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Protests Across the Country Against Arizona's New Immigration Law; Potential Ecological Catastrophe From Oil Spill; Four States Have Declared States of Emergency Due to Oil Spill
Aired May 01, 2010 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And hello to you all from the CNN Center. You're now in the CNN NEWSROOM for this Saturday, May 1st. I'm T.J. Holmes.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good Saturday to you, I'm Brooke Baldwin. It is the 1st of May, 11:00 a.m. on the East, 8:00 a.m. on West Coast. A lot of news to bring to you, including first and foremost, look at these pictures. This massive oil spill really now encroaching upon the Gulf Coast.
HOLMES: And also happening today, something you're going to see in a lot of places around the country, 21 states expecting rallies in support of immigrants' rights.
Also today President Obama set to deliver the commencement address at the University of Michigan at the Big House. That's coming your way in about 30 minutes. We will take you there live when it happens.
But first, tomorrow the President, he is going to be heading to the Gulf Coast. They're bracing for a potential ecological catastrophe from the growing oil slick. More than a million gallons of oil heading straight for the protected shoreline, home to all sorts of birds and marine life.
Our crews are covering all the bases for us. Reynolds Wolf standing by for us in Venice, Louisiana and Richard Lui is in Alabama for us this morning. We're going to check in with both; we're going to start with Reynolds.
Reynolds, what can you see from where you are?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, what I can see from where are, we're going to pan the camera around and give you a good peek. We've got CNN photo journalist Steve Thorne (ph) right there behind the camera.
We're going to walk over here very quickly and show you what's happening on some of the docks. We've got a couple boats that are all lined up. And what they're doing is taking some supplies.
You see this big boom, picking up the cameras, put them on these boats, and then shipping them out. Bringing out some of that protective boom because, well, they got to do what they can to protect that -- the natural resource that we have there; we're talking about those wetlands that are so precious to us.
Now, we've got some new information that came in just a short while ago. In St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parish, there had been some reports on some of that traces -- just traces of the sheen, not the darker crew but some of the traces of that sheen, that rainbow-colored stuff that has been washing up right along some of the barrier islands.
When I say barrier islands, we're not talking about some of the huge miles across. Many of these things are just a few yards across, some even a few feet. Some a bit bigger, some a bit smaller but we got trace amounts there. Nothing yet that's made its way to the mainland. So that is certainly some good news.
But keep in mind many of those grasses could really be in danger by prolonged exposure to that oil, especially that crude.
That's some of the information we've got recently from biologist Shane Granier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHANE GRANIER, LOUISIANA WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES: If you have either a very thick or a lot of oil that covers a plant entirely or if you have a continued stress from the oil, even if it's a light stress over a long period of time, that's what causes major concern. Basically a single -- a single swath of oil that comes through and gets a little bit on the plant, most of the plants down here can handle that fairly well. It's the long-term continued, you know, contamination that will cause some problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF: Well, T.J. and Brooke, I've got tell you though, that plants are only part of the equation, the other big thing obviously the animals. We've got an animal, some video of one that was obtained by one of our affiliates WWL in New Orleans.
This is northern gnat (ph) it's a beautiful bird, that bird that actually makes its way from parts of way up north we're talking Newfoundland all the way to the Gulf of Mexico; does it each year to feed off the rich life -- (INAUDIBLE) of the fishes there in parts of the Gulf of Mexico.
They actually fly and they dive down below the surface. They pick up the fish and actually then fly out.
Well, this one was actually caught by people who were trying to bring in a lot of that oil. They found the bird, brought it to a rescue center right here in Venice, Louisiana. It should be here for the next seven to 10 days or so and then released back to the wild.
It is just a tremendous mess that obviously is going to affect many people throughout the region and, of course, the animals as well. Let's send it back to you guys.
HOLMES: All right, Reynolds, we appreciate you. Thanks so much.
BALDWIN: Well, you see that one bird. Reynolds was saying there's something like 400 different species of wildlife along the Gulf Coast. So obviously there are massive environmental repercussions to this oil spill, but the question is really just how big of a threat is it?
We're going to drill down on that a little further. And talk more about that part of the story coming up in the next half hour.
HOLMES: All right. Our Bonnie Schneider is in the Severe Weather Center for us today, and we saw tornadoes last night and people going to be on edge and on standby. We see the map behind you.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's really incredible, T.J. and Brooke. Because I want to point out that we are seeing the risk for severe weather today, the same place as we saw it last night and even more significant if you look back to this time last Saturday morning, we were talking about tornados in Mississippi. The same parts of Mississippi are under the gun today for severe weather.
Here is what's happening right now, heavy rain sweeping across Tennessee from Memphis to Nashville, all the way on I-40. It is just a drenching drive.
And this is new information for you right now. We have a brand new tornado watch. It's extended all the way southward to southern -- I should say, Central Mississippi all the way to Northern Mississippi into Tennessee. I'm talking about this box you see a little bit further to the south and east.
This new tornado watch box goes until 4:00 today Central Daylight Time. So now we're talking about a threat into the afternoon. A new tornado warning has just popped up. This is actually in an area that we saw the same tornado warning earlier that expired. So now it's been reissued. So it's just coming into us now. It does include a portion of Shelby County right here, and that does include cities of Collierville, into Olive Branch and Germantown. These are all suburbs of Memphis.
So now we're seeing Doppler radar indicating rotation once again in these thunderstorm complex just like near the city of Memphis. And speaking of that, when you have so much rain coming down, the rainfall totals are incredible at least one to three inches on the ground.
You can see we have flash flood watches as far north as St. Louis through Cape Girardeau and Southern Missouri, all the way through Carbondale and then certainly into Kentucky. So it's the Kentucky Derby and we've got all these thunderstorms popping up.
Also, another update for you, Storm Prediction Center, this has been fluctuating throughout the day. First it was high risk, then it was moderate. Well, here it is right now back at high risk. What does high risk mean?
Well, it certainly means the threat for tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds, and now we're not just talking about Tennessee. Back into Arkansas where we had tornadoes touch down last night, Northern Mississippi as well. The high risk will really mean that we're going to see long-lasting tornadoes if they do form, T.J. and Brooke, and it could be very intense, EF-2 or stronger. I'll let you know if we're getting any on the ground or more warnings are issued.
HOLMES: All right, Bonnie, we appreciate you. Thanks so much.
BALDWIN: Bonnie, thank you.
Want to take you back to the story along the Gulf Coast here. We're getting just now some encouraging news, we're hearing from BP that they will be now deploying large amounts of dispersants near the site of the leak. They say that's essentially enables them to use these chemicals to attach themselves to underwater concentrations of oil, causing it to sink, break apart, disperse, right?
But that will not help stop the already -- oil that's already really closing in on the shoreline there. As we've mentioned Richard Lui is standing by for us, he is in Alabama. Forgive me if I'm saying this wrong Richard, Bayou La Batre where the oil is expected to reach that area. Do we know when that might happen, Richard?
RICHARD LUI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good day to you, Brooke. What we were hearing is that sometime Saturday, of course there's been reports. We've talked to local officials here, they're not sure as well, but what we're hearing officially is sometime today or tomorrow. You know amongst all of that worry, there are the people, there are the folks that we were able to talk to yesterday, fishermen for instance, that were worried about the big shock to the way of life they have, their culture.
Well, today, this morning, what we tried to do is go out and talk to everyday folks and see how they were dealing with this.
We had the opportunity to speak with Caroline Stardivant (ph). She actually is a long time inhabitant of this part of Alabama. She's from Dauphin Island and she's lived there, and been an inhabitant for about 30-plus years. She spent a lot of different times there.
She got engaged there, 30 years ago. She spent time with her husband there. They go down and spent seven or eight different trips at that location each and every year.
And this time around though, it's a little different. It's not hurricane Katrina which she had been through. She showed me some pictures. She has to worry about this oil slick that may affect what is her paradise.
But today is also a little different for her other than oil slick. And this is what she told me about both of those two events, coming together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROLINE STARDIVANT, DAUPHIN ISLAND RESIDENT: We've never had oil. We've had hurricanes and lots of bad storms, but we have never had oil come up on our beaches. And I'm just sure that it's going to wreck the economy here and ruin a lot of people's vacations. I just hope it doesn't interfere too much with our wedding today.
LUI: Yes, your wedding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: Her wedding today. That's right. Her son Nathan is going to be married to her daughter-in-law, future daughter-in-law, Jessica. And you know, you prepare for everything for weddings. You think about weather. You think of guests not showing up, perhaps some logistics, the wedding planner not being there or the videographer.
In this case that's not what she's worried about, she's worried about oil slick. But remaining very positive, she open -- open her home up to us, we were able to go to and take a look at the silverware she have prepared for the nuts and the Mac and cheese. She show us how they are putting together, the different bouquets, they're moving ahead, they're staying very, very positive.
And in fact, what she was saying Brooke to me is that you know, even if it does hit, they will fight, they've been through it all. They're not worried, they're staying extremely positive.
Back to where I'm at right now, I'm outside St. Margaret's church and they are preparing for something that's awful -- also a very festive tomorrow, they're getting ready for a very large parade of boats right over to my left-hand side. They're going to go up and down this waterway. You can see some of the flags they prepared and there's also to my right tents and they have lots of food.
So residents here in Bayou La Batre, thinking positive with that specter of what's happening off the coast -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Unbelievable. Her son's wedding day. Hopefully this whole sentiment of positivity, people will just ride it out and I guess start kind of (INAUDIBLE) their lives once this thing hopefully gets cleaned up. Richard Lui for us in Alabama. Richard, great story. Thank you.
HOLMES: Well, thousands of people will be in the streets rallying across the U.S. today. They're protesting Arizona's new immigration law. We got a live report just ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Protests planned across the country this May day. Thousands expected to rally in dozens of U.S. cities; they're opposing Arizona's new immigration laws and among other things, that allows police to question anyone suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. Changes has been made to the law but critics say that's still not enough.
Casey Wian reports from Phoenix.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the moment she signed Arizona's new law targeting illegal immigrants, Governor Jan Brewer did little to calm the fear and anger felt by opponents with a stumbling answer to a simple but loaded question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does an illegal immigrant look like? Does it look like me?
GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: I do not know. I do not know what an illegal immigrant looks like, but I know that if AZ post gets themselves together, works on this law, puts down the description, that the law will be enforced civilly, fairly, and without discriminatory points to it.
WIAN: AZ post is the agency that trains police officers. A description of an illegal immigrant or racial profiling was never part of the original law. Yet, President Obama apparently didn't see it that way.
OBAMA: Now, suddenly if you don't have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you're going to be harassed. That's something that could potentially happen.
WIAN: State Senator Russell Pierce authored the law.
RUSSELL PIERCE, STATE SENATOR, ARIZONA: Shame on President Obama and others who spoke before they read the bill. In Washington they have a habit of not reading their bills. Actually in Arizona we read them. We know what's in them.
WIAN: Still, legislators have now changed the law seeking to clarify what they call misinformation that has stoked the fears of Latinos in Arizona. The original law stated police can conduct an immigration status check during any, quote, "lawful contact" if they have reasonable suspicion a person is an illegal immigrant. It replaces lawful contact with lawful stop, detention, or arrest, clarifying police may not stop people without cause.
The revised law also removes the word "solely" from the phrase "the attorney general or county attorney shall not investigate complaints that are based solely on race, color, or national origin". That's intended to remove fears about racial profiling. Even so, some in law enforcement say confusion will persist.
CHIEF JACK HARRIS, PHOENIX POLICE: It puts my officers in a very difficult position if they enforce the law or if they don't enforce the law. So they're being put in a place where if they enforce state law, they're going to be sued because they're violating federal law. If they abide by federal statute, they're going to be sued because they're not enforcing the state law.
WIAN: Friday Brewer signed the revised version of the law.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: All right. Our Casey Wian is live for us in Phoenix. Casey, this was supposed to make the critics feel better, these changes, but how are they taking to these changes now?
WIAN: T.J., they still don't like this law. Some of the problems they have with it is that it will allow police who are investigating municipal code violations to investigate someone's immigration status. So potentially someone who has got a barking dog or someone who has got grass that's overgrown and someone complains about that, police could come and respond to that and check their immigration status.
They're also afraid that people are not going to want to cooperate with the police in other investigations if they are in the United States illegally, and protesters here also say they don't want any more deportations. They want a national solution to legalize the status of the millions of illegal immigrants who are in this country -- T.J.
HOLMES: Casey Wian for us in Phoenix. Casey, thank you so much.
BALDWIN: Well, it is a packed house at the big house at the moment; talking about Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the President is just about -- if he goes on time -- 13 minutes away from giving that commencement address. And when that happens, when the President takes to the podium there, we will take you live to Ann Arbor. That again, coming up 11:30 eastern time.
HOLMES: It seems like we see this every single week. Another outbreak of tornadoes in the south; deadly twisters this time in Arkansas, more watches and warnings to keep an eye on today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Here are some of the stories making headline this is hour.
Severe storms leaving a deadly trail in Arkansas; tornadoes overnight killed at least one person, injured about two dozen others. Today more watches and warnings are in place in parts of the south and mid-west.
BALDWIN: An Arizona sheriff deputy is recovering this morning after he was shot and wounded while encountering a group of suspected drug smugglers; the suspects believed to be illegal immigrants. Of course, you can imagine this incident coming as the state faces this firestorm of criticism over this new tough immigration legislation. Today protesters will be gathering all around the country to rally against that law.
HOLMES: Turn to Greece now where violence in the streets on this May Day. Protesters clash with police in Athens. The annual celebration has taken on an angry tone this year as Greece unveils some tough austerity measures. The country is tightening its belt as it copes with a serious debt crisis.
More of your top stories in 20 minutes.
BALDWIN: Cleveland, Ohio, it sits on the southern shore of Lake Erie, once a major manufacturing center. The loss of industry and jobs has forced the city to reinvent itself a bit.
Our Deb Feyerick goes to extreme measures to see just how Cleveland is doing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hard to believe but not long ago, this indoor mountain bike park was a rundown abandoned warehouse.
RAY PIETRO, RAY'S MOUNTAIN BIKE PARK: My heart really thought it would work, and I was prepared to lose it all.
FEYERICK: Ray Pietro (ph) spent his entire life savings and maxed out his credit cards to build a dream.
PIETRO: I've been broke before, I might be broke again.
FEYERICK: Then just as the recession hit, Ray met Jennifer Thomas (ph), another Cleveland native determined to raise her kids here.
Thomas runs Civic Innovation Lab, helping first-time entrepreneurs turn big ideas into viable small businesses.
JENNIFER THOMAS, CIVIC INNOVATION LAB: We saw Ray's as adventure sports as an economic driver.
FEYERICK (on camera): When you talk about an economic driver, what do you mean?
THOMAS: We're looking for a place like Ray's to fill hotel beds, to fill restaurants, to get people from out of state into our state.
FEYERICK (voice-over): The Innovation Lab gave Ray a $30,000 grant which he used among other things, to add heaters and computerize his business.
PIETRO: Some routers and we got some other computers.
FEYERICK: Perhaps more valuable, they hooked Ray up with a mentor.
BERNIE MORENO, RAY PIETRO'S MENTOR: He had that burning passion.
FEYERICK: Bernie Moreno helped Ray get the grant and helped him avoid the mistakes he made turning a fledgling Cleveland Mercedes-Benz dealership into a $100 million business.
Ray's is now the largest indoor mountain bike park in the nation.
(on camera): And it's not just riders; advertisers, too, virtually, everything here is sponsored. It's a small investment with a really big payoff.
What you see here at a warehouse in Cleveland goes viral on YouTube.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Cleveland, Ohio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, the oil is coming, and when it gets to the coastline, everybody knows pretty bad situation, but just how bad is it? We're talking with an environmental expert about what we should expect. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We're still watching and waiting all along the Gulf Coast for potentially millions of gallons of this oil to be washing ashore. President Obama we now know plans to visit the region tomorrow to see what exactly the situation is and how the oil recovery operations really now are going.
In terms of figures for you, more than 200,000 feet of protective booms, those were those kind of -- there they are, the yellow things in the middle of the water, they're already there to contain some of this oil and another 300,000 feet of the booms are on the way.
Four states here, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, have declared states of emergency. BP, which owns the well out in the Gulf, says it will be putting large amounts of dispersants is the word they use. Basically that's chemicals near the site of the leak which will then cause the oil to sink to the bottom and disperse.
HOLMES: We expect that the oil is going to come ashore sometime today. It could be months before we know the extent of the damage to marine life, the ecosystem there.
Mike Tidwell joins us now from Washington. He's the author of the book, "Bayou Farewell" and the director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Sir, thank you for being with us this morning. Give people just a little perspective and kind of sum this thing up. How big of a disaster are we looking at?
MIKE TIDWELL, DIRECTOR, CHESAPEAKE CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK: Well, this is going to be historic. I mean the coastline of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi are so fragile. And the wetlands alone, the salt marshes critical to the commercial fisheries throughout the Gulf, to the tuna, to the shrimp, the crab.
The oil comes in, the grasses absorb it. The grass dies. Not only are the fisheries affected, you're talking about a multi-billion dollar industry, but the city of New Orleans for example has less land, less grass between it and the next hurricane. So this is historic proportions. HOLMES: We talk about historic, but if all of those things come to fruition like you just described there, how long does it take to recover? How long does it take the area to recover from something like that?
TIDWELL: Well, Alaska is still recovering from the Valdez spill in 1989. We're talking potentially, you know, months, years, decades. We don't know. Depends on how much oil.
And we also need to understand the scale of the oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. It's not just a couple of dozen platforms out there. There are 4,000 wells, hundreds of platforms. So many that on nautical charts, maps of the Gulf of Mexico, they look like stars in the sky and they literally form constellations.
Boat captains follow the constellations of the oil platforms. And when it's at that scale and that much human operation of oil platforms out there, sooner or later human error is going to come into play like this so we will inevitably get this again unless we begin to search for alternatives to oil like offshore wind which not only addresses the oil spill risk but also climate change which is a huge factor in the Gulf of Mexico.
HOLMES: You know, Mike, frankly, are you surprised we don't see disasters like this more often? I think most people would be surprised to hear how you just described some 4,000 rigs out there. I mean, the potential for this to happen is constant.
TIDWELL: The number one thing protecting the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama from oil spills is the -- the odds. Just chance. It has been, frankly, just flat out luck that this hasn't happened before when you have so many wells, so much potential for human error.
This will happen again. We're looking at a million gallons a week right now into those fragile coastlines. If we don't want this to happen again, then we need to rethink, do we really want to open up the entire mid-Atlantic to offshore drilling? Does Virginia, for example, want to risk six days' worth of potential supply of American oil, just six days, for a one in 50 or one in 100 chance that the entire coastline of Virginia could be covered in oil like this?
On the other hand, you set up wind turbines out there, there are no oil spills that come from offshore wind. So we have to start making some choices.
HOLMES: The last thing, and -- and quickly, what can we salvage at this point? I'm trying to understand how much, I guess, the clock is ticking. Do we have so much time that we can shut this thing off before more damage is done or is the damage kind of already done?
TIDWELL: There's a lot of damage already in the bank. We're going to see it over the next few days. It's a slow-motion nightmare.
I don't think that British Petroleum is inspiring any confidence that they know what they're doing, frankly. We've got three leaks. You know, this could exceed the Exxon Valdez. The effects on the marshes I think potentially are going to be catastrophic. You know, $2 billion to $3 billion lost, a third of our domestic seafood comes from coastal Louisiana alone, $2 billion to $3 billion in losses from seafood, at least as much from tourism, human health -- it could go on and on, the lawsuits -- this is a mess.
And, again, I think the country needs to -- to ask themselves, is this what we want in the future or is there a better energy future that we can shoot for?
HOLMES: Well, the immediate issue is certainly getting it cleaned up and trying to lessen the impact there on the coast. But, yes, we have some big questions to ask ourselves down the road.
Mike Tidwell, we appreciate your time this weekend. You have a good one.
TIDWELL: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Well, he just mentioned a slow-motion nightmare. Let me tell you about a nightmare of different sorts here.
You're looking at pictures from Arkansas, this trail of destruction from powerful storms last night. We are talking tornadoes pounding Central and Northern Arkansas, killing at least one person. Nearly two -- two dozen others have been injured, and among the areas hardest hit, the state's capital city, Little Rock, and Van Buren County just north of there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was crazy. I was on the phone with him telling him that we were under a tornado warning, and I no sooner got that out of my mouth and I heard it coming. I said I got to go and just hung up on him and jumped in my closet and just -- I don't know.
The first thing out of my mouth was just, "Lord, protect me." That was all I could do, all I could say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The noise was so loud we couldn't hear nothing and we were in the storm cellar. I had to hold the door shut and just -- we're blessed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Yes, rough day already there for some parts of the south, Midwest as well. But still, could be another rough day today.
BALDWIN: All kinds of watches, warnings.
Bonnie Schneider's been keeping her eye on that, kind of popping up, going away, popping up again.
Bonnie, what's the latest?
SCHNEIDER: Well, the latest is we are tracking tornado warnings in Western Tennessee. This includes parts of Memphis and Shelby County. I'm also tracking tornado warnings into parts of Mississippi, but it really looks like more of the intense weather is into Western Tennessee right now.
On the big picture, you can see just thunderstorms all along I- 40. if you're driving from Memphis to Nashville, it is just a tough ride because we have heavy rain that's been falling, so much so that we're getting reports from the National Weather Service that spotters have -- have managed to calculate that there's possibly eight inches of rain on the ground in some parts of the city of Memphis in and around Shelby County. So that's a lot of water.
Flash flooding is imminent and it's happening right now, so be careful. Don't try to cross any roads where water covers the roadways.
If that's not enough, we're also tracking the threat for tornadoes. Today we have tornado watches. This one, a little bit further to the west, will expire it looks like over the next hour or so. However, a new tornado watch has been issued in advance of this system because the storms are moving rapidly to the northeast. So the one that extends southward into Mississippi goes until 4:00 today. That's Central Daylight Time.
Well, it's an active day and it's only going to get worse. The Storm Prediction Center out of Norman, Oklahoma has upgraded the risk for tornadoes and severe weather to high. This only happens a few times a year.
You know, incidentally, it actually happened last week, but we're seeing in the same place for Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and even lower sections of Missouri we'll watch out for large hail and damaging winds and strong tornadoes -- T.J., Brooke.
BALDWIN: Bonnie, thank you.
HOLMES: And a reminder to our viewers, we're keeping an eye on certainly that story that's happening at the Gulf Coast, the environmental disaster, crews racing, trying to certainly avert disaster.
But something else we're expecting to bring to you in just a couple of minutes, the president of the United States right now is in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the Big House instead of the White House. He is there for us for the commencement ceremonies for the University of Michigan.
We see the -- the Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm, speaking right now. But the president expected to be up at that podium any minute. We'll bring that to you live when it happens.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The looming disaster off the Gulf Coast really started with that big, massive explosion -- you remember, a couple of weeks ago, left 11 workers missing and presumed dead? And questions still remain about the cause of that explosion, and now, survivors are sharing new accounts of the horrific chain of events.
That story now from CNN's Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They experienced the violence and chaos of this blast firsthand. Many of them still cannot speak publicly about it, either because they're traumatized or trying to protect themselves legally.
So they're relaying the horror of that night through family members and attorneys.
TODD (on camera): Describe what they've told you about the conditions in the moments before the explosion. What happened right before and during?
BERNEY STRAUSS, ATTORNEY: The people that I have spoken to were asleep in their beds and they were basically blown out of their beds by the explosion. There was no indication beforehand that there was any problem on the rig.
TODD (voice-over): New Orleans attorney Berney Strauss has been approached for legal advice by several workers on board the Deepwater Horizon. He's close to taking on the cases of two workers who will likely file lawsuits against rig operator Transocean and oil giant BP.
Neither those workers nor others we approached would speak directly to us. They've told Strauss there wasn't just one explosion but several, and amidst all that ...
STRAUSS: They knew how to evacuate the rig, but, of course, in a situation like this that none of them had encountered, it was -- it was fairly chaotic. Some we jumping overboard.
TODD: Adriana Ramos' husband, Carlos, a rig worker, gave more detail to her.
ADRIANA RAMOS, WIFE OF OIL RIG BLAST SURVIVOR (voice-over): There were some people on fire jumping overboard.
TODD: Officials at Transocean and BP would not comment on the accounts from Adriana Ramos and Berney Strauss. Strauss says his prospective clients are not sure what caused the explosion.
BP's global CEO told CNN this.
TONY HAYWARD, CEO, BP GROUP: The issue here is that the blowout preventer, the ultimate piece of safety equipment in a situation such as this, has failed to operate fully. We don't understand why that is, but it's clearly failed to operate fully.
TODD: The blowout preventer is designed to stop oil from shooting upward toward the rig and causing an explosion.
Rigs in other countries are equipped with a remote controlled safeguard for the blowout preventer, a switch that shuts down the well even if the rig is damaged or evacuated. The Deepwater Horizon didn't have a switch like that. No rigs in the gulf do. The U.S. government doesn't require them.
A government rig safety official told me there are alternatives to that, like those remote controlled submersibles that are now struggling to activate the blowout preventer.
TODD (on camera): But are the -- are the alternate means better than that remote controlled switch?
MIKE SAUCIER, U.S. MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE: They're just as good, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, the main thing is we want to get the BOPs closed, and they do have more than one type of way to do that, and that's what they're working on doing.
TODD: I asked an official with Transocean if that remote control switch would have made a difference. He wouldn't comment on that directly, but he did say that will definitely be part of the investigation.
Brian Todd, CNN, Robert, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And here's a look at some other stories making headline this morning.
Arizona's governor has signed changes meant to deter racial profiling in the state's new immigration law. Still, immigration rallies planned in cities all across the country today as crowds protest that new law.
It requires authorities to question people about their immigration status if there's a reason to suspect they're in the country illegally.
BALDWIN: A federal jury in Knoxville, Tennessee has returned a guilty verdict against a former college student accused of hacking into Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account, that Yahoo account, during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Here he is. This is 22-year-old David Kernell. He was convicted of unauthorized computer access and obstruction to justice. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
HOLMES: And census workers could be knocking on your door today. They're starting up their door-to-door campaign to finish that headcount. The bureau says several glitches, however, in the computer system they need to track this tally are bogging down the computer system, so it might delay things a bit.
About 63 percent of you actually mailed back your census form.
BALDWIN: And now, as promised, the president of the United States giving the commencement address at the University of Michigan. (JOINED IN PROGRESS)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I thought I'd go for the cheap applause line to start things off.
Good afternoon, President Coleman, the board of trustees, to the faculty, parents, family and friends of the class of 2010. Congratulations on your graduation, and thank you for allowing me the honor of being a part of it.
Let me acknowledge your wonderful governor, Jennifer Granholm, your mayor, John Hieftje, and all the members of Congress who are here today. It is a privilege to be with you on this happy occasion and, you know, it's nice to spend a little time outside Washington.
Now, don't get me wrong, Washington is a beautiful city. It's very nice living above the store. You can't beat the commute. It's just sometimes all you hear in Washington is the clamor of politics, and all that noise can drown out the voices of the people who sent you there.
So -- so when I took office, I decided that each night I would read 10 letters out of the tens of thousands that are sent to us by ordinary Americans every day. This was my modest effort to remind myself of why I ran in the first place.
Some of these letters tell stories of heartache and struggle. Some express gratitude. Some express anger. I'd say a good solid third called me an idiot, which is how I know that I'm getting a good representative sample. Some of the letters make you think, like the one that I received last month from a kindergarten class in Virginia.
Now, the teacher of this class instructed the students to ask me any question they wanted. So one asked, how do you do your job? Another asked, do you work a lot? Somebody wanted to know if I wear a black jacket or if I have a beard. So, clearly, they were getting me mixed up with the other tall guy from Illinois.
And one of my favorites was from a kid who wanted to know if I lived next to a volcano. I'm still trying to piece the thought process on this one. Love this letter.
But it was the last question from the last student in the letter that gave me pause. The student asked, are people being nice? Are people being nice?
Well, if you turn on the news today, or yesterday, or a week ago, or a month ago, particularly one of the cable channels, you can see -- you can see why even a kindergartner would ask this question. We've got politicians calling each other all sorts of unflattering names. Pundits and talking heads shout at each other.
The media tends to play up every hint of conflict because it makes for a sexier story, which means anyone interested in getting coverage feels compelled to make their arguments as outrageous and as incendiary as possible. Now, some of this contentiousness can be attributed to the incredibly difficult moment in which we find ourselves as a nation. The fact is, when you leave here today, you will search for work in an economy that is still emerging from the worst crisis since the Great Depression. You live in a century where the speed with which jobs and industries move across the globe is forcing America to compete like never before.
You will raise your children at a time when threats like terrorism and climate change aren't confined within the borders of any one country. And, as our world grows smaller and more connected, you will live and work with more people who don't look like you or think like you or come from where you do.
I really enjoyed Alex's remarks because that's a lot of change. And all these changes, all these challenges inevitably cause some tension in the body politic. They make people worry about the future, and sometimes they get people riled up. But I think it's important that we maintain some historic perspective.
Since the days of our founding, American politics has never been a particularly nice business. It's always been a little less genteel during times of great change. A newspaper of the opposing party once editorialized that if Thomas Jefferson were elected, murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practiced. Not subtle.
Opponents of Andrew Jackson often referred to his mother as a common prostitute, which seems a little over the top. Presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson have been accused of promoting socialism, or worse, and we've had arguments between politicians that have been settled with actual duels. There was even a caning once on the floor of the United States Senate, which I'm happy to say didn't happen while I was there. It was -- it was a few years before.
The point -- the point is, politics has never been for the thin skinned or the faint of heart, and if you enter the arena you should expect to get roughed up. Moreover, democracy in a nation of more than 300 million people is inherently difficult. It's always been noisy and messy, contentious, complicated.
We've been fighting about the proper size and role of government since the days the framers gathered in Philadelphia. We've battled over the meaning of individual freedom and equality since the Bill of Rights was read. As our economy has shifted emphasis from agriculture to industry to information to technology, we have argued and struggled at each and every juncture over the best way to ensure that all of our citizens have a shot at opportunity.
So before we get too depressed about the current state of our politics, let's remember our history. The great debates of the past all stirred great passions. They all made somebody angry, and at least once led to a terrible war.
What is amazing is that despite all the conflict, despite all its flaws and its frustrations, our experiment in democracy has worked better than any form of government on earth.
On the last day of the constitutional convention, Benjamin Franklin was famously asked, well, doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy? And Franklin gave an answer that's been quoted for ages. He said a republic -- if you can keep it. If you can keep it.
Well, for more than 200 years, we have kept it. Through revolution and civil war, our democracy has survived. Through depression and World War it has prevailed. Through periods of great social and economic unrest, from civil rights to women's rights, it has allowed us slowly, sometimes painfully, to move towards a more perfect union.
And so now, Class of 2010, the question for your generation is this -- how will you keep our democracy going?
In a moment when our challenges seem so big and our politics seem so small, how will you keep our democracy alive and vibrant? How will you keep it well in this century?
I'm not here to offer some grand theory or detailed policy prescription, but let me offer a few brief reflections based on my own experiences and the experiences of our country over the last two centuries.
First of all, American democracy has thrived because we have recognized the need for a government that, while limited, can still help us adapt to a changing world. On the fourth panel of the Jefferson Memorial is a quote I remember reading to my daughters during our first visit there. It says I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.
The democracy designed by Jefferson and the other founders was never intended to solve every problem with a new law or a new program. Having thrown off the tyranny of the British Empire, the first Americans were understandably skeptical of government, and ever since we've held fast to the belief that government doesn't have all the answers, and we have cherished and fiercely defended our individual freedom.
That's a strand of our nation's DNA. But the other strand is the belief that there are some things we can only do together, as one nation, and that our government must keep pace with the times.
When America expanded from a few colonies to an entire continent and we needed a way to reach the Pacific, our government helped build the railroads. When we transitioned from an economy based on farms to one based on factories, and workers needed new skills and training, our nation set up a system of public high schools.
When the markets crashed during the Depression and people lost their life savings, our government put in place a set of rules and safeguards to make sure that such a crisis never happened again and then put a safety net in place to make sure that our elders would never be impoverished the way they have been. And because our markets and financial systems have evolved since then, we're now putting in place new rules and safeguards to protect the American people.
Now, this notion -- this notion, class, hasn't always been partisan. It was the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, who said the role of government is to do for the people what they cannot do better for themselves. And he'd go on to begin that first intercontinental railroad and set up the first land grant colleges.
It was another Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, who said the object of government is the welfare of the people, and he's remembered for using the power of government to break up monopolies and establish our national park system.
Democrat Lyndon Johnson announced the great society during commencement here at Michigan, but it was the Republican president before him, Dwight Eisenhower, who launched the massive government undertaking known as the interstate highway system.
Of course, there have always been those who opposed such efforts. They argue government intervention is usually inefficient, that restricts individual freedom and dampens individual initiative. And, in certain instances, that's been true.
You know, for many years we had a welfare system that too often discouraged people from taking responsibility for their own upward mobility. At times, we've neglected the role of parents rather than government in cultivating a child's education. And sometimes regulations fail, and sometimes their benefits don't justify their costs.
But what troubles me is when I hear people say that all of government is inherently bad. And one of my favorite signs during the health care debate was somebody who said keep your government hands out of my Medicare, which is essentially saying keep government out of my government-run health care plan.
Now, when our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening, foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy government is us. We, the people, hold our -- we, the people, hold in our hands the power to choose our leaders and change our laws and shape our own destiny.
Government's the police officers who are protecting our communities. Government is the roads you drove in on and the speed limits that kept you safe. Government is what ensures that mines adhere to safety standards and that oil spills are cleaned up by the companies that caused them.
Government is this extraordinary public university, a place that's doing life saving research and catalyzing economic growth and graduating students who will change the world around them in ways big and small.
The truth is, the debate we've had for decades now between more government and less government, it doesn't really fit the times in which we live. We know that too much government can stifle competition and deprive us of choice and burden us with debt. But we've also clearly seen the dangers of too little government, like when a lack of accountability on Wall Street nearly leads to the collapse of our entire economy.
So, Class of 2010, what we should be asking is not whether we need big government of small government, but how we can create a smarter and better government. Because in an era of iPods and TiVo, where we have more choices than ever before, even though I can't really work a lot of these things -- but I have 23-year-olds who do it for me.
Government shouldn't try to dictate your lives, but it should give you the tools you need to succeed. Government shouldn't try to guarantee results, but it should guarantee a shot, an opportunity for every American who's willing.
