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New Homes for NASA Shuttles; George Zimmerman Raising Hundreds of Thousands Online; Romney Speaks to Students in Ohio; Politics of Student Loans

Aired April 27, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. Hour two here. I'm Brooke Baldwin. I want to begin with pictures as we have been watching here. These aerial images from Huntington Beach California and we have been watching right alongside with Chad Myers.

We've been watching this one single dolphin swimming in circles here in swallow water. This is in the Bulsa Gorda Conservancy. If you know this area. So these are the wetlands. And the problem is this dolphin -- Bolsa Chica -- excuse me -- Bolsa Chica Conservancy.

The problem is this dolphin needs to be on the Pacific side. So you can see a number of groups, conservancy folks there trying to figure out how they're going to get this dolphin on the other side of the Pacific Coast Highway, which you state there. The other side of that is the Pacific.

I want to bring in Regina Asmutis-Silvia. She is with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society out of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Regina, I appreciate you calling in.

Can you just first talk me through what folks there on the ground in Huntington Beach, what the situation is and what they need to do?

REGINA ASMUTIS-SILVIA, WHALE AND DOLPHIN CONSERVATION SOCIETY: I think the first thing is that you have to assess whether or not this is an animal that is in need of human intervention or not.

And so, you know, from what I have seen from some of the live standing footage, there's a pod that is swimming somewhat freely and then this one particular animal that's a little bit away and stranded. Here normally if we have a situation like that, we have a lot of strandings on Cape Cod, that would try and actually move the single animal and move it out to a deeper water area.

Oftentimes what we see here is you get animals that are either common dolphins. They look like common dolphins. They're supposed to be in deep water. Once they get into a shallow area, particularly a wetland area, where you get some freshwater infusion, it's really confusing for them.

BALDWIN: What can happen? Can you just hammer home how dangerous this is, how urgent this is for these folks to get this dolphin to deeper water? ASMUTIS-SILVIA: As long as the animal can stay afloat, they're not in immediate danger.

It's when they strand, then they don't have the ability to survive. They can suffocate literally under their own weight. And they can have some stress put on their body just from gravity of being out of the water. If the animal is actually still afloat, it has some time. What happens is stress hormones as with any of us, if you're really stressed out, the stress hormones kick in and they start to impact your physiology.

That's a big problem. You want to get them out of that stressful situation if at all possible.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So dolphins can be stressed, too, Regina, is what I'm hearing.

Do me a favor and hang tight, because I have Chad Myers over my shoulder and he has this map that really kind of explains the lay of the land -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Let's just go to the map itself. We will take it full screen.

The dolphin is stranded, not that far from above the word stranded, above the R. in stranded. It needs to get back north of the blue sign that says Balsa Bay. To the north of Balsa Bay, that sign, there is a bridge. It's the Warner Avenue Bridge.

And the water now is beginning to come up. We're getting back to high tide. I believe maybe that's why this dolphin is a little bit confused. The water went down for low tide, now coming back up for high tide. And if he gets north of that little Warner Avenue Bridge, then all of a sudden he's going to be back with the rest of the pod. That's where the pod is right now in the marina.

There's all those little boats to the north of there and all the fish and all the rest of the mammals are swimming around in there. It doesn't need to get all the way back to the ocean, Brooke. It just needs to get back to the marina so it can find its little family.

BALDWIN: Regina, walk me through before I let you go some possible scenarios if they do determine this dolphin is under stress or they need to move this. What's best option number one?

ASMUTIS-SILVIA: Best option number one is if the tide is coming in, to let it get out on its own with the tide.

Depending on what the tide is like there, I think the best option is to actually wait for high tide and for the outgoing tide and see if actually it does reunite. Because for this animal to do it on its own is absolutely the best option. Option number two would be if it doesn't go out with the next high tide cycle is to very carefully move it. Usually the rescuers there should have is a stretcher where it can literally be picked up and moved to deeper water and then to release it there and let it go off on its own. Those are the two best options. Option number three which is obviously not the ideal option on any level is then to assess this animal if it is in a condition where it's been too stressed out and it can't recover on its own and it starts to not be able to respond is that it would be euthanized just for its own sake and the sake of the other pod that would then probably no longer be able to communicate with it and leave on its own.

I think the tide coming in and the first option sounds like it's actually very positive. If there is a bridge there, they're very acoustical animals. Their primary sense of hearing, any of that noise and how the area is going to be amplified, I would say give it some space, give it some time and wait for the tide cycle and it sounds like has a very good chance of actually getting out on its own.

BALDWIN: Obviously we're looking at these pictures, thanks to this news helicopter from KCAL. It can't actually hear that up in the air, can it?

ASMUTIS-SILVIA: Absolutely, it can.

BALDWIN: Wow.

ASMUTIS-SILVIA: We have had animals where we have had them in the harbor where we have actually asked these cameras and helicopters to move off because the sound is very loud. It penetrates into the water. Sound in the water travels four or five times better than it does in the air. Everything it's hearing down there is much more amplified. They're very acoustical animals anyway.

The sounds of people talking, the sounds of a helicopter, boats moving, the traffic on the bridge, all those ambient noises are all impacting the animal.

BALDWIN: Wow. Regina Asmutis-Silvia, thank you so, so much for calling in from Massachusetts and walking through these possibilities here as we keep an eye and hopefully the high tide will happen and this dolphin will be on its merry way. Regina, thank you.

Chad, thank you, too.

You know about the Secret Service scandal I know by now. Now to a similar story again involving prostitute and has now engulfed the Pentagon and the State Department. The deal is this, a woman in Brazil is alleging she suffered serious injuries at the hands of three U.S. Marines and an employee of the U.S. Embassy.

CNN's Shasta Darlington has spoken with that woman in the capital city of Brasilia.

Shasta, what are her injuries? What are her specific allegations?

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, she said she broke her collarbone, three ribs and punctured a lung.

She showed us some pretty convincing pictures of the injuries and you could see the protruding bone, her collarbone, and you can see what looked like tire marks, bruised tire marks across her abdomen. Now, she said on December 29, she and some other women left the nightclub where she worked as a stripper with a group of Americans from the U.S. Embassy, that same group you talked about, that they called an embassy van and driver to pick them up.

Now, Ferreira said she was violently thrown from the van after she got in an argument with the Brazilian driver, that one of the Marines threw out and that when she tried to grab the door handle to pick herself up, she was dragged along and search let go and the tire ran over her.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: These are her allegations, though. We have to get the other side of this in. You have the embassy. What are U.S. officials saying here?

DARLINGTON: You definitely hear some contradictory reports, and not only from U.S. officials and embassies but also from other witnesses on the scene.

The U.S. Embassy basically says that she was asked to step out of the car. She did, but then when she tried to climb back in as it took off, that's when she fell and she hurt herself. Some of the other witnesses there, the other prostitutes, the taxi driver say she was rudely forced out of the van, but they don't make it sound as violent as she makes it sounds.

These are obviously issues that will be cleared up by an ongoing police investigation -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Shasta Darlington for us in Brasilia, Shasta, thank you very much.

Coming up: George Zimmerman has collected $200,000 from that Web site that he set up after that Trayvon Martin shooting, after shooting Trayvon Martin. Well, today, a judge was asked to decide if those donors should be made public, perhaps if that bond should be raised now that they know they have this month. We will tell you what happened coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It turns out the man who shot Trayvon Martin isn't so broke after all and now the judge in his case is deciding whether to raise his bond amount.

George Zimmerman it turns out he raised more than $200,000 through that Web site he created. He wasn't in this courtroom today, but his attorney was. His attorney is Mark O'Mara. And O'Mara had some explaining to do after claiming that Zimmerman was indigent just one week ago. As our Martin Savidge reports, a decision on his bond is now up in the air, right, Martin?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a case that continues to surprise.

Last week, George Zimmerman took the stand and apologized. This week came the revelation that George Zimmerman has raised a lot of money, over $200,000 over the Internet about the same time that his attorney was arguing that George Zimmerman was broke.

As a result of this new revelation, the state of Florida, the prosecutors today tried to get bond raised for George Zimmerman. The judge in this case has three possible decisions. Number one, raise the bond, two, revoke the bond or, three, don't do anything about the bond.

Today, the judge decided not to render a decision, saying he simply doesn't have enough information about the funds to render any kind of decision. So he's going so ask for that to come in. He's essentially going to learn how the money was raised, who had control of that money and when.

After the hearing, Mark O'Mara, who is the attorney for George Zimmerman, looked on the bright side and said the newfound wealth shows that George Zimmerman has a lot of support out there.

MARK O'MARA, ATTORNEY FOR GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: I'm also quite happy that there are enough people out there who felt it in their hearts that they wanted to support somebody like George and have given that much money.

SAVIDGE: Meanwhile, the attorney for Trayvon Martin's family says this money shows something else, that you can't trust what Zimmerman has to say.

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR FAMILY OF TRAYVON MARTIN: George Zimmerman raised his right hand in court and swore to tell the truth. He swore to be honest. He watched that whole proceeding and never once said a word to the court whether or not he had raised money on that Web site when he knew he had raised over $200,000.

SAVIDGE: Trayvon Martin's family say they also are doing fund- raising online. It is for a foundation that will do advocacy work. So far, they say they have raised about $100,000.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Martin, thank you.

NASA is moving its shuttles to different museums across the today. Today, it was New York. New York City got the spotlight. And this huge shuttle, the Enterprise will be joining the Intrepid. Next we will tell you where to go with your family to see this orbiter. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWS BREAK)

BALDWIN: And I have a special guest joining me in a couple of minutes on this special day for NASA. You saw the Enterprise. I know some of you have being sending your pictures to me via Twitter. I appreciate that.

This is the Enterprise arriving a la piggyback on this 747 here in New York. The visual is cool. We will talk to NASA Administrator Charlie Goldman coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We have seen the president. Now we are seeing GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney at Otterbein University there in Westerville, Ohio. Earlier, he spoke with a number of graduating seniors, obviously a very important voting base for him come November.

Let's just dip in. Here he is, Mitt Romney.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This was a land of freedom, personal freedom, political freedom and economic freedom.

And those freedoms, interestingly, having been the foundation of our nation, drew people from all over the world seeking opportunity, because collectively, they represented human opportunity. And so for hundreds of years, people have come to America seeking that kind of betterment for themselves, a chance to pioneer, to innovate, to create.

It's almost in the genetic code of America, if you will, to be innovative, pioneering, creative. And this freedom, this economic freedom is an enormous part of what not only has attracted people here, but has kept people here to build enterprises that, by the way, through their success have made us all better off.

Now, there's another element of our foundation which I think is critical. And that is what I refer to or connect with the phrase united we stand or one nation under God, the idea being that while we would be a nation of great diversity, with individuals pursuing their own freedoms in various courses, that we nonetheless would be united in our respect for certain values and our respect for one another.

And so America has had this extraordinary combination of people highly diverse, pursuing their interests as they choose, but at the same time coming together and united in common purpose. And so when we face challenges and threats, particularly in this last century and even today, the American people have rallied and have overcome the challenges that have been presented.

Now, the election before us presents an opportunity to either restore and to strengthen those foundational principles or to choose new ones. In my view, the election of 2012 is a defining, deciding election for the course of America over this century.

And we will decide whether or not we're going to transform America into something different than it's been in the past or whether we're going to restore to America the principles that have made us the nation that we are.

And now your challenge in all this is that you will hear words from people running for office that sound great. But sometimes what people say is not a perfect example of what they're going to do. Sometimes appearances don't conform with the facts or reality or track records.

I love what -- was it John Adams who said facts are stubborn things?

(LAUGHTER)

ROMNEY: Words are easily malleable, but facts, they're stubborn.

And so I would suggest that in campaign ahead, and in the campaigns of various officers running for various positions ahead, that you consider not just the brilliance of their words, but also the facts of their record and what they have done. And that will be the best predictor, I believe, of what they will do going forward.

I have several examples of the disparity between appearance and reality or appearance and fact that I might have mentioned to you, some from my business experience.

I remember when we had someone come to my office -- as you may have known, in my prior work, I was both in the business of helping start businesses known as venture capital, as well as in the business of acquiring businesses and trying to make them better.

This wasn't with my own money, of course. It was with money entrusted to me by pension funds, college endowments and the like. And on one occasion, someone came in. His name was Tom Stemberg. He had the idea for a store that would sell office supplies at a discount.

He said that office supplies were sold at a huge markup and that he would have a big store that sold office supplies cheap. And with that concept in mind, we went to various experts and asked their opinion as to whether this was a good investment opportunity. Not one of them said yes. Everyone said it was a bad idea.

And the reason they said was that in the world of business, the trend has been away from individuals having to run out and manage various aspects of the business on their own, and instead having more convenience and being able to focus on the mission of the business. So the idea of people having to leave their offices to go buy office supplies, as opposed to just having someone come deliver it from a big warehouse, that wasn't a good idea.

This superstore idea wouldn't work. And that was the appearance, in part the sense was that there wasn't enough savings to be had. People didn't buy that many supplies per person. Well, then we went out to get the facts. We sent a team of our colleagues out to go talk to businesses in the environment around what would be the first store.

And they told us how much they purchased annually per person in office supplies. As I recall, it was about $1,500 a year in office supplies. And, frankly, the savings on $1,500 a year for a white- collar employee on office supplies wouldn't justify folks going out and shopping.

So we took that to the entrepreneur and said, you know what? It doesn't look like this idea is going to work and no one thinks it will work either. And he said, you know what? Those businesses don't know how much they're spending on office supplies. Go back and get their invoices.

Ask them to let you look in their files and see what they're actually spending. So we did. And what we found was they were spending a lot more than that they thought on copy paper and toner and supplies and software and so forth.

And so, after a lot of analysis, we decided that we would invest in this office superstore. It's called Staples and now employs many tens of thousands, I think 90,000 people on a worldwide basis. Appearances do not always equal reality.

(END LIVE FEED)

BALDWIN: OK, so Mitt Romney touting a successful business story, talking about his experience with Staples, saying, hey, I was a businessman. I'm the better guy for the job when it comes to being a president come November when you head to the polls.

He is hoping to hone in on that very key base that certainly President Obama had when it was back in November of 2008. And so once again he's speaking in Westerville, Ohio at Otterbein University.

Both of them we have been seeing crisscrossing the country talking to universities, that youth vote very important.

Let's continue on here as we check the clock, bottom of the hour, let's play "Reporter Roulette."

First, CNN's Candy Crowley in Washington on battle over the student loan program.

Hey, Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: How are you?

They have had this fight up on Capitol Hill. The president kind of kicked it off with that across country trip he took to various universities, much as we just saw Mitt Romney in swing states, much as we just saw Mitt Romney saying, boy, if Congress doesn't hurry, the interest rates on your student loans are going to double here.

And this has made the speaker of the House angry because he said this is something we were going to do anyway. We have been working on it for months. A lot of people say that is not quite the truth.

Nonetheless, we sat down with the speaker earlier today right after Nancy Pelosi revealed that the president doesn't like how Republicans want to pay for keeping student interest rates low. The Republicans want to dip into a health care fund that's part of the health care bill. The president said, look, if it comes to me funded that way, I'm going to veto it.

I took that veto threat to Speaker Boehner. And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: For the president to politicize this for his own reelection is picking a fight where one doesn't exist.

And, secondly...

CROWLEY: It wasn't in the Ryan bill, though.

BOEHNER: That's next year's budget.

CROWLEY: So, for this year, you were planning all along to keep the student loan rates as they are?

BOEHNER: No one wants student loan interest rates go up.

CROWLEY: Right. So you're arguing about how to pay for it, and he says (INAUDIBLE) paid for my money out of the health care bill, it's not going to happen.

BOEHNER: Well, then why did his budget director and the president put in their budget reductions in spending in this program? Why did the president sign into law the payroll tax credit that included $4 billion worth of reductions in this same program?

CROWLEY: Taking it out of the same fund that you want to take it out of?

BOEHNER: The same fund.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CROWLEY: So as for the veto threat, the Speaker said look, it's going over to the Senate. They may have some different ideas. We're willing to look at anything. The Democrats are all over this, and say, you know, what the Republicans want to do is pay for keeping student interest rates low by taking money away from poor women and children for immunization programs and cancer screening and the like.

This totally irritates the Speaker who says this just -- you know, this is, again, the same program he says the president used to pay for, I don't know if you remember, Brooke, there was a huge fight earlier this year or late last year about Social Security taxes and keeping them low.

They said the president signed a bill that paid for keeping them low using money from this exact same fund. That's his pushback. By the way, just P.S., he said look, we're going to get this thing done.

BALDWIN: OK, because that was my question --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: -- because I'm sitting here and I'm just thinking about the parents who are watching, thinking, OK, well, it passed the House and so my kid won't have to pay this double the interest rate come July 1 -- that's the deadline -- but really, can they breathe that sigh of relief because it's really -- but where it comes from? And that's where the fight is.

CROWLEY: Well, yes, and also it hasn't passed the Senate at all. We don't know what how the Senate feels it should be funded.

So yes, but no, I actually think, not particularly from what Speaker Boehner said, but I think that most parents and most children can rest assured that those interest rates won't go up, simply because it is far too middle class an issue for this Congress to allow those interest rates to go up. It will get done. It won't be pretty.

BALDWIN: OK. Candy Crowley, thank you. We'll look forward to that interview come Sunday morning.

Coming up next in "Reporter Roulette," we're going to check back in with Chad as we are on the dolphin watch.

Is the dolphin still stranded?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: He is still stranded -- or she. We don't know.

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: Yes.

BALDWIN: Look at the rescuers, though.

MYERS: There are people trying to watch this, watch this rescue happen. Nothing -- no one in the water yet with this, though.

This is near Bolsa Bay, Bolsa Chica area. We have a dolphin about a half-mile, Brooke, too far to the south. The dolphin is right there. All of the dolphin's friends up here in the marina. This is the Huntington Beach Yacht Club right there. This is Warren Avenue, the Warren Avenue Bridge.

It appears that the dolphin came down through the Warren Ave. area, down through Bolsa Bay, swan down through here and is now parked right there.

Well, here is the canal coming in with some fresh water -- and we talked with an expert earlier, saying that fresh water may actually be confusing the dolphin a little bit, and then more water coming in here. This would be brackish water or saltwater (INAUDIBLE) coming there.

So let's take a look at what's gong on. So here's the little bridge that the people are on and they're kind of standing up here watching it.

The dolphin is swimming around here in plenty of water. This dolphin is not like in one foot of water and he's going to be beaching himself. The dolphin just can't find where to go. He doesn't realize that he needs to go back to the north and from where he is right there, he needs to swim all the way up here and find his friends in the marina.

BALDWIN: OK. Well, we will wait and see. As she was saying, they're hoping the tide will just wash him on and he'll be good to go. Chad Myers, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: Next here on "Reporter Roulette," it is the final flight of the Enterprise. Now that all the shuttles will be retired, NASA's test shuttle is heading to a new home. Pretty pictures there in Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, CNN's John Zarrella is live for us in Miami.

So walk me through, I'm sure there were so many people up and down the northeast corridor, sort of looking up and oohing and ahhing over this.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just a spectacular event, again, a repeat of what happened with Discovery, just a week and a half, two weeks ago, when it flew into Washington, D.C., on the back of that 747. You know, and in fact, Brooke, it was the Discovery displaced Enterprise at the Smithsonian because Discovery flew in space.

So Enterprise, which was the test shuttle used for approach and landing tests for -- so that NASA could check out if the design would really work, it's going to New York. It's there now. It's at John F. Kennedy airport. It will sit there until June.

And then it will ultimately make its way on a barge up the Hudson River to the Sea, Air and Space museum, the Intrepid museum. It will be lifted up and placed on the deck of the aircraft carrier. We've got to look in the history books. I can't imagine that a space shuttle has ever been on the back of an aircraft carrier.

BALDWIN: (INAUDIBLE) barge --

(CROSSTALK)

ZARRELLA: (INAUDIBLE) and then lifted up --

BALDWIN: We'll have to ask --

ZARRELLA: We've got to find that out.

BALDWIN: Yes, I think we may know someone who will have the answer to that.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: He might. John Zarrella, stand by for me, because I want to bring in here a former astronaut who now leads NASA. On the phone, retired Major General Charles Bolton, he's been the NASA administrator since '09.

Charles Bolton, how do I address you? Mr. Administrator? General? You tell me.

MAJ. GENERAL CHARLES BOLTON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, Brooke, you can call me Charlie.

BALDWIN: Done. Charlie, so John Zarrella, let me just begin where we were kind of confused. I mean, is this sort of precedent- setting, the thought of an orbiter on the back of an aircraft carrier? Just curious.

BOLTON: John's absolutely correct. To my knowledge, there's never been an orbiter of any kind on the back of an aircraft carrier. We're excited about this, because as John said, Enterprise was (INAUDIBLE). It was -- that's what we did the approach and landing test to demonstrate that we could land the shuttle on a runway.

BALDWIN: That is wild. And I know you were in the driver's seat of the Discovery. We saw those amazing pictures, what, was that last week in Washington. Now as we look at these pictures of Enterprise, you know, circling the Statue of Liberty, landing there at JFK, where were you this morning? And what sort of -- I don't know, what emotions do you run through when you see sort of the end, the retiring?

BOLTON: Well, here -- and it's not the end, it's the beginning of a new era. I am actually at the Kennedy Space Center right now. More specifically, we just -- I'm down here with a group called the Golden Eagles that are -- it's a reunion of Naval aviators and Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Navy pilots who have flown from Korea to now, and they're getting a look at Atlantis here at the Kennedy Space Center.

And we're on our way out to look at the Falcon 9 and the Dragon module. So we're looking at the past and the future all in one day with the Golden Eagles.

BALDWIN: So when you're talking to the Golden Eagles, Charlie Bolton, and so many other people -- and I was in the kid in the classroom, had my hand raised. Of course I wanted to be an astronaut. And you talk about, well, right now, the only way to ferry astronauts into space, you're relying on Russia and the Soyuz. How did that make you feel, A? And B, what is the next era? When do we go to Mars?

BOLTON: Well, we're going to mars on the (INAUDIBLE). That's what President Obama has set forth, and the Congress. They have agreed on that as one of our top priorities. We have to get commercial space going. We're working on that right now. Space X is scheduled to launch on the 7th, Monday week. That'll be a good start.

And then we're working on getting commercial vehicles to carry our crews. At the same time, NASA's working on the development of a heavy lift launch vehicle and the Orion crew module that we're going to use to take our crews, first to an asteroid and then on to Mars. So we're -- we are on the verge of a new era. It has already begun.

BALDWIN: OK.

John Zarrella, do we still have you?

ZARRELLA: Yes, I'm still here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Hey, jump in. Ask Charlie Bolton a question, then we'll wrap.

ZARRELLA: I just wanted to ask real quick, Charlie, you know, a lot of people have said to me, that you've got to have -- and they used the words "smoke and fire," and you've got to do it soon because the longer you don't put something up NASA, then the easier it's going to be for people to say, well, we don't need anything.

BOLTON: John, we're going to see smoke and fire on the 7th of May. That's -- you know, and people need to understand when Space X or Orbital or Boeing or anybody else launches, that's -- it's not just NASA. It's America. And we want to get America back launching vehicles.

We've got Atlas and Delta but we need to have another capability. And so starting Monday the 7th, I hope, will be when we start launching American vehicles to the International Space Station. We're going to launch Orion on a Delta 4, Lockheed Martin is, in 2014.

And then the first flight of the FLS with the Orion on it is going to be in 2017. So we hope to have smoke and fire continually from the 7th of May through to 2030.

BALDWIN: I just want to make sure that when you, Charlie Bolton, go into a classroom and you say who wants to be an astronaut, I still want to see a lot of kids' hands raised. Charlie Bolton, thank you so much for calling in all the way from Kennedy. We appreciate it.

And John Zarrella, our go-to space geek, thank you as well.

Coming up next here, a father sends his son to school with this wireless microphone so he can record what he is presuming is abuse from a teacher. Well, we now know that teacher's hired a lawyer. We've got the story for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: When it comes to children, on this show, we share stories of abuse and mistreatment and we point out we can do better. Well, a father in New Jersey says his 10-year-old son was bullied, not by kids but by the grown-ups who were supposed to help teach him.

You see, this young boy is autistic and doesn't talk like most kids. But his violent outbursts were telling his father something was wrong. So Stuart Chaifetz wired his son and recorded this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You go to see any books in the library or you just look at sculptures?

AKIAN CHAIFETZ, STUDENT: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, Akian, you are a bastard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The Cherry Hill School District just released this statement, quote, "While our investigation continues, all individuals working in the classroom on the date in question have been either placed on leave to minimize disruption to our schools or no longer work for the District."

Stuart Chaifetz says the teacher in charge was transferred. And that is when he decided to go public with his recordings, as he explained to Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: You say you could only identify two of the adults on the tape, your son's teacher and one of the aides, but you couldn't identify the person on this section of the tape. What did the school say about this person?

STUART CHAIFETZ, PARENT: They have never responded to me about that. You know, and just so people understand why that was so cruel -- because you could hear them all making fun of him, laughing at him.

That was something he felt very personal about. And then he went on a half-hour, you know, throwing over chairs and crying because they really hurt him badly. That is the worst three seconds of my life, listening to that.

It's something that still haunts me and I can't even listen to it and hear my son begin to cry like that and just know that there was a culture of cruelty, and they did it because my son is verbally impaired, he couldn't ever tell me that.

So they felt they could do whatever they wanted to him and no one would ever find out. Thankfully they were wrong, but they just mocked him and didn't care.

COOPER: It's extraordinary. We just received a statement from the lawyer for Kelly Altenburg, the teacher that you say you can clearly hear on these tapes, being abusive.

It reads in part, quote, "Kelly Altenburg is a special education teacher who, over the past 23 years, has dedicated herself to teaching and consulting in the field of special education. Mrs. Altenburg does not condone any such remarks and this language was not used at her direction, in her presence or with her knowledge. Mr. Chaifetz's comments to the contrary are totally inaccurate."

How do you respond?

CHAIFETZ: Listen to the audio. That audio speaks for itself. You hear her multiple times during that. You know, if that's her defense, then bring it on because I will sit with anyone and I will play the entire six and a half hours. And when she's there -- because that was her laughing. She wants to claim that's not her laugh. She wants to claim she wasn't the one there when the aide was talking about being under the influence of alcohol, you know, that's laughable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, the father here says his son is doing much better in class, no longer hitting, no longer acting out.

Watch what you write on the Internet, folks. I know parents say this to your kids, but find out what happens when grown-ups are acting badly, saying things online you wouldn't say to someone in person. Now one couple is awarded nearly $14 million. Their stunning story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We have a little movement here on this story in Huntington Beach, California, just wanted to give you a quick update. Now you see these two kayakers in the water. This is all because that one dolphin has been swimming, it's been circling for the better part of a number of hours here on the wrong side of the Pacific Coast Highway, again, Huntington Beach.

This is the Bolsa-Chica Conservancy. You can see kind of at the top of the picture a number of people have sort of pulled over off the side of the road. Rescuers here trying to get this dolphin to swim on the correct side. The issue is, this is shallow water. It looks like someone is actually now swimming. And I'm looking right along with you to try to see if I see the dolphin. Guys, we want to stay with the picture?

Yep, there's the -- OK, so I'm being told there's a diver in the water. Obviously, now you see the fin, you see the dolphin swimming along.

And so the issue, Chad Myers, we're talking to the woman from the conservancy in, what, Massachusetts. They deal with stranded dolphins often. They have to get this dolphin -- they're hoping -- I guess option number one, best option is that this dolphin goes on its own. And you can see the guy, the diver sort of flapping his hands. Perhaps they're trying to scoot it.

Is that the bridge?

MYERS: No. That's the south end. That's where there actually is water coming in because now the tide is rising. But they need to get this dolphin to the right of the screen and up almost one full half-mile to the -- under the Warren Avenue Bridge.

So I think once the dolphin gets its sense of direction, it will be all right. But right now the dolphin is just swimming in circles and not going in the right way. In fact, they want to go from left to right across the screen, and the dolphin just kind of seems to think that they're playing with it rather than trying to --

BALDWIN: You know, what's fascinating is you see they're tapping on it -- looks like they're on paddle boards -- they're tapping, they're making noise and what the expert a little while ago pointed out is these dolphins, they have an incredible, incredible hearing and perhaps that's what they're hoping, these sort of, you know, tactics, making a little bit of noise, hoping that the dolphin will spin around and swim in the right direction.

MYERS: That's right. And at some point, I don't know if it's -- you know, this dolphin is around people a lot. If we -- you can take this shot and you can pan all of the way around and about a half-mile north there's a huge marina up there. It's the Huntington Beach Yacht Club. The marina is there and there are at least, I would say, seven or eight other dolphins in a pod up there, just swimming around.

I don't know if they're looking for this little lost guy or not, but obviously they have a lot of interaction with humans on a daily basis. They're in that marina, they're not scared at all. And so clearly we just froze up on the shot, but the dolphin seems to be enjoying the play time, it seems like, and not being scared to swim away from where they're kind of making those slapping sounds.

BALDWIN: OK. This is tape from earlier. Here you go. Back on the shot.

Hey, we're going to move away from the story. I want to interview this next couple here. But we're going to keep a close eye on it and maybe we can put the dolphin in a little box on the screen. Chad Myers, thank you very much.

We'll -- I'm looking at it off the corner of my eye. We'll see if that dolphin finds its way home.

In the meantime, it seems like anyone can say anything online these days. Look at the comments sections, you can see that for yourself, but you're about to meet a couple who may have just shattered that cloak of anonymity altogether, all those haters on the Internet, they've been hiding under that cloak, right?

Well, here's a sample of what anonymous posters said about Mark and Rhonda Lesher from East Texas, quote, "They're molesting helpless people. Sex orgies at his bar and spreads herpes. Lesher been biting my donkey."

OK. So this all started after a woman accused the Leshers of raping her, the husband and wife were acquitted -- they were acquitted in 2009, but the posts -- that didn't matter. The posts kept coming so the Leshers tracked down those -- they thought they were anonymous -- no longer -- posters and sued.

And just this week a Texas jury awarded the Leshers $13.8 million. Here are the Leshers, Mark and Rhonda. Welcome to both of you. You know, I had read -- Mark, I think it was you, you said in the 2009 criminal trial that all of this ruined your life. Do you still feel that way?

MARK LESHER: Well, to be found not guilty is one thing, but you have to be vindicated ,and basically we've been vindicated by this verdict that we received a week ago.

BALDWIN: So you feel vindicated? You feel good?

M. LESHER: Well, we feel a lot better and we do thank the jury system. We thank the judge and we thank our lawyers that we were able to present this case to 12 of our peers, and they saw the anonymity shield should be taken down.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about that, Rhonda, because I know a lot of comments it's this website, topics.com. It's basically this online community, bulletin board where posters can post things anonymously, or so they think. How did you get that judge to basically lift the veil, get those IP addresses and reveal who was saying all these nasty things about you? These erroneous, nasty things?

RHONDA LESHER: Well, the original petition was quite voluminous. There were over 2,500 of these horrible, horrible postings, and it was an all-out assault on our character.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Could you go grocery shopping?

R. LESHER: (INAUDIBLE) day and night for way over a year.

BALDWIN: You're in a small Texas town. Did people -- I mean, this, I imagine, got around, it was difficult for you. You closed your business, right, Rhonda?

R. LESHER: Exactly. It's a very, very small town and everyone was glued to topics.com in the forum of Clarksville and the threads that were absolutely bashing us.

BALDWIN: OK. I do have another question.

R. LESHER: It was difficult to go to the grocery store. It was difficult to go to the Wal-Mart.

BALDWIN: I cannot begin to imagine.

R. LESHER: The customers didn't want to come to my business.

BALDWIN: I'm sure it was beyond frustrating.

We actually reached out to the defendants and we have a response. We've got to take a quick break. We're going to get that answer, that response. One more question for you. Stay right with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Back to Mark and Rhonda Lesher, continuing our conversation. We reached out to the defendants, these folks who apparently said all these horrific things about you. They told us they absolutely plan to appeal this case.

Let me get your reaction and also finally the both of you, your message to these people who lurk on these websites, saying horrible things and they think that they'll remain anonymous, but they don't, always.

R. LESHER: Well, the worst thing of all of this is that we have an out-of-control prosecutor in our small county, and he took one of the authors of these posts and took her to the grand jury and got us indicted, and it was -- there was no investigation whatsoever. All of it was total lies and we were prosecuted. That was the worst of it.

M. LESHER: These blogs led us to being indicted, led us having to hiring attorneys, to defend ourselves. Basically, the grand jury was just told, well, they can prove their innocence when they go to trial. We had to stand trial. We went to Common (ph) County and then after a week's trial we were found not guilty in 20 minutes.

BALDWIN: Mark --

R. LESHER: That doesn't change the fact that we had to go through it.

BALDWIN: No. I know you moved to another town and you had to close down your business, but at least hopefully you do feel vindicated. Mark and Rhonda Lesher, I thank you so much.

And with two minutes to go, I'm taking off my anchor hat, and I'm just Brooke here, telling you at the end of this show, that there is a certain special someone who is sitting in the control room, who gets in and out of my ear here and there, her name is Angie Massey (ph). She is one of my best friends.

She is an absolutely incredible executive producer and today is her last day with us and we will miss her. And she has touched many people here at CNN. Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have directed probably a thousand shows with Angie, and she is my dream date in the control room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've been an inspiration, the best teacher and an even better friend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Angie is set apart because she touches people in such a positive way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thank you for everything you taught me. I wish you the best, and I hope to work with you again soon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angie, good luck. When people ask me how I like working with you, I always say, Angie trusts her people and that's something I really appreciate, and I know my colleagues do, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm grateful for the chance you've given me and it's completely changed my life, and I'm grateful for your words of wisdom, your constant advice. It's just something that keeps us going every single day. You'll be sorely missed and you're one of the best mentors I've ever had in this business, and I wish you nothing but the best.

BALDWIN: Oh, man. What a day. I love you. You've done so much for me, professionally and personally, and I know you're just going downstairs, but I'm going to end on a high note with you, with our favorite song.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BALDWIN: Love you, Angie Massey. Wolf Blitzer, to you, friend.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Brooke.