Face-to-Face with Gadhafi; NYC May Ban Fast Food Toys; Rock n Rock n Innovation
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: One-on-one with Moammar Gadhafi. I'm Christine Romans. Can a former U.S. congressman succeed where President Obama has not and convince the Libyan dictator it's time to go?</s>ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: The leak at a troubled nuclear reactor in Japan, the water leak, at least is plugged. Now, there are fears that the entire reactors could crack under intense pressure. A warning from the U.S. government that the solution may actually be part of the problem.</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And Democrats and Republicans are going to give it a go again today trying to hammer out a new budget. Which budget is this? For 2012? Is it for 2011, or is it just to keep the government running for another week? The two sides have until midnight Friday to make a deal. Democrats now blaming the Tea Party for the impasse on this</s>AMERICAN MORNING. ROMANS: Good morning, everybody . It's Wednesday, April 6th.</s>VELSHI: Lots of news this morning.</s>CHETRY: Do you think they are going to get a budget passed? Or do you think we're going to see a shutdown? We haven't seen that since , what, 1995?</s>VELSHI: I think there'd be a lot of angry people if there's a shutdown. There's never been one around tax season. A lot of people want their tax refunds. Let's begin with a new diplomatic push in Libya. Former Pennsylvania Congressman Curt Weldon is in Tripoli and expects to meet with Moammar Gadhafi sometime today. Weldon says he was invited by Gadhafi. He's been to Libya before. He led a congressional delegation back in 2004. Before meeting with Gadhafi today, however, Weldon was asked what exactly he hopes to accomplish.</s>CURT WELDON, FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: The key goal is to respond to what Gadhafi told me in 2004, when he said, why didn't an American come and meet me face-to-face before we bomb his tent? And I'm here to tell him face-to-face, it's time for him to leave. It's time for him to step down, allow the people to take over the government of this country.</s>VELSHI: Weldon says it's going to be hard to try and bomb Gadhafi into submission. CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Tripoli. I don't know if this has filtered down in Zawiya, where you are, west of the capital -- or in Tripoli. Do Libyans know that this is happening?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Libyans are not aware that it's happening at the moment. This is something that's only just sort of beginning to emerge here. And it's quite possible that Libyans may not know about it. We night see pictures on state television when Curt Weldon -- if and when Curt Weldon meets with Moammar Gadhafi tonight. But I think, perhaps, we can see that the ground is being cleared here. The way is sort of being cleared as far as Gadhafi would like to see it cleared for him to meet with a U.S. representative -- although, Weldon himself says he is not here representing the White House, not here representing the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. We are seeing that because it appears that Gadhafi is sending a message through the state news agency that the United States has had, in his words, ended its bombing, essentially, in Libya, by removing itself from the coalition crusade -- crusade as he describes it in a letter that's being reported as being sent to President Obama this time. So, you can see how Gadhafi is making diplomatic space for himself here by saying, well, the United States is no longer essentially at war with us. So, perhaps I can deal with them. The message that Weldon is bringing is that Gadhafi should (a), step aside, (b), that he should observe the cease-fire, pull out of key cities here. But there's also language in the proposals that Weldon is bringing that gives something to Gadhafi here, the possibility that he could have an honorary title, the honorary chairman of the African Union, and things like that which may be palatable to him, that he is seen as not being pushed out at the point of the gun, but that he is recognized for everything that he's done for Libya. So, an interesting moment and developments here, Ali.</s>VELSHI: Nic, the reason the U.S. got involved or at least the stated reason was to protect Libyan civilians and opposition leaders have been vocal in saying that coalition forces have actually not done that. So, we've have moved the conversation over on to what we're doing about Gadhafi. But there are opposition members saying the coalition is not doing enough to protect Libyan civilians. What do you know about that?</s>ROBERTSON: That's certainly what the rebels are saying. What the international community said when it began the no-fly zone was that it would enforce Gadhafi pulling his troops out of Benghazi, Ajdabiya, Misrata and Zawiya. So far, Gadhafi's forces are out of Benghazi and Ajdabiya. And what the rebels are trying to do now is advance along the coast into new towns and it does appear at the moment as if NATO is not as willing as it was a few weeks ago to help the rebels take other towns in the international community. The U.N. resolution hasn't sanctioned that they should, the rebels should essentially be pushing into. Where civilians who favor -- some favor the rebels, some favor Gadhafi, civilians of both stripes are living particularly, when you get further along the coast of some of Gadhafi's strongholds. But the series of proposals that Weldon is bringing here include that there should be an interim government of some sort that would involve the prime -- being led by the prime minister here and one of the opposition leaders, Jebril, that there would be elections to be held here within a year and Saif Gadhafi, one of the -- the second son of Moammar Gadhafi, would able to run in those elections and there would be an advisory group to advice a new parliament on how to run a parliament in a democratic environment. So, there are a lot of things that are sort of being talked about now, or potentially about to be talked about with Moammar Gadhafi and some of them have elements in them that may be favorable to the rebels that give them an opportunity to do this what they -- achieve what they want but not on the battlefield, where, at the moment, they are not having much success, Ali.</s>VELSHI: All right. Nic, thanks very much. We will continue to check in with you through the course of the day as the developments continue to unfold. Nic Robertson in Tripoli.</s>CHETRY: And we turn to Japan now where workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say they have plugged a leak where radioactive water was gushing into the ocean. This was provided by the power company, TEPCO. They released it showing this radioactive water that have been pouring out of reactor two. Well, here's what it looks like now. No water coming out. After trying a concoction of concrete, sawdust and newspapers, officials say it was finally liquid glass that sealed things up at that reactor. So, one problem down, but still many more to contend with. Japan is still in the process of dumping 3 million gallons of contaminated water into the sea on purpose. They say it has nowhere else to go. They have to do it to make room for even more radioactive water to be stored at the site. Meantime, U.S. nuclear experts sent to Japan to help with the crisis are now warning of very serious new threat. In fact, they now say that all of that water, millions and millions of gallons being pumped into the reactors could actually lead to a molten radioactive mass that could end up bursting out of those containment vessels into the outside world. "The New York Times" got its hands on a report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and it warns that the containment structures are now filling with radioactive water are under so much stress that they could crack in another aftershock and that they are the last line of defense here. Engineers are also warning that the release of hydrogen and oxygen from the water could lead to new explosions. So, basically, they are sounding the alarm about all of this, including the spent fuel pools. Experts say that previous explosions have torn away their roofs, leaving them exposed to the air.</s>ROMANS: India has become the first country to ban all food imports from Japan over radiation fears. It's in effect for three months, but could be extended. So far, the U.S. has only blocked imports of milks, vegetables and fruits produced near the leaking plant. With millions of gallons of radioactive water being dumped into the Pacific Ocean every day, there are fears now about the safety of fish coming from Japan. Japan, for the first time, has set radiation standards for its seafood. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, we spoke to an expert who studied wildlife after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.</s>ROMANS: We don't really know a lot about how radiation affects animals and, I guess, the circle of life, right?</s>TIMOTHY MOUSSEAU, RADIATION ECOLOGIST: We've been working in Chernobyl for the past decade or so, and many of our findings have been quite surprising that, you know, such low levels can lead to genetic damage and reduce fertility for the plants and animals living there. Hopefully, that doesn't translate into consequences for humans, given the very low levels that we're seeing.</s>ROMANS: Timothy Mousseau says, right now, the U.S. shouldn't have much of a problem since most of our seafood has been frozen for a while. But we should be extra careful about the products that would come in after now.</s>VELSHI: Boeing now admits they knew about problems with lap joints, the overlapping joints on an airplane where the rivets are, on some of its planes. But it didn't expect cracks to appear in the 737 so soon. The FAA has now ordered emergency inspections of older Boeing 737 planes after that Southwest jet that you're looking at here had its fuselage rupture in the middle of a flight, 36,000 feet last week. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, former NTSB official, Peter Goelz, said that warning signs are often hard to find.</s>PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB OFFICIAL: We are in, kind of new territory here. Planes are flying longer than ever. And I think Boeing, you know, did a best case estimate when they started making the 737. They made some adjustments to how they connect the skin. They've now gone back to the drawing boards. They were as stumped or as surprised as anyone.</s>VELSHI: Southwest Airlines inspections found five other 737s with cracks similar to the one suspected of causing the five-foot hole to open up on that plane last week.</s>CHETRY: All right. Well, it's nine minutes past the hour right now. We want to get a check of the weather. Hopefully, things are calming down. Some rough weather down South. Florida is getting the brunt of it yesterday. Things clearing out, Rob?</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, definitely coming down. You know, we had such rough weather the past 48 hours. Anything would be calmer than what we saw, especially in the last, well, 36 hours where we had over 1,000 reports of severe weather. On the radar right now, we do have a little bit of rain that's moving into the western Great Lakes, actually mixed precip with some cold air kind of dammed up against the Allegheny Plateau and through the three rivers area. Pittsburgh might see a little bit of mix of rain, sleet, and snow there with temperatures just above the freezing mark. Into the mid to upper 30s from D.C., up to Boston, not a bad way to start your day, but the clouds will be on the increase as that little disturbance makes its way up and over the Appalachians. Down to the South, yes, calm. It will be sunny and eventually warmer. But right now, a frost advisory is out for much of the South, including Atlanta and parts of Columbia. Temperatures are now slowly rising above the freezing mark. But there you go. A couple of storms coming into the Pacific Northwest and we will be watching. But, definitely, more calm for folks who've seen their fair share of rough weather here the last few days. Guys, back to you.</s>VELSHI: We needed a break. Rob, thanks very much for that. We'll check in with you later. Two days -- two days to go and a government shutdown grows increasingly likely if there's no deal. Coming up next: the four sticking points in the standoff.</s>CHETRY: Also, will the Tea Party get blamed for any type of budget shutdown, because they won't compromise? Up next, we're going to be talking to two Tea Party Patriots co-founders, Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin. How do they see what shaping up in Washington and are they happy with what Tea Party leaders in Congress have been doing?</s>ROMANS: And a little later, you may be scrimping and saving, cutting corners to deal with the rough economy. But guess what? Fido isn't. Is the pet industry recession-proof? The answer is yes. Ten minutes past the hour.