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Prime Minister Grilled and Heckled; Debt Deadline Approaches; Bachmann Places 2nd in New Poll; U.N. Declares Famine in Somalia; Murdoch Shore up Empire; Murdochs Shore Up Empire; Yao Ming Retires; Misleading Menus; She's Got Murdoch's Back
Aired July 20, 2011 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, you know, I'm in love with a Canadian. I've got Canadian family, but I'm sorry, Ali, petine.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR, "AMERICAN MORNING": Kyra, and you've got to be with me on this. Come on now.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR, "AMERICAN MORNING": You either have a taste for it or you don't.
PHILLIPS: Exactly. You either love it or hate it. We're moving on.
Good morning, guys. It's 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 out West. I'm Kyra Phillips. Thanks for joining us.
A bipartisan deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling is fueling hopes that the government won't run out of money on August 2nd. Obama says with the deadline drawing close congressional leaders need to talk turkey in today's meeting.
Most of the central U.S. under a heat alert. Dangerous temps blanketing the east. Some areas feel as hot as 126 degrees.
The Taliban blaming U.S. hackers for a text that announced the death of its leader, Mullah Omar. The Taliban says, no, he's alive and well.
One day after Rupert Murdoch tried to repel the British assault on his empire, it's the prime minister's turn to face parliament. David Cameron, tainted by claims that he was too cozy with the media giant, it drew raucous responses in his appearance before the special session.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: What's the public expects is not petty political point scoring but a -- what -- what they want, what they deserve is concerted action to rise to the level of events and pledge to work together to sort this issue out once and for all. And it is in that spirit that I commend this statement to the house.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Across Great Britain, public and political outrage has been boiling over claims of police bribery, phone hacking and a heartless abuse of power.
James and Rupert Murdoch walked into parliament knowing that they had to tamp down some of that public anger.
So did they succeed? Atika Shubert in London now.
Atika, what are the people saying on the streets?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the remark that most people are really focused on is one of the MPs, Tom Watson, really grilled Rupert Murdoch and ultimately very bluntly asked him, do you think you are ultimately responsible for this whole fiasco? And Murdoch said, no. That it was the people underneath him who he had hired and who he had trusted. That's where the fault lies.
Now where do we go from here is now the question. Remember, there are actually two police investigations ongoing. One on phone hacking, one on police payments, and as Cameron pointed out in a statement to parliament today, there is a judicial inquiry now going to be under way and in 12 months' time we do expect to see a report on that.
And both James Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch have said they will cooperate fully on that and they will be under oath. So we can expect to see them in a similar situation pretty soon.
PHILLIPS: All right. Atika Shubert, we are watching closely.
And of course stay with CNN for in-depth coverage of the Murdoch media scandal.
Less than 10 minutes from now we're going to talk to Jeffrey McCracken once again, a senior business writer for Bloomberg News and "Businessweek."
Two steps forward, one step back. That seems to be the debt talks tango in Washington now. The House has passed the cut, cap and balance bill which would limit federal spending and future taxes.
The Republican majority pushed it through but its passage is unlikely in the Senate and doomed should it reach the president. So the focus now turns to a bipartisan bill proposed by the Senate's Gang of Six.
President Obama supports the plan and is encouraging congressional leaders to follow suit so he can sign the bill into law before the August 2nd deadline. In fact here's a measure of just how worrisome that deadline is.
This new glimmer of optimism helped pushed the Dow to gain more than 200 points for its biggest day of the year.
Let's get to the White House now and CNN's Brianna Keilar. So, Brianna, what is the president doing to make this deal come together at this point?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We are waiting here right now. His public schedule is very light. Officially no meetings on the schedule. But certainly that could change. And he is really kind of gotten out there using the bully pulpit. We saw this yesterday ahead of the briefing. Pushing support for this Gang of Six plan.
And it's a big one, Kyra. $3.7 trillion in cuts or, pardon me, in deficit savings over 10 years. That would include $500 billion in immediate cuts and there would be tax increases approximately to the tune of $1 trillion. And it would tackle entitlement reform.
So, Kyra, I know what you're thinking. You're probably saying this sort of rings a bell. Doesn't it sound something like that grand bargain that President Obama was pursuing with Speak Boehner and that ended up being a no-go over the impasse on tax increases?
And that's exactly right. This is a big plan and there's got -- there's something in this plan, I think, for everyone to hate. For Republicans insisting no tax increases even on the wealthy and for Democrats who are very concerned about Medicare cuts, even though the program solvency is threatened -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Brianna Keilar, we are watching every single second of this debt deal of the negotiations. We will be talking a lot more in the next couple of hours, next couple of days.
All right, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann getting more traction on the presidential campaign trail.
CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser live in Washington with more.
So, another poll showing Bachmann is making inroads with GOP voters?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: She sure is. That's what the polls indicate.
You know yesterday she was in the spotlight for her migraines. But today a new poll out there that's making headlines as well. From NBC/"Wall Street Journal," check it out, Kyra. This is the second straight national poll of Republicans where she is number two.
Mitt Romney, of course, the former Massachusetts governor, still the front-runner. You see him right there at the top.
Look at Bachmann (INAUDIBLE) second straight poll national. And look at number three. Rick Perry. The governor -- longtime governor of Texas, now also for the second straight national poll in third place. You know he hasn't even announced yet. We think he's very likely to jump into the race, hasn't done it yet.
This race is definitely getting more and more interesting by the day, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, another first in the Twitter universe today, right? The first presidential debate. How is this going to happen? Limited to 140 characters. Really?
STEINHAUSER: Hey, yes. You know, you knew this was going to happen sooner or later, right? Yes, it's being sponsored by a group called the tear party -- the teaparty.net which is a relatively new Tea Party group with a presence online.
Here's who's going to be partaking in today's event. Bachmann, of course, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Gary Johnson, Thad McCotter and Newt Gingrich. Now you're going to be -- there are going to be two conservative commentators who will be asking or typing the questions, I guess.
And they are asking the candidates to respond and keep it to two or three tweets. We'll see how it ends up, we'll get back to you on that one.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: Yes, exactly. We'll follow up. Thanks, Paul.
We'll have your next political update in just about an hour. And a reminder for all the latest political news you can always go to our Web site CNNPolitics.com. Or, you know, you could tweet Paul.
Millions of Somalis already knew what the U.N. has just made official. Parts of the country are suffering a full-blown famine. It's so bad thousands of people are fleeing every week into Kenya to the biggest refugee camp in the world.
And our David McKenzie is there.
David, tell us exactly what's going on right now.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, what's going on right now is that the U.N. has declared a famine in two parts of southern Somalia. As you say, the people there, it's no surprise to them, because they have been streaming across the border.
Some of them walking days, some of them weeks, to get here to the Dadaab the refugee camp. Now we spent the last few days here, Kyra. It's a desperate situation for people. They are people who have not had anywhere to actually set their lives together. They're not able to find proper shelter. They're often struggling to find food.
We even saw tragically a father burying his young child yesterday because they just couldn't get the help that they needed.
And now this famine situation means that the U.N. is really trying to push into Somalia to make sure that the al-Shabaab militant group, a group with links to al Qaeda, will in fact allow them a safe passage to help the people in the areas that they, in fact, control -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: So, David, you know, we've been talking about this constant stream of refugees crossing the border. Is there even space in these camps for the new arrivals?
MCKENZIE: Well, it's a good question, because this camp was designed for tens of thousands and now it's closer -- closer to 500,000, Kyra. And basically, what is happening is that people are coming across, they're taking any means, buses, by foot, taxis, they're ending up in this camp.
And initially, they just end up on the outskirts of the camp. They don't even have shelter. They use twigs, whatever they can find. A tarpaulin to sit underneath to survive.
There is, though, a brand-new camp ready for people to stream into but there's been political wrangling between the Kenyan government and the U.N. agencies. The Kenyans saying that they are afraid of the security situation if they, in fact, populate that camp.
And we were there. They had (INAUDIBLE) trees, they had a school, they even had a hospital ready to be opened. The next push here will be for that camp to open so that people can at least have some bit of dignity in their lives in this awful situation here in the Horn of Africa -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes, this story we'll continue to follow.
David McKenzie, thanks so much.
Well, kids celebrating in Memphis. That's because school won't be back in session until a whopping bill is paid to the school district. And it might surprise you who owes the money.
And forget E.F. Hutton. When Rupert Murdoch speaks, people listen. We'll tell you how investors around the world responded to his testimony.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking stories "Cross Country."
Kid in Memphis, Tennessee, may be doing a little celebrating today. That's because the school district is keeping schools close until the city ponies up 140 million bucks. Schools are scheduled to open August 8th.
In New York it's mangled and partially burned but the fire truck from Ladder Company 3 is returning to Ground Zero. It's been almost 10 years since it was used to respond to the scene of September 11th attacks. The truck is going to be permanently installed in the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
And talk about a close call. A woman had to be rescued from the Niagara River right near the falls. She'd been hiking along the shore and actually slipped into the water. Luckily for her there was a tour boat nearby that swooped in for the rescue. You know Rupert Murdoch called it the most humbling day of his life. But he didn't become a billionaire by apologizing, folks. He may have looked like an aging tycoon but in the end his appearance paid off.
Just when you thought the tanking News Corp stock was in freefall, take a look at the turnaround. News Corp's stock surged more than 5 percent while the Murdochs testified before members of parliament. In more simple terms, the company regained about $2 billion.
Jeffrey McCracken is a senior business writer with Bloomberg News and "Businessweek." He joins us from our New York bureau once again.
All right, Jeffrey, for full disclosure, I have egg on my face because I actually had the nerve to ask you yesterday, is it possible Murdoch could ever go broke? And, of course, now I know why you were laughing at me. That's why you're the business journalist.
So let's talk about just how significant this rebound is.
JEFFREY MCCRACKEN, SENIOR BUSINESS WRITER, BLOOMBERG NEWS AND BUSINESS WEEK: Good morning, Kyra. Thanks for having me.
Yes, obviously, any day you can return $2 billion back to your family and to your shareholders is a good day. They were down, as you said, I think between $6 and $8 billion. The market cap had tumbled since about the time of Fourth of July weekend. And there have been concern going into the -- into the testimony that perhaps it would continue to tumble further.
But as you point out, 5 percent -- it was up 5 percent during the course of the hearings. Sometimes you need to be cautious to attribute a rise or a fall to any one event. Overall the stock market had a great day so that of course helped News Corporation.
I think the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up a little over 200 points. So the best day of the year, and that, as I said, helps News Corporation, but there were no major stumbles, no major goof-ups if you will during the testimony. And if you listen to the financial community, the equity analysts and people that track Murdoch shares or News Corp shares, they were all quite favorable and felt like the company had side-stepped a potential landmine here.
PHILLIPS: And he was asked, you know, Mr. Murdoch -- would you resign? And he clearly said, no. So -- I mean, is it even worth asking, you know, did he save his job? I mean, his thinking, it seemed like he was -- his job was never at stake.
MCCRACKEN: Right, right. As we reported at "Bloomberg," there are independent directors that were concerned and probably continue to be concerned about Mr. Murdoch and whether is the right chief executive going forward.
I think we will not know how this will play out a little while longer. There are some potential land mines down the road. There is investigation the FBI is doing into alleged hacking of 9/11 families. There is also the issue of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
It's notable the independent directors at News Corp have hired their own attorneys, so perhaps to protect themselves, perhaps because they're concerned there's more liability to come. But at this point, I think it's safe to say that News Corporation had one of its best days in several weeks.
And, you know, being in the news business, you and I understand that oftentimes things are a big deal and, suddenly, they just -- they go away.
PHILLIPS: Yes.
MCCRACKEN: You know, you think a few years ago, everyone was all over AIG and then, it's gone. Everyone was all over Goldman Sachs, and then that story fades away. Or G.M. comes to D.C. looking for money and then that's gone.
So, this may well just fade away between debt ceiling issues and summer heat waves and, you know, August vacations.
PHILLIPS: And, you know, Jeffrey, I mean, this may not be the big bus story that we thought it was going to be. I mean, who knows, like you said, there's still, you know, more testimony down the road and other investigations.
But bottom line, it will be continued. It will I guess continue to be an issue when we are talking about blurring those lines about journalists and their sources and the issue of ethics.
MCCRACKEN: Right. No, I think you're right. I think that's probably why it's gotten as much attention as it has because we in media, people that do what I do, what you do, "The New York Times," and other outlets, we're all very focused on these issues. So, it's very interesting to us.
PHILLIPS: Definitely. Jeffrey McCracken, always great talking to you. Thanks again for joining me again, Jeff.
MCCRACKEN: Thanks again.
PHILLIPS: OK.
Well, she's been on "Sesame Street" and "Iron Chef." Now, first lady and TV pro, shall we say, Michelle Obama, is going to appear on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." We will have the details coming up.
All right. And a plug for a very new, exciting app. Actually, you can upgrade our free app. Grab your iPod and we can constantly be with you. You don't have to be at home. You don't have to have your TV on. You can actually live stream us.
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But all you'll have to do is press the live TV icon up top, hit CNN NEWSROOM. It's loading right now, of course. It worked perfectly before.
But basically you will be able to watch us wherever you go.
All right. Your showbiz headlines, Ashton Kutcher takes it off. It's the first ad for the retooled sitcom "Two and a Half Men." We'll have it after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Let's check in on showbiz, shall we?
Ashton Kutcher takes it off. It's the first ad for the retooled sitcom "Two and a Half Men." And the show's cast members nude -- wearing only a giant sign. How is that for a promotion?
Earlier this week, former "Men" star Charlie Sheen announced that he'd signed into a new sitcom, not yet sold to a network.
Well, no title yet, but the 23rd Bond film is set to hit theaters late next year. In it, Daniel Craig reuniting with character actor Rhys Ifans. The Welsh actor starred with Craig in a movie before where he played Craig's stalker, and well, they kissed.
ABC says Michelle Obama will guest star in "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." She's going to head to Fayetteville, North Carolina, to work on a center for homeless female veterans. Her episode airs in October.
And another big loss, shall we say, for the NBA. Less than two months after Shaq retired, fellow seven-footer Yao Ming is bowing out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YAO MING, RETIRING FROM NBA (through translator): Today, I need to make a personal decision as a possible as a player. I will stop my career, possible career, and I will formally retire today. Thinking of the back and thinking of the future, I have been very grateful. First of all, I need to be grateful to basketball. It has bring happiness to many people, including myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Ming is only 30. Pretty young retiree.
Mark McKay looks at his career and the injuries that actually have ended it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID STERN, NBA COMMISSIONER: With the first pick in the 2002 NBA draft, the Houston Rockets select Yao Ming from Shanghai, China.
MARK MCKAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Houston drafted Yao Ming, they believed he was the foundation of a bright future. During his rookie season, Yao played in every game, averaging more than 13 points and eight rebounds. He finished second in the voting for the Rookie of the Year Award and the Rockets improved their one-loss record from the previous year.
The 7'6" center was making a name for himself.
UNIDENTIFEID FEMALE: Yo!
YAO: Yao.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yo!
YAO: Yao!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo.
YAO: Can I write a check?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo.
YAO: Yao.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo.
YAO: Yao!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo!
YAO: Yao.
MCKAY: Over the next six seasons, Yao's numbers improved, and helped lead the team to the playoffs five times. Though they never got past the second round, his impact in raising the global profile of his team and the league was massive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His impact has really been on the game of basketball and the growth of the game of basketball and the growth of the NBA globally. He has taken the league to heights that they would never have realized without Yao Ming in China and, subsequently, he has boosted the Houston Rockets in the same fashion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He always had a tremendous impact and his impact has been both on and off the court. But, literally, there are millions of children that are inspired to play the game and he's broaden the audience for us.
MCKAY: But by his fourth year, Yao began suffering injuries to his legs and feet. After missing the entire 2009-2010 season, Yao's return of action in November lasted five games as he suffered another season-ending injury. With the recent reports that the 30-year-old is retiring, it appears it was a career-ending one.
Mark McKay, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Millennials also known as Generation Y, folks born roughly between 1977 and 1998. And when you combine marriage, children, buying a home with Internet addiction, when it comes to these folks, you've got a prime business opportunity.
Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange with more -- Alison.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Every generation gets a label. We have the baby boomers. The Gen-Xers. Now, the Gen Y, also called the millenials. And for businesses, Kyra, the trick is how to cash on each generation.
XO Group, that's a company owns the Web site The Knot, that's for weeding, the Bump, that's for babies, and The Nest, that's for homebuyers, this company says it's figured out what makes milllineals tick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLEY RONEY, XO GROUP CO-FOUNDER: Our business is about the young people coming of age. They are an important market for us. They are our market and they are a very different consumer.
They want things that are uniquely them, tailored just to them. They are not satisfied with taking something off the shelf. They need to customize it in some way.
And so, that expands from everything from their wedding to baby names that they choose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: The millennials are a huge potential market for XO. Only 20 percent of millennials are currently married, only a third have children. But more than 80 percent of this group, mostly now in their 20s, they say a successful marriage was either the most important thing to have in their life or very important.
Being a good parent is an even higher priority. Ninety-five percent say it's the most important or very important.
And they also want to own homes -- 73 percent are in the most important or very important range. And for each of these milestones, Kyra, what they want is information and lots of it -- Kyra.
All right. Let's talk more about the marriage aspect. You know? How are millennials changing the wedding business, you think?
KOSIK: Yes. Here's what's interesting. The planning is actually almost always done all online. The Knot says 91 percent of brides use the Internet to plan their weddings last year.
And weddings are bigger and more expensive than ever. The Knot say the average wedding cost almost $27,000 last year. And part of the reason is, these millennials, they want to personalize their weddings.
But David Liu points out, there's another reason for the bigger price tag.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LIU, XO GROUP CO-FOUNDRE: The millennials are getting married older. They had careers and salaries and they're taking control of their own budgets. And so, I think that's one of the key differences.
RONEY: Parents are still chipping in, probably about 40 percent of the weddings. But the couples themselves and even the groom's parents are now chipping in as well. So, it's kind of a three-way deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: And XO Group says once they hook the bride on The Knot, there's 40 percent chance they sign up with The Bump, the baby site, when the next milestone comes around -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Alison, thanks.
Well, let's make a deal. If the show were still around, it would be in perfect time for football season. NFL labor talks and cities feeling the financial fallout, we'll have the update, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking some of our top stories this morning:
A bipartisan deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling is feeling hopes the government won't run out of money on August 2nd. President Obama says the deadline is drawing close and congressional leaders need to talk turkey in today's meetings.
Most of the central U.S. is under a heat alert and dangerous temps will blanket the east by the end of the week. Some areas feel as hot as 126 degrees.
And Taliban is claiming U.S. hackers for a text that announce the death of its leader, Mullah Omar. Taliban says, nope, he is still alive and well.
One of the most talked about moments during Rupert Murdoch's testimony seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
PHILLIPS: Out of the crowd, a man lunges at Murdoch, flops him with a pie, but the attacker gets his just dessert. A swift smack- down as you can see right here from the not the brawny policeman, but actually Murdoch's young, feisty and very protective wife. That's her that you saw right there in the pink jacket.
So, we want to take a closer look at Wendi Deng Murdoch -- born in China, roughly half of his age. And it may not surprise you, given the force of the slap -- well, she was once a very good volleyball player.
Melinda Liu, the Beijing bureau chief for "Newsweek" as well as "The Daily Beast" actually profiled her in the article -- got to love this -- "Crouching Tiger and Flying Murdoch."
Melinda, obviously, this woman is no wallflower. But she is pretty accomplished in her own right. I mean, Yale is just one example.
MELINDA LIU, BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF, NEWSWEEK: She's very tough. She's very intelligent. She's as ruthless as any of the Murdochs.
I think she is someone that one should not underestimate.
PHILLIPS: And just to give a little context -- they met, I believe was it a party in Hong Kong? She was actually working for the tycoon?
LIU: Right. She was -- she managed to wangle an internship after graduating from Yale. At Star TV, which is the sort of flagship -- Murdoch's flagship in greater China. And she great crashed one of their annual parties where he was there and that was apparently their first meeting which was relatively brief. But, obviously, very memorable, because then she was his translator in China and in Hong Kong.
And she was part of a work delegation that went to London and they started seeing each other. And before you knew it, he was divorcing his second wife of 30 years -- and within a couple of weeks, marrying Wendi.
And it wasn't the only controversy sort of swirling around here. I mean, as a teenager, she was caught up in an affair with the goal of getting a green card?
LIU: Right. Well, she befriended an American couple in China, the Cherrys, and she was learning English. She actually spoke no English at all and she was learning English from both of them and she asked them to help her get to the States to study. And they did help her and she ended up living with them in California where she went to the University of California, Northridge, and it appears she was having an affair with the husband.
She later moved out. He divorced -- this man divorced his wife. She married Mr. Cherry and then they were also divorced. But they stayed married long enough so that she could get her green card.
PHILLIPS: And many people say she is really moderated Rupert's views, especially when it comes to women.
Melinda Liu, Beijing bureau chief for "Newsweek" -- enjoy your work. Thanks for talking with us today.
LIU: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: You bet.
Well, tonight, NFL players will vote on a collective bargaining agreement to end the four-month-long NFL lockout. But even if the lockout comes to an end, it won't change the fate of towns across the country hit hard by the lockout's economic impact.
CNN Money's Poppy Harlow is live in New York with more.
Hey, Poppy.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hey, Kyra. That's exactly right. You know, a lot of these teams have been sort of sitting on pins and needles for four months, not knowing what is next. So, a lot of them have canceled their training camps. And you might think, well, they can just practice somewhere else.
But I got to tell you: this matters in a major way for a lot of small towns across America. The New York Jets, they canceled their training camp in Cortland, New York. So, we went up there. It's about fours hours outside of New York City -- tiny town, population 19,000. They love having the Jets there.
We want to see what kind of economic impact it has on this town and it was a lot bigger than what I expected. Take a listen to what some of the business owners that looked so forward to having the Jet this year, what they had to say about what it means to them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
BRET HARTMAN, CORTLAND, N.Y. RESIDENT: It was heartbreaking, you know? We got 250-pound pro athletes walking down the street and it's amazing, you know? And they are in your restaurant and they're ordering chicken wings and hanging out eating pizza and talking to you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America loves football and we really missed out big time.
HARLOW: Tell me what the moment was like when you found out the Jets were bringing their training camp here.
MARK BRAUN, DOUG'S FISH FRY OWNER: Well, I think my jaw just dropped. It's been my favorite team for years, over 30 years. I mean, I just can't even explain the emotion.
HARTMAN: Anticipated 20 percent loss. We're talking, you know, millions of dollars for these small businesses that at a time of year are struggling to get any dollar they can.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HARLOW: And it also comes down to jobs, Kyra. A lot of those businesses bring on extra employees to handle all of the players and their families. And the 41,000 fans that come to that tiny town just to watch the practice.
We asked the Jets, why did you cancel? They said, look, during the lockout, we didn't have the months of planning it takes to bring our team up there. They are going to extend their contract and go back there, though, next year. But, again, a big blow for these tiny towns, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes. I mean, what kind of loss are we talking about? I mean, for example, Cortland, New York. It's not the only one being hit by the lockout.
HARLOW: It's not -- $5.8 million dollars. That number, almost $6 million, is what this little town brought in last year because of this training camp. You bring in 41,000 spectators. They eat out. They stay at hotels.
And the other cities that are looking at this right now. You got the Baltimore Ravens. They're not going to their training camp this year in Maryland. That's going to be a loss of $2.2 million in Westminster, Maryland. And New York Giants, they're not training in Albany, New York. That's going to be $1 million loss at least for the state's capital. The Minnesota Vikings is talking about not training in Mankato.
So, this is the fallout. But even if we see a deal from the NFL players and if the owners agree tomorrow, these small towns aren't going to get that money back. And that's why the New York attorney general is investigating this to see if there's any antitrust issues here and what they can do to get money back to these businesses.
So, of course, we'll follow that and see what happens with that investigation -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Poppy, thanks.
After all the press conferences and secret meetings, all of the political peacocking, we still don't have a debt deal. L.Z. Granderson says, though, it's easy enough to solve this problem -- bring in more women into these discussions. He is going to talk about his piece on CNN.com next.
And, don't forget, if you're walking away from the TV, it doesn't mean you have to stop watching. You can take me with you. Here you go.
As you can see, there's a little bit of a delay here, all right? You can get CNN streaming live on your phone, computer, iPad. Check out CNN.com/video or just download the free app and go.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. We're just two weeks away from the deadline and still no debt deal. But L.Z. Granderson has the answer. He says there's been press conferences, secret meetings, gall goal touting, walk-outs, finger-waggling. What there hasn't been are enough female voices.
L.Z.'s new piece is on CNN.com.
And, L.Z., you're just preaching for the female choir here. Why do you think I got so many women on my team? I mean, I got Pam Stephie (ph), I got Rebecca Keeler (ph), my E.P. Let me tell you one thing, they know how to battle for resources and they could get this debt deal done.
(LAUGHTER)
L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN.COM CONTRIBUTOR: I bet they could.
PHILLIPS: Tell me why you're so pro-woman.
GRANDERSON: I'm pro-woman because I feel that when you look at the numbers, the hard numbers in Congress right now and nearly 85 percent are men and 230-plus years and only 260 women as congresswomen. I just see it as untapped resource.
And as the nation is being faced with some unprecedented questions, I think we need to take a more conscious look as to how we're coming up with those answers.
And just on a vigil, you look and you're going -- well, the country's mostly is women. There are more women with degrees than men. Maybe we should be looking at this intellectual resource and tapping into it.
PHILLIPS: Yes, point well-made. You also point on the neuroscience. I love this. I mean, I love your thinking here. Make that argument.
GRANDERSON: Well, I mean, it's not even my argument. It's what the science --
PHILLIPS: It's the fact.
GRANDERSON: It's the fact. You know, men -- which I'm a proud member of -- we're left brain dominant, which means we're very task- oriented. But it also means that we don't do a very good job of using both sides of our brains equally.
Neuroscience proves that women are, and thus, they are more creative in terms of problem solving. They are more prone to be better communicators. And they also just seem to be more willing to want to not have a fight or flight response when it comes to stress.
And, again, that's the science. That's not opinion.
PHILLIPS: All right. Basically, bottom line, you're saying Nancy Pelosi needs a little bit more support here?
(LAUGHTER)
GRANDERSON: Well, I think all women need a little bit more support. I think men need to start looking at women as viable resources intellectually and I think women need to start looking at each other as leaders and not as, I guess, insecure or in need of a man in order to make a proper decision. That they have power in themselves.
PHILLIPS: L.Z., love your piece and love you. And if you'd like to read L.Z.'s column. Of course, just go to CNN.com/opinion. You can weigh in and have a conversation with him.
It has to be L.A.'s most exclusive dining spots. I'm going to tell you how these folks managed to dine uninterrupted on one of the country's busiest freeways.
And you can call them the calorie cops. I'm going to talk to our medical correspondent about how their work actually found some pretty misleading menus.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Take a look at this salad here. It is supposed to have 376 calories according to the restaurant's Web site. How much did it actually have? I'll tell you soon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking stories across the country.
Let's get to Minnesota. Things could be returning to normal after a nearly three-week government shutdown. The legislature approved the last of a dozen bills that completed a new budget deal between the Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers; 22,000 state workers were out of a job during that shutdown.
In northeastern Ohio, near record rainfall flooding out homes and roads. The storms also brought damaging winds and lightning. About 10,000 people were left without power and the Akron Airport actually was closed for just a few hours after the main terminal was flooded.
And take a look at this. It's a lovely little dinner for three at one of Los Angeles most exclusive dining spots, the middle of 405 Freeway. Matt Corrigan (ph) and his wife and a friend decided what the heck, let's set up dinner while the highway is being closed for construction.
Some folks in L.A. were calling it "Carmageddon" but the traffic nightmare never really materialized and hey, not a bad place to dine. Great view.
All right, there is a special squad of undercover agents out there looking out for your health. They are called Calorie Cops. A team from Tufts University has been trying to find out how many calories are really in the restaurant food that we eat.
Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen to tell us well, maybe we shouldn't always believe what we read on the menus. Is that the case?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. You go to the menus and if you're lucky enough there's a calorie count there or you go on the Web site and you see calories for a certain dish you want to order and you trust them, right? I mean, they're there. You assume that they're right.
So folks at Tufts University decided to test restaurants -- like 200 and something dishes that really -- you know, popular restaurants that we go to all the time. And they found they were way off. Like some of them were off by 200 calories; some of them by 300 calories. One of them was even a thousand calories off.
PHILLIPS: Oh my God.
COHEN: So they can actually take the food and bring it into the lab. Many of them were right but many of them were really wrong.
PHILLIPS: I hope that wasn't the salad.
COHEN: No, that wasn't the salad. That wasn't the salad.
PHILLIPS: Ok, but it turns out though, when you think you're ordering healthy like a salad sometimes it has more calories than a dish that maybe you would assume, you know, has --
COHEN: Yes, they found more incorrect or what they say are incorrect calorie counts in salads than in anything else which is really a problem because you eat the salad because you think it is low calorie.
So for example, here is a salad from Outback Steak House. Is a side wedge with blue cheese dressing and it was 659 calories, it's about 659 calories more when they tested it than what it said on the Web site.
PHILLIPS: Well, that's the dressing right? That's what actually so fattening.
COHEN: Well that's the thing is that their supposed to service certain amount of dressings.
PHILLIPS: Ok.
COHEN: But let's say you're -- you know, sitting at the table and the guy is shaking it on back in the kitchen. You don't know how much he is putting on.
PHILLIPS: Yes.
COHEN: He may be putting on more than he's supposed to or for example take a look at this if you can get in tight. There's all the bacon and blue cheese. So all you need if someone puts an extra handful of those into your salad.
PHILLIPS: And you're done.
COHEN: Yes.
PHILLIPS: What are the restaurants saying about this?
COHEN: Well, Outback says that they suspected Tufts tested their entre side salad and not their side salad and Tufts said no, we know how to order, we ordered it right. And restaurants are saying, look, people -- these are handmade, these are all handmade from scratch and so when you order something the guy -- again the guy in the kitchen may be putting on a little more or a little less of the dressing than what we planned for him to put on and they say that is where the variation comes in.
PHILLIPS: All right, watching what we eat. Thanks Elizabeth.
COHEN: So order things on the side.
PHILLIPS: Ok. On the side.
COHEN: Keep going on the side and you can't lose.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thank you.
Well, coming up Wendi Murdoch gets the jump on the pie guy and her husband's bodyguard.
We'll get Jeanne Moos' take on the smack down heard around the world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right, checking stories making news today. Gabrielle Giffords staff and members of Zimmerman's family will be on Capitol Hill for a press conference. Zimmerman worked for Giffords and is the first congressional staff member to ever be killed in the line of duty.
A Los Angeles county judge will consider a prosecution request to delay the start of the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's doctor. They want another three weeks to prepare. The trial has already been delayed twice since Conrad Murray's arraignment in January.
And the Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly Fort Hood shooting nearly two years ago will be arraigned. In his first courtroom appearance since being told he faced the death penalty, Nidal Hasan is accused of killing 12 and injuring 31 at Fort Hood in November of 2009.
All right. We're following lots of developments in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's check in first with Brianna Keilar -- Brianna.
KEILAR: Kyra, the White House is pushing another huge deficit reduction package, but will it take anything less than a miracle to reach a deal on something like this before we hit the debt ceiling August 2nd? I'll have the -- I'll have details on that at the top of the hour. COHEN: I'm Elizabeth Cohen in Atlanta. Michele Bachmann says she suffers from migraines. How might that impact the job she could do as president. I'll have that at the top of the hour.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Martin Savidge. Borders Books is going out of business. The loss of 11,000 jobs, the closing of hundreds of stores, but what does it mean for the future of reading? Could it be the end of books as we know it? I'll have the story.
PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh, and the book you chose, Marty. We'll have to talk about that. Thanks guys.
Also ahead, it sounds like something from the "Men in Black" movies, the Fourth Bureau. But this little known credit agency could be what stands between you and your next loan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Time now for "The Big Play".
First it was Shaq, now another big man exits the NBA, eight-time all-star and 7'6" pro basketballer Yao Ming announced his retirement this morning in Shanghai. The long-time Houston Rocket has been hobbled with injuries for the past two years. Yao Ming hanging it up at 30 years old.
Who knows? Maybe Yao was trading in the jersey for the microphone like Shaq. The Diesel making his debut last night on our sister network and it's NBA TV show. He dissed the Miami Heat's so- called big three by subtracting Chris Bosh from the mix. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, NBA TV ANALYST: So the Miami Heat got a lot of great players. You know, the big two, they will be back. Lebron James has taken a lot of criticism. But I know Lebron very well, you know. He hears everything that everyone is saying. So I think he's going to come back and have the MVP of the year this year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Not bad for a Rookie. Shaq, no word from the forgotten Chris Bosh.
Couples supposed to have each other's back, stand up for each other, defend them. Well, we know one wife who takes that very seriously. Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wendi Murdoch was easy to pick out in pink. When you're 38 years younger than your husband, it's nice to rub his back and pour him water before he testifies. She even restrained him when he pounded the table too much.
But she didn't restrain herself when this happened. An activist pulled a foam-filled plastic pie plate out of a plastic bag. Some of that foam landed on CNN producer Jonathan Wald as the attacker --
JONATHAN WALD, CNN PRODUCER: Plunges it squarely into the face of Rupert Murdoch.
MOOS: And that's when his wife Wendi whacked the guy, even picked up the plate.
WALD: Hit him back with it. It was all extremely dramatic.
MOOS: Sort of reminds us of the woman who used her purse to try to knock the gun out of a hostage-taker's hand at a school board meeting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the weapon.
MOOS: Apart from the shaving cream, all Rupert Murdoch got was a tongue-lashing from his attacker.
WALD: "You're a greedy billionaire."
MOOS: The activist who British media identified as Johnnie Marbles had just sent a tweet saying, "It is a far better thing that I do now than I have ever done before. Hash tag, splat."
(on camera): It may have been more than a close shave for Rupert Murdoch, but at least he avoided major embarrassment by getting his face full off camera.
(voice-over): Unlike pie targets like Ann Coulter --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh.
MOOS: And Ralph Nader who managed to throw his pie back at his attacker. Bill Gates got splattered and then his image got splattered for eternity all over the Internet.
Anita Bryant got pied by a gay demonstrator.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At least it's a fruit pie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's pray for him right now.
MOOS: First her husband prayed for the attacker, then he went outside and splattered him back.
Wendi Murdoch was praised by a member of parliament.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your wife has a very good left hook.
MOOS: Or was it her right? Regardless, a prankster temporarily changed her Wikipedia entry to say, "Wendi used her ninja background to ward off an attacker. The move is now being referred to as the Crouching Wendi, Hidden Dragon."
After the attack, Wendi carefully cleaned off her husband.
WALD: Carefully wiping the foam off his jacket and his face. She was smiling and seemed quite happy that she had managed to score a blow.
MOOS: We watched her crossing her arms and crossing her legs, but it was the right cross we won't forget.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
