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American Morning
European Bailout Deal; "We Can't Wait"; Blackbeard's Legacy; Dino-Mite!!; Hillary Clinton's Foreign Policy Moves Profiled; Foundation Seeks Genetic Secret to Healthy Life; Economy Growing at Faster Pace in Third Quarter; How to Live to 100; Lindsay Lohan's Dad Arrested Again
Aired October 27, 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: Europe makes a deal.
I'm Christine Romans.
After days of tense negotiations, a deal to prevent that region and much of the developed world to keep from plunging back into recession and it's good news for your 401(k) this morning.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello.
President Obama has a new strategy against Republicans and we can't wait.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi.
Depression was killing them. Now, Ruth Madoff reveals what she and her swindler husband plan to do to relieve their pain -- on this AMERICAN.
(MUSIC)
ROMANS: All right. Good morning, everyone. It's Thursday, October 27th.
Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING.
COSTELLO: Can you believe it's October 27th?
ROMANS: I can't believe it. Couple days we'll be saying November.
VELSHI: In a couple days, on Saturday, it will be the 29th of October.
ROMANS: And that is -- drum roll, please -- Ali's 21st birthday.
COSTELLO: So, happy early 21st. I'll take you out for a drink.
ROMANS: You don't look a day over 45.
COSTELLO: First up this morning, it's a deal. Europe overnight reached an agreement to address its debt crisis and hopefully prevent it from spreading across the globe. And right now, investors like what they see.
Overseas markets are up and here in the United States, the Dow and NASDAQ and the S&P 500 futures also in strong, positive territory.
VELSHI: Now, the president of the European commission says that they're still ironing out a few minor deals.
But let me lay it out for you. Here's what this deal solves. Not only some of the Greek debt crisis, but also the inability, or the instability of European banks and the problematic European bailout fund.
What's in the deal? Well, private holders, meaning nongovernment holders of Greek bonds are going to take a 50 percent hair cut. They're giving up 50 percent of the value of their bonds.
Greek debt to GDP, which is how you calculate debt, which was 150 percent is now 120 percent. That's still serious, but it's a lot better. And there's a new $100 billion International Monetary Fund that has been set up to fund the fund.
This also boosts the impact of the existing E.U. bailout fund. It's got some mechanisms that make it easier for others to invest in the E.U. And that's the important part. It creates these new ways to invest in the E.U., China, which is a country that has a lot of money, is going to be one of the countries that might actually be a major investor.
One of the other things it does is it makes European banks increase their core capital. That's capital that is easily traded -- it's money or things that are like cash to a minimum of 9 percent. I bet a lot of people think banks have a lot more than that in core capital.
In the long run, there are some critics who say this deal may not be enough. But as you just said, markets right now reacting very, very positively.
ROMANS: Yes. We have to get this behind us.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: Like this concern about America's largest trading zone partner is the Eurozone, you know? If they plunge into recession, it will be very bad for the U.S.
Now, hundreds of Wall Street protesters took the streets overnight to show their support for the "Occupy Oakland" demonstrators who are forced of their encampments by tear gas. A number of clashes broke out after some of the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters started walking in the street last night, blocking traffic and ignoring police orders that they had to stay on the sidewalk.
In all, 10 people were taken away for disorderly conduct.
COSTELLO: And the "Occupy" movement now spreading to Pakistan. Around 75 people came together yesterday for an "Occupy Islamabad" rally. The protests were aimed at the World Banks, and what they call an unfair capitalist world.
VELSHI: Stunning conviction from Ruth Madoff, the wife of convicted conman Bernie Madoff.
She tells CBS "60 Minutes" that on Christmas Eve 2008, just weeks after this whole thing came apart, just after Madoff admitted to the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, the couple decided to kill themselves.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUTH MADOFF, WIFE OF BERNIE MADOFF: I don't know whose idea it was. But we decided to kill ourselves because it was, it was so horrendous what was happening. We had terrible phone calls, hate mail -- just beyond anything. And I said I can't -- I just can't go on any more.
That's when I packed up some things to send to my sons and my grandchildren. I had some lovely antique things and things that I thought they might want. I mailed them, it was Christmas Eve. Added to the whole depression. We took pills and woke up the next day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you take?
MADOFF: I think Ambien.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many?
MADOFF: I don't even remember. I had, I took what we had. He took more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you leave notes?
MADOFF: No. It was very impulsive and we're glad we woke up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: It was the first time Ruth Madoff has spoken publicly since her husband's arrest. Bernie Madoff is now serving a life sentence.
And we should point out --
ROMANS: One of her sons did kill himself.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Leaving his children and his wife behind. But the pressure was just too much.
VELSHI: What was interesting there is how she said the pressure was too much, it wasn't, it wasn't the fact that Bernie Madoff had swindled everybody.
COSTELLO: They had felt so sorry for swindling, you know, hundreds of people. It was because --
VELHI: The hate mail, the phone calls, the backlash.
ROMANS: In the first weeks -- I mean, it's December 11, 2008 that this whole thing came unravel, Christmas 2008. I mean, things really got hot in the weeks and months ahead and became clear how people were so destroyed by this.
All right. With less than three months before voting begins for the Republican presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney feeling pretty good about his chances after seeing these brand-new poll numbers. New CNN/"TIME"/ORC poll showing Romney out in front in all four of the early voting states. He has a double-digit lead in Florida. He's lapping all of his opponents in New Hampshire.
But in Iowa and South Carolina, Herman Cain -- Herman Cain is running a close second to Mitt Romney.
COSTELLO: Rick Perry on the other hand is now in single digits, as low as 4 percent in New Hampshire. And after a series of stumbles, he is now thinking about passing on some of the remaining debates. The Perry camp saying he'd rather spend more time face-to-face with voters anywhere from a dozen to 18 more GOP debates in the works right now.
VELSHI: That's a lot of nights up watching GOP debates.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: While Republicans are battling to find a nominee, President Obama is reframing his fight against them from "yes, we can" to "we can't wait."
Here's Jessica Yellin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Have you picked up on the president's new message?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job.
We can't wait for Congress to do its job.
We can't afford to keep waiting for them if they're not going to do anything.
YELLIN: Yes, he's running against Congress, but there's something else. Notice a new message discipline? He was famous for it in 2008.
OBAMA: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.
YELLIN: Now, it's back.
OBAMA: Pass this bill. We need to pass this bill. Pass this jobs bill.
YELLIN: It began with his push for the jobs plan.
GEOFF GARIN, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: One thing that sometimes hasn't occurred in the past in this administration is the president saying the same thing over and over again. And repetition matters in politics.
ANITA DUNN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Presidents needs to lay out their vision. That's an important part of what the president is doing right now.
YELLIN: For Democrats, it's all about drawing a contrast with Republican plans for the future.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He seems to have made the turn strategically, and say, wait, I got to talk about the future. What are we going to tomorrow? How are we going to create jobs and how are they going to cost jobs?
YELLIN: But this Republican thinks it's already too late.
WHIT AYRES, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: The fundamental problem for the president's message is that three quarters of the country believes we're off on the wrong track. And so, they have pretty well closed their ears to the president's message. President Obama's message is not resonating with most Americans.
YELLIN (on camera): According to the latest Gallup tracking poll, 71 percent of Americans believe economic conditions are getting worse and 15 percent disapprove of the job the president's doing. Those are tough numbers for an incumbent president to overcome.
Jessica Yellin, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. The White House now defending the State Department's decision to buy more than $70,000 of President Obama's books, saying embassies provide them to help advance U.S. foreign policy. The White House saying the decision was made by individual embassies around the world and that Washington had nothing to do with it.
"The Washington Times" first reported that U.S. embassies from Egypt to South Korea to Indonesia, they spend thousands of dollars to stock libraries with copies of the president's memoirs, "Dreams from My Father," and "The Audacity of Hope."
COSTELLO: Still ahead: women in power. How Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is trying to use the power of social media to change the world, even using some top secret technology. An in-depth look at the power of the Internet.
VELSHI: Also ahead, hurricane Rina barreling towards Mexico, chasing tourists from their resorts. Could it hit the U.S.? We've got an update on the storm coming up next.
ROMANS: And massive weapon lifted from the sunken wreck of a pirate ship on the ocean floor. And not just any pirate, we're talking about Blackbeard.
VELSHI: Arrrgh!
ROMANS: What other booty did they find?
VELSHI: Oh.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Oh, let's not even go there.
Let's talk about this, instead. Scientists are stunned about a new discovery about dinosaurs and specifically what they had to do to feed their gargantuan appetites?
VELSHI: I'll give you a hint. Eat a lot.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING this morning.
Tears of joy in earthquake ravaged Turkey. A 19-year-old student has been pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building and she's alive -- he's alive, rather. He was trapped for almost four days.
The death toll from Sunday's 7.2 earthquake now has stands at 523 people.
VELSHI: Yes. It's gone up a lot since yesterday.
ROMANS: Very difficult.
COSTELLO: Heavy monsoon rains triggering the worst flooding that Thailand has seen in half a century. Floodwaters arriving in Bangkok. Thousands of people fleeing the city now. The government says it plans to open evacuation centers in eight provinces.
More than 370 people have been killed in the flooding since July.
VELSHI: Hurricane Rina bearing down on Mexico. The storm is not packing the punch that it once had, but it's a category 1 hurricane and on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, they're bracing for an intense storm surge.
Rafael Romo is live in Cancun this morning.
Rafael, you look like you got some wind on you right now.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: That's right, Ali. We have some winds and I just wanted to show you this flag -- this is a warning flag for tourists meaning that it's not a good idea for the rest of the day, once the hurricane gets here, to be here. But this shows you the kind of wind that we have-not to strong just yet, the hurricane is still a category 1, packing wind of 75 miles per hour.
And the fact that I'm being able to stand here when we're only a few hours before the hurricane is really good news for the hurricane peninsula. (INAUDIBLE) 48 hours, tried to leave -- many were unable to do so -- and there was a really chaotic situation yesterday at the airport because thousands upon thousands of tourists were trying to leave, not really listening to the warning from authorities and if they didn't have a reserve flight, they were not going to be able to get away from here.
We also have 2,800 people were evacuated from an island just north of here. Among them, 200 tourists. Hotels are telling tourists that if the hurricane is very strong, they need to go to a secure location, possibly, multiple use of ballroom (ph) inside the hotel, Ali. That's the latest from here. Back to you.
VELSHI: All right, Rafael. We'll keep on top of it with you. Rafael Romo in Mexico for us.
ROMANS: So, let's check in now with Reynolds Wolf in the CNN hurricane headquarter. Good morning, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. It looks like this hurricane is going to begin to weaken over the next several hours. In fact, right now, winds are right at 75 miles an hour. Remember, 73 and higher. As soon as you get to 74, it's Category 1 hurricane and now at 75. Again, it's right on the precipice.
It is moving to the northwest at six miles per hour. It is expected to interact a bit with the Yucatan Peninsula. When it interacts to the land, it's expected to weaken. And we're talking about, actually, the deterioration will happen fairly quickly. So, get into Friday morning, winds of 65, then by the time we get to Saturday, winds of 50 miles per hour.
For the time being, we do not expect this to threaten the United States. One of the key reasons why is because what's going to develop a bit farther to the north. We do anticipate that a frontal boundary is going to make its way from the Southeastern United States to the southern plains right across the Gulf of Mexico, and that's going to be almost like a barrier.
And atmospheric barrier that should keep this away from the United States and possibly push it farther south into the Caribbean where it should begin to die out. So, that's the latest we have in terms of that. Anyone trying to get to Cancun today, obviously, you can expect widespread delays. No one is getting out. No one is getting in.
And that's going to be a situation we're going to be seeing in other places. Namely like New York, not obviously, because of some bad weather. We've got ground delays at LaGuardia about an hour and 15-minute wait for the time being. And with the weather conditions deteriorating later on the day, we might see more backups.
Not only in places like New York, but perhaps, into Philadelphia, Chicago, maybe even Dallas Ft. Worth with a couple of thunderstorms. Then the top half of the system, we got that cold air coming through. With the moisture (ph) in places like Lubbock, we've had some thunder snow this morning. Yes, we have some thunderstorms with some snow mixed in and had some snow yesterday in Denver and high pressure now building and giving them a bit of break today.
One thing we're not going to see much of a break, though, in parts of the central plains will be at cold air. Morning lows anywhere from 20s and 30s and not only for spots like Lubbock and right along parts of I-40 back over to Oklahoma City. Some 30-mile- an-hour gusts, maybe even some delays up by Will Rogers Airport before the day is over.
And a lot of that cold air, that cold pocket will begin to drift off more to the east moving into the Eastern Great Lakes back into parts of Pennsylvania, the Empire State of New York, and perhaps, even Jersey before all is said and done.
All right. Guys, you're up to speed with the forecast, let's pitch it back to you in New York.
ROMANS: All right. We got it. Thanks, Reynolds.
You know, a piece of pirate history raised from the deep. Researchers have salvaged canon from the pirate Blackbeard's ship which is found on the ocean's floor of North Carolina for three centuries.
VELSHI: Wow!
ROMANS: The canon is actually one of 25 that were found since Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, was discovered back in 1997. Historians believe Blackbeard and his fleet of about 400 pirates ran it into ground intentionally as part of sort of corporate downsizing.
COSTELLO: There are just too many ships out there.
ROMANS: He just had too much inventory, and he needed to get back to his core mission. Also salvaged shackles, ship riggings, crystal wine glasses, and canon shots.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: An old fashion version of Opening too many stores.
COSTELLO: Yes, exactly. That's amazing they found that, though. I can't wait -- I am going to go see those artifacts.
VELSHI: All right.
COSTELLO: Forget the march of the penguins. How about the march of the dinosaurs? A new study says North American dinosaurs, the largest dinosaurs to ever walk the earth, may have migrated like birds every six months in search of food and water. They figured it out by analyzing fossilized teeth.
Scientists at Colorado College tracked the plant-eating camarasaurus on a six-month 186-mile trek from the lowland and what is now Wyoming and Utah to the mountains out west and back again. Scientists always suspected dinosaurs migrated. What's surprising in this study is how far they actually walked.
VELSHI: It's not like they had anything else to do in those days.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Yes, dinosaurs were bored. Let's just walk across the country.
VELSHI: It's kind of that's all you could do if you're a dinosaur. Let's eat this animal --
ROMANS: (INAUDIBLE) like they were choking on their cheerios.
VELSHI: All right. Well, snoring. You know, a lot of women have a hard time with their husbands snoring. So, we found a young lady who actually seems to get a kick out of it. Check out this video, it's making the rounds on YouTube.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI (voice-over): The dog's snoring.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Oh, it's a dog snoring.
VELSHI: That's right. You're wondering -- you're looking around where the snoring is coming from. The dog is snoring.
ROMANS (voice-over): And the baby is --
COSTELLO: He's so cute.
VELSHI: There you go.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS (on-camera): Ali loved it this morning. This is his special request in the show.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Kind of disturbs me you were mesmerized by this YouTube video.
VELSHI: Well, I just -- I mean, I just -- I feel that people are anti-snoring.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: This is a personal issue for Ali.
VELSHI: Not to say too much about my personal life. I just feel --
ROMANS: He wants to mainstream his own snoring sound.
VELSHI: That's correct. Right. I want to make it acceptable.
ROMANS: A busy day ahead at the markets. We're going to check out the movers and shakers.
Plus, Virgin Galactic has said that they combed through all the resumes and they hired their first pilot to fly tourists into space. Who got the job? Twenty-one minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Good morning. It's24 minutes after the hour. "Minding your Business" this morning.
In just a few minutes, we're going to get a new report on the number of jobless claims filed for the first time last week. We'll also get the first estimate on how much the American economy grew in the third quarter. Economists expect maybe 2.5 percent.
Just into CNN, ExxonMobil releasing its third quarter results just minutes ago. The second largest corporation in America reporting a profit, $10.3 billion. That is a 41 percent increase from last year. The rise is because of higher gas and oil prices.
Right now, markets are on track to open sharply higher. Dow futures at the moment are up more than 200 points all because European leaders finally reached an agreement overnight to deal with that region's debt crisis. Overseas markets like it, too. They are up significantly right now.
And it was concern about this deal in Europe that helped gold regain its luster. The precious metal rallied more than 100 bucks in the past week. The price of gold, however, this morning, is down a bit to about $1,700 an ounce.
For the first time since last year's deadly, Deepwater Horizon explosion, BP is getting ready to drill for oil again in the Gulf of Mexico. The company says sit has been granted a drilling permit by federal officials. A spokesman for BP says work will begin as soon as operationally possible.
And Richard Branson has tapped a new pilot to fly passengers into space. U.S. air force test pilot, Keith Colmer, will now begin training and testing Virgin Galactic's new revolutionary aircraft. Virgin hopes to begin flying commercial flights in the next two years.
And a new milestone for women in business with the adds of Virginia Rometty as CEO of IBM and Heather Bresch taking the helmet of pharmaceutical company, Mylan. There are now a new record number of female CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies. How many of them? Eighteen. By the end of 2011, there will be 18 women running some of America's largest corporations.
Up next, she's one of the most powerful women in the world. So, what are secretary of state, Hillary Clinton's, priorities and what was her role in ousting Moammar Gadhafi? That's next. AMERICAN MORNING back right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Welcome back and good morning to you. Time for our top stories. It's 30 minutes past the hour.
Arrests were made after "Occupy Wall Street" protesters marched through Lower Manhattan last night to show their support for the demonstrators in Oakland who were pushed out by police (ph) with tear gas. Police say at least ten people were taken into custody in New York for disobeying orders to stay on the sidewalks.
VELSHI: A shocker from Ruth Madoff. In her first interview since Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme was exposed nearly three years ago, she tells CBS "60 Minutes" they were both so distraught, they tried to commit suicide together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUTH MADOFF, BERNIE MADOFF'S WIFE: I don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening. We had terrible phone calls, hate mails, just beyond anything. And I said I can't -- I just can't go on anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: One of Madoff's sons did take his own life.
ROMANS: Hurricane Rina losing a little of her punch, but still bearing down on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. It is expected to make landfall today as category one storm.
COSTELLO: Now that Moammar Gadhafi is gone, Libya would like to see NATO's no-fly zone lifted by the end of this month. A Libyan ambassador telling the U.N. Security Council before a final decision is made an evaluation of Libya's ability to secure its borders needs to be completed.
The coalition that allowed NATO to start that campaign in Libya didn't come together easily. It happened in part because of a lot of the behind the scenes work by the secretary of the state, Hillary Clinton. The former first lady remains a fascinating figure for many Americans. In fact, a lot of people still want to see her run for president. A recent poll says for Democrats she might just be a better bet than President Obama. "TIME" magazine looks at all of that and more in its new issue "Hillary Clinton and the Rise of Smart Power."
Massimo Calabresi wrote that cover story. He's the Washington correspondent for "TIME" magazine. Good morning. It's great to see you.
MASSIMO CALABRESI, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Thanks for having me, Carol.
COSTELLO: So the article is called "Hillary Clinton and the Rise of Smart Power." Explain that to us. What is "smart power"?
CALABRESI: The idea here is that where we all grew up in a world that we imagined had power concentrated in the capitals of countries that now we're moving into an era where power is seeping away from traditional centers like that to new groups. Whether it's network individuals like Al Qaeda or powerful nongovernmental organizations like the Gates Foundation, power is locating elsewhere in the world from capitals.
And so what Clinton is responding to with the notion of smart power is coming up with ways of influencing these other areas of power. So, smart power is rather than the military hard power that would speak directly to another country's capital, something like using technology to reach out to women everywhere around the world.
COSTELLO: Right. And speaking of technology, you suggest Hillary Clinton is somewhat obsessed by social media. And, you know, I guess we always wondered how some of these amazing images are making it online so quickly. Perhaps it's because maybe the State Department has provided these people with what you say is top secret training and equipment.
CALABRESI: That's right. Clinton as one of her technology initiatives has boosted funding for training of dissidents and surveillance of aiding software for them from $15 million to $45 million. State claims that in Syria, which is sort of the next focus of the Arab spring where there's been an ongoing revolution, one reason why that uprising has been able to continue despite the suppression from the regime of Bashar Assad is because state claims they gave them some of the surveillance abating software back in 2009 that the dissidents are using to communicate and to transmit images of their uprising.
COSTELLO: So, Hillary Clinton has perhaps proved to be a successful secretary of state because she embraced this new way of dealing with other countries, and she's also adept, you say, at the old-fashioned kind.
CALABRESI: That's right. When you talk to foreign policy traditionalists, Brent Scowcroft, who was the national security adviser for George H.W. Bush and other people, they focus as much, if not more, on her traditional diplomacy. She restarted relations in Russia in a way that they say allowed her to get their support not just for, for example the Libya invasion, but also for sanctions against Iran. And then she's also done some things to constrain China's expansion in Asia in ways that centrists and tradition and traditionalists tend to support.
COSTELLO: So in part because of that she remains this fascinating and quite popular figure, at least among many Democrats. We always see her, maybe Hillary Clinton should run for president. Maybe she should be President Obama's vice president. Is there any chance that either of those things could happen?
CALABRESI: Her closest aides say absolutely not in 2012. They -- they say they doubt it in 2016. She will be, she would be 69 -- she will be 69 at the time of the vote in 2016. So, they see her moving on to other things, moving out of public service. Her numbers, though, are very high. She polls at the moment 12 to 14 points ahead of Obama, versus Romney or Perry.
COSTELLO: Speaking of that, let's put up that poll, because if she were running for president and running against Mitt Romney, let's say, she would be 17 points up on Romney. President Obama is now three points up. And on Herman Cain she would be 22 points above Herman Cain, President Obama 12 points above, Rick Perry 26 as opposed to Obama's 12. So I know she's saying, no, no, no, but we often heard politicians change their minds, especially when they see polls like that.
CALABRESI: Yes, that's right. When a politician looks at numbers like that, it's awfully hard to walk away. But she's not giving any indication of breaking ranks. And there's no sign, also from people I speak to in the White House of this idea of a swap. So, I think it's highly unlikely for 2012 short of some dramatic turn around that nobody's forecast that she would enter into it.
I think you also have to think about those numbers in the larger picture. She hasn't had to be involved in the domestic policy issues that are the area of greatest discontent. People are actually rather satisfied with foreign policy at the moment given the death of Osama bin Laden and so forth. So she's in an area that is protected from some of the negatives at the moment.
COSTELLO: Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
CALABRESI: My pleasure, thanks for having me.
ROMANS: Just in this morning, the first estimate of the third quarter GDP. This is on how strong the economy was in the third quarter -- 2.5 percent. That's exactly what economists are expecting, but it's nearly doubled the second quarter rate. It shows you the economy is getting stronger, and it's the strongest it's been in about a year.
VELSHI: Just for perspective, this means the economy in the third three months of this year grew twice as fast as it did in the second three months. So, this is --
ROMANS: Pick up a little bit.
VELSHI: Now, 2.5 percent is not a terrible number. Compare it to China which is --
ROMANS: It's 9.1 percent.
VELSHI: Which is way up there. But it's better than nothing. Better than very low. Europe is near nothing.
ROMANS: It shows some improvement. But 2.5 percent, I will point out, is not enough to create significant jobs. However, it shows you that you have an economy that is picking up a little bit of steam here and you hope that eventually that could help.
VELSHI: We are all so used to getting these numbers that are worse than we thought they were going to be and we've been sucker punched on unemployment numbers and growth numbers. So to have something kind of where you thought it was is a big plus.
ROMANS: There is always a big number that comes out on Thursdays on jobless claims. That number was 402,000 people filing for unemployment for the very first time that week. That's down a couple thousand.
VELSHI: But it's in that range. It's been hanging around there for some time. And 400,000 a week is a big, bad number to be looking at.
So, bottom line is nothing is worse than we went into this morning think it is. Europe's got a deal, markets are looking up, and this information has helped markets stay up. So we might be looking at a strong day on the markets.
COSTELLO: I hope so, because when they told me the GDP numbers are coming out, I hope it's not bad news.
VELSHI: It's not bad news and we go on with our day, thinking it's all right.
COSTELLO: Maybe not all right, but at least a little better.
VELSHI: All right, do you get a flu shot every year?
COSTELLO: I do.
VELSHI: I get them. Do you work out regularly?
COSTELLO: Yes.
VELSHI: No. Do you watch what you eat? Why is this my responsibility?
ROMANS: I watch it and savor every minute of it.
COSTELLO: Well, look, what we're talking about here is the secret to a long and healthy life. Is it what you do or is it who you are? Why do some people live long, healthy lives regardless of how well they live? Well, scientists are on the case. They are looking for the fountain of youth, and how they're doing it is actually fascinating. We'll talk about it on the other side. It's 39 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Ever wonder why some people can eat fatty foods and smoke cigarettes and still live long, healthy lives while others exercise regularly and they eat healthy and the die young.
Our next guest would also like an answer to that question. Bob Weiss is the president of the X-Prize Foundation. His organization is offering $10 million to the scientist or team who can sequence the genomes of 100 healthy 100-year-old people or older and find out what it takes to become a centenarian. Bob, good to see you.
ROBERT WEISS, PRESIDENT, X-PRIZE FOUNDATION: Nice to see you, Ali.
VELSHI: What are you trying to figure out here?
WEISS: What we're trying to figure out is the secret to healthy life. Each of us has a map, if you will, that really tells the tale about how we interact with our environment and what diseases we might get and how we would react to different kinds of therapies, and we're looking into that secret.
VELSHI: Now, the x-prize foundation you offer basically a prize. You say here is the standard we want to meet, and if you can exceed that, the person that exceeds it or the team that exceeds it the best gets this prize. It's the idea that you're incentivizing this competition. What are you trying to beat? What standards do these people who enter this have to meet?
WEISS: What this is about is sequencing the human genome. And the genome is a map of our DNA. DNA is in every one of our cells. Every one of us walks around with it. And so we're trying to decode the sequence. There are three billion pair of chemicals that make up our DNA and that has never been sequenced to the completeness, accuracy, or with the speed that we're asking. And the reason we're asking that is because we want to be able to get large sets of data.
VELSHI: We've all heard that the human map has been sequenced. Are we looking for a better way to do it, a cheaper way to do it, a faster way to do it?
WEISS: We're looking for a better way to do it, a more complete way to do it, and we're looking for a less expensive way to do it. VELSHI: What's the implication? What happens if you achieve that? Will more people be able to get their DNA sequenced? Will we be able to have DNA faster? What's the aim?
WEISS: The implication is we're going to usher in an era of personalized medicine, and that's the next revolution. God forbid you get a cancer. Even though that's the result of your individual genetics, you're being treated the same pretty much as everyone who has that cancer. Imagine if we have this map, we can treat you for exactly the type of disease that you have. In fact, we can derive preventative therapies so that you don't get sick. And of course preventive medicine is much less expensive than treating the disease itself.
VELSHI: Now you needed a control group here. You needed one group of people to aim at, to target. And you looked at centenarians, what's the point here? You're trying to find healthy people who've lived to -- lived longer than 100 years, why?
WEISS: Well, these folks that have lived over 100 years or more have figured out or their bodies have figured out how to survive disease. It's not that they've never been sick.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Right.
WEISS: But they figured out how to beat it. So in sequencing what is essentially 10,000 years of life, we're looking for the wellness genes, if you will. What is the secret that these folks have that we can learn from to help the rest of us. This is not just about elderly people becoming healthy but it's really a secret that's going to help people of all ages.
VELSHI: Let's -- we talked to one of these guys. We talked to a guy named George Everheart who is 107 years old and it's not like George has been healthy all his life. He's actually survived cancer twice. Here is what he told us about his secret to longevity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE EVERHEART, 107 YEARS OLD: I've been reading books about longevity and seeing how I can increase in it my age. One of my many doctors said he thinks that a contributor to my age is humor. My wife's objective is, I should eat five meals a day. And I agree with that. If I know ahead of time that there's going to be some really good food.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: George, does George and his behavior and his humor and his five meals a day have something to do with how old he is?
WEISS: I think certainly it contributes to his health, his lifestyle, but I'm sure it's important to eat your vegetables to keep your mind active. But it's really about your genes, it's about your parents' genes and we're trying to unlock that secret.
VELSHI: All right when do you think you'll have results to this?
WEISS: We're going to have results in the first part of 2013. The head-to-head part of this competition. The Archon Genomics X Prize presented by MedCo. The playoffs, if you will, are from January to February 2013 and that's when we'll find out who can do this the best way, the most complete way, the most accurate and fastest way.
VELSHI: All right, it's going to open up an entire world to treatment and it's going to help a lot of people. Bob Weiss it's good to see you. Robert Weiss is the President and Vice Chair of the X Prize Foundation.
Your "Morning Headlines" are up next. It's 47 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: It's 49 minutes after the hour. Here are your "Morning Headlines".
New data shows the economy picking up a little steam. The first estimate of the third quarter Gross Domestic Product, 2.5 percent is nearly double the growth rate for the economy of the second quarter, the fastest the economy has grown in about a year.
Also, the Labor Department says 402,000 jobless claims were filed for the very first time last week; that's down from the previous week. But still anything above 400,000 shows weakness in the labor market.
Markets open in 45 minutes and U.S. stock futures are up sharply. Dow futures are up more than 200 points right now. It's all because European leaders finally reached an agreement overnight on a deal that will -- will hopefully solve the region's debt crisis.
Convicted conman Bernard Madoff will die in prison but Ruth Madoff says the story could have had a different ending. She tell "60 Minutes" after the Ponzi scheme was exposed in 2008 the couple try to commit suicide together. They took sleeping pills but woke up the next morning very much alive.
Hurricane Rina expected to make landfall today near Cancun, Mexico. It's weakened now to a Category 1 storm but it could trigger a dangerous storm surge along Mexico's most pristine beaches.
And the World Series resumes tonight after last night's rainout. It's the Texas Rangers versus the St. Louis Cardinals in Game six in St. Louis. The Rangers lead the series 3-2.
That's the news you need to start your day. AMERICAN MORNING is back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Lindsay Lohan's father, Michael, is back in police custody and being checked out by doctors after he jumped off a third floor balcony this morning to try and avoid being arrested.
Jason Lanning from our affiliate Bay 9 News in Tampa joins us live. Jason, this story just gets crazier by the day. What's going on?
JASON LANNING, BAY NEWS 9: It does. Michael Lohan has himself in a lot of trouble here in Tampa, Florida Ali. Overnight Tampa police say that Kate Major called 911 reporting several harassing phone calls made by Michael Lohan. Tampa police officers responded to Major's Tampa apartment and officers in Tampa say they, themselves, heard one of those harassing phone calls when Major put the phone on speaker.
Tampa police then went to the Tahitian Inn, that's a hotel in south Tampa, where Michael Lohan was staying. That's when they say Lohan tried running before they could arrest him. He, of course, was caught shortly after that stunning jump from the third floor balcony.
A video now of Michael Lohan who just yesterday bonded out of the Orient Road Jail here in Hillsborough County on $5,000. He was also given a condition of bond to have no contact with his girlfriend, Kate Major. That turned out not to be the case overnight.
A Tampa police responding to her apartment and then rushing to the hotel where they say Lohan jumped from his third floor balcony to the ground trying to run from police. He was apparently injured in that fall. And he is now at Tampa General Hospital having his ankle or foot looked at. We have heard that he may have a broken foot because of that fall.
Now, yesterday Judge Walter Hinerich (ph) here in Hillsborough County issued some stern words in his order to Lohan to have no further contact with his girlfriend. Here's what that judge had to say yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does your client have a restraining order out sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am aware that there is a restraining order and I believe it was served.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So then if you had an invitation come up here. He shouldn't come up here. He's not allowed to come up here, he's not allowed to be around her. Does he know how to read?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, your honor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, he better understand, if you even dream about her and you violate my order, you will go to jail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LANNING: Now, there could not have been a more crystal clear order from a judge for an injunction. In a case like this, Tampa police telling us that Lohan clearly violated and now the big question, will Lohan end up sitting for quite some time in jail just outside of Tampa.
Right now we would guess that the judge presiding over this case will not be happy with Lohan's actions overnight -- Ali.
VELSHI: No kidding, Jason. Thanks very much. Jason Lanning from our affiliate Bay News 9 in Tampa having a busy morning. Thanks for joining us on the story.
COSTELLO: That's just pathetic, isn't it?
VELSHI: I mean, like you said, I just -- sometimes you might say, well, maybe he didn't mean that. Clearly he said, if you violate my order, you're going to jail.
ROMANS: If you even dream.
VELSHI: If you even dream about violating my order.
COSTELLO: Well, that's good; he's like he's standing up for alleged domestic violence victims which is a good thing.
VELSHI: Yes.
COSTELLO: But just -- Lindsay Lohan, I know she's crazy and all that, but with a father like that.
VELSHI: Yes.
COSTELLO: It's just, you know, your heart breaks in a way.
VELSHI: Yes, I hear you.
COSTELLO: Its six minutes until the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: It's beautiful even in the rain.
ROMANS: Good morning, Chicago. Gosh, we love you no matter what season it is. Cloudy, 46 right now, showers; 54 later. Ali and I are going to be there December 16th.
VELSHI: December 16th yes we're going to be there.
ROMANS: That's right. I'm so excited.
VELSHI: I wrote a book, Christine.
ROMANS: I wrote a book, too.
VELSHI: You know what, we wrote a book together. We're going to be in Chicago promoting our brand-new book which hits the shelves October 29th actually, November 9th is the official date.
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: But you can buy it now. "How to Speak Money". It's the arguments that Carol listens to us have all the time about money.
COSTELLO: I know, constantly.
VELSHI: We finally put it down on paper after ten years of doing it.
COSTELLO: No it's very interesting because you know, write about financial news and financials from a women's perspective and a man's perspective.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Right.
COSTELLO: And they're very different. And just in reading a couple of pages I just found it helpful because I have these kind of conversations with my husband all the time.
VELSHI: Right.
COSTELLO: And he's talking this way and I'm talking that way and sometimes that creates tension.
ROMANS: The best part in the very end, the very last thing Ali writes was, "Christine is right".
VELSHI: That's right.
ROMANS: You can skip the last page. Any way --
COSTELLO: Oh everyone is still talking -- I wanted you to go on about your book, but we have to talk about this house in California. You heard about it. It's decked out with all the best Halloween stuff. There's a big light show like on display at this house, even late night comic Jimmy Kimmel knows about this house. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, TALK SHOW HOST: Really not into Halloween. Even as a kid I didn't like Halloween. To me, it just seemed like begging to me. It is. Some people go all out. I saw this on the news. Every Halloween there's a guy here in California that makes a big light show on the outside of his house for Halloween and this year he added music.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Owners of a home in Riverside, California, created a Halloween light show with pumpkins singing LMFAO's "Party Rock".
The house has attracted swarms of visitors, news crews and has become an instant Internet sensation. The house across the street had this to say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Ok. I have to admit that was funny.
OK. Kyra Phillips, top that.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Are you sure you don't want to shamelessly plug the book?
