Weather Helps Firefighters in California Blaze
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody.</s>T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.</s>NGUYEN: And good morning. Woo! It is quite a morning already. It's....</s>HOLMES: Yes.</s>NGUYEN: ...Sunday, May 10. Happy Mother's Day out there, all you moms. Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen.</s>HOLMES: And I am T.J. Holmes. Just having a little smile here. Our Twitter followers really crack us up sometimes.</s>NGUYEN: Yes, they do.</s>HOLMES: Thank you for sending those in.</s>NGUYEN: The things they say, oh my goodness.</s>HOLMES: Yes. Good morning. Glad you could be here with us. Take a look at some of these pictures from last night, and where would you imagine this was? You see Samuel L. Jackson there chatting it up.</s>NGUYEN: Yes. George Lucas.</s>HOLMES: George Lucas there as well. You might think this is a...</s>NGUYEN: Bon Jovi.</s>HOLMES: ...a red carpet - where? - in Hollywood.</s>NGUYEN: Yes.</s>HOLMES: Uh uh. This was in Washington last night at the big correspondents' dinner.</s>BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Now Sasha and Malia aren't here tonight because they're grounded. You can't just take Air Force One on a joyride to Manhattan. I don't care whose kids you are.</s>NGUYEN: We talked about that yesterday and that photo, the infamous photo now. Well, the president did rip on his kids, Dick Cheney, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. More funny lines and highlights in just five minutes.</s>HOLMES: Also, we're going to be taking a look at the situation in Pakistan. Dusty roads lined with cars, motorbikes, people trying to get out. Literally hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing the fighting between the army and the Taliban. We'll have more on this military offensive and how it's affecting civilians. And now we have a full-scale humanitarian crisis on our hands. That's coming our way in about 30 minutes, a full report. But first, some other stories from overnight.</s>HOLMES: Pope Benedict celebrating a historic Mass this morning in Amman, Jordan. He urged increased respect for women in the Middle East. This is the pontiff's first trip to that region. You'll remember he did set off a bit of a firestorm about three years ago when he made some comments that seemed to criticize the Prophet Muhammad.</s>NGUYEN: Well, there is another possible H1N1 flu death in the U.S. Washington state health officials say a man who already had heart problems died last week from what appears to be complications from the flu. The two other flu-related deaths happened in Texas. According to federal health officials, there are nearly 2,300 swine-flu cases in the</s>U.S. HOLMES: Also, there could be a little hope for an American journalist serving an eight-year prison sentence in Iran. You see her there. Well, a three-judge panel is beginning to consider an appeal for Roxanna Saberi. She was convicted of spying last month in a one- day trial.</s>NGUYEN: All right. Want to get you now to that wildfire in Santa Barbara, California. It seems a cool ocean breeze can just do wonders. This morning, many of the residents forced to evacuate have returned home, and a mandatory evacuation order was lifted. The winds, blowing off the Pacific, helped firefighters make considerable progress. The fire is now about 40 percent contained. Full containment is expected by Wednesday. About 9,000 acres have burned though since Tuesday. Nearly 80 homes and businesses have been damaged or destroyed.</s>HOLMES: Want to turn to North Carolina now. Parts of that state, people there cleaning up after severe thunderstorms hammered them as well. A lot of states have been getting hit hard.</s>NGUYEN: Oh, absolutely. You know, WRAL, our affiliate reporter there, Beau Minnick, has a look at the damage in Raleigh.</s>BEAU MINNICK, WRAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a scary moment for the homeowner who was here at the time this big tree came crashing down. It essentially snapped in half, then fell right over on top of the house. Part of it crashed into the attack, but no one was hurt. (voice-over): A tree that once towered over this Raleigh home on Cedar Lane (ph) near Falls Lake (ph) now is split in two. Saturday night's storm sent the tree crashing into the attic.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was downstairs on my computer, and I just heard this big boom. And I came upstairs, and there was the tree laying on top of the house.</s>MINNICK: Damage reports came in from other parts of Wake (ph) County. The driver of this pickup was traveling in Jenkins Road (ph) in Wake Forest when the storm blew this tree over, crashing right on the truck. The driver, who wasn't hurt, says he saw the tree start to fall, and swerved to avoid it. But it was too late.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The wind was really whipping. Got into the car, and I was in the car when he called and said a tree just fell on the house.</s>MINNICK: Pauline Stockdale (ph) wasn't home when the tree crashed on her house. She says she and her husband had debated whether to cut it down.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted the tree to stay, which was the problem. He wanted it cut down because he was afraid it was going to someday fall on the house. And first thing he said was, 'Well, I told you so.'</s>MINNICK (on camera): But again, the Stockdales are able to smile about it now because no one was hurt. Crews are starting to remove the limbs of tree now. The homeowners hope to have the entire tree removed by Monday. In Raleigh, Beau Minnick, WRAL News.</s>NGUYEN: All right. Want to stay on those northern Tennessee because there's been some serious damage there.</s>HOLMES: Yes. Let's show this video. Good morning to you, Reynolds.</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning</s>HOLMES: ...some of this stuff. I mean, we've been (ph) talking about these storms. They continue. Here is some of the - a lot of flooding. We're talking about four feet of flooding. A lot of streets, a lot of homes being flooded. Good news as always, no serious injuries...</s>NGUYEN: Yes.</s>HOLMES: ...reported, but they do think there - somebody spotted a tornado.</s>WOLF: Absolutely.</s>NGUYEN: Yes. And not only that, but - what? - baseball-sized hail, Reynolds? Is that correct?</s>WOLF: Baseball-sized hail, tennis-ball-sized hail, softball- sized hail due to those strong updrafts of these storms. So, I mean, certainly some rough stuff to say the least. And the flooding that they had there may play out in parts of Arkansas, back to T.J.'s home state today.</s>WOLF: What we're seeing not exactly the best situation in parts of the Southeast. And the reason why is pretty simple. Let me show you very quickly on the magic wall. We've got a stationary front that's set up over parts of the Southeast. That's been bringing some of those scattered showers into Tennessee and then back into, say, parts of the Tom Bigby - Tom Bigby and over to the Alabama rivers later on today. Could have some strong storms. From south Georgia back over to, say, the Big Easy, also into Baton Rouge, you may deal with some rough weather. But into Texas, it looks pretty good. And then when you make your way out west, the situation is going to pretty dire still. An improving situation for Santa Barbara. What we could be dealing with is at least a little bit more moisture coming in from the Pacific. Certainly some great news there. Let me enlarge this and show you something. From the LA Basin, from Long Beach to about Santa Clarita, we're seeing a lot of that marine layer come in, some of that moisture. Certainly the situation is not picture perfect for Santa Barbara, but the humidity is going to be going up. It's about 40 percent contained; we're talking about that wildfire. What we do anticipate is - is for them to have a much better handle as we get into Wednesday and of course Thursday in battling that blaze. Right now, currently, about 4,000 firefighters that are taking part in that blaze, doing what they can to put it out. In terms of heat, take a look at it. We've got 101, your forecast high for this Mother's Day in Phoenix. Back over to Kansas City, 67. Nashville with 73, the expected high. For your nation's capital, 71, should be a nice day there. Atlanta, a mix of sunshine and clouds with 73. And Tampa, 92. Miami with 86. All right. You guys are up to speed. We got a lot to talk about weatherwise today. Make sure you stay tuned right here at CNN. You and Betty, T.J., have no choice whatsoever.</s>HOLMES: Yes.</s>WOLF: You have to. I mean, you're not going anywhere I don't think.</s>HOLMES: We will be here, and you're not going far. We're glad we got you this weekend always with the severe weather. And we appreciate you, buddy.</s>WOLF: No problem.</s>HOLMES: We'll be talking to you here again in a second.</s>WOLF: You bet.</s>HOLMES: Let's take a look at what the president's going to be up to this week. He's going to start the week with a visit from the University of North Carolina men's basketball team. You may remember, he picked them to win the NCAA tournament; didn't really go out on a limb there, they were the overall No. 1 seed. Didn't let him down of course; they were the champions. And then later in the week, he'll give the commencement address at Arizona State University. That'll happen on Wednesday. The school is naming a scholarship for the president instead of giving him an honorary degree. You remember that started a bit of a hubbub. They didn't want to give him that degree. And then on Thursday, he's going to be in New Mexico, expecting him to host a town-hall meeting there. But last night, what was he up to?</s>HOLMES: Loosened up the crowd a bit, loosened up those who cover him day in, day out. Landed a few one-liners at the annual White House...</s>NGUYEN: Pretty good ones, too, actually.</s>HOLMES: ....Correspondents Dinner. It drew a bunch of big names. It can't get much bigger than right there, Wolf Blitzer.</s>NGUYEN: Wolf Blitzer, yes. Owen Wilson there. Got a lot of those in the crowd, those celebs. Michael Bloomberg. President Obama though got a chance to show his funny side, poking fun at Republicans and himself.</s>OBAMA: All in all, we're proud of the change we've brought to Washington in these first 100 days, but we've got a lot of work left to do, as all of you know. So I'd like to talk a little bit about what my administration plans to achieve in the next hundred days. During the second hundred days, we will design, build and open a library dedicated to my first hundred days. It's going to be big, folks. In the next hundred days, I will learn to go off the prompter, and Joe Biden will learn to stay on the prompter.</s>OBAMA: In the next hundred days, our - my partisan outreach will be so successful that even John Boehner will consider becoming a Democrat. After all, we have a lot in common. He is a person of color, although not a color appears in the natural world.</s>OBAMA: What's up, John?</s>HOLMES: Oh, poor John Boehner.</s>NGUYEN: I know.</s>HOLMES: Poor guy.</s>NGUYEN: That appears in the natural world? Yikes.</s>HOLMES: Poor guy.</s>NGUYEN: All right. This year's dinner also had performance by comedian Wanda Sykes. She was pretty hilarious I thought, although some her jokes - mm, they were a little tough for some in the audience.</s>HOLMES: But that's her.</s>NGUYEN: Yes.</s>HOLMES: And when - and...</s>NGUYEN: I mean, that's what comedians do, right?</s>HOLMES: You're familiar with her? She's - she doesn't hold back...</s>NGUYEN: No.</s>HOLMES: ...ever. So not used to seeing her in that kind of crowd. But we asked a lot of you, and the president getting rave reviews so far...</s>NGUYEN: Yes.</s>HOLMES: ...by a lot of you who did see. We're asking this morning on our - both of our Twitter pages, also our Facebook pages where you can find us and - not that lovely picture of us, but you can find us online. But you all are chiming in.</s>NGUYEN: Yes, I've got one here from Regina Edwards. And she says, "Some of Sykes' stuff was funny, but she should hire some of the president's writers to moonlight for her. He killed it. Can I say about the president?" Meaning it was really good, for you folks who don't get that lingo. "Every comment had me laughing out loud."</s>HOLMES: Also Sheila Jackson, if we go to the right there, on my Facebook page, Shelia Jackson Lowe says, "Hey T.J. I watched the president last night. He was great. His delivery was on point. It was refreshing to see this side of a president." And you know, George W. Bush also got credit for, you know, being - doing a good job at these things. Remember, they had the impressionist there that year - the impersonator, I should say....</s>NGUYEN: Yes.</s>HOLMES: ...who was a - who - they did the side-by-side routine.</s>NGUYEN: I thought that was funny.</s>HOLMES: So - that was funny. He does - he's done pretty well at those events. But that's a good time for everybody just to kick back.</s>NGUYEN: I'm sure at some point we'll see one, too, for Obama - President Obama. OK, putting your money where your faith is. Want to talk about that, because take a listen to this:</s>THE REV. MICHAEL BERNARD BECKWITH, FOUNDER, AGAPE INTL. SPIRITUAL CENTER: In one of those moments I heard, 'Sell all your stocks.'</s>NGUYEN: Hmm.</s>BECKWITH: And I said, 'Sell all my stocks?' 'Sell all your stocks.' And I said, 'OK.'</s>NGUYEN: Can you imagine? Would you do it if you just heard a voice that said go - 'Hey, take out all your stocks, get them out of the market.' Well, I talked with Revered Beckwith about turning to God for financial guidance. Hear what he has to say about that. Plus this:</s>WOLF: You know, there are people every day that go off to work and they - they hate - they - what they do. They don't like their job at all. You seem very happy.</s>ALBA LEE, HARTSFIELD-JACKSON ATLANTA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: Very happy. Plants make me happy. Plants don't talk back; they're beautiful. They're colorful. They're fun. Every - I mean, is this not gorgeous?</s>HOLMES: Plants don't talk back. There is no customer service you have to deal with.</s>NGUYEN: That's true. No complaints.</s>HOLMES: With plants, no talking back. Yes, a lot of people doing gardening this time, including our Reynolds Wolf, as you see there. But if you think your garden was tough, wait until you see what it takes to create some runway appeal at one of the nation's busiest airports.