Transcripts For CNN American Morning 20100428

that was the trigger that caused the financial meltdown and lawmakers go nowhere but did get their shots in. >> june 22 is the date of this e-mail, that timberwolf was one [ bleep ] deal. how much of that [ bleep ] deal did you sell to your clients after june 22, 2007? >> mr. chairman, i don't know the answer to that. but the price would have reflected levels that they wanted to invest. >> but they don't know -- you didn't tell them you thought it was a [ bleep ] deal? >> no. >> who did? your people, internally, you knew it was a [ bleep ] deal and that's what your e-mail shows. >> you may know him better as the fabulous fab the name he gave himself. the s.e.c. cited in the fraud charge against goldman sachs. >> how did it make you feel when they were released publicly? >> as i will -- dr. coburn, i regret the e-mails. they reflect very bad on the firm and on myself. and you know, i think with -- i wish i hadn't sent those. >> christine romans watched the whole thing unfold yesterday. she's live in washington this morning. >> she got a chance to sit down with lloyd blankfein after the hearing. it went on for hours. >> reporter: ten and a half hours of blistering testimony. the first panel alone was about five hours of testimony. i will say that senator carl levin was relentless. at 8:00 it was as if he was a prosecutor during closing argument over what he was double dealing and culture of conduct on wall street person fied by goldman sachs. privately there are reports that blankfein has told clients this is some sort of political attack. after the hearing, i asked him if goldman has been singled out and this is about politics. this is what he said. do you think there was a political attack against goldman sachs? >> no, at most i can say there's a disproportionate focus on goldman sachs. but i would say that there has been a huge trauma to this country related to the economic collapse and financial institutions played a bill role in that. and we share some of that burden. so it's not unfair and in fact, it's necessary to do the kind of investigation that will yield regulation, hopefully bipartisan regulation, that will re-regulate the market in a sensible way. >> reporter: it's not unfair, it's necessary, he said. at the same time at that hearing, i want to be very clear, no one from goldman sachs admitted any kind of wrong doing and no one from goldman sachs would necessarily take responsibility for engineering products that may have been at the heart of the financial crisis. so on the one hand you're seeing contrition from him that we bear part of the burden for the environment that led up to this collapse. but they are not admitting to any double dealing, not admitting to betting against their clients and certainly aren't admitting to any charges in the s.e.c. case against them. >> christine romans, a lot to get to as this saga continues. relentless testimony and questioning yesterday. congress can't even get a debate going on new rules for the financial industry. president obama blasting republicans for blocking two attempts by senate democrats to move forward on financial overhaul legislation. he'll try again to bring the floor to the senate. saying americans deserve an honest debate on financial reform. coming up, we'll be speaking with chris dodd of connecticut who says the gop is taking a major political risk by blocking financial reform. new details this morning about what happened on board a delta airlines flight from paris to atlanta after a man made was being described as two alarming statements. the plane was diverted to maine yesterday out of an abupdance of caution. he claimed to have explosives and a false passport. he is detained by federal air marshalls and the crew was calm and professional. >> i felt like something was a little strange. you can see on the flight attendant's face that they were bothered. nervous? of course, especially when the pilot comes on and tells you the plane has to divert. i thought they handled it very, very good. >> stanzbury has been questioned. no charges have been filed. the milwaukee bucks mascot is about to attempt a dunk never done before. there you see him at the top of the ladder. he leaps off backwards and makes the shot. the crowd goes wild and atlanta hawks must have feared the deer because they beat the hawks in game four. doing a flip, dunk, it goes in and landing. apparently when he tried that a year ago, he tore his acl. went back again for the victory lap and made the shot. >> did he land on the floor? >> i don't know. i didn't see the bottom. there has to be padding. >> didn't tear his acl this time. rob marciano is in the weather center in atlanta. how are we looking today? >> chilly. if you're heading out the door feeling more like maybe march, late february some spots, take a look at these current temperatures. in the 30s in upstate new york, 40 degrees in new york city. not a whole lot of heat going on there. 35 in boston. the freezing mark in pittsburgh. we have frost and freeze advisories out for the northeastern third of the country. syracuse and albany, it continues to come down as far as snow is concerned and some spots in vermont are reporting 12 or 13 inches. it will be breezy and chilly all the way to the mid-atlantic. there's a powerful storm into the north west. will emerge into the northern plains. a lot of wind. we had winds gusting over 100 miles per hour in spots in california and nevada yesterday. some of that wind will be emerging in the plains but will bring in warm temperatures. 70 in atlanta and 58 degrees in new york city. a foot of snow in vermont. if you have a hankering for winter, still got the itch, drive north four hours from new york city. >> i think i would rather head south. still to come, the coast guard is now proposing a possible solution to take care of the oil spill on the gulf. it's a risky one, to set it on fire. we'll get a live report on what's going on with the oil spill still ahead. stansbury. black back. the oil slick we've been talking about off the gulf coast is 20 miles from shore this morning. the best way to fight it, some of the experts may be to set it on fire. >> more than 40,000 gallons of crude are still leaking into the ocean each and every day and time is running out to avoid an environmental catastrophe. reynolds is down there on the mississippi delta. what are you hearing about a controlled burn in the middle of the gulf, reynolds? >> reporter: we're certainly hearing the same thing. the thing to remember is would not be like going to the gulf and throwing a match in the oil. it would be one small portion at a time and only then it would have to be if you have conditions that are perfect, the winds and current that are just so. speaking to the coast guard, yesterday i had a chance to take off with the helicopter crew and we got to fly out and assess the damage and containing this thing will be a very tall order. from the air, the spill appears massive. you can definitely see it. >> skimmers and booms trying to recover oil. >> reporter: thank you surface there's a rainbow-like sheen. most of that will be burned away by the sun's rays and there's a thicker layer of crude oil. it moves with sea current and winds, both affecting shape and size. >> 33% is small sheens, the sheen's monthly culecules are t. in about the 3% of the surface. >> reporter: currently the slick is 30 miles by 40 miles. the well is leaking 32,000 gallons of oil a day. failure to contain could be catastrophic to the people and businesses along the gulf coast. >> the thing we're trying to minimize is land impacts because of the environmental and socioeconomic damage it can do. one of noa a's concern guaranteeing the safety and security of the seafood, that no tainted products get to market. >> reporter: it's going to take a huge effort as we fly over the location where the deepwater horizon was once operational, all that remains was a blanket of oil and boats. working to stop the leak and what coast guard officials say might become one of the most significant oil spills in u.s. history. we have an update in terms of the size. it is now measured to be roughly 42 miles by 80 miles. certainly a tremendous mess. the spill that is so big that winds are carrying the smell of this along parts of the coast, florida and alabama and mississippi. people can smell it from the beaches. back to you. >> tough situation for sure. we'll continue following it. meanwhile, to another situation unfolding in the streets just outside of bangkok, thailand. the area has turned into a battle ground. police fired on anti-government protesters. accusations the prime minister is called unfounded. two dozen civilians and military personnel have dialed in the clashes. we're minding your business this morning, 15 minutes after the hour. what did we make better ? communities. industry. energy. her. this. lives. how ? by bringing together... information. ... people ... ... machines ... ... systems ... ideas... verizon helps businesses worldwide... including fortune 500 companies... find and achieve... better. better. better. better. 18 minutes after the hour. time for "minding your business." hackers are targeting ipad users. they were told to watch out for an e-mail telling them to download the latest version of i tunes. security experts say if an ipad use r installs the software, th hacker can steal the passwords for their e-mail accounts. starting tomorrow, airlines will be facing stiff penalties for keeping passengers grounded on planes for more than three hours on the tarmac. the obama administration apromising strict enforcement of the new rule. it calls for fines up to $27,000 per passenger against an offendsing airline. >> reporter: airline passengers have less rights than a prisoner of war for the geneva convention. >> the airline industry says it will comply with the rules but warns they won't want to risk fines and that will be mean more cancellations and more headaches in general for travelers. tests show that former poison frontman bret miy kels hs suffered a setback. the statement says he remains in critical but stable condition and doctors remain hopeful for a full recovery. former first lady laura bush is opening up about a car accident she had 50 years ago that claimed the life of a high school friend and haunted her ever since. her new book hits bookstores next month. she goes into detail about the de deadly night in 1963. and taking nancy pelosi and harry reid to task. she believes that the entire delegation may have been poisoned at the g-8 summit in germany. they became seriously sick and president bush was bed-ridden, but they could never determine whether they were poisoned or not. >> there was some speculation about that. maybe it was bad snits zell. an art dealer was caught by the feds trying to sell a fake pick kas so was the real deal. she has agreed to plead guilty. she faces up to 25 years in prison. but officials are only asking for 21 months. the giveaway was they found the painting of dogs with cards. just kidding. >> the story of one family that adopted a little boy from russia and got more than they bargained for. alina cho with an "a.m. original" next. made their hair feel softer. the ammonia-free antioxidant formula actually protects hair from dryness, leaving it softer and healthier looking. for natural looking color in 10 minutes, get your hands on natural instincts. it's all good. for a rich color experience, try natural instincts 10 new rich color creme shades. so i got my nephew to build a website. i hired someone to make my website... five months ago. we are building a website by ourselves. announcer: there's an easier way. create your own small-business site with intuit websites. just choose a style that fits your business and customize, publish and get found in three easy steps. sweet. all from just $4.99 a month, get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com. ♪ russian adoptions are firmly in the spotlight after the recent story of a woman in tennessee who put her adopted son on a plane by himself to russia, saying he was too much to handle. >> this morning there was an equally controversial case grabbing national attention. alina cho went to virginia speaking with an adoptive family saying a russian orphanage misled them. >> it's because of that tennessee case they are speaking out. when they adopted their son roman from russia, he was just shy of 2 years old and seemingly healthy, or at least they say that's what they were told by the adoption agency that handled the case. it turns out roman is severely ill, even violent. they don't want to send roman back to russia, but they are suing the adoption agency, saying they were lied to and deceived. >> reporter: the harshaw home is quieter, roman, now 8, was cents away to an institution a little more than two weeks ago where he's getting help for his violent behalf yor. >> i felt like the worst mom in the world. how could i let my baby go there without us tucking him in? it was really hard and it still is. >> reporter: they adopted roman from russia six years ago. he arrived looking picture perfect. soon after he began acting out. >> he can be hugging you and telling you i love you one second, then the next second he is completely lost in a rage. >> reporter: the harshaws say roman once tried to smash a two by four over their daughter's head and another time almost drowned her in the pool. the older brother daniel is so distraught, he asked his parents for counseling. >> to hear your 11-year-old say they need a psychiatrist because of the stress in the house is hard to hear. >> reporter: he is also a danger to himself, most recently pulling out three of his own teeth. the diagnosis, feetal alcohol syndrome. >> it's irreversible and lifelong thing. >> reporter: in a lawsuit, the harshaws allege they were lied to about roman's health and need financial help to care for his special needs. they said bethany misled them, telling them a russian doctor in new york traveled to the orphanage for a face to face vis visit. you are assured he examined roman. what were you told? >> that he was healthy and on target. >> reporter: in a deposition, dr. d. admitted he never went to the orphanage and doesn't even practice medicine in the u.s. in court documents, an employee of the adoption agency acknowledged she had told the family he would visit the children in russia and review their medical records. >> reporter: had you known what you now know, you would not have gone through with the adoption and yet -- >> yet we love him. >> what do you do? we are in the worst possible situation but the bottom line is that we love roman. he's not a broken toy you can return to the store. >> alligator! >> reporter: at this inpatient facility 90 minutes from home, bethany christian services disputes most of the harshaws claims and says it provided counseling and opportunities to consult with physicians and medical records to the family. adoption specialist says fetal alcohol syndrome is common in russian orphanages and they should have known the risks before they brought roman home. >> every country is well known for what the challenges are. >> reporter: you are saying you should know a lot. if you don't, do your homework? >> exactly. i think everyone needs to do their homework. >> reporter: the harshaws are not giving up on the case or on their son. what's your great hope for roman? >> that we can find a place that he will be as happy as he can be and safe as he can be. we don't know what the future holds but we want him to be a part of our family no matter what. the adoption agency is seeking a gag order barring the harshaws from talking to the media. cnn plans to fight the gag order. a judge will make a ruling today. the father says, if fetal alcohol syndrome was so prevalent, why weren't we told? adoption specialists say when you videotape a child overseas and the prospective parents see tharks the child looks okay. they don't look like they are dying. but the underlying medical conditions, they need to be examined further. she wonders, why didn't they talk to an adoption specialist and review the papers they were given. perhaps they would have atvoide this situation. she praises them for deciding to keep roman and love him. they say we are filing this lawsuit because we need money to care for him, potentially for the rest of his life. >> what a tough situation. >> it makes you wonder what would happen if it was disclosed, i mean, people knew he was suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome, which has a host of behavioral and intellectual problems. what would have happened to him? >> that's an open question. fetal alcohol syndrome by some estimates, in russia, is eight times more prevalent than any other place in the world. it is a major problem there. when you talk to adoption specialists they say, when you hear about the case like this, the message is prevention. let's get money, grants to these types of countries around the world to fight this so it doesn't happen. that's a long battle. >> thanks alina. 30 minutes past the hour. time to look at our top stories. fighting an oil slick with fire, could be the only option left for the coast guard. 40,000 gallons of crude spilling into the gulf each day. the slick is now 40 miles wide and within 20 miles of louisiana' shore. officials are considering a controlled burn to try to minimize the damage to the environment. the justice department may sue the state of arizona over a new law that allows police to check the status of those they believe are in the country illegally. the bill could pit law enforcement against those they are supposed to protect. homeland security secretary says the southern border is as secure as it has ever been and warns against redirecting federal dollars to hunt down dangerous immigrants. a reflection of main street's anger. senators slamming goldman sachs for their role in the recession. the traders deny they knew it was crashing and made billions off the knowledge. maybe the most powerful man on wall street, lloyd blankfein said the firm is doing soul searching but denied betting against his clients and siz his firm is not appreciated for the good it does. >> christine romans joins us live with more. what struck you the most about what lloyd blankfein told you yesterday? >> reporter: how is it that goldman sachs became sort of this symbol of everything that went wrong in the bubble? because two years ago people on wall street were lobbying this company, maybe a year and a half ago, they are the smartest people out there. they see what is weakening elsewhere and willing to make sure they are not going to get too exposed to the mortgage mess. but now that's coming back to bite them. i asked lloyd blankfein. mere is this wall street ceo, multimillionaire, who -- harvard educated. he has been set up as the man that wall street hates. there's an irony in that. >> reporter: can i ask who you became the poster boy for wall street? working class parents and family. dad was a postal worker. and now you're the guy who's the face of the enemy of main street. how did that happen? >> in some maybe that's a fair characterization, i hope it's not like that broadly and hope it doesn't stay that way. >> reporter: there are people with signs that say america's public enemy number one, lloyd blankfein, that must pain you. >> it pains me to hear you say it. i have -- the firm has its work cut off for it. however we got to this place, we are going to work very, very hard to make ourselves appreciated for the value we contribute and for the way in which our activities are good for america. i know there is credibility gap there, but i tell you the activity that's we do, financing companies and helping to manage people's money, these are all good for the united states. >> what about trading and cdos? was that nothing? was that air? >> of course it's good. people could only be able to raise capital if the people who buy those equities and bonds are able to sell them. they can only sell them if they are liquid markets. they are all connected to the capital markets. nobody, even the legislators are not questioning the importance of the capital markets and the work we do when we're doing well. their criticism is that we haven't done a good job or we haven't -- we haven't taken account of all of the interest in the way we should have. we're committed to re-earning that trust. >> reporter: it's not an attack on the capital markets, he's right on that. the allegations are double dealing and the deck is stacked no matter what. it's not knows fundamental ways of creating the economy that goldman sachs was pursuing, but it was trading and financial engineering that actually hurt the economy. that's what we kept dancing around yesterday in this hearing. lots of e-mails and accusations and denials from goldman sachs. but bottom line, this is a company -- and i think lloyd blankfein was a little more con trite than in the hearing for sure. they say they have work to do but will not acknowledge they did anything wrong. >> real point of confrontation between the chairman carl levin and blankfein. who won? >> reporter: it was a fascinating confrontation. you now what they thought on wall street, they thought blankfein won. stock market was down 200 points and goldman sachs stock ended a dollar higher. >> i thought about you when i saw that one. it was ten and a half hours was basically being -- having the screws put to them and the stock didn't suffer. amazing. >> reporter: mostly people said there weren't, aside from timberwolf e-mails, they didn't see a big smoking gun, new smoking gun. it was a lot of same accusations and denials so far. and that's why the stock ended up -- >> we'll talk later about fab tourre as well. he testified. still coming up, she's about to be named teacher of the year. we'll talk to sara brown wesling about what she things about being given this honor. imagine if it were this easy to spot the good guys. you know, the guys who always do a super job. well, it is. just go to superpages.com®. and look for a business with the superguarantee® shield. you'll get the job done right, or we'll step in and help to make it right. so, protect yourself with a business backed by the superguarantee®. only at superpages.com®. and let the good guys come to the rescue. only at superpages.com®. a guy nafor 65 dollars.ce, wants a room tonight we don't go lower than $130. big deal, persuade him. okay. $65 for tonight. you can't argue with a big deal. and you can get a big deal on last-minute flights, too. while everyone else's prices are on the rise, priceline finds the empty seats to save you up to 50% off published fares when you name your own price. big last-minute savings from the home of the big deal. too often headlines involves budget cuts and teachers not doing their jobs. but there are educators out there doing an amazing job teaching your children. >> sara brown wesling is one of them. she teaches high school english and tomorrow president obama will name her national teacher of the year. we're thrilled to have sara brown wessling. welcome and congratulations. >> thank you so much. >> we're glad to talk to you this morning. tell us what it was like when you found out you were being named teacher of the year? >> it was both u forric and humbling. this is an incredible opportunity to represent all of magnificent honor to grow and model what i most hope for my students, they are lifelong learners and take on things. >> your student wrote, over the course of sophomore english, she took an under achieving student that struggled from remedial reading and transformed him into someone to go to college and then graduate school. share with us this morning, if you would, sarah, what are the methods you use to create high-performing students out of students who might not be performing so well, and how can those be applied across the board? >> what's so important to realize is we need to see every student as a student with potential. when we do that, the student has the ability to exceed his own expectations. one of ways we can do that in the classroom is by giving students what they really want is to be challenged. i really do think they want to be challenged in ways that are rigorous to them and relevant to them. in that sense, we need to make sure our instruction is 21st century and we're connecting with students right where they are. and when we do those kinds of things and are careful in our instruction, we can create the kind of curriculum that is personal and relevant to every single student. >> it's been a long time since either one of us has been in high school or middle school. i can still remember the names of the teacher that made a difference because they challenged me and showed they cared. it was the little things. right now we're facing a crisis around the country. the education secretary is saying we could be looking at worst case scenario, 300,000 teacher layoffs, maybe 100,000 in a better case scenario. what are we doing when it comes to this big fiscal situation that we find ourselves in and who ends up suffering when we have to make these types of cuts? >> well, certainly what we have to keep in the forefront of our minds all of the time are our students. what are the ramifications of our choices and decisions in the local levels and state levels and certainly at the national level on education of our students. because what we know and believe in this country is that a public education is a great liberator. and it is the aspect that can make a difference in lives. and we have to remember that our decisions will impact students. we have to support the system and the opportunities that they have. >> sarah, at the same time we have the budget crisis in states and municipalities resulting in layoffs. there are low-achieving schools. in some districts an entire staff had been fired. are teachers the reasons for low-performing schools? you could be the best teacher in the country, but if you can't get a kid in the school, how are you going to teach them? >> i think one of things we need to do, we need to look at the resources we have in schools already. we need to locate kind of in the nooks and krannysy where that tremendous education is coming from and where that fantastic instruction is at. and we have to find ways to capitalize on that. we must give teachers the opportunity to collaborate together. we have to find ways to carve out time during school days for teachers to have meaningful conversations so that they can hold each other accountable and learn together and grow together and become the kinds of deliberate decision-makers on a daily basis that will propel the students to exceed those expectatio expectations. >> you're doing it yourself and i'm glad you're getting recognized for it. you have a little one, 4 months old? >> 4 1/2. >> congratulations. 24 minutes past the hour. when we come back, rob will have the morning travel forecast. from potty mouth senator to inmates, jeanne moos with some of the antics from the goldman sachs. with you. with you when you're ready for the next move. 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[ wife ] babe... ♪ umm, i gotta go. [ female announcer ] 28 delicious flavors at around 100 calories each. yoplait, it is so good. indulge in new blueberry pie and new red velvet cake. yoplait light. it is so good. and while it can never be fully answered, it helps to have a financial partner like northern trust. by gaining a keen understanding of your financial needs, we're able to tailor a plan using a full suite... of sophisticated investment strategies and solutions. so whatever's around the corner can be faced with confidence. ♪ northern trust. look ahead with us at northerntrust.com. goldman sachs testified before congress today. that proves crooks always return to the scene of the crime. >> time for the moos news in the morning. it was an all day grilling with goldman sachs executives getting roasted from both sides of the ale. >> senators let loose in a hearing dripping with content and laced with profanity. jeanne moos followed the drama, the bleeps and all. >> reporter: wonder which was worse? >> how do you feel about destroying the american economy? >> reporter: being chased down the hall by protesters and press, or getting pressed by senators? >> your own person said they are too smart to buy this junk. >> don't do the hindsight thing with me. >> reporter: there was head wiping and scratching. the thing it may be most remembered for is a six-letter word not usually heard at congressional hearings. >> boy that timberwolf was one [ bleep ] deal. how much of that [ bleep ] deal did you sell to your clients? >> reporter: carl levin got the term from an internal goldman sachs e-mail, not internal anymore. >> how about the fact you sold that deal after your people knew it was a [ bleep ] deal. >> reporter: didn't bother the media. some websites kept count. >> should gold man sacks being trying to sell a [ bleep ] deal? >> i didn't say that. >> reporter: daniel sparks took a couple of swigs after that exchange, only to have another senator bring it up again an hour later. >> by the way, this is the same one your folks called [ bleep ]. >> reporter: six hours later it came up again. >> a junk or a [ bleep ] deal. >> reporter: if you were this goldman sachs executive, you would sigh too. >> fabrice tourre. >> is that how they do it in france, fab? >> reporter: critics were relentle relentless. >> can't accept a small amount of responsibility. >> i do not think we did anything wrong. >> i don't have regrets about doing things that i think were improper. >> you have no regrets, you ought to have plenty of regrets. >> reporter: the protesters dressed as inmates. >> all of your money won't keep you out of jail. ended up being detained by police. they bounced off walls and into each other, talk about the need for regulation. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> that has to be one of the most exciting days in a long time on capitol hill. >> that was a hearing of a different color. >> kids, turn off c-span immediately. >> did they have somebody on the button at c-span? >> now on an eight second delay. the top stories are coming your way right after the break. don't go away. it's 7:00 on the east coast on this wednesday, the 28th of april. thanks for joining us on the most news in the morning. i'm john roberts. >> i'm kiran chetry. first, it got pretty ugly in a rare show of unity on capitol hill. both sides taking shots at goldman sachs executives who insisted they did nothing wrong. >> tense moments aboard a jet liner. air marshalls scramble as a flight is diverted to maine. we're learning more about the man who said he had a fake passport and explosives. >> have you found yourselves on an airplane with no food and water and no access to a working bathroom? the government is about to lay down the law own airlines, why they say it could have unintended consequences. the a.m. fix blog is up and running, cnn.com/amfix. we'll read your e-mails throughout the show. >> deny, deny, deny. in front of millions of americans who think they are so smug, goldman sachs executives did little to help their cause on capitol hill. they spent seven hours piling on in colorful fashion from time to time, accusing them of bundling up garbage loans or another word they used, tied to the housing crisis and telling investors they are awesome. that was the trigger that caused the financial meltdown and lawmakers go nowhere but they did get their shots in. >> june 22 is the date of this e-mail. boy, that timber wolf was one [ bleep ] deal. how much of that [ bleep ] deal did you sell to your clients after june 22, 2007? >> mr. chairman, i don't know the answer to that, but the price would have reflected levels that they wanted to invest. >> of course, but they don't know -- you didn't tell them it was a [ bleep ] deal. >> no. >> your people did internally. that's what your e-mail shows. >> how did trader fabrice tourre fa fare, the fabulous fab? >> how did it make you feel when they were released publicly? >> you know, as i will, you know, repeat again, dr. coburn, i regret these e-mails. they reflect very bad on the firm and on myself. and, you know, i think, you know, i wish i hadn't sent those. >> wishes he hadn't sent them. christine romans is live in washington. she got a chance to sit down with goldman's top ceo lloyd blankfein after the hearing. i want to ask about fabrice tourre. some of that was the most quoted and at least seemed the more electric, where he called himself fabulous and joked about selling to widows and orphans at the airport. how did that end with his testimony yesterday? >> reporter: he was the part of a five-hour panel of four other people from the mortgage desk. and carl levin circled around at the end of the panel and started to hammer him again. you said you were creating monday strosties that even you didn't fully understand the implications of. won't you accept responsibility? he said, no i believe my conduct was proper, even as carl levin got him him to admit things he wrote he didn't mean to write or weren't true. there was a lot of hammering as the fabulous fab as he's known, tourre, it pained him that the e-mails had been released, of course. after the hearing i got a chance to talk with lloyd blankfein, which is really rare. for more than a year i have sought to talk to him about all of allegations against goldman sachs and the view has been it's not our style to have lloyd blankfein talk to the media. we speak through our clients and results speak for themselves. now he is talking to the media after ten hours of talking to congress. during the senate hearing, he was very adamant they didn't do anything wrong. i asked him, if you didn't do anything wrong, what needs to change? why are we here? . what will you do to be different? do you need to be regulated better or more? what were the mistakes? >> i think on the mistakes, we were part of a system that introduced too much credit and too loose credit and -- which served to create and build up the bubble. and we played a role in that. we financed companies that were perhaps a little bit too leveraged and we did real estate transactions that may have been too leveraged and that played a role in creating the bubble, which ultimately broke and the consequences of the last two years bear that out. >> reporter: it's an interesting point, kiran, that he's accepting responsibility for being part of a system that was part of a bubble, but he's not accepting responsibility for any of the specific charges, the s.e.c. charges, of creating monsters that actually created risk and created problems in the economy. on one hand, saying yes, we bear burden and we have a credibility gap, and on the other hand to congress saying, we didn't do anything wrong. >> wonder how the american public feels about that after watching that spectacle unfold. christine, we'll have more of your interview with lloyd blankfein later in the newscast. >> new details about the man detained after making alarming statements on board a trans atlantic flight. the jet was forced to land in bangor, maine. derrick stansbury who served in the air force, claimed to have explosives and a fake passport. he was detained by federal air marshalls. no explosives were found and the passengers say the crew was calm and professional. >> nervous, yeah, of course, especially when the pilot comes on and tells you the plane has to divert. that's something to wonder about. but ultimately i felt like they handled it very good. they didn't make everybody rattled. they could have but they didn't. >> the stew ardesses did a great job. i'm glad to be back on the ground. also new this morning, a 40-mile wide oil slick is within 20 miles of the louisiana shore. the coast guard is considering a controlled burn, possibly today in an attempt to eliminate as much as 90% of the slick before it reaches the coast line. the robotic subs we were talking about failed to shut off a leaking valve. 40,000 gallons of crude are still pouring into the ocean every day. a two-alarm fire contained in norfolk, virginia. it broke out in the town's marina. waby reporting that they were calling on their hands and knees to get past the fire and to make sure no one was in danger. witnesses say they heard an explosion before the fire started. some winds clocked at more than 100 miles per hour, brought down trees and power lines in the reno area. more than a dozen flights had to be canceled at reno's airport. >> rob marciano is in the weather center. >> that storm in nevada is moving off to the east and may bring severe weather in the form of thunderstorms across the plains tomorrow. but the northeastern third, you're chilly, temperatures in the 30s and 32 degrees in pittsburgh. frost and freeze advisories from the ohio valley through the northeast. white on the radar again this morning. winter storm warnings remain posted in vermont and new hampshire and maine could see 8 to 18 inches of snow. already seen a foot in some places but with may just a couple of days away. more weather in 30 minutes. stay warm. >> thanks, rob. this sounds like a great choice, either wait on a plane for hours or lose your luggage. airlines will face big fines starting tomorrow for keeping you stranded on the runway, they are saying that means things could back fire on passengers big time. >> what main street really thinks about goldman sachs. do they blame the banks or was washington asleep at the switch? >> what do op-- we'll show you e states that put the biggest price tag on your health. 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[ female announcer ] together we can discover the best of what's next at aarp.org. welcome back. senate democrats will try again for a vote to begin debating new rules to reign in wall street. they tried twice already. president obama is blasting the gop, says americans deserve an honest debate on the reform bill. >> senate republicans unanimously blocked efforts to even begin debating reform. i'm not asking them to vote for the bill. i just want to let them debate it. you've learned these senate rules are complicated. so they won't even let it get on the floor to be debated. it's one thing to oppose reform, but to oppose just even talking about reform in front of the american people and having a legitimate debate, that's not right. >> just ahead at 7:30. we'll speak with chris dodd about his efforts to move financial reform forward. president obama likely to get and earful today as he talks about wall street reform, the homestretch of his white house to main street tour. suzanne malveaux joins us from iowa today. what people thought of the goldman sachs grilling yesterday, suzanne? >> reporter: some of the people were not watching. it's one of these things when you go outside of washington to see if people are paying attention. 58,000 people have lost their jobs here since the recession, 30,000 in the manufacturing industry alone. the president visiting three different counties in iowa, those hard hit by the recession, one 9.5% unemployment. that's where he had his town meeting and had a chance to pull people aside and ask them, are you paying attention to the hearings on goldman sachs in washington? how are you doing in your lives? >> it's hard to make ends meet when you're trying to live on unemployment and got kids and bills and everything else. it's hard to make the ends meet any more. >> reporter: do you think people in washington understand that you think that the politicians understand how hard it is? >> i think some of them do but most of them don't. most of them haven't had to struggle like that. don't know what it's like to be on the bottom. >> reporter: are you paying attention to goldman sachs and they have hearings on capitol hill? >> i haven't followed that too much. >> reporter: do you blame them? do you know what that's about? >> no. >> reporter: does it matter to you? >> i thought it was an investment thing, so not really. >> reporter: what do you think is happening in d.c. today, goldman sachs? do you pay attention? >> i do. i think people are totally fed up and angry, striking out and, of course, it's easy to criticize. i don't think any of us have many answers. i think all of the incumbents are in a lot of trouble, whether republican or democrat. >> reporter: do you know anybody who has lost their job or seen things go for the worse? >> yeah, my brother did. well, he works for the airlines and they've been cutting back his hours and giving him less pay. >> reporter: is it difficult? >> it's very difficult. he just had a kidney transplant so -- two small children and his wife has to work. it's been difficult for him. >> reporter: kiran, what was fascinating, i talked to a lot of folks. they say partly to blame, washington, goldman sachs but also themselves, looking for answers and looking to the president. they all say they believe it's a shared responsibility. the president will be heading to other small towns today. we'll be following him along the way, missouri as well as illinois, pushing forward financial regulatory reform and trying to make his case that he is doing the best he can in dealing with the real economic troubled times that folks are talking about. >> suzanne malveaux this morning. thanks so much. coming up next, ever consider how much it might cost if you had to go to the hospital with a heart attack? elizabeth cohen takes a look and the results might just give you the big one. i'm coming, elizabeth, i'm coming! that's a low price! wow! that's a low price! wow, that's a low price! i'm sorry, did you say something about a low price? wow, that's a low price! i know! 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[ beeping ] ♪ my country ♪ 'tis of thee ♪ sweet land ♪ of liberty ♪ of thee i sing [ laughs ] ♪ oh, land ♪ where my fathers died ♪ land of the pilgrims' pride ♪ from every mountainside ♪ let freedom ring [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time... time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief, comes in a new liquid gel. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. ♪ 25 1/2 minutes after the hour. top stories just about 4 1/2 minutes away. first an "a.m. original." >> would you shop that store where they charge three times more for everything they sell? not likely. that's what thousands of americans do when they check into a hospital. >> hospitals on average charge 180% above costs for their services. except in maryland, where state regulation means hospital s charge a whole lot less. elizabeth cohen now with part three of our "prescription for waste." >> reporter: i'm her at johns hopkins. let's say they brought someone in who just had a heart attack, the drugs and nurses, all of that. hopkins, like other hospitals, on top of that charges a profit margin, a markup, if you will. to talk about the markups, i'm here with professor apder son. how much of a markup do they charge? >> 21%. >> reporter: other hospitals and other states in the country, do they also charge 21% markup. >> no it's only maryland that does it. other states' markups are much higher. >> reporter: i'm going to take a tour of states around maryland to see how much it cost there to have a heart attack. i've just crossed the line into delaware where they markup prices by 85%. remember, in maryland, they only mark up prices by 21%. wait. it gets even worse. just cross the line into pennsylvania, and they have a 277% markup. this heart attack is getting very expensive, but wait, we still have one more state to go. in new jersey, hospitals hike their prices higher than any other state in the country, 326%. i wanted to understand why hospitals mark up their prices this way. i've come here to ask the president of the american hospital association. nationally, markups are 180% we're told. that just seems most consumers, that seems like a huge markup. >> you'll find markups in every walk of life. it depends upon the variables, the cost of providing that service and the factor how much do you then in fact get paid. >> reporter: other states right next to maryland charge so much more than what we charge in maryla maryland. >> everyone doesn't have the same type of pay system. >> reporter: how does maryland keep the markup so low? >> they establish the rates for each hospital in maryland. >> reporter: so maryland takes care of patients more inexpensively. let's not forget about the patient here. does that hurt our patient that maryland is spending less money on him? >> no, in fact, the quality of care at johns hopkins and quality of care in the hospitals in maryland is all quite good. >> no doubt, elizabeth, if you get sick, johns hopkins is a great place to go to get treated. if the state of maryland can cap what hospitals can charge, why can't every state do this? >> reporter: it's interesting, john. back in the '70s and '80s, various states tried it and you know what, they went right back to the old system. and i'll bet you can guess why. hospitals don't make as much money when you do what maryland is doing. the hospitals said, forget it. >> new jersey hospitals that you showed us, do they get paid all of the extra charges they ask for? >> reporter: they don't. they don't usually make the full markup. they negotiate a price lower than that, but still significantly higher than what they get in maryland. what do hospitals in new jersey and elsewhere get? we don't know because the negotiations between insurance companies and hospitals are kept secret. >> when you get your bill, you can see how much they get paid for certain things. typically it's a fraction of what they want. elizabeth, thanks so much. >> very eye-opening series you've been doing. tomorrow, a medical clinic, where a bold experiment is panning out. doctors are happier and patients and bottom lines healthier. elizabeth profiles what could be a proet toe type of what could be the future. coast guard officials are considering setting fire to a 40-mile wide oil slick off the louisiana coast. it may be the only way to keep it from damaging the environmentally sensitive shoreline along the coast there. every day, 42,000 gallons of crude continue to leak into the ocean where an offshore drilling platform exploded and sank last week. the justice department may sue arizona over a new law. eric holder says the bill could pit law enforcement against those they are supposed to protect. homeland secretary says the border is as secure as it has been and warns against redirecting american dollars. senators slamming goldman sachs executives for the alleged role in the worst recession since the great depression. >> don't you also have a duty to disclose an adverse interest to your client? do you have that duty? do you? >> about -- >> if you have an adverse interest to your client, do you have a duty to disclose that to your client? >> the question about how the fifrm is positioned or our desk is positioned -- >> you have anned verse interest to your client when you're selling something to them, do you have the responsibility to tell the client of the adverse interest? that's my question. >> i'm trying to understand. >> i don't think you want to answer it. >> the traders all denied over and over again that they were part of the problem that caused the financial meltdown. >> they tried twice and twice they failed and senate democrats will try again today to break a republican filibuster of a financial reform bill. president obama is attacking the gop tore blocking the bill that would create new rules for wall street. and says americans deserve an honest debate. chris dodd has been negotiating with republicans on a bipartisan solution and joins us in an exclusive interview. great to see you this morning. if you're still trying to hammer out an agreement with republicans, and you have said yourself you think a deal is close, why do you keep having all of these votes? is it political theater? are you hoping if you vote enough a couple of republicans might peel off and join you? >> this is a bill reflecting bipartisan work over the many, many months. we introduced a bill in november, there was objections to various parts. we put it aside, did not go to the floor then and working for six months producing this product. you heard about goldman sachs, the market fell 2%, europe is on the brink of a financial crisis, we need to get about the business of putting the bill together. we're sitting down and talking on some aspects, but 98 of the colleagues have ideas they would like to bring and the idea that two senators will resolve this isn't how the senate functions. we need to get to the debate and allow amendments and discuss aspects of the bill. not even allowing us to move to the bill, not voting for the bill. not voting on amendments, just bringing up the bill for debate. we need to get to this. the american public wants answers and they deserve them. >> i want to dig into the particulars of the bill that moment. i'm sure you saw your colleagues grilling goldman sachs executives, including the man behind the questionable cdos, lloyd blankfein. as you just pointed out. the dow down 200 points and goldman stocks up a dollar. >> as you know, there's a legal matter, the s.e.c. has brought against goldman sachs. but carl levin was asking about the ethics of these issues. where an industry or company is engaged in the business of marketing certain products, that they themselves think are very risky, and are taking bets against those. should there be rules to govern those activity? frankly there should be. as you know, a lot of activities that brought us to the financial brink were in the unregulated sector of the economy. most of us believe that we need to have cops on the beat in the unregulated area of our economy, one of major features of the bill we're bringing to the senate. >> let's get to the meat of the legislation. what will your financial reform bill do to protect investors? >> it does basically four things. we end too big to fail. we have accomplished this with this bill, never again should taxpayers be asked to bailout a financial institution because they have an implicit guarantee that the government will help them when they mess up. number two, we believe the exotic instruments, $91 trillion in 1998 that jumped to almos$19 $600 trillion need to be regulated and have transparency. that was a major cause of the problems as well. thirdly, consumer protection. this is the 21st century, whether it's credit cards or mortgages or other financial instruments, there is no place on a regular basis as a top priority protects the american consumer for financial products that could ruin them. lastly, we need to have an early warning system, to be able to identify much earlier than we did the problems that are looming. i mention, you could have a problem today in greece that poses risk in europe and here. we need to have a systemic radar council to watch early on and avoid the kind of huge problems that can emerge. we'll have our economic crises, but they shouldn't ma tat sooiz into what we see today. >> there have been many critics, not only of wall street but also of the congress. bethany mcclain wrote that congress was warned and sad idly by. congress refused to regulate derivatives despite a.m. many evidence. they faileded to update the fraying regulatory system. how can you assure the american people that you will get it right this time? >> you do the best you can. obviously, again, i became chairman of the banking committee about 38 months ago, the very first hearings we held were on mortgage crisis, all of 2007, even into 2008, for a year, raising the issue of what was going on and what steps were we taking by the fed or the treasury department to step in. you may recall in 1994 congress actually passed a law instructing the federal reserve to promote regulations that would stop the abusive and deceptive practices in the mortgage market. they didn't promote one regulation. congress should have, you're right, stepped in and say why aren't you doing this? steps were made but people were looking for efficiencies. >> senator, was a mistake to do that? >> i think it was. we believed the argument, it was overwhelmingly adopted, about the community reinvestment act. most people believe that by providing firewalls that you could separate commerce and banking and people wanted efficiency and wanted one-top shopping and didn't want to go to different places. it didn't work very well. >> what do you say now to people suffering so badly because of the near collapse of our financial system about your vote? >> that was one aspect of it. i wish we could go back and redo that. what are we doing about this? can we get to a debate to allow us to make corrections? we have a whole week being wasted because people don't want the issue to be brought up. who are they working for when they are doing that? i'm not suggesting our bill is perfect. but we've spent a lot of time working to introduce the legislation. you have to raise the question what's going on. >> when you talk about the glass stealingle as well. wall street found another way to outsmart the government. nobody knew the exotic instruments being traded, the casino-like atmosphere, that's now how you envisioned separating commercial and investment banking, right? >> exactly. >> how do you know they won't outsmart you again? >> well, the idea you don't, obviously what you do is by having more than one regulator, the systemic risk council looking over what's occurring out there and not only having the ability to advise but insist the federal reserve goes so far as to break up the institutions. nothing like that exists today in the federal government. you're right, we'll have another economic crisis, no question about it, but the issue is can we respond early and quickly enough to avoid the kind of problems we've seen emerge from this crisis? >> can i ask this question? 11 years ago you got it wrong. how do you know you've got it right this time? >> again, you learn from your lessons going back. at that time as you recall, the votes were adopted almost unanimously bit congress, republicans and democrats voted for that. here we believe we've hopefully learned in setting up the system as i described here, consumer protection, seeing you have an early warning system and seeing to it you'll have transparency on the exotic instruments so they have to go through the clarity of people knowing what's being bought and sold. we think you can minimize those problems. it's a strong bill and recognized as such. others have amendments we'll add to this and put up a major reform effort when it comes to the financial sector of our k country. >> we appreciate it and best of luck today. chris dodd from connecticut, thanks. what's hot on the blogs? what has you riled up this morning? what do you like to weigh in on? we would like to hear from you. we'll be reading your comments in a couple of minutes. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 if it was up to me? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 investment firms wouldn't even dream of overcharging people. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 in fact, they'd spend all of their time dreaming up ways tdd# 1-800-345-2550 to give us more for our money. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i guess i'd just like to see a little more give tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and a little less take, you know? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 if it was up to me, they'd spend a lot more time tdd# 1-800-345-2550 worrying about my bottom line. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 (announcer) at charles schwab, investors rule. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 are you ready to rule? lots of comments coming into the live blog this morning. >> we have mark who writes in, the double talk and verbal dodging is completely offensive. they need to be held accountable for their actions and share the financial burden. there are others who say the american people are tired of the inaction in congress. time for us to say no to the gop. a lot of people weighing in on what they saw, whether or not main street is getting the raw end of the deal, no matter how hard they were grilled on watt street. goldman sacks ended up a dollar up. >> people are focusing in on the fact that people said the word a lot which you don't normally hear in congress. when it comes down to who got anything done, it looked like more of a stalemate than anything. >> it was interesting it was out there for people to see. we'll see if any changes come because of it. >> you can join the conversation cnn.com/amfix. let us know what you think about this. >> also, let's check in with rob marciano, high winds in parts of the desert southwest. high winds headed to the east coast and travel delays. rob will be along with more. 44 minutes past the hour. 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[ chuckles ] [ male announcer ] from febreze comes noticeables. freshness you'll notice ♪ there's a live look this morning in green bay, wisconsin. the cheese heads, packers, sunny and 42 degrees. zero chance of precipitation, looking good today. not so great over the next two days. take what you can get. >> if you live in upstate new york, you may get more snow today. rob, what's up with that? >> check out this video, john. you mentioned it earlier, snow on top of daffodils. >> the tulips are getting snowed on. >> that's a scene we like to see in december, not late april. >> they get it just about, almost all year round in vermont. these pictures coming to you from montgomery vermont. in some spots, just checking the totals now, got one report of 20 inches in nashville, vermont. i don't know why there are southern city names in northern vermont. that's what's going down. snowing in upstate new york, some spots received over a foot as this very slow moving system, which by the way is the one associated with the severe weather over the weekend. the snow getting down to through parts of southern vermont. i guess i have to change the forecast. 8 to 18 inches total. but we received one isolated report of 20 inches. it's chilly across this part of the country. cold enough for snow and frost and freeze warnings for part of the ohio river valley and great lakes region. this may be the last time we see hopefully temperatures below freezing. nice across the south today and this powerful storm that brought damaging winds to california and nevada, last night over 100-mile-per-hour winds in reno. this system heading towards the plains. john and kiran, take care of your tulips. >> we had better weather at the beginning of the month than we had at the end of the month. what's up with that? >> it's that time of year. we just roll with it. >> the petals fell off the tulips already. >> snow gets inside and freezes it. >> all you have is a little stem. thanks, rob. what's the dirtiest, most polluted air in the country? what's the cleanest? the american lung association has a new report. we'll tell you where it could be hazardous to your health to live. 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the american lung association's state of the air report card is out today. cheyenne, wyoming, and honolulu top the ranking and many cities have improved air quality but a staggering number of americans, staggering number, still live with dangerously dirty air. joining us live from washington this morning, janice nolan, assistant vice president for national policy for the american lung association to talk more about this. janice, great to see you this morning. give us the good news first. >> well, we've made great improvements over the last few years, john. we've been able to track the pollution levels because we've been doing these reports now for 11 years. and the improvements, especially this year's report, are really striking. it tells us that we're doing good things about cleaning up air pollution. it also tells us we've got a long way to go. but it's always good to know that the things we put in place, like cleaner diesel fuel, have been actually coming out with less pollution. >> we talk about a long way to go, quantify that for folks at home. in your report you found that 175 million people, that's 58% of the population, still live in areas where the air is down right dangerous to breathe. >> absolutely. that means also 6 out of 10 of us live in areas that can either cause an asthma attack or send people to the hospital because they can't breathe well or because they have a heart attack or a stroke or can actually shorten their life by even months to years. these are very serious levels of pollution, and while we've made, again, great progress and people don't always think of this still being a prb, it remains a big problem. and the more we learn about the science about air pollution, the more we learn how much harm it can do to our bodies. >> let's take a look at the top five worst cities across america. this is, when it comes to particulate matter, the small, little particles in the air that can cause so much damage when you breathe them in. that particulate matter is very harmful and can lead to a lot of diseases. five of the worst cities, when it comes to ozone pollution, 8 out of 10 in california. cars and trucks still a big problem, i take it. >> absolutely. and i want's not just that. we're seeing a lot of pollution coming from things like the diesel exhaust, some of the raw ingredients in particle pollution come from big trucks, it come prs the ports, the ships that come in, the trains. it also is coming from the agricultural processes. when you have farming and some of the programs that they run, the various measures that they take to reduce weeds or things, those can all contribute to a big part of the problem from ozone. we've got lots of sources. and many of us are adding to that problem when we choose to drive instead of take public transit or turn on electricity when we should be saving the power. those are the things that can make a big difference in pollution. >> one of the things i was fascinating by was for the very first time you looked at soc socioeconomic groups in terms of this pollution. what did you find? >> we know from a lot of different research that people who have low income have much higher risk of pollution. and so we looked and found millions of people in communities around the country who have low income and because of where they live or because of their diseases may be at higher risk for breathing the pollution we have. >> some of those people are the ones who can least afford medical treatment for their problems, as well. >> absolutely. >> janice nolen from the american lung association, thanks for stopping by to talk about your report. >> thank you. top stories after the break. introducing quattron quad pixel technology. it adds a fourth color, yellow, to the standard rgb color system, creating a vast array of colors you can't see with your tv's three color technology. but, you can see this. whoa! oh my. 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[ engineer laughs ] ♪ (announcer) right now, all over the country, discover card customers are getting five percent cashback bonus at home improvement stores. it pays to get more, it pays to discover. good morning to you on this wednesday. it's april 28th. glad you're with us on this "american morning." i'm kiran chetry. >> i'm john roberts. here are the big stories coming up in the next 15 minutes. the coast guard may set a massive oil slick on fire today. it's 40 miles wide and threatening the gulf coast right now. burning it may be the only way to beat it. but is that solution worse than doing nothing at all? a live update from louisiana just ahead. a virginia family who adopted from russia says their son was given a clean bill of health by the adoption agency but since they came home they say they've been living a nightmare. our alina cho tells us what happened and why they're now suing the agency. and it got bleeping ugly. in a rare show of unity on capitol hill, both took shots at goldman sachs e-mails. after the hearing, the man in charge of goldman spoke with our christine romans. >> there has been a huge trauma to this country related to the economic collapse and financial institutions played a big role in that, and we share some of that burden. >> my point is it looks like profit growth, not growing the economy. when did that change? >> well, i don't know that it's changed. i don't think it's changed. i think we still will survive only by putting our clients first and the interests of the broader community first. >> insisted they did nothing wrong in the economic meltdown. and of course the "a.m. fix" blog is going on right now. we want to hear from you about what's in the news this morning. go to cnn.com/amfix. if you can't beat it, burn it. that could be the coast guard's only hope to try to stop a 40-mile-wide, 80-mile-long oil slick from washing ashore on the gulf coast. officials have been burning the midnight oil, wrestling with the fact they may have no choice but to set portions of the slick on fire today. the huge spill is now within 20 miles of the coastline, threatening birds, oyster beds, miles of beaches. the coast guard, british petroleum, and the owner of the rig all deploying nearly 50 vessels to help contain and try to clean up the spill. our reynolds wolf is live for us this morning down in the mississippi delta in venice, louisiana. reynolds, what about this idea of setting it on fire? >> reporter: yeah. pretty interesting idea. what they plan on using, john, is actually a bit of teamwork. what they're going to do is to handle this oil slick, which is about 93 miles from where we stand at this point, about 5,000 feet below the surface. the way they're thinking act handling it is using fire. the question is how. they're not going out there in a boat and getting a lit match and throwing it out there. they're borrowing from the state of texas about 1,000 feet of something they call a fireproof boom. what that happens to be, it's almost like a floating fence, a barrier with actually take part of that oil, some of the heaviest crude, and actually pull it away and set that small piece on fire, try to knock out as much as they can as that oil continues to come up. believe it or not, the latest estimate was about 1,000 gallons per day comes out of the sea floor. >> of course remember the tragedy of the "exxon valdez" back in 1993. how does this spill compare in size and scope to that? >> reporter: that's a great question. yesterday, the size of the spill was anywhere from say 30 miles to 40 miles. that number changed overnight and it continues to change moment by moment, second by second, as it continues to come up. but in comparison, say, back in 1989, the "exxon valdez,valdez,u were to take that oil spill and put it on parts of nation for the parts of scale, it would stretch from maine southward to virginia. so, again, this is much smaller but it does continue to grow. >> we all know that is an incredibly rich fishery. you have the offshore fishery, you've got snapper, you've got redfish, drum, billfish out there as well as tuna, and then you aef g've got the inshore fishery, the shrimp fishing, oyster beds. then there's all of those very sensitivest waries coming off the mississippi river. if that slick gets close, it's going to do a huge amount of damage. you flew above it yesterday. what did you see in terms of offshore marine life? >> well, i'll tell you, offshore we didn't see much other than just some birds, but we've been told there was actually a pod of five whales that have actually been through part of the area. didn't see them yesterday. just from where we happen to stand, we flew over yesterday, we flew over parts of the delta national marine sanctuary just to the south, and there's one area about 20 miles, extreme southern tip of the state, 20 miles from that oil slick, which is one of the things they're trying hard to protect as well as the gulf coast. but, again, the sight from high above was pretty interesting. at times it was very difficult to see because of the angle of the sun coming in. but at times we could get closer, drop down to about 500 feet, and you could see it plain as day, very thick oil in some places they'll have to skim off. but the other thing, the rainbow sheen, much of that will disperse just with the sun's radiant energy. that will burn off naturally, and that is some good news. >> yeah. reynolds wolf following all this for us, thanks so much. "exxon valdez" 1989, 1993, ten million gallons of crude oil, still considered the most disastrous ecological situation. >> that was huge. the terrible. are the winds going to push the oil ashore? let's get the latest from rob marciano. a complicated situation. you have currents that are closer to shore that go one way, currents further away from shore that go another way and then the wind kind of steering the very surface of those waters. so here's a look at where the wind flow is right now, a cool breeze out of the north-northwest so, that's kind of kept it to offshore, pushed it to the south and east. give you perspective, the actual spill is right at the mouth of the mississippi river and that's pretty much where there's an intersection of two different currents going two different ways. the main current well offshore is this loop current that kind of heads towards florida. if it still gets that far south, it would go towards florida, but winds at the surface later this week are actually going to be going against that from the southeast toward the northwest and that would bring it closer to the louisiana shoreline where there is a current that goes from east to west. so we're at the womhims of many variables here and we'll watch it closely. right now no threat to land but we push it further to the south, we have problems, push it further to the west, we have problems. any solution including lighting it we'll take at this point. we'll talk more about the weather situation in about 40 minutes. john and kiran? >> rob, thanks so much. now to new developments in the freshly signed arizona immigration bill, which allows police to check the status of those they believe are in the country illegally. it's something that homeland security janet napolitano deeply concerns her and she warns against redirecting resources needed to hunt down dangerous immigrants, and the justice department may actually challenge the law in court. attorney general eric holder says he doesn't like what he sees so far. >> i think that that law is an unfortunate one. i think that it is, i fear, subject to potential abuse. and i'm very concerned about the wedge that it could draw between communities that law enforcement is supposed to serve and those of us in law enforcement. the justice department, along with the department -- along with dhs, is looking at the law to decide exactly how we are going to react to it. we are considering all possibilities including the possibility of a court challenge. >> do you think it's clearly unconstitutional measure? >> as i say, we are reviewing the law right now. we have a group that has been together over the past few days to examine exactly what our reaction is going to be to it so that review is under way. >> the new immigration law started protests in arizona. about a quarter of the population is of hispanic descent. dangerous situation on the streets outside of bangkok in thailand as police fight back thousands of anti-government protesters with live ammunition. the state department is warping american travelers to stay away from the area. the crowds in thailand are hoping to bring down a government they say is i illegitimate and up democratic, accusations the prime minister calls unfounded. since protests began last month, more than two dozen people have died. still ahead, the story of a virginia family who adopted a little boy from russia, and they were assured by the adoption agency that he was perfectly healthy. they came to find a very, very different situation. now they're suing. hi. i'm dan hesse, ceo of sprint. we're so confident in the improvements we've made to our network, our phones, our plans, and to customer service that we're offering you this simple guarantee. join us, and if you're not completely happy with sprint within 30 days, we'll give you your money back. pretty simple, huh? 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[ female announcer ] swiffer sweeper's electrostatic dry cloths attract and lock dirt, dust, and hair on contact to clean 50% more than a broom. it's a difference you can feel. swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. ♪ the story oaf of a tennessee woman who returned her adopted is son to russia saying she was too much to handle placed russian adoptions firmly in the spotlight. this morning in an equally controversial and heartwrenching case. >> a family alleged the adoption agency they used told them he was healthy but he's severely ill and violent. the couple is now suing. alina cho has their story. >> reporter: the harsha home in virginia is a little quieter these days. roman, now 8, was sent away to an institution a little more than two weeks ago where he's getting help for his violent behavior. >> i felt like the worst mom in the world and how could i let my baby go there and go to sleep every night without us and without us tucking him in. and it was really hard. it still is. >> reporter: they adopted roman from russia 6 years ago. he arrived looking picture-perfect. soon after, roman began acting out. >> he can be hugging you and telling you "i love you" one second and then the next second he is completely lost it in a rage. >> reporter: the harshaws say roman once tried to smash a 2 x 4 over their daughter grace's head. another time, he almost drowned her in the pool. older brother daniel is so distraught he asked his parents for counseling. >> to hear your 11-year-old say he'd like to see a psychiatrist because of the stress in your house is really hard to hear. >> reporter: roman is also a danger to himself. most recently pulling out three of his own teeth. the diagnosis from several doctors -- fetal alcohol syndrome. >> it's irreversible, incorrectable, and it's a lifelong thing. and it has taken a huge toll on us. >> reporter: in a lawsuit filed against adoption agency bethany christian services, the harshaws allege they were lied to about roman's health and need financial help to care for his special needs. they say bethany misled them, telling them a russian doctor based in new york traveled to the orphanage for a face-to-face visit. you were assured that dr. d. went to russia, went to roman's orphanage and examined roman. >> correct. >> reporter: what were you told about that? >> that exactly what they said, that he was healthy and on target. >> reporter: but in a deposition, dr. d., michael, admitted he never went to the orphanage and doesn't even practice medicine in the u.s. in court documents, an employee of the adoption agency acknowledged she had told the family the doctor would visit the children in russia and review their medical records. had you known what you now know, you would not have gone through with this adoption. and yet you -- >> we love him. >> yeah so, what do you do? we are in the worst possible situation, but the bottom line is that we love roman. he's not a broken toy that you can return to the store. >> alligator! >> yeah. >> reporter: so roman is getting help at this inpatient facility about 90 minutes away from home. bet thi christian services disputes most of the harshaws' claims and says it provided counseling, extensive documentation, opportunities to consult with physician, and medical records to the family. adoption specialist jane aaronson says fetal alcohol syndrome is common in russian orphans and the harshaws should have known the risks before they brought roman home. >> every country is well noenl for what the challenges are and the style of care for children. >> reporter: so you're saying you should know a lot, if you don't, do your homework. >> exactly. i think everyone needs to do their homework. >> reporter: the harshaws say they're not giving up on the case or on their son. what's your great hope for roman? >> that we can find a place that he will be as happy as he can be and as safe as he can be. we don't know what the future holds, but we want him to be a part of our family no matter what. >> the adoption agency is seeking a gag order which would bar the harshaws from talking to the media. cnn has just filed a motion this morning in court to fight that gag order, guys. a judge is expected to rule later today. what's interesting is that adoption specialists will say, you know, it's entirely possible the adoption agency, bethany christian services, did everything right, followed the rules, tried their best and yet there was a breakdown possibly on the other side of the world. and she said in essence we're dealing with a system thousands of miles away where there's little availability of information and a real resistance to transparency. and so, you know, it's a really tough situation. the family, they said they would not have gone through with the adoption. at the same time, they love him and they don't want to give him up. >> a tough situation. i mean, everybody's lives are shattereded ed ed and changed f. you have to feel for the poor kid. >> you have to feel for roman the most and he's got a tough life ahead. >> you have to give them credit they're trying to find a way to make his life as good as it could possibly be. >> that's right. >> alina cho, thanks so much. the ceo of goldman sachs, lloyd blankfein, grilled in the senate yesterday on capitol hill. christine romans talked with blankfein post hearing. [ slap! slap! slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum ta tum tum tums [ male announcer ] competition... it pushes us to work harder. to be better. to win. but sometimes even rivals realize they share a common goal. america's beverage companies have removed full-calorie soft drinks from schools, reducing beverage calories by 88%. together with schools, we're helping kids make more balanced choices every day. ♪ just when things were starting to look up, they're looking down again. worries about europe's debt crisis weighing down wall street. the dow nose dived 213 points yesterday. one notable exception to the free first of a freefall, goldman sachs, which closed higher by a dollar yesterday. >> even though goldman sachs' executives were on the hot street getting grilled for more than ten hours yesterday for the senate. christine romans was there and spoke with the ceo of the company, lloyd blankfein. she joins us now. ironic, stock up one dollar. >> i know. >> everything else went down. >> mostly because the feeling was while it was incredibly thrilling, yes, ten hours of congressional testimony was thrilling, it really was -- i mean, it was the showdown between senator carl levin and the executives at goldman sachs capped off by lloyd blankfein. but the way wall street really looked at it is it was the same kinds of charges that they had heard before and they didn't see anything in there that was going to be truly very damaging other than what we already know for goldman sachs, and that's why the stock closed up. but i talked to lloyd blankfein after that testimony, and, you know, i asked him, i said, look, why is it that you're doing so well as the rest of the country is suffering so much? and basically he said that the banks doing very well and goldman sachs doing well is good for you. just explain to my audience why is it that goldman sachs and wall street are making so much money and main street is suffering? that's the bottom line that people don't understand. >> well, i don't know across wall street, but part of what wall street does is it helps to raise capital for new enterpr e enterprises, it helps to finance activities in the early stages of economic growth where new initiatives are being taken, financing is starting up again, people are moving into riskier assets on the investing side. those are activities that wall street tends to be involved in, all of which are good for the recovery. it just -- it just so happens that that represents the earliest stages of the recovery. i will tell you, wall street cannot profit unless main street profits. >> so he says it's in his best interest and in the best interest of wall street and the banks for main street to follow along. but the things that he's talking about there, raising money, raising capital, you'll hear him talk a lot about the capital markets, those are the traditional things that these investment banks do. they have long been held as the things that help drive the global economy. but that's not what he's being criticized for. what they're being criticized for is financial engineering and excessive trading that doesn't help main street. in fact, the question is does it really hurt main street and not those other activities that he is saying eventually will be good for america. >> all right. christine romans this morning, great interview. way to go. >> thanks. >> also joining us in a couple minute, we'll speak with senator carl levin. you heard him with some of the language, quoting some of the e-mails, the grilling that he gave the ceo and executives at goldman sachs. was anything accomplished in yesterday's hearing? we're going to talk to the senator. [ female announcer ] it's red lobster's festival of shrimp... a chance to get everyone together for a night where everyone gets just what they want. combine two or three favorites, from new creations like crab-stuffed shrimp and pecan-crusted shrimp to classics like decadent shrimp scampi. it's everything you want in a night out. starting at just $11.99, during the festival of shrimp. sfx: coin drop sfx: can shaking when you own a business, nothing beats the sound of saving time and money. and it's never been simpler to save - with regions lifegreen checkg and savings for business. you'll enjoy free online and mobile banking. and with regions quick deposit, you can deposit checks right from your desk. drop by and get started with a business financial review through a regions cashcor analysis. it's how business gets into the rhym of saving. regions it's time to expect more. welcome back to the most news in the morning. 26 minutes past the hour. your top stories four minutes away. first, though, an "a.m. original," something you'll only see on "american morning." would you spend your hard-earned money in a store that charges triple their cost for everything they sell? you probably wouldn't dream of it. but every day, thousands of americans do just that when they check into a hospital. >> hospitals in this country on average charge 180% above the cost for their services. except in maryland. that's where we find senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen with part three of "prescription for waste." >> reporter: i'm here at john hopkins hospital in baltimore, maryland. now, let's say that they brought someone in here who just had a heart attack. it costs a certain amount of money to treat that person. the drugs, the nurses, all of that. now hopkins, like other hospitals, on top of that charges a profit margin, a mark-up, if you will. and now to talk about these mark-ups i'm here with professor gerard anderson. now, tell me, how much of a mark-up does hopkins and other hospitals in maryland charge? >> 21%. >> 21%. now, other hospitals in other states in the country, do they also charge a 21% mark-up? >> no. it's only maryland. other states the mark-ups are much higher. >> reporter: much higher. okay. i'm going to take a tour of states around maryland to see how much it costs there to have a heart attack. now i've just crossed the line into delaware where they mark up prices by 85%. and remember in maryland, they only mark up prices by 21%. but wait, it gets even worse. just across the line into pennsylvania, and they have a 277% mark-up. this heart attack is getting very expensive. but wait, we still have one more state to go. in new jersey, hospitals hike their prices higher than any other state in the country. 326%. i wanted to understand why hospitals mark up their prices this way. so i've come here to ask the president of the american hospital association. nationally, mark-ups are 180%, we're told. that just seems to most consumers like a huge mark-up. >> you'll find mark-ups in every walk of life, and it depends upon the variables. the cost of providing that particular service and the factor of how much do you actually in fact then get paid. >> reporter: other states right next to maryland charge so much more than what they charge in maryland. >> everyone doesn't have the same type of payment system that maryland has. >> reporter: so professor anderson, how does maryland keep it mark-up so low? >> well, there is the state government, and they establish the rates for each hospital in maryland. >> reporter: so maryland takes care of patients more inexpensively. so let's not forget about the patient here. does that hurt our patient that maryland is spending less money on him? >> no. in fact, the quality of care at johns hopkins, the quality of care in the hospitals in maryland is all quite good. >> so, if the state of maryland can do that, they can tell their hospitals how much they can charge over cost, can every state do that? >> reporter: you know, kiran, it's interesting, other states decided to experiment in the '70s and '80s and said let's do what maryland's doing, let's set prices by state government. and you know what? they tried it and then they went right back to doing it the way that they used to do it. the hospitals didn't make that much money, didn't make as much money when the state set the prices. and the hospitals said let's go back to the other way. >> a pretty incredible mark-up you pointed out in new jersey, 326%. do new jersey's hospitals usually get paid the extra charges they ask for? >> reporter: you know what, john, they usually don't. they usually don't get everything that they ask for, but they certainly get considerably more than what hospitals get in maryland. now i'd love to be able to tell you this is what hospitals get in new jersey or any other state. i can't because the negotiations that hospitals do with insurance companies, those are all secret. so we don't know exactly how much they get paid. >> elizabeth cohen this morning with her "prescription for waste." thanks so much. tomorrow on "american morning," a medical clinic where a bold experiment is panning out. doctors are happier, patients and bottom lines are healthier. elizabeth profiles what could be the prototype for health care of the future. another "a.m. original" tomorrow only on "american morning." it's 30 minutes past the hour. time for a look at the top stories. a 40-mile by 80-mile-wide oil slick is now within 20 miles of louisiana's shore. the coast guard is considering setting it on fire as a last resort. robotic subs that went down, a mile down to try to shut off the leaking vavm where the oil rig exploded last week failed to do that. 40,000 gallons of crude still pouring into the ocean every day and the officials considering a controlled burn, possibly today, in an attempt to eliminate as much as 90% of the slick before it reaches the coastline. the justice department may sue the state of arizona over a new law that allows police to check the status of those they believe are in the country illegally. attorney general eric holder says the bill could pit law enforcement against those they are supposed to protect. meantime, homeland security secretary janet napolitano calls the southern border as secure as it has ever been and warns against redirecting federal dollars used to hunt down dangerous immigrants. a reflection of main street's anger coming out on capitol hill. senators slamming goldman sachs' executives for their alleged role in the worst recession since the great depression. >> 2:22 is the date of this e-mail. boy, that timberwolf was one [ bleep ] deal. how much of that [ bleep ] deal did you sell to your clients after june 22, 2007? >> mr. chairman, i don't know the answer to that, but the price would have reflected levels that they wanted to invest -- >> oh, but they don't -- you didn't tell them you thought it was a [ bleep ] deal. >> i didn't say that. >> no. who did? your people, internally. you knew it was a [ bleep ] deal and that's what your e-mail showed. >> well, the traders all denied over and over again that they were part of the problem that caused the financial meltdown. >> joining us from the russell rotunda on capitol hill, you just heard him, the chairman of the subcommittee, carl levin. he's promised to keep it clean for us this morning. great to see you. >> good morning. >> so if the goldman sachs executives were accused over and over again yesterday of greed, but it's not necessarily a crime to be greedy. do you think, after everything you heard yesterday, they actually did something illegal or were they just playing fast and loose within the rules? >> well, i think what they did was wrong in a number of ways. but the one that we focused on is this inherent conflict of interest which exists when you as an investment bank, which goldman bank was an investment bank, put together a deal to sell these financial securities to a pension fund, let's say, and on the same time you're on the other side of the deal, you're betting against the deal, you're investing against the deal, goldman's own money, selling what their own people describe as crap or junk to people on the outside. there's an inherent conflict of interest. you can't do both. >> so was it wrong morally and ethically or was it illegal? >> i don't know that it ee's illegal under current law. i think it's clearly wrong and should be illegal if it's not now. these kinds of conflicts of interest have to be addressed in the bill we're trying to get to the floor right now. we have language, a senator and i, will which will create prohibitions against these kinds of conflicts of interest. you can't be on both sides. you'll serve your customer, your client, or serve yourself. >> you know, you, as well as other senators on both sides of the aisle, have already determined that you thought goldman sachs executives were wrong, inappropriate, however you want to put it, whether it was illegal or immoral, you seemed to have already decided. in 10 1/2 hours, was there anything they could have said that could have changed your mind about them yesterday? did you get what you want out of that hearing? >> what they could have been is a lot more forthcoming. there are a lot of questions they didn't want to answer at all. what i would have loved to have heard is some sense that there's a conflict between what they're doing for themselves and their own -- feathering their own nest, putting money in their own pocket, voting against -- not voting but investing against their own securities at the same time that they're selling these to pension funds. i would have liked them to have said, you know, there is a conflict of interest here, we will separate these two functions. we're either going to be a bank or we're going to be a hunedge fund but we can't be blurring those two functions. if they would have shown some sensitivity to that conflict, serving themselves or serving your client, if they would have shown that, i would have felt a lot better. but they didn't. >> so, senator, you said you don't necessarily think what they did was illegal or inherently wrong. that brings up the question of it wasn't illegal but you think it was wrong, where's congress been in all of this? you were many of many democrats who voted to repeal the glass-steagall act at the last decade. do you bear responsibility of allowing these firms to run fast in the landscape? >> congress has its share of responsibility, of course. there was a mistake when that act was repealed. how it was repealed is not particularly relevant. it was a mistake when it was repealed. we can correct that by putting in a more modern version of glass-steagall which requires some modifications in it but keeping the basic point of glass-steagall that you've either got to be out for yourself like a hunld or serving a client, like what a commercial bank should be doing. one or the other. and so -- go on. >> i was just going to say one of our e-mailers wrote on our blog today, and this is a sentiment we've seen a lot of people weighing in about, senate hearings look more like a witch-hunt than an attempt to find someone to blame when it falls on all of us. i'm not say kwhag goldman did was right but breeds what caused this for all of us. he said goldman didn't do anything different from the very senators themselves which is to look out for number one. i'm just saying is goldman an easy villain in a much larger problem in our nation? >> well, they're clearly part of the problem. what makes them unique is that they made a very big bet against the housing market at the same time they were packaging securities, these toxic bad mortgage, and selling them to pension funds and so forth. so they have a unique position also because they not only did that, they bet against the product they were selling and made a lot of money betting against them. and there they are somewhat unique. their size, the fact that they were betting against the thing that they were selling to their clients, and selling something to their client which involved a conflict of interest. that combination made them unique. we spent a lot of time on the investigation. this has been going on now for 16 months. we thought they were probably the best example, just like we did with enron. we showed that enron had done something very wrong. so what our subcommittee does is focus on case histories which illustrate a bigger problem. but they were not alone but they were somewhat unique. >> nsenator, we asked this question of senator dodd last hour, talking about the reform legislation, back when glass-steagall was appealed, he said we got all this advice it was the right thing to do, took it on faith, and in hindsight it was the wrong thing to do. how can voters be assured this financial reform bill is the right thing to do and you're not just not making a second mistake? >> by studying what we're doing, by weighing in with us, by giving us their advice and after reading it and after study kwhag t what the problems are. we obviously are listening to people who will be impacted by it, listening to the public, listening to experts and doing the best job that we can. that's what our role is, to do the best job we can after investigations which we now have done very thoroughly here. we've had four hearings and this upstream problem began when the toxic mortgages were created. we used as an example washington mutual bank. we showed what they had done. it was very wrong. we knew there were high defall rates in these kind of mortgages which they were issuing. nonetheless, they kept signing up people to those mortgages with these liar loans, as they were called, with these teaser interest rates. there was high default rates. they kept making them, making them, packaging them up in securities. then those securities were shipped to wall street, further securitized, diced them and sliced them into these synthetic products. that means they spread this poison much more widely. we had a hearing on the so-called credit rating agencies, conflict of interest that exists with them when they're being paid by the very people whose financial instruments they are rating. that is wrong. there's an inherent conflict. >> everything you're saying is right and we see that now. but, i mean, all of that has been under the noses of our regulatory agencies that are already in place to sort of flag that, the s.e.c. as well as others. so what happened? >> what happened is that one of the regulatory agencies, the one that was supposed to handle certain kinds of banks, did not do their job. we had a hearing on that, a failure of the regulatory agencies. and as a matter of fact, the office of thrift supervision, ots, would be eliminated under the pending bill that is hopefully going to be able to get to the floor of the senate if we can overcome a republican filibuster. the ots, that agency that was supposed to look at thrift, did not do its job. we did a long investigation. we picked on that agency because of the failure of the kinds that we saw with the washington mutual bank, the largest bank failure in history. and part of the problem was that our regulatory agency saw the problem but did nothing about it. so this bill will handle that as well. there's a lot of pieces to this bill. there's a lot of pieces to this puzzle. it's not just all what one bank on wall street did. >> all right. well, we'll keep on watching the process there on capitol hill. i'm sure it's going to be another one today. senator, thanks for joining us this morning. good to see you. >> thank you. >> deb feyerick is in cleveland this season for our series "building up america." she'll tell us how a mountain biker turned a big idea into a viable small business. [ male announcer ] experience fast in all its forms. the is line. at your lexus dealer. boss: so word's gettin' out that geico can help people save in even more ways - on motorcycle insurance, rv, camper, boat insurance. nice work, everyone. exec: well, it's easy for him. he's a cute little lizard. gecko: ah, gecko, actually - exec: with all due respect, if i was tiny and green and had a british accent i'd have more folks paying attention to me too... i mean - (faux english accent) "save money! pip pip cheerio!" exec 2: british? i thought you were australian. gecko: well, it's funny you should ask. 'cause actually, i'm from - anncr: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. the coast guard saying it will perform a partial controlled burn sometime this morning to try to stop that 40-mile by 80-mile-long oil slick from washing ashore on the gulf coast. it's a huge spill that we've been covering. it's now within 20 miles of the coastline. it's been threatening birds, oyster beds, many, many various species of sea life, fish, and the beaches, of course. and they were attempting before this to try to get one of those robotic submarines down there to somehow turn off that valve and prevent the oil from spilling out of the well a mile below. that's been unsuccessful. so now it looks like the coast guard will at least partially do a controlled burn to try to burn off some of that oil. john? our "building of america" series has profiled small business owners across the country who were succeeding in hard economic times. this morning we're in cleveland where cnn's deb feyerick shows us the degree of difficulty for one man turning a dream into a reality. >> reporter: hard to believe but not long ago this indoor mountain bike park was a rundown, abandoned warehouse. >> my heart really thought it would work, and i was prepared to lose it all. >> reporter: ray spent his entire life savings and maxed out his credit cards to build a dream. >> i've been broke before. i might be broke again. >> reporter: then, just as the recession hit, ray met jennifer thomas, another cleveland native determined to raise her kids here. thomas runs civic innovation lab, helping first-time entrepreneurs turn big ideas into viable small businesses. >> we saw's ray's adventure sports as an economic driver. >> reporter: when you talk about an economic driver, what do you mean? >> we're looking for a place like rays to filho tell beds, to fill restaurants, to get people from out of state into our state. >> reporter: the innovation lab gave ray a $30,000 grant which he used among other things to add heretos and computerize hid business. >> some routers and other computers. >> reporter: perhaps more valuable, they hooked ray up with a mentor. >> he had that burning passion. >> reporter: bernie moreno helped ray get the grant and helped him avoid the mistakes he made at turning a fledgling cleveland mercedes-benz dealership into a $100 million business. ray's is now the largest indoor mountain bike park in the nation. and it's not just riders. advertiser, too. virtually everything here is sponsored. it's a small investment with a really big payoff. and what you see here at a warehouse in cleveland goes viral on youtube. >> i think cleveland's in the process of reinventing itself as really a place for entrepreneurs. you can take a thousand rays, we can be one of the greatest cities in the country. >> reporter: this bike park was ray's dream. now he's making dreams for riders and rider wannabes come true. all right. my fantasy, but for everyone else here, the reality. deborah feyerick, cnn, cleveland, ohio. >> see, i believed the stunt. that's why we like that. i think she could have done it. >> i thought it was her. >> and landing in a foam pit takes away some of the fear. >> i missed that change in there somewhere. >> good stuff, deb. high winds on the east coast equal travel delays, unfortunately. good morning, des moines. it's a perfectly cloudy 45 degrees. later on today 73 degrees and lots of sunshine. that building right in the center. that's a great state. >> it's des moines. >> des moines. there you go. >> okay. all right. rob marciano joins us this morning. nice shot of des moines. >> can't wait to get back there in 2012 for the primaries. not a free advertisement. just a statement as a great place to get a steak. >> want to see what comes down the plate later on this year. a chilly day in the northeast, temps in the 30s and 40s, starting to recover now. this time of year the sun comes up earlier and it's pretty strong so it heats up more quickly unless it's snowing, and it's been doing that in upstate new york and vermont for a day and a half. some dense, white reflections here. all the way down to the massachusetts border. we still have winter storm warnings that are posted. check out some of these numbers. in many cases the flowers have bloomed. nashville, vermont, 20 inches of snow. place in upstate new york, 15.5. cambridge, vermont, as well. we'll see this for another six hours or so. beautiful day across much of the southeast but windy conditions, damaging winds across the nevada/california border, some power outages in reno. and snow still falling at the higher elevations where it will be in the 30s and 40s. 50 for a high in salt lake city, 74 in denver, 60 degrees in new york and 83 in dallas. good news for the south, only moderate levels of pollen expected today. we're starting to see the trees bloom a little farther to the north where it's expected to be hot. people suffering except in the south. back to you. >> rob, thanks so much. if the weather cooperates, people in central florida will have a chance to see the international space station pass overhead tonight. about 8:45 eastern. the floating space lab will pass over the state. >> it will look just like that. >> look just like that. can we use that for santa claus? except we just change it to reindeer-drawn sleigh. it will approach from the southwest moving northeast. the pass will take about five minutes' time. forecasters say the space station will be directly overhead, 220 miles up and should be easy to see because the setting sun will make it glow. >> that's pretty cool. hopefully some video of it that we can show tomorrow. still ahead, bret michael, famous singer of poison, suffering a brain hemorrhage. thing as taking a chance? as having to decide to go for it? at the hartford, we help businesses of all kinds... feel confident doing what they do best. by protecting your business, your property, your people. you've counted on us for 200 years. let's embrace tomorrow. and with the hartford behind you, achieve what's ahead of you. ♪ is that your new car ? uh... yeah ? cool. thanks. i knew i wanted a subaru legacy. i went back and forth on the hood scoop... but i'm glad i went for it. the subaru legacy. feel the love. 4:30 to the top of the hour. time for "a.m. house call," new evidence shows getting a heart scan while looking at traditional risk factors for disease is better at preventing heart attacks. a study found that the scans which look for calcium deposits in the arteries are better at sorting those in medium risk and high-risk groups. now, the scans are expensive, though, and rarely are they covered by insurance. they also have radiation exposure similar to getting two mammograms. so a couple things to consider. they say when you do these scans in conjunction with looking for traditional risk factors, a much better idea at who's at risk for a heart attack. >> some people say it's a myth but if you eat spicy food, boost your metabolism, benefits for weight loss. well, there may be some truth to that because there's some revealing news for those who can't tolerate the heat. there was a recent study of the nonspicy version of capsaicin, found in hot perps, and that increased fat oxidation plus pushing the body for more fat as fuel. it doesn't give you a license to indulge because there are benefits from sticking to a low-calorie diet. >> an idea and don't be eating pepper spray either. a bad idea. a combination of going on a low-calorie diet and take this pill. is it readily available? >> i think you can get it in health food stores. some people who have arthritis pain also use capsaicin. >> heats you up and you burn more fat. >> there you go. tests show former poison front man bret michaels has suffered a setback recovering from a brain hemorrhage. the statement on his website says the bleeding in brain has caused a lack of sodium through his body and that can lead to seizures. doctors say he remains in critical but stable condition. questions about what caused all this. he had an appendectomy, right? >> he has type i diabetes, juvenile type diabetes that he's had for a long time. sanjay said he didn't think it had to do with that. but this aneurysm caused him to have low levels of sodium and poe sass yum. >> and at the tony awards last year whacked his head really hard when he got hit by that piece of background. >> the stage came down and hit him. >> knocked him back. 57 minutes after the hour. with 4g from sprint, i can download files up to 10x faster than 3g... outside. i can stream the movie "airplane" to my cell phone... at the airport. i can have a crystal-clear videoconference with my clients... ...muffin basket or something... ...while working offsite, or share five high-speed connections for online gaming... while enjoying the great outdoors. 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