U.S. Toyota Plants May Shut Down
ROMANS: A bomb spent three weeks in a Federal Building's Lost and Found in Detroit. A security guard has now been suspended for bringing the package into the building on February 26th without having it screened. Officials say the package was put through an x-ray machine last Friday. At that point, wires were seen and it turned out this mistaken package, this wayward package was a bomb. The FBI and the IRS have offices in the building and Joint Terrorism Task Force is now trying to find out who put it there. And maybe he left the keys in Marine One. Does the president carry around a set of keys?</s>VELSHI: I wouldn't have thought so.</s>ROMANS: President Obama was locked out of the White House when he returned from his five-day trip to Latin America yesterday. He gave the French doors a tug, ah - ah. But, you know - he's - he's -</s>VELSHI: Try this one. Look at that.</s>ROMANS: The president came back a little early to deal with Libya. The president played it cool, got in another way. For security reasons, we doubt the Secret Service lets him keep the - the spare set under the mat like the rest of us do or stuck it in the dirt in the -</s>CHETRY: Oh, don't give away our secrets, Christine.</s>ROMANS: It reminded us of when President Bush had a little door trouble one time. Remember that? Back in -</s>VELSHI: Right. He's trying - he's talking (ph) to a lot of reporters, walking off stage.</s>CHETRY: He was like let me the heck out of here.</s>ROMANS: And he really hammed it up, too.</s>CHETRY: See, this is the difference. I know.</s>ROMANS: Anyway, it just shows you, you can be the leader of the free world, but you're really aren't in charge of where you're going.</s>CHETRY: So that's</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>CHETRY: He pulled the one door. Did nothing. Kept walking.</s>VELSHI: There's another door.</s>ROMANS: Kept walking.</s>VELSHI: I mean, he's going to keep on going until some Marine told him, well, we get the door for you, sir. All right.</s>CHETRY: Just shoot it open.</s>VELSHI: If you are looking to buy a Toyota, which many Americans are, well you might actually hit some delays because of what's going on in Japan. Carmen Wong Ulrich is "Minding Your Business" for us. We thought this would happen and it's happening.</s>CARMEN WONG ULRICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is happening. The 12 Toyota automotive plants in Japan have been mostly quiet since the earthquake and now the effects of that shutdown are being felt here in the U.S. Toyota's 13 factories in the U.S., Canada and Mexico have been told to prepare for a possible shutdown, because of a part shortage from Japan. Now, Toyota spokesperson told CNNMoney that the plant may not shut down completely but should expect interruptions. Now, the 13 North American plants, they employ about 25,000 workers who will remain on pay. And the part shortage isn't just hitting Japanese automakers but the American big three as well. General Motors has already suspended production out of their Shreveport, Louisiana plant this week due to shortage of parts from Japan. And the plant makes the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon. And GM has also temporarily laid off workers at its Buffalo, New York facility, which makes the engines for those models. Now, analysts say there's going to continue to be tight supply on some Toyota GM models through the summer, but prices are not going to go higher unless there's just too much competition out there.</s>VELSHI: That's good. And the one thing that we have to concern ourselves with is, of course, are these workers. You said they're still staying on with pay?</s>ULRICH: Yes. And Toyota has a habit of doing that, when they suspend production, they do keep them on pay and actually find them different other jobs to do.</s>VELSHI: Because ultimately, as you know, Carmen, you're married into an automobile family. You know, people will get cars if they want. I mean, that's not the end of the world.</s>ULRICH: Absolutely. Here's the one thing, the Prius. This is the one where the plant production -</s>VELSHI: Because the hybrids are</s>ULRICH: This is a popular car. This is like the iPad 2 of the car world. There already is a backlog of Prius demand, so it's going to get backed up even more.</s>CHETRY: Wow.</s>ULRICH: But there's so many other hybrid models on the market now. So they're not going to go above list - list price.</s>CHETRY: And it will be interesting to see if it gives opportunities for some of the other lesser known popular hybrids to get a second look by car</s>ULRICH: They will try to take advantage, no doubt.</s>CHETRY: All right. Carmen Wong Ulrich, great to see you as always, until the next hour.</s>ULRICH: Thank you.</s>ROMANS: OK, guys. Next on AMERICAN MORNING, remembering a true Hollywood icon, Elizabeth Taylor was more than a great actress, she was a great humanitarian, most notably her work on behalf of AIDS research. Alina Cho stops by with a look at that.</s>CHETRY: Also, some parents think that a Florida elementary school is going too far in trying to protect a student. But she has a life- threatening peanut allergy, so why do some parents want her booted out of the school? We're going to be talking about this coming up. Twenty-one minutes past the hour.