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BP Extends Well Pressure Test; NAACP-Tea Party Battle Continues; Libya Denies Deal With BP for Megrahi; Shocking Crime in Dallas Suburb; Mel Madness; Bristol Palin Engaged

Aired July 17, 2010 - 22:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, murder in a Texas town. The mayor, a mother, apparently kills her daughter and then herself, and no one seems to know why. We investigate.

Is the toxic brew between the tea party and the NAACP setting race relations back? Hold your answer until after you hear about a letter one tea party activist wrote while pretending he's a black man.

The man who released the Mel Gibson tapes to the public drops by and drops some hints about more recordings and what's on them.

And the new celebrity couple, Bristol and Levi? What led to their reunion? "US Weekly" takes us behind the scenes.

Good evening, everyone. It is day 89 of the gulf oil disaster, and day 2 of no oil gushing from the well. BP's integrity tests of its new cap will now go on until at least tomorrow afternoon. And meantime, BP says one of two relief wells is just a few feet from intercepting the crippled well. And there's still millions of gallons of oil to clean up. This controlled burn-out in the gulf was about 10 miles northeast of the well site. The huge converted cargo ship called A Whale won't be part of the skimming operation. The Coast Guard says it failed to collect much oil during testing.

CNN's David Mattingly joins me now live from New Orleans with the details. David, why is BP extending the testing period?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it wasn't BP's decision to extend this. This was something that came up and was ordered by Admiral Thad Allen after that successful 48 hours where we saw no leaking from the well and no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico as the pressure continued to rise.

Admiral Allen then ordered another 24 hours of testing, just to be sure. And after that point, he says they will then open this well back up. They will hook it up to those line and take that oil up to the surface for containment on vessels at the surface. Instead, they are looking at this well, this new cap and the way it's performing, as being able to close temporarily in case there is a hurricane and not having this well closed until the relief well is dug and intercepting some time later this month.

LEMON: OK, so what's the next -- what's next in this process? MATTINGLY: Next in this process, once they get finished with the testing, they will then look at the data that they've come up and how this well is performing. If it's continued just as it has for the last 48 hours, they're going to be very pleased and much more confident even now that there's not going to be any leaking from this well.

Once they do that, then they're going open the well up and relieve the pressure that's in there. So we're going to see oil for a short time spewing back into the Gulf of Mexico until they hook those lines up to bring it back up to the surface to the containment vessels up there, continuing their strategy of containment.

LEMON: And David, what about those relief wells?

MATTINGLY: The relief wells are going extremely well. The one that they started first is within feet of its mark, and they are now planning to make that final casing rod (ph) that will intersect and intercept where that leaking well has been. And what they're talking about there is having some time at the end of the month being able to intersect that well and start filling it up with cement. That process of cementing will take days, possibly weeks, and that will be the final nail in the coffin for this well.

LEMON: Our thanks to David Mattingly in New Orleans.

Ken Feinberg, the man in charge of handling the BP compensation fund, recently met with about 200 people in Louisiana whose livelihoods have been impacted by the oil disaster and he got an earful. In response, Feinberg was compassionate, but he was tough. He made clear that money would not be paid out based on wishful thinking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) a record year (INAUDIBLE) shrimp in 24 hours. I think BP ought to look at that. We had the best year (INAUDIBLE) very important.

KENNETH FEINBERG, BP CLAIMS FUND ADMINISTRATOR: Very important.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we got the tickets to prove it. You know, we got the tickets to prove it.

FEINBERG: Now, here's the answer to this -- this claim (ph). This gentleman says it was going be a record year. Prove it. Come in, demonstrate that it was going be a record year, and get paid for it. But don't speculate. I can't be paying speculative claims. You've got to come in and show me not that you're a good fisherman, and you know, life treats your fairly. I want to know -- It's not speculation, Feinberg. We can show you what we lost because of this spill that is damaging, and I'll pay it. But you've got to show me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That was Ken Feinberg. Meantime, President Barack Obama and the first family are vacationing in Bar Harbor, Maine, this weekend. They're spending time on Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park. This is the Obama family's third family holiday since the oil disaster began in April, which is fueling criticism from his Republican critics. Some in the GOP say the president should be focused on the gulf instead of relaxing.

Some unfinished business from the presidential election and a six-digit fine for Vice President Joe Biden's failed campaign for the White House. The Federal Election Commission has slapped a $219,000 fine on Biden's campaign for accepting contributions above legal limits, failing to pay market rates for use of a private jet, and for issuing checks that were never cashed. A Biden spokeswoman calls such fines commonplace after presidential campaign audits.

Just ahead here on CNN...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK WILLIAMS, TEA PARTY EXPRESS: Racists have their own movement. It's called the NAACP.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The war of words between the tea party and the NAACP. You heard that comment by Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams, but some black leaders disagree on how to fight back and whether it's even worth it. We'll hear from the Reverend Al Sharpton and activist Warren Ballentine.

Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRISTOL PALIN, SARAH PALIN'S DAUGHTER: There was flowers, like rose petals, in the shape of a heart on my bed with a box. And then he got down on one knee, asked me to marry him. There was no hesitation at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Oh, the lovebirds! Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston are engaged. "US Weekly" got the exclusive scoop, and we have an "US Weekly" bureau chief to talk about their interview.

And don't just sit there. Make sure you become part of the conversation, part of the show. Send me a message on Twitter and Facebook, or check out my blog at CNN.com/don. You can also look for me on Foursquare (ph). I want to hear from you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This is "What Matters" tonight, the hot words between the NAACP and the tea party movement. A mocking letter by Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams pushed the rhetoric into the red zone. I'll read a large portion of it to you in just a moment.

But first, here's what prompted Williams to write his letter to Lincoln, Ben Jealous, speaking this week at the NAACP convention in Kansas City.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN JEALOUS, NAACP PRESIDENT: Expel the bigots and racists in your ranks or take full responsibility for all of their actions! We will no longer allow you to hide like cowards behind signs that say lynch our president or anyone else!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, the Civil Rights group passed a resolution calling on the tea party movement to condemn racism in its ranks. That didn't sit well with Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams. In an interview here on CNN, he called the NAACP racist and posted this letter on his Web site. It's Williams penning a letter to Abe Lincoln, channeling Ben Jealous, the head of the NAACP.

And here's what he writes. He says, "We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don't cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People, and we want -- we demand that it stop!"

He then talks about bail-outs. He says, quote, "The tea party position to "end the bail-outs," for example, is just silly. Bail- outs are just big money welfare, and isn't that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare?"

And he goes on to say, "What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds, we must have somebody care for us. Otherwise, we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!"

He then writes about lower taxes. "Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government "stop raising our taxes." That is outrageous! How will we Coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn?"

And this is how he signs it. "Sincerely, Precious Ben Jealous, Tom's Nephew, NAACP Head Colored Person."

The Reverend Al Sharpton takes exception to Williams's letter, but he says the NAACP shouldn't let itself be provoked.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REV. AL SHARPTON, PRES., NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: It confirms that they're trying to bait a fight on some very narrow race questions and not deal with the broad issues the NAACP and National Action Network and Urban League and others have raised about social inequality. To mock the president of the NAACP and to act like blacks don't want to take responsibility and therefore we reject emancipation, even in a mocking way, is to try to do red flag, but we won't play the bull for him.

First of all, I agree with the NAACP that the tea party should denounce those racist signs, and there are certainly elements that have been at a lot of their gatherings that are racist. But I think that we must look at all of the issues that impact our community and have that as our priority, which the NAACP said. You've got to remember, the statement that was being made at the NAACP was a 44-page statement. This was a half a page. They didn't make a resolution just on the tea party.

The tea party wants it to be about them. It's about jobs. It's about health care. It's about the criminal justice system. Their signs are part of the problem, but they're not at all the systemic problems that we need to confront, nor is that what the NAACP or National Action Network or any of us are saying. And I think that the tea party wants this to be all about them. I think it must be all about making America one nation.

LEMON: Reverend, in some way, though, by doing this, is this a distraction maybe, and is this something maybe the NAACP should have anticipated? Because as you said, it's not the number one issue, and I think most people agree, that's facing the African-American community. But has it in some way become a distraction?

SHARPTON: I think that if it has become a distraction, it's the media that's obsessing on one half page of a speech, rather than dealing with all that the NAACP said, or for that matter, all of us that spoke at the convention or at our own convention. So you can't blame, if somebody makes a 44-page speech, the media for pinpointing one part of it and saying they want this confrontation.

Let's be clear. There are elements of the tea party, I'm sure, that are fair. I'm sure that there are other elements that are not. But what the tea party itself is advocating, in my judgment, is anti- Civil Rights because what they're really saying is we need to go from a strong central federal government back to where states can decide if they want to do health care or if they want to do immigration.

Well, the whole Civil Rights movement was built around stopping states from being able to nullify what federal law was. So whether there were signs or not, I have a problem with the tea party's philosophy if it is about returning us to states' rights. That's more of a threat to Civil Rights.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Up next, we continue our discussion about Mark Williams's letter to Lincoln. Attorney, activist and radio talk show host Warren Ballentine will weigh in. And be sure to join us Sunday night -- that's tomorrow night -- 7:00 PM Eastern hour here on CNN, when Mark Williams joins me to explain his reasons for writing the blog post that is causing such a stir. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You know, we have spent a lot of time tonight talking about the so-called "letter to Lincoln" from Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams. Well, many feel the mocking tone was overtly racist.

A short time ago, I spoke with attorney, activist and Huffingtonpost blogger Warren Ballentine for his take on it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Seems like, we're regressing when it comes to race here because everyone thought by electing -- the election of an African- American president, that we'd be more open about race, we'd talk about race, we'd resolve some issues. But it seems to be putting a -- placing a divide, an even bigger divide.

Here's my question. You were answering just then as an activist and as an attorney. As a radio host, you get to hear America every day. What are people saying out there?

WARREN BALLENTINE, HOST, "THE WARREN BALLENTINE SHOW": You know, my listeners are of the belief that the tea party is racist because of the...

LEMON: The entire tea party?

BALLENTINE: Not the entire tea party, but there are racial undertones. In fact, one of the things that I did was I gave the history of the tea party and how it came into being and how it was virtually unknown until another network started picking it up and talking about it and making an issue out of it. And then you started seeing fractions (ph), like the KKK, the skinheads. You had David Duke endorse it.

And then you started seeing these different things come out that literally -- they're coming out because the president is black, not because of the governmental policies, because of you want to be honest about the governmental policies, Bush put more big programs into place in this country than any Democratic president, including the TARP program. So this -- if this was the case, if this was the argument, then you should have been making that argument then.

And as far as the taxation argument, as far as I've seen and as far as I've studied, Americans have not been taxed since this president has been in office. Yet that's the argument that they're making. And again, when you look at the body of this letter, when you look at what was put into this letter, this man had no historical facts in it. He had no idea of what black Americans have been doing in this country. He didn't even know what happened to the stimulus money to say that we got the stimulus money and that we don't want to work and we want big screen TVs. He obviously has no connection to what's going on in America.

LEMON: But Warren, I think the -- you can't say the majority of people who are out there -- a lot of people are out there, they're angry about the economy, they're upset about big government, and they have every right to protest. So I don't know if everyone who's out there is misinformed or either -- or either racist.

BALLENTINE: Don, I'm not saying that they're racist. In fact, what I tell my listeners is I -- you know, I applaud the tea party movement for coming out and taking a stance against government. I'm not saying everybody is racist or that everybody is misinformed.

But Don, I will tell you this, and I'm saying this as an African- American who grew up poor in Chicago. Part of the reason that this is such a "wow" in America right now is because America isn't the America that I grew up in. In America at one point, you could get a job if you were uneducated. You could get advancement if you were uneducated. Now that's not the case, and now you have middle-class America being affected -- i.e., the white part of America -- and they're just not knowing how to deal with it. And African-Americans, we've been dealing with it since we've come to this country. So you know, we have a different perspective on it.

But again, I will say this. We have to come to the table and talk about the solution of us all working together, and not the problems, because the problem itself shouldn't be race. The problem itself should be about what the government is doing or is not doing. And I think anybody, from Ben Jealous and the NAACP to the tea party movement, will tell you if the government is wrong, we need to speak up and say something about it. And I applaud anybody who would do it. I do it every day.

LEMON: Warren Ballentine, thank you very much, Warren. And I should say that that letter has been taken down off the Web site. So thank you, Warren.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: I want to tell you a little about the tea party. It bills itself as a grass roots movement with special focus on national security, U.S. sovereignty and fiscal responsibility. Tea party groups exist independently and are not part of a formal national organization, but they do share many of the same core values, among them deporting illegal immigrants and securing the borders, upholding the right to own firearms, a strong military, reducing the size of the federal government, opposing government bail-outs and stimulus packages, balancing the federal budget and upholding English as the official language of the U.S.

And one more reminder for you. Tea party spokesman Mark Williams, who wrote the "letter to Lincoln" blog post, joins me Sunday night, 7:00 PM Eastern, right here on CNN.

I want to check your top stories right now. In Afghanistan, three NATO soldiers died today in three separate attacks, including one American. Yesterday, another American soldier died in a blast in the southern part of the country. The latest violence comes as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads for Afghanistan. She's taking part in an international conference in Kabul to talk about the many problems facing the country.

A frightening video from Mexico captures the moment (INAUDIBLE) car bombing in Juarez. The blast killed four people, and it's being called a potential turning point in Mexico's drug war. The worry is that Mexico's drug cartels might ramp up the violence in the drug wars by using car bombs against each other and the government.

In custody tonight, an alleged drug kingpin. Jose David Figueroa Agosto was the Caribbean's most wanted fugitive, but the Drug Enforcement Administration says it finally caught up with him in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He escaped from prison in that country about 10 years ago while serving a 209-year sentence for kidnapping.

And it's the kind of image that makes your heart skip a beat, an overturned school bus in the middle of an interstate highway. It happened this morning in Franklin County, Kansas. Twenty-seven kids coming home from church camp were on board. Nine of them were taken to a hospital for treatment, one by helicopter. No word on what caused that accident.

It is a moment the British government says should never have happened, the Lockerbie bomber being freed and leaving Scotland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN FLYNN, VICTIM'S BROTHER: Business is business, right? But when you cross the line and actually lobby to have convicted killers released so that you can get more business, I think that is crossing the line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: We'll hear from the family of one of the Pan Am victims, who says oil giant BP played a role in the release.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The British government now says it was a mistake to free the Lockerbie bomber. Abdel Basset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was the only one convicted for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Two hundred and seventy people died. But the UK let him return to Libya last year on compassionate grounds because he supposedly had terminal prostate cancer, but he's still alive and now his prognosis is much better.

And allegations have surfaced that the oil company BP lobbied for his release in order to secure drilling rights in Libya. British officials and BP say the release had nothing to do with the oil deal. But our Richard Quest pressed the issue with the head of Libya's national oil company.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": People will find it hard to believe that there isn't a connection. Mr. Megrahi gets released. Six weeks later... (CROSSTALK)

QUEST: ... the deal is ratified.

SHOKRI GHANEM, CHMN., NATIONAL OIL CORP., LIBYA: I'm sorry, I have to say no. I'm sorry. That -- we signed the agreement in 2007 and we started negotiation on this agreement maybe since 2004. The agreement was signed in 2007. Megrahi was not released until 2009. (INAUDIBLE) was a long time. But you see this -- people are saying things which are not true.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Victims' families were outraged over the Lockerbie bomber's release, and as our Susan Candiotti tells us, the latest developments are only prolonging the pain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN FLYNN, VICTIM'S BROTHER: (INAUDIBLE) sorry about that.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Brian Flynn, whose brother, J.P., was among the 270 killed on Pan Am flight 103, last year's release of the only person convicted in the terrorist bombing was too much to bear.

FLYNN: Actually, that was one of the moments where you thought (ph) 20 years of hard work had completely been worthless. And it was -- it was tough.

CANDIOTTI: Even tougher to bear, the growing controversy over BP's role in what led to al Megrahi's freedom.

FLYNN: But when your -- when your loved one is murder in a -- with a bomb in the middle of the air, you're not going find a lot of peace, so you pursue justice.

CANDIOTTI: For Flynn and other families, it's bad enough the new British government says it was a mistake to release al Megrahi on compassionate grounds. Doctors now say he's not on his death bed, after all. Flynn is doubly riled up about the latest British ambassador's denial that a juicy oil deal for embattled oil giant BP off Libya's coast was the real reason Megrahi was sprung.

FLYNN: Business is business, right? But when you cross the line and actually lobby to have convicted killers released so that you can get more business, I think that is crossing the line.

CANDIOTTI: On Friday, Libya's oil minister told CNN's Richard Quest in London there was no such deal.

SHOKRI GHANEM, CHMN., NATIONAL OIL CORP., LIBYA: Not at all.

CANDIOTTI: BP has also denied a fix was in. Whether it was discussed is another question. Five Democratic U.S. senators want hearings to investigate. SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D), NEW JERSEY: We now see that BP had spoken to the UK, talked about this enormous $20 billion deal that might go on with Libya...

CANDIOTTI: Despite denials of a quid pro quo, Flynn wants Megrahi returned to a jail cell.

(on camera): Is it realistic to think that they'll actually send him back?

FLYNN: The U.S. is not as weak as the United Kingdom, and I hope that Prime Minister Cameron has the courage and conviction to say, It was wrong, we can fix this, we can do something about it. We don't have to be victims again.

CANDIOTTI: While the debate shows no signs of slowing down, what are the chances that Megrahi will be returned to prison? Most agree slim to none. Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, Susan, thank you.

More pot trouble for Paris Hilton, and Mel Gibson is getting hammered by more tapes leaked by RadarOnline. But what about the ex- girlfriend? Closer scrutiny of those tapes have people asking more questions about her motive?

I spoke with the managing editor of RadarOnline for his take.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A shocking crime in the Dallas suburbs. The mayor of Coppell, Texas and her 19-year-old daughter dead in an apparent murder-suicide. The medical examiner ruled that Mayor Jayne Peters killed her daughter Corrine before turning the gun on herself. And it happened earlier this week.

The "Dallas Morning News" reports that Mayor Peters was having financial problems. But police are still investigating. A series of notes were left at the scene but none of them explained why.

And that is a question that the city of 40,000 is asking tonight.

Doug Stover is the former mayor of Coppell and he joins us now by phone.

Thank you, Doug, for joining us. Listen, you -- Mayor Peters succeeded you. And you were close friends. How could she be capable of this?

DOUG STOVER, FMR. MAYOR OF COPPELL, TEXAS (via phone): Jayne as we all knew was quite despondent over the loss of her husband. And we're only now coming to find out about the financial disparity that she had in life as well. And obviously she was depressed to a degree that no one had any idea about it. LEMON: Do you think she just kept this depression to herself? She didn't share it with you or with any friends?

STOVER: No, she didn't. Jayne was the first person who reached out to people to help them, with their heartaches, with their tragedies, with their discomfort. And she was a very private person and didn't allow people to understand what her sentiments were.

LEMON: So what do you think happened? Do you think she just snapped? Or this just became too much for her all of the sudden?

STOVER: I think that the -- obviously, that the weight of it all just became too much for her. And she felt like -- unfortunately -- that this must have been the only option that she had.

LEMON: Boy. You mentioned the financial problems. Did you know anything about Mayor Peters facing any personal financial problems?

STOVER: I did not. Again, she kept all of those matters very close to the vest and was very helpful with anybody else in their -- excuse me -- their problems. But never opened up to anybody about her own problems.

LEMON: Do you know what her stance was on guns? And did she keep one in the house?

STOVER: She did not. She was very, very anti-gun person. That's why, you know, so many things have happened in the recent past. Very uncharacteristic of her life. The way that she died and the way that she behaved in the last few days, last few weeks of her life were not characteristic of how she acted in her private life.

LEMON: Does anyone know how she got a gun or where it came from?

STOVER: She borrowed it from a friend.

LEMON: And did the friend -- did she tell the friend why she was borrowing it?

STOVER: No. She had indicated to the friend that she was interested in getting a concealed weapons license. And that she was going to be taking a class and that she needed to be armed for the class.

LEMON: How long before this happened had she borrowed the gun?

STOVER: As I understand it, it was approximately four or five days.

LEMON: Four or five days. Boy oh boy. You were at the services. What was the feeling there? Shock, anger, disbelief, what?

STOVER: Exactly. Obviously there is a tremendous amount of disbelief. A tremendous amount of grief. Agony over -- and confusion and disbelief that this could really happen. Because again, this was not the way that she lived. She was a good person and there was a side of Jayne that no one could have ever expected was contained inside of her. LEMON: Listen, what about her legacy there? What kind of a mayor --

STOVER: She was a phenomenal mayor. She was very active in every community aspect that there was from a municipality's role as well as from regional perspective. She was an advocate for regional transportation, for technology and was very well respected and very well liked in the elected body and governing community.

LEMON: Doug Stover is a former mayor of Coppell, Texas. Thank you. We appreciate you joining us. And we know you are grieving.

STOVER: Thank you very much.

LEMON: Let's update some of your top stories here on CNN.

BP's testing of its new cap will continue for another 24 hours. It's already been underway for about 48 hours with no oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.

National incident commander Thad Allen says the testing period will provide valuable data on how to proceed in finally killing the blowout.

Take a look at this huge blaze today at a port in China. Enraged for 15 hours after a pair of oil pipelines exploded in the northeastern coastal city of Dalian. The state-run media say more than 2,000 firefighters and 338 fire engines responded to the blaze. There are no reports of injuries.

In Iran, tens of thousands gathered to mourn the victims of two suicide bombings. Twenty-seven people were laid to rest following attacks in southeastern Iran on Thursday. A group known as the People's Resistance Movement of Iran claimed responsibility. But some top Iranian officials are also pointing fingers at the U.S., Israel, and parts of Europe over these attacks.

Socialite Paris Hilton is in trouble with the law again. This time on the French island of Corsica. Police reportedly detained Hilton after she was caught with marijuana in her handbag. She was quickly released without being charged.

Earlier this month the 29-year-old was arrested after a friend brought marijuana to a World Cup match in South Africa.

Ahead, the corridor of cruelty where abused animals are dumped and abandoned. One woman's mission to end those atrocities makes her this week's CNN Hero.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: In Houston, Texas there is a strip of land known as the Corridor of Cruelty. It's where abused animals -- many of them victims of dog fighting -- are dumped and left to die.

This week's CNN hero stumbled across this gruesome place and simply could not turn her back. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH HOFFMAN, PROTECTING THE POWERLESS, CNN HERO: Right now I'm heading out to the Corridor of Cruelty. It's basically a dumping ground for live and dead animals.

The first time I ever went to the corridor, I realized there were strays everywhere. So many dogs that were starving, dogs with broken legs, and I prayed and I prayed that somehow I could be inspired to do something to help.

I'm Deborah Hoffman. And my calling in life is to save neglected, abused and abandoned animals.

The street is one of the major dumping grounds. We'll find dogs that we believe were used in dog fighting in large trash bags.

Yes, I smell it. It's back in here.

BELINDA SMITH, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Deborah Hoffman was a person who brought to our attention the fact that the Corridor of Cruelty even existed. This area seems to have more criminal activity associated with animal cruelty.

HOFFMAN: We think this one was used for dog fighting. He's pretty beat up when he came in.

SMITH: Deborah is saving the animals. And because of her there are some happy endings in these situations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lotto brings a lot of joy in my life. He's a good boy.

HOFFMAN: It's truly a miracle taking a dog like Lotto and in that bad a condition off the street and then putting him in a loving home with someone like Joan.

This is what I'm going to do the rest of my life. When I'm 85 I'll be on my laptop trying to save an animal from my rocking chair.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And since 2008 Deborah Hoffman and her organization have helped get nearly 100 animals off the streets and into safe havens.

To nominate someone who you think is changing the world, go to CNNheroes.com.

Fallout from the scandal over the alleged Mel Gibson tape. Recorded rage go rants have surfaced in a nasty legal battle between the actor and his former girlfriend. Are they real? Are they fake? And who released them?

I asked the managing editor of RadarOnline next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: He may be known for playing "Mad Max" but Mel Gibson is now the one losing his temper.

We all remember Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic rant in 2006. Well now he is at the center of another controversy, this time for threatening and yelling at the mother of his baby, his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva.

I want you to listen to this and his seething -- how seething the speaker that's supposedly Mel Gibson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How dare you? How (EXPLETIVE DELETED) dare you. You wanted the number of my therapist? Don't you ever speak to him. Find your own (EXPLETIVE DELETED) damn therapist. Because you got problems more than me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need medication.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know how to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) push my buttons and it is not going to work with us. It's not. I can't get like this anymore. And you know you're doing it.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: How do these tapes even get out? Are they doctored? Was it a set up? We got answers from the managing editor or RadarOnline.com which released the tapes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID PEREL, MANAGING EDITOR, RADARONLINE.COM: All I can tell you is it was investigative journalism. But what thing we have said is that we did not get the tapes from Oksana.

LEMON: So you didn't get them from her? Are you sure --

PEREL: No --

LEMON: How else would you get them?

PEREL: As you know, these tapes are part of a court case. The police have the tapes so just investigative journalism, digging, got copies of the tapes.

LEMON: She's very clear. It sounds pretty professionally done. Do you know if she had help? Was this a set up in some way?

PEREL: Well, we know that she made the recordings. Now she has told people that she made the recordings because Mel threatened her life. And we know that Mel threatened her life because there are tapes that we've released on RadarOnline where he says, I'm going hit you in the side of the head with a shovel. I'm going bury you in the rose garden. So she was smart to make the tapes. Her voice is more clear because she's the one who's doing the recording. So she knows she is doing the recording. She rarely loses her temper.

LEMON: Did you pay for these tapes?

PEREL: No, we did not pay a dime for the tape.

LEMON: All right. No money for the tapes.

Listen, there's a -- there are more things that are coming out. There's a picture that RadarOnline now that supposed to Oksana Grigorieva where apparently her teeth are chipped. And she's saying this is by the hands of Mel Gibson?

PEREL: That's right. That's right. That picture was taken within 24 hours of when they had an alleged physical brawl. January 6th of this year at Mel's mansion, she claims that he punched her and damaged her teeth -- punch her in the face -- while she was holding their baby who was about two months old at the time.

And she went to a dentist. And you can see the veneers knocked off the left tooth and cracked on the right front tooth. This photo was taken, as I said, within 24 hours and it shows extensive damage. You have to hit somebody with a lot of force to do damage like that.

We've consulted several dentists who know what they're talking about who've analyzed it. And the photograph is also part of evidence and under seal.

LEMON: CNN hasn't independently authenticated these tapes. Have you?

PEREL: Yes. We've authenticated the tapes, there's no question. And we run the tapes unedited. So when you hear the tapes on RadarOnline you're going to hear everything that we heard. They're un-retouched and they're the real deal. So --

LEMON: There's about 20 more minutes of material -- 10 more minutes of material left. What will come out?

PEREL: There is. There is 10 more minutes of material left and it's explosive. There is more material about physical altercations between the two of them. There are some shocking accusations and admissions.

I mean this is a brutal, brutal custody battle that they're in. This is a domestic violence investigation that's being conducted against Mel by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and the Department of Children and Family Services is also investigating.

LEMON: And, David, you said there's also -- people will be shocked to learn from these tapes that there's apparently -- Mel has some financial trouble that we'll be hearing about in the upcoming tapes. When are you going to release them? Do you know?

PEREL: We will start releasing them next week and continue to.

LEMON: All right, David Perel, managing editor of RadarOnline.com. Thank you.

PEREL: Thank you.

LEMON: Cracking open the tomb to crack the mystery. The body of Simon Bolivar is unearthed but what are experts looking for?

Word of Levi Johnston's engagement to Bristol Palin caught some by surprise including their families. So how did "Us Weekly" get the scoop before anyone else? We're talking with the magazine's West Coast bureau chief.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: From governor's daughter to pregnant teen, Bristol Palin has got a new title. Fiance. After months of acrimony, the daughter of former governor Sarah Palin is engaged to Levi Johnston.

Johnston told "Us Weekly" they got back together three months ago while working out a custody agreement for their 18-month-old son Tripp.

Well, the news caught a lot of people off-guard including Melanie Bromley. She is a West Coast bureau chief of "Us Weekly" and interviewed the young couple.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELANIE BROMLEY, WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF, US WEEKLY: We have all followed this story. We have seen how bitter this rift got between these two families. All the things that Levi has said about Sarah, all the things that Sarah has said about Levi, and then at the end of it all there's this happy ending which nobody was expecting.

LEMON: OK. So how did it happen? They approached you? Before -- and this is before they told momma grizzly, right?

BROMLEY: Absolutely. We found out first. Yes, it's one of those things that we found out first and I went up to Anchorage and spent time with the couple. We shot them on Saturday and I spent three hours interviewing them and kind of asked Bristol, especially, why she told "Us Weekly" before she told her mother.

And she said that she really wanted to control her story. She really wanted to be able to tell everyone about her love story in her own words. And I think that's really reading between the lines.

She has tried to hint to Sarah that she wanted to co-parent with Levi, that she was romantically involved with Levi, and Sarah had made it very clear her thoughts on that subject. And so Bristol, regardless, had got engaged and so she told us first.

LEMON: So you said Sarah made it very clear her thoughts on that subject, meaning Sarah did not want Levi in Bristol's life?

BROMLEY: Sarah has reservations over Levi and his intentions towards her daughter. She worries that Levi isn't going to be the best father or the best husband, and so she had made it clear to Bristol that she wanted Levi to finish his education and get a job before he even considered being a husband and father -- a full time father in Tripp's life.

LEMON: All right. So --

BROMLEY: And that -- you know, that time frame didn't fit in with what Bristol wants. Bristol wants the family right now. And so that's why they've gone ahead with the engagement regardless of what Sarah thought about.

LEMON: OK. So, you know, he said -- he apologized saying, I said some things about the Palins that I shouldn't have said that weren't exactly accurate. And I wanted to apologize in public because I said that in public.

Did he say what he said was not accurate? Did he tell you?

BROMLEY: Well, it was really interesting because it was very important to me actually that he was a little bit more exact in what he meant. What the exaggerations were, what he might not have told the truth about.

And so I kept going to back to it in the interview because it was something that he felt that he had apologized enough. And, you know, but the thing is I knew that people were going to ask the question you just asked me.

And he said, like, he admitted that his allegation that Sarah knew that he was having sex with Bristol in the governor's mansion was not true. He admitted that his allegations that he told Sarah had shoot a gun was not true.

There were some things he wouldn't talk about. His belief that Sarah and Todd were having marriage problems. He would not talk about, you know, why he said that and whether that was an exaggeration or not. But I got as much as I could out of him on that day.

LEMON: You know, that's good because there are many people saying, well, you know, he said he didn't say correct things about the Palins. Will the media correct the record? And this is correcting the record because now he's saying what wasn't true about that.

So, listen, also reading there is some rumblings, and I'm sure you had to address with them. Any other little Johnston-Palin-Johnston on the horizon between these two?

BROMLEY: I mean the obvious question and the thing that kind of the blogs that were speculating about was whether she's pregnant and what would be the motivation behind such a quick engagement?

She insists she is not. I also asked if they were having sex because you would imagine that maybe they were. She again says that they are not. That he has not been staying over, that they have not been having sex and for that reason she is not pregnant.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: On Saturdays, we want to try to catch you up on some of the news items that you might have missed throughout the week including this one. Simon Bolivar -- Simon Bolivar, I should say, the hero of Latin American independence, has been exhumed from his tomb in Venezuela.

The move was ordered by President Hugo Chavez. DNA from the corpse will be tested to determine the cause of death. Conventional wisdom knows that Bolivar died of tuberculosis in 1830. But Chavez suspects he was poisoned by Colombian enemies.

Don't scoff at a lifetime warranty. OK? Because 91-year-old Rachel Veitch has used it for the past 46 years to keep her 1964 Mercury Comet in cherry condition. That's right.

Batteries, shocks, mufflers, no charge, ma'am. All that TLC has paid off as well after more than a half a million miles. The car still has the original V8. And don't think for a second that Veitch is some timid little grandma behind the wheel. Her Comet Caliente is hot, hot, hot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL VEITCH, 1964 Comet Owner: Guarantee you cannot drive this car 55 miles an hour. She is not going do it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How fast have you gone?

VEITCH: 120.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 120?

VEITCH: Just for a mile. I had to get cruise control after I got caught doing 92.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: 120? The car cost just over $3200 new. And no telling how much Veitch could get for it today. Probably a lot of cash.

You know from the air, Neverland ranch, well, does look like a tourist attraction and that's exactly what California's NAACP says should happen to Jackson's estate.

Alice Hoffman, chapter president, told the "Sacramento Bee" that turning it into a state park could be a huge success is. Hoffman serves on the state parks commission.

Interesting stuff.

Thanks for joining us, everyone. I'll see you back here tomorrow night. I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Good night.