CNN Student News 2012-06-07

(CNN Student News) -- June 7, 2012

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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GROUP: We are the Scotties (ph) --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- from Glasgow Middle School in Glasgow, Kentucky, coming to you from Ft. Williams (ph) on our Civil War field trip.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take it away, Carl.

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CARL AZUZ, HOST, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Very nice job by the Scotties (ph), introducing our penultimate program. In just a few minutes, we`re going to talk about a student science project that`s out of this world. But first up today, some election results.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won the five presidential primaries held on Tuesday. He`s already the Republican Party`s presumptive nominee. The big news was in Wisconsin, where Republican Governor Scott Walker was facing a recall election. Recalling a governor had only happened twice before in U.S. history.

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AZUZ (voice-over): Tuesday night was not the third. Governor Walker beat Milwaukee Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett, the same opponent he beat when Governor Walker was first elected two years ago. Walker talked about the message that he believes this week`s victory sends.

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GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISC.: Tonight we tell Wisconsin, we tell our country, and we tell people all across the globe that voters really do want leaders who stand up and make the tough decisions --

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AZUZ: Mayor Barrett promised to work with Governor Walker to try to bring the state together. He encouraged his own supporters to stay involved in the political process.

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MAYOR TOM BARRETT (D), MILWAUKEE, WISC.: Please, please remain engaged, remain involved, because we will continue to fight for justice and fairness in this city and this state.

AZUZ (voice-over): A lot of political analysts were paying attention to this recall vote because they thought it might foreshadow national elections later this year. One analyst, Joe Klein of "Time" magazine, offered his opinion about the results of Tuesday`s vote in Wisconsin.

JOE KLEIN, COLUMNIST, "TIME" MAGAZINE: I think that what this election says is this, people don`t like gimmicks. Scott Walker was elected two years ago. He tried to govern according to the way he saw fit.

He did nothing illegal, and the public employees` unions, who are used to getting their way, didn`t like it, and they tried to unseat him and it`s kind of like when the Republicans tried to impeach Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. The public saw it as just a tremendous waste of time and money.

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FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My fellow Americans, last night when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

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AZUZ: The operation that you just heard President Roosevelt talking about wasn`t just a success, it was a major turning point in World War II. It was called Operation Overlord, but most people know it as D-Day.

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AZUZ (voice-over): June 6th, 1944, the largest seaborne invasion in history, more than 150,000 Allied forces from the U.S., U.K., Canada and others, invaded Nazi-occupied France along the Normandy coast. You might wonder where the name D-Day came from. D just stands for Day. The phrase D-Day stands for the day when a military operation begins.

This week marks the 68th anniversary of that famous invasion. If you go to our home page, cnnstudentnews.com, scroll down to the "Spotlight" section. You`ll see a link to a photo gallery. It includes incredible images like the ones you`re seeing here, from the Allies` invasion of Normandy.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s Shoutout goes out to Ms. Riggins` students at the American International School in Cairo, Egypt.

Which of these NASA shuttles never went into space? You know what to do. Was it Enterprise, Endeavour, Discovery or Atlantis? Start the countdown at three seconds and go.

Enterprise was the first shuttle, but it was only used for tests. It never traveled into space. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.

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AZUZ: It may not ever have made a trip into space, but Enterprise is still making history. NASA retired its space shuttle fleet last year. The four vehicles are heading to different museums around the country.

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AZUZ (voice-over): And Enterprise is the first space shuttle to land on an aircraft carrier. The vehicle`s new home will be on board the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in order to get there, Enterprise had to travel on a barge down the Hudson River. It didn`t make the trip alone. You can make out the shuttle in the middle of this floating convoy. And check out that island that Enterprise just passed by. That is the Statue of Liberty, welcoming the shuttle to New York City.

These folks aren`t at an outdoor 3D movie, but they are using special glasses to check out something we reported on earlier this week. It`s an event that is truly once in a lifetime, because it won`t happen again for more than a century.

We`re talking about the transit of Venus. The giant glowing thing is the sun. That little black dot passing in front of it is Venus. Now, remember, Venus and Earth are pretty close to each other in size, so this definitely gives you some perspective on just how big the sun is.

One person who watched the transit in California said it was like watching grass grow, but he added, quote, "If you were told that grass only grows every 100 years, you`d probably want to watch it."

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AZUZ: We`re going to stick with the space theme for our next report from Rima Maktabi. It`s about a student in Egypt and his science project on spiders. He entered a contest recently that asked young people to come up with experiments that could be run in orbit. Thanks to his idea, the International Space Station will be getting a visit from some eight-legged travelers.

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RIMA MAKTABI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nineteen-year-old Amr Mohamed loves to read. There`s certainly plenty to choose from here at the Library of Alexandria. Right now, he looking for a book on spiders.

AMR MOHAMED, YOUTUBE SPACE LAB WINNER: Spiders, once they fork (ph).

MAKTABI (voice-over): Jumping spiders, to be exact.

They do not build webs. They approach their prey and when at a reachful (ph) distance, they jump and kill it with its jaws.

MAKTABI (voice-over): That`s how they hunt on Earth, of course. But what about in outer space? This young Egyptian is on a mission to find out.

MOHAMED: Hello. My name`s Amr.

MAKTABI (voice-over): Last year, Amr uploaded this home video to the Web. He entered it into SpaceLab, a YouTube competition launched to inspire students in science and space. Winners get a big prize.

Their experiments will be rocketed to the International Space Station this summer for testing. Thousands competed for viewer votes and eventually a jury selection. Only three people in the world won. And Amr was one of them.

MOHAMED: I was very happy and I was jumping around.

MAKTABI (voice-over): Jumping around, indeed. His other prize was a zero-gravity flight. No spiders on this plane, though, yet.

MAKTABI: Why spiders?

MOHAMED: Well, they`re interesting creatures. I mean, eight legs. Interesting. And cool.

MAKTABI (voice-over): Cool, maybe. But this self-described nerd may be onto something. If his spider test proves true, it may answer how or if humans can adapt in zero gravity.

Amr admits he was luckier than most in Egypt`s second largest city. In ancient times, Alexandria was a center for innovation. Today, Egypt`s education in math and science ranks among the lowest in the world.

MOHAMED: Science and technology are not pop culture here, OK? So I changed (ph) the way we think about science and technology.

MAKTABI (voice-over): Amr`s heading to California to study at Stanford later this fall. But he wants to return home some day and inspire more Egyptians to reach for the stars -- Rima Maktabi, CNN, Alexandria, Egypt.

AZUZ (voice-over): Many of you teachers know we offer a weekly news quiz at cnnstudentnews.com.

Since this is our last week on the air for the school year, we`ve got something special lined up for you, an end-of-the-year interactive quiz that includes 10 questions about events that happened throughout the 2011- 2012 school year. Find it in the "Spotlight" section of our website, cnnstudentnews.com.

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AZUZ: Here`s a story that would have really rattled Captain Hook.

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AZUZ (voice-over): You see those eyes poking out above this Florida pond right there? They`re of the reptilian variety. And when they recently spotted a bobcat sitting by the water`s edge, a photographer spied an opportunity and started snapping.

Now you just saw it. The gator scaled the sand so silently that the cat didn`t hear it until the very last moment. It jumped up just as the gator lunged and barely made it to the woods in time.

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AZUZ: One more second, and it would have been lunch a la cat. If you wonder why their tails are so short, there`s one explanation. And as for the gator, we guess he`s still "feline" hungry. Back tomorrow to close out the week and the school year. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN Student News.

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