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American Morning
"Top Hat" Takes Plunge; Pakistani Taliban Isn't on Terror List; Boy Survives Deadly Plane Crash; Pakistani Taliban Terror Group or Not; Airplanes Being Repossessed; Goldman Sachs Investigated by SEC; Beau Biden's Stroke; The Oil Spill Solution?; Come on Board
Aired May 12, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. It's Wednesday, May 12th. I'm Drew Griffin. John Roberts actually was doing primetime last night. That's why he's not here right now.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, doing some double duty for sure.
I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us this morning. We're coming up on 8:00 here on the East Coast this morning. We have a lot of big stories we're breaking down in the next 15 minutes.
First, the latest on BP. Right now, workers are lowering a second containment dome into the Gulf of Mexico. They call it the top hat. It's a smaller version of the dome that didn't work last week, and it may be the last real hope for a quick fix.
GRIFFIN: Well, I hope it works.
The Pakistani Taliban -- believe it or not -- not on Washington's official list of terrorist groups, even though they've now been linked to the Times Square car bomb plot. And that has some senators wondering why we're not fighting back. A live report from Pakistan -- in a moment.
CHETRY: Also, the buzz is building. Could Goldman Sachs forgo the fight and instead settle its fraud charges with the federal government? It's a move that could come at a huge cost. Our Christine Romans will break that down for us.
GRIFFIN: And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join this conversation live right now. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX.
CHETRY: First, though, we are tracking breaking news out of Libya this morning. Officials there say that a young boy from the Netherlands survived a plane crash in the capital Tripoli. One hundred and four people were on board the Afriqiyah Airline flight when it went down. Libya's state media reports that 96 bodies have been recovered so far.
GRIFFIN: It was an Airbus jet landing in Tripoli after a nine- hour trip from South Africa. The airline says it found the flight's data recorder which could give them clues, of course. We're going to give you any new information as soon as we get it. CHETRY: Also happening right now, BP's plan B, an attempt to trap the oil gushing from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. This is "take two" when it comes to a containment dome. Crews are lowering a second, smaller dome known as a "top hat" into the Gulf of Mexico.
As we know, the larger version failed last week after ice crystals built up along the inside, preventing it from working. Every day the company fails, more and more oil is wiping out the fishing industry, threatening wildlife, ruining beaches and basically killing tourism.
Our Reynolds Wolf is live along the Gulf Coast. He is in Pass Christian, Mississippi, this morning.
So, fingers crossed this smaller containment dome, which apparently has its own heating element or ability to melt those crystals if they should form -- hopefully, that will work.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. And if it does work, I'm sure we'll know right away. I mean, they're ready to give out some good news. We're talking about BP, of course. And as soon as there's any word of success, I'm sure we'll hear about it right away. Failure, well, we're going to hear about that, too.
The thing they're trying to save is, well, quite honestly this. Take a look at this. This is an oyster. These things have been around virtually unchanged for 50 million years, enjoyed by generations of people around this country and worldwide, too.
And because of that oil spill, production and harvesting of these come to a standstill, which means that boats like this oyster boat is in dock for the time being, but this will be going out, not only this boat but many others like it, working for BP to put out some of that protective boom. Because they're going to be putting out the boom, burlap sacks like this that will be filled with, say, 100 pounds of oysters or so will be left at port but they will be putting out the boom to try to hold back that oil.
As I mentioned, it's not going to be just this boat but other ones, like the one you see out here. You see the Stacey Leann, you see the Bookie's Pride (ph), Miss Stacy (ph) back there, all trying to go out there and do what they can, putting a big splash in water to hold back all that oil that continues to spread out at about 5,000 barrels per day. I mean, it's mind-boggling.
But it hasn't been just affecting things out at sea but here also. In Pass Christian, many of the industries have been affected. There was one business that we spoke to yesterday, 120 people employed -- laid off half of them because they're not able to bring in that seafood. We're talking not just about oysters but also shrimp, too. If you can't bring it in, obviously, there's nothing to push out, there's no work.
The issues that we have with some of the employees, also is that they can't work there, it's not like they can go across the street because it's the entire industry for hundreds of miles up and down the coast that have been affected. It's mind-boggling. And right now, people are just waiting, keeping their fingers crossed, and hoping for good news.
CHETRY: Yes. It really is a sad situation and a tough one. And as you said, we should know soon, hopefully, whether or not that smaller containment dome has worked.
WOLF: Let's hope so.
CHETRY: But meantime, Reynolds -- I mean, the damage is done for many of these industries, right?
WOLF: Absolutely. I mean, it's going to be a very long time for them to truly recover. And remember, Katrina is just in the rear-view mirror. Many people were finally getting back on their feet.
This was really a banner year. From January to February and March and April, things were picture-perfect. Things were just phenomenal. They're saying this is a wonderful year, everything was going to shape up well and then this happened. It's been a kick in the teeth for them for people who are trying to stay in this industry.
In terms of the workers, like the ones who were laid off yesterday, many of them have to go to the west coast or the east coast if they can make it out there. Those are the only places that are truly viable. Here in the Gulf of Mexico, it really is -- it's going to be very difficult. There are a few fishing grounds that are still open, so to speak. Most of those, though, way over in Texas. Though things are getting sparse to say the least.
CHETRY: Just a sad situation. All right. Fingers crossed though that this next, smaller containment dome works. Thanks so much, Reynolds.
Also ahead, we're going to be speaking to one man who says that he has a product that could possibly stave wetlands even after a point of no return -- a product that absorbs the oil and eats it up. Is it safe? And is it for real?
We're going to be joined by the man who's going to put it to the test in front of our eyes. This is coming up at 8:40 Eastern.
GRIFFIN: It's going to be interesting.
New this morning: Britain has a new prime minister, Conservative leader, David Cameron, replacing Gordon Brown yesterday. Brown resigning after a national election failed to identify a clear winner.
There is the winner, Cameron, with his pregnant wife, announcing plans to join forces with the Liberal Democratic Party. It will be a coalition government. Together, they're going to create Britain's first coalition government since way back in World War II.
CHETRY: Vice President Joe Biden rushes to see his son Beau after Beau suffers a mild stroke, according to doctors. The 41-year- old Delaware attorney general is said to be in good spirit. He's in a Philadelphia hospital where he's getting more testing. And he is expected to recover, but he remains under the watchful eye of doctors, and again, will have more testing to figure out why this happened.
GRIFFIN: And demolition under way in Detroit. Crews are knocking down a two-story home, the first of about 450 that are going to be destroyed -- part of the mayor's plan to actually shrink the city and eventually eliminate thousands of these vacant and abandoned houses.
CHETRY: Well, cable lovers might call it a cosmic catastrophe, a communication company fears a solar storm might have actually knocked its satellite out of orbit. So, what does that mean? Well, it's drifting in space right now out of control because it's out of orbit. There's a good chance it heads to another cable beaming satellite. If they cross paths, that would interfere with your signal.
Now, the company expects this to happen around May 23rd. The company, though, does not know how long any interruptions would last.
GRIFFIN: Do we know if we're involved in this thing?
CHETRY: We're on cable, could be.
GRIFFIN: Jacqui Jeras, where are you?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm here! Can you hear me?
GRIFFIN: You can do the weather and the atmosphere and everything else, right?
JERAS: Sure.
GRIFFIN: So, tell us about this satellite thing.
JERAS: That would be fun. You know, there's so much space debris out there. Do you have any idea? It's amazing actually that stuff like this doesn't happen more often, quite incredible.
We use satellite all the time to help detect the weather and track storm systems, and certainly doing a lot of that tracking here today. We've got a lot of storms across the nation's midsection, bringing in some very heavy downpours and some flash flooding experienced across the nation's midsection.
We are looking at some wet weather across the northeast. It's light but it's kind of a pain for you, trying to get out the door or on a plane this morning, expecting to see a lot of airport delays across the northeastern corridor.
Keeping your temperatures on the cool side, too, only 53 in New York today, warm temperatures across the southern plain states. And check out Denver, 42 degrees. You have some snowflakes across the area, your temperatures are 26 degrees below where they should be for this time of the year.
We are expecting more severe weather to redevelop this afternoon across the nation's midsection. We're watching places like north Texas and to Oklahoma once again and the middle Mississippi River Valley. You could see more of those tornadoes, guys. We'll be watching for them.
GRIFFIN: All right. Thanks, Jacqui.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, Pakistani Taliban is not on the U.S. terror list and a lot of people are scratching their heads and saying --
GRIFFIN: Hello?
CHETRY: Yes. Why? We're going to check in with Reza Sayah on the controversy -- next.
It's eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's about 10 minutes after the hour.
You know, a lot of senators -- and quite frankly us -- are asking the same question this morning -- if the Pakistani Taliban helped plan that attempted car bombing in Times Square earlier this month, then why isn't the Pakistani Taliban on America's list of foreign terrorist organizations? Forty-five other groups are and adding one more could help the U.S. fight back.
CHETRY: Reza Sayah is live in Islamabad, Pakistan, for us this morning.
And how much do we know about the situation? People were saying, wait a minute, who is the Pakistani Taliban and why are they are not on this list?
REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kiran, before I start, that's the call to prayer behind us, just so you don't get confused.
As far as the Pakistani Taliban goes, I'm going to give you the perspective here from Pakistan. Perhaps the U.S. has hesitated in putting this group on the terrorist watch list because they haven't found any evidence that they could hit U.S. targets. But here's why perhaps they should hesitate in putting this group on the terrorist organizations list -- the Pakistani Taliban would love nothing more than to be put on this list and to get this kind of publicity. Remember, they make plenty of threats against the U.S.
But it's important for our U.S. audience to know that for the most part, the Pakistani Taliban are a group of poverty-stricken, uneducated young men that have never even left this region. To all of a sudden be on this list, to be on par with al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah, this is the type of publicity that they crave, they dream of, that could be used as a recruiting tool.
And all this, of course, came out after the attempted bombing in New York with Faisal Shahzad, U.S. investigators saying he's linked with the Pakistani Taliban. But so many things don't make sense. If, indeed, the Pakistani Taliban trained this guy, why was he so inept? Why was the bomb so crudely made? And why was there no Internet chatter?
So, these are questions that remain unanswered. In putting the Pakistani Taliban on this list, would it help the U.S. fight terrorism? Maybe. But based on the mindset that we know of the Pakistani Taliban, it could hurt as well.
GRIFFIN: Reza, I want to get into that -- because, you know, here in the U.S. they're saying the Pakistani Taliban may have helped finance this, trained this guy, done all this planning with him, and really the whole plot, if you will, was a joke. It cost just a couple of thousand dollars, if that. The bomb was so ridiculously put together it really wasn't set to go off anyway.
So, what are they saying? What are the authorities -- your sources saying in Pakistan? Is this truly a real viable group, or is this just -- as you said -- a ragtag bunch of poor guys?
SAYAH: Well, so far, investigators have worked this case and they say there's absolutely no links that they've found with the Pakistani Taliban. He met -- Faisal Shahzad -- according to investigators here, met with one man who had links to another militant group, but nothing when it comes to the Pakistani Taliban. And yes, you hear U.S. investigators talk about this link, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Holder.
But what I want to hear, if there are links, what are they and how extensive are the links? What's the evidence that the Pakistani Taliban targeted this guy, went out and found Faisal Shahzad, trained him, financed him, and sent him back to the U.S.? That's the type of information that would really establish the link between the Pakistani Taliban and this incident in New York.
CHETRY: The flip side to what Drew is saying -- I mean, you're right in a way that it seemed like it was a very rudimentary job, an amateur job.
But the bottom line is, if -- we got lucky. I mean, even the NYPD and the feds agree if this would have exploded, and it very well could have, you could have been looking at mass casualties, at least to pedestrians. It would be a totally different story not only for this suspect but also for -- I guess as you said -- the recruitment and the stature of the Pakistani Taliban, if, indeed, these links are verified.
SAYAH: Yes. No question about it. And, listen, the bottom line is: the Pakistani Taliban and militant groups love nothing more than for CNN, U.S. senators, to mention their names. It inflates their stature. And they get to recruit more people. And, look, this -- in the past, this has been a desperate group. There was a shooting at New York last year -- in Upstate New York -- and immediately the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack. Of course, it was established by investigators that there was no link. So, in the past, there's been a history of the Pakistani Taliban making claims that weren't true. So, again, it's really important to find out from U.S. investigators if they have links with the Pakistani Taliban what are they.
GRIFFIN: All right. Reza Sayah, thank you.
As we continue to follow that case, and this one, too. Speculation that Goldman Sachs could be settling up with the government, trying to close this case out with a little cash. Is that going to help the biz? Christine Romans is next
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Good morning. Welcome back. It's 18 minutes past the hour. Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" this morning. We're talking a little bit about Goldman Sachs.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right
CHETRY: The fraud charges against them by the SEC and whether or not they may settle.
ROMANS: A lot of speculation that Goldman wants to settle. And people close to Goldman have told me that they weren't given the chance to settle originally when the government slapped down these fraud charges originally. So there's a lot of speculation that they're talking to the government, trying to figure out how to put this behind them.
How big would that settlement be? It's impossible to know, but usually what happens is before charges are filed a company has a chance to pay a fine and not admit or deny any wrongdoing. That was not the allowed in this case, many people say because the SEC is trying to show that it is now a tough cop on the block.
But, you can see that a lot of money has been raised before in fraud charges against companies including AIG in 2006 for some accounting shenanigans, $800 million there, WorldCom in 2003, three quarters of a billion. Citi Group in 2003 $400 million. And Fannie Mae in 2006 also accounting $400 million. So, we know that Goldman Sachs has been talking to the SEC about this -- this particular fraud -- this issue that led to the fraud charge we learned about a few weeks ago. They've been talking to them for about 18 months or something. But we'll see if they're actually moving in that direction.
Meanwhile, I can assure you that you have a new trying-to-appear aggressive SEC and that's keeping the Wall Street legal departments humming not just at Goldman Sachs but at other companies, as well. There's a report this morning in "The Wall Street Journal" that Morgan Stanley is being investigated by, right, by the Justice Department. Morgan Stanley says that it has no specific information or any kind of subpoenas related to what "The Wall Street Journal" was reporting about, but it's also about these complicated mortgage-backed securities. CHETRY: And you have talked about this before. You said Goldman could just be the tip of the iceberg with the SEC
ROMANS: Yes. I would not be surprised if you have numerous investigations on Wall Street right now because this is what they are trying to do. They're looking back, they're peeling back to 2006, 2007, to some of these complicated derivatives and mortgage-related products and trying to find if there is anything is going on there.
Now, remember, a criminal probe is very, very difficult. You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that somebody tried to intentionally mislead investors. That's tough. It's been hard to move in the past. What I can tell you is the legal departments and the public relations departments of all these Wall Street banks are humming with activity right now.
CHETRY: That's two different things.
ROMANS: Oh, yes.
CHETRY: Getting off the hook with the charges and the PR war that would come after are two different things.
ROMANS: Do you think Goldman Sachs is going to be able to put this all behind it, or will Goldman Sachs come out of the crash as, you know, the guys who profited from the crash and may have by you know engineering some of these contracts, helped cause it? Do you think that will be their lasting reputation? Remains to be seen.
GRIFFIN: With the money, I don't see that they care. So they set aside a bunch of money, they settle with the government and go about their merry way.
ROMANS: Here's the thing. They care if their clients care. They care, and all along, you know, they did not really talk to the media, they didn't really care about you know some of the bad press they have been getting the last couple years but when their clients started to ask them about it, then they cared. So, what point does the public relations problem in main street hurt their clients, then they care, and that hurts their business.
GRIFFIN: All right. Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business".
ROMANS: Sure.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, have they found out yet who has the fat finger on Wall Street?
ROMANS: No, and I don't think --
GRIFFIN: What is that? Hey, the son of Vice President Joe Biden, this is really serious, he suffers a stroke. The guy is just 41. Dr. Gupta live next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) GRIFFIN: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 8:25. Top stories are five minutes away. But first an "A.M. Original," something you'll only see on AMERICAN MORNING. As the nation struggles through the ravages of recession, repossessions are on the rise.
CHETRY: Nearly 2 million vehicles a year are now being legally stolen from their struggling owners. But these days it's not just cars. Carol Costello joins us from Washington with some of the more expensive toys that are now being eyed by a new breed of repo man.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, what is it about repo men? People find them so fascinating. There have been movies made about them, reality TV shows, but you have never seen repo men quite like this. They are strictly high end, and business is booming.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (on camera): So all of these planes that we see here have been repossessed.
KEN CAGE, INTERNATIONAL RECOVERY AND REMARKETING GROUP: Yes, they have been. All have their own story to tell.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Ken is a high-end repo man with a booming business called the International Recovery and Remarketing Group.
CAGE: Here's the airplane. It's a Citation 1.
COSTELLO: Forget about cars and motorcycles, Cage, along with former WWE wrestler Randy Craft, repossess jets and yachts.
COSTELLO (on camera): Can you just hop on the boat and take off?
CAGE: You pretty much.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Worth hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece. Today's target, a Cessna jet. A cinch? No. The wealthy owner is not happy the bank wants his jet back, so Cage thinks he's hiding it at an airport near Orlando.
CAGE: Know anything that's going on at this point?
RANDY CRAFT, INTERNATIONAL RECOVERY AND REMARKETING GROUP: No. They think it's hidden. They thought --
CAGE: Welcome home, honey.
COSTELLO: After days of nifty detective work, Craft and Cage hit the road to meet a pilot they've hired.
CAGE: They didn't take on much fuel, so we knew they were going to one of about eight or ten airports. The airplane is there. I just texted the pilot to let him know we're on our way.
CRAFT: Repossessions. I always get pumped because to me it's exciting. It sounds kind of bad to say, but, you know, I find it thrilling to be able to go in and steal something and know I'm doing it legally.
CAGE: We just are pulling into the airport now. What hangar number? As much as I want him to floor it right now, he can't because if somebody comes out with an airplane we're hamburger. Is that her, John?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That's her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got it open? Awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does she look?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She looks good. Nothing wrong with the airplane.
COSTELLO: Cage and Craft catch a break. The plane was left unlocked. No need to break in.
CAGE: Randy, I'm going to go make the call, pal.
COSTELLO: With the bank's repo order in hand, Cage alerts the local police.
CAGE: All right, we have the call so this is legit now. It's legal. Now we get into hustle mode to get this baby out of here.
COSTELLO (on camera): Minutewise, what would be primeau for you to get out of here?
CAGE: He's saying it's going to take like 30 minutes to get the thing fueled up.
COSTELLO: You don't like that?
CAGE: I hate that.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Meanwhile, the pilots tow the jet 400 yards to the fuel pump. Randy and Ken, they are on the move in case the jet's owner or his pilot show up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no jet fuel in here.
COSTELLO: Then a hitch.
CAGE: The jet fuel pump is shut down so, we can't get fuel. We've got enough to get there. It's less than you prefer to have, though, so that's the thing. So he says we have enough, we have enough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take off Runway 35. I'm ready when you are.
CAGE: Thanks, man.
COSTELLO: Finally, Cage's $700,000 quarry is airborne. Ten miles later it lands. The owner won't know what hit him until he calls the hangar a few hours later.
CAGE: We've got the airplane. Now he's mad because he thought he had beaten us, and in the end we get the airplane so he is mad. There is danger. I don't think of it as danger, because if I did I probably wouldn't get out of bed in the morning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Just because everything is very carefully planned. After they get the goods, they sell them for the bank, they repo jets and yachts all over the world. The hotspot right now along the Northeast Coast. Most of the business men and women going bust, not able to make their payments on their corporate jets and their yachts, had something to do with the real estate business.
CHETRY: Yes. I mean, you feel bad for them but it's hard to feel bad for them at the same time, right? I mean --
COSTELLO: It's funny. You talk to Ken and Randy, they say they could never repossess cars or motorcycles because, you know, you're repossessing a car from some guy down on his luck and the car is what he uses to get to and from work. It's different when you repossess a corporate jet, something people really don't need, can't make the payments and probably shouldn't have bought anyway.
CHETRY: Gotcha. Carol Costello, interesting look, though, at, you know --
COSTELLO: It was fascinating. I wanted to work for them, I mean, it was so much -- it was so much fun. I will admit it.
CHETRY: You're not supposed to -- thanks, Carol.
Well, we're crossing the half hour right now and we're checking the top stories. We have some breaking news out of Libya right now.
Officials there are now saying that they have pulled 96 bodies from the wreckage of an Airbus jet. The flight crashed in the capital of Tripoli -- there's a look right now at all of the debris scattered there, some cases still smoldering. A hundred and four people were on board, and we know at least one survivor. Officials say that a young Dutch boy, 8 years old, was found alive at the crash site.
GRIFFIN: A controversial war memorial in the shape of a cross has been stolen from the Mojave National Reserve. The cross has been at the center of a Supreme Court fight.
The court ruling it did not violate the constitutional separation of church and state even though it was located on federal land. Well, apparently thieves disagreed. The Justice Department is now investigating the theft.
CHETRY: President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, heads to Capitol Hill today to meet some of the senators who will decide her fate. A majority of Democrats are supporting her and so far Republican opposition has been pretty low key. GRIFFIN: A new developing story now. Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden is alert and stable after suffering a mild stroke yesterday. He's the vice president's eldest son and is talking and has all his motor skills.
CHETRY: Although he is expected to recover, he is staying under the watchful eye of doctors at a Philadelphia hospital and our Chief Medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live in Atlanta this morning. A lot of people were surprised by his age. We do know people who have suffered strokes at a young age, but 41 seems pretty young to suffer a stroke.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. There's no doubt that people can suffer a stroke at that age, but if you look just statistically, fewer than 1 percent of people are going to have a stroke around that age. So it is unlikely and typically, what causes a stroke at that age is very different as well from what causes a stroke in someone who's 20 or 30 years older.
Sort of broadly speaking, when someone's talking about stroke- like symptoms, it's typically caused by one of two things, either bleeding within the brain due to some sort of -- like an aneurysm or something or because there's not enough blood getting to the brain and the brain cells start to die as a result of that.
What can happen sometimes, and I think we have an animation that shows this, is that a blood clot can come from somewhere in the body, maybe from the heart for example. You can see it flick off there. That little clot, once it travels through all the blood vessels, can eventually find its way to the brain, block off one of the small vessels in the brain and cause that area of the brain to not to get enough oxygen.
That's what causes stroke-like symptoms. Now, Kiran and Drew, I'm saying stroke-like symptoms because what we heard about Beau Biden is that he had some problems, but those problems in terms of his motor strength and in terms of his speech, they got better, and if they get better within 24 hours, it's probably not a stroke so much that we're talking about. But rather something like a TIA, a transient ischemic attack. A stroke really means something that last, is a permanent neurological problem that lasts into the future.
GRIFFIN: I was going to ask you that. Will they be able to determine what exactly this was? Sanjay, this was minor. Is it a precursor for something worse?
GUPTA: Yes, it's a really great point. And I think that that's the biggest issue is that trying to figure out what caused this and, Drew, trying to make sure it doesn't happen again. That's sort of goal number one.
About a third of the time, about 30 percent of the time, they may not know specifically what caused this sort of thing. But just to give you an idea of the places they would look, for example, that clot that you just saw, if it was coming from his heart, how would you find that? Maybe through a test called an echocardiogram, a sort of ultrasound of the heart.
Sometimes some of the blood vessels leading to the brain can have a little trauma to them, maybe turning the neck too fast, whiplash like injury from a car accident, can cause minor injury to a blood vessel. That could flick up on those clots as well to go to the brain.
Maybe the blood is too thick, if blood is too thick that makes someone form clots and maybe he would need to be on blood-thinning medications. Of course, as you know, his father had a history of aneurysms back in 1988. Could he have had one of those as well? There's a small likelihood due to family history he could, but we haven't heard that this was due to bleeding in the brain.
But that - you're absolutely right, Drew, that's the goal right now. That's the battery of tests that he's likely getting to try and figure out what happened here.
GRIFFIN: All right, Sanjay. Thanks.
CHETRY: Well, in the meantime, a Florida company says it has an oil spill solution. They claim they have a product that actually absorbs oil without causing any harm to the environment. Is it too good to be true? We're going to get a live demonstration of how it would work in some swimming pools that have oil dumped into them. We're going to check it out and talk to the person who says this could be a solution for some of the delicate areas along the coast. It's 35 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 37 minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
You know, we've been talking about all the finger-pointing going on in Washington over the massive gulf oil spill and also the failure to be able to do anything to cap it or stop it at this point. But our next guest says while all that's going on, he's sitting on a potential solution when it comes to saving the wetlands if they're overrun with oil. His phone isn't exactly ringing off the hook.
Frank Pajaujis is a partner at Aabaco and he says he has a product that could actually eat away at the oil, turning it into dirt. He joins us from Boca Raton, Florida, this morning.
Frank, good too to see you. You have a demonstration that you're going to show us in a second, but first of all, just explain how this stuff works.
FRANK PAJAUJIS, PARTNER, AABACO: The material itself is a by- product of the sugarcane. It's the gas fibers, the dried-out fibers that are milled down and it has great absorption for oil and repels water.
At the same time, we have infused the product with microbes that eat the oil. So we have the ability to absorb the oil and then rapidly heat the oil and combust the oil and turn it into dirt, basically.
CHETRY: All right, so show us how it would work first of all. You have a clear pool first in front and you'll pour some motor oil into it? Go ahead.
PAJAUJIS: Motor oil, yes, absolutely. You can see the motor oil is coming to the surface and floating.
CHETRY: Right.
PAJAUJIS: Just below the surface. Once it starts to build up on the surface, all we have to do is dust over the fibers, over the surface, and you can immediately see where it comes into contact with the oil it starts to darken and absorb the oil, where it's in contact with the water it does not absorb the water. It's just repelling the water.
CHETRY: I got you. And on top of that, you're seeing the sugarcane fibers do that. But then explain what the microbes do and how they work.
PAJAUJIS: OK, right. The sugarcane fibers absorb the oil and encapsulate the oil. The microbes are infused into the sugarcane fibers. We add nitrogen to the process. The microbes are activated, they start to eat the oil and combust the oil, like little Pacman, eating the oil molecules and breaking them down into harmless material.
CHETRY: And let's take a look really quick if we can a close-up of the other pool. That is what you did last night, right about 12 hours ago.
PAJAUJIS: Yes.
CHETRY: Show us the end result is and what we're looking at.
PAJAUJIS: Right, absolutely. As you can see where the oil has not come into contact, the fibers are still dry and with contact with the oil, it's absorbing the oil, encapsulating the oil. So you can, in fact, scoop it up the surface very easily or as it breaks down, allow it to breakdown in areas where you cannot remove it, and just leave it there, and remediate itself. Finally after a period of --
CHETRY: Go ahead.
PAJAUJIS: Sorry.
CHETRY: No, you said after a period of time, I think you're going to show us what it looks like.
PAJAUJIS: After a period of time -- this is what we did last Friday. We scooped it from the surface. You can see it's starting to dry out and the oil is beginning to breakdown.
CHETRY: And is what you're showing us there, is that toxic? Does that smell like oil anymore or is it just dirt? PAJAUJIS: No. No. It still has the hydrocarbons in there but it's encapsulated and the microbes are working at it, breaking it down.
CHETRY: There you go and that is what you're showing us about a week out from putting this in. A couple of questions. You're doing it in a pool, which is fresh water. You're doing it with motor oil. It would be a lot different, right, with crude oil and also in the salt water marshes of the gulf. Would it still work in that environment?
PAJAUJIS: Absolutely, absolutely. It floats on the water. It just needs the water to activate the microbes. There are natural products breaking down in the saltwater, as well. We have test started over many, many years on all different areas of waterways, estuaries, et cetera. The microbes can be used in a large variety of applications.
CHETRY: Explain why you think this might be ideal for the wetlands area. You're not talking about spreading this through the open waters of the gulf.
PAJAUJIS: What they're doing on the open waters of the gulf is trying to scoop it up, which is an easy area to -- large areas, you can use heavy equipment to scoop up the oil. In the wetlands, once the oil gets into the wetlands, it's very difficult to remediate that and remove it without doing more damage.
You can't go in there with big, heavy equipment, to scoop it up, et cetera. Once the oil gets in there, coated with the material, it's encapsulated and it can break down naturally and rapidly, because we accelerate the breakdown. So that allows the material that cannot be removed to be decomposed very quickly.
CHETRY: You've also said that you've tried to sort of talk to BP about this. You've made some calls to try to see if local areas and governments were interested in using your product but you haven't heard anything back. Why not, do you think?
PAJAUJIS: We've had foremen coming back from government areas and they keep referring us back to BP's website and the 800 number. I'm sure BP has thousands and thousands of people calling them every day, so there's a backlog, I'm sure from that end. But the local government is not active in responding to us at all right now.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it is an interesting option if it were to be able to work in one of these areas, especially as you talked about, the sensitive marshlands. It would be amazing, but thanks for giving us a look at how your product could potentially work in this disaster that we're dealing with. Frank Pajaujis, partner at Aabaco. Thanks so much.
PAJAUJIS: Thank you for your time.
GRIFFIN: Interesting stuff. Interesting stuff, Kiran. It is going to be rainy in the northeast, but I hate to tell you this, possible more severe storms in the Midwest. Jacqui Jeras is going to break it down for you. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Now we're on your play list.
GRIFFIN: Good morning, Detroit City. Detroit is cloudy 46, showers, 55. Johnny Damon hitting home runs.
CHETRY: There you go, it's just the weather.
Jacqui Jeras is following all of that for us this morning. There's not -- many parts of the country today that look like they're going to be that great, although we did see the beautiful shot from Tampa and we're all jealous.
JERAS: You know, yes, that's the money shot today, right, guys? There aren't a lot of places that are looking good. If you're not dealing with severe weather, you've got drippy, cool conditions and they even got snow across the intermountain west. We could be talking about over a foot in places like Cheyenne; you get up into the higher elevations.
So the big focus, though, the big weather story across the nation's midsection, and this is just kind of a little icing on the cake because the big show is really coming later on this afternoon.
We've got this MCS, as we call it or our Mezzo Scale Convective system with thunderstorm after thunderstorm after thunderstorm moving over the same areas. So we call it training and we get flooding when we have situations like this.
The good news, St. Louis, for you, this is your last hurrah and you'll have a little break until late today. But Cincinnati, you're just getting in on the action, as well as Indianapolis. And be aware if you're heading out to work that we could see a little localized flooding.
Same story along I-35, across parts of Iowa, Des Moines, up towards Ames, looking at some heavy showers. And flood watches all in green across the area. The red boxes you see those are flashflood warnings in effect and that's where we're already seeing a good two to three inches of rainfall.
There you see in the northeast, just some light rain and some misty conditions. And that's going to be just enough to cause you a little bit of a travel headache today. Delays expected to stay under an hour, though, in New York. We've got official delays already at O'Hare for about 45 minutes or so and over an hour possible in Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis.
Those temperatures way below average about 10 to 25 degrees. The worst of the cool weather focused right in here across the high plain states. And we expect severe thunderstorms to develop late this afternoon and into the evening hours across the southern plains and then into the middle Mississippi River Valley.
So large hail, the primary threat, guys, but we could see a couple of twisters today again.
GRIFFIN: All right, Jacqui. Thank you.
CHETRY: There you go. What are you going to do?
GRIFFIN: I don't know. Watch out for that Mezzo Scale Convective system.
CHETRY: There you go, say that three times fast.
Meanwhile, is it a sign of the times, the same sandwich board; the NYC sandwich board job hunters who walked the streets outside of Grand Central trying to get a job after 99 weeks unemployed.
Well, he got one. Richard Roth is here to tell us how this story ended happily.
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CHETRY: Fifty-two minutes past the hour. That's a shot of the control room this morning. They're all hard at work back there.
GRIFFIN: Is that what they're doing back there?
CHETRY: Yes.
GRIFFIN: Good.
CHETRY: A lot of buttons to push by the way.
GRIFFIN: They are pushing mine, I'll tell you that.
CHETRY: They sure are.
Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. It's time for your "AM House Call", stories about your health and they are minutes that you may literally never get back.
There's a new study that says working overtime may be killing you. Research -- you're laughing at this one -- researchers --
GRIFFIN: I'm dying.
CHETRY: I know. Well, 10,000 civil servants in London, they followed them for two decades and they found that people who worked three or more hours of overtime had a 60 percent higher risk of heart disease and that was based on a seven-hour work day. You're in trouble.
GRIFFIN: I don't know. I mean, they followed people for two decades, somebody's got to die, right?
CHETRY: Yes, but -- GRIFFIN: You've got to be to follow them.
CHETRY: -- but they had a 60 percent higher risk of heart disease.
GRIFFIN: I get it. I want to read this piece, that's interesting, though.
CHETRY: Yes.
GRIFFIN: That is interesting -- well, for more than a year, an out of work toy exec walked the streets of Manhattan wearing a sandwich board trying to score a job. We've been talking about him on and off. Well, it finally paid off.
CHETRY: Yes finally after a week after his unemployment benefits ran out, so it couldn't have happened at a better time. Our Richard Roth joins us now with his story.
So it worked for him. I mean, at first we thought maybe it's a novelty, and he's doing is to get a little bit of media attention, but he got a job.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was a technique done during the depression. It doesn't always work. There had been other sign men that I've on the streets of Manhattan, of course, some of them are just pitching products.
But we finally do know at least one person who got off the unemployment rolls using this method. His search looking for a job was profiled by media around the world, including us, and his failure to find work became a sign of the times.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROTH (voice-over): This was Paul Nawrocki, a year and a half ago at New York's Grand Central station. The laid-off toy industry worker was stepping outside to go public with his job search, wearing a large sign to advertise his plight.
PAUL NAWROCKI, SIGN MAN AT GRAND CENTRAL STATION: When you're doing something and it doesn't work, you have to do something different.
ROTH: Paul, the sign man, became a face of the recession. The other day, the morning commuter train pulled in and Paul Nawrocki was on it once again. But things have changed for him. After collecting 99 weeks of unemployment checks, he was on his way to a paying job.
(on camera): Paul.
NAWROCKI: Richard. How are you?
ROTH: What's new? I hear you have a job. How does it feel?
NAWROCKI: Great. Great. It's a lot different from the first time we met.
ROTH (voice-over): He was back on famed 42nd street where he used to wear that sign and handle out resumes.
NAWROCKI: It was my way of networking, but it was tough. And it seemed like another life. It was such a surreal thing to go through.
ROTH: when I last saw him, he was depressed and tired. The new job has put some pep in his step.
NAWROCKI: I don't know. I feel very separated from that guy that was with the sign board at this point.
ROTH: Something else was different. The hair was changed and the mustache gone. Credit his job coach.
NAWROCKI: She said that change -- if you can change the outside you'll make yourself feel better, and it really did have an exhilarating effect on me.
Thank you.
ROTH: Nawrocki doesn't have to comb the newspaper for jobs anymore. That doesn't mean he has stopped thinking about the millions of others.
NAWROCKI: You look around. Who's unemployed? You don't know. How many people here are on their way to an interview rather than a job? You don't know, you know? So that sticks with me.
ROTH: can the disappearance of sign man indicate an economic recovery is near?
NAWROCKI: You can't say, oh, look, he got a job, everything's hunky-dory. I don't think that's the case. But it does seem like it's getting better, I think.
ROTH: You probably want to know where did he get his job?
NAWROCKI: Nobody played with you today, huh?
ROTH: Back in the toy industry, working at Fantasma Magic as the operations manager.
ROGER DREYER, PRESIDENT, FANTASMA MAGIC: I was actually surprised that someone today would have the Houdini-like skills to go into streets. And you know what? When it comes to your family, you'll do anything.
ROTH: Paul, do you feel that you pulled this job like pulling a rabbit out of a hat? Had you given up hope?
NAWROCKI: You never give up hope. You can't give up hope.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ROTH: Paul is smiling at work but he's not completely out of the woods. He and his wife had to declare bankruptcy. They're struggling to pay off mortgage debt and have significant medical bills from his wife's battle with cancer. But it's good to see that he's found a job.
CHETRY: Yes. In his same field -- right -- doing what he likes to do.
ROTH: That's right. For this toy company and it's a fun place if you're there for office setting.
GRIFFIN: Let's take a -- let's put up the video of this guy because he completely changed himself.
CHETRY: He has a completely different look. I mean, you're sure it's the same guy?
ROTH: I'm pretty sure. I mean, he had been e-mailing us regarding his plight over time. Of course you can't tell a person's look in an e-mail, but I think it's the same man.
GRIFFIN: I think there's tips for people who are out of work to learn off of this guy.
ROTH: Yes.
GRIFFIN: Look at how pathetic he looks with that board.
ROTH: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Pathetic?
GRIFFIN: I mean he does. And over on the hired side he's got a nice do, he's refreshing, he's bright looking, positive energy. I think he really did more than just a makeover. It sounds like he did an entire transformation.
ROTH: That's what his job coach stressed and I think it's good for everyone to try to keep up -- keep a different look, peppy.
GRIFFIN: Stiff upper lip.
ROTH: You want to look optimistic even if you're crying inside. I mean, I come to work every day with that attitude.
CHETRY: And you've done it successfully for years and years.
GRIFFIN: And so far without the board. So good.
ROTH: Yes.
GRIFFIN: Good job, Richard. Very good story.
ROTH: I might even need that coach.
CHETRY: Congratulations to Paul, by the way.
ROTH: We all may need that coach one day.
GRIFFIN: Good job, Paul, sticking with it.
CHETRY: All right. Well, congrats to him.
Meanwhile, we're going to go to quick break. We'll be right back. It's 57 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: We'd love for you to continue the conversation on today's stories by heading to our blog, cnn.com/amfix.
That's going to do it for us for this Wednesday. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
GRIFFIN: Yes. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now.
