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Human Toll of Nashville Flood; Will Dome Work to Cap Gushing Oil?; Too Cozy With Oil Industry?
Aired May 06, 2010 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You know, a lot of folks in the gulf region are waiting for that oil slick to wash ashore and the worried about it wiping out their livelihoods. We talked about that just a moment ago with our Stephanie Elam. CNN photo journalist Leon Job introduces us to Mack McRae. He has owned Alabama's Cedar Point Fishing Pier for more than 20 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAC MCRAE, OWNER, CEDAR POINT FISHING PIER: I have to charge you double if you don't catch anything because it's bad advertising. This is a tremendously good family pier.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead and throw it out there.
MCRAE: It's my heart and soul. I love the people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just reel it in a little at a time.
MCRAE: You cannot write a worst scenario than what this coast is fixing to experience.
I think it will be the end when this oil comes in, because I don't think they're going to be able to cap that well. And I think it will be a Gulf Coast Alamo.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do this every year, come down here, fish, shrimp, have fun. Now I feel like it might come to an end.
MCRAE: Thank you, sir.
And the thing that gets me the most is I don't think Cedar Point will be able to come back from this, along with a lot of other businesses.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Boy, you could hear it in his voice, couldn't you?
Hello again, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
Top of the hour in the CNN NEWSROOM, where anything can happen and usually does.
Here are the people behind today's biggest stories. Nashville resident Sherry Qualls struggles after the flood.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERRY SQUALLS, HUSBAND AND DAUGHTER SWEPT AWAY: He was -- he sacrificed himself for his kids. That's what I think.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: She watched floodwaters carry away her husband and daughter.
Nashville mourns and tries to pick itself up again.
Plus this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See what the natural disaster does to alligators. The effects that it's going to have on our business, would catastrophic be a bad term to use?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Alabama alligator farmer Wesley Moore (ph) worries the Gulf oil spill will take a big bite out of his business.
Let's do this -- let's get started.
Nashville is struggling to get its government offices, schools and city bus service up and running again today. We will hear live from Nashville Mayor Karl Dean shortly.
That said, thousands of people are living in shelters because their homes are ruined by muddy, filthy water. We will get you to the numbers on this story -- and they are dramatic -- in just a moment.
First, the human toll, and it is heartbreaking.
Here's reporter Alan Frio with Nashville affiliate WSMV.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALAN FRIO, REPORTER, WSMV (voice-over): At 8:25 Sunday morning, this creek the Qualls' family home overlooked was rising quickly, overflowing its banks. In just minutes, it went from hubcap level until Qualls moved his son to higher ground. Then he tried to rescue his 15-year-old daughter Kiley (ph), and was hugging a tree, trying to avoid the rushing water.
It's also the last time Sherry Qualls saw her husband and daughter alive.
QUALLS: From his neck up, just staring at me. He didn't say nothing, he was just staring at me. And she was screaming for her daddy to help her.
And then, by the time the rescue squad got here, I didn't see him no more. I didn't see him float away.
FRIO: Bob Qualls' body was found yesterday a mile downstream. Kiley's (ph) body was in a field across the road from where her father was found.
This is the Qualls' pickup. The force of the water tossed eight quarter of a mile from where it was parked. The same force Bob Qualls fought to save his daughter.
QUALLS: He sacrificed himself for his kids. That's what I think.
FRIO: Two family members gone, but memories still linger.
QUALLS: Every time I drive in this driveway, I can see my daughter standing at the door just smiling, and him, too. And I expect them any time to call me, and that's where I'm at.
FRIO (on camera): In just a matter of seconds, Sherry Qualls lost a husband, a daughter and a house.
In Perry County, I'm Alan Frio, Channel 4 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Can you imagine that?
You know, some Tennesseans have no home to go home to, but those who do are finding their houses and belongings coated in a foul mud, with mold starting to set in. Imagine the smell of it for a second here.
Nashville's mayor says damage from this historic disaster will top a billion dollars. Residents say they'll get back on their feet. But recovery won't be measured in months, rather years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When they let the water out of the dam, the road here just became a raging river. Anything that was on the ground is smelly and just is of no use.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a two-story house. We're fortunate we didn't lose, you know, bedrooms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: I spoke last hour to a member of Tennessee's Emergency Management Agency. Here's a bit of that conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEREMY HEIDT, SPOKESMAN, TEMA: Nashville is getting better. The water keeps going down.
It's important to remember though that there are 52 counties in Tennessee. Nashville is only one of those. It is a large part of it, but we're still shipping water to approximately -- we've shipped 90,000 gallons of water so far, and we're expecting another 167 tractor-trailer shipments again today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK. Let's try to bring the gravity and the magnitude of this flood disaster into focus for you.
The Army Corps of Engineers calls it a 500-year flood. Water and mud did not spare Nashville's historic country music landmarks, its honky- tonks and, of course, its homes.
Take a look at the statistics here.
Nineteen confirmed water related deaths across Tennessee and two others related to the storm. Ten counties declared federal disaster areas. Crews report six rescues on the river. Twenty-six shelters are up and running for Nashville residents whose homes are ruined. A mandatory order to conserve water remains in effect after floods overran one of Nashville's two water treatment plants.
The 100-ton dome has actually arrived at the site of the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. Now the big question is, will it work to cap the spill?
David Mattingly is live for us in Venice, Louisiana.
And David, has this ever been tried before?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It has never been tried before, Tony, not in this much water. They've never tried it with this kind of depth, trying to lower it almost a mile to the ocean floor.
But we have some breaking news for you this hour. We now have confirmation that that oil slick has finally made contact with the shore, ,and this has happened in Freemason Island.
Freemason Island is the southernmost island in the Chandeleur Island chain. This is off the coast of Louisiana. It's a very small place. It's part of St. Bernard Parish.
And now we just -- again, this is confirmation that the oil has reached shore there. There have been -- some response teams have been sent out, two by water, one by air. It will be their primary job to re-establish some of the booms that were in the area and put some new ones out.
Apparently, this oil was able to get over or past the booms that they have already deployed. So the first time we now have this oil slick hitting land here in Louisiana.
HARRIS: OK.
CNN's David Mattingly for us. We expected it, and now we have confirmation.
David, appreciate it. Thank you. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers will show us exactly how the containment dome is supposed to work. He's got a pretty fancy simulated animation that we will share with you in just a couple of minutes.
Now to the latest on the attempted bombing in New York's Times Square and new details about the actions of the suspect.
Faisal Shahzad did a dry run the day before the bombing attempt, according to a law enforcement source. The source says Shahzad staked out potential locations for the planned attack the next day. He allegedly parked a getaway vehicle several blocks away from Times Square, but he left the keys in the Nissan Pathfinder used in the attempted attack and took a train back to Connecticut.
With 200,000 gallons a day spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, critics ask government regulation -- are wondering if the regulation is actually working. An eye-opening CNN investigation is coming up.
First, though, our "Random Moment." That's coming your way in 90 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. Let's sort out this "Random Moment."
The cops were real. The robber, well, he put our "Random Moment of the Day" in motion.
A stickup went down Tuesday at the Cool Stop convenience store in Bellmore, New York, or so police thought. The man with the gun was an actor. He was shooting all right. Shooting a movie.
People in the streets saw him waving a gun and they called police, which is what you're supposed to do. Police say they knew about the movie at the Cool Stop but, oops, they thought it was shooting on Wednesday, not Tuesday.
Another mixed up "Random Moment" for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Got to tell you, as BP gets ready to lower a containment dome on to that gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the question remains, how much is the lack of government oversight to blame for this?
CNN's Ed Lavandera uncovered documents that show an uneasy coziness between regulators and the oil companies.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's hard to imagine how things could be worse for the Minerals Management Service, or MMS. Its 1,700 employees are supposed to regulate the oil industry, but a growing chorus of critics says the agency is nothing short of a disaster. REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: But it's very clear that you have a dysfunctional agency. You can't trust MMS. They have shown that they're too cozy with industry.
LAVANDERA: Too cozy, indeed.
Two years ago, an internal government investigation discovered ethical failures by more than a dozen MMS employees. Some were even having sex and using marijuana and cocaine with oil company employees.
ISSA: It was very clear. They thought that partying, drinking, accepting expensive tickets and hotel rooms somehow made it easier for them to understand the business of -- how much ore and how much oil and how much natural gas was being taken out.
LAVANDERA (on camera): CNN has reviewed hundreds of pages of documents and government reports dating back almost 10 years, documents that paint MMS as an agency that, in the words of its critics, rubber-stamps the oil industry's actions and is unable to enforce safety regulations.
(voice-over): For example, in 2000, MMS issued a safety alert calling for offshore drillers in the U.S. to have an additional backup system called an acoustic switch that could prevent oil blowouts like the one now in the Gulf. They went so far as to call it a -- quote -- "essential component."
Just three years later, after complaints from the oil industry, MMS determined it wasn't so essential after all, saying it would be too costly and effective, never mind the fact that BP is required to use it on rigs in two other countries.
(on camera): Let's load up.
(voice-over): Stuart Smith is an environmental attorney who has won dozens of cases against the oil industry and is representing fishermen put out of work because of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. We flew over the spill site with him.
STUART SMITH, ENVIRONMENTAL ATTORNEY: That's the slick. It's all over here.
LAVANDERA: In the years before this disaster, MMS and BP downplayed the possibility of a major oil spill. In an initial exploration plan, BP called a spill "unlikely." So, when BP sought permission to drill the Deepwater Horizon site, MMS agreed and went along with it, and gave the company a "categorical exclusion" from a more strenuous environmental impact study.
Environmentalists say such exemptions for oil companies are common.
SMITH: Once you dig into it, I mean, they are treated with kid gloves in every respect. They are the -- they are the least regulated industry, from an environmental point of view, in the country.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Obviously, they are going to argue just the opposite.
SMITH: Well, they can't.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): We wanted to ask BP about its relationship with MMS and the oversight of the company's wells.
In a statement, BP said, simply, "Speculation over the causes or implications of the Deepwater tragedy would be premature," adding that the drilling rig was owned by another company.
We also wanted to know what exactly MMS would say, but, after three days of repeated requests for interviews with officials at the Minerals Management Service, they have refused to talk to us.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: With Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: And still to come in the NEWSROOM, the National Day of Prayer and the battle against it. A live report from the nation's capital.
We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
HARRIS: Events taking place across Washington and around the country today as part of the National Day of Prayer. But this year's observance is being held against the backdrop of a legal battle and a controversy involving Evangelist Franklin Graham.
Congressional Correspondent Brianna Keilar live from Capitol Hill now, where some of the events are happening.
And Brianna, you did a great job last hour of giving us a little walk- and-talk of what's going on there. Let's see it again.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Last hour, Tony, a lot of folks were reading the bible. Well, they finished up with that. It took them a few days, around the clock. But now they are doing prayer on this National Day of Prayer. And this is one of just many events here in Washington and around the country, as you said.
Let's listen in just to give you an idea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Put that trash in the textbooks. Lord, cause things to get right with this.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Amen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lord, whatever has to happen here, Lord, we need the truth again spoke for us.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lord, the (INAUDIBLE) has perpetrated every area of our society, Lord. And we need the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lord, only the truth will build us up.
KEILAR: And Tony, I want to tell you that we have been listening to the prayers here for several minutes now, and they run the gamut. We have heard prayer to bring more manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. We have heard a prayer for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Really covering a lot of basis for government, education, even praying for the media, I should say.
And there is a controversy brewing here in Washington that involves Franklin Graham. As you know, he has followed in his father Billy Graham's footsteps. He, himself, is very much a renowned Christian Evangelist, and his invitation to prayer day events at the Pentagon -- his invitation was rescinded by the Army after he said on CNN recently that he didn't think true Islam could be practiced in the United States because, in his opinion, it condoned things like men beating their wives and murdering their children for transgressions like adultery.
He sort of responded to some of the criticism surrounding him at an event a short time ago, just a stone's throw away from where I am here on the Capitol.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM, BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSN.: I come today as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I know we have people here today of other faiths, and I certainly want to say that I love you. But please allow me to speak today as a minister of the gospel, and I don't want to be offensive to anyone.
But I only know how to pray, and I only know how to preach the way that the bible instructs me. And so --
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Franklin Graham has since walked back his comments about Islam. And even though his invite to the Pentagon's official prayer service was rescinded, Tony, he went ahead, went by this morning, and did sort of an unofficial prayer outside the Pentagon.
HARRIS: You know, and Brianna, another bit of controversy here. This day itself is a bit controversial. There's some question as to whether it is constitutional, correct? KEILAR: That's right. And there are a lot of people, organizers and participants, in events today wondering if this is going to be happening next year, because a U.S. district court judge just said that this day of prayer is unconstitutional. That, essentially, the government endorsing a day of prayer is unconstitutional.
They (ph) need to go through an appeal, and the Obama administration is appealing it. The judge in the case said, you know, don't go ahead and cancel the events, continue to go through what the end game is here.
HARRIS: Yes. Brianna, we're going to jump out of your shot because it's just breaking up. But I think everybody got the gist of what you're saying here. It's a process that has to play out through appeals. And until that process is completed, the National Day of Prayer can continue.
Brianna Keilar, our congressional correspondent.
Brianna, appreciate it. Thank you.
A commission looking into the -- sorry -- looking into the causes of the financial meltdown hears from former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson. He says outdated regulations contributed to the crisis, but warns too much regulation could actually stifle economic growth.
Paulson was asked about the lack of warnings about the impending meltdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I say, we've heard a lot about we're shocked, we're surprised, it's a tsunami. But even when a tsunami comes, you have warnings ahead of time.
HENRY PAULSON, FMR. TREASURY SECRETARY: Yes, but what was -- let me tell you what wasn't clear to me, and I don't think it was clear to very many people, if any, when I arrived. And that was the scale and the degree of the problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Let's do this for a moment -- let's take a look at the timeline leading up to the financial crisis.
In the summer of 2007, subprime mortgages started to blow up, right, helping to trigger the recession in December of that year.
March 2008, investment bank Bear Stearns collapses. Treasury Secretary Paulson helps orchestrate the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase.
Now, in the summer of 2008, California mortgage lender IndyMac goes belly up and is taken over by the FDIC. Investors start bailing out of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Fast forward here to September of 2008. The government takes over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy. And the government announces a bailout of insurance giant AIG.
October, 2008, the stock market plummet plummets, falls to the floor. Congress passes and President Bush signs TARP, the Troubled Assets Relief Program.
November. And President Obama wins the election. He pushes through the Recovery Act, the stimulus plan.
In the fall of last year, the economy shows some signs of life. And in the spring of this year, the economy expands.
But concern over the deficit and debt grows.
We are still waiting to hear live from Nashville Mayor Karl Dean on the flooding aftermath.
Meantime, CNN's Martin Savidge gets a look at Nashville's damaged country music treasures. He gets a hand from an best-selling country music artist.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Floodwaters recede in Nashville. Now comes the hard part, tallying up the damage done to some of the city's cultural gems.
CNN's Martin Savidge files this report, starting at the home of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To understand what country music means to Nashville and the millions who love it, we turn to somebody who knows it. Country performer Jo Dee Messina had had nine hit singles and sold over five million albums. And the first thing she did was get me on stage, not at some honky-tonk, but at the Nashville Symphony.
ALAN VALENTINE, CEO, THE NASHVILLE SYMPHONY: You can speak in a normal voice here, and the person in the last row can hear it like they're standing in front of you.
SAVIDGE (on camera): And none of this was flooded or damaged?
VALENTINE: Right.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): In a city that loves all kind of music, that was a big relief. Then she took me to a real disaster, the basement, 18 feet of water drowning all sorts of instruments.
(on camera): Somewhere down there are two Steinways?
VALENTINE: Yes, two Steinways, really beautiful concert grand Steinways, handpicked for this hall.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): With the electricity out, the humidity and smell are overwhelming.
Jo Dee doesn't just know music, with five feet of water in her own basement, she also has a feel for what many in Nashville are going through.
(on camera): I think people think stuff like that doesn't happen to people like you.
JO DEE MESSINA, COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER: It happens.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): She takes me to another place that flooded. The Country Music Hall of Fame where everything country lives -- or did. Rumors were a lot have been lost. And judging by the sidewalk, it didn't look good.
The museum's wood floor and wall sat in piles. In the basement, the theater had flooded to the third row. Upstairs, we found Caroline Tate and her team working in the dark.
They were surrounded by what could only be called the "crown jewels of country music" which they had guarded and cared for all through the flood. It may not have looked pretty or organized, but it was all there, including a squirrel sculpture belonging to Hank Williams, music awards, even Vince Gill's very first music guitar.
In the rotunda, Jo Dee found new meaning in an old song.
MESSINA (singing): By and By, Lord, by and by.
(on camera): You've got nice acoustics here, too.
MESSINA: Yes, we do.
(LAUGHTER)
SAVIDGE: But I guess you'd expect that here, wouldn't you?
MESSINA: Yes. It's pretty rocking.
SAVIDGE: Do you think that has meaning here at a time like this?
MESSINA: It all has meaning. All meaning, all the time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: At least 21 people lost their lives in Tennessee. That number could rise because folks are still missing. Tennessee's governor says the pain is being felt throughout the state, not just Nashville.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. PHIL BREDESEN (D), TENNESSEE: There's an awful lot of work. Nashville has, obviously, been hard hit and it's a well-known city, but there are so many other counties in the state and areas in the general area that have been hit very hard as well. A lot of people who didn't have flood insurance because they never thought the flood waters would ever come anywhere near their home I mean are really looking at a, you know, a total loss of their home at this point. So it's very, very tough on a lot of people right now. Right now we're really just trying to reach out and help those people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: A changing of the guard possible in London. Prime Minister Gordon Brown hoping to hold on to his job, but a conservative rival and a surprise contender making today's election a real cliff-hanger. A live report from London when we come back. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: All right. CNN, of course, is your source for money news. Let's get you to the best money website on the web. It is cnnmoney.com. The lead story here, "stocks sliding." And the slide accelerating. Well, we are actually off of sessions highs at - actually session lows at this point. The Dow is down 73 points. The Nasdaq - Sonya (ph), the Nasdaq, I forgot that number. Where are we? Down 19 points. About just a little past three hours into the trading day. There it is if you want to see it for yourself here. We're down 60 now. We're going to be following these numbers for you throughout the day here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Britain's closest general election in decades is happening right now. We want to get you to our Richard Quest. He is in London.
Richard, good to see you.
Got to ask you something here. It looks like, as was the case with the U.S. election, change is the watch word here. But I'm curious to know from you, what will change look like depending on which of these names here? We know the current prime minister, Gordon Brown, whether he wins, David Cameron wins and Clegg. Who is this guy anyway?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes. Oh, right, right. Nick Clegg. He is the leader of Britain's third party, the liberal Democrats. And the extraordinary thing about them is, they've always been an also round party. But since the U.K. had its first TV debates ever in this election, Clegg has sort of moved into proper third party status. And the parties and the polls pretty much have been third, third, third right the way through the elections.
Election law forbids me from giving any indication about exit polls or opinion polls or anything like that on election day itself. But we do know going into this how things looked and it was very close, indeed, Tony. I mean, look, I've been covering U.K. elections for a couple of decades now. And, frankly, I've never seen an election that has been this close. And, more importantly, where the electorate have been so uncertain. They're going to the polls here with a deep feeling of unease and unhappiness. HARRIS: Wow. How is the outcome of this election? That's interesting. How is the outcome of this election likely to change that special relationship between America and the U.K.?
QUEST: The special relationship, which, of course, is trotted out by both parties whenever they want to show that they're friends with the other.
HARRIS: Yes.
QUEST: And Gordon Brown, if he wins tonight, there will be no change there. David Cameron is an Atlantaist (ph). He firmly, firmly believes in the relationship between London and Washington. If anything, he's highly Eurosceptic (ph). He believes that Britain's future is to continue that close relationship with the United States.
If Nick Clegg holds the balance of power, or the lib dems take office, which is unlikely to be honest, he's much more Eurocentric. And, indeed, one of the criticisms about him has been he would, some people say, water down, tone down, put down the trans Atlantic relationship. He'd focus it much more towards the European Union.
HARRIS: I see.
QUEST: The big issue, though -
HARRIS: Yes.
QUEST: And I've got to say this because eventually you're going to face it on your side of the Atlantic, is, as you come out of recession -
HARRIS: Yes.
QUEST: How are we going to pay for the bailout costs, the tax rises, and the spending cuts? And that's been the big issue in this election tonight.
HARRIS: You're right to say it. It's coming our way, that's for sure. Good to see you, Richard. Richard Quest in London for us.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, reports of oil reaching shore in the Gulf of Mexico. We're updating your top stories straight ahead for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: It is a journey to save African-American children from poverty, crime, and a dead end. It is what we're talking at today in our "What Matters" segment. A radio host is traveling the country to spread the message, young people need guidance and mentors. Don Lemon takes a look at a new type of struggle for civil rights and for children.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Baisden is on the air.
MICHAEL BAISDEN, RADIO HOST: Welcome back to the "Michael Baisden Show."
LEMON: And spreading the word.
BAISDEN: This is how you change lives. Come on.
LEMON: He's not a preacher, but he's secular sermons fill the airwaves all across America. Leaving some to suggest, black radio hosts are replacing the icon civil rights leaders of the past.
In 2007, instead of Washington or Selma, they marched on Jena, an obscure Louisiana town, until six African-American students were charged with beating a white student after nooses were hung in a school yard tree.
BAISDEN: So this is my home away from home.
LEMON: Today, Baisden, and his co-host, George Willborn, have taken their power to the people message on the road, on a tour bus that will take them to 73 cities. Encouraging adults, especially African- American men, to get involved in young people's lives as mentors.
LEMON (on camera): This is your life, man, for how long?
BAISDEN: For five months, until mid June. We end the campaign in New York City.
LEMON (voice-over): But before the big apple finish, Baisden says he will match contributions to local mentoring programs with up to $350,000 of his own money.
BAISDEN: I didn't see it as giving away money. I saw it as an investing in our kids. And the term has always been used, you know, be the example that you want to see in other people. And I wanted to be an example by showing and not telling.
Big hugs only. Hugs only.
LEMON: At each stop, he is greeted like a rock star. In Augusta, Georgia, so many people showed up, there wasn't enough room. But local mentoring group Dad's in Action got in. For them, mentoring starts at home.
LEMON (on camera): Do you feel lucky and sort of privileged that you have -- you're here and you're able to be your own son's mentor?
TERRENCE PAYNE, DAD'S IN ACTION: Yes. Yes, I'm very privileged. And I take this honor very highly to -- just to have a son or even have a child, to just to just be a part of his life, you know. And I take off from work and don't work as much just to be with my son. I mean, it means more to me than just being with him every day and anyone here in this town would know - who knows me, I've been carrying him in one arm and doing my work with the other. I -- my whole life is just this young man here. LEMON: That should be the message to all dads, don't you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outstanding.
LEMON: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's great.
BAISDEN: That's right, I said it.
LEMON (voice-over): Inside the chapel, Baisden is preaching, firing up the crowd, hoping his passionate pitch resonates long after he gets back on the bus.
LEMON (on camera): So it's not just your voice going all over the country, it's you?
BAISDEN: Yes, sometimes you've got to show up, right? You can't just let them hear you, they have to feel you.
LEMON (voice-over): Don Lemon, CNN, Augusta, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And you can find out more about Michael Baisden's youth mentoring initiative online at onemillionmentors.com. And to read more stories that matter to all of us, pick up the latest issues of "Essence" magazine on newsstands now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Very quickly, now, let's get to our Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve. And Jeanne has information about a possible security indent onboard a flight to JFK.
Jeanne, what are you learning?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was another Emirates Airlines flight that's been in the news, of course, because of the fact that Faisal Shahzad was pulled off an Emirates flight on Monday night.
What we'd heard is that an Emirates flight was on the tarmac and it was turned around at JFK and brought back to the terminal because there was a suspicion that there might be somebody on board this aircraft who's on the no-fly list. However, I have now talked to multiple people within the U.S. government who believe this is going to turn out to be a false match. In other words, there was someone on there, perhaps their name was similar, perhaps there was something else, that perhaps their name was the same but the birth date was different.
Anyway, they thought they had a hit on the no-fly list. It appears at this point that they do not, it appears. We're still waiting for the final wave off from officials here.
HARRIS: OK, Jeanne, appreciate it. And you'll keep us posted, I'm sure.
Let's take a quick break.
MESERVE: And, excuse me, Tony, can I just -
HARRIS: Yes. Yes. Yes, please, please.
MESERVE: We're just getting some new information that's just been OK for air. This from our Susan Candiotti. She says that a source familiar with this situation at JFK tells her that a male and female were two passengers taken off of the plane by the orders of CBP. But as I mentioned, what I've heard is that -- oops, let me see.
HARRIS: So we're getting even newer information.
MESERVE: Yes, as we speak, I'm getting -- my Blackberry is buzzing here. I continue to say it looks like this is going to be a situation of false positives. We'll let you know definitively as soon as we know.
HARRIS: OK. All right, Jeanne, appreciate it.
MESERVE: Sure.
HARRIS: A quick break and we're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: Squeezing Arizona. That's what a growing number of people are hoping to do as they begin boycotts over the state's new immigration law. This morning, La Raza, the nation's largest Latino civil rights organization, announced an economic boycott of the state. And last night, civil rights leader, the Reverend Al Sharpton, led demonstrators in Phoenix to protest the new law.
Arizona's immigration law takes effect in a few weeks, but will it solve what those who live near the border see as the real problem? CNN's Randi Kaye talks with a rancher in Amado, California -- Arizona.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is farmer Stewart Lowe. And we came here to talk to him about the border patrol and the job that it's doing.
You can actually see the border crossing.
STEWART LOWE, RANCHER: It's right in our backyard.
KAYE: It's right in your backyard there. How do you feel about it being right there as opposed to being right on the boarder? LOWE: I think it's wasting federal dollars. If they're on the border, they're -- they have a psychological effect of having man on the border, which can be seen on the other side. And that's a real deterrent, having men manning the border. This is, I would say, more of a commercial for homeland security.
This is another example of pedestrian foot traffic circumventing the checkpoint. They get a kilometer, three kilometers north, and then they round back up towards the interstate. And there's pickup points that their -- that the guides are familiar with.
This is where they take cover. The guides lead them here. Usually the guides are fed these rotisserie chicken deals.
KAYE: Oh, you see the containers on the ground there.
LOWE: And then you'll see some like cans of tuna fish and stuff that, you know, the charges are eating.
KAYE: Right, so all the - so all the trash and containers that we're seeing, that's from illegal immigrants who are heading out?
LOWE: That's migrant - that's - yes, that's migrant trash.
KAYE: So does this concern you when you see this so close to your home?
LOWE: It does. We used to -- we used to come down, bring the kids to the river. And now the last time my wife brought the kids down there were 20 or 30 men and, you know, that alarmed her.
KAYE: Come August, when the new immigration law goes into effect here in Arizona, residents and ranchers like Stewart Lowe don't expect it to help them much. They say that's because it targets those illegal immigrants who are looking to make a life here, not the smugglers who are still hiding out on their land and posing a huge threat to southern Arizona.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Amado, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And, once again, let's get to our Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve and our Susan Candiotti. They both have information about a possible security incident on board a flight to JFK.
And, Jeanne, let's start with you, because as we were speaking just a couple of moments ago, your Blackberry was going crazy. So let us give you an opportunity to update the story with the latest information.
MESERVE: Yes, I've heard from an administration official now that this definitely was a false match situation. That is, they had someone or perhaps more than one person on this plane whose name was either identical or similar to somebody on the no-fly list. Out of an abundance of caution, they brought that plane back to the terminal apparently to check this out.
These things do happen from time to time. But the one -- reason this was of particular interest, of course, is that it's happening at JFK, it's happening at the Emirates Airlines, it's happening right after that attempted bombing in Times Square and the attempted flight by the suspect in that case, Faisal Shahzad.
So, back to you.
HARRIS: OK.
And, Susan, I understand you've got some information you can add to the story to help fill out the picture a bit here.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just a little bit more. Obviously Jeanne and I are hearing the same thing now. A definite false alarm now. Definite false alarm.
And the additional information is that this was a male and a female passenger. The plane was ordered back by customs and border patrol. Again, as Jeanne indicated, these things do happen from time to time.
My source here tells me that this was a mix-up over a name. That, too, can happen from time to time where a name appears to be the same as a name on the no-fly list. But this was started by the CBP. It has been ended by the CBP and it appears that all is well at this time.
HARRIS: OK, Jeanne Meserve and our Susan Candiotti. Ladies, appreciate it. Thank you.
Let's take a quick break. We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: The threat from the oil spill off the Gulf Coast is reaching all the way to some inland businesses. They're already starting to see the financial impact of the spill. CNN photojournalist Joel Delarosa spent a day with Wesley Moore, owner of the Alligator Alley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WESLEY MOORE, OWNER, ALLIGATOR ALLEY: Hi, my name's Wesley Moore. I am owner/operator of Alligator Alley.
Good boy.
Alligator Alley, we are actually a licensed alligator farm. But what we are, we are more of an alligator sanctuary. Every alligator that we have is a wild caught nuisance alligator. So we have, you know, the so-called troublemakers. The dog catchers. You know, the menaces to society.
My name is Wes. I'll be your guide today. A lot of our business are out of town people that are coming to the beach. Right now, unfortunately, things are a little bit slow.
JOEL DELAROSA, CNN PHOTOJOURNALIST: Why is that?
MOORE: I think there's an oil spill in the Gulf.
We'll wait and see what this natural disaster does to alligators. The effects that it's going to have on our business -- would catastrophic be a bad term to use?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Just enough time to say, CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Don Lemon, in for Ali Velshi.
