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Heat Waves Bakes Parts of U.S.; Libya Holds Elections; Fitness Instructor Give Tips on Yoga; Essence Music Festival Takes Place in New Orleans; Unemployment Rate Remains at 8.2 Percent; Study Unveils Corruption in Puerto Rican Police Force; Interview with Ringo Starr; Smoke Jumpers Profiled; Great White Sharks Return to Cape Cod
Aired July 07, 2012 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Gary Tuchman in for Fredricka Whitfield.
It's a record-breaking heat wave that won't go away. One quarter of the nation suffering through another day of scorching triple digit temperatures. That's dangerously high for anyone, but especially so for people who don't have air conditioning. And that's the situation facing hundreds of thousands of people who lost power during a freak storm a week ago and still don't have it back after all this time.
CNN's Emily Schmidt joins us live from Virginia, a state hit hard by the power outages. Emily, this hasn't been just a weather event. It has also been an economic event. Businesses haven't been able to operate, right?
EMILY SCHMIDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Gary. It has been such a long week for people. When you see trees like this that toppled and the power lines that came down more than a week ago, it set off a chain reaction so big that the experts, the government and even small businesses, say they just haven't been able to add up the total costs yet.
What is clear is that as the power comes back on people are beginning to see just how much they lost.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCHMIDT: Though it only takes an instant for the lights to go out in a storm, things can get darker for days. At Chevy Chase supermarket just outside Washington disaster hit three days after losing power. A refrigerated trailer compressor blew up and with it the family-owned supermarket's back-up plan.
KEVIN KIRSCH, CHEVY CHASE SUPERMARKET: We lost everything in the trailer, then everything in the frozen food case here. So basically we've lost everything in the entire store.
SCHMIDT: It meant no customers, no paychecks for 60 employees, and no buying new food.
KIRSCH: I've got vendors who are smaller than me that count on me for my purchases for their own business, and I'm not purchasing from them. So it kind of stream rolls all the way around.
SCHMIDT: When markets weren't buying for days, it stuck this vendor with a warehouse full of food. Some can be donated. Most, including 2,000 boxes of strawberries, must be tossed.
KIRSCH: Most of what is in this cooler is probably going to be thrown out if we cannot move it.
SCHMIDT: He estimates he is out hundreds of thousands of dollars. The irony, his business never lost power so insurance won't help.
SCOTT BERNHARDT, PLANALYTICS: This is going to be an event that is remembered.
SCHMIDT: Scott Bernhardt's company tracks how weather affects business. He says it will take at least a month to know how much this 600 mile storm path cost the economy.
BERNHARDT: It ranks in the realm of hurricanes, snow-mageddon type events. These are significant events affecting a very large population. Therefore it has a significant economic impact.
SCHMIDT (on camera): Tell me the minute that power came on. What time was it?
KIRSCH: I think it was about 11:30.
SCHMIDT (voice-over): Ten delivery packed hours later on Thursday morning, the store reopened. The power restored along with something just as critical.
KIRSCH: More importantly, everybody is back. That's the most important part.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHMIDT: There has really been a one-two punch here, obviously the winds, but now the heat. It is now the tenth straight day that the thermometer has read at least 95 degrees or higher. Also the state of Maryland is reporting there have been at least nine heat-related deaths in the state since July 2.
Still, we have seen people out working in this heat today. We asked them why. Some said they're trying to make up for lost time from the storm. They feel the work must go on even if it is going on in these record breaking temperatures. Gary?
TUCHMAN: Emily Schmidt, thank you very much.
It is broiling, but there is relief in sight for some parts of the United States. A cold front is on the move. Meteorologist Alexandra Steele is in the CNN weather center. Alexandra, where is the cooler air headed?
ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You're right. Not cold air. We have relief and it is in the form of a cold front. We're about 25 states, one in three of us have been dealing with some type of heat advisory, heat watch or heat warning.
Right now in Washington, D.C., and Chevy Chase, it is 102. It feels like 107. Today's in essence the apex of the heat. It is as hot as it will go today. St. Louis, 106, throughout Kentucky and Tennessee the lower 100s as well.
You can see as the cold front moves south tomorrow, Washington still in the 100s but you can see from 100 in Chicago yesterday we're down to 82. And we continue to see this cool air drop south, 91. Who would think 91 seems like a cool day? And 86 in Washington by Monday. Then we lose it further still on Tuesday.
So that is the cool front. The cool air is coming, but it is coming at a price. Why? Here are the ingredients you need for the potential for severe weather. Some type of lifting mechanism, i.e. that cold front, right, and moisture in the air. We've got a lot of buoyancy. This is the radar. Here's New York City. You can see upstate New York, Binghamton, New York. Here comes the line of showers and storms. It doesn't look as severe as what I thought.
But we do have the threat, this box, big yellow box. Severe thunderstorm watches through tonight at about 7:00 tonight. The potential is there and not so for tornadoes, but strong winds like we've seen, right, last week with the Derecho and Thursday in Tennessee.
Here it is from Pittsburgh, New York, Albany, Buffalo and through Washington, Baltimore as well. The problem is so many of these places still without power from that heat before. So you factor in, yes, the heat relief. But b, coming as the price, some strong storms that really could leave a path of wind damage which we've seen.
TUCHMAN: Alexandra, I hope this is not a naive question. Does this hot start to the summer mean we'll have a hot summer in a lot of places?
STEELE: It is not a dumb question. Climatologists say you can never isolate one heat event. But, mind you, put this perspective, this heat event, this is same heat event that two weeks ago exacerbated the fires in the west, those canyon fires, then allowed for that Derecho to fire up, and now this heat in the east coast. But heat begets heat. Why? We don't have a lot of rain so it is dry. The heat pounds down. There is no moisture from the soil to come up so thus it gets even hotter so heat begets heat.
And I guarantee you we won't be talking about oh, what a cool summer we had as we head into September. So I bet we're on tap for a hot one. So this is just the beginning. Does it portend one for sure? No. But things are very patterned in the world of weather. But when you have a pattern, you go with what you know and it is usually on the money. That's just my humble opinion.
TUCHMAN: I'm glad that was not a dumb question.
STEELE: No, never.
(LAUGHTER) TUCHMAN: In Libya polls have just closed after an historic day of voting. Libyans lined up to vote in the first free election after decades of rule by Moammar Gadhafi. The new government will face the tough job of reining in revolutionary militias and establishing a judiciary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IAN MARTIN, U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR LIBYA: I think one must expect Libya to go through a difficult period and it is going through a difficult period and you have to put that in the context -- inaudible of 42 years of the Gadhafi regime, which has left Libya without any of the functioning institutions of a modern democratic state. They cannot be created overnight. A new army cannot be created overnight. An effective police force can't be created overnight.
But again, I think if one either compares the situation now with what many of us are looking at Libya this time last year feared might be the situation when the fighting ended, or, indeed, look at the number of other post-conflict countries of an equivalent period since the end of the fighting, I think there's quite a lot to be optimistic about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Libyans are choosing a national assembly that will be responsible for appointing a transitional government.
Police in London made another terror arrest today. A 22-year-old woman was taken into custody at her east London apartment. She is the seventh person picked up by London's counterterrorism command. Officials say security has been heightened in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics which start in three weeks. They say the arrests are not linked to the Olympic Games.
Relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan have begun a new chapter today. The U.S. has named Afghanistan a, quote, "major ally." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the announcement during an unannounced visit to Kabul. The designation clears the way for the two countries to maintain a defense and economic relationship after U.S. troops have withdrawn.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Our strategic partnership agreement is not aimed at any other country. Our goal is to work with the region and the international community to strengthen Afghanistan's institutions so that the transition is successful and the afghan people themselves can take responsibility, and the future of Afghanistan will be safer and more secure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Nearly all U.S. troops are set to leave Afghanistan by 2014. Japan, Pakistan, and Australia also have that ally status.
George Zimmerman is a free man. One day after a Florida said he was a flight risk, Zimmerman was able to post a $100,000 bond to get out. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman claims it was self-defense. A previous bond was revoked after Zimmerman fail to disclose to the court how much money he had.
And now to a series of killings in the state of Ohio. Police are investigating four deaths about 60 miles away from Cleveland in the town of Newton Falls. They're trying to determine if three bodies found in a home and one found nearby are connected to another man who apparently committed suicide in a cemetery. Police say one child was able to escape the shootings in that home.
When you think of the isle Puerto Rico, you think of a place rich in beauty and Caribbean island charm. But Puerto Rico has an ugly underside - corruption, especially police that corruption. The Justice Department and the ACLU did a study on the culture of abuse, drug trafficking, cover ups, and even murder.
Nick Valencia is here to help us understand how things got so out of control. You're telling me one out of ten police officers --
NICK VALENCIA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Unbelievable.
TUCHMAN: -- are corrupt.
VALENCIA: That's right. It's unbelievable. It's profound longstanding corruption that this new report from the ACLU is unveiling and documenting here.
What is at issue is the excessive force, unreasonable force by Puerto Rican police officers against residents of this U.S. commonwealth, especially during peaceful demonstrations. This is a strike on the first amendment rights of the people and the residents, which are U.S. citizens. Let's not forget. This is not some far away land, this isn't a foreign territory. These are U.S. citizens at risk here.
We spoke with the U.S. department of justice yesterday to talk about their findings and what they told us here, I believe we have a quote, is "We are currently in settlement discussions with Puerto Rico concerning a durable remedy to address our findings. Discussions have been productive and we hope to resolve our concerns without the need for litigation."
The ACLU is asking the federal government to get involved. If you can imagine that imagery of the U.S. government taking over a U.S. commonwealth, the police force, 17,000 members, the second largest in the United States.
TUCHMAN: Can you give us an example of what kind of corruption we're talking about?
VALENCIA: They found excessive force in 28 civilian deaths. One of those happened right after a new superintendent was pointed in March. And in April, two brothers were driving. They were pulled over a traffic stop. What ended up resulting was the officer accused of excessive force unloading 14 rounds from his gun into two brothers, one of them fatally struck and killed.
TUCHMAN: So what does the Puerto Rican government have to say about this?
VALENCIA: That's interesting. They acknowledge this issue is longstanding. They acknowledge this is a systemic issue of corruption. But they say this is a small element, a small contingent of officers. This is the old guard, not the retraining that they're pouring millions of dollars into this program to retrain and hire police officers. We spoke to the lieutenant governor there, Kenneth McClintock, and this is what he had to say to us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNETH MCCLINTOCK, LT. GOV. SECRETARY OF STATE: We are being a lot stronger in dealing with internal police discipline and that is something that is noteworthy and should be taken account of as a result of this report.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALENCIA: So low public trust, maybe an all-time low public trust of the police force there in Puerto Rico, and it seems there is a long road ahead for people to feel safe in their own city.
TUCHMAN: Puerto Rico is a beautiful place but this is not a chamber of commerce story.
VALENCIA: Absolutely not, Gary.
TUCHMAN: Thank you very much.
VALENCIA: Thank you.
TUCHMAN: Surveillance video catches thieves in action. What are they after? They're after used cooking oil.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: Political debates in the United States can get heated, but nothing like in the nation of Jordan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SHOUTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Yes, that is a gun. A Jordanian member of parliament threw a shoe and then pulled out his pistol when a discussion with the form he MP got heated and all of it happened, yes, on live TV. It seems he was accused of buying his way into Jordan's parliament. The host stepped in to break up the fight. I hope I would be that brave if a guy had a gun with me on live TV. A police report has been filed. Aside from some bruised egos, there were no injuries. It seems the black market is turning green. Thieves are getting big bucks stealing recyclable materials like cardboard and oil from sidewalks and back alleys. Susan Candiotti shows us why it is so lucrative.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is 3:00 a.m. and a man emerges from a professional looking truck behind the Red Rooster restaurant in Damascus, Maryland. He wears a seemingly official vest but instead of unlocking some padlocks, he snaps them off. What is he after? Believe it or not, cooking oil.
PAT MILLER, RED ROOSTER: For somebody just come up and do that sort of thing? I don't know why anybody would ever want to mess with that messy stuff.
CANDIOTTI: This alleged thief messed with them before. The restaurant surveillance camera caught the action.
MILLER: The worst thing is they even cut the locks off. I mean, come on.
CANDIOTTI: The cooking oil rip-off came right before the Red Rooster's monthly grease pick-up.
MILLER: If anything, we cook on the flat grill and we dump it in a bucket, the same with the chicken fryer and the barbecue.
CANDIOTTI: That goop is used by refiners to make biodiesel fuel for powering cars and trucks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They cut us a check for $160 every time we fill it up.
CANDIOTTI: A great deal for honest businesses but thieves also are cashing in, ripping off the waste oil and selling it on the black market for $500 a pick-up. The refining industry says it is a nationwide problem.
TOM COOK PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL RENDERERS ASSOCIATION: It's pretty much 100 percent profit for them if they steal it and sell it.
CANDIOTTI: It's a similar situation for recycled cardboard.
RON BERGAMINI, CEO, ACTION ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP: We lose approximately $100,000 per week due to cardboard theft.
CANDIOTTI: Plus it is hard to tell legitimate recyclers from thieves since the cardboard, left on the sidewalks for pickup, seems up for grabs.
BERGAMINI: For somewhat obvious reasons, it isn't a high priority. So the risk of getting caught is low and then the penalties are low.
CANDIOTTI: Ron Bergamini is looking to change that. BERGAMINI: It is a serious problem. We're here to help.
CANDIOTTI: He is petitioning New York City council to stiffen those penalties. After all, thieves can make hundreds of dollars a night with just a truck and a late night hunt for cardboard and easily pay any fines.
BERGAMINI: It's a bad economy so people are out there looking to hustle to make money.
CANDIOTTI: Illegal greens siphoned from the green economy.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Another way to work out besides running from the bulls which is happening in Pamplona, Spain, right now, I'm talking about yoga. We'll show you some good moves to make on the yoga mat.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: It is a quiet Saturday for both presidential candidates. Mitt Romney is spending time at his family lake house in New Hampshire, but his vacation ends tomorrow. The presumptive Republican nominee attends two fund-raisers on Long Island, New York tomorrow.
President Obama is at Camp David this weekend. He just wrapped up a two-day bus tour through the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. On the last day of that trip a new job comes came out showed the economy added only 80,000 jobs in June. The president wasted no time giving voters his take on the report. Dan Lothian has that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Obama's battleground bus tour drove over a big speed bump when dismal jobs numbers over shadowed his message.
BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's still tough out there.
LOTHIAN: At a rally in Ohio, he didn't dwell on negative news but instead played up private sector gains.
OBAMA: Businesses created 84,000 new jobs last month, and that means that overall that businesses have created 4.4 million new jobs over the past 28 months, including 500,000 new manufacturing jobs. That's a step in the right direction.
(APPLAUSE)
LOTHIAN: But unemployment remains at 8.2 percent, and voters are divided over who can best handle the economy. A recent CNN/ORC poll shows 48 percent of registered voters think Mitt Romney, 47 percent President Obama.
Looking to keep a tight grip on the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania that voted for him in 2008, the president pushed his message of manufacturing gains, especially in the auto industry, to working class voters. He began the final day of his "Vetting on America" bus tour with breakfast in Akron, Ohio, where the president was joined by three union workers from a nearby Goodyear tire plant.
OBAMA: You've been there 20 years? You're still there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LOTHIAN: Then the president toured the summer garden food manufacturing plant near Youngstown, a business that the campaign said is expanding and creating jobs. At Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, his biggest event of the tour, there was one final appeal for a second term.
OBAMA: And if you still believe in me like I believe in you, I hope you will stand with me in 2012.
(APPLAUSE)
LOTHIAN: The president told supporters at almost every stop on the two-day bus tour that he was tough enough to handle negative ads from his opponent and outside groups, but he admitted that he was being out-spent, the first time that's ever happened to a sitting president.
Dan Lothian, CNN, Pittsburgh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Do you think you need to hit the gym to get in shape? Why not hit the yoga mat instead in lots of people are doing it these days and one of them is my colleague, Frederica Whitfield who has some tips from a personal trainer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DESIREE NATHANSON, PERSONAL TRAINER, DANCER: A lot of folks are very intimidated by the word "yoga" because they think you have to be incredibly flexible and you have to be a yogi right away. Yoga is very much a state of mind, it is very much a way of life and it is about working at your own pace. I'll show you a few basic pose beginners can do at home safely.
You want to start with your feet directly under your hips. From here we're going to lift, actually, we're going to shift to our left leg. So put all that weight on the left leg. We'll raise the right foot up and put it at the bottom. You're getting advanced already. We're starting low. And then from here bring your hands in front of your heart. You'll focus on some fixed point in front of you. So that way you'll spot and you'll be able to hold your balance better.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is hard to keep your balance.
NATHANSON: Exactly. If you start looking around, you'll notice it will be harder to hold that steady balance.
From the tree we'll do warrior two. There are several warriors. We'll do two today. We'll stand facing each other. Our feet wider than hip and shoulder width, toes pointing toward each other and this is usually barefoot. We'll turn the front foot out. So facing, I guess, that will be our front. And then we'll turn this back toe in slightly or keep it at that 90-degree angle. From here we're going to lunge forward. So make sure your weight is going down between both legs. From here we'll raise our arms and gaze out over your front middle finger. So we're our legs here, and, of course, our balance as well.
WHITFIELD: It is relaxing but at the same time I do feel the muscles working.
NATHANSON: Exactly. Yep, you're engaging everything.
WHITFIELD: But no strain.
Now we're going to hit the mat. What are we going to do?
NATHANSON: We're going to do the ever popular exercise, the plank, which is actually a yoga pose. Let's go down to the mat. We'll start on our hands and knees. And when you're doing any of these balance positions on your hands, you want your fingers spread so that gives you a nice wide base and helps you balance. We can do a beginner plank, just walk your hands out and bring your hips forward. You want the hands directly under the shoulders and you want the crown of your head, the shoulders and your hips in line. From here we'll tuck our toes under and lift our knees from the mat. So with this we're working our upper body, we're working our core, balance.
WHITFIELD: I'm shaking. Wow!
NATHANSON: And then of course, if this does become too difficult you can drop your knees down to the mat. Then the recovery pose in yoga is a child's pose.
WHITFIELD: Right here.
NATHANSON: That's a favorite.
WHITFIELD: Yes. I like those a lot. I feel good. My arms are still shaking.
(LAUGHTER)
NATHANSON: You know we worked hard.
WHITFIELD: And it is really nice to come outside and do it, too. Thanks so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Good job, Fred.
This next story might make you feel a little bit old. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr turns 72 years old this very day. And he's still out there playing and touring. We'll meet him in a minute and find out where he gets his energy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: From his first days with the Beatles in 1962, exactly a half century ago, Ringo Starr has never slowed down. The hysteria of the 1960s gave way to a solo music career that started in 1970 when the Beatles broke up. And he has just released his 17th studio album called "Ringo 2012." He's also been a working actor for decades and is still touring with his all-star band. And today is Ringo Starr's 72nd birthday. This morning Randi Kaye talked to him about his Atlanta tour stop this morning in Nashville.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Ringo, good morning to you, and happy birthday.
RINGO STARR, FORMER BEATLES DRUMMER: Thank you, Randi. Good morning to you, too -- 72.
KAYE: And 72, we wish you many, many more. But this has become more than just --
STARR: Me, too.
KAYE: This is more than just a simple happy birthday. I know that this is a big day for you. You want your fans to send out peace and love wishes to the world every year on your birthday.
STARR: We started this several years ago now. At noon, on my birthday today, the seventh of the seventh, wherever you are on a bus in the office, in the studio, hanging out, getting Randi tea, whatever you're doing, just go peace and love. That's all ask for my birthday.
KAYE: We will do that 33 minutes from now.
STARR: We're here right now. Sorry, what did you say?
KAYE: I said we will do that 33 minutes from now at noon.
STARR: OK, great. We're here at the hard rock. They've been very supportive. A very nice lady called Annie who helps us out a lot so the last five years we've done this.
KAYE: I think it's great. You're in Nashville because you're in tour with the all-star band. Let me give our viewers a little taste of you performing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: So tell me about the all-star band. This is what, the 13th version?
STARR: The 13th version. I've been doing it now for 23 years, Ringo and the all-stars. This band is incredibly excellent. We have great rallies on organ and key board so we have "Black Magic Woman." Everybody has to have a hit to be in the band. We've got Richard Paige back, Mister Mister. Then we have Todd back for the third time doing "Bang the Drums." We have a very diverse lineup. But when you put it all together, it works.
KAYE: On top of it all you have your new album out as well, "Ringo 2012."
STARR: I hope the camera is on me now.
KAYE: We got it.
STARR: That's how it looks. Anyway -- Ringo 2012, I thought let's keep it simple. The first track on it is a track I wrote called "Anthem." It is an anthem for peace and love. So I'm trying my best. Peace and love, peace and love, wherever I can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Ringo Starr talks about peace and love at 12:00 noon. In three of the time zones it is past noon, but in the Pacific time zone, the Alaska time zone, the Hawaii time zone, 12:00 noon Ringo Starr says peace and love.
Some call it London's Beverly Hill, a beautiful neighborhood with star residents and some cool places to go. We are heading there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: Southern California is now home to one of America's greatest battleships. The USS Iowa opened to the public today as a floating museum. The vessel was built in 1940 and served the country for more than 50 years. Earlier in the week sailors who served on the Iowa gathered at the Port of Los Angeles to welcome the vessel to its new home.
We all know what some of the top tourist spots in London are, for example Buckingham Palace, but there are a lot of cool neighborhoods you should see. If you're heading to London for the summer Olympics Fredricka Whitfield has some great tips.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: When in London, whether it is the Olympics or otherwise, you really want to take in some of these neighborhoods, because they have distinct personalities and they offer so much from shopping to restaurants, et cetera. Let's begin with the Primrose Hill, which sort of the Beverly Hills of London.
KATE MAXWELL, JETSETTER.COM: It is a bit like that, yes. It is where movie stars and music people and media moguls live. People like Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow. It is part of Regents Park. It is a hill. You have a fantastic view of London from the top. It is a great place to have a picnic or fly a kite, but also make sure check out the pubs. My favorite is the Engineer which really does a fantastic fish-and-chips.
WHITFIELD: What if you want to actually stay in that neighborhood? Do you have a favorite?
MAXWELL: Actually, jet setters partnered with one fine state of apartments throughout London. We have a great one in Regents Park Road, a one bedroom apartment. It has a roof terrace. You can't get better if you want to really live like a Londoner than booking an apartment so check that out.
WHITFIELD: Then am I saying this right, Marylebone?
MAXWELL: Yes, a quintessential London village. It has a high street which for cheese, Emma Bridgewater, a great book shop. And then for real fashionistas. And Liberty, my favorite part store, is about a 15- minute walk away. There is a really great pub with room there called the grazing goat that I stayed in recently which is very useful. If you want a grab a pint and walk upstairs and collapse into bed. Wicked value as well, about $305 a night.
WHITFIELD: That's pretty impressive. And then a borough.
MAXWELL: It is really for its food and its food market. It is Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It is known for its pork pies to delicious goat's milk ice cream. Also a great street which has some excellent restaurants. There is really good Italian. And the place to stay there is north side of the river. It is on the south bank. It one of the great contemporary hotel with a swimming pool and it's about a 15-minute bus ride. While you're there, you can check out the national theater, everything there. The London I is very, very close by.
WHITFIELD: So take those walk shoes. There will be a lot of that.
MAXWELL: Definitely. And buy your oyster card for the that buses as well.
WHITFIELD: Kate Jetsetter.com, thank you very much.
MAXWELL: Thank you for having me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: The Grazing Goat, a wonderful name for a restaurant. You can find a lot more travel tips about London and other bucket list destinations at jet setter.com/CNN.
The essence music festival is taking over New Orleans this weekend. But what you may not realize is that it is a party with a purpose. Our very own Fredricka Whitfield will show us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: If you're in the Louisiana this weekend, there is only one place to be the 2012 Essence Music Festival. If you're not familiar with the festival, let me tell you it brings out the biggest African- American stars in TV, music, and the movies. It is a place where people can be empowered through workshops and forums. And this year superstars like Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Kahn are all set to perform.
But we have someone there at the festival who is bigger than those stars combined. My friend, my colleague, Fredricka Whitfield who will be back here on this very chair tomorrow in Atlanta but is having a great time in New Orleans and has a special guest with her right now. Right, Fred?
WHITFIELD: Hey, Gary, you're doing a great job holding down the fort. Here at the essence fest, yes, there are a lot of incredible talents. Powerful talents, all that you just mentioned but also some brilliant minds who have come together to provoke some very stimulating conversation, some really forward-thinking discussions taking place. You know, on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, upholding the affordable health care act, there remained disparities among health care, particularly in the black community.
And that's one of the things that we'll be discussing today during a panel that I'm mod rating later on this afternoon called women's agenda. And among those panelists will be Dr. Freda Lewis hall who is with me now. Dr. Julian Malveaux, the editor-in-chief of "Essence" magazine, and an entrepreneur who has her own web cast. We'll be about a number of things from health care to the family dynamics, education.
Let's zero in on health care right now. We talk about these disparities in health care. Not all of it predicated on the accessibility of insurance. I think at the very onset, that's what one would believe. There are disparities because you don't have insurance because you're unable to get good preventive care. You say that is at the very least, the problem.
DR. FREDA LEWIS-HALL, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, PFIZER: Access is certainly one of the issues but there are a lot of issues that drive health disparities. And the data remains really shocking about what some of the disparities are. Let me give you a couple examples. In common cancers like lung cancer and colorectal cancers, African- Americans are more likely to develop and die from those cancers. Prostate cancer is the same for African-American men. More significantly, likely to develop and die from prostate cancer. And some cancers with women, not more likely to develop them. We are more likely to die from them like breast cancer and cervical cancer.
WHITFIELD: And not necessarily because we're predisposed but we're talking about because there are those initial layers of health care that are not being done, preventive care.
LEWIS-HALL: Exactly. There are a whole range of thing like wellness, having the right diet and the right exercise. Prevention, having the right vaccines when they're available to prevent diseases. And then early detection and screening remains a key. So sure that you get your mammogram, your pap smear, and a physical examination that looks for other hints of trouble that would make you at risk for these serious diseases. WHITFIELD: So you're underscoring, if it is an issue of you don't have health insurance, that should not be a barrier for a lot of these screenings. There are screenings that are available. There are buses and trailers that travel in various communities across the nation. It really is, the onus is really out, the patient. You have to take the initiative. But maybe in large part, part of the problem is education to even know that those things are available.
LEWIS-HALL: My mother used to always say knowledge is power. And information is available. I suggest that people get two or three sources of information that they can trust. And use those information resources to help them make their really good health care decisions, to know when they should have a screening. To know what they should do, when they should see their health care provider.
And we work really hard to provide helpful, usable information so that people know what to do about their health. We have a website, healthier world.com. And on it we have very useful information that is provided to people so that they can have strong discussions with their health care providers, and to seek health care, both wellness prevention as well as when they're ill.
WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, doctor. I'll see you later on today, the women's agenda at the convention center and downtown New Orleans. We'll talk a lot about that and some other solutions to helping to disseminate that information so that we can shrink that gap and the disparities of health care. Particularly among those in the black community. Gary, back to you.
TUCHMAN: Fred, I know you're serving on the panel so I wish good luck. A very nice trip back to Atlantic. A nice job today.
WHITFIELD: Looking forward to it. Thank you.
TUCHMAN: Flying through the air toward a catastrophic wildfire. If it sounds unbelievable to you, wait until you see the elite smoke jumpers at work.
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TUCHMAN: Colorado's monstrous Waldo canyon fire is now 95 percent contained. That is good news. The fire was the most destructive in state history and required help from the most specialized fire crews in the United States. This week I got a firsthand look at how the smoke jumpers train in Colorado, and, as I found out, it is not for the squeamish.
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TUCHMAN: In the entire USA, there are only 430 of them. They are among the firefighting elite. They are the smoke jumpers, and many are in Colorado right now, marching on to aircraft which is their transportation to the action. Their job -- to fly into the fires just as new ones are starting up and stop them from getting bigger.
This is video the smoke jumpers just brought back. It is hard to spot the flame from up here at 1,500 feet, but the smoke jumpers are train to see them, and it is very clear when they're on the ground nowhere near any roads and sometimes quite a distance from any civilization. But if they don't get to the blaze quickly, the flames will often spread rapidly. Smoke jumpers court disaster every day they're on the job.
(on camera) You talk to people you know who aren't necessarily close family. You tell them what they do. What do they say to you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They think I should get my head examined.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Part of the reason for that is because of how they get to the fires. Firefighting is not an occupation for the timid, particularly in this specialty. Take a look. They are not just fighting fires. They sky dive into potentially combustible wilderness. We were invited to watch the smoke jumpers train in this canyon near Grand Junction, Colorado. After the smoke jumpers land, their equipment is attached to its own parachute.
STEVE STROUD, SMOKE JUMPER: Inside the cargo you'll find our hand tools that we use for fighting fires.
TUCHMAN: The smoke jumpers who work for the U.S. departments of agriculture and the interior, have MREs, water, and sleeping gear because they may be in the wilderness for up to 48 hours while hauling gear on their backs.
STROUD: It usually weighs between 120 to 140 pounds.
TUCHMAN: The fires have been unpredictable and relentless, but there are so many other ways to get hurt including lightning and bad parachute landings.
PHILIP LIND, SMOKE JUMPER: I had a branch of a tree puncture me. Come through my pelvis and eviscerate me. Fortunately the person I was with was a trained paramedic.
TUCHMAN: The smoke jumpers put out the fires by clearing fields with their equipment and digging fire lines. Also, building back fires to stop the wildfires in their tracks. They have to get along with each other because their lives depend on relying on each other.
Are there time where you're fearful?
LIND: Most certainly. I think all firefighters have moments when they're fearful. I would say courage is not the absence of fear but the making of action in spite of it.
TUCHMAN: And there has been no shortage of action this fire season.
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TUCHMAN: The smoke jumpers cannot jump in the dark, but it is a 24- hour operation. Often they have to catch out near the flames overnight and then they begin their journey to get away from the flames when the sun comes up. Just in time for summer beach goers, here come the great white sharks. Find out why some locals are glad to see the giant creatures so close to shore.
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TUCHMAN: Beachgoers in Massachusetts at Cape Cod are staying close to the shore these days. They're worried about something lurking beneath the usually calm waters. Brian Todd has more.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Gary, it's a beautiful weekend here at cape cod at a beautiful beach behind me here. Our photojournalist will zoom in to show you the scene. This is one of the best known, most popular resorts on the east coast. But you'll notice there is no one in the water and that's for good reason. Gorgeous weather and it is the height of summer. But they're only going in waist deep and it is not because the water is cold.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I grew up watching "Jaws" in the '70s, and vivid memories, and I don't want to relive that.
TODD: This is what they're worried about on Cape Cod. Not far from where "Jaws" was filmed, great white sharks are back.
GREG SKOMAL, MASSACHUSETTS DIVISION OF MARINE FISHERIES: Tuesday were the most recent sightings by one of our spotter pilots, two white sharks.
TODD: Each measuring at least 14 feet. Authorities have identified 20 of these predators right off the Cape in the past three years and believe there are many more lurking. A group called Cape Cod Shark Hunters works with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to track, photograph, and tag the great whites. We're out off the cape looking for the sharks with John Chisholm. We spot abundant marine life here, including humpback whales. It looks like a harpoon but it is a listening station. These buoys carry acoustic receivers that track the migration and behavior of great whites that have been tagged. What is drawing them here?
CHISHOLM: We know they're here looking for seals. That's why we place these in strategic locations where we know they're hunting seals where we have documented seals.
TODD: The population of gray and harbor seals has made a comeback in recent years. Every expert we speak to points to that as the magnet for great whites. Here's a pod of seals. This is an area they've tagged a lot of sharks. We're told they're very stealthy. They'll lurk on the bottom and come and grab the seals even this close to shore.
Scenes like this make people wonder how close the sharks could be. This dead seal washed up on shore. And experts says things to look for, teeth marks and possible tearing that could be what you're seeing right here. An expert later looks at our video and says this was very likely a shark attack victim. The sharks aren't scaring folks off. They're actually a top attraction this summer and even good for business.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some quality great white shark t-shirts being sold. It's awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think folks in general love to see sharks. They love the idea of sharks. I think sharks fascinate people.
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TODD: One marine biologist says a human hasn't been attacked in these waters since 1936. But with the seals making such a big comeback and with the seals' proximity to the swimmers, authorities here are getting increasingly concerned -- Gary.
TUCHMAN: Brian, thank you very much.
