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American Morning
Paying Too Much?; Tram Rescue; Duke Arrests; State of Mind
Aired April 19, 2006 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTOPHER KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Christopher King on Roosevelt Island in New York City where passengers stuck on a tram since yesterday afternoon have been rescued. I'll have that story coming up.
BRIANNA KEILER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Brianna Keiler in Washington. What's with the spike in gas prices? I'll tell you what it means for you at the gas pump.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Will a third person be arrested in the Duke rape investigation? I'm Alina Cho in Durham, North Carolina with that story.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Severe weather still rolling through parts of the country. Nashville, you're not too far from a very severe storm, not that far from Clarksville this morning. More weather coming up this afternoon as well. Stay tuned.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And strange bedfellows. In Hollywood, two mothers give birth on the same day. Their Tom Cruise connection puts them at opposite ends of the nursery, if you will.
Good Wednesday morning to you, I'm Miles O'Brien.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen in for Soledad.
O'BRIEN: We begin this morning with a fill up of news that will make you wince, rising gas prices poised for a shift into overdrive. But is it a simple case of supply and demand or are oil companies jacking up prices illegally? Oil prices skyrocketing overnight in trading, going up to record levels, down a little, but then still on the north side of $70 a barrel. Big numbers, but still shy of the inflation-adjusted peak. But we may one day -- we are one world crisis or one big hurricane from a new record.
CNN's Brianna Keiler live in Washington for us this morning.
Good morning, -- Brianna.
KEILER: Good morning, Miles.
It appears there will be no respite, at least in the foreseeable future, from these high prices. And that's certainly not what drivers want to hear with this heavy-travel season upon us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KEILER (voice-over): Gas prices are going from bad to worse. Crude oil hit a record high Tuesday, settling at more than $71 a barrel, and pushing the average price of regular unleaded to $2.79 a gallon.
SARA WEIS, AAA: We think you know that gas prices are probably going to continue to increase for the next 30 or 40 days.
KEILER: Without relief in sight, gas prices have become a hot political topic.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Are they doing this dictated by the laws of supply and demand or is something else at work?
KEILER: New York Democrat Charles Schumer wants the Federal Trade Commission to investigate if oil companies are withholding gas production to drive up prices.
President Bush is pointing to market factors as the culprit.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One, the increase of the price of crude oil. Secondly, there is increasing demand. Thirdly, we're switching fuel mixes.
KEILER: Industry analysts agree.
DAVID SANDALOW, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: The biggest factor in the price increase right now is supply and demand. There is a huge increase in demand in China and in the United States.
KEILER: Some OPEC ministers say they do not have the capacity to increase oil production. For now it appears drivers will just have to make due.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to drive to work every day, so it's kind of a necessity, and you can't really get around that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILER: AAA says we could see the average for a gallon of gas jump to about $3 this summer. And one expert is predicting it could go as high as $3.50 in some areas.
Brianna Keiler, CNN, Washington.
O'BRIEN: Ouch, $3.50.
Thank you, Brianna.
Getting a little more painful perspective on all of this, in case you need it, with gas prices at $2.79, not $3.50 here, $2.79 a gallon, we're paying $212 million more per day, collectively, than we were a year ago.
NGUYEN: Wow!
O'BRIEN: That's some real money.
Higher fuel prices also doing a number on the airline industry, of course already on the ropes with huge labor costs and issues there. Expect airlines to jack up ticket prices to pay their growing fuel bills.
NGUYEN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Now among the factors at play here at this time of year, the federal government now mandates a change in the formulation of fuel to try to reduce ozone smog levels in the summer. The ethanol that is added in apparently is in short supply and that is further pushing up the price per gallon -- Betty.
NGUYEN: In New York, rescued at last. Take a look at this. Within the past hour, the last few passengers trapped on a tram were pulled out to safety. Dozens were stuck in the sky for nearly 12 hours.
Christopher King is live on Roosevelt Island where one of the trams was headed.
Christopher, good morning, finally those folks are out of there.
KING: Well, Betty, imagine being stuck on one of these trams, you're dangling up in the air hundreds of feet above the ground, above the water for hours.
I want to show you something right now. Let's take a look up here, if we can, I want to show you one of the trams. It's moving right now very slowly back over to Roosevelt Island. It's just across the East River from Manhattan.
Rescue teams did get down all 68 passengers safely on the ground. The New York City Police Department had to attach a rescue basket, that's a diesel-powered gondola, to these lines. They slowly took down all the passengers. The people headed to Roosevelt Island were rescued in five separate trips. The passengers headed to Manhattan came down with the help of a large industrial crane.
Now we spoke with a boy who was on one of these trams. He was stuck along with his babysitter. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAX MAIER, RESCUED: My babysitter and mom both hated the tram. So since this happened, my babysitter decided now we're taking the train.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now two of the passengers rescued were infants. They are both about a year old.
This trip normally takes about four minutes to go back and forth -- to go from either Roosevelt Island or to Manhattan, but the passengers were stuck up there for hours.
Now they had been stranded since about 5:00 yesterday afternoon. They came down -- the tram, rather, came to a halt after power went out, after the system lost power. Engineers tried to restart it but with no luck. Now police and Mayor Michael Bloomberg say this problem appears to be mechanical -- Betty.
NGUYEN: All right, mechanical. But, Christopher, this is the second time in eight months the tram has been stuck, so that's got to be raising a lot of questions about safety.
KING: Yes, that's a real question. That's a real problem, of course. This tram was -- the power did stop the tram sometime last year and an engineer actually had to be flown in by chopper to restart that tram. That was for that time. This time, of course, they had to of course bring the people down by gondolas and with the help of a crane.
As I had said before, the tram is slowly moving right now. It's going back into the station in Roosevelt Island, but it appears as though it's going to take some time to find out exactly how this all happened.
NGUYEN: Christopher King on Roosevelt Island.
Thank you, Christopher.
And we're going to hear from Dax Maier, the 12-year-old rescued along with an adult in charge of him. That's in the next hour. Plus, Dax's mom and dad who watched the rescue unfold.
Happening in America this morning, police in St. Louis, Missouri still trying to nail down a motive in a shooting rampage. A man killed the mother of his child at her apartment on Tuesday. He then went on to his workplace and opened fire there, killing two other women before turning the gun on himself. Some of his co-workers think he may have been angry about having his wages garnished for child support.
Calls in Milwaukee for a federal investigation into the beating of a biracial man. An all-white jury acquitted three former white police officers in that case. Some 2,000 people, you see there, marched Tuesday through downtown Milwaukee protesting the not guilty verdicts. They chanted no justice, no peace. Officials from the NAACP are asking for more diverse juries.
Staggering new numbers in Iowa's mumps epidemic. The state now reporting 815 cases, a jump of more than 200 in the past week alone, but health workers say many of those cases are old and were stuck in the backlog of paperwork. Eight other states are dealing with the mumps outbreak, but no deaths have been reported -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: The Duke lacrosse team rape investigation is not over. Police say there could be another arrest soon. As for the two sophomores who arrived at the police station in handcuffs a little more than 24 hours ago, we will see them again in court again on May 15.
AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho live in Durham, North Carolina with more.
Alina, what do we know about a possible third suspect?
CHO: Well the D.A., Miles, is not saying much about that and would not say whether an arrest was imminent. But in a statement released yesterday, the D.A., Michael Nifong, did say that the investigation is continuing. He hopes to identify a third assailant with certainty. And his -- and in his words, Miles, he "wants to bring that assailant to justice."
Meanwhile, defense attorneys say that they believe that the two suspects already arrested in this case were not even at the party in question when the alleged rape occurred. And friends of the two young men say they believe wholeheartedly that they are innocent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NONA FARAHNIK, FRIEND OF THE PLAYERS: It's preposterous even that they have been arrested. I know them well. There's not a chance that they are guilty of this crime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AAINA AGARWAL, FRIEND OF THE PLAYERS: I just know these boys to be kind and amazing people who wouldn't even be capable of thinking of something like this, let alone participating in it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Meanwhile, Durham police say they have searched the dorms where the two suspects live. But, Miles, we have no other details on that search.
O'BRIEN: Alina, tell us, the defense team, what evidence do they have that they weren't even at the party at the time of this alleged attack.
CHO: Well we are getting a glimpse into how the defense may be laying out its case, Miles, and they are putting together a possible timeline, essentially. They say they have ATM receipts. They say a cab driver remembers driving one of the suspects on the night of the alleged attack. And they say the other suspect was at a restaurant. And they are talking to witnesses right now to prove that point.
O'BRIEN: Alina Cho in Durham, thank you very much.
At the Zacarias Moussaoui trial, defense attorneys are hammering away at the credibility of a key witness who just happens to be their client. The convicted al Qaeda operative who claims he was part of the 9/11 plot says he is convinced President Bush will spring him from jail. Is he crazy or simply a misguided zealot? CNN's Kelli Arena with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Crazy or not crazy, that is the question. Those are the words of a teasing Zacarias Moussaoui as he left the courtroom for a break yesterday.
Much of the day was spent discussing Moussaoui's mental health. We expect to hear more of that today. We also expect to hear some testimony from relatives of 9/11 victims who do not believe that Moussaoui should be put to death.
The main witness yesterday, Xavier Amador, he's a clinical psychologist for the defense who believes that Moussaoui is a paranoid schizophrenic who suffers from delusions. One of those delusions is that President George Bush will release him from prison before he leaves office. Now Amador spent about an hour interviewing Moussaoui. He says he's gone over his writings and he's watched him in court. He's also interviewed other people who have observed him.
The defense, of course, believes that Moussaoui's mental health should be a major factor in the decision that the jury makes and, obviously, they are trying to decide whether to execute him or to have him spend the rest of his life in prison.
In cross-examination, prosecutors pointed out that much of Moussaoui's behavior mirrors that of other al Qaeda terrorists. They also say that he's been very rational and organized in court. There are some government experts who have deemed Moussaoui mentally competent. We expect to hear from those witnesses possibly later on this week in rebuttal.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Alexandria, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: There's a push to honor the crew and passengers of United Flight 93 with one of the country's highest awards, the Congressional Gold Medal. As you know, of course, the 40 passengers and crew aboard that flight fought the hijackers before the plane went down in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The congressman pushing for the award says their sacrifice prevented an attack on either the Capitol or the White House.
Of course stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Betty.
NGUYEN: It's time now for a check of the forecast outside. Chad Myers is at the CNN Center.
Chad, could be a rough one for us today?
MYERS: A little bit. We had four tornadoes yesterday, 170 reports of damage from wind or hail or whatever.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Back to you guys.
NGUYEN: All right, Chad, I know you've been waiting, you've been holding your breath, so you can stop the presses now, there is breaking news to tell you about.
MYERS: No.
NGUYEN: TomKat now has their very own Tomkitten. Yes, it is true. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are the proud parents of a 7 pound, 7 ounce baby girl named Suri. A Cruise spokesman...
O'BRIEN: Why don't they do Tom, Dicks, or Harrys? But Suri.
NGUYEN: Yes, you've got Tom and Katie and then you come up with Suri.
O'BRIEN: Suri. Anyway.
NGUYEN: It's Hollywood.
A Cruise spokesman says the name has origins in Hebrew. And here's why, Miles, meaning princess. She's a little princess. Or Persian, meaning red rose. This is the couple's first child. Cruise has two adopted children from his marriage with Nicole Kidman.
And ironically, actress Brooke Shields also delivered her baby on Tuesday in Los Angeles. She also had a baby girl. And this is the second child for Shields and husband, Chris Henchy.
As you may recall though, Miles, Shields and Cruise, yes, they traded some verbal punches in the press last year over a prescription medication. Cruise criticized Shields for taking antidepressants for her postpartum depression. Shields fired back, basically telling Cruise stick to acting, would you? It was a little rough there between the two.
O'BRIEN: Good advice.
Now what's the name of her baby, do we know?
NGUYEN: Don't know that just yet.
O'BRIEN: OK. All right.
NGUYEN: But she's healthy. That's all that matters, right?
O'BRIEN: That's good. That's right.
NGUYEN: Grier...
O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program this morning -- what's that?
NGUYEN: Grier, is that what I'm being told? O'BRIEN: Grier.
NGUYEN: Grier, so that's another interesting name, huh?
O'BRIEN: Grier, Moses, Apple, Grier, Suri.
NGUYEN: Suri, Grier, yes. We'll get to all those baby names in a little bit.
O'BRIEN: Jeez, that's a wild playground in Hollywood, isn't it?
NGUYEN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, still to come this morning, money at the bank. New information on what you're paying in ATM and bounced check fees. It's not pretty. We'll tell you more on how much.
NGUYEN: Also ahead, China's president choosing Washington State over Washington, D.C. as the first stop on his first official visit to the U.S. We're going to tell you why.
But first, here's a look at what else is making news on this Wednesday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Good morning, 6:16 Eastern, our top stories right now.
Trouble on the tram. Dozens of people have been rescued after being stuck on two tramcars in New York. Some spent nearly 12 hours waiting just to come down.
A somber day in Oklahoma City, 11 years since the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, folks there will be remembering the 168 people that were killed.
And across the nation, read them and weep, prices at the pump, yes, crude oil prices fluctuating. The price went over $71 a barrel this morning, a record, but now trading slightly below that figure.
O'BRIEN: Here's a bank robbery story with a twist. In this case, the banks may be taking you to the cleaners. The cost of bouncing checks, using an ATM has shot up. It will now cost you an average of $1.60 to use another bank's ATM. Then you usually get charged again by your bank on that if you watch your statement closely.
NGUYEN: It keeps getting higher, yes.
O'BRIEN: It's like a double whammy.
This comes from BizRate.com. A bounced check now $27.04.
NGUYEN: Why the 4 cents?
O'BRIEN: I don't know. Just to really add a little insult to injury.
NGUYEN: Just to get you there.
O'BRIEN: Don't they know you don't have any money? That's why you bounced the check.
NGUYEN: Right. A little enforcement (ph).
O'BRIEN: And you know it's really twisting the knife. And if -- the balance you need to have an interest checking account with no fees, 2,465 bucks. But the interest they pay you is like chicken feed.
NGUYEN: Yes, it's not much.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's like a third of a percent these days, that's the average.
O'BRIEN: That's a joke. That's not the interest rate.
LEE: And a lot of money markets, they'll pay 4.5 percent, so.
NGUYEN: Yes, so you might as well put your money in a money market and get a higher percentage rate.
LEE: Exactly. Exactly.
O'BRIEN: Give me a toaster. Whatever happened to the toasters?
LEE: Yes.
O'BRIEN: It's better.
NGUYEN: Some are giving iPods.
LEE: Yes, iPod...
NGUYEN: Some are giving iPods.
O'BRIEN: iPods.
NGUYEN: I almost took that deal.
LEE: That's an idea, yes.
NGUYEN: But I took the interest instead, the higher interest rate.
O'BRIEN: I guess I'm dating myself, I say toaster, you say iPod.
NGUYEN: iPod, yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, oil prices, Carrie Lee, grim news.
LEE: Oil investors, yes, well they're in a good spot, but the rest of us, no. Oil prices hitting a new record yesterday, $71.35 a barrel. Now we're coming down a little bit this morning, but still right above $71 a barrel. Continuing nervousness over tensions in Iran, production delays in Nigeria and also there's some concern about gasoline supply. This is the time of the year when they'll change the blends for the summer driving season so gas supplies have been coming down.
Now we're getting a report on this later this morning. We get weekly crude oil and gas inventory reports and we are expected to see for the seventh week in a row gas supplies continuing to come down. So if that happens, well that could have a reverse affect on oil and gas prices.
Now we did see oil climbing yesterday, yet the Dow saw its best rally of the year, best one-day rally, up 195 points. Nasdaq, S&P very nice gains as well.
NGUYEN: Yes.
LEE: So seems unusual, right? Well what happened is the Federal Reserve came out yesterday, gave minutes from its late March meeting, basically saying that the interest rate hiking campaign is probably close to an end.
NGUYEN: Yes.
LEE: So you know everyone has been watching inflation on the markets,...
NGUYEN: Yes.
LEE: ... so that Wall Street took as a very bullish sign. We will get another reading on inflation today at our level, the consumer level. And if this reading is as tame as well, well, we could see another good day for stocks. Right now it's looking like a bullish start as well.
NGUYEN: Bring it on is what I say.
LEE: Yes, exactly.
NGUYEN: Yes.
LEE: So, that's it.
NGUYEN: Carrie Lee, thank you.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, -- Carrie.
LEE: OK.
O'BRIEN: See you later.
NGUYEN: Well still to come, the hits just keep coming for Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Remember her? A police report now revealing more about that scuffle on Capitol Hill last month and it isn't pretty. Plus, a brushfire burning in Florida canceling classes for some students. We'll have more on that. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Some of the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.
Are more arrests on the way in the Duke rape case? Two sophomore lacrosse players were arrested Tuesday. The D.A. now says he needs more evidence before he can bring in a possible third suspect.
China's president is working to improve his country's image in the U.S. He began his four-day U.S. tour in Washington State on Tuesday. Many Americans are uneasy with China's economics, military and political policies that critics say hurt U.S. interests.
And it's a girl for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. They named the baby Suri, which has origins in Hebrew meaning princess. Their little princess. Both mother and baby are said to be doing well.
O'BRIEN: Let's check the forecast now, Chad Myers at the Weather Center.
Hello, -- Chad.
MYERS: Good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Back to you guys.
NGUYEN: All right, Chad, thanks.
MYERS: All right. Yes.
NGUYEN: Well new details coming out this morning about that Capitol Hill scuffle last month. You may remember Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney had a run-in with a Capitol Hill police officer. Well according to a police report, McKinney allegedly struck the police officer with a closed fist. It turned up in this morning's "Atlanta Journal-Constitution." We've been hearing that she hit him with a cell phone and possibly even slapped him. A grand jury is considering charges against her.
The morning's top stories, they are straight ahead, including that New York commuter tram that was stuck in the air with people in it overnight. Our Christopher King is live.
KING: I'm Christopher King on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Why were passengers stuck on a commuter tram for more than 12 hours overnight? That story coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: With crude oil prices at record highs and gasoline prices hovering near the $3 mark, I bet you're thinking about some alternatives this morning. Walking is probably not a realistic option, but one solution may be closer than you think. "Welcome to the Future."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL: On my daily commute, it's not so much what I see, it's what I smell of the pollutants. Riding my bicycle changed my perspective on the environment. Automobiles are a very large source of our pollution. We really need to make a big step in improving our overall fuel economy standards.
My wish for the future is that we balance our existence on Earth. We have all of the tools available to us today. And if we don't do something to change it, we're not going to have a world to change.
O'BRIEN (on camera): When it comes to transportation, oil has become a dirty word. National security concerns, high gas prices and threats to the environment have us all scrambling for alternatives.
(voice-over): By now you've probably heard of alternative fuels. From hydrogen gas to biodiesels, the list of energy sources is long.
Nathaniel Greene (ph) of the Natural Resources Defense Council says his money is on ethanol, an earth-friendly fuel that's cost effective, too.
NATHANIEL GREENE, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: There are so many ways that we can make it, switchgrass, corn kernels, wood chips. One of the exiting things about this next generation of ethanol technology is that they have the potential to be not just cost competitive with gasoline but actually cheaper.
O'BRIEN: Something Brazil is already embracing. In fact, 75 percent of Brazil's new cars burn both gasoline and ethanol. And Greene says it can happen here, too.
GREENE: Ethanol is great, but it's not a silver bullet. We need to have more efficient vehicles as well that we're putting this fuel in. We need a government commitment to do this and do it in a smart way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, a news flash from the 10th century, or so it seems, beware the Bubonic Plague.
Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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