Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Engineers Struggle To Make Sense of Oil-Well Puzzle; Jobs Denies iPhone 4 Has Antenna Problem; Old Ship Hull Unearthed at World Trade Center Site
Aired July 17, 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: Well, hello there, everybody. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, on this July 17, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes.
It's 6 a.m. where I stand here in Atlanta, Georgia; 5 a.m. in New Orleans, where we're going to check in live with our Reynolds Wolf in just a moment, where this is still a lot going on. But the good news is, there's no oil leaking into the Gulf as we speak. That is a live picture you are seeing there, and it looks different from the live pictures you're used to because there's no oil coming out. That is great news.
But still, some uncertainty about the integrity tests that are going on. We're going to be going live to give you the latest in just a moment.
Also, the president spending a little down time with his family. There he is. He's in Maine right now with his family. You know, you never really get a vacation when you're the president, but he's taking some time with his family. And wouldn't you know, some controversy and some criticism following him even on his vacation. Some saying he shouldn't up north, he should be down South, somewhere along the Gulf vacationing instead. We'll talk about that this morning.
Meanwhile, let me give you a look at some of the stories that are making headlines.
Some new video that we're getting into CNN shows the latest weapons in an ongoing war between cartels and the federal police in Mexico. And police say this is a first. This is in Juarez, in Ciudad (sic), in Mexico. Two police officers and a paramedic as well as a civilian were killed by a car bomb. Now, they say this is a first, because this is the first time that they have seen this type of weapon used in the fight down there in the whole drug war, if you will.
Now, what happened here is the police and other folks were lured to the scene by a call that said, in fact, that an officer had been killed there. And then, when people arrived to respond to the scene, that's when the bomb went off. The mayor there calling this an act of terrorism. A security expert calls this now possibly a turning point in the drug war because of this new tool being implemented. The car bomb a first in Mexico.
Also, one person believed to be trapped in the rubble. Take a look at the picture here. What you're seeing is a partially collapsed parking garage. This is in Hackensack, New Jersey. One person they know of right now is trapped. This thing collapsed yesterday during the day. They believe, because of some surveillance video they've been able to -- to -- to get their hands on, they believe a second person could possibly be trapped in there as well. So right now, that rescue continues. It's slow-going because authorities fear there could be another possible collapse.
Now, three stories essentially pancaked on top of each other. Engineers now checking out the apartment building connecting to it to make sure it is structurally sound.
Also, 94 people in five states are charged with trying to defraud Medicare. It's the largest case since the new Medicare fraud strike force was formed some three years ago. Now, the folks in this particular case are charged with trying to conspire to submit $280 million in bogus claims. These arrests happened in Miami, Baton Rouge, Detroit, Houston -- Brooklyn as well. More arrests are expected.
And here we are, back to the oil disaster. Day 89, and what a difference a couple of days can make. You know what you're seeing here. On the left, that's the picture you're used to seeing. You saw it for so many weeks and weeks, oil coming out.
What you're seeing on the right here, that is what we have today -- no oil. So that is a heck of a before and after. But it gives you a -- a stark illustration there of just where we are and where we have come.
Now, the tests are going on right now. That new cap that's on top, they are still checking out to see if this well (INAUDIBLE) -- this whole well itself is structurally sound itself. They're doing this -- they're trying to build up the pressure. Right now, the pressure's at 6,700 psi -- pounds per square inch. What you need to know is, that's fine and dandy; that -- that reading, that's OK. But it's not ideal, if you will. They're still trying to get this pressure to build up just a bit.
Now here is a live picture once again. You're not seeing any oil coming out. This is another live picture. We're not sure how long this testing is going to go on. But, you know, even if they can't just keep the cap on, can't build the pressure up to where they want to build it up to, they can still start siphoning up the oil with a couple of ships -- at least two, and possibly up to four they'll have in the next couple of weeks that should be able to siphon up all the oil that is coming out of that well.
Now, you also heard us reporting to you for the past week or so about this big ship, this skimmer ship -- there it is, this monster of a ship, called "A Whale." Now, this was billed as the largest skimming ship in the world, supposed to take in 20-plus million gallons of water every day and oil to be able to skim this stuff off the surface of the water.
Well, the tests have been going on, and we're told now, this big ship is a bust. They're telling us that it didn't work as well as everyone had hoped it would work, and so it is not -- it is not going to be deployed to help out with these cleanup efforts.
Meanwhile, the president, he's going to return to the Gulf, he says sometime in the next few weeks. No specifics on that yet.
Yesterday, he talked about the optimism -- cautious optimism we should all have now that no oil is going into the Gulf.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The key here right now is for us to make decisions based on science, based on what's best for the people of the Gulf. Not based on PR; not based on politics. And that's part of the reason why I wanted to speak this morning, because I know that there were a lot of reports coming out in the media that seemed to indicate, 'Well, maybe this thing is done.'
We won't be done until we actually know that we've killed the well and that we have a permanent solution in place. We're moving in that direction, but I don't want us to get too far ahead of ourselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, like I mentioned, the president and his family -- he made those comments before he and his family took off for vacation in Maine this weekend. He's being criticized -- mostly, of course, by Republicans, as you could expect -- for taking another vacation, taking it easy while the Gulf oil crisis is going on. They're criticizing him for not taking a vacation, taking his family down to the Gulf. He had another opportunity to do it over Memorial Day weekend, but the family went to Chicago instead.
Also, Republicans pointing out, this is the third vacation the president has taken since the Gulf oil disaster started on April 20.
Let's get back though to what's happening in the Gulf right now and the efforts now to see if this thing is going to hold. Tests are still being done on that well to see if that pressure is going to be able to be build up, to give them a better indication of just what kind of shape that well is in.
Our Reynolds Wolf live for us in New Orleans.
Reynolds, good morning to you, my man. Good to see you once again. Back down in the Gulf, back in New Orleans.
But we're talking so much about pressure and psi and 6,700 and trying to get to this and that. Break this down simply, as only you can, quite frankly, why pressure is so important.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, pressure's really the key thing.
And I -- I want you to think of this as being almost like a -- a cork that is lodged into a gigantic champagne bottle that someone has just shaken like crazy. So you got the pressure building up.
Now, we have the pressure, as you mentioned, T.J., roughly around 6,700 pounds per square inch. And that seems like it's a -- it's a good thing. We actually want that pressure to go up to about 75 or even -- even 7,600.
And the reason why we'd rather have it go up than go down is that what -- if we have any kind of drop, any incredible drop in pressure, that may indicate that we've got something else happening altogether, which might indicate maybe a -- an underwater leak perhaps, well before the seafloor. And that result could be catastrophic. So you want it to be actually going up a little bit.
And that has been the case. In fact, Admiral Thad Allen mentioned yesterday that it's been going up roughly an average of anywhere from two to 10 psi per hour. So that's good.
We are really watching this, as the president mentioned, with cautious optimism, on -- on the odds that things look great. I mean, we're going on 48 hours almost where we haven't seen any oil coming out of the seafloor, and that's phenomenal.
But we want it to stay that way, and we have to watch this -- continue to watch it with not only cameras, but we're also monitoring it with a wide variety of gauges. We also have, at the same time, a bunch of underwater submersibles that continue to just go around and examine this from all points.
So right now, things are looking pretty good. We have to, again, watch it very carefully. The observation periods -- we're going to give it about 48 hours of tests. That's going to end up this afternoon. And then what we're going to do then is, decide what -- where we go from -- from this.
So far, if this thing is going to hold, and it still works pretty well, it could work in one of two ways. And they haven't decided yet.
One way it might work, T.J., is just to remain a cap on top of the well until we have those, not one, but two relief wells that will be dug sometime in mid-August.
But the section -- the second option is to actually pull that oil with the valves that we have on the top of the containment dome that would go up to the surface to some container vessels, and it would just simply siphon that oil up.
So they're not exactly sure what route they might go. In fact, we're not sure this (INAUDIBLE) is going to be a success. But for now, for once, we're not seeing oil coming out of the seafloor. And that is certainly some optimistic -- reason for optimism -- T.J.
HOLMES: One more thing before we let you go, Reynolds.
I know you have been there plenty through this whole disaster, and you have seen and talked to people, and you have seen their -- their range of emotions, going through so many phases of this whole disaster, on highs of optimism to -- to the heartbreaks of some of the letdowns.
How are they responding now to finally seeing a picture with no oil coming out?
WOLF: You know, it's -- it's a -- clear across the board, it's the cautious optimism.
But I can tell you that -- you know this has been affecting people. We've been talking about the tourism industry that brings in billion dollars -- billions of dollars per year along the Gulf Coast. We're talking about Texas. We're talking about Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and of course into Florida.
The restaurants have been doing very well here in the French Quarter and many other places up and down the river. That's the great news. But they want this to get better, not worse.
I can also tell you that I've heard -- when I flew in yesterday, I was talking to some people on the plane, and they were saying how sad it is that a year ago, you'd go to a place like Gulf Shores, Alabama, or even Perdido Key, out at a restaurant by Perdido Pass, you'd hear the fishermen come in; they'd brag about the size of the fish they caught that day, how great their catch was.
Well, now you don't have that as part of the vernacular. What they're talking about is how much oil they saw each day.
So it really has changed the landscape in every way imaginable. And just the idea that that oil is not coming out -- that, again, is part of the battle. They can stop it. That's part of the -- that -- that's a great -- certainly a great step. But still, we have the rest of the containment effort to deal with. This would be a big, big win in this battle against containing it.
But by all means, even if this works, the battle's not over yet.
HOLMES: All right. Reynolds Wolf for us in New Orleans. Buddy, we appreciate you, as always. We're going to be talking to Reynolds plenty throughout the morning. Thanks so much.
Well, singing your favorite song, maybe humming a tune, maybe whistling even. That could get you in trouble in one South Carolina town. You could actually end up with a pretty hefty fine.
We'll explain. It's 10 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. You know somebody at work maybe, at the cubicle next to you, could be whistling or singing a song or something, it just annoys you to no end? You can actually call the cops on them if you live in one particular South Carolina town, because they like things quiet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(WHISTLING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: OK, that's just annoying. Well, you can't do that in this town anymore. No more loud whistling. No singing.
This is Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. The city council there approved an ordinance last week. You can't hoot; you can't holler. Nothing loud. No whistling, no humming, no singing, no nothing in public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's going to be kind of strange. Because what's a cop going to do? Say, 'Hey, stop whistling. Here's a fine for whistling.'
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that people don't want, you know, a lot of noise at, you know, 3 in the morning -- I think it's pretty understandable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Yes. Yes. What's a cop going to do? That cop can actually fine you $500 now. And I'm reading from the ordinance here: "It shall be unlawful for any person to yell, shout, hoot, whistle or sing on the public streets, in particular between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m."
KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Get out of here. I'm from South Carolina.
HOLMES: Are you really?
MAGINNIS: Yes.
HOLMES: What are you all doing over there?
MAGINNIS: I'm not quite sure. It'll be no death by chocolate. No trans fats. No french fries on Thursday. (INAUDIBLE)
HOLMES: You know, it's politics strange coming out -- strange things in South Carolina.
MAGINNIS: ....or tapping.
(CROSSTALK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: Well, coming up, the iPhone 4 -- you heard plenty about it. Millions of them have been sold. It's the coolest thing out there. If you could only get the doggone thing to work.
Apple has a problem. Now they have a fix for it. Is it going to work? Josh Levs coming up to explain.
It's 16 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC, ALICIA KEYS, "HOW COME YOU DON'T CALL ME ANYMORE")
HOLMES: Well, yes. How come you don't call me? Because my iPhone doesn't work. That's why.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He keeps trying to call me.
HOLMES: They're trying to call.
Josh Levs here with this story. The -- the big fix. This is amazing. A phone you go to spend $300 for; you can't even make a phone call on.
LEVS: (INAUDBLE)
HOLMES: And I know I'm exaggerating a little there.
LEVS: No, that's exactly what some people say. They just spent $300.
HOLMES: But still, as cool as it is, fundamentally, it's a phone.
LEVS: Right.
HOLMES: You still need to be able to make a phone call.
LEVS: I know. You can still play your music on it and stuff?
HOLMES: Yes. But you can't even get a call.
LEVS: Did you see -- you saw some of this news conference yesterday.
HOLMES: Well, we wanted to see it, but they wouldn't let us in live.
LEVS: (INAUDIBLE) live.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: ...Steve Jobs, awfully defensive.
LEVS: Yes, he was.
In fact, we have some video. I mean, you know, it's interesting, because one of the first things he was saying, one of the first big messages is that, he believes that the problems are blown out of proportion. He said that, look, you know, there is this problem with the antenna. But as you can see there, he's saying, look, this is not Antennagate.
And you'll see some other things that flashed on the screen there. He's saying, look, we've been working really hard trying to fix up all this. And the fact is, if you -- if -- folks, if you don't know, the basic idea here is that, this new one is designed -- this iPhone 4 -- has an antenna that snakes around the outside. It's about 20 to 25 percent lighter than the previous version.
And because of the way the antenna is designed, there's a little place where, if you put your finger, you can lose your call. And that's what has been causing so many headaches for them in recent days, even though the iPhone 4, still selling like crazy. They've sold more than three million.
Here's a little piece of what Steve Jobs said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE JOBS, CEO, APPLE: For those small number of customers that are having problems, we're going to give them cases which we think will take care of most of those problems.
And for those that still are unhappy, we're going to give them a full refund. And that's everything we can do to try to make every customer happy.
But the data supports the fact that the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: He's continuing to say there -- he's continuing to say that it is the best.
Now, if you want to see what these things look like, we got some video, I believe. The bumpers and cases. Apple says they don't have enough bumpers to make those available for everyone. But the basic idea here is that you get something that will cover up the outside of it.
And people who have used those have been telling us right there, that when they use that, it's not -- it's helping, because then the calls aren't going out because you're not putting your fingers on it.
Now, there are those, including "Consumer Reports," who say this is not good enough. "Consumer Reports" had caused a headache for them earlier in the week by saying that they cannot recommend the iPhone 4, even though they love it, because it needs to work, the actual hardware. And then they came out last night, saying, 'We believe this is a good first step, but not quite enough.'
Now another thing that's really interesting here is how this is a huge new step for Apple, which is this giant business and has had a pretty good ride with the media. We had a really interesting take on this on "AMERICAN MORNING" from a man who's a PR expert, talking about how Apple has had to take this new step.
His name's Eric Dezenhall. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC DEZENHALL, CRISIS-MANAGEMENT EXPERT: Apple consistently violates every damage-control cliche without any consequence. They're secretive. They -- they lash out at consumers. They're entitled.
Yet at the same time, they're -- the reason why there's no consequence is because when you are an insurgent, sort of a bad boy, that is a privilege that you have, because people will love you no matter what you do. But now Apple is no longer just an insurgent; they are a trendsetting market leader. So the behavior of the past has to shift.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: So true about Apple and how this was a really big deal for them. They don't do things like this.
Now, let me show you a couple of blog posts quickly -- or what I've gotten on Facebook from people responding to Apple's announcement here.
Here's Jim Collier: "I think Jobs came off as defensive and somewhat condescending. The message should have been positive, but it came off more like, 'Ok, you're crazy, but here's your free bumper."
Here's another one from Karen: "Not good enough. After paying $200 for a 16-gigabyte, it needs to work correctly without a bumper. In addition, didn't get an apology for Apple's curt and disrespectful response to the iPhone 4 problems."
Let me quickly get to this, which to some people -- they're on the other side: "This is why you don't buy first-generation products. Seriously, people," John Eichmann saying, "Wait after a product comes out."
And this one I like -- we can end on this one: "It's a friggin phone. He does not owe you a million dollar and a spot in heaven because the $200 piece of plastic you bought to look cool doesn't get satellite transmissions from Mars. Get real, people."
Here's how you can weigh in: You got my Facebook and my Twitter, joshlevscnn. I really am interested in what you all are telling us about this. And we're hearing different sides.
So T.J., you know what? The reaction still pouring in. I don't think that Steve Jobs achieved some giant PR success yesterday in terms of, like, changing the way people see him. But it's quite possible that this will start to blow over pretty soon.
HOLMES: They're hoping it will.
LEVS: Yes. HOLMES: Because, again, 1.7 million of these sold in the first three days.
LEVS: Right. And now more than three million.
HOLMES: Yes. And some experts even say maybe upwards of eight million -- that's just estimates because...
LEVS: Around the world.
HOLMES: ...they haven't made it official.
LEVS: Right.
HOLMES: So this still -- Apple stock has gone down since they released this phone. So that's why this is a big deal for Steve Jobs; this is a big deal for the company, to try to get this right.
Josh, we appreciate you.
LEVS: You got it.
HOLMES: We're going to be talking to you throughout the morning.
It's 22 minutes past the hour here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. We're right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, we're coming up on the bottom of the hour.
We need to tell you about an archaeologist's dream found buried beneath the World Trade Center construction site of all players -- places.
Workers have uncovered the hull of a huge ship from the 1700s. And CNN's Mary Snow took a crew to get a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the construction site at Ground Zero, a rare find: remnants of a ship dating back to the 18th century. We were allowed to climb down 25 feet to the site and see firsthand what archaeologists stumbled upon Tuesday.
MOLLY MCDONALD, ARCHAEOLOGIST, AKRF: Two curved timbers that were pulled up by a backhoe and immediately thought, 'That looks like a ship timber.' So we stopped the backhoe and started excavating with shovels and uncovered a portion of this hull. And -- and since then have uncovered the rest that you see.
SNOW: And what we can see is believed to be half of a ship.
Marine historian Norman Brouwer was brought in to take a look.
NORMAN BROUWER, MARINE HISTORIAN: You know, it appears to be an oceangoing vessel and probably at some time in the 1700s. It's heavily built, very solid frames close together.
SNOW: One mystery: the circular structure that Brouwer says may have been used as a fireplace. An anchor was also recovered.
SNOW (on camera): How significant is this find?
MCDONALD: I mean, I think it remains to be seen, you know, what this ship really is, but it's -- it's pretty significant, I think. It's pretty exciting. There's -- there haven't been that many ships found in Manhattan. You know, it was something that occasionally -- ships were occasionally used as part of land filling, so it probably was part of -- of filling in this land. So it's not unheard of.
SNOW (voice-over): Because of the history here, archaeologists have been monitoring the construction site. The Wildlife Conservation Society shows just how much of Lower Manhattan was underwater hundreds of years ago in its Mannahatta Project.
Compare that to now.
ELIZABETH MEADE, ARCHAEOLOGIST, AKRF: But mostly it just tells us about the landfill structure of this particular area and how they were reusing things like old boats to build out the land.
The shoreline was originally at Greenwich Street about a block that way.
SNOW (on camera): Because what -- where we're standing now at one point was just the Hudson River.
MEADE: The Hudson River, yes.
SNOW (voice-over): The site is just south of where the World Trade Center towers once stood, this rare relic hidden for more than 200 years.
MEADE: This is the kind of thing that archaeologists are always hoping to find and very rarely actually do.
SNOW: Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: You know, we're keeping an eye on a story happening right now in New Jersey. A parking deck collapsed yesterday. This is the video of it. And a man -- at least one person, that man who had been trapped alive for the past 24 hours almost now, and police thing it's possible that a second person could be trapped in that rubble as well. The search and rescue continues right now.
We're live on the scene, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back to the CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Bottom of the hour here now. Glad you could be here. We're following a developing story happening right now. A rescue effort going on in Hackensack, New Jersey. This is a tricky one right now because a man has been trapped in a collapsed parking garage for the past 19 hours or so.
Police believe the man, yes, is alive. You see some of the pictures here of it. But this thing collapsed. Essentially there is a three-story structure, it pancaked around 11 o'clock yesterday morning. And the trick here is, you have to be very careful about trying to get in there and move around because there is a threat that possibly something else could continue to collapse. So you don't want to make the situation worse. You certainly don't want to endanger the rescuers who are going in.
Let's go live to a guy we have on the scene there. Steve Sandberg is his name. He's a reporter from 1010 WINS radio. He has an update for us.
Steve, tell us, I guess the progress report, are they any closer to possibly pulling this man out?
STEVE SANDBERG, 1010 WINS RADIO REPORTER: It's still unclear at this point. What we do know is that it's still a very delicate operation, search and rescue crews are trying to make their way, tunneled beneath three stories of a pancaked parking garage, underground to try to reach not only the individual trapped in this car that they were able to get a visual on yesterday using a camera.
Using a camera they were able to snake through the debris, but also trying to reach a second vehicle. Both according to surveillance video taken from the garage at the time of the collapse, were on the move. At the very least they believe there was a motorist in either vehicle. There could be possibly a passenger in one of the other vehicles as well, that they may be looking for. As of late yesterday there were two, maybe three people still unaccounted for. Really, the clock is ticking on those individuals.
These two high rise towers are populated mostly by seniors. There's a concern, especially given the gravity of this structure collapse, what their conditions, how severe those injuries could be inside trapped beneath the rubble for now almost a full day. No water no, no food, and obviously in a very tight situation. There is great concern that there could be a secondary structure collapse.
Oftentimes you'll hear very quiet, on top of the scene here, you have a search and rescue crews digging by hand beneath the rubble. And at times they do pull out and you'll hear the heavy equipment coming in and picking up those larger pieces of debris. A car, for instance, that may have tumbled town, twisted metal, chunks of concrete, all being lifted up, out so they can ease the effort of the search and rescue crews trying to tunnel their way underneath.
HOLMES: Steve, you talked about them being able to get in there and snake their way through with a camera. They know at least one person is in there, being able to get a visual on him. Do they have any kind of idea what condition he is in? And has he been able to make any noise or communicate in any way?
SANDBERG: They don't know at this point. They just have a visual with that camera, that they were able to snake in. It's still unclear the severity of the injuries, at least at this point. It's unclear if they even know who is down there. But they are not releasing that information at this time. Again, this is not a recovery operation in the least. It is still officially a search and rescue operation, being they believe there's life still beneath that pile.
HOLMES: All right. One more thing I want to make sure we were clear on. You said a second vehicle. They knew two vehicles were on the move. The second vehicle, though, not really sure who might have been in it, if anybody was able to get out, but you said because they know it was on the move, they suspect, of course, common sense would tell you somebody was in it, somebody was driving. So we know at least one person, but up to how many others could be in there, are authorities saying?
SANDBERG: As of last night they said two to three people still unaccounted for. And again, they still don't know about that second vehicle. They still have not, from what we know at this point, been able to get a visual on that vehicle. There are two independent urban search and rescue teams tunneling their way in; both of them targeting each of those two vehicles. Trying to reach them, see if there's any sign of life. See if anyone is trapped inside. And obviously try to formulate some sort of rescue.
Given the conditions, it is very unstable, this pile of debris. It could move, it could shift, it could tumble at any time. So while there is great concern for the people who could be trapped underneath, there's even greater dangers at the search and rescue crews, themselves, are facing and braving at this hour trying to make their way to them.
HOLMES: Steve Sandberg on the scene for us. Steve, we appreciate you. We will continue to follow this story. We will check in with Steve throughout the morning. Thank you so much.
Again, at least one person they know of trapped in that rubble, but possibly, like he said there, two to three unaccounted for, because of second vehicle, according to surveillance cameras, was on the move. So the search continues. Very delicate procedure going on. Very delicate rescue happening right now.
Turn back now to the latest on day 89, it is, the Gulf oil disaster. Take a look, folks. The before and the after. Same camera, same view, much different outcome over here. The oil was still coming out. Those are pictures you were used to seeing over the past several weeks.
But just the other day we got a new view because the cap, this new different cap that has a tighter seal now in place. And you can see there no, oil is coming out. This does not mean we're out of the woodworks (sic) in terms of the well. The whole Gulf Region is going to be in trouble for some time because of all the damage the oil that has spilled has already done.
But aside from that, just because no oil is coming out now does not mean we're out of the woods, because integrity tests are still going on. Those will continue throughout the day. Now, these are so important because they're testing the integrity of that well. They're trying to see if it can hold, quite frankly.
The way they are testing is by checking how much pressure is built up. Some of this gets technical, but 6700 PSI, pounds per square inch. That's where they are right now. They would like to get that a little higher. Ideally, somewhere around 7500 or up, because that would let them know enough pressure has been built up. And that thing is holding and no oil is leaking out anywhere else. That is a big deal.
Now, again, the pressure has been slowly but surely building. That's why it's so important for this testing to be going on right now. Also, where's that live view I can give you of the well head? When the tests are completed here they're going to reopen possibly some of the valves on top and then start to siphon up more of the oil. Siphon it up to ships.
Again, this is a live picture here. Looks like a bit of a dust up going on, in there right now. You can see the view in the back. We keep an eye on these live pictures. Sometimes they change inexplicably. But still, yeah, I'm looking at it live, as you are looking at it live, as well. Trying to make it out. Might just be a little dust going by. A little cloudy there right now. But still, that's a live picture you're seeing.
Now, of course, as the recovery efforts go. We've been telling you about this giant skimmer ship. This big ship that has been billed as the largest in the world, the A Whale, we were waiting on this thing to get done with its test so it could get to work skimming oil. We were told it could take some 20 million plus gallons every single day and skim. Well, the tests are done. It failed. This thing will not be used, we're told now, because it was just not up to the job.
So let's move beyond that now. I want to turn back to Reynolds Wolf down in New Orleans for us and to get back to this issue of this pressure, and why it's so important.
Reynolds, good morning to you once again. I was trying to get into some of the numbers it is 6700 versus the 7500, where they're trying to get to. But why is it important to build pressure, low pressure, bad, high pressure, good.
WOLF: It's weird because you would think, wouldn't you, T.J., that the lower the pressure would be better. There would be force exerted right on top of that cap. The thing is if you have lower pressure that might be an indicator that you have actually a rupture in the line far below the seafloor which could be catastrophic. You actually want the pressure to increase quite a bit.
When we say the words "PSI", that terminology, that might leave you wondering, what does that mean? I'll tell you what PSI means. It is basically pounds per square inch, which translated is, imagine if you have a plank of wood, just a piece of plywood, just sitting there. On the top of that plywood you get one pound. Put one pound on it. The amount of the exertion, the force on that wood is just basically one PSI.
Now if you put 6700, that is, 6,700 pounds on that piece of wood. That is some really, really heavy force. That is a lot of force on one square inch. Now, you multiply that on the size of the cap and on the force of that oil that is coming up, that gives you an indication of how strong it is. And expected to be stronger. They want it to be around 7,500, 7,600 square inches PSI.
That's exactly where they would want to be. If it gets to that point and it stays at that point, or at least they are able to contain it for about 48 hours or so, that's the sweet spot. That's exactly where they want it to be. That gives them a good idea they are able to contain the oil on top of the cap, or that they're able to then release it from some of the valves, where it can be pulled up to the surface into some of the container ships. So that certainly would be great news.
T.J., there's a lot of conjecture. What is going to happen over the next couple of hours? All eyes are going to be focused right on the images that we've been showing you and our viewers across America. I can tell you, right now, no oil is a good sign. The reaction around the French Quarter is what you would expect.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just happy that they finally got it contained, it's over. And maybe we can move on and get our fishermen back in there and just move on and get back to our lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was very relieved. And hopefully this is a solution they've been looking for.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I certainly hope that one of the long-lasting effects will be to pumping more money into the local economy. People coming back, and visiting, for business, vacations, and patronizing the local establishments here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF: They love it but it's a wait and see kind of thing, T.J. They're watching it very carefully. It's great news. They want to keep high hopes. We've had so many things that have happened where it looks like it was going to be a sure bet. It looks like things were going to work out perfectly. And they didn't.
For now it looks good. It's only a stop gap. It is only going to be a temporary thing. The real thing that's going to stop this is not one but two of those relief wells, that should be finished sometime by mid-August, hopefully a bit earlier. But so far so good, TJ.
HOLMES: As you know, we've been let down before. Everybody is just holding their breath right now. A good sign to just not see - I mean, psychologically it's important to not see oil coming out for the first time since this whole disaster started.
Reynolds, appreciate you, buddy. Coming to us from New Orleans, we'll talk to you plenty throughout the morning.
WOLF: You bet.
HOLMES: Also this morning, why is it that one of the most crime- ridden cities in the Bay Area, out in California, why are they laying off police officers? We'll explain what's going on in this town. It's 42 minutes past the hour. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: It's about a quarter until the top of the hour. Taking a look at some of the stories making headlines.
The so-called Barefoot Bandit will be sent back to Washington State to face charges. Federal judge in Miami made that ruling after the 19-year-old, Colton Harris-Moore, waived his right to an extradition hearing. Harris-Moore pleaded guilty to illegally landing a plane in the Bahamas. That is where he was captured.
Also, after keeping low profile since an illness sidelined in 2006, the former Cuban President Fidel Castro is making the rounds. He's been appearing on Cuban statewide television all week. During one appearance on Monday Castro slammed U.S. foreign policy with North Korea and the Middle East. He also warned of potential nuclear war with Iran.
Also, a night of remembrance at Yankees Stadium, as the organization paid tribute to two of their own, that they lost this week. The Boss, George Steinbrenner, and the legendary announcer, Bob Shepherd. Flags were at half staff as the stadium held a moment of silence before the game yesterday. More ceremonies planned for today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Don't call the Oakland Police Department if you've been a victim of any of these crimes you see scrolling behind me. There's a whole list, of about 40 actually, including burglary, vehicle collision, identity theft, just to name a few.
Police officials say budget cuts mean they don't have the resources to respond in person to a lot of these. Instead, you'll have to go online and you can file a report, but don't pick up the phone and call 911 because they will not be sending anybody out. Why? The department laid off some 80 police officers this week after union negotiations broke down.
I talked to Jane Brenner, she's the Oakland City Council president, about the loss of these officers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JANE BRENNER, PRESIDENT, OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL: A lot of that list may stay. Some of that list may go away. But if your house gets burglarized, there's still a way to report it to the police. If there's a way, there's information about people who have gone -- come into your house, the police still plan to respond to that. What they're not going to do if a robber has left two hours earlier, come out, and just talk to you. They're going to have you call up or do it through the Internet.
HOLMES: Ma'am is that the way-and you know, you talk about how long you've lived there. Just as a citizen, step away from being a city representative, but how disheartening is that as a citizen to know that the police officer is not going to come to your -- I don't want to say rescue, but help you, listen to you, fill out a report, look around your house, that they're not even going to come respond anymore?
BRENNER: Well, we need them to respond to the really important crimes. I mean, I think everyone is going to feel it.
HOLMES: If my house is burglarized, I think that's pretty important.
BRENNER: I think that's very important. I've had my house burglarized myself. I do want to put a report in.
HOLMES: Yeah?
BRENNER: I have to say about 20 years ago we only put reports in, and we didn't have police come to our house. We are in bad economic times and we can't fool ourselves that the cities are going to continue at the same level. I always say the federal government gets to print money, the state gets to steals it; they took $42 million of our redevelopment money, but we have to live within our budget. We're in trouble in the cities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: This actually boiled down to the city and the police union not being able to agree on a moratorium for how long they could have it in place, for not laying off officers. The city said they could only do a one-year moratorium. The officers wanted three.
That's what the breakdown is about. That's why 80 officers are now off the streets. They think if they can't come to some kind of an agreement moving forward, about the budget there in Oakland, they could be looking of layoffs of another 100 plus officers over the next year.
Immigration debate is hitting the information super highway. And the new Web sites, one man started. Why? He wants to help turn in illegal immigrants.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We're getting close to the top of the hour here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
Arizona's immigration law has led to various rallies for and against the law. You've seen these taking place around the country. Now the battle over immigration hitting the Web. One man is offering his solution, his Web site allows people to blow the whistle on undocumented immigrants, or the people who employ them, Shern-Min Chow from SC 11 News take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do we want?
PROTESTORS IN UNISON: Justice!
SHERN-MIN CHOW, SC 11 NEWS REPORTER (voice over): Illegal immigration has triggered all kinds of response, including a new Web site, Illegalalienreport.com.
I realize I wouldn't recognize an illegal alien if one were standing right next to me.
CHOW: So to remedy that, 26-year-old George O'Brien set up this international site. Anyone can anonymously post information about illegal aliens, companies that employ illegals, related criminal activity, and more.
We followed the information highway for reaction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's insane, you know. It doesn't make sense to me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People would abuse it, I think, more than they would use it honestly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think there's really a way to regulate it.
CHOW (On camera): Of course, website has rules. No bad words, generally no using children or street addresses, and anything based on personal experience must be 100 percent true. So, how is all this being enforced?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just one guy.
CHOW (voice over): O'Brien, a Webmaster by trade, has an automated check system and promises to bust violators. Even so, is all this legal?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Certainly it's legal. The First Amendment protects this.
CHOW: 11 News legal analyst Gerald Treece (ph) has more. If a posting is plain wrong, the victim can sue the writer, if he can be found, and sue web master if he's been alerted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The webmaster in this case knows it's false, and then doesn't take it down.
CHOW: For O'Brien, his website could be an alternative to the Arizona law.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As opposed to, you know, maybe randomly pulling people over and looking for their paperwork.
CHOW: But almost any illegal immigration strategy gets lots of response. Shern-Min Chow, 11 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Hello there, everybody, from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING for this July 17th. Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes. 7:00 a.m. where I am here in Atlanta; 6:00 a.m. in New Orleans. It's 5:00 a.m. somewhere in the Midwest. Stay with us here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
We're going to get you caught up on all the happenings, including, woo, look at all those pictures. The pictures are pleasant this morning for one reason, at least, because you don't see oil gushing out. The oil cap is in place. It is still in place. It is still holding. That is giving people cause for optimism. But we are not out of the woods yet on this oil well. We'll explain all that in just a moment.
Also, the president taking some downtime. There he is. He's up in Maine right now vacationing with the family. And, of course, wherever the president goes, usually Republican criticism follows. Yes, he is being criticized for his leisure activities and missteps, that is according to the Republican National Convention (sic). We'll get into some of the controversy and get into some of the complaints about the president's vacation coming up here in just a moment.
Also, I want to show you some of the stories making headlines right now. Some of the latest video. And what's being called one of the latest weapons in the on going war between drug cartels and federal police in Mexico.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SIRENS, SHOUTING, STREET SCENE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The aftermath of a car bomb that exploded in Ciudada (ph), Mexico. Two police officers, paramedic and civilian killed here. They're calling this a new weapon, a new tool being used in this whole drug war, because this is the first time a car bomb has been used against federal police.
Now, what happened here is they were lured to the area by a fake call that a police officer had murdered. Now, police say the bomb exploded then, when they arrived. Security experts say this could now be a turning point in the drug war.
Also, federal agents charged 94 people in five states with defrauding Medicare. It's the largest such case since the new Medicare fraud strike force was formed some three years ago. They're charged with conspiring to submit some $280 million in bogus claims. Arrests were made in Miami, Baton Rouge, Detroit, Houston and Brooklyn. More arrests are expected today.
And a story we are following this morning. It's an ongoing story. One person we know of is trapped in the rubble of this partially collapsed parking garage.
This is in Hackensack, New Jersey. This collapsed yesterday morning, right before noon, I should say, around 11:00 Eastern Time. At least one person in there, but we just heard from a reporter that we talked to live on the air a moment ago that police believe maybe two or three other people could be in there because they have another two or three people who are unaccounted for.
They have urban search and rescue teams working right now. But they have to work very slowly because there's a threat that maybe this whole structure is so unstable that it could possibly collapse even further. You don't want to endanger the people who are already in there trapped. But also, you don't want to endanger the rescue crews. Engineers are checking out the apartment building as well next door the garage to see if there's any possible structural damage there as well.
And let's get back to day 89 of the Gulf oil disaster. And that really tells such a big part of the story. Look at it. It's the before and after picture. You're looking at essentially the same view, same camera, but a lot different outcome.
You see the oil coming out there on the left. What you're seeing now is what's happening on the right. No oil is coming out because that new cap is in place.
The pressure is up right now. That's good thing -- low pressure, bad; high pressure, good. We'll explain more of that in a bit.
But it's important right now what's happening. These integrity tests are going on. They're measuring if this well is going to be able to hold.
And I told you about the pressure. That's how they're justifying or being able to determine, rather, if this thing is going to be able to hold. They've got it up to 6,700 PSI. That's OK. But they need to get it up possibly to 7,500 or more PSI.
This is the live picture of it you're seeing here now. We have been keeping an eye on this. It's much foggier picture. Look at the live picture this morning.
But again, we're told the cap, everything is still holding at this point. Now, also, the view of the wellhead, the tests are going to be completed, the company is going to reopen valves possibly that are on that cap. They start siphoning up oil. That's not going on right now, but they could possibly do it when all this testing is done.
Now, we also guide -- I guess you could call maybe some bad news. We had hoped for this big ship we've been telling you about, this largest skimmer ship in the world, that big sucker we've been showing you pictures of the past couple of weeks, it's been doing some testing. We're told it could skim so much oil it could do more in a day than all the skimmer ships out there had been done really in the past couple of months.
Well, the testing is complete. It is ineffective, according to the Coast Guard. So, it is not going to be deployed in this whole oil disaster.
Meanwhile, the president says he is going to return back to the Gulf sometime in the next few weeks. He didn't give any specifics yesterday. But he did caution everybody about this oil well cap that is working and holding now but saying, hey, can't celebrate just yet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: The key here right now is for us to make decisions based on science, based on what's best for the people of the Gulf, not based on PR, not based on politics. And that's part of the reason why I wanted to speak this morning, because I know that there were a lot of reports coming out in the media that seemed to indicate, well, maybe this thing is done.
We won't be done until we actually know that we've killed the well and that we have a permanent solution in place. We're moving in that direction. But I don't want us to get too far ahead of ourselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, after the president made that announcement, he headed off to Maine with his family for a weekend getaway and the president being criticized by Republicans for that getaway, saying the president is taking leisure activities during the oil crisis. They pointed out that this is, in fact, the president's third vacation since the Gulf oil disaster took place and saying the president should do what he's asking other Americans to do, which is go help out in the Gulf by taking a trip to the Gulf.
All right. Let's get back to the oil well now. It's been plugged. No oil is coming out. But still, crucial tests are going on right now.
Our Reynolds Wolf is live for us in New Orleans.
Reynolds, I see you were looking at the paper there. I don't know if they're -- they have that cautious optimism in New Orleans and along the Gulf right now as well? WOLF: Yes, I'd say the cautious optimism line is a bit contagious. You know, just moments ago, our CNN producer here, field producer, Julian Cummings, was cool enough to pick this up at a local coffee shop. And we got CNN photojournalist Jung Park right behind the camera there.
Jung, if we're going to zoom in here a little bit and show America what's happening here, this is the headline from "The Times- Picayune," "Cap's Success Uncertain." It says pressure tests paint a muddled picture but no leaks found yet.
It's true. They haven't found any leaks as of yet. And really that PSI has been the thing that we've been talking. But the new terminology, you know, just some of the terminology we've been dealing with ever since this thing began from blowout preventer to, say, junk shot, now we're talking about PSI.
PSI is basically a measurement, a pressure, a pounds per square inch that you can have exerted on any specific point. In this situation, it is the equivalent of roughly 6,700 pounds of force per square inch. That's basically the force, the measurement we have on top of this containment dome for the time being. That is a lot, really, really quite a bit.
But this is supposed to be able to contain a great deal more pressure. In fact, up to 7,500 or 6,700 pounds per square inch. But it is around 6,700.
Yesterday, Admiral Thad Allen was saying that it has been going up an average of, say, two PSI to 10 PSI per hour. And that's actually some good news. You'd think it would be better news if it was the opposite. But if it started dropping, that could be an indication that we have a leak below the seafloor which could be catastrophic.
At the same time, there could be a number of reasons as to why it is moving but moving at a slow pace. It may indicate that we have some kind of a clog maybe in the pipe way below the surface. We don't know. We're still watching it very carefully. The tests are going to finish up as we get into the late afternoon hours.
Remember, though, once this thing is capped, it may just remain a cap or they may actually attach some of the pipes to it that could go to containment ships at the surface. But as you mentioned, T.J., the final thing -- the thing that should finally put this to a complete end, that you close the final chapter in this story in terms of well is going to be, not one, but two relief wells.
But then we still have all the containment efforts, all the clean-up, and, of course, the long-term effect it could have on the Gulf.
Back to you.
HOLMES: And, Reynolds, are they, for the most part right now, sticking to that 48-hour period of testing? When this thing started on Thursday, they said, we're going to give this 48 hours, we're going to do it in 6-hour intervals. So, if they stick to that, it will be sometime this afternoon, I believe, that the testing would be done. Are they sticking to that timeline right now?
WOLF: Absolutely. Indeed, they are. Indeed, they're going to watch that very carefully.
And you know, there may be some other changes, some new information that may come out. There maybe new discoveries. They're watching, of course, this with the cameras. But also, the testing with the variety of sensors they have below. They also have these submersible robots that are also keeping very close guard on this containment cap.
So, any new information would be a total game-changer. But for now, the game plan is until late this afternoon, that's when the testing should end.
HOLMES: All right. Reynolds, appreciate you as always, buddy. We'll talk to you throughout the morning.
WOLF: You bet.
HOLMES: Another beautiful day in New Orleans as the sun comes up there on the Mississippi. Thanks so much, Reynolds.
Well, you've got something else to worry about out there when you and your family cool off at the beach. Here's a hint: it's alive, it's in the water, and it causes pain. I'm not talking about jaws though. We'll explain.
It's eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Summer, great beach weather, does it not, Karen?
MAGINNIS: Yes.
HOLMES: But we have a rise in mercury and we have a rise in stings from the stingrays. This is along San Diego beaches. The heat is attracting, of course, the swimmers, but it's breeding season that's attracting these stingrays. Experts say they're actually not aggressive. However, tell that to the person who is attached to this foot, we can show you here.
Where's my video? There it is. There it is.
MAGINNIS: That's pretty.
HOLMES: OK. That looks aggressive to me at least. But these stingrays -- I've heard about these, Karen, a lot that people are just terrified of these things. And, you know, people get stung. I heard it hurts like the devil. But I've never had an issue.
MAGINNIS: Yes. I've had jellyfish stings. They're a little unpleasant themselves.
HOLMES: You've had plural, stings, from jellyfish?
MAGINNIS: Five at one time.
HOLMES: At once.
MAGINNIS: It was miserable.
HOLMES: They just loved you, didn't they?
MAGINNIS: They do. Mosquitoes, you name a critter, it likes me.
(LAUGHTER)
HOLMES: Well, we like you as well. Good morning. We're talking about heat. It is that time of year. It shouldn't be surprised, I guess, right?
MAGINNIS: Yes. This is the first real significant heat wave that we've seen.
HOLMES: OK.
MAGINNIS: The northeast saw one. I'll go over to the maps. The northeast saw one just about a week or so ago when we saw triple digits up in New York. But now, this encompasses a broader area. These temperatures are near record-setting levels.
Take a look at the five-day forecast for Kansas City. Temperatures mostly in the low 90s, you can see just a little bit of a drop coming up over the next week or so. And as we look towards St. Louis, temperatures mostly in the mid-90s for the most part -- maybe a couple of days of some thunderstorms. It doesn't look like there's a lot of heat relief there.
Dallas -- yes, Dallas usually sizzles this time of year. Triple digits. Then we start to see things mostly in the mid-90s. And that's about it.
Right now, we're looking at some thunderstorms just kind of bypassing Kansas City. I think we've got some pictures out of Kansas City where they saw strong storms yesterday, 50, 70-mile-an-hour wind gusts reported there. There was some damage in a cemetery. We had lots of hail damage.
Farmers this time of year, they're watching their crops very closely because there is the growing season. Well, damage from hail is not what the folks in Kansas City really want.
All right. Temperature-wise, as I mentioned, the heat is a big problem. All of the way from Minneapolis, you could see a moderate risk of strong to severe thunderstorms across the upper Midwest. Dallas, 102; Las Vegas, 110; Phoenix, 111; and, yes, T.J., even in the desert southwest, 111 degrees is hot. May not see a record, but still -- I mean, you're baking then. HOLMES: What is there -- what is it supposed to be like this time of year?
MAGINNIS: Usually, they would be 105.
HOLMES: OK.
MAGINNIS: So, they're about five degrees above normal.
HOLMES: When you're already at 105 -- you don't want to be higher than your normal.
All right, Karen, thank you, as always. Talk to you again here shortly.
So, there are some new rules out there about what you can say on TV and what you can't say and what you'll get in trouble for. Josh Levs is going to have the answers for us.
And is this the comeback of the wardrobe malfunction?
LEVS: Yes. Actually, well, you know what? That actually played a major role in this, the wardrobe malfunction, which is interesting because this is essentially about language. But what happens is this FCC indecency rule has now been struck down by a court.
So, how will this affect TV shows all over the place? Also, why do some stations avoid a 911 documentary? The answers are coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. A quarter past the hour here on the CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
We are on cable television here, so I can say whatever I want right now. And CNN will not get in trouble for it. I might, but CNN won't get fined.
But it's a different landscape out there when it comes to the broadcast networks. Josh Levs is here to explain some new rules.
LEVS: Yes.
HOLMES: There have been some slips of the tongue over the years and some hefty fines literally for one four-letter word sometimes. But the rules are about to change.
LEVS: Couple of them. Yes. And what happens is just a couple days ago, this week, a really big decision came down. So what we'll do is we'll show you through all this. And you're right, it applies to, you know, network TV that uses public airwaves. We have here are some key clips that led to this court case.
Now, we are bleeping out the offending words. And the central issue here is when words are uttered on live TV like Bono, 2003, at the Golden Globe Awards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BONO, U2: It's really, really (EXPLETIVE DELETED) brilliant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: That word made air at the time. And also that same year, the Billboard Music Awards, Nicole Richie said this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLE RICHIE, CELEBRITY: Have you ever tried to get (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of a Prada purse? It's not so (EXPLETIVE DELETED) simple.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: And what you're seeing there, this thing they're called "fleeting expletives." And traditionally, the government didn't go after networks for live situations like this. But President Bush took a tougher stance. Congress passed and then he signed a bill that multiplied the fine by 10, up to $325,000. And then there was this court battle that came after that. You had FOX TV, NBC Universal and some other broadcasters sued the FCC after being fined.
And this is interesting here. The court, a federal appellate court, noted the FCC was OK with swear words when "Saving Private Ryan" played on network TV even though it included the exact same words that they are offending multiple times. So, what happened was this case made its way through the system, the Supreme Court last year sent it back to the lower court to decide if it's constitutional. And that's the ruling that we have right now.
Take a look this. This three-judge panel from the second court of appeals -- circuit court of appeals, said, "The FCC's policy violates the First Amendment because it's unconstitutionally vague, creating a chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting expletives at issue here." And it also said they're not suggesting, they said, "We do not suggest the FCC could not create a constitutional policy." So, they're saying it's possible to have one.
FCC shot back. The commissioner of it, Michael Copps, says he's shocked by such an anti-family decision. And he said the court didn't spend any time thinking, in his view, "the chilling effect today's decision will have on the ability of American parents to safeguard the interests of their children."
And, T.J., he said that he wants to see this decision appealed and ultimately reversed.
HOLMES: Yes. And you talked about a chilling effect?
LEVS: Yes.
HOLMES: What is chilling? LEVS: What they're saying is that speech that really doesn't apply in these fleeting expletives actually is getting knocked out. The court says there are some CBS affiliates that didn't air an 9/11 documentary because it had audio in it in which you could hear firefighters swearing and they were concerned about being fined.
Also, apparently, some Phoenix TV stations dropped live coverage of memorial for Pat Tillman because of language that his family members were using. So, these are a couple of examples of the kind of thing that we're talking about applies to the public airwaves -- again, not cable stations.
HOLMES: All right. And where do -- where do wardrobe malfunctions play into all of this? Are they -- are they OK now?
LEVS: You know, probably, it wouldn't make a lot of people happy. But what happened in this case is that it was actually, even though the wardrobe malfunction was not about language, the court says that the FCC's increased enforcement and Congress' decision to increase the fines came after a large part actually caused by this 2004 event, as we know, the Super Bowl during which Justin Timberlake, the words of the court right here, exposed Janet Jackson's breast for a fraction of a second during their halftime show.
So, what we are seeing is that after that event, all of a sudden, there was a new focus on indecency. What's considered indecency on TV and that's when the new language rules came about. And the court is saying, hey, maybe there will be a constitutional rule eventually. They don't think this one is right now.
HOLMES: You know, I didn't know you were going to have a video this morning. That takes you back to a place. That was wild at a time. That was such a controversy at the time.
All right. Josh, we appreciate the update. Thanks so much.
LEVS: You got it.
HOLMES: It's 18 minutes past the hour. Quick break. We are right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Have you been watching the heated debate this week, debate about racism in this country? It's been going on between NAACP and the Tea Party. We got another update, another new twist and turn to this back and forth -- one of the Tea Party's most visible spokesman -- you ma have heard -- has pulled now a controversial blog post. This is the blog post that even some of this supporters say went too far.
You see him there. That is the Tea Party Express spokesman, Mark Williams. He typed up what he said was a satirical letter. Now, in the letter, he was pretending to be the NAACP president, Ben Jealous. Now, he did this a few days after the NAACP condemned the racist elements of the Tea Party by passing a resolution at their convention in Kansas City.
Now, the parody that Mark Williams, the Tea Party Express spokesman, wrote, reads in part, "Perhaps the most racist point of all in the Tea Parties is their demand that government stop raising our taxes. That is outrageous. How will we as coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist. The Tea Party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?"
Now, again, he was writing this satirically, we're told, trying to pretend he was Ben Jealous, the head of the NAACP, writing a letter to Abraham Lincoln. The post refers to Lincoln as the greatest racist ever and calls the NAACP chief, Tom's nephew.
Our John King asked Mark Williams if posting the letter was a mistake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK WILLIAMS, SPOKESMAN, TEA PARTY EXPRESS: What I did, if it opened the door to ending the vitriol that we saw coming out of Kansas City and opened the door to a genuine acceptance of my offer to talk or his -- Mr. Jealous' office to talk to me. However, call it a beer summit or whatever you want, what I did was successful. And I'm glad it was successful. I'm sorry I had to go to lengths to slap some sense into a lot of people who are so afraid of politically incorrect language that we can't get a conversation started.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, got something started. I don't know if you call it a conversation, but there has been a lot of nasty back and forth this week. A lot of incidents we've seen play out this week. And we are going to get into it in our 9:00 Eastern half hour.
We're going to take that half hour and focus on this topic, focus on the NAACP/Tea Party back and forth but also just the conversation about moving forward on race in this country -- something you don't want to miss, but a calm, reasoned conversation about where we are in this country.
Meanwhile, back to this story about the NAACP -- Mark Williams there has actually called on the NAACP to change its name. You know it stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He says they need to take colored out of their name because he says that is a racial slur.
Now, Ben Jealous, who's the head of the NAACP in response said, "If Mark Williams apologizes for his past troubling statements, including the offensive letter he recently authored, and is willing to repudiate racist elements of the Tea Party, I would be happy to sit down and talk to him." No plans just yet for that sit-down.
Quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: Well, if you have been neglecting to answer your phone, trying to dodge those bill collectors, you might want to pick that phone up next time. Bill collectors are turning up the heat. In fact, in some cases debt collectors can secure a judge's warrant for your arrest and you can end up in jail.
Clyde Anderson here, our financial analyst, to help us deal with this.
Some of these things can be threatening, can be offensive, a lot of complaints about it. But can you really end up under arrest?
CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: You can. You can end up under arrest. And it's happening more so than it has in the past.
You know, in the past, 19th century, probably mid-19th century, they had debtors prison. You could actually go to prison for your debt. It seems like it's coming around full circle.
I've got a case in Minnesota where a lady went to jail for $85 debt. Then there was a case in Illinois where a guy was held indefinitely in prison until he paid on a $300 lumber fee.
HOLMES: OK. But how do they get you in jail? How do you get to that point?
ANDERSON: OK. The way to get you in jail is they can sue you. They call you repeatedly, you get the phone calls, you don't answer the calls, you don't answer the letters. At that point, they can sue you.
When they sue you, they will send you a summons to appear in court. You have to answer that summon or you have to go out to the courthouse for your court date. If you do that, they'll issue a warrant for your arrest.
HOLMES: I assume some people just ignore those and don't pay attention and end up under arrest. What do you have -- do you have rights?
ANDERSON: You do. The Fair Debt Collection Practice Act really gives you your rights. And that's what you got to understand and know the rights. You definitely have the right to really go in and say, call your attorney, go to the court hearing, find out what it is, answer the phone calls sometimes is really the first thing that you have to do to avoid some of these things happening.
HOLMES: All right. But, you know, folks, you can't afford your bills, you can't afford your attorney, either.
ANDERSON: Right. Exactly.
HOLMES: So, you're in trouble there. So, I mean, just how bad are these things getting, some of these practices of some of the debt collectors are using? ANDERSON: I mean, they're getting really bad. I mean, a lot of them are doing things like harassing people. They're doing -- they're using obscene language. I mean, they get really forceful. Times are hard right now.
So, companies are hurting. And these collection companies are hurting as well. So, when they harass people, make false statements, they can't do these things. It's illegal for them to do this.
And so, if you understand and know your right, you know how to fight.
HOLMES: Can you sue back?
ANDERSON: You can. You can sue back. And there's been cases of people that have sued back. There's one guy in particular who's suing right now. He's got about $100,000 in debt and he really waits for these collection companies to call because he knows the law. So, as soon as they threat to say, I'm going to garnish your wages and they're not doing it or they're using on scene language or they're talking to him a certain way, he records the phone calls. He's won about $20,000 in damages so far by doing this.
HOLMES: Hey, I will answer the phone next time.
All right, Clyde. That's some important information. We've got to find a way to get this up and get it online because this is information people can absolutely use because again, a lot of people not being able to pay the bills right now unfortunately. But they're stepping up trying to collect.
Clyde, good to see you as always, my man.
ANDERSON: Good to be here.
HOLMES: All right. Quick break. We're going to hand this thing over to Dr. Sanjay Gupta in just a second.