good morning, we re happy you re with us this morning. welcome to early start , i m zoraida sambolin. we re bringing you the news a to z, get it? big story in d.c., roger clemens to be judged by a different group of people, baseball writers, the men and women who choose the hall of famers after he was acquitted on all of the charges in his perjury trial yesterday. the rocket denying all along he ever used performance enhancing drugs. yesterday his attorney insisted again that his legendary pitching career is not tainted. i hope those in the public that made up their mind before there was a trial will now back up and entertain the possibility of what he has always said, using steroid and hgh is cheating and totally contrary to his entire career. joe johns is live in washington and so, joe, long fight, four years, millions spent. big investigation. big prosecution and i suppose a big headline today a bad two weeks for the doj, first john edwards and now this. it has be
birthday. yes, it is. happy birthday! thank you so much for having me on my birthday. all right. we didn t bring a cake or anything. well, i just left a meeting and they gave me a pretty big cake but it wasn t big enough for all. i hope you got the first piece. take care. thank you so much. we turn now to the gulf coast. relief there may finally be in sight. the government s point man for the spill thad allen says that broken well could be permanently sealed in a matter of weeks now. once that happens, the focus of course will turn to the cleanup and the long-term impact of the disaster. our guest is a scientist who led research into the impact of the exxon valdez disaster and is now pacific science director at the environmental advocacy group oceania. thanks for being with us. thanks for having me, savannah. i want to read something that you wrote or were quoted as saying in the new york times. i think it s an interesting jumping off point. you said, quote, thoug