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American Morning
Border Shooting; Presidential Poll; CIA Nomination; 'Da Vinci' Opens
Aired May 19, 2006 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: CNN the most trusted name in news.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You didn't mention it's Friday. It's Friday. Good Friday morning to you, I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: What, it's Friday?
M. O'BRIEN: It is. And we're glad you're with us on this May 19.
Let's get right to the news.
Authorities are chasing or were chasing a car filled with suspected illegal immigrants. They shoot and kill the driver near the border between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. Acting on a tip the car was carrying illegals, federal authorities gave chase as it headed south on Interstate 5 toward the Mexican border. The border crossing, the busiest in the world, is now open after a nine-hour closure.
FDA -- FBI agents down on the farm again today digging for the remains, they hope, of former Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. The "Detroit Free Press" is reporting the feds are acting on a tip from a 75-year- old federal inmate.
S. O'BRIEN: Heavy rain is falling once again right now in parts of the northeast. Today, officials are going to try to access flood damage in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and in Maine. At least 14,000 homes in Massachusetts alone were damaged by the floodwaters.
In New Hampshire, flooding has pushed some of the dams just too far. This dam in the town of Bristol dismantled after it couldn't hold back any more water. Officials are going to resume work on it this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: BellSouth wants a retraction from "USA Today." The newspaper reported it -- that BellSouth had a contract with the National Security Agency to turn over customer phone records in bulk. BellSouth says there is no such contract. "USA Today" says it is reviewing that letter.
S. O'BRIEN: And you've heard the hype. Well now the long- awaited "Da Vinci Code" is going to hit the theaters today all over the world. People are protesting. Some Christian groups are calling even for a boycott.
Let's get right to the forecast this morning.
Chad is off again today, but Rob Marciano is helping us out. He's at the CNN Center.
Hey, Rob, good morning.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Morning. Look at that big smile on you for such a gloomy day in New York City. You know you're a lesson to us all.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm smiling more because it's gloomy, -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Glass is half full.
Here you go, Soledad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Miles, back to you.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Rob. See you in a bit.
More now on that wild chase and shooting at the Mexican border. It happened at the San Ysidro Border Crossing. That's between San Diego and Tijuana.
Nina Jimenez of our affiliate KGTV has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NINA JIMENEZ, KGTV-TV REPORTER (on camera): San Diego Police Department worked through the night and into the early morning hours investigating a deadly shooting here at the San Ysidro Border Crossing.
It all started Thursday afternoon when someone reported to the Border Patrol that they say a driver of an SUV picking up what appeared to be undocumented workers that had crossed over the border. Border Patrol agents followed that vehicle. That vehicle ended up driving over to the San Ysidro Border Crossing, which is about five miles away. That car then sped into the crossing lanes, trying to cross back over into Mexico.
At one point, the car came to a stop. Border Patrol agents tried to get the driver to get out of the car. The driver refused. At one point, accelerating the car. We're told that the Border Patrol agent felt, at that point, he was being pinned against the other cars that were waiting to cross over the border. The driver continued to speed away, and that's when we're told a Border Patrol agent and a Custom agent opened fire on the car.
We're told the driver of the car was killed. Five other people that were in the car at the time were injured. Minor injuries from the broken glass. But it created quite a mess here. The border crossing closed from 3:30 Thursday afternoon into late in the evening as police investigate the scene. They say it's a situation, a scene that they simply cannot rush the investigation.
That is the latest from San Ysidro.
I'm Nina Jimenez reporting for CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: On Capitol Hill today, the talk is all about immigration. The Senate last night defeated an amendment to the immigration bill that would have kept guest workers from getting on a path to citizenship. The Senate also amended the bill to make English the national language.
President Bush is asking Congress for almost $2 billion for his immigration plan. The plan, as you know, includes adding National Guard troops to the Border Patrol. The president toured a border site on Thursday and again says he does not support amnesty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know we have got to enforce our border, but I'm also realistic. There are some -- look, amnesty, to me, means you're an automatic citizen. And I'm not advocating -- there are some in the Democrat Party might be advocating that, but I'm certainly not.
On the other hand, I recognize there have been people here for a long period of time and it doesn't make any sense to try to deport millions of people. And so there ought to be a way for people to pay a fine or learn the English language and then get in the citizenship line, but at the back, not at the front.
Instead of sneaking across, it seems like it makes sense, to me, in order to help our Border Patrol do the job, there's a rational way for them to come on a temporary basis, provided they pass a criminal background check.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Immigration certainly has been in the headlines, not the top issue, though, that's dogging the president. Another prominent issue is Iraq.
CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider has a look at the latest poll numbers for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (on camera): Was President Bush's prime time immigration speech well received by the public? Yes. Did it help him much politically? No. The president's latest job approval rating, 36 percent, up 2 points since early May, not a significant change.
Did the immigration speech have any impact? Let's look at the issues.
Forty-seven percent now approve the way the president is handling terrorism, down five points since January. Iraq, down five points. Economy, down five. Gas prices, down a whopping 12 points since December.
Immigration is the only issue where the president's rating has gone up since the beginning of the year. So why didn't it do the president much good? Even after the speech, only 36 percent approved of the president's performance on immigration. Fifty percent still disapproved. Moreover, voters say other issues like terrorism, Iraq and gas prices are more important to them than immigration.
Bush's approval rating among Democrats and Independents has changed very little since January. They never liked him much. Most of his slippage has been among his fellow Republicans, down 10 points.
In politics, your base are the people who are with you when you're wrong. When they start abandoning you, you're in big trouble.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: The questions may have been tough at times, but the sailing appears smooth for the president's choice to head the Central Intelligence Agency. The Senate Intelligence Committee likely to give a thumbs up to General Michael Hayden early next week. As expected, the general was asked for some specifics on that domestic spying program he championed.
David Ensor with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (on camera): From the start, some Democrats made clear they have doubts about voting to confirm General Michael Hayden, who was the architect of the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretap program and may have collected phone call records on millions of Americans.
SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (D), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: The question before us today is the nomination for the director of the CIA of General Hayden, who directed and vigorously defended this illegal program.
ENSOR: But in many hours of questioning, his critics scarcely laid a glove on Hayden, who said he is confident that all the NSA programs are legal.
The general declined to say anything new about the NSA programs and brushed off questions about CIA interrogation techniques and a host of other topics, saying he could answer them only behind closed doors.
On the CIA, the agency he will lead if confirmed, Hayden said it has become too much of a political football.
GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, CIA DIRECTOR NOMINEE: The CIA needs to get out of the news as source or subject and focus on protecting the American people by acquiring secrets and providing high-quality, all- source analysis.
ENSOR: Barring surprises, the committee and the full Senate look likely to approve Hayden, though there will clearly be some no votes. The Intelligence Committee's chairman says the committee vote is likely to be early next week.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Happening in American this morning.
In Arizona, a recycling center looking a little more like an incinerator. More than a hundred firefighters responding to a fire at a recycling center in Phoenix. It's now under control. The flames fueled by the plastic stored there. No word on the cause on that one.
And how is this for an unusual bus stop? This school bus crashed into a house in the Miami area, Hialeah, after swerving to avoid a minivan that blew through a red light. Five kids aboard. Only minor injuries to one 13-year-old girl. The residents of the home had just stepped outside to talk to a neighbor. Good timing.
And do you know the muffin man? If so, authorities in Dallas would like to hear from you. The FBI perusing a young man who delivered some muffins laced with pot to Lake Highlands High School. They're looking at these surveillance tapes to try to I.D. him. Eighteen school workers, including an 86-year-old switchboard operator, got sick after eating the muffins on Tuesday. Federal charges await the muffin man.
And here's one that didn't get away. After 90 minutes of reeling and fighting, fisherman Ben Knoll (ph) of Fort Collins, Colorado landed a nearly 45-pound grass carp. The fish is 46-and-a-half inches long. That's eight inches longer than the previous Colorado record. Knoll said he wasn't planning on going fishing, but then he saw this huge fish. He decided it was a good time to wet a line. Eight-pound test line, which is probably another record.
S. O'BRIEN: Saw a big fish.
M. O'BRIEN: Nicely done.
S. O'BRIEN: Good time to go fishing.
M. O'BRIEN: Got to go fishing. There's an opportunity, it's knocking.
Still to come on the program, is it time to cut your losses and run? No, it's not. We're talking about the real estate market and the bubble again, but there are some words out there to listen to from the former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan about whether the housing boom is really over. Carrie Lee will have that story for you.
S. O'BRIEN: Plus, a potential cancer breakthrough. We're going to tell you about a new vaccine that could save thousands of women from getting one of the deadliest forms of cancer. We'll have that just ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: And life-saving surgery for a little Afghan boy. He flew all the way to the U.S. for the operation. We'll tell you how he's doing.
But first, here's what else is happening on this Friday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Happening on this Friday morning, disaster teams out checking flood damage in New England. Some roads and businesses in the hardest hit areas won't be reopened for two or three weeks.
A potential life-saving cancer vaccine could be approved by the FDA as soon as next month. It's called Gardasil and it protects against the two main viruses that cause cervical cancer. It's expected to cost between $300 and $500.
And President Bush asking for nearly $2 billion to cover the cost of his border security program. He wants Congress to pass a bill that combines security with a guest worker program.
M. O'BRIEN: The book was a runaway best seller, but so far the film is getting some, well, tepid reviews at best, some dismal. "The Da Vinci Code" hits theaters all over the world today and we will all get to judge for ourselves.
One of those theaters is in Alexandria, Virginia, and that's where we find Sumi Das, because she wanted to be first in line. So she got up at 5:00 in the morning and there she is.
You're going to be there to see the early show, -- Sumi.
SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Best seat.
M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you.
DAS: I'm the only one here, can you believe it? But it is raining outside, so there were no people queuing up. We'll excuse the lack of crowds.
Well Dan Brown's best seller, "The Da Vinci Code," sold over 60 million copies. By all accounts, wildly popular; however, initial reaction to the film by critics hasn't been as favorable.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM HANKS, ACTOR: The symbols are a language that can help us understand our past.
SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It may be a work of fiction, but the fact is "The Da Vinci Code" is causing a fuss.
REV. THOMAS EUTENEUER, PRES., HUMAN LIFE INTERNATIONAL: Sony's "Da Vinci Code" movie seeks to profit off the -- quote/unquote -- "permissible prejudice of anti-Catholic bigotry in this country and around the world."
DAS: "The Da Vinci Code" suggests that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married and had a child together. A secret covered up by a powerful organization associated with the church.
At the movie's film festival debut in Cannes, both its star and director reminded audiences that the film doesn't claim to be historically accurate.
HANKS: This is not a documentary. This is not something that is pulled up and said these are the facts and this is exactly what happened.
RON HOWARD, DIRECTOR: This is supposed to be entertainment. It's not theology.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in the middle of a war, one that's been going on forever.
DAS: Still, church officials from China to Italy have called for boycotts of the film. A move some say may only peak moviegoer's curiosity, driving up box office sales.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be worth killing for. Witness the biggest cover-up in human history.
AMY WELBORN, CATHOLIC AUTHOR: Boycotts are exactly what the movie producers want.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DAS: So what does author Dan Brown think of the movie? Well, in a speech that I listened to on his Web site, he said it was mesmerizing. He called the cast world class. And he also said that the script was thought provoking. But he also did admit that he was biased -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: OK, well good, thumbs up from Dan Brown. We're really surprised.
Sumi Das, enjoy the movie whenever they finally start playing it for you. Appreciate you dropping by.
DAS: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: There have been authors who have made the mistake of bashing their movie not realizing like PR wise...
M. O'BRIEN: Bad idea. CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Really.
M. O'BRIEN: It kind of...
S. O'BRIEN: Anne Rice, I believe, right,...
M. O'BRIEN: Well there's this...
S. O'BRIEN: ... didn't she hate "Interview With a Vampire" and...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, and she was honest about it. But you would think there's a little loyalty issue there. There's sort of a conflict.
S. O'BRIEN: You probably want it to do well.
M. O'BRIEN: You might want it to do well, yes.
LEE: Talk to your PR team a little bit about that...
S. O'BRIEN: Business news now. BellSouth responding, really, I think, most fully to this NSA story that we've been following all week.
LEE: Yes. This story is not going away anytime soon, folks.
BellSouth is now demanding a retraction from the recent "USA Today" story stating that it gave customer calling information to the National Security Agency. BellSouth says it never turned over customer records to the NSA. And they sent a letter to "USA Today's" president, saying, among other things, BellSouth insists that your newspaper retract the false and unsubstantiated statements. "USA Today" did acknowledge receiving the letter. Says it's reviewing it.
So far, at least the NSA and Bush administration has refused to confirm or deny the "USA Today" report. So that is the latest there.
Turning to the housing market. Former Fed Chief Alan Greenspan saying that the housing market's extraordinary boom is over. This is something a lot of people have been talking about lately. He says that there is no danger of...
M. O'BRIEN: Not me, just for the record.
LEE: You're still staying optimistic there, -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm hanging in. I'm bubble boy still.
LEE: All right. All right.
M. O'BRIEN: Keep going. Keep going.
LEE: Well, they said that there's no danger of a total collapse in the housing market.
M. O'BRIEN: Good.
LEE: Housing markets don't normally collapse as stocks can. And the thing to take away from this is that if the housing market tempers off, well people are going to feel less well off, they're going to spend less and that could bode negatively for the economy. So that's the latest from Greenspan.
A quick check on stocks, Dow falling into negative territory once again, down 77 points yesterday, the third straight day of losses. We're down about 300 points recently. And futures looking, well, slightly better for today's session. We'll see what happens. No real economic news coming out today to drive the session.
S. O'BRIEN: Kind of an interesting dynamic, when you have the Fed Chief Bernanke and then you have the former Fed chief and everyone is listening to every word that the former Fed chief is still saying, that's good.
LEE: Yes, people still listen. This is his first public speech -- private speech in New York since he retired in January. And Bernanke also saying that he's expecting a soft landing for the housing market, so.
S. O'BRIEN: (INAUDIBLE).
M. O'BRIEN: And you still miss him? OK. Yes.
LEE: Still close to my heart, Greenspan.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Carrie Lee (ph). Appreciate it. Thanks, Carrie.
Still to come this morning, doctors say this little boy would not have survived a year. He's got a congenital heart defect. Thanks, though, to some very big hearts in the U.S. Army, the little guy has a new lease on life. We're going to tell you his story just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at some of the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.
The FBI says the search for Jimmy Hoffa's remains could take weeks. They're combing through an area around a horse farm near Detroit. Authorities say the best tip they've received in years is what led them to this farm.
One of the three Duke lacrosse players charged with rape is asking for a speedy trial so he can go back to school. His lawyer is asking to see the accuser's cell phone records.
And when you head to the airport this summer, somebody could be watching you more closely. Transportation officials are expanding a program to profile travelers' behavior. They say they're going to be looking closely at people who are acting fidgety or nervous. Twenty-two minutes past the hour, let's get right to the forecast. Rob is in for Chad today.
Hello again.
MARCIANO: All right, Soledad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well thank you, -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Sure.
M. O'BRIEN: That's good news.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we have our final installment of our special series this week. It's called "30 40 50." Today we are tackling dating and marriage and friendships. We're going to talk to "Elle" magazine Advice Columnist E. Jean Carroll and also "Maxim" magazine's John DeVore.
Talk about a lot of interesting -- here's my question for them, which is a classic question, why are my girlfriends, who are in their 40s, who are cute, who are smart, who are accomplished, great women, why can't they find a guy?
M. O'BRIEN: That's a great question.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it is. Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: Where are the good guys?
S. O'BRIEN: Where are the good guys?
M. O'BRIEN: And there's other questions that we're going to pose to our experts, like this one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wonder if the girls around 25, 30s, they are in a hurry to, you know, get into relationships?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: That's the rub right there. See, the guy's a little worried, a little sketchy on those relationship issues. The "R" word among the issues we're going to discuss, just some of them, "30s 40s 50s."
Yesterday on Pipeline, they asked me what about us people in our 60s? Well we love you, too. And you can listen. Think of yourself as a 30-year-old at heart or something.
877-AM6-1300, that's 266-1300, that's the number. Don't call that now. Give it a couple of hours before you do that. In the meantime, send us an e-mail now, am@cnn.com. We're talking marriage. We're talking friendships. We're talking divorce. All the biggies coming up.
S. O'BRIEN: That's right this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: This morning's top stories are straight ahead.
So how do you catch an 11-foot killer alligator? Very carefully, right? Well we'll tell you exactly how.
And in the wake of that big flood in New England, a lot of misery and some worries about looting. We'll bring you up to date on that one ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: With the debate over immigration raging in this country, there are all kinds of solutions that are being bandied about. That virtual fence along the border is one of them. But one of the things that is difficult is what can employers do to ensure they're doing the right thing?
"Welcome to the Future."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM: They're here to make money. That's the American way. That's why I do what I do. I just do it legally. When I'm out trying to make a living doing it the honest way, and someone else is short cutting the rules, then it makes it very difficult for me as a business owner.
It's going to be a challenge as an employer to verify that the paperwork is true and accurate. The more illegals we have, the tougher it will become as a legitimate business owner to run a business.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Many employers in businesses like landscaping, construction, food service struggle to stay legit in arenas flooded with illegal workers. How can employers protect themselves and stay afloat?
TAMAR JACOBY, MANHATTAN INSTITUTE: We have 12 million people in this country whose names we don't even know.
M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Just one reason why Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute says immigration reform is vital for employers, as well as immigrants.
JACOBY: Why are we forcing them to be in the black market when we could have them on the right side of the law, enhancing our security, enhancing our rule of law and actually enhancing workplace relationships?
M. O'BRIEN: Right now, employers can use a government Web site to ensure job seekers are legal. But of five-and-a-half million employers in the country, a mere 5,000 are enrolled in the program.
JACOBY: THe databases aren't as accurate as they should be. So right now it's an experiment on the way to the program that we need.
M. O'BRIEN: If current reform bills become law, the verification system would include biometric I.D. cards to prevent fraud and would make it mandatory for all U.S. employers to screen their workers from mega corporations to families with household help.
JACOBY: Once you make sure that you can't get a job if you're illegal, that's how you're going to control who comes and who doesn't come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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