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CNN Sunday Morning
2 Men With Militant Ties Arrested in N.Y.; More Oil Reported Ashore in Florida; Tornadoes Rip Across Midwest
Aired June 06, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN Center, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Good morning. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Drew Griffin, and we're both in -- right? -- for T.J. Holmes.
MALVEAUX: T.J. Holmes.
GRIFFIN: It apparently takes two to fill his slot. It's 6 a.m. here in Atlanta; 5 a.m. in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Thanks for starting your day with us.
A bit of good news we're going to begin with, and some bad news out of the Gulf this morning. That's the live picture of the thing that's captured our attention for the last month and plus. The oil- spill cap -- it is still working. BP says the cap is catching now about 10,000 barrels of oil a day. They're working on it to increase that, obviously.
On the down side, we're getting more reports of tar balls showing up on those pristine beaches in Florida, and dead wildlife in Florida as well. We're going to live to Destin in just minutes.
MALVEAUX: Plus, 48 tornadoes reported in five states. Just take a look at this overnight video from Dwight, Illinois. Firefighters are out surveying the damage this morning, and our own Reynolds Wolf is going to take a look at where the storm system is headed today.
But first, let's get some developing news.
GRIFFIN: And they come out of New Jersey -- a New Jersey newspaper reported two New Jersey have been arrested and charged with conspiring to commit international terrorism. CNN Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve joins us from Washington with this.
Jeanne, were the two suspect of planning actual attacks here?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND-SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Drew, that's one of the few things we actually do know about this case.
A -- a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Newark, New Jersey, issued a statement saying that these arrests do not relate to any known immediate threat to the public or active plot against the U.S. A spokesman for the FBI adds that JFK airport, where the arrests took place, was not at risk here, and that this was part of an ongoing investigation.
The "Newark Star Ledger" is reporting that the two men were en route to Somalia to link up fighters there. If that report is correct, it would fit part of a broader problem. About 20 young men have disappeared from Minneapolis, Minnesota, believed to have gone to Somalia to fight. Disappearance of Somalis from other American cities have also been investigated by the FBI.
Some of them who have gone to Somalia have known to have fought there. Some of them are believed to have died, and at least one has become a propagandist for the group al-Shabab, which is a designated terrorist group by the U.S. and has linked itself with al-Qaeda.
The real fear on the part of U.S. officials is that any of these young men could come back to the U.S. on their U.S. passports, perhaps with training, perhaps to do something here, something dangerous.
But as yet, we don't have the specifics on these two individuals who were arrested at JFK last evening, But just to re-emphasize once again, officials tells us there was no threat to the U.S. involved here -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: And -- and Jeanne, this highlights the security problem here in this nation in gathering intelligence, two guys in New Jersey. President Obama announces a new intelligence director just yesterday.
What is the feeling in the intelligence community about this guy, General James Clapper?
MESERVE: In the intelligence committee, from what I understand, from people I have spoken to, he is very well-regarded. He has more than 40 years of service in intelligence. He was in the U.S. Air Force, and while he was in the Air Force was head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
Right now, the Pentagon's top intelligence official. A lot of people feel he is someone who really does have the knowledge that's necessary here. But whether he has some of the political skills that might be required to bring to heal the 16 different intelligence agencies across the U.S. government is another question. Whether he'll get the backing from the president to be an effective DNI is unclear. His predecessor did not have that backing by many accounts, and some say that's one reason why he was ineffective in that job.
Back to you.
GRIFFIN: Yes, it's turned that office into a revolving door. Jeanne Meserve from Washington. Thanks, Jeanne.
MESERVE: You bet.
MALVEAUX: And in the Gulf of Mexico, an official from BP says the company is pleased with the containment of the oil spilling from that ruptured wellhead.
Now, here's the very latest: BP reports it collected 250,000 gallons of crude oil in the first 24 hours of placing the cap. Now, that's about 31 percent of the 790,000 gallons that's gushing into the sea daily. BP is trying to shut valve in the cap to increase the amount of oil.
All that as oil drips onto the beaches as far east as the Florida panhandle. Now, booms line the Florida panhandle as officials are trying to protect its pristine beaches from the BP oil disaster. And meanwhile, tourists -- they're trying to beat the black tar that is washing onto the white, sandy beaches.
Our CNN's Jim Acosta, he talked with one couple who actually got married on the beach, and he's joining us from Destin.
Jim, I want to start off by talking a little bit about protecting those beaches. There are a lot of folks who have decided they're going to come out there...
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
MALVEAUX: ...they're going to see the water, enjoy -- enjoy the weather.
ACOSTA: Sure.
MALVEAUX: What do the beaches look like? How are they being protected now?
ACOSTA: Well, where we are right now in Destin, Suzanne, the beaches look pretty good. We haven't seen any evidence of tar balls just yet. But we did talk to Florida environmental officials yesterday, and they said they have seen some tar balls as far east as Panama City Beach, which is about an hour east of here. So from Pensacola to Panama City Beach, they're starting to see some tar balls come ashore here on the Florida panhandle.
We have some video to show you that we got yesterday here in the Destin area, where local officials were putting out containment boom in an area called East Pass. That is an area where the -- it's sort of an inlet where the -- the ocean, the Gulf of Mexico flows into a nearby bay here. They were putting that containment boom, obviously, as a precaution that that oil might start coming into this area, start washing into this area over the weekend. That was the anticipation from the folks over at NOAA and here with the state of Florida.
The other thing that we can show that was also set up yesterday, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection set up a command post at a nearby state wildlife park just in case they started sending patrols out up and down this beach looking for any signs of tar balls up and down the beach. And so far, they didn't find any here in Destin.
And as you mentioned, this is a -- this is common practice here on the panhandle. We saw several couples coming out onto the beach yesterday, tying the knot, having those beautiful beachside settings for their wedding service.
Talked to one couple yesterday about why they come here and how they're worried about what's coming next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: ...be pretty relieved this didn't happen on your wedding day.
JOSH FUSELIER, GROOM: Absolutely. We called every day for the last two weeks -- well, Stephanie (ph) did. I just sat back.
But...
ACOSTA: Your bride.
FUSELIER: That's right. That's right.
And -- yes, very relieved. They -- they're saying it's about two weeks out. So we get this thing over with. I'm excited, and we'll beat the oil out of here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And one thing we should also mention, after showing you those beautiful wedding pictures, is that there was no oil on that white wedding dress, Suzanne. That -- that remained pristine through all of this.
But -- but the folks have been -- in all seriousness, the folks here on the panhandle are very worried about all of this. They -- they saw, you know, what happened in the panhandle just a couple of days ago. They are now starting to worry very seriously that this is coming down more in an easterly direction down the coast here, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: All right, Jim. And we wish them the -- the very best, that newlywed couple there.
ACOSTA: Absolutely.
MALVEAUX: And glad no tar on the dress. Very important.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX: OK.
ACOSTA: Exactly.
MALVEAUX: Perfect timing for a wedding on the beach. Thanks.
GRIFFIN: I love that groom. Let's just get this over with. The bride's probably been planning that for years, right?
(LAUGHTER)
GRIFFIN: Well, people in parts of the Midwest are glad yesterday's over with. A very rough night. Severe weather -- a tornado touched down in Illinois. Reports almost 50 tornadoes in five states. We're going to take a close look at the damage. And Reynolds Wolf is going to tell us, what about today? More severe weather?
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: There is some crazy weather out there. Our own Reynolds Wolf is going to talk about that.
I understand that there are 48 tornado reports -- Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio -- Reynolds, what is going on?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and just to add to that, I just found another one -- Vermont. So just throw in Vermont in there, too.
GRIFFIN: Wow.
MALVEAUX: No kidding.
(CROSSTALK)
WOLF: I know. There -- there were salt-and-peppered...
MALVEAUX: Why?
WOLF: ...all across parts of the -- of -- of south of the Great Lakes.
We had, basically, an area of low pressure, and we had frontal boundary that was just sitting up there. It was interacting with moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. And the result, yesterday -- take a look at the video.
We've got video for you from places like Illinois and back into Ohio. As you can see right now on this video -- again, just devastation in many places. Two fatalities in parts of the Midwest. Here -- this happens to be in Elmwood, Illinois. Widespread power outages to be expected. You see all the damage everywhere. Certainly a huge mess. A lot of the trees toppled. A lot of cleanup today, no question about it.
And we're going to shift gears from that point, going over towards Ohio. In Ohio, we're talking about Lucas, Ohio, which is just a stone's throw from Mansfield, and basically the same result. We have got plenty of damage there, too. Straight-line winds are a possibility for this, but it looks more like tornadoes.
The thing is that we had 48 reports yesterday. And that's kind of a deceiving number, because there are a lot of times that when you have a tornado that falls or -- or drops in a highly populated area, you could have 10 people seeing the same tornado. Thus, 10 tornado reports. So it's going to be interesting to see how this pans out in the days to come, when they come back and study this, the National Weather Service. (WEATHER REPORT)
GRIFFIN: Well, BP's trying to clean up the shorelines in the Gulf as well as clean up its image.
MALVEAUX: And the company is taking an unprecedented approach to try to win the public-relations battle. But, you know, critics are winning the war online.
Our Josh Levs is here with more.
Josh, it's -- it's not like anything we've seen ...
JOSH LEVS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Nothing.
MALVEAUX: ...talking to regular folks here. You and I are regular folks, and we like to hear from regular folks.
What are they saying?
LEVS: We do.
I'll tell you, this isn't like anything I've ever seen before, ever. We're talking about a huge company at the center of this major crisis, locked in a battle now online.
I'm going to show you outrage is winning partly through a fake Twitter site that's slamming BP.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Around the world, people are expressing outrage at BP for the oil-spill crisis. And many of them are turning to the Web and taking BP online.
GRIFFIN: Our Josh Levs is here to show us how a fake Twitter site has been winning the PR war on the Internet.
I don't get this, Josh.
LEVS: You're about to. I'll show you. I mean, this is pretty amazing stuff. I've never -- really, I've never seen anything that operated this way.
Let's start off with what BP has been doing online to try win in -- in this -- and approve its image.
Take a look here. This is their website here, at BP.com. And throughout this, they have been packed with so much. They keep updating it with live videos, with more animations.
In fact, let's go to some live video we're getting underwater right now. Now, this is just one example of what we have been getting. They have made all 12 of their underwater cameras available all the time for people to see at any moment what's going on. Also, let's go to this animation. They keep posting new animations, like, every other day, showing the latest steps that they're trying -- what they're trying to do. This is the latest one, when they were explaining how that cap works.
So in terms of putting information out there, BP has been incredibly active. That said, people are furious at BP. And what we're seeing online -- I've talked to some PR experts about this, and they keep telling me, BP is losing the online battle. What the -- BP is kind of putting information out there, but people out there who are outraged are getting a lot more traffic, a lot more interest.
Take a look at this -- here is that fake Twitter site we were talking about. This is pretending to be from global PR -- from -- from BP global PR. These are the kinds of tweets they put out: "Look, cut us some slack. We've kind of just been winging this whole deepwater drilling thing."
Here's another one they just put out: "Safety is our primary concern. Well, profit, then safety. Oh no, profits, image, then safety. And still, it's right up there."
They have about 130,000 followers on this fake one. And over on the real one on Twitter, the actual BP one, they only have about 10,000 followers. So the people who are furious are the ones getting all the traffic online. And it's working for them.
I asked you what you think about this, and we have been hearing from so many of you. We'll get through just a few of these, what we can.
Here's what we heard at Facebook: "Although BP's site is blanketed with photos of BP employees apparently hard at work to contain the oil disaster, as well as optimistic spin, these online efforts mask BP's safety violations."
"I give it a grade of 'F.' I understand they're doing damage control, but the long term ecological cesspool they have created is far and above any online effort they could ever come up with."
Let's see what we got at the blog here.
"I feel BP is doing everything they can to stop this spill. These people are coming up with these signs against BP don't help matters."
Just a few examples of what we're getting. Let me show you how can all weigh in; we've got a graphic for you. This is where we're hearing from you all day long: CNN.com/josh is the blog; Facebook and Twitter, joshlevscnn. Let us know what you think about what BP is doing to get you information and to get its view out there, along with your outrage. We want to hear it all.
All right. Drew, you got a sense of what I'm talking about now? You see that fake Twitter site (INAUDIBLE)?
GRIFFIN: Yes, you know, I got a sense of it. But all week long we've been talking about image, whether it's the government's image, Obama's image or -- just clean up the dang oil, man (ph).
LEVS: Yes, I mean, that's obviously way above everything else, number one.
MALVEAUX: And I assume that you can tell the difference between the real BP site and the -- the -- the fake Twitter site.
LEVS: Oh, the sarcasm just screams at you.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX: OK. All right. Thanks, Josh.
GRIFFIN: If you get it, Josh.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX: All right.
LEVS: See you, guys.
MALVEAUX: Well, a Washington, D.C., is using his own misfortune to help others, and he's happening (ph) one day at a time.
GRIFFIN: We're going to show you how he's doing this. That's coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: A check of our top stories now.
Marching in support of Arizona -- nearly a thousand people took the scorching temperatures in stride yesterday to rally for the state's immigration law. Organizers say the goal -- to change the notion that supporters of the bill are racist. About half the speakers were Hispanic or of Mexican ancestry.
Chilling hotel surveillance video could help establish a timeline for what's shaping up to be a high-profile murder case. It appears to show a Dutch suspect, Joran van der Sloot, enter a hotel room with the woman he's accused now of killing in Peru. Hours later, he leaves that hotel alone.
Van der Sloot was arrested twice but never charged in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba.
And a peaceful ending to the latest ships trying to get into Gaza. Today, a routine conclusion to the standoff in international waters. All 19 passengers and crew of the Rachel Corrie have signed deportation papers and should be allowed to leave Israel today. The ship had been trying to get supplies into Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade when commandos seized and boarded it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC, 'N SYNC, "JUST GOT PAID") (LAUGHTER)
GRIFFIN: (INAUDIBLE)
(CROSSTALK)
GRIFFIN: Well, you'd be -- you'd be dancing if you were in Washington and somebody gave you a $10 bill, right?
MALVEAUX: Oh, absolutely.
GRIFFIN: Or at least you'd be chuckling.
(LAUGHTER)
GRIFFIN: Well, that's what's going on in Washington.
This guy meeting strangers on the street. He calls it his "Year of Giving." But it turns out Reed Sandridge could now use a little help himself.
MALVEAUX: And you see, Reed started this project after losing his job at a non-profit. And our Jay Kroff of affiliate WJLA has his whole story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REED SANDRIDGE, GOOD SAMARITAN: I've got an SRL camera.
JAY KROFF, WJLA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thirty-six-year-old D.C. resident Reed Sandridge...
SANDRIDGE: One of these flip cameras.
KROFF: ...never thought...
SANDRIDGE: We're good to go.
KROFF: ...that a strong stride, Alexander Hamilton and his own misfortune...
SANDRIDGE: Day 100.
KROFF: ...would inspire a campaign of compassion for those trapped under the weight of an off-key economy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of people like him, the world is a better place.
KROFF: Every day...
SANDRIDGE: Well, there's not always a -- a science to this.
KROFF: ...Sandridge gives a stranger...
SANDRIDGE: Excuse me. KROFF: ....$10.
SANDRIDGE: So there's the $10.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
KROFF: He calls it "The Year of Giving," a chance to spread good karma, 365 times.
SANDRIDGE: It's about giving to someone that you don't know, who you have no reason to, really, but you do it anyway.
Try the (INAUDIBLE) barbecue beef.
KROFF: Reed met Manny (ph) on Day 85.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he definitely made a difference in my life. I mean, we were able to buy groceries that day, because of that.
SANDRIDGE: I'd love to give you $10 today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You sure?
KROFF: Reed ran into Bill Davis (ph) on Day 100...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've seen better years.
KROFF: ...a musician who nearly lost his home this year...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It got devalued, like somebody stole 160 grand out of my pocket.
KROFF: ...Davis can't remember the last time his guitar case eyed a 10-spot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a great thing, man. Gee, you know, keep doing it. You know, pay it forward.
KROFF (on camera): You know, it's perfectly reasonable to think that Reed Sandridge makes a good living and has a good job. But Reed Sandridge has been out of work now for nearly eight months.
SANDRIDGE: I was slipping into the edge of depression.
KROFF (voice-over): After losing his job at a non-profit, Sandridge decided to honor his mother Lenore's (ph) lifelong philosophy of philanthropy.
SANDRIDGE: She would absolutely love this project, and it's just sad you can't share it.
KROFF: And on his blog, he posts every recipient's story, a snapshot of lives touched by one man's investment in kindness, from Donna (ph) and John (ph) at the Jefferson Memorial, to Shawn (ph) at Dupont Circle.
For Sandridge, the money is rather meaningless.
SANDRIDGE: You can do anything you want with it.
KROFF: What matters is the hope that he creates for those who have lost count...
SANDRIDGE: I'll see you again soon, all right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, Reed. Thank you man.
KROFF: ...of how long they've struggled, like Bill Chase (ph), Day 36.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When people care about each other, it makes everybody's life easier.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: I love this story. This is an amazing story. I mean, Reed is documenting his "Year of Giving" one day at a time. And this is a look at his website here. He has posted stories about each of the people he has given money to, and sometimes even some video links as well.
If you want to check out the site, you can go to CNN.com/newsroom.
I mean, really -- I mean, I love this guy's story. It's really amazing. You got to check it out.
GRIFFIN: I wish he'd walk through the studio right now. We could be Day -- what? -- 230.
MALVEAUX: Ten bucks for each of us.
GRIFFIN: Well, you've heard all BP's solutions to this oil disaster: top hat, top kill, junk shot. Now, we're at another containment cap. But we're going to show you some alternatives invented by real people who say they hold the key to this cleanup.
They demonstrate their solutions and explain how they work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Welcome back. I am Suzanne Malveaux.
GRIFFIN: I am Drew Griffin. Six-thirty here in Atlanta; 5:30 in New Orleans. Thanks for starting your Sunday with us.
MALVEAUX: A New Jersey newspaper reports that two New Jersey men have been arrested and charged with conspiring to commit international terrorism.
Our CNN homeland-security correspondent Jeanne Meserve, she is joining us from Washington.
And Jeanne, tell us about these two suspects here. Were they suspected of planning attacks here in the United States?
MESERVE: Suzanne, there is no known threat to the United States. Officials are being very closed mouthed about this situation. But a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Newark, New Jersey, says the arrests do not relate to any known immediate threat to the public or active plot against the United States.
The FBI adds that JFK Airport, where the men were taken into custody, was never at risk and the arrests were part of an ongoing investigation. "The Newark Star-Ledger" is reporting that law enforcement also raided two homes in New Jersey, and that the men were boarding flights to link up with a militant group al Shabaab in Somalia. Al Shabaab has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government and has declared itself aligned with Al Qaeda. About 20 young men are believed to have left the Minneapolis, Minnesota area to fight with them, and disappearances from other cities in the U.S. are being investigated.
The FBI has been making a concerted effort to reach out to the Somali community and investigate how the young men are being recruited. The concern is these young men have American passports and once trained in Somalia, they could use the passports to reenter the United States and do harm here.
But once again, these two arrests at JFK, no plot to the U.S. here, according to officials. Back to you, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Thank you very much, Jeanne. We understand that they are keeping a very close eye on that. Appreciate it.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SUNDAY MORNING: The top story for 48 days running revolves around that oil disaster in the gulf. It's also affected lives far from the Gulf region. Sandra Endo is, as you are looking live, at the latest from BP and the effort to contain that spill, she traveled to Maryland to see how things have changed for those who enjoy a particular seafood delicacy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man, those look good.
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A summer staple along the Chesapeake Bay.
SCOTT COOK, BUDDY'S CRABS & RIBS: We got your fresh hot crabs within 10 minutes.
ENDO: Buddy's seafood restaurant in Annapolis, Maryland, is more than 1,000 miles for the Gulf Coast, but at the height of crab season, the oil spill is taking a toll on their bottom line.
COOK: The price has gone up measurably. I would say $30, $40, $50 a bushel.
ENDO: Buddy's normally gets daily shipments of fresh crabs from Louisiana, but now they've had to cut back to one a week.
COOK: They're good crab. But the price has gotten out of reach, so we can't turn it over to the customer. We have to make a stand.
ENDO: Dan Donnelly co-owns Cantier's water front restaurant in Annapolis. He says he can't scale back on his daily shipments from Louisiana, the shrimp are a favorite on the menu.
(On camera): What makes it so special, compared to--?
DAN DONNELLY, CO-OWNER, CANTIER'S RIVERSIDE INN: The flavor, the taste. Definitely. There's nothing like it.
ENDO (voice over): But with shrimping and fishing restrictions in the Gulf due to the oil spill, shrimp costs are up 30 percent. There's also a hefty price tag for Louisiana crab.
DONNELLY: We're paying an average of between $210 to $240 a bushel for Louisiana crab. That's pretty expensive, you know? And usually by this time of the year it's coming down.
ENDO (on camera): Maryland is known for its crabs. But at this time of the year here's the difference. A Maryland crab is small and sweet. A Louisiana one is big and full.
(Voice over): Those crabs may come from New Orleans, but in the Crescent City, crawfish is the big seller. Henry Poynot, at a Big Fisherman store in New Orleans says crawfish season is winding down, which means a bigger headache on the horizon.
HENRY POYNOT, BIG FISHERMAN SEAFOOD: Crawfish season is only four months out of the year. I need shrimp, crab and oyster to survive the off season of crawfish.
ENDO (on camera): What are we talking about in terms of prices? How high have they gone up?
POYNOT: I would say the prices have gone up probably 25 percent across the board.
ENDO (voice over): Despite prices, seafood lovers seem to stay loyal to their own towns.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think New Orleans, we're a city that normally pulls together. And we know how to take care of our folks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I called and asked what they were, if they were Maryland crabs. Made sure.
ENDO: But what's unsure is how long the rising price of seafood from the Gulf will last. Sandra Endo, CNN, Annapolis, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: So the oil disaster obviously not just having an economic impact, but also the weather is having an impact on this as well.
Reynolds, what do we know about that?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What we know about this is we're going to have the typical Louisiana Gulf Coast climate. As you are familiar with it, every afternoon, the showers and storms.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely.
WOLF: That is basically what will happen today. It's not the perfect conditions to try to deal with this oil. What we are seeing, again, is the widespread slick is carried by the currents and the winds. Let's step over here for a moment.
(WEATHER FORCAST)
GRIFFIN: As the oil spill moves, BP has thousands of different ideas of how to contain it and clean it up.
MALVEAUX: This morning we'll show you a couple of ideas. Next you are going to see a mat that soaks up the oil.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Well, that oil in the Gulf of Mexico has one big problem. How do you clean up the oil from the water and off the beaches?
MALVEAUX: There's a lot of ways people are looking at it. T.J. Holmes got a demonstration of this yesterday. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Today we're looking a little deeper at something that a lot of people are curious about. How do you clean this oil up? Well, there are tens of thousands of people are submitting solutions, their ideas, to BP. One of those people with me right now and we kind of dirtied things up on our brand new set, but we are going to look explain, MyCelx. I'm saying that name right, right?
CONNIE MIXON, CEO, MYCELIX, OIL REMOVAL TECHNOLOGIES: That is correct.
HOLMES: All right. The CEO of MyCelx is with us, Connie Mixon. Thank you for coming in. We're going to have this demonstration in just a second. First of all, explain to us, what it is in the first place?
MyCelx is a coating that we can apply to our spill products and our filtration products that will enable immediate and permanent removal of oil from water. It's a patented technology that has been in service for over 10 years.
HOLMES: You've been doing this, like you said, 10 years. You do just this kind of thing. Have you done, quite frankly, other oil spills?
MIXON: Yes, we have done other oil spills. We have done them in Canada, a very large oil spill two years ago. We've actually have expert spill responders on our staff. So we have used our product, really, all over the world. Obviously, nothing of this magnitude, because the world hasn't seen anything of this magnitude.
HOLMES: But you believe you can help out in this situation as well.
MIXON: Absolutely.
HOLMES: We're going to bring Big Harry out, we're going to demonstrate exactly how this works. To our viewers, bear with us, you're going to be coming into the screen. We want to make sure we get the best shot so you all can see how this works, and have you talk us through it. Come on up here, and you start this thing up. Wherever you need to come on in, you just come on in. We'll adjust to you. So, you show us what is happening. We have these two big bins, we have the water.
MIXON: Right.
HOLMES: And we have a little oil mixed in there.
MIXON: Yes.
HOLMES: Make sure we get Scotty over here and try to get the best shot we can.
MIXON: What we have here, T.J., is this is the current situation in the Gulf now. Everyone is seeing the miles and miles of boom that is stretched along the coastline. This is the example of the traditional boom, is right here, in the white sock boom.
HOLMES: OK?
MIXON: As you can see as the water is agitated, and with the dispersant, obviously, oil goes under the boom, and with agitation from the wave will come over the boom as well.
HOLMES: It doesn't catch everything, right?
MIXON: It doesn't. And everybody knows that from the pictures as well that it's getting towards the shoreline.
HOLMES: And Scotty, come on, if you can take a see-we have our camera here, but we have, you can see on top here what she's talking about. The oil on that side, yes, it's stopping a lot of the oil, but still some is getting through. And that is the demonstration she is trying to explain here.
MIXON: That's correct. That's the first line of defense. We have a two-prong approach with MyCelx. The first thing we do to protect the shoreline is to place our spill mats, which is the yellow mat that you see here. It's engineered to cover a tremendous amount of surface area. So we will cover 50-square feet behind the surface boom, ten feet long. And we can actually prevent the oil from coming to shore because we absolutely remove it on contact permanently. So it does not reach the shoreline.
HOLMES: So this is key. You lay these down. This will collect -- now let's see how this works. These will collect the oil that gets through. We don't have a mike on you. We can want hear you. Go ahead, Connie, you walk us through it.
MIXON: OK. Basically what we do is we can-to demonstrate how we work, we actually can put the mat in the water and it will permanently remove the oil. That's the fingerprint of exactly what it touched. That will never, ever come off the mat. Other spill products that you see used in the Gulf, if it's agitated or stays in the water long enough, the oil will actually be released back into the ocean. Ours permanently bound to that mat. The mat absolutely picks up no water, either.
HOLMES: Something of this magnitude, we are talking about though? I mean, can you produce-do you have enough of these mats to put out there to make a real difference out there in the Gulf?
MIXON: Well, T.J., we have another approach as well. This is a very important approach because we think-because this is what we would put in front of estuaries and very ecologically sensitive areas.
HOLMES: Yes?
MIXON: But what we also have is a vacuum water treatment system that we can put on barges that reaches into the marshes. It actually sucks the oily water out of the marshes and treats it right on sight, on the barge, and pumps it directly, the clean water, back into the ocean. We're are the only technology that is certified to be able to discharge to marine standards.
HOLMES: We'll get the last one in. We only have a minute left. But issues with the sand. We see all these tar balls and things coming up on the sand, as well.
MIXON: Yes, correct. This is simulating a tar ball, as you can see. The technology, once it's applied, even to the sand, which an extremely difficult thing to clean, we can remove it from the sand instantaneously.
HOLMES: That's a little impressive.
MIXON: Yes.
HOLMES: You're telling me you can remove tar that's into the sand?
MIXON: Correct. Which is also the same, absolutely the same way it does in the marshes as well.
HOLMES: Last thing, well certainly, BP, I think you're making a presentation on?. MIXON: We are. We are actually going to be Monday in Mobile, Tuesday in Long Beach, Mississippi, and Wednesday we are going to be Homa, Venice, Plaquemines Parish.
HOLMES: Well, hoping maybe-I know you have a product and certainly you want to sell. You're a business. But still a lot of people like yourselves think you have ideas that actually could help out in the area. This is a great demonstration, right here, of it.
Connie Mixon, again, MyCelx, is the name of the company. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, please let us know how it goes.
MIXON: We will. Thank you very much.
HOLMES: We might be seeing these yellow mats all over the place.
MIXON: We hope so.
HOLMES: Thank you so, so much for that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: So, Drew, it will be interesting to see if those things work large scale. Obviously, they work small scale.
GRIFFIN: It looks like one of those art projects, you know?
MALVEAUX: Huge job. Yes, or a science project. It's an interesting concept. Obviously a group that -- there another group that thinks freezing the oil is the best way to tackle the disaster, the problems.
GRIFFIN: That's right. It's called Clean Cool. We're going to show that to you in a little bit.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Well, BP has been asking the public for some solutions to cleaning up the Gulf oil spill. And there is a group called Earth Guard Technologies of Alabama, they say they have a solution.
GRIFFIN: They have a product called Clean Cool. It uses carbon dioxide to freeze oil that's washed ashore. T.J. spoke with their company's representatives on Pensacola Beach yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Terry Hester and Will Anderson are of Earth Guard Technologies. They are joining us there from the coast of Alabama.
Gentlemen, good morning. Thank you both for being here.
Terry, let me ask you first, before we see the demonstration, what is the product in the first place?
TERRY HESTER, EARTH GUARD TECHNOLOGIES: T.J., we have a product right now that is CO2 product. This product actually will freeze the oil as it comes on the beach. And we also have the same CO2 product that will go on the water. We can freeze it on the water.
I'm going to let Will do the demonstration now. We are going to do a live demonstration. We'll show you exactly how our product, we feel like, is the solution to all the mayors that have a problem with it coming on the beach. We have the solution. And I'm going to turn it over to Will, T.J.
HOLMES: OK, you go ahead and show it to us. I know you have some stuff set up there, and as you're talking, and walking us through it, would either of you say this is a product that should be used more so. It sounds like you could do both, but is it more so for use on the beaches, or more so for use out on the water?
WILL ANDESON, EARTH GUARD TECHNOLOGIES: T.J., we appreciate the time you're giving us today for this.
The product can really be used both places very effectively, on the water as well as on the beach.
HOLMES: Go ahead start your-
ANDERSON: We are going demonstrate here very quickly.
HOLMES: Yes, go right ahead, go ahead.
ANDERSON: What we are going to do is some of the oil-oh, yeah, this is the oil that the CNN crew took off the Pensacola Beach yesterday. We are going to pour some of that. You can see it's very thick and tarry. We're going to put a little bit of it out, first. This is very similar to what I took off the beach at Grand Isle yesterday.
HOLMES: And this is from our CNN crew. Our Rob Marciano is there on the beach there.
ANDERSON: Right, they picked this up.
HOLMES: They have a couple of tar balls. They melted a little bit. So there you go, we have so much of this stuff.
ANDERSON: And this is what we got off the water 25 miles off Venice last Wednesday.
HOLMES: OK.
ANDERSON: And this I scooped off the beach at Grand Isle yesterday afternoon. Very similar to what y'all found here yesterday at Pensacola.
HOLMES: All right. So we have all the oil, this tar on the beach. And what do you do to it?
ANDERSON: Now, notice I'm just going to sprinkle the dry over all three. First what y'all picked up yesterday. HOLMES: Again, this is your product, you are showing. This is it, right?
ANDERSON: Yes, this is our product. We are the largest manufacturer of this product in the world, is two miles from the beach in Grand Isle. And they have agreed to support us with all of this product that we need, for as long as we need it, to help get this situation under control.
HOLMES: Now, after how long after you put this stuff on it, can you scoop it up, like you say?
ANDERSON: You're fixing to see it scooped up very quickly after I put that on there. It's already taken body. There just in that few seconds.
HOLMES: OK.
ANDERSON: Now here's what we picked up at Grand Isle yesterday. Notice when I pick it up the sand underneath it will be completely clean. Not any oil left behind on the water or the sand. There is the oil, there, if you want to zero in. The oil was picked up all frozen. This is what we picked up off the water just off Venice, 25 miles off of Venice last Wednesday. There's all the oil picked up right off the water. And here are the tar balls, you all people picked up yesterday.
HOLMES: Well, clearly-well tell me it looks like, I mean, that is another impressive demonstration we're seeing.
ANDERSON: Yes.
HOLMES: Are you in contact with BP?
ANDERSON: As a matter of fact I had a meeting with one of the BP reps in Grand Isle yesterday. I'm hoping to hear from them on Monday.
HOLMES: Were they receptive to your idea?
ANDERSON: It looks like a lot of people--very much. He was very impressed with what I showed him. We showed a couple of demonstrations but we want mainly for David Carmadill (ph), down at Grand Isle and Billy Nunsinger (sic) to know we are listening. There's a lot of people out here listening.
We've heard the problems they've got. And in the marsh areas, where this product does not work, we have a coalition with a company in Mississippi who has developed a bio-remediation agent and has been using it successfully for 15 years.
HOLMES: I want to make sure, guys.
ANDERSON: And these fix spills.
HOLMES: Excuse me, the last thing, I want to make sure, you guys can mass produce this stuff. You have enough that you can make an impact in the Gulf, you believe, on the beaches or out on the water?
ANDERSON: Absolutely. We can take this stuff up. On a wide strip if we had more time I could show you how we can take an area like was down at Grand Isle yesterday, scatter this product over to it, and in comparison with the crews out there with rakes and shovels, in less than a minute and a half we can start rolling that stuff up, like a leaf of polyethylene, and throw it in the trash can.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Another update on the oil disaster and clean up efforts, that is straight ahead.
MALVEAUX: Plus, take a look at this video. Thermal images of an active volcano.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: From CNN Center this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Good morning, I'm Suzanne Malveaux.
GRIFFIN: I'm Drew Griffin. We're laughing because we both are in to fill T.J. Holmes' shoes.
MALVEAUX: It takes two, I guess, to fill his personality too.
GRIFFIN: He is a big guy. It is 7:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, 6:00 a.m., in Grand Isle, Louisiana.
Thank you for starting your Sunday with us. A bit of good to begin with and some bad news out of the Gulf. That's a live picture of the oil, which is still spilling. The good news is the cap is working. BP says it's catching about 10,000 barrels of oil a day. Obviously, nowhere near enough.
On the downside we're getting reports of tar balls showing up on the shorelines in more places. Dead wildlife in Florida now. We're going live to Destin, Florida, in just a few minutes.
MALVEAUX: Plus there were 48 tornadoes reported in five states. I want you to take a look at this overnight video. This is from Dwight, Illinois. Now firefighters are out surveying the damage this morning from all this. Our own Reynolds Wolf, he will take a look at where the storm system is headed today. First, let's get developing news.
GRIFFIN: Yes, following a developing story overnight. A terrorism story with the news is kind of sketchy on this. Here is what we do know. It's coming out of New Jersey. "The Newark Star- Ledger" reporting that two men have been charged with conspiring to commit international terrorism. They're due in federal court on Monday.
We're going to bring in CNN's Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve, joining us from Washington.
Jeanne, these guys were basically trying to get on a flight, is that right?
MESERVE: That's what we understand, Drew.
Let me underline here that officials say there's no threat to the United States at this time. They're being very closed mouthed, but a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Newark, New Jersey, says the arrests do not relate to any known, immediate threat to the public or active plot against the United States.
The FBI adding that JFK Airport, where the men were taken into custody, was not at risk and that the arrests were part of an ongoing investigation. "The Newark Star Ledger" is reporting that law enforcement also raided two homes in New Jersey, and that the men were boarding flights to link up with the militant group, al Shabaab in Somalia. Al Shabaab has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government and has declared itself aligned with al Qaeda. About 20 young men are believed to have left the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area to fight with them. And disappearances from other cities are being investigated.
The FBI has made a concerted effort to reach out to the Somali community and prevent even more from leaving. Law enforcement's big worry is that these young men have American passports. And once trained in Somalia, they could use those passports to reenter the United States and do harm.
We know very little about these new arrests at this point. But it sounds like this case could intersect with another hot and disturbing topic: people born in the U.S. or living in the U.S., self- radicalizing, are being recruited to terrorist causes -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: All right. Jeanne Meserve, national security correspondent in Washington -- thanks, Jeanne.
MALVEAUX: And turning to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. An official for BP says the company is pleased with the containment of crude oil that's gushing out of that ruptured wellhead.
Now, here's the very latest: BP reports it collected 250,000 gallons of crude oil in the first 24 hours of placing that cap. Now, that's about 31 percent of the 798,000 gallons gushing into the sea daily. Now, BP is trying to shut valves in the cap to increase the amount of oil contained. Now, all of that as oil is drifting onto the beaches as far east as the Florida Panhandle.
GRIFFIN: And this could make the crisis even worse for all the people trying to clean this up and, certainly, the political people in charge of the administration. The picture perfect beaches along the panhandle are now lined with booms. Officials are trying to keep this disaster in check.
CNN's Jim Acosta talked with one couple who got married on a very well-known beach for its sugary white sand there, Jim, Destin, Florida.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Drew and Suzanne. These beaches are known for just how amazingly beautiful they are, how amazingly pristine they are. You know, in certain parts of the panhandle, the sand is like powdered sugar almost. I mean, you could pick it up and it almost feels like, you know, flour you would get at the grocery store.
And so, yes, people come out here on the weekends and get married right here on the beach. As a matter of fact, behind me, there are rose petals on the p beach behind me -- you know, just an example of one wedding that happened out here just yesterday.
And Florida officials are starting to get concerned that this oil is not only making its way ashore in Pensacola -- as we've been hearing over the last couple of days -- but as far east as the Panama City Beach area. Apparently, they found hamburger-sized patties in a state park just to the east of us where we are here in Destin, Florida.
So, we want to show you some video yesterday. This is some video we have from an area called East Pass. It's where the Gulf of Mexico flows into a bay here in Destin, Florida. The state and federal folks here were putting out some containment boom to keep that oil, if it starts moving its way into this area, to keep it away from the shores and keep it away from those pristine beaches.
There was a command post set up at a nearby state park as well where patrols were on four-wheel all terrain vehicles going up and down the beach looking for any signs of tar balls.
And, as you mentioned, we ran into a couple on the beach yesterday getting married. And as they were telling us, they were trying to get it done as quickly as possible before any oil comes ashore.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH FUSELIER, GROOM: It's been a dream of hers to get married on a beach. So we just, like I said, had to beat the oil out here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Had to beat the oil out here. That's exactly the sentiment for a lot of people here. Not just getting married, but people coming on vacation.
And just to give you a quick update on what's happening with the oil spill. From what we understand, BP may be putting out some kind of revised estimate of just how many gallons and barrels of oil are gushing out of the Deepwater Horizon site. That's expected to come some time this morning, perhaps around 9:00 Eastern.
And as you mentioned, Suzanne and Drew, they are having some success with that containment cap that was put on top of the gushing well. But it's only removing potentially somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 percent to 50 percent of that oil. So, it's nowhere near what's needed to keep these pristine beaches here from getting very, very oily -- Drew and Suzanne.
GRIFFIN: Jim, I don't want to minimize the importance of Louisiana and the marshes and everything -- but this really, what's happening in Florida or what could happen in Florida, is -- will be a bigger crisis, I think, because you can get there. In Louisiana, you can't really get to those marshes without a boat. But there, along those beaches where there are so many big resorts and so many people from other states that have homes there, this could be huge if oil hits there.
Is it just little tar balls now? Are you seeing a sheen? Are you smelling anything?
ACOSTA: I'm not smelling anything where we are here in Destin, not seeing a sheen here in Destin. But to the west of us in Pensacola, oil was washing ashore. Our Rob Marciano was seeing signs of that in the last couple of days.
And just yesterday evening, Drew, we heard from a state environmental official who said, yes, they are starting to see tar balls wash ashore to the east of us, about 50 miles east of us in Panama City. A lot of this depends on the weather. You can see it's raining right now. It just started sprinkling on us a few minutes ago.
But these giant clouds over top of us are starting to move from the Gulf, on shore. So, it's coming from the south, just sort of east direction. That is what they fear. They're really watching the weather here on the Gulf Coast, because as that weather system moves ashore, they're worried that that's going to start bringing, you know, it will start bringing some of these sheens ashore and that is exactly what they don't need.
And you hit the nail right on the head, Drew. This area is very well known for its tourism. These condo, you know, resorts and beach resorts that lined the panhandle of Florida for this white sandy beaches. This is their industry here. They don't have offshore oil drilling off the coast of the northwest side of Florida. That's because they've kept that industry off in the Gulf of Mexico towards Mississippi and Louisiana.
So, yes, if that hits the panhandle and these beaches here in a serious, serious way, there's a lot of people who are going to be in very big trouble from an economic standpoint, Drew.
GRIFFIN: All right, Jim. Jim Acosta, live in Destin, Florida for us this morning -- thanks.
MALVEAUX: And obviously, BP officials are trying to explain all of this and they're getting a cold reception in the Gulf. One of them met with civic leaders in Gulf Shores, Alabama, yesterday. And they made it crystal clear -- they are not at all impressed with BP's response to the crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) EDWARD CARROLL, ORANGE BEACH, ALA. CITY COUNCILMAN: I got a simple solution. If I can get one of the judges get me a writ, we'll lock you up in there and you all can sit there in our jail until you figure it out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: BP has until July 1st to pay $69 million for the federal government. That's the first installment of the clean up bill. It represents about 75 percent of the estimated cost of this disaster so far.
And, Josh, are you going to break it down for us? Or we're going to break it down with Josh's help.
Twenty-nine million dollars for federal monitoring and assessment of the spill; $29 million for the deployment of National Guard -- that's in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida; $7 million just to reimburse the states for clean-up, assessment and monitoring of the oil; and $4 million is to cover the cost of the salvage and clean-up by the Defense Department.
MALVEAUX: Well, it's not often that you get an inside look at an active volcano. But I want you to take a look at this video. This is amazing thermal images. This is from Hawaii. Look at those pictures. That's incredible.
GRIFFIN: It looks like a brain exploding.
MALVEAUX: Well, we're going to explain what you're seeing. It's not a brain exploding.
GRIFFIN: Doesn't it?
MALVEAUX: Maybe (INAUDIBLE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(CROSSTALK)
GRIFFIN: Well, you describe this.
MALVEAUX: OK. This is what we're seeing (ph) here.
GRIFFIN: Because I didn't do so well.
MALVEAUX: This is amazing. Drew said this was someone's head exploding. That's not true. This is from an active volcano from the U.S. Geological Survey. It's their thermal camera taken June 1st. It's pretty amazing.
GRIFFIN: Kilauea --
MALVEAUX: Kilauea.
GRIFFIN: -- in Hawaii. That's Pele, the goddess of the volcano. She's angry this morning. It's beautiful.
MALVEAUX: The information we have is like 450-foot wide bend at this volcano. It's on a big island of Hawaii. And the video is actually -- this is not real-time. It's sped up four times, I understand. This is something that we don't normally see. This is usually some gas fumes and now, we get to actually see the volcano.
GRIFFIN: Well, it's beautiful, colorful, gorgeous, dangerous all at the same time.
MALVEAUX: You're very impressed.
GRIFFIN: I am.
MALVEAUX: You're not easily impressed.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: How could he not be impressed? It's a cool thing to see.
(CROSSTALK)
GRIFFIN: They had me until they sped up the video, I'm telling you. Come on.
WOLF: There you go. Well, they didn't speed up the smell. It has kind of a sulfur smell and it's just a little might more about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit -- actually 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
GRIFFIN: We should drop some of that on this oil.
WOLF: Absolutely. Yes, I'm telling you what? Burn it up, it may be a good solution.
You know, what they need as a solution for some of the rough weather we've been having in parts of the country, especially in parts of the Midwest. We're going to go right to some video and show you two places across parts of the southern half of the Ohio Valley, including parts of Illinois and Ohio. Let's go right to it.
And as you're seeing the video, here are some of the rough stuff we had from two places, Dwight, Illinois, and Sugarcreek, Ohio. It was a rough, rough time out there. No question about it.
Some 48 tornado reports. The results: toppled trees, two fatalities, all kinds of structural damage. You see part of a semi- truck there on the side of the freeway. It is going to be a huge day for cleaning up -- one of, again, many that we've been seeing across the country during the severe weather season.
And keep in mind, as soon as we get to the full brunt of hurricane season, we're going to be dealing with other rough weather right along parts of, possibly, the Gulf Coast and eastern seaboard and many other spots.
So, what can we expect today? Well, today, it appears that we might be seeing more of the same in terms of that rough weather. The same storm system that left the trail of destruction across parts of the Midwest now is going to move into parts of the northeast. So, New York, Philadelphia, back into Boston, perhaps even the nation's capitol, could deal with strong storms.
Looks like the bulk of those will take place later in the afternoon where we have the daytime heating, temperatures going back up into the 80s. That combined with moisture is going to make for a very unstable atmosphere. So, you need a catalyst. That area of low pressure in that boundary, that's your catalyst. That's going to give the strong storms.
Along the Gulf Coast for clean-up efforts, you may see some scattered showers. Already, we've had some rain drops this morning where Jim Acosta has been reporting live. Maybe some thunder boomers into the afternoon. The hit will continue. Triple-digit temperatures across parts of the Four Corners, and look for rain for northern California back up to the Straits of Juan de Fuca outside of Seattle.
That is a quick look at your forecast. We've got more coming up right ahead. Let's send it back to you guys at the news desk.
MALVEAUX: All right.
WOLF: OK.
MALVEAUX: Thanks, Reynolds.
WOLF: Good to go.
MALVEAUX: Cool.
Well, they are Internet videos that many people can't take their eyes off of. There's a new batch of viral videos on the Web this week. I got to get out of the Washington and the White House because I have not -- I don't have a chance to see these.
GRIFFIN: You guys don't sit there at the White House and just surf the Net and goof off all the time on that lawn shot you always have?
(LAUGHTER)
GRIFFIN: Come on.
MALVEAUX: I need to do more of that kind of thing.
GRIFFIN: We got to get her hook up. We'd like --
MALVEAUX: I need to see the videos.
GRIFFIN: Don't you have any of that book, the I whatever pad?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What do you guys do between live shots on the lawn?
GRIFFIN: There's nothing to do. Just sit there and wait, and wait, and wait for Obama to come out, right?
LEVS: We need a live webcam of that. I bet we could make a good viral video out of what our reporters do between live shots.
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: She's like, leave us alone.
GRIFFIN: Viral Suzanne Malveaux. What does she do between those live shots?
LEVS: Oh, man.
MALVEAUX: That's a bad idea.
(CROSSTALK)
GRIFFIN: I bet you have something else to talk about.
LEVS: I would let her escape this one. I have an out for you, Suzanne. Take a look at this. Could this rap song help keep us all safe this summer?
(VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Who these firefighters are and what's happening with the hot rap song online? Get it? It's coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Just a few weeks to go before the 4th of July, one city's fire department has a whole new way of trying to get kids to be safe with fireworks.
MALVEAUX: But, is a rap song going do the trick? Well, we'll take a look.
Here our Josh Levs' "On the Lookout."
Josh, you know, these guys are pretty good. I think so. But, well, I mean, they quit their day jobs, what do you think?
LEVS: Yes, we're still hoping they keep their day jobs and keep us all safe.
You know, you never know what's going to catch fire online -- I'm having fun with this -- going to catch on online. These guys, this is a city fire department in Midland, Michigan. They want a new way to inspire young people to stay safe this summer. So, they got a rap song. Let's listen.
(VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Let's go and skip to the second section because you what this specifically focus on fireworks in there. They give all these things what to do and not. Let's listen to a little bit of this. (VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: And believe it or not, this thing is catching up.
This is Mark Laux, Roger Bebeau and Steve Makowski, and you got to see what happens towards the end of this video. Skip to the third section. Check out the tease from Midland Fire Department. You're going to get a close-up here.
Look at that. I don't know if you can see that in your screen as fast. But he got MFD across his teeth. Doing everything they can to channel their inner rappers to get you to stay safe this summer.
And this just like all the other videos, I'm going to show the other way you can see it yourself.
Now, I got another one before I go here, which is also getting tons of views online. It's a really nice commercial actually. It began as a commercial overseas for an agency called Orange TV created in Paris. Watch what happens here.
(VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: You got a woman standing there on the street crying and you don't know why. And all the sudden, this guy motions for everyone to start moving backwards. And everyone starts walking backwards. But we still don't know what's going on.
All right. Let's skip to the next section. We'll end on it.
This is the end of that video there. What happens is, the bus that had driven away pulls back, and her loved one steps off, and they get to relive their good-bye.
This one getting hundreds of thousands of views since it was just posted online. I like this. This is a nice, sweet one getting a lot of attention in addition to some of the harsher videos out there.
All right. Let's go open the graphic. The latest, greatest viral videos are always posted for you at Facebook, on my Facebook page. JoshLevsCNN. It's the address in the middle because Facebook makes it easiest to call these addresses.
So, take a look there. Send us your favorite viral videos. And we will have some of your favorites next week.
So, guys, what do you think? That rap song going to catch on?
MALVEAUX: I don't know. There's a few others, Jay-Z or something.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: All right. Well, some people in Indonesia, they're doing a double take, all because of this guy. Meet this Obama look- alike. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: These are top stories now.
Marching in support of Arizona, nearly 1,000 people took to the scorching temperatures all in stride yesterday to rally now for the state's immigration law. Organizers say the goal is to change the notion that supporters of the racists. About half the speakers were of Hispanic or Mexican ancestry.
Chilling hotel surveillance video could help establish a time line in what shaping up to be a high profile murder investigation. It appears to show the Dutch suspect, Joran van der Sloot, enter the hotel room with the woman he's accused of killing. This is in Peru. Hours later, he leaves alone. Van der Sloot was arrested twice but never charged in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway. That was in Aruba.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA DAWN JOHNSON, MOTIVATIONAL MINUTE: Good morning. And welcome to another edition of "Morning Motivation." I am Melissa Dawn Johnson, your global branding and personal transformation strategist.
Well, did you know that this is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month? As we are firing up the barbecue and enjoying our spring socializing, don't forget your physical fitness goals.
As a matter of fact, we're half way through 2010. It might be a good time to revisit your New Year's resolution.
If you are exercising weekly -- congratulations, good job. Keep it up.
If you've fallen a little bit behind schedule, don't worry. Now is your time to step it up. The key is to get moving. Try walking or even riding a bike instead of driving your car. All of these are simple ways to make sure you stay physically fit.
Until next week, please visit me at brandmelive.com. We got a brand new Web site. We'd love to hear how you're staying physically fit and beautifully balanced.
Until then, make every single day brand-tastic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: President Obama was scheduled to fly to Indonesia at the end of this week. Now, he's postponed that trip to deal with the oil disaster in the Gulf. But D.C. to Jakarta, Indonesia, is a long trip -- more than 12,000 miles. I should know. I took that trip in anticipation of the president's arrival. I travel there. I wanted to see a country where the American president is extremely popular. He spent about four years of his childhood there. Oddly enough, I ran into this guy.
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MALVEAUX: I understand. I've heard that what you're in Indonesia, you make it a point only to speak the Indonesian language. Is that true?
IL HAM ASAS, OBAMA IMPERSONATOR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MALVEAUX: Oh, my goodness. Mr. President, your accent, your language skills, it's amazing. Did you practice on Air Force One?
ASAS: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MALVEAUX: Do you have a message to the Indonesian people?
ASAS: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MALVEAUX: OK. So, you're onto us. Yes, this is not the real Barack Obama. But he sure does look like him.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): He's 36-year-old Il Ham Asas, and Indonesian photographer who was thrust in front of the camera in 2008 after his friends convinced him he looked a lot like this guy.
(on camera): You have the mannerisms down. You walk like the president.
ASAS: OK.
MALVEAUX: You speak like the president.
ASAS: Like president. (INAUDIBLE)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): And at first, Il Ham was shy, but his friends put him in a suit, took pictures and posted them on Facebook and Twitter. Il Ham became a student of Obama 101.
ASAS: Yes, we can. (INAUDIBLE)
MALVEAUX (on camera): Not bad.
(voice-over): Soon he got offers to travel to other countries to play the U.S. president.
ASAS: Like this. I walk into the crowd. And then people say, hey, is that real Obama? And there's people they call me that I'm -- Mr. President, you are good people.
MALVEAUX: You get this all the time?
ASAS: Yes.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): But in Indonesia, most are in on the joke.
After all, Il Ham has done seven commercials and two movies as Obama, and even wrote a book.
(on camera): Look, we even caught him smoking.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): Even our CNN Jakarta producers are big fans.
(on camera): So, you guys have taken pictures with this guy. You know he's not the real president. Why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. I mean, if you look at him, he looks exactly like him, you know? I took the picture and hang it up on my wall.
MALVEAUX: Now, wait a minute, is this kind of like when we take pictures of the cardboard cut out. This is your equivalent?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty much, yes. Well, I know this is not the real Obama. But, well, I know that we probably never have any chance to take a picture with the real one. So, this is it. Yes.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): And if Il Ham gets his way, he says he'll be running again in 2012.
(on camera): Thank you, Mr. President.
ASAS: Thank you, Suzanne.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Wow. He's making a living off this, huh?
MALVEAUX: He is. I mean, a good living.
GRIFFIN: And he wrote a book?
MALVEAUX: He wrote a book. He's done movies. And this guy, he says it would be the highest honor to meet the real President Obama. And, so far, he has not been contacted by the White House, but the embassy in Jakarta has reached out to him. You know, I bet there are some jobs here if he wanted to do like a double and security or something like that.
GRIFFIN: You know, the president can't get over there. He should just send his speech, let this guy read it, and call it a day.
MALVEAUX: Yes, they want the real guy. They want the real deal. But in the meantime, they might have to -- they might have to be happy with this one. GRIFFIN: Well, he better get a little more gray in his hair because the last time I saw the president, he's getting a little --
MALVEAUX: He did OK. All right.
GRIFFIN: All right. More top stories at the top of the hour.
