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American Morning
New Air Strikes on Gadhafi's Compound; Violent Riots in Vancouver After Stanley Cup Finals; White House Defends Libya Mission; Fiery Exchange on Capitol Hill; Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Released from Hospital; A Ferris Bueller Sequel?
Aired June 16, 2011 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: New rounds of raids on Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi's, compound and new questions about NATO's role and whether President Obama broke the law by committing U.S. troops to a military mission on this AMERICAN MORNING.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. It is Thursday, June 16th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. Glad you're with us today.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this morning, breaking news, a new assault overnight on Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi, a series of explosions rocking Tripoli. Plumes of black smoke seen rising from the area of Gadhafi's presidential compound in Libya's capital. CNN's David McKenzie is live with the latest. A new assault on the entrenched leader, David?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well that's right, Christine. This morning, before 5:0 a.m., just a few minutes before 5:00, we were awoken by a series of blasts. Six blasts in total, we would hear. Two of them very significant, loud, rattling the windows at our location. That was believed to be about a kilometer away, less than a mile at the compound of Moammar Gadhafi.
We just got word from the ministry of defense in the U.K., saying this was a RAF tornado and typhoon jet fighter strike on this area. What they call vehicle storage facility. But certainly, NATO strikes continuing on the daily and nightly basis here in Libya against the regime.
ROMANS: David McKenzie, thank you so much.
VELSHI: More breaking news this morning, we know the successor to Osama bin Laden. He's the terror organization's long-time second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri. The announcement coming on an Al Qaeda Web site. Zawahiri is 59 years old, turning 60 next week. He's the son of an upper middle class Egyptian family. He met Osama bin Laden back in 1986. He released this video after bin Laden's death paying tribute to the fallen terrorist, ranting against the United States, and pledging his allegiance to the Taliban. CNN terror analyst, Paul Cruikshank said he was already positioning himself to take over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL CRUIKSHANK, CNN TERROR ANALYST: He wants to show to the Al Qaeda membership around the world that he's the power leader and he's the one delivering the eulogy for Osama bin Laden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Zawahiri was bin Laden's top adviser and his personal physician. It's not clear what process was used by Al Qaeda to elevate him to the top spot in the organization.
House Democratic leaders could take action today against their embattled colleague Anthony Weiner. The New York congressman stands to lose his seat on the House energy and commerce committee. Wiener wife Huma just returned from an overseas trip with her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Weiner was waiting for her to return before making a decision on his immediate political future.
ROMANS: In the meantime, a former porn star named Ginger Lee is talking publicly for the first time about her online exchange with Congressman Weiner. At a news conference yesterday, she said Weiner asked her to lie about their communications. And not long after her news conference, ginger lee was headlining at an Atlanta strip club, the Pink Pony. Flyers spread the word of an all-new gig at the Pink Pony. So much for being forced into hiding by the Weiner scandal.
VELSHI: Is that different than what they normally do at the Pink Pony?
ROMANS: I'm not sure.
VELSHI: We have more of what Ginger Lee revealed at the news conference, not at the Pink Pony, and her connection to Weinergate. I don't know, you drew the short straw on the story.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What I did in my past life, I'm not sure. But Ginger Lee was wearing a lot more clothes when she was at the news conference. She said she felt the need to go public to get on with her life. She said that when Weiner first came under scrutiny she turned to him for advice and he told her, she says, to lie.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW: She's a former porn star, whose path collided with Congressman Anthony Weiner online. Ginger Lee and famed attorney, Gloria Allred, held a press conference to speak out about lee's online communications with Weiner. She claims he coached her about dealing with the press, after questions first surfaced about a lewd picture he sent someone else.
GINGER LEE, FORMER PORN STAR: He asked me to lie about our communication. I put out a three-sentence communication that he told me to say. My statement to the press said, quote, "I haven't met representative Weiner. I followed him on Twitter because I support him and what he stands for. I have been hounded by his political opponents, but that is not changed my view of him and what he fights for."
SNOW: While she says they never met, lee claims she followed him on Twitter and after writing something positive about him on her blog, he started following her on Twitter. It eventually led to emails.
GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY: Although discussions at first were about politics, sometimes he would try to take it to another level, mentioning his quote, "package."
SNOW: Allred said lee didn't respond to alleged sexual advances but in a blog post in March, she wrote she wanted to have sex with him. By June 1, Weiner eh was asked about her.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Do you have any idea who this woman is?
REP. ANTHONY WEINER, (D) NEW YORK: I think what this is about a fairly pro forma thing that goes out, that I send out to people as I follow them. Thank you for following me. Please check in at AnthonyWeiner.com.
SNOW: In fact Yale red says the two exchanged about 100 messages and on June 2, one day after that interview, lee claims that Weiner called her and on his advice, she stayed in her house and avoided cameras, hoping the scandal would die down. As to why she's speaking now, Allred says it was time to break her silence, and that someone had threatened to release a statement from her that she didn't authorize. And Lee added one final message.
LEE: I think that Anthony Weiner should resign because he lied to the public and the press for more than a week. It might have never turned into this if he had told the truth, but he kept lying.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW: Now he did reach out to Weiner's office about lee's allegations, but got no response. As to the threats mentioned, there weren't many answers. Gloria Allred didn't elaborate and gave no details about the statement she mentioned yesterday.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: So is there a potential for making money about this, besides the dancing at the pink pony?
VELSHI: That's her job.
CHETRY: For Gloria Allred, what's the point of representing this young woman?
VELSHI: That's an insightful question. The other part I was wondering -- please go ahead. Feel free to answer.
SNOW: It's just so early to be talking about strippers.
CHETRY: Feature dancers. Feature dancers.
SNOW: The story has just taken one weird turn after another. And it just for three weeks, it just hasn't gone away. I'm sure, I guess I'm not sure --
VELSHI: I don't know what's crazier or that Mary gets to cover these very unusual --
SNOW: I would go for the latter.
VELSHI: You're on top of it for us. Thanks, Mary.
CHETRY: A same-sex marriage bill is one step closer to passing in New York State. The state assembly approving the marriage equality act by an 80-63 margin last night. It gives same-sex partners the same rights and benefits of marriage that heterosexual couples have. The measure now goes before the state Senate where it faces a closer vote. The bill's sponsor has a lot riding on its passage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASSEMBLYMAN DANIEL O'DONNELL, (D) NEW YORK: This passage feels very different than in previous years. Obviously we now have more senators than ever publicly committed to equality. We have a full complement of 31, we need just one more vote and we have a governor who has been very conscientiously trying to do this. My partner and I have been together for 31 years and we would like to have the right to get a marriage license.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: If the measure becomes law, New York would become the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage.
ROMANS: The defense will begin presenting its side of the story in the Casey Anthony murder trial this morning. Anthony's attorneys tried to convince the judge to dismiss the case after the prosecution rested yesterday. They insisted there was no proof that had been presented that two-year-old Caylee Anthony was even murdered. The judge wasn't buying it.
Today the defense will attempt to question a convicted felon named Vasco Thompson. It's not clear if the judge will allow it. Thompson served time for kidnapping. And Casey martin's lawyers are trying to link him to their father through cell phone records. George Anthony's attorney released a statement saying his client doesn't know Thompson.
The jury in the Casey Anthony murder trial could begin deliberations as early as next week. Martin Savidge is covering the trial in Orlando. It happens in the trials where the defense moved to get the charges dismissed, to get her acquitted.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Pretty much a standard tactic, Ali, and the who eggs was denied by the judge. The case is moving forward.
Say what you will about this case, and it definitely is a tragic case, but it's also fascinating to watch all the developments. Four weeks in, the prosecution comes to a rest here. But not until we've seen a number of dramatic instances take place on the witness stand. One of them took place when you had Dr. Jan Garavaglia, the medical examiner for the state of Florida. Celebrity status, she has her own television show, "Dr. G." She summarized the case for the state, maintaining it was a homicide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JAN GARAVAGLIA, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, DISTRICT 9, FLORIDA: The fact that it's tossed in a field to rot in bags. Is a clear indication that the body was trying to be hidden. Those are even being put in a bag is a very big red flag for homicide.
CHENEY MASON, CASEY ANTHONY'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: We have no evidence to exclude a reasonable hypothesis that there was no murder at all, that there was no premeditation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: And of course what you were listening to there is the defense team that is arguing, no, this was not a homicide. In fact as we know from their opening statement, the defense team is maintaining that this was a horrible accident, an accident by the way, which occurred exactly three years ago today, June 16th, 2008, when the defense claims, the body of Caylee Anthony, two-years-old, found floating in the family's swimming pool. And at that point, Casey Anthony, apparently in cahoots with her father, George Anthony, concoct a cover-up. Tragic? Yes, murder? Absolutely not.
To that end the defense is expected to provide a whole host of witnesses, some of whom we've seen before, family members and a team of experts that will try to refute the team of prosecution experts. The real question now, will Casey Anthony take the stand herself. Back to you.
ROMANS: Martin Savidge, that is the big question. Thank you.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is now out of the hospital. She was discharged yesterday five months after she was shot in the head in Tucson. She'll now begin outpatient treatment while staying at her husband's home in Texas.
VELSHI: I think she looks great. That's a picture that's been released. We saw a couple of pictures of her. Hair is very short, smiling.
CHETRY: The key now is to help with the speech and to try, and mobility also, as Sanjay told us, a lot of difficulties on the right side.
VELSHI: The government sent notices were sent to 1,000 companies yesterday, alerting businesses that government auditors plan to inspect their hiring records.
ROMANS: Flavored milk is about to disappear from cafeterias in Los Angeles. That city's unified school district voted to become the nation's largest school district to stop selling strawberry and chocolate milk. They say it's part of an effort to provide students healthier food and drink options. CHETRY: It turns out more Americans are opting not to quit their job during tough economic times, leaving them with less options, fewer options than they may have had in better times. According to "Bloomberg BusinessWeek" between January, 2009 and this past April, 28 million Americans stuck with jobs that they would have otherwise left in other times.
That brings us to our question of the day, would you change jobs if you could. Send us an email or tweet and we'll read your thoughts later in the show.
ROMANS: Lord Stanley's cup is heading back to Boston. The bruins shut out the Vancouver Canucks last night in a deciding seventh game, four to zero to win the Stanley Cup.
VELSHI: There is a goal.
ROMANS: There's the paper that Ali held up.
ROMANS: And 1972 was the last time the Bruins won it. Things got ugly after the game in Vancouver. Angry fans rioting in the streets, threw bottles, vandalized cars, set fires.
VELSHI: Police used tear gas to control the crowd. Vancouver's mayor blames the violence on a small group.
CHETRY: Up next, why is this man smiling. Not him. Him. Former Senator John Edwards' mug shot is released, and some people are commenting about it. It's not terribly flattering.
ROMANS: Plus, Greece in a desperate fight to stay solvent. We'll tell you what happens there and why that can affect your money here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Breaking news overnight, a new round of NATO air strikes near Moammar Gadhafi's presidential compound in Tripoli. We hear those sounds. We can also see thick black smoke rising after a series of explosions in the area of Gadhafi's compound in Libya's capital.
VELSHI: The latest NATO assault comes as a bipartisan group of U.S. congressmen are suing President Obama. They're claiming he exceeded his powers in authorizing the military operation in Libya. An operation, by the way, that's costing about $10 million a day. CNN's Brianna Keilar is following this part of the story. She's live at the White House.
Hey, Brianna.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Ali. Well, this is the report right here that the White House sent over to Congress amid many calls to have questions answered by Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
The big headlines in here, the price tag. It says so far, U.S. military involvement in Libya has cost about $715 billion. That's a figure that goes through June 3rd, so probably closer to $ 800 million. You know, that's about three-quarters of $1 billion. And then there's also an estimate for the projected cost of taking this operation through the end of September. That is about $1.1 billion.
Now the other headline here was the president's legal rationale for why he hasn't sought congressional authorization for having troops committed in a conflict abroad as the War Powers Resolution, a law, says that he has to do within 60 days, or that he then would have to pull troops out within 30. And what you have here, guys, is the White House really looking to the fine print of the War Powers Resolution, saying this is a limited role that we're serving, we don't have boots on the ground, we're not engaged in hostile exchange of fire. And because of that, we're able to not seek congressional authorization and feel that we are on good ground, not doing that. So very interesting to hear that legal rationale. This was really the most detailed explanation that we've heard so far of that.
CHETRY: All right. Brianna Keilar for us this morning with the latest on this. We'll see whether it's enough to satisfy Congress. So that's probably highly unlikely. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. It is 17 minutes after the hour. That means it's time for Rob in Atlanta.
Hi, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. Looking at the fire danger across the southwest. Again, we have some containment on that the big fire we had a couple of days where the winds were dying down. But now the winds are going to pick up again. We've got conditions to be critical again across parts of Arizona and most of New Mexico.
We are getting into the monsoon flow of season. Usually July and August we start to get pop-up thunderstorms as winds come out of the south. But that hasn't quite kicked in yet. Give it another week or two we might see that. What has kicked in and it's been sticking around for a couple of weeks is this heat.
Look at the record-breaking stuff. All-timer in Tallahassee, Florida, 105 degrees there. And, you know, northeast Florida and southeast Georgia, we've got a smaller fire burning there. These temperatures aren't helping much. Austin, 104. Birmingham, Alabama, 98 degrees and some thunderstorms last night rolling through Atlanta. Not one, not two, but three lines coming through and at one point we had 200,000 people without power. And right now, all that is moving offshore down across Savannah, now through Charleston.
Got another system that's moving across the northeast. It will bring some rain today across the Alleghany and through the Adirondacks, eventually up through New York but that will happen later on this afternoon and later on tonight.
Behind it is comfortably cool weather as opposed to the heat that's going to be down across the south. 101 degrees expected in Dallas. Quick shot of the eclipse last night. Didn't see it here across North America. They saw it in Bahrain and Dubai. It was a long one. It was a beautiful one if you got to see it. I think the next lunar eclipse may be another year and a half to two years away, guys. So everybody saw this except those in Central and North America. So we missed out on this one. But maybe the next one.
CHETRY: A pretty moon, though. It was beautiful. It's very low in the sky and it was full and it looked nice over the past couple of days, but I guess we missed the big cool show.
VELSHI: Yes.
MARCIANO: But you got the full moon. We got to see it.
CHETRY: That's right.
VELSHI: Thanks, Rob,
ROMANS: Thank you, Rob.
CHETRY: The number of Americans affected by Citigroup's security breach last month when they got hacked is actually now bigger than expected. We'll have new details this morning.
VELSHI: And "Bloomberg Businessweek" reports that more Americans are opting not to quit their job during these tough economic times. That's understandable.
So our question of the day -- would you change jobs if you could? Send us an email, a tweet or tell us on Facebook. We'll read some of your thoughts later this hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Twenty-three minutes after the hour. Here are this morning's business headlines.
Investors are on edge this morning. All major markets closed down yesterday, on turmoil in Greece and overall economic uncertainty. There are several economic indicators coming out this morning that could move stocks. Initial jobless claims for last week, housing starts and building permits for May.
Demonstrators in Greece have already gathered outside parliament this morning for a second day of protests which could affect U.S. markets again today. Oil prices dropped nearly four percent on concerns that the financial crisis in Greece could spread.
Consumers making more of an effort to pay off their credit card balances, filings by major credit card companies show that late credit card payments have fallen to pre-recession levels. And that's a good sign that future credit defaults might decline.
The index that measures homebuilders sentiment is falling to its lowest level in nine months. Fewer homes are being built. That means fewer jobs are being created. The outlook fell just a few points above the lowest reading on record. That was back when the home market was reeling from the housing bust in 2009.
Citigroup now saying more than 360,000 accounts were affected by last month's security breach. That's a lot more than they originally said. Hackers got access to customers' contact info, but the company said social security numbers and security codes were never compromised.
About 375,000 Circo child booster seats are being recalled because the restraint buckle can open unexpectedly, letting a child fall from the chair. At least 10 kids have been injured by this defect. They're sold at Target stores nationwide.
Don't forget for the very latest news about your money, check out the all-new CNNmoney.com.
AMERICAN MORNING right back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, riots in Greece and its impact on the rest of the world, now emergency measures to keep that country afloat.
And Gates gets grilled over Pakistan. The question posed to him -- how long do we support governments who lie to us?
We're back in 60 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: It's 28 minutes after the hour. Time for this morning's top stories.
Al Qaeda has a new chief. It's the terror organization's long-time number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The announcement was posted on an Al Qaeda Web site. Al-Zawahiri is 59, comes from an upper middle class Egyptian family. He's reportedly a qualified surgeon himself and met bin Laden back in 1986, becoming his personal physician and adviser.
VELSHI: NATO stepping up its assault against Libyan dictator, Moammar Gadhafi. More explosions reported overnight in Tripoli. The air strikes coming as a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers file suit against President Obama here at home, challenging the legality of America's military involvement in Libya.
CHETRY: And thousands of hockey fans rioting in the streets of Vancouver overnight after their Canucks lost game seven of the Stanley Cup finals to the Boston Bruins. They set fires, overturned cars. Police again, as we said, firing tear gas trying to disperse the crowd.
ROMANS: A lot of buzz this morning about a fiery exchange on Capitol Hill between Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy. It had to do with Pakistan and reports that the Pakistani government arrested CIA informants, including an army major who wrote down license plate numbers of visitors to Osama bin Laden's compound and passed them over to U.S. intelligence officers. Secretary Gates was attending a meeting of the Senate's Defense Appropriations Committee when Senator Leahy asked him for his evaluation of Pakistan as an ally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY ((D), VERMONT: How long do we support governments that lie to us? When do we say enough is enough? Secretary Gates, I'll start with you.
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, first of all, I would say based on 27 years in the CIA and 4 1/2 years in this job -- most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done.
LEAHY: Do they also arrest the people that help us when they say they're allies?
GATES: Sometimes.
LEAHY: Not often.
GATES: And sometimes they send people to spy on us and there are close allies.
LEAHY: And we give aid to them?
GATES: And that's the real world that we deal with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: That was the final appearance on Capitol Hill for Gates as America's top military officer. He's retiring at the end of the month.
CHETRY: That really was a fascinating exchange and it highlights the relations strained between the U.S. and Pakistan.
Going from bad to worse since Osama Bin Laden was killed, especially since Islamabad's crackdown on the informants who helped us find the terror chief now seeing more scrutiny.
Reports this morning also that the most powerful man in Pakistan is fighting for his job because he's seen as too friendly towards the United States.
Joining us from Washington this morning is Chad Sweet, a former CIA official and now a founder of the Chertoff Group, a security and risk management consulting firm. Thanks so much for joining us this morning, Chad.
That was quite an interesting exchange between the senator from Vermont and Secretary Gates when it comes to these CIA informants that have allegedly been arrested by Pakistan.
How much pull do we have at all when it comes to getting them released? I mean, is that a goal even of ours in the United States?
CHAD SWEET, CO-FOUNDER OF THE CHERTOFF GROUP, A SECURITY AND RISK MANAGEMENT FIRM: It's absolutely a goal. These people worked to help us achieve one of the greatest accomplishments in intelligence history, the takedown of Osama Bin Laden.
So I think the answer is we've got do everything we can to help those who helped us. Right now though, it's a very delicate time in the relationship as you noted. The tensions between the Pakistan and the U.S. are extremely high.
So this needs to be done behind the scenes four of the five detainees have already been released. The fifth detainee, the one individual who reportedly had previously been in the army, is the one who may have had the closest relationship to the CIA so the answer is we have various forms of leverage to help there.
What we need to do right now is take the public eye off this, move behind the scenes, as Defense Secretary Gates said, he's former director of CIA. Let's do this in a quiet, diplomatic way so we don't force General Kaini, the head of the Army to have an embarrassing moment.
CHETRY: Right, and you mentioned Kaini, he's going through some intense pressure. This is the guy who has led the Pakistan army since 2007 and while we here in the United States are grumbling and some of our lawmakers are grumbling about this relationship.
Perhaps there's even more intense pressure in Pakistan, viewed as being pro-American and there's a sort of a move under way to get rid of him. What happens if indeed our relationship that is now strained takes another hit?
SWEET: Well, General Kaini is in a very difficult position and any successor to him at this juncture would likely be far more anti- American than General Kaini.
So we need to basically give him the space to, if he needs to, publicly do certain optical moves to show that he's tough and defending the pride of the army, as well as the pride of Pakistan.
In the background, what we do need to do is have various confidence- building measures. We've got to stop seeing certain activities. They're right now just canceled the training where we have our special forces helping to train them on how to do special force operations against --
CHETRY: Some of these joint exercises.
SWEET: Yes.
CHETRY: But this is the other question, I mean, there are people on the other side who say wait a minute, how much worse can it get? How much worse can the relationship get? Osama Bin Laden was essentially hiding in plain sight in Pakistan. SWEET: Let me tell you how much worse it could get. They sit on the world's most unsecure nuclear arsenal. They're surrounded by al Qaeda within their own country. Imagine if the government, who right now is the most fragile this is a perfect storm.
They have a huge economic decline at the same time they've got the military and the intelligence community morale at an all-time low and they feel threatened by India. So this could get a lot worse and I think it's imperative that we remember that success in Afghanistan depends on Pakistan.
When I was in the CIA, the way we worked to support the Mujahedin, to oust the Soviets was through cooperation with the ISI to get the stinger missiles into Afghanistan.
We need Pakistan to be successful in Afghanistan with the Taliban. This is not the time, despite the tensions up on the Hill and Washington here, to saber rattle. We need cooler heads to prevail.
CHETRY: So all of it sounds like bad news for us. But is there -- do we have any leverage? What's in it for Pakistan to maintain good U.S. relations?
SWEET: Well, what's in it for Pakistan is $2 billion in foreign aid a year. What's in it for Pakistan is a counter-balance to their arch enemy, India.
What's in it for Pakistan is assistance in defeating a shared enemy, which is al Qaeda and radical Islamists within their own country that have actually killed more Pakistanis than anyone else. So we have a tremendously aligned shared interest in Afghanistan.
CHETRY: So much question whether the focus is fighting al Qaeda or whether it's fighting India in Pakistan?
SWEET: Well, that's you put your finger on something, which is the ultimate extension threat Pakistan is India from their perspective. That's the tension where we on the other hand, one of our top priorities is al Qaeda.
So sometimes they view the fight against al Qaeda as America's war. It's a shared war though and we need to be careful in terms of trying to strike the right balance with the Pakistanis to insure their cooperation in one of our most important strategic priorities, which is to defeat al Qaeda.
CHETRY: All right, Chad Sweet, co-founder of the Chertoff Group, former CIA official. Great to get your take this morning. Thank you.
SWEET: Thank you.
VELSHI: New numbers out this morning about America's foreclosure situation. In May, compared to a year ago, foreclosures are down, foreclosure filings, that's the beginning of the process.
All the way to the end are down by 33 percent, one-third. That is good news and the foreclosure activity in May itself was the lowest in 42 months.
ROMANS: And that certainly is good news, but not necessarily good news for what we're thinking is because the banks are full of foreclosed properties and they have this big robo signing scandal where they were just signing foreclosures.
VELSHI: So now they've got to slow the process down.
ROMANS: Even with those declines, nearly 215,000 homes in this country were foreclosed on last month. Poppy Harlow is here with that this morning.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes, and you know, all the experts when we got the foreclosure number that we're down 33 percent from a year ago, people sort of jump for joy and saying great, the market is getting better.
The experts came out immediately and said, no, we're attributing most of this to the robo signing scandal. Mainly, the banks are just holding off on their foreclosures, getting their paperwork in order and more pain is to come.
But when you look at certain towns across this country, and I'm not talking about Florida, California and Nevada where you know there's a huge housing crisis. I'm talking about a town that's going to look a lot probably like where you're sitting right now.
Foreclosure City, USA, is what you could call Plainfield, New Jersey, a town where one in 10 homes, one in 10, is in foreclosure and it's taking a major toll on the entire town. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW (voice-over): At a bird's eye view, Plainfield, New Jersey may look like lots of small towns across America. But when you walk the streets and talk to the folks here, you start to realize something. The bank owns a big chunk of this city.
REGINA PERRY, PLAINFIELD RESIDENT: I moved in three houses, and three of the houses that I've lived in have foreclosed and I was forced to move.
HARLOW: Of the roughly 9,000 homes in Plainfield, nearly 900 are in foreclosure. That's almost three times the national average.
LEA MCDONALD, PLAINFIELD RESIDENT: It's terrible. I mean, my kids have to walk past these empty houses and I'm afraid for them.
HARLOW: You won't find padlocks or boarded-up windows, but it's not tough to find people thousands of dollars in debt on their homes.
(on camera): Right here on East Front Street alone, there are 25 homes in foreclosure. And just down the way, on Berkeley Terrace, you'll find eight more.
(voice-over): Crime is now rampant in Plainfield. The police spend their time breaking up gang activity and determining which came first is a chicken-and-egg situation for Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.
(on camera): Do you feel as though the amount of foreclosures really, the foreclosure crisis in this city led to this increased gang violence?
MAYOR SHARON ROBINSON-BRIGGS, PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY: There may be a relationship in terms of certain areas in the city of Plainfield where some of our residents have been laid off, who feel kind of hopeless at this point.
HARLOW (voice-over): The highest density of foreclosures is near the gang violence, 123 within a half-mile. But there are hundreds more, all over town.
MCDONALD: The town is going down. Taxes are going up. We're suffering.
HARLOW: Today, home prices continue to fall. There are layoffs in the schools and the city has cut 50 percent of its workers since February.
At Rise N' Shine Restaurant, the owner says business is slumping.
SAUL GUIDARDO, RISE N' SHINE RESTAURANT: There are ups and downs. Some days are better, some days are slow. It's tough.
ANDREA DOYLE, PLAINFIELD RESIDENT: Unless like something can turn around, we need a miracle.
HARLOW: A miracle?
DOYLE: We need a miracle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: And you, Andrea, who you just heard from right there, she told me that she feels trapped. She pays her taxes, she pays her mortgage, but she couldn't sell her home, even if she wanted to.
Now the mayor told me, look, we need more help from the banks. We've reached to the banks, the biggest lenders for the mortgages there in Plainfield, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
Bank of America had no comment. Wells Fargo said they continue to work with borrowers to find an alternative to foreclosure, neither, though, would agree to come on camera with us to talk about the situation, Christine, in Plainfield.
ROMANS: And the mayor also told you in very simple math for this town. The money coming in, isn't coming in because they're not getting revenue, tax revenue from these homes and it cost more to patrol this neighborhood.
HARLOW: The loss in revenue for this city, staggering, already hundreds of thousands of dollars she's predicting in losses, she thinks it's going to get worse, all the gang violence there. How do you pay for the police, the city employees to patrol that?
And as you also heard, they have already cut since February, half of their city's workers. So this is a crisis that America is facing right now, not just in Plainfield. This is emblematic of the epidemic across this country.
The situation until it gets better with housing does not get better for these municipalities and for people living there and paying taxes there and people paying taxes bear more and more of the burden on their shoulders.
ROMANS: All right, Poppy Harlow. Thanks, Poppy.
Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a black eye for Canadian hockey fans, riots on the streets of Vancouver after the hometown Canucks lost - lost game seven in the Stanley Cup finals. A live report from Vancouver, as Ali wipes his tears on AMERICAN MORNING coming up.
VELSHI: And a lot of people wondering this morning, why is this guy smiling? This is the fallout from John Edwards' mug shot, a lot of it actually. You know, you usually see somebody smiling in a mug shot, 41 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: It's a debt crisis and it's impacting your money. Only this time it's not happening here. If you take a look at the streets of Greece, again, protesters gathering, upset over drastic cutbacks to school programs.
ROMANS: Our Zain Verjee is live in London. Zain, good morning. This is about working longer, having less for retirement.
VELSHI: Less vacation.
ROMANS: Having to pay taxes. This is what people are really upset about there?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes, that is exactly right. They are furious and, and as you have seen in that dramatic video, they've taken to the streets. They had to deal with round one of cuts. Now they're going to be having to brace themselves for round two of cuts and it's going to be painful because the bottom line is, they're going to get poorer, faster.
Now, the story is bigger than what you're seeing in these pictures, it's now bigger than the streets of Greece and the anger of these people, because financial markets are being hit, as well. Every single European market today has opened lower. London, Paris, Frankfurt, Asia was down, as well. The big fear now is that of a ripple effect. The Eurozone, European banks, even the U.S. financial markets.
The central thing here, guys, is the Euro currency. That is what is at stake. There are 16 other countries other than Greece that use the Euro as a currency. So if Greece defaults on its loan and it tanks, it's going to drag down the other currencies with it.
Now the European Union, well, they're not going to let that happen. They're trying to do a restructuring of the debt and organize a bailout package. But they're not going to give any money unless Greece basically does those austerity cuts that will hurt its own people.
That's what's going on.
ROMANS: All right, Zain Verjee, thank you so much.
Oh, wait. There's another really great international story in Switzerland we wanted it ask you about.
CHETRY: Zain, I'm sorry. It's a tough turn from the riots to snow leopards, but this is -- you got to show this.
VELSHI: But they're so cute.
CHETRY: You have to show us these pictures. They're creating quite a buzz.
VERJEE: They are.
VELSHI: Aww.
VERJEE: They're trending very high around the world. And I just wanted to show them to you, these very rare snow leopards. And what's also rare is that there were triplets that were born in a zoo in Switzerland. They're eight weeks old.
This is a very endangered species. There are only like 4,000 left around the world. They don't have names yet, guys. But the important thing here is that the Europeans, they have this project where they breed endangered species at zoos and this is something that's grabbing people's attention around the world, as well.
VELSHI: So cute.
CHETRY: Just gorgeous. With paws like that, you know how big they're going to get? They're only eight weeks old.
ROMANS: I know. They're so cute right now but you wouldn't want to have one at home.
VELSHI: Zain, thank you.
You can watch Zain every morning, by the way, 5:00 a.m. on "WORLD ONE" right here on CNN.
OK. Hockey's Stanley Cup showcase was marred by violence, not on the ice, but in the streets of Vancouver where angry fans rioted after the hometown Canucks were shutout in game seven by the Boston Bruins. Fires were set, cars were overturned. The streets near the arena resembled a battle zone.
Nick Price with CNN affiliate KIRO is live in Vancouver for us.
Nick, this is highly unusual. It's happened before in Vancouver when they've lost the Stanley Cup, but it wasn't expected.
NICK PRICE, KIRO REPORTER: It happened before in '94. There was a lot of resolution that it would not happen again but it did. Very disappointed people.
I tell you, it got so violent here in downtown Vancouver last night that our night side crew had to move away from this parking lot where I'm standing now because they were concerned for their safety. Take a look at your screen, you can you see why.
Seconds after the game ended, chaos began as rioters overturned cars. Our crew didn't see police anywhere to stop this. As the anger over the loss heated up, rioters set fire to overturned cars and eventually riot police did move in. Police had closed the major bridges into downtown Vancouver during the height of the riot. Those bridges were reopened by about 2:30 when we arrived in town.
As we were walking around town, we did manage to see an awful lot of the destruction. We saw broken glass everywhere. Lots and lots of glass repair trucks. And, indeed, a lot of the cars that were turned over or burned are still on the streets this morning. This city really, really has got a big job of clean-up ahead of it.
CHETRY: Any serious injuries or anybody killed in this?
PRICE: We understand that there were about 50 people injured. We don't know the seriousness of those injuries. We also hear that about four people were stabbed. We have not yet heard any confirmed reports of fatalities, but certainly there were a number of people who were fairly, badly hurt in this riot.
VELSHI: Wow.
CHETRY: Very sad.
VELSHI: What a thing. All right, thanks so much for that. We appreciate it.
ROMANS: When it comes to mug shots guys, there's this unwritten rule, you just don't smile. Someone forgot to tell John Edwards, or maybe they did and he didn't care.
Take a look at the former senator and presidential hopeful posing for his police mug shot.
VELSHI: It's a good picture.
ROMANS: He's smiling even though he could face prison time for allegedly violating campaign finance laws. That got us thinking about some other notable defendants who failed to assume the traditional poker face for their police photos.
CHETRY: There's actor Mel Gibson when he was busted in 2006 on his DUI charges.
ROMANS: I remember that one.
CHETRY: Country singer Winona Judd, she as charged with DUI, as well, in 2003 in Nashville.
And then there's Paris Hilton's pose. She made headlines for her 2010 arrest.
ROMANS: She gave her good side.
CHETRY: Yes, she came right from a party to booking -- to getting booked. That was in Vegas on drug charges.
And actor Nick Nolte, you remember this famous mug shot. He was stopped in California in 2002, charged with driving drunk.
ROMANS: That's probably the most famous mug shot. His hair is so great there.
CHETRY: I don't see him smiling though.
ROMANS: But his hair is so good that we put him on the list anyway of the His hair is so great there. We put him on the list anyway of the mugs we love.
And then we started looking at that hair and thinking, wow, what would Velshi look like with that hair? And this is Ali Velshi's own mug shot if he had Nick Nolte's hair and Hawaiian shirt.
Ali Velshi has been arrested for nothing, I would just like to say. But, there you go.
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VELSHI: All right. Ferris Bueller might be making a comeback. There are reports that a sequel to Ferris Bueller might be in the works.
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ROMANS: Also, Bloomberg business reports more Americans are opting not to quit their job during tough economic times.
So, our question of the day: would you change your job if you could?
Send us an e-mail, a tweet, tell us on Facebook. We're going to read some of your thoughts later on in the hour.
VELSHI: Fifty-two minutes after the hour.
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ROMANS: A lot going on this morning. Here's what you need to know to start your day.
Al Qaeda filled the power vacuum filled by death of bin Laden. The former number two, Ayman al Zawahiri is now al Qaeda's number one. The announcement was posted on several Jihadist web sites.
New explosions rocking Tripoli overnight. The NATO air strikes, again, targeting Moammar Gadhafi presidential compound in Libya's capital. Libyan state television also reporting bombings in Sirte, that's east of Tripoli.
Johnson & Johnson is getting out of the heart stent business. The company will stop making these devices by the end of the year, and expects to lay off 1,000 workers.
And a sequel could be in the works to the 1986 hit film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." A well-known entertainment blogger says the working title is "Ferris Bueller 2, Another Day Off, "although Matthew Broderick is not considered likely to reprise his lead role.
You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING back in 60 seconds.
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VELSHI: Fewer Americans are quitting their jobs during these tough economic times. Stands to reason. According to Bloomberg Business Week, between January 2009, which, by the way was really the worse for job losses, and this past April, 28 million Americans stuck with jobs that statistically they would left in a more robust economy.
ROMANS: You're paralyzed. You've been telling us this for months, right? You feel paralyzed at work.
Well, that bring us to our question of the day: would you change jobs if you could?
CHETRY: Well, we have some responses this morning.
"Yes, I have a degree but I'm stuck working a job not in my field. Nothing is available and I must keep health insurance for family."
ROMANS: That's a good reason --
VELSHI: But here's what's interesting -- I'm getting a number of people saying they wouldn't.
And Daryl (ph) says, "Nope, the airline industry will always do well," which I find fascinating because the airline industry, historically, has not done well.
ROMANS: Here's another one. (INAUDIBLE) on Twitter said, "No, I'm very proud of being a health care worker. I just wished it paid better so I could get back to a 40-hour work week."
VELSHI: And health care really is one of those areas that is doing well.
Keep your comments coming.
ROMANS: I saw a survey yesterday, some Labor Department news that showed that the three fastest growing jobs are cashier, waitress and salesperson like in a mall or a store. So those are lower paid jobs on the spectrum so that's why people aren't moving to the job openings because they want to keep their jobs because --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Send us an e-mail. We've got some great responses from you. Send us an e-mail, a tweet, tell us on Facebook, any way you want to. We'll read some more of your thoughts a bit later.
Our top stories coming up after the break. Fifty-seven minutes after the hour.
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