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Search for Etan Patz Suspended; Secret Service Sex Scandal; President Obama in Statistical Dead Heat with Mitt Romney in Latest CNN Poll of Polls; Costa Concordia Wreckage to be Removed Nexty Month; Chuck Colson Dies; Norway's Island Prison; NHL Suspension

Aired April 22, 2012 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, you're in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin in New York. New developments in the long and arduous search for six-year-old Etan Patz. Today the search has been suspended for operational reasons. Investigators aren't going into specifics as to why, but they did say they will be back tomorrow. Officials also said they're investigating a suspicious stain on a basement wall. They've been tearing out a New York basement for any sign of the missing boy.

A carpenter who used to work in the basement is operating -- is cooperating rather with police, and say that he has no involvement in Patz's disappearance. In 2001 a judge declared Patz dead and held a convicted child molester responsible. Susan Candiotti is at the scene right now in New York. She'll be joining us in about two minutes from now.

John Edwards' fraud trial begins tomorrow in North Carolina. The former presidential candidate is accused of breaking campaign finance laws by allegedly using nearly a million dollars to cover up a sexual affair with filmmaker Rielle Hunter. He denies any wrongdoing.

Still unclear whether George Zimmerman will be released from jail. Bond was set at a $150,000 on Friday, which means he has to come up with 10 percent of that in cash. But now has attorney says the family doesn't have the collateral needed to get him out right now. Zimmerman is facing second-degree murder charges in the death of 17- year-old Trayvon Martin.

Chuck Colson, a major figure from the Watergate scandal, has died. Colson was the first of Richard Nixon's aides to be convicted, and sent to prison for seven months. He had been the president's special counsel. But was also known as Nixon's hatchet man. After leaving prison in his mid-1970 - in the mid-1970s, rather, Colson founded an outreach group providing spiritual support for prisoners. Colson was 80 years old.

All right, we're following developments in the search for six-year-old Etan Patz. Today's search has been suspended for operational reasons. Investigators aren't explaining what that means, but they say they will be back tomorrow. Investigators are also following up on an important development, the discovery of a suspicious stain they found on a basement wall. National correspondent Susan Candiotti is at the scene in New York. So, Susan, what more have you been able to learn from the investigators there?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not much. And it's been pretty intriguing to try to figure out what's going on. About an hour and a half ago, as we were standing here, all of a sudden you see that white van behind me that says New York City Police Department on it, Crime Scene Unit, they pulled that up. It hadn't been there before. In an apparent attempt, we're left to wonder, to possibly block our view to see what's going on beyond that. So we went up closer with our camera and tried to see what was going on. And what we saw is this. We've got some video that we took of that earlier, hopefully to show you now. And we could tell that they were -- it seems like they were loading something into an unmarked van. We tried to find out what was going on. They said they had no comment. Only that they are suspending their operations for the day. And they will be back here tomorrow. But Fred, it does make you wonder.

WHITFIELD: All right, Susan. And tell us more now about the FBI, and what their findings were in terms of the stain on the basement wall.

CANDIOTTI: Yes, we learned from sources that this actually happened on Saturday. They were using a chemical called luminol, and they spray it around to see whether they can see anything of interest. This is commonly used by homicide investigators at crime scenes all over the place. And it did detect something unusual. It picked up a stain. Now, this is an indicator that it might possibly be a bloodstain. In order to find out more, the FBI technicians brought in chainsaws to cut out a section of the cement wall that contained that stain. We don't know how big that stain was. And now they're sending it for additional analysis to the FBI's main crime lab in Quantico, Virginia. They'll do more testing to see whether indeed this is blood, and if so, whether it belongs to Etan, or somebody else that might be connected to this case, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Susan Candiotti, thanks so much in New York.

A Colombian taxi driver is perhaps the most sought-after person in the U.S. Secret Service scandal. The "Huffington Post" reports that the cabby drove a prostitute home from this hotel in Colombia after a night of partying. And he later led the media to her house. Six U.S. Secret Service members have stepped down and 12 are under investigation. They allegedly brought back several prostitutes to their hotel ahead of President Obama's visit to Colombia. Our Lisa Sylvester is live right now out of Washington. So Lisa, does the scandal go beyond the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Military?

LISA SYLVERSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Fred, that is the question. Does the scandal go beyond? You know, the ranking member of the committee, Senator Chuck Grassley, is questioning how wide this problem goes, who knew about it, was the White House involved in any way. And Senator Joe Lieberman was asked about it this morning. And here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN, CONNECTICUT: One of my colleagues in the Senate, Senator Grassley, has asked for an investigation of White House personnel who were in Cartagena. My own advice to the White House if they ask me for it would be, I know we're in the middle of a campaign. Everything looks partisan. But don't get defensive about this. The best thing the White House can do is to conduct its own internal investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: Now, the head of the Secret Service, and the acting Inspector General of the agency, they are conducting a thorough review. That investigation, as you mentioned, it is focusing on 12 Secret Service agents, six of whom have since resigned as well as 11 members of the U.S. Military, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And so Lisa, Paula Reid, a chief of the Secret Service Miami office, is the person who actually took charge and brought things under control after she heard of the accusations. And some members of the Homeland Security Committee also have suggested if there were more female agents, something like this could have been prevented?

SYLVESTER: Yeah, you know, by the way, she is getting major kudos for her role for really stepping in and taking charge. But Democratic Senator Carolyn Maloney and Republican Senator Susan Collins have both made that very point, that all of this might have been avoided if there were more women within the agency.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R ), HOMELAND SECURITY CMTE.: I can't help but wonder if there had been more women as part of that detail, if this ever would have happened.

REP. CAROLYN MALONEY, (D), NEW YORK: And one thing I asked him is, how many women are on the force. It's only 11 percent of the agents are women. And if -- we agree on this, if there were more agents on the ground, maybe we would not have had this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: Yeah, we're going to be keeping a close eye. You know, if there are going to be more agents who might step down. Right now we're up to six. On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing in the House Homeland Security Committee. They're also looking at this, they've opened up its own investigation. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Lisa Sylvester, thanks so much. Coming to us from Washington.

Today people all around the world are celebrating Earth Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll never buy another bag. And I go, thank you very much. We have in a little over two years ...

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: All right, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray there, a big rally is happening right now, in fact, on the National Mall, even though it is very rainy, as you can see. Organizers are calling for people to do a billion acts of green across the globe. Well, today's event features a countdown to that goal. It also includes performances from the musical group Kicking Daisies, rocker Dave Mason and the group Cheap Trick. And I'll be talking to members of Cheap Trick in a few minutes. Stay tuned for that at 4:30 Eastern time.

And as you can see, very stormy there in the nation's capital. Jacqui Jeras in the Weather Center. And something tells me there's more coming to other cities ...

JACQUI JERAS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: On the East Coast.

JERAS: Unfortunately, yes. And we saw Smoky the Bear there.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, we did. That was cute.

JERAS: I don't think he's going to have to work too hard today.

WHITFIELD: Getting a little help from that rain.

JERAS: I know, and we really need it. And you remember, we just had all those brushfires off Long Island about a week and a half or so ago. So this rain is actually welcome. Unfortunately the timing just isn't all that great, with a lot of weekend activities for a lot of folks. Our area will pressure the storm itself, way down here, near the coast of North Carolina. And so we've got a long ride up the coast. So this is going to be a steady rain for a whole lot of people. Unfortunately meaning an ugly weekend and a real rough go of it in terms of travel. Now, we're also concerned about a little bit of flooding especially in urban areas, so be aware of that. We'll put our map into motion and it's going to show you the accumulating rainfall could be reaching up to two to four inches in the next 48 hours. So we will be concerned on the east slopes of the higher elevations as well. And believe it or not, in the interior we're going to be talking about a little bit of snow ...

WHITFIELD: Oh, no.

JERAS: Yeah, potentially. Yeah, it's snow, for the most part it's not going to hit the big cities. These are where the warnings are in effect.

WHITFIELD: Eight to 14 inches?

JERAS: Eight to 14 inches ...

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness.

JERAS: Because we're going to get some enhancement coming in off the lakes. So, towards Jamestown, over, towards Erie, Pennsylvania, and then you get up into the Appalachians here, that's where we're going to see the heaviest accumulation. Pittsburgh, you're under the advisory, so maybe a couple of inches. But the tiny amount is, Fredricka, for the most part is going to be coming in overnight with that snow and continuing through the day for tomorrow. And even though the big cities are just seeing rain, look at all the delays that we have already. And that's likely going to linger all through your Monday as well.

WHITFIELD: Wow. I hope they didn't pack away those parkas. Pull them right back out. All right, thanks so much, Jacqui. ?We'll check back with you.

JERAS: OK.

WHITFIELD: U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican weighs in on the big stakes chatter and reveals a personal side of himself.

And something is making dolphins, hundreds of them, wash ashore on beaches in South America. It's a mystery. And scientists are stumped.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Now that the race for president appears to be down to two candidates, the campaign appears to be getting a fresh start. In the latest CNN Poll of Polls, President Obama has a narrow lead in what is a statistical dead heat without the distraction of other potential challengers, the two candidates are taking aim at each other. Joining me right now to talk about the campaign, "Roll Call" political writer, Shira Toeplitz. Good to see you, Shira.

SHIRA TOEPLITZ, ROLL CALL: Good to see you, too.

WHITFIELD: OK. So, what if Mitt Romney's biggest challenge defining President Barack Obama, or defining himself?

TOEPLITZ: I think his biggest challenge is defining Barack Obama. And Mitt Romney has suffered somewhat from this long primary. It wasn't as long as it could have been, but it was still pretty long and it was pretty negative. A lot of attack ads on the air in key battleground states like Florida and Ohio over the last couple of months. So, what he really needs to do is turn his focus on Obama. And I think that's what the Romney campaign is doing right now, they're trying to focus on the economy, they're making the argument that the president has not been a strong steward of the economy this last couple of months. He needs to define Obama before Obama defines him again.

WHITFIELD: At the same time, it seems as though Mitt Romney is having a difficult time trying to convey that he's just a regular guy. That is something that he's concentrating on. However, every moment kind of -- you know, other moments kind of arise where it distinguishes that he's anything but the regular guy.

TOEPLITZ: Yeah, Mitt Romney is not the average American. I think everyone can agree on that. But you're right that he's not very comfortable with this. And I'm sure he has advisers, at least in the past, whispering in his ear, like you need to act like more of a regular Joe, you know, fly southwest, do all these things, and he tweets about it, but really he is not. He's a successful businessman and he has a hard time being comfortable with that. We see that in his speeches, we see that when he's on stage, when he is debating other candidates. He's not very comfortable yet, at least 100 percent though with his success. He'll do much better on the campaign trail once he crosses that hurdle.

WHITFIELD: Do you think he's afraid to use that to his advantage, that he is a successful businessman, that it has brought him personal wealth?

TOEPLITZ: I think he's not afraid to do it, it's just the degree to which he wants to use that record, especially when the economy is still in pretty bad shape. Granted, we've seen some measured improvement over the last few months. But still, Mitt Romney doesn't want to brag about the fact that he's a wealthy guy right now, when so many Americans have lost their homes, their homes are in foreclosure, the unemployment rate is still just over eight percent. He doesn't want to brag about it. But he doesn't want to come across that he is a regular ...

WHITFIELD: Everyone already knows that. Everyone already knows that he is. Is he kind of shooting himself in the foot trying to distance himself from that reality?

TOEPLITZ: I think the more he tries to look like a regular guy, you know, Joe six-pack, or you know, go into the family Diner, the more he does that, the more unnatural it looks on him. And that's - but that's what you do on the campaign trail, you go to local bars, you go to Diners, this is part of campaigning. He just needs to look a little more comfortable in that situation. He doesn't need to be Joe six-pack, but needs to learn how to talk to Joe six-pack a little better.

WHITFIELD: All right. Meantime, it's been a pretty interesting week for the Obama administration. At the White House, congressional hearings on GSA spending, that seem to be out of control, the U.S. Secret Service employees who have gotten themselves in a mess of their own. So take a listen now to Republican Senator Jeff Sessions about his - his rather criticism of the president's management on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R ), ALABAMA: And the president needs to assert discipline, management directions throughout the executive branch, and presidents are to be held responsible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So, how does the White House move forward?

TOEPLITZ: That's a great question. I think we're going to see over the next couple of days, we'll see what happens, especially in the Secret Service scandal and with this continued hearings about the GSA scandal as well. Just how much more fallout. At some point if it does reach critical mass, you might see the president or one of his advisers go on and take on this issue head front and really take it on. I don't think we're there yet. We have not reached critical mass yet on these issues. These are departments. I think a lot of voters understand that maybe the president isn't necessarily directly responsible for what some people were doing at a conference in Las Vegas last fall. But I think it's close enough, it's guilt by association. So we're not there yet, but if it continues to unravel, if the scandals continue to get worse, we might get there.

WHITFIELD: All right. Mitt Romney. Let's talk about possible VP picks.

TOEPLITZ: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: CNN poll is indicating that Condi Rice is a favorite among voters. Most observers agree that's not likely to happen. But what about the second name on that list? Rick Santorum, you see that relationship kind of being reinvigorated in any way?

TOEPLITZ: You know, I wouldn't put money on that right now. Rick Santorum hasn't even come out and endorsed Mitt Romney yet. I'd say the relationship between those two, I think they're still a little bit of contempt there. I don't think Rick Santorum has quite gotten over this primary yet. I don't think it's going to happen.

WHITFIELD: But do you -- (inaudible) has the potential?

TOEPLITZ: It could happen. It could. I wouldn't rule it out completely. But I think there are many more candidates who are on that short list before Rick Santorum.

WHITFIELD: Like?

TOEPLITZ: Marco Rubio, 100 percent, I know he said he basically endorsed Jeb Bush to be the V.P. But something tells me Jeb Bush really doesn't want to do it. So I think Marco Rubio is an obvious candidate. Right now I think it's 50/50 Marco Rubio or someone else. He just has so much going for him as a V.P. contender.

WHITFIELD: All right. Shira Toeplitz. Thanks so much. Good to see you. Appreciate that.

TOEPLITZ: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, a name you often hear mentioned as a potential GOP vice presidential pick, Senator Marco Rubio, her pick. But today the Florida Republican actually endorsed someone else for the V.P. slot. Jeb Bush. Rubio says the former Florida governor would make a fantastic vice president. Rubio also revealed a side of himself that you don't hear a whole lot about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA.: Well, you know, I am a hip-hop fan, especially the '90s hip-hop. Some of the modern stuff has changed, though. You know, one of my things I've been discovering is I'm a fan of Nicki Minaj, who is one of the hip-hop artists today. But she's not just a rapper, she also sings in her album. So and we have a local artist named Pitbull as well, who I'm -- I know that sounds like an interesting name, but he's actually very talented. And he's just involved in the sound track for "Men in Black." So we're proud of him.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: I think I know that actually.

RUBIO: Yeah.

CROWLEY: Randomly, I do happen to know that. Tell me your first political memory.

RUBIO: My first political memory probably was the '80 convention when Kennedy challenged Carter. And then afterwards the end of the Reagan convention as well. So, the '80s is kind of the time when I became aware. I document a lot of this in my book, but my grandfather was a huge Reagan fan.

CROWLEY: And you also had somewhat of a role in the Dole campaign.

RUBIO: I did. And so did you. You were covering them here in, I think they were staying in Baja Harbor. He had an apartment here. And I was one of the guys that worked on the ground for the team. The advance crew. I drove the media van. I think we drove you around one time when you were covering them here. And then ultimately, I landed a job running the Dole campaign in South Florida. And that was a great experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Really climbing the political ladder there. Rubio was about to hit the campaign trail again, this time in support of Mitt Romney. The two will make a joint appearance tomorrow in Pennsylvania.

Dolphins are dying in South America. Hundreds of them washing ashore on one stretch of beach in Peru. The mystery, the investigation, are humans in any way to blame. I'll talk to a marine biologist next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Other news happening overseas today, United Nations cease- fire monitors are on the ground in Syria. This is amateur video shot today. U.N. monitors touring towns hammered by more than a year of shelling and street fighting. The U.N. Security Council voted yesterday to boost the unarmed military mission from 30 to 300 monitors.

More than 100 people are hurt today after two passenger trains crashed into each other in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam. Emergency officials say they still don't know why the trains collided.

And it is election day in France. Today is the first round, when the field of candidates is reduced to two. President Nicolas Sarkozy will likely face socialist Francois Hollande in a runoff in two weeks. And in Bahrain, protesters fail to stop the running of a major Formula 1 race today. Some streets near the Bahrain ground-free course were blocked by burning trash and tires. Groups demonstrating against the government called the race a publicity stunt. They did manage to cancel the race last year.

Nearly 900 dolphins are dead, and that's just the number that has washed up onshore. I'm talking about Peru. And one stretch of northern beach, about 130 miles long. Since January, dead dolphins have been washing ashore there. And scientists can't agree on the reasons why. I want to talk to Sue Rocca, she is a marine biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Sue, good to see you.

SUE ROCCA, MARINE BIOLOGIST: Thanks, thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: So, what does your gut tell you about a dolphin-kill this sizable?

ROCCA: Well, we have strandings all along our coast, for all sorts of reasons, and generally if one or two come up, you can, you know, there is all sorts of natural phenomena that can cause that. But when you have something this large, my gut would tell me that there is something traumatic that happened, at a snapshot, that would kill this many animals. There was a range of age classes, adults, pregnant females, calves, the young. So it definitely -- something happened for sure.

WHITFIELD: So when you -- when you talk about examining the thing that may have happened, what are marine biologists going to be looking at? Are they going to be examining the, you know, carcasses of these animals to see if there's something, you know, viral, disease, or if there is something else that's environmental in oceans, in which these mammals have traveled?

ROCCA: Well, yes, you would need to look at all of that. You'd need to do necropsies, which is an autopsy, but on an animal. A lot of the specimens have been decomposed, you want to look at the organs. I know that they've been finding hemorrhagic (ph) lesions, which is just basically big bruises. They've been finding bubbles in the blood- filled oil (ph) and kidney, which is consistent with an acoustic trauma. They've been finding that the -- some of the acoustic bones in these animals' heads have been fractured. And -- but that's just a small percentage. There's over 600 -- well, 900 now confirmed animals. But when some researchers -- there's a lead researcher down in Peru, Dr. Yapin-Llanos who has kind of expanded that stretch of beach, and he's claiming up to 3,000 individuals. So he's gone out and looked at them, and found these traumas of the head and areas in specific animals. So that's one hypothesis that it could be an acoustic trauma to the animals.

WHITFIELD: So, when we look at these animals from this footage, and it is disturbing to look at, because we're talking about, it looks like a variation of things have happened to the carcasses. And I don't know if some of that is prior to the dolphins washing up, or if that's as a result of, you know, people kind of poking around trying to figure them out. But we saw some of them were quite bloodied. Others even looked like they had been skinned. And then others look completely intact. So what do you believe is the explanation behind that?

ROCCA: Well, the - I mean, sea gulls generally prey on dead specimens. They also would need to be doing necropsies and cutting them up. I think that from the reports that I have read, there was different levels of decomposition when they were washing up. So maybe just different animals were further from shore, and washing up, some of that decomposition was happening at sea. And there is a skin sloughing that happens that way. I read one report that some of the fishermen were using the more fresh meat. So they could have been repurposing that meat for something to ...

WHITFIELD: Oh, I see.

ROCCA: There's all sorts of things that might be happening.

WHITFIELD: So, real quick, Sue, before I let you go, you mentioned acoustic trauma. What causes acoustic trauma? Are you talking -- you know, from shipping, vessels, or what?

ROCCA: Well, our oceans are an exceedingly noisy place these days. We have got shipping traffic, yes.

WHITFIELD: OK.

ROCCA: But when you see this level of stranding, it's generally from either seismic, and there is some oil development right off the coast of Peru, or Navy sonars. We've seen it a lot with those.

WHITFIELD: OK.

ROCCA: But it could also be bio-toxins might be accumulating in the ecosystem.

WHITFIELD: OK.

ROCCA: And so they're feeding on fish that sort of come up. I think that that's the big thing is that we just don't know and more investigation ...

WHITFIELD: Yes.

ROCCA: ... still needs to be done.

WHITFIELD: So many questions.

ROCCA: Right. Before people make definitive answers.

WHITFIELD: All right. Excellent. Sue Rocca, thanks so much, sorry to cut you off, we've got to go. But I really appreciate that.

ROCCA: No, thank you.

WHITFIELD: We know we'll get some other answers. Hopefully, soon after they finish those tests. Appreciate it, Sue.

ROCCA: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: Going green and rocking out. They're doing both in Washington. Even though it's very rainy. "Cheap Trick" performs at an Earth Day rally there. And they'll be joining us live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Checking our top stories. Police and FBI agents in Tucson, Arizona, are searching for a missing 6-year-old girl. The parents of Isabelle Mercedes say they discovered her missing when they went to wake her up yesterday morning. They say they last saw her Friday night when she went to bed. Police say it is probably a case of kidnapping.

And the removal of the wreckage of the Costa Concordia cruise ship is scheduled to begin next month. Salvage companies from Italy and the U.S. will begin the work and the ship will be towed to an Italian port once it is floating again. The salvage operation is expected to take about a year. The ship ran aground off the Italian coast in January killing 32 people.

Singer Robin Gibbs is out of a coma and is fully conscious. Just a few days ago doctors thought he may not survive. The Bee Gees star has been battling pneumonia and he is also facing several other health issues including colon and liver cancers.

All right. Earth Day celebrations are happening all over the world today. Joining me right now live from Washington, Cheap Trick. Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson there jamming it up. Hey good to see you. I'm glad you got your toppers. Because I know it's very rainy there in the nation's capital. How are you guys doing?

RICK NIELSEN, CHEAP TRICK: Yes, we just landed, and we're here. And we just saw Jesse Jackson. And I'm looking for other famous people around here.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, you're the famous ones that everyone's waiting for during this Earth Day celebration there in D.C. So, you know why is this important to you, Rick?

NIELSEN: Well, let's see. We all have families, and our fans are part of our family. And the whole world is an important place to be. And we're just happy that we got invited to be here. How about that?

WHITFIELD: That's pretty impressive. So Tom, what are you all performing today? What's the message that you hope to send out?

TOM PETERSSON, CHEAP TRICK: By our performance you mean?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

PETERSSON: Well, I think just that we're here, and everybody can pitch in and do whatever they can do. This is what we do for a living. We're happy we can help. NIELSEN: I'm supposed to mention also that we're going to be back in D.C. in July at Bristol, Virginia.

PETERSSON: A longer show.

NIELSEN: A longer show.

WHITFIELD: That is right because you all are performing, or you're touring with Aerosmith, right?

PETERSSON: Yes. Aerosmith, I like those guys.

WHITFIELD: I know. That's pretty huge.

NIELSEN: We're doing the whole summer with Aerosmith. And we've worked with them before. They're a great band. We're glad we got invited.

WHITFIELD: Yes. So what are you looking forward to with that kind of collaboration? You know, Tom, you first. You know, touring with Aerosmith like this, I mean, there are so many countries that have called you, you know, Cheap Trick, kind of the American Beatles. You know, but what are you hoping to kind of bring to the stage, or remind people of all these incredible hits like, "I want you to want me," et cetera, from a pretty giant repertoire of music?

PETERSSON: Yes, that's exactly what we're trying to do, remind people that we have those hits. And we'll take some current ones, too, right?

NIELSON: We'll play some new stuff. And also, it's going to be a battle of the bands every night with Aerosmith.

WHITFIELD: Really.

NIELSON: They're a tough bunch of cookies. And so are we. It's going to be good for the audience.

WHITFIELD: Sounds fantastic. Let's listen in to one of your first kind of videos of this "I want you to want me" this performance. Let's take a listen and watch.

WHITFIELD: Still sounds good, doesn't it? It gets you guys going.

NIELSON: It does. About as much as I can handle, too.

WHITFIELD: Well you know what's really interesting, it was an even bigger hit in Asia, than it was in the U.S. and then the American audience kind of caught up with it. What's the logic behind that?

NIELSON: Well, the logic behind it is we'd like to be one of the first American groups to bring -- actually bring trade back to the United States, as opposed to the way that it's been going for years. So we're trying to even out the trade deficit. And that's the long version of it. No, they like our songs. It's good to play wherever. Fredricka, playing for you is the highlight of our career.

WHITFIELD: I'll take it.

OK, we are going to hear another clip of "Surrender."

NIELSON: Come to Atlanta, Fred.

WHITFIELD: I'm going to have to check you out when you come to Atlanta and that is in July. Right? I think I have to be there front and center.

NIELSON: Something like that.

WHITFIELD: OK. Hey, here's another --

NIELSON: We'll save a spot for you.

WHITFIELD: Good. I like it. Here's another hit, "Surrender." Let's take a look.

OK. I'm there. I'm getting my tickets, guys. Front and center. With Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, touring in a city near you, too.

NIELSON: That's the best 14 seconds of that song ever.

WHITFIELD: By the way, since the third part of your trio, Robin, is not standing there with you, where is he? Just asking?

PETERSSON: He's warming up. We've got to go onstage in about five minutes.

WHITFIELD: That's right. In the nation's capital.

NIELSON: If he doesn't warm up, he'll blow his voice out.

WHITFIELD: We want everyone to be warmed up.

NIELSON: He's actually right behind us. We just flew in here. We played last night in Tampa.

WHITFIELD: All right.

NIELSON: So we just -- the weather's so bad -- at least at the airport. We just got here. We're going to go play, and then we're heading out.

WHITFIELD: Excellent. The folks in D.C. are going to be really excited to see you. Thank you so much. Rick Nielson and Tom Petersson and say hello to Robin as well. I'll se you when you come through Atlanta. Cheap Trick.

NIELSON: All right, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much.

We'll have much more in THE NEWSROOM after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We're going to rock on now with some baseball perfection. And a very nasty hockey hit. They are both hot topics. NPR sports reporter Mike Pesca is joining us to talk about it. Let's start with a little hockey. Good to see you again, Mike. I know you were rocking it out to Cheap Trick there. Everybody loves some of those tunes. Let's talk about what happened on the ice. The NHL play-offs are under way. But that isn't really the big story. It's a bit overshadowed by this moment.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You must make contact with your skate or skates on the ice. To me, that's him exploding off the ice.

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WHITFIELD: Mike, that is not considered just regular play. That's getting a lot of heat. The Phoenix Coyotes player, Raffi Torres, slamming Chicago's Marion Hossa, sending him to the hospital. But you know when you think of the NHL, and you think of hockey, you're thinking, there's a lot of contact there. And stuff happens. But in this case, the feeling is, it was intentional?

MIKE PESCA, NPR SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. What hockey wants you to think about are good, clean hits. What they're trying to do is both get a better image for their league, and they hope that image will step from reality. So they have essentially like a dean of discipline. Brendan Shanahan, who was a great player in his day, and a tough player and he gives these rulings where he explains exactly why players are suspended. What you saw Raffi Torres do is leave his feet, launch himself like a missile. It was interference. It was a hit to the head. It was charging. And Hossa could be in a lot of damage. One of the things the NHL does that's a little controversial is they wait to see how hurt the player is. So if Hossa just got up and skated away from that, maybe Torres wouldn't get the suspension. But he was suspended for 25 games.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

PESCA: Which ensures he's out of the play-offs. It's a big message. There are a lot of tough hits this post season. The NHL wants to say, this is way out of bounds.

WHITFIELD: OK. All right. So Michael, let's move on to baseball now. Take a look at this. Because folks are saying this is exactly what perfection looks like on the diamond.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan steps back in. Two down here in the bottom of the ninth inning. Here's the wind up and the 3-2 on the way. Strike three! The ball gets away from Pierzynski! The throw to first! And it's over! Phillip Humber has thrown the 21st perfect game.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: I love hearing the announcer and all that excitement too. So that was Philip Humber throwing that perfect game for the Chicago White Sox. How rare are these perfect games like that?

PESCA: He becomes the 21st player in baseball history since 1876 to throw a perfect game, 20 because in the regular season. You know, if someone said who's going to pitch a perfect game, I would name 100 pitchers before Humber. He actually hasn't been a good pitcher, something of a first-round bust. Put his career together. And on a day, on this day, at least, he was perfect.

WHITFIELD: All right. That was fantastic. Humber. OK, I'll remember that one. Don't mess up on the perfect game, the pronunciations either. Mike Pesca thanks so much. Good to see you.

PESCA: You're welcome. Bye.

WHITFIELD: We'll have much more in THE NEWSROOM right after this.

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WHITFIELD: CNN's "Belief Blog" covers faith aspects of the day's biggest stories. One of the big headlines this week is the death of Chuck Colson; he was known as President Nixon's hatchet man during Watergate days and later became an influential Evangelical leader. Our "Belief Blog" editor Eric Marrapodi joins us live now from Washington, good to see you, Eric.

ERIC MARRAPODI, CNN BELIEF BLOG CO-EDITOR: Good to see you, too, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. So tell us more about Colson and why he became an Evangelical Christian with a pretty significant following.

MARRAPODI: Sure. Colson was one of the first Nixon aides to go to prison for what happened in association with the Watergate break-in. He went to prison in 1974. And shortly before then, he had a dramatic conversion experience, and became an Evangelical Christian. He served about seven months in federal prison, in the minimum security prison for his role in defaming a Pentagon papers leakier. Now President Nixon asked him to do that, and he went to prison for that and he told those prisoners before he left, I'm going to come back and take care of you. What he did when he got out of prison was he launched prison fellowship ministries, one of the biggest groups in the world that does this. Today they're in 119 countries. I just pulled their IRS filings from 2010 to give you an idea of the scope of this ministry. They have $45 million in contributions last year, just a massive ministry.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

MARRAPODI: Colson was a very highly sought-after speaker on the Christian circuit. He was beloved among the Evangelicals, because he represented a big theme, which is redemption.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So it continues to be vibrant. All right. So Eric, now, let's talk about Mitt Romney, scheduled to speak at Liberty University on May 12th. There are a lot of students that are very angry about that. Explain.

MARRAPODI: Well, yes. When Liberty University announced this week that Mitt Romney would come and speak at their commencement, there were a number of students that jumped on Face book and twitter and started complaining about Mitt Romney being a commencement speaker because of his faith. Mitt Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he's a Mormon. And of course Liberty University down in Lynchburg, Virginia, is one of the largest Evangelical colleges in America.

And a lot of students said hey, look we don't agree with his beliefs, we don't think Mormons are Christians and made their voices heard loud and clear on Liberty's face book page. Liberty extended that invitation. Romney accepted it. Neither are saying a whole lot about this. Other than he'll continue to be the speaker. And there's a long history of presidential candidates, particularly Republican presidential candidates coming and speaking at Liberty. Ronald Reagan did it in 1980. President George H.W. Bush spoke there. And of course, John McCain in 2006 spoke there at their commencement as well.

WHITFIELD: Eric Marrapodi thanks so much, at the CNN "Belief Blog." And of course, four more stories on faith check out the popular "Belief Blog" at CNN.com/belief.

We'll be right back.

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WHITFIELD: Happy Earth Day. Crowds are gathered in Washington, D.C. and a lot of other places around the world to send a message to the people of the planet. Watching Earth Day celebrations, recognitions, all that.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've been watching throughout the day. You were talking to Cheap Trick. A lot going on there. The organizers say that a billion people around the world mark Earth Day in some fashion, by doing something. It is pretty impressive. One thing I wonder is what's their message. They put it out in a Youtube video. Take a look.

Actually, we're looking at pictures earlier. That's what's going on in the National Mall. We have live pictures. Now, let's take a look at the Youtube video. They lay out what this is all about.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's stand together on Earth Day, April 22nd, and show our leaders that we want renewable energy.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: Improved energy efficiency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Green jobs.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: Clean air. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: So they have the list of things most important to them. They talk about trying to build a green economy. They're hoping all these events will do that. They also call on the world to carry out a billion acts of green. We're talking about the earth,

I want to show you some amazing pictures that we have exclusively here at CNN. These are two examples that show how the world has changed over recent years. The first one we are going to show you here is from Dubai. Take a look at this. This is what Dubai looked like in 2000. This is it in 2010. This shows how much it has changed. Look you can see the population moving more and more and more out.

Now, one more. Take a look here at Vegas. All right. This is Vegas back in 1984. Green being where people are, where people have set up lives. Take a look over here, the more we spread it along, the more you see it's all the way up there. It's incredible. We have really stunning images to help you understand the extent to which the world has changed. We want you to know all about this. The kinds of things that are going out there, and what the events are. We listed them on my page on Facebook and twitter, and the blog CNN.com/josh. There's a fun thing by Earth Day by the numbers. Check out and see if you know what you're talking about.

WHITFIELD: Oh gosh. Everyone needs encouragement and ideas. Because it is hard sometimes to break your habits. And try to -- try out something that's new, that might be greener and less of a carbon footprint.

LEVS: Exactly. Also, that's the message, can you do one thing today that will help the world.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Josh.

LEVS: You got it, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Straight ahead, an island off Norway isn't a vacation spot. Even though to some it might look like that. This is actually a prison.

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WHITFIELD: An entire island off of Norway is used as a prison. But it's no Alcatraz. It's minim prison and could soon be the home of the countries notorious confessed killer Andre Breivik. Here is Diana Magnay.

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DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There are no walls, wires or handcuffs, just the water all around. But few try to escape. There are 115 inmates on the island and competition for spaces is fierce. You have to apply, you have to show motivation. It doesn't really matter if you're convicted for a minor crime, or if you're a murderer. This man who does not want to be identified is here for drug related offenses. He's taking courses in computing, to prepare himself for life outside.

VOICE OF BASTOY PRISON INMATE: You want to go for something like fresh air or something like that. You go and come back and go out for fresh air for one hour. Then you come back. Maybe you have some fluid, some dinner or something. Here nobody locks you.

MAGNAY: Tom Christiansen spends his days tinkering with machines. They have roll call four times a day.

TOM CHRISTENSEN, BASTOY PRISON INMATE: You can fix your own food. You can buy it in the store here. And you can be outside.

MAGNAY: Prison officers say some inmates do have trouble taking ownership of their lives, after years in stricter jail regimes elsewhere in Norway.

JOHN FROYLAND, TEAM LEADER, BASTOY PRISON: Some people come here, and they can't take it. It's too much freedom. It's overwhelming. They want to go back to the high security prison.

MAGNAY: Inmates here know they're lucky. This is as good as prison gets, probably the world over. Though even Norway's high security prisons treat their inmates with the same basic respect.

MARIANNE VALLON, HEAD OF PRISON ADMINISTRATION FOR NORWAY: We aim towards freedom. And we believe the only thing that prisons are deprived of is their liberty. So the everyday life in prison should be as much as like everyday life outside prison, because we believe that gives society the best security.

MAGNAY: And it seems to work. Just 20 percent of prisoners in Norway reoffend once they're out. While below those in the UK or U.S., where more than half of all prisoners are back behind bars within a couple of years of their release.

Bastoy Island is pretty unique, although Norway has several open systems. But none of them are quite like this. But it should give you a sense of how the Norwegians view their penal system, that it is based really on rehabilitation, rather than on retribution. The whole idea that the closer you are to the society that you're about to go back into the easier it is to reenter it.

Diana Magnay, CNN, Bastoy Island, Norway.

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