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American Morning
Serbia Arrests War Crimes Suspect Ratko Mladic; Christmas Toys To Get Pricier?; $100K To Drop Out Of College; Oprah Winfrey Signs Off
Aired May 26, 2011 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans.
We start with breaking news this morning. Serbia's most wanted war criminal arrested. How police captured Radko Mladic. The details ahead.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama touching down in France. He's set for two days of talks at the G-8 summit.
I'm Kiran Chetry.
There's a lot on the table, the global debt crisis, trying to negotiate Middle East peace, and also finding a new boss for the IMF.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And a federal indictment looms for John Edwards.
I'm Ali Velshi.
Accused of using campaign cash to hide a sex scandal, his lawyers are now publicly blasting the Justice Department on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC)
ROMANS: Good morning, everyone. It is Thursday, May 26th, a very busy morning, both in the U.S., cleaning up after these tornadoes, and also big international news this morning.
CHETRY: That's right.
We have breaking news out of Serbia this morning. Serbia's president, Boris Tadic, is confirming the arrest of former Serbian military commander, Ratko Mladic. Now, a fugitive he's been since the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
VELSHI: Mladic is accused of masterminding the bloody assaults against Sarajevo and the siege of Srebrenica where close to 7,000 men and boys were killed, rounded up, taken into the woods and shot.
ROMANS: Joining us now, former assistant secretary of state, Jamie Rubin, who is now executive director of "The Bloomberg View," which just launched.
This has been an odyssey -- an odyssey for people who want justice for what happened in the woods in Srebrenica.
JAMIE RUBIN, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, yes, I remember speaking from the State Department podium. I was the spokesman shortly after his indictment. And we used to be regularly questioned by members of the media quite aggressively, you know, when are you going to get this guy? And how come he is still at large?
And the guidance I received from the government, the secretary of state, was his day will come. Well, his day has finally come. It's a little late, I guess. But
ROMANS: Why now?
RUBIN: I think it is political. But political in a good way, in the sense that Serbia has gone through an evolution over this last decade and they've realized that being out of the mainstream of Europe, being, you know, a pariah kind country, it was bad for them. And so, slowly, slowly, they've worked their way through.
First, they captured Karadzic, the president of -- for Mladic, the person he reported, and now, Mladic. And he really is the symbol now that President Milosevic from Serbia has died in the prison in The Hague.
He's really the symbol of this terrible massacre you were talking about, the one that in many ways provoked the West to act, as it was in '95, when President Clinton who had frankly not been willing to push the Europeans into action before that, finally decided, enough is enough. This massacre occurred. And he gathered together his European colleagues and the airstrikes were conducted that brought peace to Bosnia, ended the war, stopped the siege and stopped thousands more people who would have surely died.
CHETRY: When you talk about lessons learned -- I mean, the United Nations just recently acknowledging their errors for declaring that was a protected zone and then secondly just, I guess, the environment in which this was, quote, "allowed to happen."
RUBIN: Yes.
CHETRY: What did the international community learn about preventing genocide in the wake of World War II?
RUBIN: Well, this was my -- you know, some people say, a little older than us, they say Vietnam was the war of their generation. Well, for me, and many of my friends and colleagues, Bosnia was the war that brought us to an understanding of the world. What really happened there for many years is nobody would take responsibility. And by nobody, I mean, none of the countries involved.
The U.N. is only as good as the determination of its major countries. And so, the U.N. has failed. They offered a safe -- it was called safe area for all these people. There were five of them, I believe. One of them was Srebrenica. Dutch peacekeepers in there.
VELSHI: They offered safe haven for these Bosnians.
RUBIN: Bosnian refugees. So, they came into these safe areas, promised protection by the world. And sure enough, Mladic and his military forces came in and there was gruesome footage of him separating men and boys from their mothers and sisters and sending them off in these buses, patting a little boy saying everything will be fine. All these men and boys were slaughtered, killed in this terrible massacre.
The U.S., I think this is known now, had satellite data. That was part of what convinced the Security Council at the time.
ROMANS: Because they denied it.
RUBIN: Of course.
ROMANS: They said we made this up. This didn't really happen.
RUBIN: Invention, exactly.
ROMANS: They found the bodies.
RUBIN: They said pretty much anything during those days. But I think what's important to answer your question is that a precedent was set that when the major countries of the world finally are prepared to act, genocide can be prevented. It was Kosovar that followed Bosnia when the world acted before the genocide.
VELSHI: But let's talk about this. There's Rwanda. There's Darfur. We said after World War II, there will be wars, but genocide will stop, that, you know, we weren't going to forget. We haven't figured out how to prevent genocide truly. We know how to, but we have not figured out how to get the will together to prevent these things.
Are we smarter today? Would Srebrenica happen again today?
RUBIN: Well, I think not. And that's why I think this is so important, is because after Srebrenica, after the horror that we saw there in '95, and remember, this happened just after Rwanda. A year before when nearly a million people were slaughtered.
VELSHI: And President Clinton invoked that when saying that we were going into Bosnia.
RUBIN: And later admitted that this was the policy in which he had the most regret, that he didn't act. And so, I think if you track the world since Srebrenica and Rwanda, first, you have Kosovar where President Clinton decides to act early --
VELSHI: Right.
RUBIN: -- and prevent a genocide. An outside expert said it was the only case where genocide was presented before it was going to happen. And then you bring it all the way to Libya -- and although Libya is not now arguably a successful operation, the fact that people considered doing it, the fact that President Obama and the European leaders invoked the fear of mass slaughter, convinced them to act and I think arguably, there would have been a mass slaughter had NATO not acted.
And so, in a sense, a Srebrenica was prevented in Libya.
CHETRY: Back to what's going on with him now. Is he going to face a war crimes trial at The Hague? I mean, what happens in terms of this man?
RUBIN: Well, I think, right now, the steps are very clear. Serbia, the man who the president announced this consciously, the European's most important official is in Belgrade. Lady Ashton, who is called basically the foreign minister of Europe, is there. And Serbia wants to join the European Union, become a normal European state. And the biggest single obstacle stated by all the countries was, no, not until there is cooperation with the war crimes.
ROMANS: Reconciliation of your history is a precursor for joining the European community.
RUBIN: Exactly. And so, but everyone know that was code for getting Mladic.
ROMANS: Right.
RUBIN: And so, Mladic was captured today. I believe he will be sent to The Hague after the appropriate, you know, procedures for extradition are gone through. And then, I think Serbia has given itself a boost in terms of rejoining the community of nations in Europe and being part of the European Union.
It's not going to happen quickly. These are very complex, economic and political decisions. But the one issue that had prevented them and made it impossible to move forward was Mladic and they got him. That's very important.
ROMANS: And as Nic Robertson reported, there are those within the country who protected and harbored him, no question, because they sympathize with his position.
VELSHI: They thought he was a hero by some.
ROMANS: So, we'll leave it there. But thank you so much. We really appreciate it, Jamie Rubin.
Meanwhile, still following more breaking this morning from Yemen.
VELSHI: More breaking international news this morning from Yemen. Yes, the capital city there, Sanaa, a bloody battle between government security forces and opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh leaving 24 dead overnight, more than 40 have been killed since Monday as demonstrators continue to call on the president to step down.
The State Department has ordered all nonessential U.S. diplomats to leave the country and is recommending all U.S. citizens do the same.
CHETRY: North Korea leader, Kim Jong-il, has reportedly wrapped up several days of secret talks with Chinese officials in Beijing. According to reports on Chinese television, he has agreed to adhere to the goal of a nuclear free Korean peninsula.
ROMANS: Meanwhile, President Obama is in France this morning for the start of two days of talks at the G-8 summit. There's a lot in the agenda, of course. Nuclear weapons talk with the Russian president, also meeting with Japan's prime minister to discuss reconstruction after March's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Leaders from the eight largest developed economies in the world are on hand tackling issues like the global debt crisis, Middle East peace and global inflation and soaring food prices for many countries.
VELSHI: And CNN has learned a major development could come in the John Edwards case in a matter of days. An indictment or a plea deal is expected. Federal prosecutors claim that Edwards used campaign cash as hush money for former mistress, Rielle Hunter, to try and cover up their affair while he ran for president.
Lawyers for Edwards slammed the department, saying the government's theory is wrong and insisting that Edwards did not break the law.
ROMANS: All right. A man captures amazing video of the Oklahoma tornado and it ends up demolishing his three-story home. The frantic final moments as the family rushes to safety. They could not grab the family dog in time.
This is an emotional story with an ending that you absolutely have to see.
VELSHI: And stocks finally snap a three-day losing streak, but investors are still on edge. We'll take a look at the markets when we come back.
CHETRY: Also, this was what house arrest looks like if you're extremely wealthy. This is where the former head of the IMF, who is facing sex crime charges right now, is spending his time until he gets his trial.
Ten minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, there is a new round of violent storms hammering the nation's midsection right now, threatening people from Texas to the Great Lakes. Some 80 tornadoes have been reported over the past 24 hours alone. And Rob Marciano noted, it's quite remarkable that there were no deaths associated with 80 tornadoes. Dozens of injuries, though, and thousands of people in parts of Texas and Arkansas have been told to take cover.
ROMANS: Oklahoma's governor declaring a state of emergency in 68 Oklahoma counties hit by tornadoes. This video taken by storm chasers is as amazing as it is dangerous. It is about as close as you can get to one of these.
VELSHI: As his family raced to escape a powerful tornado, an Oklahoma man was unable to get the beloved family dog into the safe room in the garage.
CHETRY: Yes, the house took a direct hit. But it's not what you think because the story had does have a happy ending.
ROMANS: CNN's Ed Lavandera tells us how the family was able to reunited with their best friend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the frantic moments.
FRANK WOOD, TORNADO SURVIVOR: It's coming right over us. We are right in it path.
LAVANDERA: Just before Frank Woods scrambled up the stairs to his balcony and saw the tornadic beast for the first time staring him straight in the eyes.
F. WOOD: That's once in a lifetime. You'll probably never see this again. And it's moving fast. It's huge.
LAVANDERA: Wood rushed his children down into the garage and locked themselves in a rock solid, reinforced safe room. But they couldn't grab the family's dog in time, a boxer named Roxy.
F. WOOD: She was standing there staring at me and I'm trying to get her to come in. They would just -- you got to shut the door.
VINCENT WOOD, TORNADO SURVIVOR: I thought she was just going to get sucked up by the tornado.
LAVANDERA (on camera): So kind of heartbreaking to close that door and leave her outside?
V. WOOD: Yes.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Time had run out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In fact, go. We got to get in now!
LAVANDERA: Moments later, the tornado strikes the Woods' home.
That's a good thing to have.
FRANK WOOD: That's a very good thing to have. It saved our lives.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): This is what the house looked like before the tornado, three stories tall, overlooking 12 green acres.
LAVANDERA (on-camera): When you look at this house, it's amazing to think that it was once a three-story house.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The tornado shredded the top two stories. Frank Wood's pick-up truck was thrown almost 300 yards into a ditch.
FRANK WOOD: You're completely helpless. It's beyond your control. We just sit there and pray. We just got there on our knees and just sat there, and, it was over.
LAVANDERA: But Roxy is nowhere to be found, and eight-year-old paisley wood is devastated. We climbed through the rubble to find the sky is the ceiling. Frank Wood hunting for anything that might bring a smile to his daughter's face.
FRANK WOOD: This is her teddy bear she got when she had her appendix out about three months ago at children's hospital.
LAVANDERA: But Paisley can't stop thinking about her dog.
FRANK WOOD: Paisley cried for that. That was probably the most upsetting thing to the kids out of all of it was Roxy.
LAVANDERA: Then, a phone call one day after the storm and almost two miles away from the Wood's home, David Franco, an oil rig worker cease a dog walking around his worksite.
DAVID FRANCO, CHESAPEAKE ENERGY: As soon as I saw her, I knew she belonged to somebody who maybe the house got destroyed.
LAVANDERA: Paisley and her family jump in their truck and race to see if it's true that their dog had somehow managed to escape the tornado's grip. Then, the moment they've been hoping for.
FRANK WOOD: There she's coming right now.
PAISLEY WOOD, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Roxy.
LAVANDERA: It is Roxy.
FRANK WOOD: Thank you very -- here we go. Bless her little heart.
LAVANDERA: She survived, who knows how with only a small scratch on her leg.
What do you think of finding your dog?
PAISLEY WOOD: Awesome.
LAVANDERA: You didn't think you're going to see Roxy again, did you?
PAISLEY WOOD: No. LAVANDERA: And when you found out she was OK?
PAISLEY WOOD: I was very happy. I started dancing.
(LAUGHTER)
LAVANDERA: The happy dance?
PAISLEY WOOD: Yes.
LAVANDERA: They might not have a place to call home, but they've got each other and Roxy, too.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Piedmont, Oklahoma.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: That's a great story. I mean, all the fear but darn dog, why didn't you listen in the first place?
VELSHI: Well, that's what happened to Christine.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: I don't talk about it very much, but I got hit by a tornado when we were a kid at our house, and the dog was sucked out of the garage. And I mean, it was all -- I just remember my mom and dad looking at each other saying, I don't think Candy is there, and it was very upsetting.
The tornado past, and then, you could hear the scratching at the door. The dog was sucked out and came back, and everything was fine, and for the rest of my life, I'll never forget that scratching at the door.
VELSHI: Like those little kids, you won't forget that.
Hey, listen, to find out how you can help the tornado victims in Joplin, go to CNN.com/impact. You're going to find all the organizations that are pitching in. That is CNN.com/impact. Again, they lost everything, people who got hit by that tornado.
CHETRY: And still feeling lucky, though, because they said, I may have lost everything, but I have my family.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: But, you know, in the days, weeks, and years that follow, this is clearly something that's going to have an impact on their lives. How do you talk to kids about it? How do you get them through? We're going to be joined by someone from the Red Cross who specializes in this.
ROMANS: And natural disasters of all kinds. How to make sure that this is something that you can use with your family in the right way. Also, parents, you might want to do your shopping right now. OK, maybe not, but toy prices are expected to go up in coming months. We're going to tell you why it's going to be more expensive to fill up the stocking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Twenty-one minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning. Stock futures are up slightly after Wall Street snaps a three-day losing streak. The Dow gained 39 points yesterday. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 were also up.
Your kids Christmas list could cost you a little bit more this year. Experts say Chinese toy makers are paying more now for labor and materials, and those costs will be passed on to consumers just in time for Christmas.
Promising news, if you just got your college diploma, a national steady (ph) finds three out of four companies plan to hire new graduates this year. A 23 percent plan to hire more grads than they did last year.
The man best known as the co-founder of PayPal and one of the first investors of Facebook is offering 24 students $100,000 to drop out of college for two years to start their own business. Peter Seals says the idea is to help talented people live up to their full potential without being saddled with enormous college debt. He wants to help them do that.
Coming up in about 15 minutes, we're going to talk to Peter Thiel (ph) about whether it's really a good idea to encourage students not to go to college. AMERICAN MORNING back after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour. We have an update for you. You may remember the video that we showed you on Monday morning capturing the terror of about 20 people who made a call, perhaps, a life-saving call, to run into a convenience store and run into the industrial refrigerator in Joplin as Sunday's deadly tornado was hitting. The video is dark, but you can hear the terror. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we're going to do it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jesus, help us!
ROMANS (voice-over): The man who shot that video inside the fast trip (ph) convenient store freezer. He went back to get pictures of the aftermath the next day. Here's what it looked like. Nothing but broken glass and concrete surrounded by mangled molded cars. Everyone inside that freezer made it out alive, and that's what they faced.
VELSHI (voice-over): Unbelievable. CHETRY (voice-over): Nothing left.
ROMANS: Nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI (on-camera): The sheer destruction in Joplin, Missouri, looks scary for anybody but particularly frightening for a young child watching it on TV or witnessing it firsthand. I spoke to a couple while I was in Joplin. The two of them rode out the storm in their bathroom, hugging the toilet seat with their 21-month-old between them and the toilet seat. I saw the little toddler, and they said he's still shaken. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: How has he been since yesterday?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's been a little startled. You know, we're happened (ph) to drive across town to take a shower. The gas isn't working. We're driving in the car, and he's screaming and crying. I don't think he has any concept of what really happened, but he knows something very traumatic happened, and you know, the lightning and stuff is scaring him out which never happened before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Joining us now is Dr. Tener Goodwin Veneema. She's the national committee -- advisory committee member for American Red Cross. Dr. Veneema, thanks for being here. That little kid is 21 years old -- 21 months old. I'm sorry. He mostly sensed that his parents were probably scared. Is he going to grow up remembering that or do you have to be a little older to register?
DR. TENER GOODWIN VENEEMA, AMERICAN RED CROSS: Well, I think, basically, you do have to be a little bit older to really register the impact of this type of devastating event. But children at that age are a reflection of their parents' emotions.
VELSHI: Right.
VENEEMA: And while we can only imagine what these parents are going through in terms of dealing with their own grief and denial and fear for the future, there are quite a few things that parents can do to alleviate the stress and anxiety that the kids are going through.
ROMANS: Like what exactly? Because the parent sort of sets the tone. So, the parents not only do you have to try and get through this crisis, but you're also trying to be this sort of model of serenity for the kid.
VENEEMA: Exactly, and I think the most important thing. We know children need to feel safe and secure no matter what's happening if we can keep children with their parents or with their primary caregivers. And the parents can talk openly, provide a lot of reassurance, extra love and attention and really monitor and take their cues from how their children are doing.
Children will very rarely say, I'm really upset about this, unless, they're older. But their behavior, their sleep patterns, those will provide clues for how the parents can be guided to respond.
CHETRY: It also seems to be -- it's difficult because especially if you're in the wake of this disaster, you're trying to find information, but constantly, you're replaying the scenes. Seeing them on television can be traumatic as well. I remember after 9/11, some of the advice from you guys was just turn off the TVs. The kids are almost reliving it. Is it true that kids don't know when they're seeing it again if this is real life or if this is happening again?
VENEEMA: I think the most important thing to think about when you are talking with your child or if you are an organization such as the school that's helping children through these things is what stage of growth and cognitive development are they in, because the older children are going to be able to process through and begin to work through and understand this devastating event they have experienced, whereas the younger children that are still perhaps having that magical thinking are not going to be able to understand the images they see on TV over and over aren't happening again.
VELSHI: What age would you say is the point at which they -- the supply is not just to a natural disaster but a lot of things, divorce or fire or flood. What's the age at which they are more cognizant?
VENEEMA: The children progress through their stages of growth and development. Once you are getting into school anyone, children are able to sit down if you have a supportive environment and you can talk honestly with those children. It is very important for parents to be realistic. Children will see through if the parents are making things up.
ROMANS: That's why routine is so important. In all of these situations, if they can hold on to something consistent, if their house has been destroyed or they are going to another school. Some form of consistency is important?
VENEEMA: That's why it is important for parents to provide that reassurance and optimism and we will get through this together and there are a lot of people to help. The American red cross is in every community and doing a fabulous job of helping people get through this and providing that mental health support they may need.
CHETRY: Long after the attention is off of it, they are still going to be needing the help.
VENEEMA: Always.
VELSHI: Dr. Veneema, thanks for being with us and helping people through this.
Top stories, we have some breaking news out of Serbia, a bombshell arrest. The Serbian president confirming the capture of former military commander Ratko Mladic. He is accused of masterminding the massacre Sarajevo and the siege against Srebrenica where more than 7,000 men and boys were killed in 1995. NATO's secretary general welcoming news of the arrest, saying, quote, "It offers a chance for justice to be done."
CHETRY: Lawyers for John Edwards now blasting the Justice Department. Prosecutors are claiming that he used campaign money to pay his former mistress Rielle Hunter to keep quiet about their affair while he ran for president. They insist the government theory is wrong, that his client did not break the law. A plea deal is possible. A source tells CNN he is now weighing his options.
ROMANS: The old boss of the IMF has a new place to call home. Dominique Strauss-Kahn left a temporary apartment to move into something a little more upscale, a $50,000 a month, 6,800 square foot townhouse in the neighborhood known as Tribeca, one of Manhattan's most wealthy neighborhoods. It features a gym, a spa and home theater. He will remain there under house arrest.
VELSHI: President Obama has arrived in France for the G-8 summit. Leaders of the eight largest economies in the world will be tackling global issues, debt crisis, Middle East peace and finding a new leader f_ the IMF.
CHETRY: To our top story, Serbian police arrested one of their country's most wanted war criminals.
ROMANS: Former Serbian criminal Ratko Mladic is captured.
VELSHI: The Serbian president confirmed the arrest a little while ago. Listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BORIS TADIC, SERBIA: On behalf of the republic of Serbia, today we arrested Ratko Mladic. Extradition is underway. We have always believed in our strategy and the work of everyone in this process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: It's an amazing beginning of an end to a very long and painful period in history there.
VELSHI: Coming up, we are going to talk about something Christine was telling you about. Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur who is paying 24 kids to quit college and start businesses instead.
ROMANS: To quit college? We keep telling you, you have got to go to college.
VELSHI: You keep telling them you need entrepreneurs.
CHETRY: And why can't you have both. It is 35 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Atlanta, 72 degrees. Up to 86 today. Strong storms. Still some weather to be careful of.
ROMANS: I hope there are no college graduations going on. It is hot and muggy. Is college all together overrated?
VELSHI: No.
ROMANS: Maybe it is. Maybe if you had a good idea young and early like Mark Zuckerberg, you should not be going through college but developing your idea. One proven entrepreneur tends to think this way.
CHETRY: Peter Theil, the man that founded PayPal and funded Facebook, is offering 24 college students $100,000 if they drop out of school and start their own business. First, let's introduce Peter. Why do they have to drop out? Why can't they do both?
PETER THEIL, ENTREPRENEUR: We are asking people to stop out, not something irreversible. People can always go back to college.
ROMANS: Why do you want 20-year-olds?
THEIL: Starting a business is something that is a full-time thing. It is like going for the Olympics or working on some intense project. It is not something you can do in parallel with school. You can do it at any age. That is nothing magical about being under 20 or over 20 or over 50 or under 50.
But we think when people have the passion and desire to do so, they should get started. There are a number of young people that can. One of the challenges we have encountered as we have talked to younger people is they have insane college debts. We have a school education bubble, college costs have gone up by 300 percent since 1980.
VELSHI: Did Christine give you that question?
ROMANS: I am obsessed with college debt. I think it makes a good college education out of the reach of a lot of different families. You are saying if you have a good idea and you are really smart, put that on hold and let's develop your idea. Here is $100,000.
THEIL: And worst case, you go back to college and go through the whole college debt thing later. But people can get the loans, but then you have to pay them off for the rest of your life. We had this housing bubble where everyone said you had to have a house, no matter what. Housing was always good. Now, we are saying it about education.
CHETRY: If you have a college degree, the unemployment rate is half than if you don't. It is at five percent, 10 for the general population.
THEIL: That's true. Although, the question is whether colleges are just really good at picking people who will do well or whether they are actually adding that much value on education.
ROMANS: Mark Zuckerberg's unemployment rate is zero percent.
VELSHI: Very low. Let's talk to Jim Danielson. He is one of these Thiel fellows, 20, joining us from Chicago. Are you there, Jim?
ROMANS: There he is.
JIM DANIELSON, THEIL PROGRAM PARTICIPANT: Yes, I am here.
VELSHI: All right, Jim. We are calling it a stop out of college. You are going to go. You finished your year out. You still have schooling to do. You are going to leave and go to Mountain View, California and you are going to invent crazy stuff and it is going to work out or not. You are not going back to college, right?
DANIELSON: Right now I am focusing on what's happening now and how fast the electrical vehicle industry is changing.
VELSHI: You are not a politician under indictment. Answer the question. You are not going back to college, right?
DANIELSON: It really depends on where everything goes, I guess. I don't plan on going back to college if it works out well.
VELSHI: That's what I wanted to hear. What are you inventing?
DANIELSON: So I am working on electric motor for electric vehicles. It is very similar to a brushless DC motor, more efficient, lower cost of materials, not going to use permanent magnets and it is going to be more torque controllable.
ROMANS: Peter, this brings up a very good point. Look, the world is changing faster than a four-year degree can keep up in some cases. Now, you have some degrees, specifically computers, that kids can learn this at camp, some things that used to take a four-year degree.
THEIL: Everything happens only once. There is a right time and a right place for them. If the Facebook people had stayed in college for another two years, they would not have been able to start that.
CHETRY: If I'm a kid out there and I have an idea, I am 19 years old, I have been looking for this guy, Peter, all my life, how do people get in your game?
THEIL: They can contact us at the 20under20.org Foundation. There are different ways to get in touch.
VELSHI: Hey, Jim, what do your parents think of this thing?
ROMANS: I was going to ask the same thing.
DANIELSON: My parents are very supportive now, yes.
Because they know you are -- I bet you he is a smarty pants and he has been for a long time and they know you will be successful.
VELSHI: When we talk about people not dropping out, we are probably not talking about him. This guy is going to be our boss.
ROMANS: He is stopping out.
VELSHI: I don't believe in the stopping out thing.
CHETRY: Don't you think it is funny, we would never question so much if somebody had an incredible acting career and they were 15 years old. We are not telling Justin Bieber to go back to school. He could be the next big thing.
THEIL: It is worth not looking just at celebrities or star athletes but also a lot of people who are talented inventors, entrepreneurs, engineers and to tell all these people that there is not just one right track. You don't have just this one credential track. There are so many other incredible things they can contribute to make this country a better place in the decades ahead.
ROMANS: Every time I look at the shake weight, I think, I could have thought of that. Do you have incentives to save middle of the road TV anchors?
THEIL: We are working on that program.
VELSHI: One of the greatest entrepreneurs around, the creator of the "20 under 20" program. Jim Danielson, come back and keep us posted on how things are going. I suspect I know what the answer is going to be.
ROMANS: That is really great to follow your dream and get paid for it too. Nice work.
Coming up next, the president arriving in France for this big G-8 summit. We are going to show you the latest pictures and tell you what's on the agenda.
CHETRY: And speaking of the latest pictures, have you seen Carla Bruni? New pictures. It looks like a baby bump. It's 45 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Breaking news this morning.
Police in Serbia arresting former Serbian military commander, Ratko Mladic, he's seen here. He is the highest ranking war crime suspect from the Balkan Wars of the 1990's. He's accused of leading the siege of Sarajevo and the massacre at Srebrenica in the '90s. He's wanted on charges of genocide, extermination and murder. More than 7,000 men and boys were killed in that raid and that assault on Srebrenica.
The White House is now saying they are quote, "delighted" that Mladic has been captured. A lawyer for John Edwards insisting he did not break any law as a possible federal indictment looms. The Justice Department claims Edwards used campaign money to cover an extramarital affair while he ran for president.
High winds and possible tornadoes is threatening millions of Americans from Texas all the way to the Great Lakes today. In Oklahoma, the governor has declared a state of emergency in 68 countries already hit by tornadoes.
Markets open in 45 minutes. Right now the DOW, NASDAQ and S&P futures are up just slightly. Even though numbers show more people applied for unemployment benefits than expected last week.
Martha Stewart's media company maybe for sale. Several companies are reportedly exploring partnerships, investment opportunities or the outright purchase of the firm. The company won't comment but confirms that Martha Stewart herself is returning to the firm's board of directors.
President Obama is in France for the G-8 summer -- summit. He meets today with Russian President Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Kahn. For the next two days the leaders of the eight largest developed economies in the world will be discussing issues the global debt crisis and Middle East peace.
And new pictures this morning of what appears to be a very pregnant French first lady. You can see right here, Carla Bruni Sarkozy welcoming the wives of the leaders attending the G8 summit. You'll remember earlier this month, her father-in-law reportedly spilled the beans to a German newspapers saying, quote, "Neither wants to know the gender beforehand but I am sure it will be a girl and beautiful like Carla."
You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING back after the break.
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VELSHI: Chicago had some bad weather yesterday. I got -- I ended up getting stuck there on the way back. It took me a long time -- it's got -- it's raining again right now, 45 degrees, rain and wind; later on 53 degrees.
ROMANS: Chicago is a great town, even in the rain.
VELSHI: It is you're right.
ROMANS: Especially in the rain. And now that it's May, it's almost summer, this is the best part of the year in Chicago.
VELSHI: But something is going to be a little bit different in Chicago.
CHETRY: Yes, will it be the same after 25 years of the queen of daytime talk. As we know, Oprah signing off yesterday with a final farewell show. It featured Oprah alone speaking directly to the audience, no makeovers, no giveaways but actually maybe just a little bit of advice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, HOST, "THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW": I won't say good- bye. I'll just say, "Until we meet again." To God be the glory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: The late night shows had a little fun with Oprah's final farewell. Listen to Conan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONAN O'BRIEN, TALK SHOW HOST: On Oprah's final show today she thanked her fourth grade teacher who was sitting in the audience for believing in her when no one else did. Isn't that nice? Things got uncomfortable when the teacher looked at Oprah and said, "I'm sorry, I don't remember you."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: That was funny.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: Disturbing new health study to tell you about. Researchers out of North Carolina found nearly 20 percent of 24-year- old to 32-year-olds have high blood pressure. That's a much higher number than once thought. And get this almost half of these young people -- they have no idea they even have hypertension. High blood pressure is linked to early heart disease and to stroke.
VELSHI: All right, marriage going the way of the dodo.
ROMANS: No.
VELSHI: Yes. Living together is the new black. New census data shows that weddings may be a thing of the past. The number of unmarried couples living together is on the march upwards.
CHETRY: And apparently when you roller skate together, you stay together.
VELSHI: You stay. Yes that's it. Now who needs the ring? Up nearly 25 percent -- the number of people living in sin is up nearly 25 percent in the past decade. Some think the poor economy may be to blame for this trend. Maybe couples choose to move in together, really to just save money.
CHETRY: They don't want to marry. They just want to go to the ice rink, together forever.
ROMANS: No, living in spin or living in sin.
VELSHI: That's it, why buy the skates when you can rent.
The number of unmarried couples is the highest by the way in the Mississippi Delta region and in old industrial cities. I don't know what the connection is but I just --
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Three married people bringing you that story.
VELSHI: -- that's right, I'm just bringing you the news.
CHETRY: That's right they have the most ice rinks.
All right, guys, listen up. You want to look sexy and you want women to be attracted to you, don't smile. According to a new study in Canada, women are less attractive to so-called happy-looking men and prefer a moody, broody, bad boy.
ROMANS: Sort of like that -- James Dean.
CHETRY: Don't smile, whatever you do, don't smile, Ali. Do not smile.
You see that.
ROMANS: He looks like he ate something bad.
CHETRY: Oh, I think he's cuter when he smiles.
ROMANS: I'm sorry Ali, I think you're cute even when you eat something bad.
The opposite is true though, for women trying to snare a man. Women, smile, smile, smile, ladies, that's what turns men on the fastest. Researchers say they have no idea why men and women react so differently to smiling. But they stress if you want to stay in a long term relationship be a nice guy.
VELSHI: And brood.
ROMANS: Brood and smile.
VELSHI: All right.
CHETRY: That's funny. We're attracted to the broody men but then once we're married you want him to be a happy, nice guy. So we can't make up our minds.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Yes, all right, well everything has a price. It turns out most people would pay almost anything to be beautiful. A Kelton (ph) research poll found that nearly 25 percent of Americans would turn down winning $1 million in the lottery in exchange for having a dream body. Check that out.
ROMANS: Wow.
VELSHI: The poll went one step further --
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: He is smiling, not brooding, I just want it for the record.
VELSHI: There you go.
CHETRY: He is brooding, David Beckham.
VELSHI: Well it doesn't matter what your expression is. All right, beauty or age. Almost half of the respondents, women said they would rather be their ideal weight than be five years younger.
CHETRY: So we wanted to know what you thought about all of that. Which would you pick, a perfect body or $1 million?
ROMANS: And the right answer isn't both.
So here are some of your responses from Twitter, TC 110 said "If perfect body also means healthy, wouldn't that likely exceed a million in savings on health care costs over a lifetime?"
VELSHI: Probably to the system and probably not to you. But -- but you probably would save $1 million.
Shirley on Facebook says, "I choose the perfect body because I know my husband would pick up the million so I'd end up with both.
CHETRY: Always strategizing. Brian: "Are you kidding? A perfect body the money would run out but you can go so much further in your career and life with good looks in every work place. The better looking you are, the further you are more likely to go.
VELSHI: And in every work place there's an exception and I'm it.
ROMANS: Which brings us to Rob Marciano; I'm not going to make any --
VELSHI: He's dreamy. Rob, you are good-looking and smart.
CHETRY: Whether you are smiling or brooding. It all works out for you.
ROMANS: Can you brood just for a minute for us, Rob?
VELSHI: Brood for us Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I notice that Ali was the only one to mention that. You want me to brood? You guys know I am moody. So write that out -- I got to check that one off the list.
You know, guys, if that included that body thing, if it included being pain free, right now, my neck is killing me. I don't know what --
CHETRY: So is mine. What happened? I don't know if it is stress or what. I have a pinched nerve like no one's business this morning.
MARCIANO: Well, Christine and Ali, you know, give her a little rubdown.
(CROSSTALK)
MARCIANO: You guys knock yourself out there on the couch.
A couple of items of video I want to show you. We had severe weather yesterday. Let's break it down for you out of central Missouri. This impressive tornado touching down.
My goodness, we had 81 reports of tornadoes yesterday. Mother Nature seemed to be merciful. Yes, there was injuries. Yes, there was lots of damage but not one fatality from 81 reports of tornadoes.
Including one in California. How about this? In Chico, California, that's in north central California. Choppers shot this probably EF-1 or less. Nonetheless, it did a little bit of minor damage there and backed there by the sun, beautiful stuff, actually. Rare, yes, to get tornadoes in California. But it does happen when you have a cold core of low this time of year rolling out.
All right. There is a threat for tornadoes today, but nothing happening right now. That's the good news. Here is the motherload that spawned all the severe weather, beginning to stretch out just a little, beginning to kind of wind itself out, weakened somewhat but we have the threat for seeing some severe weather pop up out ahead of it in the (INAUDIBLE). It is hot and humid air.
Chicago, a little bit of rain right now. You are under a 30-minute delay; you have been all morning as a matter of fact.
And there's a line of thunderstorms trying to develop across parts of Huntsville and the Tennessee Valley. This will probably intensify as we go through the afternoon.
As mentioned, this is the expected area of seeing severe weather today. A slight risk versus the high risk that we have seen in the past two days. Nonetheless, there will probably be some convective activity, a slight chance of seeing maybe a tornado. Honestly I don't think we will see 81.
30-60-minute delays as mentioned in Dhicago. Denver will see some thunderstorms in the afternoon. Hot and humid. 91 degrees in D.C. and 81 degrees. You will get some thunderstorms, I think, tomorrow afternoon.
Enjoy your million or your hot bod, whichever you choose. I don't think any of us are getting either of that.
CHETRY: No. You and I have a date with Ben today, Ben-Gay today. He may get this thing to stop hurting.
ROMANS: There you go.
VELSHI: Maybe you two should stop talking about your corresponding neck pains. All right.
It's 56 minutes after the hour. We will be right back.
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CHETRY: A good week in New York City because it is Fleet Week where we have to celebrate and welcome members of the Navy and other Armed Forces as those beautiful, majestic ships make their way up the Hudson River. We love it every year. Great sight for the kids as well.
New York City right now, fair, 68 degrees; a little bit later, partly cloudy, 82. Plenty of good weather to enjoy for the week.
ROMANS: Welcome to New York for all of you who are coming up the Hudson River right now. That's very cool.
That's going to wrap it up for us today.
VELSHI: Carol Costello takes over. Lots of news this morning with Carol. Good morning Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Lots of news. Have a great day.
