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Obama, Santos Hold Joint Briefing; Second Storm Fury Targets Midwest; Several Attacks Hit in Afghanistan; Moms, Work and Raising Children; Midwest Deadly Storm System Still Moving; Arkansas Football Coach Fired After Scandal

Aired April 15, 2012 - 18:10   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: President Barack Obama traveling in South America, Colombia specifically today with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, talking about everything from the economy. You see it there. Also, the drug trade. He even addressed the Secret Service issue that happened earlier this week.

We will keep an eye on this press conference for you and bring you any news that comes out of it.

Here we go again, another dangerous round of storms firing up in the Midwest. The first system killed at least five people last night. We are live with that for you.

A white tourist beaten and stripped naked by a group of black youth. Where is the outrage from what looks like a hate crime caught on tape?

And Bill Cosby, funny and always outspoken. This time, it is no laughing matter. He is talking guns, Trayvon Martin, and President Obama.

I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining us.

It has been a recurring theme recently. Lives destroyed in a matter of moments from deadly outbreaks of tornadoes. It happened again just last night.

And this evening, the danger is far from over across a wide swath of the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This car is going to get hit. Come on dude, you got go. Book it, dude.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Unbelievable chaos on the plains. The exact same weather system could hammer millions more people tonight. The threat of tornadoes from Texas, all the way through Wisconsin.

And for many, the damage is already done. One hundred and twenty-two reports of possible tornado touchdowns yesterday and overnight. Most of them hit Kansas but parts of Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Iowa are in rubble today, too.

And the most impacted community has to be Woodward, Oklahoma. Five deaths were blamed on this storm outbreak, all of them in Woodward. They include a father and his two young children who died inside their mobile home. Two others died in a car. Woodward's mayor says the storms knocked out part of the emergency siren system.

We want to go first to the ground now in the town of Woodward, Oklahoma, the town where all five deaths blamed on this storm happened. That's where we find our Rob Marciano.

Rob, the damage there is just incredible.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. Luckily, it's a narrow swath but that narrow swath got hit incredibly hard. We are in this neighborhood where there several, several homes, and especially on this block that are completely destroyed and unlivable.

We're at the Lord household where they just managed to bring in heavy equipment and trying to get this one car that is somewhat drivable out. But this is a home of almost 3,000 square feet, four bedrooms. I think two or three baths, completely blown away by this.

Last hour, you heard the story of Paul Lord. The patriarch of the household here. I want to introduce you to his son.

And, Chad, your dad was telling us how you were holding on to his hand and the tornado sucked him out of the house. And you found him lying there with the big gash on his head. Tell us how it went down.

CHAD LORD, TORNADO DESTROYED HOME: Well, the sirens started going off. We got everybody up. We were going across the street so that we can get into shelter. Paul got to about the middle of the street and I was in the middle of the yard and I looked over my shoulder and, of course, if you look right over here, the debris was right there. And storm was already here.

So I told my mom, my sister and her husband and my kids -- get into the bathroom. You know, it's too late. It's here.

And dad started coming in. And you know, I grabbed him to start pulling him into the front door and we were approximately about right there where the bricks meet and the storm took him away from me. I got thrown into the house. It threw me down the hallway.

And when I hit the end of the hallway, I reached over, I finally made it to the bathroom door, open the bathroom door, and there was nothing on the other side of the door. Something knocked me down. All of this took place in 10 to 15 seconds. I mean, it was -- it was super quick.

MARCIANO: And his grandson, your son, I assume.

LORD: Yes, my two sons.

(CROSSTALK) MARCIANO: Buried under appliances.

LORD: Yes.

MARCIANO: I mean, this is an incredible story. Now, the whole community coming together, including more in the way of heavy equipment. What's going through your head right now? I mean, you got to be in shock a bit?

LORD: A little bit of shock. It has not quite set in yet exactly what all is gone, you know? We were searching through the rubble.

My mom found a teacup that was her mother's. And that slowed her down for about 10 minutes. She just sat down, and, you know, he whole house is gone and the teacup is absolutely harm-free. There's nothing wrong with it.

MARCIANO: We are so pleased that everybody made it out alive. You have yourself -- and your father made that point several times, and I know he was looking to move anyway, but you've got a lot of workload ahead of you. And we wish you the very best. Thank you very much for sharing your story.

LORD: Thank you very much.

MARCIANO: I want to point out one thing that Chad and his dad shared with me, Don. See the -- look at this truck. Beautiful brand new Dodge 4x4. This was in the driveway. It was hooked up to a flat bed trailer. They run a roofing company.

And it was backed up because, well, they were supposed to move out of this house. They were getting ready to start moving. The sale of this house is supposed to close this Friday. Not sure that's going to happen at least right away.

Back to you.

LEMON: Rob Marciano, thank you so much for your reporting. Our thoughts and prayers are with those folks there.

At one point, all 300 people who live in Thurman, Ohio, had to evacuate. And we've learned that he tornado that touched down there was an EF-2. It was half a mile wide with winds of 135 miles per hour, up to that. It left a path of destruction 10 miles long, destroying or damaging three-fourths of the homes in Thurman.

Some watch as their homes were obliterated in a matter of just seconds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY HILL, LOST HOMES IN TORNADO: That piece of iron had to come from a building. You know, no straight wind. It was a regular twister. Wind was blasting out and out and out. We ran to the bathroom like they always say and what we got here, the roof went here. The Good Lord was with us. He sure was. It's about more than you can bear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Also, some very scary moments in the small town of Creston, Ohio. This is what the people who live there are dealing with this evening. A hospital is among the buildings that the tornado hit in Creston. The sheer force blew out windows and damaged the roof.

Emergency crews rushed to the scene. But, thankfully, there were no major injuries reported from this. Patients were relocated to other hospitals.

The twisters mainly struck rural areas except for the city of Wichita, Kansas. One tornado slammed into a mobile home park there, about a quarter of the 100 homes were destroyed. Half of them damaged. But as bad as this looks, the worst reported injury was a broken leg, thankfully.

Some of the most striking images came from Salina, Kansas, about 90 miles north of Wichita. The emergency management director for this county says that three tornados touched down in the span of about an hour and a half.

The person who's overseeing all of this coverage is our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. She joins me now.

Jacqui, later on, we're going to talk about this crazy weather we've seen for the last 24 hours. But the folks here are not out of the woods yet. Take us through it. What's at play?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEROLOGIST: Well, they're doing OK in parts of Kansas and Oklahoma today. But we're concerned about parts of the Upper Midwest.

So, we're really focusing at this hour in parts of Minnesota, just to the west of the Twin Cities. A tornado watch has been issued here. And there's about a 50 percent chance that we could see a handful of tornadoes in the his boxed area for today. You can see that line developing right now.

We do have one tornado warning in effect. This is a Doppler radar- indicated tornado. So, no storm chasers have seen. Law enforcement hasn't seen that.

This is Renville and Sibley, Minnesota, until the bottom of the hour. But we'll have to watch that line as the atmosphere continues to kind of explode in this area and that tornado threat we think will be highest here to the west of the Twin Cities in the next hour or so.

We are also tracking storms that have been going on all afternoon across parts of Missouri and into Arkansas. Those tornadoes could develop at any time. For the most part, we have been seeing straight line winds associated with those storms. But isolated tornadoes can't be ruled out. So, this will be a concern through the night once again.

LEMON: We have meteorologist out in the field and we have one overseeing it right here with us, CNN severe weather center.

Jacqui Jeras, we'll be seeing a lot of you today. Thank you, Jacqui. We appreciate it.

We're following breaking news also from Afghanistan. Explosions are rocking the city of Kabul within the last hour. That following Taliban attacks earlier today on the parliament building and the area around the U.S. embassy. A live report from the scene, 90 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Violence exploded across Afghanistan today. Much of it targeted the capital of Kabul and the heavily protected area that includes the U.S. and other embassies.

A coordinated attack hit as many as seven sites. One was an airbase used by the American military. The counter attack was just as swift. This NATO helicopter attacking insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. In all, at least 19 insurgents were killed.

Our Mohammed Jamjoom is there.

Mohammed, what are you seeing and experiencing there?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Don, just in the past hour, after a few hours of relative calm, we started hearing loud blasts again, very close by in central Kabul. In fact, just in the past five minutes, we've heard at least three more. We're not sure exactly what's happening right now.

Earlier, a spokesperson for the interior ministry had said that there was still an attack ongoing in this part of the city. That Afghan Security forces were going after insurgents that were holed up in an abandon building close to ISAF headquarters here, in this very heavily fortified part of the city, that they were launching grenades into the building, in hopes of trying to scare them out of that building so that they could capture them.

And there was calm after that. Only in the past hour, we've heard probably about 20 or so loud explosions and we're trying to get in touch with officials to find out exactly what's going on.

The fact of the matter of is that these attacks, these coordinated attacks started over 12 hours ago, and we've heard explosions throughout the day. We've heard gunfire. We've heard RPGs. It's very rare that this level of attack could be carried out in such a heavily guarded part of this city which houses embassies, is close to the presidential palace, is close to the ISAF/NATO headquarters.

And the fact that insurgents can get into this part of the city and launch this type of attacks -- a very, very worrying development here in Kabul today -- Don.

LEMON: Mohammed Jamjoom, thank you very much for that.

In Syria, you might as well ask what ceasefire?

Government helicopters and artillery shelled a city of Homs again today. And we're three days into what was supposed to be a U.N.- ordered halt to the fighting. Opposition groups say at least 23 people were killed across the country today. The government-run news agency blames armed terrorists for breaking the piece.

Get ready. Our favorite men duo as we say standing by. You're going to love what we're talking about today. We are tackling women. The politics of, oh yes, we're going there. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. So, most people outside of politics have never even heard of Hilary Rosen. That was until earlier this week. But they certainly have now.

Let's talk about Rosen and her now infamous remarks with CNN contributor Will Cain, and L.Z. Granderson, contributor at CNN.com and a senior writer at ESPN.

All right. I know this is going to be -- I don't know a little contentious I'm sure. Maybe I shouldn't judge. OK. I want to break down what Hilary Rosen said one more time.

Here is the most talked about three seconds of the week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. So I wonder if -- did anyone hear what she said next. In case you have forgotten, here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSEN: She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we spend them to school, and how do we worry -- why do we worry about their future? Yes, I think it's -- yes, it's about these positions and yes, there will be a war of words about the positions.

But there's something much more fundamental about Mitt Romney, he just -- he seems so old fashioned when it comes to women. And I think that comes across and I think that that's going to hurt him over the long term. He just doesn't really see us as equal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: I'm wondering if anyone heard anything that she said after that, right, and would it have caused as big a controversy if it wasn't for the she's never worked a day in her life, and then after that, everyone just sort of went, what did she -- what did she just say, did you hear that? Do you think it would have been that big of a deal?

WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, I think she might have just -- a smaller. I'm sorry. You're going L.Z. first?

LEMON: I said Will. Will first and then I want to get L.Z.

CAIN: Yes, I think she just offended a smaller group of people, wealthy women, because I guess that's what she was saying. It's wealthy women who aren't valid to speak on the economy. That's the ones that should shut their mouths. And I guess that's what she is really saying and we should forgive her?

See, here's the thing about what Hilary said. You can go one of two ways in my opinion. You say housewives should not speak on the economy. For that matter, rich women, women that work should not speak on the economy.

Men that work should not speak on the economy. And men that say at home, they should not speak on the economy either. Because no one really understands what 300 million are doing every second of the day in what we call the economy. Even the smartest economists take that tact. No one really knows what's going on.

Or you can say, everyone that participates in the economy has a strong voice and should participated in giving the sound economic advice. That was little touchy, feely for me.

But what you can't do is say this person -- this person is sanctioned. This person is valid. This person is invalid, and this person should keep their mouth shut.

That's what you can't do. You can't say who you want to hear from and who you don't when it comes to economic advice.

LEMON: L.Z.?

L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN.COM CONTRIBUTOR & SENIOR WRITER, ESPN: Well, you know, I saw the interview when it actually happened the first time. I will admit that when she made that first statement, I was like whoa. And I missed the latter part because it was shocking to hear.

The thing that Will is missing and that a lot of other people are missing, if you watched the entire preview, prior to that moment, they were talking about how Mitt Romney was using his wife as a touchstone about what women feel about in today's economy. What Hilary was doing was bringing up to the fact that -- she didn't use the right words. Let's just get that out there. She should have said Ann Romney never worked outside of the house a day in her life. That's what she really meant. She didn't say that. By clarifying that, and let people know that she has never worked outside of the house, what she's saying is Mitt Romney's touchstone, what he's using as a barometer to understand women, is an authentic one because she actually has never had that experience. She's had a different experience. 60 percent of the women in this country work outside of the home. And Ann Romney was not part of the 60 percent, so the touchstone that Mitt Romney's been leaning on isn't part of that 60 percent. And that's what Hilary was trying to talk about.

LEMON: Here's what -- the whole thing, is this a creating of political media types. I've been asking that. Quite honestly, I haven't heard that many women talking about it. I haven't heard any. I'm sure some women are talking about it. When I talk to my mom and sisters and the women I'm friendly with, no one is saying I can't believe what that Hilary Rosen said about women. I can't -- no one is talking about it. They're saying, I'm worried about losing my job next week. They're downsizing at work. No one is talking about this except for media and political types.

We checked some of the responses here from cnn.com. Let's put some of them up.

This is what Darlene said. "Let me start by saying I was a stay-at- home mom. I wonder if rich women understand how hard we work just to survive. Did they ever run out of food on Wednesday and payday was Friday? Yes, anyone that raises five kids does work hard, but not as hard as we in the middle class do."

One more said, "If I were Hillary, I would not apologize. Being a mom of five boys is definitely hard work, but Ann is monumentally wealthy. You can be sure that she was not scrubbing the toilets herself at all of the homes, that she was not schlepping to the grocery store with five kids."

Listen, not to give any credence to what Hilary Rosen said, but there's some truth to that. If you're wealthy, you can afford five, 10, 15 nannies. Some people don't have that choice, Will. That was the distinction.

CAIN: Yes.

LEMON: And most women understood that distinction.

CAIN: Yes, but what Mitt Romney was saying is that he talks to his wife about women and economic issues. What L.Z. has done, your two e- mailers there have done, is double down on the idea, no, no, no, what we didn't do -- we meant to offend women that stay at home. That's work. What we meant to offend was wealthy women. This is the thing, Don. This is why it matters. You may not hear people talking about Hilary Rosen. They don't know who Hilary is. This tactic is becoming so overwhelming. It's a tactic of divide and pander. You divide us on class. You divide us on one verse 99. You divide us on senior versus those who are under 55 and don't get Medicare. you divide us on gender. and you start dividing us so many ways, you will get internal firing. That crossfire. You did finally with Hilary. You got crossfire between women.

(CROSSTALK)

CAIN: Now that you want to say it's just about wealthy women, that doesn't make it any better to me.

LEMON: Listen, I want to do this --

(CROSSTALK)

GRANDERSON: Nobody is saying that.

LEMON: Go ahead. Go ahead. L.Z.

GRANDERSON: No one is saying that it is just about wealthy women. What she was doing was saying that the source that Mitt Romney was relying on most does not know anything about the 60 percent of the women in this country in terms of what they're facing day to day. She didn't say Ann didn't have a voice, didn't have a right to speak about the economy. She just said that she was not able to speak about the 60 percent of what women are going through.

LEMON: OK, listen, stop there.

Producers, I know we're going on a little bit longer.

But I have to run this Mitt Romney sound bite. I think it's pertinent here. This is a comment by Mitt Romney back in January. It's getting a lot of chatter today. He was at a town hall discussing welfare reform and the attempts to move welfare recipients into jobs. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I wanted to increase the work requirement. I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. people said, well, that's heartless. I said, no, no, I'm willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It will cost the state more providing that day care but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. So is he agreeing with Rosen here? What is going on? Will?

CAIN: I don't see the parallel. One conservation is about who is qualified to speak on economics issues and women's role in the economy, and one is about who should receive welfare.

LEMON: L.Z.?

GRANDERSON: I think Will should run for office. He might be busy from all the spinning that he is doing right now. Of course --

(CROSSTALK)

CAIN: I tell it like it is.

(LAUGHTER) GRANDERSON: He is essentially saying that if you are a stay-at-home mom, you are not working. That's why he said you need to get back to work. If he didn't feel that way, he would have said they would have had to do additional work. But he said back to work. Because in his mind, if you are a stay-at-home mom you are not working. Those are his words, not some sort of spin, because that is what you are getting from the Republican Party. That's just his words.

LEMON: OK. Just to be fair, I want to say we asked to the Romney campaign for a response and they said, "Moving welfare recipients into work was one of the biggest principles of the bipartisan welfare reform legislation that President Clinton signed into law. The sad fact is that, under President Obama, the poverty rate among women rose to 14.5 percent in 2011, the highest rate in 17 years. The Obama administration's economic policies have been devastating to women and families." That's from Andrea Saul, a Romney spokesperson. Are specific question was, what did he mean about dignity of working and it wasn't a direct response to what we said, but that was their response.

Always interesting.

Thank you guys. Appreciate it.

CAIN: See you fellows.

GRANDERSON: Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Up next, your top stories are straight ahead. The deadly storm system that roared across the middle part of the U.S. last night is not done. A new threat right now. Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras tracking the watches and warnings. And up close, nature's fury. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The Midwest bracing for another potentially dangerous night of storms from the same system that left five people dead in Oklahoma. There are over 122 reports of possible tornado touchdowns yesterday and overnight. Most of them hit Kansas, but part of Nebraska, Oklahoma and Iowa are in rubble today. Just look at that.

Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras will have more on that in just a moment for us.

Jacqui, I want to say that all five deaths blamed on the storm system happened in one place and that is Woodward, Oklahoma.

Jacqui Jeras is with me here now, and along with the city manager of Woodward, Alan Riffel.

Alan, you address the damage there for us. What's going on?

ALAN RIFFEL, CITY MANAGER, WOODWARD, OKLAHOMA (voice-over): Well, we lost 89 homes, 13 businesses. We had a tornado stay on the ground approximately a mile and a half as it tracked to southwest to northeasterly through the west half of our town. We did lose -- actually three people in town and two people in the rural area near town.

LEMON: Can you elaborate on the -- supposedly the siren system failed in Woodward. Did that cost lives?

RIFFEL: Well, it -- what happened, there was not a failure but the fact that the storm system itself took it out first. It took out the transmitter to the activation system to the storm sirens. We were able to sound one siren and then lost all power to the entire town as the tornado took out the power grid there. And we still had about 5,300 customers without power at this point.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. There are multiple storms that move through Woodward and the worst one came through after midnight. Do you think -- what was the sense of the community in terms of preparedness? Do you think the earlier storms may have let people let their guard down a little bit when the next storm came through?

RIFFEL: I think that was -- I think all things worked against us in that that regard. The fact that you just described, we had seen a number of storms come through the area. We had dodged those bullets. And the fact that this one occurred after midnight when people are typically asleep or not necessarily watching weather. And the fact that our warning system was taken out first, right off the bat. All those things. This was a fast-moving storm. It stayed on the ground that distance and still traveled through that community in less than three minutes. It was moving at 50 to 70 miles an hour. It was a very quick moving storm.

JERAS: That is why it is so important to have that battery-operated NOAA weather radio. What percentage of your town has been impacted by this in terms of receiving damage?

RIFFEL: It's probably about 5 percent, when you take into consideration the number of home. We're a population of just around 15,000. Obviously, 13 businesses is a problem, certainly, for those people, but it missed the major areas of our business district. It was not a tremendously wide vortex, so it took out that swath of homes in that path. But it was much smaller than the ones that we had been warned about coming through in other areas nearby earlier in the day.

LEMON: Mr. Riffel, thank you very much. Our thoughts are with you. Be well.

RIFFEL: Thanks.

LEMON: We're back in 15 minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Raging flames, rooms full of smoke. Working conditions of firefighters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. STEVEN FLOYD, SAVANNAH FIRE DEPARTMENT: You can't see anything. You can only hear things but it's still very confusing. Firefighters will be able to see the world in an entirely new way this new high- tech mask gives first responders data of their surroundings.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's hazardous situations like this that they train for. But thanks to some new technology, firefighters will be able to see the world in an entirely new way. This new high- tech mask gives first responders data about their surroundings. It's a vision of the future, inventor, Joseph Juhnke, is trying to finally bring to life.

JOSEPH JUHNKE, TANAGRAM PARTNERS: I didn't see it. A whole bunch of great authors saw it. Science fiction authors are fabulous that they make the stuff up and we get to make it happen.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Giving firefighters information everywhere they look.

JUHNKE: Our job was to give them back their senses. All they have to do is put it on and display.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Firefighters will be able to see oxygen levels, temperatures and exit paths. It will even allow them to see what's happening with the rest of their team.

UNIDENTIFIED FIREFIGHTER: To be able to see and then be able not only see where I'm at but to communicate with my team members, that's a big relief.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Baseball great Roger Clemens is back in court to face perjury charges. Jury selection begins nine months after a judge declared a mistrial after prosecutors made a mistake in proceedings. Clemens accused of lying before Congress in 2008 when he denied using performance enhancing drugs like human growth hormone. At the same hearing, Clemens' former trainer testified to injecting Clemens with steroids and HGH numerous times. The seven-time Cy Young winner could face up to 21 months in prison if convicted. The trial is expected to last four to six weeks.

Now to the other big stories in the week ahead. From the White House to Wall Street, our correspondents tell you what you need to know. We begin with the president's plans for the week.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Athena Jones. President Obama travels to Cleveland this week for a speech on the economy and to Michigan to attend campaign events. He'll also host a NASCAR event with Sprint Cup winner Tony Stewart and will welcome the Wounded Warrior Project soldier bike ride to the White House. POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Wall Street kicks off this week with a bang. Tons of corporate earnings coming up. We'll get the latest numbers from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Coca-Cola, Yahoo!, Microsoft and McDonald's, just to name a few. On the economic front, the latest retail sales report is due as well as existing home sales, which make up 90 percent of the housing market. So investors will be watching that report very closely. We'll track it all for you on "CNN Money."

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I'm "Showbiz Tonight's" Nischelle Turner. Here's what we're watching this week. Grammy winning rapper and activity Common joins us. And Vinny from the "Jersey Shore" talks about his new book. Catch "Showbiz Tonight" exclusively week nights at 11:00 p.m. eastern and pacific on HLN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ON THE GO)

LEMON: Winning isn't everything. Arkansas football coach fired this week after admitting to a relationship with a woman half his age, a woman he had just hired to work for him. Will his success on the sideline lead to quick forgiveness? We're talking sports with "Sports Illustrated's" Jon Wertheim. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Arkansas football coach, Bobby Petrino, is out of a job and millions of dollars, and it all started with a motorcycle crash.

Let's talk about it with Jon Wertheim, senior investigative reporter for "Sports Illustrated."

There's the new issue right there with Masters champ, Bubba Watson, on the cover. I'm obsessed with that guy.

Jon, Bobby Petrino turned around the Arkansas football program but now he is unemployed. He wrecked the bike he was riding with his mistress, then mislead school officials about the women, whom who he had just hired and given thousands of dollars in cash. That is a costly motorcycle wreck, isn't it?

JON WERTHEIM, SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: Yes, we were talking -- we said if you wreck your motorcycle, it's only the third worst thing that happened to you that week, you know things are bad. You just marvel at this story. Even if there hadn't been this wreck, you're the highest paid public figure in the state, you're known everywhere. Just the fact that you would ride around everywhere with someone other than your wife on the back of your motorcycle tells about the hubris here. You and I talked about the corrupting influence of power and sports, and this is a good example of that. We'll see what happens next.

LEMON: Petrino has a checked past off the field. He took the Arkansas job just hours after telling the Atlanta Falcons he was going to remain their head coach. A coach like Petrino, who keeps winning, will he keep getting hired?

WERTHEIM: I mean, look, the guy won football games. And never underestimate our capacity for comeback games in sports. But this is sort of sports, earth and burnt bridges. here's a guy that basically cut his ties very disgracefully with the NFL and now he has this scandal at the college level. He'll get another chance. He's a proven winner as a coach. But to get another job with this prestige, that will take a long time. The athletic director really had no choice to let him go. Again, this guy is going to have a long climb to build his reputation back up.

LEMON: Let's talk baseball. The last time we talked about the L.A. Dodgers, a big surprise so far this season. The L.A. Dodgers are 8-1, best record in the majors. Best start in 30 years. Maybe it's the "Magic" Johnson effect.

WERTHEIM: The $2 million L.A. Dodgers. No, anything about baseball, it's precedented in saying it's early. This has been the story this year. It's a great story. And they're sort of done with the distractions of last year. They have good players. They had the rating Cy Young winner, Tebow and Matt Kemp. They've got the strength. The previous owner, Frank McCord, they've gotten this divorce. This bankruptcy, that's in the past. They've got a new owner coming in and, suddenly, this looks like a very nice baseball team, one also overshadowed by the Angels who have Albert (INAUDIBLE). It's been a nice, early baseball story, definitely.

LEMON: I do it all the time. You said $2 million. $2 billion. $2 billion.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: $2 million, that would be a deal, right?

(CROSSTALK)

We could probably get a bunch of bruins together for that.

(LAUGHTER)

I want you to look at this. Kamikaze golf caddy takes on an alligator at PGA tournament at Hilton Head. That the headline. What is this guy thinking? The caddy is named -- his name is Chip Henley. He worked for golfer, Brian Gay. In case you're wondering, under the official rules of golf, just in case you're wondering, if the gator hadn't have moved, Gay would have been able to move his ball without penalty to a safer spot. And that's just -- what was this guy thinking, Jon? Wow.

WERTHEIM: Giving new zest to the phrase "water hazard". I haven't seen that. That looks like an out take from "Caddy Shack," but I think -- I know one caddie who has earned his steak dinner tonight. And it's -- it's good to know he could have done that without a penalty. Better to have a caddie do it for you though.

LEMON: Yes he could have been a steak dinner, though. Thank you, Jon Wertheim. I appreciate it.

WERTHEIM: Exactly, thanks.