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Gun Fires at Elementary School; Gas Prices Rising; Demonstrations Continue in Syria; Obama on the Move; Texas Fires Seen from Space; Offshore Drilling Support Rises; In-Depth: A Year Since the Spill; Fire 10 Miles from Palo Pinto, Texas; Arizona Presidential "Birther" Bill Vetoed; Obscenity Task Force Move

Aired April 19, 2011 - 16:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Want to begin with this developing story out of Texas.

Here is what we know. A kindergarten student, folks, 6 years of age, this morning brings a loaded handgun to school. Somehow, shots are fired in the cafeteria. Three students in total are hurt.

Ted Rowlands is all over the story.

And, Ted, for people just now picking up on it, how did this happen?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a big question, Brooke. How did a 6-year-old, a kindergarten student get a gun and then bring a gun to school? But that is exactly what happened at Ross Elementary School in Houston. It was around lunchtime.

The child had apparently, according to authorities, the gun in a backpack and it somehow fell out and went off. Last hour, you talked to a spokesperson from the district. Here is what he had to say about exactly what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON SPENCER, SPOKESMAN: At some point during the lunch period, it fell out of his pocket and landed on the ground and discharged.

When it fired, the 6-year-old who brought the gun and two classmates were wounded. They were all wounded in the lower extremities, two of them wounded in the foot one in the leg.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Now, about an hour after the shooting took place, there was an all call, a recorded message that went out to all of the parents in the school. And you look at those shots from the helicopters in Houston of those frantic, understandably frantic parents that streamed to the school to find their children, everybody was able to leave school. The parents took their children home.

There was some criticism about how long it took for parents to be notified. Right now, the school district, understandably, has handed all of this over, Brooke, to the Houston Police Department, where a criminal investigation has been launched as to how this 6-year-old kindergartner got the gun in the first place.

BALDWIN: Yes. It's tough for all of us to wrap our heads around 5- and 6-year-olds injured because a kid brought a gun to school. You mentioned three kids were injured in their feet or legs. How are they doing right now? Do we know?

ROWLANDS: Apparently they are physically fine. The young boy, the 6-year-old boy who brought the gun was injured. And then another 6-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl also injured in the legs and in the foot. But all three of them were conscious and sitting up in the stretchers as they were taken by ambulance to a local hospital.

So all are expected to survive, obviously, but a lot of these kids that saw this happen will have to get some sort of counseling and that is under way at the school district.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So sad. Ted Rowlands, thank you so much. And we will stay on that story.

Also, take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: What is your tipping point? How high is too high for a gallon of gas? We're getting answers. Plus, why more and more people are getting stranded on the side of the road.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

CAROLE MARKIN, FILED LAWSUIT AGAINST MATCH.COM: He basically assaulted me and forced me into sex.

BALDWIN (voice-over): One woman says a man she met online raped her. Now she's sending out a warning to everyone on dating Web sites and taking on Match.com.

Plus, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is known to stir up controversy, but find out why she shot down this so-called birther bill and why the debate may be far from over.

And they're being called oil spillionaires, people all along the Gulf Coast raking in loads of cash from BP. Wait until you hear how they are making money and we will ask, is it legit?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: It is evident in your daily commute or just by looking at the signs around. Many of you keep sending me pictures of gas signs. Gas prices, they are sky-high, not yet at record highs set three years ago, but brace yourself because they're apparently about to get there. Gas is up another five cents this week, now selling for a nationwide average of $3.84 a gallon, but in six states the average price is already over that $4 mark. Take a look at that, Hawaii and California, $4.48 and $4.20 a gallon.

Many fear those $4 signs could quickly turn into $5, and with good reason.

And if that happens, well, let's go to Rick Newman, chief business correspondent for "U.S. News & World Report."

Rick, good to see you.

RICK NEWMAN, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, "U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT": Hi, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let's both take a look at this poll that is out today. So if gas were to hit $5 a gallon, here is the number that Deloitte found -- 78 percent of Americans surveyed said they would consider buying an electric vehicle.

So, my question to you, sir, is why is the $5 mark this apparent tipping point for folks to leave their cars behind and go electric?

NEWMAN: You know, in 2008, we thought $3 gas would be a tipping point. It turned out not to be -- $4 gas did turn out to be a major tipping point in 2008. It really bummed people out. And now we're talking we think we're going to get back to $4, so we are talking about $5 may be the new threshold at which we say, holy cow, we have to do something about this.

We have never seen $5 gas obviously, Brooke. And I'm not sure that's going to happen this summer. But if it were to happen, it would just be a huge freak-out factor for people. And gas prices have a huge effect on consumer psychology, more than the price of almost anything else in the economy. Gas doesn't make up that much of the typical family's monthly spending, but we see that gas -- those prices advertised everywhere. And when we keep driving past those signs with those awful numbers, it just reinforces the idea that something must really be wrong.

BALDWIN: Well, you know, you mentioned the $5 mark maybe as the freak-out factor. But there's another freak-out factor. And that's also, hello, the price of electric cars.

The other part of the polls, Americans don't want to pay any premium for electric vehicles. And according to this study, half said they are not willing to pay any more. President Obama just so happened to be addressing the high costs of electric vehicles today. I don't know if you saw he was in Virginia. Let's listen to this first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're right, right now, that hybrid cars and electric cars are more expensive than regular cars, but partly that's because we haven't increased demand enough for it that the unit costs have gone down. And the more you produce of something, the cheaper it gets, right? And you remember what it used to cost you for a flat-screen TV or a laptop computer. But as volume picked up, technology improves, costs go down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Rick, what do you think? Do you agree with the president? Will the costs go down eventually?

NEWMAN: Well, somewhat, but of those 78 percent of people who said they be interested in buying an electric car, about 77 percent of those would be extremely disappointed, because there are only a couple of these things available right now. They have gotten a ton of hype.

And the technology is really terrific, but we're talking about the leadoff batter in the first inning of the game here. This technology is just barely coming to market. And you probably would have to get on a waiting list if you even wanted one of those cars. Hybrids have been around for more than a decade and they are still less than 5 percent of the total market.

So this technology is not even really available yet. And so when we talk about the cost of electric cars coming down, we're talking about a decade or more than a decade before it really gets down into what people would consider affordable, I think.

BALDWIN: That's interesting you think it will take that long, because right now they pretty much north of $30,000. So many people --

(CROSSTALK)

NEWMAN: And that's with major subsidies from the government.

BALDWIN: Right. Exactly. But then the other factor of this whole story, and we were sitting around our editorial meeting all kind of talking about, hang on a second, have you guys seen a few more people on the side of the road because they have run out of gas? In Southern California, let me get a statistic for you, AAA reporting 13 percent jump in calls for motorists who have run out of gas. What do you make of the phenomenon of people essentially trying to go as far as they can with their tanks and running out.

NEWMAN: I can only imagine rising gas prices just make drivers go crazy, I guess. You're not going to save gas by waiting an extra hour or an extra day to buy it. In fact, if gas prices are going up, it's probably going to cost you more if you wait until tomorrow.

I don't know why people will try to stretch their tank out. Maybe it's the same mentality that if they pay their credit card bill a week later, they will keep the money in the bank or something. Obviously that's not the greatest idea.

BALDWIN: It's not fun. I have done it once. Never again. How about you, Rick? NEWMAN: So have I.

BALDWIN: Yes. Yes. We all have.

(CROSSTALK)

NEWMAN: I hate running out of gas.

BALDWIN: You hate it, too. Rick Newman, thank you so much, "U.S. News & World Report." Appreciate it.

NEWMAN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: New reports, new developments here in the frantic search for that missing 20-year-old in Tennessee. How investigators are raising the stakes for Holly Bobo's return. That is ahead. Plus, a student is talking with a friend online and suddenly there's this knock at the door and an intruder walks in, attacks the student while her friend is watching. Now there is manhunt under way for a killer. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Do you remember that Florida -- father in Florida I should say we told you about last week? We showed you this video. He was the one who was arrested after this video surfaced online. It shows the father. He's in the black T-shirt, so wait for him -- egging on his teenage son in this fight with another kid.

So after his son, there he is, after his son pins the other boy on the ground, the father yells -- quote -- "Punch his eyes out and slam his head on the ground." That's from dad.

Well,, that 41-year-old Scott Struthers arrested. He was charged with child abuse last week. The judge ordered him to stay away from all minors, including his own children. Today though Struthers is speaking out, he's apologizing, but not completely. He says the other kid was bullying his son. Here's what he told ABC's "Good Morning America."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT STRUTHERS, FATHER: The emotions that overwhelmed me, it was just caught up in the moment. I absolutely regret saying those things. I want everybody to know that nobody was hurt in that fight. They weren't hurt. I do want everybody to know that what that tape doesn't show is that they ended the fight. I asked the other boy, was all this prior, the six months of threats and torment, was it over? He said it was over. The boys shook hands. The other boys left on their way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Obviously, Struthers is out of jail. He posted a $10,000 bond. And now to crime stories, this playing out on two different continent. You have a college student found dead after a frantic friend watches the whole thing, watches the whole attack during a computer Web chat. This happened at York University in Toronto. That's where police say exchange student Qian Liu was chatting early Friday morning with her boyfriend back home in China when a man allegedly knocked on her door and asked to use her phone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY VELLA, TORONTO POLICE: There was a physical struggle between the deceased and this male and that the male turned off the deceased laptop computer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, police say that laptop is missing. Liu was found dead in her apartment, naked from waist down. But police say she was not sexually assaulted. More tests, including a toxicology test, are being run to determine how she died, what killed her.

An explosive development that change the entire game in Syria. Lawmakers there getting ready to lift that emergency law that has been in place really since the early 1960s, but will it be enough for all those protesters, as more of them die in the escalating violence? Hala Gorani live once again for us, brand-new information. We're going "Globe Trekking" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Going "Globe Trekking." Looking overseas, now. I want you to watch and listen to this scene. This is overnight in Syria.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This is the city of Homs, this is north of Damascus, the newest hub of the anti-government demonstrations there in Syria. We're told that there are just about 2,000 people -- look at these pictures -- packing the square overnight. Right around 2:00 this morning, witnesses say riot control police fired into the crowd to break up that whole protest. In total, three people were killed and dozens reportedly injured.

Let's get straight to CNN's Hala Gorani, who has been trying to get into Syria for a little while now, but for now, she's in Cairo.

And, Hala, all of this is happening here on the same day that the Syrian government, President al-Assad, talking about finally removing that 05-year-old emergency rule.

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Well, the proposal is out there. It's a draft decree that the cabinet has approved, now it goes to the president of Syria for his signature, but that's just a formality at this stage.

It's been in place since 1963, it prevents people from gathering, it gives security forces really a lot of leeway in terms of detaining people without charge. But the biggest concern now for those who observe Syria and want more freedom and want genuine reform in the country and that protesters are required to ask for the Ministry of Interior's permission to organize protests. So critics are saying that the government is replacing one way of preventing people from demonstrating with another.

Now, this is a big concession by the regime in Syria, Brooke, and it doesn't look as though demonstrators are going to stay home from now on. Those eyewitnesses we've spoken to in the last 12, 18 hours or so say that it's just a promise, promises have been broken in the past. And while they are making these promises, security forces are still shooting live ammunition into crowds of protesters.

I believe you have pictures of Homs on the screen right now and that's where the citizen happened overnight and security forces broke up the demonstration. It happened in a square in the center of Homs that the demonstrators renamed "Tahrir Square" of course, after the epicenter of the protest in Egypt. That's how inspiring they found the Egyptian revolution, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Hala, back to the point about the emergency rule, you said it's from 1963, it's just about a signature away from going into effect. But once that happens, will that be an enough to quell these demonstrations? Or do these people, who were seeing in this video, do they want more? Do they want further change?

GORANI: Well, I think had this announcement been made a few weeks ago, potentially -- and, of course, it's difficult to say anything with any degree of certainty when it comes to the Middle East right now, but it may have been welcome a little more warmly. I think now, so to speak, Brooke, the train has left the station when it comes to Syria, and demonstrators are so far along that it's possible that nothing that the regime says at this point will have any impact, unless security forces refrain from using deadly violence against the protesters, as eyewitnesses have told us.

Because we're not there, we're not able to verify all of the claims, but we do our best with the video that we have, the eyewitness accounts that we have that we crosscheck as well as we can to get an accurate picture out of Syria.

So it seems as though right now, Brooke, this movement is not stoppable with just words, if you like. That's what many of the people inside of Syria and outside of Syria are telling us about the demonstrations in the country right now.

BALDWIN: Not just words, but action. Hala Gorani in Cairo. Hala, thank you.

Now listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you say something mean about somebody, that will get you on TV. If you say something nice about somebody, they figure, oh, well, that's boring, I'm not interested.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: President Obama with some choice words for bickering politicians, but it's what he said about how to control America's debt that got the reaction from the crowd. Ed Henry is standing by live at the White House. We'll talk to Mr. Henry on the other side of the break. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: If it's interesting and happening right now, you're about to see it "Rapid Fire."

Let's begin with the story out of Tennessee. The reward now in the case of missing Tennessee nursing student of Holly Bobo has now tripled. It's up to $75,000. This is part of a push to get a break in the investigation that's produced some 300 leads but not a single named suspect.

Hundreds of volunteers, some of them on horseback, ATVs, turning out in recent days to hunt down clues. The 20-year-old nursing student was last seen Wednesday by her brother who says he saw a large man wearing camouflage lead her into the woods just outside of her home.

Now to Pennsylvania, where the mangled wreckage that you are looking at. Folks, that's what is left of a police cruiser. An officer was transporting a DUI suspect to the hospital when state police say he somehow rear-ended a slow-moving truck and then a tractor-trailer smashed into that cruiser, pushing it beneath the truck. All of this happening Monday morning on I-83 in York. Both the police officer and suspect are severely injured.

Alzheimer's Disease is being redefined. New guidelines today for diagnosing Alzheimer's call it a spectrum disease that occurs in multiple stages and begins years before patients actually start showing symptoms. These are the first new guidelines in some 30 years and they are aimed at catching the disease, we're hoping, much earlier, well before it starts causing memory loss.

And Taco Bell, anyone? A legal victory for them. The lawsuit questioning the fast food chain's beef dropped. The suit claimed that Taco Bell's seasoned beef is only 35 percent beef and that it's advertisements were misleading. The law firm claims it dismissed the case because it got Taco Bell to make changes in its advertising. Taco Bell says, nope, hasn't made any changes. The company, they say, has now been vindicated.

Meantime, McDonald's is hiring today. Today is the day the fast food chain plans to hire 50,000 workers. Openings to serve up Chicken McNuggets, Filet-o-Fish, are available at 14,000 restaurants in all 50 states and include crew and management as well. The average starting pay, $8.00 an hour, roughly $16,000 a year. McDonald's encourages interested applications to apply online or in person at restaurants.

And now to the White House we go. Ed Henry with the latest news from the CNN Political Ticker.

Ed Henry, good to see you.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.

BALDWIN: And the president was in, what, Annandale, Virginia?

HENRY: That's right. Northern Virginia, Washington suburbs. As you know, tomorrow, he's going to San Francisco for a Facebook town hall, then in Reno, Nevada. So he's hitting the road, some swing states like Nevada, like Virginia, today.

And the message is very clear. He was talking about shared sacrifice, telling these students, look, there's no free lunch in terms of his deficit reduction plan that he started laying out last week at George Washington University.

But the problem comes in when he starts getting into some of the specifics, not a lot of detail, but some of it because of the next breath, the president said, look, I'm not going to touch your Pell grants, which are very popular for students, going to make sure there's good money for student loans. Also said we're going to spend money on infrastructure, said he's going to protect senior citizens.

And so, at the end of the day, what is going to be interesting as he takes this message on the road is that he's focusing on what he will not cut, which is what a lot of liberals in his party want to hear, they want to know that he's standing up for what they believe are bedrock principles, not give in to the Republicans on the Hill on some of the deep spending cuts.

But as he focuses on what he will not cut, it's going to be interesting to see what he will cut. Because, as you start walling off education, infrastructure, Medicare and different issues like that, it's going to be hard to actually balance the budget if you're spending more money on some of these other programs, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Ed Henry at the White House. Ed, thank you very much.

HENRY: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Also today, a rare moment in Cuba. Fidel Castro appearing in public as they get ready for a big change of the guard. We're live in Havana, that's ahead.

Plus, conditions in Texas really a nightmare for all those firefighters trying to battle those flames, the out of control flames. We are getting a brand-new look at the destruction zone. You will see it here on CNN next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The Brothers Castro standing side by side in La Habana, Cuba today. Wildfires chewing up a million acres and are not stopping there in Texas. The price of gold shatters one of those psychological barriers. Time to play "Reporter Roulette."

First to Shasta Darlington in Cuba. Shasta, the Communist Congress Party, please.

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, it was first of all the Communist Party Congress in 14 years, and President Raul Castro said it was desperately needed to approve some pretty bold economic proposals. We're talking about more private enterprise, massive layoffs in the public sector, allowing Cubans to buy and sell property -- imagine that. And also some pretty bold ideas on the political side. How about limited terms for politicians?

Now, this also was important because it marked the end of an era. Fidel Castro showed up and even though he stepped up as president in 2006, he was still officially the first secretary of the Communist Party until today, when he handed the reins over to Raul Castro, who was officially elected, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Shasta Darlington in Havana. Thank you, Shasta.

We're going to take you once again to those wildfires burning in Texas. Ed Lavandera very close to those flames. He is there for us. And check this out. They actually had to move at the very last minute that was quote, unquote "safe" because they were so close to the fire.

Here is Ed. He's about 75 miles west of Fort Worth. Ed?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- in the middle of a rather fascinating situation.

These flames that you see behind me have just been set by firefighters and they are trying to create a back wall of flames. What you can't see through this wall of smoke is that the fire that has rolled over a small mountaintop just on the other side a mountain ledge, and has rolled over in the last hour and it's been barreling towards where we are, but the winds are the starting to move it a little bit toward the left of your screen over here.

And what they are afraid of, if you will follow me over here, is this highway right over here. And they are afraid that the flames will jump over this highway and light that other side on fire. There is another fire a few miles away. And they are afraid that these two fires would end up merging and creating a super-fire, if you will, so there is a real intense effort right now to get this situation stopped right here at this brink.

Ironically enough, this roadway is called Hell's Gate Drive. And this leads into the southern edge of Possum Kingdom Lake and these firefighters have been really intense. And as one firefighter said to me just a little while ago, it is about to get real ugly here. And we are seeing it firsthand and very up close here, as that fire has been rolling off the back part of that ledge and has now come down into the bottom part of the canyon and is starting to move this way and they are really afraid that it will jump over the highway here and create another huge set of problems.

So firefighters in the thick of things, in the heat of things right now, Brooke. And these flames that you see here as I mentioned on this front edge where we are closest to and kind of standing back away from is the backfire that these firefighters have laid down, and they hope that that is one of the ways that they will be able to slow this particular fire.

Just a little while, aircraft flying over just right over here on this edge and dropping fire suppressant to slow this fire down, but we have seen flames shooting out of this he tree line some 80 to 100 feet high. So it is quite ferocious. And one firefighter said it is probably 3,000 degrees in there right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That is mighty hot. Ed Lavandera, thank you so much from Texas.

Finally here on "Reporter Roulette," one day after the markets plunged on news of grim outlook on the nation's debt situation. Let's take a look at the numbers. At least we're seeing the Big Board. Here we go. The Dow finished up 65 points, NASDAQ up as well. S&P up as well.

Let's go to Felicia Taylor. She's live in New York. And Felicia, we know something big happened in the markets. I saw the price of gold set a record.

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's exactly because of those concerns that we saw on Monday and heard about from S&P with regard to the future outlook for the U.S. economy. Gold did hit a record. It was up at $1,500 an ounce for the very first time. And, of course, its' again about the outlook on U.S. debt.

That obviously raises questions about the future down the road. We don't know where things are going to be a year or two years from now. Investors are responding, basically finding -- hoping to find a place to park their money, something that's a little safer than perhaps the stock market or even the dollar. And analysts say that gold may very well keep on rising.

Silver is rising even faster, frankly. Gold, though, did end the day down at $1,495 an ounce.

BALDWIN: Next item. I heard about this Web site. I know some people kind of want to know what their co-workers make, cha-ching, cha-ching. So there is this Web site you can apparently go to where you can check out what your fellow employees make. What's the Web site and does it -- is it actually accurate?

TAYLOR: Well, you know, I pose the ethical question, though. Would you tell anybody how much you weigh - how much you make?

BALDWIN: Uh, no to both.

TAYLOR: Exactly. So that's the first thing that sets off in my mind.

But this Web site is called SalaryShare.me. And it let's you find out - well, it does protect people's privacy. You can create an anonymous salary pool, forward it to co-workers, allegedly they'll go ahead and enter their salaries and then the Web site reveals the salaries without anybody's name.

But you know, this opens up a taboo topic. How many people are going to do this? GlassDoor.com did a survey, and most people will only share their salary info with their spouse or their best friend, a loved one, somebody close to them. Not people that you compete with in the workplace. I don't know. I just wouldn't do it for sure.

BALDWIN: I don't think I would either. But what's the Web site again? I know there are people out there wondering. What's that again?

TAYLOR: It's called SalaryShare.me. And the other one is called Glass - I think it's GlassDoor.com.

BALDWIN: Very interesting, Felicia Taylor. Very good. Thank you. That's today's "Reporter Roulette."

And millions of Americans, speaking of the Internet, they actually use dating Web sites, right? So now one woman is actually taking on one very popular one, Match.com, after she says her date raped her. You will hear what she is warning everyone to be on the lookout for and whether the changes that Match.com is making is actually enough.

Sunny Hostin is fired up about this one. We are "On the Case" next.

But first, could you be driving one of the most stolen cars in America? Yep. There's a list from Low-Jack, the company that allows vehicles to be tracked. It's just released its list of vehicles most likely to be victim of auto theft.

Take a look with me. Number five, if you drive a Escalade, Cadillac Escalade. Coming in at number four, the Acura Integra. Number three most stolen car, Toyota Camry.

So, is your vehicle a magnet for car thieves? Stick around. Top two cars after the break.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. Cue the list here. Is your car a magnet from thieves? According to Low Jack, if you're driving one of these two cars, yes it is.

Take a look at the number two spot. Be careful where you park at night if you drive a Honda Civic, so many people do. And the number one most stolen car in America, the Honda Accord. Thank you, Low Jack.

Now, if you're with me last hour, you saw my interview with the woman who was suing big dating Web site, Match.com. She claims she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on the site. It was date number two.

Well, Match.com has since responded promising to start screening its members. But the story here, it is not over.

Joining me now to discuss it is Sunny Hostin. And Sunny, let's talk about the issue of online dating safety. First, though, tell us what they are promising to do and then we'll get into whether it is actually enough.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, as of Sunday night, Brooke, Match.com issued a statement and they indicated that within 30 -- or 60 to 90 days they would sort of be rolling out a sex offender screening program, which means perspective members and even current members will be screened against national sex offender registries. That is what they claimed that they will be doing. They are going to implement that.

Of course, Carol, the complaint, the Jane Doe in the lawsuit that I really think sort of brought this all to light, has not withdrawn her lawsuit. And she says she is not going to until she sees that this program is really put into place.

BALDWIN: Right. You spoke with her this morning and I spoke with her last hour. She's the woman, Carole Markin, as you mentioned, suing Match.com. And in speaking with her, Sunny, from your legal perspective, what does she say to you that really stood out?

HOSTIN: You know, what really stood out for me is that she was an Internet-savvy person. She had been on Match.com for over five years. She felt that she knew what she was doing, and she was still subjected to what happened.

And so that really just stuck a chord with me. What she also said, Brooke, was that the Internet dating must be like candy to sexual predators, and I think that is very true. In my experience - as you know, I was a former sex crimes prosecutor. The Internet, online dating, is now sort of the, I guess trolling grounds for sexual predators, so people must be very careful in the online dating scene.

BALDWIN: Well, let's -- you know, off that point, a lot of people hop on and try to date online. It's in the millions. So, what do you say to women --

HOSTIN: They sure do.

BALDWIN: -- or men and not just Match, but there are many other sites. I mean, is there anything that a woman or man can do to safeguard this process?

HOSTIN: I do think so. I have tips that I want to give to our viewers. They are Sunny's tips, but they are tips I've culled from being a prosecutor and just from my own experience.

Be your own detective during online dating. And you can be your own detective. Facebook is your friend. Google is your friend. MySpace is your friend. These people are usually on these other Internet engines, and so you should look them up. Ask for full names. Ask for date of birth. Ask for address history. That way you can actually search and be your own detective.

Always meet in a public place, Brooke. I would say for the first five dates at least. Meet in a public place. Go for a coffee, go for a dessert. But do not go back to your apartment or his apartment or her apartment.

Bring a friend. And when I say bring a friend, I'm talking about that really suspicious friend that doesn't really like anyone. That friend will give you that gut check. That's the friend that you bring with you. If you're a woman, why not bring a male friend? Get his or her take on your perspective date.

Also, follow your gut. I can't begin to tell you, Brooke, how many victims that have told me you know, there were red flags, but I ran away from my instinct. You never do that. If someone seems a little bit creepy, chances are that your gut is right. So, you follow that gut.

BALDWIN: So many times we hear our gut and try to say no. That's thinking ill of someone. But you're so right. We need to follow our gut, be our own detective. But there are also success stories out of those Web sites, too. But that's a good tip. Sunny's tips.

Sunny Hostin, thank you so much for speaking up on this one.

HOSTIN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: As we watch the flames continue to grow there in Texas, we're going to get a look at the devastating wildfires. You've got to see these fascinating pictures, folks. This is from NASA.

Plus, almost a year ago, a family showed up where CNN was covering the Gulf oil spill. They were angry with BP. They were begging the company for some kind of work. But now tempers are flaring against BP for a very different and new reason.

And Rob Marciano has spent many, many days there this time last year. He's back in New Orleans. We'll talk to Rob about this family next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: If you like to shop and I mean, really, really like to shop then perhaps living in the mall sounds like a dream to you.

But for one twin cities man, it was a month-long reality. You've got to see this. For the past month, shoppers at the Mall of America could watch nearly every move made by Scott. There he is. He call himself the "do guy." It started 30 days ago when BlueCross BlueShield launched this whole new project to show what a change in lifestyle can do for the body.

He had to eat, sleep, live, 24/7, jumping jacks and everything in the glass apartment, but he took the changes to heart. Cooking differently, working out and most importantly, Facebooking with thousands of new friends.

Today, he is finally free out of the glass and flaunting a more fit body after a losing a total of 29 pounds.

And wildfires in Texas continue to cause major, major damage throughout the state. Look at these pictures. Where are they from? You can see the word on the screen, NASA. The fires are so intense that you can see them from space. You can see the clouds, the smoke, satellite images from high, high above.

And now to this story, support for offshore oil drilling rebounds despite concerns the federal government cannot prevent another massive spill like last year's BP oil disaster.

A new CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll finds 69 percent of Americans favor increased offshore drilling while 31 percent oppose it. It's been almost one year since a BP oil rig exploded there in the Gulf, sending crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico and washing up on shore.

In fact, take a look at this. This is a little souvenir. I keep it on my desk each and every day to remind me what the folks down along the Gulf had to deal with. Folks, this is the oil. This is when I was out along the Chandelier Island scooping up the oil. One of the first days we actually saw it.

You know, it was crude oil from the deep horizon rig that failed last year in the Gulf of Mexico. I scooped out my own bottle of oil just a couple of days after that leak began but of course, none of us knew then, a year ago, that it would be three months before the leak was plugged.

So part of CNN's in-depth coverage, one year since the worst oil spill in American history, we're looking at the lasting impact of the horrible spill. CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano is back in New Orleans today.

Rob, I know that you were practically living down there just about this time last year. You talked to a lot of people I did, many of us did who are obviously very frustrated with BP. They wanted work. But now some people today, they're still very mad for a different reason, why?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's been an emotional rollercoaster, Brooke. I can tell you this. The good news is it looks a lot different visibly from the last time you were down here for sure scooping that oil.

But emotions have gone from one end to the other and a year later now in many cases, many instances were back to square one. Specifically, the fishing industry, the charter fishing industry, of course, they were shut down when the oil came through. You couldn't fish out legally. You don't want to fish there.

A lot of them were hired as vessels of opportunity. Actually going out there and working the oil spill and we got to know one particular father and son team that did just that.

Once they got done helping BP out, their boat was damaged and now BP is more or less leaving them high and dry. So, yes, they are upset. Take a listen to Ted Foresight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So put the boats through the hoops and we relied on them to their word. 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)

MARCIANO: Well, they put in a claim for about $50,000 in damage and they got $1,500, Brooke. So it pales in comparison to what they need to get back into business. And to add insult to injury, even though there's fish out there and there's fish out there to be caught.

The image problem that the Gulf of Mexico has now returning customers come in year after year to go deep sea fishing -- the name of the boat, only one has called to reserve a spot this year.

They may have to pick up stakes and move out of town and move to Florida if it keeps up the way it is even though it's perfectly safe to fish out there. So it's very, very frustrating even now a year after the spill.

BALDWIN: Very frustrating. Like you said though, it's just an image problem. We should sit here and tell people go to the gulf. It's a beautiful area. But also though, Rob, you know looking ahead, maybe a year out, do they think it will be much better within the next year?

MARCIANO: Well, you know, as far as the fishing population is concerned, that is going to be something that scientists will be curious about here this year. Do the fish populations come back? Is the reproductive cycle OK?

They will be studying that, but you know, the image thing is only something that the tourism board and Chamber of Commerce and the American opinion can fix and hopefully that gets fixed right away.

You know, visibly the water looks great, it's clean, it's safe, the beaches for the most part are clean and we've had plenty of seafood since we've been down here. So I certainly hope that America continues to support the Gulf Coast states.

BALDWIN: Yes, I remember our cruise very well a year ago. Bon appetite to you while you're there for now. Rob Marciano, thank you very much.

Coming up next, the U.S. attorney general getting some criticism and it has to do, with all things, porn. Joe Johns is live with today's "Political Pop" that's next.

Plus, we're continuing to cover the wildfires in Texas. We're just getting word of possible evacuations now in the state as the flames grow. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just in to CNN, an update from all those wildfires that are raging in Texas. We're getting word that the area that we saw Ed Lavandera and crew at just last hour, where they were reporting from, just west of Fort Worth, this area is now preparing for evacuations.

The Palo Pinto County Sheriff's Office is telling CNN this entire town could be leaving soon and that includes inmates in the local jail. The flames, look at them, 10 miles just north of the town.

We're told if the winds shift again, there was, quote, "nothing stopping the wildfires." Also worth mentioning here, the sheriff's office has never, ever issued an evacuation order.

And a little bit of surprise here out of Arizona today perhaps. The governor, Governor Jan Brewer vetoing the Birther Bill.

Joe Johns is in for the "Political Pop." Joe, is this about President Obama or is it about those other certificates, the potential candidates would have to provide?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just a little bit is about Jan Brewer. I mean, she doesn't have to run for re- election again so she can do what she wants.

I mean, you know, you thought or some people thought, the birthers, Donald Trump and conspiracies theories in general were about to score a big victory and then along comes Arizona Governor Jan Brewer basically letting all of the air out of the balloon.

This legislation was requiring proof of birth from a presidential candidate and it got a big yes vote in the state legislature. The supporters were saying that it didn't have anything to do with President Obama.

That it was all about transparency in the election process. It really didn't pass the last test at all for a lot of people.

BALDWIN: So then what was Governor Brewer's specific problem with this bill? JOHNS: Well, you know, we did this one on Friday. The thing that attracted a lot of attention was the thing that attracted attention for us. You know, if the presidential candidate didn't have a certificate of live birth from a state then it called for an early baptismal record or a circumcision record or a bunch of other stuff.

And Brewer says basically, come on, she never imagined that she would be presented with language like that in a bill. She called it a bridge too far. She said it doesn't have anything constructive in it for the state, which is probably an understatement, given the fact that the state of Hawaii has said over and over again that President Obama was born there that's right.

BALDWIN: Right, so that was one veto that perhaps maybe didn't surprise some people, but another that definitely did surprise a lot of Republicans according to this Arizona reporter I was talking to. The bill about guns on college campuses, she vetoed it.

JOHNS: That's right. This is Arizona and it's true that she vetoed it, but not because she wanted to keep guns off campuses. She's a real gun supporter. She said she vetoed the bill because it was poorly written, ambiguous and suggested some language. Even so that if and when the bill comes back next time, it will suit her a little better. By the way, another bill that is expected to pass and probably get signed would make the Colt 45 the official state firearm.

BALDWIN: Really? Yes, we talk a lot about firearms in Arizona. Meanwhile, a Washington story about sex picking up some traction, getting a little buzz today, but it's not what people would think. The attorney general getting attitude for mixing - I haven't heard of this. There's an obscenity task force.

JOHNS: Right.

BALDWIN: So what do they do and what is going on there?

JOHNS: OK, normally when you talk about Washington and sex in the same sentence, right, some politician has got caught doing something questionable, but this isn't the case.

This is more like culture war and it's just perfect for the next election. Republicans, along with some Democrats in the Senate are complaining that the Department of Justice isn't doing enough to fight obscenity. The main issue is that DOJ essentially unwound this task force you were talking about created by George W. Bush to prosecute port obscenity case.

Obama and Eric Holder decide to take the three, three lawyers on the task force, assign them to work on an actual unit that investigates this stuff and gets rid of redundancy. So it goes back and forth and the administration says they charge 150 cases since 2008. The Republicans say they're not doing enough.

BALDWIN: And there you go and it's gone. Joe Johns, you're gone as well. I'm gone as well. Thanks so much.