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Saints' Fans Stick by Their Team; Former President Carter Arrives Back in U.S. With U.S. Citizen Released by North Korea; U.S. Economy Sputters; Home of the Saints Rebuilt; Mission Possible: Global Warming Makes His Blood Boil; The Stakeout; XYZ: Death Penalty Discussion

Aired August 27, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Listen, a new "Rundown" for a new hour. We're going to bring you up to speed with some of the stories that we're following right now.

They've been trapped for three weeks and they might not be rescued for months to come. I'm talking about those Chilean miners. The new message we're getting from the 33 miners is full of love and of hope and of thanks.

You're about to see them and you're about to hear them.

Plus, a special "Chalk Talk." As we face the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we're going to find out how one New Orleans school district managed to bounce back better than ever.

And you've heard of people climbing Mt. Everest. I bet you never heard of someone swimming it. You're going to meet a guy who jumped into a glacial mountain lake. And believe me, the water was not fine. He'll tell us why he did it.

But first, I want to go right to Boston's Logan Airport. There's a plane coming in right now. You can see it there. That's the plane that's moving.

That plane has former president Jimmy Carter and the man who he brought back from North Korea who spent -- who was sentenced to eight years of hard labor in a North Korean prison for what they call activities that are undescribed. Apparently, he was working in South Korea.

He's a Boston man, a teacher and a human rights activist, who was working in South Korea. We're not quite sure on the details. Somehow he ended up in North Korea and was detained.

President Jimmy Carter made a flight over there, arranged by Dr. Han Park, who we spoke to yesterday, to negotiate his release. Kim Jong-Il, the North Korean leader, released him, gave him amnesty on humanitarian grounds. But we do understand that some conversation took place between President Carter and a North Korean official related to North Korea's nuclear program and possibly restarting the talks about nuclear issues in North Korea, talks that have been dead for the last three years. Now, we know that this was not an official U.S. government trip, but we do know that Jimmy Carter may have had some conversations. We are hoping that after they deplane, that they are going to come and speak -- we've got microphones set up there -- and that we will hear from President Carter what those conversations were.

Susan Candiotti is on the scene at Boston's Logan Airport.

Susan, are you there? You're watching this picture with us?

All right. We're going to get Susan in a second.

But here's the issue. What we don't know is whether or not President Carter has debriefed the State Department and what he's got to say. So we don't know whether we're actually going to hear that.

They're laying the mats out there. They're going to open that door. You're going to see President Carter and the gentleman who he brought back. There it is opening.

Susan, are you with me now?

Hi, Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Ali. I am with you. Hi, Ali.

VELSHI: OK. Tell us --

CANDIOTTI: As you can see, the plane door has just opened up. Can you hear me?

VELSHI: Yes.

CANDIOTTI: All right. Very good.

At any rate, you can obviously see the Secret Service is accompanying former President Carter on this flight, just came down off the plane. And we are now seeing the family of Mr. Gomes walking up the stairs of the plane, stepping out, getting ready to meet their relatives. Some other people getting off the plane as well who were traveling with the delegation, with former President Carter.

Some of the family members are even carrying a homemade sign. Can't see it from this direction, but there is one relative who is even sitting in a wheelchair at the bottom of the stairs as they get ready to see him.

I spoke with one of his uncles earlier, who told me, "We're very, very happy to see him." I asked whether I would recognize his mother, and a family spokesman said -- one of his cousins said, "Oh, there's no doubt. You will know who his mom is."

As we get ready -- we're still waiting for him to come down the plane. You know, one family member said that he did see them last at Christmastime, but they're very concerned about his health and welfare. There are report that is he attempted suicide. Some family members say they don't believe it. One offered an explanation that perhaps his body was, as they complained, shutting down because of the conditions in which he was being held.

The family did issue a statement a little while ago and said that they would not be speaking with us in lieu of this written statement saying that they "feel blessed today to be able to welcome Aijalon home and into the arms of all who love him," in their words. They said they're grateful to everyone who made it possible, thanking former President Carter for traveling to North Korea to bring him home, thanking, as they put it, the government of North Korea for caring for Aijalon during his darkest days and agreeing to release him on humanitarian grounds.

Remember, he was arrested and charged with illegally entering North Korea back in January. He was found guilty of that charge by the North Korean government back in April, and sentenced to eight years of hard labor and a hefty fine as well. The family expressing gratitude.

Here is former President Carter appearing at the door of the plane, walking down the steps to the applause of the family. Let's listen.

(APPLAUSE)

CANDIOTTI: And he's waving Aijalon down. Here he is. Again, he's been held for eight months.

VELSHI: I guess that's his mother who we're seeing greeting him first.

CANDIOTTI: That's right. I think you would think that the pictures speak volumes here. Look at that.

VELSHI: Well, a particular picture that speaks volumes is Jimmy Carter --

CANDIOTTI: Everyone obviously overcome, carrying the American flag.

VELSHI: -- standing off to the side watching this reunion that he orchestrated.

We have to think that quite possibly, there was more to this than just the rescue of this man for Jimmy Carter to go over there, that's what I think the world is looking to see. Was there something else? What was that conversation with a North Korean official that could actually break the ice that we've had for three years, longer than three years, between North Korea and the West about its nuclear program?

So we're expecting -- what are we expecting here, Susan? We're expecting to hear from Aijalon and the president?

CANDIOTTI: Well, that's what we hope, but a family spokesman told us just before the plane taxied up that they do not think they will be coming over to talk, but instead will be going straight home to spend quality time, asking for privacy, as they put it, to put this dark hour behind him so that he can fully recover, as they put it, from this episode of his life.

And you're right, a lot of people are wondering what else might have happened between former President Carter and the chief negotiator for those nuclear six-party talks that have been stalled for quite some time. Was there a message exchanged? Will those talks resume?

We all know that President Carter, back in 1994, when President Clinton was president, that President Carter then traveled over there and put together an agreement to try to get some nuclear disarmament talks going. But, of course, not much has happened during that time.

The relationship between the United States and North Korea, obviously still very strained. So is it possible, many people do wonder, whether President Carter may have been delivering a message?

However, the State Department has made it quite clear that President Carter was on a private mission, a humanitarian mission, when he made this trip. But we do hope, Ali, of course, that he might step up to the microphones and say a few words. But we have no indication one way or the other.

The person who's shaking hands with him, with President Carter, if you can see right now, is a cousin of Mr. Gomes who's giving him a hug at this time, who brought the family statement over to us. The question is, will we ever get the real story about what happened here?

Mr. Gomes has been a teacher in South Korea for many years. Some people have wondered whether he crossed into North Korea perhaps to follow the actions of another teacher by the name of Robert Park (ph) who did the same thing back at Christmas but was released only after a couple of months by the North Koreans?

He was a human rights activist. Many people have said Mr. Gomes is, too.

But we see that they seem to be moving away from the microphones, unfortunately, now. President Carter accompanying Mr. Gomes back into the building.

Let's see if they'll talk -- Mr. Gomes, would you come over and speak with us?

It looks like not at this time. He's making his way in.

As we swing over, you can see all the cameras are rushing over there as well. But he's now disappeared from our site as the family moves in to that office for a private reunion before they go home -- Ali.

VELSHI: Susan, yes, they've gone into that building. Lots of questions there. It was a joyful reunion.

We have a lot of -- as you said, a lot of questions unanswered. Why was Aijalon Gomes in North Korea? What was he doing over there? What happened to get Jimmy Carter over there?

And what conversations took place in addition to getting his release? Was it a goodwill measure in order to get back on track with conversations that have been going on?

Susan, we will continue to pursue those. Thanks so much for walking us through exactly what happened.

Susan Candiotti at Boston's Logan Airport.

We're going to take a quick break. Lots more for you on the other side. Stay with us, please.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let me talk to you about the GDP and the economy for just a moment. In fact, I'm going to get Poppy to talk about the GDP in just a second.

But we had news of a revision to the gross domestic product -- it's normal to do that -- for the second quarter of this year. That's from April 1st to June 20th.

The first estimate of how much the economy grows, and then we revise it three more times, up until a year later. So, it's quite normal to do that, but that number got smaller. In other words, what we thought the economy did in the second quarter, well, it didn't do all that much.

Now, in addition to that, well, markets are pretty strong right now, actually. The Dow is up almost 140 points.

Why? Because they were waiting for Ben Bernanke to speak. Take a look at that. Ben Bernanke gave a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, today and said a few things about the economy that I want to share with you.

The first thing he talked about was, what is going on with consumers? And let me point some of that out to you right now.

The first thing he talked about was consumer credit. He said it remains tight. There's some loosening of credit, but the bottom line is it's not all there yet. It's still tight, and people can't borrow the money to get involved in the economy the way they'd like to. So that's part of it.

Now, the other thing that's kind of interesting, let's take a look at this, six percent. That's the savings right now.

Not long ago, we had a zero percent savings rate. So this is what people are doing. They're paying off some of their credit, they're saving some money. That's a good thing. They're getting ready in case they lost their job or the economy gets bad.

It's bad for the economy, though, they're not spending. But Bernanke says because they're saving all this money, maybe next year they'll start to spend it.

And you can see there that he thinks that this economy is maybe not going to recover as clearly in 2010 as we would have liked, but it's going to happen at some point, and he thinks it might be in 2011. However, there are a couple of problems.

Housing -- there is a problem with people getting mortgages. It's not available to everybody. So there are a lot of people that want to take advantage of these low interest rates and these lower home prices, but they can't actually do it. So we have to have credit loosen up just a little bit more for people who can afford to buy houses and who have jobs.

Finally, there is the issue of housing itself. There have been so many foreclosures, that home prices still remain low. Now, the combination of relatively low home prices and record low mortgage prices, up around four percent and change for a 30-year fixed mortgage if you have good credit. He said that should stoke the economy.

That's what he said about consumers. Let's talk about what he said for businesses.

He talks about the fact that businesses are, in fact, investing in computers and machinery. They're just not hiring people just yet. But there are investments being made. Businesses are upgrading stuff, they're spending some money.

Now, there are areas in which we are building things, in fact. But it tends to be in the energy sector -- oil, mining, things like that. There's some building going on.

Let's take a look at whether businesses can raise money. He says big businesses have abilities to raise money in the nontraditional ways that they do. They can issue bonds, they can issue equity, the credit crisis of 2008 is largely behind us.

Small businesses, however, don't have those alternative means of getting money. They have to d what you and I do if they want money. They have to go to a bank. And that credit hasn't loosened up.

So, small businesses can't get the money they need. The problem with that is it's small businesses who generally do the hiring at the end of a recession. If they can't get the money to expand, they can't hire. And if people aren't shopping, they're not getting more money in to hire people.

Let's talk about jobs for a second.

One of the things that he said was companies, in addition to not hiring people right now, if they do need more people to work, well, what they do is they're hiring temp workers or part-time workers or freelancers, and they are asking people to work longer rather than hiring new people. They're not going to hire new people until they see demand increasing because consumers step in.

So, he says, look, all the ingredients are there for a recovery to this economy. Everybody just hasn't stepped in just yet.

Now, let's talk about that actual measure of the economy, the GDP, the gross domestic product. It's the biggest measure of our entire economy, and that's what sort of kicked this news off today.

You can see Poppy there at CNNMoney.com with that headline: "Economy Grinds to a Near Halt."

Tell us about it.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes.

You know, we've been talking so much and hearing from the administration about the summer of recovery. But if you just look at the numbers, you're not exactly going to see that. I want to show you why.

Let's pull this up on the Vista (ph) wall there in the studio so everyone can see what we're talking about.

All right. The red you see, that's our economy contracting, getting smaller at the height of the recession. The yellow is when the economy started to grow in the middle of last year.

But look what has happened. That yellow is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And the latest number we got just this morning is that our economy only grew 1.6 percent.

I say only because growth should be increasing, not decreasing if this economy is recovering. As Ali said, that was revised down from 2.4 percent.

Why do you care about that number? Why should it matter to you, the average person out there? That's because that's the best indication we have of the output of this economy.

And I want to show you what makes this up, because there's three main components. So let's pull that up so people know what goes into this.

You, the consumer, are a big part of this, spending on cars, spending on lots of things there, a huge part. Two-thirds of GDP comes from us, the consumer.

The next is business investment. Like Ali said, energy investments, building new factories, building new plants.

And a big one here in this report this morning, as you know, Ali, it was government. All that stimulus spending, some say it's artificial growth because it comes from the government spending, propping up this economy.

I think, Ali, the real question is, is this any real growth or are we going to fall into negative territory where this economy contracts again, Ali?

VELSHI: Right. And we know that that stimulus money is going to come to an end at some point. There's a lot of people who say if you took stimulus out of it, those red bars that you have got there would probably be further on to the right of the screen.

OK. We'll watch this closely, Poppy. Good to see you. Thanks, as always.

You can watch poppy on CNNMoney.com. It's a great place to get really well-educated about the economy.

All right. They were in poor shape before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. They were devastated after it. Now Jefferson Parish Public Schools are back in business, students are performing better than ever.

How did they do it? We'll ask their superintendent. "Chalk Talk" coming up right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We have a very special "Chalk Talk" today in honor of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Take a look at this.

These pictures are of Terrytown Elementary School taken nine months after Hurricane Katrina hit in Jefferson Parish. This was the center of the neighborhood ruined and left empty for months.

Imagine being the superintendent of schools here. How do you even start? How do you begin to put things back together?

That was the monumental task of my next guest. And not only did Jefferson Parish Public Schools get back on track, they now have 71 percent of all students reading for at least an hour a day, they decreased the number of high school dropouts by 54 percent.

Joining me now, Diane Roussel, superintendent of the Jefferson Parish Public Schools, and Hayley Gomes, who is a high school senior at Patrick Taylor Science and Technology Academy.

Welcome to both of you. Congratulations.

I know there's a bit of a celebration going on. Well deserved, because I was there right after Hurricane Katrina hit, and it was like those pictures say.

Dr. Roussel, where would you even begin? How would you even start? What did you do in the months after Hurricane Katrina?

DR. DIANE ROUSSEL, SUPERINTENDENT, JEFFERSON PARISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Well, like everyone else, at first I was really shocked at what I saw. And I think for the first three days -- I stayed through the storm, but during the first three days, all we thought about was food, water, shelter, safety. And then it sort of hit us that, we could either decide to put the school system back the way it was, or we could rebuild it the way we'd always dreamt about it being. And that included massive technology and school choice for parents. Hayley is from one of the schools of school choice.

So, the way we did it was to bring in everyone. I called back principals, teachers. The board came back, custodians, everybody -- psychologists, social workers.

We were lucky enough to have a fund balance of $28 million. And I asked them to do whatever it took to get school open if they weren't afraid of it.

So they were cutting trees, they were boarding up windows. They were cleaning out mold and dirty water. And because of the employees of the Jefferson Parish Public School System, not only did we come back, but we became the hub for (INAUDIBLE) because we could open before anybody else could. It wasn't pretty, but we could open.

VELSHI: You had 87 schools back then. You have 89 schools now.

Hayley, the test scores in math and science in the parish have increased for the eighth, 10th and eleventh grades. I can see from the shirt you're wearing, you go to a science technology school. My producer who was speaking to me about this was telling me that some of the gains there have been because you've got better technology in the schools than you had before Hurricane Katrina.

So, while nobody likes to see the damage, you guys actually came out with a better system and better education than you had beforehand. Tell me a bit about it.

HAYLEY GOMEZ, SENIOR, PATRICK TAYLOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL: Yes. After Katrina, we came back, and all the classrooms were fitted with technology. Every student has a computer with them. And we use it all day.

We use our Promethean Boards in all of our classes. We can do math problems on them and then save them and rework them later.

We also do skyping with different officials and doctorates. We did a cyber-surgeons program, in anatomy class, where we got to treat patients and diagnose them online. So it completely changed.

VELSHI: What is that board you said you had there?

GOMEZ: We have a Promethean Board.

VELSHI: What is that?

GOMEZ: It's a high-tech white board. It basically allows us to interact with the class as a whole. And we can do anything we can do on a computer on it. And we have a flip chart that's able to be written on.

So it's more of a businesslike presentation, whereas it's not as school-like as PowerPoint.

(CROSSTALK)

ROUSSEL: We can see film. We can see Harry Truman talking, giving a speech. We can talk to people in China.

We talked to the people in Honduras when they had their tragedy, our students and their students. It really has changed teaching and learning.

VELSHI: Well, Dr. Roussel, tell me -- you had -- I mean, one of the things about Katrina which we saw which was really good was that companies had come in to do some help. And you had some corporate help in getting this done.

ROUSSEL: Yes, I did. I had corporate help.

We were interviewed by Cisco. They interviewed a couple of school systems, and they chose us after the interview.

We were working out of a warehouse. It was kind of ugly, like I said. But they did come, and they came with funds for infrastructure in 16 schools.

And as you know, I have many more than 16, so I had to figure out how to do all of the rest.

VELSHI: Well, excellent. Congratulations, Dr. Roussel and Hayley. And we learned something about that board. We kind of think we're pretty technologically advanced here, but that sounds pretty cool.

Congratulations to all of you, and give our best to everybody in the school system. We're happy to see one area of great resurgence in the Gulf region. Thanks very much for that.

ROUSSEL: Thank you.

GOMEZ: Thank you.

VELSHI: Well, it's very roof ripped apart as thousands of New Orleans residents took refuge inside. But five years after Hurricane Katrina, a rebuilt Superdome stands as a monument to the city's resilience then and now in "Building Up America" when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: The Louisiana Superdome, the place where thousands of stranded Hurricane Katrina victims turned for shelter from the storm. But not even the home of the Saints could escape Katrina's wrath. Five years later, it has been rebuilt, it is bigger and better.

Tom Foreman shows in today's "Building up America."

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali, I want you think about this for a minute. If you lost the roof to your house, and buckets and buckets of water just poured down through everything there, imagine how difficult it would be to recover and whether or not you'd even think you could recover. That is precisely what happened at the Louisiana Superdome. It was a mammoth problem that required a huge commitment and a great leap of faith to get past.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (voice-over): No place was more emblematic of all that went wrong with the evacuation in Katrina than the Superdome. The 10- acre roof ripped open at the height of the storm, packed with people who had nowhere else to go.

The man in charge then and now, Doug Thornton.

DOUG THORNTON, SMG, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT: Debris -- we were very concerned about falling debris from the roof. We had no water pressure. We had no ability to move -- remove trash and debris. And we're taking on more and more and more people, and the Superdome was literally the poster child for misery and suffering.

FOREMAN: It took days for the rescue to be complete. As soon as the last person was out, the hard work began. Teams of laborers swarmed all over the dome trying to restore this crown jewel of the city.

Mountains of debris were cleared. Architects worked out a plan to save the Dome. To repair the damage from an ocean of water dumped into 2 million square feet of walls, electronics and furniture. A new sound system? Seven million dollars. New concessions? Three million dollars. Eight million dollars more for phones. They did it all while fighting budgets and racing the calendar to reopen.

More than 70,000 seats were soaked and molded. By cleaning them, wrapping them in plastic and blowing hot air for two months, all but 20,000 were saved.

THORNTON: If we would have had to replace 72,000 seats, we wouldn't have made it.

FOREMAN: But they did. Opening for the Saints' first home game little more than a year later, they won.

(on camera): The work has continued nonstop for five years, and it is going on still. This is the largest stadium restoration project ever attempted in this country on what remains one of the biggest rooms in the world.

(voice-over): The final bill will be over $300 million. For Thornton, it's worth every penny.

THORNTON: I didn't think there would be any way to come back, not to the city, not to the Dome, and not to my home.

FOREMAN: But the Superdome has come back. The Saints have, too, in a very big way. And no homecoming for any town has ever been sweeter.

(on camera): And you know what's important to remember, though, this is about more than just the Saints or the Superdome itself. It draws conventions and concerts and college championships -- all sorts of things happen in that place that feed the hotels and the restaurants and the tours and the airlines. The whole business of New Orleans counts on the Dome being there. Without the Dome, the whole recovery would have been a lot less robust -- Ali.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: All right. Thank you, Tom. Tom's going to be down there.

CNN's Anderson Cooper is back to New Orleans to see how the region has bounced back five years after Hurricane Katrina. Check out "IN KATRINA'S WAKE," a "BUILDING UP AMERICA " and "AC 360" special tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern.

Well, they're trapped half a mile underground. But those 33 Chilean miners are full of spirit. You're going to see and you're going hear that spirit. We're going "Globe Trekking" right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for "Globe Trekking."

To Chile and the dramatic story of those 33 miners trapped 2,300 feet underground. We have just learned that they have been told clearly for the first time that they will be stranded in the mine for three to four months before rescuers can get them out. Earlier today, though, their loved ones got a wonderful surprise -- a video of the miners, their very cramped living conditions plus the miners' rendition of the Chilean national anthem.

These pictures show you just what these men have been enduring. They've been underground now for three weeks trapped when part of the mine caved in. But their high spirits and determination to survive are remarkable.

Here they are telling their families what life is like underground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I want you guys to know that we're tranquil down here. We want to get out of here. We're not going to stay down here. We're going to get out of here. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This guy doesn't want to get out of here because then he'll have to take a shower and this one hasn't taken a shower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Many thanks to the people who are outside working to get us out.

(END VIDEO CLIPS) VELSHI: Most of those miners have lost weight. Otherwise, they appear to be in pretty good shape.

All right. The Gulf oil disaster affected thousands of people. Some may never recover their livelihoods. And as for animals, many of them have lost their lives, especially sea turtles. More than 1,000 have been injured. Half of those rescued died of their injuries.

One person deeply involved in protecting the sea turtles is Oscar Aranda and he is this week's CNN hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OSCAR ARANDA, DEFENDING THE PLANET: In sad way, the turtles are in danger because of us. Last year, we could have 200,000 turtles coming to lay their eggs. But this year, we are 50 percent less.

In Mexico, this is a federal offense and the people aren't supposed to poach them. But the people believe the eggs are aphrodisiacs. So, this is happening always and everywhere.

My name is Oscar Aranda and I'm patrolling the Puerto Vallarta beaches to protect the marine turtles.

Many animals depend on marine turtles to survive.

When I saw how the poachers take them or selling in the black market, that was really the spark that showed me how important it is to help them.

You have to be there all night. That turtle comes and if you are not there, the poachers will say, well, let's take it.

After they lay their eggs, that's it and the babies are alone. She returns into the ocean. We find the nest. We get the eggs and we bring them into a safe place like a turtle hatchery.

As soon as the babies hatch, we want people to see them and learn to give that opportunity to be a part of releasing a baby turtle, it's something they will never forget.

My motivation is how brave the turtles are to survive against all odds. They continue coming. It's amazing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Since 2004, Oscar Aranda and his organization have released more than half a million baby turtles back into the wild. You can see Oscar in action on our Web site, CNN.com/Heroes.

Freezing water, high altitude, he puts his health at risk to highlight the risk of global warming. We'll to talk to environmental daredevil Lewis Pugh next in "Mission Possible."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Time now for "Mission Possible." You have got to meet this cat. He has drawn attention to global warming in some very unusual ways. His name is Lewis Pugh. He is an environmental campaigner. He is a speaker. He is a swimmer. He joins us now from Cape Town via Skype.

Before I talk to you, Lewis, I want to go to the wall and show everybody your Web site, which shows all the places you've had some unusual swims.

Michael, do we have that? Let's take a look at that.

All right. We're going to get that. Because if you look at the world, there's a little markers there. Love it when we have blue things on blue walls.

There's these little markers about where he's been. There's one isn't there right now because I want to talk to you about that. That is -- your latest swim was at Mount Everest. And I have to tell you, I didn't know you could swim at Mount Everest.

Lewis, tell us what this is about.

LEWIS PUGH, ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNER: In May, I went to do a swim at 5,300 meters in a lake on Mount Everest. So, what is happening is a number of the glaciers are melting away in the Himalayas and leaving in their place lakes. So, we're there to do a symbolic swim. I think there's a real risk of instability in the region as the population of the area increases and as the water supply decreases.

VELSHI: What do you -- we've got a picture of you in that lake. It's quite remarkable. I -- what was that like? Is that as a cold as I think it is?

PUGH: It's extremely cold. The water is two degrees centigrade. What makes it so difficult is that not only is very, very cold. But also, you're 5 1/2 kilometers above sea levels.

So, you can't swim too quickly, otherwise you will gasp and you will drown. And if you go too slowly, you're going to die of cold. So, you got to get a fine balance.

VELSHI: Two degrees centigrade is just a little bit over freezing. That -- what's the issue here? This is -- obviously, when you get to two degrees centigrade in the water, that means that these glaciers or all of that ice and snow on Mount Everest, is it a danger that the temperature is going to increase to the point that a lot of that melts?

PUGH: Well, a number of scientists are predicting that the glaciers in the Himalayas and the Hindu Cush mountain regions will be disappearing in the near future. So, that what this all was about, is to draw attention to the impacts that will have on China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, all those surrounding countries. VELSHI: What is the impact of that? Let's discuss that for a -- for a minute. What's the danger of these glaciers on mountains disappearing? Is that a water source problem? Is it a vegetation problem? Is it a flora? Is it a fauna problem? What's the issue?

PUGH: What I'm trying to do with swims is to link protecting the environment with peace and not protecting the environment with conflicts. I think that if we aren't able to put a stop to climate change and the glaciers melt away and therefore there isn't a constant water supply for farmers and for factories and for ordinary people downstream, I think you're going to have conflict in that region. And three of those countries in that region -- China, India, Pakistan -- all nuclear-powered countries.

But I'm not necessarily talking about interstate conflicts. Imagine if you're a farmer at the bottom of the Ganges River or the bottom of the Indus River and every year you get a little bit less water and the water which you're getting is polluted, I think that there is a real risk of instability and conflict in that region because of that.

VELSHI: What's your next trip going to be, Lewis?

PUGH: Well, I did a swim across the North Pole to draw attention to the melting of the sea ice in the arctic. I've now just done the Himalayas. I did a swim in the Maldives to draw attention to low- lying islands in the world.

And I'm now going to attempt a 120-days swim across another ecosystem in the world which is severely threatened. I'm going to keep it quiet about exactly what it is cause I'm not actually sure I can do it yet. And so over Christmas, I'm going to go over there and do a reiki (ph) of the area and just do short part of the swim. And then if I'm confident I can do it, then next year, I'm going to crack out that 120-day swim right away across that ecosystem.

VELSHI: A hundred and -- I'm going to sit there and study a map of the world now and try and guess. Why don't you come tell us? If you decide you can do that, why don't you come and tell us first?

PUGH: Thank you very much, I will.

VELSHI: All right, Lewis Pugh. What an incredible guy, drawing attention to global warming and environmental issues by swimming all of the world.

All right, Lewis Pugh joining us from South Africa.

If you'd like more information on Lewis and his expeditions, we've linked his website for you at CNN.com/Ali.

And here's a guy who would swim if he had to to get to work. Ed Henry is always there when we need him, unless he's always on one of his extended vacations. "The Stakeout" with Ed Henry coming up right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: You have got to see this. I'm not even going to talk. Let's just take a look at this guy. Take a look at Ed Henry and that shirt and that tie. What is going on?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What? I thought this was a good choice.

VELSHI: I do. I like it. It's like you graduated from small school, man.

HENRY: Oh OK, I thought you were running me down. I meant to tell you yesterday that you had this vest and jacket thing going, but what was remarkable about it is they were different colors. Normally, the vest is the same. So you're trying to rock the blue jacket --

VELSHI: You've been nipping at my heels. I knew I had to kick it up a little bit. So I got the vest and the ties and shirts, everything's different fabric, different color.

HENRY: I can't keep up, clearly.

VELSHI: You are doing a good job there.

How are you, Ed?

HENRY: I'm doing great. Getting ready for Sunday, Ali. You got your calendar open?

VELSHI: You and I have a very busy weekend ahead, not social this time, though. We're actually going to be working. You've got a lot of stuff on your plate. You're doing "STATE OF THE UNION," Candy Crowley is away.

HENRY: Filling in for Candy, that's right.

VELSHI: It's always a busy show, but you've got a lot of stuff. The economy's just been swirling around Washington in a bigger way than it typically does over the last few weeks.

HENRY: That's right, and we have a special guest in Shaun Donovan, the president's housing chief. We're going to talk to him. He's down in New Orleans and we'll talk to him about the president's trip there on Sunday and how they're trying to rebuild New Orleans. A lot of progress has been made, but still a lot that needs to be done.

But look at the headlines this week. You know better than anyone, in terms of existing home sales, way down. New home sales, way down. And Shaun Donovan has been out there in recent months and we press him on this. He's been very optimistic saying we're turning the corner, housing market is better than it's been in some time. And then all of a sudden this week it seemed to crumble yet again.

He's making a little bit of news by telling us the president is going to roll out some new initiatives. That he's going to have an FHA refinancing effort. He's going to have a new -- launching a new emergency loan program for people who are unemployed, try to keep them in their homes.

And then, I asked him about this $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers. It's expired. A lot of people think that was a big problem here in the numbers. He's leaving the door open for the possibility of maybe bringing that tax credit back.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: The $8,000 First-Time Home Buyer Credit expired a couple of months ago. Many people believe that's why some of the housing numbers were so bad this past week. Is that housing credit now dead or does the administration think you should try to revive it to try to prop this industry up?

SHAUN DONOVAN, HOUSING & URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: Look, Ed, I think it's too early to say after one month of numbers whether the tax credit will be revived or not.

All I can tell you is that we are watching very carefully. I talked earlier about new tools that we will be launching in the coming weeks, and we are going to be focused like a laser on where the housing market is moving going forward and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that this market stabilizes and recovers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Everything we can. It certainly seems like that tax credit may come back. Of course, the natural question would be, how are we going to pay for it, because if you've got a tax credit it means less revenue coming into the government.

Time of deep deficits is one of the challenges the administration is facing. How do you stimulate the economy and the housing industry when you don't have a lot of money to go around, Ali?

VELSHI: Did you ask him about why he looks unusually young to be a cabinet secretary?

HENRY: It's really remarkable. I mean, you got to take your hat off to him. And you know what? He actually went to high school with Anderson Cooper.

VELSHI: Is that right?

HENRY: Yes, yes. Little known fact, and we might play around with that a little bit on Sunday. You're going to want to tune in for that.

VELSHI: Listen, GDP, we have that number out today -- 1.6 percent growth in the second quarter, that's the second three months of the year. It was revised from an earlier estimate of 2.4 percent.

White House have anything to say about that? HENRY: Yes, Amy Brundidge, White House spokeswoman, basically pointing out that they're disappointed. Obviously, it's not a great number, but pointing out that previous four quarters, there was positive growth, certainly not as much as the administration would like.

But they're pointing out there has been positive growth, even this one. It's an anemic number, small amount of growth, less than had been projected, but it's still positive instead of negative growth. They're going to try to take some heart in that, but look, they know they're under pressure here two months before an election.

VELSHI: All right, and we're going to be on together on -- actually, we're on TV endlessly together this weekend. We're on "YOUR $$$$$" --

HENRY: People are probably sickened by it, actually.

VELSHI: -- at Saturday at 1:00 and Sunday at 3:00 Eastern, and we're on "STATE OF THE UNION" together --

HENRY: Well, I decided, you know, look, I have to get somebody to break down all these economic numbers because it's hard to make sense of the housing numbers and whatnot. So who better to get -- the person who breaks down those numbers better than anyone? So we got Richard Quest. No, just kidding.

VELSHI: Oh! Well, if something happens at the last minute and he ships out somewhere as he often does jetting around the world, I'll be his backup.

HENRY: Exclusive with Ali Velshi on Sunday.

VELSHI: All right, Ed, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow and then Sunday morning and then Sunday afternoon -- we're just going to keep on working together.

Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent, on "The Stakeout."

All right, "Wordplay" coming up next. And let me just warn you, this is not for the squeamish, especially if you don't like numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Today's "Wordplay" is kind of gross -- actually, it's literally gross.

It's a word that has got so many meanings. Your mom might have used it as an adjective as in, "Ali Velshi, don't be so gross." Of course, that would mean indelicate, indecent, obscene or vulgar.

As a noun, most dictionaries first definition for gross is a group of 12 dozen or 144 of something.

And then there's the meaning I use most in my anchoring and reporting, which is total income before any deductions -- gross domestic product, gross profit, stuff like that. The opposite of that is net, which is what you've got after all charges and expenses, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

All right, staring death in the face and being considered the scum of the Earth. They claimed they were innocent, these guys actually were. I'm going to throw a little "Crime & Consequence" into my "XYZ" coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I'm merging a little "XYZ" and a little "Crime & Consequence" today. Let's call it "XYZCNC."

This week we looked at a convicted killer's claims of innocence and bid to execution. We don't' know whether Troy Davis is telling the truth or just trying to delay the death chamber, so let's put his case aside and look at the big picture.

Beyond reasonable doubt -- judges and juries are human, mistakes are made, innocent people have been sent to death row. According to the Death Penalty Center, in this country, since 1973, 138 people have been exonerated and walked out death row's doors.

The groups definition of exonerated, the conviction was overturned and they were either acquitted at retrial or all charges dropped. The only other qualifier, an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of innocence.

Now just to put a face on this for you, Anthony Porter, convicted of a double murder in 1983, he came within two days of execution, was only spared that time because the court wanted to look into his mental competency; he's got an IQ of 51. Porter's conviction was reversed. He was released in 1999 after another man confessed to the crime.

Just one of at least 138 reasons if we're going to put people to death, we better be darn sure they did it.

That's my "XYZ." Time now for "RICK'S LIST" with Brooke Baldwin in for Rick.