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Congressman Joe Barton's Apology and Backtrack; Criticizing the President; New Orleans Reacts to Oil Disaster
Aired June 18, 2010 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we've got to get out of group play. I mean, we've got to get out of group play, which means we need points here.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And if we survive Slovenia, it's on to Algeria. But that's a tough game tomorrow if it happens.
We'll be watching. You keep us updated (ph).
HARRIS: You have a great weekend, Fred. Absolutely.
Live from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarters, the big stories for Friday, June 18th.
Sixty days now of oil gushing into the Gulf. New warnings emerging about another toxin spewing along with the oil.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOE BARTON (R), TEXAS: And I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Wow. Texas Congressman Joe Barton was forced to eat those words. His accusing of the Obama administration of a shakedown at the BP hearing prompting us to look at what's behind the verbal assaults on the president.
And growing support for team USA.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our team is getting better. And it's just a cool international event.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Yes, we've got to get a lot better, though. We are talking World Cup soccer, of course. Find out how you can track all he buzz worldwide with a new cool interactive tool unlike anything you've ever seen.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
Those stories and your comments right here, right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.
So, BP is capturing more oil from its busted well as the Gulf crisis reaches day 60. In a briefing last hour, Admiral Thad Allen said BP collected about 25,000 barrels of oil in the 24 hours ending at midnight Thursday.
Allen and the Coast Guard have come under fire over the efforts to keep the oil from reaching shore. He says plans are under way to better coordinate those efforts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: We're organizing these vessel of opportunity in groups, establishing a leader with the capability to communicate. A lot of these boats are very, very small and may or may not have radio systems.
We are also putting automated identification system tracking devices on the larger vessels so we can bring those into our common operating picture and have them actually displayed on a computer. We've actually brought in extra aircraft into the area to increase surveillance as well. Most recently, three additional H65 aircraft were deployed to Air Station New Orleans to provide overhead sighting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: He says he is sorry, but he is not saying much more. The CEO of BP infuriated lawmakers at a hearing on the Gulf oil disaster. Tony Hayward repeatedly sidestepped questions about what may have caused the rig explosion. He says he was out of the loop on technical decisions, and that it is too early to reach conclusions.
The chairman of the House panel says it was frustrating.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BART STUPAK (D), MICHIGAN: We laid out the case to him. We gave him the questions. We gave him the documents.
He acknowledged he saw them. Even to acknowledge an April 16th e-mail which says this is a nightmare well, it was like pulling teeth to get him to acknowledge that. There comes a point in time when you almost become absurd and ridiculous. And unfortunately, that's what I think Tony Hayward looked to the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: I'll tell you, it was an eye-popping, jaw-dropping moment during the hearing on the oil disaster. Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas apologizing to BP. Barton blasted the Obama administration over the $20 billion escrow fund for damage claims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARTON: And I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Barton later backtracked.
Congressional Correspondent Brianna Keilar explains what happened and why Barton's comments drew criticism from members of his own party.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He isn't just any Republican. He is the top Republican on this very powerful committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee.
So, as soon as he said this in the hearing, people were very surprised, and then Democrats pounced on this, and they kind of said, hey, look at what Republicans are saying. And then you had many Republicans, especially Gulf state Republicans, who are saying, no, no, this is not what we are saying, we don't agree with this. We think that the only person who should be apologizing here is BP.
And then it went higher. It went to Republican leadership, according to Republican sources, who said to Barton, you must apologize immediately, you must retract this apology to BP immediately, or we will strip you of this important position. And that is when we saw Joe Barton kind of backpedal in the hearing and say this --
BARTON: I want the record to be absolutely clear that I think BP is responsible for this accident. And if anything I've said this morning has been misconstrued in an opposite effect, I want to apologize for that misconstruction.
KEILAR: And right after that, he also issued a much stronger written statement that said, "I apologize for using the term 'shakedown' with regard to yesterday's actions at the White House in my opening statement this morning, and I retract my apology to BP."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Wow. OK.
Criticizing the president is all part of politics, right? But some of the language used to criticize the Obama administration certainly raises questions.
Joining me to talk about it, Cheri Jacobus, Republican strategist and columnist for "The Hill"; and Marc Lamont Hill, professor at Columbia University.
Thank you both for being here. Cheri, let me start with you.
The president involved in a shakedown of BP, of all companies. Now, you know how coded language can be. You know, this language, calling the operation a "shakedown" operation, it certainly paints the president as some sort of common thug.
What did you think of the comment? And was the apology the right thing to do?
CHERI JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, the comment certainly wasn't supported by other Republicans. It was a mistake. It was the wrong thing to say, for Congressman Barton to say.
I think that much is clear. And he apologized, but, I mean, people are right to give him some heat for this. And the Republican leadership was very quick to jump in and very disciplined. The Republican Party is much more disciplined than it was just a few years ago.
I don't read anything specific into the term "shakedown" to indicate that he meant thug, but I do think that the sentiments behind what he said were certainly wrong. He knows that now, and he didn't get a lot of support from his own party. There aren't people out there defending him.
But I think to say that there was somehow coded language is probably looking a little bit too far into it. The comment on it's own was bad enough, but I'm not going to read anything in to using that word.
HARRIS: OK.
Marc, what do you read into it?
MARC LAMONT HILL, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: This is clearly coded language. I mean, if it were one time, I'd say that this is merely a coincidence But for the last two, three years, even -- really even since 2006 -- we've seen particular type of language used to describe the president and his behavior that often invoke notions of criminality, outside, darkness, outsiders, marginality. That's how they do it, and so it's really interesting to see it happen again the other day.
When you talk about a shakedown, that's the same language that's used to describe Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton when they often engage in relationships with corporations for civil rights activism. So, once again, they're trying to invoke this notion of almost like a hustler, as opposed to someone who's doing what any good president should do, which is to fight on behalf of the most vulnerable and marginal people in the nation. And right now it's people who are catching so much trouble down in the Gulf.
HARRIS: Well, Cheri, will you acknowledge that this is something more than just brass knuckles politics anymore? Congressman Joe Wilson, as you know, calling the president a liar, this imagery of a shakedown.
What is going on here?
JACOBUS: I think, look, you've got to look at the history of every president that's come under fire for their performance, poor performance, good performance that people disagree with, and the language has always been rough. And I don't think that it even at this points helps the president. I think the administration knows this, when people want to maybe be a little bit too sensitive or read more into it than is there.
He is the president of the United States. He's being judged on his performance, which these days is very poor.
His poll numbers are very low, and he is being judged as a president. And I think that we are now really getting, as a nation, a little bit tired, a little bit weary of people trying to read something into it, screaming, whether it's racism, whether they're claiming he's a Chicago thug, all of these things.
This president is being judged on this performance. And if he starts or his supporters start whining about it too much, he looks weak.
HARRIS: OK.
HILL: If only that were true.
JACOBUS: So he's got to start being stronger and he's got to be accountable for his own performance.
HARRIS: Jump in, Marc.
HILL: If only that were true. People are jumping on President Obama as if he were somehow going to dive into the water and stop the oil leak himself.
Much of the assessment of his performance has nothing do with reality. It has nothing to do with the actions and steps that he actually took.
Now, I'll agree, the Obama administration has sometimes been thin-skinned. And I would also agree that every president catches some sort of unfair critique from the opposite side when disasters or catastrophes happen. That's absolutely true.
But the particular way that the Obama administration has been framed as people who are outsiders, as people who don't share American values, as people who are hustlers and Chicago thugs, that language is not just implied, it's often explicitly articulated by people on the right. That's a different and historically unprecedented kind of discourse, and that's what people have a severe opposition to.
JACOBUS: You know, at this point, the American people want this president to be a leader. And in his speech the other night from the Oval Office, he was talking about essentially getting revenge on BP. Right now people want solutions.
We have the governor of Louisiana, who is trying to help clean up the waters off his state, and he's trying to get help from the White House when the Coast Guard stops him when they're bringing in the barges to clean up. And he's not allowed to do it. So, you have a president who simply is not performing well saying, well, I didn't cause this crisis.
HILL: It's not revenge.
JACOBUS: Guess what? President Bush didn't cause Katrina.
When you're the president of the United States, you don't get a do-over. Your performance is graded fairly. And we're not going to grade this president on a curve just because he says, well, I didn't cause this disaster, so therefore I have no accountability and I don't really need to respond well.
(CROSSTALK)
HILL: It's not -- there's a difference between responsibility and blame. The president absolutely has a responsibility to fix the disaster. But it would be absurd to suggest that we can't invoke history and we can't consider the years of deregulation, the years of corporate mishandling and corporate corruption that led us to this moment. And as far as revenge goes --
JACOBUS: People want him to act like a president, and he's not doing it.
HILL: I believe he is.
HARRIS: Marc, hang back for just a second here.
Cheri, take this one on, because you talked about policies and actions as president. Republicans have, as you know, because you have done it yourself, been bashing the president for the stimulus proposals, but I'm going to played something for you. But in an interview with CNN, Sarah Palin flat-out said the government had to step in.
Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN (R), FMR. ALASKAN GOVERNOR: Now, as for the economic bailout provisions and the measures that that have already been taken, it is a time of crisis, and government did have to step in, playing an appropriate role to shore up the housing market, to make sure that we are thawing out some of the potentially frozen credit lines and credit markets. Government did have to step in there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: All right. OK. So, explain to me how Republicans can blast the stimulus over and over again, while holding ceremonies to hand out checks for stimulus projects in their districts and in their states?
JACOBUS: You know, I actually think that Republicans can be vulnerable on that. I mean, but as long as the money is being thrown out there, I guess they want to make sure that their state and their district gets their share of it.
I think that every Republican or anybody out there who really had a problem with this, and thinks that on top of all of the other spending, when you put it all together, what this president, this administration has been doing to hurt this nation with the spending, I think to be fair and just to be politically smart, quite frankly, they should be very articulate in saying, look, I was against this, but as long as we have this, let's make the best of it. And if they are not doing that, I think that they are vulnerable and their opponents have every right and, if they're smart, probably will bring that up in debate.
HARRIS: Yes.
Marc, last word to you and then we've got to go.
HILL: Well, the point you just made is exactly right. And that's what President Obama is attempting to do.
He's saying, I didn't agree with years of deregulation, I didn't agree with years of turning a blind eye on corporations, but I'm going to make the best of it. It's interesting how when George Bush wants revenge to prosecute an unjust war in Iraq, people are OK with it. But when Barack Obama attempts to hold a corporation accountable for taking money and the life chances from millions of Americans, suddenly people don't want that to happen.
Barack Obama is doing the best he can at this moment. Could more be done in the future? Perhaps. Right now, he is acting like a president.
JACOBUS: Revenge on terrorists is different than revenge on CEOs. I wrote about that in my column, and I think the American people do know the difference.
HARRIS: All right. Let's leave it there.
HILL: It's called justice.
HARRIS: Cheri and Marc, appreciate it. Thank you.
JACOBUS: Thank you.
HARRIS: Tourism is being hit hard by the oil disaster in the Gulf, so New Orleans has launched a creative campaign to get tourists back. Is it working?
We will have the latest on the state of the Crescent City. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Day 60 of the oil disaster in the Gulf Coast. The leak posing a growing threat to tourism in the region.
Our Chris Lawrence is on the story in New Orleans.
Chris, good to see you.
What's the reaction there to BP's CEO, Tony Hayward's testimony yesterday?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Tony, it's surprising. Sort of a roll of the eyes like, what did you expect?
Almost everybody I talked to about this says, come on. Did you really expect some sort of tearful apology and full disclosure?
More of the anger and surprise has been directed at the Texas congressman who apologized to BP. In fact, one of the guys who owns a shrimping business said next time he watches a movie about the Alamo, he's going to start rooting for the Mexicans.
So, that tells you what people think about what he said down here.
HARRIS: Wow. OK. That's pretty strong.
Chris, local tourism officials, my understanding is, have gotten some money from BP. Do we know what they're doing with that money?
LAWRENCE: Yes, Tony. They're rolling out an entirely new ad campaign basically to reassure tourists that, look, from Florida to Louisiana, there are beaches that don't have any oil on them, and the city of New Orleans is about as close to this oil spill as Philly is to Manhattan.
HARRIS: Wow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now in New Orleans, there's jazz going all through this city.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And right now, New Orleans is New Orleans.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): This commercial is what Louisiana wants you to remember.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who wants dessert?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody need a cocktail?
LAWRENCE: But this is what most people see -- oil-stained birds and tainted beaches. STEPHEN PERRY, PRESIDENT, NEW ORLEANS CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU: We're in an image and perception-driven business entirely. And all along the Gulf Coast there are real problems with that image.
LAWRENCE: Since those problems started when oil started gushing into the Gulf, BP is footing the bill to promote tourism there. Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama each got $15 million from BP and Florida got $25 million. Tourism in Louisiana's coastal areas are already hurting, but tourism businesses in New Orleans are still thriving.
RODNEY ADAMS, CARRIAGE DRIVER: I don't anticipate it lasting. But at least for now, we're hanging in there.
LAWRENCE (on camera): Why don't you think it's going to last?
ADAMS: Because the oil is still coming out. Most of it hasn't hit the land. I don't think we've even begun to feel the ramifications of it all yet.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): A state official says a national survey shows 26 percent of people who plan to come to Louisiana before the spill are now actively canceling their trips. And even a small drop- off in tourists can wreck the area's economy.
PERRY: Only a 10 percent decline here in New Orleans would produce nearly half a billion losses over eight months. Would cost probably 7,000 to 8,000 jobs.
LAWRENCE: One of New Orleans' ads poked fun at BP and proclaimed, "This isn't the first time New Orleans has survived the British," a reference to the war of 1812. But officials cut that ad because it may have been seen as anti-Britain and the U.K. is actually the city's number one foreign customer. One of the approved ads does take aim at a target closer to home, the federal government. In the six-month shutdown it imposed on deepwater drilling.
The ads got a picture of the famous shrimp po-boy.
PERRY: And it talks about the moratorium. And it says, "Thank God there's not a moratorium on this." Whoa. You know, that's who we are.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Yes. You know, that's sort of the feeling, the attitude down here.
New Orleans is kind of an irreverent city, doesn't take itself all that seriously. But they do take tourism very, very seriously. In fact, that's why the mayor of New Orleans has just sent another letter to BP asking for another $75 million over the next three years to promote tourism and sort of mitigate the effects of this oil spill -- Tony.
HARRIS: I like it. I like it. All right. Chris Lawrence for us in New Orleans.
Chris, good to see you. Thank you.
And one more programming note for you. You have seen the devastation from the oil disaster. Now CNN is giving you a chance to help.
Join us Monday night for an all-star relief effort to help rebuild the Gulf Coast. The special two-hour "LARRY KING LIVE" event begins at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday night, right here on CNN.
Everything you need to keep you up to date for the latest information on the World Cup right at your fingertips. Well, if you know where to look, that is.
Josh Levs is about to show us.
We're back in a moment.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. Here we go.
Team USA taking on Slovenia right now at the World Cup in South Africa. The U.S. needs to win or at least tie this game to keep alive any realistic hopes of advancing. And the U.S. just scored early in the second half.
OK. But the score of the game right now, Slovenia 2, USA 1.
We have a whole new way for you to track the buzz about the games in real time all over the world. Josh has that.
All right, Josh.
How does all this work. And you've got a guest with you.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're catching up, Tony. Right? We've got a shot now.
HARRIS: Yes. Well, OK.
LEVS: Well, this is very cool. I've never seen anything like this.
And joining me is Jennifer Louis, CNN.com design director. She's going to talk us through this brand new thing, CNN.com/twitterbuzz, that shows you through pictures live tweets all over the world, what everyone's buzzing about.
Let's go ahead and show it. What have we got here?
JENNIFER LOUIS, DESIGN DIRECTOR, CNN.COM: This is great. What we've got going on right now is the Twitter conversation happening across the globe, what people are talking about -- players, teams, topics trending during the World Cup.
LEVS: So the basic picture means people are talking about this. And more people talking about the USA than anything else, right?
LOUIS: Right. At this very moment, more people are talking about the USA than anything else. And as people's conversations change, you will see this piece here change on the screen.
LEVS: So, the vuvuzelas are getting a lot of talk right now, a lot of tweets.
LOUIS: Yes, louder and louder. The less you can hear about the game, the more you're going to hear about the vuvuzelas here on the Twitter --
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: So, let's take a look -- why don't we look just at players. All right?
So, these are the players everyone's talking about.
LOUIS: Yes.
LEVS: More people talking about (INAUDIBLE) than anybody else.
LOUIS: Absolutely.
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: Right?
LOUIS: Yes. And then we have Tim Howard, the goalkeeper.
LEVS: Click on him. Click on one of them. Let's see what we have.
LOUIS: Let's take a look.
So, here we see six tweets per minute happening about Tim Howard. So, if we click through, we will be pulling up the five most recent tweets across the globe about Tim Howard.
And you can see what people are actually saying. Down here at the bottom, if you have something you want to say about Tim Howard, you go ahead and click "Tweet it Here." It will pop up a window where you can go ahead and add your tweet right here to the visualization, without even having to leave the screen.
LEVS: So, these are live, real-time Tweets.
Then, let's do this -- the past 24 hours. So, this is how the world's Twitter conversations were changing over the last 24 hours. Right? LOUIS: Yes. Absolutely.
LEVS: What's going on?
LOUIS: So, here we're looking hour by hour at what people are talking about. You can see as goals are scored, people's pictures get really, really big. You have got the Mexican team trending here.
And then throughout the day, you see how the conversation changes. If someone does something fantastic, if someone does something less than fantastic, it's going to show up here in real time, essentially, on the screen, through this Twitter visualization.
LEVS: Love it.
This is so cool. You can go by topic or teams or players. It's brand new, and it's being recognized, right, on the Internet right now?
LOUIS: Absolutely. Being recognized across the Internet now.
So, it's really exciting for us to be able to bring this conversation to people all over the world through our site. And happening right now. As it happens, it's happening right here on this page.
LEVS: Right here, live.
Jennifer Louis, thank you so much.
LOUIS: Yes.
LEVS: It's at CNN.com/twitterbuzz.
Tony, want to come --
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Well, Jennifer, suit up and kick the ball back into the net. We could use another goal here.
(LAUGHTER)
LOUIS: Right.
HARRIS: All right.
Good to see you. Thanks, Jennifer.
LOUIS: Thank you.
HARRIS: And thanks, Josh.
A tour guide turns tip money into help for children in need. She's our CNN Hero of the Week.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: This week's CNN Hero is a tour guide from Cambodia who started using her tip money to transform the lives of rural children.
Pad Ir Amia (ph), survivor of the oppressive and ruthless Khmer Rouge regime, has made it her mission to educate Cambodia's poor by giving them what they need to go to school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PONHEARY LY, CHAMPIONING CHILDREN: In the countryside in Cambodia, some children may come to school but not very regular because the family needs to have them in the farm. The school is free, but they don't have any money. How can they have the money for uniforms and supplies? My name is Ponheary Ly. I help the children to go to school. The education is important to me because my father was a teacher. During the Khmer Rouge time, my father was killed. If we tried to study, we could be killed. My soul always go to school.
At the beginning, I got only one girl. After that, 40 children, and now 2,000. After several years, I see a change because they know how to read and write, and they borrow the books from our library to read for their parents. I need them to have a good education to build their own family as well as to build their own country. My father, he has to be proud of me here in heaven and in my heart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Ponheary Ly and her organization had helped more than 2,000 children get an education. To see how Ly's work unexpectedly changed one woman's life forever or to nominate someone you think has literally changing the world, just go to cnnheroes.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Pictures, information, insight, you won't find anywhere else. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris. Anything can happen.
A convicted killer, Ronnie Lee Gardner, has been executed by firing a squad in Utah. The 49-year-old was strapped to a chair and had a paper target pinned to his chest. He was shot by a team of five anonymous marks men. Gardner killed a lawyer 25 years ago during a bash (ph) to escape attempt from a courthouse. He is the third person in 33 years to die by firing squad in the United States. One witness described it as violent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIELDS MOSLEY, GARDNER EXECUTION WITNESS: The loudness of the guns shocked me even though I grew up with Winchester 30-30 in my house and shot it many times. But I think when you see it actually hit a human being and you watch them move to some extent, it was violent, and I didn't find it to be clinical at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: BP has a favorite judge in Texas. We will show you why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. A CNN oil alert on the 60th day of the disaster in the Gulf. Admiral Thad Allen says a little more than a million gallons of oil was collected from BP's blown out well in the 24-hour period ending at midnight, Thursday. The latest well, like report says, 629 oily birds have been found alive, more than 800 dead.
Other top stories for you, President Obama heads to the swing state of Ohio today to focus on the economy. He is there to mark the 10,000th road project to be funded by the Recovery Act. It is expected to create more than 300 jobs.
Convicted killer, Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed last night by firing squad in Utah. It was the first such execution 14 years. Gardner was convicted of murdering an attorney in 1985 during an attempted courthouse escape.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Ooh, oh, this is getting good. Update on U.S. World Cup match. Josh has that. OK, Josh, come on!
LEVS: We tied it. You know what, they heard you. They heard you all of the way in South Africa.
HARRIS: Goal!
LEVS: Check out the (INAUDIBLE) American flag at cnn.com/twitterbuzz. People are tweeting about us like crazy because we have tied it up. Thanks to Bradley, 2-2 now against Slovenia. We got about 150 times the population than they do, but, man they can play soccer.
HARRIS: Explain that again. So, we got all kinds of maps of all the countries participating the World Cup, and then we score a goal and the USA flag just gets crazy big.
LEVS: Yes, I just got carried away for that to explain. This is CNN.com/twitterbuzz. It follows live tweets all over the world, having everything to do with the World Cup. You can go on all topics. So, whatever people are talking about most -- fills out most of the screen, and whoever the key players are at the moment, you're going to see their pictures here. Here is Michael Bradley, who unfortunately, his picture didn't pop up right now.
HARRIS: But you got Landon Donovan, right?
LEVS: Yes, we got Landon Donovan.
HARRIS: He scored the first goal. LEVS: Yes, he did. I mean, look, this has been a very good day.
HARRIS: Here we go.
LEVS: As of the last couple of minutes. So, we can still do this, Tony. We can still pull ahead about five, four minutes to go now in the game. I'm standing right here watching the twitterbuzz.
HARRIS: Terrific. Terrific. And then we got a little stoppage time, 90 minutes game, 45 minutes halves, and then we got some stoppage time, about four minutes is what I'm hearing from the gathering. All right. Josh, appreciate it. Thank you.
BP wants a federal judge of its choosing to oversee lawsuits in the oil disaster now in it's 60th day. Abbie Boudreau with CNN special investigations unit found the judge BP has in mind has ties with the oil industry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN INVESTIGATIVE UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): This man, Lynn Hughes, is the federal judge in Houston, Texas that BP would like to supervise all the lawsuits filed against it.
BOUDREAU (on-camera): Essentially, Judge Hughes could make decisions worth billions of dollars to BP and that casts a spotlight on his own financial ties to the oil and gas industry.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Judge Hughes owns land that produces oil, land that he leases to oil companies. He gets annual royalties from whatever they pump out. In 2008, the most recent records available, he received royalty payments from ConocoPhillips between $50 and $100,000. Royalty payments from Sun Oil of $15,000 or less, and royalties from an oil company called Devon Energy of less than $15,000.
Records dating back to 2003 showed Judge Hughes received hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties for more than a dozen energy companies. Judge Hughes has said he's transparent, that all of his personal investment and finance information is online for anyone to see.
CHARLES GEYH, INDIANA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW: When you take it together, is there a concern that a reasonable person, fully informed of all of that might say, he's not just a judge who happens to be dabbling. He is, in effect, a participant in the industry he is trying to judge.
BOUDREAU (on-camera): A judge who also travels to speak at meetings held by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He doesn't get a fee for speaking at those meetings, but it does pay his accommodations, his travel, and expenses. In 2009, Judge Hughes presided over a case involving Devon Energy, one of the companies that pay him royalties, but he didn't disclose that information at the hearing. The company ended up winning and was awarded $3.9 million. GEYH: The best practice that's out there and I think what judges across the country are encouraged to do is when there is any doubt that put some sunshine on the problem, turn your cards face up, to mix metaphors, and basically, make it clear to the parties what your potential interests are.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Which brings us back to BP and why it would like Judge Hughes to oversee the oil spill lawsuits. BP told us, quote, "BP believes that Judge Lynn Hughes, to whom the first filed federal case in Houston was assigned, is an appropriate choice to provide oversight of these cases."
GEYH: This isn't a rank and file case. This is a case involving a couple hundred cases involving the biggest oil disaster in the history of the country where we ought to be especially concerned about public confidence in the judiciary.
BOUDREAU (on-camera): CNN examined Judge Hughes' rulings on oil and gas cases going back three years. In fact, he ruled in favor of oil companies just a little more often than he ruled against them. Lawyers who know Judge Hughes tell CNN he's fair and tough, but environmental attorneys say even the request by BP to have this judge sit on the bench is, quote, "outrageous and unseemly."
Abbie Boudreau, CNN, Atlanta.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Let's see when we get to Alison Kosik in a segment, but before we do that, we want to get you to the best financial website on the web. It's CNNMoney.com. Of course, here, you can see the lead stories not look (ph) to finish and up week market rises Friday and choppy trading of what could be the end of a second higher week in a row. We're about three hours into the trading day, and now, better than three hours into the trading day, and you can see -- no, better than two hours into the trading. What am I doing here? The Dow is up 18 points, which is all caught up in World Cup fever here.
The government is out with is out with the latest state by state unemployment rates. And Alison Kosik is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. With that, Alison, good to see you. I apologize here that the game is tied, and we're all anxious to see what happens here.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You should hear what's happening here on the floor of the stock exchange. They're going crazy.
HARRIS: So, folks there are following the game, as well, right?
KOSIK: Oh, they definitely are, yes.
HARRIS: OK. So, Alison, give us the bad news first here.
KOSIK: All right. Actually, the soccer of this all is that Michigan does not have the highest unemployment rate for the first time in a long time. It's actually Nevada. Nevada's unemployment rate rose to 14 percent in May, passing Michigan as the worst in the nation. Michigan actually came in as number two, falling to 13.6. It's the biggest monthly decline in Michigan in 27 years. California actually rounds out the top three with 12.4 percent unemployment. Now, on the flip side, North Dakota continues to be the best. Only 3.6 of North Dakotans are out of work.
Now, overall in May, many of these states showed improvement. The District of Columbia showing the most improvement, its jobless rate fell by more than a half of percent. And in all, 37 states saw a decline in their unemployment rate. So, we have to keep this in mind, just like we saw with the national rate, the unemployment rate, a lot is attributed to the jobs that we saw in the temporary census workers, but overall, these numbers coming out of these reports, Tony, they're pretty positive. And just like on Wall Street as you said right now, stocks are in positive territory. The Dow is up 20 points -- Tony.
HARRIS: Terrific stuff. All right, Alison, appreciate it. Thank you.
KOSIK: You got it.
HARRIS: Joran Van Der Sloot jailed in Peru after being charged with the murder of a young woman. We will get an exclusive look at the small cell he now calls home in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
Plus, Viagra has helped millions of men with erectile dysfunction. Could a little blue pill for women be the answer for those with low sex drive? A German company thinks so. The FDA weighs in on female Viagra. Josh, I hear you in the background. Is the game over?
LEVS: Yes, the game is over. We tied.
HARRIS: Tied? We got tied?
LEVS: Yes, we just tied 2-2. And I was just talking to our sports folks. We remain alive. It's all coming down to Algeria, which we knew technically, anyway. For a lot of people who were saying we didn't have much of a prayer, pretty good at least tied today. So 2-2.
HARRIS: But we were robbed over a controversial off sides call. On a goal scored, correct?
LEVS: Let's ask the folks down there. I'll let them weigh in.
HARRIS: We're back in a minute. Why are you hedging? It happened. We were robbed. OK.
LEVS: We'll get back on this.
HARRIS: Got one other piece to get to here. You know, although there is a pretty good procedure out there to fix cataracts, there are foods you can eat that may help prevent the eye condition. More now from Dr. Sanjay Gupta in today's fit nation report.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: As things stand now, there are about 20 million people living with cataracts. And the old adages that if you live long enough, you're probably going to develop them, which is why there is so much attention focused specifically on how to prevent them from developing in the first place. What was exciting about the study was looked at specific foods, trying to figure out if food, just simply changes in your diet, could sort of hinder the appearance of these cataracts as you get up there in years.
All people know about carrots. You've heard that since you were a kid that carrots are good for your eyes, and they are. They're specifically good for your cornea, the very front part of your eye and also the retina. But this study was looking at specifically what are the other foods that are potentially beneficial as well and just what kind of impact might they have? Take a look at the list. This is a list you should think of now when you think of eye food. So, besides carrots, you specifically have spinach, you have kale, you have tomatoes, you have peppers, you have squash, you have corn.
The thing that a lot of this produce has in common is the presence of a particular thing known as lutein. And lutein can be very eye-preserving. Again, trying to break down some of the proteins that develop that cloudiness that people often develop in the front of their eye. That's what this is really about, cataracts. Now, if you do develop cataracts, if you're watching this and you started to develop cloudiness of vision, you may be wondering, is there anything you can do about it now? And the answer is yes. In fact, this is one of the most common operations performed.
It's typically done by an ophthalmologist within 10 to 15 minutes. That's how long the operation takes. Take a look at the animation there. It's sometimes a little tough to think about, but the surgeons actually make a small cut in the eye, they vacuum out that damaged lens that has become so cloudy, and then they specifically put in a new plastic lens, which is much more durable. Again, you know, cataracts, about 20 million people affected. Better than having that operation is to try and reduce the impact, likelihood of developing a cataract later on in life.
That diet that we're talking about says you could potentially delay the formation of cataracts by as long as two-and-a-half ears. Two-and-a-half years of clearer vision. More function. That's really what this is all about. Back to you.
HARRIS: All right. Sanjay, appreciate it. Thank you.
The USA versus Slovenia in World Cup action. The game is in the books. It is gone final. Reaction in just a couple of moments. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: And very quickly now, the president of the United States in Columbus, Ohio. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Cobra to help folks make it through some really tough times, to rebuild our infrastructure, and make investments that would spur additional investments from the private sector and strengthen our country in the long run. That's what the Recovery Act was all about. And since then, here in Ohio, nearly 2,400 small businesses have gotten loans to keep their doors open and their workers on payroll. 4.5 million families have gotten tax cuts to help pay their bills and put food on the table.
Some 450 transportation projects are under way or have been completed and more than 100,000 Ohioans are at work today as a result of these steps. And today, I return to Columbus to mark a milestone on the road to recovery, the 10,000th project launch under the Recovery Act. That's worth a big round of applause.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: And I want to thank Secretary Ray LaHood who has been instrumental in so many of the projects that have taken place. He has done an outstanding job as have our other agencies in administering these programs. These projects haven't just improved communities. They have put thousands of construction crews, just like this one, to work. They've spurred countless small businesses to hire, because, you know, these are some big guys here, so they've got to eat, which means that you got to get some food brought in or the local restaurants here benefit from the crews being here at work.
It means that instead of worrying about where their next paycheck is going to come from, Americans across the country are helping to build our future and their own futures. Now, as my friend, Joe Biden, who has done a great job overseeing the Recovery Act would say, this is a big deal.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: And I think it's fitting that we've reached this milestone here in this community. Because what you're doing here is a perfect example of the kind of innovation and coordination and renewal that the Recovery Act is driving all across the country. A lot of people came together to make this day possible. Business and government. Grass roots organizations. Ordinary citizens who are committed to the city's futures. And what you're starting here is more than just a project to repair a road. It's a partnership to transform a community.
