Penalty Phase for Warren Jeffs
VELSHI: The tragedy in Syria continues. There's news now of more deaths, more than 100 deaths in and around Hama, the city is at the center of the latest crackdown by dissident -- on dissidents by security forces. The United States condemning President Assad's regime saying it's lost legitimacy after witnesses reported civilians being executed in the streets.</s>SUSAN RICE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: It's horrific. It's appalling. He's massacring his own people who are coming out simply to express themselves peacefully. It's absolutely unacceptable, appalling behavior and it deserves not only the condemnation but the full force of the international community, to pressure that it stop.</s>VELSHI: More than 200 people have now been killed in Hama since government troops moved into the city last weekend to crush the revolt there.</s>ROMANS: The penalty phase is now under way after a Texas jury found polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs guilty on two counts of sexual assault against minors. The jury - jury reached that verdict in less than four hours. And the same 12 jurors will now sentence Jeffs possibly to life in prison. The charges Jeffs was convicted of stem from a 2008 raid on his ranch - his ranch that his church operates near Eldorado, Texas.</s>COSTELLO: Dramatic surveillance video shows a Philadelphia City bus packed with passengers being shot up from the street. The tape was shown at a hearing for six people charged in the shooting, which happened back in June. One of those people, a mother who allegedly triggered this whole incident, you see her getting off the bus after a passenger criticized her for spanking her child. Authorities say she had called a group of friends who then opened fire with semiautomatic weapons. Remarkably, no passengers were injured.</s>VELSHI: It's unbelievable. So there's video inside this bus and outside. These guys show up with big, big guns and they start shooting the bus.</s>COSTELLO: All because this woman spanked her child on the bus and passengers complained.</s>VELSHI: If I ever call you two to tell me that I got into something on a bus with somebody, don't - don't show up with weapons. Yell at somebody if you want.</s>COSTELLO: It's just unbelievable.</s>VELSHI: And it's unbelievable that nobody got hurt in that thing.</s>COSTELLO: Well, that's like - I don't know. There's divine intervention there.</s>VELSHI: Unbelievable. Yes.</s>ROMANS: The bus driver must have panicked, you know? I mean, you see him sitting there, sitting in the bus there.</s>VELSHI: Well, I don't know if this is true. I heard somebody tell me, it's just so much information going through my head the last 12 hours, I don't know what's real and what isn't, but that he was a war veteran.</s>ROMANS: Oh, really?</s>VELSHI: Yes. That he had some sense of experience of dealing with this. So he just - he just hit the pedal and got out of there as fast as he could.</s>ROMANS: Wow.</s>COSTELLO: That's good for him.</s>VELSHI: That's good for him. All right. The security scare on the Virginia Tech Campus, an alert was issued yesterday morning after it was believed that a man was possibly on campus carrying a gun. Summer school students were told to stay indoors. Classes were eventually canceled after several hours of searching a gunman was found and the alert was dropped. You'll remember in 2007, a gunman opened fire at Virginia Tech, fatally shooting 32 people, before killing himself.</s>COSTELLO: Now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. Our question this morning, when will our fears about Muslim-Americans fade? I bring this up because the governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, a Republican, and a Tea Party favorite, has had enough of it.</s>GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Sharia law business is crap. It's just crazy. And I'm tired of dealing with the crazies.</s>COSTELLO: Christie was defending his choice of Muslim-American lawyer, Sohail Mohammed for a state judgeship. Conservative bloggers were furious. They accused Christie of being in bed with the enemy. They feared Mohammed would make judicial decisions based on the Koran or Sharia law.</s>CHRISTIE: Sharia law has nothing to do with this at all. It's crazy. It's crazy. The guy is an American citizen.</s>COSTELLO: Been almost 10 years since 9/11. Osama Bin Laden is dead. And, yes, there have been arrests of Muslim extremists within the United States and, yes, we do need to be vigilant about homeland security, but should all Muslims be suspect? According to the "New York Times" more than two dozen states have considered measures to restrict judges from consulting Sharia law. So our "Talk Back" question today, when will our fears about Muslim-Americans fade? Tell us on our Facebook page, Facebook.com/AMERICANMORNING. Write out AMERICAN MORNING. Facebook.com/AmericanMorning. We'll read your comments later this hour.</s>ROMANS: I think Governor Christie thinks it's crazy.</s>COSTELLO: He was just so out there with it. It was kind of - it's great to hear.</s>VELSHI: And - but that's very characteristic of him. He - when he thinks something is not right -</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>VELSHI: -- he says it. If there's something - whether you like his politics or not, a lot of people don't, that is an interesting characteristic of his.</s>ROMANS: Yes. He just says it. It's very kind of a New York - New - it's a Jersey thing.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ROMANS: All right. Tiger Woods admits he was a little nervous, but he says he decided to just let it rip and see what happens. So far, so good. Tiger returning to the tour yesterday at the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, firing a solid two under par 68 in the opening round. He - he hasn't played in three months. Tiger's six strokes behind the leader Adam Scott. Guess who's caddying for Scott? Oh, yes, Steve Williams, the caddie that Tiger recently fired.</s>VELSHI: Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, dusty plane, so much heat, barely any rain, it's on pace to be the most stifling summer ever in the American heartland. We're live in Dallas where staying cool has become a matter of life and death.</s>ROMANS: And why scientists believe these new NASA photos of Mars could mean there's life on the Red Planet. Get ready to geek out all of you who love -</s>COSTELLO: This is cool.</s>ROMANS: -- Martian action. It's 20 minutes after the hour.