Transcripts For CNN American Morning 20110415

>> welcome to "american morning." good friday morning to you. it is april 15th. >> awful lot going on to end the week this week. so many stories we've been following in japan, libya and all of the international events, but luts events at home. >> usually be tax day, but you get three extra days this year. if you're procrastinating. >> kick back and watch the whole show. no hurry. we want to bring you up to date on extreme weather. storms racing across the country. tornadoes possibly spawned in at least parts of seven states. witnesses say one huge funnel cloud touched down in tushka, oklahoma. some storm chaser in a pick-up found themselves too close to a funnel cloud in stonewahl, oklahoma. here's a look. >> we need to back up. we need to back up. we really need to back up here and watch behind us, keith. keep an eye on it. >> it's right there. >> it's a mile wide tornado. [ bleep ]. are you watching in. >> how are we looking? sorry. >> scary stuff. looks like something out of a movie. at least a dozen people were hurt in oklahoma. some ended up getting trapped in their homes. we have rob marciano with us who's tracking all of this. the video just looks like it was an intense storm system going through and more possibly today? >> yeah. it's all shifting off to the east. i'll touch briefly on where all this went down across parts of eastern oklahoma, pretty much at the line, i-35 and east is where it went down, about ten reports of tornadoes, most of the damage across parts of the southeast oklahoma and in through parts of kansas. the whole system is slowly marching off to the east and there's the bull's eye for today across mississippi and in through alabama and shifting further to the east as well throughout tonight and in through tomorrow morning. right now, this morning, we have tornado warnings that are posted for parts of mississippi and extreme eastern and southeastern parts of arkansas, specifically boulevard and washington counties there, ashley and southeast arkansas and these are moving rapidly between 35 and 60 miles an hour so dangerous situation as this complex rolls across the mississippi river. memphis also in a severe thunderstorm warning. likely gusty winds, potentially damaging winds. most of the energy of the severe variety of storms will roll into mississippi and alabama here over the next three to four hours. the northern part of this system, it's got some juice, strength it to pulling down some cold air. plains going to see some snow today, believe it or not. shouldn't amount to a whole t s nonetheless, severe weather out and cold weather to the north. this complex rolls to the east. >> rob marciano for us with the latest on that, thanks so much. new fallout from a number of incidents involving air traffic controllers falling asleep on the job. hank krakowski, the faa official in charge of the nation's air traffic system has resigned. the five controllers and one supervisor caught napping have been suspend and after the latest incident, reno-tahoe this week, the faa ordered two controllers to be on duty overnight at 27 airports. >> that's one budget battle down. house and senate race to approve a deal struck between the president and congressional leaders last weekend. the one that just got in before the deadline for a government shutdown. about a quarter of house republicans and more than half of democrats oppose the deal. it will fund the government through the the rest of the fiscal year. and is now on the way to the president's deal. the deal called for $38 billion in cuts but many republicans saying it's not nearly deep enough. the congressional budget office says in reality, the plan will only cut about $350 million from this year's deficit. now to a heartbreaking family tragedy in a county north of the city in new york. three young children are dead, all of them were drowned along with their suicidal mother when she intentionally drove the family van into the hudson river tuesday night in the town of newburgh. the mother has been identified as 25-year-old leshanda armstrong, two boys, 2-year-old and 5-year-old and 11-month-old daughter died in the van. armstrong posted an apology on her facebook page 30 minutes before the tragedy writing, "i'm so sorry everyone, for give me please for what i'm going to do." her 10-year-old son leshaun survived this, pictured there as he's walking investigators through what happened. he survived by escaping through a window just moments before that van became submerged in the water. maeve ryan is a woman who happened to be driving by and noticed the boy shivering on the side of the road. she ok him and was able to get him help. a child -- the child told her his mother seemed to change her mind about killing all of them, but it was too late. >> when he was leaving to go out the window he heard his mother saying, i made a terrible mistake, i made a mistake. she came from the middle of the row to the driver's seethe side and tried to reverse the car back out but at that time she was too much in the water at that point. >> yeah. >> too much in the water at that point to even leave, so he said the best thing i could do, maeve, he said, was go off for help. and he said, no one stopped for me, no one was stopping for me. he said thank you so much for stopping me. he said it about 50 times. thank you for stopping for me, thank you for stopping. >> heartbreaking story as we said. 30 minutes, we're going to be joined by maeve ryan, going to talk to us about what exactly happened and how she was the one who stopped to at least help the only surviving member of this family tragedy. >> devastatingly sad story. despite weeks of shelling his air defenses and ground forces ripped apart, moammar gadhafi appearing more defined fints an ever. his army hammering misrata where civilians have been under siege for weeks. the director of one clinic in the city said gadhafi's forces attacked a port and residential area killing 23 people and wounding 100 others. in tripoli, gadhafi almost taunting the opposition and the world. look at him racing down the streets, popping out of the sun roof, pumping his fists. meantime this morning, president obama and the leaders of france and great britain publishing an op-ed saying gadhafi has got to go and that it is impossible to imagine a few fewer tore libya with him in power. jets have been heard circling over tripoli this morning. smoke rising from the wreckage of what appeared to be a nato air strike in the city. it's a baby step but may signal ron paul is planning another run for the republican nomination in 2012. paul filed a political organization notice with the irs allowing him to raise money that could be used for a campaign war chest. a spokesman says likelihood paul will run has gone from 50/50 to 60/40. if he does jump into the pool, he will join pawlenty, gingrich, and santorum. president obama waking up in his adopted hometown of chicago where he's raising money for his re-election campaign and taking on opponents notably donald trum whop has ramped up questions about the president's birth place. here's what the president said about. >> that i was born in hawaii. [ applause ] but i became a man here in chicago. >> now in an abc news interview, the president pulled no punches about the birth certificates and the conspiracy theories. >> over the last two and a half years, there's been an effort to go at me in a way that is politically expedient in the short term for republicans, but creates, i think, a problem for them when they want to actually run in the general election where most people feel pretty confident the president was born where he says he was in hawaii, he doesn't have horns. >> meantime a so-called birther bill in arizona that would make presidential candidates prove their u.s. citizens has passed the state legislature. arizona governor jan brewer is expected to sign it. there was a nice moment as well when president obama touched down in chicago last night. a little girl, 5 or 6 years old, greeted him on the tarmac and handed him a letter. the girl told the president she was the only democrat in her house. mr. obama kept the letter and signed the envelope for her. he's going to be returning to washington a little later today. so cute, right? >> to be 6 and aware you're the only democrat in the house. >> alex p. keaton. >> i'm the only tea party member in my house and my family a bunch of crazy liberals. kids are getting politicized a little earlier. here's an interesting story for you. an end of an era. >> this is devastating for many, many people. >> it is. abc canceling two of its longest running soap operas, "all my children," which made its daytime debut in 1970, going off the air in september, "one life to live" will be done in january next year. the network planning two unscripted lifestyle shows in their place, one on food trends and one on weight loss. i love reality tv, but this is -- >> it's the end of an era. some -- it's interesting because i was a big cbs soap opera fan growing and some of those soaps have gone and the people on them for a very long time, it was sort of the working-class actors of hollywood in america who worked in these. >> those were my stories as my grandmother used to call them, "all my children" and "one life to live." demi moore, a lot of people, david hasselhoff, a lot of actors came out of there. coming up on "american morning," a scary new report, meat tainted with a dangerous bacteria from the farms to your refrigerator. what it is, and what you can do to protect yourself. >> letting your teen sleep in may i life saving. extra shut eye can cut down on teen car accidents. prince frederick von anhalt, quite a card, claimed he was the father of anna nicole's baby, wait until you hear his plans to make zsa zsa gabber a mother at the age of 94. 11 minutes after the hour. what's this option? that's new. personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. pure... and also delicious. like nature valley. granola bars made with crunchy oats and pure honey. nature valley -- 100% natural. 100% delicious. lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i deserve this. [ male announcer ] you do, business pro. you do. go national. go like a pro. ford is expanding its recall of f-150 because of a problem with the air bags. the company recalling 1.2 million more of the full-sized pick-ups, electrical problems could cause the air bags to deploy without a crash. officials have had reports of sudden air bag deployment. teens looking for an excuse to hit the snooze button. new study finds the extra few minutes of sleep could cut down on car accidents. in the journal of "clinical sleep medicine" researchers found a 41% hike in car crashes among teens in virginia who start earlier for school in the morning. researchers say they're just not as alert that early. teens should get 9 hours of sleep. past resheech shows kid who sleep in do better in school. >> never know kids to get nine hours. >> teenagers can sleep forever. go to bed at 10:00 at night and get up at 1:00 in the afternoon. >> maybe they have a medical reason to do so. >> another new study, disturbing if you like steak tartar. i don't. go ahead and read it. >> a dangerous bacteria made its way into your refrigerator. researchers found nearly half of the country's meat supply is tainted with staph infection. most strains are resistant to antibiotics. senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins us from atlanta. this doesn't sound good. >> it's not quite as scary as it sounds and i'll tell you why. when we talk about meat being tainted people think i'm going to eat it and get sick like from e. coli or salmonella from chicken and that's not what this is. this is a staph bacteria, not that it's a good bacteria, it's not. it's not going to get you sick when you eat it. it could possibly, maybe, harm you when you touch it. that's the issue is that it could give you a skin infection. so let's take a look at this survey again. they went to 26 grocery stores in five different cities in the united states and found that 40% of the meat, we're talking turkey, beef, chicken, a variety, contain staph. 96% were resist tonight at least one type of antibiotic and half of them were resistant to at least three different types of antibiotics. so there's real concern that as we see this increase of staph resistant skin infections, we've all heard about flesh eating bacteria and what not, a concern that maybe, possibly, some of those bacteria are actually coming from the food we eat if we handle that food raw and then don't wash our hands. >> so you sort of got to the question i was going to ask you, is that the solution, either handling food raw with gloves or ensure that we do what we're supposed to be doing washing your hands after you touch raw meat. >> that's a possibility. you sometimes see people in restaurants or other places wearing gloves. you can wear gloves, you definitely should always wash your hands after working with any kind of raw food product or undercooked food product and you also need to cook meats to the proper temperature. that means, for example, no medium rare hamburgers. you need to do all these things and clean surfaces. look the dumbest thing you could do would be to have raw chicken on a cutting board and cutting it up for your stir fry and then you say, let's make our salad and you cut up a tomato on the same cutting board. really, really bad. because when you cook the chicken, you're getting rid of the bacteria but, of course, you're not going to cook the tomatoes and they've been contaminated with chicken juice. >> true not only for staph bacteria but salmonella and all other kinds of foods. >> i only have -- i have one cutting board for meat and different ones for the veggies and raw food. >> don't use a wood cutting board because it can hold the bacteria easier than a plastic one. >> i don't do a lot of cooking. >> ali's solution to eat like this instead of -- >> you don't touch it and eat with your mouth you should be fine. >> that's another idea. >> little messy. >> here to think outside the box. next, historic shifts in the u.s. population, majorities and minorities, in certain metropolitan cities, minorities make up the majority. >> think of a new name. >> think of something else. also coming up your ads are watching you as you walk down the street. creepy new-age technology that reads your face and then changes the bill board in front of you. >> that's kind of neat. we're minding your business. we're going to have a disagreement about this. almost 19 minutes after the hour. ooh, a brainteaser. how can expedia now save me even more on my hotel? well, hotels know they can't fill every room every day. like this one. and this one. and oops, my bad. so, they give expedia ginormous discounts with these: unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin' hotel, for less. my brain didn't even break a sweat. where you book matters. expedia. some of the biggest cities in america, white people are the minority. according to the new census data minorities make up the majority in 46 of the nation's 366 metropolitan areas including new york, washington, d.c., san diego, las vegas, and memphis. caucasian children are now in the my nor itty in ten american states. >> this story has some very interesting implications. when you look at an ad the ad could be looking back at you. a new company is targeting -- taking targeted advertising to the next level. carmen wong ullrich is here minding your business to explain. >> i think this is cool. let me explain. >> prove to me and christine. >> let's talk about what we're talking about here. you are being watched. cnn money reports a new york city start-up emersive labs have created a pro po type that incorporates recognition technology to target the ads to you. here's a look at what the system makes a note of as you pass by. your age, your gender, if you're alone or in a couple or in a group, your attention span, how long you look at the ad, and the outside weather and temperature, all of these things put together, to target the ad to you. now the labs is not the first to do this thing. japan has been testing facial recognition ads for a while but emersive does not seek to recognize your face, which is possible, they actually can find out your name and everything about you, but they want to just categoryize you and collect what they call anonymous recognition. the company is in talks with over 40 companies like sony about using a technology in high traffic areas like jfk airport. >> that movie "minority report ". >> totally. >> they know you're going to commit a purchase before you even buy it. >> the trouble i have, i think it's a fantastic idea, i love anything that is targeted to me, i love when i go on amazon and know what i buy and they offer me more. i'll be walking down the street with my wife and the bill board will recognize me and say, ali, two big macks for a dollar and i tell my wife i'm eating really well. >> it's not that targeted. it would be look at this happy couple holding hands together, here's a date movie. that's what it's like. >> when we walk buy by, an ad for a minivan. when ali walks by, a ad for a fancy motorcycle. >> an ad for margaritas. >> you have the spirit on this ad. >> thanks, carmen. the world's oldest man died. he was 114 years old. what was -- >> do you like that? would you like to be 114? >> what was his secret to long life. >> i don't want to know what the secret is. >> he only ate two meals a day. >> i'm not going to make it. >> that's all you need. he suggested working as long as possible. >> there's hope. >> extra cash is always a good thing if you're going to live to be 114. finally make sure to help others, he said. that's because the more you do for those around you the healthier you will be in mind and in spirit. he passed away from natural causes near his great falls, montana, home. >> he's really adorable. good for him. >> he does have a couple -- whenever you talk about longevity stuff, they do say first of all, limiting your calories does lead to longevity. >> i've heard that. you have to limit them to so few i wouldn't want to live to 114 eating 600 calories a day. >> as a personal finance expert. >> yeah. >> living to 114 changes your financial planning needs. >> i'm going to retire at 60 and you're going to live -- and he did say, he did say he worked as long as you can. >> none of the retirement calculators i use let you go up to 114. >> they don't. >> there's a new solution for not having enough money as you get older. >> marrying a rich person. >> prince frederick von anhalt, zsa zsa ga bor's ninth husband, once claimed while married, he fathered an nicol smith's baby. he also ran for governor of california. now he wants to be a father. zsa zsa gabor's baby father. he's 94 years old. >> all right. >> he's been married to her for 25 years and wants her to become a mother again using a donor egg, artificial insemination and surrogate mother to carry on the gabor name. >> wouldn't it be the von anhalt name? >> it's the gabor name. >> she supposedly, according to him, this was one of her wishes. she's been in failing health as you probably know for years. recently underwent a hip replacement surgery because of complications she had to get her leg amputated. gabor's only daughter, now 64, says the whole thing is just weird. >> i think she speaks for many people when she says that. >> he's a strange cat. >> to say the very least. >> yeah. >> but it's the other way to keep your income going when you're getting older is stay close to zsa zsa gabor. >> social security and then -- okay. >> speaking of social security, talk about the national debt and the deficit. what is the difference between the debt and deficit? all you have to do is think about your finances to figure it out. it is 27 minutes after the hour. 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. and more. if you replace 3 tablespoons of sugar a day with splenda® you'll save 100 calories a day. that could help you lose up to 10 pounds in a year. that's how splenda® is sweet...and more. we could've gone a more traditional route... ... but it wouldn't have been nearly as memorable. ♪ the morning after the big move starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now... and maybe up to 4 in a day. or, choose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. smart move. ♪ we're crossing the half hour and want to bring you up to date on the top stories. very severe weather ripping through parts of the country. two people confirmed dead after witnesses say a huge tornado tore through a town south of tulsa, oklahoma. there is a severe weather threat going on right now. violent storms and twisters possible in parts of at least seven states this morning. rob marciano saying arkansas needs to be on the lookout right now, mississippi, alabama. he's covering all of this for us and check in with him in a couple minutes. the man in charge of operating the nation's air traffic control system is out. hank krakowski's resignation after the latest incident involving an air traffic controller sleeping on the job. this year's budget is now on its way to president obama's desk. the house and the senate passed it yesterday. this is the deal that calls for $38 billion in cuts for the rest of the fiscal year. but the congressional budget office now says it's more like $350 million in cuts and that's raising some controversy among some fiscal hawks. and controversy with debts and deficits, oh, my. isn't it exciting? we've been talking a lot about them and trying to explain these big, important numbers and understanding them. what is the difference between a debt and deficit. when you spend more money than you make you run a deficit. you borrow to cover the difference. uncle sam does the same thing. all those deficits year after year add to a huge pile of national debt. how big, 14,000 billion. deficits are spending more money than you make and debt is something owed. how much money you owe. the u.s. currently has $14.296 trillion of debt. if we continue to spend money at our current rate our debt will top $25 trillion in ten years. under president obama's plan, that's $20.8 trillion and under the paul ryan republican plan it would be $19 trillion in ten years. think of that. even under these reduction plans, trimming it, it's just slowing the rate of increase. the increase is still going up. budget experts like to analyze this pile of debt by what the size is to the overall economy, right. today the national debt is 62% of gdp. doing nothing the cbo projects it will balloon, under republican paul ryan's plan, 70% of gdp. at a near term you still have growing debts. under president obama's 2012 budget, it would be 87% by 2021. both plans are expected to recede over time, further out. it's going to get better but hurt in the near term. why is all this important? we have to pay interest on this. it doesn't come for free. that interest gobbles up a bigger part of every dollar we spend. 6 cents went to interest on our debt, almost $200 billion, compare that to medicaid and med carried, social security, how important this red part of the dollar is. look further out. if we do nothing, in the next ten years our interest payments are forecast to double to 14 cents of every dollar. you guys, that crowds out spending for other things like roads, education, defense, important priorities for a country, so you don't want this part of the dollar bill growing and growing and growing. both plans attempt to some time in the future slow, slow how much of the economy our debt is, you guys. >> that was a really good explainer. when talking about this as well today, we have always had a debt. we've always had national debt. haven't always had a deficit, haven't always been in deficit spending. >> some years we spend less than we bring in, but we always are carrying a debt. i think what you pointed out, that proportion of the debt to the national economy, that's a relevant piece of information. >> the way you explain it yesterday, people have a mortgage, a big amount of debt you carry. >> but that's acceptable. >> it can't take up the hugest chunk of your income. >> if you had to wait to pay for your house and cash nobody would be buying a house before they're 60 years old. that's why some of the debt is acceptable. new this morning, delaware becoming the eighth state to legalize civil unions. the measure passed in the house of representatives yesterday. the governor will sign it. it takes effect giving gay couples the same rights and benefits as married couples under delaware law. >> coming up a tragic murder/suicide in upstate new york. only one child survived the ordeal after their suicidal mother drove them off of a van into the water. we're going to speak to a woman who found the little boy shivering on the side of the road and stopped to help. it's 34 minutes past the hour. 37 minutes past the hour right now. a very sad story this morning we are learning more about this tragedy. a young mother who drove her family van into the hudson river in upstate new york, killing herself and three of her four children. there are new details now of their final horrifying moments coming from the soul survivor of the tragedy. the woman's 10-year-old son. this morning, we have with us maeve ryan, the woman who found the little boy shivering on the side of the road after he got himself out of that minivan as it went into the river and also dr. jeff garrdier a clinical psychologist to break down what may have been going on here. thanks to both of you and welcome. >> thank you. >> maeve, i understand it's just sinking in. you were brought into this completely accidentally. how did you see the little boy? >> i saw him when i was driving in the street and four or five cars ahead of me. i didn't know whether it was an adult or little boy or who it was, so nobody was stopping and it was at night and in heavy traffic and by the time it was my turn to go through the stop sign i saw him going like this, help me, help me, help me. i rolled down the window, he was like help me. i'm like what's the matter. he said mom drove the car into the water. i got him into my car right away and went down to the street. dug knee deep in the water to see if i could see the car and i saw nothing whatsoever. >> did you call police at that point? >> no. i went up to the fire department. >> was very close by. >> right up the street. >> at this point, did you realize this was intentional or did you think maybe this was an accident? >> the way -- >> he had had been telling you my mom went crazy. >> she went crazy, just speeded up and went into the water. it just sounded like it was on purpose and, you know, it was just -- he was terrified. terrified. >> how does a 10-year-old boy recover from this? does he? >> we're looking at maeve, how she's traumatized by it. imagine this little boy in the car, the mother even saying, according to him, i made a mistake. he's communicating with the mother while this is going on. how does he recover? he does recover. but he'll never be the same. this is a child who will need therapy for many, many years to come because he's going to have survivor guilt, post-traumatic stress. we know he's in shock. a lot is expected of him. i have a feeling he was the little man in the family and now carrying a lot of this kind of responsibility. >> and there he is and in tse pictures walking investigators through what happened. he was telling you some other things that were quite telling about the situation. he said, i wish i had taught them how to swim, talking about his little siblings. >> yes. he wanted the chance to teach them how to swim this year. he kept saying it's my fault, need to teach them how to swim. blamed himself for not getting his baby sister out because the buckle was too tight. he was literally blaming himself for everything that went on and he didn't get help fast enough. >> this is what's amazing, normally we see the survivor guilt come, perhaps, weeks or months after. this little boy was experiencing it right then and there. taking on that kind of responsibility. so that goes to show you how much he's been traumatized by this and the kind of help he's going to need. >> one of the things we always wonder about this, were there warning signs, something -- this was a troubled person, she posted on her facebook page, at least according to people, i'm sorry i'm going through with this, i hope you will be able to forgive me. here's what she wrote. i mean so there's some aspect of premeditation here realizing she was going to do it. why take the kids? why do we see this when we see these tragedies, what do the kids have to die as well? >> i think part of what's going on, this woman had some severe depression it seems. she was very stressed by having four children, 25, all of these domestic incidents with her partner, supposedly he was cheating on her, so this woman was really pushed to the max by her circumstances. what we typically see, kiran, why they take the kids with them when it comes to these murder/suicides, because they feel that the kids would be better off with them on the other side in heaven, whatever their religious belief may be, instead of leaving them as sole survivors. i believe she did say to them, that you are coming with me. i'm not going to leave you by yourself. >> she did say if i'm going to die, you're going to die with me. two or three times. >> that's part of the rage, the anger, even part of the psychotic process, the nervous breakdown we see that people typically have. we're questioning was there a post-partum depression because she had an 11-month-old. >> a 2-year-old and 5-year-old and 10-year-old. >> but what we do know is that whatever was going on with her emotionally, the stress of her daily living and she had a very difficult life, even though supposedly she was a very devoted mother, all of these things pushed her. >> there are a lot of people that have difficult lives. what -- are there warning signs when this happens that people could, perhaps, notice and help? >> yeah. i think that there were warning signs, people coming forward and saying she may have been saying things such as i'm by myself, i'm really stressed out, life is very hard for me, so i think this is, again, another teachable moment that when you see someone who you work with that you know, a neighbor, who seems like they're really just anxious, depressed, angry, reach out, give them some information. ask them what's going on. how we can help, how we can refer you. instead of saying it's not really my business, but again this whole thing, extreme domestic issues, was part of this. >> and maeve, you were somebody who stopped. the little boy said, leshaun said no one would stop. what has this done to you? i mean, being this accidental bystander in this know and knowing you're going to be thinking about leshaun how do you move on from them? >> baby steps. it's baby steps. because i myself, i feel guilty myself if i wasn't there 15 minutes beforehand, to be there, to get the baby out, two kids out, anybody out. but it's just baby steps and my prayers that are going to be able to help me through this. i hope to meet with leshaun some day because he was such a courageous little boy and he was fantastic and i commend him for being -- how strong he is. >> and we commend you for being a hero and stopping and doing the right thing and we'd like to see more of this. but i would advise you to speak to someone, your spirituality, get into that. but you need help. this little boy needs help. the family, the town. everyone should have some sort of source of grieving in a very productive way. god bless you. >> absolutely. >> thanks for sharing your story. dr. jeff, great to see you as always. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. 44 minutes 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. did. a lot going on this morning. here's what you need to know to start your day. the death toll rising in the south. violent storms have killed a fifth person. police say a tree fell on to his rv in arkansas. the severe storm and tornado threat pushing east from the plains right now. this year's budget is on the way to the president's desk. it's the deal that stopped a government shutdown last weekend. the house and senate passed it yesterday. a fist pumping moammar gadhafi hitting the streets of tripoli even as smoke rises from other parts of that city. president obama and the leaders of great britain and france all saying he has to go in a new op-ed this morning. and an aide to congressman ron paul says the odds that the texas republican will run for president in 2012 are 60/40. he filed papers with the irs allowing him to raise money that could be used for a campaign. abc is canceling two of the longest running daytime dramas on tv. "all my children" will end its 41-year run in september. "one life to live" goes off the air in january. you're caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" is back in 60 seconds. . knoxville, tennessee, people going to work, 50 degrees, going to get up to 73. but the issue right now isn't the weather, it's the allergies. it is the worst place for allergies. south in general is very, very rough and i didn't realize that until i started spending a lot of time in atlanta with spring flowers comes spring allergies and where you live, obviously plays a part in how many tissues you go through. the allergy and asthma foundation found the south not so hospitable. knoxville, tennessee, the worst place to live for allergies. topped the list for the second year in a row. other allergy challenged cities, louisville, kentucky, charlotte, north carolina, chattanooga, tennessee, atlanta, georgia is a bad one. ed study based on pollen count, the number of meds used and allergy specialists per patient. >> the desert southwest is probably the best. >> or really cold places. >> don't know many allergic to cactus. >> there's nothing organic and no kind of what i guess new york, we don't worry about allergies here. >> you can't get pollen from concrete. i tell you, i never had allergies before the moved to the south. spend a couple years down here, you'll get them. get them both in the fall and spring. i want to show you new video coming into the newsroom. this out of arkansas. we mentioned there was two fatalities in turn ka, oklahoma, with the tornados that went through that area out of garland county, arkansas, a lot of wind damage and we've had three fatalities now in arkansas just from wind damage and obviously large trees falling down there and that's a dangerous situation. that dangerous line of storms is moving east and south across the mississippi. most of the dangerous weather south of memphis. one, two, three tornado warnings posted right now for extreme western parts of mississippi and southeastern parts of arkansas and those will be allowed to expire in the next 15 minutes, but likely that line is -- continues to press east into juicy air. we'll it continue to hold on to its strength. this tornado watch in effect until 11:00 a.m. eastern time. as we go on through the next hours. this is an event that's not going to end or wind down rapidly. fairly slow moving system pulling in cold air behind it. the northern fringe of this is going to be a weaker system as far as the severe weather is expected. the bull's eye is going to be across eastern mississippi and parts of alabama and eventually into georgia with temperatures that are pretty high and moist ahead of this thing. 75 expected for a high temperature in atlanta. 55 degrees in new york city. your rains come saturday night. that's a quick update on weather. "american morning" is coming right back. who shows up with a brake looking like this? have you ever been next to that car that pulls up to a stop light and it sounds like it's metal to metal? so these are your pads... and this pad... that is definitely destroyed, beyond worn out. right. it's a sad face pad. well, it could also be a happy face pad. it could be. but it's not. because it wasn't changed. get a free brake inspection and a $40 rebate on motorcraft complete brake service. any questions? change your brakes. >> announcer: this past year alone there's been a 67% spike in companies embracing the cloud-- big clouds, small ones, public, private, even hybrid. your data and apps must move easily and securely to reach many clouds, not just one. that's why the network that connects, protects, and lets your data move fearlessly through the clouds means more than ever. the pomp and circumstance of it all. 54 minutes past the hour. you know a lot of girls dream about becoming a princess. that's how disney stays in business. all it takes is a little etiquette, proper wave, beautiful gown and prince charming has to like you enough to want you to be his. >> kate middleton has snagged her spot in the royal family. for the rest of the girls out there, there's a special school in london that makes this dream come true. richard quest shows us the princess in training program. >> this is great. ♪ >> look at this. >> why did you decide princess prep? >> since i was a little girl i wanted to be a princess, so i wanted to create a program for other little girls that had the same dream. >> you smooth your dress and you put one leg behind. >> what are you telling these young ladies about being a princess? >> we're teaching them to nur rish the qualities of a princess that exist in every little girl. manners, etiquette, kindness, service, duty, compassion. >> that's a lot. >> that is a lot. every little girl can do it. >> pretend you're a princess and at a ball. you're going to be as regal and as royal and lady-like as possible. you're making turns, going back and forth. looks so easy. look at that. courtesy to william and kate. >> it's easy. >> good job. >> what are the biggest do and don't of being a princess? >> now everyone try to sit like a princess. >> i think you're not allowed to be selfish. you have to live your life for everyone else and so it's a lot about sacrifice and thinking about others. >> let's talk about the royal wedding. who's getting married? >> prince william and kate. >> prince william and kate. and are you going to watch the royal wedding? >> yes. >> do you want to be a princess? >> no. >> you don't? >> why not? >> she wants to be a princess, don't you? >> i want to be one. >> you want to be a princess. >> why do you want to be a princess? >> well, because they're rich. >> you get rich. and you are really good with a book on your head, wasn't it? >> yeah. >> was it hard? >> sort of. >> would you like to marry a prince? >> i don't know. >> if the royal princesses-to-be learn nothing else on their special day, at least they'll learn one trick. who knows. >> wave. >> they may get to use in the future. richard quest, cnn, central london. >> or you can go for an american prom queen, maybe. i don't know. >> such posture, kiran. >> it's easy to balance an ipad on your head. ali goes don't do the ipad. >> don't rec my ipad. >> don't mess up my hair. >> hopefully those girls won't have to kiss too many frogs before they find their prince. >> i like how many of the girls didn't know if they wants to be a princess. >> little girl beauty queen situation. it's mothers who want their kids. >> as you know the royal wedding is around the corner. if you didn't get your invitation, don't worry. cnn has you covered. we're going to take you behind the scenes to kate -- >> that has words on it, i swear. >> prince william and kate middleton's big day on april 29th. dvr and participate and be part of our global viewing party. no rsvp necessary. we'll see you there. >> sounds good. a quick break and your top stories in just a minute. we could've gone a more traditional route... ... but it wouldn't have been nearly as memorable. ♪ one town turned upside down after deadly weather and possible tornadoes tearing across the south. weather that's on the move right now. a look at the damage and where it could hit next on this "american morning." >> good friday morning. april 15th. welcome to "american morning." >> new this hour, outraged parents posting pictures and videos of their kids getting airport pat-downs. the tsa rethinking whether it's necessary to screen a 6-year-old little girl like that. >> rethinking it. okay. maybe your diploma will pay off this year. more jobs for college graduates are opening up. jobs that they actually studied for. >> and he threw the immaculate reception and won four super bowls but terry bradshaw says the hits he took on the field still linger today. dr. gupta digging deeper into the problem of concussions in the nfl. >> up first, extreme weather, violent storms across the country right now. tornadoes possible this morning in parts of at least seven states. funnel clouds caught forming across oklahoma. at least five deaths have now been reported across the plains and the south. some storm chasers in a pick-up truck found themselves a little too close to the funnel cloud in stonewall, oklahoma. they almost drove right into a mile-wide tornado. rob marciano is in the extreme weather center. you know, these storm chasers, i don't know. you meteorological daredevils, i mean there's no way i would be driving that close. those pictures are pretty amazing. >> if you don't know what you are doing you can get in trouble. this was prime of day as far as what was set up for severe weather across tornado alley. most of it was east of oklahoma city. of course when we have the fatalities east of there through arkansas as you mentioned and the injuries and arkansas, mostly from downed trees. even without tornadoes the amount of wind energy with this system as it barrels to the east is dangerous. northern louisiana, northwestern parts of mississippi and tennessee under the gun. tornado watch in effect here for the next few hours. this will probably be extended into parts of alabama as we go through the afternoon. northern part of this is no picnic either. actually cold air behind this bringing in a little snowfall. lighter rains and general thunderstorms in through st. louis. here's the bull's eye. there's the red. mississippi, alabama, will be the target, i believe, this afternoon for severe weather that will include lots of wind, hail, thunder and lightning and the possibility of seeing tornadoes fairly slow moving system that will eventually be across the entire southeast by early saturday morning and then the northern part of this will get into the northeast saturday night. by that point, most of the severe weather threat will be over. but the next 12 to 18 hours, guys, going to be on the dangerous side. we'll keep you posted throughout the morning. >> we will. thanks, rob. so we have one budget battle down, but the house and the senate still have some work to do. but let's just celebrate what they were able to do. they approved the deal struck between the president and congressional leaders last weekend, the one that just got in before the deadline that would have shut the government down. but about a quarter of house republicans and more than half of democrats oppose the deal. the republican house meantime is expected to begin considering congressman paul ryan's plan to slash the deficit. it would cut about $6 trillion from federal spending over the next ten years. meantime the president hitting the campaign trail for the first time since he announced he's seeking re-election. he was in the friendly confines last night of his hometown of chicago where he has had many fund-raisers. earlier in an abc news interview, president obama took on opponents who continued to question whether or not he was born in the united states. >> over the last two and a half years, there has been an effort to go at me in a way that is politically expedient in the short term for republicans, but creates i think a problem for them when they want to actually run in the general election where most people feel pretty 7 confident the president was born where he said he was, in hawaii, doesn't have horns. >> the president has an unlikely alley on the birther issue, karl rove who says this debate is hurting republicans. later today an fbi helicopter with high resolution photography equipment on board is going to fly over long island's south shore beaches. they're trying to find more victims of a suspected serial killer. a massive search yesterday turned up no clues. so far eight bodies have been found along with two sets of human remains discovered this week. jason carroll joining us this morning. jason, i mean, are they looking for more bodies for a reason or are they just trying to get something that's going to crack this case? >> both. both to be honest. what it's going to take, it's going to take hard work to crack this case and a bit of luck. you know, as the search on long island intensifies we spoke to a former detective who knows firsthand what it takes to track and capture a serial killer. as investigators search for more clues to lead them to a suspected serial killer or killers on long island, one former detective who helped find one of america's most infamous serial killers, watches every development. >> these cases are very wearing on detectives. these guys out here, i feel for them because i went through the same thing with the son of sam. >> reporter: son of sam, that's how david burk cowits identified himself in 1977. serial killer shot 13, murdering six before getting caught. >> i had a certain amount of rage in my heart regarding him. >> reporter: joseph coffee led the task force created to catch him. >> emotionally you have memories coming back to you all the time. >> reporter: his background, giving a unique perspective into the long island investigation. >> keep this in mind, these bodies were hidden for a purpose. whoever this is, didn't anticipate that these bodies being found. >> what does that say to you? >> when he started his crime wave, if you want to call it that, it was a vendetta. he was afraid of getting caught. >> reporter: finding evidence here, a challenge. the brush too thick even for police dogs. but coffee says more leads may develop by learning how the four identified victims got there. all were known prostitutes. >> interview cab drivers, not leslie as the perpetrator but as witnesses because these women had to have transportation to get to and from their johns. >> do you think the person or persons responsible for what's happening out here, wants to be caught? >> no. that's a fallacy. >> is it? >> >> no. they say that all the time. he wants to be caught. bologna. >> what do you have to say? >> reporter: coffee is reminded of another serial killer, joel riff kin. he targeted prostitutes and convicted of killing nine but confessed to murdering 17. >> whoever is doing this knows this area. whether he was born and raised here, or whether he still lives here. you couldn't do what this person is doing without knowing this area. >> why not just leave the area and go quiet for a period of time? >> they love the game. and this is a game to them. >> well, coffee says detectives are doing a good job in not releasing too much information to the press. he says the mistake they made in son of sam was being too quick to release information. david berkowitz was watching and used that to his advantage. >> the assumption is somebody who's responsible for this is watching. >> is aware of the coverage. >> you have to make that assumption. >> and the police know more than they're saying. >> that's a very good point, kiran. because coffee believes that police actually do have more substantial leads and are not letting on for obvious reasons. >> all right. jason carroll, fascinating story, thanks. the faa official in charge of taking the fall for controllers sleeping on the job, hank krakowski was forced to resign as head of the nation's air traffic control system. the faa says it's begun a top to bottom review of the system, this after the latest incident with where a sleeping controller forced a medical emergency flight at reno-tahoe airport to circle for 16 minutes before landing on its own with a sick patient on board. transportation secretary ray lahood calls the incidents totally unacceptable. this morning every public school teacher in detroit is getting a pink slip. layoff notices went out to nearly 5500 union members in the city's troubled public school system. officials are preparing to close as many as 25 schools in june. it's unlikely that all teacher jobs will be eliminated. last year the district sent out 2,000 layoff notices, a fraction of those teachers actually lost their jobs. the end of an era in daytime television, abc canceling two of tv's longest-running soap on praes, the ones i have to admit i watched. "all my children" which made had its debut in 1970 and "one life to live," on the air since 1968. >> i used to watch these with my grandmother. >> it was a bonding experience. the network is planning two unscripted lifestyle shows, one about food and the other about weight loss. so there are a lot of people -- >> cheaper to produce. >> soap operas were expensive to produce except they became bigger. back in the day the struggling actors. >> they have three or four soaps per network and they had a continuing following throughout the date through decades. no other kind of franchise that may do that. now if you have eight seasons of anything it's a big deal. >> jason the trek ki is yawning. you don't like soap operas. >> little boring. >> if there's a dream, amnesia, an evil twin, she could come back. >> excuse me. >> nobody ever really dies. >> they always come back. a dream. >> suddenly the next season, the actor changes but the same character. >> exactly. >> coming up on "american morning," a pr nightmare for the faa. air traffic controllers. >> sort of like jason. >> napping on the job and these pat jo-down pat-downs, cell phone video, kids as young as 6 get enhanced pat-downs as they stand there crying. a closer look at these issues. >> let's not taint this thing. not everybody thinks it's all that controversial. >> fistfight in the break. >> a closer look at these issues from all perspectives. good news for college grads. they have better job prospects than any graduating class since they were freshmen. >> great. that's good. >> we're minding your business. >> a new report out, most meat and poultry is covered by a dangerous bacteria. how could you spot the warning signs? is there a way to protect yourself? those answers for anyone who prepares meat. it's ten minutes after the hour. [ male announcer ] nature valley 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. welcome back to "american morning." a string of problems at airports across the country. safety in our skies is important but a pat-down of a 6-year-old some say the tsa is taking it too far. >> you may need to continue this because kiran and i are continuing our argument from the break. air traffic controllers, not arguing about this, sleeping on the job. a problem that's happening all it too often. here to weigh in on these issues, legal analyst sunny hostin, aviation security expert billy vincent. good morning to both of you. billy, start with you, air traffic controllers, asleep on the job. i'm of the mind we are overcomplicating this conversation about having extra air traffic controllers and people resigning from the faa. sleep on the job, you get fired. why is it any more complicated than that? >> it probably isn't. and having been a controller, i'm embarrassed by what's happening. there's really no excuse for that. i worked those shifts. and a mid shift every other week for 15 or 16 years. and never encountered that problem. there has to be something else afoot here. >> do you think, billy, they keep -- talking about putting another $161,000 a year air traffic controller in the tower with them, saying yesterday is that just expensive baby sitting. shouldn't there be policies in place where you don't go to sleep on the job. >> there is something underlying all of this that is a major problem. it's not -- the solution is not to add another person. as you say, a babysitter. that doesn't make sense. >> the other question, we have sunny here, about this, you're a lawyer. what about the legal implications of this? in the latest incident, i mean this was a medical flight that was coming through. they said the patient was in bad shape. they had to circle for an extra 16 minutes. if that patient worse case scenario died or health was affected because of that, i mean is the faa liable? >> i would think so. there's significant civil liability. not only faa but certainly the person that's asleep would also be civilly liable. no question about it. >> interesting. >> billy, what's the issue here? there's sort of a larger percolating issue you got a view on about air traffic controllers. is there something fundamentally changed over the last several years with air traffic control or air traffic controllers? >> there's two things that are changed. one is, the faa changed it rather than changing air traffic control to a private organization, which everybody opposed in the congress and i personally opposed, they set up a different organization within the faa and brought in outside heads. in this case, two pilots. that was a part of the problem. the other part of the problem goes back for several years now, and having to do with the amount of control a union has over the scheduling and the activities of an air traffic control from a management standpoint. a lot of that was given away in the '90s, taken back in the early 2000s and then given away again in the most recent administration, which is pro-labor. in other words, they shot themselves in the foot. >> certainly the management and sort of the trajectory of the air traffic control system and the faa under the microscope, no question. i want to just switch quickly to billy and ask you first, this 6-year-old being patted down. we've seen a couple different videos that have surfaced and parents who have been saying that they're very small children have been patted down. this particular video, i think this was -- i can't remember if this was in knoxville or where this was, she was crying, had to calm her down, didn't want to be touched. she had gone through the electronic imaging machine and something came up and had to be patted down. is the tsa doing this properly? is it really necessary to pat down a little girl on a domestic flight? >> well, first, 4 and 5-year-old children have been used to move grenades and guns through screening points. that happened in july 4th in 2000 in amman, jordan, and the father of those children, subsequently, tried to highjack the airplane and was killed by an air marshall, but the grenade in his hand detonated and injured several people. so it is a legitimate concern. but this case, over the day before yesterday i believe it was, appears to be a tsa screener acting on a standard process without the option for any independent judgment and the tsa head, john pistole, has been trying to solve that problem, but is constrained by congressional constraints. >> yeah. they say that they can't take a cookie cutter approach to this. sunry in, this little girl's parents are saying she was traumatized. she was very upset. you teach your children strangers aren't supposed to touch you and then in these cases strangers are touching them. what are your rights? >> that's a little unfair characterization. these are security people. >> strangers are touching your child. >> teach your kid, the strangers can't touch you except law enforcement. >> i'm not troubled by this from a legal perspective. the bottom line is flying is a trif privilege not a right. if you don't want to be screened you drive your minivan as opposed to flying. i'm not troubled and the law isn't either. >> an event that happened ten years ago in jordan, is it necessary for thousands -- >> look at this video. i mean everyone has seen it. she wasn't really groped. it wasn't a sexual assault by -- >> i do. i'm characterizing it. for me, it's more the question are we really being smart when it comes to security? >> are we doing the smart thing by holding up and treating everybody as a one-size-fits-all approach. >> we are not being smart and john pistole and others and me personally have argued for years that we need to do more in the way of risk management, which means applying profiles. but the moment you mention profiles, people think racial. but that isn't the case in aviation. but we've got to get around to doing that and the profiles work. >> right. >> 10 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were identified by profile, but we had a flawed security measure put in by the faa and the airlines. profiles work. we ought to get around to doing that and avoid having to do this. >> they don't work legally. >> you just said -- >> they do. >> i'm troubled by it. >> but you just said it's a privilege to fly. why -- >> you can't racially profile people. >> he didn't say racially. he said profile. >> when he said profile he talked about the racial makeup of -- >> no, no. i did not. >> of the folks. >> that is what is wrong. the moment you mention profiles, people immediately think racial. in aviation, you do the profiles by a computerized process. you do not collect race, you do not collect religion. therefore, you cannot apply a racial profile in aviation. >> what is the profile made up of then? >> one-way tickets, paid in cash, that kind of stuff, right? >> it's made up of about 15 or 20 different elements and they work. they work. >> are any of the elements racially based? >> no. >> not even one? >> i don't think any of the elements are 6-year-old children either. >> but the fact is, if a 6-year-old -- small child as he said did once do it, then we have to accept the fact it's possible that a 6-year-old child -- >> a 6-year-old -- >> taking off from a domestic flight in the united states that's never happened. >> women have been used to put bombs on airplanes, old women, young women. you use whatever necessary to beat the security system. our adversaries are very, very innovative and they're smart. they will look at holes in the system and exploit those holes. so we have to have, first we have to go back to risk management system. >> it's interesting, i'll say, and i think you will agree, seems like what we do is what has already happened. we don't do things that haven't happened yet. that's the other thing. we -- they're very smart, they're going to exploit holes in the system. and then we'll come up with something with it after it's been -- >> that's the way as it feels as a traveling public. >> that's not quite correct. we think in the system and have for years in advance of what our adversaries may do and try to anticipate that and close those holes. the problem is, we're dealing with an arcane system that you see some of it, but most of it you don't know about. >> all right. >> certainly so many -- just so many different fascinating angles. billy vincent, sunny hostin, thank you for an it interesting discussion this morning. >> thank you. coming up, before you put your college down payment down, what should you be majoring in to get the best bang for your buck. >> gas prices keep climbing. is big oil sticking it to us. we'll ask questions when the president of shell oil joins us live from houston. it's 21 minutes past the hour. 25 minutes past the hour right now. we're talking about the class of 2011. they're going to be graduating and they actually have a better shot at landing a job than people who graduated while these kids were still in college. carmen wong ullrich is joining us now. we were talking how tough it was for graduates over the past several years with the recession and everything. but things are looking up. >> bleak. it was very, very bleak. a new survey by the national association of colleges and employers says that employers will hire 19% more college grads this year. the job openingings, well, they're they're finally opening. last year 40.5 joblet applications existed for every one job opening. this year only 21 applications for openings. this is the the first time they've seen a double-digit jump since 2007. since before the recession. and the increases are across all regions and most industries. however, of course, there are some college degrees that have much better job prospects and pay than others. >> we know that. engineers. >> the top ten paying college major, seven out of the ten are in engineering. topping the list, number one, chemical engineering over $66,000 starting pay. computer science number two, five computer engineering around 60,000 starting pay. the salary survey showed the average offer for this year's grad is up almost 6% from last year to over $50,000. >> good. >> which is i think a little high but pretty amazing. >> one thing about all the engineering things, people not interested in engineering oh, great, but there are companies where there's a lot of engineering jobs and other jobs, i.t. and -- >> tech support. >> these things. >> the industry is growing. >> i got to say, not all of us can do that sort of thing. >> where do all the philosophy majors go? >> grad school. >> law school. >> and -- this morning's market check, the dow up 14 points. and the nasdaq down 1.3. the s&p, kind of flat there. >> all right. we'll see how it shakes out today. thanks. >> ahead on "american morning," ford expanding a recall over air bags with an itchy trigger. we'll have the details of that. >> football great turned broadcaster, terry bradshaw, he's talking about how a career full of concussions is affecting him now and how he's trying to help save his own brain. dr. sanjay gupta will have more on that. >> 27 minutes after the hour. [ male announcer ] in the event of a collision, the smartest thing you could do is cut the fuel supply... ♪ ...unlock the doors, and turn on the hazard lights. or better yet, get a car that automatically does it for you. ♪ ♪ top stories. five people confirmed dead in oklahoma and arkansas. severe storms sweeping through the plains in the south right now. violent storms and twisters possible now in parts of the at least seven states this morning. moammar gadhafi's forces shelling the city of misrata again. a place where civilians have been under siege for weeks. a clinic says gadhafi's forces attacked a port and residential area killing 23 people, wounding 100 others. and pink slips are going out to every public schoolteacher in detroit. 5500 union members are now on notice that they could lose their jobs. officials are preparing to close as many as 25 schools in june. there are new developments this morning in the tragic case of a distraught young mother who drove her family van into the hudson river in upstate new york, killing herself and taking three of her four children with her. details of their final horrifying moments coming from the sole survivor. the boy you see there, 10-year-old leshaun. a good samaritan stopped to help him as he stood at the side of the road shivering crying to call for help. deb feyerick joins us with the latest. it's such a tragedy but this amazing aspect of it that this boy was able to save his own life and actually tried to save his siblings. >> he was courageous and really brave and apparently able to stay calm under this extraordinary pressure that he was facing. this young mom, leshanda armstrong, so vulnerable, thought the only way out of her pain was taking her life and the lives of her children. facebook posting about 30 minutes before she drove into the frigid waters shows her asking for mercy. it says, i'm sorry, everyone. forgive me, please, for what i'm going to do. this is it. she bundled her young kids ages 5, 2, 10 and and 11 months old. seconds before the car sank it appears she may have come to her senses. according to an eyewitness who spoke to the boy, her 10-year-old son leshaun, only survivor, says the car was slipping into the water, his mom climbed into the back seat cradled her children saying if i'm going to die you're all going to die with me. as the 10-year-old broke free, she had a change of heart saying oh, my god, i made a mistake. when she climbed back into the front seat and tried to put the car into reverse it was too late. the 10-year-old boy you see there he managed to escape through a car window and run to the road, desperately flagging down drivers. the woman who stopped maeve brian, says the boy was frantic. >> wanted to teach them this year, he kept saying it's my fault, should have teach them to swim. didn't get his baby sister out because the buckle was too tight. literally blaming himself for everything that went on and he didn't get help fast enough. >> so clearly he was trying to get his siblings out of the van. people we spoke to say 10-year-old leshaun was a great, responsible kid, he was helping his mom with his younger siblings, would take the two brothers to a nearby church, help out at the day care center where the kids stayed while his mom went to work. the day care director told cnn that the day the tragedy, the mom picked her kids up unusually early, she really looked out of it. one of the teachers told the mom that if she needed any help, that she should call. clearly she didn't do that. >> and the boy apparently also told maeve, who saved him at the side of the road, she had been fighting with his stepfather, she was concerned he was, perhaps, cheating on her. >> the father of the three youngest children. so, but you know again, she was so quiet and she had just disengaged. she pulled out of it. so she wasn't looking for help. she was just trying to figure out a way out. that was the only thing she could come up with. >> we had jeff garr deer here, saying if you know somebody like this, work with somebody like this, reach out and help. it's unclear what you're supposed to reach out and help and say because as you said, sometimes it's not the manic thing that you would immediately identify with. >> it's a quiet desperation. >> you feel so vulnerable you circle the wagons and try to pull up the draw bridges so you can perhaps get through it hoping that maybe a light will shine somewhere and you'll be able to get through to the other side. >> i don't know what's sadr, she did it or that she seems to have decided after it was done that she wanted to reverse the whole operation. i mean it's a devastating story all around. >> no reason to take the children. i mean, to be so desperate to take your children is just -- >> unless you couldn't imagine another life for them. >> right. >> unless she couldn't imagine another life because hers was so bleak at that point. >> thanks. >> of course. coming up next, gas prices continuing to climb. they're getting near record levels. is there an end in sight for gas prices. we're going to ask a plan who should know because he's the president of shell oil. >> and former football great terry bradshaw, now speaking out about the it effects of a career's worth of concussions. we're going to talk to dr. sanjay gupta about it. 33 minutes after the hour. welcome back to "american morning." right now gas prices are nearing an all-time high and frankly they show no signs of slowing down. every day this month they've been up. the national average for a gallon of unreaded regular gas is up 25 cents and nearly a dollar since a year ago. some cities it's almost $4. we have the right man to ask, a lot to talk to him, marvin odom the president of shell oil company joins us live from houston. welcome to the program. >> good to see you, christine. >> is it going to cost me 51 bucks to fill up the minivan in the next few weeks? tell me why oil prices which keep going up and gas prices which keep going up are up so much. you run an oil company. why are they up so much? >> that's an interesting question because there's adequate supply of oil in the market, so that actually hasn't changed how much, how much supply relative to the demand. what's happening with the price those that buy volumes of oil around the world are looking at the risks they see, the disruption in the middle east, they think about, you know, with economies in the far east recovering and more demand in the near future, they're accounting for that risk in the price. that's what we're seeing. and what we have to do is find ways to address the longer term picture for oil and other types of energy so that we can be sure we meet demand. that will bring it back to a normal price. >> addressing that, is that relying less on foreign oil, is that energy efficiency? is that new kinds of technologies? how do you address that? >> well, it's yes, yes, yes, and yes. i mean in the near term, meaning when i say near term, i have to define my time scale, talking about several decades, there's going to be a tremendous amount of oil needed around the world, much more than we have today. think about energy demand around this globe, potentially doubling between now and the middle of the century, so oil will be a big part of that well into the future. so will natural gas. and it if you think about north america, the natural gas that's been found over the last couple of years has actually completely changed the energy picture and the energy security if you will, for the united states. it's a huge opportunity for us. >> we talk about the big fast growing middle classes in brazil, russia, india, china, all of these big countries they're all going to be consuming more even as the u.s. is the biggest consumer of oil. oil is still the biggest game in town but you're talking about the other energy streams if you will. i know you are involved in this eco marathon going on. tell me about that. this is interesting, where you're getting these teams of kids basically to go as far as they can on the least amount of oil. tell me about it. >> right. so this actually goes back to your first question. this is one way to address that over time, because we're going to need significant efficiency gains in energy usage as we go forward. so what we do is sponsor this event called the shell eco marathon where we bring together literally in this case today, nearly a thousand students who have designed, built and now will actually race their vehicles in a controlled setting to see how far they can go on a certain quantity of fuel. and we leave the boundaries pretty wide open here because this is all about innovation and coming up with new ideas to be more efficient. so they can use gasoline, they can use diesel. we have cars that can use solar, hydrogen, plug-in hybrids, all different types of models. what we're looking for, though, are those innovative break throughs that can ultimately be applied to the larger transportation system. >> we have he been talking about budgets and how we're going to get our fiscal house in order. president obama says he wants to end subsidies for oil companies, something liberals and progressives say a lot, if the government could save billions a year in an industry that makes an awful lot of industry, the industry makes money whether oil prices are going up or down, made a trillion dollars over the past decade and a half or so, what about oil industry subsidies for big oil, is this the right place to be looking for federal revenue? >> well, i think as someone who follows business like you do, you know we go through pretty steep business cycles where times are good and not so good. we see that same cycle as consumers do and other businesses do. but i think the way to look at this is, just making sure that there's adequate supply there in the market and doing everything we can to make sure it's there. on the subsidy question, where we need to have a serious conversation of where does the revenue flow from this industry come from where it goes into the government. the big money comes from royalties and bonuses that we pay as we buy new leases. so let me give you an example. in alaska where we bought a number of leases to drilloff shore, we have some independent studies that show pursuing those projects would create something on the order of 50,000 jobs in the u.s. and it would result in something like 140 or more billion dollars of revenue know in flow into the federal government. finding ways to produce our oil and gas is the way to get revenue into the government. >> top five oil companies turning combined profit of a trillion dollars since 2000 and this -- in this political climate it's going to be hard to convince taxpayers that they should be -- that the energy industry shouldn't be sharing some of the belt tightening. are you prepared for that fight? there's going to be a political fight over this. >> well, i think certainly we look at that. we get asked this question and we face this question all around the world. and actually how capital gets allocated around the world for investment has a lot to do with one of the overall economics of what a certain country looks like and art pa rts of that is tax rate and other revenues of the government. think about what we do with the government we bring in. shell is investing on the order of 25 to $27 billion a year in new energy projects. energy that the world is going to need. so that revenue cycle where the cash comes in and gets reinvested is critically important. >> marvin odom, leave it there, president of shell oil company, thanks for your time. very early in houston, thank you, sir. kiran and ali. >> just ahead on "american morning," the badly damaged nuclear power plant in japan is ordered to pay up. how much people who were forced to flee how much are they going to get? >> the last place you want to be if you spend the entire spring sneezing. some of the worst cities for allergy sufferers. we'll break them down coming up. [ 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. ♪ water, we take our showers with it. we make our coffee with it. but we rarely tap its true potential and just let it be itself. flowing freely into clean lakes, clear streams and along more fresh water coast line than any other state in the country. come realize water's true potential. dive in-to the waters of pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. a lot going on this morning. here's what you need to know to start your day. this year's budget is on its way to president obama's desk. it's the deal that stopped the government shutdown last weekend. the house and senate passed it yesterday. a defiant moammar gadhafi popping out of his sun roof in tripoli. this as president obama and the leaders of great britain and france all say he has to go in a new op-ed this morning. japan now ordering operators of a badly damaged nuclear power plant to pay $12,000 to each family forced to evacuate. delaware becomes the eighth state to legalize civil unions. the measure passed in the state's house of representatives yesterday. the governor says he will sign it. ford recalling 1.2 million full-sized pick-ups because the air bags might go off when they don't need to. it involves mostly ford f-150s built between 2003 and 2006. for the second year in a row the allergy and asthma foundation of america chose knoxville, tennessee, the worst place to be for spring time allergies. four other southern cities followed it on the list. today is tax days most other years. you get three extra days to file your taxes this year, due on monday, april 18th. that's because it's emancipation day a little known washington, d.c., holiday, that celebrates the freeing of slaves. it's in the district that's being observed today. you're caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" is back in 60 seconds. coming into the cnn newsroom from garland county, arkansas, three fatalities from trees falling in that state. also a couple fatalities in eastern oklahoma yesterday from tornadoes. severe weather a threat that continues today. good morning again. i'm rob marciano. we are looking at a tornado warning right now in effect for parts of extreme northeast louisiana, southwestern parts of mississippi, and this is all moving to the east fairly rapidly between 30 and 50 miles an hour and severe thunderstorm warnings that are posted along this line that continues to barrel east through memphis. we've got trees and power lines down across that area, western tennessee getting it as well and this tornado watch in effect for the next couple hours. it will likely be extended eastward. northern part of this system, rain through st. louis, this will spiral up into chicago back side of that is snow. definitely a dynamic system with cold air driven from the north. memphis a ground stop until 7:30 local time because of the storms rolling through. they have for the most part pressed east of memphis. still rocky weather in that area. the bull's eye eastern mitt mississippi, parts of alabama. potential for damaging winds and potential for seeing tornadoes as well. some warm, humid air out ahead of this. it will be 55 degrees in new york city. the northeast will get part of this system saturday afternoon into sunday morning. that's a quick weather check. "american morning" is coming right back. with honey nut cheerios cereal. kissed with real honey. and the 100% natural whole grain oats can help lower your cholesterol. you are so sweet to me. bee happy. bee healthy. welcome back, 52 minutes past the hour. in this morning's "am house call." broadcaster, terry bradshaw is suffering from what he says is a career's worth of concussions. >> dr. sanjay gupta is reporting on concussions from athletes. he joins us from atlanta. here's somebody who is a gifted communicator. to this day the best keynote speaker i ever saw is terry bradshaw. he's saying his brain may be harmed. what is he dealing with? >> he was very candid about it as well. even as a broadcaster, if you listen to him closely, a lot of times, he won't mention certain stats. he won't recall certain players often. he has problems with his memory. a lot of football players are talking about the memory problems they start to suffer after they leave football referring to something known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, but it's as a result of many concussions, many blows to the head. he was asked specifically about concussions as well. here's what he had to say. >> one of the questions, obviously, how many clear-cut concussions have you had. i'm trying to think, you know, clear-cut, totally ko'd, my entire career, i could name six, six, that i -- you know, that i could remember. >> talks about six concussions. let's look at one of them there. this is back from 1976, joe "turkey" jones, cleveland browns, look at that. just smashes bradshaw to the ground. totally knocked out after that. that type of hit, it becomes more and more common, something we see more often as players become bigger and stronger. part of the concern is that players play through it. the brain took a hit, takes another hit again, that's a real problem. bradshaw said he would take smelling salts, just smelling salts and get right back in the game again. >> they don't allow those hits, nowadays you would be penalized, right? >> this season, for example, you'll notice this if you watch football. where they kick the ball off for the start of the game is moved up five yards to the 35 yard line. the importance of that is there are more balls going into the end zone, that cuts down on the number of kickbacks which is one of the most dangerous parts of the game. >> cte. chronic traumatic encephalopathy. what is that, and how does somebody know whether or not they have it? >> it's an interesting thing. mostly it's a clinical diagnosis, people develop certain symptoms after they've taken hits. people retired from football for a few years, depression, rage and memory problems. those are the three things they've developed. it's very reminiscent of dementia. but from a young age. take a look. they've been examining brains of athletes. on the left, you see a 45-year-old athlete. look at that brown area. that brown area is significant, compared to the brain on the right, the one on the right is someone who has somethinged dementia and someone in their 70s. you shouldn't she those same changes, but you do, as a result of concussions, or multiple blows to the head. you're basically accelerating the dementia process at a very young age. >> depression, rage and memory loss. >> memory problems. >> some of those things, memory problems, has him concerned. >> that's right. he's even talking about seeing a clinic on the west coast about this. trying to look at his brain. obviously they look at brain with an mri scan, but trying to get therapy for those memory problems. >> sanjay. >> great he's being so up front about it. maybe other people gets help as well. >> i think the nfl is starting to pay attention to this. we're keeping on top of it as well. >> this, sanjay, have a great weekend. i'm ali velshi, deadly storms on the move. twisters spotted on camera. at least five people reported dead overnight. severe storm warnings across the south right now. >> collateral damage from the sleeping air traffic controller, the man in charge of the nation's air traffic is out of a job. >> president obama meeting the so-called controversy head on. . seeking to derail his bid for re-election on this "american morning." good morning, everybody, friday, april 15th. welcome to american morning. this air traffic control story will not go away. it continues, but looks like we're getting closer -- >> now, someone for sure lost their job over it. normally this is tax day. you get a reprieve, three-day reprieve because of a celebration in d.c. >> some of you in the south will have violent weather. >> we're tracking our stores, but right now, five people confirmed killed in the severe line of storms, several states facing a tornado threat. witnesses say one huge funnelle cloud touched down in a town of oklahoma, p traing others in their home and badly damaging a school. rob marciano is tracking all of this. you had been warning this in the 6:00 hour, strong line of storms moving through. wheat the latest? >> as it moved through oklahoma, it got into arkansas. not a lot of tornado reports but certainly strong winds. this is damage that occurred overnight. there were fatalities, from trees, large trees falling on structures where there were people inside. this whole complex is moving east. here it is on the radar scope. we have tornado warnings out right now for yazoo county. it wass yazoo city that had tornadoed rip through that town. the line moving through western parts of tennessee where it's strong enough to have power lines and trees down there. that's heading towards nashville in the next couple of hours. that tornado watch is in effect for the next couple of hours as well. the storm prediction center may issue another watch that extends into parts of alabama. they have yet to do that. this system extends north as well with cold air behind it. bull's-eye will be across parts of mississippi and alabama as we go through later today. but the severe weather threat extends through the ohio river valley later this afternoon and the whole system gets to the northeast over the weekend. much more on this throughout the morning, guys. rob, back up to you. >> thanks very much. there's new fallout involving incidents of air traffic controllers falling acreek on the ground. hank krakowski who you see here has resigned. the controllers have all been suspended. in the latest system in reno, faa ruled two to be on duty where there used to be just one. in libya. moammar gadhafi, taunting the people. racing down the streets, pumping his fists. meanwhile. the leaders of france saying gadhafi has to go. it is impossible to imagine a future for libya with gadhafi in power. georgia lawmakers getting tough on immigration following arizona's controversy law. georgia's legislature passed a bill that allows them to ask about the immigration status of criminal suspects. anyone caught using fake documents to apply for a job could face prison time. no word yet on whether or not he plans to sign the bill. president obama in chicago for the first of many fund-raisers in the re-election campaign that he started at the beginning of last week, also meeting that so-called birther issue, head on. listen. >> i was born in hawaii. >> but i became a man here in chicago. >> candy crawly, the ovation cass so long, we had to cut it, after he said i was born in hawaii, the crowd went crazy. she's a cnn correspondent and host of "state of the union." the white house presented the documents, thought this thing had been put to rest. let the right wing own this discussion. now the president is addressing it. >> look, he was at a fund-raiser, so he is surrounded by his most ardent supporter, people who, early on, are willing to pony up a lot of money to come an see him. this is a group that is going to applaud that. this is really the first kind of plate aptly, openly political raise some money, i want to get reelected event that he's done. so it's a good place to bring it up in that sort of subtle way. let's face it. it is a -- if it is a good issue for a certain segment of the population, it is also a good issue for democrats, because, as you say, you had to cut the applause. it is a good, oh, they're out to get him. let get behind him. it is an applause line for him as well. the politics cut both ways. >> he was actually asked about this. he addressed the issue in an interview with abc. let's list ton what he said. i want to ask you how he tackled it. >> over the last two and a half clears, there's been an effort to go at me, in a way that is splitly expedient in the short term for republicans. but, creates, i think a problem for them, when they want to actually run in a general election, where most people feel pretty confident, the president was born where he says he was, in hawaii. he doesn't have horns. >> you know, this is interesting, because even as he's addressing that, he's not sounding defensive, he's not really defending himself. i was definitely born in hawaii. >> he's -- he's sort of putting it back on the gop here. how big of a problem may this turn out to be for the gop? >> we'll see. listen. you have -- in this particular parsing of the politics of it, the president has, on his side, newt gingrich who has thinks this is very bad. marco rubio, any kind of headline republicans who said to donald trip p who, in the most recent iteration brought it back to the headlines, said, stop. you are hurting the party. this is not the issue we want to be talking about. there are plenty of issues like jobs in the economy, foreign policy, all of those things. this is not what you ought to be doing, donald trump doesn't tend to listen to the republican party or anybody else in that matter. so, setting aside the motivations, of the people who are questioning where the president was born, the politics of it, i think, as most people agree, are exactly what the president said, this is not something -- it may be helpful in the primaries. there is a suggestion in the polls, that a good number of ardent republican,s that is those who vote in the primaries, most conservative part of the party, a good number of them do have questions about where the president was born. so what he's talking about short run is maybe, you know, in the short run, in the primary process, perhaps that brings, in this instance, donald trump, some kind of headlines, and some sort of attention, but in the long run, when you go into the general populous, and you have to get elected by more than just republicans and more than just democrats, you need independents and cross party votes, when you get to the general populous, the vast majority of people believe the president is born in the united states and there's been ample proof of that. the president is parsing it pretty much the way republicans are. >> good to see you. thank you. >> watch candy by the way 9:00 a.m. on "state of the union." tracking a serial killer in long island. which one former detective believes the murder is playing one twisted game. >> this guy has a lot of exploerns. we've got scary new numbers about the cost of college. we are watching your money. it is 7 minutes after the hour. and i went online to find a way. ♪ chantix -- it's a non-nicotine pill. i didn't want nicotine to give up nicotine. while you're taking the medication, for the first week, you can go ahead and smoke. 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[ male announcer ] talk to your doctor to find out if chantix is right for you. learn about the chantix challenge. chantix may not work for everyone. if you aren't quit after 12 weeks, we'll refund your cost of trying it. learn more at chantix.com. we'll refund your cost of trying it. any questions? no. you know... ♪ we're not magicians ♪ we can't read your mind ♪ ♪ read your mind ♪ we need your questions ♪ each and every kind ♪ every kind ♪ will this react with my other medicine? ♪ ♪ hey, what are all these tests even for? ♪ ♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh an fbi helicopter with high resolution photography equipment on board will fly over long island's south shore beaches today, trying to find more victims of the suspected serial killer there. >> so far, eight bodies have been found along with two spratt sets of human remains. jason carroll is joining us, jason, this is a complicated case on a number of levels. we talk about it as a serial killer, we don't know how many bodies are connected to the same killer. >> and we don't know if it's one killer or more than one. a lot of parts of this case are still coming together. you know, as the search on long island intensifies, we did speak with a detective who has first-hand knowledge what it's like to track and capture a serial killer. >> as investigators search for more clues to lead them to a suspected serial killer or killers on long island, one mormer detective, helped find one of america's most infamous serial killer, watches every development. >> this case is very -- wearing on detectives, and these guys out here, i feel for them, i went through this with the son of sam. >> son of sam. that's how david berkowitz identified himself in 1977. he shot 17, murdering 6 before getting caught. >> i had a certain amount of rage in my heart regarding mr. berkowitz. >> josie coffey, created the traffic force to catch him. his background, giving a unique perspective into the long island investigation. >> keep in mind, these bodies were hidden for a purpose. whoever this is didn't anticipate these bodies being found. >> when he started his crime wave. it's a vendetta. he was afraid of getting caught. >> finding evidence here, a challenge. the brush too thick even for police dogs, but coffey said more leads may develop by learning how the four identified victims got there, all were known prostitutes. interview cap drivers, not necessarily the perpetrator, but these women had to have transportation to get to and from their johns. >> do you think the person what's responsible for what's happening here wants to be caught? >> no, that's a fallacy. they say that awful the time. he wants to be caught. that's baloney. >> coffey is remembered of another long island serial ill killer, joel ripken. he targeted prostitutes, conf s confessed to murdering 17 but was convicted for 9. >> he was born in and raised in this area. you cannot do what he's doing if he didn't know the area. >> why not leave the area? >> because they love the game. this is a game to them. >> coffey said decks doing a good job not releasing too much information to the press. the mistake they made to son of sam was releasing information too quick. david berkowitz was watching and ended up using that to his advantage. he also believes the killer or killers will be caught. >> the other thing, we think -- we think we're performing a service guy giving out all of this having in, it's possible whoever is perpetrating the crimes is following the media. >> that's why detectives have to be careful about the information they do release. >> sometimes all you need is a lucky break. you refer to rip tin that he found. that's because he doesn't have a license plate. they pull him over and he had a body in the trunk. >> looks play a role. it's hard work, detective work and that might help them catch them. >> star wars on the high seas, check this out. the navy showed the latest weapon, zapping an outboard motor on a small boat, they were able to do this from a mile away. let's say like off the eve of africa. they call it the first successful test of high energy laser. >> the college education stays with you for life. so do the bills, in some cases, daunting numbers about the cost of college, watching your money, and help you be smart about student debt. 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[ male announcer ] get zyrtec®'s proven allergy relief and love the air®. well, if you're a parent out there saving for your children's education or one of your kids trying to pay off your debt, you know it costs a lot of money, college students owe more than anyone else owes on their credit cards combined. it used to be thought of as an investment. is it still? >> i think it can be an investment. if you're talking about average car. it can be an investment. student loan debt outpaces credit card debt. outpaces a trillion dollars total. two-thirds of college grads had debt in '08 compared to less than five in '93. the average price is around 24 thousand. according to the department of education, the average high scholar gets 38 minutes of college advice before deciding where to go to school. that's from '05, but i duct it's gotten too much better. as college degree become morse essential and college costs rise from 6% to 11% a year. it's vital to be savvy on your loans what to take out, how much and how to manage the college process. key points to keeping loan apartments low. graduate and graduate in four years or less. if you can imagine, 40% of students take six years or more and have loans and more loans. 20% never actually graduate. >> that makes a bad debt in a heart beat. >> exactly. in a heart beat. you have to graduate in four years or less. >> years ago the cost of education wasn't as much. >> the longer you drag it out. >> those days over. not knowing what you want to do. three, four different changes -- >> you got to make it easy. >> you have to be incredibly -- >> you it adds on a year easily. >> don't forget, the longer you're not in the work force, the longer it takes you to catch up. >> wouldn't you say, if you want to continue your education, not take six years to do a four-year degree, get a masters or another degree, the opportunity for doing that today is better than three, four years when the job market is so hot, it's a bad decision to stay in asked. >> great advice for your parks, know your kids. keep them focused. also, please, exhaust federal loan options. they have the lowest rates and most flexible terms. >> never borrow for college -- never pay for college with your retirement. >> that, too, my friend. do not do that. >> sometimes your workplace will pay for you to get, at least partially some of the degree. get out, get a job and get creative. >> talk about a higher degree. >> excellent, great advice, thank you. >> i got a question for you guys. you invite co-workers to your wedding? >> prince william agrees with you. he invited all 27 members of his royal air force squad to see him tie the knot with kate middleton. i think he has fewer budgetary constraints. william's pals are honored. meanwhile he's getting the same treatment as any other pilot. he had to put in leave form to request time for his honeymoon. oh, stop. his big day is april 29th. you can watch, dvr. participate. be part of the global viewing party. no rsvp necessary. see you there. coming up. just when you thought the smart phone doesn't get any smarter, it does. the 4 g network taking the tech world by storm. we have the latest geek gadget stuff. so, what's the snapshot discount? it's pretty revolutionary. patented, actually. it takes a snapshot of your good driving habits, so you can save money. like a snapshot? that's what i'm talking about. in a sports car. show it to me. yes! i want to believe it! ooh! fierce! argh! love it. i think we have it. the snapshot discount. new, huge, and only from progressive. oh! [ both slurping ] ♪ [ female announcer ] the irresistible taste of cinnamon toast crunch. crave those crazy squares. it's hard to remember the days before we all had smart phones. today one in three households have one. they make everything easier. pay bill, send e-mail, book flights. a lot of buzz surrounding the 4 g network. you may have seen ads for it. it's posed to be as fast as the network you have at home. jonathan, good to have you back, i've seen these ads, seen people talk about 4 g. for our audience, what is 4 g. . it's much, much faster than 3 g net, would. it is ten times faster and will give you internet speeds like home network. you don't get dropped calls. >> the dropped calls is becoming less significant. i do surfing on my device. it's not super fast but what does it let me do besides being super fast? >> a lot of sharing, sending e-mails with big files, all of those are really quick. >> who is offering 4 g? >> right now, all four carriers. >> are there products and services available right now? >> there are, yeah. >> does this government more than 3 g networks? >> prices are actually about the same for the devices and monthly plan. >> so, is it a no-brainer that if you have the opportunity for buying a 4 g over 3 g, you should take it? >> it's more earlier now, battery life is a concern. but over the next 12 months 4 g will be prevalent across everything. >> we talked about the ipad 2. you tried out the playbook which is blackberry's version of the tablet. yesterday the stock took a big hit because playbook is getting negative reviews. >> i reviewed it. it's a really great tablet. just not quite there, i don't think. they're working out some bugs. in the next couple months it will be better than it is today. >> the thing i like, it reduces the size. smaller than an ipad, bigger than a blackberry. give me a sense, a year or two down the road, what are we looking at? is ipad going to rule the world or are these mid-sized devices going to be more popular? >> the playbook is seven inches, ipad is 10. it's interesting to see them converge in what size they get to. i think around 7 to 10 inches. >> you tried everything. what do you use? >> i use an ipad 2. >> for your phone -- >> i use iphone. >> i love blackberry, but i love my iphone. >> i want to switch topics, i used a video camera with tape in it. i resisted while people moving from hard drives and flash drives for the video cameras, the thing that brought me over is the flip cam. cisco bought it, what happened? >> they bought it for $6 million. they have a new product coming out a week ago. that's gone. they they want to use the technology for video conferencing. >> which they're doing well with. >> for those out there for a new video camera. what technology do you use? what do you buy? >> there are alternatives, kodak makes something. one of the reasons people hypothesize what flip phone has done. your iphone, blackberry, you can shoot it and b upload it. that's the difference there. >> there weren't many options. >> what have you got there? these are 4 g products? >> this is the lg t-mobile. it's amazing speed. probably one of the fastest an droid phones, 8 megapixel camera. front facing for video conferencing as well. really good product, available april 20th in scores. this is motorola from at&t. it has a fingerprint scanner, slide it over and phone unlocks. really goal. >> what's the software that that runs? >> that's an droid as well. >> that's an droid. and this is so early, i'm not able to show you the software. htc evo 3d. this will be out in the summer. a really, really great product. this is one of my favorite in the world p. verizon samsung mobile hot spot. it's like a little router in the pocket. the size of a deck of cards. will spit out 4 g speeds. your laptop. ipad, nintendo ds. >> the fact you're spitting it out taking a cell signal. it's slower but not the 4 g. i can pack this in my bag and take it wherever you go. subscription service? >> about $50 a month. >> good to see you. thank you for your head's up. good to see you. >> thanks, guy, let's take a look at the top stories, tornado alley living up to its name. violent storms being blamed for five deaths in arkansas as well as oklahoma. severe weather could spawn more tornadoes across parts of the south today. in libya, the city of misrata still under assault and assault on a road in a residential area reportedly killed 23 people and wounded hundreds of others. what you're looking at is amateur video taken of shrapnel on the ground and other buildings destroyed, libyan opposition plan, major demonstrations today. pink slips going to every public school teacher in detroit. nearly 5500 union members now on notice they could lose their jobs. officials preparing to close as many as 25 schools in the district in june. new developments this morning in the tragic case of a distraught young mother who drove her family van into the hudson river in upstate new york, killing herself and three of her children. details of their final horrifying moments are coming now from the sole survivor of the tragedy, the woman's 10-year-old son and good samaritan who stopped to help him as he stopped shivering on the side of the road. deb feyerick with the latest. >> you see the pictures of the little boy. all of this may not have registered or resonated. by all accounts this quiet, polite, young mom. 25-year-old lashondra armstrong believing the only way out of her pain is taking the life and lives of her children. a facebook posting shows her asking people for mercy, saying i'm sorry, everyone, forgive me, please for what i'm going to do. she bundled her young kids into the family minivan and raced to the river blocks from her home h. heres things. seconds before the car sank she may have come to her senses. the 10year-old said his mom climbed into the back seat said if i'm going to die you're going to die with me. as the 10-year-old broke free, she had a change of heart, oh, my god, i made a mistake. when she tried to reverse the car it was too late. the 10-year-old boy managed to escape. you see him. he ran to the road desperately flagging down drivers. the woman who stopped said the little boy was soaking and frantic. >> he kept saying, it's my fault. he blamed himself. not getting his baby sister out. because the buckle was too tight. he was literally blaming himself for everything that went on that he didn't get help fast enough. >> so, clearly, that little boy trying to get his siblings out of the car. people spoke with say he is a responsible kid. he helped his mom with younger siblings who apparently adored him. would take his two brothers to church, help out at the day care center while his mom was at work. the day care director told us the day of the tragedy, the mom picked the kids up unusually early, she looked a little out of it. one of the teachers told lashanda armstrong that she could call if she needed help. to think that you get to that point that there seemeded to be no other options. >> also to know that that facebook posting for 30 minneapolis, if anybody could see it. i don't know how much you read into it, that's such a tragedy as well. >> didn't seem like she was trying to get retribution on the father. she was clearly upset but not, i hate you. she was asking for mercy. please forgive me for what i'm going to do. >> he found an adult to help. the adult who is supposed to take care of him, protect him, couldn't. >> maeve was saying, the cars were passing by. it may not be your first instinct to stop. he was saying nobody would stop for him >> exactly right. where that peer is, you haier i cross a train track. the area was a depressed area. a fire had taken a home across the street much the community is tight. this a a tragedy. it's resonating. >> this is to imagine the depth of her pain. >> her pain, and her helplessness. thanks. >> all right. 34 minutes after the hour, we're taking a quick break. lean cuisine market creations steam meals. like new chicken poblano with tender white meat chicken, crisp veggies, in a savory cheddar sauce. new from lean cuisine. and you want to pass along as much as possible to future generations. at northern trust, we know what works and what doesn't. as one of the nation's largest wealth managers, we can help you manage the complexities of transferring wealth. seeking to minimize taxes while helping maximize what's passed along. because you just never know how big those future generations might be. ♪ expertise matters. find it at northern trust. welcome back to "american morning," it's an understand statement saying cbs daytime is getting a facelift and zsa zsa gabor is having a baby, sort of. she have shannon cook withes, she's following the story, nice to see you, welcome to the show. >> strange is an understatement. >> i love this, right? >> this is prince frederick van anholt. he wants to have a baby. >> he does. you can't make this stuff up. this is absolutely bizarre. she's the ninth husband of gabor. it was too late for them to have a baby, he suddenly decided it's not too late. let's go ahead and do it. >> he's 67. gabor is -- >> how long have they been together? >> since '83. gabor is 94. she cannot produce an egg. he wants a surrogate. >> many men want to run away from the fact it may or may not be theres. he has a history of saying they are his. >> he claimed he was the father of dannielynn. >> he doesn't have the sqeaky clean image. this could be a publicity stunt. clinics these days are discerning, they'll look at that and say this is a little bizarre. this isn't the best-case scenario. we might not go ahead with this. >> is it about money? >> probably about publicity. he likes the fame. >> this raises an important debate how old a woman should be. no. this is about whether someone is 94. >> she's been in family health. >> she is. that's another reason why this may not work. according to a doctor who tells cnn.com, she needs to provide legal consent for any of this to go ahead. she might not be of sound mind. >> she has a child. a 64-year-old child. >> right. it's crazy. >> the other story we're talking about -- it's not even light talk, the consolation of two of abc's longest running soap operas. >> right. these two shows have been around for 40 years, "all my children" and "one life to live" on abc. they're going away. it's amazing. these have been around for more than 40 years. these shows started when you actually had to get off the couch, walk to the tv and adjust the channel by switching a knob. yeah, it looks like soap operas and scripted television in general is kind of on the way out which is sad for a lot of actors, obviously. as net works are looking for ways to cut cost, these kinds of shows are expensive. setses expensive, lighting is expensive, the wardrobes are expensive i would imagine the budget for waterproof mascara alone is through the roof. they're looking for ways to cut cost and reality television is incredibly cheap. look at a joe like "jersey shore" on mtv, you can argue it's a soap opera anyway. >> it shows you how america tastes are changing. the death of show time is dying, cbs lost a couple -- >> right. >> if you look at unscripted television. >> "general hospital" is still going. there's an outlet for you. >> "jersey shore's" plot doesn't change from season to season. they are great, reliable tv. >> how can you say that? >> they have tan laundry, they might tan then go to the laundry. >> they might make out with different people. >> is that snooki? >> snooki falling down. she had too many margaritas. people who watch soap operas are so loyal, it's interesting they want to cut that out. you're not going to watch a cooking show like you follow susan lucci's character. >> the problem is, the core audience is women, and there's so much choice out there. there's so many shows on cable that are pulling them away. there are judge shows, talk shows, these are all shows cheap to make. keep in mind, the beginning when soap operas were very popular, a lot of women were still staying at home and not working. they're distracted also by material online. so the audience is waning. >> there are others, on spanish language television. interesting, because one segment of the television viewing audience, there are soap operas enduring and doing well. that's interesting. >> great to talk to you, thanks for joining us. >> a so-called birther bill, about to become law, forcing president obama or any other candidate to prove they were born in u.s. >> losing weight, how dropping pounds helps your mental health as well. [ male announcer ] nature valley 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. (announcer) everything you need to stay balanced on long trips. residence inn. 44 minutes paf the hour, a lot going on this morning. here's what we need to do to start the day. this year's budget is on its way to president obama's desk. that's the deal that stopped the government shutdown last weekend. the house and senate passed it yesterday. egypt's ousted president mubarak has been moved to a hospital under military guard. his health unstable. he was questioned for a corruption probe and death of protesters. also japan ordering operators of the badly damaged nuclear plant to pay 12 thousand to each family forced to evacuate. a so-called birther bill in arizona has passed the state legislature that makes presidential candidates prove, have to prove they're u.s. citizen, jan brewer is expected to sign it. just about five americans from the opening bell. the dow closing up slightly. nasdaq down and s&p up more slightly. right now futures for the s&p dipping down. teens who sleep in are safer drivers, that's the study. saying crash rates may be higher for teenage drivers who start school early in the morning. weight loss surgery may improve mental health as well. another new study said people who had it and lost 50 bounds saw an improvement in their memories as elwith. you're caught up on the day's headlines, "american morning" is back in 60 seconds. 47 minutes past the hour. we're talking about severe weather today, a line of storms moving through parts of the south. rob marciano is keeping an eye on all of that. hey, rob. >> ten reports of tornadoes, damage, fatalities in oklahoma and arkansas and this whole system is pressing off to the east as it usually does. and the bull's eye will be across eastern mississippi and alabama. a lot of moisture coming in from the gulf of mexico, dewpoint in the 60s. wind shifts and as you go in the upper levels, plenty of dynamics as well. i want to touch on what's going on right now which is a tornado waring in effect for parts offia yazoo county. it was a year ago to this day,ia za cou yazoo county was torn up. but the entire line is certainly very, very strong and all of it associated with this cold front pushing off to the east. just in the last few minutes, the storm's prediction center issued a new tornado watch box that has been up for parts of louisiana, mostly mississippi, northwestern alabama. dixie ally is an area na gets a lot of tornadoes, especially this time of year, as this line bows out. that's going to be an issue too. further north, we have rain spiraling up towards peoria and chicago, back side of this seeing a little snow. also of snow, the wind behind this system, as you know, we've been dealing with wild fires across parts of northwestern texas. today we've got fire danger high again with winds gusty, 28 miles per hour, according to those computer models. daytime highs, 76 as that passes, 75 in atlanta. 55 degrees expected in new york city with temperatures there, maybe right where they should be. maybe a couple degrees cooler. newark and cincinnati sporting a few delays but mostly below an hour. again this system brings rains to the northeast, i think tomorrow afternoon to sunday morning. toss it to you guys in new york city. have a great weekend. >> you too, have a wonderful weekend. load up on the claritin, or whatever you take. >> but maxville is worst than atlanta. >> as i said with the allergy reports, none matters, the only one that matters is what is going on in your city. who is moving because of that? coming up on "american morning" -- actually it makes a lot of work to be a princess but if you're up to the challenge, we have a school for you, we'll take you inside london's only princess training program. >> if all ayou had to do is balance a book on your head, that's cool. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 what if every atm was free ? tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 if you could use any atm, at any bank, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 anywhere in the world... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 without having to pay to access your own money. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 it'd be like every atm in the world was your atm. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 the schwab bank high yield investor checking® account. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 zero atm fees. a great interest rate. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 no minimums. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and it's fdic-insured. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 the schwab bank high yield investor checking® account. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 the biggest thing in checking since checks. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 open an account at 1-800-4schwab or schwab.com. welcome back to "american morning," one of our past cnn heroes has reached a major milestone. five years ago, teenager started sending cds and dvds to troops overseas as a gesture of gratitude. it became her nonprofit itunes for the troops, this week she had a little rock star help to celebrate a big achievement. >> kailee marie became a hero in 2008. at that time she send thousands of dvds overseas. it was her way to say thank you. >> it's gone so far these past five year, there's nothing i would change. it's made a difference in so many people's lives. today she's on a scholarship at tennessee university. >> tunes for troops is part of the learning center at the university. there's staff and student workers that volunteer for community service hours, this way, the troops will be able to continue, even once i graduate. >> this week, volunteers gathered to pack the latest shipment of cds and dvds which included a special milestone, which was the 1 millionth disk. >> one of the guitarists showed up to pack the 1 millionth cd. >> number 1 million. >> once i graduate, i'll be able to know that tunes for the troops is in some wonderful hands, and, who knows, once i'm an officer in the united states army, i could potentially benefit from tunes from the troops, getting cds and dvds. it's pretty cool. >> and, remember, every one of this year's cnn heroes are chosen from people you tell us about. if you want to nominate someone who you know is making a really big difference in your community, go to cnn heroes.com. we'll take a quick break but american morning will be right back at 54 minutes after the hour. then...over time... become dull... and lose their luster because washing in the bargain brand can leave dirt from the wash on your clothes causing your whites to get dingy. new improved tide plus bleach helps to remove the dirt in one wash to bring your whites back to bright. turning white-ish to...wow. tide plus bleach. style is an option. clean is not. also try tide stain release, the in-wash booster from tide. i thought it was over here... ♪ [car horn honks] our outback always gets us there... ... sometimes it just takes us a little longer to get back. ♪ any questions? no. you know... ♪ we're not magicians ♪ we can't read your mind ♪ ♪ read your mind ♪ we need your questions ♪ each and every kind ♪ every kind ♪ will this react with my other medicine? ♪ ♪ hey, what are all these tests even for? ♪ ♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh a lot of girls are looking for a fairy tale ending, to live in a big castle. now there's a school in london that makes the princess dream come true. who better to take us through the princess in training program. take a look. ♪ >> why did you decide, princess prep? >> ever suns i was a little girl, i wanted to be a princess, so i wanted to create a program for other little girls that had the same dream. >> you smooth your dress. you put one leg behind, one, two, three. so what are you telling these young ladies all about being a princess? >> well, we're teaching them to nourish the qualities of a princess that exist in every little girl. manners, etiquette, kindness, service, duty, compassion. >> that's a lot. >> that is a lot. but every little girl can do it. >> pretend you're a princess and at a ball. you're going to be as regal, as royal and ladylike has possible. you're making turns, going back and forth. it looks so easy. look at that. good job. >> what's the biggest do or don't of being a princess? >> everyone try to sit like a princess. >> i think you're not allowed to be selfish. you have to live your life for everyone else. so it's a lot about sacrifice and thinking about others. >> now, let's talk about the royal wedding. >> who is getting married? >> prince william and kate. >> are you going to watch the royal wedding? >> do you want to be a princess? you don't? why not. >> you want to be a princess? >> i want to be one. >> why do you want to be a princess? >> well -- >> they're rich. >> you get rich. and you are really good with a book on your head, wasn't it? >> was it hard? >> so tough. >> would you like to marry a prince? >> i don't know. >> if the royal princesses to be learn nothing else on their special day, at least they'll learn one trick that, who knows -- they may get to use in the future. richard quest, cnn, central london. >> so adorable. so, for all of those little princesses in training, the royal wedding is right around the corner. if you didn't get your invitation, we got you covered. we

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