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Oil Rig Sinks; Wave of Bombing in Iraq
Aired April 23, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Countdown to mystery. At Florida's Cape Canaveral, the U.S. military has launched a secret space plane. Sounds pretty intriguing, huh? Fortunately, the Air Force isn't saying much about its classified project. Hey, it's secret. What did you expect? We do know that it's unmanned and can stay in orbit for up to nine months. Some people worry that it can eventually be used as a kind of space-age weapon system. The Air Force denies that.
Time running out for Arizona's governor. She's going to have to make a decision on a controversial new immigration bill. Protesters streaming into the state trying to influence that decision. She has until midnight Saturday. The measure makes it the job of local police to check citizenship and makes it a crime to knowingly hire undocumented workers. Citizens can sue if they think the law is being ignored. There are an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants living in Arizona and it's also the top crossing point for Mexico.
CNN's Casey Wian has more from Phoenix.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor's office.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jan Brewer's office had to install an extra phone line to handle all the calls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Are you asking the governor to veto it or sign it?
WIAN: Thousands and thousands of calls both for and against an impending Arizona law that would give local police more power to apprehend illegal immigrants. Opponents prayed inside and marched outside.
Arizona 1070 would require police when practical, to check the immigration status of people they have a reasonable suspicion of being in the United States illegally. Brewer has until midnight Saturday to either sign, veto the bill or do nothing, in which case it becomes law.
(on camera): Although the bill specifically prohibits officers from using race or skin color as sole basis for an immigration status check, opponents do believe it would lead to racial profiling.
MANUEL SHEEHAN, OPPOSES IMMIGRATION BILL: There are so many families in this community that are paranoid, not knowing whether they can walk the streets, take their kids to school and go to the grocery store?
WIAN: What do you say to those fears?
SHERIFF PAUL BABEU, PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA: Absolutely not. And this is where those people mainly outside of Arizona should be ashamed that they're now putting us who are the protectors of our families as the bogeyman, that we're just going to go out and randomly stop people because of their race, or color or some other reason. That's not what we do. We go after criminals.
WIAN (voice-over): A busload of out of state-activists arrived Thursday. Joining protesters who far outnumbered supporters at the capital. That may not be the case statewide.
LYNNE BREYER, SUPPORTS IMMIGRATION BILL: This is not the perfect immigration bill, but as a resident in Arizona for 27 years I have watched this problem grow and grow and grow and the bigger it gets, the more dangerous it gets.
WIAN: Back at the governor's office, overwhelmed staffers answer phones in rotating shifts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. I'll make a note and pass it on. Thank you.
WIAN: Fielding calls from a divided public anxiously awaiting the governor's decision.
Casey Wian, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now to that burning oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Well, it's not on fire anymore. It's also not floating anymore. Another explosion sent it under. The Coast Guard still isn't giving up on the search though. There are 11 people that are missing. Witnesses say that the 11 were on deck on that rig when it blew up.
The search has already covered an area twice the size of Rhode Island. When the rig went down it left behind a massive oil slick around five miles long, one mile wide. It also left fears of an environmental and economic catastrophe. We're talking about fishing, shrimping and of course gas prices.
Our John Roberts joins us live from New York today. So John, what exactly did the Coast Guard tell you with regard to the crude oil impact?
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, if they were to be a good situation, Kyra, that comes out of all of this it would seem that we're in the best situation possible right now. There was an awful lot of crude oil that was dumped in the Gulf of Mexico in the initial explosion and fire, but much of that actually burned off, so what's left now is what's being called by the Coast Guard a sheen of oil.
It's about a mile wide and about five miles long. It's got something of a dark scent, but it doesn't seem to be a heavy crude oil discharge at this point. so in terms of what happened after the initial explosion, it's not all that bad at the moment. The big fear, though, is what can happen if that well head at the bottom of the ocean, when the ocean floor starts leaking.
We talked to Rear Admiral Mary Landry from the 8th district Coast Guard about exactly what the situation is with that well head right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REAR ADM. MARY LANDRY, U.S. COAST GUARD: We have a remotely operated vehicle that we're getting a visual feed in our command center and it also has sonar capability. We are monitoring the sub surface and the wellhead to ensure there is no crude leaking from, emanating from the ocean floor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: That's definitely good news because the talk this morning in our editorial meeting was "OK, will our gas prices go up?" That's, you know, a logical question when you see something like this?
ROBERTS: Yes, any time you take one of those rigs out of service whether it be for maintenance purposes or because of this catastrophe, anything that happens in the Gulf Region, it would seem, particularly at this time of year when we're switching to new blends of gasoline affects the price of gasoline at the pump.
At the moment it doesn't seem, Kyra, as though there is any impact price wise, but it might take a while for that to trickle through. But again, the good news that the admiral told us about that they looked at the well head down at the bottom of the ocean and there is no crude oil leaking from it. So all that's in the water right now is what went in the water after the initial explosion.
PHILLIPS: Another quick question because, you know, we all love to go to New Orleans for some good seafood -
ROBERTS: Sure.
PHILLIPS: And a lot of that good seafood comes out of New Orleans to other places around the country. Ed Lavandera had mentioned something about the, you know, the tuna industry in the state waters. What can you tell us about the fish that we eat and enjoy that comes right there from that area and all of the fishermen and women along the bayou in that area that depend on this, you know, to make money?
ROBERTS: Yes, I mean, just to let you know how big an impact it is in the state of Louisiana alone, that the fishery is a $2.3 billion a year business. There are 3,300 different species of marine life in that area that stretches all the way from the Florida Keys down to the Texas-Mexico border in terms of the American fishery.
There are endangered species, six species of endangered whale, but you know, Kyra, you love to eat things like black drum, everybody loves to eat tuna. The red fish population beginning to come back and there are game fishermen and women who go out there after the marlin, the sale fish, the why and those could be potentially be impacted by a larger oil spill and then there's the near shore fishery as well and all of those shrimpers who go out there.
If the crude oil were to make its way to the bottom, to the ocean floor in the shallower areas that impacts the oyster beds, the crabbing industry as well. So, Kyra, there is a lot at risk here in terms of the ocean impact, but so far it seems to be minimal at this point. It could be even a bigger disaster, too, if any of that oil came onshore.
But according to the Coast Guard, they got all these skimmer boats our there. They could skim up 171,000 gallons of oil and other material off the surface of the gulf there. So they've got everyone working trying as hard as they can possibly can, trying to keep that spill offshore and trying to keep that contained and to make sure that none of that crude that's in that well head at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, on the ocean floor comes out as well.
PHILLIPS: All right. Appreciate it, John. Thanks.
And just hours ago in Iraq, a wave of bombings and dozens of people dead outside a mosque. How many times have we heard this same story over the years and seen pictures like these? So what makes this story different today? Consider this, just a few days ago, the top U.S. general in Iraq told me bottom line, Iraqi forces are ready to lead their country and that U.S. forces can draw down come August. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENERAL RAYMOND ODIERNO, COMMANDING GENERAL, U.S. FORCES, IRAQ: They have over time with our help developed a capability to conduct counter terrorism operations throughout the country. And that's what we're looking for as we look to move out of Iraq here over the next year or so and that's exactly the kind of capability we want them to be able to conduct once we leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now this latest wave of bombings makes you wonder. Was the general being too generous? Too optimistic? Let's get the latest from Baghdad from CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom.
So Mohammed, if Iraqi security forces had the intel that there would be some type of retaliation for the death of those Al Qaeda commanders that were killed in Iraq, intel that came from the Iraqis, you know, why weren't they protecting places of worship? I mean, that's where the attacks usually happen?
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, not only did Iraqi officials predict that there could be retaliatory attacks after the killing of the two most senior Al Qaeda leaders in the past week and U.S. military officials here said that while it was good that these people had been killed and it might have led to a devastating blow against Al Qaeda and Iraq here.
There could still be retaliatory attacks. Al Qaeda could regroup and carry out these attacks. Everybody should still be on guard. And nobody has yet claimed responsibility for these attacks but certainly these attacks bear the hallmarks of Al Qaeda-style attacks in Iraq.
But there really is no simple answer to your question. Look, Baghdad is a city that is very heavily protected. There are security in the streets, forces in the streets, checkpoints everywhere and traffic always at a standstill because it always is so difficult moving around here and yet you see these attacks happening more and more.
The government here says they insists that they're up to the task, that the security forces can do their jobs and they will protect the citizenry and the residences, the mosque. When you see this continuing to happen especially this kind of spectacular violence, everybody here continues to ask why. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. So how can Iraqis though have faith in the Iraqi forces because I know they want to when this happens? I mean, General Odierno says I support the draw down, less forces come August, goodbye me. Iraqis are ready but then you see this and you wonder, really? Can they do it? And I think a lot of Iraqis - Iraqis are feeling the same way. They're scared to see U.S. troops pull out.
JAMJOOM: It's true, Kyra. It's a very good question. We encounter more and more Iraqis here that will say us to, look, maybe we don't want the U.S. forces here, we want them to withdraw, but at the same time we don't think the Iraqi security forces are able to handle the security situation here sufficiently. We've been many times in the past year to the site of these blasts after the bombs go off and typically what happens is the mood changes very quickly from chaos and confusion to anger.
Not so much anger directed towards the people that carried out the attacks, but actually anger towards politicians and government officials here because Iraqis don't feel they can be protected. Look, since last year, last June, U.S. troops withdrew from the cities and starting last August in Baghdad, you had more and more of these unbelievable attacks that were happening, targeting government installations, very heavily fortified areas where there are a lot of bomb detection devices and the Iraqis here say, look, if the Iraqi government can't protect these areas, how are they going to protect us normal citizens?
They say to us. We want security. We want peace. We want a government that will work together in order to protect us and they're frustrated that this kind of violence still happens, it can happen at any time. Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Mohammed Jamjoom, thanks so much.
PHILLIPS: Well, you see a funnel cloud coming at you. What do you do? Run like the wind?
These storm chasers find their twister. Good thing it didn't find them. Their they're amazing pictures. Aren't they, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They are. Just a little closer. Just a little closer! A little game they play out there in the plains at this time of year. The start of the 2010 tornado season but we had 32 reports of tornadoes yesterday. We'll likely see more today and tomorrow. The forecast is coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow! Wow! Wow!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's got insulation in it, people. This thing is hitting structures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Oh, good night, Texas. It could have been more like good-bye Texas after this twister hit. Thankfully no injuries or major damage reported. Got to love storm chasers headed straight for it with the cameras rolling and there are reports that a mile-wide tornado touched down in western Kansas. No one hurt there, either. Not a lot of people living there in the first place.
And stormy weather swooped down on parts of New England, too. High winds ripped the roof off a mobile home in Beacon Falls, Connecticut. The power and gas supply had to be turned off there as well.
Rob Marciano tracking it all for us. Rob.
MARCIANO: That storm in Connecticut not quite associated with this one that roll through Texas, Kyra, but it's still a wide-reaching storm. Look how far to the east the rain shield reaches into parts of West Virginia and then back around the backside of this thing and we have snow into parts of Colorado. So it's certainly a dynamic and large and very slow-moving system.
So for that reason it's not going to be a one or even two-day event. It's going to turn out to be a three, if not four-day event, in many cases severe weather. Certainly the strongest storms that we've seen so far this year. The back side as I mentioned, snowstorms - we got storm warnings out 12 to 24 inches of it at the higher elevations.
At the lowest elevations in eastern Colorado, this is the video we were trying to get for you last hour, it says hail piling up and in some cases three inches deep. So for the second day in a row, Colorado saw snow in the mountains and hail at the lower elevations especially across Parson (ph) County, Colorado and piling up in the rooftops as well. That roof, well insulated.
All right. Let's talk about severe threat today. That energy is propagating to be slightly in the east of Dallas into the Texarkana area. And already just in the last hour, cells are beginning to pop here along the Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas border and some of these I wouldn't be surprised to become severe here very shortly.
Whenever they pop like that in individual fashion, they have the room to stretch their arms and develop into a super cell thunderstorm, and that's likely what will happen with a couple of those cells and we'll watch it closely. This is the general area where the bull's-eye has been painted by these storm prediction center out of Norman, Oklahoma, for moderate risk of seeing severe weather and a pretty good chance of seeing tornadoes drop out of these storms as well.
And again, it's slow movement off to the east and tomorrow where we have the energy coming with the jet stream. We also have more in the way of moisture coming from the Gulf of Mexico. So Alabama, Mississippi, through northern parts of Georgia and Tennessee, a moderate risk has been posted for tomorrow especially in the afternoon.
All right. Active times ahead, a slow start to the season, but we're going to start to ratchet up the numbers. Hopefully, we'll have days like yesterday, Kyra, where we get the storms, we get the tornadoes and we get the video and not a whole lot of damage and nobody gets hurt, but these storms are going to be moving into more populated areas and unfortunately, it gets more dangerous because of that.
PHILLIPS: All right. We'll keep track with you, Rob. Thanks.
MARCIANO: You bet.
PHILLIPS: Not giving up. That's the Coast Guard's mantra. That's for sure. And it's fanning out again today in the Gulf of Mexico, looking for missing workers from a destroyed oil rig.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: A Coast Guard has not given up for the search for 11 people missing after an oil rig explosion. That rig has now sunk into the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard is already tracking an area twice the size of Rhode Island looking for them. An oil slick five miles wide now sits where that rig was burning.
Time running out for Arizona's governor on what to decide with the controversial immigration bill. Republican Jan Brewer has until midnight Saturday to sign or veto it. The measure would push police into mandatory citizenship checks as part of a crack down on illegal immigrants.
Feeling a little tired? Medical experts are now giving you an excuse for a little shut eye. Keep dreaming. It's good for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Remember this the next time your loving spouse interrupts your couch coma. That little nap could help your memory. A snooze you can use. Here's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I've been fascinated by this whole concept of sleep. How we sleep, why we sleep, for a very long time and some new research coming out is pretty interesting stuff, saying basically that while sleep is good, dreaming is even better as far as learning thing, remembering things, synthesizing things and figuring out problems. Just fascinating stuff.
They had a series of tests and problems they presented to people. They allowed certain people to sleep after the problem was presented and other people did not get to sleep and they really tried to figure out what was happening specifically in the brain and how people would perform. First of all they found that people who got a little bit of sleep were able to figure out a lot of these problems easier and more quickly.
Now, take a look at the brain here specifically, as that brain spins around you'll see there are two areas that are really of critical importance, the frontal area in light purple and the back area in dark purple - that's called the hypocampus, the frontal area of the frontal lobes. These two areas really need to be talking to each other to solve problems.
The front area sort of analyzes problems, try to synthesize it, and the back area is where you store memories and you can recall other memories that can help you figure out the problem. When you're awake these two parts of the brain are talking to each other but there's also lots of other areas of the brain that are talking to each other, sort of makes it harder and could interfere with that communication.
When you are sleeping and even more specifically when you're dreaming those two areas seem to communicate much more easily and that's why it's easier to solve a problem or synthesize something while you're doing this. You think your brain is asleep, it's really not, it can be working on something which is why people are told to sleep on it. You sleep on it and all of a sudden the answer comes to you.
Now, you know, this has a lot of implications. If you're sort of mulling over a difficult problem and you simply can't seem to figure it out. Even resting for about 90 minutes or so, that can give you enough time to cycle through your stages of sleep and possibly come up with an answer. We do have five stages of sleep and it's REM sleep when your eyes are darting back and forth when you're usually dreaming and again it's that state of sleep that often is the best in terms of trying to figure out some of these problems.
Again, fascinating research, I think and hopefully helpful to anyone trying to get extra sleep and maybe solve some problems at the same time. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Sounds good to us. Well, it's a buyer's market. First-time homebuyers are getting a taste of the American dream and giving a boost to the economy at the same time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: And let's take a look at the big board, shall we? The Dow industrials up. That's the good news. Our rally is continuing.
Let's talk about housing numbers. New home sales blowing past expectations. Just moments ago the government actually said that sales of new homes shot up nearly 27 percent last month, breaking a four-month losing streak. One big reason why the housing market is doing so much better? Those first-time homebuyers. The government is still offering that $8,000 tax credit and millions of people are taking advantage of it.
Stephanie Elam in New York with all the details. Well, Stephanie, the clock is ticking on that tax credit.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, to say the least, Kyra. First-time homebuyers have to be under contract by next Friday, April 30th to get that free money. So the race is definitely on. And for many buyers, that $8,000 - it's making a huge difference. It's giving people the big impetus that they needed to get out there and find a home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM (voice-over): With the home buyer tax credit set to expire April 30th, existing home sales are up, thanks to a surge in first- time buyers like Nick and Cara Fiorello.
(on camera): When you look at the first-time home buyer tax credit, how much did that spur you guys along to make sure you got out there and found a house?
NICK FIORELLO, HOMEBUYER: A lot. It definitely pushed us. We were kind of half-heartedly looking early on and then when I read about that, I said, "Cara, we really - you know, we got to move on this and get this done because it's never going to happen again."
ELAM (voice-over): The Fiorellos aren't alone. First-timers have been jumping into the market since February of last year, encouraged by the government's $8,000 tax credit and some historically low interest rates.
REGINA ROGERS, VP, LAFFEY ASSOCIATES: We absolutely know that those first-time homebuyers are affecting the market. Year to year the transactions are up 25 percent from January of 2009 to today and it's the greatest increase that we've seen in, say, over six years.
ELAM: And she's just talking about metropolitan New York, with roughly four million new and existing homes sitting on the market nationwide, buyers have plenty of options, but finding the right one isn't necessarily easy. The Fiorellos say they put in offers of more than 10 houses before finding their perfect place.
NICK FIORELLO: People did not want to negotiate, to be honest with you. Sometimes we would put in a bid that was, you know, $25,000 less hoping to meet somewhere in the middle, and they would just be insulted.
ELAM: Many sellers are fighting to get back at least what they spent on their house, and nearly a quarter of all homeowners owe more on their mortgage than what the home is worth.
REGINA ROGERS, VICE PRESIDENT, LAFFEY ASSOCIATES: The overall market, we know, is down 25 percent to 30 percent from the height of where we once were.
ELAM: But it's a buyer's market, and for the Fiorellos that meant getting into a neighborhood untouchable before the recession.
KARA FIORELLO, FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYER: I love this house. When I think that we looked for so long, and I swear this house is made for us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM: You can see the joy that the Fiorellos have over finding their home and because of the $8,000 tax credit, the Fiorellos didn't owe a single penny at all when you take a look at tax day this year, simply because they got in under the previous deadline, which was in November so they already did their taxes and they were good for the 2009 year, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: OK, Steph. Thanks.
ELAM: Securing Afghanistan when the NATO troops leave, teaching Afghans how to keep their country safe. Cobbling together a working police force with very raw recruits.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: Like so many of his generation, the Greatest Generation. He went to war for his country. But 19-year-old Army tech sergeant Walter McLellan never returned until now. The sergeant had bailed out of a B-17 over Dresden, Germany, in 1945. He was captured and killed by the Nazi SS. McLellan's remains flown to the States yesterday. His family talked about what he suffered and his long-awaited, but sad homecoming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUNE MCCLELLAN-THOMAS, SOLDIER'S SISTER: I'm sure he suffered when they took him, you know, and told him they were going to shoot him, and then when they made him dig his own grave.
OTTIS THOMAS, SOLDIER'S NEPHEW: Found out how he passed so tragically, and to find out he was finally going to be able to return to Pensacola -- the patriot guard responding to this is kind of overwhelming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: He'd been buried in an unmarked grave in a German cemetery before his remains were finally identified. Sergeant Walter McClellan is being buried today in Pensacola with full military honors.
You can't have a secure country without security, and that's just what a group of American and Canadian soldiers are doing in Afghanistan, training recruits for a police force. CNN's Michael Holmes is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a police station in Kandahar, district police chief Yar Mohammed (ph) tells U.S. soldiers a story of police corruption. When he sends recruits to submit their paperwork to headquarters, he says, they're sometimes asked to pay a fee, in cash. There is no fee for filing such paperwork. The soldiers say they'll look into it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make sure everybody has their weapons and everyone has sufficient ammo and they have the proper equipment to go out on this patrol.
HOLMES: Stopping rampant corruption and creating a professional police force is seen as a front line weapon in the fight against the Taliban in Kandahar.
It's no easy task. International observers say previous training programs achieved very little.
And so here, Americans and Canadians mentor and train around the clock. A grassroots program to win over a suspicious population, starting with the cops on the street. On a base in the city, Canadian cops put their Afghan counterparts through eight-week courses. Most of these men have had no formal training until now. Never been shown how to fire their weapons properly. A few weeks into the course, the improvements, say their trainers, are startling.
DERREL CAGLE, POLICE ADVISER: A very tight group, very good shooter, and we're proud of his roots. His training is paying off.
HOLMES: Just as important, the classroom. This lesson, ethics. Work with the people, not against them, the teacher tells his pupils. Lieutenant Abdul Ghani (ph) is a recent graduate of such training, and he's a man who knows the Taliban well, bearing the scars of a shootout with the insurgents that's left his right hand paralyzed. He said it made him more determined to be a good cop.
On the outskirts of Kandahar, the lieutenant patrols alongside the Americans, who say such training is working.
LT. DANIELLE CHAMPAGNE, U.S. ARMY: They've actually improved a lot as far as like one day, we'll find an IED here, and they'll learn from it, and now they check that area and they learn how to learn those tactics and techniques. HOLMES: There seems to be plenty of dedication and also plenty that still needs to be done, judging by the faces of some locals.
(on camrea): It's a problem in a lot of areas in Afghanistan, particularly around kandahar. There are areas where the police are simply not trusted, and that's the idea of these patrols to have these people trust their police.
(voice-over): Back at the training course, Saeed Mohammed Shor is looking forward to graduation.
MOHAMMED SHOR, AFGHAN POLICE OFFICER: I have learned a lot about working with the people. I'm not scared for myself. I want to protect my people. I want them safe.
HOLMES: Afghanistan needs thousands more in uniform with the same commitment.
Michael Holmes, CNN, Kandahar, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Ships have surrounded the oil spill left after an oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico. It's about five miles long, one mile wide, but the Coast Guard says the danger is minimal. No damage to an underwater pipeline at this point, but they're ready just in case it does rupture.
At Florida's Cape Canavral, the U.S. military launched a secret space plane, but don't tell anyone. The Air Force isn't saying much about the classified project, and that explains the secret part, I guess. We know that it is unmanned and can stay in orbit for up to nine months. Some people worry that it could eventually be used as a kind of pace-age weapons system. The Air Force denies that.
We've been telling you this morning about the controversial immigration bill in Arizona making police actually check citizenship. The governor is still deciding whether to make it law, and just moments ago, President Obama commented on the bill, saying that it's the federal government's fault, at least partly. Here's what he just said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. And that includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.
In fact, I've instructed members of my administration to closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation. But if we continue to fail to act at a federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts opening up around the country. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And we will follow the governor's decision. She has until tomorrow night to sign that.
A new star for the NFL. You can call him calm. Almost as big as the original, taking New York by storm.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the second pick in the 2010 NFL draft, the Detroit Lions select Ndamukong Suh.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Defensive tackle of Nebraska.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And that's how the dream becomes a reality. A kid with a unique name will be a household name soon. He's getting the call for pro football stardom, the number 2 pick overall in the NFL draft.
The first overall pick was Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, he went to the Rams. Nice kid. There are a lot of nice kids in the draft.
CNN's Richard Roth is live from New York. Let's talk about this link between the Lions of one West African country and the lions of Detroit.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, Suh's ancestors, particularly his great-grandfather, 7'3 lived, in Cameroon. The name for their football or soccer team, the Indomitable Lions.
Well, Suh's new NFL team, the Lions of Detroit, not exactly indominable. Either way, Suh was number two last night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROTH (voice-over): Ndamukong Suh strolls through Manhattan traffic with little fear. The 6'4, 300-pound football star has already proved pretty tough in heavy traffic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A D tackle from Nebraska, Ndamukong Suh!
ROTH: This big man named Suh was in New York this week to learn which professional football team would choose him in the annual college player draft.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to be a beast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's strong, he's athletic. He likes to kill quarterbacks. ROTH: Suh has picked up product endorsement deals already. The draft is a gateway to becoming an instant millionaire.
NDAMUKONG SUH, PICKED UP BY DETROIT LIONS: It's just all due to hard work and be humble. You have to understand -- I grew up with the understanding that you work for everything that you get.
ROTH: Values instilled in Suh from his parents. mom from Jamaica and dad, a mechanical engineer from Cameroon in West Africa.
MICHAEL SUH, NDAMUKONG SUH'S FATHER: Nothing comes for free. And he grew up he saw us working as he grew up. So, he doesn't take anything for granted.
ROTH: Suh's father played some soccer in Germany. Ndamukong was born in Portland, Oregon, and took up American style football.
NGUM SUH, NDAMUKONG SUH'S SISTER: Football is a different thing in Cameroon, you know? It's soccer. They're like, oh, he's a football star! You know, why haven't we seen him on TV, because we don't play that football.
ROTH: Sister Suh will help her brother cope with the demands of his new career and make sure the dollar signs don't swell his head.
NGUM SUH: You think you're so cool.
ROTH (on camera): Did he eat a lot as a youngster?
MICHAEL SUH: Yes, that's why I'm little. Because when he started eating, he had all of the food so I had nothing to eat, so that's why I'm little.
ROTH: Suh gets as much attention for his name as his tackling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an African name. Who don't know that?
NDAMUKONG SUH: I'm, without a doubt, the most proud of my name. Named after my great-grandfather, who was a police chief back in Cameroon, Africa. It means house of spirits.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ndamukong Suh is here!
ROTH: What would make you most happy? Your son's team winning the Super Bowl or Cameroon winning the World Cup in soccer football?
MICHAEL SUH: Both. I want it all.
(LAUGHTER)
MICHAEL SUH: I'll be happy to see Cameroon win the World Cup, and I would be happy to see my son win the Super Bowl because he wants it all, and I want it all.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ROTH: Suh graduated with a degree in construction management. Now, the Lions hope he will only take apart offensive lines in the NFL season. He also plans, Kyra, to donate $2.6 million to his alma mater of Nebraska. Kyra?
PHILLIPS: I love how his dad said he's so big because he ate all the food, and his dad's little because he didn't get enough, but you know what? His son can now take him out for some nice steak dinners.
ROTH: I did ask the father if he's earning anything yet, and he said we'll see. It's a very close-knit family that doesn't appear to be fazed by the publicity hype and the demands of an NFL star's season.
PHILLIPS: That's good to hear. We hope he keeps that humble heart and stays close to his family. Richard, thanks.
During this Earth Day week, at least one parent is wondering what on earth was the school thinking when it let a famous felon come talk to the kids. The principal's response? Priceless.
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PHILLIPS: T.I. the rapper moving on with his life, but not everyone is happy about where he's going. Part of his debt to society for his weapons conviction, community service. Part of that service, a visit to a middle school just outside Atlanta. He talked to the kids about bullying, among other things, and here's the clincher. He was a surprise guest, and a surprise for one father who is now furious. He says if he knew, his daughter would have stayed home.
So what did he do? He wrote to the principal. The principal's response? Priceless.
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TOM MYERS, PARENT: The first e-mail that I got back was that he said, "I thought about asking a guy who snorted cocaine and got arrested for DUI when he was 30 to come speak to our kids, but President George W. Bush was not available." I could not believe that he would put that in an e-mail or that he would say that.
To me, if they're going to have a speaker out to that school, they need to vet those speakers just a little bit more. And in any case, ask for permission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now, the dad did admit that T.I. has encouraged kids to work hard, but he's still upset. He said the school should have been up front about the convict's visit.
We take so many things for granted. Employees will wash their hands before making your food. Police and firefighters will come when you call them, and doctors who poke and prod you are using clean instruments.
Well, hold off on that last one. One Canadian hospital is warning patients about a potentially deadly problem that went unchecked for nearly two years. Louise Heartland has the outrage.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hepatitis B, Hep C or HIV.
LOUISE HEARTLAND, CTV CORRESPONDENT: Those are examples of blood illnesses the Vancouver Island Health Authority say up to 500 patients may have been exposed to after being treated with a tainted piece of surgical equipment.
Vic General made the discovery after staff noticed a cloudiness in a (INAUDIBLE) solution. It's regularly used to sterilize endoscopes, a snakelike diagnostic tool used to examine and detect problems with the liver, pancreas and gall bladder. They found nothing suspicious in regular screenings, but after a more detailed swab test, staff discovered something much more serious.
DR. MARTIN WALE, VANCOUVER ISLAND HEALTH AUTHORITY: During that process, we discovered a small amount residue in one of the ports on the scope that's likely to be blood. And that was remaining after the cleaning process was complete.
HEARTLAND: Specialized staff cleaned the instrument, but the Health Authority say the scopes need to be soaked right after a procedure. But that may not have happened in this case, allowing blood to dry.
DR. RICHARD CROW, VANCOURVER ISLAND HEALTH AUTHORITY: We have changed our process such that there will not be any drying of the instruments, that they have to be soaked after use prior to cleaning.
HEARTLAND: The health authority says it stopped using the equipment after the discovery in February. Days later, a patient returned to the hospital three days after a procedure with a bacterial infection linked to the endoscope.
WALE: He was very ill. The procedure was a palliative measure in his case and we treated his bacterial infection. He went home. He has subsequently died from his illness, not from the bacterial infection.
HEARTLAND: Bacterial infects present within days of procedures. The concern now is viral infections, which have a much longer incubation period. Those viral infections include hepatitis and HIV. At-risk patients who underwent procedures with one of the four suspect scopes would have been operated on between June 2008 and January of this year.
WALE: The risks - I would stress that the risks are very low. And the risks from the literature are around one in 30 million procedures, so we're very unlikely to find any.
HEARTLAND: B.C.'s health minister says it's unfortunate, but says mistakes do happen.
KEVIN FALCON, BRITISH COLUMBIA HEALTH MINISTER: So, what you always have to do is be constantly trying to improve performance, have checks in place and make sure you're as careful as you can possibly be. But you will never eliminate the risk altogether.
HEARTLAND: A sentimenet echoed by the Health Authority, which warns this could happen again.
WALE: We cannot say that's 100 percent, that there is no risk. Neither can we say that this cleaning failure was a single event.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: We've told that story before. Remember the problems that we reported last year with the VA hospital? Same issue. This Canadian hospital sent out letters telling 500 patients about that problem, and even offered them free viro screening. Wow. Free screening for diseases they could have gotten because the hospital screwed up. Pretty generous.
Every dog has his day. Bo has a four-year term. We'll show you how the presidential pooch gave another command performance.
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PHILLIPS: Coming up in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM, will she or won't she? A closer look at the controversial immigration legislation in Arizona, and it if will get the governor's John Hancock.
Bo Jackson may have been a sports star, but in Washington, Bo Obama is a rock star. The Portuguese water dog in chief. As Jeanne Moos shows us, Bo knows photo-ops.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He was first introduced as --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A special guest.
MOOS: And then upgraded to --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very special guest.
MOOS: By the time he arrived, he got the rock star treatment.
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Want to say hi?
MOOS: It was almost as if the first dog thought he was taking questions.
OBAMA: Do I like living in the White House? And yes, it's fun living in the White House
(BARKING)
You can't live life without vegetables, right? You got to have vegetables. All right. Let's get another question. Let's get another question, Bo.
MOOS: No wonder he thinks it's his press event. This is a dog who's on a first named basis with celebs so famous they go by their first name, too. But when Bo --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Um --
MOOS: Couldn't keep his paws off the first lady, when he couldn't keep his trap shut --
OBAMA: What a clown. (BARKING) Shhh. Quiet. They never been anybody in my race who has been -- (BARKING) Why now? All right. You're going to have to go.
MOOS: Oh, no, Bo's in the dog house, but his expulsion led the kids the near mutiny.
OBAMA: Are you ready to go?
MOOS: Even when he was handed off and escorted out, many of the questions were still about him.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: What's Bo's favorite toy?
MOOS: A big rope.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: Do you spend more time with your dog or with your kids?
MOOS: The kids.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: Does Bo bite?
OBAMA: Yes, but you know, did he bite you?
MOOS (on-camera): So far, the only incident we've actually seen involved Bo attacking mics.
MOOS (voice-over): Be it a foam wind screen on a TV camera or a furry one, but over the holidays, Bo looked like he would love to sink his teeth into Santa.
OBAMA: Bo is Santa. Shhh. He hasn't seen Santa before. Quiet. Quiet.
MOOS: The quiet was broken at the Bring your Kids to Work event, but the kids actually chanting for Bo's return. Bo was allowed back. Before the kids left, he worked the room. His fans swarmed around him, grabbed at him, occasionally blocked by the first lady herself. Bo mania breaks out when you bring your dog or bring your kids to work.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: That does it for us. Have a fantastic weekend. Tony Harris picks it up here on this beautiful Friday.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It is, Kyra, you have a great weekend. See you Monday.
PHILLIPS: All right.
