new orleans and baton rouge would be saved. also mirroring arizona, the second state with some stiff immigration laws. the governor nathan beale signed that law yesterday. the author will be here with me in the studio live and also someone who's against it. you want to hear the conversation. also another conversation you'll be interested to hear, a rare interview with hank aaron, talking about baseball, how it's letting down the black community. also talking about who the real home run king should be. from the cnn center, this is your cnn saturday morning. glad you could spend part of your day here with us. it's 7:00 a.m. in morgan city, louisiana. all eyes on morgan city today. let's talk about this flooding, major flooding has swamped the upper mississippi and ohio river valley is now making aim at lower mississippi. later today the army corps of engineers could open the morganza spill way in louisiana. it has not been opened in more than 40 years. w450i why would they open it now? it could save the cities of new orleans and baton rouge saving them from flooding, but unfortunately it would flood homes and businesses in the southwest part of the state. also on monday, president obama will give a commencement address at a high school in memphis and will also take the time out while he's there to meet with families affected by the flooding. but that may not be much comfort to others who know floodwater also take their homes. >> it's worse than we thought. it's really worse than we thought. we thought maybe we might have water in our yard, instead this is going to come into our home, it's going to take everything we have got. >> all right. let's turn back to this morganza spill way, just north of baton rouge, residents living west of the mississippi all the way down the flood plane have been warned about what this might mean, it will mean flooded homes and farms. ed, do we know when they might open this thing up? >> we're probably looking at sometime this afternoon, t.j., probably 2:30 central time, 3:30 eastern time. this is all very much in the air and we're waiting to get official confirmation in the next three hours perhaps early in the afternoon. to set the scene, all this water you see behind me, this is a holding reservoir for the morganza spill way. the fact that there's this much water there shows you how dynamic and incredible this situation here. halfway down, you see a huge gray crane over the top. it's already in position to open up one of the floodgates and we understand this will be done in a very slow and distribute process. when one of those floodgates open, you can look across and see all of this dry land. you can see this will curve south toward morgan city, about 100 miles. it will take several days for this water to reach all the way down there, but they will do in this a very slow and distribute process, t.j., we're told, a lot of that is to give a chance for the wildlife to adapt to all the water that's coming. why they're doing this, we have talked a lot about over the last few days. they need to take pressure off of the mississippi river and what will trigger the opening of these floodgates is the pressure on the levee system that goes between baton rouge and new orleans. we understand that anything over 1.5 million cubic feet per second. anything more than that puts too much strain, the army corps of engineers says, on the levee system. it will flood a vast amount of farm land, but there are many communities that will be in danger of these floodwaters so a lot of these people taking a lot of precautions to prepare for these floodwaters that will be coming their way. t.j.? >> taking precautions, have they been told to get out? is the evacuation being suggested? or will it ever possibly be mandatory? or will people hold on and ride it out? >> reporter: there's been a lot of warnings that have been going out over the past few days, urging people, one place we spent a lot of time in, the town of hugo rose where a town of more than 800 homes there, people have been packing it up in some cases taking everything out of their homes because they know what's coming down the pike here. other little towns on the way toward more gogan city, people been building up levees and sandbagging. and authorities want to go door to door to urge people to come out. >> ed lavendera, we appreciate having you from morganza. we have got more businesses, we have more property, we have more lives here, we need to flood this area to try to save that area? >> it's the plain and simple way to look at it. what will be threatened the least. it goes the route of the mississippi river, you've got baton rouge, new orleans, you go the other way, you get morgan city, louisiana. it will be flooding an area of about 3,000 square miles, it's hard to to believe, one area, morgan city home to about 12,000 people. the mississippi river, just so you'll get your bearings is actually right up here, going right past the floodgates, you can see meandering it's way down to new orleans. but this area that's shaded in blue, that is the area that's going to inundated with flooding. the levee systems are crucial in this part of the world. one of the reasons why it's so crucial is that it actually prevents the floodwaters from escaping the banks. in a normal situation you've got the flood and if you've got the rising river waters and nothing to hold it back, it spreads out in some cases for miles in either direction. but when you have a levee system which is an artificial bare year on both sides of the river bank, it keeps the river in a nice channel and keeps it from flooding. we need dry conditions, we don't need any rainfall in parts of louisiana and mississippi. and thankfully the weather is going to cooperate. in parts of the great lakes, scattered and storms. including places like detroit, back into cincinnati, you can expect some rainfall, also in places like washington, d.c., same deal in st. louis, back into the pacific northwest, seattle may deal with some rainfall, spokane, some rainfall, but high in the higher elevations, we're talking more snow. >> we'll check in with you again here shortly. now some more new information on what was found by navy s.e.a.l.s inside bin laden's compound. we're hearing from navy officials they have uncovered an unreleased audiotape, they believe it was taped last month and in it bin laden talked about uprising in indonesia and tune naeza. and also a stack of pornographic materials, but it's unknown who it belonged to. was it bin laden's or his sons, or his couriers? officials aren't saying right now. also pakistan's parliament defending the raid. pakistan also demanding an end to u.s. drone strikes in their country. not exactly a whole lot of drilling going on, but with $4 a gallon gas, no more than the norm than the exception, president obama talking about safe and responsible domestic oil production in his weekly address. >> last year america's oil production reached its highest level since 2003, but i believe that we should continue to expand oil production in america, even as we increase safety and environmental standards. to do this, i'm asking the department of the interior to analyze alaska's national petroleum reserve and to speed up the drilling of oil in the mid and south atlantic. >> the president went on to say that he wants to expand oil drilling in the gulf of mexico and call for an end to mul multimillion dollar subsidies for oil companies. and a national crackdown on immigration. georgia's governor signs a controversial new law, we are talking to one of the bill's authors, he is here in studio with me. he'll see why he thinks georgia won't face the same fate that arizona has faced so far. more of my conversation with hall of famer hank aaron, do african-americans have a future in the game he loves? the numbers aren't good. you'll hear his take this morning. we are! got it. 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[ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can now come from any faucet anywhere. introducing the brita bottle with the filter inside. 11 minutes past the hour now, georgia is the latest state to pass a law identifying illegal immigrants. governor nathan beale signed the bill into law yesterday. he was greeted by protesters outside that capitol building. there are some 425,000 illegal immigrants in georgia, that's the seventh highest in the nation and even more so than arizona. under this new law, police are allowed to verify immigration status of those suspected of particular crimes. also those in the country illegally can be arrested. police can also use a database to confirm that new hires are authorized to work in the u.s. georgia chamber of commerce, along with a group representing georgia farmers opposed the e-verify provisions in that law. joining me is the author of that law in georgia. sir, thank you for coming in this morning. let's see here, 425,000 estimated illegali immigrants i the state of georgia. do you want them all to go? >> i want people to follow the law and what we have done with house bill 87 is to the greatest extent possible removed incentives for someone who somes to the country illegally comes to georgia. the cost the huge, estimated $425 billion per year. >> you talked about not having more come in. you're trying to get rid of the incentive for coming into the state. but for the ones that are here, would you like for them all to go? >> absolutely. if you're in this country illegally, there's a process by which you come here legally. and there are millions and millions of people sitting around all over the planet, some of the most desperate places in the world waiting for their turn at the american dream. and i don't know how you can defend as fair individuals that come here in circumvention of the law. we allow millions of people to be naturalized in our country every year. >> a lot of people don't want people jumping to the front of the line, don't want people walking across the border. but just to hear that he wants all those people to go, and still at the same time, do your hearts go out to and you don't think they're bad people necessarily, they're here and trying to provide and work for their families. would you give them that? >> i understand wanting to make a better life for your family. but i also understand that we are a nation of law and the corner stone that has sustained our democracy for 200 years, depends onned a herns to the laws. >> do you believe that illegal immigrants are adding to this state? because there are plenty of estimates and studying we can give you that say they are adding a whole lot. some estimates up to $20 billion in the state of georgia. >> certainly illegal aliens are paying some sales taxes and other various taxes, but georgia, it's kind of a nebulous problem on the federal level. they don't have to balance their budget. here in georgia, ever single dollar they spend has to be balanced with the money that's coming in. in the last four years we have cut a third of our budget. so when you're talking about a $2.4 million net impact, that impacts our schools, the quality of our students education. that's netting out the taxes that are paid being against the burden on our taxpayer services. >> what do you feel about being unfortunately that guy. we read here the arizona style law. when people hear that, it has a negative connotation to people around the country. and a lot of people in new york, florida, wherever, they're not going to take time to hear your bill. all they're going to hear is the news, arizona style law, georgia's not friendly to immigrants, immigration and they're anti-business, are you concerned about the impact that this law could have on folks not bringing conventions, not bringing their meetings here, not bringing their vacations here just like we saw in arizona? >> we have by any statistical measure the most business friendly state in the country, from a regulatory standpoint, from a tax standpoint and it's going to continue to be that way. you ask do i like being that guy. certainly i would love for people to actually sit down and read the bill and understand what's in it. this is a responsible bill, it doesn't cast any wider net than we intend it to, it only gets to the people who are here in the country illegally. >> this is the government's job, you don't want to wait on them to do it? >> it has been 30 years we have been waiting for them to do it and we're taking it as our responsibility. >> mr. ramsay, we appreciate you coming in this morning, a lot more about this and i know you think yours can hold up in court because some are coming after this bill in the courts, you think this can hold up. we appreciate you coming in. of course not everybody happy with this new law, some of the strongest opposition is coming from the business community. that perspective after the break. where do you go to find a business backed by the superguarantee®? only superpages.com®. for local maps, deals and more, go to superpages.com®. and let the good guys save the day. 19 past the hour, i spoke with the author of georgia's new immigration law. it requires employers with at least 10 workers to use what's called the e-verify system before they make new hires, that would confirm their immigration status and if they are able to work in this country. a group of protesters, though small, gathered outside the capitol. among those opposed to the bill business owners. good morning, thank you for being here as well. >> good morning, t. do you think we need illegal workers in this country and specifically in this state? >> we do have a shortage of people to do specific jobs in our country. >> now to do those jobs, though, do we need to have illegal folks here? because i read and i see some things that sounds like some say yes, illegal workers are here and we need them. >> we need a reformed immigration plan to allow our country to accept more people in that would like to work in our country. >> when you hear this argument all the time, do we not have at 9% unemployment and what is it, 13 million, 14 million out of work in this country, do we not have enough people to do the job? >> we have a lot of jobs in the restaurant and entertainment industry that quite frankly americans will not do. >> what does that mean? >> i have spoken to restauranteurs that have said in the past two years they have had no american people apply as dishwashers and restaurants and scholarly people as stewards. the industry is concerned about this. i spoke to a restauranteur yesterday afternoon before you called me and a restauranteur was sharing me with that hispanic employees are leaving and thigh are legal to this country, they are resident aliens of the united states and have a legal right in this country, they are leaving the state of georgia because they feel unwelcome, they are concerned for their families, they are concerned for being harassed, they are concerned for being singled out. >> the restauranteurs that you speak of, what is their concern? if this illegal workforce goes away, does it mean they can't fill the jobs? i hear people say my only option are illegal workers, and the illegal workers get the job and it's because that employer doesn't have to pay them a certain wage, they can pay them a little less than the minimum wage. >> the restaurant industry has been complying with federal law by doing i-9 verification. the restaurant industry has been complying with that for many years. >> but that's a form that you can just hand anybody, any fake i.d. and you fill that thing out, it's not checked with the federal database. >> when the person is entered into your payroll system, that social security number is verified with the social security administration and if there is a nonmatch, you give that employee a letter and allow them time to straighten out their issue, with their social security number or how it was put into the system. >> you oppose e-verify, you can plug somebody in and see if they're here legally. >> the e-verify system is extremely cumbersome. you have to train an administrator and there is a high degree of security that needs to happen when one uses the e-verify system. you cannot use it as a screening device, you cannot use it for preemployment. when you hire an individual, every individual in your business has to be screened through e-verify. if that person comes up with a nonmatch, they have a specific period of time, it's roughly two weeks to straighten out whenever issue might be with their identification. during that time you cannot suspend them, you have to continue on with their training procession. and the e-verify system was set up so that you are not allowed to discriminate against anybody. however if you take an individual who may not actually -- who has an issue with their name, a hyphen ated last name. >> one of the provisions here does say that someone needs to show i.d. if someone's stopped for a crime. you all are more so opposing the parts that have to do with employers and whatnot, but any other provisions that you have a problem with in this law? >> there are provisions that penalize people for assisting people that are in need. i have had restauranteurs say to me so if i take an individual to the hospital that cut their hand, i would -- i could be penalized for taking that person to the hospital. >> that's not true. the law says you can't transport someone if you are -- if you know are an illegal immigrant and you transport them to further their illegal status taking somebody to the hospital is not the same thing. >> there are many immigration attorneys will tell you there will be cases made on that. there will be people penalized. the bottom line is we're alienating, we're profiling against a certain group of people. the asian community are just as concerned as the hispanic community. >> i would talk about this all morning, ms. brimmer, it's law now, we have got july 1 before it takes effect. we'll see if it stands up. >> my organization has 300,000 employees that represents $14 billion in revenue and represents 1/18 of the state's overall revenue budget. we will be working with them to make sure they understand the law. my cream is what makes stouffer's fettuccini alfredo so delicious. i think you'll find it's the vegetables. deliciously rich. flavorful! [ female announcer ] together at last. introducing new stouffer's farmers' harvest with sides of lightly sauteed farm-picked vegetables. find more ways to get to the table at letsfixdinner.com. ithe doctor leaned overs as a and said to me, "you just beat the widow-maker." i was put on an aspirin, and it's part of my regimen now. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. go see your doctor now. all right, major league baseball, looking back this weekend to the ground breaking contributions of african-americans. people like martin luther king jr., frideedom riders but also people like hank aaron. i sat down with hank to talk about his place in baseball history. what would you say to those fan who is say hank aaron is the home run king, he will always be my home run king and they refuse to acknowledge anybody at this point that's above your name. would you say let it go, the guy above me has more home runs and he's your home run king. what would you say? >> i would thank them first of all if they think that way of the but here again, you know, and we're talking about barry bonds and you know, barry bonds hit more home runs than i did. and he should be justifiably should be the home run king. that's the way i look at it. i look at it as saying he done everything he wanted to do, everything he was supposed to do in baseball. people say,