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World Cup Fever Around the Globe; Admiral Allen Gives Media Update on Spill; People Losing Jobs Due to Offshore Drilling Moratorium; Results From Tuesday's Primary Elections
Aired June 09, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JAY LENO, NBC TALK SHOW HOST: Argentina's World Cup team doctor says players can have sex during the month-long tournament. You now that used to be a thing you should abstain. This doctor says no, sex actually helps you perform better to which Tiger Woods said, "See? See?"
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KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, tickets for the World Cup are no joke, that's for sure. Newly released stats show how Americans stack up to other countries when it comes to World Cup fever.
CNN's Josh Levs here with something that might just surprise you about the World Cup tournament. Something, by the way, as you know our international desk, always has blaring in the middle of the newsroom.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know. You can't be in there during the World Cup. They're screaming about every play and those Americans are, like, what's going on? What are you so excited about? But we got coverage right here on CNN.com in our own "Sports Illustrated." I encourage you to follow it throughout the time.
And just to highlight what we're talking about, the general perception that Americans are not that excited about the World Cup. The satirical publication, "The Onion," onion.com, that we love, said the nation's lone soccer fan as they described him is becoming insufferable. They're describing this regular guy as the one person in America who knows the World Cup is coming.
This is why you might be surprised when you find out how the ticket sales are actually going. We got this directly from the international organization that oversees it. Take a look here. The World Cup tickets - let me show you this. First of all, it's basically sold out. Three million tickets available to all these different events, 97 percent of them are sold.
Now obviously, the most are going to be sold within South Africa where it's taking place, about 1.3 million there. But guess which country has snatched up the most tickets of all outside of South Africa? The United States, 130,000. Now, compared to our population, maybe you say it's not that huge. But the fact is of all of the countries outside of the host countries, Americans have bought the most.
Next would be the U.K. at 101,000 and then Australia at 45,00 tickets. So you know what, there are a lot of soccer fans in this country. And speaking of that, I want to see if I can get back to some interactives for a second.
I want you to see something that we have - first of all, I was showing you our coverage here. Also, if you go to CNN.com/worldcup, we have all sorts of stories, predictions and what you think may or may not happen and we have a section called the fan zone where you can learn about the game and you can share your ideas, you can submit your videos, talk about your excitement. It's an online social community that you can jump into there.
And one more thing before I go, check this out. My official Google blog today this is talking about some of the interactives that they have. They have created a street view look at all of the stadiums being used for the entire World Cup. They'll show you where it's taking place. It's very cool stuff. All of it right now is at the Google blog and the rest you'll find through our main page at CNN.com. So, Kyra, I guess, you know what, America is pretty excited about this in the end.
PHILLIPS: Yes. Yes, they are. Especially here at CNN. We're all tuning in.
All right. Taking you live to Admiral Thad Allen now. He's giving us a brief on this oil disaster Day 51.
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ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: -- we'll add another 10,000 barrel capacity from what's coming out of the well head right now in addition to what's already there with the "Discovery Enterprise." Long term containment, I spoke in the last couple of days about getting a more robust package out there that could survive heavier weather with the permanent riser mooring. The two vessels involved in that are beginning to make their way this way.
One of them is actually coming from the North Sea. It's a shuttle tanker called the "Lock Ranock." That will be in the area somewhere between the 12th to 15th of June and the other, the "Teresa Pisces" (ph), which will be a production ship that will offload to the shuttle tanker and should be in the area somewhere around the 19th of June. And they're starting to put together the sub-sea mooring that will create that permanent riser pipe.
Just giving you an idea of what's going to happen if you haven't already seen it. The "Discovery Enterprise" right now is connected to the wellhead by a fixed riser pipe that goes down to the containment cap. That basically places the "Discovery Enterprise" in a fixed location basically anchored to the well head.
This new system will be created for long-term containment and will actually create a riser pipe that floats below the surface that's anchored to the bottom with a flexible hose that comes to the surface so there's more maneuvering ability for the ships up on top and larger ships be able to withstand heavier weather as we start moving into the hurricane season.
A lot of activity going on out there. I would make a couple of comments I have addressed before, but having been down there myself quite a bit. We have a lot of heat stress. Heat inductions are up to 110 degrees in some places and a lot of concerns about workers' safety. Also concerns about volatile organic compounds rising from the product in and around the well head.
A fire fighting vessel was dispatched out to the area to put down a water blanket over the top of the oil as it comes up so we wouldn't have the vapors coming up and creating an occupational and health safety problem for the people on the "Discovery Enterprise."
Two major events today. First of all, I sent out a letter yesterday to Tony Hayward, CEO of BP regarding claims processing. Tracy (inaudible) and I will meet later on today with BP officials and that will be a prelude to a series of meetings in the states to focus on the claims process and what can be done to improve that. This is not a (inaudible) that comes with a large oil company. There are contractors out there working claims and we feel it's our responsibility from the oversight role we have with BP to make sure it's done effectively, and (inaudible) and the reason I signed a letter to Tony Hayward, I also called and discussed it with him personally before I sent it to him so he would know what our intent was.
We also sent out a second letter from the federal on-scene coordinator Jim Watson asking that in the long-term containment plans that are currently under way and the near-term containment plans that BP start building better redundancies. We're on a learning curve as they've gone through with the top kill and other containment strategies where they had equipment and we found out how it works at those depths and sometimes we found out that a hydraulic valve may fail and maintenance may have to be done from time to time. We don't want anything to interrupt the product that's being recovered down there. So we're asking them to actually present us a plan that are building redundancies and make it the integrity of the recovery process moving forward.
And again that was put in writing to BP and we'll be waiting for the plan coming back from them. Those are the highlights. We'd like to take in any questions now.
QUESTION: What prompted you to write a strongly worded to BP and you said you can get the CEO on the phone and (inaudible) did you hear something specific about the claims yesterday?
ALLEN: We've gone through the first monthly cycle of the individual claims and some of those were intended to be on a cycle where each month the check comes in. They're partial claims to be paid on a monthly basis. We're unsure whether or not that really took hold and we're getting the kind of performance we want. So one of the things I asked in the letter was to give us data on the claims processing so far so we can make that transparent and understand if there are any problems.
We didn't have the data analyzed and we're getting handed over reports especially during the president's visit down to Grand Isle last week. There might be some inconsistency in the claims process. So two things, once you find out the problem, sit down and talk about it. We need some information to talk about it. They own the data, we need the data. I asked for that in the letter and now we'll move forward to correct any problems we might find.
QUESTION: In the press report, your flow rate technical group stressed the need for long-term and better quality video. It turns out that BP has the higher quality, high-resolution video and it's been slow to release and turned over several minutes of it yesterday. As I understand it, you only have the pressure from Congress. Were you aware of this high resolution video and can you explain why it wasn't released earlier?
ALLEN: It wasn't released earlier because it has to be put on hard drives and brought off the ships out there. You can't transmit it over internet or via RF frequencies. Marcia McNutt (ph) is head of the flow rate team and has been working with BP with the type of information with the high quality video. The only way to get the high-quality video is to physically remove it from the ships that are conducting, moving the RVs and bringing it to shore.
We've made a request and they provided it to us. I don't think it was a matter of the delay so much as the fact as they physically can give it to you real-time as they bring the hard drives ashore.
QUESTION: Are you happy with it?
ALLEN: We have what we need, yes.
QUESTION: Admiral, do you know the turning point in terms of more oil actually being taken in than what's going in?
ALLEN: I would certainly hope so. But until we get the flow production numbers down and we're able to completely cap that and take all the oil up to production we're not going know. I think we know more each day and that's the reason why I challenged the flow rate technical group to keep coming back, challenging their own assumptions and then taking new high resolution video that was taken when the riser pipe was cut so you can get a better aggregate amount of total oil. We'll just continue to refine the estimates. I'm not going to declare victory on anything until I have the absolute numbers. I think we all have estimates and some people have been disappointed when they were changed, so, show me the numbers.
Anyone else?
QUESTION: Yes. How would the government - would it be able to take over the claims process from BP? How would you do that? I mean, would FEMA do this?
ALLEN: I'm not sure at this point. We're contemplating taking over the claims process. I think what we want to know, number one, how's it going? What's the data that supports the current process so we can have some metrics on how effective the claims process is going. We got a lot of anecdotal information about how it is going.
The other thing that's a little bit more tricky is our loss of business as associated with this, and sometimes that's hard to kind of get a handle on as the president was told down in Grand Isle when we were there last week, there are some seafood processing plants that have stored a lot of seafood that is frozen and they're actually still shipping and we wonder why is there a problem with the business operation?
Well, the fact is they stopped processing and those people aren't working anymore. Trying to quantify those types of claims are a little bit more technical and they divided that into a different section of the claim processing procedures at BP. We want to understand that and know about it because there can't be a gap otherwise we'll have people being impacted and those are some of the things we're going to be looking out and discuss at the meeting today and our visit to the states.
QUESTION: Admiral, I believe Secretary Salazar said that he believes that the Gulf region will actually end up being in better condition once all is said and done and all the efforts, federal efforts and local efforts have been completed before the spill. Do you think that's doable?
ALLEN: I think anybody would say when you have a big problem like this and you have a massive look at rehabilitation and mitigation following a significant event like this. That creates an opportunity to deal with systemic issues that may have been a problem before.
That's certainly the case with some of the coastal erosion associated with Hurricane Katrina. So I think all of the cabinet secretaries feel this way, I know because I discussed it with them. If you're going into a massive mitigation or restoration environmentally down there, it might be worthwhile to step back and say "what would a newly restored golf look like in its most pristine form and can we somehow add to that and maybe start with maybe a higher purpose? We can't have it (inaudible) I think it's a legitimate goal to establish.
QUESTION: I believe Secretary Salazar said that will happen. Or is that something that can happen?
ALLEN: Well, I think it's actively being discussed among the cabinet secretaries right now. It's the subject of considerable interest. I think as frustrating as this is for all of us, I think we need to understand whether or not there is an opportunity moving forward for us to do something very good on the other side and that's where Secretary Salazar was.
QUESTION: Admiral, can you add some clarity? There are some reports that there might be other breaches in this well that oil may be percolating from other places in there. Have you heard those reports? ALLEN: I haven't heard that. One of the concerns during the top kill process was that we're driving a lot of mud down the oil bore, and while we are driving the mud down, it was suppressing the oil from coming up, but when we stopped the oil started to rise.
One of the reasons they didn't want to stop that blowout preventer off is the fact that it would create pressure back in the well bore and we do not know to an exact certainty the condition of the well bore or what they call burst plates. These are plates that are intended to provide protectional burst at a certain pressure and they're actually trying to do some diagnostics right now to see if they can ascertain whether or not those plates are still intact. If they are, that gives us a greater deal of certainty that the well bore will not be at risk.
The reason that's important is if there's somehow oil can get into the strata formation at some higher level it might work its way to the surface and you would have an uncontrolled leak to the sea floor and that's been a concern all of the way along, but I don't think there's any indication that has actually occurred. There's been discussion about the risk associated with too much pressure in the well bore itself.
QUESTION: Admiral? Scientists on the government panel say BP has impeded their ability to do this what they call ghost science. Is anything being done to make BP make it easily for the scientists to do this ghost science?
ALLEN: I'm not familiar with the term, if you give us details on it we'll look into it and we'll make a statement regarding the - you know, for me to go back to BP, I will do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Operator, we'll take questions from the phone now.
OPERATOR: Your first question comes from the line of Timoney Dickinson (ph) with "Rolling Stone" magazine.
PHILLIPS: You've been watching the live daily briefing with Admiral Thad Allen, the president's point man handling the entire response to the oil disaster right now. He's going to take phone questions from various reporters.
But real quickly, here's the highlights of this briefing. He's got two major concerns right now with regard to the workers on those rigs, in particular "Discovery Enterprise" where TransOcean employees are trying to stop that geyser by the day, by the second of every day, actually. Those VOCs, those volatile organic compounds, coming up from the oil there, around those rigs, a lot of effort is going on with the water vessels to try and tamper that but the heat is not helping with that, either. That's the other concern that the Admiral pointing out how the heat is picking up a number of threats for workers there on those rigs.
And also, we talked about this earlier. This letter that the admiral sent to Tony Hayward, the head of BP, about the claims process. The admiral concerned about the time that it's taking to get those claims processed and that money straight to the workers and the various people affected there along the Gulf coast, trying to get money from BP for their losses to this point.
We'll continue to follow this. Also 10:30 Eastern time, about 15 minutes away, the president is expected to talk about those sanctions against Iran. We'll take that live as soon as the president steps up to the mike.
More from the CNN NEWSROOM straight ahead.
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PHILLIPS: With the horrific images of environmental damage, many people outside the region may be surprised by one of the greatest concerns around the Gulf. It's the White House moratorium on oil drilling and the thousands of additional jobs that are at risk right now.
CNN's John Roberts is in New Orleans. He actually had a chance to visit a nerve center of an industry that's in limbo. John, this is a tremendous challenge for these oil rig workers right now, isn't it?
ROBERTS: It is. You know, I dropped by Port Fourchon, which is right down along the Gulf Coast, it's a little bit west of Grand Isle and that really is the nerve center, the heartbeat, if you will, of the Gulf oil operations.
There are 12,000 people who work on these supply ships that go out almost each and every day, bringing everything from riser pipe to drilling mud to food to ferrying out workers to these rigs. Many of them are just sitting at port doing nothing right now and then there's support staff as well and the numbers may be perhaps as much as 100,000 who are working with those people.
So if this moratorium and it's six months on deep water drilling, the government says that it is now going to loosen up restrictions on shallow water drilling, if it goes on too much longer, Kyra, the economic bite will start to hit these people. They will lose their paychecks and it will compound an already tough economic situation with the impact that we've seen do far with tourism and fishing.
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MAYOR MITCH LANDRIEU, NEW ORLEANS: In the nation's view maybe it's a fight between big oil and the ecosystem, but for the people that live down here both of those things have lived together. So we live by the oil now and we die by the oil. If that moratorium goes on for an unpredictable length of time, you're going to lose 10,000 jobs and the livelihoods of people that work in the oil industry are going to go away.
If you don't do the moratorium, and you drill when it's unsafe and all the livelihoods of the fishing are going to go away. Down here we believe that you can do both. And so I think they have to tighten it up. They have to make that moratorium predictable. They have to have it focused. So for example on shallow water drilling, we think that you can do that safely. We don't think you should drill into deepwater until it's safe. But there ought to be strike teams in there to do that much quickly than just an open ended six months.
You got to do both of them at the same time, and of course, if you look at it from our perspective, it's all about are people going to be able to feed their families and go back to work?
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ROBERTS: That was Mitch Landrieu who is the new mayor of New Orleans. His administration is actually younger than this oil spill by about 16 days. The oil spill is 51 days old and he's only been in office for 35 days dealing with yet another huge problem as we come up to the fifth anniversary of Katrina. When you look at the impact of this oil spill throughout the region to the oil and gas industry and that the folks who rely on that for their livelihood, to the fishing, to the tourism, you can understand that there's a tremendous amount of frustration and anger in this area.
Earlier today I talked with Julia Reed, who is a local writer who writes for "Newsweek" magazine just about that sense of frustration that people have and who it's directed at and she told me it's kind of directed at everybody.
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JULIA REED, "NEWSWEEK" CONTRIBUTING WRITER: You've got a president, OK, in deepwater drilling, I mean, knowing that this is the case. People down here are, like, where were you? 51 days later, nobody's impressed by talk from the president of the United States saying I'm looking for whose ass to kick. I mean, that's just absurd.
You know, look behind you. It's, like, people are really, really angry and James Carville is not the only person literally spitting out his words.
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ROBERTS: So if you take what Julia Reed said and you take away what Mitch Landrieu said, there's a sense that everybody is hurting from so many different angles as a result of this oil spill. It's time to stop the finger pointing, it's time to work on a fix to get those oil booms out there, to get the skimmers out there, protect the shoreline and also do something for those tens of thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on the oil and gas industry to be able to go back to work, Kyra. It's a very, very complicated problem and there certainly is no simple solution.
PHILLIPS: And you mentioned the first national interview that you had right there with Mitch Landrieu, the new mayor of New Orleans. I mean, what a tremendous challenge to take on in your first couple of months of office.
ROBERTS: Oh, absolutely, and you know, as you said, he's fairly new. His administration only 35 days old. He was working because he's the former lieutenant governor. He was working in the emergency operation center with this, when it came time to go through the transition for mayor and he basically said, forget about the mayoral transition, we got the right to go into the emergency mode here. So right into the fire from the frying pan for Mitch Landrieu.
PHILLIPS: Yes. No kidding. John Roberts, thanks so much. Well, it's going to be a heck of a November. We now know most of the candidates, the good old boy political networking, what it used to be. That's for sure. Neither is the glass ceiling.
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PHILLIPS: Tuesday night primary results shift to Wednesday's morning quarterbacking. So we know that there is anti-incumbent fever out there but how high is it? Apparently not high enough in Arkansas. Incumbent Senator Blanche Lincoln fighting for her political life in a democratic runoff with Lieutenant governor Bill Halter. Lincoln lives to campaign another day and she's going to face Congressman John Bozman in the fall.
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SEN. BLANCHE LINCOLN (D), ARKANSAS: I have heard your message, and let me tell you, I cannot feel any stronger than I feel today as a daughter of the delta and Arkansas to know that your message is loud and clear that Washington, Washington needs to work for us.
And in Nevada, you had a Tea Party test. Sharron Angle got a lot of conservative backing and lots of money from Tea Party express and it paid off. Angle's win, will take on Senate majority leader Harry Reid in the fall and think about that test. Tea Party favors is one of the nation's most powerful politicians. In South Carolina, unfinished business.
Nikki Haley needed 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff in the GOP primary for governor. Almost got it, not quite. The runoff with Gresham Barrett is June 22nd. Haley is the Sarah Palin-approved candidate until GMA today that that support has been huge.
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NIKKI HALEY (R), S.C. GOV. CANDIDATE: We saw that the message was resonating. We saw that we were moving up in the polls, but when Sarah Palin showed up it certainly solidified and gave us credibility that this was not just someone that was another elected official. This was someone that wanted to give a voice back to the people and I'm very grateful to her for that.
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PHILLIPS: So have you noticed how prominent women have been so far? Tuesday night was ladies night especially in California. Two wealthy, successful business women showing the male political establish how the west was won. Here's national political correspondent Jessica Yellin.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
It appears to be the year of the woman in races cross the west. First here in California in the race for governor, Meg Whitman won on the Republican side. She's the former CEO of eBay and the billionaire invested more than $70 million from her own fortune in the campaign. She said her business experience gives her the know how to shake up Sacramento in this financially struggling state.
She'll take on attorney general Jerry Brown who was former governor of this state in the '70s. He's a well-known frugal reformer and one of the only candidates anywhere in this country who is running proudly as a career politician.
Also in the state, the other winner was is Carly Fiorina. She won the Republican nod for U.S. Senate. A Former CEO of Hewlett- Packard, she ran to the right claiming that she's a true conservative in the state and she's aggressively going after Senator Barbara Boxer already calling Boxer a three-term Democrat, too liberal for California.
Both Whitman and Fiorina are saying that their status as outsiders gives them a leg up over their opponents, whom they refer to as entrenched politicians.
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MEG WHITMAN (R-CA), GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Career politicians in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., be warned because you now face your worst nightmare. Two business women from (inaudible) who know how to create jobs, balance budgets and get things done.
CARLY FIORINA (R-CA), SENATE CANDIDATE: I decided to run for the U.S. Senate because I could make a difference. I am not a career politician. I am a concerned citizen answering a call for change.
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YELLIN: And in Nevada, there is a come from behind-victory for Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle. She barely registered in the polls until she got backing of the Tea Party express and then she catapulted to the front of the pack beating established candidates. She will face off with a man who might be the Republicans' number one target, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Expect that Nevada race to be the battleground for Tea Party activists across the country, but all three races will be bitterly fought, Kyra, and very expensive -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: CNN is the first to report Al Gore's oldest daughter and her husband have separated. Karina Gore Schiff and Andrew Schiff have been married for 13 years and they have three kids. Of course, this news comes just a week after the former vice president and Mrs. Gore announced their own separation after 40 years of marriage.
Well, it looks like a billowing smokestack but it's really the source of agony for millions of people along the Gulf coast. We're going to tell you why this sharper image of the underwater oil geyser may make a big difference in plotting the future strategy
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PHILLIPS: We're expecting the president of the United States to step up to the mike any moment now. We'll take it live. He'll be talking about the U.N. Security Council vote and those possible sanctions against Iran.
The big question now, if this goes through, will it even work? How many times have we been through this before? We're waiting for the president to speak live.
Now to the Gulf oil crisis. It's Day 51, and the disaster goes under the microscope on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers holding no fewer than five separate hearings today. They're looking at a range of issues from cleanup to liability and safety.
You're seeing high-resolution video of the underwater geyser right here. Lawmakers demanding that BP publicly share it. They want independent experts to study the sharper images and better determine just how much oil is gushing out.
Just minutes ago, we received an update on the effectiveness of that new containment cap over the ruptured well. Admiral Thad Allen says it's capturing about 630,000 gallons of oil a day. But the toll on the wildlife growing more dire. At last report, nearly 600 birds have been found dead along with some 250 sea turtles. That's far more than a number of birds and turtles who have been saved.
Americans are seeing the first high-resolution video of the underwater geyser now, and lawmakers demanded that BP publicly share it. They want independent experts to study the sharper images and better determine just how much oil is gushing out.
CNN's Josh Levs is here to give us a bit of a breakdown. We heard the admiral say, Josh -- he was actually questioned about this in the briefing and he said look, to have that clearer picture you've got to put it on a disk and take it off the ship. There's no live feed available with regard to that closer -- that more distinct picture.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. We'll hear that in a second. We'll also hear from a lawmaker who said wait a second, they should have had it sooner. And I'll talk you through this. What you're seeing here is the live imagery. I want to start off with this because I want you to see the stark differences. This is the kind of difference that I've been showing you right here on this screen for weeks now. Fifty-one days means we're in our eighth week. We've actually completed seven weeks of this crisis.
It's grainy. You sort of see these clouds of smoke coming out, and to some extent it's been helpful to help us understand what's happened if nothing, compared to this next video, which we'll go to now. Which is the high-resolution video. And the reason it's so important, you might say it's just a clearer image, but what scientists have been saying for weeks now is they need to be able to see the high resolution in order to determine the number of oil particles that are coming out of here.
It's not just that it comes into water and remains oil. When it gets into the water, it mixes with things, it creates this cloud. By having a much clearer image, they're able to determine the amount of actual oil that is coming out -- at least, better determine that. And they're able to study it to see the number of particles.
Let's go to a split screen. I want to put this on one side and the grainier video that we've been seeing for a long time on the other side so you can see the stark difference. This is the new high- resolution. This is the older video.
And just so you can see how truly high-resolution this is, let's take this full, which means I'm not going to be in the way. No studio lights or anything. You're seeing basically just the differences right there. On your left is the high- resolution video that lawmakers have been calling for and scientists have been calling for. They need we need this to understand what's been coming out, what's been gushing out. The other side is the kind of thing we've been seeing sooner.
Let's do this. We've been hearing from a lot of lawmakers complaining this high-res video was not released sooner. Here's one who spoke to CNN.
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REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: It makes no sense at all, which is why I demanded that BP release the high-definition video. It's almost as though they think we're living in an analog world, not a digital world. And the clarity of the picture obviously is key to determining how big the spill is and as a result, how big the response has to be in terms of the protections which are put in place for the people who live in the Gulf.
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LEVS: All right. That's the context for you from what you heard earlier in the same hour when Admiral Thad Allen specifically said it's his understanding that the reason it took so long is that you can't just feed this over the Internet, over the normal lines. You have to actually get a tape, go through the process of getting that tape, delivering it to another place and another place and another place. And that's why he said it took so long.
So, Kyra, we'll see that debate continue, and as we try to find out what did take until now to see the high-res video. In the meantime, we're going to study to see what we can learn about the oil gushing into the waters there.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Josh.
LEVS: You got it.
PHILLIPS: We want to share with you a CNN exclusive. A partnership between CNN Special Investigations Unit and "AC 360." Last night, Anderson Cooper interviewed five survivors of the fatal oil rig explosion that started the disaster. The workers say that BP routinely cut corners and ignored the workers' safety concerns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): You're saying they're cutting corners. What would their motivation be?
DOUG BROWN, DEEPWATER HORIZON WORKER: To finish the job faster, to save money.
COOPER: Do you think that's what this is about? It's about saving time and saving money?
BROWN: Well, yes. They're over budget on it. So, yes, they were cutting corners for time any money.
COOPER (voice-over): Two of the men who survived the BP oil rig fire and collapse are trying to explain an argument they say they witnessed on the platform about 12 hours before the first explosion. It was an argument, they say between Transocean and BP managers.
BROWN: The meeting was a pre-tower meeting. Basically, they go over the day's events and what's going to be taking place on the drill floor. And while it was given, the company man basically jumped up and says no, we have some changes.
COOPER (on camera): The company man is from BP?
BROWN: Yes.
COOPER: The driller was Transocean.
BROWN: The driller's Transocean, yes. And the company man basically says we have some changes to that. We're going to be doing something different. I recall it was something about displacing the riser with the seawater for that tower.
COOPER: Taking drilling mud out --
BROWN: Yes.
COOPER: And replacing it with seawater?
BROWN: Yes.
COOPER (voice-over): Brown and others say the argument raised concerns because replacing dense mud with seawater meant less pressure to hold the oil down.
(on camera): Why would they want to displace it with saltwater?
DANIEL BARRON III, BP EXPLOSION SURVIVOR: To make it quicker for the production well to get in once we capped the well.
COOPER: That was the idea. They wanted to close off the well. BARRON: They were getting ready to go to the next well, and they were trying to make it easier for the production crew to get in because it took so much time for us to drill this well and get it done.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Eleven workers died in that explosion. One of the victims was the driller who was arguing against using the seawater. He felt it was too dangerous.
A classroom full of students eager to learn.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHILDREN CHANTING)
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PHILLIPS: You can thank the teacher for this enthusiastic bunch. Coming up, what it takes to teach like a champ.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: School may be out for summer for some kids, but the learning never stops for the teachers who want to be better than ever at their jobs. CNN's Randi Kaye tells us what it takes to teach like a champ in today's "Building Up America."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY REAGAN, FIFTH-GRADE MATH TEACHER, ROCHESTER PREP CHARTER SCHOOL: what is the measurement of the second angle?
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Take a good look inside this classroom. Notice what isn't happening. Not a single student daydreaming or doodling. Each one alert, focused, engaged.
REAGAN: What is the greatest of the three angles? Anthony C.?
KAYE: This fifth-grade math teacher at Rochester Prep Charter School uses a dozen techniques that she says make hers students want to learn.
(STUDENTS SINGING): And put in the bottom number! Seven. It's tiki time, eight, nine, 10, 11,12. How many do I got? Five, and keep it lined up!
REAGAN: Instead of doing a regular subtraction problem, it can get a little boring after a while. You hit them with a song, and it's so much more interesting to them.
REAGAN: What type of triangle is it?
KAYE: That's just one of 49 techniques Kelly Reagan learned from this former teacher and principal. Doug LaMont says he's figured out how to take good teachers and make them great.
KAYE (on camera): You do not believe that a good teacher is born. You believe a good teacher is made.
DOUG LEMOV, SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: Yes. I believe great teachers are made.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I double dog dare you to use the word adjacent later on.
KAYE: What do you think makes a successful teacher?
LEMOV: I think the first thing that has to happen is the teacher has to have control of the classroom environment.
KAYE: Doug has been at this for five years. He seeks out schools with high poverty and high performance, then asks himself, what's in the water? Why does this work? he sits in the classroom, takes notes and records the teachers to perfect his techniques. He already has more than 600 hours of videotape.
(voice-over): Doug shares his favorite techniques with his teachers, sort of like paying it forward. In this video, the teacher asks a question. And then calls on a student at random, even calls on the same girl twice in a row.
LEMOV: The kids really have to be on their toes.
KAYE: And in this seventh grade math class, students snap if the classmate's answer is right and stomp if it's wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two snaps or two stomps on two. One, two.
(STUDENTS SNAP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nicely done. Number four --
KAYE (voice-over): It forces the whole class to engage in the answer. Eighty percent of the students here come from poverty. This may be their only shot at a future.
(on camera): Here at Rochester Prep, some students arrive only able to read at a third grade level. Some don't even know their letters. But after just two years here, Doug says those same student are twice as proficient as the rest of the district and ten times more prepared for college.
LEMOV: One hundred percent of the kids were proficient in seventh grade in math and English.
KAYE: One hundred percent?
LEMOV: Every single kid.
KAYE (voice-over): Good odds for improving public education.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Rochester, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And at any moment we're waiting for the president of the United States to step up to the mikes. Live there from Washington. Expected to hear from him on the U.N. Security council's vote with regard to those sanctions against Iran. Trying to put pressure on that country to stop building nukes.
We'll take a quick break. More from the CNN NEWSROOM straight ahead.
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PHILLIPS: Tell me if this seems right to you. A National Guardsman serving in Iraq, a sniper gets him in the leg, disables him. He gets a Purple Heart. Two years later, he gets a bill. Yes, a bill for more than three grand. At first, he thinks it's for the equipment that he left on the battlefield. Kind of hard to collect your stuff when a bullet's just ripped your leg apart.
But now he thinks it's because he was apparently overpaid during his last few months in the military. Watch this story from Lauren Rios from KVAL in Eugene, Oregon, and then we'll look at what you're saying about this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAUREN RIOS, KVAL-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gary Pfleider tells KVAL he's confused.
GARY PFLEIDER, DISABLED VETERAN: Obviously, they're thinking they overpaid me somewhere, but what I can't figure out is why separate a soldier from the military, give him an honorable discharge, clear him from a post, and you can have him cleared through finance where all those records are kept. And then come after him almost two years later. I mean, to me it just doesn't make sense.
RIOS: According to Pfleider, a Defense finance and accounting services spokesman told him he was overpaid for July 2008 through September 2008. Pfleider does say his pay was docked in the final months in the Guard as a disciplinary action, but he doesn't know if this could be related. He was also told three notices of overpayment were sent in spring 2009 before this $3,000 bill arrived. But Pfleider said he did not get them.
PFLEIDER: It's not something that I would have overlooked if they had been sent.
RIOS: So why did Pfleider think the bill was for missing equipment? He received this list of missing gear from the Oregon National Guard about one month before he got that bill. And Pfleider also says two sergeants at his former Guard unit told him the charges were for missing gear. I called the National Guard to ask about that.
RIOS: So, you don't know who told him it was for missing equipment?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we do not, but his former commander is going to touch base with him to ensure that he is aware of what the charges are.
RIOS: The military says they cleared him of that missing equipment, but Pfleider says he had no idea. So, he spent the past year trying to get himself cleared, even filing this sworn statement in February and going to the media last week.
PFLEIDER: I mean, I wouldn't have worked so hard to present the documentations to go the distance that I've gone to try to get to the bottom of it, if I was trying to come out and lie and say that it was about the gear.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now, KVAL tried to get some more information about the overpayment process. A spokesperson for the base wouldn't talk. It seems like the military can't get its story straight. Overpayment, lost equipment, whatever. This guy, who took a bullet for his country, doesn't deserve this extra headache.
You can weigh in on the story on my blog. Go to CNN.com/kyra. I always want to hear from you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Every day at this time, we honor service members who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan for us. We call it "Home and Away." And today we have a special guest joining us by phone. Kimberly Taylor is from de Decatur, Alabama. She joins us to talk about her fiance, Staff Sergeant Joshua Rath (ph), killed in Afghanistan 2009.
Kimberly, what happened to your fiance?
KIMBERLY TAYLOR, FIANCE OF DECEASED STAFF SERGEANT JOSH RATH (via phone): He was on a dismounted foot patrol in Kandahar at a bazaar when a suicide bomber sat down next to a motorcycle and went off.
PHILLIPS: And when you got that word, when you got that phone call, that must have been the worst call or the worst visit to your home you ever received.
TAYLOR: Yes, ma'am. I had both the call and visit, and the world just dropped out from beneath me.
PHILLIPS: Well, on the beautiful side of things, you had quite an incredible engagement. How did you guys fall in love?
TAYLOR: Oh, well, we met as lifeguards at a water park. and it started out as this amazing friendship, going on adventures, hanging out with friends. It was so perfect, and from that friendship, it grew into something so amazingly pure and wonderful, and it was meant to be. And it was so easy to just love him, and his character was so great.
PHILLIPS: Not only did he love you and he was committed to you, but he was committed to his position in the military. What do you think made him such a strong trooper?
TAYLOR: Oh, goodness. He loved to cheer people up, and he wanted everyone to be the best they could be and to be happy in what they were doing and with themselves. And through that, he became an amazing leader. And he loved all of his guys, all of them.
PHILLIPS: All right. We know that these guys are pretty tough, pretty macho, and they can stand the heat of the battle. But according to you, he could stand that heat in the kitchen pretty well also. Tell me about these chocolate chip cookies that he mastered.
TAYLOR: Oh, yes, ma'am. He loved chocolate chip cookies. He loved eating them. He loved baking them, and he loved the dough more than anything else. But he was so proud because he knew the recipe by heart. I mean, he could just write it down on the spot for anyone and he nicknamed Josh's Recipe.
And every time he would come home, he would bake cookies with his family. They would all get together and sit around the table and made hundreds of cookies. He would come to my place, and we would bake them together and we would have flour fights, and it was just so wonderful.
PHILLIPS: We're actually looking at that picture, that was perfect timing with the flour on his nose. You actually got into flour fights, huh?
TAYLOR: Oh, yes, ma'am. We were playful and loving. It was awesome.
PHILLIPS: Well, what do you think, for those watching this segment and you're aware of what we're doing here at the end of every newscast at this hour. We want to lift up our men and women who have died for us, men like your fiance Josh, Kimberly.
How do you want him remembered? What do you want Americans to know about him? What do you think his family would really want everybody to know about him?
TAYLOR: That he actually lived. He lived his life to the fullest in everything he did and in every moment, and he lived it with love. He sought out adventure, he was a risk taker. He loved everyone. And all he wanted was just to spread that love around.
PHILLIPS: We lift up that love today. Kimberly Taylor, thanks so much for talking with me.
TAYLOR: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: We are committed to bringing you more stories like Josh's, but we need your help, of course. Please go to our Web site, CNN.com/homeandaway. You'll see a U.S. map. You'll just click on the hometown, pull up a bio, leave your best memories like Kimberly did for us or just leave your thanks for service to our country. And we will tell all of you all about that special individual.
That does it for us. We'll be back here tomorrow. Tony Harris will pick it up from her.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Terrific stuff. Have a great day, Kyra. Good seeing you.
PHILILPS: Thanks, Tony. You too.
