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Volcano Cancels Flights; Zero Tolerance Gone Too Far?; Job Outlook for New Grads
Aired April 16, 2010 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Good morning, guys.
TGIF, unless you are flying to Europe, of course. Can't blame the airlines this time,, though. Iceland's economy might be in the tank but when it comes to volcanic ash, it is clearly in the black.
A Chicago mobster locked up in prison. He didn't snitch but the audio tapes that turned up in his basement. You can't keep them silent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could have said anything. I went in there not thinking that I wasn't going to be able to walk for graduation, and said, hey, I made an honest mistake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: An honor student's honest mistake. She overslept one time now. She can't walk with her graduating class. Does that sound fair to you?
We begin with thousands of flights canceled, airports shut down and the reason? When is the last time you heard this, a volcano from England to India. About 17,000 flights are canceled. Some of Europe's busiest hubs shut down, including airports in Paris, London and Amsterdam. Why such extreme measures? The ash from that volcano in Iceland can cause jet engines to shut down. Geophysicists say it is impossible to predict how long those eruptions will continue. There is no way of knowing how long the airports will have to remained closed?
There is no one better to bring you this story than CNN. We have mobilized our crews around the world to bring you the latest developments throughout the day. Let's begin in Iceland, the epicenter of the volcanic eruption. CNN's Gary Tuchman joining us now live from Reykjavik.
Gary? Go ahead, Gary. Well, as you can imagine well, it is not easy to get a live shot. That is why I hesitated. I thought we had him by phone. We had him live. We have neither one right now. We will try to get him back to give us a live report from Iceland, there where that volcanic ash is causing quite a problem for fliers around the country. Well, more than half of all trans-Atlantic flights, as we told you, are canceled for today. One place where the backlog is stacking up, New York's JFK airport. CNN's Richard Roth is there.
So, Richard, what are they telling passengers right now?
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is not much information. The board says it all, canceled, canceled, canceled on British Airways flights. We are here at British Airways terminal. There is also Icelandic Air flying out of here. A lot of people got the news from the media, from the airlines, from their own judgment. The terminal is not exactly crowded. But we did find several people who are stuck in a bad way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I am here since 5:00 in the morning. And we are waiting the plane. I don't know if it is tomorrow, or after tomorrow, or Monday or Tuesday, I don't know.
Five in the morning, we are waiting the plane. I don't know if it is tomorrow, or after tomorrow, or Monday or Tuesday, I don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: Well, another man said he thought the U.S. media didn't give him enough information, otherwise he probably would have avoided coming to the airport. Another person said, first, he escaped and got out through the British air cabin workers strike a few weeks ago. Now, this. He is wondering what's going to happen next.
It's interesting, Kyra. On the board, you can see a flight leaving for Iceland at 8:00 tonight New York time, no problem. A British Airways flight was supposed to leave about 25 minutes ago, that was canceled. You can take British Air flight to Madrid and there is another way, maybe, of getting to the Continent. Others are being taken, diverted to a flight that will in Glasgow and maybe they will bus the passengers from Scotland. Everyone watching the winds. It is also cold here, but no ash here in New York. Back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: This is probably tough to answer. I think everybody is wondering this question, Richard. Do they think that flights might get back on schedule at all today, or does this look like it's going to be a long haul? We are talking thousands and thousands of flights.
ROTH: The determination of these flights will be based on atmospheric conditions in Europe and whether the ash injections-and ejections-from the volcano lessen at all, and whether the winds die down. That will determine whether the flight disruptions will last a few days, or perhaps longer.
PHILLIPS: Richard Roth, appreciate it.
The volcanic ash has shut down air space over Great Britain and that has brought Britain's busiest airport to a grinding halt. CNN's Jim Bolden at Heathrow Airport. So what's the situation there, Jim.
JIM BOLDEN, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, normally this time of day I wouldn't be able to hear you. We should be having all those airplanes landing and taking off behind me. But this airport is shut today as it was for most of yesterday.
U.K. air space, especially for England, is shut all day today into early tomorrow morning. We will get a determination later today of how Saturday will be affected. It's a very simple process. They don't want people to go to the airport. You are not going to get a flight out of here. There are some flights going out of Scotland, some out of Northern Ireland. But the U.K., this part of the U.K. is just like you see in places like France and Scandinavia. Nothing is moving, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: We will continue to follow it with you, Jim. Sure appreciate it.
We will get another look at this danger to air travel, at the half hour, when we talk with Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The wail of sirens and the stench of death in China. Rescuers racing against the clock desperately trying to find survivors of Wednesday's powerful earthquake. The death toll has climbed now to at least 791 people, according to the government figures right now, there. More than 11,000 people are injured. The 6.9 magnitude quake hit Western China in mostly a Tibetan region, wiping out homes and forcing more than 100,000 people to flee. Today, they are just waiting for food and other aid.
The last two weeks have definitely not been easy for hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans. They have been going without their federal jobless benefits, because Congress let them expire before the break. Those 200,000 people will be thrilled to hear, that's no longer the case. Yesterday, the Senate and House approved a two-month benefits extension, which President Obama immediately signed into law. While time was lost, benefits won't be. Checks will be retroactive to April 5th.
Those big tax day rallies are over. So, where does the Tea Party Movement go from here? Is a third party possible? We will hear what a former House Republican leader says about that.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm Rob Marciano at CNN Severe Weather Center. We have a cold front sliding off to the east, it may spawn some thunderstorms across parts of Pennsylvania. We will talk more about that. Plus the ash flow potential when the CNN NEWSROOM returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. I think we have connected with our Gary Tuchman joining us live from Reykjavik, there in Iceland. The epicenter of the volcanic eruption. Gary, can you hear me OK?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, I hear you fine. I have to hold this telephone next to my ear because it is so hard to communicate right here. We are past Reykjavik. We are about 70 miles to the southeast of Reykjavik.
This is the volcano. We are standing right next to it. It is absolutely amazing. Right now, in Europe, and Scandinavia, entire countries have no air service whatsoever. There is absolute chaos and here we are standing right next to where this volcano is and everything is relatively calm.
What you do see here are floodwaters. This volcano has erupted under water, under a glacier. That's why they have had flooding here. This was agricultural land. The black rocks, you see here, are rocks that came from the volcano. There has been flooding. What's very important to tell you, is there has been no deaths. There have been no injuries. Things here are relatively calm. Some roads have been washed away.
The reason it is relatively clear here is because we are on the west side of the volcano and the winds, which are very heavy right now, it is very cold, are blowing in this direction. The plume of ash is on the other side of this mountain blowing towards Europe. If the winds change and came to the west, this would be a very bad place for us to be. That's why we are keeping a very close eye and close ear on what the meteorologists have to say.
We talked to police authorities here. The name of the town-it is very hard to pronounce these names here. The name of this town we are in right now is called, Holmselor (ph). And the name of this volcano, I will pronounce it the best I can. I know Icelandic people will say that is not correct. It's pretty close. It is Eyjafjallajokull. It's a 16-letter word and that means island mountain glacier in English.
The last time it erupted was in the year 1821 and it erupted continuously for two years. Now obviously that was before air travel. It has never erupted since the invention of airplanes. Therefore people are very concerned how long this will last. If it last for two years, you can have big problems continuously with air travel in Europe and here, perhaps, in Iceland. Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Our Gary Tuchman, and fabulous job with the pronunciation. Gary Tuchman, only you would be able to nail that perfectly. Thanks, Gary. We will continue to check in.
Rob, can you pronounce the name of that volcano?
MARCIANO: No.
PHILLIPS: Any better than Gary Tuchman?
MARCIANO: No absolutely not. When they first started erupting, I guess about a month or two ago I saw it written down and I said, I'm not even going to bother.
PHILLIPS: I'm not even going to go there. It's like, the volcano in Iceland.
MARCIANO: Yes, perfect.
PHILLIPS: I'll stick with that.
MARCIANO: I think that's all you need. You know, number one rule in television, let the pictures speak for themselves.
PHILLIPS: There you go.
MARCIANO: Listen, the mid-Atlantic ridge kind of goes through here. This is one of the convection zones or convergence zones. That's why we have this volcano erupting in Iceland. This cloud plume we have here, that is not necessarily the ash plume. It's indicating there is a strong jet stream that's taking this plume of ash off towards the south and east. Here it is. You see better here as far as where the volcano is. Right about there. It changes from red to black a little bit. You see the general motion of the ash as it drives towards the south and east towards the United Kingdom and towards Europe.
Yesterday, we had this thing cruising along and making a right turn and going that way. Today, a little bit of a change in the wind pattern. They will get a little bit weaker and they are starting to go a little more towards the south and east as opposed to down towards just the south. We continue that trend. It will be more so, U.K. and Scandinavia and Russia will be affected, and less of Europe. Until that wind change really takes place, tomorrow or the next day, everybody is into it.
A little bit closer to home this side of the pond.
(WEATHER REPORT)
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PHILLIPS: Both of his parents were serving in Iraq and he was lonely, overweight, bullied, and to add injury to insults, his tonsillectomy left him with a plastic valve sticking out of his neck. So many obstacles for a teen. But he is rising above them all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LASHAWN RAMSEY, CHOIR MEMBER: The doctors were astonished. It was like, wow, how do you do that? You go through so much but you're singing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Pretty amazing. A voice like that with a tracheotomy. You would never know anything is wrong with 17-year-old Lashawn Ramsey to hear him sing. Music is giving him refuge and inspiration. We are getting inspiration from him. We will have more of his story next hour.
Pomp circumstance and uncertainty. College seniors about to graduate, but will their careers stall in the lousy job market? We will take a look at where those jobs are.
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PHILLIPS: Well, the Tea Party is over for now. But don't put away the red, white and blue bunting. The movement wrapped up its big tax day rallies yesterday across the country. The question this morning, is the grassroots conservative here to stay? Will it morph into a third party, or what? Dick Armey, the Republicans' former House majority leader is warning against a third party. He actually told CNN's John King that the Tea Party candidates could hurt Republican candidates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Will a third party come out of this, and will that be a good idea, or is that destructive?
DICK ARMEY (R-TX), FMR. HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: My first understanding that grassroots activism in America today-and it is small government grassroots activism-will not devolve into a third party as in New Jersey. In New Jersey, if you take a look at the third-party candidate in that race, that candidate had polling numbers going into the election week that, had they been met on election day, would have assured a re-election of the incumbent, liberal Democrat.
On election day, that candidate only got something like 2 percent of the vote. That vote that swung away from him to the Republican candidate gave us a change. Now, here is what the grassroots activists got from that swing. Because they are-and they understand, they are only a swing vote. But they went from a Democrat, liberal Democrat, that's 100 percent liberal to a Republican that's 80 percent conservative. That's not perfect, but 180-degree turnaround is pretty exciting.
(END VIDE CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Tea Party activists want less government spending and have argued against stimulus funding.
Afghan police say five Afghans working for the United Nations are being held by Taliban insurgents. They were in northern Afghanistan's Baghlan Province when their vehicles were hijacked earlier today. Baghlan is about 120 miles north of Kabul. Today's incident follows attacks in the same area yesterday that left four German soldiers and three Afghan policemen dead.
This could be a difficult day for some students and faculty at Virginia Tech University. Today marks the third anniversary of that shooting rampage that left 32 students and faculty dead. Student Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman, killed himself. Several events honoring the victims are being held, including a candlelight vigil on the schools drill field. The university has cancelled all classes today. Hospitals will no longer be able to deny visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners. President Obama has ordered the rule change for all hospitals that receive federal funds. The presidential memo also guarantees patients advanced directives, such as who should make health care directives if the patient can't. The Department of Health and Human Services has also been asked to check into other health care barriers.
Shelbyville, Tennessee, world famous for Tennessee Walking Horses, world infamous for a Russian adoption that went wrong. What happened here now impacting other Americans waiting to bring home Russian orphans. One would-be mom says this limbo could be fatal.
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PHILLIPS: They were accused of try to kidnap 33 Haitian children after the devastating earthquake hit. Now charges have been dropped against nine of the 10 American missionaries. The nine previously released from jail returned to the U.S. The 10th missionary, group leader Laura Silsby is still in jail. The Americans said they were trying to take the young quake survivors to a better life.
So, can you adopt a child from Russia now or not? Russia's foreign ministry says no, not until a meeting with American officials next week to hammer out some new rules is decided. The State Department says it doesn't know anything about a suspension in adoptions.
This all started when a Tennessee woman sent her adopted son back to Russia by himself. Families like the Stankewsky, in Idaho, are afraid that what she did, rather, could mean that they never bring their new son or daughter home. They have adopted Russian orphans before and they wanted a couple more. They say they turned in all the paperwork and they waited about seven years. This was the year they were supposed to bring home those kids. Then the Tennessee incident happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WIDNA STANKEWSKY, ADOPTIVE PARENT: I was so angry. And my husband was so angry and we were-and devastated, all at the same time. Our goal, of course, our heart is to bring these kids home so we make these sacrifices and then this woman does what she does. You have no idea. You don't even know the anger that my husband and I feel towards what this woman has done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, the son they are waiting to adopt is now 10 years old and he is HIV positive. Mrs. Stankewsky says that he can get much better meds here in the U.S. And she is afraid that every day he stays in Russia, it reduces his life expectancy.
CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jill Dougherty talked with a Maryland mom who is waiting to adopt her fifth child from Russia. The process now, much more complicated. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It is really literally a handful.
CHRISTIE ZUCKOR, ADOPTIVE MOTHER: Literally, we are in zone defense in our house.
DOUGHERTY (voice over): Three years ago, Christie Zuckor, and her husband, Ken, were on a waiting list to adopt two siblings from Russia. Then came the e-mail from their adoption agency, four siblings waiting for a home.
(On camera): And now, you are waiting for another little girl, right?
ZUCKOR: Well, she is 15.
DOUGHERTY: Oh, she's not a little girl?
ZUCKOR: She is, yes, she is 15 and it's their big sister. What's her name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marina!
ZUCKOR: Marina, that's right.
DOUGHERTY (voice over): This is Anitoli (ph). He likes tents.
ZUCKOR: Natasha and Nadia both take gymnastics. Ellie is in a jazz class.
DOUGHERTY: So, she has a few problems?
ZUCKOR: Yes, she has cognitive delays. She receives services from the special educator, speech pathologist, occupational therapist.
DOUGHERTY: What do you think of this woman who sent her child back to Russia?
ZUCKOR: I don't think highly, honestly.
DOUGHERTY: Do you understand it, at all?
ZUCKOR: I understand the issues that our son has. I don't understand one bit that she would put him on a plane and send him back. Her story is no different than tons of kids that come out of institutions.
DOUGHERTY: Were you really prepared for all of the stuff that you have to do?
ZUCKOR: You are committed as if you gave birth to these kids. You don't give up. That's not what they need. You do everything you can. The resource are out there. DOUGHERTY: What do you think about the Russians who say, you know, we ought to stop this. Children have been killed, abused in the United States. They ought to just put an end to it?
ZUCKOR: Well, the stories are horrible. You can't deny it. They have every right to be angry but there are tons of success stories.
DOUGHERTY (voice over): Marina, they hope, will be one of them.
(On camera): It doesn't sound like you are that really concerned.
ZUCKOR: I am not worried. It's going to happen. When things are meant to be, they are meant to be.
DOUGHERTY: Christie says, when it comes to adopting Marina, things are still pretty murky. But they have been through a lot of challenges with the other kids and she is hoping by the beginning of the school year, she will have Marina here. Jill Dougherty, CNN, Havre de Grace, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Iceland's erupting volcano has brought air travel to a standstill. How long will it take to return to normal? What are the dangers of the ash? We will talk with an aviation consultant.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. Dow coming off a sixth straight win. Stock are set to open lower today. Those losses won't be too bad because on the scan, we have upbeat earnings. Both GE and Bank of America, they losses on consumer loans are starting to moderate. That's a sign that people are making payments on time. Good news. We will follow our business updates throughout the day.
Now, for thousands and thousands of travelers across the world, there is no silver lining to this cloud. Let me tell you. It is made up of volcanic ash, and it has shut down air travel across much of Europe now. About 17,000 flights have been canceled all the way from England to India, and some of Europe's busiest hubs have been shut down, including airports in Paris, London and Amsterdam. The reason, the ash from that volcano in Iceland can cause jet engines to literally shut down. Geophysicists say that it's impossible to predict how long the eruptions will continue. So, there's no way of knowing how long the airports will have to remain shut down.
One of the airports that's closed because of the ash is Warsaw Airport in Poland and that could affect plans for world leaders to attend the funeral of Poland's president and first lady who died last week in a plane crash. Let's get live now to Frederik Pleitgen. He's in Warsaw. So, Fred, what is it like right now at the airport?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's definitely very quiet here at the airport, Kyra. As you can see behind me, there's really not much going on. There are no flights going in or coming out of Warsaw. The air space here in Poland has effectively been shut since late last night. Of course, one of those world leaders who was going to attend the funeral of Lech Kaczynski, the Poland president, is President Obama. We're not yet sure whether or not he is still going to be able to make the trip. It really all depends on where this ash cloud goes.
But if you look at some of the other world leaders who are going to come to that funeral, a lot of them are actually from countries that have been affected by this volcano ash. We're talking about Nicolas Sarkozy from France. We're talking about Angela Merkel from Germany, Prince Charles from the U.K. So, certainly, that is really very much in question. The poles, for awhile, were actually talking about even possibly moving back the ceremony, but now, they have said that's something they're not going to do.
And of course, for ordinary travelers here in Warsaw and all of Poland, as in both (ph) Europe, it's an absolute disastrous situation. I was able to speak to a group from New York a little bit earlier today. And they were telling me that they're stuck here in Warsaw, and they're trying to find any means they could find to try and get from here to any airport in Europe that might be open. Let's have a little listen into what they were plotting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One option is Vienna by train, stay in Vienna, and try to hook up whatever flight will go to America. That's one option. The other option is to take a train to Berlin, then hook up to Frankfort, and that is exactly ten hours with one change. And then wait at the Frankfort Airport and hope that you can connect with another flight to North America.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We actually did our boarding last night. And we had our boarding cards, and when we got to the gate, they told us that the flight was canceled, and we had to get our luggage, go down, get our luggage, and go back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: Desperately trying to find some way to get back to the United States. Let me tell you, they were obviously trying to get to other places in Europe, but -- and they were talking about taking trains or taking automobiles. Right now, it's a four-hour wait to get train tickets at Warsaw Central Train Station to try and go somewhere outside of Poland. It's a seven-hour wait to get a rental car here in Warsaw. It's not much different and a lot of other Europe cities. So certainly, right now, travel here very much disrupted in Europe, and it looks as though that might continue for at least a couple of hours, if not a couple of days -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Frederik Pleitgen, thanks so much.
And let's see if we can get a better idea now about what the ash does to a plane's engines and how long it will stall air traffic. Mary Schiavo is an attorney who was represented both passengers and pilots and lawsuits against airlines. She's also the former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. She's been my expert in number of times on stories like this. She is joining us live from Charleston, South Carolina.
Mary, great to see you.
MARY SCHIAVO, FMR. INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION: Thank you. Good to be with you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's start with, first of all, have you ever seen anything like this in your career? How odd is this?
SCHIAVO: Well, it's not odd that it occurs, but what is odd is that the magnitude of this one, and yes, our country as well as many others has gone through this after Mt. St. Helens, after Mt. Redoubt, and Mt. Pinatubo, so after all those explosions, air traffic was disrupted. The difference now is we have a lot of volcanic watch organizations including one sponsored by ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, so we're better at predicting.
PHILLIPS: All right. So, your expertise here, explain the dangers of flying through a plume of ash or flying in this type of environment? What exactly does it do to the engines? Kind of give me the technical explanation if you will.
SCHIAVO: Sure. Ash that's put out in the air contains the same components or particles that goes into glass-making. And jet engines operate at about 1400 degrees, and if the ash is under that temperature and it enters the jet engine, it literally becomes molten and can coat the engine and the heart of the engine with a glasslike substance. And what that does is shut the engines down. If the pilots recognize this in time or get warnings and there are many telltale signs, it can look just like a cloud, but there is a particular odor and taste.
There is something like St. Elmo's fire. It's called the firefly effect. You get these little sparkly lights that you're entering a volcanic ash plume area. And above 25,000 feet is your biggest danger. If you can do a 180, completely turn around, decline, dissent and get out of it, then there won't be damage. Otherwise, you literally can coat your engines in a glasslike molten substance and you'll lose your engines.
PHILLIPS: Wow. So, considering how big this is and also how well spread out it is at this point, how do you even go about even saying, OK, it is OK to fly now? The air is safe. The environment is good to go. How do you test? How do you know when you can make that decision?
SCHIAVO: Well, obviously, the airlines work in connection, very close connection, with Volcanic Advisory Organizations and with the meteorological services. And through satellite weather mapping and other methods, they can keep track of where the volcanic ash is moving. And, like I said, it's particularly dangerous above 25,000 feet, because that's where modern jet liners operate. And so, they track the flow of this jet damaging ash, and they can really tell where it's going.
The problem is that they have to wait for the eruptions to stop before they can even hope to have the flight levels cleared out. And in this case, because the eruptions are going on, they can many times fly around them as it happened in the eruptions of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Redoubt. But when it's so widely dispersed, they literally have to wait it out because you simply cannot fly through it.
PHILLIPS: So bottom line, we can't even say when are things going to get back to normal. When will the flights going to be up and running on a regular basis because we really don't know until the eruptions stop. Is that where we stand right now?
SCHIAVO: Yes or until they can be certain as to where the ash is flowing in the flight levels. Like I said, there are ways to fly around it safely. Since 1995, we can track it much better, where the ash is going. But if it's in the areas where you need to fly, you simply have to ground the flights because airlines around the world and various meteorological organizations have determined it's just not safe to fly through it.
And even our own government has investigated it in an odd way to determine if planes could fly, you know, after a nuclear disaster, for example. It would be a similar situation. And they have determined, no, it's not safe to fly through. You've got to go around it or wait for it to clear.
PHILLIPS: We'll keep following it until that happens. Mary Schiavo, thanks so much.
The plane goes down under in Australia, and an air race ends for this pilot as he crashes into the river, but the pilot lives to race again.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Hold on to your seats for this ride. Pilot in a Red Bull Air Race crashed its plane into a river in Perth, Australia. Believe it or not, he only suffered minor injuries. That race which is held around the world has planes flying it speed about to 250 miles an hour through inflatable pylons on water.
So, what's your safety worth? Safety from drug dealers, sex offenders, murderers? Is that safety worth $9 at least. Sure it is. So, why is one huge county refusing to pay that?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Yes. Toby Keith says he'll never smoke weed with Willie again. You know what that means, more weed for Willie. And I'm not just saying that. Willie might have given up nicotine, but he is still toking. Listen to his little chat with Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Still smoke? WILLIE NELSON, SINGER: No. I threw those away. I rolled up 20 joints and put it in my chesterfield pack and started changing my habits.
KING: Could you smoke like a few joints and go on stage and sing?
NELSON: Oh, sure, sure. But I have a huge tolerance for it that maybe everyone doesn't have. But, yes, it doesn't really affect me.
KING: Did you ever go with stronger stuff?
NELSON: No.
KING: So you would recommend -- it wouldn't harm you, wouldn't bother you if people you knew smoked it?
NELSON: You can overdo it. You can hurt your lungs by putting anything into your lungs that has heat and smoke in it. Yes, you can overdo it, but as far as being as dangerous as cigarette smoke, no.
KING: Do you smoke today?
NELSON: Do I smoke cigarettes?
KING: Did you smoke pot today, this day.
NELSON: Yes, sure.
KING: Before you came in here?
NELSON: Yes.
KING: So, you have pot in you right now?
NELSON: Yes. You could arrest me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: There you have it, folks. It doesn't get much better than that. Well, at least Willie's plume of smoke doesn't cancel flights to Europe. He and Larry also singing a little duet when we turn the sound down on that, but you can hear it tonight, Willie and Larry's excellent adventure, 8:00 eastern, right here on CNN.
Rob, that story was just for you.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Bring it to me.
PHILLIPS: What did you say?
MARCIANO: I'm sorry. Somebody else is in my ear. The story you just told?
PHILLIPS: I thought you were asking someone to bring the pot to you. MARCIANO: You know, listen, I mean, it's Friday and all but --
PHILLIPS: But you won't be toking with Willie?
MARCIANO: No, no, not this week. Hey, listen.
(LAUGHING)
PHILLIPS: OK.
MARCIANO: Hey, listen. We are definitely seeing thunderstorms across parts of the Ohio River Valley and Pennsylvania.
Finally, we are trying to get a shift in the weather pattern that had this huge ridge kind of holding everything nice and warm and dry for a beautiful spring across parts of the southeast. It's starting to change just a little bit and -- and that will interrupt the nice weather that we've seen.
All right, a little bit of rainfall right across the Great Lakes from the nation's heartland. It's trying to get into the New York City area. It's going to be a cool day across parts of New England as a matter of fact, a little bit of snow trying to fall across northern parts of New Hampshire and southern Maine and mostly at the higher elevations.
I don't think it's quite cold enough to stick. But nonetheless, the I-95 corridor will be kind of unsettled today. And it's certainly going to be cool, cooler than places like D.C. that will see abundant amounts of sunshine. Temps will probably struggle to get to 60 degrees in New York City today.
Also at the back side of this ridge that's been keeping all that weather nice is this plume of moisture coming in off the Gulf of Mexico and western Texas has really seen the brunt of this.
A lot of rain -- yesterday and a lot of rain today. Flooding rains right now and through parts of Lubbock where it continues to come down here. And the estimations over the next 48 hours could still see, you know, four to six inches of more rainfall as this pattern slowly shifts.
79 for a high in Dallas, it will be 85 degrees in Memphis, 84 in Atlanta, 84 as well in D.C. but 60 in New York and 47 in Boston.
Monday, by the way, is I think Marathon Monday, our patriot's day up there in Boston. By then, that cool front will be passed and it'll be a little bit cooler across the board throughout the eastern states and also some heavier snow is moving into the mountains of Colorado. It hasn't been much of a spring skiing season for those folks. They're kind of getting a lot of late season snow. 78 for the high temperature in Atlanta tomorrow and 56 degrees in Denver.
We've been watching this. I just want to point this out again. Readout -- or not readout but the impossible to pronounce volcano in Iceland continues to erupt. The weather pattern has shifted a little bit but we haven't seen a dramatic change. So that means Scandinavia, parts of -- all of the U.K. and northern parts of Europe and through Russia are most affected by this ash plume which can travel hundreds of miles.
And the good news of this, I've seen some pretty pictures on the Internet Kyra, of some nice sunsets across parts of Europe.
PHILLIPS: Wow.
MARCIANO: So for those who are stranded at the airport, you know --
PHILLIPS: Something beautiful to look at.
MARCIANO: -- sunsets and sunrises have been very nice because of all the ash in the atmosphere.
PHILLIPS: All right, still doesn't help those folks --
MARCIANO: No it doesn't.
PHILLIPS: -- that want to fly.
MARCIANO: No.
PHILLIPS: Thanks for the icing --
MARCIANO: All right.
PHILLIPS: -- I guess the -- what's with the expression, a little good news there on top of the bad.
MARCIANO: You got it.
PHILLIPS: Thanks Rob.
MARCIANO: Yes.
PHILLIPS: An honor student, a senior and he oversleeps one time, just one time. The school says you can't walk with your fellow grads now. Zero tolerance for unexcused absences. I tell you what -- I've got zero tolerance for the school right now.
Thirty eight years ago today, NASA launched its fifth trip to the moon, that was one of the trips where the astronauts got to drive around in those cute little moon rovers. Well, the astronauts brought back more than 200 pounds of rocks and are still being studied today.
A big fan of those moon flights was Walter Cronkite. Did you ever watch Uncle Cronkite? Cronkite, the king of anchormen, he succeeded Douglas Edwards by the way to CBS Evening News anchor on this day in 1962.
And in 1964 in England, the Rolling Stones debuted their first album there were go, appropriately titled what else "The Rolling Stones". (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Let me ask you this, what's your safety, potentially your life worth? Can we start the bidding at nine bucks? It's fair to say it's worth an infinite amount more than that. But listen to this. Dallas County, Texas, isn't upgrading ankle monitors for criminals on probation. We're talking about drug offenders, pedophiles, even murderers.
They're sticking with older technology like a Windows '98 version; makes it a lot harder to keep track of these people. Why? Cost -- a whopping nine bucks per day per person.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICKERS CUNNINGHAM, FORMER CRIMINAL DISTRICT JUDGE: You don't know where they are. They're just not where they're supposed to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Yes, but even though the offenders themselves could pay for part of the cost, Dallas County still isn't upgrading them. Police say that one guy from miles away from his home was selling drugs while two monitors were clamped to his ankles.
All right. And this really got to me. We're taking a stand here so a senior can walk with her class on graduation day. Sam Pierce is an honor student at Wausaukee High School in Wisconsin.
Back in February, she says her alarm didn't work. She overslept, but still went to school and was honest about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAM PIERCE, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: If I could have said anything. I went in there and not thinking that I wasn't going to be able to walk for graduation and just said, hey, I made an honest mistake. I can sit in the crowd, but I can't be up there with everybody else and I worked just as hard as everybody else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And they repeat, she's an honor student and she actually can't walk because of the school's unbendable zero tolerance policy for unexcused absences. Seriously, Wausaukee, does the punishment fit here? Would it have been better if Sam have just lied, made up some crazy story just to avoid that absence?
Is this how you treat good students the same as serial slackers? She probably overslept because she was studying to keep up all those A's. Zero tolerance seems to make zero sense here.
That brings us to this morning's blog question for you. We want you to share some of your zero tolerance policy stories with us. Going to be too harsh? Go to CNN.com/Kyra. Post your thoughts. I hope to read some of them next hour. Still ahead: a real-life story of mobsters, betrayal and a secret vault. Martin Scorsese, we may have a movie idea for you know. The true story next hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Millions of Americans out of work and the job market may soon get a little more crowded; college seniors just weeks from graduating and joining that competition. Christine Romans in New York with a closer look. It is tough times for these graduates, Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is tough, still really highly competitive, Kyra, but a little bit better.
A survey from Challenger, Gray & Christmas of human resources managers found, Kyra, that about half of the human resources managers they surveyed said things would be about the same as last year. Twenty-eight percent said slightly better and 12 percent said much better but only 10 percent said worse.
So that's the improvement. Things are either the same or slightly better than they were last year and for the class of 2010 that means it may be just slightly easier for you than the class of 2009.
PHILLIPS: All right. So which grads have the best chance of getting job offers, you think?
ROMANS: Where most of the jobs are, believe it or not, health care. And by this we mean nursing, physical therapy, medical technicians. These are the kind -- pharmacy science -- these are the kinds of places where hiring managers are saying they're seeing the most hiring. Also in business, computers; to a lesser degree in accounting and finance, to an even lesser degree, Kyra, in liberal arts and even less in education.
So you can see it right there. But most of the jobs appear to still be in health care. And there are some good-paying jobs. There are physical therapy jobs -- many of them if you're highly-educated and highly-trained those are good-paying jobs.
PHILLIPS: You wish you see more jobs in education. Boy, just seeing teachers getting laid off across the country is so frustrating.
ROMANS: I know.
PHILLIPS: What do you think are the most important things are for grads to put on their resumes right now?
ROMANS: Well, these hiring managers and a lot of people who are following this are saying that work experience is what employers want to see because you've got the 2009 graduating class out there still looking for a job. The 2010 and then you have maybe five years of very young workers who all are trying to compete, right?
So the most important things to put on here according to Career Builder: internships, paid or unpaid. Anecdotally, a lot of people are graduating and then getting internships. The kind you used to get in college are now getting them even after college so they have something to put on their resumes.
Part-time jobs, volunteer work, class work, school organizations, hiring managers say and put those things on there. Anything that seems relevant and looks like work experience; make sure you play it up on the resume.
There you go.
PHILLIPS: All right. Christine, good advice. Thank you.
If you're one of 200,000 Americans whose state jobless benefits have run out, help is coming from Uncle Sam. President Obama has signed a two-month extension of federal benefits. He's also asking Congress to extend the benefits through the end of the year.
Afghan police say five Afghans working for the United Nations are being held by Taliban insurgence. They were in northern Afghanistan's Bagram Province when their vehicles were hijacked earlier today. Bagram is about 120 miles north of Kabul.
Today's incident follows attacks in the same area yesterday that left four German soldiers and three Afghan policemen dead.
Cloak and dagger controversy: internal CIA e-mails tell about the destroying of video showing the water boarding of a terror suspect. According to the documents, the officer who approved the destruction wrote if the tapes ever became public, they would be devastating to the agency. And get this, the e-mail say that then CIA director Porter Goss agreed with the decision to destroy those tapes. However, there is no proof that he approved it and Goss hasn't talked about the matter in public.
