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Changing How Wall Street Works; Risking Deportation for a Cause; Nashville Cleaning up From Historic Floods

Aired May 21, 2010 - 10:59   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Live from Studio 7 and CNN world headquarters, the big stories for Friday, May 21st.

A look live. Almost a mile under the Gulf of Mexico, oil spews unabated, while anger at BP just grows.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very clear that BP has not been telling the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: A chocolaty goo -- look at that. Man, that's ugly -- coats Louisiana's sensitive marshes. Far out at sea, oil threatens a spawning ground for blue fin tuna.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: So what does that make you think about when you start hearing about sheen getting into the loop current where all these guys are?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not going to be good. I mean, it could have a tremendous impact on blue fin, as well as other species.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Oh, boy.

And meet the fresh prince of produce. Garden veggies for Americans in need.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The country is loaded with gardeners who have more food than they can possibly use.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: CNN's Hero of the Week tells us about his program, Ample Harvest.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. Those stories and your comments right here, right now, in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Changing how Wall Street works. The Senate passes the most sweeping financial overhaul since the 1930s. We want to take a look at how Wall Street reform affects you and your finances.

Stephanie Elam of our Money team joins us from New York.

Stephanie, good morning to you.

What is in it for you, for me? What's in it for everyone, consumers here?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. That's what everyone wants to know today, Tony, so let's break it down by talking about what the goals of this Consumer Protection Agency would do.

First of all, it would look to protect Americans from unfair lending practices, and it would do that by simplifying paperwork for all financial products including mortgages, credit cards as well. And the idea is for all of this information to be hauled into one place and that it would be easy to understand. Not all of that, like, you know, mathematician sort of bank ease that you always see on these things. Right?

Now, the other thing that they'd want to do is crack down on the fees. Right now if you have a subprime mortgage, and if you pay it off early, you'll be charged. Well, now that's going to go away.

The agency will also limit the number of times you can get hit with an overdraft fee. Think about it this way, Tony. Some banks, they charge overdraft fees as much as $35 in overdraft, and that could be in just one day. So, if you have three overdrafts in one day, you're really going to get hit.

So that's part of the reason why they're saying that needs to be changed here. That's one of the big changes there.

It would also create a new Wall Street regulator to look out for major problems at big financial firms. And it would create a new process to wind down big financial firms similar to how the FDIC does it now.

And the bill would also shine a brighter light on complex products like derivatives to bring more oversight, something that has been really talked about a lot. And, you know, the other thing, too, about this, Tony, I have to point out is that it still needs to be reconciled. Right? We have the Senate bill, and it needs to be worked out with the House bill.

HARRIS: With the House version, yes.

ELAM: And then those differences will be worked out.

Now, the difference is, mainly, the House bill doesn't have limitation on derivatives. But both bills create one big Wall Street regulator. But the Senate gives the job to the Treasury; the House gives it to the fed. So these things will have to be worked out here.

HARRIS: OK. Stephanie, very quickly here, give us a quick market check.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

HARRIS: Stephanie, appreciate it. Thank you.

ELAM: Sure.

HARRIS: Checking some of our other big stories today.

Live pictures of the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. BP now concedes there is more oil pouring out of its damaged well. A month out, the Environmental Protection Agency has ordered BP to use a different dispersant, chemicals that are toxics.

CNN first reported about a chemical that could be used, but has not so far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG SUTTLES, COO, BP: We also have a second product now identified called CBRAT-4 (ph), which we'll begin introducing into the process as well.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's what BP said almost a week ago, but we found the CBRAT-4 (ph) just sitting here in an industrial park outside of Houston, Texas. You're looking at it, almost 100,000 gallons of the less-toxic dispersant.

Guess who ordered it? BP did on May 4th, almost three weeks ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK. And that was part of the discussion earlier today on "AMERICAN MORNING" with Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey, whose subcommittee is looking into all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: You wrote a letter to the EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, earlier this week, criticizing the use of Corexit. We learned that there has been another dispersant, tens of thousands of gallons of it, sitting just outside of a warehouse in Texas. There is toxicity to this Corexit that has now just really come to everyone's attention, although environmentalists were talking about it before. It is less effective than some of the other dispersants out there.

On the issue of dispersant, should all of this have been known before they released even a bucket-load of this stuff into the Gulf?

REP. ED MARKEY (D), CHAIRMAN, ENERGY INDEPENDENCE COMMITTEE: My belief is that we should have used the least toxic, most effective chemical right from the very beginning. Again, the problem, BP was allowed to make the initial decision. They should not have been allowed to make that decision. Now --

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: But who should have seen to it, Congressman, if they were not allowed to make that decision? Because now we have a month out, the EPA saying stop using it and start using this other one that you ordered three weeks ago. Why is that just happening now?

MARKEY: Well, there was an approved list of chemicals, but when I saw the chemicals that were on that list, I wrote a letter to the EPA. I asked them to create a new formula that did, in fact, ensure that it was the least toxic and most effective chemical. And as a result, they have now announced that BP only has 72 hours to come up with a new strategy for the dispersant which they are going to use, and it will be something which is dramatically lower in terms of its toxicity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK. Other stories we're following here.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our immigrants are under attack. What do we do?

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Stand up and fight back!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK. Those chants from students protesting outside Senator John McCain's office in Tucson, Arizona, Monday. They marched against the state's strict immigration law.

Five protesters held a sit-in inside the senator's office. They were arrested. It turns out four of them are in the United States illegally. They were transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. The four now face possible deportation.

Our Casey Wian spoke to one of them about why she is willing to put so much on the line.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Twenty-five-year-old Lizbeth Mateo was 14 when she crossed the border from Mexico illegally with her parents. Now she's a college graduate, but practically unemployable because she's an illegal immigrant.

LIZBETH MATEO, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT: I was young and I was naive and I didn't really realize what -- what I was about to do or how my life would change. I knew I was undocumented, but I didn't know what that meant or what -- how would that impact my life until I tried to apply to college. And that's when I realized having no legal status would affect everything else in my life.

WIAN: You were able to graduate from college, though, despite having no legal status.

MATEO: It was difficult to go through all of that. It was -- it took me about six years to finally graduate, and I did that in 2008.

WIAN: So, why did you take this risky step of engaging in a sit- in at Senator McCain's office earlier this week, had yourself arrested, had transferred to ICE custody? And now in deportation proceedings and you're risking make happen what exactly you don't want to happen. And that's the possibility of being deported back to your native country, which is Mexico.

Why take that risk?

MATEO: Because we want to (INAUDIBLE) students. And we -- we had to do something. We had to take a stand, assure communities that to create change, you need to have courage and you need to take really bold steps.

I realize that there's such an urgency, not only for myself, but for the young people who are graduating from high school and don't know what to do: Can I access college education? Can I get the job that they want? Can I travel, get a driver's license? Do simple things that any American kid could do.

This is the first time that undocumented youth have taken the risk of being put in deportation proceedings by taking such a bold action by staging a sit-in in a peaceful resistance.

WIAN: Have you thought about what's going to happen, what life is going to be like if you actually are deported back to Mexico?

MATEO: You know, I haven't really had the chance to think about that.

(CROSSTALK)

WIAN: Really? Before you sat down in that office and risked getting arrested, you didn't think about what it was going to be like?

MATEO: I think, you know, the reason we did it, it wasn't because we wanted to get attention to ourselves. But the message that we're really trying to send is that we are willing to make this kind of sacrifices to make something happen.

WIAN: Lizbeth and other supports of the Dream Act say they realize that broad immigration reform is not likely to happen this year, but they say legalizing the status of those who were brought here as minors by their parents illegally is doable, and they're trying to pressure Congress to make that happen. Casey Wian, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Also, in our next hour, a look at the controversial ethnic studies classes now banned in Arizona.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In another classroom, a class called American Government and Social Justice is also taught through the ethnic studies lens.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need to be a good human being.

TUCHMAN: The mostly Latino students were learning about who the liberal and who the conservative justices are on the U.S. Supreme Court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: More from our Gary Tuchman at noon Eastern.

Nashville cleaning up from historic floods. Here is a visual reminder of just how bad it was. That's pretty dramatic, huh?

Got to tell you, this Pep Boys store didn't stand much of a chance against all of that water. Tough job ahead now, right?

I will talk to the city's mayor in just about five minutes, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You know, it is now almost three weeks since record- breaking rainfall unleashed fatal floodwaters across Tennessee. More than 20 people were killed. Damage in Nashville alone estimated at more than $2 billion -- $2 billion. That's with a "B".

The cleanup is ongoing, and so is our coverage of it. That brings us to our Ines Ferre in New York.

Ines, if you would, walk us through some of these pictures and put some of this recovery into context for us.

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Tony.

Let's start with Opry Mills Mall, which was under water during the floods. Well, the water's gone, a space of 1.2 million square feet now. But look at this. Right now it looks more like a construction site.

Big dehumidifiers pumping air to help take out the moisture from the walls. You have crews that have been removing carpeting and drywall, trying to get the mall back up and running so that people can go back to their jobs. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LYNN KITTEL, OPRY MILLS MARKETING DIRECTOR: It's not just bricks and mortar. It's the people inside of this. And we have a lot of people without jobs now, and we're just looking forward to getting this place back on line as quickly as possible so we can welcome everybody back. You know, employees and shoppers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FERRE: And some store owners in Nashville aren't really sure when they'll reopen their shops.

Look at this surveillance video from Pep Boys' shop when the floods occurred. I mean, it's unbelievable. Imagine the damage from this.

HARRIS: Look at that.

FERRE: The water broke the glass and pushed the cash registers. There were some people in the store, actually, that were able to be saved. I mean, unbelievable, ,the damage there.

But then you have volunteers helping out residents get back on their feet, salvage what they can from their homes, and throw out what's ruined. And some have really lost everything, Tony.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA HUDDLESTON, FLOOD VICTIM: I have my moments. There are times when it's like a bad dream and you think it's not really there, but all you have to do is look outside. When everyone had all of their stuff at the curb, I mean, it was hard to take.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FERRE: Very hard to stomach for a lot of people. A lot of churches that are helping out in the area with volunteers -- Tony.

HARRIS: All right. Ines, thank you.

Let's get more on this, a better look at the road ahead in Nashville. The city's mayor, Karl Dean, joining us from the country music capital of the world.

Mr. Mayor, good to see you. Thanks for your time this morning.

MAYOR KARL DEAN, NASHVILLE: Good to be here. Thank you.

HARRIS: Yes. We wanted to get a reset with you.

You know, I'm seeing damage estimates running about $2 billion for private property alone as a result of the flooding. Where do things stand as far as getting help to those people?

DEAN: Well, we're working real hard on doing that. We have obviously set up a variety of recovery programs. You know, one of the things we're doing is cleaning up all the debris.

We have about 100 public work trucks out there. We've done emergency contracting to bring in other trucks. We're setting up housing programs. We have recovery areas, information areas, and we're working with FEMA to get the word out about how people can get back in their homes or begin the process of getting resettled.

HARRIS: Yes. The city has also suffered a lot of damage to its own facilities. How have city services been impacted by all of this?

DEAN: Well, almost every part of the city in terms of its services are up and running. We lost a couple of buildings completely that need to be totally renovated, a Head Start Center. Our juvenile court was damage severely. But city services are full on. We'll totally restore our bus service on Monday.

So, the city is up and operating, and really 95 percent of the city was not damaged by the flood. And the city is fully open for business, and we are fully engaged in the recovery process.

HARRIS: You know, I haven't been following this very closely, but I do understand there has been a controversy over how the Army Corps of Engineers managed the Cumberland River at the Old Hickory Dam during this crisis.

Did the Corps of Engineers, in your view, make things better or worse?

DEAN: You know, we don't know. I mean, obviously, we were talking to the Corps and the National Weather Service all during the course of the storm, when we were in the emergency communications center. And I understand that Representative Jim Cooper from Nashville and Senator Lamar Alexander are going to be involved in looking into what happened.

Obviously, federal oversight is what's involved with these two federal agencies. And we're going to let the federal agencies do that, and we'll participate and obviously pay close attention to it. But before I come to any judgment, I think you need to gather the facts. And I'm assuming everybody was trying to do their jobs and do them well, but we'll see what the facts are.

My full attention and the city's full attention and 14,000 volunteers' attention is on the recovery of this city and helping the people who were hurt by this flood.

HARRIS: Yes. Have you been getting from you need from federal and state officials?

DEAN: I've been very pleased with the response of the federal government. President Obama, in less than 24 hours after Governor Bredesen requested that Davidson County be declared a disaster area, did so. FEMA has been incredibly cooperative. They've had feet on the ground almost immediately. They've reached out to citizens all over the county.

You know, we have a lot of things we have to do, and the federal government has helped a lot, and we appreciate that. And outsiders have obviously donated.

But we kind of get that the bottom line is Nashvillians are going to have to help Nashvillians, and Nashvillians are going to have to get this done. And we've been doing it.

HARRIS: I think you're right.

DEAN: I mean, it's been -- if you went out just a few days after the storm was over, ,and you went through the affected neighborhoods, you saw houses where the drywall, the carpet, the appliances, all personal possessions that were destroyed in the flood, had been removed, and the houses were ready to be repaired. And that was done by volunteers.

HARRIS: I think you're right.

DEAN: I mean, we've had about 14,000 people working on these -- helping out here, and that's a pretty incredible thing.

HARRIS: You don't want big government to hurt you, but I think you're absolutely right. You've got to get this done in communities, one neighborhood at a time.

Mr. Mayor, appreciate it. Good talking to you. Thank you.

DEAN: Thank you.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: You know, every year millions of hungry Americans rely on food pantries to feed themselves and their families. When this week's CNN Hero saw that his local pantries were lacking fresh produce, he found an easy way to help in his own back yard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pancake mix and syrup.

GARY OPPENHEIMER, CNN HERO: The system we have in America is you donate canned goods or dry goods to a food bank. Fresh produce is almost never available.

In 2007, I had a very prolific season, and I ended up with 40 pounds more vegetables than I could use. So I'd take it to a pantry.

As I left, this woman said, "Now we can have some fresh produce." I remember thinking, what do they have canned stuff only all the time?

Horseradish.

I had an idea about how to not waste food. We're having an ample harvest, and the very least we can do is give it to people who need it.

They'll be enjoying this tomorrow at the pantry.

AmpleHarvest.org enables people who grow food in home gardens to easily find a local food pantry to donate their excess produce to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A nice big one.

We didn't know what doors to knock on, but now that Gary has got this wonderful program -- there's some rhubarb -- taking it to one of the pantries really is a good way to share with Ample Harvest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So much of this is boxed, it's canned. It's not fresh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perfect. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're very welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really, I do appreciate it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now we're getting the fresh items.

OPPENHEIMER: The country is loaded with gardeners who have more food than they can possibly use. AmpleHarvest.org gives them the ability to easily get that food to somebody who genuinely really needs it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does it smell good?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

OPPENHEIMER: You're not only doing good, you're feeling great about it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Doing good and feeling great about it.

So far, almost 2,000 food pantries have registered on AmpleHarvest.org.

To see how one harvest can help a family in need, or to nominate someone you think is changing the world -- think about that concept, one person changing the world -- just go to CNN.com/heroes.

The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico growing by the day, imposing new dangers to some of the largest fish there this time of year. Our Rob Marciano will join us from Gulfport, Mississippi.

We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is growing every there and posing a danger to the fish there at this time of year. Our Rob Marciano will join us from Gulfport, Mississippi.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Pictures, information, insight you won't find anywhere else. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris, anything can happen.

All right, so here we go. Day 32 of all of that oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. BP now says it is worse than first thought. Here's another look, live pictures right now from BP of the blown-out well.

Man, live picture. That is happening right now. Company officials say they're siphoning about 5,000 barrels of oil a day from the damaged well and they hope to cap it by next week.

Meantime, the government told BP to use a different, less toxic dispersant on the oil slick and this is thick, gooey oil. We're not talking about tar balls here. We're not talking about sheen here. This stuff floating up on the Louisiana coast right now.

As the oil slick grows, so does the outrage and frustration especially about people worried about the marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. Rob Marciano is in Gulfport, Mississippi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, wow! This is cool. What exactly am I looking at here?

DR. ERIC HOFFMAYER, SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST RESEARCH LAB: Right now, you're looking at some larvae of a bluefin tuna, basically bluefin tuna babies.

MARCIANO (voice-over): Dr. Eric Hoffmayer is a biologist at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Lab. He has a team of scientists currently exploring Gulf waters near the oil slick.

HOFFMAYER: They've been out there for about four or five days, and it's a planned 12-day trip.

MARCIANO: Right now, their research vessel is near the southern edge of the spill. Biologist Jim Franks (ph) reports from the ship via satellite.

JIM FRANKS, BIOLOGIST: Loop current temperature today was 86 degrees. It's awfully warm.

MARCIANO: Turns out that loop current getting all the press lately does more than just move warm water and potentially oil toward Florida. The current is a breeding ground for lots of marine life, including rare bluefin tuna.

HOFFMAYER: You've got lots of nutrients entrained into the loop current and so it becomes a signature for these animals to spawn around.

MARCIANO: The Gulf is only one of two known bluefin spawning grounds; the other is in the Mediterranean. Hoffmayer says bluefin tuna sushi popularity, especially in Asia, has driven down the population 82 percent.

HOFFMAYER: The problem we have is that they are tremendously overfished.

MARCIANO: Another concern for Hoffmayer's team is whale sharks, the largest fish on the planet. They can grow up to 60 feet long and they also live in the Gulf of Mexico.

HOFFMAYER: The oil spill is in prime essential whale shark habitat, primarily feeding habitat, and we're about in prime whale shark season.

MARCIANO (on camera): So this is bad timing.

HOFFMAYER: Very bad timing.

MARCIANO (voice-over): Aquatic toxicologist, Dr. Joe Griffitt has been studying the oil and the dispersants closely.

DR. JOE GRIFFITT, AQUATIC TOXICOLOGIST: We have a saying in toxicology, you know, the dose makes the poison. Anything is toxic in high enough concentrations or for long enough exposure period.

MARCIANO: The lab here is full of last year's samples. Biologists wonder if this year's larvae would come back as healthy.

(on camera): I would think that a little guy like this even if he gets into a little bit of sheen, that's not going to make it easy.

HOFFMAYER: It's not, and most of these were collected in the top 10 meters of the water columns. So most of these larvae are at or near the surface of the water.

MARCIANO: So what does that make you think about when -- when you start to hear about sheen getting into the loop current where these guys are?

HOFFMAYER: It's -- it's not going to be good. I mean, it could have tremendous impact on bluefin, as well as other species.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Even without oil, those little guys, their success rate of survival passed a larvae stage is only 2 percent. So odds are stacked against them to begin with. As far as the whale sharks are concerned, they're considered to be an indicator species, meaning if their numbers go down, that's an indication that the entire health of the ecosystem, the Gulf of Mexico, goes down as well, but we won't know that for some time to come, Tony. It will be weeks, months, years as we follow this ongoing wildlife crisis in the Gulf of Mexico.

HARRIS: We are well past any discussion of tar balls now, aren't we, Rob, where you are?

MARCIANO: Well, they continue to wash onshore, at least in western parts of Mississippi, and they had 200 pounds of them that they put in for testing yesterday. I just called and those test results haven't come back yet, but there's all sorts of sources. You know, there's so much hypersensitivity here and people are looking for stuff and you know, it may have been on the beach for years for all that matter.

I can tell you this, no official reports of at least tested tar balls that are associated with that spill along the Mississippi beach. I have never seen the beaches so clean here in Mississippi and unfortunately for the tourism, there's not a whole lot of that going on. But the waters here are clear and that oil spill is well offshore and it's looking pretty inviting to take a dip out there. I can tell you that right now.

HARRIS: All right, Rob, appreciate it. Thank you, Rob.

Your boss needs that file right now, it is on your computer and you don't have it with you. What do you do? Technology expert -- where is Katie? Katie Linendoll says the answer to your problem is in the cloud. In the cloud? What does that mean? She'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Get you caught up on top stories right now.

Google introduces what it calls multimillion channel television with Google TV. The search giant's first venture into WebTV integration, it rolls out this fall allowing users to get Internet videos, photos and websites on their television screens.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson posted live video from the oil leak in the Gulf on his website, but so many people tried to logon that it caused the feed to go down.

More top stories next hour right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So if you are turning to Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers to lose weight and it hasn't really helped you get fit, maybe turning to a higher power will. Here's our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a Wednesday afternoon at Gospel Water Branch Baptist Church near Augusta, Georgia, but some parishioners aren't here just for the gospel, they are here to lose weight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't drink any sodas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ate more salad. Even I ate raw vegetables.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really made a big effort to walk.

GUPTA: It's called the Fit Body and Soul program, initially part of a study by the Medical College of Georgia and now included in a program for churchgoers and community members alike.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we do not want our health, our weight to hinder us from doing what you have willed for us to do in this world.

YVONNE DENT, FIT BODY & SOUL INSTRUCTOR: We're trying to educate folks on the point of, you know, the high incidence of diabetes, hypertension, cardiac disease, cancer and stuff amongst African- Americans.

GUPTA: The tenets are simple -- diet, exercise, food journaling and community support, all of it resting on the backbone of faith.

DENT: In everything that we do, we always pray, you know? We're here to support each other with prayer and with scripture.

GUPTA: And the results? They've been promising.

RODNEY EDMOND, ASSOCIATE PASTOR: I lost 30 pounds. My wife lost about 25 pounds doing the whole thing. Blood pressure went down, cholesterol level went down, so we were very pleased.

JOYCE RAMSAY, PASTOR'S WIFE: My goal was like seven to eight pounds but I've reached 10 pounds and I've kept it off like a year and a half.

GUPTA: But Pastor Robert Ramsey says there is no secret to their success.

PASTOR ROBERT RAMSEY, WATER BRANCH BAPTIST CHURCH: Food can be a powerful temptation and you need that inner strength to overcome that temptation. So I think every congregation can do it and they should endeavor to do it.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: All right, you can learn how to live better and longer by clicking on CNN.com/fitnation and watch this weekend to learn just how dangerous going without sleep can be. "SANJAY GUPTA MD," Saturday and Sunday mornings 7:30 Eastern.

So your boss needs that file right now. Where is Katie? Where is Katie Linendoll? It is on your computer, but you don't have it with you. There she is. What does that say?

That's what I'm talking about!

KATIE LINENDOLL, TECH EXPERT: It says, "Hi, Tony!" just for you.

HARRIS: You could be on this show every day.

We're going to talk to Katie in just a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You see this here? The Dow -- boy, we're really up here now. We're up 98, 97 points and we started in negative territory and we bounced back nicely. We'll follow these numbers for you.

Have you ever needed to access an important document or computer file, but you didn't have access to your computer? Now according to our tech expert -- you know, you love her -- there she is, Katie Linendoll -- the answer is cloud power.

Katie, what is it? I've got some graphics here, so help me walk through this. What is cloud power?

LINENDOLL: A lot of people hear the word cloud and they automatically think of weather, but actually the word cloud is something you're going to be hearing a lot about in the tech world. And all it is, it's giving you the ability to access any of your data, software, or programs remotely.

So, if you've ever been that guy that's on vacation and his boss calls and needs a file, well, no problem, you can access it from anywhere. And this is actually something not new. If you have a Hotmail or Gmail or Yahoo! Account, you've been using the cloud to access your data anywhere that you go. But the great thing about this is now we're pushing people to really store and share their files that way and also flip between their computers. So it's really ease and accessibility here.

HARRIS: Got you. Now what is this concept here you're going to explain to us. What is -- what is sugarsync.com, and how does this help us?

LINENDOLL: OK, so there are a lot of different programs out there that really give you that ability to not only pay as you go or maybe pay a monthly fee and really can put all of your data up into the cloud so anywhere you are, you can access it remotely. So Sugarsync is a great example of a program out there that again, if you want to put your video or photos, if you're going over to grandma's and you want to get those cute videos of her granddaughter, no problem. Access those via the web and remotely via your desktop. Very cool concept. HARRIS: How about this -- we've got one more here -- Pogoplug?

LINENDOLL: OK. Tony, anybody that -- the person that designed the directions to the Pogoplug deserves a holiday or a medal. If you are not tech savvy and you want to access your files remotely, this is the way to do it, the Pogoplug. You actually sync in, there's four USB ports, you put your hard drive in here and you really create your own personal cloud -- remember, we're talking about the cloud. You create your own personal hub, your own personal cloud in the comfort of your very own home. This device always stays on, it's ecofriendly, but again it's giving you the accessibility anywhere you go.

HARRIS: OK, now Katie, apparently there are a lot of big-name companies jumping into the cloud storage business.

LINENDOLL: Yes.

HARRIS: Run through this list for us.

LINENDOLL: Absolutely.

Well, it's big now. And, again, this is a word you're going to hear of a lot in the tech world. Saving and storing and working off of the cloud. We're going to see Google competing with Amazon. We're going to see Microsoft Office offering cloud services when they launch in June.

So, a ton of different companies, an array of options. We're always going to have that concern with security because we are using third-party servers that we really can't control that data stream. But it is a great way, again, to really remotely have access to anything, anywhere, at any time.

HARRIS: All right. So, we're talking about cloud power. Get with it.

All right, Katie, you're back with us next hour, correct?

LINENDOLL: That's correct.

HARRIS: All right. We will see you next hour. Good stuff. Thank you, lady.

An update to a medical drama that unfolded a year ago, a boy with cancer forced into treatment. Do you remember this story? In the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM, we will find out how he is doing now and how his dad is coping with a cancer diagnosis of his own.

Plus, before you buy anything online, you need to see this segment. Katie's back with a segment that we guarantee will save you money.

We're back in a moment here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Pictures, information, insights you won't find anywhere else. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris, anything can happen.

Dan, let's do this, let's get to the live pictures once again from the wellhead of that huge -- look at this thing. If you just take a look at it for just a -- thousands, right, of gallons of oil? Just spewing out of this -- this wellhead. Gulf of Mexico, live pictures, right now.

If you want to just continue to watch this, probably will just continue to make you angry, you can watch the live feed of the gulf oil spill by going to CNN.com. The live streaming footage is from a mile below the surface. And, again, we've got it up on our website for you. As long as the stream is up, we'll just put it on the web for you.

A new airport opens this weekend in Florida, a fear of oiled beaches could keep tourists at home. A report from CNN photojournalist Ken Tillis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN ROWE, PANAMA CITY BEACH VISITORS BUREAU: We are four days from opening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coming to the end of a construction of a brand-new airport.

RANDY CURTIS, PANAMA CITY BAY COUNTY AIRPORT: The newest airport in the country, the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, scheduled to open on Sunday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies and gentlemen, this is your other vending area.

ROWE: A new airport serving all of northwest Florida, Panama City Beach, the beaches of South Walton, Destin, and all the way over to Tallahassee, Florida. Today, a lot of last-minute activity's going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gentleman behind me is finishing up the final phases of the security on the doors.

CURTIS: It's an approximately 125,000-square-foot building, it'll have seven gates. Airlines operating initially will be Delta, the Delta Connection and Southwest Airlines.

ROWE: Southwest is in training people today. This is the first time Southwest Airlines has serviced northwest Florida and we're very excited to have them as a travel partner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We started this process almost 12 years ago.

ROWE: It is the first new international airport that is opening in the country since 1995 and it is really going to be an economic driver for all of northwest Florida's economy for years to come.

Tourism is the largest industry in Panama City Beach and in Bay County. We have been getting calls ever since the oil spill occurred. You know, wondering about their vacation plans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sure not near as many people want to come down and stay with the oil on the beaches.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We talked a lot about it before we came, but luckily it didn't hit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it hasn't affected us at all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people have canceled vacations, but I've been on Facebook keeping them updated how beautiful and awesome it is.

CURTIS: Well, certainly it's something we've watched very closely and fortunately we've not had any impact ns this part of Florida or the gulf with the oil itself. So, our open for business.

ROWE: This airport is a great opportunity for us to showcase the region.

And you know, we'll get through the oil spill. There's no oil on Panama City Beach or any of the beaches in northwest Florida now, but we do need to continue to get the word out that this is a great place to come to visit and the airport is a means to get there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)