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Tests Determine Whether Gulf Coast Seafood is Safe to Eat; Illegal Immigration Battle Back in Spotlight; One Woman's Year of Celibacy; 'Barefoot Bandit' Captured in the Bahamas; World Cup Championship Game

Aired July 11, 2010 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A year without sex. It was one woman's quest to understand the dynamics of a successful relationship. And she wrote a book about it. We'll ask her if it worked. Plus, swimming to Cuba. Diana Nyad's grueling marathon. We'll check in with her next hour.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We're closing in on three months of oil gushing from a broken BP rig. Right now, crews are racing to get a new cap on the well to contain the spewing into the gulf.

Let's get right to CNN's Ines Ferre in Gulfport, Mississippi.

So Ines, what is the timeline for getting this cap into place?

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going to be three to six days before this procedure is completed. And that's because it's a very complicated procedure. It involves multiple steps. It involves robots underwater and at depths of 5,000 feet under water.

Now BP is saying that this replacement cap procedure is going as planned. And they're hoping that this will eventually stop the oil from gushing into the gulf. The previous cap was removed yesterday. And also, Fred, there's skimmers at the site. Some 48 skimmers at the site. Officials saying they've been able to double the amount of oil that's being skimmed at the well site.

And also, we have to add also that they are collecting some 8,000 to 9,000 barrels of oil through a vessel. You do see though that the oil is gushing freely since the replacement of one of the previous replacement cap was taken away yesterday and as they're preparing to put on the new cap. But they are collecting about 8,000 to 9,000 barrels of oil daily through a vessel, Fred.

So Ines, where you are, Gulfport, Mississippi, are people who live there, are they saying anything about this latest effort?

FERRE: Yes, actually they are. We're at, I'm at this beach in Gulfport, and Jennifer Bond is actually from Mississippi. You're 45 minutes away from this area, Jennifer. And actually, you say that your family has been in the oil rig business for decades now. So what's your reaction to this replacement cap effort? JENNIFER BOND, MISSISSIPPI RESIDENT: At least BP stepped up and did their, are doing their best to try to help, you know, solve the situation. You know, they could have just stepped away and said, you know, whatever.

FERRE: Now, you've come from 45 minutes away. So why do you feel that it's important to come to the beach? We're seeing that there is about eight or 10 families that are here at the beach today.

BOND: Because I feel like the people here need our support. You know, we need to shop, we need to go to their restaurants. We need to come and enjoy the beach. The beaches are right here, no worse than they've ever been. There's still, you know, the water is not the most beautiful thing in the world, but it's still nice, you can still come here and not have to worry about your children getting sick.

FERRE: OK. Good luck to you and enjoy the rest of the day here. And Fred what I've noticed is that these people that are here at the beach. They are all from the Mississippi area. Maybe they're an hour away, maybe they're a couple of hours away. But they're pretty much in-state tourists.

WHITFIELD: Ines Ferre, thank you so much from Gulfport, Mississippi.

FERRE: Yes.

WHITFIELD: All right. Meantime, another oil recovery ship called the "Helix Producer" is get to begin collecting oil from the gushing BP well sometime today. The ship will be hooked to the side of the blowout preventer capturing the flow of the crude oil. BP said the helix producer will be fully functional by Tuesday and should be working at full collection capacity, taking in as much as a 1.5 million gallons of oil a day.

All right. Turning to politics now, President Barack Obama is throwing his support behind key mid-term election races. He went to Kansas City and Las Vegas to campaign for Democratic senate candidates. He driving home a key theme and trying to silence Republican critics, who point to the sagging economy as a reason for a new direction.

More on his strategy now from CNN's Sandra Endo -- Sandra.

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, it certainly is all about direction. The president is trying to make the case about going forward, not back. And you heard him make the argument this past week. Saying Democrats under his leadership will keep the country moving in the right direction, with the right economic plan and on the road to recovery.

Now, despite the slow going and getting out of the sagging economy, with many Americans still feeling the squeeze, the president will once again highlight successes. He's going to a ground-breaking in Michigan Thursday of a factory which will make batteries for electric cars. Here's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, talking about what's at stake. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We've got a long way to go. But in 2010, there will be an important election that will decide whether we're going to go backwards to the economic policies that brought us this financial calamity. Or whether we're going to go forward and invest in a growth and opportunity agenda.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENDO: Now, Republicans argue that the country isn't going in the right direction. Pointing to a 9.5 percent unemployment rate. A troubled housing market and a barely-budging credit market as well. So the economy certainly setting the stage for a big battle coming this fall. Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Sandra Endo, thanks so much from Washington.

All right. Police say an alleged teenaged fugitive with, a huge Facebook fan base is now under arrest. A live report on the high- speed chase and daring capture of the so-called barefoot bandit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: After two years on the run, the accused 'barefoot bandit' has been captured. Police in the Bahamas say they have 19-year-old suspect Colton Harris Moore in custody. Our Susan Candiotti is in New York with details on how they got this young guy in the first place. What can you tell us about this high-speed boat chase.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Fredricka, we've been saying this a lot lately, but it's true. Just like the Russian spy case, this also sounds like you could make a movie script out of it and, in fact, that's what might happen.

This fellow by the name of Colton Harris Moore, 19 years old. "Time" magazine last year called him the most wanted teen bandit in the country. He also has 58,000 fans on Facebook. I mean, it's very funny, but it really is quite a serious thing.

After a high-speed chase, after having been on the run for almost two years, this is a guy who has been on the run for a very long time and now finally is caught. This is someone whose calling card was burglarizing home and stealing things for businesses as well as allegedly two planes in his bare feet. That's why he's called the barefoot bandit.

Last year, an indictment against him was unsealed in the state of Washington, for stealing a plane in Idaho, flying it to Washington state and crashing it. He's also linked to stealing a plane allegedly in Indiana just last week. It was tracked to the Bahamas. And that's why he wound up there.

In any case, this is what the Bahamian Police had to say about his capture overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELLISON E. GREENSLADE, COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, BAHAMAS: Acting on information received from members of the public, the police responded to a sighting of the suspect in Harbor Island. The suspect in an effort to evade capture engaged local police in a high-speed chase by boat in waters leading to Royal Key in the Eleuthera area.

After a brief chase, the suspect was taken into custody without incident. Police officers were able to confiscate a firearm and other items of evidential value.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now, according to other people we spoke with on the island. Evidently this young man put a gun to his head at one point, and threatened to kill himself. But the gun was taken away with him without incident.

Joining us on the phone live now from Harbor Island in the Bahamas, is William Sport. He owns the 32-foot boat, one of the boats that was stolen allegedly by this young man. And in fact, when they caught him, he was in that boat. The engines had been shot out, he had run it aground, et cetera.

But William, tell me what you thought when you heard it was your boat that was stolen by this young man to hear police tell it.

WILLIAM SPORT, BOAT OWNER (ON THE PHONE): Well, the first thing I thought is it's my bad luck, there was another one right next door he could have taken. But the Bahamian police did a great job of apprehending him before he could have gotten further away. He actually had enough fuel on the boat to make it all the way to Florida. So I'm glad to have the boat back even though the engines have been shot up, which the Bahamian authorities have assured me that they will take care of.

CANDIOTTI: Two more questions, how did he managed to steal that boat? Did he hot-wire it?

SPORT: Unfortunately, the boat had the keys in it. We had just finished washing it. We had just come over from the Florida mainland, and it arrived in Harbor Island for a month-long stay in the Bahamas, which we do annually. And the mate had left the keys in it. The only time I know he has ever done that. So the cover was on it, but he did take the cover off of it and found the keys and was able to start it.

CANDIOTTI: Now, William, you told me earlier that night you saw him there on a dock. But you didn't realize it was him. Tell me about that.

SPORT: Approximately midnight, we finished a dinner party on the boat and as I was walking down the dock with my wife, the young man went flying past us with a bag sack which I later found out he had a blue bag sack. And we didn't take anything of it. There are a lot of crew members on the boat on the dock and we found out later that he had come back, swam from the shore to my boat, stolen the boat and was stopped by the police, by shooting out the engines.

CANDIOTTI: Now what do you make of them winding up on Harbor Island? This is part of the Abaco chain in the Bahama Islands. It's described to us as a place very familiar to frankly CEOs and celebrities. Why do you he pick such a small place, you think, to hide out on? It seemed he would be found out rather quickly, and he was.

SPORT: I don't think he really knew where he was. I think actually he was running from one spot to the next, which was closest to get to. He was on north Eleuthera and stole a boat there and came over to Harbor Island. He happened to get lucky and landed at the Romora Bay Marina, which is a new marina and one of the best in the Bahamas. And Harbor Island is one of the nicest islands in the Bahamas, with the nicest people. But he won't like it where he's going now. Fox Hill is not a nice place to be in Nassau.

CANDIOTTI: William, thank you very much for joining us. What an experience and you're right, he will be arraigned, is expected to be arraigned this week and eventually is also expected to be extradited. Of course, the FBI is the one that wants him and has been looking for him for a very long time.

Back to you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Susan Candiotti, thanks so much, in New York.

WHITFIELD: An incredible story.

All right. Actress Pam Grier, her acting career spans four decades. You might actually remember her as "Foxy Brown" and now she opens up about the men in her life. It's more of my face-to-face interview with Pam Grier, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: OK. It's not often that you get a chance to sit down with an American original, actress Pam Grier's career spans for decades. She's probably best known for her role in "Foxy Brown." Recently I went face to face with her, talking about her career, life and loves and she opened up about some of the men in her life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD (on camera): You've been really candid about your life, your private life, your public life. Your three acts that you delve into, the early years, the pros and the freaks, as well as finding the balance. You're just as open about the men in your life.

PAM GRIER, ACTRESS: Yes. Yes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Yes.

WHITFIELD: And how that relationship allowed you to grow and how you -

GRIER: Oh, did it. WHITFIELD: -- remember that relationship. He never judged you, even though it meant your relationship ending because you would not convert to Islam.

GRIER: And it's interesting because the, the relationship of being a couple, ended when he didn't give me enough time to embrace Islam. He had had several years. And he didn't have a plan for us. We as a couple. Moderate conservative -

WHITFIELD: But there was a role for you?

GRIER: There was a distinct role for women and from an Eastern perspective, it's tradition. From western, it's unfair to women and I was a child of the women's liberation movement at that time. So I was in conflict, uncertainty.

WHITFIELD: Do you at all ever have contact -

GRIER: We're best friends.

WHITFIELD: Get out.

GRIER: And then I know you're going to ask about the others.

WHITFIELD: Freddy Prince.

GRIER: OK.

WHITFIELD: I mean, that was the love of your life, you said.

GRIER: He was wonderful. He was younger and I didn't invent the cougar word, the definition. He and he had this wonderful, you love it when a man says wear that, wear that, baby, that would look good. So nice.

WHITFIELD: Glitzy and glamorous.

GRIER: You're Pam Grier.

WHITFIELD: He loved -

GRIER: And that was wonderful. He had this taste and femininity and style and it was great to see that. And that I wasn't competing and he didn't feel -

WHITFIELD: The furs and diamonds -

GRIER: He wasn't - I wasn't a threat to him. I wasn't competing. We would go out he was just, you know, Fredito is what I called him, Little Freddy. But at the time when I met him, he was becoming more and more successful. And I could see his change. His indulging, his friends and the people. Fast lane. Really fast lane.

WHITFIELD: Drugs.

GRIER: Really fast lane. Three days before he passed away he had called me. And he was in crisis, emotional crisis and I didn't know how to help him. And I knew, I said you need help.

WHITFIELD: Did you think he was going to kill himself, though?

GRIER: No, not at all, never.

WHITFIELD: You knew that drugs was destroying him. You had even -

GRIER: Some people can manage it. You know, some people can manage. Artists can take drugs forever and manage it and play and write and create or composers or contemporary musicians.

WHITFIELD: Maybe that's Richard Pryor we'll get to because -

GRIER: I knew you were going there.

WHITFIELD: I read your book. Freddy introduced to you Richard Pryor?

GRIER: Yes.

Before I did "Greased Lightning," before I ever met Richard. That was a riot when Freddy picked me up to take me out to Richard's place in the valley. So I get out of the car, hi. And so, of course, Richard starts spouting out dialogue from "Foxy Brown." And I'm like, yes, yes, hi, how are you.

WHITFIELD: That would be me.

GRIER: And he knew the dialogue. And he said, you do know this blank-blank, beep-beep.

WHITFIELD: All in affection, of course?

GRIER: Yes. All in affection. He wanted me to stay and hang out with him and I said "no, I have to go, really. Thank you very much." And I felt uncomfortable because I know when other people are indulging and having fun and I'm not. I'm the downer, I'm the rock.

WHITFIELD: You kept it clean. How is it you kept it clean?

GRIER: Because I have allergies to everything. Are you kidding me? This chlorophyll in that green stuff they smoke. You could try to be cool, but let me tell you, I just have so many allergies. And I remember that people put things in drinks at parties and it would dissolve. People would say, "Pam, don't drink that." Because they knew - I mean I have an EpiPen for everything. Are you kidding me? I'm allergic to everything.

But I just felt also, if I, if I was drunk or high, someone might take advantage of me. And I don't know if I would survive it.

WHITFIELD: It all goes back to that.

GRIER: I was sober at six. I was sober at 18 and the third one, I just can't. I got to be alert. I can't.

WHITFIELD: But he was awfully honest with you that he was afraid, if he didn't do drugs, that he wouldn't be funny.

GRIER: That was his deepest fear. That if he was sober, he wouldn't be talented. He wouldn't be funny. And I said, well you won't know unless you try.

WHITFIELD: You were a good influence on him.

GRIER: For a minute, for a minute.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Actress Pam Grier opening up about her career, her life, her loves. In our next hour, she will be talking about finding balance in her life in this face-to-face conversation and she'll also talk about a friendship with the next generation of artists including rapper, Snoop Dogg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIER: So they come out coming out with this great, you know, music and they have us on their videos and you know, they say, Pam, I apologize for all the horrible things I said about women. You're not like that at all. You know, I said OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: She's so funny. Pam Grier, face to face, another conversation with her next hour. 5:00 Eastern time.

Right now, a look at our top stories, oil is gushing full force again in the Gulf of Mexico. While BP works to row place the containment cap on the leaking well. Robots are doing the work about a mile under water. BP says the process is proceeding as planned. And it could be finished three to six days from now.

And sometime today, another recovery vessel. The "Helix Producer" is expected to begin collecting oil from the ruptured well. Authorities hope it will reach full collection capacity within three days. That's 1.5 million gallons of oil a day.

And a new World Cup champion is about to be crowned. Well, kind of not really. They want it to happen today, but right now they're already past regulation time. Apparently they're in what, 30 minutes into overtime or they've got 30 minutes overtime before there will be kind of a shoot-out. I hope I got that terminology right. It will be the best of five.

Oh, my gosh. There's so much at stake. We're talking the Netherlands, taking on Spain. You're looking at the fans in Amsterdam, in large part there. And it is a really exciting game so far because it's 0-0, that's why they're into overtime. Somebody is going to have to score something to finally bring some resolution to this final in the World Cup. Very, very exciting.

Jacqui Jeras with us now. Suddenly become, all of a sudden, becoming football experts, because I really don't know anything about the level of World Cup soccer, but we're all learning by osmosis here because this is really phenomenal.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well overseas, everybody is a football or soccer fan, right?

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: -- except me.

JERAS: And then we go, oh, World Cup, we might be interested, right?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

JERAS: And all of a sudden we get on that bandwagon. But you know, 0-0, amazing. And you know, you can tie in soccer games, but this one, you can't. You've got to have a winner and so it would be amazing to go to sudden death and see that shoot-out. You know, one person from each team, you takes turns and whoever makes the goal, that's it.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

JERAS: That's got to get needle ouch.

WHITFIELD: The ticket-holders got some serious bang for their buck. Because they didn't expect this, you know,

JERAS: Yes -

WHITFIELD: I mean, they expected excitement but they certainly didn't expect that now we're going past two hours of play.

JERAS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: That's where we are now, our chat room. That's when Jacqui and I get a chance to talk all the things that are out there that may not necessarily make headlines but we think they should. Including a young lady, I'm going to call her young because, you know, she just, I don't know, added a few more lives to her life because she keeps winning lottery. She keeps winning these scratch-off lotteries.

Her name is Joan Ginter. She's in Las Vegas and I'm sure suddenly she has a whole lot of new friends. Because here we got, she is a four- time lottery winner. Here are the odds over the years of all these lotteries that she has won. Most recent won, $10 million off the scratch games.

JERAS: Multi-million dollar.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: It's more scratch and win.

Anyway, obviously I don't play enough lottery -

JERAS: What are the odds? I mean, what I like to know is if you're listening, how much money is she putting in each time to be a winner? Is she just buy paying a ticket? Is she buying 20 tickets? They say your odds are to put more money on one number than to kind of spread it out. But you know, don't hold me on some of these numbers, but I was thinking of myself, you say, what are the odds of winning the lottery, right? They're like one in 80 to 120 million, something like that, OK. What are your odds of being struck by lightning?

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh.

JERAS: One in 750,000. So you have a much better chance of getting struck by lightning than winning the lottery. You have a much better chance of getting killed by a stingray than winning the lottery.

So what does it say about here. Four times.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: It's pretty incredible. Congratulations to her. We know she probably has a whole lot of new friends, either that or she's kind of hibernating. She's in hiding because she's like I don't want any more friends with all these millions that she has.

JERAS: She's still gambling in Vegas.

WHITFIELD: Yes, she lives in Vegas. She's a Texan but she says, you know what, Vegas, is for me.

Well, let's talk about something else which is really interesting. Apparently it's the new trend. You know, maybe it was fascinating to go like destination weddings. Well, these days, the destination is not like the beautiful mountains or the beaches. Instead, it's retail shopping.

JERAS: Really? Really?

WHITFIELD: This was taking place in a grocery store. Because they met in a grocery store. Maybe because they both worked in the grocery store, but you know, they're snuggled up there in the frozen food section and they're melting all the frozen foods because of all this love.

JERAS: Well, the executive editor of "theknot.com" says it has to do a little to do with the economy for one and it has to do a little bit with all the brides wanting to have their own little personal twist to their own weddings perhaps.

WHITFIELD: Really.

JERAS: A lot of the stories I read about, you know, like the Home Depot one that we met at the Home Depot and they had their wedding in the garden section, and they used the little orange buckets for the guests to sit on. And it was free. It didn't cost them anything.

WHITFIELD: I wonder what the party favors were?

JERAS: I have no idea. But there was also one in a Taco Bell and one in a T.J. Maxx. So to each his own. WHITFIELD: Well, you know, it's memorable. And people want their day to be memorable. They want their guests to remember it. Who could forget that?

JERAS: Whatever works for you.

WHITFIELD: OK. Speaking of weddings. Bill Clinton, the former president, will be officiating a wedding of some very good friends.

JERAS: Not his daughter's.

WHITFIELD: Not his daughter because we know her wedding will be sometime, even maybe this summer.

But I don't know, do you think this is a warm-up act for him? Would he officiate his daughter's wedding? Or would that be kind of tough for a dad to do?

JERAS: Word is, he's not. So I don't know.

WHITFIELD: These are good friends, a representative from New York who is also going to be marrying kind of the right-hand woman of Hillary Clinton. You've seen her in a lot of images especially when Hillary Clinton was campaigning for president. But in this case, there will be no campaigning, decisions have been made. These two will be coming together and marrying and the former president is going to be officiating, pretty cool stuff.

JERAS: I like that.

WHITFIELD: Yes, I like that.

JERAS: Me, too.

WHITFIELD: Madonna, always making news. She's 5, that's not why she's making news.

JERAS: I know, she's 51.

WHITFIELD: Yes. She looks so good. Doesn't she?

JERAS: Yes but this one is more about her daughter, Lourdes, who is 13 now. A teenager and she is launching her own line of clothing.

WHITFIELD: Yes. "Material Girl."

JERAS: Yes, "Material Girl," I wonder where they got that in from. But apparently conversations between mom and Lourdes about what kind of things are going to be in the line and what Lourdes wears. There was a quote from Madonna saying something along the lines, she'll see something her daughter wears and she'll say, "wow, that looks great." Then she's like. Wow, but you're 13."

WHITFIELD: Yes. This skirt is a little too high or maybe Madonna will let her know. And this is from the Material Girl -

JERAS: She'll see something her daughter wears and she'll say, wow, that's great. But wow, you're only 13.

WHITFIELD: Yes, the skirt is a little too high or maybe Madonna will let her know and this from the material girl who was wearing lingerie on the outside before anybody else was doing it and she tells her daughter, you're going to have to be a little more tact full. A little bit more reserved.

An interesting conversation between mom and daughter.

JERAS: I'll look forward to seeing what those clothes look like.

WHITFIELD: Yes, I know. You know they're going to be a hit.

JERAS: Oh absolutely.

WHITFIELD: But Madonna says Lourdes is really the kind of creative mind behind it, 90 percent of what you'll see with that label is really Lourdes' idea so very impressive. Smart to teach her so early about the business end of this kind of celebrity. Very smart.

JERAS: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: Jacqui Jeras thank you so much. We'll see you again a little bit later.

All right. Well how can you be sure that the seafood from the Gulf is actually safe to eat? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us how scientist are checking it all out next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Take a look now, live pictures of oil that is spewing. But really what you can see more prominently are the robotic instruments that are being used in the Gulf of Mexico right now. As we know that the old containment cap was removed yesterday.

Now they're undergoing putting a new containment cap into place. It's a very intricate procedure that's taking place. And BP feels quite confident that this will help contain the oil in a very large way. It won't stop the flow. That's where the relief wells come into play and that's expected to be in place possibly sometime in August. This process right here is expected to take anywhere between two to four and maybe even six days.

So all the oil in the Gulf has a lot of people wondering if their seafood is still safe to eat. The FDA says no contaminated fish has made it to the supermarket or to your plate. But how can we be so sure, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta goes inside the place where seafood is being tested.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Dr. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Behind these doors, huge decisions are being made. Tests that determine whether or not the seafood in the Gulf is safe for us to eat. It looks like a scene straight out of a crime scene show. What you're looking at is a chain of custody records that because the fish that are being tested are literally treated like evidence. You have to keep track of where it's been and who's handled it. This test and facility, these are fish over here that are being tested, trying to figure out if indeed they're safe.

Aluminum foil, special instruments, workers wearing gloves, they want to be very careful to not contaminate any of this fish to make sure their records and their testing are as accurate as possible. Thousands of fish being tested since April 28th that is just a week after the oil spill. They're being brought here in these huge ice units.

DR. JOHN STEIN, NOAA: We're here in Mississippi, got a lot of fish behind us here.

Bagged and tagged, yes they are.

GUPTA: This is part of the process?

STEIN: Yes.

GUPTA: Dr. John Stein, his is head of NOAA's Seafood Safety Testing Program. You go around the country John and you talk to people about what is happening here in the Gulf, the question always comes up -- is the seafood safe?

STEIN: Yes.

GUPTA: And you say?

STEIN: Yes, we have an extensive program in place, a corporative program between NOAA, the Gulf States and the FDA; working together to insure that is the seafood is safe.

GUPTA: But no one can be sure that is because we don't know exactly how much oil is leaking and more importantly exactly where it is going.

We've been talking to a lot of scientists and they say the oil as it starts to break up, you get all of these various compounds that are not oil, so to speak any more, they're just, these aromatic hydro carbons and they can go all over the place. And that's what I think makes is so difficult. How do you know it's not oil per se, but they are these aromatic hydro carbons --

STEIN: Yes. GUPTA: That's what I think makes it so difficult. How do you know if it is not oil per se but it is still some of the toxic elements and they end of future away in an area that doesn't have oil?

STEIN: True. So that is why this testing program deals with the detecting oil and the analytical chemistry to also detect the aromatic hydro carbons.

GUPTA: We are giving you a little peek behind the curtain into this room which is where sensory testing takes place, now they have testers all up and down here. This is uncooked fish. You get a little smell. Of this, and then determine what you think the score is. What the likelihood that this is contaminated. The next step the taste test.

So you got your nose, you got your sense of smell working. And now is the sense of taste. They pointed out to me that even if this was contaminated, eating a small amount like this would not be problematic. I eat this, and you don't swallow it they say because you don't want to ruin the rest of your testing. So here goes.

It tastes pretty good as well. I'm not an expert that seems pretty good to me. The researchers say a contaminated fish has a distinct taste, it's unmistakable. But if all this sounds subjective to you, you're right. That's why there are ten different testers, all of them hidden from each other. They can't even see each other's reactions while they are testing. But all of these tests are only for oil compounds, it turns out no one is testing these fish for possible contamination by that controversial dispersant.

One of the particularly toxic chemicals in the dispersant, there's no chemical test that is being done right now.

STEIN: There's not a chemical test for that right now.

GUPTA: What? No test? How can the guarantee of safety be complete? We decided to dig deeper to clarify. NOAA says an abundance of caution; they're currently developing a chemical test for dispersants. It just isn't ready yet. And it can't come soon enough for the millions of people who want to eat the fish and those who make a living catching them.

Based on everything you know now, how long is it going to stay closed?

STEIN: It's going to stay closed until the oil leak is stopped. Once the oil leak is stopped, then we'll have a very aggressive and very comprehensive survey of the area for reopening.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Pascagoula, Mississippi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: A year without sex. We've gotten your attention. How one woman's decision to embrace celibacy actually enriched her life?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Checking our top stories right now. The illegal immigration battle is back in the spotlight today. The president's senior adviser is calling on lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to breathe new life into stalled legislation on immigration reform. David Axelrod also touched on the government's lawsuit against Arizona's tough new immigration a law. He said the federal government needs to step up and deal with the problem.

Bahamian police say this bullet-riddled boat shows the danger they faced in capturing the teen fugitive known as the barefoot bandit, 19- year-old Colton Harris-Moore was arrested in a town of Harbor Island after a high-speed chase this morning. He's being moved to Nassau where he could face extradition. Harris Moore is wanted in connection with a string of thefts in the U.S.

And for World Cup fans it has all come down to this. The Netherlands and Spain are playing for the championship in the final match of the World Cup. Right now, it is tied 0-0. No one has scored a point. They're in overtime right now. And if something doesn't happen somewhere in this 30-minute overtime, it's likely to end up being a called it a shoot-out? OK. Where the best of five, do I have this part, too? The best of five. Anyway, whoever gets the best of five, the winner will be declared.

OK. Well it wasn't an accidental romantic dry spell. But a determined decision to go a year without sex that led to this book. "Chastened, My Year Without Sex."

Author Hephzibah Anderson joins us now from New York to talk about this decision, what she discovered along the way and how did it all come to this Hephzibah?

HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON, AUTHOR, "CHASTENED:" Well, I was on the cusp of turning 30. So I was doing some thinking, anyway. And I happened to see my old college boyfriend in New York. Both of us miles away, thousands of miles away from home. He was walking into De Beers to buy his new fiance an engagements ring and it got me thinking about the relationships that had followed that in my 20s. I realized that not only was he my first serious relationship but he was also the last man in almost a decade to have said, I love you.

Which is obviously a terrible indictment of my romantic choices and it bought into focus a lot of emotional frustration I was feeling. I think women especially but men, also, are under pressure to have sex in a very particular way. So I just decided to step back from it all for a year.

WHITFIELD: So it was almost as if you kind of came to this realization where you were tangling with had you been kind of throwing it away. Throwing away this intimacy, almost because there was pressure or it became so casual that everyone seemed to be doing it? That kind of thing?

ANDERSON: Yes. I think that sex has become less and less of a personal thing. And you know, we all are exposed to so many sexual images across the media. That we, we have a very particular idea of how it should look and how it should feel. And we're also sort of turned into voyeurs and we forget that it's a very personal thing and it also changes as we grow and get older. And the other thing I think to consider is that for women we sort of oppress ourselves with this misguided notion that equality is the right to go out and have sex.

WHITFIELD: So you articulated this way in your book, we just kind of extracted a few thoughts from your book. You say, sex and its pursuit seem to have become such blood sports. Their rules so confusing and their standards so exacting that it's not hard to wonder occasionally, whether it's all worth it. Did you come to that conclusion before or after abstaining?

ANDERSON: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Yes, before?

ANDERSON: Yes, that was before. I think we're under an enormous lot of pressure to be sexy, to feel sexual. For women, even our hair has to be sexy. It all gets to be a bit of a turn-off.

VELSHI: And then you write, "My vow to become less of a nun's habit than a child's security blanket. It's something to cling to, a reason to say no." So you know before you did feel like it was being thrown away. Now you really value it like never before. Is this kind of a challenge that you have for other young men or women, that maybe they need to make this kind of commitment to the themselves?

ANDERSON: Absolutely. The point I was trying to make there is we have less and less reasons to say no. And the further you get into your dating life, the more that all becomes true. And you know, we stigmatized the dry spell. Well for me, it was a very rich period. Anybody out there who is stuck in a dry spell, if they just commit to it and make it a choice, there's a lot they can gain from that. Rather than feeling just feeling lousy.

WHITFIELD: So before we go, kind of now without getting too much into your personal business, you know, this is a documentation of a year. I actually got an email from someone just as we had teased that we would be talking to you. And this person says, you know, a year? That's nothing. She hasn't had sex in 13 years. Count them, 13 years. And she believes, has been a very worthy cause in her view. I don't know exactly what precipitated her decision. But do you kind of feel like there's a challenge I guess to those who, maybe you don't want to set a timeframe, you just kind of do what's comfortable?

ANDERSON: Yes, exactly. And I think it's all about re-personalizing sex and figuring out what you want from it and what you need from it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Hephzibah Anderson thanks so much. The book is "Chastened, My Year without Sex." Very interesting, thanks for your time appreciate it.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: From New York there. All right. The tourism, fishing and the restaurant business is in rough shape these days in the Gulf. But there's one business that's actually really booming.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Business may be down in the Gulf. But one business that is booming, because of the oil spill, those bright yellow and orange booms protecting the coastline are in high demand and short supply. And one boom owner gave CNN's oil platform journalist, John Kouls, a tour of his plant in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK NAAYERS, AMERICAN BOOM & BARRIER: What that is doing is sealing in what is called the top tension cable.

Of course when the oil spill hit, all of our customers needing boom for the Gulf they were of course screaming, couldn't make it fast enough and that's all I've been producing. You know, everybody wants the boom; I can't make it fast enough. We're putting out 4,000 to 5,000 foot every day. And it's not enough. Make boom, make boom. We started from a crew of ten. And I had to increase labor by triple. I've got about 30 people working now. Two ten-hour shifts, six days a week. The amount of raw materials that we need to do an operation like this, in this quantity and volume, there's literally hardly any chain left in the country.

JOHN KOULS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): How long do you think you'll have enough supplies to go for?

NAAYERS: Right now, I think I'll have enough to get me through to at least the end of July. There's more materials coming, so I should actually be in real good shape. I typical spill coming out of a ship is all coming out one time in one localized area. Because it's coming up from the ocean at a mile deep, it might be ten miles wide and much smaller pools all over the place that they have to try and contain.

Anything that you can keep out of the wetlands is huge. And you know, that's the biggest threat. That's where all the wipeout the ocean starts. That's the most sensitive areas. They're throwing everything they can at it. And they're doing everything they can to minimize the potential damage. We're putting out everything we can. We don't know exactly where our stuff is going. I have probably 400,000 foot of orders on my desk right now. It's going to keep us busy for quite a while.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. There's been so much rain that a lot of drivers actually were caught off-guard in the Boston area. We'll have more details on the flash floods in that region and find out what the national forecast is for the rest of the day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: First the heat and now the floods, parts of Massachusetts, including these streets in Boston right here, were under water as you can see after a storm dumped heavy rain on the region. In Somerville, several people had to be rescued after they were stranded in their cars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE BRODERICK, STRANDED DRIVER: I got out and I tried to do the dog paddle because I can't swim. Forget it, the current was taking me back so I made it back to my car and I just hung onto the roof for dear life until they came. I would have drowned.

STEPHEN BARNES, MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE: It was a group effort. It wasn't me by any means at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow, they're lucky, Cambridge next door to Boston got three and a half inches of rain during that storm. Very scary moments to be caught up in a flash flood, Jacqui, I mean it just happens in an instant. That's why they call it flash flood.

JERAS: Exactly.

WHITFIELD: You can really get yourself in trouble.

JERAS: Yes. The tunnel 18 feet deep, so yes that's some seriously scary stuff. In fact some flash flooding going on at this hour as well and we're watching the state of Missouri in particular for that threat and you can see the severe thunderstorm watch which is in effect as well. Take a look at these pictures out of Kansas City from earlier today; there you can see the deluge that happened here. We did see about two to three inches of rain, strong winds came through with these storms and caused some damage, bringing down trees. 17,000 people without power at the peak of this storm in the early afternoon hours.

Now those storms continued to be on the move and there you can see that watch we're talking about. Its central Missouri in the Camden area, we just got a report about 20 minutes ago of a tornado touching down there. And you can see the warning remains in effect, no reports of damage or injuries, but we'll continue to track this storm. Even though it's a severe thunderstorm watch, sometimes we do get tornadoes out of these systems so something to watch. We also have some severe weather popping up around the Charleston area and that's going to continue into the afternoon hours. Heat continues to stay strong across the south and I see relief into the northeast. We'll all keep watching your weather tomorrow from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River Valley - Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Jacqui. Appreciate that.