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Rescuers in Joplin, Missouri Continue to Look for Missing Persons; Pool Covers Recalled; Sarah Palin Begins Nationwide Bus Tour; CNN Hero Helps Widows of War; Conservatives Criticize National Science Foundation for Seemingly Wasteful Spending; Scottie Pippen Praises Lebron James as Best NBA Player
Aired May 28, 2011 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN center this is CNN Saturday Morning. It's May 28th. Good morning. I'm Joe Johns in for T.J. Holmes.
Big question, will Sarah Palin run for president? Her poll numbers are pretty good. She's kicking of a bus tour, hasn't even officially jumped in. We'll take a closer look at her prospects and the other potential GOP contenders.
And happy Memorial Day weekend. But before you head to the pool, you will want to know about a major recall that could have an effect on your weekend fun.
First, though, the latest on the search and recovery efforts in Joplin, Missouri. Scores of people are still unaccounted for on this Memorial Day weekend. And 156 people are listed as missing. Searchers still going through piles of debris. The death toll could rise, and the confirmed number of deaths stands at 132 with more than 1,000 injured. More than 2,500 people have applied for federal disaster assistance to help with home repairs and personal losses. FEMA has approved $2.8 million in aid.
President Obama is returning from his overseas trip today and he's going to meet with emergency officials and tornado victims in Joplin tomorrow. The president is expected to hear stories of sorrow and pain as well as acts of bravery. CNN's Paul Vercammen is standing in the debris of what was once a neighborhood in Joplin, Missouri. Paul, how are the search and recovery efforts going?
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're going very painstakingly slow, because you can imagine with 20 200-mile-per-hour winds, Joe, it just whipped everything up, and if can pick up a car, you can imagine what it can do to a human. I'll give you a sense of the debris that they reckoned with on the day of the tornado. All of this stuff, trees, parts of houses mangled together. It made the roads virtually impassable.
This was very difficult for the rescue crews, the first responders, as they had to drive through all this. And different heroes have emerged. People we talked to said there was one young man, 18-year-old, a logger who got his chain saw and began to cut paths for the rescue vehicles. He went so far as to walk up to individual houses and cut holes in the houses to get people free. His name is Jason, and he's got quite a story to tell how he came upon one house where he thought people were inside.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON MILLER, USED CHAINSAW TO RESCUE TEENAGER: I saw smoke coming out. So, I got my chain saw and cut a hole in the roof to get through and when I did that, the house was on fire and part of the wall kind of came at me and the charcoal from it got me. So, that wasn't very fun. I didn't like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: Well, Jason has joined Samaritan's Purse and he is now cutting trees to this day helping clean up Joplin. It's going to take a very long time. Years and years and years, of course, to rebuild all this. First, they have to clean all of it up and some people have begun the rebuilding process, already, if you can believe that.
But, you've got to go through a lot of different processes here, not the least of which is going to be the insurance issue that many of the homeowners are facing. Fortunately we talked to a lot of people who were insured.
But this scene replicated throughout. You may have heard, they said 8,000 structures damaged in Joplin. That's a third of the city and when they say 8,000, granted, that could be 12 units in a 12-unit apartment complex, but Joplin is not New York City. It doesn't have massive skyscrapers.
So it's just really mind numbing to stand here and look at how vast this is, stretching, as we've discussed, four miles long at its longest point and three quarters of a mile wide scene of a devastation. You get to a point where people say, you've been to other disasters before and have you ever seen anything like this? My answer is easy, Joe, no, I've never seen anything like this.
JOHNS: It is just incredible. I have to tell you, talking about insurance, you can't imagine how much it will cost to actually rebuild all of that stuff. That's just mind-numbing almost. Thanks so much, Paul, in Joplin, Missouri, right now.
One of the businesses destroyed by the tornado was Wal-Mart. The building's roof came down trapping a lot of customers and employees. Among those employees was Jeffrey Price, a member of the Missouri National Guard. He helped pull 50 to 60 people from the rubble, including several children and a baby. Two hours after the rescue, he was called to duty. He remains humble about what he did to help others.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPEC. JEFFREY PRICE, MISSOURI ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: Me and my supervisor looked at each other and said, we have to help these people out and I was one that was light enough to stand on the roof without hurting people underneath it. And so I stood up there and he helped them get up and I helped to walk them up and over the back wall because the back wall actually collapsed in.
It feels nice because some people didn't have the ability to help themselves, but in the same sense there were a lot of people that did more than I did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: To find out how you can help those affected by the flooding and devastated by the tornadoes, go to CNN.com/impact.
President Obama is wrapping up his European trip in Poland today. A short time ago the president finished up his news conference with Poland's prime minister, they talked about the prospects of a growing partnership between the two countries and then on to a memorial for the former Polish president who died in a plane crash just late year. Just moments ago he left Warsaw and he should be back in Washington, D.C., tonight.
Court is back in session right now in the Casey Anthony trial. Prosecutors spent yesterday questioning witnesses about Anthony's car. The owner of a tow company that impounded the car said he smelled what seemed like decomposing flesh. Anthony is accused of killing her two- year-old daughter.
Jared Loughner has been moved to a federal hospital in Missouri. Three days ago they declared that Loughner is not mentally fit to stand trial right now for the shooting that killed six people and wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Loughner was transferred from Tucson, Arizona, to the facility in Missouri for further testing.
It's not too late to get some of Bernie Madoff's stuff if you're so inclined. His wine collection is one of the items going up for auction next week. The United States marshal service is selling the stuff they have left. The money goes to pay off swindled investors. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for running his Ponzi scheme.
The unofficial start to summer is officially underway. Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf has your Memorial Day beach and travel forecast right here. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: Memorial Day weekend means the beginning of pool season in neighborhoods across the country. But before you jump in, you have to hear this. The government says thousands of public swimming pools should remain closed until they replace potentially deadly drain covers. Alison Kosik has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALISON KOSIK, CNNMONEY.COM: Hi, Joe. It's the kind of news no one wants to hear on a government weekend. But the government is advising public swimming pools not to open this weekend because of a massive recall. One million drain covers were recalled. Pool drains have up to 5,000 pounds of vacuum force, and that's why they need these covers so swimmers don't get trapped under water by that suction.
It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it can be. The Consumer Product Safety Commission or CPSC says it caused a dozen deaths between 1999 and 2010. Some of the recalled drain cove covers were not rated correctly. Kids are most at risk which is why the CPSC is urging public kiddy pools and wading pools to respond immediately to the recall.
In-ground pools are also at risk. And it could be an issue if you have a pool in your backyard. If you're a private pool owner get more information at 866-478-3521 or apsp.org/draincoverrecall. The faulty covers were sold between 2008 and April of this year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: Alison Kosik, thanks for that.
(WEATHER BREAK)
JOHNS: Sarah Palin the undecided on a presidential run, but she's still making big plans. We'll tell you what she has in store for the country, next.
But first, planning to do a little partying this long weekend? Listen to this. "USA Today" came up with some best places to bar hop around the world from swanky places to neighborhood joints. Let's get on it.
Portland, Oregon -- the city has a reputation for taking its beer very seriously and has more breweries than any other city in the U.S. I didn't know that. Seville, Spain, is a great place for grabbing a bottle of wine and sitting in an outdoor plaza and taking in the scenery. And Cleveland, Ohio. Head to the trendy Ohio neighborhood and the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn boasts a lot of great watering holes.
Did your favorite bar make the list? Stay with us, a little bit more coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: Before the break I told you about four places that "USA Today" calls great destinations to do a little bar hopping, Portland, Oregon, Seville, Spain, Cleveland, Ohio, and Brooklyn, New York. So what are the other top two destinations? According to "USA Today," you should grab a drink in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Dublin, Ireland. How about that?
Turning to politics now, Sarah Palin kicks of her bus tour in Washington. It is called the "One Nation tour." And this event leaves one big question on the tip of many people's tongues -- is she running? CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser joins us from Washington. Paul, what does this bus tour tell us about her intentions and it pretty much seems she had the bus all painted up and ready to go about the time she made this announcement, didn't she?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: This was quietly in the works for a while, Joe. Team Palin kept the wraps on this one until the official announcement yesterday.
It has all of us, Joe, like you and me who cover campaign politics buzzing and questioning what is going on here. This tour will start right here in Washington, D.C. It will hit a lot of those historic civil war battlefields and going to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and also go in New Hampshire, Joe. We know New Hampshire the first road in the primary.
A lot of signals she may be thinking about seriously writing. That pro-Palin movie that kicks off the race for the White House and her "fire in the belly" comment the other day. On the flipside, let's be honest. She's been really quiet lately and we haven't seen her make moves for organization in the early voting states. And also FOX News is not altering her contract with them right now, unlike some other people who are running for president when they said you have to leave FOX News if you're running for the White House. They're not changing her contract right now, Joe.
JOHNS: I want to talk about the polls and Palin. If you look at them, she's holding her own and really very quiet on the subject of running for president.
STEINHAUSER: Yes, yes, look at this. Here's our brand-new poll on the battle for the GOP nomination that came out yesterday. Look where Sarah Palin is, pretty much tied at the top there if you count in the sampling error. And a Gallup poll came out the day before that has Palin right near the top, as well. So it's a wide-open field.
Take a look at this next number. It seems Republicans and independents who leans towards the GOP are not so satisfied. Look at this number. They are not so satisfy would the field. Only 16 percent say they're really enthusiastic and look at that four in 10 not satisfied and maybe there is a hunger for somebody else out there who is not running, Joe.
JOHNS: I was really picking that up this week, too, as I asked around Washington, D.C., about the possibility of a Sarah Palin run, top two conservative activists. Let's listen to a little bit of what he said and I'll come back and catch him on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD VIGUERIE, CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST: Conservatives, quite frankly, I don't know conservatives that know her. She's a stranger to us. She's, you know, almost a blank slate. We know who she doesn't like, but most conservatives would tell her, I'm just concerned because I don't know what her views on this are and who does she look to for guidance and leadership and advice and counsel. So, she's kind of a blank slate to most all conservatives.
(END VIDEO CLIP) JOHNS: You know, very, very interesting comment to me there, because you would think as much as we heard the name of Sarah Palin, conservatives would say she's a very much known quantity. Are you hearing the same thing, Paul?
STEINHAUSER: Interesting comments. He's one of the elder statesmen, I guess you can say, of the conservative movement. She hasn't run on her own. She ran with John McCain and it was his campaign and his policies and his proposals. She hasn't run on her own since 2006 when she made that successful run for governor in Alaska.
But one thing I will say, Joe, if she decides to jump in and jump in late, obviously, already getting late she is probably one of the few that can pull it off. She's got that name recognition among Tea Party activists and other conservatives and she can also probably raise a lot of money very quickly, two important things if you are going to run for the White House, Joe.
JOHNS: Now, let's think, who else do we have that is expected to jump into the race as far as we know? I noted in one of those polls we actually saw Rudy Giuliani very high and it doesn't mean he is going to get in the race. Who is expected to get in?
STEINHAUSER: Giuliani will be in New Hampshire on Thursday. The third time he's up in New Hampshire and that is the same day that Mitt Romney is in New Hampshire. He ran for the White House the last time around. Romney does Thursday in New Hampshire officially making it, putting us out of the ring.
Next the following week on June 6th, Rick Santorum, he's all but declared and he will officially declare on June 6. And then there's Michele Bachmann, Joe. Listen, she said the other day she will make an announcement in Iowa where she was born next month about the presidency. Take a listen to what she said about Sarah Palin. She talked to our John king and asked if Sarah Palin would dissuade her from running there the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, (R) MINNESOTA: My decision will be independent of whichever candidate gets in. I have great respect for governor Palin. I consider her a friend. And if she gets in, she gets in. That won't impact whether or not I get in or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: Things are really heating up, Joe, in this race for the White House. I'm just buckling in and stay tuned, I guess.
JOHNS: Absolutely. That field is really filling in, finally. Thanks so much for that Paul Steinhauser in Washington.
Making her mark on this Memorial Day, one military widow reaching out with a sympathetic ear and a soft shoulder. Meet our CNN hero in just one minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: On Memorial Day weekend, we remember U.S. troops who gave their lives for the country and the families who have lost loved ones. That makes today's CNN hero even more special. She's turned her loss into an inspiration for others.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TARYN DAVIS, CNN HERO: My husband, Corporal Michael Davis, was killed in Baghdad, Iraq. You know, even four years later people still don't really know how to react when you say, hi, I'm Taryn and I am a widow. After the funeral, I felt ostracized. Everybody like to write off my grief due it my young age. He' you're still young, you'll get remarried.
Other widows aren't going to tell me I was grieving wrong. I just wanted to create what I was searching for and hope there were others who would help me build it, too.
I'm Taryn Davis, and I invite a new generation of military widows to share their love, their sacrifice and their survival.
They step outside of that comfort zone. His impact will continue to affect us all for the rest of our lives.
There are moments where they can all reflect followed by that time where they feel like they're living life to the fullest.
My litter sister wrote "Taryn." She didn't know how to get me through the loss and she wanted me to find other sisters. From my first event, I went from going completely alone to not any more at all.
You get up that high and you see the world a different way and I think as widows we see our life a different way.
They have given me life, again. They teach me so much and show me how far I've come and one day another widow is going to come along and they are going to be the one that is changing that widow's life. That's pretty amazing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: Taryn's organization has brought nearly 800 widows together to share their stories. Remember, every CNN hero comes from your suggestions. To nominate your hero, go to CNN.com/heroes.
We know you never do this, but if you're staying in a hotel this weekend, don't steal the towels and bathrobes. A lot of hotels are using a new system to track down their stolen goods. The towel police -- I'll tell you how it works coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: It's 28 minutes after the hour. Welcome back. I'm Joe Johns sitting in for T.J. Holmes. Thanks for starting your day with us.
Time for a quick check of the top stories. State Department is telling U.S. citizens in Yemen to leave now. The country could be in the brink of civil war. Violence continues to escalate between anti- regime tribesmen and Yemeni security forces.
Egyptian authorities have reopened the border crossing into Gaza. It's been closed for almost four years. There are worries in Israel, however, that the crossing could be used by militants to smuggle in weapons.
Gil Scott-Heron, best known for the 1970s song "The Revolution will not be Televised," died Friday in New York. He was 62 years old, often referred to as the godfather of rap. Scott-Heron's music had been sampled by hip-hop stars like Kanye West and Common.
And more than 35 million Americans plan to travel this Memorial Day weekend. That is up from last year when gas prices were about a dollar cheaper. Right now the average national for a gallon of regular is $3.81 a gallon.
Have you ever accidentally walked off with a hotel towel, or maybe not so accidentally? The hotel industry is betting on it. Some hotels are actually selling a small washable microchip into their towels, sheets and bathrobes so if you walk off with it, you sort of buy it. Want to bring in Katie Linendoll now. Katie, how is this thing going to work anyway?
KATIE LINENDOLL, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, you want to think twice about that five-finger discount, because if you walk off with that luxurious bathrobe or bath towel, chances are some hotels are implementing a tag right inside there. So in other words it is tracking technology that will actually track that you have taken it.
You might be saying, well, that's kind of cheap on the hotel's part, right? Get this. One of those towels could cost around $8 to $9 apiece. And one hotel that has implemented that tracking technology has gone from 4,000 towels take an month down to 750, saving them $16,000. So, that's a lot of money when we talk about linens that people are walking off with. Think twice because you might be being tracked.
JOHNS: Yes, that's pretty interesting stuff. But once they start keeping all their towels, I wonder if they'll bring down the hotel rates. Anyway, another story.
(LAUGHTER)
Now, a lot of are people hitting the road and heading to the beach this holiday season. Let's talk about some of the gadgets they shouldn't leave home without.
LINENDOLL: Yes. So, we have some must-have Memorial gadgets. I want to start off with this is underwater scuba and snorkel goggles. This is pretty cool. Remember when we were little we had the disposable cameras that would go under water and we thought we were awesome. This kicks it up a notch. This takes home video and you can capture that and a little LED light and you can save and store them with friends and it's awesome to be under the water taking high-def video. Really kicks it up a notch.
JOHNS: I love that. Do you hold a thing to snap the picture in your hand or do you have to push the button? Do you know?
LINENDOLL: Yes, I'll show you this one because it stands out better on the yellow. There's a shutter button right here. It tells you, you know what, you're taking a picture. Awesome.
JOHNS: What else you got there?
LINENDOLL: I got a bunch of stuff. Yes, here's the rocket. This looks like a little pill capsule. This is actually a speaker. This was recently on "Shark Tank" and it just kind of exploded. The rocket is actually a speaker. You pop this in to anything that has a headphone jack like an iPod or mp3 player and you unwind this little cord.
Right here is a sticky pad. You put it on a cereal box or a surf board and it turns it into a speaker. And, let me tell you something, the noise inside here, it vibrates and sound so loud just from this little $50 device, the Rocket 2. And, of course, I have to tell you, Joe, no more boom boxes. There's always a dude at the beach that has a giant boom box. What are you thinking? You have to come down in size.
JOHNS: And I saw another one there. Is there another one there or is that it?
LINENDOLL: I have a couple quick more for you. No gadget round up would be complete without an infomercials. This is a tray for creating your s'more. Now, if you were like me, we'd always be around a camp fire and it would almost catch on fire trying to get a marshmallow in there and create a little s'more. With this s'more to love tray, you can actually create a bunch of s'more in five minutes and you can put it on a grill and in the oven and kind of the gift that keeps on giving year round and everybody wins.
And last but not least - wait, a big one on the day is the cruise n cooler. It goes from $350 to about $1,400. You can get customizable rims. Go to speeds to 14 miles per hour. I can't see the monitor here, but I asked the producer if it would be OK to show and he has been riding it for years. She's fabulous. She's been working this for a while.
JOHNS: You can ride your beer and drink it, too. That's fantastic, Katie.
LINENDOLL: Totally.
JOHNS: Thanks so much for that. These are all awesome and I need every one of them.
LINENDOLL: Awesome, thanks so much. JOHNS: Let's see, 34 minutes past the hour right now.
(WEATHER BREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: Normalcy is light years away in tornado ripped Joplin, Missouri, as the deadliest twister to hit the U.S. since the late 1940s put the small towns in the crosshairs of destruction and the history books. At least 132 people were killed. But our T.J. Holmes introduces us to one couple who took refuge in a barely used closet and saved their lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: You guys are accustomed to severe weather in the Midwest and this part of the country. When did this start to feel any different?
DR. SAMUEL BIELIGK, TORNADO SURVIVOR: This storm, even though initially to me started like pretty much every other storm that we know, we hear the warnings on the television and we keep an eye out the window.
HOLMES: When did your own personal alarm bells going off?
KAREN BIELIGK, TORNADO SURVIVOR: They were downstairs eating and I was upstairs watching TV, like I said, and I looked outside and it was dark, it looked scary, but it wasn't that much different, but just something said, go downstairs. As soon as I said it, the power went off.
SAMUEL BIELIGK: And we got in the room, she closed the door and then my ears started popping as if we're going up in an airplane. And I never experienced that before.
HOLMES: How many times have you all used this in the past?
KAREN BIELIGK: Never. Been here three years.
HOLMES: And you have never used your safe room?
KAREN BIELIGK: Never. Two and a half weeks ago I cleaned it out.
HOLMES: You were essentially using this as a closet.
KAREN BIELIGK: This was a closet.
HOLMES: Did you feel safe once you got in here and shut the door?
KAREN BIELIGK: I was against the door and it was shaking so hard and I just was holding on. I was just laying against it. You could feel the pressure.
SAMUEL BIELIGK: See, this is wood on the top, so, there was a lot of banging going on.
KAREN BIELIGK: It just sounded like everything was exploding.
HOLMES: Where in your house could you have survived if you didn't have this room?
SAMUEL BIELIGK: Not anywhere else in the house besides down here.
KAREN BIELIGK: If our daughter Isabella would have been in her room, she surely would have died. Her whole window exploded in. Just glass everywhere.
SAMUEL BIELIGK: Upstairs is a board from the fence that actually goes right through the wall like it was going at 200 miles per hour.
KAREN BIELIGK: It just wouldn't have been OK.
SAMUEL BIELIGK: Everything on the top floor was pretty much shot.
KAREN BIELIGK: Everything had just exploded. Everything was everywhere. It was like a war zone and I turned around and went and told my kids, nothing looks the same. But we are all alive.
HOLMES: Today what do you think about the attitude you used to have about this room?
KAREN BIELIGK: I would not ever live in this area without a room like this again. It saved our lives.
SAMUEL BIELIGK: From now on we will always keep it cleared out so we can get in here.
KAREN BIELIGK: It's a blessing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: CNN shows you how in mere minutes large portions of the city of Joplin, Missouri, were reduced to rubble. A twister's fury, "In the Path of Destruction," CNN tonight 8:00 eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: You know, people are saying like, seriously? Scottie Pippen really said that? He says to ESPN that LeBron James is the greatest of all time. Well, I don't know if he went that far, but we're talking about Michael Jordan here and Scottie Pippen played with Michael Jordan. And Joe Carter's here. And why does this guy even want to wade into this controversy, you know?
JOE CARTER, HLN SPORTS: Some would say, what's wrong with you, Scottie? You have a short memory. Many people argue that Scottie Pippen should be thankful for playing alongside. Six rings. A hall of fame and you could argue Michael Jordan would have won championships without Scottie Pippen but Scottie Pippen would not have won without Michael Jordan.
So for just hours after the Bulls were eliminated for him to go on the radio the next morning and say, yes, Michael Jordan is a good scorer but LeBron James may be the best player ever, some would say, Robin just dissed Batman. There must be some resentment there.
JOHNS: LeBron has a real good game. The thing about Michael Jordan that people love to point out, as somebody got in my face about it. Michael Jordan always seemed to win. He had great scoring, but he was a clutch player.
CARTER: He never had to leave town and join an all-star team to put himself in contention for a championship. Here's part of that interview on a sports talk station on Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTTIE PIPPEN, FORMER CHICAGO BULL: Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to ever play in the game. But I may go as far to say that LeBron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game because he's so potent offensively that not only can he score at will, but he keeps everybody involved and you have to be on your p's and q's on defense because no guy on the basketball court is not a threat to score when LeBron James is active.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARTER: You can't compare the two until LeBron James' career is over. Michael Jordan has six rings. You know, LeBron has zero. Enough said.
JOHNS: Well, I mean, don't even get Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and those old school guys.
CARTER: So many names you can say, go on and on.
JOHNS: Michael, come on --
CARTER: He's the greatest of all time. There was never another Jordan and there will never be another Jordan. He dominated the game. There are so many other guys that can comparable to LeBron James right now.
JOHNS: Good controversy. Love to talk about it. Good to see you, Joe.
CARTER: You, too.
JOHNS: All right, the world's most famous shrimp. You may have seen it on YouTube but now this little guy is getting some attention on Capitol Hill. Check him out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia has been under fire for antiquated record keeping and the mishandling of remains. When one high-schooler saw the story he realized there was something he could do to help. Sandra Endo has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe, this Memorial Day many families of fallen service members may not be able to make it here at this sacred ground at Arlington National Cemetery. But one young man is making the memories of troops buried here just a click away for anyone in the world.
One by one 17-year-old Ricky Gilleland keeps these headstones alive, online. You come here thinking what?
RICKY GILLELAND, FOUNDER, PRESERVEANDHONOR.COM: Well, it's sad because I come here and I look at the birth dates and the death dates and I think, you know, these are kids that aren't much older than me.
ENDO: The computer whiz started documenting the 858 soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and are buried at Arlington after he heard about the record keeping problems that cemetery. He posted the information and pictures on his Web site called preserveandhonor.com. It's received more than a million hits since it launched in October.
ENDO (on camera): What do you hope for when people logon to your Web site?
GILLELAND: I hope that they can go on and feel a little bit of comfort in knowing that, you know, they're not just a number of casualties or anything like that, they're actual people.
ENDO: An investigation by the army inspector general found that 211 graves were mislabeled here. And Arlington cemetery has been under fire for keeping an antiquated record system of the roughly 300,000 men and women laid to rest here.
JENNIFER LYNCH, ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY: We actually are in the process of modernizing our record keeping. It will make people who are doing sites like Ricky's a lot easier because it's all going to be available on our Web site.
ENDO (voice-over): For him his project took on a deeper meaning as he learned more about one fallen soldier.
GILLELAND: What's special about this headstone, in particular, is it's the only one around it which has gold lettering. That means he was a Medal of Honor winner. He was fighting and someone threw a grenade inside the humvee. He absorbed most of the blast and he saved everyone else.
ENDO: We reached out to the McGinnis family who had no idea about his project and became emotional after seeing the site. In an e-mail, Mr. McGinnis thanked him for his work, describing it as a way to showcase the sacrifices of our nation's heroes.
But there are still new sacrifices he will continue to capture. Ricky says he's received nearly 600 e-mails from people supporting his project. He hopes to expand his website to include all the lives lost in the global war on terror, not just those buried here in Arlington. He says with the help of volunteers, he'll be able to do it. Joe?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: Check out the catch of the day off the coast of North Carolina yesterday. This barnacle incrusted anchor once belonging to the ship Queen Anne's revenge, better known as the Pirate Blackbeard's flag ship.
There is a changing of the guard for the Blue Angels. Commander Dave Koss says he did not live up to the team's safety and performance standards during this air show in Lynchburg, Virginia, last weekend. The Angels have canceled their next couple of performances.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, is singing their own praises despite ranking among America's top ten dying cities. Mainstreet.com analyzed census numbers looking at cities with big population drops. Grand Rapids just topped the list placing tenth behind New Orleans, Detroit, and Cleveland.
Those rankings were later posted to Newsweek and folks in Grand Rapids did not take the news and hit the streets to record lip sin synced version of "American Pie." But 300,000 YouTube viewers say not quite. Take a listen and we'll be right back.
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JOHNS: Forget about putting shrimp on the Barbie. Try exercise equipment, instead. It could make you the next YouTube hit but could also put you in the congressional crosshairs. Jeanne Moos explains.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you think a shrimp on a treadmill doesn't get very far, well this shrimp became world famous, his footwork so admired that YouTube fans put it to music, all kinds of music. And the shrimp on a treadmill became trendy. Shrimp scampying along, song after song.
But now just a few years later, he's become a poster boy -- a poster crustacean for wasteful government spending. Senator Tom Coburn put out a report mocking the National Science Foundation for funding research projects such as "shrimp on a treadmill" with a $500,000 grant. The media began cracking jokes about obese shrimp.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know what you call a shrimp that is overweight? Jumbo. Jumbo shrimp.
(LAUGHTER)
MOOS: Now this, this is my idea of shrimp on a treadmill. But you won't find this guy working out. The real treadmill is at Charleston, South Carolina, where they are using that $500,000 grant to do what doctors do to people.
MOOS (on camera): This is like a stress test for shrimp.
PROF. LOUIS BURNETT, DIRECTOR, GRICE MARINE LABORATORY: Yes, it is, exactly.
MOOS: How long will they run on it?
BURNETT: They will run for hours, at least five hours in some cases.
MOOS (voice-over): Lab director Lou Burnett say they subject the shrimp to environmental stresses like low oxygen or pollution and then measure their response using blood tests and checking respiration. What's next? Shrimp on a Stairmaster? Actually, treadmills for crabs and even lobsters were the next step. Not to create studly crustaceans but to do basic science that might help seafood to survive. Professor Burnett sounded a little fried, accusing critics of --
BURNETT: Picking on the National Science Foundation. It's serious science and it's good science.
MOOS: Even if the media don't take it too seriously.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this shrimp on the treadmill. I'm sorry, that's the worst intro I ever had. "Take a look at this shrimp on a treadmill."
(LAUGHTER)
Really? Really, George? George, is this it?
MOOS: After a workout like this, even a shrimp needs a cocktail.
Jeanne Moos, CNN.
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