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Gushing Oil Now Being Siphoned; Iran Works Out Nuclear Swap Deal With Turkey; Politicians Face Irate Voters

Aired May 17, 2010 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarters, the big stories for you this Monday, May 17th.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): The scenery here has definitely changed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the main thing they want to know is the oil here?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Gulf Coast tourists keep an eye on the path of the oil slick. BP claims some success in capturing some of the crude.

GM back in the black after a taxpayer bailout. Its first quarterly profit in three long years.

Plus this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HUDSON, ACTRESS AND SINGER: It's just telling the story. It's nothing that's shied away from. You know, it is what it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: From the Cannes Film Festival, the Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson on her new and controversial role as Winnie Mandela.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

Those stories and your comments right here, right now, in the CNN NEWSROOM.

You know, it is not a fix, but it is a step forward. BP now siphoning some of the oil that's been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for almost a month now. Engineers using a mile-long tube to funnel the crude from a blown well into a tanker ship.

Let's get straight to our Ed Lavandera in New Orleans.

And Ed, tell us about the long methods for stopping the leak, also the top kill and the junk shot. Maybe you can sort all this out for us.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right. Well, we'll give it our best shot here.

Essentially, there's kind of three different things going on, if you will. This insertion tube method that has had some measure of success, at least according to BP officials, which has started the process of siphoning off about 1,000 barrels from that leak site -- so the leak isn't stopped by any means, but they say they're getting about 1,000 barrels of the 5,000 barrels a day. So that is a little bit of good news there.

They say they will start trying to siphon off some more, kind of slowly, gradually do this so that this procedure doesn't get slowed down or ruined in any way. There is a possibility that this tube could be clogged, and that would essentially ruin the whole procedure. So, they will continue to open those valves slowly, over the next day or so, to try to do that.

The other one you talked about, which is that top kill and junk shot, those are kind of combined, if you will. So, essentially, you'd have to do the junk shot. So you go back down. About 600 feet away from where this leak is where you have that blowout preventer.

You take that junk shot in through some valves there, and you throw a bunch of junk in there to kind of slow the flow of the oil, and then that allows BP officials to insert what's called the top kill, and using this drilling mud, which is essentially kind of like a cement. This isn't mud that you'd find in your back yard or anything like that, just to be clear here. But that would kind of cement the wellhead, and that would stop the flow.

Of course, this is not a sure thing by any means. And we're still a week away from that effort as well. And then there is the long term, the one that's two or three months away, which is those relief wells which are being drilled as we speak alongside of that, which would connect deep, deep below the surface of the earth and get closer to where that well is drilling and collecting the oil from.

So, kind of three different things going on. A measure of success so far here, Tony, with a little bit of good news coming out from this siphoning process.

HARRIS: And one more quick one here, Ed. What about the oil plumes that are expected to be floating around underneath the water?

LAVANDERA: Well, there is a group of scientists that have spent a couple of weeks on the water taking some tests from the Gulf water. What we are hearing initially -- and this is a very, very preliminary kind of situation that we're getting from them -- they say that they still have a lot of analysis to do on the tests that they have run out in the Gulf of Mexico. But they do believe that there is a massive layer of oil underneath the surface that we can't see.

We have heard a lot from environmentalists and scientists who, all along, have been saying that they believe that much of the oil hasn't risen to the surface. There's been Minimal impact on shoreline so far along Mississippi and Louisiana. And so that's led them to believe that perhaps much of this oil that's been escaping is below the surface, stuff that we haven't been able to see yet.

So far, these early indications kind of support that. And the concern is that if this gets into the streams and the currents in the Gulf of Mexico, it's always said that this could be dragged out to the Florida Keys and up along the Atlantic coast. We're not seeing any of that yet, obviously, but that is the great concern.

HARRIS: OK.

CNN's Ed Lavandera for us.

Ed, appreciate it. Thank you.

Got to tell you, the depth of the Gulf leak is what is making it so challenging right now. The source is almost a mile under water, so you're talking about total darkness, right, and extreme pressure. That's why BP is having such a difficult time capping the wellhead.

Sunlight can't penetrate the water past 1,500 feet. Also, at 5,000 feet below sea level, there is extreme water pressure. We're talking 2,300 pounds of pressure per square inch. That's enough pressure to crush a submarine.

The water is near freezing at that depth. Normally the water temperature is about 70, maybe 75 degrees on the surface. This time of year the water is 40 degrees.

CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano is just back from the Gulf. He will join me later this hour with a look at sea life and the oil spill. Don't miss his "Reporter's Notebook."

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Iran works out a nuclear swap deal with Turkey. It is designed to ease international concerns that Iran is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons.

Our Reza Sayah is following the developments from neighboring Pakistan.

Reza, good to see you.

As I recall, Iran agreed to and rejected a similar deal back in October. How is this agreement different?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, we're going to find out all the details of this agreement in about a week. But based on what we know, the biggest difference is where the nuclear fuel swap is going to take place.

The previous proposal back in October that was on the table, the fuel swap would take place in France. This is a country Iran doesn't trust, doesn't get along with.

This agreement would have the nuclear fuel swap taking place in Turkey, which is an Iranian ally. This is something Iran would prefer.

But if you talk about the proposal back in October, remember, Iran, like you said, initially they agreed to it, then they rejected it. That's why Washington is going to look and examine this agreement with a lot of caution and skepticism.

It's Washington's position that Iran likes to play games, likes to use delay tactics. And there's going to be a lot of people in Washington, especially those who are hawkish against Iran, that are going to look at this agreement and say this is Iran trying to use more delay tactics to perhaps put off a fourth round of sanctions -- Tony.

HARRIS: Well, you're absolutely right about that. Secretary of State Clinton didn't think these negotiations would produce an agreement.

Does this agreement, as it's being discussed right now, give Washington -- does it give Washington what it wants?

SAYAH: Here's what it does. It gives Washington what it wanted back in October. And face of change since October.

Remember, in October, with the proposal that was on the table, Iran was going to send 1,200 kilograms, about 2,600 pounds, of low- enriched uranium outside of the country in return for nuclear fuel that could be only used for medical purposes. That would give the U.S. what it wanted, and that's stripping Iran of the nuclear fuel that could be used for making nuclear bombs.

But it's important to remember that since October, Iran has continued to enrich uranium. Today I spoke with a spokesperson in the Foreign Ministry, and he told me that Iran plans to continue enriching uranium. Will the U.S. accept these conditions? These are details that have yet to be hammered out -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK.

Our Reza Sayah for us in Pakistan.

Reza, good to see you.

Millions of gallons of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico. BP says it is making good progress capping the gushing oil, but is it in time to save the wildlife? It depends on the sea. And how would you save the wildlife? That depends on the sea.

Our Rob Marciano is just back from the Gulf. We'll talk to him in just a moment.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Three U.S. Senate primaries are on the calendar tomorrow. Voters in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Kentucky are a bit irate, putting incumbents in jeopardy.

CNN Political Editor Mark Preston joining me now from Washington.

And Mark, what kind of overall message are we likely to get from the primaries tomorrow?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, Tony, we are certainly looking to see if this anti-incumbency feeling that we have seen over the past couple of weeks, it continues and grows.

Now, we have seen two members of Congress, a senator from Utah, Bob Bennett, and a Democrat congressman from West Virginia, both lose their primaries. Bennett, the Republican, and Alan Mollohan, the Democrat. So, we see this anti-incumbent feeling across the nation.

People are very frustrated, upset with Washington. They don't think that the economy is improving. People still are out of work. And, of course, we know that the housing market has crushed. So, we are seeing if people are looking for new faces, new feeling, perhaps new blood here -- on Capitol Hill, here in Washington.

HARRIS: Well, let's talk about -- you're just back from Pennsylvania, as we break down a couple of these races here -- where Arlen Specter, Senator Specter, is running as a Democrat. Now, he is facing a tough primary challenge from Representative Sestak. Tell us about that race.

PRESTON: Sure. Absolutely.

Arlen Specter, Tony, as you said, longtime Republican senator from Pennsylvania, he switched his parties last year, joined the Democratic Party. And, in effect, gave President Obama, Tony, the 60th vote he needed in the Senate to really push through some key pieces of legislation, namely President Obama's health care proposal.

In turn, the White House, Tony, and the Democratic Party machine in Pennsylvania has gone full force behind Mr. Specter's candidacy. The problem for Mr. Specter, though, is that the polls, in recent weeks, have started to turn, and they've started to turn in the favor of Representative Joe Sestak. He's a retired Navy admiral.

And I saw them both yesterday, Tony, and I'll tell you where they were. They were really fighting for the black vote in Philadelphia. In fact, Mr. Specter told me yesterday that he thinks that race is going to turn on the black vote.

HARRIS: Wow.

How about the Republican, Pat Toomey? I mean, look, is it part of the reason Arlen Specter is running as a Democrat now, because he didn't necessarily believe he could beat Pat Toomey? PRESTON: Well, if you hear what Mr. Specter says, he says that's not the case, Tony, but, in fact, that is certainly part of the equation. Pat Toomey, a very conservative -- social conservative and fiscal conservative from Pennsylvania. As you said, a former congressman. In fact, he has no competition for the Republican primary.

He has started to moderate his views. And I will tell you, talking to Democrats this past weekend up in Pennsylvania, they are very concerned about Pat Toomey in November.

HARRIS: Well, how about Blanche Lincoln, the incumbent Democrat in Arkansas? Size up that race.

PRESTON: Yes. You know, another interesting, inter-party fight for Democrats right there, Tony. You have Blanche Lincoln, a centrist Democrat, who represents largely a conservative Democratic state. However, she is getting a primary challenge from the left.

Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter just launched a campaign just a couple months ago, and has decided to go at her full force. What is fueling Halter's bid against Blanche Lincoln is support from the unions and support from left-wing organizations such as MoveOn.org, Tony.

And, in fact, Blanche Lincoln, while she's leading in the polls, needs 50 percent plus one to move past a primary into the general election, Tony. We suspect tomorrow night that she probably won't get the 50 plus one percent. This will turn into a runoff. If it does turn into a runoff, Tony, the liberal groups think that they can take her out in June.

HARRIS: And who is the leading Republican in Arkansas?

PRESTON: Well, the leading Republican in Arkansas, a very crowded Republican primary, it's a congressman by the name of John Boozman. And, in fact, heading into the general election, some people think that Boozman, if Blanche Lincoln is beat up and is able to survive this primary, Boozman will have the upper hand. Others say though that Blanche Lincoln, because she is running as a centrist in a conservative state, actually can use this primary challenge to her advantage.

HARRIS: And if you would, size up the race in Kentucky for us, where Dr. Rand Paul, the son of Ron Paul, is getting a lot of the attention.

PRESTON: Getting a lot of attention. We talk a lot about the Tea Party here on CNN, Tony, and that's what we are seeing fuel this Republican inter-party fight down in Kentucky.

You have Rand Paul, the son of Texas Representative Ron Paul, of course, who sought the Republican nomination, has run a real anti- Washington, anti-incumbency campaign. The fact is, he's not running against an incumbent, it's an open seat. But Secretary of State Trey Grayson, has been endorsed by the likes of Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky, and by other established Republicans. If you look at the polls, though, it looks like Rand Paul, on Tuesday night, has the upper hand over Trey Grayson in that race -- Tony.

HARRIS: Let's see where the chips fall.

Good to see you, Mark. Appreciate it. Thank you.

PRESTON: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: All right. Still to come -- you know, while we're bringing you news from around the world, the world is also watching us and what is hot online. Josh Levs is surfing the Web for us.

Good to see you, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've got another race going on for you with some different stakes involved.

This might sound like a fun battle, but it's also big business. Check this out.

The clash of the Twitter titans is going on as we speak. Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears are both on the verge of having five million followers.

HARRIS: Oh my.

LEVS: I'm telling you, this stuff translates into big business.

You know, he's the Twitter king, right?

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

LEVS: The question right now is, will she dethrone him? Look at how close they were as of not long ago at all.

Both basically had 4.9 million. I have been following their pages. They are both getting really close to that five million mark, and they both want to be there first. So, we will be keeping an eye on that.

Plus, all the hottest stories online. And a rap video, Tony, about a minivan that you just have to see.

HARRIS: Oh, that can't be hot. Come on now. It's a minivan.

LEVS: It's hot. I'm telling you. You'll see.

HARRIS: OK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: Let's see here. Rob Marciano back from doing, man, one heck of a job in Louisiana covering the big oil spill in the Gulf. The man is back with us.

Doctor, let me shake your hand.

MARCIANO: Hey. How you doing? Good to see you.

HARRIS: Good to see you.

MARCIANO: You look good in this new studio.

HARRIS: And we're going to get your "Reporter's Notebook" in a few minutes.

MARCIANO: Yes. We'll talk about what's going on in the Gulf.

HARRIS: OK.

MARCIANO: Obviously, a big story down there on all fronts.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: All right. When we talk to you about your experiences there in the Gulf, will you explain to us the loop current -- something I heard driving the other day -- and why there is real concern about that, taking some of this oil to the panhandle of Florida? Will you help us with all of that?

MARCIANO: I would be happy to do that.

HARRIS: You would.

MARCIANO: You've got it.

HARRIS: Got to tell you, it is a debt-defying act, and I love it. Plenty of Americans are paying off their bills and going debt free. We will show you the numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Boy, this may be my favorite story of the day. One good thing to come out of the great economic meltdown, America's big spenders suddenly see debt as a bad thing.

CNN's Christine Romans is in New York.

I'm not kidding you, Christine. This is music to my ears -- that maybe we're getting rid of some of the debt, the hangover, and spending and not being able to pay for what we purchase. I love this story.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look. I've been working with the people at Equifax to see if there's some kind of recovery happening -- what's happening with the consumer, what are we doing. And those folks say we are in the midst of an epic debt purge. They say it's remarkable how much debt we have shed -- as American consumers -- since 2008. Some $626 billion worth of debt. This is a level they say is, quote, "very significant."

How much? Home mortgages, debt is down 5 percent. Credit cards, an astounding 12 percent. Student loans, really the only area where you see us not paying down our debt. Any surprise there? It's a terrible recession. It was a terrible recession. People have lost jobs and they are trying to hang on for dear life to an education to make sure they don't get hurt as the recovery keeps going, right? So student loans is where we're seeing the debt continue to creep up. More than creep up, actually surge. Wow, is what one credit analyst at Equifax said about the student loan debt.

The average consumer credit score, they say, is 704. And that's their own rating system which is similar to those other ones you've seen, those other numbers, 704. That's up, Tony, over the past two years. Up. They say more people are moving to the low risk part of the credit spectrum as opposed to a couple years ago, when people were just falling off the face of the earth.

So, slowly but surely either willingly or unwillingly they point out. Sometimes you don't have a choice. You know? I mean, you cut your debt because the credit card company says, hey, we closed your credit card. You've got five years to pay us back. So that's one of the reasons here, the debt at work.

HARRIS: Now, if we could get the government to live within its means a bit more.

How much of this downward trend is based on default? You know what I'm talking about. Charge-offs and foreclosures, things like that.

ROMANS: Sure. That's some of it.

But the fact that the credit score is moving up would suggest that people are paying off a lot of debt. They are paying more on their credit cards because think of it, if your credit card company has settled with you, right, or has charged off some of your credit card debt your credit score is going to fall. It's going to fall dramatically.

If you have wiped out some of the home mortgage because you've lost the home, your credit score is just going to go in the toilet. So the fact that credit scores are steady and slightly moving higher suggests there are a lot of people who are paying their bills and paying a lot of debt down because they're so nervous about what happened in the past couple of years.

HARRIS: Let's keep the trend going. I love it.

Good to see you, Christine.

Christine Romans in New York, for us.

ROMANS: Bye, Tony.

HARRIS: And tapping into vanity. One pretty clever guy just used that philosophy and a new Google feature to land his dream job.

Josh Levs now with the nuts and bolts.

Josh, this story has got everybody talking. I was reading this story on the plane coming back to Atlanta, yesterday. It's terrific stuff.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Were you really?

I love this story.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: Because, look, we do so many stories about unemployment, people looking for jobs in interesting ways. This is the headline on .com today, "Man Lands Job with $6 Google Campaign." And what he did here is so clever. As you said, it taps into the vanity that we all seek. He's joining us now.

Alec Brownstein is with us.

Alec, are you there? There you are.

ALEC BROWNSTEIN, USED GOOGLE FEATURE TO LAND DREAM JOB: I'm here. Good to see you.

LEVS: All right, Alec let's just lay out for the viewers what your $6 campaign was, what the strategy was and how it landed you a job.

BROWNSTEIN: So what I did was I decided where I wanted to work, which was at Young & Rubicam in New York, which is a creative advertising agency. So I picked the creative director I wanted to work for.

And one day when I was Googling them, to sort of see some of the stuff they had done, I noticed that there were no sponsored links, there were no ads at the top of the page. I realized that if I were to put an ad there, if I were to bid on their names on Google, I could have the top result. So I did it and for 15 cents a click, I was able to get the stop spot.

LEVS: We're looking at a video that you put together. The idea here is for people who don't know, you can do a sponsored ad with a term. So, let's say, one day you Google the word, "raspberries." Someone out there can pay so that their ad fir raspberries pops up at the top.

You decided, wait a second, what if one of these ad executives that I want to work for, Googles himself or herself. I want a message from me to pop up at the top. So the ad is actually specifically written to them, right? I think I have it over here. Take a look at it.

You wrote, hey -- and then you wrote the person's name. You write, Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too. Then you put a link to your web site right there.

When you were doing this, you were assuming these people at some point would do the vanity thing that some of us are sometimes guilty of, Googling yourself.

BROWNSTEIN: I was. I was trying to look at search not so much just about relevancy but also about occasion. So if you Google "balloons," you could be looking for balloons but you could also be planning a birthday party. I think there's room for creativity in search advertising.

LEVS: Let's complete the story before I lose you.

So you put the ad out there. How does it ultimately lead to a job? What happens with the people you targeted there?

BROWNSTEIN: So most of the people who I targeted e-mailed or called me and said, hey, we saw this ad, we thought it was cool. Everybody said the same thing which was, somebody else told me about it. I wasn't Googling myself.

LEVS: Yes, my friend Googled me.

BROWNSTEIN: Right, exactly.

I was called in for interviews and eventually I was offered a job at Young & Rubicam, New York.

LEVS: And now you got the job. You're 29 years old. You got the job in the middle of this economy all because of this campaign that cost you $6.

Really quickly, do you think other people can copy your format out there?

BROWNSTEIN: Absolutely. Why not? I mean, everybody loves Googling themselves, everybody loves to see their name in print. If you can pay and get the top spot, why not do it? I got the top spots on my names for about 15 cents a click. And I only paid for the clicks which is how I was able to do it all for $6.

LEVS: I think you're giving our Tony Harris some ideas.

Are you getting some ideas now? You're thinking, hey, I want to map (ph) a top ad on my name.

HARRIS: Yes, yes, yes. The brain is churning away here. That's good stuff, Alec.

LEVS: Alec, thank you so much.

HARRIS: All right. Josh, thank you, man.

We'll see you at the top of the hour.

It is not what a seaport is supposed to look like. Idle boats, idle workers, and idle equipment. The oil spill impact on those who work the sea for a living. Our Rob Marciano will have that for us. We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So, the 63rd Cannes Film Festival is in full swing on the French Riviera.

CNN entertainment correspondent Brooke Anderson touches on three projects making a splash. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (on camera): One of the films buzzed about here at Cannes is already swimming in controversy and not a single scene has been shot yet.

I'm talking about the upcoming film "Winnie," about Nelson and Winnie Mandela focused on Winnie's controversial life. It stars Jennifer Hudson and Terrence Howard, who are here at the festival for the movie's official announcement. Winnie Mandela herself, sent a letter to producers, threatening legal action if she is not allowed to approve the script. Well, producers say it won't happen.

I spoke with Jennifer who said she understands why Winnie is worried.

JENNIFER HUDSON, ACTRESS, "WINNIE": For good reason, you know, she would feel that way. But I don't think she would be disappointed and I, for myself, I definitely hope that she will be pleased with basically -- kind of -- I don't know if I could call it a tribute. But, you know, the reflection. It's just telling the story. It's nothing that shied away from. It is what it is and it's being told. But I do feel like -- I mean, I have respect and a newfound respect.

ANDERSON: Filming is set to get under way later this month in South Africa.

Now, Hudson is reveling not only in her career success, but in her new role as a mom. She opened up about how having a child has changed her.

HUDSON: It makes me appreciate life and everything that it has to offer that much more seeing it through my child's eyes. It's such a blessing. I love it. Oh, he's the best baby. He's so sweet. He's such a sweetheart.

ANDERSON: A couple of other notable movies making waves here. The documentary, "Countdown to Zero," about nuclear proliferation makes its international debut. And Mick Jagger is here for "Stones in Exile." It's about the making of the Rolling Stones 1972 epic album, "Exile on Main Street." It's a fitting place to premier the film as much of the album was reported here in France, back in the '70s.

Brooke Anderson, CNN, Cannes, France.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRIS: Yes, Brooke, look. The Rolling Stones, "Exile on Main Street," was recorded 39 years ago and the group still has a huge following.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, CNN HOST: How do you account for the longevity of the Stones as a success?

MICK JAGGER, SINGER: Well, I think the Stones very lucky. You always need a lot of luck. And I think they were in the right place at the right time. And we, when we work, we work very hard. So you need all those things. It's no good being just hard-working because a lot of people are hard-working. You've to be hard-working on your game and be lucky.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARRIS: CNN's Larry King snags a rare interview with a rock icon. The rest of Larry's conversation with Mick Jagger, a primetime exclusive, tomorrow night, 9:00 Eastern only on CNN.

Let's get you caught up now on top stories.

E-mails obtained by CNN may provide a motive for the attempted bombing in New York's Times Square. They paint accused bomber Faisal Shahzad as a frustrated Muslim who wanted to fight back against the west. Shahzad, who was arrested on May 3, has not yet made a court appearance.

In Rhode Island, a school that fired its entire faculty and staff plans to hire them back. The deal allows teachers to return without having to reapply for their jobs, but they'll face several new requirements to boost student achievement.

And Miss. Michigan, Rima Fakih, is the new Miss USA. She's believed to be the first Arab-American or Muslim to win the crown. Pageant officials they're not positive because record keeping wasn't very detailed in the contest's early days.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG SUTTLES, COO FOR EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION, BP: I'm really pleased that we've had some success now. We actually had what we call this riser insertion tube. It's been working for more than 24 hours now. This morning we were producing over 1,000 barrels of water into the drill ship enterprise from it. So that's 1,000 barrels that isn't getting on the sea every day. So it's good progress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right. Good progress is how BP describes its latest effort to stop hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico each and every day.

Rob Marciano is just back from the Gulf.

Doctor, a couple of questions. First of all, you took a flyover, right, looking for the spill. Give us a sense of how big the spill is.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The good news is the oil hasn't infiltrated all the wetlands. The combination of currents, winds and the outflow from the Mississippi River. So in many cases, you just have to get into an airplane and fly over. So we did that. We tagged along and took a ride. It didn't take us long to get there. You saw these ribbons of brown muck out there.

You know what's ironic was an eerie feeling when I saw the oil slick and those ribbon of brown muck surrounding some oil rigs.

HARRIS: Right.

MARCIANO: A dozen of them at a time, you see them surrounded by the oil that they're digging thousands of feet to dig up and here it is on the surface now. So it's a bit mind boggling. And you just think, all this sea life that is underneath that water. We, as a public have this perception of, well, you don't see an oiled dolphin, an oiled turtle or a bird, that nothing bad is happening. We haven't seen much of that. But under the water there is a lot of marine life at all levels.

HARRIS: How much concern that there's going to be real damage here to the ecosystems that could take -- we're talking about decades to recover from?

MARCIANO: Obviously everyone is scared.

HARRIS: It's huge.

MARCIANO: Everyone is completely scared. But I think the scariest thing is that expert after expert that you talk to, the uncertainty that they have, no one seems to know what's going to happen, how much oil is out there and how long it's going to take to be diluted and eventually recover in the area because we've never seen anything like this.

Even if you compare it to the Valdez, this is totally different. This is coming from the bottom of the sea floor, 5,000 feet. As that oil comes to the surface -- what does come to the surface -- changes in composition. Gets to the surface and then is weathered and that loses some of its chemical process as well. Nobody seems to know exactly what the long-term ramifications are going to be.

HARRIS: It's that kind of concern that has to keep fishermen up at night wondering what's going to happen to my livelihood.

MARCIANO: Their livelihood was on unstable footing to begin with. Fisherman after fisherman that we talked to, they're just throwing their hands up. What other knock can we take here? BP has offered to hire them to help with the cleanup crews, but most of them are skeptical that, one, they'll actually be called to duty and, two, will they even break even?

None of them say, hey, I'm worried about the health effects, and there are going to be health effects if you're cleaning up oil and you're not careful about it. These guys have a real bravado. If I can go out there and fish for shrimp, or whatever, I can clean up some oil, just let me have at it. No worries. So that was a bit odd.

HARRIS: So we've got scientists from major universities who spent a couple weeks here looking for oil. Part of the discussion that I'm hearing from Ed Lavendera is that there's real concern about oil plumes, right? And then concern that these oil plumes could be caught up in this loop current here that could take the oil to the panhandle?

MARCIANO: Yes, you know --

HARRIS: What are your thoughts on that?

MARCIANO: Well, at first I thought that's kind of far out there.

HARRIS: Right.

MARCIANO: The loop current really is central to southern part of the Gulf, at least it is right now. And we often talk about it because it loops in very warm water. We talk about loop current during hurricane season, because if a storm goes over that, boom, you've got intensification.

HARRIS: Right.

MARCIANO: But it also brings that current, that warm water, all the way around the base of the Florida, and that's the Gulf stream that keeps the East Coast warm.

Well, there are indications now that the southern edge of this oil field is beginning to touch that loop current.

HARRIS: OK.

MARCIANO: At least at the surface.

Now, this is the surface current. At the deeper layers of the Gulf, things go completely different. In some cases they go the opposite way. So this is a multi-layered spill and that's going to complicate things even more. I think you're fair game from Texas, all the way to the tip of Florida, and maybe beyond long-term as far as who will be affected by this.

HARRIS: Good stuff. Good to have you back, man.

Are you going to take another trip? I bet you are.

MARCIANO: Not today. We'll see you from there tomorrow morning.

HARRIS: OK. Let's take a quick break.

We'll be back in the CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.

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HARRIS: I want to direct your attention to the best financial news web site on the internet. That's CNNMoney.com. You can see our lead story here, "Stocks Falter as Euro Weakens." The Euro falling to a four-year low. Boy, a lot of uncertainty as to whether or not the European Union can pull its act together and bail out Greece, and stop what folks are concerned about, becoming a built of a contagion right now, and spreading to other Euro zone states.

Let's look at the Dow now, down 106 points. We've got a big triple- digit sell-off going on with stocks.

I've got to tell you something, here's something that we don't say often, and we certainly haven't said for quite a while, General Motors is making money. But that's exactly what is happening right now. GM made nearly $900 million last quarter. Its first profit since 2007.

Let's get to one of the members of Money Team. Stephanie Elam is in New York with details.

Stephanie, what is -- first of all, good to see you.

What is GM doing right these days?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN MONEY TEAM: Well, there's two big things that are helping GM out now. First, bankruptcy. That allowed GM to go ahead and drastically cut their costs, close factories, and also unload some of their debt burden. The second thing going on is, well, we've all seen it, the economy is recovering.

So GM sales, they jumped nearly 25 percent in the quarter. People are out buying cars again and they're snapping up GM models like the Chevy Equinox and the Buick Lacrosse. But GM still cautious about the rest of the year because the first quarter is typically the strongest for the auto industry so they don't want to put all of their eggs in one basket and start having the party just yet, Tony.

HARRIS: We're talking about a lot of money that went to GM in a bailout in the order of $50 billion. When is that money likely to be paid back, Stephanie?

ELAM: Yes. Well, if you break it down, nearly $7 billion has already been repaid. The rest was converted to stocks. So we won't get that back until the new GM goes public. No new update on when that might happen, I should point out. But GM said previously it will have an IPO ready by the end of the year.

When these new shares are issued, the hope is that people will buy them, the stock price will rise, and eventually the government can sell its shares and then make a profit. And that would be good for all those taxpayers out there.

As for stocks overall today, there are still concerns out there about Europe's debt problems. I know we've been talking about it for a few weeks now.

HARRIS: Sounds like we're going to be talking about it for a few more weeks, at least.

ELAM: Yes, we're not done. We're in the loop right now. We're not leaving Europe anytime soon right now, I can tell you. We're going to be over there.

A weak outlook from Lowe's is also hitting Home Depot because they're rivals. That's a Dow component so therefore you've got the Dow up 110 at 10,509.

But you know, Tony, if you think about what we've seen in the last few weeks, being off 110 points, not nearly as dramatic as other times.

HARRIS: Yes. A couple Thursdays ago, it was ridiculous.

All right, Stephanie. Good to see you.

See you next hour.

Is what your children eat making them sick? Our Elizabeth Cohen reports on a disturbing new study with a link between a common pesticide found on fruits and vegetables and increased risk of developing ADHD.

And America's war on drugs. 40 years later, how much have we spent on it?

And Mexico's war on drugs, is it really a war? Who are the most wanted drug cartel leaders? We will take a look. That's coming up next, next hour in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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