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Redefining Alzheimer's Disease; Safety of Food We Eat; No End in Sight to Wildfires; Revisit Fisherman in the Hardest Hit Areas of the Gulf; Segregation in Schools Continues; Understanding OPEC

Aired April 19, 2011 - 11:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get you up to speed for Tuesday, April 19th.

Runaway wildfires have now burned more than 900,000 acres of Texas. That is a chunk of real estate larger than Rhode Island. Five new fires are reported, one just 100 miles north of a major population center. That is Dallas-Ft. Worth. The governor's office says 244 homes have burned this wildfire season already.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LONNIE CRISWELL, FIRE VICTIM: I just thank God every day that we're alive. And this can be rebuilt, but we can't be replaced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Dangerous lightning, hail, and even tornadoes are possible today for cities like Tulsa, St. Louis, and Indianapolis. In Bertie County, North Carolina, officials put early damage estimates at $2.5 million. Eleven people died there in last weekend's tornado outbreak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIE BLACKSTONE, TORNADO VICTIM: I mean, you just have to see it and how the wind -- it just tore up houses. And things are all up in the air like the movie. You know, like the wizard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: President Obama had about 130 Christian clergy at the White House today for an Easter prayer breakfast. Afterwards, the president hit the road to sell his debt and deficit reduction plan. He is speaking at Northern Virginia Community College.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, if we don't close this deficit now that the economy has begun to grow again, if we keep on spending more than we take in, it's going to cause serious damage to our economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We'll continue to monitor his remarks.

The Speaker of the Arizona House tells a Phoenix newspaper no veto override. Governor Jan Brewer rejected a bill to make presidential candidates prove they were born in the United States. Brewer says the bill would let one person, the secretary of state, decide who gets on the ballot, leaving too much room for mischief.

A frail Fidel Castro turned up in public today. The former Cuban president had to be helped to his seat at Cuba's Communist Party Congress in Havana. Castro announced Monday that he is giving up his leadership role in the party. He says it's time for the young generation to lead.

The European Union says it will send several hundred troops to Libya to protect humanitarian deliveries if that is requested by the United Nations. Of particular concern is Misrata. Government troops have surrounded the city for almost two months now. Food, clean water and medicine are urgently needed.

The government today expanded the definition of Alzheimer's Disease. The goal, spot changes in the brain long before dementia symptoms actually appear. Now, researchers hope to develop drugs to slow Alzheimer's, and early detection, of course, is key.

I'm going to talk live with one of the doctors that is behind today's changes in just a few minutes.

Another air traffic controller and his manager are off the job today. Suspended not for sleeping, however. The controller got caught watching a movie on a portable DVD player.

A pilot reported the incident after he heard audio from the movie "The Cleaner," starring Samuel L. Jackson. The controller, it seems, left the mike open.

The same-sex marriage fight is back in the spotlight. House Republicans have hired a lawyer to protect what is called the Defense of Marriage law, the act, which says that marriage is between a man and a woman.

So, here's your chance to "Talk Back." And Carol Costello joins us for this hot topic.

Carol, what have we got coming?

COSTELLO: We'll we're going to delve deeper into the marriage issue. But you're right, Suzanne, congressional Republicans are gearing up for a fight to defend the Defense of Marriage Act which the Obama administration has decided is unconstitutional and, thus, not worth defending. But what exactly is being defended or not defended here?

Is it the legal union of a man and woman, husband and wife? You know, as in celebrity royals William and Kate. That type of marriage is, if not under siege, at least in decline. According to a Pew Research Center survey, about one-quarter of 20-somethings are married. That's down two-thirds from 1960. About half of all marriages split up.

In the meantime, same-sex marriage and civil unions are on the rise. And a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out today shows that for the first time, a majority of Americans, 51 percent, support same-sex marriage. Support is higher among younger Americans, women, and Independents.

So this begs the question, is the current skirmish over the Defense of Marriage Act, or just another political fight, or will it really help to save traditional marriage? Is same-sex marriage the biggest threat to the institution of marriage, or is it, to a certain extent, all of us? Are we to blame for the state of marriage in this country?

So, the "Talk Back" question today: Is the Defense of Marriage Act the best way to save marriage?

Facebook.com/CarolCNN, and we'll read your comment later this hour.

MALVEAUX: I think you're going to get a lot of comments, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes.

MALVEAUX: I know covering President Bush, he used that wedge issue to get people out there to vote for his re-election campaign, and it worked. A lot of people -- he drummed up the whole issue of same-sex marriage. People came out.

COSTELLO: The polls show a clearly different result this time around, though. So it will be interesting to see what people say since the majority of Americans now pretty much favor same-sex marriage, or at least civil unions.

MALVEAUX: All right. Carol, thanks.

COSTELLO: Sure.

Here's what we have ahead "On the Rundown."

We're going to have more on the first update in 27 years on how Alzheimer's, the disease, is diagnosed.

Plus, the latest on wildfires that turned the entire state of Texas into a disaster area.

And how vulnerable are we to bioterrorism? Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius joins me here in the NEWSROOM to talk about that.

And also, one year after the worst oil spill in American history, charter boat fishermen working now the Gulf Coast. Well, they've got new reason to be mad. And as gas prices continue to skyrocket, we take a look at OPEC countries that sell the U.S. oil.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We have three great stories. Only one of them can air in the next hour. So let us know which one you would like to see by texting 22360.

Your first choice, pirate prison, an exclusive look inside a prison just for those convicted of hijacking ships on the high seas.

Second, Cuba's iconic 1950s cars might disappear. Upcoming changes in the communist country's property laws could get the classics off the streets.

And the third choice, a 9-year-old boy saves his 2-year-old sister's life. He tells us how he performed CPR even though he had no training.

So you know what to do. Vote by texting 22360. Text 1 for "Pirate Prison"; 2 for "Cuba's Iconic Cars"; or 3 for "9-Year-Old Boy Saves Sister."

The winning story will air in the next hour.

Well, most of us are familiar with the dreaded symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease: memory loss, dementia, the inability to carry out day-to-day functions. Well, now researchers want to redefine Alzheimer's to include a range from less to more severe, and the hope is, is to diagnose this earlier.

We're going to have more on that in just a minute, but first, our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, she examines how Alzheimer's affects not only the millions that are suffering from this disease, but also the people who care for them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Phyllis and Bob Fouche of Frederick, Maryland, were married 38 years ago, they vowed they'd be together for better or for worse. After raising their son, they dreamed of retirement filled with vacations at the beach and time spent with their grandson. But that dream was shattered 10 years ago, when Bob was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, along with early-onset Alzheimer's.

PHYLLIS FOUCHE, ALZHEIMER'S CAREGIVER: He was forgetting. He was getting confused.

COHEN: Now Phyllis is more like a mother to than Bob than a wife. She has to take care of him 24/7, dressing him, bathing him, keeping watch over him, and making sure he takes his medications. She never has time to herself, and he's with her constantly.

And there's her home she must look after, the bills, the upkeep, all of which take a toll.

FOUCHE: It's lonely. I have to do everything that a man would do.

COHEN: According to new statistics released by the Alzheimer's Association, there are nearly 15 million Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers in the U.S. That's 37 percent more than reported over the last 10 years.

CATHY HANSON, ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION: Caregivers feel very helpless. They feel very lost and confused. They're looking for support.

COHEN: For the Fouches, the cost of both diseases has put them into debt. They're thinking of selling their home in order to make ends meet.

When asked where she and Bob will go, Phyllis says she's not sure.

FOUCHE: I get up in the morning, and it's another day. I don't know where the day's going to take me. Am I going to have a house tomorrow? Is Bob going to get worse tomorrow or today, you know? It's scary.

COHEN: As for a nursing home, that can cost anywhere from $40,000 to $100,000 a year, and the Fouches vowed they would never take that route with one another. But Phyllis says even if she did want to put Bob in a home, she can't afford it even with the help of Medicare or Medicaid.

FOUCHE: It's no answer of how to take care of him sometimes. I just hope I'm doing the best and I hope I'm giving him good care.

COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: We want to talk more about changing the way that Alzheimer's is defined. Creighton Phelps is director of the Alzheimer's Disease Centers Program at the National Institutes of Health, and he joins us now live.

And thank you so much, Doctor, for being here.

First of all, if you could help us understand, how has the definition of Alzheimer's changed?

CHREIGHTON PHELPS, ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE CENTERS PROGRAM, NIH: We are now looking at Alzheimer's as three stages. The disease formerly was thought of as just the dementia stage. And that's what the classical diagnostic guidelines were used for.

Now we are using two other stages to describe what happens before the dementia stage. There is a mild cognitive impairment stage and a new stage that we are now defining for the first time called the pre- clinical stage, where we can't actually diagnose people with the pre- clinical stage yet. Only, for now, we look at it as a research tool, a research paradigm, that -- to find out what's going on in people that may be developing the disease in the future.

MALVEAUX: So, Doctor, tell us, what are the key tests needed to diagnose Alzheimer's?

PHELPS: For now, the doctors in their offices and in the clinics are using patient interviews, the family informants that can tell them if anything has changed with the patients over time, and whether it's starting to affect their daily living. You know, can they still do their job properly? Can they cook dinner? Can they find their way around from place to place?

So it's largely interview, and then if there's suspicion that there may be something else going on, then we would want to have them tested using psychometric testing.

MALVEAUX: And does it include blood tests, as well as looking for proteins that are in the blood or in the brain that might be prevalent that could lead to Alzheimer's? Is that correct?

PHELPS: That's where we're headed, but that's not where we are now. Right now, we are only doing research on these blood tests, cerebral spinal fluid tests from spinal taps, brain imaging, because we know that there are change in the brain in dementia patients and in MCI patients. But what we don't know yet is whether -- if these changes occur in the pre-clinical stages, whether they're definitely going to lead to MCI or Alzheimer's or not.

MALVEAUX: If Alzheimer's is not --

PHELPS: So, we wait --

MALVEAUX: Oh, I'm sorry. If it's not treatable, why it's it important to know ahead of time that you may develop it?

PHELPS: There are many reasons. One that we like to do is for preparation for the family and for the patient's future.

If they're going to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's/dementia, then they can start planning their legal affairs, their financial affairs, how they will be cared for if they reach a phase where they can no longer take care of themselves, which they very likely will. And this is -- it gives them some control. Otherwise, you know, it's just sort of, wait and see what happens, and then we'll deal with it.

You know, you can plan ahead. And not only that --

MALVEAUX: All right. Yes?

PHELPS: -- there may be clinical trials that would be most appropriate for them to be involved in for new treatments.

MALVEAUX: All right. Dr. Phelps, thank you so much. That is some encouraging news, but obviously a lot of study, a lot of research still needs to be done on the debilitating disease of Alzheimer's.

Thank you once again.

Well, if you or someone you know needs help coping with Alzheimer's, go to CNN.com/health. Click on the story about Alzheimer's, and you'll find a link to several online resources.

Food recalls, drug-resistant bacteria in meat. We're going to talk with the secretary of Health and Human Services about the safety of the food we eat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: She is President Obama's point person for putting his health care reform law into action. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius oversees the primary agency in charge also of protecting the health of all Americans.

She's with us in our studio this morning.

And Secretary, very nice to have you here in person.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Thank you. Nice to be here.

MALVEAUX: We saw some reports -- and we know part of your job is overseeing the Food & Drug Administration -- reports last week that much of our poultry, much of our meat is contaminated with this bacteria and it is resistant to antibodies.

Give us a sense -- and we also know of many foods that have been recalled in the past -- give us a sense of how safe our food supply is.

SEBELIUS: Well, the FDA takes food safety very, very seriously, but what we also know, Suzanne, is this is not a government-only function. We are working very closely with industry because we really need to look at the farm-to-fork issues that are along the way.

So new tools have been developed for industry, for farmers, for manufactures and producers, to identify strategic threats. One of the last acts of the Bush administration was to put in place a new lab that is currently in the process of being funded, a bioagri terrorism lab that will look at animal and the kind of diseases which could be induced or naturally produced in animals so that we can develop antibodies and track those much more carefully.

I know a lot about that because, actually, that's coming to Kansas, at Kansas State University. But that's a major new initiative recognizing that the food supply is hugely important.

MALVEAUX: I wanted to bring what your predecessor, Tommy Thompson, said right before his left his job. And it was rather alarming for us to hear. But he said, "For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do." Is that still the case today under your watch?

SEBELIUS: Well, again, I think there are certainly tools being put into place, and the new Food Safety Modernization Act, again, directs the Department of Agriculture and the Food & Drug Administration to ramp up their efforts. But this new NBTH (ph) national lab is a brand new asset that will be on the ground. There are new diagnostic tools, there are new industry tools. There's a very close collaboration between the industry and the FDA that did not exist when former Secretary Thompson made those comments.

MALVEAUX: So there have been improvements that have been made?

SEBELIUS: Absolutely. Absolutely.

MALVEAUX: I want to turn the corner here. There's a report that is being released by your agency, your department. Some of these statistics are rather alarming here.

This is health care. One in three patient admitted to the hospital suffer from a preventable error, 10 times greater than previously believed. On any given day, one in 20 patients are affected by an infection they get in the hospital. And then, finally, on average, one in seven Medicare recipients is harmed in the course of their medical care, costing the government $4.4 billion a year.

What is the initiative that the government is doing to address some of these -- the ways that people are actually harmed inside the hospital, inside, you know, these kind of hospice facilities?

SEBELIUS: Well, just last week, we launched a partnership for patients. And this is an effort with health care providers, hospital administrator, but employers and union members and business owners and government officials to say we have some of the best health care in the world. We have the best-trained doctors and nurses. But without a major leadership focus on saying we can do a lot better in hospital- acquired infections, we can do a lot better in making sure that patients who are released from the hospital don't return because they haven't had the proper kind of post-hospital care, those are huge dollars and it's huge lives.

So we're saying in three years, we can save 60,000 lives, prevent about three million Americans from either being injured or returning unnecessarily to the hospital, and really improve care for everyone. And we've got the tools now in the Affordable Care Act to do that.

MALVEAUX: OK. Madam Secretary, thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

SEBELIUS: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Thanks.

Wildfires are racing across Texas now. Many residents, ready to leave at a moment's notice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said if the wind shifts where it's blowing to the north, I mean, we're right, like, the first house in the path. So it's kind of scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: CNN's Ed Lavandera is driving through the fire zone, and we'll hear from him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Ahead "On the Rundown," some progress now for firefighters as they battle wildfires raging across Texas.

Plus, anger rising on the Gulf Coast. Charter fishermen air new grievances against BP.

And getting to know APEC (ph), the organization some say is responsible for rising gas prices.

Well, firefighters see no end in sight to the fires racing across Texas. Ten more were reported just this morning alone. And what has burned already is bigger than the state of Rhode Island.

Our CNN's Ed Lavandera is on his way to Possum Kingdom. That's a popular resort area where a number of homes have already burned. He's on the phone with us.

Ed, give us a sense of what you're seeing as you're driving from one fire zone to another. Just how bad is this?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, right now we're on the southern edge of Possum Kingdom Lake. And this is a popular lake recreationally and for camping and that sort of thing west of Possum Kingdom. We're seeing a long fire line in a wide-open field just south of the lake, and we've been talking a lot this morning about the C-130 aircraft that have been brought into Texas to help these firefighters kind of attack these fires. And we're watching two of them circle over the area in the field that we're over just on the southern edge of this lake right now.

We can see them dropping the fire suppressants, and there's two of these aircraft that just keep circling around and round. And I can tell you, in just the short while we've been here, we've really seen the fire line, which has just been kind of low and rolling across this wide-open field, move very quickly. And you can see the wind gusts pushing the smoke toward the north.

You really get a sense of just how quickly and how -- how quickly these wildfires can spread. So, in fact one of these C-130s you might hear here shortly, because they're about to drop the suppressant on the fire line. And a couple of planes are going to fly over our head as we speak here very shortly.

That's the leader plane, the spotter plane. And here comes the C-130 aircraft, which is dropping the fire suppressant right in front of us. I don't know if you can still hear me.

MALVEAUX: We can hear you, Ed. We just heard that plane go by.

LAVANDERA: Right, that aircraft just passed about 150 feet over our head. So we're going to probably have to start moving -- packing it in from where we are right here and start leaving this area.

MALVEAUX: And Ed, please be safe. But what about the evacuation? Some of these fires seem to be getting really close to big cities. Yes?

LAVANDERA: Absolutely. The southern edge of this lake has a lot of homes. Yesterday afternoon, with the wind gusts firing up in the late afternoon, it really caused a lot of problems. They lost a couple more homes.

Several of the small towns -- this is kind of a sparsely- populated area, so you have a lot of wide-open spaces, and then you find little, small towns. A lot of those people have been urged to evacuate. So -- and that continues.

But the problem really is the wind shifting and how quickly and often it changes depending on the terrain. So that really has a lot of people on edge.

But, you know, the concern is here that people need to be able to move quickly. But here, on this southern edge of the lake, where it's been getting most of the attention here in the last 24 hours, a lot of homes, and there's a big effort to save and salvage homes that are still standing. So that's what they're kind of focusing on in that defensive mode to protect what they can.

MALVEAUX: OK. All right. Ed Lavandera, be safe. We appreciate your reporting.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MALVEAUX: New anger a year after the BP oil disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we put the boat through the hoops, and we relied on them to their word and we were told every day, we'll take care of it, we'll take care of it, until it comes time to pay and they deny our claims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We revisit fishermen in the Gulf's hardest hit areas as CNN looks in depth at this nation's worst environmental disaster one year later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We're seeing live picture here of -- in Havana, Cuba. Fidel Castro making a rare appearance showing up the communist party meeting. You can see him there in a track suit. He seems to be singing and nodding his head as he sings along with the fellow Cubans.

He has been out -- officially been out of power for some time, his own son taken over. But the announcement earlier today that he would let the new generation, the next generation rule the communist party there. And lots of people gathered there singing, swaying, holding hands. And again, Fidel Castro making a rare appearance there in Havana, before large crowds.

Tomorrow marks one year since the biggest environmental catastrophe in this nation's history -- the BP oil disaster. More than 200 million gallons of crude gushed into the Gulf. We're taking you back to the hardest hit areas as part of our coverage CNN In Depth: The Gulf, a year later.

Our Rob Marciano reports that some hard-working fishermen have new reasons to be angry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO (on camera): How you been, man?

MARCIANO (voice-over): We met Charter Boat Captain Josh Forsythe last year at the height of the oil spill. Then, he was having no luck getting work as a vessel of opportunity. So we put him on CNN.

JOSH FORSYTHE, CHARTER CAPTAIN, "BONE COLLECTOR": The first time that you all aired the piece, we got a call, they wanted to put us in training in two weeks. And then after we took you out on the boat, we got a call the next day. They put us in training within two days.

MARCIANO: Built to pull fish from the gulf, the "Bone Collector" was now pulling oil coated boom. It was tough, dirty work.

J. FORSYTHE: We got pictures where that you literally can barely see the white on this boat. It's nothing but oil. Like we're slipping and sliding around in it wearing tie vex suits and 110 degree weather. It was crazy.

MARCIANO: Months of cleaning up oil caused serious damage to the boat. And Josh's father Ted, a charter captain himself, says BP is not making good on their agreement to fix it.

TED FORSYTHE, CHARTER FISHERMAN: We were one of those boats that went out with the attitude we're going to attack this oil. We're going to work on it. We're going to help clean this stuff up. So we'd put the boat through the hoops and we relied on them to their word and we were told every day, we'll take care of it, we'll take care of it. Until it comes time to pay and deny our claims.

MARCIANO (on camera): Deny the whole thing. You had a $50,000 claim on damage to this boat and they just said, well, we're not -

T. FORSYTHE: They agreed to $1,200.

MARCIANO (voice-over): Not only do they say BP denied most of their claim, the Joint Incident Command actually featured the "Bone Collector" in a video promoting the Vessel of Opportunity Program. We asked BP about it, but they said as a policy, they don't comment on individual claims.

T. FORSYTHE: We worked. We went out there and busted our tail for BP to clean this oil up that they put in the Gulf. We didn't put it there. Yes, they paid us well while we worked. But how's that going to factor in over five, six, seven years if our industry is designated. We don't know.

MARCIANO: The water is cleaner and safe to fish, but the Gulf of Mexico's image is tarnished and making a living on the water this year doesn't look good.

J. FORSYTHE: Basically, nobody wants to come down. They're afraid to eat the fish because they've got, you know, all the oil around, the dispersants around and everybody is kind of a little afraid about it.

MARCIANO (on camera): Your regular customers that come back year after year aren't planning on coming back this year?

J. FORSYTHE: No.

MARCIANO (voice-over): A situation the Forsythes and hundreds of other fishermen never imagined one year ago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Our Rob Marciano, he joins us live from New Orleans. He is back there.

Rob, it's good to see you. Excellent reporting, as always.

I want to ask first about the problem that these fishermen are facing, this image problem about how safe is the seafood, the fish, to eat. How to they tackle something like that, because people just -- they're still quite skeptical.

MARCIANO: Yes. And quite honestly, there's choices. So, you know, if you have a choice to go to south Florida or the east part of Florida over to west Texas, it looks like people are making those choices. But the fish, you know, once they've opened -- one they open those areas for fishing, so many months ago, I mean, they've been tested regularly. The fish is fine. And the fishing is fine.

So it's purely public opinion that's driving the lack of business that they anticipate this coming year. So, you know, how they're fighting that, it's just a tough go. A lot of them are considering moving. As a matter of fact, josh and his father are thinking, you know, if business continues the way it is, we may have to pick up stakes here and move to south Florida or the east coast of Florida in order to make a living. That's a tough go.

MALVEAUX: And the -- we've seen reports of dead turtles and other wildlife. Do we have a sense of whether or not it's really coming back, or a lot of the sea life still in trouble? MARCIANO: Well, the last few months, as a matter of fact, since January 1st, we've had a rash of turtle and dolphin strandings along the Gulf Coast. Over 100 for each of those two species. Much, much higher than they would normally be. As a matter of fact, for the dolphin numbers, 10 to 15 times higher in the month of January and February than they would normally be.

So they are testing those tissue samples. They've performed necropsies. And those test results aren't back yet. They won't be back for some time so they can't say for sure whether or not they're associated. But certainly with those exceedingly high numbers, you have to assume there's some sort of linkage.

I'll say this about the number of deaths that we've seen the past few months and why the evidence or the test results aren't really being shared very rapidly is that NERDA (ph), this group that's organizing evidence, collecting evidence to prosecute BP -- this is a legal case down here.

MALVEAUX: Right.

MARCIANO: And they're trying to get a ton of money from BP so that they can restore the Gulf back it its original form, if not be better than it was before the spill so that's one of the reasons we're not getting rapid answers. The legal system is fully involved -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Rob Marciano there in New Orleans. Thanks for the update.

Well despite decades of efforts to desegregate schools a report from Boston's Northeastern University shows that many school systems are more segregated now than ever.

Our CNN special correspondent, Soledad O'Brien, takes a look at why that is for one system in North Carolina and how one family feels about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joshua is two. His sister Malia, one. But their great-grandmother Geraldine Alshamy is already worried about their education. Six years ago she moved her extended family to Wake County, North Carolina, because she didn't like the school system where she lived.

GERALDINE ALSHAMY, GRANDPARENT: We moved to what they called neighborhood schools and it was basically just segregation.

O'BRIEN: Segregation because neighborhood schools means students attend school closest to where they live. A black neighborhood means a black school. A white neighborhood, a white school.

Since 2000, Wake County's been mixing students from families of all income levels to create fully integrated schools. Then 13 months ago, a mostly new school board voted to replace that system in favor of neighborhood schools.

REV. WILLIAM BARBER, NAACP: They argue that diversity is the enemy of student achievement when we know that almost 100 percent of the research the last 50 years says that diversity and resources are keys to student achievement and excellence.

O'BRIEN: The NAACP complained to the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights which says re-segregation is a growing trend nationally.

RUSSLYNN ALI, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR CIVIL RIGHTS: In schools that are racially isolated, they tend to have fewer of the things we know make the difference in public education. They are far more likely to have more than their fair share of our least effective teachers. We don't see the access to the rigorous curricula that we know they'll need to succeed.

O'BRIEN: Critics of the proposed changes in Wake County worry that schools in poor neighborhood will be neglected and fail. The new school superintendent says he's aware of concerns.

ANTHONY TATA, WAKE COUNTY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: We're trying to make sure that we avoid the problem of high poverty schools.

O'BRIEN: By 2012, they'll decide how to assign students.

Geraldine Alshamy is unhappy.

ALSHAMY: Whether we go back to neighborhood schools, we are facing segregation all over again. And everything that has been done will be undone.

O'BRIEN: Soledad O'Brien, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: CNN's documentary "Don't Fail Me: Education in America," looks at the crisis in our public education system and why America's financial future is at risk if our kids don't excel in math and science. That documentary reported by Soledad O'Brien premieres Sunday, May 15, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: President Obama holding a town hall meeting today on the nation's debt. Later this week, he's going to head west.

Our Paul Steinhauser and Shannon Travis, part of "The Best Political Team On Television," live from the Political Desk in Washington.

Good to see both of you.

I guess it's a tag team here, Paul. Tell us about the president's plan. We'll start with you. PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, Suzanne, as you know from covering the White House for many years, White House -- there's always politics involved even if they deny it.

So as you said, the president heading west. A big town hall later this week in Nevada. What do Virginia and Nevada have in common? Well, they're battleground states the president probably has to win to win reelection next year.

He also going to California, got a Facebook town hall there, and he's doing some fundraising while he's in California, Suzanne. Good reporting by our national political correspondent, Jessica Yellin. In L.A., he will have two fundraisers, one at the Sony Pictures, at their studios there, and another one at Jeffrey Katzenberg's, the movie mogul is hosting.

So interesting stuff here as the president starts beefing up on his reelection. But what about the Republicans?

Shannon, what are you learning?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: Yes, Paul, and as we're tracking President Obama and his whereabouts, we're also taking a look at, Suzanne, where the people who might run against him, where they stand, Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents. Folks like Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Haley Barbour are potential presidential candidates on the Republican side.

There's a new ABC News/"Washington Post" poll that says that Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents aren't so happy. Less than -- less than 50 percent of respondents are happy with the current crop. That's down significantly from a few years ago in 2008 when nearly 66 percent of respondents said that they were happy with their crop of candidates at the time.

Take a look at some of these numbers. When asked, who might likely GOP voter support in primaries caucuses, 33 percent in this poll said that they had no opinion whatsoever, 12 percent said no one. Mitt Romney actually registered at 16 percent; he was the only publish person to -- only person to get in the double digits.

MALVEAUX: All right. And, Paul, this is something that kind of surprised a lot of us. Arizona's governor rejecting this bill that would make presidential candidates prove that they were born in the United States. What -- what was behind that?

STEINHAUSER: Well, we now know because she sent a letter to the House speaker out there. Here's what she said, she says, "As a former secretary of state, I do not support designating one person as the gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically-motivated decisions. This measure creates significant new problems while failing to do anything constructive for Arizona."

Of course, Brewer, a Republican, was secretary of state in 2009 when the Democratic governor, Janet Napolitano, became the homeland security secretary and she became governor -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, thanks. Paul, Shannon, handsome pair there, good to have you both. Thank you.

For the latest political news, you know where to go, CNNPolitics.com.

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MALVEAUX: Three stories, one choice. Here's a reminder of your options for choosing the news. Text us at 22360. Text 1 if you want to see pirate prison, 2 for Cuba's iconic cars driving off into the sunset, or 3 or 9-year-old boy uses CPR to save his little sister's life. The winner airs the next hour.

House Republicans have hired a lawyer to protect the Federal Defense of Marriage Act. The Obama administration announced last month it believes the act, which defined marriage between a man and a woman, is unconstitutional, which brings us to today's talk back and Carol Costello.

Carol, what are folks saying on this one?

COSTELLO: Many interesting things, let me tell you.

The "Talk Back" question today: Is the Defense of Marriage Act the best way to save marriage?

This from Timothy, "Not just no, but hell no. Note to Congress: Keep your laws off my relationships."

This from Valerie, "Save marriage from what -- divorce? Please don't tell me we're going to spend taxpayer money on rehashing the gay marriage issue again."

This from Diane, "No. You save marriage with respect and love, not by government mandate. And the Defense of Marriage Act is ludicrous, unless all divorce laws will be rescinded too."

This from Christine, "I think it's a moral issue involving holy matrimony between a man and woman they want to preserve."

And this is from Michael, "Save marriage...from what?"

Continue the conversation, Facebook.com/CarolCNN, Facebook.com/CarolCNN, and I'll see you again in about ten minutes.

MALVEAUX: I knew you would get some strong responses on this one.

COSTELLO: Love my Facebook friends.

MALVEAUX: Way to go. Keep them coming.

COSTELLO: We will.

MALVEAUX: Yes. Thanks, Carol.

Well, it's a term that gets used a lot when we talk about the rising price of gas, but what is OPEC, and how does it determine how much you pay for gas? Well, Carl Azuz, he is going to break it down for us.

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MALVEAUX: High gas prices has all of us hurting, but New Jersey has some of the cheapest gas in country, that's causing a lot of folks from New York and even Connecticut to trek across the border for a good deal. Out-of-staters were lining up at gas stations in New Jersey yesterday where the average gallon of price for a gallon of regular is $3.69, that's according to AAA.

So what should the government be doing about these sky-high prices of oil? The host of "The Apprentice," Donald Trump, who has hinted that he's considering running that he's running from president in 2012, he says that if he was in charge he would strong arm OPEC into lowering the price of oil.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, ENTREPRENEUR/REALITY TV STAR: OPEC sets the price. You tell OPEC, fellas, that price is going down. Let me tell you, it will go down, if you say it properly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Well, you have to admit, it's an idea. But especially with the oil prices almost at 30 percent up since last year, but what is OPEC in the first place, and how does it control what we pay at the pump?

Carl Azuz is breaking it down for us.

Carl, give us a sense, what are we talking about when we talk about OPEC and how it relates to gas prices?

CARL AZUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're talking about a very powerful group of 12 countries, and they have this extraordinary effect on the global price of oil.

First things first, I want to show you a graphic of who is in OPEC, the 12 countries listed right here from Algeria to Venezuela. One thing you want to note about this graphic, at least three of these countries -- you look at Iran, Libya, Venezuela -- these are countries that have had sort of an antagonistic relationship with the United States. That is significant, because the U.S. is the world's biggest consumer of oil, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: So how do they operate? How does this impact ultimately what we're paying, and when we get our gas?

AZUZ: Very good questions. To start, how they operate, you're looking at this group that gets together, they have regular meetings, and what they decide in those meetings, they vote unanimously on whether or not to raise or lower oil production. That has an effect on global prices.

If you take a look at this graphic right here, a few things about OPEC we want you to know. They are nations that are reliant on oil revenues. So those 12 nations I showed you a moment ago, oil is their bread and butter.

Another thing, their goal, their official stated goal is to coordinate and unify petroleum policies in order to promote harmony and stability in the oil market. So they do that through their regular votes on exactly what oil should be produced.

They control 75 percent of the world's proven crude oil reserves, but they supply 40 percent of the world oil. And there's sort of a disparity between that 75 percent that they control and the 40 percent they supply, because some of the world's biggest producers of oil, Russia is the world's biggest, the United States is number three, they are not members of OPEC.

You asked one other question about how that affects what we pay at the pump. You know, the United States consumes so much oil, so what we produce, we're using much of that plus a lot of what OPEC produces. Sixty-five cents of every dollar you spend at the pump goes to the cost of crude oil. So when OPEN raises or lowers that production and that affects the price, that's how it trickles down to what we pay at the gas pump.

MALVEAUX: Got it. All right, thanks, Carl.

AZUZ: Thank you, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Appreciate it.