Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Gulf Clean-Up On Hold Until Tropical Depression Bonnie Passes; Hundreds of D.C. School Teachers Fired Or Put On Notice; NBA Stars Bring Real Estate Business to Miami

Aired July 24, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello there, everybody. From the CNN center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING for the 24th day of July. Glad you could be here. I'm T.J. Holmes.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kate Bolduan. Thanks for starting your day with us. It is 10:00 a.m. in Atlanta, 10:00 a.m. in Chicago. 7:00 a.m. in San Diego.

HOLMES: I think it is 9:00 in Chicago.

BOLDUAN: It is?

HOLMES: We are just teasing. Kate is with us. She is visiting, we thought we would mess with her a little bit on the prompter.

BOLDUAN: It is 9:00 a.m.

There is a lot coming out of Chicago. We will get to that in a second. We are also watching all eyes on the Gulf, prop cal depression money is making its way through the region after soaking south Florida. Admiral Thad Allen, who is watching and controlling it all, says workers are getting out of the Gulf and getting out of harm's way and drilling on the relief well has been suspended because of the weather.

HOLMES: To Chicago, we are going to be getting a report. Our Jacqui Jeras is standing by to tell us what's happening. You can see the pictures there of what's happening, people wading through floodwaters in Chicago. They are getting hit with bad weather. We will tell you what's happening there coming up.

BOLDUAN: And also, another story we are watching, 241 D.C. teachers fired. This he had failed an education assessment. They got poor ratings. This was a new evaluation put into place in the city. Also, 737 other employees were put on notice that they would have one year to shape up, because they were given a minimally effective rating. We'll have more on that coming up.

First, let's get a look at our top stories this morning. It is already a deadly day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Two separate IED explosions claimed the lives of five American troops. Very little information has come out at this point about it other than that both roadside bomb attacks happened in southern Afghanistan. HOLMES: Also, a disturbing discovery along the U.S.-Mexican border, suspected casualties of the ongoing Mexican drug cartel wars. Nine hidden mass graves have been found. So far, 38 bodies have been counted. This is in the Mexican state of Nuevo. The local attorney general believes some of the dead may have been buried as recently as a few days ago.

BOLDUAN: A flurry of pink slips has 241 teachers walking away from D.C.'s public school system. The firings are called "performance related." The teacher's union says a new evaluation process that led to this all, for these instructors, they say that process is flawed.

HOLMES: We are keeping an eye on severe weather across the country. A lot of people have been concerned about Bonnie, a tropical depression bonnie. It was weakened, but that is not the only weather situation we need to be keeping an eye on in the country right now.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: The Gulf cleanup efforts are on hold as this tropical depression passes. BP suspended work also drilling a relief well. The coast guard has left the site as well, everybody just getting out of the way for now.

Operations could b operations could be delayed for up to 14 days. By the time they get them out there and working again, we could lose two weeks of work.

Let's head to our meteorologist, Reynolds Wolf, who is in New Orleans. Good morning to you, once again, buddy. This is the point of the new cap. We knew this was a possibility down the road that maybe they would have to get out of there because the storm was coming. This way, this cap allows to keep it capped. Oil is not spilling. It might delay some of the efforts. This is the scenario they wanted to make sure we are ready for.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: How right you are, my friend. You are absolutely right. The cap is for this express purpose.

What they hope to do again is resume once the weather gets better and improves and Bonnie either dies out or comes ashore and gives us some rainfall. As soon as things improve in the open water, those slowly resume the process of going about that static kill.

For the time being, a lot of the boats are in. But that doesn't mean the work is over. You have a small flotilla out over the former site of the Deepwater Horizon. They are keeping a sharp eye on the cap. They are using sonar and seismic sensors. Plus they have several robots that are monitoring the cap very carefully.

What we can anticipate is actually a little bit of work on land also. There are some spots, especially on Grand Isle, Louisiana, where they have been taking in some of the boon that has drawn in some of the oil. They have replaced that with fresh boom. They are prepared for that. One other thing to mention now that we are speaking of Grand Isle, starting today at 10:00 local time through 8:00 this evening, they have what is called Island Aid. It is actually in concert with the Grand Isle rodeo which started back in 1928, but this year it's all about raising money to promote tourism for Grand Isle, one of the places where tourism has been hammered by a poor economy and high unemployment and, of course, the oil spill. So trying to help out the best way they can. T.J.?

HOLMES: Reynolds for us in New Orleans. We appreciate you as always. Talk to you again soon.

BOLDUAN: And tropical depression Bonnie's impact on the oil recovery efforts so far is that of delay -- delay, delay, delay. CNN's Rob Marciano is live in Gulfport, Mississippi in advance of his prime time special that is airing tonight.

Rob, you've been there for, I don't know actually how long, but you have been all over the place since you have been there. What are you tracking in terms of what's going on?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we had an opportunity in the past couple of weeks to really get in with the people who are getting the job done to save the Gulf of Mexico, save the wildlife, save the beaches, and clean up the oil out there.

And all of those things that are all that coordinated effort, as of right now, over 40,000 people that are working hard down here to get the job done. We thought we would highlight some of those efforts.

During the experience, I met a lot of the people down at the burn rescue center. I got to go out with rescue crews to search to find oil and wildlife. The bird rescue center, we have seen a lot of that action. I got to feed a baby pelican with a slurry mixed in a blender. Amazing experience there, and release some wildlife into the relatively oil free waters of Texas later on.

Then, the skimmers, boy, you hear about them and see some of the pictures. But until you get on the ship and you smell it and you feel the heat and you slide all over the place and see what these guys are doing 12, 14, 16 hours a day, day in and day out without complaint, you go, my goodness, these are the heroes getting the job done here in the Gulf of Mexico. So that hour which premiers tonight is going to highlight just that.

On a news peg note, they are not doing a whole lot of skimming today because of Bonnie. But there is very little wind here along Gulfport, Mississippi, and that's good at least for now.

But Bonnie is still out there. We will watch her track across the Gulf of Mexico throughout the day today. Hopefully, it won't push whatever oil is left on to these, what are pretty clean beaches at this point. I don't think I have seen some of these beaches as clean as they are probably in several years. BOLDUAN: Some clean beaches right now. Rob, you have been putting in long hours yourself. Rob Marciano is seeing this all firsthand, some amazing stories. He was talking about it a little bit there, stories of survival and resilience. You don't want to miss his new special, "Rescue, Saving the Gulf." It airs tonight and tomorrow at 8:00 eastern only on CNN.

Another story we have been watching and talking about quite a lot is more than 240 teachers fired in the D.C. school district, most of them for poor performance. Now, parents and school leaders are dealing with the fallout.

HOLMES: Coming up, our education contributor, Steve Perry, will join us in just a moment and see what he thinks about what the school district did. Was it a little too harsh or should more school districts implement these kind of standards for their teachers? It's ten minutes past the hour. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: We're just getting some troubling news, breaking news in, development from Afghanistan. Afghan insurgents say they have captured two U.S. soldiers south of Kabul. Reuters is reporting that, CNN has not independently confirmed this. We are working our sources.

Reuters also reports that radio stations in the area are broadcasting offers of $20,000 of a reward for information leading to the soldiers' safe return. Again, Reuters reporting this. We are working to confirm. We'll be right back after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Checking our top stories now. Shirley Sherrod forced to resign her job in the Agriculture Department may meet with blogger, Andrew Breitbart.

HOLMES: Of course he's the one who put out the video in the first place that sparked the whole controversy. But Sherrod has agreed to appear at the National Association of Black Journalists. We are still waiting to hear about him.

Meanwhile, Sherrod wrapped up one important meeting. There she is with the white family, that farm family, she helped so many years ago. Her comments with her relationship with that family that some say were taken out of context stirred up the whole controversy this week.

BOLDUAN: School administrators at a high school have a "sexting" problem on their hands apparently. Police have charged three boys with distribution of child pornography. It involves a picture of a naked teen girl allegedly send by a friend to their phones.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And 21 states are going through the same thing as Arizona. Are we going to let them do that? (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: What you are seeing there is a concert from Rage against the Machine. The group raised $200,000 in a benefit last night in Los Angeles. The money is going to help fight Arizona's controversial immigration law. It was the group's first hometown concert in about a decade.

From that, what do you think when you hear Comic-con? A lot of people think just a bunch of geeks running around in costumes. You would be wrong if that's what you think.

BOLDUAN: That's right, not so much. That's part of it, the costumes part but it is also big money. Josh Levs isn't in costume, even though we asked him to get one. But he is joining us to break down the numbers.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I just remembered this. I actually have a Robin costume from Halloween. I totally should have brought that.

BOLDUAN: Yes, you should have.

LEVS: Maybe tomorrow. Check this out. We all know Comic-con is a big deal. Each year, they get more than 130,000 attendees. This financial figure is what's most striking to me. There is a convention group in San Diego that has done an analysis of the economic impact of this one convention. They are saying $163 million economic impact from one convention, Comic-con, which happens every year.

That explains why other cities are trying to steal it away, Anaheim and L.A. and other states around the country are offering them incentives to move. Will they move? We don't know. They seem pretty situated in San Diego. And one of the reasons is that it works every year. So many people turn out, we have videos from inside, just a couple.

Listen to what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have been wanted to come to Comic-con. I went last year, and this my second year coming. I absolutely love it. I plan on coming back as much as I can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Comic-con is a great experience. You just go there, see the people, and have a great time. We have old friends we never get to see until this time of year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you. You guys are supposed to be what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are just free-bees that we found on the convention floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: We got that from our iReporters who are among the many that love to run around Comic-con.

Look at lineup that was outside. These people had lined up overnight, some from a couple of days. Some people brought kids, some brought their dogs, some were sleeping overnight.

You might say, if 130,000 people get in, why do you need to line up in advance? These wanted to be among the VIPs who got to be early on there who got to see some stars like Will Ferrell, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Sylvester Stallone. Major name "A" list stars go there to push their shows, their books, whatever it is.

In fact, things that aren't even sci-fi. "Glee" got part of its kickoff last year. Some folks from "Glee" went again this year.

If you are one of the people that loves Comic-con, I posted on my Facebook and twister pages at JoshLevs at CNN, what you are loving about it and what you are not loving about it. If you want the breaking news details on comic-con, we have a one-stop shop at CNN.com/comic con. It's such a sign how huge this convention is that we even have a special section for it right here.

BOLDUAN: You said, tell us what you love about it and what you don't. What is there not to love about this? I love when we interview people and you can't see their mouths moving.

LEVS: I love it.

HOLMES: You can have that assignment, Kate.

LEVS: Thank you, sir.

HOLMES: Coming up folks, a short time ago here on the air, we had an interesting conversation about the black national anthem. A college professor has written a book laying out his argument for why there should not be one. Well, tell that to a civil rights icon. It's coming up.

Stay with us, 22 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: A good beginning makes all the difference for newborns. African-American babies are more likely to die before one than Caucasian babies regardless of their mother's age, income, or education.

BOLDUAN: CNN's Kathryn Trujillo is changing that, though. She organizes support for new moms through pregnancies and their first years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KATHRYN HALL-TRUJILLO, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: African-American babies die two to four times the rate of other babies. As a public health administrator, I use the words "infant mortality" every day. But until I held a dead baby in my arms, I never realized that that meant counting dead babies.

My name is Kathryn Hall Trujillo, and I remind women they are really sisters and can help each other and help their babies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What we are saying is you don't have to have this by yourself.

HALL-TRUJILLO: It takes regular women in the community like me to work closely with the little sisters throughout their pregnancy and after they have the baby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted a big sister that have accomplished a lot in life already to teach me things I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My job is just to really help you, whether it is figuring out how you are going to pay your rent, do you have food in your house, making sure she is doing your prenatal appointments. It is all because I am trying to make sure you are not stressed to have a healthy baby.

HALL-TRUJILLO: Healthy babies are born into healthy communities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's pretty special how we grow on our own.

(LAUGHTER)

HALL-TRUJILLO: We have been doing this long enough that you can hear a child say I was born into the Birthing Project. That means more to me than anything I may have given up, because in return I have received a whole community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Katherine's Birthing Project has welcomed more than 12,000 babies into 94 communities across five countries. It is really amazing. To nominate someone who you think is changing the world, go to CNN.com/heroes.

Listen, there are only a few days left. Nominations for 2010 close August 1st. So get on it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's 27 minutes past the hour now. And 241 Washington, D.C. teachers are out of a job this morning. These weren't budget cuts. They were fired because of poor performance. There is a new system called the Impact Program that judges teachers in the District of Columbia. This was the first year it was implemented.

Now, their teaching skills were evaluated by principles and education experts. They made five classroom visits to observe what was happening in the classroom. They were also rated on their students' performance.

The Washington teachers' union says most teachers don't believe the program is fair. It made some parents a little uneasy. The chancellor, Michelle Rhee, says she is doing it for the kids.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I hear is layoff, layoff, layoff of teachers.

MICHELLE RHEE, CHANCELLOR, D.C. PUBLIC SCHOOLS: The mayor's main priority is to make sure we have a high quality teacher in front of every single child in every single classroom on every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Let me bring in one of our CNN education contributor Steve Perry, who is on the line with me this morning to talk about this. Steve, good morning to you. What do you think about this, would you like to see more testing like this implemented across the country, or is this a little harsh?

STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR (via telephone): Absolutely. On some level, I'm not sure why this is a story. What Michelle Rhee has done is she has fairly evaluated teachers and those who are the lowest performing are fired. Isn't that what we do in every industry? The lowest performers don't get to keep their job.

HOLMES: It is a story because it is 241 teachers. And 241 teachers got five classroom visits and that was it. A lot would argue and, you know the teachers' union would, or parents. Isn't that a little harsh? Give them a chance to improve. Five classroom visits, does that tell how well a teacher is teaching?

PERRY: Five classroom visits in eight months, that's a visit every four weeks. In fact, that's a phenomenal amount. In addition, it wasn't just 5,000 visits. On some level, it was also the fact that they use the students' performance.

The reason why I am saying I am not sure why this is a story is because this is what should be happening. It is a story because it hasn't happened. In 2006, not one, not one teacher in the entire District of Columbia, one of the nation's lowest performing school district, was fired.

Finally, someone has the foresight to say, if we are one of the lowest performing school district and teachers are important, then some of our teachers need to lose their jobs. That seems to me to be a reasonable proposition, if we are not winning, somebody has to go.

HOLMES: Steve, it's always seems popular, the best way to judge whether or not a teacher is doing a good job is how her students are doing in a classroom on some standardized test oftentimes, or even in their grades, but these standardized tests.

But Steve, is that the best way to judge a teacher? There are so many other factors that come into it with the student, where they are from, what the home life is like. Can you put it all on that teacher?

PERRY: Unfortunately, that's not true. In fact, what we know is that good schools can mitigate the impact of poverty, race, and education level of parents.

In fact, if a child needs to come from a two-parent household in which every single person had a college degree, very few of us would have ever gone to college in the first place. What we know is that a good school with good, solid teachers can, in fact, change the course of history because many of us do what we do as a result of a very good teacher or set of teachers along our life's path.

So when teachers say that we have to consider the family environment, what they are saying is we really don't matter as teachers. I don't believe that because there are too many great schools in the United States of America that are taking children from the poorest communities who have families who have the most horrible conditions and making right by those children and doing right by those children.

HOLMES: There are instances like that but they are not widespread. I know you know that better than anybody. But at the same time, here, are we going to run out of teachers, quite frankly, if you judge them by such a harsh standard that you don't get a probation period, that you get one year, five visits, and you are out of here?

PERRY: I would be willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of the teachers who were fired were not one-year teachers. Many of them, I'm sure, had as many as three to five in 20 years.

It is high time. In states such as New York, 99 percent of tenured teachers kept their jobs last year. This can't be so. In America's lowest performing school districts, to keep 99 percent, they are supposed to be doing well.

This is not harsh. In fact, it's fair. How many of us get five evaluations on our job? People at many of the corporations, such as AT&T, or any other corporation, how many of those people get five evaluations in just eight months? That's not a huge amount.

Plus, customer service -- what we want to see is the product that they are supposed to deliver. The product in this case isn't education. We've got to stop letting teachers off the hook. They are important. They are among the most important people we will ever meet. And since they are so important, we have to hold them to a higher standard.

And what the teachers' union are not acknowledging is they took that 20 percent pay raise. They are not complaining about that pay raise they agreed to in the very same contract.

HOLMES: Steve, you know that a teachers' union would have a lot of issues with some of what you just had to say.

PERRY: They love me. They love me. HOLMES: We all love you, don't we, Steve.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: Steve, brother, it's good to talk to you as always -- some strong opinions. I hope maybe we will find a way to tackle this topic again, if not tomorrow, maybe next weekend, because we would love to get you on and chat about it some more and go through maybe some more of the details about it, and certainly we want to hear more from the teacher's union as well.

Steve, we appreciate you hopping on. Have a good rest of the weekend.

PERRY: You too.

BOLDUAN: A few days after serious rain, sinkholes are always a possibility. In Milwaukee today, that's a reality along with more rain. There's a lot going on today.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: It is a song that has been around since the year 1900, but now a man is making an argument for why there should not be a black national anthem. But some civil rights icons are saying, what in the world are you talking about? That story is coming up.

BOLDUAN: Plus, the season hasn't started yet but Miami's new big three are already helping out and making some big plays in the area. How could they make summer in south beach a little bit brighter for some real estate agents? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It is a song that has been with us for about 100 years now, the song that made its way in the 1900s all the way through the civil rights movement, and it is still around today. The song is the black national anthem.

Some are now raising objections to it, saying there shouldn't be anything called the black national anthem. It's divisive, discriminatory, they say. And the main person raising objections is a professor at a historically black college.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The song, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" has been recognized as the black national anthem since the early 1900s. With its message of struggle and hope, the song that's often promoting black pride.

TIMOTHY ASKEW, AUTHOR: What restricts the meaning is not this beautiful song, but the title. In 2010 we do not need a song that's titled the "Black National Anthem."

HOLMES: Tim Askew is an English professor at a historically black college. He is laying out his argument for doing away with a black national anthem in his new book.

ASKEW: When you think of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," you see shifts of African-American political thought. This is a barometer of it. If you look at how it was used or sung in the '30s and '40s, when there was even more avert racism, this song was very popular in schools.

But as the civil rights movement progressed, people started questioning, are we, are we really wanting to promote this?

HOLMES: Askew says ironically the black national anthem suffered a low point of popularity during the civil rights movement and the decline continues today.

ASKEW: It's declining because a lot of young people and a lot of people are not so much concerned about this song as a black national anthem. They are concerned about being an American, or they are concerned about their issues as young African-Americans through hip- hop music. This anthem is not necessarily the voice of all black America.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Clark Atlanta University, where Dr. Askew teaches, they say, of course, the school, they don't always say that his viewpoint is not always representative about how the school feels. The school does support, as they put it, intellectual curiosity.

Also there are those who believe the anthem is still relevant and still important to this day. Among them, civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, who was with us just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. JESSE JACKSON, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION: To me, it does not stand to reason. The song was written in our unique slavery experience, our unique Jim Crow experience, and it is sung as if "We Shall Overcome." What are we describing that has been brought safe so far along the way except the black experience?

I was talking with a group this week of Latino leaders who were concerned that they were trying to remove ethnic studies in Arizona. The attempt to excerpt ethnic studies, the attempt to excerpt the tape that drew about the Shirley Sherrod challenge this week, we should not excerpt history. It is the richness, the multiculturalism is the richness and the genius of the American experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: That was Reverend Jackson talking to us a short time ago from Chicago. Also, after I talked to Dr. Askew this morning and also Reverend Jackson, I also talked to a group of college students about what we have been seeing the past two weeks or so as we have been split, many would say, about race in this country. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Are young people as focused on it? You all are from a generation to where you don't have to sit in the back of the bus, you have opportunity. Not to say everything is where it needs to be, but what is your civil rights struggle of today that you need to take up?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that the civil rights struggle for me is accessibility to resources to get further in life. Where I am from, there aren't as many people that have access to certain standards of education, access to experience in their field, experience to get their word out and to let people know how they feel. They don't know how to find that resource to give their voice.

HOLMES: Jonathan, do you feel a split? All the incidents we saw seemed like it had to be black versus white. Even the Jesse Jackson's comments about Dan Gilbert, the head of the Cavaliers, said he had a slave master mentality in treating LeBron like a runaway slave.

Does that kind of language even compute for a young person these days? You study about it in the books, but you all don't have to see it on a day-to-day basis like another generation did?

JONATHAN AROGETI, STUDENT: I tend to agree with what Miss Sherrod said in the three minutes that weren't a part of the first clip, which is the haves versus the have notes. The is a race problem that still exists in this country, but the haves versus the have-notes was really what she was trying to talk about and what I tend to think is a bigger issue in this country right now.

HOLMES: Garrett, do the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, no one is doubting their civil rights credentials, but do they still speak in a lot of ways for your generation?

GARRETT CAMERON, STUDENT: We have the utmost respect for what they have done in the past and what they continue to try to do. But I wouldn't necessarily say they speak for me or the people that I associate myself with. We like to speak for ourselves. So we have different things that they seem not to always identify with.

HOLMES: Who is that young black leader out there that possibly speaks for you? Because Jesse Jackson and some of the other likes, they have big m microphones and podiums they can stand in front of. Who speaks for you?

CAMERON: Given my filmmakers, music, people who are in the media that are more close to my age speak for me, in my opinion.

HOLMES: Laura, I will wrap this up with you. Last question too -- you were put in the media in check saying it was partly our fault for stirring this up.

What would you tell people, frankly, about how do we keep from being drawn into that? Because so many of these stories did split people. You were forced to take a side. You are on this side or that one.

What would you tell people from a young person's perspective about keep this in check? When you hear it, you don't have to take sides. Don't fall for what the media might be feeding you?

LAURA SOLTIS, GRAD STUDENT EMORY UNIVERSITY: Just like your response, that if people would have talked to each other, that would have made a big difference. I think if younger generations talk to older generations across racial boundaries, we get a more nuanced concept of race and we can avoid these misunderstandings.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Good to hear from them earlier this morning. Young people, those voices been missing in this whole debate, some would say. But it's good to get some perspective from them.

BOLDUAN: It was a great conversation to hear from them, the whole debate, conversation about the black national anthem. We have been talking about it a lot.

HOLMES: It stirs up a debate, a conversation.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about this. Miami's big guest during the summer's free agency, it is already paying off. How? In real estate, my friends. There are a bunch of millionaires arriving in South Beach who want to play with LeBron and Dwayne Wade. Real estate agents are more than happy and willing to help them find houses. We'll have that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It describes Miami and the Miami Heat. You know, the player, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, LeBron James, they were expected to make such an impact on the team, the Miami Heat. They are having an impact, can you believe this, on the real estate market? Seriously.

BOLDUAN: I believe anything with the money these gentlemen are bringing in. The Miami Heat, they obviously pulled off the biggest coup of the summer, signing Chris Bosh, LeBron James, and Dwayne Wade. Now the players are flocking to South Beach to play with them, millionaires with cash to burn, all looking for a place to live.

Hazel Goldman is a real estate agent with Re.Max Realty. She is joining me live from Miami. Thanks for joining me, Hazel. You actually recently sealed Dwayne Wade's home. So he is on the market again. We have many other players on the market again. These are people with a lot of cash.

So what could these Miami Heat players bring to the market? What kind of impact could these, just these players have on the housing market in Miami?

HAZEL GOLDMAN, RE/MAX ADVANCE REALTY: Well, we have a great deal of hype and a great deal of excitement here. Miami is a very exciting city here. We're the port of southern American. We are really a huge sunshine and blue skies and water help. So there is a great deal of excitement here for all these people coming. The other night on "Jimmy Kimmel," Dwayne Wade was asked if LeBron had decided to stay in Cleveland and Bosh had joined him there, would Dwayne be joining them there? He looked at the camera and Jimmy and said categorically not. So this is all about Miami, and it is very exciting for Miami.

BOLDUAN: Could these gentlemen and the people that are coming along with them, by buying into, clearly it's going to be in the luxury housing market, but do they help bolster the market?

GOLDMAN: Absolutely. It is making Miami more of a go-to place. Once you have that kind of hype in the community, it helps with everything.

BOLDUAN: What types of homes are we talking about? I can only imagine they are absolutely beautiful. I think we actually have some video of some of the types of homes these gentlemen will be looking for. What types of houses are they going to be seeking out?

GOLDMAN: Miami offers almost every conceivable type of luxury. In my opinion, one of the things these gentlemen would be looking at most specifically will have to do with privacy and of course luxury.

We have homes on multiple acreage, some of them you can't see from the street, you can't see anybody once you are on the property its self. I think you have some clips of some of those.

We have properties on the water. Water has traditionally been one of the strongest appreciating investments someone can make. There are homes with incredible vistas and every luxury you can imagine from tennis courts to bowling alleys to home theaters to incredible kitchens.

There is not a realtor out there that doesn't want to work with these people and sell these people. Realtors are flocking to them.

BOLDUAN: Clearly we are talking about the luxury market here. Sounds like a lot of competition among brokers to get this business. It is still a buyers' market in Miami. How is the luxury market doing in comparison to the rest of the housing market there?

GOLDMAN: The luxury market in Miami has always attracted international people and a lot of cash buyers, in particular, people from South America where some of the South American economies are doing so wonderfully.

The realtors are throwing themselves at these guys, some of them are offering probably their bodies and their firstborn. Some of them like my partner and I, Denise Madden, we sold Dwayne Wade's house for him but they were not living there. We were the third realtors on the job, and we sold the house.

And we would like to and have contacted his agent to let him know that if we have the privilege of working with Dwayne or any of the other players, we would like to contribute part of our commission to the same charities that these gentlemen have contributed so much of their earnings and energies to.

BOLDUAN: That's great.

GOLDMAN: They have been great to the city and we would like to follow their example.

BOLDUAN: Bring the business, bottom line.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Hazel Goldman, thank you so much for joining us. Great to speak with you.

GOLDMAN: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You too.

HOLMES: Two big stories, I am going to be breaking them down for you this morning in the CNN NEWSROOM. First, Arizona's controversial immigration enforcement law, days away from going into effect. Our legal guy is going to be along. Avery Friedman, Richard Herman, they are going to square off over this next hour.

BOLDUAN: Then in the 12 o'clock hour, the Shirley Sherrod situation -- after all that has happened this week, does she have a legal case to make. A full docket for our cases of interest here in the CNN NEWSROOM. It's five minutes to the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)