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CNN Sunday Morning
Swimmers Swept Away; Yosemite Wildfire; Qantas Jet Hole Investigation; CNN Heroes; Nutty Kids Names; Obama's Trip Update; Jon Goode Interview; Playground Burn Dangers; Fat Guy Cheerleaders
Aired July 27, 2008 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: From the CNN center in Atlanta, this is CNN Sunday morning, July 27. Hello to you all, I'm T.J. Holmes.
ALINA CHO, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody, I'm Alina Cho. Betty has the morning off.
Summer fun turns to tragedy, this morning. Strong currents killed four swimmers off the coast of New York. It's a story we've been talking about all morning long, really unprecedented. Three others were rescued, three are still missing.
HOLMES: Also, a huge wildfire is exploding, really, overnight. This is near Yosemite. It's grows from 1,000 to 16,000 acres, we're talking 20 something plus square piles.
CHO: Fast moving.
HOLMES: Yeah, still moving. They don't have containment, here. We're going to get the very latest on it about. Hundreds are having to be evacuated.
CHO: And places are burning that haven't burned in 100 years. It's really incredible, so we'll get a check on where the weather is helping from Reynolds Wolf. And this, the poetry of being "Black in America."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN GOODE, POET: How much does the color of your skin factor in on a job interview? Some employees seem to value what color you are more than anything you can do, as "Black in America" continues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: That's Jon Goode. He's going to be joining us here in the newsroom with his take on CNN's ground breaking documentary which he played a major, major role in, so looking forward to seeing him. But we will begin in New York, the Coast Guard, there, looking for a 10-year-old girl, right now, who was swept out to sea by strong currents.
CHO: Yeah, that little girl is just one of three people missing. She was swimming with her cousin off Coney Island when both were swept away. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's when they ran towards the water. And she was telling them there's two children in there, they did not pay attention, they just grabbed one and came to shore and then started yelling, "look, there's the other one." By that time, the little girl's hand she -- it came up then for the last time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They got within child out, but there was three life guards and we must have yelled at them like seven times before they even like reacted, first of all. And then when they did react, they just took out the little boy and then the little girl was just like -- her hand and she was gone, she was gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Three other swimmers have been rescued. The strong currents being blamed for fourth deaths over the past two days, officials say that is unprecedented. And joining us on the phone now with more on this is Commander Greg Hitchen, he's the Coast Guard chief of operations for the New York area.
Mr. Hitchen, thank you for joining us. Tell me, what is the status of the search, right now, and is the weather helping or hindering things, there?
GREG HITCHEN, U.S. COAST GUARD: The status of the search right now is that we are still looking for the 10-year-old girl. Presently, we have small boats from our station in New York City out on scene as well as a helicopter en route from air station Atlantic City, down in New Jersey.
CHO: And the search for the other two have been called off?
HITCHEN: Yeah, there were actually three others. The search for the two that -- swimmers that were swept away farther out on Long Island was suspended yesterday afternoon around 5:00. And we suspended our case for the young man that disappeared Friday night, last night.
CHO: The 23-year-old.
HITCHEN: About 8:00.
CHO: I see, so let me get this straight, because I want to make sure that our numbers are correct, here at CNN. You have four people missing, four dead, and three rescued, is that correct?
HITCHEN: That's correct.
CHO: OK. So that's a change, so there were 11 swimmers in all involved. And that is incredible. Now, I want to ask you a little bit more about this because we've been saying this is unprecedented. I'm not sure if you know this, I actually live in New York, have been there for more than a decade, I've never heard of sort of back-to-back situation like this. What is the issue, here? Is it just the shear numbers of people on the beach because it's summer time and they thinks like this are bound to happen, or is it that the currents are especially strong, right now?
HITCHEN: We're as surprised as you are at the number of cases we've had over the past week or so. We have heard that the currents are stronger off the beach and that there are rip currents that are affecting swimmer's ability even in fairly shallow water. Of course there are large numbers of people that are using the beach because the weather's been good and it's been hot out. As always, we're cautioning the public to be careful when they're swimming in the ocean because of these currents.
CHO: Right, swim parallel to the coastline is what our Reynolds Wolf is saying.
HITCHEN: Right.
CHO: Commander Greg Hitchen of the U.S. Coast Guard, we wish you luck in the search, today. Thank you very much.
HITCHEN: Thank you.
HOLMES: All right, we turn to California now and evacuations, there, Yosemite National Park because of this, a fast moving, a massive fire is threatening thousands of homes. Hundreds are in immediate danger, right now, and those people are being told to get out of there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD PAYTON, EVACUATED HOMEOWNER: Devastating. Totally devastating, because from our driveway, you could look right across the ridge on the other side of the road and can see it coming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, right now the fire is at the west entrance to Yosemite, that is near the town of Midpines. And joining us once again on the phone is Daniel Berlant of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.
Sir, we appreciate you giving us some time again this morning. We talked to you last hour, I assume not much has changed, but update the viewers who may just be tuning in. This huge, fire right, now is still not contained, I assume, and how big is it?
DANIEL BERLANT, CAL DEPT FORESTRY FIRE PREVENTION: Well, this fire is now 16,000 acres, continues to grow. Yesterday, it was only 1,000 acres, but it quickly grew to 16,000, mainly due to the extremely dry conditions and the fact that the fire is burning in an area that hasn't burned in over 100 years, so there's a lot of fuel and a lot of vegetation for it to burn.
HOLMES: And it is -- how quickly is it still moving now and in the direction of homes? BERLANT: It is quickly moving towards a lot of areas, there's a number of communities that are threatened. We have about 200 homes immediately threatened that evacuation orders have been, but another roughly 1,800 homes that are in the path of the fire, that those residents have been warned that they potentially may have to also leave at a moment's notice.
HOLMES: And I think you told me last hour, no structures have been destroyed, yet. And I know you all are trying to prevent that. Tell us, as well, sir, I didn't ask you last hour, how did this fire start, do you know?
BERLANT: This fire did start yesterday afternoon from a person now doing target shooting. More on -- I'm not quite sure, the fire is under investigation, we have an investigator there, but it is caused from someone doing target practice shooting out in the wild land area.
HOLMES: Well, I'm not sure how much you might know about -- I know your job is to fight the fires, but as far as any kind of criminal charges, is that person being investigated, is something like target practice something allowed out in the this area that you know might start an issue, start -- get a spark and start a fire?
BERLANT: You know, for all those detail, we'll definitely be looking into that in the days to come. Obviously our first priority is going to be getting those residents out of the area and getting fire engines in to suppress the fire.
HOLMES: OK, well, again, Daniel Berlant of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention, sir we absolutely appreciate your time. We know you all are busy, I know it's early out there in California, right now, but thank you for your time and good luck to you and all the firefighters out there.
BERLANT: Thank you.
CHO: So we've got a couple of situations, the first is the rescue operation, the search in New York for those missing swimmers, three of them, and also the fire situation. So, weather could be playing a big role in both of those cases. Meteorologist, Reynolds Wolf, taking a look at that.
So what's the latest -- Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, let's tackle the fires. What we have with the fires, in some ways the conditions have very good, in some ways they're bad. Let's talk about the bad first. Bad is that you have very dry conditions. I mean, think about when you're at home and you get the fireplace going, you're starting a fire. What do you get? You always start off with kindling or some newspaper and you shred it up into really small, little dry pieces. Well, that's essentially is what's happening on these hillsides. This wood is very dry, you have got a lot of Chaparral, you've got all kinds Bristlecone Pines, trees that have a lot of sap in them, so when they heat up, it just kind spreads, the fire spreads and it has the effect going on these hillsides, of flames going up a chimney, or heat rising. So it is going to be a really big problem.
Again, we mentioned zero percent contained, 16,000 acres charred. The good news, let's talk about the good news. As we go back to the weather map, what we can expect, today, winds should not be that strong, so they will get assistance from the air. They will have some planes flying in, dropping that flame retardant, perhaps some water, too, certainly some good news as it gets a little bit we are for them, in terms of battling the blaze, but what job they have cut out for them.
Well we're going to show you something else in terms of heat and not fire, but just incredibly warm temperatures. We have heat index issued where the heat is going to be anywhere from 100 to 110 degrees for parts of the central and southern plains including Oklahoma, Texas, back into, say, parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and even Louisiana, blistering conditions as we start off the workweek.
We're going to have more coming up in just a few moments, but that is a first look at the fires and the heat. Coming up, we're going to go from the fire to the rain. Back to you.
HOLMES: All right, fire and rain. We got a little bit of everything. Reynolds, we appreciate you, this morning, keeping an eye on it all.
Want to turn now to India, western India, where a series of bomb blasts there have killed at least 49 people and wounded more than 100. This is the second wave of violence in as many days. About 30 people are in custody, but no official arrests have been made. These were bomb blasts that all went off within a six mile radius of each other. At least 17 low intensity blasts, as they're called. Again, all happened in about an hour's time, as well. Right now, suspicions is currently focused on two Islamic extremist groups.
CHO: Also new this morning, Australian air safety investigators say an exploding oxygen canister may, may have created that had huge hole in a Qantas Jumbo Jet that nearly caused an in-flight disaster. Some scary moments for the people inside, as you can imagine. The jet was flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne, Australia, when it made an emergency landing in the Philippines, Friday.
Geof Parry of Seven Network Australia reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEOF PARRY, Seven NETWORK AUSTRALIA REPORTER (voice over): Australian investigators examining the hole in the Jumbo have made an important discovery.
NEVILLE BLYTH, AUSTRALIAN TRANSPORT & SAFETY BUREAU: There's a number of cylinders in that location, there is one cylinder which is not present, it is not accounted for in that area, in the area associated with the damage.
PARRY: Why it's not there is a mystery. BLYTH: We're obviously looking for evidence of why wr that cylinder may have gone, for fragments of the cylinder, all those types of engineering aspects which was you'd expect to be part of the investigation.
PARRY: The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has now ordered Qantas to check every oxygen bottle on all 30 of its 747s.
PETER GIBSON, CIVIL AVIATION SAFETY AUTHORITY: We think it's prudent to put safety first to get inspections done now rather than waiting any longer.
PARRY: The investigation may be extended to include the airline's entire fleet.
GIBSON: Some of these bottles may well be in some other Qantas aircraft, obviously, they'll be looked at in due course, but because this accident involved the 747, we'll start there.
PARRY: Passengers on board QF-30 have also questioned the condition of the oxygen masks they were forced to use during their rapid decent.
DAVID SANUDERS, PASSENGER: The mask was falling away and I was starting to blackout and I sort of sat back up and held the mask and tried to tighten it again, and the more I pulled it, the looser it got.
PARRY: Mr. Saunders says some children turned blue as parents struggled to give them oxygen.
SCOTT ROBINSON, PASSENGER: And if you didn't have that oxygen on and you did go over, no one's going to be able to help you.
PARRY: The condition of the masks will be checked as part of the overall investigation.
(on camera): Aviation experts say even though the cause isn't known, it's unlikely 747s will be grounded. There are more than 1,000 of them in service around the world. To take them out of the skies would bring an already troubled industry to its knees.
In Manila, Geoff Parry, Seven News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: For U.S. troops who will never again walk on American soil, there is a man -- that guy -- who is doing it for them.
CHO: This is an incredible story. His tribute is one mile for each one who made the ultimate sacrifice.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Welcome back, it's almost 16 minutes after the hour. Is the U.S. winning the war in Iraq? The U.S. ambassador to Iraq tells the "Associated Press" that the insurgency has declined to the point where it is no longer a threat to Iraq's future. As you might imagine, commanders are cautious about proclaiming victory over the insurgents or promising that the common Iraq will last.
HOLMES: A Green Beret blinded in Iraq may have lost his sight, but not his vision and his ability to lead. As CNN's Rusty Dornin tells us, the military is keeping him on the job.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARMY CPTN IRAN CASTRO, U.S. ARMY SPECIAL FORCES: We're all drafting, one behind another...
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Whether it's teaching a spin class to injured soldiers, skiing for the first time, or running a marathon, Green Beret Captain Ivan Castro is always up for a challenge, all the more impressive because Castro was blinded nearly two years ago by a mortar explosion in Iraq.
I CASTRO: At no point in time did it ever cross my mind that I was going to get out, you know, medically retire, I was going to show everybody that I was capable of being productive.
DORNIN: He's now the executive officer of his company, the only blind officer serving in the Special Forces. And while Castro can't lead a special ops mission, there's plenty of other work.
COL FREDERICK DUMMAR, U.S. ARMY SPECIAL FORCES: That doesn't mean, as in the case of Ivan, that one, he can't help train the soldiers to do those missions, because he has a tremendous amount of language capability and a tremendous amount of knowledge of Special Forces, the tactics, so he can assist in the training.
DORNIN: A former drill sergeant, Castro helped supply troops in the field.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) air force base.
I CASTRO: OK.
DORNIN: And watches out for family members here at home. It helped that Castro worked here at Fort Bragg eight years before he lost his sight, he already knew his way around. At home, as at work, Castro wants to be independent, technology helps, even to pick out his clothes.
ELECTRONIC VOICE: Dark blue or grey (INAUDIBLE).
DORNIN: His wife, Evelyn, says she was surprised the Army encouraged Castro to remain on active duty.
EVELYN CASTRO, WIFE: I did not think they would actually go all the way and allow him to continue to show his leadership skills. I didn't think they would have that kind of mindset, so I was proven wrong. I CASTRO: The minute I walk out this door, I put on my head gear and put that cane on my hand and I'm walking down the sidewalk, people just stop and stare. So every day I'm proving myself.
DORNIN: Rusty Dornin, CNN, Fort Bragg.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: What an inspiring guy, great story. And another special story that we want on show you, really incredible, if you see a man in military fatigues carrying an American flag walking along the side of the highway, well, it just might be that man, there. Damian Maynard is his name. He has spent the past 14 months on a mission to honor U.S. troops killed in Iraq. And his goal is to walk one mile for each of the more than 4,100 fallen service members.
HOLMES: Yeah, Maynard started out in Carson City, Nevada, with little more than pocket change. He says the generosity of strangers is making it possible. So far he's traveled more than 2,000 miles. Maynard plans to reach Washington, D.C. on September 11.
CHO: So, he's almost halfway there. Good for him.
HOLMES: Yeah, 2,000 miles, got a ways to go.
CHO: That's a heavy load on his back, too. Good for him.
Well, if you think celebrities have a lock on giving weird names to their kids, Sunday, being the latest one Nicole Kidman's kid.
HOLMES: Is it Sunday? I didn't know that?
CHO: Sunday -- Monday, maybe it's Monday, born on Sunday. Sunday more than on Monday.
HOLMES: A day of the week in that.
CHO: Anyway, it's a day of the week, that's the point I'm trying to make. Anyway, you probably haven't been in New Zealand. It's going to there, apparently.
HOLMES: Yeah, they actually tried to -- somebody tried to name their child Fish And Chips and other crazy things, but some of the names are so outrageous that the courts have actually had to step in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Oh, well, we've got the gang all here, right now.
CHO: A big happy family.
HOLMES: And Reynolds, you've got two girls, their names -- what are their names again?
WOLF: Aniston is one and Landry is the other.
HOLMES: What were the backup names?
WOLF: The backup names? Swaggathor and um, Munchkin, I believe.
HOLMES: Well, he makes a point there, we're talking about this because there's something going on in New Zealand because some parent there is seem to just go out of their way to burden their offspring with some nutty names.
CHO: Yeah, apparently it happened to a lot of our i-Reporters, too. And Josh Levs is here with more on that. So what is going on?
JOSH LEVS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good did you hear this one what these parents did in New Zealand?
HOLMES: Unbelievable.
LEVS: It's unbelievable.
CHO: I thought the Nicole Kidman's Sunday was...
LEVS: I know, it's like people want to outdo that, you know? So, the stars are doing something. So, listen to this. All right, so this one caught our attention. Parent's in New Zealand they named their daughter "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii." That was her official name. There you go, "Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii." Now, a judge ended up making her a ward of the state. Look at that. I mean, this judge said "it makes a fool of the child and sets up her with a social disability and handicap." He's saying this is really unfair. So then the New Zealand government came forward with a list of some other names that they had dissed that said are not allowed. "Yaeh Detroit," "Stallion," "Fish and Chips."
HOLMES: Stallion's thought bad.
WOLF: Fish and chips would be acceptable if they were twins. I mean, Fish and Chips. You know? I mean, that's, you know.
LEVS: Oh, quit, you're going to call your kid Fish?
WOLF: And Chips.
LEVS: Well, Chips if you take off the "S" you have real name. I don't know, this is just so mean to these -- so we invited i- Reporters, as you guys said, to send in some of the names you guys have. Look at what -- we got a couple of these. We got, first this one from two kids in the Jones family: Dow and Indiana.
WOLF: Very nice.
CHO: That's clever.
LEVS: And no joke, we spoke with them, these are their actual names.
And this guy, this kid, Holden Holden. That's his actual name.
HOLMES: First and last name?
LEVS: Yeah. They gave him the same name. They named him Holden Holden.
WOLF: Sweet specs.
LEVS: Yeah, actually he's got some style.
LEVS: Maybe I should switch to those.
CHO: Peggy Guggenheim action going on.
(LAUGHTER)
WOLF: Loving it.
LEVS: A sampling of some other names, we just made a list of some of the other names: Open Banks, Danger, this is a baby that the parents named Danger...
WOLF: Danger is my middle name.
LEVS: Yeah, not anymore.
CHO: Wasn't Apple bad enough?
LEVS: Really, though? Yeah, I mean, Bern Money? Bern Money, that's a rough one.
HOLMES: But the Pilot Inspector, Jason Lee's child, is named Pilot Inspector.
Oh yeah.
CHO: You know, the one New Zealander I know is a photographer out of Hong Kong, CNN photographer, is name is: Scott.
LEVS: Scott. I'm glad you said that.
CHO: That 's a nice, great name.
LEVS: Lots of people in Zealand fall into that trap, but apparently some people having way too much fun. Leave your kids alone. Come on, they just got into this world.
HOLMES: I probably shouldn't talk, if a lot of people knew my first name.
CHO: That's right.
HOLMES: Nobody's say it.
LEVS: Oh, your first name is cool, though. I liked it.
CHO: It is cool.
HOLMES: We'll leave it at that. All right, we're going to turn back to another name that's kind of different.
WOLF: You've got to be kidding me.
LEVS: Just say it, come on.
HOLMES: Let's go with Barack Obama. He's back home. And he's shaking off a bit of jet lag.
CHO: Hey, he's sleepy, but he's not taking a break from the campaign trail. And, of course, neither are we.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Good morning, it's 28 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to CNN Sunday morning. I'm Alina Cho in for Betty this morning. Good morning T.J.
HOLMES: Good morning, I just can't wait to talk, can I? We're check out the top stories, here. We'll turn to India. It's a bit calm today, but there was chaos last night. A second wave of terrorist bombings has killed at least 49 people, more than 100 were hurt in 17 blasts that all went off within about an hour of each other. Police reportedly have now rounded up about 30 suspects.
CHO: An Australia air safety investigators say an exploding oxygen cylinder may have caused that huge hole on the side after Qantas Jumbo Jet that nearly caused an in-flight disaster on Friday. Qantas has been ordered to inspect every oxygen bottle aboard its fleet of 30 Boeing 747s.
Well, you just saw it there, 100 days and counting until election day in November, creeping up on us. John McCain is spending the day out of the public eye. Instead, he's letting a new TV ad speak for him. In it, he criticizes Barack Obama for not visiting wounded soldiers during a stopover in Germany.
HOLMES: And meanwhile Barack Obama is back home in Chicago after that week-long overseas trip. He landed in Chicago late last night, today he's scheduled to speak in Chicago at the Unity Conference, that's a gathering of minority journalists. Of course he's accepted that invitation from the conference. John McCain declined that invitation.
And CNN's senior political producer, Sasha Johnson, with us this morning.
You got late last night, as well. We appreciate you being with us this morning, in Chicago where that conference is happening. There's always the talk, it's been out there a long time, that the media is in the tank, as you say, for Barack Obama. He has decided to speak to this conference of thousands and thousands journalists. McCain does not. How is this going come out looking, I guess, at the end of the day, at least?
SASHA JOHNSON, CNN SR POLITICAL PRODUCER: I'm not really sure. I mean, I can tell that you that a lot of journalists who were traveling with Barack Obama this week would really disagree with the idea that everyone was in the tank for him, but he did get a lot of amazing coverage this week. There weren't really too many mistakes on this trip and so that's what was reported.
I would imagine today he'll probably get a lot of tough questions about the trip, about why he decided to be out of the country when voters are concerned about economics, you know, their pocketbooks, mortgage issues, things like that. So, I think -- I mean, I also think it's good when politicians go before journal lists, so we'll see thousand came out.
HOLMES: Yeah, you mention that, so, can that backfire? I mean, he was supposed to, and certainly a part of this trip was to make him look presidential, to shore up his foreign policy credentials. That was supposed to be the positive thing, but at the same time, people here, like you said, who are struggling, look at this and say, hey, get back here and help me out.
JOHNSON: Well, and, you know, yesterday Barack Obama addressed that directly. He said, you know, I would not be surprised at all, after he met with Gordon Brown, the prime minister of England, he said, you know, I would not be surprised if I came home and there was a dip in the polls because people saw me, you know, standing next to a French President Sarkozy, they saw me speaking to go 200,000 people in Berlin, calling myself a citizen of the word, but still an American, and they were thinking why is he over there when I want him telling me how he's going to lower my gas prices.
But his argument is that he's going to come home and share what he learned and say that none of these problems can be solved by the U.S. alone and that's why he wanted to show that he can speak with allies. Excuse me.
HOLMES: No worries. You were there, as well. This is something that cropped up now, a bit of a controversy, about the note he left, a prayer he left at the wall, the Wailing Wall, there, when he visited Israel. Someone took that note, reportedly, out of there and an Israeli newspaper published. Now, you were there, I believe, with him at this site, covering this. Now, is there reaction yet from the Obama campaign about this story being out, are they confirming that in fact that was the actual note he left?
JOHNSON: They won't confirm or deny it because they say that it was a private communication and they're not even going to talk about it. And when I did go to the wall with him, I was part of a pool of journalists that was able to go, we went at about 5:00 in the morning, so there weren't too many people there, but there was a good sized crowd and Obama meditated a little bit in front of the wall, a rabbi read a prayer, he put the note in the wall and we left.
It was a very short visit. But, when he came back to talk about the reporters on the plane, people asked what his prayer was and he said I'm not telling you, it was a private communication between me and God. So, they're not going to comment on this.
HOLMES: And you were on the road with Obama, overseas. McCain was back here still hitting and hitting hard. He had the country to himself. What -- I don't know, did this turn out possibly to be a good week for McCain since he had the country to himself, he knew he wasn't going to get much response from the Obama campaign while they were out and about, but did he do what needed to do this week?
JOHNSON: You know, I don't really know. It's hard for me to tell because I was so focused on what I was doing. But, you know, it seems as if John McCain spent a lot of time hitting Barack Obama and the coverage that I've read about John McCain is that that was sort of the focus, more kind of on Barack Obama and perhaps not much on kind of what doeld.
So, I don't really know. I mean, it seems like, you know, John McCain and his campaign seemed very frustrated by their lack of ability to kind of get into the headlines and beat Barack Obama out. I thought it was interesting that the Barack Obama campaign, as the plane landed last night, sent out a memo detailing headlines from Barack Obama's trip in key battleground states, just to sort of show how it was playing back home.
So, I don't know, you know, Barack Obama really did try not to criticize John McCain until yesterday, he sort of reengaged a little bit saying, you know, John McCain wants to criticize my trip, but he's the one who told me to go on it.
HOLMES: Yeah, and on back on that point of -- some e-mail from our viewers about this issue of the note, the rabbi came out and said this is an absolute invasion of privacy. We asked our viewers to tell us what they thought. Just a couple thoughts that they had, here. We have two to share with you on what they think about the media publishing that prayer. If we can show these to you, here.
But no, actually, we can just tell you, one person saying that they think the press has gotten too involved with every mundane detail of Barack Obama's trip. "In the end, how much does leaving a note at the Wailing Wall have to do with how he will facilitate this country?"
Another saying, "The media certainly should not be publishing the contents he left at the wall, however, they are likely to." So, people have opinion, but most are saying, no, that's a private talk between him and God and nobody should be publishing that. So, Sasha...
JOHNSON: Well, and when he went to visit the wall, there was a heckler there who was criticizing his position on the Middle East peace process. And when Barack Obama came back again to talk to reporters on the plane, he sort of laughed a little bit and said I thought there would be more decorum at the Wailing Wall, so I, you know, a campaign aide said to me privately that, you know, if this was his note they pulled, they were disappointed.
HOLMES: Wow, well Sasha Johnson, as another e-mail said, you know, nothing is sacred these days, it seems. So, Sasha Johnson, you get some rest, take care of the cough and that throat thing you've got going on, as well.
JOHNSON: All right. HOLMES: I know it's been a long trip. Good to have you back. Thank you so much.
JOHNSON: Thanks.
HOLMES: And be sure, folks, to tune into a special CNN LATE EDITION, today. You'll hear from both candidates. Wolf Blitzer talking with John McCain and you can catch Barack Obama speaking live at that Unity Conference we just mentioned. Again, LATE EDITION, 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
CHO: Exciting day of programming.
HOLMES: A lot, yeah, it's Wolf, always has it going on, doesn't he?
CHO: Right. Well, love it or hate it, folks who have seen the CNN documentary, groundbreaking documentary, "Black in America," have an opinion about it.
HOLMES: And they are not being shy about it, not holding back at all. Josh Levs will be along to explain some of those opinions.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOODE: Tonight, CNN debunks what you've been guessin' and confronts what you've been stressin'. The truths and misconceptions, the myths and true confessions about black men. You'll learn who we are today and who were back then and hopefully by the end, you'll see for us who we are. Because just like you, we are perfectly imperfect, beautiful yet flawed. And the next two hours, plan to take in the full scope and scape of the land in the hopes you'll understand what it means to be a man -- to be a black man in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: That is spoken word poet, Jon Goode, who used his spoken word to introduce each segment of our landmark "Black in America" documentary and we appreciate him for it.
CHO: Yeah, it really distinguished this documentary from others that we've done. It was so interesting. I was so taken by what you said and you wrote all of it.
So, Jon Goode, here in the studio, as you can see, with us.
So, good to meet you.
GOODE: You too.
CHO: So, tell me a little bit about the creative process, because I found this whole thing interesting. You wrote everything, but you really collaborated pretty closely with our producers, didn't you? GOODE: I did, we worked hand-in-hand on the whole thing.
CHO: So, how'd it work?
GOODE: Well, they would send me the entire transcript of the show and I would sit there and read through it chapter by chapter and then write a poem that would be tailored to that chapter. Then I would send it back to them and they would say yay or nay. Sometimes nay.
HOLMES: Really?
GOODE: Sometimes they would say, too edgy.
CHO: But some of slip closer, right?
GOODE: Some of them made it in and they were really, really good. And so, we worked back and forth and got them right.
HOLMES: About that, I mean, you're a creative guy and you don't want anybody messing with your work. Now, how did take you that? Did somebody tell you, hey, we can't use that? I mean really, tell me honestly.
GOODE: No, it's -- I would send them four or five poems and then they would say: we like this one, we don't like that one, this one's too edgy...
CHO: So, you would give them choices?
GOODE: Yeah, I would give them four or five choices.
HOLMES: You can't give us options.
(CROSSTALK)
GOODE: I would say to myself: this one is too edgy, this one is nice, you know, this is nice. Now, the edgy one they would always say, it's too edgy, I'd like, I know.
CHO: You know, I'm curious, too, because the words are so powerful, but I'm curious, as well, about the performance aspect of it because you notice the cadence and the way you look into the camera and how much of it is that, how much of the impact is about the performance?
GOODE: A lot of it is because it's performance poetry and so the first part of performance poetry is performance. So a lot of it is, you know...
CHO: Well, the words have to be strong, too.
GOODE: Right, the words have to be strong, the cadence has to be strong, you have to have like a presence when you step on to the stage to present the words. HOLMES: Did you know how big this thing was going to end up being when you were involved in the process? And now, tell me, as well, since we've had so much reaction to it, good and bad, and are you a part of that program, as well. I mean, give me your thoughts on that.
GOODE: I had no idea it was going to be quite as big when we first started. When we first started, I was going to one commercial. The were like, we want you to do just one commercial. And then me and (INAUDIBLE), we shot like a little mock space, a little mock commercial.
CHO: And they said, whoa!
GOODE: They said we're going to put you in the whole show.
HOLMES: Wow.
GOODE: And I said, fantastic, I'll be in the whole show.
CHO: Now, we understand that you have a little poem about this show.
GOODE: About this show? You know, I've worked up a little something.
CHO: Let's hear it.
GOODE: And it's like...
CHO: Your best performance. No pressure.
GOODE: Before I was on "Black in America," I was just Black in America. Back in the ever where, you know, people said black was (INAUDIBLE), now I wanted to fight, but my mom said, brains are for brawn, your light will shine through your interior. In theory the strong keep quiet, but the weak try to launch, but most nights, I right the wrongs just trying to right the wrongs.
I thought like the documentary showed how we battled on through the struggle and the resistance. Yes, we shall overcome, but it made that comment in an instant, but thank God that the race is not who can run the scripted, but who can run the distance.
And just in case you missed it, you can you catch it tonight at 8:00, just in case.
HOLMES: Very nice.
CHO: That was great.
HOLMES: Do we pay you well?
GOODE: I get a couple of burgers, you know.
HOLMES: A couple of burgers. CHO: Now I see why he's been nominated for an Emmy.
HOLMES: That is outstanding.
CHO: Spoken word poet, Jon Goode. Hey, thank you so much. Great to meet you.
GOODE: Thank, y'all.
HOLMES: Bring the hat back with you next time. The hat is the signature part.
All right, Jon, good to meet you.
And as Jon just alluded to this, but if you haven't seen the documentary, millions have seen it already, it airs again tonight, here on CNN, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time -- both parts.
HOLMES: Yes, and after you've seen it you may want to tell us what you think, just as so many others have done. So, Josh Levs is going to now rhyme this segment for us. Give us a little poetry.
Take it away.
LEVS: Yeah, thanks for putting me so the spot, as usual. Wait, don't let him leave, because I want to like make a weekly tradition with us where he could comment with us at the end of every hour. Kind of a poetry summary of all the news we've given you.
HOLMES: That's not in the budget, man, it's not in the budget.
LEVS: Seriously. Well, you've got the power, you're a big anchor many.
All right, let's get to these or won't have time for these sound bites. Let's check it out. Obviously, this is cnn.com behind me. So many people a visiting "Black in America." And these are the i-Reports that keep on coming in.
We've got a great team following them as they come in. We can't follow them all, but we're doing our best. What I want you to do is show you the variety of what we're getting. We're going to start off here with a sound bite from this one video we got from Corhonda Bolton, who, well, she had this to say:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CORHONDA BOLTON, I-REPORTER: I'd like to thank CNN for being a vehicle that has spurred long overdue dialogue that is occurring in beauty shops, barbershop, corporate offices and classrooms. I pray that it brings about a collective movement to address so many of our conditions. Many of the stories that were told, I could relate to, some I could not. However, disenfranchisement has always been a part of the black experience in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEVS: But not everybody writing us has been positive or sending videos. I want to bring you another video, now. This one comes to us from Lawrence Haines (SIC), who had some criticisms and some ideas about how to make the special better.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE HUGHES, I-REPORTER: Generalized statistics cannot and does not educate the listener to those real-life situations that actually perpetuate those statistics in which you're reporting. Some of these situations are: social policies that discourage the father figure from being in the home, criminal law that emphasize severe punishment on those who cannot afford to obtain effective representation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: As you can see, a lot of really thoughtful responses. Now, we got kind of a criticism crescendo going because we just had that one, now I'll bring and you quote from this, a woman who calls herself "Disgusted." Let me read to you, and we'll bring up a graphic, here of one of the quotes from her.
Ginger Daniels Oakland who says, you know, "I was looking forward to this special, now I'm disgusted. They used to black woman to basically perpetuate the stereotypes that frequent the U.S. media. There are so many African-Americans doing well."
But on the flipside, we have another quote here from Nicoya Landry who says: "I knew there were things going on in our community, but never as blunt or harsh as CNN has ut it for me. I wanted to overlook the problems and move on to my future. I realize my future is our black community. I want to thank you guys because it was an eye opener for me and though it saddens me, it pulled knee want to get out there and help our young black kids.
Now, if you want to join in on this conversation at any time, all you had need to do is go ireport.com, there's a "Black in America" button, you can you click on, right there. While you're online, also check out our special report, cnn.com, you can -- at the very top, you can -- at the very top, you'll see the link for "Black in America." It brings you through tons of reports, even T.J.'s blog post, and you can visit some of the videos, as well. Anything you've got, send along there, we're at ireport.com.
And guys, we're going to keep sharing this with you for a while because it's some powerful stuff, as you can see.
CHO: As our new friend, Jon Goode, the spoken word poet, who makes an appearance in "Black in America," just said: "Love or hate it, it's going to make you talk."
LEVS: It's true. It's what they're doing.
CHO: And can you watch an encore presentation of "Black in America," that's tonight at 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN. HOLMES: Also we have a warning for parents during the summer heat. Mats at playgrounds are meant to protect your child from a fall, right?
CHO: Yeah, I looked into this, but they can cause some other injuries, too.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Welcome back, almost 10 minutes before the top of the hour. Movement on the Mississippi River, this morning, after a massive oil spill on Wednesday. Look at those pictures. The Coast Guard, though, is allowing more ships through this oily mess. Earlier, I talked to the Coast Guard about how they decide which ships get to go and which ships have to wait.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE CARLTON, U.S. COAST GUARD: They look at exactly what types of things are on the ships, they look at what needs to be moving through the system, things like petroleum products, grain, whatever that we need to move, they've put it into a priority and move that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: A tanker collision, last week, dumped more than 400,000 gallons of oil from a barge into the river there in New Orleans.
CHO: Well, they're supposed to be sanctuaries for kids, certainly not places where they're going to get hurt, but some children in New York City are getting burned right at the playground. Parents are demanding changes and they want other parents to be warned.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice over): The danger was right below his Will Casin's feet.
CASIN, FATHER: As soon as he reached the rubber mat, he screamed. He was on the rubber mat maybe five seconds. My wife picked him up, looked at the bottom of his feet and the skin was hanging off of his feet.
CHO (on camera): Oh, my gosh.
(voice over): The 2-year-old landed in a hospital burn unit by doing something seemingly harmless at a New York City playground. He kicked off his shoes and ran right on to these scorching hot mats, meant to protect kids in a fall. Instead, Will suffered second-degree burns, suffering so much, his dad says, he was convulsing.
(on camera): Even on a moderately warm day, these black mats can get extremely hot, so hot that one New York hospital says it only takes a couple of seconds for a child with bare feet or bare hands, for that matter, to get burned.
GEOFFREY CROFT, NEW YORK CITY PARK ADVOCATES: Oh, it can be in the low 80s. I mean, this stuff heats up every day.
CHO: So, it doesn't have to be a scorcher.
CROFT: Oh, not at all. Not at all.
CHO (voice over): Parents say the solution is cover the playgrounds with canopies, replace the black mats with a lighter color or at the very least, post more detailed signs near the mats explaining the potential danger.
CASIN: The sign says no bare feet, but it doesn't tell you why.
CHO: The Consumer Product Safety Commission tells CNN the number of children burned from mats is small, saying: "Our No. 1 playground issue is children falling off apparatus. That's our main concern because that's where the deaths occur."
New York's parks commissioner says it's not practical to replace the mats at a cost of $150 million.
ADRIAN BENEPE, NYC PARKS COMMISSIONER: It hurts me when a kid gets hurt, but it hurts a lot worse when they crack a skull and you can't recover from a cracked skull. There's a relatively simple solution to this, which is to wear shoes.
CHO: Some parents say it's not so simple. They want changes, so a trip to the playground doesn't' end with a trip to the hospital.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: You just saying that $150 million sounds like a lot of money. It is a lot of money, I mean, when you consider 1,000 playgrounds in New York City with these mats. You replace each one at a cost of $150,000, that's how you get that figure. And the parks commissioner told me, listen, you know, you can't do that and spend all of that money for something you're not sure will work any better than what's there right now. You know, remember, these mats are spongy, they're designed to protect kids in a fall. The problem is they do get very, very hot. It doesn't have to be enormously hot in order for these mats to get scorching hot, so you know, kids really need to be careful. They need to wear their shoes and it's not just that, it's the slides, you know, those slides get really hot, too, one of our producer kids got burned from that. It's a real problem.
HOLMES: Oh, that poor kid's feet, to see that. My goodness. That's just a couple of seconds ant that happened.
CHO: A couple seconds, five seconds.
HOLMES: All right, my goodness. Well, Reynolds Wolf, we'll turn to you now. We're talking about hot mats, here, but you're talking about hot weather across the country.
WOLF: Yeah, very much so. You know, as a -- you have you to remember those mats you were talking about, as you mentioned in the story, Alina, they happen to be really dark. We have something that we weather geeks refer to as the "albeto effect." The darker colors tend to absorb heat, whereas the lighter colors tend to push the heat back into the atmosphere, so maybe they should go to sand, and maybe they should use lighter coloring and conditions will be better.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHO: Reynolds wolf, certified meteorologist and certified playground expert.
WOLF: There you go.
CHO: Thank you, Reynolds.
HOLMES: "Certified" is what we call him.
We want to turn now to Howard Kurtz, he's in Washington.
Tell us what's ahead on CNN's RELIABLE SOURCES. Good morning, Howard.
HOWARD KURTZ, RELIABLE SOURCES: Thanks very much, T.J. Coming up, the Obama world tour ended in London yesterday, after a week of saturation coverage that utterly dominated the media. Did Katie, Brian, Charlie and Candy do their jobs or were journalists basically used for a series of photo-ops.
Batman's bust makes headlines around the world, but holy cow, what a typed tale. CBS offs the financial hook over that wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl. Why did the media go so nuts over Janet Jackson's mishap?
That and we'll name the television soap most obsessed with Barack Obama, ahead on RELIABLE SOURCES.
HOLMES: Howard, you put that gently, "Janet Jackson's mishap." Very nice.
KURTZ: Malfunction.
HOLMES: Yes, all right, we'll see you here at the top of the hour.
CHO: All right, well they're are bigger than the Dallas cowboys' cheerleaders, a lot bigger, and they are the new hot thing in big league entertainment, yes, they are.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, Tons of fun, literally, to tell you about here. Guys are working up a sweat for the Florida Marlins.
CHO: That's right, CNN's John Zarrella introduces us to the Manatees, and we're not talking about animals.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They stand in the tunnel, game faces on: "Big Red," "Chocolate Thunder," "Mr. Mantastic," they are part of the first all-male dance team in Major League Baseball.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good crowd. Here's to a good performance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, manatees.
ZARRELLA: But you'll never mistake them for Chippendale. They are, like their sea creature namesake, well, to be kind, let's just say rotund.
(on camera): You didn't have any problem when you decided to take this job?
STEVE BAUER, "MR. MANTASTIC": No, if it bothered me I'd be skinny.
ZARRELLA (voice over): Steve Bauer, aka "Mr. Mantastic," is one of a dozen guys who, on Friday and Saturday nights, entertain at Florida Marlins' baseball game and some community events. All the entertainment has a sea creature theme from Billy the Marlin to the Mermaids.
The team, wanting to add a new dimension to entertainment, several dimensions in this case, came up with Manatees.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. One more.
ZARRELLA: Unlike the Mermaids and Billy" these guys don't get paid, they come from all walks of life: a lawyer, a teacher, retail, school administrator and "Mr. Mantastic?"
BAUER: Who wants a peanut? Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!
ZARRELLA: He's a peanut vendor when he's not dancing.
(on camera): So, they want to see what?
BAUER: My gut.
ZARRELLA: And?
BAUER: My muscle.
ZARRELLA: Which is bigger?
BAUER: My gut. And my gut's real.
ZARRELLA (voice over): The Manatees, all two tons of them, are serious about their performance, practicing with their choreographer before games. For some fans, there's an instant bond.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good for the big guys. They're like me.
ZARRELLA: They are a proud bunch, nothing lightweight about these triple-x sized dancers.
(on camera): The Manatees all say they intend to try out for the squad again next year, but they're a bit concerned that the competion may be a lot heavier.
John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: He has a way with words, doesn't he?
HOLMES: Yeah, he does. That's why he's one of the best we have.
CHO: You prefer the Mermaids.
HOLMES: Well, I didn't want to say it, but, fine.
CHO: OK, all right. Coming up next on RELIABLE SOURCES: did the media go overboard in covering Senator Barack Obama's trip overseas, and is Senator McCain's campaign getting fair coverage? McCain says, well, he feels left out.
HOLMES: Yeah, then at 11:00, Senator John McCain not going to be left out by our Wolf Blitzer. Wolf is going one-on-one with him. We'll show you that entire interview. Also at Noon, live coverage of Senator Barack Obama's appearance at the Unity Journalist Conference in Chicago. But first we have a check of this morning's top developments.
Australian air safety investigators say an exploding oxygen canister may have caused the huge hole in a Qantas Jumbo Jet. The Bowing 747 was flying to Hong Kong from Melbourne, Australia when the accident forced the plane to make an emergency landing in the Philippines on Friday.
So, dangerous rip currents off the coast of New York have claimed the lives of four swimmers. Another four are missing, one of the missing, a 10-year-old girl. She was swimming with her cousin off Coney Island when they both were swept away. Her cousin, however, was rescued.
Also, wildfire in California's Yosemite National Park is threatening 2,000 homes. Look at this, about 200 are under mandatory evacuations. Other residents are being warned they may have to leave at a moment's notice. Officials say the fire was actually sparked by someone target shooting in that area. We'll have more top stories coming your way in 30 minutes, but RELIABLE SOURCES starts right now.
