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Upbeat Picture of Economy; BP 'Best Suited' to Handle Oil Disaster; Sarah Ferguson in Tabloid Sting; Lindsey Lohan's Day in Court
Aired May 24, 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 this Monday, May 24th.
The president dispatches two cabinet secretaries to the Gulf today. Patience with BP runs out. The fed threatened to take charge of the disaster.
Really?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We won't quit until we get the job done. I can promise you that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Oil cleanup solutions from CNN iReporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To stop the leak, I think this is what you need, something similar to this, obviously on a larger scale.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Bill Nye, "The Science Guy," looks at the potential of these fixes.
And a former Beverly Hills lawyer says he challenged judges that he says landed him in jail, charged with contempt of court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I ended up here because I did the one thing that no other lawyer in California was willing to do. I took on the corruption of the courts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Fourteen months in solitary confinement.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
Those stories and your comments right here, right now, in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Got to tell you, in spite of all that is going on in Europe, the economy here is moving forward thanks to you, the consumer. And you're spending cash, not credit. Let's take a look at some of the encouraging signs here.
On the jobs front, the April unemployment rate decreased from the previous month in 34 states and the District of Columbia. And on the housing front, new numbers out this morning show existing home sales rose 7.6 percent in April, boosted by those federal tax credits. The jump was even bigger than economists expected.
OK. A report out today paints a more update and upbeat picture of the economy in the year ahead.
Christine Romans of our Money team joins us from New York with that part of the story.
Talk us through the findings in this report, Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. This is from the National Association of Business Economics. These are economists who work with companies and trade associations and universities. And they have their finger on the pulse of what businesses are thinking, Tony.
What they say is they think that there has been a recovery for about a year, almost a year, and that it is a solid recovery that will continue. And here's what it will look like.
They see stronger growth ahead. They see improved consumer spending. Tony, they say that, frankly, the worst fears of a very, very -- too thrifty consumer were overblown, and that people, when they feel a little more comfortable, will spend their money.
They see robust jobs gains. What does that mean, robust? I want to be clear -- 9.4 percent unemployment by the end of the year, 8.5 percent by year end of 2011.
That doesn't mean we're back to normal by any stretch of the imagination. It's going to take a lot of robust job gains to dig out of that hole. But they think the jobs gains are going to come.
And, Tony, they say businesses are going to drive growth. Here's why.
For two years, you had companies basically not filling their shelves, not investing in things, hunkered down, playing complete defense. And now, as the economy bottoms and turns, they have to make up for that and they have to start stocking up their shelves again. So they think business investment will be a driver of this -- Tony.
HARRIS: Well, Christine, we have seen and you have documented for us that as this economy starts to improve a bit, we still see employers slow to hire new workers.
ROMANS: Yes.
HARRIS: They will extend hours of their current employees or they will hire part-timers, contract workers.
ROMANS: Yes.
HARRIS: Does this report suggest that we're going to get some more full-time hiring with benefits?
ROMANS: When these economists are asked what their concerns are, one of their concerns is that. Another concern is the housing turn. These same economists thought that housing would have been stronger by now, and actually underestimated what the first part of the year would look like. They thought we would have shaken off some of these woes.
And they are also concerned about the big deficits that we have. This is a big structural issue that could hold back growth in the future.
Tony, over the next five years, they are looking, I guess, on average of about 2.8 percent growth. I mean, that's not off to the races, blockbuster growth. But coming off of what we have come from, they call this solid.
I would call it solid with asterisks, because there are still a lot of risks in the economy. But they say that the worst of the recession was June, 2009. This is not the group that officially dates the recession, Tony. These are business economists, but that's what they think.
HARRIS: OK. Christine, good stuff. All right. Thank you.
ROMANS: Sure.
HARRIS: Other big stories that are on our radar this morning.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Beijing today pressing the Chinese to get tough with North Korea. Investigators say evidence shows the North torpedoed a South Korean warship in March. Clinton says she backs South Korea's decision to take the matter to the U.N. and cut trade with the North.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Today, we face another serious challenge provoked by the sinking of the South Korean ship. So we must work together again to address this challenge and advance our shared objectives for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Japan's new prime minister is feeling the heat over the U.S. Marine base in Okinawa. Well, as you can hear here, protesters greet him with chants of "Go home!" They're angry after he reneged on a campaign promise to move the base off the island. Instead, it will be relocated to a less populated spot on Okinawa. The Duchess of York caught with her hand in the cookie jar. A tabloid reporter posing as a wealthy businessman paid Sarah Ferguson $58,000 for a meeting with ex-husband Prince Andrew with the promise of more to come.
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SARAH FERGUSON, DUCHESS OF YORK: If we want to do a big deal with Andrew, then that's the big one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. Of course. OK. No, of course.
So you need 500,000 in pounds?
FERGUSON: But that's in wire transfer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That has to be in wire transfer. I mean, obviously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, Fergie says she is broke, but she adds that was no excuse.
Reaction now from the streets of London.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An absolute disgrace. Those people are in positions of power, exploited for their own gains. So, very bad news. I feel sorry for her and for the queen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's outrageous. I mean, really, you know, everyone's short of money, but you wouldn't sell a story like that, would you? I can't believe that he's actually still talking to her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like the way the papers behaved. Some of the time, I think it's plainly a setup. And she's not perfect, but most of us aren't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have sympathy for her?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In some senses, yes. I think she's being a bit silly, but, yes, she has plainly been caught on the wrong end of some fairly vindictive newspapers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: A live report from London coming up for you shortly.
Tired of the blame game in the Gulf Coast oil spill, both BP and the federal government promise to get it fixed at any cost.
And let's take a look at the numbers. New York Stock Exchange right now, we got off to a pretty rocky start, in negative territory. We're still down. Down 40.
We're following these numbers for you throughout the morning, throughout the day, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: Frustration grows along the Gulf Coast as more oil oozes into the fragile Louisiana marshes. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar plan to fly over affected areas today. They have scheduled a news conference next hour, 12:15 Eastern Time.
BP's latest effort to cap the leak is on track to happen Wednesday morning. The top kill procedure involves pumping thick fluid into the leak, then cementing the well.
As the oil slick pushes farther into Louisiana's marshes, state and local officials are trying to go to sand berms to better protect the coastline. A BP executive defends the company's effort to stop the oil leak. The interior secretary says he is not convinced BP knows what it is doing, and the federal government could push them out of the way.
But on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," BP's chief operating officer said the company is best suited to handle the disaster.
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DOUG SUTTLES, COO, BP: The technology that's out there is very specialized, it's very precise. We are the biggest of the international oil companies. We have the biggest deep water capability. We do more of this than anyone else.
We've got the best contractors in the world. We pulled in the best scientists from the government and from across our industry. So I don't think anyone else could do better than we are.
I know that that's frustrating to hear. And our performance to this point I wish was better. I wish this was done. But we're doing everything we can, and I don't actually believe anyone could do any better, unfortunately.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Some time in the next couple of days you're going to try a top kill pump, some mud, and then potentially cement down into the drill hole to try to stop it up. What's the likelihood that that's going to work?
SUTTLES: The challenge here is, of course, what we don't know, the details that you can't measure when something's on the seabed. I've been asked this before, and people have asked me, on a scale of 1 to 10, what would I say? It's not a 10, it's not that certain.
It's above a 5, in my own personal view. I think a 6 or a 7.
We're going to give it every shot. We're going to make sure everything is ready before we go, because we need it to work. We're going to make sure every piece of equipment, every piece of planning is done, every resource is available. And right now, our forecast has that happening first thing on Wednesday morning.
ROBERTS: If the top kill doesn't work, what's left other than these relief wells that are being drilled? And they won't be ready until August.
SUTTLES: Well, we do still have some remaining options, both to stop the flow and contain it. If the top kill procedure doesn't actually work, the next step we'll take is the next containment device, which is tool we'll place over the top of the riser. We'll cut and remove the riser where it comes out of the top of the blowout preventer, and put the next containment device, we believe, quite tightly over that piece of pipe which we think will capture even more of the flow than we're doing now.
And then we still have a number of other options to kill the well. Those include the junk shot technique you have heard about. But there are also techniques where we could put another blowout preventer on top of the existing one.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: OK. Many of you are sharing your ideas on how to clean up the oil spill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you get an oil spill, as you can see, it is simulating an oil spill on the water. And you just sprinkle some sand on it. As you can see, immediately, the sand is absorbing the oil and bringing the oil down to the bottom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Huh. How about that? Bill Nye "The Science Guy" looks at some of your iReports and whether the ideas will actually work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. A new royal scandal brought to you by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and former daughter-in-law to Britain's queen.
CNN's Atika Shubert is in London for us.
Atika, good to see you. What was Fergie doing? And why is she in hot water for it?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was a pretty incredible sting operation performed by undercover reporters at the tabloid "News of the World." And basically, they posed as businessmen wanting access to Prince Andrew, who is a special trade representative.
And they offered cash to Fergie, to Sarah Ferguson, if she guaranteed that access. She wanted about 500,000 pounds. That's about $700,000, and she wanted 40,000 pounds, about $60,000, up front in hard cash. And she got it.
Here's video of what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FERGUSON: If we want to do a big deal with Andrew, then that's the big one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. Of course. OK. No, of course.
So you need 500,000 in pounds?
FERGUSON: But that's in wire transfer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That has to be in wire transfer. I mean, obviously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: It's pretty incredible video of her gleefully receiving that money piled on top of that coffee table there. But the worst part, perhaps, is the fact that she told the businessmen that Prince Andrew knew about her discussions and supported her demands for money.
That is something the royal family has flatly denied. And Sarah Ferguson has now issued a statement saying, "I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused. It is true that my financial situation is under stress. However, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment, and I am very sorry that this has happened."
She went further to say, "I can confirm that the Duke of York was not aware or involved in any of the discussions that occurred. I am sincerely sorry for my actions. The duke has made a significant contribution to his business role over the last 10 years and has always acted with complete integrity."
Now, for Sarah Ferguson, this could be the final nail in the coffin in terms of her strained relationship with the queen, as you can imagine -- Tony.
HARRIS: Yes, absolutely. And let me do this -- let me approach it this way. Let's put aside the money she's earned from endorsements and writing books. Whatever she did with the money, she did with the money.
But how can she be broke? She is still a royal. Doesn't she get some kind of a stipend?
SHUBERT: She does. In her divorce settlement, which was for about two million pounds, which was about $4 million then, she had a sizeable settlement. And she also gets a certain amount each year, although it's really not that much compared to other celebrity and royal divorce settlements. But the thing is, she has this high-flying lifestyle. It's first class everywhere, it's parties, it's yachts, it's all this kind of stuff, not to mention the fact that her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, also have these high-flying lifestyles. So, it's easy to see that the money is being spent, but nothing is really coming in.
You remember she had that Weight Watchers -- that contract?
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
SHUBERT: That actually ended. Yes, that ended just recently. That was $2 million a year coming in. That's no longer there.
So, ,clearly, the money has just been squandered, and now she's looking for ways to earn money. And apparently, she came up with this one, which is pretty embarrassing.
HARRIS: Yes, it really is.
And what about the $58,000? She's going to return that, right?
SHUBERT: Well, presumably, yes. She's actually in the states now. She landed in L.A. last night.
The last time she had a scandal like this, she flew to the U.S., remade her image. She may be hoping to do that again this time, but I don't know if that's going to be possible -- Tony.
HARRIS: Yes, it's going to be tough.
All right. Atika Shubert for us in London.
Atika, good to see you.
The healing power of hoops, it is giving school kids in Haiti something to smile about.
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HARRIS: A former Beverly Hills lawyer says he challenged judges and was charged with contempt of court. He has spent 14 months in solitary confinement.
CNN Special Investigations Unit is on the case.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS (voice-over): Pictures, information, insight you won't find anywhere else. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris -- anything can happen.
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HARRIS: A former Beverly Hills attorney sitting in Los Angeles County jail for more than a year. He says it's because he crossed L.A. judges. This morning, the case of Richard Fine has reached the Supreme Court.
Abbie Boudreau has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A 70-year-old man sits in this jail. Solitary confinement. But he's never been charged with a crime.
(on camera): We're here to interview a man by the name of Richard Fine. He considers himself a political prisoner. He's been here at the L.A. County jail now for 14 months.
(voice-over): Before the orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, Fine was a Beverly Hills attorney known for his bow tie and big smile.
VICTORIA FINE, RICHARD FINE'S DAUGHTER: When I wake up in the morning and I remember that my dad is in jail --
MARYELLEN FINE, RICHARD FINE'S WIFE: It feels like a bad dream.
V. FINE: Oh, I mean --
M. FINE: A reoccurring bad dream.
He got to meet King Hussein.
BOUDREAU: He's a former diplomat with a Ph.D. in international law, a taxpayer's advocate who once worked for the U.S. Department of Justice. But in recent years, Fine went after L.A. County Superior Court judges. He says that's what landed him in jail more than one year ago.
(on camera): We just finished setting up for the interview. And he should be on his way down here shortly.
Well, I'm Abbie. Nice to meet you.
RICHARD FINE, FMR. BEVERLY HILLS ATTORNEY: A pleasure meeting you.
The reason that I'm here is retaliation of the judges.
BOUDREAU: For the last decade, Fine has filed appeal after appeal against L.A. County Superior Court judges. He says the judges accept what he calls bribes from L.A. County. Fine claims these bribes create a bias, a conflict of interest.
(voice-over): That, Fine says, means judges are unlikely to rule against the county when it's involved in a lawsuit. But the county calls the extra cash supplemental benefits, just a way to attract and retain qualified judges in a high-cost city.
R. FINE: I ended up here because I did the one thing that no other lawyer in California was willing to do. I took on the corruption of the courts.
BOUDREAU: But court documents tell a different story about a lawyer who filed frivolous lawsuits against judges and lost, and who then refused to turn over documents and answer questions when ordered to pay the other side's attorney fees. When Fine refused to comply with a court order, Judge David Yaffe (ph) found Fine in contempt of court.
R. FINE: They figure they're going to throw me in jail, and that way they feel that they can stop me.
BOUDREAU: The technical term is "coercive confinement," jail until a person follows a judge's order.
STERLING NORRIS, ATTORNEY, JUDICIAL WATCH: He's probably done more time than most burglars, robbers and dope dealers.
BOUDREAU: Sterling Norris, a lawyer for Judicial Watch, knows all about Fine's case. In 2008, he won a case that found county payments to judges illegal under California law. The legislature quickly changed the law.
NORRIS: I can't imagine from the judge's standpoint tolerating this. We have a 71-year-old attorney jailed for over a year on coercive confinement, and that is way beyond the pale.
BOUDREAU: L.A. County Jail spokesman Steve Whitmore says he's never seen a coercive confinement case like this.
(on camera): So this is unusual?
STEVE WHITMORE, L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: The length of time, I would say, absolutely, yes. We now have 4,500 in just the men's central jail, most of which are felonies, most of which are violent offenders.
BOUDREAU: But you have someone like Richard Fine, who is a nonviolent offender, --
WHITMORE: Absolutely.
BOUDREAU: -- who is sharing space --
WHITMORE: Absolutely.
BOUDREAU: -- with all of these felons.
WHITMORE: Could we use that cell, absolutely.
BOUDREAU: Are you a threat to society?
R. FINE: Absolutely not. I'm the nicest guy you could ever meet. What I am is a threat to those people who are corrupt and who are violating our constitutional rights.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Fine's decade-long campaign against the judges eventually led to his disbarment last year. Joe Carlucci (ph) was the lead prosecutor for the California State Bar. Carlucci says, whenever Fine lost a case he would appeal and argue the judges were corrupt.
JOE CARLUCCI, CALIFORNIA STATE BAR PROSECUTOR: What he ultimately did was to delay proceedings to level false accusations against judges. All of the lawsuits were found to have been frivolous and meritless.
BOUDREAU (on camera): He had 40 years before that where he had no problems at all.
CARLUCCI: Right. But that's almost like , you know, a murderer saying, but what about all the people I didn't kill? I mean, the fact is, for the last seven years he had been nothing but a menace to the judicial system.
BOUDREAU: We first reached out to Judge Yaffe (ph) for the other side of the story, but he refused to talk to us while this case is still pending.
Now, the court's lawyer is on record saying Richard Fine holds the key to his jail cell. If he just turns over the documents that the court is asking for, his course of confinement will end.
(voice-over): Fine's family, even in the face of home foreclosure, supports him.
M. FINE: My husband has always been the straightest arrow, hard- working, very successful attorney and for this to happen to him is just unbelievable.
R. FINE: I will look back with tears for all the time that I might have missed with my family.
V. FINE: I want people to know that my dad is a good man.
FINE: OK. Take care.
V. FINE: Every day is another day where I think, maybe I'm going to get a phone call that says dad's coming home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: Richard Fine had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would consider, among other things whether Judge Yaffe should have removed himself from the contempt proceedings because of extra county benefits the judge received. But within the last couple of hours we learned the high court declined to hear the case offering no explanation. This is not good news for Richard Fine or his family.
HARRIS: It's already been 14 months.
BOUDREAU: Yes.
HARRIS: So how long could this go on?
BOUDREAU: It could go on indefinitely. In some cases there are time limits, but not in this case. Unless he answers the judge's questions and hands over the financial documents that he's asking for he could remain in jail for a long, long time.
And, Tony, what's interesting is when I asked his family -- his wife and daughter -- I said if he hands over the documents it's over. Don't you want him to do that? They said, if he did that he would be giving up everything he fought so long for. He would be a destroyed man, is how they put it.
HARRIS: Does he have to be in confinement?
BOUDREAU: Well, he's in solitary because -- jail officials tell us the reason he's in solitary confinement is because it's for his own protection. If he was in general public people may think, oh, he's a person who has money, we could go after him, we could hurt him. He's there for his own protection.
HARRIS: Wow, what a story. Abbie, appreciate it. Good to see you. Thank you.
BOUDREAU: Thank you.
HARRIS: Nashville trying to recover from historic floods. Many of those forced from their homes still can't go back. We'll check in with a Nashville mom just trying to keep things together. We're back in a moment here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: We should tell you that astronauts above the Space Shuttle Atlantis gave the ship's heat shield a final check before Wednesday's return to Earth. Atlantis separated from the space station yesterday after dropping off fresh solar batteries, tons of equipment and supplies. This is the last mission for Atlantis. Only two shuttle flights remain.
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HARRIS: Hey, there she is. Lindsay Lohan, the actress/singer. Have you been following the story? She's going into court. She's got a court date this morning. You know, the actress from "The Parent Trap"? It was on this weekend on my cable system. I don't know if it was for you. You look at that Lindsay Lohan as a child -- right? Obviously -- and this one and you wonder what the heck happened?
She missed a court mandated alcohol education class, as the story goes, because her passport was stolen while she was in Cannes promoting a film there. Apparently, the judge who was hearing this case is taking time away from a week of vacation or just time off to be here to take care of this. So there is a possibility, I suppose, that she should spend time in jail as a result of what's been going on in this case.
So our Brooke Anderson is following the story for us in California, Los Angeles, and we'll check in with Brooke in a moment. But had to get those pictures on for you. The actress Lindsay Lohan arriving in court. Man, what's happened to her life?
It's been more than three weeks since severe storms hammered middle Tennessee unleashing catastrophic floods that devastated Nashville. Thousands were displaced from their homes including Sherrie Yates, a mother of five whose home and car were left under water. And Sherrie joins us now.
Sherrie, good to see you. How are you?
SHERRIE YATES, NASHVILLE FLOOD VICTIM: I'm doing much better. Thank you.
HARRIS: How are you doing in terms of getting your life on track again, getting a place to stay and getting your kids settled and getting back to their lives and bringing some sense of normalcy to things? I know it will be a long time.
YATES: Yes. I'm doing pretty good. I was able to purchase a vehicle this weekend. So that gives me -- you know, I've got some type of control over my life.
HARRIS: So are you staying with family and friends now?
YATES: No. I am still staying at a local hotel here in Nashville, the Guest House Inn. I'm in the process of trying to find some place to move to.
HARRIS: What's the process of finding a place more permanent than that to live in?
YATES: You know, just checking out different places. I have five girls, so I'm going to need a large house with a lot of bathrooms in it. I did look at something over the weekend. I'm trying to decide if I want to take that or not.
HARRIS: So we have a picture here showing your house. Oh, boy. Look at this. Describe that scene, that picture of all the flood water and what it did to your place?
YATES: Well, it just destroyed the inside of my place. The water had gotten up, I would say, from about five feet inside. So all the furniture. I was amazed to see my refrigerator and my washer and dryer floating around the house. Just from the outside it doesn't look like too much damage, but the whole inside with all of its contents were destroyed.
HARRIS: You know the mayor of Nashville says the city is planning to buy a number of properties -- as many as 2,500. Do you expect to get some help here? I know it is probably more of a landlord function than a Sherrie Yates function. Do you expect help?
YATES: I'm hoping I will.
HARRIS: You mentioned you have five girls.
YATES: Yes, I do.
HARRIS: How are they doing?
YATES: They are doing much better. They were able to return to school. One graduated from high school yesterday. So you know how kids can get over things. When we're alone and they're quiet, they will bring up about the flood. But right now they were excited about the friends they made at the shelter and then just people have been so wonderful to them.
HARRIS: But shelter life is really not the kind of life you want.
YATES: No, it's not. But immediately after the flood my kids were hungry, they were wet. We really didn't have any place else to go. So the shelter did serve a good function in our lives. I'm glad that we are away from it, but I'm glad it was there, too.
HARRIS: Widen out the view for us a little bit. What is it for folks all over the country, what is it like now in Nashville? Are things -- I hate to say getting back to normal. That's a cliche.
YATES: They are. It's not quite back to normal because we have so much construction going on here now.
HARRIS: Yes.
YATES: Everywhere you look somebody is building. We have cleaning crews everywhere. You know, just the awesome damage that was done here. But it is a busy place now.
HARRIS: How are your emotions? The whole idea of, you know, recovering from this and putting the pieces back together, we hear it all the time. Are you OK emotionally?
YATES: I am not really sure if I'm OK or not. I have just had to keep going. But I think that when all of this is over and I'm in my own house again, yes, I'm going to probably just have a complete meltdown. But for now you don't really have the time to, you know, worry about stuff like that. You're just trying to do what you can to survive.
HARRIS: Stay strong for yourself --
YATES: Thank you.
HARRIS: -- and for your girls. Thanks for your time.
YATES: Thank you.
HARRIS: Our pleasure.
Let's get you caught up on our top stories now.
Developing out of Yemen, two American tourists, their driver and translator kidnapped by tribal gunmen today outside the capital of Sanaa. They are reportedly demanding the release of a jailed tribesman in exchange for the tourists.
Anger is growing along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and in Washington over BP's apparent inability to stop a massive oil spill. BP says it is doing the best it can to cap the leak. The latest plan is to try to plug the well, try to plug it shut on Wednesday.
A family outing in California's Angeles National Forest turns into an all-out rescue operation. The family's ten-month-old puppy swam across a river. A 16-year-old boy went after him and they both got stuck trying to climb out of the canyon.
Do we have live pictures inside the courtroom? All right, this is the court proceeding we mentioned. The actress/singer Lindsay Lohan in court now. Let me find the information here. Maybe we should have a quick listen. Let's do that.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: -- is filmed in Texas. As your honor knows, the Scram (ph) headquarters is in Long Beach. So we want to comply. Ms. Lohan wishes to comply. We are just hoping that instead of a Scram bracelet she can submit to drug and alcohol testing randomly in whatever manner the court sets forth.
JUDGE MARSHA REVEL, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT: Well I do have a question. And that is -- she needs to submit to random drug testing here, not in Texas. There is no excuse if she's in Texas to say I can't show up because then it's not random. So I'm afraid she's going to have to delay that for now because that would prevent her from complying with the court's order.
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: I believe that there is probably a way that would satisfy the court and counsel --
(AUDIO GAP)
HARRIS: Oh, we lost the feed. Let me know when that pops back up. I think we want to stay with that a bit. It sounds like we are getting down to the nitty-gritty. We'll take a break and come back with more.
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HARRIS: Once again the actress Lindsay Lohan in real trouble here. In court right now in Los Angeles. Let's take that picture live. There she is. You know, you have probably seen the pictures of her. Apparently, she's turned into a bit of a -- all right, all right. Well, let's listen.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS) REVEL: -- to your lawyer, but you must call to set up the appointment and you must keep the appointment. Failure to show for random drug testing is the same as the dirty test to the court. So -- and that's going to be once a week and the court wishes to be notified immediately from the probation officer if there is a mistest or a positive test.
You are to attend all scheduled alcohol classes at the rate of one a week. The only excuse for rescheduling an alcohol class will be if you were notified to have to show up for random testing. The random testing will supersede the alcohol program and then you can reschedule for the alcohol program.
Do you understand and accept the conditions if you remain out on bail?
LINDSAY LOHAN, ACTRESS: Yes, your honor.
REVEL: Counsel join (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: I do. Yes, I do, your honor.
Your honor indicated to attend all scheduled classes at the rate of one time per week. In the event that the program thinks that it would be beneficial or advantageous to attend more than once a week, will the court accept that?
REVEL: Only if she's doing extra ones. I'll tell you why, this court previously ordered her to attend once per week no matter what. And I don't know if the program gave her an excuse not to, but I'm not the program and she's to follow the court's order.
So if she wants to do extra ones, she can do extra ones. The court's order is one a week. I have been told in the past that there's a reason to do one a week as opposed to all in one week and get them over with to get more benefit out of it. So we'll keep it one a week. It's not up to the program, it's up to the court.
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: Is it possible that the program sends a report to the court -- I'm sure you're going to order that the program send a notice to the court --
REVEL: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: -- that the program could indicate the days that she's supposed to attend and whether she attended those dates.
REVEL: Yes, I would also like to know from the program, there was an indication of previous rescheduled dates. I'd like to know, perhaps you can ask the program to include it in the next report, the dates that she was supposed to come in that they scheduled and the reason she gave for not showing up for those dates and having to reschedule. That would be helpful to the court. UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: Your Honor, I have previously requested the court and I was review the transcript of May 20th of 2010 where the excuse by counsel was that her client had lost her passport and was actually en route to this courthouse for her scheduled hearing on the 20th. And I had indicated and I don't know if the court granted it because it doesn't appear to be in the transcript, that I would like to see some indication that Miss Lohan did purchase tickets and was intending to be here because should the court set a hearing in violation of her probation, one of things the People would allege is that she's supposed to be here and wasn't here and the excuse she gave wasn't valid.
Clearly, if she had tickets, that's fine. I know Mrs. Chapman (ph) has indicated to me upon her representation she had tickets, but I would like to go a little further. Since I can't call her to the stand, I would like to see something in good faith that she actually had tickets to be here in court. And that what prevented her in fact was the loss of the passport.
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: Your honor, I have proof of that here. I'm happy to show that to the court and counsel. Not only do I have proof that in fact she had a ticket for May 19th, but also the appointment with the embassy to get a duplicate passport, I have the duplicate passport here, I'm happy to show all of those things to Miss Myers (ph).
REVEL: OK, why don't you make a copy for Miss Myers, you can make a copy for the court and I can look at it between now and the next setting. But the reasons for that probation violation hearing had to do with the court's previous order that should must attend once a week. And I can find that transcript here for just a minute. And even the minute orders said without fail once per week.
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: And just briefly, Your Honor, in that regard --
REVEL: So we're going to take that matter up at the formal hearing to go into the details. But I just want to make sure that she understands it's the court orders that prevail. And I can read parts of that at the next setting. We need to pick a date for the formal violation hearing.
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: I did want to indicate very briefly, Miss Lohan's uncle, her mother's brother, died last week and that was the reason that she missed the session --
REVEL: You're going into it now. Did she go to the funeral? I'm sorry. Did she go to the funeral?
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: She did not.
REVEL: OK, anyway, let's not put on evidence from the probation violation hearing today. That's what the formal hearing is for so that witnesses can be presented. It's the People's burden of proof. I expect you to have witnesses in court and we'll go from there. The date convenient for all parties? UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: Is July 6th OK?
REVEL: We discussed that informally previously. I'm just asking counsel is July 6th still good?
UNIDENTIFIED LAWYER: That's fine, your honor.
HARRIS: OK, we will get a complete recap of what has transpired in court with our Brooke Anderson at the top of the hour right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
A quick break and we're back that moment.
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HARRIS: A Facebook response to a tidal wave of criticism over its new privacy controls that a lot of folks say are anything but. We'll check in with our tech expert, Katie Linendoll, in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
Plus, Lindsay Lohan's day in court. She's back in Los Angeles to face a judge and the consequences of missing a mandatory hearing last week on her probation for a drunk driving conviction.
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