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National Security Team Reshuffling; Sony PlayStation Network Hacked; Lights, Camera, Bernanke; Royal Wedding Just Like Yours; 11 Dead After Severe Weather in the South; Afghan Military Pilot Killed 8 U.S. Troops; President Obama Releases Official Birth Certificate; Heavy Shelling in Misrata; Trumping Trump

Aired April 27, 2011 - 12:59   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Suzanne. Thank you.

It's rare for the National Weather Service to label any place high risk for tornadoes, but it's now happened two days in a row and both days the risk has been realized. A massive storm that one forecaster calls amazingly explosive is still churning south and east of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. There is wind damage, hail damage, flood damage, apparently tornado damage. In some combination from Texas to Kentucky, to Georgia, worst of all, 11 people have been killed in these storms today alone.

Alabama saw four of those deaths and is still in the danger zone. Last hour, the governor declared a statewide state of emergency. A tornado warning is in effect for Huntsville, right now as we speak. In Van Zandt County, Texas, southeast of Dallas, dozens of homes are damaged and thousands of residents relieved to be alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY KING, TORNADO VICTIM: The windows started popping in, so all I did is cover all the women and kids up, sat there and watch it. Nothing you could do really.

DESSIE NEIL, TORNADO VICTIM: I went into my bedroom and I crawled under that bed as far as I could get and I laid there and prayed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And CNN's Chad Myers is glued to his maps and his computers, we have managed to pull him away from the computer at least, so tell us what we need to know on the map, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Huntsville just had a very big wind event go through. Now, there was rotation, but it moved to the north of Huntsville proper and now it's still there, that big pink box, still means tornado warning and there was spotted funnels and spotted tornadoes on the ground, even a couple of reports of damage near some schools to the west of Huntsville, we're chasing that down right now. This is not as big of a broad area event like we had yesterday. That was yesterday.

KAYE: Yes, I remember that.

MYERS: We're not going to get all that, we're not going to get it up in the northeast, but it will be a Tennessee, Carolinas, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama and all the way back through here, maybe not quite there, but this is the event that I'm worried about and that's the high risk area that you talked about.

Now, when you were talking about high risk, I was also watching the video on the screen of the giant tree that had fallen down, not a tornado, only wind damage. So, I know we talk about tornadoes all the time, but if you hear a severe thunderstorm warning today with winds in excess of 70 or 80 miles an hour, those trees around your home could be coming down as well. You need to be very careful with that, and if you hear a severe thunderstorm warning, and you hear winds ripping, like they were ripping overnight, just get in a safe part of your house in case a tree decides to come down.

KAYE: What does the flooding look like out there, especially in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys?

MYERS: It didn't get any better yesterday, certainly not, because the rain was still coming down and the rain was coming down here in parts of - right -- and that's where our popular bluff issue is right there. So, we've had this jet stream do this now for days. And think of a jet stream like an interstate. Any time a low comes out of the west, it rides along the same interstate.

But then, if the jet stream doesn't move and progress to the east, if it just sits there, one storm on top of another on top of another, we call it training, that's -- and during the day, this has just been training over weeks and weeks and weeks and the flooding is still going on.

KAYE: And is this the end of it? I mean, we've watch -- we've been watching this pattern now for a while. Does it end after this?

MYERS: Today, tonight, tomorrow gone.

KAYE: All right, so hopefully people get a break.

MYERS: Thirty-six more hours and it's over.

KAYE: OK.

MYERS: All right.

KAYE: We're going to hold you to it.

MYERS: OK.

KAYE: As always, thank you, Chad.

Our "Sound Effect" was no doubt was meant to be the last word on the basic controversy over President Obama's birthplace. Unless you just woke up, actually, you probably heard the president today release his original long form birth certificate, which shows what was known and proven long ago. He was born August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. You may also have heard Donald Trump pronounce the documents release a huge personal achievement for Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT, THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Today, I'm very proud of myself, because I have accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish.

I was just informed while on the helicopter that our president has finally released a birth certificate. I'd want to look at it, but I hope it's true, so that we can get on to much more important matters so the press can stop asking me questions, he should have done it a long time ago. Why he didn't do it when the Clintons asked for it, why he didn't do it when everybody else was asking for it, I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: While Trump was sounding off in New Hampshire, the president lamented near constant distractions from and I quote, "Side shows and carnival barkers."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know that there's going to be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. But I'm speaking to the vast majority of the American people as well as to the press. We do not have time for this time of silliness, we got better stuff to do. I have got better stuff to do. We have got big problems to solve and I'm confident we can solve them, but we're going to have to focus on them, not on this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Now I told you these weren't the last words, our own John King will have an interview with Trump on "JOHN KING USA," that's at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

The birth certificate issue has been blowing up on social media today and we want to know what you think. Should the president have released his birth certificate? Should Donald Trump have pressed the issue? Should Trump release his own birth certificate and financial records?

Join the conversation on our blog, CNN.com/Ali, and you can also post on Ali's or my Facebook and Twitter pages as well, we'd love to hear what you think.

More big news from the White House, President Obama plans to do some major re-shuffling of his national security team. The president is expected to replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates who is retiring with CIA director Leon Panetta. (INAUDIBLE) says General David Petraeus will be nominated to then succeed Panetta to head the CIA. President Obama is also expected to nominate Lieutenant General John Allen to take Petraeus's current post as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. He will also need to find replacements for joint chief chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen, and FBI director, Robert Muller, their terms are expiring and they are not eligible for any re- nomination.

The Taliban is claiming responsibility for an attack today that killed eight U.S. troops and an American contractor in Afghanistan. The militant group says they had been working with the shooter for some time, but NATO disputes that claim. It says an Afghan military pilot opened fire on the international trainers following an argument before he was finally shot dead.

A hacker cripples the Sony PlayStation Network compromising the personal information of millions of subscribers. How concerned should you be? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: In one of the largest breeches of confidential user information in history, a hacker was able to get personal information of PlayStation Network account holders. It's forced Sony to shut down their PlayStation Network as a result. The network has been shut down for the last seven days and it's having a ripple effect actually across the world and just to give you an idea of how many people are affected, 70 million people subscribe to the PlayStation Network.

Digital lifestyle expert, Mario Armstrong, joins me live here on set. Great to see you.

MARIO ARMSTRONG, CNN DIGITAL LIFESTYLE EXPERT: Hi, Randi, great to see you in person.

KAYE: This is a serious issue for a lot of people.

ARMSTRONG: Absolutely.

KAYE: What exactly did the hacker get?

ARMSTRONG: Well, this is massive of an issue, because this is 70 million, you've pulled that number out, that's a global number, people don't really recognize that. Gamers are playing online and they're playing globally as well online.

So, the hacker apparently has access to everything from the user name and password of those accounts to your e-mail address, your birthday, your billing and shipping address. Now, they don't know how much credit card information may be -- may be hacked or they may have obtained, but they want to make sure that Sony customers are aware that that's a possibility.

KAYE: So, they got home addresses?

ARMSTRONG: They have more than enough of what they need --

KAYE: Phone numbers?

ARMSTRONG: Yes, because -- right, and e-mails and user names and passwords, so they have enough information to do all sorts of marketing scams and phishing scams. So, be aware of your e-mail inboxes, you're probably going to be seeing a lot of phishing scams coming your way for those -- for those of you that have been on that network.

KAYE: You mentioned credit card, I mean, does that mean that they have that little security code that you have to use to make purchases and things?

ARMSTRONG: Thank goodness, no. They did not get that particular part of the credit card, and they don't have their social security number on file. A lot of people have been e-mailing me, hey, Mario, is our social security number? And, no, they don't have that information, but still, there's enough. So, some folks may want to actually cancel the credit card that they had with that service if they're really worried about the situation.

KAYE: Yes, and watch those charges.

ARMSTRONG: Yes.

KAYE: But what about the trickledown effect?

ARMSTRONG: Big trickledown effect because - I'm so glad you bring this up because so many people think this is, oh, it's just gamers, it doesn't really impact normal people. It does. Many people don't recognize that this network, this PlayStation Network also offers TV episode down loads, movie downloads for all of those folks that, outside of a gaming system, they may have Sony internet connected televisions, so they're impacted as well. Even companies like Hulu and Netflix that offer their services on the PS3 are also impacted. And I mean, Hulu's had to come forward and say, we're going to credit all of our customers one week of their subscription because of this outage.

KAYE: And so we said that the -- that the network is down, any anybody when it might be restored?

ARMSTRONG: No, and I just talked -- I just talked to Sony on the phone and I was like, you got to give me -- you guys got to give me an update. You know, come on, everyone wants to hear an update. They're referring everyone back to the Sony PlayStation blog which essentially says, hey look, as soon as we know something, you will.

Many people and analysts and others have been kind of guestimating (ph) saying, probably next week. Because here's the bottom line, they did not decide to put a Band-Aid over this issue, they decided to rebuild it from scratch. So, it's a smart move on Sony's part to say, you know what? We've had a breach, let's not try to put a Band-Aid on it, let's really fix it, fix it solid and then come out fresh. So, I still think it's a few more days.

KAYE: Yes, and a lot of people I know were pretty upset about it, they felt like they weren't told early enough either.

ARMSTRONG: And you know, I pressed them on that too and they're saying - well, you know, they told me they can't say anything more than what's on the site, it's in legal's hands. So, it's really, really tight lipped. I still they weren't maybe as slow as everyone maybe thinks, because you have to really understand, the network was down first and then they realized there was a breach.

KAYE: Right, right. Mario Armstrong, thanks --

ARMSTRONG: Thanks for having me.

KAYE: -- for helping us to understand that and the risks involve, appreciate it.

ARMSTRONG: You're welcome.

KAYE: And to check out the complete statement from Sony about the network outage and breach, head to our blog, CNN.com/Ali, we'll link you up with their Web site.

Europe is on the brink of a financial collapse. Oil could be headed for a repeat of its 2010 spike and the U.S. has a pretty bleak economic outlook, but something happening in the next hour that has never happened before may address these very issues. More on that in just two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: In its nearly 100 year history, a Federal Reserve chairman has never held a news conference. But that all changes today. Ben Bernanke will take direct questions from reporters for the first time next hour. Christine Romans, anchor of "YOUR BOTTOM LINE," joins me now to discuss this.

Hi, Christine. What do you think we can expect to hear today?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know what, I have a feeling that it might be unremarkable. He'll try to make it unremarkable, right, because he doesn't want to royal the markets and he wants to be very -- he wants to be very straightforward about what's going on in the economy. He's going to be grilled about commodity prices, no question about that. He's going to be grilled about inflation. The Fed, in its statement at 12:30, basically said that policymakers think -- they notice that inflation is rising. You know, the price that we pay for everything. But they think it's going to be transitory. Meaning it won't last for a very -- very long time. Tell that to anybody filling up their gas tank, right?

And it's probably -- I'm sure he's going to be asked about the Fed's bond buying program, which is set to expire this summer, which has been putting juice into the economy, keeping things going. So there will be a lot of questions about how strong the economy is or how weak the recovery is and what it's going to mean for policymakers and interest rates. I expect that they will -- they will hint -- he will hint that interest rates will stay low for the foreseeable future.

KAYE: I know this is awfully anticipated, but I'm curious, is this just a one-time thing or is it the start of something new for the Fed chair?

ROMANS: It's -- you know, it's the start of something new. And I can't really overstate how historic it is. When I first started covering the Fed, you didn't even get a policy statement until months after the fact. So the Fed would meet in secret. These policymakers would decide what kind of levers to pull in the economy and in the financial system to keep things the way they wanted it with maximum, sustainable growth, with low inflation, with, you know, jobs growing and you didn't really know about it.

And then slowly, over the past 15 years, things have gotten more open. Now to actually have a Fed chief have a press conference on the day, you know, of a fed meeting is really, really remarkable. They're going to do it four times a year. So it's a new era of transparency for the Fed, no question.

KAYE: And why this change of transparency, do you think, I mean, suddenly?

ROMANS: Well, you know, I think we had a big financial crisis. That was one of the reasons. Ben Bernanke, throughout his academic career, had always been kind of a proponent of more transparency for the Fed. So now he's the Fed chief. He gets to actually act on that. And, also, there have been a lot of questions and criticisms about the Fed most recently and it's big stimulus of the economy. And we talk about the $862 billion stimulus that Congress passed. The Fed has far and away blown through that and put much more money into the economy without any oversight really from Congress or -- you know, no Americans are voting on it or voting people in to do that.

So there's been a lot of criticism about what the Fed's been doing. I mean, in particular, Ron Paul, Congressman Ron Paul, Randi, he's a perennial critic of the Fed. He even wrote a book called "End The Fed." He's a libertarian. He doesn't think that there's constitutional authority for things like the Fed and the Fed shouldn't be orchestrating monetary policy. I asked him this morning what he would ask the Fed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: What question would you ask Ben Bernanke this afternoon?

REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: When are you going to admit your policies are flawed and they're failed and they can't work and you can't plan the economy through monetary policy?

ALI VELSHI, CNN: I can guarantee you that he won't answer that question the way you want him to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: And I pretty much guarantee he won't answer that question in the way somebody like Ron Paul would want him to. But there are those people and those in the Tea Party as well, and people who want government out of life, who would like the Fed to be out. But I'm telling you right now, the Fed is a major prop right now with the American economy and how it exits all of that. You know, all of these extraordinary measures after the crisis is going to be really important. And they'll be asked about -- he'll be asked about that today, no question.

KAYE: All right, Christine, I know you're going to be with us next hour for this news conference.

ROMANS: Yes.

KAYE: So it's supposed to happen about 2:15 or so.

ROMANS: That's right.

KAYE: So everybody stick around and we'll see you shortly. Thanks, Christine.

ROMANS: Sure.

KAYE: And be sure to also join Christine Romans for "Your Bottom Line" each Saturday morning at 9:30 Eastern. And don't miss "Your Money" with Ali Velshi. That's Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3:00.

The biggest wedding in decades, now just two days away. But will Prince William and Kate's nuptial really be that much different from your own? Richard Quest joins me live from London, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: The royal wedding isn't until Friday, but people are already staking out their spots outside Westminster Abby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ETHEL CURRIE, CAMPER: We're not as well prepared as we could be. It's the first time we've done this. But we're going to stay here until the wedding on Friday. We've got some food and we've got our suitcases to sit on. But other than that, that's about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And while you may not have had many people camping out for your wedding, Richard Quest says that in many ways this wedding is just like yours. Richard joins me now from London.

And, Richard, you're going to have to explain this one to the rest of us commoners. Help us understand.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First of all, Randi, that woman who we've just heard from is deluded if she believes that her paltry supplies will be sufficient. I have slept on streets when -- both for Diana's wedding and for her funeral, and I can tell you, what seems like a brilliant idea at 4:00 in the morning when you're cold, you want to go to the toilet, you have no more hot coffee and it's damp underfoot seems barking mad.

All right, listen, you are married, I believe, Randi, is that correct?

KAYE: Yes. Yes, you are correct.

QUEST: Now, one of the big decisions you had to make when you got married was who you were going to invite and who you were not going to invite. Because, let's face it, if you invited great Auntie Bessey, you had to invite great Uncle Joe.

KAYE: Well, actually, Richard, I did it very differently than the royal couple. I just eloped. So I might be a bad example.

QUEST: All right. Well, the standards are dropping on the network. And the point is, they had to decide, were they going to invite Sarah Ferguson, who was caught bribing or being bribed, but then you've got one of Catherine Middleton's great uncles who was caught on camera selling cocaine. So you had a problem there, which one got invited, the other didn't.

How many should you invite? Now the Abby holds 1,900 people. But that's not enough. So all the ambassadors' wives, they didn't get invited. This is resonating with everybody out there who's ever had a wedding because now everybody says, here's (INAUDIBLE) we had that same problem. We had to invite them, we wanted to invite them, we couldn't invite them and there have been animosity for decades since.

Finally, the age old problem, can you invite somebody to the wedding and not to the reception? And if you invite them to the reception, do they have to come to the dinner dance at night? That's something else they had to work out. Here what they've done, think about it, Randi, think about it, -- I'll make notes so you can follow along -- 1,900 people --

KAYE: I need that.

QUEST: Nineteen hundred people have been invited to the wedding. Only 600 are going to the first reception. Now that means 1,300 people have come to the wedding and aren't even going to get a cup of tea and a (INAUDIBLE). A further 300 will then go to the evening event. That means 300 get kicked out of the palace after lunch. There will be no sitting around waiting to see what happens.

KAYE: Can you imagine --

QUEST: This is the same -- go ahead.

KAYE: Can you imagine, though, the seating chart and all that that has to be worked out for all these people? I would imagine there is one.

QUEST: Of course there's a -- of course. Well, not for the first reception, but of course there is. And think about who you can't put next to other people. You cannot put Earl Spencer to close to the queen. Earl Spencer was the one who the -- during the funeral, you know, basically said, we will look after Diana's memory, not you. You virtually killed her.

KAYE: Right.

QUEST: I mean just paraphrasing it, but that's the sort of way in which he put it. So this is -- this is -- forget the tanks, forget the military, forget the carriages, forget all that other stuff. At the end of the day, the problems are all the same. There's only one difference. Only one. They are royal. They can do what they like and, frankly, you know what you can do if you don't like it.

KAYE: Well, you know, now that you've said all that, it really does sound like a lot of people's weddings, I'm sure, trying to figure out who to invite, who not to invite, and where to put them all. And after it's over, you know how many of them do you ever speak to again anyway, right? So, very interesting.

QUEST: Listen, half of them -- half of them will be -- I'm finished. Half of them will be sent home because they're ambassadors they didn't want to invite in the first place.

KAYE: That's true. All right, Richard, listen, we better let you go because I need -- I know that you need to get a spot on the street where you're going to sleep tonight and the next couple of nights. So grab your sleeping bag and get out there.

QUEST: Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, seen the movie, I ain't using a portable toilet again for a royal wedding.

KAYE: All right. Well, maybe CNN will provide you something better this year.

Richard Quest, as always, fun to chat with you.

And, of course, CNN is all over this romantic royal event. CNN's coverage begins at 4:00 a.m. Eastern this Friday. Richard will just be waking up for the big event on the street there somewhere. Anderson Cooper, Piers Morgan, Richard Quest, Kiran Chetry and Cat Deeley will be live from Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. So be sure to watch and participate in CNN's coverage.

No break for states across the south. More severe weather is slamming the region for another day, leaving behind more deaths and more destruction. We'll have the latest details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: It's half past the hour. Here are some of the stories you may have missed. At least 11 people have died as severe weather continues to pound the south leaving a trail of destruction across five states. Here you can see the uprooted trees, roofs blown off houses, downed power lines and homes badly destroyed.

In Marshall County, Alabama, three tornadoes touched down this morning, leaving people trapped in their homes and over 200,000 residents without any power.

President Obama released his long formed (ph) birth certificate today and it's true, again, he was born in Hawaii. The administration made a special request from the State of Hawaii in order to get the birth certificate released. But one critic remains deeply skeptical of its form's authenticity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I was just informed while on the helicopter that our president has finally released a birth certificate. I'd want to look at it, but I hope it's true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: The president believes this distraction is not good for the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I know that there's going to be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. But I'm speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: The president went on to say that the focus should be on important issues.

An Afghan military pilot killed eight U.S. troops and an American contractor at an Air Force compound in Kabul today. NATO says the 50- year-old man opened fire inside the airport after an argument. A gunfight followed and the attacker was shot dead. The Taliban is claiming responsibility for the attack. They claim they have been working with the shooter for some time but NATO is disputing that claim.

The town of Misrata is experiencing what rebels are calling some of the heaviest shelling from pro-government forces. Opposition forces say if NATO forces had not intervened with air attacks, the shelling would have continued. This is the scene today after those attacks. Witnesses say three people are dead. Libyan forces claim NATO is trying to assassinate colonel Moammar Gadhafi but NATO says it's targeting capabilities, not individuals.

A plane ran off the runway at Midway Airport yesterday in Chicago. No injuries were reported. But, in light of this and all the news we've heard about sleeping air traffic controllers, you must be asking yourself, we sure were, how safe are our skies? We'll ask an expert next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: We're taking an in depth look at air travel this week and we've heard some pretty scary stuff about flying. From sleeping and distracted air traffic controllers to parts of planes breaking off midair in flight. And just yesterday, a plane slid off the runway. So you have to ask yourself just how safe is air travel these days?

Greg Feith joins us now. He's a former NTSB investigator and now works as an aviation security consultant.

Greg, thanks for being with us.

First off, let's talk about air traffic controllers. How safe are we when we keep hearing these reports of controllers sleeping on the job?

GREG FEITH, AVIATION SECURITY CONSULTANT: Randi, we are safe. one of the things about the air traffic controllers that have come up, is that this isn't a new issue. People get tired, humans get tired and unfortunately the air traffic controllers have had a little bit of bad press. They have fallen asleep in the towers. But they've been during low traffic periods and that unfortunately, during the low traffic periods creates boredom because there's no stimulation.

And, you know, at night, looking out into a black hole out of the tower cab, they're bored, boredom leads to fatigue. Some people do that when they're sitting in a chair watching TV the same way.

KAYE: And air traffic controllers certainly aren't the only ones who are getting tired. I mean, the pilot fatigue is actually the topic being discussed in D.C. Air traffic controllers' hours are also being discussed, as all part of this, talking about the time that's needed between shifts, how long they can stay on the job.

What needs to be done, do you think, for flight crews? Do you think that that needs to be man dated to fight crew fatigue, as well?

FEITH: Randi, one of the things about pilots is that we've been studying fatigue for a very long time. NASA has done a lot of studies, we've gathered a lot of data.

On international flights, crews are supplemented so you'll have a captain and a first officer who start the flight, the captain will leave the flight deck to get rest, they'll bring in a supplemented pilot to maintain the flight deck, if you will, until that pilot is then well rested so that he is in full faculty, that is he is very competent at the very critical stages of flight, which is typically landing. It's all built around crew scheduling.

Now the same principles have to be applied to the controllers. We have to account for these longer periods of rest between shifts. One of the things they try to do is build their schedules so that they get all their time in back to back to back and that just doesn't work and it leads to fatigue, especially in the middle of the night.

KAYE: And just real quickly, on April 1st, you may recall the fuselage of that Southwest flight ruptured. We still have no idea why that. The NTSB has yet to answer the big question here, is there a systematic problem that affects many 737s? Or, was this just a fluke?

Quickly what's your take?

FEITH: I think what they're going to find is that there was a manufacturing problem with the airplane, that particular airplane, and it could be a series of 737 airplanes.

So they're going to be learning a lot, not only from that particular event, but they're going to apply what lessons they learned to current airplanes in the fleet and future airplanes as far as their maintainability and their inspection cycles that are going to be necessary to look at the long-term fatigue abilities of aging aircraft.

KAYE: All right. Greg Feith, thank you so much. Appreciate your expertise on this topic.

What if you could generate power every time you hit the road? One guy wants to turn our roadway into huge solar panels that could provide energy to the entire nation.

CNN's Gary Tuchman takes a high powered ride into today's Edge of Discovery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A single invention promises to make driving greener, safer and cheaper. It's not a new car, it's a new road.

SCOTT BRUSAW, CO-FOUNDER, SOLAR ROADWAYS: A lot of people, at least initially thought we were off our rockers.

TUCHMAN: Scott created Solar Roadways, glass road panels embedded with solar cells he says could power the nation and pay for themselves.

BRUSAW: If you could replace all the asphalt and the concrete surfaces in the lower 48 states, you could use three times more power than we use as a nation.

TUCHMAN: For those wondering if the glass will break, each 12 by 12 foot panel can support at least 80 tons.

BRUSAW: The glass surface layer, the internal support structure which houses the bulk of your electronics that aren't inside the glass. And then your base plate.

TUCHMAN: Heating elements prevent snow and ice accumulation. LEDs mark lanes, making night time driving easier. Load sensors warn drivers if someone is in the crosswalk.

BRUSAW: That's the fun part of the engineering. Just coming up with more and more ideas and realizing this is actually a wonderful thing. Hopefully by next year, we'll have part of our parking lot already done and that's when the real testing will begin..

TUCHMAN: Brusaw's goal is to get solar road panels in commercial parking lots within five years and then on residential roads.

Gary Tuchman, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: So imagine this if you can. Little girls forced into prostitution, some even sold by their parents. It's happening right now in Cambodia. That story is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Cambodia has a history of nightmares. Just a few examples. The Vietnam War, the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, and now a brutal sex trade whose victims include girls barely passed puberty.

Dan Rivers speaks to some of the victims who are getting desperately needing help. His report is part of CNN's year-long Freedom Project at helping to end modern day slavery.

We want to warn you, it contains some graphic images.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in Phnom Penh, brothels are everywhere. The U.N. says 55,000 prostitutes work here, a third of them are under aged girls. Some are barely even old enough for school.

Many bars put on chorus lines of under aged girls for sale. They might seem cheerful, but this is a violent, dangerous nether world, where rape, beatings and even murder are common.

Car (ph) knows the dangers too well. She's just arrived at a women's refuge after an awful night on the street. She tells me that last night a client paid her $10 for sex, but then five other men arrived and brutally gang raped her. The last man was drunk and smashed her into the eye.

Her arms are marked from where she's repeatedly cut them, self- mutilation carried out when she was addicted to methamphetamine, a habit she kicked after an agonizing battle.

The refuge also has a clinic where Car gets treatment for her eye. But that's the least of her problems. She told us almost as an afterthought, that she also is HIV positive.

The clinic and the refuge are run Mam Somaly, herself a former prostitute.

SOMALY MAM, FORMER PROSTITUTE: Poor women, they have been raped, they have been, violated by eight, men, ten, 25 by gang rape. They hit them. They receive a lot of violence. So why I am here.

RIVERS: But Somaly has turned her life around, taking her campaign to end this modern-day slavery as far as she can, despite almost no help from the Cambodian government.

And it's not just adults that benefit, she's rescued a total of 55 children from brothels in Cambodia, bringing them to this refuge, most aren't even teenagers yet, taking them off the streets and offering them a new home in the countryside where they get a chance to learn new skills and find a new life.

MAM: A lot of them, when they arrive first, they are like, you know, they have very big problems and then they never have, like, nerve by the people, even by the parents.

RIVERS: Every single child you see here was rescued from a brothel.

(on camera): What's horrifying is that many of these children were sold into the sex trade by their own parents for as little as $10 U.S., and some of them were only five years old.

(voice-over): Like Srey, rescued from a brothel at an age where most children haven't even begun school. And like so many other children here, Srey is HIV positive. These children may be free, but they have lost any chance of living a normal, healthy life.

Dan Rivers, CNN, Kampong Cham, Cambodia

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Our web page has a bunch of information on CNN Freedom Project, you can find it at CNN.com/freedom.

All right, so today we're going a bit retro with our "Big I." In Louisville, the crazy storms that are pushing through the south right now, weather radios -- yes, get one -- they could save your life in the middle of the night if a tornado is barreling through your neighborhood.

And here to tell us about it, of course, meteorologist Chad Myers.

We have looked at these, we have certainly talked about them a lot. I don't know how one works, can you help me understand that?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They have changed, so maybe that's why you don't know how that worked.

Back in the olden days when I was in school --

KAYE: I didn't say that.

MYERS: -- you couldn't program these to your county, now you can. Now, if a tornado warning goes off in your state, it -- the alarm just goes crazy and it will completely wake you up. And Dave had this set -- set that, make that one go off, it reset itself.

But every county in the United States has a different code. You go online and you tell it what county you're in, and then if that county gets a tornado warning in the middle of night, that wakes you up and all of a sudden you're scared and you run away, and you run down to your safe place.

NOAA weather radios have saved more people than I can imagine. But the old ones just went off all night. By the time the tornado got to your house, you already shut it off because it woke you up a hundred times. The new ones don't do that. You program in your state, you program in your county, it goes off in your place and it wakes you up and you save your life and you save your family's life.

KAYE: So ask you why these are so important, because is this your best option?

MYERS: At night you're not watching TV because you're asleep. Your radio won't go off, that radio will go off and tell you what's happening.

KAYE: I see you have two. Do you mind if I take one?

MYERS: We have you many. You can keep that one, I'll get you the charger.

KAYE: Now that I'm convinced.

Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: Sure.

KAYE: For more information on how to program your NOAA weather radio and where you can get one, well, you can head to our blog, CNN.com/Ali.

Fed up with what he calls the "silliness" around the birthers issue, President Obama finally makes public his birth certificate. Why he did it and Donald Trump's response right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: As we mentioned, President Obama today released his original birth certificate showing that he was born in Hawaii. The president no doubt hopes that the move will finally put to rest the long-running conspiracy theory among some conservatives and others that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States.

One Republican in particular, Donald Trump, has repeatedly raised the birth certificate issue, asserting that any document snowing that the president was born in this country was probably fabricated.

Joining us to talk more about in is Gary Tuchman who did an in- depth investigation into this issue.

Gary, I got to ask you, what do you think of the president's decision today to release this?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm surprised about the timing, we just did this two-part story which showed definitively that this man was born in Hawaii, because the short-form, computer-generated birth certificate, which every Hawaiian now gets, including Barack Obama, who revealed it three years ago, shows he's a citizen of the United States.

KAYE: So what he released today was this long form, right, which does not really corroborate any more than out there?

TUCHMAN: That is right. It is the original birth certificate, but it is not an official birth certificate. That's the whole irony about this thing is the short form, the computer-generated form, is the official birth certificate of all Hawaiians.

KAYE: And that's been out there?

TUCHMAN: And that's been out there. I mean, this long form has a couple more things. It has the signature of his mother, the signature of his doctor.

We just found out, by the way, it was interesting what we found out, we just found out that the doctor who gave birth to Barack Obama passed away eight years ago at the age of 81. So we did learn something.

But as far as his birth in Hawaii and the United States, being an American citizen, we have known that for years. It is unequivocal.

KAYE: So what do you make of Trump and his reaction to all of this, because he seemed to still be casting a little doubt as to whether or not this may be authentic?

TUCHMAN: I mean, if anything, you may not like Donald Trump as a politician or businessman, but he's so entertaining. I mean, the fact that he took credit for it, for Barack Obama releasing his birth certificate, I mean, there no modesty in this man. It's just fascinating.

I mean, the fact is, he was saying in interviews of CNN the last two days ago that the birth certificate is missing. He said it 20 times. The birth certificate was not missing, the whole world can now see it, the original birth certificate.

KAYE: So will this be the end of it?

TUCHMAN: Oh, this is not the end of it. No possibility.

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: I know.

TUCHMAN: I saw a guy --

KAYE: I knew the answer of that.

TUCHMAN: There's a wonderful tour in this building. If any of you are in Atlanta, come on a CNN tour. And a man on the tour just stopped me and said, Mr. Tuchman, I don't think this is the real birth certificate. I just saw that five minutes ago.

KAYE: Oh, no.

TUCHMAN: Yes.

KAYE: Well, all right, you know, even the president today said he's sure that some people aren't satisfied with this.

TUCHMAN: Right, exactly right.

KAYE: But we'll see.

All right, Gary, thank you. Appreciate it.

John King going one-on-one with Donald Trump in New Hampshire today. Does the Obama birth certificate put an end to the birther issue? Well, that's what we want to know, of course. Tune into "JOHN KING USA" tonight at 7:00 Eastern only on CNN.

And speaking of Donald Trump, is his trip to New Hampshire today a hint into his future plans? Paul Steinhauser will break it all down for us. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Time now for CNN "Political Update." CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser joins me now from Washington.

Paul, Donald Trump in the news today, of course, again. He is also in New Hampshire today, a crucial early voting state. Does this mean anything?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, I guess it's location, location, location, Randi, because even before the news from the president about his birth certificate and the response from Trump, the fact that he was going to New Hampshire was important.

Why? Because it is one of the early voting states, it's primary the first in the nation every four years. And by him going there, it is his first time in one of these early, crucial states. Another sign that maybe, maybe he is really, really serious about running for the White House.

Of course, Trump says he will decide if he's going to run for the GOP nomination by June.

Let's talk about the president, his last stop tonight, New York City. He will be the main attraction at three, yes, count them, three fundraisers for himself or his reelection campaign, of course, and for the Democratic National Committee.

New York City, Randi, a great place to raise money, a lot of money there and that is what he will be doing tonight, raising money. The end of the first round as he begins fundraising for his reelection campaign -- Randi. KAYE: And, Paul, as long as we are talking about Trump, of course I want to ask you, what do you make of his reaction of the president releasing the official birth certificate today?

STEINHAUSER: Well, I guess no surprise. With Donald Trump, often it is about himself and I guess his answer was just that. He took credit, he said, for the president coming out and giving his birth certificate or making it public. So, once again, "The Donald" taking credit for something, I guess.

KAYE: And given the polling that I know the political unit here at CNN has done, do you think that was a good move by the president?

STEINHAUSER: You know, politically I guess you could say no maybe it wasn't, because it is a distraction for the Republicans, and you have heard a lot of the top Republicans, including Karl Rove, say this is not a issue for the presidential nominee to be talking about. Talk about the real issues like economy, gas prices; get away from this.

So I guess in a way this maybe hurts the president's reelection in a way by trying -- by maybe putting this issue to rest, because in the general election, it could have hurt a Republican nominee if it was still out there as an important issue, Randi.

KAYE: Yes, I think a lot of people were surprised by that because it could keep the Republicans talking about this whole birther issue instead of the economy and jobs and everything else, like you said.

Paul Steinhauser, thank you. Appreciate it.