industry. the white house is now involved. and the military is prepared to move ships and personnel to the region. this morning we're covering the story like in one else can. suzanne malveaux. and rob march yiano tracking th winds. let's start with reynolds wolf. >> reporter: the latest we've got. despite reports, the coast guard hasn't confirmed the oil has made it to shore. at 7:00 eastern time they'll make an aerial reconnaissance. i can tell you it's been very active in this area, venice, louisiana. but this is certainly not the only one. there are many ports just like this. yesterday, bobby jindal declared a state of emergency for the state of louisiana. with that, they put out 170 feet -- 170,000 feet of emergency booms and putting out another half million before the next couple of days. they are acting quickly to try to stem the flow, the advance of this tremendous oil. >> you went out on a boat to get a closer look at the oil slick and how it's moving around in the wind and current. what happened to that? >> reporter: yesterday we went out and, did go out on the crew runner, 65-foot work boat right up the mississippi delta into the gulf of mexico. we made it a mile off the coast. we had the mississippi going into the gulf and water from the gulf was actually being forced northward with the strong wind from the south. actually it was like moving inside a giant wash tub so to speak. it was pretty rough to say the very least. we were forced to turn back. >> reynolds wolf, in venice, louisiana. we'll keep checking back with you. thanks so much. the weather is making the cleanup effort more difficult. high winds are making for choppy seas and that makes p means it's harder to contain the oil spewing into the golf each day. rob marciano has more on what to expect today for the hundreds of vessels out there trying to help. >> good morning, guys, the winds are not favorable for this operation, pushing everything onshore. we talked about this yesterday. that just takes the top surface of the water, including oil, in the direction the wind is blowing to, that would be the louisiana coastline, also the mississippi coast line and the alabama coastline and the florida coastline not out of it either. it is posted because the water rising up, because of the winds. today's forecast does bring it onshore to the mouth of the mississippi river and barrier islands to the east of like upon cha train. and main even towards alabama. looking what the google earth forecast shows, these lines indicate what noaa thinks the oil is going to do come the weekend. notice the shift over to pensacola on monday. we're talking about hundreds of miles of coast line and thousands of people and certainly hundreds of species of animals going to be affected by this over the next several days and several months unfortunately the way it looks right now. we'll talk more about this throughout the morning. meantime, the federal response to the oil spill disaster is growing. the massive slick comes at the time when president obama is calling for a major expansion of more drilling. >> the white house is holding a press conference promising an all-out response to the growing disaster. what's the latest this morning. >> reporter: it's quite amazing. we saw a half dozen officials at the briefing, saying that the federal government is doing everything it can. what was striking about this briefing, kiran, was the fact that they knew so little information just when exactly it was coming, how much damage it would do to wildlife, what type of preparations people needed to make. they don't know how bad it's going to be. we heard from janet anapolitano saying this is an emergency. the president has reached out to the five governors of states impacted by this and homeland security and interior and administrator of the epa, all of them heading out to the region to do a flyover to see how quickly the oil is going to get to the coastline. they have mobilized federal resources to make sure to mitigate some of the damage here. here's how president obama put it yesterday. >> i have ordered the secretaries of interior and security and lisa jackson of the environmental protection agency to visit the site on friday to ensure bp and entire u.s. government is doing everything possible not just to respond to the incident, but also to determine its cause. >> reporter: it is fair to say that the obama administration is on the defensive this morning. they had an administration official put out a statement to push back on some of the criticism that's coming from local officials, people saying, okay, you're preparing for the worst-case scenario, why didn't you do this from day one, not when we saw this yesterday, this full mobilization. an official saying on april 20th, the coast guard was out there, it was an emergency response to try to find those missing miners out there missing and now considered dead, that that was the initial response and that they set up the teams and they have been working very closely with the oil company, bp to figure out what's going on. they have new information indicating this is worse than they thought. the administration doesn't want this to be obama's katrina and they are promising, pushing back very hard. >> what about the broader issue of offshore drilling in total? the president has made this a key issue. now there's a battle going on in the senate whether or not there should be a moratorium. this has to be a setback. >> reporter: i asked, is there anybody on the podium giving second thoughts no the wisdom on offshore drilling. one is this is one example, a catastrophic disaster, but one example of what was not safe, what didn't work. there are other hups of oil rigs humming along and everything is fine. they are not concerned about the overall safety of the oil rigs out there and this kind of accident happening again. secondly they say there is a process here that will take years before you have expanded offshore drilling. you've got to have private contractors who are going to be bidding on contracts and they got to want out and do this and make sure it's safe. that is something that's going to take -- they said up to five years. this debate can continue and perhaps it will never happen. perhaps the expansion of offshore drilling will never happen because there's plenty of time where you get to the point where you have the expansion to begin with. clearly, a much more cautious for the administration because of this serious accident. >> suzanne malveaux, thanks. the fallout starting already. we'll speak with bill nelson about his effort to block the president's planned expansion of offshore drilling. president obama whittling down his short list of candidates. sources tell cnn elena okkagan considered to be a front-runner. strong winds sent a helium balloon crashing through a fence on takeoff and forced spectators in australia to run for their eye lives. the balloons are carrying cutting edge telescopes and astronomers get a clearer view of space. they have to pick up the pieces of years of work. it's not clear whether anything can be salvaged, but they are promising another launch. >> they'll get back on their feet again. a man named leslie buck has died. if you have picked up a coffee to go in new york city, he helped to perk up your day and maybe put a smile on your face. he designed the we are happy to serve you paper cups. he died the complications from parkinson's disease. when you grab your coffee, raise one in memory of leslie buck. a criminal investigation now launched against goldman sachs. when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to work with kids. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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so many of you are telling us, why isn't anybody in jail because of this? this is just the next step in investigations into what went wrong. this particular case though, not necessarily the cause of all of the problems in the economy. it's one case that they are investigating about cdos. >> when we talk to carl levin the other day and he was talking about all of the stuff going on at the company, he said he didn't know if it is illegal. he said if it wasn't illegal, it should have been. >> that seems to be the crux of what's going on here -- >> what should have been though -- >> goldman sachs for the past ten years has been making an awful lot of money. that's what old goldman sachs it was to do. that was its mission, to make a lot of money. the question is, did they break laws in making that money. many people say the s.e.c. has a tough case in front of them. they have said sometimes the feds and s.e.c. on a big case they think they can get, they announce it at the same time. this time it's different. it's not clear how strong the case is. >> christine romans, thanks. still to come, we'll give you an update on the oil spill disaster. companies like goldman sachs are blamed for the economic problems we're dealing with. there's another group of companies that played a role. credit rating agencies and allan chernoff will join us. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i thought investment firms were there tdd# 1-800-345-2550 to help with my investments. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so where's that help when i need it? 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>> no. >> reporter: but when she fell behind on her payment, that lender this already sold the mortgage to investment bank morgan stanley. >> the basic idea was let's take a bunch of mortgages -- professor lawrence white teaches at stern school of business. >> here's these 100 mortgages, they've been packaged up to now we'll call a security. >> reporter: securities of anticipated mortgage payments that wall street firms sold to investors. that's where the credit rating agencies come in. there are three players, standard and poor's, moody's and fitch. to tell investors what's the likelihood james and other home buyers can make their monthly payments, which are supposed to flow to the investors. the rating agency said homeowners like james were likely to pay their mortgages, very likely. so they gave those mortgage securities their top marks an effort critics say to generate more lucrative deals from wall street. >> the rating industries, if you want, betrayed the people by having models that did not recognize the objective risk conditions in the field. >> reporter: giselle james fell into foreclosure just like millions of other of home buyers who could not afford their mortgages. >> it turns out that, no, this wasn't so safe. the rating firms had been way over-optimistic. >> reporter: based on aaa ratings, ohio's pension funds bought 263 of the mortgage securities. when the housing bubble popped, the investments plummeted. s&p 500 and moody's and fitch cut their readings from super safe to junk. but it was too late. ohio's pension plans lost $456 million. >> our investors and retirees were victims of what the rating industries did here. it's up setting. many of them know the systems have been hurt. they worry about getting their checks every day. >> ohio is not alone. connecticut and california lost millions of dollars and they, with ohio are suing the rating agencies. those agencies say they are going to defend themselves. but they are getting heat in congress. and the financial reform bill now before the senate tharks would decrcreate a new office t require oversight and more transparency of those credit rating agencies. john and kiran? >> it goes back to giselle. you asked, do you think you could think you could afford this house. she said no. >> she is a smart woman but not smart in the way of finance. she was a librarian. she was convinced by a mortgage broker, don't worry, you'll be okay. she didn't believe it, but she believed the mortgage broker, then the dominos just began falling. >> what a tangled web. thanks for breaking it down for us. the debate over arizona's immigration law is now impacting the national past time. i have astigmatism. so my old contact lenses would sometimes move out of place and blur my vision. my eye doctor said there's great news for people with astigmatism. acuvue oasys for astigmatism. they work with the way my eyes move and blink, which helps them stay in place. and this is the only lens of its kind made with hydraclear plus. i'm seeing more clearly, crisply, comfortably, all day long. now life doesn't have to be a blur. [ male announcer ] for a free trial pair certificate, go to getacuvue.com. acuvue oasys for astigmatism. ♪ 27 minutes past the hour. the fierce debate over immigration spreading to america's past time. a few dozen activists protested arizona's new immigration law outside the cubs game yesterday. the arizona diamondbacks were in town. the new law requires police to check whether a person is in the united states legally if there's a reason to suspect that he or she is not. critics say it will foster racial profiling. if you get closer to the border, you'll find many supporters, some loud and angry, who say this law will actually save american lives. john mccain heard from some of them and casey has this "a.m. original". >> reporter: kiran opponents of arizona's new law have marched through the cities of phoenix and tucson. we're in casa grande, it's in smaller towns like this where one support for a crackdown is strong. >> as a normal citizen, what do we do, besides wondering and frustrated? >> reporter: at a town hall meeting with john mccain and police chiefs, one residents discussed a solution of his own. >> shoot, shovel and shut up. these people are herded up like could y cows and horses and driven across the border. they pay good money to do it. why don't we make a few examples and maybe the rest of them will get the idea, that hey, they shoot back. >> i understand your passion but that's not -- i think frankly in the tradition of america. >> reporter: casa grande is more than 100 miles from the border. the sheriff estimates 80% of the illegal immigrants who enter in arizona pass through the county. in one month, sheriff's deputies were involved in 64 high-speed pursuits with suspected smugg r smugglers of illegal immigrants or drugs. >> we've seen the tactics change over the last couple of months here and become increasingly dangerous. >> reporter: the sheriff has become the voice of the county's exasperated residents. >> everybody across america is watching arizona right now. we live in this. and the violence is off the chart. >> reporter: at the nation's capital -- >> i wouldn't dare speak for anybody else. most of us in law enforcement welcome this legislation. >> i am going to stay. >> reporter: at the local vfw where he's treated like a celebrity. >> i liked you when i first saw you and i even like you more now. >> reporter: others say arizona's new slau the natural reaction to what they consider the federal government's failure to security the nation's borders and solve the illegal immigration crisis. his main concern is the safety of the county's residents and i have his deputies. and that safety is being compromised every day by smugglers. >> casey wian this morning. thanks. the closer you gets to the situation, the opinions are very different than other places of the country. 31 minutes past the hour, wall street giant goldman sachs reportedly the focus of a criminal investigation now. sources telling the associated press that it is as a result of the referral by the s.e.c. the daughter of one of the 29 men killed in west virginia's upper big branch mine says the mine's owner is offering each family a $3 million settlement. massey said accepting a deal would not bar families from taking legal action. it was the worst disaster in more than 40 years. a state of emergency in louisiana, a 600 square mile oil slick has reportedly now reached the coast. so far robots working under water have not been