Transcripts For CNN American Morning 20110414

those counts. on this "american morning." welcome to "american morning." it's thursday, april 14th. the whole gang's back together. >> good to be back with you guys again. boy, did we have a lot of news today. this budget stuff is -- what do you call stuff like this? >> boring but important. >> we'll make it interesting, not boring. >> being an air traffic controller the most tiresome job? >> maybe hey was reading about the budget. >> an air traffic controller asleep in the tower while on duty. the latest incident occurred at the reno tahoe international airport. officials say the controller was sleeping when a medical flight carrying a sick patient was trying to land. here's some of the pilot's conversation with the faa in northern california. >> yes, we're here. >> we weren't able to get through to the tower? >> no. >> we're going to call them on the phone line. >> all right. we'll circle some more. >> okay. >> we have a pretty sick patient. >> ray lahood says enough is enough. >> this is ridiculous. it's outrageous. it's the kind of behavior that we will not stand for at the department of transportation. the controller has been suspended. we're conducting an investigation. and i have said that immediately there will be two controllers in 27 control towers around the country that control planes between 12:00 midnight and the early morning hours. that kind of directive has been given out today and will take place immediately. >> according to the faa, this is the sixth incident already this year involving an air traffic controller sleeping on the job. the search for a suspected serial killer on long island is going high tech. fbi planes and helicopters will be flying above the beaches where at least eight separate sets of human remains have been found. they'll be used to shoot high resolution aerial photos. four of the victims have been identified as prostitutes who advertised on craigslist. >> from the four remains that were found and identified, the business that they were in, okay, indicated that whoever was targeting these individuals was doing it because of their business. and so that's why i said we don't have somebody running around suffolk county with blood dripping from a knife. >> police dogs are also searching the suburban new york beaches. dive teams are already in the water looking for human remains. in 25 minutes we'll talk about the unique challenges that police are facing in this case. it's been all over the place. people almost stumbling on these remains. we're joined by lou palumbo. he's a retired long island nassau county police officer. >> he was also a lifeguard at jones beach years ago. >> oh, really? >> he knows how easy it is, how desolate it is to hide in the area we're talking about. >> $4 trillion in cuts. president obama laying out his ambitious plan to slash the massive national deficit. the numbers are stag aring, but he says that we can't get lost in the numbers. here's a listen. >> this debate over budgets and deficits is about more than just number on a page. it's about more than just cutting and spending. it's about the kind of future that we want. >> all right. well, this reignited the debate over health care. cuts just as the 2012 campaign gets rolling again. ed henry is here in the flesh to talk about this. >> good to see you. >> big day yesterday in washington. >> i don't see you in the afternoons any more. now i know why. >> this must be big news. >> people are wondering why now. why again? >> the president has been criticized for basically not stepping into the fray. the republicans and paul ryan, they've had a plan on the table. so the president deserves some credit for at least stepping up here now. they saw some momentum to keep the government frommying about shut down, now is the time to step in. let's look at the four pillars of his plan. the question now is will he have the political guts to follow up on it. he talked about keeping domestic spending low. he's willing to cut sacred cows in his own administration. cuts in the defense budget, but then he said we're not sure exactly where we'll do it. we'll do a study and come back and decide that. will the pentagon shoot some of those spending cuts down? then he talked about medicare and medicaid savings but painted himself as a defender of senior citizens. and ripped into paul ryan's plan and said that will end medicare as we know it. that upset republicans the way the president phrased it. doesn't sound like he wants to cut medicare. finally talked about repealing the bush era tax cuts. but in december, the president actually had a chance to do that. he did not in the lame duck session of congress keep the bush tax rates as they are right now. right now a lot of talk. >> and some budget hawks and people who score these sorts of things, people who really study the budget, they now call them the bush/obama tax cuts because they feel they were betrayed by the president. >> he couldn't have gotten those through, right? he was facing such resistance in the house. >> absolutely. now it's going to be hard for him to raise taxes even on the rich when you look at the senate, the democrats lost seats. you've got a lot of conservative democrats like ben nelson of nebraska up for re-election in 2012. they don't want to raise taxes. it looks like he has less than the votes to cut that and create a filibuster. republicans and conservative democrats might have to raise some taxes. liberals screaming about tax cuts, they'll have to step up. this is a unique opportunity for the commander in chief to say, look, folks -- >> just as he has come around despite the own debt commission and the shutdown, the president has come around. what's starting to happen is people who absolutely objected to ending those bush era tax cuts on people earning more than $250,000 are also going to have to come around. the reality is you can't have both ways. taxes are likely to go up. >> and the president has now deputized vice president biden to go out there early in may. the president has set a deadline by the end of june to get a deal. that sounds really ambitious. they're far apart right now. but they'll need some sort of pressure. just like last friday the pressure of a government shutdown finally forced everybody to come to a deal. >> like cramming for a final. >> good to see you. you'll be around all morning. you've got a great story on jackie robinson coming along in the 8:00 eastern hour. it's not what we were told but the pentagon is now acknowledging that u.s. war planes are still bombing libya. a military spokesman tells cnn that the u.s. has now flown 97 missions since the nato handover. most for support, refueling and signal jamming, but on at least three occasions, u.s. jets have fired on targets. that revelation comes as a brand new poll shows that most of the country want the u.s. to take a backseat in the mission. just 14% want the u.s. to lead in libya. 82% say they'd rather from the u.s. in a supporting role. it's a story that we've been following closely here on "american morning." the family of a massachusetts college student shot and killed outside a bar in new york last fall is outraged this morning after the officer involved in the shooting was named officer of the year in his town. aaron hess is currently being investigated by the justice department for fatally shooting this man, d.j. henry. he's a 20-year-old deejay. they confirmed that they voted unanimously to give the award to hess. it did not mean to offend the henry family. the henry family plans to file suit next week. convicted but only on one count of obstructing justice. a san francisco jury could not reach a verdict against barry bonds on three perjury charges related to allegations of steroid use. the judge declared a mistrial on those counts. jurors said that bonds was evasive when he testified before a federal grand jury about his steroid use, but it was not proven that he lied about it. a sentencing date on the obstruction conviction will be set for next month. the nba fining kobe bryant $100,000 for using a gay slur during a game tuesday night. he was caught on camera yelling at a ref after he was called for a technical foul. bryant released a statement saying that he said it out of frustration and he didn't mean to offend anyone with it. in west texas, 700 miles have gone up in flames. dozens of homes and structures have been damaged or destroyed. right now there are more than 900 firefighters from 33 different states battling the fires. >> reynolds wolf is in the extreme weather center for us today covering that and other weather going on around the country. good morning. >> i wish i could say it was a great morning for part of west texas where nearly over half a million acre have gone up in smoke. in today's forecast, not too favorable for the firefighters. let's go right to it. wind gusts topping 20, 30 miles an hour. very low humidity. whatever fires you have out there, and there are plenty, they can spread very easily. that's one big story we're following. the second big one, take a look at this big bull's-eye we have in the central plains and over into arkansas. a sliver of missouri, texas, oklahoma and kansas. a moderate risk of severe storms as we make our way into the afternoon hours. as we have the daytime heating, that moisture streaming up from the gulf of mexico and the daytime heating, we could have strong thunderstorms, possibly tornadoes for the afternoon, evening and maybe into tomorrow. your complete forecast coming up in a few moments. again, it is rain on one side and fires on the other. busy day, no question. >> too bad we couldn't combine them. reynolds, thanks very much. we'll stay tuned with you all morning. joe biden getting in trouble sometimes. >> yeah. >> it often seems that when there's a public event, something goes wrong. well, this time it was not something he actually said, it was for him being a little too quiet. vice president joe biden seems to have been caught nodding off while the president was detailing his plan for the dev it is. look at the lady behind him. >> somebody behind him is really asleep. >> biden heard this speech like ten times. >> maybe they was concentrating. >> maybe. when you concentrate like that, does your head slowly nod forward. >> you see ed says that the vice president's been charged with getting this deal done, getting the negotiations done. he's really internalizing it right now, i think. >> some truth could be said that they have been working a lot. so maybe he's tired. i mean, and this is right after lunch, maybe not the best time to schedule a big wonky speech on budget cuts. >> there he is. he's back with us. >> to make it worse, the president announced that the vice president had a new job during that speech, as we just heard from ed henry, that biden would begin meeting with lawmakers to try to work out a bipartisan deficit reduction plan. >> he's trying to be zen about the whole thing. joe biden's got a job cut out for him because the lines have been clearly, clearly drawn in washington, as if they weren't already. president obama is now joining the fight to save this country trillion of dollars. >> to at least spend trillions less. >> that's actually a good way to say it. save or, what was he talking about jobs? >> create or save. >> create or save. a gop plan from congressman paul ryan is already out there. both of those plans include huge spending cuts and changes to medicare. but the differences show just how far apart these two sides really are. we're going to lay them out for you specifically. a number of you have asked us to do that. we'll do it after this break. also reporter at the gates. steve herman is one of the first journalists to gain access to the grounds of the crippled fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. he'll join us to tell us what he saw there. general electric the victim of an elaborate prank that fooled some of the biggest news organizations. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ introducing purina one beyond a new food for your cat or dog. sweet & salty nut bars... they're made from whole roasted nuts and dipped in creamy peanut butter, making your craving for a sweet & salty bar irresistible, by nature valley. well, the president laid out his plan for reducing the deficit yesterday. he took a few shots at the republicans' plan as well. we want to show you how those two plans stack up against each other and against a third plan, which is the president's debt commission from late last year. remember, the shared end goal here is to eventually slow the growth of the national debt. not even reduce it. we're not talking about reduction yet. the way you do that is to reduce the annual deficits, the shortfalls between what the government takes in and what it spends. one way to reduce the shortfall is to cut down on mandatory nondiscretionary spending. the president will do that to the tune of $2.2 trillion. the republican plan put forth by representative paul ryan plans to cut 2.7 trillion over ten years. the president's plan cuts 1.1 trillion over 12 years. one of the major criticisms is that no party has been prepared to make some of the cuts necessary on things that we spend on. the biggest thing we spend on like medicare and medicaid. so let me show you how that looks. on medicare and medicaid, republicans go a lot further than the president. they're planning to cut $389 billion from medicare, $735 billion from medicaid. the president looking to cut $200 billion in medicare, $100 billion in medicaid. the debt commission called for more. $400 billion from medicare, $58 billion from medicaid. the other way to overcome deficits is by increasing revenue or taxes. let me show you what the plans call for on that front. a core to fiscal conservative beliefs is if you cut taxes, you spend more. the republican plan cuts taxes by $800 billion and keeping those bush era tax cuts for people making $250,000 or more. the president's plan would increase revenues by a trillion dollars by eliminating many deductions. this is an $800 million cut. this is an increase in revenues by increasing increase taxes on those making $250,000 or more. those bush era tax cuts. then there are corporate tax cuts. i want to show you these and how these three plans stack up. again, a lot of republicans, let me get that out of the way. it will be very small. a lot of republicans want to cut corporate taxes. they currently stand at 35%. as you know, some companies are crafty enough and the current loose tax laws allow them to do this, that they don't pay taxes. basically 35%. you can see in here, the president wants to increase them to about 39%. the republicans want to decrease that to 25%. and the president's debt commission splits the difference suggesting a 28% corporate tax return. i promise you if we do this one again, i'll make sure that that graphic actually work on that one. then finally let's look at debt reduction over here. all three plans claim that they will reduce the deficit t by about $4 trillion. they disagree on how to get there. for the record, none of these plans would reduce the nation's staggering national debt because of the interest on the debt that we've already accumulated. the debt would actually continue to increase just at a slower rate. kiran? >> ali, it's complicated for a reason. it's a huge economy and a huge amount of spending and a huge complicated system. and there's so many ways for politics to make people see things. it will be really interesting. we're switching gears right now and talking about the latest from japan, where correspondents usually are the first, of course, to race to a disaster site or combat zone. but when japan was hit by the .0 magnitude quake and tsunami and part of that power plant were destroyed, very few reporters were able to reach the facility obviously. the level of danger from the fukushima plant is now on par, experts say, with the chernobyl disaster. just this week, government officials called for evacuations even beyond what they'd already called for, an exclusion zone that's shown by the map in red. >> voice of america correspondent steve herman went where few others have dared to go or actually been allowed to go. he was one of the first western journal is to get a up close look at the fukushima daiichi. >> you got in the car and made it as far as the front gate really. what drove you to go there and what happened? >> reporter: well, that's where the story is, so that's why we wanted to go there. and we didn't know if we'd be able to make it. we were able to talk to the police and get permission to go through the road blocks. it's not legally enforceable right now to stop anybody from going. that's about to change any day, according to the japanese government. so we thought this is perhaps the last chance to actually put our eyes on the fukushima number one nuclear power plant. we did make it all the way to the front gate where we were greeted, maybe greeted is the wrong word, by a couple of security guards that were in full haz-mat outfits with yellow helmets and dual intake respirators who did not want to engage us in conversation. they made it very clear we were not proceeded to go any further and gave us the international signal for make a u-turn. we drove around, took some photographs. the docimeter we were wearing was clicking away. at a point when it got to about 15 microsieverts, which i think is still a small amount of radiation, john gliona from "the los angeles times" myself and our driver thought that was snuff for one day. because we'd also been in the exclusion zone the previous day. >> people are really interested, what is it like there? it is a no man's land or are there a ton of people working? does it look like a construction site? let us know what it seems is going on there. >> well, we were not able to actually see inside the reactor buildings or on the grounds where the spent fuel rods are. we weren't permitted to get that close, and from the outside we couldn't tell how many people were in there. we know some people are being bused in and out every day. there are a couple of police cars, policemen in full haz-mat outfits patrolling the town and a couple of other cars presumably carrying people who work at the plant. in these two communities there were no other cars on the road. it was like something out of a science fiction movie, "the day after" where all the people have been vaporized, nobody was around. people had left quickly due to the earthquake and tsunami. >> let me ask you this. one of the things you'd set out to do, was the stories on the towns around here, what do you see in the towns? are people there? have they entirely evacuated? what does it look like? >> we met the previous day before going to the gate of the plant in a town called naimi. there were a few cars going into the town. people had gotten around the road blocks or talked their way through the roadblocks, pleading that they wanted to get back home just for a few minutes to grab valuable documents or items that they wanted for their lives which presumably may have to continue outside of their communities. and those people, some of them didn't want to talk to us. they didn't want to stoop. they acted like they were fugitives, a few of them. and they just wanted to get in and out of there as quickly as possible but thought it was worth the risk after a month to try to get back home at least for a few minutes. >> you also point to the irony of a sign that you saw, a fukushima sign. tell us about that. >> yes. there was a sign that, obviously, was put up before march 12th. it was from the fukushima nuclear power plant safety committee. and it had this month's safety slogan, which is to prepare for any eventuality, do all of your risk assessments because we want to have a zero accident year. >> and there's the sign, of course, in japanese. quite ironic after what happened at fukushima that they're still dealing with. >> stooeve herman, voice of america, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> the government has an evacuation zone, it could be dangerous. while they're trying to solve this problem at the site, the last thing that they need or want are reporter who are not covered with gear, who have to be monitored and decontaminated and residents coming back, too. >> you can understand how somebody just wants to get in there and get maybe a couple of documents. these people have to start over. >> that's right. we'll have a lot more for you. 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[ female announcer ] thinking mexican tonight? hamburger helper has five festive flavors like crunchy taco. hamburger helper. one pound. one pan. one happy family. 28 minutes past the hour right now. time for a check of your top stories this morning. effective immediately the faa is putting two air traffic controllers in 27 control towers across the country that previously had just one on the overnight shift. why? well, this comes after another controller fell asleep on the job. this time it happened in reno, nevada. an air ambulance carrying a sick patient got no response from the tower, was forced to circle for several minutes before making the decision, because of the condition of the patient, to land on its own. president obama unveiling a plan to cut $4 trillion from the deficit. it includes changes to medicare and erasing the bush era tax cuts for the highest bracket. that's something republicans are still insisting is off the table. still a long way to go to come up with some agreement. barry bonds guilty of obstructing justice. the jury could not reach a verdict on three perjury charges against baseball's home run king. the judge actually declared a mistrial on those counts. a sentencing date on the obstruction will be set for next month. a number of cities including washington, d.c., say those popular online travel websites owe them millions of dollars in back taxes. ongoing discussion about online websites. stephanie elam here minding your business and telling us what this new fight is bncht when it goes to the whole tax thing. when you look at your bill -- >> how many taxes am i paying? >> somebody took a look and said that somebody was not getting enough moeb to the cities a mnd municipalities. sites like travelocity, orbitz, expedia, you book it online. they take their cut, which is 15 bucks. these municipalities are claiming that these online sites are only paying their taxes to the cities based on the 85 bucks not on the 100. they're saying, this is costing us millions in back taxes that you owe us. we're talking about 200 suits around the country that the cities are trying to get this money. the other thing is is that some of these suits claim that the travel sites are keeping this money and calling it a service fee and not really, you know, just pocketing the money, basically. but the travel sites say that that is not the case. in fact, they've actually said that any of these moves would be counterproductive and self-defeating. the interactive travel services association is representing them. >> i have a question. if they were paying the taxes on the $85 as opposed to the $100. that's one question, is that fair. but the question is on whether they're charging you the tax and pocketing the difference, that's the egregious part. >> you have all these different cities and municipal pal tis have different rules. and the other problem, and everyone agrees about this, all these rules about hotel tax fees were put in well before the internet and they haven't been updated. this is something they need to look at. but obviously they're trying to fight this. d.c. says this has cost them as much as $10 million a year. >> i don't think it's cost them anything. >> cost them in tax revenue, that's what i'm saying, yeah. that's the way they see it. >> what an interesting story. >> it is. >> everybody needs every penny these days. suddenly they're finding dr. >> five years ago nobody cared. >> look, people are just now starting to go back and see these cities again, we don't want to lose the tax revenue. a senate panel investigating the worst recession since the great depression. blasting goldman sachs for misleading investors and the government. the 600-page report singles out goldman and deutsche bank for selling billions of dollars this high-risk mortgage-related investments while at the same time betting they would fail. goldman says it disagrees with many of the report's conclusions. last year goldman paid $500 million to settle a charge of securities fraud with the s.e.c. it had all the makings of a front page story. general electric saying it would donate its entire 2010 tax refund, $3.2 billion back to the treasury to help create jobs and for the good of the country. only problem, the story was a fake. activists and pranksters called the yes men along with another group called u.s. uncut say they put out the fake press release. it looked really good, you guys. it looked exactly like a ge press release. they put it out to show that corporate can do the right thing. ge reported that it paid month federal taxes in 2010. as we reported here many times ge's tax department is the most admired in the world for its ability to keep its taxes low or zero. >> i'm sure they're all tackling these corporate tax loopholes. that's part of the plan. >> definitely some part of the plan, that's something they can do. there are a lot of loopholes out there. >> low are the tax rate for everyone. then the president said in his speech yesterday, that your taxes are based on not what kind of attorney you can hire but what your fair share is. >> i'm also curious as to how goldman sachs denies that they did that. they did testify that they were betting on both sides of the deal. the ceo testified that he doesn't think that's necessarily wrong, but there wasn't really an issue as to the facts of the case. so interesting story. coming up next, big story we've been following here. searching for a serial killer in suburban new york. we'll be joined by a former cop who says long island's beaches are a tough crime scene to crack. ♪ there's another way to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder to help neutralize odors in multiple-cat homes. and our improved formula also helps eliminate dust. so it's easier than ever to keep your house smelling just the way you want it. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home. but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena® healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics. all right. local, state and federal investigators are stepping up their search for a suspected serial killer on long island, new york. this is a story that's just got everybody shaking. starting tomorrow the fbi will begin using helicopters and airplanes equipped with special cameras to take high resolution pictures of the shoreline where eight sets of human remains have been found since december. earlier this week, two sets of remains including a human skull were discovered nearby. joining us now is retired nassau county police officer lou palumbo. thanks for being with us. for people not from the area, give us a sense of what's difficult and complicated about this? it seems like it's a shoreline and a beach. why shouldn't police be able to comb it once and see if there's more remains? >> a, it's not heavily traveled, quite frankly, because there's not much out there. it's quite raw. the elements are extreme. you know, no one needs to have the ocean explained to them and the tides. >> the drifts and the dunes. >> magnificent landscape, rolling sand dunes, beach grass. everything imaginable, shrubbery. it does not lend itself to an exploration. >> the perfect place, you say, to dump a body. >> they've been dumping them there for decades. this is not new. >> this case seems like we just got such a slow start. one remains found, then more remains found. this mying woman shannon gilbert that got the most attention. she still has not been found. but now today they're talking about getting high res photos from planes. why didn't this happen earlier on in this investigation? >> because with the fbi -- and i've had some very positive interaction with them. and i've done the security for the golden globe awards for 14 years. and post 9/11, for example, i actually went in and met with a special agent charged with criminal aspect of the fbi in l.a. you have to ask them for help, they won't just insert themselves into your lives unless there are dynamics attached to a case like jurisdiction that goes outside state to state. >> unless the fbi wants to be involved, you have to ask them. >> it wasn't clear that there was a connection between these bodies. >> the young lady that we initially went looking for has not been found but the by-product of that, by use of cad caver dogs, for example, we found remain of four prostitutes, then subsequent to that, another six people along this same strip of ocean or roadway. it's called oe eed ocean parkwa. it's very desolate, especially in the wintertime. >> let's talk about the evidentiary trail. we've had other gusts that suggest in law enforcement that said that some of these folks have been here a period of years, perhaps. >> some of the bodies. >> we just don't know. what does it mean in terms of gathering evidence and finding a link between these things? it will be difficult, isn't it? >> extremely difficult. primary because there are no real forensics left here. to debe candid with you, your hairbrush has dna. and i could have left a hair brush on these bodies and the dna would be gone. >> because of the elements. >> if you're an investigator, that's where you begin. >> under the circumstances, the first thing i'd want to do unequivocally is identify who these poor victims were. b, identify their means of death. we're trying to find common denominators through all of the victims to try to determine if in fact that's a serial killer. we're throwing that term around. there are some indicate ares that could be the case, but not conclusive. then you want to determine -- >> speaking of the cause of death, all of the reading i've been doing, they're saying how difficult it is to find out why because of the, as you said, the lack of forensic evidence. one of the victim's families said on the death certificate of their daughter it says strangulation. now, are they just surmising that? it says asphyxiation. how would they know she was strangled? >> they found a belt or something around the lady's neck. that's how that came about. but the other dynamic that they can't identify is through exertion. for example, if there are channels in the body, thoracic cavity, multiple stab wounds, they're able to determine the person was stabbed. blunt trauma to the cranium, the skull, they can determine, gunshot wounds. they can determine how the people -- >> one of these bodies was dismembered. >> after the body decomposes to the level that these bodies -- >> it dismembers itself. >> exactly correct. there's nothing to hold it together, no fibers. >> as a former police officer, you're not going to want to hear this, but did the police do less or more because these missing women were prostitutes? >> you're asking me to speculate now. >> yeah. >> son of a gun, i'm going to answer you truthfully. i think that in general our culture sometimes looks upon these women as being less than human with less rights. my attitude in life is don't be judgmental. you don't know the path these poor girls have walked down that may have led them into this profession. abandonment issues with families, disenfranchising. you don't know. that's why i'm very reluctant when you look at people today to make assessments. >> that's why they're the easy target of a serial killer. think how long some of these people were missing before someone even reported them gone. that's the heartbreaking part. >> some haven't been reported. that's part of being disenfranchised with your family. if you've raised four children and one turns out to be a prostitute for whatever reason, we're not going to really deal with her too much. >> not keep in touch, yeah. >> we're not sure geographically where all these people are from. we're assuming they're from long island and assuming they're murdered at the beach. >> or dumped at the beach. >> murdered somewhere else and discarded at the beach. >> and you're not a criminal profiler, but what is the mind of a person who does something like this? is he taunting the law enforcement right now? we know there was a call to the younger sister of one of these victims. >> i believe -- and again this isn't my area of expertise, but i think there's a cleansing process going on here. this is not first instance we've had in our country where prosecutes have been the victim of homicides with people who have solicited their services. it's an interesting mentality. we have behavioral scientists that can speak for this more intelligently than i can. but i would just say to you part of the process is probably we're going to rid the culture of a less than desirable element. i wouldn't be surprised if that's a big part of it. i don't think this is an issue of taunting. and not to give all the cards, but there's a lot of ways they can follow up with this investigation once they identify the individual, determine the cause of death and the duration in which that body was discarded there. you know, you can find that these bodies have been there ten year once they start to do the examination, the bone structure. >> lou palumbo. you're sneezing. i'm allergic to you. doubtful, you love me. hey, you can't take allegra with fruit juice. what? yeah, it's on the label. really? here, there's nothing about juice on the zyrtec® label. what? labels are meant to be read. i'd be lost without you. i knew you weren't allergic to me. [ sneezes ] you know, you can't take allegra with orange juice. both: really? fyi. [ male announcer ] get zyrtec®'s proven allergy relief and love the air®. a lot going on this morning. here's what you need to know to start your day. the faa ordering 27 airports across the country to add a second air traffic controller on overnights. it comes after a sleeping controller forced a medical flight to land on its own in reno, nevada. that's the sixth report this year of controllers sleeping on the job. the u.s. still bombing libya. the pentagon admits that u.s. war planes have been involved in strikes since nato took over the mission there. defense secretary gates told congress that wouldn't happen. baseball slugger barry bonds has been found guilty of obstructing justice but a jury could not reach a verdict on three perjury charges. so the judge declared a mistrial on those counts. the nba fining kobe bryant for using a gay slur. vice president biden apparently nodding off during the president's speech on spending cuts. he named biden the point man. 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[ female announcer ] sometimes you need tomorrow to finish what you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there's motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. motrin pm. just follow the trail of powdered sugar, belly and bavarian cream. a good story. a man outside pittsburgh was caught op surveillance video stealing a late night doughnut delivery from outside of the store. >> i'm surprised this hasn't happened more frequently. this might have made me a crimin criminal. he's 21 years old, lives next door and is a regular customer. they say he tried to eat the evidence. six of the doughnuts were gone. >> this brought to you by dunkin' donuts. >> in new york you pass by and there's a newspaper and there's a situation where you're supposed to leave money. >> yes. >> airports have it. i would think if you take a doughnut and it's not yours leave some money. >> a quarter. >> they're not a quarter any more. >> close to a buck in most places. >> it doesn't pay to get out of bed. he's the golfer who shot an 80 in the final round of the masters sunday blowing a four-shot lead going into that final roud. after his loss -- it's mcilroy, right. he had to share a plane with the man who beat him, charl schwartzel. they flew all the way to malaysia with sh wartle wearing the green jacket the entire time. and they also lost mcilroy's luggage and his golf clubs. >> they lost his four-shot load and had to sit next to the guy wearing the jacket. >> that's apparently really bad in golf. >> ouch. >> top stories coming your way. 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>> a lot of toddler asking their moms if they can go to chain restaurants now. a wake-up call for the faa. officials ordering an immediate end to the practice of having just one air traffic controller on duty during the overnight. they're adding a second controller at 27 towers across the country. that's in response to the latest incident t of an air traffic controller falling asleep on the job. it happened in reno, nevada. jeanne meserve is live in washington. what happened in reno? >> reporter: well, this happened early yesterday. the flight was coming in to reno from mammoth lakes, california, with a critically ill passenger. the pilot tried to reach the tower not once but seven times. the controller slept through it all. here's part of the pilot's conversation with a regional controller. >> yes. we're here. >> you weren't able to get through to the tower? >> no. >> we're going to call them on the phone line. >> all right. we'll circle some more. >> okay. >> got a pretty sick patient. we may just have to land whether we have clearance or not. >> and they did. and the official said the delay did not hurt the patient. the secretary of transportation calls the episode inexcusable, but he might wish he had used different word. >> i guarantee the flying public we will not sleep until we can guarantee that there's good safety in the control towers when these planes are coming in and out of airports. >> and the federal aviation administration immediately made changes putting two controllers in 27 towers that been had staffed with only one on overnight shifts. but congressman john mica w federal government would you double up on workers averaging $161,000 in salary and benefits that are not doing their job. >> you can see the point. i mean, they should be doing their job. you know? if you need to put 161s thes this baby-sitter in with them, that's a problem. >> more people work the night shift. the understanding is you is to stay awake to do your job. >> in reagan national, knoxville and reno, can we assume there are others? >> yeah, we can. the faa disclosed that there were two additional controller screw-ups in recent weekses. a controller in seattle fell asleep during his morning shift on april 11 and two in lubbock, texas are in suspension for failing to hand off the control of a departing aircraft and being late taking control of an inbound aircraft. so the number of these incidents keeps going up. >> jeanne meserve. >> this could have gotten bad. you heard the patient say the patient is pretty sick. and they had already circled for 60 minutes. >> if you're talking about a heart attack or stroke, where eversecond counts. >> there are also fuel issues on plane. sometimes planes don't plan to circle for a long time if they can't get down. north korea has identified an american they have in custody. american citizen jun yungsoo was arrested for committing a crime against the nation. they go on to say he'll be indicted. they're not saying what this alleged crime is. they say he's a korean american businessman. they're working with the swedish embassy in pyongyang since there are no diplomatic ties between the countries. $4 trillion in cuts. president obama laying out his most ambitious plan yet to slash the national deficit including something once considered untouchable, medicare. also he want to erase the bush tax cuts for the heist tax brackets. >> the past decade, the average income of the bottom 90% of all working meshes actually declined. meanwhile, the top 1% saw their income rise by an average of more than a quarter of a million dollars each. that's who need to pay less taxes? >> as you can imagine, that has the gop fired up this morning. 54% of americans think the taxes they pay are fair or somewhat fair. most don't want them going up. just 29% say raising taxes -- say to raise taxes to fix the deficit. 62% say cut government programs instead. this is, of course, the battle of the ages. ed henry live as in person with us right now. senior white house correspondent. >> it is the battle of the ages. we're writing history right now. how the u.s. and its role in the world turns out depends on how well they can do this. >> the president has been criticized for being on the sidelines for this. yesterday he stepped up. but will he have the guts to bring both side to an agreement and make some of these tough choice. he said we're going to keep domestic spending low, although in the next breath he talked about spending new money on program like education, high speed internet, he talked about cuts in the defense budget but then said look, we'll have to have a review at the pentagon to see how much we can cut. immediately robert gates said can't cut too much or weem have problems there. you saw another issue popping up right away. but then medicare and medicaid savings, but immediately the president was casting himself as protector of senior citizens. saying that paul ryan wants to invent medicare as we know it. and finally he said let's repeal the bush era tax cuts, although reality check here, the president had a chance to do that in december when they had the big tax deal and he declined to do it. he did not politically have the votes in the senate to stop the bush era tax cuts from continuing. those tax rates. paul ryan, the republican who laid out his plan a couple weeks back, was pretty fired saying he thought this speech was a lot more partisan than expected. >> what we heard today was not fiscal leadership from our commander in chief. what we heard today was a political broadside from our campaigner in chief. i guess it's no coincidence that last week when the president launched his billion dollar re-election campaign was the week we launched our effort to try to get this debt and deficit under control and get our economy growing. >> now, when you talk to white house aides, they laugh off the idea that the president had a partisan blast here. they say he's been attacked for weeks and weeks for not getting in the game. he gets in the game, people beat him up. bottom line his approach was put a choice out there. the republican have their plan on the table. they've been demanding the white house to do it. they think this is a more balanced approach than the republicans'. >> he also said this is a democracy. i don't expect that what i'm putting out here is what it will end up -- >> there's a lot of heavy lifting to do. he tasked joe biden to go meet with the republican leader. you got the right saying any sort of tax increase is dead on arrival. got news for you, you got to do a little of both or you'll never solve the problem. he's giving the vice president to end of june to get a deal. that's pretty ambitious. >> we keep saying $4 trillion in cuts but for every $3 in cuts he wants $1 in tax increases. getting new revenue -- >> which economic speaking is probably the formula that we're going to have to go with. >> that's why they say balanced. they say the republicans just want to cut spending. that's the ideological battle here. one side wants tax increases included and the republicans want to cut spending. >> you don't have enough money to put a dent in the deficit if you only do one or the other. >> the national debt, no matter what, just keeps going up. we're talking about cutting deficits. but we're still adds to the debt all the way. >> one final question, if we can have ed on camera three for a second. were you in my closet this morning? >> i wore this, i had to run into -- >> the pocket square with circle on it, a striped suit and a differently striped tie. >> easter egg. is that a shot or is that a positive thing? >> that's good this time of year. >> i want you to stick around for this one as well. you just mentioned the vice president getting tasked with this new trying to bring all sides together on this. i don't know if he know that this morning. it appeared that he was sleeping when all this was announced. this is vice president biden seeming to be nodding off, actually, while president obama was outlining his plan for dealing with the deficit. to make it worse, this is when the president made that announcement that he's going to have a new job, that biden would be meeting with the lawmakers. >> he's doing better than the woman behind him. >> then the woman to his left behind him, right behind tim geithner. >> tim geithner looks ernest, i thought about this in ali's closet this morning picking out a suit. a big presidential event like this, over the health care signing and the vice president said it's a big bleeping deal. i think the vice president made a statement yesterday. he doesn't think that's as much of a big deal. >> or else he can get in less trouble. >> if he's sleeping? if the vice president thing doesn't work out, the faa is always looking for people. >> oh! >> ouch! >> vice president biden is not first one. there's a history to people nodding off. a couple years ago, president's chief economic adviser larry summer. remember this? he fell asleep during a very high profile meeting. >> maybe they're concentrating. >> crunching the numbers. >> there's so much going on in his brain, he has to shut down. >> that might be yoga, he might be meditating. larry summers doing hot yoga. >> that image in the morning? i'm sorry. >> this conversation needs wrapped up. another political story. a lenscrafters this morning telling congresswoman michele bachmann, back off. she used the one stop shop for health care in a speech against planned parenthood. it's not the first time she's made this particular comparison. >> the executive director of planned parenthood in illinois said they want to become the lenskraefrt of big abortion in illinois. this organization has now become a big box retailer. big abortion, in other words. the executive director in illinois for planned parenthood said, we want planned parenthood to be the lenscrafters of big abortion. >> well, now the problem is this. bachmann's actually misquoting the ceo of planned parenthood in illinois. who once said i like to think of it as the lenscrafters of family planning. michele bachmann substituted big abortion instead of family planning. >> a big difference. >> lenscrafters is saying just leave us out of it, please. they say she's using their name without their knowledge or permission. there's a difference between big abortion and family planning. >> yeah, sure. >> but you can use lenscrafters' name all she want. misquoting the person from illinois is perhaps more troublesome. but politicians use trademark names all the time. >> right. >> they just feel it's misrepresenting them. a lake florida mom says her son was mistakenly served a glass of sangria. >> the restaurant chain has apologized for the incident blaming an employee which failed to follow proper procedures which included not serving kids sangria. >> he looks happy. >> he was having a good time. the mother noticed that the toddler was acting strangely after finishing most of the drink. the child was taken to a hospital, checked out and everything was okay. the nba's fining kobe bryant $100,000 for using a gay slur during a game last night. caught on camera yelling it at a ref also with an exmettive after he was called for a technical foul. provide yant released a statement saying he said it out of frustration and didn't mean to offend anybody. a jury has convicted barry bond of one count of obstructing justice, but they did not reach a verdict on three perjury charges against baseball's home run king. so the judge declared a mistrial on those counts. a sentencing date on the obstruction conviction is set for next month. we've got more baseball stuff dom coming up with ed henry in the 8:00 hour. the fantastic story that led jackie robinson to play in baseball. the latest on a search for a serial killer in suburban new york. >> a scathing report puts the height hot spotlight on goldman sachs. also, what you had to say about the j. crew ad with the little boy wearing pink toenail polish. 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[ all ] ♪ hey, hey, hey ♪ good-bye you want that? you want a warm, super-delicious strawberry toaster strudel yeah but now i have nothing to eat sure you do. hey! you can have the pop tart! pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids wanto eat welcome back to "american morning." time to talk taxes. we're not talking about filing returns, we're talking about tax increases. if the president has his way, families making more than $250,000 they'll see a return to higher taxes. that's shaping up to be the main battle in the budget war. gene specialing urling is at th house this morning. >> good morning. >> been a big couple of days. the president unveiling what he wants to do to get the nation on a more sustainable path. it's clearly going to be a fight about taxes, too. the republicans saying it's a nonstarter to raise taxes on the rich. are you ready for this fight? and will he compromise? >> we don't want to have a fight. we want to put forward a comprehensive $4 trillion deficit reduction plan that is balanced. the plan that the president put forward asked for $3 of spending cuts including cutting our interest payments for every dollar of revenues that would be raised through bipartisan tax reform. you have to have a sense of balance and shared sacrifice when you're doing deficit reduction. if not, it's just too difficult to ask all sort of americans to tighten their belt. then at the same time say, we're getting savings from you, we're not really ewing these savings to lower the deficit. we're using those savings to help us borrow more to get the most fortunate among us a larger tax cut. that's just not something the president things is fair or right or the type of shared sacrifice that we've ever seen when you've had a bipartisan deficit reduction plan. >> you talk about tax reform. part of that is raising -- is getting rid of those bush era tax cuts, as people like to call them. although some budget folks call them bush/obama tax cuts because the president has already extended them once. maybe going to a similar tax code. do middle class americans pay higher taxes? >> no, the president has cut taxes for people under $250,000 and in fact, today, americans are benefiting from the fact that the american proposed, passed and signed a payroll tax cut that is lowering taxes by about $1,000 for the typical family today this year, which has been a big help for helping people deal with higher gas costs and really helping this recovery. so the president's plan and what he's done has been cutting taxes for people under 250,000. but he just does not believe we can afford to extend the tax cuts for people who are making a million dollars and more on average. >> are there small businesseses in that group? because what you hear from the right and people who are opposed to higher taxes is that small businesses are going to get nailed. >> just not true. in fact, the president's cut taxes 17 times for small businesses. in fact, in december, not only did he do a payroll tax cut, but he put forward for the first time a plan that allowed 100% expensing for any small business or large business that's going to invest in the unite today. that's affecting 4 million or 5 million small businesses. that's very helpful. what we're talking about is asking those who are doing the best, who have had the highest income gains to just be part of an overall comprehensive deficit reduction plan, to just do their share, their part in a program of shared sacrifice that in purpose of shared prosperity that would benefit everyone if we increase confidence that we can live within our means and encourage investment on our shores. >> live within our means is the tough part here. because when you look at the ryan plan, you look at the current trajectory, you look at the president's plan, we still have a $13 trillion national debt that gets bigger and bigger. when you cut deficit, almost like a double negative. we're bending the curve on how fast we're growing our national debt, but we still have an awful lot of work to do. meanwhile, a fight about the debt ceiling. what is the president prepared to give up to make sure that everyone goes along and raises the debt ceiling? >> you know, i think every leader in congress has been responsible in making clear that, of course, we're going to extend the -- in other words, of course, america is going to meet its obligations. america won't put itself on a path to default. i don't think any congressional leader certainly the president would even think about that. but the president also believes we need to show that we can get our house in order. and what we'd like to do is just make clear at a minimum, that we are bringing our debt down as a percentage of our economy. that's very important to give confidence not just to the public but to markets, to investor that america is still a solid, secure place to invest in, to create jobs in, to be part of an economic expansion. >> getting our debt down as a share of our economy is certainly something that has to happen for our investors, our international investors, our partners realizing the future of the country. how to do that is the problem. gene sperling. just ahead, we'll tell you which companies promising to make your home internet almost 60 times faster. >> wow. all right. one golden child of wall street, goldman sachs, now getting blasted for misleading invest erts and the government about its financial dealings before the crisis. color color...don't go away. 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[ female announcer ] visit aveeno.com for a free sample of new living color. all right. crossing the half hour right now. goldman sachs is getting slammed in a senate report for its role in pushing the country into the deepest recession since the great depression. stephanie elam is "minding your business" now. people really struggling at the heart of the financial crisis, but did they really do anything illegal or wrong? >> according to this panel, it's a 600-page document that they came up with, as far as they're concerned, yes, they did do things wrong. they call it a case study of recklessness and also greed on wall street. and they mentioned deutsche bank, but they really focused in on goldman sachs and talking about the things that they did. basically they're saying that they misled clients. take a look at some of the ideas they're giving here. they're saying that they're accusing goldman sachs of selling mortgage securities but at the same time betting against those mortgage securities so that they would actually still make money on them on the other side. they also believe that while they say a third party was involved in the pricing of it, that all of it was done in-house internally at goldman sachs. the other thing they believe that goldman sachs misled congress and gave inaccurate testimony. obviously, that would be a problem as well. and so you look at goldman sachs, keep in mind they've already paid a record fine of $550 million. that was for a transaction they made in 2007. they paid that to the securities and exchange commission in july. but overall here, they're saying that the problem with goldman sachs has been chronic, it's been a chronic problem that needs to be addressed. also senator lefben saying, you know what? they've not acted as quickly as they should at at the s.e.c. we're still going to point out any areas that could have been conflict and let the s.e.c. know about it and the justice department in case they need to go after that. goldman sachs saying they believe that they don't agree with these cases but they need more transparency. >> any teeth for them changing their way. >> from this panel. >> this is carl levin's senate subcommittee. >> you remember that vote -- that heated -- >> that image carl levin -- >> one of the few that was interesting to watch. >> 13 hours. i remember nine hour in, guys, they were still locked in battle. this is carl levin with his final report. >> 600 pages of it. let's look at the markets yesterday. a quick check for you. the dow up 7 points, but hey, it was up. nasdaq better and the s&p 500 better as well. started off good because we had good numbers from jpmorgan chase, but then that kind of faltered. and the president came out with his plan. >> wall street liked it. >> getting out the scissors. >> stephanie, thanks. another air traffic controller caught sleeping on the job. this time it happened in reno, nevada. an air ambulance carrying a sick patient got no response from the tower was forced to land on its own. the faa says they're putting two air traffic controller in places across the country that just had one on the shift. tim geithner says congress will raise the debt ceiling by june. most say they won't do it without big strings attached. geithner says lawmakers know the stakes are too high to play politics. >> a letter to congress a couple weeks ago. we have in to june to solve this basic problem. we don't have much more time beyond that. again t leadership in both houses recognize this, you don't want to take it to close to the edge. you don't want to call into question the commitment of the unite and its ability to meet its obligations. donald trump says tune in to the season finale of "celebrity apprentice." that's when he will announce -- >> sounds like a -- something wrong with the country when you're announcing on television. >> somebody announced on late night. >> do you know the answer to this one? >> it was a rhetorical question. >> is it ron paul? that's why we have excellent producers to tell us these things. >> thanks, jim. the search for a serial killer on long island is about to go high tech. planes and helicopters will be flying above the beaches shooting high resolution aerial photoses where eight separate sets of human remains have been found. allan chernoff joining us this morning. we were just speaking to a former long island police officer who says the landscape around there makes this more difficult than people who don't know about it would imagine it to be. >> reporter: indeed. very tough. the investigators have to wear special outfits, they have ivy and bramble. shannon gilbert disappeared about a year ago, may 1st last year. she was working as a prostitute and had visited a client not far from where we're standing right now. that night she went to a home begging for help, begging for assistance. since that night, she has not been found anywhere. she's not been identified either. of all those remains that have been uncovered. we spoke yesterday with a man, the homeowner who saw her that very day. he told us that it was months before the police actually questioned him. >> missing persons detective came here like in august. and was asking about her. i said where have you been? he said, well the kind of thing of new jersey police department didn't take them -- >> they didn't come. she was missing may 1st. >> yeah. >> but the police didn't come to visit you until august? >> that's right. >> nothing, may, june, july, finally in august. >> right. >> four months. >> right. and that was missing persons. >> you called the police immediately. >> well, they came in here. but as far as investigating it, no. >> the police say they did question mr. coletti, they've questioned him several times since may 1st. they also say they did receive a written statement from him in june, the month after ms. gilbert disappeared. >> ali? >> thank you very much. allan chernoff in long island. new this morning we're following the latest with libya as well. what we were not told. the pentagon acknowledging that u.s. war planes are still bombing libya. a military spokesman says that they've flown 97 sorties since the handover. most were used for refueling and signal jamming but on three occasions u.s. jets have fired on targets. italian prime minister silvio berlusconi is not running for another term. he told reporters he wants to change italy's judicial system and constitution, then he plans to step aside. he's involved with italy's judicial system. he's facing trial for allegedly paying for sex with an underaged prostitute. cars partially submerged in the town of falmouth. if you use comcast to your internet at home, it's getting a whole lot faster. the company is getting setd set to announce a new residential service called extreme 105. they say it can transmit internet data faster than a typical t-1 line. >> remember we just had a phone line? >> i have to say, i don't quite know -- i hear it's fast, but i'm not sure how much faster than t-1 line means. comcast has been very creative. they renamed their resident services xfinity a year ago. i thought what the heck does that mean? but they really have been quite cutting edge about this fast internet to your house in the face of verizon and fios. i guess i should move on to something else? >> i guess you like technology stories. i do. but i like politics stories as well. speaking of technology, are you dreaming of a white iphone? well, your wait finally may be over. >> or maybe not. >> we talked about this. everyone wants a white iphone. how you can get it. >> we're hinting that it's coming. that banner says white iphone coming soon. >> it's coming. tune in anyway. [ male announcer ] america's beverage companies are working together to put more information right up front. adding new calorie labels to every single can, bottle and pack they produce. so you can make the choice that's right for you. ♪ carpools, conferences, microwave dinners. they blur one into the next. we lose ourselves in the fog of everyday life, and drift away from what matters. but like a beacon in the night, it finds us. the light of more than 100 lighthouses, burning through that fog, and beckoning us back to what's real and true. this light shines for us all. this light is pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org 40 minutes past the hour. welcome back to "american morning." a couple of college students at yale university are trying to single handedly trying to influence the 2012 presidential election. they're using the internet and facebook to spread the word on campuses across america about a potential candidate in indiana who hasn't even decided to run. our jim acosta joins us with more on this story. 2008 became the year of launching campaigns on the internet. so what's next? >> here we go again, kiran, and not a moment too soon. the mounting national debt has younger voters already thinking about the presidential race in 2012. no surprise they are taking to social media. twitter and facebook, where some have already fallen for a little known governor from indiana. it might be a stretch to call him the big man on campus. but indiana governor mitch daniels is getting some presidential buzz at colleges across the country. thanks to yale university students, founders of the students for daniels website and facebook page. how quickly did that take off? >> we went from 20 to a thousand people in a couple weeks. >> yeah. the really incredible thing has been youtube. >> reporter: as in their youtube video about their search for a slogan. including an excandidate for new york. >> the debt is too damn high. >> reporter: the result, colleges now have students for daniels chapters all dedicated to his message on the debt. >> it's the new red menace this time consisting of ink. >> reporter: he's a former obama volunteer who changed in the message of hope for solvency. >> it's like basic math. >> reporter: then there's election math. when president obama carried roughly two-thirds of the youth vote in 2008 frank costa and daniel thompson were on board. frank still is. >> i do still support obama. >> reporter: danielle, not so much you were an obama in 2008. >> a registered democrat, still am. >> reporter: but he's lost you a little bit? >> i think he's lost a lot of us. >> reporter: as for the movement to draft daniels, there's one problem. he may not run. >> i've been more affected by their activities than any of the others. given my thoughts about the condition of the country, this appeal from younger people made more of an impression on me than anything else. >> reporter: these campus candidate crushes are spreading. one just popped up for mitt romney. >> can we afford to graduate into this me? >> no, we can't. >> reporter: now back to mitch daniels. a mixed fiscal record. he was george wcht bush's budget director when the deficit went up, but later on as governor he put indiana's fiscal -- financial house in order. daniels says he'll have an answer on running for president after the end of the month. one thing that struck us when we talked to governor daniels yesterday was that he's really impressed by these younger students. he used the word reciprocate. he wants to reciprocate in some way. he wouldn't tip his hands in term of what he's doing in terms of his presidential ambitions. >> stranger things have happened, right? >> absolutely. >> jim acosta for us this morning. still to come, the economy's still fragile but one big bank has announced record earnings and huge raises. the banks are back. a new j. crew ad showing a mother with her son wearing pink toenail polish sparked a debate on child gender identity. oh! 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[ all ] ♪ hey, hey, hey ♪ good-bye a lot going on this morning. here's what you need to know to start your day. another air traffic controller accused of sleeping at the switch. this time as a medical flight carrying a sick patient tried to land in reno. that controller suspended while the faa investigates. former senator rick santorum of pennsylvania took his first step toward running for president. announcing he has formed a presidential exploratory committee. how big was your raise this year? bankers at jpmorgan chase are reportedly in line for a 34% raise after posting record first quarter earnings. what if you could predict the traffic like you predict the weather? a team of researchers at ibm say they're working on a computer that will predict traffic use in the future. it uses past databases of traffic patterns and sensors that are embedded in roadways throughout california already. no more going to the black market for a white iphone. apple says it will start selling the elusive white iphone 4 in the next few weeks following a ten-month delay. have you been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib? if so, now's the time to talk to your doctor again, even if you're already taking medication to reduce your stroke risk. atrial fibrillation can cause a blood clot to form here, in your heart, that can break free and go straight to your brain, where it can cause a serious stroke. strokes that are twice as likely to be deadly or severely disabling as other types of strokes. but if you're one of the 2 million people who have atrial fibrillation, there's never been a better time to talk to your doctor. because you and your doctor can choose from different kinds of medicines to help prevent a stroke. for a free interactive book, call... or log-on to afibstroke.com. and with this valuable information in your hand, talk to your doctor. all right. well, i hope wherever you live, you're going to have a nice day for the weather. let's check in with reynolds wolf and find out if that's indeed the case. >> it will be great for parts of the northeast, the eastern seaboard all the way into the southeastern u.s. but for many of you head out and about going to airports, you might be a little perplexed as what might await you in terms of traveling. chicago you've got the wind that could keep you grounded for a half hour to a full hour. denver and seattle, low clouds and showers. notice dallas and hughen, possible delays up to an hour. why would that be, especially in dallas? the reason is pretty simple. we've got a decent shot of strong storms a moderate risk for parts of texas, oklahoma, kansas even a little sliver of missouri and arkansas. with that you've got a chance of strong storms but that the potential tornados that will extend not just into today but as we fast forward into tomorrow, we're going to see that possibility develop into alabama, mississippi and even tennessee, again a moderate risk posted by the storm prediction center. this could involve some tornadoes. a classic setup that we all could see this time of the year, things very volatile, gulf of mexico wide open. with that storm system coming in west to east, there could be a chance of tornadoes. another big weather story we've been following is out into texas, west texas, the wind has been howling with that low humidity with the strong winds and the low humidity we have a chance of fires out in west texas to spread even more. certainly a rough day for the firefighters. that's a quick snapshot of what we can expect weather wise around the nation. more coming up right here on "american morning." .. 53 minutes past the hour, welcome back to "american morning", a lot of response on this controversial j crew ad, some thought it was controversial, others thought it was silly. it is a boy and his mom, he is wearing pink toenail polish. the mom says, lucky for me i ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. here is what you are saying. >> ridiculous it is an issue. little boys like nail polish as little girls like nail polish it is colorful and fun, end of story. why not let little boys do what makes them happy rather than putting labels on their behavior. >> whatever your sex, your child is please teach them it is not tool cuil to put on lipstick, fingernail polish, makeup, anything adults do until they're of the able to make decisions for themselves. point blank. >> color should not be related to sexual identity if a boy's favorite color is pink, let it be acceptable. >> the second person, the response you read, that was originally my kind of initial reaction is this about kids being too young to wear nail polish and i realized the controversy, it was a boy wearing nail polish. and also a conversation maybe kids were sexualizing them too early in general, we are dressing little girls up in outfits for halloween that are too trampy and, you know, maybe that's another conversation. >> a lot of conversations there. the pink color on the nail polish as opposed to the little boy wearing nail polish in the first place. i think little kids like to play around with these had things. >> christine also three boys, i have girls and a boy, my son is older, he likes nail polish, an old brother it would be a different story. >> they mostly beat on each other. another story we are asking to you weigh on, christine? >> oh, yeah. asking you. >> this story is really an interesting one, an officer who shot and killed a college student last year has just been awarded officer of the year. the pba in pleasantville, new york, that's the policeman's benevolent association you can union it gave officer aaron hess the honor, fellow officers voted on it unanimously we are told. hess shot student dj henry outside a bar at a shopping center in october. henry was just 20 years old. >> a grand jury cleared two police officers of criminal responsibility in his death. we spoke to his parents on this show. henry's mother says this demonstrates the department's arrogance. we want to hear what you think. >> some of the other context, reading more, the headline sounds really bad. what they said is this officer was injured badly in that -- in the altercationing that led to the tragic death of mr. henry and that this was his first time actually being able to appear somewhere and that the pba was private so they did not mean for this to sort of get out there and in some way upset the family but again, very strong feelings on both sides. >> we want to know what you think about this, do you think it is appropriate that the officer is being honered? weigh in on our blog, cnn.com/a.m. also on twitter at cnn -- cnnam, reading your thoughts on the program. >> top stories coming your way in two minutes it is 55 minutes after the hour. you say you can beat any advertised price on tires. correct. anywhere. yes. like this price? yes. seriously? yes. what about this one? i'll beat it. this one? yes, i will. alright, i have only one more question for you. is one? yes. buy 4 tires, get a $100 rebate. and that's on top of our low price tire guarantee. 3 million tires, 11 major brands, fiona's kind of nice, i don't know why you're not here. but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena® healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics. another air traffic controller asleep at the switch and the faa is now taking immediate action to prevent controllers working the overnight shift from flying solo. president obama saying he wants to save the country $4 trillion over a dozen year bus it may cost you tax hikes on the table. both sides weigh in this hour. home run king barry bonds convicted of obstructing justice. he was also facing three perjury charges. we will tell you why jurors say they couldn't reach a verdict on those counts, right now on this "american morning." good morning to you, thanks so much for being with us it is april 14th, this thursday. welcome to "american morning." >> a lot of budget stuff to talk b a big decision what will affect all of you, have more this hour. >> also the faa. hard to believe it happened once, but seeing it all over again, air traffic controllers falling asleep while on duty. the latest incident happened at the reno tah tahoe internationa airport. the controller was sleeping when a flight with a sick patient was trying to land there here is some of the conversation with the faa in california. >> the plane had to circle for about 16 minutes. transportation secretary ray lahood says they are taking steps to ensure the flying public isn't at risk. he says they will not sleep, those are his words, until they find a way to make sure that all passengers are safe and that no one is sleeping in the tower. there already have been six incidents reported this year involving an air traffic controller sleeping on the job. it is not what we were told but the pentagon is now acknowledging that u.s. warplanes are still bombing libya a military spokesman tells cnn that the u.s. has flown 97 sorties since handing the project over to nato, most for support, refueling and signal jamming, but on at least three occasion, u.s. jets have fired on targets. the search for a long island serial killer goes high-tech. fbi planes and helicopters are going to start flying over the suburban new york beaches where at least eight separate sets of human remains have been found. they will be shooting high-resolution aerial photos in an attempt to find the bones. other reasons why it is a very, very difficult area to navigate by foot, even the dogs are having trouble. allan chernoff joining us live from jones beach this morning. hi, allan. >> good morning, kieran. four of those remains have been identified as the remains of women who had been working as prostitutes. another call girl by the name of shannon gilbert went missing not far from here, nearly a year ago, on may 1st. she has not been found. none of the remains have been identified as hers. what happened a year ago is that at 5:00 in the morning, she banged on a hughes, the homeowner came to the door, called police immediately and she disappeared. yesterday, we spoke with him and he said that it was months before detectives actually questioned him in detail about the events. >> missing person detective came here, like in august and was asking about her and i said where have you been? he said, well, the kind of thing of new jersey police department didn't take them and -- >> they didn't come. she were missing may 1st. >> yeah. >> but the police did not come to visit you until august? >> that's correct. >> nothing? >> no. >> may, june, july, finally in august? >> right. >> four months? >> right. and that was missing persons. >> and you called the police immediately? >> yeah, well, they came in here, but as far as investigating it, no. >> the police say they have spoken with mr. colletti several times since may 1st and also he did provide a written statement back in june. shannon gilbert had been a resident of jersey city, new jersey, and the police in jersey city say they won't comment about the investigation. >> but the thing that is stunning that you were trying to probe him on, the fact they were looking for one missing girl it is almost accidental that they stumbled upon all of these other remains and now they have at least perhaps eight murders on their hands at this point. >> keener, indeed it was accidental the very first time that some remains were found around here. a k-9 officer was working with his dog on a training exercise, they came across some remains and that triggered the investigation along this stretch of beach for these remains. prior to december, last year, they weren't searching here for bodies. >> all right, allan chernoff for us at jones beach this morning. thanks so much. okay, baseball's all-time home run king has been convicted of one count of obstructing justice but after four dives deliberations, a san francisco jury could not reach a verdict on three perjury charges against barry bonds and the judge declared a mistrial on those counts. a juror said bonds was evasive when he testified before a federal grand jury about his alleged steroid use, but they didn't see proof that he lied. a sentencing date on the obstruction conviction will be set next month. the nba fining kobe bryant $100,000 for using a gay slur during a guy. he was caught on camera yelling it at a ref after he was called for a technical touch you can see he is annoyed there bryant said he said it out of frustration and didn't mean to offend anyone. also, not usually something we goof on the vice president about. sometimes what he said. now, 'cause of what he didn't say or at least why he was way too quiet. vice president biden caught, it appeared at least, nodding off when the president was giving his speech outlining his plan to deal with the deficit. you there see him. the lady behind him -- >> she is totally gone. headrest. >> he is still doing the subway nod, putting his head up every now and a while. >> secretary tim geithner paying rapt attention. to make it worse, the president announced that vice president had a new job during that speech, that he would be deputized, as they call it to be meeting with lawmakers and trying to work on a deal between both parties for a bipartisan plan. >> i thought maybe he was working on his blackberry, there was a shot of his hands and his hands were moving. >> as i'm often doing that sitting there while something is going on. >> ali looks like he is sleeping but he is not, he is firing off an e-mail. ichblts thought you were catching up on your zs the whole time. >> i think he was concentrating. president gave him a big job, he needs rest up. president obama laying out his plan for deficit reduction, calling for $4 trillion in cuts or tax increases saying the bush tax cuts to go to get there reaction from a key republican and incoming head of the democratic national committee, that coming up. do you guys ever eat, as they call it, street meat? >> constantly. >> i love the carts cutting up the lamb and everything. >> there's three of them on this block. >> yes. yes. exactly. >> they are not in chicago though. it's interesting, you can't find these fancy food trucks in one city and our stephanie elam explains about a windy city food fight. six minutes after the hour. $4 trillion in cuts, president obama lay out his most ambitious plan yet to slash the massive federal deficit, including changes to something once considered untouchable act least by democrat, medicare and erasing those bush tax cuts for the highest tax brackets. as you could imagine, all of that has the republican party fired this up morning. congressman hal rogers is a republican from kentucky. he is also the chairman of the house appropriations committee. he is on capitol hill this morning. congressman rogers, thank you for being with us. >> good to be with you, ali. >> there are a lot of similarities here. first of all, i think it's fair to say that the president has moved a great deal from where he was last year and where he even was in february with his budget proposal, possibly based on some pressure from the republican party. what's your initial sense of where the president is with this right now? >> well, i was disappointed, frankly, in his speech yesterday. he failed to bring any specifics to the table. and that's where the problem is. we have got to get the specifics to try to control this out-of-control spending. i mean, our deficit now is $1.4 trillion a year. we are borrowing 42 cents of every dollar we spend. and we have got to get down to basics, like we are today with this bill on the floor, to add spending for the balance of this fiscal year. we are going to cut $40 billion off of this year's spending, which is an all-time record, never before in history -- >> would you say that because, i think again it is fair to say you have moved the president more in your direction, notwithstanding specifics, which we are going to have to get to in the next couple of months anyway, are you generally pleased with the direction in wit president is going, assuming you can come to some agreement on those specifics? >> certainly glad to see him come up to the table. he has not been at the table yes. he has at least come to the table. i want to see him sit down and work out details with us about how we can control this spending spree that we have been on the last couple of years. at least he is at the table. >> l all right. so he wants $3 in cut forced 1 in increased taxes. heard republicans and often those from the tea party saying this is not a revenue problem it is only a spending problem this is an interesting compromise from the president, $3 in cuts, $1 in increased revenue, including taxes those high earners that the republicans were entirely against -- against taxing what we call the bush tax credit. >> well, we want to see the details. i want to see what he especially has in mind on tax increases. the problem is we spend too much, we borrow too much and tax too much, frankly, nor economy. >> there is some sense though that there can be some -- a fairer approach to the tax system and one of the things the president spoke of and again, i completely agree with you, we want to see the details on this, but the idea that we eliminate a number of itemized deductions and in their place, possibly by eliminating some of them, end up with a lower tax rate for most people, for 98% of americans. >> well, we will see what he especially has in mind on those deductions he is talking about. if he is talking about repealing the interest deductions that people pay on their home mortgage, you know, that's pretty binding. so yeah, we will look at the deductions but the problem is not taxation, the problem is spending. >> you seem to be fitting a that into every answer. does steam me i look at the surface of the -- paul ryan's plan and the president's plan, the biggest differences seem to be in the entitlement spending, particularly on the medicare side is that where you see the stumbling block? >> medicare, medicaid, obviously the big ones. we appropriate only a third of the federal spending. two-thirds of the budget is on automatic pilot. it's social security and medicare, medicaid, veterans' pensions, food stamps, so the called entitlements. two-thirds of the budget. they are on automatic pilot. they are not subject to annual appropriations by the congress. that's where the big spending has taken place and paul ryan focusing his attention, how can we responsibly reform medicare, medicaid to try to save some of the expenditures that are being made that that are driving up this? >> we have a cnn opinion research poll which asks whether paul ryan proposal, the republican proposal to cut spending apply fairly to all groups. about a third say yes. about 68% two thirds, a little more than two-thirds, say no. who do you think the republican proposals are not fair to? >> we have just begun to explore what the paul ryan proposal is it will be on the floor today and tomorrow, so, we will learn more about t i don't think the public has really had a chance to soak in the paul ryan pudget proposal just yet. >> we will be taking a close look at that had here at cnn as well. thank you, i think you're right, congressman, the public needs to spend some very close attention looking at this budget it is taxing for the average individual to be involved in this much discussion about federal spending but it's important. congressman hal rogers, thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you, ali. we are going to take a quick break. we will be right back in a couple of minutes. it is 14 minutes after the hour. 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>> what will it be, my man? >> there is a food fight on the streets of windy city. >> we do nachos, a take on modern straight fare. >> we are the meaty balls mobile. >> reporter: gourmet food trucks are welcomed by lots of cities n chicago, they have to meet some strict guidelines or risk getting ticketed. the city says it is a matter of health and sanitation. there you go. >> reporter: food trucks must be 200 feet away from a restaurant and nothing can be prepared on the truck. >> we can't actually assemble or even cut a sandwich in half on the truck. it is completely illegal. >> coming up. >> reporter: this doesn't deter customers who follow the food trucks on twitter and facebook. >> the price, the smell, i mean, definitely the smell is a big factor, just kind of draws you in. >> reporter: before, folks trying to gastrowagon, left their restaurant, before they could find a parking space, folks lined up here, they know they have to get here early if they don't, then their favorite could be sold out. they even wrote a proposed ordinance, i introduced toity? july it has stalled. >> the new ordinance would allow us to assemble, prep, cook, finish on a truck out on the streets. >> reporter: the proposal would shorten the required distance from the restaurant. not sitting with well some. >> no doubt in my mind, food trucks are a fad, not traend. >> reporter: dan roasten thal ounce seven restaurants in chicago. >> for a truck to be able to come into that location without paying a similar rent is like starting a 50-yard dash with them starting on 490-yard line. >> reporter: but the food trucks have hope. mayor-elect rahm emanuel said in a statement he would "support a city ordinance to expand licensing for these trucks while ensuring that local small businesses aren't negatively affected." >> do 16 and 4. >> reporter: even if the ordinance does pass, the food trucks folks plan to keep at it. >> fighting you the good fight. >> thank you very much. enjoy. >> nothing like meaty balls on the streets of chicago. they have a guess game, every day these guys getting up in the middle of the night it is early, making their sandwiches or their wares, whatever they may be, in that case, meaty balls, they are doing this and then they have to guesstimate how many they are going to sell based on the weather in chicago, what's going on, whether or not people are coming down there and if they sell out that san opportunity they missed to potentially sell more because they couldn't make more on the truck. if they have extras at the end of the day, they are just throwing out money that is obviously a problem for them and why they are pushing so hard to make had this change. really, when you go to other cities, guys -- >> how does new york do it? >> new york, they are all over the place. i went to work out of the cnn bureau in l.a., walk out of the corner, they are there every city, d.c., you see them all over the place but the gourmet food trucks having this fight in chicago and very different than a lot of other cities. >> rules don't change very easily in chicago. >> right. >> you have aldermen with very important restaurant owner connection and interests. you know, you can see how -- >> that is very true, actually that's part of it now the shift, a new mayor coming in, there's some hope that some people think is going to take a long time. but it's interesting to me because dan rosenthal think it is a fad. i think there's a lot of people who think it is not. >> new thing in new york city like on the sly grilled cheese, not allowed to cook out of a building, the guy comes up and hands you his grilled cheese sandwich and runs away, contraband grilled cheese. >> like the truck owners feel like, driving around the corner, hey, come over here. >> a drug deal. >> yeah. >> meaty balls. come on. they run out and get off the street before someone arrests them. >> daley plaza, ten minutes. >> that is how it works, lines are massive. >> social meal ya, doug that. >> stephanie elam, thanks, stephanie. coming up next on "american morning," you have heard the phrase, hell hat no fuhry. there is a book suggesting there is no hell. the author, pastor rob bell, called a false prophet by some and rock star by others, we will talk to him after break. ever seen anything like it? 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[ woman announcing ] beneful incredibites. another healthful, flavorful beneful. now in a convenient bag. well, it's a provocative question, right there on the could have over "time" magazine's new issue, what if there is no yell health? a central theme in a book that challenges some traditional views of the afterlife. >> the author of "love winds, a book about heaven, had hell and the fate of every person whoever leaved" also the pastor of a church in grand rapids, michigan and join us from grand rapids. thanks for being with us this morning. >> great to be with you. >> first of all, let's talk about your central argument, you say that a loving god is not going to send people to a police of eternal suffering after his death, but this is obviously quite controversial, especially among fundamental christians. explain your argument. >> well, first and foremost, by live for many people in our culture, the christian story has lost the plot. people say christian, people have all sorts of associations have nothing to do with what jesus came to do i believe god loves everybody everywhere and gees sauce us is came to show us that love, invite us into that love to extend it to others. now can we resist this? yes. in the book, i talk about heaven and hell and how i believe in both because i believe god is love and love never hijacks the ability of the human heart to decide. >> so, you do believe in heaven and hell, you believe in both? >> sure. and here's why. because i'm a pastor, i see extraordinary pain and brokenness and hurt from the choices that people make to choose hell right now. so i begin with the choices that we make and the very real consequences of the choices right now here, in this life. >> you talk about losing the central plot of christianity, but isn't the central plot very simple and has endured for millennia and that is that a christian accepts jesus christ as a savior and that is what brings someone to heaven? are you disputing that that is the central plot and still is? >> no. yeah, first and foremost, jesus offers this immediate, urgent invitation to trust him, that god is doing a new thing in the world through jesus. we are invited to trust him. at the center of historic orthodox christian faith has also always been leaving room for the mysterious love and grace of god and how that works. and from cs lewis to billy graham has been this understanding, ween is right people to trust jesus, we say yes to this invitation and then we are not the judge. >> so let me ask you about this, this is something that comes a lot that people struggle with, i know that they struggled with it in my family because my father is hindu and he was born in nepal and he is probably one of the most loving people you will ever meet. and my mother, who is very, very christian struggles with the fact is he he going to go to -- not go to heaven because he didn't know -- he didn't know jesus in nepal? that people don't -- are not christian most of the time in nepal? >> and this is actually one of the main reasons i wrote the book, as i think this is a huge stumbling block for lots of people is their committed faith in jesus, for many people, was told to say yes to jesus means you have to condemn billions of people to hell but what kind can of god would send people to eternal torment for not believing in a jesus they never heard of? and actually, the first christians, they spoke of a mystery, a grace, a love, present in the very fabric of creation, that people can respond to without even knowing that it's god or that the it's loving grace of christ revealed to them, i leave lots of room. >> i tell that you traditional theologians, when they see works like this or they see other kinds of reinterpretation, full, of traditional christian doctrine and dogma, they say that it is christianity light. they say it is megachurch self-help books, it's not christianity. how do you respond to that, that it's more -- that traditional christians, people who really stick to dogma, they just don't buy it? >> well, first and foremost, is it easy to love your neighbor? is it easy when there's that co-worker that you just want to wring their neck, to be kind and patient? when jesus was asked the greatest commandment, love god and love others, loving others is very, very hard. i think we can all attest to that. so no it's not light. and second, we talk -- and in the book, i talk very straightforward about heaven and hell and about the very real realities of our choices right now, from grieve, rape, abuse, general side, we have enough hell around us right now and jesus calls us to do something about that, to stand with those who are suffering, to be a voice for healing in the world. so no it's not light. it is the historic stream and it is a vibrant, pulsing, ought then theic faith and i'm a pastor it captivates me. >> rob bell, thanks so much. you can see the whole discussion, the whole premise on "time" magazine right now. thank you. >> thanks. we have to look at our top stories now the house is scheduled to vote today, the last-minute budget deal they have agreed on this is the formality stuff that will stop a government shutdown. the debate begins this morning and then the final vote on the nearly $40 billion budget is expected late this afternoon. the deal must also pass the senate and then be signed by president obama before it expires tomorrow. police are stepping up their search for a suspected serial killer using planes and helicopters take high-resolution photos of the areas in long island where remains of at least eight people have been found. earlier this week, two sets of remains, including a human skull, were discould have neared by, but there's still no word on whether they are linked to the eight other sets of remains found in the area. and if you wanted to know more about donald trump's plan for 2012, a source close to trump says to tune in to the season finale of "celebrity apprentice" on may 15th, when he will reveal the date for when he will announce his plans on whether to run for president. we had talked about that before. arnold schwarzenegger announced his plans on leno and john mccain on letterman. so being done on tv before. >> i think doing it on your own show a bit of a ratings -- >> ali has no announcements to make at this time. >> that's t. a couple of college students at yale university trying to single hand lid swing the 2012 presidential election, using the internet and face become to spread the word on campuses across america about a potential canned yacht in indiana named mitch daniels, hasn't even decided to run. jim acosta is live in washington. a little students grassroots effort on his behalf? >> reporter: worked for howard dean in 2004, worked for barack obama in 2008 and now this discussion about the mounting national debt it has younger voters already thinking about the presidential race in 2012 and no surprise, as you mentioned, christine, they are taking to social media, twitter and facebook where some college students have fallen for a little-known governor from indianman nah. it might be a stretch to call him the big man on campus but indiana governor mitch daniels is getting some presidential buzz at colleges across the country, thanks to yale university students max eden and michael 'noles, founders of the students for daniels website and facebook page. >> how quickly did that take off? >> we went from 20 to 1,000 people in a couple of weeks. yeah. >> really are incredible thing has been youtube. >> reporter: as in their youtube video about their search for a daniels for president campaign slogan, starring a certain eccentric ex-candidate for governor of new york. >> debt is dangerous. >> now, wait a minute. deficit, too damn high. >> reporter: the results, nearly 60 colleges now have students for daniels chapters, all dedicated to his message on the national debt. >> it is the new red man nas, this time consisting of ink. >> reporter: smacks a former obama volunteer who says he has traded in the president's campaign message of hope for solvency. it is not hope it is not change, it's solvency, like basic mast math. >> reporter: then there's election math. when president obama carried roughly two-thirds of youth vote in 2008, frank costa and daniel thompson were on board. frank still is. >> i do absolutely still support obama. >> reporter: danielle, not so much. >> were you an obama supporter in '08? >> registered democrat, still am, for that matter. so yeah, i guess -- >> he has lost you a little bit? >> i think he has lost a lot of us. >> reporter: as for the move tonight draft daniels, there's one problem, he may not run. >> i have been more affected or moved, i guess you would say, by their activities than any of the others given my thoughts about the condition of the country. this appeal from younger people made more of an impression on me than anything else. >> reporter: meanwhile, these campus candidate crushes are spreading. one just popped up for mitt romney. >> can we afford to graduate into this economy? no we can't. >> reporter: back to mitch daniels, he has a mixed fiscal record, he was george w. bush's budget director when the deficit was going up, but later on as governor, daniels put indiana's fiscal house in order. the governor says he will have an answer on running for president after the end of the month and the clock is ticking and he says, you know it will be shortly after the end of this month, christine, where he is going to make an announcement. and he told us in an interview yesterday, he feels some sense of responsibility to these college students, doesn't sound like he is leaning one way or the other, but it sounds like he is getting serious. >> hmm. maybe try to help him get a job. >> that's right. he doesn't have a reality show to announce it on, but he is working on it. all right, thanks so much, jim acosta. >> okay. you bet. coming up ahead on "american morning", the lines are being clearly drawn in washington, in case they weren't, about the budget. president obama laying out his plan to save this country $4 trillion. he is in for quite a fight though over his goal, specifically to erase the bush tax cuts. is he going to bend on that? we will hear from the incoming head of the democratic national committee. also, six decades after jackie robinson broke baseball's color barrier, we are learning more about the back story that actually led to that historic signing. ed henry will have that for us, coming up joining us live. 35 minutes past the hour. st nuts and dipped in creamy peanut butter, making your craving for a sweet & salty bar irresistible, by nature valley. it is 37 minutes past the hour. time to check in on your national weather forecast with reynolds wolf. had hi there >> hey, guys. we got two different ends of the spectrum in the state of texas. one side, the threat of wild fires. shoot, it's been -- we have had the last couple of days. today, unfortunately, the situation looks like the fire does spread more, half a million acres have burned. the western half of the state, very dry conditions, very low humidity, the same time, some strong wind gusts. the other side of the state, out toward the east, not just parts of texas, but the central plains, a lot of things coming together, a storm system erupting from parts of the rockies, interact with moisture from the gulf of mexico that combined with your daytime heating will give you a decent chance of storm, a moderate risk posted by the storm prediction center to out of norman, oklahoma. there is the chance of severe storms and with that, possibly tornadoes, large hail, maybe even flash flooding. as we fast forward into friday's forecast, we do expect that storm system to kick up its heels, drive eastward, bringing that same threat to parts of the gulf coast into alabama, tennessee and back into mississippi as well. so, we could have some serious issues over the next couple of days. this is your classic spring system we could see that severe weather pop up w that weather, you can also expect plenty of delays for travel exdallas and houston, might have waits an hour. in chicago, the wind may keep you grounded from 30 minutes to a full hour. in las vegas, same situation due to the wind. denver and seattle, low clouds and showers, maybe a delay of 15 to 30 minutes. that is a quick snapshot on your forecast, more updays in the morning, kick it become to you in the studio. >> thanks, reynolds. >> thanks. on american morning, a check of this morning's top stories, include you can the story about kobe bryant and the slur that got him into a whole a lot of trouble. >> and loss of money over that, too. >> yeah. also ahead, the history in the making, brooklyn dodger gm branch rickey, right? >> yeah. >> signed jackie robinson 66 years ago. jackie robinson, 66 years ago. to break the color barrier. >> way to take town a road trip a lot going on this morning, here is what you need to start your day. another air traffic control air accused of sleeping at the switch this time, as a medical flight carrying a sick patient tried to land in enrein know. that controller suspended while the faa investigates. the house scheduled to vote today on the budget deal reached last friday. that stopped a government shutdown. that would cult spending for the year by $38.5 billion. the nba fining kobe bryant $100,000 for calling the ref a gay slur. bryant said he didn't mean to offend anyone. maybe we have turned the corner. realtytrac says foreclosures the first three months of this year fell close to 30% compared to last year. ipad killing the pc, computer sales play is are passed their peak with shipment buys some estimates down 10% in the u.s. compared to the same time last year. forget denver. maybe bowled certificate mile high city. playboy magazine crowned the university of colorado at boulder the nation's number one party school. it says the campus's annual 420 smokeout had a lot to do with it. 43 minutes past the hour now. president obama's plan to slash money from the deficit has started debates. we heard from hal rogers in the last hour. now, debbie wasserman schultz, the incoming chair of the democratic committee join us at dnc headquarters. congratulations and good to see you. >> thank you, you too, kieran, thanks. >> i was reading this op ed by matt miller, there is not necessarily link what it takes to win an election and what it takes to address the country's major challenges. and we hear a lot of rhetoric right now was the speech yesterday by the president as much about the deficit as it was about kicking off the re-election campaign? >> the president looks at deficit reduction getting a handle on the same way i do both parents of young children and it is so important we address this significantly, comprehensively and in a very detailed way and sew proposed a very responsible plan y plan yesterday that provides for shared sacrifice, balance in terms of tax breaks, make sure we deny tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals and make sure that we are not balancing deficit reduction exclusively on the backs of seniors, the frail elderly and people who are struggling. it is important we strike that balance, ensure we get a handle on health care costs as well. a bit of a revision, the president did earlier lay out his plan as well and of course, the bipartisan debt commission in december came one some recommendations. how much of this was the president being pushed along and democrats being pushed along by some of the larger plans by, let's say, congressman paul ryan and other republican? >> well this is a -- this is the president engaging in bold leadership. i mean what he talked about when he introduced his bunnell threat year, and i serve on the budget committee, really appreciated that this was a down payment on the long-term needs that we had and so, this is a follow-on to that down payment, yes first dealt with a shorter term period of time, now in his proposal yesterday deals with the deficit reduction and getting a handle on our fiscal house over the next 12 years. and he -- for example, just look at the dramatic contrast that we have between the ryan republican proposal and the president's proposal. the ryan proposal literally says to 33 seniors that they each have to pay $6400 more in health care costs to give $200,000 in tax breaks to the wealthiest americans. most americans would find that irresponsible. >> paul ryan arguing that point. i do want to ask but this you actually called congressman paul ryan's budget a "death trap for seniors," are you suggesting in some ways the proposal put forth by the gop actually puts senior citizens' lives at risk? >> that is exactly what i'm suggesting because it stands to reason that when 60% of seniors, kiran, are in nursing homes or on medicaid and you dramatically cut the amount of funding that we are providing to states for medicaid, then you are going to have some seniors not survive because they won't be able to either get access to a nursing home or they will get kicked out of a nursing home and they will have to make it on their own and that's not what america is b america is about, the president talked about yesterday, coming together, shared sacrifice, pulling together so we can really address our long-term fiscal challenges and doing it in a balanced way. you know, both this budget as well as paul ryan's budget, all of the budgets really still mean that the debt is going to continue to grow, our national debt still goes and soars in the trillions. you know, some economists are saying that neath earth president north gop really wants to tell americans what has to happen, yes, you are going to lose benefits, benefits are not going to be the same, everybody's taxes in the end may rise. are politicians not being completely honest with the american people about just how hard all of this is going to be. >> i think president obama was brutally honest with the american people yesterday. i mean, in fact, even included a debt fail safe trigger so that in 2014, if we can't reducing the amount of our debt as a proportion of gdp that we would have automatic spending reductions as well as revenue increases and make sure that every somebody accountable, not just the people who want spending reductions, not just people who want that balance in tax reform but everyone would have to engage in that sacrifice and it would be automatic. so, holding our feet to the fire. >> i understand. it looks like this is shaping up to be feet to the fire. republicans say tax increases are off the table s there room for a compromise? i know that vice president biden's trying to get some sort of barn agreement hammered out by june s this a political reality? >> well, you see there is the difference between democrats' approach to our major fiscal problems and republicans. republicans start out saying there's something off the table. president obama starts off saying everything's on the table we need dom together and he called in his speech for the legislative leadership to bring members on both sides aisle together around the negotiating table. we were able to make that happen and get that done under his direction last friday when everyone was reporting that we were hours from a government shutdown and i'm confident, and i think our leadership is confident that we can do this again, but everything has to be on the table. we have to approach this with shared sacrifice and we can't balance our fiscal health on the backs of those that can least afford it exclusively. >> i need to ask but congressman gabrielle giffords, i know you guys have were very close, people hoping, perhaps talk she would make it actually to mark kelly's launch when he is taking off in late april. do you know how she is doing? >> she is doing really well. i actually talked to mark on friday when i had to tell -- i was supposed to go see her on friday but we had to make sure we could keep the government open, so i wasn't able to make that trip, but she is making -- continues to make remarkable progress, is -- has a little bit more mobility now, you know, a lot more responsive, interactively and initiating speech and she is going to atend launch on april 29th, which we are all so excited b i'm going to have a chance to see her when -- while mark's up in space and go keep her company and spend a little time with her. she is doing great. >> that's wonderful. everyone continues to root for her, of course, congresswoman debbie wearman schultz, great to talk to you as always. thanks so much. >> you, too, great to talk to you, kiran. >> we will take a quick break. it is 50 past the hour. with sports car styling and power, plus the refinement and space of a luxury sedan, the jaguar xf is a timeless blend of performance and craftsmanship. see how jaguar outperforms the competition at jaguarperforms.com or visit your local jaguar dealer. okay. his first game changed the face of baseball 64 years ago. brooklyn dodgers general manager branch rickey stepped up to the plate and broke baseball's can a color barrier, not himself but by signing jackie robinson. >> that's right. new details emerging about what proceeded that moment, not just in baseball history but american history. ed henry has this amazing story this morning. >> this it is interesting. work thong a long time, great story to do you wake up this morning, hear about barry bonds' conviction on obstruction. the steroids is just the worst scandal in baseball history. actually, the biggest was in the game when they didn't let african-americans play. that all changed, tomorrow the anniversary of 1947, jackie robinson played had his first game, never known how much of a role faith in god played it that historic decision, until now. branch rickey's decision to hire jackie robinson as the first african-american baseball player opened doors that changed sports and politics forever. and the details are etched in the memory of ken burns who did the definitive 18 1/2-hour pbs documentary on baseball. >> one of the finest moments in all of american history, not just sports history, but american history, when on april 15, 1947, a black man, wearing the number 42, trotted out to first base at ebb bits field. >> reporter: but we have learned a detail about this historic decision that, until now, was not known by jackie robinson's widow, branch rickey's grandson or even ken burns. you have never heard this story? >> i haven't. >> this is new? >> totally new to me. >> reporter: it turns out just before signing the contract, rickey secretly slipped into this brooklyn church, huddled with the pastor, dr. wendell fifield, whose daughter-in-law is speaking with us about it the first time. >> he started pacing, wore a groove into the carpet, went around and around the room for 45 minutes. >> reporter: branch rickey iii, now a minor league baseball executive in texas says his grandfather was deeply religious and determined to end discrimination but also fretted about taking on the institution of baseball. >> jackie became something that was not acceptable. i think my grandfather's reputation could have very quickly gone down the drain. >> reporter: this weighed on the brooklyn dodgers' executive as he paced this room for nearly an hour, finally shrieking, i got it and slumping down in a chair. >> branch rickey wiped tears from his eyes and said, wendell, this was a decision so complex, so far-reaching from so many pitfalls and -- but still filled with so much good, if it was right. i had to work it out in this room and with you and i had to ask god about it. >> reporter: to protect rickey's privacy, the pastor told only his wife who wrote a five-page essie recently found in an archive. the pastor's wife wrote an a essay which appeared in the church bulletin with little notice after the death in 1965 so robinson would know how much rickey struggled with it but robinson died young in 1972 and his widow, rachel, said the story never made it to her family until now and she praised ricky's courage. >> he needed all the strength he could summon up, you know, to be able to take the step. >> reporter: burns is now planning to use this story in a film about robinson's life, slated to come out in 2015. >> well it is interesting because this had such a powerful impact on so many people aid chance to privately tell president obama i was going to be interviewing rachel robinson, i want you to tell her something, i there is a direct line from what jackie robinson did to me being elected the first african-american president. when i sat down with mrs. robinson in the offices here in manhattan, the jackie robinson foundation, she just beamed. she said i love hearing progress america made in another period of history is having an impact right now. that's what jackie robinson -- >> never minimized a lot of athletes today, politicians, say some of the best things they ever read have been hist histories of jackie robinson. >> branch rickey you his grandson told me a journalist before he made the momentous decision, all heck is going to break loose. branch rickey said, you know what tomorrow, i think all heaven will rejoice. sort of faith in god that both rickey had and robinson was a religious person, too, because he had people yelling slurs at him. >> sure. >> hard to imagine today how difficult a decision it was, not just for branch rickey but both of them together, a white man and black man. >> faith in '42 for both of them. >> the story on our website, amazing. >> thanks so much. >> good to see you guys. >> going to take a quick break it is now 58 minutes past the hour. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] with amazing innovation, driven by relentless competition, wireless puts the world at your command. ♪ shorts! tanktops! 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