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Possible Exit Deal for Gadhafi; Deadly Protests over Koran; United Airlines Flight Makes Emergency Landing in New Orleans; Sheen Booed in Detroit, Wins Over Fans in Chicago; Southwest Airlines Canceling Another 100 Flights; U.S. Air Strikes in Libya Set to End Today; President Obama Launches his 2012 Reelection Campaign; Android App Blocks Texts and Phone Calls While Driving; NCAA Championship Game Tonight
Aired April 04, 2011 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to all of you. It's 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. in the West. I'm Carol Costello in for Kyra Phillips.
We're watching new developments out of Japan. So much radioactive water at the nuclear plant and nowhere to hold it. The power company's plan, dump thousands of gallons of it into the Pacific Ocean.
Possible answers this morning in a mystery nearly two years old. Wreckage from a Rio to Paris flight found at the bottom of the Atlantic. Searchers say they also found the bodies of some of the passengers.
And the video from BarackObama.com pretty much makes it official. The president is asking America for four more years.
Just got worse for Southwest Airlines. We have learned a Southwest plane was diverted to Los Angeles last night because of a burning electrical smell in the cabin. Yes, another one.
On Friday, a Southwest jet made an emergency landing when a hole blew open in the fuselage at 36,000 feet. Since then, the airline has found cracks in three more planes. It canceled 100 flights today so it can check on its 737.
So if you are flying Southwest today, you better check the Web site before you head to the airport.
Jeanne Meserve is following this story for us.
Jeanne, this is really concerning to hear about the number of planes with possible problems. How widespread is this problem?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly what authorities are trying to find out, Carol.
Southwest is inspecting, as you mentioned, its 79 Boeing 737-300s. So far, small subsurface cracks have been detected in a small number of aircraft. No problem in 19 others inspected so far. Boeing, meanwhile, is drafting a voluntary service bulletin to describe exactly how to do the inspections. And the Federal Aviation Administration is likely to mandate inspections, but we don't know how broad their order will be. But it could involve other 737 models and other airlines.
As to age, these planes are about 15 years old, which makes them middle-aged, but every time they take off and they go down and land, they go through compression and decompression, which puts stress on the aircraft, and that kind of use is factored in when they try to calculate the maintenance schedules for the aircraft.
COSTELLO: Yes. I guess that's sort of like a balloon, when the plane goes up in the air, the balloon inflates and when it comes down, it deflates and that makes it hard for the structure of the plane.
Two years ago, Southwest was cited. It was actually fined millions of dollars for similar problems. You'd think that those problems would have gone away after that, but are there problems with the inspection process itself?
MESERVE: Well, Carol, we don't know that yet. I mean, this plane did get a heavy-duty inspection last March. Either there was a problem that investigators missed, or the cracks developed very quickly. Investigators are going to be looking at that question.
An NTSB member said yesterday that up to this point, only visual inspections of lap joints in the fuselage have been required in light of recent events. That, obviously, could change.
COSTELLO: Jeanne Meserve live in Washington. Thank you.
Southwest has had this kind of problem before, as I said. The FAA slapped the airline with a huge fine because of it, so why are these planes still cracking? Why is the fuselage still cracking?
We'll ask a former inspector general for the Transportation Department in just a few minutes.
Also this just in. We are getting reports of a United Airline's flight that reported visible smoke in the cockpit shortly after takeoff. The plane made an emergency landing in New Orleans and when a longer runway wasn't available, the pilot was moved to a shorter runway.
Slides were deployed. Everyone departed the plane without injury. The FAA did not have the number of passengers on board. Of course, when we get more on this story, we'll pass it along.
U.S. airstrikes are supposed to end today in Libya. This comes as pro-Gadhafi forces and rebels battle for one of the country's biggest oil ports.
CNN's Nic Robertson is in Tripoli.
And Nic, I want to talk about Gadhafi first. Because you've told us before that his sons might be working on some sort of deal for him to step aside. And the most interesting thing about this, these two sons are talking constitutional democracy? Really?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is something that they say has been in the pipeline for some time. Saif Al Gadhafi has been trying to push his own democratic reforms for a number of years. The Old Guard has stood in his way. Moussa Koussa, the foreign minister who defected last week, is seen as by the sons as part of the Old Guard.
The idea that Saif Al Gadhafi could replace his father one day is something that really seems to being brought back into the fore as sort of a diplomatic solution to the fighting in the country. Saif Al Gadhafi says that just before the opposition broke out and took guns from the army barracks here, the east of the country, that he in fact was talking to those people in the east.
How much truth there is in that, we don't know. But we do know is that the government and the leadership is circling back to this notion again that he could step to the fore as some sort of part of a diplomatic solution. And we've seen the deputy foreign minister here leave Libya, go to Tunisia, and now he's is in Greece, where he's held meetings with the prime minister in Greece, talking about some kind of diplomatic solution.
And this appears, and certainly what we're getting from very good sources here, is this appears to be at the center of what the Gadhafi regime has an offer. It's not to say the rebels are going to bite it, it's not to say they're going to want any part of it, but this seems to be where the regime has its claws out right now -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, not only the rebels, but the international community since you know is enforcing these air strikes. I mean does the international community really see a big difference between Gadhafi and his sons?
ROBERTSON: Well, we know that the sons' assets -- Saif Al Gadhafi's assets have been frozen in the United States, along with the father's, Moammar Gadhafi's assets and many of the other family members.
So I think broadly speaking, the family is viewed as a whole as something that would have to go in its entirety. But that view was probably taken before the rebels have shown that they're not capable of rolling back all of Gadhafi's forces. So there may be a new reality emerging here -- Carol?
COSTELLO: Nic Robertson live in Tripoli, many thanks.
Deadly unrest in Yemen as well. Medical staff in the city of Taiz say at least 11 people were killed today and more than 500 injured in anti-government protests. Today's deaths and injuries follow similar violent demonstrations yesterday. Protesters want the President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.
Medical sources say one person died Sunday. At least 830 more were injured. Al Qaeda is believed to be very much involved in those protests to remove Saleh. That Yemeni leader is a U.S. ally in the battle against al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula.
Violence in Afghanistan again today because of what a pastor did in Florida. Terry Jones put a Quran on trial and burned it. And with that action sparked deadly protests in the Afghanistan and some say endangered U.S. troops.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid says Congress will look into it, although he stopped short of saying lawmakers would pass a resolution condemning Jones' actions.
In the meantime, violence in Afghanistan continues today, with at least 20 people now dead. The commander of allied forces in Afghanistan condemned the burning of that Quran.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, ISAF COMMANDER: And we condemn the action of an individual in the United States who burned a holy Quran. That action was hateful, it was intolerant, and it was extremely disrespectful. And again, we condemn it in the strongest manner possible.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Let's head to London and CNN's Zain Verjee.
Zain, General Petraeus also came out with a statement. President Obama came out with a statement condemning this action. Is that going to help, though?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: It's a really good thing that they came out with such strong condemnations. It's a step in the right direction, but it's unlikely to immediately stop the protests.
What many of these people want is basically to see some action on the part of the U.S. leadership. They want Terry Jones, the pastor in Florida, held accountable and brought to justice for what he did, burning the Quran.
It also reduces a lot of trust that people around the world would have and the words that the president and General Petraeus may say. They say, look, they say one thing, but actually, what we see happen in the U.S. is another.
The bottom line is burning the Quran is offensive to about a billion Muslims in the world and many of them, Carol, are reacting very differently to the pictures that you see here, too. Many would just write articles or op-eds, vent their frustrations or opinions in chat rooms, some people won't do anything.
But what you're seeing in Afghanistan is an extreme reaction where people are resorting to violence.
COSTELLO: So who's most at risk here? We know the United Nation workers were targeted, but who's most at risk? Are U.S. soldiers at risk? VERJEE: Yes, they are. U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan will be most at risk from a situation like this, because the anger and the emotion that you're seeing from the pictures in Afghanistan is so high.
Also at risk would essentially be U.S. -- any kind of a Western target in Afghanistan, elsewhere around the world as well. The problem here is that the U.S. has really tried so hard to forge good relationships, win the hearts and minds of Afghans and the Muslim world. And an act like this of burning the Quran really does take a step backwards.
Who does it actually help, Carol? It helps, more than likely, extremists like al Qaeda or the Taliban that want to recruit people against the United States. So it gives them fuel to do that.
COSTELLO: Zain Verjee live in London, thank you.
To Japan now, and its handling of that U.N. nuclear crisis -- not U.N. -- let's talk about this nuclear crisis, shall we? Workers are having a hard time fixing a crack, letting radioactive water seep out. They plan to dump about 11,500 tons of radioactive water from the Fukushima power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
Efforts to seal a crack in one of those damaged reactors failed over the weekend. The power company says it can't continue to hold all that radioactive water, it has to do something with it. One idea being considered to stop the radiation leaking is to actually wrap the entire facility in massive sheeting.
The latest toll in the March 11th quake and tsunami, more than 12,000 dead, more than 15,000 missing, nearly 3,000 injured.
You didn't really have to be a Washington insider to see this one coming. President Obama is running for reelection. He officially launched his campaign early this morning.
CNN's Jessica Yellin is in Washington.
I got to say, Jessica, it was kind of a strange launch.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Because it came by video, it was an e-mail message to supporters with a video in it and a message from the president. Then --
COSTELLO: And in the video -- in the video President Obama doesn't even appear.
YELLIN: Right. Well, this is about two things. One, it's about activating their grassroots supporters. And if he put a video with the president in it, what would we be doing, Carol? We would be replaying that video all day long talking about the president running.
And he is focused on, you know, running the country and he also doesn't want to distract from the negotiations over the budget that are taking place here in D.C. So keeping him out of it avoids more political distraction.
And it also sends a message to the grassroots supporters that this is about you. That's -- you know, how they want to frame this race.
COSTELLO: So before he had this campaign slogan, "yes, we can," his book was called "The Audacity of Hope" and now the slogan is?
(LAUGHTER)
YELLIN: It's about you?
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: It begins with you or something like that.
YELLIN: It's begins with you, right. I don't know that that's the slogan. That's the message of this video because they are trying to reengage. But we have to talk about why are they doing it now. And the big picture here is that this is going to break all records for fundraising.
The amount of money they have to bring in is astronomical. They're looking at raising $1 billion -- with a B. And that's not for millionaires or billionaires who can write that check. That's like under campaign finance laws where you're maxed out at under $2500 per person.
So they have to file all the paperwork and start going now, in their view, if they want to raise that much money, and that's how it's happening at this time.
COSTELLO: Well, those crazy numbers. Crazy.
(CROSSTALK)
YELLIN: A lot of money.
COSTELLO: Jessica Yellin -- a lot of money. Jessica Yellin, thanks.
It's the company that brought us the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Now Transocean is handing out big bonuses to top executives and it's bragging about its safety record. That story is just ahead.
The ceiling in a plane tears apart midflight and the threat of this problem was brought to the attention of Southwest Airlines years ago. In fact, Southwest was fined millions of dollars for it. So why is it still happening? We'll find out after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Today, Southwest Airlines expects to cancel 100 flights. It grounded 79 more planes because of a terrifying flight on Friday. The ceiling panels in one of its 737s ripped apart at 34,000 feet. Passengers say it sounded like an explosion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEBBIE DOWNEY, PASSENGER ABOARD SOUTHWEST FLIGHT 812 (via telephone): My husband said when he looked up, it's immediately, "Oh, my gosh, it's a blue sky." We looked at each other and thought, oh, my gosh, this is not a good sign.
Immediately put our head down, looked up, the air masks fell down immediately within seconds, so we grabbed our masks, started to kind of look out the window, and as soon as I tried to look out the window and put up the shade screens, the aircraft went into a complete nosedive --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.
DOWNEY: -- fast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Oh! OK, that's frightening enough, but here's the really scary part. This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened. Back in 2009, a Southwest plane was forced to make an emergency landing for the same kind of problem. That was just four months after the airline was fined $7.5 million by the FAA for failing to perform mandatory inspections for fuselage cracks on nearly 60,000 flights. Mary Schiavo is a former inspector general of the US Department of Transportation. She now represents clients who are suing the airline industry. Welcome, Mary.
MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, US DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: OK, Mary. So, just two years ago, Southwest was fined $7.5 million because they did not inspect planes for this very problem. What is up with that? Was the fine not big enough?
SCHIAVO: Well, the -- probably not, the fine wasn't big enough. But two things occurred. One, is they allowed visual inspections. Some of these cracks are very difficult to see, and you have to us ultrasonic or sometimes even magnetic resonance. You really have to treat to plane as if it's a body and you're looking for problems. And so, the visual inspections cannot find all these cracks.
And the second thing that occurred after that was Southwest did hire experts to come in and look at the cracking situation, but the experts and Boeing said that some cracking was OK. In some cases, up to 6 inches. And they had a procedure where you could drill out the cracks, and then leave the plane fly with cracks.
And that might work for some other airline, but not for Southwest because they have the most punishing schedule on their planes in the industry. Why? Because they get good usage out of their planes, five, six, seven flights a day. And that just puts a lot of strain on an old plane, in this case, 15 years old.
COSTELLO: OK, so the part about getting the special equipment to look at these planes to make sure they don't have what could become dangerous cracks. I know it costs a lot of money but, still, isn't it worth it?
SCHIAVO: It is. But unfortunately what we often see with airlines is they don't do that kind of inspection unless the government requires it. And the government could require it, but the climate in Washington these days is they don't want to make the airlines do anything unless they can do their cost/benefit analysis and show that by doing these inspections, it's going to cost less than the lives that would be lost if they don't. So the FAA could order that, in fact they could order it on an emergency basis --
COSTELLO: Wait a minute. Wait a minute, isn't the FAA responsible to protect the flying public? I mean, it's our government. We pay those who work for the FAA with our tax dollars. I mean, you talk about cost/benefit analysis and I totally get that from a business standpoint, but when I'm on a Southwest plane, I don't want to look up and see the fuselage coming apart.
SCHIAVO: I'm with you. And particularly, once they know that they have a cracking problem. And Southwest used to have the youngest fleet in the industry. And now, they have among the oldest. And that changed about in 2002/2003 time period.
And so, I think the FAA should require all these mandatory inspections, and they have to look into this business of allowing planes to fly, in some cases, with cracking that they know about. Now, this case, they said they didn't know, but they do need those special tests.
And for a 15-year-old plane with Southwest, it's new territory. They haven't been flying old aircraft. So, maybe it's time for them to get rid of them because of their schedule.
COSTELLO: Yes, many of them are 15 years old or older. Mary Schiavo, thank you for joining this morning. We appreciate it.
SCHIAVO: Thank you.
COSTELLO: We are now getting pictures of a United Airlines plane that made an emergency landing in New Orleans. That just happened. It made that emergency landing after the pilot reported visible smoke in the cockpit soon after the plane took off. The plane did land, but the nose gear ran off the end of the runway, so slides had to be deployed, the passengers got off the plane. As far as we know, no one was injured. And of course, we'll continue to follow this story.
Fans react to Charlie Sheen's debut comedy tour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was insanely bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unreal!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sell your ticket now! Awful! Waste of money!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: It doesn't sound like Sheen was winning during the weekend. One city booed the star, and another city praised him. We'll take a look at Sheen's rocky start to his tour after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Checking stories Cross Country now. First stop, Detroit, where Charlie Sheen was not winning in his comedy debut.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(AUDIENCE BOOING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Insanely bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unreal!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sell your ticket now! Awful! Waste of money!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Worst show ever! Ever!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrible!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The worst show ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Some fans spent $100 to see the actor hit the stage, but many were unimpressed, as you saw, and they wanted their money back. Sheen did, however, find his winning formula the next day in Chicago. Fans cheered for the actor as he stepped off his tour bus. Sheen revamped his performance, he learned some lessons from Detroit, and it seemed to work.
In Miami, a bank has an unlikely hero after an attempted robbery. Sixty-six-year-old Helen Dunsford, otherwise known as Grandma, fearlessly tackled a woman to the ground when she demanded cash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON LASSIN, WITNESS: She just jumped out -- "I got one year to live, I don't care if I die!" She just grabbed the lady and we helped her tackle the person down.
PAT CAVENEY, WITNESS: She just blew up, she just lost it, she grabbed her in a bear hug.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Way to go, Grandma. A brave thing to do for an elderly woman with cancer, but she says she did not mind taking the risk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROWD CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Whoo! In Colorado, Boater Cross kicked off during the weekend at Monarch Mountain ski resort. People like the man you just saw there kayaked down the slopes and into the icy water, just for fun.
The Midwest got hammered by strong winds and tornado-like weather during the weekend, and that brutal storm is heading south. Rob Marciano is here with the stormy forecast.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Here's the scary thing, Carol. The damage we're about to show you, there were zero reports of tornadoes yesterday, but this video coming to you out of Oklahoma showing you just what straight-line winds can do. It gives you an idea, really, of how potent the larger system is.
This is a school in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, which got the roof torn off and a resulting collapse because of winds that were over 60 miles an hour. So, schools in that town -- or this school particularly, closed for today, and I'm not sure what they're going to do to rectify that situation, but it's certainly going to be a long-term project.
Meanwhile, in Allen, Kansas, near Topeka, we had storm reports last night with hail -- look at this, a 4.0 gigabyte hailstone. I've never seen that kind of comparison, but gives you an idea of scale, maybe about half inch to an inch in diameter and enough to put some dings on the old car paint, that's for sure.
All right. The severe weather threat is moving off to the east. This is a large storm, as mentioned. A lot of warm wind ahead of it. Look at the high temperatures yesterday, 102 in Childress, Texas. San Angelo seeing 99 degrees. Even St. Louis seeing 90 degrees. So, we've got a serious batch of warm air adding fuel to the fire.
And look at that, a tornado watch in effect, now, for parts of the mid-South until 3:00 this afternoon. A potent line of thunderstorms rolling off towards the east in that very, very warm air mass. So, we'll be watching this carefully, all the way from just south of Dallas to just south of Cleveland is the threat over the next several hours. Carol?
COSTELLO: It's been a nasty spring, hasn't it?
MARCIANO: And we're just getting started.
COSTELLO: Oh, yes. Thank you, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right, you bet.
COSTELLO: There are right ways and wrong ways to deal with your campaign's liabilities.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRY MCAULFFE, FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN: The worst-case scenario was the way Newt Gingrich put it out, blaming the problems he had in his marriage on, he was working hard for his country? I'm -- that became a laughingstock.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: More critiques from political veterans, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The nation's biggest fast food chain is planning a big hiring spree. We're talking about none other than McDonald's.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
COSTELLO: Checking our top stories now. As Alison just said, Southwest Airlines is canceling another 100 or so flights today as it continues safety checks on dozens of Boeing 737-300s. That's on top of the 600 flights grounded over the weekend after that big hole opened up in the roof of a plane in mid-flight. Crews later found cracks in the plane's metal skins.
U.S. air strikes are supposed to end today in Libya. This comes as U.S. opposition fighters withdraw from Brega, one of the country's biggest oil ports, largely due to a lack of ammunition.
And tons and tons of radioactive waste water being dumped offshore from the Fukushima nuclear plant. Japanese officials say it's unavoidable since there's just nowhere to store it at the crippled facility, so it's into the Pacific.
Well, we figured he'd give it another shot and today President Obama's officially launched his 2012 campaign. A video on his web site, barackobama.com, shows clips of supporters and volunteers talking about how it all begins with us. That's apparently one of the campaign's new slogans.
Some possible Republican contenders are already out on the stump hitting states with early primaries and you can bet their advisors are already working, too, on strategy and ways to handle campaign baggage.
CNN's Jim Acosta takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, boy. What a guy.
ACOSTA (voice-over): There are right ways and wrong ways to deal with candidate liabilities. Take the state health care plan signed into law by Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts back in 2006. It wasn't much of an issue during Romney's first run for the White House in 2008, but now, many Republicans see RomneyCare as the model for ObamaCare.
KEVIN MADDEN, 2008 ROMNEY CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: There's no doubt that it's going to be a challenge. Every single candidate in this race has something in their record that they're going to have to explain to a Republican electorate.
ACOSTA (on camera): Do you think he understands that?
MADDEN: I do. I think, absolutely. ACOSTA (voice-over): Because Romney understands it, his former spokesman Kevin Madden believes the ex-governor can overcome it in his widely expected campaign encore.
MADDEN: I think any candidate who goes into a prospective presidential campaign thinking that they're not going to have any problems as far as they're not - they're not going to have to explain their record, that their record is going to fit perfectly with every single voter in that particular state's electorate, you know, I think that is, obviously, that's a - that's a fool's folly.
ACOSTA (on camera): Is that how you deal with it? You get it out?
TERRY MCAULIFFE, FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN: Sure, you get - oh, absolutely. If - if you've got a vulnerability which you think is going to be a weakness on your side, you want to get it out as soon as possible, deal with it and then move on from there. I'm puzzled, bewildered that they have waited so long to get into this race.
ACOSTA (voice-over): While former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe says speed is important, so is credibility noting, Newt Gingrich's stumbles in a recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on the subject of his personal life.
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: There's no question that at times in my life, partially driven by - by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and that things happened in my life that were not appropriate.
MCAULIFFE: I think if you want an absolute - the worst case scenario is the way Newt Gingrich put it out, blaming the problems he had in his marriage on he was working hard for his country. I'm - that became a laughing stock.
ACOSTA: And that's where message discipline comes in.
A few knew that lesson better than Bill Clinton. In 1992, then candidate Clinton tried to make the election about tomorrow, not his private past.
JAMES CARVILLE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: As then candidate Clinton, or Governor Clinton, would say, I want to make this election about you and your life and - and not me and - and my problems. They want to take the election away from you and make it about me, I'm not going to let them do that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Jim Acosta know joins us from Washington.
And Jim, President Obama released a video online announcing his run for the 2012 presidency. So what will that mean for potential GOP candidates?
ACOSTA: Well, if you talk to these Republican campaigns, they say, and nothing is imminent at the moment. Mitt Romney did put out a tweet this morning, challenging the president on the unemployment problem in this country. Tim Pawlenty has come out with what really looks like an attack ad, the first attack ad of the 2012 campaign.
So they are slowly, but surely ramping up. But as we mentioned in that piece, they also have some of these liabilities to deal with. You know, running for president these days, Carol, is sort of like catching a flight in this country. Your baggage does not fly free. And so they've got some work to do, not only just convincing the public, but their fellow Republicans, as well, many of whom are uncomfortable with this current slate.
COSTELLO: We talked about how nasty the campaign was in 2008.
It's shaping up to be even nastier in 2012, isn't it?
ACOSTA: It really is. You know, the stakes are pretty high at this point. The president is going to spend, estimates are up to $1 billion on his re-election bid.
So, you know, the pressure is on these individual Republican candidates and that's why you have folks like Terry McAuliffe, who is obviously a Democrat, saying, what's taking these guys so long? And the longer they wait, the harder it's going to become, and the nastier it might get.
COSTELLO: Jim Acosta, live in Washington, many thanks.
ACOSTA: You bet.
COSTELLO: The lineup is in, so who will wear the crown? Connecticut or Butler? Jeff Fischel from HLN Sports is here.
We're down to the final two. Fascinating.
JEFF FISCHEL, HLN SPORTS: It's a great game. We're all expecting a great one. Of course, no one was expecting this great game, right? Who had Butler and UConn in their brackets? Anyone?
COSTELLO: I know one person, a librarian.
FISCHEL: That's right.
COSTELLO: We're going to interview her.
FISCHEL: There was that one -- oh, you're going to talk to her?
COSTELLO: Yes.
FISCHEL: She made her pick based on favorite numbers and animals, seriously, she did, and she got the Final Four right. So, coming up in about 20 minutes, I'll have a preview of the big game.
Plus, some baseball. It's the first weekend of games. Check out the Indians making the first triple play of the season. One, two, three. And that's coming up in 20 minutes.
But, you know, see which team -- it's been so awful for so many years -- is now off to the a great start and thinking they can do it this time after three straight, amazing comebacks.
COSTELLO: Awesome. We're looking forward to it. Thank you, Jeff.
We all know the dangers of texting while driving, but a lot of us still do it. Well, there's a new app on the market that will block you or your kids from messaging on the move. We'll talk to the doctor behind it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: There is no doubt texting while driving is not safe. If you're guilty of this and you cannot stop it on your own, well, there's an app for that. It's called Speed Security and it's on the Android Market for about $5.
It was the brain child of Dr. Jacob Delarosa, and Dr. Delarosa, he joins us from Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Welcome, doctor.
DR. JACOB DELAROSA, HEART SURGEON: Good morning, how are you?
COSTELLO: I'm good.
So tell us the inspiration behind your helping to develop this app?
DELAROSA: Well, I was a victim, myself, of a distracted driver several years ago and I was jogging and hit by a car doing freeway speed coming off the highway in San Diego. So I know what it feels like in more than one way.
This past year, we had a young woman who also was hit by a -- who also was in a car accident, also was a distracted driver. Again, texting was involved. We couldn't save her life, she actually tore her aorta and we could not get her into the operating room in time.
After that, a team of us, Brandon Muir (ph) and Juan Leon (ph), we decided that we were going to make a difference and we were going to start thing and make an app to prevent people from being distracted while driving.
COSTELLO: That is just terrific. So you found some brilliant computer software people, came up with this app. Tell us how it works.
DELAROSA: Well, the way it works is, when you're driving and you go above 15 miles per hour, the app basically goes on. And what it does is it prevents you from receiving texts and being able to receive phone calls. So basically your concentration is fully on just driving and it's not on answering your phone or being able to send a message.
COSTELLO: You know, when I was first thinking about this story and what questions I would ask you, the thought went through my mind, if you're prone not to text because you know the dangers, why would you want this app? But I find myself, sometimes, knowing that I shouldn't text and drive or talk on the phone, but I reach for it anyway, sometimes. So are those the kinds of -- yes, go ahead.
DELAROSA: Yes, I think we're all in is that situation. We all do the same thing. As professionals, we go for the phone.
What we really focused this on for the teenage driver, for the one that just gets their license and, you know, wanting to basically, as a parent, being able to, you know, feel a little safer that your child is not out there texting, driving as soon as they get their license.
COSTELLO: And just quickly, tell us where we can find the app.
How can we get it?
DELAROSA: You can find the app on the Droid system. Right now we have it on Droid, that's version 1.0. Version 2.0, which is days away from being released, that will also be on the other Smartphone modalities to be able to download.
COSTELLO: Dr. Delarosa thank you much for joining us. We appreciate it.
DELAROSA: Thank you for having me.
COSTELLO: Sure.
Let's take a look at stories that'll be making news later today. At 5:00, union workers will march across the Brooklyn Bridge into New York to rally for workers' rights. It comes on the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and highlights events nationwide.
At 6:00 Eastern, a Soyuz rocket will blast off taking a relief crew to the International Space Station. The astronauts will stay in space for the next six months.
At 9:21 p.m. Eastern Tonight, the Butler Bulldogs will tip off against the UConn Huskies for the NCAA basketball championship. But you knew that.
President Obama is off and running for his second term. He made official this morning with a short video on barackobama.com. We'll get more detail next in our political ticker.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It is now official. President Obama has thrown his hat into the ring for a second term. CNN's senior political editor Mark Preston is here. Hey, Mark, before we get to you, we're going to play a bit of the video online at BarackObama.com, just to show people, you know, what it sounds like. So listen to a bit of it right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately, President Obama is one person. He cannot it -- plus, he got a job. We're paying him to do a job, so we can't say hey, could you just take some time off and come and get us all energized so we've got to figure it out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't not be involved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So there's a bit of it. It's not very long. Mark, why say, like, I want to be president again in this particular way?
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, because, I think what he's trying to show is that he has a broad swath of support from all types of people, from all across the country.
What we see in that video, one of the clips, is a woman talking about how they need to get energized, because President Obama has a job to do, Carol. You know, President Obama, in order to run a successful re-election, is going to have to raise between $750 million to upwards of $1 billion to try to win re-election. And just to put that in perspective, back in 2008, Carol, he raised $746 million to win that first term.
COSTELLO: It just seems insane that you could actually raise $1 billion, first of all or that you would have -- but why am I surprised? The price tag has just been going up and up.
I mean what does President Obama need to do though to really fire up his supporters? His approval ratings aren't so great right now.
PRESTON: No, they aren't. They have around 50 percent. Some polls have it right under 50 percent. CNN's latest poll has a little bit over 50 percent. But the fact is what he needs to really do is to reach out to liberals, Carol, who are upset over some of his policies. The liberals are upset or some liberals are upset that they didn't think the health care legislation that he enacted didn't go far enough. They wanted the public option.
They were also upset Carol that Guantanamo Bay continues to remain open. President Obama said he wanted to close that
On the flip side, he also needs to reach out to independent voters. These are voters who don't necessarily align with liberal who helped President Obama win in 2008. So he has a very fine line to walk, Carol, over the next year and a half.
COSTELLO: And if the economy begins brightening, that will help him too, right?
PRESTON: No question about that.
COSTELLO: Mark Preston live in Washington, thank you.
PRESTON: Thanks. COSTELLO: We'll have your next political update in one hour. And a reminder: for all of the latest political news, go to our Web site, CNNPolitics. com.
A bounce house flies away with two kids inside. More on this terrifying accident, next. We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Checking now on some stories across the country.
In Arizona, a dust devil sent a bounce house 15 feet into the air with two children inside. A boy and a girl were playing at a children's festival when the inflatable castle blew them into the air and across three lanes of traffic. Both kids were seriously injured.
In California, five people got healthy kidneys from five anonymous living donors. The swap was life changing for everyone involved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
APRIL LANGSTRAAT, KIDNEY RECIPIENT: Just an amazing gift.
ALAN LANGSTRAAT, KIDNEY DONOR: It's a rare opportunity, you know. I mean you live your life, and you've got two kidneys, and you don't need them both.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The operation known as "Paired Donation" is one of the largest kidney transplants at a single hospital.
In Florida, 11-year-old boy Nico Saporito climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Nico says he saw people climbing mountains on TV one day and he dreamed of doing the same thing. So he trained for three years. His next adventure, taking a dive in the Great Barrier Reef.
We're following a lot of developments in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's check in first with Zain Verjee.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol. The burning of the Koran in Florida has triggered violent protests all across Afghanistan. We're going to bring you the latest.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jessica Yellin. What's behind the timing of the first official presidential announcement? I'll have that at the top of the hour.
MARCIANO: And I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center. We are tracking severe weather across the southeast.
Plus radioactive water out of the Fukushima Power Plant. We'll show you ocean currents and what it means for you in the next hour.
COSTELLO: Thanks to all of you. After all the upsets and other shockers, most people's March Madness brackets are a mess. In Oregon, though, a librarian, she is 4 for 4 on the final four. And you will not believe how she chose her winners. I will ask her in the next hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Let's take a look at stories making news around the globe. French investigators have found bodies of victims and pieces of an Air France jetliner that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean nearly two years ago, killing 228 people on board. The plane disappeared after it took off from Rio de Janeiro on its way to Paris.
An iReporter sent us video of this wild scene in Cairo at a soccer game between Egypt and Tunisia. After a bad call against the Egyptian team fans set fires in the stands and then rushed the field, attacking players. Egypt's new prime minister apologized to the people of Tunisia.
Hundreds of penguins have died, thousands threatened by heavy oil and diesel fuel leaking from a cargo ship. That has led to a massive rescue on some tiny islands in the south Atlantic halfway between Africa and Argentina.
Ok. Jeff Fischel of HLN Sports joins me now to talk about the final four. Can butler actually pull it out?
FISCHEL: I don't see why not at this point. Right? I mean two weeks ago you would have said no, but they keep on winning. And the contrasts start at the top between these two schools. Butler coach Brad Stevens is half the age of UConn's Jim Calhoun. UConn is a hoop heavyweight, year after year a contender. Butler has won ten tourney games these last two years but before that they've won eight in the school's history.
UConn is led by superstar guard Kemba Walker. He has a million-dollar NBA career ahead of him. Butler is led by Matt Howard who could be Walker's business manager. Howard is a three-time academic all- American in finance. It should be fun tonight. Great game.
FISCHEL: It was the end of an era last night in women's college basketball. All-time great, Maya Moore's career is over. Her UConn Huskies shocked in the final four by Notre Dame. Moore did her part, 36 points for UConn, but it was not enough. Notre Dame takes them down. Notre Dame will face Texas A&M in the national championship game tomorrow night.
The women's NIT final was Saturday. Toledo won the tourney thanks to 40 points from the team's star player and also thanks to her rabbi. Naama Shafir is an orthodox Jew, so she normally won't play on Saturday because it's the Sabbath. But her rabbi gave her a special ok. 40 points, a career high. After the game, though, to honor her religion Shafir didn't talk to the media and walked back to the hotel instead of riding the team bus. Great story.
Baseball now, Royals fans have been depressed for years. They don't even have hope on opening day. But maybe this year's different. Matt Treanor, the little-known backup catcher, hit a walk-off home run yesterday. That's three incredible late comeback wins in a row. Sure, the season's only a few days old, but look who's in first in the AL Central. It is the Kansas City Royals.
And Carol, did you see this Saturday night?
COSTELLO: No, I didn't. I can't wait.
FISCHEL: "Saturday Night Live" and look who showed up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found it. We found it. We're going to sneak right in. Carmelo Anthony?
CARMELO ANTHONY, NEW YORK KNICKS: I should arrest you guys but you've been pretty cool. Don't mix.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(CROSSTALK)
FISCHEL: He sang. I mean how cool is that that he sang?
COSTELLO: Well, kind of.
FISCHEL: He was a (INAUDIBLE). He was also in another skit where he was a female shot putter.
COSTELLO: Oh he was dressed up as a woman.
FISCHEL: He was.
COSTELLO: I'm sorry I missed that. He has a good sense of humor.
FISCHEL: It was fun. It was actually good stuff.
COSTELLO: Thanks Jeff.
FISCHEL: Ok.
