During Kagan News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

For 28 years under its director Ron Kagan, the Detroit Zoo pioneered a worldwide movement to showcase wild creatures more ethically while hosting record numbers of visitors at Detroit's collection and adding dozens of new exhibits. Kagan announced Tuesday he'll retire this summer. The Detroit Zoological Society has formed a search committee to seek the zoo's next director, according to a news release. Kagan, 69, will leave his longtime roles as executive director and CEO of the Zoological Society, a nonprofit group that operates the Detroit Zoo, whose assets are owned by the city of De...

>> well, i think so. >> reporter: you think so. >> well, i think they'll be raised. >> reporter: jeffrey toobin has a sense of how the hearings starting today will go. >> i think her critique of the hearings was dead-on. i expect she will not follow her own advice and will instead follow the advice of the people in the white house which is always, say as little as possible. >> well, we'll be watching today to see if toobin was right. during kagan's confirmation hearing for solicitor general, she was asked about her lack of judicial experience. she said then the communication skills she develop...

Own advice and will instead follow the advice of the people in the white house which is always, say as little as possible. >> reporter: well, during kagan's confirmation hearing for solicitor general she was asked about her lack of judicial experience. she said then the communication skills she developed that made her an excellent teacher would also help her argue. most of the folks we talked to expect her to be confirmed but expect her also to face some tough and very real questions especially given what she wrote in chicago law review some time ago. >> you can't diss the hearings and say tha...

Those decades. elena kagan was born in 1960 here in new york city. not too far from where supreme court justice sonia sotomayor grew up. so if kagan makes the court, there is some cross town rivalry possible. >> this appreciation for diverse views may also come in handy as a diehard mets fan serving alongside her new colleague yankees fan justice sotomayor who i believe has ordered a pin-striped robe for the occasion. [ laughter ] >> shepard: growing up, kagan's mom was a teacher. her dad a lawyer. her brothers would walk in mom's footsteps. she would follow her father's. kagan attended hunter...

School's first woman dean and tried to bar military recruiters from campus because of the don't ask don't tell policy. supporters say she developed a good reputation as someone who could bring people together. the fox news contributor lis wiehl a harvard alum says kagan hosted poker parties in her home to bring together liberal and conservative professors. >> shepard: bringing together liberals and conservatives. that's one thing at a poker table. what remains is whether she will have similar success in the u.s. senate. explosion after explosion shaking the ground in central iraq as militants ...