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Earl Now Larger Than California; Seeking Historic Compromise in Mideast Peace Talks; Hostage Crisis Ends with Gunman Dead; Playground Lets Kids Use Imagination to Transform It

Aired September 02, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: OK. So a lot of news in the last couple of hours of CNN NEWSROOM. We're going to give you a fresh treatment on all of those top stories with Ali Velshi at the top of the hour. As a matter of fact, let's get there now. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi in New York City.

Doctor, it's all yours.

ALI VELSHI, HOST: You -- you have had a busy couple of hours, Tony.

HARRIS: Yes.

VELSHI: As you said, we're going to carry on exactly...

HARRIS: Perfect.

VELSHI: ... where you dropped off. Two major stories that we're following right now. The first one is the hurricane. We are going to continue to be your hurricane headquarters. We are tracking Hurricane Earl by the second. It's a powerful Category 4 storm. It's closing in on the North Carolina coast.

Let me give you some perspective on this. That storm is now larger than the state of California. Hurricane warnings now extend all the way up the Eastern Seaboard to Massachusetts, especially those areas that lie outside the normal boundary of the United States -- of the mainland in the United States.

Forecasters are not expecting Earl -- they are -- they're not expecting Earl to make landfall in North Carolina. But they say the hurricane-force winds could extend 90 miles from the center. You'll look at that. Chad's going to go over it with us and explain why that is a dangerous storm. It's packing high winds. The issue is how fast it's moving. But it is contained, and it's organized.

Reynolds is going to tell us about that. I'm sorry, not Chad.

Here's a live look from Kitty Hawk on the state's Outer Banks. This is the area most likely to be affected. It's also in Dare County, where officials have expanded a mandatory evacuation order. They are now asking all visitors, all tourists, to leave as Earl approaches.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we need to happen now is for the visitors to heed the warning to evacuate. This is going to be an overnight storm, which always makes it difficult, because -- because it's nighttime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: While many people are leaving, others are planning to ride out the storm. They're boarding up their homes and their businesses. Some folks have also been stocking up on groceries. One of the fastest-selling items: water. The high demand is leaving behind some empty shelves, so anyone who is in the path of this hurricane or thinks they might be, start planning now.

Airlines also taking action, AirTran, American, Continental, Delta, they're all waiving rescheduling fees for travelers flying to and from cities along the Eastern Seaboard this Labor Day weekend, which marks the end of the summer travel season.

Reynolds Wolf, as I promised you, is in the CNN hurricane headquarters. CNN's Sandra Endo is on the North Carolina coast. Let's go to Sandra first. She's in Kill Devil Hills.

Sandra, what's the situation there?

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, I can tell you, we've been here since daybreak, really, and we have started to feel stronger winds kick up. You can see it's a beautiful day. Behind me, the sun is shining, and the waves, though, are certainly intensifying. And we've seen a couple of daredevil surfers out there, kite surfers actually, taking advantage of the higher surf.

But we've also seen lifeguards go around telling swimmers to be careful, because the tide is certainly coming up, and telling tourists not to go very deep. Right now there's no hard-and-fast rule to stay out of the water completely. So a lot of people here are coming to the shore, taking pictures of these high tides and higher waves. And also just enjoying the day before Hurricane Earl comes through here.

But you were mentioning, there are really two camps here. Some people, long, hard-core residents, want to brace for the storm and hunker down. They've been going to grocery stores, really stocking up on supplies. You mentioned ice and water; also drinks and just food for a couple of days, really, to just watch the storm go by.

Others, we've seen on the road, a steady stream of cars of people heeding that evacuation warnings that are in place in several counties around this coastal area.

So certainly, a lot of people taking precautions. But a lot of people also just wanting to ride it out -- Ali.

VELSHI: Sandra, thanks very much.

Reynolds Wolf is in the CNN hurricane center. Reynolds, give us -- just take us back. We're following this all very closely at CNN, but for folks who aren't following this very closely, what's the situation on the storm and where it's going?

WOLF: The latest that we have on the storm, Ali, is this is still a very dangerous Category 4 storm, it looks like it may be weakening. By the time our next update, we're already seeing some dry air beginning to come in just on the top half of the storm for the northeast-northwest quadrant of the storm. As it gets a little bit closer to the eye, it tends to weaken. It has just that perfect structure. It was all basically closed in. The eye is still well- defined. However, we're seeing the drier air, and that may actually break it up just a little bit. At least, that is the hope.

The long-term forecast we have from the National Hurricane Center shows that weakening process occurring, hopefully as we get into early Friday morning. Winds expected to be around 150 miles per hour. Gusts much stronger, up to 140. By 8 p.m. Friday, winds of 100, and as we go fast forward to 80 and Saturday morning, winds of 75. Still a Category 1 storm.

This is your cone of uncertainty, the shaded area that you see there, the shading in light -- white. But just keep in mind that this storm could deviate from that path. And it probably will. These storms don't just move from point to point. They wobble quite a bit. And that's going to be the situation with this particular storm.

I can also tell you from where Sandra was reporting live, there are parts of that coastline that by tomorrow, certainly by tomorrow afternoon that may be unrecognizable, compared to what we are seeing today. Those strong winds. Even if the storm does not make a direct hit and just stays off the -- off the coast, which is the forecast, the tropical-storm-force winds are going to extend some 200 miles from the center. Hurricane-force winds, some 90 miles from the center, so it could do a widespread damage not just off the Carolina coast, but off the Virginia coast, the Delaware coast, the Jersey Shore, all the way up past Massachusetts. You could have power outages that could just be unbelievable. In fact, many places you could have up to millions of people without power.

And speaking of the winds that could provide those power outages, wind gusts expected, possibly as we get to the evening hours, an 80- miles-per-hour if not stronger, Ali. Waves anywhere from 25 to 30 feet this evening, storm surge from two to three feet.

And again, we talk about just how expansive all this could take place, how rough it could be all the way up and down the shore. Already we're getting some live information that's coming in. Some buoy data, very quickly with this. Give you an idea of some of the information we're getting here from some of the buoys.

Let's see, you've got wind speeds there in the water of 22 miles per hour. Some of the wave heights have been pretty significant. Some up to 29 feet, in fact. Then what we're going to be seeing as we make our way through the rest of the afternoon, evening is some of this really begin to intensify. The farther north the storm goes, the more intense the winds are going to be felt, especially off the Carolina coast, eventually near the Delmarva Peninsula and off the Jersey Shoreline.

Here's an idea you can see. Some people that might be in Charlotte, you're not going to feel much. But some of you over towards Raleigh, certainly Wilmington, even though you're going to be inland, you're going to have some of the stronger winds. Along the coast, they're not going to be quite as strong. You could have them, say, 39 miles per hour, up to 50, but you will have the occasional gusts of an 80, maybe even a 90-mile-per-hour gust, and that may be enough to know down trees. Those trees are going to hit power lines. The power lines, of course, are going to cause those power outages. So it's going to be a long-term problem we're going to have through the weekend and possibly beyond.

Ali, back to you.

VELSHI: Reynolds, when's the next update? We keep getting these updates about where -- where the storm is going. When is the next one?

WOLF: It's going to be within hours. But if we get new information from the National Hurricane Center, they're going to go ahead and jump the gun. They'll give us that new information. So it's very possible we could get something within 20 minutes, could get it within an hour, possibly sooner. But we're going to be watching this for you, giving you our own updates, obviously, in concert with the National Hurricane Center through the evening and through tomorrow.

VELSHI: OK. We've been -- we know the drill. You got something, we'll put you on TV immediately. This is your hurricane center at CNN.

I want to bring you up to speed with the other big story that we are following. And that is that an oil platform, an oil and gas production platform about 80 miles off the Gulf Coast has exploded. Thirteen people were -- were sent overboard. One of them is injured. But all 13 people have been accounted for, and they've been transported to Terrebonne Parish for -- for help and for recovery.

I want to talk to Patrick Cassidy, who is with the company that operates this rig.

Patrick, are you on the phone?

PATRICK CASSIDY, MARINER ENERGY SPOKESMAN (via phone): Yes, sir.

VELSHI: Tell me what you know.

CASSIDY: Well, at approximately 10:15 today, a fire broke out on our production platform on Vermilion Block 380. This is about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast in water depths of about 320 feet.

There were 13 crew members. And all 13 crew members evacuated and have been accounted for. No injuries have been reported. In an initial flyover by company personnel over the site, there was, there was no hydro carbon spill that was reported. And Mariner is working with the authorities in response to this incident.

We don't know what caused it yet and, of course, there will be an investigation, once today's events are better resolved.

To put this in, I know the initial reports were that there was a well blowout or something of that nature. Those were incorrect. There were no drilling operations at this facility. There were seven wells that were producing approximately 1,400 barrels of oil in total and about 12 million cubic feet of gas in total.

VELSHI: But everything is contained?

CASSIDY: It appears to be at this time, yes, sir.

VELSHI: So there was production that was feeding into this rig. Everything is contained. You're telling me no reports of injuries, as far as you know?

CASSIDY: That's correct.

VELSHI: Do you know how these 13 people we're talking about, having gone overboard, do you know what transpired there?

CASSIDY: I do not know. The expectation is that they shut in production, then evacuated the facility. And they were picked up from a life raft, picked up by a boat and are on their way to facilities onshore.

VELSHI: OK. Anything happening at any of the other platforms or rigs that you are involved with as a result of this? In other words, have any messages gone out? Has anybody been asked to do anything, check anything, batten anything down?

CASSIDY: I don't know at this time. This facility is -- is a bit isolated. So the standard procedure would be to shut in the production, then to evacuate the facility. Then you would send out the fire response facility -- fire response capabilities to put out the fire.

VELSHI: Patrick, we really appreciate you talking to us. I do want to ask you, however -- obviously, we're all trying to figure out what went wrong, and it's going to be best figured out in an investigation. But there were some reports of this is a -- a rig that has been under construction for some time. And that there were construction delays on it. What do you know about the history of this rig?

CASSIDY: This was a facility that a Discovery was made some time ago. Initially, Hurricane Ike had damaged the facility, so it didn't come on until earlier -- or late last year, earlier this year. But there were no operations going on. There were no drilling or other operations going on that facility today.

And the fire appears to have been quite a bit a ways from where the wells are. But again, it's very early days yet, very early in the incident. And so the information we have, you know, does need to be fully -- fully analyzed and confirmed.

VELSHI: And as far as you know, is this a -- was this a fire or an explosion or both? Do you know?

CASSIDY: My understanding, it was a fire o n the northwest top side -- top of the facility.

VELSHI: OK. Patrick, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it.

Do me a favor. If you get more information, will you communicate it with us? We just love to keep everybody informed. And I think, as you know, after the Deepwater Horizon issue, it's probably in all of our best interests to try and get as much information as we all can so that we don't get too concerned about something that might have been smaller.

Patrick Cassidy with the company that operates the -- with Mariner Energy, which operates the platform that we're talking about. Thank you, Patrick.

A gunman with some major grievances: he doesn't like what's on TV. He calls human beings filth. I'm going to show you how that Discovery Channel hostage standoff played out by the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: At Discovery Channel headquarters this morning, police gave the all-clear, saying there are no active explosives in the building. That is a huge relief after everything that went down starting 24 hours ago. We brought it to you right here. We've got new details today about this bizarre hostage standoff. We watched some of it play out live on this show. I want to break it down for you hour by hour.

Police say around 1 p.m. Eastern yesterday, James Lee walked into the lobby of the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring, Maryland. He was waving a gun around. He had explosives -- he had something strapped to his body. Turned out they figured that out later.

The people at Discovery were familiar with Lee and his extreme views. He had been arrested two years ago after protesting outside the building. He's been linked to an online manifesto that calls humans filth and demands the channel stop, quote, "encouraging the birth of more parasitic human infants."

Company officials took action. At 1:21 p.m., they sent an e-mail to workers. "Seek protection in a locked office," the e-mail said. Some of them do. Most of the 1,900 employees evacuated.

Three men, one of them a security guard, are trapped in the lobby with the gunman. Workers at the day care center in the building grabbed the children, including babies, put some of them in cribs, and got them out of there.

About an hour later, 2:20 p.m. Eastern, the SWAT team has the gunman in its sights. Officers are trying to negotiate with him via cell phone, but they say he has wild mood swings during those conversations. The police chief says it was clear Lee was dealing with, quote, "some mental issues."

During the 3 p.m. hour, negotiating teams keep talking to Lee, trying to convince him to end the standoff peacefully. Police say Lee kept talking about all the issues he had with Discovery's , and he just keeps at it.

At about 4:50 p.m., police say Lee points his weapon at a hostage. A police sniper shoots him. The hostages get away. They are safe. Just before 6 p.m. Eastern, police confirm that James Lee is dead, and they detonate explosives that they found in the building.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(EXPLOSION)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: At the Discovery Channel today, counselors on hand to help employees deal with the hostage crisis and the aftermath.

All right. Building your own playground, it's a creative way to help fix our schools, and it's a way to get kids to learn while they play. I'll tell you about it on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Fix our schools, those three words will drive much of what you've been seeing this week on CNN and what you're going to see. We've sent reporting teams across the country to document the education crisis in America. Most importantly, we're going to shine a light on success stories that can empower us to offer our children so much more than they're getting now.

There's an architect in New York that's encouraging little children to learn as they play. He's figured out a way to let kids create their own playground.

CNN's Jessica Yellin takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What do you think you're looking at? You're not sure, are you? Well, that's the point.

(on camera) What do you think it is?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like a slide. You put balls in it and then it will go down. I was thinking we should put, like, water and stuff.

YELLIN (voice-over): There's some serious teamwork behind this.

(on camera) How did you build this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we worked together, and first, there's only this much. And then we just had to do more parts.

YELLIN: Kids can thank world-renowned architect David Rockwell. He usually designs hip hotels and restaurants, but a father of two, he decided to rethink the traditional playground. Over five years, he donated his time and works with play experts to come up with this.

DAVID ROCKWELL, IMAGINATION PLAYGROUND CREATOR: Look at this. It's like Kids' World over there. You've got this kid moving the wheelbarrow with those pieces over. And all of these pieces are infinitely variable.

Traditional playgrounds are largely made from fixed equipment.

YELLIN: Right.

ROCKWELL: Seesaws, slides, monkey bars, swings, that are organized linearly. And so they're fantastic places to build gross motor skills and to take your kids to burn off energy and to develop...

YELLIN: Wear them down.

ROCKWELL: Wear them down.

Imagination Playground is a totally manipulatable environment in which every part of it allows kids to create their own constantly transformable playscape.

YELLIN (voice-over): For example, look what's happening by the water.

ROCKWELL: You can see those little wood pieces are dammed. So kids can dam it, flood it, make little boats. This is some sort of little raft community going on over there.

YELLIN: It's part of a bigger idea.

ROCKWELL: Think about the freedom as a kid to be able to play here, run over there, get something, come back. Look, she's made a little house since we've been here.

YELLIN: Susan Solomon is an expert in play theory. She says Imagination Playground fills a need in kids' increasingly regimented, standardized, test-filled lives.

SUSAN SOLOMON, PLAY THEORY EXPERT: They learn that not everything is already laid out for you in a way in which it's always going to be perfect. It's possible to fail. And that's so critical for how kids learn.

YELLIN: She thinks this is free and inventive, and that's better for kids.

SOLOMON: They've, in fact, created, it looks like, their own sandbox.

YELLIN: But don't tell anyone here what they're doing is good for them. As far as they know, it's just fun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's fun because you do stuff that you never knew you could do over here.

YELLIN: They say it's better than their regular playgrounds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here you can design like your own.

YELLIN: And that lets you do different and new things?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It's pretty fun.

YELLIN: Jessica Yellin, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: OK, we've got a development in those Mideast peace talks that are going on right now in Washington. Stay with me. I'll bring it to you right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let me tell you about what's going on.. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders meeting right now in those peace talks in Washington, have agreed to meet again, on September 14 and 15, and roughly every two weeks thereafter.

That news is coming to us from Senator George Mitchell. He is President Barack Obama's special envoy for Middle East peace. This is -- this is a former senator, George Mitchell.

This is a very, very significant development, as analysts of the situation have been telling us. No one expected a peace deal to come of this meeting. But if there was an agreement going forward to continue dialogue, that would be deemed a success.

I'm going to bring you a lot of information about the importance of these Mideast peace talks and give you some context to break down exactly why we are in the position we are in between Israel and Palestine. I will do that later in the show.

And I have two people here who have been intimately involved in these types of discussions over the years. You're going to get some real insider information about the Mideast peace talks.

But for now, a very positive development, breaking news that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to meet on September 14 and 15 and for every two weeks thereafter, according to former Senator George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's envoy on Middle East peace. More on that in a little bit.

Let's talk about that storm. Hurricane Earl, this thing is massive. It's a big, fast -- fast storm. It is larger than California. It's closing in on coastal North Carolina by the second. We've got the latest track on Hurricane Earl from our hurricane headquarters. You're going to want to watch this. It is affecting the entire East Coast, and it's affecting travel. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: CNN is your hurricane headquarters. This video from our iReporters Mark Rosetta. It was shot on the south side of St. Maarten as Earl approached earlier in the week. A powerful storm of Category 4 is now closing in on coastal North Carolina. But that's the kind of thing that you can expect.

Look at those waves right now. It looks very calm out on coastal North Carolina right now. But Reynolds is going to explain to us why this is -- is such a serious storm. And there's something about this, Reynolds. I am certainly no expert, no meteorol -- whatever it is you are, but I've seen many of them, and they don't look as tight and as organized. Sometimes spaces involved. This thing is compact. Does -- is that -- does that matter?

WOLF: What's pretty interesting about this, I mean, you've got a center of circulation. It's pretty intense. But if you look at the outflow, it is a fairly large storm.

What's interesting, too, is when you take a look at it -- here's a pretty neat image. This is a satellite image that was taken earlier this morning at 8:38. And this is a visual satellite image. Take a look at it.

VELSHI: Wow.

WOLF: You see the eye pretty well defined, no question about it. You're also seeing something else the intrusion of some of the dry air that's trying to come in, trying to break it up just a little bit.

Well, what we've been seeing -- this is, of course, 8:38 this morning. We're taking now a look now at a shot of, again, our enhanced satellite imagery. Shows basically the same thing: another round of dry air trying to get in the middle. We see the eyewall looking like it's beginning to collapse, maybe actually going through an eyewall replacement cycle. So we're not expecting this thing to die out altogether just yet. In fact, it's going to remain fairly strong. And the latest forecast we have a from the National Hurricane Center shows this at least as a Category 3 moving off the coast of the Carolinas.

And as it makes its way on through, Ali, what you're going to be seeing along the Carolina coast is the wind really beginning to pick up, the rain of course, is going to be pretty extreme.

And the winds, they will also be quite rough. In fact, they're going to be you have to at least hurricane-strength winds that'll be moving from about 90 miles out of the center, tropical storm-force winds some 200 miles from the center, and those conditions are going to be felt as the storm continues to march it's way to the north. By Friday, 8:00 p.m., it's expected to weaken, as it runs into an area of cooler water. Winds of 100 miles per hour, gusts up to 120. Then, in to Saturday, moving up close to the Bay of Fundy, just east of the Maine coast, with winds of 75.

But remember, you've got the cone of uncertainty, the area that's shaded in the whitish color, the storm could move closer to the coast which would be worse conditions obviously for the coast, or it could veer a little more to the east, which would be a little bit better. But still, one thing you can certainly expect, very rough conditions, rough surf, obviously some monster waves.

As we wrap up quickly, we're going to show you again that wind field we were talking about. Hurricane winds probable in the areas shaded in red. So near the center of circulation, near the core is where you're going to have the strongest winds. But as you spread out, the winds will be considerably weaker as you get back towards the center of the Tar Heels state, same deal back towards Columbia, South Carolina, perhaps of course, towards Richmond. But along the coast, that where they're really going to catch the brunt of it.

Where we're also going to the brunt of t, the brunt of the biggest waves ,right on the coast, eventually moving to places like Massachusetts right near Cape Cod. You can see, of course, we have Martha's Vineyard and we have the just the coastal, from Long Island you're going to have rough conditions, because at this point you have tropical storm warnings, watches, up and down the coast from the Carolinas all the way up through Maine. It's something we'll be dealing with through a good part of the weekend.

And the potential of the aftermath. Many people without power, possibly up to millions without power as the storm marches to the north. It is still a powerhouse, maybe a little weakening by the time we get to the next update, but it bears watching. The power should fluctuate, no question, over the next couple of hours.

VELSHI: I want you to go just yet, I want to ask you a couple of things.

First of all, I shouldn't show you any disrespect, because during Hurricane Gustav, I think, you had my back on that one. We were out in Grand Island and you were telling me what the conditions were.

Here's something important to remember, if you're in somewhere where you don't think you're getting a direct hit from the hurricane, what you just said is interesting. Things may happen after hurricanes, you may not have felt like you got a hit, you may want to ride it out in your house, but you could lose power, you could have nothing to do with the conditions immediately front of you. So you do need to take some of this into consideration and plan for it, because it's pretty uncomfortable having no power and possibly no water.

WOLF: Absolutely. Before the storm comes calling it's always wise to tie down certain things like deck chairs on your house, perhaps any other kind of lawn furniture things like that. Obviously you've seen people put the storm shelters, they put the barriers, if you will, on the windows, the guards that try to keep the glass from breaking and whatnot. Any kind of precautions you can take, certainly a good idea before the storm comes calling.

But for many people, I have to tell you, Ali, it's going to be too late. The bridges that connect to the mainland on the Outer Banks, once you hit 39 miles per hour, the close many of those bridges. For a lot of folks within the hour, within two hours they're going to be stuck.

VELSHI: Quick question for you, because we do like to break things down on this show, 140-mile-per-hour winds or 145-mile-per-hour winds, how fast is this thing moving?

And what's the relevance of the eye that you were talking about? The size of the eye or the containment of the eye?

WOLF: The eye itself is basically an indication of how strong this thing can be. What I mean by that is it's not really the source of the power, obviously, but it's a good idea, it gives us an idea of the thing tends to be fairly strong. It's an indicator that if you've got a well-defined eye, you've got a storm, a big force to be reckoned with. If the eyewall collapses, that is a sign of this thing weakening.

Now in terms of the storm itself, just the scope of it, the thing that's important about it is the eye itself, although that is where you have some of our strongest winds, you have to remember those winds can fan outward. In some cases, as I mentioned, the tropical storm- force winds up some several hundred miles from the center of the eye itself.

We're hoping, though, that as the storm moves to the north and is on a path that really isn't just going from point to point, is a wobbling, rotating storm on a spinning planet in a rotating universe. There's a lot of unknowns with this thing. We do think it will continue that march to the north and with luck it will weaken over the next several hours, Ali.

VELSHI: OK. Thanks very much, Reynolds. We'll stay in touch with you through the course of the afternoon.

We've got some major new developments in Middle East peace talks happening now. I'm going to bring you up to speed when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Promising new developments in the direct Middle East peace talks happening right now at the State Department. We are learning that the two sides plan to keep talking, which in some opinion, was the best outcome for this.

U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell, former senator, just announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will get together again September 14th and 15th, two weeks from now in the region, and they're going to meet every two weeks thereafter. This was the scene this morning, Netanyahu and Abbas sitting just a few feet apart at the U.S. State Department with Secretary of State Clinton in the middle, and I mean literally and otherwise. These are the first direct Israeli-Palestinian talks in almost two years.

Plenty to talk about, primarily borders. I'm going to have more about that in a minute. Also, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, that's a very, very contentious issue, and the plight of Palestinian refugees, many of whom have been on the run for decades.

The leaders spoke briefly with reporters before they got down to business.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: President Abbas, I'm fully aware and I respect your people's desire for sovereignty. I'm convinced that it's possible to reconcile that desire with Israel's need for security.

MAHMOUD ABBAS, PRESIDENT OF PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (through translator): Once again we want to state our commitment to follow our commitment -- our engagement including security and ending incitement. And we call on the Israeli government to move forward with its commitment to end all settlement activities and completely lift the embargo over the Gaza Strip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: You heard Abbas talking about the embargo on the Gaza Strip and to end the settlements. These are clearly the issues most important to the Palestinians right now.

President Obama tried to get the talks off on the right foot with one-on-one meetings yesterday at the White House and a joint appearance later with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan. Last night, they all sat around the same table for a private White House dinner.

I want to take a moment to map out the source and history of this conflict, and I do mean map. Here's something I recorded down in my studio at CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: The simplest explanation for the Arab-Israeli conflict is that this is a conflict over land.

This is the Mediterranean. This is the area in question. This is Israel this is the West Bank and Gaza. Between the First and Second World Wars, western powers allied themselves with a nationalist movement called Zionism that called on the world's Jews to immigrate to Palestine and set up a Jewish state in the middle of today's Israel.

But that goal came into deadly conflict with the aspirations of the Palestinian people who were already living there. Palestinians are both Muslim and Christian.

And if you add to that, the regional powers who is resisted the idea of a Jewish state in their backyard, plus the religious significance of the region -- Jerusalem being a holy city to all three religions -- you start to get a sense of why this conflict has been so intractable for decades.

Let me just give you a little sense of the geography. As I said, here's the Mediterranean. This is Egypt. This is Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon is right here.

Now this part in gray over here is all Israel. This over here is the West Bank. It refers to the west bank of the Jordan River.

And this over here, this little slice of land bordering Egypt and Israel is the Gaza Strip, it's an impoverished area with millions of people in it.

Now Jerusalem is right here in this crook. This is Jerusalem, and this is a disputed area.

Generally speaking, Jews live in Israel, although there are lots of Arab who is live in Israel, and the Arabs live in the West Bank and in Gaza.

Now, Israel's birth by war in 1948 spawned a Palestinian refugee crisis that has not been resolved to this day. The Palestinian refugees went to Gaza, they went to the West Bank and they went into Lebanon.

The legacy of Israel's military occupation of this area, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, starting in 1967, is contentious to this day.

Since that war, around half a million Jewish settlers have moved into the West Bank. They live there among more than two million Palestinians.

Now today, the Palestinians want to set up their independent state here in the West Bank and here in Gaza, two separate areas, but their leadership is divided between the two main factions; one of them is Fatah, this is the old PLO, and the other one is Hamas.

On the other hand, the Israeli government, this government here, has been expanding and annexing settlement blocks in the occupied territories, mainly in the West Banks, and that has got Palestinians upset. That is a major source of tension.

So as the two sides meet this week to restart direct negotiations, many say the chances of a real end to this conflict seem pretty far off.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: I hope you're even marginally interested in what's going on in the Middle East, otherwise, I probably lost you already. But if you're still interested, we're not done yet.

After a break, we're going to see what happens in the Mideast peace talks after the cameras leave. Keeping in mind the breaking news we've had about a moderate success, a modest success at those talks.

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VELSHI: To broker a Middle East peace agreement or even try, you've got to be tough, if not devious. That's not me talking, by the way. I'm quoting a man who has been there and done that and now tries to educate the world about the process.

He is Aaron David Miller, former adviser to six secretaries of state, now an author and a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

Aaron, what a pleasure to see you. Thank you for being with us.

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT NEGOTIATOR: pleasure, Ali.

VELSHI: You in your latest book describe some two decades of being involved in almost every negotiation that went on between Israel and the Palestinians. And your entire view of the situation went from optimistic to pessimistic to -- where are you today when you look at this Middle East peace talk?

Do you think there's a chance that somehow these two parties, with the, with the support of the United States, can come to peace?

MILLER: You know, it's funny, Ali, because I started my career as Dr. No, as an intelligence analyst. Then I moved to Dr. Yes as a Middle East negotiator and diplomat. Now I guess I'm somewhere in between, maybe Dr. Maybe.

I think under the right circumstances, particularly if the Israelis and Palestinians are prepared to make the tough decisions and President Barack Obama is prepared to be a tough, effective and reassuring mediator, yes, I think there's a chance.

In fact if those questions are answered yes, the administration may have a serious process. If the answer to those questions are no, then you might as well hang the closed for the season sign on the president's hopes for a two-state solution.

VELSHI: Aaron, let's talk about this for a second. There's never been a successful peace between those two peoples without the involvement of the United States, or certainly since 1948. There also hasn't been a successful peace with the United States.

Is the United States important to this peace?

MILLER: Well I would argue, Ali, that in all of the breakthroughs in that have been achieved in Israeli peace-making, Kissinger's disengagement agreements following the October war, Carter's Damp David Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and Jim Baker's efforts to bring the parties together in Madrid in October 1991, the U.S. played a critical role.

But that roll real really is dependent on the capacity of Arabs and Israelis to own their own process. Larry Summers, smart guy, once said that in the history of the world nobody ever washed a rental car. And what he meant by that was that you care only about what you own.

And the fact is, I don't care how much Barack Obama may want this. If Netanyahu and Abbas don't own it, they don't want it. Then there's really not much we're going to be able to do about it.

VELSHI: It used to be probably until 15 years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, that if you doesn't solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict you were going to have global terrorism. Global terrorism is now well beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Does it even matter to the rest of the world, not to the parties who live there, not to the Palestinians and the Israelis who want security and economic stability.

Does it matter to the rest of the world that they keep fighting or don't keep fighting?

MILLER: Well you're 100 percent right. America has a lot of other interests. Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran. But the Arab/Israeli issue, I have to say, resonates out in that part of the world, particularly in the Arab/Muslin world, with a ferocity and an intensity that makes it an advantage to the Americans if, in fact, they could make progress and a disadvantage if they can't.

So, yes, I think we have a stake in reducing the amount of anti- American sentiment that exists out there. But we should be under no illusions. Barack Obama could solve this thing tomorrow and we're not going to fix all of what ails the United States in this region.

VELSHI: I want to ask you, Aaron, a lot of people feel that the United States cannot be honest brokers in this because there are lot of Arabs and Palestinians who feel that the U.S. has a pro-Israeli prejudice. There are some Israelis who think the U.S. has not been its greatest friend in recent years and that Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu do not have a warm, fuzzy relationship.

Let me ask you this. Tell me, can the U.S. be an honest broker? You, yourself, in your book, write about the fact that as a U.S. negotiator you went in with a prejudice that might have been in favor of the Israelis.

MILLER: You know, it's really interesting because when we succeed, Kissinger, Carter, and Baker, we really are effective mediators. We do see Israel's interest and we have a special relationship with the Israelis. But, we also see the needs of the Arabs.

So, the answer, Ali, is yes, we can be an effective broker. We've just convinced ourselves that we can't be one. Arab/Israeli peace is tough. And an American president is going to have to be tough, fair, and reassuring if he wants to succeed because one thing I know, and you can ask Jim Baker about this, nobody's going to plant a tree in your honor if you succeed.

VELSHI: Let me ask you this. What of this relationship, this thorny relationship, between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu? It does seem that they had dinner last night, it does seem that that had not impeded the decision to move forward with more meetings.

Is this going to be an impediment?

MILLER: You know, if we want to move forward, we are going to have to create a pretty strong working relationship on this issue with an Israeli prime minister because without one, we're never going to get anywhere.

The real truth of it is politically incorrect, though it may be. The one reason our phone keeps ringing all these years despite the fact that there are many flaws in our policies toward the Middle East, is that we have what no other power in the region or the international community has. We have a close an intimate relationship with the state of Israel, and when we that relationship wisely and that relationship is special, rather than becoming exclusive, we can use it to our advantage and to the advantage of the Israelis, and to the advantage of the Arabs and the Palestinians.

VELSHI: Aaron, what a pleasure to talk to you about this. Thanks very much for the good work that you've done and a career dedicated to try to find peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Pleasure to talk to you. Aaron David Miller is a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. He's former Mid East policy expert and negotiator with the State Department.

We're going to talk to Ari Fleisher in the next hour about this. Ari, of course, a spokesman for President Bush. He, of course, was up front and personal with some of the struggles between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I want to get his view on what he thinks needs to be done.

Fed-up parents in California unite to revolt against a failing school. We're going to go inside that war and look a controversial model for school reform that could catch on nationwide when we come back.

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VELSHI: As we continue to look at ways to fix our schools, we want to look at the importance of prekindergarten and kindergarten education. Some think these classes are just glorified day care where kids don't really learn all that much. But according to experts, nothing could be further from the truth.

Check this out. $320,000 is how much a recent study says a good kindergarten teacher is worth because the study says, students who were successful in kindergarten are more likely to go to college, or more likely to go to college, they're more likely to earn more money as adults.

Joining me is Randi Weingarten. She's the president of the American Federation of Teachers, a good friend to our show. As you know, Randi, we're specializing in education this week, but our show likes to look at this on a regular basis. And much comes down to teachers. Some of it's criticism, some of it's solutions.

What is the importance of the quality of education that somebody gets before they even start the first grade?

RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: So, this is what happens, at least in terms of the brain research. Kids, their minds are like sponges. Every parent knows this. They're sponges when they are age zero to about age five. So if you can actually create appropriate learning environment for kids when they're three, they're four, they're five, it is a huge leg up.

Now, what happens is that middle class rich folks, they not only understand this, but they have the means to create it. Print rich environments, reading to kids.

VELSHI: When you say "print-rich" environments, this is a very big deal. The books that are at home, the reading that's done at home.

WEINGARTEN: Exactly.

So, what we need to do if we want to help all kids is give kids who don't have a leg up, that leg up. That's where all day Pre-k or all day kindergarten comes into play. I say all day because if you're a parent and you have a half day Pre-k or a half-day kindergarten, you still have to do childcare for the other half of the day.

So what's happened is that we have tried to push. All the research is there, we've tried to get school districts to implement full day Pre-k and fill day kindergarten programs because it help kids, particularly disadvantaged kids have a level playing field.

In this recession what we've we've seen is the opposite direction. We've seen these programs are the first ones that get cut and we've seen cuts all across the country.

VELSHI: Yes. We've got something in Arizona where one school district, parents are paying to send their kids to kindergarten full time. In public schools, bus services are being cut in some places. There are, obviously some of these, as you said, some of them are becoming part time.

Here's a map of some place where is this has become really difficult. How do you convince people, because when we look at public school, we say public school. But this is everything from Pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, all the way through grade school.

When you're fixing, what are you fixing first?

WEINGARTEN: That's part of the reason why we push so hard for those additional federal dollars because we know that states are having a hard time and that's why the new $26 billion is for an investment into kids.

So look, we have to fix -- this is the tough part about kids. You can't let kids in a recession suffer. If we really believe that we have to prepare kids for life, college, and career, then we have to find the extra dollars to do it. We know that Pre-k and kindergarten are a huge investment. Every single dollar, we need to invest there. We should be investing there. That helps our kids and our grandkids for the future.

VELSHI: Let's talk about Race for the Top a little bit. We've talked about this before.

A number of states, 10 more states, including New York and the District of Columbia are the latest to win round two. That means they get money from the federal government in exchange for meeting certain standards and changes. Do you agree with the reason why New York won? So you agree with the changes that they're going to have to implement in order to get this money?

I guess the bigger question I'm asking you is that a lot of people think Race to the Top is the best program out there to fix education. A lot of teachers think it unfairly punishes them.

WEINGARTEN: Well, look, this is what Race to the Top did. It actually focused people's attention on several things, but not everything that's important in education.

One of the things that we said for the beginning is that Race to the Top should focus almost exclusively on how you overhaul teacher evaluation because there's a right way and a wrong way to do that.

VELSHI: Some of those overhauls have meant tying teacher performance to student performance, student test scores.

WEINGARTEN: Actually, what evaluation should be, and our unit has been in the vanguard of this, and frankly won one of the grants from the I-3 Department of Educational grants. Evaluation should be about how we help teachers better their practice. But part of that is always looking at not only what are we teaching, but what are students learning?

So of course, student data, student learning has to be part of it. What's happened is we're all looking for the fast, quick fix. Now the newest buzz is tying student test scores to teacher performance, even though every single researcher says go slow on this. You cannot deal with this in isolation.

Having said that, the New York - now granted, I'm from New York but I had nothing to do with New York winning this, or with them getting the grant. The New York application was amazing. And it was amazing not because of the fight that people were having about charter schools, it was amazing because they came up with a very smart, good way of overhauling in a phased-in basis teacher evaluation. I can't say the same about D.C., because what they did in New York is they figured it out in a collaborative, smart way where teachers will ultimately own this because this is really about continuous improvement. D.C., frankly I don't know why D.C. won.

VELSHI: Interesting. All right, Randi, always a pleasure to see you. Finally good to see you in person and thanks for being a good friend of our show. We really do need to continue these discussions.

WEINGARTEN: It is always fabulous and let me just say, thank you for doing this show.

VELSHI: It's our pleasure to do it.

Randi Weingarten is the President of the American Federation of Teachers.

We're following Hurricane Earl. It's now a category 3 storm with winds of 125 miles an hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. This thing keeps going back a forth from a three to a four. Reynolds is going to tell us about this, that this is a wobbly storm, but it stick packs quite a punch. We'll talk about it on the other side of this break.

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