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Uproar over Immigration Law; Making the Earth Greener; From the Ground Up
Aired April 24, 2010 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And hello, everyone. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM for this Saturday April 24th. I'm T.J. Holmes.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm Brooke Baldwin. A check of the clock it's 11:00 on the East Coast. 8:00 a.m. on the West Coast. A lot of weather, severe weather we've been covering.
HOLMES: Severe weather and check it out. No matter where you take a live shot this morning, it's pretty gloomy in a whole lot of places including Atlanta, New Orleans, and really, throughout the Southeast.
Under the gun right now and standing by for possible outbreaks of tornados, we've seen watches and warnings; we will get an update from our weather center here in just a moment.
But we want to start in Arizona where there has been a major uproar over the crackdown on illegal immigration. Advocacy groups are already preparing legal challenges to a newly signed Arizona law. This is really new. Just yesterday and already the challenges are coming. This law requires police to determine if someone is in that state legally.
BALDWIN: And that means officers will be questioning anyone they consider suspicious. They have probable suspicion and opponents say you know what? That promotes racial profiling.
CNN's Casey Wian is joining us live this morning from Phoenix, Arizona.
Casey, I know you're in the thick of things yesterday. A lot quieter out there, tell me why people are taking this so personally?
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a lot quieter. As you can see behind me you've got a little shrine that's set up here. And any -- any moment now we're going to see some of the protesters who spent the night here outside Arizona's State Capitol gathering here for a prayer service.
Leaders are trying to calm the fears of the community that you mentioned. They're going to let folks know that this law doesn't go into effect for 90 days after the current legislative session ends. And that's probably not going to be until late July or early August that the law will take effect.
But needless to say these protesters have been out here all week trying to persuade Arizona Governor Jan Brewer not to sign this legislation. The governor said she heard their concerns and listened to them, considered them, but despite that yesterday she signed the bill into law.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: I will now sign Senate Bill 1070.
WIAN: Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law the nation's toughest measure aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration over the objections of hundreds of protesters who've surrounded the state capitol for several days.
BREWER: Though many people disagree, I firmly believe it represents what's best for Arizona.
WIAN: Protesters claim the bill will lead to racial profiling by police officers enforcing its most controversial provision, they will be required in many cases to check the immigration status of anyone they believe is in the United States illegally.
Some opponents were angry. Others, just sad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started to cry. I started to think about my family and my friends. About everything that's going to happen; about how things are going to change from now on.
WIAN: Brewer says she will enforce state laws against racial profiling with as much vigor as she enforces the new law making illegal immigration a state crime.
BREWER: People across America are watching Arizona. Seeing how we implement this law; ready to jump on even the slightest misstep.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIAN: Now, as protesters gather behind me for their morning prayer service, leaders of some of these groups say that they're trying to calm the fears of the community. They are trying to let people know that police are not going to be pulling them over randomly on the street.
Despite that, despite the fact that Arizona's new law specifically prohibits race or national origin from being used as the sole criteria for checking someone's immigration status, there remains a lot of fear among the Latino community here in Phoenix and throughout the state of Arizona.
The leaders here are trying to calm those fears, at least for now, and at the same time working to try to overturn this law. Lawsuits are already promised by several Latino human rights group. The governor says she expects them, she expects this law will hold up to Constitutional challenges. And they pointed the out that even if some provisions of the law are held to be unconstitutional, other provisions of the law can still remain in force -- T.J., Brooke.
BALDWIN: Casey, can we just follow-up with regard to the lawsuit? I know you talked to an immigration lawyer who said absolutely there are questions about the constitutionality. Do we have any specifics as far as lawsuits being filed or is that just hanging in the balance?
WIAN: That's still hanging in the balance. I don't know of any lawsuits being filed yet. I'm not sure -- whether they have to wait until the law actually takes effect. I don't think so. There's could be groups seeking temporary injunctions. We're not sure what the legal strategy is.
We do know that they liken this effort to several years ago in the State of California, there was something called Proposition 187 which was a similar bill, sought to deny state services to illegal immigrants and in many ways criminalized the presence of illegal immigrants in California and these same groups successfully overturned that law in court. They say they're going to be using some of the same strategies here in Arizona.
BALDWIN: All right, Casey Wian for us in Phoenix. Casey, thank you.
HOLMES: Well, supporters of the new law say it will fill the void left by federal government as they accuse Washington of failing to enforce national immigration laws. And among those favoring the immigration crackdown: Arizona's large police union and some local law enforcements officers.
Casey Wian talked to one sheriff about concerns that police will profile Latinos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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 boogeyman that we're going to just 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: President Obama, among those who's criticizing this legislation, is actually in Asheville, North Carolina for the weekend.
Ed Henry followed. Ed, good morning to you once again. The president, you know, he usually doesn't say too many things by mistake. Everything is carefully orchestrated. So he made a conscious decision to step into this debate?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, T.J., he did it before arriving here in Asheville yesterday. A little weekend getaway with the First Lady here in a beautiful part of western North Carolina.
But he was in the Rose Garden yesterday. It was a perfect setting to really bring it up because it was a ceremony honoring and celebrating U.S. service members who are becoming U.S. citizens.
The president took the occasion to say he believes this new law is misguided. He was speaking just a couple of hours before the governor signed it into law, and the president also suggested this could lead to Civil Rights violations if the police there in Arizona just start pulling people over to see whether or not they're citizens.
And he also said this is a prime example of why there needs to be some sort of federal reform to make sure that states aren't going rogue and just passing laws like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 are 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: So as you know, the president again today in his radio Internet address, talking about Wall Street reform. That's really the battle he's locked up in right now. The White House is confident they're going to get a victory on that in the next few weeks.
There has been an anticipation maybe he'd move on to climate change, as the best next big issue to tackle. But given what's going on in Arizona as well as some pressure the President has been getting from some of his supporters who remembered that in the campaign he promised to tackle immigration reform in the first year of his administration.
Given that pressure, given now what's going on in Arizona, it seems very likely the immigration reform on the national level is really moving up among the list of agenda items he's going to tackling in the weeks ahead -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Ed Henry for us in North Carolina. Ed, we appreciate you as always. It's good to see you this morning. Enjoy the rest of the President's vacation. And remember it's not your vacation, it's the President's.
HENRY: I know. I'm working.
HOLMES: All right. Ed, it's good to see you as always, buddy.
HENRY: Ok.
HOLMES: We're going to have a lot more coverage of this controversial bill coming up a little later in the show.
You've seen the protest that immigration bill has caused in Arizona. But our deputy political director is going to explain how the law could actually have an impact not just there in one state but across all of the U.S.
BALDWIN: Also, potential storms having impact really through the south, the Midwest. Bonnie Schneider is following the threat of severe weather right now.
Bonnie, good morning.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. Good morning.
We are tracking tornado warnings in Mississippi and in Arkansas at this hour, but the severe weather threat is widespread, well into Tennessee. I'll have a complete look and break it all down for you coming up next on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. We were just, we were curious, so we are trying to see what's going on outside.
BALDWIN: Is it still raining? We don't have windows in here.
HOLMES: Yes.
BALDWIN: Apparently it is. There we go.
HOLMES: There it is.
BALDWIN: It looks nice.
HOLMES: It's a little gloomy, it looks cloudy.
Bonnie Schneider, we might be under the gun a little later here in Atlanta, but some people right now ...
SCHNEIDER: That's true.
HOLMES: Almost and to the point they need to seek shelter right now. Because I know, a lot of watches and warnings have been popping up.
SCHNEIDER: Yes, when a warning is posted, T.J. and Brooke it's much more imminent. And we have that right now in Mississippi whereas in Atlanta, we're just watching for the threat of severe weather. Alabama and Mississippi is much more immediate. Places like Laurel, Mississippi, for example under a tornado warning.
Now, this is not to say that a tornado had touched down, but Doppler radar has indicated rotation and thunderstorms and not just there but in Arkansas as well. This includes the city of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, south of Little Rock. These storms are on the move to the northeast. They are very intense. Reports of golf ball-sized hail already into parts of Alabama.
Now, here's what's going on. Tornado watches will continue straight through this afternoon, straight through the evening hours for some of the major southern cities like Memphis, Nashville, down through Jackson and further to the south as well as into places like Mobile and into New Orleans.
We can show you Mobile, Alabama, it's looking a little stormy along the Gulf Coast. It is going to get worse before it gets better.
But to the north, Mobile and well into Birmingham as well as Nashville and Memphis, we are tracking a particularly dangerous situation. The tornado watches you see highlighted here have been enhanced with the language from the storm Prediction Center in (INAUDIBLE) Oklahoma, to indicate and they rarely do this, this is important to note. That if we get a tornado, where you see here, they could be very severe, extremely violent and long-lasting. So a particularly dangerous situation for a good portion of Tennessee into Alabama and Mississippi.
Right now those storms are working their way to the northeast and they will continue to do that throughout the day as we track this severe weather. You can see real time lightning, T.J. and Brooke, showing dangerous situation across much of the south. I'll keep you up to date on it.
BALDWIN: What a huge storm. That's amazing. Bonnie, thank you.
HOLMES: Bonnie, thank so much.
Well, there is something that we all do as human beings, that would you believe cows do as well. But when the cows do it, it's actually bad for the earth. And we've got a green solution coming up. It's going to try to stop the cows from polluting the planet.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: In less than four hour, we're talking about 3:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN, we'll be showing a special hour called "Green Solutions in Focus" and what we do is we have our CNN photojournalists take a look at the people of the global environmental movement and their impact on their neighborhoods and really beyond.
Here is a piece from our own photojournalist Bob Crowley (ph).
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NANCY HIRSCHBERG, STONEYFIELD FARM: Vermont has a long history of being a huge milk state. My name's Nancy Hirschberg (ph). I'm the vice president of natural resources for Stoneyfield Farm (ph). We make organic yogurt and dairy products.
The Fourniers are one of about 180 organic dairy farms in the state of Vermont.
EARL FOURNIER, DAIRY FARMER: We can milk up to eight a time.
HIRSCHBERG: He's one of the 1,400 dairy members of Organic Valley Crop Cooperative. The Stoneyfield Farm Greener Cow Project was an effort on our behalf to find a way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from milk production.
FOURNIER: Come on girl. Go. Come on.
HIRSCHBERG: We thought our factory was going to be the biggest part of our contribution to climate change and lo and behold it was actually the milk production; the cows themselves and their burps.
Cows release methane which is a very potent greenhouse gas. A lot of people think when they hear about gas from cows that is coming from the rear end and it's actually coming from the mouths in silent burps.
This is a cooked flax. We're adding just a few pounds a day to their diet and what it does is it rebalances their stomach so they actually produce less methane.
FOURNIER: The numbers that we've got so far on this farm somewhere in the range of 12 percent to 15 percent improvement reducing methane emissions from the cows.
HIRSCHBERG: There's been a huge health benefit as well. We were able to increase the omega-3 in the milk by almost a third.
FOURNIER: I want to do my share. This is part of the reason why we farm in a sustainable manner and this just makes it better.
HIRSCHBERG: The benefits are not only for the greenhouse gas emissions, but it's for the animals' health, for our human health as well as the planet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: And one of our very own female photo journalists here with CNN. CNN's Bethany Swain leads the CNN team for "Green Solutions in Focus". You came up with the whole thing. She's joining me now from Washington. Bethany, good to see you again.
BETHANY SWAIN, CNN PHOTOJOURNALIST: Great to see you, too, Brooke.
BALDWIN: All right. I love the series. I love how these photojournalists can tell the story just through pictures and sounds. So let me just ask you this. Now that we're talking about the environment with the In Focus series, why go green? Why pick this topic?
SWAIN: This week was the 48th anniversary of Earth Day. And we thought that it was a good opportunity to be able to tell some stories with our photojournalist team. Each one of the pieces like the one we just saw from Bob Crowley are shot, written, edited and produced by the photojournalist.
And that was one of my personal favorites. Growing up in Vermont I had first hand knowledge and experience with the dairy farmers and knowing how important that is. And it's nice to see how these dairy farmers are trying to lessen their impact on the environment.
BALDWIN: First hand knowledge of the bovine issues like we just learned about. Ok.
So for our viewers who don't really talk TV and understand what really is the difference between maybe pieces they see on CNN and these particular pieces with the In Focus project?
SWAIN: What makes this different is a single photojournalist is going out there and -- Bob was out there in Vermont, he was doing the interviews and he's really letting the people tell their own stories. So it's a different storytelling technique and it kind of highlights the diversity of CNN and we have one of the reporters and anchors and our photo journalists whose can help bring stories to our audience.
BALDWIN: And real quickly Bethany, when do we get to watch this again?
SWAIN: 3:00 Eastern time; we have 15 stories that are rolling out, just like the ones by Bob. And it's our biggest project yet.
BALDWIN: Good deal. Bethany Swain. Looking forward to it. Thank you.
By the way, you can become a fan of In Focus as I am on Facebook.
Thank you, Bethany. By the way, "Green Solutions in Focus", again it's a special hour of programming dedicated to the environment, 3:00 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific today.
And you can learn more when you can logon to our Web site. Just go to CNN.com and there is, as Bethany mentioned, information on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day which was observed this past Thursday and, of course, your iReports.
HOLMES: Also keeping an eye on a few other stories this morning. Protests in Arizona after the governor signed a bill aimed at illegal immigrants. It requires police to determine whether someone is in the U.S. legally. Critics say this will lead to racial profiling. Supporters say it will help curb illegal immigration.
BALDWIN: Rescuers have now officially suspended that search for the 11 missing oil rig workers. Remember this massive explosion? They were on that rig in the Gulf of Mexico that exploded earlier this week. The site is about 50 miles off of the Louisiana Coast. The Coast Guard now says it believes the men never made it off the platform that erupted into what you see here.
HOLMES: And then rock singer, Bret Michaels, is in critical condition and in intensive care after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage. Michaels, who is 47 years old, is lead singer for the 80's band Poison and stars in a VH1 reality show so called the "Rock of Love with Bret Michaels".
We'll have more of your headlines in 20 minutes.
BALDWIN: Also, President Obama says he wants more oversight of Wall Street.
HOLMES: Yes. But what he may want to know is who actually is the watchman after a porn scandal erupts at the SEC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right.
This is filed under the category of, "You got to be kidding me". You're not going to believe this. Revelations that employees of the Security and Exchange Commission while they should have been keeping an eye on what was happening on Wall Street while the whole financial crisis was about to happen and happening some employees there were surfing the web for porn during the financial collapse.
We're just not talking about, Brooke, here, just a Web site here, a Web site there.
BALDWIN: No. We're talking about a lot of porn, and more than a dozen -- two dozen employees.
Here's what we know. An inspector general's report obtained by CNN showed during the past five years 33 SEC employees and/or contractors violated commission rules and ethical standards. The report, they say, is that they viewed pornographic, sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images using government computer resources and official time. Obviously -- SEC looking into that one.
HOLMES: All right.
Well a town, you may remember, flattened by a tornado is making an amazing and environmentally friendly comeback. Greensburg. You remember them? They are greener than ever now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: If you could rebuild your town all the way from the ground up -- think about it -- what would you change? In today's "Building up America" segment, Tom Foreman takes to us a tiny Kansas town that turns tragedy into opportunity quite simply by living up to its name.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The tornado that ripped through Greensburg three years ago was a swirling black cloud with winds exceeding 200 miles an hour and it left this small town in ruins.
DANIEL WALLACH, GREENSBURG GREENTOWN: It was a 1.7 mile wide tornado. And the town is 1.5 miles wide. So there was just very little on the peripheries that survived.
FOREMAN: But the storm of rebuilding that Daniel Wallach and others have led since is proving just as powerful, only this one is green.
WALLACH: And so this town knew they had to have a unique identity.
FOREMAN: And that's what you set out to do with this plan?
WALLACH: Yes.
FOREMAN: With the strong backing of the local government this town is being rebuilt as a model of environmental sustainability.
At the new school, drainage systems capture and conserve rainwater to feed the landscaping. Salvaged wood covers the walls. Cabinets are made of wheat harvest leftovers and natural light pours in everywhere. Superintendent Darin Hedrick is expecting much lower power bills.
DARIN HEDRICK, SUPERINTENDENT: During the day we won't even turn lights on here to have classes and activities during the day. Our classrooms are the same way. We really don't know if we'll have to turn a light switch on during the day in the classroom.
FOREMAN: That's a big saving.
HEDRICK: Well, we hope.
FOREMAN: One of the town's many new wind turbines generates up to 30 percent of the hospital's electricity while power and water saving utilities dominate. Mary Sweet runs the place.
Were you skeptical of this idea to begin with?
MARY SWEET, KOWA COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: Initially I was yes. At first I thought it was a gimmick, it was way to build back and have people help us. But like I mentioned, it's a road map of way to following construction.
FOREMAN: And you think it's working now?
SWEET: It's working wonderfully, yes.
FOREMAN: And all over town houses are springing up with eco friendly designs. Like this model made of concrete, field with smart utilities feeding off solar cells, a machine that pulls drinking water from humidity in the air and so much more.
What's going on up here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Up here we have the rooftop garden.
FOREMAN: you're going to grow food for the house right up here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Absolutely.
FOREMAN: The payoff, by most accounts this was a small, dying town before the storm, but with each new stage of the green comeback, it is being reborn, and every day fewer folks are looking back.
WALLACH: With a name like Greensburg, you know, it was a natural fit.
FOREMAN: Tom Foreman, CNN, Greensburg, Kansas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Well, illegal immigration you know by now is a red hot issue that is reaching a boiling point in Arizona. Find out how that state's controversial crack down could have national implications.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A new day dawning this morning in Arizona, home of the nation's newest and some are saying toughest in the nation law when it comes to illegal immigrants.
HOLMES: Of course, as you imagine, not everybody is on board with this particular legislation and not a lot of people really buying some of the possible motives behind the bill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started crying. I started thinking about my family and my friends, about everything that's going to happen. How thing are going it change from now on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The governor signed the bill yesterday. Before the ink was barely even dry, this is what you saw on the streets of Arizona. The governor says her state is forced to do what the federal government will not do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act. A decade of federal inaction and misguided policies have created a dangerous and unacceptable situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, Arizona's new law requires police to determine whether someone is in the U.S. illegally, and critics say this is going to encourage racial profiling. They also say the bill is unconstitutional and you can just wait for the court challenges to come. President Obama not too particular about the legislation as well. He commented on it yesterday.
CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is with us from Washington. Paul, good morning to you once again as always. Is this what certainly the people who want to see immigration reform will point to say maybe this will help jump-start this conversation again on a national level?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes I guess you could say this could be a kick in the pants to the white house, the Democrats in Congress, as well as those large protests here in Washington and across the nation in favor of immigration reform. We saw a couple weeks ago.
T.J., this may kind of fast track it. Good reporting by our Dana Bash on Capitol Hill, our Ed Henry with the white house, that Democrats and the administration will maybe fast track immigration reform. Try to get done this summer or fall before those crucial November elections maybe putting it even a higher priority on this than the clean energy cap and trade bill we've been talking a lot about.
So it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Remember, last time we went through immigration reform on Capitol Hill, there was a lot of pushback. This was just a few years ago in the end the Bush administration. A lot of pushback by those on the right calling that pathway to citizenship maybe even calling it something close to amnesty. It's going to be a tough fight but it's probably going to be starting very soon.
HOLMES: And candidate Obama made a lot of promises. President Obama, some in the Latino community say, hasn't delivered much just yet. So is there going to be a backlash against Obama and the Democrats over this?
STEINHAUSER: Yes. When he was running for the white house the president said he would try to get immigration reform done or at least started in his first year in office. We're in the second year now and it hasn't been done. Take a look at this, an exit poll from the 2008 presidential election.
Latino and Hispanic voters made up about almost 10% of the voting electorate. They overwhelmingly went for Barack Obama. They say listen Mr. President we helped put you in the white house. I think a lot of people in the community are upset there hasn't been action yet. I think the Democrats in the white house realized they want Latino/Hispanic voters with them in November so politics may also be at play here T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Politics at play. Couldn't be? Paul, good to see you, buddy. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday.
STEINHAUSER: Thanks.
BALDWIN: We want to get you new information. We've been talking about these tornado warnings this morning. I want to add this to the list. We're talking about warnings in Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. Bonnie Schneider tracking it for us from the CNN severe weather center. Bonnie, what do you have?
SCHNEIDER: Right now, Brooke, we are tracking tornado warnings that are persisting across much of Mississippi but what's interesting to note, you see Meridian right here in the tornado warning that's in advance of that into Alabama. Well, train-spotters are sending in reports they think they did see a tornado right around this vicinity between I-20 and I-59. It's not been confirmed.
Check out where the storm system went, right across the border into Alabama. You can see the frequent lightning strikes. Regardless whether or not there was a tornado, there are trees down and there is wind damage. As you can see, widespread frequent lightning across much of this region from Nashville all the way south to southern Alabama with this huge outbreak of severe weather.
The tornado warnings not just to the east but also to the west. Here's Arkansas. Tornado warning that pushed past Pine Bluff and now working its way further north and east as well. Memphis and Nashville, this is really important. Tornado watches continuing through this afternoon. These particular watch boxes are listed as particularly dangerous situations. The language is enhanced to represent the severity of the situation.
Tornadoes that break out right here could be widespread, long- lasting and severely violent as well. It's very unusual to get those PDS watch boxes. When we do we bring them to you as soon as we get them in. Now also New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, Hattiesburg are also under a tornado watch as well. Severe weather part of a widespread system. The high-risk area right through here in the mid- south. It's going to be a rough day. Grab the NOAA weather radio. Turn it on. Stay inside. Wait until the severe weather passes you by.
Back to you.
BALDWIN: Just so I heard you right. You said storm chasers have spotted a tornado?
SCHNEIDER: I said that a train spotter by the National Weather Service has said they saw a tornado. It has not been confirmed.
BALDWIN: Okay. Just spotted. Not confirmed. Bonnie, thank you very much.
HOLMES: Well, the NFL draft has been going on the past couple of day. It will wrap up today. So many of the athletes have been playing their entire lives waiting for this moment. There's one kid in there that's a little different. He's only playing football 3 1/2 years and actually went to school on an academic scholarship. Still, his name might be called today. You want to hear his story. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Opponents of Arizona's new immigration law are planning more protests and legal challenges to Governor Jan Brewer, who signed the bill on Friday. She warned police she will not stand for racial profiling. This law though requires police to stop anyone they reasonably suspect is an illegal immigrant and demand to see their documentation.
BALDWIN: Well for the second time this month there has been a deadly coal mine accident in the same county, Raleigh County, West Virginia. A 28-year-old miner died yesterday a day after getting crushed between some heavy machinery and a block of coal. It happened just a couple of miles from the upper big branch mine, remember, where those 29 miners were killed in that massive explosion earlier this month.
HOLMES: You don't hear this often. You don't really hear this ever. Execution by firing squad in Utah. They are dusting off the relics from the days of the wild, Wild West as a judge agrees to a convicted killer's choice of execution. 49-year-old Ronny Lee Gardner is scheduled to die June 18th.
Utah actually did away with this form of execution a few years back, but this gentleman was convicted before they did away with it so it's still an option for him. They are the last state, Utah, in the U.S. to offer this type of option for capital punishment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A little Tina Turner for us. We were wondering if the intense music today could be a potentially intense day for your new friend. I love this story.
HOLMES: Love this kid.
BALDWIN: Kid. He's ginormous.
HOLMES: He's a kid. He's a grown man. He is ginormous. These guys they're waiting for this moment their whole lives. They've been playing football since they were pee wee. This guy's been playing football for 3 1/2 years folks. That's it. He's waiting to hear this name possibly called in the NFL draft. He doesn't just have the skills on the field but he has the smarts and he's going to have the degree soon to prove it. I caught up with him at his college, Morehouse.
Take a listen as this gentle giant ...
BALDWIN: I like that. He's a gentle giant.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAMON HAREWOOD: If I do something, I need to be the best at it. I always had measures in place to be the best I could be. I'm a runner. I guess that's the best way to put it.
HOLMES: At 6'7", 350 pounds, Ramon Harewood dominated his competition. The offensive lineman at Morehouse College was named first team all-conference for the past two years. While he may look like your typical NFL prospect, his story is anything but. HAREWOOD: There's no American football in Barbados so for me to aspire to do that would be ridiculous.
HOLMES: Ramon was born in Barbados a small Caribbean island with a population of about 250,000. Growing in Barbados, his size, speed and athleticism allowed him to excel at several sports.
HAREWOOD: I played volleyball for my country. I played rugby for my country and track and field. So, I was always into sports.
HOLMES: Despite his athletic success and his raw talent, he never had serious thoughts about being a professional athlete.
HAREWOOD: I was going to be realistic. I was planning to be an engineer.
HOLMES: All that changed for this would-be engineer after a chance meeting with a former football coach at a college fair in Barbados.
HAREWOOD: He kept coming up to me and he was like I can help you. You're way too big and too gifted to be over here playing sports going to school. You can make the money for your family.
HOLMES: Ramon enrolled in Morehouse in 2006 on an academic scholarship. He had never played football before in his life, but decided to give it a shot.
HAREWOOD: Immediately fell in love with it. My first year here was a little rough, trying to get adapted to the sport. Then I didn't really know you know, too much about football. The coaching staff, Coach Freeman, he came in spring of '07 and first thing he did was move me to offense.
HOLMES: When did you realize in his 3 1/2 years here, okay, this kid's got a shot to do something special and be a star at the next level?
COACH FREEMAN: On March 12, 2007. That's when I was named head coach here.
HOLMES: Despite his success on the football field, Ramon chose to keep his academic scholarship and keep his focus on the books.
FREEMAN: To see him do a great job academically and come out and excel on the football field, you know, we use that all the time, we use him as motivation for the rest of the young men.
HOLMES: Ramon has his own motivation, to strive for excellence, make his family proud and to represent his country. If NFL fortune comes, so be it.
HAREWOOD: The money doesn't drive me. That's the best way to put it. Of course it's going to be great.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Money's great, yeah, but the kid, the draft, late day today.
BALDWIN: Today's the day.
HOLMES: Three more rounds. They're started. We expect to hear his name called hopefully. Even if not, he'll get a chance to try out for a team and he kept his academic scholarship because that forced him to keep a 3.0 grade point average. He wanted to be dedicated to his grades, family back in Barbados, still there.
BALDWIN: A chance encounter in Barbados with his coach.
HOLMES: Here he is 3 1/2 years later.
BALDWIN: His mom must be so proud.
HOLMES: Family so proud but they're all about the books. What's this draft thing? When you getting your engineering degree? He's got the physics degree. He's working on a civil engineering degree.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: That's a fantastic story. It's inspiring on so many different levels. All the best to Ramon.
HOLMES: Sets a good example. He'll be here with us live tomorrow.
WHITFIELD: Good. Better. Hope to meet him. Well no matter what happens today we know that he's got an incredibly bright future.
HOLMES: How are you?
WHITFIELD: Excellent. We've got a lot coming up in the noon hour beginning with some unsolved cold cases dating back to the civil rights era and beyond. A Syracuse University professor is going to be joining us and explaining why she and a team of people are trying to reopen these cases, trying to get their attention.
There's a number of murder cases, unsolved, missing persons cases. We're also going to be joined by the family member of someone who was killed back in that era, Warless Jackson, a Mississippi man who worked for the NAACP. One night when he was leaving work, on his way home, his truck exploded. No one was ever charged with murder. So this is one of the cases that's part of this cold cases unsolved crime cases that Syracuse University wants to the try and solve.
And then ongoing cases right now, our legal guys Avery and Richard joining us to talk about former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick now facing potential jail time and a fine for violating his probation.
And Ben Roethlisberger, NFL quarterback, now he's looking at suspension of six games. Might this impact his case? While he was not charged with sexual assault, that the NFL has taken this measure. How might this impact potentially a reopening of that investigation? Might it impact that sexual assault allegation that still is being imposed on him, even though there are no legal charges as of yet. BALDWIN: Here in Georgia?
WHITFIELD: Here in Georgia. All of that straight ahead, our legal guys noon eastern time and, of course, we're going to be watching wacky weather.
HOLMES: Yes. It's more than wacky.
BALDWIN: The Midwest.
HOLMES: We'll see you in a minute.
WHITFIELD: Okay. I'll be here all day. We're here.
BALDWIN: Before you get to Fredricka, all you wanted at noon, we have one more great story for you.
HOLMES: Yes. Take a look at this. There's a volcano down there somewhere.
WHITFIELD: What? Hmm?
HOLMES: It's hidden. We'll pay a visit for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We've been talking just a little bit lately about one particular volcano in Iceland. Did you know that Iceland has some 200 volcanoes including even one we can pronounce?
HOLMES: Yes a lot of people couldn't pronounce, Fredricka's laughing at us over there.
WHITFIELD: I didn't get it either.
HOLMES: It's Eyjafjallajokull. We're going to cover this story long enough but the one causing all the problems is Eyjafjallajokull.
BALDWIN: You are the only person I know -- I'm not expert.
WHITFIELD: That's good.
BALDWIN: I'm impressed.
HOLMES: Some of my native -- my family's from Iceland. They're not at all. I'm just teasing there. Our Gary Tuchman actually spent a week in the volcano's shadow. We have one simmering down, but is another one about to blow?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We spent several days here in Iceland doing all kinds of stories about the volcano that is erupting. Right now on the top of Katla mountain. Katla's a volcano that's been dormant since 1918. We thought it was important to do a story about what could happen if Katla erupts. Katla's the most feared volcano in Iceland. It's very powerful.
On the average, it erupts twice a century but hasn't erupted for about 90 years so people think it's due. There is so much water inside the volcano that a worst case scenario experts say that six times the amount of water in the Amazon River could flood Iceland every second if this erupted.
I want to give you a look here. This is the volcano currently erupting. You can see it's a little sunny but that gray plume is the ash heading in our direction. You can see it. Over the centuries they both erupted frequently at the same time. People aren't sure it's a coincidence or if there's a scientific reason for it but either way Icelanders fear.
Here, I'll give you a look at who's been helping us on this reporting trip. This is our producer Adam Reis on the right. This is Hawk on the left. Hawk lives here in Iceland. He's helped us out. He runs this company Nature Explorer which normally he takes tourists around Iceland, instead he's taken us. Thanks for helping us out.
HAWK: Thank you, Gary.
TUCHMAN: Hawk knows everything about the volcanoes and land and getting up here. It took us an hour and a half just to drive up to the top of the glacier. We would never imagine you could drive up to the top of a glacier. How did you know how to do it?
HAWK: We've been doing it a few years. We take these vehicles, a 4 x 4 and put big tires on it. The idea behind the big tires is to deflate the air pressure to create like a snowshoe effect, distributing the weight, just makes us sort of float on top of the snow instead of sinking in.
TUCHMAN: Now Adam come over here for just a second. Adam Reis our producer, Adam made me to come up here. He forced me.
ADAM REIS: I didn't. That was your idea.
TUCHMAN: It was my idea. Okay. Listen to the thunderous explosions coming from the volcano. It's just amazing. This is the volcano erupting. Be very quiet. Maybe you can hear the explosion.
One more second.
It's a little hard to hear. I don't know if you were able to hear that. We hear explosions from the volcano. So anyway, being here on top of Katla, this volcano so many Icelanders fear, is really quite amazing to be here because frankly, it feels like we're in another world. It doesn't feel like we're on earth.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Gary Tuchman, going the work out there.
HOLMES: He's been up there a while now. I think he has a place in Iceland by now. But he has been doing some great work giving us updates about all that ash now.
BALDWIN: But can he pronounce ...
HOLMES: Eyjafjallajokull.
WHITFIELD: You know he can.
BALDWIN: Sorry, I just had to do that one more time. Right, Fred?
WHITFIELD: And so can T.J. We want to hear you say it all day long, T.J.
HOLMES: I had to do it all day long for about two days.
WHITFIELD: It was very rhythmic.
HOLMES: It's probably totally wrong, by the way. It has a little American thing in there.
BALDWIN: Well, you own it, T.J.
WHITFIELD: But we're convinced.
HOLMES: Yes. See you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: We're convinced. You nailed it. All right, you all have a great day.
BALDWIN: All you, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot Brooke and T.J.
