so -- what the young man was talking about we need to -- we need to repeal don't ask don't tell, which i agree with and which -- >> the president's not necessarily comfortable at some moments up there. a flash of anger from unusually cool president as he was heckled. heckle overed his commitment to ending the military's don't ask don't tell policy. we'll show you more of that exchange he had with the crowd in california. good morning to you all. i'm t.j. holmes sitting in for my good friend, tony harris. those stories and your comments here in the cnn "newsroom." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com first up, europe trying to emerge from a volcanic cloud. you see it there and you've been seeing these pictures for the past several days and now there's concern about a new plume of ash up there spewing from that disruptive volcano in iceland. european aviation officials now hoping to get half of the scheduled flights off the ground and that's something, at least. our paula newton is at london's heathrow which is usually europe's busiest airport. hello to you again. a few flights possibly taking off, paula? >> reporter: absolutely, in europe, we had to take that good news, t.j. and that's some major airports and both france and germany have opened up in the netherlands. that is all helpful and it will start to ease some of the backlog. behind me, heathrow airport, i won't say you could hear a pin drop, but almost, t.j., what's going on, two factors here in britain. that stubborn ash cloud remains above us at about 20,000 feet. secondly, the weather, the winds, the northeasterly prevailing winds continue in this weather pattern and that means that planes here in britain remain grounded for the foreseeable future except for scotland which is also a bright side. what the airlines are trying to do now is figure out any kind of opening that they have to get these planes on the ground and landed and then get them up again and taking stranded passengers hope. >> that's something, we know a lot of people are looking for and being creative still. what are their other options for some of the passengers that are among the millions around the country, or excuse me, around the world being affected. >> where people see consistent pockets that are open and in the next 24 hours it turns out to be amsterdam, paris, frankfurt, people are encouraged to give it a try. people that have run out of money and run out of medicine and people are asked to seek out the governments and seek out the airlines to see what they can do. they don't know should i stay put or should i try to go across the kont sdment get to somewhere where the skies are open. it's an agonizing decision and i spoke to some of them this morning are starting to get quite desperate. >> that's a good point you make there. you're trying to wonder should i just wait it out or go another route. paula newton, we appreciate you as always and we are hearing about your volcano travel problems through i-reports you've been sending us. david fuller was traveling from australia to the uk, but why is he in dubai? >> when they told us it was canceled people all over the airports were going mad. there were kids screaming i want to go home and parents telling them they couldn't. people were outraged and the airline put us up in a hotel overnight until the volcano stops spewing ash in the uk, but we don't know how long that's going to be for. >> check out this group of ladies from england. they traveled to texas. they're going to show the texan house to pout a proper tea. they were doing this for a church group and now their flights home have been delayed because of the volcano so they had some time on their hands to of course, have the tea, but also to send us some i-reports and this is out of fort worth trint episcopal church. >> other big stories we're keeping an eye on today. toyota followed by the word recall. you've been hearing that over the past weeks and months. they're recalling the lexus gx 460. technicians will upgrade the stability control software. a week ago today it was "consume are reports" that rated the gx 460 a rare don't buy. its test which is are now confirmed by toyota, show the suv could tip over in certain situations. sweeping immigration bill is now on the governor's desk in arizona. she is expected to sign it. the legislature gave final approval monday for this. the bill requires police to stop anyone they suspect is in the country illegally and check for documentation. critics calling it mandatory racial profiling. >> our number one obligation is government. it's not the education or the health or other aspects of our daily lives, but it's the protection of life, liberty and property. >> you will have neighbors perhaps turning against neighbors, friends against friends and family against family. >> tony harris, he was talking to both sides in this arizona immigration debate. you can see that debate on the blog on cnn's blog. go to cnn.com/newsroom and can watch that interview and have your say and let us know what you think about arizona's tough new standard when it comes to illegal immigration. senate democrats plan to start debate this week on new financial reforms and republicans are against the current plan arguing it will lead to more bank bailout. they say it will correct problems that led to the country's financial meltdown and the chief economist says it will help prevent future bailouts. >> what this bill does is bring derivatives out into the open so that they're transparent and there will be oversight. separate through the volker rule some of the speculative investment that banks are doing for their own accounts and put in place a system that we can, quote, unquote, resolve these financial institutions which means either liquidate them and sell them off, firing the management and wiping out the shareholders. that's not a bail out. this bill is about giving the government the tools so that they don't ever have to be any more bailouts. >> goldman sachs getting brilled grilled by analysts being accused of the mortgage-backed securities scheme that were expected to fail. in a conference call with analysts goldman executives denied misleading anybody and vowed again to fight the charges now coming at it from the sec. at the same time, goldman sachs released first-quarter earnings today. let me bring in stephanie elam, my dear friend. goldman sachs had been in the news with these sec charges, this fraud allegation here and that sounded terrible, but boy, it sounds like they've got good news in this profit report. >> it couldn't have come at a better time for them, t.j. because they need something good at this point and it's a lot of money they made here. goldman's second most profitable quarter since going public back in 1999, but we did have an yet this was coming and in the past week, three of the financial firms reported similar size. we heard from citi, j.p. morgan and bank of america, and all reporting strong numbers. like them, goldman made out because of more trading activity and that is goldman's bread and butter. think about stocks, think about bonds and think about what the market has been doing so the economic recovery really helping them out here. last year was a very tough comparison. so that was a bad year so it makes it easier for this period and wall street is still worried about those sec charges and goldman shares are under pressure and they're up 1.5%. the dow has been doing a little flat line dancing and the dow is up 11 points and the nasdaq is better by 11 at 2491 and we're in the green for now. >> not familiar with the dance you're talking about, but i get the idea. >> on the goldman front, the sec charges that they're facing, does this put anybody else on notice that the sec might be coming after you? >> that is exactly the fear on wall street is that if they're looking this deep to find anything, are they going to go after other financial firms and that's why we saw financial stocks plunging on friday and that's what brought the markets down on friday when the sec charged goldman sachs with this fraud, but putting together a case against such companies is really hard to do and that's because wall street firms are complex. they have these complex products that they offer and another problem, the government bears the burden of proving that fund managers intentionally, intentionally misled shareholders and that's another very difficult task. there was a case against former bear stearns hedge fund managers and it was a sole criminal case that came out of the credit crisis and the fund managers were found not guilty because they had no way of knowing where the subprime mortgage rate market was heading. it was a complex process and that's why we haven't seen many cases against the wall street firms. as for the markets doing the flat line dance, you have seen a little bit about soft shoe. i've seen it. >> i didn't know what i was doing. >> always good to see you. we'll check in with you again. >> we'll be remembering the civil rights leader dorothy height described by president obama as a hero once serving as the only woman at the center of the civil rights movement. also rob marciano in the severe weather center with the severe volcanic ash center afz late. we'll check in with him in just a moment. stay with us. civil rights pioneer dorothy height has died at the age of 98. she was called the god mother of the women's movement and our joe johns now looks back at the words and work of this iconic figure. >> dr. dorothy l. height. >> reporter: at the funeral of cor ate scott king in 2006, the president stood to honor dorothy height and at the age of 93, as she celebrated the life of mrs. king, she might have been talking about her own. >> there are some people who live their lives not just for themselves alone, but for others. >> reporter: and she had a message for the generations that followed the pioneers of the civil rights movement. >> many times when people are going through open doors now, i wish that they could hear the stories of how those doors got opened. >> reporter: dorothy height opened doors for thousands. for four decades she was president of the national council of negro women. she helped organize freedom schools in mississippi at the height of the battle over segregation in the south, bringing women of different races and backgrounds together for what became known as wednesdays in mississippi. she knew and worked with figures such as rosa parks who sparked the montgomery busboy cot. >> it was as if she could hear a soft voice saying to her rosa parks, you're a child of god. you can make a difference. i think she would want to say that there's a lot of work for us to do to make freedom and equality a reality and that each of us can make a difference. >> she was close to dr. king and fond of quoting him. >> dr. king always said the black man needs the white man to free him of his fear and the white man needs the black man to free him of his guilt. we need each other. >> reporter: dorothy height was awarded both the presidential medal of freedom and a congressional gold medal for her public service in one of america's most turbulentier as. joe johns, cnn, washington. a british royal navy ship is on a rescue mission of sorts. the vessel arrived in northern spain today to pick up 500 british troops returning from afghanistan and also 300 vacationing civilians. they had been stranded for days after that volcanic ash from iceland shut down airports and that ash is affecting the evacuation of u.s. troops wounded in afghanistan. the disruption of european air traffic means some of the wounded are being taken to iraq instead of germany. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr joins us with details. you're on your way to iraq. >> it really is, t.j. they get wounded in afghanistan and think they're on their way home for medical care, but think again. first, you'll make another stop in the other war zone. what we now know, what we have been told today is that u.s. troops wounded in afghanistan are actually being taken to a military hospital in iraq. let's look at the map. they're picking them up in afghanistan and taking them to balad, iraq, north of baghdad for intermediate medical care to get them stabilized and flying them to spain and finally home to the united states. why are they going to iraq? well, we got a briefing about that today. here are some of the key reasons for this very crucial change. it is not about the amount of care, it is about the capacity and it's about making sure that we triage, if you will, that we make sure that we have capacity for the unexpected events in the battle space like this. we have to be prepared at a moment's notice for something like a devastating attack by the enemy. to have that capacity ready at our hands means we have to move those wounded soldiers and we have to move them in a way that allows us that capacity to be prepared for the unexpected. >> so, basically, t.j., they've got to get them out of afghanistan as fast as they can. they can't have them stacking up in the hospitals there, but they can't send them on to germany. so the only place they can send them for this critical stabilization care is to the u.s. military hospital in the other war zone in iraq. so that's the outgoing flow out of the war zone. the volcano is still having an impact on those coming into the war zone. the military confirming some number of troops delayed getting into the afghan theater. some cargo and some supplies also delayed and just like everybody else, the military coping as best they can, t.j. they're making the adjustments they need to make as well. barbara starr, thank you so much as always. dark, dirty and dismal. we'll take you inside the volcano zone where all you see for miles is ash. 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'cause actually, i'm from - anncr: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. some of the stories making headlines this hour. airlines have limited flights in and out of europe today and shifting winds could bring new concentrations of ash forcing them to shut corridors again. after six days some stranded flyers are running out of patience, of course, and also they're running out of money. >> we can't afford anything, and i'm going to start crying. sorry. thanks to generous people in america that have helped us. >> also on capitol hill right now, a house committee dissecting the collapse of lehman brothers and listen to this lineup of people that are going to be testifying there. the treasury secretary and also the fed chairman and then later the former ceo will be testifying. in a prepared statement, the court-appointed examiner's report on the collapse as a distortion. >> main gear touchdown. pilot jim duton now deploying the drag chute. >> that's space shuttle "discovery" returning to earth. that happened a couple of hours ago. flawless landing in florida after a re-supply mission to the space station. three flights remain and only three shuttle flights remain on nasa's schedule before they retire the shuttle program. all right. check this out. we've been seeing some awesome pictures here from this volcano and this may be one you haven't seen just yet. this is from that volcano in iceland. it's spewing that lava and ash, we know, but also lightning coming from this thing? i think we've got rob checking this out. >> how about that? >> i did not know, rob, that you could get lightning from a volcano as well. >> when you look at the cloud itself and we've been showing this obviously for the past few days it kind of looks like a thunderstorm cloud, you know? there's a lot of turbulence and a lot of vertical motion and the thunderstorm cloud, you have a lot of ice crystals and raindrops bumping up against each other creating an electric charge and similarly, you have a lot of junk here bumping up against each other, ash, big boulders, smoke, you've got it, water vapor and that creates the same electric charge, static electric charge like rubbing your feet across the carpet. >> when you put it that way it makes perfect sense. >> it looks so cool. i mean, come on! >> behind you it's not necessarily cool and we have a wind issue now that could throw this stuff back in england's face in some ways, if you will. >> the wind has been the issue, aside from the thing erupting and it simmered down a little bit yesterday, but the problem is when you go vertically in the atmosphere, the winds are changing in direction and speed at every single level. so it gets so complicated and the variables are high and near, the high ter gets in the air, the stronger the jet stream and the lower it is and that's what we've seen lately. the lower it is the more it fans out in the lower elevation winds which are going in all sorts of direction and are lighter and disperse it that way. this is an aqua satellite from nasa. you kind of see the north to south orientation and that's directing it more toward the uk and we continue to see at the lowest levels it's dispersed from europe and even asia. surface to 20,000 feet right now and that's the spot that is most affected, really and above 20,000 feet the airspace above the uk is actually open. so i think i've loaded it up -- did i load it up? did i load it up? oh, yeah. it didn't work. the flights that you see flying over the uk, well they've got to be above 20,000 feet because below that it is too dangerous. back to the states with we go with rain shower from seattle, portland, salem and san francisco, almost all of the way down to san diego. we've certainly got higher elevation snows and heavier rains slashing across parts of the foothills of the sierras, a decent piece of energy and we'll see high elevation snows in the four corners and even the teetones and as you get to thursday and friday a decent chunk of energy. and mexico, and starting to warm up, and and something you haven't seen much all this year. that's one of the plusses. and the flight tracker over europe, and flight radar 24.com. this website, by the way has been overloaded and everyone's trying to get on it and these planes you see flying over the uk and through ireland. most of those are flying to some other destination to and from europe or asia or some other spots. so trying to open up all of the airspace, but right now just at the highest elevations is the case. t.j.? >> all right. we appreciate it and you sounded excited to get that out. i'm glad we were able to get that up on the screen. stay with us, gay rights activists showing some impatience with president obama. you're in the cnn "newsroom" stay here. will everyone with constipation please report to gate 17? thank you so much. constipation's uncomfortable enough, so why take a harsh laxative? phillips' caplets work naturally with your colon... for overnight relief without cramps. phillips' caplets. hey katie. how are you? [ katie ] should i get a perm? oh, that's an interesting question... [ katie ] she's always talking over me in meetings. it's just so rude. mm-hmm. when did you video me dancing? [ katie ] posting it. do not post this! i'm not gonna grow a beard because then i'll look ridicu-- ah! where am i? by the way, katie. tillamook is beautiful this time of year. [ katie ] oh, really? we should go camping out