Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Small Cracks in Two Other 737s; Gunfire at Syrian Anti- Government Protests; Mourning a Voice for Freedom; Ivory Coast Turmoil; Cyber-security in a Shutdown; Sheen's "Torpedo" A Dud; Pro Wrestling Prospers

Aired April 03, 2011 - 22:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Right now on CNN.

A five-foot gaping hole in a plane leads to a terrifying emergency landing this weekend. Late word tonight from Southwest Airlines, they're finding more tiny cracks in more planes before they're even done inspecting dozens of grounded 737s. What about other airlines? Are you safe?

(VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Ground fighting heats up in the Middle East and North Africa. This is Yemen where some lost their lives and more than 800 were injured. And it doesn't end there.

Violent clashes on the Ivory Coast, raising the death toll today to nearly 1,000 people, slaughtered by supporters of another defiant brutal dictator.

Courage in Libya. A brave journalist is killed bringing light to the country's atrocities. I interviewed him before he died. Tonight an emotional interview with his widow. It is a CNN exclusive.

And this.

(VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Not winning. Charlie Sheen's disappointing show debut. An entertainment critic joins me to review opening night in Detroit.

I'm Don Lemon. The CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

We want to begin with breaking news tonight that federal investigators have found tiny cracks in two more 737s. This after a five-foot hole in one commercial jetliner forced a terrifying emergency landing on Friday of a Southwest Airlines jet. Tonight, it's causing problems all across the airline industry. Southwest immediately grounded 79 of its 737s for inspection. Right now, 19 of the inspected planes had been cleared and put back into service.

You're looking at video from our affiliate KOMO of some of those Southwest planes undergoing inspection today at Boeings facility near Seattle. Federal investigators say the Southwest plane that made an emergency landing at a military airstrip has widespread cracking in its fuselage. That may have led to the large hole popping open in the top of the plane, 18 minutes into the flight from Phoenix to Sacramento.

Hundreds of flights were abruptly cancelled. Thousands of passengers saw their travel plans come to a sudden stop. We'll have more in just a moment on what that means for upcoming air travel and Southwest's pending merger with AirTran.

But first, CNN's Ted Rowlands explains what happened on flight 812, and the reaction from some of the passengers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

The airplane structures should not fail and rupture.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN GENERAL ASSIGNMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Passengers say the hole opened up shortly after takeoff.

DAVID SMITH, SOUTHWEST PASSENGER: It sounded like an explosion at least, but all of a sudden there was a sunroof in the middle of the plane, a bigger hole. You could see daylight running through it.

BRENDA REESE, SOUTHWEST PASSENGER: All of a sudden, the oxygen masks dropped and everyone was just trying to get the mask on. It was scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Southwest's entire fleet is made up of various models of the Boeing 737. All told, the airline has 548 of them. The fleet has an average age of just over 11 years. Each aircraft flies an average of 6 flights per day. That's just under 11 hours each day. Southwest is awaiting government approval to buy AirTran Airways.

The worst accident of this type though was 23 years ago over Hawaii. A flight attendant died and many people were hurt. I spoke with one of the passengers on that 1988 flight. UCLA professor Emeritus Eric Becklin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC BECKLIN, UCLA PROFESSOR MERITUS (via telephone): I heard the decompression, looked up, saw about a five-foot hole on the left side, knew what had happened, the pilot immediately dove down and luckily he was very experienced. And then the -- unlike the one on Friday, this one, the opening kept growing until it was 20 feet wide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Anyone preparing to travel by plane this week is probably nursing some doubts. At the very least, there's a reasonable chance of unexpected flight delays and cancellations.

My guests tonight, a retired pilot Jim Tilmon and Reid Bramblett with Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel.

Thanks to both of you.

How concerned should we be, Jim Tilmon?

JIM TILMON, RETIRED COMMERCIAL PILOT: Well, I think we can rest pretty well. One, the inspections are being made now. Two, we're going to learn a great deal out of this incident, and I think that's going to bode well for the future.

The NTSB is examining exactly what happened. They'll know whether this was something that happened over a long period of time and began to just grow enough until it did come apart, or whether this was something that happened very suddenly. That is going to be a lot of difference in how we treat it.

LEMON: Reid, is this a problem that is specific to Southwest Airlines? Or might we see much more of this among other airlines?

REID BRAMBLETT, ARTHUR FROMMER'S BUDGET TRAVEL: Not necessarily. What you have to keep in mind is these 79 planes, only about 15 percent of the Southwest Airlines fleet. The vast majority of their planes are a different kind of 737. The next generation, 737-700s.

So I think they're treating this well. They're treating it with respect. They took them out of service immediately, and started doing these tests, had the National Transportation Safety Board do them. So I think we will know a lot more coming out of this, and we'll know more in the days to come.

LEMON: Jim, let's talk about inspections, because we hear some of those are mended out to places like Mexico, El Salvador, Singapore, the Philippines and even here in the U.S.

There's concern that some of those who are working on those planes are unlicensed.

TILMON: Well, I can't comment on that, simply because I don't know what the condition is for that. I've never been a great fan of fawning out maintenance. I mean, I'm just spoiled from the old school, Don. I mean, I like the idea of looking out on the ramp at the people who are going to turn a wrench and know that those guys have their checks signed by the same guy that signs mine. But that's just an old school approach.

Today's airlines and today's corporate world works very differently. And some of those facilities have done very, very well. They're very, very nice oversight. And they're just fine.

LEMON: Hey, Reid, it's been a tough economy, it is a tough economy, and airlines are struggling like many other businesses. Many other companies around the world, really. What about this pending merger between Southwest and AirTran?

BRAMBLETT: Well, it is going forward. The FAA gave its approval. I think actually, it's going to put Southwest on a better footing, if for nothing else, then it's going to get more types of planes in its fleet because AirTran does fly 717s in addition to the 737s. It's also going to get Southwest a new kind of reservation system which would allow it to do international flights probably to the Caribbean and Mexico and places like that.

LEMON: So, finally, Jim, I'm going to give you the last word. You said we should probably rest a little easy. But still when you're flying, you have no control. A lot of people are afraid of flying, and tomorrow morning, of course, a big commuter day.

Again, for the average person, you may say rest easy, but if you're finding holes in planes and then you have an emergency landing where you have to come down really quickly, that doesn't bode well for most people who have to fly.

TILMON: It depends on what we're looking at, Don, and who's keeping score. The fact is millions -- listen to me, I'm saying millions of hours have been flown every single day in this United States of America, without anything like this happening.

As a matter of fact Southwest has flown over a million hours over last year. Not a single incident like this. Cracks, yes. Cracks have been with us for a long time. But taking care of them properly is what we're in the business of doing. I think they're doing that just fine right now. Unless we find out differently, it looks like everybody involved in this did what they were supposed to do, and did it well enough so that nobody got hurt.

LEMON: Jim Tilmon, Reid Bramblett, thanks to both of you.

BRAMBLETT: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Investigators are on the scene tonight of a single engine plane crash in Oakland, California. The FAA tells us the pilot was killed when this single engine navigation crashed or possibly ditch in a muddy bank, not far from the Oakland International Airport's north field. The pilot was the only one on board. The plane has U.S. Air Force markings, but our affiliate KTVU reports it is thought to be a replica and not an official Air Force plane.

Another developing story to tell you about involving an airplane crash. This one from almost two years ago. French investigators say they have found pieces of Air France flight 447 which crashed into the Atlantic en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 people on board the jet died when it went down on June 1st, 2009. France's air accident investigation agency did not say what parts of the jet have been found. Investigators have never determined what caused that crash.

He risked his life to tell the world what was happening in his country. And just a month after first talking to me live here on CNN, his life came to a sudden end.

Ahead his widow talks for the first time about his death and the legacy he leaves behind.

And a government shutdown looms in Congress. They can't pass a new budget. Forget about federal parks and buildings being closed. There's a bigger concern, like a cyber-attack. And experts say we're not ready for it.

And many of you have been sending and asking for information on these stories through social media. And you can reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, CNN.com/Don and FourSquare.com as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: This is a violent scene in Yemen where witnesses say security forces attacked protesters. One person is dead, at least 830 people are hurt, according to a field hospital. These protesters want to see if President Ali Abdullah Saleh will step down, but he refuses to do so before the end of the year.

(VIDEO CLIP)

Gunfire at an anti-government protest in Syria this weekend. Officials blame opposition snipers for this incident. But in another Syrian City, witnesses say security forces opened fire on protesters, gunning down at least 15. A rights group says 123 people have died since the unrest started. Tens of thousands of Syrians today marched in memory of those killed. The State Department is advising U.S. citizens to strongly consider leaving Syria. U.S. government employees can now catch free flights out.

In Libya, the sounds of Moammar Gadhafi's forces shelling a medical clinic in Misrata. A hospital source says one person is dead, 15 others wounded. Meanwhile, the U.S. was supposed to end its air combat role in Libya today, but now it's extended to Monday due to bad weather.

Also today in Libya, rebels were forced to flee from a key oil town of Brega. The hasty retreat is revealing flaws in the rebel front.

Our Ben Wedeman was right in the middle as they made a run for it -- Ben.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, the situation on the front in eastern Libya remains tenuous, at best, with the anti-Gadhafi forces seemingly unable to hold the line.

(voice-over) Opposition fighters are on the move, quickly, and to the rear. Somewhere near Brega, they say, they were ambushed by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

(on camera) All of a sudden, we heard firing in the distance. It set off a panic. Dozens of cars leaving.

This is one of the problems here. There's no communications, nobody knows why they are running back. But back they're going.

(voice-over) As we are. Though crossing the road in the midst of the panic is no easy task.

Even in retreat, they flash the "V" for victory which seems to be slipping steadily from their hands. When the fighters finally stop running away, they complain they're no match for their enemy.

"We call on the Security Council to supply us with weapons," says this fighter. You see what we have? Grenades. They have rockets and more.

Says another, "We have no planes, nothing. Just small arms."

Their threats increasingly empty.

They watch the horizon for advancing Libyan army forces, hoping NATO aircraft will do something. But on this day, the skies were, for the most part, quiet.

Soldiers of the opposition national Libyan army seem just as unable as the revolutionary regulars to hold their ground.

Between pullbacks, there's little to do but clean their weapons, ready their ammunition and prepare for a fight they just don't seem prepared for. And when word goes out that rockets are about to land, another panic. The rockets, wherever they were, never materialized.

(on camera) They want air cover. They want more weapons. What's clear is they simply can't do the job by themselves -- Don.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. Ben, thank you very much.

When we first met Libyan journalist, Mohammed Nabbous on this program, he feared for his life. Nabbous broadcast report from Libya in the earliest days of the revolution. I spoke with him on February 19th, a day that he saw friends die in the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Be in touch and be safe, OK?

MOHAMMED NABBOUS, SLAIN LIBYAN JOURNALIST: I'm not sure if I will be there tomorrow, because I'm not sure if I'm going to survive tonight. But there's going to be another group tomorrow with you, hopefully.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: A month later his fears were realized when a sniper's bullet claimed his life.

Earlier, I spoke exclusively with Nabbous' widow who calls herself Perdita to protect her identity. Perdita is about 7 months pregnant with the couple's only child. Her husband is irreplaceable, but she knows he died for a cause he believed in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PERDITA NABBOUS, WIDOW OF SLAIN LIBYAN JOURNALIST (via telephone): I do believe that he made things possible that weren't. Things that no one thought was possible. So, if people call him a hero, he seriously deserves it. He had been working day and night for this cause. And he never gave up. He never gave up. He was just pushing himself to the limit, actually.

LEMON: What did you tell him during the time when he decided to broadcast that? Were you OK with it? Did you support it? What did you say to him?

NABBOUS: I was OK with it. I was supportive of him. At the same time, I was worried for his life.

If the revolution would have stopped in any way, that meant that he would be, I mean, either a refugee or they would take him in.

LEMON: What are you going to tell your child about your husband? About your child's dad?

NABBOUS: What am I not going to say? I mean, he was -- he was amazing even before all this. He was special to me and to everyone that knew him. I'm keeping every single memory I had with him, and I'm going to just give everything to my child, to our child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

A hostile situation getting worse by the minute. The battle for control of a west African nation where up to 800 people maybe more may have been killed this weekend in just one town.

And the race to contain radioactive material pouring into the Pacific Ocean. Two days, two failed attempts, what's next?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Gunfire ringing out in Ivory Coast's main commercial city of Abidjan. Fears are growing tonight of all out civil war in the West African nation where nearly 1,000 people have been slaughtered. Armed soldiers and gangs supporting two men each claiming to be president, had been roaming the streets.

French reporters there are coming under fire as they drove through Abidjan. Journalists Seyi Rhodes has been holed up in a hotel there. He says civilians take their lives in their hands when they venture outside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEYI RHODES, JOURNALIST: The situation is getting harder and harder by the day. Today there have been power cuts in a number of different areas. That's have a knock on effect. That means that the water pumps aren't working, so people don't have water to drink. It means that they're forced to leave their homes. It's been three days now that everybody's been locked in their homes, so they're probably looking to go out anyway, because they need to get something to eat. That's an incredibly tough situation, because a lot of the shops are closed and the people who run these shops, often have the money to flee the city and have done so.

So people are out and about on the streets, and they're having to negotiate their way around corners which they, you know, they often don't know if there's going to a soldier around any corner who is inevitably quite jumpy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Changes are happening so fast in the Middle East and parts of Africa. It's hard to know what's next.

And while the U.S. did get involved in Libya, there are conflicts boiling over in the region that America just isn't touching.

I want to talk more about this now with Errol Louis, a CNN contributor and political anchor for New York One News.

Errol, thanks for joining us.

Here was President Obama's justification for intervening in Libya on Monday. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's true that America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs. Given the costs and risks of intervention, we must always measure our interests against the need for action. But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Errol, even if you agree with the president, what makes Libya different from, say, Bahrain or Syria at this point?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's a very good question. I mean, some of it is just purely geographic. If you look at say, you know, Libya being about 1200 miles from Cairo, and Cairo in turn being not that far from Jerusalem, you know the question becomes, "do you want to see regional instability?" And frankly, it's a question that comes up with the Ivory Coast as well.

You know, the United Nation says that some emerging narco states, states where the government is so completely corrupt and taken over by the drug trade, that we're starting to see some emerge in West Africa for the first time. That's a concern for the United States. That's a concern for Europe. The president has the unenviable task of trying to pick and choose and make those kinds of judgment calls.

LEMON: We're going to talk a little bit more about the Ivory Coast in a moment, Errol. But I want to read you this quote by Nicholas Kristof in an op-ed for the Sunday "New York Times."

He says, "Critics argue that we are inconsistent, even hypocritical in our military interventions. After all, we intervene promptly this time in a country with oil, while we have largely ignored Ivory Coast and Darfur, not to mention Yemen, Syria and Bahrain." Now "we may as well plead guilty," he says. "We are inconsistent. There's no doubt that we cherry pick our humanitarian interventions."

Do you agree with that, especially considering what is happening in the Ivory Coast now?

Almost 1,000 people if not more, slaughtered today.

LOUIS: Sure. Look, if cherry pick makes it sound a little more whimsical than it actually turns out to be. The president, you know, before he -- back in 2009, before he made his first trip to sub- Saharan Africa, he made the point that if something like another Rwanda, a genocide is about to happen, the United States can and must intervene.

You know, we don't talk about it very much since the end of the cold war, but the president of the United States is the leader of the free world. He stands for something. You know, something really important, and we do, too, as a nation. And so he's got to make some very hard decisions.

And during the cold war, the question was, are you tough enough to push the button if it should come to that? The real tough question now is, is the president firm enough? Is he tough enough to make these agonizing decisions about who can and cannot be saved?

LEMON: So, Errol, let's finish up. You're talking about Ivory Coast. Why doesn't this story get more attention? And would the U.S. ever or the West in general ever intervene?

LOUIS: I think the answer to the first is something that, you know, I think we both know from covering the news. Tomorrow morning, your viewers and my viewers, the first thing they want to know is about the weather, they want to know about the traffic, they want to know about the job that they have to go to. They want to know about the economy and the bills they have to pay. And somewhere pretty far down the list, you can start maybe trying to get the Ivory Coast into their brain space.

I mean, that's just the reality of it. As far as military intervention, it's hard to imagine a situation where sizable numbers of American leaders would feel that that was a priority. I can't quite imagine it, really.

LEMON: All right, Errol Louis, thank you, sir.

LOUIS: Thank you.

LEMON: I want to tell you what's happening in Japan. The death toll from the March 11th earthquake and tsunami now tops 12,000. More than 15,500 are missing. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: In Tokyo, about 250 people gathered today outside the headquarters of Tokyo Electric to demand the country stop using nuclear power. TEPCO says it is receiving about 40,000 complaints each day. Many TEPCO workers and executives are fearful for their safety at the crippled Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Two efforts have failed to stop radioactive water from leaking into the ocean.

A question for you, in the event of a government shutdown over the budget, the threat of cutting cyber security is very real. But should that be an option? We'll examine the issue of protecting the nation during a budget crisis -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This week in Washington will be filled with tension. Lawmakers are working to reach a budget deal by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. President Obama called Republican House Speaker John Boehner over the weekend. And earlier today, our Candy Crowley asked Senators Mark Warner of Virginia, a Democrat, and John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican, if the two sides can reach a deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: I hope we can solve the problem because, frankly, people are looking for a little bit of adult interaction, and they're interested in solutions to our debt and to our deficit and not just games. And that's what we're getting, it looks like.

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: I think it will be yes because what kind of message do we send to this world if we're saying we've agreed on a top line budget number in terms of what we're going to cut this year. But then we're going to have these extraneous factors come in that have nothing to do with budget, the so-called policy riders, and that causes a shutdown. I don't think the American people will accept that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, it is looming, as we look at live pictures of the White House in the capitol. The Republican-controlled House has passed a budget bill calling for $61 billion in spending cuts. Senate Democrats call that too much. They're trying to work out a compromise at around half that figure.

So, if there is a government shutdown, you can bet we'll hear a lot about essential and nonessential government employees. But at certain agencies, it's hard to say at first glance who is and isn't essential.

Take cyber security, not something most people worried about the last time we had a government shutdown. But in today's world, it is a very serious threat. Here's CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The last time Washington, D.C., shut down over stalled budget talks in 1995, Hord Tipton was in charge of protecting critical infrastructure -- power grids, water supplies, monitoring natural disasters. Back then, he says, cyber security was so new, it was almost a non-issue during the shutdown.

(on camera): The government shutdown that you experienced back in 1995, for one to happen today, it would be a completely different ball game?

HORD TIPTON, FMR. ASST. DIR., BUREAU OF LAND MGMT.: There's just no comparison. The number of people that would be determined essential this time, just for the security piece alone, will be several orders of magnitude larger.

FEYERICK (voice over): Federal agencies are required to have backup plans listing essential employees -- people who stay behind and safeguard their agency when everyone else goes home.

(on camera): Where do you see the biggest threat being when it comes to security of the cyber infrastructure?

TIPTON: We just need to have people who can read the output from the monitoring systems that come in, and if there's targeted attacks, which we get every single day, then you have to be able to respond to those.

FEYERICK: Karen Evans was in charge of information technology under President George W. Bush. She says policy guidelines have not adequately changed since 1995 to reflect the new cyber reality.

KAREN EVANS, FMR. ADMINISTRATOR FOR E-GOVERNMENT: How you can connect in with your BlackBerries and how you can connect in with multiple devices. It's -- it's really about protecting the information. And so, you have to have defenses around your most sensitive information.

FEYERICK: The federal agency in charge of managing government, Office of Management and Budget, says it's prepared for any contingency. They declined to be interviewed or discuss any agency specifics.

Still, Evans is worried.

EVANS: That's what I'm really concerned about right now, is that we're advertising that the agencies are going to shut down.

FEYERICK: Tipton has been on Capitol Hill lobbying lawmakers on what he sees as an already existing shortage of cyber security personnel.

TIPTON: We don't have enough people to do the things that need to be done now. And during a shutdown when we start sending people home, we will have less. So, the risk to me has to go up.

FEYERICK: A risk redefined by data in a largely digital world.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, Deb.

More problems for Southwest Airlines after cracks are discovered in two more of its planes during inspection. This comes on the heels of Friday's emergency landing when a hole opened up on the top of another 737 jet. That report is next.

And losing. Charlie Sheen bombs in Detroit during his concert debut. We'll explain what went wrong.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Let's check your headlines right now.

Tiny but potentially deadly cracks have been found in two more Southwest Airlines 737 passenger jets. The inspections were ordered following Friday's emergency landing in Arizona of a Southwest 737 that developed a five-foot hole on the top of the plane while in flight.

French investigators say they have found more pieces of Air France Flight 447 in the South Atlantic Ocean. The plane crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009. All 228 people on board the jet died in that crash. Air France's accident investigation agency did not say what parts of the jet had been found. Investigators have never determined what caused the crash.

In Libya, rebels have been forced to retreat from the key oil town of Brega. After a reported ambush, the rebels fled to get more ammunition and regrouped about 20 miles to the east of the town. Control of Brega has changed hands several times in this conflict. Meanwhile, the U.S. was supposed to end its air combat role in Libya today, but now that's not happening until tomorrow due to bad weather over the past few days, according to NATO.

In Japan, workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant were not successful today at stopping radioactive water from gushing into the Pacific Ocean. It's the second failed attempt in two days.

And a sign it's never too early to start thinking about the next election. CNN has learned that President Obama plans to send supporters a text or e-mail message possibly as soon as tomorrow, announcing his plans to run for re-election. Multiple Democratic sources tell our Jessica Yellin that the Obama campaign team also hopes to file papers tomorrow with the Federal Election Commission.

The Charlie Sheen tour getting terrible reviews. So, Sheen billed the show as the "violent torpedo of truth." It was supposed to be him being hilariously funny while thumbing his nose at the Hollywood establishment. Perhaps, he thought, if he showed up, that would just be enough. But most of the audience seemed to think it was a dud. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand that we were, you know, the test run on it. But I did feel like that he was just winging it, and the audience did not like it at all.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You don't feel you got your money's worth?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. There were parts that were funny, but, you know, I think he probably should have done a little more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I think he's a good actor, but he just didn't have the material. So, I think all the other shows may be cancelled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. Well, Sheen's second live show is set for tonight in Chicago. Let's talk about this more. B.J. Hammerstein covers entertainment news for the "Detroit Free Press". He joins us now from Detroit.

B.J., was it as bad as everyone says? They said he was booed off the stage?

B.J. HAMMERSTEIN, "DETROIT FREE PRESS": Yes, yes. Last night, he definitely was as bad as everyone's reporting. It started out with a bang, standing ovation, the crowd was totally into it. Detroit was on fire yesterday. It was like a rock star atmosphere. But 20, 30 minutes into the show, boos, heckling, people walking out. It was a disaster.

LEMON: Anybody think the show was great or winning at least?

HAMMERSTEIN: Yes, yes. I talked to some people for sure, and some of them actually said it was the crowd because they were booing and sort of like a mob mentality a little bit. It just kind of like swirled out of control. But for the most part, everywhere I went, every person I talked to, they were really just upset with it. They didn't see anything new that they wanted to see. It was really disorganized, and he made a lot of bad jokes, specifically about Detroit, too.

LEMON: Yes. So, he's got Chicago tonight. He's got New York, other cities. What are you hearing about tonight's show?

HAMMERSTEIN: Well, I hear it's going a lot better in Chicago tonight. And I heard he came out with the crowd shouting Detroit sucks to start things off, and he even wrote a poem about Detroit from what I understand. So, he sort of rallied the Chicago troops to pick on Detroit a little bit. So, we're going to have to talk about that surely.

LEMON: So, my question here, though, is how much more can this concert promoter sell? Can he -- can he sell any more tickets after last night's terrible review? And tonight you said it's better, but you're not saying it's great. How much longer can this go on? HAMMERSTEIN: Right. Well -- well, I thought that if he bombed again tonight like he did last night, I don't think that he would have even made it through the weekend basically. I think he probably would have cancelled it.

So, now you're going to get sort of mixed reviews and the Charlie Sheen fans, and there's a bunch of them. There's the "Two and a Half Men" fans. There's the people that like this train wreck atmosphere that we've been seeing.

Last night in Detroit, I think we looked at the car wreck a little bit too closely, had to turn away or even run away booing. So, I don't know, it's sort of up in the air, but that's his whole thing. The unpredictability is what kind of got us to Detroit to begin with, and who knows what's going to happen next. That's what makes this guy, that's what fuels him, this tiger blood, Adonis DNA winning guy.

LEMON: This is like the ever-ready bunny story of a train wreck. Thank you, B.J. Hammerstein. We appreciate it.

HAMMERSTEIN: Train wreck.

LEMON: Yes.

HAMMERSTEIN: Thanks, Don. Appreciate it, guys.

LEMON: All right.

A serious weather threat at this hour for a large section of the country. Severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado watches, it's going to be a long night for many, and it could have a big impact on your commute tomorrow, no matter where you live. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It is Sunday night. It's time to get you ready for your week ahead. We begin at the White House with President Obama's agenda.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kate Bolduan at the White House. Next week, the president's focus remains clearly on the conflict in Libya and the now NATO-led operation there to protect the Libyan people and stop the Gadhafi regime. At the same time, President Obama will be hosting Israeli President Shimon Peres at the White House for a working lunch. And Wednesday, President Obama will head to the Philadelphia area to continue pushing his energy plan that includes a goal of cutting America's imports of foreign oil by a third by 2025.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elise Labott in Washington. The Mideast unrest is providing no break for the State Department, which starts the week faced with violence in four countries in the region -- Libya, Syria, Jordan and Yemen. Officials will also be keeping a close eye on increased violence in Ivory Coast, and helping Japanese officials contain the nuclear fallout from last month's earthquake and tsunami. Later this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will roll out a State Department report detailing the human rights record of countries around the world. POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. And coming up this week, we'll hear from the Federal Reserve when it releases the minutes from its last meeting. Analysts will be looking very closely for any talk of inflation. Food and energy prices have been soaring, and many say that is weighing on the economic recovery.

Meantime, Google is getting a new CEO. Co-founder Larry Page reclaims that title on Monday. And on Thursday, we'll get the latest retail sales numbers as well as the weekly unemployment numbers. Wall Street will be watching it all and we'll track it all for you on CNNMoney.

BROOKE ANDERSON, HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": I'm "Showbiz Tonight's" Brooke Anderson. Here's what we're watching this week. Two very outspoken celebrities will be right here with us. Get ready for "The View's" Sherri Shepherd. I know she will be fired up. And Lady Gaga's choreographer at the "Showbiz's " newsmaker interview. After all the claims that Gaga is copycatting Madonna's act, what's next? "Showbiz Tonight" is live at 5 p.m. Eastern on HLN and still TV's most provocative entertainment news show at 11 p.m.

LEMON: All right. Thanks, guys.

Let's get you up to date on the weather. A serious -- a threat of serious weather in parts of the country. And what about your Monday morning commute? Let's go now to Karen Maginnis at the CNN severe weather center.

Karen, a bad weather out there, really bad.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We saw this coming the early part of the day when it was pretty quiet, but now we're starting to see the atmosphere really get juiced up with some very cold air, which is coming in from the north. And from the south, we've got that warm, moist unstable air.

Let's zoom in a little bit closer. We have five severe storm watches, and a tornado watch, which encompasses portions of Chicago all the way down through portions of south central Illinois and into the central United States.

We did see a tractor-trailer that was overturned in Clay County, Missouri. That's just to the north of Kansas City. So, it's already turned violent with numerous reports, Don, of hail. Some 60, 70 reports of hail.

LEMON: What does that mean, though? It's probably going to be bad commute -- for tomorrow's commute tonight?

MAGINNIS: We're already seeing some bad delays. Let's start out first with what's happening in Chicago because the weather has turned violent. They're seeing windy conditions and some thunderstorms as well. Departure delays at all the major airports there. Also in Newark, we're seeing departure delays primarily due to wind. Wind has been a big factor across the United States.

But as we go into the next 24 hours, what about delays at some of the other airports? New York City's metro airports, Boston, also Houston and Dallas, Denver. Denver yesterday saw a record high temperature of 85 degrees. They maxed out their high temperature in the morning. Temperatures have dropped down to around freezing. It looks like some of those ski resorts are going to enjoy kind of a bonus gift with about a foot of snowfall expected for the next 24 hours in Detroit. Don, it looks like snow and rain and wind. So, a very volatile atmosphere and over the next 48 hours as well.

LEMON: Get ready, and now you know, Karen McGinnis.

And I took a real chance on Friday. You're going to see it coming up, because get ready, set, wrestle mania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN CENA, WRESTLING PROFESSIONAL: Is that shirt an extra small? You know what they say, everybody's got a chance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: You heard it from my future rival in the ring, John Cena himself.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Call it what you will, real or fake, rustling or wrestling, it's certainly popular even in the down economy. During the height of the recession, wrestle mania pulled in nearly $123 million last year. $22 million of that came from T-shirts, belts and other merchandise. How do they do it? I went to the wrestle mania all-access fan experience here in Atlanta this weekend, and ran into a crowd that rivals a Super Bowl in attendance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN SABOOR, SENIOR VP, WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT: WWE is a family-based experience meant to be shared by generations, young and old. Mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, grandfathers and grandmothers.

CENA: There's no discrimination in our audience. We just want to entertain our fans, whoever they may be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a family sport. If the kids get into it, make me watch it. It's just a lot of fun.

LEMON: Merchandise. You made almost $22 million in merchandising last year.

SABOOR: So many are collectors. And this becomes part of the WWE experience. Whether it be T-shirts, whether it be championship belts, whether it be programs and all points in between. Merchandise is an incredibly important thing within our framework and certainly our fans continue to demonstrate it's important to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No matter what the economy is, we did what we had to do to get here.

LEMON: That's drive 600 miles with the entire family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.

SABOOR: Our superstars, our divas and our legends, these are the connection points for the WWE universe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How you doing, man?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very good, very good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So awesome.

CENA: How you doing?

LEMON: So is this America?

SABOOR: This is America and this is all the world. WWE is a global brand and has a global following, so when we say the WWE universe, it's not an overstatement. These are our fans, these are our people, these are our customers. This is our family.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMON: So M. Kellogg on Twitter, thank you. He says, "I should be the Lemonator."

I like Big Don Burgundy, what do you think?

Lemon head. All right, thanks John Vause.

What do mouse traps and Ping-Pong balls have to do with a nuclear reaction? Stick around, you've got to see this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We've certainly been hearing a lot about nuclear energy in the past three weeks as we've tried to understand what is happening at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. But nuclear fission in a reactor is a tough concept to illustrate, really.

Some students, though, in Cleveland, Ohio came up with a novel method using mouse traps and Ping-Pong balls. Really, watch this.

(VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK, so each mouse trap throws off three Ping-Pong balls just like a real nuclear reaction. Each Ping-Pong ball then sets off another. Pretty soon, it is a chain reaction. Very clever there. And then there is this guy. His name is Troy Hartmann. He is an expert surfer, skier, and skydiver, and also a professional stunt man. But this stunt he dreamed up all on his own. It's him, a pair of skis and a jet pack.

(VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Don't try that at home.

We want to check your headlines right now.

Tiny but potentially deadly cracks have been found in two more Southwest Airlines 737 passenger jets. The inspections were ordered following Friday's emergency landing in Arizona of a Southwest 737 that developed a five-foot hole in the top of the plane while in flight.

French investigators say they have found more pieces of Air France flight 447 in the South Atlantic Ocean. The plane crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009. All 228 people on board the jet died in that crash. France's air accident investigation agencies did not say what parts of the jet had been found. Investigators have never determined what caused the crash.

In Libya, rebels have been forced to retreat from the key oil town of Brega after a reported ambush. The rebels fled to get more ammunition and regroup about 20 miles east of the town. Control of Brega has changed hands several times in this conflict. Meanwhile, the U.S. was supposed to end its air combat role in Libya today, but now that's not happening until tomorrow due to that weather over the past few days according to NATO.

I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Thanks for watching. I'll see you back here next week. Good night.