to happen when it comes to this sort of global warming.
You know I sat down and talked to the EPA administration, Lisa Jackson, about this before the report came out. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: Greenhouse gases and climate change, are they a threat to human health?
LISA JACKSON, EPA ADMINISTRATOR: EPA has said yes. EPA has a proposed finding. It's out for public comment so you have to -- we have to allow that process to run its course. But about a month ago in April EPA said definitively that six gases, including CO2 are a threat to human health and welfare.
It means there are serious problems in this generation, more importantly, for future generations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: You know, and places already starting to heed some of this, Heidi. We were reading reports about a 4,500 kilometer fence between India and Bangladesh. Indians have constructed this. It's got a razor across the top.
The whole idea is that they predict those there's going to be climate migrants or environmental refugees that are going to try and leave Bangladesh, come into India as a result of climate change.
So, you know, places in the world are already starting to think about this and, in some ways, prepare for it.
COLLINS: Yes. Really interesting. You said tularemia.
GUPTA: Tularemia is a type of infectious disease. You know you see certain diseases that are typically relegated to the tropics because the weather is warmer there. But as the weather starts to get warmer in other places around the world, again, these diseases that are, you know, typically found in the tropics are going to pop up in areas where you wouldn't necessarily expect it.
COLLINS: Yes. A really interesting discussion and I'm sure there are cost issues here, too. Unfortunately, Sanjay, we're going to have to do that with you again another time.
GUPTA: Next time.
COLLINS: Thanks so much. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Climate change will be front and center tomorrow on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." Former vice president and Nobel-award winning environmental activist, Al Gore, will talk about his Climate Project Summit in an exclusive interview.
Gore will also offer his take on the Obama presidency, 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. A CNN exclusive on "AMERICAN MORNING."
The opening bell ringing right now on Wall Street and investors are hoping for a rebound after the Dow's 180-point plunge yesterday. But a number of factors are likely to keep the market from making any big moves.
Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange now to set the scene for today's action which sounds like not going to be a whole lot of action or maybe in the wrong direction?
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're not seeing a whole lot of action in the first 25 seconds of trading, Heidi. You know, May has been tough. This week has been tough. You know, we basically given up the month's gains in the past few sessions. And we have a few reports out today that may give the bears more impetus to sell.
On the economic front, jobless claims jumped by more than 30,000 last week and more than analysts had forecast. It comes largely because of auto layoffs. Continuing claims meanwhile also rose to fresh records of more than 6.5 million people.
Prices, meanwhile, at the wholesale level jumped more than expected. Up .3 of a percent due to food costs. Even with that jump, though, wholesale prices are down nearly four percent over the past year. The biggest year over year decline since Harry Truman was in office in 1950.
Retail giant, Wal-Mart, reporting flat first quarter earnings even though sales edge slightly lower. Wal-Mart, one of the few beneficiaries in this recession. Thanks to consumers who are trading down to its bargain basement prices.
And quickly some news from Sony, the electronics giant, reporting its first annual loss in 14 years. The company says it expects another tough year due to the global recession. With that, let's take a look at the numbers. Well, we see some movements to the upside.
The Dow right now up is 13 points. NASDAQ is up 50 percent. We'll leave it at that. So there's some pessimism in terms of economic reports, but some buying, some meager buying at the open.
Heidi?
COLLINS: OK. Well, hey, we'll take. Always will.
Susan Lisovicz, thanks so much. We'll check back later on to see how the day is shaking out.
LISOVICZ: You're welcome.
COLLINS: Meanwhile, desperate times for many Americans. People are losing their jobs and watching their homes fall into foreclosure, but some are fighting back and starting new businesses. Join Anderson Cooper and Ali Velshi for real solutions from people surviving tough times. Watch the CNN money summit "Money & Main Street" primetime special, tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
Pilots fatigue and training. That's the focus in hearings this week of a tragic plane crash in Buffalo. Today, looking for ways to avoid future disasters.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Preventing future air disaster. That is the focus of the third day of hearings today looking at a tragic air crash in Buffalo, New York. Earlier testimonies centered on pilot fatigue and training.
CNN's senior correspondent Allan Chernoff has more now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHY JOHNSON, WIFE OF CRASH VICTIM: It is shocking.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Kathy Johnson is furious her husband, Kevin, died in a plane whose crew may have been functioning on little sleep.
JOHNSON: I wonder how many other pilots, first officers do the same thing that we're not aware of. So, it is very shocking to all of us.
CHERNOFF: Colgan Air Captain Marvin Renslow had nearly a full day off before assuming command of Flight 3407. Yet, the NTSB investigation found, he slept in the Newark Airport crew lounge, against Colgan Air regulations. The airline, though, appears to have been lax in enforcing the rule.
KITTY HIGGINS, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: The Colgan policy is they're not to sleep in the crew room, but it turns out that they are sleeping in the crew room.
DANIEL MORGAN, COLGAN VP FLIGHTS SAFETY: People can come in between their flights when they're on duty and take a nap.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is napping sleeping?
MORGAN: That's a definition I'm not -- probably not prepared to answer.
CHERNOFF: First officer Rebecca Shaw had three days off before the flight, yet she commuted through the night from Seattle, catching rides on connecting FedEx flights to get to Newark.
HARRY MITCHEL, COLGAN VP FLIGHT OPERATIONS: We hire professionals. And those professionals, we expect, should show up fresh, ready to fly that aircraft.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, they're supposed to have their own accommodations, but we can't follow up on that. And that's totally ridiculous. CHERNOFF: Captain Renslow hid his background from Colgan by not revealing two pilot exam failures in his job application. And the crew violated another rule that requires cockpit conversation to be focused on the flight.
MARK ROSENKER, ACTING CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: I am concerned about the winking and nodding that I have seen in some of the policies of the company, your company, and crew members. And I don't believe it is only -- only within your company.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Coming up next hour, we want to let you know about this. We're going to be talking to former NTSB investigators Greg Feith. He's been sitting in on some of these hearings. So we will ask him what affect this testimony may have on pilots and certainly on you as part of the flying public. We'll talk more about that coming up in 10:00 a.m. hour.
More storms today. Reynolds Wolf watching the radars.
Tell us, Reynolds, how bad could it get and specifically where? Are we still talking about the central part of the country?
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Thanks so much, Reynolds.
We'll check back later on.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You bet.
COLLINS: Actor Ashton Kutcher delivers on his promise. It involves the so called ding dong ditch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEMI MOORE, ACTRESS: Ding dong!
ASHTON KUTCHER, ACTOR: Good evening, Ted!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: See what else the Twitter champ did to tweak CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: To the winner goes the spoil. The loser gets ding dongs. Ashton Kutcher made good on his promise to ding dong ditch Ted Turner's house if he attracted more followers to his Twitter site than CNN got. Since Turner is no longer associated with the network, Kutcher left thousands of hostess ding dongs in front of Ted's Montana grill restaurant near the CNN Atlanta headquarters. Kutcher and fans also rang a bell outside the restaurant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KUTCHER: Lights, copy -- do you copy, lights?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Camera. Action!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: But the slushy Hollywood style prank came shortly, afterwards when on Kutcher's cue, a banner with his Twitter name, Aplusk, was unfurled over the CNN logo at CNN center.
That's eating some crow there, I guess. Yes.
Many women who suffer from migraines may get a break as they get older. CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has today's "30, 40, 50" report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wilma Morales Rivera comes from a household of women. Although they all share the same beautiful smile, they all have something else in common.
WILMA MORALES RIVERA, MIGRAINE SUFFERER: My three daughters suffer from migraine, and my oldest granddaughter who is five, she suffers.
GUPTA: Like her granddaughter, Morales has had severe headaches since she was a little girl. The terrible pain comes and goes, but as she's gotten older, she discovered what sets her migraines off.
RIVERA: I can't deal with noise, light, smells. In my early 20s and 30s, it was really devastating because I didn't know what to do about them. And then once I learned what to do, it got easier to handle, but the intensity is the same.
GUPTA: According to neurologists, migraines are three times more common in women than in men. And if one woman in the family has them, usually, their female offspring will suffer and as women age, the pain can intensify.
DR. AUSIM AZIZI, NEUROLOGY, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: These are called cataminial migraines and they are increased with menstrual cycles and sometimes they are intolerable.
GUPTA: As they get into the 30s and 40s, migraine symptoms in some women begin to change. They experience more nausea, more vomiting. They are more sensitive to light. When women that are menopause, many female migraine sufferers find relief. Doctors believe that estrogen levels play a huge role, but in some cases, the result is reversed.
AZIZI: Menopause actually transforms migraine at times. Occasionally, people who did not have much pain, now they are developing pain.
GUPTA: For men, there is usually little relief from their migraines as they get older. Their head pain tends to form in chronic, cluster headaches as they age.
AZIZI: Over a period of a month, they may have five, six, seven terrible headaches, but then they will go away for a year and then they come back.
GUPTA: And doctor's warn, as we ease into our golden years, sometimes migraines are not the cause of the pain.
AZIZI: Of course, at age 50, the other neurologic signs and symptoms catch up with us, so we have to not ignore those and make sure that we work our patients for strokes and other things and be aware of those other conditions.
GUPTA: For Morales, the idea of growing older brings one ray of hope. She is hoping after menopause, her headache pain will go away and she will be pain-free for the first time in her life.
For "30,40, 50," I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Diversity hits more than a buzz word. The Census Bureau says the U.S. is becoming more diverse than ever, and kids are leading the way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: College is a changing face of America. New figures out today say the country is growing more diverse and is reaching a tipping point among children.
Our Josh Levs is here to show us what this is all about.
All right. So we're talking census here, right?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're talking census. And it's a new picture of America. It really paints a new picture.
By the way, a number behind me, current U.S. population according to the census is interesting stuff. But what we just got is the minority breakdown in the country just released today. Let's go straight to the graphics. I want you to see this.
Of the total population about a third, 34 percent of the nation is minority. And that's up from 31 percent at the beginning of the decade. And let's give you the breakdown here on the next graphic. I'm going to show you the largest population block is Hispanic. Fifteen percent black. They say black or African-American is 14 percent. And then Asian at five percent. So that's most of the minority population in America.
Now, that's interesting. But what's most striking, perhaps, is this last figure right here. Check that out, 47 percent of children under five are minorities. So you can see how quickly things are changing. And a lot of people who started this numbers, Heidi, are saying it won't be long until more than 50 percent of young people are considered minorities, leading toward, you know, even more a diverse country.
COLLINS: Yes. How has the census actually then defined minority?
LEVS: Yes, it's tricky. Let's zoom in for a second. I want to show you that on the census news release, because a lot of people wonder that. This is it right here. They say non-Hispanic whites who indicated no other race. So anything other than that...
COLLINS: What?
LEVS: I know. It sounds complicated.
COLLINS: I'm confused.
LEVS: Basically, it's white people who don't indicate any other race. That's basically what it was. And everybody else is a minority in this total according to the census.
COLLINS: OK. Got you.
LEVS: All right. There you go.
COLLINS: And you have some interactive maps there, too? This shows how different states are actually changing?
LEVS: Yes. I really this. CNN money set this up.
Let's check this out. We'll zoom back in for the last time. Check this out.
Now the more red a state is in this country, the bigger the population. But what's also interesting here is the blue map they're using. The more blue, the more minority population. Not so shocking, Texas, California. Let's use this map -- cnnmoney.com. Wherever you live, you can see how your state weighs in.
COLLINS: All right. Very cool.
LEVS: Yes. Absolutely.
COLLINS: Josh Levs, appreciate it.
LEVS: Yes, you got it.
COLLINS: Coming up next hour, you're switching gears for us and inviting viewers, I know, to weigh in on a controversy involving the president now. We're talking about Notre Dame?
LEVS: We're talking about Notre Dame. Yes. We'll go to that real quickly on the CNN NEWSROOM blog right here.
Go there right now.
And you can weigh in on that. And, Heidi, we're going to be reading some viewers' reactions about that whole controversy next hour.
COLLINS: All right. Very good. Thank you, josh.
LEVS: You bet. Thank you.
COLLINS: I'll say thanks twice.
LEVS: OK.
COLLINS: A lot going on this morning, obviously. We want to check with some of our correspondents to see what they're working on.
First, I want to get to Jason Carroll.
Hey, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Heidi. You know, coming up at the top of the hour, questions about aviation standards as the hearing continues into the cause behind the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407. We take a look at the areas where there are no standards. Some aviation experts saying those areas could have made a difference in how the plane's captain and his first officer responded. More on that coming up at the top of the hour.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Christine Romans also in New York. The White House effort to help people modify or refinance their loans to help homeowners in trouble is about two months old. How is it going? What's next? How many people have been helped?
We'll tell you in the next hour.
WOLF: And I'm Reynolds Wolf. And coming up, we're going to show you some of the latest footage coming from parts of the central plains. Tornado damage, and now the shift of the weather focus goes to the possibility of flooding in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
That's moments away.
COLLINS: All right. Very good, Reynolds and everyone. Thanks so much.
We will also be looking at the flak surrounding President Obama's upcoming visit to Notre Dame. The editor-in-chief of the student newspaper shares some comments. And as Josh has mentioned, you can post a comment on our blog about this.
Should President Obama speak at Notre Dame?
Logon to cnn.com/newsroom, then click on Heidi.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Forced from their homes. Hundreds of thousands in Pakistan huddling together in refugee camps as Pakistani troops try to push out the Taliban.
ITN's Julian Manyon visited one of the camps to see how the refugees are coping with the uncertainty.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIAN MANYON, ITN REPORTER (voice-over): This sounds from a Pakistani helicopter gun ship, strike targets on the ground.
(VIDEO CLIP)
In this army video, assault troops shout war cries before attacking the Taliban. But attacks like this are also helping to drive thousands of civilians out of their homes and into refugee camps. The camps not far from the fighting, refugees crowd forward to get pieces of cooling ice in the unbearable heat.
Children collect fragments of the ice from the muddy ground. This is the U.N. refugee camp at Mardan. Sanitary conditions are basic. It is seriously overcrowded. And the camp has now closed its doors.
BASHIR AHMED, U.N. REFUGEE AGENCY: See we have little space and the number of people is more. And it's overcrowded. We have stop further registration, but still many people are coming. We are trying to direct them to other camps, established in other parts of the province.
MANYON: In another camp a mile away, Atifullah has just arrived from the war zone. He's putting up a tent for his wife and child who he hopes will get here tomorrow. He says that he had to walk for two days after intense fighting drove them from their homes.
ATIFULLAH, REFUGEE: (INAUDIBLE) also killing the people -- killing the people, Taliban is also killing the people. There is no saving of life. There is no saving of any person. Everybody is -- life of everybody is at risk.
MANYON (on camera): This attempt to crash the Taliban is doing serious damage to Pakistan. Already there are more displaced people or refugees in this conflict than in any of Pakistan's previous wars. And no one here knows how long they will have to go on living like this.
(voice-over): The Pakistani government is doing its best to help the displaced. In the camps, food is prepared for thousands, but resources are stretched. Some in this camp received only pieces of stale bread.
The challenge with about a million now homeless will be to maintain stability. It's on that that the success or failure of this war against the Taliban will depend.
Julian Manyon, News 10, in the refugee camps at Mardan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Here are some of the stories we're watching right now.
At least three people are dead after strong storms ripped through parts of the Midwest. Tornadoes that were seen in Missouri and Oklahoma. The worst was in Missouri, where dozens of homes were also damaged.
Rescuers searching for survivors of a boat that capsized off the coast of Florida. The Coast Guard says at least nine people were killed in yesterday's tragedy. Sixteen more were pulled out of the rough waters. They don't know how many people may still be lost at sea. But officials believe the boat was carrying about 30 people, possibly Haitians being smuggled into the U.S.
Two of the shuttle Atlantis' astronauts are out in the open right now. They're just starting repairs on the Hubble Space Telescope. Today is the first of five planned space walks. They're putting in a new camera that's the size of a piano.
Great pictures there, too.
Pope Benedict made a stop in Nazareth today, greeting tens of thousands of followers. This is the fourth day of his tour through the holy land. In his addressed today, he called on Christians and Muslims to reject prejudice and hatred.
It was the deadliest air disaster in years in the United States. Fifty people died in that plane crash in Buffalo, New York. Today, we're watching the third day of hearings on the tragedy. The previous day's testimony focused on the pilots and their training, asking whether the pilots should have been in the air and what should have been to safeguard the passengers. Here's some of that testimony.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HIGGINS: The Colgan policy is that they're not to sleep in the crew room, but it turns out that they are sleeping in the crew room.
MORGAN: People can come in between their flights when they're on duty and take a nap.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is napping sleeping?
MORGAN: That's a definition I'm not -- probably not prepared to answer.
MITCHEL: We hire professionals. And those professionals, we expect, should show up fresh, ready to fly that aircraft.
