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American Morning
British Tabloid Scandal Widens; Debt Ceiling and Your Bottom Line; Feeling The Heat; Dealing With Debt; Space Junk Threatens Spacewalk
Aired July 12, 2011 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry.
Rupert Murdoch's media empire under fire. His reporters now accused of illegally invading the privacy of Britain's former prime minister as this hacking scandal widens. We're live from London ahead.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi.
Much of the country is feeling the heat -- literally feeling the heat -- and relief from the summer scorcher may be still days away -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC)
CHETRY: And good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. It's Tuesday, July 12th. Christine has the morning off.
VELSHI: Well, we've got a lot of news this morning, including some breaking news out of Afghanistan.
CHETRY: That's right. We begin there where Afghan President Hamid Karzai's half-brother was found shot to death at his home. Ahmed Wali Karzai was the provincial council chief of Kandahar. He suffered gunshot wounds to his head and chest according to hospital officials.
A spokesman for Kandahar's government says that a guard killed Karzai.
The Taliban says that the guard was working for them.
The United States has long suspected Ahmed Wali Karzai of being involved in drug trafficking.
VELSHI: Much of the country is waking up this morning in grips of a dangerous heat wave. We've seen the worst so far that we've seen this summer. Excessive heat warnings and advisories are posted in 23 states. Those are them right now.
The heat in many areas could reach 115 degrees. The heat wave is being blamed for at least one death in Madison County, Illinois.
In Oklahoma, it was so hot that part of a highway in Pawnee County buckled. Look at that. Motorist was hospitalized after his bike hit the buckled pavement. In Arkansas, several communities have opened cooling centers to help escape the oppressive temperatures. Good rule of thumb in this heat; whatever you're doing, don't overdo it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're going to go outside in heat like this better be drinking a lot of water before you come out. Make sure you have some substance in your stomach or you might be going to the hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was hard to like stay focused because it was so hot out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dehydrated, exhausted, you know, just tired.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Right now, nearly 400,000 people in the Chicago area are still without power following the worst storm in a decade. Utility officials say it could be several days before many of those customers are back on-line.
The video we're looking at here, I think you saw an airplane there -- I'm not sure, OK, which video we're dealing with -- this one is capturing the sheer force of the storm as it blew through Rockford, Illinois. The driving rains and powerful winds left debris on the road making for treacherous driving conditions.
CHETRY: CNN's Rob Marciano is tracking this extreme weather for us. He is at the CNN weather center in Atlanta.
Wow. I mean, boy, you know, for people who have to work outside today especially, it is going to be tough.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And here's the thing with this heat, guys, it's like you're dying for a thunderstorm, something just to cool you off. But with this kind of heat and humidity buildup, you can get thunderstorms that pop like we had in Chicago where we still have almost a half million people without power, tremendous amount of wind energy with that system. There's a tremendous amount of real estate, as we've mentioned, that are under a heat advisories and excessive heat warnings and we haven't seen a ton of record-breaking heat.
That's because the humidity is so high, it's kind of keeping some of the high temperatures down. But it's making it feel even more miserable and it's even dangerous and even more important to stay hydrated.
We'll see heat indices up in over 100 degrees, maybe reaching as high as 115 today, and the heat warnings and watches extend now all the way up into the Northeast. So, places like D.C. and New York, will easily see temperatures that will be over 90 and heat indices over 100 degrees in some spots. Today and tomorrow, Little Rock seeing 104, expected to see 104 degrees for a heat index in Memphis, 107 expected in Montgomery and through Thursday, not looking for a whole lot of relief from this, and some of these areas, we've seen temperatures over 100 degrees for over a week.
Here's your cold front, which this time of year, doesn't make a whole lot of progress to the south. So, we're in the thick of it as far as the steaminess goes. In the Northeast, may see a little cool off, but not today. Temperatures easily up and over 90 degrees. This may be a little excessive. But it's not unheard of. I wouldn't be surprised if D.C. in some spots touches 100 degrees today.
Try to stay cool. Guys, back up to you.
VELSHI: All right, Rob. Thanks.
MARCIANO: You bet.
CHETRY: An explosive new development in Britain's tabloid hacking scandal leaving Rupert Murdoch's media empire reeling. According to published reports, Murdoch's reporters illegally accessed the bank accounts of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and also the medical records of his seriously ill son. Brown is now accusing Murdoch's newspapers of having links with criminals.
These developments coming on the heels of a phone hacking scandal that forced Murdoch to shut down "News of the World" Sunday and his plans to take over British Sky Broadcasting have been disrupted with News Corps's market value taking a multibillion dollar hit.
Let's go to Dan Rivers. He is live in London with the growing scandal.
What is the latest, Dan?
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this war of words is sort of escalating involving Gordon Brown, now the former prime minister, and "News International." Gordon Brown has given an interview this morning in which he talked about his complete revulsion and shock at having had his personal details accessed by newspapers, not the "News of the World" this time, but other international newspapers, "The Sun" and "The Sunday Times."
And what particularly I think has angered and shocked him, the suggestion that his son's medical records were obtained by "The Sun" newspaper in which they went with a story talking about a condition, cystic fibrosis, that his son had. He said that this is completely unacceptable. That he, you know, always never wanted his son to be put in the public eye in any way. It was completely private.
"The Sun" and "News International" are saying they managed to get these medical records without breaking the law legitimately, and therefore, they decided to run with this story. So, this story is not dying down, anyway, this route (ph).
This morning, some of the police involved in the past and now with this story are going to be questioned by a powerful committee of politicians and we're expecting that may produce some new information on all this, particularly John Yates, the man that initially investigated all these claims of phone hacking and said look, there's just a handful of people who have been targeted, it's basically not a big deal, now he's realized what a catastrophic error of judgment that was because the woman that's replaced him on this inquiry, Sue Acres (ph), is saying up to 4,000 people could have been targeted by these newspapers.
CHETRY: And, Dan, what about the implications that this is not just the now defunct "News of the World," but other papers?
RIVERS: Yes. And I think this is really significant and really bad news for "News International." It's no longer just confined to "News of the World," the paper that they closed down, realizing it had become sort of toxic as a brand. It's now spread to "The Sun" and "The Sunday Times." Now, both of these are slightly different in that they, so far, have not been shown to have used phone hacking, but they have been shown to use what, at best, slightly underhand techniques, at worst illegal activities to get information.
"The Sun" is maintaining it got the medical records without breaking the law. "The Sunday Times" saying there was a legitimate public interest in looking into Gordon Brown's bank details and so on, on a tip. But there was some sort of corruption there or something which was all proved to be untrue.
But I think this is spreading now -- and that's really, really bad news for "News International" and Rupert Murdoch.
CHETRY: All right. Dan Rivers for us in London this morning -- thanks so much.
VELSHI: Happening now in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in court and appealing his extradition to Sweden where he's wanted on sexual misconduct allegations. Right now, Assange remains in the U.K. under house arrest. The Swedish warrant is not related to the release of confidential U.S. documents. A live report from London later this hour.
And tensions between the Syrian regime and the U.S. reaching a new high this morning. Mobs have attacked the U.S. embassy in Damascus. Yesterday, crowds surrounded the building, breaking windows and using spray paint. No one was hurt.
The violence comes as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unleashed her strongest criticisms yet of that country's president, Bashar al-Assad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: President Assad is not indispensable and we have absolutely nothing invested in him remaining in power. Our goal is to see that the will of the Syrian people for a democratic transformation occurs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Clinton went on to say Assad has lost his legitimacy and he's trying to deflect attention on his crackdown of peaceful protesters.
CHETRY: The Obama administration moving forward on a plan that would require gun dealers in four border states with Mexico to do some extra work. Under the new policy, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas have to report the sales of high-powered rifles under certain conditions. It's part of an effort to stem the flow of guns to Mexican drug cartels.
The National Rifle Association says it will sue to stop the new requirements.
VELSHI: And a crowd of protesters get rowdy and shut down a San Francisco subway station. It happened last night. The group calling itself No Justice, No BART was upset after transit police shot and killed a drunk man waving a knife at the same station last week. So far, no officers have been charged in that shooting.
BART is the metro, the subway system there.
CHETRY: Yes, Bay Area Rapid Transit, or known as BART.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: The massive cheating scandal involving several public schools in Atlanta has cost four superintendents and a principal their jobs. These firings come less than a week after dozens of educators were accused of changing grades and falsifying standardized test scores. Also this morning, a new suburban Dallas school superintendent has been put on paid leave because she used to be a deputy superintendent in the Atlanta school system.
And earlier this morning, crew of the space shuttle Atlantis woke up to the sound of Matthew West and his single "More."
These are good tunes to wake up to. The crew has a busy day ahead of them. Today will be the last spacewalk conducted with a visiting shuttle crew present.
NASA is extending the shuttle's mission for an extra day. Atlantis and its crew are now scheduled to return next Thursday at 5:56 a.m. Eastern. The spacewalk is due to start at about a quarter to 9:00 Eastern today.
CHETRY: Cool. Well, remember, yesterday, we were like -- wow, that Yankee fan who returned Derek Jeter's ball, what a great thing.
VELSHI: What a great guy.
CHETRY: How great! Well, he didn't ask for a dime. But the IRS may still come after Christian Lopez, the one who caught Jeter's 3,000 hit. It was h home run into the leftfield bleachers on Saturday.
"New York Times" had a chance to talk to tax lawyers who say the 23- year-old fan who owes more than $100,000 in student loans may now owe taxes on gifts from the Yankees. Remember, they gave him the seats, maybe more than $14,000 worth of taxes. The team moved him to $1,500 seats on Saturday and they also gave him luxury box tickets for the rest of the year.
So, it's our question of the day. Do you think that Christian Lopez may have been better off not catching Jeter's home run? Let us know what you think. Send us an e-mail, tweet, tell us on Facebook and we'll your thoughts later in the hour.
All right. Well, still to come on AMERICAN MORNING: it's about to get harder to indulge in the double bacon cheeseburger and fries without feeling guilty. We'll tell you why.
VELSHI: Also, Rupert Murdoch's media empire taking a financial hit as a phone hacking scandal spreads way beyond the tabloids.
CHETRY: And after that phone hacking scandal forced Murdoch to shut down "News of the World," how vulnerable is your phone? Brian Todd shows us three easy ways that hackers can break into your voice mail.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. Twelve minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
They're deadlocked in D.C. and it's already hitting you and your savings and retirements. Stocks dropped yesterday in part because the talks to cut the deficit and raise the nation's debt ceiling went nowhere again. That's part of the problem.
The other part of the problem is that Europe's debt crisis continues its bleeding into Italy now. The Dow lost 152 points at the closing bell. The NASDAQ was down 57 points. The S&P 500 down 24. The Dow was down about 1.2 percent.
All around the world, markets are tumbling, the Nikkei, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong, London's FTSE, all of them are down. I know you like the Paris CAC 40, that's down as well.
CHETRY: Yes, I do.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: And the Italy thing is - is troublesome. And we talk about PIGS a lot, right? Portugal, Ireland -
VELSHI: Ireland, Greece -
CHETRY: -- Greece and Spain.
VELSHI: Spain, right.
CHETRY: But Italy is the third largest economy in Europe -
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: -- and this - and their percentage of debt to GDP or however that goes is pretty troubling. VELSHI: Yes. It's - and they just need somebody to sort of start moving out of this thing and we're not seeing that. And we're seeing more countries getting into it and that affects us here.
CHETRY: All right. Well, one key player in all of this - all of this discussion, world markets and, of course, our debt and deficit talks here at home, Tim Geithner, the Treasury Secretary. The Treasury has already pulled off a few financial tricks I guess you could say to keep us from hitting the debt limit that was back in May. Geithner is expected to speak today in a little over two hours from now. We're going to see if he has anything to say about the ongoing crisis this morning.
VELSHI: Meanwhile, the partisan divide is getting only deeper with - with each round of these talks. The president and Hill leaders have agreed to meet again today, with just 22 days until the nation is unable to make its payments because of this debt ceiling. The president says it's more like eight days really because the way things move in Washington they need the time to put in the legislation to make sure everything goes smoothly.
And no one actually knows for sure what could happen to the global economy if these talks fail. Republicans are still saying no deal if it includes tax hikes and some Democrats are saying don't touch Medicare in the negotiations. The president repeatedly saying it is time to get serious.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We might as well do it now. Now is the time to do it. Now is the time to deal with these issues. If not now, when? What I've said to them is, let's go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Dan Lothian -
VELSHI: Go ahead (ph).
CHETRY: Dan Lothian is live at the White House for us this morning. So the president, you know, was - he came out with some pretty strong language yesterday saying, "Look, I'm willing to take heat from my own party. I hope the GOP is willing to do the same."
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that's why he's called them back here to the White House. This will be the third meeting now this week, but no significant progress made yesterday.
The point, though, that the president continued to push it that he wants the biggest deal possible, the most comprehensive deal. And as you pointed out he told Republicans that he's willing to take some heat from his party, so he's urging them to do the same. And on this issue of raising taxes during a difficult economic period, the president making the case that any of this would not take place until 2013. The bottom line, though, is that the president is not willing to accept any temporary agreement because this, he says, would only push the problem down the road.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I will not sign a 30-day or a 60-day or a 90-day extension. That - that is just not an acceptable approach. And if we think it's going to be hard - if we think it's hard now, imagine how these guys are going to be thinking six months from now in the middle of election season when they're all up. It's not going to get easier. It's going to get harder. So we might as well do it now. Pull off the Band-Aid. Eat our peas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LOTHIAN: House Speaker John Boehner says that this big gap, this - the divide, is about policy, not about process. He points out that Republicans have been very honest in their discussions. He says that they, too, want to see a deal, but in his words, he says, it takes, quote, "two to tango." Kiran?
CHETRY: Dan Lothian for us. Thanks.
Well, House Speaker John Boehner isn't budging under pressure from both sides, the White House and, of course, the Tea Party wing of the GOP. And he's still insisting no tax hikes in any deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: The American people will not accept and the House cannot pass a bill that raises taxes on job creators. The House can only pass a debt limit bill that includes spending cuts, larger than the hike in the debt limit, as well as real restraints on future spending.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. 7:10 Eastern, we're going to talk to former Treasury Undersecretary Jay Powell about what's at stake if the federal government can't cover the bills. He says hundreds of thousands of paychecks may be on the line if they're signed by Uncle Sam.
VELSHI: All right. If you're thinking about buying a car, you might want to jump on it. Details coming up. We'll tell you why.
CHETRY: Also, had it with screaming and crying kids while you're trying to eat? Well, we have a restaurant for you. No kids allowed anymore. Parents are saying, how rude.
VELSHI: And our question of the day. Do you think Christian Lopez would have been better off not catching Derek Jeter's home run? He may be on the hook for $14,000 in taxes even though he gave the ball back.
Let us know what you think. Send us an e-mail, a tweet, or tell us on Facebook. We'll read some of your comments at the end of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Twenty-three minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Uncertainty is running high on Wall Street over Europe's debt crisis spreading to Italy. U.S. stock futures trading much lower this morning following a rough session yesterday when the Dow dropped a little more than one percent. Both the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 dropped about two percent.
Some of America's biggest companies are reporting second quarter earnings today. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Google, all of them reporting later this week. Analysts at Thompson Reuters are forecasting a 7.5 percent increase in earnings for S&P 500 companies.
News Corporation stock taking a big hit after it stalls in its bid to buy satellite TV Company British Sky Broadcasting or BSkyB. Shares of News Corp dropped sharply more than 7.5 percent yesterday. Support for the deal weakening after news of the phone hacking scandal at some of News Corporations' publications.
The world's biggest name in networking equipment Cisco System reportedly slashing its workforce by 14 percent or 10,000 jobs that's in order to revive profit growth. According to a report by Bloomberg, a majority of those cuts could start by the end of summer.
Well, LinkedIn knocking down MySpace from its number two spot ranking America's most popular social networks. That's in terms of unique users last month. But MySpace still has a higher number of active users. Facebook is towering at number one for web traffic.
A full-size truck might be a bargain this summer if you're looking for a new car. Automotive News Data shows a glut in supply driving a price war between dealers to get the trucks off the lots. Manufacturers had a strong start this year, but they couldn't cut back quick enough to offset a weaker economy.
And don't forget, for the very latest news about your money, check out the all-new CNNMoney.com.
AMERICAN MORNING will be right back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's a summer scorcher. The triple digit heat spreading from New England, all the way to Oklahoma and from the Deep South to the Ohio Valley on this AMERICAN MORNING.
VELSHI: Twenty-nine minutes after the hour. Let me bring you up to speed on some of the top stories we're following right now.
Explosive new allegations in Britain's hacking scandal. Published reports say reporters with a second news corporation owned newspaper, illegally accessed the bank accounts of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the medical records of his seriously ill son. Brown accuses Rupert Murdoch's newspapers of having, quote, "links with criminals."
CHETRY: Afghan President Hamid Karzai's half-brother has been found shot to death at his Kandahar home. Ahmed Wali Karzai was the provincial council chief of Kandahar. He suffered gunshot wounds to his head and chest according to hospital officials. A spokesman for Kandahar's government says that a guard killed Karzai. The Taliban says that the guard was working for them.
VELSHI: Well, they all agreed default is not an option, but can President Obama and Congressional leaders agree on a deal to raise the government's borrowing limit? They're going to meet again today.
Some Republicans are calling for a short term measure before the August 2nd deadline to allow more time for negotiations. The president says absolutely not.
CHETRY: And it looks like another good day to stay inside in any air conditioning. Twenty-three states have posted warnings or advisories about the dangerous heat. The oppressive heat and humidity are being blamed on one death in Illinois.
CNN's Rob Marciano is at the extreme weather center in Atlanta.
It seems barely anyone in the country is going to be able to be escaping this heat today.
MARCIANO: Yes, especially the eastern two-thirds of the country. And you got to remember, guys, that heat actually is the number one weather-related killer. So, take it seriously and certainly check on your neighbors and your -- the elderly especially. And, you know, not everybody has air conditioning and we need it in this sort of heat.
You know, we haven't seen a ton of record highs but the humidity, that's what's killing it here, right, as far as it feels like outside. Heat indices will be easily up and over 100 degrees today, in some cases up to 115. The pink areas from Kansas City back to Memphis, those are the most dangerous spots. But the watches have now been extended up and through the Northeast. So, we're expanding the amount of heat that we're getting across the eastern two-thirds country.
Ninety-eight expected in Atlanta, 92 degrees in New York, maybe as high as 100 degrees in D.C.
You include the humidity and we're looking at temperatures that will feel like they're up and over 100 degrees not only for today and tomorrow, but the next couple days.
We didn't have rough weather. Last night, in Chicago, still almost half a million people without power. Check out some of this coming video out of Rockford, Illinois, where winds gusted to 80 miles an hour. Looked like a hurricane through there. That will do some damage to trees and power lines for sure. ComEd saying that it may take several days for some spots to get back on-line as far as power goes. So, a nasty squall line that moved through the Chicagoland area. Hopefully, today, they won't see that sort of action.
Guys, try to stay cool. It's going to be a steamy one in New York as well today. Back up to you.
VELSHI: All right, Rob, thanks.
MARCIANO: You bet.
VELSHI: Well, it's a trillion dollar showdown in D.C. right now. The White House, Democrats and Republicans have just three weeks to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Their failure could hit your family immediately.
Tom Foreman is here to show us what a U.S. government default would feel like for the average American.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali, Kiran, forget about all those trillions of dollars we're talking about in the budget talks. Let's talk about what this might mean to an average household if the government goes into default. Nobody really knows.
But here are some of the possibilities people are talking about. Fundamentally what could happen is interest rates and the value of money could change. That's the big issue here. So, things like the value of your home, your interest rates if you're trying to buy a new one could rise, you could end up owing more on a mortgage if that happens.
If you wanted to buy a car, same thing, the rates could go up higher. Your gas prices could increase. Your roads could be in poor quality, all because of the problem the government has borrowing money and how it affects the rest of the markets.
Let's say that we're looking at the breadwinners in the house. Dad is a small business owner here. He could be unemployed. Obviously, that's a possibility. His savings could lose money. He could have a difficult time getting a loan to expand his business because money just gets tighter at times like this.
Let's say mom actually works for the government. She could wind up furloughed if they can't afford to pay for her.
Credit card rates could rise.
Let's say that the daughter in the house is in the military. Her salary could be limited or delayed. Possible IOUs from the government.
And contractors who make things for and provide services to the government, could have their own layoffs because if you can't support all she's doing you can't support what they do for her. What about the son who's trying to go to college here. Student loans could be harder to obtain. There could be restrictions on financial aid a that he hasn't faced so far.
And even grandma over here could wind up with her Social Security benefits delayed or possibly even reduced.
The trick of all this is, while these are possibilities of what might happen if we go into default, many of them, as you might recognize, are also the things that might be on the table as we simply try to cut back the budget.
That's why so many people here in Washington say we really are between a bit of a rock and hard place, not just for Washington, but for people in their homes all over the country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Good explanation. Look, it's one of those things, it's nebulous. We're not -- nobody really knows for sure what happens on August 2nd if we don't hit (ph) the debt ceiling. I'll tell you the one thing somewhat satisfactory to me, it seems like all the players involved in making a decision are largely on the same side, that it would be bad, if we didn't raised the debt ceiling.
CHETRY: Right. And claim they want to do everything possible to make sure we don't get to this point. They're cutting it a little close.
VELSHI: Yes.
Well, ahead at 7:10, we're actually going to ask former undersecretary of the treasury, Jay Powell, what else is at stake if the federal government can't cover the bills, because at that point, the Treasury Department has got to make decisions as to what gets paid. He says hundreds of thousands of paychecks may be on the line, paychecks that are signed by Uncle Sam.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is on a trip to Afghanistan, announcing plans for a troop draw down, a French troop draw down. Sarkozy says that France will pull out a thousand of its troops by the end of 2012, following a timetable comparable to the U.S. troop withdrawal.
France currently has about 3,900 troops in Afghanistan.
VELSHI: A suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's remote tribal region killing 13 alleged militants. Pakistani intelligence officials say the target was an insurgent hideout in the area of South Waziristan along the Afghanistan border.
CHETRY: Two New York men arrested and accused of stealing thousands of dollars of rare documents from the Maryland Historical Society. One of the suspects is well-known author and presidential historian Barry Landau. Among the documents reportedly stolen, papers side by Abraham Lincoln, some worth $300,000. VELSHI: So, this story, this guy didn't ask for a dime, but the IRS might come after the guy who caught Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit. It was a home run into left field bleachers on Saturday. "The New York Times" talked to tax lawyers who say the 23-year-old fan who owes $100,000 in student loans may owe taxes on gifts from the Yankees. The team gave him great seats, right?
CHETRY: Yes, like $1,500 great seats.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: And they also gave him luxury box tickets for the rest of the year.
VELSHI: So, this is our question to you, our question of the day. Do you think Yankee fan Christian Lopez would have been better off not catching Jeter's home run?
Let us know what you think. Send us an e-mail, a tweet, or tell us on Facebook. We'll read some of your thoughts at the end of the hour. Or catching it and dropping it.
CHETRY: Might be the video of the day by the way.
Take a look at steepest rollercoaster. This thing so steep it actually looks like it goes inverse at some point. Look at this thing.
VELSHI: Wow.
CHETRY: It just opened at the Fuji-Q Highland Amusement park in Tokyo and it's called Takabisha.
VELSHI: It means dominant in English.
CHETRY: Like you just didn't read that. It's 141 feet tall and it features a free-fall angle of 121 degrees.
VELSHI: I don't know what that means.
CHETRY: Yes, well, it means that it's scary as heck.
VELSHI: OK.
CHETRY: Riders plunge around toward the ground at 62 miles an hour, and if you have a need for speed, the Takabisha covers more than two miles of track in 112 seconds.
VELSHI: All right. So, 100 --
CHETRY: So, you're going like this. You're -- if you're going up, you go --
VELSHI: Wow. CHETRY: Invert and go. I don't know. It looks scary to me. I'll tell you that. It's 112 seconds. You wait in line for five hours to get on for 112 seconds.
VELSHI: A big thrill.
OK. Well, this restaurant can get rid of its high chairs. Outside of Pittsburgh. It has a new rule, no kids under 6.
CHETRY: Yes, the owner of McDain's Restaurant and Golf Center says he did it in order to protect the more mature customers -- protect from the throngs of screaming, crying children.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE VUICK, MCDAIN'S RESTAURANT: Nothing wrong with babies, but the fact is, you can't control their volume. I think it's the hype of being impolite and selfish.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was an ignorant decision. You know, who says that at 6 you're magically mature enough to eat in a restaurant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, the owner says that he thinks most of the customers will be on his side.
VELSHI: All right. Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING: if you build a supermarket, will the folks living in so-called food deserts come? New information on whether supermarkets can actually improve a person's diet.
CHETRY: And thousands of celebrities, even 9/11 victims, reportedly targeted by phone hacking British tabloids, leaving us wondering how hackers do it. Brian Todd reports it's a lot easier to hack into someone's voice mail than you think.
VELSHI: And at the top of the hour, developing story. A doctor in Pakistan arrested for allegedly helping the CIA set up a vaccination sting at Osama bin Laden's compound.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
In depth now -- everyone's talking this morning about the phone hacking scandal that has Rupert Murdoch's media empire stumbling a little bit.
CHETRY: Yes. Murdoch has been forced to shut down Britain's largest Sunday paper "News of the World." Reporters there allegedly hacked into the voice mail of thousands of celebrities, government officials and even the royals. Leaving us wondering how easy is it to hack into someone's phone and voice mail.
Here's Brian Todd. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For "News of the World" reporters to have allegedly hacked into the voice mail of murder victim Milly Dowler, of celebrities or terror victims, experts say they wouldn't have to be experts.
KEVIN MAHAFFEY, LOOKOUT MOBILE SECURITY: There are a lot of easy-to- use techniques and freely available tools that can help hackers get access to your phone.
TODD: In speaking with telecom and cyber security experts, we picked up three basic techniques hackers can use to get into your voice mail. First, they can dial into your voicemail network, keep trying default pass codes like 1111.
ROBOTIC VOICE: Enter password and pound sign.
(BEEPING)
ROBOTIC VOICE: Log-in incorrect. Try again.
TODD: Many cell-phone providers give users default pass codes to retrieve voice mails, and many users either never bother to change them or change them to bad pass codes like their birthdays, information that can be obtained from places like Facebook.
We spoke with Anup Ghosh, founder of Invincea, a cyber security company.
(on camera): A second method for hacking into someone's voicemail is to spoof your phone number to make someone's voice mail think that it's their own phone accessing the voice mail. To do that, you sometimes can go to a Web site that lets you get a spoof phone number. And Anup Ghosh and I are going to do that.
(voice-over): We buy a spoof account on Spoofcard.com, a legitimate Web site for pranksters. It allows us to call any number we want, make it seem like it's coming from any number we want. Then, from another phone, we call Anup's cell phone, disguised as his own number.
ANUP GHOSH, FOUNDER/CEO, INVINCEA: So, I'm going to ignore this phone call.
TODD (on camera): Ignore the call.
OK.
GHOSH (via phone): This is Anup Ghosh. Please leave a message. I'll return the call when I can.
TODD: You hit star.
ROBOTIC VOICE: You have one unheard message.
TODD: So we were able to hear your voice mails just now, a very simple process if you just dial a series of numbers.
GHOSH (on camera): That's absolutely right. I have a PIN set up on my voicemail account, but if I'm dialing my voicemail account from my phone, I get straight into it.
TODD (voice-over): Some carriers require you to give a pass code to access your voicemail from your own phone. Some don't, making it easier for hackers. A third method to hack into a voicemail --
MAHAFFEY: They can call your network operator and pretend to be you and say that they lost your password and that they need to get access to your account, provide information such as your Social Security number, your date of birth and your mother's maiden name, and they would be able to get access to your full account.
TODD: So, how do you protect yourself? Expert says you can call your carrier and set a passcode for your account so even if a hacker knows a lot of personal information about you, they don't know that passcode.
Experts say you should also keep changing the passwords on your different accounts, maybe as often as you change your toothbrush like every few months, and limit the amount of personal information about yourself on Facebook and other social media. That's a gold mine for hackers.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: This morning in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange beginning a two-day appeal against extradition to Sweden. That's where he's wanted on sexual assault charges, allegations he denies.
Our Atika Shubert is live from London, outside of the high court.
Good morning, Atika.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. Basically, this is an appeal, his first attempt fighting this extradition request was rejected. So, now, he's appealing here at the high court, and basically, he has a new legal team that's arguing that what happened in Sweden, what may be criminal in Sweden is not criminal here in Britain.
This, right now, is the crux of their argument, and they're trying to convince the judge that this needs to be further analyzed before considering whether or not this arrest warrant by Sweden should actually be validated and whether they should extradite Julian Assange. Remember, he's facing four allegations in Sweden, one of which is considered in Swedish legal terms as minor rape, also two other allegations of sexual molestation is the term in Sweden, but it's more akin to harassment or misconduct.
But all in all, it's important to remember, Assange has not been charged yet. These are merely allegations, and he's wanted for questioning, Kiran.
CHETRY: And he's fighting the extradition. All right. Atika Shubert for us this morning. Thanks so much.
Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING, find out how marines stationed in Afghanistan scored a date with actress, Mila Kunis. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. We'll be back in a moment.
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CHETRY: Forty-eight minutes past the hour. A look at your headlines this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY (voice-over): Twenty-three states from Michigan to Georgia and as far west as Texas are facing excessive heat warnings and advisories today. The heat index in many areas could reach as high as 115 degrees.
The president and Congressional leaders agreeing to meet again today to try to hammer out a debt deal. No progress yesterday and just 22 days remaining until the nation hits the debt ceiling and goes into default.
Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, is expected to hold a press conference in less than two hours. It's not clear what he's talking about, perhaps, the lack of progress in the debt ceiling talks.
A memorial service will be held in Palm Desert, California this afternoon for former first lady, Betty Ford. First Lady Michele Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton and Nancy Reagan are all scheduled to attend.
NASA says a piece of space junk should not threaten the planned spacewalk in just about two hours. If the debris does come too close to the space station, "Atlantis'" thrusters can be used to move it out of harm's way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY (on-camera): And you're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is back after a quick break.
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CHETRY: Fifty minutes past the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. You've heard of local brews but not like this. Anheuser- Busch is reportedly trying to trademark the area codes of 15 major U.S. cities and create local sounding brews. So, you may hear things like this in a bar soon. I'll have a pint of 202 for Washington or a bottle of 4015 for San Francisco. Anheuser-Busch already acquired Goose Island, that's the makers of 312 Urban Wheat Ale for Chicago.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Fifty-one minutes after the hour. Time for an "A.M. House Call." Building supermarkets in underserved neighborhood or so-called food deserts is not enough to improve the diets of people living there. According to a new study which tracked thousands of people in several large cities for 15 years, people didn't eat more fruits and vegetables when they had supermarkets available in their neighborhood. Researchers found income in the location of fast food restaurants were the strongest factors when it comes to food choice.
CHETRY: Like it or not, you'll soon know more about what you're eating at some of your favorite restaurants. The FDA will soon make it mandatory for restaurant and fast food chains with more than 20 locations to post calorie counts right on the menu. Coming up next, our Elizabeth Cohen breaks down whether this rule really change what we eat now.
VELSHI: I totally think it does.
CHETRY: In New York, we have it already.
VELSHI: And national chains that have a number of stores.
CHETRY: Right. And so, I was down in, I guess, I was in Delaware at a Friendly's.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: And they didn't have the calorie count on the burger I wanted. So, I thought, wow, I guess, I'm missing this because I'm used to seeing it.
VELSHI: I've made better choices because of it, because when it's that obvious, too, that this is twice the calorie count of this.
CHETRY: Right.
VELSHI: All right. More news about your health, dieting and parenting, don't listen to me, tune in to -- go to CNN.com/health.
CHETRY: Scared me there for a second.
VELSHI: All right. So much for being the lucky fan. We've been talking about how the IRS might come after the guy who caught Derek Jeter's 300th hit --
CHETRY: 3,000, yes.
VELSHI: 3,000 hit, I'm sorry. Thank you. Even though, he gave the ball back, the Yankees showered him with gifts including tickets for the rest of the year that cost over a grand each. So, luxury box tickets. So, now, he might end up paying $14,000 by some estimates, So, we asked you, do you think Yankee's fan, Christian Lopez, would have been better off not catching Jeter's homerun.
CHETRY: D3 Mango on Twitter, "It's worth every moment if you really love his Yankees. We're all in debt. So, what more (ph) for five minutes of fame and memories forever." VELSHI: Nice. On Twitter, we've got this one, "He caught a ball. He should not be taxed. He should still be able to do some things in this country without worrying about the government."
CHETRY: And Cameron on Facebook, "He should have caught it and sold it on eBay like a normal person. The fact that a baseball team that's rolling in as much money as the New York Yankees is pretty much thanking him by giving him tickets and then going around and taxing him is absolutely ridiculous." But again, it's not the Yankees.
VELSHI: It's not the Yankees. There are some angry people there this morning. Guys, hit snooze, sleep an extra hour and come back in an hour and talk to us. On Twitter, I've got this one, "The experience of catching the Jeter ball is precisely what the kid should remember. Not the BS that the IRS is threatening."
Nobody is threatening anything, by the way. "The New York Times" inquired about this. Now, one have said he should have sold it on eBay, I wonder if he would have been subjected to taxes on that.
CHETRY: Right, but he'd have money. So, it will be sold -- right now, he has no money, and he has these --
VELSHI: Right. You got student loans.
CHETRY: Tickets. He doesn't have any income. So, if he sold it and got, let's say, what, $100,000 for it or something.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: All right.
CHETRY: All right.
VELSHI: Keep your comments coming.
CHETRY: Keep your comments coming.
VELSHI: Send us an e-mail.
CHETRY: Send us an e-mail.
VELSHI: A tweet.
CHETRY: A tweet. Tell us on --
VELSHI: Facebook.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: We'll read more of your thoughts a bit later in the hour.
All right. A marine stationed in Afghanistan snags a date with actress, Mila Kunis a few months ago. Sergeant Scott Moore posted a video on YouTube. He asked the friends of benefit star to go to a marine corps dance with him in November. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. SCOTT MOORE, ASKED MILA KUNIS ON A DATE: Hey, Mila, Sergeant Moore, you can call me Scott. I just want to take a moment out of my day to invite you to the marines corps ball on November 18th (ph), Greenville, North Carolina, with yours truly. So, take a second, think about it, get back to me. All right. Bye now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Now, Mila was promoting her movie with Justin Timberlake and agreed to go after Timberlake urged her to accept, quote, "for her country"
CHETRY: All right. We'll see if she follows through. That's one excited --
VELSHI: Marine.
CHETRY: Marine.
VELSHI: Yes. Good for him.
CHETRY: Up next in the next hour, having trouble understanding the debt talks in D.C., all you have to know is that hundreds of thousands of paychecks could be on the line. We're going to ask an expert, a former treasury official about what it means for the average American.
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