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American Morning
Nuclear Core Reach?; Pressure Building on Obama; Fed. Building Bomb Arrest; Fake Soldier Scam; Saving Lives with Radiation; No Child Goes to Bed Hungry
Aired March 25, 2011 - 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: Is there a nuclear core breach in Japan? I'm Kiran Chetry. A leak discovered deep inside of a damaged reactor. We have breaking news just moments ago as well of a strong quake in northern Japan. We're going to be live with the latest in Tokyo in less than a minute.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans.
Fresh air strikes leveling Gadhafi forces in Libya. Some of the most severe damage we have seen so far in Tripoli as the U.S. gets ready to hand off the no-fly zone to NATO. The White House is also facing a louder chorus of critics about U.S. involvement there. Candy Crowley with the debate in Washington.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi.
An air traffic controller at Reagan National Airport admits he was sleeping on the job while two passenger pilots were trying to get clearance to land. Now, it seems his little nap has opened a lot of eyes -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: Good morning to you. Welcome. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING.
You know, as if it's not enough what they are dealing with in Japan right now, questions about whether there's been a breach at this core in one of the reactors. On top of that, they are still dealing with pretty significant earthquakes.
VELSHI: Another big one just happened.
And in Libya, we've got a shift in power. The U.S. has been saying it does not want to continue to be the lead. There is news that now the control of that mission is going to be shifting over.
ROMANS: Maybe by the weekend.
All right. First, to Japan, though, where we're going to tell you more about that quake just shook and dangerously high levels of radiation and a mysteriously leak found inside reactor number three at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Let's get right to Martin Savidge. He is in Tokyo.
First, Martin, you felt the most recent earthquake. We've been getting reports from Kyung Lah and others that that there was a pretty strong quake in the region.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. Hello, everyone. Yes, we definitely felt it up here.
In fact, one of the things we remarked upon because they are quite common was the length of how much shaking there was going on up here. I think all told, we are well over 700 aftershocks since the earthquake struck here over two weeks ago. And then, of course, you have the concern over the radiation and the nuclear reactor situation, which was triggered by the earthquake that came after the tsunami that then followed.
The prime minister was on national television tonight in a news conference and, you know what? He used very grim language to continue to describe the situation out there at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility. In fact, I said, quite frankly, they weren't even to a point they might be optimistic that they will be able to avoid a disaster out there.
Here's the problem. You have those three workers that were exposed yesterday. Well, today, it was learned that the exposure level of the water level they had been exposed to were 10,000 times what the radiation should have been at that area where they were working. And that indicates to the government that perhaps reactor number, the most dangerous of all six reactors out there, could have a leak. If there is a leak that is the reactor that is using both plutonium and uranium and that would be very serious.
Now, also, today, the government quietly began telling people who lived now up to 30 kilometers, or roughly 19 miles from the plant, that they, too, should begin moving. It's voluntary but it also shows you how it is continuing to expand and when you expand evacuation areas, you also spanned the level of fear and concern -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Martin Savidge in Tokyo -- thanks, Martin.
VELSHI: Two Japanese travelers have been hospitalized in China with severe radiation levels. They arrived on a commercial airliner from Tokyo. China's safety watchdog said radiation levels that seriously exceeded limits were detected on the two when they arrived on Wednesday.
And grim milestone in the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, the number of dead now tops 10,000. More than 17,000 people are still missing.
CHETRY: Also, new explosions in Tripoli this morning, going after -- right after the heart of Moammar Gadhafi's military. Libyan TV shows the smoldering wreckage of a military base in Tripoli, saying that it was the result of a coalition air strike.
And as we know, command and control is shifting in Libya this morning. NATO has now announced it will begin enforcing the no-fly zone over the country, leaving the coalition to launch attacks. Now, this comes as pressure builds on President Obama to clarify the mission there.
Candy Crowley is live for us in Washington this morning.
I mean, we broke down the numbers in our last hour. I mean, clearly when it comes to the launching of Tomahawk missions intended to try to take out some of the air defenses, the United States is leading the charge.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, and it's leading the charge in the sorties, in the fly over. So -- I mean, part of it is we have the equipment and we have more of it than anybody else. And part of that is, obviously, that the United States tends to take the military lead.
So, the idea that NATO is now going to have command and control over at least part of this, but not over the part where, you know, perhaps Gadhafi's troops could be pushed back via air. That does not seem to be in this NATO purview.
So, it doesn't do a lot to assuage what is happening on Capitol Hill which is this coalition of Republicans, critics, as well as liberal critics who say, wait a second, the president didn't ask us. This is an act of war, he has to ask Congress. We don't know what the mission is. He hasn't clearly defined it. No one has been able to tell us when it's going to end.
So, none of those questions are answered in NATO's -- in NATO's actions in the last 24 hours. So, those are going to continue.
Now, the White House has said -- has already put people up on Capitol Hill to try to explain what is going on. They also said, listen, they did know. We did -- we are within the law. We did notify Congress within 48 hours of this no-fly zone and the attacks on Libya's anti-air defense missiles.
So, you know, there's a lot of room in this law. We go through it a lot with presidents who will launch some action and then go to Congress. This appears to be the same kind of thing.
But the White House is sensitive to it. They are planning on putting Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defense Gates up on Capitol Hill to try to explain what's going on. But, right now, there is a bit of a furor from the right and left what the president is doing.
CHETRY: Right. Well, it appears they want some sort of answer. Both sides are saying that the president hasn't come even forward and said whether or not this is a war.
CROWLEY: Right. Right. Well, one can get hung up on the words. And, you know, or -- you know, but mostly and particularly when you ask military people, as we did on the show last Sunday, this was getting rolling. We thought that since Vietnam, you never went into anything without an end game.
And this is complicated because it's not just the U.S. So, you have not only these contradictions inside the U.S. and people criticizing the president, but you have members of this coalition -- and they are not using to being a coalition together -- all seem to have different goals as to when they might get out, what they are trying to do, whether Moammar Gadhafi leaving is part of this. Everyone says, no, no, that's not the mission. But that certainly has been the intent of the U.S. for some time is for Moammar Gadhafi to leave.
So, you just -- there is not a real clear pathway here either for those in the coalition or for those on Capitol Hill who are overseeing this.
CHETRY: And we just had our CNN/Opinion Research Poll out asking this question. Would you support a ground war? Seventy percent of people asked said no ground war in Libya.
CROWLEY: Yes. People have had -- and I will say almost the very first thing that administration officials did without being prompted was say, no ground troops. There will be no ground troops. Why? Precisely because of the figures on these polls, there was -- there was war fatigue after Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade.
CHETRY: All right. Candy Crowley, great to see, as always. We'll all be watching "STATE OF THE UNION" this Sunday morning, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. Thanks.
VELSHI: Well, a veteran air traffic controller admits he was sleeping when two passenger jets were trying to get clearance to land early Wednesday morning at Reagan National Airport in Washington.
The pilots couldn't get through but landed anyway. The controller has been suspended. While he was asleep on the job, listen to what it sounded like to the pilots.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TRACON CONTROLLER: American 1900, so, you're aware, the tower is apparently not manned. We've made a few phone calls. Nobody's answering.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VELSHI: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has ordered the FAA to immediately place a second air traffic control staffer in the tower during the overnight shift at Ronald Reagan National Airport. The sleeping controller who triggered the incident has 20 years of experience. He's been suspended and drug-tested. And there are reports that he was working his fourth consecutive overnight shift, although, we've been discussing here that is sort of the job.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, former air traffic controller Bob Richards told us he believes the FAA has failed to deliver on a promise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB RICHARDS, FORMER AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: We absolutely need two people in the tower at all times. And that's for a number of different scenarios. I mean, it was nice that Ray LaHood said that, but if you go back to history, back in 2006 after the Comair crash in Lexington, three days after that crash, the FAA came out and said, we're going to have two people in the tower at all times. And it was supposed to have been mandated since then.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: And that crash he's referring to, 49 people died in the Lexington crash. The air traffic controller on duty at the time had only two hours of sleep during the previous 24 hours. That's a different story then than being assigned --
CHETRY: Than being assigned the night shift.
VELSHI: -- the night shift for several nights in a row.
CHETRY: You know, the other interesting thing that you brought up, too, is that, do -- are they going to add another body, another six-figure salary for nine airplanes, right? That's how many --
VELSHI: Or do we just not schedule airplanes to land at that time? And again, not that this is the way things necessarily need to go, but there are hundreds of small airports that have unmanned towers across the country.
ROMANS: I mean, it may be fine to have one air traffic controller as long as that air traffic controller is awake to land nine planes.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: All right.
Getting into and out of Miami International Airport could be a real challenge for you today. The airport's underground fueling station is crippled and could be weeks before it's fixed after a cease-fire erupted Wednesday night at a fueling station. You could see the pictures there.
Investigators suspect there was some kind of a malfunction with a pump. American Airlines and its regional partner, American Eagle, canceled more than 185 flights between them yesterday. And airport officials are not ruling out more cancellations today.
VELSHI: This is because those all six fuel pumps were -- fuel tanks were affected. So, they're still manually fueling the airplanes with fuel trucks.
ROMANS: Absolutely.
CHETRY: What a mess.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: And we also reported yesterday about the suspicious package that they also had.
VELSHI: Which turned out to be nothing.
ROMANS: It's a tough morning at Miami International.
VELSHI: It's a tough morning there.
CHETRY: All right.
Well, in the meantime, Rob Marciano is following all of the weather for us.
It's been a tough spring so far for many parts of the country. Boy, Pittsburgh and some of the areas in western Pennsylvania dealing with a tornado. What's going on?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, tornado, heavy snow. We've seen it all this week and now, chilly temperatures have kind of sunk into the northern third of the country. Temps below freezing right now in New York and Chicago and Minneapolis, and they'll kind of hold below average, I think, on through the weekend. So, it's going to be a chilly weekend coming up.
What's going on out west? Big-time winter type storms with flooding issues across the Bay Area. Check out this video coming in to us.
Not only flooding but mudslides have been a huge issue, too. A number of roads closed at times to clear some of the rock and land across the Highway 1, Highway 101, and also parts of Sonoma and Santa Cruz. There's some rainfall across parts of West Coast, it doesn't want to stop.
All right. A little bit of rain and snow across parts of St. Louis. Trying to get up to Chicago, this is a weak thing. I don't think it will amount to a whole lot. There may be some severe weather associated with it later on today once things get cranky.
But it will dry east of the Mississippi River today and at least the Northeast looks to be dry this weekend. But it will be on the chilly side.
Forty-four degrees is the expected high temperature in New York City. That's about 10 degrees below where you should be for this first full week of spring.
Guys, back up to you.
VELSHI: Thank you, Rob.
CHETRY: Forty-three. We can't wait.
ROMANS: All right. Up next, an arrest after a bomb sits in the -- the bomb sat in the lost and found, you guys, inside the Detroit federal building. We'll give you the latest on that one.
VELSHI: Plus, he was the man of her dreams until she found out that he was a con man. Jason Carroll checks out the soldier dating scam. You're going to want to see that.
CHETRY: Also, he starred in the highest grossing R-rated comedy ever, "The Hangover." Now, Bradley Cooper, it looks like he struck gold again. He has a new move out "Limitless" starring himself and Robert de Niro.
VELSHI: That's the one where he takes the pills and he's going to be smart?
CHETRY: Oh, yes, pills and thrills in this new movie. But, of course, you know, you can't get away with that for long. He is going to be joining us to talk about it.
VELSHI: Thirteen minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: An AM Security Watch now. The FBI has arrested a Michigan man who allegedly placed a bomb outside a federal building in Detroit. We told you about this story. A security guard actually brought the unattended bag into the building, and it sat in lost and found for three weeks before it was x-rayed. It never went off, thankfully. The building houses, the FBI, and the man in custody reportedly has a history of making threats against its agents.
VELSHI: Although, not the world's most effective bomb maker, apparently.
ROMANS: Thankfully.
CHETRY: Yes.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Well, a warning this morning about con-artist posing as U.S. troops overseas. One woman found this out the hard way. She thought she found the man of her dreams only to find it was a fake soldier looking for money. Jason Carroll is here now with her story.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, truly disappointing when you have to report stories like this. You hear about it happening. You know, it's happening not just here in the United States, it's happening in Europe, as well. Scam artists posing as soldiers using Facebook and social dating sites to rip off thousands of victims.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): Denise Terramorse thought she had found her ideal mate. He said his name was Peter. His bio? Her dream list. Single, cares about family, a soldier serving in Iraq.
DENISE TERRAMORSE, SOLDIER SCAM VICTIM: If I could have molded the perfect man, I couldn't of made him more perfect.
CARROLL: But her dream man turned out to be a con man.
And it hurts, too, doesn't it? It's got to.
TERRAMORSE: Oh, yes, it does. I would be lying if I said it didn't.
CARROLL: Terramorse's man found her on a dating website. Within two weeks, he was already saying things like I want to marry you. And I want to start a family with you. Then, he asked for $200 for a satellite phone.
TERRAMORSE: Now going back, people were telling me that they saw red flags. I'm like, that would have been nice for you to tell me. Thank you.
CARROLL: There more money requests. Terramorse ended up sending a total of $1,700. Then she became suspicious and Googled his name.
TERRAMORSE: This girl was saying how this guy with his name and his picture on the site said that this guy is a scam.
CARROLL: Terramorse had fallen victim to the soldier dating scam. The FBI says thousands have been ripped off worldwide. Army investigators say people posing as U.S. soldiers use real pictures and names of servicemen, some who have fallen in the line of duty to win over victims.
CHRIS GREY, U.S. ARMY CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION COMMAND: It's despicable, and that's why we're going on the offensive to try to notify people, whatever you do, do not fall for one of these romance scams.
CARROLL: The military is trying to get the word out and is working with the FBI. Investigators say catching cons like the one who dupe Denise Terramorse is a challenge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a difficult thing. Often times, the scammers are originating out of West Africa.
CARROLL: Terramorse is working with investigators to try to catch her conman. She says if she can be tricked, others can be, too.
TERRAMORSE: I have a master's degree. I'm, obviously, not stupid, but your heart is in it. Your heart starts to overrule your head.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (on-camera): It's an important point. You know, Terramorse is from California and that's also important because that state is the only one that has made online impersonation a crime. It's a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison. And for that reason, Terramorse is still in communication with the man who conned her. She is working with investigators to try and catch him.
CHETRY: Is she worried that by even telling this story, that he is going to disappear?
CARROLL: I think she's beyond that, at this point.
ROMANS: Do they know where he is?
CARROLL: They have an idea of where he is. Yes, they do. Overseas. And that's what makes it so difficult to catch some of these guys and to track them because they are overseas.
VELSHI: And as I mentioned earlier, when we talked about the story, this red flag, she said her friends, you know, basically, when he was asking for money, this is a really good opportunity to listen to red flags, and I think this extends to any degree of online dating or talking to people who you haven't met in person.
CARROLL: And hindsight is 20/20. You know, there were, obviously, red flags there. Someone is asking for money. She's never met this person.
VELSHI: Right.
CARROLL: You know, these are some of the warning signs, folks, you should be looking out for.
VELSHI: You were talking about another woman who gave a lot more money.
CARROLL: $125,000. She was in the UK.
VELSHI: You know it took me to get a quarter out of you guys to get --
CARROLL: I gave you two quarters
CHETRY: And I gave you one, so give it up.
VELSHI: We've known each other for a while.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks.
CARROLL: All right.
CHETRY: Thanks, Jason.
ROMANS: Still ahead, another sign Facebook is taking over the country. Up next, I don't know. World domination? We'll have that for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News. VELSHI: We're just into CNN Breaking News out of Indiana. A shooting at the West Middle School Indiana which is about an hour from Indianapolis. Reports that we are getting in now say the shooting may have involved a student who was recently expelled from school. The school has about 600 students. It's on lockdown this morning, and the reports are that the shooter is in custody.
Again, Martinsville, Indiana. It is about an hour out of Indianapolis. School shooting at a school with 600 people, apparently, taking place in the cafeteria, maybe involving a student who has recently been expelled. We'll stay on top of this story for you and bring you any new details that we have. We're covering this for you live.
CHETRY: At least, the good news is that they have the suspect, they believe, in custody, according to police.
All right. Well, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords able to walk now and talk. This is just two and a half months after she was shot in the head at close range. So, will she attend her husband astronaut, Mark Kelly's, shuttle launch next month? We're going to be joined by John Zarrella live. New details up next. It's 23 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: New York City.
VELSHI: Slightly cold Empire State of mind this morning. Twenty-nine degrees but sunny. You still see some snow on the ground there in New York, going up to 44 today. I don't understand. We did that yesterday. Why is there still snow in New York City?
CHETRY: It should have melted by now, right? I mean, we're well into spring.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: But there is some good news. You can make it as hot as you want to. You can live anywhere you want to if you win the lotto. The mega-million jackpot now, $312 million. They haven't hit a number for 14 times. So, this is the big one. Sixth highest jackpot in the history of the game, and there is still time to get your tickets. Tonight's drawing is 11:00 p.m. 11:00 p.m., so --
VELSHI: I'm in a couple of pools here. Will somebody e-mail me if this happens?
CHETRY: Yes. I will be there with my highlighter checking the numbers.
ROMANS: I put in five bucks --
VELSHI: I put in five bucks in two separate pools.
CHETRY: Me, too. ROMANS: I don't know. If you're not on Facebook -- about a year ago, I did a story about people who are the Facebook holdouts. There are far fewer Facebook holdout these days. Looks like you might be in the minority if you are not on Facebook. Carmen Wong Ulrich is here "Minding Your Business." Facebook. Everything is going to happen to be (ph) in the Facebook someday.
CARMEN WONG ULRICH, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: You are in the minority now, officially. Let me show you what this new stats are here. There's a survey out that just came out yesterday that shows that 51 percent of American adults are on Facebook. Now, that's a really big number, and that's also my dad who happens to be 69. Now, interestingly enough, three years ago, only three years ago in 2008, that number was only 8 percent.
So, it has grown tremendously and you know what's grown along with it? Ad revenue. This year, they're projected to double their ad revenue to $4 billion. Now, one way that they're doing this, they're testing a new way to make money via ads. Real-time promos. So, as you type, I really want a coffee. Up pops a Starbucks ad. And they're testing this on only 1 percent of users, because I have to say, it's a little creepy.
ROMANS: I think it's Orelion (ph) kind of -- it's kind of Orelion (ph) the idea of saying, you know, I'm really tired of this weather and then, suddenly, up pops an ad for --
(CROSSTALK)
ULRICH: Google has already been doing this. I just had a conversation with someone who -- a friend of mine who's vacationing in the Dominican, up pops on my Google page, vacation to the Dominican. They're really monitoring everything.
CHETRY: And the other thing is if you ever look at an item of jewelry or anything on a website, whenever you go on that website again, that item pops back up. Even if you're not on that website, an ad for that website with your exact item pops up.
ROMANS: They got a little bit of trouble ones because they were thinking about, for example, if you were looking at diamond rings, they were thinking by saying, your friend, Kiran Chetry, is looking at these diamond rings (INAUDIBLE)
ULRICH: There's a lot of privacy issues here. I assume that a lot of us who are online, we may not want everybody to know what we're doing there.
VELSHI: Right. If you're looking for diamond rings that you shouldn't be looking for, you already have somebody with a diamond ring, set your priorities.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Or how about do it the old-fashioned way. For that matter, don't be buying diamond rings. You shouldn't be buying diamond rings for.
ROMANS: You could go on.
CHETRY: But seriously, it's almost to the point where Facebook and privacy is an oxymoron.
ULRICH: It really is. And you have to realize that. You have to realize that they need to make money off of what they're doing. So, they are really --
VELSHI: You want a free service to hold on your pictures and do --
ULRICH: Absolutely.
ROMANS: And you don't get to reconnect with your long lost friends from third grade for free.
CHETRY: But we don't care much about this story. We can end it at any time.
ULRICH: Not at all.
VELSHI: All right. I do want to bring --
ULRICH: I got to go update my Facebook page.
VELSHI: Carmen, thank you.
I want to bring you up to feet on a story that we just brought you, breaking news out of Indiana. We've got some live pictures now. There is a shooting at west middle school in Martinsville, Indiana, which is about an hour from Indianapolis. You are looking at those live pictures right now. The sheriff's department telling CNN the shooter is in custody.
We do not know yet if either of the people involved were students. The school has about 600 students, and it is on lockdown this morning, I guess, while they ensure that they're not looking for another shooter, but that is Martinsville, Indiana, about an hour from Indianapolis, about 600 students. The shooting taking place before school started today.
And leaking water deep inside reactor number three in Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could point to a cracked containment vessel and could even be a breach of the nuclear core. The water tested for 10,000 times the normal level of radiation. Japan's prime minister saying this morning the situation, quote, "still does not warrant optimism."
NATO has now agreed to take over enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya but just the no-fly zone. The rest of the military mission is still in the hands of the United States and its coalition allies. That includes air strikes on Gadhafi forces outside rebel-held cities to stop Gadhafi from killing his own citizens. And in Syria the situation growing more tense as a big demonstrations expected later today near a mosque attacked earlier in the week. Right now eyewitnesses on the ground say tens of thousands are gathering for Friday prayers. You're looking at a video of a demonstration from yesterday where protesters are seen holding banners that read "We will continue this revolution" and "The Traitor has killed innocents." The government is promising reform, but promising a crackdown on protesters as well.
CHETRY: Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is in a Houston rehab center recovering from that assassination attempt not far from where her husband astronaut Mark Kelly is ready for his next mission in space. John Zarrella has more from us in Miami. He sat down and talked about it. The interesting thing I noted he says she is now beginning to process the scope of this tragedy all of these months later which is quite remarkable.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That struck me, too. I thought the exact same thing when I heard him say that yesterday afternoon at the press conference. I thought we heard this already and only now is she coming to grips with it so many months later now.
But it was a news conference yesterday in Houston, a pre-launched news conference for the crew of the Endeavour flight coming up in April. Right at the beginning of the press conference, Mark Kelly addressed what everyone there really wanted to know, how his wife is doing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK KELLY, HUSBAND OF GABRIELLE GIFFORDS: As her doctors described in her last press conference on March 11th, she is doing remarkably well. She's improving every day and in the realm of brain injuries, that is very significant and pretty rare. She's starting to walk, talk more every day and she is starting to process some of the tragedy that we all went through in January, she's going through that as we speak.
Despite that, she remains in a very good mood. She spends most of her day in therapy, enjoys brief visits from friends and colleagues. She was really happy to see my brother last week after he returned from space.
She gets staff briefings from her staff when they are in town on what is going on with her office, in the district, and what is going on in congress. I see her every morning before I go to work and when I come home from work at the end of my day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZARRELLA: Kelly was also asked, you know, if it was more challenging preparing for this flight because of everything he and his family are dealing with. He said, no, it's very manageable. And that is probably because, he said, that he already has flown three times in space, twice as a pilot, and once before as a commander. So he says he's got it all under control. I tend to believe him, Kiran. CHETRY: This is an opportunity of a lifetime as he is dealing with a tragedy of a lifetime for their family and their coming together like this.
VELSHI: And what is amazing he also said it still looks very much like she will be able to attend his launch, his cruise launch April 19th at the Kennedy Space Center. And that, in and of itself, is absolutely stunning to me.
CHETRY: John Zarrella for us this morning, thanks so much.
VELSHI: Sure.
ROMANS: Ali, why don't you take this.
CHETRY: Let me handle this one, all right?
VELSHI: Sure he has a sexy smile. Maybe you can even see it. Do we have a sexy smile we can put up on TV? There it is! Look at that! Bradley cooper sure can act. His new slick thriller "Limitless" is number one at the box office and catapulting him into Hollywood's big leagues. Bradley is here. My two married co-anchors and having some difficulty spinning this all out, but we will get it all together for this interview right after this break.
CHETRY: Thanks, Ali.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 38 minutes past the hour right now. It's good to be Bradley Cooper these days, right, many might say. He is the star of the number one movie in America right now "Limitless" and soon seen in the much beloved addition to the comedy that we all love "The Hangover." Part two now to the biggest grossing R-rated comedy of all time.
So right now he is introduced to a wonder drug that allows him to tap his full potential, of course, not without side effects. Here's a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A fight? Don't know how to fight. Or do I? Use the action to get inside like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Actor Bradley Cooper is with us right now. The film is amazing. Don't tell me what happens at the end. It's a real transformation for this character in sort of this search for perfection and what happens when you get -- tell me about sort of the process going through this movie and what this movie is all about to you.
BRADLEY COOPER, ACTOR: You know, it was. It was a different situation than the other movies I've been a part of because I was a major part of the story-telling process. I play a guy who has to go through all of these transformations. Yes, it was incredible and Robert De Niro was in the movie, which was incredible.
And Mike Tyson is great. I loved working with him. He is fantastic. He is in "Hangover Part 2." and he is great.
ROMANS: Let's ask who the other one is. Are you able to give that other one?
COOPER: The other one is?
CHETRY: The other cameo. He walked on in "Hangover" and everyone said you have to do something along those lines.
ROMANS: Is it Charlie Sheen?
COOPER: No. Not Sheen. That is the rumor. We already shot it.
CHETRY: Is there a tiger?
COOPER: No, a drug dealing monkey.
ROMANS: A drug dealing monkey?
CHETRY: Does he have an owner or walk by himself?
COOPER: He has a carrier of sorts, yes.
ROMANS: Are you surprised that "Hangover" is part of the American lexicon? When you were doing the movie, I watched it and it was a little silly but, wow, this is funny. It's highest grossing R- rated comedy movie of all time.
COOPER: It was a total shock.
ROMANS: Limitless. Where does that fit into your repertoire of movies?
COOPER: My repertoire?
ROMANS: How does this round you out as an actor? You don't want to be known as just for "Hangover."
COOPER: That would be great to do two, three, four. The script was amazing by Leslie Dixon and I wanted to do it since I read it so just to have that opportunity is wonderful. You know, the fact that people like it is great. I mean, we were so happy last weekend with the numbers that came in. I mean, you just never know. You really never know.
CHETRY: It was what, $19 million?
COOPER: Yes.
CHETRY: The first weekend. I think that it taps into this idea, though, a lot of us wonder about. Can we be better on pharmaceuticals? Studies say take the ADHD medication if you're normal, quote/unquote, you also perform better on it. This whole notion we can take something to give us that edge is tempting.
COOPER: It's a great hook in the movie you think we're not really that far away from it being a probability, maybe a decade or two away. Who knows?
CHETRY: What about the side effects?
COOPER: Side effects.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: What happened to your character along the way and how you transformed yourself?
COOPER: You don't know what he was trying to do. You haven't finished the movie.
ROMANS: Don't tell me what happens at the end!
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: No, unfortunately, we had to shoot it out of sequence. We call him old Eddie before and then new Eddie. I would eat a bunch of Chinese food the night before to try to look bloated or puff my stomach out. Unfortunately, we couldn't do the thing you gain 60 pounds.
CHETRY: If you gain and lose large amounts of weight, you win an Oscar like Natalie Portman.
ROMANS: Let me ask you about your comfort level. You're on the cover of magazines and you're a megastar now. You done all of these films and we're waiting for "Hangover 2" and we're talking about it. How has it changed your life? Do you feel like a megastar?
COOPER: It sounds like I'm a deceptive con. You know you are a robot, right? You know you are a cyborg.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: Paparazzi tries to snap you all the time and people want to know about your personal life, are you back on the market now. We are married, we don't want to know. But we're asking for our friends.
CHETRY: It's important for the people to know.
COOPER: No, my life has not changed, honestly. Maybe it's because I spent a lot of time where I'm from, at least this past year. But it hasn't really. I mean, it depends on how -- what you want to do with the day.
CHETRY: So you don't have somebody to carry an umbrella around?
COOPER: Of course I do. Of course, I do. That's normal, right? ROMANS: And somebody else to count the money, too.
COOPER: Count the money, exactly!
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: What?
ROMANS: Ali is making fun of us! This never happens! We interview ambassadors, we interview ex-presidents.
COOPER: Amazing. That was amazing!
CHETRY: We never run out of things to say, but now we're like two school girls in a bar. This is terrible.
ROMANS: That was incredible. Hold on, wait. Hold on. Look. What was it like working with Robert De Niro? Did we already ask you that one? Darn it! All right, we will leave it there.
CHETRY: What is next for Bradley Cooper?
ROMANS: Nice to see you.
COOPER: Nice to see you.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: The movie is awesome and congratulations.
CHETRY: Ali, please!
VELSHI: Are you done?
CHETRY: Get us out of here!
VELSHI: Are you sure you're done there? He is pretty dreamy, huh? All right, it's hot in here.
(LAUGHTER)
But it's cold outside for the first weekend of spring. Rob Marciano has your weekend travel forecast next.
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Well, I have to say that's nice. That's Orlando and its 65 degrees, it's going to 84. I'm heading to -- down in Florida.
CHETRY: You are?
VELSHI: My family and my in-laws --
CHETRY: What are you -- oh cool, nice. VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Wear sunscreen and have some fun.
VELSHI: Ok.
CHETRY: All right, we'll see you bright and early on Monday morning.
Meanwhile Rob is in Atlanta.
ROMANS: I don't mean to name drop. But my mike is falling off because we just we're hugging Bradley Cooper around. And I -- we're going to have to get to weather so we can get everything all settled here again.
CHETRY: What do you think it's like --
(CROSS TALK)
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Ali, are they trying to make us jealous? It's not working.
VELSHI: It's not working at all Rob.
MARCIANO: You know, we -- we professionally respect what he does as an actor.
(CROSS TALK)
VELSHI: I was fine -- I was -- I was fine just sitting here being ignored for several minutes that continued to go on and on and on.
MARCIANO: It was a nice break, you know, watching them abuse somebody else for a change. God love him. Poor Bradley.
CHETRY: Rob I know, you're still our favorite, don't worry.
ROMANS: We objectify you everyday, three times an hour. You know that.
MARCIANO: An entertaining -- an entertaining segment, nonetheless.
Good morning guys, 29 degrees right now in New York. So outside the studio it's a little chilly. 33 degrees in D.C. and 28 degrees in Chicago; so the overall trend will be a chilly one. It'll be cold enough for snow this weekend across the northeast. But the only folks who have the slightest threat of that late Sunday, will actually be D.C./Baltimore. We'll see how that pans out.
Meanwhile, rain and snow across parts of the California coastline and this is -- is causing flooding across parts of the Bay Area, up through Sonoma and Santa Cruz. Parts of the Highway 101 have shut down near Monterey and Big Sur because of the heavy rainfall here and this is going to continue. So we've got flood warnings and watches that are posted.
A couple of more systems that are going to come through and this is a very cold system. I mean, this is more like January. A couple of more feet of snow expected on top of it, they've already seen in the mountains. High winds as well so it's not about the great skiing weather until you get to maybe Sunday or Monday, even six to 12 inches of snowfall expected across parts of southern California.
We do have a little system that's rolling across the midsection of the country. Rain and snow mixture here in St. Louis; maybe a little accumulation on the side streets, sidewalks and grassy surfaces but the main delays I think will be in San Francisco because of the rain. A little bit of wind across parts of the New York metro area with this chilly air that certainly has filtered in.
Maybe some severe weather across the south with a little pulse there and a fire danger remains high with high winds across parts of New Mexico and Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado where they're still dealing with that there.
85 degrees today for a high temperature in Dallas. It's starting to warm things up there but everybody else is on the cool side.
Speaking of cool, remember back in January when we had 49 to 50 states covered in snow? This is what the map looked like for snow cover. Everybody but Florida and now, you know, it's not a huge improvement. The Northern Tier, about two dozen states still seeing some snow cover including New York State and Pennsylvania. We'll try to work through this and get into a full-fledged spring but right now, the first full week of spring certainly is feeling -- feeling more like winter for a lot of folks.
Back to you guys in New York. I'm glad to see you today.
VELSHI: Rob, I'll take you to break. My co-hosts are still recovering. Good to see you, my friend.
ROMANS: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right, you guys.
VELSHI: It is 50 minutes after the hour. We're coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: In Japan there's a word for people who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, "Hikabusha" literally translated it means "explosion affected people". A Japanese doctor emerged from the ruins of radiation and now uses it to save lives. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has her story in today's "Human Factor".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ritsuko Komaki(ph) was two years old when the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima more than 65 years ago. Her family lost six relatives. Her grandmother had radiation sickness.
DR. RITSUKO KOMAKI, HIROSHIMA SURVIVOR: Her hair fell out and she had the nose bleeding and the diarrhea.
GUPTA: At that time no one in Hiroshima understood how dangerous radiation could be. Little Ritsuko grew up playing among the radioactive ruins.
KOMAKI: I was just too small to know how much radioactive material is staying on the ground.
GUPTA: When she was 11, Komaki lost a friend to leukemia and she began to suspect that the bomb had long-lasting invisible effects on her city. She wanted to learn more about what killed her friend and how to stop it. Eventually, she went to medical school. And that's when she learned about radiation.
KOMAKI: I volunteered during summertime to check all those people who were exposed to the atomic bomb.
GUPTA: Later in her medical training, Dr. Komaki learned that radiation could actually save lives. Not just ruin them.
KOMAKI: When I saw this patient who was cured by radiation treatment, you know, I saw the light and I said, oh, my goodness, this is incredible.
GUPTA: As a cancer specialist, she uses radiation to treat patients and educates people about how radiation can be a force for good, both in the United States and in her native Japan where most cancer patients forgo this type of treatment because they fear radiation so much. For nearly a decade, Komaki has made it as her mission to change that.
KOMAKI: I -- I really truly hope, you know, that people, they don't get any wrong idea, you know. This accident of the nuclear plant, it's not like a regular radiation treatment.
GUPTA: For now, she is back in the United States treating patients, but hopes to head to Japan again soon to help her homeland and also to continue to spread her message that radiation doesn't always have to be a dirty word.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right, now we're off the superstars we can get on into something that I understand a little better, food.
Five-Star chef Bruno Sorato (ph) has spent the past two decade doing what he loves, feeding customers at his restaurant in California. But when he learned just how many kids go to bed hungry, he served up a solution. Meet this week's CNN hero.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNO SORATO, CNN HERO OF THE WEEK: I came to this country 30 years ago and I love to cook but to be in the restaurant business you must love the people.
How is your lunch, ladies?
My mom was on vacation on Italy. I said, mom, let's go to the boys and girls club. This little boy, five years old, eating potato chips for his. He was a motel kid. I find out a poor family who has nothing else, you live in a motel.
The motel environment is extremely bad. Drugs. Prostitution. Alcoholics. It's horrible.
When they go (INAUDIBLE) to school, there's no dinner. There is no money. Mom say, Bruno, you must feed them pasta.
I'm Bruno Sorato, I listen to my mamma. Now my mission is feeding hungry children.
Six years ago, we start feeding the kids. When the recession came, customers dropped and the children doubled. Mama mia. I don't give the kids leftovers. I give them fresh pasta.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bruno brings a trade and other kids are expected and excited.
SORATO: Are you hungry?
Right now we are between 150 to 200 kids that we feed.
Who likes pasta?
My mom, she made me start and now I could never stop. I see you sooner. They are customers. My favorite customers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: What a great thing to be a chef to start with and then to be able to feed people who are needy.
ROMANS: Who do you know who is making a big difference in your world? Tell us about it and head to our AMERICAN MORNING blog at cnn.com/am to nominate someone.
CHETRY: And we want to say thanks for being with us all week. We'll be back here bright and early Monday morning. In the meantime, it's time to hand things over to "CNN NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.
And Carol from a fellow happily-married woman, me and Christine, we can blush over Bradley Cooper right because he's just a beautiful man to look at. But we are happily married. CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": I'm happily married, too, but he's hot.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Have a great weekend. Thanks so much.
CHETRY: You too, Carol.
