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GM Deal Collapses; The Case Against Sotomayor; North Korea's Nuclear Defiance; Minds Over Money; Nevada Governor Nixes Obama Visit; Same-Sex Marriage Map; Tanker Stealing Gas From Stations; The Road to Confirmation; Highway Money Trail
Aired May 27, 2009 - 11:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: After 18 long months in the recession wilderness, the end is near if a panel of leading economists is on track. Nine out of 10 of the experts surveyed predict the economic downturn will end this year. Most of them say this fall.
That said, the economists see a lackluster recovery, meaning very slow growth in the one to two percent range. The panel predicts the jobless rate will top out this year near 10 percent and stay above nine for at least 2010. The survey was conducted by the National Association for Business Economics.
The largest industrial bankruptcy in the United States, actually in U.S. history, looks to be just days away.
GM creditors have rejected a debt for stock deal, essentially blocking the company's plan to restructure outside Chapter 11.
CNN's Money Team is on the story.
Christine Romans is in New York for us.
And Christine, GM plans to pay workers early this week. Tell us why.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, they're paying them today.
The hourly workers are getting their paycheck a couple days earlier, today. The salaried workers get theirs tomorrow. We already had reported to you that they had told some of their suppliers that they would be making some payments early.
What this suggests, Tony, to many who are watching this is they're making these payments before a bankruptcy filing because, in bankruptcy, any of those things have to be approved by a judge and go through the court. So they want to make sure that their employees have the certainty of this paycheck here this week and that they don't have to worry about that on Friday.
Now, the company, of course, is saying don't read anything into that about the timing of our bankruptcy filing, but many of us who are watching this company are wondering if that could mean that there's a bankruptcy filing on Friday, as early as Friday, or if it's something we will see on Monday. HARRIS: Bondholders, GM bondholders have passed on Treasury's deal here. What's the deal here? Do they expect to get more from bankruptcy, Christine?
ROMANS: I'm not sure. You know, they have $27 billion they're owed by this company. On June 1st, there's a debt payment of a billion -- an interest payment of a billion dollars to these debt holders. They were offered just a 10 percent stake in the company in exchange for that $27 billion in debt, and it would put them way down on the totem pole behind the taxpayer, the government, which would receive a really big stake, maybe 70 percent of this company.
The taxpayer has put in $19.4 billion, just $4 billion, by the way, on Friday. And, you know, Maybe $50 billion more might be needed from taxpayers. That's what some of the reports, including "The New York Times," are suggesting.
I've heard anywhere from $30 billion to $50 billion more needed. But, you know, who are these bondholders? Who are these creditors?
You know, Tony, they are people like you and me. I mean, they're Indiana firefighters, for example. They are teachers and university professors.
HARRIS: Through pension funds and -- yes.
ROMANS: Pension funds. It's a very diverse mix of investors, and so you might have exposure to GM bonds and not even know it in your mutual funds or in your 401(k) or in your retirement. That's something to think of.
And you probably have exposure to the stock, too. You know, it's in any kind of mutual fund that mimics the S&P 500 or the Dow. It still has GM shares in it, and those shares would be worthless if there's a bankruptcy filing.
HARRIS: You know, we think about these bondholders as these big institutional firms, but you know what? Pension funds are big institutional investors as well. And that's a good bit of perspective there, Christine.
Appreciate it. Thank you.
ROMANS: Yes. Sure.
HARRIS: You know, it is a big day in bankruptcy court for Chrysler. The company's lawyers are there right now urging a judge to approve a plan for Chrysler to sell its core assets to Fiat. That would put Chrysler on pace to emerge from bankruptcy close to the 30- day mark, perhaps as early as next week. It's incredibly swift given the size and complexity of the company.
We have got a CNNMoney.com producer in the courtroom, and we will update you when we get any word.
Follow more on the auto industry bailout and possible bankruptcies by logging on to CNNMoney.com.
President Obama wants the Senate to act quickly to confirm his Supreme Court nominee, but conservative groups say, hold on, Mr. President. They're scouring the record of Judge Sonia Sotomayor and preparing their arguments.
The story now from CNN's Jim Acosta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUDGE SONIA SOTOMAYOR, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: I strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The case before the court of public opinion, Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court. Conservatives are already preparing their briefs.
WENDY LONG, JUDICIAL CONFIRMATION NETWORK: What we have seen since she's gotten on the bench is that she is very much a liberal judicial activist.
ACOSTA: Exhibit A, according to conservatives, is this 2005 panel discussion at Duke University where Judge Sotomayor was extolling the virtues of sitting on the appellate court.
SOTOMAYOR: The Court of Appeals is where policy is made. And I know -- and I know this is on tape and I should never say that, because we don't make law. I know.
ACOSTA: Sotomayor's critics say that's judicial activism. In other words, legislating from the bench.
For Exhibit B, conservatives refer back to 2001, when Sotomayor told a symposium at Berkeley, "I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society."
Which takes conservatives to their Exhibit C. Sotomayor sided with an appellate court decision against a group of mostly white firefighters who say the City of New Haven, Connecticut, discriminated against them when it came to promotions.
Add it all up and it's case closed for Rush Limbaugh, who's sounding a familiar battle cry.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Do I want her to fail? Yes. Do I want her to fail to get on the court? Yes. She would be a disaster on the court.
ACOSTA: Objection, says the White House. Sotomayayor's defenders say the judge has made other statements and rulings that show she is no ideologue.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: She is a rule of law person, above all. And let me say, I think this nomination process is going to be more a test of the Republican Party than of Judge Sotomayor.
ACOSTA: The president points to Sotomayor's ruling that ended a baseball strike in 1995.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Judge Sotomayor saved baseball.
TOM GOLDSTEIN, SCOTUS BLOG: She has a very balanced record. Conservatives are going to call her an activist just the way liberal groups called the last nominees activists. It's just what they do. But I think the record doesn't bear it out.
ACOSTA (on camera): Republicans have had a chance to weigh in on Judge Sotomayor in the past. Back in 1998, several GOP senators voted in favor of elevating Sotomayor to the Court of Appeals. Her nomination had been held up for a year. The reason? Some conservatives feared she would one day make it to the Supreme Court.
Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: The choice is Judge Sotomayor. So, what now?
The Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings and votes, then the full Senate votes. If approved, Sotomayor becomes the next associate justice. The House has no constitutional role in the process. Hearings can be as short as a few days or drag on for weeks or months in the case of controversial nominees.
The committee hears from friends and opponents of the nominee. Questioning usually zeroes in on controversial topics such as abortion and the death penalty.
Keeping an eye now on North Korea. The communist nation now threatening military strikes on South Korea if Seoul stops North Korean ships to check for weapons of mass destruction. This comes just days after North Korea announced it conducted a nuclear test.
Live now to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.
Barbara, good to see you.
So, Barbara, on top of all this, we're hearing reports North Korea may be restarting its reprocessing plant at Yongbyon. What are your sources telling you about that?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, let's take these one at a time, if you will.
Several sources we have spoken to in the U.S. government say at this point, they have no indication one way or the other of any restarted activity at Yongbyon, that nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. South Korean reports say that steam has been seen coming from the plant, but it would be pretty significant to restart it, because, of course, we all saw the pictures of the cooling towers several months ago being destroyed.
So, nobody confirming that one yet. We'll see if that falls into the rhetoric rather than fact column.
About North Korean military movement, U.S. military officials say they don't see North Korea doing anything other than what it normally does in terms of positioning its forces. The nuclear test that happened earlier this week is really the focus of concern. That's the real deal, by all accounts.
They're waiting to get the absolute confirmation. They're waiting to get technical analysis of what the yield was, how big that nuclear underground test really was. But the unanswered question, what are North Korea's intentions in all of this, all of the rhetoric, all of the statements? What are they really up to -- Tony.
HARRIS: Well, just how concerning is all of this that you just discussed to Pentagon officials?
STARR: Well, it is concerning from the standpoint that they talk about destabilization. This is, you know, a hair trigger issue in that part of the world on the Korean peninsula.
Nobody wants to see something start unexpectedly that people can't back away from just a few miles between Seoul, South Korea, and DMZ. So, you know, the idea is to keep things as calm and stable as they can.
It's one of the reasons -- here at the Pentagon, what every official will tell you is that the focus is on diplomacy and the United Nations and the six-party talks, and all of these people getting together one more time to try and convince North Korea to give up on its nuclear program. We'll see if any of that works.
HARRIS: Yes, good point.
At the Pentagon, Barbara Starr for us.
Barbara, thank you.
STARR: Sure.
HARRIS: So, what's next for North Korea? More nuclear tests? More international outrage?
And amid protests, California's Supreme Court upholds the state's ban on same-sex marriage. What the ruling means for one California couple who said "I do" before the ban.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: All right, '80s flashback for you. Our reason for putting "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" on your TV in the middle of a newscast will become clear, I promise.
You remember Ferris's best friend Cameron and his dad's prized Ferrari that Ferris drove around on his day off? Poor Cameron. He sent the car, the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California crashing through a huge glass window.
Well, Cameron's house was not a movie set. It's a real house, and it is up for sale today.
The 5,300 square-foot home went on the market last week for $2.3 million. It's in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. The original owners were car buffs and used the glass pavilion to showcase their wheels.
So, there you go.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: In California, people on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate flooded the streets after a court upheld a voter- approved ban yesterday.
Here's CNN's Dan Simon from San Francisco.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They streamed out of the courthouse holding the thick 136-page ruling, quickly scanning the pages. Moments later, hundreds of gay rights activists began chanting in unison.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!
SIMON: "Shame on you!" their words directed at the state Supreme Court justices who upheld Proposition 8. By a 6-1 margin, the court ruled it does not violate the California Constitution. That means same-sex marriage is still banned in the country's largest state.
DANA GEORGE, SAME-SEX MARRIAGE SUPPORTER: It's absolutely outrageous that in the United States of America, at this day and age, that the Constitution is able to deny the rights of Americans.
SIMON: But for the 18,000 same-sex couples who got married prior to Prop 8, the court ruled those marriages will remain valid, grandfathered in.
Kathleen White is among that group.
KATHLEEN WHITE, SAME-SEX MARRIAGE SUPPORTER: It's nice that my marriage is still intact, but that's not the point. The point is that everybody should have the same civil rights across the board. I mean, to me, this is the equivalent of saying -- putting a measure on the ballot that says people over 50 can't vote.
SIMON: Not surprising here in San Francisco, Prop 8 defenders were dwarfed by gay rights advocates. But for supporters of the ballot measure, this is a day to celebrate.
NADIA CHAYKA, SAME-SEX MARRIAGE OPPONENT: I want my children to know that there is a mom, a woman, and there's a man, a father. And that's where children come from, from that union. And I don't want them to be any more confused about where do children come from?
SIMON (on camera): One of the leading gay rights organizations in California is already vowing to put this issue back on the ballot, so it's quite possible that California voters could weigh again on this marriage issue as early as next year.
Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: All right. Let's talk about it a bit more.
Joining me, Chloe Harris and Frankie Frankeny. They were married last October, right before the ban known as Proposition 8 was put to a vote.
Ladies, good to see you. Thanks for your time. We appreciate it.
FRANKIE FRANKENY, MARRIED IN OCTOBER: Hello.
CHLOE HARRIS, MARRIED IN OCTOBER: Thanks for having us.
Let's continue the conversation here.
Chloe, let me start with you. Did you expect yesterday's decision?
C. HARRIS: I think we did. You know, we saw the hearing live on the jumbotron in March at City Hall, here in San Francisco. And we knew the predictions. And so I think we got what we expected. It doesn't make it any easier to take.
T. HARRIS: Frankie, what do you say to those who say the will of the people in your state was upheld yesterday?
FRANKENY: Oh, wow. Well, I believe in the will of the people, but I also don't believe that there are -- I believe that there are certain rights that should never be voted upon. And I think that marriage is certainly one of those things. And I don't think anybody who voted for 8 would want to have their marriages voted on by the public at large.
T. HARRIS: Yes.
Boy, Chloe, let me get back to you as we look at some of your pictures here. Nice pictures.
How conflicted are you, Chloe? You're a married couple with rights and privileges afforded any married couple, but many in your community can't marry.
C. HARRIS: Yes. It was the first thing that struck me yesterday, when we did hear the decision. And the night before we kind of wondered -- I think we even Twittered about it -- you know, could this be our last night as a married couple?
And you know, there was some relief to know that we were still married, of course. You know? But it just doesn't feel right to know that some of our closest friends can't get married.
I think we all deserve the right. We're all entitled to the right to marry the person that we love. And I don't think we're any more deserving of that right than any of those others that now can't marry because this ban has been upheld.
FRANKENY: And we're also entitled to those rights in California. We're not entitled to the 1,138 federal rights that go along with being federally recognized.
T. HARRIS: Yes. And Frankie, one more for you.
And Chloe, I'd like you to respond to this as well.
The leader of a church in Huntington Beach is quoted in the "LA Times" today as being pleased with the court's decision -- quoting a bit of it now -- "... especially in the increasingly lax moral climate that we're in."
I don't necessarily want to you respond to that, but if you choose to, that's fine. But generally speaking, what's your opinion of your opponents?
C. HARRIS: Would you like to take that?
FRANKENY: I'll take that one. As far as the lax moral climate, I mean, go back to the Spanish inquisition, I would say, where our morals are a lot better nowadays. And I think it just depends on how you look at it. And I think that's just a way of framing things out of fear.
But what was the second part of the question?
T. HARRIS: It was just, generally speaking, what's your view of your opponents?
FRANKENY: I just think that they come from a place of fear, a fear of change. What we're asking for right now is no different than what interracial couples were asking for years back, and African- Americans before that, and women in the suffrage.
Historically, people just don't -- they're afraid of change. A lot of fears come around that, and when they in time realize that those fears aren't necessarily founded, or at least enough people, then things change. And I think people realize that it's going to be OK.
C. HARRIS: Well, in terms of our opponents, though, I think they have their opinion. They have their creed and their spirituality. We have our own. I don't think though that their opinion and their spirituality ought to be written into our Constitution.
FRANKENY: Exactly.
T. HARRIS: Yes.
One more quick one here. Here's what's not clear to me just yet in the ruling. How do you recognize a marriage of some gay couples and not others? How concerned are you that your marriage will be overturned maybe by a federal court?
C. HARRIS: Go ahead.
FRANKENY: It's just part of the bigger process. I mean, we're prepared for it if it happens, and we hope it doesn't happen.
There's nobody out there that wants to ever be forcibly divorced. That's just not something that you look forward to, and you try not to think about it, you try to remain positive. And I think that in the end, what we want are federal rights.
We want the right to be recognized when we go to Texas to visit our families. You know, even if we're married in California, we'll go home for Christmas and we won't be recognized as a married couple in Texas. We won't have the rights even to see each other in the hospital there if we were to have a car wreck on the way from visiting one family to another. So we're looking for the bigger picture, I think.
T. HARRIS: Chloe, the fight continues?
C. HARRIS: The fight continues. Definitely.
T. HARRIS: OK.
Chloe, appreciate it.
Frankie, thank you for your time -- both of you.
C. HARRIS: Thanks so much.
T. HARRIS: Supporters of Proposition 8 are calling yesterday's ruling a victory for traditional marriage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. MILES MCPHERSON, FOUNDER, ROCK CHURCH: I'm satisfied with the ruling. The people voted. We had over seven million people support traditional marriage.
And for the record, we need to understand that 29 states have voted on this issue, and 29 states have voted to uphold traditional marriage. The only states that have guy marriage, it's done by the legislature or the courts. The people have always voted 100 percent for this issue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
T. HARRIS: So, how do other states really stack up when it comes to same-sex marriages and partnerships? Our own Josh Levs is here. He's working with an interactive map that shows how each state stands. We'll get to Josh in just a couple of minutes.
Cops in a small Texas town accused of literal highway robbery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It happened on the highway, and they were robbed. And it just so happened the people had uniforms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
T. HARRIS: So, wait a minute. How did confiscated cash end up in the pockets of city employees? CNN investigates the money trail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
T. HARRIS: And turning now to the carnage in Pakistan. Gunmen detonated a van packed with explosives. The blast demolishing an entire police building in the city of Lahore.
At least 24 people are confirmed dead. More than 250 others wounded. Most victims are police and staffers.
Authorities say the van broke through a barrier and exploded amid a shootout between guards and militants. Three suspects are now under arrest. The attack comes as Pakistan's military intensifies a battle to root out Taliban militants from the northwestern part of the country.
A new threat from North Korea. The reclusive nation now warning of military action against the South if it tries to search any North Korean ships. It is the latest in a week of defiant actions from the communist regime.
Our Tom Foreman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another nuclear test, more rockets fired, and once again international outrage. This time, even North Korea's closest ally, China, has joined the United States and other countries to say quit rattling the nuclear sword.
OBAMA: We will work with our friends and allies to stand up to this behavior.
FOREMAN: But North Korea's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, has proven he can stand up to pressure, too. Despite last year's dramatic destruction of part of a nuclear plant intended to show his willingness to disarm, despite years of sanctions and condemnation...
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil.
FOREMAN: ... he has charted his country's nuclear course defiantly. Why?
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: No one is sure.
FOREMAN: But international affairs analysts like Michael O'Hanlon, with the nonpartisan policy group the Brookings Institution, says Kim Jong-il may see himself winning a nuclear trifecta. First, with each test he improves his nation's actual nuclear capability. Second, the stronger his nuclear arsenal, the more he can demand and trade from nations that want him to give it up food, economic assistance, other forms of aid.
O'HANLON: If they wanted to reform their economy and help their people, I believe there would be a lot more aid forthcoming. But they seem to believe that they get more help by essentially blackmailing us.
FOREMAN: And third, by giving his military more power, he secures more of their loyalty, especially important if his health is failing as rapidly as recent photographs suggest.
(on camera): North Korea remains so secretive, even the best guesses about motives are still just guesses. But this we know: Less than three years ago, Kim Jong-il tested his first nuclear weapon, and despite all the international concerns, threats and efforts to shut that program down, he is testing them still.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
T. HARRIS: Nevada's governor wants an apology from President Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JIM GIBBONS (R), NEVADA: This was a phony setup by the administration to try to quell the anger that has come because this president spoke ill of Las Vegas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
T. HARRIS: Wow. What the president said that has the governor so angry, and why the governor is refusing a meet-and-greet with the commander in chief.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: You know, in these difficult economic times, many people are turning to Aaron Patzer. He was 15 when he started saving and investing his own money. Now he's helping others save and invest through his popular personal finance Web site, mint.com. Have you heard of it? We introduce you to this young entrepreneur in this week's "Minds Over Money."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) AARON PATZER, FOUNDER & CEO, MINT.COM: Mint is a free personal finance web application. It links to all of your checking and savings accounts, your credit cards, your loans, your investments. Pulls all that information together in one place. And it shows you how much you have, how much you owe, how much you spend on gas and groceries last month. It will show you your investment performance and your bill reminders and alerts.
I think the biggest mistake that young people make, they don't really pay attention to where they're spending. And so they get a paycheck and then all of a sudden they realize, I'm earning a lot of money but I'm just not saving any of it. And so simply having that feedback mechanism of how many times you go shopping each month or how many times you go to Starbucks or, wow, I've spent $450 on restaurants this month but only $70 on groceries. There's something wrong there.
Talk to your kids about money. Talk to them about saving. And I would say make them earn the money that they have. It really comes down to, save money, invest it so that it grows and protect your downside.
The government needs to be as financially responsible as every individual needs to be. They need to spend less than they earn, is one of the three principles that mint has for personal finance. And in the case of the government, it means you spend less than you take in, in tax revenue. It's as simple as that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Hey, did we put the -- oh there, perfect. Perfect. Let's take a moment here and remind you of cnnmoney.com. There you see it, $1.2 billion for summer jobs. OK, that's the headline story at cnnmoney.com. While you're there, you can get the latest financial news and analysis. Again, cnnmoney.com is the address.
Quickly now, let's sweep you to the New York Stock Exchange for a look at the big board. We are, what, into the fourth hour of the trading day. And as you can see, the Dow is down 15 points. The Nasdaq is up 12. So we've got a mixed day going with the markets. We'll follow the numbers throughout the day with Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange.
President Obama on a western trip to promote clear energy and raise money. Here is a look at his agenda today. At 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, the president tours the solar electric plant at Dulles Air Force Base near Las Vegas, along with Nevada Senator Harry Reid. After that, the president makes remarks on energy. And later tonight attends a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser.
The president may feel a little chilly while he's in Nevada. He s getting the cold shoulder from the governor. State leaders are still upset over remarks made by the president. They say those comments cost the state money. National political correspondent Jessica Yellin explains. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thanks, but no thanks. That was Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons response to a White House invitation to greet President Obama when he lands in Las Vegas.
GIBBONS: This was a phony setup by the administration to try to quell the anger that has come because this president spoke ill of Las Vegas.
YELLIN: It all goes back to these comments the president made in February, admonishing suffering banks not to blow federal bailout money on junkets.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You can't get corporate jets. You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime.
YELLIN: The governor insists that comment drove businesses to cancel Vegas convention plans. In March, the month after the president's remarks, the city saw 18 percent fewer conventions and almost 12 percent fewer visitors than during the same time last year. Of course, the nation was also suffering a severe recession at that point and tourism fell nationwide.
Still, Gibbons wants the president to apologize and he asked for a sit down meeting with him. Instead, he was invited to greet Mr. Obama at the airport. He said no.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I would suggest that if the governor wants -- has a specific point that he would like to make to the president of the United States, he's landing in a few hours in Las Vegas and apparently has been invited to make that case.
YELLIN: A spokesman for the Convention and Visitors Authority tells CNN, the president's remarks "didn't help" but said they were part of a "much bigger picture."
YELLIN (on camera): Governor Gibbons is up for re-election next year, and a number of polls show if the vote were held now, a majority of Nevadans would not re-elect him. So, the governor will be in a tough fight to keep his job.
Jessica Yellin, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Let's talk about same-sex marriage in America. Did you know the laws differ from state to state and seem to be quickly changing. Josh Levs is here with a bit of an interactive map that shows us where each state stands right now.
Josh, good to see you again.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, too.
You know, it's interesting because you know we've seen those red versus blue states so many times.
HARRIS: We have.
LEVS: That's why this struck me in a way. This is that same concept, except we're zooming in on one issue. Let's take a look here. It's up at cnn.com. It's tough to miss. We're going to zoom way in. I know it looks pretty white to you. But watch what happens when I click a state.
You can click any state in the nation and it tells you what their laws are in that state. So you've got several over here in -- for example, we've got New York. Here we've got New Hampshire. Let's go down over here a little bit. You can see New Jersey. And all along the entire West Coast. You've got Washington labeled, Oregon.
Now, throughout here, it's pretty much all the same because the laws, in general, for most of the country, do remain the same. When you look at a map like this, it also shows you why Iowa was such a big deal. Kind of puncturing the whole Midwest area. Iowa allowing same- sex marriage.
So, Tony, this is one way that cnn.com is helping break down and follow what's happening in every single state of the nation. And this gets updated as the laws change.
HARRIS: OK, well let's do this. Let's make this interactive for folks. Where can people go if they, themselves, want to find out where their state stands on this issue?
LEVS: Yes, I'll tell you something. There's a feature not a lot of people realize is there but it's at the main page and I really encourage people to use it. Let's zoom back in. We're going to go to the main page, cnn.com. Take a look up here where it says hot topics. One of the hot topics is same-sex marriage.
And what I really like is, the folks at cnn.com will assemble tons of stories for you. So you click on same-sex marriage as a hot topic. It brings you lots of stuff right here. Also I'll just mention quickly, tons of i-Reports coming in.
And you know we were doing Twitter earlier today. I think this one's kind of funny. I got this. "I'm glad Obama didn't pick one of these California supreme court judges. They can't seem to make up their minds." Kind of neutral on the issue of gay marriage, just making a joke about the two issues coming out at the same time.
HARRIS: Yes. All right, go ahead, pimp everything. You've got Twitter. You've got Facebook. You've got MySpace. You've got -- well, you've got all the Internet, don't you?
LEVS: I'm not on MySpace.
HARRIS: You're everywhere, aren't you? You're not?
LEVS: I'm on FaceBook and Twitter. But you can thank our great producer Andreas (ph) for that. He hooked it up. HARRIS: Thank you, Josh.
LEVS: You are too. You're on Facebook, right?
HARRIS: Oh, I am not.
LEVS: He's on Facebook now, Tony, (INAUDIBLE).
HARRIS: I am not. That's a plain-out deception there.
California's battle over same-sex marriage may not be over. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger answers your questions about the court decision and a lot more. Our Nicole Lapin is hosting the conversation with the governor. So be sure to catch it live online at cnn.com/live today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, that's, of course, 2:00 Pacific.
Talk about a gas guzzler. Crooks caught on camera stealing more than just a tankful. They're filling up entire tankers?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. Nicole is back, and she is tracking some of the other stories making headlines. What do you have for us, Nic?
NICOLE LAPIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right. Let's get an update on swine flu first, shall we?
HARRIS: OK.
LAPIN: The number of swine flu related deaths worldwide has reached 100. The news comes after health officials confirm two more people in New York have died. Emergency rooms continue, Tony, to be packed. And officials say that people with underlying medical conditions, like diabetes, should be especially cautious. It's estimated that more than 12,000 people have been infected with the virus.
Also making a lot of news right now, former world heavy weight champ Mike Tyson is planning his little daughter's funeral today. Four year old Exodus Tyson died after she got a cord from a treadmill wrapped around her neck. Phoenix police call the incident a tragic accident.
And in Florida, Tony, you got to see this. Somebody is stealing hundreds, sometimes thousands of gallons of gasoline from the local gas station.
HARRIS: They're not (INAUDIBLE) now.
LAPIN: They're not using those pilly (ph) little canister. They're using a tanker to do it. Here's our affiliate station WFLA.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're watching a crime in progress at the Liberty Gas Station on State Route 52 in Hudson. Crooks took liberties to pump their own gas. Not from the pumps, but from the underground tanks into a tanker truck. Station owners only found out about it when a customer prepaid for $20 in gas.
JIGAR PATEL, GAS STATION CLERK: I went to pump, there was nothing coming out. So we were surprised. Like, what happened? Like we thought the pumps might not working.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A check with a large stick dipped into the underground tanks confirmed they were dry and a leak was not the cause.
PATEL: We got the surveillance camera. So we checked in that. And then we know like, yes, there was a tanker coming up and they were sucking up all the gas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tanker has a red cab with large letters on the side. The tank portion is silver. This station is one of four hit in the past four weeks in Paslo (ph) County. The crooks took 2,500 gallons here. And just down the road at this BP station in Landolakes (ph), they got away with 8,000 gallons. Paslo sheriff deputies are having a hard time tracking them down because the thefts happened when the stations were closed, when deliveries are not uncommon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, if someone saw a gas tanker at a gasoline service station, they wouldn't think anything of it. They would think -- they would probably think that the gas was going from tanker into the ground, not the opposite, which was actually probably occurring.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Hudson station had just taken delivery of gas four days before the thieves pumped it out. At the Liberty Station in Landolakes, new locks are now on the storage tank lids. Same goes for the Liberty Station in Hudson.
PATEL: They should be caught and, yes, they should be punished.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAPIN: Yes, they should be punished. They don't mess around. Our affiliate station is hard at work there, Tony.
HARRIS: OK. Here's the thing. I know we've been given the bum's rush here, but I can't let you go without saying again that you are hosting a conversation with California's governor. The time again?
LAPIN: A 30-minute conversation.
HARRIS: What's the time again?
LAPIN: 5:00 Eastern Time on cnn.com/live.
HARRIS: E-mails and everything else involved in that conversation, right?
LAPIN: It is a big conversation. So people dug up the questions they want me to ask the governor. And I will do just that.
HARRIS: Is there an opportunity for folks to Facebook you, MySpace you, Twitter you, blog you, to get more questions?
LAPIN: I don't -- no you, because that's a hazard if you get involved in all of that. But everybody else, yes. It's on dig.com and cnn.com/live.
HARRIS: Thank you. Let's get an "Energy Fix."
You know, President Obama has made energy and the environment a top priority for his administration, so where does his pick for the Supreme Court stand on those issues? Cnnmoney.com's Poppy Harlow takes a look in our "Energy Fix" report from New York.
Poppy, good to see you.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Tony, well, we just have to look back at her track record. Judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote the opinion in a pretty big environmental case back in 2007. The name of that case, River Keeper versus the EPA. And in it the Clean Water Act states that power plants have to use what they call the best technology available to protect fish that live in the rivers and streams near these plants. But the EPA under the Bush administration maintain the cost of that technology to be considered in that decision.
Well, as a result, environmentalists sued and Judge Sotomayor agreed with the environmentalists, saying there's nothing about cost here and she said the cost benefit analysis doesn't weigh in. Well, that case went all of the way up to the Supreme Court. Just last month the high court reversed her decision in a 6-3 ruling. Now the Supreme Court said in its decision it's reasonable to take cost into account when looking at this case and left it up to the EPA to issue some rules on that cost benefit analysis. So, her decision being overturned by the highest court in the nation, Tony.
HARRIS: All right. I was wondering if there's a better way to ask this next question I have for you because no one would consider themselves anti-environment. But does Sotomayor's ruling in that case suggest that she is pro-environment?
HARLOW: Right. I mean, you know, it's tough. We posed it to an environmental law professor at Tulane who said that basically you could read this, just her decision there, as being a literalist. She read the statute. It didn't say anything about a cost benefit analysis. So she ruled as is.
Environmentalists are encouraged, though, by this decision and some others. The group known as Earth Justice calls her well qualified for the position. Also says that decision, the River Keeper versus EPA I told you about, suggests that what she's going to bring is what they call an invaluable perspective to environmental issues on the Supreme Court level. But Sotomayor did -- and we should mention this -- join in an opinion -- she didn't write it, but she joined in an opinion against the Environmental Defense Fund in a 2004 case, Tony, involving a New York smog case. So she did rule against the EDF there.
HARRIS: We've got a lot to sort through with this nominee. All right. Poppy, good to see you. Thank you.
HARLOW: Sure.
HARRIS: Courting God. A breakdown of the religious beliefs of the Supreme Court and how it might change if Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: If confirmed, Sonia Sotomayor will bring more ethnic diversity to the court. But when it comes to religion, the picture is quite different. Josh is back with that perspective on the story.
Josh.
LEVS: That's interesting, Tony, isn't it?
HARRIS: Yes, it is. It is. We were talking about it a lot this morning.
LEVS: Yes, we got a lot to pack in here and, you know, we've been talking a lot about this diversity.
Let's go straight to this graphic. I want you to see it. If she is confirmed, this will be the breakdown on the court. Six Catholics, one Protestant, two Jewish justices. Now, let's go to the next screen to show you how different that is from America. This is a majority Protestant nation. Fifty-one percent. Roman Catholic, about a quarter. Then Jewish, about 1.7 percent. So the way it breaks down, pretty different.
Now, to help you understand who's what, we've got two more quick graphics we'll go through here. It just shows you how these different justices identify. Those would be the six, if she joins them. There are five currently.
Now let's go to the last grid and you'll see the other three. There you go. Stevens, the 89 years old, but one Protestant on the court, just as Breyer and Ginsburg are both Jewish.
So, Tony, it's just interesting to see how this plays out and, you know, it's another slice of that diversity. And this way you've got a Catholic court.
HARRIS: Absolutely. OK, Josh, appreciate it. Thank you.
LEVS: Thanks.
HARRIS: Crime pays for this man's secretaries. We will tell you how a prosecutor took confiscated cash and gave it to his office staff. He faces some tough questions from our Gary Tuchman.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: You know, it has been called highway robbery. We've reported on questions about money and property seized from people traveling along a stretch of Texas highway. Now there are questions about where that money goes, like in the bank accounts of secretaries. National correspondent Gary Tuchman follows the highway money trail.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It literally paid to be loyal to this man, the former district attorney in Jim Wells Country, Texas, who was extremely generous to three of his secretaries he says watched his back.
JOE FRANK GARZA, FORMER DISTRICT ATTORNEY: They were my eyes and ears in the community.
TUCHMAN: How generous was Joe Frank Garza? He admits that for years he wrote checks totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars that likely at least doubled their salaries. Much of that money came from U.S. Highway 281, near Alice, Texas, where very often drug couriers, illegal immigrants and the people transporting them would rather escape into the brush than ever see their vehicles again. And that's just fine with the sheriff's department in Jim Wells County. Deputies bring the vehicles to this lot, auction them off and the department keeps the money. Oscar Lopez, the longtime county sheriff.
TUCHMAN (on camera): If you didn't get that money, what would happen to your department?
SHERIFF OSCAR LOPEZ, JIM WELLS COUNTY, TEXAS: We'd be in bicycles -- riding in bicycles. And I'm not saying that in fun here. It's the truth.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Under Texas law, cops are permitted to seize certain valuables during investigations of possible serious crimes and their bosses are then permitted to spend the forfeiture money for law enforcement purposes.
As for the D.A., his office also gets a cut of the money. All of this raises the question. Doesn't this create an enormous temptation to seize valuables from citizens who are not suspected of serious crimes?
JUAN HINOJOSA, TEXAS STATE SENATE: To me that's just a right theft. Highway robbery.
TUCHMAN: Juan Hinojosa is a Texas state senator. He was driving down U.S. 281 in Brooks (ph) County, not far from the city of Alice. Police gave him a warning, not a ticket, for weaving and having windows too darkly tinted. He said the accusations were untrue.
HINOJOSA: The whole purpose of the stop was trying to see if they could find cash in my truck. And one of the things they were doing is profiling people.
TUCHMAN: Check out this police videotape. Another Latino man, this one not a state senator, stopped on 281 because his front license plate was on his dashboard, not on the bumper.
OFFICER: Large amounts of currency in the car?
TUCHMAN: Aviar (ph) Gonzalez had about $10,000. Most of it, he says, to pay for funeral arrangements and a tombstone for a dying aunt. He was charged with money laundering and deputies confiscated his cash. His attorney said there was no evidence of such a crime and sued.
MALCOM GREENSTEIN, GONZALEZ'S ATTORNEY: It happened on the highway and they were robbed. And it just so happened the people had uniforms.
TUCHMAN: The county D.A. decided to settle the case. Gonzalez got his money back and $110,000 in damages. But the sheriff continues to stand by his men.
LOPEZ: They did everything correctly, sir.
TUCHMAN: So why did the D.A. agree to the settlement?
GARZA: I said, look, it's taking too much time. Let's just get rid of it.
TUCHMAN: Even without that money, Garza's office took in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. He got 30 percent of the county's forfeiture money.
GARZA: When I was there, there wasn't a single item in that office, down to the last pen there, that was paid with county money. It was all forfeiture money.
TUCHMAN: Under the law, a D.A. can use his share of the seized assets for "official purposes." So that's what makes an accusation like this man, who beat Joe Frank Garza in his re-election bid, so notable.
ARMANDO BARRERA, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Most of the money that was used by him was for three secretaries.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Most of his forfeiture money?
BARRERA: Most of it. It was approximately $3.8 million.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Over an eight year period. It's a strong accusation.
GARZA: I saw nothing wrong with it.
TUCHMAN: Which the former D.A. doesn't dispute. Although he does say he also gave smaller amounts to other employees.
TUCHMAN (on camera): The new D.A. tells us that the records show that you gave hundreds of thousands of dollars over eight years to three of your secretaries.
GARZA: Could be.
TUCHMAN: And do you think that's proper?
GARZA: As far as I'm concerned it was. No, I take it back. As far as I'm concerned, it is.
TUCHMAN: The secretaries who worked with the old district attorney no longer work in the district attorney's office. The new D.A. has new secretaries and he says they won't be getting extra pay from the forfeiture fund, no matter how good they are.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): We were not able to talk to any of those secretaries on camera. We did ask their old boss if giving them all that money is truly an official purpose as envisioned under state law.
GARZA: There's no definition. Nobody can tell you what an official purpose is.
TUCHMAN: Indeed, even the new D.A. agrees the law is ambiguous. And that's the main reason why there's so much controversy with forfeitures here and elsewhere in the lone star state.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Alice, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: We are pushing forward now with the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM with Don Lemon.
