Rising Temps, Rising Prices; 2012 Drought One Of The Worst; History Making Heat Wave; Corn Prices Surging; Survey: Gas Prices Slide Ending; Battle Over Bain, Taxes, Outsourcing; Romney: Obama Attacks Are "Dishonest"; Obama Hits Romney On Tax Reform Plan; Clinton In Israel Talks Iran, Egypt; Clinton's Motorcade Pelted In Egypt; Americans Still Head Captive In Egypt; Big Influx Ahead Of Olympics; World's Toughest Foot Race
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right now. Good morning to you. Happy Monday. I'm Carol Costello. Just ahead in the NEWSROOM, it's back. The heat that is, the thermometer hitting 100 degrees again this week in a lot of places in the United States. And the rising temperatures could soon mean rising prices at the grocery store. China responds, the fight over the U.S. Olympic teams' uniforms getting more intense this morning. The country's state news agency calling Senator Harry Reid out saying he's violating the Olympic spirit. After Reid said that Chinese made uniforms should be burned. China asked if Reid will burn his Chinese made appliances, clothes, and Blackberry. Seven minutes of terror. That's what NASA's newest mission to Mars faces in just a couple of weeks. And success hangs on a series of unbelievable acrobatic maneuvers above the red planet. But we begin this hour with the weather. This year's drought is one of the worst recorded in U.S. history in 2012 now being compared to the dust bowl during the great depression. The first six months of 2012 go down as the hottest ever on record. That's plus severe droughts have prompted the Agriculture Department to declare a disaster in 26 states. Alison Kosik is looking at how this is impacting our wallets. But let's start with meteorologist, Alexandra Steel. Is it going to be as bad as it was like a couple weeks ago?</s>ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, we have a couple problems going on. We're in an incredible drought. So much of the country is, and drought begets drought and the heat begets heat. So we get into the cycle. Here's a look at the current U.S. drought monitor and usually when we look at this, you see a patch in Texas or isolated area. But to see the breadth and depth of the entire country filled with some sort of exceptional, the darker reds are the more intense drought, but even the lighter yellows, just dry and moderate. So you can see how much of the country is in some sort of drought and it's only further deepening. Now, this drought thus far ranks in the top ten in the past 100 years to give you a little perspective. And 54.6 percent of the country is in a drought. That's more than even in 1936. That was 54.4 percent. So you can see what we've got is such an incredible drought that is only worsening because what we're seeing are the incredible conditions of continued dry conditions and intense heat. Now, looking at the drought as you mentioned and versus the dust bowl of the '30s, there are few different things that's not comparing apple to oranges in a few regards. The use of land and farming practices has come a long way since the '30s. So modern agriculture does everything they can to mitigate any of these impacts, erosion control and even drought resistant crops, hybrid crops. So doing what they can to minimize what we could possibly and did see in the '30s. But I know this isn't the prettiest map in the world, but what is the most important about this, this is looking at from the summer, of course, we have been so dry up until now. But now, looking forward, what's the prognosis, what can we see looking out at computer models. Will we continue to be dry? This is the problem. Look at through September. You can see how dry the country is. As bad as it is, it will only get exacerbated by the lack of moisture in the ground, coming from the sky, whatever the case may be. So drought conditions will only get worse because what we're looking at is a very dry season looking forward -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right, thanks, Alexandra. Of course, this drought has already has already an effect on our wallets at the grocery store. Joining me now is Alison Kosik to tell us more about that angle of the story.</s>ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is about corn. Let's talk a little bit about corn and not just corn on the cob. So let's think about corn. It's like stocks or oil or gold, it also trades on the open market in the form of futures contract. Now over the past month, Carol, prices of corn have gone up more than 40 percent because of those extreme drought conditions in the Midwest. Even wheat and soybean prices may be also be affected as this drought drags on. One analyst said it would take at about six to 12 months before we really see the high prices hit our grocery stores. It could all -- food companies often try to hedge those costs and not pass them it on to consumers. Consumer spending as you know is already pretty weak. People may not respond very well to these price hikes. I, in fact, talked to Ken Powell. He is the CEO of General Mills, a company that uses a lot of corn in its product. He said he's trying to keep it from getting to consumers.</s>KEN POWELL, CEO, GENERAL MILLS: We know that the market is gyrating a bit on corn right now. It's that time of year where every week there's a different piece of news. But we haven't seen anything that would make us materially change our expectations for our broad market basket inflation next year.</s>KOSIK: So, don't expect any dramatic change in prices. Despite the rises that we've already been seeing -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Well, be patient and hope for the best. Alison Kosik, thanks so much. The long gas price line that began in April may be nearing an end. Analysts found even though gas prices fell about 7 cents a gallon over the last three weeks, prices may be bottoming out. They cite trends in the price of crude and the summer driving season. They may have a point. The latest Lundeberg survey found gas prices did not budge. They still cost in average $3.39 per gallon. Turning now to the White House campaign, the battle over Bain, taxes, outsourcing, and whether President Obama should apologize, gets hotter this morning. The president will be in Cincinnati later today and he's expected to bash Romney over tax breaks for big business. But Romney is already on the offensive, appearing on Republican friendly, "Fox and Friends" this morning.</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The president on the other hand has only one thing going and that is constant attacks on me. You know, they're dishonest. They're misdirected, and I think the American people recognize that kind of politics as something of the past. It may work in Chicago, but it's not going to work across America.</s>COSTELLO: But while Mitt Romney waits for an apology that's not coming, his campaign is gearing up for a new line of attack on the president. Jim Acosta is covering that angle for us. Good morning, Jim.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Carol. That's right. The Romney campaign did sort of forecast where they're going this week and the word is Solyndra. They put out a new web video earlier this morning that talks about the energy company that went bankrupt down in California after getting energy loans from the stimulus. The Romney campaign likes to point out that there are people who were connected to Solyndra who got -- that gave campaign contributions to President Obama and so the Romney campaign is going back to that. They also had a conference call with reporters earlier this morning and talked about this, described the whole Solyndra matter as Chicago style politics. But Carol, I have to tell you, very interesting to watch, strategically, what both campaigns have been doing in the last 48 to 72 hours. You know, the Obama campaign came out with a web video over the weekend that featured Mitt Romney singing "America the Beautiful" and showing images of the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, et cetera. Well, this morning, in that new Solyndra ad, that web video that the Romney campaign put out, it the features President Obama singing. So I think once both campaigns have gotten into making fun of each other's singing voices, we're officially in the sandbox, Carol, this morning.</s>COSTELLO: Man, you're not kidding. I just feel actually the Obama ad. I haven't seen the Romney ad, but it has to do with outsourcing jobs, too?</s>ACOSTA: Well, I think what the Obama cam campaign has been saying is they're going to go after Mitt Romney on outsourcing. That's something that we expect the president to talk about at an event later on today in Cincinnati. Interesting to note, Carol, about that event that the president is holding in Cincinnati, Rob Portman, who is pretty high, everybody in Washington thinks on Mitt Romney's presidential selection list, is going to be giving a response to the president's event there in Cincinnati. Portman will be -- you know, he also be talking about the president's record, of course, and so it's interesting to see Rob Portman sort of coming out and being used in this very, you know, high profile capacity in responding to the president. So the president is going to be going after Mitt Romney on outsourcing. They're not letting up on that line of attack, and Mitt Romney's campaign, they are going back to this whole line of attack on Solyndra. Honestly, I think if anybody is going to change the narrative this week, I think it could be Mitt Romney. There are some rumblings coming out that perhaps he might name his vice presidential candidate this week. The "New York Times" is reporting that this morning. That to me is the only narrative game changer that could potentially come out this week -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Maybe that's why Rob Portman is being featured so prominently. We'll see.</s>ACOSTA: We'll see.</s>COSTELLO: Jim Acosta, thank you. Let's talk a little bit more about President Obama's speech in Ohio today. He's supposedly going to launch a strike on Mitt Romney's tax reform plan claiming it will cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs. Dan Lothian is at the White House to tell us that part of the story. Good morning.</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. And you know, the Obama campaign has been now for the last few weeks focused on this whole issue of tax fairness and the president again will be pushing that in Cincinnati, Ohio today. Again, trying to frame it as Mitt Romney's policies will only hurt the U.S. economy. So according to the Obama campaign, the president will be highlighting a new report that shows some 800,000 jobs could be created overseas because of Romney support for eliminating taxes on foreign incomes of American companies. Of course, this is something that the Romney campaign is just pushing back vehemently on even before the president utters his first remarks in a statement saying that it's a dishonest attack meant to distract from his own record of failure. But you'll continue to hear this push of tax fairness from the Obama campaign because they believe that this is something that really resonates with the voters. In addition to that in the state of Ohio, you'll hear the president also talk about what his administration has done to help the auto industry. The auto bailout and what that has done to turn the economy around and this continued push to extend the U.S. -- rather the Bush tax cuts, which the president says will benefit those middle class Americans.</s>COSTELLO: Dan Lothian reporting live for us from the White House. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is wrapping up a nearly two week trip to Asia and the Middle East with a stop in Israel. Clinton is talking with Israeli leaders about Iran, Egypt, and other issues while also bringing a message of solidarity. Secretary Clinton travels back to Washington tomorrow. Before heading to Israel, Mrs. Clinton met with Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi, and urged him to assert his authority, but that was not welcomed by everyone. On Sunday, Secretary Clinton's motorcade was pelted with tomatoes and shoes as she left a newly reopened consulate. Protesters also chanted Monica, Monica in an attempt to insult her. This morning, two families are awaiting word of loved ones kidnapped in Egypt. Egyptian authorities are still trying to negotiate with the man who kidnapped the Reverent Michel Louis and Lisa Alphonse along with their Egyptian tour guide. Louis' son, Jean spoke to CNN earlier this morning.</s>REVEREND JEAN LOUIS, SON OF KIDNAPPED PASTOR MICHEL LOUIS: The story that I heard from my mom, everything happened so quickly, so even she -- I remember her clearly telling me on Friday that one of her concerns were that he didn't even have shoes on when they took them off the bus. So he doesn't have any of the natural medications he takes. I don't know of anything about seizure.</s>COSTELLO: The Reverend Louis has diabetes. The kidnapping of Americans is the third in the Sinai Peninsula since February. Just how tight is security for the Olympic games? On the heels of personnel shortages, we are hearing some alarming things. We're going to take you to London.