in alabama, mississippi, louisiana and florida as you saw in that map. crews are still using containment booms in a bid to protect especially sensitive areas as you see in that shot. and this one is at the brenten national wildlife refuge in venice, louisiana. and take a look right now. this nasa photo of the gulf showing just how big the spill is, quite colossal. bp oil officials are meeting with fishermen who could be devastated by this disaster. environmentalists are worried about how the spill will affect birds in particular. >> we're concerned about any of the birds that have these populations that are congregated right now in the breeding season. this is really a bad time of the year for this to hit for the breeding birds. there are brown pelicans on nests, just recently removed from the endangered species list and this will be a setback to their conservation. we have a lot of concerns about birds with already small populations, but many concerns in louisiana because we have such huge globally significant concentrations of many of these bird species. >> we're tackling all the angles of this story as the gulf coast braces for whatever this slick just might bring. let's begin with brian todd. he is in venice, louisiana. brian? >> reporter: fredricka, we have new information about the method of attack that bp and the other crews are using to try to contain this oil spill. i just spoke to a bp official a short time ago and got some detail on the way they're using these underwater dispersants to try to break up the oil and get it to sink. he said essentially they plan on taking the dispersants out by boat, just over the wellhead, sending it down by a coiled tube to where the oil is coming out, shoot it down there, and position it where the oil is coming out so the chemicals can attach to the oil, disperse it there where it is coming out of the wellhead and get it to dissipate and sink. that's the plan. they have not yet deployed those dispersants yet in any great volume right now. but they are planning to do that soon. so that is one way they're trying to do this. this key point of attack here, there is concern -- >> okay, we're losing that signal there as you can see. it is very windy. that's part of the problem. it is very treacherous there and there is great concern that that wind also will help accelerate the oil slick from reaching the coastline, alabama, mississippi, florida, and, of course, louisiana, which is already being impacted. brian todd there. along the gulf coast it a waiting game. residents are watching to see what the sea actually brings in. richard lui now is in dauphin island, alabama, where it is also very windy. and we can see the chop of the water there, richard. what do you have? >> reporter: hey, fred. what we're seeing now, last hour when you and i were talking, we saw the booms how they were loose because they are right behind me. and the concern was how are they going to get them back anchored. you see on my left-hand side, the environmental company is trying to right what had happened. the anchor is going loose. they're re-collecting the booms at the moment and they'll redeploy them is what they told me. they'll put down the 40 pound anchors again to try to make sure that the booms will stay out there, stay deployed this next time they do t they don't have the time or the energy or the resources to do this two or three different times. they were huddling moments ago to try to figure out how to attack this problem. what they did is they disconnected what was a long maybe 200 foot boom and have taken off one section, and now what they're going to do after they have got this section on the ground, they'll go out, and try to grab that next section that is still out there in the ocean and then reconnect them together and then sink the anchor again. so that's sort of the dynamic right now as they have to deal with the weather, they have to deal with the ocean, they have to deal with the waves that have been lapping up over on top of this defense mechanism that we have been talking about up and down the coast and certainly this is not the only place as we have been reporting. this is the dynamic they have to deal with as the weather continues to make it difficult. on the side of all this, this, of course, all of the people that are worried about this potential oil slick hitting ground. we had the opportunity this morning to knock on some doors, to find out what everyday people are thinking. we bumped into one woman, her name is carolyn strudivan. this is an amazing day for her because her son is getting married. they're going to do it on the beach. the one thing they never thought of thinking about, you know you think about weather, you think about your deejay showing up on time, but now they had to worry about an oil slick. this is what she told me. >> we can do it. we can handle it. whatever it is, nothing lasts forever. i mean, an oil spill doesn't last forever. it is going to take a lot of effort to deal with it. it took a lot of effort to deal with the aftermath of katrina. we were a year getting our condominium back where we could stay in it. >> reporter: you know, and carolyn has been through a lot. she's extremely positive. she went through hurricane katrina. she is having her coffee this morning and telling me, and showing me some pictures of what she went through during hurricane katrina, how they had to redo the condominium and she's very positive. and back here with the booms here, you can see some oil residue on them. this is not what they're saying from what is happening off the coast of alabama or louisiana. this is from previous use and that's what you see on some of the booms. a lot changing right here off the coast of alabama, fredricka. we continue to watch and see what they're doing. >> wow. that's pretty extraordinary that was quick action on their part. you just told us about those booms breaking apart last hour and already they're there trying to do the best they can to try to protect the coastline. richard lui, thanks so much, in dauphin island. so we keep hearing about something called oil spill dispersant. what is that exactly and how does it work? we're going to turn right now to ricky ott, a marine toxicologist, one of the leading experts on dispersants. she's joining us now on the phone from denver. so, riki, we spoke with an environmentalist earlier who said dispersants, this is a medicine that is worse than the disease, worse than the oil spill. do you see it that way? >> yes, because -- what you're talking about -- >> riki, we're going to try to re-establish that because clearly we cannot hear you and this is important and we want to understand what dispersants are and why they're being used. we understand bp has made the decision to use the dispersants, but with the endorsement from the epa reportedly. we want to get some clarity on that and we want to hear if what some environmentalists say might be a danger, might imperil this area even further. we want to find out if that is true. we'll try to re-establish that contact with riki ott as soon as we can. the annual may day workers rally as they have turned into protests against arizona's new immigration law. thousands of people have come out in los angeles, dallas, new york, chicago, and other cities. cnn's susan candiotti has been talking to demonstrators at the rally in new york. >> reporter: here in new york's union square, a large turnout, a very noisy rally here on behalf of immigration rights. it is much different than it looked last year. this annual may day celebration because of bad weather last year and the outbreak of the swine flu, the turnout was not as large. but the crowd here is galvanized by what happened in arizona and passage of the immigration bill there. here today you have a number of people from a number of different countries including the united states who are mainly in favor of trying to reform in the immigration act here in the united states, recently passed in arizona this is new york state assemblyman adam clayton powell jr. i wanted to ask you, you authored a resolution recently calling for what in arizona? >> i introduced a resolution in new york city assembly and it will be introduced by one of my colleagues in the new york state senate calling for a boycott, urging new york state government and urging private interests as well to boycott anything that happens in arizona. we also wrote a letter yesterday morning to major league baseball urging them to do similar things and yesterday afternoon, major league baseball issued a letter saying they're going to look at this, they have denounced the law in arizona and there really are looking for the welfare of their members, their players and their families. >> reporter: do you think the protests have gotten out of hand? in other words, there is a revision done to the bill in arizona, and now they're saying that you cannot just stop someone for no reason at all, there must be suspicion of a crime having taken place before you can stop someone. >> this is racial profiling at its worst. to actually require police to stop someone and ask for i.d., based upon reasonable suspicion, what is a true american? what does it look like? i see thousands of them right here. and, again if we go to arizona, any one of us could get stopped and i.d. has to be brought in. and to empower citizens to sue, to sue their local police departments because they're not -- this is wrong. the fact this nation was built with immigrant labor, and we need immigration reform at the congress level. it should be a federal issue. not a state by state basis. >> reporter: thanks for your views. obviously there are people here who have all kinds of views. we want to talk here with an undocumented student. thank you for joining us. i'll move over here now. your name is caesar mack and you're a college student here. you're in college. you're undocumented. >> i am. >> many people wonder how it is that you can go to school here when you don't have legal papers. >> it is possible. but we have to make numerous things to cover the tuition. we have to cover the tuition, we have to make it happen. my grandma sends me money and my mother has to send me money. i have to sell food. i have to make it happen somehow. >> reporter: how can there be realistic immigration reform in the united states? what do you think should be done? many people say to control the borders. >> i don't think that's the right step. i think what we should do is adopt a comprehensive immigration reform for all the people that are already here, especially the students, and the people who have been here for many years, and also cooperate with the government back in latin many america or back in the countries where the immigrants are coming from. cooperation is the key here. >> reporter: and the question is whether that cooperation will ever come about. susan candiotti, reporting for cnn, here in new york's union square. >> let's go to los angeles where the seemingly largest number of people have turned out on this may day, all thinking about some of the same things, arizona, immigration law. that's where ted rolands is. ted? >> reporter: we're hearing a lot of the same things as susan just talked about in new york, happening here in los angeles. the numbers in los angeles are astounding. organizers were hoping they would get about 100,000 people here, and they have achieved their goal, plus some. the streets, all the way as far as you can see for blocks are completely packed with people. if it is a beautiful day here, that's part of the reason why people came out, but another part of the reason is what you mentioned, that is arizona and you look at some of the signs here, talking about espy 1070, a huge part of the theme going on here. other themes that we're hearing are immigration reform, asking the obama administration to come up with some sort of immigration reform and do it soon. this young man has a sign here saying that his parents are illegal, he is a u.s. citizen, but his parents are illegal and he says he needs them here for himself to survive. so this young man has a story. every one of these people has some sort of story that is the immigration situation in this country has affected them. a lot of these people are undocumented. others are here in support of those that are undocumented. and so far no problems according to los angeles police. a huge number of people, but everybody has been controlled thus far, peaceful protest, a lot of families out here, a lot of young people, a lot of old people. and organizers are hoping that just the sheer numbers here in los angeles and around the country will send some sort of message to politicians in washington to get something done in terms of immigration. fredricka. >> ted rowlands, thanks so much n los angeles, more than 100,000 people showing up on may day to protest the new immigration law in arizona. the other big story we continue to follow, the oil slick, 130 miles long, 70 miles wide, encroaching on the gulf coast. we're going to talk with a marine toxicologist, we tried a moment ago it talk to her and we'll re-establish that connection to talk to her about these chemical dispersants that are being put in the gulf waters. the american renewal. because we believe in the strength of american businesses. ♪ ge capital understands what small businesses need to grow and create jobs. today, over 300,000 businesses rely on ge capital for the critical financing they need to help get our economy back on track. the american renewal is happening right now. ♪ the american renewal is happening right now. allergies? 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"hello." calculator humor. i'll be here all week. i will -- that was my schedule. the freedom to name your price. now, that's progressive. call or click today. some pretty nasty weather across the southeast in the form of tornadoes and flooding. jacqui jeras in the severe weather center. jacqui? >> we have had several reports of tornadoes recently and this has been one cell that is moving very near mississippi, alabama, and the tennessee state lines all at one time. here you can see a tornado watch which is in effect from tennessee, stretching down to louisiana at this hour. and the main threat focused right here where the states converge. and this tornado has a history of producing some damage as it was moving across parts of mississippi. there are some homes that sustained some roof damage. that is all that we know about at this point. that was in the ripley area. this is colbert and lauderdale counties under the tornado warning as we speak. and this is also producing an incredible amount of rainfall with it. so it is possible that even if the tornado is approaching where you are that you may not see it because it is wrapped in rain as we call it. also notice that line of thunderstorms out there, it has been producing as much as an inch of rain per hour. we have numerous reports of flash flooding all across this green area now. and memphis is one of the areas that has been hardest hit. they have between 4 and 6 inches of rain in a six-hour period this morning, early this afternoon, and another wave moving through there as we speak, just northeast of memphis. we had reports up to 10 inches of rainfall. so lots of stalled cars and lots of roads becoming impassable at this hour. on top of this, you can see an additional 2 to 4 inches in two areas that we're watching for that flooding, mississippi, alabama, then near the mississippi river here in this area, stretching on up towards paducah, kentucky. so a lot of concerns with this system. this is another high risk day, fredricka. the first one we had this year was last saturday. here we go again on a saturday. that high risk area includes arkansas stretching on up towards the boot hill of missouri. >> bad weather always seems to hit at weekend. madness, isn't it? jacqui, appreciate it. speaking of weekends, that means new releases of new movies. what nightmarish bad guy is getting a makeover these days? we'll take a look at the new movies coming to a theater near you this weekend. after using rogaine for a while, i went to my stylist and she said hair was growing back... i was like, yes, this works... 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[ man ] kinda makes your heart race, huh? a look now at our top stories. crews are turning to chemicals and their latest bid to disperse the huge oil spill along the gulf coast. the chemicals are supposed to attach themselves to the oil, cause the oil to sink to the bottom of the gulf. president obama plans to visit the gulf region tomorrow to see for himself this oil slick. and demonstrators take to the streets in several u.s. cities protesting arizona's tough new immigration law. immigrant rights activists are gathering in new york, phoenix, dallas, los angeles, and dozens of other cities amid fears the law might lead to racial profiling. supporters say it is needed and they add washington has failed to protect america's borders. did you send back your census form? well, if you haven't, you could be one of the millions of people that census workers are now coming to see. door to door. the next phase of the count is beginning and more than 600,000 census takers will be going door to door in neighborhoods across america to get the numbers that they need. all right, so we keep hearing about something called oil spill dispersant. you may wonder what that is exactly and how that will be used in this major oil spill. we're going to turn now and try this one more time to riki ott, a marine toxicologist, who is considered one of the leading experts on dispersants. she joins us now on the phone from denver. let's hope our signal gets us through this conversation. so, riki, explain why some people are a little concerned that this chemical dispersant will actually do more harm than good. >> chemical dispersants involve a trade-off. and the trade-off is keeping as much -- away from hitting the beaches. and what -- sorry, i keep hearing other noises. so we're trying to keep the oil from hitting the beaches because once it hits the beaches, there is really the oil industry has no way to clean up oil once it hits the beaches. >> so the idea is that this chemical will slow down the oil so it won't hit the beaches. but here is the other fear that some have described, environmentalist i spoke with last hour said, okay, so this chemical attaches itself to the oil, the oil then sinks, but it gets down to the bottom of the gulf, so, say you have a hurricane, well, that's going to stir up the bottom, these big globs of oil will find its way into wildlife or on to the sea grasses, on to the shores. do you believe that? >> what is going on is with dispersants, in an oil spill, to dissolve oil, you have to use a toxic solvent. oil is toxic. you to use a chemical, an oil-based solvent to dissolve the oil. so it gets stirred up by wind and waves, it acts like joy soap on the surface of the water where it makes the oil sheen divide out