smart guy. great personality. looked like he would be a good fit with my sister. that was how i looked at it. it wasn't until he really started getting into politics and those first early campaigns where i thought, you know, he's got a gift for this. a gift for this. good morning, folks. we are following several developing stories this morning. one of them being that one of the most powerful and most wanted drug runners in mexico responsible for bringing drugs into this country is now under arrest. would you believe where he was caught? his own birthday party. also, from reichers island to a luxury apartment, dominique strauss-kahn left jail yesterday. what now for the former head of

the imf? today is it, folks. doomsday. the start of the apocalypse right now according to the family radio network which has spent millions of dollars to warn you that the end is here and it is today. hello from the cnn center. this is my final "cnn saturday morning" on this doomsday, saturday, may 21st. i'm t.j. holmes. we'll get back to doomsday happenings throughout the morning. let me tell you about dominique strauss-kahn. out of jail now staying at a luxury manhattan apartment for now. the former imf chief was released yesterday after putting up 1 million cash and 5 million in insurance bonds secured by his wife who is staying with him in new york. cnn's susan candiotti picks up

this now and more on the living arrangements including why he couldn't stay at his first choice of apartments. >> a plan to release him hit a snafu when the police he was planning to live wouldn't let him stay there. that led to a court hearing to discuss the issue. the judge agreed to allow him to live in a temporary location for a few days until a more permanent apartment can be arranged. why wasn't he allowed to stay at the first place? here's strauss-kahn's lawyer. >> the reason that he had to move is because members of the press attempted to invade his private residence and interfered with his family's privacy. >> the only reason he can leave this place is for a medical emergency. he'll be less restricted when moved to a permanent location and then he can leave if he gives prosecutors six hours notice of his plans.

strauss-kahn is accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid last week. imf says he got a $250,000 separation payment and will draw a modest pension. listen to this name. a name you probably have never heard of. he is a big deal. at least in the mexican drug cartels and now he's under arrest. you'll see him in some of these pictures wearing a budweiser shirt there in the red. captured in mexico just across the border from mcallen, texas, a suspected member of the powerful cartel responsible for bringing a large amount of drugs into the u.s. the u.s. state department had a $5 million reward out there for information leading to his arrest. mexican police picked him up at a birthday party. his birthday party. who do you believe? well, depending on who you believe, this will be my last

"cnn saturday morning" because, yes, for some today is the beginning of the end of days. the apocalypse. doomsday. all that may 21st starts today according to one family radio network. family radio worldwide network is what they are called spent some $100 million to get their message out so they are taking this very seriously. that message is that the world ends today. at least the first parts of the apocalypse will happen. the leader of the family leader worldwide says the time line is in the bible. he did the math and came up with the date of today. he also did math back in 1994 and he predicted the same thing would happen. so who's taking him seriously and should we all be taking him seriously? >> i definitely do not think the world will end tomorrow. >> i say just chill. let the days go. i don't think anything will happen.

>> i'm not worried. i have to go to work. i'll enjoy my weekend. >> it will happen. jesus will come back but not on tomorrow. he could come back any day but the bible does not predict an exact date and when somebody does predict an exact date, they are usually wrong because the bible warns us not to try to predict a date but instead just to be ready. >> all right. well, so far so good. the end was supposed to start at least with earthquakes in new zealand at 6:00 their time. that time came and went. no issues. maybe we can breathe a sigh of relief even though we had a major technical issue in the studio a short time ago. we'll have more on this doomsday prediction later in the show including this man who is behind this current message. also, tell you something else happening right now. we're getting more and more information in about this. an explosion inside the the main afghan military hospital in

kabul. sources there telling us there are casualties but we don't have many more details at this moment. we're being told it was a suicide bomber who set off his explosives inside the mess hall there. and there may be a second suicide bomber hiding in the 400-bed hospital. a developing story there. we'll bring you details as we continue to get them. famed pro wrestler randy savage has died. his wife was injured in that accident as well. she has since been released from the hospital. police say savage suffered a medical event before that wreck. his brother telling tmz it was a heart attack. an autopsy is being done. savage was 58 years old. there are already victims of the storms and now they could be victims of a new phone scam. people trying to take advantage of people in east tennessee. the fbi says people report getting phone calls asking for

personal information like bank account numbers. the voice on the phone says the bank lost the records because of computer problems during the storms. anybody who gets one of these unsolicited calls should contact the fbi. nice moments here for 200 service members injured in iraq and afghanistan. this is them arriving at the airport in houston yesterday. they are taking part in the fifth annual warrior weekend. it's a good day for it. this is armed forces day. many of the veterans are headed out for a weekend of fishing in the gulf of mexico. for you folks that like to fly delta air lines, they are going to give some passengers a little extra leg room. it will cost you. they are calling this now economy comfort. that essentially means you are in coach still but you get four more inches of leg room and also it's costing you between 20 and

40 bucks an inch up to $160 extra per ticket on overseas flights. talking about the end of days today. may 21st. some call it doomsday. could zombies end up walking around after doomsday? the cdc wants you to be prepared. yes. for zombies. they have put up a zombie emergency preparedness plan on their website and, folks, i am not joking with you. this is for the zombie apocalypse. now, why would they do this. they do give you legitimate emergency plan tips. they want to draw your attention with the zombies and you get your plan together that would work for other natural disasters. you see where they are going to this? we'll talk to the cdc's man behind the zombie idea next hour and ask him what in the world were they thinking and is this what it has come to to get

people's attention to get them prepared. millions in the central u.s. have been dealing with a real life disaster that hit too close to home. historic flooding up and down the mississippi river and tributaries and the forecast gives those in the flood zone even more reason to worry. it's eight minutes past the power. ok. [ cellphone rings ] hey. you haven't left yet. no. i'm boarding now... what's up? um...would you mind doing it again? last time. [ engine turns over ] oooohhhh...sweet. [ male announcer ] the chevy cruze with the my chevrolet app. the remote control car is finally here. well, now she's just playing with us. oh. [ horn honks ] there's another way to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder

to help neutralize odors in multiple-cat homes. and our improved formula also helps eliminate dust. so it's easier than ever to keep your house smelling just the way you want it. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home. all right. take a look at some of this here. no means high and dry in south central part of the u.s. a few signs of recovery along the mississippi river despite historic flooding we have been watching. an aerial view here. this is in mississippi. a couple casinos have reopened. forecasters say it will be until mid june before waters recede below flood stage there. let us say good morning to karen maginnis. she's in today for reynolds wolf. all of this talk about end of

days and doomsday anything particularly worrying out there necessarily? >> we've got some pretty heavy rain that's going to fall across the swollen region of the central and southern mississippi river valley. already big storms rumbling around this morning. and according to the storm prediction center, they are saying this is where we could see concentration of heaviest storms as we head on in toward the afternoon. we're looking across midwest. however, because of the heavy rainfall, not just for today but also into tomorrow, we're going to add to this river basin. some of these areas may get bumped up again as far as their crests are concerned but these are the areas that we've been watching from vicksburg to red river landing into the baton rouge area and also for new orleans and these are the levels above the flood stage that they would typically see. so this is going to be lingering at least for some time now. it looks like over the next week or so and some of these areas

the river is not going to fall for the next several weeks. all right. what do we have to watch out for as we head in toward the afternoon. look at this bull's eye area across lower ohio river valley and mississippi river valley. looks like from st. louis southward toward dallas we could see that rumble of thunder and could see the possibility of strong and gusty winds, frequent lightning, definitely some heavy downpours and the possibility of an isolated tornado or two. i'll be back in just about 20 minutes or so and we'll tell you about what the outlook for the hurricane season is going to be. it's kind of interesting. back to you. >> all right. always good to have you here with us. thank you so much. ronald mcdonald, you know him and know him well. he's been an icon in this country for so long but you know what? he's making children sick and in 90 seconds i'll tell you who says that and who is now trying to force ronald mcdonald to retire. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle --

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14 minutes past the hour on this "cnn saturday morning," we'll tell you about business. chrysler could pay off a big chunk of the government bailout funds it received. first, we hear about the latest moves over the debt ceiling and a big change in the way we read books. >> hi, t.j. the government hit the legal

spending limit this past week. $14.3 trillion. treasury secretary tim geithner is buying lawmakers time by cutting back investments in federal retirement funds. that gives congress until august 2nd to decide whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. if they fail to do so, the government will default on its debt payments. linked in's public debut made a big splash with one of the biggest tech ipos since google. shares of the social networking company were initially priced at $45 a share and doubled on the first day of trading. ebooks are officially the king of the literary world. amazon said it is selling more ebooks than hard cover and paperback books combined. poppy harlow has a look at what's coming up next week. poppy? >> thanks so much. chrysler may take a big step next week toward paying off the $7 billion bailout it received in 2009. the automaker is lining up bank loans and bond sales to raise cash and that would allow the

italian automaker to boost its stake in chrysler to more than 50% later this year. also coming up next week, barnes & noble set to release a new ereader. kindle dominates that market but the nook is picking up speed so that will be a fun race to watch. we'll follow it all on cnnmoney. some doctors ganging up against ronald mcdonald saying the fast food giant, mcdonald's is making children sick and they want them to retire their beloved icon. more than 500 physicians have signed a letter to mcdonald's ceo and it is showing up in newspapers. the doctors say it's unethical to use the icon to attract children and try to market that junk food as they say to the kids. especially with one in three children in the country being overweight. mcdonald's says ronald mcdonald is not going anywhere. may 21st, today is the end.

we're 16 minutes into the show. so far so good. we'll see if we make it to the end of the show. a lot of people are spending a lot of money and time and a lot of resources traveling around this country warning you that today is it. we'll show you this group that truly believes. this got us to thinking. is this really the first time that somebody's prediction like this got all of this attention? people have been predicting the end of the world for a long time. all those last days have come and gone. we're still kicking it. let's look at some of the most memorable predictions. in the 1930s william miller predicted the end of the world would occur between march 21st, 1843 and march 21st, 1844. it didn't happen. the date was then recalculated to october 22nd, 1844. that didn't happen. and then this one. a woman said she received a message from aliens that a flood

would destroy the city of chicago on december 21st, 1954. can't believe this one turned out not to be the truth. she said her followers would be beamed up to safety. no beaming. for massive flooding happened on earth. in 2 1/2 minutes i got the doozies for you. stay with me. [ sam ] my first ride lasted just 30 seconds. another reminder of what i couldn't do. ♪ the accident could have been my excuse to quit.

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20 minutes past the hour. we're still here. a lot of people have been making predictions for the last few centuries and the latest has everyone talking coming to us from the family radio christian network out in california. they say the beginning of the end is today, may 21st, 2011. according to their biblical calculations, a monster earthquake will start at the international date line and work its way around the world hitting each time zone at 6:00 p.m. now, we have checked in with new zealand. the time has come and gone and they are still standing. now, all of this starts today but will end with the earth's complete demise we're told on october the 21st. we've got a bit of a window

there if you will. now some of those who believe the end is near take this quite seriously. a lot of people have been tongue in cheek with this. having fun with this. some people have left their homes, their jobs, and their families to travel the country and spread the word about this. we actually traveled with some of those believers on a leg of their journey. check this out. >> i would beg to differ that this is some sort of cult. my name is darryl. i was raised in north new jersey. i'm currently a member of project caravan. we travel to as many states as possible to proclaim the fact that may 21st, 2011, is the day of the lord's return. when we caravan, we see people that give us the thumb. they say thumbs up. we also see people that unfortunately give us the other

finger. we are on our way to tampa, florida, to be a part of some sort of traditional festival. we will be distributing as many tracks as possible. god bless you. anybody got any coffee? okay. i'm going to pass some tracks. people here today are here to party. we understand that. when we say judgment day, they get upset. >> may 21st, judgment day. yeah right. >> most of the people in the costumes just don't want to take them. we understand that. it's free. it's free. there you go. we're not a bunch of crazies.

we're not a bunch of nuts. we're like anything else. >> what happens if today comes and goes like any other day? the group is not exactly answering that question. but again, the man who made the prediction, the man who put the math together from the bible some kind of way, his name is harold camping, the man behind the family radio network and prediction that today is the beginning of the end. he says he's gone through the bible and done the math, kind of a complicated equation if you will. he's figured out exactly this date. but it's not the first time we have heard from this man. let me take you back now to 1993 and listen to what he told our larry king. >> when we lay out all of the history of the world beginning with genesis chapter 1 in the beginning god created heavens and earth and god shows how that beginning it was. >> 1994.

>> all right. we lay out the whole time plan. there's all of the milestones and it's not a random pattern but a very precise pattern and the paths focus on 1994. >> do you know when in 1994? >> i believe sometime in the month of september. >> okay. so we've been here before. he told us that the world would end in september of 1994. he said in all likelihood the end would come then. he didn't necessarily guarantee it. so exactly who is this guy? he's 89-year-old retired civil engineer and founded the family radio more than 50 years ago and now his religious programming is heard on 150 stations around the world. a lot of people have been having a little fun with this making light of it. plenty of people in this country do believe in the rapture. a lot of christians do and that jesus will come back. as a matter of today being

doomsday, he wanted to know your thought on this. what if it was the end of days today? what would you do with your last hours on earth? we would like to know. go and answer this for us at my blog. cnn.com/t.j. also you know where to find me on twitter which is simply @t.j. hom holmes. we have weather to tell you about. predictions for a really busy atlantic hurricane season. all those details coming up. also acts of revenge. a convoy of u.s. vehicles attacked in pakistan and today a warning from the u.s. military's top general there about violence. a live report from the region just five minutes away. man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. [ indistinct talking and laughter ]

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personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. all right. we're at the bottom of the hour on this "cnn saturday morning." welcome back. i'm t.j. holmes. glad you could spend part of your last day on earth here with us. getting a look at some of the stories making headlines. for the first time on his arrest on attempted rape charges last weekend, the managing director of the imf, dominique strauss-kahn wakes up in a new york city apartment and not in a

reichers island jail cell. he was released yesterday over the objection of prosecutors who say he's still a flight risk. strauss-kahn denies charges that he sexually assaulted a hotel maid. mexican authorities say they slapped cuffs on one of the leaders of the notorious drug cartel. he was arrested last night on the border city there in the middle. police say they got a tip he had been at a birthday party, swooped in and grabbed him. u.s. had a $5 million bounty on his head. some signs of recovery along the mississippi river despite the historic flooding. aerial view you are seeing here. the u.s. coast guard closed parts of the river to traffic due to debris and hazards hidden in floodwaters. more severe weather could impact the area this weekend. the taliban claiming responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a military

hospital in the afghan capital. this was happening this morning. a developing story here. we need to bring in mohammad jamjoom joining me from kabul this morning. give us the update. what exactly happened at this hospital? >> reporter: good morning, t.j. the latest information we have as far as casualty figures from intelligence officials here they say six killed, 26 injured when a suicide bomber attacked a military hospital here in kabul that was a little bit earlier this morning. now, we've also heard from other intelligence officials but they say there's a concern that there's a second suicide bomber that's running around in that hospital and may try to detonate himself and they are trying to catch that suicide bomber. the taliban as you mentioned has claimed responsibility for this attack but they have a different version of events. they say two members went to this hospital. one of them did accomplish his mission of blowing himself up. the other was shot by security force its and their mission is over. the taliban is saying that 51

people were killed as a result of this attack. a lot of rapidly moving developments this morning and a lot to find out in the next few years. officials do believe that casualty figures will increase during the day. >> what is this place and would there have been a reason for americans to have been there? >> reporter: t.j., as far as we know no reason for americans to be there just afghan security forces. this would be a place where injuries sustained during wartime security operations, afghan security officials and security officers would be there. that's as far as we know right now. not a surprise that it would be a target of the taliban. they are trying to undermine the government here going after high profile security targets. in the past few days the afghan taliban which is having its spring offensive right now carried out a spectacular attack on a bus carrying police officers in another part of the country. many dead and injured as a result of those attacks.

as i said, they're in the spring offensive trying to show how resurgent they are right now. just a few weeks ago in the southern city of kandahar they had a two-day attack. many people killed and injured. taliban saying they are strong and not going away and don't want to be a part of peace or reconciliation effort with this government. >> mohammad jamjoom for us in kabul. we appreciate you as always. let's turn for what we're hearing from army general david petraeus issuing a warning today telling the international and american forces under his command in afghanistan to be aware of the potential for high profile attacks over the summer. the warning comes a day after a convoy of u.s. consulate vehicles was attacked in northwest pakistan. taliban claiming responsibility there saying it was payback for killing of osama bin laden. one person killed there. 11 others were hurt. all pakistanis. president obama meanwhile with cia headquarters in virginia yesterday thanking the agency for its role in taking out osama bin laden. we turn to stan grant live for

us in islamabad, pakistan. what are we seeing? is there reason to believe that the taliban is increasing attacks in retaliation for bin laden's death? >> reporter: absolutely. we've seen that over the past couple of weeks since bin laden's death. there have been several attacks. just yesterday they targeted a convoy of u.s. vehicles that were traveling on a road just outside the peshawar. 50 kilograms of explosives packed into a car by the side of the road. it was detonated by remote control. luckily in that case the casualties were low. one person killed who was a bystander. 11 injured including two foreigners. no one seriously. an indication of how the taliban are able to strike and they said that was in retaliation for killing of osama bin laden. we've also heard from the second in command of the pakistani taliban and he's been very explicit. he says they will continue to target nato and american targets

and also going after the pakistani military and once again as i say, linking it directly to the killing of osama bin laden. this is what he said. >> we love his mission, which is not dependent on any one man. we loved him because he was courageously fighting against america and its allies. we have to continue his mission because we love his mission more than the man. >> reporter: they love the mission even more than the man who of course they revered and just today another indication of how serious they are. they targeted one of these nato convoys on the way from pakistan through to afghanistan. of course crucial to the u.s. effort there. one of the trucks was -- there was an explosion, a bomb at one of the trucks. ultimately killing 16 people including five children. those people were killed after the fire broke out when they actually went closer to try to retrieve some of the fuel that had been spilled on the roads and in early hours of the

morning, a dozen other trucks also exploded with another remote control bomb up near that pakistan/afghanistan border. >> stan grant with an update in islamabad. we appreciate you. thank you so much. to our viewers now, we have just seen what historic tornado outbreak just a few weeks ago. we now see historic flooding. you know there's something else we now need to get ready for. a busy atlantic hurricane season. in two minutes, we've got the forecast. bridgestone is using natural rubber, researching ways to enhance its quality and performance, and making their factories more environmentally friendly. producing products that save on fuel and emissions, and some that can be reused again. ♪ and promoting eco-friendly and safety driving campaigns. ♪ one team. one planet. bridgestone.

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38 minutes past the hour. now karen maginnis here with us. always a pleasure to have you. okay. after we went through what we went through with tornadoes and flooding, yeah, hurricane season is coming. >> i know. it's just around the corner. june 1st. national hurricane center always releases what their expectations are for the season.

looks like it will be pretty active. i would say there are two primary reasons for that. one is because the water temperatures are really warm now. i don't mean like several degrees. half a degree or one degree but they also look at different oscillations across the atlantic basin, pacific basin, in particular la nina. let's go ahead and show you what's happening. according to noaa, we could have been six to ten hurricanes. now, what's typical for us in a given year might be around nine. the average is about six. over the last 60 years we average about six hurricanes in a season. however, national hurricane center says this year six to ten. they are upping it. they are being more aggressive when it comes to forecasting the number for the year. all right. we look at the 2010. 2010 was an active year.

you think we didn't really see any landfalls across the united states. a couple near misses or brushes. remember the gulf spill? we were worried about all of the activity in the gulf of mexico. very worried. in fact most of the hurricanes or tropical systems that did evolve either off the coast of west africa or right around the caribbean basin, most of those affected the yucatan peninsula, central america, also southern mexico and extreme southern texas. look at the major hurricanes that we saw in 2010. there were five. colorado state said we expected about four. a little bit off there. and for noaa, three to seven. a little bit more aggressive than colorado state. what we also get are the names for the hurricane season. i'm looking here and i don't see t.j. anywhere on this list. >> that's always good to stay off that list. >> exactly. >> those are names we have to look forward to. >> begins june 1st and goes for six months.

>> all right. we've got enough problems. hopefully it will be quiet. karen maginnis, always good to have you with us. we'll check in with karen plenty throughout the morning. i want you to stop and look at the tv screen. look at it for a second. that's not what i wanted to show you. hey, karen. there she goes. that's what i want to show you. you can't make this out that well. what you are looking at is a tombstone and this tombstone actually holds a secret about president obama's past, a past that he didn't even know about. in 90 seconds, the history will unfold.

42 minutes past the hour. president obama leaves for europe tomorrow night. here's a quick look at his itinerary for this trip. he'll alive monday in dublin, ireland. scheduled meetings with leaders there and expected to travel to moneygall, ireland. also on tuesday, heads to london for lunch with the queen there. she just got back from ireland themselves. that's something they can chat about. the president will meet with british prime minister david cameron and then the president spends the night at buckingham palace and another day with prime minister cameron before heading to parliament the president will speak to both houses of parliament there and then thursday to france where the g-8 summit is taking place and also friday more g-8 business including meetings with representatives from tunisia and egypt.

the president boards a plane to poland after that. the agenda in warsaw is russia and keeping u.s. warplanes on polish bases. a high point of the president's trip likely one of the first stops he makes. while in ireland he's expected to visit the small town of moneygall where the president's great, great, great grandfather lived before he immigrated to america. the president had no clue about his irish roots until it was discovered by an ancestry.com genealogyist in 2007. i got a chance to talk to her this week. it took four months and 150-year-old tombstone, also a bit of luck, to connect the dots. >> it was easy to march back the first few generations to find there was this gentleman who came from ireland in 1850. the challenge was finding the

exact location. irish genealogy can be quite challen challenging. it took two months of research and a pair of tombstones in ohio to tell me where to look in ireland. tho that's how i discovered it was moneygall. >> make that connection. how did you do that? >> i found this other family that seemed like he fit into them. i wanted him to belong to that family because the father, joseph's tombstone and brother william said they were from moneygall. once i was able to do that i knew that's where he was also from. i did work across tkrocross the worked with churches there. >> how sure are you that you have this right and they're not over there celebrating for not. >> other people have taken roots back further so you will find

roots in dublin and everyone wants to claim their piece of obama. moneygall is the most immediate destination i'm absolutely sure of it. >> are you sure it's warranted. we see how they are celebrating. people writing songs and putting up american flags. do you still get it and say they have a right to celebrate over there? >> i'm half irish american myself so i may have a bias. it's a tradition for american presidents to claim their irish heritage and ireland loves to claim their native sons. it's a win-win situation. >> you plan on heading over. do you have any plans to meet up with the president? he's going to ireland. we think he'll stop by moneygall. a lot of people hope he will at least. do you plan on possibly seeing the president to i'm the one who put it together for you? >> i hope so. i have one of the treasured passes into moneygall so i sure hope so. >> congratulations on the work

you were able to do putting this together. enjoy your time in ireland. we appreciate you taking time out with us. >> thank you so much. i appreciate it. >> we'll turn now to the race for 2012 and a big day for republican hopefuls. our deputy political director paul steinhauser has the latest travel plans and another candidate making it official. >> good morning. a busy weekend in the race for the white house. former massachusetts governor mitt romney is in south carolina today talking about the economy with small business owners in south carolina. it's the first southern primary in the race for the white house here. romney has all but declared his second bid. john huntsman gives a speech today. former u.s. ambassador to china is in a five-day swing in the state that holds the first primary on the presidential calendar and likely to announce his bid for the white house in coming weeks. not waiting any longer is herman

cain. he will declare a few hours from now. t.j.? >> all right. thanks to our paul steinhauser as always. we'll try to make sense out of this. we have a pretty high unemployment rate in this country that means a lot of people are out of work. at the same time, there are hundreds of thousands of jobs available right now that have been available but there's nobody to fill them. how does that make sense? in 2 1/2 minutes, you're going to hear from a man that you probably recognize. the discovery channel's mike rowe. he's going to piece it together and help us understand why we in this country have a problem now with blue collar work. ♪ things are gonna get easier ♪ ooh-oo, child, things will get brighter ♪ ♪ ♪ someday, yeah

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we are looking at the job hunt in america. one man says it's time for america to get dirty. you probably know him. mike rowe from his tv show "dirty jobs." creator and host of that show. mike rowe has another job as well. as head of a foundation called mike rowe works. he says there is a skills gap in this country and hundreds of thousands are jobs are out there and go unfilled because american workers aren't being trained for them. here he is even testifying on capitol hill about getting americans back to work. i talked to him yesterday about why he thinks there are

thousands of jobs going unfilled even with unemployment high. >> the skills gap really is just a reflection of what we value. what we value in this country has shifted over the last 30 or 40 years. we no longer encourage kids to take the time to learn a skill and master a trade. at the same time, we've actively discouraged people from getting dirty. you know, blue and white collar jobs are the traditional factor in the way we separate our workforce. you can't have separate and equal. it doesn't work with anything and the reality of that is we've just been focusing on a different sort of job in terms of what we aspire to and right now, again, not an expert but right now it seems to me that we're just reaping the consequences of that. >> you talk about the shift there. i know there's a big push and they say we'll not have enough kids who have training in those

stem fields, science, technology, engineering and math so we're trying to focus on getting those folks trained. we've shifted to that. do you think we need to shift back to jobs where people get dirty or we need to find a better balance? >> i think we have to stop looking at clean jobs over here and dirty jobs over here and white collar over here and blue collar over here. there are two sides of the same coin. the facts are pretty clear. a year or two from now, an hour with a good plumber is going to cost more than an hour with a good psychiatrist at which point we're probably going to need both. we're out of whack. if you really think about it, 40, 50 years ago, college needed a pr campaign. we needed more people to get excited about the notion of really digging in and studying. the pr campaign that college got was so effective, it wound up happening at the expense of a lot of other very basic and

fundamental jobs. this isn't about the poor tradesmen not being represented. this is about society not being tended to in four or five years. i don't want to make a speech, right now in alabama, i mean, it's bad. it's not because of the tornadoes down there. they have a third of their workforce north of 55 retiring fast. there's nobody there to replace them. so some pockets in the country are more problematic than others but on the whole, we're just seriously out of whack. >> all right. have you heard what comedian lisa lapnelly did? she promised to donate $1,000 to a gay charity for every member of the controversial church who picketed her concert last night. i'll tell you how much she is

donating and a tweet she sent out about it that needs to be bleeped. ♪ i may be mud, but i have standards. mops? please. some of them have bacteria. ♪ and they try to pick me up? ew. i'm really hard to get. uh!

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as we get close to the top of the hour here on this "cnn saturday morning," take a look at stories making headlines across the country. comedian lisa lampanelli turned the tables on the westboro baptist church. members threatened to picket her concert last night in topeka, kansas, because of her position on gay rights. she said for every church member that showed up, she would donate $1,000 to the oldest aids organization in the country. here's what she tweeted after

the show. thanks to these [ bleep ] $44,000 will be donated to gmhc. 44 people showed up to protest last night. >> oh, honey. >> let me explain this moment to you here. this is after a tornado tore through this woman's home in tuscaloosa, alabama. that was three weeks ago. two cats survived. one hadn't been seen since the storm. that all changed as you see. it was caught on camera. i believe she was doing an interview with a local television station there. the lost cat came out of nowhere and was welcomed back to what was left of home. >> it is crazy. >> okay. this is crazy here. this was at the air force academy in colorado.

they took part in dodgeball. they were hoping to set a guinness world record. a couple cadets came up with the idea and just trying to blow off some steam and they did have to use 1,000 dodgeballs in the game. good morning to you all. top of the hour here now on this "cnn saturday morning." we're following a number of stories including the guy you see there. one of the most powerful and wanted drug runners in mexico. now he's under arrest. would you believe he was picked up at his own birthday party? also from rikers island to a luxury manhattan apartment, dominique strauss-kahn got out of jail late yesterday. what now for the former head of the imf? also today, so far so good. we've been on the air an hour and we'll continue until the world ends because today as you

know is doomsday. the start of the apocalypse according to the family radio network, which has spent a lot of time, energy, effort and in fact money, millions of dollars, to try to warn you that the end is here. hello to you all on this final "cnn saturday morning" for this may 21st. i'm t.j. holmes. we'll get back to that in just a moment. first, need to tell you about a developing story happening right now. there's been a suicide attack inside the main afghan military hospital in kabul. our correspondent in the afghan capital told us moments ago that at least six people were killed, more than two dozen injured. taliban taking responsibility here. they claim 51 people have been killed. taliban spokesman says a second suicide bomber was shot to death before he could set off his explosives. this military hospital is a 400-bed hospital that served afghan military personnel. no americans are believed to be

hurt. dominique strauss-kahn waking up for the first time not in rikers this week. he's in an apartment. not expected to be there for that long. the former imf chief was released yesterday. in order to get out of jail he had to put up a million dollars cash and also a $5 million insurance bond. that was secured by his wife who is staying with him in new york. susan candiotti has more on his living arrangements including why he wasn't able to stay at his first choice. >> reporter: plan to release him hit a snafu when the polilace h was planning to live wouldn't let him stay there. that led to a court hearing to discuss the issue. the judge agreed to allow the former imf chief to live in a temporary location for a few days until a more permanent apartment can be arranged. why wasn't he allowed to stay at

the first place? here's strauss-kahn's lawyer. >> the reason that he had to move was because members of the press attempted to invade his private residence and interfered with his family's privacy. >> reporter: the only reason he can leave is for a medical emergency. he'll be less restrictive when he moves to a permanent location and can leave when giving prosecutors six hour's notice of th his plans. >> strauss-kahn is accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid last week. the organization says that he got a $250,000 separation payment from imf and will draw a modest pension. have you heard the name gilberto barragan balderas? he's under arrest and that's a big deal to american and mexican authorities. show you video here. that's him in the redshirt.

he was arrested in reynosa. responsible for bringing a major amount of drugs into the united states. the u.s. state department had a $5 million reward out for information leading to his arrest. mexican police picked him up at a birthday party where they were celebrating, you guessed it, him. it was his birthday party. who do you believe? well, if you believe some, this will be my final broadcast here at cnn. this will be the final "cnn saturday morning" because today is it, folks. the end of days. doomsday. it all gets cracking today. that's according to the family radio wide network. they spent time, energy and money on a campaign. some $100 million by some estimates to get the message out that the world ends today. not completely. it starts today. the first parts of the apocalypse.

the leader of the family radio worldwide has an equation that was put together to come up with this date, may 21st. however, he's been wrong before. so should we believe him this time? >> i definitely do not think the world will end tomorrow. >> i say just chill. let the guys go by. i don't think anything is going to happen. >> i'm not worried. i have to go to work. i'll enjoy my weekend. >> it is going to happen. jesus is going to come back but not tomorrow. he could come back tomorrow. he could come back any day. the bible does not predict an exact date and when somebody does predict an exact date they are usually wrong because the bible warns us not to try to predict date but instead just to be ready. >> all right. just to be ready. but we can report so far so good. the end was supposed to start. it's supposed to start on the east coast here in the u.s. at

6:00 tonight eastern time is when it's supposed to start. it was supposed to start with earthquakes in new zealand at 6:00 p.m. their time. we called them this morning to see if new zealand was still there. at first nobody answered the phone. we got a little nervous. somebody finally picked up. new zealand is still there. everything is fine right now, folks. at least for now. we'll have more on the doomsday prediction later in the show including more on the man behind this message. he's been wrong before. he predicted the same thing back in 1994. we're all still here. six minutes past the hour. heading to the flood zone next. they are dealing with flooding and getting nasty weather right now. so i took my heartburn pill and some antacids. we're having mexican tonight, so another pill then? unless we eat later, then pill later? if i get a snack now, pill now? skip the snack, pill later... late dinner, pill now? aghh i've got heartburn in my head. [ male announcer ] stop the madness. take prilosec otc for freq. one pill a day. twenty-four .

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the river looks like it will be 69.8 at noontime. just a little bit. for folks that have been dealing with it -- >> this is way, way above flood stage. >> the record is 58 feet. that's the record. this goes three feet beyond that. all right. let's go ahead and show you what's happening as far as the moisture is concerned. got a lot of it right across the lower mississippi river valley. exactly where they are not excited about this rough weather. we did have some storminess further back across east texas moving toward the east in this lower mississippi river valley. they could see heavy amounts. that's the reason for this bump up as we go up into about noontime today. want to show you what's happening as far as river is concerned. we look into the river levels right now. we take a look at baton rouge

and vicksburg. these are levels. this is not river level. it's how many feet above the record setting levels that we have seen. not record setting but the typical crest across this region for the red river landing it's now in excess of 14 feet above where it should be. what we will expect across the ohio river valley and lower mississippi river valley is another chance of severe weather heading in toward the afternoon. could see three to five inches of rainfall. we'll keep you updated on that. >> all right. karen maginnis, we appreciate you as always. we also have our jeanne meserve who is out. we've been trying to get her nasty weather out there where you are. you are there to cover flooding but you got a weather situation out there as well. tell me where you are exactly and what's happening. >> reporter: we're in an area

called under the hill in natchez. we've watched the rain flowing down the street and if you can take a look, you see the water flowing down this boat ramp into the mississippi which is the last thing the mississippi river needs right now. you just heard karen talking about how this river here is already well above records that have been previously set. natchez will farewe well becaus there's small number of structures at river level but the situation is not the same up and down the river. yesterday the commandant of the coast guard was here and took an aerial flight. we have that footage. what you see is water, water, water and then more water. amongst the places affected, the coast guard station here in natchez in the middle of a flood situation, parking lot quite deep. deep enough that some of the coast guard men stationed there who wanted to greet the admiral

had to wade out through the water to shake his hand and say hello. quite an unusual picture. here's a bit of what the admiral had to say. >> 16 people struggling not only to keep the ship afloat but also to keep the building from going under here. that's until they can get back on the river and start putting the river back together. a lot of work going on by coast guard people. >> reporter: the rain here has let up for the moment at least. we're expecting more to come in later today. all of that bad news as they keep an eye both on the river and on the sky. back to you. >> all bad news. we appreciate you. i know it was some effort out there and nasty weather and you are out in it just to get that signal up and get you on tv was a process and a task. we appreciate you. we'll check in with you more throughout the morning. i need to let you know about a phone scam out there. people trying to take advantage of people who are already

victims particularly in east tennessee. victims of recent storms. the fbi saying that people are reporting getting phone calls asking for personal information like their bank account numbers. the voice on the end of the phone says the bank lost the records because of computer problems during the storms. anybody who gets one of these unsolicited calls, you need to call the fbi. delta air linlines going toe passengers extra leg room. comes with a price. they call this economy comfort. that means you are in coach but it means that you get four more inches of leg room. also costs you in some cases between 20 and 40 bucks an inch because on some overseas flights, that means about 160 extra dollars per ticket. with all we have to worry about right now with the weather, the end of the world, you also need to worry about zombies. do you know what you need to be

ready for the walking dead? don't think i'm joking. the cdc put out an action plan. you heard me right. the centers for disease control and prevention want you to be ready for zombies. cdc spokesman here to explain this next. ♪ there's another way to minimize

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17 minutes past the hour. you're taking a look at pope benedict but he's talking and we'll show you the picture in a moment of who he's talking to. he's having a conversation as we speak. this is happening live. having a conversation with the astronauts at the international space station. we're at the mercy of nasa tv. he is having this conversation. they are sitting there in space at the international space station and they are getting a call this morning from the pope. there are two italians on the

international space station. i'll have you know. also as you know, "endeavour" just took off up there on a 12-day mission. a lot of people part of that mission that's a last for "endeavour" but a lot of people part of this story as well. you can see right there congresswoman gabrielle giffords' the commander of "endeavour" speaking back. >> thank you for mentioning my wife, gabby. it's a very good question. we fly over most of the world and you don't see borders but at the same time we realize that people fight with each other and there's a lot of violence in this world and it's an unfortunate thing. usually people fight over many different things as we see in the middle east right now. it's somewhat for democracy in certain areas but usually people fight for resources and it's interesting in space, you know, on earth often people fight for energy. in space we use solar power and

we have fuel cells on the space shuttle but on the space station you know, the science and technology that we put into this space station to develop a solar power capability gives us unlimited amount of energy. if those technologies could be adapted more on earth, we could possibly reduce some of that violence. >> listening there and we'll try to cue that part back up. you heard his answer. responding to the question we didn't hear from the pope. the pope mentioned congresswoman gabrielle giffords' this morning. we'll find that piece and recue that. him thanking the pope for mentioning his wife gabrielle giffords who is recovering after being shot in the tucson shooting earlier this year. we'll get back to that.

let's turn now to zombies. everybody out there loves a good zombie flick. dawn of the dead. this is one people are a big fan of. there have been a whole lot of others over the years. especially recently. the government is jumping in on this zombie bandwagon. i'm talking about the cdc. the agency, you know, that is supposed to protect public health and safety. apparently they believe zombies are a threat to the public health in safety. they have put up this website. it's not a joke. put this up telling you how to prepare for the zombie apocalypse. it was the brain child of this guy who is with me now, david dangle is here to defend his work. now, explain this to me. you are the brain child. why did you come up with this idea. >> there's a team of three of us. we were kicking around ideas about hurricane preparedness

that starts one june. every year we do this campaign. does anyone read, listen or pick up on it. one of my colleagues mentioned during a session about japan and someone mentioned zombies and interest spiked. i said we'll do something with zombie preparedness. he didn't throw me out. >> let's put up a graphic of what you are doing. the cdc does not think zombies are about to take over the earth. >> we do not. >> that gives your zombie emergency kits people should have. i have a quote. switch to the other graphic that i want to put up and show. it says pulling this directly from your website, once you made your emergency kit, you should sit down with your family and come up with an emergency plan. this includes where you should go and who who you call if zombies started appear outside your doorstep. you can implement this plan if

there's a flood, earthquake or other emergency. this is just an attention grabber and then they get the good information once they get there. >> that was our goal. >> is that what it takes? are we so immune and tune it out so much that it takes you to bring up zombies? >> we don't know for sure. we knew we would reach a new audience through the social media demographic. >> help us understand. what's the reaction been like? >> we typically get 1 to 3,000 hits over a ten-day span. on wednesday the server crashed with 30,000. we have over 1 million hits to that blog. we're just amazed. >> i have to say as well, you didn't get permission necessarily before you did this from the folks. what do you do with this now? you learned a lesson here in how maybe you should get your message out.

>> we're learning a lot. we'll sit down and take a hard look at this afterward. did we affect behavior? do more people make kits? we'll take a look at this. it's been a wild ride. >> interesting to say. are you a zombie fan? >> i am. i have always been a fan. >> as you know today is the end of days. >> it is. the rapture is at 6:00 i guess. >> we get the information out and you can still get prepared for the rapture preparedness will be next for us. it's tongue and cheek. people having fun with this. it's an interesting way to go about getting the message out. congratulations. 23 minutes past the hour now. earlier we asked you to weigh in on doomsday. the question is what would you do with your final hours on earth if you actually believed today was it. what would you do? your responses have been overwhelming and interesting.

heather says i would hula hoop in the backyard, have cocktails with my husband and family and maybe let my cats roam outside. >> pray, pray, pray. >> another one from tyler says a simple plan eat mcdonald's and watch cnn. grab a mcmuffin. i'm here all morning. as much as we are proud of our work at cnn, you can find better thing to do with your final hours. also, this one from ann says i'm preparing to pick up all of the things people walked away from, cars, diamonds, money, they can't take it with them. all right. we appreciate you for sending some of those in. 24 minutes past the hour. news we are just getting disturbing stuff out of oklahoma. a manhunt under way right now. this is near oklahoma city. police are searching for two suspects in the shooting death of a 25-year vet of the sheriff's department. this information just coming in.

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[ nurse ] i'm a nurse. i believe in the power of science and medicine. but i'm also human. and i believe in stacking the deck. 26 minutes past the hour. a manhunt going on in oklahoma right now. the shooting took place but i'm told that the deputy who was shot in oklahoma was shot we're told now and that he has not died. this is a massive manhunt under way in oklahoma city right now. they are looking for two suspects in the shooting of an off-duty sheriff's deputy. he's a 25-year veteran of that force. police say he was getting extra

work as a security guard carrying a bank deposit around at midnight and he was attacked. we're told this was all caught on security cameras. they are going through right now. we're trying to get an update on the condition of this sheriff's deputy who we're told right now is shot. we'll get an update on his condition but a developing story right now. massive manhunt under way. we're following this breaking story. stay with us. to your kids' wet skin.blok new neutrogena® wet skin kids with helioplex. the first sunblock designed to be applied directly to wet skin. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin kids instantly cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum protective barrier. with wet skin kids, your kids have full strength sun protection. try new wet skin sunblock for adults too. neutrogena® #1 dermatologist recommended suncare.