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American Morning
New York City Transit Workers Threaten Partial Strike; Congress Votes on Patriot Act
Aired December 16, 2005 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Good morning, welcome everybody. I guess if you're just rolling out - if you're sleeping in, you're probably worried about the prospects.
MILES O'BRIEN: For us, this would be sleeping in for sure.
S. O'BRIEN: It's been a little bit of good news, because there's a partial strike and it actually is affecting bus lines in Queens so there are still trains and buses running and that's really important.
M. O'BRIEN: But the big question of course as people decide whether or not to go to work is will there be a way to get home?
The bus and subway standoff in New York City is what we're talking about. Transit workers now calling for a partial strike, but a lot of confusion over when this strike would actually begin.
Allan Chernoff at Penn station hoping to sort some things out for us. Allan, what do we know?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN BUSINESS NEWS: Well Miles, first of all, let's be clear that the subways and the city buses are running, no strike just yet against those.
The issue here is two private bus lines, the Jamaica and Triboro bus lines that serve the borough of Queens.
Now there is confusion all about this because union officials initially had said that the strike would begin right after this morning's rush hour. I checked with the general manager of Triboro Bus and he actually said no, that's not the case.
In fact, the shop stewards over there have been saying that the strike would begin on Sunday evening, and the word being sent out to the bus drivers is complete your lines, keep going, no change today whatsoever.
Now we have word from a union official that in fact the strike will begin over the next couple of days. So in the rush of all the breaking news here it seems confusion within the union ranks, but it appears that this strike against two private bus lines would begin Sunday evening.
And these two lines serve between 55 and 60,000 commuters coming in from Queens into Manhattan and also within the borough of Queens. And Miles, as you know, the transit union has rejected the latest offer from the Metropolitan Transit Authority. So they still do have to work out a deal - Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Okay. So it's not quite as grim as we initially thought. We had the sense listening to that announcement that it might be an immediate walk out. That's good news.
Why are they going after these private buses first, Allan? Tell us about the strategy here.
CHERNOFF: A very good question and it's a very interesting strategy by the union.
Because these employees, since these companies are still private, they will be required by the MTA next year - but since they're still private they're not covered by New York State's tailor law therefore it is not illegal for these employees to strike, so they won't be penalized.
Whereas employees of the MTA, civil employees, they would be penalized under the tailor law and they would be penalized two days pay for every day that they strike. Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Allan Chernoff, great job clearing things up for us. We appreciate that. We'll be back with you in just a little bit. Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Bit of shocking news out of Iraq now.
Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the most wanted terrorist in that country, suspected of ordering suicide attacks and carrying out bombings and abductions and beheadings - the list kind of goes on and on - well, now CNN is told that Iraqi security had Zarqawi in their hands and then let him go by mistake.
Aneesh Raman live for us in Baghdad this morning. Aneesh, how did this happen?
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Soledad, we're trying to get as much info as we can, but essentially we only know that headline.
It came late yesterday to CNN from the deputy minister of interior here in Iraq who said at some point last year, Iraqi security forces had Abu Musab Al Zarqawi in custody and they let him go because they did not know his identity.
Now he avoided answering the obvious follow-ups. How did this happen? When did this happen?
But we do know from a U.S. official we've spoken to that while they can't confirm it, the incident, as the minister is describing it is, according to the U.S. official, quote, plausible.
So again we're trying to figure out more info. We do know of other incidents where Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was almost in custody, but this seems to be the closest to them having had him and let him go, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, shocking news Awun (ph). Details will be interesting on that, Aneesh. Let's talk a little bit about the election. It's only the beginning. A really long process now follows to get the government in place.
How does that look?
RAMAN: It is. It's going to require the patience of Iraqis. It'll take some two weeks, we're told, until the voting will actually be - the election results will actually be certified.
The counting got underway just after polls closed. Of course up for grabs, 275 seats in this Council of Representatives. It's the equivalent of the House of Representatives back in the U.S.
Each of the 18 provinces has a base number of seats, but after the election results are certified, it could be weeks if not a month or two before a prime minister is named - that because no one list will have an absolute majority, the two-thirds of the seats.
So a coalition will have to be formed, a compromise will have to be used by the politicians, something they haven't done quite - they haven't done a lot of yet, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman for us this morning in Baghdad. Aneesh thanks.
CNN has special coverage of this turning point in Iraq. Its on ANDERSON COOPER 360. He's live from Iraq, 10 p.m. Eastern. Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Some questions this morning about the legality of spying on Americans.
"The New York Times" says President Bush signed an order that gives secret agents the power to eavesdrop on American citizens without court approval.
Kathleen Koch live at the White House with more on this. Kathleen, is (ph) the administration responded yet on this?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have, Miles, and it's a very dramatic charge that they have to respond to - that Americans' international e-mails, international phone calls, have basically been fair game for spying by the National Security Agency since 9/11.
Now this according to a report in "The New York Times" that says that this occurred because of a presidential order that was signed by Mr. Bush in the months after 9/11.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to the question on ABC News this morning.
She did not confirm the report, but she explained that after 9/11 the president was faced with, quote, "new and difficult circumstances," saying, quote, "Everything that the president could do to protect the country he did, but he did it within the law and he did it with healthy respect for the civil liberties that are at the core of who we are and what we represent."
And Secretary Rice added that those who are working conducting intelligence activities in the United States also acted within the law.
Now this occurs at a very difficult time. Right now the Senate is due today to debate extending several provisions of the Patriot Act that will be expiring at the end of the year within a few weeks.
The president will be meeting with some of those senators who will be making that critical vote today in the White House in about an hour. Back to you.
M. O'BRIEN: Kathleen Koch at the White House. Thank you very much.
The day after elections in Iraq, crucial elections, and reports of additional violence, Carol Costello with that. Carol good morning.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, Miles, we have reports of several explosions reportedly near the highly secure Green Zone in Baghdad.
Police say the blasts were near the interior ministry, but there's no word yet on casualties or what caused those blasts.
In the meantime, Iraqis are busy counting millions of ballots one day after historic parliamentary elections in the country. It's expected the final vote count won't be known for another two weeks.
We're learning a little bit more about the Southwest Airlines runway incident at Chicago's Midway Airport. Investigators say the jet needed about 800 more feet to land safely.
The plane skidded onto a street, killing a six-year-old boy riding in a car with his family. A possible tail wind also being looked at as a possible cause for this accident.
Fire crews in Texas are at the sight of a massive fire. It's burning about 60 miles west of Fort Worth.
According to WFAA, authorities are now saying the fire was caused by an explosion at a natural gas well. There are reports that at least one worker at a nearby drilling rig was slightly injured. The fires are said to be under control.
It is a mess outside in much of the east. Take a look at this accident. This is a FedEx truck. It slid off the highway in the D.C. area.
Farther south, much of the same nasty weather. Workers earlier today were spreading rice over the interstate highways all the way through Atlanta.
Several accidents are to blame on slick roads and take a look at that back - oh, it's ugly, Jacqui.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: You're a busy lady these days, Jacqui. Thank you.
The federal government tells Al Sharpton to pay up and he will. The former Democratic presidential candidate has agreed to repay $100,000 his campaign got from the public financing program.
The Federal Election Commission says Sharpton exceeded the limits on using personal money in the 2004 race.
Donald Trump has a new apprentice. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP: Rebecca, you're outstanding. Randal, you're hired.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: What? You were expecting the old line, "You're fired?" Well not this time. And it's a good thing for Randal Pinkitt, The Donald's new apprentice.
He's getting a six-figure salary to re-model Trump's Atlantic City casinos. And you know our senior producer Ted Fine (ph) TiVos "The Apprentice" and I guess I gave it away. Ted, I'm sorry.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, yawn, who cares? I mean is anybody watching "The Apprentice" these days?
COSTELLO: Wow, that's cold. Ted is.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm sure Mr. Pinkett's a wonderful guy, congratulations, but -
M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's better than the Martha Stewart version, put it that way.
S. O'BRIEN: That's true.
M. O'BRIEN: Wouldn't she like -
S. O'BRIEN: Always looking for that whole silver lining.
M. O'BRIEN: Former apprentice, so sorry, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda.
S. O'BRIEN: I always liked "you're fired," that slogan. That's was kind of the best thing about the show.
M. O'BRIEN: Who wants a kinder, gentler Donald? S. O'BRIEN: Yeah!
M. O'BRIEN: That's no fun.
Coming up on the program, Congress votes to spend $3 billion to fix New Orleans' levees, but is that enough?
The proverbial drop in the bucket, perhaps? And would that system withstand a Category Five? Not likely.
S. O'BRIEN: Also this morning, folks, Arlo Guthrie is going to join us live; tell us why he's riding the rails to try to help New Orleans recover.
M. O'BRIEN: And later two newlyweds who are truly a perfect match. Before the groom gave his bride his heart, he gave her his kidney. Quite literally.
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: More money, better levees, the Bush administration has announced a timeline for rebuilding New Orleans' levees and some guidelines on just how strong they think they should be.
The cost now over $3 billion. Let's get right Alina Cho this morning; she is live at the 17th Street levee in New Orleans. Hey, Alina, good morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning to you.
The federal government has made a major commitment to rebuild the levees here in New Orleans, but the big question remains, will they be strong enough to withstand another powerful hurricane?
Well that depends on who you ask.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The levee system will be better and safer than it has ever been before.
CHO (voice-over): The president's point man for reconstruction delivered a White House promise for an additional $1.5 billion, $3.1 billion in all, to rebuild the city's flood defenses, before the next hurricane season in June, if Congress approves the spending.
Breaches will be repaired, concrete and stone will reinforce the existing levee system, and state-of-the-art pumping stations will be built.
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, who has lobbied hard for federal help, was pleased.
RAY NAGIN, MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: If another Katrina hit New Orleans, and this system was put in place, we wouldn't have the devastation and the amount of flooding that we had with this last storm. That makes me feel very - a lot better.
CHO: It was the catastrophic failure of the levees that left 80 percent of the city under water.
Katrina hit New Orleans as a Category Three hurricane, and people here want a levee system that's not just fixed, but improved.
One that can withstand the most powerful storm, a Category Five.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And bringing it back to pre-Katrina is only going to give us at best protection for a Category Two or maybe a fast-moving Three. If we had a slow-moving Category Three pass west of the city, we could still well flood the whole city.
CHO: Still, officials see the White House action as a victory for the state.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three billion dollars is a good down payment on our future. We have to have a beginning, and it's a great beginning.
NAGIN: This commitment, this action today, says come home to New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (on camera): There is no doubt that state and local officials consider this a victory, but certainly a modest one. What you hear over and over again is that this is a good start, a good beginning.
But Soledad, as one official said, there is still a long way to go.
S. O'BRIEN: Is there a sense of what it'll take to protect the city against a Category Five hurricane? Because to some degree when we hear from these press conference, no one's really addressing that issue.
CHO: Well, they were asked several times and you're absolutely right, they would not give a straight answer about that; but certainly it's going to take more money, Soledad.
And perhaps a lot more time. I mean the price tag that we're hearing is $30 billion to shore up the levees to withstand a Category Five hurricane, and that $30 billion price tag, by the way, is 10 times the amount of money the federal government has promised so far.
S. O'BRIEN: Yeah, everybody is doing that math. All right, Alina Cho for us in New Orleans. Alina thanks.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, a newlywed couple that was even more of a perfect match than either of them realized. He gave her his kidney and then his heart.
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: In this weeks extra effort, a Tennessee couple truly a perfect match.
Tamika Dobbins (ph) suffers from lupus. She needed a kidney transplant. A dozen family members tried but failed to provide a match and that's when Dasha Reed (ph), a technician at the kidney dialysis center in Memphis decided to donate his own kidney.
Before long, it was a love match. And they were just married, two years to the day after the successful transplant.
Recently I had a chance to talk to them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Thanks very much for being with us; congratulations on the wedding, guys.
First let's talk about when you first met each other.
Dasha, as I understand it, you were not a big supporter of the notion of giving your organs for a possible transplant, either while living or after you pass away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a giving person, but I just really didn't want to do it, because I didn't want anything to happen to me, first of all, as far as, you know, something happen later down the road as far as my other kidney going out or anything like that.
So I was always cautious of that. And, you know, it just freaked me out every time I thought about it. So that was - that's the story on that.
M. O'BRIEN: Now, Tamika, were you aware of that? Did you have any sort of discussion about this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was telling him how my father was going to donate his kidney to me and how family members had been tested and he was like, wow, that's great, but I'm keeping everything with me when I go to heaven.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, so what - Dasha - what changed your mind?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seeing Tamika as, you know, being on dialysis, striving real hard as far as her schoolwork and, you know, she was a real - a very hard worker even though the ups and downs of dialysis as far as blood pressure problems, you know, all of the different things.
She was still striving to get her schoolwork done and was a straight A student. And, you know, it really touched me. It really, really touched me.
M. O'BRIEN: So while you're thinking about that, Tamika, you're getting the word that your father would not be a suitable donor so you went through the complete depths of despair at that point.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.
M. O'BRIEN: And meanwhile, Dasha, you're thinking about doing something wonderful. So Dasha, you found out you're a good match and you decided to make this great commitment.
And you decided to give her your kidney before you gave her your heart so to speak, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.
M. O'BRIEN: How did it evolve from donating a kidney to true love?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa -
M. O'BRIEN: I guess that's a hard one to tell in the short period of time, isn't it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, she was - I mean, you know, she was just such a great person, you know? And it was an easy transition, you know?
Someone like her, just was, you know, striving so hard, you know, it made me just really, really want to give her a kidney and, you know, and it was so easy to fall in love with a person like that. You know? She is so great. It was so easy.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow. That - you shared more than most couples ever share - you got married on the 2nd anniversary of the transplant. Everybody is doing fine.
Tamika, what's the moral of the story?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The moral of the story to me is always be aware of what you're doing and just be yourself at all times because you really never know who's watching you.
And just remain calm and stay prayerful. And God will work things out.
Because I had no idea he was watching me like he was and he knew how dedicated I was to finishing school and the type of person I was until he decided to donate the kidney to me.
M. O'BRIEN: Great happy ending.
All right, we wish you well in your life together. Tamika and Dasha Reed. Congratulations.
Tamika: Thank you. (END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN (on camera): Aren't they a nice couple?
S. O'BRIEN: Yeah, how cute.
M. O'BRIEN: What a great story.
S. O'BRIEN: Yeah, that is a wonderful story. Good news.
M. O'BRIEN: Just a little bit I'm going to talk to folk singer Arlo Guthrie. He made the train - remember the song? Well, that's "Alice's Restaurant."
That's his other big one. "City of New Orleans" is his other big one. About a train headed down to New Orleans, so he's riding that same train to the Crescent City as part of the effort to recover that city.
He'll join us live ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
S. O'BRIEN: Hey that's not, "Turkey in the Straw." No it's not.
It's the JibJab Brothers -- they've got their new year in review; this one focuses on President Bush.
It made its debut on Thursday and, as you can tell, it's set to "Turkey in the Straw," and then a little bit later goes into "Auld Lang Syne" as well.
Hear the whole thing at jibjab.com.
M. O'BRIEN: You know, it's good, it's funny. But it's hard to beat that first one.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, the John Kerry one?
M. O'BRIEN: "This Land is Your Land."
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, gosh. That was funny.
M. O'BRIEN: Part of it because it was just so new, but it's still funny.
S. O'BRIEN: We try to show off their work every once in a while.
Ahead this morning, Howard Stern packing up his stuff, says so long to free radio today, the self-proclaimed king of all media is moving to Sirius Satellite.
Will his fans pay to hear him? We'll take look at that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: What a beautiful shot. First the skyline, absolutely gorgeous. And then moving traffic, even better on a Friday morning.
We love to see that here in New York. Welcome back everybody.
Really just a few moments away from the opening bell ringing on Wall Street. Talk about the Dow Jones. Can we take you there this morning? Yes, no? There we go - there it is.
The Dow Jones Industrial average starts trading at 10,881. Down less than two points on Thursday.
M. O'BRIEN: And the question is are traders there on the floor bullish about their return home today on the New York City transit system?
S. O'BRIEN: And they are.
I mean I think that considering that it looks like a limited strike, a transit strike, over the one that was threatened, which was an overwhelming strike that would have effected 7 million riders of the subway and the buses, yeah, overall turned out to be a limited strike and of course that could grow as sort of a threat right now.
And that's the NASDAQ we were showing.
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