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Rescue Teams Search for Missing In Wake Of Tornado; Pakistan Officials Speaking Out Against U.S. Raid That Killed Bin Laden; Air France Flight Recorder Recovered; Palin to Launch Bus Tour; Search for Survivors in Joplin; Clinton in Pakistan; Bin Laden's Secrets; Accused "Butcher of Bosnia" Arrested; Drowning Risk Prompts Pool Drain Recall; Immigration Ruling
Aired May 27, 2011 - 06:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Desperate search. Dramatic new video from Joplin, Missouri as the people in that city try to find survivors from one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks on record on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It's Friday, May 27th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING this Friday.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see everyone. We begin, though, with this video that's just really amazing. It just sort of really shows you firsthand what it was like to be there in Joplin, Missouri as the search for survivors still continues today.
VELSHI: Five days after the deadliest tornado on record, a new state list shows 232 people are still unaccounted for, and the death toll in Joplin stands at 126.
ROMANS: We're getting a look this morning at some dramatic new video just after the tornado struck. It shows Aaron Cox and his fiancee, Brook Watson, racing to find Aaron's sister amid all of this destruction. Look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at this. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh, Aaron. Oh, my gosh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right through here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know where --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know where we are.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know where. I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to keep going this way. Don't step on any of this. Come on, we have to keep going this way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like I need to help if someone is hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll keep asking. Look at this house. It's gone. OK. Are you guys OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
Oh, my gosh. Look at these houses, babe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What street is this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is -- I don't know. Illinois is a couple over. There's the school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh babe, look.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What? Oh, no. It's the hospital.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And we later find out as you know, St. John's, the hospital that --
VELSHI: Clearly the biggest building in the area. I think when they saw that had been destroyed, it really hit home that everything in that area was destroyed.
ROMANS: They did eventually find Aaron's sister Sarah. That's the really good news from that part of that story. There's still 230 some on the list of the missing, but they've managed to take a lot of people off the list as they've matched people with people dislocated.
VELSHI: Jacqui Jeras is along with our team in Joplin this morning and has the story of another family whose grandmother went missing after the storm. What's the story?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. With an agonizing wait for Tabitha Freeman, her grandma was known to be in his house behind me at the time of the tornado. She didn't know what happened to her and yesterday I had the privilege of helping to find out what happened to grandma.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TABITHA FREEMAN, SEARCHING FOR MISSING GRANDMOTHER: I was told there was no body found in the rubble and that they had seen an elderly woman digging through the rubble, they don't know where she went, you know. I can't locate her anywhere.
JERAS: Tabitha Freeman has been trying for days to locate her 67-year-old grandmother Ellen. She lived here where the homes are so demolished they have to be identified with spray paint on the sidewalk.
FREEMAN: That's the bathroom. They always say the safest place to be is in the bathroom. Look, it's just -- even if she would have been in there, she wouldn't have made it because it's collapsed on itself.
JERAS: She drove to Joplin from Oklahoma hoping to get answers after not being able to contact nearby relatives and trying on-line services.
FREEMAN: I still have a lot of family and friends in Joplin, just the not knowing, you know. I know a lot of people are missing, loved ones.
JERAS: Earlier I met neighbor Aaron Cole who says he knows almost everyone on the block.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is alive. Miss Cook, she got stuck in her basement door entryway. She's all right too. I did know that miss freeman did make it. She's in the hospital somewhere.
JERAS: OK. That will make it easier to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
JERAS: We called freeman hospital in Joplin to see if she was there. She wasn't. The confusion immediately following the tornado the records show she was transferred for three hospitals. We were ready to try them all.
JERAS (on camera): I'm looking for a possible patient. Ellen Freeman. I do. Thank you very much. She's in room 612 in Arkansas.
JERAS (voice-over): Grandma Ellen Freeman was found OK and resting in an Arkansas hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is Ellen freeman in this room? OK. Well, this is her granddaughter and I just now figured out where she's at. Well, OK. No, that's fine. As long as I know where she's at now.
JERAS: Tabitha plans to get to know her grandmother better now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's kind of sad to say it takes this to make you realize, you know, you don't really have all that long. You never know when it's going to end, you know. For all I know, she could have been crushed or, you know, died or something.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JERAS: So a happy ending here. You know, Tabitha's story gives you an idea of how much chaos there was following the tornado and how difficult it's been for family members, especially those out of town, trying to communicate here and find out what happened to their relatives. By the way, also, Tabitha told us it's been years since she's seen her grandma and she got back into that car from Oklahoma and went on her way to Arkansas to see her grandma. Ali? VELSHI: All right, Jacqui, thanks very much. Hopefully that number of unaccounted for is going to shrink over the course of the next few days.
CHETRY: Shrunk dramatically in just a day.
VELSHI: They figured some people had left town and got everyone to contact everyone.
CHETRY: Now to a very critical meeting happening overnight. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton is in Pakistan right now for talks aimed at trying to mend the now tense and strained relation between the U.S. and Pakistan in the wake of the raid on bin Laden's compound.
ROMANS: Joint Chiefs chairman Admiral Michael Mullen is joining her for those talks. Our Stan Grant is live in Islamabad. What's happening right now and, you know, what is the message for Pakistan from this meeting?
STAN GRANT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the talks are over. The secretary of state is now on her way back to Germany from Pakistan, and no one is even pretending this relationship is not in a very, very bad way at the moment. Ever since the killing of Osama bin Laden, the fact that U.S. troops were brought in here to do this without Pakistan's knowledge, it's really plummeted this relationship to new lows.
He's talking about -- the president here has stressed throughout that this was in his words a real trashing of Pakistan's sovereignty. The fact that this raid was carried out in secret didn't show the right respect to Pakistan.
He has stressed that message once again, but the secretary of state has also had a message for Pakistan and it is this -- the U.S. puts a lot of money into Pakistan and it expects a lot back in return. Now what they really want is for the Pakistan military and the government here to commit to going after the insurgents, to trying to clamp down on this border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. All of that would help the U.S. draw down its troops in Afghanistan sooner.
They also want Pakistan to support the reconciliation process in Afghanistan, try to bring the Taliban and the government there closer together.
The problem for Pakistan is they feel as though they're the meat in the sandwich. They feel the harder they go after the insurgents the more there is a blow back, the more their people suffer. When you consider tens of thousands of people have died here over the past ten years in terrorist attacks, it just goes to show how much pressure is on the government here and how high the anti-American feeling is among the public.
VELSHI: All right, thanks, Stan. We'll continue to follow this through the course of the day and find out what results come of this meeting. Stan Grant for us in Pakistan.
Former Pakistani President Musharraf lashing out at president Obama for the raid that captured and killed bin Laden in Pakistan.
ROMANS: Appearing on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" he called the mission an act of war and accused Obama of being, quote, "arrogant." He was asked about the risk of being on bad terms with the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST: If you create too much of a rift with America, with the president Obama, if you go back into power, they won't forget that and Pakistan is reliant on this aid money. It's a lot of money.
PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, FORMER PAKISTANI PRESIDENT: Money is coming. It is there. There's no doubt about that. That doesn't mean that Pakistan can give up its sovereignty, its national interests. Now this has to be dealt with in a diplomatic manner. We have to reduce the trust deficit, we have to restore trust.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Musharraf conceded it was a terrible failure that Pakistani intelligence didn't seem to know about bin Laden's whereabouts.
VELSHI: Also new this morning, President Obama heads to Poland later. Right now he's wrapping up meetings at the G-8 summit in France, travel to Warsaw to meet with Poland's president and other European leaders.
First, President Obama directing the use of what's called an auto pen, a machine that replicates his signature to extend the patriot act which was set to expire at midnight tonight. The provisions of the law which were passed after the 9/11 attacks deal with legalizing tactics like roving wiretaps and searching personal records of terror suspects. It is extended for another four years.
CHETRY: Here is some breaking news this morning coming in about the Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic two years ago. Its flight recorders which were, as we said, recovered, revealing incorrect and conflicting air speed indications led the crew to make some critical judgments that ended up resulting in a deadly stall. Our Jim Bittermann is live in Paris with these findings. Good morning, Jim.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. In fact, what that's called is a power on stall. They were putting full thrust to the engines but the angle and attack of the airplane sometimes reached as much as 40 percent -- 40 degrees rather. And, in fact, the plane was -- not moving fast enough forward it could fly. As a consequence, it fell out of the sky, took three and a half minutes, it was about 38,000 feet at the highest point and began to fall towards the ocean.
The two pilots who were in the cockpit were joined by the third pilot, the senior pilot, who came into the cockpit had he was on a rest break, never took the controls over but did direct activities in the cockpit area. But they were never able to regain control of the aircraft and it went into the ocean. Kiran?
CHETRY: Jim Bittermann for us on the latest with that and as these new details emerge. Just such a tragedy of what happened. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: It's been a mystery for now two years, which is why every detail is so interesting.
CHETRY: The fact that they recovered after all that time in the ocean is pretty amazing.
ROMANS: Intact and readable the data from the flight data from the flight recorder.
All right, Sarah Palin says she has a fire in her belly to beat Obama and she's climbing in the polls, but will she run?
VELSHI: And a potential danger may force thousands of pools to stay closed this Memorial Day weekend. We'll tell you all about that when we come back.
CHETRY: Sony hacked again. Thousands more customers had their personal information compromised. We'll have new details on that coming up. It's 11 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. Michele Bachmann announcing plans to run for president, sort of. The Minnesota congresswoman was supposed to headline a Republican fundraiser in Des Moines, Iowa, but got stuck in Washington. So she phoned in telling everyone, quote, "We are starting the effort," end quote. Bachmann promising to make an official announcement next month in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa.
ROMANS: She told you that before. She was going to do it in June.
Former Massachusetts governor Republican Mitt Romney is ready to take on President Obama in 2012. On twitter he said he will announce his bid for the nation's top spot in New Hampshire next Thursday.
According to a new Gallup poll, Romney tops the list of the GOP playing field. Seventeen percent of Republican saying they would support him for the party's nomination. Following close behind is Sarah Palin with 15 percent. Representative Ron Paul with 10 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with nine percent.
CHETRY: Well, Sarah Palin, as you see there, she's getting set to launch a nationwide bus tour when she attends the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally in Washington, D.C. this Sunday. Some are calling it a kickoff to the presidential campaign. Palin's staff prefers to call it a, quote, "learning tour."
VELSHI: Nobody just declares that they're running for president anymore.
CHETRY: Except Ron Paul.
VELSHI: Except Ron Paul. There we go, yes.
CHETRY: The former Alaskan governor also has a new house. She bought this $1.7 million, 8,000 square foot home in Scottsdale, Arizona, reportedly to make it easier for her to travel around the country.
I don't know why we need to say reportedly. It's definitely easier to get around the country from Arizona than Wasilla. But hey, Ken Vogel, chief investigative reporter for "Politico" and he traveled with Sarah Palin on the campaign trail in 2008, he joins us live from Washington this morning.
Hey, Ken.
KEN VOGEL, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, "POLITICO": Hey, great to be with you.
CHETRY: All the speculation about whether Sarah Palin is going to run, do these moves, buying the home, getting ready to go to that rally, indicate that she may throw her hat in the ring? What's your read?
VOGEL: I think they certainly do, particularly the bus tour. If you look back at some of the other moves that have fueled the speculation, this "will she or won't she speculation," a lot of them, there were alternative explanations from her reality show. People said, well, this is an effort to boost her visibility. Well, it could also be just an effort to make some money and do a reality show from her book tour, for "Going Rogue" and then her subsequent "America by Heart." They had a lot of the trappings of sort of a campaign swing, but they were also an effort to sell books. In this case particularly with the bus tour that she's embarking on, on Sunday, there aren't a whole lot of other explanations for what she could be possibly doing other than preparing herself for a presidential run.
CHETRY: Well, the numbers show that if she does, she is going to have a tough time. Let's put up the latest Gallup poll. We showed it a second ago but just to reiterate again, when you look at -- there you see the latest Gallup poll. You've got Romney at 17, Sarah at 15. But what indicates to me that there may be a tough time for her is when you look at the unfavorables. Nearly 60 percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of her. Also, you look at a head-to-head with Barack Obama, he beats her by nearly 20 points. What's your take on how successful she would be in the general?
VOGEL: Well, she really needs to expand her base. She has this hard-core base of supporters who just adore her and for whom she can do no wrong. But beyond that, she is extremely polarizing and this bus tour, and other efforts that she may embark on, to sort of broaden her appeal, are going to be key if she's going to be able to really compete in the GOP presidential primary. However, no matter what, if she enters the race she's going to have an impact one way or the other.
CHETRY: Right.
VOGEL: If she can unite social conservatives behind her, then she's a real force and has the potential to win.
CHETRY: But what can she do?
VOGEL: If she can't and she splits it --
CHETRY: Yes.
VOGEL: Well, if she splits the vote of social conservatives with Michele Bachmann who we talked about earlier, Rick Santorum, some of these other social conservatives, then it could make it easier for a Mitt Romney or a Tim Pawlenty who have presented themselves as sort of more moderate to unite a big enough block to be able to carry some of these key primary states.
CHETRY: But, Ken, you know probably better than anybody, what happened in 2008, is that with Palin there, it seemed that all the oxygen was sucked out of the room. There was not a lot of focus on substantive issues. I mean, you barely heard even Senator McCain mentioned. It was all of these little things, these gaffes or perceived gaffes, you know, what she did, her family, how she talked, what magazines or newspapers she read. I mean, it seemed that it became so much about Palin that much of the issues fell by the wayside.
VOGEL: And there's certainly concern about that among Republican operatives who we talked to here in Washington. They worry and have been worrying for months that if she entered the field she would have a scrambling effect and possibly a trivializing effect on the debate in the Republican presidential primary. However, there's also a huge opportunity for her. The fact that she does get this much attention and folks really do seem to care about her every move, gives her a gigantic platform and window to be able to steer the debate in ways that she feels are appropriate for the GOP presidential primary. And so there's definitely an opportunity for her. She had this opportunity for a while, though, we should note, and hasn't really been able to capitalize it on a way that has boosted her favorables beyond what you just showed in that poll.
CHETRY: She also has been a divisive figure in the party. I mean, people, strategists, people who really try to figure out which candidates will be formidable and which may not, including Karl Rove who seemed to indicate that he felt she lacked gravitas, have been critical of her. Does she need to -- and the other question is in 2008, the more she was out in the public, it seemed the more it worked against her. You said that this bus tour is going to be for her to be introduced to the American people. Well, being out there and speaking more about the issues potentially hurt her more than it would help her?
VOGEL: Well, she has to re-introduce herself. And you're right that there is this perception of her that she's either unserious or prone to mistakes and this is a more scripted, potentially a more scripted platform for her, where she's gotten in trouble is when she's gone off script and she frankly does that quite a bit more than other politicians and maybe her supporters say that's something that speaks to her genuine nature and is something that should be looked at as a benefit and an advantage as opposed to a disadvantage.
But there's also no doubt that there are operatives particularly in Washington in the Republican establishment, who are afraid of her and don't like that and would rather see a more scripted candidate and have disparaged her behind the scenes and in public. You mentioned Karl Rove doing so on FOX. And that is something that also her supporters think is a benefit. It shows that she is an outsider. She's not beholden to the Washington establishment. So the challenge for her will be to continue that outsider persona, while also re- rolling herself out as a serious person who is a really viable contender for the White House.
CHETRY: All right. We'll see what happens as more moves get made in the next couple of weeks. Ken Vogel, chief investigative reporter for "Politico," good to have you with us.
VOGEL: Thank you.
CHETRY: Another programming note at 8:40, coming up in just about an hour and 20 minutes. Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty is going to be stopping by. We're going to ask the former Minnesota governor about his party's chances of beating President Obama in 2012.
ROMANS: But up next on AMERICAN MORNING, can you save money on gas and stay safe at the same time? We're going to find out how small, fuel efficient cars fared in these new crash tests.
VELSHI: A lot of people worry about that. Too small to be safe? Well, we'll tell you what it says.
Another survey finds that more than one in five Americans would fail their driving test. That's our question of the day. What's your pet peeve about other drivers? E-mail us, CNN.com/am. Give us a tweet, CNN.com/AM or tell us on Facebook.com/American Morning. We're going to read some more of your thoughts. Some great ones coming in later this hour.
It is 22 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Twenty-five minutes past the hour. Here are the morning's business headlines.
Technology stocks help push the markets into the black for a second day in a row. The Dow was up eight points yesterday. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 were also slightly higher.
Gas prices are falling as we approach Memorial Day weekend. According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular is now $3.81. That's about a dollar more than it was the same time last year. PayPal is suing Google claiming two of its former executives who now work at the Internet search giant stole confidential information from its mobile payment unit. The lawsuit coming just hours after Google unveiled a new application allowing customers to pay for items using their cell phones.
The state with the oldest population in the country is not Florida. It's Maine. According to the census, Maine's median age last year was 42.7 years old -- two years older than the median age in Florida.
Bigger may not always mean safer. Six small fuel efficient cars tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety received the top safety pick rating. And of the 13 cars tested, none were rated poor.
Oprah Winfrey's final show attracted her biggest audience in 17 years. The last time her ratings were that big, February 1994. That's when she did a show about people shedding their disguises like wigs or too much makeup.
Coming up, why your community pool might be forced to stay closed this Memorial Day weekend. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back right after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING this Friday, May 27th. A live look now from our studios in Washington as the nation's capitol gets ready for Memorial Day. We're crossing the half an hour right now. Time to check your top stories.
ROMANS: That's right. The first -- the first list of the missing in Joplin, Missouri, shows 232 people still unaccounted for following last weekend's record tornado.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS (voice-over): State officials say some of those on the list may actually be among the dead. They're taking steps to speed up the process of identifying remains.
Months before Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest for attempted rape, allies of French President Nicholas Sarkozy reportedly tried to expose an earlier sex scandal. The paper says DSK was caught by police in Paris having sex with a prostitute in a car in 2007. That's according to a newspaper.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Islamabad on a surprise visit for talks to Pakistani leaders. She is trying to repair relations between the two countries following the raid that killed Bin Laden. She's also pressing Pakistan to step up its counterterrorism efforts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The CIA's granted permission -- has been granted permission by Pakistan's government to enter Osama Bin Laden's compound.
They're allowing a team of forensic specialists to search the compound in Abbottbad. CNN's Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence joins us live.
You know, a lot of people are wondering what exactly they are looking for because we heard that during the 38-minute raid, the SEALs, yes, they packed up everything that wasn't nailed down and took it.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra. But now they're going to be looking for things that may have been, say, embedded in a wall or perhaps buried, things that they couldn't see.
Again, they were only in that compound for about 40 minutes and may be only a little more than half that time was actually spent searching the compound. Still, as you mentioned, they came away with what they're calling, you know, the biggest treasure trove of intelligence information against terrorism and al Qaeda, you know, that's ever been recovered.
Now they want to go back and have the CIA be able to answer the question, what did we miss, if anything. So what they're going to be able it do is use things like infrared cameras to look behind walls. They've also got the kind of equipment that can even get information from certain paper fragments.
Remember, U.S. officials were saying that the people in this compound, Osama Bin Laden and the people who lived there, burned their trash instead of taking it out. Well, even fragments could yield some clues with the kind of equipment that the CIA could bring to bear.
CHETRY: It is amazing when you still see the video inside of the compound, and, you know, what it is they may be looking for. Do we know when this visit by these CIA forensic teams may happen?
LAWRENCE: It's most likely going to happen within this next week. It really does signal that the CIA and Pakistan's intelligence service have found a way to start again working together. That was going to be key, you know, in the fallout of the Bin Laden raid.
It is also possible that the CIA could have access to what the Pakistani intelligence officials pulled out of that compound. Remember, the SEALs got away with their information and that first assault, they took some things away, and then Pakistan's intelligence service went in and looked at the compound.
They got some more information. So this will be the third and it really, again, it signals that the two agencies, although there is a tremendous amount of tension there, may be finding a way to still work together.
ROMANS: All right. Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon. Thanks, Chris. Ali -- VELSHI: All right, attorneys for Ratko Mladic, the suspected butcher of Bosnia, say he is to frail and sick to stand trial. Mladic is accused of slaughtering nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Serbia in 1995 in Srebrenica.
He appeared unresponsive in court yesterday. Even so Serbia's president said Mladic could be transferred to the war crimes tribunal in the Hague within a week. Ivan Watson live in Belgrade, Serbia this morning. Ivan, you were telling us earlier on today that you heard people around you sort of shouting out Mladic's name. To some people in Serbia, he remains a hero.
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that's one of the concerns of the government here and especially now that Mladic's lawyer and just recently moments ago, his son who emerged from the courthouse behind me where Mladic, the most wanted war criminal in Europe, has been held since yesterday, his son emerged and talked about the health of his father.
He said basically, Ali, that his right arm is partially paralyzed, that he has trouble speaking, and that doctors said that he had scars on his brain from a series of strokes and his son, Darko, was basically calling on doctors to come in and Independent International Commission, he was suggesting, to check on his father's health and he was proposing in particular Russian doctors, Russia a long-time ally of Serbia.
The newspapers here are full of photos of Ratko Mladic, showing him at the height of his power when he commanded the Bosnian Serb army and commanded the siege of Sarajevo, which killed thousands of civilians and today when he does look quite diminished physically and, perhaps, even mentally.
Despite that, last night in an interview with CNN, Serbia's president told us that he thinks Mladic could be extradited to the Hague within a week. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BORIC TADIC, SERBIA: I don't know exactly this is about core, but I'm expecting the next few days, within seven days, he's going to be sent to the Hague tribunal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: And we're just getting word from the son of Ratko Mladic that the second hearing, last night's hearing, Ali, was cut short because of his health concerns, has just begun in that courthouse behind my shoulder. Ali --
VELSHI: Ivan, what's the sense of the role that the Serbian government has had in protecting him or keeping him hidden? He was found in Serbia, apparently he he's had health problems and received health care.
Is there some sense they were protecting him and now giving him up because they are trying to become hard to become a member of the European Union?
WATSON: Well, the Serbian president was asked that last night on CNN, Ali, and he called those allegations rubbish. But the fact of the matter is, that this man had been free for more than 15 years. He had been protected by that famous Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic who was overthrown in the year 2000 and also stood trial in the Hague.
After that time, Ratko Mladic's profile dropped significantly. We've seen some reports in local newspapers suggesting that some of the villagers in the town that he was hiding in, were trying to, perhaps, conceal him or were ashamed at the idea that any of them could have been accused of giving him up.
You know, people here seem very uncomfortable with the news that this most wanted man has been arrested. It reminds them of a dark and bloody and many cases shameful period of Serbian history.
VELSHI: All right. Ivan, thanks very much. Let us know what comes out of that hearing that has just begun. Ivan Watson live for us in Belgrade, Serbia. Christine.
ROMANS: Ali, there's concern this morning about money and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, warning it has less than $2.5 billion in its relief fund to last through September.
As it stands right now, the agency's disaster fund may only get an additional $1.8 billion for the fiscal year beginning in October.
Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu says the agency may have to stop recovery efforts in the spring of 2012 if that funding is not increased.
CHETRY: We're at 37 minutes past the hour right now. A big holiday weekend, of course, start of Memorial Day. Rob Marciano is following the weather for us this morning. Rob --
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, again, guys. Rough night all the way from upstate New York, northern New England down to the Deep South over 600 reports of seeing severe weather. Most of these wind reports and a lot of winds gusting over 60, 70 miles an hour as far north as Saint Lawrence County, New York, and northern parts of Vermont.
For this time of year that certainly is unusual. The front that's causing this has kind of stalled. A lot of places especially across the northeast that got the strong and severe storms last night will get them today and we're kind of recharging the atmosphere in the central plains.
It is this time of year, that doesn't take a whole lot to set the table for the potential severe weather across Oklahoma and southwest Missouri and that will be on the docket this afternoon and this evening.
I-95 looks to be OK. Kind of like it was yesterday. Most of the action will be north and west of the city along the I-95 it will be warm and really muggy. Heavy rains across parts of northern Vermont. We've got flash flood watches and some warnings earlier. Some evacuations in the smaller towns around Mount Pillar because of the rising floodwaters last night.
Couple of pulses of storms that rolled through Atlanta. We had at one point over 200,000 people without power, three fatalities from trees falling. That second pulse is moving out. It should be a dry day for the ATL.
Here's our next pulse that's going to help again set the stage for potential of severe weather later on this afternoon and tonight, 30 to 60 minute delays in Boston, Atlanta, Detroit and Salt Lake City. If you are flying out today, daytime highs will be in the upper 80s in New York and D.C.
There's our warm, soupy air. Tomorrow we'll continue to be on the warm and muggy side. As a matter of fact, southern two-thirds of the country, in general over the Memorial Day weekend are going to be warm and humid, feeling like summer and along the stationary boundary and across the Great Lakes and the north western tier, probably see on and off showers. Guys --
VELSHI: Good. Thanks very much. We'll check in with you in a while. Rob Marciano checking the weather.
Thousands of swimming pools across this country may not open this weekend. This is a traditional weekend for --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Opening for --
CHETRY: A lot of community pools open for Memorial Day, but they got some trouble because of the drain covers.
VELSHI: You're looking at them. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is recalling a million pool drain covers over safety concerns.
They're saying the drain covers could create a suction that is powerful enough to hold swimmers down, especially children, at the bottom of the pool.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The problem is they're supposed to be certified and some are, but it turns out the certification process is faulty. So there are pools that think they have a certified drain cover and they actually don't so it is a big concern.
Meanwhile, a tuberculosis scare in Atlanta. How hundreds of people may have been exposed to TB at a local hospital.
CHETRY: And the Supreme Court backs Arizona's law that targets employers who hire illegal immigrants. What does this mean for the debate? We're going to talk about it coming up. It's 40 minutes past the hour.
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ROMANS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. A controversial decision, a strict Arizona immigration law gets the support of the Supreme Court. The law takes aim at employers who hire illegal immigrants and imposes serious punishments like revoking business licenses for hiring illegal immigrants.
Jonathan Turley is a constitutional law professor at George Washington University. He joins us to discuss this case. Good morning, a lot of people are saying this is a Supreme Court seal of approval on a law that had been widely challenged in Arizona.
Is this telling us that these states taking over immigration reform themselves in the absence of the federal government are doing the right thing?
JONATHAN TURLEY, PROFESSOR OF LAW, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Good morning, Christine. I think that may be too hopeful thinking for those that believe the support of this law 1070, which is the more controversial law --
ROMANS: Tell us the difference the law that the Supreme Court has backed and 1070, which is the more controversial law that people are looking forward to.
TURLEY: The 1070 deals with an increased ability of state police to arrest people who are suspected of being illegal aliens or immigrants. That law has raised certain racial discrimination claims. It has raised certainly what are called federal preemption claims, of whether the state can supplant, or in Arizona's view, supplement, federal enforcement.
The law that the court ruled on this week is much narrower. It deals with the ability of states to ad penalties on businesses that hire illegal immigrants. This case falls into a narrow exception in the law called the licensing exception. And the majority of the court said that Congress did not prohibit or preempt states from being able to add their own measures.
Now, on one hand, Christine, that certainly shows that the majority believes that the immigration laws do not preempt all state efforts. There are many arguments, particularly put forward by the administration, that suggest that they occupy the field as the federal government. That certainly did not prevail before the court and that's good news for people who support 1070.
ROMANS: Because what you hear from the states, you hear that in the absence of federal immigration reform and in a patchwork of federal laws that some say are not enforced, like making sure people who aren't legally in the country don't get a job, they say, in the absence of that, the states have to step in. For all the other states, the 10 other states and more that actually have their own laws on the books, does this embolden them or is it just simply too narrow of a ruling to extrapolate from?
TURLEY: No. I think it emboldens them, particularly in dealing with things like licensing and business permits, of targeting businesses. Where I think that people may be getting a little too far ahead of the opinion, is to say that this is a slam dunk for 1070 when you go beyond that narrow range.
Now, there is, in fact, good language in the majority opinion supporting those who support 1070. Chief Justice Roberts talks about how the immigration -- federal immigration laws did not preempt all state laws. That's good language.
What's fascinating, Christine, is that the really best language for those people supporting 1070 was supported only by four justices, Justice Thomas decided not to support --
ROMANS: Right.
TURLEY: -- that language, which was a real surprise because everyone's been looking at Justice Kennedy as the court of one who's likely to decide the issue of 1070 gets before the Supreme Court.
ROMANS: Jonathan, what's interesting, too, about this case, is that you had the Chamber of Commerce, which is the business group, the business lobby, and the White House on the same page on this one, and the Supreme Court essentially ruled against what both of those very powerful constituents thought about this Arizona law.
TURLEY: Yes. This was strange alliances. You had civil liberties groups, the Chamber of Commerce, who are not natural allies on many issues. You also had a very conservative court, going against the Chamber of Commerce in favor of state authority here.
What I think this really is going to do is it ups the ante. Now the court has said there's not a total preemption of states.
ROMANS: Right.
TURLEY: And so the next obvious question is, how far does this go? There are two cases still that are going to come before the court on a petition that could give us more of an indication even before 1070 of how the majority felt.
ROMANS: Yes.
TURLEY: But, Christine, I think the one thing this case clearly shows is that there are four justices that are very hostile to the idea of state experimentation. Where I think this does give you a foreshadowing is less on the right than on the left. You read the justices on the left -- those look like justices that are not going to be warm and cuddly when it comes to 1070, when it comes before them.
ROMANS: And this has been a controversy. These states taking immigration -- federal immigration, you know, into their own hands has been something that's been kicking around for five or six years now, and that is the number one thing on the docket for legislatures across the country. So, now that we know a little bit more about how the Supreme Court, individual justices feel, it should -- it should make for some fascinating legal turns ahead, legal and political turns ahead.
Jonathan Turley, George Washington University, thanks for joining us.
TURLEY: Thank you, Christine.
CHETRY: All right. Still to come this morning, there's a new survey finding that more than one in five Americans would actually fail their driving test.
VELSHI: I barely passed it when I took it.
CHETRY: I passed the written part, but it took me four times to get the driving part.
ROMANS: Really? Kiran, are you kidding me?
CHETRY: Yes, but it was a technicality.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: I didn't know you had to stop at the stop sign at the start of the test. I mean, I thought that was a given. You already stop. Failed.
VELSHI: Our question of the day. What is your biggest pet peeve about other drivers? E-mail us at CNN.com/am. Give us a tweet @CNNAM or tell us on Facebook.com/AmericanMorning. We'll read through some of your thoughts in five minutes.
CHETRY: And then there was that pesky parallel parking stuff.
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CHETRY: Fifty-one minutes past the hour now. Here's a look of your headlines this morning:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Islamabad, trying to clear relations between the U.S. and Pakistan. She's expected to make it clear that USAID will dry out if Pakistan doesn't do more to combat terror.
Nearly 700 patients and 100 employees have been exposed to tuberculosis at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The hospital confirms that one of its workers unknowingly carried the disease and was just diagnosed last month.
The final space walk of NASA's next to last shuttle mission now in the history books. Two Endeavour crew members completed construction work on the International Space Station this morning.
So, LeBron James knew what he was doing when he decided to take his talents to South Beach. It certainly paid of this season. His Miami Heat team is now headed to the NBA finals after knocking out the Chicago Bulls in five games. It's a stunning upset last night.
You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING will be back in 60 seconds.
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CHETRY: Fifty-four minutes past the hour.
We have been talking about drivers on the road. Everybody has their pet peeves about fellow drivers. But there's a new study finding out that nearly 37 million Americans would actually fail their driving test if they had to take it again.
VELSHI: That's one in five drivers. So, we want to know what your biggest pet peeves about drivers.
Here are some of your responses. Jeff on Facebook says, "People reading while driving, I've seen people with books splayed across the steering wheeling doing 80 miles an hour down the highway. If you honk at them, they look t you like you're insane and they continue."
And on Twitter, "People in the fast lane who aren't going fast. Get over."
ROMANS: That's mine. That's my personal pet peeve.
VELSHI: I thought you and Kiran were posting.
ROMANS: No. From Nicole Ladyday from Facebook says, "The signals on the car are more than just decoration, folks. They aren't just pretty lights on the car. If you're going to turn, use them."
Also from Twitter from LMJB, "Hate drivers that race up from behind, zip around jus to get in front of me and then slow down. Hey, nice use of $4 a gallon gas."
CHETRY: That's very true.
VELSHI: Always putting the economics argument in there.
CHETRY: Parkway writes, "Driving anywhere in the state of Florida. They are hands down the worst drivers in the world. Road rules? What road rules?"
I sometimes feel like that in my town as well.
ROMANS: Hey, wait a minute, this is from @ChrisKnowlesTV.
CHETRY: This is my hubby. He says, "As light changes, drivers across the street making" -- this is what I tell you happens on our town all the time -- "making a left turn in front of the oncoming traffic and then getting mad at you when you honk."
VELSHI: So, you mean before?
CHETRY: What happened is, yes, we are on two sides of the road. Obviously, you have the right away if you are going straight. Before you can even hit the gas, this car comes racing and makes a left turn. It happens all the time at a huge intersection.
ROMANS: I live in New Jersey where you have to have some sort of indoctrination to learn what the rules are because no one ever tells you. But, you know, they merge on and off quickly.
VELSHI: They got rules there.
ROMANS: Have you ever driven in Jersey?
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: It's nuts.
VELSHI: A different operation.
Keep your comments coming. Send us an e-mail or tweet and tell us on Facebook. We'll read more of your thoughts a little later in the show.
And, by the way, you know, I was barbecuing. It's Memorial Day weekend.
CHETRY: You got so excited you forgot.
VELSHI: I forgot to tell you. The Dean Brothers.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: I am going to tell you the difference between a bad dog and a good dog when we come back.
Stay with us. It's 56 minutes after the hour.
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