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CNN Sunday Morning
BP Cap Replacement Under Way; World Cup Finals; Catching the Grim Sleeper; Keeping the Faith; Arizona Immigration Battle
Aired July 11, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there, everybody. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING for this July the 11th. Good to see you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
It is 8:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, 7:00 in New Orleans -- where we are keeping a close watch on the Gulf this morning.
Right now, nearly a mile under the water, robots as you can see -- well, the cameras have been moving around all morning -- they're working to replace the cap from the gushing oil well. Until then, oil is spewing into the Gulf and it's a lot of oil. We got a live update -- straight ahead.
HOLMES: And today is a day you will not see again for another four years. World Cup is happening today. Do you know who's in it? Yes, the orange crush or Oranje, I should say.
Yes, the Netherlands is taking on Spain today. Today is the final. We're going to be taking you to Spain and the Netherlands, as well as South Africa for the very latest.
But, let's give a look right now at some of the stories making headlines.
We do know that July is starting off as being a deadly, deadly month in Afghanistan. This following June being the deadliest months so far for coalition troops there, a violent start here. It was in June that we saw 102 soldiers killed, 60 Americans among them. Just yesterday, we saw six American soldiers killed across Afghanistan and in different parts of the country. Five of those were combat-relate. One of them was in an accidental explosion.
Also, Haiti, can you believe now? It has been six months since that devastating earthquake that killed some 230,000 people. One and a half million left homeless -- many of them still homeless, still in those tent cities. And billions and billions of dollars pledged here, but only a fraction has been delivered so far. Senator John Kerry is having a report to Congress saying that reconstruction has stalled due to the lack of leadership and organization.
Also, something else we're going to see today. When I see we, I mean a few people on earth are going to see a total solar eclipse. It's going to happen around 2:15 Eastern Time. But you're not going to be able to see it here in the States.
This is NASA video of a previous eclipse. The moon is going to completely cover the sun. It's going to happen for about five minutes. And like I said, you're not going to be able to see it here, but folks in Tahiti, Easter Island, Cook Island, they will be able to get a view.
Well, day 83 of the Gulf oil disaster now, and BP says all is going well so far. And if it does, it could be a matter of days before its finally able to capture nearly all of the oil that's now escaping from that broken well. But until that happens, things possibly get worse before they get better.
Right now, oil is pouring out at a rate of 60,000 barrels a day. That is the estimation by the government. Now, why so much more oil now? It's because BP has removed that containment cap that was on top.
It had been capturing so much of that oil for the past few weeks. Now, why did they take it off? It's because they want to put another on that's supposed to be new and improved, a better cap that's supposed to be in place in the next several days and supposed to be able to capture even more oil.
The company says the work is proceeding as planned. The cap designed for this tight seal enabling BP to siphon just about all of the oil from the well. Still, the final solution still rests with those relief wells.
BOLDUAN: And BP says it's making the most of the good weather that we have recently in the Gulf and have crews working around the clock to help get the new well cap in place.
CNN's Reynolds Wolf is in New Orleans with the look at today's game plan.
So, what is today's game plan, Reynolds? How are things going?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, good morning, Kate.
You know, you mentioned the weather. We have been handed a bit of good luck, good fortune -- whatever you want to call it. It's going to be a span of about seven to 10 days that the weather should be, for the most part, fairly calm. It should be free of hurricanes, tropical systems -- which is great news exactly, what they need to for this endeavor.
Now, the endeavor we're talking about, the placement of this new containment dome, called top hat 10. And it's not just something small, it's enormous. We're talking about something that weighs 150,000 pounds that will be put into place, at least in position sometime today and tomorrow.
And then in the span of the next four days, it's actually going to be put on place and once it's over it and it's supposed to have a perfect seal that will actually bring all of the oil, not just some, but all of the oil up to the surface where it will be collected by four different ships. Now, the riser or rather, I'm sorry, the containment dome that was actually in place was never perfect. It was only bringing about 1 million gallons per day -- not barrels but gallons per day. So, there was a lot of seepage and there was the use of some of the underwater dispersants to keep that oil down below.
Now, wrap your mind on this: the amount of oil that the government believes that was actually coming up out of the well was anywhere from 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons per day. So, if the old dome basically could haul in about 1 million, you had about 500,000 gallons at least that were seeping out.
This should take care of that. This is going to be cable. This top hat dome 10 is going to be cable and bringing up 2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons. That should be just picture perfect for this situation.
But, still, even this is temporary. This is not going to be the perfect fix, even if all goes as planned. What they need are the two relief wells, that they do think should be in place, should be drilled, should be completed as we get to sometime in the middle of August. So, we're still ways off. But it looks like the relief wells are going to be really the final solution to this never-ending - seemingly never-ending problem.
BOLDUAN: And again, as we wait -- I mean, yes, we know August is the guesstimate of when that final solution will be had. The big question is always: is everything going to go as planned? If you look at the past 83 days, Reynolds, as you've been watching it closely, things have not been going as planned.
So, the question, you know, it's going to be a big question of: if this replacement cap is getting the new equipment in place is going to go exactly how they hope. And I guess there are a lot of unknowns still in that.
WOLF: Oh, you're absolutely right. I mean, on paper, it looks like it's fail-proof. But -- and you look back at the past and every other thing we've tried, it looks like that would be the answer. But sure enough, it looks like -- you know, this will hopefully be the thing.
I mean, it's hard to believe, but a month ago, we were talking about a junk shot. Remember when we were talking about pieces of shredded tires, of rope, of golf balls being actually fired right at this leak, hoping that would solve the problems. But again that was one of the many things that they tried and it failed.
But we're talking about a very difficult endeavor. I mean, we were saying earlier, think of something like a fire hose going off at full blast and then taking a bottle cup and trying to seal it off. It's something that crazy, that ridiculous. And we're talking about something that's 5,000 feet down from the surface. It's a very, very tricky endeavor, no question about it, Kate.
BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Reynolds Wolf, doing great work as always in the Gulf Coast -- thanks so much, Reynolds.
WOLF: You bet.
BOLDUAN: So, President Obama, he will be monitoring the situation in the Gulf as he attends other meetings this week. Here's what's on his schedule that we know so far.
Tomorrow, he hosts the president of Dominican Republic.
Tuesday and Wednesday, he has meetings at the White House
And on Thursday, he's in Holland, Michigan. He'll be delivering remarks at a groundbreaking ceremony for a Compact power plant.
And on Friday, the first family takes off on a weekend gateway to Mount Desert Island, Maine.
HOLMES: The first lady, she has her own schedule, pretty busy one as well. And she's going to kick off the week in Kansas City. She's going to be there with the NAACP for their annual convention happening there. She's going to make a speech. Of course, you know, a big issue for her has been childhood obesity, certainly going to be speaking about that.
But, yesterday, I spoke with the NAACP president, Ben Jealous, about the convention and this year's agenda.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN JEALOUS, NAACP PRESIDENT: Job creation is got to be job one for our Senate, for our Congress and for the entire country.
HOLMES: Would you say right now that it's not enough of the focus of the Senate, of the Congress, of the White House?
JEALOUS: Congress went home, and the Senate went home and let unemployment insurance expire. And they literally took a let me them hot dogs approach to the July Fourth weekend, as if a family that was surviving on 300 bucks could afford to even buy a firecracker when they just cut them off simply because they don't have the will to debate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And NAACP is not the only civil rights group meeting this weekend. The National Council of La Raza is meeting in San Antonio. The group is the largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the country.
BOLDUAN: And six months now after the Haiti quake, the Haiti earthquake that country the county is still struggling and now, reconstruction has come to a standstill, we're told.
HOLMES: All right. We're going to be looking into that story today.
But also, the sun and the moon, they got a date. The date is going to only last five minutes today. We'll explain something that's going to happen in the sky that we don't get to see that often. It's 10 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Twelve minutes past the hour.
And this is what you are not going to see today even though it's going to be happening. Sorry. Let me get this point out of the way. First, the sun and the moon, they have a bit of a date today, as we said. They are getting together today, a total solar eclipse is going to take place around 2:15 Eastern Time.
That's around the same time that the World Cup soccer game is going to happen. It's not going to affect the game, let me make sure I say that.
BOLDUAN: Right. And what you're looking at right now -- no, this is not what we're talking about, but we are talking -- this is a 2009 solar eclipse that was in India, just to give an idea of that beautiful sight.
Today, the moon will completely cover the sun for about five minutes, but, again, as T.J. was saying, don't expect to go out in your backyard and watch and don't blame us when you don't. You have to be in the Cook Island, Tahiti, or Easter Island to get the best view.
HOLMES: We're not going to see it.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: Leaving quickly.
HOLMES: Yes, how long is that flight, Karen?
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: To get to Tahiti?
BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE)
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Let's see, from Los Angeles, to New Zealand, that's about 17 hours. I don't know, the whole day.
HOLMES: Yes. I think what she's saying is you're not going to make it. We'll give you some video of it, maybe, tomorrow.
But this thing is cool. We don't see this often. So, it's always fascinating. So, by all means, let us -- school (ph) us.
MAGINNIS: Yes. And Easter Island has seen a solar eclipse for 1,400 years. But, you know, they are this big, you know, sitting in the ocean.
But here's the other places that are going to see it. If you are in, maybe Ushuaia, or in Ponta Arenas, southern Chile, southern Argentina, you will be able to see it here. Here's kind of the path right there that they are anticipating that.
All right. Let's go ahead and show you what's happening across the Midwest. And for this morning, some pretty big thunderstorms rumbling around. Minneapolis to Des Moines to Omaha and Kansas City, you are right in line for some of those pretty big storms just off to your northwest.
But as we look a little bit further towards the east, what we are anticipating is pretty nice day with temperatures mostly in the 80s coming up. So that's a nice change from those temperatures that had been into the triple digits for a better part of the week or so.
But this is going to be -- big problem as we go in the afternoon, this is kind of the firing line. Frontal system is right just about here, another one down here. So, sandwiched in between, that's where we're going to see most of the volatility in today's weather picture.
All right. Along the Gulf Coast, Reynolds Wolf was telling us all about the activity that's taking place there in regards to the oil event situation. But they do have a heat advisory. It's going to feel like it's 100 to 105 degrees. Even though the actual outside air temperatures are supposed to be in the 90s, it is going to be sweltering hot, extending on over into the coastal sections of Mississippi as well.
All right. In the forecast, this was going on. As I mentioned, the frontal system has finally brought some cooler temperatures, slightly cooler temperatures, into the northeast. That begins to push offshore.
But we'll see some brisk winds and there's going to be a heavy surf advisory -- also rip currents right along this northeastern coast.
Along the southeast, the trigger mechanism is coming up for some thunderstorms. Now, yesterday, we want to show you what happened in Boston. They saw about two to four inches of rainfall. They had car rescues in places like Cambridge, also Summerville, a number of rescues reported there. No reports of any fatalities. But you can imagine once that rain moved through, now we get that break from those temperatures.
And isolated thunderstorms also expected in the desert southwest, strong thunderstorms in the Midwest, warm temperatures in the Pacific Northwest. So, really, the most dramatic thing that we're going to see for today with the thunderstorms in the southeast, but mainly in the Midwest and the sweltering heat along the Gulf Coast.
T. J. and Kate, back to you.
HOLMES: All right. Karen, we appreciate you. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you again here soon.
A lot of people not worried about the outside weather, because everybody is going to be inside glued to their television set here in the U.S. and around the world as well.
BOLDUAN: Around the world, yes, exactly.
Spain and the Netherlands get ready to battle -- look at that -- for the top spot. The live report from Johannesburg and the World Cup headquarters is just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Eighteen minutes past the hour.
We are taking a look at some of the stories making headlines.
The rate of the crude oil spilling from the floor of the Gulf has increased dramatically after BP removed the temporary cap from the busted wellhead. The company says it hopes to soon contain all the oil after successfully replacing that cap with another cap called top hat 10 -- a new heavy duty formfitting seal. It's going to be placed on top of that rupture, could have that in place over the next couple of days.
Also, in the Mediterranean, another possible face-off looming between Israeli defense forces and another aid flotilla headed for Gaza. The Israeli foreign ministry says it expects the latest ship to be diverted and not break its naval blockade of Gaza. That's what happened back in May when Israel commandoes raided the ship. Nine Turkish activists killed there. Several Israeli soldiers wounded as well. The Israeli government was heavily criticized in the aftermath of that.
Also -- take a look. New photographers purportedly of the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. These surfaced on a pro-Cuban government blog yesterday and were reportedly snapped sometime earlier last week. They are believed to be the first photos taken of Castro in a public setting since he gave up power four years ago because of his declining health -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: And tomorrow marks six months, if you believe it, since the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
Here's a look at the recovery so far. A philanthropy expert says U.S. relief organizations have raised $1.3 billion. That's almost as much as what was raised for the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. But the editor of "The Chronicle of Philanthropy" says much of the money has not been spent. Access to health care has improved, but we're told more prominent medical facilities are still needed.
About 60 percent of the country's hospitals collapsed in the quake. Thousands of people are still homeless, living in makeshift tents and tarp shelters.
Don't miss our coverage on Haiti and its efforts to recover. CNN's Anderson Cooper goes one-on-one with former president and U.S. envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton. That's tomorrow night, only here on CNN, 10:00 Eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BOLDUAN: At 60 years old -- years young, I would say -- she calls it the swim of a lifetime. But admits she's scared to death. It's a CNN exclusive.
Next month, Diana Nyad will try to accomplish a record breaking swim from Cuba to Miami. She's just finished -- we are told -- an incredible 24-hour practice swim.
CNN producer Matt Sloane is accompanying Nyad during this grueling practice.
That is an understatement, Matt. I guess she's just getting out of the water or just gotten out of the water? What is the status? How is Diana feeling? Tell me.
MATT SLOANE, CNN PRODUCER (via telephone): She is literally 10 feet in front of me. And as we speak, she is about to climb on to the ladder. She just yelled out we made it.
It's been exactly 24 hours; 8:19 yesterday morning she went in and 8:19 this morning she's coming out. And as I'm looking at her here, she has her swim captain and her handlers are going to help her get back on the boat.
So, it's been a remarkable journey. She swam all the way through the night, in pitch-black, there was no moon last night. It's just been incredible to watch her keep going and going and going. She has not touched the boat, she's not gotten, she's not stopped. They've been feeding her over the side and it's just an incredible sight to see -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And this may be a lot to ask, she just finished a 24-hour swim, but is there any way we could speak to her?
SLOANE: You can't speak to her right now because we're actually on a different boat, because all of her handlers were together on the same boat. But as soon as we get her back to shore, yes, you guys can absolutely speak to her. She's in really good spirits, especially after swimming 24 hours. I could barely stay up for 24 hours, let alone that, let along swim.
BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And we've been following this because this is fascinating story. But tell our viewers again why is she doing this swim? Why is she -- clearly, she's practicing for the big swim next month. Why is she doing this?
SLOANE: Yes. You know,: she attempted to swim in 1978 at a Key West swim. She got 42 hours into it and because of that weather, they had to pull her out. She was still about 50 miles from Key West.
You know, she was not the type of person to look back and try to redo anything. But this is one thing that she can go back and redo. Like you said, she's 60 years old now. She didn't swim for 30 years. She didn't swim one stroke in those 30 years. And then last year, she turned 60 and she looked at herself in the mirror and said, you know, I can do this. She said she felt just as strong as she did 30 years ago. She's a little slower, she admits, but just as strong. And certainly, that's evidenced by the fact that she's got out of the water after 24 straight hours, with no (INAUDIBLE), I might add, Kate.
BOLDUAN: Amazing. I mean, what she just did is already a feat enough. Please congratulate her and tell her we're thinking of her.
Matt Sloane for us with Diana Nyad just finishing a 24-hour swim at 60 years young, thanks so much, Matt -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Kate.
Well, the World Cup is kicking off this afternoon and it will be the last kickoff we see in this year's World Cup, because this is the final, Spain and the Netherlands going at it.
And our Isha Sesay has been covering this for us for the past month. She is there in Johannesburg.
Aisha, I am going to put you on the spot. I'm sorry to do it, but I'm going to put you on the spot here right now. For Americans who may not be huge soccer fans, they know this is a big event, give --
ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Like you?
HOLMES: -- no. Give them the story line in this game, even if you're not into soccer or maybe you're not into the World Cup, give them some of the story lines happening that could have them interested in this game.
SESAY: OK. So, you want me to sell this to you. Here's why American soccer fans or people on the edge should care about today. This is, of course, Africa's first World Cup coming to a close with the finale here at Soccer City, the magnificent stadium to my left.
But here's what they should bear in mind. The two sides that have made it to the finals are considered two of the best sides who had never won the World Cup. So, what you will have here today is a brand new World Cup winner when that final ends a couple hours from now. That in itself is historic. It's definitely going to be a European champion, and it will be the first time the European side has won the World Cup outside of the European continent.
So, there are many reasons why people should pay attention to this. But if that isn't going to grab them, let me just sell the atmosphere to you, T.J. The atmosphere is building up nicely outside Soccer City stadium.
So, let me give, T.J., a look at the scene outside the gates of Soccer City stadium. You see the crowd there in their orange? Those would be the Netherlands supporters you're seeing there. There are a few Spain supporters here, T.J., but the Dutch outnumbered them, I would say, about 10 to one.
HOLMES: Wow. SESAY: Don't take my word for it for the atmosphere. Let's talk to a couple of people very quickly.
I got Karen and I got John.
Karen, I'm sure, T.J., you can make it out, those are Spain colors. You see her sign? "Welcome to the 'bull ring' said the Spanish to the Dutch."
And there you have it. And John, "Hup, hup, Holland. Howzit Robbie!" which is a South African saying, howzit, and Viva Oranje. I think I got that wrong the way I say oranje.
But I'm getting to you, Karen. How are you feeling ahead of the match? Describe the atmosphere for our T.J. Holmes back in Atlanta?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very excited. I cannot describe the feeling because we were waiting for this for the last six years. So, it builds up (ph) and comes so quickly and we're just looking forward to such an awesome game today. It doesn't actually matter who wins, so we just welcome everybody to our country and we hope you come back soon.
SESAY: Fantastic stuff.
So, John, how are you feeling? Do you care who wins? I mean, you're head to toe in orange. I think you should care.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I think Holland is going to take this with 2-1.
SESAY: Describe the atmosphere for you T.J. back in Atlanta.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I must agree with Karen. It's hard to describe. I'm very excited. But I guess that's the kind of mindset you should be in the day like this. Soon we're going to enter Soccer City, focal point of the world.
SESAY: Absolutely.
And, T.J. -- thank you very much to you both -- I want to tell you, the Dutch have outnumbered the Spanish at least at this point 10 to one. They brought a bush. They brought some beer tents here. The Dutch are ready to party, T.J. -- back to you.
HOLMES: Beer tents, I guess it says it all. I guess it's hard to describe when you see a guy in a hard hat and his face is painted. I guess that kind of describes the atmosphere.
Isha, good to see you. Enjoy the beer tent. We'll be checking in with you again soon. Isha Sesay for us from Johannesburg -- thank you so much.
Kate, there's a party.
BOLDUAN: There is definitely a party. Oh, my goodness. Let me tell you about this story: members of a Georgia church, they are getting kicked out of their church. They lost their church, but not their faith.
And DNA technology helped solve a case for Los Angeles serial killer, a case that stumped police for nearly 30 years.
It's 28 minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Bill Withers, I am old school at heart. A little Bill Withers, "Lovely Day" and it is a lovely day. Kate, this is what you're leaving behind today, the beautiful city of Atlanta.
BOLDUAN: The beautiful city of Atlanta and heading back to the -- hopefully, it's a beautiful city of Washington, D.C. We'll see.
HOLMES: All right, good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes sitting in downtown Atlanta alongside --
BOLDUAN: Kate Bolduan.
HOLMES: -- Kate Bolduan. Again, it's good to have you here with us. Hate to let you go, I know you're going to have to take off here shortly, but still it's been -- it's good to have you with us this weekend.
BOLDUAN: It's a fun weekend.
HOLMES: All right, well let's take a look at some of the stories that are making headlines.
We have been keeping an eye certainly on things in Afghanistan. We know that June was one of the worst months or the worst month of casualties in that war's history.
A 102 coalition troops were killed then including 60 Americans but then just yesterday we got word that another six Americans have been killed in fighting across Afghanistan. And most of those were separate incidents.
Also, new rules that's going to affect our veterans here in this country; a new rule is going to affect -- for vets with post traumatic stress disorder and it's actually going to help it be easier for them to get benefits and also to get some counseling.
This covers all vets, not just those from Iraq and Afghanistan. Now the current rules were seen as time consuming and complicated and actually required many of them before they got treatment to recall specific events essentially some called it take notes from the battlefield.
So, some of those things have been done away with to make it easy for them to get treatment. And also something we don't see that often, we're going to see a total solar eclipse today. When I say we -- I don't mean you and I. This is going to happen around 2:15 Eastern time today, but it's going to happen in a spot that you and I are not going to be able to see it.
It's going to start in New Zealand and continues past Easter Island and the Chile. A number of tours and expeditions have been organized to watch it. A lot of cruises as well, but again, you will not be able to see it here.
BOLDUAN: But it is beautiful. We promise.
HOLMES: We're told.
BOLDUAN: So going to the Gulf -- looking at the Gulf as we continue to do that, BP says it's making the most of good weather in the Gulf right now. Crews are working around the clock to help get the new well cap in place.
And we've been watching it; really we've been watching these live pictures. You can see them; we got them in the wall. Sometimes you see nothing because they are moving around the camera so much.
But really they've got these robotic arms that they are using. They've removed the existing containment cap yesterday and they are working then to replace it with a new cap, that they hope, if everything goes as planned -- which that's a big if -- it will effectively be containing all of the oil that is spewing out.
Not a final solution, they keep saying. They still have to -- what are the --
HOLMES: The oil leak --
BOLDUAN: -- drill of relief wells --
HOLMES: Two wells.
BOLDUAN: But they -- but they are working on it. Because that -- we haven't told -- until mid August or something --
HOLMES: Still -- and they think it's going to be August. Those are still going on.
But you see these pictures here. These are the live pictures and usually these feeds often show us all the oil gushing --
BOLDUAN: Right.
HOLMES: -- the one you are used to seeing. But this has been changing and a lot of activity over the past couple of days.
Now, we would love to be able to give you a play by play ourselves, but we do know and you can see for yourself a lot of activity is going on right now. They hope to have -- as Kate was describing. This egg -- this nut -- this other cap is supposed to have a tighter seal around it. So it should be able to collect more of the oil than that previous cap did.
Now that coupled with another ship they are going to put in place, they really believe that most of the oil coming out is going to be contained. And they'll be able to siphon it up.
But it has been fascinating Kate, to watch these pictures. Because like I said, even though we can't say technically what's going on and give a play by play, we know something is going on.
BOLDUAN: Well -- and you know and they are doing the work and I don't and I'm going to say this and it's going to be wrong but the picture on your left --
HOLMES: It looks like.
BOLDUAN: -- that looks like that containment -- the new containment cap that you know that they want to put on. They also have that huge blimp that they are getting into place, 178 feet or something like that to kind of quarterback it, as Reynolds has been describing to us. Quarterback the entire effort.
So a lot going on, a very big weekend by any -- by any measure for the Gulf oil disaster efforts to stop that well.
HOLMES: You know, I'm very fascinated now, by that cap. Because you went there, and I didn't want to go there because I was nervous, but it looks like a cap and we're working and trying to get someone from BP to -- to confirm exactly what we're seeing.
But this might be the first time and again, just live we can be able to show you this but the new cap supposed to give a tighter fit. That could be it. Again, we gone -- we are bringing this to you as frank and honest that we can. We don't know, we are speculating and guessing like you but we're using our naked eyes like you are --
BOLDUAN: We'd like to say an educated guess.
HOLMES: An educated guess.
BOLDUAN: Right.
HOLMES: But that could -- and we know it's down there.
BOLDUAN: Right.
HOLMES: Been waiting -- waiting to put in place. But maybe something is happening with it now and we'll keep an -- keep an eye --
BOLDUAN: We're watching it.
HOLMES: -- on what's happening down there.
Also California police there say it's got a huge victory for them after they spent nearly years hunting for an elusive serial killer.
BOLDUAN: Thirty years, thanks to innovations and DNA research and a half eaten slice of pizza.
Our Thelma Gutierrez outlines how they finally cracked this cold-case and found a killer hiding in plain sight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind these doors at the Department of Justice Crime lab in Richmond, California, forensic investigators solved a landmark cold case that could change the way police investigations are conducted. We went inside for an exclusive look at the new DNA technology that led detectives to an elusive killer dubbed the Grim Sleeper.
It was in 1980 a serial killer was terrorizing south Los Angeles. Most of his victims were young African-American women, some had been shot with the same 25 Caliber firearm. Some had been strangled. Some sexually assaulted. Their bodies dumped in allies.
Over the years Los Angeles police would follow numerous leads that went nowhere. In 1988, after eight murders and an attack on a potential ninth victim who got away, the killing stopped.
Then, nearly 15 years later, the "Grim Sleeper" would strike again. Who was he? Where was he hiding? Police would have to wait another two decades to find the answers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have about one and a half million samples stored in the laboratory.
GUTIERREZ: A critical piece of the puzzle would be found here in the third largest DNA repository in the world. California has been collecting DNA from convicted felons since 2004. Police have the serial killer's DNA to the crime scenes. Was it possible it was here as well?
JILL SPRIGGS, CA BUREAU OF FORENSIC SERVICES: We are on the cutting edge of this technology.
GUTIERREZ: Jill Spriggs who heads the lab said forensic scientists recently developed a powerful investigative weapon called the Familial DNA Search Program; a computer software that can find similarities between crime scene DNA and the DNA of a convicted felon.
If a killer's DNA is not in the database, maybe a relative's is.
STEVE MYERS, CRIMINALIST: It is only convicted offenders that we're comparing to not arrestees in California.
GUTIERREZ: Two years ago, detectives ran the killer's DNA searching for a link but no match. Then a major break, last year criminalists entered the DNA of a man recently convicted of a felony weapons charge. His name was Christopher Franklin.
Months later, detectives ran the Grim Sleeper killer's DNA again for the second time hoping for a match to a family member. They got it. Detectives zeroed in on Christopher Franklin's father, 57-year-old, Roni David Franklin who lived in south Los Angeles, within walking distance to one of the victims; 18-year-old Alicia Monique Alexander (ph).
And one time the man described as a polite neighbor even worked as a garage attendant for the Los Angeles Police. Detectives were confident they found their man. But before they could close in they would need a sample of his DNA. With Franklin under surveillance they picked up a piece of uneaten pizza crust along with some eating utensils.
Police sent it all to the lab. Soon after, they say, they had a match between Franklin and the DNA found on victims.
JERRY BROWN, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think going forward this is going to be a very important investigative tool for our police everywhere where we have a serious crime, where we have to look for the leads.
GUTIERREZ: As city leaders on Los Angeles police announced what they believe will be the end of the Grim Sleeper's reign of terror, the victims' families cheered.
But it was bitter sweet moments for the brothers of 18-year-old Alicia Monique Alexander who carried her frayed picture for 22 years.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN: Besides bringing some closure for the victim's families, solving this case comes with some relief for the police, too. You can imagine that. Some believed the police had pushed the killings aside because they happened in low income neighborhood. So it's clearly important for everyone to get this man off the street.
HOLMES: Amazing, after 30 years.
BOLDUAN: I know.
HOLMES: All right. Well, here we are, 20 minutes to the top of the hour. And stay here, because one Georgia church is feeling the perils of this economy. All the church belongings -- look at this -- put out on the street in the wake of foreclosure. We'll tell you what happened. That's in today's "Faces of Faith".
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: On our "Faces of Faith" this morning, an Atlanta congregation clinging to its faith this morning after being evicted from its church building on Thursday. The Greater Works Assembly had apparently not paid its mortgage for some two years, so today they are worshipping in another building.
Rebecca Lindstrom is of our affiliate, WSB (ph) joining us live with details and joining us from not their new church but just a temporary place of worship.
Good morning to you. REBECCA LINDSTROM, REPORTER: Good morning. And this is a temporary place. It's about 11 miles away from their other facility. But in talking with church members, you really get the sense that they were going to find someplace to meet this morning even if it meant that they had to sit out in the sun.
Thankfully they're going to be able to gather here at 10:30 this morning at Carver Bible College, and the theme of the sermon today is going to be Operation Bounce Back and for good reason. As you mentioned, on Thursday, a county marshal came and evicted the church from its building, removing everything from pews to prayer books.
The congregation once owned the building but then sold it to investors in order to make some extra money for community service projects. When that building went into foreclosure, they tried to buy the building back through a short sale but they were unable to reach a deal.
We did have a chance to talk with the pastor as well as some of the congregation members to get their feelings on all of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DARRYL WINSTON, PASTOR, GREATER WORKS ASSEMBLY: Our goal would be to stay here, however because of the legal challenges that we are facing, all of that is going to have to be sorted through and worked through.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We may have lost the building, but we have not lost the ministry. The ministry is as strong as ever. Triumph comes out of tragedy. And we're just waiting to move on and get that new location and continue to worship and praising God.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LINDSTROM: And the church has been working with the bank for two years to try and come up with some sort of financial resolution. The bank says that they owe them about $59,000 in back rent -- T.J.
HOLMES: How many, Rebecca, in the congregation?
LINDSTROM: There are about 300 members in this church and they say while they are grateful to have this place to meet this morning, they are looking forward to finding a facility that's a little bit closer to the community they have grown to call home.
HOLMES: It's one thing to lose your building, Rebecca, those pictures are tough to see, pews and everything just kicked out, everything thrown out of a church like that. That's hard to see, but I am sure they will bounce back.
And Rebecca, we look forward to seeing you again, I'm sure, when they do get that new building and they have a ribbon cutting and we'll see that day as well down the road.
Thanks for being with us. Thanks so much.
A quarter until the top of the hour. A quick break here on the CNN SUNDAY MORNING. We are right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. A quarter until the top of the hour.
We have been keeping an eye on this live picture here because it's fascinating. But we are watching it just like you are watching it because we are trying to get information from BP. This is a live feed going on right now.
This is a busy weekend for this whole Gulf oil disaster; some things are happening, a new cap being put on, so on and so forth. We know some work is going on, but we are actually seeing it, even though we don't have someone from BP to exactly give us the play by play of what we are seeing.
So you are watching it like we are watching it. You can come to the same conclusion we are coming to, that yes, in fact, a lot of work is going on. It's fascinating to see the cameras move around. We've seen equipment go down. We have seen --
BOLDUAN: Big machinery, too.
HOLMES: Big machinery, robotic arms moving around. Our Reynolds Wolf telling us earlier, a lot of this work has to do with cleaning up the area before they put the new cap on. But fascinating to see that this live 5,000 feet below the surface of the water as this is going on. The work continues.
We will get exact details, but just showing you and letting you see for yourself what is happening. And again, there it is, Kate, we were talking about. We were making our best educated guess about what that is.
BOLDUAN: The new containment cap, we believe. I may be proven wrong, but it does look like it. So that's what they are working to put, we think, in place to effectively start containing all of the oil until the final solution they can come up with, the relief well.
HOLMES: Keeping an eye on that, of course.
But also, as we proudly say here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, we serve as the warm-up act for "STATE OF THE UNION" --
BOLDUAN: Proudly.
HOLMES: -- and Candy Crowley, I think she hates when I say that.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": Yes.
HOLMES: We proudly serve as the warm-up act.
BOLDUAN: She says yes.
CROWLEY: Yes, I do. BOLDUAN: So Candy. We were just talking about it. I don't think you have enough time in the show today for all the topics you have. You have the president, very big week going from talking economy to taking on the Republicans -- hello, mid-terms -- to the immigration law. A lawsuit filed by the federal government.
What are you going to take up?
CROWLEY: Well, there you go. We'll also throw into there, we are also going to talk to Ken Feinberg, who is the man who is about to be up and running as the person in charge of that $20 billion BP fund, figuring out who should get how much money for what loss. So I want to talk to him how he will figure that out.
As well as David Axelrod about the President; as you know, it's pretty hard to negotiate in an election year when you are trying to get Republicans help on one thing and yet you're out on a campaign trail trying to get them unelected. So we're going to talk about that balance with Axelrod.
And we have Governor Richardson, who as you know is the governor of New Mexico as well as Trent Franks who's a congressman from Arizona to talk about immigration. So it's really kind of a show for all reasons.
HOLMES: A show for all reasons. On the immigration front, the President, I mean, you know, a lot of people say they stepped in it any way, but now going as far as suing the state of Arizona. This could play out a couple of different ways.
Some people say it's a win/win frankly for the President. Even if you lose the lawsuit, you still show you're trying to -- you're trying to do something. So it's stepping this up a bit.
CROWLEY: It certainly is good politics. As you know, the Latino vote is very important to the Democratic Party. The President first gave that big immigration speech urging congress to try to put something together this year. And the Democrats don't think that's going to happen. Now you have this lawsuit based on saying that Arizona has stepped over the constitutional line, it has taken over a federal prerogative.
So while that's going on and that's all in the court, but what is happening in the court of public opinion, certainly is something that the Obama administration has an eye on. But I have to tell you that it may cut both ways, but if you look at the polling, what you are finding is that more people support the Arizona law than don't.
BOLDUAN: I think that's really the fascinating part. You really see two very passionate camps, two different sides of this. Our CNN polling shows that people in Arizona, they support the idea.
I think the big question is going to be, and it's probably going to be interesting to see what David Axelrod has to say, is what effect does the law in Arizona, this new immigration law and all of the debate that it has sparked, what effect is that going to have on the overall immigration reform debate that they're now going to be taking on? I think it's going to be fascinating.
CROWLEY: Exactly. And what's the effect it's having on other states who have their own illegal immigration legislation up and running and trying to get past through various state legislature. So it has a broad effect and as you know, brought it to the front burner, I guess.
HOLMES: Well, Candy, we will see you here in just a few minutes. As always, we will be watching, of course, and everybody else will be watching as well. Keep it right here for Candy Crowley, "STATE OF THE UNION", coming up in just a few minutes 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 Pacific right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: You know, every weekend we try to tell you about somebody we think you should know about. Not some celebrity, not somebody in the headlines, but somebody that you should know.
Today that's Paul Miller, 93-year-old Paul Miller. He started teaching Math at the age of 18, in 1934. The man has not stopped. He is 93. He is still teaching. Look at him in class.
Miller was honored last week for his long-teaching career and dedication to his students. He teaches Calculus at Ner Israel High School in Baltimore, but for much of his career, he was also on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University. He got his masters' degree from there, estimated that he has spent some 27,000 days teaching generations of students.
Ninety-three and the man says he is not looking to retire. That he believes a man who loves his job will never work a day in his life.
Paul Miller, the 93-year-old Paul Miller, just somebody we thought you should know.
BOLDUAN: So cute.
HOLMES: Love that guy. Never worked -- you feel like you are working today?
BOLDUAN: No.
HOLMES: You love your job. You love your job.
BOLDUAN: No, love your job, you never work -- no. When I am working with you, doesn't feel like I am working.
HOLMES: You won't be working with me tomorrow.
BOLDUAN: All right. Then I'm going to be working tomorrow.
HOLMES: Karen, are you working today?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, not at all.
(CROSS TALKING) MAGINNIS: Seriously. I love what I do. I really do. In the Midwestern United States, this is what we are looking at, some pretty big thunderstorms now moving right across Minneapolis, towards Des Moines, past Omaha and towards Kansas City and extending on down towards Oklahoma as well. They are really seeing some pretty good thunderstorms.
Yesterday in the northeast, where they have been sweltering with the heat wave, now a little bit of a break. Look at these temperatures this morning: 77 in Philly, New York is 76.
Yesterday the delays along that I-95 corridor at the major airports, they were one, two hours, it was really remarkable.
For Boston, they saw between 2 and 4 inches of rainfall; they had some water rescues, but in the end no fatalities although it really disrupted traffic and some people's lives in the meantime.
All right. This is what's happening in our forecast for today. One funnel system moves across the northern tier states, and the Dakotas, it's going to feel great for the (INAUDIBLE) almost the middle of July. The funnel system dragged across the southeast, hot temperatures for the south and New Orleans and for all of the folks here at CNN who are covering there, it is going to be sweltering. The heat advisory is going to feel like it's over 100 -- T.J., Kate.
HOLMES: All right. Karen, we appreciate you as always. Thanks so much.
MAGINNIS: Ok.
HOLMES: A quick break here and we are right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLDUAN: We're looking at live pictures here; we have been watching them all morning of the work that's going on a mile below the surface trying to put a containment cap on the well in the Gulf Coast to try to stop the flow of the oil. You can see those live pictures, a lot of work. Really great live pictures that we are looking at; it has been fascinating all morning.
HOLMES: Big weekend, big next couple of days. But meanwhile, we thank you, Kate, for being here, hanging out with us as always.
Have a safe trip back to D.C.
BOLDUAN: Right.
HOLMES: But right now, it's time for us to hand it over to "STATE OF THE UNION" and Candy Crowley.
