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Chrysler Cuts Dealership; What Pelosi Knew About Waterboarding; Keeping College Kids Debt-Free; Second Jewel in Triple Crown Tomorrow; Chicago Children Being Killed at Alarming Rates
Aired May 15, 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: One, two punch on your hometown. First, Chrysler closes dealerships, now GM is getting ready to shut down more. How the ripples are felt far beyond the car lot.
Out of jail and now out of Iran. U.S. journalist gives thanks. We'll hear from her and a mother in mourning. Video diary shows one family victimized by the violence against kids in Chicago.
It is Friday, May 15th. Hi, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We are covering stories this morning and this hour from your community to the nation's capital. In fact, right off the top, we are going to be talking about more pain that is evidently going to be felt because hundreds more car dealerships are closing down.
Our Christine Romans is going to be talking about that. And our Jill Dougherty is at the White House this morning where President Barack Obama will be bringing back military tribunals. What does all of that mean?
And also we'll check in with Jeanne Meserve who will be telling us a little bit more about a prosecutor who has some questions for Karl Rove.
We begin this morning with those big cuts at Chrysler. Here's what we know. Chrysler sent out letters to 789 dealerships telling them they were being forced out of the dealer network. The cuts will cost thousands of jobs on the local levels.
Chrysler got more than $7.2 billion from the Obama administration but the company says these cuts are needed for it to survive. The dealerships have until June 9th to shut down. But some of the dealers on the cut list say they'll stay open either as used car dealers or selling new cars other than Chryslers.
Well, that is the Chrysler story. But it isn't the only car company, as you know, getting ready to drop the ax on local dealers. General Motors is up next.
Our Christine Romans joining us now live from New York with more on this.
So, Christine, what are we expecting to hear from GM exactly? CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know earlier this week, Fritz Henderson, the CEO of that company, Heidi, told us that by the end of the week, by today, that some of these dealers would start to get dealers letters and be informed that they would no longer selling GM brands and they would no longer be GM dealers.
There could be 1,000, maybe 2,000 beginning to be notified. They, all in all, we know that 2,600 of these GM dealers will be wound down, as the company says, by the end of the year.
Now think about this. These are not Detroit jobs. These are not Midwestern jobs.
COLLINS: Yes.
ROMANS: These are jobs across the country, potentially 2,600 different dealers. These are people who employ everybody from people who wash cars, who sell cars, who work on paper work, who do all kinds of different jobs. These are also the faces of the community in many cases.
Think of it, the little league team sponsors. You know this is really a main street American sea change that we're seeing here. Many, many of these dealers simply cannot support a new level of car sales in this country, simply too many car dealers...
COLLINS: Yes.
ROMANS: ... for the amount of cars that Americans are buying.
COLLINS: Yes. I mean, this is really a visual change that people are going to be able to see.
ROMANS: That's right.
COLLINS: In their neighborhoods. The news, though, also comes on the heels of Chrysler's dealership closures that were just announced yesterday.
ROMANS: And listen, those -- people are still shocked and communities are being rocked still by the lists of 789 Chrysler car dealers. There was exhibit A in a bankruptcy filing. Heidi, so many car dealers. 789 of them and 42 pages single-typed just a list of all of these different communities across the country.
Each one, you know, New Jersey, Washington, New York, you know? Arkansas, Arizona and the like. Altogether Edmunds.com says 38,000 employees will be affected by the Chrysler cutbacks.
COLLINS: Boy, all right. Well, what about the "Romans' Numeral" today?
ROMANS: The "Romans Numeral" is a thousand, Heidi. And this has to do with customer loyalty in this really tough time in the auto industry. A thousand dollars. This is what Bob Nardelli, the CEO of Chrysler, will be sending in terms of a certificate for Chrysler customers toward the purchase of a new car.
They're trying to say, look, if you believe in the Chrysler name, if you believe in the Chrysler product, here's $1,000 certificate to buy a new car. We've got cars on the lot. We've got a lot of inventory. We have good cars out there for you to buy, trying to inspire some customer loyalty and tell people that, look, we are still open for business.
COLLINS: Yes. Eventually, these cars have got to get off those lots.
ROMANS: Right.
COLLINS: Somehow. All right.
ROMANS: That's right.
COLLINS: Christine Romans, nice to see you. Thanks.
The GM and Chrysler cuts will also have a big impact on communities, of course, across the country. Lots of places losing dealerships that have been around for generations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Business is closing all around us. The city is broke. The state is broke. Yes. I'm very concerned about our community.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This decision on the Chrysler has taken for all of the dealerships, not just ours, is not a good one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of -- a lot of bad feelings in our hearts right now. Nothing really happy about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: We'll hear more from some of the devastated dealers coming up a little bit later in our show, including a dealership that has been one community's linchpin for more than 90 years, 90 years.
President Obama could get pushback from liberal groups for the second time this week now after saying he'd fight the release of alleged detainee abuse photos. The president now says he'll restore military tribunals.
CNN's Jill Dougherty joins us now live from the White House with more on that story.
Jill, the defendants include some pretty notorious people. What kind of rights are we talking about for them? It's been written about as extended rights.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, you know, Heidi, those people that you're talking about do include defendants like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is a mastermind of 9/11. But what happened was, back up a little bit. When the president came into office one of the first things he did was he suspended those military tribunals.
He had criticized them very much during the campaign and so he suspended them in order to review. Now the review is over. And he has decided that they're going to go ahead with them but there will be more rights.
So what kind of rights are we talking about? Well, they would be expanded due process rights. And here are three top ones. One would be limiting hearsay evidence. Another would be banning evidence gained from cruel treatment. Let's say, waterboarding.
And then finally, more latitude to pick lawyers. So they are expanded rights. You have to point out that these are not full rights that you would have in civilian courts. But they are expanded. But it's guaranteed to anger people on the left.
COLLINS: Yes. Tell us a little bit more about that.
DOUGHERTY: Well, you have certainly liberal supporters of the president and people who are supporters of constitutional rights who are angry because they felt that when the president said that those tribunals were not -- were not up to constitutional standards, not up to American principles, that that would mean the end of them.
Now, the president, they would argue, is reversing and going ahead with something that they think is unconstitutional. And they are very angry about that.
COLLINS: Jill, how does the Geneva Convention play into all of this?
DOUGHERTY: Well, it depends on how it's argued. You know the administration and really this administration is saying for both the photo -- the photo release this week and for this issue of the military tribunals.
Essentially, what they are saying is the Bush administration argued these cases, but they didn't go about it the right way. They didn't do it constitutionally and they didn't do it according to Geneva Conventions and that's what they're going to do. That's their argument.
COLLINS: There are so many, so many questions about all of that.
All right, Jill Dougherty, appreciate that, coming to us from the White House today.
The president facing criticism on another front this morning. Lots of people are upset about his appearance Sunday at the University of Notre dame. We talked a lot about this yesterday in the show. He'll give the commencement address and receive an honorary degree.
Many high profile Catholics both on and off campus are critical of the president's stand on the issues of abortion and federal funding for stem cell research. You can see the president's commencement address Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
Karl Rove will face questions from a prosecutor today. The former Bush administration official is being interviewed about the firings of U.S. attorneys.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve following that story, joining us now from Washington.
Hi there, Jeanne. What is a special proper hoping to get from Karl Rove today?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, first, Karl Rove didn't have any comment for the cameras this morning when he arrived at his lawyers' offices about this upcoming interview with the prosecutor, Nora Dannehy.
She just got there a few minutes ago as well. Also no comment for the cameras. Dannehy is trying to determine whether any former White House or Justice Department officials broke the law in connection with the firings of these nine U.S. attorneys.
Did they lie? Was there obstruction of justice? When the U.S. attorneys were fired administration officials said it was because of poor performance but the key question has been, was it really for improper political reasons? Rove's attorney knows that Rove has said he will cooperate fully with this investigation.
COLLINS: This isn't really the first and -- nor will it be, the last probe into this matter likely, right?
MESERVE: You're absolutely right. The Justice Department inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility looked at the matter and concluded there were improper political motivations in some of the firings but they didn't have the authority to compel Rove or any other officials from the Bush White House to testify
And because of the gaps, they recommended a criminal probe. As a result the then attorney general, Michael Mukasey, appointed Dannehy.
I should mention that the House Judiciary Committee is also looking into this matter. They are also expected to talk to Rove. Heidi?
COLLINS: All right. Thanks so much, Jeanne Meserve. Appreciate that.
Meanwhile, she was facing eight years behind bars on a fine conviction. Now a U.S. journalist is free and out of Iraq. We'll hear from her coming up.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Some severe weather expected across the plains. Good morning. I'm meteorologist Rob Marciano. Also today is the first day of hurricane season at least in the Pacific. We'll talk about those names and if there is anything brewing when the CNN NEWSROOM comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Roxana Saberi, the U.S. journalist, freed from an Iranian jail arrived in Vienna today.
Our Frederik Pleitgen is also there now with that story. Boy, I bet she was glad to be there, Frederick.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Heidi. Relieved were the words that she used after landing very early this morning here in Vienna. She says she's going to spend the next couple of days here in this city in which she calls, hopefully, a relaxing atmosphere after going, of course, through that month-long ordeal there in Iran where, as you said, she was convicted of espionage, sentenced to eight years in prison. Even hospitalized after hunger strike.
Now this morning, as she was asked by reporters she didn't want to go into the specifics of her case and what she'd been through in the past couple of months. Let's listen in to what she had to say this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROXANA SABERI, FREED U.S. JOURNALIST: There have been various statements made about my case over the past two days. I just -- I think that if somebody is supposed to speak about my case from now on, nobody knows about it as well as I do and I will talk about it more in the future, I hope, but I am not prepared at this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: Well, Heidi, we are waiting to see whether or not we might hear more from her family at least throughout the day here in Vienna. We're not sure that's actually going to happen.
However, one thing that Roxana Saberi did say. She said that she was well aware of the international support that she was getting, not just from media professionals but also from people outside of the media. And she said that that meant a lot to her and that she was very, very grateful for that support. Heidi?
COLLINS: Wow. All right. Frederik Pleitgen, we sure do appreciate that from Vienna this morning.
Caught in the crossfire between the military and Taliban militants. Pakistanis are given eight hours today to pack up and get out of the way. No word on how many were able to escape in that time.
Fighting along the border with Afghanistan already has forced about 1.5 million Pakistanis from their homes. Many of them are now packed into refugee camps. Food scarce, disease is starting to spread and more arrive every day.
CNN's Ivan Watson takes us inside one of those camps.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the ruins of this 100-year- old British colonial building, one of the camps has sprouted up for just a fraction of the more than 600,000 Pakistanis who have been registered, displaced, who have been forced to flee their homes in just the past 12 days.
Let's take a look at this community that's cropped up here. More than 4,000 people living here and, again, they are just a fraction, because many of the people, the United Nations says, are not registering, they're just moving in with friends and with relatives and that's going to put immense pressure on Pakistani society at a time when the economy is already in the doldrums.
Now doctors say that already health problems are cropping up in this community. These kids are vulnerable to diarrhea, which is starting to spread through the camp, and to scabies, a very contagious skin disease that can spread through this community. They say this is going to get worse as the summer temperatures heat up.
It's 42 degrees out here. Celsius. More than 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Now the United Nations, they say they typically deal with displacement problems of 40, 50, 60,000 people. This is massive. More than 1.3 million Pakistanis forced to flee their homes since the fighting exacerbated in August.
And the United Nations high commissioner for refugees is here. He's trying to get the international community to contribute more food, more tents, more medicine to help this community. They're worried that Taliban insurgents could start to infiltrate these refugee populations.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Swabi, Pakistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: A close call for a driver trapped by rising floodwaters. Look at this. The Indiana woman was on her way to work in the dark and didn't see the small bridge was under water. After rescue crews pulled her out of the water, she saw what could have happened to her. Her car flipped over several times before being completely submerged.
Wow. Very scary.
Rob Marciano is standing by now in the weather center. Hey. First of all, welcome back from the VORTEX.
MARCIANO: Yes, thanks. It was quite a week traveling in the VORTEX through the research mission. That's still ongoing today, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: And it will be going on for the next four weeks. So didn't see a tornado but we followed a cell that was developing and the problem with our chase was last night -- or yesterday -- two days ago, things didn't get going until late and, unfortunately, the cell we were following dropped a tornado after sunset.
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: And hit that town Anadarko.
COLLINS: I know.
MARCIANO: So not always -- it's all fun until something like that happens.
COLLINS: Of course.
(WEATHER REPORT)
All right. Let's talk about hurricane season. From tornadoes we go to hurricane season. Today is the first day of the Pacific hurricane season which is not showing a whole lot. So we typically look for action across parts of Mexico. Today the first day and it'll lasts right on through, I believe, October 15th. June 1st is the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.
COLLINS: Oh, no.
MARCIANO: And of course that means that folks in Miami get a little bit nervous as we get closer to June.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MARCIANO: In about 20 minutes, we'll roll down some of the names of the Pacific hurricane season, Heidi. I think you'll enjoy some of that. You like Latin names. You're kind of an international gal.
COLLINS: Yes. Right. Exactly.
MARCIANO: You'll have some fun with that.
COLLINS: I can't wait. Rob, very good. Welcome back. Nice to see you. Check back later on.
MARCIANO: Thank you. All right.
COLLINS: Working crazy hours and not getting enough sleep. A lot of us face that every week, but most of us do not have to climb into a cockpit.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Breaking news, revealing developments, see for yourself in the CNN NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Three schools in Queens are closed through next week after a flare-up of the so-called swine flu. Five cases of the H1N1 virus have been confirmed at a Queens middle school and more than 50 students have flu-like symptoms. 270 more are sick at another middle school and an elementary school. The most severe case, an assistant principal who is in critical condition. No secret. The more tired you are, the harder it is to focus and that could spell disaster. As investigators search for the cause of the recent plane crash near Buffalo, New York, CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta examines pilot fatigue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN CALDWELL, SENIOR SCIENTIST, FATIGUE SCIENCE: For a long time we thought, well, if you have the right stuff, if we train you enough, if we give you the best equipment, then you won't have fatigue-related problems. But now we know that that's just simply not the case.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): John Caldwell is an expert on pilot fatigue. For years, he was lead researcher in the Air Force Fatigue Countermeasures Program.
(on camera): The NTSB had a report basically saying that there are more commercial accidents and crews that have been awake longer than those that had not.
CALDWELL: Your reaction time is slower. Your attention span becomes shorter. Your memory is somewhat impaired. And so all of those are bad things when you're having to rapidly assimilate information, when you've got a lot of people's lives at stake, dependent upon the accuracy of your performance.
GUPTA: Caldwell says night flights, jet lag, multiple flights legs, changing shifts and insufficient rest between shifts all contribute to pilot fatigue.
Airline pilots occasionally work up to 16 consecutive hours. Sometimes with schedules that leave time for only five or six hours for sleep. As a result, this 767 pilot says captains and first officers often trade notes on how tired they are.
PILOT (identity protected): So you have to be honest with each other and as the day moves on to go, you know, I didn't get a great night's sleep like last night. Keep an eye on me.
GUPTA: On regional airlines where pilots do more takeoffs and landings, fatigue may be a bigger problem. A 1999 survey of more than 1,400 crew members at regional carriers found 80 percent, 80 percent had nodded off during a flight.
Something this pilot is familiar with. He asked that we not show his face and alter his voice so he could not be recognized.
PILOT (identity protected): Do a head bop and keep yourself awake. You just have to kind of get into it and just shake yourself awake and get focusing again.
GUPTA: The crash of Continental connection flight 3407 has investigators focused again on a very basic and very dangerous human frailty -- fatigue.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Two brothers, both car dealers for 22 years, now they are out of business because of the Chrysler closings.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins.
COLLINS: The trading day about to begin on Wall Street and, once again, economic headlines, along with more dismal news from the auto industry, are expected to dominate the discussion.
Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange now with more on what investigators will be watching right as the bell is almost ringing.
Hi there, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Heidi. Good morning. Welcome to the final trading day of the week.
It looks like stocks appear set for a fairly steady start this morning following the Dow's 46-point gain yesterday and there are a lot of headlines to sort through.
Starting with inflation. At the consumer level, unchanged in April, coming in line with analysts' forecast. Consumer prices are now down over the past year by the largest amount in half a century. One day after Chrysler unveiled its plan to shudder nearly 800 of its dealerships, words that General Motors will eventually slash more than 40 percent of its own dealer network.
GM expected to announce that it will close between 1,100 and 2,600 of its American showrooms. Combined with Chrysler's cuts yesterday the closings could affect about 90,000 employees.
On the jobs front, Nike laying off more than 1,700 employees globally in order to cut costs. Five hundred of the cuts will come from Nike's world headquarters in Oregon. JC Penney shares are in. Focus after the retailer clock in with lower first quarter profits. One of many retailers facing steep sales declines when unemployment is rising.
And no surprise. You've seen the three major averages. A little bit of pressure there. The Dow Industrials down just nine points at the open. The NASDAQ is down about a fifth of a percent. Heidi, it's going to be tough to make it ten weeks in a row for the NASDAQ.
We're going to have to have a really big rally today. Well, for the three major averages. It sure was nice. I'll leave it at that! We're going to need some major points on the up side.
COLLINS: Yes. No question.
All right, Susan, we're watching closely.
LISOVICZ: See you later.
COLLINS: Thank you.
As you know now, big cuts are coming at General Motors. The struggling automaker could start announcing the elimination of more than 2,000 dealerships as early as today. I believe we're getting some news on this right now, in fact. It follows yesterday's news from Chrysler that they are closing 789 of them.
Now, those dealers were devastated as you might imagine by the news. Among them, the oldest and only new car dealership in Lakeview, Michigan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just said you're done, and you just do what you can do and wish for the best, I guess.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because they're at the end of town, people drive through town to get to them. And that's a lot of traffic that passes by other businesses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I get a chance to think about it, it probably will be like a death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: In fact, as I imagined, we can go ahead and share this with you now. Some breaking news here at CNN.
According to our Money Team, we've been able to confirm that GM has, indeed, notified 1,100 dealers already today that they are terminating their contracts. That will happen in October of 2010.
Now, this is the first step towards reducing those dealerships nationwide and the target number for that will be 3,600. The reduction just to let you know, does not include Saturn, Saab and Hummer dealers. There has been, of course, some talk of that.
GM is going to be holding a conference call a little bit later on today. That's going to happen at about noon. And, at that point, we could learn more, obviously, on this. But we don't expect them to release the full list of dealerships that will be closing.
Once again, CNNMoney.com. Our Money Team here has been able to confirm that GM has indeed already notified 1,100 dealers today that they are terminating their contracts in October 2010. We, of course, will stay on top of that story throughout the day right here on CNN.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hits back on allegations she hasn't been candid on waterboarding. Pelosi claims she was misled by the CIA. But some Republicans are not buying her story.
CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash takes a look at what Pelosi new and when.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Under fire over whether she's been upfront about knowing harsh tactics like waterboarding were being used, the House Speaker tried to turn the tables accusing the CIA of lying to her.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: We are not using waterboarding. That's the only mention that they were not using it. And we now know that earlier they were. So, yes, I am saying that they are misleading -- that the CIA was misleading the Congress.
BASH: Pelosi was referring to a September, 2002 meeting, her only one with CIA officials.
But the speaker also admitted for the first time that five months later in February, 2003, one of her aides attended a briefing and was told interrogators were using harsh tactics. The aides informed Pelosi.
PELOSI: He said that the committee chair and ranking member and appropriate staff had been briefed that these techniques were now being used.
BASH: Jane Harman, then top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee wrote a letter objecting. Why didn't Pelosi?
PELOSI: No letter could change the policy. It was clear we had to change the leadership in Congress and in the White House. That was my job.
BASH: This fiery Pelosi press conference was about damage control, but she started to walk away before addressing her apparent contradiction.
PELOSI: You may ask one last question.
BASH: If she was told in February 2003 that waterboarding was being used, why didn't she admit that in a press conference on the subject last month?
(on camera): The idea that we got from you was that you were never told that waterboarding was being used. But now we know that later in February, you were told. It wasn't in that briefing, but you were told. So...
PELOSI: No. By the time we were told, we are finding out that it's been used before. You know, in other words, that was beyond the point.
BASH: Why didn't you tell us?
PELOSI: I told you what my briefing was. My briefing was...
BASH: That you had been told just not at that particular briefing.
PELOSI: No.
BASH: You were very adamant that you didn't know waterboarding was used.
PELOSI: No, that is right. The point is that I wasn't briefed. I was told, informed that someone else had been briefed about it.
BASH: A CIA spokesman stood by their records that do indicate Nancy Pelosi was specifically briefed that harsh interrogation techniques were used.
As for Republicans, they hammered the speaker for what they say are her changing stories, the fact that she does now admit she did know that these techniques were used back in 2003 and for accusing the CIA of lying.
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: A rural Missouri community is still recovering from tornadoes that touched down this week. And so is one of our iReporters. Michael Ambrosia chases storms for a hobby, but even he admits he got too close to a tornado near Novinger, Missouri, on Wednesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL AMBROSIA, CNN IREPORTER: Wow. It's coming across the road right here in front of me. Actually, this is too close. I feel the wind. Oh, my gosh! I've never been this close before! This is a fat one, too. This is wide!
OK, see that wind right that? That's about 50 yards from me. This tornado is -- wow. OK, I got close. That's as close as I've ever been.
We got to get out of here.
(via telephone): I was part watching in my car and there is -- there's a lot of devastation. There were tree limbs everywhere, pieces of roof and houses torn. After going back there and seeing that, I just realize how fortunate I am. Later on, I did make a big mistake by following somebody else, and the tornado did actually pass over us. And I was just praying to God that we would both be all right.
I had such an adrenaline rush. It really keeps you alert and keeps you going. But that was the first time that I was actually really scared. I knew I had made a mistake
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Wow. Bringing in Rob Marciano now. Because, I mean, I don't want to state the obvious, but he does this for a hobby.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
COLLINS: You got to really, really be careful. These are nothing to mess around with.
MARCIANO: No. And there's a lot of guys out there like that.
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: I mean, they're basically adrenaline junkies or weather junkies, too. So it's a fascinating thing, and you want to get up close and personal. If you don't know the structure of these storms and where you should be and position when that thing is happening, you can get caught off-guard.
And the problem, Heidi, with that, plus Missouri storms, too, they weren't that visible. You could see it pretty good on that tape.
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: But a lot of them and the more deadly ones were rain- wrapped, meaning you couldn't -- they were obscured by rain. So that can make it difficult as well.
COLLINS: Exactly, yes. I know you were watching, and you were with the Vortex team.
MARCIANO: Who will be out again today. Vortex2 continues its mission to try to figure out why tornadoes do what they do. Why some stay on the ground longer than others, why some are stronger than others. It's definitely a fascinating thing. And every expert that I talk to on the Vortex mission will tell you they know less than they know.
Does that make sense?
They don't know as much as they think they know. Ten years ago, they thought they would know more now. They still don't know a whole lot. So they are trying to figure things out.
(WEATHER REPORT)
We mentioned that it was the beginning of the Pacific hurricane season. Eastern Pacific hurricane season. And here's the list of the names, Heidi.
Are you ready?
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: Andres, Blanca, Carlos, Dolores, Enrique -- your favorite singer - Felicia, Guillermo, Hilda, Jimena -- I think I'm saying that right. And then this one kind of sticks out right here -- Kevin.
COLLINS: Kevin. Well, Linda, too.
MARCIANO: So all those, all those Spanish names, and then Kevin, Linda, Marty, Vivian.
COLLINS: All right. Ola!
MARCIANO: Ola, everybody.
COLLINS: Hey, that's a Scandinavian name. Very good.
MARCIANO: The Atlantic hurricane season, of course, starts on June 1st. And it will give you that list...
COLLINS: It's my birthday.
MARCIANO: June 1st is your birthday?
COLLINS: It's not really what I want to be happening on my birthday, but anyway.
Yes.
MARCIANO: Well, we, here, in the weather center typically celebrate it so come on...
COLLINS: Excellent. Excellent.
MARCIANO: ...we'll share the party for you.
COLLINS: I will look forward to that.
MARCIANO: Sounds good.
COLLINS: All right. They are screaming at both of us. Let's wrap this up, Rob.
We'll talk to you later on. Thank you.
MARCIANO: OK. See you.
COLLINS: Listen up, college kids. Mom and dads, too. Stay out of debt. You can actually do it. Personal finance editor Gerri Willis will be here to show you how.
And also later...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a hard thing to do for you. It's hard to talk about it because everything has changed, right?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So you don't have that same happiness in your house anymore?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Shattered families. Victims of gun violence. Our Abbie Boudreau has one boy story of how he lost his brother and how his family is trying to go on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Twenty-five thousand dollars and more, that's the average cost of a private four-year college. The price tag is rising faster than family income. That's the problem.
CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis in New York now with some tips on how to keep your college kid debt-free.
Great idea.
Gerri, you say establishing credit is really important, of course. So how do you help your child do that?
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Well, it is important to get credit. College kids should start establishing that credit, obviously, right away, but make sure you get the credit the right way. Avoid marketers out there who are offering free t-shirts or pens if you sign up for a credit card.
COLLINS: Yes.
WILLIS: You have to drill down to the real terms. Look for credit cards that cater to college students specifically. Hey, Heidi, some of these credit cards for college students will offer you zero percent or low APR, no annual fees, cash back bonuses, that's where you want to go. You can check this out at cardratings.com and creditcards.com. Compare those offers, see which ones are best.
COLLINS: Sure. What about the difference between getting a credit card and a debit card? Does that make a difference?
WILLIS: Yes. This is important, because for college students, look, you don't have the same consumer protections with a debit card as you do with credit card. So if you want to buy something over the Internet, say -- make sure you use a credit card. Using a debit card takes money from your bank like that immediately, right?
So by the time you realize something might be wrong with that transaction, the money is already gone from your account. If you wait more than two business days after you discover a problem, you're liable for up to 500 bucks. So if you wait longer than 60 days, you could lose the entire knot. Everything in your bank account.
Other places you don't want to use your debit card, nights on the towns. That happens a lot in college. TV infomercials are services where charges may be disputed like auto mechanics, towing services. So there are advantages to using credit cards if you're doing it the right way. Did I say, do it the right way?
COLLINS: Exactly.
WILLIS: Yes.
COLLINS: There is something to be said for those paper statements. But to be careful about where they end up, too, right?
WILLIS: Right. Yes. And if you're a college student, you're sharing space with other people, and the last thing you want lying around the dorm room is your sensitive financial info. When your child does, if you're a parent, your child does open an account, make sure you get the paper statement sent home and not forwarded to his or her dorm address, or you can just have the statements available online so your student can keep track of spending without having to share all that data, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes. What about "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" this weekend?
What are you going to be talking about?
WILLIS: We got a great show.
COLLINS: Yes.
WILLIS: Great show lined up. Yes, we're going to tell you how to talk to your bank. If you're looking for the loan, you're having a hard time getting a lender to the telephone to talk about help with your mortgage, we'll tell you how to do that. Mentally dealing with the tough times. The stress out there because of people losing their jobs, and possible mortgages. We will tell you how to cope and improving your credit score.
We can all use a little bit of that, right, Heidi?
COLLINS: Yes. Probably.
All right. Gerri Willis, our personal finance editor. We'll be watching this weekend.
Thank you.
WILLIS: Thank you.
COLLINS: Breaking into the boys club. Love this story! A fabulous filly is the early favorite in the next Triple Crown race, stealing the thunder and the jockey from the Kentucky derby winner.
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COLLINS: A girl on the go. The early favorite for tomorrow's Preakness Stakes is a filly ready to take on the big boys in the second race of the Triple Crown. But she almost didn't get into the race. Thanks to the owners of the Kentucky Derby Champ.
CNN's Richard Roth has more on the filly's fate.
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ROTH (voice-over): She is the female flash.
UNIDENTIFIED RACE ANNOUNCER: And now the Rachel Alexandra is opening up. Five legs on the field! Six! Oh, a tour de force by the super filly.
ROTH: But he won the Kentucky derby at 50-1 odd.
UNIDENTIFIED RACE ANNOUNCER: A brilliant ride by Calvin Borel. Mine That Bird is going clear in the derby! Mine That Bird wins the derby!
ROTH: And now it's boy meets girl in the Preakness Stakes, the second jewel at America's famed Triple Crown series of horse racing.
JOE TESSITORE, ESPN CORRESPONDENT: So you have two great hooks that the American public has always loved: The upset and the battle of the sexes.
ROTH: That battle started a week before the race. The owner of the male, Mine That Bird, hatched a scheme.
MIKE WATHCMAKER, DAILY RACING FORM: The owners of Mine That Bird and Pioneer of the Nile were talking about entering a bunch of hopelessly overmatched bums in the race just to try to exclude her from the race.
ROTH: Howls of protest from the racing industry sensing a publicity bonanza at the Preakness prompted the owner of Mine That Bird to come down to Earth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm glad they made a decision not to do that. I think for the good of the sport.
ROTH: The filly flip-flop just fuels female fan fury.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People try to gain advantage where they can. I think they're scared of her. So I say leave them in the dust.
ROTH: To add more hay to the plot...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rachel Alexandra, Calvin Borel is moving up!
ROTH: The jockey of the derby winner, Calvin Borel, is switching saddles to ride the filly in the Preakness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is historic. It's never happened before.
ROTH: Big Brown even showed up at the track, but last year's winner has retired. Though Big Drama is a contender, Miss Preakness is going for the bird.
HEATHER RADFORD, MISS PREAKNESS: I'm, you know, kind of the underdog supporter, and I'd really like Mine That Bird to go on to win the Preakness.
ROTH (on camera): What makes her so speak?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's faster than they are, I think.
ROTH (voice-over): The unbeaten filly is the favorite over the colt.
(on camera): So it's speed over sex for you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, absolutely! Yes. Right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Richard Roth joining us live from Pimlico race course in Baltimore, Maryland.
I just have to say, Richard, I love that you interviewed Miss Preakness for that piece.
The fillies, obviously, have had highs and lows in these big races, though, right?
ROTH: That's right. Last year in the Kentucky Derby, Eight Belles, a filly, broke down after the race and had to be euthanized. It doesn't always happen. At least, usually, they need a little bit more recovery time. And they don't always run in the Preakness. We haven't had a winner of this race since 1924.
COLLINS: Yes. Yes. They've talked about that a lot after that tragedy. But this girl, Rachel Alexander. She's a big girl.
ROTH: Yes, she is. A very beautiful animal. I think she's in her barn right behind me now along with Mind That Bird.
There are 11 other horses in there. And it's not a sure shot that one of those two is going to win here. Opening line set at 8 to 5 on the filly, Mind That Bird 6 to 1. Pretty high odds for a Kentucky derby winner.
COLLINS: Yes. So they're hanging out together, huh. I wonder if there's any trash talking going on in the stalls. We'll have to check that out.
Richard Roth, thanks so much -- from Pimlico this morning.
A whole lot going on this morning. In fact, let's go ahead and check in now with some of our correspondents. See what they are working on.
First to you, Jill Dougherty at the White House.
DOUGHERTY: President Obama lets military commissions continue, but he wants more rights for defendants. I'll have that story at the top of the hour. JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jason Carroll. Coming up, you'll hear from the mother of the first officer on board Colgan air flight 3407. She says her daughter was well-qualified to fly the plane, but was she well paid? We'll tell you about concerns by some of the aviation industry that they have about pilot compensation. Coming up just after the hour.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elizabeth Cohen. With congratulations for all of this month's college grads, but here's the bad news. Now you have to find your own health insurance. I'll give you all the tips you need at the top of the hour.
COLLINS: Yes. Some great advice there.
Thanks, everybody. Appreciate that.
And speaking of the class of 09, we'll take you to the campus of Neumont University. Seniors are just hours away from graduation and many know already know where they're going next.
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COLLINS: 0ne school system in one city mourning the loss of 36 students, all of them children killed this school year on the streets of Chicago.
CNN's Abbie Boudreau takes a look at the faces behind the startling statistics.
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: We really wanted to hear how all of this violence is affecting families in Chicago. So we gave a video camera to a mom and her 10-year-old son for a couple of weeks so they could show us just how difficult life is after losing a young family member to gun violence.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me your name.
TREVON BOSLEY, LOST BROTHER IN GUN VIOLENCE: My name is Trevon Bosley.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And how old are you?
BOSLEY: I'm 10 years old.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you had fun with your brother?
BOSLEY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you miss him?
BOSLEY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So the day when all this took place, you were there, right? You went to the hospital?
BOSLEY: Can you pause it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, let's talk. You went to the hospital?
Come on, Troy, it's hard.
That's too hard?
BOSLEY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. OK. All right, we will pause.
OK, so you do miss your brother?
BOSLEY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And this is a hard thing to do for you. It's hard to talk about it because everything has changed, right?
BOSLEY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So you don't have that same happiness in your house anymore?
BOSLEY: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No more music.
BOSLEY: In our community, no one likes to talk about guns, because we're scared of guns. And guns -- we're scared to walk in our alleys, to play basketball, to play football, to play any games. Since I lost my brother, I've been sad and I've been angry. I've been sad of losing him and I'm angry at the person who did it and I'm angry at guns.
PAM BOSLEY, VICTIM'S MOTHER: So, everybody, this is my baby. This is where I have to visit my son at, at the cemetery. This is unfair for any mother to have to visit their baby here. This don't make sense. He didn't deserve this. He wasn't in a gang and stuff. He didn't sell drugs. And I'm here at a cemetery visiting my baby and my kids can't even come out here and see their brother. It's crazy. This is not the type of life that no mother should ever have to go through.
I'm looking forward to God calling me home so I can go and be with my baby.
I actually tried to leave here on my own. Even though I was raised in the church, I tried to (INAUDIBLE). I tried to commit suicide. I couldn't take the pain. I tried, and I thank God that he did not allow me to go out like that, because my other two boys are already suffering.
BOSLEY: When I grow up, I want to become president, because I want to take guns off the streets so I can save more lives. We got to have some hope over fear. We have to have unity over revenge. I'm sending a powerful message that change is coming to America. I had to learn that speech because I want to be president just like Barack Obama.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: There's so much more to this story.
We also spent time with Chicago's gang task force and interviewed the city's mayor about the rise in student deaths. We'll have the full report -- Saturday.
COLLINS: Powerful stories. And as Abbie just said, you can see those reports Saturday night at 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
