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Egg Safety on the Farm; Katrina Leaves 'Food Desert'; Serial Stabbing Suspect in Michigan; Back on Bourbon Street; What's Hot; Katrina, Then and Now

Aired August 26, 2010 - 12:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And hello again, everyone, I'm Tony Harris, top of the hour in the CNN NEWSROOM, where anything can happen. Here are some of the people behind today's top stories.

We will hear from an egg farmer working to make sure his product is safe for you to eat.

And five years after Katrina, something as simple as a quick trip to the grocery store is still a bit of a struggle for some.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENGA MWENDO, LOWER NINTH WARD RESIDENT: There's corner stores. There's places that sell alcohol. There isn't any food.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The people are coming back, but the supermarkets aren't?

MWENDO: Exactly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: You are online right now and we are, too, Josh Levs is following what's hot -- Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The original supermodels, Tony, that's what's hot. Where are they now? Actually, they're still supermodels, which is why everyone is clicking on this gallery from "In Style" right here on CNN.com.

HARRIS: Yes, love it.

OK, let's get started with our lead story, CNN's day-long focus on food safety, from the farm to your family's table. This week's massive egg recall prompted us to take a broad look at the problem. Let's start with an update on salmonella-tainted eggs.

The company's involved in the recall are still producing eggs each day. They won't be tossed, they are being pasteurized at facilities approved by the Agriculture Department. The process kills any bacteria in the egg. The eggs are being sold to big food manufacturers in liquid form. Eatocracy it is the new section on CNN and it is all about food, and now it is all about eggs. Josh is back with important information from Eatocracy that you should know.

And, Josh, we're starting with a major impact of food-borne illnesses and the impact of those illnesses on this country.

LEVS: Yes, talk about what's hot, Tony. I mean, everyone is checking out Eatocracy right now because they're looking for information on all this information that they can get about eggs.

And one of the things I want to show you is something I discovered when I was looking at Eatocracy. I found this makeourfoddsafe.org. Let's see if we can zoom way into this map, cause what I want to do is show you all -- this is very interesting. There's a coalition of groups that push for food safety, and what they've done is they've created this interactive map to actually show you how every state in the entire country is affected financially.

They point to a study that says $150 billion is the toll that food-borne illnesses are taking on the United States. And you can click on any state on the entire map and they'll give you figures.

They're saying the quality of life cost in California alone they're estimating at $11 billion. You can click on Oregon, or click anywhere you want on this entire map, and what it does is it breaks it down for you. And what we're seeing is, across the country, millions and millions of dollars are being lost, hundreds of millions, and ultimately billions of dollars, Tony, being lost through food-borne illnesses of various types.

Now, while we're here, I want to take you over to this, too, because something else you should see from Eatocracy is something that a lot of us don't see. We're hearing about raw eggs. What you might not know is that there are all these foods out there that have raw eggs or undercooked eggs in them that you might not have thought about.

HARRIS: Right.

LEVS: It's not just about the eggs. Take a look here.

Foods with raw or undercooked eggs: steak tartare, Caesar dressing, Hollandaise sauce. Those are just a couple of examples -- mousse, tiramisu, meringue. A lot of these foods are things you need to watch out for. They're also pointing out cake batter, cookie dough, even some ice cream.

So, Tony, what we need to do is keep a close eye not only on the eggs, but on any products you might be eating that might potentially have raw or undercooked eggs in them throughout this recall, while we're all looking out for our food safety.

HARRIS: Terrific.

Hey, I know you're working on something special for Ali's program at 2:00 p.m.

LEVS: Yes, because people are still shopping. You've still got to get your food.

So, in the 2:00 hour we're going to be talking with Ali about what it takes to make sure when you do go shopping that what you're getting are only the safe eggs -- Tony.

HARRIS: Terrific.

All right. See you a little later with what's hot, Josh. Thank you.

LEVS: You got it.

HARRIS: If you haven't heard about Eatocracy, you will today. What is Eatocracy? Well, it is all about food. CNN created a site where everyone has a place at the table. Eatocracy.cnn..com, there you can find everything from the latest menu craze, to profiles and interviews with chefs, and of course the latest on the egg recall. Again, it is eatocracy.cnn.com.

New Orleans is a city known for its food, but it is tough to get groceries in some areas. The food desert left by Hurricane Katrina.

First, though, our "Random Moment" in 75 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK. Let's get to our "Random Moment." Right?

Meet a chimpanzee who is also a cougar. Confused? Let's clear things up with today's "Random Moment."

Susie the chimp is a brand-new mom at the ripe old age of 56. You know, that means she's been monkeying around with Julian. He is the only male chimp at the Manhattan Kansas Zoo, and he is a much younger man, just 31.

Zookeepers took Susie off birth control pills recently. They thought her frisky days were behind her.

The "Random Moment," always fertile ground for the unexpected.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The man accused in a serial stabbing spree will be back in Michigan this afternoon for arraignment. In fact, we believe he may be in court this hour.

Not sure if we're going to get pictures of him.

Elias Abuelazam had been jailed, as you know, in Georgia since his arrest two weeks ago. Police link him to 18 stabbings in three states, and five were fatal, all in the Flint, Michigan, where he lived. We believe he will be in court this hour. We'll try to work on some pictures of the hearing as soon as they become available.

You know, I don't have to tell you, egg safety starts with the chickens and the people who handle them.

CNN's Casey Wian live from egg country. That is Iowa.

Casey, good to see you again.

Now, what are you hearing from there?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, we're here in northeastern Iowa at the Holthaus family farm. And here they raise chickens for eggs, as well as vegetables and other produce.

And earlier today, we took a tour of the farm to find out what they're doing here to ensure food safety.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN: It's morning in northern Iowa, and the chickens here at this farm are beginning to lay their eggs. There are 700 laying hens here at this farm, and you can see it's a much different scene than you get at the giant corporate farms that are at the center of the salmonella scare.

Moving outside, you can see that the chickens have a lot of room to move around, which is great for the chickens, but it presents a set of problems for the owners of this farm, because they also grow vegetables here. They have to take precautions to make sure that the chickens and the eggs aren't cross-contaminating the vegetables that they produce.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I personally think there's enough regulations already. All farmers, big or small, have certain protocols that they've got to follow. When we go and pick the eggs up, they go immediately from when we pick them up into a cooler. They stay there until we wash them. When we wash them, we put them back into the clean cooler then so they never have the opportunity to cross- contaminate.

WIAN: Leaving the hen house, we can show you one of the difficulties in making sure that the eggs and the vegetables produced here are not cross-contaminating each other.

This is the path that the eggs take. And in this building right here to my left, that's where they're stored. They go into this door here. They're refrigerated and kept in sort of isolation. And then they're washed.

But back over here, in the same building, you can see that the vegetables are also stored in the same place. But they come through a different path. And they are kept in a separate room inside the building to make sure that there's no mixing between the vegetables and the eggs. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We change boots and clothes before we go anywhere near the vegetables or even out to the field to pick vegetables.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN: Now, all of the vegetables and the eggs that are produced here at this farm are sold to restaurants, food co-ops, other customers that are located within 90 miles of this property. And Tony, that means that if there ever was a problem with any diseases or infection, it would not spread nationally, and that's a big key -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, it is. That's good to know.

All right. Casey, good to see you.

Casey Wian for us.

The gumbo, the jambalaya. New Orleans is famous for its food. Ironically, the floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina left behind what's called a food desert in some areas of the city.

The story now from CNN's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How high did the water get here?

JENGA MWENDO, LOWER NINTH WARD RESIDENT: The water got about three feet into the house.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Years of rebuilding after the Katrina floods, you'd never know Jenga Mwendo's house had been full of water, but just look across the street.

(on camera): And the entire time, you've been looking at these vacant houses, these overgrown lots?

MWENDO: Yes.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): And neighbors aren't the only thing missing. Five years later, Katrina still hits home in the Lower Ninth Ward at every meal.

MWENDO: There's corner stores. There's places that sell alcohol. There isn't any food.

MATTINGLY (on camera): The people are coming back, but the supermarkets aren't?

MWENDO: Exactly.

MATTINGLY: And what does that mean for the people who live here?

MWENDO: We have horrible food access.

MATTINGLY: Policy makers call it a food desert, as recovering flood victims find food harder and more costly to get to. One national report already ranks New Orleans among the worst in the country with 22 percent of families lacking the money to buy the food they need.

Diego Rose of Tulane University says it gets worse when you consider that many in poorer neighborhoods don't have cars.

DIEGO ROSE, TULANE UNIVERSITY: Whatever you and I might pay for fresh produce in a supermarket that we have easy access to, a person out here is going to have to add on another percentage, 10, 20, 30 percent of their grocery Bill just to get there.

MATTINGLY: And if you think that going by foot from the Lower Ninth Ward is a good option, just watch.

(on camera): I'm going to start walking. As they say in New Orleans, it's time to make some groceries.

(voice-over): When distance is an issue, it's easy to see why less nutritious choices at corner stores are attractive.

(on camera): OK. That was a hot and steamy walk. It only took around 30 minutes, but here's the surprise. This isn't my destination. It used to be a 30-minute walk to the supermarket that was close to the Ninth Ward.

That was before Katrina. Well, take a look at this. It's closed. This supermarket didn't reopen after the floods. There's a new one that's been built since then. It's a little further down the road, so that means just a little more walking.

(voice-over): In all, a little over 40 minutes, and a pound of perspiration to cover two miles.

(on camera): Now, this is the new supermarket. It was built after Katrina. And if this had been a shopping trip for me, I'd now go in, buy only the groceries I could carry, and then carry them all the way back home.

The point here is, making groceries in the Lower Ninth Ward has never been tougher.

(voice-over): Officials are offering tax incentives to lure green grocers back into the neighborhoods while Jenga Mwendo and others are trying to fill the void by expanding community gardens. It's an almost unbelievable irony: food that's hard to get in a city known for its food.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: OK. We will also look at the housing revival in New Orleans. Some neighborhoods are thriving. Others still show the hurricane's muddy scars. I will ask my guest about the city's uneven recovery.

Trouble in the Atlantic. Chad Myers is tracking a hurricane and a tropical storm.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: I think we've got some live pictures we're going to work in here and talk to our Susan Candiotti.

And Susan, as we take a look at this video that's just coming into CNN NEWSROOM, you can remind everyone who we're waiting for, who's going to be in court later today. We're talking about the serial stabber suspect.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. Well, I'm watching exactly what you may be watching right now. Right now it's a shot of an empty strip, but we saw a plane touch down just a little while ago.

This is the suspect that police have named, who they believe is responsible for those 18 stabbing attacks in three states starting in May and ending with his arrest earlier this month. The suspect's name is Elias Abuelazam. He is an Israeli citizen who has been living legally in the United States since he was a teenager in the mid '90s, and he's in his early 30s now.

Police arrested him in Atlanta, our viewers might recall, about 10 days ago or so, when he was boarding a flight, a Delta flight from Atlanta to Israel. He had left his job at a liquor store -- a convenience store in Flint, Michigan, and said he was going there for a visit and planned to come back. But in any case, police made the connection, they said, between all of these attacks and him.

It's important to note, however, that he's only been charged so far with one count, and it's not a murder charge. It is assault with intent to commit murder.

So authorities are explaining that by saying, "We are still waiting for evidence to come in, including lab work." And so that's why he only faces one charge right now.

This is a state plane that you're looking at now from the state of Michigan. Officers, members of the task force flew down to Atlanta early this morning, made a quick turnaround, picked up the suspect, Mr. Abuelazam, put him on the plane under very tight security and flew him back. So that's why he's landing right now in Flint.

As soon as he gets off that plane, they're going to put him into a squad car, they're going to take him down to the courthouse, and he will be placed into a jail cell under, again, tight security. And his first appearance will actually be from jail. It will be an in-house sort of video conference, where he will be in one spot and the judge in the courtroom and the prosecutor and the attorneys will be seeing him in the courtroom.

So we'll be able to see that and report back to you as to what happens at that time.

HARRIS: And Susan, this suspect is facing the potential of some hate crime charges, correct? A lot of the victims, maybe even most of the victims, were African-American, correct?

CANDIOTTI: Most of them were, that's correct.

Now, only authorities in Virginia are outright calling this a hate crime in an interview. The task force leaders and prosecutor in Michigan still saying at this time -- you should be seeing them momentarily here -- not quite yet -- are not saying that they have enough evidence to call it hate crime. But they said they certainly are looking at that as a key motive here.

But they really don't know why they haven't offered up a motive as to why these attacks occurred. I think that he is -- there he is right now, seeing him for the first time.

HARRIS: Yes, there he is.

CANDIOTTI: This is a big guy. I've spoken with his defense attorney, and police have said he is about 6'4, 6'5, weighs 240, 250 pounds. And --

HARRIS: I will tell you, that's what I was struck by when he was in court here in Atlanta, is just his size. And it makes --

CANDIOTTI: You can see that he's wearing shackles there.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

CANDIOTTI: You can see that he's not wearing shoes and only sandals, and his feet are shackled together, as well as being handcuffed there.

You know, the victims in this case who have survived the attack, the ones we have spoken with have not been able to positively identify him. This happened in the middle of the night. All the attacks happened about the same time. And so it seems unclear whether they have a firm identification of this man just yet.

We'll have to wait and see.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: Well, Susan, that would explain why -- it would explain why you don't move forward with some of the more serious charges and you hold him for what you can hold him on while you build the rest of the case. CANDIOTTI: That's standing operating procedure. That's right, they do have to wait to see what they can tie him to.

Remember, one thing police in Virginia -- he was stopped there several weeks ago on a traffic violation. And in the car at the time, they didn't know -- there was no lookout for him at that time, police said.

So they found in the car a knife and a hammer. Those are items that I'm not sure whether were returned to him. So, if they have those, those are certainly items that they could also be testing, along with, naturally, blood work, and see if they can watch his blood to any evidence that was obtained from the victims themselves.

So, as you can see, he's surrounded by a number of officers there, plainclothes and otherwise. And they want to make very sure that he is protected, because, police have said to us, including the sheriff, this is a man who many people in Flint in particular consider a menace to the community, who has scarred that community.

Some victims have called whoever is responsible a stone-cold killer. And there are obviously a lot of hard feelings in that area. And they want to make sure that nothing happens to the suspect in this case.

HARRIS: Susan, appreciate it. Thanks for your help on this.

CANDIOTTI: You're welcome.

HARRIS: Susan Candiotti in New York.

Let's take a quick break.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Waveland, Mississippi, flattened by Hurricane Katrina. And got to tell you, the road to recovery has been a long and difficult one for this particular Gulf Coast town. But Waveland refused to die. And five years later, it is looking to the future.

Here's CNN's Tom Foreman with a "Building Up America" report.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, for all the talk about how much New Orleans was affected by this, it's important to remember that, really, the Mississippi Gulf Coast was ground zero. That's where people truly, absolutely lost everything there was. And yet, they are building up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (voice-over): Of all the towns ripped by Katrina, none suffered more than Waveland. And no one knows it better than Mayor Tommy Longo. MAYOR TOMMY LONGO, WAVELAND MISSISSIPPI: Lost our residential structures, lost our commercial structures, lost our governmental structures. And every city building was gone. Our town was obliterated. We were wiped off the face of the earth.

FOREMAN: And yet, ever since Waveland has been steadily building up. A $100 million in federal disaster aid has rebuilt community centers, libraries, roads, schools, parks. Churches have reopened, 65 percent of the businesses have returned. Not as much as the city wants but good enough to bring two-thirds of the people back too.

CNN's Anderson Cooper first met the Kearney family right after the storm.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360" (on camera): You vacuumed your house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I vacuumed my house to the moon.

FOREMAN: They lost the homes for three generations of Kearneys. It was overwhelming.

GERMAIN KEARNEY, WAVELAND, MISSISSIPPI: This has blown me away, it really is. Yes but I mean, this happens to other people and they come back from it. So -- we're going to come back from it, too.

FOREMAN: And they did. Rebuilding and resettling, not far from the empty lot where they used to live.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was our tree house here which actually made it through the storm.

FOREMAN: Reclaiming their town has not been easy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not complaining but it is harder to do what we have to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes on the --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The school is not around the block. The school is ten miles away.

ANN KEARNEY, WAVELAND, MISSISSIPPI: There is no shopping as women know shopping. There's nothing like that. But that is so immaterial. We're coming back as a community.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, I found something.

FOREMAN: And sometimes the children still dig reminders out of the weeding. But day by day, the past grows dimmer; the future, brighter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slow, very slow but it's happening.

FOREMAN: And for so many here that is enough to keep battling on, building up. LONGO: It never crossed my mind that we're finished. You know, that it's done.

FOREMAN: And indeed, they are not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: Waveland's Main Street, the old business district, completely disappeared during this storm. One of their big goals right now is to get their City Hall there reopened, a brand new building. And with it, continue filling in that picture so hopefully there will once again be a downtown Waveland sometime in the not-too- distant future.

HARRIS: Man, what a great town. All right, Tom. Good to see you.

Tom Foreman for us.

The cost of bad food. Millions of dollars are on the line for companies caught in a safety recall. The CNN Money team has the breakdown for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Well, I guess this -- want to get to the latest information here from just moments ago.

The man accused in a serial stabbing spree is back in Michigan this afternoon for arraignment. This happening just moments ago.

Elias Abuelazam had been jailed in Georgia since his arrest two weeks ago. Police link him to 18 stabbings in three states. And five, as you know, were fatal. All in the Flint, Michigan area where he lived. And - great. Video from just moments ago right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Want to get to you the CNNmoney.com. Of course, our Money Page. I was just thinking before we saw the video, reading the headline here. "Facebook sues start-up for using 'book.'" Yes. Book. Social networking giant sues teachbook.com for using the word "book." I guess you can own a word. Book So, that's the lead story at CNNmoney.com.

We are three hours into the trading day. We want to get you to the latest numbers. As you can see, the Dow is down. We're off session lows, but still trading in negative territory. Down just about 10. And the NASDAQ is trading down as well. Close to seven points.

Today, we're taking a closer look at the safety of the foods you eat. The big egg recall is hardly the first time questions have been raised about how safe our food is. Stephanie Elam is in New York.

And Stephanie, good to see you. We know that food borne illnesses can cost the industry a lot of money. But it also makes a lot of people really sick as well.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes. And probably fearful, a bit, too, Tony. Obviously, when we talk about the egg recall, it's too soon to say what kind of impact it's going to have on the industry as a whole. But we do know that analysts expect demand to come back pretty quickly.

But the thing is, that's not always the case. We've done a little research to see what's happened to other companies. So, remember the E.coli outbreak involved with bagged spinach? That was back in 2006. It cost the industry more than $350 million. One year later, sales were still down 20 percent and have yet to completely recover.

Food illnesses have also slammed some restaurant chains as well. There's an E.coli outbreak at Taco Bell in late 2006. It was traced to tainted produce. Well, its sales sank in the following months and initial losses were estimated at $20 million. But consumers did eventually head back to the Bell.

Same story for Jack in the Box. A 1993 E.coli outbreak at the burger chain led to the deaths of four children. The company lost $138 million in the two years that followed. But Jack in the Box took responsibility and implemented a major food safety program that became a model for other companies, and today sales are more than $2 billion a year.

Well, that's a good outcome. Not all companies survived through it. Like take a look at the Hallmark Meat Packing Company. Linked to the largest beef recall in U.S. history. Well, it was too much for the company, and the business went out. It was done in early 2008, Tony.

HARRIS: It makes me wonder when you cite those episodes from history, why does this continue to happen when there is so much money, millions on the line here?

ELAM: It continues to happen, but really, if you think about it, not as often as it could, or it does in other countries. But we asked the head of the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University that very question. And he said major companies do take food safety seriously. They recognize that an outbreak is a threat to their brand reputation. But he said for smaller companies with fewer resources, it can be tougher to stop and re-evaluate their processes. But that's why it's really important to have some sort of legislation, some say. And the food safety bill that passed the House last year would force all companies, big and small, to meet the same standards.

But overall, Tony, I think you'd have to -- you'd have to say that our food here in the United States is pretty darn safe, and considering how many people are here, that's pretty impressive.

HARRIS: I would think so. I agree with you there. All right, Stephanie, appreciate it. Thank you.

ELAM: Sure. HARRIS: CNN's Ali Velshi in the NEWSROOM at the top of the hour with more Eatocracy, a look at the companies involved in the food recalls and how safety questions impact their bottom line.

Plus, home sweet home in New Orleans. Five years after Katrina, the uneven housing recovery.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Images of a major American city underwater. They are unforgettable. Katrina damaged almost three-quarters of the homes in New Orleans. Five years on, recovery is a fact in some neighborhoods, nonexistent in others. The view now from two prominent New Orleans residents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA REED, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEWSWEEK": Most of the great stuff that's happened here has been because the electorate came back, the citizens came back and thought, okay, we really do get the city we deserve, we get the government we deserve, we better get on it. And that was a hard lesson, obviously. But there's a grassroots and just a civic involvement that never existed in this town that changed the world.

JAMES CARVILLE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: These neighborhood associations are very, very influential. They're very protective in the neighborhoods. If you look, people out here tonight -- some obviously that are more prosperous neighborhoods tend to be a little more vocal.

But people that live in even the poor neighborhoods are very proud of their neighborhoods and they're very protective what goes on there. And Julia would agree with me, it's not just that New Orleans survives or comes back. The really encouraging thing is we've survived and come back as New Orleans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right. Patrick Corvington head the federal agency that oversees volunteer rebuilding efforts on the Gulf Coast. And he joins me live from New Orleans now, outside the world famous Cafe Dumont. It is good to see you, Patrick. Thanks for your time today.

PATRICK CORVINGTON, CORP. FOR NATIONAL & COMMUNITY SERVICE: Glad to be here, Tony, glad to be in New Orleans.

HARRIS: Let me start with this one. It's easy to focus on where you are right now, and that's in New Orleans. But the fact of the matter is, as you know, Katrina did serious damage to a number of cities along the Gulf Coast. Where would we be in the rebuilding effort of the Gulf Coast, post-Katrina without volunteers?

CORVINGTON: That's a great question, Tony. You know, volunteers have been integral to rebuilding the Gulf Coast. More than a million volunteers have served in this area since Katrina, of which 17,000 were our own AmeriCorps members. Right here in New Orleans, 8,000 volunteers have served, rebuilding more than 1,400 homes, something like 12,500 homes in the Gulf Coast. I think volunteers have been key to rebuilding the Gulf Coast.

HARRIS: How do the volunteer organizations select the areas to build homes again, to refurbish? How was that process carried out. How do you make those selections?

CORVINGTON: Yes, you know, some of the great nonprofits who down here, like Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding Together, St. Bernard's Projects, have just been on the ground, working hard. And we're here to support them. We're here to support the volunteers that work with them.

And it's the same thing throughout the entire Gulf Coast. Organizations that have been embedded here for some time, local organizations are really turning towards the challenges they face and being part of the solution. And that's what we're seeing.

And what we're doing is helping make sure that volunteers find the right opportunities here. We're doing that through serve.gov, our Web site where volunteers can enter their zip code and see where they want to serve, what opportunities are available for them.

HARRIS: So, Patrick, you know there's a lot of concern about what is ultimately going to happen with the Lower Ninth Ward. Have there been homes rebuilt there, refurbished there? Give us an update on what's going on in the Lower Ninth Ward.

CORVINGTON: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, volunteers have been critical to rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward. In New Orleans alone, as I mentioned, volunteers have rebuilt and refurbished more than 1,400 homes. Many of those in the Lower Ninth Ward. So I think that that's been an effort where volunteers have been, have been focused.

One of the things we're seeing, Tony, which is really interesting is post-Katrina, many college students came down during spring break, on vacation to help out, and they're coming back year after year. They were so moved, so touched by what they saw here in these communities that they want to keep giving. And we refer to that as "the brain gain" that we're seeing here in New Orleans, where people who volunteered after Katrina in the Lower Ninth Ward, for example, are coming back to keep giving. We think that's an important trend for the city.

HARRIS: Here's the hardball. In New Orleans, in the same way it has been suggested that companies have used the economic crisis to eliminate jobs and benefits from company bottom lines, with many of those jobs never to return -- you know, Patrick, it has been suggested that Katrina has been used to remake the city of New Orleans into a smaller, less black, less poor, more expensive and thereby, more affluent city. Give us the broader view of the new New Orleans.

CORVINGTON: Yes. I think there are certainly some areas of concern. I think the thing to focus on is that communities are taking the lead in rebuilding their city. Local residents, people who have been here for generations are focusing on how to rebuild the community that was destroyed. And we've seen so much progress in that. I think that's what's really heartwarming about that. And that volunteers, both local and those coming from outside are part of that.

And so, I think that's the thing to think about. That while some of that may be true, what's really important is that communities are taking the lead in rebuilding their city.

HARRIS: Patrick, good to see you. Thanks for your time, sir.

CORVINGTON: Thank you, Tony.

HARRIS: Yes. Our pleasure.

Jazz is back on Bourbon Street.

(VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

HARRIS: So, five long years after Hurricane Katrina, the city's famous French Quarter and the business district have diversified. We will go live to the Big Easy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Checking our top stories now.

A serial stabbing suspect has just arrived in Michigan after being extradited from Georgia. Elias Abuelazam was arrested in Atlanta earlier this month trying to leave the country. He's suspected of slashing 18 people, killing five of them.

Mexican officials say 72 bodies found at ranch near the border where migrants heading towards the United States. At least four Brazilians are found in the dead.

A German pop star has been found guilty of causing bodily harm by failing to tell her sex partners that she is HIV-positive. She was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and ordered to do community service.

Back on Bourbon Street. Five years after Hurricane Katrina, jazz club owner Irvin Mayfield and other entrepreneurs are helping preserve New Orleans' heart and soul. A storm has also brought another change, a more diversified business community. Here's CNN's Don Lemon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Irvin Mayfield and his horn personified the New Orleans sound. And thanks in part to the musician turned big easy cultural ambassador, mentor, professor, business owner, jazz is back on Bourbon Street. The Irvin Mayfield Playhouse gives musicians a platform and a chance to revolutionize the New Orleans' jazz scene.

LEMON (on camera): So when do you sleep?

IRVIN MAYFIELD, JAZZ MUSICIAN: Sleep is for the dead.

LEMON: Now is not the time to sleep in New Orleans?

MAYFIELD: I don't think so. Not at all. I think New Orleans is in an enlightening period.

LEMON (voice-over): Mayfield, like long-time New Orleans businessman Tim Williamson (ph) know the city's survival depends on more than music.

LEMON (on camera): This space that we're sitting in now, what is this?

TIM WILLIAMSON, NEW ORLEANS BUSINESSMAN: This is an entrepreneurial club. This is one of the few and many entrepreneurial hubs that have sprung up in New Orleans.

LEMON (voice-over): This old renovated ice house in the Seventh Ward is one of four warehouses all over the city. A cluster of people, businesses and ideas.

WILLIAMSON: That really believe that they can build a business not only from New Orleans, but a global business that can really impact the world.

LEMON: Williamson compares New Orleans right now to the Silicon Valley when the tech boom was in its infancy.

WILLIAMSON: You have this spirit. It's like a frontier for entrepreneurship and a gateway for new opportunities. So where else in the world would you rather be than in New Orleans, Louisiana.

LEMON: There's nowhere else in the world for Vera Warren. The eight months she spent in Chicago after Katrina was the only time her bookstore was shut down in 27 years.

LEMON (on camera): Why did you rebuild?

VERA WARREN, COMMUNITY BOOK CENTER: It wasn't an option just in terms of needing to come back. We are Community Book Center. Community. And for the sake of the community, we had to come back and show the people that it could be done.

LEMON (voice-over): But it's hard. Business is slow. They still don't know what happened to some customers.

WARREN: It makes me sad.

LEMON (on camera): Why does it make you sad? WARREN: Because we're really about community. And we know our neighbors. We love our neighbors. We support each other. And it's like having a child that's missing.

LEMON (voice-over): The soundtrack to New Orleans' future may begin on Bourbon --

MAYFIELD: No city like New Orleans gets rebuilt because of great economic reasons. It got rebuilt because of love. Because of the art. Because of the music.

LEMON: But the people here feel it must reverberate well beyond the French Quarter.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Let's bring in Don Lemon.

Don, good to see you.

Oh, casual Don Lemon today.

Doctor, what are you seeing there? Give us a little look around.

LEMON: I'm on Bourbon Street, man.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEMON: You know, we're seeing -- we're seeing, you know, everything here. It's good to be here back home. Sort of my home. I grew up about an hour down the road in Baton Rouge. But it's good to see that people, for the first time -- you know, Soledad did a documentary called "New Orleans Rising" and it's good to see that it is rising. It has its problems. We've been reporting about that. About the investigation. About the police department, the government and all that.

You can see it's almost noon here in New Orleans and businesses are really booming down in the French Quarter. But, Tony, it's got to reverberate well beyond the French Quarter.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEMON: It's got to go out into the community and to the people as you heard earlier (ph).

Lastly, I just want to show you, there was a big calendar kickoff party for the Saint's girls right there.

HARRIS: Hello.

LEMON: And the Saint's, of course, a big part of the recovery here. A big part of the spirit. A big part of making people feel good about what's going on, Tony.

HARRIS: Hey, Don, but let me ask you, you make a great point there. Evolving and the business life there in New Orleans evolving. Does it have to get beyond its usual bases here? We're talking about, you know, the cultural life of New Orleans and music and tourism?

LEMON: Absolutely. And, you know, we don't want to give that short shrift, because that's what's New Orleans is known about. But it's got to evolve. The businesses have to diversify. They've got to become more technology-oriented, more technologically savvy, if you will. More green jobs and what have you. And, of course, you see the police officers. This is because they're blocking off the road. They've got to get over the crime thing.

And then also, they've got to get these houses rebuilt. You see Brad Pitt there in the lower Ninth Ward, which we -- this is the front of the paper this morning, "The Times-Picayune."

HARRIS: Oh, yes. Yes.

LEMON: You see Brad Pitt there. He helped to build -- his Make It Right Foundation helped to build a lot of those homes. Of course, Habitat for Humanity.

But just walking around, talking to the people in those communities, Ninth Ward, Seventh Ward, New City, the central business district here, they say it's got to be much more cohesion here. It's sporadic and that oil spill certainly didn't help things out here. They were getting better, five years after, they were building and building and building and then all of a sudden the oil and now it's a bit of a setback. But they say New Orleans is rising.

We had a good time last night, too, Tony.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEMON: We missed you. Soledad and I hung out with Irvin Mayfield. We both featured him in stories that we did. And we missed you last night.

HARRIS: Yes, that sounds like fun. I'm sorry I missed it. Have a great time there and we'll see you this weekend from New Orleans, Don.

LEMON: Good to see you, man.

HARRIS: Good to see you.

Since March of last year, NASA has been searching for planets just like earth. Today they're announcing an amazing new discovery. It is "What's Hot" on the Internet. We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Josh, I think we teased it up pretty good going into the break.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How come you stop singing as soon as the cameras come back on. HARRIS: Because I'm horrible, you know, but I can't stop and it's ridiculous. Did you hear what Chad did to me earlier?

LEVS: He does (INAUDIBLE). Oh, no, I missed it.

HARRIS: Oh, man, he got me so good.

OK, we've got to blast through, huh.

LEVS: Yes, OK. So let's take a look at "What's Hot" right now. We're starting off -- any minute now, NASA's going to make this announcement. We have some video. It's cool-looking. Take a look here.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: Here's the basic idea. You know, NASA is up in the sky at the Kepler Space Observatory looking for planets like earth. And in the next hour they're planning to announce the discovery, Tony, of an intriguing planetary system. They've got basically the scope out there.

HARRIS: That's a tease.

LEVS: That's been looking out for it. And if a planet happens to cross in front of the star, the star dims. So they're getting this indication there might be a planet there.

HARRIS: Really? OK.

LEVS: And before we go, really cool video to show you here. And this is one of the pages we're seeing at citypages.com.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: We have a little video of this too. It's this fire twister. The whole world is talking about it.

HARRIS: Man.

LEVS: It's out of Brazil. And I've been reading about these fire whirls. What happens is, when you have basically a ton of heat and dry brush, sometimes you can get, for a little while, what looks like a fire tornado.

HARRIS: Wow!

LEVS: Everyone around the world checking it out today on YouTube, Tony.

HARRIS: I thought it was a doggone special effect, but it's the real deal.

LEVS: It's the real deal.

HARRIS: And it is really "What's Hot" online. OK, I think that's all we have time for. We've got -- LEVS: Yes, we got to go.

HARRIS: Thanks, Josh. We'll be back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEVS: Now you can sing again.

HARRIS: No, no, no.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So in the five years since Katrina, some areas have rebuilt. But in others, little has changed. CNN photographers and iReporters teamed up for a really compelling, really powerful look at conditions then and now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAUREN DIMAGGIO, METAIRIE, LOUISIANA: Everything was gray. Just like when you saw after 9/11 where, you know, the streets were all gray. It was -- you couldn't find any greenery. Nobody. No one coming down the street. It was very eerie. Very eerie to be just in the silence. That's what I remember, it just being so quiet.

CONRAD WYRE III, HARVEY, LOUISIANA: Nothing really changed. I mean like you have an overturned car in the middle of the street. Yes, we moved that, but that's it. I mean, like I say, the people are not coming back. You don't see the commerce. It's like some parts of the city is still like a ghost town. It's just a reality that you have to reach like, hey (ph), this is how we live. And this is what I have to deal with.

DIMAGGIO: In the photo with the shrimp boat that is going a little ways into the house, where that boat came from, I don't know. But it's at the end of a street close to a levee, which right on the other side is a body of water. So I don't know where this boat came from, but it certainly didn't belong on the street.

JOYCE BERGMAN, NEW ORLEANS: I took pictures of a the church. It was a church basically right behind me, across the street. It was a two-story church with a huge set of stairs going up to it and it collapsed sometime during the storm. So it was collapsed when I came back. And basically the whole site's been cleared since and now just the stairs are there.

DIMAGGIO: I'm hoping now that people will realize, you know, they have whatever number it is, how many died in Mississippi, how many died in the lower Ninth Ward, that, you know, you'll get to see, you know, it wasn't just that weekend or those few months. You know, it continues. You know, people are still affected by what happened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.