CARL AZUZ: Hi, I'm Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
It could be two months or more before stores across America
are fully restocked on baby formula.
That's according to Abbott Laboratories,
one of the biggest formula suppliers in America.
Empty shelves and deeply worried parents
have become common in the US this year.
The nationwide shortage actually dates back to 2020, according
to the "Reuters" news agency.
Parents reportedly bought up extra supplies of formula
as the COVID pandemic sank in.
Since then, changes in availability, demand,
and supply chain problems have affected the amount of formula
for sale.
But the problem got really bad starting in February.
That's when Abbott Nutrition recalled huge amounts
of formula after four babies got sick,
reportedly after being fed products that
were made at an Abbott plant.
The company says there's no conclusive evidence
that its formula caused the illnesses,
but the US government said Abbott didn't do enough to keep
its products from getting contaminated when they
were manufactured at the plant.
And since February, Abbott hasn't
been able to restart production there
without the green light from the US
Food and Drug Administration.
This week, the company and the US government
said they'd reached an agreement that may
lead to the plant's reopening.
That could happen in two weeks.
It might still be a month or more
before the formula it makes there
actually reaches store shelves.
In the meantime, some other companies, like Nestle,
say they're flying in some baby formula
made outside the United States.
The government has strict limits on imports of formula.
That's another part of the reason for the shortage.
But the White House says it's having conversations
with major manufacturers about how to get more
of their products in stores.
Some experts say supply chain problems, whether they're
related to formula or other products,
are likely to continue throughout this year.
And even if issues with manufacturing, shipping,
and shipping containers, trucking, and warehousing all
get resolved, there are still problems
with some of the roads and bridges that transporters use.
LUKE HAYDEN: Business is busy.
Business is very busy.
CARL AZUZ: 25-year-old Luke Hayden is in line to one
day run the family trucking company,
but also inherit a problem--
a bridge that is putting the brakes on business.
LUKE HAYDEN: It's very tight.
It's very accident-prone.
So a fix would be huge for our industry.
CARL AZUZ: Cincinnati's Brent Spence Bridge
carries 10 times the trucks and twice
the cars that it was designed to handle
when it opened 60 years ago.
JOE BIDEN: That bridge, if you really want to go to Kentucky,
is going to get better.
CARL AZUZ: President Biden says help
will come from the bipartisan infrastructure law.
But six months after it was signed,
work here has not started.
MARK POLICINSKI: It is the poster
child of what needs to be done in infrastructure
in this nation.
CARL AZUZ: Cincinnati officials want 2 billion federal dollars
to build a new neighboring bridge they
hope to break ground next year.
MARK POLICINSKI: It's going to be dramatic difference.
It will solve a huge part of all the congestion in this region.
CARL AZUZ: The infrastructure law sets aside $40 billion
to help ailing bridges.
The administration points to work
that has already started on 4,300 other infrastructure
projects.
But the White House stresses getting larger projects moving
takes time, even though the clock is ticking
for some 46,000 bridges in the US,
rated as structurally deficient, that drivers cross each day.
ANDY HERRMANN: They have to be patient.
There's engineering involved.
There's design involved.
That has to be done to make sure we do these jobs right.
CARL AZUZ: When visiting Cincinnati earlier this month,
President Biden became the third president to say the Brent
Spence Bridge must be fixed.
BARACK OBAMA: It's in such poor condition,
that it's been labeled functionally obsolete.
DONALD TRUMP: Replacing the Brent
Spence Bridge in Cincinnati.
You like that?
Which is critical to the region.
CARL AZUZ: Regional officials insist, this time, there
is a real sense of optimism.
For Luke Hayden, he says the can should
not get kicked to another generation
of the family business.
LUKE HAYDEN: It is an exercise in patience.
Things don't happen overnight.
You know, you can't build a bridge in a day.
CARL AZUZ: :10 Trivia.
Which of these birds has the widest wingspan?
Andean condor, California condor, Himalayan vulture,
or Trumpeter swan?
On top of the perch here is the Andean condor, whose wingspan
is greater than 10 feet.
Several countries along South America's Andes mountain chain
are involved in conserving Andean condors.
They're not an endangered species,
but their numbers are believed to be decreasing.
Part of the reason-- as vultures, these birds
are scavengers.
They eat other animals that have died,
and if those animals have been poisoned,
that poison also becomes a threat to the condors.
- High on a hilltop in the Andes,
a moment of transcendence is about to take place.
INTERPRETER: When the condor takes flight, all of us
feel like we rise with him.
[applause]
- This Andean condor has been bred in captivity
and never flown before.
Now, it's doing it with an audience to celebrate
its release into the wild.
NORBERTO LUIS JACOME: [non-english speech]
INTERPRETER: A connection with an iconic species for thousands
of years has inspired man to look up at the sky
and connect with the sacred.
- It's the life's work of Argentinean biologist,
Norberto Luis Jacome.
NORBERTO LUIS JACOME: [non-english speech]
INTERPRETER: Our mission is to conserve the Andean condor,
and through the condor, to reconnect people with nature.
- Endemic to South America, numbers of these soaring birds
are plummeting across the continent.
Sometimes mistaken for predators,
they face threats from human activities like hunting
and poisoning from toxic baits.
NORBERTO LUIS JACOME: [non-english speech]
INTERPRETER: Many condors come down
to eat their animals to fulfill their role of scavenger.
They ingest lead bullets, and lead kills them.
- With a wingspan of up to 10 feet,
these giant birds are slow to reproduce.
So Jacome and his team developed a captive breeding program
at the Buenos Aires Eco Park.
They take one egg from a breeding pair, which prompts
the condors to produce a second egg shortly after, ensuring all
the eggs aren't in one basket.
NORBERTO LUIS JACOME: [non-english speech]
INTERPRETER: so the second egg is raised by the couple.
We can get two chicks for each couple per year,
when in reality, condors would have one
offspring every three years.
- After two months of careful monitoring, a tiny miracle.
If needed, the chicks receive a helping hand to break free.
[indistinct speech]
- Caring for newborn chicks while ensuring they
don't become attached to humans requires
thinking outside the box.
NORBERTO LUIS JACOME: [non-english speech]
INTERPRETER: The contact that the fledgling
has here will be through latex puppets
that represent its parents.
At that moment, you are the father.
You are the mothers.
You are responsible for that life.
- Jacome says the program has raised 78 chicks
and rescued and released hundreds of condors
throughout South America, but an increase in poisoning
has killed 150 condors in just the past two years.
NORBERTO LUIS JACOME: [non-english speech]
INTERPRETER: It means that a whole effort, a lifetime of 30
years, is not enough if we do not change that relationship
we have within the environment.
- Here, Jacome and his team celebrates the release
of the condors with the Mapuches and Tehuelches communities,
who have long had reverence for this bird.
As part of a traditional ceremony,
the event is transformed from the scientific
to the spiritual.
INTERPRETER: It opens hearts.
It opens people's minds.
And people quickly, in a practical way,
understand why we should take care of mother nature.
CARL AZUZ: Nothing grows on the moon,
but could something grow in lunar soil?
That's what scientists at the University of Florida
recently tried to do in a study funded by NASA.
The soil was taken from the moon's surface
during the Apollo missions, and the good news
is, a plant-related to mustard greens did sprout within days.
The bad news-- it had stunted leaves and roots--
a reddish color-- and was generally less healthy than
plants grown in earthly soil.
(SINGING) Does it see the need for a future way to feed
the astronauts who heed the space odyssey,
or will it fail to take root if that root is
tried upon a rocket launch instead
of fruit that's freeze-dried?
They'll have to decide if they can it or they ban it,
if the lunar salad bar is lower than scientists planned.
Maybe that got off the ground.
Maybe it crashed and burned.
Either way, we're happy you're watching.
Shout-out goes to Juniper Hills High School today,
our viewers in Napa Idaho.
I'm Carl Azuz.