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Hayward Leaving BP; Admiral Mullen in Iraq; Blagojevich Trial Closing

Aired July 27, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's 10:00, and major developments happening right now in a story that we first brought to you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you justify $800,000 in a city this small and this poor?

MAYOR OSCAR HERNANDEZ, BELL, CALIFORNIA: The only thing I say, this community, they're receiving a good service. They deserve to have the best service.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can get the best service for a lot less than $800,000 a year.

HERNANDEZ: You have to have good employees to do that.

I am willing to give away my pay to zero.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): What a difference a little outrage makes. The people of Bell, California mad as hell and doing something about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're a crook yesterday and today and you'll be a crook tomorrow, ma'am.

(APPLAUSE)

PHILLIPS: An example of broken, self-serving government at its worst. In a state and town that can least afford it.

JERRY BROWN, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: I can't fathom it. It's beyond belief. It may be a first in the annals of public salaries anywhere in the country or in our history. So the real question is what were they thinking?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Exactly. What were they thinking? Boy, this story is taking on a life of its own. People turn their outrage into action in Bell, California. They're furious. While they struggle to make ends meet, their government leaders were getting rich at their expense. No more.

CNN's Ted Rowlands reports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Looking for answers and for heads, hundreds of furious taxpayers showed up at a Bell City council meeting last night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, I need respect for everybody. Please.

ROWLANDS: Respect for government is hard to find in this city with the median income of less than $40,000 because over the past few years, unbeknownst to seemingly everyone, while city leaders have been slashing budgets, they were paying themselves ridiculous salaries, including a jaw-dropping $787,000 a year to city manager Robert Rizzo.

That's almost double of what President Obama makes. Rizzo, thanks presumably to taxpayers, owns this horse ranch in Washington state and this beach home in southern California. Then there's the police chief, Randy Adams, making $457,000 a year.

OFC. GILBERT JARA, BELL, CALIFORNIA POLICE DEPT.: We're all upset.

ROWLANDS: Showing us a squad car with 116,000 miles on it, Officer Gilbert Jara says for years while the chief and city manager have been lining their pockets, the police budget has been shrinking. Jara, who is the president of the Police Officers Association says he and the other 18 members of the department have gone without a pay raise for three years.

JARA: They tell us there is no money but then again, they're earning 800 grand a year and our chief is earning $450,000. So that's a lot.

ROWLANDS: The assistant manager is also making a lot. $376,000. And some members of the city council who only work part-time have been pulling in about $100,000.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shame on you! Shame on you!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're disrespectful. You're a piece of (bleep).

ROWLANDS: As angry as they are now, voters here agreed to make Bell a charter city in 2005 which gave officials the legal right to basically pay themselves whatever they wanted. Attorney general Jerry Brown has launched an investigation.

BROWN: My office puts people in jail for taking $10,000 or $20,000. Much less $50,000. Here we're talking hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe millions, when you add it up over a number of years.

ROWLANDS: In the past week, Rizzo, his assistant and Chief Adams resigned. Last night, the mayor announced he'll finish his term without pay and won't seek re-election. And members of the city council say they'll take a pay cut. But, unless something changes, Robert Rizzo's pension will be more than $600,000 a year. Adams will make more than $400,000.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk more with Kirk Hawkins of KCBS Television there in Los Angeles. He's been our go-to to guy since the very beginning of this story, since the fat cat was first let out of the bag.

And Kirk, we appreciate you investigating this story for us. Let's go ahead and bring our viewers up to date on these three officials. You've been staking them all out for days. Do you have any idea where they are, and who is looking for them now and can they even be held accountable?

KIRK HAWKINS, REPORTER KCBS: Well, Kyra, we have been trying to track them down, as you know, and it's been much easier said than done. We haven't had any success just as of yet. We can tell you their resignations take effect at the end of August and also at the end of September.

But they haven't appeared either at the public city council meetings here as well. As you know, Rizzo has the beautiful home in Huntington Beach front estate in some ways, he also has a horse estate in Washington. We tried to reach him at his Huntington Beach home but he's been a no-show there. He could potentially be at his home in Washington state.

Now, as for whether or not they'll be held accountable where there are two investigations under way now. The L.A. County district attorney's office is investigating and also California Attorney General Jerry Brown is investigating. As you heard in our piece, he is also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate coming up in this next election. But those two are the main investigations underway now.

PHILLIPS: That's a good point to point out that he wants to be the next governor, and so you would think he would want to be all over this story because you got some residents who are pretty outrage and you got some serious abuse of power within the government system there.

So if Jerry Brown is looking into whether these guys even broke the law or not, right? We can't confirm that yet. It could just be horrific lack of ethical responsibility?

HAWKINS: That's right. That is the case. He is looking at the legality of this now. What he did yesterday was he subpoenaed hundreds of documents. We're talking salary, employment, and other contract records from those top three city officials. He's trying to see if he can charge them with anything. He gave them only 48 hours for those documents.

The mayor says that he'll basically follow the investigation but Jerry Brown has to determine if he can form a case with those documents. If he can't, well, his next option is to look at new legislation. The California League of Cities is looking at the possibility of that. But that really is their only other option in this case because as you know, five years ago this was all part of a special election.

These top three city officials basically got people, less than 400 of them, to vote themselves their own pay raises. That's basically is how we got to this point where the city manager could get twice as much as the president of the United States.

PHILLIPS: So could there be a recall election then?

HAWKINS: Well, there's a group called the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse. They really formed this as a result of this scandal over just the past week. There were hundreds of their membership at that meeting last night and they're planning a town hall later this week, on Thursday and they're going to look at the possibility of that recall election.

They're hoping to get it on the ballot in December. It looks like they'll clearly have the signatures but they say they are still calling for resignations. Last night at that meeting, three - I should say four of the five city council members agreed to 90 percent pay cut. So they'll only get a few hundred dollars a month. That's not enough for these people. They want the resignations and potentially that recall election could be on the ballot as early as December.

PHILLIPS: I tell you what. I think there's a lot of people that want to hear from that police chief and also Rizzo, both of them M.I.A. after the scandal broke. A story that you've been on since the very beginning for us. Kirk Hawkins, we look forward to the follow-up. Appreciate it.

It's day 99 of the gulf oil crisis and BP's chief executive Tony Hayward on his way out. He will formally step down from his post on October 1st, and his new gig may not be corporate Siberia but it is as far away from the gulf coast as one can imagine.

If approved, he'll head to Russia as director of BP's oil and gas operations there. He leaves the CEO position with a payout of one year salary. That's $1.6 million, by the way, and you add to that a pension worth nearly $17 million. He'll receive annual payments of about $900,000 a year.

All right. Let's take a closer look at Bob Dudley. He is the chemical engineer with more than 30 years of experience in the oil industry. He has been in charge of the day to day ops in the gulf coast since June. Almost as important, he is a native of the region. He grew up in Mississippi and has often spoken about swimming and fishing along the coast. He says the cleanup is a personal mission.

The disaster cost Hayward his job but it has cost the company much, much more. This morning BP announced staggering losses between April and June. They've average out to $187 million a day. The overall cost related to the spill $32 billion and counting. Shrinking amount of money in the bank has forced BP to sell off some of its assets.

Bombshell breach, thousands of leaked war documents. Does it pose a threat to our men and women in uniform? We're getting inside perspective now from an intel officer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Coalition forces in Afghanistan say they've recovered the body of one of the two American sailors who disappeared last Friday. Posters offering a $20,000 reward for the safe return of the second service member are being distributed in the region. The Taliban says that the second sailor is alive. He is being held while the group figures out its demands.

Thousands and thousands of secret military documents from the Afghan war leaked to the whistle-blower web site, WikiLeaks. They're available to everyone. Combat stories, raw data right there on the screen in black and white. The leak has been blasted as irresponsible by the White House, a disclosure that could put the lives of Americans at risk but just how secret are these documents, and what does it mean to you and me?

The Pentagon says that someone like 22-year-old Army intel analyst Bradley Manning, could have had access and is now reportedly a person of interest in the probe. An Army intel officer tells me there are literally millions of people out there with secret security clearance, and he says, all 92,000 documents could fit on a thumb drive.

So it begs the question, how big of a deal is this breach? WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange tells Larry King, "this is a matter of human rights."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS, FOUNDER: In general, we have seen from the human rights community and from the best journalism that lasting reforms that tend to push human rights come about as a result of finding material that is kept secret by organizations because they fear exposure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer is a CIA-trained senior intelligence operations officer with more than 25 years on the job. He's joining us live from D.C.. So Tony, let me ask you, is this harmful or is this just embarrassing?

LT. COL. ANTHONY SHAFFER, CIA-TRAINED SENIOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS: It's a combination of both. It is harmful by the fact as you pointed out, virtually anyone with a secret clearance can do this. I think if you look at some of the operational details of how things are done that could be hurtful as well.

However, most of it, 90 percent of it is essentially historic information which has already been out there. The abuses of the ISI working with the Taliban, the Taliban resurgence, the loss of human life by civilians is tragic but it's already been out there. I think largely this is embarrassing by the fact a great deal more granularity and frankly, it shows a clear trend - you know, my book is coming out in 30 days, which, you know, we saw this stuff as early back as 2003. So frankly it's not really new. It's just more detailed, and there's a potential, I think, especially with the task force 373 issues to be hurtful to national security.

PHILLIPS: All right. And I'll get into that in just a second but quickly I want to ask you about this Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning. Already been charged with leaking information -

SHAFFER: Right.

PHILLIPS: And now he's being accused of adding to all of this.

SHAFFER: Right.

PHILLIPS: Do you know him? First of all, do you know him? Have you ever worked with him?

SHAFFER: No. Not at all.

PHILLIPS: OK. So, let me ask you, what would be in it for this guy? Could he be anti-war and could this be his way of getting back because when you're in uniform, you know, you can't talk against the administration or the strategy of the administration? Why do you think he would do this?

SHAFFER: His own statements apparently, according to the press, he was very upset about what he was seeing happen within the context of the war. He felt that there were abuses, he felt that there are things being covered up, and, frankly, I'm a former whistle-blower as well.

I had very similar concerns regarding something called able danger. I sat in this very seat five years ago talking about that. And the fact is this, there are outlets for expressing your concern regarding issues which you believe should be looked at. Project in government oversight, (INAUDIBLE) these are people who are involved in official oversight issues, and so there are official venues to express this.

WikiLeaks is not one of those venues. And frankly, the way they've done this is more of a poke in the eye than trying to resolve things for the better. And this is where I think Private Manning made a huge mistake, which he may very well pay for by going to prison should the allegations against him will be proven.

PHILLIPS: OK. So Tony, let me ask you, WikiLeaks is saying there is evidence of war crimes within these documents. Do you agree with that?

SHAFFER: I take the same position as Amnesty International on this. I read an article about Amnesty International's comments saying, while it's a grave concern, as a soldier, I've been there and I understand the difficulty of sorting through who the bad guys and the good guys are, and while it's tragic we've had civilian casualties, it is an unfortunate consequence of war.

And I'm not here to defend what's happened. I'm saying it happens. And nowhere in anything that I've read does it ever rise to the level of a war crime or even a justification of an open investigation of a war crime. I almost resent the fact that this whole thing touted as potential war crimes when these are tragic incidents but nothing shows in my judgment or again the judgment of Amnesty International to be at the level of a war crime or a war crime inquiry.

PHILLIPS: All right. So final question because you were a part of one of these task forces when you were serving over in the pond. And you know -

SHAFFER: Yes, right.

PHILLIPS: I think we all agree it's not good to know the operations of our commandos and there clearly are documents here talking about this specific task force and actions that are taking place.

SHAFFER: Right.

PHILLIPS: I mean, that's something we think we don't want on the internet or in the hands of our enemies, right? Is that unsettling to you, the details about -

SHAFFER: Well -

PHILLIPS: Go ahead.

SHAFFER: Well, it is unsettling for two reasons. First, you need to be careful to not provide names of currently serving units. I mean, for example, in my book, we talk about things which are seven years old, old names, that sort of thing. You don't want to talk about current locations and current locations and most specifically current targets. So that the documents released have the potential to kind of point you in the right direction to help understand what we're doing, which is not good.

Secondly, some of the issues relating to this specific issue, the kill capture program, is one of the worst kept secrets in the country. It's been talked about over and over again by the press. And I think it's good to understand we have a program, but to give away this level of detail is not helpful. It is hurtful. I think this is where the White House is talking about potentially severe damage being caused to national defense. This is not something good to be talking about when that is an active unit, when there is an active military operations.

PHILLIPS: Got it. Col. Anthony Shaffer, thanks for your time today. Appreciate a lot, Tony.

SHAFFER: Thank you. PHILLIPS: Happening right now. We're waiting to hear the latest on the corruption trial against former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Will his attorney obey the judge's order or will he get himself thrown in jail? As soon as we find that out, we'll bring it to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's take you down to the New York Stock Exchange. Quick check of the big board. Dow industrials up five points, almost six.

Let's check the top stories now.

Day 99 in the gulf oil disaster. BP's top executive on his way out. BP says Tony Hayward is being replaced by American Bob Dudley. He is a chemical engineer who grew up in Mississippi. Hayward will leave as a CEO, at the end of September. Dudley has been in charge of the day-to-day operations in the gulf since last month.

Joint Chiefs chair Mike Mullen arrived in Baghdad today after a two-day visit to Afghanistan. Mullen is reviewing plans to pull all combat troops out of Iraq by the end of the month.

And in Chicago, the major players in the Blagojevich trial walked into federal court just about 30 minutes ago. The former governor's attorney got into a dispute with the judge when he was told to change the course of his closing arguments yesterday. We should find out soon if he obeyed the judge's order or if he will be held in contempt. As soon as we get more information from inside the courtroom, we'll bring it to you.

A man severely injured in an accident gets a face transplant and goes public for the very first time. You're going to hear from him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: "Daily Dose," nothing short of a miracle. At least that's what surgeon who operated on 17-month-old Josiah Jackson says about his patient's recovery. Ten days ago, the toddler fell onto a metal rod that got lodged in his skull just inches away from his brain. Doctors told his family they didn't know if they could save him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH JONES, GRANDFATHER: He didn't sugar coat anything. He said, Mr. Jones, more than likely, we pull the screw out of his head, he's going to bleed to death.

DR. ANAND GERMANWALA, NEUROSURGEON: If there was any injury, that could have resulted in instant death. That could have resulted in a massive stroke. That could have resulted in a terrible outcome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, Josiah is set to be released from the hospital today.

In Spain, a medical accomplishment bordering on science fiction. The man identified only as Oscar has undergone the world's first full face transplant. He appeared for the first time in public yesterday at the hospital in Barcelona where the operation was performed. His entire facial skin and , muscles, his nose and lips, jaw, teeth even his cheekbones, all replaced. The surgery in March took 24 hours. Oscar spoke in yesterday's news conference thanking the medical team that gave him a new face. That patient had been severely injured in an accident and had undergone nine failed operations before even being considered for that transplant.

The question is simple. Why don't illegal immigrants just go home. The answer isn't so simple. Packing up and leaving the U.S. isn't always that easy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: In Arizona, all eyes turning to Thursday. That's when the state's new tough immigration law is supposed to go into effect. The judge is deciding whether SP 1070 should be enforced. It is being challenged on several fronts including claims that it will violate civil rights. You've seen the protests, you've heard the accusations, do you know the reality?

CNN's Josh Levs is here to break down the proposed law for us. Give us the details.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kyra, it's actually gone through a bunch of changes, and some of these changes are very important. What I want to do right now is talk you through some of the ways in which these words have changed and how that has impacted what this law can actually be.

Let's take a look right here. I'm going to start off with this one section. Look at these - these are changes that our Governor Jan Brewer signed into law. There is a section of this bill when it focuses on the idea of police being able to approach people, arrest people, detain people, ask them questions.

It says here law enforcement may not and it originally said solely consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements." Now what they did was they went and removed the word "solely" and for this section, and now says law enforcement may not consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements.

And now you have to see the second half of the sentence of where it leads to, except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona constitution. This is really important and folks, this is where this law goes from here because there actually is Supreme Court precedent establishing that in this country it is OK to consider race at times and for police to decide whether to detain people.

So, what they're saying is that police cannot consider race except to the extent that is allowed by the U.S. Constitution, the Arizona constitution. That right there sets up judicial questions we'll follow from here.

Look at another really important change. Originally, it said, "For any lawful contact." Now, that was changed because a lot of people were concerned, what if someone out there who sees a crime take place, goes to a police officer and wants to report it but knows that that police officer - because that's contact -- will then ask them for their immigration papers because they have to, by law, but they changed it.

So, it says for any lawful stop, detention or arrest, which means now it only applies if the police officer has a reason to stop or detain someone in the first place. And the emphasize here "in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance." So, it says her basically, the police officer has to have a reason to stop the person. And then it says "where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is unlawfully present in the United States."

Now, quickly, bang through some of this, because I want you to see how subjective it gets here. You don't need to memorize this. "A reasonable attempt shall be made when practicable to determine the immigration status of the person except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation." When you see all this and you hear this language go by, you realize it's got reasonable - it's got reasonable, practicable, and that opens up all this subjectivity.

I know we have pictures of protests on both sides. Let me give you the big picture here, kind of pull out the weeds and give you the big picture for a second. People on both sides have looked at this law. They have looked at the way this law is written, and what they are saying right now is that neither side is satisfied.

There are those who are against it who say no matter what words were changed here, they still believe police could make the choice just based on looking at someone that they want to catch that person going through a red light or come up for a reason to stop them and ask for immigration papers based on appearance. The other side says we have done everything we can in this law to try to make it clear that racial profiling is not allowed.

Kyra, this is the groundwork for where we head from here. It's the battle over this as it will undergo judicial scrutiny, as we see how it plays out for police that we will see what actually happens in Arizona and ultimately, what type of template it sets for the whole country.

PHILLIPS: All right, Josh. We will be talking about it a lot this week. Appreciate it.

LEVS: You got it.

PHILLIPS: One thing you hear a lot is why don't illegal immigrants don't just go home? It's not quite that easy. Take a look at this story from Soledad O'Brien. She's our special correspondent for CNN's "IN AMERICA" documentary series.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Edwin Andrade first came to the U.S. from Ecuador because his daughter Dominica (ph) was dying. Her heart ailment could only be treated here. When their visas ran out, his family stayed, illegally.

EDWIN ANDRADE, TRYING TO RETURN TO COUNTRY: I make decision to stay here. I left everything for coming here to save her life.

O'BRIEN: Even after Dominica got better, the Andrades continued to stay. They had good jobs. They had a second daughter with U.S. citizenship.

(on camera): You want to go home.

ANDRADE: I got to go back home. In my country, I'm a citizen. I got to go whatever I need to go. I have -- I'm afraid.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): After 13 years, the Andrades are doing the unthinkable -- trying to leave. But they say they feel trapped, unable to find work in a recession. They're part of an estimated half a million illegal immigrants who are struggling to go back home.

(on camera): Are you stuck?

ANDRADE: Yes. I'm stuck. I don't have -- I don't have hands. They have like a tie my hands.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): If Andrade tries to fly out using his Ecuadorian passport, officials will discover he's overstayed his visa. He'll face potential fines and expulsion from the U.S. for years. Leaving isn't so easy.

PABLO CALLE, ECUADOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL: We have a case of an Ecuadorian that when us and they said listen. I have nothing left in this country. I have no money for my air ticket. I just want to go back to the country. and they tell him no.

O'BRIEN (on camera): Are you saying that some people say I'd love to go home but I can't?

CALLE: Yes, that's their reality.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Some illegal immigrants even face detention if they try to leave.

JOHN DE LEON, MIAMI IMMIGRATION LAWYER: If you want to stay, they get you out very quick. If you want to leave, they try to make it hard for you to leave.

O'BRIEN: Immigration authorities declined to be interviewed on camera. They say people facing deportation orders may be detained while they're processed. The only way to come and go without a penalty, sneak back across the border.

At a center for day laborers in Los Angeles, undocumented immigrants can't fathom paying a "coyote" (ph) thousands of dollars to go backwards in their American dream.

He says, "I've been wanting to go for a long time but I make the decision and I don't even have enough money for a ticket."

And if they aren't Mexican citizens, it's more complicated. For example, Guatemalans face arrest if they enter Mexico illegally. Guatemala is one of the countries that helps its citizen get back home giving two people each week a bus ticket and negotiating safe passage.

PABLO GARCIA SAENZ, GUATEMALA CONSUL GENERAL IN LOS ANGELES: This year, 50 people is take ticket for return to Guatemala.

O'BRIEN: Edwin Andrade says the immigration crackdown has made it hard for him to get any work. But once he raises the money, he's taking his family back to Ecuador.

ANDRADE: I say thank you very much for the opportunities what I have in this 13 years in United States. I want to see my country again. I want to start at zero again.

O'BRIEN: For "IN AMERICA," Soledad O'Brien, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: The U.S. is not the only country with immigration issues. Japan is confronting them, too. Here's CNN's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Water. That's what all of Japan is surrounded by. I'm Kyung Lah in Tokyo, at the Tokyo Bay. Because Japan is an island, illegal immigrant here isn't so much about a porous border, but about immigrants overstaying their visas. They then disappear into Japan's population.

The government estimates some 90,000 illegal immigrants live here, too high for Japan's government, which in a controversial has stepped attempts to expel illegal immigrants, such is the case with this 13- year-old Nariko Calderon (ph), a 13-year-old Filipino girl who was born and raised in Japan. The government allowed her to remain in Japan but deported her parents out of the country to the Philippines. The United Nations has denounced such family separations and says that Japan must do more to protect migrant's human rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And we're less than 100 days away from midterm elections. But this race is about more than just candidates. Starting tomorrow night, you can join "JOHN KING U.S.A." on the road in Arizona for a look at all of the issues voters are facing. That's tomorrow night, 7:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

Because of the oil spill in the Gulf, BP has posted a huge second-quarter loss. How much will disaster cost the company? A live report from the New York Stock Exchange coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG FERGUSON, HOST, "THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON": But -- but it is a sad day for Tony Hayward, the BP guy. He's stepping down. Stepping down.

(LAUGHTER)

FERGUSON: He's been reassigned. He's been reassigned to Russia. I think what BP figures -- it's true! They're putting him over there, BP Russia. They've got BP Russia, as well.

(LAUGHTER)

FERGUSON: So, if he screws up there, no one will know because Russia already has the Black Sea.

(LAUGHTER)

FERGUSON: They'll be like, what -- no, no. All right, all right. Don't overdo it or it won't sound funny. Anyway, BP wasn't supposed to make this announcement until tomorrow but it is BP, so the news leaked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Carter Evans -- and there's plenty of vodka there, too, so if he starts to stress out under pressure, he's good to go.

CARTER EVANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, a lot of people may think that BP is actually sending Tony Hayward off to Siberia in Russia, but actually, this is a very, very profitable joint operation. And I got to tell you, BP has a lot of respect for Tony Hayward. They're just kind of getting him out of the spotlight. So, they're reassigning him. It's definitely a demotion from CEO, but it's a very high-profile project nevertheless. Sounds pretty funny.

And normally, earnings from a giant oil company are going to focus on huge profits, but today, we're talking about the largest oil spill in U.S. history and that took a huge bite out of BP's bottom line. The oil giant lost more than $17 billion in the second quarter. Now, the loss comes after the company took a huge pretax charge of $32 billion to pay for the cleanup of the spill.

That is going to cover most of the direct cost, but the company says it cannot estimate future claims from fines and lawsuits, so if it wasn't for the cleanup costs, however, BP would have posted a profit of about $5 billion, so it's earning some money. BP shares today are down about 2.5 percent. Currently trading about $37.68 a share. They had been trading above $60 a share at the time of the spill. That was back in April. They fell as low as $27 in the aftermath. As for the broader market, let's go ahead and take a look at the numbers. Currently, the Dow a little higher, up about nine-and-a-half points. The NASDAQ with a loss of three. The S&P up a fraction of a point. The NASDAQ and Dow, by the way, both in positive territory for the year. So, we're now back where we started.

PHILLIPS: All right. So, Carter, it's hard for any type of company to come back from a disaster like this. So what's BP saying about its plan going forward?

EVANS: You know what's really interesting is the fact that BP set aside $32 billion to pay for this. Cleanup costs so far, $2.9 billion and then that $20 billion set aside, so that's a lot of extra money BP is putting aside to pay for this. And the company wants to put this spill behind it at least as far as finances go.

But here's the thing. BP is conceding it still has a really long way to go because there could be a lot of lawsuits. There could be a lot of penalties and fines, and some of these fines could be as much as $18 billion. In order to cover the cost, the company is planning to sell a lot of its assets, up to $30 billion.

It already sold $7 billion worth of assets. It also plans to lower its debt. And even though that will make BP a much smaller company, it's still an oil giant. Revenue in the second quarter jumped 29 percent to $10.5 billion.

As for BP investors, the company is going to reconsider reinstating its dividend in February of 2011, so that would be good news for its investors. But essentially, Kyra, BP wants to put this behind us. And it gives you an idea of huge this company is that it can absorb the massive cost of this spill in just one quarter.

PHILLIPS: Carter Evans, thanks.

Let's check our other top stories now. As we just talked about, BP CEO Tony Hayward will soon be stepping aside. Company's board of directors replaced the British chief executive with American Bob Dudley come October 1. That announcement comes on the heels of BP's quarterly business report, which notes a $17 billion loss.

A major about-face in Bell, California, where public backlash prompts the city's well-paid mayor and council members to cut back on their hefty salaries. California's attorney general Jerry Brown now investigating whether or not any laws were broken.

And Nissan recalling 51,000 of its Cube hatchbacks built this year and last. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the vehicle has the potential danger to leak a fuel after rear- end collisions.

After being a stalking victim herself, ESPN reporter Erin Andrews says she wants to protect other women. Happening right now, Andrews joining female lawmakers pushing for tougher federal laws against stalkers. Last year, a man videotaped Andrews through hotel peepholes and posted them on the Internet. Michael David Barrett later pleaded guilty and was sentence to more than two years in prison.

If you want to eat at the ball game, take plenty of money. The hot dog will eat your wallet. And the drink will probably drain it. But hey, at least the mouse droppings and ground up bugs are free. The truth about stadium food coming your way. Hope you got a strong stomach.

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PHILLIPS: Lots of severe weather these last few days. So, what's the outlook today? Jacqui Jeras, tracking it all. Jacqui?

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Jacqui, what's your favorite food at the ballgame?

JERAS: After seeing your report, zero.

(LAUGHTER)

JERAS: Just a glass of water, thanks.

PHILLIPS: OK, yes. Which leads me to our next story. Yes, our favorite national past time, take me out to the ball game. Just remember to bring plenty of Pepto, because the seventh-inning stretch could become the seventh inning wretch. ESPN "Outside The Lines" has put together a pretty disgusting map of sports venues across the country and focused on the health inspections of the food vendors. Might be worth a look before you go to the ball game and spend a fortune on that stadium food.

Check out the places where nearly all of the vendors failed health inspections. First up, Sunlife Stadium in Miami. That's no tequila worm, my friends. Apparently, an employee complained about bugs and other debris blended right into those frozen alcoholic beverages. Inspectors later busted the vendor for a buildup of slime on the machine. Cheers!

Then at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, undercooked chicken. Enjoy that stomach ache, Buccaneer fans. Most of the big fails are in Florida for some reason.

And another big fail at the Verizon Center in D.C. Had a problem there with mouse droppings. Yes. The hot dog, 7 bucks, but the mouse waste - guess what? Absolutely free.

And there are places with no violations, too. We want to point that out. Chicago's places are pretty clean, like Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field, where the White Sox play. Scott Trade Center in St. Louis gets high marks as well.

You can find this on ESPN's Web site. Definitely worth a look before you head out to the ball game.

All right, sports fans. Don't you have a gross stadium or arena food experience to tell me about? Slimy margaritas? Hot dog with ketchup, relish and a few roach bits? Light up the blog. CNN.com/kyra. We can't wait to read these.

Talk about party poppers. We'll tell you how how a handful of pigeons brought the curtain down on an outdoor concert. Strike up the band and get out the umbrellas.

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PHILLIPS: "Home and Away," our daily tribute to our fallen heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will tell you how you can become a part of it in just a minute.

But right now, we want to lift up First Sergeant Aaron Jagger of Hillsdale, Michigan. He was a member of the First Batallion 37th Armored Regiment, first armored division. Sergeant Jagger was one of three soldiers killed when a roadside bomb detonated near their Humvee during combat operations near Ramadi, Iraq in 2006.

His niece said he loved to play and write music. In fact, he played guitar for all of the guys and gals in the Army, and he says that the Army was his life. Having served his country for 26 years, Sergeant Jagger was 43 years old when he died.

We want to hear more stories of such sacrifice. Go to our Web site, CNN.com/homeandaway and put your service member's name in the upper right-hand search field, tells your stories and send us pictures, too. We'd add them to our Hall of Heroes.

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PHILLIPS: Well, it's not a cruel summer. It did at least seem like a cruel joke, though. A flock of pigeons take aim at an outdoor concert and chase the splattered musicians off the stage. Now the disgruntled concert goers who are flocking together. CNN's Jeanne Moos has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sometimes concerts get canceled due to bad weather. What came raining down on the Kings of Leon was pigeon poop. You couldn't really see it just the drummer wiping his face then the bass guitarist wiping his face and then the lights went out and the band left the Verizon amphitheater in St. Louis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They played three songs and they're quitting.

MOOS: Kings of Leon get pooped on and return the favor to their fans. The fans struck back posting concert videos. The fans pecked at the band. What a bunch of weenies. Prissy prima donnas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should have just manned up and got some of you assistants to hold an umbrella.

MOOS: The bass guitarist said he was hit by pigeons on each of the songs. They said the final straw was when a band member was hit on the cheek right near the mouth. It's not only disgusting, it's a toxic health hazard. The usual hazards are beer being thrown at them or as he left a concert the rapper Akon, didn't just stay he sent security after the teenager.

AKON: You made a big mistake today, boy. Put him up here.

MOOS: After Akon tossed the teenager he pled guilty to harassment and doing community service. The Kings of Leon could not do this to a flock of pigeons. News reporters have been on the receiving end of pigeons. Even the secret service couldn't protect the president of the United States from aerial bombardment. Seconds after the hit, then President Bush wiped it off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Improperly took by our own admission.

MOOS: The bride-to-be wore white all right during the wedding proposal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These past three years have been the most wonderful years.

MOOS: At least that didn't happen to any rock stars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They probably ingest more horrible things like drugs and alcohol. A little bird poop won't kill you once in a while.

MOOS: He should know. Look where we found him sitting, he should know. Ironically they're chanting the wrong kind of (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Tony, I have no idea how I segue without getting a pink slip or censored.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It just points out that critics are everywhere. You're trying to perform, you're trying to propose! And critics of your performance are everywhere.

You show me you're inbox, I'll show you mine.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Have a good show.

HARRIS: Have a great day, Kyra Phillips.