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Awaiting Top Kill Results; Stew of Oil in Gulf and Dead Wildlife; Workers Getting Sick from Spill; Reputed Drug Lord Still at Large; Spill Felt Far Inland at Restaurants; Jokes Gush at BP's Expense; Tracking Illegal Immigrants & Crime; Star Swallowing Planet

Aired May 27, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in for Kyra Phillips this morning.

Here's what we're working on. Six ugly, nasty. The gulf oil spill up close and too close to shore.

The hunt for a reputed drug lord has turned some Jamaican streets into a battlefield. We'll tell you if your vacation plans there will be affected.

And a hungry star is gobbling up a planet. The Hubble telescope snapped the pictures.

The next several hours will be agonizing. All along the Gulf Coast as BP officials try to determine whether the top kill maneuver worked. The oil company says it could know the answer by late this afternoon.

This is a live picture right now of the underwater well. And as you can see, it is still gushing. At the same time you're also seeing some maneuvering of the submersibles that are used here.

There is also -- there has also been a -- a disturbing development in the cleanup. Four workers have fallen ill and are being treated for nausea. As a precaution all 125 commercial vessels in Breton Sound have been pulled out.

Meanwhile, oil rig workers and their families will be on Capitol Hill today. There are no fewer than four congressional hearings scheduled for today.

And later on today, President Obama is expected to announce tighter safety regulations for offshore drilling. He will also call for tougher inspections.

We'll, of course, be covering all of these angles and more. But let's begin with an update on the top kill maneuver.

CNN's David Mattingly joins us now by phone with the very latest -- David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Fredricka, BP is telling us that there is really no way they can tell right now if this is going to be successful or not.

What they are saying to us is that everything is going just as they had planned but they say please don't jump to any conclusions about successor failure. In fact, they are telling us that as we watch those plumes coming out of the leaks in the riser, we have, at times, watched them turn from the -- what we've been accustomed to, the black oil and the white natural gas spewing out that at times it has changed consistency.

They say that is the drilling mud that they are pumping in that is coming out the top. This is something it's supposed to be doing. It's displacing that oil, pushing it back down into the well. But they say, again, don't draw any conclusions about successor failure based on what you see coming out of the top of the pipe.

They are looking at possibly having something to report. They think it might be about 24 hours after they start this, which would put it sometime this afternoon. Just to say, yes, this is working or no, we've got to keep going with this.

But at this point, BP says everything is going as planned with this top kill.

WHITFIELD: So, David, are they saying how much mud and what happens after the placement of this mud?

MATTINGLY: After the mud -- after they've successfully pumped it in to the point where the pressure exceeds the oil and pushes this oil back down, then they are going to inject cement into the system and cap this well off.

Now this is going to be a temporary patch to stop the flow of oil until they finish that relief well that they have started. And that's going to be completed and that will be a permanent solution that will occur sometime possibly in August.

But for now, this is the first step toward ending that leak that has been spewing oil in the Gulf of Mexico for over a month now.

WHITFIELD: All right, David Mattingly, thanks so much for joining us.

Meantime, here's a grim reality check. Even if the flow of oil were magically shut off at this very instant, the disaster is still huge. A mere 12 miles off the Louisiana coastline, there is a gruesome stew of oily sludge and dead wildlife. And it is headed toward land.

Here is CNN's Rob Marciano.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) where it's super thick. I've never seen anything like it. Unreal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man, look at that streak. Look at the holes off of those. It's thick, thick, thick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like mud.

MARCIANO: That's unreal. This is ugly. This is really ugly.

(Voice-over): Ugly is definitely an understatement. And we're only 12 miles from shore.

(On camera): By far, the thickest oil we've seen yet. This is just disturbing. Check it out. I mean the oil -- layers of oil actually building on each other in a putty like form. This definitely is not dispersed. It's barely (INAUDIBLE) at all. It almost looks like it's fresh, fresh from the pipe.

(Voice-over): Some areas of the oil are thicker than others. This is only the western edge of the slick.

(On camera): We are still not even 50 miles from the site of the spill. Unbelievable.

(Voice-over): Our little armada pauses.

(On camera): We're out here with five other boats. And all of them have this nasty oil stuck to the hull. That's going to be a chore getting off. This boat just across the way, those guys are lowering a submersible camera to take a look at what the water and oil mixture looks like below the surface.

(Voice-over): Boats are carrying scientists peering into and under the oil. Dr. Ian McDonald takes samples back to his lab in Florida while Dr. Doug Inkley patrols for the National Wildlife Federation.

A dead eel floats toward our boat. It too is taken as a sample now headed to the lab for a closer look. Minutes later, something else in the water. This one is alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That animal might be in a lot of trouble. You normally don't see sharks like this running around on the surface but this animal looks like it's in distress.

MARCIANO: The shark dives as we approach. Along the way, we see other sea creatures struggling in the oil like this baby crab. What's on the surface is easy to see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The animals like this that are out in the open ocean and we don't see them washed up. How do you assess that? You have a shark that dies in the water here and sinks to the bottom. Where's the assessment on that? How do you assess that?

MARCIANO (on camera): Can't count it.

(Voice-over): Much like the oil still spewing from the well, the amount of wildlife lost here may never be known.

Rob Marciano, CNN, Venice, Louisiana. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Meanwhile, while all that is taking place, President Obama is clamping down on oil drilling. He is extending a moratorium on drill permits for new deep water wells for the next six months.

He is also expected to cut off new drilling in the Arctic until next year at the very earliest The president is planning to make announcements at a news conference later today following a 30-day safety review conducted by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, that is.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer will be bringing that coverage to you live beginning at 12:45 Eastern Time.

All right, workers hired to mop up the oil spill say they are getting sick. They are reporting nausea, dizziness, headaches and chest pains. So the Coast Guard has yanked commercial fishing boats -- all 125 of them -- from cleanup efforts in Louisiana's Breton Sound.

Several crew members have been hospitalized including one worker who was airlifted and at least one sick worker's friend says he saw this coming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINT GUIDRY, FRIEND OF SICK FISHERMEN: I met with Secretary Napolitano and Secretary Salazar day before yesterday in Galliano and I warned them in a written, signed testimony that this would happen. And it took two days and there was no action from them. So consequently, this happened.

I called British Petroleum liars and killers. They are on the most dangerous place that they could have possibly been. They did not afford them the protection of respirators or supplied air, which I have been asking for for almost three weeks. And this is the consequence.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So now a Louisiana congressman is asking Washington to step in and set up mobile clinics along the gulf.

Let's bring in chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

So, Sanjay, we're already some of the fishermen who have volunteered to help in this effort. They're feeling nausea and a host of other things. Can this directly be related to the fumes of the oil?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: But, you know, there are precedents for this sort of thing when it comes to oil. Certainly oil mixed with dispersants, you know, we had things to look at in the past, including Valdez where you had similar sorts of reports. Both in the short term and then, Fred, in the longer term, we hear about people developing more serious, more chronic lung problems. There were lawsuits. Those lawsuits were settled ultimately.

So we -- you know, we have some precedents. What we're really talking about obviously is the air quality. And you have to compare and distinguish it between on the shore and then out in the boats as well.

Some of these -- this is an area where the cleanup effort is actually going on, about 50 miles out there. And you know, you could see a lot of these workers out here. They are not wearing masks, Fred. Some of them don't have gloves.

So whether or not they should be wearing masks, because they are so close to the oil spill itself, possibly. You know, we're talking about things like volatile organic compounds which can potentially be a problem. These are all types of chemicals that are just in the air. Breathing it, again, in the short term can be very problematic.

As it gets closer and closer to shore, that's where you do have some air monitoring actually going on. And this area, the air -- at least according to the EPA -- seems to be much better. But it's hard again to compare that and distinguish it as compared to 50 miles out in the middle of the ocean.

WHITFIELD: OK. So then once this oil does start to encroach upon, say, the beaches, we know that it's already trapped in a lot of the marshland area.

GUPTA: Right.

WHITFIELD: The beaches where you do have people who would kind of collect in large numbers, how might they be affected by this?

GUPTA: And you see that here. And as -- in Rob's report right now -- Rob Marciano's report, you see how much of that sludge still looks very much like sludge. And you said it looked like it was coming straight out of the well.

What happens as that oil moves from way out in the ocean closer to shore is that while it can still look like this and even have some of these tar balls like these over here, you tend to lose a lot of those volatile organic compounds.

Again that's not a name you need to remember but that's the stuff that gets into the air. That's the stuff that can potentially be problematic to the lungs.

Looks bad. Shouldn't be touching it like this, Fred, without a glove on because it can cause even allergic reactions on the hands. But as far as the lungs go, the long-term problem with lungs, obviously, much less of a risk if you are actually on the shore.

You can see somebody working with it. Here, you have the full suit, the gloves, obviously. That's the way you should be dealing with that oil, those tar balls, even on the shore.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And of course, you know, fishermen are not fishing right there along the Louisiana and Mississippi coast but people still have their concerns about fish that do come from the gulf. All kinds of seafood that comes from the gulf.

GUPTA: Yes, and you know, we've been asking the same questions. And the answer that we get back about that is the same. And that is that you're not going to see seafood from the gulf in grocery stores for some time to come.

They've sort of stopped that process of taking seafood from that area. So you're going to see less seafood. Obviously a lot of our seafood in particular types, including shrimp, come from this area. But they're trying to stop that chain right now until they can better assess what the impact on sea life is going to be.

It's going to be tremendous. I think anybody can figure that out.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All very sobering. All right, thanks so much, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Appreciate that.

GUPTA: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Meantime, South Korea is flexing its military muscles. An anti-submarine exercise gets a verbal shot fired from the North Koreans.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And Fred, we had some record- high temperatures yesterday across parts of the northeast. But that's not the only thing heating up. The Atlantic. Yes, we've got the NOAA Atlantic hurricane season forecast coming up later this morning.

It's all straight ahead. You're watching CNN. See you in a few.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: North Korea today matched South Korea's show of strength with harsh words reacting to the South's anti-submarine exercise. The North threatened all-out war.

Tensions have ratcheted up on the Korean Peninsula after South Korea claimed last week that North Korea had torpedoed one of its warships. Forty-six sailors were killed on the ship back in March.

And there is a new and sobering statistic from the Department of Homeland Security. The number and pace of attempted terror attacks against the U.S. over the past nine months have surpassed the number of attempts from any previous one-year period.

That finding comes in a DHS intelligence note which warns terror groups are expected to try attacks inside the U.S. with increased frequency.

Noting the failed Times Square bombing case, the report says, quote, "We have to operate under the premise that other operatives are in the country and could advance plotting with little or no warning," end quote.

A controversial plan to build a mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero got the go-ahead from a New York community board last night. Critics said the planned building was an insult to 9/11 victims.

Supporters said the cultural center would help build bridges and give members of the Islamic community much-needed space.

All right, let's talk weather now. Our Reynolds Wolf is in the weather center. It's been pretty nasty in parts of the country particularly this time of year to have this amount of hail in Colorado.

WOLF: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Still pretty strange, isn't it?

WOLF: Hail yes.

(LAUGHTER)

WOLF: Absolutely. Yes, a little bit of word play there.

WHITFIELD: That was funny.

WOLF: Yes. Sort of.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: And we look for that with trepidation because you still worry about the gulf. We know that Atlantic hurricane season --

WOLF: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: -- affects the Gulf of Mexico as well. All right, thanks so much, Reynolds. Appreciate that.

WOLF: You bet.

WHITFIELD: All right, Microsoft, move over. Another tech giant is now the Apple of investors' eyes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now.

We could know by this afternoon whether the top kill procedure has had any success in tapping that underwater oil gusher in the gulf. BP says the operation is proceeding as expected.

Apple has replaced Microsoft as the tech investor's darling. Apple now leads its rival in market capitalization. Hot new products like the iPad and iPhone have fueled Apple's surge. And Sudan's president is being sworn in for a new term today while still facing an arrest warrant. Omar al-Bashir won the country's first elections in 24 years. The International Criminal Court's warrant accuses him of crimes against humanity in Darfur.

All right, this part of Kingston, Jamaica is usually bustling. Well, now it looks like a ghost town. Blame the street battles over a suspected drug lord.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Jamaican police have more than 500 people in custody but not the reputed drug lord that they have actually been hunting for this week. Christopher Coke is wanted in the U.S. on drugs and weapons charges.

Armed gangs loyal to him have been fighting security forces in parts of downtown Kingston.

Here now is CNN's Rafael Romo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the middle of downtown Kingston, a scene of desolation and destruction. Empty streets littered with trash and debris are patrolled by police forces and the military.

Only a few residents there to venture out in the open. Kevin Bailey used to have a stand in the middle of the commercial district.

(On camera): What is the situation here right now?

KEVIN BAILEY, STREET VENDOR: Well, it's bad, bad, bad. I haven't been able to sell nothing.

ROMO: How long has it been since you haven't been able to sell anything?

BAILEY: From Sunday until now.

ROMO (voice-over): Police and military forces have regained control of some streets but the threat of violence is ever present.

(On camera): And normally on a weekday in the middle of the afternoon, you would see many people here shopping and going around their business. But as you can see, all you can find right now are barricades and the remnants of fires that were burning here just a few days ago.

(Voice-over): Even with the state of emergency in place, several police stations have been attacked by heavily armed gangs believed to be tied to drug trafficking. The volatile situation is terrorizing residents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No business is open. Everybody is staying indoors.

ROMO: Police say they have arrested more than 500 people, mostly males, in connection with the wave of violence that started on Sunday.

Violence broke out in Kingston when Jamaican officials announced they would comply with the U.S. extradition request for alleged drug kingpin Christopher Coke who remains at-large.

Violent gangs loyal to Coke have been attacking police in an effort to block his extradition.

MARK SHIELDS, SECURITY CONSULTANT: Much of the gang activity in Jamaica is -- has been built on 30 years of links between politics and crime. And many politicians now are trying to divorce themselves from that position. But clearly, there are links.

ROMO: Until recently, the government of Prime Minister Bruce Golding had been supported by the drug gangs protecting Christopher Coke and had hired a Los Angeles-based lobbying firm in an effort to block his extradition.

But a high government official says that the only link between the prime minister and the drug lord is that both come from an area deeply loyal to the Jamaica Labor Party.

DARYL VAZ, INFORMATION MINISTER OF JAMAICA: The area is and has always been a very stronghold for the governing party and Mr. Coke's family leading back from his father's days has always been in support of the party.

ROMO: Police in Kingston searched door to door for Coke Wednesday. Didn't find him but arrested several other gang leaders.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Kingston, Jamaica.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And if you or someone you know is planning a Jamaican vacation, there's little chance, we understand, that you could actually run into any of the violence that Rafael just reported on.

Many tourists fly into Montego Bay, about 80 miles from Kingston. Another popular stop, Negril is even further, 103 miles away. And Ocho Rios is 35 miles from the capital of Kingston.

And even if you are traveling to Kingston, the search for Christopher Coke centers on the Tivoli Gardens area which is not a tourist destination.

All right, back in this country, jobless claims are dropping and that has Wall Street ready for a rally. We're checking a check of where things stand ahead of the opening bell.

Later, a close look at some of the devastating images from the oil spill and how Congress is demanding answers from BP.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, it's been a tough few weeks on Wall Street. The Dow has dropped in 8 of the past 10 sessions. And on several of those days, we saw triple-digit losses. But today we're gearing up for a triple-digit gain perhaps.

Felicia Taylor is at the New York Stock Exchange.

So, Felicia, what might be turning things around?

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's hope that things do turn around, Fredricka. The Asian markets rallied overnight and European shares are also higher.

The Dow futures pointing to an open as a very exciting morning of at least 200-point gain. Mostly on reports that China was appearing to cut its exposure to European debt. China, however, has denied those rumors.

China does have more than $2 trillion invested in other countries. And naturally, Europe really needs that kind of money. But we've also had some weakened (ph) expected economic reports that may limit gains on the state side. New jobless claims dropped by 14,000 last week to 450,000. It does sound like things are moving in the right direction but not enough to really get excited about.

So, we've also had a revised reading on first quarter gross domestic product. That shows that the economy is growing at a 3 percent pace, but again, the Wall Street was expecting a little bit better. So, a couple of seconds after the opening bell, and we are up 111 points on the Dow. That's a gain of more than 1 percent, but the Nasdaq is up 2.25 percent, and the S&P is up by 1 percent as well. I should tell you, though, as a reminder that the Dow did close below 10,000 yesterday for the first time since early February.

Finally, Fredricka, there is a new king in the tech world. Microsoft was number one as we all know, but Apple now wears that crown. Apple's total stock market value topped Microsoft by nearly $3 billion at yesterday's close. Quite a big gap. Microsoft did hold the stop spot for more than a decade. It shows that Wall Street has a lot of confidence now for growth prospect. Microsoft does have a strong operating system which we all know is windows, but Apple has a reputation for the new blockbuster products every few years such as the iPod and the iPhone. As I'm going to tell you, Apple stock right now is up about 3 percent. Microsoft is actually up even more, 3.5 percent -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yes, the innovation goes along way.

TAYLOR: Certainly does. I don't have an iPod yet. I'm waiting.

WHITFIELD: Me either. I am too. I'm like you. I'm like work out those little bugs, although --

TAYLOR: You get up those kinks.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

TAYLOR: You bring down the price and then I'm in.

WHITFIELD: Me too. Now, it'll be two of us. All right. Thanks so much, Felicia. Appreciate that.

OK. We're watching the Gulf Coast very closely, of course, as BP officials tries to determine if that top kill maneuver is actually shutting down the leak. The oil company says it could know the answers by later on this afternoon. You're looking at a live picture right now of the maneuvering taking place under water. You can still see some of the gushing there taking place. There's also a very disturbing development in the cleanup. Four workers have fallen ill and are now being treated for nausea as a precaution.

All 125 commercial vessels in Breton Sound have actually been pulled out as part of this effort. Meanwhile, oil rig workers and their families will be on Capitol Hill today. There are no fewer than four congressional hearings scheduled for today. And then later on, by midday, President Obama is expected to announce tighter safety regulations for offshore drilling. He will also call for tougher inspections.

On Capitol Hill today, lawmakers are holding four separate hearings on the oil spill disaster. Some of the oil rig workers and their family, as I mentioned, will be testifying. We will also be hearing from the family of one of the workers who was killed. Today's topics will be ranging from safety to the environmental impact to legal liability.

Federal investigators are also trying to figure out where mistakes were made from the oil rig to the government watchdogs. CNN's Jim Acosta looks at the investigation and the blame game that has already underway.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To find out what caused the BP oil disaster, federal officials are just starting to hear from key survivors of the rig explosion.

DOUGLAS BROWN, TRANSOCEAN, CHIEF MECHANIC DEEPWATER HORIZON: It was just complete mayhem. Chaos. People were scared. They're crying. I heard later that some were jumping overboard.

ACOSTA: At a hearing in Louisiana, Douglas Brown, the rigs chief mechanic, said he witnessed what he called a skirmish between his co- workers at Transocean and officials with BP over drilling procedures just hours before the catastrophe. A skirmish, he says, BP won.

BROWN: There was a slight argument that took place in a difference of opinions, and the company man was basically saying, well, this is how it's going to be.

ACOSTA: Other workers on the rig testified BP was taking shortcuts. What's strange, Brown noted, is that BP officials were on the rig that day to give the workers a pat on the back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you aware of what their purpose for the visit was?

BROWN: Basically, yes, to congratulate the crew on a good safety record.

ACOSTA: That testimony along with more than 100,000 pages of internal company documents are being poured over by members of Congress investigating the spill. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent this letter to his colleagues stating, key questions exist about whether proper procedures were followed for critical activities throughout the day.

REP. NICK RAHALL, (D) WEST VIRGINIA: The blame game is in full force right now.

ACOSTA: At a separate hearing in Washington, Democrats and Republicans pointed fingers over who's to blame for the scandal plague (ph) federal agency that supposed to regulate the oil industry, the Minerals Management Service. Lawmakers tangled over an inspector general's report that found MMS officials had accepted gifts from oil companies during the Bush administration.

REP. DOUG LAMBORN, (R) COLORADO: I don't understand. I have to just be real honest here. Why you and others keep harping on what MMS did or didn't do in the previous administration. Why aren't we talking about the here and now.

KEN SALAZAR, INTERIOR DEPT SECRETARY: But we are talking Congressman Lamborn about the here and now. Unlike the prior administration, this is not the candy store of the oil and gas kingdom, which you and others were a part of.

ACOSTA: That inspector general, Mary Kendall said the interior department should adopt new rules that would restrict oil official industry members who go on to work at the MMS and then immediately regulate their former companies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no waiting period now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't believe so, no.

ACOSTA (on-camera): Members of Congress say officials with BP are talking to them about what went wrong, but that is not the case down in Louisiana where BP officials are dropping out of a hearing there. BP has no comment on any conversations that took place on the rig before the disaster struck.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And again, President Obama has scheduled a news conference just a few hours from now. He is expected to announce new safety regulations on offshore drilling and a temporary ban on some deep water wells. CNN's Wolf Blitzer will bring that special coverage to you live today starting at 12:45 eastern time, 09:45 a.m. pacific.

All right. Illegal immigrants in the U.S., how many is too many? We have some interesting new poll numbers for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A Connecticut man says the state is attacking his Italian heritage. How? By telling him his kids can't work in the family pizza place. Michael Nuzzo's three children are 13, 11, and 8. They were learning the family business on weekends making pizza like their dad did at his dad's restaurant years ago, but the state labor department put a stop to that and said it was a violation of labor laws. The Nuzzo's say this is about family tradition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGDALIA NUZZO, RESTAURANT OWNER: We're not slave drivers, you know. We're just teaching them what we know. You know, so that when they become adults, you know, if they go to college and do whatever they have to do in life and it's something they don't like, they have something to fall back on.

MICHAEL NUZZO, RESTAURANT OWNER: They're attacking my tradition, my culture. Being Italian, this is how we were raised, and it attacks my integrity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. The Nuzzos are suing the state. The attorney general's office says it's looking at that lawsuit. And the family's oldest child, by the way, turns 14 in just a few weeks. He will be old enough, by law, to work, just a few hours.

So, what do you think? Child labor violations or just a traditional family business? Log on to my blog at CNN.com/Fredricka and post your responses. We'll read some of them on the air later on in the show.

All right. The spill has not oozed into Alabama's Mobile Bay just yet, but the fear of it has. Business owners like the guy who takes tourists out to see the dolphins, they're worried about their livelihoods.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. A live look at the Gulf oil leak now as it gets the top kill treatment. BP says it could know by late this afternoon if this is working, but after 38 days of gushing, the fix might be too late for parts of Louisiana. The oil has not, however, invaded Mobile Bay just yet, but the fear that it might ooze its way and means sleepless nights for some business owners there. Like boat captain, Phillip Taylor, worried that no tourists will be around for his dolphin tours. The story from CNN all platform journalist, Patrick Oppmann.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIP TAYLOR, DOLPHIN BOAT TOUR OPERATOR: As far as the dolphins, could be a few minutes, could be an hour, but we do guarantee we'll see them. Be patient. Keep an eye out. Let us know if you have got any questions. My name is Phillip Taylor. I'm the owner of the dolphin cruiser for the (INAUDIBLE). This will be our 14th full season doing this down here at Orange Beach. We're a spinoff of people who reserve condominiums that come to the beach and stay in the hotels.

And once they get here, we're just something else for them to do when they get tired of the beach. You got the dolphin cruises. You have your in-shore fishing. You have the plot pod. You have the water dill, the places like that. We're simply spin all from those condominiums being cool. The summer months, that's 80 percent of what we make in a year, and the timing is bad for that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Couldn't be worse.

TAYLOR: It could not be worse. There are active dolphins right over there. That's what we call a belly flop. You hear how loud it is. It's a free ride because they're surfing that way just like you'd be on a surf board.

You know, thank goodness these dolphins are in the Back Bay and this water is a lot easier to protect, but you still don't want it anywhere because everything is suffering from that. You have got to have the fish that come in here that they eat that got be able to go back and forth in that Gulf of Mexico. If the Gulf of Mexico is polluted and that's all going to be an issue with us in here.

We feel like this area could be protected. Yes, you could save all the wildlife, the majority of it and do your best to keep the oil out of here but still it would kill our business, because there's nobody staying in the condos. If the beach is shut down, that shuts us down. 100 percent. So, it might just hard to sleep because it's one of those acceptance issues. You don't want to accept the fact that, you know, this could happen. It has happened in the past to other areas, and you know, we do not want that here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: However, some of that oil has actually found its way into Mobile Bay. It came on a ship that had been working in the spill zone for weeks. Crews in protective clothes have been power washing black residue off the ship right into the water. This has been going on now for several days near downtown Mobile. And some fishermen are simply furious. They say this cleanup job is poisoning the water.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've already put all these chemicals are toxic that they're using. And I don't understand why they're letting these people do this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The dead fish that was floating up out here yesterday, the pelicans were feeding on these fish. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: A state official says the ship was decontaminated and cleared offshore before it came in so close to that town. He also said a boom is holding in that residue.

All right. Des Moines, Iowa is more than 1,000 miles from this spill, but folks there are already feeling it. We're talking about seafood lovers and the restaurant owners who actually feed them. Prices are simply going up, and some things like oysters are not available at all. And certain types of fish are hard to come by as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAWN HANKE, RESTAURANT OWNER: They want to know what fish come from that area and the close-in fish like puppy drum, red fish and pompano are not able to be fished. They're in danger of being harmed. We've already seen prices go up in the last two weeks, about 25percent which is huge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, that restaurant owner says the big change they are trying to buy up all the shrimp caught before the spill.

All right, there's plenty of flume and doom and outrage to go around. Let's take some time out for a little laugh. Now here's David Letterman's latest dig at BP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": And how about that Gulf of Mexico? You all remember the Gulf of Mexico. It's the Gulf of parking. You go down there and park now and endless, unlimited parking for the old Gulf Coast.

And the British Petroleum you know, somehow they are going to make money on this. They are already figuring out a way to make money on this. They are losing billions and billions and billions of dollars a day on this oil leak, they are ruining the environment, and killing off the wildlife but yet they found a way to make money on the big oil spill. Are you aware of this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no.

LETTERMAN: Here, watch, watch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready to fire up the grill. This summer, say good-bye to boring old charcoal briquettes and switch to new BP tar balls. Freshly harvested from the Gulf of Mexico, BP tar balls, toxic hydrocarbons and volatile chemical compounds make any grilled meat spill-licious. Try BP tar balls and turn your next barbecue into a tar-becue.

LETTERMAN: I hate it when that happens. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A new CNN Opinion Research Poll finds more than three-fourths of Americans want fewer illegal immigrants in the U.S. The poll conducted late last week with 1,023 adult Americans found only two percent think the number should be increased compared to 76 percent who prefer seeing a decrease.

A little more than one in five Americans thinks it should be kept the same. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus three percent.

President Obama this week announced plans to send 1,200 more National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexican border. And in the border State of Arizona where a controversial new immigration law takes effect this summer. The focus is on tracking down illegal immigrants who commit crime.

Joe Waldman of affiliate KGUN reports from Tucson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE WALDMAN, KGUN, REPORTER (voice-over): It does not look like much of a war room. In fact, it is just a barren, non-descript hallway inside Tucson's Immigration and Customs Enforcement Building, but this is where ICE's daily battle begins against illegals convicted of crimes.

MARTIN BYRUM, ICE FUGITIVE OPERATIONS: Primary target we're going after tonight in Tucson is a gentleman by the name of Noe Nubez- Nidez. It looks like he has a conviction for possession for transportation of marijuana.

WALDMAN: That crime happened 13 years ago. The target had a green card, but lost it after a conviction. Now the United States wants him sent back to Mexico. That's ICE's job every day and it's a dangerous one.

BYRUM: One thing I need to stress to everybody tonight is safety, safety, safety.

WALDMAN: Guns loaded, the hunt for the man takes us to this quiet neighborhood on Tucson's south side. ICE Intel puts Nubez here at his parent's house just feet from this school, but it's not what they know about their target that scares these officers.

BYRUM: Well, the unknown. We don't know who this person knows. We don't know who he's associated with. We don't know who else might be inside the house with them.

WALDMAN: No one's in there right now.

BYRUM: What's the description of the red vehicle again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a 1998 red Chrysler. WALDMAN: Too many cars are passing by, but not the one they're looking for. Afraid to lose their cover, ICE regroups.

BYRUM: We'll wait for these guys --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok.

BYRUM: -- to come out and then we'll figure out how we're going to hit it.

WALDMAN: Another try and a break. The target's parents are now home.

BYRUM: We've a contact with the family inside talking about their son right now.

WALDMAN: With little choice the parents tip ICE to another vulnerable area. They say the target is staying here and suddenly a stiff walk turns into an explosive run. It's their man Noe Nubez- Nidez, cuffed and then processed but still processing what's happened to him. Nubez-Nidez (ph) decides to talk to us.

NOE NUBEZ-NIDEZ, WANTED FOR DEPORTATION (through translator): Give me the opportunity. I gave myself to the lord.

Nubes-nidez pleads on for immigration reform, but for now that door has closed for him and all he can do is hold his head in his hands.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And take a look right now, live pictures of the senate floor. Arizona senator John McCain is talking about border patrol. He has said that his state needs at least 6,000 more National Guard troops to secure its border with Mexico.

We'll continue to monitor the developments there.

We're also following all aspects of the oil spill disaster on the Gulf Coast and the ongoing effort to plug that leak.

We begin in New Orleans right now with Rob Marciano.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Fredericka. Yesterday, we took a journey out into the oil spill with some scientists taking samples to see exactly what the oil was doing and along the way we came in contact with some wild life. The full story coming up in the 10:00 hour.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Less than three hours away, that is when President Obama is going to be announcing some major changes in his energy policy in regarding delaying or even canceling some offshore drilling. And of course, the latest on the oil spill and how that is being plugged up, the success or the failure. He's also taking some questions.

We'll have more of that at the top of the hour.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic are at an all-time high. What could that mean for the hurricane season? Well, coming up at the top of the hour, we're going to find out. NOAA is going to release its Atlantic hurricane season forecast. We'll bring you all of the details.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks very much, everyone.

Also ahead, watching "top kill" as it happens. We'll hear from a BP executive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Just to get you a little bit in the mood. An amazing story that could be a script from Star Wars, but it is for real.

A planet being swallowed by its parent star and the Hubble Space Telescope is watching it all unfold and so is CNN's Zain Verjee from London.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is one of the hottest stars out there in the universe. No, not you, this one is called Wasp 12 and it is gobbling up a little nearby planet. This is a really big deal because scientists have always thought that this is happening out there in the universe, but they have never seen such clear evidence.

The Hubble Space Telescope took this picture and they didn't just click and send it back. What happened was that Hubble sent back data that scientists used and they were able to create this picture.

If you look closely at it, you can see that there are materials around the planet. That's really the atmosphere that's growing and being sucked in by that sun-like star.

Could it happen to earth? Could we be sucked in by our sun?

TIM O'BRIEN, ASTRONOMER, JODRELL BANK CENTRE FOR ASTROPHYSICS: The earth takes 365 days to go around the sun. This planet goes around its star in only 1.1 days. So it's much, much closer and that's why it's at risk of basically spiraled in and be ripped apart by its parent star. It won't happen to us.

VERJEE: There's no need to worry about that poor little planet 600 million light years away. It still has 10 million years before it gets completely devoured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Zain Verjee from London.