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CNN Saturday Morning News
Workers Trying to Cap Oil Leak in Gulf; Impact By Tennessee Flooding; Recall of Children's Medicines
Aired May 08, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there, everybody. From the CNN Center, this is CNN Saturday morning for this May 8th. Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
RICHELLE CAREY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Richelle Carey. You should be good and awake by now I'm hoping. It's 8:00 a.m. in Atlanta, 7:00 a.m. in Nashville. 5:00 a.m. in Los Angeles. Thanks for starting your day with us.
HOLMES: And this day could be a big day, could be a big weekend for the Gulf coast and the possibility of finally getting all that oil to stop leaking. What they're going to do here is drop a four-story concrete and wood containment dome that essentially looks like a four- story building on top. They have their fingers crossed that this will work. It has made it to the sea floor but still a lot of questions because something like this has never been done at this depth.
CAREY: Five thousand feet I believe it is, all right and peoples' lives have changed in Nashville because of all of the flooding. Thirty one people are dead in three states. Now the focus is the cleanup. It's a massive undertaking. There's about $1.5 billion in damage in Nashville alone. That's the estimate. Talk about Nashville, Grand Ole Opry house, lots of memorabilia, some of it damaged, some of it was gotten out safely. These stories and more after a quick look at the headlines.
HOLMES: I'll tell you what's making headlines right now. The family of slain University of Virginia lacrosse player Yardley Love (ph) gathering to pay their final respects at her private funeral later today in Maryland. Meanwhile, police in Charlottesville investigating Love's former boyfriend who is now charged with her murder. The 22-year-old Love was found beaten to death in her off- campus apartment on Monday.
Also police in Suffolk County, New York, have charged two teenagers in an alleged conspiracy to murder students and faculty at a high school in Bohemia, New York. Both suspects, a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy described as a former student are being charged as adults.
Also, there's political disarray in the UK after Thursday's parliamentary election provided no clear-cut winner. Today talks are under way between the liberal Democrats and the victorious conservative party which even though they got the majority of the seats still fell 18 seats short of earning a majority. CAREY: All right. T.J. described it pretty well. This is a mammoth effort that requires a delicate touch, but it has to be done very quickly. We're talking about the operation going on in the Gulf of Mexico to try to cap that leak, 200,000 gallons of oil a day are leaking.
CNN's Brooke Baldwin has been following this story for days now from Biloxi, Mississippi. Brooke, what is the latest with the containment dome efforts that's been described as a four-story building?
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, it's like a four-story building or kind of think of it as an upside down funnel. And you said it perfectly Richelle. It really is this sort of delicate process and they have to do this fairly expediently. The last check we have from BP is that this massive containment dome has not fully positioned itself on top of that wellhead.
On top of that second and largest leak so we're still sort of watching with baited breath to see when and if that happens. That should happen at some time this morning. What they've been using is these robotic arms, these robotic -- what they call them submersibles to make sure this thing is in place.
And then a little bit more waiting because then they have to attach all this piping, sort of like a straw, if you will, up side the top of a funnel and they're going to be siphoning this oil hopefully up to 85 percent and hopefully the siphoning process should start as early as tomorrow -- Richelle?
CAREY: Brooke, I know you made your way to the oil slick this week. You took a camera with you, an underwater camera. What did you see?
BALDWIN: It was amazing. I mean we knew we would go out. We had an idea we would see oil. We had no idea how quickly and how much of it we'd see. I put some of it in a bottle. This is kind of what it looks like now, almost like a brownish/pinkish liquid but when you look at the picture sort of on the surface of the water -- it looks almost -- I think I described it as like an orange goo.
And you're right. We took this teeny, tiny underwater camera and we were the first to really photographs what the oil looks like below the surface and I showed those underwater pictures to a marine scientist, to a gentleman from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography from belowthesurface.org.
And he really kind of walked me through what we were looking at and his point as you're about to hear is that he says the dispersants, these chemicals used to break up the oil are just as toxic as the oil itself.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Are you surprised it's broken up the way it is.
CHRISTIAN GUSTAFSON, MARINE BIOLOGIST: I really am. This is the first underwater footage I've seen of this particular spill with the dispersant applied so the fact that it's sinking now and covering a larger area is -- I think is as much of a problem.
BALDWIN: The fish then eat the pieces of oil. The pelicans eat the fish. How -- connect it for me.
GUSTAFSON: The base of the marine food web are actually microscopic plankton and those are the first ones to get hit. They're incredibly sensitive to this impact so once they're gone that just goes up the food chain and once -- a lot of fish actually feed off plankton, even whales, so it's something that is incredibly harmful to the marine environment.
BALDWIN: So even though they're out there and they're working hard on containing that leak, this damage would you say it's done?
GUSTAFSON: Damage done and it's continuing, absolutely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So, Richelle, really bottom line, you heard it from him, we're hearing sort of economically and ecologically speaking the damage done by this oil long term.
CAREY: Yeah, that struck me, as well, Brooke, those words damage done. All right, Brooke, thank you very much. Starting at the top of the hour Brooke will be back with us. We're going to take an in-depth look at the oil spill, the cleanup, the impact on the Gulf and of course, the people, the people who have to deal with this. T.J.?
HOLMES: All right Richelle. Another major story that some say not even getting enough of the headlines right now because we saw so much coverage of what's happening in the Gulf. So much coverage also of the terror scare in New York but there is a major disaster going on right now in Tennessee. The death toll now has risen to 31 in Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, as well, after devastating flooding. Twenty one of the 31 dead are in Tennessee alone. In particular, Nashville has gotten hard hit. An estimated $1.5 billion in damage.
CNN's Martin Savidge visited some folks in one working class community who have now lost everything.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On West Hamilton Street everything everyone ever had is now on the sidewalk for everyone else to see. Walk down the street and the flood stories still pour out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The water just gushed in and it had a force to it.
WILLIE MAE STRICKLAND JORDAN, FLOODING VICTIM: They put this rope around me and pulled me through this water. Scary. Whew, I was so scared.
RONNIE COLEMAN, FLOODING VICTIM: The water line was there in here in the living room. You can see on my door.
SAVIDGE: So on you that's chest high.
COLEMAN: Yeah, and I can't swim.
SAVIDGE: Two days of rain and water from Whites Creek did this to a working class neighborhood where most had lived for decades and few have flood insurance. Everyone dreaded coming back.
REBA PERKINS, FLOODING VICTIM: And we prayed that we would not -- whatever we found, it would be something that we could learn from.
SAVIDGE: Soon the first trips to the curb began. What have you lost?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I lost everything. Everything is ruined.
SAVIDGE: Are you worried?
CAROLYN PHILLIPS, FLOODING VICTIM: Yeah. But I'm going to be OK. We're going to be OK.
SAVIDGE: Like they say one man's trash is another's treasure. Kelando Hambric gets $135 a ton from a scrap dealer. What are the things you carry away most?
KELANDO HAMBRIC, SCRAP DEALER: Refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, water heaters, the heavy stuff.
SAVIDGE: Ronnie Coleman lost everything and gained something.
COLEMAN: I keep stopping and thinking, I'm alive. You know, everything else, the rest of my life if I have to fight cancer or whatever, man, it's going to be a piece of cake compared to what I went through.
SAVIDGE: I watched with Sherry Hathaway as the city truck loaded her stuff for the dump. Is that your life going away?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It sure is, children's lives. Our lives. Oh.
SAVIDGE: For her 24-year-old daughter Jamie, it was too much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard to watch it. I mean this is everything we own, everything.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Even as a reporter that is extremely difficult to watch as everything somebody has is just hauled away for the dump. We should point out it's Saturday, the first Saturday of course after the disaster. That means volunteers are being organized. They are expected to be out in full force.
They been out but because it's a Saturday and people aren't working, they are expected to get out there in very large numbers. Thousands of people spanning out to all these different neighborhoods. It is, after all, Tennessee, the volunteer state -- T.J.?
HOLMES: Yeah and Martin, we see some of that cleanup going on. That means at least some of the water has gotten out of the way. Some of that stuff was under water here just a few days ago so tell us where the rivers are right now in particular. I assume you're standing next to the water but are those waters now starting to recede and going to make things a little easier over the next coming days?
SAVIDGE: They are. This is the Cumberland River. It's the main river that runs through Nashville and we'll sort of give you a look at that water marker down there. We were here three days ago and when we were here, the water was just at the very top of that stone water marker which would have put it about 50 feet and now you can see that it has gone down dramatically, although there is still much more to be revealed, actually, as the light post down there might indicate.
So the river is back at its banks. It's below flood level which of course, is all good news but it's still flowing faster and overflowing a little bit more than it should be at this time of year. It's gotten a lot better. All of the water out of the neighborhoods is pretty much gone, but the hard work of cleaning up, that's just beginning T.J.
HOLMES: Absolutely. A major disaster happening in Nashville, Tennessee. Martin Savidge for us this morning. We appreciate you bringing us those stories. Thanks so much.
SAVIDGE: You're welcome.
CAREY: So the last thing they need is any more rain in Nashville and it appears they're going to get some sunshine because these folks need to clean up. Even some of the stuff that is sitting out on their front lawn. Some of that is salvageable. The last thing they would need is for more rain to come.
HOLMES: Reynolds, how are they doing there now in Nashville, at weather wise. They're going to have a break for a bit.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CAREY: The attempted bombing in New York's Times Square, how often do things like that happen, attempted attacks against Americans?
HOLMES: You remember the shoe bomber, the underwear bomber. We got all these attempted bombers. We're going to take you through a security time line coming up.
CAREY: And if you have baby Tylenol in your cabinets, listen up. It is on a recall list. This affects quite a few people. We're going to look at your options. You need to replace it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAREY: When is a little lunch cooler not just a lunch cooler? When someone thinks it's a suspicious package. That is what triggered a partial evacuation of Times Square. This happened Friday until finally authorities realized it's just a green cooler and there were bottles of water in it.
HOLMES: That's what you'd expect in a cooler. But if you leave that cooler in Times Square, it's a different story altogether. New Yorkers have every reason to be vigilant and a bit on edge right now certainly after what they've been through in the past and recently as well including that attempted attack last weekend in Times Square and that's just the latest attempt.
Josh Levs here to look at some of the other attempted attacks on Americans in the recent years and some of these, for the most part, people will remember these because they made big news for the most part but still, it's scary to put them all together and think how many times we got close.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. It makes you realize what our nation has been going through specifically since 9/11. In fact, let's go to some of that video from yesterday because it was as I was watching this, I really got to thinking about vigilance in America and the reasons that we have such vigilance. This cooler was right near 45th and Broadway.
It was basically right where that car had been, very close and after, you know, years and years of terror scares and after what happened last weekend, it's no surprise that people are going to be very careful all the time. What I wanted to do was look back, all the way back to post-2001 and see what have we been through as a country? And unfortunately, there's way too many attempted terror incidents for me to list all of them.
I'm going to name some of the big ones over the years and starting off with the shoe bomber, so-called shoe bomber, would be shoe bomber anyway, Richard Reid. I know we have some video of him. This was back in December of 2001 when as we know there was this effort to set basically shoes on fire on a plane.
We also can get on to Jose Padilla, who is the next one that we've heard a lot about. That was in May 2002. He was arrested later convicted of supporting terror. When you hear about Jose Padilla, you might be thinking of the term dirty bomb. He was originally accused of trying to set off these dirty bombs, radioactive bombs in America. He was ultimately convicted of something else, conspiracy and supporting terrorism.
Let's bang through a few more of what we've been through as a country here. The Lackawanna six, they were arrested September 2002, later convicted of providing material support to al Qaeda. That was up near Buffalo, New York. Iyman Faris, a lot of you remember this. He was arrested in May 2003 and later pleaded guilty in a plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge, another purported attempt on New York. This was when seven men were arrested in June 2006 in a plot that apparently was going to begin with an effort to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago. The liquid explosives plot, this one jumps us up to 2006, also this was when 24 men were arrested attempting to carry on basically liquids that would create an explosion on the plane. We all remember this very well because of what we go through to this day trying to get on airplanes and the way that liquids are handled differently.
A couple more I'll just mention here, Najibullah Zazi. This brings us back to last year he and four others arrested. That was in September in this plot against a New York City subway. Authorities still getting information from him and from others on what might have happened in New York.
And of course, the Christmas Day bombing attempt from Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, arrested after Christmas Day, 2009 for his bombing attempt on board a U.S. bound international jet. Unfortunately what we're doing there is just showing you some major ones that you're going to remember from throughout the years.
I'll tell you guys, it is too bad that we can't hit every single one. This right here is a reminder of how frequently we're seeing these things and of why throughout this country we have such vigilance at this time guys.
CAREY: Absolutely. You can't blame anyone for maybe at first thinking they're overreacting and then realizing you know what, I need to follow up on what seems suspicious to me.
LEVS: That's right.
CAREY: Thanks, Josh. If you're thinking about giving your kids certain name brand cold and allergy medicines, don't do it. We're going to tell you why and what you can do instead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back to this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Coming up on the bottom of the hour and at the bottom of the hour, we got a race starting here in Atlanta. In particular, this race, nobody necessarily, it's, you know, that keen on winning it, but the point here is they're racing for a cure. As you've heard by now Susan G. Komen has been doing this for the past three years, the Susan G. Komen, 20 years, Susan G. Komen Foundation.
If we could show that live picture. There it is. These racers are getting ready right now because they have about an 8:30 start time, 8:30 Eastern time. This is in downtown Atlanta, Atlantic Station to be particular. But this, of course, this has grown around the world for the past 20 years.
It started out as one little race in Dallas with 800 participants and over the past 20 years, it has grown to some 114 countries and over about a million and a half people participate in this every single year but they're trying to raise awareness and raise money for breast cancer and breast cancer research, so just another race starting.
They do these, you'll see these in several towns, maybe in one of yours over the Mother's Day weekend and during the spring, so another race for the cure taking place this morning in Atlanta. We'll keep an eye out.
Also another story that concerns any parent out there. Certainly your child gets sick. You reach for the medicine cabinet and pull out the children's this, children's that. Well, there are some children's medicine that's made by Johnson & Johnson, you may want to stay away from because a recall is in place and one of the items being recalled is a popular children's Tylenol.
Kate Bolduan with the latest on this for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days after a voluntary recall of over-the-counter infant and children's liquid medications, a scathing report from the Food and Drug Administration, 17 pages of findings described by regulators as serious. Page one, raw material used to make children's Tylenol drug products had quote known contamination with gram negative organisms, bacteria.
Page four, no corrective action was initiated despite 46 consumer complaints regarding foreign materials, black or dark specks found in medicine. Dr. Sidney Wolfe is a longtime critic of the drug industry. Wolfe says this isn't an isolated incident. This is McNeil consumer health care's fourth recall in the past seven months.
DR. SIDNEY WOLFE, PUBLIC CITIZEN: This is a company that sells billions of dollars worth of products a year. It is inexcusable that such a company would be so sloppy.
BOLDUAN: The McNeil plant is now shut down indefinitely. The FDA maintains that the potential is remote for serious health problems, but Federal officials continue to warn parents to stop using the drugs immediately. Not so easy says pediatrician Dr. Jennifer Shu.
DR. JENNIFER SHU, PEDIATRICIAN: And many of my patients have already gone through their medicine cabinets and checked the lot numbers, expiration dates to see if their medicines fall under the recall. A recall this size is definitely affecting pretty much every parent that I know.
BOLDUAN: In a statement, McNeil apologized to consumers saying the quality issues that the FDA has observed are unacceptable to us and not indicative of how McNeil consumer health care intends to operate. Who is dropping the ball here?
WOLFE: The primary dropper of the ball, so to speak, are the companies. Secondarily in some cases the FDA was a little slow or late to get to this.
BOLDUAN (on-camera): McNeil declined to tell us how many individual packages we're actually talking about, essentially how big is this recall?
Kate Bolduan, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAREY: And this recall has thousands of patients with a lot of questions this morning. So for some answers, we're going to bring in a pediatrician. Dr. Steven Elliott from Piedmont Pediatrics. All right. Doctor, have you gotten a lot of calls about this already? I can't imagine how parents react when they see things like this.
DR. STEVEN ELLIOTT, CINCINNATI CHILDREN'S HOSP. MEDICAL CENTER: We've gotten some calls actually. Some of my parents are surprisingly unaware actually when I'm talking to them in the office, oh, it's been recalled?
CAREY: Is that right?
ELLIOTT: And the ones that have been recalled have been pretty up to date because of the web. They can look at the lot numbers. (INAUDIBLE) that they have.
CAREY: If you've already given your child these, if they're in the medicine cabinet and they regularly take these, what would you tell a parent?
ELLIOTT: Actually not to lose a lot of sleep over it to be perfectly honest. The way I understand the recall and obviously McNeil has been fairly nebulous about what's actually wrong with these drugs. It's a potency issue potentially, maybe a contamination issue so these drugs, the way they're actually dosed, it's hard to actually get a toxic dose of these drugs unless you try or make a huge mistake.
So most of my parents I'll tell them not to worry about it, not to continue using those drugs, but just throw away the drugs they do have.
CAREY: How do parents take that? Do some parents say, no, there's got to be more to it than that?
ELLIOTT: Some. If a parent calls me at night and says I've actually given my child a double dose of Tylenol or a double dose of Motrin, I usually say, don't worry about it. It's not a big deal, just don't do it again. I'm sure the potency issue is not to that extent at this point with these drugs.
CAREY: What do you know about this bacteria?
ELLIOTT: Not a lot honestly and I actually tried to call McNeil myself to find out what the specifics and they were very not forthcoming with information when I called them. I kind of wish they would give more information because that would be helpful to me to actually reassure my parents but I just don't have the information.
CAREY: What do you tell a parent to do instead if they can't take something that's been -- give something to their child that's been part of their routine? Now what?
ELLIOTT: Sure. Buy the generic versions of these drugs. They're made in different facilities so they're fine to use. So there's plenty of other options assuming you can find them on the shelves. The shelves were empty in a heartbeat. Most of my parents have been able to find generic equivalents if they haven't already been buying generic equivalents.
CAREY: You seem very calm about this. Is that what you try to relate to the parents, as well?
ELLIOTT: To a large extent. This isn't the first time we've had to recall these drugs. There's been no known harm to any child done at this point so it makes me feel comfortable in that regard. So it is very much a voluntary recall from their point of view. I'm not sure what the pressure was to make them to do that, that recall, but at this point since no harm has been done to a child, I'm fairly relaxed about this.
CAREY: That's good. That's why we have you on here is to put things in perspective. Dr. Steven Elliott, appreciate it very much.
ELLIOTT: Absolutely.
CAREY: T.J., back to you.
HOLMES: Details on the would-be terrorists, just how exactly did police track down that New York Times Square bombing suspect in a matter of 50 plus hours? We'll uncover this trail.
Also trying to stop all of that gushing oil in the Gulf. Well, it's not an easy job, and to try to fix it they're trying something that has never been tried before. They hope it'll work. Will it, though? Details of the difficult task at hand. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, bottom of the hour on the CNN SATURDAY MORNING taking a look now at some of the stories making headlines.
The debt crisis in Greece is raising more concerns that the country's financial meltdown could affect markets around the world. Some economists agree the current crisis would take a toll on U.S. exports.
Also, ash spewing from that volcano, yes, once again in Iceland is causing more travel interruptions today; 16 airports in Spain are now closed. We are keeping a close eye on this situation to see if other European countries follow suit and are forced to close some airports, as well.
And Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will tour Nashville this morning. The city's mayor says what she's find is a city that's already starting to rebuild. But this is still going to take time, money and manpower; 12,000 people in Tennessee have already registered with FEMA for disaster assistance. CAREY: All right, let's talk about the oil recovery mission. It is happening right now in the Gulf of Mexico. An operation official with BP says that lowering this containment contraption -- it's described this way -- it's like placing a four-story building onto the head of a pin. And all 5,000 feet below the water's surface, about a mile. This is the animated picture right here. It's pretty good one.
One BP official admits this has never been done before at this depth so they don't really know if it's going to work. The containment dome is now on the floor of the Gulf. It hasn't been lined up yet, though.
But the plan is to place the dome over the biggest leak from the broken well and have a tanker siphon much of the escaping oil, about 85 percent.
HOLMES: Well, of course, we have -- there's concern about wildlife, the delicate ecosystem there along the Gulf; just exactly what this oil is going to affect. But there is another big issue there. The fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico is so important to this country and to that region.
Our all platform journalist, Sarah Hoi talked with local resident in Gulfport, Mississippi and they literally believe they are going to be ruined economically.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARAH HOI, CNN ALL PLATFORM JOURNALIST (voice-over): The pulse of Gulfport, Mississippi lives on the shores of the Mississippi Sound. It's on the docks and in the backyards. On any given evening, folks around here get together over pounds of crawfish to talk about the events of the day and in this case the lurking oil spill.
We were invited to dinner where a few friends and family had gathered and while there we wanted to know what would it mean to the people of Gulfport, the kind of people who drop a line nearly every day who invite strangers over for dinner, if oil really did reach the shoreline.
CHUBBY BARKUM, FORMER OIL RIG WORKER: If the oil comes in here, you got so many people depending on this big community. Recreational, commercial, it's catastrophic. It's going to be -- it'll be worse than Katrina.
ROY FREIGHTMAN, RECREATIONAL FISHERMAN: You know, this is almost like a Katrina of FEMA. It's not like they got a whole lot of experience in this because how many of these we had here? Is this the first one so where do they get their experience from? Of course, not want to ask somebody do they have shutoff valves on these things, no, no, they don't. Yes. It isn't working.
Katrina, you know, everybody was brought back down to the same size and everybody had a chance to grow again and a lot of people took that money out their house and put into their boats and stuff like this. And they can't use that boat. They can't make a living. A lot of people over the last, say, 20 years has gotten involved because it's a lucrative business; but when you go to Louisiana that's been a way of life since life, since life.
You know, you go and look at some of them kid, they look like shrimp. I don't know what they're going to do. You know, nobody knows what they're going to do.
HOI: All that's left to do now is wait.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAREY: Wow. And now part of the waiting is they've got to get the oil rig to stop ...
HOLMES: Yes.
CAREY: ... before people could even assess what the real damage is and the weather plays a critical role in that particular mission.
HOLMES: Yes, Reynolds Wolf keeping an eye on things. Reynolds, you were down there at the Gulf for a while, as well. And you know the weather was helping and it was hurting. It was strange that the weather patterns were actually keeping the oil in one place. It was keeping it from coming to the coast, for at least a while it was.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. Yes, I actually flew over the spot where the Deep Water Horizon actually sank, some 5,000 feet below the surface in a Coast Guard helicopter and from that point weather conditions were picture perfect then the weather -- the seas really didn't cooperate for a couple of days.
Then it was fine where they were able to do the controlled burn and now things are favorable once again. All to put this structure as you guys described kind of like a four -- rather a four-story building, 125 tons at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, just an amazing endeavor.
And thankfully today weather conditions should cooperate. We're expecting a frontal boundary that can move through parts to the center of Gulf. But the good thing is only expecting wind waves to be around one to two feet. So that certainly is great. Wind will be out of the north and northwest at about five to 15 miles per hour but I think they're going to be able to handle it pretty well.
One thing that some people won't be able to handle is some of the snowfall in parts of Michigan. It's very unusual to see it this time of the year. Not a record breaker it does happen but still it is interesting driving north on 75 and Michigan and seeing that.
Heavy rainfall from parts of the northeast including New York, back into Boston, maybe even Philadelphia before the day is out. Very dry across the nation's midsection and then we get on to the West Coast, conditions should be picture perfect.
Now, one thing we need today in the places let's say Nashville where they're going to be cleaning up should dry weather. And with high pressure that's moving in behind that frontal boundary it looks like conditions in places like Nashville will be just fine today.
Highs are actually warming up into about the I'd say 60s or maybe some low 70s; so picture perfect all things considered, but my goodness what a tremendous cleanup for the people of Nashville, Tennessee.
Let's send it back to you guys.
HOLMES: All right. Reynolds, appreciate you buddy, we'll talk to you again here shortly.
Well, there's a fast-moving illness that's afflicting many American politicians lately. They got this fever, it's an anti- incumbency fever. It's sweeping the nation really and it's threatening to sweep many longtime lawmakers right out of a job come November.
Here now is CNN's political editor, Mark Preston.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Good morning, T.J. You know, incumbency is worth its weight in gold when it comes to politics literally. Once you're elected to Congress you are welcomed into a new world where fund-raising is made easier and you get all the benefits of public office, such as taxpayer funded meals and a legislative staff both of which are very helpful in promoting your hard work on Capitol Hill.
As a Congressman, you want your efforts highlighted especially during an election year. But with incumbency also comes baggage, responsibility and accountability. To sum it up in a few words, incumbents face the brunt of voter anger especially on Election Day. Democrats who hold more seats in Congress are likely to face the biggest losses in November because of voter anger; anger over the economy, anger over the high unemployment rate.
After all, Democrats control the House. They control the Senate and, of course, Democrats control the White House.
But today, T.J., we're waiting to find out the fate of Senator Bob Bennett. Bennett's a Utah Republican whose political career could very well end today if enough conservative activists rally around one of his many rivals. His critics say that he's not conservative enough; a charge that has caught this five-term senator by surprise.
Another veteran member of Congress, Wisconsin Democrat, David Elby, announced this week he would hang it up at the end of the year. Elby first elected to Congress in 1969, he's now the Chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. He said that he thought his district was ready for someone new to make a fresh start.
Elby is not the only person to voluntary step down. Lawmakers from Michigan to Arkansas in Tennessee to California have decided to call it quits and won't be on the ballot this year.
In just a few hours, Bennett will decide his fate except his fate, T.J., is not his own fate. It's in the hands of these conservative activists -- T.J.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right. Thanks to our Mark Preston, as always this morning.
Also coming up here, Commissioner Ray Kelly in New York actually compared it to what Jack Bauer does on show "24" on Fox. He says Jack Bower can solve a crime in 24 hours. He said, we did it in 53. And that isn't bad.
And he's talking about that accused Times Square bomber. He -- actually from the time they found the bomb to the time they found him just 53 hours. We're going to go through the clues that Faisal Shahzad left behind.
CAREY: Plus coming up at the top of the hour, the massive oil slick threatening wildlife and livelihoods in the Gulf of Mexico. We're going to go out on the water, plus we'll look at the damage to the local Gulf Coast communities.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAREY: Let me check on the top stories for you right now. Sadness at the University of Virginia after another violent crime on campus, the funeral for Yeardley Love, that is today. And police have charged another student, George Huguely with her death.
Police on Long Island charged two teens with conspiring to kill students and faculty members at a high school. Detectives say that there's cell phone and computer evidence that shows the two had talked about buying guns and had searched for bomb-making information, as well. Talking about a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy and they are being charged as adults.
And crews have lowered a four-story dome a mile below the Gulf of Mexico hoping to stop that massive oil leak. Something like this has never been tried before. Not at this depth. The environment and wildfire, thousands of jobs, all hang in the balance. They need this to work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. You may have seen some sports teams, professional sports teams are kind of getting in the middle of the immigration issue that's happening out in Arizona.
Take a look at the jerseys there for the Phoenix Suns. On May 5th, in their play-off game they wore "Los Suns" as a show of support for the Hispanic community out there in Arizona.
Now, let's bring in our business sports analyst Rick Horrow to talk to us about this today. He's the author of course, of the book, "Beyond the Box Score".
Rick, always good to have you with us. Good to see.
Let's listen to and let's have our viewers listen to something here, some sound they're going to hear from the suns' GM and point guard Steve Nash. They had some comments about it.
Let's just go ahead and listen and I'll talk to you about it on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE KERR, PHOENIX SUNS GENERAL MANAGER: There is a political statement and that is that, you know, we felt like however well- intended, the law was not right.
STEVE NASH, PHOENIX SUNS PLAYER: As a proud citizen of the state, you know, I want us to be held in highest esteem. I think we need to be very cautious in how we respect our civil liberties.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think sports and politics mix and I don't think that as far as that goes even celebrity and politics.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've got a professional wrestler that's now a governor. You've got Kevin Johnson, a Sacramento mayor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right. Rick, sometimes sports teams don't have a choice but to get involved. People will pull them into an issue but the Suns seem to be taking it upon themselves to get involved in the issue. Why?
RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: Well, first of all, if anybody says a $750 billion sports entertainment industry and politics don't mix they're crazy. Money mixes with everything so there is a political statement. It is important to the fans that the owner steps out on this one and that's a big deal.
The other thing is -- remember a few years ago the NFL ripped the Super Bowl away from Phoenix because Arizona failed to celebrate Martin Luther King's holiday. They brought it back but it's $300 million of economic impact.
Major league baseball all-star games in Phoenix next year, major impact and 15 spring training teams train in Arizona. So they have no choice but to get involved especially in the baseball's case, 27 percent of the players are Hispanic.
HOLMES: You talked about some of the impact it can have. Maybe moving an event, the Super Bowl or baseball game out of the state. But what about the fan base? Is it going to be mixed? There was some talk that some ticket holders were calling up and upset that the Suns got involved.
HORROW: Well, ticket holders are going to be upset at any political issue because it's a cross section of the community and do teams take a stand? Some don't. Some do.
Major league baseball as an entity, yet to weigh in on this. The owner of the Suns, Robert Sarver stepped out on this issue good or bad like, it or not, sports and politics do mix. This is the first chapter of a very long book.
HORROW: All right.
Let's turn to another topic here, security for baseball players. A totally different subject but this came because a young man jumped down on the field at a Phillies game, I believe it was, right? And the security came out and they tased him.
Now the debate about the security for the players, how much force is too much when the guy may be harmless but we don't know that. What are they going to do here? Is this stuff necessary? Did he have to be taken out like that?
HORROW: Well, you know, that could be excessive you could argue. On the other hand when Monica Seles (ph) was injured in '93, it wasn't enough. When Tom Gambola (ph) the Kansas City Royals coach was hurt when fans jumped over the fence, it wasn't enough.
So the line separating excessive violence from normal aggressive part of the game or part of fan behavior always has to be looked at. Stadiums used to have motes, T.J. separating the players from the fans and the fans from the players.
Now there are more subtle distinctions. There is alcohol control but you've got to make sure you keep the fans where they are.
HOLMES: All right. Rick Horrow, we appreciate you. I assume you've never been tased but lord knows you probably deserved it at some point. Good to see you, as always, Rick Horrow.
HORROW: Yes, you got the last word this week but not next week. I'm coming out firing next week my friend.
HOLMES: We'll just alternate. All right. It was my turn this week.
We appreciate you allowing it. All right Rick. Good to see you buddy.
HORROW: Yes, sir.
HOLMES: Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Quick break here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. We're right back about ten minutes to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We turn now to the story out of New York that got so much attention in the past week. That attempted bombing in Times Square. The suspect is now in custody, Faisal Shahzad. He hasn't appeared in court just yet. We're expecting to see that earlier this week but we did not. Authorities say he has been cooperating and he continues to cooperate. Believe to have ties to the Pakistani Taliban group and he says, at least for now, that he acted alone.
And then of course, that means they have to verify everything he says. Drew Griffin from the CNN Special Investigations Unit looks at how authorities got their man.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Richelle and T.J., once the danger was over, the propane tanks, the gas, the wires were removed a detective crawled underneath that Nissan Pathfinder to retrieve that one piece of evidence Faisal Shahzad apparently thought he did not leave behind.
Etched on the engine block of the vehicle the vehicle's identification number, the same VIN number Shahzad apparently removed from the dashboard according to a source familiar with the investigation.
That number led to a registration in Connecticut and with it, sources tell CNN, a name and address of the owner whose daughter was selling the car on Craigslist. She met Shahzad to show him the car. He gave her his phone number so they could meet again to buy it. All cash, no paperwork in the parking lot of this shopping mall.
According to the federal complaint, that call-back number led police to Shahzad. The car seller and a friend who was there worked with the police artist on a sketch of the suspect.
It was good police work and very sloppy criminal work. The would-be terrorist built an inept bomb. Court records show he drove the bomb himself into New York leaving behind keys to another car, a cell phone used to call a fireworks company and so many other clues, he literally led detectives right to his door.
This week New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly admitted New York got lucky.
RAY KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: We were lucky and I think it was good police work. It was a combination of the both. I can't necessarily give you a percentage if that's what you're looking for. But I think it was both.
GRIFFIN: Once identified the idea was to watch him, listen, try to record phone calls, allow Shahzad to make more mistakes and perhaps lead to accomplices. But by Monday sources said he got spooked apparently deciding to flee.
As agents began to track his movements one of the first things they did sources tell CNN was put his name on a no-fly list. Monday night as he drove to New York's JFK International, according to federal sources, he called Emirates Air reserving his seat on board this flight bound for Dubai, which would eventually connect to a flight bound for Islamabad, Pakistan.
He parked his car at the airport, bought his ticket with cash, passed security. It was a tense moment. The FBI surveillance team had lost track of him but there was a fail-stop. Customs and Border Protection agents were checking the passenger lists of every outbound international flight.
As the door to the Emirates Air flight was shutting, agents found him, at least on paper. Now they had to stop the plane from taking off.
According to an account provided to CNN by a federal law enforcement source, here's what happened next. As the plane is boarding, agents are moving in. The plane shuts its doors, but before the plane can push back, sources tell CNN the plane's door is re- opened, Customs and Border Patrol agents find Faisal Shahzad on board and place him under arrest. As he leaves the jet way, he reportedly tells the agents he was expecting hem.
Now under intense questioning, there's another emergency, two more names on board of the Emirates flight appear suspicious. Out of an abundance of caution we're told, the plane already taxiing to the runway is told to return to the gate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Actually I have a message for you to go back to the gate immediately.
GRIFFIN: Two individuals removed, questioned and let go. So far the only arrest made is Faisal Shahzad and he is said by law enforcement to be cooperating with the investigation and detailing his crimes and travel.
He's been talking ever since waiving his right to an attorney, waving his right to a speedy trial and according to sources telling investigators how he received training but planned and tried to carry out his bombing in Times Square by himself -- Richelle and T.J.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I continue to believe that domestic oil production is an important part of our over- all strategy for energy security.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, CALIFORNIA: You this enormous disaster and you say to yourself why would we want to take that risk. The risk is much greater than the money is worth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of birds that are coming long distances from central and south America need to stop and replenish themselves. Our fear is that they're going to find a lot of oil when they get there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know how bad this is going to be and whatever impact it has on us. Financially it's going to hurt us. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People who are opposed to oil and gas offshore drilling are using this crisis to shut down a legitimate industry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, everyone, hello again. Thank you for being with us. As we do every weekend for this half hour, 9:00 Eastern time, 6:00 Pacific, we spent this half hour digging a little deeper into a story, something making the headlines and we take a look at an issue that affects you.
Today that issue which affects us all no matter where you live in the U.S., that massive oil spill in the gulf. We want to start by giving you the very latest developments on this story. And it's going to be a weekend of developments. First, a four-story containment dome has reached the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico.
BP workers are using remote controlled craft now to place it over the gushing wellhead. The next step will then be to connect the dome to a drill ship hoping they could do that sometime this weekend if they're lucky but maybe sometime next week. If everything goes as planned, that's a big old if. Oil could be siphoned into the ship by the beginning of the week. This kind of operation, however, has never been attempted before, hasn't been attempted at these depths certainly.
So a lot of people have questions about whether or not it will work at all but some are optimistic. The untapped well has been leaking more than 200,000 gallons of oil a day since the deep water horizon rig exploded and sank on April 12th.
Now, we're going to go to our Brooke Baldwin. She's live for us in Biloxi, Mississippi. Brooke, good morning to you and give us this first update about this dome. This so-called four-story building, this funnel, upside down funnel that's now been placed over this well. This thing needs to get settled. So what is the latest we're getting about where we are in that process?
BALDWIN: Well, you said it. I mean, this is an incredibly urgent process and it's a precarious process, as well. Essentially, here's the best way I can describe it. like you said, it's like a funnel, right? So here's the funnel. Here's this four-story, 100-ton containment dome going on top of the wellhead. It's placed on the sea floor.
As you mentioned, BP has never attempted to do this kind of thing at this 5,000-foot depth because of the water pressure issues. Then they have to put some piping around here, then have a series of piping that comes at the top of this containment dome and siphons, they're hoping, 85 percent, of the leaking oil up to a ship that will be overhead to then get it out of there but this is an incredibly urgent situation out here at the gulf.
A lot of people very concerned about their livelihood, economically, ecologically and I was fortunate enough to take a boat ride a couple of days just out about 25 miles that way to a beautiful barrier island called the Chandeleur Islands and we saw sharks, we saw pelicans, we saw dolphins, we saw stingrays and we saw what may turn out to be oil.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN (on camera): Take a look at what we found in the water. This is the oil. This massive orange sheen is the oil. We're 25 miles south of the gulf coast. Let's take a closer look and see what it looks like. It is all over this side of the Chandeleur Islands. This kind of orange almost goo.
Captain George Pelaez is good enough to drive us out here to check out the oil and we just came upon this. When you see this, what do you think?
GEORGE PELAEZ, CHARTER BOAT CAPTAIN: It's a little discouraging now. Right now we're at a very popular fishing location, we fished at Chandeleur chain and we're already in it so it's on this side of the island right now and we're going to keep on going south.
BALDWIN: As you take a look at some of the oil in the water we noticed it's at least 18 inches deep. I've seen some fish already swimming through it. So to get a better glimpse is to what it really looks like under there, let's take a look with our underwater camera.
Now, one of the biggest concerns here with this oil spill, of course, is the wildlife and now we have a front row seat to what these experts are talking about. This is new Harbor Island. There are hundreds of pelicans here. This is nesting season. The pelicans, their babies and you can see here just about 10 feet from that shore, the authorities have put out this protective booming to do precisely that, try to protect this habitat.
Today we have perfect conditions but here's one of the criticisms. This is a close look at the booms. The booms are supposed to keep all of this oil from going anywhere closer to these eco habitats in the islands. This massive criticism is if the wind on any other day is worse, it could easily go over the boom, another worry is because some of this oil is so broken up underneath these booms are only about this thick. It could go right on under.
PELAEZ: And what I see from these booms, anything above a 15- knot wind. It's over. I mean, it's not going to serve its purpose. When do you go back to work ...
BALDWIN: You don't know.
PELAEZ: That's it. We don't know. And right now what I've seen out there is going to be later than sooner.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: And, you know, T.J., that boat captain who was gracious enough to take us out to the Chandeleur Islands, he is a charter boat captain for sports fishermen. And in just one week's time have lost work. He's already lost $21,000.
Quick final note. We have taken a bit of our oil to a test facility, water testing facility. So hopefully at some point today we'll have an idea as to the concentration if in fact, this is oil, the concentration of petroleum and the effects it may have on the wildlife. T.J.
HOLMES: Incredible to hear just how people are starting already to be affected by what's happening. Brooke Baldwin, we appreciate you and we're going to be checking in with you again this morning. Thanks so much.
As we've been saying here, this type of deep sea operation has never been tried before. They've done this before but not at these depths. We're talking about 5,000 feet down. So what happens if this doesn't work?
CNN's David Mattingly caught up with the BP CEO just to ask, what's the backup plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): You've got that containment dome on its way down to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. How confident are you that this is going to work?
TONY HAYWARD, BP CEO: This has never been done in 5,000 feet of water. It's a technology first. It works in 300 to 400 feet of water but the pressures and temperatures are very different here so we cannot be confident that it will work. That is why we continue with other significant interventions.
MATTINGLY: Do you have something ready to go just in case this fails?
HAYWARD: The ready to go is of course containing the spill to the maximum extent possible and then there is a further operation on the blowout preventer which will probably take two to three weeks to bring into place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, he doesn't necessarily exude confidence there. We're getting reports that some oil is, in fact, reaching the gulf coast shores. We want to examine the existing and pending effects of the ecosystem, all the ecosystem.
Back with us this week, Casi Callaway, the executive director of Mobile Baykeeper, with us last weekend. Ma'am, thanks so much for joining us once again. Last week when we talked it seemed like you were almost near tears talking about just what was the possible impact to have on the bay there -- on the gulf in particular.
So this week you're back with us a week later. Do you feel any better about what could possibly happen there? CASI CALLAWAY, EXECUTIVE DIR., MOBILE BAYKEEPER: I feel like we had a week to get organized and we needed it apparently, so, no, we're hearing that we will see sheen on the South Mississippi Islands today, which means potentially Dauphin Island, which is south of Alabama. So we still know it's coming.
We have been lucky literally to be able to have a week to get organized and figure out some things and because it's taken some time to get plans in place.
HOLMES: So it sounds like you had the week and, again, for a lot of people expected the oil to show up a little sooner than it has but it's given you some time to mobilize, it sounds like but under your understanding and what you've been able to research and get from officials, as well, how much oil has made it? We talked about the slick or the sheen and some of that has made it but how much oil actually made it to the shores?
CALLAWAY: Well, not much has made it to the shores especially -- we haven't had any on the shores of coastal Alabama or Mississippi yet. But today we're expecting it in southern Mississippi and that's going to be sheen as opposed to oil. What we are seeing and what we're -- it's a combination of really fearing and the more you learn, the more you worry but they've used a ton of dispersant.
Probably 250,000 gallons of dispersant, which is a chemical that goes on top of the water that breaks up the oil, changes its composition, drops it to the ground and really puts it out of sight which is a big fear we have and the dispersant is very toxic. We don't know what's in it. We don't know much about it. We think we haven't seen as much come ashore yet because we're using that dispersant and we just don't know what other problems we're going to be seeing arise from that, as well.
HOLMES: Well, some had questions about having so much dispersant being used. What is your opinion about how toxic and how much of an effect that could have on your delicate ecosystem and the seafood there, as well?
CALLAWAY: It's a huge -- it's a huge question mark and, frankly, everyone we've heard, everyone we've learned from over the year -- over the week and a half of research and talking to folks, who have seen oil spills in their communities, dispersant is the last thing you want to use because it's the most unknown and it is potentially the most toxic.
All it really does is sink the oil to the bottom and kind of get it out of sight. So that the public doesn't worry it as much. But the dispersant in itself is toxic. We don't know what the half life of it is. We don't know what, how it changes the composition of oil to put impact into air so therefore to the public and our health and also to the fish and sea life. We don't know how long it stays in the water. We don't know what it does to grasses. We don't even know -- animals -- sorry.
HOLMES: No, no, I wasn't cutting you off at all. I am amazed now to hear this that I mean it sounds like -- I don't want to say the dispersant is the lesser of two evils, it sounds like we're not sure if it is. It's just a huge unknown. We don't know how this stuff is going to affect the gulf.
CALLAWAY: Right. We know it's spring and animals do die and wash on shore. But one of the things that we're worried about with the dispersant is they're going to test the animals for -- birds and foul and wildlife and different fish species that are washing on shore, not by the millions, just a few, some turtles, but they're testing it for oil and they're not finding any in several animals but they don't know what to even test for to determine whether or not they were impacted by dispersant. So the questions are just huge.
HOLMES: Well, last thing here, how optimistic are you about this new effort to put this dome on top? To stop the actual oil flow.
CALLAWAY: I'm praying for -- I'm praying for Them to come up with anything. In the meantime, though, we have to be realistic and we have to be planning because it's still a minimum of 5,000 barrels pouring out of the Gulf of Mexico until that thing is stopped.
HOLMES: Yes, and as you know as well as many of our viewers as well, some people are saying that's actually a very conservative estimate to say 5,000 barrels a day. We hope that's it, maybe a little less. Casi Callaway, I hope it's all right if we keep checking in with you until this thing is -
CALLAWAY: Please.
HOLMES: Well, it won't be done for sometime but still until maybe we get to a better place with what's happening there. But thank you very much. We appreciate you being with us again.
CALLAWAY: Thank you for having me.
HOLMES: Well, the oil slick is not only destroying wildlife, it's destroying a lot of livelihoods, a fisherman who relies on the gulf. We are checking in with him. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, we're starting to get some reports of oil beginning to reach some of the shorelines down in the gulf. Now, even before the oil possibly even gets to them, fishermen and charter boat operators say they are suffering, suffering right now and some of them are actually encouraging people come fish on the Mississippi coast.
Charter boat operator Tom Becker is with us now in Biloxi. Sir, good morning to you. We appreciate you taking some time with us. You say you've been at this for some 25 years. You tell me how is your business being affected right now?
SKIPPER TOM BECKER, CHARTER BOAT OPERATOR: Right now this week I've only lost five trips, next week I know I've lost two and the week after that, two, so it was a group that was coming down from Memphis and they're concerned about the oil and it's just -- it's killing everybody down here, everybody is more or less getting ulcers worrying about this, and it's something we experienced five years ago with Katrina. But we knew it was coming faster than this thing is and we don't know what the long-term effect of what's going to happen with this if it does get up here.
HOLMES: Well, sir, when these people call up and they cancel some of their trips what are you hearing from them when they cancel, do they say, specifically say "hey, the oil is there. I'm not going to come down?"
BECKER: Right. Basically they are. Yesterday we got a report from NOAA which gave us 4.5 percent of the gulf is closed. Well, that leaves 95.5 percent of the gulf open. They extended the area which we can go out and fish down to over 25 miles, which means they know something that they say they can close it quickly if they have to, but right now for 10 days we can go out 25 miles where Thursday we could only go out three miles past the barrier islands.
So we've got more room and the guys are glad to be hearing this and a lot of them are heading out to get where the bigger fish are and are good to eat.
HOLMES: Well, sir, how much of your business -- you talk about how many trips you had lost. I think you said five you had lost in a week's time but how much of your business is that? How much money are we talking about and how much of a financial hit are you taking?
BECKER: Right now, the trips I lost this week were $9,600 total of what I've lost this week. And what I'm going to lose next week will be another approximately, about the same, about the same if we cannot run Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
I've got Friday and Saturday set up with something else, though. But we'll just see what happens, but the total impact already has been close to $10,000.
HOLMES: Well, sir.
BECKER: Just in lost trips and lost revenue.
HOLMES: It sounds like and you certainly are battling and the whole gulf region will have to battle oil, if you will but it sounds like you are battling a public perception issue. People just think they shouldn't be there. People think the fish are bad. People just think it's pointless to come down. How do you battle that public perception?
BECKER: Well, I happen to be invited to a meeting with Secretary Locke from the Department of Commerce the other day and that was the message we said to him. We need to get the word out to the public that the beaches are still white as you can see behind me. The water is still clean. The fish are still edible and if they're not, the environmental -- the scientists will tell us they're getting tainted.
We'll close down and we'll be -- we'll have to applaud their effort but right now the perception is everything's bad. Don't come down there. Don't eat the seafood from Mississippi or gulf coast. But that's wrong. It's still good and that's the perception we've got to get out to the entire nation. And we ask them to do some advertising. The senior administrator for southeast region was there, Dr. Crabtree (ph). We told him the same thing and they're going to see what they can do about advertising.
HOLMES: Well, Mr. Becker -- excuse me there. Last thing here before -- I'm going to let you go but tell me how long at this pace can you hold on before you would have to do something else, find something -- another way to make money? How long can you hold on losing business the way you're losing it?
BECKER: In a month's time I'll be bankrupt and have to probably do something drastic that I don't want to do but I feel like I can hold on for about a month.
HOLMES: Well, Mr. Becker, we certainly hope it does not come to that. Of course, you and so many others have the same kind of story right now and we're trying to get this message out the best we can. And I appreciate you being with us this morning, as well, sir. Thanks so much and good luck to you, all right.
BECKER: Right. Thank you so much. And that's what we want, we want the people to know that things are not as bad as they perceive to be and please come on down. Go to Florida, go to Alabama or wherever you're at. Let's come down and enjoy the weekend. Enjoy the week. It's still here. It's still beautiful and we love it here.
HOLMES: All right. Tom Becker, there's no better spokesperson for that region right now. Sir, thank you so much.
So many other stories just like Mr. Becker's out there that they're trying to get their message out as well and by all accounts, for the most part, no one is saying you can't fish. Nobody is saying the fish are bad. Just yet. No one is saying that so he's trying to get that message out.
Just how much money are we talking about at stake in the fishing industry in America? How will it hit your wallet as well? Josh Levs is going to be joining us to break it all down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Now, we just heard from Tom Becker, a guy who's losing money every single day since this oil slick happened. He said it's a matter of perception. People won't come down. Get on his boat and go fishing because they think the fish are bad. He's losing money but there's another impact here that is going to go far greater than his pocketbook. We're talking about billions and billions of dollars at stake here.
This oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico could bring devastation to a critical industry that is also a driver of our economy, an economy, Josh Levs, that doesn't need another hit right now.
LEVS: I know. It's unbelievable, isn't it, that we're even talking about this. You got billions at stake that could be lost, hundreds of thousands of jobs that could be lost and I'm going to trace you through some of these numbers now.
Let's start off with this little sound bite from just one of the many officials who were telling the kind of impact that that entire industry could face.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY SCHWEIGER, PRES. & CEO, NAT'L WILDLIFE FEDERATION: Clearly, there's an enormous amount of pollution under the water and that pollution has enormous impact on the fish, on the reproducing fish, on the shellfish, on the crabs and oysters and all the things that people care about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: All right. Enormous, huge. We keep hearing it. I wanted numbers. Let's go to them. This is from the government. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, talked about the size of the fishing industry in the gulf. Look at this, Florida, $5.2 billion in annual sales, 103,000 jobs. Louisiana, $2.1 billion a year, 46,000 jobs.
Texas, $2.2 billion in sales a year, another 47,000 jobs and all of that is just commercial fishing. Check out these whopping numbers for recreational fishing that we were just hearing about. $2.2 billion is spent in the gulf every year on trips and a whopping 14 billion on equipment that people use for those trips and yet this is what we're seeing right now.
Things like this, a fishing vessel working its way through some of these oil. So we're talking about tons of money, huge numbers of jobs at stake and, T.J., when we try to wrap our minds around the scope of what could be hurt here within this economy those are some just to help out there.
HOLMES: All right. We appreciate that look as always, Josh. Thanks so much
LEVS: You got it.
HOLMES: And a lot of people across the country trying to find a way to help out in the gulf. Well, get a haircut. I'll explain. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Your hair could help clean up the Gulf. Hair salons across this country right now in these salons clippings and locks are being collected to help clean up the oil spill in the gulf. Organizers say the hair is a perfect absorbent. And they plan to use all these hair to make special nets or booms to protect the shoreline.
One website that's helping to organize the effort says an Alabama hairstylist came upon this idea while watching CNN's coverage of the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill back in 1989. He saw how much oil was collected in an Otter's fur and began testing the absorbency of human hair. So get a hair cut.
Well, coming up next, Poppy Harlow in "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" and of course, I'll be back at the top of the hour with more live news. See you soon.
