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CNN Live Today
Midnight Bus to New Orleans; Looking for Fuel Alternatives
Aired April 19, 2006 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now the story of a man whose job it was to deliver vital aid to Hurricane Katrina victims. Now he's under arrest. A FEMA worker and another man face charges today after they were caught in an undercover sting. Police in Slidell, Louisiana, say the suspects sold FEMA trailers for $5,000 each. The FEMA employee has been identified as James Wiginton -- is a contractor who delivered trailers to storm victims.
They left home and had a little choice, but their hearts are there -- they're in New Orleans. Now Katrina evacuees are riding buses for hours to make their voices heard in the mayor's race.
Here's our Candy Crowley in a story that first aired on "THE SITUATION ROOM."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The midnight bus from Georgia is leaving soon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let me have your attention, please. Has everybody -- Des (ph) -- has everybody signed a clipboard with your Atlanta address on it?
CROWLEY: Lisa Delay will be on board, headed a little south and mostly west, to New Orleans.
LISA DELAY, NEW ORLEANS VOTER: So, we're on this bus, trying to do what we can. And we feel that it's -- we feel an allegiance to that city. We want to vote. We want our votes to count.
CROWLEY: Fearful that confusion, bureaucracy and the vagaries of mail delivery would keep displaced New Orleanians from getting or returning absentee ballots, the NAACP put together early-voting bus trips from Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and here in Atlanta, where they expected about 90 voters to take the ride. Less than half that number showed up, powered by gasoline, fueled by fury.
DELAY: I don't live here right now. And I can't live here right now. We don't have a home to come to. But that means that I have to do something.
CROWLEY: How many will do something? How many will vote? The secretary of state's office in Baton Rouge sent out more than 15,000 absentee ballots. By Monday, only a third had been returned. And, of the nearly 300,000 registered in Orleans Parish, about 11,000 voters cast a ballot early. Forty of them rode the bus eight-and-a-half hours from Georgia.
They stopped for gas an hour north of Mobile, Alabama. They slept along the way and ate breakfast in Slidell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our community is going to be a better place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CROWLEY: They talked about jobs in Atlanta and homes in New Orleans.
Across Lake Pontchartrain, into Orleans Parish, the closer they got, the harder it was to keep going. And, whether by accident or design, as the bus passed home after ruined home, "America the Beautiful" played overhead.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
RAY CHARLES, MUSICIAN: America, America...
(END AUDIO CLIP)
CROWLEY: It is 464 miles from NAACP headquarters in Atlanta to City Hall in New Orleans. They may be displaced and depressed. But, aboard the midnight bus from Georgia, they will not be disenfranchised.
DELAY: I don't live here right now, and I can't live here right now. We don't have a home to come to. But that means that I have to do something.
CROWLEY: Mission accomplished.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: "THE SITUATION ROOM" comes your way 4:00 Eastern and primetime edition at 7:00 Eastern here on CNN.
China's president visits Washington state before visiting Washington, D.C. on his first trip to the U.S. Why he came up with his route that way and what's really at stake between the two countries, ahead on LIVE TODAY.
Also, the Duke rape investigation. What now? The evidence, the suspects, the media circus. A North Carolina law professor helps score through it in next hour on LIVE TODAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: If high gas prices have you down, Miles O'Brien might give you a lift, with news of some promising new fuels.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On my daily commute, it's not so much what I see, it's what I smell of the pollutants. Riding my bicycle changed my perspective on the environment. Automobiles are a very large source of our pollution. We really need to make a big step in improving our overall fuel economy standards.
My wish for the future is that we balance our existence on Earth. We have all of the tools available to us today. And if we don't do something to change it, we're not going to have a world to change.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): When it comes to transportation, oil has become a dirty word. National security concerns, high gas prices and threats to the environment have us all scrambling for alternatives.
(voice-over): By now you've probably heard of alternative fuels. From hydrogen gas to biodiesels, the list of energy sources is long.
Nathaniel Greene (ph) of the Natural Resources Defense Council says his money is on ethanol, an earth-friendly fuel that's cost effective, too.
NATHANIEL GREENE, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: There are so many ways that we can make it, switchgrass, corn kernels, wood chips. One of the exiting things about this next generation of ethanol technology is that they have the potential to be not just cost competitive with gasoline but actually cheaper.
O'BRIEN: Something Brazil is already embracing. In fact, 75 percent of Brazil's new cars burn both gasoline and ethanol. And Greene says it can happen here, too.
GREENE: Ethanol is great, but it's not a silver bullet. We need to have more efficient vehicles as well that we're putting this fuel in. We need a government commitment to do this and do it in a smart way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MARKET REPORT)
KAGAN: Talking about this match, it's a match not made in heaven, but on the Internet. There's this Montreal computer geek, and he had this big, red paper clip, but what he really wants is a house. Well, she owns a house. She's in Phoenix, and she own as house, a duplex, and she wants a recording career.
Tammy Leitner from our affiliate -- actually it's KPHO has the story of dreaming dreams and making deals.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAMMY LEITNER, KPHO REPORTER (voice-over): Like so many struggling musicians... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should I just start. I've never done this before.
LEITNER: ... Jody Ganant (ph) Dreams of a recording contract.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a normal mode, it's really tough to get that kind of an opportunity.
LEITNER: But she found opportunity just a Web site away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has the kind of Web site you want to go back to, even when you're not a part of it.
LEITNER: Kyle MacDonald started this Web site In Journey a year ago, with nothing more than a red paper clip. The 26-year-old from Montreal hatched the crazy idea to barter that paper clip over the Internet for bigger and better things, until eventually he got a house. Impossible, right? Maybe not.
His first trade, A fish-shaped pen. Not too impressive, but within three trades, he had a generator, which he traded for a keg, and by a sixth trade a snowmobile, a trip, a truck, a contract, then...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A year's free rent in my house.
LEITNER: Which brings us back to Jody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm asking everybody I know, my mom, my dad what do we have? What do we have? And they didn't have anything, and I did!
LEITNER: You see, Jody's letting someone stay in her Phoenix home free for a year. In exchange, she gets a recording contract and then gets to pitch her album to execs at Sony and XM Radio.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Felt like I won the Lottery!
LEITNER: And to think one red paper clip held the power to make this dream come true. I would love to think that it's the small things in life that make the biggest difference.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And that story coming out of Phoenix, Arizona. Jody Ganant wants what she wants, and that's a recording contract. Kyle MacDonald has one year's free rent in a duplex, but he still needs at least one more trade to get his ultimate goal, and that is home ownership.
Ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY, the softer side of Simon. Did you see him last night? Was he drunk? He was so nice, I couldn't believe it. The "American Idol" judge is playing nice, while we wait for another contestant to go home tonight. An "Idol" update is just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: He jumped up and down on a couch to profess his love. Today Tom Cruise might be bouncing off the walls. He and fiancee Katie Holmes are the parents of a new baby daughter. They have named her Suri, which supposedly means "Princess" in Hebrew, "Red Rose" in Persian.
Headline News entertainment reporter Adrianna Costa is here with more.
ADRIANNA COSTA, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: What a pretty name.
KAGAN: Suri?
COSTA: I like it.
KAGAN: You do?
COSTA: I do. I think it's good.
KAGAN: It reminds me of Oklahoma, with you know, the surry (ph) with the fringe on top. I'm dating myself.
COSTA: Listen, let's not forget Gwyneth Paltrow just had a baby named Moses. This is after she had Apple a couple years ago.
KAGAN: I got to tell you, I like Moses and Apple better than Suri.
COSTA: I like Suri! OK, let's talk about Suri for a second, shall we?
KAGAN: OK.
COSTA: Seven pounds, seven ounces. We found out -- now, this is confirmed, but we did find out Katie Holmes most likely had the baby at home.
KAGAN: You're kidding?
COSTA: And it would make sense, because press, paparazzi, reporters, were all camped outside of the Holmes/Cruise residence yesterday. So maybe they knew something that the rest of us didn't. Also Tom Cruise canceled his publicity tour. He was supposed to start the publicity today for "M.I. 3," "Mission Impossible 3." Not sure if that was postponed or canceled entirely, but he's focusing on the baby right now.
KAGAN: Well, good for him. But what a weird twist. So Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have the baby the same day that Brooke Shields has her daughter. And, of course, Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields got into it about the whole postpartum depression.
COSTA: Depression and not -- you shouldn't use antidepressants.
KAGAN: Antidepressants and drugs. COSTA: And the truth is, OK so -- so Brooke Shields had a baby. It's baby number two for them. It's a little girl, for her and Chris Henchy. Very strange that within hours of each other, you know, Tom Cruise's baby and Brooke Shields had a baby. Very ironic because of that public spat last year. And now -- imagine this, it's going to be sort of a reminder every time their kids have birthdays.
KAGAN: What if they both grow up in L.A. and the girls are like in kindergarten together?
COSTA: Absolutely.
KAGAN: Or Girl Scouts or something like that?
COSTA: I know. Well, I'm interested to hear what they have to say about it.
KAGAN: Maybe they'll just kind of wish each other well.
COSTA: Well, that's we hope. And we -- you know, we want to send out our congratulations to all the moms...
KAGAN: Absolutely.
COSTA: ... and we hope that they're doing well.
KAGAN: And hopefully none of them will have postpartum depression,
COSTA: I know. That's got to be tough.
KAGAN: Especially Katie! Can you imagine Tom Cruise -- he'll say take some vitamins!
By the way, on the name Suri, we're going to ask some of our viewers, what do you think? Do you like the name Suri for the baby? What would you have named the Cruise baby? Send us your e-mail livetoday@CNN.com, and we'll read some of your suggestions.
COSTA: Daryn, on that, really quickly, I want to let you know, the press has given Suri a little nickname, calling it Tomkitten. Isn't that cute?
KAGAN: That's cute.
COSTA: I like that, Tomkitten.
KAGAN: But for her real name -- our viewers are great. They named the Trump baby as well. What did they name it? What did they name it? Oh, I forget what they came up with, the Trump baby. Oh, A. Prentice Trump.
COSTA: Oh, I like it.
KAGAN: Isn't that cute?
COSTA: I like it.
KAGAN: OK, so what do you want to name Trump (sic) baby. Quickly, "American Idol" last night. Standards, Rod Stewart, I thought boring.
COSTA: Yes. From the song book. You know what? It was better than the past two weeks. Chris Daughtry was probably one of my favorite performances. Also Taylor Hicks. I thought the latter half of his performance was pretty good. Everybody's got the Katherine McPheever, it seems like...
KAGAN: She was very good!
COSTA: I must have gotten like ten calls today from people saying, why aren't you talking more about Katherine McPhee, she was great?
KAGAN: She was great.
COSTA: Listen, I'm not a huge fan of hers anymore.
KAGAN: Why? What did she do to you?
COSTA: I think -- nothing. She looks great singing, I will you. I mean, she's got a beautiful voice. Don't let me take it away from her. I just thought her personality really kind of came out when she was talking back to Simon in past few weeks.
KAGAN: Yes, a little full of herself, maybe.
COSTA: It just turned me off a tiny bit. But you know what, if we're going to talk about who I think...
KAGAN: Who's getting voted off tonight, do you think?
COSTA: Listen, it's a very unpredictable show, which is what keeps it going. But if I had to put my bets on someone, I would say Ace could possibly be the one to go. Do have video of Ace? Because you got to see his hair.
KAGAN: With the ponytail and the...
COSTA: He was wearing like a bun. It looked like a bun.
KAGAN: Yes, it was all slicked back. And in a suit. This was not what his demographic and his fans will want to see. Can I tell you who I think it's going to be?
COSTA: Who?
KAGAN: And I'm sad to say this. I think it's going to be Elliott.
COSTA: You do -- well, now, we looked dialidols.com today, and Elliot is doing really, really well. He's just under Taylor Hicks. Top two who I think are going to make it to the end of the competition, the top two, Chris Daughtry, Taylor Hicks. I think they're pretty safe. Other than that, it's a toss-up.
KAGAN: I was a big fan of Paris last night, too. She's a cute girl.
COSTA: She sounded very Billie Holiday-esque.
KAGAN: She was good. I miss Mandisa. She would have been good. But anyhow, I'm bitter about that. That's for another time. Adrianna, thank you.
COSTA: Thank you, Daryn. Good to be here always.
KAGAN: And you can see much more of Adrianna. You just tune into Headline News every morning. She's with Robin and company from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Those are Eastern times, of course. Middle of the night for your family on the West Coast.
COSTA: That's right.
KAGAN: We are saving a whale. Now, this is kind of a sad story, but there's some encouraging news. We're talking about gas for the whale. He's sick. I'm going to have a chance to talk with a man trying to nurse him back to health, when LIVE TODAY returns. s
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Pick a day, any day, and pollution chokes China's capital. Well, now Beijing is dealing with this: a blinding sandstorm covering the city in brown dust. Swirling dust clouds have hit other parts of northern China, as well. Authorities say they've covered about one eighth of the country in recent days.
A crash course in capitalism for China's communist leader. Hu Jintao is in Seattle on the second day of his U.S. tour. A short time from now, he visits a Boeing plant. Last night, Hu hobnobbed with the world's richest man. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates threw the president a big dinner at his Seattle-area home. Tomorrow Hu heads to the White House to meet with President Bush. The two leaders are likely to focus on touchy political, economic and military issues.
The confrontation, the Congresswoman and controversy. What happened between a Georgia lawmaker an a Capitol Hill police officer? We'll take look at the police report, just ahead.
And do online registries make sex offenders sitting ducks? We'll talk with a critic of the state sites. He is also a sex offender. The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.
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