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Police Prepare for New Powers in Arizona; Assessing Damage From Gulf Oil Disaster; Fight Over Illegal Immigration; BP to Pay $60 Million; NFL on Brain Injuries

Aired July 28, 2010 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. Live from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarter, the big stories for Wednesday, July 28th.

Gearing up for a crackdown on illegal immigrants, police prepared to take on new powers in Arizona. The state's controversial immigration law set to take effect.

Assessing the damage from the Gulf oil disaster. Fishermen will tell you it's not what you see, it's what you don't see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To me, I don't see any birds working, I don't see any bait, I don't see any mullets jumping. I don't see much life in the water.

I mean, something isn't right. I couldn't put my finger on it right in here, but you just don't see any life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And the Army expanding its criminal investigation into the massive online leak. Suspect Bradley Manning is behind bars, but how many beam people were involved? That is the question.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

Those stories and your comments right here, right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A tough immigration law that ignited an intense national debate set to take effect in less than 24 hours. We are awaiting a judge's ruling on whether the Arizona law actually goes forward.

The federal court in Phoenix opened just two minutes ago, and we are watching for any developments. The Justice Department and others sued to block the immigration law.

In an interview on CNN's "JOHN KING USA," Arizona Governor Jan Brewer challenged the Obama administration to secure the borders. Brewer says Arizona took action because the feds are not doing their job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: We are being invaded by illegal immigration in the state of Arizona, and this is another tool. And we are just helping the feds do their job because they won't do it.

The bottom line is that the people of Arizona are frustrated. We shouldn't have to do it. The federal government should be doing it. And if they won't, well, the legislature and the people of Arizona overwhelmingly believe that we need to enforce it and help them do their job. And we are nation of laws and we hope that those laws will be enforced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Police departments across Arizona are gearing up to enforce the state's new immigration law. A group of protesters held a rally to encourage Phoenix police not to comply with the law. It requires police officers to question people about their immigration status if they have been detained for another reason and if there is reason to us respect they are in the country illegally.

The demonstrators say they are concerned about the possibility of harassment and racial profiling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAL REZA, PUENTE MOVEMENT: This law is a racist law, an apartheid law, and the city of Phoenix should refuse to participate.

LIZETTE, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I really want the cops to stop. You know, not comply with SB 1070, because I want to go to school knowing that going into my classroom is a safe environment and that they won't ask me for papers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, the fate of Arizona's immigration law is in the hands of U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix.

Reporter Jose Miguel with CNN affiliate KPHO is there at the federal courthouse.

And good morning to you, Jose.

A couple of questions for you. Has Judge Bolton tipped her hand at all in any way? For example, do we know for sure that she will even issue a ruling today?

JOSE MIGUEL, REPORTER, KPHO: We are under the strong impression that that ruling will, indeed, take place today. We've seen a lot of activity here around the courthouse. We've seen a lot of metal barricades being placed around the courthouse, as well as several parked police units being placed around the courthouse, which leads us to believe that something big will be taking place today.

They are preparing themselves for any kind of protests or any kind of demonstrations that may be taking place outside of the building. Those demonstrators will not be allowed inside.

Again, the judge, she has been challenging the attorneys that are representing those who oppose this new law to tell her where in the law is the wording that states someone can be simply stopped according to their race or the color of their skin. According to the way she reads the law, some type of criminal activity must be taking place before you can be questioned as far as your citizenship status is concerned.

So, again, a lot of activity out here, just hoping to see whether or not Judge Bolton will be making that decision -- Tony.

HARRIS: And Jose, are we aware of any sort of planned demonstrations today?

MIGUEL: We understand that there's a group that is already gathering up at the state capitol. That group is planning to not only protest three at the state capitol, they're also expected to march the city streets here in Phoenix.

They will be marching over to the offices of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The reason for this is he's been very vocal about this particular law. He strongly supports it, so much so that he has expanded his jail. His jail famously known as Tent City has added more beds in anticipation of those who could be arrested if SB 1070 does go into effect.

So, again, those demonstrations being planned throughout the morning -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. And Jose, I know you have been covering this story extensively, so let me try this one on you.

All eyes are certainly on the state, especially law enforcement in that state. Do we know what supervisors are saying to officers as plans move forward to respond to the law?

MIGUEL: Well, a lot of the officers in the area are going through very extensive training, especially because that law could go into effect within the next 24 hours. This training includes a lot of watching of DVDs, DVDs that will explain the ins and the outs of this law, and also explain what could be considered racial profiling. That is one of the last things that any law enforcement agency around here wants to be accused of.

So, again, they're doing as much training as possible to fully prepare these officers so if this law does go into effect, they know how to go ahead and enforce it here in the state.

HARRIS: OK. Jose Miguel with us. He's with our affiliate station KPHO in Phoenix.

Good to see you, Miguel. Appreciate it.

Jose Miguel for us. The City Council in Fremont, Nebraska votes to delay enforcement of that city's new immigration law. Civil rights groups are challenging the law. It prohibits businesses from hiring illegal immigrants and landlords from renting to them.

The city's manager says Fremont's situation is different from Arizona's. He says voters approved the law in June to preserve the quality of life in Fremont.

In just a couple of minutes, two guests who feel strongly for and against Arizona's law will join me. Kris Kobach helped draft Arizona's legislation. And Kristin Ostrom led a grassroots effort in Nebraska to fight an immigration law there. That is coming up in about 20 minutes past the hour.

(NEWSBREAK)

HARRIS: Right now there is still no sign of any oil leaking from the capped well, and there is hardly any visible sign of oil on the surface of the Gulf or on the beaches. It's what you can't see that has a lot of folks concerned.

CNN's Rob Marciano with us now from Fort Pickens, Florida.

And Rob, there has to be much more to this disaster than what meets the eye, correct?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you can imagine, any sort of petroleum product, if it ends up in one place and then goes away, even in your driveway, there has got to be some sort of residue that's left behind.

Now, the EPA and the local authorities, they test the water, they test the air. They've been doing that since the beginning, but they haven't tested the sand. And people are lying on this, kids are playing on it. And there is more oil here that meets the eye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIP KIRBY, COASTAL GEOLOGIST: Now, you can see the sand looks pretty clean to the naked eye.

MARCIANO: Yes.

(voice-over): But after sunset, things look different.

(on camera): It lights up pretty good.

KIRBY: It does. And as you see, it's pretty much anywhere and everywhere.

MARCIANO (voice-over): Coastal geologist Rip Kirby can see the oil at night using an ultraviolet flashlight. Oil particles glow on the sand and in the water.

KIRBY: It leaves a little line of oily sand right there at the end into the wave run-up. And when this dries in the morning, the wind will pick it up and it will move it.

MARCIANO: Across the beach and everything that lives there.

(on camera): So this is a ghost crab hole, right?

KIRBY: Ghost crab hole. Right.

MARCIANO: And particles of orange oil has ended up all the way down this crab's hole just because he was digging his home.

KIRBY: Right.

MARCIANO: So now his home has oil.

(voice-over): Even at over 100 feet from the water, Rip thinks there might be a lower layer of oil. So we dig a little deeper.

(on camera): This is amazing. It's just like you said, like stratified layers in the Grand Canyon. It is so distinct.

Can you see that on camera? I hope you can because in the naked eye it is unbelievable. Truly remarkable. That right there is oil underneath the surface of the sand.

(voice-over): It glows in the dark but just how toxic is this sand?

KIRBY: Is it a problem for us to be in contact with this petroleum product that's now mixed in with the sand? And the answer to that question is, I don't know.

MARCIANO (on camera): Why hasn't somebody tested that?

KIRBY: The same question I've been asking for about six weeks.

MARCIANO: So we decided to get it tested with the help of the scientists from the University of West Florida.

(voice-over): Getting a good average requires taking samples in different spots, at different depths.

(on camera): All right. Let's take it back to the lab.

(voice-over): There, Dr. Fred Hileman uses a solution to extract the sand, concentrated and analyze it as a liquid.

FRED HILEMAN, UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA: You can just take a look at these samples and you can begin to see the difference in them as far as the oil content.

MARCIANO (on camera): It's plain as day.

HILEMAN: Yes.

MARCIANO: Clear water, clear sand. Dirty water, dirty sand.

HILEMAN: Yes. Or contaminated. MARCIANO (voice-over): Further analysis puts an exact number on that contamination.

HILEMAN: 2.6 parts per million of oil in that sand sample that was given to us.

MARCIANO (on camera): 2.6 parts per million. That number, what does it mean to people watching at home?

HILEMAN: A, it says the oil is there. B, the oil is there at low levels.

MARCIANO: Possibly healthy or safe levels?

HILEMAN: Not necessarily hazardous levels.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Put several calls into Escambia County Environmental Health Department, and they have yet to return our call, so that number is a little bit -- well, I don't really know how to describe it except this -- that they say at the lower -- it's pretty low levels, Tony, probably not hazardous, and a lot of the sand is very clean. But it doesn't take long to even peer over in this direction, and you can visibly see stained sand.

So, you know, regardless of the amount or the intensity or the toxicity, this sand wasn't here two months ago -- or this oil wasn't here two months ago, and it's going to take a long time for it naturally to break down and get back to where this beach was before this oil spill.

HARRIS: Yes, absolutely. That is good stuff. Rob, appreciate it. Thank you. We need to know that.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, racial profiling or a fair way to fight illegal immigration? Two guests sound off on Arizona's immigration law set to take effect tomorrow.

And let's take a look at the numbers, Big Board, New York Stock Exchange. We are trading down 26 points.

We'll follow these numbers for you -- of course we will -- throughout the day, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: A federal judge in Arizona could decide today whether she will block Arizona's new immigration law. It is set to take effect tomorrow.

Supporters say it is a good way to track down illegal immigrants. Critics say the law encourages racial profiling.

Let's hear from both sides of the argument right now. Kris Kobach is an immigration attorney who helped draft the legislation. And Kristin Ostrom is a critic of the law. She is leading a grassroots effort in Fremont, Nebraska, against the law passed there, a law that has been tabled until legal challenges are heard.

Kris, let me start with you.

Remind us all of what Judge Bolton in Arizona is trying to decide today.

KRIS KOBACH, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: Well, Judge Bolton may decide today, or she may decide on subsequent days, but the issue before her is a preliminary injunction motion. And the question is, basically, will she suspend or stop the enforcement of the Arizona law from going into effect while she's deciding the case?

It's not a final judgment, it's just a decision on whether to allow the law to go into effect while she is deciding the case. And she could either decide to allow all of it to go into effect, none of it to go into effect, or parts of it to go into effect.

HARRIS: Kristin, what do you anticipate coming from the judge today, if the judge issues a ruling at all?

KRISTIN OSTROM, LEADING GRASSROOTS EFFORT AGAINST LAW INTERVIEWER: FREMONT, NEBRASKA: Well, we're anticipating very shortly that the judge will issue some kind of a stop, a temporary restraining order on the law that was passed, Ordinance 5165. And we look forward to that ruling.

HARRIS: All right.

I'm still trying to -- Kris, I'm still trying to figure out how this law is implemented in practice every day on the streets of Arizona. Let's just take the example that we hear most often.

I am a Hispanic male and I'm pulled over for a busted taillight. I produce a valid driver's license, registration, and insurance card. I'm cited and released.

Is that the end of that law enforcement contact?

KOBACH: Yes, absolutely. That would be the end of it.

The law specifically prohibits any consideration of a person's race, color or national origin. It prohibits it in four different places in the Arizona statute.

The only way that that law enforcement encounter you described would in any way result in any inquiry into your immigration status, imagining, supposedly, that you were an alien, would be if the officer had developed reasonable suspicion that you were unlawfully present in the country. And the courts have delineated what constitutes reasonable suspicion. It has to be multiple factors, like, for example, perhaps you were evading the officer's questions, you had no identification on your person whatsoever, and you were traveling on a known alien smuggling corridor.

Those three factors, together, might allow the officer then to simply make an inquiry. He just picks up the phone in his squad car and calls the federal government's 24/7 hotline for that purpose.

HARRIS: Yes.

Well, Kristin, that seems pretty straightforward. Do you have a problem with that, as we just sort of laid out that example?

OSTROM: Well, we're not particularly -- we do not have the police effort enacting a state law related to people driving in Fremont. What we have is a law that requires verification of citizenship or legal status for housing or employment.

Unfortunately, our particular law does not even require proof of citizenship. It simply is kind of putting together more bureaucracy and requiring citizens to jump through the hoops and declare that they're citizens. It's going to cost our local government, and we're going to spend a lot of dollars in court sort of fighting and battling to be able to even enforce such a law at the local level.

HARRIS: Got you.

OSTROM: There are greater costs that you are referring to, as you were referring to the Arizona law. There are greater costs in Fremont, and that is, even though on the face of the law it doesn't target minorities, doesn't target by race, the consequence in Fremont, even before the law has been implemented, is people believing that they have a license to target and harass and intimidate Hispanic citizens.

And that's one of the great unfortunate collateral effects in Fremont.

HARRIS: Got you.

Let's take it back to Arizona for a second here, Kris. And let's take this example a step further here.

The officer at this particular traffic stop sees, smells, detects something that sparks suspicion. Is that the moment in that initial stop where the immigration status conversation can begin legally?

KOBACH: You know, it would actually take more than that. The courts of the United States, including the Supreme Court, have said that reasonable suspicion is a totality of circumstances and it requires more than one factor.

So, having an ill-defined suspicion wouldn't even constitute one factor. But if the officer had something very specific that the person in front of him had done, you know, maybe acknowledging that he was involved with someone who was known to be smuggling illegal aliens, or maybe, as I said, some of the other factors, not having any identification on his person whatsoever, then you might begin to have multiple factors. But he really can't initiate that inquiry until he meets the judicial test of reasonable suspicion. HARRIS: Can he initiate an inquiry of the people in my car? Say I've got 10 other people in my car, and I check out just fine.

KOBACH: Yes. That's a great question, and there's a long line of cases on that, too.

If you are the passenger in a vehicle, and an officer pulls over the driver for speeding -- and this could be the case with an immigration law violation, or with a drug violation, any criminal violation. While you're there and the officer is talking to the driver, and he notices something suspicious about you that indicates a crime has been committed, or some sort of criminal activity, whether it's immigration or anything else, yes, you are also is subject to possibly being asked questions or detained.

HARRIS: Yes. All right.

Kris, appreciate it.

Kristin, appreciate it as well.

Let's see what happens later today.

Thank you both for the conversation.

KOBACH: Sure.

HARRIS: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, investigating the online leak of classified war reports from Afghanistan. Was it a one-man document dump? The Army has a suspect and is looking for more information.

A live report from the Pentagon when we come back.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The search is on for accomplices in the massive leak of Afghan War documents. Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning is the prime suspect. He has been held in a military jail for more than a month now.

CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Private 1st Class Bradley Manning now the focus of an expanded Army criminal investigation into the disclosure of nearly 90,000 classified documents, according to Pentagon officials. The widened investigation is looking at potential accomplices and which government computer systems the information came from.

GEOFF MORRELL, PENTAGON SPOKESPERSON: There is a slew of people who have access. It will be, as all these investigations are, very difficult, but we are determined to find out who is responsible for this and to make sure they pay or are held accountable for it.

STARR: Manning already under military arrest for allegedly illegally downloading classified video and documents. Months ago, he told a former hacker how he did it.

In a series of online chats between Manning and former hacker Adrian Lamo, Manning said he pretended to listen to music while downloading classified material. The logs, posted by Wired.com, read, "Manning listened and lip-synced to Lady Gaga's 'Telephone' while exfiltrating possibly the largest data spillage in American history, pretty simple and unglamorous."

The former hacker eventually tipped off federal authorities.

CNN producers continue to pore through the documents, thousands of revelations from field reports about the war, some offering detailed insights.

In November 2007, a trucking company called Four Horsemen International reported that it was approached by the Taliban with a price list for what it would cost the truckers to ensure safe passage through Taliban areas, $500 for each truck driving across Southern Afghanistan, $50 to $100 for shorter routes in the east.

There are even second-and-third-hand reports of potential sightings of Osama bin Laden, according to documents given to "The Guardian" newspaper, but not posted on the main WikiLeaks site. In this 2006 report, bin Laden is said to have been in meetings with other top Taliban and al Qaeda operatives where suicide bombers were given up to $50,000 to conduct attacks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr joining me live now.

Barbara, good to see you.

What more can you tell us about Bradley Manning?

STARR: Well, this young private 1st class is still in a military jail in Kuwait, Tony. And according to military sources, so far he's not cooperating, he's not talking. He's invoking his Fifth Amendment rights.

And they are looking for any accomplices. But military officials say he is one of the main focuses of this latest expanded investigation.

HARRIS: OK. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us.

Barbara, good to see you. Thank you.

Thousands of acres scorched, thousands of people on the run. A state of emergency is in places as wildfires spread across one county in southern California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: OK. Let's see here. We've got a state of emergency in Kern County, California, Jacqui. We're talking about wildfires, right?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

HARRIS: Twenty-three hundred people have been driven from their homes so far. Twenty-five homes, we understand, burned to the ground. We've got 15,000 acres literally scorched, and firefighters are doing everything they can, throwing everything at it and trying their best to sort of manage the flames.

Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of history here. Right now, our backyard is national forestry (ph) -- black forest now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK. Let's talk to Jacqui about this. And what are the factors here? I'm trying to get a handle on the conditions out there with an assessment of wind, the heat and humidity, right?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. Yes. Weather the number one factor on how these fires go and whether or not they're able to contain them. There are actually two very large fires that we're talking about here in Southern California. And the weather today isn't terrible. Just to put it in perspective for you, we put this Google Earth together to show you. These are the heat signatures for both of them. This is the west fire and this is the bull fire, and they're in very rugged terrain, too. So, it's very difficult to fight it because of that.

Now, when we talk about weather conditions today, you know, the humidity, pretty low, the temperature very high. Highs are going to be in the 90s today, probably mid-90s but the wins aren't terrible, maybe about 10 miles per hour. So, it could be a lot worse. With winds that light and the conditions there, they should be able to make some progress certainly with the fire today. Now, more fires are going to be possible. We've had some burning also in the Northern California, and on this map here, you can see the pink, that's the red flag warnings which are in effect.

And this is going to be the greatest area where natural fires could occur today. We don't know the official cause of those two fires in Southern California, but word is that they potentially may have been human caused. Now, dry lightning or dry thunderstorms, the kind of thunderstorms that produce rain but evaporate before it gets to the ground will be the reason why we have such a high danger here across parts of the southwest with that for today.

Our radar pictures showing you some of those spotty showers and a lot of actually what you see here on radar is those kind of showers or thunder showers that don't reach the ground, and you saw that lightning here. The monsoon season has begun and that's been ongoing for nearly a month now and that's why we're seeing increased moisture here. Not seeing quite so much, though, in Southern California. The winds could pick up a little bit as we had later into the week.

HARRIS: OK. All right. Jacqui, thank you.

How about this? A fence that cost $2.5 billion to build is supposed to keep illegal immigrants out of the United States. A look at why it is not working.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So, this is a story of a fence that is supposed to keep illegal immigrants from crossing from Mexico into the United States. It cost $2.5 billion. CNNs Gary Tuchman found it is not very effective.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The border fence from the Mexican side. Here in Nogales, Mexico, the Spanish graffiti says, the fence, a scar on the land. As Arizona sheriff who strongly supports his state's new immigration law disagrees with that.

SHERIFF PAUL BABEU, PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA: It's proven to have worked, but it has to be combined with constant surveillance in those areas, and it does shut down the border.

TUCHMAN: So, why the Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County, Arizona and members of his SWAT team say human smugglers and drug smugglers parade through this dessert 80 miles away from the Mexican border every single night, leaving piles of clothes, backpacks and water bottles behind as they plan their escape onto American highways? Because the sheriff says, the fence needs to be longer and stronger. He also says the deputies have been handicapped by not being able to ask about people's citizenship and that will change Thursday.

BABEU: So now, all across Arizona where (INAUDIBLE) forbid off from going there. Now, we have lawful authority that says we shall go there.

TUCHMAN: But people are going to still get past the fence in large numbers, despite the fact U.S. taxpayers have spent $2.5 billion on construction of the fence which taken more than four years to build. So, what's the problem? The fence is probably not what you think. It turns out it only covers about one-third of the U.S./Mexican border and their early plans to build six miles more. So, it keeps most illegal immigrants out of some areas particularly urban areas. The rural areas are still very vulnerable.

TUCHMAN (on-camera): People use ladders, hacksaws and blow torches to get over through and under the fence, but there's a lot easier way, just find a portion of land where the fence come to an end. The one to the bar right here, easily, successfully, and illegally left Mexico. TUCHMAN: But most illegal crossings happen nowhere near the new barriers. Despite all you hear about the border fence, this is mostly what you see along the 1,951 miles between the United States and Mexico, with little chain link fences in this. I'm sitting in Mexico right now. It takes very little ingenuity, just go under the barbed wire, and I'm in the United States. The new border fences are white elephants according to this Arizona congressman who says if you have a 20-foot fence, people will just get a 21-foot ladder.

REP. RAUL GRIJALVA, (D) ARIZONA: I think the wall took $2.5 billion that could have been used technologically, that could have been used for higher security at ports of entry. It could have been used for personnel and diverted it.

TUCHMAN: So, why isn't there more wall? You might be surprised to learn there was never supposed to be more wall into this $2.5 billion plan. The border patrol, the topography, sensors, and virtual wall fences were supposed to provide additional protection. In some cases, it works, in many other, it doesn't. Another Arizona sheriff says drug traffickers have abundant (ph) incentive to beat the system.

SHERIFF TONY ESTRADA, SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, ARIZONA: You got to demand (ph) they got a product, and they're going to get that product to the market.

TUCHMAN: This past May, one of Sheriff Babeu's deputies was shot and wounded in this very same part of the desert 80 miles north to the border. The gunman never captured.

BABEU: This has basically been literally unfettered access by smugglers and illegals.

TUCHMAN: So, the sheriff hopes the new law combined with the new fence makes his county safer while others remain angry at the law and regard the fence as a scar on the land.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Nogales, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: The NFL launches a campaign to warn players and their families about the dangers of brain injuries. New required reading in the locker room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: A CNN oil alert on day 100 of the disaster in the Gulf. BP announced today it will pay an estimated $60 million in advance beginning next month to those who claim they lost income or net profit because of the oil leak. This comes to 100 days after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and sent millions of barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Michigan's governor is pushing the EPA and a Canadian energy company them to step up efforts to contain an oil spill in the Kalamazoo River. Officials aren't sure what caused more than 840,000 gallons of oil to leak from a 30-inch main (ph) before it was shut down this week.

And two American citizens were aboard the plane that crashed this morning in Pakistan. That word from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. There were no survivors.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The NFL is warning football players and their families about the long-term dangers of head injuries. This as the league investigates the effects of concussions on former and current players. CNNs Mary Snow reports.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Coming soon to pro football locker rooms, a must-read for players, the risks from concussions, including depression and the early onset of dementia and the warning that conditions from repeated brain injury can change your life and your family's life forever. It's the NFL's clearest warning yet to players, warning to get checked if they have a concussion and not keep playing. But why did it take so long? A neurosurgeon newly appointed as co-chairman of an NFL committee to study concussions says the science was lacking.

DR. RICHARD ELLENBOGEN, UNIV. OF WASHINGTON SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Yes, I wish it were different years ago, but the science just wasn't there. It is there. It's been there for the last year or so, and it is our duty to get it out as soon as it comes out, you know, interpret what's in these medical journals for the player on the ground.

SNOW: The NFL has come under increasing pressure in recent years as retired players go public with their stories. One of them, former New England's Patriot linebacker, Ted Johnson, told CNN in 2009 that after his retirement, he found a difficult to leave his house for two years. He's been treated for problems linked to head injuries he suffered. By his count, he suffered several documented concussions and more than 100 mild ones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I played football, I know could -- I've torn both biceps, both shoulders, and I've had a broken foot. I know the dangers out there from that aspect, but I didn't know what I was doing to my brain every time I was getting a concussion over and over and over again. I didn't know what the long-term effects for it.

SNOW: Congress has also focused its attention on the issue with the NFL commissioner testifying last October. A key Congressional critic, Democrat Anthony Weiner, says the NFL's new warnings are a step in the right direction after what he calls a sordid past.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think to some degree they saw these players as being expendable, and it was more important to get an injured player back on the field than it was to try to preserve their long- term prospects for having a good head on their shoulders. And that's unfortunate. Now, I think the NFL realizes they had a problem. I think they've started to change their approach, but they're still not there 100 percent.

SNOW (on-camera): Part of the NFL's message to its players in these new posters is that young athletes are taking their cue from them, and the NFL commissioner has made a push in 44 states to enact a law that would require young athletes to be pulled from the field if they're suspected of having a concussion. They wouldn't be allowed to return until they're check and cleared by a licensed health care professional.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

HARRIS: Here's a question for you, is America losing the dream of owning a home? We will answer that question for you in just a couple of minutes. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's see. We want to get you -- come on this way. We want to get you to CNNMoney.com, your source for financial news. There you see the lead story today. Searching for tourists on oily beaches. More business owners destine to Florida. What a popular summer vacation destiny. As we depend on tourism dollars, we meet today with the man in charge with the 20. That's Ken Feinberg, right? And the $20 billion fund to help spill victims.

So, we'll follow that meeting as well to get you some information and details as soon as we can. Let's get you to the big board now. New York Stock Exchange. As you see, we've been trading down all morning. We're down 24 point now. Nasdaq is down 15. We will continue to follow these numbers.

Got to tell you, owning a home has long been the American dream, right? But these days, it's just that. Just a dream for an increasing number of people. Carter Evans is at the New York Stock Exchange with details of a new report showing fewer people actually owning their home right now. Carter, what are the findings of the study?

CARTER EVANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, here are the numbers. Let me break it down for you.

HARRIS: Yes.

EVANS: 66.9 percent of Americans now own their homes, and that is actually the lowest number since 1999, kind of (ph) thick of that housing boom. This is all from degrees of census. The peak was 69.2 percent. So, it doesn't sound like much of a difference a little more than 2 percentage points, but we're talking about millions of people. And by the way, that peak was back in 2004, right at the height of the housing boom. Money was cheap. It was easy to get. And a lot of people, Tony, at that time, I remember, I bought a condo in about 2005, and I thought of it as an investment.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

EVANS: Not of a place where I was going to live for 30 years. No way. I was never going to work out that mortgage. I'm trying to sell that place now. Not so easy. Very difficult. And that's part of the problem right now. Credit is harder to get. Foreclosures are dominating the market. Now, where I'm selling this condo in L.A., foreclosures all over the place.

HARRIS: Right.

EVANS: And this year, we're expecting three million foreclosures. So, there are still a lot on the market out there. Many people are coping with this by moving in with their family or just saying forget it, I'm going to rent from now on. And we had the expiration of the first-time home buyer tax credit.

HARRIS: That's right.

EVANS: That is hurting demand. I'm definitely feeling that with my place on the market out in Los Angeles right now. There aren't a lot of shoppers out there who were shopping a couple of months ago. That's a problem. This is normally a big time for buying a home, right? The bottom line is there's no longer a guarantee that owning your home is a profit-making investment.

HARRIS: All right. So, let's take at a next step here. Are there certain areas that are more conducive for owning a home right now?

EVANS: Yes. And this is really, really interesting. The highest rate of homeownership are in the Midwest and in the south. And the numbers reached about 70 percent. Now, there's a big gap when you come to homeownership in the northeast and west at about 64 percent and 61 percent respectively. Why? Homes are cheapest in the Midwest and south. And the housing bust hit especially hard out in the west. You know, we've been talking a lot about what happened out in Las Vegas.

HARRIS: Right.

EVANS: What happened in Phoenix, Arizona. People there have been hit hard. We got the home prices yesterday. The home price index, Case-Schiller, S&P home price index, it showed, finally, that home prices are beginning to rise month to month, just a little bit, and that's great news because that home buyer tax credit ran out, but not in those areas. It's coming up a lot slower. So, we still got a long way to go. And I think a lot of people got burned.

HARRIS: Right.

EVANS: A lot of people are saying, yes, I think I'll rent for a while. I know my wife is saying that. She's definitely feeling burned about our situation.

HARRIS: Sure. Yes, yes, I think a lot of folks are in that same boat. Appreciate it, Carter. See you next hour. Thank you, sir.

EVANS: Sure.

HARRIS: And speaking of next hour, an online dating scam with two victims, the women who are duped and the families of fallen U.S. service members. You will not believe how low some of the scammers are actually going to make a buck. That's in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.

Plus, the Queen of Soul, love this story, teams up with a former Secretary of State for an evening of classics. Aretha and Condoleezza, talk about respect. We are back in just a moment.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this right here. This is some of the thickest sheen that I've seen out here.

I had already seen oil washing ashore in Louisiana several times before, but nothing like this, a thick syrupy slug of oil oozing at a delicate wetlands.

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HARRIS: BP's incoming CEO says the worst may be over with that ruptured well. Folks who make their living in the Gulf aren't so sure. Charter boat captain, Stew Sheers shows CNN photojournalist, John Bennett (ph), what happened to one of the most productive bodies of water in the world.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been fishing these waters since about 1958. I think I've caught more fish on a rod and reel especially (INAUDIBLE) than probably any man that's ever walked the earth. That boom right there is protecting the oil from getting into these estuaries here. The boom right here across this bayou right here, across this canal, those guys just ran across the boom. That's a better fishing area in there. I mean, it's gate way to the eastern marshes. It just shows you the wide greater (ph) views. You got firsthand view of it right there. We, in the business, charter business, we do it professionally for money. We can't do it because, you know, we could lose our license.

Hold on. I'm going to run it a little bit. You can go 100 miles due west of here and never leave the marsh. Just miles and miles and miles of marsh, bays, estuaries. The most productive estuaries in the world. I look out over this marsh right now. Maybe not to you, everything looks fine, but to me, I don't see any birds working. I don't see any bait. I don't see any mullets jumping. I don't see much life in the water. I mean, something isn't right. I couldn't put my finger on it right in here. You just don't see any life. We should be seeing some shrimp jump. We should be seeing birds working.

You don't see any activity along the bank. You don't see any crabs moving around the water. You know, you just don't see much. We just don't know. We don't know the future. We don't know the potential of what is done. We don't know what's going on under the water. The BP storm, the black storm, the oil storm. It really worries me because it's not normal in here. I'm really concerned about it, you know.

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