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Less Gloomy on Wall Street? John McCain Talks Economy in Warren, Ohio; Fit for Kids: Post-Katrina Playground in New Orleans

Aired June 27, 2008 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Tony is off today.
Three big stories we are tracking this Friday. They're up, they're down, they're up again. Stocks zigzagging all morning long. The Dow starting the day at a near-two-year low and investors worried about the record oil run-up, and the inflation monster is stirring.

New pictures just in. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton heading for a place called Unity. Today the Democrats appear on stage together, the first time since Clinton dropped out. You'll see it live right here on CNN.

Also, a nuclear plant's cooling tower blown to bits today. North Korea destroys the most visible symbol of its nuclear program.

All those stories ahead right here in the NEWSROOM.

So, is today looking a bit less gloomy on Wall Street? That's what we're hoping for. CNN's Allison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange with the very latest.

Hi there, Allison.

ALLISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Heidi. I think things are looking a little more gloomy.

Stocks are deep in the red at this moment after remaining flat in the early going. Oil prices continue weighing on stocks. Right now oil prices sitting above $140 a barrel.

Also not helping things, Lehman Brothers said Merrill Lynch could post another $5 billion write-down. As you can see, the Dow Industrials down about 65 points, sitting at 11,387.

You know, the last time we saw the Dow this low was in September 2006. But you know, there was a bit of a bright spot earlier today when a couple of economic reports lifted spirits, at least for a little while.

They were on personal income and spending, both boosted by $48 billion in stimulus checks the government sent out in May. That sent income up by the biggest amount in 33 years and it also gave consumer spending the biggest boost in six months. But you know, Heidi, all that good buying spirit, we're seeing that slip away at this point, at least here for investors. COLLINS: All right, Allison. We sure do appreciate that. And while we're talking with you about the economy, we want to get over to Senator McCain, who's talking about the same thing from Ohio this morning. He is holding a town hall meeting there in Warren, Ohio.

It's actually at the General Motors Lordstown assembly plant. General Motors suffering some big losses.

Let's go ahead and listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... in these very difficult times. And they are hard and challenging times.

The state of Ohio has lost -- more people have lost their homes than any other state in the United States of America. We have seen, particularly in this part of Ohio, layoffs all around us. But I came here not because I think that it's just to try to pick out a place where things are different, but also to help publicize and have more knowledge about a technology, a workforce, and a capability that will allow the United States of America to regain its rightful place in the automotive industry, as well as make us energy independent.

Now, let me just describe to you what you probably already know. This issue is a nexus of national challenges that we face. First, it's a national security challenge. Why is it a national security challenge? I think you know. We are dependent now on countries that don't like us very much for our energy supply.

We are sending hundreds of billions of dollars, one of the greatest transfers of wealth in history, to the Middle East because the countries that don't like us very much, and some of that money ends up in the hands off terrorist organizations. That's just a fact. That's a fact.

And so, first and foremost, obviously, our first obligation is to protect the security of our nation. That's a national security issue. Second of all, it is an environmental issue.

Now, we can debate and discuss whether climate change is real for a long time, and I encourage that debate and discussion, and it should go on. But I think there's enough compelling evidence today that should lead us to address the issue in the following fashion.

Suppose that I'm wrong and that climate change is not taking place, that greenhouse gases due to human activity are not affecting our planet. Suppose I'm wrong, but we move forward with green technologies. Then all we've done is given our kids a cleaner planet.

But suppose that I'm right and the preponderance of scientific opinion, not all of it, but preponderance of scientific opinion that we are right and they are right and we do nothing. Then what kind of a planet have we handed off to our kids and grandkids?

So it seems to me, it argues for green technologies. Where does a great deal of the greenhouse gas emissions come from? We all know. Transportation in the United States of America.

So we can achieve these goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions because -- and we've got to let 1,000 flowers bloom. There's no one answer, there's no one solution. But we have to act, and we have to act now as a nation. And I've called it Project Lexington, and it has to do a whole lot of things that we have to do.

I would remind you again, when Jack Kennedy challenged America to go to the moon, we made it in less time than anybody predicted. We can also become energy independent in this nation.

And one of the areas that we'll do it best and fastest is the automobile industry, through hybrids, through electric cars, through increased efficiencies of the product that I just watched going through in a most efficient fashion here at Lordstown. So I think it's very important that we understand that the automotive industry will be one of the keys. But we need nuclear power, we need clean coal technology.

This part of America, as you know, the United States of America, sits on the world's largest coal reserves. So what do we need to do? We need to have clean coal technology.

And I'm willing to invest federal dollars, a couple billion dollars a year, to develop clean coal technology. That could also have an effect on the economy of this part of America.

We can lead again in the automotive industry, and that can provide thousands of jobs. Here at Lordstown, there's going to be a third shift, I am told, put on in August, and there's going to be 1,400 additional employees hired. That is a direct result of your productivity, your efficiency, and the fact that we can compete in the world.

And so I am optimistic. I am optimistic. But we've got to act, my friends. And to say that we're not going to do anything, that we're not going to go offshore and exploit our oil and gas reserves, to say that we're not going to go to nuclear power because we can't store or reprocess, to say that we can't do the things that we need to do I think is a disservice to the United States of America.

A word about nuclear power. OK? The French, 80 percent of their electricity is generated by nuclear power. Now, we all want to imitate the French. But the point is -- and by the way, in case you missed it, where they now have a pro-American president of France, which shows if you live long enough, anything can happen in this world.

But what do the French do? The French reprocess their spent nuclear fuel. OK? They reprocess it. We should be doing that. Why can't we do it, too?

And also, my friends, new need to store it as well. And I think that there's a storage area that we're considering called Yucca Mountain, and it has to go through all the environmental tests, it has to be proven a place where we can safely store for thousands and thousands of years spent nuclear fuel. But we can't afford to have nuclear power plants with spent nuclear fuel sitting outside of those plants for a national security reason, as other reasons.

And my friends, I met a couple of guys the other day in Fresno, California, where they had built an electric-powered automobile. OK? The cost of that automobile was $100,000. OK? But they're going to build a next generation of automobile that costs $60,000.

You are bringing the costs down as each new product rolls off of your assembly line. And we can make fuel-efficient cars not only available, but affordable, as we continue to mass produce them.

I would remind you that the first cell phones cost over $1,000, OK? It was new technology. And now companies are giving them away for free just so that we will use them, right? So I am confident about the future, but we have to act. And the United States of America has risen to every challenge.

The United States of America, when you look at what we did from December 7, 1941, to the end of World War II, the dramatic expansion of our industrial capability, when you look at missions to the moon, when you look at what we've been able to accomplish, it is going to happen in the United States of America. And it will all go back down to the productivity and the efficiency and the capability and the patriotism of the best workers in the -- and most productive workers in the world.

So let me just say that has to be done. We have to exploit our resources offshore.

Will that be the ultimate answer? Of course none of these are the ultimate answer. But you put them all together, you put them all together, and the United States of America can become independent of foreign oil, and we can address the issue of climate change, and we can put Americans back to work and keep them in their homes by giving them the ability to make their home loan mortgage payments, and give them a job opportunity by having the kind of education and training programs that work in America.

Right now our displaced workers do not have the kind of educational training programs that they need. The education and training programs we have for displaced workers today is a product of the 1950s, when an economic downturn, the worker lost the job, and then the economy returned and they went back to the same sold job.

The same old jobs aren't going to be there. The new jobs are here at Lordstown. That's where the new jobs are, with new technology. And it's going to require a trained and educated workforce.

And for the displaced workers, for the displaced workers, we've got to give them some hope, my friends. We can't kick somebody out of a job at an early age and tell them they're finished. A job is more than a job, as everybody in this room knows very well.

So we're going to have to do a lot of things. And among them, as I said before, was -- and by the way, I also think we ought to offer a $300 million reward or award to someone who builds the right kind of battery that will take a car a long distance and that will be one that could be put into a landfill and will be 30 percent of the cost. And now, you know, every time somebody comes up with a proposal, oh, that's a gimmick. That's a gimmick.

I don't know if you know this or not, but Charles Lindbergh was given a $25,000 award for flying from New York to Paris. There was an award for it. We have offered awards for breakthroughs in technology and things -- advances for a long period of time.

Another "gimmick," I wanted to give Americans a little holiday from the gas tax this summer. I didn't say it was the way we could end our dependency on foreign oil. But wouldn't it be nice for those -- that guy that owns a couple of trucks that I met the other day to have relief from the 24.5 cent per gallon gas tax he's paying on diesel fuel? Wouldn't that be kind of nice?

He thought so. He thought so.

So, you know, we've got to have -- as I said, we've got to have a whole broad array of initiatives ranging from whatever short-term relief we can give Americans today -- and who's suffering the most? Who's bearing the brunt of this? The low-income worker on fixed income that drives the oldest cars.

Those are the largest gas consumption cars. We know that. The brunt of this incredible increase in the cost of a gallon of oil is being borne by the lowest-income Americans. That's not fair. And I want -- and rather than just give them money, I want to give them some long-term technology and relief.

So, finally, let me say that on this issue, this has crowded out almost every other issue. I'd be glad to talk to you about health care. I'd like to talk to you about a number of other issues. But finally, I'd like to just mention one other issue, and then I'd like to respond to any questions or comments you might have.

First of all, again, thank you for having me today. This is a great experience for me. This is what we all need to do who are privileged enough to hold public office, go out and see what's being done in America. Don't stay in our nation's capital and vote ourselves pay raises. By the way, we miss a lot of things, but very seldom the pay raise. So I'm honored to be here with you.

Now, let me just talk to you for just a second, because we have -- I just ran into a number of veterans here that are employed here.

COLLINS: OK. There you have just a little bit of the flavor of Senator John McCain. He is speaking at sort of a public forum, a town hall meeting there in Warren, Ohio, at the General Motors Lordstown assembly plant.

I just wanted to give you a little bit of that. And talking about the economy and coming up with some incentives, some rewards for good ideas. So that is what Senator John McCain is doing, the presumptive Republican nominee.

And now to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the other side of the fence, if you will. Their first joint campaign appearance just two hours from now. The former rivals will appear together in Unity, New Hampshire, in hopes of uniting divided Democrats.

You're looking at pictures now of a private fundraiser last night. Clinton introduced Obama to her top donors. These are exclusive cell phone pictures from inside the meeting. Both Clinton and Obama appealed to their supporters to come together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is still possible I think for both of us to win and the American people, but only if we are unified and if we understand the stakes involved and understand that there are people who need this country to change far more than any of us in this room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: We have to make it a priority in our lives to elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: In another show of unity, Obama and his wife each donated $2,300 toward Clinton's campaign debt.

We will bring you the Clinton/Obama Unity for Change rally live when it happens right here on CNN. You're looking at some live pictures from there right now, folks getting ready for this event. Again, it's scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Eastern in Unity, New Hampshire.

High pressure. A levee finally gives in, police go door to door this morning warning people about it.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: If you build it, they will come. Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes the lead in an operation designed to help kids get fit while having fun.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you know, I've been following the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina now for a few years. Been down there about a dozen times, mainly to look at the hospital systems, how you rebuild a hospital system after what happened down there.

But something else was sort of nagging at us, this idea that the idea of fitness and just taking care of your health on your own was becoming less and less of a priority, especially among children. They just had no place where they could actually go and exercise.

So, as part of the Fit Nation project, we started brainstorming and came up with this idea to actually help build a playground down there in Metairie, one of the areas that was really badly hit by the hurricane and by all the flooding as well afterwards. In fact, you can still see the water levels on the trees up to five feet high.

Well, it is in that exact area that we partnered with KaBOOM to try and put together this playground. Now, this is going to be a remarkable thing.

Take a look at some of the work that's already being done. They're actually setting all the groundwork.

This is a huge space in which we're going to actually build this playground. It's going to cost about $150,000. And we're partnering with KaBOOM who ultimately wants to put a playground within walking distance for every child in America. That's what they're hoping to do.

We want to build this playground so that kids can get out, they can have a safe place to play, they can get there easily. We also had this idea that we should let the kids themselves come up with the idea of how to design this playground. So take a look at some of these drawings.

We told the kids, grab crayons, grab paper, and actually come up with your dream playground. Took a look at all those pictures, and then with the help of the kids, actually created the playground that we're going to build there over the next couple of days.

So, this weekend, I'll be down in New Orleans actually hammering in nails and putting together that playground, along with about 60 other volunteers. And hopefully next week we'll have something very important and very neat to show you.

We'll have that for you when we get it. Back to you for now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: All right, Sanjay. Thanks.

And be sure to watch CNN tomorrow, because you'll be able to get live updates from Sanjay as the playground is being built. It starts at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

And also, as always, to get your "Daily Dose" of health news online, you can log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. That address is CNN.com/health.

He helps farm families in crisis. Meet a CNN hero coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: The Department of Agriculture estimates 200,000 farms in the United States go out of business every year. And for farmers, an injury or a natural disaster, as we have seen as of late, can end their livelihoods. Many get help from Bill Gross. He is this week's CNN Hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My dad bought this land in 1947. I've been here all my life. It's home. It's where we belong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's our roots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People don't realize how tough it is until you lose everything.

Anything on the path of the tornado, you name it, it was gone. We didn't have no insurance.

BILL GROSS, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: The family farmer is in danger. And so when a major injury, illness or natural disaster occurs, it's devastating to them.

I'm Bill Gross, and I help family farmers in crisis.

We're ready to go.

Farm Rescue is operated all by volunteers, and we're very proud of that. The volunteers are eager to come in. And by the time we leave, we have their crop planted or harvested.

I was raised on a family farm in North Dakota, and now an airline pilot for UPS. However, my heart never left the farming community.

I firmly believe that if you're going to help people, you should do something that you know how to do. And so I started Farm Rescue to help the farmers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a situation like we're in, there's no way we'd be able to survive on our own. They seed (ph) 200 acres of wheat and about 530 acres of soybeans.

We've got a place we can call home again. It's a new beginning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It sure is.

GROSS: If Farm Rescue didn't come in and plant these farms, then they would not be able to maintain their livelihood. And the families are very, very thankful and become lifelong friends.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: It was a CNN viewer like you who us about Bill Gross. In fact, this year, all of our heroes are extraordinary people you've nominated on our Web site.

So, go to CNN.com/heroes right now if you know someone who deserves to be a CNN Hero. Tell us about them. You never know, you could see your hero right here on CNN.

Voters trickling in, in Zimbabwe. Low turnout for a controversial presidential runoff. We're going to go live to the region in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: North Korea destroys a water cooling tower at its main nuclear facility. Take a look at this massive implosion. CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour was one of the few western reporters on the scene. She says they fired a warning flare and then in three minutes the whole thing just came tumbling down. The implosion seen as a powerful symbol of Pyongyang's move to end nuclear activities. And it comes just one day after North Korea released details of its nuclear program.

Slow going at the polls in Zimbabwe today. Reports of low voter turnout for a one-man presidential runoff. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse is in neighboring Johannesburg, South Africa. She is watching the vote now from a community of Zimbabwean nationals.

All right Nkepile, what's the latest on this? Not very high voter turnout.

NKEPILE MABUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've just spent some time with Zimbabweans who have fled their country's dire political and economic situation and are now living in South Africa. It's estimated that a quarter of that country's population has fled. Zimbabweans living in South Africa have not bothered to go back home, hence the low voter turnout.

They're saying there is no point in voting if there's only one candidate, they want to get out. They want Robert Mugabe out and they want their candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai in, who pulled out of the runoff on Sunday. Morgan Tsvangirai also saying that no one should recognize Robert Mugabe as a legitimate leader if he is declared the leader, the president of Zimbabwe.

COLLINS: I guess you have to ask -- I know it might be a very vague and impossible question, but if he is, which we are all saying that it's very likely he will once again be president, what happens next?

MABUSE: Well, many Zimbabweans living here are worried about that, they're worried about the future of their country because if Robert Mugabe is declared president, he has a five-year term and he will cling onto that (INAUDIBLE). That is why Robert Mugabe's regime did not remove Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, from the ballot box. They want this election to be as legitimate as they can get it.

COLLINS: Five-year term, boy, all right. Well, we sure do appreciate your reporting as always Nkepile Mabuse coming to us from Johannesburg, South Africa this morning.

Now back to the United States, harmony in unity. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, their first joint campaign appearance less than two hours from now in Unity, New Hampshire. Joining us to talk more about it, Anne Kornblut, national political correspondent for "The Washington Post."

Hi, Anne.

ANNE KORNBLUT, "WASHINGTON POST": Hi.

COLLINS: And Ben Smith, senior political reporter for Politico.com. Hi to you as well, Ben. Let's talk about this event in Unity, New Hampshire. How important is it, really, Anne, for the party?

KORNBLUT: Well, it's certainly important for them to project images of unity, to show that they can get along. They did an event last night, it was a meeting of the Clinton fundraisers here in Washington. But there wasn't a lot of good audio or video of that event. What we're really seeing today is the first moment that's going to capture the imagery they hope to project and hopefully that will put to rest some of the questions about whether they can actually unite.

COLLINS: Yeah, but there's unity and then there's unity. I mean, there's this image, as you just said, Anne, and then there is the real unity. Ben, what do you make of that? Do we have real unity here?

BEN SMITH, POLITICO.COM: I mean, you know, sure. Hillary Clinton has no choice. If she wants a future in democratic politics, which she sure does, she has to do everything she can to campaign for Barack Obama. In a way, the fact that nobody really believes that she likes him and that there is this sort of odd couple sense, it is important, it gets people to watch it, makes them interested. It's good for Obama that there's that question out there because Clinton is going to do everything she can over the next several months to make it clear that she is supporting him.

COLLINS: What about John McCain in all of this? We're going to have this huge event today, we've talked about it for a couple of days at one o'clock in Unity, New Hampshire. We know that he is in Warren, Ohio right now. We've just listened to a little bit of his town hall meeting from the GM plant there. How does he get that spotlight back on him Anne?

KORNBLUT: He's got to do something. It's been a few weeks now. Even when the democratic race was still going on, we were asking the same question. In the meantime, all he's really been able to do to get headlines is sort of controversies involving his campaign manager and other things. I would expect that at some point we're going to see him travel overseas obviously in the very short term future and at some point he's going to have to pick a vice presidential running mate. That might turn the tide but he does need to do something. SMITH: The democrats just have these stars at this point probably because that primary went on so long. Not just Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama but also people like John Edwards who just have more wattage because their primary was so long. There was so much attention to it. So whenever Obama wants to get his message out, he just kind of drags Hillary Clinton up there next to him and people are going to watch.

COLLINS: Well, who needs one more than the other right now? I mean, is it obvious then that that would be Barack Obama? Anne?

KORNBLUT: I think it's a really good question because certainly there are people in the Obama world who believe that they can win this without the Clinton folks. And the Clinton folks, you know, have been standoffish at times.

But yes, there is this mutual need here for each of them. For her to stay in democratic politics in the limelight and to sort of recover from the election and for him to actually win, they do actually need each other. So, of course, what they do is important and then there is question of what the former president does. And that's what I think we're all going to be watching next.

SMITH: That's who's not there today, is Bill Clinton. While they both need each other, Hillary doesn't have any choice. She is going to do what Obama asks her to do. Obama has to figure out how he uses the symbolism, particularly of Bill Clinton, is a little trickier, a figure from the past, in a way that has wife has really become a figure from the present.

COLLINS: Quickly we should point out, at least my understanding is any way, that to be fair, the former president Bill Clinton is in London, an event for Nelson Mandela. I do want to ask you about that, though. What about the role of Bill Clinton? What does he do now, if anything, Anne?

KORNBLUT: Well he, of course, issued the now-famous one-sentence statement through his spokesman saying that he would obviously support the candidate and do whatever he was asked to do. So far there hasn't been any contact as we understand it between the former president and Barack Obama directly. That will probably happen sometime soon.

COLLINS: Is that necessary, though and to who?

KORNBLUT: At some point they will actually need to talk to each other. When we asked this question of Obama's campaign manager earlier in the week, he was asked, where would you send him, looking at your 50 state strategy? I mean he sort of didn't quite answer yet. But I do think at some point they will deploy him. They have no choice but to and he is popular in some big states.

COLLINS: Yeah, but do voters care about that?

SMITH: Well Bill Clinton is still very popular with voters. The '90s are looked back on as a time of peace and prosperity as Hillary Clinton tried to wrap her campaign around and often successfully did. The question is how Obama kind of links himself to that past without getting bogged down in the bad parts of the '90s.

COLLINS: All right well the two of you we sure do appreciate your time today, Anne Kornblut and Ben Smith. Thanks guys.

Surging oil prices put Wall Street in a funk. Will the Dow bounce back from a near two-year low? Following the numbers in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: It is another tough day for stocks but it's nothing like yesterday's 358-point drop for the Dow. Alison Kosik is watching these numbers from the New York Stock Exchange, is joining us now with the very latest. We know they're down. Are we still in double digits?

KOSIK: We still are in double digits Heidi. Stocks flirted with positive territory in the first hour of trading but have now fallen back into the red. Oil prices continue to weigh on stocks. Right now they're hovering around $140 a barrel. Crude crossed the $142 mark early today.

That makes it tough on the bulls here on Wall Street, but it's not nearly as bad today as it was yesterday. Take a look at the numbers right now, the Dow industrials down about 56 points, sitting at 11,396, the NASDAQ off about 12. Heidi?

COLLINS: Well, aside from oil because we've talked about that quite a bit, any other particular area of weakness to be watching today?

KOSIK: There is. There's more trouble in the financial sector, that's another reason for today's selling. Yesterday Goldman Sachs downgraded a laundry list of banks and took a downgrade itself fueling that sell off. Today Lehman Brothers said Merrill Lynch could post another $5 billion write down. And AIG is among the biggest losers on the Dow. Reports say the company will take on $5 billion in insurance losses.

But Heidi, there is one bright spot today. That's the pharmaceutical sector. Right now Pfizer up about one percent, Merck up about three percent. You know, maybe investors are looking for a little medication after this rough week. What do you think?

COLLINS: Yeah, I think that's a very likely possibility. All right Alison Kosik, sure do appreciate it. Thanks.

KOSIK: My pleasure.

COLLINS: Midwest flood zones facing another threat. Heavy downpours could drench the region again today making this situation even more dangerous. You're looking at video from this morning of a levee in Winfield, Missouri. A portion of it just plain gave way.

Officials suspect (INAUDIBLE) tunnels actually caused the levee to fail. Almost everyone in the immediate area has evacuated. The National Guard is reinforcing the levee now in an area near about 100 homes.

Rain could push swollen rivers in Missouri and Iowa back up, possibly triggering flash floods. There are also health concerns. Tests show floodwaters contaminated with bacteria. Officials warning everybody to stay out of the water.

A Wisconsin man takes to a boat to look for his home. A rain- swollen lake broke through its banks, dumping all of its water and Tim Fromm's house into a raging river.

Here now David Douglas (ph) with our affiliate WIFC.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID DOUGLAS, WIFC (voice-over): On a jet boat in the lower Dells, our house hunt begins.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: who knows what's at the bottom right here, though?

DOUGLAS: As we head downriver, we find artifacts of a former life. A refrigerator, a couch, a black leather recliner.

TIM FROMM, HOMEOWNER: That one's actually not mine though. Just more curious about where all of our possessions went, you know.

DOUGLAS: But what homeowner Tim Fromm is really looking for is something, anything, he can hold onto.

FROMM: We think about things, what we lost, you know, the list is endless. But just to find something, you know, would be interesting at least to bring back.

DOUGLAS: Something like Fromm's father's pontoon boat.

FROMM: It still has the cover on it too.

DOUGLAS: We don't find the first floor of the house we were searching for, the water simply too shallow to go farther. But we did pass by the roof.

(On camera): There's more than just debris from homes here on the lower Dells. There's a lot of natural debris as well like sand. Right there you're looking at 35 feet of sand. 35 feet deep down onto the bottom of the Dell. Our jet boat pilot told us this used to be one of the widest and deepest part of the Dell, not any more.

(Voice-over): It's debris like that that hampered our efforts. But Fromm doesn't consider today's search unsuccessful. He's already gotten some stuff back.

FROMM: Someone did return some skis that we had. We got a few of our life jackets back.

DOUGLAS: And with luck like that, he's not ready to stop trying. FROMM: Anything that we can recover at this point is great because basically everything's lost and gone and without any recourse since we don't have any flood insurance, anything we can recover, you know, it's fantastic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Wisconsin, Dells area there for you.

Meanwhile, a ferocious wildfire inching closer to Big Sur, a scenic tourist town on the central California coast. Right now the fire is burning in the Los Padres National Forest, that's just about a mile south of Big Sur. Nearly 600 homes are threatened. Firefighters have beefed up their lines near those populated areas and closed a long stretch of the pacific coast highway. The Big Sur blaze just one of hundreds scorching northern and central parts of the state.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: A high school prank leaves several students upset. Yearbook flap in California.

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COLLINS: Lieutenant Colonel Charles Dryden is being remembered as an icon. He was a Tuskegee airman, a member of the 1st African- American combat flying squadron in U.S. military history. Dryden died this weekend in an Atlanta hospital. He was a command pilot with more than 4,000 flying hours including combat missions in Korea. They called him A-train.

In his 1997 autobiography, Dryden told the story of his pride as an air force pilot and the pain of discrimination he faced when he returned home from World War II. His goal? To keep the memory of the Tuskegee airmen alive. Lt. Colonel Dryden, dead at 87.

Now to this story out of California. A yearbook stunt has parents and students at a high school there upset. A yearbook staff member at Charter Oak High in Covina changed the names on a club photo of the black student union. One of the nine students calls the names ghetto names. The nine students were given stickers with their real names to pass out to friends.

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EVANNE JACKSON, STUDENT: They gave me stickers on the last day of school to pass out to my friends. I thought that was very embarrassing, and I didn't want to pass them out.

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COLLINS: The school board president has apologized and despite some parents desires, the yearbook apparently will not be reprinted with the correct names.

A story of survival for a small California child. Police in Sacramento say a toddler survived on his own for nearly six days after his mother died. Police say a social worker had gone to the home and called police when no one answered the door. The 36-year-old mother had a history of medical problems and lived alone with the toddler. Police believed the child survived by eating food within its reach. The toddler is now in protective services and said to be doing OK.

You've heard of people claiming to see an image of Jesus in a variety of places like a ham sandwich or even a broken window. Here's another one. Check out this granite slab from Brazil. Owners of a Dallas stone company say this 6 by 10 foot rock has the face of Jesus along with arms and either a belt, sword or a book or something. Wholesale, the 900 to 1,000 pound slab sells for about 1,500 bucks. The company hopes to sell it and donate proceeds to a struggling church in Oklahoma. You decide.

It's hard to imagine Microsoft without Bill Gates. But after today that's the way it will be.

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COLLINS: Last day at work for Bill Gates. The computer visionary led a worldwide revolution forever changing the way we work and communicate.

CNN's Maggie Lake.

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MAGGIE LAKE, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's the boy genius turned billionaire. For 33 years Bill Gates was Microsoft and Microsoft was Bill Gates. The public face, the spiritual leader, the driving technological force. And, yes, proud geek number one. Under Gates, Microsoft helped redefine how people do business and, really, how we all live our lives.

ROBERT CYRAN, BREAKING NEWS.COM: He was disruptive and at the same time he was an amazing businessman. He understood that you've got a computer and everybody said at the time, people don't need computers. He said, everyone needs a computer on every single desk. It takes a lot of drive to just say that and to actually deliver software that can do that.

LAKE: Gates' departure is symbolic at best. He has long sense handed over day to day control of operations. To his old friend university friend and current CEO Steve Ballmer. He even poked a little fun of himself in a video aired at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas in January. Speculating on life after Microsoft.

BILL GATES: Dude, wasn't that the craziest rift you ever heard?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well I said this before. We're full up in the band. All positions are filled.

LAKE: While Gates jokes in the video that he won't have much to do after he leaves his Redmond Washington-based office, he'll keep plenty busy. Gates plans to spend nearly all of his time and energy with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. The largest such charity in the world.

STEVE BALLMER: It's just clearly exciting to be in this phase.

LAKE: While gates is off trying to make the world a better place, it falls on Steve Ballmer to make Microsoft a more competitive company in this Google led world. To try to gain ground on Microsoft's current arch rival, Ballmer made a high profile $45 plus billion plus bid for Yahoo, he got turned down. It was a blow and some say a sign that Microsoft is not the industry force it once was.

CYRAN: I would say the Gates period was dominant and technological savvy. Now it's more like selling soap in a way. It's become almost a boring utility sort of day-to-day business. And Ballmer may actually be the right person to run it.

LAKE (on camera): Gates isn't completely leaving Ballmer flying solo, he'll still chair board meetings and he's technically only just a phone call or e-mail away. But the star of the Microsoft drama is finally stepping off the stage, leaving Steve Ballmer to feel the full heat of the spotlight more less on his own.

Maggie Lake, CNN, New York.

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COLLINS: CNN NEWSROOM continues one hour from now. "ISSUE #1" with Gerri Willis and Ali Velshi starts right now. Have a good weekend.