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Rare Pink Dolphins on the Brink; Republican Candidates Debate Tonight; Dallas Wins First NBA Crown; Clues are Caylee's Hair, Duct Tape, Flies; White House on Rep. Weiner and Jobs

Aired June 13, 2011 - 13:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Suzanne, thank you.

It is a very big day in the world of presidential politics. We're just seven hours away from the first major debate of the 2012 presidential campaign. Seven candidates for the Republican presidential nomination will gather in Manchester, New Hampshire, and CNN will bring you the only live national coverage, that starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time tonight. This will be the year's first debate in New Hampshire, the traditional home of the nation's first primary.

It will be the years of first debate for Mitt Romney, currently considered the frontrunner, it will also be the first debate for former house speaker, Newt Gingrich, who's struggling to keep his campaign afloat after the resignation last week of several senior staff members.

Our Don Lemon is at St. Unsom (ph) College in Manchester, where the debate will take place. Don, how are you? I want to start with Gingrich here. He made a campaign appearance in Los Angeles last night we know, the first one since last week's staff exodus. He made a passing reference to the incident in his speech. So, let's listen to that first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: As somebody who has been in public life for nearly 40 years, I know full well the rigors of campaigning for public office. In fact, I've had some recent reminders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Now Don, there were reports that the Gingrich staff members who resigned had doubts that he's committed to a full-scale campaign. Do you expect Gingrich will have to reassure Republican voters there tonight?

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Of course he is. And here's the message that is underlying here. The people who worked on his campaign said -- felt that he wasn't committed and they had worked on campaign before and they said knew what they were doing and that Gingrich wasn't listening to them, especially going -- taking a vacation with just two weeks before a presidential debate. And so, the voter in the back of their minds, and maybe at the top of their minds, are thinking, if Newt Gingrich cannot listen to his own staffers and take their advice and go on a vacation, instead of picking up the phone and calling donors, will he listen to the American people and what's important to him?

So tonight, this is his first shot at it. He talked about and made that reference at the Beverly Hilton speaking to a Jewish American conference, and tonight he's going to tell the voter, and assure them that he will pay attention to what's important to them, because his own staff said that he wouldn't pay attention to what is important to them.

KAYE: So, let's take a look now at the latest CNN opinion research poll. It shows Romney with a slight lead making him, at least in theory, the current frontrunner. Are the other candidates, do you think, Don, going to have to gang up on him here? I mean, what do you think their strategy is going to be tonight?

LEMON: Well it's interesting that two people on there, Giuliani and Palin, aren't even on -- you know, aren't -- haven't even declared yet. But yes, I think they are going to gang up on him, I think that's going to - that's obviously going to happen. He is the frontrunner, therefore, he's the one that everyone is targeting. Probably less so for Cain, but Cain is gaining some momentum and he's gaining that momentum not by picking on Mitt Romney.

And then, Gingrich has his own problems so I don't know if he's going to pick on Mitt Romney. But the person -- another person who's not -- who is declared but wasn't on the poll that you showed, is Tim Pawlenty. Tim Pawlenty is going to target Mitt Romney tonight. He's already been doing it, he's been doing it this weekend, talking about his Massachusetts health care plan and has been calling it Obamneycare. So, he's going to go - he's going to be the one that's going to go after Romney.

KAYE: And so Don, in just about 30 seconds or so can you tell us about the hall there behind you, a little behind the scene?

LEMON: Well, we can only show you a little bit because some of the candidates are practicing. I'll step out of the way, but don't go really close because Michele Bachmann is up there, and the candidates when they come in to rehearse and practice and see the hall, they really don't want to be - they don't want to be videotaped, so we'll just show it from afar. But they're going over there to the podiums getting used to venue, getting used to the scene.

Herman Cain was here earlier and now Michele Bachmann and some of the other candidates are going to be coming up throughout the day. But it's really a beautiful -- it's a solvent arena here, it's really beautiful, and we're going to be ready for it, we're all excited.

KAYE: I like the chandelier behind you.

LEMON: Yes, very nice, isn't that -- isn't that cool? I think it will fit in your living room, Randi. KAYE: OK. Bring that one home for me, would you? All right, thanks, Jon. We'll check back with you again. Thank you.

Sticking with politics now, an Ohio congressman John Boehner was elected speaker of the house earlier this year, many people had trouble pronouncing his name. We talked about that as well as another name in the news during a commencement address at Ohio State University over the weekend. What a he said is today's "Sound affect."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BOEHNER (R), CONGRESSMAN, OHIO: When you begin to go out there and ask people to vote for you, they're probably not going to vote for you if they can't say your name. I know my name looks like beaner, bonner, boner, and thank god it's not wiener.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Yes, that last part, of course, was a reference to Congressman Anthony Weiner whose name is being said a whole lot these days and not always in a very nice way.

One week ago, Weiner was forced to admit he sent lewd Twitter messages and photographs to several women. And things just seem to be going from bad to worse. Over the weekend, several leaders of his own Democratic party called on Weiner to resign from Congress.

And that was before these new pictures surfaced. TMZ.com published these photos apparently taken by Weiner himself reportedly in a mirror at the house of representatives gymnasium. Some of the pictures we can't even show you. CNN can't independently confirm that these photos were taken in the house gym, and Weiner's office is not talking.

Weiner's office does say the Congressman will take a leave of absence, though, to get some treatment.

In other news, Arizona's 16-day-old wallow fire is now 10 percent contained. Residents from two towns, Springerville and Eager, are allowed to return home, but they're being warned the air quality may still be a problem. While fire fighters think they're now making progress, there is still a lot of work left to do. The wallow fire has burned 694 square miles so far, it's destroyed 29 homes, four businesses, and 35 other buildings. Seven people have been hurt.

"30 Rock" co-star, Tina Fey, says she was disturbed by Tracy Morgan's anti-gay remarks. Fey, who created the NBC series, says she's glad Morgan has apologized. During a standup comedy performance, Morgan made a joke about killing gay people. NBC entertainment chairman, Bob Greenblatt says Morgan's homophobic remarks are reckless and he says he, too, is pleased that Morgan has apologized.

People in Dallas and some here in our control room are celebrating today. I'm not going to mention any names, Valerie. That's because the Dallas Mavericks have won their first ever NBA championship. The Mavs behind the series NBC Dirk Nowitzki beat Miami Heat, 105 to 95 last night to close out the series in six games. LeBron James and his hand-picked super team will have to wait until next year now. The details of the victory parade through Dallas hasn't been set, yet, but Maverick's owner, Mark Cuban, says it is on him. He will pay for the whole thing so the city won't have to.

Now, hair, a heart-shaped sticker and flies. What these things reveal in the Casey Anthony murder trial. We take you inside the courtroom room next

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Now in the fourth week of the trial, defense lawyers for Casey Anthony claim a rare victory. This comes as the state begins wrapping up its case. Prosecutors are focusing today on hair taken from Anthony's car truck and duct tape -- car trunk, actually, and duct tape found on Caylee's remains.

It's all part of the prosecution's theory the 25-year-old she killed Caylee and then stored her two-year-old's body in the trunk of her car before dumping her in the woods.

I want to bring in Steve Helling who's been covering this trial for "People" magazine, he's in Orlando. Steve, thanks for joining us, again, on the show today.

I want to talk about the hair. An FBI hair expert testified that hair samples are important, of course, to prove Caylee's body was placed in her mother's trunk. But today's ruling was really a rare win for the defense. So, how significant would you say this is for jurors?

STEVE HELLING, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE (via telephone): Well clearly, the prosecution had a case that they wanted to lay ought, and whenever any part of that case is not allowed, of course that is a blow to the prosecution. But it wasn't really a smoking gun or anything in there that can't be established elsewhere.

Basically, what they wanted to show was this hair found in Casey Anthony's trunk was definitely decomposed hair from a dead body, and the gentleman who was supposed to show that this morning, some of the discovery hadn't got to the defense, and so that was excluded. So, it wasn't great for the defense -- or I mean for the prosecution, but it wasn't a case-destroying thing that happened.

KAYE: I also want to ask you about this, the prosecution is also focusing on this adhesive that was found on a piece of duct tape from Caylee's remains. Let's listen to what the FBI found and then I want to talk to you about it.

HELLING: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: During my examination of Q63, an outline of a heart appeared on one of the corners of the edge on that piece of duct tape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So, the court documents have certainly stated that this tape was there. They didn't mention it a whole lot, of course, in the testimony, but they stated that a sheet of these heart-shaped stickers were found by police at Anthony's home. Are prosecutors connecting that heart shape adhesive on the duct tape to the stickers. And if so, Steve, I mean, might that be seen as some sort of message from the little girl's killer?

HELLING: It could be seen as a message, or it could just be sloppy work on the part of the person who put the duct tape there. Who can tell? But what we do know is that those heart-shaped stickers, a similar set of heart-shape stickers were found at the Anthony family home.

So, if the defense were going to claim that somebody else had put those stickers on -- that sticker on there, that would be hard for them, because it has to be somebody who had -- who had some sort of access to the Anthony family home, which, of course, would mean that this meter reader, who they're trying to point fingers at would not be the one to have put that there.

KAYE: Right, that's the guy that called in about the body. I want to ask you one last thing. This bug expert who testified about flies and larva that were found in Anthony's car trunk. The expert found that this was a sign of decomposition. So, this could be a big blow to the defense, right?

HELLING: Absolutely. You know, the defense had put out the theory that the smell in the back of the car was not from a decomposing body but was just from garbage, there was a garbage bag back there. So, the idea that now there's bug evidence that says that, you know, this was really decomposition, that really does hurt the defense, and it blows a big hole in one of their big theories.

KAYE: Steve Helling for us in Orlando, from "People" magazine. Steve, thank you so much, appreciate your time today.

HELLING: Thank you. OK.

KAYE: And as we continue here this hour, our sister network we should mention is HLN, and it's certainly your destination for complete coverage of the Casey Anthony trial. You can watch special coverage of the trial throughout the day on HLN.

What drives you stark raising mad? For a lot of us it is those the maddening bank fees. Yes, coming up, the top nine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: And we want to remind all of you who are with us today that we are waiting for President Obama to speak in North Carolina. He is there in Durham to sell his economic program. He should speak in about 13 minutes from now or so. So we'll continue to watch that podium. This is all about job creation. He wants to make sure that they're -- they will be meeting their job creation challenge. He'll be meeting with the Jobs and Competitive Counsel there, which is a group of industry leaders. And they'll present him with a progress report on jobs. So we'll keep an eye on that and as soon as he starts to speak, we will bring it to you live right here on CNN.

So, they caused a lot of us to pull out our hair or scream bloody murder. I'm talking here about those maddening bank fees, as likeable as a swarm of flies, right? Well, here are some of the most annoying.

Fees for sending a statement to your old address because you forgot to tell the bank your new address. For example, U.S. Bank charges $5 for the second and subsequent months that a statement is undeliverable. Fees for using banks coin counting machines. Avoid the fee by rolling them in coin rolls yourself.

Talking doesn't come cheap either, especially if you want to chat with a bank teller. Avoid these monthly fees by getting online statements and rolling a direct deposit and using ATMs. And don't lose your debit card. It will cost you to get a new one. It's $5 at Bank of America, $20 if you need it right away.

This is a no-brainer. Sign up for electronic statements to avoid the free for a paper statement. Requesting old statements, well, you could pay from $3 to $5 for copies of checks. A lot more if the bank needs to dig into your account history.

Receiving money. Chase, for example, charges $15 for incoming wire transfers. Charges for redeeming reward points. You earn them and, in some cases, you will pay to redeem them. And, finally, perhaps the most obnoxious one of all, fees for closing -- yes, closing your account. U.S. Bank, for example, charges $25 for closing a account within 180 days of opening it. Chase demands $25 for shutting it down within 90 days of becoming a customer.

Aren't those all annoying. So, for all the latest financial news, be sure to join Christine Romans for "Your Bottom Line" each Saturday morning, 9:30 Eastern. And don't miss "Your Money" with Ali Velshi Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3:00.

It's about 20 minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories.

In New Hampshire, seven Republican presidential candidates will lock horns tonight in the first big debate of the campaign season. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is likely to be the favorite target since he leads all the others in our latest poll. You can watch it all right here on CNN.

President Obama is expressing his views on the Anthony Weiner scandal for the first time. The White House says the president believes the behavior of the Democratic congressman from New York has been inappropriate and a distraction. Spokesman Jay Carney didn't say whether President Obama believes Weiner should resign for sending a lewd picture of himself over Twitter and then lying about it. A vintage World War II bomber crashed and burned today outside Chicago. Just take a look at these pictures. Officials say all seven people on board the B17 survived. Hard to believe when you look at that. The FAA says the plane took off from Aurora Municipal Airport and crashed about 20 minutes later. The plane was made in 1944.

While Republicans get set to duke it out in New Hampshire, President Obama has gone south for a little campaigning of his own. Our Ed Henry is up next to tell us what message the president is delivering.

And, once again, we're keeping an eye on that podium there in Durham, North Carolina, where the president will be taking on the jobs challenge. And as soon as he starts to speak, we'll bring it to you. So keep it here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Democrats in the House are lining up to call the Anthony Weiner scandal a distraction. But until now, the White House has kept quiet. Like I said, until now. Let's bring in CNN's senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry, who joins us around this time every day.

Ed, they brought it up at the White House briefing today. What are you hearing?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I was in on a gaggle on Air Force One on the way down to North Carolina. And the White House has really shied away from any real comment on the Weiner controversy.

Here's what's fascinating to me, is that the language that Jay Carney used was very similar to exactly what Nancy Pelosi said over the weekend, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the DNC chairwoman. All these Democratic leaders have sort of did this coordinated effort to pressure Anthony Weiner and basically say, it's a distraction. It's distracting from the Democratic Party message.

So the White House now mirroring that. But, you're right, also stopping one step short, though, of calling for Weiner to resign. I think probably because if they did call for Weiner to resign, it would do the opposite of what Jay Carney is trying to do. He's trying to not ramp this up, not jack it up any more. And if the White House called for him to resign, all his -- that would be all we'd be talking about for the next couple of hours. They want to talk about jobs. They want to talk about Medicare and proposed Republican cuts.

You know, when you talk to senior White House aides in private, they say, you know, when you go back to the president's trip to Europe a couple of weeks ago, back here in the states they won this big House special election in upstate New York by beating up Republicans on the issue of Medicare. The president thought he'd come back to a much better political environment and then the Weiner thing has just taken all the oxygen out of the Democratic message. They want him to step aside, there's no doubt about it.

KAYE: Yes. And you mentioned jobs, Ed. We're expecting to bring you live remarks, as we mentioned, from President Obama in North Carolina today. That's in about 20 minutes or so. Maybe a little bit less, actually. So what -- we know what the president's doing there. He's obviously talking about jobs. Why jobs now?

HENRY: Well, because he is under great pressure because that unemployment figure going back up, about 9.1 percent nationally. It's even worse in the state of North Carolina. And so the bottom line is, North Carolina's a state that this president carried for the Democrats for the first time since 1976 and Jimmy Carter. And if all of a sudden people in states like North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, that were flipped from the Republican column to the Obama Democratic column in 2008, if they're worried about low job growth and high gas prices, it's going to be really hard for him to keep those states in the Democratic column, Randi.

KAYE: Yes, I think North Carolina's unemployment is about 9.7 percent. So certainly understandable as to why he would go there.

From there, though, he heads to Florida. Why Florida?

HENRY: Well, he's going to do some fund-raising down in Miami. I always say, Miami, always a nice place to visit. We all know that. But as you see, there are stories in "The New York Times" and "Wall Street Journal" this morning about how the president really needs to get his fund-raising machine back and running. You've got the Republicans -- we're hosting this big debate in New Hampshire tonight. They're all starting to raise money. They're getting some of the attention. This president's got to get into that game as well. So he's down in Miami. A lot of fat-cat donors down in warm places like that. That's why they go to Beverly Hills out in California as well. And so this is a sure sign this campaign is on, Randi.

KAYE: All right, Ed Henry there at the White House. Thank you, Ed.

HENRY: Good to see you.

KAY E: And we want to remind you, of course, that we're waiting for the president to speak. It could be any moment now. So keep it here and we'll bring it to you live.

Well, an amazing recovery and the pictures to prove it. Up next, two new released photos of Representative Gabby Giffords. You have to see these.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back.

It is half past the hour, and here's a look at some of the headlines and news that you may have missed.

The countdown is on. Seven Republicans will be on the stage tonight in New Hampshire at CNN's Republican presidential debate. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney may be the center of attention. He is the current GOP frontrunner. And Newt Gingrich, we'll see if he can get his troubled campaign restarted after top staffers abandoned him. And with the call for new leadership, there's even room for some lesser knowns to shine. Catch all the action tonight right here on CNN at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

President Obama is in North Carolina today to talk about economic growth. He's meeting with the Jobs and Competitiveness Counsel and touring the U.S. manufacturing headquarters of Cree Incorporated, the leading maker of energy efficient LED lighting. And in just a few minutes, the president will give a speech about policies to spur economic growth, promote job creation and accelerate hiring. From his stop in North Carolina, the president will fly down to Florida, another key political state, to attend fund-raisers in Miami.

Forensic testimony continues today in the Casey Anthony murder trial. Jurors heard testimony about a hair found in her trunk and the hairs on the skeletal remains of her two-year-old daughter Caylee. The judge would not permit an FBI examiner to show jurors a Power Point presentation about hair decomposition. Anthony's defense team vigorously protested stating they never received a copy of that presentation. Anthony faces seven counts in her daughter's death, including first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and misleading investigators.

We're getting our first look at Congresswoman Gabby Giffords since she was shot in the head in January. Two photos posted on her Facebook page yesterday show a smiling Giffords and gives us an indication of how much progress she is making. The photos were taken May 17th, a day before she went to surgery to replace part of her skull that had been removed to allow for brain swelling. Giffords is expected to leave the hospital and being outpatient therapy in Texas by the end of the month.

At a conference in London today, Bill Gates pledged $1 billion over the next five years to help vaccinate children in developing countries. He and other public and private donors promised a total of $4.3 billion. The conference was co-hosted by the British government and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. The money will help vaccinate 80 million children and save 1.4 million lives. Officials estimate that one child dies every 20 seconds from a vaccine preventable disease.

The judge who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in California told the world he was gay after the case was complete. Well, today a hearing is being held on whether the case should be overturned due to possible bias. We have both debates in just 60 seconds. You'll want to keep it here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Thirty-two minutes after the hour and right now the California's ninth circuit court of appeals trying to determine whether the sexual orientation of a federal judge is relevant in a ruling he made on gay marriage.

The judge we're talking about is former Judge Vaughn Walker. He was appointed by George H.W. Bush back in 1989. Well, last year he ruled that California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Shortly after his ruling he retired and told the press he has been in a same-sex relationship with the same man for the last decade.

Today, San Jose federal judge James Ware (ph) is holding a hearing on the case. Some think the judge should have been pulled from the case because of his sexuality. Others think judges are meant to be unbiased and if you pull Judge Walker for being gay, then you would have to pull females off abortion cases, for example, and Hispanic judges off immigration cases.

There are obviously several sides to this debate and here to help us flush it out is Ed Wheelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He joins us live from D.C. And on the phone outside the courthouse in San Francisco is Kate Kendell, the executive director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Thank you to both of you for coming on to talk about this.

Kate, I'd like to talk to you. You've been in the courtroom with this hearing this morning. What is the latest? Where do things stand?

KATE KENDELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CENTER FOR LESBIAN RIGHTS: Well it's very clear as we hear more of the arguments from the Prop 8 proponents that this motion is really a desperate, Hail Mary pathetic and baseless attempt to cast doubt on the ruling of Judge Walker. That even many of those who are in favor of Prop 8 and voted for Prop 8 realize was a legally sound and really unassailable ruling.

The trial made very, very clear that there was no rational basis to support, constitutionally, Prop 8 and Walker's ruling reflects that. The fact that his sexual orientation is now being made an issue at this very late stage, actually, is an appalling attempt to undermined his credibility and cast doubt on a ruling that from virtually every perspective was the correct ruling in the case.

KAYE: Ed, let me bring you in. I mean, do you think, having listened to that, should a gay judge be allowed to rule on gay rights?

ED WHEELAN, PRESIDENT, ETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY CENTER: Randi, the question isn't simply the fact that he's gay, but that he's been in a long-term, same-sex relationship. The fact that he was obligated to disclose that at the outset of the case but he chose to bury and conceal. And it's obvious why he did.

And under ordinary principles of accusal, under federal law, he was obligated both to disclose and to recuse himself. The basic standard is whether the reasonable person would question the judge's impartiality. Here, Judge Walker was in exactly the same position as the plaintiff individuals, the same-sex couples who were trying to marry and he was ruling on his own right to marry his long-term same- sex partner.

But for the fervor over gay rights, I think everyone would agree, this is a simple, straightforward issue, he should have recused.

KAYE: Kate, do you think that he should have disclosed this? Is this something that he needed to share?

KENDELL: Well, the only reason he would have needed to share it is if the fact he is in the relationship -- and there is no evidence he wants to marry -- so let's be very clear about that. He may not, in fact, be in the same shoes as the plaintiffs who were before him.

But the only basis on which he would have to disclose this, is if he would be unable, based on the fact that he's in an relationship, to be unbiased and to be objective. And, I think, as you noted early in the story, in the opening, if we go down that road, you know, Justice Scalia shouldn't be sitting in cases involving Italians or Roman Catholics.

I mean, we are down a slippery slope and a very dangerous road. Judges take an oath that regardless of their life experience, every judge comes to the bench with biases. White judges, straight men, people of color, women. Every judge comes to the bench with some life experience that has informed their attitudes and they have biases.

The oath that they take is irrespective of those biases they can set them aside and do the job of a judge. And there is not one shred of evidence that Walker failed to --

KAYE: Let me just get back to Ed here.

Ed, do you think that judges can set aside their biases, and really the other question is for you, should the Proposition 8 case be overturned and retried, just very quickly here?

WHEELAN: Well, we have established standards, and these are red herrings you're hearing from Kate.

Look, no one is arguing that, say, a male judge deciding a question of access to an all-women's club would have to recuse himself. But, if it turns out that a reasonable person would think that very judge wanted to get into that club, you bet there would be an obligation to recuse. That is clear under existing recusal standards. And what's happening here is we see the latest stage in a remarkable course of misconduct by Judge Walker from the beginning.

KAYE: And Ed, just yes or no. Should it be retried?

WHEELAN: Yes, the judgment should be vacated and this case should go to another judge to start over. Absolutely.

KAYE: All right. Thank you both. Kate, Ed, we appreciate you coming on and talking about this.

And, we, of course, want to know what you think about this? Should a gay judge be allowed to rule on gay rights? You can join the conversation by going to the blog, CNN.com/ali. You can also comment on Ali's Facebook and Twitter pages and mine, as well. You can just search for Randi Kaye on CNN, on both sites.

A boot camp that's all about youth, business savvy and unbridles enthusiasm. It's about to happen in Egypt. Two Americans at the forefront join us with details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: It was a revolution the whole word watched. But the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak didn't rid the country of all of its numerous problems. Take the economy. The fact that it favored the elites and powerful while offering loaded dice to everybody else was one of the major factors compelling people to take to the streets.

Now the economy is barely crawling along. But a group of young American entrepreneurs is embarking on an ambitious mission that could possibly turn things around.

Scott Gerber and Ryan Allis will soon travel to Egypt to conduct an entrepreneur boot camp for young Egyptians. They join us now from New York.

Hi, guys. Thanks for coming on.

Ryan, let me start with you. Tell us about the program and its objectives.

RYAN ALLIS, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR: Well, I'm part of a U.S. delegation that is with the Egyptian and Denmark government to be part of the business plan competition and a mentoring program with 48 entrepreneurs in Cairo.

KAYE: How are the Egyptians who are taking part in this, Scott, how are they selected?

SCOTT GERBER, FOUNDER, YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR COUNCIL: So basically in partnership with the Global Entrepreneur Program, which is a United States initiative, along with folks like USAID and the Egyptian and Denmark governments, they, for the last couple of months, have been fostering through various programs to get 48 young entrepreneurs into the program. And through the boot camp experience, us and several other organizations that teach entrepreneurship education are coming together again to do this so that we can really try to foster an entreprenuial ecosystem there.

KAYE: So this is some one-on-one mentoring, I would imagine, and some meetings with these kids.

What are you hoping, Ryan, to teach them and to help them -- what would you like them to get out of this?

ALLIS: Well, we have a four-day boot camp there in Cairo, and the winners of this business plan competition, the four winners will be actually traveling to the United States to do an internship at my company iContact in Raleigh, North Carolina, in October. So that's one of the awards for the winners of this business plan competition.

GERBER: And also, Randi, something that's very interesting to note, too, is that through the experience, we're hoping as the YEC continues to partner with folks like the GEP and USAID to expand this sort of program internationally to a variety of other countries, like Indonesia and others.

KAYE: And, Scott, though, I do have to ask, is something like this, do you think, just a little premature given the continued uncertainty in Egypt and continued criticism of the military by many Egyptians?

GERBER: You know, taking all politics out of the equation, I think that what we're trying to do, frankly, is start to help them rebuild an economy, start to foster entrepreneurship as a viable career path that can create job creation, I should say.

And frankly, I don't think there's ever too soon to start people learning something new that can help the masses. So we're just honored to be part of this program through all of these amazing organizations that are working hard to build this community. And frankly, I think, the sooner we can get there and other countries with similar predicaments, the sooner we can put their economies on the right track.

KAYE: And Ryan, what do you think would be a realistic goal, I mean, for these people there that you're going to help? And how critical is entrepreneurship for success there?

ALLIS: Well, we want to go from revolution to entreprenriaul evolution. And we're going there as part of this global delegation to bring entrepreneurship training and education to young tech entrepreneurs in Cairo. So we're very excited to be part of this program and we'll see what it brings. And, if at the end we can inspire entrepreneurs in Egypt to take their companies to the next level, we're happy to be part of that.

KAYE: All right. Scott, Ryan, thank you both. Appreciate it and good luck with it.

ALLIS: Thank you very much.

GERBER: Thank you.

KAYE: Coming up on 45 minutes past the hour. Now a look at some of the top stories that we're following.

As Libya burns with fighting and unrest, its leader Moammar Gadhafi is seen for the first time in weeks playing chest with a Russian visitor. Libyan state TV says the visitor is the president of the World Chess Federation.

A Syrian activist says a mass grave found in the northwestern city of Jizr al-Shugar (ph) contains bodies of prisoners, not security personnel. Syrian media had earlier said they found 12 mutilated bodies of security forces killed by armed gangs, they said, in the grave. More than 1,100 people have been killed in Libya since the unrest began in mid-March.

The airspace above New Zealand and Australia is now open. Thousands of passengers were stranded after an ash cloud from an erupting volcano in Chile forced airlines to cancel flights. Most airlines are back in service now, but it will be a couple of days before the backlog does clear up.

New technology for oil rigs that could help keep the workers and the environment safer. That's coming up right after this quick break.

And once again, we want to remind you we are waiting for President Obama to speak in Durham, North Carolina. He's going to talk about how to spur economic growth. He should be speaking just a few minutes from now. We'll make sure to bring it to you live right here on CNN.

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KAYE: Every day on the show we do a segment called "The Big I." It's all about big new ideas and innovations. Well, today we will bring you a new technology that could help prevent oil rig disasters. We all remember the devastating oil rig explosion in the Gulf last year. Eleven lives were lost in the explosion itself. The environmental loss will be felt for decades, of course. And billions of dollars in business was lost as well, all in the split second of an explosion.

Since this disaster, researchers around the world have been trying to figure out how to prevent future oil rig explosions. Well, researchers at Intel might just be on to something. They've developed sensors that can be strapped on to oil rigs. The sensors send tons of data about the rig into a cloud of information.

And here to explain all of that and why this is such a big deal is the deputy editor of "Fast Company" magazine, Tyler Gray. Tyler, great to have you on the show. This definitely needs an explanation for me. But tell us a little bit about this technology. Why is this so important?

TYLER GRAY, DEPUTY EDITOR, "FAST COMPANY" MAGAZINE: Sure. You mentioned that there is a tremendous amount of data that's going up into the cloud. So, let's break that down a little bit.

The amount of information is actually equivalent of all the sensors that are on one rig -- it's about as much data as all the movies ever made. And that's in a single month. So, we're talking a tremendous amount of data.

Now, that has to go somewhere. They can't be putting giant processors on oil rigs. So, what the do is they send it up into the cloud the same way we've heard about happening with your music recently, and supercomputers in some far-off place or a large array of computers process that information in a moment and send it right back down to its destination in a way that everybody can interpret and understand. It's happening very fast, very efficiently and off site.

KAYE: So this would help them know more quickly if there was something wrong?

GRAY: It could. Now, it's going to be a little tricky if we're talking about something 2,000 to 10,000 feet below the surface. There could be a situation where they may not know, you know, until it's a little bit too late. What it can do is all this information can go up into the cloud and be processed down to give the people on the rig a better idea of what's happening with the entire rig rather than one group knowing about one thing, another group knowing about another thing, and then relying on everyone to try to get together.

KAYE: So, it really gets the message out. I would have assumed, though, that this technology already exists, though, on oil rigs. I mean, how is this different from what's already being used on other oil rigs?

GRAY: It's a really good point. There is telemetry, and there are real-time systems on some of the newer rigs. But remember, the Transocean rig involved in the Deepwater Horizon incident was 11 years old. So, they may not have had the same sort of technology. There's a lot of rigs out there that aren't equipped with the exact technology that this is claiming to provide.

Also, this is just a lot more data being sent in a lot more efficient way. So, yes, you're getting some real-time data right now. It's not nearly what Intel is offering to provide.

KAYE: And do you see possibly this might be able to be used in other industries that could also benefit from this technology?

GRAY: Well, that's the thing about this mysterious cloud that we hear so much about. You know, it's actually applicable to all sorts of different scenarios. I mean, imagine a nuclear plant where there's all kinds of monitoring going on and just troves of data. If you have a place where you can send all that data, it goes off, it gets processed really fast. It happens off site so there's not a lot of bulky equipment in addition to the equipment already there.

Sure, it could be applied to everything -- like I said earlier, your music or FastCompany's.com's traffic, which we use real-time data for. Or a nuclear plant or offshore oil rig to provide instant information and a better total picture about what's happening on the entire scenario.

KAYE: And any word for us about how this has been received by the industry? I would imagine they would be happy about something like this.

GRAY: It's brand-new, but I've spoken to some folks who've actually worked on oil rigs before. And I think their feeling was that, you know, there is an area between the surface and between these caps that stop these blowouts from happening, these blowout preventers we've heard about. If something happens in that space, it's almost already too late. There is some further prevention.

But if this can give you an idea, for example, that a rig is drifting off the center where the hole is in the bottom of the ocean, that can provide really important data to have people correct things before it goes so tragically wrong.

KAYE: All right. Tyler Gray from "Fast Company," thank you so much. And for more information on Intel's research and to check out the complete article from "Fast Company," head to our blog, CNN.com/ali.

Seven Republican presidential hopefuls are gathering in New Hampshire for tonight's CNN debate. But a few others who aren't in the race are making some news of their own. That's ahead in our CNN political update.

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KAYE: We're going to take you to the remarks by President Obama, now talking in North Carolina. Discussing how to spur economic growth. Let's listen in for a bit.

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