"Real People" Weigh in on Obama's First 100 Days; Despite Swine Flu Fear, Mexico City Subways Still Packed
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Also, some of the stories we are watching right now. A London jury acquits three suspected bombing co-conspirators. The men were accused of helping carry out a deadly July 7th attack in 2005. Fifty-two people died in the bombings. Two of the suspects were convicted of attending a terror training camp. Pope Benedict XVI is visiting victims of Italy's deadly earthquake today. The pope offered words of hope while visiting a tent camp. And visited a damaged church in Laquila (ph). Two hundred and ninety-six people died in the April 6th earthquake. Thousands of people lost their homes in the quake, and are now living in those tent villages. Expanding the offensive against the Taliban in Pakistan. And Pakistani military spokesman says fighter jets are now attacking Taliban positions not far from the capital of Islamabad. Ground forces may also be preparing to attack suspected hideouts in Taliban controlled area. Let's bring you up to the minute now on swine flu. Since this time yesterday, the number of confirmed cases in the United States has more than doubled. The latest figure according to state and federal health officials 50. In the United States there have been no deaths blamed on swine flu. The illnesses have been relatively mild. But in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, the death toll is growing. The nations' health minister says 152 fatalities are suspected as swine flu. Besides the U.S. and Mexico, swine flu is confirmed in five other countries as well. The World Health Organization has raised its alert to four on a scale of six. That means the disease spreads easily but is not pandemic. Here's a look at where the cases are now. In the United States, the confirmed cases are limited to that map, five states, California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, and New York. In fact, more than half of the nation's cases are from one single place, that prep school we've been talking about in Queens, New York. In addition to the U.S. and Mexico, here are the other countries with confirmed cases. Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Israel, and New Zealand. At least 11 other countries do have suspected cases. Later today, the Senate is expected to approve President Obama's nominee for a Health and Human Services secretary now. Kathleen Sebelius will take control of the agency immediately but the Senate has not yet confirmed key members of her team. Let's begin this hour in Mexico City, the epicenter of the outbreak. CNN's Ted Rowlands is at a plaza there. So Ted, what's going on exactly where you are.</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, there are some people out in the streets but it is by no means what you would normally see at this plaza in Mexico City. We are in front of a museum which is a huge tourist attraction. It is shut down along with other public venues. A decision was made yesterday to keep businesses open and keep the mass transit system running because of the economic impact of shutting those down. That said, the health minister says they are watching it very closely and there is still a lot of concern about the potential for more cases to erupt because people are gathering at workplaces. You mentioned the death toll, it has gone up. The health minister said the positive side of that is there are less people dying per day. Six people Saturday, down to four Sunday, three yesterday. They are hoping that is a trend. They are not sure but they're hoping that it is a trend. And that they may be getting a handle on it. They do expect more cases. They say they are in a good position to handle more cases as they come in. It's a tenuous situation here. More people are infected here, obviously, than anywhere else in the globe. So this is the spot where there is a lot of concentration and a lot of monitoring on where this is going.</s>COLLINS: Well, Ted, there has also been a lot of discussion about the source of the outbreak. What are officials doing now to try to track that down?</s>ROWLANDS: Well, that is a separate, obviously investigation that is going on. It is secondary to solving the problem of helping people. But, there is a lot of speculation that it has come out of Vera Cruz, the state of Vera Cruz which is east of Mexico City. People there have convinced us where it is. Tehre is a number of pig farms there. But Mexican authorities say there is no evidence of that, yet. In fact, their preliminary investigations have yielded no evidence of it. But that is still the mystery that has not been solved.</s>COLLINS: Absolutely. It's going take a lot of work, I think. Ted Rowlands, live for us this morning in Mexico City. Thank you, Ted. President Obama on the eve of a milestone. Tomorrow marks his 100th day in office. The time frame often used to measure the early effectiveness of an administration. CNN's political team has been looking into that issue and beyond. White House correspondent Susan Malveaux is joining us now from New York. Hey there, Suzanne. What are some of the president's big challenges now in the next 100 days, as we move forward?</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, obviously he has a lot of big things on his plate. We're going to see the president in just a couple of hours, he's going to be visiting with the headquarters of the FBI, the first time as president and really one of the things that he is going to be faced with is whether or not his attorney general decides to go ahead and prosecute some of the Bush administration top officials when it comes to giving the green light for some of those harsh interrogation techniques that many consider torture that the Obama administration considers torture. It is not necessarily something that the President had expressed an appetite for. He said look, we don't want to look backwards. We are looking forward here. But there has been a lot of pressure on the administration, on his attorney general, to hold those people accountable. So we will see where that goes. They obviously don't want it to overshadow some of the big ticket items they got, health care reform, education reform. Those type of things and also Heidi, today what we're going to see is the confirmation of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, before Congress. That process wrapping up today. We expect - this is important here. Because the Obama administration obviously looking at this swine flu situation, a potential crisis. Everyone wants to see how he is dealing with this health policy crisis and there are still a lot of vacancies that the head of the CDC, surgeon general, those are positions that have not yet been filled. Obama administration officials I talked to say look we can go ahead and handle this crisis, without them, we got a lot of qualified people but obviously they do need to settle that as well. Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Yes, certainly now is the time, I would imagine that they are saying that. How is the administration preparing for tomorrow, the 100th day. They have been preparing for a long time, in fact.</s>MALVEAUX: I think they have been preparing as much as we have been preparing.</s>COLLINS: Yes, absolutely.</s>MALVEAUX: Even more so. They have been looking at this marker very seriously. They know all eyes are on the administration. He is going to have a town hall meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. He is going to lay out his agenda. He is going to lay out what he wants to do in the next 100 days and talk about some of the pitfalls and the successes that we've seen in the last 100 or so. He's going to take questions from the audience and that's in the evening, primetime press conference, Heidi. Once again to try to draw maximum attention to get his message out, to some say, spin it if you will. But definitely to set the agenda here. This is a president who is very savvy when it comes to the media. 15 press conferences, Heidi, so far in the first 100 days. This is going to be the third prime time one. So obviously they are going to try to control the message about what we have seen in the last 100 days and what we will see in the next 100.</s>COLLINS: Right. All right. Suzanne Malveaux, we sure do appreciate that. Thank you. And tomorrow night at 7:00 P.M. Eastern, a CNN prime time special we have been preparing for as you heard Suzanne say, 100 days of the Obama presidency. Our "National Report Card" will give you a chance to grade the president and Congress on how they have done so far. Then at 8:00 Eastern President Obama holds that news conference, he will assess how well he is doing. We have new numbers now on the president's popularity. As the first 100 days near an end, our CNN opinion research corporation poll shows 63 percent of you approve of how the president is handling the job. 33 percent disapprove. Does he have the right stuff to lead? 75 percent says President Obama does have the right qualities. 57 percent say they agree with the president on the issues. And we just got a new consumer confidence number to tell you about as well regarding the economy, of course. It soared in April, up 12 points to 39.2. So what does that mean, Christine Romans is here now to tell us a little bit more. Exactly, what does that mean, Christine? Put it in context for us.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, some surprising strength in consumer confidence.</s>COLLINS: Yes.</s>ROMANS: You're right. It jumped much more than people thought. It shows you that consumers at least were taken to heart all of that talk about green shoots in the economy there, starting to feel better about their current conditions and also saying they're expectations were getting better. But here's the number. The number was 39.2. According to the people at the conference board that is still a number far below what is considered healthy and what is considered strong economic growth. So keep that in mind. It shows you that people are feeling better about things. After weeks of talking about green shoots in the economy about places or at least where the economic decline is slowing. That's reflecting in these numbers, Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Yes, definitely but the swine flu scare certainly not going help boost consumer confidence, right?</s>ROMANS: That's right. And the swine flu issue and all of the coverage of it is not reflected in these numbers. These were, of course, before this became such a big concern over the past few days. And folks trying to tally what could be the economic toll of concerns about the swine flu. And of course, if this were, god forbid, to spread into something catastrophic, what could happen. So look, here are the threats, you got trade that can decline. Already we are seeing some countries put limits on imports of pork even though we are told again and again that pork does not carry this virus. Food, travel, transportation, all of these things hurt, all of these stocks have already reflected this and consumer confidence. At a time, Heidi, when people are already so nervous about what has happened in the economy this comes just as there were those, I keep saying, green shoots of confidence, green shoots of hints of a recovery. And then comes this, so it certainly is a concern.</s>COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. All right. CNN's Christine Romans of our CNN Money Team. Thank you, Christine. Alert level up. World Health Organization has raised the rating on its pandemic alert chart now. We have an expert joining us who literally wrote the book on emerging diseases.