Cheaper to Drive or Fly?
ROBERTS: A misty morning here in Washington. Looking at the Reflecting Pool, climbing up to the World War II Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background there. The pavilions. The one on the left there for the Atlantic Theater. On the south side of the memorial, the Pacific Theater. Fifty-four pillars representing the 50 states and the four territories of the United States, as we honor those who fought, served and died in defense of their country here on this Memorial Day 2007. Welcome back. It is Monday, May the 28th. I'm John Roberts live from the World War II Memorial here in Washington. Good morning, Kiran.</s>CHETRY: Good morning. Good to see you, John. Beautiful shots behind you, especially with the sun coming up on the Washington Monument. I'm Kiran Chetry, here in New York. "On Our Radar" this morning, the AMERICAN MORNING gas challenge, how gas prices might affect your summer vacation. Of course, Memorial Day also the unofficial start to summer. And our Greg Hunter is driving from the Midwest to Myrtle Beach, finding out just how much it's going to cost this year if you are thinking about taking the family on the road. And also, check out this picture. You have to look at it twice. It does not look real, but that is a nine-plus-foot wild boar that an 11-year-old boy shot and killed, weighing in at more than 1,000 pounds. It may be a record. He is now getting offered a role in a horror movie that was going to be made about hogzilla, a humongous wild boar that was captured. So we're going to tell you more about that strange story. And just when you see the picture, doesn't it make you look twice, John? It doesn't look real.</s>ROBERTS: That's a lot of ribs.</s>CHETRY: And sausage.</s>ROBERTS: A lot of ribs.</s>CHETRY: That's what they say. Five to 700 pounds of sausage coming out of that hog.</s>ROBERTS: Incredible. Hey, we start this morning with historic talks between the United States and Iran. The two sides sitting down today for their first formal meeting in nearly 30 years. Despite rising tensions between the two countries, the security of Iraq was the only item on today's agenda. The American representative at the meeting, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, is scheduled to address the media. That's about 15 minutes from now. We are monitoring the situation in Baghdad. We will go to it as soon as he comes up. For now, though, let's go to CNN's Aneesh Raman. He is the only American television journalist in Iran, joins us live from the capital of Tehran. Aneesh, what were the Iranian representatives empowered to discuss at these meetings? This was just about Iraq, was it not? Nothing about the nuclear program?</s>ANEESH RAMAN, CNN MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT: Yes, nothing about the nuclear program, and nothing really more than just airing of grievances. Iran's supreme leader a few weeks ago, John, greatly limited what could be discussed, to just the fact that Iran wants to tell the U.S. to secure Iraq and wanted to demand a U.S. timetable for troop withdrawal. That will not sit well with the U.S., who wanted more than talk. They wanted specific steps from the Iranians as to how they would curb what the U.S. alleges is a flow of fighters and weapons into Iran. Iran wanted action from the U.S., a timetable for troop withdrawals. Unlikely either of those things will get resolved. But what we are waiting to see out of this press conference, which will be the first word about the meetings, is what the tenor of the discussions was and whether or not there's a mechanism for future talks. Will this be a first step or the only step? John.</s>ROBERTS: In recent days, Aneesh, we have heard charges from the Iranians that the United States is actually operating an active spy ring inside the country. And we do know that Iran is detaining four Americans. Among them, Haleh Esfandiari, who is the head of the Middle East program here at the Woodrow Wilson Center. What more do we know about these allegations by the Iranians of a spy network?</s>RAMAN: We know that yesterday the Swiss ambassador to Tehran who represents American interests here was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and a formal protest was lodged against the United States. Iran alleges it has discovered several spy networks that it says are backed by the U.S. operating within the south-southwestern and central parts of the country. Now, no more specifics were provided. We are told that in the coming days the Ministry of Intelligence will give those specifics. But like you said, everyone on the ground is waiting to see whether the Islamic republic links these allegations with the arrest of Haleh Esfandiari. She has been under suspicion for working against the government, despite vehement denials of that by her colleagues back in the United States. It could also be, John, that this was about posturing ahead of the talks. The U.S. alleges Iran is infiltrating agents into Iraq. Iran now can say, look, we have the same allegations about you. Again, though, we know very little about these allegations at this point.</s>ROBERTS: Perhaps a lot of tit for tat going on there. Aneesh Raman for us this morning from Tehran. Thanks, Aneesh. We'll talk to you a little bit later on this morning. And again, we are waiting for that press conference. The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, expected to talk in about 12 to 15 minutes time -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: All right. Thanks so much, John. Well, millions of Americans will be driving to the beach or to a barbecue today. So, how much will they end up paying for gas? Checking the CNN gas gauge now, the average price for a gallon of self-serve regular, $3.21. That's up from $2.92 last month and $2.85 a year ago. With prices that high, is it cheaper to fly than it is to drive? Well, Greg Hunter is in Columbus, Ohio. He's starting off a road trip of his own, and also kicking off the "Gas Gauge Challenge". Hi there, Greg.</s>GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran. How you doing? Well, Columbus, Ohio, is a beautiful city. And Ohio is a place where -- lots of beauty, but it's landlocked. So when people get out of Dodge, they head to the coast of North and South Carolina. That's a typical vacation for people here. So let's take a look at our route. We are going to be heading from Columbus, Ohio, through the mountains, to Greensboro, North Carolina -- a lovely city. Used to live there. And then we'll spend the night there. The next day we'll get up and head down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It's about a 600-mile run. Now, before we take this trip, we took a little trip to Target. And the reason why, we wanted to get some supplies. We got a cooler, we got water, we got soft drinks, snacks. Not just for comfort, because those things help you from -- keeping the -- all the stops on the road, keep those stops down to a minimum. That's number one. Number two, when you buy it at a big department store, it's just a lot cheaper to buy it at a department store, as opposed to a gas station along the road. And then finally, we got on gaspricewatch.com. We put in the areas -- the local zip code here for Columbus, Ohio, we got a Sunoco station for $3.37 a gallon. I know it's higher than the national average, but that's the cheapest gas we found. We topped off our tank. So therefore, we put $10 in. So, all that said, here is how the expenses for day one looked -- looked. Not very much. We had $10 for gasoline at $3.37 a gallon, topping off the tank. Extras included $59.16, for a grand total of $69.16 -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: All right. So, you are keeping score. So far, it still looks like it makes sense to drive.</s>HUNTER: Well, we'll see. That's what this is all about. You know, we'll try to show people some fuel-saving ideas on the road. Let me show you the best one ever invented. It works on any vehicle -- a gas gauge, a tire gauge for your -- to save money on your gas gauge. Believe it or not, I'm such a nerd, I carry this with me wherever I go. Back to you.</s>CHETRY: That was good advice. If your tires are a little bit low, you're ending up using more gas than you think. All right, Greg. So how far are you now? How far into it?</s>HUNTER: Well, we're starting out today from Columbus, Ohio. That's why you see the beautiful city in the background. It's a lovely place.</s>CHETRY: And then...</s>HUNTER: And it will be 600 miles. In a couple days we will be down to our destination.</s>CHETRY: All right. But before you lay your head down tonight, where are you going to end it?</s>HUNTER: We are going to end it in Greensboro, North Carolina.</s>CHETRY: All right. Sounds good. Greg, we'll check in with you a little later. Thanks so much. Well, if you're finding it hard to give up your SUV but still feel guilty about it, some people are turning to planting trees in return because the trees take in carbon dioxide, presumably offsetting pollution. Researchers though say it's simply not possible to plant enough trees to have a significant effect on global warming -- John.</s>ROBERTS: Well, an 18-year-old in California could face charges for faking her way into Stanford University. Officials say Azia Kim (ph) spent the past eight months posing as a freshman student. She moved into one of the university's dorms last fall and told her roommates that she was a human biology major, asked them to leave the window open so that she could get in and outside of the residence. A suspicious resident assistant blew her cover, though.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What drove her to do this are students who were, I think, taken advantage of in this situation. They're very trusting, caring, kind folks. And had every reason to believe that this particular individual was, indeed, a student here at Stanford.</s>ROBERTS: Well, not surprisingly, school officials say they're conducting a full investigation into how security can be improved. Workers at the Hutchinson, Kansas, zoo are cleaning up after being swamped by floodwaters over the weekend. These are new pictures that are just in to CNN here. The zoo has been closed since Thursday, when more than seven inches of rain fell. Twenty-five animals, including some bison, had to be evacuated from the zoo. An 11-year-old boy is hogging the limelight today. Find out what he did with a pistol and a half-ton pig. Put it this way: the pistol won. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.