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Staten Island Ferry Crashes into Dock, Injuring Dozens; BP Makes First Attempt to Cap Major Oil Leak; Financial Planners Give Advice

Aired May 08, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Investing the money you save. The Dolans are here to tell us how.

Our Josh Levs says she's got skill, a four-year-old who dunks. The video is going viral. Watch out WNBA.

And then at 4:00, movie-goers get pumped up for "Iron Man II." Ben Mankiewicz tells us if it's worth your box office buck.

You're in the CNN Newsroom where the news unfolds live this Saturday May 8th. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

WHITFIELD: To our top story. In New York, hundreds of terrified passengers saw it coming. Their ferry was approaching a Staten Island terminal but it wasn't slowing down. There was nothing they or the captain could do. The boat slammed into a pier injuring dozens of people.

CNN National Correspondent Susan Candiotti is live at the scene of the crash. Susan, what exactly happened?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredericka, the reason the captain was powerless to prevent it from happening is because, according to authorities, there was a mechanical issue. He was not able to pull back on the throttle of that ferry as it was coming in to dock and therefore he couldn't slow it down.

That means he hit that dock at about five miles per hour, about five knots or so, roughly that speed. And consequently, he was only able to give a very short warning in advance when he realized, officials say, that he couldn't slow down. He was able to sound a warning about a minute before they made impact.

Joining us now, a couple of tourists from Tennessee who were onboard the ferry when it happened. We have Alicia and Jason Eason from Knoxville. Tell me what it was like about a minute before the crash. What did you hear?

ALICIA EASON, FERRY PASSENGER: We didn't hear anything a minute before, to be quite honest. It wasn't until about 20 seconds before that we faintly heard something over the intercom. If it wasn't for the ferry worker that came and yelled brace yourself a second before the impact, we wouldn't have known anything was going to happen.

CANDIOTTI: Jason, how would you describe what that impact felt like? Can you pair it to anything?

JASON EASON, FERRY PASSENGER: It was a quick jolt. It was like you were in a car accident. It was just a quick jolt. For us we were sitting down, so it was a quick jolt to the side.

CANDIOTTI: Did you see any people who lost their balance or fell down?

JASON EASON: We didn't. The people around us were sitting, as well.

CANDIOTTI: How frightening was it? You have to think it was unnerving if you're involved in something, but was there time to panic or be scared?

ALICIA EASON: Initially it was pretty calm because there wasn't many people where we were sitting. It wasn't until we got to the main floor and we saw the people injured that we realized something serious happened. People were hurt and there was major damage done.

CANDIOTTI: Coincidentally, Jason, this happened -- there was another accident involving this very same ferry in 2003, far different results, 11 people were killed. Does that give you pause?

JASON EASON: Totally. We were actually on the front of the boat taking pictures of the statue of liberty on the way over. It started to rain and was cold so we decided to go back inside. Had it not been for that, we could have been on the front of the ferry when it did slam into the dock. We are fortunate and blessed. We thank god.

CANDIOTTI: Let's give a rundown. First of all, how do you plan to take the rest of the day?

First of all, as we are talking to you we are seeing a raft, a live picture we are taking a look at that is going nearby the ferry. We know it has been moved to another slip and we know there is an investigation going on that will be conducted to get down to the bottom of it, because what we told you about the throttle, mechanical problems, are saying that information is preliminary.

We know that 55 people were hurt, 18 of them seriously, or rather, excuse me, only one seriously hurt, thank goodness, and 18 people taken to the hospital.

Of course, this investigation must be conducted thoroughly. In fact you can see there were actually two breaches to the hull, about 17 feet above the waterline. Possibly you can get a look at one of them. If you look between the orange and black, you might see one of those two breaches.

We're told they measured four by four and four by six. And so that is something they can take a look at because those breaches were above the water line.

Let me ask you, did you see any water coming into the boat or not? ALICIA EASON: No. We did see water gushing out in front of the dock. I don't know if it broke the water line.

CANDIOTTI: How were you able to get off? Any problems there?

JASON EASON: Actually, the main entrance was underneath, I guess, the dock. So we actually had to use a ramp they had supplied for us and crouch down to get underneath it so we could get out.

CANDIOTTI: You were able to do that without too much of a problem?

ALICIA EASON: Yes. The fire department and police department were amazing. They were there helping us every step of the way. It was a privilege to experience how well they responded to these situations.

CANDIOTTI: Certainly, we were able to talk to, among other people here, New York's police commissioner Ray Kelly who stopped by. And I said given what happened in Times Square it's been quite a week here. He said that's what it's like sometimes to live in New York.

You can see tugboats surrounding that vessel now. We can tell you it's about a five-mile distance between lower Manhattan and Staten Island. It is a free ferry that carries about 65,000 passengers daily seven days a week.

This is certainly one ride these tourists will remember, I think it's fair to say, the rest of their lives. It's given them quite a bit to talk about.

WHITFIELD: I believe that. Thanks so much, Susan Candiotti. Glad a lot of people were not seriously injured.

Let's turn to an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico where crews have been trying to place a four-story contain moment dome over the gushing oil well almost a mile before the surface. Brook Baldwin joins us now live from Biloxi, Mississippi. Brooke, how is it going?

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Fred. Hello from a very windy Mississippi.

We should know definitively in about an hour whether or not BP has successfully concealed this massive containment dome over the top of this well head. CNN has been making calls to get an update, and the last we hears is this dome made it 5,000 feet deep under the surface of the water. We do not know if it is officially sealed.

The next step will be placing all the piping on top of this containment dome. It is four stories tall and will siphon that oil out of that leak. They are hoping that process can begin sometime hopefully tomorrow.

Meantime, there are other efforts, of course, out at sea in terms of containing and mitigating future damage. In fact, we have amazing pictures of the burning efforts. It's when some of the coast guard officials have been corralling some of the oil, and they are simply lighting it on fire.

We've also seen hundreds of thousands of feet of booms surrounding some of these barrier islands to keep this oil away from these precious eco-habitats. Those are some of the methods that BP and the coast guard are employing to keep this stuff away.

WHITFIELD: I wonder as you look at the pictures of the burn, you see the dark plumes of smoke there, you have to wonder about the toxins in the environment as a result of that. And how much of the oil is actually burned by this method? Is there any way of knowing that?

BALDWIN: I think there are numbers. I think it's something, thousands of gallons are burning. But keep in mind just because BP capped one of the leaks on Wednesday, that doesn't change the volume of the leakage. It's still leaking at 210,000 gallons of oil each and every day.

WHITFIELD: That is huge, quite significant. Thanks so much. We are going to check back with new an hour, if not before, to find out defensively just how that capping process or that containment process is going. Brooke Baldwin, thank you so much from Biloxi, Mississippi.

Deadlier and more expensive than previously thought, those are the latest headlines out of the flood-ravaged area of Tennessee. Authorities confirm they have found another victim from last week's storms, raising the state's death toll now to 21.

This morning Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano got a firsthand tour of Nashville, in particular, where the damage estimates now hover at $1.5 billion and counting. We'll have much more on the post flood cleanup of that music city and what they are facing now. Martin Savidge will join us live from Nashville later this hour with an update.

And perhaps you're looking to save for your future. Who isn't? We've got some tricks that you'll love to hear from our Dolans, the financial planners. They are going to be right here in Atlanta, in the house, answering your questions about your financial planning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: As Congress turns up the heat on investment banks and their role in this financial crisis, why not take a harder look at who handles your money and the thing you should know before you actually invest? Ken and Daria Dolan right here to our brand new studio.

KEN DOLAN, FINANCIAL PLANNING EXPERT: It's beautiful.

WHITFIELD: You normally see them in West Palm Beach. They made the trip.

KEN DOLAN: You forced us to make the trip.

WHITFIELD: We twisted your arm. Glad you're here. KEN DOLAN: Fred, I want to say one thing before we start. It's very important. We are going to be talking about broker tricks and things to be careful of to avoid trouble, because trouble is getting harder to fix. There are many good brokers and many good financial planners. We are talking the minority here that can cause you a lot of trouble.

WHITFIELD: Having that been said, does this mean everyone should turn to some financial planner, advisor, a broker? You want to have some professional help?

DARIA DOLAN, FINANCIAL PLANNING EXPERT: Only if you know what you're doing yourself. If you don't know what you're doing, I don't care if you've got the best person on the planet, sooner or later they are going to do something you don't understand that doesn't quite work out the way they thought it was going to and you thought, and then you're going to be, I'm never trusting anybody again all over again.

People get burned. But a lot of times they walk themselves into getting burned because they're not aware of the tricks and they don't know what they are doing.

WHITFIELD: So what are the tricks? How do you find the right person and make the right match?

KEN DOLAN: Good point.

DARIA DOLAN: For example --

KEN DOLAN: Easy. There are nice people out here. I don't want you to paint everybody the same way.

DARIA DOLAN: You know how you go to a car dealer and you want to go at the end of the month because that's when they want to get the inventory off?

You don't want to go to the broker at the end of the month for your first trip because oftentimes my payout is going to be down this month if I don't start selling something or my manager said get your numbers up, and they start pushing stuff, end of the month techniques.

KEN DOLAN: Watch out, Fred, for things that you don't understand. We'll talk about it in the next segment in terms of investing on your own. If something can't be explained in two or three minutes so you understand it, forget about it.

WHITFIELD: That's what I was going to ask you -- how do you determine the right connection you're making here?

KEN DOLAN: Good question. The first thing you need to do when looking for a broker or financial planner, go to the branch manager. Say, hi, we are the Dolans. Here is the kind of person we are looking for, conservative or not, conservative or aggressive. I want you to give me the name of two or three brokers and financial planners, and then I can interview them, asking these kinds of questions. DARIA DOLAN: If you go to that brokerage firm or call them up, odds are and you've never had business there before, you're going to get the person of the day.

KEN DOLAN: The broker of the day.

DARIA DOLAN: Many times that is just out of training, not very long in the business type of person. And as much as, hey, I was there and I needed all the business I could get, I don't really recommend in this kind of environment you get a real wet-behind-the-ears person to work with. You need somebody with a track record.

WHITFIELD: One of the questions you need to ask is you need to be a little investigative on this?

KEN DOLAN: Even if somebody has been referred to you. Here are the questions to ask.

DARIA DOLAN: Number one, how long have you been in the business?

KEN DOLAN: Five years.

DARIA DOLAN: You want three to five years minimum in that.

What kind of client do you specialize in? If they like to do somebody who likes to buy individual stocks and that's how they gear their client base and you want to do mutual funds and bonds, you'll be better served by somebody else.

And then start talking investment philosophy with them. If you can't understand them, I don't care how good they are, it will never work.

WHITFIELD: Nine out of ten times you won't understand them.

DARIA DOLAN: Some people are really good. Look at us. People understand us.

KEN DOLAN: Stop, I don't get it. If I say I don't understand, you're so stupid. OK, I'm stupid, but I've got the money, and you're looking to do business with me, so I'm not that stupid.

Number three or number, or whatever it may be, I would like to see an account statement so I can understand it that I don't have to be Stephen Hawking to go through the statement and actually understand it.

DARIA DOLAN: Some of these brokerage statements, they finally changed our particular company's brokerage statement. I'm from the business. I hated that bloody thing. I couldn't understand a thing on it.

WHITFIELD: Really? If you couldn't understand it --

KEN DOLAN: And last, but not least, FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on their website, finra.org, broker check. Go there, put in the person's name, see if there are any actions pending against them.

DARIA DOLAN: Wait, wait, wait -- or more importantly, contact your state securities office, because the state level, often the state security supervisors --

WHITFIELD: Are you really going to get answers?

DARIA DOLAN: You will get answers. Personally I think rather than going to FINRA because they expunge records.

KEN DOLAN: Can I gave the number for FINRA? 1-800-289-9999. If somebody says what pizza do you want, I've given you the wrong number.

WHITFIELD: What if a friend or associate gives you the name of a broker?

KEN DOLAN: You know what you can do. There are various financial planning associations where you type in the zip code. They will give you names to just get started. This is your list from which you go. You can put in financial planning websites, put in search and you'll get a bunch.

DARIA DOLAN: One other thing I did want to mention about tricks, not really a trick, but particularly now where people are looking for safe, higher returns than what banks are paying, there's a lot of bonus annuities out there.

I'm not saying an annuity, a fixed annuity may be good or bad for you. That you need to determine yourself. But to buy one because you're being bonused an extra percentage, don't think you found the holy grail, because odds are what's going to happen is that bonus is for the first year only. And then when that bonus goes away, oftentimes, not always, those annuities that had the bonus pay less than other annuities.

KEN DOLAN: Do I have five seconds?

WHITFIELD: Yes, five seconds.

KEN DOLAN: Be careful when a broker or financial planner is changing firms. Is it bad necessarily? No. But often there is big dough from a person to go from A to B. Ask them why. How am I going to be better off?

WHITFIELD: But wait, there's more. You'll be back with this answering a lot of questions. Perhaps you're looking to invest your own money. You can do it. It seems intimidating. The Dolans have six rules to successful investing straight ahead. Plus, answers to your questions. So keep sending them because we love to get as many as possible.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Checking our top stories right now.

Dramatic moments or deja vu for a Staten Island ferry today. The same boat which crashed into the dock back in 2003, killing 11 people, crashed again today into a pier at the very same terminal. Dozens of people were injured. There were some 270 passengers and crew onboard. Initial reports indicate the ferryboat had mechanical problems.

And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is among a handful of U.S. lawmakers visiting U.S. troops in Afghanistan this weekend. She met with U.S. troops and Afghan President Hamid Karzai today.

And the U.S. delegation also received a briefing from the top U.S. military commander in the country on the political and security situations there. Pelosi plans to spend Mother's Day with the troops.

WHITFIELD: And today's not a good day to flight out of northern Spain. More than a dozen airports, including the second largest in Barcelona, all closed early today by that massive ash cloud belched from Iceland's volcano again.

Flying restrictions in some places are expected to be lifted this hour. However, hundreds of trans-Atlantic flights and flights across Europe are being rerouted to try and dodge that cloud.

All right, we are back with personal finance experts Ken and Daria Dolan.

KEN DOLAN: Look who is here. Josh, it's Josh.

WHITFIELD: It's a big old love-fest here.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: I like it. We are going to talk about a lot of the questions you've been sending as Josh goes through all of them. He is going to pose them to Ken and Daria here. And we talked about six important rules to successful investing. You want to reveal those right now. What are they?

KEN DOLAN: I am going to give a six and a half, but before we start the first one, listen to me, everybody -- do you mind, please?

DARIA DOLAN: I give up.

(LAUGHTER)

KEN DOLAN: This is the six and a half one. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do these six and do it yourself, period. Thank you. One to six.

WHITFIELD: I like it.

DARIA DOLAN: And now we got the half. Number one, learn something about something other than a certificate of deposit, a checking account, whatever, because the fact of the matter is, if you're going to invest, you need to understand a little something about it.

KEN DOLAN: How are you going to make choices? DARIA DOLAN: And there are so many places on the Internet you can go right now to learn all these things, including our Web site, doleians.com.

KEN DOLAN: Thank you, Miss plugger.

WHITFIELD: Don't put everything in one place.

DARIA DOLAN: And you need to learn about something. How do you know something is good for you if you don't know what it really is?

KEN DOLAN: We have five more of these things.

DARIA DOLAN: Go.

KEN DOLAN: Make sure you have clear-cut investment goals. What are your goals, short, medium, and long-term goals? Number three, make sure the investments you discussed match your risk tolerance.

DARIA DOLAN: Also diversify. You can't put it all in one place. You want growth, you can put it in the stock market, but if you put it all in the stock market and we have another week like we had this past week where we are now below -- we lost all the gains of this year over the past week.

WHITFIELD: $1 trillion?

KEN DOLAN: Yes.

DARIA DOLAN: Consequently, if you're not diversified, you lost it all. Make sure you do a little of this, a little of that, some bonds, some stocks, some whatever. Safe money guaranteed, et cetera.

KEN DOLAN: You are points are long today.

WHITFIELD: We have five now.

DARIA DOLAN: I'm fending for myself here.

KEN DOLAN: And really the last, keep it simple. If you don't understand it, don't do it. And the last of all, understand the power of compounding. It doesn't take a lot to get started. And on a regular basis, you really can do it.

Look at Josh. He never owned a suit before last year. Look at this. A little savings, look what happens.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: Father and son can do that. Now we'll get a lot of questions coming our way.

Josh has been fielding a lot of questions for people. It runs the gambit.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, this whole idea of compounding is what everyone wants. This one is from Sonya. She wants to know, "What type of life insurance should we purchase? My husband is 37, I'm 42." Also she wants to know "What is the safest way to save for college? Our daughter is five." This is a two-for here.

DARIA DOLAN: The best life insurance she and her husband should do at 37 and 42 is what most people should always do for life insurance because you're buying for protection to pay the mortgage, get the child through school.

KEN DOLAN: Not investments.

DARIA DOLAN: To maintain the other spouse if a job is lost through death or whatever. Term life insurance, it's the cheapest because insurance -- read my lips, everybody -- is not an investment. Insurance is protection. It never works as an investment. And people get disappointed. The only ones it works for are the people selling it as investment policies.

KEN DOLAN: Part b, coincidentally to us coming here from Florida, this month's issue of "Kiplinger" magazine has all the best 529 plans listed by states. A 529 plan, there are very good ones. The best are listed by state in this month's "Kiplinger" magazine.

DARIA DOLAN: And you can cross states.

KEN DOLAN: Yes, you can.

(CROSSTALK)

DARIA DOLAN: But because of the nature of what's going on worldwide and the risk in the markets and volatility, even though you've got tons of years, I'm afraid human nature, if they see losses after putting money in mutual funds, they'll pull it out. So do something safe for now.

WHITFIELD: You don't want to put all your savings for college in a 529?

DARIA DOLAN: They are mutual funds.

KEN DOLAN: It's a base.

LEVS: This one is really interesting. "Ask the Dolans when Fed will raise the prime rate so banks will pay savers a decent return on deposits and begin to profit from loan-interest rather than playing and trading." That is how so many feel about the way banks are operating right now. What's going to make that happen?

DARIA DOLAN: Don't forget -- one thing that people forget is when the Fed keeps the rates low like this, we do tend to get really happy stock markets. Of course it's been a little too happy and we inflated another you bubble or are on our way of doing it. But the Fed is going to keep the interest rates low as long as the Fed feels we don't have hyperinflation.

And right now I think still we run the problem of too much money out there and too few goods being chased after and the possibility of deflation not inflation (sic).

KEN DOLAN, FINANCIAL PLANNER: It's going to be a while.

DARIA DOLAN: If you're waiting for higher interest rates, don't hold your breath.

LEVS: One more question. Given the current state of the stock market, is it safer to divert money to your mortgage for an early pay- off or should you be looking for opportunities due to the excessive self--off? What should do you there?

KEN DOLAN: I'm not crazy fan about paying the mortgage off early, especially taking money that maybe should be an emergency fund. Because if I pay off my mortgage early, and I need money, where am I going to do it? Borrow out of my own house.

We say stay liquid, get three to six months emergency. And to answer part b on the mortgage side, my answer to part b is I'm not looking for anything. I'm staying in cash at the moment.

DARIA DOLAN: If you are a bungee jumper mentality and you think there is nothing greater than going to the top of the mountain and jumping on an elastic cord, knock yourself out.

WHITFIELD: Stay safe.

KEN DOLAN: Cash is king. Cash is king.

LEVS: Here is where you can send more questions for next hour. Next hour we'll talk jobs.

KEN DOLAN: We're back again?

LEVS: We've got to have the double, right?

WHITFIELD: If you've been laid off and are worried about keeping your job, worried about what to do now that you lost your job, the Dolans, the dynamic financial duo, will be back at the 3:00 eastern hour.

And of course we want to hear from you. Continue to send those questions to Josh Levs.

KEN DOLAN: Josh Levs, everybody, thank you so much. See you again.

WHITFIELD: Still plenty of work to do in Tennessee today. The flood waters are down and everything, frankly, is a mess. Stand by for a live update on this big cleanup.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back to the newsroom. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Officials in New York say a mechanical function is to blame for today's ferry crash in Staten Island. The boat slammed into a pier at its terminal this morning. One person was seriously hurt, dozens of others suffered minor injuries. Passengers say ferry workers warned them the crash was going to happen moments before impact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it wasn't for the ferry worker that came and yelled to brace yourself, it happened so quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was going through your mind? You weren't slowing down as you approached the dock?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's my very first ferry ride. I'm a tourist here in New York City. And I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know we were that close to the dock. When he said "brace yourself," I looked out the window and saw we were right at the dock. And the alarm over the intercom happened just seconds before impact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The ferry is the same boat that was involved in an accident that killed 11 people back in 2003.

So another developing story we are closely watching is the flood recovery effort underway in west and central Tennessee. As the water there recedes, another body has been found, raising the storm-related death toll to 21.

All of this as Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano toured flood-ravage Music City today. Martin Savidge is there. Martin?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, this is one of the neighborhoods, Bellevue is what it's called. This is where the secretary came to look at the devastation.

It really doesn't matter in what direction you look, whether it's down this way or as we start to move along here and come around you'll see there is right across the street more devastation.

And then even as you turn down in this direction, for just about as far as you can see there is devastation to this, hundreds of homes in this tight-knit community.

The good news is there are a ton of volunteers. It's Saturday. They have all come out of the woodwork and are organized by churches. In some cases they came by the hundreds. In other cases they came by themselves. It's so much a bee hive of activity.

And the interesting thing is the way people are communicating in this disaster. It's a very much a technology-driven response in that they are using text messages, they're tweeting, they are saying we need a pressure washer in unit 917 and suddenly the pressure washer shows up. That's the way it's being organized.

But it's also being helped out with the help of the Red Cross. Joining us right now is Colin Downey with the American Red Cross. How are things? What is the Red Cross providing now?

COLIN DOWNEY, AMERICAN RED CROSS: High Martin. Right now the needs are very basic. There are families that cannot stay in their home. We are providing safe shelters right now. There are over a dozen open in the Tennessee area alone and about 50 across the south.

Then there are the families you're looking at here that stayed in their homes. We are providing them with those immediate needs, hot food, lunch, dinner, water.

SAVIDGE: We know you have to raise money. And I'm wondering, there have been so many back-to-back tragedies whether international or domestic. What have the donations been like for this particular disaster?

DOWNEY: Right now across the south we've raised a little over $4 million. That's since this recent bad weather spell has come through.

Again, for over 125 years the Red Cross has been responding to disasters like this. The American people have been there for the Red Cross before and we are confident they are going to be there for us after this one and for the next.

SAVIDGE: Colin, thank you very much. Good luck to your organization.

DOWNEY: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: So we'll continue to walk around the neighborhood here. Maybe next hour we'll show you what it looks like inside. It is a mess, but they are making big progress thanks to a lot of volunteers.

WHITFIELD: That is an incredible effort. Marty, you talk about dozens upon dozens of people going house to house helping one another. Does that mean the roads are very much passable, that this flood didn't make it difficult for people to get around even at this juncture one week later?

SAVIDGE: Right, because it was a flash flood and the nature of a flash flood was it comes very quickly, it also dissipates quickly. So in fact there were the major highways were opened within 24 to 48 hours after the disaster.

The biggest problem you have now when you enter this particular region where you see the devastation is the traffic. There's a lot of construction traffic. There's a lot of people coming in to volunteer. And then you have homeowners trying to get here, as well.

The streets are open, they are passable. Police are here to help them navigate that need to get in.

WHITFIELD: Wow, fantastic. Martin Savidge, thank you so much from Nashville. Appreciate that.

Heads up, YouTube users. They have just come up with a way to help you make money off the videos you actually post. What? Stay tuned, it just might pay off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A look now at our top stories.

Emergency officials in New York say 55 people were hurt after a ferryboat slammed into the Staten Island terminal this morning. The collision happened roughly five hours ago. Mechanical problems are now suspected. It's the same boat that was involved in a similar crash nearly seven years ago where 11 people were killed.

And more maritime troubles, this one off the coast of Louisiana as workers try capping that massive oil spill. It is still spewing out of control in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, Louisiana officials are opening levee gates from the Mississippi River. They are channeling freshwater into the wetlands to try to keep out oil from that spill.

And a lot of uncertainty in Britain now after no clear winner emerged from Thursday's parliamentary election. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg on the left of your screen is talking about a possible coalition government with representatives of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's labor party as well as David Cameron's conservative party.

Brown is in the middle. The conservatives won the most parliamentary seats, but not enough for a voting majority.

OK, so YouTube is rolling out a new program that allows you to make a little money off those videos you keep posting. CNN computer guru, he is the guru of so many things, Josh Levs is here to tell us how this works, how this came about. And people are cashing in or ready to, right?

LEVS: They want to. Here's the thing, obviously, people would love the idea of being able to make tons of money off YouTube video because every few days there is a new viral video. One of the latest is this one here, rapping granny.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: She is rapping about Boca. She's the new hit online. The reason these things take off is because they are free. More and more people watch these things. And they say, wait a second, how can I make money off of this?

And actually YouTube has a way now that more and more people are able to start making money off their videos -- not this one. Here is what they are doing. This is a screen behind me called "filmmakers wanted." The reason I'm showing it to you, the other day we had a story on CNN.com that said "YouTube to let years charge rental fees." And all of sudden people went wild. Everyone was sending this to everyone else.

What I've done, I want to make this simple. Here is how it works. It's not just for everyone. YouTube invites you to be a partner. You can also apply. If you become a partner, then you can make money. There are two major ways to make money. Number one is ad revenue.

By far, most of the partners who get that relationship with YouTube get some of the ad revenue. Ads go up there and they get a portion of that. And the person who watches the video isn't paying anything.

The second one is rental fees. What YouTube is doing right now, they have always offered it to some partners. They are rolling it out on a larger scale, allowing anyone to rent out their videos.

If you think you have a hot video people will be willing to pay money to start to watch, you can try to be a partner, try to get that relationship with YouTube. So instead of it being free, you may have to pay a little bit.

WHITFIELD: When you say partner, something tells me there may be a fee in involved. Am I paying to become a partner?

LEVS: That's right. YouTube gets money and you get money. Every deal is different. You decide how much you're going to charge, and YouTube won't tell me how much they get and you get, but each deal is different, Fred.

WHITFIELD: That's likely to go viral. You always on Saturdays have a string of other videos that go viral. What do you have coming up?

LEVS: Listen to this. This is unbelievable. I always have surprising ways music is published. Listen to this. Actual musical percussion from dropping balls perfectly timed. It's astounding and one of the many videos I have coming up here in the next hour or "Viral Video Rewind." I'll tell you all about it, Fred.

WHITFIELD: I don't have enough free time. I'm not coming up with anything creative like that.

LEVS: My wife said the same thing and I said you and Fred are just one mind.

WHITFIELD: We've got to make a change. Josh, we look forward to that. Thanks so much.

Here is your dose of animal magnetism just in time for Mother's Day, a trio of cute little cubs. Aren't they sweet? But they're in the midst of an identity crisis. We're going to explain.

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WHITFIELD: OK, things are a little wild at the water cooler, especially Wisconsin. Check this out right here. Yes, it is exactly what you're seeing. One deer, oh, two deer crashing through the window there right at the Stout Ale House in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

They ran around inside the restaurant for several minutes before workers and patrons realized what was going on there. Take a look again at these deer bursting into that establishment.

By the way, the Milwaukee Bucks game was going on the television set. So they had a lot of deer in the house.

Take a look at this right here. What are we looking at? A grizzly situation in California. The Oxford Fire Department was called in to get a big bear down from a tree. You see them here. This bear was obviously tranquilized. He is looking sedated there.

They scrapped it up, lowered it to safety with a hook and ladder truck. The bear had been roaming the neighborhood and a couple of apartment complexes, probably looking for food.

Here is something to get you in the mood for Mother's day. Who doesn't love looking at beautiful lion cubs? These three cubs were born at the Bronx Zoo. They are the biggest, latest, newest attraction. They are having a bit of an identity crisis because they don't have names yet.

The Bronze Zoo soliciting help from you and everybody else looking for some ideas on names. What do you call those beautiful lions? I have, Karen Maginnis an idea or two. Kimba's got to be one suggestion. Maybe even Alex was the other famous one. I'll leave the third one for or anybody else on suggestion.

MAGINNIS: Peter, Paul and Mary.

WHITFIELD: I like.

MAGINNIS: We don't know what their sex is.

WHITFIELD: It doesn't matter. My daughter is a girl and we named her Miles. It doesn't matter.

MAGINNIS: My cat's name is Rocket and I think that is a cute name for a lion.

WHITFIELD: I like it, too.

MAGINNIS: Rocket, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Huey, Dewey and Louis.

WHITFIELD: You have great ideas.

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WHITFIELD: Cleaning up the oil slick now, CNN's exclusive look how the government trains for disasters like the one taking place right now in the Gulf of Mexico.

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WHITFIELD: Cleaning up oil spills like the one in the Gulf of Mexico is a massive and complex operation. CNN Allan Chernoff gave exclusive look at the operations this were used, developed and tested.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When trying to clean up a giant oil spill, how does the oil industry know exactly what to do, what techniques are going to work? The research is done right here at the oil and hazardous materials simulated environmental test tank.

This facility is run by the Interior Department's Minerals Management Services and it is the largest of its kind in the entire world.

Oil sprays into the water. A slick forms and expands, but it's all intentional. Here the government creates controlled oil spills in a giant tank more than two football fields long. Operators create ocean wave conditions. Then they use various techniques to clean it all up.

There are three primary plans of attack for cleaning oil spills in the water -- burn the oil, apply chemical dispersants to break it down, or manually remove it. All three are at work in the Gulf of Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would use every technique you can to remove the oil off the surface of the water.

CHERNOFF: You get out every form of artillery you've got?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

CHERNOFF: Today experts are practicing manual techniques to remove oil. Taking oil off the surface of the water is kind of like peeling the filling off an Oreo cookie. You're skimming it. And that's what all these various devices to, they skim the oil off the water depending on the grade of oil. How heavy it is you use a different skimmer.

All different types are sprayed into the tank from a moving bridge. Workers can test skimmers, various dispersants, even burning, all in a safe and closed environment that simulates the oceans solidity and even its wave patterns.

We all know oil is lighter than water. That's an advantage when it comes to cleaning up a spill because the oil sits on top of the water. Using those booms, oil can actually be pushed into that skimmer and then it's sucked up using this giant vacuum. Cleanup workers from private industry, government and 24 countries around the world have come here to practice and research such techniques, including responders trying to clean the Gulf of Mexico right now.

JOE MULLIN, MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE: You want to be prepared. Firemen have fire training centers. For us you have the tank here.

CHERNOFF: The Gulf cleanup presents an immense challenge. Indeed high waves have made it difficult to contain some oil. But the Minerals Management Service says industry and government are better prepared to handle this catastrophe than the "Exxon Valdez" disaster more than 20 years ago.

MULLIN: There is more equipment, there is more technologies. Folks are better planned, better trained.

CHERNOFF: Thanks to the offset facility, the folks who are in the Gulf right now know exactly which techniques to use in each marine environment to clean up the mess.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, Leonardo, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And we should be learning more about the efforts to control the Gulf oil, the Gulf coast oil spill shortly. We are expecting a news conference to start in just a few minutes actually involving BP and the Coast Guard. When that happens we will bring that to you live.