Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Pakistan Kicks U.S. Military Off Base; Body In Public Pool; Accidentally Forgotten Tourist; Royal Runaway Bride?; Lung Cancer Scans Save Lives; Most Common Car Repairs
Aired June 30, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans.
A power play by Pakistan -- payback for the bin Laden raid. The country tells the U.S. to get off a critical air base.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry.
President Obama is telling Congress: do your job, forget vacation. He actually scolds the lawmakers for letting the debt talks dragged on. But Republicans are hitting back and refusing to budge on the tax issue.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi.
Turtles on the tarmac shut down the runway of JFK Airport in New York -- on this "AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
VELSHI: Getting a lot of news. I got turtles on the runway!
ROMANS: It's a big deal.
VELSHI: If you were in that flight, a busy deal.
CHETRY: One of the busiest airports at a stand still because of --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Good morning. It's Thursday, June 30th. We're back in AMERICAN MORNING with turtles in the runway of JFK and a lot of other big news this morning.
CHETRY: Right. But up first, the major fallout from the mission to seek and destroy Osama bin Laden and also a major setback to finish the job against al Qaeda.
VELSHI: Pakistan now telling the U.S. military to leave the airbase that's used to launch drone strikes against terrorist.
ROMANS: Reza Sayah is live for us in Islamabad this morning.
So, what is this move? What are the Pakistanis doing here?
REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, this is seemingly a significant statement made by Pakistan's defense minister, Ahmed Mukhtar, and it goes right to the heart of a key strategy for the Obama administration when it comes to the fight against militancy here in Afghanistan. And that's those controversial drone strikes that was unmanned aircrafts that target militants on Pakistani soil.
For years those operations have been launched from a base in Balochistan province here in Pakistan, just south of Pakistan's tribal region which is a safe haven for al Qaeda-linked and Taliban-linked militants.
Now, the defense minister has come out there in Pakistan and said no more. That's enough. U.S. personnel must leave this base and no more operations can be launched from this base.
If, indeed, this is true, it would be a significant hit to the Obama administration strategy. It wouldn't be a crippling blow but certainly a big hit. These drone strikes have been a centerpiece to the Obama administration's strategy here in Pakistan. Under his administration, the CIA has launched more than 200 of these drone strikes.
But, real quick, it's important to point out two things. The man who made this statement, the defense minister, doesn't have a lot of sway when it comes to big military decisions here in Pakistan. Those decisions are made by the military. So, it's not clear how credible this statement is.
And, second of all, ever since the bin Laden raid last month, there's been a lot of anti-American sentiment. Politicians under pressure to distance themselves from Washington, they have made a lot of anti-American statements. This statement could be another one of those -- guys.
VELSHI: Reza, thanks very much for that. So, we're unclear as to exactly whether there's authority behind this statement.
CHETRY: Or if it's just a little bit of political posturing. We know there's been a lot of anger there over the raid.
ROMANS: OK. A militant leader believed to help plan the attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, we told you about this, you saw those wild pictures, that person was killed by an air strike in Afghanistan. Ismail Jan was a member of the Haqqani Network, that's the same group that Afghan officials believe was a real culprit behind Tuesday' attack. Twenty-one people died in that siege including 12 victims and all nine attackers.
VELSHI: OK. Hugs, tears and cheers for two French journalists who are back in Paris this morning after being held captive in Afghanistan for 18 months. They were kidnapped while working on a story about reconstruction just outside of Kabul. Taliban militants had threatened to kill the men if key demands were not met, including the release of detainees. French officials say no ransom was paid. Their strategy in Afghanistan hasn't changed.
CHETRY: Well, a lot of new information this hour about a man who was able to slip on to a flight -- this was at JFK Airport in New York. It happened last Friday. The Nigerian man it all the way to Los Angeles.
KABC in L.A. says he was only caught Wednesday after he tried to board another flight to Atlanta. And investigators say he didn't have a valid passport and he also was carrying several expired boarding passes. He was taken into custody and law enforcement official now tells us there was nothing at this point to indicate terrorism. But --
ROMANS: But boarding passes in some one else's name, right?
VELSHI: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: So, if he can do it, who else can?
ROMANS: A cross-country flight. Imagine that, and then only caught when he's trying to get on another flight.
VELSHI: I'm never on a flight that has an empty seat on it. So, I'm curious as to how somebody -- where they are going to sit. You get on the plane at some point, I thought you'd get caught out just because two people are trying to sit in the same seat but apparently he managed it.
CHETRY: It's also very curious. I mean, think about how many times they check your either boarding pass or passport as you make your way in.
ROMANS: He goes many times an electronic scanner so he is matching the name.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: All right. Back-to-back hack attacks. The second cyber terror group says it hit the Arizona state police force revenge over the state's new immigration law. The hackers say they broken into at least 11 email accounts of employees and have dumped their phone numbers, chat logs, online dating account information and even seductive girlfriend pictures of police.
Police say this won't affect public safety but it is putting officers and their families in harm's way.
VELSHI: Seductive girlfriend pictures?
CHETRY: Yes. That was an odd characterization.
VELSHI: All right. Real tough talk from President Obama during a news conference in the White House East Room. He's trying to jumpstart the stalled talks on raising the nation's debt ceiling. He said lawmakers should work through their vacations if they don't cut a deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They need to do their job. They are in one week, they're out one week. And then they are saying Obama has got to step in. You need to be here. I've been here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: He even compared Congress to procrastinating kids.
House Speaker Boehner fired back saying his administration had been burying our kids and grandkids in new debt.
CHETRY: So, we want to know what you think. Can the two sides solve this debt issue? Email us, give us a tweet, or tell us on Facebook. We'll be reading some of your comments later in the show.
ROMANS: Rhode Island State Senate approving a bill to legalize same sex civil legislation. That legislation, which has already passed the state house now heads to the desk of Governor Chafee, who has said he will sign.
The gay rights advocates are actually calling on the governor to veto the bill. Why? They say it's unacceptable because it allows religious organizations to discriminate gays and lesbian couples.
VELSH: A government shutdown growing more likely by the hour in Minnesota. The governor and Republican lawmakers have until tomorrow to agree on a budget for the 2012 fiscal year. Without a last minute deal, many state services will be suspended. Highway rest stops will close in time for the July 4th weekend. Road construction will stop and job training and funding for the homeless will also be cut off.
CHETRY: In another budget fight with kids caught in the middle, in Wisconsin -- Milwaukee public schools saying now that they will have to pay of 519 staff members and that includes 354 teachers, mostly grade school teachers, because of $84 million in state cuts and the system's effort to try to control costs.
ROMANS: United Airlines plane forced to make an emergency landing after the crew discovered a fuel leak in one of the engines. United flight 788 was en route from San Francisco to Boston last night. But it was detoured to Omaha, Nebraska. The plane landing safely at Eppley airfield in Omaha. A short time later, another plane was brought to take the passengers on to Boston.
VELSHI: OK. This is like our third and fourth airline story, and still haven't got my turtles?
ROMANS: Turtles.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: At the top of the show, OK? Turtles caused gridlock at New York's JFK airport yesterday. They crawled out of the tarmac. You're just seeing one of them, but there are like 150 of them.
ROMANS: JFK is right there --
VELSHI: Right. There's wilderness around. It's quite -- it can be in a remote area after that.
So, they were looking for a place, a beach in particular, to lay their eggs. They like beaches for that kind of thing.
Crews eventually loaded 150 of them into a truck and took them to the sandy area which is across the runway. But here's some of the reaction from the control tower talking to a pilot of a plane about to take off.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American 1009, there's a report of a turtle on the runway. Do you want to have it removed first?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American 1009, cancel takeoff clearance, hold the position.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holding position American 1009. I was wondering where those things were.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VELSHI: So, Kiran brings up a good point, that the pilot was given the option of not having the turtle clearance.
CHETRY: Yes, of just rolling right over the turtles. But thank goodness that pilot had some humanity. All the turtles want was a ride, you know, and they got one. They got taken to a sandy beach in that truck.
VELSHI: And as happens in New York when you're an animal who does a strange thing, you get a Twitter page. So, @JFKTurtles has more 5,000 followers.
CHETRY: You know, it has less than @bronxzoocobras?
VELSHI: Bronx zoo cobra was crazy. I think they had quarter million the first day but that's because the cobra out on the loose.
CHETRY: Right. People aren't as afraid --
VELSHI: Right. Turtles, whatever -- and you don't have to rush --
CHETRY: What, snakes on a plane?
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: It wasn't snakes on a plane. This was even worse actually. I don't know. Scorpio, because you can -- you can reason with a snake. I don't know if you can reason with a scorpion. They will just get you.
ROMANS: This happened. A scorpion on a plane.
CHETRY: A guy on Alaskan airlines flight was stung by a scorpion that was stowed away on a flight. The plane stopped in Austin, Texas. The airline says that's where it probably got on board.
VELSHI: Good God! Wow!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was inside my sleeve and that is what woke me up. I felt it underneath where it tickled.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At first, I didn't believe him. And then I saw it. He held the napkin up for me to see and I saw the tail wiggling and I pretty much jumped out of my seat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Wow!
CHETRY: Look at that thing!
VELSHI: That totally trumps my turtles.
CHETRY: I know. What is up with animals -- I mean, how it easy it is to craw on a plane?
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Scorpion sting, depending on the scorpion can kill you. This one said he said felt like a bee sting. Two doctors on board checked his elbow. He was treated once the plane landed. They say the scorpion is venomous. It typically causes minor pain, but if you are allergic, this can be fatal.
ROMANS: All right. Still ahead, tropical storm Arlene hits Mexico overnight. Where does she head next? And how powerful will she be? Rob Marciano is on it.
VELSHI: Well, it's a shocking story out of Massachusetts. It took swimmers and lifeguards two days to realize that the body of a drowning victim was at the bottom of a pool. A stunning story and what's being done it about when we come back.
CHETRY: Also, a Michigan tourist scuba-diving with the tour boat left behind on the Great Barrier Reef. You remember, we all saw open water, remember? This is almost a real life open water.
The tour boat left. So, how did he survive? We'll tell you.
Eleven minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Oh, nice you could join us.
VELSHI: Thank you. Good to be back. Good to be back.
ROMANS: Welcome back, Ali.
Tropical storm Arlene, the first tropical storm of the season, made landfall along Mexico's Gulf coast only a few hours ago.
CHETRY: Yes, this is our first named storm of the season.
Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center.
What's she looking like now?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Making landfall and we still have winds of 65 miles an hour. So, it's not a hurricane, but it's got -- it's a fairly large, strong storm with pretty big circulation and it's heading onshore right now between Tuxpam and Tampico.
And as far as the moisture of this is concerned, the radar picking it up just a little bit on the east side. Actually, if we can switch the switcher into this wall, that would be awesome.
Rainfall of this is going to stay mostly south of Texas with the exception of Brownsville. They'll get a little bit of heavy rain this morning. But drought-stricken Texas is not going to see much rainfall especially across the northern part of the state into parts of New Mexico and Arizona, which are dealing with their own fire issues. Low levels of humidity up in there. And the other big story is going to be heat that's building across the central part of the country. We've got heat advisories and heat warnings that are posted for parts of the central plains. They could see some of their warmest temperatures that we've seen so far this year.
There you go as far as the rainfall in Mexico, most of it staying south of Texas. And they got a bit of a drought there, too. So, they'll take some of the rain. Folks in Texas would pay good money right now, guys, to see even a little bit more of Arlene in the way of rainfall. Tropical storms, especially the moderate ones, they've got a lot of moisture. They don't have a ton of wind or typically a good weather situation especially when you're dealing with the dry spring that we've seen, so far.
CHETRY: Maybe I'm around kids too much, but that map looked like spin art to me.
(LAUGHTER)
MARCIANO: Yes, yes.
VELSHI: Well, rob hasn't paid his graphic switching people because they weren't listening.
CHETRY: It's early.
MARCIANO: It happens often.
VELSHI: Yes. See you, Rob. Thanks very much.
All right. A disturbing story out of Massachusetts this morning. A woman's body pulled from the bottom of a public swimming pool in Fall River, Massachusetts, but here's the devastating part. It turns out she'd been in the water for two days without swimmers or lifeguards even noticing. The state has temporarily closed all deep water public pools pending an investigation.
ROMANS: OK. Talk about a salad surprise. A Michigan man found a dead mouse in his three-package --
CHETRY: Oh, my God! If you're eating, just know that --
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: The rodent was buried in the Dole tender garden salad --
CHETRY: I would have thought maybe that was a poor developed (ph) mushroom marinated, you know what I mean?
VELSHI: It looks like a mushroom. That totally looks a mushroom.
ROMANS: That's terrible.
CHETRY: Are you sure it's -- maybe, it's a mushroom, Christine.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: The man, his girlfriend, and her son had already eaten some of the salad. Both Dole and the Kroger store where they bought this thing -- when they bought this out offered refunds.
CHETRY: Refunds?
VELSHI: Here's your three bucks back!
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: I got to tell you, I eat a lot of salads out of a bag, and I don't really pay attention. I mean, I agree with you, it looks like a mushroom.
ROMANS: I'm sorry. I can't really look at the picture.
CHETRY: We're going to get so many e-mails over that one. That was -- OK. VELSHI: It's a public service. We're warning people.
CHETRY: That's right.
VELSHI: Look at your salad before you eat.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: And if you think they gave you a bonus Portobello mushroom, you're wrong.
A real life nightmare for an American tourist. He was left behind on a snorkeling trip to the great barrier reef. Twenty years old, Ian Cole (ph), says he was panic stricken when he got his head out of the water last weekend, and he saw no other divers and no sign of his boat anywhere. The reef operators says that the staffer responsible for a bungled head count that left Cole stranded has been fired.
ROMANS: They're supposed to sign.
CHETRY: You're supposed to have their own signature of each snorkelers' signature when they get back on the boat by their name for this very reason and they didn't do it.
ROMANS: Because a few years ago, they left an American couple out there, right? Was that American honeymoon couple they left them out there for very long time?
CHETRY: Somebody else.
ROMANS: Yes, you're right. There've been several instances of this.
CHETRY: I saw "Open Water," the movie, where they were left out there, and it did not have a happy ending.
ROMANS: Well, they guy, Ian Cole, said that he got his head out of the water, he said, I panicked. I was tired. There was another boat. He swam to the other boat.
CHETRY: But he took him -- he had to swim for 20 minutes to get to the other boat.
ROMANS: He could have died. He was panicking. He was tired. He was very scared. I'm not crying, I just love --
CHETRY: It is scary, and I also thought the reaction was very weird from the dive company. They said that they were going to give him a 200-dollar voucher, and that he was really never in any danger
VELSHI: All right. Still ahead, McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell, the biggest fast food chains. Fast food junkies say they're not the best in taste. Who is? We've got the results of a great and brand-new survey right after the break. ROMANS: Plus, moms aren't the only ones struggling with a work life balance. Coming up, what you never knew about working dads. It's 18 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Twenty-two minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning.
A check in on free market trading. Futures are up slightly ahead of the opening bell, riding gains from yesterday and boosted confidence out of Greece. Investors watching for new initial jobless claim figures coming out in just a few minutes.
The labor department says unemployment rates rose last month in more than half of the country's largest cities. That's due to weak private sector hiring and natural disasters. In just about two hours, fresh initial jobless claims numbers come out, actually, comes out in about eight minutes.
And MySpace sells for a song. Specific Media reportedly paying -- that's the name of the company, by the way -- reportedly paying $35 million for the social networking site. It might sound like a lot of money, but it's not really compared to how much news corporation paid for it six years ago, $580 million. It's a huge lost for the media conglomerate.
And folks looking for the best fast food may be looking pass the golden arches. According to a new consumer report survey, the most popular burger chain is In and Out Burger, Chipotle was ranked the number one Mexican food joint, and Chick-fil-A was hands down the number one place for chicken. Boy, I miss that muffin (ph) in Atlanta.
Up next, what's the top priority for today's working dads? Children or career? AMERICAN MORNING back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: The smell of Chick-fil-A comes to me as I look at Atlanta. We just had that survey. The Chick-fil-A came out with the best chicken and where is Chick-fil-A from?
ROMANS: I have no idea.
VELSHI: Kiran?
CHETRY: Ottawa.
VELSHI: Atlanta, you knew that.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: That's what we're looking at. Seventy-four degrees.
CHETRY: Yes. We enjoyed Chick-fil-A when we were down there for a while. You can even get, you know, Chick-fil-A for breakfast.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Love it.
VELSHI: Give me 92 (ph), by the way, in Atlanta.
ROMANS: A balancing work in family. Women had faced this challenge for years and do today like right this very second, actually. But according to a new study, it's becoming a major balancing act for men, too.
VELSHI: Majority say that work is just a small part of who they are, and they want to provide as much child care as their wives do. So, what's behind the new attitude and can men actually achieve this kind of balance?
CHETRY: Joining us from Boston is Brad Harrington, executive director of the Boston College Center for Work and Family, also wrote a new study "The New Dad." Thanks for being with us this morning.
BRAD HARRINGTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BOSTON COLLEGE CENTER FOR WORK AND FAMILY: Thanks for having me here.
CHETRY: I love this statistic, though, because it says that when men were asked, 65 of them said that the work should be evenly divided between the mom and the dad, but yet, only 30 percent said it actually is in my home. Why the disparity?
HARRINGTON: Well, the disparity starts very early on. I think from the time a new child is born, the woman oftentimes takes three or four months off to be with their new child with the father. In our study, we found that 76 percent of them took less than a week off. And so, almost from the first day of the child's life, it becomes a disparity where the woman becomes the primary caregiver and the father returns to work pretty quickly, and the expectation back in the work place are very much the same.
ROMANS: And then, the woman goes back to work and she's still sort of the CEO of the household and the child rearing even if the men want to do more. Another thing, Brad, that's sort of interesting about this, and just anecdotally, I talked to a lot of women about this who are living it every day. Another thing is women letting go of having other responsibility at home even when they're trying to have all the responsibility at work. Did men comment or notice that at all?
HARRINGTON: We didn't ask in this survey specifically, does your wife having a hard time letting go of responsibilities. But in an earlier study, we did where we did more induct interviews, I think a lot of the men felt their wife was sort of comfortable letting them take responsibility for things, but oftentimes, left a very long to do list whenever she left him at home and home alone --
ROMANS: And instructions about how to do it.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRINGTON: Exactly. But I don't want to reinforce the stereotype that men aren't competent to do it on their own.
VELSHI: Brad, let me ask you this. I want to go back to the percentages of men who took a week off or less than two weeks. How much of that is corporate culture and how much of that is American culture, because we know most other developed nations, including Canada, offer men much more time off both from a government perspective and a vacation from company perspective.
HARRINGTON: Yes. I think it's both. I think a lot of the corporate policies, even if they are meant to be gender-neutral, you tend to see women taking, you know, parental leave after the birth of their child and all the brochures and the pictures and the literature kind of reinforce that. But when it comes to a government policy, the U.S. is way, way behind the rest of the industrialized countries in leave policies for any parents.
But, specifically, in Northern Europe a lot, especially in countries like Norway and Sweden, you see situations where men are using incentive (ph) to use it. At about 85 percent to 90 percent of men use paternity leave for two or three months after the birth of their child and that gets them quickly immersed in the process of caregiving on a full-time basis.
CHETRY: The other question is who is going to speak up for anybody about wanting to spend more time at home? This is, obviously, a tough work environment. We're talking about nearly 10 percent unemployment. Nobody is going to say I want to be at the office less for fear of maybe being replaced.
HARRINGTON: Yes. I think that is a phenomenon faced throughout but in tough economic times like this, I think it is marginalized. The good news is in a couple of companies in our study and even companies that had relatively long work hours and expected a lot, people oftentimes felt they were supported even if they asked for some kind of flexible work arrangements or keep their work within bounds so that they could take their share of care-giving responsibilities.
ROMANS: I guess bottom line, Brad, is men want more of a dual role at home and at the office and that is changing and growing.
HARRINGTON: Good development.
ROMANS: Brad Harrington, Boston College Center for Work and Family, thanks so much.
HARRINGTON: Thanks for having me.
ROMANS: Top stories this morning. The new fallout from the unannounced raid that killed bin Laden. The Pakistan defense chief saying the U.S. cannot be trusted and has to leave a base it used to launch drones to kill terrorists. But a U.S. official told CNN the base is still open. A militant leader suspected of providing support for Tuesday's deadly attack on Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel has been killed. International forces say Ismail Jan and several others killed in an airstrike in southeast Afghanistan. Jan was a member of the Haqqani Network, a militant group linked to Al Qaeda.
The FBI trying to figure out how a man slipped on to a flight at JFK airport in New York. The Nigerian made it to Los Angeles on a Virgin Atlantic flight and only caught on Wednesday after he tried to board another flight to Atlanta with several expired boarding passes.
The TSA now responding, saying the passenger went through the same screening as everything else. A law enforcement official tells us nothing to indicate terrorism, but of course he got on to a plane without valid I.D. and without a valid boarding pass. That is definitely an issue.
VELSHI: The Casey Anthony murder trial could wrap up as early as today.
CHETRY: Yesterday, Casey wiped away tears as a grief counselor testified, but only a few hours earlier she sat at the defense table and just stared when her father George Anthony sobbed on the witness stand.
Carol Costello joins us live from Orlando.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The trial gets underway in half an hour. The big question today, will Casey Anthony take the stand? Some say she has to because her father's testimony was so very effective. He wept on the stand as the defense tried to paint him as a man who molested his own daughter and hide the death of his granddaughter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY'S FATHER: I need to have something inside of me get through this.
COSTELLO: Testimony so emotional from George Anthony at times the judge asked if he could continue. Mr. Anthony's tears did not appear to faze Casey. She sat emotionless even as they are father cried how he attempted suicide weeks after the remains of his granddaughter, Caylee, were found in December of 2008.
ANTHONY: I needed at that time to go in and be with Caylee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You expressed that in the note?
ANTHONY: Yes, I did because I believe I failed her.
COSTELLO: In his questioning of the witness, attorney Jose Baez tried but did not succeed in advancing the defense's contention that Mr. Anthony helped cover up his granddaughter's death and molested his daughter, Casey.
ANTHONY: Sir, I never would do anything like that to my daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My question is you would never admit to it, would you, sir?
ANTHONY: Sir, I would never do anything to harm my daughter in that way.
COSTELLO: The tension between witness and defense attorney was palpable at times.
ANTHONY: Sir -- you are arguing with me, sir.
COSTELLO: Especially when Baez asked Anthony about conflicting statements about an odor emanating from Casey Anthony's car.
ANTHONY: You are trying to take this joy of my life away from me, sir, and you can't do it anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you like --
ANTHONY: I'm going to answer this to you, sir. The decomposition that I smelled in the trunk of my daughter's car on July 15, 2008, at Johnson's towing smelled like human decomposition. I can close my eyes at the moment, sir, and I can smell that again. How dare you, sir, try to tell me that I did something differently than what I did?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: That was the fifth time George Anthony took the stand in this case. The defense did tell the judge yesterday that it would wrap up its case today. Will Casey Anthony take the stand? Well, the judge said he wanted to ask Casey Anthony himself whether she wanted to testify on her own behalf because really the decision is up to her, not her defense attorney.
VELSHI: Carol, thanks for that. We'll check in with you later on as this develops.
ROMANS: Breaking financial news. The number of people filing for the first time for jobless benefits the most recent week, 428,000. 428,000 is a little bit more than people have been expecting.
VELSHI: It's actually less than the previous week but more than we had hoped. These are people who, last week, went and applied for unemployment benefits for the first time.
ROMANS: That's telling you there are still layoffs are going on and too many layoffs to be able to lower the unemployment rate. So watching that every Thursday. We get the numbers so another kind of uncomfortable week on that.
CHETRY: Still ahead, a royal runaway bride? The palace in Monaco are denying reports that Prince Albert's fiancee was trying to make a run for it weeks before their wedding. VELSHI: Also, the world's sweethearts in Canada today, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the duke and duchess of Cambridge known, better known as Will and Kate on their first official visit over this way. Zain Verjee is up next covering that from London. They just left London and on their way to Canada, we understand. It's 36 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Lots going on the nation's capital today, the retirement of -- Bill gates -- I'm sorry, the Defense Secretary Robert Gates' last day. And there will be a ceremony this morning. It's 74 degrees and 87 degrees and nice and hot but mostly sunny.
It's very telling we confuse the defense secretary who is going out as the only defense secretary who was carried over from a previous administration, including one that was a different party. This guy is really leaving as something of a very well regarded American hero.
CHETRY: Leon Panetta will take his place, so a lot of changes today.
ROMANS: President Obama telling Congress, hey, do you job. He is trying to jumpstart the stalled talks on raising the debt ceiling. He is saying lawmakers should work through their vacations if they don't cut a deal.
CHETRY: He said I've been here and doing a lot of work. The question of the day, can the two sides solve the debt issue? And here are some of your responses.
ROMANS: McKenzie on Facebook, "They will never 100 percent agree, but I think realize if they don't do something now it will cause more impact than they expect. The president has called Congress out. The president said you guys wrote these checks. Congress wrote the checks already."
CHETRY: Laurie writes "Our Congressmen and women are not trained financial professionals, but we give them the largest budget in the U.S. We need the budget in the hands of intelligent, trained professinals."
VELSHI: Billy writes on our blog "I think every American should support Obama being tough on Congress. Congress has not made any progress to help America's financial troubles, so they certainly don't deserve another long break."
ROMANS: Interesting. All three of those were very strongly prodding Congress, but not talking about politics.
VELSHI: My cursory look at the responses we have had today have been a lot about that. People are now tired of the politics. They want this done.
CHETRY: Get it done and do it right and too bad there aren't term limits and too bad it's more about politics. ROMANS: The people aren't seeing politics the way they are playing politics as usual.
Jay Leno in London sat down with our Zain Verjee to talk politics. Zain, how did that go?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was great. He was very cool. We chatted for about 10 or 15 minutes. I asked him which candidate would give him the best fodder, the best material for his show. He said Sarah Palin. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": Yes, she has the fire in the belly is what she said. It's not the fire. It's the air in the head.
VERJEE: The air in the head?
(LAUGHTER)
LENO: The air in the head. I think that -- fire in the belly is not a problem. Air in the head is --
VERJEE: What about the titanium in the spine?
LENO: That just happened today. I just saw that.
VERJEE: Michele Bachmann on FOX says she has the titanium in the spine.
LENO: You know, that could be a really bad porn movie. I don't know what it means. I didn't want to go there.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: He's a big collector of cars. I asked him how many cars he actually had. He didn't give me a number. He says you sound like my wife! He said, look. I just love cars. I see an old abandoned one, I want to take it and put $50,000 down and fix it up. He was here and invited by Jaguar and he got to actually drive one of Princess Diana's cars. So he was happy.
CHETRY: What I miss about London is the taxis. So roomy.
VERJEE: They are, and about ten times the price in New York.
CHETRY: I hear you. The duke and duchess are on their trip, spending eight days in Canada but only one day in L.A.
(LAUGHTER)
VERJEE: That is correct. They're in Canada going for a barbecue, cooking classes, a rodeo. That doesn't sound very royal there, does it, guys? That is what they are doing. They will be in Ottawa for Canada day and Montreal, which is a great city. That's where they are taking a cooking class. They love the fries and gravy and cheese there. And Quebec City.
And actually you know what is interesting is Kate has never been to either Canada or the U.S. so she is excited beyond belief. She says she has got a small entourage, including a hairdresser. She's not giving a speech or anything but her hair will look good.
VELSHI: Here's a story I told friends about earlier this morning, the potential runaway bride in royal Monaco?
VERJEE: This is kind of like a Hollywood movie script. Prince Albert of Monaco this weekend is supposed to marry a former Olympic swimmer named Charlene Whitstock. She bolted for the airport in Neisse and tried to buy a one-way ticket to South Africa. And the officials did not let her leave and instead called over Prince Albert. He came to the airport and persuaded her to come back.
Now, the French magazine "The Express" reported this and basically said that she had heard all of these awful rumors about him and wanted to ditch the wedding. The palace put out a statement and said there is no rift between the two. But they are leading a major manhunt that they leaked to the press she had done a runner.
So the big question mark is, what are the -- what are these rumors? Is this wedding going to happen? It's a huge celebrity wedding. Desmond Tutu is coming, who is who of Europe is going to be there, Sarkozy is there or is she just going to try take off and ditch him at the altar? We don't know.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: So the wedding is still planned, the wedding is still scheduled?
VERJEE: Officially, the wedding is still scheduled. It's going to be like -- almost $100,000 wedding. And it's going to be like totally glitzy. And you know, it's supposed to be the wedding that everybody hope would -- Prince Albert would settle down and stabilize Monaco.
VELSHI: Wow.
VERJEE: So far it's on but the question mark is like what is the big cover up here.
VELSHI: Yes.
VERJEE: You know, what's going on.
VELSHI: All right.
VERJEE: And is she just going to go swimming and just leave -- just swim out or swim away.
ROMANS: But Zain the most -- the dark part of the story is that Ali Velshi was filling us in on the Royals news earlier today. Ali Velshi, chief business correspondent of the CNN.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: And your runaway bride.
VELSHI: See -- from your -- from mouth via a several satellite to my ears over to them.
CHETRY: This is how the games of telephone happens.
ROMANS: That's right. All right, thanks, Zain.
VERJEE: Thanks guys.
ROMANS: You're morning headlines are next.
VELSHI: Plus, are you ready for a road trip this summer or just driving around? We'll rent your car, is your car ready? The car geeks from Car MD are here to help get your ride ready to roll.
I'm heading outside to meet with them and I'll be back in just a couple of minutes. Its 46 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Its 48 minutes past the hour right now. A look at your headlines this morning.
Pakistan defense chief is now telling the U.S. to leave a military base that it uses to launch drone attacks. It's a response to the secret Navy Seal raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
International Forces say they have killed a top militant leader suspected of providing support for Tuesday's deadly attack at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul. That attack killed 12 people.
Former Boston mob boss, James "Whitey" Bulger is back in court again this morning asking for a public defender to take his case. Federal prosecutors say that taxpayers should not have to pay for his defense. He was caught last week after 16 years on the run with more than $800,000 in cash.
A check in on pre-market trading, futures are up slightly ahead of the opening bell. Weathering new weekly jobless data that just came out; 428,000 people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time last week. That's down about a thousand from the previous week, but it's still considered a high number.
You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING will be back after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: A new promise this morning when it comes to fighting lung cancer. A study of more than 53,000 current and former smokers found that getting routine CAT scans can potentially save their lives. CHETRY: Yes, this is very promising.
Senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us now. so we talk about the usefulness of CT scan specially at detecting early stage lung cancer, what did they find?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What they found is that if all smokers and former smokers got CT scans, that they would save about -- that they could cut down on the death rate by about 20 percent. If these heavy smokers and former heavy smokers got CT scans routinely, you can save tens of thousands of lives.
ROMANS: Wow. Is radiation a concern here?
COHEN: You know, radiation is a concern because CT scans do indeed, have radiation. So for example, take a look at this, when a CT scan will give you much more radiation than you would see in an x- ray. The numbers are just bigger but many people would say it's worth it.
By the way, if you can look, that is an actual CT scan of a lung with cancer in it. The red arrow is pointing to it. You can see this in the naked eye, even we can see it here on TV. The CT scans do a really good job of showing it.
CHETRY: And -- and so is -- when -- when it relates to the survival rate, because we do talk about lung cancer being very deadly. If they catch it that early, it's much easier to treat.
COHEN: It is easier to treat but there is a down side to CT scans that I think we have to talk about. They actually will find a lot of false/positives. They'll see something that they think is cancer but it's not and then you have to have a lot of procedures to investigate it.
So in this study, 16 people died not from cancer, but from all of the procedures they had to have to look into the cancer. And several -- many of those people didn't even have cancer to begin with. So imagine you get a CT scan it tells you, you have cancer and you don't. You have these follow-up things and you die from the follow-up procedures and you didn't have cancer.
ROMANS: Right, that some of which could be invasive and then there's all kinds of bacteria and a hospital-acquired infections, all of that sort of things. Should all smokers get some kind of screening for lung cancer then, advanced screening like this?
COHEN: Right, I mean these incredible results do make you wonder if I'm a smoker or I was a smoker should I? and soon by the end of the summer, groups like the American Cancer Society are going to come out with some recommendations.
In the meantime, you can talk to your doctor and say hey, I want to know is it worth my getting a CT scan? It will be especially worth it if you're over the age of 50 and if you are or were a very heavy smoker. CHETRY: There's also a cost issue, of course. Will your insurance companies cover this?
COHEN: Right.
Right now, your insurance companies might not cover it because the study just came out. But as the months go by, they very well might. It's about $300 to get one of these CT scans.
ROMANS: All right Elizabeth Cohen. Thank you so much Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
CHETRY: All right, so we are talking cars, especially with the summer driving season kicking into full gear. Ali Velshi is outside in Columbus Circle. Hi Ali.
VELSHI: Any excuse to talk about cars. Look it's summer driving season, I'm not going to waste your times with whether you should keep your windows tightly tuned or you should -- you should have your air pressure right or change your oil. You know all that.
I'm going to give you three things that you may not know about to keep your car in top shape and save you some money with gas prices where they are.
We're coming right back. This is AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Beautiful days like this were not meant for three- piece suits. They were meant for driving -- America's passion. And I'm here with Art Jacobsen; he's the vice president at Car MD. Mario Scaliano (ph), he's a technician. They are telling us about a few things that you can do to your car right now that can really help you save gas and keep your car more efficient as we head into summer.
What are you holding here?
MARIO SCALIANO, TECHNICIAN, CAR MD: This is an oxygen sensor. The number one reason that pesky engine light comes on right here, an oxygen sensor.
VELSHI: Is that right.
SCALIANO: Yes. If you don't replace this part it will lead to a 40 percent drop in fuel economy and cost you up to a thousand dollars in extra gas at the pump each and every year.
VELSHI: Where is the best place to figure out whether you need this done. You just do it at a certain mileage level?
SCALIANO: Where your check engine light comes on, this is the main reason that it comes on. So essentially, you need to find out why it's on and get it replaced. It costs about $200 to change this and like I said it's going to cost you an extra thousand dollars at the pump if you don't do it.
VELSHI: Wow. Mario is fixing it up as we speak. When you say cost $200 to change that -- is that to have somebody change it?
SCALIANO: Yes. That's to have somebody change it.
VELSHI: It looks like it's pretty easy.
SCALIANO: It's pretty easy. He's going to be done in a few seconds.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Good job.
All right. While he's wrapping that up and that was pretty easy, let's walk over here. There are a couple of things that people can know about. This is not as obvious as say changing your oil. But checking that gas cap. What goes wrong with gas caps?
SCALIANO: Gas cap, the current vehicle held index -- this is the number two reason check engine lights come on. It's a loose or cracked gas cap. 147 million gallons of gas evaporate into the atmosphere each and every year from loose and cracked gas cap.
VELSHI: Now, a lot of cars give you some sort of signal if you don't really tighten it properly, it will -
SCALIANO: Yes, the check engine light will come on. And the reason that that happens is the government is very focused on this. 147 million gallons that's a big problem with $5 gas right around the corner that is $700 million that are evaporating into the atmosphere. It's just waste.
It's why the government is so focused on this emission.
VELSHI: Is this the (INAUDIBLE) -- it is the tampering out or just people just not closing it properly.
SCALIANO: Both. The system that requires you to check the leak at 0.02 inches. So a pin hole and a leak in the system, gas is going to evaporate. This was the number tow reason in the Car and Vehicle Health Index.
VELSHI: That's easy to fix. You don't need an installer for it. You can get a new one and learn how to close it properly.
SCALIANO: Exactly. Easy for everybody to do.
Number three reason: catalytic inverter. This shouldn't even be in the top ten. This is a very durable part. The reason that this is number three is because people put off the small repairs; things like oxygen sensors, fuel injectors, and spark plugs.
VELSHI: And then this guy comes up? SCALIANO: Yes. This cost $1,300 to replace and something as simple as a spark plug. Small problems lead to big problems with big price tags. This is a big problem and if you don't take care of the smaller problems when they are small this is exactly what's going to happen.
VELSHI: And by this, this is an inverter that will cause you problems then you go to get your emissions tested.
SCALIANO: Absolutely.
VELSHI: This is the reason why you may not have it.
SCALIANO: Actually this is from an actual vehicle here in New York. What happens is a fire actually starts in the catalytic inverter. It's very unsafe; it actually melts the (INAUDIBLE). You can see that it's melted. That is what happens with this.
VELSHI: Wow. I should like a (INAUDIBLE). So you mentioned spark plugs.
SCALIANO: The small mighty spark plug rounds out the top five. This is something again, very simple for everybody to change. If you know how to work a wrench you can change a spark plug. Very cost-effective usually under $5 to change. This leads to a misfire. Misfire, raw fuel goes in, starts the fire in your catalytic converter. If you ever see a flashing check engine light, that's misfire as well. Very severe, you need to get that addressed right away.
VELSHI: There are some torque issues with that so you might want to leave that to a pro unless somebody's taught you how to do it.
SCALIANO: Exactly right.
VELSHI: Let's walk over here to the Toyota Prius. Believe it or not, these things have been around for ten years. So we talk about hybrid as this new thing but as a result of being around ten years some of them need some repairs and the repairs -- well, they don't need them often but it can get costly.
SCALIANO: Exactly. So hybrids are something very important for consumers to be aware of. They don't fail very often, but boy, when they do fail you better have your checkbook ready. It's going to be expensive.
Two of the top ten most expensive repairs in the Car and Vehicle Health Index were related to hybrids. The inverter assembly which you can see here cost around $5,000 to replace and recalibrate.
VELSHI: Generally speaking, does that have to be done on a certain mileage or just when it fails?
SCALIANO: Again, it doesn't happen very often. As hybrids get more and more common in the marketplace we're going to start to see those prices come down but right now it's not like you can just run to any shop and get that done. It's something -- you have to have a very specialized technician do for you. $5,000 for that, about $2,500 for the battery.
VELSHI: All right. So this stuff you watch out for. This isn't going to affect your fuel as it's getting there, right. it's going to work or not work.
SCALIANO: Correct. Exactly.
VELSHI: All right. Good.
These are a few things that can you do to keep your car running at top speed. I'm going to take a few more minutes for him but for now, I'm going to send it back to you, Kiran and Christine.
CHETRY: Sounds good. All right. Some good tips. Hopefully, people are paying attention if they are hitting the road.
ROMANS: That's right. That's right. Saving money on the front end and not paying on the back end.
All right "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now. Hi Kyra.
