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American Morning
Obama's Approval Ratings Rising; "Occupy Oakland" Damage Control; Bold Billboard Campaign; 141-Year-Old Wine Bet; Shark Populations Plummeting Around the World; Game Six of World Series Ends Dramatically; A True Fall Classic; Zombie Rob
Aired October 28, 2011 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Going green. I'm Carol Costello. The markets are heading to the best in decades after getting a double boost from Europe and from your wallets. But will October end on a high note?
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. A vigil being held for a war vet who was badly wounded in Oakland's Wall Street protest. Witnesses say a tear gas canister literally cracked his skull. We'll speak to his roommate and fellow Marine on this AMERICAN MORNING.
COSTELLO: Good morning, and welcome to the best day of the week. Friday, October 28th. Christine Romans has the day off.
VELSHI: Best weekday of the week.
COSTELLO: Oh, that's true.
VELSHI: Right?
COSTELLO: Best week day.
VELSHI: All right, coming up first, the hunt for green October. The markets are set to open in about 90 minutes. Coming up, a monster rally yesterday. They're on pace for a record setting month.
The reasons? Well, Europe looks to have averted disaster and your spending. Consumers help grow to the largest rate in a year. Now, the rally that we saw yesterday, which was quite substantial, is losing some steam this morning. Right now, U.S. stock futures for the Dow and NASDAQ and S&P 500 are all trading lower ahead of the opening bell.
COSTELLO: But it sure felt nice for a while.
VELSHI: It sure felt good for a day.
COSTELLO: Yes. President Obama's numbers also getting a boost. A new Gallup poll shows his approval rating is up slightly, about 3 percent. Gallup points out that still leaves him in the danger zone. Danger of becoming a one termer, we should say.
Joining us now, the host of "STATE OF THE UNION," Candy Crowley.
Good morning, Candy.
CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, CNN'S "STATE OF THE UNION": Good morning.
COSTELLO: So, tell us about this poll.
CROWLEY: Well, listen, any time you're under 50 percent and the president in the Gallup poll at least for this moment is at 40 percent, it's not great for an incumbent. Why? Because people know who the incumbent is and being under 50 percent when you're facing re- election is always seen as the red zone.
Having said that, the presidency is slightly different in this way. Polls, and this is another truism of politics, really are just snapshots for today.
Here's what the White House is banking on: if the economy will show the right movement, that the trajectory will be right, that people will become convinced -- consumer confidence -- people will become convinced that the economy is getting better.
They also are counting on, you know, someone to oppose the president. Right now, the only person that have to be angry with is the president of the United States. They believe that the White House and that the re-election campaign, when there is an actual candidate who is running against the president, there will be a comparative and the president will come out on top.
VELSHI: Right. Sort of what the president, you know, has implied when he was talking to Jay Leno the other night that he will wait until this al settles down. Right now, it looks to be a lot of options against the president.
You've covered a lot of presidential campaigns. As the Republican field narrows, does that sort of automatically give the president a boost because the comparison is so direct?
CROWLEY: Listen, there's a couple things that go on at this point in the presidential stage, the presidential election cycle, and that is, first of all, you know, it is not September of next year. We still have a full year to go before the actual elections. And the truth is that these elections are won by swing voters -- the people who won election -- may like the Republican. The next election, may go for the Democrat, who don't feel an affinity for either party.
Those people don't start paying a lot of attention until September of election year. And add in that lots of things can happen that can change a presidency.
VELSHI: Right.
CROWLEY: Be it a bad economy, be it something overseas. So, there's so many unknowns at this point that even if it's down to two or three, I think not until September do we begin to see the real shape of an election.
VELSHI: That's what the real world does, right? We follow elections all the time.
CROWLEY: Right. Exactly. I love it. It's important because the weeding out process is going on.
VELSHI: Sure.
CROWLEY: It's just that when you want to look at it in terms of President Obama against, you know, X, Y and Z, it doesn't really tell us much about what is going to happen next September.
COSTELLO: What do you have on tap for Sunday, Candy?
CROWLEY: Among our guests will be David Axelrod, the president's top campaign advisor.
Also Ron Paul -- as you know, he's a very loyal following. He has been slipping in the polls, but still has a lot of money, certainly, to make a name for himself in either Iowa or New Hampshire if he is to go on.
And then we might just take a look at what Halloween purchases tell us about the future of the economy.
VELSHI: Very good.
CROWLEY: That's something you haven't looked at, have you, Ali?
VELSHI: No, but you're going to be on my show this weekend, too. So, we'll we can talk about that.
Candy, good to see you.
Don't miss "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley this Sunday starting live at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. She'll also be on "YOUR MONEY," Saturday at 1:00 Eastern, and Sunday at 3:00 Eastern.
COSTELLO: We have new video this morning of police rounding up protesters in Nashville overnight. They were warned yesterday to obey a curfew and to get a permit or leave the Legislative Plaza.
But after a meeting last night, the occupiers said they were not going anywhere. And they didn't.
VELSHI: And in Oakland, the damage control after Wall Street protests got out of control, the mayor is now apologizing after police tear gassed "Occupy Oakland" protesters and put an Iraq war veteran in the hospital with a severe head injury. She also said city officials have started an investigation into the use of force.
Dan Simon has the latest. He's live outside the hospital in Oakland.
Dan, good morning.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Ali.
You know, what happened to that Iraq war veteran, Scott Olsen, has been a rallying point for the rally here in Oakland, as well as other parts of the country. But it also raised a lot of questions about the police, the police's use of force.
What we know is that, as you said, the mayor has reversed herself. She's now allowing those protesters to go back into that plaza at city hall -- a complete reversal, a total flip-flop. She hasn't really said why, but, obviously, the negative, you know, the negative P.R. that we've seen over the last 48 hours or so has really caused her to rethink things and she gave a press conference last night.
I want you to listen to some of what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR JEAN QUAN, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: I am very deeply saddened about what happened last Tuesday. It clearly didn't turn out the way we wanted it to. People are hurt. So, first, I'm the mayor. So, I take responsibility and I apologize to those who were hurt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON: The big question here, Ali, is why did this happen in the first place? If you're going to allow the protest to continue, if you're going to allow people to go back into that plaza and set up tents, why did she and city leaders make that decision in the first place? They have not answered that question. But, certainly, the negative backlash that they received caused them to rethink things -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right. We'll continue to follow this with you, thanks.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Dan.
Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen suffered a skull fracture in the violence on Tuesday night. You heard Dan talked about that.
Witnesses say a tear gas canister hit Olsen in the head.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
COSTELLO: This was video posted on YouTube that shows Olsen bleeding and being carried out by fellow protesters. Olsen suffered a fractured skull.
Joining us now is Keith Shannon. He is Scott Olsen's roommate.
Thank you so much for joining us, Keith, and getting up so early.
KEITH SHANNON, SCOTT OLSEN'S ROOMMATE: Thanks for having me.
COSTELLO: I understand you're sleeping there at the hospital to be with Scott. So, how is he doing?
SHANNON: He's awake now. He's not able to talk, though. Although he knows what he wants to say, he's not able to articulate. He's able to write, although he's pretty bad at the moment. But they say they're expecting a full recovery.
COSTELLO: That's a good thing. Are his parents there yet in Oakland?
SHANNON: Yes. His parents arrived here yesterday. But they're at a hotel right now. The doctors are still trying to keep a lot of people out of his room at the moment.
COSTELLO: I know you weren't right there next to him during the protest, but there's so much confusion over what exactly happened. Can you fill us in on some of the details?
SHANNON: Possibly. From what I was told, they were on a peaceful march and police officers started randomly pulling protesters out of the march and arresting them when the protesters started throwing water and paint at the police officers. And as the protesters started marching back towards their encampments, the police officers opened up with rubber bullets, tear gas and smoke canisters.
COSTELLO: And then what do you suppose hit Olsen in the head?
SHANNON: We believe it was a tear gas canister.
COSTELLO: You heard that the mayor came out and apologized for what happened. We also understand she went to the hospital personally to apologize to Scott.
Do you know if he accepted her apology?
SHANNON: I don't know yet.
COSTELLO: Were you surprised that the mayor came out and apologized?
SHANNON: A little bit. Although I believe she's just trying to save face now that everyone is calling for her to resign, as well as for a recall.
COSTELLO: What mistakes do you think were made by the mayor?
SHANNON: Just the fact that they spent millions of dollars trying to clean up the encampment when they could have spent a lot less money to provide them what they needed to clean up the camp and keep it sanitary.
COSTELLO: And I know that protesters are going to continue to camp out there, can you tell us why it's important for protesters to stay out overnight in protest?
SHANNON: Yes. Well, it's important to show the solidarity and that we're not going to give up no matter what the government or the police officers do to try to stop us from protesting.
COSTELLO: And what would you like -- finally, what would you like the mayor or the city of Oakland to do?
SHANNON: To allow the peaceful protest to go on without any police force there, as well as possibly help provide the supplies needed to have a clean and safe camp area.
COSTELLO: And will you go back out there and protest and will Scott, after he recovers? I don't know if that's possible.
SHANNON: Yes. I will and I'm sure Scott will as soon as he's able to.
COSTELLO: Keith Shannon, thank you for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.
Still ahead on AMERICAN MORNING: the reward for tracking down Osama bin Laden. We're not talking about that $25 million bounty. We're talking about this. Pentagon Chief Leon Panetta, he is ready to connect collect a bet with a friend and, boy, will it taste good.
VELSHI: Also ahead, the tide is turning on sharks. Once the most feared predator, shark populations are crashing around the world. Why? And can we really save the sharks?
We're going swimming with these beautiful beasts of the deep. Coming up.
COSTELLO: Everyone is talking about this today. One of the wildest and most memorable World Series games ever played, Cardinals/Rangers. We got the amazing highlights for you.
VELSHI: And snow on Halloween? The first snowfall of the season is in the Northeast. What about -- well, will it be a dark and stormy night for your trick or treaters? Rob Marciano has got a spooky weekend forecast coming up.
Ten minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: There are a lot of happy people in St. Louis this morning. What an unbelievable game. Partly cloudy, 38 degrees right now. But mostly sunny later today, 60 degrees. Hopefully, it will be perfect baseball weather tonight.
VELSHI: Wouldn't matter what the weather was. It would be mostly sunny in St. Louis today.
COSTELLO: It's true.
VELSHI: This is a game they're going to be talking about for a long time. World Series game six was an instant classic.
The Cardinals were down to their final strike in the ninth and then in the tenth innings, and they found a way to tie the game. In the 11th, the Cards' David Freese hit a walk-off homer to send the series with the Texas Rangers to a seventh and deciding game tonight.
COSTELLO: David Freese is a local boy, Rob. And the coolest thing about it, he plays third base. He actually dropped a ball that he said any 4-year-old child could have caught but then he redeemed himself by having that walk-off home run in the 11th.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I just can hear my Little League coach saying, "Two hands, Marciano, two hands."
(LAUGHTER)
MARCIANO: You know, I turned it off at the fifth or sixth inning, and it looked like one of those games.
VELSHI: Sure.
MARCIANO: I felt so bad for Freese because all I saw was that ridiculous error and, sure enough, he comes back as the hero of the game.
COSTELLO: Yes, good for him.
MARCIANO: Unbelievable stuff. And tonight, game seven should be just as great, as far as weather go. It's going to be cold, but it will be dry.
Speaking of cold, across the Northeast, cold enough for snow yesterday. We showed you snow earlier in Amarillo -- this stuff just outside and in and around the Boston area and enough to coat the grassy areas and a little bit slush on the streets. And this is just a primer for what's to come over the weekend. Vermont seeing seven inches. Windsor, Massachusetts seeing six inches as well, and Hunter mountain up there seeing 4.5 in upstate New York City, upstate New York.
All right. A little bit of rain across parts of the south. This is the system that brought the snow to Amarillo. This is the system that's going to bring rain to the mid south, including places like Nashville, Tennessee in through parts of Huntsville, Alabama, eventually into Atlanta. The rain across Florida is sort of associated with Rita, which is going to stay in Mexico.
It's a weak storm, by the way, and will continue to weaken as we go through the time. This storm will continue strengthen up the spine on the Appalachians through the Delmarva winding up by a classic nor'easter. Our computer models are doing this for Saturday night and Sunday morning. A lot of wind and, yes, some snow on the back side of this, especially away from the coastline and the water still kind of warm in the Atlantic.
So, any time you get that onshore breeze along the immediate shoreline and the I-95 corridor is going to be very difficult to get a serious accumulation of snow, but you may see a couple of inches in New York or Boston, but just north and west of those cities, we could see three to six inches and inland areas of Massachusetts and upstate Connecticut, parts of that eastern and upstate to New England.
And then winter storm watches are posted all the way down to the Virginia area with this. All right. Here's a look at some of our -- one of our computer models. Highlighting just that away from I-95. We're looking at more significant accumulations and in some spots, we could see some pink showing up here and that could mean a foot or more of snow.
And, you know, we're kind of peak foliage time, guys. So, yes, it's pretty, but the leaves are going to catch some of that snow, and the branches are going to break, and yes, we'll get a little bit in the way of power outages.
VELSH: It's a little late for, you know, some foliage drives, but it's never really -- it's not very unusual to have snow in the northeast this early, is it not?
MARCIANO: Absolutely. If we just get, I think, like an inch of measurable snow in New York City, that's going to break a record and similar in Boston. So, getting five or six inches just outside of those cities this will be a record setting event likely.
COSTELLO: Man, I even haven't gotten out my winter coat yet.
MARCIANO: Get it out, Carol.
COSTELLO: I will. Thank you, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
COSTELLO: A Texas billboard campaign is going for shock and value and, boy, is it getting it. One billboard in East Austin says GOP is the new black. Another that aims to pull in the African- American vote to the right says, quote, "Martin Luther King Jr. was a republican." The signs linked to ragingelephants.org, which call on African-Americans to embrace the GOP.
VELSHI: CIA director, Leon Panetta's, friend makes good on a very unique bet. The restaurateur will uncork a 141-year-old bottle of wine as promised to mark the successful mission to get Osama Bin Laden. This will mean something to Carol. The wine is --
COSTELLO: I can't believe you don't --
VELSHI: You know my eating habits. I don't know this fancy wine. An 1870 shots of Lafite Rothschild. It is worth an estimated $10,000 to $15,000. Good thing it's not mine because it would be lost on me.
COSTELLO: Well, one online review we found describes the wine as having, quote, "a huge nose of freshly sliced celery, mint cedar, and cassis." No one ever knows what cassis is.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: It also says it has a jami, powerful finish. I'm often described like that with a huge nose.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: With the smell of cassis.
VELSHI: That's right. What is that?
COSTELLO: Cassis.
Now, is your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning, should cities prevent occupy protesters, not from protesting, but from camping out overnight? If you're a protester, the answer is a cinch. Camping out is a form of unity, organization, and protest.
For cities, it's expensive, and for police, it's complicated and tense, especially in light of what happened in Oakland, California.
As Oakland police tried to clear out occupy Oakland protesters, Scott Olson, an Iraq war veteran was injured. Protesters insist overzealous police lobbed a tear gas canister into the crowd hitting Olson in the head. Oakland police are now investigating.
In New York, the city sergeant benevolent association claims 20 officers have been injured trying to keep order in the Zuccotti Park. In Georgia, the mayor decided to clear out occupy Atlanta because things were getting out of hand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We warned them, did not arrest them. My feeling was that this was escalating and escalating out of control. It was a hard decision, but I have to prevent catastrophic events from happening.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Many protesters are incredulous. They say chaos ensues only when police try to rob them of the right to protest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've restrained ourselves despite getting into what looked like they could be or what the police were prepared to be hostile situations. We've successfully remained a peaceful protest.
COSTELLO: so, the talk back question today, should cities prevent "occupy" protesters not from protesting but from camping out, you know, all night long. Facebook.com/americanmorning. Facebook.com/americanmorning. I'll read your comments later this hour.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: We're just getting some reporting here that a local TV station in New York is showing the fire department here in Zuccotti Park pulling the generators out of the park as a fire hazard, but it's getting cold now. So, that's going to be an issue. We're going to keep an eye on it.
COSTELLO (on-camera): Yes. They're wondering if the protesters will stay there when they don't have the generators generating heat.
VELSHI: This is real cold now.
COSTELLO: It's going to be cold tonight.
VELSHI: Cold and snowy.
All right. Still ahead, we're watching your money. With so many people saying take this card and shove it, some big banks are now rethinking debit card fees.
And, which city will you be stuck in? We'll you the airport with the worst delays in the country and the best ones at getting you out. It's 21 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back. It is 24 minutes after the hour. We're watching your money this morning.
A big rally on Wall Street. News over Euro zone debt deal and a relatively strong report on economic growth here in the United States pushed markets higher yesterday. The Dow was up 2.8 percent. The NASDAQ was up 3.3 percent. The S&P 500 closed 3.4 percent higher. At this rate, we are looking at the best month for U.S. markets in nearly 40 years since October of 1974.
Two more days of trading left to go through and that optimism over the Euro zone deal is losing some steam. Right now, U.S. stock futures are trading lower ahead of the opening bell. Investors waiting this morning for new economic numbers about how much people are both earning and spending right now and those come out in less than five minutes.
Home appliance maker, Whirlpool, just announced it's cutting 5,000 jobs in North America and Europe as part of a cost cutting plan. That amounts to about 10 percent of its workforce in those regions. Whirlpool is the parent company of several familiar household names like Maytag and Kitchen Aid.
It's been a month since Bank of America announced its controversial debit card fees, and it's looking like most of the other big banks are opting not to follow suit. "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting this morning that JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, PNC Bank, and Key Corp have decided not to charge customers for debit card purchases.
Remember that big hacking scandal with RSA secure IDs from earlier this year? Well, it turns out it was more widespread than first thought. 760 companies were affected new analysis shows this week.
And the nation's largest airline is collecting a bucket load on all those fees. $1.5 million in April, May, and June says the government. That's up one percent from the same time last year and more than eight percent from the previous quarter.
The heavy travel season is coming up, and we've got a list of the best and worst airport delays for you. Travel & Leisure ranks Chicago's midway airport as the worst in terms of flight delays. Second is BWI. Third is San Francisco's international airport. Which are the best? Number one, Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle. Next comes Portland International, and third, Reagan National Airport in D.C.
All right. Coming up next. Sharks, the perfect predator, but do they have more to fear from us than we do from them? Why some are trying to save the sharks? We're going to go in the water with them. AMERICAN MORNING is back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: That's a great laugh.
VELSHI: It's a great laugh.
COSTELLO: Yes. You know what, I think I forgot to turn on my microphone. So, take it away, Ali.
VELSHI: All right. Let's give you top stories.
Grief giving way to a moment of joy in Turkey. This is great. More than 100 hours after a powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake killed more than 500 people, look at this, a 13-year-old boy has been pulled from the rubble alive in Turkey.
New video of police rounding up protesters in Nashville overnight. They were warned yesterday to obey a curfew and to get a permit or leave the legislative plaza, but after meeting last night, the occupiers said they're not going anywhere.
COSTELLO: Oakland's mayor now apologizing after police tear gassed Wall Street protesters and put an Iraq war veteran in the hospital. She also said city officials have started an investigation into the use of police force. The injured marine is said to be improving in the hospital after suffering a fractured skull.
VELSHI: Six exotic animals in Ohio will stay put. The widow of the man who freed the 56 wild animals before killing himself wants custody of them. The state of Ohio will keep them quarantined, though after the governor said releasing them now could cause a public health threat.
COSTELLO: Animal conservationists and Columbus Zoo director Jack Hanna says no way are those surviving animals going anywhere. Hanna is now pushing harder than ever to get new laws and regulations on exotic animal ownership in Ohio. On "AC 360" Hanna challenged the idea that Terry Thompson's widow should or could care for the animals at all. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK HANNA, DIRECTOR EMERITUS, COLUMBUS ZOO: The question is, her husband went to prison for a year. She left him. Remember that? My question is, I understand she didn't go back to take care of them. Now all of a sudden she wants the animal back and she has a love for them. She may have a love for them, Anderson. You don't love something and put them in the horrid conditions that were up there.
There is no way, over my dead body, and it be that pretty soon, that those animals are going to go back there to the same conditions and I'd wake up tomorrow morning and saying, let's say they get out again or something. Can you imagine what they would think of the zoo and the state of Ohio?
These new rules, Anderson, they are going to be the most stringent rules in any state of the United States of America. I haven't announced this yet. Perimeter fencing, inspection once a year and people made up of the resources and a zoo person and about five people inspect that place once a year and any of the other proper habitat and where the animal comes from and where they're going to. There will be some more I will mention, I will tell you about 90 percent or of the people or more won't have a pet lion or a grizzly bear running around the backyard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Zoo officials said the animals were kept in tiny, dirty shelters on the Thompson property.
VELSHI: These days sharks are in steep decline. The populations of sharks, millions of them, have vanished from the oceans. Commercial fishing and a growing demand for their fins is making them more and more scarce. A feared predator now apparently has more to fear from us. Kaj Larsen has the story and he joins us live from Los Angeles this morning. Kaj?
KAJ LARSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, you guys. Let's get the blood pumping a little this morning and get in the ocean with some sharks. As a life-long surfer and avid scuba diver I think a lot about sharks in the ocean and what they do to me, but I don't spend a lot of time thinking about what we as mankind are doing to them. So in this next piece I take a look at what's happening with shark populations. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARSEN: Shark populations are crashing around the world. Millions die by finning to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup in Asia. Roughly a third of all shark species face some sort of extinction. Without them, the marine food web could start to unravel. Marine biologist Luke Tipple is on a mission to protect sharks. We met up in the Bahamas.
LUKE TIPPLE, MARINE BIOLOGIST: Actually, the marina we're in now is one of the first shark-free marinas in the Bahamas. LARSEN: Sharks is an apex predator, which means they're at the top of the food chain. They grow slowly, maturely, and produce few young, making them vulnerable to overfishing.
TIPPLE: We are supposed to have a certain number of sharks to control all these animals which are below them. We take out that apex and allow a lot of other fish to breed underneath them. They basically annihilates everything below them, and that leads to traffic collapse, which means we don't have healthy ocean systems and won't be able to pull food or product from there anymore.
LARSEN: The Bahamas banned commercial shark fishing and that helped to lure more divers and tourist dollars to the islands.
TIPPLE: Back with both of these, all 10 of these.
LARSEN: Luke and I jumped in to see some sharks up close.
Wow, they were right there.
When outside of sanctuaries like this one, sharks remain at risk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Wow. Kaj, just a question. You were down there and the sharks were swimming all around you, but in Australia just a few days ago a scuba diver was killed by a shark. So, why do some sharks kill and others don't?
LARSEN: Well, there are actually over 350 different species of sharks. And of those 350, there's really only about 10 that are potentially dangerous to mankind. You know, we have seen a spike in shark attacks this year, and it's not exactly clear what the causal factors are for that. There have been 13 fatal shark attacks so far this year, which is a high number. But if you contrast that to what we're doing to sharks, which is taking over 70 million out of the ocean this year alone, those numbers really pale in comparison. As you mentioned at the top, they have more to fear from us than we do from them.
COSTELLO: Right, right. But when a death like that occurs, doesn't it make your mission more difficult?
LARSEN: I mean, it makes it, I think what it does is it heightens this awareness that the oceans are sick. And that the marine eco system is out of balance and you can't remove that many top apex predators from the system without throwing it off somewhat.
VELSHI: Kaj, isn't it the case, though, the increased demand for shark fin soup. Isn't that a problem? If you can stop them from being caught in the Bahamas, but, ultimately, can you deal with it from the demand side?
LARSEN: No. You've gotten to the essence of the problem. You can try to create sanctuaries and you can try to create legislation and that stops it, but as long as there's a demand, you're going to continue to have sharks being killed for their fins. They just recently found a ship just off of San Diego, a place that's protected from shark finning and it had over 30,000 shark fins on it. So, you can sort of see the magnitude of the problem.
VELSHI: All right, Kaj, thanks very much for that. We're looking forward to seeing the special. Watch more on the CNN presents all new show Saturday -- I'm sorry, Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. hosted by Soledad O'Brien and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
COSTELLO: And just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, how about those Cards? Game six comeback will go down in World Series history, and it ended with a sweet and subtle tribute in the broadcast booth. We'll talk about that. It's 37 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Happy Halloween. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's 40 minutes past the hour.
Some are already calling it the greatest World Series game ever. It ranks right up there, for sure. The St. Louis cardinals rallied in the ninth and tenth innings after being down to their final strike in both the ninth and the 10th. And then in the 11th hometown hero David Freese hit a walk-off homerun, sending the Cards and the Texas Rangers into a seventh and deciding game of the World Series tonight.
Joining us to talk about that instant fall classic is Andy Martino, sports writer for the "New York Daily News." Thank you for coming in.
ANDY MARTINO, SPORTS WRITER, "NEW YORK DAILY NEWS": Thank you for having me. I'm a little tired. It was a late night with that game, but glad to be here.
COSTELLO: Some fans said I was watching the game and found myself screaming with enthusiasm.
MARTINO: It was transcendent like that. I don't care about either team. Most people in America don't care about either of those teams. The Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals have regional fan bases, but that game just rose above. It was so exciting that it roped everybody in to a World Series that they might not have been roped in otherwise.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about David Freese. He certainly could have been the goat, but he turned out to be the hero of the game. He made a terrible error at third base. He said it was a catch that a four-year-old could have made.
Little League coaches all over American were just disgusted I'm sure by David Freese's dropped pop up. It's the simplest play in the world. There are errors and then what are you doing kind of errors. That could have been what he was remembered for the rest of his career had that game gone a different way. That's what's so fascinating about this. It was possibly the worst night of his life, which turned into surely the best night of his life because that game had so many twists and turns. The drop pop up was ugly, and then he hits the game winning home run. It's amazing.
COSTELLO: It was amazing. I think one of the Texas Rangers pitchers said, you know, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. That is how nerve wracking the entire game was the whole way through.
MARTINO: At one point I was looking at Ron Washington, the manager of the Rangers in the dugout, and I was having a heart attack like everybody else, and I was thinking, how could you possibly be him right now? How could you have a personal stake in this game and be standing up, be alive? I mean, it was so tense.
And his Texas Rangers are within one strike of winning their first World Series ever on two separate occasions. And then to lose it twice and then get it back in the 10th inning. It was just incredible and I don't know how you could have stayed calm if you were part of it.
COSTELLO: Joe Buck the announcer, like 20 years ago, what was it, the Braves and the Twins.
MARTINO: Braves and the Twins.
COSTELLO: Kirby Puckett hit a home run to win the game for the Minnesota twins, and there was striking similarities, and Joe Buck sort of paid homage to his father.
MARTINO: It was really nice. Jack Buck, the legendary broadcaster who was Joe's father, said "We'll see you tomorrow night" in 1991 when Kirby Puckett hit that home run. It was a classic call. And Joe Buck in almost an identical situation said the same thing 20 years later.
That's what is so cool about baseball. I mean, not to bring it back to myself, but this is how people experience baseball. I remember being 11-years-old, excuse me, in 1991 watching that on the couch and hearing that great jack buck call. Now being 31 years old, 20 years later and hearing his son make the same call, that really just shows you how the game has those transcendent moments that connects the generations and connects you at different point in your life as it did for me, as I'm sure it did for people all over the country.
COSTELLO: I love baseball, too. I love it so much. Let's talk about the ratings of the World Series, because these are not the glamour teams, right? Everybody said, oh, nobody is going to watch. The ratings have been OK. But will the excitement of this series elevate baseball maybe next year in the years and in the years to come?
MARTINO: Well, baseball had a great month. They had exciting playoff games. Their regular season was thrilling the way it ended. It can only help because if you have casual viewers, I'm sure they're saying this is more interesting than I thought. A lot of people find it boring and it can be boring and also have these moments like it had over the past month. I do think that the game, in some ways, is a regional sport. Very intense fan bases in individual cities, which might be different from the NFL where nationally everyone is interested in pretty much every team. Maybe it's because there are more games and maybe because of a different type of fan base. I don't know.
COSTELLO: I think, if you watch ESPN they concentrate on the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Yankees, so they don't really concentrate on teams like St. Louis or Detroit or the Cleveland Indians, let's say. And maybe that -- there is no connection with the fans because they can't see it on television.
MARTINO: Yes, I think that's a really good point.
COSTELLO: Oh I think really, it's because -- well, if you watch ESPN they concentrate mostly on the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Yankees.
MARTINO: The Yankees. Yes right sure.
COSTELLO: But they don't really concentrate on teams like St. Louis or Detroit.
MARTINO: Right.
COSTELLO: Or the Cleveland Indians, let's say. And maybe that, there is no connection with the fans because they can't see it on television.
MARTINO: Yes, I think that's a really good point. Again, regionally, people feel very connected and nationally you can blame the television networks, you can blame the way the whole thing is structured where, like you said, you only get a few big market teams.
And I think there are number of factors. But what this World Series has done, what this whole postseason has done is show all of America that people like David Freese, the St. Louis hometown boy can have a moment as exciting as anyone can have in sports. And I don't know if that's going to explode the ratings for next year, but it will surely turn on a few more people because how could you not watch next year's World Series after seeing what you saw last night.
COSTELLO: Yes or Game seven. I cannot wait to watch that Game seven.
MARTINO: Or a Game seven. Or it's just the countdown until tonight. I mean it's very exciting to see even seen how the series concludes. It's not over, that's the thing. We even forget, it's not even over.
COSTELLO: Sure.
Andy thank you for being with us this morning. We appreciate it.
"Morning Headlines" is coming your way next. Its 45 minutes past the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Forty-seven minutes after the hour. Here are your "Morning Headlines".
A major shakeup in the U.K. this morning; commonwealth leaders approve a change to the 300-year-old law of succession that will give princesses an equal shot at the throne.
Big rally on Wall Street, losing some steam this morning. Right now U.S. stock futures are trading lower ahead of the opening bell.
Oakland's Mayor apologizing after police tear gas -- police tear gassed Wall Street protesters and put an Iraq war veteran in the hospital. She also said city officials have started an investigation into the use of force.
The six surviving animals from the 56 exotic pets freed in Ohio are staying put in a zoo for now. The widow of the man who freed them before killing himself wants custody. The State of Ohio isn't allowing it saying that if they are diseased or malnourished they could pose a public health threat.
The assisted suicide machine used by the last Dr. Jack Kevorkian goes on the auction block tonight in New York. Also up for bid, 17 of Kevorkian's paintings, including one that he drew with a pint of his own blood.
Students at St. Mary's College in Maryland will cruise through the rest of the semester literally 240 students will be relocated to a cruise ship because the school is dealing with a mold infestation. Their dorms were deemed uninhabitable. The Sea Voyager, a 286-foot- long vessel out of Delaware will dock at historic St. Mary City later this morning.
NBA owners and the players union returning to the bargaining table this morning trying to end the 120-day-old lockout. Both sides reported progress after yesterday's session. The lockout already forced the league to cancel the first two weeks of the regular season.
And the never-say-die Cardinals sending the World Series to a decisive Game seven for the first time in nine years. A walk off home run by David Freese won it for the Cards in the 11th inning after they've been down to their last strike twice once in the 9th and then on the 10th. Game seven between the Cardinals and Rangers is tonight in St. Louis.
That's the news you need to start your day. AMERICAN MORNING back right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: I thought you were going to do your laugh, again. Happy Halloween. Let's talk about Halloween, shall we? The haunted attraction industry is scoring big bucks these days. Everything from corn mazes -- VELSHI: Which you like.
COSTELLO: I love corn mazes.
VELSHI: Yes.
COSTELLO: One of my favorite things and I do get lost, but I don't have to call 911. Anyway, spooky houses are also really popular. Corn mazes and spooky haunted houses generated an estimated $300 million a year last year.
VELSHI: Wow.
COSTELLO: Last year actually, in ticket sales.
VELSHI: So Rob Marciano went undercover. A really hard hitting piece in one of the most popular haunted houses in the country to show us sort of how much things have changed -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: My camera, camera 4 is spooked. That's for sure. All right, yes, hey, guys, can I show this again because that's one handsome fellow. I think my dentist would be proud right there.
I went undercover as you mentioned. You know who doesn't like a good scare, a good haunted house. They're making a lot of money right now and they've came a long way in the past 10 or 20 years.
Here's my hard-hitting report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: I always enjoy meeting new friends at Halloween and this is some of the creatures. It's another world of haunted house. Hi guys, do you mind if I take a look inside? I'll take that as a yes.
New friend, new friend. I'm here with Ben Armstrong, one of the owners of Netherworld. Ben, this place is massive. It's got to be a year-round operation.
BEN ARMSTRONG, CO-OWNER, NETHERWORLD: Oh, yes, we work on this thing absolutely all year long. We conceptualized it, we work on all the creatures and we begin construction as early as February.
What we're going to do now, though, we're going to make you into one of the creatures. We're going to transform you into a monster that even your mother would be proud of.
MARCIANO: I feel pretty. I feel pretty. Ok, I'm all zombied up and I'm teaming up with the nightmare kid and we're going to go scare some kids. Come on, so this is our spot right here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, this is it, my friend.
MARCIANO: All right, what's the call, what's the game plan? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be it, you use the fog to your advantage. You come up to the fog with the illusion you're rising, you're a dead man rising from the grave.
MARCIANO: Yes, I love it.
I just had my first scream.
Every night they line-up around the block at haunted houses like these across America bringing an estimated $300 million a year.
ARMSTRONG: The haunted house industry has changed dramatically in the last 15 to 20 years. So you really need to deck it all out 360. Everything has got to be good and the technology is increasing. We have, like I said, a lot of animatronics and sophisticated characters that move. We use a lot of projections, we use a lot of illusions. So we're constantly upping the ante to give the customers more than just a guy jumping out. Although, that is the core of what we do.
MARCIANO: That is sensory overload. Working at a haunted house is an adrenaline rush, but now it's time to get back to my day job.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Thank goodness I still have one. I can only (INAUDIBLE) as zombie; my dad is not very happy yesterday I had to take a morning off after working that shoot Wednesday night. Boy, I was tired. Still scrubbing off the makeup and scrubbing my teeth.
VELSHI: You still have some of it? You still have some makeup somewhere?
MARCIANO: Well, I left the eyeliner on, I mean, I can't get rid of that.
COSTELLO: I thought you were looking mighty attractive this morning.
MARCIANO: Yes, you know, how about that.
COSTELLO: Isn't it interesting, though, that we like to be scared.
MARCIANO: It is. And I tell you what, it's even more fun to scare people. The rush you get when I first scared my first little kid and the kid dropped to his knees, it was fabulous. It was just fantastic.
VELSHI: Never -- never forget your first time.
MARCIANO: No you don't -- no you don't. I recommend it guys.
COSTELLO: Oh my goodness.
MARCIANO: So enjoy your holiday -- Halloween weekend. Haunted houses across the country, I'm sure, will be trucking along the next three days.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right guys.
COSTELLO: Up next, we asked you to "Talk Back" this morning. The question for you, "Should cities prevent occupy protesters not from protesting but from camping out all night long." We'll read some of your responses after a break. It's five minutes until the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: You're looking at pictures from earlier on. This is the New York, the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park. The Fire Department in New York has been removing generators from the park and, of course, it's getting fairly cold here in New York. We might even get some snow this weekend. It has been rainy.
We're waiting to see what the implications are of that. But the mayor's office has been tweeting that it is not legal in New York City for folks to have generators and they're saying it is a fire hazard so they have been removing the generators from the park.
COSTELLO: Yes. And it will get really cold tonight so we'll see if the protesters stick it out.
That brings us to our "Talk Back" question. We asked you this question this morning. "Should cities prevent occupy protesters not from protesting, but from camping out all night long?"
This from Pamela, "If we want to effect change, we need extreme measures. Wall Street and big business stretch the law, even break it at all of our peril. Why worry about camping out? We have bigger problems than that. Let them have their voice."
This from Doc, "As someone who has to travel literally through Occupy Philly every single day, I can tell you the situation under Dillworth Plaza is far more unsanitary and unsafe than it ever has been. I've seen at least one protestor openly urinating in the passageways making that part of the commute almost intolerable. Where is my right to commute through Philadelphia without being sickened or harassed?"
This from Michael, the U.S. supported the protesters who occupied Tahrir Square. They have supported all of the Arab Spring protests including against world leaders the U.S. Had historically supported and helped stay in power. Now people in the U.S. are upset because people are exercising their right assemble and protest?
And this from Lisa, "They're not camping, they're protesting. They're engaged in an act protected by the First Amendment."
Thanks for your comments this morning. Facebook.com/AmericanMorning.
VELSHI: Have a (INAUDIBLE) weekend. The next time I see you, Carol, it's going to be Halloween.
COSTELLO: Oh, yes.
VELSHI: Then we will dress up like each other or something like that.
That will do it for us. Thanks for watching. We'll be back bright and early Monday morning at 6:00 a.m. Eastern. Alina Cho takes it over right now in the "CNN NEWSROOM". Good morning Alina.
