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Historic Opening of Spillway; Florida Imams Face Terror Charges; Pornography Found at Bin Laden Compound; Ashton Kutcher to Sub in for Sheen; Facing the Rising River
Aired May 14, 2011 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Don Lemon. We're so glad you could join us.
And here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, we are following breaking news here right now on CNN. The legendary Mississippi River is rewriting history tonight. For the first time in nearly 40 years, the Morganza Spillway was opened just hours ago to divert the swollen river into the Atchafalaya Basin. The huge spillway was built just for this purpose.
Look at that water gushing out of there.
It is a pressure valve for the flooding river to protect Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the two biggest cities in Louisiana.
But it means tiny communities could soon be under many feet of water. This is what it looked like in 1973. The one and only time the Morganza Spillway had to be opened. There's no guarantee it will even work. The Mississippi River is already dangerously high in New Orleans.
The Army Corps of Engineers is hoping that by diverting water through two spillways will lower the river level and spare the city. So far, the Corps says opening the Morganza Spillway appears to be having the desired effect.
Now, the biggest test is still days away, the highest water, hundreds of miles up river.
This is Greenville, Mississippi, that you're looking at right now. A live report from there, and it is being inundated, straight ahead here on CNN.
But let's get right to CNN's Ed Lavandera who was there when the Morganza Spillway was opened just about three hours ago.
Ed, tell us about it.
Ed Lavandera is joining us on the phone. Ed, can you hear us?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Just a while ago, this is the area that was all dry several hours ago, but since they opened up the first floodgates of the Morganza Spillway, this is what has been drowned out. And as we've mentioned, this will be a long, slow path to the Gulf of Mexico, west of the Mississippi River, all of this done, of course, because the water pressure has (INAUDIBLE) so much into dangerous levels along the Mississippi River, that was putting the levee system between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in serious jeopardy.
More than 1.5 million cubic feet of -- per second of water pressure and that's just too much for that system to handle. So, they had to continue and divert the water off the top of the Mississippi River, out toward this way.
Now, the problem is they will have to watch this closely over the next few days and they've urged people to evacuate and get people out of the way. So, now, they're continuing to do that as this water makes its way toward Morgan City and communities along this floodway.
So, they've urged people to evacuate. They've done that and continue to do that and will continue to make sure that people are not in harm's way here, Don.
So, very dangerous situation. They will continue to open more of these floodgates in the coming days, but they wanted to do this in a slow process. If you look back out over here, since they opened these gates, we've seen fish jumping, we've seen rabbits trying to get out of the way, birds kind of moving to drier ground.
So, there's concern for the wildlife in these initial moments and this water will continue to flow.
And this is something they'll have to deal with for several weeks. It will take almost a month for all of this water to make its way to the Gulf of Mexico and for these floodwaters to recede.
LEMON: Ed, stay with me for a little bit here because I've been speaking to my mom who's there in Baton Rouge, and she is watching -- watching not only our live coverage but the live coverage there at the local stations in Louisiana. She's saying, you know, they're building walls around certain plants, they're trying -- they're worried about the chemical plants, and then these areas like LaRose -- they're going to be impacted.
I know you're trying to get out in front of the water to get to these communities. What about areas like that? Take our viewers inside.
OK. Apparently, Ed is having a little bit of trouble hearing. So, we'll get back to Ed Lavandera.
Ed, are you there?
LAVANDERA: Yes, I'm here. I can hear you.
LEMON: OK. I'm asking about the other areas to be impacted like Butte LaRose and the chemical plants there. They're building walls around some businesses, some plants, because they're concerned about the impact. I want you to take our viewers inside of what people are dealing with right now as we speak. LAVANDERA: Well, you know, we spent a lot of time in Butte LaRose over the last few days. And we've noticed that -- it's a community with about 800 homes in it, and it's kind of a weekend place for a lot of people. There are a good number of people, but this is -- that town is directly in the path of the floodwaters as they will be flowing there.
I'm told it will take about a day and a half for the water to reach that area. But everybody has left. They were told a few days ago to expect 15 feet of water in their community. So, as we were there a few days ago, Don, we saw people literally packing up every last piece of belonging they could get out of their house, even taking air- conditioning units, refrigerators, everything that they could pick off the ground, loading them into moving trucks and heading for drier ground.
LEMON: Ed Lavandera, thank you very much on the ground. We're going to have much more in Butte LaRose in just a little bit, at the half hour here on CNN. We're going to take you inside that town.
In the meantime, CNN meteorologist Jennifer Delgado has more information from the Army Corps of Engineers about how opening the Morganza Spillway will affect the Atchafalaya Basin.
JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Well, and, you know, we have some breaking news, and I want to point this out to you, Don.
Some good news coming in -- because they opened up the Morganza Spillway, it's already had an effect on the Mississippi River at New Orleans. I want to point this out to you. If you could look at the level, 16.89, flood stage is 17 feet. In fact, it actually should be 17 feet.
So, right now, it looks like by opening this up, this is going to be really good news for New Orleans. Now, keep in mind, earlier they thought it was going to get closer, a little bit higher up and the wall is actually built about 20 feet and they thought it was going to be, as I said, higher. But this right now showing you potentially we could see the river cresting and staying this way for several days and that is good news.
Now, as we go over to this graphic right here, this is going to give you an idea of when the water is actually going to be moving down towards the south. Again, that's the Morganza floodgate. We all talk about how they opened that up early today and that released some of the pressure off the Mississippi River.
Now, as we go one day, 24 hours, we're going to see the water getting closer to Interstate 10. We talked about that because that's that busy stretch that goes from Lafayette to Baton Rouge. As we go down farther along, and we take you, say, about three days out, getting close to Morgan City.
Now, earlier, we said that Morgan City has very good levee system, and it looks like if the levee holds out, that's going to be good news for Morgan City. However, over towards the west of Morgan City, there was still some question whether or not we might see a little bit of rise across that region.
Now, as I go over to our next graphic here, I'm going to get this out of the way for you, and we want to talk a little bit more about the flood levels and where we're really going to be seeing it peaking and really being at the major flood stage over the next several days and really weeks ahead. Notice for Vicksburg, we're expecting that to be about 14.5 feet above flood stage. That's May 19th.
As we jump ahead to Baton Rouge, I want to point this out to you. Major flood stage, May 16th -- this is actually going to crest sooner than upstream for areas, including the Red River Landing, as well as Natchez and Vicksburg. And then for New Orleans, potentially, it's going to be at minor flood stage as we go through May 14th, and that is certainly a relief for residents in New Orleans.
Now, we've been talking about the Morganza Spillway and how it was opened up today.
LEMON: Yes.
DELGADO: Of course, we saw that rushing water. We really feel for the residents there that are dealing with the flooding and that are going to be dealing with the flooding --
LEMON: Sometimes, the best way is just to simply explain it.
DELGADO: Yes, we're going to go Bill Nye on this one.
LEMON: About right about here is where the river -- the Mississippi River usually is about here. And this is where it is right now.
DELGADO: Right. Right now, we're at 17 feet and the wall is built to 20 feet. So, we'll visualize this as 20 feet because they opened up the Bonnet Carre -- remember that earlier this week?
LEMON: Yes.
DELGADO: This one actually is about 250 cubic square feet or should say feet per second. Now, that one is one-third of a cup.
LEMON: If you take that off, that doesn't really do that much.
DELGADO: Doesn't do that much, right? You need to pull up more rice there.
LEMON: Should do both of them.
DELGADO: All right. I'll do this. I guess this is not a recipe.
LEMON: Yes.
DELGADO: But again, if you fill this up for the Morganza, this is, as you can see, 600,000 cubic feet per second, and that has already had an effect on the Mississippi River in New Orleans and now we're seeing it at 17 feet and that's at minor flood stage. So, we're hoping to keep it there. But again, we have to keep our thoughts on the residents who are dealing with that flooding that are going to be for the next couple days.
LEMON: And my producer based from New Orleans says and this is Louisiana rice.
DELGADO: That is Louisiana rice, a little dirty rice.
LEMON: Just so you know, Louisian.
DELGADO: Louisian.
LEMON: All right.
DELGADO: All right. Thanks, Don.
LEMON: We appreciate it.
LEMON: All right. Listen, we're going to have much more on the swollen Mississippi River straight ahead this hour here on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's worse than we thought. It's really worse than we thought. We thought maybe we might have water in our yard and stuff. This is going to come into our homes. It's going to take every -- everything that we've got.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That is raw emotion from a resident in LaRose, Louisiana. That town will soon be swallowed by water from the Mississippi River now that the Morganza Spillway has been opened and we'll talk with residents who are trying to pack up their lives and get out of the way of that water.
Also, a lot of focus on Louisiana these past few days as we've awaited the opening of that spillway. But up river, other cities and towns are on the brink of being inundated by floodwaters. We'll take you live to Greenville, Mississippi -- ahead this hour.
But we're following another big developing story this hour, it's from Florida. Two leaders of the Muslim faith under arrest, charged with aiding terrorists. We'll have a live report coming up.
And many of you have been sending in and asking for information on social media. You can reach out to us on Twitter, on Facebook, CNN.com/Don, and on Foursquare.com/DonLemonCNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A disturbing story coming out of south Florida. Two imams arrested on aiding the Pakistani Taliban.
Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti is tracking the story for us -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. You know, Miami FBI agents swooped in right after morning prayers to arrest an imam at his mosque. They say that this imam spearheaded a conspiracy to support terrorists in Pakistan. He's 76 years old, Hafiz Muhammed Khan, the religious leader of the Flagler mosque, accused of sending $53,000 to the Pakistani Taliban. Also arrested, two of his sons, including a young imam at a mosque in Margate. Three more are charged in Pakistan, two of them are Khan's relatives.
The FBI and prosecutors say some of the money was buying guns for the Taliban and funding an Islamic school that the elder imam founded in Pakistan. It was allegedly used as a shelter for terrorists and to teach children to join the movement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILFREDO FERRER, U.S. ATTORNEY: Fifty thousand dollars is just a tip of the iceberg. We will show, as the case proceeds, that they transferred a lot more than $50,000 to Pakistan, for this specific purpose, that it reaches the Pakistani Taliban.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Susan, I have to ask this question, then. Do we know how the FBI made its case?
CANDIOTTI: You know, Don, agents won't say exactly, nor will they say who the donors are. But what they do tell CNN is that the FBI was tracking suspicious money transfers from Miami to Pakistan and the case started more than three years ago. Agents say they have wiretaps that recorded discussions about how to conceal the transfers from law enforcement -- Don.
LEMON: Any reaction, Susan, from either -- from either mosque here?
CANDIOTTI: We are getting a brief statement from leaders of the mosque. They say that they're surprised about the arrest and that they're fully cooperating with the FBI, and that they condemn all acts of terrorism. They're disavowing all of this.
LEMON: National correspondent Susan Candiotti in New York -- thank you, Susan.
It was a performance that was under fire before he even took the stage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMMON, RAPPER: Even through the unseen I know that god watches from one king's dream, he was able to Barack us. One king's dream, he was able to Barack us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Rapper Common at the White House poetry reading this week, and we'll look at what's really behind the conservative uproar over his invitation. But, first, George Lucas created "Star Wars." Now, he has set his sights on the problems in education.
CNN's education contributor Steve Perry explains in tonight's "Perry's Principles."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): "Star Wars" creator George Lucas conquered the empire with the power of the force. Now, he's conquering education with the power of the Internet.
GEORGE LUCAS, DIRECTOR: Education is the single most important job that the human race has.
PERRY: Edutopia.org is a free, nonprofit site that highlights what works in schools with blogs, articles and videos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking at ways for students to deepen their knowledge and work with their own knowledge so that they can become the authors of their own learning.
CINDY JOHANSON, GEORGE LUCAS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: So often you find is that people know that their education system could be better, but they're not always sure exactly in what way. So, what we've tried to do with Edutopia.org is to shine a spotlight on innovation and show people with the power of video what it looks like, and how it's taking place.
PERRY (on camera): One of the biggest challenges that I see in education is that when a school is successful, people begin to say that can't be replicated.
JOHANSON: We try in our coverage to show tips and strategies that can be adapted, that can be extended to other environments.
PERRY (voice-over): Like in southern California, where Michele Smith lives.
MICHELE SMITH, PARENT: My son's dyslexic and there were a lot of challenges he was facing in a traditional school setting. So, I started self-educating myself on the charter schools.
PERRY: Using clips from Edutopia, Smith produced a video illustrating the vision she had for a new charter school and won over the school board.
SMITH: This is our school site. This is context middle school 2011.
JOHANSON: So often with education, it's about what's wrong, the problems in education. Yet there's this force of people out there on the front lines.
PERRY: Steve Perry, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMMON: Burn a Bush 'cause for peace he no Bush no button, killing over oil and grease, no weapons of destruction.
(END VIDEOC LIP)
LEMON: Hip hop star Common in a 2007 performance on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam." That line about burning a Bush is about one of the reasons conservatives are up in arms after the White House invited Common to perform at a poetry reading just this week. Much of the criticism came from FOX News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
KARL ROVE, FORMER BUSH AIDE: Yes, let's invite a misogynist to the White House, the guy's called for violence against police officers and called for killing the former president.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: Whoa! "When we roll together with a strapped gun, we're going to be rocking them to sleep." That sounds like killing cops to me. Whoa, that sounds like killing cops to me.
SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: I'm not anti-rap. In fact, like Bret Baier, I know the lyrics to "Rapper's Delight," too.
BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS: Why on earth would the president and the first lady invite this man to the White House? The answer I believe is that the Obamas do not understand the sensibilities of many Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
LEMON: "Rapper's Delight," too. OK. So, over on "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, Jon Stewart defended Common.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, COMEDIAN: Are we really doing this again? For this guy? Common? The guy from the Gap ads? The guy from the Queen Latifah rom-com? Elmo's friend? That's the guy?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, the argument about Common is far from over. It's still heating up.
Stewart has accepted an invitation from Bill O'Reilly to debate the issue.
So, was the White House wrong? Or do conservatives have a fundamental fear or misunderstanding of rap and hip hop?
So, joining me now to talk about this, Tim Wise, an anti-racist writer and activist, author of the book, "Colorblind." Dan Charnas is a journalist and the author of "The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip Hop." And here on the studio with me is Robert Watson, he's a producer and he's a Grammy voter as well. All of them have been on the show before.
When you hear Sarah Palin made that we laugh out loud. When Sarah Palin made that dated reference to Sugarhill Gang. Does it seem like they're out of -- what is it?
ROBERT WATSON, RECORD PRODUCER: They're pulling bullets. I mean, they have nothing to go on. This is the cleanest rapper we have in the game.
Common sense is, I mean, he makes conscious raps. He speaks to the people. He's anti-violence and anti-everything.
This is the guy is the best we got. If he's bad, there's nothing left in rap. I mean, he's the best we've got as far as clean.
LEMON: All right. So, Robert, if you're in the industry, right?
WATSON: Yes.
LEMON: You're in the industry, this would probably be understandable if the White House had invited a gangster rapper, but Common, again, far from it.
WATSON: Him, Mos Def, a couple of guys, that's it.
LEMON: All right. So, Tim, is there -- because I've been hearing this, and I've been hearing this, I think African-Americans, the ones I know, won't say it, but white Americans are saying to me, Don, you know, there's some racial undertones here.
Do you see that? I want you -- but I want to play this clip from Bill Maher last night and then we'll talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL MAHER, TV HOST: And, of course, this, to them, has nothing to do with the fact that he's black. You have to feel bad for people like Karl Rove and Matt Drudge and Andrew Breitbart. It's so hard to live in a color blind society when all the bad people are black. It's just hard for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, listen, I know that, you know, FOX will play this and say, look what CNN did, they invited these people on and what-have-you, just asking the questions. Is there some racial undertones here?
TIM WISE, AUTHOR, "COLORBLIND": Well, there's a racial disparity in the way that a lot of white folks view hip hop as opposed to country music where you have artists for years. I live in Nashville, Tennessee. There are folks that made their living, Johnny Cash, some of the earlier work that Porter Wagoner did when he talked about killing his ex-wife and burying her in the forest. I mean, no one said, oh, my God, we can't talk about Porter Wagoner or Johnny Cash.
There's a definite racial disparity in the treatment of different types of music. And I think the reason is because for a lot of white Americans, they believe that when black people talk about violence, it's autobiographical and they're getting ready to go kill somebody, and they realize that when white folks do it -- oh, they're just talking.
Except, of course, you know, the real thing -- and Bill O'Reilly, you had the clip of him, and he said, you know, the White House doesn't understand a lot of America. I think the bigger issue is that these critics don't understand is that there's millions of Americans whose understanding and experience of this country is not the Lee Greenwood, you know, thank God I'm free, proud to be an American version, it's a version of the folks who live in the south Bronx, who live on Pine Ridge Reservation, brown skin folks in Arizona right now who don't feel free.
And when they write about it either in a rhyme or in a poem, I think that's what scares these conservative white folks. They don't accept the fact there are millions of people for whom the experience of America is different than theirs and they certainly don't want to have to confront that.
LEMON: Are these pundits trying to get traction because the president is black and that rap is primarily a black art form, primarily a black art form, but who buys most of the rap and hip hop music in the country?
WATSON: White Americans.
LEMON: So, are they trying to gain traction on this, Tim?
WISE: Yes. Are you asking me? I'm not sure.
LEMON: Yes, Tim. Yes.
WISE: Yes. Yes, yes. I mean, absolutely. Look, this is one of those ways you can push a button with people. The same way you can by questioning the president's academic credentials. That's a very clear button of racial anxiety and racial resentment.
LEMON: OK.
WISE: And when it comes to rap, folks have been doing it for 20 years. They did -- I mean, back in 1992, I remember during the Republican convention, that was right after Ice T's song "Cop Killer" come out. And that wasn't even a rap song. That was a song for Ice T's speed metal band Body Count. But they turned it into an attack on rap. Oh, Ice T, a rap artist wants to kill cops.
At the very same time -- hold on at the very same time, they were in bed politically with the NRA that was lobbying for cop killer Teflon- coated bullets and they didn't mind that. They don't want stories about cop killing. They want bullets that actually kill cops. It's fascinating to me. LEMON: I want to bring Dan Charnas in. This is your expertise, because you wrote a book on this. You know, are they trying to gain because it's primarily an African-American platform, but don't most whites buy hip hop and rap? They buy the bulk of it.
DAN CHARNAS, AUTHOR, "THE BIG PAYBACK": Absolutely. Absolutely. And you just have to remember, this is all strategy.
You know, in my book, I actually tell the cop side of that 1992 cop killer controversy. And Ron Delore (ph), (INAUDIBLE) down in Texas, he knew consciously that this was something that the cops needed to do after the L.A. cops beat down Rodney King and the ensuing riots, is that the police had egg on their face, and that this is something that Republicans and police needed to do to sort of turn cops into victims.
When in actuality it's people like Rodney King and, you know, folks who are brutalized by police that are, you know, much more the victims of this kind of thing.
LEMON: OK. Listen, just I have a few seconds here. But the song that they're actually concerned about, where it talks about killing cops, is that what it actually talks about? I thought in the end, that it's sort of a redemption song, that you shouldn't be doing just what I'm talking about?
WATSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. The song ends clean. It's a story, and the story ends with do not do this. Do the right thing. You know?
LEMON: All right. Dan, Tim, thanks so much all of you. I appreciate it.
WATSON: "Rapper's Delight."
LEMON: Ye, "Rapper's Delight." Hip hop, hip it to the hipitty hip hop.
All right. Next, it's something that would embarrass even the shameless leader of al Qaeda. A dirty little secret from the intelligence seized at bin Laden's compound.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY LENO, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO" HOST: It's now being reported that a relatively extensive collection of porn was found at Bin Laden's compound. That's got to be tough, guys. Hiding your porn from four different wives?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Jay Leno cracking a joke over one of the more embarrassing details to come out of the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound. This is even more private than the discovery of his virility syrup. We now know that Bin Laden's hideout had an extensive stash of porn. That's right, porn.
So let's bring in Maureen O'Connor, she's a staff writer for gawker.com. Maureen, good to see you. It's not clear whether the porn was his or whether he watched it but it's not the sort of something an Islamic extremist with four wives should have anywhere around him, should it?
MAUREEN O'CONNOR, WRITER, GAWKER.COM: No. Well, it's like an episode of "Room Raiders." We're hearing about is in his medicine cabinet and on his secrets that were on his computer's hard drive. So both writers and the Associated Press are reporting that intelligence officers say there was video, pornographic videos among the computer documents that they confiscated.
It's not clear how that got there. Now we know that there was no internet connection at Osama Bin Laden's compound. They didn't even have a land line for a telephone for like a dial-up connection. We know that when he sent e-mail he would put his e-mail messages on to a USB drive and send one of his couriers to an internet cafe to send the e-mails, download new information and bring it back, so maybe the porn got there through that. Maybe someone brought it in with the computer. It's hard to say.
LEMON: Yes. OK. Let's switch some gears here, we're going to change gears dramatically here. Even the guys have been covering this extensively, you guys, we've got a lot to talk about when it comes to "Two and a Half Men" because everybody thought it would collapse after Charlie Sheen sort of blew up, but now the producers think they have a solution, don't they?
O'CONNOR: They've got Ashton Kutcher and they just announced that. Ashton confirmed it. He's the kind of big A-list star that they sort of need to pull this show together. Because it really always has just been resting on Charlie Sheen's back. What will be interesting is they haven't said what type of character Ashton is going to play. We know that Charlie Sheen's character was sort of a softer version of him, a womanizer who loved to go out boozing and meeting ladies. So it's not clear if Ashton is going to play somebody based on himself, if he's going to play another lecherous man or how they're going to deal with that switch.
LEMON: It would be kind of funny if they just have him come in and pretend nothing happened and he's all of a sudden Charlie.
O'CONNOR: Oh, I got a hair cut.
LEMON: Yes, just all of a sudden it's Charlie on the show and have the, what's his name go, "You look different lately, what did you do?" And he says "Oh, I got a hair cut."
Hey here's what Charlie Sheen is saying. He's saying "Ashton Kutcher is a sweetheart and a brilliant comedic performer. Oh, wait, so am I. Enjoy the show, America. Enjoy seeing 2.0 in the demo every Monday, WB. Enjoy planet Chuck, Ashton. There's no air, laughter, loyalty, or love there." What did that mean? Do you know what that meant, Maureen?
O'CONNOR: He is all scorched earth when it comes to the "Two and a Half Men" crew. He had recently, you know, after blowing up all of his contacts there he started saying, they want me back and the "Two and a Half Men" crew kept saying, "No, we really don't want him back." So now we know it's real, Charlie is long gone.
LEMON: Yes, it's interesting. Because if he came back I'm sure the ratings would be through the roof.
Hey listen, I have to tell you. You did break the story, another story. Bristol Palin and her surgery. She admitted that she did have facial surgery and that was after - was that after you guys broke it?
O'CONNOR: It was. So Bristol Palin's face looked noticeably different and it turns out it's all part of her new Hollywood career. She's moving to L.A.. She's going to have a reality show, and she got, "corrective surgery" that improved her appearance, according to her.
LEMON: All right. Maureen O'Connor from gawker.com. Appreciate it. Have a great Saturday night. Thanks again.
O'CONNOR: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: We're continuing our breaking news. We're following breaking news, the Morganza spillway now open in Louisiana as the Army Corps of Engineers tries to save New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the state's two largest cities from record floodwaters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm telling you, depth of water from right here, 15 feet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And that warning to residents now in the path of the floodwaters, their homes, their memories, about to be washed away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Our top story this hour and it's breaking news, for the first time in 38 years the Morganza Spillway in Louisiana has been opened. Historic flooding along the Mississippi River made the move necessary to prevent the river from overwhelming the levees in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The last time the Morganza Spillway was opened was 1973. Thousands of people must evacuate ahead of the rising water. And you know, for weeks now, we have been watching the Mississippi River flood as it has threatened one community and region after another. Greenville, Mississippi, is feeling the brunt of the slow- motion disaster right now. Our Martin Savidge is there with the very latest. So, Martin, have we seen any problems with the levees in Greenville?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a report now of a breach of a levee, but we should point out that this is an abandoned and very old levee and it is not part of the mainstay of the levee system that is protecting most of the communities along the Mississippi River here. This was in Lake Providence, it was an old levee that predated the 1927 flood. So that's how old this levee was. It had been abandoned, and it started overtopping there on Thursday, and then it collapsed actually yesterday, and as a result of that, about 12,000 acres of farmland has now been flooded with water.
But again, it is not a serious breach, and certainly no breach of the mainstay of the levee system here. So as to the levees, in the state of Mississippi, I had a conversation just a short while ago with Peter Nimrod. He's with the Mississippi Levee Board, and he says so far, so good, but there are signs of strain. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER NIMROD, CHIEF ENGINEER, MISSISSIPPI LEVEE BOARD: It's been such a fast rise. Now out levees have held up really well. We didn't have any troubles at all until last week (INAUDIBLE) we were already at 60 feet at Greenville, which is three feet above what we had been in 2008. So that fast rise actually kind of helped us. We were able to get some things done and get preparations for inspections, but now that the levee has gotten saturated we have started seeing a whole lot of under seepage. Under seepage we've never seen before, (INAUDIBLE) pop up where we've never seen them before. So it's going to be a long battle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: And that's the concern you see there, Don, because the fact that this flood water, even as the crest goes by, is going to hang around for a long, long time. So those levees are going to be stressed for a long time, and as you already heard them say, they are seeing indications of potential weaknesses starting to appear in the levee system.
Let me show you some of the flooding that's been occurring outside of the levee protection system here in Greenville and this is mainly a residential area that we saw on lower Lake Ferguson Drive. It would be a beautiful drive on any given day normally. It's covered with about 15 feet of water now and the only way to make that drive is by boat. It is a stretch of housing that goes for about three to five miles and there are about 100 homes out there. These are not just lake houses or cottages, these are full-time residential houses that people live in all the time. Only they're not there now.
They've all managed to make it out but the flooding was really significant. I mean, over the rooftops in many cases and in other cases right up to the very front door. But those houses where the water came to the front door are on stilts, that are up 15 feet in the air. So it's quite a remarkable thing to see, Don.
LEMON: All right. Martin Savidge, thank you very much.
As waters diverted into the Atchafalaya Basin, it will inundate small communities such as (INAUDIBLE). CNN's Ed Lavandera visited with some of the heartbroken residents as they got the bad news that they had to evacuate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tucked away in the shade of the Louisiana cypress trees and backwater creeks, you'll have a hard time finding Butte Larose. But it's Pierre Watermeyer's dance floor.
PIERRE WATERMEYER, BUTTE LAROSE RESIDENT: I put that sign up about two months ago, and I've always wanted to name the camp Last Dance.
LAVANDERA: The music has stopped and Pierre -
WATERMEYER: I don't know why I'm locking it.
LAVANDERA: Is packing it all up before the floodwaters wash over Butte Larose.
WATERMEYER: I had a big table in here, I had a futon over here. This was cabinets. 70 percent of the people have packed up and gone already.
LAVANDERA (on camera): It's going to be a ghost town pretty soon.
WATERMEYER: Yes. Yes.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): For generations, Butte Larose has been home to an eclectic mix of cajuns, a place to hide away, where homes are called camps and they come with funny names. But this won't be a summer of fun.
(on camera): What's it like to be around here knowing what's coming down the river?
WATERMEYER: It's just a somber mood, you know? You know, everybody's just doing what they've got to do.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): His bayou community will soon be flooded.
WATERMEYER: I'm going to get three feet of water in it. Three to four foot.
LAVANDERA: But Pierre is about to learn that the floodwaters will likely be worse than anything he imagined. Pierre and hundreds of Butte LaRose residents pack into the town's firehouse to hear flood level predictions from the Army Corps of Engineers. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm telling you, depth of water from right here, 15 feet. OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We understand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some (INAUDIBLE) reach 15 feet so this is probably up to the roof of this building.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said there's going to be 15 foot of water. It's over with. It's over with.
LAVANDERA: It's over for Butte LaRose, the words too painful for people to hear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's going to answer the questions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's the microphone?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's going to be a strong current.
LAVANDERA: As pain turns to anger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody, please listen!
LAVANDERA: Colonel Ed Fleming offers a little comfort.
COL. ED FLEMING, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: In 22 years, I've moved 14 times. Might have a box, might have important documents, might have some pictures, some keepsake things, because those are things we're going to put in the car when that moving truck drives away and you're standing in your driveway with your family and a couple suitcases and a box. But that's when you find out what's important to you.
LAVANDERA: And the sadness of the moment brings Kelli Trimm to tears.
KELLI TRIMM, BUTTE LAROSE RESIDENT: It's worse than we thought. It's really worse than we thought. We thought maybe we might have water in our yard and stuff. This is going to come into our homes. It's going to take everything. Everything that we've got.
LAVANDERA: Pierre Watermeyer knows it's time to pack up the dance floor and put Butte LaRose in his rearview mirror but he'll be back.
WATERMEYER: But it's not going to be the last dance. It's not going to be.
LAVANDERA (on camera): You don't think so?
WATERMEYER: No. No. We'll dance again around here.
LAVANDERA: And the sign will be the last thing he grabs on the way out of town.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Butte LaRose, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMON: Coming up, a high school honors student banned from his prom, a school says a Connecticut teenager went too far when he asked his date to go with him to the big event. But now there's a big update to tell you about.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": OK. Show us how you two would have danced if you would have been able to attend the prom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, this is sweet.
KIMMEL: Well, no wonder. I think this is probably better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I love Jimmy Kimmel. His show is hilarious. Jimmy Kimmel rooting for, I should say late night host, rooting for the Connecticut kid who could not go to his prom. But today, you know, the ban was lifted for James Tate. Our affiliate WFSB reports the head master changed her mind and the 18-year-old student, honors student can go now.
Tate got into trouble for this prom proposal, taping block letters to the side of his school so the Connecticut high school banned him. Then came the TV appearances and a "Let James Tate go to Prom" Facebook page with nearly 200,000 followers. Wow.
This afternoon, the head master announced she had changed her mind and some say she bowed to the pressure from online. Regardless, we're glad he's going to his prom.
Up next on CNN, they are the best of the best. The U.S. Navy S.E.A.L.s that killed Bin Laden, how much training do you think it takes to become one? The answer right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The many faces of Osama Bin Laden seen here on tapes seized in the raid in his compound on Pakistan in which the world's most wanted terrorist was killed. A group of highly trained commando S.E.A.L. team 6 carried out that spectacular special ops mission. It has led a lot of people to wonder what does it takes to become a Navy S.E.A.L.? CNN's Chris Lawrence and a former seal take us through training so intense that few survive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The heart and soul of a Navy S.E.A.L. is somebody who is committed to their country and committed to their teammates.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Howard Wasdin was a Navy S.E.A.L. for nine years.
HOWARD WASDIN, FORMER NAVY SEAL: And I think it's somebody who just wants to be part of the best, so I really want to do something special. And that's the S.E.A.L. motto. Someone special. Want to be special? OK. Prove it.
LAWRENCE: Proving it means surviving a training program so long and so tough that most don't make it. They call it BUDS.
WASDIN: Basic under water demolition S.E.A.L. school. It all starts there. My class started I think around 126, 130. We graduated around 22 to 25.
LAWRENCE: Every day begins with physical training, miles of swimming, running, hundreds of sit-ups, push-ups, all before the day's real work begins. Even more important they are preparing the body is preparing the mind. Case in point, an exercise called drown proofing.
WASDIN: Candidates' hands are tied behind their back, their feet are tied together and then you are thrown into the pool. You better not panic. You better remain calm. Control your breathing, control your heart rate. They tell you day one at B.U.D.S., mental toughness, not physical toughness. It's what's between the ears that keeps the body going.
LAWRENCE: And then comes hell week. Six days, little sleep, submerged in frigid water or running hundreds of miles.
WASDIN: Now the important thing to remember about that 200 miles is you're running about 200 miles with a boat on top of your head. You have to paddle out in those boats, dump the boats over and ride them, paddle back in. Do tons of paddling, tons of swimming.
LAWRENCE: Even the toughest are pushed to their limit.
WASDIN: I always get asked, did you ever think about quitting? I never spoke to anybody in the teams who said at one point they didn't at least think about it. The difference is just like going into battle, controlling your fear. You don't quit.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And you can learn much more about how Navy S.E.A.L.s operate in a CNN special report "Inside the Mission: Getting Bin Laden," it's coming up at the top of the hour. And our thanks to Chris Lawrence, of course.
Who is baseball's homerun kings? Purists will say it's Hank Aaron, but what does Hank Aaron have to say about that?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANK AARON, BASEBALL HOMERUN KING: We were talking about Barry Bonds. And you know, Barry Bonds, he's hit more homeruns than I did.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: Do you agree with him? Well, Hank Aaron opens up about the man who took his record to our T.J. Holmes, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Major League Baseball is celebrating its history and its pioneers this weekend right here in Atlanta. The annual Civil Rights Game is being held at Turner Field on Sunday, but the game is just part of a wider celebration. Today saw a youth summit at Centennial Park along with games on a temporary field. The Beacon Awards are tonight honoring heroes like Hall-of-Famer Ernie Banks and a special recognition of the Freedom Riders, those courageous Americans who rode buses across the south in the early '60s to defy discrimination.
So as the home to Martin Luther King, Jr., and the adopted home of homerun legend Henry Aaron or Hank Aaron as we call him, Atlanta is a natural fit for this year's civil rights game. Now Barry Bonds, of course, has surpassed hammering Hank as baseball's homerun king, but not everyone thinks Bonds' accomplishment is legit.
CNN's T.J. Holmes sat down with Aaron to ask him about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
T.J. HOLMES, CNN, ANCHOR (on camera): What would you say to those fans who say Hank Aaron is the homerun king, he will always be my homerun king and they refuse to acknowledge anybody at this point that's above your name? Would you say, "Hey, let it go, folks, the guy above me has more homeruns he's your homerun king?" What would you say?
AARON: I would say "thank you." I would thank him first of all. I would thank them if they think that way. But here again, you know, we were talking about Barry Bonds. And you know, Barry Bonds has hit more homeruns than I did. And he should be justified and should be the homerun king. That's the way I look at it. I look at it and he's done everything he wanted to do, everything he was supposed to do in baseball.
Now, people say, well, you know, he was on this, he was on that. I don't know what he was on. You know, I have no idea. I'm not god. I don't have any idea. The only thing I know is that Barry Bonds was a terrific ballplayer. I hit 755 homeruns. And no matter how you look at it, I know I'm going to hit another homerun, not in this year but I may do it some way else. Not here. He hit more homeruns than I did. So he should be classified as the homerun king.
HOLMES: So you don't believe he was on anything?
AARON: No, I didn't say I didn't believe that. I just said that no matter what it is, I don't know. I don't know what he was on.
HOLMES: OK.
AARON: I have no idea. As I said before, I'm not god. I don't make those kind of rules. HOLMES: You're the same guy that said once you get up to 50, 60 homeruns you said something's funny.
AARON: I said that yes, I think it's something funny. I think. And there is a difference when you say "I think." I didn't say I know I think something is different.
HOLMES: You are a scholar and a gentleman. I love it. I love it. I love it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Hammering hank with our T.J. Holmes. So listen, I want to update our top story and it's breaking news before we get off the air tonight. For the first time in 38 years the Morganza Spillway in Louisiana has been opened. Historic flooding along the Mississippi River made the move necessary to prevent the river from overwhelming the levees in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
The last time the Morganza Spillway was opened was back in 1973 and I remember when it happened. Thousands of people have to evacuate now ahead of the rising water. And we're going to be covering it for you on CNN. It is a disaster down in Louisiana and it's heartbreak. That's the only way of describing it.
I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Thank you for joining us. I'll see you back here at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
CNN PRESENTS "INSIDE THE MISSION: GETTING BIN LADEN" right now.
