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General David Petraeus Takes Command in Afghanistan; Super Tanker Ready to Clean Up Gulf; Summer Recovery for Jobs or a Slow Down?; Two Teens Speak Out on Surviving Chicago's Rough Streets; Courts' Female Touch; The System is Broken; All You Can Eat Oil Buffet

Aired July 02, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It is Friday, July 2nd. Getting ready for a big holiday weekend. But, first, we're here to bring you the news on "AMERICAN MORNING." I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for joining us today. Lots to talk about this morning. General David Petraeus en route to his new command in Afghanistan after the deadliest month of the war and a bloody new attack this morning. Can the four-star general turn things around? We're live at the Pentagon and in Afghanistan.

CHETRY: Designed to carry more oil than any other ship in the world, a supertanker has now become a super sucker for the Gulf oil spill. We're taking you on a tour of "A-Whale." find out how this beast could be the break we're waiting for.

ROBERTS: Plus, for some teens in Chicago the walk to school is not about stressing out over a test, it is about survival. This morning find out what it is like to walk some of the country's most dangerous streets in a special series "Walk in My Shoes."

CHETRY: First though, happening overnight, General David Petraeus is on his way to Afghanistan. There is video of his stop in Brussels, Belgium before heading onto Afghanistan. It has been only two day since he's been confirmed for the job, but now he has to study the battle plan and get his staff in place and try to turn things around after what has been the deadliest month of the nine-year war.

ROBERTS: Paying for progress isn't cheap. President Obama asked for billions more to win this war, and late last night, despite the growing discord between Democrats and the president's policy, the House did approve $37 billion more to fund the fight in Afghanistan.

And the war is raging on during this change in command. Overnight, the Taliban claiming responsibility for an attack on a U.S. aid agency in northern Afghanistan, at least four people dead there.

CHETRY: Also we have two reports this morning. We have Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon. And she joins us right now. We will check in with Atia Abawi in a moment as well. Hey, Barbara. BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Kiran.

General David Petraeus expected on the ground in the warzone in Afghanistan later today could be landing within hours, we are told. And he and he will land in the middle of a skyrocketing war increasingly violent every day.

In the latest, the military is now even restricting the use of those Humvee vehicles that we've seen for years in both Afghanistan and Iraq, very vulnerable to IEDs, roadside bomb attacks. Now in eastern Afghanistan you're going to have to get the approval of a senior commander before you can even ride in one of these outside of a protected base.

How deadly has the war become? Let's look at some very grim statistics. June was the deadliest month of the war -- 101 coalition forces killed last month, 58 U.S. And look at how it compares to just the year before. Even though there are more troops on the ground, more than doubling of the fatality rate last year -- 38 coalition forces killed in the month of June, 25 were U.S. the number.

The number one killer remains those IEDs, those roadside bombs. The statistics there are very grim. May is the month for which we have the latest statistics. More than 1,100 IED incidents in Afghanistan in the month of may compared to the year before, May, 2009, just over 500. Again, a doubling of the rate of IED incident.

These are just some of the things General Petraeus will be focusing on. Kiran?

CHETRY: Bottom line, that's because of the increased push, you know, more fighting or is it just becoming more dangerous?

STARR: Well, you know, it's both right now. The push into southern Afghanistan certainly causing a higher level of combat and combat casualties, but in eastern Afghanistan, a lot of concern, as well. And as Atia is reporting, new attacks in the north.

CHETRY: Barbara Starr for us, thanks.

ROBERTS: And a grim welcome for General David Petraeus in Afghanistan. Just hours ago, the Taliban struck the compound of a U.S. aid agency, and at least four people are dead. Our Atia Abawi is live in Kabul for us this morning. Atia, what happened here?

ATIA ABAWI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The very grim morning in Afghanistan in Kunduz province, John, as you mentioned. Four people killed, two foreigners and two local Afghans were said to be Afghan police and Afghan guards. According to the governor of Kunduz province, it started around 3:00 a.m. in the morning. Six Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked the DAI compound, that's a USAID contractor up in the north, and that one of them detonated his vests right at the gate allowing one car to enter.

That car, the explosives in there also detonating. Four of the gunmen rammed that building running in. But at least the governor says that the majority of the people in the compound had some sort of warning and they ran up to the roof, where they locked themselves up there.

A gun battle ensued for at least six and a half hours, and in the end the gunmen were killed by Afghan and U.S. forces. But, in the end, four people from that compound killed. We should also mention that the Taliban actually claimed that they killed near 52, but we should also mention that their numbers tend to usually be exaggerated. John?

ROBERTS: Atia Abawi for us this morning in Kabul. Atia, thank you.

CHETRY: Some scary moments for an elephant handler at the Toledo zoo where official say that Don Red Fox was He was attacked by a seven-year-old elephant named Louis. The 53-year-old zookeeper was hospitalized but his injuries are not life threatening.

ROBERTS: Jaycee Dugard, you remember her. She was kidnapped as a child and held captive for 18 years. She is getting $20 million from the state to settle her claim against California's Department of Corrections. Dugard was found last year in a backyard of Philip Garrido, a registered sex offender who authorities say fathered Dugard's two daughters during her captivity. He had been on parole since 1988.

CHETRY: And the Senate has gone on summer vacation without finishing work on a bill to extend long-term jobless benefits through November. This affects more than 2 million workers whose unemployment checks were cut off at the end of May.

The House did approve the six-month extension, but the Senate measure stalled when Democrats failed by one vote to break a Republican filibuster. It means that some people might not receive their benefits until mid-August, if it eventually passes.

ROBERTS: And what does it take to get the king? New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg leading the charge to get NBA superstar LeBron James, King James, in a Knick uniform. Yesterday was the first day of the NBA's free agency's period. Bloomberg made his pitch last night here on CNN. He says he can't help LeBron with his jump shot, but New York is a great place to live and work.

CHETRY: There you go. Is it a great place to get a championship ring, though, because that's what he wants?

ROBERTS: With him maybe it's possible.

CHETRY: Well, it's seven minutes past the hour right now and time to get a check of this morning's weather headlines.

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ROBERTS: Can A-Whale of a ship make a difference in the Gulf of Mexico? We'll give you the full tour of this oil soaking ocean beast in just a couple of minutes. It's coming up now on nine minutes after the hour.

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CHETRY: Well, there is a new hope in the Gulf this morning, a super skimming tanker that is now in the Gulf and just waiting to try to clear up the oil.

ROBERTS: It's got an interesting name, too, "A-Whale," and it offers promising results, able to skim about 300,000 barrels in less than ten hours.

CHETRY: Yes, but is the largest oil skimmer that the world has ever seen even enough? Ed Lavandera joins us from New Orleans this morning to give us a look at how it works. It's enormous.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Amazing to see. You could see it on the horizon for almost like a mile away it seems like as we were driving down to Venice, Louisiana. One fisherman told us that a lot of people were just driving by to get a glimpse of it.

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LAVANDERA (on camera): This is how you get on the world's largest oil skimmer -- quite a feat and quite an advantage. So, now we're onboard a massive vessel called A Whale, and this is a giant cargo ship that is retrofitted to skim oil out of the Gulf of Mexico.

This kind of retrofitting has not been done before, so right now the Coast Guard hasn't given this ship permission to skim oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

We're on the navigation deck of this vessel, and from here you can really get a sense of the magnitude of this ship. It's almost four football fields long and one football field wide, and as you look at the other massive ships out there on the water, they look small from this vantage point.

But underneath this massive deck that you see right here below us, underneath there is where the crucial work will take place if, indeed, the technology aboard this vessel does work. Underneath there is where the containers and the oil can be skimmed in to is being held right now. So we'll go check that out.

Those slits you see on the side of the ship are called the jaws, and that is the critical component retrofitted to help the ship collect oil.

So, the oil is going to come through here into these valves and into a series of five tanks, and that's a process of separating the oil from the water.

What you see here is called the jaws. And, essentially, when this ship gets the clearance to go out and start skimming oil, the oil will come into here and then get brought into these valves and get processed where they will begin the process of separating the water from the oil. Right now, the crew of this ship is waiting on final permission from the Unified Command to start skimming oil in the Gulf of Mexico. There's a couple issues that are being looked at right now. First of all, one is a safety issue. A ship this big out on the Gulf of Mexico needs about a half mile radius all the way around to operate safely. So they're trying to figure out if that's possible.

But also some environmental concerns. Part of the way this ship works is if it brings in water and oil, it separates that, and the water gets thrown back out into the Gulf of Mexico and they keep the oil. They're also looking into whether or not that water that is going to be discharged, what are the environmental impact of that, so that's one of the things slowing it down.

But everyone aboard here thinks it's just a matter of time before this vessel is put in to fight the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: So, John and Kiran, the crew told us they're being dispatch under to the Gulf of Mexico last night. They're waiting to see if they can do some tests for the Coast Guard to show them what that ship can do.

Admiral Thad Allen says that he's not quite ready to put this into play, that there's still some more questions that they want to look into, but he says he is hopeful that this will be a valuable tool in the fight to clean up this oil.

ROBERTS: You know, the theory would seem to be a sound one, Ed. And we do know that in Saudi Arabia some years back there was an oil spill and the super tanker was used to clean that up but the technology was a little bit different. I mean, why is this Coast Guard or why, actually, the unified command, why is it skeptical about this ship?

LAVANDERA: Well, I think one of the things that seems to be one of the biggest issues that they're dealing with is that you may have heard me mention there in the piece that essentially this ship needs a half mile radius all the way around it to operate safely and effectively. And Thad Allen says that the ship also needs to get very, very close to the wellhead spot, which, as you've seen, John, is already heavily congested with dozens and dozens of ships and other types of vessels. So that safety issue seems to be one of the biggest concerns and hang ups at this point.

CHETRY: So in the best-case scenario then, theoretically, how much could this contribute in terms of percentage to all the oil that's coming up there? How much could it actually suck up and get out of the water?

LAVANDERA: Well, the official that we were on the ship with yesterday told us that the series of tanks and there's a series of five tanks and everything kind of keeps moving backward back through the ship that we're in, and it's separating the oil from the water. They can hold up to 500,000 gallons or 500,000 barrels of oil a day. They say it's crucial because that ship would never have to come off the water. That essentially there's other vessels that could go up against it and take off what they've pulled out, out of the water so they can just keep working 24 hours a day.

ROBERTS: Having flown out to the area, there's plenty of oil and plenty of open water, so maybe they'll get this thing out there.

LAVANDERA: Right.

ROBERTS: Ed, thanks so much.

LAVANDERA: You bet.

CHETRY: When it comes to jobs, are we in the midst of a summer recovery or a slow down? Our Christine Romans takes a look at just how many jobs are being created because of the economic stimulus and also what the prospects look like. A very rough, rough day in the markets yesterday.

Seventeen minutes past the hour.

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ROBERTS: Still didn't do anything?

CHETRY: You're looking to see if the --

ROBERTS: What's up?

CHETRY: I don't know. Maybe he's still shell shocked after the hot dog eating.

ROBERTS: That could be.

It's 20 minutes after the hour. We're "Minding Your Business" this morning. The Dow, the Nasdaq, the S&P all start trading today at their lowest point all year. The Dow is down nearly half a percent to 9733. That's its lowest close since October 30th of last year, all likely reacting to worse than expected news on manufacturing, housing and the job market.

Overseas things are mixed. Japan's Nikkei finished up 12 points, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost more than one percent. However, in Europe, the main markets are all up right now. London's FTSE adding just over one half of one percent.

CHETRY: Meantime, Christine Romans is here "Minding Your Business" right now. And we're talking a little bit about we're going to get the job numbers out a little bit later in about an hour.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right in about an hour.

CHETRY: Meantime, the White House talking about how much stimulus made a difference in terms of jobs. ROMANS: Here's the interesting two steps. We're going to get a job's report today that could be disappointing and it could show the first decline in net jobs creation all year. We have been expecting that at this point of a recovery, you would see more jobs creation but the views are pretty pessimistic about what we're going to find out about jobs creation in June.

At the same time the White House is out pushing its theory of recovery summer. A couple of weeks ago we reported to you that Vice President Joe Biden has said this is the recovery summer because of the stimulus jobs and the stimulus projects that are under way, more now, certainly than last year. And they say they are on track of their goal of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs.

Today, the president is going to take to the microphone and talk to us about some broadband jobs creation, 5,000 jobs created in broadband. This is getting basically Internet access to parts of the country that don't have it. This is incredibly important he says to the knowledge-based economy and getting people ready for the future, and this will have a longer term effect of creating jobs. But at the same time, we're looking at this grim reality of what happened in June -- in May and then in June, as well.

In May, the private sector added only 41,000 jobs. Only 41,000 jobs in May. You remember that was a bit of a disappointment. The government added 390,000 jobs. There are 15 million unemployed and a record 46 percent of people what are called long-term unemployed. That means they've been out of work for six months or longer.

So you have two things happening here. You have the White House pushing this idea of a recovery summer because of stimulus and we're looking at these numbers and saying, at this point of a recovery, these numbers should be better. What is going on? And we're hearing in all the polls that people are not -- they just aren't feeling it yet that things are getting better.

ROBERTS: Yes. We'll see what that number holds this morning.

ROMANS: And there'll be a lot to dig into in about an hour with that number.

ROBERTS: OK.

ROMANS: And we'll see if we can find the spots that are bright spots in that report.

ROBERTS: Looking forward to it.

CHETRY: It's not the Dow and it's not pending home sales.

ROMANS: Right.

CHETRY: So we'll see what it is.

ROMANS: Right.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine.

CHETRY: Coming up, President Obama calling for an immigration overhaul and finding an unlikely ally in the fight for comprehensive reform.

It's 22 minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: It's 25 minutes past the hour. Your top stories just a few minutes away. First, though, an "A.M. Original," something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.

There have been a lot of headlines this week over the Supreme Court's ruling which effectively ends Chicago's 28-year ban on handguns, and also concerns that it will make violence in the city worse.

ROBERTS: If you haven't walked the streets of its grittiest neighborhoods, it's hard to really understand why this is such a contentious issue there. So for part three of our series "Walk in My Shoes, our T.J. Holmes did just that. He took the dangerous walk to school with two Chicago teens, and he joins us now live with their stories this morning.

This really is an eye-opening look, T.J., into the lives of these young people.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Isn't it something, John, Kiran? I mean, at this age, you should be worried about -- you should be worried about if the girl in your English class likes you or what you're going to wear to school every day, or maybe what tests you have to take later in the day. But that is way down the list of concerns for a lot of these kids. Their number one issue day in, day out is how they're going to get safely to and from school.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: This takes you where?

ERIC NIMELY, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: This takes me to the hill (ph).

HOLMES (voice-over): It's not yet 7:00 a.m. And 17-year-old Eric Nimely is facing his first test of the day. Getting safely to school on Chicago's South Side.

NIMELY: Everybody get on the bus and sometimes coming home they're fighting, you know, stuff like that on the bus. Things like that, so --

HOLMES (on camera): You actually switched routes to school because they got so bad?

NIMELY: Yes.

HOLMES (voice-over): To walk in Eric's shoes is to get a glimpse into a world where getting to school is all about survival.

(on camera): How would you describe the neighborhood for somebody who doesn't, you know, that doesn't know it?

NIMELY: It's rough.

HOLMES: Rough?

NIMELY: Rough, yes.

HOLMES (voice-over): Like 95 percent of the city's public school students, Eric is responsible for getting to school on his own. He says he tries to travel with friends to avoid trouble.

NIMELY: If you don't have any friends, you're going to get -- I'm not saying you're going to get picked on, but it's like a group of guys standing on the corner and you're walking. If nobody know who you are, I mean, like, they're going to say something to you.

CHARLES ANDERSON, ASST. PRINCIPAL, TEAM ENGELWOOD HIGH SCHOOL: We definitely want to try to protect them from violence.

HOLMES: Charles Anderson, assistant principal at Eric's TEAM Engelwood High School, said it's not uncommon for kids to get jumped, robbed or worse, in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago. Forty-nine students were killed during the school year ending June of 2009.

(on camera): So you're almost securing a perimeter around, a few blocks around this school.

ANDERSON: Yes, we are. But you know, it's worth it if we can get a kid to feel comfortable to come to school and then we can help them focus on their education.

HOLMES (voice-over): Principal Peggy Morellis-Byrd says it's hard for her teachers to break through that tough exterior kids have to keep up.

PEGGY MORELLIS-BYRD, PRINCIPAL, TEAM ENGELWOOD HIGH SCHOOL: It's very hard to sort of drop that wall and maybe not be so tough or on guard in school. So we have to break down a lot of that.

HOLMES: But as difficult as mornings can be, students say the afternoon journey home is even worse.

AMBER WARD, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: But even walking the street, you have people hiding in cars, jumping out of cars. That's what the clowns do.

HOLMES: It's 6:00 at night when 16-year-old Amber Ward heads home from Manley High School on Chicago's west side.

WARD: I'd be scared because I ignore people. When they try to talk to me, I just keep walking and that makes people so mad these days, people would do anything. I feel like they're going to pull out a gun and shoot me from the back. So when I keep walking, I always do like this, you know, keep looking back.

HOLMES: For Amber, it's a three and a half block walk to the bus stop where we wait 15 minutes.

WARD: I like sitting in the back so I can see everything ahead of me.

HOLMES: And along with sitting in the back of the bus so she can spot danger better, once off the bus, she tries to keep an eye out for who might be hiding in the dark on the side streets.

(on camera): We just passed a dark alley.

WARD: Yes.

HOLMES: And here we are now coming up on a corner. There's a couple guys just standing there doing who knows what. What do you think when you walk past a group like that and you're walking down the street by yourself, it's dark. There aren't a lot of street lights out here, you know.

WARD: I'm so used to seeing it. I mean, I'm used to guys standing on the corner. See that. That's what I'm talking about. This is crazy.

HOLMES: You're just used to it, huh?

WARD: I'm used to it.

HOLMES (voice-over): Along the way, Amber points out a drug house.

(on camera): What's going on at that house now?

WARD: It's abandoned so a lot of people will just be out there selling drugs, playing dice and doing what they do.

HOLMES: Doing what they do.

(voice-over): And Amber's final rule of the road, walk fast.

WARD: If I was by myself, I guarantee you I would have been at Jackson. I guarantee you.

HOLMES: It's only when Amber catches sight of her house, 45 minutes after she left school, she knows she's back in safe territory.

(on camera): That's a successful day, right? You made it.

WARD: Yes, I made it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And that's a good day for a lot of these kids. So how do you help them get to and from school, feel a little safer? Well, they're trying their best with some of those community programs and again, policing really the area around the schools. And I say policing, we're just talking about community volunteers but also getting word that some stimulus funds are now going to be used. At least $5 million to start these community watchdog programs literally paying people to be around some of the toughest neighborhoods and the toughest high schools to try to cut down on some of that violence.

Guys, it's so telling there. You can't even begin to help the kids improve their grades and can get into college if you don't make them feel safe. Because literally, how can you worry about whether you make an "A," or a "B" or a "C" on a test if your main worry is whether you get to and from school safely. Literally, sometimes a matter of life and death for these kids, guys.

CHETRY: Understandable and just shocking to see it firsthand. T.J., great stuff, thanks so much.

HOLMES: Thanks.

ROBERTS: Really is a tragic situation.

Crossing the half hour now and checking our top stories this Friday morning with NASA counting down to the end of the space shuttle era. You can put a little bit of time back on the clock. A payload delay is pushing back the program's last two flights. Discovery was slated to launch in September, that's now pushed back to November 1st. And the very last shuttle mission by Endeavour will now launch on February 26th.

CHETRY: General David Petraeus taking command in Afghanistan. He'll arrive later today nine days after his predecessor, General Stanley McChrystal, was relieved of his duties. It is a grim welcome, though, for the general. Earlier this morning the Taliban attacked the compound of the USAID agency, killing at least four people.

ROBERTS: One of the suspects in an alleged spy ring admits that he does work for the Russians, saying the agency is even more important to him than his own son and that he's been living a double life. A judge granted his wife, another accused spy, bail and put her on house arrest. More hearings for the defendants are set for today.

CHETRY: Well, she was grilled by senators on Capitol Hill, but Elena Kagan's confirmation as the next Supreme Court justice seems all but assured.

ROBERTS: With Kagan, there will be three women on the court. So, how much does gender really matter? Our Carol Costello was looking into that for us this morning. She's live in Washington with this week's "Gut Check." Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Well, gender wasn't an overt issue at Kagan's confirmation hearings. Kagan's gender certainly prompted a spirited conversation before those hearings began. So we wonder, do women judges rule differently than men and if they do, what does it mean? A gut check this morning. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELENA KAGAN, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE NOMINEE: I do.

COSTELLO (voice-over): If Elena Kagan is confirmed, many women, especially those who lean Left, will be elated. Gloria Allred, a lawyer known for representing high-profile women who've been victims of domestic abuse or discrimination is one of them.

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY: Where there are more women and not just a token woman or maybe even two, I do think that that is going to be important in terms of the court's ultimate perspective on issues.

COSTELLO: But is that true?

The answer is not so simple. One study found no significant difference in the way female and male judges decided cases, except one - sex discrimination. In those cases, female judges were 10 percent more likely to rule in favor of the victim.

Judge Emily Goodman is a New York State Supreme Court Justice. She says women do look at issues a certain way, but -

JUDGE EMILY JANE GOODMAN, NEW YORK SUPREME COURT: Whether that will dictate the outcome is a whole different story, because you have to put your understanding, your experiences into the framework of the law.

COSTELLO: Take for example U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Remember the Lilly Ledbetter case? Ledbetter accused her employer of pay discrimination. The majority of the court ruled against her, not because it didn't happen, but because the discrimination had occurred years earlier.

Justice Ginsburg, the only woman on the Supreme Court at the time, disagreed with the majority.

RUTH BADER GINSBURG, FORMER U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: The court does not comprehend or is indifferent to the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination.

COSTELLO: But what about abortion? In 2007, the court upheld a law that banned a type of late-term abortion. Again, the lone woman on the court at the time, Justice Ginsburg, spoke out, calling the ruling alarming. Keep in mind, though, three male justices sided with Ginsburg.

So does gender necessarily color every decision?

MARCIA GREENBERGER, NATIONAL WOMEN'S LAW CTR.: What's so good about having both men and women as part of that decision is they, they can bring their experiences to bear to figure out what the law really was intended to mean and how it applies in practices and to enrich your decision-making process for having both men and women on the court.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor famously said "a wise old woman and a wise old man will reach the same conclusion" and studies have shown, she's right, at least 90 percent of the time. What do you think? You can write to me on my blog to weigh in. CNN.com/amFIX. John, Kiran.

ROBERTS: Well, if we learn anything during this confirmation hearings, she is certainly going to add a totally new dynamic to the Supreme Court.

COSTELLO: She has a good sense of humor, doesn't she?

ROBERTS: She certainly does. Carol Costello, thanks. We look forward to seeing what people had to say on that this morning.

COSTELLO: Sure.

ROBERTS: Well, President Obama yesterday a big speech on immigration reform and he's getting some support from what you might think is an unlikely sector of society. 35 minutes after the hour.

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ROBERTS: We're back with the most news in the morning at 38 minutes after the hour.

President Obama renewing his push for an overhaul of immigration. The speech yesterday saying we need comprehensive reform including a way for millions of people now here illegally to become legal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They must be required to admit they broke the law. They should be required to register, pay their taxes, pay a fine and learn English. They must get right with the law before they can get in line and earn their citizenship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: And the president has some, what you might consider, unlikely allies in the immigration reform fight. That includes our next guest, Richard Land is with the Southern Baptist Convention and he joins us now from Nashville. Dr. Land, good to talk to you this morning, thanks so much.

We should point out that you attended the president's speech yesterday and you call it "bold and important." Give us your thinking on that.

DR. RICHARD LAND, PRESIDENT, SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION: Well, there are some things that just require presidential leadership and immigration reform is one of them. It's just not going to happen without presidential leadership and the president campaigned on this issue and we have reached a critical moment because the Arizona law is a symptom. It's a cry for help from a state that has been underserved by a federal government that, for the last two decades, has not done its job. And it's rending the social fabric of the nation.

I see it everywhere I go. And you know, it's rending the social fabric of the nation in ways that are easier to rend than they are to mend. And so, the government needs to get this right. We need to take the courage necessary and overcome partisan differences and pass comprehensive immigration reform that starts with securing the border and then a fair pathway to earn legal status and citizenship for those who are currently here illegally.

ROBERTS: Let me ask you about that point, Dr. Land, because that really has been the big point of controversy with previous attempts in immigration reform. The previous legislation really heard John McCain, as we saw, in 2007, people call it amnesty. They remember 1986 with President Reagan. What, to you, is an accepted path to some sort of status in this country?

LAND: Well, first and predicated upon securing the border first. That's got to come first. But would say then after the border has been secured and we've met the metrics that are laid down for that, then a six to nine-month period where people can come forward, can register and agree to undergo a background check, pay fines, pay back taxes and learn to read, write and speak English and take a test in English that they've done so and then to go to the back of the line, behind those who have tried to come here legally and are trying to come here legally so that they don't get rewarded for having come here illegally. In fact, they're penalized and they pay, they pay a price for having come here illegally.

ROBERTS: But that sounds exactly like what President Bush was proposing and we saw what happened with that.

LAND: Well, the problem was that they were trying to do this simultaneously, border security and comprehensive reform at the same time. And, clearly, the American people do not have enough trust in their own government that their government will secure the border until they secure it. So, I'm arguing for legislation to be passed at one time.

But it would have two parts. Border security first and once those metrics have been met, then you kick in the second part, which is the six to nine-month grace period.

ROBERTS: Right. Another big point of contention here, the immigration debate is this idea of employment and cracking down on employers who bring in undocumented immigrants. We talk with Mayor Bloomberg the other day and he said that undocumented workers are, in some ways, I don't want to say the backbone of our economy, but they're very important to our economy and that the economy would collapse without them.

But then the flip side of that argument is that there are so many people complaining that undocumented immigrants are taking away American jobs. So, how do you reconcile those two differing opinions? LAND: Well, I'd say the way to do that is to, first of all, we're going to have to crack down on employers, much more stringent fines and punishment for employers who employ undocumented workers. Secondly, I would argue for a biometric tamperproof social security card so that you couldn't get a job unless you had the social security card that was tamperproof and biometrics so that the employers would have no excuse.

Now, I've seen studies that show that having all these undocumented workers here lowers the wage scale by about 10 percent at the lower levels. Now, if we had a plan and a program where everybody was documented, then wages would rise for everyone by about 10 percent. Now, we could then test the theory about whether or not these American jobs and an employer could advertise a job for a month at a certain salary and if nobody takes it, then you can go to the government and say can I have a guest worker come in and do this job because I have advertised this job for a month and nobody would take it.

ROBERTS: And that sounds very much like what President Bush was talking about some years ago, too. On this issue of whether or not there is the will in Congress to get this done. After the president's speech yesterday, which again we want to point out you attended. Lindsay Graham spokesman says that there is no appetite on either side for the issue right now and you said this the other day. You said, "We need to call upon our congressmen and senators to behave like statesmen. Politicians think about the next election, statesmen think about the next generation." Are there enough people in Congress thinking like statesmen and women right now?

LAND: Well, no, they're not and the president stepped up to the plate. It is now time for those who think about the next generation to step up to the plate because while they're fiddling around until the next election, we're causing harm to the body politic and we're causing some real riffs in our social fabrics and just look at what is happening in Arizona -

ROBERTS: Sure.

LAND: And the response to Arizona. I don't blame Arizona for passing the law they pass. I think it's a mistake, but I don't blame them because they're in a terrible situation that it's not their fault. It's the federal government's fault for not securing the border for the last 24 years.

ROBERTS: And it's not just Arizona, it's even little towns like Fremont, Nebraska taking things in their own hand.

LAND: That's right.

ROBERTS: Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much for stopping by.

LAND: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Appreciate it. CHETRY: Very interesting debate that, of course, we'll continue and see if anything gets done, though.

ROBERTS: We'll hear a lot about this, particularly in this election year.

CHETRY: Yes. Sure will.

Well, still ahead, there's been a lot of people and companies coming forward saying, listen, I may have a solution to helping out with the oil spill. One Florida company says they've developed oil- eating bugs.

So can they help clean up the spill? We'll take a look.

ROBERTS: Yes. These bugs are bacteria, by the way. It's not like a cockroach that eats oil.

And heavy downpours down south, a lot of holiday heat coming our way in the northeast. Bonnie Schneider has got your Fourth of July forecast with a very patriotic-looking weather map this morning.

It's 45 minutes after the hour.

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CHETRY: I don't know. Sometimes you got to believe your own eyes over what it says. It says it's 75 and sunny. Does that look sunny to you?

ROBERTS: No. It looks like it just rained.

CHETRY: Yes, it looks - but you know how Florida is. It'll be beautiful in an hour and then we'll have rain again. Thunderstorms, by the way, in the forecast, 86 degrees for a high in Tampa.

ROBERTS: Love that Bob Marley music.

CHETRY: Yes. It's nice.

ROBERTS: It just makes it feel like a holiday, doesn't it?

Forty-nine minutes after the hour. It's going to be a hot holiday in some parts of the country. Bonnie Schneider here with a look at our weather forecast this morning. Hey, Bonnie.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John and Kiran.

Well, Tampa will be stormy and so will Houston. It's all the remnants of Alex out there kind of enhancing the moisture through any areas along the Gulf Coast, particularly in Houston and Galveston. That's where the rain has been steady throughout the morning, and I'm not anticipating it to let up at all.

Some spotty showers in the southern parishes of Louisiana through the panhandle, and there's Tampa. It did just rain there and look for more rain, once again. We not only have Alex out there, but we also have a stationary front just to the north and that's helping to enhance the moisture for Florida for today.

The flash flood advisories extend all the way into Texas, and they will persist through the afternoon hours, again, due to Alex. We already have over nine inches of rain on the ground in many locations. So, add that with another one to three inches. We'll see more rain. Just taking another look at Florida and you can see some of the heavier rain working its way there, some spotty thunderstorms even popping up in South Florida.

Here's a look at expected delays today, and they are lengthy. In Atlanta, we could see some early storms. We're also looking out for delays in areas of the south, including Houston and Dallas. That has to do of course with Alex, and some delays towards the West Coast as well.

So heavy rain along the Gulf Coast, hot conditions through the Desert Southwest, but the heat will be building not for today but for the Fourth of July and that holds true for the Northeast and the mid- Atlantic states. We are talking about a scorcher for temperatures. This is your D.C. forecast, 97 degrees on Independence Day. It will feel like 100 with the heat index, though.

Back to you.

ROBERTS: Look at that. Monday and Tuesday, oh, my goodness, 98 degrees.

CHETRY: You know, get in the AC or jump in the pool.

ROBERTS: I tell you, yes. There are going to be some heat advisories over those days, too. Thanks, Bonnie.

This morning's top stories just minutes away now, including the general reporting for duty. Day one in Afghanistan for General David Petraeus. It's already a bloody one there as well.

We're going to look at the challenges and the costs ahead.

CHETRY: Also, Obama versus Clinton again, Bill Clinton this time? Well, the race in Colorado dividing the two Democratic presidents, one current, one former.

Could it get ugly? What does it mean in November? Candy Crowley here to break it down.

ROBERTS: And he's bigger than sports. He's a major part of an entire city's economy. Now, King James is on the market. Could Jay-Z bring LeBron to Brooklyn? We'll ask our sports guy, Max Kellerman.

Those stories and more, coming your way, beginning at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Fifty-four minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. An "A.M. Original" now. We've heard a lot about solutions for cleaning up the gulf oil spill. But what about eating away the oil?

CHETRY: You have heard this one, too. Our John Zarrella takes a look at some microscopic bacteria, big enough appetites, but big enough to actually clean up the spill? Take a look.

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JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): John, Kiran, we haven't heard much about them to date, but as more beaches become soiled, we're all likely to start hearing a lot more about bugs that literally eat oil.

(voice-over): This is the Gulf of Mexico. Did you know there are bugs out there? Yes, billions of them, and a lot of them like - no, love, eating oil.

JOE LEPO, UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA MICROBIOLOGIST: They're ubiquitous in - in the ocean and on the sand. They're everywhere.

ZARRELLA: Microbiologist Joe Lepo is an expert when it comes to these naturally-occurring microscopic oil-eating bacteria.

LEPO: That's a (INAUDIBLE) four or five.

ZARRELLA: These days, for good reasons, Lepo was bombarded with questions about the bugs. But here's the twist. It's not so much the bugs in nature everyone is clamoring over, but oil munchers grown in laboratories.

Companies like Osprey Biotechnics in Sarasota, Florida believe their bugs applied to the oil along the shoreline and maybe in the water in concentrated amounts would accelerate the cleanup.

VICTORIA FINLEY, OSPREY BIOTECHNICS: It will degrade residue, absolutely. What cannot be removed manually or mechanically can be bioremediated with the Munox formulation.

ZARRELLA: Florida's governor, Charlie Crist, so interested, he visited the Sarasota lab.

GOV. CHARLIE CRIST (R), FLORIDA: I'm very impressed by what I've seen.

ZARRELLA: From what he's read, Jeff Sokol, a Louisiana man, is so convinced they are the answer, he set up a website, expounding the virtues of oil-eating bacteria.

JEFF SOKOL, GULF COAST RESIDENT: Because I care. I - I became a proponent of bioremediation because I saw that this technique has worked in the past.

ZARRELLA: Bugs naturally occurring in Prince William Sound did work after Exxon Valdez when fertilized with nitrogen and phosphorous, they got busy cleaning up oil that couldn't be removed by hand or machines.

LEPO: Give them what they're missing and they suddenly go crazy. They - they grow exponentially.

ZARRELLA: But what about the ones grown in the labs?

FINLEY: Nature uses microbes to degrade petroleum. I think BP should, too.

ZARRELLA: Why isn't BP introducing them to give those in nature a little help?

(on camera): After days of asking questions, the Unified Command finally got back to us saying microbes had not been, quote, "required to meet operational needs". What that means they wouldn't say.

The use of microbes hasn't been ruled in or out but remains, they said, a potential tool if the situation dictates.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Some scientists say lab microbes might work polishing off remnant shoreline oil. But in open water would simply get washed or blown off.

LEPO: We tested about 20 of these for EPA and essentially all of them claimed that to have efficacy on open water, we couldn't get any of them to work.

ZARRELLA: Experts says stimulating the naturally-occurring microbes might be the best bet. Give them a little fertilizer and they'll treat the oil like an all you can eat buffet.

(on camera): This beach has been cleaned up, but as you can see, there are stains and tar balls everywhere. This is the kind of spot experts say where the bugs might work the best, John, Kiran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Looking for the early bird special there along the Gulf Coast.

CHETRY: And, I mean, they're willing to try anything at this point. I mean, they're taking a look at all options.

ROBERTS: Yes. As long as it's environmentally sound, why not?

CHETRY: Right.

ROBERTS: Throw everything at it and see what sticks.

CHETRY: Well, one of those things is this huge a-wheel (ph) skimmer that just made its way. We're going to be talking more about that and other top stories coming up after the break.

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