Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Some Flights Resuming Despite Volcanic Ash; Group Compares Teen Texting to Heroin Addiction; New Tobacco Product Resembles Candy

Aired April 20, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Time for me to hand this thing off to the clipboard carrier himself, to Ali Velshi.

ALI VELSHI, HOST: You are too good to me, my friend. Good to see you, as always. Have yourself a great afternoon. We'll talk to you soon.

I'm Ali Velshi. As T.J. says, I'll be with you for the next two hours today and every afternoon, every weekday afternoon. I'm going to try and take every important topic that we cover and break it down for you. Give you a level of detail that's going to help you make important decisions about where you travel, how you spend your money, what you earn, and what you put out on the Internet.

Let's get started. Here's what I've got on the rundown. What if I told you your kid was on heroin? You would be shocked. Now, what if I said your kid texts too much? No shock there. What if I told you there are similarities between being hooked on heroin and hooked on texting? You've go to hear this.

Plus, Title IX, it's supposed to give equal opportunities to female college students and athletes. But some schools are allegedly finding a way to skirt Title IX. This hour the Obama administration is doing something about it. We'll tell you about it.

Also, we look back on the life of civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height, and we look ahead to who might fill her shoes. Who will the next crusader be?

All right. Over to our top story. If you're stuck in an airport, a city, a continent thousands of miles from home, the two most beautiful words in whatever language you happen to speak are "progressive resumption." Progressive resumption. You heard me right. Those words appeared on a flight departure screen at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris today. The best day for European travel since that pesky Icelandic volcano erupted last Wednesday. Roughly 14,000 flights or just over half of the usual weekday traffic.

Here's the big picture. This sweeping red blob is the danger zone. You can see it extends all the way to Newfoundland in Canada right now. This is where volcanic ash is rampant. Planes are far and -- few and far between. Now some airlines claim the danger is being greatly exaggerated by civil aviation authorities.

The blue lines here, see those? That's normal transatlantic air routes. These ones here. They haven't been normal for six days now. You can see most of southern Europe, most of it, except for this, is in the clear. Most of France, all of France is in the clear. Scotland is actually OK today.

Spain is where a British warship has picked up 300 stranded civilians today along with 300 British troops on their way home from Afghanistan. This is an issue. Wounded troops or troops coming home can't get back either.

Germany looks pretty much socked in, but planes there are being allowed to take off and land under visual flight rules, which means if you can see the runway, you can take off, not using your instruments. Lufthansa was hoping to get in more than 300 flights today. Travelers in Frankfurt are ready, but they're not celebrating yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We checked in through the Internet late last night, at 1 a.m., and I found my name confirmed, and my seat and everything. So I'm taking a chance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you going to do? I mean, it's a volcano. Someone can say when it's going to stop, when it's going to start. That would be great. But you have to roll with it if you're going to fly international. There's going to be things that come up, and you have to be ready for it. So...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope that it go well. I've got to get home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you feel about this whole ash cloud stuff that's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can you say? Ashes to ashes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Ashes to ashes. At least he's got a sense of humor about it.

OK. Here's what you can't see on the maps. A lot of the ash right now is below 20,000 feet, between the ground and 20,000 feet. We've showed you buildings here to illustrate the point. Most of it's clear, above 20,000 feet, which means the ash is sinking. It's got some density to it; it's sinking. Which means there are a lot of airports that are closed, but the airspace above it is open.

The U.K., for instance, in Denmark, are examples of that. Way over on the western side of this graph. Take a look over here where the air traffic is heavy.

Well, let's go all the way over here. If you zoom right into that, you will see CNN's Richard Quest, who is at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey. Yesterday he was at JFK. As many of you know, Richard is based in London. And it appears to me he is just airport hopping to try and see if he can get a flight back home.

And if you are one of those people like Richard who did have a booking to get back home, you might actually wait longer than you think you're going to wait after flights resume.

Right, Richard?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we are seeing here -- good afternoon from Newark, Ali. What we are seeing here is the story, as the crisis moves into the next phase. It says passengers whose flights have already been canceled are now trying to either be wait-listed or confirmed on new seats.

Now, look behind me. This is a group of people who have been waiting for Jet Airways, which flies from India via Brussels up to New York. What has happened, of course, is that over the past few days, they've been flying via Athens instead.

Now, these passengers have been here for some four days. They're starting to get extremely testy. Voices are being raised. But, of course, it's understandable, Ali. They've been waiting four days. Jet is now flying again via Brussels, so planes will be leaving.

If we go down to the far end of the terminal, there you see SAS. You see Lufthansa. You see passengers checking in. And what we understand, particularly from Lufthansa, is that they have so far managed to accommodate all the passengers who were booked and who were waiting.

The issue becomes, of course, are they -- well -- well, don't get too excited, Ali. The issue becomes as more passengers now know the airports are open, so they start to come to the airports. Will they be able to?

VELSHI: Right.

QUEST: And finally, British Airways, poor British Airways, three flights to Heathrow, three flights canceled. Virgin Atlantic on the departure board has one flight it's hoping to get out to tonight. This is a crisis that is now starting to really focus and drill down on the U.K.

VELSHI: All right. So here's the issue. If I have a paid ticket that has not -- I've not missed my flight. Let's say it's for this weekend, for Saturday or something like that. As they try and catch up with all those people like you who have missed their flights, I'm actually going to get priority over you.

In other words, people who have current tickets who haven't missed their flights are going to be able to get out there and travel. And guys like you have missed their flights, have got to wait for the first available seat?

QUEST: That is it in a nutshell. Confirms go first. That's the way it has to run. After the confirms, you get those people who are wait- listed and standing there.

But the order in which you are wait-listed depends on a variety of issues. It depends on what class you're in, business or economy. It depends on the strength of your ticket. Ultimately, everybody is going to get home.

VELSHI: Sure.

QUEST: That's what the airlines are very keen to tell me. But a friend of mine who's just waiting to get back to Europe was told, "Well, if you want to be confirmed back to Europe, you're going to wait until next week. However, come to the airport tomorrow or the next day and we'll probably get you out."

I couldn't afford, Ali, to keep coming back to the airport every day, so I've chosen to take a confirmed seat on Sunday. I'm going back via Frankfurt.

VELSHI: If while we're talking somebody taps you on the shoulder and says, "Mr. Quest, we have a seat for you," I bet you you're going to leap. Like, in the middle of a conversation I bet you you'll get on that plane and go back to London.

QUEST: Ali -- Ali, if somebody says to me, "Mr. Quest, we have a seat for you," I can't stop. Excuse me, nice to see you. My bags are down there. See you later.

VELSHI: That's Richard Quest, hopefully on his way back to London. All right. We will check in with that. We'll continue on that story as it develops. We'll keep you posted on -- as those flights start to take off.

Now, President Obama is sharpening his rhetoric. Congress is investigating. Wall Street titans are on the defensive. This is a critical week for financial reform. Christine Romans and I are going to dive right into it at the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Christine Romans joins me now from New York.

Christine, I don't tend to love congressional testimony and hearings. But particularly when they're on, you know, sort of arcane topics. There's one going on, though, right now that's talking about the failure of Lehman Brothers, a very important topic if we want to learn about how to avoid these things in the future. Particularly important this very week, after we've seen charges -- SEC charges against Goldman.

So tell me what's going on, on Capitol Hill.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: It's true, Ali. You know, and I do love these actually. And I listened to two Goldman Sachs conference calls today and I'll well into this House financial services hearing. I'm fascinated.

VELSHI: We are keeping you.

ROMANS: And this is -- this is what we're talking about here. This was, as one congressman said, this is the autopsy for Lehman Brothers. And that's why it's so important, because you want to make sure this doesn't happen to another patient, especially when the rest of us are all picking up the tab, right?

So this is what the treasury secretary said, Timothy Geithner. Basically, this is how he described why what happened to Lehman is so important for financial reform and making sure that we fix the problems we have that led to these collapses. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: Imagine building a national highway system with two sets of drivers. The first group has to abide by the speed limit, wear seat belts, buy cars with anti-lock brakes. The second group can drive as fast as they choose, with no safety features, and without any fear of getting pulled over by the police.

Imagine both groups are driving on the same roads. That system would inevitably cause serious collisions, and drivers following the rules of the game would inevitably get hit by drivers who weren't. A system like that makes no sense. We would never allow it on the roads, so why do we allow it in our economy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Ali, I know you love a good comparison, and that's a new one. I hadn't heard that one quite yet.

VELSHI: I do. That's a good one. I like that.

ROMANS: But it shows you, I think, that the Obama administration is seizing on sort of the newfound fire over the hearings into Lehman Brothers and also the Goldman Sachs charges from Friday to really push for their version of financial reform now, some 18 months after the collapse of Lehman.

VELSHI: All right. So I would say, if I were Goldman, I -- I'm not loving this press. They're not a company that generally loves press. And last year when Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO went out and got some press it sort of came back and bit them in the ankles.

ROMANS: In the ankles?

VELSHI: So today coming out with earnings of $3.5 billion for three months, some say, "Wow, that's great. They must be -- they must be breathing a sigh of relief at Goldman." I'm thinking that is not news that they probably wanted to have out there today.

ROMANS: No. And, you know, I'll tell you -- well, no, they say that they are doing a good job for their clients, and you can see from their earnings that they're doing a good job from clients, and that really matters to them. And also, that the economy has been strong.

But on those two conference calls, one with Wall Street analysts and one with the media, two hours apart, you heard a Goldman that was having to bat back an awful lot of serious questions about what happens next for this company and what kind of reputational risk there is.

You know, this -- they were the gold standard. Right? They had kept themselves above so much of the -- so much of the crisis...

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: ... in the years. And they had many say they are among those who ended up pretty much unscathed by the implosion of mortgages in particular, right?

VELSHI: And then they -- then they get -- then they get bitten in the ankles.

ROMANS: Except they weren't, because now they've got all this. In the ankles.

VELSHI: It's almost like -- it's almost like Toyota. I mean, I think in 2010 we're going to look at two companies that were at the top of their game and largely unscathed...

ROMANS: Yes.

VELSHI: ... by the things that were going on to their competitors, and then both of them end up taking major reputational hits.

ROMANS: You know, someone recently said -- I heard somebody call -- call Goldman Sachs now the Philip Morris of financial services.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: And that's not a compliment, because you can remember before when Philip Morris was making an awful lot of money but had to change its name to Altria, the corporate name.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: They changed their corporate name because of all the bad press about cigarettes.

VELSHI: Yes, yes.

ROMANS: You know, and now you've got Goldman Sachs, which once was a very revered name, now also, you know, there's all these jokes about it out there.

This is the earnings, Ali: revenues up 36 percent. Profit $3.5 billion, up 91 percent.

And compensation, I will point out that the company made a note in its call that compensation is 43 percent of their overall revenue, which they said is an all-time low...

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: ... even though that looks like an awful lot of money. Right?

VELSHI: Right. ROMANS: An all-time low for the first quarter, they said, because that reflects new realities in the operating environment that they're in, meaning, I think, a lot of public pressure about Goldman making so much money when the rest of America is hurting.

VELSHI: OK. While we're talking about earning, come back in an hour. We're going to chat about -- about how much women get paid versus men for the same jobs and some of the gains women have made in the -- in the working world.

ROMANS: Yes.

VELSHI: We'll talk to you about that in an hour.

Christine Romans, my colleague and my co-host on "YOUR $$$$," which you can watch right here on CNN, 1 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Both times Eastern.

All right. Does your teen text? I know: that's a silly question. But after the break we're going to read between some lines. And trust me, there is a message there for parents. It's not the same old warnings about texting that you've heard before. These ones are more serious.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: If you're a parent of a teenager, it will come as no shock. These days, they're text-messaging maniacs. Now a new study might be an eye opener.

Folks at the Pew Research Center and the University of Michigan found that the typical teen sends somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 texts a day, and presumably, they've got a similar number coming in. Then you've got a sizable number of kids sending more than 100 texts a day. That's over 3,000 a month. And, yes, this is a big jump in a short amount of time.

The percentage of teens who text their friends daily doubled between 2006 and 2009.

Here to talk about teens and texting with us is Vanessa Van Patton. She's the founder of RadicalParenting.com and a self-proclaimed youthologist. Excellent -- excellent title.

Vanessa, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.

VANESSA VAN PATTON, FOUNDER, RADICALPARENTING.COM: Thanks for having me.

VELSHI: All right. We probably shouldn't be too shocked, as we said, about these numbers. What's the -- what's the new danger? What is out there that parents didn't have to be worried about that they really now should pay attention to?

VAN PATTON: You know, I think that now, more than ever, we're seeing a generation that's extremely socially illiterate. Social cues that adults are used to picking up on, like eye contact, facial expression, voice tone, teenagers have a lot of trouble picking this up. And that's a really big problem for them to developing their real person- to-person relationships.

VELSHI: All right. Now, that we were -- when I was talking about this earlier I was saying that there might be some connection to your kid being hooked on heroin. What are the similarities?

VAN PATTON: You know, we're seeing a lot of this social addictive behavior. For example, teenagers will be texting their friends, and it's almost like a social tether to each other. They have a lot of trouble putting that phone down.

When they're sleeping they hear that buzz, and they almost need to have that phone in front of them to see what's going on. And that's a social addiction that we're seeing, very similar to a lot of actual drugs.

VELSHI: Let's talk about what you should do. You've got some advice for parents. First of all, how do you even know when your kid is texting too much? I mean, in a lot of ways this is how they communicate, for better or for worse. What's too much?

VAN PATTON: You know, the Pew study that came out said that 50 text messages a day is about average. The Kaiser Family Foundation said that 7.5 hours a day is the amount that the average teenager is spending with technology. So too much is really up to your household.

VELSHI: Right.

VAN PATTON: I think that it's really important for parents to think very carefully about what is being inhibited: sleep, homework time. You know, on average kids who spend the most hours have a "C" average. That is a lot less than what parents should be expecting from their kids.

So for them the tips are, No. 1, is to make a downstairs charging station. A lot of kids have their phone by their night stand. And all night they hear that buzzing going on. So taking the phone and putting it downstairs.

No. 2, there is no reason for a kid to have unlimited texting on their plan. I know that it can be more cost effective for parents, but it's sending them the wrong message. So to have them either pay for extra text messages or have a limit on that is really important to teach them boundaries.

VELSHI: Yes. And the third one, this one is one even I have difficulty with. This is a lesson some of us grown-ups can take. You're talking about electronic-free time and electronic-free zones.

VAN PATTON: Yes. You know, in my household, the dining room was an electronic-free zone. We had to drop our phones in a basket before we walked into the dining room. It's a really good way of encouraging kids to, OK, leave the phone at home and talk to my parents or my siblings face to face. And the last tip, of course, is to actually have a no-electronic time in your house. Saturday afternoon, they can do anything, but it can't be online or on texting.

VELSHI: All right. That is for some parents going to be as much of a challenge as it is for kids. You also -- so that you don't come across -- we don't sound like a bunch of people who are talking about "kids these days," you've got some ideas for teenagers who are trying to manage this.

VAN PATTON: Yes. So our teen writers, we actually did a little experiment with them.

VELSHI: Yes.

VAN PATTON: And had them guess how much time they spend online. And they underestimated it by 2 1/2 hours.

VELSHI: Wow.

VAN PATTON: So we really recommend for teenagers, sometimes you don't realize what that time suck is doing. So keep a little time log -- how much you're spending on texting, how much you're spending on Facebook -- just so you can get an idea of what you're doing.

And the last one -- and this is for both teens and parents. Blame your parents. You know, parents are a great way to sort of be the scapegoat. If you're online and you don't want to be online anymore and you're feeling pressure from your friends, say, "Gosh, you know, my mom is making me get off. I'm sorry. I have to go talk to them or I have to go to dinner." That can be a great excuse.

VELSHI: That is brilliant. Excellent. I -- I have learned things I didn't -- I'm armed with new information. Vanessa, good to talk to you.

Vanessa Van Patton is the founder of RadicalParenting.com. Good to see you. Thank you for being with us.

VAN PATTON: Thanks, Ali.

VELSHI: OK. Let me give you a check of some of the top stories we're working on here at CNN.

President Obama travels to West Virginia this weekend to deliver the eulogy at a memorial service for 29 miners killed earlier this month. The explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine was the worst U.S. coal- mine disaster in four decades. Since then Mr. Obama has called for more oversight of mines across the country.

In Washington, the Supreme Court by an 8-1 vote today, struck down a federal law banning videos showing violence against animals, saying it violates the right to free speech. They three out the conviction of a Virginia man who made videos showing pit bulls attacking other animals. The Humane Society says it will ask Congress to adopt another ban on the sale of such videos. And Kurdistan's ousted president is now in exile in Belarus. Kurmanbek Bakiyev fled the Kurdish (ph) capital after violent protests earlier this month. The president of Belarus says Bakiyev and his family are now under his personal protection. Those now in charge in Kurdistan says if he returns, they'll throw him in jail.

All right. Coming up, is the worst of the volcanic ash mess over or is it only starting? Chad has the answer and your weather forecast after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Hey, parents, check your kids' candy. And I'm putting the word "candy" in quotes. Harvard researchers say your kids can get nicotine poisoning from tobacco products that look like candy.

Here's CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you, this is generating quite a bit of buzz and quite a bit of controversy, as well, these new products by R.J. Reynolds, Camel products called orbs, sticks, strips. Take a look at them. Just looking at them you get some idea of why there are some -- some buzz and some controversy about this. They look a lot like candy.

What these are, are nicotine candies or devices in some way that are not intended to help someone stop smoking but really to give them a kick every now and then if they have a nicotine craving. That's the way they are marketed.

One of those little orbs, as they're called, has enough nicotine to approximate one cigarette. And therein lies part of the problem. If a child were to get their hands on this, a child between the ages of 1 and 4, for example, and eat one, just one, they'd probably feel pretty sick. They'd be nauseated. They may have vomiting, have a headache. If they were able to eat several, up to ten, this could potentially be lethal. Again, you're carrying around products that could potentially be very problematic. And that's what the critics are most concerned about.

You know, we took some of those criticisms directly to the makers of this product and said, "What of it? I mean, you have these nicotine things that look like candy. What about this concern?"

And they said a few things. They said, first of all, if you look at the packaging specifically, it's in child-resistant packaging.

They say, second of all, if you look at accidental poisonings across the board, in fact, things like cosmetics in the home, medications in the home, are much more likely to lead to an accidental poisoning versus nicotine.

And finally, they say, "Look, we weren't marketing this specifically to kids." Now again, take a look at the packaging there. In many ways it does look like candy. And I think that's why this controversy is probably going to continue.

You know, this is not the first time something like this has happened. In fact, if you remember, we talked last year about the fact that President Obama signed a new bill basically allowing the FDA to regulate all sorts of tobacco products. The products here that we're talking about actually were approved before that law went into effect. But already you're starting to see some interest from lawmakers saying, "Let's look at this product more specifically and figure out if there's a problem here."

And they point to a couple of things. First of all, that about $36 million a day is spent in advertising nicotine products. And a lot of that advertising is directed towards children or seemingly so, and about 90 percent of smokers who become lifelong smokers actually begin smoking before the age of 19.

So I think that this is something we're probably going to talk about for a little bit. But again, this isn't the first time this has happened. And as more details come to us about what's happening with this particular product, we'll certainly bring them to you.

Back to you for now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: All right. Thanks a lot, Sanjay.

Chad is following weather and of course, the biggest story that's affecting a lot of people on both sides of the Atlantic ocean, this volcanic ash and the flights. There definitely look to be more flight on that screen than we saw yesterday.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No question about it and there are clusters of flights. And that tells us that certain airports are open. Even that plane right there. That is going to Toronto. That's KLM flight 695 from Amsterdam to Toronto on its way above 35,000 above the cloud, any potential ash cloud. But it got through a safe zone, so this airport here obviously open. Istanbul, very open. All the other planes, if you want to go to, it's flightradar24.com, no dashes, nothing in between, flightradar24.com. And what this doesn't tell us, like our flight explorer does, is that we can click on a plane and it will say how high it is and where it's going. Here it will tell you what flight it is, what's the number it is. That's how I know that that's, you know, the KLM flight. So you can go on there and then go on to flight stats or flight where and it will tell you what it's doing, where it's going. I'm telling you, there's not a seat on any one of those planes empty because people are still --

VELSHI: Everybody is relocating.

MYERS: They are still basically just stuck. I would say half the planes leave today that should have left and most of those planes would have been full anyway. Now you have three days. VELSHI: This is what Richard was telling us, that if you had a booking for Thursday or Friday and you're going out on that flight, somebody who is bumped off a flight last week is still waiting for there to be availability. And these days as we know, flights don't fly empty the way they used to. Airlines don't make money when (INAUDIBLE)

MYERS: Your load factor, which means how many people are actually on every plane, somewhere between 80 and 85 percent are now on today's flights. So that means if it's 100 seats on a plane, 85 are going to be taken by people with tickets. There's going to be 15 extra ones for stand-bys, the people that were sitting there waiting since Thursday. So you only have 15 slots to get on to that plane. Obviously some planes get bigger, but 300 equals 45 slots.

VELSHI: It's not like the old day where's they keep extra planes around and they put them back in. You can't do that. One of the things Richard was saying is that if you want a confirmed seat and you've been bumped, you have to wait until next week to do it. If you are standing at the airport, you might be one of those 15. What a hassle that is to have to sit around.

MYERS: There's also a trickle-down effect that we haven't even talked about yet. That plane right there might have been on the ground for four days. It probably should have been in Tokyo, but on the way to Beijing on the way to Honolulu and that plane was stuck on the ground. So you've grounded an entire fleet of airplanes that can't do other things and now you also have pilots and crew that may not be in the right place for the right flight because they were going to leave on a DC-9 or whatever and the pilot can't fly a DCc-10 and there's no DC-9 there for him to fly or no MD-88 for him to fly.

VELSHI: The lucky part for us is we haven't had a great deal of sever weather here in the U.S. and we've been able to track this. We got anything serious going on across the country?

MYERS: We will have a day tomorrow and also on Thursday. We have the biggest potential for tornadoes so far this year. We could have 20 or 30 tornadoes on the ground during the day. Not at one time but during the day.

VELSHI: You will be checking it for us.

MYERS: Absolutely.

VELSHI: Check in with you a little later. Chad Myers.

When we come back, women have come a long way in sports but there's still a long way to go. Today we've got major new developments in the Title IX amendment aimed at ensuring equal opportunities for female college students and athletes. I'm going to break down the details after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Very shortly we're going to pop into the White House. Vice President Biden is going to be talking about some changes to the Title IX amendment and how they're working -- there are some schools working around Title IX and how we're going to deal with that. Let me talk about Title IX itself for a second. Here's how the amendment reads. No person in the United States shall on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. The 1972 Title IX education amendment required that gender equity and sports programs in educational institutions that receive Federal money.

Universities faced three requirements to prove that they were complying with the law in order to get that Federal money. Number one, the proportion of male and female students participating in sports at the university was equal, was proportional. Number two, that the university -- hang on a second. Let me get my notes here, that the university was expanding opportunities for women students in sports. Number three, that the university was meeting the athletic abilities and interests of women students. Back in 2005 the Bush administration changed that third requirement allowing the university to prove that they were meeting the athletic interests of women by carrying out surveys of student interest in sports.

Here's the problem with that. The NCAA and women sports advocates said a low response to those surveys could be interpreted as indicating a lack of interest in sports, when actually it might just indicate a lack of availability of those sports. People weren't checking off the box that said they're interested in playing such and such a sport because it wasn't available to them at that university. We're going to be talking to -- we're going to be listening to the vice president coming out and announcing some changes to that very shortly. I just wanted to give you a little background into that.

On to another story. 131 down, just three more to go. That's how many shuttle missions we've have and how many are left. The latest one just ended this morning after a few delays. I'll bring you details and we're going to show you again that picture perfect landing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Bring you up to speed with some top stories. Police are investigating the death of the president of the Colorado Rockies baseball team. Police and medics found Kelli McGregor in a Salt Lake City, Utah hotel room. The cause of the death is not yet known.

The death toll in last week's earthquake in western China is above 2,000. The disaster is raising lots of questions about building standards. More than two thirds of the schools in the hardest hit area were totally destroyed or critically damaged and that is after the government launched a huge school inspection project last year.

And Europe's volcano travel debacle seems to be easing a bit for the moment. About half of the 28,000 flights scheduled through European airspace today are expected to take off. That said, by day's end, more than 95,000 flights will have been canceled since that volcanic ash started grounding planes last week. The rain stayed away from Kennedy space center this morning letting the space shuttle "Discovery" head in for a landing. Check that out. Watch that for a second. Come on in. It's going to be beautiful. There we go. Yesterday bad weather kept the seven-astronaut crew orbiting an extra day after their mission to the international space station. If this thing bores you, if you think you've seen it too much, there are three more of these left. Three more shuttle launches and then the project is over. So get into it.

The power of the Internet just took a massive jump forward. We're talking about quantum broadband, coming up after the break. Quantum what? Quantum broadband. I'm going to break it down for you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: One thing I love to read about and learn about and share with you are big ideas, people with big ideas that can change the way things happen in the world. I want to call it the big "I" and the big "I" for today is the concept of using quantum physics to beef up your Internet access and security. If that sounds like a geeky science fiction concept, it is. But it's got some very real implications in light of everyone who uses the Internet. Basically quantum broadband is super fast and it is super secure. It's been used by the military and the Secret Service for a couple of years now. But the lab at the -- the Cambridge lab of Toshiba research in Europe has figured out a way to expand that technology and have more people use it.

Let me break down exactly what I'm talking about with quantum broadband. When you use the Internet, you are sending information basically from one computer to another computer. When that information is sent, it is encrypted. In other words, it's secured so most people can't read it. I don't want to get into encryption, that's a whole another topic, but the encryption can still be hacked by bad people. These are hackers and your information can get stolen. We know that happens all the time. With quantum broadband, that information can be encrypted so that it is virtually unhackable.

Let me explain why. Basically you heard of quantum theory, right? It contends that you cannot measure something without somehow disturbing it. Quantum broadband is kind of like eavesdropping. It's the holy grail of eavesdropping actually so if you're sending an e- mail for example from one computer to the other, quantum technology would be able to immediately detect if someone else were listening in or somehow hacking in or trying to access your information.

Once that eavesdropping for lack of a better term, is detected, the encryption key, which is the code which encrypts this message is immediately changed. The information is kept safe. We're not talking about every day text information or e-mails necessarily. Quantum broadband is used to keep big files like video clips and conference calls that are important and secret completely, completely safe. You'll hear more about that. That's today's big "I." Another story that we want to tell you about, civil rights matriarch Dorothy Height passed away today this morning at the age of 98. Her accomplishments are astounding and it's got us thinking. Is there a need for civil rights activists like Dorothy Height in this post- racial America? I know. I know. You don't think we're in a post- racial America. Stick around. We're going to talk about this in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: She's a founding matriarch of the civil rights movement, a change maker in American history. Dorothy Height, a crusader for racial justice and gender equality died this morning at the age of 98. Her list of accomplishments in her life is unparalleled. She was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. She helped organize freedom schools in Mississippi at the height of the segregation battle in the south. Her work was key in struggles for school desegregation, voting rights, employment opportunities and public accommodations. Add to that Ms. Height was awarded the presidential honor of freedom, the highest civilian honor back in 1994 and the congressional gold medal in 2004.

As we think about the many achievements that Dorothy Height accomplished in her lifetime, you have to wonder who does that now days? Who keeps that torch going for racial and gender equality? It's a battle that Ms. Height herself says we all need to take part in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOROTHY HEIGHT, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: There's a lot of work for us to do to make freedom and equality a reality and that each of us can make a difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Making a difference not only benefits African-Americans and women, but it benefits the country as a whole. Joining me to talk about this is CNN political contributor and my good friend Donna Brazile. Great to see you here.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you.

VELSHI: You -- Dorothy Height was hospitalized a few weeks ago and when word first came out of that, you went to see her.

BRAZILE: Yes, I wanted to go to the hospital to say hello. Dr. Height had just an uncanny ability to remember the last conversation. And she had taken ill, and Alexis Herman (ph) was over there, and many of us, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, (INAUDIBLE) we all wanted to be around her. We wanted to just keep her spirits going and often it was Dorothy Height that would look to us and continue to give us assignments. She wanted us to continue to work on the black family reunion. She wanted us to continue to reach out and to build bridges. She was a phenomenal woman. VELSHI: The black family reunion is an interesting concept. This is the idea that throughout all her battles, you know, whether it was voting, civil rights, she still felt the emphasis was on the family.

BRAZILE: Absolutely.

VELSHI: And so many of our problems today are family related.

BRAZILE: She wanted to create this atmosphere so that people could come together on the Washington mall to celebrate family, to celebrate each other.

VELSHI: Right.

BRAZILE: To bring their family, to bring their little children. And she created all these pavilions so that people would be inspired to tell their stories, to talk about education and health care. Dorothy Height was a woman who was an informal adviser to just about every president, from Franklin Roosevelt to the president. Presidents would call and say I want to talk about civil rights. I want to talk about women's equality. I want to talk about health care and Dorothy Height answered the call every time she was called.

VELSHI: And she hosted a viewing party for the inauguration of the first African-American president. But she was not a believer as many are not that we are in this post-racial world. So the question is, how does a new Dorothy Height come along? I want you to stay right there. I want to talk about the next generation of civil rights leaders after this break. We're going to continue our chat with Donna Brazile right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Good day for me because one of my good friends and somebody I really respect is here in the studio with me, Donna Brazile. It's a sad day because she's here talking about the passing of Dr. Dorothy Height and her many achievements in her lifetime. Who is going to carry the torch and fight for racial and gender equality the way she did for her entire lifetime? We are seeing a passing of that generation that was involved in the height of the civil rights movement.

BRAZILE: Yes and sadly last week we lost Dr. Benjamin Hooks. He will be buried tomorrow in Memphis. He was another one who just gave up his life to civil rights, the first African-American judge in the deep south, the first FCC commissioner, and also he was someone who helped to keep the movement alive. You know, Ali, the civil rights movement is an ongoing struggle for equality for all Americans. And when you look around today, you see not only the National Council of Negro Women continuing Dr. Height's legacy, but the NAACP just, you know, elected a new leader (INAUDIBLE)

VELSHI: A woman.

BRAZILE: That's right and Ben Jealous, he's also part of the generation of leaders. And you look on Capitol Hill, Barbara Lee, the chair of the congressional black caucus. You have Pamela Harris who is running statewide in California, Kendrick Meeks running statewide in Florida.

VELSHI: But is there grassroots support for that idea? Because if you're young, you haven't seen the civil rights issues that -- that these people like Dorothy Height and Ben Hooks, saw.

BRAZILE: Well, but, you know, civil rights was not just about breaking down barriers. Dorothy Height and leaders of her generation didn't see just the barriers, they also saw the opportunities. They were visionaries and so civil rights today comes in all forms. Equal pay as you mentioned earlier. That's an ongoing struggle for women to, you know, enjoy equal pay. The struggle for gays and lesbians to have equal rights. That's a struggle that's a civil rights issue. Of course education is a civil rights issue. Health care was a civil rights issue. The economy is a civil rights issue. So the civil rights movement continues today with new leadership and new blood.

VELSHI: Are you seeing new entries into that, you've named a lot of good, vibrant young people, but at the broadest stretches of these, in the places that the civil rights movement used to recruit at colleges, at church, in neighborhoods, do you see young people thinking I need to make a commitment to this?

BRAZILE: Absolutely. I am on college campuses every week and last week I was up in Rhode Island and the young people were creating this campaign of service, how they can go back into the community to basically talk about education, talk about health care, to bring more young people together. This past weekend in North Carolina, the leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee gathered to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They're reaching out. The movement goes on. Dorothy Height was a champion for civil rights and equality. She leaves a deep legacy.

VELSHI: Well, we're going to continue to honor her today so that people can realize that some of the freedoms that we enjoy today, for all of us are because of the struggles of people who have gone before us so we will do that. Thank you for being here to honor her with us.

BRAZILE: She would tell you that the best way to honor her is to serve, is to answer the call.

VELSHI: Good to see you and I know you always do that. Donna Brazile is a CNN political contributor.

All right, here's what I've got on the rundown. That massive volcanic cloud isn't the only thing in the air over Europe today. Finally more flight are up there too. Does this mean the worst over? And how do you know if that's the case when you're dealing with a volcano?

Plus in this day and age, women are still making less money than men. When are we going to finally bridge that gap? I'm going to bring back my colleague, Christine Romans, to talk about this. Let me tell you, she never holds back on this discussion. And you will not believe what some people are going to do to get your stimulus tax dollars especially some small airports. More flights mean more stimulus dollars no matter how short those flights might be. Got to stick around for this. It's our special investigation.

All right, cheers and applause breaking through Iceland's volcanic ash cloud today. Half of Europe's flights were back in the air. A limited number of flights began taking off yesterday, the one you see here, Germany, Lufthansa, many more taking to the skies today. As you can see, I'm going to show you this map, take a look at that, a lot of airports have reopened across Europe, including major ones in France, Germany, Italy and Spain just to mention a few. Other countries that have not reopened their airports have reopened their airspace because the ash cloud is now below 20,000 feet so planes can fly above it even if you can't take off, Austria, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Luxembourg, those are all countries with open airspace but not open airports.

Across the channel in Britain, still out of luck, the two biggest airports Heathrow and Gatwick remain closed. Many others do as well. The headaches and chaos for thousands of passengers stranded in the UK far from over. A new ash cloud from Iceland apparently on its way. CNN's Gary Tuchman joins us now from right near the volcano that is causing all the problems. He's been our best authority because he can just turn around and tell us whether it's still spewing or not. We heard for a little while that it wasn't spewing. But Gary, you can confirm it's spewing and apparently it looks like it's snowing too.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you see the stuff spewing from the sky, Ali. This is not ash, this is snow. It's snowing in Iceland and it feels like winter a lot even in the springtime when we're two months away from the summer. But that is the volcano behind me and I'm certainly not an expert on volcanoes, but because my eyeballs have been glued to that volcano for the last several days, I can tell you it is still erupting. However, I have talked to a man who is an expert on volcanoes a short time ago.