American Morning
What caused accident at SeaWorld?
(CNN) – SeaWorld is shutting down all killer whale shows today after a sudden and frightening attack at their park in Orlando.
SeaWorld's star attraction, a killer whale named Tilikum, killed veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau yesterday. Witnesses say the orca actually grabbed Brancheau and pulled her into the water. So what went wrong?
We were joined on Thursday's American Morning by Chuck Tompkins, curator of zoological operations at Sea World in Orlando.
Read more: Did killer whale pull trainer into tank?
Cornyn: 'This is about theater'
Some critics are calling the president's televised health care summit nothing more than political theater. We heard from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on American Morning Thursday, but for the Republican perspective we turned to Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
Live Updates: Health care summit
Why is dental insurance not part of health insurance?
(CNN) – President Obama's health care summit kicked off today in Washington. We expect plenty of partisan bickering, but what will all this really mean for you?
For some answers, we turned to our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He reached into his mailbag to answer some of your health care questions on Thursday's American Morning.
Question #1
"Why is dental insurance not considered part of health insurance?" -M.C. Mitchell
Question #2
"What will happen when there are not enough doctors to take care of all the patients?" -Virginia
Gibbs on health care summit
Today, President Obama is sitting down with Democrats and Republicans for a televised six-hour summit on health care. It could be the administration's last hope for meaningful reform.
But there's no guarantee the two parties can co-exist in the same room, let alone reach some kind of agreement. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs joined us on Thursday's American Morning to discuss what we can expect.
Watch Live: Obama opens health care summit
Broken Government: Push to redraw Congressional districts
(CNN) – All this week, we're using the full resources of CNN to look at Washington gridlock in our special series, "Broken Government."
Today, we're investigating gerrymandering. It's an old political trick, but simply put, it means dividing up local voting districts to give one party or another a political edge.
The way these lines are drawn can swing entire elections. One example is Maryland's second district. At its longest point, it's about 50 miles. At its shortest – about 1,700 feet.
One possible solution is to bring in independent commissions to re-draw districts. But how likely is that? We sent our Jason Carroll to California to find out.
RI district fires entire high school staff
In one tiny, poverty-stricken city in the nation's smallest state, a big battle is erupting at the local high school.
The school board in Central Falls, Rhode Island has voted to fire every teacher. It's part of a new federal push for education reform that requires each state to identify its worst performing schools and take specific action to fix them.
But is wiping out an entire staff the most sensible approach? We were joined on Thursday's American Morning by Deborah Gist, education commissioner for the state of Rhode Island.
Read more: All teachers fired at Rhode Island school
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Welcome to the American Morning blog where you can get daily news updates from American Morning's reporters and producers. Join us for "the most news in the morning," weekdays from 6-9 a.m. ET, only on CNN.
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