Long Island Serial Killer Search; FAA Adding Controllers to Night Shift; Donald Trump's Announcement
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Ali, I've worked that shift. An hour from now, you'll be passing out. But you guys were fun to watch this morning.</s>VELSHI: Have a good one.</s>COSTELLO: You too. It is 9 a.m. on the East Coast, 6 a.m. in the West. I'm Carol Costello, sitting in for Kyra Phillips. Another air traffic controller found asleep on the job. The latest incident at Reno Tahoe Airport in Nevada forced a medical flight to land without clearance. The FAA now adding a second control on overnight shifts at more than two dozen airports. According to the Labor Department, the number of people filing for first-time unemployment benefits increased to 412,000. That's up 27,000 from the week before. And NBA superstar Kobe Bryant is apologizing for an anti-gay slur he hurled at a referee, but he will still have to pay that $100,000 fine to the league. We begin this hour with a serious effort to raise the retirement age to 70 years old. It is one of the tough choices on the table in Washington this morning, as all parties race to reach a budget agreement.</s>SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: This is a solution. We are not afraid to propose the solution and that's what this town needs. It's what the country needs -- is leadership proposed in these solutions.</s>COSTELLO: Three Republican senators are pushing to raise the age when you can start collecting Social Security to 70. Just the fact that lawmakers are wading into this political minefield shows how worried Washington is about the national debt. Yesterday, I spoke with the top lobbyist for the AARP. He says the timing for this idea could not be worse.</s>DAVID CERTNER, AARP LEGISLATIVE POLICY DIRECTOR: It's fine to say we need to work longer, but where are the jobs? We have one of the largest levels of unemployment for all the workers that we've seen in our history.</s>COSTELLO: And today in the NEWSROOM, we'll take a much closer look. We'll talk to Republican Jeff Sessions, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, and then from the White House President Obama's top number cruncher. And in the next hour the architect of the House budget plan, Congressman Paul Ryan. But first, let's go to Capitol Hill and Brianna Keilar. Brianna, we know, as a country, we need to start making some tough political choices. So is Congress really ready to debate Social Security?</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, there's definitely an appetite for debating entitlement reform, Carol. I think Democrats and Republicans agree on that but they seem to be looking more toward Medicare. There's some disagreement over Social Security and how that fits in effect. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reiterated his belief this week that Social Security isn't contributing to the debt. So what is this plan all about by three conservative senators? As you said, it would increase the retirement age to 70. It's currently 66. And it would do this gradually over the next few decades. So it would go up and be at 70 in 2032. The other thing it would do is if you made more money, if you made more than $43,000 per year, you would actually see less Social Security benefits and what you have these senators -- Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mike lee of Utah, they're saying even though -- and certainly some of them support the idea of privatizing Social Security, they say this is a way to preserve Social Security without privatizing it -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: I know that President Obama brought up Social Security in his speech, but he said pretty much he'd like to protect Social Security. As for the rest of his speech, it was greeted with nothing short of outrage by Republicans on the Hill. Listen to this.</s>REP. JEB HENSARLING (R), TEXAS: He spent approximately half an hour giving us a history lesson, blaming everyone for the nation's fiscal woes but himself. Attacking the "Path to Prosperity" budget and setting a new standard for class warfare rhetoric. I don't know about my colleagues but I thought to myself, and I missed lunch for this?</s>COSTELLO: So Brianna, I can hear voters saying, here we go again.</s>KEILAR: Those are some really biting words coming from Republicans. And you hear so many ideas on the Hill right now geared at deficit reduction. The president's plan, House Republicans tomorrow, Carol, will be voting on their budget plan for 2012. While the president proposed $4 trillion in cuts over 12 years, Republicans say their plan is going to cut more. They want to see more spending cuts. The president proposed some spending cuts. But Carol, he also proposed some tax increases on people making more than a quarter million dollars a year. And Republicans say that's just a nonstarter. They also were very upset with the president. And this isn't surprising that the president did this, but he took issue with their budget plan that they are going to vote on tomorrow. It's an overhaul of Medicare and Medicaid, which fundamentally change those programs, and President Obama said that would threaten seniors as well as low- income Americans.</s>COSTELLO: OK. So, we're all gearing up for yet another fight. Another couple of fights. Brianna Keilar live on Capitol Hill, thank you. New developments to tell you about this morning in the search for a possible serial killer. Detectives are going up in planes and helicopters over Long Island hunting for clues. CNN's Allan Chernoff is in Jones Beach, New York. Allan, are they up already?</s>ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: No, they will be in about an hour, Carol. What they're going to do is use high resolution cameras to highlight what they call areas of interest and then they will be on foot in those spots trying to find more human remains. This investigation all started with the disappearance of this woman, Shannon Gilbert. She lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, worked as a call girl, and was last seen not far from here, back on May 1st is of last year.. At about 5:00 that morning, she banging on the door of a homeowner begging for assistance. He called the police right away but she disappeared. Now we spoke with him yesterday and he told us that the police detectives in this area did not interview him in depth until August of last year, about four months later. Here's what he said.</s>GUS COLETTI, OAK BEACH, N.Y. RESIDENT: Missing person detective came here, like in August, and was asking about her and I said, where have you been? He said the kind of thing of New Jersey Police Department didn't take them. And --</s>CHERNOFF: They didn't come. She was missing May 1st.</s>COLETTI: Yes.</s>CHERNOFF: But the police did not come to visit you until August?</s>COLETTI: That's correct.</s>CHERNOFF: Nothing?</s>COLETTI: Nothing.</s>CHERNOFF: May, June, July. Finally in August.</s>COLETTI: Right.</s>CHERNOFF: Four months?</s>COLETTI: Right. And that was missing persons.</s>CHERNOFF: And you called the police immediately?</s>COLETTI: Yes. Well, they came in here, but as far as investigating it, no.</s>CHERNOFF: The Suffolk Police say indeed they did speak with Mr. Coletti several times that they have spoken with him several times since May 1st and they also say that he provided a written statement back in June of last year but he disputes that -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Well, Allan, why wouldn't police question this guy sooner? I mean, was it because of this woman's background or what she did?</s>CHERNOFF: Carol, that's a very, very good question. They do say, as I just told you, they say that they have spoken with him several times. But what he told me again this morning was on that very morning, May 1st, he spoke with the Marine Bureau that responded to his 911 call for 30 seconds, told them where she went, which direction the woman ran. They couldn't find her, came back. He spoke with those officers for about four minutes. And he said --</s>COSTELLO: Well, I just want -- I just want to be more clear. This woman -- Allan?</s>CHERNOFF: Until August, he did not have any more contact.</s>COSTELLO: Allan, this woman was a prostitute, right?</s>CHERNOFF: Yes. That is correct. That is correct.</s>COSTELLO: And maybe that's why the police didn't investigate sooner?</s>CHERNOFF: I can't speculate about that, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Interesting. Allan Chernoff, great job. Appreciate it. It has happened again. Another air traffic controller caught snoozing on the job in Reno, Nevada, this time. Now the FAA is taking action. CNN's Jeanne Meserve join us from Washington. So, Jeanne, what happened this time?</s>JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, this one happened early yesterday. The flight was coming into Reno from Mammoth Lakes, California, with a critically ill passenger. The pilot tried to reach the tower in Reno, not once, not twice, but seven times. The controller apparently slept through it all. Here is part of the pilot's conversation with a regional controller.</s>UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: Yes. We're here.</s>UNIDENTIFIED TRACON PERSONNEL: We -- you weren't able to get through to the tower?</s>UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: No.</s>UNIDENTIFIED TRACON PERSONNEL: OK. We're going to call them on the phone line.</s>UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: All right. We'll circle -- more.</s>UNIDENTIFIED TRACON PERSONNEL: OK.</s>UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: We have a pretty sick patient. We may just have to land whether we have clearance or not.</s>MESERVE: And they did land. An official says the delay did not hurt the patient but the secretary of Transportation calls the episode inexcusable.</s>RAY LAHOOD, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: This is ridiculous. It's outrageous. It's the kind of behavior that we will not stand for at the Department of Transportation. The controller has been suspended. We are conducting an investigation and I have said that immediately there will be two controllers in 27 control towers around the country that control planes between 12 midnight and the early morning hours.</s>MESERVE: But Republican Congressman John Micah was harshly critical, saying only in the federal government would you double up workers averaging $161,000 per year in salary and benefits that aren't doing their job -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: So -- we're getting to another political fight over it, but as an air traveler, someone who travels, like travel season is upon us, Jeanne, and we know of incidents at Reagan National, at Knoxville, in Reno, are there others?</s>MESERVE: Yes. The FAA disclosed that there were two additional controller screw-ups in recent week. A controller in Seattle fell asleep during his morning shift on April 11th. He is currently suspended. And two controllers in Lubbock, Texas, are on suspension for failing to hand off control of a departing aircraft on March 29th and also for being late taking control of an inbound aircraft. So Carol, a recent rash of these incidents, at least a recent rash we're finding out about.</s>COSTELLO: Jeanne Meserve live in Washington. Thank you. As you know -- as you well know, Donald Trump has been hint agent a White House run. Now we know when he will announce the date when he will announce his decision. CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is here. So this is a preannouncement announcement kind of thing?</s>PAUL STEINHAUSER, DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I think you got that right. Exactly, Carol. Listen. And we know Donald Trump is pretty good when it comes to publicity, right? So here's the deal. We've confirmed that on the final episode of the season finale of "Celebrity Apprentice," which is May 15th, Donald Trump will announce the date when he will announce whether he is running for the Republican presidential nomination or not. Remember, in the past the billionaire -- the real estate mogul has said that he will announce by June whether he will or won't run for the Republican presidential nomination. And also Carol, he said he would put in some big bucks, millions and millions, hundreds of millions of his own dollars if he decides to run. Hey, talking about big bucks. President Barack Obama heads to Chicago later today, back to his hometown. He's got three fundraising events, the first that he's doing for his reelection bid. And remember he just announced that about a week and a half ago. So the fundraising swing begins. Remember he raised $750 million -- a record -- when he was running for the White House last election. He could raise up to $1 billion this time, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Wow. And also, before you go, tell us about the news from the Santorum camp?</s>STEINHAUSER: Yes. As expected, Rick Santorum, right? We knew he was going to run for president. We thought, while he's taken the first formal steps, did that last night, filing with the IRS to -- that allows him to begin running for president, raising money, at least. And he of course is the former senator from Pennsylvania -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Paul Steinhauser, thank you.</s>STEINHAUSER: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: We'll have your next political update in one hour. And a reminder, for all the latest political news go to our Web site, CNNPolitics.com. And we continue the high stakes and heated rhetoric of the budget debate. Lawmakers are facing tough choices but it's your money and your future that's at stake. What's more important than that? We're talking about it after the break. Plus, damage control for Kobe Bryant. The superstar drops an anti-gay slur on a referee and it's going to cost him $100,000. That story's just ahead, too.