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American Morning

Shirley Sherrod on New Job Offer: "Not Sure"; Black Eye for BP; Answering The Call; The Sultan Of Swap; Fleeing Arizona; Moving In, Building Up

Aired July 22, 2010 - 07:59   ET

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


KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It's 8:00 here in New York on this Thursday, July 2nd - 22nd actually. I was rewinding the summer.

I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Wouldn't it be great if you could rewind the summer? I'd love to do that. I wanted to do that ever since I was eight.

A lot to talk about this morning. Let's get right to it.

An apology now and a new job offer for the woman whose comments about race were taken way out of context. The White House even acknowledging that the Shirley Sherrod situation was bungled.

You'll hear Sherrod's reaction to all of this, including her thoughts on getting a little payback in what she thinks President Obama can learn from her.

CHETRY: Attempts to permanently plug BP's ruptured oil well delayed right now due to the weather. A tropical cyclone could be headed for the Gulf of Mexico. That threatens to set back operations by up to two weeks.

ROBERTS: And meet the bird bartender. She's nursing the most helpless victims of the oil spill in the Gulf back to health. Our own Rob Marciano introduces us to her and gets a little hands-on training with a hungry pelican.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to grab her neck and push all the way down.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's not hurting her at all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, she is not fighting at all.

MARCIANO: Is that good? Good enough?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's it.

MARCIANO: Oh, wow. That was incredible. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. Go to our blog, CNN.com/amFIX.

ROBERTS: But, first, they wanted her out. Now, they want her back. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack offering a profound apology to Shirley Sherrod, saying she's been put through hell and giving her a new job offer.

CHETRY: Remember, three days ago, she was forced out and forced to defend herself against charges of racism.

Well, here on AMERICAN MORNING, Sherrod told us that she's not so sure she wants go back to the Ag Department but that she is looking for a little payback.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY SHERROD, FMR. USDA OFFICIAL: I'm not so sure going back to the department is the thing to do. I know that I have lots of farmers and others in Georgia, I have been getting messages saying, "Shirley, please come back to work with rural development in Georgia." But that's not what the offer is.

CHETRY: Would you consider a defamation suit against Andrew Breitbart?

SHERROD: I really think I should, you know? I don't know a lot about the legal profession. But that's one person I would like to get back at.

ROBERTS: Really?

SHERROD: He came at me. You know, he didn't go after the NAACP. He came at me.

ROBERTS: What about President Obama? You supported him. You're a political appointee. And then this happened.

SHERROD: I really regret what they did. But as I have said before, he's my president. I support him fully. I'd like to help him to see some of the things that he should do in the future, you know, that could be more helpful than what's happening right now to advance the issues of togetherness in this country. He hasn't lived the kind of life I've lived.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Our Suzanne Malveaux is live for us at the White House this morning.

Suzanne, the White House learning a lot from this particular episode, you know, in terms of reacting to things that get out there on the Internet. And now, Shirley Sherrod is saying, well, maybe the president could learn something else from me about what life is really like where the rubber meets the road.

What's the White House saying about all of that this morning?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, sure. I mean, the White House aides initially told me -- they said, look, don't expect the president to come out to the briefing room to make some sort of dramatic statement regarding this controversy. Don't expect him to pick up the phone and call Mrs. Sherrod.

I've reached out to White House officials this morning to see if that's changed. They say so far no update. But we'll see. You know, obviously, she has made her wishes known. She thinks it would be helpful to actually talk to the president. So, we'll see if he -- if he decides that he's going to become more engaged.

But one of the things White House officials have been very clear from the very start here, John, is to -- is to insulate the president a little bit in this controversy. One official say, look, you know, we don't want this to turn into another beer summit here at the White House. Clearly, from the beginning, White House aides have told us he was not the -- the president was not -- the White House was not involved initially in this decision to force her to resign. In fact, they made the point early on to say that the president fully backed Secretary Vilsack's decision. All of that changed, they said, when the president was briefed about this fuller tape that was released by the NAACP.

Since then, they realized that there has been a lot of damage done and they are in part taking some responsibility for it.

Here's Robert Gibbs from yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think without a doubt, Ms. Sherrod is owed an apology. I would do so certainly on behalf of this administration. I think if we learned -- if we look back and decide what we want to learn out of this, I think it is, as I said, everybody involved made determinations without knowing all of the facts and all of the events.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And, John and Kiran, I talked to one White House official this morning who said they believe that Vilsack did the honorable thing, that he was obviously sincere about this, and that -- there was obviously an injustice that was done. They are hoping to put this behind them. They believe that the secretary, in offering this job, this new job, has done the right thing. That the White House was on the right side, eventually, of all of this when they pushed USDA, the Agriculture Department and Secretary Vilsack, to reopen this and to give this woman another chance here.

But clearly, a lot of people -- there's still some unanswered questions about the White House involvement and how much level of detail they want to give about that. We will see as the morning unfolds, whether or not this president will become more engaged and more involved in actually speaking with Mrs. Sherrod.

ROBERTS: You know, what's interesting, too, about all of this, Suzanne, is that the White House says that the president's right in backing -- further look at this. But they also dug in their heels on Tuesday even when this new information came to life.

MALVEAUX: It took a long time. When you think about it, the NAACP was getting that full complete tape around 11:00 in the morning or so. They had a lot of problems disseminating that tape. But we understand that the head of the NAACP, Ben Jealous, was on the phone with Secretary Vilsack around 4:00 in the afternoon, telling him essentially what they had found on this tape and that he needed to re- examine this.

It was much later that you had the president and others who looked at that -- who looked at the briefing rather of that tape and realized, OK, we need to reopen that, and they were pushing -- they were pushing Secretary Vilsack to go ahead and do this. It was not until 2:00 in the morning that we got that statement, they put out that statement and saying, yes, they were willing to do that. It did take some time for them to come around here. Clearly, they realized they have some explaining to do, some apologizing to do, and some real soul-searching to do on how they handled the situation.

ROBERTS: You wonder if maybe one little conversation with Shirley Sherrod could have saved them a lot of trouble.

Suzanne Malveaux at the White House this morning -- Suzanne, thanks.

CHETRY: We also make sure that the last thing that the White House wanted to focus on the day that the president was signing the financial regulation overhaul was this.

ROBERTS: It blown everything off -- they didn't want to lose the first new cycle on Monday and instead they've lost four.

Also new this morning, nearly half of Americans are predicting President Obama will be a one-term president. According to a Quinnipiac University survey: 48 percent of people say that the president does not deserve to be re-elected in 2012; 40 percent say he does.

CHETRY: The feds versus Arizona. A judge in Phoenix today will hear arguments in two cases challenging Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants. One challenge was filed by the Obama administration which claims that the state's new law is unconstitutional. Arizona meantime says the law should go into effect next week as scheduled, pending the outcome of the legal cases.

And a debate over Arizona's immigration law moves from the streets to the courts and tonight, a special primetime edition of "RICK'S LIST," "Showdown in the Desert." That's tonight, 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN. ROBERTS: Remember that picture of the shark coming out of the water to get the guy that was coming down on the ladder from the Coast Guard helicopter? Whoa, it's incredible. Well, take a look at this picture.

CHETRY: That one was photo shopped.

ROBERTS: Well, hang on. Don't spoil it. Take a look at this one. Oh, we didn't see --

CHETRY: Oh, yes, definitely photo shopped.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: We missed the money picture. Let's go back to the money picture here. Come on. Let's see the money --

CHETRY: Photo shopped.

ROBERTS: We are not going to see it.

All right. Well --

CHETRY: That can't be a boat.

ROBERTS: No. Well, what you're seeing there is the aftermath of a whale that crashed down on a boat in South Africa. This thing -- the boat was just kind of floating around in the area where a whale had been playing around. Suddenly, the whale came up out of the water.

Why don't we have the picture? We've gone to this three times and we've missed the money shot. We're trying to get it apparently.

So, why don't we live this and we'll get you the picture because you really lose the effect here.

Meantime -- maybe we should go somewhere else.

CHETRY: All right. Fine.

No harassing whales, that was the -- that was the end of the tale there. We'll bring it to you in a minute. Meantime, we do have this video.

The signs at Yellowstone National Park warn to keep your distance from wildlife. This couple didn't listen and here's what happened -- a bison charges. She and a friend spotted a bison. They got too close, the bison didn't like that, so he charged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back, back, back! Back!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back away! Back away!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back!

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: I love how the bison gives you a courtesy like bucking dance before he charges you. That means get the heck out and get in your car. Well, the bison rammed the woman in her thigh. Luckily, she got away with only a few bruises after the woman's husband ran her to safety. And this is the second time this summer that a bison has charged and injured a visitor.

ROBERTS: Just one more time -- do we have the whale picture? Not yet.

OK. So, let's go to Reynolds Wolf who's in the weather center in Atlanta. And we're looking at some dangerous weather across the country and also some stuff brewing -- bad stuff brewing in the Caribbean.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. You know, the biggest thing we are watching now is the monster, you know, whale of what may be a whale of a storm in parts of the Caribbean. We're keeping a very sharp eye on it.

One thing that's very interesting, John, with this particular system is that it does appear that it is beginning to gather strength. In fact, during just the last update, the National Hurricane Center has actually upgraded this to about a 70 percent chance of becoming something bigger, developing to something else.

But the question is: where is this thing going to go? Well, if you take act look at the computer models, the computer models indicate that it will be moving a bit more to the north and to -- rather to the west and then northwest moving into the Gulf of Mexico. But at the same time, all of these models show this storm falling apart as it gets into the Gulf of Mexico. That being said, a lot of changes will take place, I guarantee you, over the next 12 to 24 to 48 to 72 hours. That's always the case with these tropical systems.

At a minimum, what you can expect in some of the oil areas is that you can anticipate heavier wave action, possibly some strong thunderstorms, and, of course, there is that chance we may see something more.

Let's talk about something we're definitely going to be seeing today and that could be some rough weather in parts of, say, the Central Plains and back across parts of the Midwest and into the Ohio Valley.

Strong storms are a possibility for our friends tuning in from Kentucky, I know you had heavy rainfall yesterday. The last thing you need is more. Unfortunately, that is on the docket today. You could see more rainfall, possibly flooding in a few spots.

Northeast, it looks like you're going to get a break. But Chicago and back over to parts of the Central Plains could have strong storms, especially by late afternoon.

That is the very latest on your forecast. Let's kick it back to you in New York.

CHETRY: Reynolds, thanks.

WOLF: You bet, guys.

ROBERTS: We're still looking for the whale. We're trying -- how do you lose a whale?

WOLF: Hard to do.

CHETRY: Oh, we have it!

ROBERTS: There you go.

WOLF: My goodness gracious.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: Remember the picture of the shark jumping up and trying to grab the guy in the bottom of the helicopter ladder.

WOLF: Wow.

ROBERTS: That one wasn't real. This one is. We saw this yesterday. We thought, wow, someone photo shopped the whale jumping on the boat.

CHETRY: I know.

WOLF: It will ruin your day.

ROBERTS: Yes, it actually got there.

CHETRY: Well, it did ruin their day actually. It broke the mast. And, now, apparently, this is a huge white whale. What do you say, 400 tons this whale?

ROBERTS: No, 40 tons.

CHETRY: Forty tons?

ROBERTS: A 400-ton white whale would be a big -- size of a battle ship.

CHETRY: Forty-ton whale -- they said he snapped the mast in half and if he would have actually landed on them, they would have been crushed. But, now, apparently, they're looking into whether or not they were harassing the whale, sailing too close and sort of agitating him.

ROBERTS: And the amazing photograph was taken by somebody who was in a little whale spotting boat behind it, tourist boat.

CHETRY: Well, they spotted it.

ROBERTS: Boy, they got some good pictures.

WOLF: I wonder if insurance covers that, you know, whales bumping into boats. I'm not so sure if they have that.

ROBERTS: I know, we'll have to check it out. But, apparently, it could have been much worse. It came down on the mast as opposed to right down on the deck. So, lucky for those folks.

Thanks, Reynolds. So, see you again soon.

WOLF: You bet, guys.

ROBERTS: At 12 1/2 minutes after the hour, Rob Marciano has got a special running this weekend at 8:00 on Saturday and Sunday, "Rescuing the Gulf." Part of that is nursing some pelicans back to health. Rob takes an up-close and personal look at how they do it coming right up.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up at 16 minutes after the hour now, and another embarrassing black eye for BP this morning. The oil giant apologizing for posting a picture of its crisis command center on its web site that was unlike the picture of the whale, photo shopped to make it look like it was a little busier than it actually was. See for yourself. The doctored image there is on - oh no this is the full screen of the doctored image, OK. It shows ten giant video screens, each with underwater scenes being monitored closely by command center staffers.

CHETRY: That's right. Now look at the pictures side by side with the original. Some of the screens on the original are blank. So they were filled with underwater images. Amazing what a little cutting and pasting can do. Critics say it is an example of BP playing loose with the facts. The (inaudible) oil giant admits the deception but says it is the photographer's fault.

ROBERTS: No enhancements necessary when it comes to the sheer scope of the environmental tragedy, it is now unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.

CHETRY: It is an unprecedented disaster. And when it comes to dealing with all of the damage it requires an unprecedented response. And Rob Marciano is in Gulf Shores, Alabama, this morning with the story of one woman who was answering that call. Hey, Rob.

All right. We don't have Rob live.

ROBERTS: Do want to say hey one more time, maybe he'll --

CHETRY: I don't think he's there. I just heard some crickets chirping - let's just take a look at Rob's piece, for the love of god, thanks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): On my visit I met Lynn Englebert (ph). She has become kind of a bird bartender. Mixing up bird food slurries to nurse her patients back to health.

(on camera): This is packed with calories and other sorts of vitamins and nutrient.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All sorts of good stuff for birds.

MARCIANO: What about people? What if I were to drink --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know if you are willing, I will get you a glass if you would like to try some.

MARCIANO: I will pass on that.

(voice-over): Actually, I couldn't resist.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go.

MARCIANO (on camera): All right, OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go.

MARCIANO: It is delicious.

(voice-over): It was time to put our drink to a better use. Feeding a young pelican.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are going to pull the upper bill.

MARCIANO: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like that OK, the lower bill stretches and that is their pallet OK.

MARCIANO: Oh, my goodness. Look at that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see the glandis in there, that's their airway. You cannot get any fluids in there.

MARCIANO: Am I doing OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes you are going to want to go further. You got to get your hand in there.

MARCIANO: OK. My goodness. That feels weird. How about that? Is that far enough?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

MARCIANO: And I just squeeze it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes you are good. Real slow.

MARCIANO: All right, guy. You are getting your stuff. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK so you want to pull it out. Grab that together. Grab her neck and push all the way down.

MARCIANO: That's not hurting her at all?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no. She's not fighting you at all.

MARCIANO: Is that good? Oh wow. Enough?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's it.

MARCIANO: Wow. That was incredible. I just fed it like -- like a sick baby. I can't believe you get to do that every day. That's just an incredible -- I'm shaking. That's an incredible feeling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Quite an experience. My heart was pounding. And it was absolutely nerve-racking, having my hands down the throat of that pelican. Those people do it every day. And just to spend a little bit of time with them, it was certainly inspiring. And they are just part of many, over 40,000 people now trying to save this Gulf of Mexico. And the special that airs later this weekend highlights some of those efforts and it is -- it has been eye opening and inspiring experience for me. John, Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes, they are working -- they are working so hard and it is not easy especially when - you know every single bird they don't know whether or not it will actually end up living normally in the end. For those pelicans, when do they start being able to feed themselves and sort of do what they are meant to do? Sorry. Looks like we lost Rob again. He has a break right now.

ROBERTS: I think he figured he said enough about the pelican. How many people in this world say they stuck their hands down the throat of a pelican?

CHETRY: I know.

ROBERTS: I wouldn't expect many.

CHETRY: Nope, but Rob has done it and he's sort of focusing on all the people that are doing it every day trying to help them. So be sure to watch Rob's special it is called "Rescue, Saving The Gulf," and he takes you inside the largest, most ambitious clean up job ever. And that's sure to last for years, fortunately, Saturday and Sunday night, 8:00 eastern only on CNN.

ROBERTS: So we have been talking about the Shirley Sherrod situation all morning. And you know the result of the video being posted on the internet which almost instantaneously destroyed her life. She is certainly not the only one. Is the internet destroying our culture and our values? We have got the author of a book who says to some degree it is. But unfortunately nothing much we can do about it at this point. He is coming up later on this hour. Andrew Keane will be joining us. Right now it is 21 and half minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: A California teen takes an old cell phone, little bit of patience, lot of savvy and ends up with a Porsche. How did he do it? Well we are talking about barter pages on craigslist. He traded that cell phone for a better one, from there he traded it for an iPod touch. From there, made a few more trades. Got a dirt bike. Upgraded again. With some more swaps to a Macbook Pro. Swap that for an '87 Toyota 4 runner. The Toyota then was swapped for a '75 Ford Bronco and considered by many to be a collector's item. Then he swapped that into a 2000 Porsche boxer convertible. Took two years for Stephen Ortiz to pull that one off. And he joins us live this morning from our L.A. bureau to talk about it. Thanks for getting up early to talk us to.

STEVE ORTIZ, MADE 14 TRADES IN TOTAL, USING CRAIGSLIST BARTER: Yes no problem.

CHETRY: So you had a lot ingenuity to get from your phone to the Porsche. Tell us how you even began this bartering and -- you originally got the phone from a friend. Right? It was fairly new. And you figured you could make more money bartering it than selling it on craigslist. So how did you go about even starting this?

ORTIZ: Basically my friend gave me a free phone and he said do what you want with it. It wasn't worth nothing. So the value wise, selling wise, but maybe to someone else it was worth something else you know. And I started off with that. And I put it on craigslist on the barter section. And from there I traded to another phone. From that phone I went to an iPod. From iPod to two motorcycle, from motorcycle to a Macbook Pro.

CHETRY: And is it a matter - Steve, is it a matter of catching, you know, people who want what you have at the right time? I mean, how does this bartering work? How do you go back and forth with people that in many cases you have never seen before and some cases you talk to on the phone or by internet?

ORTIZ: Yes. It is -- trying to catch people that want what you have basically. You know.

CHETRY: So some people would say OK, how did you go from a Macbook Pro to a 4runner?

ORTIZ: Basically the man that need the laptop, he had a band and he had an extra car laying around and he needed the Macbook for the software to record his studio, for his band.

CHETRY: Got you. So then -- a lot of people marvel at that time whole Porsche. Although you say that the Bronco was actually probably worth more because it was one of the original Bronco years, right, 1975.

ORTIZ: Yes.

CHETRY: And that it was actually worth more than the race car, than the sports car in tend. How did that whole trade go down?

ORTIZ: Basically - you know I just went for it. I knew the bronco was worth more in the end but -- it is always nice to just to say I had a Porsche. So I said why not.

CHETRY: You roll up in school with your Porsche, 2000 Porsche. What did your friends say?

ORTIZ: At first they did not believe me that - they thought, oh, your dad bought a new car. Nice you drive it to school, you know. Lucky you. So, yes.

CHETRY: And what did your parents say when you brought that thing into the driveway?

ORTIZ: My dad and mom love it. They don't mind it, you know. They say you know, hard work pays off. And that's exactly what it is.

CHETRY: And you do say that this is hard work, this swapping. It requires a huge time commitment and a lot of patience. What you know - just walk us through how you would go about doing this, if you are someone at home saying I can get involved in doing this swapping.

ORTIZ: First off, it does take a lot of time. A lot of patience. And a lot of talking. You have to know what you are doing, you got to be researching the item, you got to know what you are buying. You know what you are trading for. And value wise, you have to know what - you know what value wise -- what your item compares to.

CHETRY: Right. Have you been tricked? Have you ever gotten tricked or somebody sold you something that turned out or traded you something that turned out to be worthless or junky?

ORTIZ: Yes. I have. And you know that's why you really have to do your work. You know, you have to the really know what you are buying. You have to really inspect it and make sure it is all working properly.

CHETRY: And as I understand it, now you are looking to trade that Porsche. So if anyone is listening, you think the maintenance is a little bit too much with the upkeep.

ORTIZ: Yes. It is -- it is not that it is too much. Right now I have no job. I'm 17. And I really don't like to ask my parents, you know, can I get an oil change? So, yes. That's the thing right now.

CHETRY: So what are you going to trade it for? What are you looking for? ORTIZ: Just mid-sized nice truck right now. Possibly -- possibilities. But that's you know -- see what comes along.

CHETRY: All right well if your history is any indication you will get something good. Keep us informed about what you get for that Porsche. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

ORTIZ: Yes thank you.

CHETRY: A lot of ingenuity. I'm sure you will get a job soon. Steve Ortiz, thanks for being with us.

ORTIZ: Yes, thank you.

CHETRY: Good luck.

ROBERTS: Inventive young fellow.

Shirley Sherrod, she receives an apology, a job offer, as well as hate mail. Now she's looking for a pound of flesh. We will tell you who she is looking to get it from, 28 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Checking your top stories this Thursday morning. For the second time just this week dangerous floods hitting eastern Kentucky. Local officials say well over 200 homes have been washed off of their foundations.

One firefighter tells us people had to be evacuated from the fast moving waters. Many of them were trapped, some even escaping to their rooftops. Nearly a foot of rain has fallen in the past 48 hours.

CHETRY: And stormy weather could be headed for the Gulf of Mexico. The threat after tropical cyclone has now delayed work on BP's relief well until it passes. If the weather does cooperate, BP could try to plug the well permanently with a static kill procedure in the next 48 hours.

ROBERTS: The White House now trying to make good with former Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod. She was forced out of her post when a portion of her comments about race were posted online, comments that were taken way out of context, comments that were really about the dangers of prejudging.

Now her old boss says he wants her back and is offering a profound apology.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM VILSACK, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: This is a good woman. She has been put through hell. And I could have done and should have done a better job. I want to learn from that experience. I want the agency and department to learn from that experience. And I want us to be stronger for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Right here on "American Morning," Sherrod told us she's not sure she wants to go back to the Department of Agriculture.

ROBERTS: She also told us about the very ugly responses that she has been getting to the clip that completely twisted her words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: It is not exactly surprising given the tone in America but it is very, very troubling. Your father was murdered by a white man more than 40 years ago. You endured cross burning on your property. You saw that no one was indicted in this, the photograph of him. No one was indicted for his murder.

Now that you have come out and you were so egregiously wronged in all of this, you are getting hate mail.

SHIRLEY SHERROD, FORMER AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR: Yes.

ROBERTS: Nasty phone calls.

SHERROD: Yes.

ROBERTS: Tell us about that.

SHERROD: That's exactly right. You have been called many, many names with some of the e-mail that came through early on. In fact, on my government issued blackberry -- I turned that in, of course, on Monday, kind of glad because on my drive to -- from West Point, Georgia, on Monday, when I was getting those calls, I was also getting hate mail on my e-mail. It just kept beeping the entire trip.

CHETRY: You were getting hate mail because of the spliced version posted on biggovernment.co, Andrew Breibart's web site. People are wondering how you feel about him and the site, given that's what started the entire thing.

SHERROD: You know, it is hard to take a person like him. It is hard for me to understand a person like him, and it is hard for me to understand, what is his purpose? What is he trying to do, really? Who is -- you know, I know he could easily make a decision to destroy me. But in destroying me, what else is he trying to do?

CHETRY: Again, you have to hear the whole thing in context. You would consider a defamation suit against Andrew Breibart?

SHERROD: I really think I should, you know. I don't know a lot about the legal profession. But that's one person I would like to get back at.

ROBERTS: Really?

SHERROD: He came at me. You know, he didn't go after the NAACP. He came at me. ROBERTS: So in getting back at him, what would you be looking to exact from him?

SHERROD: I don't know what I can -- get from him. An apology at this point, and he hasn't made that. It is not enough for me.

ROBERTS: Not enough for you.

SHERROD: No. He didn't apologize.

CHETRY: Would you like his site to be shut down?

SHERROD: That would be a great thing because I don't see how that advances us in this country. I don't see how that helps us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: So more from Shirley Sherrod as she continues to weigh her options. She did say she wanted to speak to the bit this. She thinks there are still important issues to be discussed.

ROBERTS: She said that the president doesn't have her background, doesn't have her history and maybe he could learn a couple of things from her. We will see if they have a conversation coming up.

CHETRY: Suzanne is keeping tabs on that for us today.

Meanwhile, we are going to find out why college kids are deciding city life is not for them. They are majoring in farming, and it could be not only lucrative but very fulfilling. Carol Costello with a look coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: For many people, the hip thing to do on the weekends is hit up your local farmer's market for fresh organic produce. But now a surprising number of young and very smart people are taking it a step further.

CHETRY: They are actually ditching city life and heading out to pick up organic farming. With a lot of hard work some of it are making a pretty good living and finding a lot of satisfaction in the process. Carol Costello, don't leave us now. Get back up here. Get back up -- there she is.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Technical issues today. That's OK.

CHETRY: We don't know what is going on this morning. Take it away.

COSTELLO: Gremlins.

This fall there will be a hot two-year program offered at the University of Maryland -- sustainable farming. They are going to teach that at the University of Maryland because agriculture is hot. I'm not just talking about urban farming. I am talking about farming as in making your living off of the land.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: At the university's farmer's market in Baltimore, Roy Skeen is selling tomatoes, squash, and greens, all vegetables he planned and then harvested with his own hands. It is not exactly what he was born to do. He evolved.

COSTELLO (on camera): So I hear you went to Yale.

ROY SKEEN, FARMER: I did.

COSTELLO: What did you major in?

SKEEN: I majored in history, the most useful of all subjects, which will lead us into a career in anything.

COSTELLO: Farming.

SKEEN: Farming, that's right.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Not that he regrets his Yale education or the years spent in New York working in investment banking. Both vividly taught him that world was not his. But this is.

SKEEN: Like for me, if magic of seeing a cucumber on a vine was like a circle in my psyche had been connected. Here is something out in front of me every day of my life growing up and I never knew where it came from.

COSTELLO: For Skeen, farming spiritual, useful, a way of making the world better. And if you think he's, well, a new-age hippie idealist, he is not the only one. The national future farmers of America, an organization kids joined in junior high and high school, tells me for first time in its history it will surpass 520,000 members.

COSTELLO (on camera): Farming is hip now.

JACK GURLEY, FARMER: It is. It didn't used to be. When we first started it, our first year of organic farmers, people would look at us like we were crazy. We are not buying from you. You use manure.

COSTELLO: You're kidding?

COSTELLO (voice-over): Today 15 years later, Jack Gurley is a guy to emulate. He and his wife make their living growing vegetables on ten acres. It is this life most wannabe farmers want.

COSTELLO (on camera): What kind of living can you make?

GURLEY: We make a really reasonable middle class lifestyle. We are essentially finished the end of November, or the end of October. And I don't start again until February. I have off four months where I don't have to do anything.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Gurley and his wife mentor young people like Roy Skeen on how to make a living from farming. Skeen's goal right now is to make $30,000 a year. But again, the money is only part of it.

SKEEN: There we go. That's what we are looking for. It is something that I -- 80 percent of the population did 100 years ago. So it was one of those -- it feels like it is coming home for me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: For a lot of people, those kids joining future farmers of America are from all over the country. The biggest increase in membership is in large urban areas. As I said, most of those kids want to own small farms or just grow enough food for themselves to eat.

It's actually part of a seven-year trend of the nearly 300,000 new farms started since 2002. Most are ten acres or and they're operated by young people who supplement their incomes working in jobs outside of farming. But farming is the main thing for them. They not only get great food out of the garden, they find something spiritual as well, John and Kiran.

CHETRY: It is very -- it is a nice meditative thing to be out there weeding your garden. My in-laws do it. This is at their Delaware house they planted a ton of stuff. This is my father-in-law showing my niece and daughter about picking beans, being very careful when you pick the beans, so you keep the stalks there. And they loved it.

I was exciting for them, the little ones, to learn about it. They also say it is cheaper. He has cucumbers and green pepper, tomatoes, scallions, broccoli. The carrots didn't do so well. They took baby carrots to a new level. They are hard.

COSTELLO: Carrots are tough to grow.

CHETRY: He is out there watering it constantly but loves to do it.

ROBERTS: They weren't just baby carrot, they were preemie carrots.

COSTELLO: You know the food is safe, too, that comes out of your own garden. That gives you peace of mind.

ROBERTS: It is something therapeutic about communing with the land. Carol, great piece this morning. Thanks so much.

We should tell you we are beset by gremlin this hour for some reason. We were promising you Andrew Keane who has written a book about whether the internet is killing American culture. Well, he has gone miss thing morning. So we are still looking for it, but it is very early on the west coast where he is coming to us from. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

Meantime, we've got a tropical disturbance in the Bahamas that may affect things in the Gulf in terms of the oil cleanup and even drilling the relief well as well as lots of severe thunderstorms across the country today. Reynolds Wolf is going to be up dating us on the travel forecast coming right up. Stay with us. It's 44 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Welcome back to CNN AMERICAN MORNING, The Most News in the Morning. We've got some new information in from the National Hurricane Center. And this area, you see just in, this red box area, where you see this deep convection, the National Hurricane Center says that this area they have been observing may become by 11:00 this morning Eastern Time either a tropical depression or perhaps even a tropical storm.

They found a cold center of circulation so development seems to very, very likely over the next several hours. The storm, however, got a few barriers to go. A few obstacles in the way.

Now, upper level winds are not going to be that strong in terms of shear so that should be fine. But it will hop-scotching past many of the islands in the Bahamas. And the latest computer models indicate that it will be making its way right through the Straits of Florida before moving out into the Gulf of Mexico.

And that being said, though, all the models tend to agree that the storm is expected to fall apart and once it enters the Gulf of Mexico, but a lot may change over the next 12 to 24 to 48 to 72 hours. So we're going to watch this for you very carefully.

Something you're going to be watching carefully some will be some of the rough weather in parts of the Midwest and in fact, if you take a look at portions of the Ohio Valley, especially by late in the afternoon, we may have some strong storms developing in places like Cincinnati. I would say you have a chance of seeing rough storms in places like Chicago, and perhaps even St. Louis before the day is out.

That will be some of your rough weather around the nation.

That is the latest on your forecast. We've got so much more coming up straight ahead on CNN AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Ten minutes to the hour. And welcome back to The Most News of The Morning.

In just a few hours time a federal judge in Phoenix hears arguments in two cases challenging Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants.

One is being brought by the Obama administration which claims the state's new law encroaches on federal authority and is unconstitutional. If the feds have their way the Arizona law will be struck down before it gets up and running next week.

But for one immigrant family, it may already be too late.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the middle class suburb near Mesa, Arizona a family is packing it up. Preparing to flee the state, they asked us to call them Carlos and Samantha.

CARLOS, LEAVING ARIZONA: This is the living room. This is my boy's room.

GUITIERREZ (on camera): And they are all empty.

CARLOS: Yes, I mean everything we worked for.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): They say they were living the American dream: a house, two kids, a small jewelry business that catered to Latinos.

But when his customers, many of whom were immigrants, started losing their jobs and leaving the state, his business collapsed. Now he says he, too, wants to get out before ST 1070 goes into effect.

(on camera): You love the state.

CARLOS: Arizona. Yes.

GUTIERREZ: And now?

CARLOS: Little by little they are pushing us out.

GUTIERREZ: They would say you're leaving because you want to go. You don't have to go.

CARLOS: I don't -- I don't have to go but for my -- for my family's sake.

GUTIERREZ: Your wife is undocumented.

CARLOS: Yes.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Carlos is a legal resident. Their children are Americans. But he says he can't run the risk that his wife could be arrested and deported.

(on camera): You are one family who is leaving. Do you think that there are others?

CARLOS: Well, there are -- there's many. There are a lot of people that left from here as soon as it started.

GUTIERREZ: Todd Landfried (ph) agrees. TODD LANDFRIED, ARIZONA EMPLOYER'S FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM: There's empty car dealership. This was just another strip mall in the Latino neighborhood of Mesa.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Landfried represents a group called Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform. He drove us through Mesa, Arizona. And pointed out what he says is the fallout from the state's tough immigration laws and a bad economy.

LANDFRIED: Any time you start running people out of a state, you make it harder for the businesses that provides services to those people, whether they are here legally or not, they are not going to be able to fill their strip malls. They are not going to be able to fill their apartment complexes.

RUSSELL PIERCE, ARIZONA STATE SENATE: This comes with that invasion of illegal aliens is the destruction of the rule of law and a damage to the taxpayer. There's a cost of that.

GUTIERREZ: Russell Pierce is a state senator and the author of SP 1070. He also lives in Mesa, Arizona.

(on camera): Do you believe that there's any correlation between those empty businesses and Russell Pierce's law?

PIERCE: I think there's a correlation probably. I think there's a correlation to the shortage of (INAUDIBLE), I think there's correlation to the tough economy. I don't think I can take credit for all of that. I would be willing to take credit for all of that.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Credit, he says, for forcing people like Carlos and Samantha to self-deport.

(on camera): What do those boxes represent to you? You don't want to go?

SAMANTHA: After 18 years of being here, we have to start all over again in another state.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Carlos says he will remember Arizona as the state that allowed him to achieve his American dream and as the state that took it away.

Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Mesa, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Thelma thanks so much for that.

Meanwhile, "Building up America" today, post-Katrina. Helping families buy homes with a little creative financial aid. We'll show you how it's helping families along the coast.

Fifty-four minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News of the Morning. "Building up America" where a deadly storm literally tore down a town.

ROBERTS: We'll thanks to some quick thinking creativity the Mississippi Coast is coming back from hurricane Katrina literally one house at a time.

Tom Foreman is in Gulfport, Mississippi this morning where he joins us live. Good morning, Tom. What are you finding there?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Kiran.

Let me tell you something. You know from the beginning since the storm one of the big concerns was how do you keep good workers and ambitious people here through all this difficult rebuilding process?

Now they have the oil spill out there. That's all being revived. The fear that people just give up and move away. One reason that fear is there is because getting housing has not been easy. But they found a solution.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (voice-over): Little more than a year ago, Craig and Mandie Neicase were struggling. They lost so much income and property in Katrina his job with the sheriff's department could not overcome the setbacks, let alone the recession.

(on camera): Did you have at that time any hope of buying a place like this?

CRAIG NEICASE, HOMEOWNER: No.

MANDIE NEICASE, HOMEOWNER: No. Not at all.

FOREMAN: This wasn't just you. This was everybody.

M. NEICASE: I mean everybody on the street, everybody in the neighborhood. I mean, everybody had lost everything.

FOREMAN (voice-over): The situation was driving desperately needed workers away even before the catastrophic oil spill.

(on camera): Everyone knew the community had to get out of that trouble and that is where this place came in.

(voice-over): Business and civic leaders raised $12 million to start the nonprofit Gulf Coast Renaissance Corporation to help house those families. The state gave money too and when Renaissance opened the doors, CEO Kim Larosa saw an immediate response.

KIM LAROSA, GULF COAST RENAISSANCE CORPORATION: Boy, did the people respond. We had people coming out of the woodwork.

FOREMAN: It worked like this, if a worker with a family of four making $50,000 or less needed a leg up to buy a home, the corporation and the employer together would provide the down payment. The Neicase have got $30,000 from the sheriff's department and $10,000 from Renaissance, and in return, they pledged to stay and help rebuild as they repay the loans.

C. NEICASE: It keeps employee base down here. It keeps tax base down here.

FOREMAN (on camera): And this stabilizes this community.

M. NEICASE: Yes.

C. NEICASE: Yes, sir.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Banks joined the program, too. Almost 600 families have been put into houses.

(on camera): And you are requiring these people to go to classes, to know how to be good homeowners, and to manage their budget. To stay in these houses.

LAROSA: Yes. We did not want to set them up to fail. And we have had no one to date fail, no foreclosures.

FOREMAN: Not one.

LAROSA: Not one.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Call it an investment in the heart of the town. In people who can fight the storms and can fight the oil spill and who will because this is truly still home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: This is totally focused on these working class families that they absolutely need here to deal with the aftereffects of this oil catastrophe as it goes on. And most importantly, John and Kiran, this plan here, they totally believe could apply to communities all over the country that are having trouble with people who can't keep their houses or can't get into houses because of the mortgage crisis.

They may have really come up with a great solution here for many communities if others will just look at it carefully and study the plan along the Mississippi Gulf.

ROBERTS: Yes.

(CROSS TALKING)

CHETRY: That's a great model.

ROBERTS: Briefly, Tom -- real quick because we're almost out of time -- what kind of work do they have to do in the rebuilding?

FOREMAN: In the rebuilding down here for the town itself?

ROBERTS: Yes. FOREMAN: This town wasn't hit the same as the ones further down. They still have plenty of things do. A lot of it is this kind of thing. It is almost restructuring the business of that community, making sure that they have enough businesses up and running, enough homes. And the oil spill, I'm telling you is not making it's easier but they are hanging in there and relying -- you know, the whole Mississippi Gulf Coast is sticking together.

Good news for everybody in difficult times.

CHETRY: Sounds like a successful program. And maybe they will be able to replicate it in other places.

Tom Foreman thanks so much.

FOREMAN: Good seeing you all.

CHETRY: And we invite you to continue the conversation on today's stories by heading to our blog at cnn.com/amfix.

That's going to do it for us today. We'll see you back here bright and early tomorrow.

ROBERTS: The news continues here on CNN with Kyra Phillips in the "CNN NEWSROOM".