American Morning
Teen pilot sets cross-country record
A 15-year-old Los Angeles girl has reason to brag today. She recently set an aviation record and is looking to do many more. Kimberly Anyadike is believed to be the youngest African-American girl to pilot a plane cross-country. She spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday.
Kiran Chetry: I was amazed when I read about your story. You flew 7,000 miles. You flew from Compton, California all the way to Newport News, Virginia, and back again all in 13 days. What was that like taking on such a huge undertaking in the sky?
Kimberly Anyadike: It was so amazing. All the people I met, all the people I got to socialize with. I even made a couple new friends – even meeting some of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. It was such an exhilarating experience for me.
Chetry: With you on that flight was your instructor, Levi Thornhill. He's 87-years-old. He was one of the Tuskegee Airmen. How did you get to know him? What was your connection and why was it so important to you have to him there? And, as I understand it, 50 other Tuskegee Airmen signed your plane.
Anyadike: Well, I had a safety pilot, his name is Ronell Normal. But Mr. Thornhill sat behind me and he never complained once. But he was such a motivational person. He's a mentor to me. I met him after I joined the program about two years ago and the plane that I flew is dedicated to him. So I thought it was a good chance to give honor directly to him.
Economist: Obama's stimulus doomed to fail
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/15/morici.peter.art.jpg caption="Peter Morici of the University of Maryland says President Obama's economic stimulus plan is doomed to fail."]
It's been five months since President Obama signed his stimulus plan in to law. It includes more than $250 billion of government spending and tax breaks meant to create jobs. Yesterday, the president said unemployment may get worse before things turn around.
Peter Morici is a professor of international business at the University of Maryland and former economic director for the United States International Trade Commission. He says President Obama’s stimulus plan is doomed to fail. He spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday.
Kiran Chetry: The nation’s unemployment rate hit 9.5% last month. There's debate on whether the stimulus is working and if it's working quickly enough. The White House says we are on target. But a lot of people are asking when are we going to see the effects? You, though, say it's doomed to fail. Why?
Peter Morici: The stimulus money is very badly spent. We knew the tax cuts from the Bush stimulus don't work. People are simply saving it. If you wanted stimulus to work, spend it mostly on shovel-ready projects, infrastructure, schools, hospitals, etc. But only $100 billion of the $800 billion is spent there.
Chetry: When you say shovel-ready – they found it a challenge within the administration to find shovel-ready projects, at least that’s what many are saying, in these various states. How do you get that better organized so indeed if the money is there, only 10% has gone out, they can get it to projects that are ready to go?
Morici: I'm no Republican, but what President Obama is discovering is how slow the bureaucracy moves. It's very hard to push this kind of money through the system. Also, all of the red tape that the government has created doing construction has made it very difficult. I could get the money out there. But Obama doesn't seem to be capable of getting it done. The advisers don't seem to be able to get it done. What you got to do is just hand it to the mayors and county executives and say, “You got to spend x by the end of this year.” Then give them another chunk for next year – “You got to spend that by the end of the year and so forth or you don't get to keep the money.” Most municipalities and counties have a long list of renovation projects they’re holding in abeyance because they don’t have enough cash. That’s the way to get it out. President Obama is not thinking in those terms. Instead, he beefs up the Department of Education.
Small drinks promise big energy, but experts say effects unclear
By Danielle Dellorto, CNN Medical Producer
(CNN) - From supermarkets to the office supply store, it's hard to miss those tiny bottles of 5-hour Energy.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/15/art.energy.drink.ad.ho.jpg caption="The makers of 5-hour Energy call it a 'no-nonsense drink.'"]
"It would be easier for me to tell you where we didn't sell them in the U.S. than list all the places we do," said Carl Sperber, spokesman for Living Essentials, the Detroit, Michigan-based manufacturer of 5-hour Energy shot.
The small, shot-glass size bottles promise to provide energy and alertness without jitters to fatigued Americans. Unlike other popular energy drinks that market to college students, 5-Hour Energy's audience is multitasking, working professionals. The market demand has skyrocketed since the product hit store shelves in 2004. The company expects to move more than 350 million shots this year, Sperber said, up from 174 million in 2008.
"This is a no-nonsense drink," Sperber said. "It is not a fashion statement. It doesn't have a cool name; it is just a simple grab-and-go product to help busy adults when they can't afford a letdown."
Each 2-ounce bottle contains zero grams of sugar, 4 calories and about the same amount of caffeine as a small coffee. It also contains about a dozen ingredients that are broken down into B vitamins (B3, B6, B9, B12) and what the manufacturer lists as an "energy blend."
But don't expect superhuman results, one expert said.
"The B vitamins are given at extraordinarily high levels, and people need to know they are not some magic potion that's going to immediately raise your energy level," said Dr. Brent Bauer, Mayo Clinic director of complementary and integrative medicine. "There is no data that show that."
Analysis: Sotomayor a cautious, careful liberal
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/15/art.toobin.cnn.jpg caption="CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin calls Judge Sonia Sotomayor 'a cautious, careful liberal.'"]
By Jeffrey Toobin
CNN Senior Analyst
(CNN) - One of the enduring myths about Supreme Court justices is that they often turn out to "surprise" the presidents who appoint them. Sure-thing conservatives, it is said, turn out to be liberals, and vice versa. In fact, the evidence is almost entirely the opposite: that with justices, as in life, what you see is what you get.
The question, then, is this: What do you see when you look at Sonia Sotomayor, who begins her confirmation hearings as a strong favorite for confirmation?
She is, above all, a veteran judge who has 18 years on the federal bench: six as a trial judge (appointed by President George H.W. Bush) and the rest on the court of appeals (appointed by President Clinton). The question of competence is closed. Sotomayor can do the job. It's no surprise that she received a unanimous rating of well-qualified from the American Bar Association screening committee.
But what would she stand for as a Supreme Court justice? She is, it seems, a liberal, but a liberal in the cautious and careful mode of her likely future colleagues Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
Her leanings are clearest in the case of affirmative action. As a political and constitutional matter, she believes government can take steps to assure a diverse work force or student body.
This view was on display in the most famous (or infamous) decision of her career.
Keep reading this story »
Sotomayor back on the hot seat today
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sonia Sotomayor faced tough questioning Tuesday on political issues and controversial statements from her past, with both Democrats and Republicans saying she responded well and appeared certain to win confirmation as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
The 55-year-old federal appeals judge conceded she made a bad play on words in saying in 2001 that a "wise Latina woman" could reach a better conclusion than a white man.
Otherwise, her calm answers to questions by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a wide range of issues - abortion, gun control, presidential powers, the death penalty - displayed a command of legal concepts that impressed her harshest interrogators.
Do you accept Sotomayor's "wise Latina" explanation? Tell us your thoughts.
What’s on Tap – Wednesday July 15, 2009
Here are the big stories on the agenda today:
- Race, abortion, gun control – all on the table as Republicans fired question after question at Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Her answers were very careful ones. The Supreme Court nominee will likely get more of the same later today. We're looking at day two's heated exchanges – and what Sotomayor can expect in a few hours.
- Is the secretary of state being sidelined? She's supposed to be America’s top ambassador, but Hillary Clinton’s been out of the limelight since she broke her elbow last month. Now some inside the beltway say the president's inner circle is keeping Clinton out.
- Democrats on the hill have a few questions for former Vice President Dick Cheney. The former VP’s now connected to a secret CIA program and Democrats are clamoring for President Obama to launch new investigations into the Bush administration. But the White House is still saying it wants to look forward, not back.
- An update to a story we’ve been following here on AM. A day camp is now suing a Pennsylvania swim club over allegations of racism. Parents say kids were kicked out of the pool, after they overheard things like “what are all these black kids doing here?” The camp director joins us live. Why she says “the children are permanently scarred.”
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