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Dodge Ball Record Smashed; Wisconsin Evacuation Order; Bishop Long Says He'll Fight; Is Industrial Farming Making Us Sick?

Aired September 26, 2010 - 19:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Every weekend we like to bring you interesting news items that you might have missed throughout the week in what we call "News You Missed."

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LEMON: Jacqui Jeras and I are going to do that after the show. We're going to play some dodgeball tonight.

(LAUGHTER)

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I love dodgeball.

LEMON: We're here to start with the world's biggest dodgeball event staged the other day at the University of California, Irvine. Nearly 1800 students turned out to smash the old record by more than 500 people. The Guinness record folks were on hand to make the new record official.

That looks like a whole lot of fun. I'd like to do that.

And then, there was this story out of Cambridge, Mass. A doggy playground is turning all those little gifts that dogs inevitably leave behind, they are turning it into energy. The poo is deposited into special containers that compost it and one of those components as the waste breaks down is methane gas. The methane -- it's been used to power the gas lights in the park, in the neighborhood.

Hello everyone, we're tracking some breaking news this hour it's out of Wisconsin. We're getting word from Columbia County officials in the central part of that state that there is a levy there that is failing. This is new video we just got in from Portage, Wisconsin just downstream from that levy.

Greg Matthews with the Department of Natural Resources joins me now by phone. And Greg we understand an evacuation order has been issued for people in the Black Hawk Park area. What's the status of the levy right now?

GREG MATTHEWS, WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES (via telephone): We're concerned that a section of that 14-mile old levy may collapse. We've been monitoring a boil since this morning. We took some precautionary steps. They didn't work. The boil is getting larger. And it could collapse at any time. We just don't know when. We're not really used to dealing with a situation like this. This is a 120-year-old relic. It's made of sand. It was constructed by some farmers back in the 1890's whereas a modern levy that our engineers are familiar with would be constructed of steel and concrete.

So, if it does fail, we really quite frankly don't know the extent and scope of what will happen.

LEMON: So what -- what's being done to prevent failure then?

MATTHEWS: Well, we're working all along the 14-mile long levy and other areas where there's seepage and boils and so far, we've been able to contain those problems. This is one problem we have not been able to contain and it's getting worst.

LEMON: So you don't -- you're not even sure, I was going to ask if you expect just to be able to withstand it, but you don't -- you don't know.

MATTHEWS: We don't know. We do know if the river would drop a couple of feet that would help -- help a heck of a lot.

LEMON: Yes and then how many people would be affected if this thing does go?

MATTHEWS: Well in that area where -- where we're worried about to collapse -- there's 60 residences and from what I understand the local authorities are asking those people to get out.

LEMON: Hey listen, Greg Matthews with the Department of Natural Resources. The best of luck to you and we're going to be following this story now.

As a matter of fact, why don't we bring in our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras to update us on the situation there? Jacqui, they don't know. They don't know.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well right, they've never dealt with this before. This is basically a record flood that we're dealing with and you're dealing with a very old levy system. Basically an earthen dike and it's really tough to keep up with that.

Let's show you the area that we're talking about, in case you're not familiar with it. This is Central Wisconsin. This is around the Portage area. And this is the Wisconsin River here. There you can see the city and I believe it's -- this is the area that we're talking about, this whole big, earthen levy system.

Now, I want to show you all the -- the levy -- or the map of the flood stages and show you what the river has been doing here for today. Here you can see that current level, here is that peak, 20.4 feet and here's what the record stage was 20.5. So we missed this by a tenth of a foot.

But you know that river is just ever so slowly going to start to go down. Look at this, this is through Tuesday that we're looking at very little recession on this river, so that pressure and that force is going to stay there and it's going to build there, so this thing isn't going away today here, Don.

Gradually going down below flood stage probably some time on Wednesday or Thursday, so a very serious situation unfolding, four to 11 inches of rain fell here earlier in the week. And now, that river is trying to, you know, get everything downstream and alleviate some of that stress.

LEMON: All right, Jacqui Jeras, thank you very much. Jacqui is going to keep us updated on that one.

We turn now to other news now and it's a developing news, Bishop Eddie Long went before his congregation this morning to address for the first time the allegations of sexual misconduct with young male members of his congregation.

Long faces such salacious and disturbing charges made by four young men who said their pastor coerced them into sexual situations. Long spoke the words that many were waiting to hear.

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BISHOP EDDIE LONG, NEW BIRTH MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH: As I said earlier, I am not a perfect man, but this thing, I'm going to fight. And I want you to know one other thing. I feel like David against Goliath. But I've got five rocks and I haven't thrown one yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: CNN's Martin Savidge was at this morning's service and he filed this report.

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MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Standing before an overflowing crowd of congregants in the mega church he built, Bishop Eddie Long was in no mood to back down.

LONG: There have been allegations and attacks made on me. I have never in my life portrayed myself as a perfect man. But I am not the man that's being portrayed on the television. That's not me. That is not me.

SAVIDGE: It was Long's first public comments since four young men filed lawsuits accusing him of using his spiritual position and the church as well to coerce them into sex.

So many came to hear what Long had to say, traffic was still snarled as the service began.

(on camera): What do you hope to hear today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The truth. The truth. SAVIDGE (voice-over): Inside, parishioners waited an hour for their embattled pastor to appear. When he finally did walking hand- in-hand with his wife, the crowd came into its feet. Clearly feeling at home, Long acknowledged those listening went far beyond his usual Sunday morning crowd.

LONG: Good morning New Birth --

PEOPLE: Good morning.

LONG: And good morning to all our other guests.

SAVIDGE: When Long event eventually turned to the scandal itself, the levity was gone.

LONG: I've been accused. I'm under attack.

SAVIDGE: And his intentions became clear, describing a legal battle of biblical proportions.

LONG: I am not a perfect man, but this thing, I'm going to fight. And I want you to know one other thing. I feel like David against Goliath, but I got five rocks and I haven't thrown one yet.

SAVIDGE: Afterwards, a much more subdued Long appeared before the news media.

LONG: As an advice of counsel, I am not going to address the allegations and the attack that's been levied upon me at this moment.

SAVIDGE: Then left without taking questions, leaving parishioners with mixed impressions of whether the truth they had sought was what they actually heard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's innocent. And he didn't do anything. I believe him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He really didn't say anything, he seemed like he avoided the subject. He just said what he wanted to say.

SAVIDGE: Martin Savidge, CNN, Lithonia, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Coming up on CNN, we're going to talk the merits of this case, the legal merits of that Bishop Eddie Long case shortly here on CNN.

Your plane is coming in for a landing and then you hear this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brace for impact.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay down. Stay down.

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LEMON: The drama on a Delta Airlines flight late last night is all caught on tape.

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LEMON: Time right now for our "CNN Equals Politics" update and we're keeping an eye on the latest headlines on the CNN.com Political Ticker.

So let's join CNN's senior political editor Mark Preston from "The Best Political Team on Television". Mark, tell us what's crossing right now?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, Don, what's he going to do? Will Rahm Emanuel run for Mayor of Chicago, will he stay as the Chief of Staff? Well, it looks like all signs is that he will leave the White House and he is going to run for Mayor of Chicago.

In fact, this is what David Axelrod had to say today on "Good Morning America". "I think that he loves the City of Chicago. He always believed that that was the greatest job there is." He said right now that he's drawn to running. And he's working through some personal implications -- actually that wasn't on "Good Morning America". That would be tomorrow. This was on "This Week" he said those comments.

So with Emanuel looking into Chicago, what are Democrats looking at? Well, they're looking at the midterm elections right now Don. And the numbers spell trouble. This new CNN Opinion Research Corporation Poll shows that the president has an all-time low approval rating right now. It's at 42 percent.

That's actually comparable to what Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all saw during their first term in office. So a very bad approval rating for President Obama heading into Election Day, terrible news for Congressional Democrats as well.

Republicans hold a 53-44 percentage advantage over Democrats right now, Don. It shows that that nine-point advantage is very hard to overcome heading into Election Day. So Don, it's not a question of how many seats will Democrats lose on Election Day. It's a question, will they lose control of the House of Representatives and perhaps the Senate -- Don.

LEMON: Is there a strategy for Democrats? I mean, these numbers don't look good for them.

PRESTON: Don, they are terrible right now. And in fact, we'll see. President Obama began the first of four major campaign rallies this week. He will be in Wisconsin trying to get his supporters up and going, trying to get them energized. We'll also see Vice President Biden, Don, on the campaign trail.

But what is really, really depressing I think for Democrats right now, is that if you dig into these numbers that we have, it shows that when these voters are asked, is your vote for a Republican mostly to express support for Republicans or opposition to Democrats, 49 percent say it is opposition to Democrats.

So again, terrible numbers Don, but you know on this day in history, I have to point out to our colleague, as Steve Rusk (ph) pointed this out to me. In this day in history 50 years ago, it was the Kennedy-Nixon debate. And as we all know and our viewers know, that totally changed how politics was covered in our country -- Don.

LEMON: That's Steve Rusk (ph) a walking encyclopedia. Thank you, Mark Preston.

PRESTON: And mark me.

LEMON: Mark will be back at 10:00 Eastern with new CNN poll numbers on the Tea Party. For the latest political news, go to CNNPolitics.com.

You are what you eat. And right now, I am a lo mein noodle. And what you eat can be making you sick though. We get down to the nitty- gritty of the harmful stuff hiding your food.

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LEMON: Is what you're eating making you sick? A recent salmonella scare prompted a huge recall of eggs all across the country.

"New York Times" op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof is pointing blame at what he calls industrial farming -- cramming egg-laying hens into cages and stuffing livestock with antibiotics. And I talked with him earlier, I want you to take a listen.

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LEMON: In your article, you say that industrial agriculture is unhealthy. That's a pretty damning word, "unhealthy". Has it always been that way and -- I want to go out beyond that -- and say can we correct it? Can we turn the ship around?

NICHOLAS KRISTOF, OP-ED COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK TIMES": Well, there is some danger and looking back at historic agriculture and seeing some kind of panacea, we sprayed all kinds of things on our cherry orchards that were probably not terribly safe. But I do think that in some ways, industrial agriculture today is more unsafe and creating more problems for public health than ever.

Maybe the best example of that is the way antibiotics are routinely fed to livestock to prevent them from getting sick and help them grow a little bit faster. When I was growing up, we never fed our animals antibiotics and nobody would ever feed their kids antibiotics to routinely -- to reduce the chance of getting an ear infection.

But today the single state of North Carolina uses more antibiotics for livestock than the entire United States does for humans. Eighty-four percent of antibiotics in this country are going to livestock and the result is antibiotic resistant infections that affect everybody and, of course, that includes vegetarians who get immersed (ph) at a hospital, for example.

LEMON: Well, Nicholas, that brings me to that. There's been a lot of talk about this genetically engineered salmon and introducing it into the environment. What's your concern about that?

KRISTOF: Well, clearly, genetically modified crops, for example have enabled us to be much more productive, to feed a lot more people and so I think it's a mistake to be afraid of genetic events generally. But there also is a really legitimate concern that in the short run rush for a profit, people are going to introduce genes in fish, for example, that will enable those fish to get to market earlier, or make them a little bit more money. But if they escape, then they're going to have long-term consequences for animals in the wild.

And in the case of salmon, this has been reviewed. There are arguments back and forth. I don't really know where I come down on that, but you know, there clearly are concerns with farm salmon already, for example. And there are risks that genes will swap out of the farm populations and create larger problems that we can't even contemplate.

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LEMON: Coming up in just about 10 minutes, the CNN cover story. What all of us choose to eat, where we buy our food and how much we spend on it says a lot more about us than we think. That's coming up, 7:30 Eastern, in just a couple of minutes here on CNN.

My worst nightmare and probably yours -- no landing gear and your plane is coming in for an emergency landing. It happened last night to a Delta flight at JFK Airport in New York. The incredible, heart- stopping video from inside the plane, when we come back.

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LEMON: Boy, this would just freak me out and I'm sure you too. Imagine being on a plane and then you hear this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stay down. Stay down. Stay down. Stay down. Stay down.

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LEMON: Scary moments for passengers aboard Delta Airlines Flight 4951. This is video from inside the plane. The pilot had to make an emergency landing at New York's JFK Airport last night after one of the aircraft's wheels got stuck in the up position. The plane slammed on to the runway and it slid to a stop in a shower of sparks -- you can see those sparks. Everyone though is ok. Bishop Eddie Long told his congregation today that he will fight the allegations of sexual misconduct made against him by four young men. He's got some high-powered attorney's on his side including former assistant U.S. attorney, Craig Gillen (ph).

Let's discuss the legal case with our panel now the merits of this case. Columbia university professor, Mark Lamont Hill, TV host of "Our World" with Black Enterprise -- he joins us from Philadelphia; and with us from the phone now, from Westchester County, New York, former federal prosecutor, Sunny Hostin, now legal contributor on our sister channel TruTV.

Sunny listen -- I want you to listen to what B.J. Bernstein about some of the evidence in this case then we'll talk about the merits. Let's take a listen.

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B.J. BERNSTEIN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I have the bishop's private e-mail addresses, more than one. He would text them. He would write them. We're not saying they're pornographic material.

But this bishop -- why, this man is so powerful, he's supposed to be busy ministering to his flock, has time to e-mail them, back and forth, over and over throughout the day. Send me a picture of you at school. Not naked, not anything but where ever it is. Just send me a picture of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Ok. So Sunny, e-mails phone calls or what have, does this necessarily prove the case here?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CONTRIBUTOR, TRUTV (via telephone): Well, that in and of itself would not prove the case, but, you know, I reviewed the complaints and they are fairly significant to me because everyone knows there is a legal responsibility not to compromise your position of trust to overcome a minor's will. And in this case, that is what they're saying.

They're saying that Bishop Long used his position as a pastor of this mega church to overcome their will. If this passes the initial judge's review, it could -- could go to trial. So I would say these are serious allegations -- these are very serious allegations and I think they pass the legal standard here.

LEMON: Ok. So we're not talking about jail time, this is really about reputation and money.

HOSTIN: That's right. They are civil cases -- civil complaints that have been filed and a lot of these cases, Don, usually do end up in a financial settlement because it's embarrassing for the person who the case has been brought against. But oftentimes they do end in financial settlement.

LEMON: Ok. HOSTIN: One thing I'm slightly concerned about for him is the possibility of criminal charges.

LEMON: All right. So listen, I'm with Mark Lamont Hill. Mark, you worked with B.J. Bernstein on the Genaro Wilson case. Craig Gillen, as we said, is a former U.S. attorney and then also, Dwight Thomas. These aren't civil attorneys. These are criminal attorneys.

MARK LAMONT HILL, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Absolutely. Obviously, Dwight worked on the case before B.J. did and in fact B.J. undid some of the work that was already. But yes, these are criminal attorneys and I think that -- and we saw this from his words earlier in the church. I think he's going to mount an extremely aggressive strategy.

The one thing we did not hear from Eddie Long this morning was, "I did not do it." And so I think one of the things you might see is extremely aggressive strategy that turns the mirror on the victims as opposed to on himself. I think it will be very interesting to see how things play out.

But I think B.J. Bernstein has also mounted a very interesting strategy. When you look at the complaint itself, she's also sort of preparing a strategy that I think will help potential jurors lean on her side.

LEMON: What do you mean by that? Can you explain real quick?

HILL: I'll give you an example. If you look at the complaint, one of the things in the complaint in addition to like failure to intervene and failure to supervise, she talks about how these boys were ordinary, straight boys who tried to have girlfriends and Eddie Long wouldn't let them.

So for a jury when they see these ordinary, straight 16-year-old boys who are being preyed upon by a gay minister -- that's going to be the way this is going to be spun as opposed to them being, for example, gay church members who had some inappropriate relationship above the age of consent.

LEMON: Ok.

HILL: So, even though it's above the age of consent, there are always other issues that may not be legally germane in the court of public opinion and in an actual jury pool, I think they're going to have some -- Eddie Long's people are going to have some problems.

LEMON: Mark Lamont Hill and Sunny Hostin, that's all we have time for. Sunny Hostin is from "In Session", our sister network TruTV. Thanks to both of you.

Coming up in the next half hour: indulging in the good and the downright nasty facts about food -- it is tonight's CNN cover story.

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