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What's trending for Thursday, April 19th
"Dirty Dancing" resort burns, boy's lemonade stand raises 10k for dad's cancer care & a 2,000 lb. Great White haul.
Will Lamar Hurd be the first black 'Bachelor'? He explains his bid to be on the show, and talks about accusations of show discrimination
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the producers of "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette". ABC's popular reality dating shows have gone a combined 23 seasons without casting a single minority in its leading role.
The lawsuit was filed by Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson, who had previously applied to be on the series. The complaint says "These applicants were denied the same opportunity to become the next bachelor or bachelorette as white contestants not because they were unsuitable for the role...but solely because of the perceived risk that casting a bachelor or bachelorette who is a person of color would alienate the show's majority-white viewership."
One of the defendants in the case, Warner Horizon Television, is a subsidiary of CNN's parent company, Time Warner.
Meanwhile, regional Portland sportscaster and youth basketball coach Lamar Hurd has been getting some buzz in an unrelated campaign to become the show's first-ever black bachelor. This morning, he talks with Kate Bolduan about his audition for the show.
Hurd says he has not experienced discrimination in his application, and has even received an encouraging message from one of the show producers. He says he wonders if black men and women just haven't thought to apply to the show.
See more from the interview here.
Rep. Denham: 'GSA has run wild'
Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) talks about the latest in the investigation into the GSA scandal.
Buffett to undergo radiation treatments – CNN Elizabeth Cohen explains
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen explains the treatment process for Warren Buffett's type of prostate cancer.
What's trending for Wednesday, Apr. 18th – Boy with cancer gets to be Batman, a possible lost album for Kurt Cobain & all five Star Trek captains to reunite
On Early Start this morning, Zoraida Sambolin and Kate Bolduan look at the stories trending on the web, including:
* The Arlington, Texas police department made a sick little boy's dream come true. They let him be Batman for a day. The department set up fake crimes across the city for 'lil Batman to solve, including a bank robbery with the Joker and a phony bomb scare with the Riddler. The mayor even gave 7-year-old Kye, who has leukemia, a key to the city for saving the day.
* A friend of the late Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain tells Fuse TV that Cobain was working on new solo tracks that transcended anything he'd written so far. He added "It would have been his "White Album," referring to the Beatles's double album that inspired music more than 40 years ago. The big question – do these demos still exist?
* A Star Trek convention in the U.K. is set to unite all five captains on the same stage for the first time, including William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew and Scott Bakula. Organizers say they will all attend "Destination Star Trek: London" in October. And they're expecting thousands of Trekkies from around the world to attend.
Check out the video above.
MYB: Obama targets oil speculators, but how much are gas prices driven by speculators?
Gas prices in an election cycle couldn't be more political. President Obama made a huge push yesterday to limit speculation in the oil markets to help bring gas prices down. That's not something that can happen overnight, and he's been making that clear over the past few weeks. You may have heard that phrase about how there's no 'silver bullet' for gas prices a few times now from the President. Will this move work?
Christine Romans is Minding Your Business this morning, and explains how much gas prices are driven by speculation in the oil market.
EXCLUSIVE: Drug czar unveils new national strategy for 2012, emphasizing treatment over incarceration
The so-called 'War on Drugs' began when Richard Nixon occupied the White House. Decades later, it's hard to say we're winning.
Illicit drug use has declined by 1/3 since the 1970s, with big drops in cocaine and methamphetamine use. But prescription drug abuse has tripled in the past 20 years, with fatal overdoses involving prescription medications up nearly 400% since the end of the last century.
Later this morning, the White House's director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske will unveil the administration's new drug policy strategy. In an exclusive interview with Zoraida Sambolin, Kerlikowske explains the new emphasis on treatment over prosecution in the war on drugs.
"For too many years, we looked at this as mostly just a criminal justice problem," Kerlikowske says. "I was a police chief for a long time. We can't arrest our way out of this problem."
Kerlikowske goes on to explain the changes in the new plan.
"What we've seen is that the work gets done at the local level, at the state and local level, and when we propose new policies and new programs that actually help people get in to recovery, we know they're not going to continue to be recycled back through the prison system which is not only incredibly costly but really doesn't do anything to make this country safer," he says.
He adds, "There's another group of experiments going on in different departments, police departments across the country, from Providence, Rhode Island, to Seattle, Washington, in which they are looking at and using ways alternatives to both arrest and alternatives to incarcerating people that again both keep people in the community safe but also recognize the addiction and the disease problem of drugs."
See more from the interview here.
What's trending for Tuesday, April 17th – A student walks for graduation & and a course for unruly NFL fans.
This morning, Kate Bouldan and Zoraida Sambolin look at the stories that are trending this morning, including:
* A 17-year-old high school senior named Austin Fisher will now be allowed to walk at graduation after his story went viral, and the school had a change of heart. Fisher was banned from his graduation ceremony for racking up 16 unexcused absences this year, when the limit is 14. He missed all those days because he was working two jobs and taking his mother to cancer treatments, all while still playing varsity baseball. Fellow seniors started an online petition at Change.org to help convince the Carrollton School District to change its policy.
* There is now a way for drunken NFL fans who were kicked out of stadiums to be allowed back in. According to the New York Post, under a new program, unruly fans will now be required to complete an online course costing $75 to get their seats back.
Pippa 'gunning' for trouble? Royal biographer Mark Saunders on consequences of controversial photos
The sister-in-law of England's future king, is under fire this week for a series of photos released by British tabloid "The Sun."
The pictures show Pippa Middleton riding through Paris next to a man who appears to be waving a pistol, and in one image, even points it at the photographer.
According to ABC News, the gun was fake and no complaints have been filed with French police. But for followers of the Royal Family, the silence from Buckingham Palace has been deafening.
Royal biographer Mark Saunders talks with Kate Bolduan, saying that though the move was ill-advised, it's hard to have the same expectations for Pippa since she is not royalty.
Rep. Peter King says Secret Service agents left themselves open to be blackmailed
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee which oversees the Secret Service. He has been briefed on the investigation into alleged solicitation of prostitutes and says he is not concerned with criminal violations regarding prostitution but rather the Secret Service agents leaving themselves open to be blackmailed. He is also concerned with the possibility of terrorists using the prostitutes to get inside the President's security detail.
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