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American Morning
"Jihad Jane's" Alleged Double Life; Dems May Get "Slaughtered"; Kansas City School Shutdown; Forbes Announces Billionaires; Toxic Air in Planes
Aired March 11, 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 on this Thursday. It's March 11th.
Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Acosta, in today for John Roberts. Plenty to talk about this morning.
Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
She may have called herself Jihad Jane, but to many she was just Colleen LaRose. The terror suspect's former boyfriend is speaking to CNN about the charges and whether he knew the real Colleen LaRose.
CHETRY: Also coming up in just a minute, an ominous warning from someone who used to be inside the president's inner circle. A former Obama advisor telling Democrats bring the reform you promised or get ready for a beating at the ballot box this fall. Our Ed Henry goes one on one with the man behind that warning.
ACOSTA: And perhaps the most amazing story of the day, a 7-year- old boy outsmarts three armed robbers in California. Police say the quick-thinking child may have saved the lives of his parents and little sister after the gunmen broke into their home this week. The 911 call that has everyone calling Little Carlos a hero -- that's ahead.
CHETRY: Also this morning, we are learning more about the Pennsylvania woman who called herself "Jihad Jane." "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting this morning that Colleen LaRose is cooperating with authorities, giving information. She's been held for six months in a detention facility in Pennsylvania. We are learning that she provided information that led to the arrest of seven people in Ireland accused of plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist.
Our Susan Candiotti has been digging into the background of Colleen LaRose and she joins us live from Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, where she used to live.
And, Susan, you had a chance to speak with the suspect's former boyfriend. What did he tell you about her?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, to her former boyfriend, the charges don't add up, not when he's talking about the woman that he lived with for the last six years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Did Colleen LaRose, AKA, "Jihad Jane," lead a double life? Her ex-boyfriend says that charges left him stunned.
(on camera): What do you see when you see her dressed up like that?
KURT GORMAN, "JIHAD JANE'S" EX-BOYFRIEND: I can't believe it. It doesn't make any sense.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): The person Kurt Gorman says he knew was a twice divorce woman he met in 2004 on a visit to Texas. They hit it off and she moved to Pennsylvania with him.
(on camera): Did you feel like you really knew her?
GORMAN: I thought I did.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): But apparently, his girlfriend had demons. A 2005 police report says LaRose attempted suicide, mixing pills and alcohol. Gorman did not think she was suicidal.
GORMAN: I know a couple of years earlier, after her father passed away from cancer, she was very depressed.
CANDIOTTI: The Colleen LaRose he knew took care of his ailing father who lived with him, not someone who used his home computer allegedly to help recruit and help terrorists overseas.
GORMAN: It doesn't seem like her personality.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): In what way?
GORMAN: Well, if you are a nice person taking care of an elderly man there -- I mean, that's -- that doesn't in my mind go with somebody that wants to hurt somebody else.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): No one in the small town of Pennsburg outside of Philadelphia seemed to know her. Yet on the Internet, LaRose made the rounds. CNN found online postings and evidence she tracked groups, including Revolution Muslim, that advocates attacking Americans overseas.
(on camera): She called herself "Jihad Jane."
GORMAN: Yes, I don't know. It doesn't make sense. I don't know if there's ways that people are manipulated or not.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Last August, Kurt Gorman says LaRose bolted a few days after his father died, took her clothes and left without a word. Sometime later, he noticed his passport missing and reported it. A month later, the FBI showed up. They took his computer hard drive and questioned him. (on camera): Did you worry that she might be involved in something?
GORMAN: I worried she might not be -- I'm worried something might have happened to her.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): A few weeks later, she was arrested after a trip overseas.
(on camera): Anything you'd say to her -- want to say to her?
GORMAN: Hope she's well and, you know, I just don't understand it. So, it's just a shame.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: And next Thursday, Colleen LaRose, AKA, "Jihad Jane," will be in court to face a judge and is expected to enter a plea at her arraignment -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Susan Candiotti for us this morning -- thank you -- Jim.
ACOSTA: Kiran, in Washington this morning, a sobering warning for Democrats from one of the man who helped President Obama in the White House. A former campaign adviser says Democrats are not making good on their promise to reform Washington and that could mean a, quote, "slaughtering" on election day this fall.
Ed Henry is at the White House with more on this.
Ed, and this is as -- you described it -- a wake-up call. So, the question is: is the White House taking it?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, it's quite interesting. As you noted, this is not quite the White House talking points, if you will. This is an outsider, Steve Hildebrand, former campaign adviser. And he's speaking very freely. He's worried about where Democrats are headed in November.
And I can tell you from talking to David Axelrod, one of president's top aides here, they are listening very closely.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (voice-over): Steve Hildebrand was one of the top advisers that helped put President Obama in office. But now, he has a stark warning for his old friends.
STEVE HILDEBRAND, FORMER OBAMA CAMPAIGN OFFICIAL: I think there's a real shot that we're going to get slaughtered in elections this fall if we aren't leading the efforts to reform Washington. That's what we campaigned on in '06 and in '08. And if voters don't see that change, we haven't lived up to our promise.
HENRY: Hildebrand who helped deliver Iowa for the president is now an outside consultant pushing issues like campaign finance and lobbying reform. He came to the White House Thursday for a quite meeting with the president's senior advisor, David Axelrod, to express a fear Republicans are seizing the high ground on cleaning up Washington.
ANNOUNCER: Charlie Rangel stepped down after breaking ethics rules.
HENRY: Hildebrand is baffled his party is allowing Republicans to capitalize on scandals the same way Democrats did in the last two elections.
(on camera): Is the president doing enough on this?
HILDEBRAND: I don't think anybody in Washington is doing enough on this.
HENRY (voice-over): Hildebrand is known for speaking his mind. Last summer, he told "Politico" he was losing patience with the White House, and the president needed to be "more bold in his leadership." But a few weeks later, the president praised Hildebrand at a White House reception celebrating gay rights.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Somebody who helped insure that we are in the White House, Steve Hildebrand. Please give Steve a big round of applause.
HENRY: Hildebrand, who is openly gay, gives the president credit.
HILDEBRAND: You know, when the president signed the bill, the hate crimes bill last fall, it was the first piece of legislation ever in the history of Congress to affirm the rights of gay people in this country.
HENRY: And overall, he says the president deserves a B-plus for his efforts to stabilize the economy and reform health care.
HILDEBRAND: I'm thrilled that we're in the cusp of passing health care reform. You know, this is something that we've waited for for so long, and it's so important. It's so necessary. And so, you know, I'm thrilled that the president has not given up, and that he's been persistent.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: I spoke to David Axelrod after this meeting, and he told me that his old friend, Steve Hildebrand, has some fair criticisms of the White House, of Democrats in general. But Axelrod insisted the president's already made some ethics changes trying to crack down on lobbyists, and is promising to do a lot more.
But when you've got an ally like this, close to the White House, who's speaking out this freely, it suggests the Democrats have some real changes to make before November, Jim.
ACOSTA: Absolutely -- a political canary in a coal mine. Ed Henry live at the White House -- thanks very much this morning, Ed -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, President Obama is set to announce some new details of his trade agenda later today. A White House officials say that the goals will include helping businesses who export, borrow cash and forcing existing trade deals and promoting U.S. goods overseas. During his State of the Union speech back in January, the president said that he wanted to see U.S. exports double by 2015.
ACOSTA: And a tornado watch for parts of Arkansas has been lifted this morning. A series of tornadoes touched down last night, critically injuring two people. Dozens of homes were also damaged. Forecasters say golf ball-sized hail fell during those storms. But it's, thankfully, missed the most populated areas in the state.
It is now seven minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines.
And, Rob, it's getting bumpy out there. We're in March. So, this is that time of the year.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we are going to be ramping up the severe weather intensity -- certainly, as we get into April and May, and even through the first of June. So, this is just a taste of things to come after a very, very quiet January and February across parts of the south.
All right. You know, flooding is the other issue. Take a look at some of this video coming in to us from Alabama. A number of flood warnings posted yesterday, and even a couple water rescues are being reported out of Pelham, Alabama. And there you see what that did.
And the rain really is not moving all that quickly. Here it is on the radar scope this morning, especially across parts of southern Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. That's where the heaviest rain is right now. You see that tornado watch has been discontinued.
But just out of the -- just now, out of the Storm Prediction Center, they kind of upped the threat for seeing severe weather, not only across parts of the Florida today but also, again, across parts of Mississippi and Alabama. We'll highlight that for you in about 30 minutes.
Temperature is still mild, so we don't have any real cold air coming down, not until next week, where some of our longer range models and still say that old man winter doesn't want to go away. Until then, though, spring thunderstorms in the forecast once again today.
Jim, Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: All right. Rob, thanks so much.
ACOSTA: Thanks, Rob. CHETRY: Well, coming up, we're going to be talking talk to the mayor of Kansas City about a plan to close 28 of the city's 61 public schools. There's been a lot of talk, a lot of tough choices, as the entire community deals with a major budget shortfall. And others are saying that students needing to suffer is not the answer.
Nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twelve minutes after the hour.
This next story is really unbelievable.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CHETRY: A devastating blow for thousands of schoolchildren and their families in Kansas City. Nearly half of the city's public schools are going to shut down by summer. They need to do this, they say, to stave off bankruptcy. The board narrowly passing this decision last night.
ACOSTA: The $15 million budget shortfall will force about 300 teachers out of work. The vote was met with desperate pleas from parents and calls for the school superintendent to be fired.
Joining us now over the phone is Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser
Mr. Mayor, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
And we'd like you to break this down for us because a lot of people are waking up this morning and they sort of can't believe their ears when they hear about this. Why is this happening to your school system?
MAYOR MARK FUNKHOUSER, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI (via telephone): Well, yes. First, I got to correct you. We got 233 schools in Kansas City. This plan closes 26 of those. So, it's not half the city's school.
It's one school district, which is not our largest school district. It is a school district in the central core of the city. But we have 14 different --
ACOSTA: This in the central core of the school system.
FUNKHOUSER: Yes. We have 14 different school systems. We have 233 schools. We got 75,000 students. Sixteen thousand students go to this one district.
CHETRY: Got you. Now, this is the district that used to have 35,000 students, right, in 1999 and 2000.
FUNKHOUSER: That's right. We have had -- CHETRY: And now, the school district has lost --
FUNKHOUSER: Many big cities have that. We have to --
(CROSSTALK)
ACOSTA: Right.
FUNKHOUSER: -- particularly the middle class folks in the center of our city. That's something I'm working hard to correct.
But this is the consequence of those losses. I want -- I want people to know, though, that this is not half of the city's schools. And it doesn't affect anything --
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Tell me if this correct. Tell me if this is correct -- in this district that we're talking about, there were 61 public schools and 28 of them are going to close?
FUNKHOUSER: Right. That's right, in just one district.
CHETRY: That's why we are saying half in this district. So, just help us understand what's going on, what type of situations are you guys facing that force this decision that some are calling extreme and it was quite contentious with the board?
FUNKHOUSER: Well, it's -- people are emotionally attached, of course, to the schools. Schools are anchors in neighborhoods. They are anchors to community. So, it's very difficult to close a school. And yet, these kinds of decisions have to be made, and they are being made across the country.
And what has happened here, though, was we have forestalled a decision for a long time because it was so difficult. And we have -- as I said -- we have lost 100,000 folks from the urban core of Kansas City --
ACOSTA: Wow.
FUNKHOUSER: -- and that has consequences. Now, we have to bring those people back and I am working hard to do that.
ACOSTA: And much of this, Mayor, is about our nation's cities, correct? Because this is happening in other major cities, Washington, D.C., for example, and they go through a pretty painful restructuring process -- similar to the one that you're going through.
And so, what does that mean for our inner city schools? We hear so much about how they're just not doing everything that they can for the kids.
FUNKHOUSER: Well, you know --
ACOSTA: What's your sense of that? FUNKHOUSER: I don't think it's -- I don't think it's just the schools. I think that, you know, in many cities and certainly, in my city, we have to build a much stronger partnership between the city government and the schools. They tend -- we are separate. In other words, I am a mayor who works with the city council, and there is a school board, several school boards that are separately elected. We need to be better partners and we need to work closer together. We are intimately attached to each other, we just have not paid enough attention to that. And so in Kansas City, at least, our failure to pay attention to these schools and the school district in the urban core of Kansas City over 40 years has had this consequence.
ACOSTA: And this budget shortfall that you are dealing with is a sign of problems all over the country.
FUNKHOUSER: Exactly, yes. Urban core cities are having these sorts of problems but they are fixable.
ACOSTA: How do you solve it? If it is fixable, why has not it been solved, and how do you solve it?
FUNKHOUSER: Well, you have to restructure how you look at education. For example, Arne Duncan, the secretary of education of United States, calls education the civil rights issue of our time. He is right. We need to pay, we need to invest more, we need to be more rigorous about it. We need to be more supportive of our schools, but we also have to focus on real economic development, which I think is a focus on infrastructure and a focus on human capital and human development and we have not done that, and as a nation we have not done that.
CHETRY: Mr. Mayor, you brought up Arne Duncan. I want to ask about this situation, because there has been some criticism, for example, that school district in New Hampshire that decided to basically just fire all of the teachers, that was something that was praised by the administration. Yet others who are against it say you are not dealing with the core issues, that these teachers have so many things working against them -- children whose parents are not first generation Americans, don't speak English and issues of poverty, issues of hunger and that shutting down a school is not the answer.
FUNKHOUSER: Absolutely. It is going to be -- these are huge, difficult issues. And you cannot blame the teachers. And you cannot blame the parents. We have to rethink as a nation how we look at education. And of course, I think the Obama administration is trying to make serious changes. I have seen Arne Duncan in action and I am pretty impressed. There are not going to be real change though without real conflict. There will be a lot of conflict. This is going to be difficult and emotional to get done.
ACOSTA: And very quickly there is a story out this morning that talks about how the administration wants national standards for schools across the country. Could that go to this problem that you are feeling right now in Kansas City? Could it help?
FUNKHOUSER: Well, national standards alone are going to be worthless. You have to have economic support also. The administration is going to have to support urban areas, which I think they are, and it cannot simply be standards. It has to be resources and attention as well as standards.
ACOSTA: Thank you very much mayor, and thank you for helping us clarify that one point that they are talking about closing half of the schools in the urban inner city core of Kansas City which is a good distinction to make, not all of the schools of Kansas City, that he's talking about, just that urban core which is a big part of the problem that cities are feeling all over the country.
FUNKHOUSER: It's part of the problem, but it's only about 10 percent of the schools.
ACOSTA: Thank you, mayor, appreciate your time.
CHETRY: Mayor Funkhouser from Kansas City, Missouri, this morning. Thank you. We are going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. It's 18 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. 21 minutes past the hour, right now. Christine Romans is here "Minding Your Business", your last hour we talked about tweeting, right, and a lot of people said they agree that Twitter is their news feed.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of people are really fired up on the tweet machine this morning talking about that. Now they are talking about billionaires are back. Billionaires are back! The Forbes list is out. You know I looked for Acosta is no -- and Chetry was not on there either. Forbes must have made some kind of a mistake.
ACOSTA: I'm on another list, not that one.
ROMANS: OK, a stunning uptick since the collapse of 2008 to 2009 number of billionaires. A stunning uptake in billionaires -- 1,011 billionaires in the world, that compares to only 793 last year. The average net worth, $3.5 billion, 97 brand-new members of the club. The United States still leads with 403 billionaires. I do not know a single one of those. But China, Mainland China, for the first time, has the most billionaires outside of the U.S., 64. Russia has 62.
OK, so who are the world's richest people? Warren Buffett with $47 billion. The value of his Berkshire-Hathaway declined a little bit, just $10 billion. So he is at number three. Number two, Bill Gates at $53 billion. And, we all know who Bill Gates is of course. And number one, Carlos Slim with $53.5 billion, just edging past Bill Gates. He is a telecom king. The number one spot not held by an American now, held by a Mexican citizen, Carlos Slim. So, wow.
ACOSTA: I cannot believe that.
CHETRY: There you go. ROMANS: Still, Acosta, Chetry, no. There's a couple of Petro Chemicals Oil and gas from India, also Laski Matal from the steel business from India also on the top ten list. Alle Elleson is also on the top ten list. I am going to Tweet and Facebook this whole list for you if you are interested. If you think you maybe have an uncle on aunt that you did not know about or somebody who owes you money. Billionaires are back. People are making money. Money is being made, even this is what I keep saying the other day, the haves have more and the have-nots want to get a job.
ACOSTA: All right. Thanks, Christine.
CHETRY: Thank you.
ACOSTA: Coming up next, is your flight toxic. Allan Chernoff will explain. Stay with us. It's 23 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- six minutes past the hour right now. Top stories four minutes away.
First though, an "AM Original," something you will see only on AMERICAN MORNING. Is the air onboard your plane hazardous to your health? Well, CNN's Allan Chernoff has been investigating the dangers from toxins circulating in-flight. And he joins us now this morning.
Hi, Allan. Not what you want to hear if you are taking a cross country flight, right?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Some things you would rather not hear about, but it is important to hear about, certainly. We should point out this is not common, but the fact is a growing number of airline crew and passengers are falling victim to toxic air exposure. One US Airways plane in particular had repeated problems in recent weeks, and that's called pilots and flight attendants to suffer serious problems.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): January 16th, ambulances met US Airways flight 1041 arriving in Charlotte from Saint Thomas. Eight passengers received medical treatment, and seven crew members are rushed to the hospital after complaining of headaches and breathing problems. Neither the pilots nor attendants would speak with CNN for fear of losing their jobs. But Judith Murawski, industrial hygienist for the association of flight attendants has been talking with her union members.
JUDITH MURAWSKI, INDUSTRIAL HYGIENIST, ASSOC. OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: The headaches, confusion, disorientation, dizziness, nausea, these are some of the symptoms that they have described.
CHERNOFF: US airways tells CNN there was a leak on the seal of the right engine of the Boeing 767 that allowed toxic engine oil mist to enter the cabin. CAPT. PAUL MORELL, V.P. OF SAFETY, US AIRWAYS: There was a little bit of oil that seeped into that's system. And that vaporizes, and that's what caused the symptoms of the passengers.
CHERNOFF (on camera): How could an engine oil mist into the air, onboard a plane, half of the air we are breathing in the cabin comes through the jet engines. It's called bleed air because it bleeds through the engines and travels through the wings and into the cabin where it mixes with recirculated air.
(voice-over): Engine oil contains a toxin, Tripreselphosphate, that could cause neurological damage. Terry Williams, who was a flight attendant for another airline says, that was what happened to her after being exposed to a fume event, nearly three years ago. She says she suffers severe headaches and tremors in her arm.
TERRY WILLIAMS, FORMER FLIGHT ATTENDANT: It just feels uncontrollable. I cannot stop it from twitching or trembling.
CHERNOFF: Indeed all 7 crew members of flight 1041 have been unable to return to work because of their symptoms.
MURAWSKI: They continue to experience neurological symptoms that impair their daily living and have precluded them from returning to flying.
CHERNOFF: Two weeks prior, the same plane, tail number 251, suffered two separate fume events. December 28, Charlotte to San Juan. US Airways service difficulty report with the Federal Aviation Administration says a very strong odor smelling like wet socks and or dirty feet circulated through the passenger cabin and flight deck. Crew members reported trouble breathing, itchy eyes and stomach cramps.
Two days later, the same plane on the same route, a foul odor entered the cabin. Passengers and flight attendants were feeling faint and nauseous. US Airways says hydraulic fluid was released into the bleed air system on both flights. That fluid, Skydrol, is a known irritant to the respiratory tract.
MORRELL: US Airways takes this very seriously and we do everything to the utmost to maintain the safety of the air quality for both our passengers and our crew.
CHERNOFF: The airline says the is plane was taken out of service after the January 16th incident for maintenance work, and when it returned to service on January 21st, US Airways reported a scorched odor filled the aircraft. Maintenance found no problems, and the plane remains in service.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: Flight attendants say Northwest Airlines also suffered a series of three fume events over the past several weeks on the same aircraft flying crews between Frankfurt and Detroit. Northwest says "We are investigating each case of employee illness, but at this time we cannot pinpoint a specifically cause."
CHETRY: What can airlines do about this if they want to be more proactive?
CHERNOFF: They can have monitors onboard the aircraft, carbon monoxide monitors that tell the pilots when they see an increase in the level, because that at least is an indication of contaminants coming into the aircraft, and the pilots could get the plane down.
CHETRY: This continues, because Allen tomorrow will have the second part of his investigation. He is looking into the danger from dirty air inside the airplane cabin. And we may not want to know the results, but we need to know. Thanks, Allen.
ACOSTA: Here is a quick look at some of the today's top stories making news this morning.
We are standing by for results from Iraq's national election. A news conference was originally scheduled for yesterday but later canceled on Sunday. Millions of people went to the polls despite a wave of violence that killed more than 30 people.
And they say to beat a hacker you need to think like one. So the Pentagon is training its employees tricks that hackers use to break into computer networks. The Department of Defense insists its employees are not learning how to hack but to defend the Pentagon against hackers.
And in the wake of Toyota's huge global recall, Congress wants to know if the feds are doing enough to keep you safe behind the wheel. Today a House panel is scheduled to examine how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration patrols car companies.
Watchdog groups have accused federal safety officials with being too cozy with bosses over at Toyota.
CHETRY: And Hollywood mourning the death of actor Corey Haim. The 80s heartthrob died early yesterday. His manager says he was fighting a winning battle with drugs. Haim's closest friend and frequent co-star Corey Feldman sat down with our Larry King to talk about it last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COREY FELDMAN, FRIEND AND COSTAR OF COREY HAIM: The first thing I need to say is people need to stop jumping the gun and saying it's a drug overdose and stop saying their theories what they think it is, because until the coroner's report comes out and until we know what the toxicology reports say, nobody knows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Cory Feldman went on to say his friend's drug problems were well known, and he's "been the guy stuffing charcoal down his throat while he was OD-ing." Just shocking stuff. CHETRY: It is. And for a lot of people that know him, he was quite transparent about his struggles. He said he was a frequent relapser. Here for the "AM Breakdown" is Dr. Joseph Lee, an adolescent addiction specialist with the Hazelden Addiction Center. Dr. Lee, thanks for being with us this morning.
DR. JOSEPH LEE, ADDICTION SPECIALIST, HAZELDEN ADDICTION CENTER: Thank you for having me.
CHETRY: Do you agree with other experts that the use of prescription drugs, in particular, as well as illicit drugs is growing. What are the factors contributing to that?
LEE: Before I get to that question, I think on behalf of the Hazelden family, I would like to offer sincere condolences to Corey Haim's family and loved ones. And I don't want to speculate how he passed away, because it could have been a medical issue.
And getting to your question about prescription drug abuse, the general issue is really about addiction, and people are addicted to different things. Compared to previous decades we have seen a ramping up of prescription drug use.
Every day there are 7,000 new people that abuse prescription drugs for the very first time. To be fair, over the past five or six years, the numbers have plateaued or gone down a very little bit, but there are still concerning populations, ages 12-17 and 18-25 in particular.
And Corey Haim's story is about teenage and adolescent addiction, because although he passed away around 38, his addiction problems began when he was a teenager.
ACOSTA: We agree with waiting until all the facts have come out, and that's why we have run that clip all morning from Corey Feldman.
Tell me doctor, where are kids getting these drugs from?
LEE: Well, the vast majority of kids are getting prescription drugs from friends and loved ones. So we need to be vigilant about how the medications are distributed and regulated.
CHETRY: And clearly we are seeing that there doesn't seem to be the vigilance, meaning when you talk to the kids they say -- this is astounding -- 62 percent say they are able to get it from their parents' medicine cabinet.
Are so many people in need of narcotics and anti-anxiety medicines, kids can show shopping in the parents' medicine chests?
LEE: Well, I think part of the problem is how information is disseminated in society today. There's a lot of quick information that people can get. We live in kind of a sound bite, quick-fix society. And I think when kids hear medication and prescription and safe or legal, they confuse the terms together and don't realize they are potentially dangerous chemicals, especially if taken in combination.
ACOSTA: What about the constant advertising that we see on television for pharmaceuticals. Do you think that's a good idea?
LEE: Before we sensationalize pharmaceuticals altogether. The majority of people who get prescribed medications and take them appropriately, there is a subset population who are at high risk for addiction and other risky behaviors who abuse the drugs and that's the warning side.
CHETRY: What about the fact that so many people seem to be in a revolving door when it comes to rehabilitation? Corey Haim himself talked about being in and out of rehab 15 times. Are there some people that rehab doesn't work?
LEE: That's an excellent question. The truth needs to come out that addiction is a health issue and a chronic disease, a life-long illness like diabetes. And people have ups and downs with it.
Young kids these days see celebrities going to rehab. Anybody can go to the hospital for 30 days and be well and come back and they are fine. And addiction is not like the flu, it stays with you. We really saw Corey Haim and other celebrities have their struggles and victories with it.
ACOSTA: Thank you. Dr. Joseph Lee joining us this morning, appreciate your input.
ACOSTA: Great. Thank you very much for your time.
CHETRY: It's 37 minutes past the hour. We will take a quick break and be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Time now for an "AM Original." The severe budget crisis in California could end up leaving more than 1,000 children, mostly minorities, literally on the street corner. Some have big college dreams, but soon their high school may seem like it's a world away because the buses may stop running.
Casey Wian shows us how this could knock one girl's future right off track.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every day these buses bring about 1,200 mostly minority student from some of the grittiest neighborhoods in Los Angeles here to the Pacific Palisades, home of the movie stars and some of the highest priced real estate in all of southern California.
But budget cuts threaten the bussing program and also a better education for thousands of students, including one highly motivated freshman. Maria Morfin is arrive to begin her school day, but her journey began more than an hour and a half ago at her home 27 miles away.
It's 5:00 a.m., and Maria prepares for school. Both of her parents work, and so Maria piles into the family van and heads to the bus stop, destination, she says, a brighter future.
WIAN (on camera): How long have you been doing this?
MARIA MORFIN, HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN: Since I was a fifth grader. I have to wake every day up at 5:00 to go all the way to the bus stop and go somewhere that I know I will succeed. I think it's worth it, though.
WIAN: What is life like at Palisades high school?
MORFIN: It's like home. If I leave, it will be hard.
WIAN (voice-over): Maria's neighborhood high school ranks in the bottom 20 percent of the state. Her dream is to attend UCLA. Every day about halfway into her bus ride, she passes signs that remind her of where she wants to be, but for now she is worried about staying where she is.
MORFIN: Right here the teachers want you to succeed here, they push you.
WIAN: Because kids like Maria and 1,200 others attend an independent charter school, it receives funds. The LAUSD wants to use federal money for other purposes and says it can no longer afford the long bus trips.
AMY DRESSER HELD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PALISADES CHARTER HIGH: We are looking at 1,200 students coming from the most underperforming schools in L.A. losing access to a great high school.
WIAN: Palisades high says it can't afford the bus rides either, and both sides they are trying to find a solution before the budget deadline. For students like Maria, time is running out.
But the bottom line, the district says, is it will save $1.2 million a year by cutting the bus program, and that would be enough to pay the a salaries of 14 teachers.
Casey Wian, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: It all stems from California's $20 billion budget gap this fiscal year. And some other possible cuts California faces include cutting up to $1 billion to bus and rail funds, and 900,000 poor children could lose their health insurance. California is literally on the brink of a major fiscal crisis. These are huge problems to solve.
CHETRY: Yes, and the answers are not coming easy. Nobody can seem to agree on what needs to be done. Can't keep going back to the well of the federal government, because --
ACOSTA: Absolutely. And it's a good thing that Casey broke it down for us and showed how it affected one individual kid. These choices they have to make do have consequences.
CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: That was a shot this morning of some visitors we have today in the studio.
ACOSTA: That's right.
CHETRY: It's a college, class of 2010 theater majors and test design stage managers.
ACOSTA: That's right. We are the most college students in the morning.
CHETRY: Today we are.
ACOSTA: That's right.
CHETRY: And it's 47 minutes past the hour.
Let's get a check of this morning's weather headlines. Our Rob Marciano is in Atlanta. Are you alone there in your studio, or do you have a whole group of a -- the future generation?
MARCIANO: Well, yes, the interns are certainly the future generation and there are quite a few running around here.
ACOSTA: Plenty of coeds down there.
MARCIANO: Yes absolutely in the CNN Headquarters here in Atlanta. It's all abuzz even at this hour and even a couple of hours ago as well.
All right, speaking of abuzz, the southeast was buzzing in the last couple of days, rough weather. Tornado ripping through parts of central Arkansas yesterday doing some damage at the homes and unfortunately, there were a handful of people that were injured, no fatalities but some of those injuries certainly were serious. And you see just how strong those storms roll through there.
All right, not only from tornadoes but also flooding across Alabama; Shelby County, in and around the Birmingham area back through Aniston as well, seeing anywhere from three to four inches of rainfall on a short amount of time.
A lot of snowfall across parts of the Midwest, check out the video coming out of the Des Moines, Iowa, the Raccoon River (ph) where ice jams from all the snow and all of the cold weather now beginning to thaw and we're getting flooding around the Des Moines area, and that's just starting. And this is going to be an ongoing story I think over the next several weeks, not only in Des Moines but up the river there in Fargo.
All right, let's talk about today's weather. We don't have a whole lot of moisture across the Midwest just a sliver of it getting into parts of the western Great Lakes into Chicago. So a little bit of rain, maybe a brief clap of thunder, but most of the action this morning and throughout the day today will be across the southeast in the form of some heavy rain and especially right now across the Florida Panhandle and through southern parts of Georgia.
We will reignite the atmosphere I think later today, back through Louisiana and Mississippi the Storm Prediction Center put out a slight risk we're seeing severe weather there and also a slight risk of seeing severe weather across parts of Florida.
And then tomorrow, this thing is all just kind of winding around and not really moving all that much to the east. Severe weather, again a threat for parts of the Deep South and some rain and wind beginning tomorrow and lasting right through the weekend, I think, for parts of the northeast.
So you'll get into the action as well. You're beautiful spring weather, at least for now, is over -- Jim and Kiran.
ACOSTA: I guess it's going to get bumpy out there Rob. It's going to be rougher.
CHETRY: Yes, worst something is two to three inches in just a --
ACOSTA: Wow.
CHETRY: -- day. So pretty tense though.
MARCIANO: And some wind, I think Saturday is going to be a day to take in a matinee or just staying out at home up there in the Tri- State area.
ACOSTA: Thanks, Rob.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
ACOSTA: Stay with us, we've got a clip coming up from an upcoming CNN documentary called "Her Name Was Steven". Stay tuned for this. You're going to see this in just a few moments.
It's 49 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Eight minutes until the top of the hour.
It was a private choice with very public consequences when a city manager with a loving wife and a teenage son decided to become a woman. CNN presents "Her Name Was Steven". It tells the dramatic story of Steven Stanton's transition to Susan. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN STANTON, TRANSITIONED INTO A WOMAN: I was attracted to dolls and pink things and all that stuff. I loved digging in the dirt. At that time I was feeling very different from other kids, not knowing what I was feeling.
You feel that the outside doesn't match the inside in a very real way that is not easily understood. So I cannot get a real good clinical definition of what a transsexual is, but for me at a very early age I just knew that what was inside, this presence, this feeling of being somebody other than what I was on the outside was real and it's been something I've struggled with for many years in my life.
I started keeping journals, I think, when I was about eight or nine. I was writing about feeling a sense of two presence in me even at a small age and tried to understand how that work. When I was kid I used to (INAUDIBLE), never feeling alone but never having friends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got out of my dirty clothes and place my dirty little body in the soothing hot water. I will lather my legs arms and chest with a thick coat of white silk. I looked at my body floating in the water and imagined I was a beautiful miss. My legs look so pretty and my arms so feminine, but I knew this was wrong, I was a boy and not a girl.
STANTON: My dad was always distant. He worked very hard and very long. Even if my dad made an ok salary, we were certainly not well off. My mom was a full time mom, she was a home maker.
And I remember sitting down while I had her attention and she was in the kitchen and I asked her, "Mom, if I had been a girl, what would my name have been and she said without delay, it would have been Susan."
And when she said that, I can remember as soon as she said it would have been Susan, this explosive sound going off in my mind, that my gosh, that -- that is -- that is what its name is. That's what my name is and that's what I have been feeling for so many years and I just -- I just knew it to be true.
And it was just a powerful sensation that I could feel even as a small child that it's Susan, that it's Susan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Don't miss the premiere of "Her Name was Steven". It's this Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 Eastern here on CNN.
Five minutes until the top of the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: Ok. Brace yourselves. Time for "The Moost News in the Morning."
CHETRY: Yes, former New York Congressman finds himself the subject of a media blitz.
Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We barely mastered his name.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, HOST, "THE VIEW": New York Congressman Eric Massa.
MOOS: But not since Rod Blagojevich.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they push up Massa so Obama care can passa?
MOOS: Have we in the press been so tickled by a political character.
REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: The guy is one taco short of a Happy Meal --
GOLDBERG: He lost a couple wheels off the back car.
MOOS: So here we go with some of former Congressman Massa's top ticklers. You can't say the guy hasn't owned up to things.
ERIC MASSA, FORMER CONGRESSMAN, NEW YORK: I own this behavior. I own that.
I do own my own behavior.
MOOS: The question is, what is he owning up to?
MASSA: I own this. I own this.
MOOS: how can you not appreciate a guy that brings tickling into the national conversation?
MASSA: Yes, I did. Not only did I grope him. I tickled him until he couldn't breathe.
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Not only did I grope him, I tickled him until he couldn't breathe.
GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS HOST: No tickle fights in --
MASSA: It's not a tickle fight.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK, HOST, "THE VIEW": More creepy than me. Like you say, I not only groped him, I tickled him until he couldn't breathe.
MOOS: All the tickle talk has inspired a "Don't tickle me, I'm a Republican" T-shirt.
It's been fun watching table TV hosts grope for answers.
BECK: Did you ever touch anybody sexually or grope anybody sexually?
MASSA: No, no, no, no, no.
KING: Is it true? You groped male staffers.
MASSA: No.
MOOS: Listening to Massa's top ticklers had Glenn Beck looking like he had a tickle he couldn't scratch.
BECK: Bull crap. Bull crap, sir. Listen to me.
MASSA: Go ahead.
BECK: Please don't be a commercial.
MOOS: Another thing we were tickled by were the former congressman's down to earth massa-isms.
MASSA: This isn't exactly a Dunkin Donut fest. It's the whole schmazzole. I'm collateral damage. I'm road kill and in 72 hours, nobody's going to remember who I am.
MOOS: You knew who Eric Massa is?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, thank you.
MOOS: Ma'am, do you have any idea who Eric Massa is?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Who?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are talking about the restaurant upstairs, right?
MOOS: Wrong. Wrong Massa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, absolutely. The one that got in the proverbial pissing contest with the scum of the world, Rahm Emanuel? That one?
MASSA: It's terribly awkward. When was the last time you had a political argument with a naked man.
MOOS: Forget tickle me Elmo, this season's hit is --
JOY BEHAR, HLN HOST: Tickle me Massa.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: You have (INAUDIBLE). That toy sometimes goes off on its own, scares the heck out of me.
ACOSTA: Absolutely. I have one thing to say. I agree with Patrick Kennedy, no Massa.
CHETRY: I was trying to distract you but I hear you.
Well, that's going to do it for us today. Thanks so much for being with us. Go to cnn.com/amFix to continue the conversation.
ACOSTA: Thanks for joining us this morning.
Here is "CNN NEWSROOM" with Fredricka Whitfield. Starts right now.
