tony, as i'm cooking breakfast for my children, asking them to hold it as i pour my coffee. >> have you thought about your speech? >> no, i haven't. >> i don't believe actors when they tell me that. >> it's true. >> it's been a pleasure. thanks, piers. good saturday morning, everybody. she has been convicted of fraud. you might recognize her. we're talking about the ex-wife now of nelson mandela. going to be talking to her in a rare and exclusive interview. she invited us into her south african home. you'll hear what she now thinks of her ex-husband and how she'ses not too happy with jennifer hudson. also, the question of the morning for you. a story about a texas high school valedictorian, scheduled

to graduate today and receiving threats. why? because she wants to say a prayer are during her speech at the high school graduation. the controversy has now gotten the attention of of the governor as well as the courts. tell me what you think this morning. you know where to find me on facebook and also on twitter. also -- they are from are the great arest generation, world war ii vets, of course. i get the chance to sit down with two of them. they know exact times, exact moments of d-day that was almost 70 years ago. there was no time for fear. they just had a job to do and to try to stay alive. from the cnn center, this is your "cnn saturday morning." whenever you may be, i'm glad you're right here. i'm t.j. holmes. we do need to start with the president this morning. just hearing from the president are minutes ago making some new claims in his weekly address

about those economic numbers we saw come out just yesterday. take a listen to the president. >> now, we've got a ways to go. even though our economy has created more than 2 million private sector jobs over the past 15 months and continues to grow, we're facing some tough headwinds. it's high gas prices, the earthquake in japan and unease about the european fiscal situation. that's going to happen from time to time. there are going to be bumps on the road to recovery. we know that. but we also know what's happened here at this chrysler plant. >> the president speaking at that auto plant yesterday making the trip to toledo, ohio. despite a slowdown for the job creation, the president has the highest approval rating since 2009. the latest cnn poll has his approval rating at 54%, republicans aren't necessariesly happy with this president. listen now to the gop presidential candidate mitt romney p slamming the president just last night. >> we elected someone new to be

president. we didn't know much about him. didn't have much of a track record. but he was extraordinarily gifted as a speaker, soaring rhetoric and prolss of change and hope convinced the american people to give him a try. now a third year into his four-year term, we have more than rhetoric to go by. we have his record. barack obama has failed the american people. >> a lot of republicans have jumped on the economic numbers we saw come out just yesterday, the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1% and also just 54,000 jobs were created, that was a disappointment. many experts had predicted around 150,000 to 175,000 jobs might be created. also this morning, three republican presidential hopers go after a backing of a key group. our deputy political director paul steinhauser is there. he'll have a live report starting at the top of the 8:00 eastern hour. meanwhile, another politician making headlines for

all the wrong reasons these days. john edwards, the man who became close to becoming the vice president of this country, ran for president twice. saying he was wrong, after he was indicted. he denied he broke any laws after federal prosecutors accusing hum of using campaign money to hide an affair with a campaign worker, the same woman he fathered a child with. our joe johns picks up the story. >> reporter: t.j., john edwards was one of the last candidates standing in 2008 for the race of nomination. this time standing up in court facing a six-count indictment. the government has charged him with conspiracy, making false statements and taking illegal campaign contributions, hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations from two individuals in order to cover up an affair he had with rielle hunter during a time when his wife elizabeth

was sick and dying of cancer. edwards and his defense team signaled quite quickly they were going to fight these charges. first they entered a not guilty plea and then edwards addressed the cameras. >> there's no question that i've done wrong and i take full responsibility for having done wrong. and i will regret for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that i've caused to others. but i did not break the law, and i never, ever thought i was breaking the law. >> reporter: edwards was released on his own recognizance with a few conditions. he's not free to leave the country, had to verndz his passport, and he was told to stay away from one of the witnesses in the case. 100-year-old rachel bunny melon who is says to have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to help edwards cover up his affair with rielle hunter.

t.j., back to you. >> thanks as always to joe johns. for the first time in the libyan civil war, nato is using attack helicopters on forces loyal to moammar gadhafi. helicopters struck military vehicles and equipment today. nato is not saying where those attacks took place. flait toe says the helicopters give the mission additional flexible to go after troops in civilian areas. we turn to yemen where the embattled president says gangsters were behind an attack on his presidential palace. president saleh was slightly injured when two projectiles were fired at the mosque yesterday. at least two were killed. a live report at the half hour, also talking about why yemen matters to us here in the u.s. scientists are are scrambling to find out the source of a super toxic new strain of e. coli. 18 people in europe have died, about 1800 others are sick. food safety experts link it to

raw produce, but it's important folks, to say produce here in the u.s. is safe. still a lot of you have questions. >> in many cases it doesn't really matter so much whether this is new or if there have been a few cases before. the bottom line is this is rare and doctors in the world don't have a lot of experience with it. so, for example, they know in this outbreak 68% of the victims are women but they don't know why. they don't know if that's significant. and just to show you sort of the situation that we're in right now in europe, this official told me that there are more cases of a potential deadly kidney disease in this outbreak than in any other. this is the big complication that people worry about with e. coli, this disease hus. more in this outbreak than any other one we've experienced in the world. also, as many as six americans may have been infected. however, all six have are recent

links to germany where the outbreak is most widespread. also a tragic story to tell you now. this is out of wildwood, new jersey, where an 11-year-old girl fell some 100 feet to her death at an amusement park. witnesses say she was riding this, a giant ferris wheel. an investigation into exactly what happened yesterday is now under way. police say right now the indications are this may have just been an unfortunate accident. >> all i saw was people rushing towards the ferris wheel. i was, like, what's going on? and i ran over, and all of a sudden i see like this towel. i was alarmed. >> they said she was looking over to see over the ledge and as she fainted, fell over. >> again, an 11-year-old girl falling from the ferris wheel. this tragedy closed the park for the rest of the day but it's set to open next. actor james arness, know the

show, know the face, know it all. he has died. a lot of you may not recall that nail. your parents certainly will, however. arness played marshal matt dillon in "gunsmoke" from 1955 to 1975. he worked with hundreds of actors, some of whom you certainly recognize, harrison ford, charles bronson. he died of natural causes. arness was 88 years old. say good morning to my man reynolds wolf. good morning. i was saying right before we went into that story, you remember arness? everybody remembers that show even though it was before our time, if you will. >> my memories on james arness are fair to partly cloudy. reruns but certainly a great american. across there great country we're going to be dealing with incredibly warm temperatures not all over the nails, but in the southeast, southern plains, it will be roasting out there. we'll show you how high the

temperatures will go and how long the heat wave will last. more in just a few seconds. >> reynolds see you in just a few. we have found a link between ellen degeneres and al qaeda. and the link, would you believe, is a cupcake? i'll explain in 60 seconds.

11 minutes past the hour now. renltds joining me for this. the missouri river shut down right now. high water levels and flooding. what's going on here? melting snow and rain? >> same, same rules apply. same thing in the mississippi river we've had in the northern plains, all the snow we've had, tons of it during the winter season, the rainfall we've had over 600 times the amount we normally have. all of that has to go someplace, the place it goes, in the rivers, the water levels rise up. there have been evacuations along the missouri river. we think of the mississippi

being the one that's the true spine of the continent, the second largest, the missouri river. again, rough times to say the least. we'll watch that situation for you very carefully. has it not been the year of weather disasters in terms of tornadoes, in terms of flooding? we've had all kinds of issues and we just started hurricane season. >> do we have any scary stuff this weekend? >> if you're afraid of heat, yeah. >> still, compared to what we've been seeing, we'll take the heat. but it can be dangerous as well. >> it can. today we'll have those conditions high. yesterday in atlanta, we were in the 90s. here at cnn we have a parking lot raised up like the top of an oven. there's a chance later on this afternoon someone at cnn could walk to the car and get vaporized by the extreme heat. that's right, t.j. just joking. on the vaporizing. 93 in st. louis, look at the air temperature we're expecting of 97 in st. louis, st. louis along the river, very muggy area. we could have a heat index today

of 105 in st. louis, very dangerous in dallas also, 99 in the stockyards, houston, new orleans. live image of new orleans, a beautiful spot but certainly a very warm day, the kind of conditions you would normally expect in september, august, definitely july. atlanta, similar situation as we look at atlanta quickly. maybe not. 93 degrees would be the high p temperature expected there, back in denver, 80 degrees, 80 in salt lake city and 56 in san francisco. as we wrap things up quickly, one thing to notice, a chance of storms into the central great lakes, fairly warm in the cool plains, cool out in the pacific northwest, snowfall forming up in the tops of the rockies, could say 8 to 10 inches of snowfall up there. >> reynolds, appreciate you as always. i know you had some interest in this story. kind of curious. how do you find a link between ellen degeneres and al qaeda? nobody necessarily wants a link to al qaeda. >> no. no, definitely not.

>> let me explain this, folks. we're talking about hackers here. in the uk, they pulled off this attack, this cyber attack, on an al qaeda web site. you may have heard of this. hackers working for the mi6, they modified the code for an online al qaeda magazine called "in spy." we've done stories about it before. but they replaced the site's bomb recipes with cupcake recipes. let me explain further. followers went there, tried to download sketch pages of instructions on how to make a bomb. they got instructions on how to make rocky road and caramel apple cub cakes. now, the ellen degeneres part, the cupcake recipes were from the ellen degeneres show. >> explosively good flavor, really tasty. like the rocky road sounds pretty compelling, doesn't it? >> it does. it was interesting they were able to do that. >> very interesting. have you changed anything

about your cell phone usage after it this report this week? >> i think i'll listen and then probably change everything. >> folks, if you haven't heard this week, a very respected group, the world health organization, came out saying cell phones could cause cancer. they certainly caused a stir. in 90 seconds, i'll be back, tell you why they're saying this and whether you should change how you talk on the phone.

great shot of downtown atlanta this morning, the home of cnn world headquarters where i am. good morning, about 17 minutes past the hour. what do we do about this now, cell phone usage. you may have heard that scientists at the world health organization warning cell phones might, might cause cancer. now the group's not saying, don't use the cell phone, but you might need to be careful. the group's new warning compares the dangers from phones to cancer causing hazards found in lead, engine exhaust, chloroform. the study says it's similar to a low-powered microwave oven. the wireless industry saying that the study is inconclusive and more study is needed. listen to dr. keith black. he's author of "brain surgeon."

he says there's still a lot we don't know about the long-term effects of cell phone usage. >> you need to think of this in similar terms you would a microwave oven. those microwaves are are essentially emitting microwave energy into the brain that vibrates the water molecules in the cell and over time, you know, that can produce changes within those brain cells. we don't know the long-term consequence. we don't know what happens after decades of using a cell phone with memory loss, with aging, cognitive ability. we also know in the young brain the skull is much thinner, so the radiation that goes in is much higher. could it have some effect on learning? so you want to keep the cell phone away from the brain. the best way of doing that is to use hands-free, blue tooth in the car, use speaker or an earpiece so it's not right adjacent to the skull. >> so you heard hill there. keep the phone away from the head if you can.

find out more ways to protect yourself from cell phone radiation at cnn.com/health. well, can you remember what you did last night? maybe last week? last month? last year? most people can't really. but i had the chance to talk to two men who can remember exactly what happened to them 67 years ago. >> when you are going on an invasion, you are scared to death. you don't know what the hell is going to happen. >> well, we know now what happened on that day 67 years ago. it was the beginning of the end for adolf hitler. i'll talk to two veterans who relive d-day and why they say they actually had it easy. our conversation after the break flgt

the 6th of june 1944, d-day. thousands of allied troops stormed the beaches of normandy with the aim to bring it no to nazi, germany. two men who were there that week sat down with me that week.

one of them a pilot giving air support to those on the ground, one of them on the ground. the other man i was talking to who was literally just trying to stay alive for the next several days after d-day. listen now to our conversation and listen to them also pay homage to today's greatest generation. >> on the anniversary days, a lot of people, the government makes a big deal out of it, the media will talk about june 6th, the anniversary. what about you guys? what do you all do on the anniversary every year of d-day? >> quite often i'm asked to talk to groups or participate in the ceremonies because i was a world war ii veteran and we're dying off pretty fast these days. there aren't many of us around. >> do you like being a part of that kind of stuff? >> i feel like today's generation does not know much about the history of world war ii. i was introduced by an atlanta

school teacher as a fighter pilot from world war 11. so i was determined to educate today's generations about world war ii because it still has a tremendous impact on this country today. >> what about you? >> d-day is my birthday, and i celebrate that with my children. >> how old were you on d-day? >> 25. >> hell of a way to spend it. i was flying over the channel, 1:00 in the morning. well, about 12:30. >> both of you all as i've been talking to you have railed off stuff that happened many, many years ago now, but you can tell me exact dates, you're even giving me exact times now. does that stuff just never go away? >> we took off at 2:30 in the morning, completely black-out takeoff. one of our pilots crashed into the tower on takeoff because we had no lights whatsoever.

and so that's -- you remember things like that. >> what was on your mind and maybe it it was fear, maybe it was pride, maybe it was that sense of duty? were things happening every minute that kind of put you in a different frame of your mind? >> it was a light for the rest of us. the adrenaline was running so good at that particular time i don't think we had any fear. we were just anticipating what we were getting into. i don't think you had time to fear at that point. >> would you agree with that assessment? >> when you're going on an invasion, you're scared to death. you don't know what the hell is going to happen, and you're not worrying too much about that. you're worrying about flying the equipment, doing the job you're supposed to do. >> that's right. >> the rest of it comes naturally. >> how did your day start? and do you remember the time as well when it started?

>> took off at 12:00 at night, and we landed around 1:00, 25 miles back of the front. so we had an easy deal. that was the easiest mission i flew because we didn't have -- we had the element of surprise with us. we didn't have people shooting at us. but the problem we had, of course, was we went in with the harrah troopers as you know. by the paratroopers that went in before us were oscillating, had that old parachute. they would hit these poles and break their backs, their arms and their legs. it was awful. so we had it easy. >> still amazing to hear you say you had it easy. >> it was. >> did you know you were making history, i guess i should say? did it feel like that at the time? or were you just doing your duty? >> doing what i was supposed to do. >> that's right. >> they paid me. but when you sign those papers you've got to do what you're supposed to do.

>> that's right. >> and you do the best job you can and you try to stay alive. because when you land, it's either you or that guy. >> stay alive. how close did you come to not making it it back? >> several times. i could bore you to death -- everybody in the service has those times. but most of our action was in close. we did what we're going to do and tried to stay alive in a matter of hours, minutes. because when you land, the closest we are here to the enemy. >> why did you want military service anyway? >> i wanted to fight for my country naturally and also it's exciting. you get to fly airplanes and you get to do a lot of things that you can't do at home. >> now, he just said he wanted to fight for his country. do you think over the years, from when you guys were young men, to today, do you think that that sentiment still exists in the soldiers who are going into the military now?

>> although they called us the greatest generation, i think these guys today are another great generation. they're doing -- they're involved in war that we wouldn't want to it fight. at least we knew our enemy. they did not. their enemy could walk up to them and drop a grenade and blow them away. we knew our enemy. we could see those big black crosses on the airplanes we were fighting against. so it's a big difference, but we still have a great generation out there today. >> thanks to those two. you'll be hearing more from them throughout this weekend as we get closer to the anniversary of d-day. getting closer to the bottom of the hour on this "cnn saturday morning." you know, all this talk about just how short we are in this country when it cops to dollar, the deficit, the debt and all of that? how do you feel about this? bp billions of your taxpair dollars are actually going to waste. find out why and find out where,

when i come back after the break.

we're at the bottom of the hour here on this "cnn saturday morning". welcome back to you all.

i'm t.j. holmes. for the first time in the libyan civil war, nato is using attack helicopters on forces loyal to moammar gadhafi. some see the use of the helicopters as an escalation and game-changer there in libya. the attack choppers struck military equipments and vehicles today. not saying exactly where they took place, nato say the helicopters give the mission additional flexibility to go after troops in civilian areas. we turn to yemen where months of protests threaten to erupt into a full-scale civil war. the president of yemen, saleh is blaming gangsters for bombing his mosque. saleh survived that attack reportedly with a head injury. several were killed including a preacher. four senior officials were injured in the attack, transferred to saudi arabia today for treatment. cnn's mohammed jamjoom is joining us.

explain to viewers what was behind yesterday's attack and who was behind it. >> well, yesterday was a very chaotic day in yemen. shocking development that the presidential palace could have been shelled in that way. as far as who's behind the attack, eyewitnesss and residents were telling us throughout the day it was hashad tribesman, a tribe that's been fighting president saleh's forces in the streets of the capital, street warfare that's been going on for the past 13 days now. that's what eyewitnesss, residents and government owe fishldz were telling us. but what was interesting is the hashad tribesmen themselves denied responsibility for the attack. saying had they had done it, they would be happy to taing responsibility for it. there is still confusion about who was exactly behind it, but the fact that anybody was able to breach security at the presidential palace in this fashion, this is practically a fortress. so much security, so heavily

guarded and fortified, it really shocked government officials there and really left many of the officials that i spoke with fearful and wondering just how vulnerable president saleh is, just how vulnerable his government and base of support is and whether or not he can sustain any nor of this warfare with the tribes there in yemen and wlofrhether or not this wil plunge yemen into all-out civil war. >> on that point, all-out civil war, why is that so disconcerting to u.s. officials? >> well, u.s. officials are most fearful of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, which has a base in yemen, of it basically taking advantage of political turmoil there. just to give you some perspective, there's been months of antigovernment protests it in yemen, political turmoil, violence in many cities across the country. now that violence has spread, now tribal warfare is going on, more dangerous situation. when i was there in it february, i spoke to the country's prime minister, someone injured yesterday in the attacks, i

asked if there was a fear if al qaeda, so resurgent and emboldened in yemen with which has been able to launch spectacular attacks against the u.s. and west from their base there, if he believed if al qaeda would be able to take advantage of this political turmoil. he said he thought they would try to take advantage of that. that was a few months ago. in the past week, you actually have a town in a province in yemen, a known hotbed for militancy, that's been seized by islamist militants. that's happening now. so that really is stoking fears of the u.s. if that's already happening, that more towns could fall to either al qaeda or islamic militants. that will open p up a can of wos nobody wants to see. >> thanks so much, we appreciate you as always. the last thing it steams the u.s. has now to waste is money. but that might be exactly the case with some u.s.-backed projects in afghanistan and iraq. talking about health clinics to bases to training facilities, all at risk of collapsing after u.s. troops pull out. well, if that happens, we are

talking about billions upon billions of u.s. taxpayer dollars that would essentially be wasted. a report released friday by the commission on wartime contracting warns that the two countries may lack necessary staffing, technical support and funding to keep the projects running. the report blames overly ambitious proposals, poor planning and inadequate follow-through i bi-federal officials. it is that season, graduation season for a lot of folks, college and high school. happy time right now, time of celebration. would you be celebrating if today was your graduating day and you were your high school valedictori valedictorian? but one senior is raising controversy because she wants to thank her parents, she wants to thank her teachers, but the problem is she also wants to thank god in her speech. well, now the governor and the courts are getting involved. i'll have that for you in just a moment. also, we want to hear your thoughts on this, you're already

starting to chime in this morning. keep those coming to us and it continue with the conversation at facebook and twitter. right back.

"beverly hills cop," right? >> i think so. >> 38 minutes past the hour, new orleans, yes, the heat is on and reynolds, right now we'll take heat compared to what we have been seeing the past several weeks and even couple of months with some severe weather. heat can be severe as well, but we can manage that. >> right. there can be steps that you can take to stay safe during times

of heat. but when you have other weather phenomena with massive trndzs and things, that's crazy. heat is difficult to deal with if you don't have to get outside during the peak heating time today, which is essentially 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., that's when things explode with the heat. it fades after the sun sets. avoid outdoor exposure. here are the temperatures today, be pacific northwest not bad, seattle going to 78, 73 in billings, even the northeast looks good, boston with 70, 78 in new york. when you get to the southeast and southern plains, things get a little insane in these spots. dallas at 99, new orleans 97, 97 in houston with the high humidity all coming in, feeling well into the triple digits. in terms of rainfall, expect scattered showers, maybe thunderstorms into the ohio valley. there will be the chance of some flash flooding right into the ohio valley so in terms of cities like, say, columbus, ohio, back into cincinnati,

maybe even ft. wayne, indiana, look for the chance of a little bit of heavy rain and flash flooding in low-lying areas. that is a quick snapshot of your forecast. back to you. >> reynolds, thank you. we'll check back in shortly. a battle over religious freedom. at a high school in texas has gone all the way to the governor's office and even the courts. because a judge banned people from praying during the graduation ceremony. an agnostic family filed a lawsuit saying their son would suffer irreparable harm if anyone prayed at his high school graduation ceremony. a texas judge ruled in their favor, banned people at the ceremony for asking others to join them in prayer or bow their heads. but the ban caught the attention of texas governor r or rick pero called the ruling reprehensible, the valedictorian, one of the people who appealed the judge's decision is being threatened and the school is on security watch.

>> my daughter received actually a phone call this morning saying that there was a vague threat given to the school via phone call that included my name and so it's intimidating. >> we've added additional staff to be there. we are utilizing staff from across the district to be there as well. we haved added law enforcement. >> the governor, governor perry, he has supported an emergency appeal filed by the school district on thursday. that appeals court overturned the ruling on friday. the graduation is today. so, as of now, it appears they will be able to say prayer at the school. now, you have been sending in a number of comments. we are going to share those throughout the morning. but p keep those coming in on this story. should you be allowed to pray at high school graduation? you know where to find me on twitter and facebook.

19 minutes to the top of the hour. maybe it's breakfast time. what are you having? what does your plate look like? does it look like that? that's what it should look like, we're told. remember that old food pyramid? get rid of it. it's going bye-bye, and it's making way for the food plate. your new nutritional guidelines, coming up.

all right. we're going from the pyramid to the plate. the government's food guidelines have come a long way in the past century. here are some of the highlights. this is put together by our friends at cnn.com. the first recommendations, take a look, actually came out from the usda back in the 1880s. they had an agricultural chemist put together nutrient counts for basic foods. between 1920 and 1940 we had the

basic food groups, vegetables and fruits, milk, eggs and the proteins, cereals and grains, honeys and jellies and finally fats like butter. then in 1940s we went to seven groups, fruits and veggies got split up, so did milk and meat. then in the 1950s, usda unveiled their food for fitness initiative. that put us at the four food groups. it this might start to sound familiar to you now. this is the one you probably remember. we had milk, meat, breads, cereals, fruits vegetables. it wasn't until 1992 that we got the food pyramid. it made its appearance in 1992, not too terribly long ago. it seems like it's been around a whole lot longer than it has. the pyramid set up the six groups, also told you how many servings of each you should have. later we saw the rainbow pyramid and also the inverted pyramid. now, all of that i just told you, throw it out. we've got something new now, something else. and it's simply the plate, the

food plate. so this is supposed to be a lot easier to understand. now, we're going to show this to you. there it is. you can see the greens, the fruits, supposed to be half of your plate. seriously. half of my plate? okay. now, for most of us, we like the steaks, burgers, they take up a good chunk of the plate. that's a big reason why the american medical association say a third of americans are obese. i'm with dietitian now betsy deech. we've got two plates here. one is correct and one is not. let me guess which one isn't. this is what we do, isn't it? >> this is a typical american diet. americans are are overfed yet under nourished and not getting critical newt reenutrients they >> with this new food plate, are they coming out with these guidelines, changing their minds about what we should be eating or they just came out with a new illustration for it? >> it's a new illustration and

it's simpler. the old pyramid was very confusing, and people couldn't really visualize it. it had a lot of information. this is much simpler, and it's in an icon that's familiar to people. so when they take their plate to fill it, they can keep that in the back of their mind and say, oh, okay, i need to use half my plate, fruits and vegetables, whole grains a quarter of the plate, a quarter of the plate for lean protein. >> deidre, do my director, can you put up the graphic of the food plate and look at the live one. the food plate we're talking about, the simple breakdown. you break that down for me. >> you want to make sure that you're looking at your vegetables and your fruits filling half of your plate, and then your lean proteins are, like, lean beef or a poultry or a fish, actually, the dietary guidelines recommend having fish two times a week. then of course your grains.

you need to make half of them whole grains. so there's some interesting grains out there you can experiment with. >> then a side of dairy? >> then you want to make sure you have dairy. i really like that the dairy is on the side. it represents either a glass of milk or a cup of yogurt. >> we'll show this plate here. a little salmon on here. now, the protein part of it it, it seemed to be in the graphic a smaller chunk. is that what the graphic is supposed to show? >> correct. so the protein and the fruit triangles are are slightly smaller than the vegetable and the whole grain. >> okay, what is this here? >> that is keenwa. >> what is that? >> it's a south american grain. it's made a resurgence. it's a great whole grain. switch it up. you can experiment, have fun with it. >> yeah. this looks like a blast here. this is what the plate is spoized to look like. let me show what the country has

looked like, since they've been putting out these guidelines and whatnot, is there any evidence these have actually worked? because in this country as we can snow in this graphic, over the years, as we go through 1990 and we see the blue turn to red, these are obesity rates continuing to go up, the percentages in the country. this is a great illustration coming to us from the cdc, just over the years how it continue to get change and get worse and worse and worse. so my question is, as the obesity rates get up, are we just ignoring the guidelines? >> no. i think that people were confused about the guidelines, and so this puts this into simpler terms for people. and dietitians have been using plates like this for years to help teach people how to properly portion size and how to build a healthy plate. >> okay. is this it it? or are they going to change it on us again in about ten years? >> i hope not. i think this is a great tool that really resonates with people. you know, i have three tips that actually can help people put

this into practice today. >> give them to me quickly. >> the first one is to fill your plates with nutrient-rich foods. those are foods that are going to give you the most nutrient bang for your calorie buck. and then also rethink your drink. think about what you're butt putting in your beverage p cup. the dietary guidelines recommends making all your milk choices low fat and fat free. and then also drinking water throughout the day. instead of those sugar beverages. and the last is to be a role model. >> set an example for the kids, siblings. just set the example. >> right. >> all right. thank you, betsy deech. again, the pyramid gone bye-bye. 10 minutes to the p top of the hour. nelson mandela spept 27 years locked in prison. his marriage to winnie mandela was going during that time.

but after he was released their storybook marriage was over in less than two years. exactly what happened? we have an exclusive interview with winnie mandela. you'll hear it, next.

about seven minutes to the top of the hour. downed by nadia for our morning passport. fascinating topic this morning. you just came back from south africa where you sat down with winnie mandela, of all people. >> yes. in her home. it's very interesting. she still lives in the historically black township. she hasn't moved to the smart suburbs of johannesburg. sat down with her and really spoke about her life, the struggle, and, you know, the marriage ended so she never became the fist lady of south africa. >> how rare is this, first of all, for her to sit down and interview like this? >> she doesn't like giving interviews because sometimes people misinterpret what she says and she has had a very interesting and very

multicolored history. you know, she's either totally lauded, heavily criticized as well for things she did. one of the things you spoke about, why the marriage ended. she made certain comments, first of all she was implicated in the murder of a young man so that was very destructive. then she said things like with our boxes of matches and necklaces we will liberate this country. well, necklaces are burning tires. so towards the end, nelson mandela decided, is this woman going to be good for my image? is she someone who will take me to the presidency? it was obviously a very difficult decision. he was very much in love with her and during prison fellow prisoners said he looked so forward to those visits from her. i once heard it say, it's fascinating, that he could forgive a country, he would forgive oppressors but he couldn't forgive her. >> now, what is she saying to this day, all these years later, about the breakdown of the marriage? >> well, she doesn't talk openly about that. i know she has some redprgrets.

she speaks of those yeerz of struggle and her role in it. >> loved the type of democracy where we didn't see our people demonstrating against their own government. we not only fought on political platforms. i was one of those who, with the people, were fighting physically against the apart hide heid reg. we took them on without arms at the time, and then we were forced to resort to the armed struggle. when we were fighting, literally fighting, a bitter war, i was there with them. >> and, remember are, she was in solitary confinement for 18 moz, then under house arrest for years. she suffered, too. so she considers herself as

being a major part of the struggle and south africans consider her as having played a major role in the struggle. >> being a part of the struggle the way she was, what does she think about that nation she struggled for? what does she think about it today? does she have comments about the current government? >> many. she's part of the government, parliament. there's been a concern over the african national congress, the party she belongs to, as does nelson mandela, about service delivery. there's been great hope, achievement, but some disappointment. i also asked her, tf.j., did sh have any regrets about living the struggle, sacrificing what she did, never having a proper family life. this is what she said. >> if things reverted to what they were before and i was called upon to use what is left of my energy to fight for the total liberation of this country, i would do that all over again. women, i believe, actually

determine the type of society we live in. we could change the form of government we want, and women must believe in themselves and never believe that there is any task they can't do because they are women. i knew that from the days of struggle. >> wow. we're going to hear a lot more in this interview. so many more questions i have for you, including about the level of interaction she may have with nelson mandela today. nadia sitting down with winnie mandela. thank you so much. close to the top of the hour here, folks. quick break. we'll reset this thing here on "cnn saturday morning" at the top of the hour. how do i take on tough back pain? i use the power of nature. [ male announcer ] introducing icy hot naturals

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well, good morning, everybody, from the cnn center this is your "cnn dosaturday morning." wherever you may be, glad you're right here. i'm t.j. holmes. people in the morning may need to pop a pill. but how many are you taking this morning? vitamins, prescriptions, painkillers? could it it be one too many? a closer look this morning at medication nation. also, this might be tough for you to believe. some experts say that people not paying their mortgage can actually be a good thing for the overall economy. clyde anderson will make sense of that this morning. first, we start with claims we are getting from the

president. we got this just a little bit ago, fresh new sound from the white house and the president in his weekly address, addressing those job numbers that came out yesterday. >> we've got a ways to go, even though our economy has created more than 2 million private sector jobs over the past 15 months and continues to grow. we're facing some tough headwinds. lately it's high gas prices, the earthquake in japan and unease about the european fiscal situation. it's going to happen from time to time. there are going to be bumps along the road to recovery. we're a people who don't give up, who do big things, who shape our own destiny. i'm absolutely confident if we hold on to that spirit our best days are still ahead of us. >> now, despite last month's slowdown in job creation, for the month of may, the president's approval rating inched up. the latest cnn research poll has his approval at 54%. republicans as you can imagine

not necessarily happy with some of the jobs numbers. nobody is happy with the numbers but they're not happy with the job the president is doing. listen to presidential candidate mitt romney, this is him during a speech last night. >> we elected someone new to be president. we didn't know much about him, didn't have much of a track record. but he was extraordinarily gifted as a speaker. his soaring rhetoric and promises of change and hope convinced the american people to give him a try. and now a third year into his four-year term, we have more than rhetoric to go by. we have his record. barack obama has failed the american people. >> also this morning, three republican president are deshl ho hopefuls going after the faith and freedom coalition. it's wrapping up today in washington. our deputy mripolitical direct paul steinhauser will join us in

an hour from that forum. john edwards said he was wrong but he did not break the law. the former presidential candidate is facing an indictment, prosecutors accusing him of using campaign money to hide an affair with the campaign worker that he fathered a child with. here now, our joe johns. >> reporter: t.j., john edwards was one of the last candidates standing in the 2008 race for the democratic nomination. this time he was standing up in court, facing a six-count indictment. the government has charged him with conspiracy, making false statements, the government also says he took illegal campaign contributions, hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations from two individuals in the order to cover up an affair he had with rielle hunter during a time when his wife elizabeth was sick and dying of cancer. edwards and his defense team signaled quite quickly they were going to fight these charges. first they entered a not guilty

plea and then edwards addressed the cameras. >> there's no question that i've done wrong, and i take full responsibility for having done wrong. and i will regret for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that i have caused to others. but i did not break the law, and i never, ever thought i was breaking the law. >> reporter: edwards was released on his own recognizance, but there were a few conditions. he's not free to leave the country, had to surrender his passport, and i was told to stay away from one of the witnesses in the case, 100-year-old rachel bunny melon who is said to have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to help edwards cover up his affair with rielle hunter. t. jfl t.j., back to you. >> thanks as always to joe johns. we turn to libya where for the first time in that civil war nato ais using attack

helicopters on forces loyal to gadhafi. these attack choppers struck today. nato is not saying where the attacks happened. nato says the helicopters give the mission additional flexibility to go after government troops in civilian areas. scientists also scrambling to figure out the source of a super toxic new strain of ooe co-lie. 18 people in europe have been killed, about 1800 others sick. food safety experts link the outbreak to raw produce, but they say the produce here in the u.s. is safe. at the same time, a lot of pell have a lot of questions. >> in many cases it doesn't really matter so much whether this is new or if there have been a few cases before. the bottom line is that this is rare and that doctors in the world don't have a lot of experience with it. so, for example, they know in this outbreak 68% of the victims are women, but they dmoent why. they don't know if that's significant. and just to show you sort of the situation that we're in right

now in europe, this official told me that there are more cases of a potentially deadly kidney disease in this outbreak than in any other. so this is the big complication that people worry about with e. coli, the disease hus, more xai cases in this outbreak than any other outbreak in the world. >> the outbreak taking place in europe, but at the same time six americans may have been affected as well. but all six have recent links to germany where the outbreak is most widespread. they are believed to have picked it up when traveling there. what if i told you that people who don't pay their mortgage could actually be helping the economy? some believe that is exactly the case. but we'll need our clyde a anderson to help us understand it. he's joining us in a moment. say good morning to reynolds

wolf, a forecast that includes heat but no severe storms, i don't think. right? >> for now, we're in good shape. maybe some storms later on this afternoon. t.j., when it comes to weather, there are things as they should be and things how they look like they'll be in the afternoon. especially here in atlanta, a normal high on a day like today, 84 degrees. today we'll chalk it up to possibly the mid-90s. and more on the heat wave affecting much of the nation. you're watching "cnn saturday morning." staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits

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11 minutes past the hour. now say good morning once again to reynolds wolf. you and i on the weekends, seems like every weekend for a while we've been talking about something severe. nice to not be talking about that, but heat can be severe as well. >> definitely. i don't want anyone to have the false sense of security, heat we don't have to worry about. you do, especially people who are very young, senior citizens often succumb to the heat and heat is going to be brutal today. problem is, this is what we expect normally in august, september, in some cases even

early october. sure enough, this is what we're dealing with. we have the jet stream with a nice ridge developing right over parts of the midwest, then right back down. that's your dividing line. on one side, cooler, drier air from the north, southern half a lot of moisture from the gulf of mexico. plus, with high pressure building up over the region, that compressing effect is going to have a pretty stabilizing effect on the atmosphere. not a lot in terms of cloud development other than maybe some sea breeze thunderstorm in a few places. but for the most part, heat is the story. st. louis, your high 97, 99 in dallas, 93 in atlanta. we may get high er than that. 97 in new orleans, houston. back into salt lake city, on the dividing line, you'll see cooler temperatures, 73 in billings, salt lake city, 80, 56 in san francisco and back into boston, new york, mainly into the 70s and 80s. now, in terms of your weather, we have a chance of severe storms across parts of the great lakes, but this could happen much later into the afternoon, perhaps even into the early evening. we're not expecting a tornadic

outbreak. more than anything, the potential for flash flooding in places like say columbus, ohio, maybe cincinnati, maybe even detroit before all is said and done. we'll keep a sharp eye on that. chicago may too deal with thunderstorms. also any flights possibly going through chicago could see some delays there, t.j. last thing you want to deal with. >> reynolds, appreciate it. see you again shortly. 13 minutes past the hour now. a young girl says no one thinks she'll live much longer. she's addicted to pain pills. we are going inside the mind of an addict. that's a part of our medication nation. stay with us.

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quarter past the hour now on this cnn saturday morning. florida taking steps to make it tougher for so-called pill mills in the state to do business. new law tracks prescription drug sales. this will be welcome news because the state attorney general office says 85% of illegal oxycodone sold in the u.s. comes from florida. human toll is enormous. cnn's amber lyon goes in depth for our series "medication nation." >> reporter: she was just a normal kid from a small town in florida until a bad breakup led her to try pain pills. >> this is me and that's me and my mom before drugs.

>> reporter: now they're all she lives for. so it's about 11:00 in the morning and bree just woke up. she's getting ready to have her morning fix. 23-year-old bree segy spends her waking hours turning prescription pills into injectable liquid. so you just completely turn it into a liquid. >> uh-huh. you know it's crazy because i remember when i first started doing these occasionally. everybody, all my friends, none of us were drug addicts. now the whole town is. people that i would have never thought were drug addicts are complete fiends. it's crazy. >> reporter: these little blue pills here, the oxycodone? >> oxycodone 30 milligram. honest, roxies, blues, about to do all of those in a second. >> reporter: all of these at once? >> 10 or 15 at a time. >> reporter: do you ever worry you're going to overdoses? >> when you're an addict,

nothing scares you. you think you're invincible. i need more pills. >> reporter: 150 milligrams oxycodone shot straight into her veins. all bree can think about is where to get her next fix. >> i don't consider myself high right now. i'll not satisfied. you can just leave the door open. >> at least we closed them down for one day. >> reporter: her mother joy is a nurse and one of a small army of citizen activists who standz on street corners most weeks protesting outside florida pain clinics, which have become notorious sources for illicit drugs. >> look at us. we're desperate. >> the majority of people, have they lost family members to pills? >> a lot of them have, yes. >> reporter: their protests have had an effect. new laws are being passed in state after state, including florida, to crack down on rogue

doctors. but at home? she's powerless. your daughter lives with you. she's around you all the time. how come you can't keep her from doing the pills. >> she has tried. >> she's tried everything. >> reporter: joy has had bree committed, sent her through rehab, even had her sent to jail. nothing worked. joy, you were telling me every morning when you wake up, you do your morning routine and then go see if your daughter is alive? >> yeah. >> reporter: walk over and check on her. make sure she's still breathing. it's not a fun way to live. first of all i say a prayer. i say a prayer to god before i leave for work and say, god, please let me daughter be okay when i get hole. the first thing i do when i get home is walk in and check on her. i'll stand there and look real close to see if i see her chest going up and down. i mean, it's just -- it's hard. it it's hard to live like that. >> reporter: there are warning labels plastered all over

bottles of drugs like oxycontin, vicod vicodin, xanax. here's another. >> i'm trying to get more. from are one of my guys. mom, i wish you would just -- you want me to do my daily routine, i'm doing it. >> yeah, i know you are. i know. >> reporter: amber lyon, cnn, florida. >> we're talking about that new florida law there you see in the piece. we'll be talking to the florida governor, rick scott, tomorrow morning. we're going to talk to him about what you just saw there but also in particular about the new law there that allows them to drawing-test whale fare recipients. also something he signed an executive order that also to allows them to drug-test state

employees. join us for that. governor rick scott joining us in the 8:00 eastern hour tomorrow morning. we're at 20 minutes past the hour now. skipping out on your mortgage? can that actually be beneficial not just to you but to the overall economy? i'll let clyde anderson explain that, coming up.

all right. we're 23 minutes past the hour. joined by good friend clyde anderson, financial analyst, talking about it being a good thing, in a way at least, for some people to not pay the mortgage. >> yes. >> now, this is what we're calling squatters' rent. >> squatters rent. it's when you're facing

foreclosure but you're not out of the property yet. a lot of times we're hearing the foreclosure proceedings are taking months and moz. we've heard of people staying in the home for 12 to 18 months not making mortgage payments. they're keeping the money and pumping it into the economy instead of making mortgage payments. >> when you go into foreclosure, here's a question, but you'stil the home, are are you supposed to be paying anything or essential you're not obligated to anymore? >> it depends. a lot of times if you're doing a loan modification or other options they'll freeze it and stop requiring you to make those payments until they adjust everything. a lot of these banks are behind. >> now, how does this help the economy if someone is not paying their mortgage? >> if they're not paying the mortgage, they're saying about $50 billion right now that's not going to the mortgage lenders. so instead of that 50 billion going to the mortgage lenders, it's being pumped down to the market. people are buying necessary din gas, food, clothing. right now the economy needs a boost so they're taking whatever they can get and taking the 50

billion and counting it. >> but doesn't that hurt the banks if they're not able to collect that money and don't we, no matter what you say about the big, bad banks, we need them to do well as well. >> we do. and it also hurts your neighborhoods. these people are still going to foreclose on these properties so you'll lose value and people in these homes and want to sell later down the road, they'll lose value because of these people foreclosing. but in some cases people can't avoid it. they're in situations where they just can't but also some are being strategic defaulters and are just not paying knowing they're moving. >> is there a danger here? you want to give good perspective. we don't want to promote this idea, saying, oh, it's good for the economy. >> right. >> is there a danger here in, like you say, the government know the money is actually another stimulus that's going toward the economy so they're not necessarily telling folks, giving them guidance either. >> exactly. i think that's a hard point because you mentioned the bank. we've talked about the bank bailouts. what the government had do is rescue the banks.

right now you're seeing well, this is kind of good because you're pumping money into the country. you're hurting your neighborhood, your credit, all that. >> what are the other options, solutions, if god forbid you get to foreclosure or before you get there? >> several things. loan modification for one, maybe you've got a high interest rate. go in and get that interest rate reduced. maybe you have an adjustable rate mortgage. get it reduced. maybe you can do a temporary reduction or waiving of the monthly payments. it's about talking to your mortgage lenders. or do a short-term repayment. i'm six months behind, they can take it and stretch it over the 12 months. or take the amount you owe and add it to the principal of the loan. put it it on the back end and then you'll just pay slightly more monthly for that time. >> now, are these creative ideas as we wrap this up, or are these actual programs? >> these are actual programs. if you call your mortgage company and not run from the mortgage company, really face

it, talk to them, communicate with them and see what options are available to you. these are some of the things they'll suggest. >> don't run from them. >> don't run. >> they it call to collect. they do run. good information, thanks, clyde. >> my pleasure. ♪ the accident could have been my excuse to quit. i made it my reason to go even harder. ♪ [ male announcer ] helping people achieve without limits. at the hartford it's what we do... and why we're the founding partner of the u.s. paralympic team. show your support at facebook.com/thehartford.

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