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CNN Saturday Morning News

Search And Rescue For Miners Complicated By Fire; Whale Stranded In Thames Heading Out To Sea; FEMA Says Apartment Leases For Evacuees Should Continue; Bringing Back Art And Culture Of New Orleans; Stocks Fall, President Bush Touts Economic Bright Spots; No Change In Terror Alert Level After Osama Bin Laden Tape; Professor Thulani Davis Interview

Aired January 21, 2006 - 10:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Several major stories we're following for you morning. Up first, American journalist Jill Carroll remains in the hands of her Iraqi captors, despite pleas from some unlikely places. We have a live update just ahead.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Plus around the clock efforts to rescue two missing miners believed trapped underground. It's the second such disaster in three weeks for the state of West Virginia. Let's see some live pictures, can we?

Right now, let's give you an update on the whale dubbed the "Westminster Whale."

NGUYEN: Although we have some other names for it coming up.

HARRIS: Yes, we sure do. As you can see -- well you can't see at the moment but the whale is on that barge. A short time ago in the last half hour or so, the whale was lifted from its inflatable pad, placed on the barge, the barge is making its way up the Thames River now into the English Channel and at some point the whale will be released.

And while the whale is on that barge, they're checking the whale out to make sure it's OK. The whale is tired, disoriented, has suffered, but the whale is not at death's door. More information coming in the course of this hour.

NGUYEN: Yes, we have been watching all morning long. You can bet we're going to continue to follow this "Westminster" or "Wayward Whale" -- whatever you want to call it.

HARRIS: On this the 21st day of January. Good morning, everyone, from the CNN Center in Atlanta. I'm Tony Harris.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Live reports coming from all these locations, first though, a look at some other stories happening right now.

HARRIS: Well, doctors are trying to determine when former President Gerald Ford can go home from the hospital. The 92-year-old is said to be doing well following his week-long treatment for pneumonia. Ford's spokeswoman says the former president is up and out of bed and eating well.

Your retirement savings might end up taking a hit, and there were few smiles from traders following Wall Street's big Friday drop. Did you follow this? The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 200 points at closing. Lackluster earnings reports at well-known companies coupled with higher energy prices are being blamed.

Early voting in the Middle East, thousands of Palestinian security force members began casting their ballots today ahead of the January 25th parliamentary election. This frees them up to provide security on the day of the election when Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Arab-occupied Jerusalem will cast ballots.

NGUYEN: Coming up this hour, New Orleans struggles to get back its rhythm, and it's unique identity as the cradle of American music.

Also, an author's search for her ancestors uncovers the Civil War era love story of a former slave and a white planter. We'll tell you that tale.

And there is no shame in their game. We are showing you some folks that will do anything -- yes, anything -- for a football playoff ticket.

HARRIS: And let's go right to Melville, West Virginia, and the hunt for two coal miners missing deep underground since last Thursday, late Thursday. About an hour ago, mine officials held a briefing to explain how the search and rescue has been greatly complicated by a fire. CNN's Bob Franken joins us now with the latest developments on this story. Bob, good morning to you.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORESPONDENT: Good morning. And you can see the gloomy weather, and it's matched by the increasing gloom here, increasing every hour. We're getting close to 42 hours now since the two miners were reported missing after they tried to escape from a fire on a conveyor belt.

Ten of their partners were able to get out. Those two were lost and the search has been going on with growing intensity but growing complications. As we heard in that briefing, the fire that officials had felt they had controlled so they could get around the smoke and continue their search, the fire has re-ignited.

And it has caused them really to stop the search effort while they put out the fire. That has been the biggest complication. There are further complications that result from the fires as we heard in the briefing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE COLE, MINE SAFETY & HEALTH ADMIN.: We were drilling this hole, as you remember, over in this area. And we had approximately 190, 200 feet to cover. We were 130 feet down. We put that hole through.

That hole went through in the a.m. hours. And we left the drill steel down enough to pound on the drill steel to try to get signals from -- if there were to be anyone alive. So we did not get any signals back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And the complication is as they have smoke that's filling some of these chambers, they are not able to see when they put down a camera -- they were not able to see any signs of life where they looked. All of this, as I said, is causing an increasing gloom.

The governor of the state is here. He is saying that he intends to hold a briefing around 1:00. He's going up now to talk to the families. They are huddled in the church nearby, holding out hope because they have nothing else that they can do -- Tony.

HARRIS: CNN's Bob Franken for us in Melville, West Virginia. Bob, thank you.

NGUYEN: Now to London, where a decision has been made on what to do with a lost whale stranded in the River Thames. CNN's Jim Boulden has been covering this unfolding drama. We've been showing it to you all morning long, and he joins us now with an update.

The good news is the whale is on the barge headed out to sea, hopefully, Jim.

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Betty. We just saw live pictures of this dramatic -- really dramatic move by the whale. Once the rescuers decided that the whale could be moved, it was quite swift.

We saw inflatable rafts put around the whale and then some of the rescues of -- the vet and some of the biologists looked at the whale for several hours and decided that it could be moved.

And they then dragged it down to this part of the Thames and put it on to a barge. They actually lifted it in the crane and put it on to this barge. As one of the men said to CNN, "we've never done this before. We've never had to lift a whale out of the Thames, so we weren't sure if it was going to work."

But it did work. As soon as they got the whale on to the barge, off it went, quite quickly, actually. It went under several of the London Bridges. It's now probably near the Houses of Parliament, House of Commons and then it will go by the Millennium Wheel, eventually the Millennium Dome, and then continue that 40 mile journey to the end of the Thames where -- if and when vets say it could be released we could see it, in a few hour's time, being released into open waters.

And that's dramatic, really, because just a few hours ago we were still hearing about it being very distressed, being injured, and we weren't really sure if this whale was going to survive. As of now, things are looking pretty positive, Betty.

NGUYEN: I like the sound of that. Yes, we heard that word, just as well, and really kind of all of us kind of sighed and thought, oh, no, this is a critical condition, but the good news is that has all changed. Do you know exactly what the injuries are, though?

BOULDEN: Well, yesterday we did see blood. We did see blood coming out of the back of the whale after it had beached itself. But we were told by one expert that the blood from a whale is deep, rich red so you would see a lot of blood in the water like cutting your head. You'd see more blood really than maybe the injury.

So not until they could get into the water at low tide and literally have two dozen people stand next to that whale and touch that whale and really get a sense of how the health -- could they really make the determination that it could survive the trip that it's now on.

And it is about another, what -- 30 or 35 miles, the trip on this barge. And they will make the assessment then if they can put it out to open sea or whether it has to stay in the human hands for a bit longer.

But at the moment, you know, people here are clapping when they saw the whale go back on to the barge. They were clapping as it was going down. We see children running along with the whale. It's been quite an exciting 24 hours here, Betty.

NGUYEN: Yes, we're all one with the whale. And I have to admit, here at CNN, when we saw it being hoisted on to the barge, we were all clapping going yes, good for the whale! So hopefully the whale will be swimming out in the open waters very soon and, of course, we'll be checking in with you, no doubt, to find out the latest on this journey, Thank you so much, Jim.

Well, the British have dubbed this the Westminster whale. But we want to know what you think would be the appropriate name. Do you like that, or do you have something better? I bet you have something better. So send us your suggestions to weekends@cnn.com, and we'll continue reading the best ones on the air.

HARRIS: In other stories making news across America this morning, a federal judge orders Los Angeles to pay the family of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, more than $1.1 million. The judge sanctioned the city for intentionally withholding evidence in the trial. The money covers the family's legal costs in the civil trial. The 1995 shooting still has not been solved.

A Baltimore judge has struck down Maryland's 33-year-old law against same sex marriage. She ruled in favor of 19 gay men and women who argued the ban violated the state's equal rights amendments, but gays in Maryland can't get married legally just yet. The judge stayed action on her ruling pending an expected appeal.

And, finally, a chip off the old block? The son of former President Jimmy Carter plans to run for one of Nevada's U.S. Senate seats. Las Vegas Democrat Jack Carter is running Republican incumbent John Ensign. This is Carter's first run for office. And, take a look at some of the stories we have coming up for you. The search for the lost culture of New Orleans -- the music is what helped make the city famous. Well, that and the food, but Hurricane Katrina threatened to bring in the sounds of silence.

Plus more on that wandering whale. Yes, we have those live pictures up in our whale cam, following it. We're going to give you the latest on the ongoing effort to rescue the Westminster whale.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Talk about a diehard football fan. One Pittsburgh Steelers enthusiast was so into last week's playoff action he almost lost his life watching the game. Meet Terry O'Neill. The unfolding drama landed him in the hospital after suffering a heart attack.

The Steelers fumbled the ball on the two-yard line late in the game but held on to win. Will doctors let him watch another potentially heart- stopping game next week? Terry O'Neill joins us live tomorrow, "CNN SUNDAY MORNING," 9:00 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Here's an update on our top stories. A fire is hurting efforts to rescue two missing miners in West Virginia. About an hour ago, officials said a fire, which broke out in the mine on Thursday, is still burning.

Former president Gerald Ford is still in a California hospital. It's been seven days since he was admitted for treatment of pneumonia. A spokeswoman says Ford, who is 92, is doing well and responding to treatments.

And in London, look at these pictures. The wayward whale spotted swimming up the River Thames right past Parliament will soon be back in the open seas. Rescue teams towed the bottle-nosed whale to a barge which is now carrying it 40 miles down the river to freedom. Here's a live pictures of that. Officials say the whale is in fairly good health and is not as sick as they thought, which is good news, Tony.

HARRIS: Man. A lot of time with the whale this morning, bonding with the whale.

FEMA is stepping in. The agency says states should not cancel apartment leases for Hurricane Katrina evacuees living under a federal program. FEMA says up to 50,000 families are living in apartments around the country. Most of them settled in Texas. States were originally told to terminate apartment leases by March 1st. Now FEMA says it will take over apartment leases directly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL WHITE, HOUSTON, TEXAS: I believe that FEMA would come through because the American people have a lot of common sense. It's sort of unfortunate that they waited until almost the deadline when we were going to have to send out notices to the landlords.

But I've gotten consistent assurances from FEMA. I've wanted it to be in writing. We've been relentless at getting something in writing, so the people didn't stiff us. And today we got the written confirmation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: The evacuees' apartment program has been administered by states and reimbursed by FEMA.

New Orleans is just beginning the long road to recovery after Katrina, and officials are counting on some popular faces to help bring back not only the city, but it's culture, as well. CNN's Sean Callebs has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New Orleans is searching for its soul. Swept away with the homes, neighborhoods and the thousands and thousands who fled, were some of the most talented and unique artists in the world.

Who better to lead the effort to restore music and culture than New Orleans native Wynton Marsalis, a jazz genius with enough Grammys -- nine -- to use them as door stops.

WYNTON MARSALIS, JAZZ MUSICIAN: I feel that no other city on earth has the range of culture that we have.

CALLEBS: Marsalis is on the commission to bring New Orleans back. Among the panel's goals, bringing back jobs, establishing a jazz center, and teaching children here about the city's artistic history.

MARSALIS: So that we know who we are. Many times in the United States, that's the problem we have as a country. We don't know who we are, because our arts are all kind of jumbled up. And our arts exist to tell us who we are and teach us in a benign way.

CALLEBS: Among those who scattered in the wind following Katrina, 11,000 of the city's artist. The commission says only about 10 percent of the musicians in New Orleans remain.

MARSALIS: I feel bad because our people are spread out around the country, and we're being told the most important thing is to build a levee. That's important, but that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is to figure out how to take care of our people wherever they are.

(MUSIC)

CALLEBS: Among those in need of help, Jeff Chaz, who bills himself as the Bourbon Street Blues Man. Like thousands, Chaz fled as the storm approached. He came back to devastation. Lots of his friends still haven't.

JEFF CHAZ, NEW ORLEANS MUSICIAN: I don't see hardly any of them. Most of them are gone and if you do see any of them, they don't have time to talk, you know. You know, because they got to get up in the morning and work on their house or something.

CALLEBS: For a decade, the 55-year-old made a living here, but in the wake of the storm, a vicious cycle. Tourists aren't here. Because of that, many blues bars are still closed. With no audience, he doesn't have steady work.

(MUSIC)

CALLEBS: Chaz goes through wild emotional swings from deep depression to moments of elation, especially when crowing about bringing New Orleans back.

CHAZ: Hell, yes, it's worth rebuilding. My God, we are the cradle of music civilization here in the United States.

MARSALIS: We want our artists, because we want our whole cultural community back. And we want that to be a priority.

CALLEBS: And that, he says, will help recharge the city's pulse and make New Orleans feel alive again.

Sean Callebs, CNN, in New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Got the music back.

HARRIS: Can't get enough of that.

NGUYEN: I know.

Hey, Tony, when it comes to pro football, playoff tickets.

HARRIS: Priceless.

NGUYEN: Yes, there are some who have no problem making a complete fool of themselves, not just for tickets, but just in everyday life. That story next.

HARRIS: Plus a whale of a story is unfolding this hour, on the barge now.

NGUYEN: This whale is a bit of a hitchhiker these days, wouldn't you say?

HARRIS: OK.

NGUYEN: Yes, hitching a ride on this barge out to sea. We will follow the journey -- it's a 40-mile journey -- and bring you the latest in that as he crosses under a bridge right now. We'll go live to London with the whale rescue which is underway. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You know, I wasn't -- look at this. This is crazy

NGUYEN: This is just wild.

HARRIS: It's really nuts. Folks going wild. It wasn't the space needle in this haystack that had folks just losing the minds. Instead, two tickets to the NFC championship game tomorrow. Well, now I understand. OK, now I -- hey look. That game is between the Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks, 6:30 Eastern Sunday plus this, Betty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Five, four, three, two, one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Crunch. Look at that. Football fans in Denver, Colorado, are gearing up for tomorrow's game. At a rally yesterday, a local radio station dropped a Ford Bronco -- that's what you saw -- onto a school bus, crushing it.

It all represents the Broncos smashing Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome Bettis, who's nickname is the "Bus." The Broncos take on the Steelers tomorrow afternoon for the AFC division championship. They are serious about it.

HARRIS: Yes, and the other side of that is that the Broncos for a lot of years have been known as the orange crush. So you drop -- on the bus. The pieces go everywhere.

NGUYEN: Yes.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: All right, Bonnie. Hey, you want to stay tuned because we got the whale cam fired back up.

HARRIS: Is that what we're calling it.

NGUYEN: That's what I'm calling it. They call it the gizmo here. It's a little technical term.

HARRIS: Right, OK.

NGUYEN: But there it is. Whale cam right there. We're going to have it up throughout the morning as we track -- what do they call it? The Westminster whale?

HARRIS: OK, so the whale is fine so I can laugh at this, right?

NGUYEN: Yes, it's good. The whale should be just fine and will be set out to sea soon. But the whale cam is as we watch it on its 40 mile journey out to sea. And we're asking you this morning, what do you think it should be called? They are calling it, in London, as proper as they are, the Westminster whale. But we think you've got some better ideas, and we'll be sharing that a little bit later.

HARRIS: I am the whale whisper.

NGUYEN: I'm kind of scared of you, Tony.

HARRIS: It is a love story as intriguing as "Romeo and Juliet," but this one is real -- a plantation owner in love with a former slave. The author of "My Confederate Kinfolk" joins us live.

NGUYEN: Plus, on the heels of a major dive on Wall Street, the president hits the airwaves with a message about the economy. A live report from Washington next.

Also we want to take you back live to London for more on the efforts to save the wandering whale. What would you name the helpless creature, poor little mammal, that is hitching a ride out to sea? What would you name this whale? We know you can do better than Westminster whale. Send us your thoughts, weekends@CNN.com. The best name will get on the air.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You can see the barge. Look at the people. See the people on the bridge.

NGUYEN: It was a spectacle.

HARRIS: They are running from one side of the bridge to the other to take a look at the barge to see the whale on the barge. It's crazy, all right. For those of you just tuning in, live pictures from the Thames River in London, just after 3:30 local time, mankind stepping in to help a wandering whale.

NGUYEN: We're one with the whale. It's all about the whale this morning.

HARRIS: Whale whispers. Good morning everyone from the CNN center in Atlanta.

NGUYEN: I wonder if that had a British accent. And I'm Betty Nguyen. More on that story in just a moment. But first, here's what else is happening in the news today. We have new developments in the search for two miners in West Virginia.

It's nearly two days since a fire broke out in the Melville coal mine. Intense heat is hurting rescue attempts. More than an hour ago we learned during a news briefing that mine safety officials said crews have not yet found signs of life. We're going to stay on top of that and bring you the latest.

And we are anxiously waiting word this morning on the fate of hostage Jill Carroll. The American journalist was kidnapped two weeks ago in Iraq. Members of an American Muslim group arrived in Iraq earlier today to urge kidnappers to release the reporter.

Former President Gerald Ford is said to be responding to treatment in a California hospital. The 92-year-old Ford was admitted a week ago suffering from pneumonia. Now a Ford spokeswoman says doctors are assessing his recovery to see if he can be released.

HARRIS: Your retirement savings might end up taking a pretty big hit. And there were few smiles from traders following Wall Street's big drop Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points at closing. Lackluster earning reports from well known companies, General Electric and Citigroup, Incorporated, coupled with higher energy prices, also fueled the plunge.

GE and Citigroup's results were just shy of analysts' estimates. Despite that huge Wall Street plunge, other economic indicators showed some promise. President Bush has been busy this week touting last year's economic bright spots. White House correspondent Elaine Quijano joins us live with more. Elaine, good morning.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you Tony. That's right, in his weekly radio address today, President Bush said the economy is strong and he believes that helping small businesses is one way to keep the economy going.

Now, that's essentially the same message that he delivered earlier this week when he visited a small moving company in northern Virginia. In the president's view, tax relief and small businesses are major drivers of the economy.

Today, in his radio address he said that's evident by low unemployment now at 4.9 percent, high worker productivity and high rates of homeownership. The president said small businesses spark job creation and he also repeated a familiar call to Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To keep our economy growing and our small business sector strong, we need to ensure that you keep more of what you earn so Congress needs to make the tax cuts permanent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Democrats meantime say that the Bush administration's policies haven't done enough to address the needs of middle class families. They point to as one glaring example they say the cost of energy, home heating bills they say are too high, but President Bush insists that is a top priority, trying to make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy.

But, Tony, the White House well understands this is an issue that every American feels the impact of, those high energy costs. The president nevertheless pointing to what they say are other indicators that the economy is in good shape. Tony.

HARRIS: In your pocketbook, you feel it in your wallet. OK, Elaine Quijano for us at the White House. Elaine, thank you. NGUYEN: A citizen commission in New York says it will break an unwritten rule in this country by speaking the unspeakable. All weekend long the Bush crimes commission as it is called is hearing testimony on this basic question. Is the Bush administration guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity? Actor singer and activist Harry Belafonte spoke last night about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY BELAFONTE, ENTERTAINER & ACTIVIST: I have high hopes, I certainly -- my colleagues to do everything we can to get America into a dialogue to get the voices of dissent to the heard and to begin to speak to what is happening to our nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The former commander of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison is also among those scheduled to speak as the commission meets throughout the weekend.

HARRIS: Well there is no change in the nation's terror alert level since Thursday's release of an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden. The tape first broadcast by Arab news channel al Jazeera makes a threat, namely that it's only a matter of time until the U.S. will be subjected to another terrorist attack. CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen says it is tough to know when the message was actually produced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: We know the tape was made in early December 2005. It looks like it refers to an article in a British tabloid about a meeting between Tony Blair and President Bush in which there was allegedly some discussion by President Bush of targeting Al-Jazeera's headquarters.

That's a pretty obscure news story that bin Laden picked up on. Of course, a story that the U.S. administration has denied, but I think it's indicative not only of the time that bin Laden made the audiotape, but also the fact that he's remains pretty well informed about what is going on. I have always been somewhat skeptical of the notion that bin Laden's in a cave.

It seems to me that all of his tapes, both him and al Zawahiri and bin Laden tend to refer to news events that require newspaper or Internet or some kind of access to news. When we have seen them on videotape, they don't appear to be wearing anything other than well pressed clothes and they appear well informed, which I think suggests that they are in some more comfortable situation than merely a cave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Just a day after a new audiotape from Osama bin Laden, a tape from his number two man appeared on an Islamic Web site.

NGUYEN: All right, back to our whale cam. We're getting another update on this wayward whale who got off course and swam up the London's Thames River. The whale is now on a barge as you see there headed back out to sea. And CNN's Jim Boulden joins us from the banks of the river. So Jim, where is the Westminster whale as they're calling it in this 40-mile journey?

BOULDEN: Right now at the moment we're told that the whale is in the city of London. You can see some live pictures. It was just near Waterloo Bridge. We should be seeing any moment it going by the historic tower of London, of course, where we saw many executions over the centuries. Then we'll be going under that beautiful ridge called Tower Bridge, the one opened by Queen Victoria. It's a drawbridge.

After that, it will go out to the area known where the millennium dome is and some of the new high rise office blocks. And then from there, it goes into wider open Thames. And eventually, we are now told and CNN has confirmed with the London port authority that it will be released in the next three hours.

It probably will take another three hours, but the London port authority has told CNN that the whale has been deemed healthy. And, Betty, you said you're getting a lot of e-mails for a name so not that this whale looks like it will be free. I'm going to give you Westminster Willie. What do you think of that?

NGUYEN: Westminster Willie, you go, Jim. Joining the long list of names that we have here at CNN. Now as we're looking at these live pictures, I just have to point out and you have been there on the ground following this.

I understand they are getting close to a bridge that's coming up, but the thing that surprises me is that so many people have come out to watch this. And as you see the barge going past bridges and whatnot, people are running from one side to the other to catch a glimpse of this whale. Why is everyone one with this whale all of a sudden?

BOULDEN: Well, it did appear yesterday just about lunchtime and the rumors and the stories and the radio starting flashing there was this whale. And of course nobody believed it. And then we started to see the live pictures and a lot of people streamed out of their offices. And then when schools closed, people brought their children here.

We're just next to what's called the Battersea Zoo and I talked to some people yesterday and as she left the zoo, they took the kids away from the animals in the zoo, said this is much better. We're going to come up to the river and actually see this whale.

And then this morning we got here about 7:00 in the morning. There was very few people here and then it started to build up. It's a beautiful crisp day, very sunny but very cold. And a lot of people love to run through here, take their dogs through here, bike with the kids.

It's a Saturday, of course, and so many people came out here. The police estimate some 3,000 people. They had to close two of the bridges because there was so many people on those bridges. Then as you say, as the whale zoomed past here on that barge, a lot of people running with it. Betty.

NGUYEN: This doesn't happen every day and as I recall the numbers correctly, this is the first time in some 90 years that a whale has come swimming up the Thames River. So it's definitely something that people want to catch a glimpse of and we are doing our best and our part in making sure people watch this rescue effort unfold live right here on CNN. We're going to keep our whale cam up for quite a while this morning. We understand it's going to take three hours Tony, for the whale to get to its destination out in the open water.

HARRIS: That's all?

NGUYEN: Just three hours. It should be go to go, which is really good news considering the fact that earlier today we thought it may be in critical condition.

HARRIS: The whale is fine.

NGUYEN: The whale is fine, as far as we know.

HARRIS: All right, OK, time now to check the news with Veronica De La Cruz at the dot com desk to see what is making waves.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Would that be a whale?

HARRIS: Yes, it would.

DE LA CRUZ: It might. It actually is. It's a story that is making waves at cnn.com you guys. We are also on whale watch. Users most interested in that whale right now and not in Brangelina this hour. Can you imagine that? People have been watching this story unfold from the very beginning from the moment the whale was first spotted in the Thames River.

And like we've been mentioning, the whale is normally found in very deep water. So as you can imagine, many people scratching their heads as to how this whale got there in the first place. So if you want to find out, watch the video at cnn.com from the very beginning when the whale was seen swimming up the river between the boats and the bridges.

Also people are clicking through this picture gallery that we're just about to see. It offers you some insight into what exactly happened, also gives you a time line of the rescue effort. An expert from the natural history museum says that this is the first sighting of the whale in the Thames River since 1913, like Betty was just mentioning, so lots of good additional information at cnn.com. And you know, it's good to go back and see how it kind of happened from the very beginning right, because lots of people are only getting the rescue today. So and this began yesterday.

HARRIS: OK.

DE LA CRUZ: CNN.com.

HARRIS: Well, you know, I guess it's an event. It's a spectacle. Folks are going on the bridge trying to find ...

DE LA CRUZ: It's a good way to do some whale watching on a Saturday.

HARRIS: I'm not go to poo-poo. I'm going to go with it.

NGUYEN: You are the whale whisperer.

HARRIS: Channeling the whale.

NGUYEN: All right. We're going to move on just a little bit now. Love and war, the premise of poems, movies and books, a romantic tale that forms a family tree. That's coming up.

HARRIS: And the debris and rubble must be cleared before homes and business owners can get back in and rebuild New Orleans. Nearly five months after hurricane Katrina we're keeping local officials honest. We'll talk with one board member in our next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: If you're just joining us, delegates of a U.S. Muslim group are in Iraq pleading for the release of American journalist Jill Carroll. On Tuesday, her abductors had set a 72-hour deadline for the U.S. to free all women in custody. Carroll was kidnapped in Iraq two weeks ago.

Now to Melville, West Virginia, a stubborn underground fire is delaying the search for two missing coal miners. The rest of their crew made it out after an alarm sounded Thursday evening. A camera and microphone lowered into the mine this morning failed to detect any sign of the two men.

And in London, a bottle nosed whale is hitching a ride back to the ocean. The injured mammal was spotted swimming up the Thames River Friday, the first whale sighting in the Thames in 93 years. So you can see why so many people have come out to catch a glimpse of this now-famous whale. About 90 minutes ago a crane hoisted the whale out of shallow water and placed it on a barge which you see right there in these live pictures and it's headed on its 40-mile trip to the English Channel and out to sea.

HARRIS: Well, Betty, there's no question the groundbreaking 1970 TV mini series "Roots" started a whole now genre, encouraged black Americans to dissect their ancestries. This morning a new generation get a chance to take a look at the genealogy of another American family in the book "My Confederate Kinfolk" by author, poet, Grammy winner and NYU playwright, Professor Thulani Davis who joins us here in Atlanta. Thulani, good to see you.

THULANI DAVIS, AUTHOR: Good to see you.

HARRIS: Wow, can't wait to talk about this book. You say you were inspired by the passing of your great grandmother.

DAVIS: My grandmother.

HARRIS: Your grandmother Chloe. How did that inspire you?

DAVIS: Oh, well when my grandmother died, I inherited some pictures of Chloe and that's something I didn't look into immediately. But then I realized I knew nothing about her and I started looking into it.

HARRIS: What did you find? What was the most interesting about what you found?

DAVIS: One of the most amazing things I found was that she traveled to Mississippi some years after getting out of slavery. And she arrived at a time when there was a lot of violence and in anticipation of an election and there was a lynching at the plantation where she landed. And I was so shocked. I just kept digging.

HARRIS: And when did you first learn, I mean, maybe it was just as simple as looking into your mom's face, when did you realize you had white ancestors.

DAVIS: I had heard that as a kid growing up. My father had told me a little bit about my mother's family. And many people I knew had heard the same thing. But no one went and looked for them.

HARRIS: And it's a love story, as well, isn't it?

DAVIS: I think it is. They seem to have lived together maybe 22 years until he died. And I believe love is what held them together.

HARRIS: I had to ask you, you go through a process like this. And a lot of people describe it as kind of cathartic. And what was it like for you during the research finding these things out about your family and one particular episode in your ancestor's past we'll get to in just a moment. But what was it like to go through this process?

DAVIS: Well, it became cathartic the first time a library sent me some pictures of the Campbell family and I realize I look like them.

HARRIS: And explain to us who Mr. Campbell was.

DAVIS: Mr. Campbell was my great grandfather. This is a white family from Missouri who migrated to Mississippi to raise cotton and I had never seen pictures. I didn't know their names, but once I found their names, I received pictures, newspaper clippings and I went, oh, my God, I look like these people, so that was my first shock. And then there was several women in the family who wanted to be writers and who fortunately wrote things down. So that was a great connection for me.

HARRIS: How do we know. How do you know that this was -- this was truly a love affair in the way that we like to think of love affairs?

DAVIS: I think because there being together was against the law.

HARRIS: How many years?

DAVIS: 20, 22. After the end of reconstruction in the 1990s (sic), they started passing laws against exactly this kind of relationship so that they lived together in defiance -- excuse me -- in defiance of those laws. It means to me that attachment was very important.

HARRIS: Tell us about the ancestor who you discovered who had participated, is this correct, in the massacre of more than 200 black soldiers?

DAVIS: Yes.

HARRIS: This was during the civil war.

DAVIS: Yes. I guess he's my great uncle, Leonardus (ph) Campbell. He also was connected to the lynching. He was a lieutenant colonel in the confederacy and led an ambush of a unit called the first Kansas -- First Kansas Infantry colored. They were the first black men to die in the civil war. And they lost the battle, but they were shot on the site and hunted down after losing that battle. A few survived to tell the story.

HARRIS: Boy, I wish I had more time. I would love to know how you reconciled all of that. Could you tell us quickly?

DAVIS: I'm still working on it. I really -- I don't blame any of the living Campbells, but it was something I had to digest as part of the many elements of who we really are as Americans. We're -- we have complicated families and we're complicated people.

HARRIS: The book is "My Confederate Kinfolk" Thulani Davis, thanks for being here and thank you for the book.

DAVIS: You're welcome.

NGUYEN: Still to come on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, call it the Westminster whale, the Prince of Wales or just plain Flubber. And from the e-mails we've been getting, you all have been calling it much, much more, but we've been watching it.

This dramatic whale rescue play out all morning long from London. We're asking you to name this misguided mammal which is on its way out to the open waters. So we're going to read some of those e-mails, the best ones coming up right after this break. You still have time, though. Send them in.

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HARRIS: All right. Let's figure out how we're going to do this Betty, live pictures right now.

NGUYEN: Of the whale.

HARRIS: The mouth of the Thames River and then, swim, swim, be free. And throughout the course of the morning, we've been asking you for your suggestions, your thoughts on what we should name the whale.

NGUYEN: We've gotten so many in. Let's take a look at all of them, some of the best ones.

HARRIS: Beach Bum, Prince of Whales, nomad, Platypus and Gypsy.

NGUYEN: Another one is Whaleward, Waldo, where in the world is Waldo, Sushi. That is not right. Tony, your favorite.

HARRIS: That was Jim Lemay (ph). That's wrong, too. Tempest, Tempest.

NGUYEN: That's your favorite, mine, my favorite is Suddenly Shallow. I like that one. That's a cute name for the whale. He found himself in the Thames River as

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: We don't need a first name and a last name Betty.

NGUYEN: All right, any way, there's another one that's not on this list, Bobby the Blubbery British Breecher. Say that fast three times.

HARRIS: And some more suggestions.

NGUYEN: Keep going.

HARRIS: All right, this is from Tom who says I think you should name the whale -- what is this?

NGUYEN: Thamuka.

HARRIS: Thamuka, since it is trapped in the Thames river in the United Kingdom. I get it.

NGUYEN: Leroy says, after thinking for a few minutes, the whale's name is obvious, Tiny Thame with a "T-h-a-m-e."

HARRIS: Now that's good.

NGUYEN: That's cute.

HARRIS: Scott says since you don't know the gender, Shemale the whale.

NGUYEN: And I like this one, the whale should be given a male name. A female would never have traveled that far. She would have stopped and asked for directions. You know that's right.

HARRIS: Yes, that's right but it's so wrong. Are we done with the whale for this hour? NGUYEN: Not done with the whale. We're going to be following it. Our whale cam is right there. It's going to be up all morning long. Three hours is the journey.

HARRIS: Yes.

NGUYEN: We'll be following it every step of the way.

HARRIS: It's Louisiana's recovery day in state's hosting hurricane evacuees.

NGUYEN: And coming up next, we're keeping officials honest by talking to one board member about the rebuilding process in New Orleans.

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