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American Morning
Americans Accused of Child Trafficking in Haiti; Keeping the Winter Games Safe
Aired February 01, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It's Monday, February 1st. Thanks for being with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Good to have you with us today.
Here are the big stories that we'll be telling you about, coming up in the next 15 minutes.
Ten Americans who tried to take more than 30 children out of earthquake-ravaged Haiti have been arrested and could be charged with child trafficking. The missionary say it's all a terrible misunderstanding. We're live in Port-au-Prince for you, just ahead.
CHETRY: Toyota releasing a plan to fix those faulty gas pedals after days of confusion and huge recalls. The auto giant says it has pinpointed the problem. It's shipping the parts to fix it, but what does that mean if you're getting behind the wheel of a Toyota this morning?
We're going to have the company's top -- company's top US executive. He joins us live this hour.
ROBERTS: And terrorism very much in the minds of Olympics organizers in Canada, and they have the huge bills to prove it, an estimated $900 million. But is it enough?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL ZEKULIN, POLITICAL SCIENTIST, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY: There are infinite places where things can occur and there cannot be a presence in all of them.
ASST. COMMISSIONER BUD MERCER, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE: We've prepared for the worst case scenarios, which includes terrorism, and we'll be able to respond to the worst case scenarios.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: We'll see what Canadian authorities are doing to keep the Olympic Games safe.
We begin the hour, though, with new developments out of Haiti. The US is resuming military airlifts and taking injured Haitians to US hospitals. The Medevac flights were temporarily suspended last week due to concerns that US facilities were running out of room.
Schools in Haiti are scheduled to reopen today, but not in Port- au-Prince where most school buildings are now just piles of rubble.
Meantime, 10 American missionaries have been arrested and could be charged with child trafficking. Our Karl Penhaul is working that part of the story. He's live in Port-au-Prince this morning.
Karl, what are we learning about all of this?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN VIDEO CORRESPONDENT: John, what we do know from our conversations with the 10 Americans in a jailhouse interview that they aim to help Haitian children that they believed were orphans or abandoned, that that really wasn't the case. This was a poorly planned mission on their part, and now they're being charged with child trafficking.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL (voice-over): They say they were answering Jesus' call. Now, these American Baptists stand accused of trafficking 33 Haitian babies and children.
The Americans deny the charges and say they believed the kids were orphaned or abandoned. But some were not orphans at all and were crying to go home to their parents, Haitian authorities and aid workers say.
Haitian police allowed the Americans out of their jail cells to talk to CNN.
LAURA SILSBY, DETAINED IN HAITI: And we believe that we've been charged very falsely with trafficking, which, of course, that is the furthest possible extreme because, I mean, our whole - our hearts here, we literally all gave up, you know, everything we had to be - I mean, income and - and used up our own funds to come here to help these children.
CARLA THOMPSON, DETAINED IN HAITI: God is the one who called us to come here, and we just - we just really believe that this was his purpose.
PENHAUL: Team leader Silsby admitted the children had no documents, no passports, nor official permission to leave.
SILSBY: They really didn't have any paperwork, and - and my - this is, again, probably a misunderstanding on my part, but that - I did not understand that that would need - that would really need to be required.
PENHAUL: The children, between two months and 12 years old, have been temporarily housed here at SOS Children's Village, run by an Austrian charity in Port-au-Prince.
Spokesman George Willeit said initial investigation show at least 10 of the youngsters had at least one surviving parent. He's now responsible for trying to reunite the families.
GEORGE WILLEIT, SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGE: Some of them for sure are not orphans, because immediately, as she arrived here, one of the girls, she might be nine years old, was crying loud, "I'm not an orphan. I do have my parents. Please call my parents."
PENHAUL: We met 10-year-old Benatine Poulime. She'd been on the Baptist bus and was clearly frightened. She gave us the phone number of her mom, Adrianne Poulime. In a brief conversation, the woman said she'd agree to hand over her only daughter to the Americans and said she'd believe the child would be schooled and be well-cared for.
"I said I wanted to get out of the bus, but they told me I had to stay. I was crying. I said I wanted to go to my mom," she says.
(on camera): At least 10 of the children have either a mother or father, and they have phone numbers of their mothers and fathers.
LAURA SILSBY, NEW LIFE CHILDREN'S REFUGE: OK. I can tell you our hearts were to help those children that needed us most, that they had lost either both mother or father or had lost, you know, one of their parents and the other parent had abandoned them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PENHAUL: Now, I told the Haitian prime minister about the American's case, he vowed to fully investigate, but he said on the basis the evidence that he'd seen so far, he does believe that this is a kidnapping.
Now, the Americans are due to appear before a judge this morning. But there is a problem, because since the earthquake, the justice system here in Haiti has all but collapsed. So, very difficult to see what kind of due process these Baptists are going to get, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Karl Penhaul for us this morning, closely watching this unfolding story -- Karl, thanks so much.
And coming up at 8:10 Eastern, about nine minutes from now, we're going to talk to Reverend Clint Henry. He is the senior pastor at the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Ohio, about his group is doing in Haiti and how things went so wrong there.
CHETRY: Also developing this morning: Toyota is finally announcing a plan to fix the faulty accelerator pedals after recalling millions of cars and trucks. So what does it mean if you a Camry or a Tundra, RAV4, sitting in your driveway.
For the full breakdown, we bring in our Deb Feyerick, who's been following this story since it broke.
And, Deb, so they say they have the part. They know what's wrong. They know how to fix. What next?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that's really the big headline that they'd finally know why the accelerator pedals are sticking. They can fix it and they say that the state parts are in the mail.
Now, good news for some 2.3 million affected car owners, about an hour ago, Toyota released a video on YouTube, but with the statement by the head of sales for Toyota in the U.S., his first public comments since the recall, about 12 days ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, YOUTUBE)
JIM LENTZ, PRESIDENT & COO, TOYOTA MOTOR SALES USA, INC.: I want to sincerely apologize to Toyota owners. I know that our recalls caused many of you concern, and for that, I am truly sorry.
Toyota has always prided itself on building high-quality, durable cars that customers can depend on, and I know that we let you down. I want you to know that all 172,000 Toyota dealership employees across North America will work hard to fix your vehicle properly and regain your trust.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: And, of course, all those dealers are going to have to figure out exactly how they're supposed to install these parts.
But Toyota says the problem stems from the friction device in the gas pedal, that's really what gives you that steady drive. But, in some cars, over time, Toyota says, materials used, wear and tear and environmental conditions, caused the pedal to stick rather than released smoothly. Now, when there's too much friction, the pedal does not return as it quickly as it should or in the worse cases, the car simply doesn't slow down and accelerates unexpectedly.
Now, Toyota says it has created what's called a precision cuts reinforcement bar to be installed in the gas pedal assembly. They say it will reduce the surface tension and eliminate that excess friction. According to Toyota engineers, have rigorously tested this new part, which is being shipped to the dealers, along with directions on how to install. Toyota says dealers plan to stay open late to fix this problem, affecting more than 2 million cars, including popular models, like a Camry and RAV4.
What's more, cars with this problem will not be manufactured this week. Toyota is planning to fix that accelerator pedal so that the cars that roll off the assembly line don't end back up in the dealership.
CHETRY: All right. There you go. So, as you know, they have a fix, but winning some of that the trust back is also going to be the challenge.
FEYERICK: And that's what's so critical. When you think about it, people were living with this problem for more than 12 days. That's a lot of time to be uncertain as to whether the car you're driving is, in fact, safe, especially when you got kids, especially when you're just riding down the road in the highway, wondering what's going to happen. So, yes, a big problem that they're going to have to deal with. CHETRY: All right. Deb Feyerick for us thanks so much.
And also, a little bit later, we're going to be speaking to the president and chief operating officer, James Lentz, of Toyota here in the United States. He's going to be explaining a little bit more about the fix and also, where the company goes from here.
ROBERTS: And happening right now, in Washington, the president's $3.8 trillion budget hit the Senate just moments ago. It spends $1.3 trillion more than the government is expected to take in.
CHETRY: And the plan will try to balance spending on job creation with controlling the nation's deficit. The plan will get -- the House will get the plan at the bottom of the hour. And Dana Bash is live on Capitol Hill to set the scene. And also, to take a look at some of the tough choices included in the plan.
Meantime, the president is expected to highlight his budget priorities at 10:25 Eastern this morning from the White House, and you can see it on CNN and CNN.com/live.
ROBERTS: And at five minutes after the hour, time to check in with Rob Marciano for a look at the weather forecast.
Good morning, Rob.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: Rob, thanks very much.
So, people sometimes have a difficult morning commute. Well, how about this one? They say that any landing that you walk away from is a good landing, even if it happens to be on a crowded turnpike during the morning rush hour.
Take a look at this single engine aircraft. The pilot made a successful emergency landing this morning on the northbound lanes of the New Jersey turnpike shortly before 7:00 Eastern. It happened about five miles east of Philadelphia, the Cherry Hill area. No one was hurt and the pilot was working on traffic reports of KYW Radio and Television in Philadelphia when he was forced to land. No word on what caused the emergency. But you can expect that it made for some colorful traffic reports.
And I wonder if he kept going while he was on the ground there. But big backup on the northbound lanes of the turnpike in Cherry Hill. Some guy dropped a big plane on the runway there.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Yes, I know, seriously. And now, the poor truck that has to drive that thing, caution will make wide right turn, especially today that we have a wing span to worry about.
ROBERTS: They'll just close the turnpike and then take off again. CHETRY: I guess.
All right. Well, still ahead, we're going to be talking about the situation in Haiti. A lot of controversy after members of one church are defending their motives, trying to adopt. They're denying accusations of child trafficking. They say they were just trying to help get orphans to a safer place in the Dominican Republic.
We're going to be speaking with the pastor of the church. Reverend Clint Henry joins us live in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Nine and a half minutes past the hour now.
It may have just been a well-intentioned but misguided attempt to save some children in Haiti. The Haitian government, though, suspects that 10 American missionaries were doing something illegal when they tried to take 33 children out of the country. Those 10 were arrested and could be charged with child trafficking. They're members of the Idaho-based New Life's Children Refuge.
Reverend Clint Henry is senior pastor at the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Ohio -- Idaho rather and he joins us now with more.
Reverend, thanks so much for being with us this morning.
REV. CLINT HENRY, CENTRAL VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH: Thank you very much.
CHETRY: Can you tell us a little bit about what the intention was for those 10 members as they were trying to get these children out of Haiti to the Dominican Republic?
HENRY: OK. Yes, the intention was to simply go down and try to be an aid and administering to the children that we believe were orphans, who needed a place to be sheltered and taking care off as a result of the earthquake. It had been an intention of our church to be part with the construction of a new orphanage in the Dominican Republic and at the time of the earthquake, decision was made that perhaps we could house children in temporary sites so that we can try to help in that grave situation there in Port-au-Prince. So, our intent in going in there was simply to try to assist the great need of that city.
CHETRY: And, instead, now, the Haitian prime minister is accusing the group of actually kidnapping the children. He called it, quote, "illegal trafficking of children."
What is -- what is your response to those pretty grave accusations?
HENRY: Well, all I really can say is that I'm just in a state of shock myself. Our understanding on Friday night when I last talked with our team is that they were at the border and they had been told that they just needed one more document, and so, I understood that at least one member of our team was going to go back on Saturday to get that document and then, the next thing that I hear, they've been detained and charged with trafficking, you know, children, which absolutely is not what was taking place.
CHETRY: Yes, I know. And actually, one of our CNN reporters, Karl Penhaul was there. He had a chance to actually talk to the 10 members and as well as to some of the other children. And he says that the investigation show at least 10 of the youngsters had at least one of surviving parents and one of the young girls said that she did not want to go, although later, after he reached her mother, her mother said go ahead and go because I think you can get a better life and education.
But the bottom line is, in some of these cases, it appears they weren't orphans.
HENRY: I have -- I have no knowledge about that. I'm just as surprised as anybody else.
CHETRY: What is the next step right now? As we understand it, the 10 members are supposed to appear in the Haitian courts. As we know right now, the infrastructure badly damaged and a lot hangs in the balance right now.
What is their future?
HENRY: Well, I'm -- I'm uncertain as to, you know, all the details involved in that. You are correct, that they're going to be in front of a judge today, sometime I think around 1:00 or later down there in Port-au-Prince. So, our prayers are with the team that things will be cleared up.
It certainly was not our intent to traffic children. Those would not be charges that would indicate anything at all about what was going on. We simply were trying to help an orphanage that needed our assistance.
CHETRY: You know, sometimes, the best of intentions end up not being the best situation. And in this case, you know, many concerned about the situation in Haiti, saying, look, you can't just take children out of the country whether you're trying to help or not. In this situation, you have to have a legal framework if you have to adopt kids, especially in the wake of a crisis right now.
Was there any concern or talk going in to Haiti about making sure all the ducks were in a row before children were taken from the country?
HENRY: We did a lot of talking about that. And my understanding is our church tried to partner with a ministry that was being executed there, is that we were going to do things right. And as I understood from what communications I had during the week, our team was working to have all the right kind of documentation. So, I think they were as surprised as I was to learn that they were still lacking something when they actually were at the border on Friday night.
CHETRY: Do you understand the concerns about child trafficking? Especially in Haiti right now, they're afraid that because so many parents were lost in some cases, people were buried in mass graves, they may not be able to find the parents, it creates a vulnerable situation for some of the already most vulnerable children in the world?
HENRY: Well, the only -- the only response I know to make is that: my understanding is that we were trying to work with an orphanage. So, it would have been our assumption that everything involving the children would have been something that was long ago settled. So, we were just trying to remove them from a very difficult situation so they could be cared for at a present time.
CHETRY: Obviously, this is quite a difficult situation for the family and the friends of the 10 that are detained right now, as well as your congregation. What has been the reaction back in Idaho about what's happened?
HENRY: Well, so many things have happened so quickly, the people that I have personally talked to have all been very concerned and indicate to me that they are praying for our people, and that the intent or the motive that brought us there would be clearly understood there in the Haitian court. So, I have had a lot of support. I've also have had concerns expressed from -- you know, people who are maybe involved in an adoption.
And I am an adoptive parent myself, so I understand those concerns myself, and our prayers go out to those people. And we certainly don't want this to have an impact on them. That is one of the unfortunate pieces of the story that is a concern to me.
CHETRY: Right. A big concern is this could tangle up future adoptions from Haiti?
HENRY: Well, I believe that when the intents of the groups is understood, you know, I would hope that that in itself would not be viewed as a cause for anything that is transpired. I just simply appreciate the opportunity to let, you know, let the public know that our intentions were, you know, upright and pure.
CHETRY: All right. Reverend Clint Henry, Senior Pastor at the Central Valley Baptist Church. Thank you for joining us this morning.
HENRY: You are welcome, Kiran.
CHETRY: And still ahead tonight, thousands more children have been left orphaned by the earthquake in Haiti. How does the United States help? We are going to search for answers on a special edition of "AC 360: Children of Haiti". It airs tonight 10 o'clock Eastern.
ROBERTS: This just in to CNN. Exxon Mobil is reporting healthy profits for the last quarter for 2009. But overall for the year, certainly not the way it was in the previous two years. The oil giant says it made $6 billion dollars in those three months, and $19.4 billion for the year. 2008 though, those numbers were $45 billion, 2007 $40 billion, so they are down to half of what they were making.
Investors on Wall Street were hoping though for pretty good numbers out of Exxon for their last quarter. Dow futures up right now, ahead of this morning's opening bell. It shows you just how hard all those companies got hit during this recession.
Seventeen minutes after the hour. Stocks have a dismal January. Could that be a bad omen for the year ahead? Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News In The Morning.
Nineteen and a half minutes past the hour, That means it's time for "Minding Your Business." After seven straight weeks at number one, Avatar is on the verge of becoming the top grossing domestic film in history. James Cameron's 3D epic has now earned more than $594 million in the United States. That's second all time, just behind another Cameron classic Titanic. Worldwide, Avatar has already gone past Titanic. Avatar has already smashed box office records worldwide taking in more than $2 billion dollars.
You can hear all about Avatar's record run at the Box Office from the director himself, James Cameron and the members of the film's cast joining "LARRY KING LIVE," Wednesday night at 9:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.
CHETRY: All right, 20 minutes past the hour right now. Christine Romans is here "Minding Your Business" and she joins us. So as we say, so goes January, so goes the year. So, how did we do?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Down, down about 3.7 percent for the S&P 500. You remember that earlier in the month, we told that they use January, you know, January stock market is kind of a barometer for the rest of the year. And so, January was down. The S&P 500 had a tough flaw during the month's end. It was really the worse month for stocks in almost a year. But remember, the last year has been this historic rally for stocks. Some people were saying, it was just primed to come back.
And one of the issues here, the market always anticipates, right? So now, we have just seen the GDP was up, what, 5.7 percent for the end of the year. We have seen that manufacturing start to rebound, we have seen the job losses slow, that is all the kind of stuff that the stock market was trying to anticipate.
And now they are worried about prolonged joblessness at 10 percent. Now they are worried about the budget situation, and deficits which brings me to the president's budget today and the sort of mantra from the White House. They do not want to make the situation worse. But what is the situation, and how can you really explain all this red inks so we can understand it?
This is how our red ink is compared to with the entire economy. Our deficit is 10.6 percent of GDP. You might hear that a lot. That's a very big chunk of our economy, it's actually our deficit. Then you look at what they are trying to project out by the year 2014. They want to whittle that down to 3.9 percent; 3 percent is what economists say would be more sustainable. So even going out there, we are still, have too much red ink.
I asked an economist one time, he was giving me all those gobblety-gook about deficits and you know deficit spending, and so basically you are telling me, we cannot afford ourselves but we don't have another choice? He said that is exactly the situation.
ROBERTS: Back in the Bush days, we were doing stories about, wow, it's 4 percent of GDP. How terrible is that? 10 percent?
ROMANS: I know. The whole period is that the economy for some reason is going to go gang busters and the strong economy is going to help take away these tough choices we have. People look at all these red ink, and they see a future, where, as we spoke last week with Christian Freeman from the Financial Times, where you were starting to pay so much just to service your debt, you are paying so much in interests that it limits your ability to pay for your domestic programs. And that's when you lose control of your destiny as a country. And people can see that day ahead and it's not very far away.
CHETRY: So is there ever a chance, I mean, you talk to a lot of the greatest minds in the financial world --
ROMANS: And they all disagree with that.
CHETRY: Yes, there are different opinions. I mean, under the President Clinton, we saw billion dollar surpluses, will we ever be back to that point again? Or we are just too hammered by the two wars and by baby boomers retiring, and all of the other huge entitlement programs.
ROMANS: I am going to sound like a Pauly Anna patriot here, when I say, there is something about the American economy that you cannot measure that doesn't come in a number. And it's something, it's like what happened in the 90's when suddenly it just grew like bunches. I think we created some 20 million jobs or something.
A lot of people are hoping that if you spend properly now that that "Americaness" of the economy just takes over and you start to have a new innovation, some green technology. We do not know what it could be. The internet, we did not know the internet was coming. And it really transformed the economy. But the issue here really is, unless something happens to really grow the economy, you are looking down the road, tax hikes, more than just for high income people or big spending cuts.
ROBERTS: You have a numeral for us this morning?
ROMANS: I do. 1937, a year.
CHETRY: The last time our deficit was this percentage of our GDP?
ROMANS: We had a deficit that was as big back in World War II. But, 1937 is the number, the year that everyone is trying to avoid. The issue here --
ROBERTS: That's when they cut spending and the economy went back in the tank.
ROMANS: They cut spending, they raised taxes, and the economy went in the tank and that's what really made the great depression. We cannot take our foot off the accelerator yet in all the spending, because many feel that we could throw ourselves back and make it even worse. So, this is the terrible conundrum. You have to be careful here. You cannot just say, we have these deficits, come on, we have to get rid of these deficits because right now, you are in this balancing act. And that's what the White House is facing, a very delicate and painful balancing act.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning, thank you so much.
Toyota makes an announcement regarding a fix for a sticky accelerator. Jim Lens, Toyota's president and chief operating officer in the United States, joins us coming up.
Stay with us. It's 24 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour right now, that means it's time for an "A.M. Original," something you will see only on AMERICAN MORNING. The opening ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics is actually just around the corner.
ROBERTS: And of all the records that will be set at those games, perhaps none more impressive than the plan for security. Our Jeanne Meserve takes a look for us this morning.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, for the Olympics the Canadians are mounting the largest security operation in their history, on the air, on land, and on the water.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): A Canadian Navy diver plunges into frigid water off Vancouver, honing his underwater bomb detection skills. A small part of the massive effort to keep the Olympics safe.
ASST. COMMISSIONER BUD MERCER, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE: We have prepared for the worse case scenarios which includes terrorism, and we will be able to respond to the worst case scenarios.
MESERVE: The murder of 11 Israeli coaches and athletes by Palestinian militants at the 1972 Munich games, has hung over every Olympics since. The threat of international terrorism in Vancouver is currently assessed as low. The bigger concern, domestic political protests. The Olympic torch relay has been disrupted several times by demonstrators. At critical locations in Vancouver, some roads are already closed. Police presence is heavy, and 900 surveillance cameras stud security fencing.
(on-camera): You see cameras everywhere, but officials say there will be other technology to detect chemical, biological, and radiological threats.
(voice-over): Massive inflatable barriers keep boat traffic away from cruise ships that will house some of the 15,000 security personnel. Military, police and Coast Guard, all patrol to keep the city safe and cars moving in Canada's largest port.
LT. BRYAN PRICE, CANADIAN NAVY: We are going to see the ships coming in. Tugs and Tows working on the harbor. It's pretty much business as usual in Vancouver.
MESERVE: But it's a big city with a multitude of potential targets like transportation hubs.
MICHAEL ZEKULIN, POLITICAL SCIENTIST, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY: There are infinite places where things can occur and there cannot be a presence in all of them.
MESERVE: Some events will be held at the Whistler ski area 2 hours North of the city, requiring a whole different set of security measures.
REAR ADMIRAL TYRONE PILE, CMDR. JOINT TASK FORCE GAMES: Our soldiers are deployed up there with snowmobiles and track vehicles, and foot patrols, and snow shoes, skis.
MESERVE: Connecting the two venues, just one critical road, much of it hugs the coast. It, too, will be heavily patrolled. There will be air restrictions, policed by NORAD the North American Aerospace Defense Command. And 4500 members of the Canadian armed forces with special skills and equipment are in reserve if needed. The budget for this multi-agency security effort, led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, $900 million dollars.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (on camera): Despite this enormous mustering of personnel and capabilities, the Canadians say they don't want security to overshadow the games and the athletes. John and Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: Jeanne, thank you so much.
And tomorrow part two of Jeanne Meserve's series on the Olympics. She will take a look at what is happening on the U.S. side of the border and how officials are preparing for a variety of emergencies.
ROBERTS: Coming up on the half hour and checking our top stories this Monday morning.
Tensions between the White house and Iran are on the rise today, the Pentagon now deploying a patriot mission shield to protect U.S. allies in the Middle East against an attack by Iran. The missiles are being sent to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait, while two ships capable of shooting down missiles remain stationed in the Gulf.
CHETRY: Also today, the U.S. resumes its medical evacuation flights from Haiti. The military was temporarily putting the brakes on those airlifts Wednesday after concerns that U.S. facilities were running out of room. A White House spokesman says that the administration has been reassured there is enough space in the U.S. to accommodate the injured.
ROBERTS: No decisions have been made, but the Obama administration is considering a venue for the 9/11 terror trial after New York City officials expressed concern over security and the costs.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, the mayor of Newburgh, New York, 60 miles away from the city, said the terror trial could give his struggling town a financial shot in the arm.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR NICK VALENTINE, NEWBURGH, NEW YORK: We are a very, very poor city, I have to tell you. And any economic stimulus, especially to the tune of maybe $200 million that could come from the federal government, could certainly assist a city of my size and the situation that we have here.
The courthouse that we were mandated to finish was $22 million, and I have a debt on that. So when we were asked about Hudson Valley locations, I certainly did not like Stewart airport or West Point, but when a reporter asked me about the city of Newburgh, I basically said, look, Newburgh, I said I would give it a shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Newburgh's county executive was also our guess this morning. He says the threat to safety and security outweighs any financial benefit from holding the trial in the town.
Developing this morning -- after recalling millions and millions of cars and trucks, Toyota is breaking its silence this morning. On the table now a plan to fix the faulty accelerator peddles. But is that enough for millions of Toyota customers, or is it just too little too late?
Here for the "A.M. Breakdown" this morning is Jim Lents, the president and chief operating officer for Toyota Motor Sales USA incorporated. Jim, good to see you this morning. A lot of people have been looking for some information for you for a while now, and 12 days ago this recall was announced and only this morning are you coming out. You had ads over the weekend. Why did it take so long for that corporate outreach?
JIM LENTZ, PRESIDENT, TOYOTA MOTOR SALES USA: What was most important is we put all of our efforts against making sure that we knew exactly what the situation was, developing the fix, and then developing the solution that we could fix the cars at our dealerships as rapidly as possible.
So I know many have criticized us, but I think it's most important that customers understand that we understand the problem, and we have the fix, and our dealers are ready to take care of customers later on this week.
ROBERTS: Was the criticism deserved? Everybody looks back the 1982 and what Tylenol did. When the Tylenol scare hit, when somebody was putting cyanide into bottle of Tylenol, they took everything off the market right away, the company came right out and said, here's what we're doing. We're going to keep you safe. They came up with a fix fairly quickly, just redoing the packaging.
People said when you Toyota, it's less Tylenol than it is Tiger Woods when it comes to public outrage here and explaining to people what's going on, particularly with such a grave safety concern.
LENTZ: Well, first of all, it's a grave safety concern. It's a very rare occurrence that takes place over an extended period of time. It has been --
ROBERTS: So was Tylenol, though. It was very rare.
LENTZ: It has been ten days from the time that we stopped the sale of our product, announced the recall and stopped the sale of the product, and stopped the manufacturing of our product so we could insure that we had a supply of parts, all of our resources, moving towards taking care of you customers as rapidly as possible.
To us, what's most important right now is making sure customers understand we have the fix and we will take care of their cars as quickly as we possibly can.
ROBERTS: In terms of announcing the recall, stopping production, obviously it was your initiative to do that. You made the call on that. But the Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on WGN radio not too long ago, he said the reason Toyota decided to do the recall and stop manufacture something because we asked them to. Is that true?
LENTZ: Obviously, we have been in the discussion with NHTSA in terms of a recall. Once a recall is in place, a stop sale is mandated by law, and it's the right thing to do. But in terms of stopping production, that was solely our decision.
ROBERTS: But if the department of transportation did not come to you and say, hey, you've got a problem here. You should recall all these cars and stop production, would you have done it?
LENTZ: Yes, we would have. Safety is the key priority for any manufacturer, but especially Toyota, because if you look at the 50 years we have been in this country, we've built our representation on quality, dependability, reliability, and safety. That's most important to us.
ROBERTS: Now, there are some charges by some automotive experts, where in some surveys you're either the seventh or the eight most valuable brand in the world, you ignored problems like this because you did not want to tell the boss what was going on -- not necessarily you didn't want to tell the boss, but nobody wanted to bring it up the chain of command because Toyota was growing to become the world's largest car company and nobody wanted to knock that off the rails.
LENTZ: First off, our desire and goal has never been to be number one. Our desire and goal has always been to take care of customers. And we were doing a great job, and as a result it created demand for our products.
So one could question did we expand too quickly? That's something we could debate and study down the road.
ROBERTS: What do you think?
LENTZ: I think we may have. I think we may have. But it was not the desire to be number one. It was taking care of customers that were demanding our product.
We are redoubling our efforts to make sure safety and quality is the most important thing for us. Our goal is to build affordable cars, quality cars, and take care of customers one customer at a time.
LENTZ: There's been an evolution of this, and if you look at the "Los Angeles Times" article, 19 killed since 2001, some 2,000 reports of uncontrolled acceleration. You initially thought it was a problem with floor mats, and in some vehicles it is, and now it's a problem with accelerators in some vehicles.
There are still people who believe it's a factor of the electronic control unit that controls electronically the throttle. And CTS, the accelerator manufacturer said in a statement, quote, that its products should absolutely not be linked with any sudden acceleration incidents."
Are you absolutely sure, Jim, that you have this thing nailed?
LENTZ: Yes, we are. We are convinced -- the first recall we had, while it was on floor mats, it was about entrapment. It was about the pedal being trapped against the mats. And quite frankly we did not quite understand how customers used the floor mats.
I know that sounds very simple, but the mats were designed and the accelerator pedal was designed a certain way.
ROBERTS: So can you guarantee to people who had good faith in your company, bought your vehicles, that if they bring it in for this fix, that's it, problem over.
LENTZ: Put it this way -- I drive a Toyota and my family and friends drive Toyotas. Yes, they are safe cars.
ROBERTS: All right, we'll keep following this. How long until people can come in and get their cars fixed.
LENTZ: We will start notifying customers this week.
ROBERTS: Jim Lentz, great to see you, thanks for dropping by, appreciate it. Kiran?
LENTZ: Thank you.
CHETRY: John, thanks.
New video out, the $3.8 trillion budget delivered to Capitol Hill. Our Dana Bash is there. She will break it down for us still ahead. It's 37 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Happening right now, the start of a critical day on Capitol Hill. The president's $3.8 trillion budget plan arrived just moments ago in the House. It's includes $100 billion for his top priority, jobs. Now it's up to Congress to decide what stays and what goes.
Our Dana Bash is here to set the scene on Capitol Hill. Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
You said it. The president's budget is very important because it set his priorities with what he wants to do in the coming year with regard to spending.
But the reality is it is in this building, the capital, they have the power of the purse and they decide the fate of this budget. And this year it is very important to remember that everybody in this particular side of the capital, the House of Representatives, they are up for reelection, and that very much plays into the fate of the president's budget.
And it also definitely has played into what the president is proposing this year. Last year his first budget was really an emphasis on spending to try and help the poor economy.
This year there seems to be a big time pivot in terms of the theme, and that is more to deficit reduction because of the fact that members of Congress are hearing loud and clear, especially independent voters, that they are sick of big-time Washington spending, especially deficit spending, Kiran.
CHETRY: We talked to OMB Director Peter Orszag earlier as well, and it's a delicate balance between the stimulus that you speak of and also bringing down this big, big deficit. What are some of the tough choices going to be?
BASH: There are some, and there are some that some of these members of Congress who work in the building behind me are not going to like.
First of all, let's look at some of what the president laid out. Fees on banks -- they are going to put fees on banks who owe TARP money. That's not popular on Wall Street more than here.
But also they are going to make clear that they want the tax cuts under President Bush for people making under $250,000 a year, they want those to expire. Republicans certainly don't like that and there are some conservative Democrats who don't like it.
This is the most controversial thing, though, a three-year proposal to freeze discretionary spending. Kiran, when you talk to Democrats on the left, they say this is not the way to deal with a bad economy. You talk with some Democrats on the right, they say it's a good first step but they want to do more than that.
But you talked about the fact that it's a delicate balance. They are in the president's budget proposing to increase spending in some critical areas, like elementary school education -- $28 billion for that. That's an increase over last year, $61.6 billion for R and D, new industries and jobs, and that's an increase over last year.
And then $100 billion in infrastructure projects -- that is something that is a nuts and bolts idea from the perspective of Democrats, and they hope that will help with job creation this year.
But the thing to remember, and this is an important number -- an $1.5 trillion deficit. That's what we are in right now. That is unprecedented and record-breaking, and that is politically the big problem for the people who are going to be out to campaign to keep their jobs in the building behind me. Kiran?
CHETRY: It's interesting, Dana, when you showed that chart there about where some of the cuts are going to be and where they will get some of that money, letting the tax cuts expire for the incomes above $250,000 a year is expected to bring in, according to what they talked about on the conference call, $700 billion. That's where they are getting a huge chunk of the money.
And some are saying that small business owners will be swept up in this as well. You are trying to spur job growth and hiring at the same time, and you have to find the money somewhere.
BASH: Yes, absolutely. And that is going to be what we're hearing. We are already hearing loud and clear from some of these members of Congress, just like you said, what about small business owners? They will get hammered by the fact that the Bush tax cuts will expire.
The administration and Democrats here will argue they will try to do other things to help small businesses, give them tax credits for new hires and things like that.
But that was a big promise for President Obama as a candidate. He said so clearly he would let the tax cuts expire for people making over $250,000. There was no way he could go back on that at this point.
CHETRY: Dana Bash for us. It's a big budget and a lot to go over. And you will break it down for us throughout the week. Thank you so much, Dana.
BASH: Thanks, Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, the president is expected to highlight his budget priorities at 10:45 eastern this morning from the White House, and you can see it live on CNN and CNN.com/live.
ROBERTS: Another winter storm taking aim in the southeast, below average temperatures for the entire east coast. Rob Marciano is tracking you forecast for us this morning. He joins us in just a couple minutes with an update.
It's 45 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: All right. So it's supposed to be the sunshine state, not today. Miami, Florida cloudy and 72 right now; thunderstorms and a high of 74 a little bit later on.
Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.
Super Bowl week kicks-off today in Miami. The NFC champion New Orleans Saints is scheduled to arrive in the few hours at 11:45 Eastern. The AFC champion Indianapolis Colts will cut touchdown later on today. That will be at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. The big game, of course, on Sunday when the Saints and the Colts meet in Super Bowl XLIV.
Rob Marciano is tracking the weather across the country for us. He's got some storms moving into the southeast.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: And there was a study that came out this week that had a lot of women nervous and scratching their heads, this really shocking number when it comes to fertility, that a new study suggesting that for 95 percent of women by the age of 30, only about 12 percent of your egg population is there.
And Elizabeth Cohen is to going to break down for us. What it means for women who wait a little bit later in life before trying to have children.
It's 50 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Seven minutes now to the top of the hour. We're back with the Most News in the Morning.
Let's quickly check in with Kyra Phillips. She's in the "CNN NEWSROOM" this morning for a look at what's ahead in the next hour. You are talking about Dr. Livingston, I presume.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes that's right. Dr. David Livingston.
Let me ask you a question, John. And I don't know -- I wanted to ask you and Kiran, raising your kids, did you ever think about checking the background of the doctor that was seeing your child. Did it ever cross your mind? Did you ever do it?
Well, maybe what medical college they went to. How many cases of malpractice they had settled against them, something like that, perhaps, yes.
PHILLIPS: Well, you sort of think, ok, if your child is going to see a family practitioner, that they have a good record. They've been checked out by the medical board, ok you are good to go.
Well, listen to this. This mom takes her 8-year-old to go see a doctor -- this was in Tennessee. Kind of gets the creeps from this guy, right, and acts on her motherly instinct and goes to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation sex offender data base, and guess what? There is her doctor. Dr. David Livingston.
This is her 8-year-old that went to this guy for a checkup. We did digging on this and found some more information apparently in the '80s, indicted for first-degree rape, sodomy and sexual abuse of his stepdaughter. So John, how the heck did a registered sex offender get his medical license? That's exactly what we're investigating today.
We're going to talk about this with a state senator that's weighing in and also give you more background on this doctor.
ROBERTS: Looking for an answer to that question this morning.
Kyra thanks so much. We will see you real soon -- Kyra.
CHETRY: Well, it's 55 minutes past the hour.
It's time for your AM House Call. And a fertility shock this morning. Women who wait until their 30s like many of us do to have kids may have a more difficult time getting pregnant than originally thought. In fact researchers are now using mathematical modeling to actually pinpoint the odds precisely.
Senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us from Atlanta. As if women in their 30s did not already worry about fertility to begin with. This new study is pretty shocking actually when it comes to how fertile you are as you get older?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, I think it shows what in many ways, doctors have always known which is that your fertility definitely drops. If you want to have the baby at the easiest time biologically, you should really be having a baby at age 16. Of course, we don't recommend that.
But what this study shows is that you're born with about a million eggs -- more than a million eggs. By age 30, you only have 12 percent of those left. By age 40 you only have about 3 percent of those left.
And let me show you the numbers, Kiran, in a slightly different way. At age 13, a woman has about 180,000 eggs. By age 25, that drops to 65,000. By age 35, that drops to 16,000.
Now Kiran, you and I were talking earlier, 16,000 eggs is still a lot. You only need one good one to have a baby. So really, I mean, many women conceive easily in their late 30s and 40s. I count myself among them. It is possible but it clearly is not quite as easy as it would have been if you had had babies in your teens or your 20s -- Kiran.
CHETRY: We talked about the cruel irony. Who needs 180,000 eggs when you are 13, right? You need those when you get older.
What is Elizabeth, the best way for women to assess their fertility? I mean, you hear about all these studies and you start to just beat yourself up after a while and say what if -- are all my hopes of childbearing gone? How do you find whether you, in particular, you are fertile?
COHEN: Right. I will say I think women beat themselves up way too much. Many women conceived quite easily in their late 30s. You can go to your doctor and there are certain blood tests and certainly ultrasounds that they can do help asses fertility. But in the end, the only way you really know is to try.
CHETRY: And a lot of people have a lot of fun trying. All right.
COHEN: That's right.
CHETRY: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much for us this morning. Appreciate it.
It's 56 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: It was ladies night at the Grammy awards. Superstar Beyonce won six awards, that's more than any other female artist in Grammy history. That included Song of the Year for "Single Ladies".
CHETRY: Also country star, Taylor Swift now the youngest artist ever to win Album of the Year. And to say Taylor Swift was shocked is an underestimate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TAYLOR SWIFT, GRAMMY WINNER, ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Thank you so much. I just hope that you know how much this means to me and to my producer, and to all these musicians you see on the stage that we get to take this back to Nashville. Our families are freaking out in their living rooms. My dad and my little brother are losing their minds in their living room right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So cute.
But the big emotional moment, Michael Jackson's two eldest children accepting the late pop legend's lifetime achievement award.
ROBERTS: You don't see them in public very often. It's very interesting.
Continue the conversation on today's stories; go to our blog at cnn.com/amfix. That's going to wrap it up for us. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you back here again bright and early tomorrow morning. And I'll try to find my voice between now and then.
CHETRY: You need some more cough drops, that's for sure.
Well, here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips. Good morning, Kyra.
