Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100328 : vimarsana.com

good morning. desert storm. we re not going to sit down and shut up. thank you for standing up. sarah palin draws thousands to a tea party rally in the nevada desert going after a top senate democrat on his home turf and launching a national tea party tour. mean streets, flash mob violence on the streets of philadelphia. the result of a social media trend that s supposed to be part prank, far fun. but what went wrong? ride of her life. a great-great-grandmother fulfills a life long dream with a death defying plunge. we watched her jump yesterday. she joins us here live today, we watched her jump yesterday. she joins us here live today, sunday, march 28, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good sunday morning. welcome to the today show. i m lester holt. did you see how happy the grandmother looked? i m excited about that. this is an important week coming up. tomorrow begins passover, easter now a week away. for christians today is palm sunday. pope benedict just wrapped up mass at the vatican. a lot of people watching to see if he would address the sex abuse scandal that has rocked his papacy. then we re going to get an update on former first lady barbara bush. mrs. bush was admitted to the hospital on saturday. coming up we ll tell you why she was there and bring the latest on her condition. we ll introduce you to a 13-year-old college student who has a major problem with his university. he was told he couldn t study abroad because he was too young. he s going to join us along with his mom to explain. plus in our next half hour we ll have the truth about flying. a lot of people are nervous flyers. do you count yourself among them? i m not but i do have a lot of questions. you re a professional pilot i m a professional flyer. professional flyer. write down your questions because we ll have an expert, a commercial pilot who will answer some nagging questions that flyers have. why do you have to shut the blackberry off. and turbulence. things that people get nervous about. opening day is one week away. there will be another group hitting the grass and that s the umpires. i actually had a chance to attend umpire cool. why am i yelling inthere s actually umpire school and i got a few lessons from behind the plate. my voice is so grating sometimes when i m out there. really? i was watching the symbols you were doing there and cut them off at the highway. was he safe or out? gosh, you only know. let s talk about sarah palin. she drew a huge crowd on saturday in search light, nevada, kicking off a national tea party tour to unseat congressional democrats. thank you tea party america do you love your freedom? reporter: there s something about sarah. conservative tea party activists who think the country is headed in the wrong direction say she has the right stuff. we re not going to sit down and shut up. thank you for standing up. reporter: as they try to oust democrats in the november election they came to search light, nevada whose best known reshar resident, harry reid was instrumental in passing health care reform. harry, harry. reporter: a few dozen reid supporters held a counter rally, he stayed away from home visiting las vegas. i hope they have a good occasion. that s what america is all about. it s a democracy. people have a voice and they should use it. reporter: earlier pa lynn was in arizona trying to use her tea party credentials to help re-elect john mccain to the u.s. senate. when we add up all the votes arizona this guy is going to win this time. going to send him back to the united states senate. reporter: twice she was interrupted by protesters who were forcibly removed. young manistique around and listen to what we say. sir, maybe you ll learn something. reporter: back here in search light, nevada there was none of that. the crowd was enthralled by palin although a public address system made her hard to hear at times. let s get it together, america. reporter: the tea party caravan heads eastward, 44 cities in three weeks winding up in washington, d.c. on april the 15th, tax day. for today, george lewis, nbc news search light, nevada. joining us now from washington, david gregory, moderator of the meet the press. let me ask you about sarah palin. she s almost in the role of king maker as at least it pertains to john mccain seeing her in that role coming to his rescue. what does it mean about her future and his future? first his future, i mean i think king maker in a very narrow role. she can help mobilize the conservative base in arizona, which has a lot of sympathy to the tea party movement, has real concerns about big government as it sees it government running amuck. she s a perfect figure to mobilize that base and because senator mccain is in a primary struggle he can use that. her future aside from being a political star and kind of a movement politician is unclear. because there s a big leap from being quite popular in a movement like the tea party movement which is still kind of taking shape and running for public office. you know the tea party movement is still taking shape. folks aren t sure what to make of it. the washington post came out with a poll, about a quarter of americans thought it had too much influence. another quarter not enough influence. if you re leading the republican party how do you interpret that? the view within the republican party speaking to senior officials of the party is that this is a movement that they want to tap into and really bring into the republican party. in some ways you got the tea party which has concerns with big government programs, a lot of concerns about deficits and too much spending. that s the energy that they want to tap into and say look, we got a republican party that can respond to those concerns. they also think within the republican party these may be people who have not voted before. maybe they are newly registered. they are looking for a way if you re a republican party to grow the base, which has shrunk in the course of the past couple of cycles. let s point out some of the other numbers. approval rating for president obama hasn t changed. approval rating at 53%. when you farrow down to certain issue, health care 49%, disapprove. economy 52% disapprove. he does better on afghanistan but when you look at the economy and health care, in the minds of many americans are those still not fixed? still not fixed. you talk to a lot of people about health care. there s a lot of confusion. what does it mean to me? will it work? all of that confusion, the president has to try to clear up. i think that will be a long term enterprise. their view at the white house they have an achievement to campaign on. republicans are seizing on that kind of public opinion and say let s just run to repeal this thing. the economy is the big deal. people are still out of work. foreclosures are still very high. housing is a major issue. these are the major drags on the president. here s jenna. former first lady barbara bush remains hospitalized this morning after being admitted on saturday for a battery of tests. we go outside methodist hospital in houston for the latest. reporter: the 84-year-old former first lady admitted about 10:00 yesterday morning for a full range of tests according to a family spokesman after she reported not feeling well for the last several weeks. now authorities say that this is just routine, she came in yesterday morning on the advice and suggestion of her doctors. the family spokesman said they definitely do not believe that it is serious because even as late as friday she appeared at barbara bush elementary school here in houston and spoke to elementary school students, part of her continuing commitment to literacy. she spent nine days a year ago for surgery on an aortic valve and in november of 2008 she was here for a perforated ulcer. but she s expected to be released in a day or two. the family spokesman said she was driven to the hospital by her husband, the former president. back to you. thank you. now here s lester. a top cardinal at the vatican is acknowledging the church mishandled some cases of sex abuse but defended the pope. thousands gather in st. peter s square to here the pontiff to deliver his palm sunday mass. ann thompson joins us from rome with the latest. reporter: good morning, lester. the catholic church begins this holy week under a cloud of suspicion, with more claims of sexual abuse by its priest and mr. accusations that its leaders ignored those claims, accusations that go all the way to pope benedict. reporter: the majesty of the catholic church on display in st. peter s square this morning. palm sunday mass, remembering jesus christ s triumphant arrival in jerusalem, first of a week long events focusing on christ s death and resurrection. catholics look for a memory while the world looked for a sign that the pope would acknowledge sexual abuse by some of its priests. it s a major story in headline and it dogs the church wherever it goes. therefore, the church has to restore credibility in the eyes, the mine, the hearts of catholics and other people around the world. reporter: he studies at georgetown university in washington. he s not a catholic but says his positive experiences with priests at that catholic cool outweigh the negative headlines. acts of individuals rather than being institutional acts. reporter: for these three college students all catholic it s difficult. if it s true it s terrible because these are people we re supposed to trust and follow and they are supposed to lead us. reporter: catholics believe the pope is infallible. but he s not immune from the scandal. benedict s handling of two cases involving pedophile priests before he became pope have critics accusing him of being part of the problem, looking the other way instead of punishing the priests. the pope did not address the criticism or the issue at mass. now, attorneys in the united states are going to court in hopes to force the vatican to address the issue, to be more open about what it knew back then and what it knows today. last night the church s chief spokesperson said that the church has to acknowledge these decades old cases and make amends for them. this morning the world is still waiting to hear from pope benedict. ann, thank you. now for a check on the rest of today s top news stories we turn to peter alexander over at the news desk. good morning. we begin today in afghanistan where there s been a dramatic spike in the number of american soldiers killed. the number of deaths has nearly doubled and the number of wounded has tripled from this time last year. in total 77 fighters have died in fighting since january. pentagon officials warn casualties are likely to rise. a memorial service will be held today in a kentucky community still reeling from a horrific crash on friday. 11 people were killed. the ntsb is investigating the cause of that crash. questions this morning about why authorities fired a total of 42 round of ammunition at a car in florida with a 2-year-old boy inside. police were trying to shoot a suspected bank robber in jacksonville who fled and forced his way into a parked car, but inside that car a family of three, including a 2-year-old who is now in critical condition. the suspect was killed. from greece to las vegas strip to the eiffel tower in paris the lights went out for an hour to celebrate earth hour. it s a global effort to make people aware of climate change and energy consumption. 4,000 cities took par in that event. finally could the stars of style in france be changing their way? check this out. it s the latest issue of french elle. it s on newsstands this weekend. it features plus-size model. inside the magazine a full 20 week spread with the self described curvy models who wear a size 12. i say they look pretty good. janice huff has our first check of the weather. we have some flooding to talk about. more flood watches have been issued for the bulk of the east coast from portland to boston to new york city and philadelphia and roanoke, virginia the same areas that were inundated with heavy rain and flooding over the last couple of weeks. there s the storm system now bringing thunderstorms through parts of eastern tennessee, we could see two to five inches of good morning. cloudy skies. our temperatures will be climbing into the 40 s. eventually rain comes into the picture. by this afternoon and this evening, scattered showers. central florida with a possibility of isolated tornadoes around orlando. now here s lester. up next on the today show a college student is fighting back in a major way after his school tells him he s too young to study abroad. we ll explain right after this. 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[ female announcer ] for a fresh breath feeling that lasts up to 5 times longer, there s new scope outlast. but when colin carlson joins us this morning. thanks for being with us. you re a sophomore at the university of connecticut now. wow. but this is the first time you tried enroll in a class that required field work in another country or to study abroad. why dew point to take this class? african field ecology was an important class for me. so, it would have been very important for both my majors. you re an environmental studies major. when you got to the school were you told this class was part of the curriculum. i was told first of all i would be allowed to study abroad and this class had been on the table as something i could take. now why did the school tell you you can take this class? i was not admitted to this class on the basis of age. there were 27 original applicants to the class. 26 of them got in. i was the only person rejected. the professor went to fine four more people to be in the class. we should mention, part of this class there s a trip to south africa. right. do you think that was part of it? do you think you were too young to take the class or going south africa? going the south africa. it s absurd in that my mother offered to go with. we offered to sign liability waivers. there is no reason i shouldn t be allowed. we reach out to the class. they declined to comment. they did say this, generally speaking a variety of factors need to be considered when it comes to study abroad programs, particularly the safety and well being of students the. some parents say maybe this isn t the best idea. he s only 13. south africa is far away. if you go with him it could be disruptive. how do you respond? in terms of safety the school offered colin $3,000 last december if he would go to kenya on his own. so if it were about safety we wonder why we wanted him to go kenya which is a country that has much more turmoil than south africa. south africa is a first world country. beyond that we know many students in college, colin s age and younger who have done study abroad programs like this with absolutely no problem. they do them very well. let me ask has age ever been an issue before with you on campus. you re a sophomore and you re 13. age has not been an issue? never. however this works out, can i ask what your future plans are? what you would like to do? well i would say in recent years there s been a gap between good policy making and good science. my goal in having a major in environmental studies and in ecolog yrn and biology is to bridge that gap and design policies in the future. as an environmental attorney or an adviser. that s so impressive because when i was 13 i wanted the latest atari games. thank you so much for being with us. we are right back after this. ok. what is it? dad, it more than doubles your risk of a heart attack or stroke. you d better read about plavix. if you have p.a.d., plavix can help protect you from a heart attack or stroke. plavix helps keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots- the cause of most heart attacks and strokes. talk with your doctor about plavix? i ll do it. promise. (announcer) people with stomach ulcers or other conditions that cause bleeding should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines, including aspirin, may increase bleeding risk, so tell your doctor when planning surgery. certain genetic factors and some medicines, such as prilosec, may affect how plavix works. tell your doctor all the medicines you take, including aspirin, especially if you ve had a stroke. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, reported sometimes less than two weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. still ahead, an 84-year-old s ride of a lifetime. i take the field with masked men, umpires after these messages. hundreds of dollars on your water heating energy bill. introducing the geospring water heater from ge with advanced hybrid technology. heating the water in your home any other way is just going to seem primitive. hi, jay bush and duke here to introduce new bush s black bean fiesta..whoa. you can t tell everyone about new black bean fiesta. but it s perfectly cooked black beans, in a zesty south of the border chipotle sauce with red and green peppers, onion, and crisp corn. a bold new taste. i know. but i want people to think i m a great cook. so hide. delicious! can i have your recipe? your secret is safe with me. hello. new bush s black bean fiesta. and try new texas ranchero, along with our other grillin beans flavors. good morning. i m jennifer franciotti. here s a look at some of our top stories for you. a murder investigation is underway for you in east baltimore. a 16-year-old boy was shot in the torso saturday afternoon. police say i died at johns hopkins hospital a short time later. it happened in the 14 had hookup hundred block near east oliver street. no word on a suspect or possible motive. according to the bureau of labor statistics job losses in maryland, virginia, and pennsylvania were some of the highest in the nation. in a ranking of states maryland was fifth with 14,000 jobs lost. pennsylvania shed 16,000. virginia lost more than 32,000. state officials are partially blaming the unemployment rate on the winter storms. and will he run or won t he? that s the question lots of people are trying to get former governor bob ehrlich to answer. when a caller asked during mr. ehrlich s weekly radio show he said he will talk with his family before announcing political plans. he also talked about the health care overhaul. this has been a wish list of the modern left since the new deal. quite frankly, now they got what they wanted to some extent. they know what they are doing. they are smart people. this is their philosophical agenda. the fact we can t pay for it. the fact it punishes a lot of people it shouldn t punish, the fact it provides an unfunded mandate with regard to the states. the fact it is another major loss of basic freedom in this country, that s not of particular concern to them. the former governor has been testing the waters for a 2010 run for governor by traveling around the state to meet with all morning long temperatures have been hovering to 40 degrees. we do have an approaching storm. eventually this rain will catch up on us. let s look at the satellite image. the larger portion of the storm is over center illinois. it will take a day and a half to two days for the entire storm system to move across the area. this evening, the low pressure center itself will come into west virginia and cross over the area in the morning hours on monday. in all that time period, it looks like we have some chances for some pretty good rain. this afternoon, some scattered showers and clouds and cool temperatures. only 51 to 55 for the high. southeast winds at 7 to 12 miles an hour. sunset this evening is before 7:00 ntsb morning and the sunset is at 7:26 in the evening. we get longer days here. and in the seven-day forecast we take care of that because after the rain chances tuesday morning a lot of sun going into the easter weekend and temperatures in the 70 s. definitely something to look forward to. thank you, john, and we ll see you back here in about we re back on this sunday morning, march 28, 2010 outside of the plaza i m jenna wolfe along with lester holt. it s good to scream. that means there s life and people on the plaza. so have you ever heard something called flash mobs? we ve seen it before. the idea is people get on a social network and let s meet at a certain intersection. then we see pillow fights and dancing to michael jackson songs. supposed to be peaceful and fun. in philadelphia some have gotten out of control. police and civic officials are saying enough is enough. we ll drill down on what s happening in philadelphia. yesterday you guys showed video of the 84-year-old, was she a great-grandmother. great-great-grandmother. she fulfilled a wish of skydiving. our jumping granny and olympic athlete will join us live. i love how happy she is and why the wish was so important to the woman. then we ll talk about people who not only don t want to jump out of an airplane but white knuckled in the seat of an airplane. we ll get some answers to questions about turbulence, if i leave my ipod on. that s the question i need to know. my feeling is if i leave my ipod makes the plane crash then we have bigger problems. time crazy person that sneaks one last message before we leave. i m looking at that person you re going to crash the plane. stop it. i m getting look from people. then coming up i decided to take on something i haven t done before, i went to umpire school. they actually have a school where they teach the rules of baseball. it s called umpire school. i had a chance to don a mask and get some lessons. my voice annoys me. i m not going to lie and tell you it s a lot harder than it looks especially when the manager refuses a call. i have a whole new respect. i used to be sportscaster. i followed the game very closely. never got the psychology behind the yelling of the umps. did you get some dirt? i got all of it. let s get to the weather now and we have more. good morning. we have a young lady who wants to say hello to her teacher. what s your teacher s name mrs. harter. where do you guys live? ohio. all the way from new york city to ohio. good morning. we have a nice crowd. of course spring break and a lot of people here visiting the the today show. good morning. let s check on the weather and see what s going on. here it s a little cool and it s cloudy but these clouds will bring rain eventually to the east, rivers are running high from the last couple of weeks. the ground is saturated. flood watches are in effect from boston down to new york city and near washington, d.c. for tonight and tomorrow. there s also a slight risk of severe weather for the southeast today ahead of that same storm system that will bring us flooding rains opinion you may get some thunderstorms and possibly some isolated severe weather across central florida. mean time sunny in the central portion of the country and rainy in the pacific northwest. it s your birthday? your having fun in new york? yes. will you do something fun? yes. good morning. cloudy skies. our temperatures will be climbing into the 40 s. eventually rain comes into the picture. by this afternoon and this evening, scattered showers. se temperatures around 52 in chicago for today. that s a look at your weather for today, now here s jenna. thank you. it started as a former performance art and was borne out of social media sites. they are called flash mobs and peter alexander is back with a look at those events that have unfortunately turned dangerous. never heard about this. the way there s a flash flood that happens these flash flood mobs happen with little warning. ate crowd of teenagers who converge on one location and in philadelphia these days they are wreaking havoc. as one person described it part bullying, part running of the bulls. it is startling home video capturing dozens of aggressive teenagers attacking pedestrians. fighting each other. and vandalizing property. surveillance video show store owners racing to protect their businesses caught in the middle of what philadelphia police describe as a flash mob, the fourth since december. we won t allow you to result others on the street destroy property. reporter: flash mobs started as fun gatherings like this impromptu pillow fight in 2008 in new york city where people linked by social networking sites and text messages converge on random locations, dressing up like santa in san francisco, even dancing to michael jackson s thriller on the streets of london. but in philadelphia the ritual has turned violence. there s no excuse. philadelphia mayor is fed up. you re putting out a stern message to kids and their parents what is that message? cut it out and stop the stupidity and if you want to get together and have a good time that s one thing. you want to act like a jerk that s something else, if you break the law you ll get arrested. already police have arrested three dozen teenagers some charged with felony rioting. the twist on flash mobs is forcing authorities to monitor safety streets and social networking sites. days ago police got word a flash mob was planned for this intersection. through the media they warned teenagers not to show up. that mob never materialized. seth says last weekend there was no warning. it looked like a tsunami of kids. he was attacked while working at this restaurant snipe hit the ground and scraped up my hands and my elbows. the city is cracking down with uniformed and undercover officers stepping up patrols. and strictly enforcing the nighttime curfew. we have to have a forceful, direct, clear, immediate, rapid response. to put an end to a social experiment gone bad. important to note this morning that this is not unique to philadelphia, there have been flash mobs as well as arrests over the last year in boston, brooklyn, parts of new jersey as well. but to get the message out that this has to stop philadelphia s mayor took his own family and his wife to a restaurant in that exact same neighborhood where the flash mob took place to essentially say the city is safe and this has to end. amazing how quickly it happens. the description, a tsunami of kids was a good one. up next tried of her life. we ll meet this 84-year-old woman whose dream was fulfilled thanks in part to a u.s. olympian. that s after these messages. but nasonex relief may i say. bee-utiful! prescription nasonex is proven to help relieve indoor and outdoor nasal allergy symptoms like congestion, runny and itchy nose and sneezing. 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[ female announcer ] splenda®. america s favorite no calorie sweetener. tuesday on today, yebs exclusive from the white house, a historic week. what happens now? president obama sits down with matt lauer, tuesday on today on nbc. now a story we first told you about yesterday, a great-great-grandmother stricken with terminal cancer can say she did something she always wanted to do thanks in part to a u.s. olympian. joining us from utah is viola rindels along with u.s. olympian noelle pikus-pace and her husband. good morning to all of you. great to see you. good morning. we ve been watching you during the commercial break. i feel i m interrupting a party. you guys are good friends and neighbors, aren t you? yes. we are. let s talk about the last several days. actually last several months. we can be frank. you have a pretty grim diagnosis. you were told you had three to six no, sir live. that was seven months ago. noelle comes by to say hi and asks what you wanted to do and you said ski diving. why? i always wanted to do it. it sounded exciting to me. but i wanted to do it by myself. you did it as a tandem jump. but this is something that i know other people have asked you the same question, nobody ever took you seriously. so when noelle asked you this, did you think this would happen? i never thought anything about it. i just that s the one thing i wanted to do and when she asked me it just came out. and noelle and jansen, when you asked this question did you think she would really go through with it if you made it happen? you know, we didn t know when we visited with her just a week ago on sunday she told us that was her life long dream to go skydiving. so when we went home that day we started talking, you know what? we should try to make this happen. so we just called up a few people and before we knew it it was wednesday morning and we had a whole crew out there with fly with vi shirts on and cheering her on. when she finished when she landed she said i wasn t scared a bit. you slide down on a sled at 70 miles per hour so you get sensation and that need for speed. you could relate to this when she said hey i want to jump out of an airplane. oh, yeah, for sure. we re both a little bit adrenalin junkies. that s right. vi, what was it like for you? it was a tandem jump. describe sensation of leaping out that door. it was just fun. he told me what to do and i just put my toes over the edge and the wind just took us out. it was great. and you made a picture perfect landing and let me ask jansen what was it like on the ground to see the culmination of this dream? i actually wasn t able to attend. i had to work that day. after watching the video, i wish i could have been there. it was amazing to see how many people were there and to see how perfect everything turned out for her. we re just so happy that she was able to do this. she was in a healthy condition she could get up there and jump out and celebrate her life this way. word on the street, vi, is you make a mean pie and you baked a lot of pies for noelle and everybody else in the neighborhood. stha is that the case? oh, yes. it s been great visiting with all of you. thank you. god bless you and thank you for coming on and talk with us. thank you. thanks a lot. just ahead the truth about flying. plus jenna will show you what it s like to call the shots from behind the plate. her trip to umpire school. first these messages. - at quicken loans, - we re changing the way americans get a home loan. - for the better. - we really listen to you. and that helps us recommend a home loan option that s perfect for your needs. - and that s why i love. - i love. i love being a home loan expert. i love being a home loan expert. is the only furniture polish with febreze freshness. so your furniture is swiffer clean . and your home is febreze fresh. [ doorbell rings ] you may never go back to your old furniture polish. swiffer gives cleaning a fresh new meaning. the truth about we re talking about the truth about flying. some may know while i m not a pilot aviation is one of my passions. going up from gliders to fighter jets in reason years i ve taken you inside airplanes, simulators and show you how commercial pilots have train. i ve reported how to survive a plane emergency and safely evacuate. there s a lot of questions flyerers want answers. we re joined by john cox, a former commercial pilot. i m sure when you tell people you re a commercial pilot they have a ton of questions. one of the first questions i m curious is what s the biggest myth about flying in your view? i think the biggest myth generates flying inherently is unsafe or something magical. what we fine is if you look, it s the safest form of public transportation there is. people say i hear about all these incidents bus the disproportionate reporting, anything that happens to an airplane around the world is reported. so it s a lot safer than people think. it s a lack of control because we re strapped in. let me talk about you re the you about len. that s the one that you hear people, the plane bumps around you hear some screams, brings around high anxiety. what is turbulence. turbulence, for the most part occasionally you ll hear something that s a veer case but for the most part it s somewhat like a boat or a ship on water going through waves or unstable atmospheric conditions and the speed of the airplane makes that felt pretty heavily in the airplane. as far as the danger it s not with one caveat the passengers need to be in their seats with seat belts fastened. it leads to the question how sturdy are planes. boeing are testing the new 787. bend the wings to 150% of what it would ever realize in flight. what does that tell us how sturdy planes are? they are incredibly strong. we have decades of experience and in flight service we draw from so they do, they break the wings of airplanes to make sure that they are, in fact, strong enough. so, as far as the strength of the airplane, turbulence is really not much of a factor at all. i had a co-worker told a story about the plane being struck by lightning. that sounds horrible. how often does that happen and is that a danger lightning strikes are not all that uncommon. all professional pilots have dealt with it. something you deal with. oftentimes not something that you have a lot of control over. thunderstorms will throw lightning out in unexpected ways. airplanes are design for it. they will dissipate that energy very quickly and as far as it acthreat to the airplane, no it s not. that s good to know. on the electronic front let s talk about the passenger electronics, things we bring on board the airplane. i remember up to the early 90s i could bring whatever i wanted then we were told to shut everything off. it s hard for me to imagine a page are or an ipod will put a plane in danger. there s been such an advance we don t know what the electronics are in the back. there could be something back there that could cause a problem. because of the rapid advance in technology you need to be conservative and go ahead and switch everything off when the airplane is close to the ground. a lot of us have come off flights and the next day or two we have a cold. it s that bad air in the airplane. what s the truth what we re breathing. are we breathing other people s air? there s some recirculation, but i think if you really look at it in most cases what you ll find is the exposure is because of the proximity to large numbers of other people as opposed to being in the airplane itself. the air is filtered and there is fresh air being brought in continuously through the engines and the air conditioning system. so, the air quality on the airplane overall is pretty good. here s another question we hear all the time and i ve seen this happen where i m in san francisco and i m told due to weather, the flight to jfk is delayed. beautiful in san francisco, get to jfk it s beautiful and you re like so where was the weather, why was the plane three hours late? when you think about the air transportation system not only do you have the departure or the destination airport everything in between and if, for example, in your case there, what you can see is if there were problems in the middle part of the united states it would create a choke point so that the overall flow of traffic east to west or west to east would be funneled down. we see a lot of those coming into the northeast. if there s weather in those areas it restricts the amount of airplanes that can physically get through. the flow control. when the captain says we have a release time 15 minutes after the hour it s because of that. faa tries to keep the maximum number of airplanes moving. but if they see a choke point they will restrict takeoffs and landings. this is a guy you want sitting next to you on your next flight. john cox, thanks for coming in and answering your questions. i ll turn my blackberry off. major league baseball gets into full swing a week from today and it s not just the start of the season for the players, there s another group getting ready to take the field with the team, the umps. the masked men you love to hate. the next time you want to boo one of them, remember the job is a lot harder than it looks, something i learned firsthand when i went to umpire school. we ve all had bad days at work but few of us have had this kind of a bad day. enter the world of the major league baseball umpire and to do that, whether you believe it or not you actually have to go to school. this is umpire school. it s not calculus but certainly not easy. these guys have to learn every rule of the game. all 130 pages of the baseball bible. we have nothing else going. you don t have fair fall, a play going on. maybe it was the classroom setting that was confusing. it was time to head out to more familiar territory, the ballpark. my personal guide hunter wendellstat. this is his school. we have 128 in school. of the 128 that you have how many of these guys will make to it the major leagues. one. it s a battle of attrition. there are cuts at every level. it s a tough job. the odds were against me. way against me. but hunter decided to give me a shot at the big leagues anyway. after all i did watch naked gun like three times. first stop, first base. you call it. you re the boss out here. go. come out here. hands on knees. that was out. okay. good stuff. good job. he was out he was out. you re the umpire. why your asking me? don t argue with me. next stop standing in the line of fire behind the plate. ball! strike! strike! strike! you got to come up. strike one. all right they asked for it. strike three! ? and then there s angry managers. out! out! i don t want to hear it. i don t want to hear it. it was out! don t talk to me. i got to ask you a question. that red doesn t even much those pants. o out! you got to be kidding me. if only every disagreement could end like that. on the other end, there s just a guy trying to do a job that he loves. every umpire sacrifices whether you re a little league umpire that does it for free or a major league umpire that i have to sacrifice six months away from my wife and children but we love the game of baseball. i ve done a lot of things. this might have been one of the most fun. these guys were so great. it s a five week course. these guys don t get a lot of money, don t get a lot of love or attention. they do it because they love baseball. our audio engineer is recovering and will be released from the hospital next week. you re so mean. calling it like it. we ll be right back after these messages. as the weather warms, walgreens and the makers of zyrtec. want to make sure allergies don t always have to keep u cooped up inside. that s why we re making it easier for everyone to find allergy solutions. by offering products like new zyrtec® liquid gels. zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy medicine, is now available in a liquid gel. zyrtec® liquid gels work on your worst symptoms. indoors and out. you ll also get the expert advice of your walgreens pharmacist. so you ll feel freer to love the air. walgreens. there s a way to stay well. let s check in with david gregory to find out what s coming up on press piece. good morning. coming up this morning the president makes history with health care reform. what does it mean for the rest of his agenda. a debate between lindsey graham and charles schumer. and analyst from our political roundtable. it s all coming up this morning on press piece. our thanks to peter alexander for joining us. and an exclusive interview with president obama on tuesday. and apple s new gadget. the new i pad. is it worth all the hype? i hope it s worth the hype. i ordered one. up next, congressman elijah cummings joins joins us in the 9:00 hours. and we ll talk about the and we ll talk about the details of the