Endeavour Completes Final Mission; Lewd Photo Fallout
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: They have questions, he has no answers. I'm Christine Romans. New York's Congressman Anthony Wiener losing it with reporters. It's the latest fallout from a lewd photo sent from his Twitter account to a female college student.</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Cell phones and cancer. I'm Kiran Chetry. This morning, new questions about the safety of cell phones after world health experts say they might increase your risk of brain cancer.</s>ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And only one more shuttle mission to go. I'm Ali Velshi. Space shuttle Endeavour is now home and will never fly again on this</s>AMERICAN MORNING. ROMANS: All right. Good morning. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It's Wednesday, June 1st and there's one more mission but this one will never happen.</s>VELSHI: Right. I always planned I could do it. There's one more shuttle mission. Space shuttle Endeavor, though, coming in for a perfect landing to end an era. After traveling more than 122 million miles over 25 flights, the shuttle Endeavor landed safely overnight at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It is always beautiful when that happens.</s>CHETRY: I know. Just dramatic pictures and knowing we are seeing that for the last time. And as it was touching down, Atlantis was rolling out for the final, final flight in the history of the space shuttle program. John Zarrella is live for us at Kennedy Space Center. Certainly, bittersweet for a lot of people. I mean, this is very sad, especially because we wonder, you know, what's next. How are we going to space now?</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, you know, it's sad from an economic standpoint probably much as anything here at the Kennedy Space Center where 6,000 to 8,000 workers who have spent the better part of their lives on the space shuttle program are going to be out of work. That's the bottom line. And that's just one of the realties of this program basically being over in about a month and a half. It's hard to believe we're saying a month and a half. But that's it, when the last shuttle flies in July. But last night, this morning, very early in the morning, 2:35 Eastern Time, a very grand and glorious return to Earth by the space shuttle Endeavour, making that approach to the Kennedy Space Center. And you can see with the thermal imaging cameras still, you know, white hot from re-entering the Earth's atmosphere there, the underbelly of the shuttle's tiles, and then the touch down and flaring out over the runway and the parachute coming out. Of course, after the shuttle Endeavour came to a complete stop, the crew did get out and they walked around the vehicle, inspected it. And Commander Mark Kelly, he was very pleased with how the entire mission went.</s>MARK KELLY, COMMANDER, SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR: I want to thank my crew members who did such a spectacular job on this flight. I could not have done this without them. They all, every single one of them, just performed flawlessly.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our commander, we want to thank him, too.</s>KELLY: So, thanks for coming out. Great to be back. And have a good -- have a good morning. So long.</s>ZARRELLA: As you folks mentioned, you know, that Atlantis rolled out to the launch pad and was still on its way out to launch pad endeavor was landing back here at the Kennedy Space Center, certainly a sight that will not be repeated in our life times. And, again, in just about five weeks from now, the shuttle Atlantis scheduled to lift off from here at the Kennedy Space Center pad 39A, in what will be one momentous event. A million people expected here to watch that final launch in the history of the space shuttle program. A vehicle that, let's say it, none of us will ever see fly again -- Kiran.</s>VELSHI: John, Kiran and Christine and I we were just talking about this, this space program, this idea of shuttling things into space, going to the International Space Center and orbiting, that's sort of being taken over by a commercial -- a group of commercial enterprises. That will be taken over by companies. What does NASA do after this?</s>ZARRELLA: Well, that's just it.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ZARRELLA: -- and being able, with the limited money they have, pursuing those deep space missions and asteroid mission, perhaps 2019, and then eventually Mars or one of the Martian moon or maybe back to Earth's moon. So, that's the grand vision for</s>NASA. VELSHI: All right. John, we'll keep you out there the whole time watching all of it as it developing.</s>ROMANS: All right. Now, it's politics now, and the fallout from a lewd photo sent to a college student -- a photo from New York Congressman Anthony Weiner's Twitter account. Now, Weiner claims his account was hacked. This was some sort of a tweet that was a prank. Speaking to reporters yesterday, Weiner snapped as he was pressed for direct answers. At one point, he went off on CNN producer, Ted Barrett.</s>DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're here, which we appreciate. But you're not answering the questions. Can you say why you haven't asked law enforcement to investigate what you are alleging is a hack?</s>REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: You know, Dana, if I was giving a speech to 45,000 people and someone in the back of the room threw a pie or yelled out an insult, would I spend the next two hours responding to that? No. I would get back.</s>TED BARRETT, CNN PRODUCER: This is not that situation, though.</s>WEINER: I would get back. You want to do the briefing? Do you want to do the briefing, sir?</s>BARRETT: You sent from your Twitter account a lewd photograph was sent to a college student. Answer the question: Was it from you or not?</s>WEINER: Do you guys want me to finish my answer?</s>BARRETT: Yes, this answer. Did you send it or not?</s>WEINER: If I were giving a speech to 45,000 people and someone in the back threw a pie or yelled out an insult, I would not spend the next two hours of my speech responding to that pie or that insult.</s>BASH: But you are the one that said you were hacked. And that's a criminal -- potential crime --</s>WEINER: Dana, let me -- I am going to have to ask that we follow some rules here. And one of those, you ask questions and I do the answers. That would be reasonable?</s>BASH: I'd love to get an answer.</s>WEINER: That would be reasonable. You do the questions. I do the answer and this jackass interrupts me. How about that as the new rule of the game?</s>ROMANS: Clearly, a frustrated Anthony Weiner. He was making his point about if I'm giving a speech to 45,000 people and there's a heckler in the back or someone throwing a pie, the 45,000 -- he has 47,000 followers on Twitter. I guess. He is trying to show, you know, the similarity between the 45,000 people who listen to him and this is just one voice in all of that.</s>VELSHI: And the jackass he was referring to was CNN producer, Ted Barrett. President Obama inviting Republicans to the White House today to discuss increasing the government borrowing power. The meeting comes just one day after the Republican-controlled House rejected a bill that would raise the debt ceiling. Republicans insist they will not raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts. The White House however saying there are two sides to this and they're both making progress.</s>JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are committed to reducing the deficit. That's we move so aggressively and seriously with these negotiations. Why we're encouraged by the fact that they have produced positive results so far.</s>VELSHI: Senate Democrats now say that if Congress fails to boost the debt ceiling by August 2nd, they want Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to stop paying Congress.</s>CHETRY: All right. Well, military prosecutors recommend new charges be filed against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and four alleged co-conspirators. It will allow them to be tried before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay. The move comes after the Obama administration scrapped a plan to prosecute them in federal court in New York City.</s>ROMANS: The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating yesterday's deadly tour bus crash on I-95 near Richmond, Virginia. Four people were killed when the bus ran off the road and rolled over. Investigators blame the accident on driver fatigue and say unspecified charges are pending. The bus was on its way from Greensboro, North Carolina, to New York.</s>VELSHI: All right. Here's a story I continue to not fully understand. The number of people stung by jellyfish on Florida's Atlantic beaches now ballooning to more than 1,600 in the past week. Most victims are being treated with vinegar. In fact, officials say they've already gone through about 25 gallons of vinegar. Scientists say these small but potent species often appear in large numbers after climate changes.</s>VELSHI: OK. Here's why I don't understand. We've been reporting this. Have 800 more people. We reported it was 800 people. Have 800 people now reported that they were also stung or have 800 people been newly stung. Because if it's the latter, then I don't have a lot of sympathy.</s>ROMANS: You're saying, if they know a lot of people are being stung, why not there.</s>VELSHI: There are a whole lot of jellyfish in the water.</s>ROMANS: He has no sympathy for jellyfish victims.</s>VELSHI: No, I have no sympathy for jellyfish victims who have been warned.</s>CHETRY: They also come out at different times. I mean, there are more of them at different times of day. So, you think it's safe. You get in.</s>VELSHI: I'm just telling, I'm not getting stung by jellyfish. I am 100 percent sure I am not going to get stung.</s>CHETRY: The question I have, there are 1,600 people lining up and there are some sort of vinegar stations. I mean, who go -- where do you go? I mean, if you get stung by a jellyfish, you usually taking care of it on your own, right?</s>VELSHI: The whole thing is really crazy.</s>CHETRY: Line up and get vinegar dump on you.</s>VELSHI: All right. Unto another topic which I understand a little bit more.</s>CHETRY: Yes, this question about cell phones -- a lot of people have asked over the years, is this dangerous? And I'm on the cell phone all the time. Well, now, the World Health Organization is coming out with a report saying that there is a cancer risk associated with cell phone use. But what does that mean for us? Do we change our habits? And how big of a concern is it? We're going to talk about it, coming up.