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Rick's List

BP's Transparency Problem; Liberal Bloggers Gather in Las Vegas

Aired July 23, 2010 - 15:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Here's what's making your LIST today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you justify $800,000?

SANCHEZ: They get paid how much in a town called what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're taking our money!

SANCHEZ: Now they have resigned. But there is so much more to this as we follow your money.

BP getting caught red-handed with Photoshopped images. Their problem? Transparency. Or is it downright deception?

Getting an angle on the Sharron Angle story.

QUESTION: Will you answer some questions really quickly?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to go. I'm sorry.

SANCHEZ: But where is she going?

Liberal bloggers gather in Vegas, and they're angry at the White House, while a top liberal lawmaker is asked to face the music.

Darth invader, but this is no fiction. The gun is real. The lists you need to know about. Who's today's most intriguing? Who's landed on the list you don't want to be on? Who's making news on Twitter? It's why I keep a list.

Pioneering tomorrow's cutting-edge news right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez. And this is your national conversation. I'm so glad you're here with us.

Look, Tropical Storm Bonnie is now heading for the Gulf and it's already starting to affect the oil cleanup there. We're going to be all over this story. Chad is monitoring it as we speak. And we're going to give you every single development with what BP is doing and what they're doing, when. We are going to take you through the entire episode as we move forward.

But I want to start the story today with what heads our embattled list. This is an outrage that has many Americans fuming, especially given the economic -- the uncertain economic times that we are now living in. You're not going to believe the salaries of three California public officials.

But, first, take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're taking our money and you're paying each other, and you think we're not going to be mad about it? You're out of your minds!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Crucial to this story is the fact that we're not talking about a city like Los Angeles or San Francisco or let's say a San Diego. No, we're talking about Bell, California. Most people have never heard of Bell, California. It's a small blue-collar suburb of Los Angeles. In fact, the population is fewer than 40,000.

How much money are these three public servants making that would have people screaming at the top of their lungs like you just heard right there? Well, let's take a look.

First, Robert Rizzo, he is the town's city manager. He reportedly earns $787,000 a year ,city manager. You ready to hear what the police chief makes? His name is Randy Adams. He makes nearly $500,000 a year. And the assistant city manager, Angela Spaccia, she makes more $376,000 a year.

It gets worse. These three get pensions that are astronomical, tax money, by the way, city manager, $650,000 a year. Police chief in retirement will get $411,000 each year, in retirement. And that assistant manager that I just told you about, when she retires, she's going to continue to earn $250,000 a year for not working.

It should be noted that California is on the brink of financial disaster. Here is what the mayor had to say for himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSCAR HERNANDEZ, MAYOR OF BELL, CALIFORNIA: If you want a good service, I think you deserve to get good money, don't you?

QUESTION: You don't have a lot of money coming into this city. When you compare what you have coming into Los Angeles, that city manager doesn't make close to that much money. How do you justify $800,000 in a city this small and this poor?

(CROSSTALK)

HERNANDEZ: I don't know about another city. The only thing I say, this community, they are receiving a good service. They deserve to have the best service.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: They can get the best service for a lot less than $800,000 a year.

HERNANDEZ: Well, you have to have good employees to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Wow.

CNN started reporting on Bell just last week. We were the first. Last night, the three highly paid public servants resigned.

I want to bring Jeff Gottlieb. He's a senior writer with "The Los Angeles Times." He's been looking in to this and he might be able to share some information with us.

I heard this morning that one of these city officials doesn't even live within the municipality. Is that true?

JEFF GOTTLIEB, "THE LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, that's one of the things we're looking in to. But there's so far no proof of that.

SANCHEZ: I wondering if the people who live in that city...

GOTTLIEB: Well, Rick, let me back you up just a second.

SANCHEZ: Go ahead.

GOTTLIEB: You're not talking about the council. You're talking about the city officials.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

GOTTLIEB: Right. It appears none of those three live in the city. Robert Rizzo lives in Huntington Beach, which is about 30, 35 miles away. But I think that's right. None of those three lives in the city.

SANCHEZ: Well, thanks for clarifying that. That means what we just heard this mayor say, that these people who live in that city receive such fine benefits and such great service that those people need to be paid that well.

But yet these three people or at least a couple of them don't live in the city would tell you maybe it's not so great in that city. What's really going on here? This just doesn't add up.

GOTTLIEB: Well, what you have is the city council allowed this all to happen, these three administrators getting paid these very high salaries, the city manager getting paid what we think is probably the highest salary of any city manager in the country, getting almost twice as much as the president of the United States. SANCHEZ: Oh, much does a let's say -- I'm going to throw this out. I don't expect you to nail this down with exact numbers, but since you live in California, did you check and see what the guy who does the same job in San Francisco or in L.A. or in San Diego or Santa Barbara -- do they make anything like this?

GOTTLIEB: No. You see most city managers getting paid around $200,000, $250,000, something like that. And that's even with the big cities and the little cities.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: I checked before going on the air and I did a little research on my own just to see what most police chiefs make around the country. And it's -- 2006 numbers were the only ones I was able to pull up. But that's not so far back. And it was something like in the $60,000 to $80,000 for a police chief.

Yet this police chief in a town of 40,000 is making over $500,000?

GOTTLIEB: Well, the police chief is making -- I think his actual salary is $457,000, which is 50 percent more than the L.A. police chief, 50 percent more than the L.A. County sheriff, and twice as much as the police commissioner of New York City.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: What does it say about the fact that most of the people are just finding out about this who are residents there, because from the way they were screaming and yelling, it almost seemed like this was part of their discovery last night, to know that tax money, their municipal tax base was being used to pay these people this inordinate amount of money?

GOTTLIEB: Well, these people have told us they had no idea how much money these people were being paid. There were some rumors floating around town, but the city council people have told us that they didn't even know how much money they were being paid.

SANCHEZ: And how soon -- we understand last night that suddenly -- I suppose they were asked for their resignations, right?

GOTTLIEB: Yes, they were. And it looks like they will all be gone. I think Rizzo is until the end of August. And I believe Spaccia and Randy Adams, the police chief, will be out by the end of September.

SANCHEZ: One final thing. And I'm just thinking out loud here. If I lived in a city where people were paid that much, man, I would really expect that city's services to be so pristine and so good. I would want to make sure that it has many parks and that they're all staffed with wonderful recreation directors, the finest police department, the finest fire department.

How does this city stack up to other municipalities in that area as far as how it rates?

GOTTLIEB: Well, the city -- the mayor and city council members have told us, they brag about how good the services are in the city. And then at the same time, at a meeting we had with them, they told us that they didn't think the police department was very good.

But were the city services -- they say they have parks, they have soccer leagues. Other people have complained that there aren't enough city services. So, I think we're still trying to sort some of that out.

SANCHEZ: Well, yes. And people are watching this program right now and they're watching as I'm talking to you and they're just wondering how it is that in this country we can have cities like this, where people's , hardworking Americans' tax money can be used in such a, well, seemingly lavish way.

And I guess our job now, your job, my job as journalists is to kind of double down on this and find out what else, perhaps, tax money is being used for. And that's exactly what we plan to do.

Thanks so much for joining us. I'll tell you, if you get anything else, Jeff, appreciate it. Let us know.

GOTTLIEB: Thanks for having me, Rick.

SANCHEZ: A woman tells 911 that she's just killed her two children. And wait until you hear why she says that she did it. That's ahead on our LIST.

Also, Louisiana is now under a state of emergency, have you heard, because of a tropical storm named Bonnie. Chad is going to be joining us in just a little bit. He's all over this thing and he's going to tell us the ins and outs of the story, because this looks like it's going to happen in some way, form or fashion.

We will be right back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Now to the process of following a story that everyone's going to be on for the next several days. Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. This is your national conversation, RICK'S LIST.

Tropical Storm Bonnie is approaching the Gulf, and it's already impacting oil cleanup and recovery operations. Several response vessels are in the process of being moved in or moved out. And federal officials say this will leave the cap wellhead unattended for about 48 hours.

Meanwhile, at a federal hearing in New Orleans, a Deepwater Horizon chief engineer testified today. He said that the rig's alarm system, the one that's used to detect a sudden rise in natural gases, that would have warned them that something was about to happen, that would have possibly saved the lives of some of those folks who died on the rig, it had been disabled, disabled for about a year. Why? Well, they decided to turn it off because the managers -- quote -- "did not want people woken up at 3:00 in the morning due to false alarms."

Back to the tropical storm now, Tropical Storm Bonnie.

Chad Myers here. He's is going to take us on through what she's doing.

And I guess the things that we need to talk about are direction and strength and winds. Take us through that.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It might have peaked its big strength right now.

SANCHEZ: Really?

MYERS: Miami-Dade may have gotten the brunt of Bonnie, because I don't believe this thing is going to come back. It looks awful.

SANCHEZ: It's starting to break up?

MYERS: It looks awful. Now, we have this diurnal flow. Tropical systems diurnally get bigger and smaller depending on the part of the day. We talked about this yesterday.

SANCHEZ: Right.

MYERS: In the heat of the day, winds blow around. It's more windy at 2:00 in the afternoon than 2:00 in the morning. Those winds can tear a storm apart. It's called shear.

So, at night, sometimes tropical systems get bigger because the shear kind of slackens -- kind of goes away. But right now, thing looks -- this is ugly.

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: And it's good. I'm glad it's ugly. But there was a small system, a small circulation as it moved over Miami-Dade. Now it's over Collier, about to get back into the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, I know we always talk about, oh, it's on land, it's dying. There's not much land. Hey, Rick, how much land is between there and there?

SANCHEZ: Going from one end of Florida to the other, probably about...

MYERS: How much can you walk right through here?

SANCHEZ: You're in the Everglades, my friend.

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: You're slugging away through that. Yes, that's just -- that's basically water. And so even though it looks like it's over part of land, there's not a lot of land where that's supposed to be land.

So, it's killing itself because of something else. It's killing itself because of this spin right there. That's an upper level low that's shearing it apart. See, this is the shear I'm talking about. This cloud cover from here all the way over there, that shouldn't exist. That should not be there. This should be one round circular bomb all by itself making its own little wind.

The fact that all of this cloud cover is here -- and there's even cloud cover almost all the way to the New Orleans with this. OK, it's cirrus blow-off, but that's what's tearing the storm apart.

That's what it doesn't want. It doesn't want to be in that. It wants to be all by itself. So here's the upper level spinning around. There's where Bonnie is right now. I will try to hit play or they can hit play in the newsroom there. The upper level is going to move away and so is the storm going to move in. But because this system is still spinning, it's that tear-up effect that's going -- this thing wants to be straight up and down.

We're going to go to the next graphic. It wants to be straight up and down. This is the heat engine of a hurricane, the sinking motion in the eye, the rising motion in the eyewall, the spinning around of all this and the energy coming from the water, from the very warm water.

When you don't get this verticalness because, all of a sudden, the wind blows the top somewhere else, you can't get the vertical nature of a tropical storm system to develop into anything. It's just a couple of storms spinning around each other. That's where we are now. And I'm not sure it's ever going to go away before it makes landfall as maybe a 30-, 40-mile-per-hour storm, certainly not a hurricane.

Right now, somewhere, landfall is probably in New Orleans or from at least Louisiana, one side to the other, as a 30-, 40-, maybe 50- mile-per-hour storm. There's not a single model out there that's making this into anything more than a little wind blow. That's good.

SANCHEZ: No, that's fantastic. It sounds like you're saying it's not going to reform when it hits the warm waters because of all the other things that are going to be affecting it.

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: That's right.

SANCHEZ: Even I understood that. Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: That's what I try to do. If you can get it, Rick, anyone can get it.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Anyone can get it. Thanks, Chad. I appreciate that.

Boy, I will tell you, that's my buddy, Chad Myers.

Does BP now stand for bogus photos? That's the latest joke going around. Just ahead, wait until you see the latest cases of alleged Photoshopped pictures. We have got the news, and we are going to be sharing it with you in just a little bit.

And then did you hear liberal bloggers are speaking out against the White House in a bad way? Jessica Yellin has been listening to what they have to say and she's next. She's going to join us right here once again on your LIST. This is your national conversation. I'm Rick Sanchez. I'm going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And welcome back to RICK'S LIST. I'm Rick Sanchez.

Progressives are losing confidence with the president of the United States, and his handling of the Shirley Sherrod incident certainly hasn't helped. In fact, most of these liberal bloggers are meeting in Las Vegas and they're letting their feelings be known. They say the president is kowtowing to the right wing, that he's taking them for granted and will not fight for their issues.

Wednesday, the president signed into law the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. But now the president needs to nominate someone to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Liberals say that person should be Elizabeth Warren, because it's her brainchild.

Here's the president in an interview with ABC News sounding extremely noncommittal, though.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have the highest regard for Elizabeth. We have not made a decision about who we're going to appoint yet. But here's my guarantee, is that Elizabeth is going to be working with me, working with Tim Geithner, the treasury secretary, to help in thinking about how do we make this consumer agency as effective as possible, looking out for consumers? She is going to be actively involved in that process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Boy, it certainly doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement to me, does it, Jessica?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's what folks here are saying, too, Rick. There's a lot of, as you say, a sense among the progressive bloggers and activists here that the president hasn't stood up for their issues which they thought he campaigned on, specifically taking on corporate interests directly.

And this is the next big fight, over Elizabeth Warren. They say they're disappointed with the Wall Street reform bill. One thing the president can do, in their view, is appoint someone to run this consumer board who will really fight for consumers' rights.

They think that person is Elizabeth Warren. They're not getting signals from the White House that they're determined to choose Elizabeth Warren. It's up to the president. And so they are, A, agitated and, B, taking action. They have started online petitions. They have millions of member, these various groups. They are organizing members of Congress. Rick, they have even started advertising against Senator Chris Dodd because he said she can't be confirmed.

It's online advertising, but they're threatening to go on the airwaves. They mean business.

SANCHEZ: There's some irony to those protestations that we're getting from liberals these days, because it seems to me -- and let me ask it in the form of a question to you, who are following this.

If progressives are saying that the president is kowtowing to conservatives, is there any sign that the president is gaining any support among conservatives?

YELLIN: Among conservatives?

SANCHEZ: Yes.

YELLIN: That's their argument. They say, no. Right. No, he's not winning over Republicans. Every so often, he gets Olympia Snowe and -- the two women from Maine. But their argument is, no, he's not winning Republicans. And at the same time, CNN's own polling shows that Democratic voters are far less energized than Republicans this year, and they are less likely to turn out and vote.

Progressives here say that's largely because the president is not taking bold progressive stands on issues like Wall Street reform, like cap and trade, that he, for example, approves offshore drilling even before an energy bill has been introduced. They say if he took bolder stands, he would energize his own base and it would help his party overall and help him. That's their argument, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Yes. So, it's almost as if they're saying, look, you're doing everything you can but bending over backward just to help them out or make them seem -- make yourself seem in their eyes like you're not a liberal, but yet they're not rewarding you at all because you're losing independents and most Republicans are continuing to go in the other direction.

So, I guess there's some irony there that they're trying to point out to the president, huh?

YELLIN: They're trying to point out that irony and also make the case that, if he did the opposite, it would be good politics.

They think that if he actually sort of drew a line -- there's even an argument that he should introduce legislation, for example, that he knows can't pass just because he believes it's right. And that, they say, would make some of his early supporters excited about him again and excited and even convince independents that he is standing up for principles and that could just turn around the dynamic.

SANCHEZ: Wow. Interesting...

(CROSSTALK)

YELLIN: They have a very different view of how Washington should work.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Interesting perspectives. Come up with something that he knows doesn't pass.

Jessica Yellin following things there for us, we certainly appreciate it, in Las Vegas, talking to some of the progressive bloggers from around the country.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Are you a neo-Nazi?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't call myself a neo-Nazi. I classify myself as a National Socialist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: By the way, National Socialist means Nazi. He's tied to a group that definitely is neo-Nazi, by the way. And that's why he's at the border trying to catch illegal immigrants.

Now, that motivation is troubling. His motivation for doing that is troubling thousands of you. And you have told us in no uncertain terms. It's become a trending topic. And Brooke Baldwin is all over this for us. She's coming out here in just a little bit to take us through the ramifications of the story that we discussed yesterday.

Also, a bombshell in classrooms across one school system today. You're not going to believe this, but, with one fast swoop, 200 teachers were fired -- fired. The reason and what this could mean for other teachers all across the country, because we understand now -- we're still getting details on the story -- that hundreds more have been put on notice. What's going on? Where is this happening? We're all -- we're going to take you through it.

This is your national conversation. I'm Rick Sanchez. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: There's a developing story that we're following for you I mentioned just moments ago, but this is a bit of a bombshell. It's happening in Washington, D.C., where this afternoon in a very important national story, the state of our public schools was affected.

Today, the D.C. public school system fired 241 teachers that Chancellor Michelle Rhee says were poor performers or not properly licensed. And another 737 employees were given one year to improve on the job or they themselves will be fired. In essence, they have been put on notice.

There is a lot to this story. Both sides have something to say about it. At 3:55, we're going to talk with a union representative and a CNN education contributor and charter school advocate. He's going to be joining us. That's Steve Perry, as well as some folks there who are not at all happy on this day about what's happening in Washington. We will be all over this story.

Meanwhile, there's something else I need to tell you about. This is a traffic incident that got ugly when a police officer pulled over a security guard. Yes, they're waylaying. It quickly turned into a battle of the badges. You've got to watch this video play out for yourself. We will take you through the details.

Normally, we would go to break here, but there's something else I feel like I need to tell you. So, before I go to break, much has been made about the state of journalism in America these days, including some of the programs that we have been bringing you here on RICK'S LIST.

So, I thought it was important to share something with you now. On this day, a man recognized as a legend among those of us who practice this craft has passed away.

I want to tell you about him. Daniel Schorr covered so many important people and so many important stories, from Stalin to Khrushchev, from Roosevelt to Obama, and from every single war and scandal this nation has known, that he once referred to himself half- jokingly as a living history book.

Until the very end, if I can add this on a personal note, he made me turn up the volume when I was listening to NPR on the radio on my way home each night.

Daniel Schorr was 93 years old. By the way, he was also instrumental in forming this network, CNN. We can only hope to be able to live up to the standards that he set and maintained.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. This is your national conversation. This is "RICK'S LIST." We're now at 3:00, 4:00 and at primetime at 8:00. Thanks for joining us.

We have a rule that we tend to follow on this next segment. We don't know video where anyone's been killed or gravely injured. That's because we've got music playing under it, right? Usually that means not showing helicopter crashes, until today. Let's do "Fotos." Yes, this is amazing video, a helicopter crash in Nevada. It is caught on camera. I'm just going to let you watch for a moment for yourself. You hear the people screaming there in the background? It was a rescue chopper for stranded mountain climbers but they ended up needing to be rescued.

Great ending, though -- the three firefighters and the pilot survived with mostly minor injuries. Perfectly fine, they say.

Darth Vader showed up at a bank, he made a withdrawal by force -- real-life instead of fiction and a real gun instead of a light saber. What do you expect? He's from the dark side, right? Maybe we should call him Darth "Invader." Get it, Brooke?

Falling on your rear is embarrassing, especially if it is caught on camera. This bowling blunder turned into a blessing. Watch the ball after he does it. Watch, one more time, all together here. Yes! Oh, my god, a strike. He struck the floor and struck all the pins.

(LAUGHTER)

"Fotos del Dia," you can see them for yourself if you want. Just go to my blog, CNN.com/ricksanchez.

I want you to know we're getting new details coming in now. We learned of this story just before we got ready to go on the air and we're still were somewhat drilling down on it here on "RICK'S LIST."

More than 200 teachers gone in one swoop, all of them fired. Why? Apparently incompetence. They just weren't doing their job right. Who got the pink slip, what this means for teachers all over the country, what are the teachers' unions going to be saying about this? You're going to find out for yourself.

We have breaking news developments on this story and we'll bring them to you.

Also, BP concedes some photos were, in fact, manipulated. How much worse can their PR be? Brooke Baldwin's been drilling down on this, looking at all the sides of this story. This is one of the trending topics people are talking about out there today. That's what Brooke does, she brings us the stuff that's trending.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: By the way, that bowler, learned his moves from me.

SANCHEZ: That's how you bowl? Makes sense.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Chad's already been cutting on me. I might as well do it to you.

(LAUGHTER)

We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Here we go, time to figure out what's going on with -- why are you laughing at me?

BALDWIN: Because it's fun.

SANCHEZ: It's just the impression you get of me sometimes when I'm coming out after a commercial. This is Brooke Baldwin. Today is Friday. We're excited about the weekend but we want to know what people are talking about out there, and what is trending topic number one?

BALDWIN: We're talking BP and these pictures. Get a good, close look with me. Since this oil spill, BP's promised the public, you, they would be more transparent in their response. That may not jive with what I'm about to tell you.

There are these three photo-shopped pictures appeared on the company's website. How do we know? BP has admitted it after a tipster contacted two different websites to point them out.

You can see for yourself. On the left is the before. On the right is the after. This first picture is from the Houston command center. You see these ten flat screens. They're looking at what's going on under water at the leak.

The before picture shows some stuff going on, but there are three blank screens. To the right, they fill them in. Necessary? Maybe not.

Picture number two, this is the Sims operation center, kind of explained to me as like the air traffic control of this operation. You see the guys on the left-hand of your screen sitting around a table and looking at a projection. On the right, it's color enhanced and the projection is much bigger.

So you're thinking, changes are minor, but for BP, some are saying the embarrassment is huge, even the White House cracking jokes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think it's genuinely on the stupidity part of the transparency scale. If you want to show a picture of what the room looks like, just take a picture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Just take a picture. Well, BP did remove those pictures, the altered image, off their website. They did add the before and after. That's how we got that for you, to their Flickr page for the sake of transparency.

And here is what BP is saying now -- "Although BP is a private company, we've instructed the photographer who created the images to refrain from cutting and pasting in the future and to adhere to standard photojournalistic best practices." So some are saying they're just throwing the photographer under the bus.

SANCHEZ: Remember we did that story yesterday about this time with avowed Nazi who said he's not a neo-Nazi.

BALDWIN: Right.

SANCHEZ: Mr. Hughes, I believe he was.

BALDWIN: Harry Hughes.

SANCHEZ: I was taken aback. We are still getting tweets on that -- I've never seen something get so much interest on twitter. "Rick, what do the Nazis -- I mean National Socialists -- plan on doing with the immigrants?" It's like people are continuing to want to know more about this --

BALDWIN: Your twitter page exploded over that. We're spring- boarding off of that. I have more for you on that. We're talking about that Harry Hughes interview. He told you yesterday he's not a Nazi but he's tied to a group that is.

So what are they doing down there? Are they armed? Are you OK with this? Take a look. We're taking you inside this patrol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.T. READY, PATROL ORGANIZER: It's no different than Al Qaeda crossing that border with Sarin nerve gas on their back. The difference is we've got armed narco-terrorists coming across with methamphetamines on their back.

We have assault weapons, we have grenades, we have a lot of equipment. So we're prepared to use deadly force. But that's a deadly force situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say that does happen. Are you just trying to detain them?

READY: We'll kill them. We'll kill the narco-terrorists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: By the way, just to be fair, I think we should say something here -- to equate as wrong as it is and as illegal as it is --

BALDWIN: To cross the border --

SANCHEZ: To equate people crossing the board from Mexico or any other place, most of which are not narco-terrorists or anywhere near narco-terrorists, most of which are coming here because they have needs and doing so illegally and should be caught and sent back, and we should patrol our border -- but to compare those people to Al Qaeda -- BALDWIN: To terrorists coming over the border --

SANCHEZ: I think most fair-minded Americans would say, that may be a bit of an overreach. Sorry for interrupting.

BALDWIN: And your other point earlier that we should also be fair and say there's other groups of people, perfectly hard-working Americans, who are also patrolling the border for the same exact issue --

SANCHEZ: And good for them.

BALDWIN: Again --

SANCHEZ: It's all about motivation.

BALDWIN: They haven't crossed the legal line just yet. I talked to law enforcement. Arizona is a Second Amendment state. The desert is public land. But if they kidnap or contain, that is illegal.

SANCHEZ: And the problem isn't just that Mexicans are illegal immigrants. We had this man on the air yesterday, and he said he doesn't think Jews shouldn't be a part of the United States. I should leave because I wasn't born in this country and my skin is too brown. He wants all homosexuals out of the country.

He basically says that we should be white nation only by people whose ancestors can be checked back to Europe. That's a hell of a thing to say.

BALDWIN: Point being, people were talking about that. That's the whole point of this segment.

If I may, Robert, let's show my twitter board. Starting today, I am taking your pitches for our trending topics. You never know, your trending story -- what are you talking about over the dinner table, what are you talking about at work? Let me know. Send me a tweet and you may make it on TV.

SANCHEZ: That's not fair. You'll have them do all the work for you.

BALDWIN: Hey, it will give me a dinner break for once.

(LAUGHTER)

Thanks, Sanchez.

SANCHEZ: Brooke Baldwin, see you in just a little bit.

A tropical storm called Bonnie heads toward the Gulf. What is BP and what is the government doing about this? These are important questions because we're just starting to see some of the commotion begin down there in the Gulf of Mexico. After all, the governor of Louisiana has now declared a state of emergency for the entire state.

But Chad's saying there may be some good news here.

Also, take a look at this clash, take a look at this piece of video I'm going to show you right now. Two men with badges on a mission, you might say, against each other. This is ugly, really ugly. We'll tell you what happens.

Stay with us. This is your national conversation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.

Making the list now, the things not to do when an officer pulls you over. I want you to watch this dash cam video we've gotten our hands on. It starts with a routine traffic stop in Middletown, Ohio. A police officer pulls over a person after a hit and run, and the driver turns out to be a security guard.

The man became irritated after showing the officer his security badge and the two began to struggle. The officer pulls out his taser, but it doesn't work properly and that's when things really heat up.

Another officer finally arrives on the scene moments later. He has a taser. The man is eventually subdued and he's arrested. Mind you, these are both officers who say they are peace officers. He has now been arraigned on charges including, of course, assaulting an officer, who was left with, by the way, a black eye.

Now this -- the tea party movement now has an official voice in Washington through the Republican Party. Just how close the two sides are becoming and what it means for the November elections. That's ahead on "The List, next hour.

Tonight at 8:00 eastern on "RICK'S LIST" primetime, I'm going to be talking to Ann Coulter. I've asked you to send me questions. And many of you on twitter already are. Some of them, not so nice, I should say, so far.

Also, who's the most intriguing person on the list? Hint, he could become the oldest senator. Who is that? Send your guesses now.

By the way, if you want to be on this show, call this number, 877-4CNN-tour, and you could be a part of our studio audience and get to talk to Wolf Blitzer. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Time now for the list of most intriguing person in the news today.

He is a World War II veteran who worked for President FDR and President Truman. He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama, and was a U.S. congressman for 18 years.

Get this -- he is 95 years old. Time to slow down and retire, right? No, sir. He's eager to start a brand-new career. He is Ken Hechler, one of the most well-known names in West Virginia politics. This week he filed papers to run for the U.S. Senate to fill the seat once held by the late Senator Robert Byrd.

If he wins and he serves a full term, he would become the oldest U.S. senator in American history. That's dedication. That's a lifetime of service, and then some. That's intriguing.

Once again, breaking developments in this bombshell announcement that we heard of just before we went on the air. It's not every day you hear that there are people under the government payroll who are fired in such large numbers. More than 200 teachers have been have been dismissed. This is in the Washington area.

The reason and what this could mean for other teachers across the country -- I should tell you, by the way, that something like 700 more have been put on notice that they could be fired next year. We've got guests coming up. We've got members of the teachers union. We're going to be taking you through this story in just a little bit.

And then there's this, a piece of video I just need to show you now, because this is one of my dearest friends here at CNN. His name, as you probably know, is Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and he said he's going to compete in a triathlon. And he did it. And this is the video that proves it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: All right. It's morning. I'm supposed to wake up at 3:15. It's 3:08.

How did you sleep?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Actually I slept really good.

GUPTA: Here we go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think that's realistic?

GUPTA: Here we are over here, all the bikes.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go CNN!

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No problem. I'm ready to do it all over again.

GUPTA: How was it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was well worth it. Tired.

GUPTA: It was amazing. I almost died a few times. I felt like but it was just so good, feels great to finish.

(CROSSTALK)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Wow. Finally we'll be able to talk about this story in depth now with sources who are going to be able to figure this one out. As we've reported here on CNN, it could be surprisingly tough to get rid of a teacher who is performing poorly. Teachers unions are very powerful in this country.

So there is this bombshell out of Washington, D.C. today, a really important national story affecting the state of our public schools. Today the D.C. public school system fired 241 teachers that Chancellor Michelle Ree says were poor performers or not properly licensed. Another 737 employees were given one year to shape up or ship out, improve on this job or get fired.

Now as we've reported before on CNN it can be surprisingly tough to get rid of a teacher who is performing poorly. Teachers unions are very powerful. Just one month ago the teachers union in D.C. signed a contract that got them a 20 percent raise in pay and the chance to earn even more in performance bonuses.

But here's the key. It also gave the chancellor more leeway to get rid of teachers who weren't performing well, who were ineffective. Here are my guests, George Parker, the president of the Washington Teachers Union, and CNN education contributor Steve Perry.

Mr. Parker I want to begin with you. What is your reaction to this decision? With one swoop it seems like more than 200 of your, I presume, union members and teachers there have been told that they can hit the door.

GEORGE PARKER, PRESIDENT, WASHINGTON TEACHERS UNION (via telephone): Well, first of all, let me say I'm not sure yet whether the numbers are accurate. I've been given a few different numbers.

I think the most important thing here, number one, is to make it clear that the Washington teachers union is not opposed to accountability for our teachers. However, we do have some difficulty with this new evaluation process. I think it is important, number one, that we evaluate our teachers, but we evaluate them accurately. I think the --

SANCHEZ: Well, hold on a minute. You're talking in a language most of us don't understand. I understand they're evaluated in the same way other employees all over the country whether they work in government jobs or private sector jobs would be evaluated. Either you're doing your job well or you're not, right?

PARKER: Well, the evaluation instrument, number one, is always designed to assess where teachers are weak and give support. Of course if teachers don't improve with the support you expect there to be some consequences.

But I think when we're talking about this instrument, the issue here is the instrument, not the issue of whether teachers should be evaluated.

SANCHEZ: What in the world does that mean, the instrument?

PARKER: Well, for example, all right, this new teacher evaluation instrument, number one, is very high. It uses what is called "value added" as part of teacher evaluation. Very few states in the country use value added as a part of the evaluation process because of its lack of accuracy. It's used in order to deal with performance pay.

Secondly, a part of this teacher evaluation instrument is not just the teacher itself. A part of the teacher evaluation is based on school-wide performance instead of the individual teacher's performance.

SANCHEZ: It should be pretty simple. Look, I'm not an expert but I think most people watching this out would figure this out pretty simply. You have a class. Did that class do better this year than they did last year, and if so then you did a good job as a teacher.

I mean, this is one of the one jobs in America where you are based on the impact you have on other people. Am I wrong?

PARKER: Well, I think you maybe oversimplify it. Listen, I taught for 25 years math. Let me explain very clearly, teaching children is different than making widgets, because you have different personalities. Teaching children is not just an issue of providing information. You are also working with children to become productive citizens. There are external factors involved.

So you can't simply say did you grow more than the previous year? It has a lot to do with the type of principal you have, the support you have, the class size, and other things.

SANCHEZ: Bottom line is, there was a new contract signed. It gave the boss, in this case the chancellor, the right to get rid of teachers who weren't doing their job and also gave an opportunity to teachers to make more money if they excelled at their jobs, and it seems like that contract is being fulfilled here. It would seem that way.

I want to bring Steve Perry into this conversation. And I also want to quantify some of the numbers as we move forward here.

The last numbers we've got, and just to be clear, this could change, and as I was reading this report, Steve, I should probably mention that not all the teachers were fired for performance. Some were fired for licensing issues, just for the record.

And the latest numbers we have is 241 teachers that apparently have been removed. They can appeal that, by the way. And 737 teachers who apparently are being told to improve or they could possibly get fired.

And for the record, one more thing that I should add -- some of these are not necessarily teachers. They're assistants or people in the school system themselves.