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Historic Tornado Outbreak Noted; Serial Killer Preys on Prostitutes; The Politics of Trump; Tackling America's Education Crisis; Swan Song for Soap Operas
Aired April 17, 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: I'm Don Lemon.
Mass destruction. Dozens killed, 230 tornado reports, and this video sums it all up. A man, his camera, a parking lot, pounding rain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably down the road from your house to the corner, and there goes the roof of a house, and -- and hang on. I love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: This YouTube video from Wilson, North Carolina shows the speed of the storms powering through. Steven Hoag parked at a Fred's Food Club, thinks he's just videotaping a bad storm, a dark cloud, turns out to be a tornado that misses him by mere feet.
Lucky man. You heard him say there, I love you.
And he should be thankful. What looks like a record number of tornadoes killed at least 23 people in North Carolina, injuring more than 100. Reports say a 6-month-old baby is now in critical condition.
Virginia wasn't spared either. Four people killed, including a child swept away by a flash flood. Another person is missing.
South Carolina, devastated. Six people managed to escape a church when powerhouse winds and rains leveled the building.
And in Pennsylvania, flash flooding was the issue. Water poured over banks in the Harrisburg area, flooding streets.
It is a devastating combination to a violent streak that began Thursday, hitting all these states. A trail of death and destruction spelled out by the death toll of at least 40 people.
Bertie County, North Carolina took a direct hit from these fierce storms. It's about 130 miles east of Raleigh. Eleven people were killed in the mostly rural county. A devastating blow for such a small, tight-knit community.
Meantime, some neighborhoods in Raleigh are completely cut off from the rest of the city. Power lines down. Cars and trucks stacked on top of one another. Houses blown off their foundations. One family rode out the storm inside their home and then got out not long before their home collapsed.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It -- it collapsed about a half hour or hour after we got out of it on to the first floor. So -- and when I'm looking at it, it's resting on a piano and a -- and a deck.
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LEMON: Our David Mattingly is in Bertie County for us tonight.
David, the people there won't get much rest tonight or in the coming days or weeks for that matter, will they?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don. This community here, this county, has been through hurricanes. They have been through storms before, floods, never anything like this. Eleven people died from these storms coming through here, and something about that usually doesn't make sense. How can you have so many people killed in such a rural county when so many parts of it are so sparsely populated.
Well, there's a couple of reasons for that. First of all, this storm was on the ground for six to eight miles, causing a path of destruction a half mile to three-quarters of a mile wide.
And this was one of the places here in this county. This area here, this debris was a house that was standing when the tornado hit. It was absolutely obliterated. There are pieces strewn all the way back into the woods back behind me. The woman who was in this house, that woman did survive, but she was thrown 100 yards away from her house. She is in the hospital, but, again, she is alive.
Eleven people, though, did die in this county. You can see the power of this storm.
One other thing we learned about why there might have been so many fatalities here is because the water table here is very high. Nobody has any basements. There was no place to find safety if that tornado was bearing down upon you. And it was strong enough that it was able to take out any building that was standing in front of it, buildings like the house that was here behind me, just off in the distance and the darkness. There's a tree, a huge pine tree, snapped like a pencil.
Over this way, here's a cinder block building. This was a garage. You can you see the winds were strong enough to blow this cement block wall down. There was absolutely no place anyone could find any safety, even in normally a strong building like this.
So this, Don, shows you what happened in this rural quiet county when this tornado came through. There was just absolutely no way to find safety if you were caught in the crosshairs. And, unfortunately, this was one of those places that just had no place to go -- Don.
LEMON: David Mattingly, Bertie County, North Carolina for us live this evening. Thanks very much for that.
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina also took a major hit from this powerful storm. Up to a dozen homes destroyed. At least 40 separate major structural damage and another 40 to 60 have minor damage such as broken windows and downed trees. Several people were injured on the base, including a 23-month-old boy, now hospitalized in critical condition.
Let go to our meteorologist here in the CNN severe weather center, Karen Maginnis.
Boy, oh, boy, what a powerful line of storms sweeping through parts of the country.
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It was a three-day long event, Don, that we saw go from Oklahoma towards the Deep South and then towards the Carolinas and into Virginia.
This comes from our affiliate WRAL. Did phenomenal coverage during this outbreak of severe weather that some have termed epic. In some cases, they are reporting as many as 90 tornadoes that made it to the ground.
Want to point out these lines. They are saying in some spots tornadoes were on the ground nearly continuously for 25 and 30 miles. You see pockets of homes where there would be half a dozen homes destroyed or damaged and other areas where 20 and 30 homes, hundreds of homes, all across the state.
Take a look at this incredible time lapse photography from a Towercam. Don, this is amazing. This is a period of time during the evening when this rain-wrapped tornado just kind of progressed its way across downtown Raleigh and moved across this balcony area that it looks like.
We had reports coming out of North Carolina that some of these tornadoes were EF3s. If they were at top of that scale, the winds would have been around 165 miles per hour.
Then we want to take you to Virginia, Gloucester County. This is along the southeastern coastal regions, also Dinwiddie, Isle of Wight. Here you see what looks to be school buses just tossed around. They are saying that the Page Middle School here had the roof blown off and a portion of a building destroyed. Needless to say, they have about 580 students there. They will be making other plans to go to school for tomorrow.
We did have three separate fatalities in different locations. There were mobile homes as well as fairly large homes that in some cases looked to be obliterated.
And in North Carolina, they are saying maybe more than 14 deaths reported there. They are going to send out National Weather Service survey crews.
Don, I know you've seen that picture before of what looks to be a piece of wood, just like a spear just thrown through the windshield of a car. And they are saying in some cases it looks as if there was never any home there at all.
LEMON: Yes.
MAGINNIS: And people were saying all over the place, you see them on various websites. They are saying we don't even know how we survived. It was incredible.
LEMON: And when you look at that, they are absolutely right. Karen, you're going to be back with tomorrow's commute tonight. That's going to be important information that people are going to need to know. And I want you to take a look at this, Karen. It is from -- and the viewers as well, it is from 17-year weather veteran Mike Maze.
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MIKE MAZE, WRAL-TV METEOROLOGIST: This is something you would see in Oklahoma, in the Plain States, and we were talking yesterday about all the conditions came together perfectly to mimic what they see out west that occurred in North Carolina, and it doesn't happen here all that often, and we hope it doesn't happen again.
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LEMON: That was one of the better moments from him. You know it is bad when that longtime weather man gets choked up on the air. I spoke with meteorologist Mike Maze from our Raleigh affiliate WRAL tonight, and he told me that's what happened to him, not knowing if his own family and friends were in harm's way, all the while having to keep it together and deliver the live reports of tornadoes taking lives and wrecking the state.
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VOICE OF MIKE MAZE, WRAL-TV METEOROLOGIST: You have to remain composed. That's just part of the business. But when the news or weather hits you and affects you, it's a completely different story.
And I'm trying to tell folks, you know, what they need to do to protect themselves and then, you know, I'm trying to send signals to my family and friends that are out there, like saying what road is on and where it's going so they know to take cover immediately because I can't reach out to them. I can't pick up the phone and say, hey, the tornado is coming to you guys, you need to take cover.
And my voice was quivering and there were tears in my eyes but I wasn't on cameras, thank God. But it was a really scary situation. None that I've ever experienced and hope I never experience again.
LEMON: Talk to us now, please, about the science behind this. We are hearing this is unprecedented for the Carolinas. MAZE: Very much so. I mean, the conditions that came together were the kind of conditions you see in the Plains or what we refer to as the second tornado alley across Alabama. We had enough moisture in the atmosphere. We had a strong jet stream aloft, a cold front coming on in, and I know it sounds like a cliche, but it was like the perfect storm. Everything came together the way it needed to, to produce the kind of tornadoes that you see in the Plain states.
LEMON: You had a sentence to or a couple of sentences to sum this up, what do you say to those folks?
MAZE: I wish them the best, God bless and, hopefully, everybody will bounce back from this. It's a tough situation for North Carolina. We're strong people, and I know we'll try, we can move on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Mike also told me his family and friends are OK but many, sadly, he says, were not so lucky.
Fierce fighting continues in Libya. You'll see it next.
And the royal wedding less than two weeks away. Guess who we have on the show. It's Kate Middleton. No, not that one, but this one has felt the impact of the upcoming nuptials.
I'm online and I know you are, too. You can reach out to us on any of those social networking sites you see on your screen. We're back in just moments.
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LEMON: The sounds of battle in Misrata, Libya, where six people were killed today and another 47 hurt. Control of the city remains in rebel hands, but they are reportedly still fighting 200 to 300 of Moammar Gadhafi's troops.
Meanwhile, to the west in Libya's capital, Tripoli, hundreds of supporters rallied behind Gadhafi after reported NATO air strikes pounded targets around the city. Despite weeks of strikes by international forces, Gadhafi is still defying demands to stop attacks on his own people.
Meanwhile in Syria --
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(SOUNDS OF GUNFIRE)
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LEMON: This video appears to show civilians being fired on in the town of Tabb 'Isa. Reportedly, at least three people died there today, and at least two others were killed in the nearby city of Homs. Anti-government protests have been going on in Syria since last month. Rebuilding Japan after the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Now there's a plan to help do it, announced today by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to the country. The plan will include a partnership to encourage American businesses to keep investing in Japan during reconstruction. Clinton says it's only fair after all Japan has done around the world.
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HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Japan is one of the world's most generous nations, and the dozens of countries that have sent support in the past five weeks are honoring Japan's legacy of caring for others.
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LEMON: Meanwhile, it's going to take six to nine months to stabilize the damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima power plant. It is the first timetable that engineers have given for ending the crisis. It will take three months to reduce the radioactivity and restore cooling systems. Another three to six months will be needed before the reactors are fully shut down, so crews can build new shells around their housing.
The assembly lines will start rolling again at Toyota plants in Japan on Monday, but only at half capacity. The automaker had to suspend production at its Japanese plants after the earthquake on March 11th. Toyota will re-evaluate its production capabilities in June.
A serial killer targeting prostitutes in New York. Sex workers know their job is illegal. That's what makes them a perfect target. Now, one is speaking to CNN about her fears.
And check this out. A semi truck flips over on a busy city street. Wait until you see what happened.
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JIM CLEMENTE, ADVISER/WRITER, "CRIMINAL MINDS": When you look at the choice of a particular victim at a particular time in a particular place and in a particular manner for a particular purpose, that's like holding a mirror up to the offender. He made these choices for personal reasons, and that reveals things, leaks out information about him.
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LEMON: That's former FBI profiler and current writer for CBS' "Criminal Minds." Jim Clemente speaking on the psychology of Long Island serial killer. It's certainly a mystery on the beaches there and investigators have found the remains of at least eight women so far. Four are unidentified. The other four we know worked as prostitutes. And as our Susan Candiotti reports, many sex workers in the area, living in fear. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Stacy Swimme is not embarrassed to say what she does for a living.
STACY SWIMME, SEX WORKER, SWOP ACTIVIST: I'm a sex worker.
CANDIOTTI (voice over): An independent escort for seven years. A dangerous job for at least four women whose bodies were unceremoniously dumped in tangled scrub brush along a Long Island seaside highway, possibly at the hands of a serial killer.
(on camera): Why are you speaking publicly and on camera and not in silhouette about this?
SWIMME: I can't be silent anymore.
CANDIOTTI (voice over): Swimme also is an activist with SWOP, Sex Workers Outreach Project. It believes decriminalizing prostitution will make the job safer.
SWIMME: This is exactly why predators target us and try to abuse us because they know that we can't trust the police for help.
CANDIOTTI: Police officials say they treat crimes against prostitutes like they would for any other victim. But the mother of victim Melissa Bartholomew says valuable time was lost getting New York City police to start looking for her daughter once they learned she was a prostitute. She had to hire an attorney to get things moving.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something needs to be done about that.
KATE D'ADAMO, SEX WORKER ADVOCATE: People need to know that these people that we're talking about, you know, sex workers are wives and husbands. They are mothers and fathers. They are children. They're sisters and brothers.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): I spoke with prostitutes who work on Long Island and advertise on the Internet. All declined to go on camera, but each told me that they are now taking more precautions, like bringing a friend along to watch out for them. One woman says she's now carrying a gun. As to the danger, another said it's part of the job.
Why then take the risk, especially now?
D'ADAMO: Sex work is often the best option for people engaged in the profession. And then at the end of the day, there's people who love what they do and who really are in sex work because they enjoy their work.
CANDIOTTI (voice over): Until investigators make an arrest, activists are asking for amnesty so prostitutes feel more comfortable bringing tips to police without fear of arrest, in hopes that one might lead to a killer.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Long Island, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right, Susan.
Is Donald Trump really running for president, or is he just looking for publicity? Wait until you hear what he told our Candy Crowley just this morning.
And less than two weeks until the royal wedding, tonight we hear from Kate Middleton, a Kate Middleton. I'll leave it at that.
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DONALD TRUMP, CEO, TRUMP INTERNATIONAL: And I have thousands and thousands of jobs that I've created over the years. Hundreds of thousands.
CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": You're just a better businessman, you think, and that's a selling point for you...
TRUMP: Well, I'm a much bigger businessman and I have a much, much bigger net worth. I mean, my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney.
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LEMON: That's the one and only Donald Trump on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" just this morning taking on Mitt Romney, Libya and lots of other topics.
So, let's hear what CNN contributor and political anchor for New York 1 Errol Louis has to say about that.
Errol, honestly, it's a "mine's bigger than yours" statement from Donald Trump. Does this Trump thing seem to be adopting a Charlie Sheen circus-type atmosphere? Will it flame out?
ERROL LOUIS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't know. If it flames out, it won't be just because it's circus-like. Circus-like acts do pretty well actually in politics, you know.
It's a little surprising, I mean, but, you know, in New York City, where there's lots of billionaires, this one-upmanship is actually kind of typical. These guys do all this kind of stuff all the time. I don't know about getting elected nationwide because you've got the biggest net worth. I mean, that's not much of a selling point, I don't think.
LEMON: OK. So, Errol, on "Meet the Press" this morning, here's Tavis Smiley with his Trump assessment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TAVIS SMILEY, HOST, PBS'S "TAVIS SMILEY": Donald Trump is laughing all the way to the bank, and he's rolling us in the media every single day. Let's be frank about it. The truth is he's such a scarce commodity in this town oftentimes. And that's the bottom line. He's laughing to the bank and he's playing us, number one. Number two, with all due respect to my senator and the tea party activists, there's -- on a certain level, I understand the frustration because I'm frustrated. I understand the angst of the tea party.
But if you're going to start taking seriously a guy like Donald Trump making those kinds of statements that two years in he's going to go down as the worst president, and that's a long list of bad presidents. So that kind of nonsense is going to get your issues not being taken seriously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Errol, is Tavis right? Does he have a point?
LOUIS: No, not really. I mean, look, there are people who are candidates who are quite successful who are considered preposterous when they first burst on to the national scene -- Ronald Reagan; the peanut farmer, Jimmy Carter; the governor from a small failed state, Bill Clinton; the guy with the funny-sounding name, you know, with African roots, named Obama, you know.
I mean, there's no reason simply because he says outrageous things to assume that he cannot win an election, and the polls frankly bear that out.
Now there are some other reasons why he may not run or he may not be successful, but the mere fact of being outrageous, you know, you can go all the way back. Lyndon Johnson was considered a preposterous candidate, the "Southern Drawl" and all of these ties to the corrupt Texas Democratic Party machine. He became the president.
LEMON: Yes. But is he playing the media as Tavis said there as well?
LOUIS: I don't know about that. I mean, look, it would be irresponsible not to cover the guy who is leading in the polls on the Republican side.
LEMON: Right.
LOUIS: You know, you or I would probably get canned if we said we're just not going to do that because we don't -- we don't think he's serious enough. Well, that's not the criteria.
LEMON: OK.
LOUIS: A lot of people seem to like what he's saying and that's -- that's how we -- that's how -- that's how we play it.
LEMON: OK. Let's talk debt ceiling right now. Very important because Timothy Geithner says he was in a meeting where Republican leaders said they will lift the federal debt ceiling, a move that's fiercely opposed by tea party supporters. Is this a sign that the GOP recognizes or may recognize the danger of playing politics with this issue?
LOUIS: The responsible leadership absolutely understands the importance and the danger. They have also joined with the Chamber of Commerce and other major economic players to go around, and they are meeting individually during this two-week recess of Congress. They are meeting with members of Congress, especially the tea party members. They are going office to office and they're trying to impress upon them that they cannot play politics with this.
So, that's what the leadership of the party and its supporters are doing. Whether or not they can pull it off is what we'll find out in the next month or two.
LEMON: Errol, this is something I hadn't heard before, speaking about the debt ceiling. Alan Greenspan, this morning, the former Fed chair today wondered why a debt ceiling even exists, and I'm paraphrasing here. He said, basically saying anyone who knows how to do arithmetic knows what the debt is going to be, can basically project what the debt is going to be. Does he have a point?
LOUIS: Absolutely. Look, there were stories in January pointing out the more or less exact date, estimated date, when the debt ceiling would be breached. Alan Greenspan's point moreover was that the Congress and the president, they are both elected, they're both fulfilling constitutional duties, they're making agreements that are binding, and they are literally the law of the land, and they will take us past the debt ceiling.
So, you know, to suggest that one law would sort of trump all of the other agreements, all of the other laws that were passed related to our defense and our entitlements and the rest of the running of the country, doesn't make any sense.
You know, it might end up in court or something like that. But the debt ceiling, as he says, is something we routinely breach on an almost daily basis. We put things in motion that will take us past that.
LEMON: Errol Louis, a pleasure as always. Thank you, sir.
Policy-makers and educators across the nation are working to fix America's schools. In Tennessee, a massive education overhaul was put in place to raise the bar and try to close the achievement gap between African-American students and white students. CNN's special correspondent Soledad O'Brien visited one non-traditional program to see how it's playing out in the classroom.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can't compete at a decomposer changed over time.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): These ninth and tenth graders are learning about forensics at the Academy of Science and Engineering which is inside Nashville's Stratford High School.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So the goal is to mimic what a medical examiner might do?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With the dead bodies and things.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But we use chickens instead.
O'BRIEN: Last year, 75 percent of students here at this mostly African-American school tested below grade level.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's unacceptable and we need to fix that. The academic rigor has to be raised.
O'BRIEN: Across Tennessee, only 6 percent of African-American students are considered proficient in science. For white students, that number is still low, 36 percent.
The achievement gap across Tennessee reflects a nationwide trend. In state after state, students of color are lagging behind.
PHIL BREDESEN, FORMER TENNESSEE GOVERNOR: I think one of the failings of public education has been how wide these achievement gaps have been allowed to become.
O'BRIEN: Former governor, Phil Bredesen, raised standards for all students before leaving office earlier this year. All subjects are more demanding and high school students must now take four years of science to graduate.
BRIAN HARRELL, STRATFORD HIGH, BIOLOGY TEACHER: In doing that and getting kids to think more, you actually closed the achievement gap.
O'BRIEN: For Stratford, part of the answer to closing the gap is this sort of hands-on learning. It's designed to excite and engage kids.
JENNIFER UFNAR, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE OUTREACH: They have, basically, gone out and done all of the EPA studies to determine whether or not a watershed -- a local watershed's actually polluted, and with what.
In their English classes, they read a book about water quality. We want them to see everything from an interdisciplinary perspective so that the kids can see that science is not just a 50-minute lab.
O'BRIEN: They're doing this with their share of the $500 million awarded to the state from President Obama's Race to the Top initiative. The goal: better prepare students for the high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
BREDESEN: Just listen to these kids, they're engaged with it, they're interested in it, and that's the way you close the gap. If they could do it, you know, a classroom at a time. VIRGINIA SHEPHERD, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SCIENCE OUTREACH: I think innovative programs will allow students to learn in ways that they're most comfortable with. Our goal was to provide an exciting way for these students to learn and to tell the kids that they could achieve.
O'BRIEN: The program is still in its first year, but if the students are any indication, this seems to be a step in the right direction.
TIMMECIA MOODY, STRATFORD HIGH SCHOOL: I never really liked science. That is my least concern. Now it's like my second best.
O'BRIEN: Reporting for "In America," I'm Soledad O'Brien, CNN, Nashville.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: How can Americans compete if our kids don't learn the skills they need to excel?
CNN's Soledad O'Brien is examining the crisis in our public schools. Her special report "Don't Fail Me: Education in America" airs May 15th, 8:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.
You never know when an ordinary day will be shattered by an unexpected accident.
Like this. A tractor trailer truck flips over on a busy city street. You'll see it next.
And want to see the most expensive shoes ever made? We'll show them to you.
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LEMON: Let's check your top stories for you now.
A quiet calm has returned to North Carolina, but the pain of this weekend will linger for months to come. People across the state will begin the workweek trying to recover from a devastating wave of tornadoes that killed at least 23 people. In largely rural Bertie County where 11 people died, residents are struggling to make sense of it all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES BOND, BERTIE COUNTY RESIDENT: Of course, you've got to ask yourself, why here, you know? That's a good question. Don't know if you can get the right answer, but, you know.
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In Libya, the battle rages in two cities and rebel forces are questioning NATO's commitment. Unconfirmed reports suggest NATO called off air strikes, Sunday, because of poor weather. The rebel said the weather didn't stop Moammar Gadhafi's forces from shelling their fighters. Some of the heaviest fighting took place in Misrata, the last western city controlled by the rebels.
The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant says it will take up to nine months to end the crisis. Engineers hope to eventually build new shells around the damaged reactors. Japan's government says it will try to decontaminate the widest area possible before deciding whether tens of thousands of residents in the evacuation zone can return to their homes.
While you weren't looking postal rates went up. A regular stamp will stay unchanged at 44 cents, and that covers a one ounce letter. But starting today, each additional ounce will cost you another 20 cents and extra 3 cents from the current rate. And mailing a post card will cost you an extra penny, 29 cents.
All right. Let's talk tomorrow's commute tonight with CNN's Karen Maginnis.
Karen, we talked about the bad storms. Is that going to affect the commute tomorrow?
KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, that storm system has now moved off headed towards the Canadian Maritimes. And in its wake it did leave some heavy rainfall across sections of New England. But now we're picking up some rain as well as some snowfall across the lower great lakes and the north central U.S. And in our commute for the morning, it looks like for Chicago, you could see moderate delays throughout the entire day. Perhaps a rain-snow mix, and then becoming windy, and then you've got some showers and thunderstorms that should move on in as we head on in towards Tuesday and for Wednesday.
This Salt Lake City delay is all day long. Low clouds, low visibility. You could start the day out with maybe a wintry mix. And we're also looking at Portland, Oregon. A little bit of leftover moisture. Nothing much in the way of delays. Just minor delays at the international airport there. Don?
LEMON: All right, Karen, thank you very much.
You're going to feel like taking a shower when you see this next video.
Raw sewage flooding at least 200 homes in San Isidro, Mexico. Heavy rains opened up a 100 foot long crack in a sewage canal, and this is a result right there. The whole area covered in stinking, putrid water. About 500 residents were affected. No reports of death, but three people were hurt.
I want you to check out this crazy video. This is out of China. A semi trying to make this light at this intersection takes it too fast, and then it topples over. Could you see that? The truck just barely misses a person on a bike in a crosswalk, but the bike, look at that, is history. It is a very close call. Amazing video.
You know, these shoes look priceless, but they can actually be yours for just their $228,000. Pocket change, right? A British story designer made them out of solid gold and 30 carats worth of diamonds. Surprisingly, there haven't been any takers since they went on sale five months ago. Then again, the world's most expensive shoes don't exactly look like the world's most comfortable shoes, do they?
I know a producer here who if she had the money, she would buy them. Valerie Butler loves shoes.
Up next, the woman who is finding her name can be a royal pain, especially if you don't follow the business of royal weddings.
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LEMON: Now that is a royal wedding I would watch. A T-mobile ad from YouTube poking fun at the royal family and the nuptials set for April 29th.
You know, some of us mock it, many of us will watch it, but many of us are asking who cares about the wedding of Prince William to his college girlfriend, Kate Middleton.
The indifferent include CNN contributor John Avlon and Kate Middleton. That's the Kate Middleton of Maynard, Massachusetts who had the name first, by the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE MIDDLETON, MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENT: I've just never been interested in the royal family.
LEMON: That simple?
MIDDLETON: It's that simple. Who cares about all that hoopla?
LEMON: Listen, your Facebook account was canceled and that's really sort of what brought you to the public eye and to the media. What happened?
MIDDLETON: Basically, one day, my Facebook account said it was deactivated for using a fake name, because that's pretty funny, because obviously I was using my own name.
LEMON: All right. So, you don't plan on watching the wedding, right, you said?
MIDDLETON: Well, it's on at 3:00 in the morning. So, maybe I'll set my DVR and just dream about it.
JOHN AVLON, INDEPENDENT POLITICAL ANALYST: Of all the questions being asked around this news cycle, the really obvious one doesn't seem to being asked, which is, who cares? I mean, they did a poll a little while ago. Sixty- five percent of Americans say they have no interest in this.
And, look, I wish William and Kate all the happiness in the world, but there's just nothing less American than monarchy. That's why we form this country. We shouldn't be forced fed being to care about this. It's not a significant day in the history of the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Kate is using her name for good. Promising to raise money for multiple sclerosis by biking in a wedding gown with a fake prince.
Caught on tape. A driver tries to get away with a free tank of gas, but takes a gas station worker with him. The painful ending to this step in progress in just two minutes.
Plus, a new twist in the arrest of actor Nicolas Cage. It's another caught on tape moment.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me, Erica, how do you think your daughter would feel if she knew she was taking your sloppy seconds?
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LEMON: All right.
It is classic Erica Kane, the slap and then the sting of music, but this week real life drama unfolded on daytime TV when ABC said it was cancelling long-time favorites "All My Children" and "One Life to Live." The network is making time for some reality shows, and we're seeing a true swan song of soaps. That's the question.
So to answer now, Tom O'Neil joins me from New York. He's an entertainer writer for the "Los Angeles Times."
And, Tom, we know soap operas have been losing their viewers, but this was a big surprise, even to you, I'm sure. And what are we going to do without our Erica Kane?
TOM O'NEIL, FORMER SENIOR EDITOR, TOUCH WEEKLY: I know, never mind the princess over in Britain. The queen of daytime is stepping down. This is huge, Don.
Let's put this in perspective, because we see fads and TV come and go like game shows, primetime TV come and go, but we're talking about an entire genre, dominant genre of TV dying, and the queen of that genre is now out of work or will be soon, Erica Kane. This is huge.
LEMON: It is huge. But, you know, I'm showing my age a little bit. I remember when Erica Kane was an ingenue and it was Katherine Chancellor on the "Young and the Restless" and "The Edge of Night" and "Another World."
I mean, my grandmother would sit there and watch soap operas with her all the time. It's kind of hard to believe this is happening.
But say, what brought down soap operas? What killed soap operas?
O'NEIL: O.J. Simpson.
LEMON: Really?
O'NEIL: It's really where it started, and this is fascinating. In 1969, that was the -- the height of soap operas. You had 19 of them on at one time in daytime. In the 1990s you were down to like nine or ten of them, but they were still getting great viewers. They were getting about 6 million to 7 million viewers per day. And then the O.J. Simpson trial took place and it dominated daytime TV. It was a real soap opera involving somebody we all know and love. So it was unbelievable.
And that shift of viewership from the soaps to the O.J. Simpson trial at a time when there was alternate programming coming up on cable TV was the death of soaps. They went then from this 6 million to 7 million to 8 million viewers down to the 3 and 4 range. They have never recovered.
LEMON: You know what, I have never thought about that until now. I remember when the O.J. Simpson trial was going on, and I was working for Fox station in New York.
We created programming and shows around that trial. We created a show called "O.J. Today," and took off all the daytime programming. So you're right about that.
If "Luke and Laura" had happened during, you know, O.J. Simpson, we probably wouldn't even known about them. So what's going to happen to SOAPNet or the cable channel that focuses on soaps?
O'NEIL: That's gone.
ABC has already abandoned it, after these two soaps, "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" are gone, which are both ABC soaps. The only franchise that ABC is going to have in this whole genre will be "General Hospital," and then you have to wonder how long can that hold down.
We're down to four soaps, it's all now. We're down to "General Hospital," "Days of Our Lives," and "The Young and The Restless."
LEMON: If I can interrupt you, you don't think it will be like the game show channel, because it's fun to see the old game shows like "Tattletales" and all that, again. You know, match, or whatever it is.
O'NEIL: Oh, I know, I know. But ABC has already said they're getting rid of the soap network, which I can't believe either because it's free. I mean, this programming is already done and coming back, but apparently, the ratings are so bad it doesn't justify keeping it around.
LEMON: Yes.
Give us the four remaining again before I let you go.
O'NEIL: Give the what?
LEMON: The four remaining soaps.
O'NEIL: Oh, the four remaining, "Young and The Restless," "Bold and the Beautiful, "Days of Our Lives" and "General Hospital."
LEMON: And that's it. The end of an era, we think.
Tom O'Neil, thank you.
All right, speaking of soap operas, there's a new development in the arrest of Oscar winner Nicolas Cage. Video from TMZ shows Cage Friday night before New Orleans police detained him. I want you to pay attention to the left. You see the left of the screen. That's Cage with his wife, Alice, visiting a tattoo parlor and arguing. TMZ is reporting that.
That's before people saw Cage arguing with his wife on a French quarter street about where their house was. Police say he was so unruly that passer-bys alerted them and that's when they charged the 47-year-old actor with public drunkenness, disturbing the peace and domestic abuse, battery.
The story of LaShaun Armstrong troubled many of us. He is a 10-year- old boy whose mother intentionally drove the family car into the Hudson River killing everyone in the car except him. LaShaun managed to get out and eventually flagged down a woman to help him. Now later he admitted several cars drove right past him, ignoring distress and our human behavior expert Dr. Wendy Walsh tackled the question of why no one stop to helped this boy.
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WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: This is racism. And we don't know --
LEMON: Really?
WALSH: -- I don't know how big this child was, but I happen to have a 12-year-old daughter who's multiracial, who's 5'8. So this child could have been perceived as a young black man at the side of the road. Oh, my gosh, a threat. I mean it's so disturbing. But I can only imagine if a 10-year-old white boy was standing there how many cars would have passed by.
I'm sorry, but this really bothers me.
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LEMON: That's Dr. Wendy Walsh.
In Fort Lee, New Jersey, a gas station attendant went on a wild ride when a driver tried to make off with a free tank of gas.
The attendant finished pumping and then clung to the car as the driver tried to speed off. The gas station worker was hospitalized in stable condition, we should tell you. The owner of the station blames higher gas prices for a recent rash of thefts.
We've got a very special guest on CNN. Cookie Monster joins us. Sure, he's talking about cookies, but wait until you hear his financial advice. You have to see this.
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LEMON: In tonight's special edition of "Mastering your Money," some valuable lessons in spending, sharing and saving. It's all part of Sesame workshops "New For Me, For You, For Later" initiative.
Our Christine Romans is in New York with a very hungry guest.
Christine?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Don, I've got a very special guest to "Master Your Money" tonight, and his name is Cookie.
And I'm telling you, why listen to me talk about money when you've got somebody here who has been learning about all the concepts of saving, spending and sharing.
You have three jars. What are those jars for?
COOKIE MONSTER, SESAME STREET: One is for spending money, one is for saving money and one is for sharing your money.
ROMANS: Now, have you learned that you just can't use all your money at one time?
COOKIE MONSTER: Yes, we learned the hard way.
ROMANS: How?
COOKIE MONSTER: Well, we spend all my money on cookies, we eat all the cookies and then what you have. Zilcho.
ROMANS: And then you have nothing left.
COOKIE MONSTER: You got nothing.
ROMANS: You're also learning about sharing your cookies, too, right?
COOKIE MONSTER: Yes, yes, me love to share my cookies.
ROMANS: You have to share your cookies because that's a good part of financial literacy and just being a good citizen, right? You keep something for yourself and giving something back.
COOKIE MONSTER: You know what? I'm going to share this cookie.
ROMANS: Thank you, cookie.
COOKIE MONSTER: And we're going to have this cookie. ROMANS: Cookie is part of a great new program from the Sesame workshop, Don. You could see it at SesameStreet.Org/Save, where you can help kids learn more about the concept of saving, spending and sharing.
Don, back to you.
COOKIE MONSTER: Sorry about the mess, buddy. Break out the broom.
LEMON: Thanks, Christine and Cookie.
We want to check your top stories right now.
A quiet calm has returned to North Carolina, but the pain of this weekend will linger for months to come. People across the state will begin the workweek trying to recover from a devastating wave of tornadoes that killed at least 23 people. In largely rural Bertie County where 11 people died, residents are struggling to make sense of it all.
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CHARLES BOND, BERTIE COUNTY RESIDENT: Of course, you've got to ask yourself, why here, you know? That's a good question. Don't know if you can get the right answer, but, you know.
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In Libya, the battle rages in two cities and rebel forces are questioning NATO's commitment. Unconfirmed reports suggest NATO called off air strikes, Sunday, because of poor weather. The rebel said the weather didn't stop Moammar Gadhafi's forces from shelling their fighters. Some of the heaviest fighting took place in Misrata, the last western city controlled by the rebels.
The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant says it will take up to nine months to end the crisis. Engineers hope to eventually build new shells around the damaged reactors. Japan's government says it will try to decontaminate the widest area possible before deciding whether tens of thousands of residents in the evacuation zone can return to their homes.
While you weren't looking postal rates went up. A regular stamp will stay unchanged at 44 cents, and that covers a one ounce letter. But starting today, each additional ounce will cost you another 20 cents and extra 3 cents from the current rate. And mailing a post card will cost you an extra penny, 29 cents
He is Harry, Prince Harry to his nation, but Captain Harry Wales to his fellow soldiers. The third in line to the British throne has earned a promotion in the British Army in recognition of his five years of service. Of course, Prince Harry has another important duty coming up. In less than two weeks, he'll serve as brother William's best man at the royal wedding.
And you can keep up with all the news on the nuptials right here on CNN, on CNN.com, wherever you look, all over the media, it's all there.
I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Thanks for watching. Have a great week. I'll see you back here next weekend.
