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Polish President Killed in Plane Crash; Schools Cheating for Students; Georgia Keep Close Eye on Standardized Testing
Aired April 10, 2010 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight -- a country brought to its knees when much of its government, including its president, is wiped out in a tragic plane crash. As a nation mourns, investigators want to know why the pilot disobeyed orders not to land in dense fog.
We're live in Warsaw.
And how old is too old to be an intern? In this economy, some say there is no age limit. Older Americans tonight tell us why they're taking leaps down the corporate ladder just to get back in the game.
Lots of gridiron battles fought won and lost in this stadium where the hole in roof was put there, they say, for God to watch. It is being blown to smithereens tomorrow, and the pre-teen who's pressing the button is on this program.
Good evening, everyone. I'm Don Lemon.
Poland today lost a big part of its government in one terrible event. President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and nearly 100 top Polish officials, including senior military leaders, died in a plane crash this morning in western Russia. The delegation had gone to Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of a horrific event in World War II, the massacre of 20,000 Polish POWs in the village of Katyn.
Terrorism does not appear to be a factor in today's crash but weather does. Russian and Polish authorities say the Polish military plane took off from Warsaw and crashed while approaching the airport in Smolensk, Russia, in heavy fog. The pilot apparently ignored warning not to land. The tragedy has stunned the Polish community in the U.S. The Polish ambassador in Washington said President Lech Kaczynski embodied the spirit of Polish independence in west in the post-Soviet world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT KUPIECKI, POLISH AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: President Kaczynski represented the generation of freedom, the freedom connected permanently with the legacy of Solidarity movement which in 1989 brought about the freedom, democracy, and prosperity to Poland. So, the greatest legacy of the late President Kaczynski is the one of freedom and is the one of creating foundations for enormous political, economic success and prosperity in Poland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: As you can imagine, people in Poland are in shock and they are mourning tonight, a huge outpouring of grief all day outside the presidential palace.
And CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is live in Warsaw tonight.
Fred, who is in charge of the government now? That is the big question.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, in charge of the government is the speaker of parliament, the man called Bronislaw Komorowski, who has assumed the role of the acting president until a new one is elected.
What's going on in Poland right now is that the acting president has two weeks to announce new presidential elections. And those will have to then take place 60 days after they have been announced. So, what was going to be happening in Poland anyway is that there were going to be presidential elections by October. Now, of course, those have to happen a lot earlier.
But I do want to talk a little bit about the scene that you have here. I am, of course, standing right in front of the presidential palace here in Warsaw. And, really, people have been pouring into here for a very, very long time today, about 100,000 people I would say were here at the peak time.
And let me just get out of your way here for a second, Don. And you can see that there are still a lot of people here in front of this presidential palace, a lot of them have laid down candles, have lit candles. Others have laid down flowers.
And I can tell you from speaking with people, from seeing them here also at the palace, that many of them are in utter grief. They were laying in each other's arms, some were in tears, others just sort of staring blankly into the night. So, certainly quite a surreal scene here in front of the presidential palace here in Warsaw.
And even though it's 1:00 a.m. in the morning right now in Warsaw, really, there is still a very, very large crowd as you can see in front of this presidential palace. And that's just to give you a little bit of a sense of how big and how widespread the grief is here in this country after that tragic incident, Don.
LEMON: Frederik Pleitgen in Warsaw -- Frederik, thank you very much.
Let's go to Washington, D.C., now and talk about what President Obama said about this tragedy. He issued a statement. He said, "Today's loss is devastating to Poland, to the United States, and to the world. President Kaczynski was a distinguished statesman who played a key role in the Solidarity movement and he was widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated to advancing freedom and human dignity." A steady stream of people have been showing up at the Polish embassy in Washington to pay their respects. And that's where we find CNN's Sandra Endo -- Sandra.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, here in front of the Polish embassy, we've seen a stream of people come all day long to pay their respects. They've been leaving candles, notes, flowers, all in memory of their late president and the tragedy of this fatal crash. The embassy has also opened its doors to the public today and all through the week so that people can express their sympathies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I came out because my family is from Poland, my grandfather fought in World War II. And during the war, they had to leave Poland. I've been to Poland, studying there, and I came out just because -- to pay respect, just to -- it's a tragedy what happened.
ENDO: Here inside the embassy, a very somber mood. People are waiting in line, waiting to express their grief and sorrow, by writing messages in a condolence book. And this is the first day of an official week of mourning -- Don.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. Sandra, thank you very much for that.
CNN is stepping into the classroom for a major focus on education this week. Today, teachers unions from across the country protested in Washington, D.C. They're not fans of the Obama administration's Race to the Top program in which schools compete for funding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm here because I've got a major problem with what's going on in public education. I need to defend public education so that it's accessible to young people of the future. The problem that we have in Washington, D.C., is symbolic of what's going on all around the country, a massive effort to privatize, a massive effort to get away from education.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, a lot of critics of federal education programs say there's too much focus on standardized tests. Students in Georgia will have to endure those tests over the next few weeks, and there's going to be a whole lot of scrutiny after allegations that some schools fudged the numbers in the past.
I looked into it right here in Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (voice-over): Mikole Harden is worried.
(on camera): Are you the only parent who's concerned about the reforms?
MIKOLE HARDEN, PARENT: No, by all means.
LEMON: Someone may have changed the answers on the standardized tests at his daughter's school last year.
(on camera): But you have concerns.
HARDEN: Of course, I have concerns. Like any other parent, I have concerns. I hope that there's no cheating. If it is cheating, there needs to be a punishment for it.
LEMON: And he's not alone. The state of Georgia is investigating 10 percent of its elementary and middle schools, 191 of them, because of moderate to severe concern over test results in 2009.
(on camera): When the answer sheets like these were scored, the computer scanners could tell when the bubbles were erased and the answers changed.
(voice-over): Kathleen Mathers heads the state audit.
KATHLEEN MATHERS, GEORGIA GOV.'S OFFICE OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT: It's not just that someone had changed a bunch of answers. It was that when they changed answers, they got the answer right as a result of that change.
LEMON: Classes with an unusually high number of these changes were flagged.
MATHERS: It's sort of like having a blizzard in Fort Lauderdale in the middle of July, you know? In theory, it could happen. It's just so incredibly unlikely that you really need a substantial explanation.
LEMON: Usually, when we talk about cheating the focus is on kids. In Georgia, the finger is being pointed at teachers and administrators.
CNN obtained affidavits in the case of two administrators at an elementary school in Dekalb County accuse of tampering with tests in 2008.
Former principal, James Berry, admitted they went into an office and began to erase answer sheets and change answers.
Doretha Alexander, the assistant principal, says she read the answers to Berry. "He needed for 26 students to pass for us to make AYP." AYP is Adequate Yearly Progress, an improvement standard set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools that repeatedly failed to meet AYP faced sanctions.
Berry was charged with public records fraud, paid a fine, and is on probation. Alexander was transferred and completed community service.
MATHERS: We have done some more to equip (ph) our monitors.
LEMON: Today, Mathers is working with the state school board to keep it from happening again.
MATHERS: As a former teacher, I would say we're better than that.
LEMON: Georgia students are now taking the 2010 CRCT tests under new guidelines. Watching over the whole process, state test monitors, aimed at making sure these tests can be trusted.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Standardized testing is just one of the topics that's sure to come up next weekend in our special "Fixing America's Schools." It's a town hall meeting with parents, students and teachers from across the United States, plus Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
If you have questions for him, make sure to tweet it to me or send it to me through Facebook or MySpace. Look for this program, "Fixing America's Schools." It's next Saturday, 7:00 p.m. Eastern, and next Sunday, at 6:00 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN.
Republicans have just held a straw poll -- a little hint as to who might lead the 2012 election.
Also, the RNC chairman admits he's made mistakes. We're going live to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference down in New Orleans.
Plus, you probably know about California's problems with earthquakes, right? We carried one live right here on CNN last weekend. But there's another region of the U.S. that could see a quake that could be even more powerful than the ones on the west coast. And it could impact you no matter where you live.
Also, it's time for you to weigh in. Make sure you join our conversation. Go to the social networking sites @DonLemonCNN. If you send it @DonLemon, I won't get your message -- @DonLemonCNN. And we'll get some of your comments on the air.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Gingrich, Palin, Steele, a who's who among Republicans, all part of today's Southern Leadership Conference happening in New Orleans. Just a few minutes ago, we got an idea of who the party faithful like to -- they might like to lead the GOP in the 2012 election. Yes, Saturday night, straw poll night.
CNN political producer Peter Hamby is in New Orleans. He joins us now live.
OK. So, I'm going to see who I think -- I'm just looking at the numbers here. I'm seeing if it's kind of what I thought. OK. So the winner is? PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: The winner is Mitt Romney by one vote. He beat Texas Congressman Ron Paul by one vote in the straw poll.
This was a sampling of a pretty small group of people, it's about 1,800 folks voted in this. Romney got 439 votes. Ron Paul, I believe, got 438.
You can see the results behind me. Sarah Palin who really brought the house down here yesterday finished with a tie with Newt Gingrich for third place. Each of them got 18 percent of the vote on the straw poll.
LEMON: OK. Eighteen percent? All right, that's --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: -- at first when I looked at it, I thought it was 18 votes. But she got 18 percent.
HAMBY: Right.
LEMON: Do we have some sound that we want to hear from Sarah Palin here? No. OK.
So, listen, I'm wondering just from -- I have to go back and look but from the straw polls that are taken at this event each time they've had it. I wonder who has come out to actually be the person to run. Do you know -- do you know that information, last time they had it?
HAMBY: Yes. It's not very reliable predictor of future success to get the presidential nomination.
In 2006, the last time they had this, former Senate Leader Bill Frist, who was at that point, you know, mentioned as a 2008 presidential candidate. He won the straw poll when it was in Tennessee, his home state. He didn't even run for president.
But, you know, George W. Bush, he won it before he ran for president.
So, you know, there's -- it's important to take these things with a grain of salt.
LEMON: Yes.
HAMBY: There's other candidates who might run in 2012, names that have been mentioned -- John Thune, Haley Barbour, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, none of those folks were on the ballot. Mitch Daniels is another one.
LEMON: So, we understand it's unscientific.
HAMBY: Haley Barbour and --
LEMON: We understand it's unscientific.
HAMBY: Very scientific.
LEMON: Yes.
HAMBY: Right. Exactly.
LEMON: But, listen, Peter, I want to ask you this real quick before we go. What's the mood down there? Especially, you know, Michael Steele, we saw him speaking. We have our Candy Crowley up earlier. We saw him speaking. What's the mood because he's had a bit of controversy lately?
HAMBY: He has. He was the final speaker on the agenda at the event. He spoke earlier today. The ballroom was about half-empty. He got a very polite reception.
But, you know, this was one of his -- this was his first big public appearance since the spending scandal that's dominated the headlines. He acknowledged, "I've made mistakes. It's time to move on. Let's keep the focus on the midterm elections this November." And that's what the broader focus of this event has been, winning in November and then we'll look at 2012.
LEMON: Good information, Peter Hamby. Thanks for joining us. I threw you a question now that you probably didn't think I was going to ask and you handled it very well. Appreciate it. Enjoy New Orleans, OK?
HAMBY: Great.
LEMON: All right.
HAMBY: All right. I am. Thanks, Don.
LEMON: For days, they hoped and prayed that their loved ones might have survived and that they might be alive underground. Well, today, the sad truth from the coal mine in West Virginia. We'll have that story for you.
Plus, it is time to rethink the word "intern." They're not just high school or college kids hungry for experience and to work for free who just want their feet in the door. These days, adults are doing it, too -- older Americans.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Let me give you some of your headlines this hour.
A shooting inside a shopping mall in Muskogee, Oklahoma, this afternoon. The "Associated Press" is reporting that four people have been taken to a hospital. No word now on any deaths. Shoppers inside the mall said they heard four or five shots. No word on a suspect either or a motive in that shooting. We'll update you.
In West Virginia, searchers found the bodies of those four missing miners overnight. A total of 29 people lost their lives in the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine. It is the worst U.S. mine disaster since 1970. President Barack Obama has sent condolences to the families and promises a thorough investigation.
That is the scene in Bangkok -- more violent clashes between Thai police and government protesters. Today, 15 people were killed, including a cameraman for the "Reuters" news agency. Nearly 500 people were hurt. Protesters have been in the streets for weeks. They want the prime minister to resign.
A public school where 100 percent of the senior class goes to college. We've told you about the incredible students of Urban Prep before. We were the first to make the country, really the world, aware of them on this program. We visited them the day after President Obama was elected. We nicknamed them "Little Obamas" and it stuck.
They promised me they'd finish high school and go to college. And it's nice to see that they are keeping their promise.
CNN education contributor Steve Perry went back to visit the young men of Urban Prep Academy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: We're here at Englewood section of Chicago, one of Chicago's roughest neighborhoods. This is Urban Prep having its first graduating class. And they're going to send 70 African-American young men to college. It's the Holy Grail in academia.
I want to go inside and talk to these folks. I'm excited.
Mr. King, I know when you say that you sent 100 percent of your kids to college, a lot of people don't believe it.
TIM KING, FOUNDER, URBAN PREP ACADEMY: Right.
PERRY: So, sometimes for their purposes, you've got to introduce them to the wall.
KING: You need to see some proof, right?
PERRY: This is a lot of proof. Tell me what we're looking at.
KING: So, on this wall, every time a student is admitted to college, what we do is we take their admission letter and copy it and we put it on the wall on the school.
PERRY: People see your results and they're going to say, 100 percent of your seniors going to college, you must pick the kids. You can't be a public school.
KING: Yes, we get that a lot. People tell us all the time, you're a selective enrollment school. That's some private school. But we're not. We're public. We're a charter school which means we are independently operated. But we're publicly funded. And we don't select our students based on any criteria.
PERRY: This is Urban Prep. And Urban Prep is an oasis, an opportunity for children to believe in themselves and dream beyond their circumstances, create an opportunity where there didn't seem to be one, and go on to a four-year college at a rate of 100 percent. We know how to run successful schools. The question now is: will we?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Steve Perry and Tim King. What a great job Tim does.
And I want to remind you again of a special program that we will be bringing you next weekend. Trust me you want to tune in to this. It's important to our schools and our kids, really, our country. We're calling it "Fixing America's Schools." It is a town hall meeting with parents, students and teachers from around the U.S., plus Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Make sure you watch next Saturday at this time, 7 p.m. Eastern, and next Sunday, 6 p.m. Eastern.
In the meantime, if you have a question for Secretary Duncan or for me, tweet it to me or send it through Facebook. Tweet @DonLemonCNN. Make sure you put the CNN on there.
And we'll see you next week when it comes to that story.
We've been following a developing story out of Russia today where a plane carrying the president of Poland along with dozens of members of that country's government crashed. Everybody onboard died. A lot of questions about the weather conditions at the time as well as the age and performance of the aircraft. We're going to talk to an aviation expert -- straight ahead -- about it.
Plus this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The black thing right here is a base isolator. It's not attached to the ground. It's like a big hockey puck, but it will absorb the motion from the ground -- let the ground move and not transfer all that motion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And what is that small black disk holding up? Try an entire building. Earthquake prevention in a major U.S. city that you may not realize is already at risk for the big one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: This is our developing story today.
Poland is in mourning after an early morning plane crash in Russia killed the country's president, Lech Kaczynski. Also among the dead 100 people, the Polish first lady -- 100 people in their government, the Polish first lady, and also some military leaders.
The delegation had gone to Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of a massacre of Polish POWs in World War II. The Polish military plane crashed in heavy fog while approaching the airport in Smolensk. Now, although weather appears to be the probable cause of this crash, we're probably going to learn more from the flight data recorders. They have been recovered we're told.
This type of plane is a Russian-made Tupolev 154. It is fairly old, but this one underwent apparent extensive overhauling late last year. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXEI GUSEV, GENERAL DIRECTOR, AVAIKOR FACTORY (through translator): In December of last year, we completed a major refurbishing repair of the Polish president's plane and provided the Polish government with repair and maintenance parts for the next six years. The plane has been in use very little since that major repair, only two or three months. In addition to the interior work, all of the engines were completely rebuilt. Speaking frankly, we believe this tragedy could not have been caused by equipment failure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. You heard they say they don't believe it was caused by equipment failure. So, what did cause it?
John Goglia is a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board. He joins us tonight by phone from Boston.
So, you heard what the gentleman said there, John. Your professional opinion about this accident?
JOHN GOGLIA, FORMER NTSB MEMBER (via telephone): Well, we, one, learn that you don't take anything for granted. So, I mean, the flight data recorder, if it's a robust recorder, is going to give us the engine parameters and how they were performing. It's going to give us the voices in the cockpit, if it was up to western standards. I'm assuming that.
LEMON: So, listen, I think it's like 20 years older, maybe more, maybe a few years less, that's not particularly old for a plane, especially when they said it had been overhauled recently?
GOGLIA: Well, you know, when it comes in for maintenance, you really need to take a look at what they did. Overhaul is a not defined term anywhere. So, we don't know what they did. So, all of that maintenance work that was done on that airplane will have to be reviewed and explored.
LEMON: Well, because I want to say, even some of the commercial planes that we fly here in the United States are 20 years old sometimes, or older.
GOGLIA: Right. The age is not the issue that I'm talking about. LEMON: Yes.
GOGLIA: I'm just talking about in general the work that was performed.
LEMON: So it was said that there was some major fog and that the pilot allegedly disobeyed orders that said, don't land at this particular airport, go to another airport. The significance of that, Mr. Goglia.
GOGLIA: Well, if he disregarded instructions, clear instructions that said not to land, then it puts some question on his performance and what he was doing. It's really way too early to speculate on any of this. Everything is going to be called into question. As I understand it, he landed shot. So was he attempting to get in, was he attempting to duck under the weather? Did he have navigation issues? Did he have a last-minute engine failure that he was slow to recover from or maybe couldn't recover from because of his altitude? These are all questions that are going to be asked and answered.
LEMON: Thank you. I think you have good points. And as you said, the recordings will let us know what happened once they listen to them. Thank you, Mr. John Goglia, is a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.
We're going to move on now and talk about earthquakes. There was one last weekend here, that caught us by surprise, breaking news. Could California, you know, it might be America's earthquake capital, that's what people say. The state gets rattled an awful lot and states close to California, neighboring California. But California, the San Andreas fault aren't the only vulnerable areas.
CNN's meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras, here to explain. We heard of one in Illinois, just a couple of months ago.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Well, two weeks ago we did our piece in Charleston, South Carolina. I think that kind of surprised a lot of people but today we're talking about the New Madrid Fault zone in the mid southern U.S.. It's repeatedly produced a series of major earthquakes there. And there's up to 40 percent chance that another big one will occur just in the next 50 years. And the major difference is that when the last big ones hit in 1811 and 1812, the area was sparsely populated. Today a major quake in this business and distribution hub could have global economic impact.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHYLLIS STECKEL, GEOLOGIST: This is Real Foot Lake, Tennessee, we're in the far northwest corner of the state of Tennessee.
JERAS (voice-over): Geologist Phyllis Steckel described how this landscape was forever changed by the New Madrid earthquake nearly 200 years ago.
STECKEL: This part of the area around here was down dropped during the earthquake. It actually sank and part of the river was affected by the change in local elevation.
JERAS: It was so power it forced the Mississippi River to flow backwards and filled the lake. Real Foot Lake is just one of the stops on Steckel's earthquake insight field trip that she leads for the USGS to help business executives plan for the big one.
(on camera): So why is it such a huge concern?
STECKEL: A lot of what we come to expect as a 21st century society and a lot of it comes through this area or depends on pieces of the infrastructure in this area.
JERAS (voice-over): It's home for the blues and barbecue, but did you know it's also called America's distribution center? The city is a key stop on Steckel's tour, 100 miles south of the epicenter.
STECKEL: A lot of shipping goes up and down the Mississippi River, commodities, coal, cotton, rice, wheat.
JERAS: A government report says nearly one-third of all U.S. commodities pass through this region, many fuel pipelines lie here, and it's in the top five busiest places for class one railroad service, trucking and inland ports. Memphis also has the world's busiest cargo traffic airport. FedEx moves more than one million pieces of cargo through its world headquarters in Memphis each day.
PAUL TRONSOR, GLOBAL OPERATIONS CONTROL, FEDEX: Our brand was built on reliability. So we do everything in our power to anticipate these sorts of things. We understand those risks and we work very hard to develop these contingencies so that our customers don't see this.
JERAS: In the event of a quake here, FedEx's Paul Tronsor says the company could be up and running within one day at one of its other hub. Auto Zone, another Memphis based company constructed its headquarters to withstand a 9.0 quake.
DAVID PERRY, DIR., FACILITY SERVICES, AUTO ZONE: It's like a big hockey puck, that it will absorb the motion from the ground, let the ground move and not transfer all that motion from the ground to the building.
JERAS: It's the only structure in Memphis built to such a high specification.
STECKEL: What I think we almost need is an earthquake that's large enough to get people's attention but, of course, not large enough to do any damage or any significant damage or certainly no injuries. We don't want that. I think it's going to take something here to wake people up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JERAS: And Phyllis Steckel says that the key to improving the infrastructure is through the individual businesses and industry. That the job is way too big for the government alone. She's also giving these tours right now to business executives to help them understand how great the risk is in the Memphis area.
LEMON: OK. So why the risk in the New Madrid fault? Why so large?
JERAS: Well, the fault itself is very large, but one of the other problems is the soil itself. This is right along the Mississippi River so it's made of river sediment. Those earthquake waves will travel like 20 times farther than they would in California.
LEMON: Jacqui Jeras, you're the expert. Thank you. Very interesting piece. I enjoyed it.
JERAS: Thanks.
LEMON: Let's talk about internships. We have weather interns. We have news interns. You know, where internships you gladly get the coffee for free for someone or whatever they ask for. So you work for free just to get your foot in the door. It used to be what college kids and what young adults did. Now older folks are doing these internships these days. We'll talk about that. They're not old. They're older. Let's say older than 18 or 21.
And KFC's new sandwich - I use that term very loosely because there is no bun, just meat, cheese, more meat and enough sodium to fill the Great Salt Lake. What's wrong with that? It looks good.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: President Barack Obama wants an investigation into the explosion at the upper big branch coal mine in West Virginia. The worst coal mining disaster in the U.S. in 40 years.
Overnight search crews found the bodies of four more miners, a total of 29 people were killed.
Parents in Tennessee sent a child they adopted back to Russia. The couple put the boy on a plane to Russia by himself with a note that said he was a troubled child. They say the boy threatened to burn down the family home. Russia is now threatening to ban adoptions by Americans until there's a new agreement on how to regulate them.
Lee Westwood leads the pack at the Masters Golf Tournament after the third round of play today. Westwood finished the day at 12 under par after shooting 4 under today, just behind him, Phil Mickelson at 11 under. And the man everyone is watching, Tiger Woods, is tied for third. Tiger lost his cool just a couple of times today, but he is still very much in the running, four shots back of Westwood. We'll keep watching that for you.
So you hear the word "intern" and you think young, inexperienced and free labor. There are some paid interns but most of the time you think free labor. But today's masses of unemployed are changing that image into someone older with a college degree or more who still works for free. So what are adult interns getting in exchange for this?
Two of those interns join me now, Kristina Shands is interning with the Knoxville Ice Bears hockey team in Tennessee. That sounds like a fun internship. She was laid off after more than 10 years as a nonprofit fund-raiser.
And Grant Harris earned his MBA in 2007 and interned for four months for an online men's custom clothing business. Good to see all of you, both of you I should say. So Grant, I'm going to start with you. Did you feel at all that you had to sort of swallow your pride a little bit to take an internship at this point in your career?
GRANT HARRIS, FORMER ADULT INTERN: Not at all, Don. I didn't feel like I needed to swallow my pride at all. I was actually looking for some hands-on experience, and I thought that an internship would be the best way to go about that.
LEMON: OK. What about you, Kristine? I'll ask the same question to you.
KRISTINA SHANDS, ADULT INTERN: No. I mean, not at all. I was thinking about even going back to school for sports management. And an internship with the Ice Bears was a perfect way to kind of see if I wanted to take that leap into a different career. And they were fantastic. I never had to do anything I didn't want to do. I just learned a bunch and got to watch a bunch of free hockey, which was even better.
LEMON: You just answered by next question. Did you feel like you were taken advantage of? Did you have to do anything that you said felt was kind of beneath you. I asked you that, Grant.
HARRIS: Not at all. Can you say that again, Don?
LEMON: Did you feel like you did anything that was sort of beneath you or you were taken advantage of that you didn't want to do?
HARRIS: Not at all. Antonio (INAUDIBLE) was great. He worked with myself and three or four other interns. And we had a great experience in terms of sharing and giving and we never felt that we were beneath him. As a matter of fact, he always made us feel that he was trying to catch up with us. So in my opinion it was never an aspect of where I didn't feel good enough or anything like that. We were all achieving the same - going for the same goal, trying to get better in men's image and style and fashion.
LEMON: Very good. Hey, do we have the picture of Kristina at work? We don't? OK. So We're going to try to get it. Kristina, you were at work with our company "Time" magazine, right?
SHANDS: Yes.
LEMON: So what do you do for the Knoxville Bears? You became an intern I think in their PR department or something?
SHANDS: I do work with the marketing director. During the games I print off statistics and run them those to the coaches and the media outlets. I handle the waiver table. I pretty much do whatever she needs to do during the games. And then during playoffs season, I was actually able to do a little bit more, start writing for a minor league web site so I got to do more during the playoffs. But our season ended last night so I'm technically, I'm probably not an intern anymore.
LEMON: Yes. We were just showing the picture of you in "Time" magazine. But I think you're not an intern anymore. You did not get a job with the Bears.
SHANDS: Uh-huh.
LEMON: But it did lead you to something else, which I find very interesting because you never know where opportunity is going to come from.
SHANDS: Exactly. Yes, I didn't even know I liked sports journalism. And I started writing for pro hockey news.com web site and covered the Knoxville Ice Bears during the playoff series and wrote game articles that are published on the web site. And it's led into something that I really love and what I started off interested in going back to school for sports management, and I may just take a few sports journalism classes and see where that goes. Who knows?
LEMON: Uh-oh. Look out. Look out. So Grant Harris, do you know about employment? Is there an opportunity for employment after your internship? Or have you gotten other opportunities?
HARRIS: Well, actually, I took on my internship and started my own business, Image Grant, LLC. And the internship I took on was to get some experience with writing. I started my own blog. Image consultant4men.com. Image consultant4.com and before the internship, I had no experience with writing, no experience for blogging or social networking. And so the work that we did definitely opened my eyes into getting into the world of men's fashion, image and style, and it was a great experience.
LEMON: So Kristina and Grant, I think you'd probably tell people, even older adults, to do it.
SHANDS: Absolutely.
HARRIS: Definitely, certainly.
LEMON: Thank you, guys. Kristina Shands and Grant Harris, best of luck to you. And I'm glad you guys worked something out. You never know.
SHANDS: Thank you.
HARRIS: Thank you, Don. Appreciate it.
LEMON: Have a great rest of your weekend.
You know what? No doubt in these hard times you've got to think out of the box and open yourself up to new things. So I want to thank them for their efforts and I hope it provided you with an opportunity to think outside of the box yourself and maybe be a little bit more open about the prospects of jobs. Good luck to everyone who's out there who are unemployed and are looking for work. We'll try to continue those things to help you out here.
Now you might not call it historic, but Texas Stadium is one of the most famous sports stadiums around. But it won't be around for much, much longer. The stadium with a hole in the roof we are told so god can watch over the Dallas Cowboys will become a pile of rubble in a matter of hours. We're going to talk to the 11-year-old, 11-year- old, chosen to push the button. He's a cute, cute kid, too. You'll watch want to watch it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: When the sun rises on Sunday morning, Texas Stadium will fall. The home of the Dallas Cowboys since 1971 will become rubble in less than three minutes through the ultimate display of demolition explosion.
(VIDEO CLIP)
All right. You've seen all of that, seeing something big fall so hard. It's flat-out fun to watch. That's all it is, just fun. But imagine the thrill if you're 11 years old and you get to push the button to create a massive mess. Well, that's exactly what Casey Rogers will get to do. He's of Terrell, Texas. In less than 24 hours he's going to be living that reality. So Casey, you won an essay contest to earn the honor of ignited Texas Stadium's implosion. Thanks for being here.
CASEY ROGERS, IMPLOSION CONTEST WINNER: You're welcome.
LEMON: So close to the big bang. Are you nervous?
ROGERS: Well, no, I'm not. Just a little bit.
LEMON: What do you mean a little bit?
ROGERS: Well, I'm kind of nervous and kind of excited.
LEMON: You've been able to sleep?
ROGERS: Well, a little bit.
LEMON: Yes. What do your buds think of you?
ROGERS: Some of them are kind of - a lot of them are happy for me, but some of them are kind of jealous.
LEMON: Yes. Well, I know if I was 11, I would feel like I want to do that. Why does he get to do it, mom? And I can't do it? So you've been practicing?
ROGERS: No, I haven't.
LEMON: You haven't? Are you going to have to pull a lever, push a button, light up a big stick of dynamite? What do you have to do? ROGERS: Push a button.
LEMON: Push a button. You can do that, right?
ROGERS: Yes.
LEMON: All right. So when you heard you won the essay contest, honestly, what did you do, Casey?
ROGERS: Well, when Kraft Macaroni & Cheese launched their cheddar cheese explosion - they had a contest looking for kids doing good work in their community. So I said, hey (INAUDIBLE) in my community so I asked my mom and dad, you think - you think I'll be able to write in essay? And they said, sure.
So I went ahead and wrote the essay. We sent it in. And my parents got a letter in the mail and it said, "Congratulations, your son has just won the contest." And me and her, we just went ballistic.
LEMON: Like, what? Screaming, jumping up and down?
ROGERS: Yes, we were at McDonald's.
LEMON: You were what?
ROGERS: We were at McDonald's. So I was just going crazy wild.
LEMON: People looking at you, what's wrong with that kid?
ROGERS: Yes.
LEMON: So you said you won it because of your work that you've done - your charity work with the homeless. One day you saw a homeless man, and what did you do?
ROGERS: It made me pretty sad so I asked my mom and dad, why he was on the street? And they told me why. I didn't feel so bad, but I felt - I still felt bad for him. And so - well, I'm an adopted son so I know how it feels to be homeless. I asked my mom and dad if you guys helped me is all right if I go and help them.
LEMON: Ah, very nice. Your charity, Casey's Heart, right? Has gotten a little more help since people learned that you're going to be blowing up Texas Stadium?
ROGERS: Yes, we have a lot more donations. And we just got a lot more stuff so we can help my friends.
LEMON: All right. What's your power breakfast tomorrow? What are you going to eat to get ready?
ROGERS: Blueberry muffin and Dr. Pepper.
LEMON: Dr. Pepper. You've been pumping iron, lifting weights?
ROGERS: Oh, yes.
LEMON: Yes. Hey, you're a great kid. Casey, thank you.
ROGERS: No problem.
LEMON: All righty.
ROGERS: You have a dynamite day!
LEMON: Ha, ha! Have a dynamite day. Casey Rogers, all right. That was a good one.
Casey is set do his thing 7:00 a.m. Central time, 8:00 a.m. Eastern time. Make sure you tune into CNN to see the Texas Stadium implosion tomorrow morning. Have a dynamite day, OK?
ROGERS: All right.
LEMON: All right. That kid needs his own TV show or movie. He's a great kid with a great personality. So Hollywood, I hope that you're watching.
How do you make hundreds of Danish brewery workers mad? Tell them they can only drink beer during their lunch break instead of all day. Those are striking words at Carlsberg.
And KFC's new protein and sodium adventure. Have you seen this thing? It's called the Double Down. My wrists and ankles are getting swollen just looking at it. Actually I want like a nice Carlsberg and that thing. That would be nice. We're going to talk to some people who tasted this salt bomb. Sex bomb.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: I really like this next story. I wish they would - you know we could - what do you call sample props, reporter involvement? We're not sure but we have to - we have to think the Carlsberg Brewery in Denmark has the busiest employee restrooms on the planet. And for this reason - for more than 160 years, the company has let workers drink on the job. So as many beers as they wanted they could do it as long as they didn't get hammered. Right.
So get this, Carlsberg changed the policy. It said workers may only drink during their lunch breaks, so what happens? Hundreds of employees are now on strike upset that the beer bosses didn't consult them first. It sounds like a pretty cool job to me, what do you think, Kevin? Kevin's a guy here, he likes it.
All right so - and if you think that KFC workers could eat Double Downs all day, right, it is a new bunless sandwich, I don't think that they could do it. If you like a little bit of meat with your sodium this one is for you.
CNN's Jeanne Moos sampled it with some fast food critics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Behold, the bunless wonder.
(on camera): Ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready.
MOOS: Let's go.
(voice-over): Now you get a taste of it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow it's good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to tell America it's good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's good. I don't miss the bun.
MOOS: Ah, the missing bun, KFC's Double Down is the talk of the sandwich world, a slab of chicken, special sauce, cheese, bacon, cheese, more sauce, chicken.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no bread.
MOOS (on camera): There's no bread. It's a sandwich without the bread, that's the whole -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is slippery.
MOOS (voice-over): Even as it was being tested in a couple of markets -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Double Down sandwich combo.
MOOS: It became legendary on the web.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is so disgusting.
MOOS: Dissect it, even serenaded.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: N-A-S-T-Y, you ain't got no alibi. You're nasty.
MOOS: The nastiest part is it's a salt bomb, 1380 milligrams.
(on camera): I'm about halfway through my daily salt requirement right here, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: sort of.
MOOS (voice-over): Tell that to the guys whose eyes widened with pleasure at the first bite.
(on camera): It's a lot of salt stuff there. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, even better.
MOOS: What kind of diet are you on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The kind you don't want to eat. Every day I eat lunch I have to take a picture of it and send to my girlfriend.
MOOS (voice-over): Imagine sending her this and although it is only 540 calories, similar to a Big Mac but with more salt than fat, 32 grams. And it comes in a 460-calorie grilled version.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll give you $1 for one.
MOOS: It will cost five bucks when KFC starts selling them Monday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god, try it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me try.
MOOS: Almost everyone who tried it, liked it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: that's pretty righteous right there. That's awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chicken overload.
MOOS (on camera): Chicken overload.
(voice-over): Will the Double Down challenge the very definition of -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sandwich.
MOOS: Two or more slices of bread with a filling between them. Still, if you don't like carbs -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the best idea that I've ever seen, ever.
MOOS: On the web, the Double Down is being imitated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a piece of French toast in between two pancakes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two pieces of fish and some instant ramen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is two steaks with a fried egg on top of a bed of hash browns.
MOOS: As for the fate of the bun -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who cares about the bun -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They bore me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No bun, because bun, bun, we don't want buns.
MOOS: Remember when it used to be the meat that was missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's the beef?
MOOS (on camera): Where's the bun?
(voice-over): But not even KFC can make all buns obsolete.
Jeanne Moos, CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, where's the beef?
MOOS (on camera): Where's the bun? New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Yummy, Double Down now.
Coming up at 10:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN, a conversation that you'll only see here, confederate reenactors talk about Virginia and the proclamation for celebrating the civil war. One of them is black. Surprise me, too. 10:00 p.m. I'll see you then.
