American Morning
Is Internet culture ruining society?
(CNN) – "It could happen to anyone." That's the message from Shirley Sherrod after losing her job and having her life turned upside when an out-of-context video posted online branded her as a racist. Now that the apologies and reversals are rolling in, what does Sherrod's story say about the state of our hyper-speed Internet society? Andrew Keen is the author of "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture. He joined us on Friday's American Morning to talk about how the Internet can ruin lives.
Women make better beer tasters than men
(CNN) – The woman you're about to meet has perfected an enviable skill to some: beer tasting. We know most men like beer more than women do, and judging by TV commercials, some men like beer more than they like women. But when it comes to the art of beer tasting, women are drinking men under the table.
Sherrod regards Obama's call as apology
(CNN) – The former Agriculture Department employee at the center of a political firestorm said Friday that President Barack Obama didn't literally say he was "sorry" when they spoke Thursday, but "by simply calling me," she believed he was apologizing.
Shirley Sherrod - forced to resign from her job based on incomplete and misleading reports about a speech she gave in March - also told CNN's "American Morning" that the department official who asked for her resignation was only a "messenger."
Sherrod said the White House had been trying to reach her since Wednesday night.
"My phone was full, couldn't take any more messages. Finally, I was on the way to the airport in an attempt to get home when I checked my messages and had received one from the White House saying the president was trying to get in touch with me and give them a call," she said. "I did that and I had the conversation with him and, you know, I feel good about that."
Asked whether she was able to enlighten him about her work, she said they didn't have time to get into that.
Birthing Project provides mentors for at-risk mothers-to-be
(CNN) – When she was a public health administrator for the state of California, Kathryn Hall-Trujillo found that her greatest challenge was paying for babies who were born sick.
"The figure we were working with at that time was about $300,000 ... to stabilize a baby for the first 90 days," said Hall-Trujillo, who worked for the state from 1976-1991.
At the same time, she said, it cost just $2,000 to ensure pregnant mothers received all the care they needed for a healthy pregnancy and proper delivery.
The staggering disparity, along with troubling rates of infant mortality in America, compelled Hall-Trujillo, 62, to find a solution.
"It occurred to me that one of the things that we could do that would cost hardly anything was to make sure that moms who were at risk ... [were] really connected to care," she said. Read more
Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2010 CNN Heroes
Gut Check: How can Republicans attract more African-Americans?
By Ronni Berke and Carol Costello, CNN
(CNN) – Political blogger Sophia Nelson considers herself to be a long-time Republican moderate – at least until recently, when she says she’s become more libertarian and independent.
“The problem with the Republican Party now is that (it) is identified with the Tea Party, with the conservative movement,” Nelson, editor-in-chief of politicalintersection.com, explains. Nelson identifies more with Republicans like the late New York Congressman Jack Kemp and former New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman.
“People like myself and others feel like well, there's really not a place for someone like me in that party because we're RINOS, Republicans in name only, right?”
She says some Republican leaders are sensitive to that and even more worried now in light of the Shirley Sherrod affair, as perhaps, they should be. A CNN poll shows 73 percent of African-Americans think some or all of Tea Party supporters - who generally lean Republican - are racially prejudiced. And only 26 percent of African-Americans think the Republican Party does a good job of reaching out to minorities.
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Tropical Storm Bonnie could hit oil spill site over weekend
(CNN) – The National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch for the northern Gulf of Mexico early Friday as Tropical Storm Bonnie began clearing the Bahamas and headed for South Florida.
The watch is in place from Destin, Florida, westward to Morgan City, Louisiana.
The storm is expected to pass the southern tip of Florida on Friday afternoon before making landfall Sunday morning near New Orleans.
At 5 a.m. ET Friday, Bonnie was packing winds of 40 mph and moving west-northwest at 18 miles an hour as it slipped past the northwestern Bahamas. It was about 200 miles east-southeast of Key West, Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center.
It could pick up some strength as it moves over the long stretch of open water in the Gulf of Mexico, but the latest computer models do not show it becoming a hurricane, according to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.
If the storm continues on its path, it could slam into the area of the BP oil spill and possibly put more oil to shore. Read more
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