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Two U.S. Sailors Missing in Afghanistan; Florida Coral Reef Weathering Gulf Oil Spill; U.S.-South Korea Military Maneuvers Meant as Signal to North; Virginia County Has Arizona-Like Law; So Hot, It's Stifling; Students Tackle the Economy; Reality Check on Disabilities Law; Tornado Warning in Delaware; Americans With Disabilities Act
Aired July 25, 2010 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A U.S. sailor abducted and reportedly killed in Afghanistan, and another is being held hostage. A live report just moments away.
Immigration nightmare, a Jamaican child is brought to the U.S. without legal documents. She leaves as an adult and applies for reentry into the U.S., the proper way, but the U.S. won't let her back in. The compelling story at 4:00 Eastern time.
Then at 5:00, one and done. More parents are stopping at just one child. Find out why. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
So we're learning more now about the two American service members abducted in Afghanistan. It happened in Logar province, outside Kabul. Sources in Afghanistan say they have located the body of one of the service members. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us on the phone from Washington.
What happened, Barbara?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, the information is being very closely held by U.S. military officials, but according to what they have said, these two U.S. Navy sailors Friday night for some reason left their compound in the capital city of Kabul, drove south and never came back.
Now, as of today, it is Afghan and Taliban sources who are putting together the rest of the picture. They are saying -- Afghan sources say the body of one of the sailors has been found and the other remains missing and presumed at this point to be in the hands of the Taliban.
According to government officials in Afghanistan, there was some sort of firefight between the Navy personnel and the Taliban when they came across each other on Friday night. A firefight -- and the sailor in captivity, according to Afghan sources, may well be wounded.
I think you can imagine, Fredricka, the U.S. military being very close-mouthed about all of this because the search for the missing U.S. Navy sailor goes on -- Fred. WHITFIELD: And so, Barbara, will they say anything about whether these sailors were alone when they got in the vehicle and drove off or whether there was anybody in the vehicle with them?
STARR: Well, at this point, it's all very odd because U.S. military sources privately are saying to the best of their knowledge, these two were in a vehicle, an armored vehicle, but not a military vehicle. Basically an armored car, if you will, a van, and there was no one else with them and no one can say at this point why a single vehicle was traveling in Afghanistan carrying military personnel.
I think as everyone understands, after all of these years, U.S. military personnel almost always travel in very heavily armed convoys of multiple vehicles, not just a single vehicle like what apparently happened here -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: And have the family members of these two servicemen, these Navy men, been notified?
STARR: We do not know that for a fact, but what I can tell you is in previous circumstances, when these things have occurred, families are very quickly notified, very privately, very quietly by the U.S. military. And generally it is up to the families whether they wish to become public about all of this or not.
You'll recall for more than a year now, Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, a young man from Idaho, has been in the hands of the Taliban. his parents were very quickly notified a year ago when that happened. And to this day, they have never come out in public and spoken about it. They certainly are hoping for their son to be returned -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: Barbara Starr, thanks so much, joining us on the phone from the Washington, D.C., area.
Meantime, let's talk about what has been taking place weather- wise in this country, the remnants of Tropical Storm Bonnie brought some rain and rough seas to the Gulf of Mexico, but it wasn't nearly as bad as expected. So now the ships ordered out of the area as a precaution are moving back in. The vessels, helping to drill the relief well, is also -- are also on-site. The admiral, Thad Allen, who oversees the cleanup, says, if all goes well, crews could begin pumping mud into the ruptured well a week from today.
And by then, Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, may be out of his job. British media reports that he is on the verge of resigning but there is no confirmation of that from BP. For now a company spokesman says Hayward has, quote, "the full support of the board," which, by the way, meets tomorrow. Hayward has been under fire for his response to the Gulf oil disaster.
And now day 97 into the Gulf oil spill and still concerns about the marine life. Our Amber Lyon in St. Petersburg, Florida, to give us a rather unique view of what has been going on below the surface -- Amber.
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hey, Fredricka.
We did have an amazing opportunity to head out with the scientists from Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Research Institute, in what is known as a "manned submersible." It looks like it's out of a science fiction movie. It's a mini-submarine that goes down into the Gulf to these deep water coral reefs, surveys them and collects data.
Now this data -- this is why this mission was particularly important, it could be used in the future if oil damage is shown to be caused on these deep water reefs. The U.S. government could use this data to build its case to sue BP to restore the reefs. And the big thing the scientists we traveled out with were concerned about is BP's use of dispersants.
Since the oil spill happened, BP has pumped almost 1.5 million gallons of dispersants into the Gulf. What they do is they break up the oil into little bitty pieces, sometimes so small the eye can't see them, that float down in the water column.
And just Friday, the day we took off, NOAA released a study that showed that EPA monitoring of underwater oil plumes show decreased oxygen levels within those plumes, decreased oxygen levels obviously not good for marine wild life nor these coral reefs.
So above all, we definitely had a unique opportunity here. You know, we were one of -- some of the first people in the country since this oil spill to be able to go down to these depths in this type of a vehicle. As I said earlier, it's known as a manned submersible, it seats four people.
It has a big dome on the front thankfully made of 5.25-inch-thick Plexiglass. I definitely asked the captain before we went down, you know, is this going to hold here? He said, in the 36 years he has been piloting that, nothing -- no accidents have ever happened.
And because of that dome, this gives scientists a unique opportunity to look at these coral reefs that they wouldn't get if they were up on the ship piloting one of those ROVs. Scientists say nothing beats actually being down there in the ocean, able to look around and see if they spot any damage -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: So are they willing to say what they saw in these coral reefs? I noticed that it looked like kind of a robotic arm that picked up something, perhaps they collected it. Are they willing to say anything about what they surmised about the marine life or the coral reef?
LYON: Well, when we were down there, Fredricka, we didn't see any visible oil. And the scientists said that the reef appeared to be healthy. But you said -- you were talking about that robotic arm. We did take samples of coral back up to the boat and analyzed them. And something that was almost similar to, I guess, a CSI crime lab, they took tissue samples of the corals, and also water samples. Those are still being analyzed and the scientists estimate they won't have the results from those for at least a couple of months. WHITFIELD: All right. Amber Lyon, thanks so much, joining us from St. Petersburg, Florida, for a very unique view there.
OK. Let's talk about some pretty nasty weather taking place much further north. Very wet weekend in the Chicago area. Five inches of rain fell in some places. And 10 towns actually issued disaster declarations, 50,000 power customers lost their electricity. And as of this morning, 3,000 customers were still waiting for crews to restore their service. Many roads were also flooded, and some cars, well, you can imagine, they got stuck in the water.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coming down the street, the water was deeper than I thought. And the car stalled. I'm stuck.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went through the water. It probably -- I didn't expect it to ever run this high because I come through these areas all the time, it has never been this bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Well, the rain, by the way, was even heavier in eastern Iowa. A dam near Cedar Rapids failed. Water cascaded through a 30-foot gap, dropping 45 feet to the river below, as you see right there. And no one was injured, but hundreds of nearby residents were forced out of their homes. Iowa Governor Chet Culver issued disaster proclamations for two counties and activated the National Guard as well.
WHITFIELD: Meantime hundreds of firefighters are working overtime to knock down a series of wildfires along the California/Nevada border near Reno. Nine fires were likely started by lightning strikes. And firefighters have contained all but two of them so far. A few hundred acres and a couple of homes were destroyed, but there have been no new evacuations today.
All right. Coming up, the U.S. Navy is pulling out all the stops in South Korea. They're taking part in war games there right now. But there is more to the drill than just preparing for the enemy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. There's a major show of force under way off the coast of South Korea. Right now the United States and South Korea's military are engaged in war games. The four-day drill has really grabbed North Korea's attention. CNN's Kyung Lah has more from Seoul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Even in the overnight hours here in South Korea, the U.S. military says that the exercises are ongoing and will continue 24 hours a day until Wednesday here Asia time. It is a large joint military operation between South Korea and the United States, 8,000 military personnel, some 20 ships and submarines, and 200 aircraft involved.
But it is not just the size that is notable, according to the U.S. Navy, it's the timing. This is the first major joint operation to take place off the coast of South Korea since the sinking of the South Korean warship, 46 crew members did die in that incident.
An international investigation led by South Korea did find that North Korea was responsible for the sinking of the war ship. The north, though, has vigorously said that it had nothing to do with the sinking of the ship. The U.S. Defense Department noting that this was going to be taking place, said that this military exercise was going to send, quote, "a clear message to North Korea that it needs to stop its provocative and war-like behavior."
Now the North has ratcheted up its own rhetoric, saying as it started, as all of this started up off the coast, that it would, quote, "react to sword-brandishing in kind," and that it would react to both dialogue and war. And it was unfazed by military threat and sanctions.
Tensions have been rising here on the Korean peninsula since the sinking of the war ship, but this new sign of force, these war games off the coast of the Korean peninsula, has certainly turned things up a step.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Al right. Something else got a lot of attention on the Sunday talk shows, the Shirley Sherrod story was the focus of the full hour on CBS's "FACE THE NATION," and the dialogue got a little hot. Here's a sample.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "FACE THE NATION")
MICHAEL GERSON, THE WASHINGTON POST: If you set out -- if you're an Internet site or a cable network, if you set out to find an excuse, some incident to emphasize, you can find one in America and run it over and over again. It could be a picture at a tea party rally of a single sign, OK? It could be a...
(CROSSTALK)
GERSON: Yes, exactly. Or a video, you know, that had to do with the New Black Panthers. And it makes it look like it's a crisis of race when in fact these are incidents in America. And it exaggerates.
(CROSSTALK)
CORNEL WEST, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: ... industrial complex, the crisis in our education. I mean, you would agree, you were outraged at 9/11, right?
GERSON: Right. No, no, no, I agree. WEST: We all were outraged at 9/11. But that's terrorism. Well, when innocent people are being put to death, rights violated, pushed to the margins, we have a right to be outraged.
(CROSSTALK)
BOB SCHIEFFER, HOST: John Fund wants to get into this.
JOHN FUND, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: We have generations of minority school children that are being deprived of a good education in urban schools. Right now in this city, Michelle Rhee is trying to reform those schools. She is being blocked by teachers union, other special interests.
That's a race gap we should be talking about. I think Mary Frances Berry is an honest liberal. The former chairwoman of the Civil Rights Commission says there is no evidence the tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans.
And indeed many other Americans, having one's opponent rebut charges of racism is far greater than discussing joblessness. Why don't we talk about the real issues?
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Well, can I jump in it?
FUND: The real issues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right. And an update on Sherrod herself. She still has not announced whether she will accept the new job offer from the Department of Agriculture.
All right. And we're going to make a little room for some fun. We like to do that with our "Viral Videos." And Josh Levs always delivers.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I've got (INAUDIBLE) some stuff today. You know what, I'm psyched for this, because there was one you loved last week, it was least week I showed you this brilliant parody of the Old Spice commercials. Well, today I get to take you behind the scenes and show you how they pulled it off, including all of the visual tricks that happened.
Plus on top of this, we have got a great comedy about a picnic thrown by President Obama, and a guy walks across the country surrounded by cameras, sort of. all of that is right next here on "Viral Video Rewind."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now. A memorial service outside Paris today is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concorde crash that killed 113 people. The plane caught fire and crashed into a hotel shortly after takeoff. The exact cause of the crash is still under debate. A court is expected to decide on the responsibility later this year.
And makeshift memorials have popped up at the site of a deadly stampede in western Germany that killed 19 people. Investigators are still trying to figure out exactly what led to the deaths. Police say as many as 400 people were injured. The victims were trying to get into a concert at the Love Parade. Organizers announced that they will now discontinue that annual event out of respect for the victims.
And Afghan sources say they have found the body of one of two American sailors who went missing yesterday. Those same sources say the other sailor was wounded in a firefight with Taliban militants. Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen says everything is being done to find the missing sailor.
All right. Time to lighten things up a little bit with a little "Viral Video Rewind." Josh Levs is here.
LEVS: Yes, we're going to start off with something funny. We're going to make it light here. (INAUDIBLE) these folks at collegehumor.com, they made a comedy about President Obama throwing a picnic as a metaphor for his presidency. All right. Take a look.
WHITFIELD: All right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great barbecue, Barack. I'll have my burger rare.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gross. I'll have mine well done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Relax, friends, I'm sure we can work out some happy, medium burger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now neither of us are happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barack, my shish kebab fell in the dirt and now it's ruined. >> there's another shish kebab fell in the dirt and now it's ruined.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's another shish kebab, just be more responsible with this one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh man, it fell in the dirt again. I'm sorry, I thought it was too big to fall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's one last shish kebab.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop bailing him out, man. Nothing about this barbecue is going the way I expected.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's wrong, (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, for one thing, there's that grill. I distinctly remember you saying the first thing you were going to do is close that grill. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, I know, there are some terrible things going on...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: All right. People going crazy over this video. You can tell every single thing in the entire picnic is one of the issues he has face since he became president. People are loving it, it's hundreds of thousands of views in the days since it has gone up. Some good actors too.
WHITFIELD: Right. What's going on with these college kids pulling together these very riveting videos?
LEVS: You've been talking about that, the high quality of what we're seeing, right? Well, speaking of that, check out this next video. This is a guy walking across the country. You've got to see the quality of this thing. Watch what it looks like. It's called "A Walk Across the USA." And you see him go through all these different cities, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Chicago, Mt. Rushmore, and Vegas. It has music in the background, "At Home," by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. And they actually put -- I mean, it's pretty amazing stuff. They put a video along with it here that shows you how they did it.
And what -- they explain in this next video. Let's go to it. They show that they used a combination of stop motion and surround. And they basically posed him as he walked, learned exactly how he walked, and every frame is real, but they matched him up by giving a certain kind of walk, basically. So he kept moving the same way, so they could jump to a different city, that kind of thing.
They say in the end, more than -- close to 3,000 still frames made up that video. So, see, you always like how they do it. They're showing how they do it.
WHITFIELD: I see. I like that. A lot of time and creativity that went into that.
LEVS: And speaking of how they do it, this was your favorite video last week, all right, let's take a look at this.
WHITFIELD: A knockoff from the Old Spice.
LEVS: The Old Spice guy, this is scholars instead. Let's watch a little bit of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sadly, they're not like mine. But if you stop studying in a cave and started studying like me, they could be like mine. Look at your shirt, now back to mine, look down, back up, where are you? You're in the library with a man...
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEVS: So this an ad for a library inside BYU, and these students in the library -- the media production unit basically came up with this idea to take off Old Spice. It has taken off like crazy. So now in this next video, they're showing you how they did it. Let's skip ahead and you can see the show practicing with the backpack. They have a student who made some music to go behind this. You can see how many times it took them to try.
And skip ahead one more time. I advanced it to a section inside this video, because what they show you here is how they're actually pulling off the sweatshirt, the wall falls behind them. See, they're starting to show how this stuff works.
WHITFIELD: Wow, and how he remained completely undistracted from the falling wall, the falling piece of it. Did I hear that he has already been snatched, that there were some I guess talent scouts that were quite impressed by him and have decided to make something of him?
LEVS: I'm sure there are. It was a one-minute video.
WHITFIELD: He was going to make something of himself, anyway, we know.
LEVS: He was a student of comedy and plays, now, of course, he's going to take off.
As always, all of the links here on my Facebook page, Josh Levs CNN. All right. We have an adorable video for you every week. Are you ready for this?
WHITFIELD: OK. I'm ready.
LEVS: All right. This time...
WHITFIELD: It usually involves kids or animals.
LEVS: Today it's animals. You're right, it's always one of the two. A turtle wants to play with a kitty cat. The kitty cat won't play.
WHITFIELD: Oh, but the kitty cat is being very tolerant. Kitty cat could smack down, and it's not.
LEVS: Oh, totally. It could do anything, but it's just like, leave me alone.
WHITFIELD: Oh, this is so funny.
LEVS: In fact, I'm inviting our viewers to caption. But I love this video.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. This is...
LEVS: More than 2 million views on this thing.
WHITFIELD: That's a very kind kitty. LEVS: Yes. It's very sweet, isn't it? More than 2 million viewers?
WHITFIELD: People like to watch these animals, don't they?
LEVS: They are crazy for adorable.
WHITFIELD: Two million viewers?
LEVS: Almost always...
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: ... watch things I show you. No matter how clever the other ones are, animals just doing nothing is more...
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: Tenacious turtle.
LEVS: Are you ready now for your relaxation video?
WHITFIELD: Oh, yes, I am ready.
LEVS: We didn't get to it yesterday. Here's Fred's relaxation video of the week. It's a -- to the music "Neptune's Pulse" on a CD named "The Element of Peace."
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)
WHITFIELD: I like it.
LEVS: And apparently in the background a 4.5-hertz frequency, which is the same that's in Tibetan chants when they're in deep meditation, so Buddhist chants (INAUDIBLE). Your relaxation video.
WHITFIELD: Dolphins.
LEVS: Do you feel relaxed?
WHITFIELD: Yes, I do. What was that? But we did see a whale earlier.
LEVS: Yes, we see whales. This is dolphins. And I always like to pick up the energy a little bit at the end so I don't put our viewers to sleep. So we can end on upside-down backwards piano- playing guy. Let's skip ahead to that one...
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: What?
LEVS: Check it out. We're going to lift the energy back up. Watch this guy.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING) LEVS: His name is Jason Lyle Black (ph). The dude knows how to play upside-down and backwards. Look at that.
WHITFIELD: That's a challenging tune. It is, I know. I took piano and that was a challenge.
LEVS: It's pretty impressive, isn't it? See, you never know the skills that will catch online. All these things are viral.
WHITFIELD: And upside-down? I couldn't do it right side up.
(LAUGHTER)
LEVS: And it is on a Web site, backwardspiano.com. As I said, all of the links are always there for you on my Facebook page, Josh Levs CNN. You can also go there, tell us your favorites, and we'll have some of those next week.
WHITFIELD: That was fun.
LEVS: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Nice little journey we just took.
LEVS: Yes, see, we gave you your relaxation today. I left it out yesterday, I felt bad.
WHITFIELD: Thank you, Josh. Yes, now I -- like I said, making up right there. Appreciate it. Good to see you.
LEVS: See you.
WHITFIELD: All right. The famous ads, would you know them? "Virginia is for lovers," but in one Virginia county, it could just as easily say "illegal immigrants, go away."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Virginia is in Prince William County passed an immigration law similar to Arizona three years ago.
CNN's Sandra Endo went there to see how things played out and see what kind of lessons could be learned for Arizona.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDRA ENDO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Theater still rings in Maria's voice.
(on camera): What has the law been like for you to live under this ordinance for three years in the community?
MARIA, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT: Afraid. I'm so afraid. Everybody shares this same feeling. We're afraid.
ENDO (voice-over): It's been three years since Prince William County in Virginia passed a tough immigration law similar to the controversial Arizona law.
Local police check a person's immigration status if that person is charged with an offense. Worry in the Latino community is strong.
Maria's undocumented and asked us not to use her last name or show her face. She says she rarely leaves home scared of being racially profiled.
MARIA: We can be all the time, you know, under the shadows like I'm doing right now.
ENDO (on camera): There are tears in your eyes.
MARIA: Yes.
ENDO: Because you don't feel free?
MARIA: Because - yes, I don't feel free and it's a really hard (inaudible).
ENDO: At Todos Supermarket owner Carlos Castro says his business suffered because of the law. Regular customers fled the county and moved away.
CARLOS CASTRO, SUPERMARKET OWNER: People were also running some rumors that immigration was here at the supermarket and you know, don't go out.
ENDO (on camera): Police said statistics show over all last year, 6 percent of criminal arrests were found to be illegal immigrants and police can only stop to check a person's status if an arrest is made, not simply if a person is just stopped by the cops.
(voice-over): The county hired the University of Virginia to found out the impact of the law. Preliminary findings showed that illegal immigrant community shrank, but the law created discontent within communities of color.
TOM GUTERBOCK, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: It did create a very serious rift within the community about how people viewed the country. It's still taking time for the police to repair those issues.
ENDO: Prince William County Police Chief Charlie Deane says he's working to build that trust.
CHIEF CHARLIE DEANE, PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY POLICE: We are very much committed to community policing, meaning that we understand -- I certainly understand and our officers understand that we have to maintain the trust of all of the people that we serve.
ENDO: Castro believes the heightened fear of three years ago has lessened.
(on camera): Do you think it was a good idea?
CASTRO: Well, I wouldn't consider it a good idea because of the pain we went through, but we have a safer community.
ENDO (voice-over): But for Maria, the pain is still very real.
MARIA: People who think different than me should come into my shoes and feel what Latino people are feeling.
ENDO: Sandra Endo, CNN, Prince William County, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And more on the immigration today coming up at the 4:00 Eastern hour. A Jamaican woman who lived in America since she was four years old is denied a chance to go to college in the United States, and now she's back in Jamaica and says she can't get back into this country. We'll talk live to an attorney about her immigration nightmare.
And let's talk about weather and our Bonnie Schneider, a lot going on out there, lots of heat in the Midwest, lots of heat along the northwest as well, any relief in sight?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and it's going to come with a loud bang, Fredricka. We are looking at some big time storms rolling through, but there's a good reason. We got to get rid of some of the heat.
Look at these record high temperatures yesterday in Richmond, Virginia, 105. That's one of the hottest days ever for Richmond. It also reached triple-digit numbers for Baltimore, Raleigh, certainly into New York, Redding, Pennsylvania. So we're looking at some incredible numbers and the problem is the heat advisories will persist through the day today into the evening hours.
The areas in pink, that's where we have excessive heat warnings. That's for Philadelphia down through the Carolinas, including Raleigh, and then all the way down towards Coastal Georgia. Temperatures will feel like it's 110 degrees there.
I mentioned the loud sound of relief. Well, look what is on the way, big time thunderstorms are rolling in and these are fierce. We had a tornadic cell possibly popping up New York. The warning has expired, but still very strong storms in Pennsylvania, and this same system produced a tornado yesterday.
In upstate New York, we have some damage photos to show you what it looked like. This is an EF2 tornado confirmed in Chautauqua County in upstate New York not too far from Erie, Pennsylvania actually.
A lot of trees down, there was a lot of damage and debris. They did aerial evaluations as well and on the ground, the National Weather Service confirmed that it was an EF-2 tornado. Look at the damage there on that balcony.
All right, so going forward now. What we're looking for the next few hours are crucial. We have severe thunderstorm watches in place from New York, from Westchester County all the way down to Richmond, Virginia, some of those hot places yesterday.
We'll see the storms roll in, but these are severe, the little orange boxes you see here including one around Pphiladelphia. That's a severe storm warning and even if it's not a tornado warning, that means we could see hail 3.25 inches in diameter, wind gust as high as 58 miles per hour and certainly downpours, torrential downpours of rain and frequent lightning.
So if you don't have to be outside in the mid-Atlantic or the northeast, maybe come in to the air-conditioning if that's possible and let the storm pass, and it will feel less humid tomorrow, so that's the best part of this whole forecast, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Good, I did double check on my mom. She's in the D.C. area and she said she didn't even get out of the house yesterday, just too hot. Thank you so much, Bonnie. Appreciate that.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
WHITFIELD: All right, they say seeing is believing, but not on this baseball field. These Georgians are playing with blindfolds on. It's called beep baseball, have you heard of it? Because you have to listen for the ball, which emits a beeping noise.
Among the groups that arranged the game, the Federation of the Blind, supporters say beep baseball gives people a sense of what it's like to be blind and it allows you to hone your other senses. I hope that they're having a good time there.
So how many of you have a smart phone? Would you like one that even smaller? We're checking on some new, very tiny innovations.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now. Cleanup crews are back at work in the Gulf of Mexico. Vessels ordered out of the area ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie moves back in when the storm sizzles. That includes the vessel helping them drill the relief well. Where it is, we could see crews pumping mud into the ruptured well a week from today.
Alberto Contador wins the Tour de France. It's the Spaniard's third victory in four years. He cruised into Paris with a 39 second lead, well ahead of Lance Armstrong. The former champ and his team wanted to wear black jerseys with the number 28 in honor of the 28 million people living with cancer, but tour officials made them change.
And thousands of boy scouts are in Washington, D.C. today to celebrate a century of scouting in the U.S. There is a parade in the sweltering downtown area of Constitution Avenue and festivities at the National Mall. Organizers say there hasn't been a gathering like this since 1937 when scouts first came to D.C. for the first national jamboree.
All right, time to check out some new gizmos and we're not talking about old gizmos, really, itty bitty tiny ones. And our tech guru Marc Saltzman is in Toronto and he's got a bunch of them this week. Very small in size, but they're making big breakthroughs already beginning with this mp-4 video watch. Kind of get smart right?
MARC SALTZMAN, TECHNOLOGY ANALYST: You got that right, Fredricka. Pull out that magnifying glass because if you think good things come in small packages, take a look at this.
This is a watch that can hold about 2500 songs, and if you can see clearly enough, I'm holding it up to the web cam, it is showing a video as well. It plays music videos and TV shows, whatever you download to it. Plus it's got an e-book reader, audio book recorder, voice recorder and so on. It's $89 on geek.com. It's an apps name for this type of mp-4 watch so this kind product is for you. You'll love this.
WHITFIELD: Does it come with a magnifying glass, too?
SALTZMAN: Yes, the 1.5-inch screen is obviously not ideal for a full-length movie, even though you could put it on there if you want, but it's better for, you know, bite-size entertainment like music videos and whatnot.
WHITFIELD: Yes, OK. All right, how about Sony Ericsson X-10 mini?
SALLTZMAN: Right, mini, indeed. This is built as the world's smallest android Smartphone. Android, of course, is Google's operating system for handheld devices. So take a look this.
It's got a tiny, little 2.5-inch screen. It really will fit in a clutch or in your back pocket. It is truly a small little phone, but it's got a lot of features under the hood.
It's got a five-mega-pixel camera. It's got Bluetooth, WiFi and support for more than 60,000 downloadable applications from the Android market.
So this is a tiny, tiny, little cellphone if you've always complained that it won't fit in your purse. So that's a good one there.
WHITFIELD: It does now. OK, what about this Microsport MP3 player? Do you like it?
SALTZMAN: I do. It's about the size of a jelly bean. Look at that. It is even smaller than the iPod Nano. It fits in your ear like a Bluetooth headset and it can store about 1,000 songs. How about that? There is one catch, though.
WHITFIELD: What?
SALTZMAN: The catch is that if you want stereo sound, you got to connect the second ear bud and then you plug it into this one around - you know on one ear bud. So it connects the two together, but it is truly, truly small, so if you're into jogging or running or anything like that. This is $79 at the thinkgeek.com web site as well. Really, really MP3 player as you can see.
WHITFIELD: Wow and this stuff really is not that expensive. I mean, I'm not saying it's cheap, but the price point is fairly reasonable thinking, you know, how innovative these tiny little things are.
SALTZMAN: Yes, good point, absolutely.
WHITFIELD: OK, let's move on to this backup drive, yes?
SALTZMAN: Yes, so a lot of us carry around these little USB thumb drives. This one is smaller than your finger nail. I'm going to move it closer to the camera so you can see it.
It's from Lexar and it is a 16-gigabyte Echo ZE back-up drive. So it's like any other USB drive. You snap it into your laptop or netbook or what have you and it can store thousands of files on it.
But it is really, really tiny as you can see here. Let me put my finger up beside it as for a reference. You can see how small it is. So, yet, it's still come in sizes up to 64 gigs, which is quite a bit. This one here is 16 gigs and it sells for about $85, so that's it right there from Lexar.
WHITFIELD: That's incredible. OK, and the grand finale is this itsy, bitsy, tiny PC or an M-Book is what it's being called.
SALTZMAN: That's right. This is billed as the world's smaller computer. It's a clamshell, if you will, but it will truly fit in your back pocket. I would just not recommend sitting down on it.
But it's a full Intel-powered Windows laptop that has both a 4.8-inch touch screen, so I can use the Stylus pen, which is - or my fingertips as well as a full keyboard. So it sells for $449 at dynamism.com.
And it even has a web cam by the way. We could be doing this Skype chat on this device itself. There's the web cam there in the corner. Very, very small --
WHITFIELD: So have you tried using it? How easy is it to use the keyboard, you know, with your fingers and all that?
SALTZMAN: Yes, you know, you can do one of two things. It's good for hunting and pecking, so you use your four forefingers to find the letters you're looking for. Or you can hold it like a Blackberry, it's that small, and use your thumbs to reach and type it. So it depends on the size of your thumbs.
But it also has Bluetooth, so if you want you could have a Bluetooth keyboard nearby as well like a full size one.
WHITFIELD: Fun, itty bitty stuff that's making a big old bang. Marc Saltzman, thanks so much from Toronto. Appreciate that. Love those gadgets.
SALTZMAN: Thanks for having me. Bye, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, have a great week.
All right, they're young, idealistic and they're the leaders of tomorrow. So how are they coping with the problems of today? We'll hear from some of them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: We're just getting some new information about a tornado warning. Let's check in with our Bonnie Schneider. Where?
SCHNEIDER: In Wilmington, Delaware, Fredricka. We have a tornado warning that spans across Pennsylvania and even New Jersey. It is in effect for the next 15 minutes. There has not been a tornado spotted.
But we are getting reports that we're seeing some very strong thunderstorms near Kenneth Square. That's 10 miles south of Westchester and that's in Pennsylvania moving to the east at 55 miles per hour.
So you can see where we're covering here parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, including the city of Wilmington, under a tornado warning and that is until 3:15 p.m.
We'll monitor it for you. It's part of a larger area of severe weather rolling through the mid-Atlantic. I'll have more coming up, but once again, we're tracking tornadic activity in Delaware at Pennsylvania and New Jersey at this hour -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Bonnie, thanks so much. We'll check back with you.
In the meantime, working and saving for college. That's usually what students are doing in the summer, but not the case this year. CNN's student news anchor Carl Azuz is here. You've been looking at tomorrow's most influential. First of all, who are they and how do they all come together?
CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: We recently spoke to a group of students who are in Atlanta for a leadership conference. You're looking at about 100 students from around the state of Georgia.
And we took the opportunity to host this group, to go over things like media literacy with them and to talk to them about what makes CNN work. And from that, they got a good chance to develop their leadership skills, to work with CNN talent and executives.
And while all this was going on, we took a couple of moments to speak with them about how things are impacting them, most notably the economy.
WHITFIELD: And how is it impacting them? What are they saying? AZUZ: They've all been affected. That's one thing we found from those students we talked to. There were very few who said they were unscathed by this. It had had an impact. I'm going to go ahead and roll some sound now and let you hear what they had to say about how it's hitting them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZACK DRAKE, HILLGROVE HIGH SCHOOL: Looking for a summer job is actually a lot harder these days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to get a job right now, students driving and trying to get gas money. A lot of places aren't hiring. They set their standards to 18 and up only now especially where I live.
DRAKE: Adults have been being laid off from other position and they might have to take a job at McDonald's or a job up the street in order to keep their family afloat.
JANA FRENCH, MARIETTA HIGH SCHOOL: I'm not going to apply to a college that I don't know if I can afford until I can get like all of my financial aid lined up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: And those are the two main things they had to talk about, how it's affecting their college plans and also how they're having trouble finding jobs in an economy when they're competing with adults.
WHITFIELD: How do they stay upbeat about it, if at all?
AZUZ: That's what surprised us is that many of them are - they are positive. We didn't necessarily ask all of them, you know, how do you manage to find the silver lining? We didn't necessarily ask that, they volunteered it.
And so I'd like you to hear how some of these students are saying they are finding the silver lining in everything that's going on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUMAR DEEN, DECATUR HIGH SCHOOL: It's a positive thing because it makes you think about, you know, you have to start considering these problems and knowing these problems are ours.
ALFONZO WASHINGTON, WOODLAND HIGH SCHOOL: It's going to teach me something. It's going to teach me how to budget different things and how to compare different things.
BRITTANY GRIFFIN, MCEACHERN HIGH SCHOOL: I think it's been a positive, because now we kind of know how to handle money more, now we know not to repeat that same problem.
TREY FLYNN, DEERFIELD-WINDSOR SCHOOL: I always go back to my family for everything. We don't have as much spending money, but whatever happens, we'll always have each other and that's what's important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Very philosophical.
AZUZ: They are. These are some of the brightest high school students in the state. They're all rising juniors and seniors. So it was a joy for us to talk to them and hear their insight.
Also, it gave us a great deal of optimism about the future when you hear from students how optimistic they are, and how they feel like some notion of we can fix this, we can work with this, despite things being tough now.
We can help get through it when it's our turn. We heard that theme a lot and it makes us very optimistic.
WHITFIELD: Fantastic. In the meantime, you know, folks, stay in touch with CNN student news throughout the summer even as they're trying to find, you know, work. Well, there's only about a month left before they go off to school. How do they do that?
AZUZ: Well, CNN student news is off the air at the moment. We return on Monday, August 16th, but we're always keeping in touch with our audience. The main way we do that is at cnnstudentnews.com.
We have a blog they can go to and talk to us on our blog. We have a place where they can e-mail us, so we welcome everybody out there, especially if you're a parent, you have a student who's going into middle or high school, come check us out on cnnstudentnews.com and keep in touch with us until we return on August 16th.
WHITFIELD: Fantastic. I love it that young people are being so forth right so honest about their thoughts and feelings and at the same time staying very optimistic about the future.
AZUZ: It's refreshing and it gives us hope.
WHITFIELD: All right, Carl Azuz, thanks so much.
AZUZ: Thank you, Fredricka.
All right, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Well, it turns 20 tomorrow, so how is it doing?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think individuals with disabilities, you know, what everybody wants is they want a hand up, not a handout.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SCHNEIDER: Good afternoon. I'm meteorologist Bonnie Schneider tracking severe weather here in the CNN Severe Weather Center. We have a tornado warning in effect until 3:15 p.m. It's for several counties in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey including Chester, Delaware, New Castle, and Salem. Now, this also includes the city of Wilmington, Delaware.
Just about 12 minutes ago, Doppler radar indicated a cell of thunderstorm near Kenneth Square or 10 miles from Westchester in Pennsylvania that looked like it was producing some Doppler radar indicated rotation.
So we could see a tornado touch down at any time. This is a part of a larger scale weather system that's going to bring severe weather for the next few hours, so stay inside if you can. Fredricka, we'll have more on this as we go through the afternoon.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Bonnie.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
WHITFIELD: We mark an important anniversary in this country this week. Twenty years ago tomorrow, the first President George Bush signed the American with Disabilities Act into law. While it has improved many lives, some say the law still has to fulfill its promise. Here's Kyra Phillips.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the stroke of the pen, it was done, the passage of the American with Disabilities Act. You've seen the results. Curb cuts and ramps, wider doors, parking spaces and Braille on elevators and ATMs for the blind. Enough? Former Attorney General Richard Thornburg who helped push the ADA through says no.
RICHARD THORNBURGH: Well, I am gratified but impatient, gratified that we've expressed in a formal way through legislative action the importance of the civil rights of people with disabilities and their rights to participate in the mainstream of our lives without being discriminated against, and disappointed in a way because we haven't reached the "Promised Land" yet.
PHILLIPS: By "Promised Land," Thornburg means economic opportunity for the disabled so people like Ryan Cole can compete on a level playing field.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was this the day you were born?
PHILLIPS: Ryan represents the second generation of the ADA.
ANDREA COLE, RYAN'S MOTHER: Ryan was diagnosed when I was about 18 weeks pregnant with Danny Walker malformation, which is a brain malformation which affects the cerebellum. In his case, he is missing a portion of his cerebellum. ERIC COLE, RYAN'S FATHER: Let's go to your room. Ryan has had two brain surgeries. He's had abdominal surgeries to place a G-tube. He's had hernia surgeries. He's had seizures that were brought under control. We've had some mobility issues.
PHILLIPS: Ryan's parents want their son to grow up to be self- sufficient, and advocates say society can do its part to make that happen.
ANDREW IMPARATO, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: I think one of our challenges as we move into the next decade is how can we create more economic opportunities so that more people with disabilities are working, more people are in the middle class, own their own homes and are able to participate fully in the mainstream of the economy?
COLE: I think individuals with disabilities, you know, what everybody wants is they want a hand up, not a handout.
PHILLIPS: And for Ryan's father and many others, it's about common decency.
COLE: I think there are many stereotypes we still battle today, I think there are some derogatory terms out there that are still used for individuals with cognitive and intellectual disabilities. And understand that individuals like Ryan have hopes and dreams and aspirations just like the rest of us.
PHILLIPS: Kyra Phillips, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Coming up in the 4:00 Eastern hour, we'll hear from a young woman trying to get into the country to go to college. She's had no luck even though she was raised here in the U.S. and graduated from an American high school. But first time for "YOUR MONEY."
