Elected county Judge Tom Head is stirring up controversy in Lubbock, Texas. Judge Head made comments which were broadcast by CNN affiliate KJTV. Head claimed that after re-election President Obama '...is going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the U.N.,' he continued on to say 'I'm thinking worst case scenario now. I'm talking civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war, maybe...'
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Ed Lavandera is seeking answers about the prisoner pardons. In this preview, he explains where he's looking for the former governor. Tonight, find out what happened when they finally met. Ed's full report is on AC360° at 8 and 10 p.m. ET.
Ed Lavandera
CNN
Madison, Wisconsin (CNN) - After weeks of demonstrations in the state capital, Wisconsin Republicans cleared a final hurdle to a controversial proposal on Thursday after the state's Assembly passed an amended version of a bill that would curtail the bargaining rights of most state workers.
The vote was 53-42 in favor of the bill.
"I applaud all members of the Assembly for showing up, debating the legislation and participating in democracy," Gov. Scott Walker said in a written statement.
State Senate Republicans had approved the amended version Wednesday night, despite the absence of 14 Democratic senators who fled the state to prevent a necessary quorum of 20 votes.
The amended bill stripped the spending components out of the original proposal, enabling lawmakers to pass the measure with fewer votes.
Cries of "Shame, Shame, Shame!" filled the Capitol building following Thursday's vote. The bill will soon be delivered to Walker's desk, who is expected to sign the bill into law.
Meanwhile, at least one Senate Democrat said he has returned to his home state after spending weeks in Illinois in an effort to prevent the bill's passage.
Sen. Jim Holperin said the remaining 13 absentee Democrats will be returning individually between Thursday and Saturday.
But Democrat Sen. Kathleen Vinehout quickly disputed that assertion, claiming absentee lawmakers have remained in Illinois. She added that she did not know where Holperin was.
Paul Vercammen
CNN Senior Producer
Correspondent Ed Lavandera, photo journalist Phil Littleton and I got onto "A Whale" by a basket or "man hoist" hanging on like kids on a playground cargo net. A Whale is three and a half football fields wide, a football field long, seven stories above water and three below. They've reconfigured it in Portugal with gates or inlet openings called jaws and the ship's brain trust thinks it can suck up and skim gobs of oil in unprecedented numbers. They say the skimming capacity could be 250 times of a small fishing boat trying to skim in the gulf.
When you walk around the monstrous vessel, you get a sense for the international community's will to help. The ship is owned by Taiwanese tycoon, and run by a 32 man crew from India, and was built in South Korea in 2010.
We navigated through the entrails of the ship, rainwater dripping in dark tunnels like something out of the "Alien" movies. The crew, polite and enthusiastic, thinks they can be a huge help in the Gulf by skimming all that oil through the gates.
Now what they want is permission to turn "A Whale" lose on an ecological disaster and start skimming.
Ed Lavandera | BIO
CNN Correspondent
The turning point in the oil spill story came two weeks ago when BP finally let the world see video images from the underwater cameras.
I heard early on in this disaster that BP had cameras mounted on underwater robotic vehicles and those images could be seen live in the command centers. We tried and tried to get images released with no luck. I decided this was a story and issue worth raising. We put together a story and we called it "Where's the video?"
The next day BP released a 30-second video clip and instantly the tone and seriousness of the situation seemed to change dramatically. Congress called on BP to release more and to provide a live stream from the underwater cameras. It's been eye-opening in so many ways.
To hear the news today, that BP almost considered cutting off the live video stream during Wednesday's "top kill" effort seemed like a major step back in time. This evening, an administration official told CNN, "BP agreed to make the live feed of the top kill attempt available at the request of the President and the National Incident Center." Good to see we haven't lost the only access to what's going on a mile underwater.
Ed Lavandera | BIO
CNN Correspondent
Ed Lavandera | BIO
CNN Correspondent
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