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New Orleans Residents Prepare for Election; Gas Prices Continue to Rise; Lawmakers in Two States Pass Notorious Sexual Offender Laws

Aired April 21, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A storm-ravaged city. Residents scattered near and far not exactly an ideal situation for an election. Thousands of voters are not even in town and many polling places are not up and running, but hurricane-battered New Orleans is forging ahead with tomorrow's mayoral election.
Gulf Coast correspondent, Susan Roesgen has details in this SITUATION ROOM report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is where Pete Sanchez has voted for the last 20 years, Louis Armstrong Elementary School in New Orleans' lower ninth ward. He won't be voting here this year.

PETE SANCHEZ, VOTER: Well, it reminds you of how the homes are looking, you know? Very empty, destroyed. But it will be back.

ROESGEN: The school is one of more than 200 polling places across New Orleans wiped out by the flood. To replace them, elections officials have set up mega sites like this warehouse with more than a hundred voting machines for people who used to vote in 50 separate precincts. What's needed now is for voters to show up. With billboards and an 800 number, the Louisiana secretary of state's office has tried to reach every evacuated voter.

AL ATER, LOUISIANA SECRETARY OF STATE: We're not the voting police. You know we don't go around to people's houses and drag them out and make them come vote. We have honestly tried to make certain that every single person that wants to participate in this election is able to do so.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

ROESGEN: For Pete Sanchez, Saturday's election is too important to miss no matter where he has to vote.

SANCHEZ: It's important that whoever will lead this city that we understand that we need to get the people back, education needs to be priority, you know when the kids come back and the families will be back. All of these things that make a community vibrant, we need to get these things back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: So now the question is will the voters be back? Some want to, but don't have a way there. Enter the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. It's offering displaced New Orleanians a free ride on the freedom caravan.

Here to tell us what that caravan is, Reverend Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at Ebenezer, also joining us, Rockell Cyrus, a New Orleanian who is determined to get back home to vote. Thank you both for being here.

REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK, EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH: Good to be here, Tony.

HARRIS: Raquel, good to see you.

ROCKELL CYRUS, DISPLACED RESIDENT: Good morning.

HARRIS: Reverend, I have to ask you about the freedom caravan. Why is historic Ebenezer stepping up in this way?

WARNOCK: Well, you remember Ebenezer Baptist Church is the spiritual home of Martin Luther King, Jr. So in a real sense the spiritual foundation for the voting rights act is situated in that church and all of the churches that are like it, that are committed to the work of social transformation.

HARRIS: A sense of mission, calling?

WARNOCK: Absolutely. I was there in New Orleans three weeks ago at a protest. Protesting this election, but it was clear to me even as we were making our point that this election would go forward. So the question for me was what are we going to do on April 22nd? We are convinced many of us that Louisiana state officials have made it too difficult to vote in the big easy. And so we organized the freedom caravan so that people like Rockell could make it back to New Orleans and vote.

HARRIS: Well reverend you had a couple of options. You could have organized an absentee voting option, making sure that everyone who wanted to vote had the ballots in the mail received them and went through that process. Or you could have pursued getting the secretary of state in New Orleans and throughout Louisiana to put in place a satellite voting station in Ebenezer, how nice would that have been, why didn't you choose one of those options?

WARNOCK: I think the second thing would have been a wonderful option if it were available to us. The absentee voting method is one of the methods that we are encouraging.

HARRIS: Okay.

WARNOCK: And the NAACP legal defense fund and others are doing an outstanding job there, but it doesn't answer the question for everybody. For example, first-time voters cannot vote by absentee. They have to be present in New Orleans. And then there are problems with getting the absentee ballots for some people there on time. Right now there are civil rights groups pressing trying to get Louisiana to extend the period, they put this before a judge and it will be interesting to see how that turns out.

We would have loved to have seen satellite voting stations outside of the state of Louisiana. They rebuffed that option early on even though just last year we as Americans looked and we saw Iraqi citizens participating in their elections situated in Baghdad while living in the United States. But somehow what's good enough for Iraqi citizens is not good enough for American citizens. We felt we had to do something about it?

HARRIS: Rockell, what are your thoughts? You're going to get on the bus tonight? How many hours? Eight and a half hours back to New Orleans? What are your thoughts, why is the election so important to you that you're going to participate to this extent.

CYRUS: It's very exciting to me that I will have a chance to go back to vote. I've lost everything else. I've lost my home, my job and my community and going back to vote it's very exciting to me, you know. At least I have that.

HARRIS: Let me explore that. You lost your home, you've lost everything, your job was there. Your home was there and now you're here in Atlanta and yet this is so important to you, to go back to a place where you have nothing to vote in tomorrow's election.

CYRUS: It's very important to me. It's a way that I can ask my people to come back to rebuild our city, which they are trying to take away from us. It's our city.

HARRIS: Why do you feel that way? I've heard a lot of folks who are locals to New Orleans have expressed that same sentiment, who is the "they" that are trying to take what away?

CYRUS: Well --

WARNOCK: You have to look at the way in which the election has been organized. People have been displaced in some 44 states. We have nearly 40,000 evacuees here in Atlanta alone. No satellite polling stations outside of the state and even now the secretary of state is boasting how much of this information is being dispensed. A lot of it is being dispensed over the Internet. These people, many of them don't have a stable home address let alone a computer or a fax machine to fax their absentee ballots in time. So, we're very concerned about the outcome. It seems that some people are working very hard to achieve a certain result.

HARRIS: Rockell I have to, you want to --

CYRUS: Also in the area where I lived they're tearing it down and not rebuilding.

HARRIS: Let me ask you one last question. Here we are in April, Katrina was in September. If I told you that you would be voting in this election in New Orleans but that you'd be living in Atlanta, would you have thought I was crazy and I guess the real question is did you expect that things would be back up and running sooner than -- CYRUS: I didn't expect it because New Orleans is very, very destroyed. They have a lot of work to do there. So much work. As far as progress that they have now, I'm really surprised, but it's very destroyed. It's very depressing.

HARRIS: Well, you're going to get on the bus tonight.

CYRUS: Yes, I am.

HARRIS: Reverend, eight and a half hours of 400-plus miles.

WARNOCK: That's right.

HARRIS: Let's see here, gas prices at $3 plus a gallon. You really want to do this.

WARNOCK: And more. I filled up on the way over here. It's an amazing thing and that's why I'm inspired, actually, by people like Rockell. We remember, we saw those pictures last August of people holed up in the convention center, cut off from food and water and now they're dealing with these unnecessary barriers to exercising their franchise and yet they want to get on the bus.

HARRIS: Get on the bus, yeah.

WARNOCK: Ride eight and a half hours, past the nightmare that they just lived in order to participate in that great American experiment called democracy. They inspire all of us.

CYRUS: To relive the nightmare.

HARRIS: As you're driving through. To see it all over again and all those horrible memories.

HARRIS: Well, it is great to see you. Rockell thanks for coming in.

CYRUS: Thank you so much.

HARRIS: Reverend there are jobs in the country there are churches and then there is historic Ebenezer. At some time we need to have you back and talk about this assignment. Wow!

WARNOCK: I'd love to come.

HARRIS: We'll have you back.

WARNOCK: Thank you.

HARRIS: Okay, thank you both.

Creative justice or a bitter blue pill? We'll tell you why legally-prescribed Viagra could land some people back in jail straight ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: Everybody is feeling the burn at the gas pumps this week and our viewers are speaking out at cnn.com. Here's what they are saying. Wes in Ladysmith, Virginia writes, "How can it be that gas prices at gas stations can rise 10 or 20 cents in one day when they haven't even gotten the fuel delivery that day? How can the prices of fuel be so maintained if there isn't gouging going on by big oil?

And Julie in Cleveland, Ohio says, "Last summer I bought a vintage scooter and I try to use it for all of my errands. It max speeds out at 45 miles an hour, but it gets around 90 miles per gallon, it also takes a little longer to get around, and you smell like fumes by the time you get there, but at least it's fun and that helps to make it all worth it."

You can find out more about the cause of rising gas prices and east coast shortages at cnn.com. Summer isn't even here yet and yet we're talking about these high gas prices. Let's check in now with Susan Lisovicz live at the New York Stock Exchange with more on this gas price crunch. Hi, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Tony, you know that gas fumes is okay, you know, if you're going to get 90 miles per gallon on that vintage scooter. The fact is that prices may get worse before they get better because right now we are seeing scattered shortages in the northeast. Distribution terminals from Virginia to Massachusetts are seeing temporary shortages, why is that? We told you before, but now you're seeing a crunch because they're phasing out this water- polluting additive to make the transition to a new cleaner ethanol fuel mixture. And when you see a distribution shortage, what that can equate is no gas signs in some gas stations.

The average price right now is $2.85 nationwide, that's for a gallon of self-serve regular, but California is the first continental U.S. state to see above $3 a gallon. The average price there. Yesterday in Beverly Hills more than $4 a gallon and we know, you know, when you cruise down Rodeo Drive, Tony, in Beverly Hills, you've got to do it in a car. A nice big car. And that will translate to other costs, you know, rental cars, for instance. You're going to see higher costs there if this keeps up, Tony.

HARRIS: Well Susan I'm going to ask you a question. Maybe you can answer it for us, maybe you can't. How long are these high prices expected to last.

LISOVICZ: Well, let's restrict it to what we know about this switching over to this mixture. I mean, questions like Nigeria which is a big OPEC producer and has a lot of unrest. We can't answer that because that's a big supplier of gasoline, but AAA is saying maybe as long as 30 days. Now if refineries can't get their act together quickly, for instance, in the switchover to ethanol, gas prices will continue to rise.

We told you earlier this week that gas stockpiles have declined for seven consecutive weeks and of course this, is a supply/demand business, we're on the eve of the peak driving season. There is some good news Tony, listen up, Shell says its big mars production platform in the Gulf of Mexico will be restarted later this month and that is well ahead of schedule. It has been off line since it was damaged by hurricane Katrina last summer.

HARRIS: That's a bit of good news. All right, to the markets now. Google shares skyrocketing, I'm told? What's the story?

LISOVICZ: Yeah. Remember when that stock went public nearly two years ago at $85 a share? Right now its shares are up let's see, nearly $33 at $447.82 a share. Why is that? Well, the company had an exceptional quarter. According to them, net income jumped 60 percent on continued strength in search advertising. Its revenue surged 79 percent, 2 1/4 billion. Analysts say it just blew away the estimates.

Overall here on Wall Street, not quite as great a performance. But the Dow Industrials have been roaring this week, had a six-year high yesterday. Up another 30 points today at 11,373. By the way, less than 400 points now from their all-time high. The NASDAQ down nearly 6 points or a quarter of a percent. And oil, by the way, which makes gasoline, it's up $73 a barrel. Yes, that's a record. And that's the latest from Wall Street. Still ahead, concerns about the safety of your pots and pans. We'll tell you why DuPont is under fire in the next hour. CNN's LIVE TODAY heats up right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN ANCHOR: The Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the world, is teaming with sea life a Gasper, a 17-year-old beluga whale and a crowd favorite has been taken off the exhibit. Cnn.com takes a closer look.

Gasper is one of five beluga whales on display and it's one of the most playful. It interacts with people by doing tricks like blowing bubbles and making faces. Gasper was brought from a Mexico City amusement park, it's being treated for a pre-existing chronic skin condition, suppressed appetite and raspy breathing. Recent exams show that Gasper's skin is improving. Beluga whales like Gasper can grow up to 15 feet in length and weigh over 3,000 pounds. You can find other interesting facts about belugas in this interactive like how well they can see and hear and what they eat. You can point your browsers to cnn.com/science. For the .com desk, I'm Veronica De La Cruz.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You know in many states convicted felons can't own weapons. Now keep that in mind as we tell you this next story. Florida lawmakers have passed a unique measure aimed at the worst sex offenders. It outlaws Viagra and other impetus drugs for sexual predators. A convict found with the drug could face 60 days in jail for the first offense and up to a year for the second. Both the house and senate passed it unanimously, it now goes to the governor for final approval.

Should sex offenders be put to death, some South Carolina lawmakers think so. The measure would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for people twice convicted of molesting a child younger than 11. The senate has already passed it, the house plans to consider it and critics are dismissing it. They say it is merely election-year bluster.

A news newspaper clipping, an envelope and a late-night cab ride, what do these things have to do with the Duke rape investigation? That and the other exotic dancer changes her tune. CNN's Alina Cho is piecing together the pieces. That at the top of the hour right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: "Money Magazine" researchers checked out hundreds of jobs. They ranked each career based on categories including earning, flexibility, creativity, stress and ease of entry. And this is what they found. Financial advisers scored a B average and ranked number three on "Money's" list of best jobs in America. "Money's" Cybele Weisser says it's one of the most popular jobs today.

CYBELE WEISSER, WRITER MONEY MAGAZINE: With the diminishment of pensions and more people are trying to figure out what to do with their 401(k)s, baby boomers are retiring, there is so much need for financial advice.

CORRESPONDENT: Education is often scene as a key to getting a good job and believe it or not the job of college professor ranked number two. Mainly because the hours are so flexible.

WEISSER: You can arrange a schedule where you're not in an office 9:00 to 5:00 every day. You might teach two courses a week, for example.

CORRESPONDENT: And which position topped the list? According to "Money Magazine," if you are a software engineer, you have the best job in America.

WEISSER: There's such a huge need for software engineers right now. It's a job that has a lot of flexibility in that it's in every location including, of course, working from home. It's not too stressful and it is a job where you can get into it with a bachelor's degree, it also pays very well.

CORRESPONDENT: For a complete list of "Money Magazine's" Best Jobs in America, visit www.money.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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