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Biden To Hit Campaign Trail After Issuing Warning On Democracy; Water Pressure Returns To Most Jackson Residents; Two Women Missing In Wyoming And In Tennessee; New Calls For Wife Of Justice Thomas To Testify Before January 6th Committee; A Look On Why Artemis 1 Launch Was Cancelled From Kennedy Space Center; Foo Fighters First Tribute Concert For Taylor Hawkins In Wembley Stadium In London. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired September 04, 2022 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:40]

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: Hello. Thanks for joining me. I am Sara Sidner, in for the fabulous Fredricka Whitfield this weekend.

With just 65 days until the midterm election the campaign season is about to kick into overdrive just days. After delivering a fiery seat blasting MAGA Republicans and warning that the extremist Trump movement is a threat to democracy, President Biden is preparing to return to the campaign trail.

CNN's Joe Johns joins us now from the White House.

Joe, what does Biden have on his agenda for this week?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Battleground states. The fact of the matter is he's expected to go out to Pennsylvania, to Wisconsin also, going to go to Ohio to a groundbreaking for a semiconductor plant there. A huge $20 billion semiconductor plant.

So this time of year, the Labor Day weekend, is traditionally the time when campaigns start bearing down. The voters start focusing on the candidates. Joe Biden's name, of course, nowhere on the ballot. But the fact that he's going to these three battleground states really tells you a little bit about what the Biden people are thinking. It wasn't very long ago that there were real concerns about the challenges faced here at the White House by the Biden administration challenges including inflation, the president's approval numbers, the price of gasoline.

Now some of those challenges have started to ease up and Democrats are thinking things might not be as bad as they first thought they could be. Of course they are keeping in the back of their minds the fact that a midterm president in his first term tends to lose seats in Congress during the midterm elections, so there's that.

Also, the other thing just to say as sort of a footnote, if you will, Sara, President Barack Obama, the former president, along with his wife, Michelle, are expected back here at the White House this week for the unveiling of the official Obama portrait. This is something that did not happen during the Trump administration but it's apparently going to happen this week.

Sara, back to you.

SIDNER: All right, Joe Johns, thank you so much. And thank you for working on this holiday weekend with me. I appreciate you.

JOHNS: Glad to do it.

SIDNER: All right. After nearly a week without water it's still unclear when residents in Jackson, Mississippi, will get clean water they can drink from their taps. Yesterday city officials did say that most Jackson residents should now have water pressure, but they caution there are still a few areas in South Jackson that may have low or no pressure as repairs continue on the troubled water plant.

CNN's Nadia Romero is live for us in Jackson.

Nadia, we're now in the sixth day since residents have had no clean water to flush their toilets or brush their teeth, but they're now saying, yes, actually, there's water running in those taps but you can't drink it. How are folks holding up there?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, sara. This was a twofold problem so it seems at least that first issue of not having water pressure has been resolved tentatively, right. We know that this water treatment plant is very old and has issues with ruptures and leaks. So we're still having to be cautiously optimistic. But when you talk to residents, they're fed up. They've been under this boil water advisory since the end of July.

And so it was just this week that the state set up these water distribution sites and called in the National Guard. Cars will line up here then the National Guard will load them up with two cases of water and a big old bottle of hand sanitizer, and that's what people have been doing. So imagine every time you want to wash your face, brush your teeth, cook something, you either have to boil the water that's coming out of your tap that may be brown or yellow, or you're going to have to use bottled water. And that's going to be for not just you but your entire family.

Now just imagine someone who is bound in a wheelchair, who's older. I'm going to introduce you to Alma Reginal. She just can't make it to one of these sites so she's relying on people to drop off bottles for her. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALMA REGINAL, JACKSON RESIDENT: We don't have any other options because no one else has volunteered to bring us any water. I don't know why they think that everybody has transportation. Everybody doesn't have transportation. And I appreciate it if they would check other areas and other places because there are a lot of people that don't have the opportunity or the transportation to get some water for themselves, and it would be wonderful if that could happen for everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:05:14]

ROMERO: So you heard Alma and you saw her there bound to her wheelchair. She's almost 70 years old. Beautiful spirit, beautiful woman. But really a challenging time for her and everyone else who lives in her building are seniors and many of them disabled as well. We visited a lot of these kinds of sites, apartment complexes where people just can't get out, Sara. So the Mississippi Urban League is going to drop off water.

Other groups are trying to coordinate how volunteers can go and they told me this weekend, they said, Nadia, water is more valuable than money in Jackson, Mississippi, right now.

SIDNER: That is insane and just showing us where you are and what it looks like there, I mean, the fact that this is America right now, one of the richest nations on earth, it's just hard to fathom. And we saw the same similar thing happened in Flint, Michigan. I appreciate your time, Nadia. Great story. Thank you for that.

Extreme dangerous heat is gripping the West Coast. More than 40 million people are under heat alerts as searing temperatures in the triple digits stretch from Southern California to Idaho. Several heat records already have been broken this holiday weekend and the most intense heat will likely come tomorrow.

CNN meteorologist Tom Sater is here to walk us through it all.

Tom, Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer. It's how we all think of summer. No more white, right, after Labor Day. Isn't that the thing? But this does not seem like the end of any sort of summer.

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not only, Sara, does it not seem like the end of summer, these are the hottest temperatures we've had all summer and the duration of this heat wave is going to last the entire week. So it's almost mind-boggling. It started a few days ago. And it's not just daily high temperature records that are broken. We can't have nearly 200 of them this week.

They're all time monthly records. On the 31st of August we had an all- time August high temperature. Yesterday, Salt Lake City all-time highest September record at 103 degrees. Some of these records you see here in Death Valley, 122, I mean, they go back some time. Some of these are back to the '50s. but almost the entire state of California and a good portion of Southern Nevada and parts of Northwest Arizona are under excessive heat warnings.

These not advisories. And what this low humidity we're seeing fires becoming more apparent all throughout the area. And this is Labor Day weekend. And a lot of people are barbecuing so we've really got to be careful. But the heat is going to intensify. It is already setting records. Sacramento, 108 today. You're up to 114 Tuesday. Bakersfield 114. Palm Springs, you're up to 113.

So, again this is a long duration event. It's going to slide in the Midwest. Now the fire danger is quite high. Parts of Idaho up into Montana as well, and this goes into Canada. They're fighting wildfires there in Alberta and Saskatchewan with high temperature records. Look at how the heat then slides. So this is building, this is not typical and what you find in September. Sure September can be hot but not when it's the hottest temperatures in the entire year.

Rapid City, you're going to get up to 100 degrees on Thursday. So it really starts to slide into the Midwest, too. A tale of two air masses, with the heat out west, east and southeast flooding, and it has been a sad day. Reports of a fatality in Southern Indiana. A woman was found five miles from her home that was washed away by floodwaters.

Just a little bit ago, Georgia Governor Kemp declared a state of emergency for a couple of counties. You see the watch in Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington, down to Nashville, Chattanooga as well. But where it's really been flooding and we have these massive flood warnings in effect, you can even see in parts of northwestern Georgia, getting into Alabama as well, a town of Summerville picking up 11 inches. That's a 1 in 200-year flood event.

So it's Chattooga County in Georgia, it's Floyd County with a state of emergency, so, again, these storms are just training over the same area. This is what we saw just last month when we had five 1 in 1,000- year flood event. This is a 1 in 200-year. I mean, this is just amazing. So a warmer atmosphere, holds more moisture and we're just seeing these rain events. It's not over with. We need the rain in some parts of New England and it looks like that's where it's going where they've had flash droughts. So there could be good news to this. But probably some flash flooding up there as well expected.

SIDNER: Tom, a lot of folks in the West would love to see some of that rain.

SATER: Yes, they would.

SIDNER: For sure, that drought situation really serious. Thank you so much for bringing that to us to help keep people safe in their communities.

We're learning new details about the man police say stole a plane and threatened to crash it into a Mississippi Walmart. Cory Wayne Patterson was arrested following an hours long ordeal over the skies of Tupelo, Mississippi. He's being charged with grand larceny and making terroristic threats. It's expected he will also face federal charges.

Investigators say Patterson worked for Tupelo Aviation for the last 10 years. That explains how he was able to get hold of this plane. But around 5:00 in the morning on Saturday police say he stole a Beechcraft King Air C90 twin engine plane, and then called 911 and threatened to crash it into the local Walmart there.

[16:10:09]

After more than five hours in the air and running out of fuel Patterson landed the plane safely in a field then was promptly arrested. Amazingly no one was injured, not even Patterson himself. The FAA is now investigating.

Still ahead, two missing women and many unanswered questions. One moved to the U.S., met a man on Craigslist then has vanished. The other missing after going on an early morning jog. We'll discuss the cases coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: A family is searching for answers after a woman vanishes without a trace. Police say 32-year-old Irene Gakwa disappeared back in February after she arrived in the U.S. from Kenya. She was reported missing by her family in March. They have organized search parties around Gillette, Wyoming, almost every single weekend since.

[16:15:03]

Investigators say Gakwa's on again and off again boyfriend who she met on Craigslist is refusing to cooperate. Nathan Hightman has not been charged in her disappearance but is facing charges related to removing money from Gakwa's bank account using her credit cards and deleting her e-mail account all after she disappeared.

CNN has made repeated attempts to reach Hightman via phone, text and e-mail, but he has not responded. CNN also left messages for his public defender but we have not heard back from there either.

Joining us now, CNN contributor, former FBI profiler and current host of "The Killer Psyche" podcast, Candice DeLong.

Candice, this case is so strange for so many reason. Irene Gakwa's boyfriend told police that he last saw her when she came home one night, packed her clothing in two bags and left in a dark-colored SUV. From your experience -- he is not cooperating with police anymore. From your experience, how realistic is the scenario that he's laying out?

CANDICE DELONG, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't believe a word he says based on what we know and the fact that he's not cooperating with the police to help find someone that was his girlfriend? No. It's not good.

SIDNER: From your experience as a profiler, let's talk about Nathan Hightman. He is considered a person of interest in Gakwa's appearance. If he refuses to cooperate as he has so far done, what are the chances of finding her after all of this time? We know time is the enemy when someone goes missing.

DELONG: Right. Well, it would surprise me to the moon if the police haven't also considered him a person of interest in her disappearance because we know that he committed three felonies in using her credit card going into her bank account, and it's hard for me to believe that he has nothing to do. I'm sure the police are focusing on him. There are things they can do. Perhaps they haven't done them yet or they haven't done them in the past. For example, phone records for both of them. When was the last time

they communicated by phone? That would interest me. Also executing a search warrant in his car and in their home they lived in and his car.

SIDNER: Yes. Those details are so interesting. Oftentimes, you know, black and brown people do not get the kind of coverage from us in the media, which is our fault and sometimes from authorities because they're not getting the coverage, they don't get the same exact treatment.

I do want to go on to this other case, another woman that has caught the public's attention for sure. A woman from Mississippi -- sorry, excuse me, from Memphis, Tennessee, Eliza Fletcher. She has also gone missing. Police say she was forced into an SUV while jogging early Friday morning. Sandals were found at the scene. They helped police arrest a suspect in that case, Cleotha Abston. Once again he is not cooperating. What are the challenges for investigators in a case like this?

DELONG: Well, of course if she is there operating as if she is still alive at this point it is a missing person, a kidnapped person, and there are all kinds of things they can do as well. His phone records, where did it ping on towers? Where did he go? Why isn't he cooperating? Because of course he knows. He knows where she is.

I would want to know if I was working this case all about his associates, and the reason for that is, is someone helping him? Is someone with her? Is someone keeping her hidden? We don't know but there's all kinds of things they can be doing. I think this probably is going to come to an end fairly quickly.

SIDNER: It's really terrifying, the both cases, you know, perhaps somebody go missing like that and just not know where they are, it sits with families for so, so long. They just want answers at some point.

Candice DeLong, thank you so much. I will be looking forward to listening to your podcast.

DELONG: Thank you for having me on.

SIDNER: It's great.

Coming up in just a bit, Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, urged Wisconsin lawmakers to overturn Biden's 2020 victory. Could she face any legal trouble from this? And what does it mean for Justice Thomas? We'll discuss all of that next.

[16:20:02]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: There are new calls today for Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to testify before the January 6th Committee. They come as CNN learned this week that Thomas not only pushed state lawmakers in Arizona but also Wisconsin to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 election win. According to e-mails shared with CNN at least two state lawmakers from Wisconsin received what appeared to be pre-generated e-mails from the conservative activist that mirror form letters she also sent to 29 Arizona legislators encouraging them to meddle in the state slate of presidential electors.

[16:25:06]

Thomas also attended the rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the January 6th Committee has used hearings to highlight texts Thomas exchanged with Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in 2020 urging him to continue the fight to overturn Biden's win. In one text she said, quote, "The majority knows Biden and the left is attempting the greatest heist of our history," which is obviously untrue.

With me now is Richard Hasen, he is a professor of law at the UCLA School of Law and is the director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project.

Richard, do you think that these new e-mails could open up Ginni Thomas to any possible legal problems herself even though she's not elected and she doesn't sit on the Supreme Court?

RICHARD HASEN, PROFESSOR, UCLA SCHOOL OF LAW: I don't think these e- mails themselves really add much. They're pretty much the same e-mails that went to legislators in Arizona and they were kind of prefabricated e-mails. I'm much more concerned about the contact she was having with the White House including the e-mails you mentioned with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in which she's urging actions that look like they could be trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

So I certainly think she's got relevant evidence for the January 6th Committee and she is someone that probably the Department of Justice is going to want to take a look at.

SIDNER: Well, we know this, that one member of the January 6th Committee says the panel still wants to talk to Ginni Thomas. Ginni Thomas earlier, before all this, has said that she would talk to the panel. Hasn't done so yet. Let's take a listen to what the legislator said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): I would say she has relevant testimony to render, and she should come forward and give it. I don't want to overstate her role. We've talked to more than 1,000 people. But we'd like to hear from Gingrich and we'd like to hear from her, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: They'd like to hear from her. She was willing to talk but one of her attorneys has claimed there is no sufficient basis for them to speak to her. Should the committee go ahead and subpoena her?

HASEN: Well, you know, I think it really depends on whether they think that they need her to get the relevant evidence. Obviously, it's going to be very politically sensitive to be subpoenaing the spouse of a sitting Supreme Court justice. This whole situation is very uncomfortable. You have Justice Thomas on the court deciding issues related to disputes over the 2020 election and now potentially prosecutions over the insurrection at the Capitol.

And so it's a very dicey situation. I'd leave it to the committee as to whether or not they need her particular testimony. But they already have those texts which tell you that she was trying to influence how the 2020 election was going to be potentially interfered with.

SIDNER: You know, Justice Thomas was the only justice to publicly dissent from the Supreme Court move in January not to block a court order greenlighting the release of Trump White House documents to the House investigators. How much of what Ginni Thomas has said will make people really question the work of a Supreme Court justice who sits now on the Supreme Court and has been for a very long time, and in the end should he have to recuse himself from any hearings on any case that involve the 2020 election and the Capitol insurrection?

HASEN: Well, first of all, the question of recusal, the way it's worked at the Supreme Court is that each justice gets to make his or her own decision as to whether or not recusal is warranted. I think at the very least Justice Thomas has to explain himself. A number of years ago there was a challenge to Justice Antonin Scalia who was a hunting buddy of Dick Cheney, the former vice president, and he issued an opinion explaining why he thought he could decide these cases without it raising any kinds of issues.

To the extent that Justice Thomas' spouse is someone who could be under criminal investigation or at least under investigation by the January 6th Committee, and to the extent that she was involved in these activities, I think Justice Thomas owe as similar explanation to the American people as to why he thinks he could sit on such cases without it raising at least the appearance of a conflict of interest between the justice's personal life and his professional decisions.

SIDNER: Even though it is not his words, it's the words of his wife. Does this really damage the credibility of the U.S. Supreme Court that is already going through a public crisis, if you will, in some ways in a lot of people's minds?

HASEN: Well, right now public opinion about the Supreme Court is very divided by party. It's not a surprise because for the first time in modern history all the conservatives on the court have been appointed by presidents of one party and all the liberal justices by presidents of another party. So already there's a lot of tension.

But what the Justice Thomas issue adds is the issue of a, kind of, personal conflict. Not just one about ideology but one where, you know, a person's spouse could potentially be under investigation and I think that lends itself to a new level of distrust and it does deserve some explanation from Justice Thomas.

SIDNER: Professor Hasen, thank you for your insights. This is a -- a really big deal to America's democracy and to the Supreme Court. We will see what happens in this case. I appreciate you coming on.

HASEN: Thank you.

SIDNER: Coming up, scars on the pavement and suffocating smoke, how neighbors near an iconic film site are absolutely fed up with its street racing reputation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:35:03]

SIDNER: Fans of the "Fast and Furious franchise are infuriating neighbors in one Los Angeles community where street racers are burning rubber at all hours of the night. While street racing has been around much longer than the movies obviously, residents can't help but feel the films are contributing to the problem in their neighborhood. Our Stephanie Elam has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From around the globe --

UNKNOWN: In the "Fast and Furious" world, Bob's Market is an icon.

ELAM: "Fast and Furious" fans come to this Los Angeles neighborhood to take pictures in front of this shop made famous by the movie franchise.

UNKNOWN: We are here in L.A. so I want to see the market and also the house from "Fast and Furious".

UNKNOWN: It's nice. I mean, this is really great.

ELAM: But the movies, known for their fast cars and daring stunts have left their mark on this neighborhood in another way. The scars of street racing and donuts mark the intersection where, so called takeovers, similar to these have invaded the neighborhood.

UNKNOWN: They're coming around drifting, doing donuts, spinning around like crazy with their mufflers sounding like explosions.

ELAM: For the people who live here --

UNKNOWN: The smoke that it leaves behind from the tires burning, it lingers. It doesn't go away.

ELAM: It's more than a nuisance.

UNKNOWN: You hear these, like, screeches and it happens until the cops come.

ELAM: It's dangerous and illegal. Takeovers like these happening at all hours of the day.

UNKNOWN: You're putting our lives at risk. You're putting our neighborhood at risk. They don't stop at the stop signs anymore. ELAM: Across the country, drivers are taking over streets, racing,

doing donuts and burnouts. Just in the last week, an entire block was damaged by out of control cars in Des Moines. Police in Salt Lake City arrested six people for illegally racing. Another blocked police from getting to a shooting in Portland, Oregon. Chandler, Arizona police say an illegal drag race left one driver dead. Near Chicago, a pedestrian was struck and killed. A city alderman saying higher fines and impounding vehicles has little effect.

BYRON SIGCHO-LOPEZ, CHICAGO ALDERMAN: We see these incidents not stopping. They haven't stopped, if anything, they've gotten worse and worse.

ELAM: Rumble strips in Compton, California did little to slow down the takeovers. Fed up residents in L.A. taking to the streets in protest.

ANNA MARIE PIERSIMON, L.A. RESIDENT WHO LOST HUSBAND BY A STREET RACER: That's Larry (ph) and that's Larry (ph).

ELAM: Anna Marie Piersimon is one of them. She lost Larry Brooks (ph), her husband of more than 30 years when he went out for some exercise and never came home.

PIERSIMON: The driver revved his car to 90, spun out, lost control. He hit my husband and six other cars. My husband had 10 minutes to live after that. It's called vehicular manslaughter, but it was murder.

ELAM: She and others are calling for a disclaimer to be added to the "Fast and Furious" films convinced the glamorize street racing. Universal Pictures did not return a request for comment.

PIERSIMON: I feel furious. Yes there's another meaning to that word than the movie "Fast and Furious".

LILI TRUJILLO PUCKETT, FOUNDER OF NON-PROFIT, STREET RACING KILLS: You can injure yourself.

ELAM: Lili Trujillo Puckett started the non-profit, Street Racing Kills, after her 16 year old daughter Valentina was killed in 2013. Now Puckett mentors street racers who've been punished by the courts.

PUCKETT: When your whole dreams and your life is gone away for 40 years and you're going to have the other party telling you, this is what you took away from us.

ELAM: Her message not heard nearly enough she says. Lost in a haze of burning rubber and roaring engines. Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SIDNER: Great story by our Stephanie Elam there. It's too soon to know exactly when NASA will make another attempt to launch its new Artemis 1 moon rocket. It's second attempt was cancelled yesterday after engineers discovered a serious liquid hydrogen leak. CNN's Kristin Fisher has more from the Kennedy Space Center. KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: A second scrub, a

second hydrogen leak but this leak was much bigger than the one that NASA encountered on Monday. So now, NASA needs to fix it and they have two options. They can either fix it on the launch pad or they can roll the entire rocket all the way back to the VAB, or the Vehicle Assembly Building, but to do that would take about three and a half days. It eats up a ton of time, but regardless of where they make the repairs as of now, NASA is going to need to roll the rocket back to the VAB regardless because they are in the middle, or about to be in the middle of a safety violation with the range.

The range is run by the Space Force and so NASA says they're going to try to ask the Space Force for a waiver or an extension but they just don't know if the Space Force is going to grant it. So those are the two issues, what that means in terms of when NASA can try again is, they're not going to make this launch window which ends on Tuesday. So that means the next launch attempt for the Artemis moon rocket is going to be the end of September at the earliest, but more likely sometime in mid to late October if not later.

[16:40:10]

FISHER: Here is NASA's Associate Administrator Jim Free speaking at the press conference just a few hours after this second scrub was announced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM FREE, NASA ASSOCIATED ADMINISTRATOR: We don't go into these tests lightly. Right? We -- we don't just say hey, we think, we hope this is going to work. The confidence -- confidence to do another launch attempt today was born out of the fact that we understood the hydrogen leaks that we had on -- on Monday. Those are different than the leak that we had today, in -- in terms of scale one was in the -- the same place but today was a different signature. And we -- we understood the engine issue, so we were confident coming into today but as the administrator said, we're not going to launch until we're ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: NASA Administrator Bill Nelson was also at the press conference and he pointed out that the cost of two srubs is less than the cost of one failure. So to be very clear, NASA is very disappointed about this but they're also acutely aware that this could have been much worse. This not the worst-case scenario.

That would have been an explosion on the launch pad or shortly after lift-off. So while this is a disappointment and a delay, NASA is confident that at some point it's Artemis moon rocket, more than a decade in the making is finally going to get off this launch pad. The question is when. Kristin Fisher for CNN at the Kennedy Space Center.

SIDNER: Coming up, she's a producer, actress, director, choreographer, dancer and teacher and so, so much more and now she has a new home for her dance academy to help teach the next generation of dancers. My conversation with Debbie Allen after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:45:10]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: And now for an emotional tribute to a rock and roll icon.

(CONCERT MUSIC)

SIDNER: The Foo Fighters performing at a packed Wembley Stadium late last night to honor their late drummer Taylor Hawkins. His 16 year old Shane, taking his dad's place on the drums there as the band played their hit song "My Hero". It was the first Foo Fighters performance since Hawkins died suddenly back in March, and it's the first of two tribute concerts planned in his honor. It's been 40 years now since the movie and TV series "Fame" launched Debbie Allen's career.

Now, she's bounding into new ventures. She has raised money and finally moved into a brand new building for young dancers at her Debbie Allen Dance Academy. At 72 years old, Debbie Allen refuses to let boundaries get in her way. Her star shines brighter with age. I spoke with her about her career and her new projects. Here's our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBBIE ALLEN, ACTRESS, CHOREOGRAPHER, FOUNDER OF THE DEBBIE ALLEN DANCE ACADEMY: You've got big dreams. You want fame. Well fame costs and right here is where you start paying in sweat.

SIDNER: That is Debbie Allen in the 1980's smash hit Fame.

(MUSIC INTERLUDE TO FAME)

SIDNER: Allen played a hardcore but loving dance teacher. The movie and TV show helped launch an icon. Debbie Allen, you are one of one. You are a trailblazer, a dancer, a choreographer, a teacher, a actress, singer and as I understand it, you're also an interviewer these days. So I have to ask you what are you doing right now that has you most excited?

ALLEN: September the 17th and 18th, I'm hosting a jazz festival at -- with Arturo Sandoval the 10-time Grammy winning amazing artist and it's going to be two days of music. I'm going to teach Salsa class. We're going to have taco trucks and tequila. It's the first real public venture out of the Rhimes Performing Arts Center and at the Wallace Performance Space. So I'm excited about all that and making more opportunity for young people in the arts. That's my purpose in life. That's greater than almost anything else that I do.

SIDNER: Allen managed to raise the money for a brand new performing arts building in Los Angeles, with a huge donation from a Hollywood powerhouse, Shonda Rhimes who Allen insisted the building be named after. The space opened up this year, a place where all children of all backgrounds can learn the power of dance and performance. Do you make it a point to allow people, especially in the black and brown communities to -- to -- to be exposed to all sorts of dance? Why do you work so hard to make that happen?

ALLEN: You know why? Because in my heart of hearts, I'm always one of those kids. I grew up in Houston, Texas where in the 50s' and 60s' everything was segregated and I couldn't go to class. I wasn't allowed to go to the best dance school. (Inaudible) for me and I know the young people right now, if they ever needed it it's right now.

SIDNER: Allen is also pouring her heart into directing, calling the shots for "Grey's Anatomy". She says it's important for the show to tackle real life issues.

ALLEN: We talked about being over for the last three years. We can't.

[16:50:05]

ALLEN: The fans, we have more fans now than ever and "Grey's Anatomy" is important because it underlines (inaudible) show that only endears you to the human factor and the personal stories of people, the human (inaudible). We certainly going to address, you know, what's happening with women today. You know, our show is very female driven and, you know, the plight of women right now in this country is -- is remarkable what is happening and what lays ahead of us and what battles we're going to have to wage to not go back into some dark age. It's frightening.

SIDNER: But nothing has scared Allen away from controversial subjects. In Fame, it tackled rape, abortion and homosexuality among high school students in the 1980s'. Two blasting stereotypes in another show she took part in that delved into the lives of black college students in the 1990s'. Will we ever see a revival of "A Different World"?

ALLEN: You know, "A Different World" should never have gone off the air. That's my opinion about that, because talk about relevance, talk about what's really happening in our country. We address something (inaudible) presidential campaign, racial -- racism, date rape, AIDS (inaudible).

SIDNER: What is stopping it from happening?

ALLEN: Well it gets complicated with writer rights and issues, you know, certainly Mr. Cosby's situation was -- has become a part of the reputation. But the truth is the show, we live on our own two feet and we need to keep going, that's what needs to happen.

SIDNER: She mentions Cosby because "A Different World" was a spin-off of the "Cosby Show". Bill Cosby has faced a tsunami of sexual allegations since then, being convicted in one case where the conviction was later overturned. But Allen is doing all she can to create a different world, a better world for the youth through dance and a lot of fun. I'm going to do a quick, sort of, a quick fire round with you. So this should be a little bit fun. All right, here we go. How do you feel about the category of dance called "twerking"?

ALLEN: Well "twerking" has had many names. The shimmy, way back then, I don't know. "Twerking" is -- is -- is (inaudible) like funny. It's a bootie move is what it is and you could tie it totally, directly to African dance. You really can.

SIDNER: There is a history and are you -- are you good at it? I'm imaging that you're good at it.

ALLEN: I guess I've been "twerking" my whole life. I never knew it was "twerking" but I -- I've been "twerking" my whole life.

SIDNER: Who is a person who consistently makes you laugh your head off?

ALLEN: Dave Chappelle. I think Dave Chappelle is hilarious. He's funny. He's very funny.

SIDNER: What song makes you dance like nobody's watching?

ALLEN: Oh man, it is a mouthful. There's an old -- there's this song it's older (inaudible) happen. It's more like a theme song for me that I play to myself in the morning on the way to work.

SIDNER: How would you like to be remembered?

ALLEN: I guess I'd like to be remembered as someone who gave her all. Gave her 150 percent, all the way to her family, her community and to the young people in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: She has certainly given her all to the young people in this world, especially those who love to learn about dancing. Now, perhaps no sector of the economy was hit harder by the COVID pandemic than the restaurant industry. So many of its employees worked paycheck to paycheck, but one CNN Hero couldn't let her community go hungry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM CALICHIO, FOUNDER OF THE CONNECTED CHEF AND CNN HERO: I had a choice to either sit here in my house and be overwhelmed or I can do whatever it is that I could possibly do without thinking about whether it's going to work or not.

CALICHIO: We're going to do two apples, a bunch of bananas, two tomatoes.

CALICHIO: We started a GoFundMe to direct deliver groceries to families across Queens.

[16:55:10]

CALICHIO: And within a week, we raised $10,000. We thought the pandemic was going to be over in two weeks. So were like, we'll spend this 10 grand and then we'll go back to work, and that never happened. The first week, we delivered 25 grocery packages to 25 families and within a months time we were delivering 400 to 500 groceries to families every single week. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: That's incredible. To see Kim's operation in action go to CNNHeroes.com. I'm Sara Sidner. CNN NEWSROOM continues with our Jim Acosta just after the break.

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