Tracking Tropical Storm Bonnie; President Obama's Busy Week
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday, everybody. I'm Kyra Phillips. Button down the hatches, Bonnie is on its way. Tropical storms and massive oil spills, bad combination. Nature slapping back efforts to rescue the Gulf. Would you want to share the highway with that guy? No way. Guess who made sure he couldn't hurt anyone or himself? An NFL tackle. Great stuff. We've all had flu-flu at some point. Faked a cold or stomachache to get a day off. But a blue brain tumor? Are you kidding me? It's 9:00 a.m. on the East, crack of 6:00 in the West. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. And we begin with Tropical Storm Bonnie just hours away from South Florida. But the greater danger lies just beyond in the area of the Gulf oil spill. It's day 95 of that disaster and the government orders ships to return to shore, BP suspends work on digging the -- the relief well. And so what is that all mean for us? Efforts to permanently seal the leak could be pushed back by 10 days or even more. The National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm watch for the northern Gulf of Mexico coastline. It's a watch that stretches from Morgan City, Louisiana eastward to Destin, Florida. Let's look at where that storm is headed and when. CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf here with a closer look. Hey, Reynolds.</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I'll tell you right now, Kyra. The storm is poorly defined. In fact it's pretty easy to see here right here. Let's enlarge this image. And there you go. You see the deep convection just east of Miami at this time. Winds are sustained at 40 miles per hour. It has been gusting a bit stronger, though. Up to 50 miles per hour. The center is actually about 82 miles of Miami, Florida. Now, of course, obviously, you've got some rain in Miami but the center of circulation about 82 miles from that point. Now to be more specific, here's what we've got. From Ft. Lauderdale, southward into Miami, even south Miami highlands -- or heights, rather, you've got some pretty strong storms coming in at this time. And what we anticipate is the storm is going to fluctuate in power over the next couple of hours. And then possibly pop out into the Gulf of Mexico. Now let's take a look at this. This is the latest path we have or forecast of the National Hurricane Center. It shows the storm as we get into early Saturday. Then into Saturday afternoon, winds at 50. Gusts at 65 miles per hour. Then if it follows through on to this forecast path it will go right over the oil slick areas. And something else really important, know that the top half of the storm is actually the strongest place. So we could see some of the strongest winds actually pushing some of that oil up towards the coast of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. That in mind, though, remember that one of the things that's very difficult to forecast when it comes to these systems is forecast strength. That is going to be really, really tough thing to handle especially as we get into Saturday and Sunday. Now it is going to be changing a little bit possibly over the next 12 hours in terms of strength because of strong upper level winds. However, in about 24 to 48 hours,</s>PHILLIPS: All right, Reynolds, thanks.</s>WOLF: You bet.</s>PHILLIPS: OK, let's go ahead and check in now with long lost colleague of Reynolds. Fellow meteorologist Rob Marciano. He spent much of the last three months in the Gulf. He actually joins us now from Gulf Shores, Alabama. So, Rob, this is a double whammy in terms of both cleanup and permanently shutting down the leak. Right?</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And -- mostly because -- well the third thing is what Reynolds touched on. The path of this thing which is going to slice right through and over the well head of it if it verifies and that means that everything from basically the mouth of the Mississippi north and eastward -- all of that oil that is there on the water will be pushed inland or at least closer to inland. In some cases infiltrate inland. So beaches like the one I'm at here in Gulf Shores, Alabama, which right now is relatively clean up towards the -- parts of the Florida panhandle and then back towards the Mississippi. Those areas are certainly on guard for the possibility of seeing more oil come in again because of this storm. And the other issue, of course, is the cleanup. The well situation. As you mentioned. They've had to unplug that drill ship and move it out of harm's way. When winds get to gale force which they think they will with this storm going right over the well site, they've got to get that thing out of there. So they had to unplug it and begin to move it. They started that process last night. It is a long -- probably will take two, three, up to four days to unplug it and move it out of harm's way. And then another couple of days just to bring it back. So that's where the days begin to add up as far as delaying the proceeding of drilling this relief well. That top kill, static kill maneuver, that's completely off the table at least for now. Because we've got to go further along the relief well before we even consider that. So those two things are gone. They're removing all the vessels. There's probably about 60 or so that are in that immediate area. You've got over 2,000 personnel that are working around the well head site. So you've got to get all of them out of harm's way before this storm comes onboard. Because, you know, often we talk about tropical storms and certainly here when we cover them on land, you know, it's -- you know, winds, some rains, some power outages. Not a -- not a big deal. But it's a whole other animal when you talk about the oil that can be pushed on shore and you talk about the conditions that they work on out there. A tropical storm making landfall here, it's a whole other animal out there in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and it is standard procedure to evacuate rigs and drilling platforms, even when there's not a spill. So it's a bit frightening and they certainly want to get those people out of there before Bonnie gets here regardless of what kind of strength she is -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Rob Marciano, we look forward to your special coming up this weekend. Next hour, we're expecting an update from the government's point man on the crisis. Admiral Thad Allen has scheduled a briefing for 10:30 Eastern. We'll carry it live right here on CNN. Well, when it comes to getting things done, the president has had a pretty active week. Wouldn't you say? Wall Street reform, check. Extending unemployment benefits, check. But the biggest headline grabber, phone tag with Shirley Sherrod. The ousted USDA official whose remarks taken out of context actually sparked a national firestorm. Chief White House correspondent Ed Henry joining us live. The president, Ed, and the Sherrod debacle, it sure stole the spotlight. You wouldn't think that the president would actually be excited about talking about the oil disaster.</s>ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You're right. But, you know, in the last couple of days I've noticed Robert Gibbs in the briefing getting pounded with some of these questions about Shirley Sherrod. He's actually -- looks like he's been a little happy when the conversation turns to the oil spill. That's a -- sort of a turning point perhaps in that story as it gets a little bit better. At least it's still not over with. But I think it gives you a sense of how some of these outside forces, if you will, have really upended some bits of the president's agenda, at least his message to the American people and trying to get credit for that. Because, as you note, he had some big victories this week. Wall Street reform. He says that this is going to really help consumers. He says it's going to add more transparency to all of these transactions. The derivatives and the like. And that it's going to be less likely there will be these big government bailouts in the future. Meanwhile, they also got a big victory pushing back against the Republicans and signing into law last night this extension of unemployment benefits. Going to affect a couple million people, worth over $30 billion. And so they feel pretty good inside this White House when you talk to top aides about the fact that while there's been a lot of media attention on other issues, they insist they are pushing forward on key parts of the president's agenda. But as you note, you look at some of the public polls including the latest CNN one, it doesn't look like the president is getting credit for it and then maybe because of some of those outside forces that are grabbing the attention right now.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, and -- let's talk about that. The unemployment benefits being signed. It's not paid for. So how does the White House answer to that?</s>HENRY: Well, you're right. I mean the bottom line is the reason why Republicans say they were opposed to extending these unemployment benefits is that it's just going to add, you know, another $30 billion to the deficit right now at a time when it's ballooning. And if you look back to what the president said late last year when he signed another extension benefits, he was highlighting that it was paid for, that there were offsets to cover the billions of dollars. This time the White House is not explaining why the president just pushed forward without any offsets. Bottom line is we're couple of months from the election. Democrats saw a good issue here because Republicans were standing against unemployment benefits when so many people are hurting. They pushed forward but it's going to, you know, in the short term have a benefit for people. I need to make that clear. But long term it's adding to the debt -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Ed Henry live from the White House. Ed, thanks. The clock is ticking for Arizona's new immigration law to take effect on Thursday. And we still don't know whether a federal judge will block it. The judge heard arguments from two high-profile challengers yesterday. The Obama administration and ACLU. The law allows police to check the residency status of people that they detain in connection with the crime. Opponents say that the law is unconstitutional, promotes racial profiling, and intrudes on federal authority. The judge didn't say when she will actually issue a ruling. A 911 call alerting police to a possible drunk driver.</s>SHAUN ROGERS, NFL PLAYER: There's a gold Camry. The occupant appear to be either very sleepy or drunk. He ran off the road several times and swerving across. He's driving on a flat tire.</s>PHILLIPS: The voice behind that call, an NFL player. The interesting twist, next.