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Booms Not Shielding the Shores; Florida's Plea to Tourists; A Tribute to Our Fallen War Veterans; Bugles Across America; New Poll on Oil Spill not Good News for Obama; Tour de Farm Kicks Off; Ted Turner Tours New CNN Studios

Aired May 30, 2010 - 17:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Shifts gears in the gulf. BP will try a new technique to plug the gushing oil leak.

A deadly storm slams into Central America. We'll find out where Agatha is heading next.

And remember the sacrifices of the nation's war dead this Memorial Day weekend.

Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield and you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Well, that's getting to be an all too familiar refrain in the Gulf of Mexico. BP gave up yesterday on its latest attempt to stop the huge oil leak, a procedure called top kill. For three days BP tried to pump a mud like mixture into the leak, but every time they stopped pumping, the oil flow resumed.

Well, now they're going to return to an earlier strategy, attempting to cap the leak. This time they hope to have better luck with a new system, something called a lower marine riser package.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB DUDLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BP: We will put a cap on the top of this well. We'll do a sophisticated operation with robots and make a clean cut across the top of a piece of equipment down there called a lower marine riser package with diamond saws, and then we will lower down over that a cap to protruse (ph) it to the surface.

We learned some things from the previous cap that we tried that created these hydrates that made it float, really, and this time we'll circulate warm sea water down around it to prevent that from happening. And our objective is to contain a majority of the oil and gas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So far BP has paid more than $35 million to fishermen, shrimpers, charter boat captains and other people who have lost income because of the oil spill. Many more claims have been filed.

There was an angry demonstration, in fact, in New Orleans today. Organizers say that they want to see more aggressive action to stop the leak and to contain this spill.

Outrage over the oil spill isn't just evidenced on the streets of New Orleans. People all along the gulf are angry, and they want answers.

CNN's Carol Costello is live from Grand Isle, Louisiana, where emotions are running high.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think that's an understatement, Fredricka. Anger is at an all time high here, and it is directed at BP. The fear is that a black tide will wash ashore and wipe out everyone's livelihood.

They think BP's main focus should be to protect the coast, and guess what? BP's CEO came out today. And what was he talking about? Containment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HAYWARD, CEO, BP: We've actually done quite a good job of containment in the offshore. There hasn't been a black tide. We've had small, impactful, and, you know, from my personal perspective, devastating. I mean, a - as far as I'm concerned, a cup of oil on the beach is a failure. I'm very clear about that.

But that we have done a good job of maintaining a vast majority of it offshore. And, you know, there's been some places where the defenses have been breached, and, you know, that's - that's - it's tragic, but we're going to clean it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The problem is, one cup of oil is too much for residents who see this, who see birds covered in oil, who see the marshlands covered in oil, who see those tar balls on the sand. All of that is just too much. Couple that with the fact that BP has changed its story so many times, at least in people's minds, that neighbors here can't trust them anymore.

I visited a Catholic church this morning and talked with some parishioners about how they feel about BP.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEGGY AUTHEMENT, RESIDENT: I just think that something needs to be done, and that I don't think they're really trying. They need to do something.

The people down here are really in bad shape, especially the fishermen. They can't fish. They can't shrimp, and that's their livelihood. LAURA FAKIER, RESIDENT: It's very depressing. It's very depressing. We grew up coming down here. We've had a camp down here my whole life and it just breaks your heart.

COSTELLO: You think it'll ever be stopped?

FAKIER: Yes. Yes. It'll eventually stop and they'll clean up.

That's not the question. The question is how much damage there'll be in the meantime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And therein lies the thing, Fredricka. You talked about that $35 million BP says it's given to fishermen. Well, that might help them out this year, but what about the year after that and the year after that?

If that black tide does come in, if the oil kills the fish, what are they going to do five or 10 years from now? They're just not sure.

WHITFIELD: All right. Not a whole lot of confidence there from Grand Isle, Louisiana.

Carol Costello, thanks so much.

All right, CNN White House correspondent Dan Lothian is in Chicago and that's where the president is this holiday weekend where even though he's in Chicago, Dan, we know President Obama is making this top priority, what's taking place in the Gulf of Mexico.

Is the president feeling like they're very - there's very little the White House can actually do at this juncture?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's very little that they can do, technically. I mean, it really is in the hands of BP to really drive this operation.

But officials from Secretary Chu to others in the administration making sure that they keep the pressure on BP so that the - the operation, whether it be this cap that they're trying to place over the leak or whatever else they try to do along the way, that the government scientists and other experts can weigh in to make sure that that's the right way to go.

Now, we did hear from Robert Gibbs via a statement today in terms of what the president has been doing. He's been trying, as you pointed out, to balance family time during this holiday with this gulf oil disaster. He was briefed by Admiral Thad Allen, who is the government's point person in the gulf, and also Carol Browner, the president's climate and energy czar, Gibbs pointing out that the president was updated on the latest information to try and skim a burn and also break up the oil and also on the operation that places this containment cap over the oil spill. Also, Admiral Thad Allen, we are told from Robert Gibbs, that he told the president about this directive, how it's going to be carried out in terms of tripling the number of government and also contractor personnel on the ground in those areas that are directly impacted by the oil spill.

And, one final note, which I found kind of interesting amid all the frustration and anger in this release, Robert Gibbs pointing out that officials on the ground will be increasing their effort to make sure that people - that they are more responsive to the needs identified by local communities - Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dan Lothian in Chicago. Thanks so much for that.

All right, meantime, one of the chemicals BP is using is banned in other countries. So why are chemicals that are prohibited in other countries allowed to be used in everyday products right here in America?

Watch "TOXIC AMERICA", a two-night special investigation with Dr. Sanjay Gupta June 2nd and 3rd at 8:00 P.M. Eastern time.

Bracing for disaster in the Louisiana wetlands. Oil is coming ashore and forecasters are predicting an active Atlantic hurricane season. The stakes now could be higher for the fragile ecosystem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Time to check a little weather out there. It's a holiday weekend. A lot of folks want to know if it's OK to go out and play.

But, before we talk about that, let's talk about one of the named storms Pacific side, but we know the Atlantic hurricane season is right around the corner, just a couple days away.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. Less than a week.

WHITFIELD: Yes. What's out there? What do we need to think about? Yes.

JERAS: Well, nothing technically is out there anymore. But Agatha was named yesterday, and then downgraded once again. But, boy, this was an incredible storm and it's actually one of those good reminders that, you know, it doesn't take a major hurricane to cause a lot of devastation and destruction.

These pictures are out of Guatemala where tropical storm Agatha made land fall yesterday and dumped nearly 20 inches of rain in some locations. Massive flooding. More than a dozen people have lost their lives in this, many people evacuated, and the rain still coming down even though this is no longer a tropical system.

Take a look at this, showers and thundershowers all across Central America, and there was some concern with some of the computer models bringing this over towards maybe the Gulf of Mexico or into the Caribbean. We don't think that's going to happen because the system no longer organized. This is a very mountainous region and that rips apart and shears apart.

But we're getting close to that time of the year, aren't we? So we're looking at the development regions. Where do we typically see tropical systems develop this time of the year?

Well, take a look at this. The Gulf of Mexico, the Western Caribbean, and just off of the southeast coast of the United States, the most likely place right over here, about the loop current. You've heard us talking about the loop current where hurricanes can really intensify. And we've also been talking about the potential of oil getting into the loop current.

Fredricka, we talked a little bit about whether or not hurricanes will be impacting the oil and we really do think that they will and that's a concern. You know, the oil not impacting hurricanes, necessarily, but we could see that oil spread much farther along the beaches. And one of the other concerns is, you know, some of these marshy lands that are so sensitive, they kind of break down hurricanes as they make land fall -

WHITFIELD: They're the barrier.

JERAS: -- before they get into populated areas. So if the oil damages this and kills this, this means that those storms could be stronger, potentially, a little farther inland.

WHITFIELD: Oh, that's a good point and I don't think folks have looked at it quite that way.

Thanks so much, Jacqui.

JERAS: Sure.

WHITFIELD: All right, James Carville. You know the face, you know the voice, you know about his strong opinions. Well, he apparently now has some very strong opinions about the gulf oil spill as well.

The Democratic strategist and CNN contributor is a resident of Louisiana, and last week he slammed the Obama administration for its response to the disaster. Today, he again stressed the urgency of the situation to Candy Crowley on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Candy, I tell you, I think you're a smart woman, Candy. I think you're a smart woman, but I don't think you have to come down here to see what they've done to our wetlands. We lose - we lose the size of Manhattan every day.

What has the country done about this? You have to go see the canals they built in our wetlands, the $165 billion that they're taking away from us. You're going to - you'll see the shouting levees they've built. You don't think they'd do that anywhere else. They - the country feels like it is entitled to abuse this state and forget about us and we're sick of it.

And I want you to come down. I think you're a good person. I think you're a smart person. I want to get you and show you what's happened to us, what they have done to us. And you know good and well, we had - on rival networks, I've said (ph) well, if this thing hits Pensacola Beach, that's going to be a real tragedy. They don't produce anything off of Pensacola Beach. We have the highest quality seafood area in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Carville has said it is ultimately the responsibility of the federal government to protect American interests and not BP or any other company, in his opinion.

All right, now that BP has admitted the top kill plan has failed, it could be days before they can try their next option, the custom built cap. The battle to keep oil off the shores and marshes is raging, more than 3 million feet of boom has been laid. But as our Sandra Endo discovers, not all of it is working.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you finding that oil is closer and closer to the shore?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ENDO: It must be frustrating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it is.

ENDO: This is a prime fishing area but there are no boats to be found. And this is also called Bird Island. This is where pelicans come to nest. You can see all the birds there.

They have boomed off this area with two booms, one to stop the oil from going into the area, and then the white boom to absorb the oil. And you can see both of those booms are pretty black with oil.

You could see the boom which is supposed to protect the island from the oil where all of that boom has washed ashore and you could see the difference in color in the rocks. Some of the rocks are black with oil, while the rest are still white.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is oil.

ENDO: So, this is interesting. There's no boom around here at all.

LT. BOBBY BRADBERRY, JEFFERSON PARISH FIRE DEPARTMENT: No. No boom around this whole island. I don't think that that they thought that this oil would even, you know, come here, and when it started coming, it started coming in heavy and they didn't send the resources we needed.

ENDO: So you're not satisfied with what's going on?

BRADBERRY: Oh, I'm not satisfied with it.

ENDO: What do you say to the residents here who are hurting every day and they continue to see the tar come up and no end in sight?

HUGH DEPLANT, BP SPOKESMAN: We're really sorry that this has happened and that we're doing everything that we can to mitigate it.

The correct answer is no oil hits any beach any place. That's not going to happen.

BRADBERRY: We got to pull together. We're going to get through this. It may take a while, but it's definitely disgusting.

ENDO: Sandra Endo, CNN, Grand Isle, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, not one drop of oil from the gulf spill has reached Florida's panhandle. That's not an easy message to actually get across.

But the state's tourism department is trying, and our John Zarrella looks at their efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hey, just look at this. White sand beaches, rolling waves, surf boards and sandals. This is what Florida's beaches look like. Not bad, right? But getting that message out, that's another story.

The state is spending millions, much of it money from BP, for slick commercials that basically say there's no slick here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The weather is beautiful, the beaches are clear and the fish are biting. The Sunshine State is open for business.

ZARRELLA: Tourist business is good this long Memorial Day weekend, but hotel and restaurant owners are worried big time about the rest of the summer because of, well, talk like this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to preserve some of this white sand we got before this oil makes it not white no more. I'm going to save it.

ZARRELLA: Florida's panhandle communities from Pensacola to Panama City are having the toughest time convincing prospective tourists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not in any (INAUDIBLE) danger of oil or anything right now.

ZARRELLA: Get it? There's no oil here. Just look at the sign.

In St. Petersburg, to get the message out, tourism officials wined and dined journalists and travel agents from Europe to Latin America. There hasn't been a drop of BP oil found on Key West beaches, but, for some reason, tourists aren't getting it.

Michael Burge - people call him "Duck" - owns a charter boat company. Business, he says, is down 30 percent. It's so bad, Burge says, he's not sure how long he can keep his bank account open.

MICHAEL "DUCK" BURGE, KEY WEST TIKI CHARTERS INC: Very frustrated. I mean, you know, I'm a full grown man, but, I'll tell you what, it - it emotionally bothers me when I get up in the morning and I'm wondering how can I go out and make money today.

ZARRELLA: Burge has filed a class action suit holding BP, Transocean and Halliburton responsible for his losses.

But how much of this is just the lousy economy? In Cocoa Beach on Florida's east coast, the sign out in front of King Rentals reads, "No oil here". In fact, summer bookings are (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) for the month of July. We're really busy.

ZARRELLA: Occupancy at King's Properties, which usually runs 60 percent this time of year, is running 70 to 80 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sadly, at the expense of the West Coast. It looks like we're going to have a great summer here in Cocoa Beach.

ZARRELLA: A great summer is exactly what's on every state tourism official's bucket list.

John Zarrella, CNN, Cocoa Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, and now to a more somber subject this Memorial Day weekend, remembering the sacrifices of U.S. troops. We'll look at how you're honoring the nation's fallen heroes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Across America people are remembering the sacrifices of U.S. servicemen and women this Memorial Day weekend. Overseas in Iraq, soldiers at this military base near Nasiriyah held a special ceremony honoring their fallen comrades. Thirty-one U.S. troops have died in Iraq this year alone.

After today's solemn service, the soldiers were also treated to a cookout.

All right, in our nation's capital the motorcycle group Rolling Thunder is holding its annual ride to honor the nation's war dead, POWs and those still missing in action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): So their route is supposed to go from the Pentagon across the Memorial Bridge to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And this Memorial Day weekend we are all thinking of the troops who have given their lives in wars throughout our history.

CNN has a new way of honoring the troops killed in our ongoing wars. It's interactive, and our Josh Levs is here to show us exactly how it works - Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Fred, you know, in a way it's just a matter of time for this to happen because these wars have been going on at the same time that the internet has come to play a completely different role in the world and in our lives. So, at some point, you could expect there was going to be a great new interactive way to learn about the troops. We got it right here at cnn.com, and it's heartwarming and it's really striking to be reminded of all these fallen hero.

Take a look here. I want you to see what we're seeing here. I'm actually going to start refreshing it here and I'll take you through a step by step. It's cnn.com/homeandaway and what you're seeing here first is the Afghanistan page.

Now, this over here is a map of the United States. And you see all these dots, and everywhere there's a dot we have information for you about a soldier who has given his or her life in the war. And over here you have Afghanistan. It's the same idea. Everywhere you see a dot, if you see a really big one, that's an area where there's been a lot of fighting. You can learn all about the many people who have fought and died, given their lives in that war.

We have the same thing going on with Iraq over here. We're talking about coalition troops as well, so not just U.S. troops but all those who have served as part of the coalition. And let's jump over to Iraq. More than 4,000, and what you're seeing, again, all these dots represent all these fallen heroes from the United States and over here in Iraq you have, again, ways to learn all about them.

And when you go farther into it, you can actually get a page about every person. I called up one, Captain Benjamin David Keating, 27 years old. He was from Maine. You learn about him, his contributions and how he died.

And you could also see this whole list. We have it alphabetically, we have it chronologically. You can learn all about all these U.S. soldiers in so many different ways, all at cnn.com/homeandaway.

Now, I pulled up one example right here, Staff Sergeant Christopher Ralph Webb, because we've also been doing at CNN some profiles, and this is where it's - in a way, this is heart wrenching, it's heartwarming. It's really striking to see some of his families out there who talk in such loving ways about their loved ones who gave their lives for this country.

We're going to hear from his wife right now, Shalan, talking about her family. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHALAN WEBB, WIFE OF SOLDIER KILLED IN ACTION: He was shipped out. He was ready to go and do his duty. He had no problem with that, but it was really hard for him to leave, knowing that there was this new, brand-new baby.

MARY WEBB, FATHER KILLED IN ACTION: That's my daddy and my mommy. This one is pretty and this one is handsome.

S. WEBB: She looks so much like him, her smile, everything. I think she has my eyes, and that's it. Everything else is completely my husband's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: These videos are just filled with love like that, and, you know, on this Memorial Day we're all thinking of them.

And, in fact, I want to mention right here, since we're talking about the Iraq war and the Afghanistan wars, our latest death tolls just from the United States alone, 1,077 in Afghanistan, Iraq 4,404.

And one thing you can do also at this site, we link you to everything, you can post your messages on this Memorial Day for the families of these fallen heroes across the country. It's all at iReport. What happens is when you're at cnn.com/homeandaway and you've got to address on your screen, it brings you right to this iReport page and you can submit your thoughts.

You can also write about your own relatives who have given their lives. I brought up an example here, Lance Corporal Jourdan Lin Grez, his family writing here, "How we miss your smile and your laughter."

And, you know, Fred, Memorial Day is a vacation day, because obviously we all know what it's about. It's about remembering the fallen heroes throughout our entire history. (INAUDIBLE) back to the Civil War. So remembering all of these fallen heroes throughout our history, who gave our lives - their lives for - for this country.

WHITFIELD: And this really is a beautiful tribute because it is a celebration of these lives, of these men and women who have given their lives, sacrificed everything for this country.

Thanks so much, Josh.

All right, when one retired marine learned that a shortage of buglers meant taps was sometimes played at veterans' funerals on a boom box, he jumped into action, and he set up Bugles Across America.

Here's CNN's Christi Paul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tom Day is on a mission to give all veterans the honor of having a live bugler at their funeral. In 2000, he founded Bugles Across America, a site that connects families to horn players.

TOM DAY, FOUNDER, BUGLES ACROSS AMERICA: In the late '90s, Congress passed a law that every veteran could have a military burial. A secretary of Veterans Affairs was on TV and said, there are no buglers, and I said, I'll find them for you.

PAUL: Ten years later, Bugles Across America has more than 7,400 volunteers playing at military funerals in every state and even other countries.

DAY: They basically join because they want to say thank you to the veterans that served.

PAUL: A thank you spelled out in the 24 notes of taps.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A quick look at our top stories right now. In Afghanistan, a supply convoy was attacked by insurgents this morning in the southern province of Ghazni. The convey was traveling on a road often used as a resupply route for NATO forces. The assault left trucks burning but caused no injuries.

And British Airways cabin crews launched a new five-day strike today. The crews in are a bitter dispute with management over pay and working conditions. The airline says it still plans to fly most of its long-haul flights. Talks between the airline and the union broke down on Friday.

And BP is trying yet another strategy to stop that gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. They'll try a new kind of containment cap after the so-called "top kill" method failed. The new device should be in place in four to seven days.

All right, nothing like a giant oil spill to muddy the political waters now. Many are calling this spill the Obama administration's Katrina. Let's bring in Paul Steinhauser, who has some interesting new poll numbers that the White House just might not like, everything from how this oil spill is affecting people's lives on a day-to-day basis to the approval ratings of the president as it pertains to how he has handled this -- Paul.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Fred, take a look at these numbers from the CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation. We did them last weekend, so this was done before the failure of top kill and also before the president went down to Louisiana on Friday and before he had that news conference on Thursday.

But one thing is striking. Check out this first number. This oil spill is impacting almost all of Americans, not just people in the Gulf Coast. We asked, "Is this oil spill directly affect you or your family," and you can see that either indirectly or directly, this oil spill is affecting just about all of Americans. When you take that 53 percent indirectly and 31 percent directly, that's the vast majority of this...

WHITFIELD: That's pretty significant.

STEINHAUSER: ... yes, of this country. Now, specifically, how do they think the president is doing? Take a look at the next number. We asked, "Do you approve or disapprove of how Barack Obama is handling the spill?" And a slight majority say they disapprove. Other polling organizations from other networks and elsewhere find similar numbers, that he's in negative numbers when it comes to how he's doing.

You mentioned the Katrina comparison. I think this administration, Fred, is very -- they well know what happened to President Bush after what was considered, widely considered a very poor, very slow, very weak response to the devastating hurricane down there. It was devastating politically for the president and for his party in the next election. This administration does not want to see the same thing happen. I think that's why you saw President Obama have that news conference the other day and go down to Louisiana on Friday to say a couple things -- The buck stops with me. I'm in control. We're calling the shots, not BP.

WHITFIELD: Oh, well, that's Interesting because we've also seen at least one resignation-slash-firing, that being the director of the Minerals Management Services. And now there are some forces out there who are calling for the resignation or firing of the interior secretary, Ken Salazar. MMS is actually under the Interior Department. What more is being said about the pressure for Salazar?

STEINHAUSER: Yes. This situation, this crisis, has really put Salazar in the spotlight, the former senator, Democratic senator from Colorado, a very soft-spoken person who doesn't seek the spotlight. But there are calls now by some environmental groups for him to step down because of the mismanagement at MMS, which was -- had direct and still does have direct oversight for these offshore -- offshore drilling.

And you know, you've heard the administration have to, in a way, almost correct Salazar twice over the last couple weeks, statements he made that the administration later kind of went back and tried to clarify. So he is definitely in the spotlight. I don't know yet whether these calls by these environmental groups will have any impact on the administration, though.

WHITFIELD: Something else that was in the spotlight, the White House, for a very different reason. This about Congressman Joe Sestak and the, you know, courting by former president Bill Clinton to kind of woo him into stepping out of the race in Pennsylvania and instead taking a non-paying job. And now there are some circles who are saying, Wait a minute, maybe the White House may have violated a law, and if not violated a law, then perhaps broken the promise that President Obama made that he'd be trying to enforce an ethical government. So where is this going now?

STEINHAUSER: The Republicans do not want to let this story go away. They have really been raising a chorus of protest over this since Sestak won that primary over Arlen Specter, the Republican- turned-Democrat who the White House was backing. That was almost two weeks ago. You just heard this morning on the Sunday talk shows Congressman Darrell Issa of California, one of the Republicans leading the charge here, calling for an investigation. Other Republicans in Congress are, as well.

This came out back in February or March, I believe, when Congressman Sestak alluded that, yes, the administration had reached out to him last summer. So the administration put out a report early -- a couple days ago saying, We have done nothing wrong. But why did they wait until now? That's -- it's curious. So even though the administration and the White House is saying, We did nothing wrong, the fact that they waited so long to say that is interesting and kind of puts the pressure back on them, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And so the White House also saying, We've done nothing wrong, because it was a non-paying position. Had it been a paying position, maybe, you know, the discussion would shape out a little differently. Why would it make a difference, even if it's a non-paying job?

STEINHAUSER: The Republicans are saying it doesn't matter, that it could be illegal even if it was non-paying. The top lawyer for the White House says that this does not break any laws. But remember, when Barack Obama was campaigning for president, he said he was going to do things a little bit differently in Washington, not business as usual, and try to get away from unseemly politics. And while this may not be illegal, it definitely is something -- and it is something that past administrations have done, it's up to them to try to get somebody out if they don't want them in a primary within their own party. But it is a little unseemly, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Paul Steinhauser, thanks so much. Always good to see you, from Washington.

STEINHAUSER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, one of the chemicals that BP is using is banned in other countries. So why are chemicals that are prohibited in other countries being allowed to be used in sometimes everyday products right here in America? Watch "Toxic America," a two-night special investigation with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. That begins June 2nd and 3rd, Wednesday and Thursday, 8:00 PM Eastern time.

A champion roller skater jumps into the world record books, an amazing feat with an equally amazing backdrop. Do you recognize the grid there? That and more straight ahead in the "Chat Room."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Farm to table -- it's the hot new trend at the dinner table. In Athens, Georgia, one group has taken it a step further, starting a three-day bicycle tour that connects area residents to the farms producing locally grown food.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome, everybody, to the 2010 Athens Tour de Farm.

CRAIG PAGE, PROMOTING LOCAL AGRICULTURE & CULTURAL EXPERIENCES: Tour de Farm is amazingly fun. It's connecting people to local farms on bicycles. The ride visits seven or eight farms. It's approximately 100 miles, broken into 30-mile segments. So you get to tour the farms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see the different sizes of them. You know, the stakes kind of represent where they stop and start.

PAGE: It's also about appreciating agricultural landscapes as you're riding along. A food system is more than showing up at a grocery store and having placeless, faceless food on the counter. And our mission is to help build a strong, accessible local food culture.

DANIEL ROTBERG, BACKYARD HARVEST: What's been lost now is the dynamic between people and their farm and people and their food. And what it is now, people go to the store, and even if they're buying organic food, they may not have this connection to where it's coming from. They may not understand that someone actually grew that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the wheat falls to the bottom. And once the wheat comes on the bottom, you pull it out. There you go.

TIM MILLS, MILLS FARM: That's what they do, and they enjoy it and we love for them to do it. We use an alternate power source from gasoline or electricity, and that's by mule power. It's just a manner of signing (ph) an old truck rear end and (INAUDIBLE) We grind everything fresh. We're not big and we don't need to be big. We just want to do a really good job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's where we bring our young turkeys and raise them in here through the summer.

ED JANOSIK, SUNDANCE FARM: I'm in something that's just really taken off, you know, because there's people not only wanting to grow the food sustainably and organically, there's also a huge amount of people that want to eat it. The produce that I grow here, I believe it's more nutritious than something grown conventionally.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes us as a family farm feel good, you know, that people want to come back and buy our produce. When you pull a fresh carrot out of a winter greenhouse or a fresh tomato or a pepper and they get to taste it, you know, they'll taste the difference.

PETER DALE, CHEF: I use a lot of local foods at the restaurant. And basically, my primary concern is what's on my customers' plate. And the bottom line is that local food just tastes better, in my opinion. They're picked when they're ripe, and so they haven't been trucked in and picked underripe. They're in the sun until the very day that they come into the restaurant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So much more wholesome when you can meet the people that grow it, shake their hands, and then go sit down at the table and eat it with them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a great group of people that didn't know each other, but they traveled the road together and they knew each other by the end of three days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome.

WHITFIELD: That is awesome! A great combination of some good exercise and then some fresh produce. You can't beat that.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: We're out of the NEWSROOM, now into the "Chat Room" with Jacqui. Yes, I like that. Sign us both up, right?

(CROSSTALK)

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I love to cycle. I love to garden. And snack with the fresh stuff.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, we have some interesting stuff in the "Chat Room."

JERAS: We do!

WHITFIELD: And this is interesting. We start off with something a little athletic, someone who's trying to break a world record and actually does so, roller skating.

CASAREZ: Amazing.

WHITFIELD: He's a world champion roller skating. His name is Tag Chris (ph). But he decided to take it to all new heights by going to gay Paris and the Eiffel tower. And that is the backdrop for this incredible feat.

JERAS: Look it. They call this a drop because it's not a jump, technically -- 131 feet high. There he goes.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

JERAS: Oh.

WHITFIELD: Even with a wipeout. JERAS: It took him two attempts. Second time, he gets it. I think if you play this again, you'll see it again. Technically, the record now is 39 feet when you jump off a structure...

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness.

JERAS: ... and freefall into a landing. And at the very end of this thing, there's a huge, like, airbag...

WHITFIELD: Yes.

JERAS: ... to help break his fall so that he doesn't get injured...

WHITFIELD: Thank goodness.

JERAS: ... when he gets there.

WHITFIELD: And look how many people showed up to take this in.

JERAS: Wow!

WHITFIELD: This happened yesterday.

JERAS: And this is roller skates, not roller blades, right? So you've got a little bit more to land on that way.

WHITFIELD: OK. Yes.

JERAS: Another couple inches.

WHITFIELD: You've got four wheels along -- you know, two alongside one another, as opposed to a line.

JERAS: That is just a whole lot of crazy to me.

WHITFIELD: Yes, that's a whole lot of crazy to me, too.

JERAS: Can you imagine the impact when he touches down on the ramp?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

JERAS: It would be really forceful.

WHITFIELD: But then, thankfully, the airbag. But you know what? That's what makes a good world record.

JERAS: Yes!

WHITFIELD: You've got to be a little crazy. You've got to have...

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Right. (LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk about some pandas now. In China, you know, we know that everybody loves pandas.

JERAS: Oh!

WHITFIELD: And we love to see them...

JERAS: Are they not the cutest thing!

WHITFIELD: ... in captivity. Of course, they are.

JERAS: I heard about this and I looked it -- on, there the are. I looked them up on line. There is literally nothing in the world cuter than a baby panda.

WHITFIELD: I know.

JERAS: Right? Just saying!

WHITFIELD: I know. It's fun. It always ends up being the big headline around any national zoo in this country or any zoo anywhere when you've got new baby pandas or new pandas in the mix. But here in this Sichuan province, they're trying to help these pandas. While the survival rate is really great in captivity, they want them to survive in the wild.

JERAS: There's only about 1,600 of them left, so very endangered, and they're having a hard time with reproduction and surviving in the wild.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

JERAS: So they're going to try and wean them off humans...

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: ... incredible $80 million facility built to try and help train these pandas to transition them from captivity into the wild.

JERAS: Yes. So they're going to, you know, take care of them and feed them at the very beginning. It's a 15-year process, apparently. And then they're going to start to transition them into caves. And they'll still check on them medically. And then if they do well and succeed from there, then they're going to let them out into more of a reserve area where, hopefully, they'll be OK. They've tried a similar type of program before, I guess, in 2007, which wasn't terribly successful, unfortunately. But they think if they make the process a little bit longer that, hopefully, this one will work out.

WHITFIELD: Everybody loves pandas.

JERAS: We need more pandas!

WHITFIELD: Pandas have fans everywhere.

JERAS: Yes. And you know, we've got a lot of them, like you said, in the United States in our zoos. And most of them are on loan from China. We've got them here in Atlanta.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

JERAS: It's the highlight of the zoo.

WHITFIELD: I know. And it's still really the headliner at the National Zoo in Washington, too. People are still, you know, going to clamor to see those pandas, and kind of the newest addition, which may be about 2 years old now, but still a cub, a cutie.

JERAS: Right.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right, thanks so much, Jacqui, joining us in the "Chat Room." We'll see you much later with a lot of our Memorial Day weekend weather...

JERAS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: ... and as we all keep a close watch on both the Pacific and the Atlantic hurricane season.

All right, meantime, bet you didn't know that there was yet another marker in the books. This is the 30th anniversary this week of the founding of CNN. Who do you suppose that guy is? The one who founded CNN, Ted Turner! I had a chance to sit down and talk with him face to face. And of course, you see there he's his firsthand look, a tour of our brand-new studio here in Atlanta. He's got some very candid thoughts about everything under the sun.

Much more from the CNN NEWSROOM after this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): One year ago, in 2009, anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder was charged with the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and abortion provider. Roeder was later sentenced to life in prison. Five years ago, in 2005, runaway bride Jennifer Willbanks entered a "no contest" plea to charges she faked being abducted because of the pressures of the wedding. She was sentenced to probation, community service and a fine.

Twenty years ago, in 1990, "Seinfeld" became a scheduled series on NBC. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Twenty-five years ago, in 1985, tornadoes in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and the Canadian province of Ontario killed at least 88 people.

Thirty years ago, in 1980, the cable news network, CNN, went to air.

Sixty years ago, in 1950, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregated seating in railroad dining cars.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: His vision helped change the way we view television news. Face to face with Ted Turner on this 30th anniversary of CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

So what they've done here...

TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER: Like a bunch of kids.

WHITFIELD: Yes, they've is created, like, an opening where folks can watch through. We can come through here. Do you guys recognize this man right here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

WHITFIELD: On this 30th anniversary of CNN, here's Ted Turner checking out the new digs. Where are you guys from?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Memphis!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Memphis!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Memphis!

TURNER: All right. Hope you have a good time.

WHITFIELD: Fantastic.

TURNER: That's good.

WHITFIELD: So they get a chance to look in the studios (INAUDIBLE) to see (INAUDIBLE)

TURNER: It was my idea to do this tour.

WHITFIELD: It was?

TURNER: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Well, it's fantastic. It's the most popular thing here.

TURNER: I know.

WHITFIELD: It is consistent.

TURNER: I know. Makes a lot of money, too.

WHITFIELD: It does. So what did you -- what did you hope that people would learn when they do the tour?

TURNER: How the news operation works a little bit.

WHITFIELD: Why did you think it was important for people to see for themselves?

TURNER: Well, the escalator was there, and I was trying it to figure out some kind of way to utilize it (INAUDIBLE)

WHITFIELD: Do you ever feel a little nostalgic?

TURNER: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Yes. What do you start thinking and feeling?

TURNER: Well, you know, we built it right here, so it's still my baby. You know, your children are your, whether they grew up and moved away or not.

It was closed. This used to be -- where CNN is used to be the world of Sid and Marty Crawford (ph). It was an indoor -- the first and last indoor amusement park. But it had that big escalator that took people up, and then they could walk through.

WHITFIELD: These are the new digs here. This is an area called the "cube," where we'll work.

TURNER: Yes. It's been...

WHITFIELD: Weather is over here.

TURNER: ... redone since I saw it last.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And come over here to the studio. (INAUDIBLE) It's very modern and contemporary.

TURNER: Yes.

WHITFIELD: What catches your eye?

TURNER: Just a lot of TV sets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ten seconds!

TURNER: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: You like it?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Of course, there's much more to sitting down with Ted Turner face to face. You can check out the entire interview. He talks about everything from the environment to the gulf oil spill. He talks about high points, low points, all of that. Go to CNN.com/fredricka.

Thanks so much for joining us. Much more of the NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)