Transcripts For CNN American Morning 20100816

night, it has now become a national conversation. isl suzanne malveaux is live at the white house. looks like the president, shall we say, elevated the debate? >> he certainly waded into the debate here, john and kiran. i have to tell you for weeks i've been asking robert gibbs pushing him on this matter whether or not the white house had an opinion on it. they said it was a local matter. now white house aides are stelg telling us that it is an issue of timing, that the president originally wanted to weigh in on the controversy but they wanted to clear it first with the local zoning board and they wanted the right moment. there was the dinner recognizing the beginning of the holy month ramadan on friday. that's when the president did make it clear that he believed it was appropriate that muslims had every right to build this mosque near ground zero. then there was a lot of criticism that came from those comments after he made them. it was less than 24 hours he told our own ed henry a different story. take a listen to what he said. >> muslims have the right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower manhattan. >> i was not commenting and i will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. i was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding. >> so if you listen closely, that's what the white house is saying, that there is a distinction here that he is talking about the right of the -- of muslims to build that mosque near ground zero, now talking about the efficacy or wisdom of doing so. this strikes me, really, as classic obama. on the one hand this, on the one hand that. well, they say that they're trying to recognize both positions here. it really does make it much muddier and much murkier. white house officials are calling it a recalibration or a clarification of his remarks. a lot of people are thinking, what did the president really mean? >> that is ultimately the question, talking about the right versus the wisdom. the bottom line is the president -- those were prepared remarks where he said at that dinner that he supported the building of that mosque. obviously people are already starting to pile on. the gop seeing this as a potential opportunity. is this going to be a big issue come the mid-term elections in november? >> that's a very good question. i mean i think when you take a look at this, yes, it played out over the weekend, it is going to play out for another couple of days. already the republicans are using this as a fund-raiser. there are a lot of people weighing in, our own opinion research polls showing it is not a popular idea to build this mosque near ground zero. quietly, and even not so quietly, there are some democratic lawmakers i spoke with who say look, this does not make it easy for us during the recess to talk to voters and constituents who they want to talk about the economy getting better are now having to talk about this. it's getting off message. i don't necessarily think that that's going to last into november and that people are still going to be talking about this but we just don't know yet. there is a frustration in the white house and among democrats that they are discussing this, that this is so controversial and they're not discussing the kinds of things that they actually want to address. kiran? >> suzanne malveaux at the white house, thanks. the president comments sparked strong reaction from both sides of the aisle. here's what republican peter king told candy crowley on state of the union. >> if the president was going to get into this he should have been much more clear, much more precise. you can'ting changing your position on day to day on an issue which does go to our constitution and also to extreme sensitivity. that's what i'm critical with the president on, for not being clear. >> the government has no right and no business to comment one way or the other on whether a church or synagogue or mosque should be anywhere so long as they meet the legal requirements. >> coming up in our next hour, we'll break down whether president obama's comments will hurt democrats in november when we talk with ben smith, senior political reporter for politico and michael scherer who is "time" magazine's white house correspondent. an off-road race in southern california ends in tragedy over the weekend. one truck crashed into a crowd of spectators standing right along the course. the driver was identified as 28-year-old brent sloppy. he wasn't hurt. on his facebook page he says he's dv stated about what happened. police say he is not facing any charges. the race's governing body says it urges crowds to keep at least 100 feet away from the course. one racing experts telling cnn ultimately it is very, very difficult to control spectators. just to let people know, eight people died in this crash. an autopsy is scheduled nor today on the accused craigslist killer. former med student philip markoff was found dead in his jail cell on saturday. he was reportedly discovered with a plastic bag over his head and slashed artery. an apparent suicide. markoff was suspected of killing a masseuse who advertised on craigslist. the u.s. and south korea kicking off their annual joint military exercise this morning, part of an 11-day drill to make sure the two nations are ready to respond to any potential provocations. on sunday north korea promised "a merciless counterblow" to the south korea traitors. willie phillips is heading back home to maryland along with his mom. the young man's father bill phillips was a former stevens staffer killed in the crash. two escaped zebras broke out of their owner's home saturday night after it took a dip in a pool. a witness says the other zebra actually was injured by a car and had to be taken to a vet. then it was returned to the professional trainer who owns the animals. if you think zebras in a suburb are exciting, wait until you hear what's on tap for today's weather forecast. rob marciano in atlanta this morning. we've got a weather forecast of a different color this morning. >> yeah. i am not sure i can live up to that lead-in when you talk about zebras and suburban pools. >> one goes for a dip in a pool, the other gets hit by a car. who had more fun? >> the pool party is always more fun. folks were dipping in the pools across the deep south with record breaking heat in some cases. actually in the northwest, too. we're starting to see a little bit of a break in that relief and some thunderstorms firing along that frontal boundary pushing across the upper midwest. check out video from minnesota. this twister touch down about an hour or so south of minneapolis. it was an ef-1 tornado, winds just over 100 miles an hour. just a little bit of damage. no injuries to report but certainly dramatic video for you on this monday morning. we don't expect a ton of severe weather today but where it does hit along the front we could possibly see something like that. heat advisories have been posted and pushed down into texas, louisiana, and pretty much the extreme southern plains and deep south. 82 in chicago. temperatures the next couple of days will in some cases be 20 degrees cooler this week than they were during the week last week. in places like kansas city that were up and over 100 degrees at points. talk about that and, remember danielle? it's back. it's kind of meandering around the gulf coast. we'll talk about the potential and what they may do in the next 30 minutes. >> two fizzled out. hopefully third time's a charm with that. >> try to put it to bed for good. the white house party crashers, you may remember them, the salahis, grabbing headlines yet again. the couple is part of the cast of the "real housewives of d.c." and the most recent episode appeared to show them getting an escort from the district's police department while heading to a party back in october. >> the reality show's production company says the editing was just a little bit misleading, led to the mix-up. it was park police who provided the escort. park police it should be noted are the ones who escort the president around. cnn has asked for and received no comment so far from the park police. coming up, gulf's final major tournament marred by controversy. tiger woods, not involved in this one. we'll tell you about a not-so-funny thing that happened to golfer dustin johnson on his way to almost winning the pga championship. ten minutes after the hour. ♪ [ male announcer ] we all need people who will be there for us in life. people who say, "we're with you, no matter what." at wachovia and wells fargo, we're with you, when a house turns into a home... ...when a passion becomes a career... ♪ ...when a relationship turns into a lifetime... and when all the hard work finally pays off. we're with you when you need someone to stand by you. wachovia, wells fargo, and you. together we'll go far. basic.? preferred. okay. at meineke i have options, and 50% off brake pads and shoes. my money. my choice. my meineke. 13 minutes after the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. a dramatic end to gulf's final major tournament of 2010. germany's martin kaymer. but a blunder cost another golfer a chance at victory. >> reporter: the closing holes of this year's pga championship produced the most dramatic and exhilarating of finishes with the lead changing hands on several occasions before after 72 holes of competition it finally all came down to a two-man playoff with germany's martin kaymer securing a first major title at the expense of bubba watson. >> sometimes spectators freak out here and there. then you think well what happened there? but i just told myself i cannot really -- i don't have any influence over the game of the other guys, i can just take care of my own game. there was i think the most important thought that i was carrying all day. >> i just tried not to throw up on myself. i get nervous. the game's fun but i want to win every week. i'm like tiger, i come to a golf tournament to win. i just don't win as much as he does. >> reporter: at first it looked as though it was a three-man playoff but dustin johnson with a one-shot lead on 18 was handed a two-stroke penalty after gronding his club in what the pga called a bunker. leaving him stunned and out. >> never once crossed my mind i was in a sand trag. it is very unfortunate. the only worse thing that would have happened is if i'd have made that putt on the last hole. still i never once thought i was in a sand trap. >> i will certainly say that he was a gentleman. he handled himself very well. >> i was a little bit shocked about dustin johnson. can you imagine if he would have made that putt on 18 he would have thought he won the golf tournament. >> reporter: amid all the controversy, someone no stranger to controversy this year, tiger woods, suffered more disappointment and frustrations. he finished way off the pace and outside an automatic spot for the u.s. ryder cup team, meaning he is now reliant on a captain's pick from cory pachvin. >> he could play at the barclays. how about that learning experience for dustin johnson? >> the one that won, kaymer's he's just thrilled about it. women in the work place. a new study finds that we can face more obstacles than men when it comes to climb being the corporate ladder but it is not why you may think. there is a theory out there that says it may be about missed opportunities. we'll explain. 16 minutes past the hour. 19 minutes after the hour. the proposed islamic center near ground zero has now become a lightning rod for politicians from new york city all the way to alaska. but just a couple of blocks away from that site, muslims have been quietly worshipping for decades at a maul mosque that even predates construction of the twin towers. our susan candiotti went down to lower manhattan to try to bring a little perspective to the debate. >> reporter: here we are on the corner of church and warren streets in lower mapt. about four blocks in that direction is ground zero. can you see where that crane is. that's where construction is going on right now. about half-way between there and here is the proposed site of that controversial islamic center. but most people don't know is that about a half-block from where i'm standing is the site of another very small mosque that has been here for about 40 years in the neighborhood without one whiff of controversy. i went over there to kind of checks things out. this man worships there and he thinks the new mosque should be built. >> lot of people got a bad idea because of what happened between 9/11 and all that. they don't represent our religions, they don't represent the muslim. we can mix with all those like christian or jew, ever religion got its problem but i think more eyes are on us right now because of these things. >> reporter: his mosque has not taken a formal stand on the controversy but says it opposes terrorism and promotes peace. >> it's never been a problem. the people at the mosque have always been very respectful. >> reporter: lucas gonzalez has lived next to the mosque since before 9/11, unlike nearly 70% of americans and more than half of new yorkers in recent polling, he approves of the proposed cultural center. >> it's been hard for us to rebuild and as it goes up slowly, think there is some hope there that we can sort of rebuild and come to terms with what's happened to us and the differences that have set us apart. >> reporter: as time goes on, will both sides simply harden their positions? or is there -- can there be a compromise. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. coming up at 7:40 eastern, a closer look at how president obama has jumped right into the middle of the islamic center controversy with politico's ben smith and "time" white house correspondent michael scherer. elizabeth cohen takes a look at how a hospital can get away with charging you $1,000 for a toothbrush? 22 minutes past the hour. 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[ male announcer ] the same 117 elements do the fundamental work of chemistry. ♪ the difference, the one element that is the catalyst for innovation, the one element that changes everything is the human element. ♪ 24 minutes after the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. when it comes to landing your dream job, it's often a combination of what you know and more importantly, who you know. but a new study finds women who make and maintain contacts are not moving up like their male counterparts are. why is that? joining me now, gail mcguire, chair of the department of sociology and anthropology at indiana university and she's studied all of this. you studied a financial institution, where nearly 60% of the people who work there were women but they weren't getting ahead, they weren't getting promotions like the men were. why? >> well, the main reason why is it seems that when women are connecting to these high-status insiders within the organization, that these insiders seem to be reserving those resources, those top resources like help in getting a promotion, for men rather than for women. there seems to be some loyalty built up among those people within the high status positions within organizations to reserve those more than others. >> interesting. so we're talking about social networking here. it's not necessarily that the structure within the organization but almost a parallel one where you make connections, you network with people. what's the difference between the networks that the women were forging at that financial institution versus the ones the men were forging. >> many people are under the illusion that women just don't know how to network. in fact my research shows they do know how to network. women have about the same number of people that they're informally connected to than men but they're less likely to be connected to people high up in the organization. as a result, they have less access to that advocacy an information that people have in the organization contain. >> so what you're saying is they're making connections, they're just not connecting with the right people to get them ahead. >> there's two things. they're not connecting with the right people, but even when they do connect with the right people, those people are more likely to favor men over the women. >> why is that? >> that's a good question. i think it has a lot to do with what happens when people rise to the top of organizations and there is this attitude that we want to keep the top -- we want to be surrounded by people like ourselves. this isn't just something that happens in corporations. that happens all over the place. but i think that's what's interfering with women's ability to break in to those upper echelons. >> you also found out though that even when women do make it to the upper echelon, they're not necessarily inclined to promote other women. why is that? >> exactly. this is fairly disturbing. well, we think what's going on is that for the few women who do make it to the top, in order for them to remain successful they really have to adopt the same attitudes and world views as the men on the top. so as a result, they're acting like the men. >> wow. and what can you possibly do in the corporate kl culture to change this? do the employees, the individuals, have to address this themselves? >> i think it has to be both. i think corporations are fairly aware that informal networks are an important part of the -- their workings, that they know employees need these informal networks to get work done quickly. if i relied on all the formal rules at iusb to get my job done i'd never get my work done. i think corporations realize there's lots of positives associated within formal networks. i think they just need to be made aware that there are they go sif consequences for women. i'm sure most corporations especially large ones would want to hear this information and street guys with their upper level management on how they could change this. >> an eye opening look into the inner workings of corporate america. grail, thanks for dropping by. coming up on the half-hour now, here are this morning's top stories. president obama putting himself and his party right in the middle of the debate over the building of an islamic center near ground zero saying muslims have the right to do it. he's now putting democrats across the country on the spot just three months before the mid-term elections. worse than the tsunami and pakistan earthquake combined, u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon says nothing he's seen ever compares to the devastation from the flooding going on right now in pakistan. close to 1,500 people are dead. another 900,000 homeless and one-fifth of the entire country is under water. gentlemzsa zsa gabor said t very serious condition. a publicist says a previous administered last rights to the 93-year-old actress yesterday. she underwent surgery to remove a blood clot on friday after falling and breaking her hip a month ago. we got a huge response when we first brought you this story back in march. a mind boggling look at what hospitals charge and what might show up on your bill. how about $400 for a dinner? today we're looking at something hospitals have been getting away with literally for years. elizabeth cohen has our special report. >> reporter: when you or i go shopping for a toothbrush, how much do we pay? $2? $3? maybe $4 in guess what one hospital once charged a patient for a toothbrush. $1,000! can you believe it? for a toothbrush? you know who ends up paying for that? you and i end up paying for it. it comes out of our pocket in one way or the other. that's not the only crazy hospital cost i've run into. come on, come with me. at the store, how much does a bottle of tylenol cost? $10 for 100 pills. well, we know of someone who at the hospital was charged $140 for one tylenol! can you believe it? $140 for this. now here's a box of disposable gloves. when you buy them here at this store they come out to 24 cents a pair. but i know of a hospital that charged $53 for a pair of gloves. that's for $53 for a pair of disposable gloves! what the heck is going on here? i'm here in the home office of a medical billing advocate. this is cindy. she helps people cull throughal of these crazy charges. she has all sorts of examples. cindy, this is one of my favorite ones. this is just like a little alcohol prep swab. how much did a hospital charge for these once? >> $23 apiece. >> for in little tiny piece of cotton. >> on one bill there were 44 of them. it becomes very expensive. >> but this isn't even the craziest things you've ever seen. tell me about one of your crazier charges. >> recently i had somebody who was charged for 41 iv bags when she went to the eer for a two-hour visit. >> oh, yes, you heard that right. a woman went to the emergency room with a may grain headache and they gave her one bag of saline, then they charged her for 41 bags of saline. to the tune of $4,182. now the really crazy thing about this is that her insurance company actually paid this bill. they didn't even question it. so why did her insurance company pay for this when it was obviously wrong? >> there's not many people working at these companies anymore. they're very busy and usually any kind of bill that's under $100,000, they don't look at the details. >> so they just write a check. >> they just write a check. >> now the hospital that made that $4,000 mistake with those saline bags, they did correct it when the patient brought it to their attention. now nationwide, pricewaterhousecoopers says that we waste about $1 trillion a year on unnecessary medical spending. back to you. >> unbelievable. are these wild charges just mistakes or is this sort of i guess loaded into the price or the cost of your stay? >> kiran, actually it's both of those things. sometimes it is a mistake, as with those saline bags. but also, hospitals, they mark up their costs quite a bit. it's important to note they often don't get what they're asking for. insurance companies won't pay those huge mark-ups. but if you don't have insurance and you go to the hospital, they're going to ask you for their full marked-up price and it is up to you to say, hey, wait a second, i don't want to pay that much. >> you have to be vigilant, as you showed with those 43 bags of saline. if you're not looking you could end up paying big time. >> absolutely. >> great stuff, elizabeth. thanks so much. still ahead, we'll bring you an interesting report about only children. there's more and more only children according to the latest studies being born. many families deciding that they're only going to have one child. there are some concerns about raising only children. how do you make sure they're well adjusted, not lonely, not selfish. we're going to be joined by a child psychologist and author of "the future of your only child" when we come back. 33 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. 37 minutes past the hour. they're sometimes described as the lonely onlies. but these days the only child is becoming more and more common in american families. a cdc survey of 50-year-old women found 20 years ago only 11.4% of them had just one child. by 2006, that number had jumped to 18.3%. if you're a parent with just one child, do you need to take any special steps to make sure your child is well adjusted? here this morning, carl pickhart, a child psychiatrist and author of "the future of your only child." thanks for being with us this morning. >> yeah, good to be with you. >> full disclosure, you have four children, i'm an only child myself and i have two kids. just to get that out there. what exactly -- when you hear about worries about an only child, some of things come to mind, selfish or having difficulty being well adjusted. perhaps lonely. what did you find? you said the reason you started studying this is that you had a huge number of only children in your practice. >> well, yeah. what puzzled me was why i was getting so many only children. the way it turned out was, there was nothing the matter with the only children situations. the issue was you had very conscientious, very vigilant parents who really wanted to do the best by their only child and so when they had questions or concerns, they simply wanted to get somebody who check those questions and concerns out with. so that was what initially caught my attention. >> so what did you find out in your practice about only children that is perhaps unique to children in single-child households that you might not see in families that have more siblings? >> well, that's the issue. an only child means that you are the only child and you get all the parental attention and you have unrivaled access to parents. i think the two major variables that i see at work, one is that the only child has a very strong sense of self, and the other is that parents make a re high investment in the child. both of these variables have both positive and vulnerable dimensions. i think the challenge for the parent of the only child is to play to the strengths and to moderate the vulnerabilities. >> that's a good way to put it. there's been some research that shows the concerns about the socialization of only children. is that something that sort of just takes care of itself as children enter schools, they learn what it is like to share, they're with other children, or is it very -- is it something that is unique to learning in your home that you don't get unless you have a sibling? >> well, i think what you don't get if you don't have siblings is you don't get the push and shove and rough and tumble and the getting used to having hard time, then having a good time and going back and forth that way and kind of normalizing conflicts in your life. so that's something that a lot of only children wrestle with, i think. the other part of that is that parents really have to socialize their only children with same-age kids. a lot of only children, because they're adultized, that is they peer with their parents, they're very good with adults, they work well with older people and they also work well with younger kids because they are in a controlled position. a lot of times unless they're adequately socialized, it can be kind of feel uncomfortable or out of step with their peers so they have to be -- parents need to be really conscientious about getting kids with other kids so they can learn that quality of relationship. >> there was a fascinating "wall street journal" article last week out about that very thing, parents who all have only children getting them together, weekly sleepovers. does that really make a difference? is there anything that can actually mimic siblings? >> well, you can't mimic it because the reality is that you are still the only child in your family and in your home. but what you can do is that you can get more play and more social experience with your peers and learn how to take care of yourself in that more confusing situation where you are no longer the only -- no longer the center of attention. you have to share that along wm other dimensions of being with people. and that's very helpful. particularly the issues around conflict. because only children tend not to be very comfortable with conflict because they haven't had a lot of it with their parents or their -- and they haven't had any peers to play that out with. i think it's really important to have that going on. the other part is socialization which is one of the great advantages that only children have, is that because they peer with adults and their parents' friends, they're very, very comfortable with adult authorities. and this has a huge payoff as they make their way in the world. >> that's very interesting as well. this trend is on the rise. you see a jump at least 7% in these stats when we've talk about more and more people choosing to have one child. either for their own reasons or economic reasons but it is interesting. carl, thanks for illuminating this subject for us this morning. we appreciate it. child psychiatrist and author of "the future of your only child." thanks. >> very interesting. particularly as you say with more people having single children, maybe they wait until later in life and they only have one. >> the part that made me laugh the most about this is talking about only children feeling that they occupy more space. i was talking about with one of our producer who is an only child. you might not notice the only children in the newsroom because we're so quiet. >> never do. >> sleeping in a king size bed your whole life. you have room to spread out. if you have to share that bed with four people, you know, you take up less space. >> that's true. sometimes you can get your own bed even if it is a twin. coming up, the new toast of the town in new york. is a toaster pastry. we'll tell you to kellogg's pop-tart store. now open -- where else -- fims squa times square. parts of the south and northeast will see rain in the next few hours while other parts of the country bake in the sun. the travel forecast right after the break. 43 minutes after the hour. 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"the expendables" which stallone directed debuted at number one. "eat, pray, love" opened second place. last week's champ "the other guys" was third with $18 million. >> i didn't know if that whole scene was a joke at first, if it was a parody. >> i saw "eat, pray, love" which was okay. not as good as the book. >> julia roberts still looks incredible. >> amazing. 47 minutes after the hour. let's get a check of the morning's weather headlines. rob marciano is in the extreme weather center. which one did you see? >> neither. but i thought it was a joke, too. i was like, what's going on here? thanks, sly. it was a nice weekend to see the movies if you lived in the plains where it was really hot. hot across the northeast as well. showers an thunderstorms firing across long island sound but severe weather at least a threat across upstate new york. syracuse getting hammered with some thunderstorms right now. mostly gusty winds and a little bit of hail in some of these cells as they roll across the finger lakes region there. this is in effect until 2:00 this afternoon. sliding down to the south we saw thunderstorms kind of rotating in a familiar fashion here. believe it or not, this is cause for concern. number five which dissipated and did a loop is heading back into the gulf of mexico. the national hurricane center is watching this for the potential of coming back to be a tropical depression. a plane will fly into this thing later on today. regardless, several storms will fire and in some spots flood the area. heat indexes for 100 to 105 degrees across the deep south and southern plains today. most of the extreme heat across parts of the plains has been squeezed out to the south and also the northwest which saw temperatures yesterday getting up and over 100 degrees. might see a couple flight delays out of new york city today but generally folk if the planes are enjoying much more comfortable weather today as opposed to the last two weeks. >> that's a good thing. rob, thanks so much. this morning's top stories just minutes away, including president obama putting himself in the middle of the debate over the build of an islamic center and mosque near ground zero. we'll talk about whether that will cost his party during mid-term elections. extreme sport, extreme crash. eight people dead as an off-road race in the desert goes terribly wrong. we'll show you the heart-stopping video. at 50 after, birth control gets a plan c. it is not the morning-after pill. some have described it as a five-day-after pill. we'll talk to a fertility specialist about whether it is safe, what it does and much more. coming up. 49 minutes past the hour. 52 minutes past the hour. time for an "a.m. original," something you'll see and taste perhaps only on "american morning." from battle creek to the crossroads of the world, kellogg's is showcasing its famous toaster pastry in new york's times square. the first pop-tarts store has just opened. alina cho got a look at the new world of toaster treats. >> this isn't a story we normally do but pop-tarts, after all, are iconic. right? honestly, who doesn't -- who doesn't love pop-tarts. it is a food that instantly takes you back to your childhood. so iconic in fact we decided we needed to see for ourselves what this pop-tart store is all about. >> it's exciting. it's swirly. it's sweet. it's chewy. >> which one? >> cookies and cream. that's good. >> reporter: this is what it's like to take a walk inside the world of pop-tarts. >> hi, welcome to pop-tarts world. do you like what i've done with the place? >> reporter: comedian and actress caroline ray started this billion dollar business. we're here for a tour. >> pretend you've never eaten any of these before. >> i happen to like frosted. >> it's all about your mood. alina, why do you feel like that's your entire calorie content for the entire day. >> reporter: sushi pop-tarts. no fish, just crumbled pop-tarts in a fruit roll-up. why a store devoted entirely to pop-tarts? this is the one of the biggest attractions in america. a far cry from 1964 when pop-tarts launched. ♪ eat them in the morning ♪ eat them in the evening ♪ kellogg's pop-tarts. ♪ >> a pop-tart is a childhood memory in a rectangle. >> reporter: a breakfast food you could coast and eat, at the timeinnovation. all the rage in the '60s. >> there's nothing else like it. if they didn't exist what would you replace it with and they have a hard time coming up with anything. >> reporter: today kellogg's sells 2 billion pop-tarts a year, the food has a facebook page with nearly 2 million followers. >> they're an iconic junk food. >> reporter: marion is a professor of nutrition at new york university and author of the book "what to eat." >> first of all, it violates my rule of healthy eating which is you never buy anything with more than five ingredients. this one has dozens of ingredients. >> reporter: kellogg's says it's all about balance and food that's made for fun. >> i'm seriously going to pass out from too much sugar, it is so good. >> reporter: this 6-year-old is going home with a variety pack. >> one thing i like about pop-tarts is because their flavors. >> reporter: did you know there were so many flavors? >> no, i did not. >> no, she did not. in fact what started at four flavors back in 1964 has grown to more than 30 different varieties. the best-selling flavors, guys, two of the originals actually -- strawberry and brown sugar. there's also a big debate over do you frost them, do you -- do you like them frosted, do you like them unfrosted. >> there is a big debate over that? >> there is. i had no idea until i started doing this story. and researching it. yeah, there is a big debate. >> this is s'mores. >> one of the best sellers. i hate to report and run, i'm going to give you guys a little -- >> can you eat them cold? >> yes, they're quite good actually. >> post, kellogg's rival actually introduced their version of a pop-tart a year earlier in '63, they called them country squares. they never took off. it was all about the marketing. kellogg's came out with their version, they called them pop-tarts because pop art was so popular. they took off. >> that's my first bite after pop-tart, very good. i like it. congratulations, alina. i thought there was like elvy pop-tarts, sushi pop starts. >> there are. >> there's one in the shape of the virgin mary. >> that's on ebay, i believe. top stories coming your way right after the break. stay with us. good morning. couple of minutes before the top of the hour on this monday, august 16th. glad you're with us on this "american morning." i'm kiran chetry. >> good morning, i'm john roberts. a lot to talk about this morning. president obama enters the red-hot debate over the building of an islamic center and mosque near ground zero. now republicans are making it clear they intend to make the president's apparent support for the project a ballot box issue. we're live at the white house this morning. the fda gives the okay to a new form of contraception. unlike the morning-after pill, this new prescription pill works up to five days later to prevent pregnan pregnancy. but is it safe and what about some of the moral implications? we'll talk to a fertility specialist coming up. a bizarre ending to the pga in wisconsin thanks to an epic blunder by dustin johnson. first though, president obama stemming into the gulf and into a political mine field at the same time. the president spent the weekend in the florida panhandle hoping to promote tourism there. >> yesterday the first family was entertained by a porpoise during a boat trip. it was playing around in the water. president and his daughter spent part of the weekend swimming in calm bay waters. >> but president obama also created a storm this weekend that followed him all the way back to washington. after weeks of avoiding comment about plans to build an islamic center and mosque near ground zero, the president weighed in on the issue. >> his remarks have intensified and already raging debate. our suzanne malveaux is live for us at the white house this morning. this is pretty much been a local issue up until this weekend. now it is raging on the national level. >> reporter: absolutely. i had asked robert gibbs for weeks, pressing him whether or not the white house was going to weigh in, why they didn't. they insisted it was a local issue. now white house aides are telling us, well, the president from early on wanted to weigh in on this controversy, it was all about the timing, first make sure the local zoning board cleared the project and secondly looking for the right event. that happened on friday. the dinner celebrating the muslim's holy month of ramadan, celebrating that at the white house at a dinner. the president made it absolutely clear that he believes muslims have the right to build this mosque near the ground zero site. there was a controversy and criticism that came from those comments after he made them on friday. it was less than 24 hours he told our own ed henry a different story. take a listen to first what he said on friday, then what he said on saturday. >> muslims have the right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower manhattan. >> i was not commenting and i will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. i was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding. >> so the white house is saying that the president is making a distinction here between the right for the muslims to build that mosque at ground zero versus the wisdom or efficacy to do so. some are calling it a backing down of his original position or recalibration. to me this is classic obama, making a point on this been the one hand, that on the other. it is much more murky to figure this all out. >> whatever transpired between friday night where he appeared to be extremely supportive of the building of that mosque and cultural center into saturday. >> what transpired overnight, as you know, is quite a bit of criticism coming from republicans. we have a cnn poll that shows majority of americans don't approve of building this mosque near ground zero, that this is not a popular position to take and so we see the white house really trying to make the point that they have the right to do so, but whether or not it is a good idea, well, that is something that he says he's not going to weigh into. think it's very clear that there is a political element to this. the republicans are raising money on it. they want to make it an issue in mid-term elections and democrats quite frankly a little frustrated by that because they say, look, the white house and the party is now off message. >> i just wondering with the polling didn't come out between friday and saturday. the white house had to have known that this was a controversial issue even before he made the comments friday. right? >> absolutely. which i think is why the timing of this is so important. because again, we pushed and pushed. this is a have important issue, a controversial issue. they insisted that they were not going to weigh in on this and they -- if you believe what the white house aides say, they say that they went to the president and said we don't think that this is an issue that you can avoid, and at least aides said that the president came back and said it is an issue that we don't think we should avoid, that we should weigh in on this controversial matter but we need to do it in a way that makes sense in terms of what local officials and how they're dealing with it, and then secondly some sort of appropriate venue. i think you couldn't avoid meeting with muslims and celebrating ramadan and not bring up this very important issue. because that's when he decided to do so. and it was a friendly audience as well, as you know. >> certainly can't avoid the fallout now. suzanne malveaux at the white house, thanks. president obama's comments sparked strong reaction from both sides of the aisle. here's what democratic congressman jeremy nadler and peter king told candy krcrowley. >> you can't be changing your position on day to day on an issue which goes to our constitution and also to extreme sensitivity. that's where i'm critical of the president on for not being clear. >> the government has no right, no busy to comment one way or the other on whether a church or synagogue or mosque should be anywhere so long as they meet the legal requirements. >> coming up in about 30 minutes, we'll break down weather president obama's comments will hurt democrats come november when we talk about ben smith, senior political reporter for politico, and michael scherer, "time" magazine's white house correspondent. new this morning at five minutes past the hour, an off-road race in southern california turns deadly killing eight people over the weekend. one of the trucks crashed into a crowd of spectators before flipping upside down. you can see just how close spectators were standing right along the course. the driver identified as 28-year-old brett sloppy was not hurt. on his facebook page he says he's "devastated" about what happened. police say he faces no charges. the race's governing body says it urges crowds to keep at least 100 feet from the course. an autopsy is scheduled for today on the accused craigslist killer. bons officials say former med student philip markoff was found dead in his jail cell on saturday. he was reportedly discovered with a plastic bag over his head and a slashed artery. an apparent suicide. markoff was suspected of killing a masseuse who advertised on craigslist. the u.s. and south korea kicked off their annual joint military exercises this morning. it is part of an 11-day drill design to ensure the two nations are ready to respond to any potential provocations. on sunday north korea promised a "merciless count blow" to the u.s. imperialists and called south korea tate raitors. willie phillips is heading back home to maryland with his mom. his father was a former ted steven is staffer on board the aircraft that crashed but he did not survive. two zebras broke out of their owner's home. city officials corralled one at an apartment complex saturday night after it had taken a dip in the pool. a witness says the other zebra was actually injured by a car, had to be taken to the vet but was then okay and returned to the professional trainer who owns the animals. >> excitement on the streets of sacramento. right now seven minutes after the hour. let's see who's got the excitement of some severe weather today. rob marciano is in atlanta. >> good looking zebras there in sacramento. thunderstorms in upstate new york, a couple of them are severe and they're in the watch box the storm prediction center has put out, in effect until 2:00. we'll see if it lasts that long. new york city up to boston just some morning showers, shouldn't be too big of a deal. later on this afternoon you may see some thunderstorms. over an hour delay potential i for new york and boston metropolitan airports. orlando, miami acould see delay from thunderstorms there. most of the heat we've endured for probably two weeks across the midsection of the country has been squeezed to the south. that's where the heat index will get up and over 100 degrees. that's where we have the excessive heat watch at 101 in dallas. 89 and 79 in kansas city and minneapolis. that's a relative cool snap compared to what they've been enduring a couple of weeks ago. might even turn the air conditioners off in some spots. dare they do that in the central plains. john and kiran, we'll talk more about that, plus this td number five which we said was dead last week has circled back into the gulf. it is back on the national hurricane center radar. we'll discuss the potential for that development in about 30 minutes. >> tropical depression for now. thanks, rob. the white house party crashers, the salahis, a grabbing headlines yet again. the couple is currently part of the cast of "the real housewives of d.c." the most recent episode appears to show them getting an escort from the district's police department when heading back to a party in december. >> the production company says incorrect editing led to the mix-up. it was actually the park police who provided the escort. don't know why that would be any less outrageous than the metropolitan d.c. force doing it. cnn asked for and received no comment at least at this point from the park police. >> the whole thing is just -- >> they just can't go away. >> apparently not. the reality show waiting for you. the end of any train wreck. it's being called one of the worst natural das tergs in human history. devastating flooding in pakistan. 20 million people hungry, hurt or homeless. we'll be live in islamabad for an update on the situation. ten minutes after the hour. 12 minutes past the hour. new this morning, word that the ward and security chief are out at the arizona tate prison where three inmates escaped last month. the nationwide search still continues this morning for one of those escapees, john mccluskey and his alleged accomplice, casslyn mae welch. they may have changed their appearance. it is believed mccluskey now has dark hair and a beard and welch may have blonde hair and appears to be thinner. police have dropped charges against a man who was arrested after saturday's deadly shootings in buffalo, new york. four people were killed outside of a crowded restaurant. four others wounded. police say they have new evidence that leads them to leave they arrested the wrong person. the man still remains in jail though on unrelated parole violations. 20 million people in a dire situation and close to 1,500 dead from flooding in pakistan. hundreds of thousands homeless. it's already one of the worst natural disasters ever and it may be getting worse this morning. the u.n. now says that 6 million people may not have access to shelter, food or clean water and that disease is now spreading. reza sayah is live for us in islamabad this morning. you just see the pictures of the devastation, ban ki-moon of the u.n. calling it the worst disaster he's ever seen. what's the latest this morning? >> things continue to get worse. here's what's most alarming about the situation here in pakistan. these floods hit more than two weeks ago. all indications are that things are not improving. they're actually deteriorating. that's why the u.n. chief ban ki-moon made a visit to pakistan, to perhaps draw the world's attention to what is dire need here for help in pakistan. busy day for the u.n. chief. he took an aerial tour of what's an enormous flood zone that extends from northwest pakistan all the way to central pakistan. one-fifth of his country, according to the u.n., is under water. to pit that ut that in perspect that's like the entire state of florida under water. 20 million people affected, according to government officials. here's more bleak figures. we spoke to the u.n. today. they tell us 3 1/2 million children are at risk of deadly water-borne diseases. kcholera cholera, a big concern, an infectious disease caused by contaminated food or water. the only way to address this is to get these flood victims clean water an medical attention. the u.n. says they're nowhere near where they need to be because of a shortage of aid. the u.n. says they've asked for $56 million in medical aid and have only received $6 million. they're asking for $110 million for clean water. they've only received $19 million. pakistan is hoping, kiran, with the u.n. chief's visit that's going to change because this is certainly a dire situation for these flood victims. >> no doubt. reza sayah for us this morning, thanks so much. people out there probably wondering is there anything i can do. to find out how, visit our impact your world page at cnn.com/impact. we're 15 1/2 minutes after the hour. "minding your business," now they're number two. china has overtaken japan as the world's second-largest economy behind the united states. the news underscores china's emergence as a true economic power. cnn money's poppy harlow following these new developments. we should say that it is number two way behind the united states. but still, it's really significant. >> it's a great point. let's look, i want to show you numbers. when you look at gdp, projections for 2010, we'll get those at the end of the year, look at the u.s., almost a $15 trillion economy. china just about one-third of that, $5.4 trillion the projection there, just ahead of japan. this is making official what we've already seen. three decades of incredible growth for china. we knew this was coming. overnight it became official. i want to show people out there what we're looking at if terms of exports. we all know we buy most of our clothing from china but the big exporters when you look at electrical machinery and equipment, also power generation equipment and apparel. i should say, auto sales in china surpassed auto sales in the u.s. this year. why is that? you have a booming middle class in china. you have more and more people able to afford luxuries, able to afford cars, able to afford things they haven't. one economist put it in a very interesting way -- look, for japan and the u.s. to grow as an economy they have to innovate. for china to grow it's just catching up. it has all of this catch-up growth. they have a fifth of the world's population so of course they're growing. we knew this was coming. but we're partaking in it. let's look at china's top trading partners. you can guess this one, the number one trading partner is us, the united states. japan, and hong kong. its neighbors. right after that. not only are they our biggest trading partners, they're the biggest trading partners to their own neighbors. >> that's certainly a sign of the growing influence of china that we've known about. a lot of economic critics say listen, it is time to start talking about kurnly manipulation, trade imbalances because they have such a huge impact on our economy. >> they are going to float their currency. that means it's been closely tracking the dollar. they're saying they're sort of going to ease their monetary policy, float their currency. the reason why we buy things from china is they have great export policies. we don't have big tariffs of chinese products coming in to this country and they're cheap. japan's currency has been strong making what they export more expensive for us. but we're a long ways, off. it is expected by 2030 some economists say china's economy could surpass the u.s. economy. >> on a parallel track too with economic growth is their military growth. when you look at japan having the second largest economy, they've only got a self-defense force. germany strong economy but not a defensive army. member of nato as well. but china you combine the economic power with the military power, that can be very worrisome in years ahead. poppy harlow this morning, thanks. check out the full story on cnnmoney.com. americans serving in the national guard coming home from war only to encounter another battle. unemployment. find out why these soldiers are having such a hard time finding work. stay with us. 22 minutes after the hour. for many of the americans serving in the national guard, once the fight is over, another battle looms for them. >> it's because a lot of these soldiers are struggling to find work dealing with unemployment after completing their enlistment. here's kate bolduan. >> i'm looking up security and law enforcement type jobs that they might be offing. >> reporter: 45-year-old richard wilks has served with the army national guard for five years fighting eight months in iraq. only to return home in 2008 to a new battle he never expected. the fight to find a job. >> i was putting out resume after resume. i'd have some interviews and you just -- i just didn't get hired. >> reporter: frustrated and running out of money, he turn to the only place he knew would hire -- >> i opted to go back overseas because i couldn't find work. i volunteered to go back to iraq. >> reporter: employers are required by law to hold jobs for reservists called to duty and are banned from discriminating against a job applicant because of their military service. but soldiers like wilks fear their guard service makes employers reluctant to take them on. >> they didn't want to take the time to hire someone and them have them deployed, then have to retire someone. >> reporter: wilks is back home once again an again facing the same transition to civilian life without work. he's not alone. the jobless rate among veterans who's served since 9/11 rose to 11.8% last month. compare that to the national rate of 9.5%. the army national guard says this problem is especially troubling among their ranks. >> they have skills an they have training that should, in a good economy, give them an edge over their peers. >> what's the reality of what you're seeing? >> the edge is gone because they're getting lost in the volume of people. >> reporter: unemployment is such a big issue for the arnie national guard that some states are testing out programs to help their part-time soldiers. this captain runs one program in maryland. >> the sea of employers that are out there. what i'm in essence doing into the sea throwing a life ring for them and pulling the life ring until one of these employers picks them up. >> reporter: the help includes resume tips, interview coaching, also a database of military-friendly employers an job openings. >> they deserve the assistance because they have stepped forward from the country. >> reporter: richard continues his search. a tough economy, another tough battle ahead. any regrets? >> i don't have any regrets at all. i loved serving in the military and i loved serving my country. >> reporter: kate bolduan, cnn, washington. >> coming up, nutrition by the numbers. there is a new food rating system out to make supermarket shoppers make healthy choices. poppy harlow joins us with an "a.m. original" just ahead. 25 minutes past the hour. 27 minutes past the hour. top stories just three minutes away. first though, an "a.m. original," something you'll see only on "american morning." who needs the food police when there's a food gps to help you cut through what's good for you and what's not? >> it is a new rating system. it ranks foods on a number scale to determine just how healthy they are. poppy harlow talked to the man behind it. she joins us now. this sounds very simple. >> it does sound simple but big food companies don't love it. 64% of americans say they're making changes to their diet, trying to eat more healthy. on junk food it even says whole grain or reduced fat. food companies are pushing to make it seem like their food is healthier but this system is trying to break through the fat, they say you have to go a lot deeper than just what the front of the package says. take a look. food companies inundate us with healthy sounding sew slogans. reduced fat. whole grain. no sugar added. that means healthier, right? not necessarily. >> the packages all have claims. the claims are often misleading and deceptive. >> reporter: yale scientist dr. david katz reated a nutrition rating system he claims cuts through the food industry's marketing machine. >> the higher the number, the more nutrition the food. >> it ranksed food from 1 to 100 weighing unhealthy things like trans fat against nutrients like fiber. >> many everything in the produce aisle -- almost everything, will be between 90 and 100. we have reduced fat jiff peanut butter. it gets a 7 and the regular gets a 20. >> higher fat is actually better for you here according to nuval. >> well, no, not because it is higher fat. the reduced-fat version is considerably higher in sodium. it is also higher in sugar. >> this is what i ate growing up. 26. that's what this gets. no way! look at this! this neo-politan ice cream says it is a 91. >> to me that is the flaw of the system. ice cream, all chemicals and add tifs, i don't think really adds to the diet and people shouldn't get their nutrients through that ice cream. yes, raisins in raisin bran may be sugar coated but at least it is a good source of fiber. >> reporter: doctor katz says the real svalue isn't to compar ice cream to cereal but see how products stack up against one another. another of the major food companies we contacted would go on camera to discuss nuval but in a statement pepsi told us, "consumers can make more informed choices." general mills said, "criteria for nuval are not available to the public making any informed discussion of this very difficult." why do you think there seems to be a push-back prt big food manufacturers? >> not everybody making and selling food really wants people to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. nuval tells that truth. >> junk food is big business for these big american food companies. if the nuval system is adopted all across the nation, will it be the end of salty, fatty snack food? >> i certainly hope it would be the end of junk food. >> that's billions in revenue for these companies. >> but it could be billions in revenue by making better investigations of these same foods. >> about 70,000 items have been graded so far and about 750 grocery stores across the country. it is growing quickly and this, john and kiran, could be a huge threat to a $26 billion a year snack sfri in this country. >> i'm still trying to get my head around how neo-politan ice cream has the same nutritional value as fruit. the doctor spent a long time in that freezer looking at the ice cream, he says even i invented this system, i'm not sure why this is the rating. critics says because you can add fiber, you can add all of these nutrients to anything but if the basis of it isn't healthy, clean food, then critics say this system doesn't work. so it could really shake up an industry but a lot of people don't agree with it at all. >> what are some foods that are 100? >> blueberries. romaine lettuce. iceberg lettuce is only an 82. anything that is clean, clean, bright fruits and vegetables that's going to get you 100. but pretty much nothing else. >> if the guy that invented the system is confused, what's a consumer to do? >> that's the question. but it guides you sort of in a better direction. i will say that. >> great story this morning. crossing the half-hour right now. this morning, worst than the tsunami and pakistani earthquake combined. u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon saying he has never seen anything that compares to the devastation from the flooding going on right now in pakistan. close to 1,500 people are dead. one-fifth of the country is under water and some $2 some 20 people are struggling to cope with the disaster. a live spacewalk there at the international space station. nasa says the crew was trying for the third time to fix a faulty ammonia pump and bring the space lab's cooling system back to full capacity. it's been broken since the 21st of last month. it is the 150th iss spacewalk since assembly started in 1998. president obama hit the gulf coast this weekend to let the world know the water was clean and the beaches are open. during the brief visit the president insisted that even though the oil is no longer flowing, the clean-up is far from over. >> today the well is capped. oil is no longer flowing into the gulf. it has not been flowing for a month. i'm here to tell you that our job is not finished and we are not going anywhere until it is. >> it was president obama's fifth visit to the region since the april 20th explosion that sparked the gulf oil disaster. a 200-mile off-road race turned deadly over weekend in california's mohave desert. the state's highway patrol says eight people were killed, nine others injured in the chaos. >> one of the drivers hit a jump, then lost control of his truck, plowed right into the crowd. april williams is taking a closer look at this tragic accident. >> reporter: what should have been a fun saturday night out turned deadly when an off-road race truck lost control and plowed into a group of spectators in southern california. at least eight people were killed and several others were injured. police say there were no safety barriers at the sanction's desert event and it's possible some people were standing too close to the race course. >> we do have witness statements saying that there were supposed to be 150 feet off of the track but as you can see, there are no true delineations. >> reporter: the race was held in san bernardino county. some injured were airlifted to local hospitals. witnesses say the quick response of emergency personnel may have kept more live from being lost. still, fans say off-road racing is a safe, family-oriented spectator sport and that what happened was just an unfortunate accident. >> in our racing, it's unfortunate. it's an open area that we do get close to the course but it's very rare that situations like this happen. >> reporter: neither the driver of the truck, nor his passenger, were injured in the crash. april williams, reporting from atlanta. 35 minutes after the hour. president obama weighs in on the ground zero mosque and the republican party pounces. how much political damage has been done and will this be an issue going into the november election? we'll find out coming up next. my subaru saved my life. i won't ever forget that. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. fire was fire. and the first language, the language of chemistry, was universal and eloquent. and the unique ability of chemistry to change everything has never changed. it is still the hope of human history to come. it is still the bond in partial between the elements. hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and human. 38 minutes after the hour. the white house has said the fight over whether to build an islamic community center and mosque near ground zero is a local matter. well, not anymore. president obama joined the fight on friday night when he said that muslims had the right to build the mosque. but less than 24 hours later, the president clarified that statement. >> i was not commenting and i will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. i was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding. >> joining me now to talk more about this and the political fallout, ben smith, senior political reporter for politico. from washington, "time" magazine white house correspondent michael scherer. ben, start with you. this was a local issue for the most part. newt gingrich and sarah palin had weighed in on it but in terms of active politicians, it was pretty much a local issue. we heard from bloomberg and some others. now the president has weighed in and some democrats are not very happy about that. >> what the president did immediately turned it into a national issue. you saw republicans in florida, louisiana, instantly challenged their democratic rivals to take a position. you saw democrats basically ducking and hoping it goes away, hoping they could talk about something else. >> has he done himself some political damage here. >> i don't think this was a calculated, good political move from the start. the way he recalibrated it on sunday managed to whatever good had he done himself by cheering up parts of his base who like to see him behaving like the old obama he kind of reeled that back in. >> mike, ed rollins rang in on this yesterday and ed, while a republican, is pretty measured in his comments about the president but kind of really let loose yesterday. >> probably the dum sae micha dukakis said it was okay to burn the flag. it was very similar. this aen is emotional issue. intellectually the president may be right but this is an emotional issue. people who lost kids, brothers, sisters, fathers, what have you do not want that mosque in new york and it is going to and big, big issue for democrats across this country. >> other republicans have really tried to make this a frash point. at ed rollins said, it will be a big issue across the country. can they turn this into an electricity year issue? >> it is not going to be an issue people will go to the polls and vote on. not someone was going to vote for democrats before and now because of the mosque issue people will change their vote but it does hurt democrats because it frames this election an a referendum on the president which is just what democrats don't want to happen. democrats want this to be a choice, they want it to be about local issues and about what republicans are offering, not whether or not the president is out of touch with the concerns of regular americans which is why republicans are going to hit this issue as long as they can. >> cnn/opinion research corporation poll found 70% of people don't agree to putting the mosque is. so could this do you think turn some maybe to independents? >> it is important to splice some of these polls. a certain percentage of americans don't believe the mosque should have the right to be there, they think the government should interview, which is the position the president opposes. then another percentage just don't want it there, think it is in bad taste and that the organizers take choose to take it somewhere else. the position hasn't taken a position on that. that's where the republicans are taking a firm position and disagreeing with the president. but this is an emotional issue. it is not going to be an issue that's decided on sort of these finer points. >> ben, you have suggested that this is part of a turn by the gop to toward deeper suspicion of the islamic faith in a post-9/11 world. it really sits in contrast with president bush who tried to go a long way toward saying this is a legitimate religion, don't be afraid of it, terrorists might have been muslim but they didn't represent the islamic faith. >> by september 12, they were very worried there would be reprisals against muslims. then over the next couple years, people have forgotten, he waged this civil war inside the republican party really saying the famous line that ari fleischer said, the president believes islam is a religion of peace. he kind of kept that in check inside the republican party. though you see these poll numbers that make it very attractive to find conflict with islam, that's now happened. >> does the republican party potentially risk a backlash here? i've traveled with several presidential candidates who always like to stop in dearborn, michigan, which is seen by many people as being the heart of the islamic community in this country. >> political strategists think had he nothing to lose. >> what happened on friday night was scripted out, part of his speech at the dinner marking the end of ramadan. then the next day he freelanced some remarks to our ed henry and he seemed to want to have it both ways which was actually similar to his position on prop 8 saying he was against prop 8 but he's still against day marriage. is the president treading on dangerous ground when he talks off the cuff? >> one interesting things about obama, everybody thinks of him as the press' best friend, he doesn't like much talking to us when it is unscripted, much less than president bush or bill clinton before him. there's not that kind of off-the-record or even informal joshing that happens. last time i can remember the president doing this, he came to the back of his plane at the end of april and he made what was a big gaffe in saying that it was unlikely immigration reform was going to pass the senate this year, effectively killing immigration reform, tanking his poll numbers among hispanics and enraging a number of leaders in congress. this is the second time basically in two off-the-cuff experiences that the president has essentially put his foot in his mouth. fed's just stuck with the friday comments this story wouldn't have abouten -- the narrative would not have been is the president changing his mine on this, is he wavering. there would have been a frye night story that wouldn't have the legs it has right now. >> at least for those of you who call ourselves white house reporters at one point in our careers or another, off-the-cuff remarks often give us good material to talk about. michael scherer, ben committsmi thanks for dropping by. still ahead, rob marcia yo's talking about severe thunderstorms in some parts of the country and where we may see some relief from the heat in others. 44 minutes past the hour. we'll be right back. monday morning in new york. today it is a little cloudy, 73 degrees. a little bit later, 88 for a high and some thunderstorms in the forecast. >> better than the 100 degrees we had the last couple of weeks. but there is still some heat across the country and severe storms as well to pay attention to. rob marciano's in atlanta for us. >> good morning, guys. we have a cool front trying to bring relief to folks suffering from the heat the past couple of weeks. having some success doing that but there's been some severe weather because of it. video from hayfield, minnesota over the weekend, thunderstorms dropped a tornado in this part of the world. little bit in the way of damage but no injuries. this thing spun up to be an ef-1, so winds up over 1 hu100 s an hour. about 100 miles south of minneapolis. severe weather across upstate new york right now, a severe thunderstorm warning in effect just south of syracuse as this line of storms rumbled up toward the finger lakes region. winds could gust to 50, 60 miles an hour. south, thunderstorms rolling south across i-10. this is all rotation around what is left over of tropical depression 5. we'll watch that for potential development. heat across the southern plains and deep south, 100 to 105 heat indexes but not nearly as many states involved in the heat warnings as what we saw last week. that's good news. >> that is an improvement, albeit a small one. this morning's top stories just minutes away now, including in the shadow of ground zero but away from all the controversy, susan candiotti takes us to a mosque that's been in lower manhattan since before 9/11, even since before the twin towers were built. we know that a hospital stay can be pricey, but $1,000 for a toothbrush? 140 bucks for a single tylenol pill? how are hospitals getting away with overcharging? some of the craziest rip-offs our elizabeth cohen found in part one of the a.m. original "medical waste." do you like sushi? pop-tarts? how about both at the same time? new flavors you can never imagine as we take you inside the new times square pop-tart store. those stories and more at the top of the hour. listen up, people, volkswagen is at it again with their autobahn for all event. it ends soon. they got great prices. cars built for the autobahn. people are gonna be driving crazy in the jetta... ...the routan, and the cc. that cc is gorgeous. that jetta is awesome. my wife loves her new routan. and they all come with that carefree maintenance. scheduled maintenance included. we're not shopping for cars here, people. c'mon! well, i am now. that's kind of exciting. [ male announcer ] right now, get 0% apr on 2010 models, excluding tdi. or get a great price on a certified pre-owned volkswagen. welcome back to the most news in the morning a woman behind the wheel during a deadly dui crash is scheduled to be sentenced in las vegas this morning. the victim's family worked tirelessly to get to this day. and with the help of a few thousand friends on the web, they just may get justice. ted rolands has their story. >> reporter: paul was 28, a student up pulling an all-nighter. at 3 a.m. on a friday, he went doubt make copies and buy an energy drink. he was killed by a drunk driver. >> it is, by far, the worst day in all of our lives. >> reporter: paul's sister, dawn, says her brother was a computer genius who served eight years in the air force, a great job and was working on a degree because he wanted to run for political office. >> to get to that point that every of be wants to be at in life, to have it stolen from him in the middle of the night like that is so -- it is unbelievable t is so unfair. >> reporter: paul left something behind a few years ago, he created a website to keep up with friends. he called it team paul and as a joke, he made a team paul t-shirt with his face on t now, his family is using team paul to fight for justice against the driver who killed him. he was sitting at this intersection waiting for the light to change when he was hit from behind. you can see the yellow lines in the road here showing how his car was pushed all the way across the road into this pole. his car came to rest over here where these yellow boxes represent the placement of the tires of the vehicle. he died on the way to the hospital. police say the person that hit him was traveling at more than 80 miles per hour. the driver is 29-year-old miranda dalton. police say she never used her brakes. earlier, she had been out drinking, $1 cocktails on ladies night at this las vegas country bar. on the bar's website, they actually have video of dalton dancing from last year and she posed for this photo the night of the fatal crash. according to the police report, at the accident scene, dalton's speech was so slurred, an officer thought she had a foreign object in her mouth. her blood alcohol level was over twice the legal limit and she had a prior dui conviction in 2001. on the day of paul maidman's wake, two things happened, dalton was released on bail and team paul came back to life. the website and a new facebook page became a rallying point to urge people to pressure the legal system not to go lightly on dalton. it also became a spontaneous surveillance network. within weeks, people were starting to report on dalton's whereabouts. then on what would have been paul's 29th birthday, his sister got a call. the call came from this las vegas bar. the caller said that miranda dalton was inside partying. the court had ordered her not to drink. she was wearing an ankle device to detect alcohol. >> something just came over me that said, dawn, go on, get in your car, see for yourself if she is even actually there. >> reporter: shen he she arrived, she found dalton inside, got out her cell phone and started taking pictures. the photos showed dalton with her hair dyed and wearing glasses. when the judge found the ankle device might have been tampered with, she raise herd bail to a half millions dollars. paul's family attended this hearing wearing team paul t-shirts. outside, dalton's friend defended her. >> she is a mother, she is a friend, she's daughter. i mean, her choice was wrong, clearly, obviously, but to try to push for a harsher penalty, i don't think it is going to do more justice. >> reporter: about 3,000 people are on the team paul facebook page. they agree, it is about justice. >> i can never be hard enough on her, ever. because she has done it before and she would do it again and the next time, it could be my child or my neighbor's child. >> reporter: paul's family is hoping to grow team paul even bigger. they would like to see it push for harsher drunk driving laws around the country so other families don't have to suffer like they are. ted rolands, cnn, las vegas. >> so sad. >> you can certainly understand what the family is going through. >> yeah, absolutely. top stories coming your way after a quick break. good morning to you, thanks for being with us on this monday. it is august 16th. >> thanks so much for being with us. a lot to talk about this morning. let's get right to it. washington and south korea launching a new wound of war games all under the very watchful eye of north korea. the north is lashing out, promising a merciless counterblow, heightening tension kornts reian peninsula a live update from the pentagon just ahead. a heated debate in new york over plans to build an islamic center and mosque near ground zero has gone national now that president obama has weighed in. republicans are on the attack, promising to make the president's position a ballot box issue. we are live at the white house with more. and medical costs that will make you go mad. >> $1,000. can you believe it? $1,000 for a toothbrush. $140 for one tylenol. can you believe it? $140 for this. >> how hospitals are getting away with charging pretty much whatever they want for whatever they want and how we are all going to pay for it one way or another another. it is an "a.m." original series. >> the blog is up and running go to cnn.com/a.m. fix. we start with president obama wade nothing the debate over a plan to build an islamic community center and mosque just blocks from ground zero. the president says muslims have the right to do it. >> that position took the president offmessage, you could say, from his visit to the gulf coast this weekend. our suzanne malveaux is live from the white house it looks like the president has certainly elevated this to a national debate after the white house originally called it a local matter. >> you are absolutely right, kiran and john. what happened is robert gibbs, asking him for weeks on end whether the white house had a position on this they insist it had had a local issue. now, white house aides saying the president has wanted to weigh in on this particular issue for some time that they were waiting for the right timing of all of this. that timing took place on friday, that was a dinner the white house had for muslim guests celebrating the opening of the holy month of ramadan. the president made it very clear in that friendly audience that he believes that it was muslims' right to build that mosque at the ground zero site. now, fast forward. there was a lot of criticism that happened within a 24-hour period. ed henry caught up with the president on saturday to ask him about the position. now, i want you to take a listen to how he put it on friday and then what he said his comments were regarding that mosque on saturday. >> muslims have the right to practice their religion, as everyone else in this country. and that includes a right to build a police of worship and community center on private property in lower manhattan. i was not commenting and i will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. i was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding. >> so call it what you will. if it's a recalibrating, clarifying, but it seems to me when you listen to those two comments, the president did weigh in on the controversy and then talked about not weigh withing in on the controversy after he already had. this is -- seems to be classic obama, when you think it, sometimes the one hand this, and one hand that trying to cover all position, it is getting murkier. republicans see an opening, an advantage here, they will make it into a midterm election issue. frustrated democrats and lawmakers i spoke with over the weekend who are also quite annoyed by this because they say it is taking them off message. they want to talk about health care reform, the economy getting better and stuck debating this and also feel like though might be trying to defendant president on an issue that doesn't seem so popular, certainly, is it is controversial. kiran, john? >> suzanne malveaux, thanks. the u.s. an south korea starting 11 days of war games and making north korea angry. pyongyang says there is severest punishment ever in the world. >> vowing to deal unmerciless counterblow to the south korean traitors and imperialistsome it harmless saber rattling or something to be concerned about? our chris lawrence live at the pentagon tracking this developing story. how are the jones anded in airals feairal -- and the admirals playing about this? is it like pea young gang playing the petch lent child? >> reporter: pentagon spokesman says these are annual exercises that reflect the u.s. commitment to the stability and security of the peninsula. i also spoke with a defense official who is also aware of the situation. he felt that yes, you know, obviously, they have heard this before. he said these take these threats somewhat seriously especially in light of what happened with the south korean ship a few months ago. the sinking of that ship and the subsequent blame of north korea by an independent investigation and by the south korean investigators, that is really what has placed a lot of these exercises in a different light. the official said without that sinking, you might chalk it up more north korean threats n february, he mentioned that north korea put out a threat that they would mercifully destroy its enemies if the u.s. and south korea went through with exercises they had planned back in the spring. because of that sinking in the ship, obviously, tensions in the area are heightened and heard over the weekend that the south korean president put forward a plan for a proposal for reunification. even as the exercise has somewhat raised tensions, the south korean president said eventually, there has to be some sort of reconciliation between us. he went so far as to propose a tax on the people to sort of raise some money that would with eventually pay for the cost of trying to bring the two nations together. john? >> chris, we are also learning this morning from talking -- at least from politico, saying general stanley mcchrystal, beginning to learn what he is going to do post his military career, teaching at yale. anything there at the pentagon? any idea what he will be teaching? >> haven't heard anything here from the pentagon. but just from -- it seems like he is going to be teaching a leadership course. i know general mcchrystal does enjoy sort of the -- a good intellectual debate. you know, he is very well versed on policy, on leadership styles. he maybe just, you know, teaching a charges on leadership and what he has learned over his very long military career. chris lawrence at the pentagon this morning. chris, thanks so much. >> thanks, chris. also new this morning, an autopsy scheduled today on the accused craigslist killer. philip markoff was found dead in his jail cell saturday he was reportedly discovered with a plastic bag over his head and a cut artery, an apparent suicide. markoff was suspected of killing a masseuse to advertised on craigslist. an off-road race killed eight people this weekend. a truck crashed into a crowd into spectators before flipping over. most of the spectators on the edge of the course. the driver, 28-year-old brett sloppy was not hurt. on his facebook page, he says he is devastated about what happened. police say he faces no charges. the race's governing body, mohave desert racing, urges crowds to keep at least 100 feet away from the race course, but state trooper pointed out, difficult to tell where the race course begins and ends. >> and goes for so long. meanwhile, miami heat forward udonis has lamb is free on bail this morning much the 30-year-old has lamb was arrested and charged with marijuana possession after a traffic stop in miami-dade county yesterday. also, a passenger in the car was charged. haslem signed a new contract to play with chris bosh, dwyane wade and lebron james. dustin johnson lost a chance to be part of a three-way playoff for the pga championship when he grounded his club in a sand trap that he mistook for a footpath on the 18th hole. he was levelled a two-stroke penalty it cost him a share of the lead. kaymer beat bubba watson? >> it happinesses by accident and johnson had no idea he was in a sand course. you look at that course, whistling straits, a traditional type of scottish links course and difficult to tell where a bunker begins, the rough ends, et cetera, et cetera. he saw a patch of sand, thought it was a worn-down area, he touched his club to the sand, you are not allowed to do in a trap, two-stroke penalty. >> nine minutes past the hour now, we will check in with rob marciano. see, see how it can all change for you in the blink of an eye like that? >> glad he didn't make that putt to win it and think he won the tournament and then have it -- >> can you imagine? >> that would have been heartbreak. beautiful course right along lake michigan. it was certainly a fun tournament to watch. the interesting weather they had last week has now moved off to the east and getting interesting in upstate new york. show what you is going on up there severe thunderstorms rolling across central new york, utica, rome, heading up toward vermont as well. packing a punch as far as gusty winds, hail and heavy downpours, all with this front rolling across the country. thank goodness bringing a little bit of relief to the heat-stricken states of the central plains. they will see temperatures, in some cases, 20 degrees cooler today, tomorrow than they were just a week ago. but the heat down south still remains. also what remains is what is left over of tropical depression number five, done a loopty loo, a pirouette of sorts. the national hurricane center looking into that. we will look into that in the next 30 minute. back to you. >> rob, thanks. a new contraceptive drug called ella can be taken up to five days after unprotected sex. how does it work? is it controversial? is it safe? we are going to be speaking with a fertility expert, coming up. probably one of the worst-kept secrets in the war, the secret war against al qaida in pakistan. also going on in yemen and somalia, but nine other countries as well. the covert wars that america is waging against al qaeda. we will talk about that a little bit later on this hour. coming up now, 11 minutes after the hour. 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[ female announcer ] last year, the u.s. alone used over 39 billion plastic bottles of water. ♪ that's enough to stretch around the earth over 190 times. ♪ each brita filter can take up to 300 of those bottles out of the equation. it's a small step that can make a big difference. look for our coupon in this weekend's newspaper. welcome back. 13 minutes past the hour. looking at your health in an a.m. house call. a prescription approved by the fda is called ella much the biggest difference it works up to five days after unprotected intercourse it has been available in europe since last year. here to tell us more about it dr. jamie griffo, an ob/gyn and head of a fertility center. >> good morning. >> we have plan b, to be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex and that is available now over the counter, correct? >> correct. >> ella can work five days what is different besides the duration? >> not clear if it has a different mechanism of action what it is clear it works, prevents unwanted pregnancies, a big problem in this country, abortion isn't the solution. this is one more option for patients who don't want to have -- get pregnant and they have had unprotected sex. >> what is the -- usually in that time, would it be they wouldn't be able to get to a health care provider in the 72-hour window. what is the practical need for an extension up to five days? >> just gives patients more options and a little longer timeframe. sometimes people, you know, hem and haw and don't make quick decisions and this gives them a little extra time to not have an unwanted pregnancy. >> you talked about whether -- about us not really knowing exactly how it works, how ella works, the fda is printing it is considered safe and effective. how exactly does it work? is it more similar to the plan b is said to i guess, interrupt ovulation or affect ovulation versus the controversial ru 486, known as the abortion bill, which can also terminate a pregnancy after an egg has been fertilized? it is in between. it works as a progesterone antagonist, binds the receptor which is important for the preg nan toy is continue and interferes with ovulation. whether it particularly stops of leg or stops implantation is the issue, it is not really clear and there is no study that you can prove which way it works but we do know it works. if you give it to women up to five days after unprotected sex, 70% of them have fewer pregnancies, so there you have less unwanted pregnancies that is a good thing. there are some who are going to be upset because they believe that it perhaps can terminate a pregnancy that's already happened. but there's no way to sort of prove that or no way to scientifically show that? >> there is no way to scientifically know that is how it works in the human system. those studies would be impossible to do. people always tend to politicize contraception. this is a much better alternative than having an unwanted pregnancy or facing an abortion. store, is one more opportunity for women not to have unwanted pregnancies and we need that. >> there any reason why this is prescripping and plan b is available over the counter in most places? >> i'm not sure why the fda decided to make this prescription versus the plan b which is not. perhaps because of its long effect, they don't want people taking it beyond that and not knowing the consequences to a pregnancy but this clinical trials, it was very effective, was safe, had very minimal side effects and it works. >> what about any potential side effects? is there anybody who should not be taking it? tlvlgts is a group of women had doesn't work as well on, women obese, overweight, body mass index over 30 this is less effective and maybe not effective at all that is the one with caveat. >> this is also something that should not be used as a regular form of contraception. these are considered emergency contraceptions for a reason s there a physical danger in taking this too many times? >> i don't know there is a physical danger but designed to be used at the time of unprotected sex so you couldn't just take it continuously. there are much better alternatives, oral contraceptive works that way. if you are going to have that form of contraceptive, that works but women who have unprotected sex this is an option. >> dr. james grifo, thanks for shedding light today on this. we appreciate it. john? first m & m's, now pop-tarts have their very own store? where else, in the heart of times square. boy, wait until you see what is on the menu, too. alita cho goes for a visit and tells us what she finds, next. it 18 minutes after the hour. for strong bones, i take calcium. but my doctor told me that most calcium supplements... aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. citracal. ♪ >> 20 minutes after the hour, back with the most news in the morning. time now for an a.m. original, something you will see only on "american morning," so remember that from battle creek to the crossroads of the universe, pop-tarts world, now open for business in "new york times" square. >> yep that's right. alita cho paid a visit to the kellogg's flagship store. she brought good dis. >> one of my tougher assignments. >> i can't picture you eating pop-tarts but straw ber advice your favorite? >> again, i remind you guys that there is a debated, frosted or unfrosted, which do you like? think about it while the piece rolls. anyway, honestly, guys, who doesn't love pop-tarts? it is that food that instantly takes you back to your childhood, so iconic, in fact, we wanted to see for ourselves what this pop-tarts store was all about. >> it is exciting it is swirly it is sweet it is chewy. >> did you eat one? >> yes. >> which one? >> it is good. >> reporter: this is what it is like to take a walk inside the world of pop-tarts. >> hi, welcome to pop-tarts world, do you like what i've done with the place? >> reporter: comedian and actress caroline rhea is the ambassador of pop-tarts, the simple snack that boomed into a half billion dollar business. we are here for a tour and then some. >> pretend you are eaten them before. >> do you like frosted or unfrosted? i happen to like frosted? >> alina, why do i feel like that is your entire calorie content for the entire day? oh, my god, i had a sushi pop-tart. i am done for the day. >> sushi pop-tarts new york fish but crumpled up in a fruit rollup, many treats selling here. why a store devoted entirely to pop-tarts? "new york times" square, the crossroads of the world, one of the biggest tourist attractions in america why over here there is a hershey's store. across the street this one for m & m's. a far cry from 1964, when pop-tarts launched. ♪ eat them in the morning, eat them in the evening, kellogg's pop-tarts ♪ >> a pop-tart is a childhood memory in a rectangle. >> reporter: a breakfast food you could toast and eat, at the time, an innovation, an ode to pop article, all the rage in the '60s. the gimmick worked. >> really nothing else like it, we ask consumers all the time if it didn't exist what would you replace it with? they have a hard time coming one anything. >> reporter: today, kellogg's sells $2 billion pop-tarts a year, the food has a facebook page where with 2 million followers. >> an iconic junk food. >> reporter: should web eat them? mary ann nestle is author of the book "what to eat" and fro fesser at new york university. >> violates my rule of healthy eating, you never buy anything with more than five ingredients this one has dozens of ingredients. >> reporter: kellogg's says it is all about balance and food that's made for fun. i'm seriously going to pass out from too much sugar. so good. >> reporter: 6-year-old michaela is going home with a variety pack. >> one thing i like about pop-tarts is 'cause they are flavors. >> did you know there were so many flavors? >> no i did not. >> reporter: no, she did not. you know what started as four flavors back in 1964 has actually grown to more than 30 ditch varieties. the best selling flavors, two of the originals, strawberry and brown sugar cinnamon and frosted pop-tarts were introduced in 1967. so three years after the original, which really, if you think about it, guys, was really -- looking at me dubiously, really an innovation at the time because you could put this in the toaster and the frosting wouldn't melt. >> i love the microwave directions. microwave on high three seconds. >> we microwaved some, so, please be my guest this is strawberry for me. john wanted the -- >> i want to trite cookie one. might have been a meal ready to eat. >> i know there is some rule like never eat on tv are. >> never drink, you can eat. >> yep. still tastes like cardboard. sandwiched around sugary fruit-flavored. >> my mom was a nutritionist. >> all about balance, john. all about balance, they say. exercise, you know, three square meals, once a week. >> just get on poppy's food reading. >> i don't know, neopolitan ice cream 92. thanks, alina. >> welcome. still ahead, how about $1,000 for a toothbrush. medical waste and we are all paying for it. elizabeth cohen shines a light on just what hospitals are getting away with in some cases, still ahead. this site has a should i try priceline instead? >> no it's a sale. nothing beats a sale! wrong move! you. you can save up to half off that sale when you name your own price on priceline. but this one's a deal...trust me. it's only pretending to be a deal. here, bid $79. got it. wow! you win this time good twin! there's no disguising the real deal. a fantastic opportunity to get 0% apr financing on every new 2010 cadillac model. like the cts sport sedan. the most acclaimed vehicle in its class and a "car and driver" 10 best, three years in a row. or the all new cadillac srx luxury crossover. and even the most acclaimed luxury suv ever, the cadillac escalade. summer brings out the best in all of us. hurry in to get 0% apr financing on every new 2010 cadillac during cadillac's "summer's best" sales event, going on now at your cadillac dealer. ♪ [v:tv][c [panting] mark! anna! aah! aah! ha! ah! whoo! hee! heave! forgot your lunch. give me. give me. hee! ohh! ohh! announcer: you don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent... i'm ok. because kids in foster care don't need perfection. they need you. in 2008 i quit venture capital to follow my passion for food. i saw a gap in the market for a fresh culinary brand and launched behindtheburner.com. we create and broadcast content and then distribute it across tv, the web and via mobile. i even use the web to get paid. with acceptpay from american express open, we now invoice advertisers and receive payments digitally. and i get paid on average three weeks faster. booming is never looking for a check in the mail. because it's already in my email. half past the hour now. time for a lock at your top stories. worse than the tsunami, worse than the pakistan earthquake combined, u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon says he has never seen anything that compares to the devastation from the flooding in pakistan. right now, close to 1500 people are dead and a fifth of the country is under water as 20 million people struck toll cope with the disaster. plus, a look at the space walk outside the international space station. nasa says the crew is trying for the third time to fix a faulty ammonia pump and bring the space lab's cooling system back to full capacity it has been broken since july 21st. this, by the situation, the 150th iss space walk since assembly started back in 1998. president obama hit the gulf coast this weekend to let the world know that the water is clean, the beaches are open for business and during his brief visit with the family, the president insisted that even though the oil is no longer flowing, the cleanup is far from over. >> today, the well is capped. oil is no longer flowing into the gulf. it has not been flowing for a month. and i'm here to tell you that our job is not finished and we are not going anywhere. >> a huge response when we first brought you this story in march, so much so that it deserves at least a second look. the mind-boggling hospital charges that might show up on your bill. how about this? $400 for one of those bland hospital dinners. >> today, we are looking at something hospitals have been getting away with for years. elizabeth cohen has our special report live from atlanta this morning. boy, when he started doing some digging, you found some of the most outrageous charges. >> reporter: oh, we sure did. what we found is sort of a few examples of what price waterhouse coopers says is $1 trillion of wasteful spending in the united states. i challenge you, look up a hospital bill and you will see how all those little numbers add up. when you or i go shopping for a toothbrush, how much do we pay, $2, $3, maybe $4? guess what one hospital once charged a patient for a toothbrush, $1,000. can you believe it? $1,000 for a toothbrush. you know who ends up paying for that? you and i, we end up paying for it, it it comes out of our pock net one way or another. and that is not the only crazy hospital cost i have run into. come on, come with me. at the store, how much does a bolt of tylenol cost? $10 for 100 bills. we know of someone who at the hospital was charged $140 for one tylenol. can you believe it? $140 for this. now, here is a box of disposable gloves. you buy them here at this store, they come out to 24 cents a pair. but i know of a hospital that charged $53 for a pair of gloves. that's right, $53 for a pair of disposable gloves. what the heck is going on here? so, i'm here in the home office of a medical billing advocate. this is cindy holtzman and she helps people cull through all of these crazy charges and she has all sorts of examples. this is my favorite ones, like a little alcohol prep swab. how much did the hospital charge for these? >> $23 a apiece. >> for this little tiny piece of cotton. >> on one bill there were 44 of them. it becomes very expensive. my goodness. this isn't even the craziest thing you have ever seen. tell me about one of your crazier charges. >> recently, i had somebody that was charged for 41 iv bags when she went to the ir for a two-hour visit. >> oh, yes, you heard that right. a woman went to the emergency room with a migraine headache and they gave her one bag of saline and then they charged her for 41 bags of saline. to the tune of $4,182. now, the really crazy thing about this is that her insurance company actually paid this bill. they didn't even question it. so why did her insurance company pay for this when it was obviously wrong? >> there is not many people working at these companies anymore. they are very busy and usually, any kind of bill that's under $100,000, they don't look at the detail. >> so they just write a check? >> they just write a check. >> now that woman who was charged the $4,000 for the saline bags she never had, she brought it to the attention of the hospital and they did reverse those charges. >> you got to have an eagle eye, i guess and check that out, make sure you are looking at your bill. you have a book out called "the empowered patient" helping people navigate this if someone gets stuck with a bill like this, how do they avoid paying it? >> you said the first thing, you have to have an eagle eye. go through the bill and see if you can catch anything crazy like 41 beings of saline. secondly, even if the charge is legitimate it is a real charge, please do challenge it absolutely, you should go ahead and challenge it because i have been told when people try to negotiate with hospitals, it usually works. and you should remember that even if you have insurance, you still should challenge it because let's say off 20% co-pay, of course you would rather pay 20% of a smaller bill than a big bill. >> that $140 for the single tylenol pill was really amazing that would make that bolt of 100 worth $14,000. why do hospitals think that they can get away with this? i guess maybe it is because they can. >> that is exactly why they do it, because they can. as we heard in the story, insurance companies are kind of too busy to challenge something like $140 tylenol pill. another thing to keep in mind is that hospitals know that they probably wouldn't get everything that they are charging. insurance companies say at the outset, i know you charge 140 for tylenol, we are not going to pay that you much. patients challenge them. they know they are not going to get what they ask for, they ask for something this high knowing they might get something this high. >> seems like a waste of time and administrative, you know, costs on top of it all. are there any, you know, caps on how much you can market something? >> in most of the country, no, maryland has some laws that would control how much the cost are for the rest of the country, they can pretty much charge what they want. >> if you run into these unreasonable hospital charges, talk about it on our blog, let us know the hospital. maybe track it down for you. great story this morning, elizabeth, thanks so much. >> great, thanks. coming up at 36 minutes past the hour, the secret war against al qaeda. we know it is going on in places like pakistan, yemen, somalia, but you might be surprised to hear that we are in at least a dozen countries around the world. going to break it all down coming up next. >> so, ah, your seat good? got the mirrors all adjusted? you can see everything ok? just stay off the freeways, all right? i don't want you going out on those yet. and leave your phone in your purse, i don't want you texting. >> daddy... ok! ok, here you go. be careful. >> thanks dad. >> and call me--but not while you're driving. we knew this day was coming. that's why we bought a subaru. three minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. officials say than an al qaeda cell leader who may have been training suicide bombers was one of two insurgents killed in an air strike in afghanistan over the weekend. according to the "new york times," the obama administration is engaged in a secret war against al qaeda in many countries. >> yeah, drones and commando teams are said to be tracking terrorists in about a dozen countries. nearly all of it in secret with potentially little or no oversight. paper tracked some of the clandestine and covert actions. national security correspondent for the "times" join us now. mark, great to see you. >> great to see you. >> great, great story as well. thank you. >> a badly kept secret we are doing this in pakistan. we know we are doing it in yemen and somalia as well, but plenty other place around the world we don't know about. how widespread is this and what are we doing? >> what we said in the story is polices like north africa, other parts of the middle east like lebanon, the u.s. has expanded intelligence gathering sort of tracking al qaeda, other militant groups that could ultimately pave the way for future strikes against al qaeda. the head of the white house counterterrorism team, john brennan, has talked about this as a scalpel approach, as we opposed to the hammer, which we saw in afghanistan and iraq. the region of algeria, morocco, defense secretary robert gates talked about sudan last week. so there is a whole region of the world that the u.s. is expanding operations in beyond what we know about in pakistan and yemen. >> you know, we talk about this being started under the bush administration, but definitely expanded under the obama administration. why is that largely? more targets, better drones, more of them? >> i think it is a combination, i think with the prone campaign in pakistan, they have become very comfortable with the technology, their intelligence seems to have improved in that they can -- they can track militant leaders. they have got human sources on the ground who are leading them to target he is and their -- the cia says has fewer civilian casualties involved in the strikes. i think it is ramping up the intensity. is he tame time, seeing increased threat level. we saw last year a number of attempted attacks on u.s. soil. i think that is something they are very concerned about, they are erring on the side of being aggressive. yemen, we saw on christmas day an attempted terrorist attack coming out of yemen that is something they can forecussing closely. >> by law, any covert activity carried on by the cia has to be approved by the president. congress has to be notified of it in a timely fashion but there's stuff going on in yemen that the pentagon is engaging in pretty far off the radar? >> hard to find out what is going on in yemen, not a covert action than pakistan, which is a covert action. the pentagon doesn't operate under covert authority. they have special access program, they are clandestine versus covert there is a legal distinction there. >> make the distinction between covert and clandestine. >> clandestine means ultimately the u.s. government has to at some point acknowledge their operations. covert activity, the united states can deny entirely. so right now the u.s. military is operating in yes, ma'am want approval of the yemeni government. this is not done entirely in secret. there has been a series of discrete strikes in yemen since december hitting suspected al qaeda leaders there. so, this has been a campaign that has really ramped up this year. >> it is interesting because the legality has been questioned. you had a -- one u.n. official came out in june saying the u.s. should stop the drone activity. when al qaeda is involved, we consider this self-defense, the u.s. said but far from a settled issue. going forward, how does that impact what the international community thinks or feels about what we are doing is legal? >> you are going to get a big debit among international lawyers about what exactly is legal outside declared war zones. right now, afghanistan and iraq are settled war zones, hundreds of thousands of troops. outside, the bush administration argues and the obama administration argues that the world is a battlefield because al qaeda is there so it will be a case-by-case basis in terms of country, try to get the support of that country to allow u.s. operations that's what happened in pakistan and what is happening in yemen. if there's countries where there really isn't a functioning government, like somalia, i think you will see the u.s. effectively act at will and try to bring in other allies to do so so they have a bigger coalition. >> how effective is this campaign? we have with seen some successes in pakistan, acknowledged by the pakistani government and other sources. in yemen, there was a recent strike, the yemeni government came out and said, hey we killed a couple of the top leaders in al qaeda, turned out, no, it wasn't a couple of the top leaders in al qaeda, it was five lower level al qaeda leaders. >> yemen it is a mixed picture now, i think administration officials will admit that it's still early in their campaign and not a question of do you have the technology to hit something from far away? the u.s. does. the question, do theft intelligence to figure out where militant leaders are at the time? and right now, relying on a fairly untrustworthy government in yemen and the u.s. doesn't have the ground operations like they do in pakistan. store, is going to take some time, the administration argues, to make this a success. >> at a time when we are fighting two costly wars, both in terms of human cost and also just the fact that it is very expensive, with no end in sight, at least in afghanistan right now. you would think that this is something they would want to ramp up that has a lot of support within the administration and within the defense department because it can be done, as you said, surgically as opposed to a hammer. >> that is -- the argument is certainly that it is a smaller scale, more surgical strike. you will see congress endorse these as well, because, again, congress has turned off to these long costly wars, experienced the past decade. whether they are effective or whether they are a better solution i think is still -- remains sob seen and i think the jury is still out act, least a couple countries where the u.s. is operating. >> mark, great to see you this morning. great for dropping by, great article as well. >> thanks. >> thanks, mark. 45 minutes past the hour. we will take a quick break. when we come back, we will check in with rob marciano, he will tell us where there are thunderstorms in the forecast and other places that could see a break in the triple-digit heat. we will be right back. od sugar may still be high, and you need extra help. ask your doctor about onglyza, a once daily medicine used with diet and exercise to control high blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. adding onglyza to your current oral medicine may help reduce after meal blood sugar spikes and may help reduce high morning blood sugar. 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[ male announcer ] the autobahn for all event. lease the jetta limited edition for $199 a month or get 0% apr. ♪ you are looking at a picture of a tornado that touched down in south central minnesota over the weekend. look at that thing, hayfield, minnesota, south of minneapolis, rated an ef 1. a little bit of damage no injuries to report, certainly dramatic video though as that tornado touched down late in the day on friday. good morning again, everybody, i'm rob marciano, cnn's severe weather center. the front is making its way east, bringing some relief to the central plains rough weather rolling across i-90, upstate new york. severe thunderstorm watch in effect for 1:00 this afternoon, may drop it more than that the cells rolling eastward 35, 40 miles an hour, could have gusty and damaging winds. all right. some rotation, a little bit of a circulation here, this is what is left over of tropical storm 5, a loopty loop, meandering in the gulf of mexico, national hurricane center watching that, possibly getting back to tropical status. airplane flying into that today. most of the hot air has been pushed south where it belongs but also across parts of the pacific northwest, heat advise are ries, excessive heat warnings in effect for seattle, set a record yesterday of 96, 97 in olympia, don't have the oppressive humidity. folks in this parts of the world, not everybody has air conditioning, enough to take the body by surprise, for sure. 79 in minneapolis, cooler than it was around this time last week. quick check on weather. "american morning" is coming right back." >> welcome back to the most news in the morning, eight minutes to the top of the hour now, time for your a.m. house call, stories about your health hospital. needs the food police when there is a food gps to help guide you through the fat and sugar? >> new nutritional ratings systems called new val, it ranks foods in a number scale to determine how healthy they are. poppy harlow talked to the man who created it, she is here with us now. even he is a little confused about this whole thing. >> you will see in the piece what we are talking about 64% of americans say they are making change time prove their diet. you see the major food manufacturers jumping on that you will see healthier labeling across the food aisle wherever you go the inventor of nuval, a yale scientist, says tough dig deeper than that. food companies inundate us with healthy-sounding slogans, reduced fat, whole grain, no sugar added that means healthier, right? not necessarily. >> the packages all have are claims. the claims are often misleading and deceptive. >> reporter: yale scientist dr. david katz created nuval, a nutrition rating system he claims cut through the food industry's marketing machine. the higher the number, the more nutritious the food, gps for the food supply. >> reporter: nuval ranks food from 1 to 100 using a complex algorithm weighing transfat against nutrients like fiber. >> almost he having in the produce aisle will be above everything, 90 and 100. reduced fat jif peanut butter gets a 7, the regular jif gets a 20. >> higher fat is actually better for you here, according to nuval. >> not because it is higher fat. the reduced fat version is considerably higher in sodium, also higher in sugar. this is what i ate growing up. 26, what this gets. no, wait, lock at this. this neopolitan ice cream stays is a 91. >> to me that is the flaw of the system. something such as the ice cream, all probably chemicals and all these additives i don't think really adds to the diet, people shouldn't be getting their nutrients through the ice cream. something like raisin bran, yes, the raisins may be sugar-coated but at least a good source of fiber. >> reporter: dr. katz says the value isn't to compare ice chrome to cereal but how similar products stack up against one another. >> okay. so let's find cheerios and fruit loops. >> reporter: none of the major companies we contacted would go on camera to discuss nuval. in a statement, pepsi told us, "consumers can make more informed choices through fact-based front of package labeling." general mills says "criteria for nuval are not available to the public, make anything informed discussion very difficult." >> why do you think there seems to be this push back from the food manufacturers? >> not everybody making and selling food really wants people to know the truth, the whole truth anding no but the truth. nuva almost tells that truth. >> junk food is big business for these big american food companies. right. >> if the nuval system is adopted all across the nation, will it be the end of salty, fatty snack food? >> i certainly hope it would be the end of junk food. >> that is billions in revenue for these companies? >> but could be billions in revenue boy making better versions of these same foods. >> i think the jury is certainly out on nuval, as you saw. ice cream rated higher than traditional breakfast cereal. they have graded 70,000 items in 750 grocery stores across the country. as you saw in the piece, none of the major food companies will talk us to. you got to wonder why, we pressed them to get them on camera. the snack food industry, which they all partake in it is a $26 billion industry. anything that could shake that up, likely they are not going to want to take part in. >> he says that nuval shows the truth, in the case of that ice cream. >> did it really? >> never convince me, ice cream no sugar no fat is good for you. >> that is what the opponent said in the piece. look, she said, there maybe sugar on the raisins, but they are raisins and there is finer in the flakes there. the reason that the ice cream rated highly, the doctor thought, was because it has calcium and no sugar, not a lot of sodium. so, this is an algorithm, a mathematical way to look at your food, not judgment-based per item. >> this could be a helpful guide, use common sense as well. >> you have to use common sense. >> everything in moderation. >> i still fully believe that haagen-dazs five is the most nutritious food in the world. >> me, too. eat up. >> we are going to take a quick break. we will be right back. here at the ford model year end sales event, joel's daughter has fallen in love, with ford focus. and really, who can blame her. focus is good looking and very smart. that sync technology is like a giant brain. and now ford focus is highest ranked in initial quality. very attractive. as for joel, he's not losing a daughter, he's gaining a focus. hurry in to the ford model year end sales event. and get a focus for 0% financing for 60 months. what're you waiting for? drive one. ♪ >> johnson thought he was one putt away from tying for the pga championship and getting that playoff and the official said, no you grounded your club be in that sand trap back there two-stroke penalties. what sand trap? >> should have asked. >> if you are in doubt, ever in doubt, ask. i guess he wasn't in doubt. hits ball was on a piece of sand. any time there is a piece of sand, maybe you should ask. >> we should have had played a song "you had a bad day" with. always the next one. we are going to take a -- we are going to say good-bye, take a long break, a 24-hour break. thanks so much for being with us toe though and continue the conversation on today's stories by headeding to our blog, cnn.co

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