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CNN Saturday Morning News
Tornado Hits Arkansas; Four States Declare States of Emergency Due to Oil Spill; President Obama to Visit Louisiana Coast
Aired May 01, 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: Good morning everybody from the CNN center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING for the first day of May. I'm T.J. Holmes.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good Saturday morning to you, happy May. Thanks are getting up with us. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
HOLMES: It's 8:00 a.m. where we sit. It's 7:00 a.m. in Little Rock, Arkansas, a place, a date that was hit yesterday by severe storms as you see in this video, suspected tornado hit.
The particular community you're looking at here, but other communities could be under the gun today as well. We have watches in place right now for Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, as well to the recent problems with the Kentucky Derby that's supposed to be run today. Our Bonnie Schneider keeping an eye on the weather situation.
BALDWIN: Extra soggy mint juleps for folks there. Meantime soggy situation, oily situation, along the Gulf Coast there. Emergency crews trying to protect the coastline from that oil slick that is growing and getting nearer and nearer to the coastline. It has blown out well into leaking 200,000 gallons of oil a day. President Obama, we are now hearing, will be in that area with the next 48 hours.
HOLMES: Of course, to give you a look at some of the stories that are making headlines this morning -- out in southern Arizona, a sheriff's deputy is recovering this morning after he was shot by a suspected illegal immigrant. This happened while he was on patrol in the desert. He came across some bales of hay. He then encountered several suspects.
The officer is expected to do all right. He was found out in the desert after a hour long frantic search. This incident of course comes now on the heels of last week's signing of that new immigration law that is called one of the toughest in the country.
BALDWIN: As you said, it's the first of May. That is international labor day, May Day, and some rallies in Athens, Greece now turning violent. Take a look at these pictures here. Police you can see out in full force wearing helmets, riding gear. Protesters, they're throwing things, starting fires. The anger here is over this government plan to deal with the country's financial crisis, the debt. The deal is expected to include wage cuts for these workers, tax increases in both the public and the private sectors in Greece. HOLMES: People are expected to march May Day here as well. Thousands of demonstrators are planning to mark the day at rallies protesting Arizona's new immigration law. State officials tweaked that bill on Friday, saying the changes should ease earlier concerns over racial profiling, but critics still not exactly impressed just yet. Rallies against the bill expected in at least all of those cities that you're seeing there today, including New York, LA, Atlanta and DC.
BALDWIN: We've been talking about the severe weather in Arkansas. Last night not quite as deadly as originally thought. At least the casualty level down. Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider keeping an eye on what is going on. Not only now in Bonnie in Arkansas, but Tennessee and Kentucky.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Brooke and T.J.. This is an incredible day because first you get tornadoes in the early morning hours in Arkansas and probably today a lot of people will think it's stopped raining. The sun is out. We're OK -- not at all. Arkansas is back under a high risk. I'll show you that in just a moment. First what's happening right now.
Frequent lightening strikes across Tennessee from Memphis into Nashville well up into Kentucky. Today is the Kentucky Derby and parts of Kentucky are under a tornado watch, at least for another hour or two. You can see tornado watches persist into Tennessee, northern Mississippi, the same place where we had a large tornado on the ground in Yazoo City under a tornado watch once again for today. This should expire later this morning and then back out once I mentioned into Arkansas.
Some of the more intense cells are happening in west Tennessee, particularly into the Nashville area where it is just coming down heavy and hard. We've had hail, at least an inch in diameter and frequent lightening strikes. The rain is also heavy through the Midwest into Ohio, parts of Michigan including Detroit and even into Cleveland, especially suburbs to the northwest are seeing some of that heavy rain right now.
Let's take a closer look at what we're expecting for today. Severe storms right here in the center of the country, but here's something unusual that doesn't happen very often. We've been upgraded from moderate to high risk right here in Arkansas. Now moderate areas of risk include areas into the boot heel of Missouri. That includes Cape Girardeau to Carbondale, Illinois, but this is important to know. The high risk area means there's a greater than 30 percent chance of tornados 25 miles radius, Brooke and T.J., so Arkansas under the gun once again.
BALWIN: Bonnie, thank you.
HOLMES: Well, one dead and 10 hurt. That is what we're hearing now after last night's deadly storm that roared through north central Arkansas. That figure, though, casualty figure, the number of people hurt as well, both of those numbers lower than previously thought.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) Telling us we under the tornado warning and I not sooner got that out of my mouth and I heard it coming and said I got to go. Hung up on him and jumped in my closet and -- just -- I don't know. The first thing out of my mouth was just, Lord, protect me. That was all I could do. All I could say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The noise was so loud, you couldn't hear nothing, in the storm cellar. Had to hold the door shut and just -- we're blessed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Officials in Van Buren County say there may have been three touch down points for the suspected tornado. Again one dead is the number now. At first they thought there were three people had been killed, but again, now they're saying only one person confirmed dead in these storms.
Now, we're going to give you a look at one of the spots that was hit pretty hard last night, the small community of Scotland in southwest Van Buren County. This report comes to us from our affiliate KATV.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're willing to drag brush raise your hand, if you'll go drag brush.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw it coming down the road as we was leaving out of Scotland.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was that like?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was rough. That Dodge truck was cranking it up, getting out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My truck left the ground, the trees brought me back down to the ground. I went airborne, the trees brought me back down to the ground. It was a big one. You looked back up, you can see all the dents in the hood. That's where the tree was. My cousin told me not to leave. You ain't got time. I should have listened, but I didn't, and -- you know, I got what I got.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you feel lucky to be I live tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, sir. I thank the good Lord for it. Yes, sir. I'm real lucky. There was a lot of people that died tonight. There was a lot of people hurt. I'm one of the lucky ones that walked away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the main entranceway. But ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at this big beam right here. We're abouts -- where were we? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right over here. We were right here laying on the floor. All this stuff come down on top of us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right in here. And this was ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This wall started moving. Next thing it knocked us down on the floor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The wall was right here and we were right in here. And that -- it just came right down on us. They always say it's just like a train. Sure enough I mean it sounded like it was just right here at the door, and -- I mean you know what it is. You don't have to guess.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Walls started moving and the next thing, it was -- knocked us down on the floor and we were just holding on for dear life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. I was holding his hand, and it was trying to pull me out this way, but I was trying to hang on to him because I thought he could hold me down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It mixed us up a little bit, but we're all right. Feel sorry for the people that didn't make it out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was the front of the building, it had glass in it. I could hear that breaking and then when I felt the walls shaking, it was just a matter of seconds and it was all over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When it can do that do a brick building, that's just unbelievable, the amount of force it's got.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Wow. Can you imagine?
HOLMES: He makes the point, no matter how many times you see the pictures and destruction after a tornado, we see it all the time. He said it right. A brick building. What does it take? Wind blowing hard enough to bring down a brick building? Sometimes debris knocks that stuff down, but just destructive power.
BALDWIN: Amazing. So that is the damage done in Arkansas. We want to talk about the damage to be done, long-term damage from that Louisiana oil spill. We're talking about this massive slick. It is moving closer and closer to the shoreline. We're going to take a closer look at the damage that's being done not just to it economy but to the environment.
HOLMES: Also this morning, trying to protect all kinds of information about yourself, but you also need to be worried about your reputation online. How to make sure your personal business stays personal. Some info you need this morning. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: As result of this massive oil spill, four states now have declared states of emergency. We're talking about Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. This as the nation's worst oil spill in decades reaches this sensitive ecosystem all along the Gulf Coast. So here's what we know right now about the spill.
The Coast Guard is estimating at least 1.6 million gallons of oil spilled in this area since that massive explosion back on April 20th. To give you a bigger picture here, the slick is now 130 miles long, 70 miles wide, threatening hundreds of species of wildlife that live all along the Gulf. Now, BP and the oil rig owner, Transocean, they now face at least 36 lawsuits over this oil spill.
HOLMES: Also, we're just getting this in from the White House. They're confirming that President Obama will visit the oil spill site on the Louisiana coast sometime in the next 48 hours. The president, of course, going to be in Ann Arbor today. He's doing the commencement ceremony for the University of Michigan there.
Details still being worked out when exactly he will make it to the Gulf Coast, but administration officials say he will visit the area because of its national significance and the threat now being posed to the environment.
Our Reynolds Wolf is there for us. Reynolds, we hear the president is going to be making his way down to you at some point in the next 48 hours. What is he going to see when he gets to the coast? They're trying to prepare for this landfall, but when is it coming? When do we know any official word about if it's made it and when it might?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well that is the million dollar question. People waiting and wondering when it's going to make contact. We have some preliminary reports yesterday morning saying the oily sheen had actually made contact with the coast.
Nothing confirmed by BP, certainly nothing confirmed by the Coast Guard as of this time. However, we do believe it is a matter of time and again, as you mentioned earlier, it's not just Louisiana. It's eastward into places like Mississippi into Alabama. No question, into the Florida panhandle as well.
To combat the spread of that oil they have, again, gotten quite a lot of help, not just from people here in Louisiana but throughout the region, have been converging here. They've been doing what they can to certainly help out. Governor Bobby Jindal asked for some assistance and thankfully they have 6,000 National Guardsmen that will be deployed to the area to help out.
And Governor Jindal, one of his top concerns has to do with the environment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R) LOUISIANA: It is having an impact on our coastal ecosystems. Impact our fisheries, impact our bird population potentially. It's going to have an impact on our populated areas as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF: Five thousand, 5,000 is the number of barrels of oil, the equivalent they guesstimated coming out from about 5,000 feet down below the surface, the water out there in the Gulf of Mexico. To combat the threat of that and trying to protect life, take a look at this video that we have of the protective boom that have been set up.
They have roughly 217,000 that have been out not just here in Louisiana but across the Gulf Coast. They have another 300,000 feet of protective boom that will be soon to point also, (ph) doing what they can to hold this back. The reason why? Take a look at this picture.
One of the things they're trying to protect, obviously, the wildlife, perhaps some of you at home can actually hear some of the gulls screeching in the background. The bird that you're seeing in this particular picture, this happens to be the northern ganat (ph) which is a migrating bird. Spends parts of the year in Newfoundland, part of the year in the Gulf Coast, taking again advantage of the many fish that have to be out in the Gulf.
This was actually caught in the oil slick, brought back here to Venice, Louisiana, is being rehabilitated at this time. They think that within the next say seven to 10 days could be released back into the wild.
That's the story from the Gulf Coast. Let's send it back to you, Brooke in the studio.
HOLMES: Reynolds, we appreciate you, buddy. We'll check in with you again.
BALDWIN: As Reynolds just said, he was touching upon some of the ecological concerns from this massive oil spill. I want to get down to the nitty-gritty, really, the potential threat this spill poses. To do that I'm going to talk to Melanie Driscoll. She's an environmentalist and the director of bird conservation for the Louisiana Coastal Initiative.
She's good enough to join us this morning from New Orleans and Melanie, good to see you. Good morning. I first want to ask you, you know, we see the pictures. We heard some of the birds just over Reynolds in his live report. It really speaks to the importance of this story, not only the immediate impact but long-term on the environment.
MELANIE DRISCOLL, ENVIRONMENTALIST: Yes. With national Audubon Society we are very fearful about the immediate impact of course to birds. These areas that are impacted now are globally important bird areas. That means that their habitats that support globally significant populations of birds such as brown pelicans, sandwich terns, model (ph) ducks, clapper rails (ph).
BALDWIN: We saw the picture I think Reynolds said it was in northern Gwinnett. This is the first bird that's been pulled out from this spill. I know you're specifically involved in bird conservation. And I think we have some of the pictures, some of these different birds we can talk about. If you will, Melanie, just explain to me as we go through these birds which ones are you most concerned about?
DRISCOLL: We're concerned about any of the birds that have these populations, that are congregated right now, it being the breeding season. This is really a bad time of the year for this to hit for the breeding birds. They're brown pelicans on nests. They were just recently removed from the endangered species list and this will be a setback to their conservation.
We're also concerned about the breeding plovers along the coast. Wilsons and snowy plovers as well as terns, gulls, wading birds. We're very concerned about marsh birds as this approaches that Delta in then the national wildlife refuge, Delta National Wildlife Refuge and this would include again the clapper rail, seaside sparrows, model ducks.
We have a lot of concerns about birds with already small populations. But many concerns in Louisiana, because we have such huge globally significant concentrations of many of these bird species.
BALDWIN: With these concentrations of species along this area, I want to talk about the potential damage to be done. I know you're with the Louisiana Coastal Initiative. Just in terms of, Melanie, mitigating potential damage to the environment, what are you local, state, Federal resources, how successful are you in potentially mitigating the damage?
DRISCOLL: It's hard to tell. I mean, everybody's putting forth heroic efforts and the Louisiana Coastal Initiative is a program, a conservation program within the national Audubon Society and the national Audubon Society is going to try to work to mitigate immediate damages to monitor for long-term recovery of populations, as this gets cleaned up.
But really we've been focused for many years in this area and across the Gulf Coast on habitat conservation and we need to really focus on continuing our conservation programs to protect these habitats and ensure that they're there for the bird populations as they attempt to recover from this spill.
BALDWIN: Melanie Driscoll, environmentalist working hard as well as I'm sure many, many other people to mitigate potential damage. Not exactly the kind of thing anyone can really prepare for. Melanie, thank you this morning for that.
I just want to remind you, you can see how you can help here in this effort to minimize the effect the spill will have on the environment. Just head on over to cnn.com/impact. There you'll find a list of all kinds of local organizations helping out in the cleanup effort. Again that's cnn.com/impact. CNN SATURDAY MORNING will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Giving you a look at some of the stories making headlines this hour. Authorities in north central Arkansas say one person it dead, 10 hurt following a suspected tornado that ripped through Van Buren County last night. Forecasters warn another round of severe weather could be in store for Arkansas and parts of the mid south a little later today.
BALDWIN: A Federal jury in Knoxville, Tennessee returns a guilty verdict against that former college student accused of hacking into Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account during the 2008 presidential campaign. There he is. That is 22-year-old David Kernell (ph), former University of Tennessee student, convicted of unauthorized computer access and obstruction of justice. He faces up to 21 years in prison.
HOLMES: And you could get a knock on your door from a census worker starting today. Those workers will be out on the streets going door-to-door starting today to finish the count for some of you who did not mail in the forms like were you supposed to. The bureau says, however that this whole count now could be slowed down because of a computer glitch.
The computer system that's needed to track and do the overall tally for this door-to-door count is having some problems. It's prone to crashing. So they might have a delay in getting the final tally. About 63 percent of you, congratulations, sent back in, mailed in your census forms like they asked you to.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. You remember back in the day. What did do you? If you wanted to slam somebody, you'd go out to the you know, the playground. Maybe spread a rumor about them like that. But if people want to talk bad about you now in the digital age, they just go online and slam you putting all kinds of stuff out there and sometimes you don't even know the information is out there, in some cases you don't know your reputation is being tarnished.
Our tech guru Mario Armstrong joins us this morning. And Mario, we're used to always having a good time and having some fun with you on these topics man, but this is a very serious situation here and some sites out there that your information is on there, people don't even know it.
MARIO ARMSTRONG, TECHNOLOGY MEDIA PROFESSIONAL: I hate to be the Debbie downer for you this morning T.J.. I know we are normally upbeat But again, right off the bat I want to bring up this website that is called stokeo.
It's spelled spokeo.com and basically T.J. what it does is you type in a person's name just like you would a search engine and up comes all this information that's publicly accessible about this person, their ethnicity, number of kids they have in the household. What their address is, their credit worth and their financial value. All of this information about them in one dashboard right there for you to see.
HOLMES: Now, I went to this site, you recommended some of us. Put your name in, see how it goes. It shows some stuff initially but then it said you have to pay a little fee to get some more information and how accurate is this thing because I put my name is and it came up I was a white dude. I'm serious, it had my address. It had that stuff on there. But some of the stuff clearly wasn't accurate. How accurate are these things?
ARMSTRONG: It's not 100 percent. In the fine, fine print way at the bottom of the screen, they will tell you it's not 100 percent. The same issue happened for me, too, ironic enough. It found me as Caucasian. I know I've been out and got a tan, but I'm not obviously Caucasian. But it did have other information about me correct.
So here's the deal. It's pulling information from all these different sources that are out there, right, things like utility records, court documents, your public records in terms of personal property and things of that nature. So it's pulling all of that information together. Some of that stuff is old and it's not accurate. So I would take the site with a grain of salt, but it's still enough accurate to make me concerned.
HOLMES: You're right about that. There's enough accuracy in it. But is this stuff -- you talk about how they pulled it from other places. Is it legal to do this? Things like a credit score, something that seems so private and personal? Somebody just publicize that.
ARMSTRONG: I know man. That really right there towed the line for me, T.J. because that really does seem like it's going above and beyond. But yes, the bottom line is this information is legal. The issue is, normally it would take someone like a private investigator days or weeks to pull this type of information together, because it's coming from so many different sources. And now to aggregate that stuff real quickly in a matter of seconds is really what the power of the Internet has done for this.
HOLMES: Last thing here, this is an important one, if you are in some way, some sites will put information about employees or former bosses.
ARMSTRONG: Right.
HOLMES: Just a -- you can pretty much say whatever want to say way with the cloak of anonymity. What can you do then if you see your name quite frankly being slandered or something like that? Can you -- do you have some recourse to get your name off the site?
ARMSTRONG: So a couple quick actions. Number one, you can take action with the actual site. Many people don't really see the fine print. There are usually privacy policy links way down at the bottom of the page to get your information removed. It's only removing you from that site so other sites can still spring up with that information.
If you want to take it a step further, I would recommend you look at something like reputationdefender.com. And T.J., that's like a website that helps you really manage your reputation online and find all the little nooks and crannies of information about you on the Internet so you have a better picture of what's being out there about you and how to manage it or remove it.
HOLMES: Reputationdefender.com.
ARMSTRONG: That's right.
HOLMES: All right. Mario, good information, great information, as always. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We'll see you next time.
ARMSTRONG: All right. Talk to you.
HOLMES: Every Saturday at this time you can see us and see him, what's going on, our tech guru, Mario Armstrong, same time, right here, Saturday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: And hello again everybody. And welcome back to the CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes.
BALDWIN: And good Saturday. I'm Brooke Baldwin, thanks for being with us. We just got a word the president will be in the Gulf Coast area within the next 48 hours. We're going to check on that situation coming up.
HOLMES: Also we're keeping an eye on the situation in Arkansas right now where a suspected tornado hit overnight. The death toll is at one now. That's gone down. And there's -- originally they had thought three people had been killed. But now the official death toll is one person killed, ten hurt in Van Buren County.
Take a listen to it as people described their night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard it and we jumped in the Explorer, run to the neighbor's house, got in their storm cellar. Ten seconds after we ran there it hit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Again they are still going to be doing a lot of clean-up efforts. But right now, again, the good news is that the death toll had come down.
Well, also, today we're going to be keeping an eye on the streets in many cities around the country. Hundreds of thousands are expected to rally they are demanding the repeal of Arizona's controversial new immigration law. Demonstrations planned in cities all across the country today.
And yesterday the Arizona governor tried to help a bit, at least calm some of the fears about profiling, by signing in changes to that original law that she says will prevent any racial profiling.
BALDWIN: Demonstrations of a slightly different nature in Athens, Greece turning violent. Take a look at these pictures here. You can see police out in full force -- riot police really.
Some of these protesters they're throwing things, they're starting fire, they're very angry because of this fiscal emergency in Greece and the government's plan to deal -- to with the country's debt. People there are concerned this will include tax hikes and cuts to their wages in both the public and the private sector. Again that is in Greece.
Back here in the United States, I want to talk more about this growing concern along the Gulf Coast. It's this massive oil spill that's created -- from that rig explosion creeping closer and closer to the shore, four different states declaring states of emergency.
I want to check back in with CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf who's been all over the story really for I'm sure what seems like days and days for him. He's live for us at Louisiana's Bayou country of Venice.
And Reynolds, let's just start with the immediate situation which is the weather; how is the weather down there and how it may -- might that help hamper this containment effort.
WOLF: Well, it's going to hamper a couple of things. One thing that it's going to hamper first and foremost, it's going to hamper people that are putting out things like some of the protective booms.
In fact take a look at this video that we have for you; this video from right here in Venice, Louisiana where -- actually just mere feet from where we stand happens to be a staging area where you have boats that are loaded up, as you see in this video.
That tons of crews from all across the region come together and they load up on these boats and the boats are then sent right up this river, then out through the delta and then they're put around the coastline. So the place is environmentally sensitive, you see some of these aerial shot too that show some of these in place.
Some 217,000 feet of these have been put out. They have another 300,000 or so that will be deployed. So all told, about a half million feet of those protective booms that are going to be set up.
And the reason why, Brooke: plain and simple. Take a look at the video. You see this video too of this bird; this is one of the true victims obviously of when you have an oil spill like this.
This exact bird is called a northern gnat. It was one that was actually plucked from the oil. It is now at a rehabilitation center here Venice. It's expected to be released in the next seven to ten days or so. They are actually in an area that is sponsored by BP, there's this shelter, the recovery shelter.
Now, to finish up with where you started off as we wrap things up, you're talking about the weather. Right now you can see the sun is coming in. But the wind is also picking up. And that wind is going to bring a lot of that water out in the Gulf. Not just the water but that oil even closer to some of those protective seashores and eventually pushing it farther along the Gulf affecting Mississippi, parts of Alabama and, of course, the Florida coastline.
That's the latest, Brooke. Let's send it back to you.
BALDWIN: All right, Reynolds, obviously environmental impact, also economic impact. Thank you so much. I have a feeling you'll be there for a little bit longer. Reynolds, thank you.
HOLMES: And once again, CNN has confirmed President Obama expected to go to the Gulf Coast, expected to go within the next 48 hours according to the White House.
Meanwhile, back here, certainly here on the airwaves, at least, that we taking heat from critics for the White House's response for this disaster from one in particular a prominent conservative, Rush Limbaugh, is calling this the President's Katrina. But the President is firing back telling people that the federal government is going to help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: BP is ultimately responsible under the law for paying the costs of the response and clean-up operations, but we are fully prepared to meet our responsibilities to any and all affected communities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Our deputy political director, a friend of our show here on CNN SATURDAY AND SUNDAY MORNING, Paul Steinhauser joins us now. Paul, good morning to you, what exactly is the administration's response that some say came a little late?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, you're hearing some of these charges; you just mentioned Rush Limbaugh and others on the right, saying that this is the president's Katrina.
We all remember almost five years ago, President Bush and his administration getting a lot of criticism for what they perceived to be the very slow response to the victims down there when the hurricane hit Louisiana and Mississippi and the rest of the Gulf Coast.
That was very, it hurt his party in the 2006 election, then in 2008. I think this White House is very aware of that. And that's why you saw the President yesterday speaking out about what was going on. You just heard that sound just now also pointing out that there were 2,000 federal people down in the area right now along the coast.
You saw the president dispatch yesterday Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Ken Salazar, the Interior Secretary. They were very visible down there.
And as you just mentioned T.J., now the White House saying you're going to see the president down there as well. They know what happened to President Bush and his administration. They don't want to see a repeat of that this time around politically it hurt then. They're aware of that they're trying to make this response as quick and as strong as possible.
HOLMES: Now, on the politics of it, the politics being more drilling, the President was pushing for this. This is one thing that he actually got some Republican support on; more offshore drilling. What happens to that idea now?
STEINHAUSER: Yes and this is interesting. Because just about a month ago the President announced his plan to increase the amount of offshore drilling, the acreage off the shore that would be allowed for drilling.
Some on the right criticizing it didn't go far enough, but a lot of applause from many Republicans; some liberals criticizing the move. Now you heard the President yesterday say the drilling will continue but that all new drilling leases must have safeguards against accidents.
But already, Senator Bill Nelson in Florida, the New Jersey senate and House Democratic delegation as well calling for that plan never to be implemented. So this is going to make the fact or the implementation of that offshore drilling plan much tougher.
You're going to hear a lot more calls I would assume in the next few days to stop that, though those on the right are also going to say, no, we need to continue this regardless of this accident, because while this accident is devastating, we need to have this country to be independent when it comes to fuel sources.
So this political argument is only going to get louder -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Paul Steinhauser for us from D.C. Good to see you, as always, buddy. Thanks so much.
STEINHAUSER: Thanks, T.J.
BALDWIN: All right, I want to get to some breaking news out of our Severe Weather Center; Bonnie Schneider tracking tornado watches and warnings. Bonnie, what do you have?
SCHNEIDER: Well, right now, Brooke, we have a tornado warning for portions of northern Mississippi and southern Tennessee. We're going to zoom into the area and pop up the warning on your screen. It goes until 8:15 a.m. Central Daylight Time. And it is for parts of De Soto, Benton and Marshall Counties that does extend into Tennessee. You can see Memphis right here.
Now this is part of a larger system that is bringing about a lot of thunderstorm activity to the north as well as to the south. The tornado warning means that Doppler radar has indicated that we are seeing tornadic (ph) activity possibly with rotation and the thunderstorms happening right now.
Look at the severe weather and the frequent lightning strikes. This is about 13 from Holly Springs, Mississippi, not too far from the border into Tennessee. Now, this region is also under a tornado watch. Let's move on and we can show you that there are tornado watches not just for Mississippi, not just for Tennessee but they extend further north and further east as well all the way into National as well as into parts of Kentucky and Indiana; so a rough day for severe weather.
I'll have a look at that plus a look at the weather affecting the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. That's coming up next on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A question for you. Do you remember who spoke at your college graduation? How would you like to have the President? Mr. Obama is scheduled to make an appearance in Michigan today. He will be addressing the University of Michigan and the graduates as their commencement speaker. You can see the President's speech here live on CNN, 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
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HOLMES: Yes. Tiger Woods, said good-bye to a golf tournament pretty early; Said good-bye to the Quail Hollow Golf Tournament. Failed to make the cut you see one of his shot there just got wet. He failed to make the cut. Fell apart in the back nine; just the sixth time in his career that he failed to make the cut.
This tournament was in North Carolina. Just his second one since he left the game, amid that whole sex scandal, then came back, just came back for the Masters.
So is this a big step back for this guy now? The author of the book "Beyond the Box Score", CNN's sports business analyst Rick Horrow with us this morning. Rick good morning to you, kind sir, always good to have you.
This was kind of the performance here in North Carolina that a lot of people expected to see at Augusta, but he performed so well at Augusta. People were amazed. Thought he was back. What happened?
RICK HORROW, CEO, HORROW SPORTS VENTURES: Well, he took 79 shots. That's what happened. And so that was the worst round he's ever had in professional North American competition. Let's remember this, though, Tiger Woods is not done. He's won 14 majors.
The last time he missed the cut was at the British Open. What did he do next week? He won the Buick. And so sponsors are looking at Tiger as a marketing commodity. Nike and EA stay with him clearly. Quail Hollow Championship goes on this week. Tiger will be back.
HOLMES: He will be back. He's going to be back soon. When is the -- what, the PGA? Which one? The Players' Championship he's in, right?
HORROW: Yes by the way, the purse for this last week is $6.5 million. Next week, the Players' Championship ... HOLMES: Yes.
HORROW: ... $9.5 million. So maybe he's holding out for the one that has more money.
HOLMES: Well, we wouldn't suggest that, but we'll let you do it.
Let's talk about baseball; we're not just talking sports here. This was a kind of a wild scene outside of Wrigley Field, people protesting. Why -- because the Arizona Diamondbacks were there. And that's the state, of course, where this controversial immigration law was just passed.
What happened here? It's strange to see sometimes how the sports world is not immune from what's going on in the rest of the world?
HORROW: Well, my Arkansas friend let me tell you, we all understand that sports and politics intersect. And frankly it is a ground floor political discussion and debate. The President always throws out the first ball at an opening game. You have campaigning 6 Nascar races last year. John Kerry, they say, lost Wisconsin because he mispronounced Lambeau Field and called it Lambert.
There are 40,000 people at Wrigley Field every game. Why not try to get your political message out where people are, good or bad?
HOLMES: All right. Last thing, derby today; I think they might get nasty weather. But hopefully the race will go on. Nobody seems to pay attention to horse racing until this one race. So we assume it's not a popular sport, but horse racing, still getting it done?
HORROW: Well, it's getting it done. Fifty thousand races every year and the handle is about $12 billion in gambling. That's a lot of money. But when you consider $15 billion a couple years ago, they have a lot of work to do.
By the way, if you have $1,000, you buy mint julep, it's not just any mint julep. Kentucky Derby, bourbon, Tiffany glass. That's the derby; you see and be seen. It's not really a race. It's a minute and a half of a major event. If there's a triple crown, then we go to the next step.
HOLMES: I here you, $1,000 drink. I'm with you right here.
HORROW: $1,000 drink. You and I, sit down. $1,000 drink; you're not worth $1,000 to me. I'll spend it for somebody else, drinking with somebody else.
HOLMES: You know what? I started out -- I was nice to you. I said good to see you and we weren't going to do this.
HORROW: Good to see you man. See you next week. Ok.
HOLMES: All right. Have a good weekend, buddy.
BALDWIN: I don't know. $1,000 is a lot. I don't know. HOLMES: Tiffany glasses.
BALDWIN: Yes. I don't know.
All right. Coming up, the showdown on Capitol Hill this week between the Senate committee and Goldman Sachs executives; you do not want to miss the heated exchange there.
Also in the spotlight today as we were just talking about Arizona's contentious senate bill now Law 1070. We will dig a little deeper and float all sides of this issue.
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HOLMES: Wow. Pretty sure that wasn't Li'l Wayne. Was it, guys? That we had on the screen. Sorry.
Goldman Sachs, executives. They got gnawed on a bit by U.S. Senators this week after e-mails surfaced suggesting they took advantage of investors in the collapsing housing market. The senators gave them an earful on Capitol Hill earlier this week when they appeared in a hearing investigating the matter and the language got a little -- beep. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Boy, that Timberwolf was one (EXPLETIVE DELETED) deal. How much of that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) deal did you sell to your clients? You didn't tell them you thought it was a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) deal, because they're not at conflict. When you sell something to somebody and then are determined to bet against that same security ...
LLOYD BLANKFEIN, CEO, GOLDMAN SACHS: In the context of market making that is not a conflict.
LEVIN: You have the responsibility to tell that client of your adverse interests. That's my question.
FABRICE TOURRE, HEDGE FUND TRADER: Mr. Chairman, try and understand ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you understand it. I don't think you want to answer.
SEN. CLAIR MCCASKILL (D), MISSOURI: You had less oversight than a pit boss in Las Vegas.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: There's no doubt, their behavior was unethical.
TOURRE: Regret to me is something that you feel you did wrong, and I don't have that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, interesting day up on Capitol Hill this week, trying to help them get their finances in order.
But getting some much-needed help to manage yours the government introduced new personal tools online to help consumers make informed decisions about their own money.
BALDWIN: Personal finance editor -- or expert, I should say excuse me, Stephanie -- Stephanie Elam joins us with a rundown of some of the best Web sites.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: Guys, good morning.
That's right. Go ahead and check out this new Web site. It's called mymoney.gov. Now on this site, what you can do is get info on how to plan for buying a home or how to build up your retirement account. The site also has budget work sheets, a savings calculator and college preparation check list.
Of course, those aren't all the tools you have available to help your financial education needs. You can also take look at some of these other Web sites designed to help you navigate your financial needs.
Morningstar.com's x-ray tool helps you peek inside your investment and find out exactly what you're investing in. and then there's spendaid.org (ph). This is a college preparation Web site where you can crunch the numbers on exactly how much student loan debt you can take on and how to find scholarships.
And finally take a look at mint.com. It's another free Web site that will pull together your bank and credit data to give you a bigger picture of your financial health.
And of course, we'll have many more tips and tricks to save you money coming up on "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Of course, until then, T.J. and Brooke, I'll send it back to you.
HOLMES: All right. Thanks to our Stephanie Elam there.
Hello to Oprah Winfrey. You've seen her for a long time on TV. You might think you know a whole lot about her, but do you really know the whole story?
BALDWIN: Yes. There's this controversial new book, I bet you've heard about it. It's an unauthorized biography and a lot of people out there are buying it up. And it's making some pretty huge claims, surprising claims, about Oprah's private life.
I sat down and I talked to the author Kitty Kelley about Oprah's unauthorized autobiography. That is next.
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BALDWIN: She says she tries to go behind the myth of some very powerful public figures. But her critics say, no, she is just up to digging up the dirt. I'm talking about Kitty Kelley and the subject of her latest unauthorized biography. It's none other than daytime TV queen Oprah Winfrey.
I sat down with Kitty Kelley recently about this new book. And you know one of the issues she addresses in the book and that we talked about is the speculation about Oprah Winfrey's sexual orientation.
I want to be clear. We absolutely reached out to Oprah Winfrey and her team for reaction. They did not provide comment.
We'll have more on that in a moment.
But first, take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KITTY KELLEY, AUTHOR, "OPRAH: A BIOGRAPHY": The speculation on Oprah's sexuality will probably continue forever and ever. And it started years ago probably in the late '90s when Oprah issued a press release saying, "I am not gay. I am not lesbian. I'm not coming out of the closet."
And that came as a result of being on the "Ellen Show" when Ellen DeGeneres was going to make television history by coming out. And she asked Oprah to be the therapist on the show.
And apparently there was a lot of kickback from Oprah's viewers, from her fans. They were very, very upset. So she issued this press release, and made herself since an example for public speculation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Now, both Oprah and her friend Gail King did address this issue in an interview in "O Magazine". Oprah said empathically that neither she nor Gail are gay adding, quote, "I understand why people think we're gay. There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. All my stuff is out there. People think I'd be so ashamed of being gay that I wouldn't admit it? Oh, please."
So, you know, we have only seen one public comment fairly recently from Oprah herself about this unauthorized biography written by Kitty Kelley. And here's what she said. It was just a couple weeks ago when Gail King, her friend, was honored in New York City at the Matrix Awards. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: May I say that last week was a rough week for Gail when a so-called biography came out. Every day she's getting herself more and more worked up about all of my new daddies that are now showing up; new daddies saying, "Hello, daughter. Call me. I need a new roof." Well, this, too, shall pass.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Stay with us this morning. We'll have more from my interview with Kitty Kelley coming up here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING, including what Kitty Kelley says about Oprah Winfrey's father on how she's become really this champion for victims of sexual molestation.
That's a little later this morning.
HOLMES: And stories that are making (INAUDIBLE) this morning, first in Athens, Greece, May Day rallies turning a bit violent. Police are out in force, they're in riot gear. Protesters are throwing things at the police. They're starting fires in the streets as well.
Why? A lot of these are people who are a part of workers' unions. And they're angry over plans by the Greek government to deal with the country's debt crisis by having wage cuts and also tax increases in both the public and private sectors.
Also, we turn to north central Arkansas now where one person is dead, another ten hurt after a tornado ripped through Van Buren County last night. Forecasters warn another round of severe weather could be in store for Arkansas and other parts of the mid south later today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: There's no higher priority than protecting the citizens of Arizona. We cannot sacrifice our safety to the murderous greed of drug cartels. We, in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought about my family and my friends. About everything that's going to happen.
ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think that that law is an unfortunate one. I think that it is, I fear, subject to potential abuse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Good morning again and welcome back, everybody. I'm T.J. Holmes.
BALDWIN: Good Saturday morning. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You know, it's this time every single Saturday that we try to take an in-depth look about a topic that just about all of you are talking about. We drill down and explore all of the sides of one particular issue.
HOLMES: Yes, in the spotlight, something you've been hearing an awful lot about in the past week or so. Arizona's new contentious immigration law. Stirring up a lot of debate and emotions. Thousands are marking May day today by protesting the bill in dozens of cities and states across country. And critics say the law is unconstitutional and could lead to racial profiling.
BALDWIN: Now, here's the thing, though. There's this new turn in the story. Arizona lawmakers say they have now tweaked a part of the bill approving changes to this law just yesterday. Casey Wian has been following this for us. He's now live this morning in Phoenix with some of the details. Some of these tweaks, Casey, refer specifically to when these police officers may be stopping some of these potential illegal immigrants. Tell me about the changes that the lawmakers are making.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, the changes are very, very subtle and they seek to clarify that the law does not allow police to stop anyone because of the color of their skin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WIAN (voice-over): From the moment she signed Arizona's new law targeting illegal immigrants, Governor Jan Brewer did little to calm the fear and anger felt by opponents with a stumbling answer to a simple but loaded question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does an illegal immigrant look like? Does it look like me.
BREWER: I do not know. I do not know what an illegal immigrant looks like, but I know that if AZPost gets themselves together, works on this law, puts down the description that the law will be enforced civilly, fairly and without discriminatory points to it.
WIAN: AZPost is the agency that trains police officers. A description of an illegal immigrant or racial profiling was never part of the original law. Yet President Obama apparently didn't see it that way.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now suddenly if you don't have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you're going to be harassed. That's something that could potentially happen.
WIAN: State Senator Russell Pearce authored the law.
RUSSELL PEARCE (R), ARIZONA STATE SENATOR: Shame on President Obama and others who spoke before they read the bill. In Washington, they have a habit of not reading their bills. Actually in Arizona, we read them and know what's in them.
WIAN: Still legislators have now changed the law seeking to clarify what they call misinformation that has stoked the fears of Latinos in Arizona. The original law stated police can conduct an immigration status check during any "lawful contact, if they have reasonable suspicion a person is an illegal immigrant."
It replaces "lawful contact" with "lawful stop, detention or arrest." Clarifying police may not stop people without cause, the revise law also removes the word solely from the phrase, "the attorney general or county attorney shall not investigate complaints that are based solely on race, color or national origin." That's intended to remove fears about racial profiling. Even so, some in law enforcement say confusion will persists. JACK HARRIS, PHOENIX, AZ, PUBLIC SAFETY MANAGER: It puts my officers in a very difficult position, if they enforce the law, or if they don't enforce the law. So they're being put in a place where if they enforce state law, they're going to be sued, because they're violating federal law. If they abide by federal statute, they're going to be sued because they're not enforcing the state law.
WIAN: Friday, Brewer signed the revised version of the law.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIAN: Now, there was an incident late yesterday afternoon that is certain to intensify all of this debate. A sheriff's deputy in Pinal County, Arizona halfway between Phoenix and Tucson and in an area that is very well traveled by illegal immigrant smugglers and drug trafficker, a sheriff's deputy was shot by a suspected marijuana smuggler.
He encountered a group of five men heavily armed. One of them had an AK47. The deputy was shot in the left side of his abdomen, just beside his kidney. He was taken to the hospital. He was flown out by helicopter. That helicopter came under fire by some of these suspected smugglers.
The deputy was taken to a hospital. He was actually released last night in good condition. His wound turned out to be superficial, but because of all the violence associated with illegal immigrant smugglers and drug smugglers that we've seen in Arizona, deputies are saying that they need laws like this that are tougher on illegal immigration to help them crack down -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: Certainly that will continue to fuel the debate, that story, last night. Casey, let's go back to those nuances you're talking about, the changes, the slight changes in the law, the language. I know today is May day. There are protests across the country, specifically in Arizona, about this law. Does this mean with these changes that these protesters pack up and leave?
WIAN: I don't think so. What I think is going to happen is these protesters are now going to focus on the fact that they want comprehensive immigration reform and they want those who are in this country illegally to get some sort of legal status. They don't want families separated.
Last weekend we saw several thousand protesters out here, in front of Arizona State Capitol. If I could have my photographer, Tim Hart (ph), show you something here. Last weekend, there were 20 Port- a-Potties lined up over here. Today, there are just two. So we're not expecting crowds nearly as big as we saw last weekend.
BALDWIN: All right. Casey Wian for us in Phoenix. Casey, thanks.
HOLMES: All right. This morning we're hearing from two Arizona law enforcement officers on this immigration issue. We're going to start with the Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who is against this new law. Good morning to you, sir. Glad you could be here. We're going to have you and our viewers listen first though to the Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and she talked about her frustration in trying to get the federal government to address the issue.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BREWER: For the last year and a half with my five letters that I have sent and have spoken to the president personally in regards to that, has been met with complete total disrespect to the people of Arizona. I mean, we don't even get an answer back to our letters in regards to securing our border. So given that, I think that it was type that Arizonans did step up, and that was one reason why I think that Senate bill 1070 was signed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right. Sheriff, you heard her there say it was time Arizona step up. And now we've got the changes, the tweaks to the initial bill. Do the changes make you feel a little better about it now? Or do you think we're in the same spot we were before?
SHERIFF CLARENCE W. DUPNIK, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA: It puts law enforcement officers in Arizona in a very difficult position. I know of no other law in this state or any state where the legislature has told the citizens of this community in very specific language in the bill that if they don't feel the law enforcement agency is aggressively pursuing the enforcement of the bill that they can sue the law enforcement agency.
On the other side of the coin, we get sued for profiling. But let me say first of all, this is a totally unnecessary bill. It will have no impact on illegal immigration whatsoever. We already have the authority that they've given us with this bill by using the federal law.
HOLMES: You know, clear that up for our viewers, then. Many that don't live in your state. Because I've heard this from several law enforcement officials out there now saying we already have the right to do this. So you help me understand, and if you make a lawful stop, what right do you now, as law enforcement, or did you have to check someone's immigration status?
DUPNIK: When we encounter illegal immigrants in the routine course of our duty, we -- once we determine that they're probably illegal, based on a variety of circumstances present, we call the border patrol. The border patrol comes and picks them up. If I were to enforce this law, we would throw our jails into a crisis overnight. We would overwhelm the rest of the system, and I would have to send the bill to the taxpayers.
HOLMES: And you talk about some of those things you use already to determine, like you say, reasonable suspicion if somebody's illegal. What are those things you do now? DUPNIK: Well, there are -- normally it's based on a totality of the situation.
HOLMES: OK.
DUPNIK: And we see people that don't belong in the area where they are. We see a group of hikers that appear to be Hispanic, probably coming from Mexico. They're headed north. They have a jug of water. They have a bag of food, maybe. Maybe not. And we encounter them. We talked to them. They don't speak English. They don't have any I.D. on their person.
We -- then we normally get a Spanish-speaking officer and they say, yes, they're illegal. That's not an issue.
HOLMES: That's not an issue. So the law -- it sounds like, it doesn't change much. What is your fear about this law now that would change what you're already doing? Like you just described there? What is your fear that this bill could change what you're already doing?
DUPNIK: Well, it has to do with putting the officers in an impossible situation. We get sued if we enforce the law. We get sued if we don't enforce the law, and second of all, as I said, it's a totally unnecessary law. But the reason I think it's racist is because of what they've done to two million Hispanics who are here legally, second, third generation Arizonans.
How do you think that bill made them feel when they woke up the next morning? Figuring OK, now when I leave the house, I'm going to have to take my papers and I'm going to have a target on my back.
HOLMES: All right. Well, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, we appreciate -- we certainly appreciate your time.
This debate will continue and, again, a lot of lawsuits are out there right now already. Going to be challenging this law. So we don't know if it will ever get implemented in July or August, or late in the summer when it's supposed to, but we hope to catch up with you again. We appreciate your time this morning.
DUPNIK: Thank you.
HOLMES: We're going to be talking to an Arizona law enforcement officer with a different point of view. That's Kearny Police chief Joe Martinez. He's been very vocal in his support of this new immigration law. You see him there. He's standing by. We'll talk to him next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHNEIDER: I'm meteorologist Bonnie Schneider tracking severe weather right now in Mississippi and Tennessee, where we have tornado warnings, across areas just to the east of Memphis. And speaking of Memphis, that city is under a tornado watch at least until noon today. We also have tornado watches up in to Kentucky.
Remember, the Kentucky Derby is happening today. But here's WMC, our affiliate in Memphis, this is very important because even though the rain has pushed further east, we do have new information for you. The Storm Prediction Center has upgraded the risk for tornadoes and severe weather including the city of Memphis, as you can see here, from moderate to high. And that's important to note.
That means there's a 30 percent chance that we could see a tornado break out in the a 25-mile radius of the area you see highlighted in pink right here, and that does include parts of Arkansas as well, Tennessee and northern Mississippi. We are also tracking the threat for flooding in Memphis.
As Doppler radar estimates that we have one to three inches of rain on the ground. So the flood watches and warnings persist for Tennessee into Missouri and Kentucky as well, it's going to be a tough day. Make sure your NOAA weather radio is on and working. We'll have more coming up on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Well, the Arizona state legislation about illegal immigrants certainly stirring up plenty of passion and emotion from both sides of the issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANNY DORADO, I-REPORTER: Regardless of how you stand on immigration, whether you're for it, or against it, for immigration reform or not? We can stand on one block. Agree on one thing. This is racial profiling. And if we look back at the United States, there has never been a moment in history in which being targeted for your color race, your gender, whatever it may be, has come out successful. It's always come out disastrous.
JASON ASSELIN, I-REPORTER: The big issue seems to be with Mexico, and their constant, constant crossing our border illegally. Now what they're doing in this country is coming and getting money and taking it back to their family. That's fine. Get a green card and do it responsibly. Do it legally. That's what this is about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Just a few minutes ago, you heard from an Arizona sheriff who is against the immigration law. Now we'll talk to a Grand Canyon state law enforcement officer who supports this law. And for Kearny, Arizona police chief Joe Martinez, it all starts with the President of the United States.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Our failure to act responsible at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. And that includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notion of fairness that we cherish as Americans as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.
In fact, I've instructed members of my administration to closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And with us now from Arizona Police chief Joe Martinez. Chief, I appreciate you being here. You heard the president there. But there was another comment the president made that got a lot of attention, talking about if you go out, and get some ice cream with your kids, you'll possibly going to be subject to harassment. I'm paraphrasing here. But he said that's possible now under this new law. What is the reaction you've been hearing from the president?
JOE MARTINEZ, ARIZONA POLICE CHIEF: I was extremely disappointed to hear our president speak in that hypothetical situation. It was totally without foundation, and it's disappointing that at a time where he could be a uniter he's decided to be a divider in this, and it was unfortunate, that scenario which he painted for you would not result in harassment as he described it.
So it was -- it was a really unfortunate comment. And really irresponsible in light of what's really going on and when you read the bill and when you know how we enforce the law here in Arizona, would you know that that's not possible.
HOLMES: You have helped people understand, a lot of people agree with the president. I mean, I don't know if they've all read the bill or not. A lot of people agree with the president, but they do believe that this bill sets up a scenario where people will be racially profiled.
What faith do you have, I supposed, that other members of law enforcement will not look at someone and judge them for the color of their skin when they see them, and then determine whether or not they should ask for their immigration status?
MARTINEZ: Well, for one thing, Arizona has a tremendous Hispanic population. We don't do business that way. We couldn't do business that way. We have a high population of Hispanic people in all corners of the state. So that's really not realistic, and most of the time when you're hearing that kind of rhetoric, it's from people who don't live in Arizona. Some have never been here. And so I think what you need to do is take a look at what we have here. The way we do business. It's never been OK to racially profile anyone.
But in the last 24 hours, you've seen a shooting of a deputy sheriff in a county. OK. This is part of what we're struggling with, and here our president who's got his fingers on the buttons, it's the federal failure that we're having to take steps in this regard.
And so for his reaction to be this way, he's the guy that could actually get things rolling so that we can get the help to secure the border. Anybody can cross the border. There's so many holes in our border right now. HOLMES: Well, chief ...
MARTINEZ: Yes?
HOLMES: You tell me, then, how is this law going to help you better do your job?
MARTINEZ: Well, I'll tell you what it does is, with this law, I can't necessarily enforce federal law, and they have certain officers and certain certifications to enforce those laws. Out in the outer lane there is. We can't necessarily wait and tie up all of our manpower for four to six hours for those federal officers, I.C.E. (ph), for someone could come out.
This gives us something that we can take, we can get these individuals processed, we can get going, we can get rolling here. I think whether you're enforcing the state law here, there's this sudden new fear of racial profiling. It wasn't a fear when the feds enforced the federal law.
Why is it now that Arizona can't decide their own fate and protect their own borders? The feds have failed to do that. We've got to do something here, and I'll tell you, to respond to something that Sheriff Dupnik said -- I have a great respect for him -- but I was born and raised here in Arizona. I'm Hispanic.
I didn't feel like there was a target on my back when I woke up and this law came out, because you know what? I've lived in Arizona my whole life. We have a tremendous problem on the border, and it's not been going on in the last five years.
HOLMES: Well, one last thing here, I asked Sheriff Dupnik as well, what is it you look for? The part of the law that says when there is a reasonable suspicion exists that a person is in the country illegally, describe to people what is a reasonable suspicion that someone is in your state illegally?
MARTINEZ: OK. Well First of all, it's a set of circumstances. It's not that we look at someone who is Hispanic and say, let's go check him out, they're having ice cream. No. What it is, in a lot of places in the state of Arizona where we make a traffic stop, and I've used this example before.
3:00 in the morning. One of my officers makes as stop. A stretch of highway that's rather desolate and guess what? What appears to be a lone driver, when you walk up to the car, there are 20 people sometimes hiding in that car. They're sitting down on the floor board. They're laying down on the seat. They've got backpacks, they've got water. So there's a totality of circumstances that come into play.
HOLMES: Well, all right. Chief Martinez, it's a tough and emotional topic for a lot of people out there. We appreciate hearing your perspective this morning. Again, you and the Sheriff Dupnik, you are on the front lines out there. We appreciate both of your perspectives, sir. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your day.
MARTINEZ: OK. And we wish a speedy recovery to the Pinal County deputy ...
HOLMES: Yes.
MARTINEZ: Louie Puroll who was shot.
HOLMES: Very nice to include that as well. Chief, thanks so much.
MARTINEZ: Thank you.
HOLMES: And of course, we know the big problem facing the country, but just how many illegal immigrants are in the U.S.? The government is offering an answer and pointing out, there's been a big change.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Taking a look at some of our top stories now. Some good news out of Arkansas this morning after a deadly storm hit there just last night. Officials have now lowered the death toll from three to now one person after this tornado. Now confirmed, set down in Van Burren County. They initially thought three people were killed and two dozen more wounded from that storm.
HOLMES: Word from the White House, we're getting just a short time ago, President Obama will visit the Gulf Coast sometime in the next 48 hours. Still keeping an eye down there on some of the strong winds that are pushing that oil towards the coast.
Thousands of gallons are being poured out from that well, some 210,000 gallons every day. Four states now considered in a state of emergency in anticipation of that oil and the disaster it's going to bring. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The feds on leaning on (INAUDIBLE) now to beef up their response.
BALDWIN: All right. Sounds like it might be time to check the medicine cabinet. Voluntary recalls now being issued for dozens of over-the-counter drugs for kids. We're talking about Tylenol, Tylenol Plus, Motrin, Zyrtec, Benadryl. Take a look. The recall has been issued because the drugs apparently do not meet with what they call quality standards. The company says drugs don't cause medical problems per se, but they're still telling parents, hang on. Do not give it to your children.
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BALDWIN: Stephanie Elam with "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" starts now.
