New York (CBS)  -- CREATING THE WORLD'S LARGEST AIRLINE

The Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee does not like the proposed merger of Delta and Northwest Airlines one bit, and that's putting it mildly.

"The proposal by Delta and Northwest to merge will probably be the worst development in aviation history in the aftermath of deregulation in 1978," said Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN).

Northwest is based in Minnesota. The merged airline would be called Delta, and the man running it would be Delta's Richard Anderson.

"The new company will be called Delta, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia but significant executive offices and operational presence in Minneapolis-Saint Paul," said Anderson.

Delta, which started out as a crop dusting service, would become the biggest airline in the world if the merger with Northwest goes through. 

This is not a takeover; both companies want to do it.  But the chair of the House aviation subcommittee, Illinois Democrat Jerry Costello, says, "this merger may be good news for the top executives of both airlines, but I believe it's bad news for consumers and for airline employees."

Congress doesn't have to approve the merger anyway.  Delta made an agreement with its pilots over the weekend.  Northwest's pilots say they're opposed to the deal as it stands.  Congressman Oberstar predicts it will start a cascade of mergers.

"Other airlines, network carriers, will not be able to withstand the potential power of the largest airline in the world," said Oberstar. 

Delta's Richard Anderson declares that the merger is driven by cost considerations, but won't affect the biggest cost.

"Fuel is the single highest expense of Delta and Northwest, significantly eroding the financial benefits of both companies from the restructuring that they completed last year," said Anderson.

But in the end, he says, "We'll be able to take our customers to all points of the globe on a single, seamless network around the world."

POPE BENEDICT XVI VISITS THE UNITED STATES

Today is the 81st Birthday of Pope Benedict XVI, and he's spending it here in the United States.  This morning, thousands of people are expected to greet him when he arrives at the White House to call on President Bush. 

Mr. Bush made the unusual gesture yesterday of greeting Benedict on his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, the first time he's welcomed a foreign leader there.   

The two men differ on major issues including the Iraq war, capital punishment and the U.S. embargo against Cuba.  And these may come up in their discussion today.  But the Pope describes his pilgrimage here as a journey to meet a great people and a great church. 

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino has told reporters that the Pope and the President will likely discuss human rights, religious tolerance and the fight against violent extremism.  

Perino says Benedict will hear from the President that America and the world need to hear his message:  that God is love, that human life is sacred, that we all must be guided by common moral law and that we all have responsibilities to care for our brothers and sisters in need at home and across the world.

Asked whether the subject of the pedophile priests might come up, Perino did not rule that out, but said that will not necessarily be one of the President's priorities today. 

When asked about it on the flight over here, Benedict said "we will do everything possible to heal this wound."

"It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betray in this way their mission to give healing, to give love of the God, to these children.  We are deeply ashamed, and we will do all that is possible that this cannot happen in the future," said Pope Benedict. "It is more important to have good priests than many priests."

RETHINKING HOW TO FEED THE WORLD'S HUNGRY

Soaring food and fuel prices have strained food aid budgets of humanitarian aid groups around the world.  What this means is that most countries are getting 40% less food for the same contribution.  And more than a hundred million people are under severe stress right now because of it.   

The United States accounts for the majority of the food distributed around the world, feeding one out of every two recipients. The Bush Administration is proposing that 25% of the food aid money we spend be used for local procurement in other countries, to encourage small-scale farmers.   

That doesn't seem like a good idea to American farmers, since more than half of the food the United States exports is purchased from them.  At the International Food Aid Conference in Kansas City, Josette Sheeran -- the executive director of the World Food Programme -- said that impoverished regions of the world must be encouraged to develop their own agriculture, rather than depend so much on the United States. 

The so-called "cash option" to use contributed money and U.S. aid funds to buy food elsewhere is unpopular with American farmers.  Traditionally, about 6% of the nation's wheat crop has gone for food aid purchases. 

Mark Keenum, an undersecretary of agriculture, told the meeting in Kansas City that food Aid is the most visible demonstration of the good will of the American people.  Last year, the United States sent two-and-a-half million tons of food aid, valued at two billion dollars.  But because of the high prices of food and fuel, the actual tonnage was down 16% from the year before.  

In other words, we are spending more, but delivering less.  

Whether Congress will go along with this idea of spending 25% of our food aid to buy food elsewhere remains to be seen.  Some in Congress see food aid exports principally as a boon to our own farmers.  It's sure to come up in this summer of our election. 

A MESS ON THE WORLD'S BEACHES AND SHORES

One day last September, an army of 378,000 volunteers scoured 33,000 miles of shorelines around the world, from Bahrain to Bangladesh and Southern California to the rocky coast of Maine.  

And now a report from the Ocean Conservancy catalogues what they found:  7.2 million items, everything from cigarette butts and food wrappers, to abandoned fishing lines and plastic bags.

"Tons of trash -- six million pounds of trash just on one day," said Laura Burton-Capps with The Ocean Conservancy. "The trash doesn't fall from the sky; it falls from people's hands.  Eighty-percent of what's in the ocean as trash came from inland sources.  Trash travels."  

The Ocean Conservancy says the world's poor oceans aren't doing well.

"Sadly, our ocean is sick.  We have overfishing.  We have pollution.  We have habitat destruction.  We have climate change.  And we have a lot of trash in our ocean -- and on the shorelines surrounding it," said Burton-Capps. 

Burton-Capps identifies very simple everyday items that really show that people's actions are connected to the health of the oceans.

"It's cigarette butts. It's wrappers. It's bottles, both glass and plastic -- and it's bottle caps.  It's bags from the grocery store," said Burton-Capps. "We do have to be more thoughtful when we go to the beach.  But it's much more than that. It's not just people carelessly leaving their picnic trash at the beach. It's actually the person inland, flicking a cigarette butt out the window or a child's straw wrapper somewhere in inland America. And that goes into the drain and gets into our water system -- and goes into our ocean ultimately."

The reason for the report: if people only realized what they are doing, they wouldn't do it.

"It's a tangible thing that we have the power to make sure it doesn't happen.  There's no reason that there needs to be trash in the ocean.  It didn't used to be that way -- it doesn't have to be that way in the future," said Burton-Capps.