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CNN Saturday Morning News

Oil Pours From Cap Over Gulf Gusher; Israeli Forces Board Gaza- Bound Aid Vessel; Race for the Cure

Aired June 05, 2010 - 06:00   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, and good morning. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, welcome to you all. Six a.m. here in Atlanta, where we stand; 5 a.m. in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Wherever you may be, thanks for being here with us.

Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Thanks for starting your day with us.

HOLMES: And we start with Day 47 of this oil disaster. Oil now starting to show up in some other places we were hoping it would not go: Alabama and Florida now. And also some threats that this thing could actually loop around the state of Florida. We'll be talking about that, the latest efforts right now to cap that leak.

Also this morning, Thad Allen, who's in charge of the whole response. He's going to have a briefing later this morning. You will see it live right here.

MALVEAUX: And also, we're hearing from the survivors of the oil- rig explosion. They are speaking for the first time on CNN. Obviously, some heartbreaking stories. We're going to hear from one man who recounts the deadly accident. He is going to be talking to CNN about his experience and the tragedy.

And President Obama is going to be meeting with the families of the deceased at the White House on Thursday, obviously to offer some of his condolences and to reach out to those families. More on that story.

But first, a look at this morning's top stories.

HOLMES: And we will be hearing from President Obama today, a live event at the White House. He is going to be officially nominating Lt. Gen. James Clapper as the new director of national intelligence.

This position is a big deal. It has the responsibility of coordinating all 16 intelligence agencies in this county. This was developed after 9/11, this position.

Now, he is currently the intelligence chief at the Pentagon. If he's confirmed, Clapper would be the nation's fourth director of national intelligence that we've seen in the past five years, and would replace Dennis Blair, who was forced out. He resigned just last month after knocking heads with some of the administration.

Again, that event is happening live, 10:25 a.m. Eastern Time. You will hear from the president live when that happens.

Also, a breaking story we're keeping an eye on right now. Word we're just getting that Israeli forces have, in fact, boarded a humanitarian aid ship that was sailing toward Gaza in an attempt to break the years-long blockade that Israel has there out in the water. Commandos boarded a ship with cooperation from those aboard. So this turned out a lot differently from the last one we saw just days ago.

Now, no reports of violence in this one. This was an Irish ship that was trying to -- trying to get through that blockade. The ship is now being towed to the naval Port of Ashdod in Israel. Crew members telling CNN that the boat was being followed by three Israeli ships. They got several warnings before finally being boarded.

The Israeli military says the supplies will now be screened, be checked out, and then they still will make it to the people of Gaza. And again, this comes just days after nine people were killed when Israeli commandos boarded ships that were part of another flotilla that was leaving Turkey.

Sad, sad news for the basketball world. The legend John Wooden died last night. The "Wizard of Westwood," he's known as. This coach had a hand, really, in shaping modern basketball in this country. He was at UCLA for several years, won seven straight national championships. He actually won 10 in a 12-year span between 1967 and 1975. He retired after that 10th championship in '75.

They are really heartbroken, just the entire basketball community right now. He died of natural causes at the age of 99. But this was a legendary coach, really, that shaped the careers of people like -- like Lew Alcindor and also Bill Walton -- Suzanne.

MALVEUX: After weeks of failure, BP is announcing some success in stopping the flow of oil from the nation's worst oil disaster.

Now, I want to get you up to date here. BP says that it has collected more than 76,000 gallons of oil in the first 12 hours after it put a containment cap on the ruptured undersea well. Now, the recovered oil is flowing into the drill strip (ph) that's called Discovery Enterprise (ph).

Now, this is a start, but it is a small start. Seventy-six thousand gallons -- well, that's less than 10 percent of the nearly 800,000 gallons that federal authorities are estimating are pouring into the Gulf of Mexico every day.

Now, this weekend, the oil giant is going to attempt to shut four vents on top of the cap to further reduce that flow. And President Obama visited the barrier island of Grand Isle, Louisiana, yesterday. It was the president's third visit to the Gulf since the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

He sat down for lunch with some local mayor, as well as Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the point person of the administration and some of those that are hurt by this disaster. Among them, an oysterman and a shrimper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, these are folks who are -- who are used to hardship and know how to deal with it. But what they're concerned about right now is, is -- is this going to have a lasting effect that they can't recover from?

And that's why Thad and the rest of the federal team is so committed to making sure that everything that can be done, will be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And just how much can be done at this point? Here we are, Day 47 now. You see at the bottom of your screen there, that live picture, continuous oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Even though this latest effort, this -- this lower-marine rise cap package -- the cap is on. Still some work to do this weekend to determine just how much oil can be captured and siphoned up to a ship and to keep it from going out into the Gulf.

The oil spill itself though, it is moving east. A look now at some of the oil that's washing ashore in Alabama. This is Dauphin Island, a popular tourist spot, hoping it can still be popular. But a lot of people turning away from many of the beaches in the Gulf right now. These brown blobs are being found also on Pensacola Beach in Florida.

We got a look here -- again, the live look. Even though, folks, yes, there has been some success measured by this latest effort, still a lot of oil is getting out. Some estimates say they're catching possibly about 1,000 barrels a day with this latest effort. However, we're told an estimated 19,000 -- up to 19,000 barrels is going out into the Gulf.

Our Rob Marciano in Pensacola Beach. Rob, this is a spot -- a beautiful, beautiful spot that a lot of people are familiar with, and we were hoping we wouldn't be talking about oil on that beach.

How much is showing up right now?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, they started the -- the oil, the tar balls and globs of oil really starting rolling up here on the beach early yesterday morning, and really, they would -- it would be in cluster, anywhere from a quarter to -- to half-dollar -- silver- dollar size, and in some cases, looking more like pancakes, in clusters of a couple of hundred meters -- maybe every -- every 10 meters, you'd see something.

But the Gulf Islands National Shoreline, which is just amazing, pristine, crystal, powdery sand beaches, now seeing this stuff wash up onshore, is certainly disturbing. I want to show you an example of what -- what came ashore just a -- a couple of miles south of here. There obviously are higher concentrations in spots. This is what was two softball-size tar balls yesterday.

And the person that found this just put them in this Styrofoam cup and it -- and it quickly melted. We've seen it evaporate; we've seen it bubble up at times. Really, just a nasty thing. There is no doubt, this does not need to be tested; this is definitely from the oil spill and the slick that is just offshore.

Let's hear from the person who found this yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEIGH PITTMAN, FLORIDA RESIDENT: The small balls started washing up, and my uncle stepped on one and it got all over his foot, and we knew immediately what it was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: No doubt about that, T.J. Can you -- can you -- can you get a look at it? I know it's still dark outside. But, I mean, it is just awful, awful stuff and, you know, if they see more of this stuff washing up here, it's -- it's not going to be good for -- for tourism.

But I'll say this much: The beaches yesterday, at least by our count, looked to be still pretty active. They say that -- that it was down, but it looked to be pretty active.

HOLMES: You -- you talked about it being down a little bit. The people you talked to there, are -- for the most part, are they kind of turned off by the possibility and the possible impact to these beaches? And -- and how big of an effort is there to keep a beach like the one you're on right now -- to keep it clean?

MARCIANO: Well, you know, fairly quickly, cleanup crews were out here. Yesterday afternoon, they were out. So it was a few hours before they were able to work their way from east to west across this beach. But within a matter of an hour or two, they had it pretty well picked up as far as the -- the tar balls that had washed ashore.

So by 3:00, 4:00 yesterday afternoon, things were -- were pretty clean. And talking to people here, they weren't terribly disturbed by it. The locals certainly saddened, but the tourism -- the tourists that -- that had traveled here and had previously planned vacations, they didn't seem to let it bother them, especially -- especially the kids.

As far as what's being done to -- to prevent this -- well, on these sandy shorelines, you know, laying boom really isn't going to help, especially with the winds blowing and the chop that the -- the open Gulf can bring here. So they just wait for it to come in, and they clean it up as best they can. They are protecting the estuaries, much like they are in Louisiana. National Guardsmen still out in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and now Florida. It is a full eastern-half-of- the-Gulf effort to try to save the estuaries that are in this area. And we've seen the toll that it's taken on wildlife. The most number of birds brought into some of the rescue centers yesterday that we've seen since the spill.

And -- and as far as the tourism here, that's the bread and butter. So we've got things that are happening twofold, T.J. We've got obviously the wildlife issue and the heartbreaking pictures that we've been seeing coming out of Louisiana.

And now you've got an area where people frequent, where -- where people's lives depend on it as far as the economy goes. And these beautiful crystal beaches, whiter than most beaches you've ever seen in the world, now are starting to see them be soiled by -- by some of this. And that oil slick, the bulk of it, is just offshore. Strong winds today coming onshore. I know Reynolds will talk more about this, but it doesn't -- this is a -- a bit of a foreboding sign here as to what may be -- very well becoming more prevalent throughout the next couple of days -- T.J.

HOLMES: Yes, gorgeous beaches along that area there, those white-sand beaches a lot of us are familiar with. Can't imagine gobs like that continuing to show up.

Rob, we appreciate you this morning. We're going to talk to you plenty throughout the morning. Thanks so much, buddy.

MALVEAUX: Well, do you have your dictionary handy? See if you can spell "epithesis" without it. I've been practicing all morning just pronouncing that.

If you can, you're on par with this year's National Spelling Bee champion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC, JACKSON 5, "ABC")

HOLMES: All right. This is -- this happens every year, when this contest happens, we just feel stupid. Because these kids are amazing.

The spelling bee -- the National Spelling Bee, it's become just a national obsession, really. But a lot of the words didn't even seem real to us, I should say. But to the kids, no problem.

MALVEAUX: Speak for yourself.

HOLMES: Yes, OK. My bad. It's just me.

But this Ohio girl stole the show yesterday.

MALVEAUX: It's me, too, actually. I admit it. But Anamika Veeramani, she took the top spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington last night. She is absolutely amazing.

Now, the competition was broadcast on live TV yesterday.

HOLMES: Yes, she said she studied hard; she practiced the winning word as well. She beat out about 300 other spellers.

She gets now, not just the bragging rights, but she gets $40,000 in cash and prizes. That can certainly help her in her career, her college career, whatever she decides to do.

There she is; you see a picture of her there. She wants to go to Harvard. She wants to be a cardiovascular surgeon. Her word was "stromuhr."

Reynolds, of course, is our resident whiz kid. "Stromuhr" -- spell it, Reynolds, and what's the definition?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Stromuhr?

HOLMES: Yes.

WOLF: S-T-R-O -- was that with or without an umlaut?

(LAUGHTER)

WOLF: And better yet, use it in a sentence. Let me hear you guys use it in a sentence. It's easier.

MALVEAUX: It -- it sounds easy.

HOLMES: Yes.

MALVEAUX: Doesn't it sound easy, like it would be an easy word to spell?

WOLF: Stromuhr.

HOLMES: It sounds easy. I went to the doctor, and he pulled out the stromuhr before the exam started. Seriously.

WOLF: Are you guys buying this?

(LAUGHTER)

WOLF: I'm not either. OK, let's just go with S-T-R-O-M-E-R.

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: O-M-U-H-R, I believe. But it's a -- it's a...

WOLF: Wow.

HOLMES: ...medical instrument to measure the blood, how it flows through the -- through your blood vessels.

MALVEAUX: We just learned that today.

HOLMES: We just learned it. (INAUDIBLE)

WOLF: T.J., I hope you're cured by your ailment. The -- the stromuhr cures what ails you.

MALVEAUX: He's got a dictionary under the desk.

WOLF: Exactly. All right, guys.

HOLMES: Good morning to you, buddy. Good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: And we'll be talking to her last this morning, the actual winner of the spelling bee. We'll have her on, so she'll school us all.

WOLF: Good.

HOLMES: Thanks, Renny.

WOLF: (INAUDIBLE)

HOLMES: Thanks, buddy (ph).

MALVEAUX: And -- and you don't have to spell to go to Harvard. I went to Harvard, so -- that's OK, and I can't spell a lick. So that's all right if she wants to go to Harvard. That's OK.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: We are following another major story, major overnight developments as a boat heads for Gaza with a -- just within the last hour, Israeli troops boarded that ship. We're going to take a look and see what is actually taking place, whether that is peaceful or violent.

We are live with Israel with an update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: About 18 minutes past the hour, here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Take a look now at some of the stories making headlines.

Murder suspect Joran van der Sloot arrived at police headquarters in Peru. He was wearing a bulletproof vest when he got there. Police say he killed a 21-year-old with a baseball bat. They found her body in van der Sloot's hotel room in Lima.

Police in Aruba, you'll remember, arrested van der Sloot twice in connection with the disappearance of an American teenager, Natalee Holloway. That was back in 2005. Keeping an eye on Phoenix today. We're expected to see thousands at a rally there. This rally you're seeing here -- this was last week. This was in Tempe. But the one we're going to see today, expected to be similar. It's going to focus on Arizona's tough new law to fight illegal immigration. The rally today organized by "tea party" activists, and they say they want to show support for the -- quote -- "rule of law in America."

And a big deal, a big day yesterday. The next generation of space vehicles possibly taking off yesterday. It was a successful launch of the Falcon 9. Would love to show it to you right now. It's a mock capsule -- oh, it's actually -- it carried a mock capsule up and put it into orbit.

But the reason this is such a big deal is because a private company, called Space X, developed this rocket. And this goes along with what President Obama really has been pushing for, which was to get a private partnership to go along with NASA. Maybe private partnerships, private companies can help put people and also things up into space. This could be -- pave the way, really, for the next wave of commercial space ventures.

NASA certainly says it's an important milestone that could lead to the replacement of the retiring shuttle program.

Twenty past the hour. Stay here with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We have breaking news now. Israeli commandos have intercepted and boarded an Irish aid vessel that was headed to Gaza. All eyes on what is taking place on that ship.

Our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance, he is joining live from Port Ashdod, Israel.

Matthew, tell us what -- what is happening? Do we know? Is there violence? Is there some sort of confrontation? A lot of people have been wondering, in light of that previous aid ship, where you had some of those humanitarian aid workers killed.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, sure. There -- there was a big -- a lot of anticipation that there would be some kind of confrontation on the high seas like that incident on Monday morning, when six -- nine protesters (ph), of course, were killed by Israeli commandos.

I -- I can tell you, according to Israeli military, that's not what's happened on this occasion, a very different scene out there, which is one ship. Just 19 people onboard. And apparently, it was through negotiation with the consent of the captain of that ship that Israeli commandos came onboard by boat, not by helicopters this time, and took control of the ship, preventing it from delivering its humanitarian cargo to the people of the Gaza Strip.

We understand that Israeli forces are now in charge of that board, and it's being towards the Port of Ashdod right behind me here -- be hopefully towed right over here within the next two hours. It's about 20 miles off the coast at the moment. It was intercepted, by the way, Suzanne, in -- international waters.

MALVEAUX: (INAUDIBLE) taken to that facility, what happens to those -- those humanitarian -- those aid workers? Are they arrested? Do -- are they held there?

CHANCE: Yes, it -- it -- it's not clear. In fact, I -- I asked the Israeli military spokesperson here a few moments ago about what would be the status of those people onboard, including, of course, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire.

She didn't entirely answer the question. We spoke about a few other issues as well. Let's take a quick listen what that spokesperson had to say. Avital Leibovitz is her name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLONEL AVITAL LEIBOVITZ, IDF SPOKESPERSON: This is a difference exactly from this ship and the last flotilla. The last flotilla chose the -- the method of violence, and unfortunately, the result was nine people dead.

Here, in this situation, it was done in a non-violent manner. And I think we are both -- both sides are actually winning in this situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: So the -- the status of those people onboard, those 19 people -- it's not certain yet. I expect they'll be detained for a short time at least and questioned to establish their identities.

What's interesting is what's going to happen to the humanitarian aid, because the Israeli say that they will pass it on after they've screened it and deliver it by land to the people in the Gaza Strip. But the big concern on the ship, among the human-rights activists, is that some of the material, like the cement, which they say is needed for the reconstruction of schools and houses and things like that, will be kept back for security reasons, by the Israelis.

MALVEAUX: Do you get a sense, Matthew, that this is the kind of -- that this I the way that Israelis are going to be handling this type of thing from now on, that we have seen a change, a shift even in -- in Israeli policy, and that they are going to be particularly careful in how they deal with these -- these aid workers and these shipments that are headed to Gaza?

CHANCE: Yes, I -- I think so. I think the Israelis have made quite clear that they really see -- even though there's been a public- relations disaster for them, the fact that nine people were killed, you know, on Monday morning -- it led to wide-scale condemnation of Israel around the world.

But what they said to us, what -- what they're saying very clearly in -- in the media, is that, you know, they have no choice. If they allowed unfettered access of these waterways to the Gaza Strip, the big concern in Israel is that that would be a reason, that would be a path through which militant groups could have weapons smuggled in. Those weapons would, ultimately, say the Israeli government, be used, as they have been in the past, against the Israeli citizens. And so they have to enforce this blockade because of that.

Now, the fact is, that on the ground, 1.5 million Palestinians are paying a very heavy price for that policy. But the Israeli government says that that's the fault of the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip, that they continue to use these naval routes to -- to bring in smuggled weapons, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: OK. Matthew Chance, thank you so much.

HOLMES: And here we are now, of course, on Day 47 of this oil disaster. But you have to remember how this all started. You have to remember that 11 people lost their lives after that rig exploded on April 20.

You see the images here. This is our first indication of just -- we didn't know, actually, in these pictures, just how devastating this whole situation would become. But for the first time now, we are sitting down and talking to crew members who were aboard that rig when it exploded. They're talking to us.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Hey, there, everybody. Bottom of the hour here on "CNN Saturday Morning." Welcome back. I'm T.J. Holmes.

MALVEAUX: I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Nice to be here with you T.J.

HOLMES: Good to have you back.

MALVEAUX: Good.

HOLMES: I didn't think you were coming be back for a while.

MALVEAUX: I had my doubts.

HOLMES: We did too, but good to see you.

This morning we're going to hearing from the president, you'll hear from him live. He's expected to nominate officially now Lieutenant General James Clapper as the new director of National Intelligence. You see him there. Now, this is a big deal, a big position with a big responsibility of coordinating this country's 16 intelligence agencies.

This position was created after 9/11. Now Clapper now serves as the intelligence head at the Pentagon. Now, already we're also starting to see some resistance already. Some in Congress starting to come out saying they're not too comfortable with his some of his background and some of his credentials.

So they'll have to fight this out in the Senate to see if he'll get confirmed. Again, the president stepping out to make that announcement live at the White House at 10:25 a.m. Eastern time. When he comes out to make that announcement, you will see it here live.

Also, just a sad, sad story in the sports world. The wizard of Westwood is dead. The legendary basketball coach John Wooden died last night at the age of 99 of natural causes, lived a long and active life, even right up into his late years.

He, of course, is a legendary coach of UCLA. At one point, he won 10 national championships in a 12-year span and he retired in 1975. But again, the wizard of Westwood who had such an impact on the game of basketball to this day dead now at the age of 99.

MALVEAUX: The other big story that we are following, after weeks of failures, BP is announcing some success in stopping the flow of oil from the nation's worst oil disaster. We are all over this story. I want to get you update here. BP says it has collected more than 76,000 gallons of oil in the first 12 hours after it put a containment cap on the ruptured undersea well.

, the recovered oil is flowing into the drill ship called Discover Enterprise. This is a start but a small one because 76,000 gallons is less than 10 percent of the nearly 800,000 gallons that federal authorities estimate are pouring into the Gulf of Mexico every day. That is every day.

Now, this weekend, the oil giant is going to try to shut four vents on top of the cap to further try to produce that flow and we'll see how that goes. So we'll see how that goes. President Obama, he was also in the area. He is winding up his third visit to Louisiana Coast, trying to show that he gets it. He used the weekly address this morning to reassure the victims of the oil disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: These folks work hard. They meet their responsibilities. But now, because of a man-made catastrophe, one that's not their fault and beyond their control, their lives have been thrown into turmoil. It's brutally unfair. It is wrong. What I told these men and women and what I've said since the beginning of this disaster is I'm going to stand with the people of the gulf coast until they're made whole.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, that disaster certainly continues and the cleanup and also just trying to get the oil to stop, those two fronts still going on. You have to remember the same time, 11 people lost their lives on that rig exploded back on April 20th. Eleven workers killed.

Now, you remember this scene. Some of these pictures we saw right after that explosion. We had no idea, however, what was coming and just how big the disaster would grow from there. But two survivors of that rig explosion talked with our Anderson Cooper last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Where were you when the first explosion hit?

MATTHEW JACOBS, DEEPWATER HORIZON FIRE SURVIVOR: I'm out in the hallway. I mean, there's people screaming, hollering, I mean, it's -- it's like the movie "Titanic." right before the ship sinks. Everybody's just -- I mean, I could feel the heat from the flames as soon as I come out on to the smoke deck. But when I got up on the lifeboat deck, I just stopped and I looked up. And I was like, this -- I said, this can't be happening. I said, there's no way we can put that fire out.

COOPER: What did it look like?

JACOBS: It looked like you was looking at the face of death. I mean, you could hear it, see it, smell it.

COOPER: When you hear BP, Tony Hayward, say he wants his life back, what did you think?

DANIEL BARRON III, DEEPWATER HORIZON FIRE SURVIVOR: I want my life back. I'm sure you want your life back, too.

COOPER: Yes.

BARRON: I'm sure, you know, there's 11 guys out there, their wives want them back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: On Monday, Anderson will have a much more on what happened to the workers on the rig when it exploded and their accounts of life and death situation. Then on Tuesday, there were warnings out there that everything was not a-OK before that explosion. We'll talk to the survivors of what they knew and feared. That's again Monday, Tuesday, 10:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

MALVEAUX: And of course, there are number of problems cleaning up an oil spill. One of them, but also a PR disaster, BP is taking some unprecedented steps to keep people informed about the oil disaster.

HOLMES: At the same time, some people have built their own websites actually mocking the company. Josh Levs, there's a lot of mocking going on out there. You know, a lot of nasty stuff directed towards BP, but this is -- there's one more of them. Good morning to you.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you. I'm going to talk about this. What BP is doing right and what it's doing wrong online, throughout this entire crisis, this right here, this is a new phenomenon. It's unlikely anything you have ever seen. I'm going to show it to you and I have your reactions coming right up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Throughout the oil disaster crisis in the gulf, BP has been making all sorts of information available on online.

HOLMES: And they're trying to fight this PR battle, but a lot of people would say they're losing this thing right now. Josh Levs taking a look at just what they're trying to battle out there. Josh, hello again.

LEVS: Hey, hello again to you guys. I've never seen anything like this. It is amazing what's going on with this PR battle and I want everyone to understand the stakes here. Companies all over the world are watching BP right now, how it's handling itself in this crisis, especially in this day and age. How it's handling itself online.

You want to protect your brand in the middle of the crisis? You want to take big steps to keep people informed? It is about the web. So what is BP doing? Well, I'll tell you, their website right here has been getting more and more traffic, a ton of it and they do to their credit have so many interactives going here. They linked you to their Twitter, their Facebook, their Youtube and to all sorts of live videos underwater.

In fact, let's go to one of these live videos right now. You are seeing it in the corner there. We can take it full for just a second because they have 12 robotic -- 12 robotic cameras, basically feeds that we get. We are able to follow them and so are you via their website at BP.com, but also keep putting out new animations every day.

Let's show you the latest one here that shows you what they're trying to do, how they're going about it and they trace you through the ship and I've been using these images all week. They show you what it takes to go 5,000 feet under water. Now all that said, these are examples of things that BP is doing to keep the public informed.

That said, you know what? It is true that in a lot of big ways BP seems to be losing the online PR battle. Let me show you one major way. If you were to want to follow them on Twitter, which is where so many people are these days, millions and millions, take a look at this. If you Google to try to find BP's Twitter page, the first answer that comes up is called this, BP Public Relations which isn't even BP. It's actually a fake site that slamming BP that's getting so much more traffic.

Look at these fake Tweets from BP. People are giving us a lot of guff for spending 50 million on print ads, but this Twitter cost us billions. Here's another one from there. It's hurricane season now. Don't worry! We've planned for that just as well as we've planned for everything else. Let me show one more, spoiler alert. The leak stops eventually. Everyone forgets about it and we all buy another vacation home.

This fake BP Twitter site has ten times more followers than the real one and back to this Google page I was telling you. If you want to Google and find their Twitter page, the first one is a fake one. The second one that comes up is some guy with the initials BP and to all the way down here to get to their actual Twitter site and they show you some of their actual Tweets.

They only have 10,000 followers compared to like 120,000 for the fake one. This is what they've been sending out right now, their Tweets. So it is a fact that in terms of getting out their message, there are a lot of ways that they're lagging behind the critics. We want to hear from you about this.

This is how you can weigh in today. We have -- yes, my Facebook page. You got my Twitter, joshlevscnn. You can weigh in at blog cnn.com/josh. We want to know what you think. I'll tell you, I've been looking at the traffic. Their web pages are getting a lot of traffic right now. That said, what do you think? What's BP doing right and wrong to keep you informed throughout this crisis?

T.J. and Suzanne, I'll keep an eye on that this morning and I'll be back with some of our viewer reactions later on.

HOLMES: All right. Josh, we appreciate you. We'll talk to you again here shortly.

Needed to let you take a look at some video here and explain as you can see here that airplanes were not the only thing flying at this airport. We'll explain the destination for the driver coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A woman flies out of Dallas Fort Worth Airport, but not in an airplane. Do you ever remember the "Dukes of Hazard?"

HOLMES: This is a throwback and people will remember. It's like -- let's just go ahead and show this, but the dukes, of course, they would take off. You're going to see this plane, and then they would pause it in mid jump and you hear the voice come on and something about the Duke boys. But let me explain what you see here.

This is Chevy Impala. This is at the toll plaza at the Dallas Airport and when the plane landed. We don't have the plane, it's a car. When the car landed, it actually burst into flames. We don't have that video. The driver, however, not seriously hurt.

MALVEAUX: Good for her. Police say that the woman was drunk. Even though she says she only had a vodka and cranberry juice the night before. But that didn't fly with police and as you can see the flying vehicle, as well.

HOLMES: One vodka cranberry. She weighs 40 pounds? Come on.

MALVEAUX: Did not fly.

HOLMES: All right. But still, I mean, great to know she wasn't hurt seriously and that been through that toll plaza plenty of times there in Dallas and people do -- it is like a highway. It's not like a lot of other places. MALVEAUX: Just "Dukes of Hazard." Do not do at home. Do not try at home.

HOLMES: Don't try that folks. It's a quarter to the top of the hour. Suzanne and I will be right back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: So Reynolds Wolf is keeping an eye on the weather and obviously taking a look at the gulf coast there to see how things are going with the cleanup and everything and how it will impact. Is it going to be better or worse for us?

WOLF: It may get a little bit worse. You know, the interesting thing when it comes to this oil slick is that the oil slick does not move on its own. It's basically at the mercy of two big things. One would be the wind. The other would be the ocean currents.

Now, let me show you viewers at home what we got here on this particular map, it's Google earth. You see the location of the oil slick. But now, we're going to show you some video of a computer model that would give us an idea of where this oil may be headed.

As we take a look at that video, you're going to see in just a few seconds. The video is going to show what would happen if the oil were picked up in the loop current spinning right through the Straits of Florida then right up on eastern sea board and out into the deep Atlantic. Pretty alarming but this is, again, a situation that could unfold.

Now, one thing to keep in mind though when it comes to this oil, the vast majority of the oil would basically be that rainbow sheen, the very light stuff, the stuff thinner than a coat of paint on say a house, but the thicker crude, well, that would be about 3 percent of what you would see passing along parts of the eastern seaboard so again it's certainly is alarming. You don't want the oil to go that far, but it is something we may have to contend with.

What kind of weather can you expect along the parts of the gulf coast? Well, for cleanup efforts, it could be kind of rough today. The reason why is due to this area of low pressure. It's going to pull on a lot of that moisture from the Gulf of Mexico (inaudible) with your daytime (inaudible). It's going to bring for pretty unstable air mass and that could give you certainly a chance of some strong storms later on today.

But in speaking of strong storms, what we are seeing across parts of the midwest and just western half of the great lakes, some strong storms developing. We actually have a severe thunderstorm watch that is in effect right here through parts of Iowa, back into Missouri and even into portions of, say, Illinois and back into Wisconsin.

So we're going to watch that for you very carefully. Something else that has to be watched though in that area is going to be not just the showers and storms, but what may happen later on today. The potential for some flash flooding especially in low-lying areas and spots that have poor drainage so if you're driving anywhere in the Ohio valley today, be careful. If the water looks pretty deep, you don't want to drive through it. It's certainly be advised.

Now, in terms of your temperatures for the day, it's going to be warm out there. It's going to feel almost like summer. I know we're getting into the early summer. It's going to feel full-on summer in place like St. Louis. Sure, it's 86 degrees, but when you bring the high humidity that they often have in parts of St. Louis, it's going to feels like it's well into the 90s.

Forget about the heat and humidity. You're going to have both of it in place like Washington, D.C. with 91 degrees, 84 in Raleigh, 80 in Minneapolis. Much cooler in Seattle with 65 degrees, 71 in (inaudible), San Francisco with 63 degrees, 97 in Las Vegas up to the triple digits in Phoenix. Business as usual in the valley of the sun.

That is a look at your forecast, again, more coming up straight ahead. Let's send it back to the anchor desk. Guys, all you.

HOLMES: Appreciate you buddy. We'll see you again here in a second.

MALVEAUX: Coming up, we are actually going to get a chance to talk to the National Spelling Bee winner and T.J. and I are still trying to figure out what that word. How do you spell that word. You said it was stromuhr.

HOLMES: I think it's stromuhr, but there she is. She's going to prove that, in fact, yes, we are not smarter than an eighth grader. She is standing by. We will talk to her live in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: An Ohio girl takes the top spot in this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee. Anamika Veeramani won the competition by spelling a word she had actually practiced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stromuhr. S-t-r-o-m-u-h-r.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right. This 14-year-old, you see it there, she beat out 272 other spellers. She didn't just get a trophy. She got 40 grand in cash and prizes and she got to be with us at 7:00 in the morning. That is her, her prize.

Anamika, congratulations. I have to ask when you heard that word and you knew that word, did you think in the back of your mind, oh, yes, I got this?

ANAMIKA VEERAMANI, SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE WINNER: Yes, well, I knew the word so I was a little more confident. But I wasn't completely confident until I didn't hear the ding of that bell. MALVEAUX: And how hard had you studied for this? This is your second, is that right, your second spelling bee?

VEERAMANI: Yes. This is the second time at the Scripps Spelling Bee. I have been studying for a long time. I've been participating in spelling bees since I was 7 so a really long time.

HOLMES: Well, you said, participating in different spelling bees, it sounds like you almost got a pretty good spelling bee career. Now, other spelling bees? Had you always had a pretty good showing and won some of the others you had been in?

VEERAMANI: No. I really haven't won that much. And it's just these past couple of years I've been working really hard and it paid off.

MALVEAUX: What's the most difficult thing that they have asked you to spell?

VEERAMANI: The most difficult things in my experience are words I haven't seen before because I really don't -- if I hadn't seen the word, I don't know how they're spelled, but if you guess and you are wrong, it's really devastating.

HOLMES: I know a lot of you, some of you guys maybe don't know the word, but you're able to sound it out and figure it out. That's always fascinating to me when you guys do that. How -- one other thing, though. This has become such a huge national event. People are fascinated by it.

VEERAMANI: Yes.

HOLMES: Does it add to the pressure with all of these breaks and commercial breaks and building of the drama? Does that help or hurt?

VEERAMANI: Actually, I think right before I spelled the winning word, there was a commercial break and it was just, like, OK. This is not helping. But it only adds to the pressure in my opinion if you, like, put it in your head to add that to the pressure and if you just put it out of your mind it really doesn't have any affect.

MALVEAUX: $40,000 is an awful lot of money to anybody, but I mean what are you going to do with the prize money do you think?

VEERAMANI: I'll probably spend some and then save some for college and stuff. And I'll just spend as much as I can.

HOLMES: You said spend some. Spend some on what?

VEERAMANI: Maybe -- well -- my parents promised me a phone among other things if I won so maybe something like an iPad or something.

MALVEAUX: How are you celebrating? How did you celebrate when you found out you were the winner last night?

VEERAMANI: I really -- it didn't set in until I got back to my hotel room. I was just really, really excited and happy. It was really late at night so all I did was order room service.

HOLMES: Well, that's a good night anyway. Give us a little insight. We are always fascinated because some of the kids, it's so disappointing when they get the words wrong. You see them act out a little bit sometimes, but behind the scenes, would you tell us some of the -- maybe one of the worst breakdowns you have seen or just a little behind the scenes, maybe something you saw during this spelling bee after somebody missed a word?

VEERAMANI: Well, on stage in the finals, we were all really good friends and whenever anyone got a word out, we would stand up and clap for them because they really, really deserve it. And at that point everyone is an amazing speller and it's anyone's game, but we would just like give each other hugs and we are all really, really good friends.

HOLMES: Well, that's nice to hear. You don't hear that about competition a lot of times. It is nice to know they could be civil as spellers.

MALVEAUX: We can all learn a little bit from them -- spellers.

HOLMES: All right, well, Anamika, congratulations really.

MALVEAUX: You did a great job. Your family must be very, very proud.

VEERAMANI: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

HOLMES: Enjoy those winnings and I'm sure we'll see you somewhere down the road again. There she is Anamika, the winner.

MALVEAUX: Maybe next year.

VEERAMANI: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Next year again. OK.

HOLMES: Thank you so much.

VEERAMANI: Thank you.

HOLMES: Well, stay with us here. The next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING begins right now. We are coming up on the top of the hour, 7:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia, where we sit 6:00 a.m. in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.

MALVEAUX: I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Thanks for starting your day with us. Obviously, there is a lot of news to catch up on that we're following.

HOLMES: Including the fact that this is now Day 47 of this oil disaster. Oil is starting to show up in more and more places. You can tell this oil is on the move starting to show up in some of those white sand beaches of the Florida Coast now. Meanwhile, the effort is still under way to try to keep a lot of that oil from getting out. It could be a big weekend of developments in capping that oil. We also will hear a briefing a little later this morning, and you'll see it here live when Thad Allen, the man in charge of the effort, speaks.

MALVEAUX: And an important event that is taking place today in the nation's capital, Race for the Cure in Washington, D.C.

You are looking at live pictures right now. You can see people getting ready for this big event.

It is a fight against breast cancer. And they are expecting about 50,000 people to be participating in this huge event. The race starts at about 8:00 this morning -- in just about an hour.

We're going to talk to the founder, Nancy Brinker, about this special event. What it means to her coming up in just 10 minutes.

But, first, a look at this morning's top stories.

HOLMES: And we will be hearing from the president live this morning. A rare appearance at the White House on a Saturday, but he's going to be there to nominate, officially, Lieutenant General James Clapper as the new director of national intelligence -- an important role that was created after 9/11 that's going to coordinate all the intelligence agencies in this country, some 16.

Clapper right now is the head of intelligence at the Pentagon. If confirmed, he would be the nation's fourth director of national intelligence that we've had in the past five years. He's going to be possibly replacing Dennis Blair who was forced out just last month. Again, Obama expected to make that announcement at 10:25 Eastern. You'll see it here live when it happens.

Also, we are watching developments that we're happening off of Gaza this morning. But Israeli military has now intercepted a ship, an aid ship, an Irish aid ship, off the coast of Gaza. We're told that this was peaceful, however. Much different from the one we saw just about five days ago when nine people were killed.

Now, the crew of this latest ship agreed to let the commandos, the Israeli commandos, on board and everything was peaceful. The ship is now being taken to a port in Israel, the port of Ashdod.

Minutes ago, an Israeli government spokeswoman talked about this latest incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIRI EISEN, ISRAELI GOVT. SPOKESWOMAN: The passengers on board right now are under the auspices of the Israeli defense forces. They'll arrive here at the Ashdod port. And as they've arrived in Israel, they'll be taken by the immigration authority and they'll be taken care of in accordance with Israeli law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Also, sad news that one of the boast beloved and icon figures in the game of basketball has died. John Wooden, the Wizard of Westwood, dead at the age of 99. He, of course, led those UCLA teams to 10 national championships in 12 years, between the years of 1967 and 1975. He directed the lives really and careers of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, also Bill Walton, just to name a few. But the Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden, dead at the age of 99.

MALVEAUX: Another big story we're following, obviously, the follow-up to the oil spill. BP says that is has made some progress in reducing the flow of oil from that disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, here's the latest: BP says it has collected more than 76,000 gallons of oil in the first 12 hours after it put a containment cap on the ruptured undersea well. Now, the recovered oil is flowing into the drill ship called Discoverer Enterprise.

This is a start, but it really is a small one when you think about it because 86,000 gallons, that's actually less than 10 percent of the nearly 800,000 gallons that federal authorities are estimating are pouring into the Gulf of Mexico every day. So this weekend, the oil giant is going to try to shut four vents on top of the cap to further reduce that flow of oil.

And President Obama visited the Gulf yesterday for the third time since the explosion, and he's now promising for more help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: These are folks who are used to hardship and know how to deal with it. But what they're concerned about right now is, you know, is this going to have a lasting impact that they can't recover from? And that's why Thad and the rest of the federal team is so committed to making sure that everything that can be done will be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The president was there yesterday, his third trip to the region since this oil disaster started.

Meanwhile, that oil is no doubt on the move. This picture now from Alabama. This is Dauphin Island, that's a popular tourist, is now being tainted.

Also, brown blobs started to be found in Pensacola Beach in Florida -- the massive spill now that is slowly, but surely, moving up the Gulf Coast.

CNN's Rob Marciano is on Pensacola Beach for us.

Rob, good morning to you, once again.

Give us an idea -- when you think about these beaches -- these beautiful, white sand beaches on the coast there in Florida, how tainted are we talking about they are right now? I assume, of course, right now, the whole beach isn't just stained with these things. But just how much is starting to show up on these beaches?

MARCIANO: Well, we had our initial reports a couple days ago across the Gulf Islands National Seashore -- and, as you mentioned, just amazingly beautiful, pristine, white beaches.

I mean, check out what's behind me. These sugar-like beaches, quartz that's been crushed and brought down from the Appalachian over the millennium and just pounded by these waves, it's just an amazing white sand beach. It -- the beaches are open and there were small tar balls that washed up on Pensacola Beach yesterday and they were able to clean that up. But -- and you can see there's some people, even at this hour, are on the beaches.

But check this out -- I mean, this is just a couple of miles down the road, two big tar balls about the size of baseballs or softballs, and put into this Styrofoam cup and just melted like chocolate. It doesn't smell like chocolate. It smells just like petroleum. That is the nasty stuff that is just offshore.

So, this is certainly heartbreaking and disturbing to say the least. Take a listen to the person who actually found this muck just down the beach yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORA CANTERBURY, RESIDENT OF GULF BREEZE, FLORIDA: A lot of depression and sadness. It's affecting our fishermen. We depend on the tourists. It's going to make a big affect there. Just heart break -- just heart break. We've never been through anything like this.

It will destroy this town. It will. Because we have had a rough time being a small community with tourists and depending on them, you know, economic situation's been bad. This will devastate us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: So, that's the issue now. We have twofold. First of all, this all started in the wetlands affecting the wildlife. That's certainly been heartbreaking especially yesterday with those pictures coming in from these oiled birds, the oil bird rescue centers. The busiest day they've had yet was yesterday and I suspect that's only going to get worse.

But, now, this oil slick has moved into area where -- well, you know, people depend on other people for tourism. And, you know, the bookings are down just a little bit, but people were on the beach, T.J., and especially the kids, they didn't seem to mind. So, when the tar balls come in, they clean them up and they move on.

We haven't checked the beach yet. We plan on doing that after this -- after this broadcast. And scour it for more in the way of tar balls. But that slick is just offshore. So, I suspect there will be more rolling in over the next couple of days. HOLMES: Well, it sounds like you're going to have an update for us when we talk to you again this morning. Rob, we appreciate you. We'll check in with you again here shortly.

MALVEAUX: And there is a big event that is getting ready to get started in Washington, D.C., this morning. Our own Jill Dougherty -- she is live right now to give us a preview of the Race for the Cure, such an important cause there and obviously one that a lot of people are participating in this morning.

Jill, you are there firsthand. This has both a personal meaning to you as well as to many people who are there. Give us a sense of what's going to take place.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes. I've run it, Suzanne, for 10 years and it's really an amazing event. You know, it happens literally all over the world, communities not only in the United States but in other countries.

Here in D.C., it's the biggest race that they have. There are going to be -- they estimate 50,000 people participating in this. You can run and you can walk.

And the Komen Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure is the biggest source of nonprofit founding for breast cancer research other than the federal government. So, it's a big deal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Well, there are more than 50,000 people who are expected to participate in the Race for the Cure today in Washington, D.C. This is all about fighting against breast cancer.

And our CNN's Jill Dougherty -- she is live in Washington.

Jill, if I wasn't here, I'd be there with you. I mean, this is such an amazing event.

DOUGHERTY: Yes.

MALVEAUX: You know, it's an incredible cause there. I know it has a special place in your heart, as well. And that you have a special guest joining you to talk about this.

DOUGHERTY: Yes. This is Ambassador Nancy Brinker. And she is right now the global ambassador for the United Nations on breast cancer and cancer in general.

And, Ambassador Brinker, I wanted to ask you, this race, you began this race and the Komen Foundation because of your sister who died of breast cancer.

NANCY BRINKER, FOUNDER, RACE FOR THE CURE: Right.

DOUGHERTY: So, now, it's an international organization. How did that happen? What do you do? BRINKER: Well, you know what -- with the million women around the world diagnosed with almost half a million dying every year, it is an epidemic disease. In a few years, cancer will be the largest killer of people. Susan G. Komen has always taken the approach that breast cancer occurred not just in our borders but outside of our borders. And we have to reach, mentor, teach, and work on solutions that lower the death rate of this disease as fast as we can.

DOUGHERTY: I mean, there's so many people all over the world, the United States, everywhere, being diagnosed and coming down with this disease and dying from it. Why isn't there a cure? It's a simple question.

(CROSSTALK)

BRINKER: You know, it has been a very difficult journey. This -- our war on cancer in the United States started in 1971, like a lot of very difficult problems, a lot of funding has gone into research, to outreach. Susan G. Komen is, as you may know, is the largest funder of breast cancer movement in the world, including equal emphasis on today, on disparities, on outreach and education, and we are the largest funder of breast cancer research.

That said, we are working very hard to interpret all that we have funded into approachable, usable solutions to get people, particularly with aggressive disease, to live longer. And it's happening very quickly, Jill. It's happening very quickly.

I'm so excited. I think the next two to five years are going to be the most exciting time for the real -- the real, authentic and believable outcomes where we see people with advanced cancer living longer.

DOUGHERTY: You know, on an individual basis, if you had a woman who was a little bit scared perhaps of being diagnosed -- what would you say to her? Why should she not be scared?

BRINKER: Because it is no longer a death sentence -- particularly if it's very early stage breast cancer. It's almost 98 percent curable in the United States. That is of all the approaches are right, if the access is there.

And I would point anyone to the Web site Komen.org for information. We're there -- we're there to council, help, mentor, talk to, and direct. And, you know, we are in 120 affiliates throughout the United States and many more all over the world. There for people to help, to outreach.

DOUGHERTY: It's great.

BRINKER: Thank you.

DOUGHERTY: Ambassador Brinker, thank you so much.

BRINKER: Thank you.

DOUGHERTY: And, Suzanne, back to you. Come on down here maybe.

MALVEAUX: I love to be there, Jill. I had an opportunity a couple of weeks ago to do a walk-a-thon for breast cancer, fighting breast cancer.

Tell us -- give us a sense of what it's like to participate, Jill. You have been doing this for many years. What is that like? What is the feeling you get from people around you?

DOUGHERTY: You know, it's very inspiring because my images from the races are the tags on the back of your number and people write, you know, "in memory of," "in honor of." And you really see how breast cancer, which affects by the way both men and women, men get breast cancer, as well -- and you just see how it affects families and people individually. And there is a real commitment. You just heard it, to solve, to get rid of the disease and to make it livable.

And, Suzanne, one thing -- you know, when I was working in Moscow and some other countries, there's -- there are a lot of people that don't want to talk about cancer because they are fearful of it. But it is something to get treated and just live a normal life as Ambassador Brinker said, kind of like, you know, a chronic disease. Just continue to live with it and have a really good life.

So, that's what I think of when I do this race.

MALVEAUX: Is it a -- is it an emotional experience? Do you feel like there's a lot of closeness among the people who are participating?

DOUGHERTY: Oh, yes. Absolutely. Because, you know, I mean, you go through treatment and you go through a lot of life-changing experiences. And, you know, you question a lot of things.

But I think that, as a group, you know, cancer survivors are really motivated. I met a woman last night who had completely changed her life because she had breast cancer and she's now helping African- American women. She's working on oil spills, by the way, seriously, before she got into that. So, it can really change things and it motivates people to organize and to do something, and that's the only way that you can cure any -- any type of problem like this.

And one last thing is, it's not just breast cancer that gets helped by this research. You know, cancer research of any type helps cancer in general to be researched and ended.

MALVEAUX: OK. Jill, thank you so much and thanks for leading our CNN team that's down there, that's running with you. And next year, Jill, I'll be with you. Promise.

DOUGHERTY: Excellent.

HOLMES: All right. Well, coming up here next, a lot of people certainly aware, fully aware and being impacted by this housing market crash, the whole foreclosure crisis. Now, the president has announced another new program to help individuals out, yes, but also, whole communities deal with this problem.

It's a quarter past the hour. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF: Hey, welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. My name is Reynolds Wolf and this -- this is your forecast.

Let's show you what's happening out there around the country. We've got a few scattered showers and a few storms across parts of the nation's midsection, into the Ohio Valley. As we zoom in a little bit, you'll see some of the heaviest showers and storms actually moving through parts of the Show-Me State of Missouri and even into Iowa, eventually moving into Illinois.

The biggest threat from this is going to be the possibility of having some flash flooding, especially in low-lying areas and places with poor drainage. Same story for you up in parts of the northeast where in Vermont and New Hampshire, heavy rain this morning. Boston Common, you have some heavy scattered showers. Same deal in parts of Rhode Island.

And as we head our way back towards the Gulf Coast, look for some pop-up thunderstorms. Already, we've seen some strong storms develop just west of New Orleans, right along the I-10 corridor. More of that action could take place in places like Biloxi, perhaps Mobile, even in Panama City Beach, Florida, before all of this is said and done.

The big reason why we've been seeing some of that rough weather in parts of the Midwest is due to an area of -- well, low pressure and frontal boundary. But it's also due to a lot of the warm air that continues to pull its way up from the Gulf of Mexico, and that moisture combined with daytime heating is going to make for a pretty unstable atmosphere.

High today in New York, 87 degrees; 85 in Atlanta; 94 in Dallas, 84 in Denver; 100 in Phoenix; 65 in Seattle.

Enjoy that coffee. That's a look at your forecast. I'm Reynolds Wolf. And we've got more coming up straight ahead. We'll see you in a few.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's 21 minutes past the hour here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Take a look now at some of the stories making headlines.

The Israeli military has now intercepted and boarded an Irish aid ship off the coast of Gaza. Now, this ship was another that was trying to make it through the Israeli blockade to deliver medical supplies to Gaza. Some activist crew members are on board.

From what we're told, this one ended a whole differently from the one we saw about five days ago when nine people were killed, when they were trying to get through on a flotilla through that blockade. And Israeli commandos came on board. This time around, we're told, in fact, that the crew allowed the commandos to come on board. They surrender peacefully.

That ship now is being taken to the port of Ashdod in Israel. The military is going to check those supplies and then pass those along to the people of Gaza.

Also, we're keeping an eye on something we expected to see out of Phoenix today. Thousands expected at a rally, similar maybe to the rally we saw last week in Tempe. This one is going to focus on Arizona's tough new law to fight illegal immigration. This one today is organized by tea party activists. And they say they want to show support for, quote, "the rule of law in America."

Also, cool sight we saw yesterday. There it is, the picture of the new rocket taking off. This could be the next generation of space vehicles. The next generation that could take astronauts and also equipment up to the International Space Station.

The thing about this one, it was done by a private company. This is the Falcon 9 put up by SpaceX. It's the name of the company. And they are possibly going to be working with NASA to develop this.

This is part of the president's plan, as well. He would like more private partnerships in building some of these vehicles. But from all accounts, yesterday's launch was a success.

Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

MALVEAUX: So, have you taken a drive through a few of the neighborhoods in your city? And we're not just talking about strolling through the urban neighborhoods, but also, the suburbs, too. What are you watching? What are you noticing?

Well, there are foreclosures everywhere. And right now, the foreclosure rate stands at more than 3 percent.

Now, the president has announced another program to help combat the foreclosure crisis.

Our financial analyst Clyde Anderson is here to morning to explain how the program works, not only interested homeowners can benefit but also entire communities.

And, Clyde, I want to start off, too. We said 3 percent, that's significant because --

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: Because we're talking about almost 7 million people that have been affected by this foreclosure epidemic.

MALVEAUX: OK.

ANDERSON: And so, it's huge when you put in to numbers like that.

MALVEAUX: Tell us about this program.

ANDERSON: The program is great. It's called the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and it was created -- really it's about $6 million right now that the president's made available to help with foreclosed properties, so, able to get rid of the properties, to get rid of blighted properties in the areas, to also help make housing affordable to people that want to buy.

MALVEAUX: So, how is this used?

ANDERSON: From different agencies -- and when I say agencies, it means counties, different municipalities across the country, have the ability to tap into this money. And what they're doing is some are buying properties, rehabbing the properties, and then selling them at a discount but also providing down payment assistance.

So, it's an awesome opportunity for people who maybe didn't have a downpayment before and want to move into some of these neighborhoods. This is a great chance to do it.

MALVEAUX: And when you talk about people who are participating, could this be a church? Could it be a community organization?

ANDERSON: Well, generally, it's different community organizations, nonprofit organizations, counties, municipalities, different cities that are actually tapping into this. They've done an RFP --

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: RFP being?

ANDERSON: Oh, a request for proposal.

MALVEAUX: Thank you.

ANDERSON: And they were actually able to get some of this money from the government. HUD is facilitating the program. And so, the money comes down from HUD. So, it's like Atlanta, for example, got almost $18 million to actually help with the issue. The state gets $77 million.

So, there's a lot of money out there available. So, you really just have to check with those different counties and different organizations to find out what they're doing with NSP. It's what it's called.

MALVEAUX: And are there any restrictions?

ANDERSON: There are several restrictions. Some of the restrictions are: you can't be over a certain income limit. A lot of the agencies have said 120 percent of the median income, which we could be talking about $70,000 and upwards in some cases. So, it's not necessarily low income housing, but considered to be workforce housing.

And so, also, you have to live in a property for a set period of time. A lot of times, it's 10 years. What they really want to see, you come into the property and plant roots, you know? Build to the community. Contribute to the community. So, there are some restrictions there, if you move out before that 10 years, you could pay back some of the money they give you.

MALVEAUX: So, give us an example, Clyde, of what this would look like.

ANDERSON: Sure. I'll give you an example. Say, for example, you're buying a home and, say, the house is $150,000. $150,000 with, say, a 5 percent downpayment is what most people pay normally. You're probably talking about a monthly payment, somewhere around $854 with that, on a 6 percent interest rate.

Now, take into consideration with this NSP program, you can get $25,000 in some cases to use towards downpayment. And what they it give to you is a soft second loan. And that means a zero percent interest rate and it's forgiven after that 10-year period. So, it's free money.

MALVEAUX: Not a bad deal. Real quick, Clyde, how do people enroll?

(CROSSTALK)

ANDERSON: How do people enroll? Several ways: Contact your county. There are some Web sites, I think, to be available on the blog that you can go to and find out in each area exactly how much money's available, who has the money and who to contact.

MALVEAUX: All right. Clyde Anderson, thank you so much.

ANDERSON: It's my pleasure.

MALVEAUX: Appreciate it.

All right. Much more after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Suzanne and I will be back at the top of the hour with more live news as CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues.

MALVEAUX: But, first, "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." live from New Orleans.