tv Early Start CNN May 25, 2012 5:00am-7:00am EDT
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category 2 hurricane. we're going to have the latest track of the storm for you. and for the first time in history, a commercial spacecraft linking up with the international space station. let your geek flag fly, folks. we are going to take you live to outer space in just a moment. hi, everybody. welcome to "early start." i'm ashleigh banfield. look who's here! >> good morning. >> nice to have you here. >> i'm alina cho. zoraida has the day off today. it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. on this friday before memorial, we've got lots of news. >> we do, so let's get right to it. this is a big story. for the first time in 33 years -- in fact, the anniversary today -- new york police may finally have their man in the murder of etan patz 33 years ago. he is 51-year-old pedro hernandez. he is under arrest and is expected to be charged with second-degree murder. he was 19 at the time that 16-year-old the etan patz disappeared while walking on his bus stop in 1969.
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hernandez was working in a grocy store and living in the neighborhood that patz and his family were living in. new york's police commissioner says hernandez detailed the crime in a confession. >> hernandez described to the detectives how he lured young etan from the school bus stop at west broadway and prince street with the promise of a soda. he then led him into the basement of the bodega, choked him there and disposed of the body by putting it into a plastic bag and placing it into the trash. >> just last month, police thought that they had a break in this cold case, but it turned out to be another dead end. the renewed attention produced a tip that led police to hernandez. he's due to make his first court appearance in just a few hours. and again, this is 33 years to the day that etan patz vanished. cnn's susan candiotti is live in lower manhattan. you've been working this story
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for some time now. what makes police think they really do have their man this time? >> reporter: you know, ashleigh, it's hard to pinpoint that precisely, but at the press conference, the police commissioner said it's because of the detailed statements that he made to police that took 3 1/2 hours. and because of everything that they told him. naturally, we asked time and again throughout the day yesterday -- i talked to my sources -- but do you have more than only his statements to go on? is there any physical evidence? hard to get a precise answer. i was told that there is other evidence, but it remains unclear as to whether that goes beyond what family members have said about what he told them, whether they have been able to obtain any physical evidence that he is connected to this crime. >> he seemed like an all right guy. he had a wife and there was a
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young daughter. and they were, you know, they said hello and everything. they were always smiling. and well, this guy, like they say, confessed to it, 33 years he's been living in his own personal hell. >> susan, you know, it's remarkable, but this is a phenomenon that happens. people confess to crimes all the time that they don't commit, and they have had confessions in this case as well from other people. why did they think they confession and these details are any different than any of the other confessions they've had in the last 33 years? >> reporter: well, they haven't given us much detail on that, as a matter of fact. all of them saying that he talked to them a long time, that he went to the crime scene with them, the crime scene where he says etan patz was killed. remember, he was only 19 years old at the time, working as a stock clerk in that store. and when they talked with him and they also learned from other people that he had told them
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that years ago, that he had done something very bad, in his words, that he had killed a boy in new york, but he was never specific about mentioning a name. so ashashleigh, it wasn't until about a month ago, after police were searching that other basement in the area and it turned up nothing, they got a phone call from a tipster, and that tipster said i have spoken to this man, i have information, relatives know something, you should go and speak with them. and that led police to talk to others who discovered that he had made comments about this over the years but never mentioning etan by name. so, that's when they found him, interviewed him. he went back to the area a couple of days ago and showed them the store location that used to be a convenience store at the time, but now they sell fashion eyeglasses there in soho. and he took them to the basement, said this is where it happened. of course, will they ever recover a body? police say highly unlikely. >> and you know, the difference
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in forensic collections back in 1979 to today. this is going to be one heck of a difficult case, if it ever ends up at trial. talk to me a little bit about today. we're expecting a court appearance today of mr. hernandez? >> reporter: that's right. the police have charged him with probable cause, but still, it's the prosecutors, the manhattan district attorney's office, which reopened the case back in 2010, that will be the official charging agency. and we expect that to happen some time this day. and when that does, then he will make his very first court appearance, and it's possible at that time that police might reveal more information, or prosecutors, rather, about this case. you know, what's interesting here as well is that police say they don't have any motive at this time. why did this man allegedly single out this little boy? what's the connection? and they also added that at this time, there seems to be no evidence that little etan was sexually abused. >> well, let's just hope that
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the police kept one little detail that only the killer would know and that they could get some final resolution in this case. susan candiotti, great work. thanks so much. >> reporter: you bet. 20 years in prison for a texas man who tried to sneak out of the united states and give al qaeda restricted military documents. the court also ordered barry walter buholt to pay a $10,000 fine. prosecutors say he wanted to join al qaeda and tried to provide the organization with money and two restricted as access army manuals related to u.s. drones and gps equipment. he was arrested two years ago after using a fake i.d. to enter a houston port and board a ship headed to the middle east. later this morning, jurors in the john edwards trial will begin deliberating for a sixth day. yesterday they made some interesting requests, 20 different exhibits involving payments made to edwards' 2008 presidential campaign by a wealthy benefactor.
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they're trying to determine whether those payments were, in fact, illegal campaign contributions used to cover up the candidate's extramarital affair. there are new details on the georgia grad student fighting to survive a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection after falling off a homemade zip line. doctors say 24-year-old aimee copeland could be out of intensive care in just about three to four weeks. aimee's father said she's now able to sit up in a chair for a couple of hours, but she's still in critical condition. aimee's on full-time kidney dialysis and relies on oxygen because her lungs are still not fully functioning. you'll remember she lost both of her hands, her leg and her other foot. new trouble for the trainer of that horse that won the first two legs of the coveted triple crown. california state racing board suspended trainer doug o'neill for 45 days. the reason? high levels of carbon dioxide in one of his horses' blood.
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and also under suspicion for a milk shake, suspicion he gave one of the horses an illegal performance-enhancing substance that's force-fed to a horse, but he was cleared of that. his suspension's not going to take effect until july 1st, which means that he is going to be at the belmont when his horse, i'll have another, makes a run for the first triple crown in more than three decades. hurricane bud now a powerful pacific storm lurking just off the mexican coast. want to take a look now at bud from space. you can just how big it is there. a hurricane and tropical storm warning is in effect right now. and now there's word of another storm gathering strength off the coast of florida. our rob marciano live for us this morning with a look at all that. hey, so, where is that storm headed, rob? >> headed towards mexico, manet nia, the west coast of mexico. yesterday at this time, we thought it was going to weaken somewhat and maybe not reach the coastline. well, in the last 24 hours, a
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category 3 strength with winds of 115 miles an hour. it's little weaker right now. we've seen the eye dissipate just little bit, so we expect continued weakening, but it's so close to land right now that hurricane warnings have been issued and watches continue to be posted, and we do expect, national hurricane center is forecasting to to make landfall now as a hurricane and just kind of linger along the coastline. by the way, this is the first time since we've kept records that a category 3 storm in the eastern pacific has developed this early. category 2 now, expected to decrease to a 1 and make landfall some time tonight and then dissipate as it hugs the coastline, gets a little drier air and runs into the mountains. so heavier, heavier rains, some mud slides with this in the hills and also, obviously, some high surf and some winds there. this system just north of cuba now has the potential to develop into our next tropical system, and this will impact the u.s. potentially, and at the very least in the form of heavy rains and big surf, and we'll watch this potentially develop into a depression or a storm here in
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the next 24 hours. back up to you. >> boy, if this is any guide, might be a busy hurricane season, right? >> well, to have two tropical storms before june 1st, that's only happened a couple of times, but this is not an indication of how busy this hurricane season will be, even though we're off to a pretty good start. >> all right, rob, thank you. ten minutes past 5:00 on the east coast. we are just a few hours away now from something we have never seen before. >> cue the music. >> do you love it? in the decades of space exploration by man. so, what is it, and how are astronauts preparing to pull this baby off? we are back after this. [ female announcer ] fresh flavor gets an exciting twist
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let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection,
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and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. homicide of young people in america has an impact on all of us. how can we save these young people's lives? as a police chief, i have an opportunity to affect what happens in a major city. if you want to make a difference, you have to have the right education. university of phoenix opened the door. my name is james craig, i am committed to making a difference, and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. 15 minutes after the hour. welcome back. right now a private space capsule is moving into position
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to make history. it's called the dragon capsule. it's now less than a mile away from linking up with the international space station. >> there it is! >> and you are looking live at it. you see it's a big, wide world out there, because that little clicking dot is the capsule. >> that's it! >> that's right. >> that little, tiny dot. >> nasa is giving it the all clear after a successful practice fly-by yesterday. these are complicated things, right? so it takes a while. >> this is the view from the space station. >> that's right. >> looking out at the arriving dragon on its way. >> apparently, what, a mile away? john zarrella is live with this story. hey, john, good morning. >> good morning. >> so, when's it going to dock? >> about 6:59 central time, so just before 8:00 a.m. eastern time. and remember, ladies, this isn't a space shuttle. it's really tiny. you could fit this inside the space shuttle's cargo bay. and one thing that we have to make sure everybody understands, this is what they call a birthing. it's not going to dock to the
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space station like the shuttle did, backing in and connecting right up. they actually have to reach out with the space station's robotic arm, and they will grab it with the robotic arm and then very slowly pull it in and birth it, as they call it, to the international space station. now, don pettitte, the astronaut aboard along with and andres keepers, they will perform that delicate maneuver. if you just touch it the wrong way and don't grapple it properly, you could hit it and spin it out of control. so, it is not easy to pull this kind of maneuver off. so, bottom line, the next couple of hours are going to be pretty interesting as this approaches ever closer to the station. and you know, they're not going empty-handed. this is a practice mission, but it's filled with all kinds of cargo. they're bringing up almost 200 meals for the astronauts. they're bringing up a computer,
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some batteries, so a variety of different things going up on this flight. >> isn't it also carrying, john, the ashes of the canadian actor who played scotty on "star trek"? i mean, how did that happen? >> no, it's not in this vehicle. it's not on the dragon. it was on the falcon 9 second-stage rocket that was the booster that put dragon up to where it is now, so -- >> ah, got it, got it. >> in that booster segment, there were the remains of 320 people, amongst them a portion of his ashes actually did fly with all those other folks and is now orbiting the earth. >> wow. well, we'll be watching that closely and i know you will, too. john zarrella, thank you very much. >> absolutely. >> coming up at 6:45 eastern time, nasa astronaut dan tani, who's logged over 131 days in space will talk to ashleigh to talk little bit more about how important this mission is -- >> and all the stuff he has to
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unload. >> that's right, 674 pounds of food. >> also bringing up clothes and lots of stuff. so we look forward to that next hour. >> kind of a cool job. if you're on the space station, you know this thing's coming. they've done it a million times before, but never from an aircraft that's a private enterprise. >> especially with nasa effectively cutting back and eliminating the shuttle missions, at least for now, it looks like this is where it's going, right? >> so it's dan and his friends who have to realize, i hope you're really good at what you do, because eventually, we're going to be on those things. >> we need that food. >> exactly. it is 17 minutes after 5:00 on the east coast. time for your "early reads." we like to update you on what's going on around the world and around the country. "l.a. times" has a shocking story about a former football star's exoneration for rape. brian banks was just 16 years old when he was convicted of raping a high school classmate. her name, wanetta gibson. this happened in 2002. he spent five years in prison. see him? look at that reaction. his budding football career was
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extinguished. he was awarded a $1.5 million judgment from the school district. last year, gibson sent banks a facebook friend request. he responded by asking her to meet with him. their meeting was secretly recorded. and guess what? the victim, the so-called victim admitted that she lied. so, guess what? he's out and cleared, but that doesn't clear the five years that the guy spent -- >> well, i'll bet this never happened to you in school. listen to this story, pretty shocking stuff. a preschool teacher in houston is actually accused of scaring her kids -- >> what? >> that's right, by locking them in what's called the monster closet. >> oh, come on! >> it looks scary to a little kid, a monster closet, right? our affiliate in houston, khou, says the closet is a janitor's closet. the kids were locked inside five minutes at a time as a form of punishment. one mom says her son was thrown in the closet for laughing in class and he was so scared that he vomited! >> oh, no! >> i know.
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the teacher has been suspended. >> at the very least, i would hope. there is no excuse for that kind of punishment. that is not a time-out. that is torture for a little kid. >> for a 4-year-old kid. >> 19 minutes now past 5:00. if you want an expanded look at all of our top stories, we have it for you. aim to please. go to cnn.com/earlystart. it's on our blog, everything you want there. this is the news homeowners are hoping for. christine romans says the housing market is taking a major turn. going to tell us why after the break. [ thunk ] sweet! [ male announcer ] the solid thunk of the door on the jetta. thanks, mister! [ meow ] [ male announcer ] another example of volkswagen quality. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 jetta for $159 a month.
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23 minutes past 5:00. we have great news for you this morning. really, honestly, this is great, no matter what. >> so nice to have that, isn't it? >> even if you're not a homeowner, this is good for you. mortgage rates are at historical, historical lows this morning. >> you may buy a home as a result, right? it's that great. christine romans joins us now with a look at that. 3.78. >> yes, that is the new mortgage rate. that's a new record low. you just refinanced, right? >> i did. >> i just refinanced. >> i'm in the process. >> you're in the process of refinancing. look, some people are complaining they can't qualify for a refinance because they're under water, and that's part of the problem here with people who can't get advantage of all this. also this week, we've seen this raft of housing news that's better, guys. the housing market is healing. and i've been hearing from realtors for several years that things are going to be great, the spring selling season will show there's a turn, it's the bottom, and they've been wrong. this year, they may be right. house prices are up 10% year
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over year, folks. you've got home sales up as well. and buying a house has never been cheaper. interest rates at a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at record lows, 3.78%. these are freddie mac numbers. record lows almost a full point below where it was just a year ago. what is the savings here? tens of thousands of dollars in lower interest payments over the lifetime of a loan. we did some math for you. here's the perspective. this week's lower rate would reduce payments on a $100,000 home loan by $48 compared to last year's rate, a total savings of more than $17,000 over the lifetime of a loan. >> wow. >> that's a $100,000 loan. so multiply that. 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, which are popular with borrowers who want to refinance -- 3.04%. a lot of you are complaining, it doesn't matter to me because i can't get it! i know, you have to have a good credit score. you have to have money in the bank. your house can't be under water if you're trying to refinance -- >> none of that stuff is easy stuff. >> none of that is, but there are multiple offers in hot zip
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codes, right? people are moving, taking a 5% loss on the house and they're selling it because they've got to move on. they've got to get jobs, they're retiring, moving because they have to move. so there's movement in the housing market again. it is nowhere near healthy, so you know, don't scream at me about that, but it is healing, and that's the first time we've really been able to say that. it's good news. >> are you saying everybody should look at their mortgage right now and look at refinancing? >> if you have not looked at your mortgage -- if you have a mortgage in the 5% rate, don't turn off the tv. wait 35 minutes and then go and call your mortgage broker when they wake up, or call your bank. people are also telling me they are having an easier time doing the hamp and h.a.r.p. than a year ago. the banks are getting more comfortable. these are the government's refinancing and modification programs. people are saying they're having an easier time with the big banks getting that done, too. >> a big pivot here, and i hate to switch you off that fabulous
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news, but there is good news for people who invested in facebook and are mad. >> yeah. so, this is the one thing to know about your money today if you've been involved in the facebook drama -- morgan stanley is reviewing every single trade -- >> wow. >> -- that was made, every single trade, and they're looking at the time it was made, the time you put the trade in, the time you were confirmed. and if you paid too much for the shares because of the debacle at nasdaq, they're going to make sure that people pay the price that they were supposed to pay for the time -- >> you don't hear that often. it's pretty incredible. >> the keeping them honest part is we'll continue to watch this and make sure people are made right. but even yesterday, people were telling me they still dnz didn't know if their trade was canceled. >> good news. so squeaky wheel might get it. >> that's the one thing to know. be the squeaky wheel. >> at 5:27 on the east coast, which means it's early, but it could be late for you. wow, this is an amazing story! a daring escape in china. you probably heard about that already. but you have not heard from the
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dissident himself. chen guangcheng, in his own words, on "anderson cooper" here on cnn, talking about what he calls suffering beyond imagination. the story is remarkable. look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. we're bringing humanity back to life insurance. that's why only aviva rewards you with savings for getting a check-up. it's our wellness for life program, with online access to mayo clinic. see the difference at avivausa.com. [ slap! ] [ slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you?
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for decades. and did i mention he's a kid? >> 15 years old. >> look at him. >> oh, he's just great. and moved to tears. a young girl overcome with emotion doing something most of us take completely for granted. we're going to tell you what that is. welcome back to "early start." i'm alina cho in for zoraida this morning. good morning. we're so glad you're with us. >> nice to have you here with us, alina. i'm ashleigh banfield. it's 50 minutes after 5:00 on the east coast. let's get started. cnn's anderson cooper lands the first television interview with chinese activist chen guangcheng since his dramatic escape from house arrest and his arrival right here in the good old u.s. of a. chen's been in new york less than a week, and he had plenty to say to anderson, exclusively, about the world that he left behind in china and what it was like to be their prisoner in his own home. >> i sat down with chen guangcheng yesterday, on thursday. it was his first extensive
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interview since arriving in new york over the weekend with his wife and two young children. he was speaking out right now because he's very concerned about the other activists who are left behind in china, who aided in his escape from his home province and helped him get into the u.s. embassy. he's also particularly concerned about his other relatives, his mother, his brother and his nephew. his nephew has actually been arrested, charged with intentional homicide. he allegedly brandished a knife against chinese plain-clothed security officers who broke into his house while searching for mr. chen. i talked to mr. chen about the years he spent in a chinese prison. he spent about four years and three months in a chinese prison. and also about the nearly two years that he was in home detention. here's what he said. when you were released, you were under house arrest. what was that like? >> translator: let me correct one thing here. when we talk about my situation in the future, let's not use the word house arrest, but instead, let's use the term illegal
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detention. it's hard for me to describe what it was like during the time, but let's just say my suffering was beyond imagination. >> did you feel like there was an end to it? did it feel like it was just going to go on and on? >> translator: i didn't see much hope. >> mr. chen originally was arrested in china back in 2006 after filing a class-action lawsuit. he and his wife are basically self-taught attorneys. his wife, because mr. chen is blind, his wife read to him from legal textbooks and he kind of learned the law and filed this lawsuit on behalf of women in particular, who he says were forcibly sterilized and were also forced to have late-term abortions because of china's one child policy at the time. i talked to mr. chen about whether he regretted speaking out, something he says he does not regret, and if he knew at the time what it might lead to. here's what he said. you say it's natural to want to speak out against evil, but many
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people remain silent. why do you think -- you must be very courageous. >> translator: i only feel it's a natural reaction from my heart. my nature wouldn't allow me to sit idly by and disregard what was going on. i think everybody should act that way. >> mr. chen is in new york now. he has not sought political asylum. he's here on a student visa. he plans to study for one year at new york university. he does say he hopes to one day go back to china whe. whether the government will allow that is not clear and whether he will choose that is not clear at this point. he's going to be studying at new york university, learning more about the law, hoping to learn english, and he does plan to continue to speak out. >> again, cnn's anderson cooper with a big exclusive. mr. chen is urging authorities in beijing to prosecute the law -- or to prosecute "the lawless officials who have harassed and abused him and his family and his supporters." a florida judge says it is
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okay to flash your headlights to warn oncoming drivers about speed traps! you know, we all kind of know about that. it's that unwritten thing. turns out, 25-year-old ryan kinder of lake mary, florida, got a ticket for doing it last summer. he flashed his lights to warn somebody ahead that there was a speed trap he saw. seminole county police called that headlight flashing a violation of state traffic law. but guess what? not so much. a judge tossed out the ticket and ruled that kitner is protected. it is constitutional free speech, folks, first amendment! >> flash away. >> you like that story? you will like this one even better. ryan young got his job back. we recently told you about this safeway meat clerk from california. he raced from behind the counter to help a pregnant customer who was being attacked by her boyfriend. ryan's actions made him a national hero, but safeway actually suspended him without pay for violating what it calls
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its zero tolerance policy on workplace violence. >> but that's weird -- >> that's right. >> because he's trying to enforce the zero tolerance policy. >> that's right. but anyway. >> go figure. >> tons of brian's supporters started boycotting safeway -- >> no surprise. >> and picketing outside the store. now the company just announced he is going to get his job back and also with full back pay! >> go, lryan. you're our new superhero. a 10-year-old girl from texas is deaf, but she's regained her hearing because of a cochlear implant. you've probably heard of them. that is little sami hicks, who was born with a genetic mutation and lost hearing by age 2. her implant surgery last month cost a lot of money, $100,000. and we want to ask you this question, do you want to know if it's worth it? because when you see this video, you are going to see something remarkable. take a look at sammy the moment that doctors activated the implant. she literally jumps when the
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first thing she hears is the sound of her own breathing. >> hey, i sound -- >> you're hearing yourself better. she's hearing herself breathing and i don't think she realized what it was. it's okay. you can cry. it's okay. >> i started to cry because it was overwhelming. i had no idea what the sounds were. >> my heart just stopped. it's -- i can't really put it into words what it felt like watching her hear those little things that we never thought she would be able to hear. >> that is the most remarkable raw emotion. sammie's 8-year-old brother, jacob, also is hearing-impaired. >> wow. >> and guess what? he may be going through the very same experience because he's going to get his own cochlear implant coming up not too long from now. >> that is one happy family.
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>> can you imagine what that would be like? >> so happy she is crying for that. that is great. >> not only for sammie, but her mom and dad. >> her mother, that's right. modern science -- we'll talk little bit more about modern science. you're not going to want to miss this. can't believe this. doctors and scientists have been trying to do this for decades, but the big breakthrough came courtesy of a 15-year-old kid. that's him right there. his name is jack and he's blinded by science, isn't he? >> look at him. >> we'll have him in the studio. we'll talk to him. he's a high school freshman and he's developed a new way to detect a deadly cancer. he just won a major science competition. he's a happy guy. >> look at him! >> and we are talking to him. almost tebowed. we'll watch him in the studio, live. >> that's great. we can start losing muscle -- 8% every 10 years. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb
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mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. welcome back. 42 minutes after the hour. well, you might call it the
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intention convention. the idea is to spawn more scientists. students from across the country competing in the intel international science and engineering fair last week. it happened in pittsburgh. and out of the 1,500 or so kids who competed from more than 17 countries, guess what? 15-year-old jack andreka from maryland, was named the best and the brightest. he created a noninvasive and cheap way to detect pancreatic cancer, which by the way, is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the united states. now, this test is essentially based on those diabetic test paper strips and by testing a person's blood and urine, jack was able to determine whether or not that patient had early-stage pancreatic cancer. and i am so happy to say that jack andreka joins me now right here in the studio wearing those ribbons. congratulations. i have to shake your hand. >> thank you so much. >> congratulations. you are one happy kid. you won $100,000 in prize money, which you're going to put toward
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college. congratulations. >> thanks so much. >> tell me, how did you come up with the idea? i know you were inspired by a close family friend who died recently of pancreatic cancer, but how did you start thinking about doing this? >> so, once that close family friend died due to pancreatic cancer, i got really interested in early detection of pancreatic cancer because that's one of the main problems behind the huge death rate. and so, then i was looking at blood tests, because those are really the only way to detect it in its early stages for screenings, and so then i developed the sensing. >> it's remarkable. it's faster, it's cheaper, it's much more accurate. >> yes. >> and i know you're working on a patent right now. meanwhile, we tracked down this video of you winning. it is so remarkable. i watched it a couple of times. we want to play it for you. we want you to watch it as it's happening. you see it there on the tv? [ cheers and applause ] >> i remember that. i was so excited.
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i was amazed at winning. >> do you remember what was going through your mind? i mean, you say that you really didn't think you were going to win a prize, let alone the top prize, right? >> no. the projects are at such a high caliber that i did not think i was going to win a prize. >> i love it. >> i was, like, depressed i wasn't going to win a prize when i first walked in. >> that's what i call what you just did there, a half tebow, kind of a bow, not a full tebow, but a half tebow. tell me, what's next? because a lot has happened since that time you won. you're working on a patent, talking to quest diagnostics already? what is going on? what has happened as a result of this? >> so, what's happening is i'm working with the johns hopkins university team of patent lawyers to make my patent a bit more applicable and ironclad. and then also, we've already started to get offers from several companies, such as biorad, and then also audit
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micro. >> that is incredible. when you consider the fact that nearly 44,000 americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2012, i just can't imagine how good you feel, having done this. >> yeah, because what's so cool about this is it can detect pancreatic cancer before it becomes invasive, where basically, your survival rate is close to 100%, so it's just amazing how this will be applicable. because you can also look at other forms of cancer, cancer drug resistance, how effective a cancer treatment is, and basically, any disease. >> well, you are one remarkable kid. you're only a high school freshman. i can only imagine what's in store for you for the future. jack andraka, i shake your hand again. thank you so much for coming in. >> thank you so much. >> waking up early for us. ashleigh? >> congratulations, jack. fantastic story. just remarkable. 46 minutes past 5:00 now on the east coast. there is a story we've been looking at here in new york. look at these two papers. it is not often that you see both of the tabloid newspapers with the same headline, but this
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little boy, etan patz, was the first face on a milk carton of a missing child, and that's why this missing new york boy is a national story. and now we have some resolution, possibly, to this national story. it's remarkable, but new york city police say they may have their man. 51-year-old pedro hernandez apparently confessing to killing etan patz back in 1979. that 6-year-old boy vanished on his way to school. and the date he vanished was 33 years ago today. hernandez is expected to be charged with second-degree murder in connection with this case. he's expected to make that first court appearance today. hurricane bud, the first pacific hurricane of the 2012 season strengthening into a major category 3 and now threatening mexico's coast. bud with a maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour. hurricane and tropical storm warnings are now in effect and this could make landfall near some very popular tourist spots as well. a federal jury in texas
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convicting an american soldier of plotting to detonate a bomb near the ft. hood army base last summer. 22-year-old army private nasser jason abdel planned to avenge the killing of fellow muslims in iraq and afghanistan. he was convicted of six felonies. this carries a possible life sentence. this is a sad sign of the times. after 175 years, the new orleans "times-picayune" will cease being a daily newspaper. they will cut back the print edition to three days a week while publishing online every day. the story "times-picayune" won a few pulitzer prizes for its coverage of hurricane katrina. the staff will be cut back, but they're not saying how many jobs will be lost. really sad. quick-thinking bystanders rescued a man who drove his car -- yes, that's a car -- into a neighborhood pool in smyrna, georgia. it plunged right through a fence yesterday afternoon after the
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driver suffered some kind of a medical emergency. but luckily, the pool was pretty much empty, and that driver, luckily, is expected to be okay. well, all the money in the entire world adds up to about $60 trillion, but music record labels claim that file-sharing site limewire owes them $72 trillion. the label claims 7,000 songs were downloaded illegally, thousands of times, leading up to $72 trillion. the judge says the industry is entitled to some damages, but not the total cost of each individual download. limewire was shut down back in 2010. if you're hitting the roads this holiday weekend, here's a little news you can use. pardon my pronunciation here, but i think it's called waze, w-a-z-e. a social media navigation app has tips to save time, gas and maybe even your sanity. it says the best time to hit the
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road today would be before 10:00 a.m. or after 4:00 p.m. kind of denies logic, doesn't it, after 4:00 p.m. in. >> yeah, i don't think so. >> that's a weird one. traffic could start building today as early as 10:00, way earlier than your typical rush hour. most cars on the road, believe it or not, between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. so, maybe rush hour is the best hour for you. >> hmm, interesting. well, have you ever got this story? former gop presidential candidate jon huntsman's been called many, many things. he's a father of seven, governor, ambassador, and now sex symbol? >> serious? >> that's right. we're going to have much more on this coming up. oh, jon huntsman. ♪ i'm sexy and i know it >> and while you rock out to "sexy and i know it," if you're leaving the house right now, you can watch us any time on your desktop or mobile phone. go to cnn.com/tv. know i that it, affordable product.
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it is 53 minutes now past 5:00 on the east coast. >> i have no idea what you were just doing. >> you have no idea. during the commercial break, oh, if there were only a webcam. we like to look at what's trending oitrend ing on the interwebs. and the man who's made a living by saying look at me has done it again. chad ochocinco has claimed that somebody smashed out the back of his cadillac escalade and stole his wallet. he was so shaken up, he had to tell everybody on twitter about it. but the only thing that seemed to phase him is the fact that his prized starbucks gold card was gone. >> took my starbucks card. not just any starbucks card. i earned the gold card. do you know how many coffees i've had to drink and things i've had to purchase to get to that gold card? >> i would like to -- do you know how many coffees we have to drink to do this job? >> that's right. >> how do you get the gold card? >> i have no idea. >> i've never heard of such a thing. >> obviously, he's a repeat
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customer. >> guess what? twitter came to his rescue, because later in the day, ocho tweeted -- can i call him ocho for short, is that fair? >> you can. >> ocho tweeted "crazy! i found my wallet using social media. unreal how powerful this site is." >> wow. >> "they left i.d. and credit card but stole my starbucks card." what's that "wtf" mean? >> i don't know. >> come on, alina, aren't you with it? never mind. this is my favorite story of the day. huntsman the hottie. that's right. >> yep. >> the aarp says that the former utah governor and gop candidate, jon huntsman, is 1 of the 21 sexiest men alive over 50. >> well, it is aarp, right? >> that's right. he came in at number 20. that's 19, by the way, 19 behind george clooney -- >> is george clooney 50? >> he's 52, huntsman, and he was singled out for being the hippest dude in the conservative crowd -- >> and that is tough, right? >> that is tough to beat, that one. >> right.
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>> and for his brain power, of course, under that dreamy salt n pepper hair, he was once in a band, did you know this? >> no, i did not know this. >> relax, ladies, he's married and a father of seven. you know who else made the cut, actually for honorable mentions? colon powell. >> oh, i can understand that. yeah, i believe that. in fact, i would think jon huntsman could make "maxim." that's just me. never works out well for a bear in a tree, right? again, this is the interwebs. this is from colorado. wildlife officials called into a neighborhood where a black bear wandered up a tree. look at him. oh, he's so cute. he was shot with a tranquilizer. >> where did this happen? >> how adorable! steamboat springs. >> oh, man. >> yeah, so they had to bring out the big old ladder. ooh, down he goes. usually they have something nice for him to land on, but that's -- oh and we slow-mo it for you. something about bears falling from trees.
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>> i hope that bear's okay. >> bear's okay, yeah, taken out of the city and back into the wild away from people like you and me. the bear in the tree. >> yeah, see, they're holding something. there you go. that's what was out of the shot, so he'd be safe. so always nice to know that it works out well. >> great. >> yeah. a texas man tries to sneak out of the country to go work with al qaeda. why and how he wanted to hurt americans, that's ahead. you're watching "early start." we're back after this. dude you , this is my dad's car. look at the car! my dad's gonna kill me dude... [ male announcer ] the security of a 2012 iihs top safety pick. the volkswagen passat. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $209 a month. more than 50 times a day? so brighten your smile a healthy way
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6-year-old etan patz. we have a description of what it a suspect says happened when he snatched that little boy. hurricane bud packing 110-mile-per-hour winds, a category 2 hurricane. we will have the latest track of this storm for you. for the first time in history a commercial spacecraft, a live picture on your screen right now, about to link up with the international space station. we like to say, let your geek flag fly, because that's what they're looking at right now. what a few from the international space station as the first unman's commercial spacecraft comes to say hello. hello to you this morning. nice to have you with us. welcome to "early start." i'm ashleigh banfield. >> i say this with love and administrati administratioed admirati admiration. you have a little geek in you.
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>> total geek. >> i'm alina cho, zoraida sambolin is off today. a suspect has confessed to the murder of etan patz, a 6-year-old who bvanished withou a trace. this morning 51-year-old pedro hernandez will be in court to face a murder charge. baaing in '79, he lived and worked in the same neighborhood as the little boy. the police commissioner says he recounted the crime in disturbing detail. >> hernandez described how he lured young etan from the school bus stop at west broadway and prince street with the promise of a soda. he then led him into the basement of the bodega, choked him there and disposed of the body but putting it into a plastic bag and placing it into the trash. >> there's a lot of coverage on the story, look at the two new
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york tabloid newspapers q the daily news" and "new york post" with full front pages. why is this a national and not just new york story, that was the first face to go on a milk carton and spawned the whole notion of the missing children effort. one thing police aren't sure about in this case is why. the motive behind all of this. cnn's susan candiotti is following the story and live in lower manhattan. the question that is so critical in this story is why now, 33 years to the day, do police think they might actually have the man? >> reporter: you're right, ashleigh, and other stunning questions as well. we have conflicting information as to whether he was ever interviewed in the past. ray kelly, the police commissioner says he was never interviewed. however, another law enforcement source says that he was opened to briefly in the past. the police commissioner believes him because of the specifics of his detailed alleged confession
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to police and also because of what he told to at least some family members and others about this alleged confession. now he told them that in the past, he has said to others over the years that he, according to the police did something very bad and killed a boy in new york, without mentioning a name. police say even though they don't have a motive at the time but gathering evidence they had enough probable cause to arrest him. here is commissioner kelly. >> spoke to our detective, we have a written confession, a signed confession. he spoke for three and a half hours, videotaped statements. so obviously we believe that there's probable cause to go forward with this arrest. >> reporter: and because someone came forward after the search of that basement just last month, someone saw the news coverage,
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reached out to police, a tipster, we're not identifying exactly who this is and says you should talk to this man, that's when police tracked him down. >> susan, i've been perusing the local papers as i was showing off at the top of this segment. just a small picture and another one on "the post" there seems to be very little known about pedro hernandez. who is he? what do we know about him? >> reporter: police say he was 19 years old working as a stock boy in a bodega, another name for the convenience store, right in the area where the patz family lived. he didn't appear to have any prior connection or interaction prior with the boy. after this happened he moved to jersey, in the ensuing years, got a job in the construction trade, hurt and living on disability. he moved out to new jersey and we saw the family, he was
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married and had a teenage daughter, that they were escorted from their home by police because of all the reporters that were out there, led away and that they also have apparently talked to the police as well. but we talked to others in the neighborhood who said they're blown away, confounded that this man allegedly confessed to killing a little boy. >> it is a remarkable story. >> he seemed like an all right guy. he had a wife and there was a young daughter and they were, you know, they're always smiling. if this guy confessed to it, 33 years he's been living in his own personal hell. >> reporter: and police also said they did read mr. hernandez his miranda rights and he agreed to talk with them anyway. he went out to the old neighborhood and showed them the store where he used to work, showed them the basement where he said that he strangled little
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etan patz. the store now sells eyeglasses, looks nothing like it did years ago. >> so many years ago, 33 years ago to the day, susan candiotti in lower manhattan, thank you. 20 years in prison for a texas man who tried to sneak out of the u.s. and give al qaeda restricted military documents. the court also ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine. prosecutors say he wanted to join al qaeda and provide the organization with money and two restricted access army manual its related to u.s. drones and gps equipment. he was arrested two years ago after using a fake i.d. aboard a ship headed to the middle east. jurors in the john edwards trial are beginning a sixth day of deliberations later on this morning. yesterday they requested
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something, 20 receipts of payments made by a wealthy benefactor. they are trying to determine whether they were illegal campaign contributions or not. this is a story a lot of us have been paying close attention to, new details on the georgia grad student fighting to survive a rare flesh-eating bacterial disease after falling off a homemade zip line. 24-year-old amy copeland could be out of intensive care in three to four weeks. she's able to sit up in a chair in a few hours but she is critical. amy's on full time kidney dialysis and relies on oxygen because her lungs are not functioning. she lost both of her hands, her leg and another foot. about 260,000 flags in all
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will be placed at the arlington national cemetery, this tradition goes back more than 60 years and a good way to serve as a reminder the real reason we are observing memorial day. >> so nice. hurricane bud now a powerful pacific storm, a category 2, lurking off the mexican coast. look at bud from space, you can see how big it is and it has a real defined eye. hurricane and tropical storm warnings are in effect and there's word of another storm gathering strength off the coast of florida, our rob marciano is looking at it all for us, so rob, when do you think bud is going to make landfall and just how bad is it going to be? >> worse than we thought to answer that part of the question and the expected landfall and for a time there, the official forecast was to not even bring it toward the coast of mexico but it's a category 2 storm, a strong one. it was at one point a category 3 and heading toward the west coast of mexico, 135 miles
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southwest of manzanilla. the eye disappeared overnight. it will make landfall sometime tonight and putting the brakes on and stalling so it will bring waves and wind for sure, already bringing rain, the main threat with this into the mountainous regions the rain could cause mudslides and flash flooding. this is the other disturbance alina is talking about, it was over cuba, our computer model has been playing with this, potentially as our next tropical storm. it's not even hurricane season yet, potentially into the coastlines of the southeast over the weekend. it really can't get that strong so if it makes its way to the west, although may be spoiling weekend plans, this area of the country desperately needs the rain so we'll take it if it gets there. could become our next tropical
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storm maybe even today. >> the other thing that's swirling around on the other coast, if it does developing into something more serious they're going to call it buhrl. >> atlantic pacific basin and eastern pacific sabasin, they he different listed so this boo be tropical storm beryl. if we get it, two named storms, if we get it this would happen two times in the last 100 years. >> that would be why i didn't understand it. i am >> i'm headed your way, rob. >> come on down. >> i will out the champagne and caviar, she's on her way. >> i'll be bringing those high heels. >> that's the way we like it. we're just hours away from something we have never seen
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before, just listen to that orchestra. ♪ this is how astronauts are playing to pull us up, real cool. live pictures as the dragon, the spacex dragon unmanned spacecraft is on its way, to the people behind the camera. >> you noticed we did a music upgrade, went "star wars." >> great stuff, total geek squad coming at you. [ slap! slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums
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hmmm. you'll bring a lot to the party. [ all ] yay! [ female announcer ] new ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. twenty-one vitamins and minerals. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. refreshing nutrition in charge! i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. the capsule, that picture is being taken from the international space station, and that capsule is just minutes away from linking up or as ashleigh likes to say hooking up with the international space station. >> that's me, jessica rabbit. >> nasa is giving it the all
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clear after a practice fly-by yesterday. john zarrella joins us with a look at that. good morning. >> good morning. >> what are we expecting to see in the next half hour or so? >> well in the next hour or so we're going to see a hookup u just what ashleigh said, when they reach out with the shuttle's, space station's ro t robotic arm and they grab the dragon. the dragon is flying over africa. that's a shot of mission control in houston there, but flying over africa right now. what they are doing, just now we're demonstrating dragon's ability to actually move closer, then they stopped it and they backed up again. you can see it in the cross-hairs there from the onboard space station computer system. they want to make sure it's lined up exactly in the crosshairs. they had dragon approach the space station and then stop to
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test the braking system and then back off again. of course, that's critical because they want to make sure that they would be able to do that in case of some sort of an emergency, where they had to abort the actual procedure towards birthing so that apparently has all gone well and they are going to in the next few minutes go ahead and check out all the data, then we assume give the go ahead to begin the actual birthing procedure where they will reach out with the robotic arm. don pettitte and anders kuiner will back up and bring it in to the harmony node on the space station, and birth it there to the harmony node. so huge event today in space, first time in history a commercial company attempting to do this, and really, it is the future of low earth space
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operations, these commercial companies taking over. absolutely. >> but john, i think we need to remind people this is not just a vanity project. they're actually carrying precious cargo, including lots of food, some clothing, other supplies, too, right? >> yeah, absolutely, and when i talked to ilan musk, the ceo of spacex, there are things they need up there, computer, clothing, batteries and food but if something had gone wrong and they lost dragon it's not like it would have been the end of the world. they're not things that they absolutely had to have immediately and in fact musk told me he wasn't sure but he thought they were carrying some underwear up there as well on this flight. >> that's important. >> listen, you need it. >> absolutely. >> you got to change up there. >> yes indeed. >> all right, on that note, john zarrella, thank you. >> sure. >> nice to see you. >> alina, i wonder if czar rzar
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knows today is the 36th anniversary of "star wars." dan tani, nasa astronaut will join us to speak about the future of space exploration. instead of helping him, they robbed him, they even pulled off his shoes. look at this video closely. police in port chester, new york, showing a crowd of people literally stripping a man of all of his valuables. it happened after he stumbled out of a bar and passed out on the street. people were rifling through his pockets, they pulled off his watch, a chain and belt, even shaking out his shoes to see if there's any money in them. he actually got up finally after a couple of hours and then was arrested, wandering through a backyard. three plants have been shut down and over 700 people have
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lost their jobs, ever since a product called lean beef made by a south dakota-based company was given the nickname pink slime by a government inspector. well that term was reported by the media and the company that makes it, beef products incorporated, says that restaurant and store orders dropped dramatically and their plants in iowa, kansas and texas had to be shut down. something from the stone ages literally, this is a perfect business card if you're fred flintstone. the day of cell phones and digital address books. french company created a set of business cards, yes, made of concrete. doesn't say how much they weigh anywhere on the website. they even come with their own mini wooden shipping pallets so you can neatly stack them on the desk. the company says it will help you cement yourself with potential contacts. >> here's the thing, girls carry purses and we don't like to have
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a lot of stuff in those purses. >> that's right. >> especially heavy stuff so if you hand me that business card, thanks but no thanks. >> going in the circular file is what you're saying. this is the news homeowners have been waiting for. our christine romans getting bullish about the housing market saying it's taking a big turn. she'll explain why and how this is really news you can use, even today. [ thunk ] sweet! [ male announcer ] the solid thunk of the door on the jetta. thanks, mister! [ meow ] [ male announcer ] another example of volkswagen quality. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 jetta for $159 a month.
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that's the power of german engineering. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale.
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look at it. >> if you have a 30-year fixed rate mortgage in the five or six or i know people still in the 7% range, you have an unbelievable chance to refinance your mortgage. buying a house got cheaper. interest rates record lows averaging 3.78%, these are freddie mac's number, almost a full point below where it was just a year ago, that is a huge difference in the mortgage world, folks, and the potential here is tens of thousands of dollars in lower interest payments over the lifetime of a loan. for perspective, this week's lower rate would reduce payments on $100,000 home loan by $48 a month compared to last year's one point higher rate, a savings of more than $17,000 for a $100,000 lone lifetime. 15-year fixed rate mortgages, popular, are even lower, 3.04%. another really important piece
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of news about the housing market this week, home sales up 10% year over year. surprised a lot of people. the year over year home sales. something happened in april. the spring selling season finally showed a pulse. after five years of me belly aching about the house market there was a pulse in the spring selling season. rates are very low. there are people trapped in distressed situations. i don't want to understate that. 30% of people are underwater in their loan but people are moving again in the housing market, people who are not distressed are pushing this thing behind them and starting to move again. >> there was an article in "the new york times" a week or two ago about this, the fact that, manhattan is an anomaly, but there are bidding wars going on. we haven't heard about that in a really long time. >> in the competitive zip codes, there are multiple offers, again. sometimes these multiple offers are for less than the prior owner bought the home, make no mistake. people are taking a little bit of a hit on the chin. when you look at people are
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moving for their jobs, people are retiring, people moving to move, people moving to get march rid, people are moving because they're getting divorced. life is happening and the housing market is moving again and these numbers, one after another, again, are showing a pulse in the housing market for the first time in a long time. for you, if you were in a complicated like a mortgage that's going to adjust higher or you're in some kind of a mortgage that, look, you need to look at the rates, figure out how to refinance and how the loans are right for you because the rates are so low. i hope people qualify because a lot of people either because they're underwater or because of their credit score, they have a problem. >> it's always nice to have good news on a friday, any day actually. come on back. a cow pie of distortion. find out what the president was talking about when he said this. >> cow pie? >> that's right. >> distortion? >> that's weird. your doctor will say get smart about your weight.
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barnyard talk in the race for the white house? wait until you hear what president obama had to say about mitt romney's record. getting ready to witness space history, the first private spacecraft is closing in on the international space station. and moved to tears, a young girl overcome with emotion, doing something that most of us take completely for granted every day. welcome back to "early start" everybody. i'm ashleigh banfield. very nice to have you here with us and great to have alina cho with you. >> on a friday, good morning, everybody, i'm alina cho, zoraida is off this morning. it's 31 minutes after the hour, bringing you the news from a to c. up front, the war of words between president obama and mitt romney are taking a colorful
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turn this morning. the president visiting the iowa state fairgrounds hammering away at mitt romney's record blasting his rival with language only farmers can truly appreciate. listen. >> i know governor romney came to des moines last week, warned about a prairie fire of debt. that's what he said, prairie fire. but he left out some facts. his speech was more like a cow .cow pie of distortion. [ applause ] i don't know, i don't know whose record he twisted the most, mine or his. >> ouch. cnn political editor paul steinhauser joins us live from washington this morning. good morning. good to see you. you got some new polling to share with us, right? so what does it say? >> i sure do, so where was the president, you mentioned iowa.
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that's a battleground, swing state. there are up to a dozen of the states both parties will contest in the presidential election. we have new numbers. this is from nbc marist of some other battleground states. florida, one of the grand daddies of course, look at that, the president with a four-point advantage. ohio the president with a six-point advantage and virginia a four-point advantage. florida is interesting, another poll from a different organization came out earlier and had mitt romney up by six points so basically what does it tell you? the race for the white house, battle for the states and electoral votes, it is very tight right now. we have a little over five months to go until the election. >> it's important to note this is well within the margin of error as well. >> exactly. >> it's tighter than people might think. >> very tight. >> taking a closer look at on how different sets of workers feel about the presidential race, this is so interesting so what did you find? >> this is very interesting. most times we break down polls
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by the party, democrat or republican, we break it down by gender, by age, where you live, that stuff. he broke it down by what kind of worker you are, this is by gall gallup, nurses, accountants, lawyers, doctors, president obama with an eight-point advantage. service workers, police officers, firefighters and such people as waiters, fast food workers, janitorial workers a 13-point advantage. then it swings the other way. mitt romney holding a seven-point advantage among managers and executives, dead even among clerical and office workers. construction workers, mitt romney with a big, big advantage among them and people in the mining industry. business owners same thing and transportation workers, a slight advantage so it is fascinating when you break it down by profession. you don't see this very often. >> when you look at the new "the washington post"/abc news poll that came out saying mitt romney holds a significant lead over president obama among white
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voters who are struggling financially, this presents a problem for the obama campaign as well. what i found interesting about what the president was doing, he not only gave that speech in ohio, he had a twitter town hall answering questions on twitter which was great. the romney campaign, do they have anything big coming up? >> they do. both campaigns have taken the weekend off. you'll see both gentlemen on monday doing memorial day related events. on tuesday an interesting matchup, mitt romney teaming up with newt gingrich, his former rival, and a person who thought about running for a moment but didn't, that's donald trump. yep, they're all going to be at trump's casino in las vegas for a fund-raiser for romney. it will be an interesting, i hope we see all three men on the stage together shaking hands. should be quite a picture. >> one that will run all weekend long i'm sure. paul steinhauser, cnn deputy political editor thank you for
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joining us this morning. >> thank you. a florida judge says that it is okay to flash your headlights to warn oncoming drivers about a speed trap. you know, you've seen it or you might have done it, the 25-year-old ryan kittnor of lake mary, florida, did it and got a ticket for it last summer. seminole county police called it a "violation of state traffic law" but a judge said no, not so. he tossed out the ticket ruling that kittnor is protected in flashing his lights because you have a constitutional right to free speech. >> i love that story. ryan young got his job back, we recently told but him, a safeway meat clerk from california who raced from behind the counter to help a pregnant customer who was being attacked by her boyfrien. ryan's actions made him a national hero, but get this, safeway suspended him without pay for violating its zero
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tolerance policy on workplace violence. does that make sense to you? hundreds of ryan supporters started boycotting safeway, picketing outside the store and the company has reversed course, announcing he has his job back and guess what? with full back pay, too. a 10-year-old texas girl who is deaf has her hearing back, all thanks to a cochlear implant. now that's a great story, but what you're going to see is even a better story. sammy hicks was born with a genetic mu mu taititation in he. is it worth it? take a look at sami at the moments doctors activated the implant she literally jumps when the first thing she hears is the sound of her own breathing. >> hey, i sound --
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>> you're hearing yourself better. >> exactly. she's hearing herself breathing and i don't think she realized before. >> it's okay, you can cry. it's okay. >> i started to cry, because it was overwhelming. i had no idea what the sounds were. my heart just stopped. it's, i can't really put it into words who it felt like watching her hear those little things that we never thought she'd be able to hear. >> there is just nothing like something like this, a story we can tell you, just tugs on your heart strings and the story is not over there. her 8-year-old brother's name is jacob,'s hearing impaired and said to get his own cochlear implants soon as well. >> such a great story. >> it's the law of gravity, what comes up must come down, in the case of the bear that you're about to see, fast asleep in a
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tree. the question is, where is the bear? the question is, the bear is coming. there he is. >> oh, look at you. >> how did that bear come down? is he okay? we're going to tell you about it, next. want to get a check of today's weather first. >> we had to see that happen. rob marciano watching weather for us. couple of storms brewing. >> watching the disturbance off the florida coastline, may bring rain north of miami, we desperately need it northern parts of florida and the carolinas as well. the threat for seeing storms today is across the midwest, omaha to kansas city and across the northeast could see severe thunder boomers, upstate new york and into the great lakes region. if you're traveling out of the new york city airports, delays of over an hour expected. once the front comes through looking at decent weather for
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the memorial day weekend for the northeast. you're up to date weather wise. "early start" comes right back. ♪[music plays] there's another way to help erase litter box odor. purina tidy cats. only tidy cats has new odor erasers... making it easy to keep things at home... just the way you want them. new tidy cats with odor erasers. for a hot dog cart. my mother said, "well, maybe we ought to buy this hot dog cart and set it up someplace."
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it's 42 minutes past 6:00 on the east coast. let's get you up to date on the news. private spacecraft on course with history right now. that's a cool shot. it's not a moon. it's a highlight. look at the middle of the highlight, the dragon, a space capsule minutes away from becoming the first commercial craft to hook up with the international space station. in a couple of minutes we'll talk to a nasa ast nount, dan
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tani and he'll tell us what this means for the future for america's space exploration. three missing men have been found dead in a pile of manure. father and his two teenage sons were working at a mature pit on a large dairy farm, reported missing wednesday. officers have found their bodies, it happened yesterday. their bodies were submerged in the 12 million gallon pit. police have not figured out how they got stuck there, but they do not suspect foul play. a federal jury in texas convicting an american soldier of plotting to detonate a bomb near ft. hood the army base last summer. 22-year-old nasr jason abdo planned to avenge killing of iraqs in afghanistan. convicted of six felonies, carrying a possible life sentence. after 175 years the "the new
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orleans sometimtimes-picayune" t back its edition to three days a week, it won a few pulitzers for its coverage of hurricane katrina. staff will be cut back but the publisher isn't saying how many jobs will be lost. a picture do you not often see, it is a car and yes, that is a pool. >> it does happen every now and then. isn't it odd? >> and you always ask, what? thanks to some quick thinking bystanders the drive who drove the car into the pool was rescued. police said he suffered some madical emergency. luckily the pool was not completely full and the driver is expected to be okay. >> that is good news. all the money in the entire world adds up if you add it all up to about $60 trillion. but listen to this. music record labels claim file sharing site limewire owes them more than $72 trillion. how? the labels claim that 11,000
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songs were downloaded illegal on linewire thousands of times and when you add it up it comes to $72 trillion. federal judge says the industry is entitled to some damages but not the total cost. limewire was shut down in 2010. we often do the bear in the tree story and usually doesn't work out so well but this time we have great video. look at him, adorable, snoozing, completely splayed over a branch in steam boat springs, colorado. watch this. >> and he's fine. >> he's okay. >> neighborhood black bear wandered into a tree. the officer shot the bear with a tranquillizer dart. before you get freaked about him falling, everybody below is holding something to cushion his fall, that's the way it works. the bear is great, doing fine. he was taken out of this location which is not safe to the people around himm or to hi and taken to a cozy place in the
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woods. >> he was so confused when he woke up. wait, last i knew i was napping in a tree. >> why am i on four legs on the ground now? christine romans in for soledad o'brien. >> humans. >> there's $60 trillion in the world, this is like a big headline for me. i've been kind of stuck on that story, what, there's $60 trillion in the world? >> i have 60 cents in my purse, that's it. ahead on "starting point," i'm in for soledad, counting has begun in egypt at some of the polling station this is morning after two days of voting in egypt's first free elections. is this the end of america's moment in middle eastern politi politics? we'll talk to a leading authority on the middle east. he believes president obama has lost an historic opportunity here. also ahead this morning, a provocative question, are video games and porn ruining an entire generation of men?
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are young men so hooked on arousal, it's leading to the demise of guys and how will this damage your children? move over, danica patrick. we've got indianapolis 500 racer and rookie katherine legge join us live giving the men a run for their money. head to cnn.com/tv. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. dude you don't understand, this is my dad's car. look at the car!
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comments online anonymously. should they be banned? believe it or not that's what lawmakers in new york are considering doing. "time" magazine is reporting on a brand new bill that would outlaw anonymous international comments. lawmakers say people have a civil right to know who is behind internet postings but critics of the bill say not surprisingly this is a first amendment free speech violation. here is a story that will make parents hopping mad. preschool teacher in houston is accused of scaring her kids by, listen to this, locking them in what was called the monster closet. affiliate khou is really a janitor's closet and kids were locked inside for about five minutes at a time as a form of punishment. one mom says her son was thrown in the closet for laughing in class and he was so scared he vomited. the teacher has been suspended. >> that is just awful. if you are leaving your house trying to catch the bus, train or your car is slow, watch
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sw. space history could be made today, spacex's dragon capsule if it's able to successfully link up with the international space station it will be the first time that a private spacecraft has ever done this. you have a live picture on your screen, out of the window of the international space station as it looks at the approaching
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spacecraft. the capsule launched tuesday morning. the dragon capsule is carrying food and computer supplies and tools for experiments and clothing, we hear even underwear which is kind of interesting. they need underwear up there. joining me life astronaut dan tani. good to see you. this is one of the things where we can totally geek out so geek out with me, dan, and tell me why this is so cool and so different. >> well, you know, we've sent visiting vehicles we call them to the space station before, but all of them have been made by the national space agency. this is a private company visiting us which is the wave of the future for the space station so it's an exciting moment. the dragon is performing incredibly well the launch appeared flawless and i'm very impressed we're this far into the mission with few hiccups i
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could tell. >> i love we're watching and again it's unmanned so we need to let people know as it stands this private mission is unmanned but the wave of the future is that someone like you could be on board so as they bring in all this cargo, to answer me two things, is there anything cool on board in terms of experiments and then would you like to be on board or do you want this to be tested out a little bit more before you get your heieny on oe of those things? >> most of us would jump on, considered it's designed and performed so well, certainly would like to get in line for that ride. in terms of the cargo that's on board, i frankly don't know the details of it. i know there's care packages for the crew members, highly anticipated, probably the first things the crew members will get at, notes from home and special treats and so that's highly anticipated but there's a lot of food and supplies, as you mentioned, housekeeping supplies
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and clothing, so it's stuff we need to live in the space station for months at a time. >> i never expected a nasa astronaut will tell me notes from home and special treats was cool. thanks so much for joining us. >> you bet. >> good to see you. >> thank you, good-bye, ashleigh. >> astronauts, there's nothing cooler. we're flat out of time but great to have you here. >> thank you. have a good weekend. >> you, too, you'll be working out of atlanta all weekend long. >> starting at 5:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. >> can't get enough of alina. that's the news from a to c. i'm ashleigh banfield. >> and i'm alina cho. christine romans with "starting point" starts right now. our starting point, a detailed confession in the case of the first boy ever to have his face on a milk carton, a suspect heading to court today, 33 years to the day etan patz
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vanished. bud gets bigger, now a major hurricane, warnings out in hot tourist spots in the danger zone. on a course with history, a spacecraft closing in on the international space station, seconds away from finding out if it's the future or a failure. it's friday, friday, may 25th. "starting point" begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com case closed in the etan patz kidnapping case. 51-year-old new jersey man confessing to killing the 6-year-old boy exactly 33 years ago today, may 25th, 1979. this is the man "inside edition" identifies as pay to rehernandez, expected to appear in court in charges of second-degree murder. he was 19 years old working at a corner store blocks from the little boy's
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