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BP's Fix Not Good Enough; Arkansas Flash Floods Kill 18; Pilots Strike at Spirit

Aired June 12, 2010 - 19:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, an ultimatum by the Obama administration, a vote of no confidence. Is it in BP? We're live for answers tonight in the Gulf where the catastrophe unfolds by the minute.

Arizona front and center in another controversy over race. We're asking two artists who asked them to lighten the color -- the skin color of school kids on this mural.

And the epidemic that is divorce -- and why some people are more prone to it and why some say it is contagious. We explore all of that this hour.

(MUSIC)

LEMON: Tonight, a message from the government to BP: what you're doing to fix the oil disaster is not good enough. It has been over 54 days since the deadly oil rig explosion created a massive and catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven families lost.

Each day, the oil chokes off commercial -- commerce all over the Gulf, and even with compensation checks from BP, families who depend on the Gulf for livelihood, they are hurting right now. And it may be months before the oil stops. Twice as much oil is coming out as previously thought and the containment cap lowered over the pipe is only able to capture some of it. So, the government has given BP until tomorrow to come up with a better plan.

CNN's Chris Lawrence joins us now live from Grand Isle.

Chris, no one seems satisfied with BP's efforts to get the handle on this catastrophe. What if BP doesn't have a better plan? What then?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's the question we're going to be asking the Coast Guard tomorrow, because tomorrow, Don, is the deadline day for BP. And you can see some of this tiger dam that's been laid out at the beach. That wasn't here just a couple weeks ago, but basically, this is the Coast Guard telling BP, look, the plan you had for what we thought was gushing out of the well, that might have been OK. And now, they were pretty sure it's a whole lot more, that plan is just not aggressive enough.

I'm going to take you back. When this well first erupted, we were told first estimates, maybe 42,000 gallons a day were gushing out. Then they scrapped that estimate. No, it's more like 200,000 gallon as day coming out.

Now, the best estimate is that it's between 800,000 and 1.7 million gallons gushing out every day. That's a completely different ball game. That's why the Coast Guard has told BP, you got 48 hours, tomorrow, to come up with a more aggressive plan -- Don.

LEMON: In the meantime, I saw, you were out earlier with the cleanup workers on the beach. You said that they weren't talking then. Did you get a chance to try to ask some of htem some questions? Are they talking now?

LAWRENCE: No, they absolutely are not. In fact, we said, well, maybe, you know, you don't want to make a judgment just on one area that we're in. So, we drove a mile -- a couple miles down the beach to a completely different zone, different group of workers, walked up to them and just said, hey, guys, you know, how is it going out there today?

And almost immediately, it was like, hey, you can't even be this close to us. You know, no one is going to talk to you, if they want -- you know, if they still want to keep their job. And, you know, we tried to talk to them about the letter that the CEO of BP had put out, saying, look, we're not telling people not to talk, they can talk about their experiences and what's really going on here, and, you know, one worker said that was a fake e-mail and we heard about that fake e-mail.

And so, I mean, asking people even to -- what did you do today? How is it going? I mean, these aren't really -- we're not -- I'm not digging into what they're doing, it's just kind of a casual, what's going on out here? And even that is getting absolutely no response, Don.

LEMON: Yes, you just want to know what their personal opinion and what it feels like to have to be out there working and where they grew up or where they live. So, interesting. Chris, keep on top of it for us. We appreciate your reporting tonight.

And one of the greatest problems now facing BP is this oil -- in this oil disaster, is its credibility. No matter what company officials say they're doing, the public, the politicians, even the president, say they don't fully trust BP.

So, CNN's John Roberts went right to the source for answers about what is being done, questions about BP's tactics. Put to the chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, on his own turf at ground zero. A CNN exclusive coming up right here on the CNN NEWSROOM.

The death toll is now at least 18 in the flash floods that swept through an Arkansas campground and crews are searching right now for as many as two dozen that's still unaccounted for. Governor Mike Beebe says four people are confirmed missing, but another 20 people may have been in the area when the floods hit.

The waters rushed in so fast it caught the campers off-guard there was just no time to escape for many of them. And our Casey Wian is standing by for us live in Langley, Arkansas.

Casey, where does the search stand now?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, earlier today, the U.S. Forest Service took us along to see some of those search operations and took us to the scene of where the flood happened. And there, we met a woman named Janice McCrae, who's a survivor of the flood and also a hero who helped to rescue victims.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANICE MCCRAE, FLOOD SURVIVOR: He said the river is rising so fast. He said, "I can't get out of my cabin." His cabin was built on piers, you know, probably eight feet tall. And it was already up and his cabin was moving, and while he was talking to me, there was a trailer that floated into and flashed into his cabin.

As it turned out, there were people in that camper and he managed to pull them out of that camper, and get them up in his cabin and he keep them safe until the water went down.

I didn't have time to think. We went down there and the river was roaring. It was just -- and the cabins that were starting to float were crashing into each other and it was all this smashing and --

WIAN: What was that noise like?

MCCRAE: Well, it was horrible.

WIAN: There, the examples of the power of the raging current, the wall completely sheared off of this cabin; next to it, a cabin that seems to have fared relatively well because it was up on stilts. But behind me, you see the remnants of a cabin that looks like it was hit by a bomb. It was actually knocked about 50 feet off its foundation, completely torn apart.

MCCRAE: This cabin, the red one with the crunched up roof, is the one where the kids were up there.

WIAN: Right.

MCCRAE: The two kids were up on the cabin screaming, "Help, help," and it went down enough eventually. It was falling pretty fast. Once it quit raining, it started falling. So grandpa starts walking out.

And we got -- we just went as far as we could and grabbed him. He sat right there after -- we found that chair and he sat there until we could get grandmother. She was on the other side of that drift, how she survived I don't know.

WIAN: Wow.

MCCRAE: She was on the other side.

WIAN: How did you get the boys down? MCCRAE: They just helped them -- you know, as the water went down, they just made them stay up there until it went down and then they helped them down.

WIAN: Obviously, they are still looking for people here.

MCCRAE: Yes.

WIAN: What has the loss been like? Can you describe it? Can you come to terms with it even yet?

MCCRAE: No. I don't want to try and come to terms with it yet. We'll all have to, though. There's still a lot -- the river hasn't given up the bodies yet. There's more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN: Now, back to our live picture and you can see the flag at the command post flying at half staff in honor of 18 victims so far. The local sheriff just told me that this operation has now switched from a rescue operation to a recovery operation, and it will be going on until dark tonight, Don.

LEMON: All right. Casey, thank you very much. We appreciate that.

What the oil disaster in the Gulf is doing to wildlife, if these pictures are worth a thousand words, we'll show you how much they're worth in bringing about change to protect them.

Also, in a city where racial tensions are on the rise, a mural meant to ease things has the opposite affects after the artists are pressured to lighten the skin of their subjects.

And an international drama in the World Cup opener between the U.S. and England. We're going to you about that.

And don't just sit there. Make sure you become part of our conversation, send me a message on Twitter and on Facebook, and check out my blog at CNN.com/Don.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Some of the most visible evidence of the devastation along the Gulf Coast has been images of oil-soaked animals. Tom Bancroft is chief scientist at the National Audubon Society, which is taking an active role in trying to mitigate this disaster.

So, he joins us live now from Washington to talk about what it will take to save these creatures, their habitat, and what can you do to help.

Dr. Tom Bancroft, thanks for joining us. He's a German scientist, I want to say.

Some German scientists though suggested that the birds covered in oil should be euthanized. What do you think? Should they be euthanized? DR. TOM BANCROFT, CHIEF SCIENTIST, NATL. AUDUBON SOCIETY: No, I don't think so. At this point, they're still hopeful the birds and humanity tells us we need to go forward and try to help them the best they can.

What's critical is to capture them as soon as you can after they get oiled, bring them in and work on getting them cleaned, you got to keep them in captivity enough so that they can re-get the waterproofing on their feathers. All birds have a waterproofing on it and to wash them to get the oil off, we'll take that off, and then make sure we release them back into the wild where in a place where they're not going to not come back in and get covered with oil.

LEMON: Yes. But, you know, some people have suggested that the birds and the animals, especially the pelicans, who are -- that are cleaned up there, that it's so much trauma, they go through so much trauma to do that, and many of them don't live anyway. Some are wondering if they are even worth saving. I know it's a tough question. But do you believe the same thing?

BANCROFT: Right. Well, there was a big recent study in South Africa that worked on penguins and southern gannets, and that had a good success on getting birds back in the wild, a number of birds got back in the breeding season, including several penguins that live more than 20 years. So, I think that there is hope and we need to focus on that hope and protect the birds and try to get them back in. That's especially important for any rare birds to try to help get back into the system.

For pelicans, they just came off the endangered species list in the northern part of the Gulf last year. So, it's really important that we do everything we can to protect them.

And I think the second thing you got to do is you got to focus on the habitat. We really got to clean the habitat up as quick as we can. We got to focus on long-term restoration of that habitat. That's important for people, too -- all the stories about people losing their livelihood there.

LEMON: But just specifically, Doctor, do you think that it's -- do you think that many of the animals that they're trying to save now -- do you think they are worth the effort? Again, as I said, it's a tough question. But what do you think?

BANCROFT: I think it's worth of effort, yes.

LEMON: OK.

Let's talk about now cleaning up the oil. As you mentioned, you said you got to get the environment back in order there.

BANCROFT: Right.

LEMON: There was -- one of your scientists had suggested using the Mississippi River to flush out the estuaries. Explain that to us.

BANCROFT: That's correct. Well, the -- I always have a hard time pronouncing it, Atchafalaya Basin comes down from the Mississippi. It's an area that has quite a bit of water from the Mississippi flowing through it and it flows into the marshes of the southern part of Louisiana. Those marshes are critical for people, and protecting them from flood protection, providing nursery grounds for shrimp and for fish, and putting more water down through this Atchafalaya will help keep the oil out of those marshes, help restore those marches, help build that ecosystem back up.

So, it's really critical to do. And the government is considering this. It's been a long-term restoration plan on the books. So, let's try to move this forward as quickly as we can.

LEMON: And, Dr. Tom Bancroft, thank you. We appreciate your time, OK?

BANCROFT: Thank you.

LEMON: Angry and outrage in perhaps the most hallowed ground in the United States, uncovering hundreds of mismarked or misplaced graves at Arlington National Cemetery.

Safe and sound: After being missing at sea, a teenager's quest to sail around the world by herself now has her parents under the microscope.

And once the pictures of happiness now part of a social study. You see there, that is the Gore family. And the question we're asking: can divorce be contagious?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: If any cemetery in the land is sacred ground, it is Arlington National Cemetery. The men and women buried there gave their lives for our country. How has their sacrifice been rewarded? With such poor management that more than 200 graves are unmarked or either misidentified.

And our Samantha Hayes reports, the outrage runs deep.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMANTHA HAYES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meticulous and exact, the rows of white crosses at Arlington National Cemetery. It's what Oliver Woods would expect from the military. Five generations of men in his family, including himself, has served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

OLIVER E. WOODS, VETERAN: Kind of solemn, sorrowful, you kind of feel their presence here.

HAYES: But now, a new impression is emerging for Woods after an Army investigation revealed that the cemetery has been operating under something less than military precision. Possibly hundreds of veterans and their family members laid to rest at Arlington has been misidentified or buried in the wrong place.

WOODS: I think it's one of America's greatest atrocities. And the person in charge responsible for it should be hung up by a rope to dry.

HAYES: The cemetery set up an emergency call center. They're gathering detailed information from concerned families, taking hundreds of calls in the last two days.

Veterans' organizations are also busy.

Velma Hart is with AMVETS. For her, the situation is also personal.

VELMA HART, NATIONAL FINANCE DIR., AMVETS: Because I have someone buried in Arlington, there was a question mark in my own mind when I first heard about this? Because everybody in my family wonders about the remains that are in section 51.

HAYES: She sees only one way to rectify what has happened, identify every name in question.

HART: One hundred percent. There's -- there is no solution that will be satisfactory, because if only -- if there is one person who is not correctly identified, that's one family that has to suffer with that forever.

HAYES (on camera): Officials at Arlington National Cemetery say they recognize how sensitive this is for so many families, and under new management, will be working hard to make it right and to also make sure it never happens again.

Samantha Hayes, CNN, at Arlington National Cemetery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: I want to check some of your top stories right now.

A strong earthquake measuring 7.5 struck in the Indian Ocean today, about 100 miles west of the Nicobar Islands. Authorities say there are no reports of injuries or damage. A tsunami warning for India was cancelled last hour.

A 16-year-old girl who tried to sail around the world by herself is safe and blaming bad weather for her failed attempt. A French fishing crew rescued Abby Sunderland this morning in the Indian Ocean today. The California teen became stranded after a storm broke the mast on her yacht Wild Eyes. She had to abandon the yacht which remains in the middle of the ocean.

Her parents today defended Abby's solo effort.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURENCE SUNDERLAND, TEEN SAILOR'S FATHER: Listen, the age shouldn't be a factor here. Abigail was scrutinized by myself. I teach people to sail. I work in this arena all my life.

It wasn't -- it wasn't a flippant decision to allow her to go out on the ocean. This was something that she was scrutinized. It was a desire of hers from the age of 13. Of course, at that age, I considered it not fit for going out on to the ocean at 13, neither 14. She was delivering yachts solo at the age of 13. She has actually thousand of miles solo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Abby's older brother sailed around the world last year.

A flubbed goal helped team USA scratched out a one-one tie against England in the opening round of soccer's World Cup in South Africa. The Americans failed early but rallied when England's goalkeeper flubbed the shot by USA's Clint Dempsey. England was heavily favored in the match. And the draw should help the U.S. advance past the first round - fingers crossed.

So, you know, the tie was practically a victory here, it's an embarrassment in Britain. And CNN's Richard Roth watched the game with fans on both sides -- Richard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, I'm still here in DuPont Circle where thousands watched on two big screens this historic matchup in the World Cup, U.S. versus England.

To get some analysis, why not a former player on the U.S. men's national soccer team, Eddie Pope.

Eddie, how do you interpret a one-one tie?

EDDIE POPE, FORMER U.S. PLAYER: I think it's good for us. You know, we went out and everyone was saying that England is going to crush us and they were going to get a great result. But the boys stepped up. They played well.

They all know me. I love you, boys. Keep it going, boys. We're going to get through the next round. That's all I have to say.

ROTH: It sounds like you're trying to try out for the team again?

POPE: Absolutely.

ROTH: All right. You're an American and painted your face. Was it worth it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. Yes, this victory, I feel partly responsible for.

ROTH: Victory? It's a tie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's a victory in my heart.

ROTH: Explain to Americans who understand soccer why it's a victory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we -- as Eddie said -- we are severe underdogs in this match. Now, the question is: can we play that well with the favorites in the next game? ROTH: All right. You're also outnumbered here, the number of English fans. But I rounded up four of them, almost a full team.

How do you interpret this result? Are you going to be crying in your tea later?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I mean, England played a good game, but -- I mean, the USA played just as well. But I think there are some things that England needs to keep in mind. Rooney needs to keep his anger and frustration in check.

ROTH: That's Wayne Rooney, the star for the English team. How do you interpret this? It's disappointing, isn't it, for you as an English fan?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's an American victory. In my thinking, it's an American victory. They played well, and they played well against a very strong English team. I think this is an English team that can go all the way. I mean, they can play with Germany, France, Italy, Argentina -- I think they can play with anybody.

ROTH: The Americans are paid so much fewer dollars than these English stars. Do you think that England under-achieved?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, it's not today. I think it was a slow start. I really think that they need to get the players sorted out, and, obviously, the goalkeeper needs to sort himself out. And we'll look forward to the next games and see what Capello does with his players.

ROTH: The Americans tied it on the bobble by the goaltender. How were you treated as English fans here in this huge throng which was mostly American fans?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mostly pretty good. It's a good humor and bouncing, a little bit of criticism. But on the whole, we've had a great day. It's fantastic to see this sort of atmosphere in the USA. I have been to World Cups before, and it was as good as any I've ever seen. So --

ROTH: Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. A spirit of unity here in this tie at one-one between English and American fans.

Don, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. Thank you very much, Richard Roth.

Questioning BP's efforts to contain the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're actually looking at something that's never been done before. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: An exclusive interview with BP's chief operations officer on his own turf, aboard the vessel in hopes will lead to stopping the spread of the oil.

And a labor battle between Spirit Airlines and its pilots leaves thousands of passengers caught right in the middle and going absolutely nowhere. But for how long?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The site where the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank in April is now occupied by an armada of BP oil ships. One is sucking up oil from the broken well a mile beneath the surface.

Others are involved in the drilling of so-called kill wells that everyone hopes will stop the oil. In an exclusive report, our John Roberts accompanies BP chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, to the scene of the disaster and asks him some very tough questions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DOUG SUTTLES, BP CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: That's the drill ship Enterprise. So, that's the vessel that's right over the top of the well, and that's the vessel that's taking the production from the cap assembly up to the surface. And what you can see, that flare is the gas that's with the oil that's being burned off.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He has flown over the scene maybe times, but for BP chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, this was his first opportunity to actually touch down in the rigs attempting to kill his runaway well.

SUTTLES: You're actually looking at something that's never been done before. In fact, we never thought about having this big equipment this close together working like this.

ROBERTS: We land on the Development Driller 3, DD3, a brand-new rig sinking the first kill well deep beneath the ocean floor. Immediately, we see a stark reminder of how we got to this point.

(on camera): As you arrive on the Development Driller 3, you are met by this sign. It's a safety sign. Days without lost time injury, days without major events and you come over here and the number is 52. 52 days since the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank.

(voice-over): But we also get our very first shipboard look at the first piece of good news since this disaster unfolded.

DOUG SUTTLES, BP CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: First of all, you can kind of see down here on the water. As I can tell you and I was out here in the days right after it started, this would have been brown oil. So even though it's horrible to look at, it looks a lot better than what it looked like those first few days. And part of it is what's happening right there, which is sitting right on top of the well. And of course, there's about yesterday we got 15,000 barrels of oil up through there. If that had not been there, it would be oil in the sea.

ROBERTS: It's clear that a catastrophe aboard the Deepwater Horizon has had a profound affect on this drilling crew. Brian West shows me one of his remarkable ROVs that serve as the technician's hands and eyes in the crushing depths of the ocean.

(on camera): What can be put on the arms?

BRIAN WEST, TECHNICIAN: Anything you can think of. We can put shears, cutters, grinders.

ROBERTS (voice-over): But look at the side of the submarine, and there it is again, Horizon 11.

WEST: The industry is changing because of this event. It's never going to be the same.

ROBERTS (on camera): How do you think it will change the industry?

WEST: There will be a lot of safety changes, I'm sure. A lot of procedural changes. Everybody's going to look at drilling these wells and doing these operations totally different.

ROBERTS (voice-over): One difference? There is now an ROV in the water 24/7 keeping careful watch over the relief well's blowout preventer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the ocean floor down here.

ROBERTS: James Lusk is ROVs pilot. A native of Slydel, just north of New Orleans, he takes his professional assignment personally.

JAMES LUSK, ROV PILOT: We all live by the coast. And this here could hopefully stop it, sir.

ROBERTS (on camera): For all the containment domes, the siphoned pipe, the top kill operation, the top cap, what you see behind me on the Discovery Enterprise is probably as good as it's going to get until the month of August, because the last best chance to kill that well, to stop the oil from coming out from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico rests here with the 189 people on board the "DD3," and to a person they say they are committed to make sure the job gets done.

(voice-over): In the driller's shack where cameras have not been allowed until now, a highly skilled screw guides a drill down 13,000 feet. They have 5,000 left to go. And their target? A hole smaller than a dinner plate. A seemingly impossible shot but tool pusher Ted Stukenborg, it's a point of pride to hit it on the first try.

TED STUKENBORG, TOOL PUSHER: It weighs on my mind, and I know it weighs on a lot of peoples' minds that this is something that we have got to do right and we got to do it safe and we got to do it the first time. ROBERTS: The work, long hours in the searing heat, for the most part has been pretty thankless. Few people are saying anything good about the oil industry at the moment, but they press on in extreme conditions to extreme depths.

STUKENBORG: I think a lot of people don't understand. They don't know. If they understood, if they knew, they would not be as hard on us I think.

ROBERTS: Aboard the Development Driller 3, in the gulf of Mexico, John Roberts, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: In a state where racial tensions are already high, you create your own promoting racial harmony, right, and then you are told to lighten some of the skin tones? It has some seeing red.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Why would a mural showing kids smiling and having fun make some people so angry? Would you believe it has to do with the color of their skin. This is a mural at Miller Valley Elementary School in Tuscan, Arizona. School officials told the artist to lighten the skin tones of two of their minority students, the children on it but they later backed off.

This comes while race relations under a microscope in Arizona, which begins enforcing its new immigration law next month. Pamela Smith and R.E. Wall are the artists who painted the mural. They join us now from Phoenix, Arizona, live. I Thanks for joining us. I love your hats. But before we get to this controversy, what are the hats for?

R.E. WALL, PRESCOTT DOWNTOWN MURAL PROJECT: Well, the hats are what we consider uniform for the (inaudible), it's a symbol of pride and service to our community.

LEMON: OK. So, R.E. just before I thought people would wonder at home, why you're wearing those. Let's get to this controversy now. I want to be specific about this, about who asked you to lighten the skin tones of the children on this mural? Who did it, Pam?

PAMELA SMITH, PRESCOTT DOWNTOWN MURAL PROJECT: Well, there was a meeting between some of the teachers because they had been said they had been under pressure from people in the community, and that's where the first command came from to lighten the skin tone.

LEMON: So, OK, the first command came to lighten the skin tone from them. But what about who are these models? Where did you pick the models from for the mural?

SMITH: The models were actually children from the school. They had contests to see who would win and who would be chosen to pose for us.

LEMON: R.E., when you found out about it, what was your response? I mean, they later backed off but did you say I'm not going to do it, when you were in the process of doing it, did you ever consider it?

WALL: No, I never seriously considered it. As an artist, myself and Pamela, I had the picture fully under control. We were trying to depict the child exactly as he was in the photograph, and to have somebody tell you to lighten up the skin tone, it really didn't go over very well with either me or Pam. And so it was my decision to step away from it for a few days and reconsider it.

LEMON: What was the explanation behind them, wanting to lighten the skin?

WALL: There are several explanations around it, mostly it was couched in the aesthetic value of the picture, whether or not it could be a better picture by having them come into the light. But we knew by the experience that we were having with the diversity issue and the racism that was coming from the city council members, the radio show and the audience out in the intersection, that it was the center, and the source of it was concerned about the right-looking kids on that wall.

LEMON: So do you think it was based, you think it was racism, R.E.?

WALL: Oh, yes, I do. I do. Not -

LEMON: Pam?

SMITH: I absolutely do. There were several times when I was painting outside with the little ones, when motorists would drive by and yell racial slurs out the windows and it really upset the children. What's going on there?

WALL: It's hard to explain, you know. It didn't make a lot of sense to us. Neither one of us are racists people, and you know, it's really hard to explain. Those children are real children. Those are real kids that go to that school, not contrived from somewhere else. They have feelings. They have been affected by this and it's really a shame that they should have played that card unfortunately.

LEMON: So then R.E., why did they eventually back off?

WALL: They initially backed off because I think that they underestimated the support we had in our community. And had we not had that support at all, I'm pretty sure they would have had us change it and stick to it.

LEMON: I want to get to the bottom of this, because I think that you said - and I think it's you, R.E., and don't get me if I am wrong - don't get mad at me, but Councilman Steve Blair was fired from his radio show after making comments about this mural, but he says he won't resign from his office. You think that this controversy started with him. Have you spoken to him?

WALL: Well, I haven't spoken to him personally but yes, I do believe it all started with him. And it's still a point of view that's being maintained by the constituents of his show. In fact, the person who replaced him is still to this day pushing for today the removal of this mural, and couching it in all kinds of excuses. They are trying to get away from the racists issue but just the same, they're trying to destroy the mural at this point.

And yes, I do believe it came from Steve Blair.

LEMON: Well, Steve Blair, I know we have a letter of apology from him. He said last week "I was fired from my job at KYCA for asking a question and now I will be the first to admit that the question was poorly worded in retrospect. I also admit that it was offensive to some, to those that I offended, I sincerely and deeply apologize." And he goes on. He's got like a two page apology that we just got here.

It's very interesting, this controversy and I'd like to know more about it so if you guys hear more or if there are more developments get back in contact with us. We appreciate it. Thank you, Pamela. Thank you, R.E..

WALL: You're very welcome.

SMITH: Thank you.

LEMON: Just days after Al and Tipper Gore announced that they were separating, their daughter, Karenna, followed suit. This is on the heels of another Gore daughter filing for her divorce last year. We will look at a new study that says divorces can be contagious.

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LEMON: It was surprising enough when Al and Tipper Gore announced their separation after 40 years of marriage, but this week this family photo got a little more bittersweet. The couple's oldest daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff shown here on her wedding day in 1997, announced she is also separating from her husband of 13 years.

All of this comes after Kirsten Gore, the daughter on the right of the picture filed for divorce last year. Three marriages falling apart in the same family in such a short time. Is it timing? A coincidence? Or can divorce really be contagious.

Wendy Walsh is a psychologist and joining us from Los Angeles. Hey, good to see you, Wendy?

WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Nice to see you, Don.

LEMON: So the Gores, there aren't alone with divorce. I mean, there are lots of divorce clusters in the country, right? Is it a psychological - is it a phenomenon here?

WALSH: It is. I mean social behavior can be contagious. And in fact, one study showed that it could even be contagious through friendships, two degrees away. In other words, if you were to get a divorce, friends of your friends who may not even know you or hear about it, can - have more of a chance of getting divorce because the group norms change, our sort of general rule.

To give you an example of how group norms change. Not so long ago the f word was the worse thing you could even say, and now it's in American literature all the time. The group norm has changed in our society but the other thing I think, Don, that is really important that we should consider is not that divorce is contagious within families, it's that poor relationship skills are transmitted to the next generation.

LEMON: Now, you just answered the next question. Could there be something else going on within a family or within even a neighborhood that makes it - that makes it spread - what is the word I am looking for, dysfunctional. And so it's more likely that people might get divorced or have bad marriage, you know, attributes within a marriage?

WALSH: If their parents got divorced. You know, the Gores had good reason to keep this marriage together for so long. Because the marriage was an enterprise. They were building a political campaign. They had many things, glue, that kept them together, but we don't know behind closed doors what kind of relationship skills they had and what their intimacy issues were. What we do know for sure is that's what was taught to their children.

LEMON: Yes. And some families, you know, teach that just because the parents, you know, may want to have big careers and maybe following their careers and may be so devoted to their careers that they see family as second, right? And it's not necessarily the parents may want to send out to their children but just by them following a career so much and putting their family second. That's what the kid sees.

WALSH: Exactly. And you know, that's sort of part of capitalism. Capitalism is all about individual rights and freedoms, individual ability to produce and family kind of second. Whereas in more socialists countries, on Canadian, you'll see in Canada, we have kind of a little more interdependence and the belief systems that's what's good for the group is good for the individual.

So, yes, people who put their careers first and family's second send that message to their kids.

LEMON: OK. So, you're saying that there is a cluster and that it's contagious. But is there research showing otherwise. We got to tell the other side here real quickly.

WALSH: Well, I did find one study that actually said that children of divorced parents are less likely to get married, but if they do marry, they are more committed to that relationship. You know a population of people like that, we all do who say my parents got divorced and I said I would figure it out and I learn, and that's possible. We can all change and grow.

LEMON: Yes, and it's interesting because I think that you know, everybody doesn't need to get married. Not everyone is meant to be married.

WALSH: Absolutely.

LEMON: We need to figure that out here, right? You shouldn't put pressure on people to get married.

WALSH: But we do need to figure out what is the best basket to raise kids in.

LEMON: Absolutely.

WALSH: And I think two people that have a biological connection to the kids or people who have adopted and made that giant commitment, doesn't matter their gender, their color, their age, whatever but they need to stick it out for that term.

LEMON: Yes. We always have good talks, Dr. Walsh. Appreciate it.

WALSH: We do.

LEMON: OK. Take it easy.

You know her songs have sold more records know that the Beatles, Elvis, Elton John, all of them combined and she is joining me live, next.

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LEMON: Well, you probably haven't heard of her name, maybe, you might have heard of her before but you've definitely heard of her work. Listen.

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LEMON: So, of course, you know Celine Dion is singing but the song "Because You Love Me" was written by Diane Warren. She also wrote "How Do I Live," "If I Could Turn Back Time." "Rhythm of the Night" "Unbreak My Heart" and on and on and on. There are many number one songs. There are Grammy-award-winning songs.

Her catalog of songs is worth, one report says, half a billion dollars with 90 top 10 hits and now many of the most popular pieces are in place. Warren released a CD called "Due Voci" and PBS just aired a special dedicated to her songs, her love songs and Diane Warren joins us live. Hi, Diane Warren.

DIANE WARREN, SONGWRITER: Hi. How are you doing?

LEMON: I've definitely heard of you and I'm a big fan of your work. I think it's particularly remarkable.

WARREN: Thank you.

LEMON: - that you can write it seems like every single genre. Where does all of this come from inside of you?

WARREN: You know I grew up listening to a lot of different kinds of music, and you know it would be very boring to write one kind of song. So I like to, you know, write a lot of different kinds of songs, write with a lot of different kind of artists. It keeps it interesting.

LEMON: Lots of different artists. Cher, Leann Rimes, Aerosmith, Elton John, Gloria Estefan, Kiss, Barbra Streisand, and just music legends galore. Do you think that a singer and then do you think of a singer and then do you write for the singer, or do you decide the song first and then figure out who you're going to give it to?

WARREN: I mean most of the time I just try to write a great song, you know, and let the song dictate, you know, where it should go. You know, every now and then like I wrote a song for Cher's new movie "Burlesque" that I really wrote for Cher. But you know most of the time, I'm just trying to write a great song and then try to find the perfect artist, the perfect marriage for that song, it's like casting, it's like casting a part.

LEMON: Yes. Does it come to you - or are you ever getting coffee or you're - I don't know if you go to the mall. Most people say it happens in the middle of the night and they'll get up and sing it into a tape recorder or write it down but where does it usually happen for you?

WARREN: You know, it happens everywhere, because inspirations everywhere. I always come up with ideas, you know, from basically everywhere. You know I wish I could - you know, go to sleep at night and wake up with a completed song, you know, but it doesn't happen that way.

LEMON: Yes. But which is your favorite, in your body of work.

WARREN: You know, I have lots of favorites. I don't have like one favorite song, to be honest. And a lot of my favorites right now are songs that no one's heard yet.

LEMON: Oh, really?

WARREN: Yes.

LEMON: Do you have any plans to give it to someone that we might know about?

WARREN: Oh, yes. I've got lots of plans to give a few of them to - you know, to find nice homes for them.

LEMON: Yes, but you're not going to share that with us now, are you, or maybe you will?

WARREN: One of them is a song I just wrote when I was talking about for Cher's new movie "Burlesque." I've written a lot of songs for her before, and to me this is definitely the best song I've ever written for her and probably one of the best I've ever written in my life, you know. So I'm pretty excited about that.

LEMON: Have you ever wanted to sing - like I'll hear composers sing their own songs and sometimes wonder if they had, you know, any inkling to sing?

WARREN: Well, if you heard me sing you'd probably, you know, tell me to write for other people, but - probably tell me to keep my day job. Actually I don't sing that bad and I might make a record some time, you know, because I think that everybody should do one, you know, but I really love my day job and I work with such great singers that sing my songs so much better than I do, but you know, again it might be fun to do that some time. So I'm not counting that out.

LEMON: Yes. Hey, listen, you're very talented and you're also very fortunate -

WARREN: Thank you.

LEMON: - and very successful and we wish you continued success. Thank you for coming on our show.

WARREN: Thank you.

LEMON: All right.

WARREN: My pleasure, thank you for having me.

LEMON: Yes, it's good to see you.

So let's say this, you fake your way into Harvard, get caught, then expelled. At this point trying to dupe the other Ivy Leagues, probably not the brightest move, right? Well, but we'll tell you about one guy who did just that. We don't know why but he did.

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LEMON: On Saturday, we always try to catch you up on some of the news that you may have missed throughout the week. So here we go. This is the first story. So what does a guy do after he's been expelled from Harvard for lying on his application? He uses those same fake credentials to apply to Yale, Brown, and then Stanford universities where he gets accepted.

Prosecutors say Adam Wheeler got into Harvard by claiming he got a perfect score on his S.A.T.s and straight As at two prestigious schools. He only got caught when he faked applications for Fullbright and Rhodes scholarships. Wheeler is now facing charges he stole $45,000 in financial aid, scholarship money and academic awards from Harvard.

Stanford has since rescinded its offer and it turns out the one school Wheeler actually did attend expelled him for academic dishonesty.

Bye-bye, Ms. American pie. You might be able to drive your Chevy to the Levy but you just can't call it that anymore. General Motors' executive say Chevrolet's nickname is creating confusion overseas making people think there are two companies so the word Chevy has not only been banned from all corporate communication but even in conversation among employees. They say they just want to do that for internal communications to be on one page. Let's see how it plays in the public.

A labor stalemate at Florida-based Spirit Airlines have left thousands of customers stranded. Pilots walked off the job at 5:00 a.m. today. Spirit cancelled all flights today and for Sunday, if offering refunds or credits to stranded travelers. It is offering refunds or credit to stranded travelers. Spirit pilots say their pay lags behind competitors such as Airtran and Jetblue. The airline carries more than 16,000 passengers per day.

And while a bad mood won't help you socially it could when it comes to making decisions. Australian researchers studying emotions finds your mood plays a role no how your brain processes things. While good mood seems to promote creativity, cooperation and resilience on mental shortcuts or reliance on mental shortcuts, bad moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking and better decision making. Interesting.

The same researcher also found weather has a similar impact on us, dreary days, sharpening memory, while sunny days makes us forgetful. Wow, you would think that would be different.

All right. Coming up here next on CNN, Soledad O'Brien investigates "THE ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS." A two-year murder spree here in Atlanta, it still has people questioning Wayne Williams' guilt 30 years later. And then at 10:00 o'clock, I talk with the man who prosecuted Williams, convicted of killing, but belived to be responsible for 23 in all. That's tonight, at 10:00 o'clock.

Until then, I'm Don Lemon.