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Hurricane Dolly Makes Landfall; One-on-One With LeBron James

Aired July 23, 2008 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Getting word that Hurricane Dolly Cat 1. And we're covering it from all angles. The CNN Severe Weather Center takes you into the eye of the storm.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, that's right. The Texas Gulf Coast slammed. Dolly is on a rampage and taking its time.

PHILLIPS: People are hunkering down as Dolly ramps up. And CNN reporters are in the thick of it.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live in New York.

LEMON: Absolutely, Kyra. We have got you covered. CNN is your hurricane headquarters.

I'm Don Lemon. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Right off the top, Gulf Coast communities along the U.S./Mexican border are taking a beating from Hurricane Katrina. The storm made landfall about an hour ago a Category 2. We just heard it's been downgraded to a Category 1, dumping lots of rains and raising fears of inland flooding and tornadoes.

The governor of Texas has declared emergencies in 14 counties. FEMA and the Red Cross are standing by. So is the National Guard. CNN has crews all over the place.

Our correspondent Gary Tuchman has been getting blown around on the south side of Padre Island. Take a look at what he went through just a couple of hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: South Padre Island, the barrier island, in the southernmost part of Texas is getting ravaged.

This behind me, just a few hours ago, was grass, was land. Now you can see the Gulf of Mexico and the bay have made it like a raging rapid. That billboard was on land. We're standing right now on the causeway.

In front of me is a bridge that links South Padre Island with the mainland. This is a barrier island, 34 miles long. Normally, there are 2,000 people who live here. But in summer weekends, there are up to 200,000 people who are here. Most people have evacuated. But there are a lot of people still here. We have seen roofs collapse. We have seen signs go down. Firefighters are all over helping people evacuate who decided not to evacuate. But you can see, this is a Category 2 hurricane. And it's incredibly treacherous. And most people are surprised by how strong it is.

This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, South Padre Island, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, Gary isn't the only person getting battered about by Dolly. Also riding out the storm on South Padre Island, here's Ted Oberg from our affiliate KTRK.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED OBERG, KTRK REPORTER: It's awful down here. This is the worst we have seen. We believe this is the eye wall coming onshore here in South Padre. Our wind meter is not going to tell us exactly what these winds are, but it is fierce.

We have seen all sorts of damage from one end of South Padre to the other. The roof on the McDonald's next door is peeling off as we speak. We have seen light poles blow down this street, traffic lights knocked down. It's awful.

(voice-over): Since well before the sun came up, Hurricane Dolly has been pounding South Padre Island, waves here eight to 10 feet. The rain is coming down in powerful sheets, often sideways. Hurricane-force winds are shredding awnings, toppling signs, and causing spotty power problems.

The fire department here on the island is incredibly busy, racing to catch up with fire alarms set off when the power goes out. That, however, is little compared to what Jacqueline Bell is facing.

JACQUELINE BELL, RESIDENT: Well, when we felt the first bang, I thought it was one of the air conditioners flying. And then we went outside and saw the debris and we saw the neighbors leaving, because it was the neighbors' roof.

OBERG: That roof didn't go far. The crumpled pile sits between buildings in this small apartment complex. And lying there on the ground, it does little to stop Dolly's rain.

BELL: It's raining inside. And upstairs is the same thing. I'm not going upstairs anymore.

OBERG: She left the apartment, nervous it will collapse further.

Where she isn't causing damage, Hurricane Dolly is creating awe. The few tourists who remain here on the island are out this morning to see the storm, ever mindful of the power it's bringing.

TRACY DAVIS, TOURIST: I expect it will get worse. I expect to see higher winds, higher tide over the next couple of hours. So, that's when it's really going to be interesting.

OBERG (on camera): Yes, interesting to say the least here. She was right. It has gotten worse, a lot worse. Most tourists took off yesterday. The causeway closed about 10:00 last night. And, since then, everyone who is here has to stay here.

There are no doubt many, many tourists on South Padre right now who wish they had left yesterday.

From South Padre Island, Ted Oberg, 13 Eyewitness News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Well, hurricane, powerful hurricane, potential tornadoes, possible flash flooding, a triple threat for people in Texas.

And we turn now to our Susan Roesgen, who joins us now from Brownsville with the very latest.

And, Susan, it's coming down. It looks like it's hitting even harder. I can hear it.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is getting harder.

And I'm out in it, Don, basically just to show you how bad it's coming down now. Brownsville is a very important border town. The Mexican border and the Rio Grande River, which is the natural border between the U.S. and Mexico, is only about a quarter of a mile behind me.

You see one guy driving today. Not many other people are out. This border is very important. You have heard about it a lot in the news lately, because this is where the Department of Homeland Security wants to build part of its new border fence.

And in fact while the Department of Homeland Security couldn't stop Dolly from coming through, they did today stop what they say were a group of smugglers who were still using the bridges that have not been closed between the U.S. and Mexico. They stopped a group of smugglers, Don, who had more than 5,000 pounds of marijuana.

They say that at least three groups of smugglers here wanted to take advantage of the hurricane. I guess they thought maybe people wouldn't be paying as close attention, Border Patrol agents might not be as closely monitoring things on the border, and they thought they could get through with the marijuana. That's not the case.

The Border Patrol is still keeping an eye on things. As far as people here, yes, we have seen now some pretty serious street flooding. I just got off the phone with the emergency management coordinator here for this particular county. He says the levee, which you can see part of right behind me, has not been breached. They're not concerned about that.

But they have had some street flooding, probably more than they were expecting. But the good news is, the levees are holding. No one has been hurt, nothing really serious from this. They are just hoping people will stay out of it, stay dry. And they're hoping that the levees hold. They feel that the levees will hold. But they do have some serious street flooding now -- Don.

LEMON: All right, our Susan Roesgen in Brownsville, we appreciate your reporting.

And just to show you what's going on here, we're in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Our Chad Myers getting information here from other our meteorologist, the man behind the scenes we call, Dave Hennen.

Meantime, as they're working on that, I want to tell you our Reynolds Wolf is in South Padre Island as well. He's been seeing the flooding, all the winds, everything going on with Dolly. He gives us a look at what he's experiencing just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Earlier today, when we were coming to you, we were dealing with wind mainly out of the north.

Right now, the wind is due west. It is coming in sheets, not in drops. We have been dealing with all kinds of debris, pieces of roofs, trees, piles. You name it, it's all been coming by.

Now, as the storm continues to march westward, we do expect it to lose a bit of its intensity. The winds should die down. But then it's a rainmaker and a true threat for parts of South Texas.

Reporting from South Padre Island, Reynolds Wolf, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And that is our Reynolds Wolf getting battered about, as are many of our correspondents and our meteorologists there on the ground.

Working here in house, our Chad Myers, talking to our other meteorologists and our entire weather team here.

Chad, getting some new information. It's happening so fast, you had to come over and get it. Talk to us.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we have so many computers, Don, that we can't do all from one program and all from one location.

This actually can show us the Doppler radar. We're looking right now here at South Padre, where he was. But I can put on this ugly view of the greens and reds, the coming and the going wind. And then I can go and I can query every little area here. And it looks like South Padre still has winds blowing offshore at 77 knots. I mean, that's -- OK, it's 500 feet in the air. But some of the buildings go 300 feet in the air.

And so this wind is still very, very strong. Raymondville, we're now up to about 62 knots blowing in from the north. The problem, Don, is that the storm is actually spinning the wrong way for all these people that protected their land and their windows from a storm coming in this way. The storm moved to the north. And so the wind is blowing offshore, not the way you would expect it. That's the big issue here.

See what happened here? See the eye? Come on in.

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: All kinds of shadows. I work better in shadows.

With my mike off, it's even better. There's the eye right there. We expected this really to be anywhere from about Corpus Christi down here to Tampico about five days ago. See, this was the big cone. Then the cone got smaller and smaller and smaller. And we knew it was either going to be about 50 miles one way or the other of the Rio Grande.

So, this thing did move to the north of the Rio Grande, rather than to the south. So, rather than an onshore flow at Brownsville, we have an offshore flow. So, windows that should have been protected are not.

LEMON: All right. You know we're going to get in trouble, right? Because the director is like, your lighting, this is all wrong. You're in the shadows and everything.

OK, Chad Myers, we appreciate it.

So, that's what we're doing here in the CNN Severe Weather Center. We have got a team of folks here, about seven, eight people working on this, also our correspondents on the ground, our meteorologists on the ground. We have got it covered.

Of course, CNN is your hurricane headquarters today -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: For John McCain, a familiar setting on the campaign trail. He's using his town hall format to take his message to voters in Pennsylvania today. The Republican presidential candidate focused on jobs and high gas prices as he spoke to voters in Wilkes-Barre. But he also repeated a familiar theme, his plans for victory in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: An unconditional withdrawal, my friends, without paying attention to the facts on the ground, could lead to our failure, a resurgence in our enemies. And we would have to go back.

My friends, when I'm president of the United States, we will come home. We will come home with victory and honor. But we will never have to go back, because we will have won this conflict.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: After his Pennsylvania stop, McCain heads to New Orleans, where he's scheduled to meet with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. There is a lot of speculation the 37-year-old Jindal is on McCain's short list of potential running mates.

LEMON: Let's talk about the Democratic contender. It is a day of meetings with some sightseeing squeezed in for Barack Obama in the Middle East. The DemocratIc presidential candidate started his day by laying a wreath at a Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, then meetings throughout the day with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Between those meetings, Obama stopped at a southern Israeli town that has been the target of rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I'm here to say as an American and as a friend of Israel that we stand with the people of Sderot and with all of the people of Israel. Now, the Kassam rockets fired by Hamas deliberately and indiscriminately target civilians.

Now, this terror is intolerable. Israelis should not have to live endangered in their homes and schools. And I'm hopeful that the recent understanding to end the attacks will provide some relief. But America must always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself against those who threaten its people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Next up for Senator Barack Obama, Europe. He visits Berlin tomorrow, with other stops in Paris and in London.

He's leading the U.S. men's basketball team at the Olympics in Beijing. Superstar LeBron James sits down with us for a little one- on-one.

PHILLIPS: She aired her family's dirty laundry on YouTube for millions of people to see. Now a divorce court rules.

LEMON: And a terrifying scene at a bullfight in Colombia. The story behind these incredible pictures.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MYERS: We're down to a Category 1 hurricane, but still a very potentially dangerous 95-mile-per-hour storm. The threshold is 96, so this is as high as you can go without being a Category 2. It is making landfall now, lashing winds from the west, the west in Brownsville in South Padre. The north side of the storm could also produce some tornadoes, tornado watch in effect until 9:00 Central time. We will keep you up-to-date right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. As we keep track of Dolly, we want to tell you about this. Too much excitement? Well, hundreds of bullfighting fans were jumping up and down and cheering, when suddenly the bleachers collapsed. Dozens were injured at this festival in Colombia. As spectators panicked, two people dressed as clowns tried to distract the bull. An investigation into the accident of course is under way.

PHILLIPS: Well, it was the marital split that shook the Internet. The New York woman who trashed her estranged husband on YouTube will soon be the man's ex-wife. And that YouTube rant may have cost her big time.

A Manhattan judge has granted Philip Smith a divorce from Tricia Walsh-Smith -- that's her right there -- on the grounds of cruel and inhumane treatment. But it looks like she has more to say.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick standing by here in New York.

So, she took her fight to the Internet. Millions of people saw this. Did the strategy work?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, to listen to her, she says, well, yes, it did work. She said that she has absolutely no regrets.

In fact, she put this YouTube video out there. In it, she basically shows intimate details of the couple's private life, or lack of a private life, basically. Calls up her husband's office, talks to the assistant, filling her in on some of the details about what had been going on in the marital home. And it wasn't all that much.

She says she has no regrets. But the judge ruled there really would have been absolutely no grounds for divorce had she kept her mouth quiet and not gone on the Internet. But by putting the YouTube video on the Internet, that constituted cruel and inhuman treatment. And that's why he granted the divorce. So, she may have had more leverage by not doing it and been able to maybe persuade the judge.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's take a listen to part of what she put on YouTube.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRICIA WALSH-SMITH, POSTED YOUTUBE RANT: A day to reflect on my victory in court on Monday. And, yes, I said victory. Today, I am proud to say that despite the abuse of influence by Philip Smith and the Shubert Organization and their ongoing efforts to bring me down, I will not be bullied. And I repeat, I will not be bullied, coerced or anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: OK. Just to me, that's a little frightening. But that's a whole 'nother story.

Now, let's keep in mind, she's an actress. She's a playwright. She gets, what, $750,000, the apartment.

FEYERICK: She's got to leave the apartment actually. And that was one of the things that she was fighting for. She said that she wanted to stay in the apartment. She said that her husband was unnecessarily trying to evict her, put her out on the street. She had a lot of debts to pay, about $40,000 worth. And she said if she had left the marriage now, she would have been homeless, penniless, wouldn't have had enough money to pay her debts.

But by sort of putting the YouTube video out there, she said she was able to get the $750,000 that was owed to her. But she does have to get out of the apartment. Now, one of the things, that bite that you heard where she says, "I will not be bullied, I will not be bullied," that was today.

And she's accusing her husband of basically trying to tank her career, of killing deals that she had in the pipeline, including two productions that were canceled without any sort of reason. And she's now also accusing his organization, the Shubert Organization.

So, it's kind of interesting.

(CROSSTALK)

FEYERICK: Well, and, you know, when you hear those drums beating, you wonder whether there is going to be even more litigation down the road.

PHILLIPS: Right. Right.

FEYERICK: The husband, his lawyer spoke to us earlier today and said that -- quote -- "There was not a shred of evidence submitted at the trial to substantiate any of the wife's claims or contradict Mr. Smith's unequivocal denials."

The theater mogul has said he has not been trying to hurt his wife, he has not been trying to undermine her professionally or personally or financially. And she did not -- she had an opportunity to sit on the stand and lay it out for the judge. She didn't. She also would have had an opportunity to be cross-examined. That didn't happen.

PHILLIPS: People are getting pretty creative with the Internet, wouldn't you say?

FEYERICK: Yes. But it's risky. You put something like that out, and you may think you're being sympathetic, but a lot of people kind of had the same reaction you did when they saw her fight back. But now she's saying I'm going to take up the plight of divorced women everywhere or divorcing women everywhere, who apparently aren't getting what they should.

PHILLIPS: Well, we will follow up. That's for sure. It's a talker.

Deb Feyerick, thanks. LEMON: I'm sure women around the world are going, OK, maybe not so much.

Building a house of straw? Well, that's one man's decidedly low- tech solution to the housing crisis. But will it hold up?

PHILLIPS: And even houses built of more traditional materials have troubles when storms like Dolly come to town. We're live as the live storm comes ashore.

LEMON: So, a few years back, Detroit was the scene of an infamous NBA brawl. But, last night it was the girls' turn, as tempers flared at the WNBA.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS REPORT)

LEMON: Well, how about this for an answer to the housing crunch? A house made of straw? Matt Martin of Louisville, Kentucky, built this 400-square-foot building out of straw bails covered in mud and then coated in stucco. Total price tag, $7,000. That's pretty cheap for a home.

Well, Matt says he's heard all the jokes. He's heard all of them, big bad wolf and all that. But he's having the last laugh on everybody. He says the building is fireproof and that it's the first straw building in Kentucky to receive an official state permit.

Good luck to him with that.

They used to be virtually unstoppable. But U.S. basketball isn't the juggernaut it once was. I will talk with NBA superstar LeBron James about his Olympic dreams.

PHILLIPS: And for hundreds of years, the black press has been telling the stories of black people in the United States. We're going to take a look at their often unheralded work. It's a preview of our CNN special that starts tonight, "Black in America," with Soledad O'Brien.

LEMON: And we are tracking Dolly today in the CNN NEWSROOM and the CNN hurricane headquarters. Our Chad Myers and all of our meteorologists on top of it. We will give you the very latest coming up right here in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips in New York. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

It's 3:30 p.m. Eastern time.

And here are some of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A collision between a barge and a tanker has dumped more than 400,000 gallons of fuel oil into the Mississippi River near downtown New Orleans. The Coast Guard has closed a 29-mile stretch of the river from downtown southward.

President Bush went to the Pentagon today to talk strategy with top military leaders, high on the agenda, where to find more troops to confront the rise in violence in Afghanistan.

And Hurricane Dolly has made landfall near the coastal border between Texas and Mexico. The storm had wind gusts up to 120 miles per hour at its peak.

LEMON: All right, of course, CNN is your hurricane headquarters.

We want to get straight now to our severe weather expert, Mr. Chad Myers, working all the angles on Dolly -- Chad.

MYERS: Winds are decreasing, Don, about 95 miles per hour, that's still a very strong Category 1 hurricane, off the Category 2 that it was. But the map behind me shows that some of these wind gusts are now getting into cities and towns. Not so much on the sea shore, which is basically a national sea shore -- except for South Padre Island.

Look at that wind gusts in Harlingen, 74, 74 miles per hour. That's a pretty good gust. So now let's zoom around a little bit and we'll give you an idea of what is going on. How is this storm really affecting people? It is affecting people in an inverse relationship to what they expected.

Everyone expected the wind to come onshore like that. That happens when the storm is to your south. Well, guess what, the winds are now doing this, they are going the opposite way. So when you board up your house to protect winds from coming in this way and you don't protect your house from coming in this way, the glass all along these homes here in South Padre Island, the western-most glass is breaking, all of these windows, 95-mile-per-hour winds, a lot of debris in the air.

And there are the winds that are coming onshore way up here. This up here, that Kennedy County. Kennedy County right there, 414 people in the entire county. That's what's called the King Ranch area. Although the King Ranch kind of goes into four different counties. But where the winds would have been the worst, nothing there, no winds at all here. The winds are all through Bayview and through Port Isabel, through Brownsville down to Matamoros.

And some of these winds now are still in the 70-mile-per-hour range with gusts over that. So this storm is certainly not done. But it is -- as it makes contact with land, it is losing its energy because it needs water to sustain itself. The more it gets into a dry land, you don't have the sustainability, you lose the energy, the storm begins to weaken. So we will continue to watch this weaken all night. And we'll also see all of this rainfall come down, making, Don, more flooding. Incredible flooding, I'm afraid, as this storm nearly stalls over the land and just rains for days.

LEMON: Of course, Chad Myers is our severe weather expert here in house. And then meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is out on South Padre Island as well. We're trying to get in touch with him. He's dealing with all of that wind.

MYERS: He's 90-mile-an-hour right now, yes, it's tough for him.

LEMON: Yes, OK. Dirty jobs, tough jobs, somebody has got to do it. All right. And you know, our CNN iReporters have been working all of the angles here. They're out with their cameras as well, their phones, sending us pictures and videos. And their stories, our Josh Levs joins us. He's in the CNN severe weather center with the very latest on that as well -- Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hey there. You were just talking about South Padre Island and Reynolds Wolf. Well, guess who else is in South Padre Island right now? Some of our iReporters are physically inside these boats that we have a picture of an ireport.com, people flocking to this. I'm going to quickly go over to another page. There you go, you can see that image right there.

That is the two boats that are docked right now in South Padre Island. And people are downstairs inside those boats, trying to get through the storm. We spoke just a short time ago with Lisa Graves (ph). Let's listen to what she said.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've had a sailboat that broke free of the docks across the way and got caught up on our bow. And we had to run out and cut the anchor line. And it was just -- it tore the front of the boats all to pieces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: We're keeping a close eye on that because we want to make sure that they're OK. They're saying that while those boats are docked, if one of the things that they're connected to at the dock pulls off, it could cause a hole in the ship, which could sink the ship. They obviously didn't plan for it to be this bad.

I don't want to just look at South Padre, though, I want to bring you now over to some of the video we're getting from Brownsville, Texas. Let's take this (INAUDIBLE), we're getting some amazing video. Let's listen in to this.

(VIDEO OF WIND AND CLOUDS)

LEVS: All right. That (INAUDIBLE) from Jose Sanchez, who (INAUDIBLE) when he sent this earlier, he says, it's really getting really bad. He was looking up at the clouds, the clouds were racing by. He says he looked out and it was raining sideways everywhere he looked. There was no escaping it. That's over in Brownsville, as we've been hearing a lot about that area throughout the day. Now if you're anywhere where you're seeing part of this storm in a safe way, do not go to any danger, neither of these people went to danger for us. If you have videos or photos, send them to ireport.com. It's really easy. We explain what to do. And I'm going to tell you guys also, at cnn.com, one of our main stories today is about this storm. And we trace you through photographs, telling you the story of the storm each step of the way.

So, Don, obviously getting a lot of traffic there throughout the day today. We expect to keep hearing from iReporters and keep sharing with you some of these amazing photos, videos and stories that we're getting.

LEMON: You had better believe that. Josh Levs, Chad Myers, thank you both -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Racial discrimination, will it always be with us? As part of our "Black in America" coverage we asked that question. Our latest CNN/Essence magazine poll, 51 percent of blacks and 41 percent of whites thought so, 57 percent of whites said race relations won't always be a problem, 48 percent of blacks agree.

LEMON: Well, you know what, as we continue to follow Dolly here, we're going to talk more about "Black in America." As part of our "Black in America" documentary series, CNN has taken a look at how African-Americans are portrayed in the news media. In particular, what you might call the black media or the black press.

And CNN's Soledad O'Brien has the story for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For almost two centuries, African-Americans have been telling their story in the media, their way.

HAZEL TRICE EDNEY, NNPA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: The black press of America has been around for more than 181 years. And the NNPA news service, for which I'm editor-in-chief, is about 68 years old. That was founded in 1940. The first black newspaper in America was, in fact, founded right here in New York in 1827.

O'BRIEN: Hazel Trice Edney heads up the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an organization of black-owned newspapers.

EDNEY: We portrayed stories about the social world of the black people and how -- their cotillions and how they were doctors and how we are working every day, how black people are working class citizens and working class people.

We just finished with a 25-part op-ed series on HIV and AIDS with an intent to reach African-Americans, to just talk about it openly, about what leads to black on black crime, for example, what leads to drug use in the black community. And those are the stories that the black press of America are constantly trying to tell and trying to make an impact and trying to change on behalf of not just black America but America.

Does anybody have any questions so far?

O'BRIEN: Edney also lectures at Howard University, hoping to inspire future members of the black press.

EDNEY: We are here to be watch dogs pertaining to justice in America. We are here to be watch dogs pertaining to the other media as well, to make sure that we are accurately portraying African- Americans the way that we really are: upstanding, strong citizens in this nation.

That is what the black press is about.

O'BRIEN (on camera): What are some of the positive stories of African-Americans in this country that the media misses?

EDNEY: What's lost is just the story of a great people. I mean, the story of a hard-working people who fought themselves, literally fought themselves out of slavery. You know, if that story was told, simply the story of black people in America, what a great story that would be.

That is the job of the media in this nation...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: That is a very interesting story. Soledad O'Brien joins us from the Time Warner Center.

And, Soledad, you know, it comes as no surprise to a lot of African-Americans, when you think about The Chicago Defender and many other newspapers like that that really are a contender in the communities that they're in. Tell us about those stories and about the challenges of taking on such a -- it is a controversial topic, race here. And it's a contentious topic as well for obvious reasons.

O'BRIEN: Yes, you're exactly right. I think most black people can sort of tick off well-known black magazines and newspapers and white people could not. And to some degree that's a little bit of the frustration to the black press, feeling that they don't necessarily get enough attention and enough respect because they have this incredible history and a library of photos that cannot be believed.

But you're absolutely right, when we went into this project, frankly, Don, I'll tell you, one of the things that we wanted to do was to really explore the stories that Hazel was talking about in that, you know, based on the wide range of stories. And to some degree, you can't do anything but report what you see. And at the end of the day, your goal just has to be to tell honest, true, real stories.

And that was really what we set out to do. Some of those stories are terrific stories, stories of success, stories of great opportunity. And some of those stories are really sad stories, stories of big missed opportunities, and stories of failure, frankly. We tried to cover the whole bag.

LEMON: And I've got to tell you, though, I mean, in full transparency, and we have talked about this, you know, you're going to...

O'BRIEN: Many times. Many, many times...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: ... about this, because you can't please everyone, especially when you're talking about race.

O'BRIEN: But you know what, I think if you go into any project like this, any project, not even necessarily just about race, and you have an end game, you have an agenda, then you've automatically set out to fail. You have to just go to report. I mean, that's what good journalism is. And you have to report fairly and accurately. And that was truly what we wanted to do, report the wide range of stories that often fly under the radar, that often go underreported or undercovered. That was the goal.

And that was the only goal. And so if that's your goal, then I think we have done what we set out to do. And if people love it and then that's just icing on the cake.

LEMON: Yes. And you know, then, of course, you want dialogue. So you accept all criticism. I've got to tell you, Soledad, to be honest with you, everywhere I go, people are saying, I can't wait for this. And you know, there is a huge expectation about it. I've got to ask you this question.

Frederick Douglass, you know about this, 1863, in a speech he said: "The relation between the white and colored people of this country is the great paramount imperative and all commanding question for this age and nation to solve."

What do you think? Still true?

O'BRIEN: Well, 140 years later, we're still trying to figure it out, aren't we? So I think it is still true because it's so important and nobody discusses it. Yes. I think it is true. I think we have to figure it out. I think there is more -- you know, I'm always optimistic. And so I think that there is more dialogue today than there has been in some time.

Part of that is Barack Obama's entrance into the race. People are just talking about race practically every day in sort of public ways. So I'm encouraged by it. I think this is a good conversation that you just have to have. Sometimes unpleasant conversations, but ultimately worthwhile.

LEMON: OK. I've got to -- you know, the time constraint, because you do this...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: We can't talk for an hour?

LEMON: I hate to do this with a yes or no question, but as a person of color, did you learn a lot?

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, yes, absolutely, yes, I did. And I think there is a lots for everybody to learn, whatever color you are.

LEMON: OK. Soledad O'Brien, looking forward to it, and we'll talk this weekend. I'll see you at Unity in Chicago, thanks.

O'BRIEN: You got it.

LEMON: Thanks a lot.

"CNN PRESENTS: Black in America." Don't miss this groundbreaking documentary tonight and Thursday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN. And be sure to watch a special one-hour "Black in America," your reaction tomorrow at noon Eastern streamed live on cnn.com. Soledad O'Brien gets your reaction to her special documentary. And she'll share some of your iReports. It is a special hour streamed tomorrow at noon Eastern on cnn.com.

PHILLIPS: Well, he's one of the best basketball players in the world. But he just strained his ankle. So will LeBron James be ready to play for the U.S. team in Beijing?

LEMON: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, that's how many times a Louisiana police officer tased this man. Was it too much? Was it a murder? A CNN investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Don't ever claim that there's no passion in women's sports. This is the ugly ending to last night's WNBA game between Detroit and Los Angeles. I guess it doesn't take boys to fight. Three players were ejected for the final seconds of the game after a shoving match quickly escalated into something much worse. Detroit assistant coach Rick Mahorn was also thrown out. He said later that he was just trying to play peacemaker.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And we've been talking a lot here about being black in America. We talk about athletes, we talk about scholars, we talk about the whole realm and scope of being black in America and race relations.

One man is going to the Olympics. LeBron James. He's one of the best basketball players in the world. And he is a co-captain of team USA. The squad is working out in Las Vegas, getting ready to go for the gold in Beijing. Well, yesterday, LeBron had everybody holding their breath when he sprained his ankle. Trainers wrapped it in a brace. LeBron didn't talk with reporters about it. He is talking today in the CNN NEWSROOM to Don Lemon about it. He joins us now from Las Vegas.

OK. Everybody is wondering, is LeBron going to make it for Beijing, is he going to be OK? Tell us about that injury.

LEBRON JAMES, TEAM USA CO-CAPTAIN: I'll be OK. You know, yesterday when it happened, it didn't feel good at all. But, you know, today and with the help of my trainer and the help of the trainers for USA, they've done a great job of keeping me on command (ph). And it feels a lot better today. I will be ready for the Olympics and will be in full go.

LEMON: All right. They said it's a mild ankle sprain. That's still the word?

JAMES: Yes. That's pretty much it. It's something that will probably keep me out a few days from practice. And I should be able to get back at it next week.

LEMON: All right, 2004 you're in Athens, now you're back again. You're co-captain. How does it feel this time?

JAMES: It feels great. Just to know I'm going to have a big part in playing on this team and being alongside some of the best in the world to ever play the game of basketball itself. So it's a great feeling to be a part of this team. And I'm very excited about it.

LEMON: All right. Third place in Athens. Do you have something to prove this year in Beijing?

JAMES: We have a lot to prove, honestly. We have to rekindle the flame that we are the best basketball players in the world. And I feel like this is our last chance for team USA to try to rekindle that. We did a great job last summer here in the FIBA American Games. And we've got to continue that same intensity and continue that same atmosphere that we had here in Las Vegas last summer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. Team USA has an exhibition game Friday against Canada. Their Olympic opener is August 10th against host country China in Beijing -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: A black suspect arrested, handcuffed and lying on the ground. That's where the story starts, police brutality, some say murder is where it ends. CNN's special investigation next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. We have some developing news into the CNN NEWSROOM, and it involves that B-52 crash off the northwest coast of Guam. It happened on Monday. CNN is getting word from the Air Force, from officials there, that all six airmen aboard Raider 21, the B-52 bomber that crashed on Monday, were killed. The men were all killed when the plane crashed about 30 miles northwest of Guam. That's according to the Air Force. It has turned into a recovery operation now, getting that word from the Air Force -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Following police procedure or committing a crime? Authorities in Louisiana are considering charges against a white officer in the death of a black suspect.

CNN's Drew Griffin reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Winnfield, Louisiana, is just a 45-mile drive from the small town Jena where nooses in a tree sparked racial outrage last year over black and white justice in a small Louisiana town.

Now Winnfield could be a new racial flashpoint. Attorney Carroll Powell-Lexing says police racism led to a murder.

(on camera): Do you think there's a cover-up?

CAROL POWELL-LEXING, FAMILY ATTORNEY: No doubt. No doubt. Nothing but a cover-up.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): six months ago, a 21-year-old black man named Baron Pikes, a cousin of one of the Jena 6, Michael Bell, died in police custody at the Winnfield Police Department. How it happened has officially remained a secret, until now.

Coroner Ralph (sic) Williams has just released his findings. A white officer armed with a Taser, he says, violated every Winnfield police procedure on Taser use, ultimately killing a black man in handcuffs.

(on camera): What is a man down on the ground, handcuffed behind his back getting repeatedly shocked?

DR. RANDOLPH WILLIAMS, WINN PARISH CORONER: Well, it's a homicide.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): For months police have said Pikes may have been on drugs, may have fought with police, may have somehow caused his own death. The coroner says none of it is true.

(on camera): He wasn't on PCP?

WILLIAMS: No, he was not.

GRIFFIN: He had no crack in his system?

WILLIAMS: No, he did not.

GRIFFIN: He was a healthy man?

WILLIAMS: Yes.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): He weighed 247 pounds. And according to the coroner, he was having trouble following police orders to get up, so officer Scott Nugent pulled out his Taser, like this one, and fired.

WILLIAMS: The first shot was fired at 1:37 p.m., and you have six shots fired by 1:40. OK? In three minutes -- or less than three minutes, actually.

GRIFFIN: That was only the beginning. He was loaded into a patrol car and taken to police headquarters.

(on camera): According to the coroner, when they got here to the police station, Baron Pikes now, in the back seat, handcuffed, already Tasered six times, wouldn't, or couldn't get out of the back seat fast enough for officer Nugent. So Nugent Tasered him again.

Shot number seven is what they call a drive stun. The Taser placed directly onto Baron Pike's right interior chest and fired. And still, it wasn't over.

WILLIAMS: After he got the drive stun to the chest, he was thrown out of the car onto the concrete and then electroshocked two more times.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Pike's family has hired attorney Carol Powell-Lexing, who says race played a role in Pike's death.

POWELL-LEXING: It is very important to stay vigilant regarding these types of cases on the injustice that is perpetrated on the disadvantaged.

LT. CHARLES CURRY, WINNFIELD, LOUISIANA, POLICE: I don't see where race caused his death. I don't see where race caused this situation to (INAUDIBLE).

GRIFFIN: Lieutenant Charles Curry is trying his best to defuse racial tension. But he can't explain why a black handcuffed suspect was Tasered so many times by a white officer. City council has fired Nugent. He's appealing. His attorney tells CNN the officer followed procedure.

PHILLIP TERRELL, SCOTT NUGENT'S ATTORNEY: He tried to entangle his arms after he was handcuffed, tried to pull him to the ground, repeatedly fell to the ground. The only thing he could have done other than just say, OK, we're going to let you go, is either beat him or Tase him. He did the right thing.

GRIFFIN: Any day now the district attorney here will decide if officer Nugent did the right thing or if the death of Baron Pikes was a crime.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Winnfield, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Well, it is time now to check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

PHILLIPS: That's right. He's standing by in "THE SITUATION ROOM" to tell us what's coming up at the top of the hour.

Hey, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, guys. Thanks very much. We're going to have much more on Hurricane Dolly as it moves inland. We're tracking the storm. We'll have live reports from across the impact zone. I'll also be speaking live to the director of the National Hurricane Center.

Well, Barack Obama, he's in Israel right now delivering a rather tough message to Iran. And President Bush caught on tape. He asked that the cameras be shut down, but one camera remained on him. We're going to show you what he had to say about Wall Street. All that, and a lot more coming up right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Wolf.

Well, the closing bell and a wrap of action on Wall Street is straight ahead, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

LEMON: OK. Have a good one, Susan.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's take it to "THE SITUATION ROOM" now and Wolf Blitzer -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, guys.