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American Morning
Tornado Tears Through Springfield, Mass.; Downbeat Reports Send Stocks Tumbling; Regulating Radioactive Leaks; Why "Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth"; All Missing Accounted For In Joplin; Piper's Excellent Adventure
Aired June 02, 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: Killer twisters far from tornado alley.
I'm Kiran Chetry.
Parts of Springfield, Massachusetts in pieces this morning. People shocked by the destruction as the sun comes up there.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: A sharp selloff.
I'm Ali Velshi.
The markets have one of their worst sessions of the year after some dismal reports have investors fearing that this economy may be slowing down.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans.
Try as he might, New York Congressman Anthony Wiener can't end the media storm over a lewd Twitter photo. Weiner says he might be in the picture but he had nothing to do with sending it. The latest fallout on all this on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome to American morning and thanks so much for being with us. It's Thursday, June 2nd.
Let's start with tornadoes, at least two tornadoes ripped through parts of Massachusetts. Video from a local TV tower cam captured the moment it formed over Springfield, tossing debris on live television, fairing up a river and right into town.
Take a look at this.
I am so happy I am filming this right now. Seriously, that ceiling, look. Oh, my god.
That is a very close call with a twister. Shot from inside a car with the iPhone. The roof flies off a building. The tree flies off the road.
The car was battered by hail and debris. Obviously, we bleeped a lot of that out, because he is swearing a lot. Some people talked about it like what it was like when the storm roared through town. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heavy wind and a lot of banging. You can hear the debris hitting cars, windows. Alarms started going off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very horrified. I'm a Springfield native and I have never seen nothing like this ever.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
CHETRY: Those storms killed at least four people, leaving a path of destruction some 40 miles long. The town of Springfield taking the most severe hit.
Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center for us this morning. You have said this is not unprecedented. But, certainly, witnesses are describing their shock that this moved in like it did.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, and they got hit with another storm, actually two storms after this one, not just Massachusetts but California also getting a tornado. Of course, tornado alley, we often if that's where it only happens. But it happened last night across parts of western Massachusetts, Springfield, particularly. And this is the path that these tornadoes took, pretty much right down the turnpike from Springfield, over to Sturbridge, almost making it all the way to Boston before these things finally made their way eastward and off the ocean.
Three o'clock yesterday afternoon, here is the radar itself. We put it into motion. You'll see how it crosses Springfield around 4:30 in the afternoon. Then watch around 6:00 or so, another little cell blows up there, another tornado touching down there, and then a cluster of more severe thunderstorms rolling through Springfield in the afternoon.
So, to get a tornado in this area is rare enough. It only happens every, you know, three or four years, I suppose. But to get two distinct tornadoes within two hours of each other the same day, that, my friend, is extremely remarkable. And that tornado that did the damage across Springfield and West Springfield where we're reporting from did some serious damage. That was not a small one for sure.
Where we expect to see thunderstorms that could produce tornadoes today across the Upper Midwest and potentially down across the Southeast. But the front that caused the tornadoes and severe weather across the Northeast yesterday, that has pushed out. And it will be calm, dryer and a little bit more cool today across western Mass.
Back to you, guys.
ROMANS: All right. Rob Marciano -- thanks, Rob.
VELSHI: All right. Another big story, this economic recovery has been so fragile that any hint that it might be running out of steam spooks investors. That's what happened yesterday. A slew of downbeat reports said the Dow tumbling more than 279 points, that's more than 2 percent. That is the biggest one day drop in nearly a year.
Now, the NASDAQ was down 66 percent. That's the worst performance for that market in more than four months. The S&P was down more than 30 points, and that's the worst decline since last year.
Now, things are likely to be looking a little better today. The Dow, the NASDAQ, and the S&P 500, futures are up slightly right now. Coming up in about 10 minutes, I'm going to break down the three areas that have investors and, probably by extension, you a little worried about this economy.
ROMANS: It may sound like it was just yesterday, but May was a rough month. People just -- it was a slow erosion of confidence about the state of the economy.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: So, we'll have more on that.
Also new this morning, China saying it's, quote, "unacceptable," to blame it for hacking hundreds of Gmail accounts, including those of some senior U.S. government officials. Google says the attack -- Google is saying the attack from -- the attack originated from China. It worked by sending victims e-mails that appeared to be from friends. The e-mails including a view download link and that would open up a fake Gmail log-in panel.
In addition to government workers, other targets included the U.S. military and the South Korean government.
CHETRY: You may remember those horrific pictures of that bus crash. Well, federal transportation officials had planned to shut down the company, Sky Express, just days before this deadly crash in Virginia this week. The company was then given an extra 10 days to appeal that decision. They were going to shut it down for repeated safety violations.
Four people were killed and others injured when a Sky Express bus flipped over on I-95. It was near Richmond early Tuesday morning. Police say driver fatigue may have been to blame.
VELSHI: Some intense moments on a charter flight last night for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball team. The pilot had to make an emergency landing at LAX because of a possible hydraulic problem. All 51 people on board are fine.
ROMANS: OK. Mitt Romney makes it official today. The former Massachusetts governor is expected to announce he will run for president. And he'll be doing it on a 300-acre family farm in New Hampshire. Romney's Web site says he picked the farm because it represents the kind of ingenuity and hard work that he admires. He'll follow up the big announcement with his first town hall meeting of this campaign.
CHETRY: And the next stop for Shaquille O'Neal will be the basketball Hall of Fame. Shaq tweeted to his fans yesterday that he is hanging up his size 23 sneakers after his 19-year career.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, NBA PLAYER: We did it, 19 years, baby. I want to thank you very much. That's why I am telling you first I'm about to retire. Love you. Talk to you soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Shaq brought a unique combination of size, skill and a big personality as well to the NBA. He won three NBA titles with the Lakers and one with the Miami Heat. He was a 15-time NBA all-star. By the way, he's going to formally announce his retirement at a conference coming up tomorrow.
VELSHI: Coming up next, interview after interview, New York Congressman Anthony Weiner is still avoiding one particular question. We're going through the interview we had with our Wolf Blitzer yesterday where he said he didn't send that picture and he can't determine whether it's him.
We're going to talk to a body language expert to see whether he believe it.
ROMANS: And we're going to talk about what investors are concerned about, what this fragile recovery looks like and whether it's losing steam and what it means for your house, your job and your investments.
Five minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Well, stocks starting off the month on a sour note. The Dow posted its steepest losses in nearly a year.
Now, what happens to the Dow was a reaction to bad news in three key areas this week.
First, housing. On Tuesday, the S&P Case-Shiller housing index showed that home prices hit another new low in the first quarter of this year, down more than 5 percent compared to the same quarter last year, the same first three months.
But more ominous, take a look at this. This is the increase in home prices. This is an index basically. You look at that drop. That was basically in 2009. That was the big housing drop caused by the recession, the mortgage crisis, the foreclosure crisis.
But since then, you've seen a bit of an increase. Look at the end of that now. We are starting to see what some people are calling a double dip in housing prices.
Number two -- number two reason why the markets were spooked. Take a look at the S&P 500 over the past five years. This big dip right in the middle, that was March of 2009, anybody with a 401(k) or an IRA will remember that. That was the worst day -- that was the lowest point for markets in this recession.
But since 2009, it has been steadily growing. Last summer, we had a bit of a dip, but it's been going steadily upward.
Now, look at the end of the chart. You are starting to see a bit of a downward trend. In fact, May was the worst month for the S&P since August of last year.
Number three -- and this is always of economic, matters, the most important. Job growth has been strong so far this year. Take a look at all those blue bars. That's from October of last year until April. It's been strong. We've added at least 100,000 jobs every month for the past six months, more than 200,000 every month for the last three months.
But, we're going to start seeing -- we're going to see tomorrow morning at this time an economic report. This is the monthly jobs report. There are some speculation that it may not be as strong as we are expecting it to be.
So, that's part of the issue. You got jobs. You got the stock market. You got housing. That is why we are concerned about whether this economy is taking a bit of a pause, and that's what we will continue to cover for you later today and tomorrow.
Stay with us. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Fifteen minutes past the hour right now.
Of course, we are hearing yet again from Congressman Anthony Weiner as this Twitter controversy continues. And it certainly unfolded in strange ways. He answered some questions, dodged some others, lashed out at a CNN producer -- but then finally addressed the Twitter photo of a man in his underpants and a series of TV interviews.
Here's a sampling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: Look, this is a prank, not a terribly creative one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that picture of you?
WEINER: You know, look, I'm not going to talk about this anymore.
You do the questions, I do the answers, and this jackass interrupts me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will not flat-out deny that that photograph is not you?
WEINER: Here's what I will say. I will say that we're trying to figure out exactly what happened here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is kind of strange. You can't tell me definitively that is a photo of you or it is not a photo of you.
WEINER: I am reluctant to say to you definitively anything about this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even whether or not that's a photo of you?
WEINER: Yes.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Have you ever taken a picture like this of yourself?
WEINER: I can tell you this that there are -- I have photographs. I don't know what photographs are out there in the world of me. I don't know what things have been manipulated and doctored. I don't want to say with certitude. It maybe it didn't start out being a photograph of mine and now looks something different or maybe it was something that was from another account that got sent to me.
I can't say for sure. I don't want to say with certitude. I'm not trying to be evasive. I just don't know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: OK. So, joining us now to look at Weiner's Twitter account from a legal perspective, attorney Joe Tacopina and Tampa, Florida former FBI body language expert, Joe Navarro.
Gentlemen, thank you for joining us. I want to start with you first, Joe Navarro, about sort of the idea.
Here's what I will say. This is what I want to say. I can tell you this when asked again and again the same question. What does that tell you in terms of how he's answering these questions and whether he's telling the truth?
JOE NAVARRO, FORMER FBI BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT: Well, he's certainly parsing the questions, and he's deliberately not answering specifically. And when individuals try to convince instead of convey, they look suspicious, and it lacks credulity. I mean, let's face it. What we just listened to, these are almost Homer Simpson-like answers to simple questions. Did you do it or didn't you do it?
VELSHI: Joe, lots of people get asked simple questions and get a lawyer and figure out a complicated way to answer it. What is the advice he is getting? What is he conveying in those let me tell you or let me explain it this way? What's he trying to say? JOE TACOPINA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, whatever he's trying to say, he's not doing it well. I mean, that is a prime example of how not to handle a crisis, because if you're going to go out and put yourself out there and jump into the ferret and try and get in front of the train, have a plan. Don't go out there and not answer questions or be evasive. Everyone, the common opinion to people was that he's being evasive because he has something to hide. He's not answering questions --
CHETRY: And is it unusual because he has hired a private lawyer? Is that unusual and also an Internet security company to investigate, yet, he sort of buffed either making it a federal investigation or bringing in the capitol police, you say, is not worth the taxpayer dollars.
TACOPINA: It's not a federal investigation. Come on. I mean, look, seriously, this is a Twitter account. It's not like someone cracked his homeland security, you know, congressional e-mail chain or something like that. I mean, this is a Twitter account where many people and many celebrities and many busy, you know, politicians have people tweet for them, you know?
CHETRY: Right.
TACOPINA: And they pass out their account credentials like they're passing out a business card, and that's a danger, because if people have accessed this account, you just don't know who sent what as a prank to try and get even with them. It's not a federal case. Let's not make a federal case out of it. There's no crime here.
I mean, as a matter of fact, the lady who was the apparent recipient said, one, first of all, she's not a minor. Let's get that out of the way. And two, she said she never even saw this thing. So, you know, while it's embarrassing, inappropriate, and maybe some personal issues should arise, this is not a criminal matter.
ROMANS: You know, Joe Navarro, I mean, it started out as kind of silly and a prank over Memorial Day weekend, and then, it has blossomed into something else, and it's almost what he's not saying keeps the whole controversy alive. You say, if somebody has something to hide, they can be very direct about, you know, quashing the rumors and the like, but the fact that he's not being direct raises more suspicion.
NAVARRO: Yes, you're exactly right. And I agree. This is not a major crime here, but it's irrelevant about whether somebody received it or not. What's causing so much focus on the senator is the fact that he doesn't answer directly. His face contorts as he answers questions, and it's a real simple thing. Did you do it, did you not do it? Do you recognize yourself? What do you know?
VELSHI: I have to tell you, Joe and Joe. I have to tell you. Watching it last night on TV, all those interviews, I definitely did not get the impression that he looked as uncomfortable as you would think he would look being confronted of a picture that may or may not be of him in his underwear and being asked these direct questions. He definitely seemed to have some command of the situation. Joe Navarro, you do not think so?
NAVARRO: Well, I think, I would disagree with you.
VELSHI: OK.
NAVARRO: I think, you know, when you look at those compressed lips, when he's asked questions, when -- you know, he tucks his chin in, and he's reluctant to come forth with the answers, I think it says to us, there are issues. What we don't know is what those issues are.
CHETRY: Right.
NAVARRO: He may not have done it, but you know, is there somebody else involved? But when you see those shoulders come up, which is an indicator of lack of confidence in what he's saying, it just says to me, look at me closer. And that's all really that we can say.
CHETRY: And to Joe Tacopina, the other question then is, you said you have to comfort to some sort of strategy. You, obviously, would not recommend as a defense attorney if you were representing him for any reason even if this wasn't criminal to continue to talk in front of the camera. I mean, to continue to go out there and put yourself out there. What would your advice be?
TACOPINA: At this point, unfortunately, the train has left the station. He has made a bit of a mess in this situation. I would regroup, figure out exactly what happened. Once you figure out exactly what happened, whether the truth is ugly or not, come out there, get it out, deal with it, front it, and let's move on, because again, this is not a criminal investigation. There's no congressional --
CHETRY: It's certainly embarrassing.
TACOPINA: It's embarrassing. It's a personal embarrassment, but there was nothing necessary -- even lewd about the photograph. I mean, it's not like he was nude or anything.
ROMANS: Were you looking at the same photo?
(LAUGHTER)
TACOPINA: I understand it is tighty-whiteys and all that stuff like that. Embarrassing for sure, but this is not --
ROMANS: I mean, in the state of arousal, too. I mean, there was clearly a sexual implication in sending a picture -- anyway of your underwear.
TACOPINA: Point being, it's not a criminal offense in any way, shape, or form here. You know, there are security issues, perhaps, but what he should do is get together with his experts, his lawyers, figure out really what the truth is, come out with it, deal with the ramifications, and move on.
CHETRY: So, you don't think it's too late for that, because, I mean, he --
TACOPINA: No. He's definitely put himself behind the eight- ball. I think it's too late to look like he's really handling this well or looks like a good guy. It's not too late to really call this what it is.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Joe Tacopina and Joe Navarro, thanks very much to both of you for joining us. We're taking a quick back. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back. 22 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-five minutes past the hour right now. As the nuclear crisis continues to unfold in Northern Japan, there's also a potential danger when companies fail to properly maintain nuclear power plants anywhere in the world causing contaminated water to leak into the environment.
VELSHI: And that happens more than one might think. Allan Chernoff reports that some are questioning why in the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Committee isn't doing more to stop it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the shadow of New Jersey's Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant, Alfonse Esposito (ph) loves fishing and eating his catch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've fished here for 37 years. There's not anything wrong.
CHERNOFF: But Waretown, New Jersey Mayor Joe Lachawiec disagrees. He worries about a radioactive leak the plant's owner, Exelon Corporation, revealed two years ago.
MAYOR JOE LACHAWIEC, WARETOWN, NEW JERSEY: I know that tritium is a dangerous radioactive material.
CHERNOFF: Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen which occurs naturally. It's also a byproduct of nuclear power generation.
CHERNOFF (on-camera): the leak in 2009 at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant caused radioactive tritium to enter the groundwater under the plant. One monitoring the well last year found the tritium level to be 200 times what the EPA being safe.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Test showed tritium seeped into an underground aquifer that feeds drinking water wells. Such radioactive spills are a problem nationwide. More than half of the country's 65 nuclear power plants have suffered significant tritium leaks or spills according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, many coming from corroding underground pipes.
At Oyster Creek, the NRC did not order Exelon to clean up the spill, a perfect example, some scientists claim, of the agency's failure to fully protect the public.
DAVID LOCHBAUM, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS: They're almost acting like they're waiting until somebody dies before they enforce the regulations, tombstone regulation.
CHERNOFF: David Lochbaum, a nuclear scientist, who's worked for the NRC says in some cases, the commission has sanctioned the plant owner, but in other instances like Oyster Creek, the commission has done little. He calls it regulator roulette.
LOCHBAUM: They also can't have a wheel of misfortune that decides when it acts and when it doesn't.
CHERNOFF: Last year, a commission task force concluded NRC response to incidents could be enhanced to be more reliable.
MARTY VIRGILIO, NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION: I think it's fair to say that we were inconsistent in our response.
CHERNOFF: But in the case of Oyster Creek and other similar plant leaks, the NRC believes it did the right thing in not sanctioning the plant operator since the leak remained on plant property.
VIRGILIO: If you think about the radiological effects of these leaks, none have exceeded our regulatory requirements or have caused any problems from a health perspective to anybody.
CHERNOFF: New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection disagreed and demanded Exelon clean up the contaminated groundwater.
BOB MARTIN, COMMISSIONER, NJ DEPT. OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: Our number one job is to protect the health and safety of people in New Jersey. We felt it was our responsibility to go after and protect that water supply.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (on-camera): Exelon cooperated. It drilled wells to pump out that contaminated groundwater. In a statement, the plant owner told CNN, "Exelon continues to meet with the state on a periodic basis to discuss progress of groundwater remediation for the plant. Measurements of tritium under that plant are dropping as contaminated water is diluted through the plant's cooling system, and then, it's poured out into the Oyster Creek, and of course, that's where Alfonse Esposito fishes each day.
VELSHI: So, Allan, the state didn't think that was sufficient and asked Exelon to clean up. Is there some sense that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission takes these things less seriously than individual state or local communities might?
CHERNOFF: The NRC says no. What they says is look, the levels now going into the Oyster Creek in this situation are considered safe by EPA regulations. You do have some tritium in there, but it's very diluted. They say it's not a problem. And they're also saying in that case, it all remained underneath the actual plant. Now, in other cases, Braidwood, the most extreme example, it actually did leave the plant area, and in some cases, did get into drinking water.
Now, does that potentially cause cancer? The NRC is now asking the National Academy of Sciences to actually investigate to see if there are higher cancer levels near some nuclear plants. So, this is an issue very much still under investigation. And obviously, a critical health issue.
ROMANS: Allan Chernoff, (INAUDIBLE). Thanks, Allan.
CHETRY: Thanks, Allan.
VELSHI: Thirty minutes after the hour. Here are your morning's top stories. iReports showing piles of debris, downed trees, and crushed cars. Search and rescue operations underway right now after tornadoes tore through some parts of Southern Massachusetts, killing at least four people. The governor calling in a thousand National Guard troops to assist in the search and clean up.
Google is blaming China for trying to hack into hundreds of Gmail accounts that belonged to some senior U.S. officials. That has sparked an angry response from Beijing, which said blaming China is unacceptable.
Sarah Palin's bus tour going to Boston overnight. Some say she might be headed for the all-important early voting state in New Hampshire for a clam bake on the beach. She won't be the only GOP there. Mitt Romney is there to formally announce his candidacy for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
ROMANS: CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley joins us now from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Why does Romney think he can win this time, Candy? What's his strength in New Hampshire?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, his strength in New Hampshire first of all is location, location, location, since we are talking about the housing market. He was governor of Massachusetts, very well-known here, having also run a race here before for president the last time around. He has a summer home here. This is where in terms of strategy Romney thinks he has to win.
Iowa is always so dicey, because it is caucuses and you never can quite predict those. He spent a lot of money in Iowa last time around and lost. So he is sort of planting his flag here in New Hampshire with this announcement specifically in this state. So he also has a message that they think appeals more broadly to New Hampshire than maybe in Iowa.
Iowa as the conservatives tend to really drive the race there. They are not always completely trust full of Mitt Romney. They worry about his social positions but this time around, what the former governor wants to do is focus on the economy. He thinks that his strength here is that he has had a very successful and widespread experience in the business world and that this is a country hungry for someone who knows business inside and out, something that he will contrast with President Obama.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And there is some pretty strong language in his speech, to say the president is essentially a failure.
CROWLEY: Yes. It is strong language. And there are a couple things interesting about this. First of all, it is about President Obama. I think that will tell you that Mitt Romney is basically the front-runner at this point, going to concentrate all of his fire power on president Obama's rhetorical fire power.
It also tells you the economy, again, is going to be where he is going. The untested president or the president without experience, that kind of thing, is certainly something he is going to focus on as he tries to concentrate that on his own resume.
VELSHI: Fiscal conservatives shall those not interested in some of the positions of the tea party but they would like balanced budgets, lower taxes, is Romney the lead candidate for that crowd now?
CROWLEY: Not quite. He has a health care problem. In Massachusetts, when he was governor, he passed a health care that required all citizens of Massachusetts to have health care insurance. This has now become anathema inside the social party. Now, the fiscal conservatives are looking at him going, wait a second, you were for this. He has tried to say, look, I would try to appeal Obama care. Here is how it is different. It is the state versus the federal government. Still a hill he has to climb.
VELSHI: Candy, thanks very much. We will stay on top of this story today as mitt Romney announces his candidacy.
CHETRY: Dramatic testimony in the Casey Anthony murder trial. Lee Anthony took the stand, and with his sister looking on, he recalled the summer day in 2008 when he confronted her and demanded to know where her two-year-old daughter, his niece, Caylee, was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You asked your sister, why won't you allow us to see Caylee, what do you recall her saying?
LEE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY'S BROTHER: She said, because, maybe I'm a spiteful --
CHETRY: That conversation between Lee Anthony and his sister, Casey, took place July 15th, 2008. It contained a shocking admission.
ANTHONY: She told me that she had not seen Caylee in 31 days, that she had been kidnapped, and that the nanny took her.
CHETRY: Lee Anthony testified he had no idea his sister had even hired a nanny. He told the court, when he walked into Casey's garage that day, a horrible odor was coming from her car.
ANTHONY: It was very potent, very strong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was it an offensive smell?
ANTHONY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you approach the car?
ANTHONY: I had to walk by it to get to the door, but otherwise not the by choice.
CHETRY: It was the same day that Casey's mother called police to report her granddaughter missing.
Also taking the stand, the lead investigator in the case. When he asked Casey why she never reported her daughter missing after 31 days, she replied, she thought she could handle the problem by herself. HLN's Nancy Grace says despite the defense' efforts, she can't see how anyone can believe her claims.
NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: She is sweet-looking, petite, frail with her hair back in a ponytail like a cheerleader. It is hard to take in and assimilate what you are seeing is not what the evidence is telling you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Casey Anthony's attorney is claiming that Caylee was never reported missing because she drowned in the family's backyard pool and everyone knew that. He called it a tragic accident that was covered up by her mother and her grandfather, Casey's father.
We will be back in court again this morning, 9:00 Eastern. You can watch live gavel to gavel coverage on our sister station, HLN.
VELSHI: Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING, we are going to discuss why being a geek may get you further than being one of the cool kids. It's 36 minutes after the hour.
ROMANS: Were you a geek in high school?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Not everybody in high school can be the cool kid. Not everybody can sit at the popular table. At least according to our next guest, that may not be a big thing.
ROMANS: The kids who were nerdier lady were the big success stories. Why is that, Ali Velshi? Were you a nerd?
VELSHI: I was definitely not the cool kid.
We have a book here with Alexandra Robbins called "The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth." This isn't some feel-good thing. You found out some theories about kids that are cool and those less cool, geeky, nerdy, tell us what you found out.
ALEXANDRA ROBBINS, AUTHOR, "THE GEEKS SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH": Here is a theory, quirk theory. Many of the differences that cause a student to be excluded in school are the same qualities that others are going to respect about them in adulthood. That's based on research. For the story line, I went into high schools and followed seven people, six outsiders and a popular cheer leader throughout a school year. I surprised them with a challenge to see if they could prove the theory while still in school.
I wanted the popular cheerleader to switch completely out of the popular group, de-clique herself and become a floater, which is someone who can mingle and is accepted at any part of the group.
CHETRY: What are floater's outcomes tend to be in business?
ROBBINS: Floaters know how to get along with several different types of people. They are important because they transmit culture and ideas across groups.
VELSHI: Cross-pollinate.
ROMANS: The most likely to succeed, the popular jock or someone solely the center of that small group in high school when high school is the world, how do they end up?
ROBBINS: It turns out to be popular in school doesn't mean what we thought it means. It means that you have a reputation for being visible. It doesn't mean you are liked. It doesn't mean there is anything about you other than you are visible. Who are schools thrusting in front of the school body to be visible? It is the jocks. It doesn't mean anything. To be in the popular clique today is more dangerous than to be an outsider.
VELSHI: You said there are some schools that are, by the way, not just highlighting and featuring the jocks?
ROBBINS: That's right. There are schools that highlight other areas, for example, there is one in New York that highlights robotics. Nerds are cool. It doesn't matter they are a nerd and focus on robotics. It is a good thing. Schools that highlight readers, people that read are not vilified for being book worms. Schools that highlight bands, the band geeks are at the top.
CHETRY: A lot of parents say, what can I do? Schools wonder this and teachers wonder this too. You say a lot of this circles around the lunch hour, the cafeteria and the seating. That was fascinating.
ROBBINS: There are a couple things that schools can do. One easy thing is that set out loose chairs so floaters can go from table to table and vary the number of seats so students don't have to sprint to the cafeteria to fit in at the table or else they are left out, the musical chairs of death. Another thing they can do is assign cafeteria seating at least once a month. It takes the pressure off of kids and sometimes can form unlikely alliances.
ROMANS: What can parents do? You suggest that maybe parents can get their kids to do something outside of school. They can highlight themselves and be de-shackled. ROBBINS: That's a good way to get to know students that don't know you or know you by a certain label. If you are doing an activity you enjoy, you automatically meet people with more interests.
VELSHI: When I was a kid, if you were not of the in-crowd, you didn't have to deal with all that much. Now, with Facebook, you actually have more interactions even if you wouldn't normally hang out with that crowd.
ROBBINS: Facebook is a game-changer. I call it the online cafeteria. It is a public, mostly unsupervised space where students feel pressured to choose where they belong and who they belong with. You don't have to do it to anybody's face.
CHETRY: How do you navigate that when the digital world makes it easier to be mean?
ROBBINS: I think like there should be supervision on Facebook. It is a tool that kids use to maintain their current friendships. I don't think parents should say that students can't use it. I do think that parents should be allowed to supervise it.
CHETRY: You talk about one well-known. You asked who fits into it. J.K. Rowling, loved to read books and wasn't super special. Look who is laughing all the way to the bank now.
It was great to talk to you, Alexandra Robbins, author of "The Geeks shall inherit the Earth."
ROMANS: The thing as a parent is to convince a kid who is 13, 14, 15 years old that this is not your whole life.
VELSHI: Yes, yes.
ROMANS: There is going to be cool stuff that's going to happen to you. That can be kind of hard to break through, especially in the bullying debate.
Still to come the weekend is right around the corner. Rob is going to stop by with the latest travel forecast for you.
VELSHI: And get too close to Sarah Palin and you have to pay the Piper, as in Palin's ten-year-old daughter, Piper. You will not believe what she did to keep a reporter away from her mom. We'll tell you on other side of the break. 45 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Forty-seven minutes past the hour.
A look at your top stories this morning.
Twisters tear across southern Massachusetts killing at least four people; 1,000 National Guard troops have been called in now to help with the search and rescue operations. Google blaming China for trying to hack into hundreds of Gmail accounts some that belong to senior U.S. officials. China is denying that this morning.
Former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney makes it official today. He is expected to announce that he is running for president during an appearance in the all-important state of New Hampshire.
A court ordering American Airlines to put your fares back on the Orbitz. The airline has been in a war with some online travel sites over fees for each ticket sold.
Lady Gaga's marketing machine delivers. Her album "Born This Way" sold more than 1.1 million copies in the first week. The fastest selling album since Fifty Cent's "The Massacre" in 2005. But nearly half of the albums were purchased for just 99 cents on Amazon.
You're caught up on today's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back in 60 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
Nearly two weeks after the deadliest tornado in 60 years, all of the missing people in Joplin, Missouri have now been accounted for. At one point more than 1,300 people were reported missing. Despite that, the city of Joplin trying to hold on to a summer tradition.
There will be baseball in Joplin this summer. The city's summer league college team, the Joplin Outlaws, says they will play ball this summer and they are offering free admission.
Their home, the Joplin Athletic Complex, it survived the tornado. Somehow so did the families of all 16 -- the homes of the 16 families who welcome the players who come to town each summer. Joplin has a long and rich baseball tradition.
Mickey Mantle, I didn't know this, he grew up about 30 miles away in Commerce, Oklahoma. He even played minor league ball there.
VELSHI: All right. It's 50 minutes after the hour. Of course we saw this major tornado outbreak in Massachusetts last night. Rob, what's -- what have you got in store for today?
MARCIANO: What we're looking at today is a -- the threat for severe weather across a couple of areas that don't include western Massachusetts. That's good news, this was this radar yesterday, rolling through western Massachusetts, boom, 4:00, 4:30. And again, around 6:00, so they got hit with two tornadoes. I mean, rare enough that we saw tornadoes across western Massachusetts and rarer still to have two distinct tornadoes across that area within two hours of each other.
All right. Where we expect to see this here today, upper Midwest and down across parts of the southeast. The upper Midwest, well, a slight chance of seeing that develop into tornadoes but nonetheless, Fargo over towards South Dakota and down -- down towards parts of northern Nebraska. This is an area that's actually enduring a fair amount of flooding from the Missouri River, now it's swollen from heavier rains and snow melt.
And down across the southeast looking at -- we're seeing severe weather there. As far as the numbers go, 95 degrees expected in Atlanta. The extreme heat, that's going to be the other big story. Yesterday's record-breaking heat across the northern areas including D.C., 98 degrees in D.C., my goodness; 95 in Newark; Redding, Pennsylvania seeing 95 as well; and Georgetown, Delaware seeing 93; and 90 degrees yesterday in Vermont.
But we are looking for this trend at least across the northeast to diminish just a little bit. That cool front that causes severe weather across parts of Massachusetts moving offshore. And now the cooler, dryer air moving onshore; 79, in D.C., it will be 77 degrees. This is tomorrow across New York.
But look how the heat builds back in Chicago tomorrow afternoon. Temperatures stay easily into the 90s as we get through the southeast right through the weekend. So no let-up in sight. But the heat down across the southeast. It looks like we just hit the accelerator and it cruised right through the summertime here with no more cold fronts in the offing.
Guys, enjoy the cooler and quieter air out there today.
VELSHI: Thanks Rob and we'll check in with you later.
MARCIANO: Ok.
VELSHI: Rob Marciano in Atlanta.
CHETRY: The (INAUDIBLE) -- and perhaps the little Mama Grizzly. We are talking about Piper Palin, Sarah Palin's young daughter running interference for her mom on the bus tour. We're going to show you as only Jeanne Moos can.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 55 minutes past the hour. A big debate after a decision made, it signed into law actually by Florida's governor. People applying for welfare now have to submit to a drug test. Republican Governor, Rick Scott signed that into law saying it's unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction.
The ACLU filed suit yesterday in a Miami federal court challenging Governor Scott's executive order. We wanted to know what you thought about it. It's our question of the day. Drug test welfare recipients, is it a good idea or not?
VELSHI: All right. Justin says on Facebook, "Terrible idea. Here is where this will go way wrong, by not providing welfare benefits to those people, they will become desperate and turn to any means to survive. The social and economic cost will skyrocket. Addiction is a disease and a symptom. Addicts are people who need help not prisons."
Now, in fairness, Rick Scott wasn't talking about sending them to prison.
ROMANS: Right, no word on rehabilitating anybody either by the way.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: Drew Crane on Facebook says, "As a soldier in the US Army I take a drug test at least once per month and I personally believe that anyone getting paid by the government whether it's welfare or just a hard earned paycheck we should take a drug test to prove that we are worthy of that taxpayer check."
ROMANS: Interesting perspective from somebody in the Armed Forces.
Larry Peterson on the blog writes, "I'll agree to drug-testing all the poor welfare recipients as long as they drug test all the rich CEOs who got government bailouts and all the farmers who get government subsidies as well and the list goes on and.
Lots of people benefit from my taxes. Treat them all the same.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Just last week, we were talking about a GAO report where a bunch of companies that got stimulus money, they owed all this money in back taxes. That was welfare check to companies who maybe weren't worthy.
All right. That's enough of that. Thanks to everyone that wrote in today. We will have another question for you tomorrow.
VELSHI: All right. As the Palins tour the country in their "We, the People" bus, the former Alaska governor and potential presidential candidate is under this media microscope.
ROMANS: And we have seen Sarah Palin's ten-year-old daughter, step up her game. CNN's Jeanne Moos on Piper's excellent adventure.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If a teacher asked Piper Palin what she did for her summer vacation, she can leap right into the "We the People" bus trip saga. Very few people have their very own bus. How many ten-year-olds can say they have been hounded by the press?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't step on the kids, please.
MOOS: Or had pizza with Donald Trump.
SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: We had great pizza. Wasn't that good? It was real New York pizza.
MOOS: Or went motorcycle riding with mom on the back of dad's bike. Oh, sure, she had to entertain herself, cramming gum into her mouth while she listened to mom give interview after interview. Sometimes she had to physically drag her mom away and occasionally, it took not just one tap on the shoulder, not just two.
PALIN: Hold on one second, honey.
MOOS: Three taps and she is out finally. But even a kid --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Piper, what did you think of statue of liberty?
MOOS: -- isn't immune to the lure of the limelight. In a role reversal, Mom watched while Piper described her favorite part.
We haven't seen this much of Piper Palin since she first made her mark at the Republican convention. Made her mark on her brother, trig, by licking her hand to slick down his hair.
A CNN producer was so smitten by her sassy behavior that she named her dog, Piper. Here Piper, the one in the Snoopy T-shirt.
The trip hasn't been all excitement.
Supporting the troops.
Piper looked momentarily bored and hot on a scorching day touring Fort McHenry. Some say Piper is acting like her mother's miniature bodyguard. She has been seen leading her mom with outstretched arm.
Fox 29 in Philadelphia captured what looked like a body block. Piper wedged herself between a reporter with a mike and her mother, the move provoked tweets that Piper was head of Palin's secretary and a bouncer press secretary in the making. Watch how she handles the media onslaught.
Get that microphone off of me. When the media roll up, there is only one thing to do.
PIPER PALIN, SARAH PALIN'S DAUGHTER: Roll up the window. Roll up the window.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Oh, that's great.
ROMANS: A little ham.
CHETRY: She is very cute.
VELSHI: Very effective because if you're a pushy a journalist, you have to be careful because at that point --
ROMANS: She is just microphone height too. She is just in the right spot.
All right. That's going to wrap it up for us this morning.
VELSHI: Carol Costello is in the CNN NEWSROOM. She's got a very busy day for you. She'll be covering it from here on in. Hi Carol.
CHETRY: Hey Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": I'm digging Piper. You go, girl.
ROMANS: Yes, she's a little spitfire, isn't she.
COSTELLO: She is. Have a great day.
