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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  June 12, 2011 1:00pm-2:00pm PDT

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market to get property mortgages. walking away is not part of the answer. it's part of the problem. thanks for joining me in conversation this week on "your money." you can also catch christine romans on your bottom line at 9:30 a.m. eastern on saturday mornings. stay connected 24/7 on facebook and twitter. my handle is alivelshi and i read everything you post. have a great weekend. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com you're in the "cnn newsroom," sunday, june 12th. i'm debra feyerick in for fredricka white field. we begin this hour with new trouble for congressman anthony weiner who's already undergoing pressure to resign. tmz reports weiner took partially nude photos of himself in the house of representatives gymnasium and sent them to at least one woman. the website showed photos of a man who appears to be weiner taking pictures of himself in the mirror. cnn is working to independently verify the photos were, in fact,
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taken in the house gym. weiner's office had no comment on those photos. weiner has already admitted sending lewd photos and texts to several women, even before these latest photos surfaced there were demands for his resignation even from his own party. >> the statement i made speaks for itself yesterday. i think anthony weiner needs to resign so he can focus on his family, focus on his own well-being. >> it's my understanding mr. weiner has indicated he wants to take a leave. i would hope he does so. i hope he reflects upon whether or not he can proceed. it seems to me extraordinarily difficult that he can proceed to represent his constituents in an effective way given the circumstances, this bizarre behavior. >> you think he should resign? >> i think certainly he's got to consider that option. i don't see how he can proceed and effectively represent his constituency. protesters held a demonstration outside weiner's district office in queens, new york, today. cnn's jason carroll was there.
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jason, weiner has already announced he's going to take a short leave of absence. is that enough? do people just say he's got to go? >> reporter: the short answer is no. and also it would depend upon who you're talking to. because out here in his district, deb, basically you've got two sides to this. you've got those who strongly are still behind the congressman despite everything that has happened. but on the flip side of that you have a very vocal and some would say vocal minority of people out here in his district who say it is, in fact, time for the congressman to step down. we saw both sides of that out here just a little earlier. it was a very small protest, i have to say. basically, the press outnumbered the number of protesters who were actually here on the ground. but it was interesting to see the debate that was happening on both sides. first i want you to listen to some of those who came out in support of the congressman. listen to what they had to say today. >> what he did was disgusting but i think he's done an excellent job. i support him.
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i would vote for him again. i think we need more people in the congress of the united states who will speak out for their constituents. >> he needs help. he's going for help now. and when he comes back from help, he should be a full-fledged congressman and be back helping us. >> reporter: now, deb, on the flip side of that, you've got a number of people here in the congressman's district who believe that he just simply at this point cannot be an effective advocate for the people who live here in this community. and those people who felt that way came out here today. they were holding signs. in fact, i know you mentioned those pictures from tmz. they had copies of those pictures. they were handing them out to people as they walked by. i want you to listen to what they had to say from their perspective. >> i think he's been lying to us all along about a lot of issues. that are really important for the american people such as the economy, world issues. and i think that he's not really telling us the complete truth.
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>> this man has opened himself up to all sorts of illegal things. he's opened himself up to the fact that he could be bribed, he could be -- they could hold this against him and it would sway him. sexual encounters could be hiv, could be anything you want. all i can say is this is a man who needs extreme medical care, most of the studies have shown that sexual addictions cannot be cured. and i feel that this skews all his relationships. his family, his wife, his family and how he votes and how he conducts himself. >> reporter: so very strong feelings on both sides of this issue out here, deb. i think from a public relations standpoint there is the thought that perhaps the congressman going away to treatment would in some way help the story die down, help the issue die down. but in his community it's still very heated feelings on both sides of the issue. deb? >> all right, jason carroll for us out there live. certainly congressman weiner's taking a leave of absence. he's apparently checked into
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that treatment center. we'll see if that's enough to rehabilitate his image. thanks so much. we're counting down to a major political event happening tomorrow night in new hampshire. seven republican presidential candidates will face off at the state's first debate. it's co-hosted by cnn and can be seen only here on cnn. our deputy political director paul steinhauser joins us live from the debate site in manchester. mitt romney is finishing at the top of the polls right now. he's going to be targeted by rivals. there's no getting around it. they've got to chip him down to build themselves up. is that a strategy? >> reporter: it could be six against one. six candidates taking on mitt romney. as you said he's perceived to be the front-runner at this early part in the cycle. he's on top of most of the polls. he's got a strong campaign. it could maybe be his achilles heel, that health care plan. it's considered by many the
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inspiration of what president obama and the democrats did nationally last year. it has an individual mandate for everybody in massachusetts. romney has already been criticized a lot this campaign on the plan. and we heard tim pawlenty, the former governor of minnesota, who will also be on the stage tonight twice today criticize romney including just about an hour ago at an event right here in new hampshire. take a listen to what he said. >> i responded to a question on a show this morning about the similarities between the president's plan and massachusetts plan. but just commented that it's obvious and president obama said in his own words that he patterned obamacare about the health care plan in massachusetts. and merged those two things together to form obamacare . >> reporter: romney responded saying he did what he thought was right for massachusetts. he criticizes the president's overall national plan. as for pawlenty, he's got a
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strong support. the debate support night is an opportunity for him to go on the offensive, reach out and up his name id. deb? >> it's so interesting. pawlenty, his name was bandied about to be the vice presidential candidate under john mccain. obviously that was not mccain's choice. ron paul, he's also going to be there. what's at stake for him in this debate and are all these candidates looking at the same target audience? >> reporter: for ron paul, let's start with him. a lot of people do know him. he has some name id. he's been around. this is his third attempt for running for the white house. but he is perceived by many, even though he's got some devoted followers and does well among his followers he's perceived to be a bit out of the mainstream. brand-new poll out this morning, look right there. not an overwhelming applause for ron paul among republicans only. only about half think he a i grees with him on the issues, strong leader, stuff like that. he needs to show he's not out of the mainstream, deb. >> it's going to be interesting to see exactly whose message
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resonates the loudest and the strongest tomorrow. paul steinhauser, thanks so much. remember, you can catch that debate live from manchester, new hampshire, 8:00 eastern only on cnn. congresswoman gabby giffords facebook page has been very busy today. thousands visited her page to see this. the first clear look at her since she was shot in the head in january. the pictures show a smiling gif frds and give us some indication of just how far she's come. lisa vil vesylvester joins us l from washington. one person posted on her facebook page "you are truly a walking miracle." tell us what you know about what's going on with her right now. >> the whole story is so impressive, deb. she continues to improve. she's walking a lot. her verbal and cognitive skills are coming along. now we have these picture. you can see some differences.
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there's a couple differences in the picture. in one you can see there she's got the cropped short hair, she's wearing glasses compared to the longer hair in the other picture. these pictures were taken, by the way, may 17th. it's the day after the "endeavour" launch and the day before she had surgery to replace the skull bone. that surgery was to put in a synthetic bone and shunt. her doctors said it went very well. so physically her condition has improved above and beyond what those photos show. and i spoke to her communications director by phone. he just saw her last week and he said she was talking about politics, about the mitt romney announcement, and overall in really good spirits. >> you know, you look at these pictures and it's almost amazing to think that this woman was shot in the head at point-blank range less than six months ago. it is amazing. the doctors have used terms like
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that. they've used "remarkable." phrases like "leaps and bounds." you see that in these photographs. you know, people shouldn't get the wrong impression, though. the congresswoman suffered a severe injury to one of the most sensitive parts of the human body. her road to recovery is going to be a long one. >> and on gabby giffords' facebook page as you mentioned hundreds of people have posted comments sending her well wishes. i think well above 600 comments at this point and more than 1,600 people liking the new photos. c.j. says the plan is to have her moved from the houston rehabilitation center by the end of the month so she will stay in houston, but she's going to contin continue with outpatient treatment. >> one thing you cannot fake is a smile. you can tell the smile there, very genuine. lisa sylvester in washington for us, thanks so much. some international headlines now. look at that plume of volcanic
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smoke and ash shooting high into the sky in southern chile. airlines are keeping planes on the ground for safety's sake. thousands of passengers are stranded. in libya, a rebel spokesman says his fighters have confiscated a secret military document. he claims it spells out a plan to attack misratah with more than 11,000 troops and clear the city of opposition forces. cnn has seen the 15-page document but cannot vouch for its authenticity. no acknowledgment and no comment from the libyan government. officials at the international monetary fund are still trying to figure out just how much damage was done in a recent cyber attack on the institution's computer systems. so far the imf isn't saying much about the type of attack or whether sensitive world economic data was compromised. the fbi is helping investigate. it's been a spring to remember for bad weather.
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right now, wildfires and floods are impacting a big part of the u.s. thousands of people are out of their homes.
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thousands of mempbs americans are out of their homes this weekend chased away by fires and floods. in eastern arizona the second biggest fire in the state's history is still spreading. thousands can now go home but at
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their own risk. along the missouri and its tributaries, extensive flooding. the flood could rival the 1952 flood along some stretches from omaha, nebraska, northward. don't forget the tornadoes. in all these disasters, there's one constant. the american red cross now needs your help. find out what you can do later this hour. let's check in with alexandra steele. >> i think you said it really well. you talked about all that different extreme weather. the one constant is the red cross. the one constant also with this extreme weather is the changing global nature of our atmosphere. it seems like extreme is the new normal. extreme being the fires we're talking about in eastern arizona. this may go down as kind of a precipice in arizona becoming the worst fire in the state's
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history. of course, in april and may we were talking about worst flooding in the mississippi and missouri in 116 years. it really seems that is the case, right? extreme is the new normal. we'll talk a little bit more about that coming up as well. here's the fire threat. it is critical. we're looking at this. still 6% contained in eastern arizona. what we're also watching are the winds. of course, exacerbating the scenario. thursday and friday the winds kind of calmed down. they had a better chance to get a handle on it. we've seen those winds kick up again. southwesterly winds, meaning the wind's coming from the southeast pushing all the soot into the north and east. southwest winds drive the winds to the north and east and it's really causing some abysmal, really incredible atmospheric conditions and causing really the likes of which they haven't seen here because these soot particles are so small and very dangerous. that's a look at what's happening with the floods. also severe weather. not incredible severe weather, maybe hail, isolated strong winds, isolated tornadoes.
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here's the threat of where we're seeing them today. mid-atlantic as well. that's what we're seeing today, the severe weather. of course, the low clouds really firing up. tomorrow this is where the severe weather threat will be. isolated tornadoes perhaps kc, st. louis. kansas city, temperature really going to climb tomorrow. that's how we're going to see the severe weather with all this heat moving in. one more quick look at what we're looking at. washington, boston, new york, you're flying out tonight. this doesn't look good to you. we are seeing right now on the average delays all the way from boston down to the mid-atlantic between about a half an hour and almost two hours because of atmospheric conditions. i'll keep an eye on it for you. >> please. absolutely. let me know when the number goes down. it's going to be the summer of extraordinary weather, it seems. the class of 2011 includes a highly decorated military man. you're about to find out why this new high school graduate waited 73 years to grab his diploma. let's just say, he's been busy. being out of work, hunting
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for a job. it not only takes a financial toll but an emotional one as well. coming up, how to keep your emotions intact. we're going to head on into the interview. mr. and mrs. nadimpalli... baba... what's the difference between the fusion and other hybrids?
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the look. yeah, it doesn't look like a box. we wanted a hybrid and we wanted... didn't want it to look like a hybrid. and ford hybrid was fantastic for that. what are your favorite uses for sync? movie listings for me. yeah, i do everything with it. who uses the navigation system the most between the two of you?
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friday was graduation day for a 90-year-old man in bend, oregon. bob max well picked up his high school diploma 73 years overdue. he dropped out of high school in the seventh grade to work on his family farm. he says graduating is an honor and he should know. see that medal around his neck? take a look.
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hold on. there it is. that's the medal of honor he received for saving his platoon in france during world war ii. well, the latest unemployment numbers of americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose again on thursday. staying above the 400,000 mark for the ninth straight week. in addition to those who lost their jobs, there are those who want to leave or are looking for side jobs. and it's not all about the paycheck. valerie burton is the author of "where will you go from here?" a new book being released later this month. in today's reclaim your career, we're looking at five ways to minimize the emotional toll of leaving or losing your job. which to some people, especially now, you would think people are holding on as tight as they can. but there comes a point where you know it's time to go. >> yeah. definitely. a lot of people have that -- people sometimes think the biggest impact is losing your income. research actually shows the biggest impact is that loss of social connection you have every single day when you go to work. >> that's a big thing.
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obviously you know the people. you've got some sort of a friend system. then you have to start all over again. >> that's right. >> it's different when you choose to leave or when you're forced to leave a little bit, no? >> that's right. there's that sense of loss that comes when you lose your job. a lot of people choose to leave and don't necessarily realize what the impact is going to be. whether you're choosing to leave because you're tired of that job, whether it's retirement. some people are telecommuting. >> once you've made the decision or the decision is made for you, it's important not to get stuck. >> yeah. number one you want to be able to reach out consistently. i think this is really important. you want to be able to reach out to some of those old bosses, your co-workers, people around you that still give you that sense of emotional connection. >> all right. another thing is that obviously you leave, there's kind of a sense of, i'm going to take a vacation. i'm going to just sort of relax, chill, catch up on my life. but it's important if you've either lost your job or you're going to look for a new one to stay active, stay busy.
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>> it's important to stay busy. it's important also to not ruminate. so many people will ruminate. they will rehash all the things that went wrong. either why have i lost my job or someone's done me wrong in some certain way. it's really important that you stop those ruminating thoughts because that can lead to depression. it doesn't help you go anywhere. if you're still on the job and you're thinking about leaving, being negative is not going to get you anywhere. you might end up leaving sooner than you wanted to leave. >> clearly for some people who have lost their job it's important for them to remember what they were so good at. >> that's right. >> don't focus on the negative. what about being social? just keeping your network? how valuable is that? >> keeping your network is essential. you want to find ways that you can get out and volunteer. if you're ruminating, if you're frustrated, being able to focus on helping someone else can be really powerful. finding those ways to get connected outside. also there's something that's really interest wk a professor at university of virginia, thon than hia jonathan hiatt talks about
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having a hive. you want to make your you're finding that place of social connection. whether it's a sports league, professional association. making sure you're involve and connected so you feel a sense of a team or a part of something bigger than yourself is essential. >> absolutely. it's very easy to wallow in self-city or just to become lost if you have too much time on your hands. >> this is really about people not recognizing what the real impact will be. one of the greatest statistic i've heard is men who live until 95 on average work until they're 80 years old. that social connection is huge. that sense of passion for doing something every single day that's meaningful. >> all right. valorie burton, excellent advice as always. congratulations on your new book. comedians sure have plenty to talk about these days. as representative anthony weiner remains in the news. we'll get you caught up on the late night laughs coming up ahead in the "newsroom." we don't go lower than 130. big deal, persuade him.
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is it wise to allow a perishable item to spoil? he asked, why leave a room empty? the additional revenue easily covers operating costs. 65 dollars is better than no dollars. okay. $65 for tonight. you can't argue with a big deal.
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♪ well, you know i love it too ♪ ♪ you love money ♪ well, you know i love it too ♪ ♪ i work so hard at my job ♪ and then i bring it home to you ♪ ♪ i love money in my pocket
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your advertising mail campaign is paying off! business is good! it must be if you're doing all that overnight shipping. that must cost a fortune. it sure does. well, if it doesn't have to get there overnight, you can save a lot with priority mail flat rate envelopes. one flat rate to any state, just $4.95. that's cool and all... but it ain't my money. i seriously do not care... so, you don't care what anyone says, you want to save this company money! that's exactly what i was saying. hmmm... priority mail flat rate envelopes, just $4.95 only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. checking our top stories, congressman anthony weiner's office has no comment today on some newly surfaced and highly embarrassing photographs. tmz reports that weiner took partially nude photos of himself in the house of representatives gym and sent them to at least
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one woman. the website showed photos of a man who appears to be weiner taking pictures of himself in a mirror. cnn is working to independently verify that the photos were, in fact, taken in the house gym. weiner has admitted sending lewd texts and pictures to several women and he is under heavy pressure to resign. today, on a more positive note, we're seeing the first photos of congresswoman gabrielle giffords since she was shot in january. two pictures, one with her and her mother, appear on her facebook page. thousands of visited the site today. many have left comments. we've also learned the arizona lawmaker will leave her rehabilitation facility by the end of this month and begin out patient therapy. along the missouri river basin, extensive flooding. hundreds of people have fled their homes as the water rises. the situation could be serious for the next month. record rains of swollen reservoirs from montana to missouri. the u.s. army corps of engineers is releasing massive amounts of water to relieve pressure on those lakes.
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in eastern arizona, relief for thousands of evacuees amid massive wildfire evacuationers that were in place have been lifted from the towns of eager and springerville. swim spellman is live from springerville. jim, i understand some of the people there chose to stay put. they never left. they didn't evacuate. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. to start with, i just want to tell you, these firefighters have made unbelievable progress here. nobody thought people would be able to return to their homes this early. we were hearing estimates of the end of this week at best. we're at the home of rick law. he's one of the folks who decided to stay. the sheriffs came and visited, said, hey, you may want to leave. he said, i'm staying. he had a plan. he has sprinkler systems around his house to douse any embers that might make their way here from the front of the fire which was only a mile away. metal roof on his house he felt made it a little more defendable. deb, i want to show you this. these are embers that flew from
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the front of the fire here to rick's yard that they were able to put out. so he's really glad he stayed. he also used this 4 x 4 and this water tank to fight the fire. this is rick here himself. he's lucky here today that nothing went wrong. rick, how does it feel? you must be glad everybody's safe. >> yeah, i am. i praise god that everything is safe. and i'm glad i stayed so i could watch over the embers and stuff that was falling around us. >> reporter: how about these firefighters? 3,000 firefighters out there just over this ridge fighting for your town. >> i praise god for them. all the men and women are out there risking their life to save our community and they're doing a really good job. i do want to commend them. >> reporter: deb, rick runs up at big lake, arizona, here, he runs the marina and whole complex there. next up for rick will be getting up there and seeing how his business faired. he thinks it didn't get burnt down. hopefully there will be tourists able to return later in the summer.
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this is a very tourist driven area. >> any sense of when they think this fire will ultimately be contained or are they just praying for rain? >> reporter: it's going to be weeks if not months before this fire is totally over. they create these manmade burn areas to create a buffer zone between the towns and the fires. not only that area and the area that's burned, even though it looks like the fire is out and all the trees are gone, the roots underneath the ground are still burning. when they get hit with high winds like this they can flare up again and send embers just like these back into unburned areas. so they have to go by hand with axes and such and yank up these stumps and these roots, put them all out. they call it mop up before this whole thing is really over and everyone is safe. deb? >> all right. jim spellman, thanks so much there for us there in arizona today. we'll check back in a little while. wildfires, flooding, tornadoes. every week it seems we're telling you about another natural disaster. relief organizations are some of the first on the scene when
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something like the joplin tornado, for example, strikes. but they can only do so much with what they have. that's being stretched very thin this year with so many unpredictable strategies joins me now from washington is laura howe, a spokeswoman for the american red cross. laura, how is the red cross coping with everything that's happened this year? you must be watching your dollars as they sort of are put to various tragedies you have to respond to. >> deb, i can tell you, it's absolutely been a challenging spring for us. we've had disaster operations in more than 29 states across the country. and right now we think that's going to cost us upwards of $51 million to respond to. and so no doubt this spring has been challenging for us and -- and it's certainly stretched our resources and it's tested us as an organization. >> you were on the ground right after the tornado hit us the colusa, alabama, last month. what is the need, the greatest need, for disaster survivors. >> you know, very early on in the disaster, of course, food
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and shelter and some of those basic needs that people have are going to be the first things we want to bring to a community. then you've got things like the mental health that kicks in. because just from being in us the colusa and being in alabama, i can tell you that people there were traumatized. they saw their friends and neighbors hurt. they lost loved ones. so the need for people to be there to listen, to comfort is great. then we come in, you know, in the weeks and the days later and we're there with things like rakes and mops and shovels and tarps and clean-up supplies. and those things that people are going to need to get their communities back in order. so we really are there from the moment that the disaster happens all the way through really to the long haul of the disaster as the community begins to recover and as they start to move on. >> is there ever a disaster where you just sort of look and say, we don't have the resources to respond? is that a concern? >> you know, i think as we move into the height of hurricane season, which we will be going
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into over the next couple of months, we are concerned that our resources are stretched. we want to make sure that americans still know that we're out there working. the great thing about the red cross is that we have volunteers. we have chapters all over the country. we partner with all sorts of organizations that help us get the job done and help us help people. and so there's really never a disaster where we throw up our hands and say, we can't do this. we always look to the community and we look to the other people and we look to america as a whole to be able to help us. and so that's really what we do. so that's what we're going to be doing going into the next couple of months as well. >> do you have teams that are ready to respond to more tornadoes that are expected to hit this summer? >> yeah, absolutely. you know, tornadoes, the wildfires that are going on in arizona right now, the floods in montana and the dakotas and iowa and all those places that are hurting right now. we have people who are trained at our local chapters every single day to respond to disasters. they're the first ones out the door. then we can back that up with a
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network of volunteers that are trained and ready across the country. but it takes -- it takes resources to be able to maintain that. a lot of people don't realize that even in just a normal disaster year, it costs close to $375 million for us to be able to respond to disasters. and what we've seen this fall just adds on top of that. so we're hoping that people can go to redcross.org or text redcross to 90999 and continue to help their neighbors even after some of this stuff moves out of the headlines. >> laura howe, that was going to be our last question, how people can donate. you've given them the answer, going to the website. thanks so much. we'll tell you about a particularly daunting challenge president obama faces this election season just ahead.
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thing under the gas cap, thing... do you even have a name? well, it doesn't matter. because it's about to change. there's a cheaper, cleaner way to fuel up now. the volt plugs into any socket, and fuels up at home. sure it could use gas, but for most commutes you won't need much, if any. so from now on, fuel tube... we'll just call you...plan b. the 2011 chevrolet volt. it's more car than electric.
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singer/songwriter jason mraz talks about his experiences in this "impact your world." >> hey, i'm jason mraz. we can make an impact by ending modern slavery. i got the invitation to go to ghana with a group to a fishing village largely operated by
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kids. there's thousands of thousands of children that don't get the opportunity even to go to school. they're forced to work in this fishing industry. i had the opportunity to be out there on the water and participate in these rescue missions. ♪ freedom >> human trafficking is happening all across the world. so the more we have awareness about it, this is something we can overcome. join the movement. impact your world. go to cnn.com/impact. >> there are lots of ways to impact your world. if you want to help with the free the slaves project, go to cnn.com/impact to find out how. some international headlines now.
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some international headlines now. it's another weekend of violent
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deadly clashes in cities across yemen. anti-government protesters and security forces fought in the streets of the capital sana and here in tiaz. witnesses tell cnn they saw tanks and armored vehicles in tiaz. protesting tribes took control of the city last week. bahrain, thousands of people rallied at a mosque yesterday chanting "we vow to no one butal la." the members of bahrain's opposition mooumt angry at the government and staging the first large public protest in months. this is a sprawling camp set up on turkey's border with syria. more than 4,000 syrians have now fled their homes for the relative safety of turkey. amnesty international estimates more than 1,000 people have died in syria since an anti-government uprising began there in march. the republicans itching to
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take on president obama is growing. seven candidates are officially in the race. right now the president is running against another opponent. the sluggish economy. the story from white house correspondent dan lothian. >> reporter: launching anything into strong headwinds is never considered ideal. but the obama campaign with its slick chicago headquarters is doing just that. facing down a bad economy in the race to 2012. >> obviously we're experiencing some headwinds. gas prices probably being most prominent. it has enormous impact on family budgets and on the psychology of consumers. >> reporter: dealing with the psychology of the consumer before he or she heads to the polls is a daunting challenge. >> well, actually, technically, it's about 5 1/2. >> reporter: while fundraisers from michigan to miami have put the president's campaign on an impressive track to a $1 billion target, the u.s. economy is still faltering.
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and that, says republican strategist kevin madden, will be the fundamental issue gop candidates use to show the president's economic policies have failed. the problem that he says he has inherited is now his and he'll be judged by it? >> right. i think you're going to look at an election that's very much about the present and then the future. where we're going to take the country. in the present right now he can no longer make the argument he made when he was a candidate in 2008 which this is george bush's economy. this is president obama's economy. >> reporter: you don't need a poll to tell you americans don't like this economy. they want jobs yesterday. democratic strategist jamal simmons says as long as people are looking for work, they'll keep their minds open to another candidate. >> he's got to convince people that his policies are actually helping the country turn the corner and do better. at the end of the day he's going to have to also run against a real-life republican who's going to have flaws and other problems that the president's going to have to exploit. >> reporter: what about national security? doesn't the killing of osama bin laden prove president obama is a strong, gutsy leader who took a
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hans to keep america safe? madden says, getting the elusive terrorist was good news, but voters like good jobs much better. >> it may have been a temporary benefit. but it's actually not going to drive the long-term debate of this campaign. >> reporter: but simmons doesn't see dark clouds hanging over the president's campaign. while republicans will hit him on the economy -- >> i understand how jobs come and i understand how jobs go. >> reporter: -- he can hit back with his achievements. >> what the president can say is he can come back at them and say i put two women on the supreme court. i passed health care for 30 million people. i have helped the country turn the corner when it comes to the economy and we're growing not as fast as we need to, but we're doing it much better than when george bush was in office. >> reporter: while many republicans may not see health care reform as a positive achievement, simmons says the president needs to defend it vigorously. making the case this is good for millions of americans. good for the economy. and that the benefits will play out over the next year and beyond. dan lothian, cnn, the white
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house. >> this reminder. tune in tomorrow as cnn hosts the new hampshire republican presidential debate at 8:00 p.m. eastern only right here on cnn. flies and garbage in the car. next, a look at what experts are saying about the forensic evidence in the murder trial of casey anthony. a lot of times, things are right underneath our feet,
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and all we need to do is change the way we're thinking about them. a couple decades ago, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas. this deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years, providing energy security and economic growth all across this country. it just takes somebody having the idea, and that's where the discovery comes from.
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the trial of casey anthony enters its fourth week tomorrow. she's the young florida woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter. lately the testimony has focused on forensics. some of hit very graphic. prosecutors contend anthony drove around for several days with the body of her little girl in the trunk of her ar. yesterday a bug expert testified about finding hundreds of flies in the car, among other things. >> what did you recognize the substance on the towels to be? >> well, i thought it was a good possibility, because the flies were there, the larvae were there obviously feeding and completing the life cycles that it most likely was decompositional fluid. >> and the case was the number one topic with our legal guys yesterday. i started by asking them how all this graphic evidence might be
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affecting the jury. >> it is the crescendo that the prosecution is building to achieve their obligation of proving their case beyond a reasonable doubt. they've done it carefully, methodically. they've done it smart. again, the skull, the idea of testimony, even the part about drawing the body into the woods where bones were gnawed by animals, obviously is having an effect. question, prejudicial versus probative, probative prevails. it's an appropriate way of prosecuting the case. >> richard, one thing i don't understand, they spent a lot of time about the garbage that was in the trunk of casey's car. first of all, what kind of mother drives around with garbage in her car? it's not even logical. they find traces of chloroform on it. what is -- why do you think they're spending so much time on this? >> well, the key, one of the keys to the prosecution's case is that casey put the child after she was dead in the trunk
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and drove around with her about four or five days deciding what to do with the body. so they're trying to show forensically that, you know, that body was in that car. that was casey's car. so, therefore, she had to have killed the child and drove her around in her car. problem is, they can't link casey to driving the car around with the baby. they cannot link it dead. the prosecution has a lot of problems. they went overkill on this forensic crime scene photos. of course they're admissible in every case. but they went overboard. >> i don't think much, if not all, of the prosecution's evidence has been undermined in the least. again, we're going to hear the defense coming up after -- in about a week. but the fact is that the evidence has essentially been irrefutable. the defense really has not done much of anything to bias the jury in thinking that maybe there's some justification. i think the defense is in a world of trouble. that's not a surprise to anyone. >> you can catch our legal guys
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every saturday at noon eastern right here in the "cnn newsroom."
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when you begin to go out there and ask people to vote for
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you, they're probably not going to vote for you if they can't say your name. my name looks like beaner, bonner, boner. thank god it's not weiner. >> that was house speaker john boehner speaking during commencement ceremonies at ohio state university today poking fun at his own name and also representative anthony weiner's name. of course, we've been hearing representative weiner's name on a regular basis over the past few days. weiner's admission that he sent lewd messages and photos to several women has been ir resisable fodder for tv comedians. here's a sample. >> good afternoon. i'm anthony weiner. >> the category tonight, top ten questions to ask yourself before tweeting a photo of your deal. is this my best side? number seven, do i have a last name that would make this especially embarrassing? "new york times" reported yesterday that weiner's wife is pregnant. the only thing that could possibly make this right, i think, is if we find out weiner's wife got pregnant by
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arnold schwarzenegger. >> i'd like to take this time to apologize to my family, my constituents, most importantly, my staff. >> he lied. for ten days. and only came clean today when additional photos like this were released. i mean, that is actually understandable. the guy's my age and he is totally cut. it'd be hard not to tweet a photo like that. >> the congressman had a sex scandal and had to apologize to bill clinton? for what? copyright infringement? a patent violation? >> one of the women that congressman weiner was sexting turns out to be a porn star. did you know that? he was sexting a porn star. yeah. when asked how it was possible to get involved with someone in such a sleazy business, the porn star said, i don't know.
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>> so please accept my apology. now, if you'll excuse me, i have to go take a staff photo. >> from late night comedy to late night driving, an endurance race takes its toll on audi. why is the automaker celebrating? anannouncer ] this...is the network. a living, breathing intelligence that's helping drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities... committed to delivering the most advanced mobile broadband experience to help move business... forward. ♪ [ male announcer ] breathe, socket. just breathe. we know it's intimidating. instant torque.
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top speed of 100 miles an hour. that's one serious machine. but you can do this. any socket can. the volt only needs about a buck fifty worth of charge a day, and for longer trips, it can use gas. so get psyched. this is a big step up from the leafblower. chevrolet volt. the 2011 north american car of the year.
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yep. the longer you stay with us, the more you save. and when you switch from another company to us, we even reward you for the time you spent there. genius. yeah, genius. you guys must have your own loyalty program, right? well, we have something. show her, tom. huh? you should see november! oh, yeah? giving you more. now that's progressive. call or click today.
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unlike fish oil, megared softgels are small and easy to swallow with no fishy smell or aftertaste. try megared today. zblmpkts and time to check some other stories making headlines. protesters plan to rally later today in oakland, california, against the early release of a former transit police officer who killed an unarmed black man. cell phone video captured the shooting two years ago. the officer says he mistakenly pulled out his pistol instead of his taser. across the pond, a speck ta tackular crash at le mans.
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both drivers walked away from their wrecked cars. with one just car remaining audi defied the odds and won the race for a tenth time. another long shot did well at the belmont stakes. ruler on ice won the 143rd running of the race yesterday. the odds against the colt were 24-1. top of the hour now and new photographs increasing the pressure for congressman anthony weiner to step down. tmz reports weiner took partially nude photos of himself in the house of representatives gymnasium and sent them to at least one woman. the website showed photos of a man who appears to be weiner taking pictures of himself with his blackberry in a mirror. cnn is working to independently verify that those photos were, in fact, taken in the house gym. weiner's office has no comment

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