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Targeting Pakistani Militants; Flooding Gone, Disaster Remains; Allegations of Police Misconduct, Crime Lab Cocaine Abuse; Wounded Warriors Honor Moms

Aired May 07, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A new sense of urgency in the Gulf of Mexico. That massive containment dome is being lowered into place right now. It's the big plan to cap that leak, but as BP works on it oil is starting to wash up in Louisiana.

Louisiana's barrier islands are getting coated as we speak while residents in other spots are trying desperately to protect their coast.

We're all keeping our fingers crossed on that dome. The giant concrete structure is supposed to help them control that oil leak. But they have to be careful. It could crush the pipeline sending even more oil into the water.

Our David Mattingly says it will take two days to get it situated.

An investigation into what happened and who is to blame expected to start next week. It looks like the Coast Guard may be taking the lead on that.

And then there's this from NPR, workers who had to be rescued from the burning oil rig said they were taken advantage of, they say TransOcean, the rig's owner made them sign forms that could be used against them.

Now get this, these are forms they had to fill out shortly after the massive explosion and before they were allowed to see their families. They were asked if they were injured. If they said no, it could potentially be used to limit lawsuits over future psychiatric problems. Asked to respond, TransOcean said it would be inappropriate to comment right now.

So what's it look like in the Gulf? Pretty murky, you might imagine. After all, there are 210,000 gallons a day pouring out of that. CNN's Brooke Baldwin has an exclusive look under water.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Take a look at what we found in the water, this is the oil. This massive orange sheen is the oil. We're 25 miles south of the Gulf Coast.

Let's take a closer look and see what it looks like. It is all over this side of the Chandeleur Islands, this kind of orange almost goo.

Capt. George Pelaez is good enough to drive us out here to check out the oil and we just came upon this. When you see this, what do you think?

GEORGE PELAEZ, CHARTER BOAT CAPTAIN: It's a little discouraging now. Right now, we are at a very popular fishing location. We fish in the Chandeleur chain and we're already in the (inaudible) it's on the island right and we're going to keep on going south.

BALDWIN: As you take a look at the oil in the water, we've noticed that it's at least 18 inches deep. I've seen some fish already swimming through it, so to get a better glimpse as to what it really looks like under there, let's take a look with our underwater camera.

Now, one of the biggest concerns here with this oil spill, of course, is the wild life and now we have a front-row seat to what these experts are talking about. This is New Harbor Island. There are hundreds of pelicans here. This is nesting season. The pelicans, their babies and you can see here, just about 10 feet from that shore, the authorities put out this protective booming to do precisely that, try to protect this habitat.

Today, we have perfect conditions. But here's one of the criticism. This is a close look at the booms. The booms are supposed to keep all of this oil from going anywhere closer into these eco- habitats in the islands. The massive criticism is if the wind on any other day is worse, it could easily go over the boom. Another worry is because some of this oil is so broken up, underneath, these booms are only this thick, it can go right on under.

PELAEZ: And what is see on these booms, anything above a 15-knot wind, it's over. I mean, it's not going to serve its purpose.

BALDWIN: When do you go back to work? You don't know.

PELAEZ: We don't know. And right now what I see out there, it's going to be later than sooner.

BALDWIN: Brooke Baldwin, CNN, Chandeleur Islands, off the coast of Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, residents are trying anything to stop that oil. In Oklahoma and Texas, they're gathering hair from llamas. This one's name is Candy Cane. It's part of the plan to sop up some of that oil before it ruins beaches. Now, we told you yesterday about some people gathering human hair for the same thing, but for some reason, llama hair is just a little easier to stomach.

Coming up next in the CNN NEWSROOM Tony Harris. He's going to talk about the chief executive officer of BP. He's actually going to join him. Who does he blame for the massive oil spill in the gulf? And more to the point, how much is BP willing to send in help to clean it all up?

PHILLIPS: Building a case on the Times Square car bomb suspect. Here's the latest on that investigation now. CNN has obtained surveillance images from a Pennsylvania fireworks store. They appear to show Faisal Shahzad buying fireworks more than a month before the failed bombing. The fireworks match those found in Shahzad's Pathfinder.

On the money trail, investigators are looking for a courier who helped funnel cash from overseas to the suspect. Money that was apparently used to purchase the Pathfinder and the bomb-making gear. And more connecting the dots, Shahzad may have had ties to a Pakistani Taliban group. Sources say that group could have helped with training and communications, but did not necessarily direct the attack. Militants group in Pakistan may be extending the scope.

So what can the U.S. do to get Pakistan to target their hubs before they target our shores? We bring in CNN's Barbara Starr with the Pentagon. Let's go ahead and start out with a map of north Waziristan, Barbara. Let's take a look at this area and what exactly is going on here?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're absolutely right, Kyra. North Waziristan, this tribal region in Pakistan, front and center. This is now, of course, the area where the U.S. believes there is major safe haven activity for both the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan.

The Times Square bomber, he, most likely traveled to this general region making contacts with militants and possibly getting his training there. What can the U.S. do about it? How can they shut down this safe haven? The main goal, of course, is to get the Pakistani military to do it. They haven't moved into this area yet. The U.S. wants to give them more training and give them military assistance and really encourage them to go in there, but also, we're looking at expanded drone attacks by the CIA. A new target list that is much broader, not just going after the top leaders anymore, but going after training camps, weapons stockpiles and even low-level operatives, trying to do everything they can to shut this down, Kyra?

PHILLIPS: As we well know, in military, commanders will say it's not just bombs and bullets that will solve this, there's got to be one-on-one human contact.

STARR: You know, absolutely. No military commander in the U.S. right now thinks bombs and bullets are the real answer to this. This is a soup, a syndicate of terrorist and militant organizations in that region. People getting their information off the internet and using the internet to make terrorist contacts.

You can't bomb that out of existence. So what they're talking about again is getting the Pakistanis to establish a functioning government in that region, more economic assistance, more job, a better quality of life for the people there and make it a place where terrorism can't thrive. If the people of this region can have a real lifestyle of freedom from terrorism through jobs and economic development, there won't be a place for the Taliban and the Al Qaeda to hide out. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Barbara, thanks.

Time to pray for one of their own, students remember a University of Virginia lacrosse player who was murdered.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A special mass is planned at noon today at the University of Virginia. The school's Catholic student ministry says it's a time for prayer for Yardley Love. She's the star lacrosse player found beaten to death in her off-campus apartment on Monday. Love's ex-boyfriend is being charged with the murder. He's on the men's lacrosse team. Students remembered Love at a candlelight vigil Wednesday night. Her funeral is tomorrow in Maryland.

Closed, furniture pictures, even the kitchen sink, piles of stuff on lawns and sidewalks in flood-stricken Tennessee. Six days after record-setting rains that water has receded, but the disaster, well, it will be around for quite some time.

President Obama has declared 10 Tennessee counties disaster areas. 31 people died in three states. Residents are cleaning up and there are signs of life returning to normal.

CNN's Anderson Cooper toured some of that damage with country music stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill who live in Nashville.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Have you ever seen anything like this, I mean, in Nashville?

FAITH HILL, COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER: Oh, gosh, no. Not even close.

TIM MCGRAW, COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER: No. not here.

HILL: Not here.

COOPER: This neighborhood is Bellevue?

HILL: Bellevue, yes.

COOPER: Bellevue.

HILL: Bellevue, yes.

MCGRAW: We're 10 minutes from here literally. Our home's 10 minutes from here.

COOPER: And this whole area was under water?

HILL: Two days ago it was under water. I mean, I don't - barely the tips of the roofs were showing in this area and this is an indication of what it - I mean, this is how it is for miles that direction.

COOPER: Is that right?

HILL: North, south, east and west of Nashville proper.

COOPER: Basically, people have already started clearing out their homes. You can smell the mold and mildew in the air.

MCGRAW: You have to get it out fast.

HILL: The water started to recede, yes, that's what they did.

MCGRAW: And that's what's so deceiving, too. I think people, even people that live in our community, even us to a certain extent that you can be sort of lulled into a sense of it's not really that bad because you can be in one area and everything seems fine.

All of the stores are open and people are going about their business and kids are in school, but then you can just go, just a couple of streets over and it's total devastation and it's like that all over the city and all over the subdivisions and the communities outside the city.

HILL: I'm just kind of in shock right now. I am. We've seen it all under water, but - it's just a lot.

COOPER: What do you want people around the country to know about what happened here? What's going on?

MCGRAW: I think that it's going to be a process that's going to be ongoing for a long time. There's going to be help needed for a long time. There's going to be funds that'll be needed for a long time and it's not going to go away any time soon for these families, but this will take a while out here, and I don't think people should think that just because you saw it on TV one day and the water's gone that it's going to be going away. It's not going to be going away.

HILL: The worst is yet to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: (inaudible) hosted a flood relief telethon last night. He played with several country music stars. Keith Urban had to borrow a guitar after the flood destroyed a lot his musical equipment. Let's listen for a minute.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

PHILLIPS: I love that voice. Love Keith Urban and guess what? On Tuesday, we're going to have a little music of our own. Tune in and crank up the volume. The legendary jam (ph) and Widespread Panic" is going to be right here in studio jamming for us and telling us how those heartbreaking scenes from Nashville have hit them hard. They've helped a lot of folks in need over the years and they're going to help middle Tennessee too, giving back to the region that they love. You don't have to be a longtime spread head or (inaudible) to love these guys. Don't miss the rare treatment right here on Tuesday. Let's listen to a little "Widespread Panic." You know this band, Reynolds Wolf?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good stuff. Got to like them.

PHILLIPS: If you love the grateful dead, this is the grateful dead of 2010. You were a deadhead. Wait a minute, you're much too young.

WOLF: Yes, a little bit.

PHILLIPS: Mama followed the dead.

WOLF: I like it all. I like it all.

You know the big sounds are going to be here but it's not music but really some thunderstorms developing in parts of the Ohio Valley. You know, Tennessee is going to get a little bit of a break but just a few hundred miles to the north, this is what you're going to face. You're going to see some strong storms especially in places like Milwaukee over to Detroit and even in Waterford and Flint. Heavy showers and storms on the back half of the system, what's interesting, we're not seeing rain, but rather some snowfall back in parts of Fargo and even in Carrington as far south as Aberdeen.

What we're going to be seeing later on today, not just the snow, not just the rain, but the possibility of some strong thunderstorms and maybe even some tornadoes popping up in parts of say Columbus, Ohio and maybe even Toledo and perhaps even Indianapolis before all is said and done. The raucous activity may take place later into the afternoon hours and into the early evening, between the hours of 3:00 and 6:00.

So if you're going to be in this area, please be careful. Now, what else are we going to be seeing today is a better weather day for you along the coast, a very gentle chop on the water but certainly some good news for people trying to harness the flow of that oil. Clean up efforts in parts of Tennessee OK but some scattered showers and breezy conditions possible but certainly not with the heavy rainfall that we had there just a short time ago.

What we are going to be seeing in Nashville through the weekend, a mix of sunshine and clouds. Temperatures a bit on the cooler side and mainly in the 60s in both spots. Another chance of showers until Monday but Tuesday the rain moves out and warmer temperatures coming back with a high of 83 and speaking of warm temperatures, take a look at your temperatures across the nation, very quickly.

Warm conditions for Houston, back in New Orleans, highs mainly into the 80s and 90s but then when you bring in the high humidity, obviously, it's going to feel much warmer, 90 in Tampa, 71 in New York, 55 in Denver and 62 in San Francisco. That is a quick look at your forecast across the nation and we're going to keep a very sharp eye on what we can expect in parts of the Midwest and the Great Lakes. Again, the potential of severe weather by late afternoon.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Reynolds, thanks.

The trucker wasn't just speeding. He was talking on his cell phone, too. Then came the crash that killed him and 10 other people. A Kentucky State Police report on the March accident is now out and it says the driver blew past the 70 mile-an-hour speed limit before his rig crossed the median and plowed into a van. Those 10 people in the van, they were on their way to a wedding.

For many along the gulf coast, the oil spill has now crossed a line in the sand. We're going to tell you why these innocent-looking pebbles are littering some of the beaches and raising new concerns among the people who live nearby.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So will you be my friend? That's what political leaders are asking in the U.K. right now. It's because of yesterday's election. No clear winner and no clear majority. So the top two are trying to find partners in crime. Smaller parties who won a few seats in parliament, may get a seat at the table while the leader of the bigger party gets to live at 10 Downing Street.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: What all of us need to be mindful of is the imperative for strong and stable government and for that to be formed. With the authority to tackle the challenges ahead and one which can commend support in Parliament. It is with this in mind that all of us should be facing the times ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Our Max Foster live in London at 10 Downing Street this morning. So, Max, David Cameron's party, new information for us.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. An extraordinary day in British politics, Kyra. I mean, you don't just have the situation where one of the two main parties doesn't come out on top afterwards. So they're caught in a situation they're not used to. Both of them then fighting over (inaudible) in the middle of the liberal democrats.

So you just heard from the Labour party's Gordon Brown. He said "OK, liberal democrats, the one thing you want is the reform of the rotating system." He said OK, liberal democrats, the one thing that you want is a reform of the rotating system. And we'll give that to you.

Shortly afterwards, David Cameron of the conservatives came in and said we will offer you a deal as well. Come and work with us. We'll agree on these areas and we'll agree to disagree on certain other area, but we can move forward and we're the better party to go with because we've got more votes. It was an extraordinary day. So we are ending up now in this situation where the liberal democrats effectively have to choose the next government of the united kingdom, the third party with the most power.

PHILLIPS: OK. Max Foster, we'll keep following it. Appreciate it.

Other top stories we're following right now. European countries digging into their pockets to help bail out Greece. A meeting is going on in Brussels to finalize the $140 billion loan package. Greek lawmakers have already approved budget-cutting reforms to help stabilize the economy and restore confidence to the global market.

The Times Square car bomb suspect linked to a Pakistani Taliban group but U.S. officials say they can't be sure that that group directed the failed attack. Investigators are looking for a courier who funneled cash to Faisal Shahzad.

And the mission to cap that underwater oil gusher under way in the Gulf of Mexico. BP says a containment dome is being lowered to the site of the sunken oil rig. It will take some time though, the capping is expected to begin early next week and success is not guaranteed.

Fears over an E. coli outbreak. A dozen people already hospitalized and the investigation now centering on lettuce. We'll be back in a minute fifteen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: An E. coli outbreak may be linked to Romaine lettuce. At least 19 people in three people have been sickened and a dozen had to go to the hospital. It led to the recall of Romaine products by Freshway Foods in Ohio. The Romaine was distributed in 23 states. Now, we have to stress that the lettuce being recall side is not those pre-packaged salad that you get at grocery store, it's the bulk stuff that you see at the salad bars. Now the FDA is focusing their investigation on lettuce grown in Arizona.

The first signs of the oil spill already washing ashore in parts of the gulf, oil has reached several barrier islands off the Louisiana coast and in Mississippi, CNN's Rob Marciano shows us how tar balls are now littering some beaches.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST (on camera): We're out shooting another story this morning and then got a call that they actually spotted some oil about 10 miles offshore of the Mississippi coastline, a place called Sand (ph) Islands, so we'll hitch a ride. This is Bill Scoot (ph), Aaron.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got the call this morning and so we were kind of concerned about that. MARCIANO: This is the spot where there were reports of at least some tar balls earlier this morning. So we're going to beach this thing, and anchor up and take a look.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh. All right.

BILL STEWART, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI RESIDENT: This is my heaven. I mean, look at it. You can have the worst day in the world, and you come out here and just look around. I mean -

MARCIANO: It's gorgeous.

STEWART: It's peaceful. I mean, you know,

MARCIANO: They just look like a stone you'd skip across the water.

STEWART: And if you break it open. You know, the consistency, see?

MARCIANO: That looks like asphalt there. For as long as you lived in Mississippi, as many oil rigs as there are, you've never seen this before?

STEWART: No, sir, ever.

MARCIANO: This one you just found in the water.

STEWART: Yes, about three feet out.

MARCIANO: How about this one?

That one's big and that one you really get a sense for -

They're all about the same size, aren't they?

I look at that and I think we've got oil on the beach.

STEWART: Right. This is our livelihood. This is what we do, you know? We enjoy it. We come out here to enjoy it. If it's gone, you know, I don't even really want to think about it.

MARCIANO: Well, this is what most of them look like. I was surprised to see this, kind of pancake in shape, two or three inches in diameter and then (inaudible) we came across a thicker one that was a little softer, seemed a little bit more fresh. And these are the ones that really felt like (inaudible) feels like asphalt, kind of sticky and even smells like tar, you'd pour on the street.

Just kind of a random experiment, we poured one of them in a bottle of water last night and this is kind of what it turned into. Sediment falling to the bottom and probably some dirt and then oil or this greasy kind of clear stuff rising to the top. It's kind - it kind of smells very like a chemical and quite frankly, it kind of gets you a little bit loopy like a magic marker would. So clearly, this is some form of oil. It's not necessarily bad for people. If you touch it, just kind of wash your hands after the fact and it's pretty easy to clean up off the beach. So that's the good news. The other slice of hope, at least, Kyra, is that it's been described to me by these guys that forecast from the National Weather Service is that these tar balls are kind of like raindrop, big ones at the beginning of the thunderstorm. (inaudible) you get that thunderstorm and sometimes it misses you and certainly the folks who live along this coastline are hoping that the thunderstorm in the gulf, the slick misses them here. We'll have to wait and see if that's the case -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes, we'll wait and see with you. Rob, thanks.

Wall Street now looking for a rebound. CNN chief medical correspondent -business correspondent. Why do I all do that, Ali Velshi?

You're in New York today, let's talk about this morning -

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I think I understand medicine more than I understand what happened to the stock market yesterday. Let me tell you that.

PHILLIPS: We need to treat the stock market.

VELSHI: Yes. Very strange situation. It was - to continue this discussion, it was a very sick patient yesterday to start with. Before anything crazy happened at 2:40 in the afternoon, the Dow was already having its worst day in a year fed by these problems in southern Europe, particularly Greece, a country that has gone from being heavily indebted to being regarded as bankrupt and this is making people worry for two reasons.

One is we're all interconnected as the last couple of years has taught us and number two, by the way, should we in the United States be worried? Because we have a lot of debt as well. So that's the backdrop for what happened yesterday and then suddenly something took the market down dramatically and it went from being down in the threes, down in the fours and down in the fives and all of a sudden jumped to 800 points lower. There were certain stocks that were taken to virtually nothing.

Something technical happened which took this market down. At one point the Dow was down 999 points, making that the worst intraday loss for the Dow in history except that it rebounded after that and as they're looking into all of this, Kyra, they're going to adjust some of these trades. So in some of these stocks, more than 200 stocks, any trade that went beyond 60 percent of the price of that stock was trading at 250, it is likely to be cancelled.

That is all happening today. All sorts of blame games going on. One exchange blaming another. Some people talking about rumors, about whether somebody punched in an incorrect order. It probably didn't happen. Kyra, this is probably because of the fact that we do this high frequency trades with computers these days and humans sort of candid or being (inaudible) to say something is wrong, Accenture shouldn't be trading four cents. I need to change that.

And that's what we're looking today.

PHILLIPS: OK. We'll follow it. Ali, thanks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Cocaine used at the crime lab, cops with criminal records that nobody was talking about. It's all going down on the streets of San Francisco where misconduct has led to accused criminals being set free. We're talking about hundred of criminal cases and possibly up to 80 police officers mired in the alleged corruption.

Jeff Adachi is public defender in San Francisco. Jeff, I know you're outraged with this, tell me what your biggest beef is right now with the D.A.

JEFF ADACHI, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC DEFENDER: Hi, Kyra.

Well, we learned several months ago that there was a technician in the crime lab who had been taking cocaine from that lab. We later found out the same technician had a prior conviction. And under the law, prior convictions must be revealed to the defense, you can't hide evidence in a criminal case.

And that led to the explosive revelation this week that there are at least 80 police officers who had criminal records, convictions or evidence of misconduct that was not handed over to the defense, and that's a big no-no.

PHILLIPS: And the D.A. has responded, obviously, to all these allegations. I want to begin first with the allegations against the crime lab, here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY: At the point that we became aware of the case involving the lab technician, it became clear that we cannot operate on certain assumptions. In particular, the assumption that employees of the police department have not been convicted of a crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: What do you say to her response and how strong do you believe in this evidence and what other types of cases are we talking about that could be jeopardized here?

ADACHI: Well, in every criminal case, one of the issues is the credibility of witnesses. When you're talking about police officers who are testifying, it often can make a difference between a conviction and not guilty filing. So when you have the situation where the district attorney and police are withholding evidence that their star witnesses have been convicted of a crime, it creates outcomes which are unfair. And so what happens in these situations is that there would have to be a new trial if it turns out that the conviction of the officer was held and could have made a difference in this -- in a particular trial. So we're talking about hundreds, possibly thousands of cases that could be compromised because of the police and district attorney's failure to provide this evidence.

PHILLIPS: And let's talk about the evidence that you're talking about against possibly up to 80 San Francisco police officers. Here's what the D.A. had to say about those allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

K. HARRIS: I think it's irresponsible to incite fear, especially when there is no credible information about the number of officers that are involved or the number of cases that are involved at this point.

Furthermore, there have been meetings and will continue to be meetings to do everything that is necessary to get to the bottom of this information and ensure that these cases receive, on an individual basis, a review.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Tell you what, up to 80 officers. That's -- that's a very high number.

ADACHI: Well, the district attorney, from the very beginning, has tried to minimize this. When the drug scandal broke two months ago, she said that there were only a handful of cases that would be effective. We know that that's not true now. We've had over 800 cases dismissed in San Francisco.

Now with this information about these officers, it's true that we don't know who the officers are yet, but we know that there are 80 of them. And so, it's going to be the obligation of the public defender to go through these cases.

Nobody, at the end of the day, wants an innocent person to go to prison. Nobody wants a trial that's not played by the rules, and that's what happened here in San Francisco and it's outrageous.

PHILLIPS: Where was the oversight? Where was the oversight, Jeff?

ADACHI: That's a good question. Everybody watches "CSI," it takes about a minute to do a record check on a witness.

Let me tell you, every time I try a case, I get a list of convictions of witnesses that I'm calling at trial. Why didn't they do this for the police? What they're doing here is they're applying a different standard to the police than they are another witness.

And this is also not good for public safety because it allows officers who have convictions to testify with a false aura of credibility in these cases, and is that the kind of officer that you would want on the street?

PHILLIPS: Jeff Adachi, San Francisco public defender, we'll definitely follow these cases. It will probably take quite some time to mull through all of this.

ADACHI: Yes, it will.

PHILLIPS: Jeff, appreciate your time today.

And just to let you know, we did ask the D.A. to join us for this interview, she declined but we're going to try and get more on Monday for the city's side of this story.

The hero of my hero is my hero. We're talking about two American heroes and their heroes, their moms. Every day is Mother's Day for these guys. You've got to hear the incredible stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, checking top stories right now.

Let's take a look at the Big Board. It looks like, yep, the Dow almost down 200 points. Investors praying for a rebound today. As you know, the Dow plummeted nearly 1,000 points yesterday, recovering to close down 348. Fears of more economic troubles in Greece also getting most of the blame for this freefall.

Little more normalcy in Nashville, schools reopened today following the massive flooding. Part of downtown also back in business, but recovery will come at a cost. More than $1 billion says the mayor.

And the mission to cap the underwater oil gusher underway in the Gulf of Mexico. BP says a containment dome is being lowered to the side of the sunken oil rig. It'll take some time, the cap is expected to begin early next week, success not guaranteed.

Wounded warriors, they've made great sacrifices for our country, their mothers making great sacrifices for them. We'll going to talk to two American heroes and their heroes, their moms. Rosy Babin and their son, Alan, are with us from Austin, Texas, their stories in just a few minutes. First, though, Christine Schei and their son, Erik, in Albuquerque. The fact that they're both here is pretty darn remarkable.

Erik was serving in Iraq in 2005 when a sniper's bullet hit him in the head. It was devastating, a devastating wound. Doctors believed that he would be a vegetable, even told his parents that they should put him in a nursing home. Erik's parents even debated if he was better off dead. Should they pull the plug, is the question they asked. Horrific questions for a parent to ask.

Well, Christine was not ready to give up. She went over the doctor's heads and asked God for a sign. Well, she got it. She and Erik are together for another Mother's Day. Christine, tell us about that moment of uncertainty for you. I remember you were in the hospital room, the doctors were telling you to pull the plug, you looked at a cross, a tattoo of a cross on Erik's chest -- take it from there.

CHRISTINE SCHEI, SON WOUNDED IN IRAQ: Erik has a tattoo on his chest, which is Psalm 23. He chose it when he was in church and was confirmed and when I asked him why he chose that very difficult psalm, he said I will need it one day and it gave me goose-bumps at that time. And needless to say, it came true. And I went for a prayer in the chapel find out what I was supposed to do and -- and the bible was open on Psalm 23. And that was my sign --

PHILLIPS: The Psalm of David.

C. SCHEI -- that God was with us. He was with us and that everything was going to be OK, and that we would just have to keep on fighting and working with Erik.

PHILLIPS: It's pretty amazing when you reach out like that to the heavens, where it leads you and what happens.

And, Erik, I have to acknowledge, as soon as I mentioned that cross on your chest, I saw that smile and I felt you saying, yes, with so much passion. You know, I know it's hard for you to express yourself, but with everything you can, you know, what can you -- can you express to me how you feel about your mom and what she did to fight to keep you alive?

And I know, Christine, you can kind of help express what he's saying. You're fabulous at that.

C. SCHEI: Yes. Yes, go look at the camera and tell them.

ERIK SCHEI, WOUNDED IN IRAQ: I love her.

C. SCHEI: He says I love her.

PHILLIPS: Oh, Erik.

C. SCHEI: Lots, lots.

PHILLIPS: Gosh. It's, like -- kind of -- really pulls at your heart strings. I'm looking at pictures now, we're all looking at pictures now of Erik when he was in Iraq. And it was a sniper's bullet that caused this injury, rather, and talking about his energy and what he exudes now.

Christine, tell me why you didn't give up, why you fought so hard and why you knew that Erik was still with you?

C. SCHEI: His eyes, and you can see it still today. His eyes have always been very expressive, and so whenever I talk to him, even so four and a half years ago he could not talk at all. He couldn't move a muscle. He was just pretty much laying in bed staring at me, but his eyes kept on looking at me and I could understand it. He says, mom, I'm in there.

And why I wouldn't give up why we wouldn't give up is he's my son. How can you give up on a 21-year-old? You just have to keep on believing and trying and --

PHILLIPS: And you're working with him. You're doing flash card -- I mean, every day you have dedicated your entire life, no work, nothing outside the home to take care of him and work with him on his therapy, right?

C. SCHEI: Yes. I assist the therapist whenever I can and whenever I have time and I do extra exercises. And I think it's necessary that we involve him in everything. We take him shopping, we go to dinners with him, we go to the mall with him. Everything that we used to do, just a little more difficult and a little harder, but we keep on living as a family and we include him in everything. Sometimes I even have to take him to the beauty salon with me because I don't have anyone to watch him.

PHILLIPS: That's OK with you, Erik, right?

E. SCHEI: Yes.

C. SCHEI: He flirts with all of the hair dressers.

PHILLIPS: And I bet they love him. I can tell he's a charmer and that smile is incredibly heartwarming.

C. SCHEI: Yes, he sure is.

PHILLIPS: How can you give up on a smile like that? Hey, I'm with you, 100 percent.

Listen, stay with us. We're going to check on the markets here, but we want you to stay here and we're going to take a break and talk to another very special mom and her son as well as we approach this Mother's Day coming up on Sunday.

But we're going to step away just for a second, check in with Stephanie Elam there at the New York Stock Exchange.

Steph, in the middle of all this, too, we are watching that Dow plunge. I actually can't see the board and can't see the numbers, but you're watching it for us. But you're watching it for us.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I can see them for you.

PHILLIPS: There we go. Down 151 right now.

ELAM: Yes. Yes, Kyra, this is one of those things where we were looking for a higher opening today. We've got great new numbers about the jobs report and more jobs were added last month then we expected were added, although the unemployment rate did tick up to 9.9 percent from 9.7 percent and it was expected to hold steady. So what we're seeing here is despite that we're getting rather good news, our economy again showing stronger numbers, that a lot of investors are still trying to shake off what happened yesterday and get their footing back in this market and figure out. We were off more than 200 points at one point, we were getting close to 300 points and then it scaled back a bit.

But I think this has a lot to do with the investors being freaked out and still not sure what will happen when the European Union comes together and votes about how they're going to take care of Greece. We should be seeing a vote out of Germany later on today, that adding into some of the uncertainty here. And I know I keep saying it but, Kyra, it's really true. The markets do not like uncertainty and because we have a lot of it today, we're seeing a further slide on here.

So we'll keep your eyes on it. Hopefully -- hopefully -- no one's expecting it, no one's expecting to see what happened yesterday happen again today, Kyra. But we have our eyes on it.

PHILLIPS: Good, we're watching it with you. Thanks, Steph.

More from the CNN NEWSROOM, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: How about another salute to mom? We just talked with Christine Schei and her son, Erik. Christine pretty much sacrificing everything to care for her wounded son, Erik, who was hit with a sniper's bullet in Iraq five years ago. Now we'd like to bring in Rosy and Alan Babin, in Austin, Texas.

Alan has been through hell as well since he was shot in the stomach back in Iraq in 2003. Seven surgeries in seven months. Most of his stomach, all of his spleen and part of his pancreas gone. Thank goodness for mom.

Good to see you guys. Rosy, Happy Mother's Day.

ROSALINDA BABIN, SON WOUNDED IN IRAQ: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Seven surgeries -- 70 surgeries, rather. It's 70 surgeries right?

R. BABIN: It's 70, not seven.

PHILLIPS: A typo there, you're right, 70 surgeries in 7 months.

Alan, I mean, is there any -- tell me how -- and I know your speech it's a little slow, so it's OK. But tell me how that affected you. Was it painful? You know, was it mom there getting you through that, because I know you're a tough guy.

ALAN BABIN, WOUNDED IN IRAQ: I don't really remember the pain. I just -- I really don't remember anything.

PHILLIPS: But you remember mom right there by your side, don't you?

A. BABIN: Yes. Yes.

PHILLIPS: What is so incredible about your mom, Alan?

A. BABIN: Everything.

PHILLIPS: Oh. And, Rosy, I'll bet you would say the same thing about your son.

You know, tell me about when you got the word about what happened and how you had to just fight for his rehabilitation, and how you decided that's it, I'm giving up my job. I am not accepting a nursing home, that's not an option. Exactly what Christine did for Erik.

R. BABIN: Absolutely. Both my husband and I just felt that Alan surviving the devastating battlefield wounds that he did and god preserving his life meant that god had a different purpose for him. And we felt led to remain by Alan's side and to encourage him.

And like Christine said, when the doctors said that he need to go to a nursing home, that just was not an option for us. My fear was that if he did that, that Alan wouldn't survive and would never make it to rehabilitation.

So we found a civilian facility on our own and he was an in- patient for 14 months before he went home. And then we continued therapy with him ourselves until we were able to get home health in place. So we pretty much run a healing facility at home Monday through Friday and keep the weekends open for fun.

PHILLIPS: I know love fills that home for sure. I mean, just looking at -- boy, I tell you, Alan's smile, Erik's smile, you get pretty distracted by the love here. It's obvious what you have poured into their hearts and souls.

You know, Alan is a purple heart winner. When you look at him, Rosy, I know he looks at you and he knows he couldn't have gone through this without you. When you look at him, how does he continue to inspire you?

R. BABIN: Oh, daily. Alan's determination and perseverance, his can-do attitude to this day and we're seven years into this journey. Alan has never refused to work on therapy or try anything new.

And thanks to the efforts of fantastic non-profits like the Wounded Warrior project. They get these guys active and get them out in the community right away, you know. So we focus on his abilities and not the disabilities, and know that our life is a little different and that we have a new normal. But that's OK, I still get to hug him every Mother's Day.

PHILLIPS: And he gets to hug you.

R. BABIN: Absolutely. PHILLIPS: Alan, finally, why did you not give up? Why did you believe in mom, you know, right there by your side saying stay with me, son?

A. BABIN: Because I had to. I mean, look at her, you can't give up on this.

PHILLIPS: That is so true. And, Rosy, you say the same thing about him.

Hey, one more moment, if you don't mind, I want to keep Rosy and Alan up. I would like to bring Christine and Erik back. Can we do that? There we go.

And I just want all our viewers to know that, Alan and Erik, not only do we appreciate you two just for fighting for our country, but also believing in your moms, hanging in there. You both are the most handsome, you exude love.

And then, Moms, hats off to you. You're warriors as well and we wish you a happy Mother's Day. And thank you so much, all four of you for being with us today.

R. BABIN: Thank you.

C. SCHEI: Thank you.

A. BABIN: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: You bet.

Well, if you want to help wounded warriors like Alan and Erik, all you have to do is visit the woundedwarriorproject.org on the web. It's an amazing site that's dedicated to honoring wounded veterans and giving them an online community and giving you a chance to hear their stories and to help them out.

We're going to get back to Wall Street and the Dow, it's diving down again today. We'll be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Let's check in with wall street. Stephanie Elam monitoring the Dow. Down 168, Steph?

ELAM: Right now we are just about that, at that point, Kyra. I'm taking a look at it. The Nasdaq is off 2.25 at 2268, so we were looking at what's going on.

And it seems to be the issue affecting the tech stock right now is that Nokia, it's the company that a lot of people have their phones made by that, so they know the company, but they're suing Apple because they're saying they're infringing on five of their patents for the iPhone and 3G products. That has Apple's stock down right now by 4 percent. So that's dragging down tech stocks today and adding into the lackluster movement that we've had. Obviously, a lot of people still affected by what happened yesterday -- that crazy, wacky ride we saw on wall street. Right now the Dow up 151 points and 10,367 and we're keeping our eyes on it and everyone's keeping their eyes to Europe to see how they're figuring out what they're going to do to help out Greece.

But this seems more controlled than yesterday, but we did tick up 200 points to the down side. So we'll keep our eyes on it to make sure we know what's going on to these number.

PHILLIPS: All right, hold on to your wallet. Steph, thanks.

More from the CNN NEWSROOM straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Coming up in the next hour of NEWSROOM with Tony Harris, the chief executive of BP and how much is BP willing to spend to help clean it up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: As I wish you all a happy weekend, I wish you could see Tony Harris over at other side of Studio 7 busting a move for me over there.

Give me some, Tony.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You know, I was thinking about the Ludacris song, "How Low Can You Go"? Twenty years ago I could get -- now, I'm only here. That's how low I can go.

PHILLIP: Well, you can go low all right. But -- keep it high for the next two hours.

HARRIS: Kyra, you have a great weekend. Take care.