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American Morning
Thomas's Wife Wants Apology; Pilot Slams Body Scan; Univision Pulls "Don't Vote" Ad; Two Million Strollers Recalled; Anatomy of an Oil Spill; Dangers of Hormone Replacement
Aired October 20, 2010 - 07:59 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. Thanks so much for being with us on this Wednesday, October 20th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us.
Let's get you caught up on what happened overnight. A bizarre twist nearly 20 years late. Clarence Thomas' wife is asking Anita Hill for an apology for accusing her husband of sexual harassment in front of the nation. Both sides have now responded. Reaction live from Washington, just ahead.
CHETRY: An airline pilot refusing a full body scan and pat down. He claims it's an invasion of privacy, but taking the stand could get him grounded. We're going to talk with the pilot himself, Michael Roberts, just ahead.
ROBERTS: And Sesame Street goes viral with a new video and an age-old message. Take a look.
(VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Sesame Street head writer Joey Mazarino (ph) says his daughter was the inspiration for the song. We'll talk to him about the success and the message behind it.
CHETRY: Up first though, a blast from the past causing quite a stir this morning. The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reaching out in a voice mail message to Anita Hill, asking for an apology.
ROBERTS: Hill is confirming that she got the message and says it was, quote, "inappropriate." You may remember Hill's testimony almost sank Thomas' Supreme Court nomination. That was 19 years ago.
Kate Bolduan is live for us in Washington this morning. And a lot of folks waking up today, Kate, scratching their heads wondering when's going on here.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, what is going on? Good question, John.
Well, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as you guys mentioned, is asking for an apology now from Anita Hill, the woman who accused Justice Thomas of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearing in the early '90s. Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist, she left Anita Hill, a law professor now at Brandeis University, a voice mail at her office recently.
Here's the message. She said, "Good morning, Anita Hill. It's Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology some time and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband."
Thomas goes on to say, "So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did." She goes on to say, "OK, have a good day."
Thomas says -- after this, she says that she was extending an olive branch of sorts after all of these years and that no offense was intended in her message. But it seems Hill, Anita Hill, doesn't see it that way. She turned the message over to campus security which then turned it over to the FBI.
CHETRY: All right. So, what is Anita Hill's response been to all of this?
BOLDUAN: Well, she said pretty clearly that an apology is probably not on the way. She gave CNN a statement saying, quote, "I certainly thought the call was inappropriate. I have no intention of apologizing because I testified truthfully about my experience and I stand by that testimony."
And after all of this, now almost 20 years later, you guys, Mrs. Thomas seems to be reopening one of the most emotional and controversial incidents in Supreme Court history.
ROBERTS: Well, we'll be watching that one today for sure. Thanks, Kate. Kate Bolduan for us this Washington.
This morning, the Pentagon doing an about-face, telling military recruiters to start accepting openly gay recruits to comply with the federal judge's ruling that "don't ask, don't tell" is unconstitutional. The Obama administration is expected to appeal the court ruling.
CHETRY: And one of those lining up, at a New York recruit station to reenlist was Lieutenant Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and Iraq war veteran. You may remember, Choi was discharged earlier this year after announcing he was gay.
He spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN CHOI, DISCHARGED UNDER "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL" POLICY: A week ago, even with all these qualifications, I would have been turned away, if it was said that I'm gay and intend to be honest about it. Today was very different.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "A.C. 360": And they handed you a pamphlet.
CHOI: They said -- they said, stand up, stand out and stand Army strong. I was very excited.
COOPER: So, your paperwork is going through?
CHO: It's going through and they're processing it. I'm very happy about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, Choi urged President Obama to sign an executive order that institutes a non-discrimination policy for the military.
ROBERTS: Two American hikers jailed in Iran could go on trial in early November. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the attorney for Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal reports the trial is set for November 6th. The two men have been in prison since they were accused of straying across the Iranian border six months ago during a hiking trip in northern Iraq. A third hiker, Sarah Shourd, was released by Iran on humanitarian grounds.
CHETRY: Federal aviation officials say a plane that appears to come dangerously close to the Golden Gate Bridge, there's a video of it, actually posed no threat to the bridge. The video shows the United Airlines 747 flying low over the bridge during a San Francisco air show. The FAA says that the camera position, an angle at which the videos were shot, make the plane seem like right there a lot closer than it actually was.
ROBERTS: Yes, the plane was actually on the bay side of the bridge. It didn't fly over the bridge and there's -- when you're using a telephoto lens and you're taking a picture from that far away, objects which may be far apart from each other appear closer. We don't know exactly how close the plane was, but there's a bit of an optical illusion because of the telephoto lens going on.
CHETRY: Yes. Well, it still sends shivers down my spine to see a plane coming any, coming that -- appearing to come that close to any landmark.
ROBERTS: Rob Marciano has got this morning's weather headlines. He's in New Orleans for us this morning.
Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys.
The only low-flying things we've seen so far this morning are hundreds of birds that have been swirling around our live shot location from time to time. But that is about it.
Good morning, guys.
We are seeing some dry air across the Southeast again, although there is some rain that's trying to sneak in to this drought-stricken area.
Now, I'm touching on what's going on in the tropics because we've got some action down there, first, though, what's going on across the nation. That front pushing all the way to the Gulf Coast, well, it triggers some showers in spots, most of which, I think, will be across the Southeast, from Georgia through the mid-Atlantic in through the Delmarva. But north of there, the front's through.
So, New York City, 64 degrees will be your high temperature, with some sunshine this afternoon. Seventy is expected in Chicago and some stormy conditions out in the desert southwest and southern California if you're traveling that way.
And we are watching this item in the tropics. It is potentially becoming our next tropical depression or tropical storm. We are still in hurricane season, right through the end of the November and they're flying hurricane hunter aircraft into the system later on today.
All right. Let's talk wildlife or I should say animal stories. Check out this 300-pound primate. A chimpanzee got out of the owner's home in Kansas City and just went bananas, taking -- taking the garbage out and doing the dance on -- is that a police cruiser? Dude, do not -- that is going to get you thrown in the clunker real quick.
Anyway, animal control got out there and hit him with a tranquilizer. He's OK. He's going to be rescued released to a sanctuary.
He scared off the pooh-pooh. Did you see that? I wish I have that kind of power.
CHETRY: I love how he's just dragging his leash. Clearly, the leash didn't work. OK. You're not keeping the chimp contained with a dog's leash.
MARCIANO: Not one -- not one that size, that's for sure.
Anyway, you guys talked about the gator up in Biloxi up the road last hour, so thought we'd continue the theme this morning. We'll be up in another half hour to talk -- go ahead, John.
ROBERTS: I was just going to say, just asking the question. But why does anyone keep a chimp as a pet?
MARCIANO: There's a lot of strange animals that people keep as pets. But, you know, then again, there's a lot of strange people out there. And that's what makes the world wonderful.
CHETRY: Yes. That's a really good way to put it.
Hey, by the way, you've been doing a great job with the six- month check-up on the -- on how things are going. I showed my daughter your video yesterday about the little turtle that's still swimming around in the pool. So, she's taking the stuffed turtle to show and tell.
(CROSSTALK)
MARCIANO: All right. Sweet. I knew your daughter had great taste. Wildlife is certainly an issue down here. We covered that yesterday.
And there's still oil out there, guys. And we'll have that follow-up report a little bit later on this hour.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that. Rob, thanks so much.
CHETRY: So, has Chuck Norris finally met his match? Perhaps. You got to check out kung fu bear -- since we're on the theme of animals doing amazing things. Check him out. YouTube's celebrity now, twirling the stick like a kung fu master.
ROBERTS: Unbelievable. The video is shot by a Canadian man during a visit to a zoo in Japan. The zoo confirms that, yes, the video is real. That's not a -- that's not Jet Li in a bear suit. That's actually a bear.
CHETRY: There you go. Teenage mutant ninja turtles. One of them had the staff. That's what this guy is doing. There he is. Pretty good with it. Not bad.
ROBERTS: Unbelievable.
CHETRY: Well, he drew a line in the sand. No naked photos. Up next: the pilot who refused to go through the new full-body scanners. He says they are virtual strip search and they're, in some cases, harassment. He's going to join us to talk about it.
Seven and a half minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Ten-and-a-half minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
There's some more controversy about those body scanners that produce nude-like images as you pass through airport security. They're in some airports now and they're a bit too revealing for some. You can see the kind of images they produce. We'll show you the images there.
One pilot is taking a stand. He refused to go through the body scanner and then he refused a pat down.
So, now, the question is: whether or not that stand will get him permanently grounded.
The pilot, Michael Roberts, flies for ExpressJet Airlines and he joins me this morning from Memphis.
Good to have you with us, Michael. Thanks so much.
MICHAEL ROBERTS, PILOT: Well, thank you. It's good to be here, and I appreciate the opportunity.
If I can just jump right in, and this might make your job a little easier, there are -- there are four big questions that everybody keeps asking me about this that, you know, pretty much seem to sum up the discussion that I've had with the response that I've received.
CHETRY: OK. Well, hold on. First, just for people who aren't familiar with exactly what happened. Let's start from the beginning.
You -- this is your first time going through one of these full body scanners?
M. ROBERTS: That's right. And --
CHETRY: And you refused it, and then what happened?
M. ROBERTS: They directed me to a secondary screening which consists of what they call an enhanced pat down.
Pat down is misleading. They -- they concentrate on the area between, as they say it, the upper thighs and the torso, and they're not just patting people's arms and legs. They're grabbing and groping and prodding pretty aggressively. I've watched it a number of times as I've gone through other security lines where I have been able to bypass some of that because of, you know, being a crewmember in uniform.
But that's the gist of it. I'm not comfortable with -- not so much being touched by another human being, but being physically assaulted by an agent of the federal government on my way to work.
CHETRY: So, you know the first question that people have is -- wait a minute, but they're making passengers go through this. So passengers have to go through it. Why shouldn't pilots?
M. ROBERTS: I -- it's not a -- it's not a question of passengers or pilots. In my mind, it's a matter of all of our rights as citizens under the protections of the Fourth Amendment and the other provisions in the Constitution.
But, basically, the big thing that people keep asking me is: why did I do it? Am I trying to start a revolution here? Am I trying to, you know, buck the system? The answer is: I did it because I was trying to avoid this assault on my person, and, you know, I'm not willing to have images of my nude body produced for, you know, some stranger in another room to look at either.
CHETRY: Right. So, are you getting support from other pilots? I mean, is this something that's going to turn perhaps into a formal protest?
M. ROBERTS: I have no -- you know, I think it's an informal protest. Meaning, you know, it is out there in the streets and clearly all over the Internet. People are chiming in.
I'm not trying to form a coalition at this point or anything personally. I just was trying to go to work Friday and this is what happened.
The other question that I get, though, is: well, why did I post it all over the Internet? And, you know, the answer to that is: you know, I'm nobody. I make less money and have more kids than most people I know, and after these bullies tried to have their way with me, you know, I had to look at what my options were at that point. I could send an e-mail to my union representatives. I could go to the TSA Web site and file a complaint but, you know, I decided, I'm going to take it to the streets.
CHETRY: Right.
M. ROBERTS: And it really seems like people have my back.
CHETRY: Michael, are you going to lose your job over this? Have you heard from your employer?
M. ROBERTS: I don't know. And that's not my first priority at this point. But to answer your question, I don't know.
CHETRY: Right.
M. ROBERTS: But another big question, and this is an important one that I don't want to gloss over, is what about air transportation security? A lot of people are, you know, asking me, well, if they're not doing this, you know, are we safe? How do we keep ourselves safe?
And the best way I respond to that is: think of the TSA as this way. If you go to the bank and there's a security guard standing there, is he there to keep you safe? No. He works for the bank. And, so, when you go to the airport, the TSA agents, they don't work for you. If they work for you, they wouldn't be telling you what to do. They wouldn't be telling you that you need to show them, you know, what's under your clothing or, you know, subject yourself to their molestation and --
CHETRY: Right, but the other argument is if they let somebody get on the plane who they didn't check and who has a weapon and you're on the plane, you could technically get injured or die as a result.
M. ROBERTS: Well, in response to that, I just have to refer back to the huge volume of TSA failures that have already been documented over and over again. And say that, you know, these measures are not effective. The TSA is not effective.
CHETRY: Well, certainly, not a perfect system. I don't think anyone's arguing with you there. We just wanted to get your take on why you felt so strongly about not going into the body scanner or being subjected to, as you called it the enhanced pat down.
M. ROBERTS: Well, it's outrageous. They've lost their mind. This is still the United States as far as I'm aware, and this -- we can protect ourselves. And we should be allowed to protect ourselves and empowered to protect ourselves and not have to depend on big brother who's -- it's a questionable at best whether our best interests are what they have at heart. One more thing I want to --
CHETRY: Actually, we -- sorry. We have to go.
M. ROBERTS: -- is whether I have any regrets or not. And the fact is I'm having a great time with this.
CHETRY: All right. Listen, I invite you to --
M. ROBERTS: It's a blast.
CHETRY: To post a blog on a Web site about it.
M. ROBERTS: There's a lot of humor in it.
CHETRY: And Michael Roberts, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for your time, Michael. All right. Well, he's certainly got his point across today and wanted to keep talking, but unfortunately, we got to go.
J. ROBERTS: He does seem to be having a great time with it.
CHETRY: Yes.
J. ROBERTS: No question about that.
CHETRY: Sounds like fun.
ROBERTS: Well, it is crunch time on the campaign trail. Less than two weeks now until America votes in the midterm elections, and this morning, Univision is refusing to run an ad from the group Latinos for Reform that calls an Americans not to vote in November. Spanish Language Network will set to being airing the television spot tomorrow. Here's the part that got it pulled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- keep their promise on immigration reform, then they can't count on our vote. Democratic leaders must pay for the broken promises and betrayals. If we just go on supporting them again this November, they will keep playing games with our future and taking our vote for granted. Don't vote this November. This is the only way to send them a clear message. You can no longer take us for granted. Don't vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, Univision says it killed the ad because it prides itself on promoting civic engagement and has an extensive national campaign that encourages people to vote. So, a contradiction there in that message.
CHETRY: You used to (ph) laughing about Michael over there, huh?
ROBERTS: He was having a good time. I was thinking maybe the thing fell out of his ear, and he couldn't hear you.
CHETRY: He certainly feels very strongly about the situation, and he did not want to go.
ROBERTS: And a lot of people do. And sometimes, when you go through those machines and you have to take everything out of your pockets and you still get the pat down afterwards, you're thinking, what's this all about? But he definitely has some strong opinions about the whole thing.
A war of words. Blackberry maker research in motion fires back against Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, after he went out of his way to publicly criticize their products. We're "Minding Your Business" coming up next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up on 22 moneys after the hour. We're "Minding Your Business" this Wednesday morning. There's a new recall that parents really need to pay attention to this morning. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is recalling -- here's the number, 2 million Greco strollers. This follows reports of at least four strangulation deaths link to the strollers.
The recall includes older versions of Greco's Quattro Tour and MetroLite strollers sold between -- this is a huge date range, November of 2000 and December of 2007. That's 2000 to 2007. They were made before a voluntary industry standard that required a bigger opening between the stroller's tray and the seat bottom.
CHETRY: And you often wonder, when you look at these things, how would that happen? They say that an infant, especially under 12 months old, when not strapped in can slip --
ROBERTS: Slip down and get caught.
CHETRY: Yes and get caught in the tray, but you know, I mean, other things to keep in mind, obviously, if you have that stroller, but still, you should try to always strap them in especially when they're just sort of learning how to wiggle.
ROBERTS: Yes. So, remember, December 2000 to December 2007 with those Greco's strollers.
CHETRY: Well, tech geeks go on the offensive. Say that three times fast. Blackberry maker research in motion is firing back after Steve Jobs bashed their products in Apple's earnings call Monday. The company's CEO wrote in an e-mail that customers are tired of being told what to think by Apple and called Apple a distortion world.
ROBERTS: Think the way to fight back because just make better products than that, right? And wherever you work, you probably spend more time deleting and organizing your e-mail than doing anything with the information that's being sent to you. A new study found that the average worker spends, listen to this, 51 percent of their time managing e-mail and documents rather than actually using those messages for work.
All you have to do is just be on CNN's large alias for one day to know what we're talking about here. 91 percent of respondents also admitted to deleting messages without having read them. No kidding.
CHETRY: Yes. Just telling (ph) the subject line whether you need to know.
Well, for the first time in NBA history, the league is banning performance enhancing footwear sneakers called the Concept 1 sold by a company called Athletic Propulsion Labs. Well, they say that the league banned the shoe due to an unfair advantage. The company claims the sneakers can actually increase your vertical leap by 3 1/2 inches. That's pretty cool. I mean, maybe you're not playing in the NBA, but you're playing your pick-up game with your friends. Hey, cost you $300.
ROBERTS: Footwear that actually can make you fly.
Coming up, the brand new Sesame Street Muppet with a very powerful message. She's a big hit online by singing a love song to her hair. The head writer of Sesame Street, Joey Mazzarino, is going to join us coming up live.
CHETRY: Also, an airport security supervisor suspected of stealing money from passengers during screenings. Who was specifically targeted and what could be the charges against this person? We're going to talk about that coming up. Twenty-five minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour right now. Time for a "A.M. Original," something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. (INAUDIBLE) look at gun violence in the country. It's something that's plagued Chicago's south side as well as its schools.
ROBERTS: Many students there aren't as worried about homework as they are about making it home to do that homework alive. Our T.J. Holmes took the walk to school with one of them for our series "The Life of a Gun."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you come around, you better have a bullet-proof car, bullet-proof vest or something, bullet-proof hat, and bullet-proof everything.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His name is Kendall. He asked that we only use his first name.
If I gave you money right now and said, go get me a gun, how long would it take for you to come back with one?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I couldn't answer that question. I couldn't answer that. HOLMES: You couldn't answer or that or you don't want to answer it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't. But it'd be quicker than what you think.
HOLMES: He's a 16-year-old high school sophomore who says in his world, the illegal gun culture is everywhere.
How prevalent are guns in your neighborhood? We're only a block from your house. How easy to get --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To get a gun?
HOLMES: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like for a baby to get a pacifier. That easy.
HOLMES: That easy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, you know somebody that knows somebody then knows somebody that got a gun. You go this way.
HOLMES: Kendall shared his impressions on his two-mile walk to school one morning through one of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods, Englewood.
And you're describing a wood as what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, war zone. Kill zone.
HOLMES: Is that bad?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's that bad.
HOLMES: How often you hear gun fire?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out of a week?
HOLMES: Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably three times. People get killed going to school, man.
HOLMES: In fact, 373 people were killed by guns last year in Chicago alone. One of the highest murder rates by guns per capita.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man, something you adapt to like an animal. Used to it.
HOLMES: Kendall says he's been offered a chance to buy a gun and refused. He said he's never owned one but has had close brushes with gun violence.
Sixteen years old. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
HOLMES: You tell me -- you've been shot at before?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HOLMES: That sounds normal to you at 16-year-old that has been shot at before?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, doesn't sound normal to you at 11- year-old getting shot in the head?
HOLMES: Not at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, it's reality now.
HOLMES: Most of the issues with violence and guns, is it a gang issue?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Majority of the time, not really.
HOLMES: Not really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a bunch of kids with nothing to do.
HOLMES: If somebody came and asked you, the mayor came and asked you how you would solve the problem, how would you answer him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, for one, I get these kids, my age, more jobs, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know some people had an eventful summer.
HOLMES: For now, the mayor's office and Chicago schools hope special mentoring programs in the classroom to help keep teens like Kendall on the right track.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just a point, man. I don't want this forever, man. I don't want this for the rest of my life. I want something different. I want nice things.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And you hear Kendall in there talking about guns and how easy to get one. John, Kiran, he doesn't say you can go around and find an easy place and buy one on the street. He says the way it works, you might have a friend who then has a brother who has an uncle who knows a guy to get you a gun. That's how they get their hands on them.
Also, you heard him talk about how you adapt to your surroundings. How badly are we failing where a 14-year-old, 15-year- old, 16-year-old kid hears gunfire and knows to make a left up here and instead of going down that block?
And to a person, guys, we talk so much about guns and gun violence. Yes, many have died by the bullet. But the problem they tell you in Chicago is not at all guns. The problem is violence. One person told me, and this is a direct quote, "If they weren't shooting each other, they would brick each other to death," meaning they would find another way to kill each other. Guys?
ROBERTS: Yes, as we saw with the kid beaten to death with a two by four last year. But it's just tragic when you think about it, T.J., that young people are growing up in that environment and how we're failing them that way.
HOLMES: We're failing terribly. And the young man, Kendall, hit it on the head. You have any job opportunities -- we need more opportunities out here. If you don't have an opportunity, you have nothing necessarily that you can lose. You don't have anything to fight for except for your reputation.
And something else. We talk about the economy these days. The unemployment rate, yes, at 9.5 percent in the country, but among teenagers it's around 25 percent, 26 percent. Among young black teenagers, it's about 50 percent in this country.
ROBERTS: Wow.
HOLMES: That factors into it, as well, a lack of opportunity, so if you don't have an opportunity for a first job you'll be behind. You're trying to get the second or third job and progress in your life. So it's a never ending cycle it seems, and no doubt we are failing young people in many ways.
CHETRY: T.J., thanks.
It's 32 minutes past the hour. Time for a check of this morning's top stories.
Anita Hill saying no apologies. She's responding to a voicemail that Clarence Thomas' wife left for her two weeks ago asking for one from Hill. Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings nearly 20 years ago.
ROBERTS: The Pentagon doing an about face, telling military recruiters to start accepting openly gay applicants to comply with the federal judge's ruling that "don't ask, don't tell" is unconstitutional. The Justice Department is expected to appeal the court ruling.
CHETRY: And former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is in the hospital battling the flu and sources say she is not able to recover from it. Doctors are running a battery of tests to find out why the 85-year-old Thatcher is still running a high fever and feeling groggy.
ROBERTS: A security supervisor at one of the nation's busiest airports, Newark Liberty, is scheduled to appear in federal court this morning.
CHETRY: He is accused of stealing cash from passengers while they were being checked at a security check point. Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is live in Washington with more on the story. Tell us more of the details of what this person is accused of.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, this was brazen, and if the charges are true, quite lucrative. Michael Arato was a TSA supervisor at Newark liberty international check point leading to air India gates. According to court documents he and one of his employees targeted non-English speaking Indian women returning home stealing cash from the carryon bags going through security, sometimes pocketing as much as $400 to $700 each shift.
The government alleges he accepted $3,100 in bribes just between September 13th and October 5th of this year. Sometimes Arato took the money himself, the affidavit says, sometimes the employee took the money but gave half the money to him so he would not turn him in.
According to the affidavit on one occasion the two men went into an office to split their take, about $1,000 in this instance. After taking the share of the money and stuffed it in the pocket, he turned and displayed the middle finger to the security camera.
ROBERTS: And so what are the charges here?
MESERVE: One count of accepting bribes, one count of conspiring for theft, three counts of theft by a government employee. If convicted he faces significant fines and prison time.
His co-worker by the way not charged at this point because he has been cooperating with authorities since September. According to a law enforcement official, Arato was expected to surrender to authorities yesterday morning but he didn't. He was arrested last evening at Newark's Penn Station, scheduled to appear in federal court today.
TSA says it will terminate any employee in illegal activity and that the unfortunate choice of an individual should not reflect on other screeners.
ROBERTS: Yes, certainly troubling to the traveling public that trusts the TSA to make sure their safe when they go to the airport and not stealing from them. Thanks, Jeanne.
CHETRY: Thanks, Jeanne.
Well, still ahead, a little Muppet girl with an afro in some of the videos, corn rows in others. She started an Internet sensation singing a song about loving her hair. Joey Mazzarino, the head writer of Sesame Street, joins us live next with the story behind the Muppet.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 39 minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
"Sesame Street" has always been about learning. A little Muppet girl is creating an Internet sensation with an important message for little black girls. It's called "I love my hair." Here's a sample. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Joey Mazzarino is the man behind the song. He's "Sesame Street's" head writer and also a puppeteer and the father of an adopted daughter from Ethiopia. Great to see you this morning.
JOSEPH MAZZARINO, WRITER, "SESAME STREET": Thank you, John. Thank you, Kiran.
ROBERTS: And we should say it was your daughter and what you saw with her that inspired you to do all of this. Give us the back story.
MAZZARINO: My daughter, first of all, was my little muse since she's been home. She was playing robots, and so I would write the characters being robots.
But I noticed about when she was four she started to sort of have a problem with hair and wanted princess hair and straight hair and blond hair. And I started to think, oh geez, this is maybe unique problem to us because we're white parents with an African-American daughter.
And then Chris Rock's film came out "Good Hair" and we said this is actually a broader issue. And we had finished writing for the season, and I said to my executive producer, hey, can I try to write the song real quick? She said go for it.
I hooked up with Chris Jackson, an amazing composer and we came up with it. And it's stuff I tell my daughter before I wrote the song.
CHETRY: And the interesting thing is it really has resonated, struck a chord with 400,000 views.
MAZZARINO: It's been crazy.
CHETRY: There's Will Smith's daughter.
MAZZARINO: I know, the mash up.
CHETRY: She did the mash up, which is also extremely popular right now. Are you surprised people said, finally, someone's touching on this?
MAZZARINO: Yes. I'm surprised how it resonated with not just kids but with adult women, with African-American women. I feel like with the Internet it reaches such a broader audience than just on the show. So it's been amazing and the responses have been awesome.
ROBERTS: So tell me about your experience with your daughter's hair. Every dad --
MAZZARINO: Oh.
ROBERTS: -- does their daughter's hair. I did. Were you able to or were you all thumbs with it?
MAZZARINO: It freaked me out. People said curly hair, taking care of it is hard. I said I work with Gordon Price whose life is Lisa Price and founded Carol's Daughter, and so he hooked me up with a bunch of stuff. You do this and this.
But my wife handled it, and she's an actress, and she was away for a summer. I'm like, oh god, I'm in charge of doing the hair. All right, honey and the babysitter, show me how to do it. I want to do it right. I don't want her going without wild hair because daddy doesn't know how to do it. I can do puffs and some braids.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: So was it your experience to later look at a Barbie Doll and say this is how I want my hair?
MAZZARINO: No. But seriously, with the toys, I mean, between Barbies and American Girls, they have African-American dolls, but it's very rare of dolls with hair that curly. And one store you go in, make your own doll that looks like you. My daughter can't.
CHETRY: It's funny. To broaden it out, no one has Barbie hair. People are with the extensions and everybody has to dye their hair. I mean, it is interesting that, I mean, you tapped into the notion whatever you have isn't quite good enough. If your hair's naturally curly, you want it straight. If it's straight, you want it curly.
And especially now with the first daughters, Sasha and Malia in the White House, is that helping change attitudes?
MAZZARINO: I think so. Any time you see positive images in the media, you see yourself, and you go I'm beautiful the way I am, it's great.
ROBERTS: So if your daughter comes to you and says, "Daddy, I want my hair relaxed." What would you say?
MAZZARINO: I don't know. It is like when she says she wants a bellybutton ring -- I don't know. I don't know, John. I don't know.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: It really is a great message that you're getting out there. Has it resonated with your daughter?
MAZZARINO: It has. We shot it at the end of the last year, and I brought it home immediately. I threw it in the computer and she loved it.
I can't say it's all because of the video. She's also had a wonderful teacher, Miss Jackson, last year who's a strong African- American woman and started to love her hair. Yesterday, she was bouncing around in the mirror. My wife is like are you watching your curls bounce up and down? She was like, yes. She is loving her hair right now.
CHETRY: That is great. What a lucky girl for a dad who's a puppeteer.
MAZZARINO: I'm the luckiest dad.
ROBERTS: And it's really great to bring real-world messages to the rest of the country.
MAZZARINO: "Sesame Street," always, we always tried, predating me, of showing everybody in the neighborhood, every skin color, every type of person. We strive for that. It's just a continuation.
ROBERTS: Great.
CHETRY: That's why they cleaned up at the Emmys. We were there watching you get award after award.
MAZZARINO: I got three. I got the trifecta.
ROBERTS: Joe, it's great to meet you.
MAZZARINO: John, Kiran, what a pleasure.
CHETRY: You too. Thanks for coming by.
ROBERTS: Six months after Deepwater oil rig explosion, Gulf Coast cleanup efforts are getting scaled back but is it the -- is the battle against the oil spill really over? Our Rob Marciano takes to the air and the water with the coast guard for a firsthand look. He has that coming right up. It's 45 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Thirteen minutes now to the top of the hour.
It's been a few months now since the last drops of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and still thousands of people are working every day to try to clean up the catastrophe.
CHETRY: Yes, right now, more than 104 miles of Gulf shoreline are still experiencing moderate to heavy oil impact, a lot of it in Louisiana.
Our Rob Marciano is live from New Orleans this morning with an "A.M. Original" a story you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. So it's not top of the news, for some not top of mind but those cleanup efforts are ongoing six months later.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And for people who live here, it's still top of the mind and today certainly six months from the date of that explosion it is top of the news. Five -- an estimated up to five million barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico during that three months but we've come a long way as far as the amount of commercial fishing, that's square miles of its coast going from 90,000 down to 16,000.
The number of boats that have been employed from 6,000 down to less than 300, but don't you forget, there is still oil out there that needs to be cleaned up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (on camera): We're headed to a ride with the Coast Guard. That's the Admiral Zukunft, aerial tour and then we're getting out on a boat.
(voice-over): I strap in along with newly-appointed Unified Area Commander Admiral Paul Zukunft whose work force has ranked from almost 48,000 this summer to just 13,000.
There's been some criticism from the local communities that BP is peeling back way too much.
ADM. PAUL ZUKUNFT, UNIFIED AREA COMMANDER: Right now we're dealing with hot spots. Prior to that the entire Gulf of Mexico was a hot spot.
MARCIANO: What's surprising is how many hot spots there are still are, six months in. Even Mississippi's barrier islands remained littered with oil. The B-3 spot here on Cat Island is much like Florida and Alabama, men and machine still scrambling to clean the sand. It is a similar scene near Grand Isle, Louisiana. In total. over 500 miles of shoreline still have some oil.
(on camera): Thanks.
(voice-over): Examining the wetlands requires a different mode of transport. As we motor west there are signs of encouragement. We cruise past clean water, clean grass and even some fishing boats.
(on camera): It's nice to notice a fishing vessel with fishing equipment on it versus booming equipment.
(voice-over): Forty minutes into the marsh we arrive at one of Louisiana's hardest hit areas, Bay Jimmy. Here, compression guns are positioned to scare off birds that might try to land in the still very oily wetland.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last time I was up here was about a month ago. Back then we had about 600 workers and we were in there and they are real shallow areas trying to vacuum up pockets of oil along this entire stretch so real time consuming.
MARCIANO: BP's George Carter knows cleaning the marsh is not easy.
GEORGE CARTER, BP BRANCH DIRECTOR, PLAQUEMINES PARISH: We've actually cut the grass, we've raked the grass, we've flushed it in a couple of occasions. We've tried some chemicals to remove stuff.
MARCIANO: This area is for experimenting hoping something will yield clean, healthy grass.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are patches of new growth that are already starting to coming in.
MARCIANO (on camera): Yes, it is -- it is some grass trying to grow.
ZUKUNFT: Well, as tempting as it is to go in and do something very aggressive, the worst thing you can do right now is tread heavily on these marsh grass. So really now this is a test of patience.
MARCIANO: You talk about patience. We all -- we all want it. The people that live here may be out of it.
ZUKUNFT: Well, we are not done yet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Definitely not done yet. It is so difficult to clean up those marshes. And we knew that when this spill happened. Now, once that oil had got in the marsh the job would become that much more difficult but there were signs of encouraging -- a couple of fresh, green stalks coming through the -- the black, tarred, wetlands.
So that's certainly encouraging. And maybe even some of the oil that has sunk to the bottom and settled in some organic form on the sea -- on the seafloor may be that will recover quickly, as well. But only time will tell that, as far as what the people are doing here, you know, a lot of people were employed by BP and now they're not.
So, they just got to get back out there and fish. All the fish that they have tested from the beginning of this spill, John and Kiran, have come back negative as far as having hydrocarbons at unhealthy levels. So as far as we can tell scientifically the oil goes right through the fish and the fish are safe to eat so hopefully the fishing industry will come back as strong as ever.
ROBERTS: And the near shore fishery of course all open again. Just that small area around the wellhead still closed. Rob, great to see you this morning. Great update, thanks so much.
CHETRY: We'll see if the same holds true for the shrimp and oyster populations but they won't know that this year.
ROBERTS: Now, the problem they had was -- you're flushing a lot of fresh water through the oyster beds just kind of made that oysters not as delectable as they normally are. But maybe they'll get that back next year.
CHETRY: Well meanwhile, should smoking be banned in apartment buildings just like it is offices, restaurants and bars? There's a surprising new study on just how quickly second-hand smoke moves from room to room, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. Its 55 minutes past the hour now.
It's time for an "A.M. House Call", stories about your health. Powerful new evidence this morning that hormone replacement therapy imposed menopausal women is doing a lot more harm than good. According to a new study, women on a combined estrogen and progesterone regiment are 25 percent more likely to get invasive breast cancer.
ROBERTS: And that cancer is fatal twice as often. That's the new information in this study.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING is Dr. Freya Schnabel, Director of Breast Cancer Surgery and the NYU Langone Medical Center, said it's time for postmenopausal women to have a chat with their doctors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. FREYA SCHNABEL, DIRECTOR OF BREAST CANCER, NYU LANGONE MEDICAL CENTER: This changes the dialogue about hormone replacement therapy because it increases the sense of risk associated with the treatment.
Existing evidence had suggested that when women had breast cancer after hormone replacement therapy that the cancers may have been early, detected when they were very small, not aggressive cancers, possibility of successful treatment, et cetera.
But this study now shows that those women even though they were having good health care still had a greater chance of dying from their breast cancers and this now increases our sense of the risks of HRT.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, researchers tracked more than 16,000 post menopausal women over an 11-year period for this study so they have a lot of very good data now on what's going on.
CHETRY: All right.
Well, a new study also suggests that people living in apartment buildings may be at risk for second-hand smoke. Researchers say that tobacco smoke can leak out of the smoker's apartment through doorways and ventilation systems. They suggest that apartments should be smoke free zones just like bars, restaurants and workplaces.
ROBERTS: Fifty-seven minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Quick programming note for you. Larry King has a special guest tonight. Jon Stewart's going to be appearing on the program. And we're excited to see what he says.
ROBERTS: Yes, looking forward to that. You mean when he's not skewering or otherwise ridiculing us.
CHETRY: No, I wouldn't mind that either.
ROBERTS: We're always pleased and proud to be the butt of the joke.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Because we do those stupid things from time to time. And they should be (INAUDIBLE).
CHETRY: Oh, no. I don't like that part. I thought it was great that he's a fan of the show.
ROBERTS: Kyra Phillips in the "CNN NEWSROOM" starts right now. Good morning, Kyra.
