the president is planning a big announcement that will they home from afghanistan. the end of a long, painful war finally in sight. i'm carol costello. three miners trapped underground are safe this morning. details of their rescue on this "american morning." and welcome. thanks so much for being with us. it's tuesday, june 21st, the official day of summer. even though it's felt like it in most places. >> boy has it ever. >> ali and christine off. carol costello joins us. good to see you. >> thanks. thousands of anxious families have been waiting for, the president about to unveil his

plan to bring our troops home from afghanistan and announcement scheduled for tomorrow. that's when president obama will tell the nation how many soldiers will begin returning to the united states next month. when the last of our 100,000 troops will finally, finally ship out. >> dan lothian is live for us at the white house this morning. we talk about this timeline for a draw down. what are your sources telling you about what it could entail? >> the white house being careful not to get ahead of the president's announcement and as late as yesterday white house spokesman jay carney said the president was still reviewing his options, still finalizing his decision. clearly there has been a big divide not only within their administration but among democrats and republicans. those liberal democrats who have been calling for a sharp drawedown in light of the costs of the war, in light of the fact that u.s. has been able to get osama bin laden. there have been others who say that this draw down should be gradu gradual. we heard that by secretary of defense gates. by numbers, there are 100,000

u.s. troops still on the ground in afghanistan. remember back in 2009 was when president obama initiated that surge of 30,000 troops. that's when he laid down that timeline saying that the withdraw would begin in july 2011. that's next month. of course the overall goal is handing over security to the afghans. that is expected in 2014. but all of this depends on what the situation, the security situation, will be on the ground. >> let's talk about that, dan. the security situation on the ground. how will that exactly figure in to the president's decision in how many troops to send home? >> well, it will be key because that's what the president said when he initiated that surge, that it really -- the timing of this would depend on whether the afghan forces were able to handle their own security and what the security situation would be there. listen, no mistake, this administration believes they've made significant progress, especially getting osama bin laden, but they say beyond that additional progress has been

made. >> the president as we understand it planning to meet with troops this week after making that announcement. is that more of a photo op or does he want to get their take and their input? >> well, this is, we're told by the white house, a chance for the president to sit down, meet with them privately at fort drum in upstate new york, the tenth mountain division played an incredible role in not only afghanistan but iraq. privately the president will be meeting with these military men and women and, perhaps, we'll get a chance to hear from the president as well. >> dan lothian, live at the white house, thank you. to libya where the government is claiming 15 civilians were killed including three children when a nato air strike targeted a residential building near tripoli. nato said yesterday's attacks were justified describing the building as a command and control facility that was directly involved in coordinating attacks on the libyan people. the bombing came just a day after an errant nato air strike in tripoli happened. libyans say nine people died and six others were wounded in that

attack. the mission in libya is getting -- setting up a showdown between house republicans and the president this week. speaker john boehner believes the white house is violating the war powers act for not getting congressional approval to continue the operation. republicans plan to hold votes this week on measures that would restrict funding for the libyan mission. on to the casey anthony murder trial now because it resumes this morning in orlando, at least we think so. the jury never even got started yesterday. not a single witness was called to the stand. the judge called out the lawyers ordering both sides to start their gamesmanship or else. david mattingly live in orlando this morning. the judge was not happy. >> that's right, carol. for the second straight day, the prosecution jumped up and complained that defense was trying to bring a witness to the stand to offer surprise testimony, trial by ambush they're calling it. they say this violates an agreement they've had in place throughout this trial that no one was going to bring a witness

to the stand that the other side didn't have a chance to depose or prepare for cross-examination. well, that happened for the second straight day on monday. the judge apparently decided there was nothing he could do but shut everything down and offer yet another very strong warning. listen. >> enough is enough. and both sides need to be forewarned that exclusion, even at the price of having to do it all over again, which i don't think i will have to do it all over again, because of repeated violations, exclusion may be the proper prremedy if it continues >> reporter: the judge there saying that if this happens again, he just might decide that no, you can't call that witness

now, regardless of what sort of ramifications that might mean in the future. if we're able to get started today and actually hear testimony, expect to hear more today about that duct tape that was found on caylee anthony's skull. the prosecution claims that duct tape was used by casey anthony to suffocate her daughter, making it a murder weapon, while the defense is trying to bring witnesses to the stand, experts who will say that is not the case. authorities here got it wrong. carol? >> david mattingly, reporting live from orlando, many thanks. supreme court handing a victory to walmart, ruling that a massive job discrimination lawsuit brought against the corporation was simply too big and, therefore, not justified. the court also found that there was no, quote, significant proof that walmart operated under a general policy of discrimination. the women, though, behind the suit insist they will continue their fight. >> i'm a fighter, nom one. i'm not going to let them run me

off just because i happened to stand up to them. >> our company culture is about providing all associates opportunities to advance and grow. >> that sweeping class-action status may have potentially involved hundreds of thousands of former and current employees. at issue, whether 1.6 million current female walmart employees could make this claim of discrimination. i mean the ruling still means they can go ahead with smaller lawsuits. >> which will take a lot more money for a lot more defendants. also new this morning two firefighters have died battling flames in florida. they were killed trying to stop the blue ribbon fire burning in north florida. firefighters thought they stopped that fire last week, but boy, did it flare up again. it's one of over 1500 wildfires that have burned across the state this fire season. forecasters predicting weather conditions will improve today for crews battling the

wildfires in arizona. yesterday, the so-called monument fire jumped a number of fire lines. the wallow fire, the largest in arizona's history, is now 56% contained. in texas, the flames are spreading. there are now 20 wildfires burning. officials say some 500 homes are threatened and more than 160 have already been evacuated. an ash cloud from a chilean volcano is grounding commercial flights in australia. flights into and out of ten australian cities have been canceled. qantas is grounding flights at sydney and melbourne. the same from an eruption in chile this month caused flight disruptions in australia two weeks ago. three kentucky miners trapped for nearly 14 hours are safe and they're in good shape this morning. the men had just finished their shift, underground, when heavy rain causeded a flood inside of the mine. yesterday, officials say that the men made their way to the high spot in the mine yesterday and then waited to be rescued.

>> pumped the water down and they were able to walk through the water and walk on outside. >> it's amazing, you know. you hear about the tragedies in west virginia and it's a good thing that, you know, there was just three. like i told someone else, if it had been anything, any later, then there would have been 30 trapped miners. >> amazing. they knew what to do, went to higher ground and it worked out. labor secretary hilda sew his is planning to speak with the men today. five-time wimbledon champ venus williams is show nothing rust, cruised in opening day on the grass. venus came back just last week after injuries sidelined her for five months. on the men's side rafael nadal blew by in straight sets looking for his 11th grand slam title. >> that's amazing she was, you know, healing and training and doing everything for five months and comes back. >> she's fierce. >> she is. good for her. next on "american morning" the republican presidential

field, about to get a little more crowded. former utah governor jon huntsman makes his announcement today. why some say he could give the president a run for his money, if he can get out of the primary. just wait until you hear how much california has spent just to maintain the death penalty. it's an amazing number. it is nine minutes past the hour. (rambling phone conversation)

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him or not. huntsman will make the announcement at liberty state park in new jersey in the shadow of lady liberty like ronald reagan did so many years ago. jim acosta is already there this morning and joins us live. hi, jim. >> good morning, carol, good morning kiran. jon huntsman has been a little cautious about jumping into the presidential waters. he has avoided some big public appearances like that cnn debate about a week ago. he also did not go to a republican leadership conference down in new orleans over the weekend, but he is planning to make a big splash in just a few hours from now when he makes his announcement that he's running for president in front of the statute of liberty behind me. as you mentioned, carol, this is evoking a lot of history here because this is the spot where ronald reagan announced his presidential bid in 1980 and aides to the former governor of utah say that jon huntsman will touch on a few themes during this speech, one being the economy which is, obviously, the top of everybody's minds these days, the national debt and

he'll issue a warning that if the national debt isn't taken care of, future generations will not do as well as current generations are doing now. he's expected to call for a more civil discourse which will be interesting because, you know, the tea party republicans in this primary battle are going to be right after president obama full board. jon huntsman will have to deal with that as well. you can hear the white house starting to craft its response to jon huntsman. over the weekend one of president's senior political advisers david axelrod took issue with some of governor huntsman's comments about the economy and here's what david axelrod had to say, basically when you were our ambassador to china you didn't raise any red flags then. >> i think he's a very bright, fluid person. it was a little surprising to me because when we were in shanghai, we got a chance to talk and he was very efusive, this was in the fall of 2009, about what the president was

doing. i was surprised when he emerged as a cancandidate. >> john hunts man will have a busy day, not only kicking off his campaign at 10:00 this morning, he's off to new hampshire and south carolina later in the day. his website for his presidential bid is going live. jon2012.com. it's j-o-n for jon huntsman. >> we will keep that in mind. >> we have to show the ads. >> all right. >> as promised. >> the motor cross ads, ready for this? these were unusual. in fact, they were released on the web, one of them didn't even say jon huntsman's name or explain it. >> that's right. >> we'll show people and get your take, jim. >> sounds great. ♪

♪ >> that's whacky, isn't it? it's different. it's creative. >> little unusual. >> yeah. >> it is. that's the point. you know, this is an ad from fred davis, the guy behind the demon sheep ad, remember that, carly fill rene na's ill-fated campaign out in california, also the "i'm not a witch" ad also of the ill fated campaign of christine o'donnell. hopefully that's not a trend for fred davis. these ads are intended to get people thinking saying, what's with this guy, what's this about? it's an unconventional take and that's what jon huntsman is looking for. >> was that jon huntsman on the motorcycle. >> that was the whole reason i was excited about it! >> but the -- >> apparently he likes extreme sports. >> he wasn't on the motorcycle. >> i'm liking this less. >> we'll have him on today. >> maybe machine head, "breathe

in breathe out." the music seems elevator-like for, you know, sweating it out in the desert on a bike. >> it's a work in progress. >> thanks, jim. by the way, actually -- >> you can ask jon huntsman tomorrow because he's our guest tomorrow morning on "american morning." 8:30 eastern, don't miss it. a california state lawmaker wants to abolish the state's death penalty after a report revealed the state has spent $4 billion on capital punishment since 1978. according to the report maintaining the death penalty costs california taxpayers $184 million more per year than it would simply to leave inmates in prison for life, despite having more than 700 inmates on death row, only 13 executions have been performed in the last 30 years. floodwaters coming close to shutting down a nuclear plant in nebraska. the high water triggering an alert at the cooper nuclear station in brownville among the missouri river.

the plant is still running at full capacity and officials say no radiation has leaked and that no one's been hurt. national guard is going door to door warning people in the area where the river is going over levees. they probably don't have a road sign for this, fish crossing. north of big lake, missouri. fish barely swimming over the top of highway 111. floodwaters just high enough for them to make it across if the birds don't get them first. >> gosh. that's the only way fishing is easy. stand there with a net on the side of the highway. >> catch them like that. >> catch your dinner. >> rob marciano is in the extreme weather center for us this morning. hi, rob. >> good morning. >> happy summer! >> that's right. coming this afternoon around 1:15 or so. looking good for that. of course a lot of folks have already felt summer, haven't you? we have more record highs across parts of the southeast. want to first show you some video coming out of nebraska, intense thunderstorms last night and yesterday afternoon. look at this puppy. rolling through elm creek, this is down i-80, west of lincoln

and this tore up some farms, one point rolled over some freight trains and these storm trackers have caught it on videotape, picking up a lot of dust and damaging farmland for the most part and that's how -- what we like to see from these storms. 41 reports of -- over 40 reports of tornados there and that funnel cloud certainly vivid. will we see storms today? we are. probably not as intense as that, but it's going to encompass a wider area. this is a big storm that's spiraling around up towards canada, almost all the way down to the gulf of mexico. and some of these storms will be severe today. some thunderstorms that are rolling across minneapolis in through parts of eastern wisconsin. this, the tail end of it, not quite going to clip chicago but dallas the other big city right now that is enduring some heavy thunderstorms, severe thunderstorm warning or watch has been lifted. we are going to see some thunderstorms that will create some travel delays in chicago and dallas. look at these record highs. so we've been talking about record highs, guys, now for two

or three weeks. the fact that today is the first day of summer, i think comes to no surprise to a lot of folks. >> no. felt like it for a long time. >> thanks, rob. >> memorial day is the first day of summer. >> the unofficial start. this is the meteorological summer, don't rain on rob's parade. >> all right. sorry, weather nerd. we'll see you later. >> come on, guys. >> i meant that in a loving way. i did. >> i prefer weather geek, actually. >> cool. thank you, rob. we heard an entire generation of our children by telling them they're all winners, giving out trophies for seventh place. coming up at 8:40 this morning, we'll talk to a writer who says we have to teach our kids how to lose too. >> she had a big article in the "atlantic" with the title "how to land your kid in therapy." can't win as a parent. we're going to find out more about this, and it's our question of the day this morning, are we hurting our kids coddling them too much. on our website we put up a link to the article if you want to

read it. send us an e-mail, tweet, tell us on facebook and we'll read your responses throughout the morning. up next on "american morning," a significant change is coming to cigarette packs. we'll have details on the new and graphic warnings. after spending decades in prisons in the u.s. and france, former dictator manuel noriega may be heading back to the country he once ruled to face murder charges. 22 minutes past the hour. [ female announcer ] experience dual-action power, with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only listerine® that gets teeth two shades whiter and makes tooth enamel two times stronger. get dual-action listerine® whitening rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth. [music playing] confidence available in color. depend® colors for women. looks and fits like underwear. protects like nothing else. depend®. good morning.

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minding your business this morning. stocks pushing higher at the close yesterday even as investors remain cautious about the debt crisis in greece. market movers including home sales for may and treasury secretary timothy geithner speaking on a meeting of economy at the ceos of washington. a key hurdle for prime

minister george pan pan dray ya. greece's austerity measures need to continue to receive a portion of a second bailout package in july. today's confidence vote must pass for greece's austerity reforms to push through. today kicks off the two day meeting of the federal reserve policymakers in washington. interest rates expected to remain unchanged but all eyes will be on fed chairman ben bernanke's second press conference tomorrow and what he will say about the stimulus program ending. regulators accused jp morgan chase and leading bank of scotland encouraging them to buy mortgage bonds destined to perform poorly. "the wall street journal" reporting the move pushed the industry into crisis. rbs has no comment on the report. cnn's calls to jp morgan have not been returned. hacking groups lulz security and anonymous teaming up to target big business worldwide. operation anti-security crash

the series organized crime agency in the u.k. and its launch mission. no word on the next target. "american morning" back after a break with either republican budget plan is under attack by a tea party leader. it's 26 minutes past the hour. t- a network of possibilities. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. can your moisturizer do that? [ female announcer ] dermatologist recommended aveeno has an oat formula, now proven to build a moisture reserve, so skin can replenish itself. that's healthy skin for life. only from aveeno.

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crossing the half hour right now. time for a look at our top stories. won't be long before our fighting men and women start to come home from afghanistan. president obama will be announcing his plan for a troop draw down tomorrow. the first wave of u.s. soldiers expected to ship out of afghanistan to make their way home next month.

it's a victory for the world's largest retailer. the supreme court blocking the largest sex discrimination lawsuit in u.s. history, siding with walmart against hundreds of thousands of former and current female employees who claim discrimination. the high court ruling there was no convincing proof of a company-wide discriminatory pay and promotion policy. the ruling does not prevent women from proceeding with individual lawsuits. three kentucky miners are safe this morning after being trapped for nearly 14 hours. officials say that heavy rains caused the mine to flood. the men were able to make their way to the highest spot in the mine where they waited for crews to drain the water and get them out. on to politics now, the republic republic republican budget plan put forward by paul ryan takes a sharp knife to medicare, most republicans and tea party members have embraced it and those who have criticized ryan's medical's plan have been plasted

by the right. he calls the ryan plan a public policy nightmare that could lead to huge democratic wins in 2012. that man is everist wilkinson that joins us from west palm beach. welcome. >> good morning. >> you don't mince words. you call ryan's medicare plan a public policy nightmare. you also wrote a letter to republican and tea party leaders and i want to read a bit of that for our viewers now. you said the tea party and gop need to drop all support for the ryan medicare plan. it is a political trap and public policy nightmare and the republicans are locking arms, jumping off the cliff for it. why do you say that? >> well, it is. number one, it's a -- tto call plan is a farce. i doesn't address the issues that we have on spending and the debt right now. and that's just the basics. >> what do you mean it doesn't address the issues?

because many economists say that you have to target social -- these like medicare, medicaid, social security, to really put a long-term dent in our deficit. so paul ryan, they say, is courageous for talking about these cuts to medicare. >> well, it doesn't -- number one, is that it's going to be nine years before there's any cuts that happen. it's going to be over ten years before we see a balanced budget. i don't niecely consider that -- necessarily consider that courageous. on the political side, you know, why would you put something in place, commit yourself, for nine years of elections, not even know what's going to happen, be with the status is, nine years from that time. that's just -- it's suicide. i'm not the only one saying that. dick morris came out, roger stone, donald trump, a lot of conservatives are questioning this plan. >> but when newt gingrich came

out, he said -- he called paul ryan's medical care radical, right wing social engineering. did newt gingrich have a point? >> i think newt gingrich had a point. i don't necessarily agree with his verbiage. look at the ryan plan. the $500 billion that were cut with the obama care, he actually kept those cuts, rather than giving it back to the seniors, and that's why the seniors came out in force last year for the elections. i think the republicans are making a serious mistake. they need to look across the board at welfare programs, look at the pentagon budget. social welfare programs have gone up 30% since obama, versus medicare that has gone up 12%. we can look at the pentagon budget. i don't think this is the time to be cutting the senior citizens medicare program. we need to look at alternatives. >> you mention cutting welfare programs, but that's -- i mean

the federal government spends just a tiny amount of money on that kind of program, versus medicare. i mean that's a doozy. >> absolutely. but, you know, they've gone up. there's a lot of fraud and abuse in those programs. we look -- we're going to have to cut everything across the board but if you look at the ryan plan, you know, it's -- it doesn't address it now, we're going to have to wait nine years. i think let's look at some real solutions. obama had the deficit reduction commission recently and they suggested raising the age. they had some proposals. neither -- i'm not saying obama is doing a great job. as a matter of fact, he didn't really even submit a plan either. but, you know, why can't either side take some of those proposals that the commission advised? >> we'll see what happens and if you change any minds because that's a tough thing. everette wilkinson.

go ahead. >> we got a lot of support specifically from tea party members. i received a very supportive letter from a tea party leader who is a doctor and said, everette you're right on. the ryan plan is wrong for america, wrong for doctors, wrong for seniors and we need to look at it again. >> mr. wilkinson, thank you for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. meantime in other news, russian investigators are trying to determine what caused a plane crash that killed at least 44 people. officials say the twin engine jetliner took off from moscow last night and crashed on to a highway just minutes before it was scheduled to land at an airport in northwestern russia. reports say eight survivors were taken to local hospitals. france is setting the wheels in motion to send former panamanian dictator manuel noriega back to the country he once ruled. noriega served 20 years in a u.s. prison for drug trafficking before sent to france where he was convicted last year on

money -- laundering drug money. officials in panama want him back and plan to charge him with the murder of political rivals while he was in power in the 1980s. just ahead on "american morning," call it the jaw shank redemption. >> that was a good line by our writer rick. >> going to take credit for it, thanks a lot. we say that because more than a dozen gators literally tunnelled their way to freedom from a farm and neighbors are afraid to go outside. >> oh, gosh. >> jaw shank redemption. >> i love it. that's creativity for you. never heard of a bank robbery like this one either. the suspect did everything he could to get arrested. he stole a dollar. we'll explain. 37 minutes past the hour. i didns drifting into the other lane. [ kim ] i was literally falling asleep at the wheel. it got my attention, telling me that i wasn't paying attention. i had no idea the guy in front of me had stopped short. but my car did. -my car did. -thankfully, my mercedes did.

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little bit disturbing but hoping that it -- >> is effective. >> and sort of pushing people to kick the habit. the food and drug administration unveiling new graphic warning labels for cigarette packs that include photos and blunt warnings like, smoking can kill you, and cigarettes cause cancer. they'll take up 50% of the cigarette tax. cigarette makers must start using the new labels in 15 months, by september of 2012. >> that was a track yotty. >> disturbing. people need to understand that this will happen if you continue to smoke. >> see if it works. a major shakeup at the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms. den neth melson is expected to resign. he will do that in the next day

or two after the controversy surrounding the atf's operation fast and furious. the operation let weapons flow into mexico with the goal of trying to track down cartel member. two guns of the program turned up at the scene where a u.s. border agent was killed last year. scary moments caught on tape when a car flies up and over the wall. this was at a racetrack in indiana. four people ended up in the hospital. they were all volunteer workers at the track. there you see the car. luckily no one was killed in that. no fans were in danger. witnesses say they didn't see the car coming until the last second. >> wow. homeowners checking their pools twice in a neighborhood in citrus county, florida. officials say 17 alligators busted out of a nearby gator farm, dug underneath the fence and escaped. >> 17 of them. >> 17 gators. >> not two, not three. >> they managed to capture some of them, thank goodness, but eight are still on the run. >> wait until i tell my wife there's eight unaccounted for.

the last one that was caught on friday evening was about 5'3" inches. >> my gosh. >> that's insane. wildlife officials say the owner of the gator farm did have a permit but they are still investigating. eight on the loose. keep your eyes open. the ousted president of tunisia and his wife have been sentenced to 35 years in prison. they've been fined $65 million on corruption charges. getting them to serve a single day of their sentence could be the real challenge. >> a big challenge. zain verjee joins us live from london. president ben ali and his wife are not uven in tunisia. >> they're not. they're in saudi arabia. they've been there since they fled tunisia. it's unlikely, guys, that saudi arabia would do any kind of an extradition deal with tu any shah and send them back to face charges. what's happened is this trial was done in tunis in absentia. it's only case one and focused on something like $27 million that were found in one of their

palaces in cash and in jewels. the tunisian prosecutor said these are of historic value and that's why the embezzlement and misuse of public funds charges were raised here. others, a second case going to be done, centering around drugs and weapons. the former president ben ali will be investigated on suspicion of murder, abuse of power, money laundering but he's in saudi arabia and not coming back to tunisia any time soon to face this. his lawyer says the verdict today is a joke and totally politically motivated. >> i wouldn't go back to tunisia either. talk about the first lady. >> stay in saudi. >> i think that's probably a good idea for them. zain, the first lady, michele obama, in south africa along with the daughters this morning. they're there for a week. what are they doing there? >> they have a totally packed schedule. the focus of the first lady's trip is women development, youth development and the promoting of democracy there.

what she's doing today is meeting with president zuma's wife then going to meet with president mandela's wife. graca michele. and a tour of the nelson mandela foundation, see a day care center, the famous apartheid museum later on she'll be speaking to young african leaders as well during her trip. it's a pretty busy one. you can see the pictures of them coming out on to the tarmac at the airport and actually sasha and malia got these nice gifts of south african blanket with south african flags on it. lots of pictures showing that. after the south africa leg they're going to botswanna and meeting with women's groups there. and then they'll also get to go on a safari in botswanna which will be great but kenyan safaris are better. >> zain from kenya. what an amazing experience to get to experience the world like this. amazing. good for them. hope they enjoy themselves.

>> i would take either safari. >> wouldn't matter to me. >> maybe you can lead a safari for kiran and i in kenya. >> i was there recently and went to see the migration of the wildebeest which is one of the most amazing sights you can ever see. you're always welcome to come to kenya and i will be your jungle tour bush guide, no problem. we do luxury five star tented camps. luxury. >> that would be a must. >> here in new york we have a different migration of the wildebeests called trying to cross the street in the summer. take care, zain. you can watch zain every morning 5:00 a.m. eastern on "world one" here on cnn. what would drive someone to rob a bank and then wait for police to arrest him? this is a sad story actually. 58-year-old james had no job, no money and serious medical issues. they thought jail was the best place he could go for medical treatment and a roof over his head. he entered this bank in north

carolina unarmed, and he handed the teller a note. >> the note said, "this is a bank robbery. please only -- please only give me $1" because i wanted to make it known to whoever would know, that, you know, it wasn't done for a monetary value, it was done for medical reasons. >> he was hoping -- really sad. he was hoping for a three-year sentence to collect social security when he gets out, but because he only demanded $1, police charged him with larceny, not bank robbery, so he might not get as much time in the slammer as he was hoping for. so he's going to have to figure out something else. >> that's a sad situation for him. >> i know. breaks your heart. >> it does. >> ahead on "american morning," a trip to the apple store makes you want to dance apparently. this is a 12-year-old. his dance moves in the apple store have made him a huge hit

on youtube. >> that's just weird. >> he's apparently inspiring others. that's not a 12-year-old boy. >> neither is she. >> our question of the day this morning, are we hurting our children by coddling them too much? send us an e-mail, tweet, tell us on facebook. we will read some of your responses this hour. deal days ak and better than ever! right now, go to priceline for a sneak peek at recent winning hotel bids to find where you can save up to 60% on hotels. * we'll even email you other people's winning bids, so you'll know what price to name. *á with new hotel bid alerts, from priceline. it's me? alright emma, i know it's not your favorite but it's time for your medicine, okay? you ready? one, two, three. [ both ] ♪ emma, emma bo-bemma

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a matter of weeks u.s. soldiers will start coming home. president obama will announce his plan for a troop draw down. the supreme court has stopped a massive job description lawsuit against walmart. the court found the sweeping class-action status that could potentially involve hundreds of thousands of current and former female workers would be too large. the casey anthony murder trial reassumes this morning. yesterday the judge called a recess, slamming attorneys on both sides for excessive gamesmanship and warned them they could be compromising their cases. this morning, former utah governor jon huntsman will announce his candidacy in the republican nomination. it will happen in front of the statute of liberty. he served as president obama's ambassador to china. venus williams and rafael nadal winners in the first round of wimbledon. nadal looking for his 11th grand slam title. you're caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" will be back after a quick break.

we heard an entire generation of children by telling them they're winners. at 8:40 eastern this morning we'll talk to a writer who says we have to teach our kids how to lose too. >> how to suffer a little bit to have a stronger constitution. >> we'll see. it's our question of the day this morning. are we hurting our kids by coddling them too much? twitter, coddle them while you can while they're still around and on hand. >> keep your comments coming. we'll read more coming up in the

next hour. send us an e-mail, tweet, tell us on facebook, overwhelmingly our e-mailers have been saying, yes, we coddle our kids too much. >> so if you come in seventh place you shouldn't get a trophy. >> or maybe you should for effort. >> oh! i knew she was going to say that. their little faces, it's so hard. so hard to -- >> you have to look into their little faces and say, loser! >> right. >> that is terrible. >> for most of us a trip to the apple store would be fairly uneventful. not so for a boy in california. for him the store is his personal stage. >> his dance video has become huge hits on what else, youtube. dan shows you. ♪ ♪ just no turning back when your heart's under attack ♪ >> reporter: most people see it as a store. 12-year-old trevor moreen sees it as his stage to dance and lip singh to favorites like justin

beeber. >> it's me trevor in an apple store of course. >> reporter: he's on his way to internet stardom with dances to lady gaga. ♪ my mother told me when i was young ♪ >> reporter: and britney spears. ♪ ♪ little closer >> reporter: trevor's videos on youtube have gotten 5 million hits. >> i walk into the store, i act totally like a regular person and then i just bust out and start dancing and that's like the best part. i walk in the store totally mellow. >> reporter: it turns out, he's not the only one doing this. >> every apple store i go to i'm going to have a dance off in the apple store, no matter where i'm at. >> reporter: apple store dances are happening all over the country. >> hey, guys. what's up? so i'm going to be doing my first ever apple store dance. >> reporter: sometimes they wear costumes, sometimes they bring friends, and music choices range. ♪ >> reporter: and as you can

imagine they always seem to catch the eye of other customers. >> a lot of looks, a lot of laughs, a lot of stares. the employees when i first did it, they didn't really know what was going on. they kind of stopped me at first. they would be like, turn that down. ♪ >> there you go. >> even now the employees at the store i go to, they're totally cool to me now and love me. ♪ >> my favorite video i would say is my dance to "friday" by rebecca black. ♪ 7:00 a.m. waking up in the morning got to be fresh got to go downstairs ♪ >> i do not rehearse any of my dances. freestyle, i wing it, do what dance moves i got, you know. >> reporter: he records those moves using one of the store's machines and uploads directly from the store to youtube. >> fancy smansy.

>> reporter: his goal is to translate this into more than just internet fame. he dreams of a career in show business p business. >> reporter: dan simon. >> thank you all for watching reason cnn san francisco. >> get that little guy a trophy. >> i think we should rate them on their performances and do it honestly. that kid deserved -- i can't do it. >> you can't even do it. >> all bark and no bite. couldn't say that to that poor kid. >> we'll be right back with our top stories. four minutes to the top of the hour. [ female announcer ] sun damage is on the rise.

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[ male announcer ] when diarrhea hits, kaopectate stops it fast. powerful liquid relief speeds to the source. fast. [ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kao. thousands of american families have been waiting a long time for this. president obama announcing when some of our troops will be coming home, the end of the war in afghanistan, coming into focus on this "american morning." good morning to you. it is tuesday, june 21st. welcome to "american morning." i'm carol costello. ali and dlis teen are off. >> i'm kiran chetry. by tomorrow, thousands of american families will find out when their loved ones are coming home from afghanistan. 100,000 u.s. troops are stationed there right now. tomorrow, president obama

announces his plan to withdraw them. it's a critical step and there are deep divisions in washington about how to get it done. dan lothian joins us live from the white house this morning. good morning, dan. >> good morning, and you did touch on that, those divisions not only within the administration, but here in washington. some of the democrats saying there should be a sharp draw down of u.s. troops, considering the costs of the war, considering the fact that the u.s. was able to get bin laden. others are calling for a more modest withdraw because it might, if you speed things up, it could deteriorate the situation on the ground. now by the numbers, there are 100,000 u.s. troops there in afghanistan. we got to that number in 2009 when president obama initiated the surge of 30,000 troops. he also laid out a timeline where troop withdraws would begin in july 2011. that's next month. the overall goal, of course, is making sure that the stability on the ground is in a position that handover to afghan security

could take place in 2014. the administration says that progress is being made, more progress in the region, than just the capture or killing rather of osama bin laden. >> there has been significant progress in disrupting or halting momentum of the taliban and significant progress in stabilizing afghanistan and the government to allow afghan national security forces to build up, to train and prepare for taking over the lead. >> reporter: now after the president makes that speech tomorrow, he heads to fort drum in upstate new york on thursday. is that home to the 10th division, the 10th mountain division. they played key roles in not only afghanistan buts in iraq. the president will be able to have some face-to-face time with them, private meetings and hopefully we'll get a chance to hear from the president. kiran? >> dan lothian for us at the white house, thanks so much. there is a brand new entry this morning in the republican presidential race. jon huntsman, former utah governor and former ambassador

to china in the obama administration, is set to launch his campaign this morning. if you're thinking, jon who? you are certainly not alone. when asked their opinion of huntsman in a cnn/opinion research corporation pool, 76% of americans said they were unsure of who jon huntsman is. jim acosta is covering jon huntsman's announcement at liberty state park. he joins us live there. jon huntsman has a long road. >> he does, carol. that is -- and you raised at good point with that poll. that is a big question for jon huntsman. after all, we were covering him in new hampshire about a month ago when he was starting to explore this presidential run and, you know, he's had a month to get his name out there, to start talking about this eventual campaign and he still mired in sort of the single digits in the polls. he's hoping to change all of that later this morning at about 10:00. he's going to announce he is running for president. he has picked a very important back drop to a lot of conservative republicans, lady

liberty over my shoulder, it will be over jon huntsman's shoulders in three hours from now. this is where ronald reagan launched his bid in 1980. if you're going to stand in the shadow of ronald reagan you better bring it. aides to the former governor of utah say he will touch on a variety of themes on this speech, one being on the economy but also on the national debt and he's also going to call for a civil discourse in this upcoming campaign which is going to be interesting because, obviously, they've been throwing a lot of red meat on the republican side at this president, and so it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out later. later this afternoon he will go up to new hampshire and down to south carolina, so no rest for jon huntsman from here on out. >> i know. civil discourse doesn't exactly garner you attention but we'll see what happens. his campaign videos have garnered attention because they're different and creative. >> it has. >> we're going to watch a bit of one and get your take on it, jim. ♪

>> so, he's released one of -- these are kiran's favorite ads, by the way. >> the music reminds me, discover utah, a great place to take your family this summer. >> that's one thing he was trying to show, trying to show out west in the spirit of ronald reagan, on a motorcycle, sort of like ronald reagan's horse. >> you said it wasn't him on the motorcycle. >> jim said it wasn't him on the motorcycle. >> it's not him on the motorcycle although jon huntsman is into extreme sports. if you want to have republicans forget about the fact you were the ambassador to china for barack obama it's not a bad idea to put out this unique ad. this ad comes from fred davis, who also put out that demon sheep ad carly fiorina had, and the "i'm not a witch" ad put out

in delaware. those didn't work out so well but hand is to the ad maker they did change the conversation for those two candidates and they're hoping to do the same with jon huntsman. we're going to have to find out how this plays out. he is trying to take an unconventional approach in the early stages of this campaign. he's vying to be the un-romney and riding on the back of the motorcycle in the utah desert is one way to do that, guys. >> we're going to ask him about that tomorrow, jim acosta, thanks very much. tomorrow we will have jon huntsman on our show, "american morning," around 8:30 eastern time. be sure not to miss it. >> we're looking forward to that. fire crews are battling 12 new wildfires in texas alone. that brings the number of fires burning there up to at least 20. the forest service says some 500 homes are threatened and at this point more than 160 people have been evacuated. >> i've never seen anything like this in my life. such a beautiful forest. two days ago. look at it now.

>> the toughest part about fighting this fire is mother nature. the wind is very, very strong. it's dry. we don't have -- we haven't had any rain in a long time. >> two inches since january, you know i'm praying for rain. >> two inches since january, amazing. so far this year, wildfires have reportedly burned nearly 3 million acres, the most since texas started keeping records on this back in 1985. and senator john mccain defending his comments that illegal immigrants are to blame for the wildfires in arizona. his office put out a statement yesterday saying the senator was talking about, quote, some fires, not all. and was not speaking about the wallow fire which is the largest in the state's history. still, critics are calling the senator's remarks reckless. the president of the national institute for latino policy saying, quote, the degree of irresponsible political pandering by senator mccain has no limits and with the lack of limits he may as well blame aliens from outer space for those fires.

he became famous for his crazy stunts before youtube existed. ryan dunn one of the stars of mtv "jackass" movies and tv series was killed in a fiery car wreck monday morning. police say dunn's porsche spun off a road, flipped over a guardrail and burst into flames in philadelphia. it happened monday morning. speeding probably caused the wreck. a passenger was also killed in the crash but investigators have not been able to identify the body. a few hours before the crash, dunn tweeted a picture of himself drinking with friends about a mile away which was quickly pulled down. but the bartender says dunn didn't seem drunk when he left. ryan dunn, just 34 years old. running out of sand now, to hold back the rising missouri river, the river is expected to go ten feet over flood stage in parts of missouri. officials say it could stay above flood stage into august. one town has filled 365,000 sandbags, trying to reinforce the weak levees. >> the high water triggering an alert at a nuclear power plant

in brownville, nebraska. officials say that the river rose within 18 inches of forcing a shutdown of the cooper nuclear power station. right now the plant is still running at full capacity. officials say no radiation has leaked and no one has been hurt. a story with a happy ending. three kentucky miners trapped for nearly 14 hours are safe and they're in good shape this morning. the men who had just finished their shift were under ground when heavy rain caused a flood inside the mine yesterday. officials say the men made their way to a high spot in the mine and waited to be rescued. >> pump the water down and they were able to walk through the water and walk on outside. >> it's amazing, you know. you hear about the tragedies in west virginia and it's a good thing that, you know, there was just three, like i told someone else, if it had been anything, any later, then there would have been 30 trapped miners. >> but all ends well. labor secretary hilda sew list

plans to speak with the three some time today. a major victory for walmart in the largest ever sex discrimination lawsuit that could have included hundreds of thousands of women. >> a case that could affect worker rights at nearly every private employer, large and small. kate baldwin reporting from california. >> reporter: it started with six strangers in california. chris is one of them. >> i'm a fighter, if not else. so are all the other women that are involved. >> reporter: she has worked at sam's club, part of the walmart brand, for more than two decades. she says she's been paid less than her male counterparts and passed over for promotions for years. so she and five other women who worked at walmart sued the company in a high-stakes gender discrimination case. someone says it's just one bad supervisor or a couple bad supervisors, is it worth taking the entire company on? >> it's just not one supervisor, though. it's supervisor after supervisor after supervisor.

>> reporter: walmart fought back, arguing these allegations are isolated, that there's no so-called corporate culture or nationwide pattern of gender bias at their 4300 facilities. the supreme court ruled in walmart's favor, justice scalia writing the workers, quote, provide no convincing proof of a company-wide discriminatory pay and promotion policy. the justices also said the lawsuit involving a million or more potential plaintiffs in this case, was simply too large. but the women behind it have insisted all along they would continue their fight. kate baldwin, cnn, at the supreme court. >> we'll see if they will. the ruling does not prevent the women from proceeding with individual lawsuits, much more expensive and each probably has to get a lawyer. ahead on "american morning," coming right at them. incredible video of tornadoes touching down and tearing apart parts of the midwest. the powerful storms on the move right now. >> there were no witnesses, no jurors yesterday in the casey

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14 minutes past the hour. welcome back to "american morning." a bit later this morning, the defense is going to resume its case in the murder trial -- >> we think. >> we hope of casey anthony. but yesterday, they actually were stopped in their tracks because a single witness was not called, the jurors didn't get to get seated. instead the judge called a recess and proceeded to blast the attorneys on both sides ordering them to stop their gamesmanship. >> i like this judge a lot. >> he's not allowing for any carnival atmosphere. >> i think that's a good thing. it's on television, right? everybody is watching. so the judge is being very professional. sunny hostin, you're a federal prosecutor, do judges often do this? >> the good judges do. this is a really good judge.

he's a perfect judge for this. what most people don't know, he's a former prosecutor, former defense attorney. as a prosecutor he tried a death penalty case and a woman was put to death. he's intimately familiar with the trickery that goes on in these trials. i hate to put it out there, but it really is true. i have experienced it myself. really good attorneys maneuver around court orders, maneuver in the courtroom, maneuver all the time and this judge doesn't want any of the trickery. one of the reasons there are these problems going on is because to avoid this kind of trickery, he put into place a couple orders. one of the orders was to avoid trial by ambush, what attorney are famous for doing. >> he made them submit in the pretrial any report given by any expert. >> the defense is saying that prosecution is using it as a shield and as a sword because when they need it, they use it against the defense. and this time the defense wanted to call a witness.

the witness had submitted like a one-page report. this witness was going to get on the witness stand and testify to things sort of outside the scope of that report. >> you had a favorite moment in the trial. the judge said a lot of stuff that was intriguing and interesting. set this up for us. >> okay. >> before we roll the tape. >> the judge is concerned that the jury has been -- yesterday the jury has been seated and has been sitting around in the jury room for over -- almost an hour. he says to both, you know, attorneys, tell me what time it is. look at the clock and tell me what time it is. >> let's play it and see how they couldn't even agree on this. >> i'm going to ask both sides to turn around and look at that clock back there and tell me what time it is. mr. ashton? >> 9:25, sir. >> and mr. baez. >> 9:26. >> okay. all right. thank you. that shows that the two of you will never agree on anything and

will never interpret anything the same way. it is quite evident -- >> don't you love that? >> i loved it. >> he needs to be the [ inaudible ] he needs to go to washington. >> you can't agree. we could all look at the clock and know what time it is. they can't even agree on that. it may have become personal now with these two attorneys. >> he said to them, called it gamesmanship and said he's very concerned about the time that the jury has been sequestered because this is a sequestered jury. what was the upshot? there was basically a break in the action yesterday. >> there was. >> what was agreed upon, going to happen today? >> they said that by stipulation, both sides agreed to come back today. they also went in chambers. we don't know what happened in chambers. let me tell you this judge told the them the trickery is over. my guess is they deposed those witnesses that were supposed to give these opinions today and we're going to see a really tight ship today. we're going to see the witnesses getting on the witness stand promptly at 9:00 a.m. i'll let you know what happens. i think that's what's going to

happen. >> threatened to exclude evidence. he was very angry. >> we'll see what happens today. sunny hostin, day-to-day ins and outs of this trial. like no one else can. thanks. >> thanks. let's take you up to the roof now. come on, let's go to the roof. a live look at new york city. we're doing this because this is the official first day of summer. >> happy summer. >> happy summer. not exactly summer yet. we have a few more hours to go. >> 1:00 p.m. when summer officially starts. it is beautiful. 1:16 p.m. the forecast high today for new york a summer-like 81 degrees. it's also about the humidity. a little sticky. you feel it already, right? >> the heat, it's the humidity. >> summer in the city. rob marciano with us this morning. it's ironic we're talking about, you know, the start of summer and you have wildfires in some places and you have flooding in others. they could both use a little bit of a weather swap. >> for a lot of people, people are saying, what spring? we went from a nasty winter into summer and with record-breaking temperatures especially across

parts of the southeast. 102 degrees in florence, south carolina. wilmington seeing 101. charleston 100 along the coast there and tuscaloosa, 98 degrees. so still sweating and it doesn't seem to want to let up. we'll see a little bit of a reprieve as the storm comes to the east from the midwest. we're seeing temperatures cool off a little bit behind it, but still sticky and chicago 89 degrees, threat of storms there. 93 expected in atlanta and 92 degrees expected in dallas. this is what we're worried about today. this big storm which produced this tornado out of central nebraska yesterday. a beast of a twister. ripping through central and southern nebraska about an hour and a half or so west of lincoln in elm creek. this tore up some farms, did some damage, but no serious injuries with this storm. nonetheless dramatic stuff there. one of over 40 storms that produced tornadoes yesterday. we have storms that are rolling through dallas moving to the east. this is where we expect to see thunderstorms with this very, very strong front that's going to cool some folks off

eventually. now that we're officially getting into summer this afternoon. guys? >> thank you, rob marciano. happy summer to you once again. >> thanks. up next on "american morning," you can be one of the millions of americans with mystery charges on your phone bill. find out why. >> and trophies for last place, our question of the day, are we hurting our kids by coddling them too much? there's a fascinating story saying we're basically raising a generation of kids that will end up on the therapy couch. >> because they don't know how to lose. >> terrible stuff. you try as a parent, always doing something wrong. send us a tweet, tell us on facebook. we'll read your responses later in the hour. ♪ you love money

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close yesterday. even as investors remain cautious about the debt crisis in greece. half of u.s. workers are unhappy in their jobs and actively looking to get out, according to a report from mercer, an outplacement consulting firm. as many as 20 million americans have unauthorized mystery charges on their land line phone bills according to the federal communications commission. the fcc says it is considering outlawing so-called cramming practices by phone companies. universal orlando raising ticket prices to match disney's increase announced just last week. it will cost you $3 more for a one-day, one park ticket this summer to parks like the popular wizarding world of harry potter. poor service, higher fares and baggage fees hurting customer satisfaction. delta scoring the lowest in a new report out today. the american customer satisfaction index found u.s. airways and united airlines tied for the second spot. american came in third, continental fourth. for the latest news about your money check out the all new cnnmoney.com.

coming up, why you should care about what's going on in greece, how the situation could freeze our markets here. "american morning" will be right back after a break. car connection calls the xf, yet an instant classic." with sports car styling and power, plus the refinement and space of a luxury sedan, the jaguar xf is a timeless blend of performance and craftsmanship.

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welcome back to "american morning." greece as we've been talking about teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and this morning about to default on a mountain of debt. european finance ministers are poised to spend billions once again to bail the country out. >> scary stuff. has markets in america and around the world a little rattled. mary snow is with us to explain how greece affects us. i mean i've often heard it

compared to lehman brothers. >> that is a comparison you're hearing. basically the answer is, it affects your bottom line. to give you a sense of how much of a role greece plays right now, markets around the world are higher because some of the fe fears. the big test comes today as a parliament in greece takes a confidence vote. working in the background are fears that the crisis in greece could spread to other european countries and have a domino effect. >> reporter: in athens anger amid government plans to cut more jobs, wages and pensions. unemployment is already at record highs. there's been a steady stream of protests over the last three weeks, as greece stands on the brink of bankruptcy. its government has been told that another bailout from european countries will only come after it takes tough measures. jacob, a guard of the peterson institute for international economics for one thinks the measures will likely pass, but it hasn't already raised concerns that europe could face

the same kind of crisis the u.s. did in 2008 when lehman brothers collapsed. >> what happened at lehman brothers was that the financial markets froze completely. as a result of the fact that no one really knew who was exposed to whom by how much. and that's essentially the same thing that would happen if you had a greek default of government bonds. >> reporter: that fear has rippled through u.s. markets. some economists say the u.s. has an indirect link because it's exposed to european banks which carry greek debt. >> if our banks have significant exposure to those countries and those countries start to reel, the negative transfer is potential slowing down in lending which actually hasn't accelerated over the recovery thus far. >> reporter: those what-ifs played a part in the six week losing streak that eased u.s. markets last friday. despite the uncertainty how it might affect european banks there is concern how it might

affect the value of the euro. this isn't the first time greece has needed a bailout. then there are concerns about how it will affect businesses if europe's economy slows. even as european finance ministers work to keep greece solvent, some worry if greece were to default, would other european countries facing their own debt crisis, would they follow suit? >> the question i have is, people do compare it to lehman brothers. we heard that in your story. but we didn't know about lehman brothers. it came as a huge surprise. i mean in this case, everybody knows what's happening to greece. so does that mean we're better prepared to deal with whatever may happen? >> well as you heard, so many people say, that there's really no clear answer on who's exposed to this in terms of the european banks. this has been lingering for a year because of the last bailout, so the lehman brothers is a worst case scenario. some are thinking that, you know, this is not going to happen, as you see there's some optimism the fears have eased,

but it's still lurking there. >> it's also a problematic because these are people that need to be re-elected as well. so you have a -- the people are taking to the streets, they're very upset, but the broad picture is that the country's on the verge of collapse if they don't do something. >> right. it's such a volatile mix. it's a very good point you made there, everything has been out there in the open, is it any better. >> figure it out. like a slow-moving disaster and we can't fix it. very strange. >> uncertainty is weighing on stocks. >> mary snow, many thanks. it is 32 minutes past the hour. time to check the top stories. president obama is ready with a plan to begin pulling u.s. troops out of afghanistan. he will share it with the american people in a speech tomorrow. the first wave of soldiers expected to ship out next month. a delta air lines flight returning to atlanta shortly after takeoff last night. a spokesman says the crew on board flight 1323 experienced a, quote, engine issue. the boeing 757 was heading to los angeles with 174 passengers

on board. a california immigration lawyer suing the state department after results of a green card lottery were thrown out because of a computer glitch. it affects some 22,000 people worldwide who thought they had hit the immigration jack pot and won a chance to live in the united states legally. the lawsuit says the decision is a broken commitment by the u.s. government. this week we're taking an in-depth look at states in crisis and across the country one thing they seem to have in common is a sea of red ink. the u.s. conference of mayors is on record calling for an early end to the wars in iraq and afghanistan. they say money spent on these wars should be put to use at home. joining us from madison, wisconsin, mayor pauling solin and from baltimore, oklahoma city, mike cornett. thanks for being with us this morning. >> good morning. >> let me ask both of you, i'll start with mayor soglin on this. this seems unusual that mayors, you know, of cities, local

leaders, are weighing in on a big national and federal question, which is our involvement in foreign wars. why did you decide this was important? >> actually, there's a long tradition of making statements of this sort. it was done during the vietnam conflict, it was done during the '90s in regards to the so-called peace dividend, but it's very clear that as we spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year fighting these wars, our local infrastructure, our state infrastructure, our school infrastructure, continues to deteriorate and we know that infrastructure is slowing down private investment. >> mayor cornett, it's symbolic, right? there really isn't any ability of local mayors of cities to affect war policy at the federal level? >> no, that's absolutely right. we don't pretend to have the level of information about these types of situations that the executive branch is going to have or members of congress. but what we believe is that as

we strategically pull out of these other areas, those infrastructure dollars that have been spent rebuilding cities in eastern afghanistan, should be redirected to eastern cities in the united states with aging infrastructure. in oklahoma city, i don't have a lot of these problems. we have a booming economy. the lowest unemployment in the nation. but our deferred maintenance on our infrastructure in a lot of these older cities is alarming to mayors across the country. >> mayor soglin you called the resolution moderate, because it doesn't call for an immediate withdraw, and you were clear in the beginning of the resolution to say we honor and appreciate the service of the brave men and women fighting. you also said it's not an immediate withdraw but it would be -- but it would be something along the lines of trying to figure out a way to get out as safely and wisely as possible. but the end result being getting out? why was it important to make sure that you highlighted it wasn't immediate? >> well, we wanted to make sure also that it was understood that we certainly support the men and

women who serve overseas as well as in the country. but the critical thing here, is that while we find money for fighting these wars and we do not pretend to substitute our knowledge strategically for that of the president or congress, we do want to remind them that there are urgent problems in the united states. we've got buildings, we've got public buildings, schools, that are deteriorating, that are not sustainable, that drives up the costs for taxpayers. we've got situations where communication systems, where our roads simply do not meet the demands of the business community within our boundaries. >> right. and you know, just to give you -- people a snapshot of what you're talking about, congress approving more than $1 trillion for the wars in iraq and afghanistan. about $800 billion for iraq and more than $400 billion for afghanistan. i mean, huge chunks of money and i guess your point, mayor

cornett, you can speak to this as well, this could be better spent here back in the states. i mean, in some ways, i think a lot of people agree with what you're saying. it just seems like it's a very difficult thing to unwind. look, now we're in libya, now we're spending millions of dollars a day in libya. >> well, we need to unwind it. as the dollars are freed up in these other areas, we need to address these aging infrastructure issues. we're going to be handing off this city to our kids and grandkids and handing off a lot of deferred maintenance if we don't get to the areas around our rail-based economies, around our highways, around our airports and aging water systems that in some eastern cities are 100 and 200 years old. we cannot allow this to continue. >> mayors paul soglin -- >> the mayor makes a vital part. it was part of our nation's history. canals 200 years ago, rail 150 years ago, cars 100 years ago. we need to do this for future generation and it's about jobs. >> i want to thank both of you

for appearing on the show. best of luck with you. i know you're dealing with your own issues back in your own cities and trying to put this issue to the forefront as well. appreciate your time. thanks for being with us. >> you bet. well, let's go more in depth on our states in crisis coverage to california now, where one state lawmaker has a plan to fix the state's budget. he says get rid of the death penalty. that's because a new report found the state spent $4 billion on capital punishment since 1978. in fact, according to the report, maintaining the death penalty cost california taxpayers $184 million more per year than it would to simply leave inmates in prison for life. and a handful of cash strapped states, you see them on your screen right now, taking steps to collect sales tax from purchases you make on-line. right now internet retailers are only required to charge you sales tax if they have a store or office in your state. but now, states want to broaden those roles. for example, an internet

retailer, might be forced to tax you if they use a marketing firm located in your state. officials say taxing all on-line sales could generate $23 billion. that is enough to pay the salaries of some 46,000 teachers. people who shop on-line for the very reason that they save sales tax. guaranteeing a certain amount of revenue may not be the case if they start taxing it. >> if you can't get revenue from everywhere else you have to do something. if that's one source of taxation, to fix things like infrastructure, let's say, they're going to tap into it because they have few choices these days. >> it's getting squeezed on both sides is a good way to put it. ahead on "american morning," first lady michele obama is touring south africa, bringing daughters sasha and malia. we'll check in with zain verjee in london. and find out why the british tabloids are all over venus williams at wimbledon. leave her alone. we'll give you a hint, it has nothing to do with tennis, but you knew that, didn't you?

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welcome back to "american morning." there is bipartisan frustration over the president's handling of military action in libya and his decision not to seek authorization from congress under the war powers resolution. gop source say house republican leaders will likely hold votes this week to limit funding for the operation. so, here's a quick look at the cost and the resources the united states is committing to libya. since march, 6600 troops have been involved. also, i'm not good at this, so

i'm warning you right now. also, there you go, the u.s. has flown about 3,000 sortie or flight missions and nearly 700 were strike sorties. also, four u.s. warships are stationed in the mediterranean. the total projected cost of all of this, $1.1 billion. that's assuming the mission lasts until september. there are no u.s. troops on the ground. we want to make that clear. republicans have said they want to keep it that way. they're thinking of introducing legislation that would prevent funds for ground troops to keep the mission from escalating, at the same time this would give lawmakers the chance to express their unhappiest movement on this should come on thursday. for everything you want to know about the mission in libya and tension it's creating in washington, go to cnn.com/middleeast. first lady michele obama in south africa, she brought her daughters sasha and malia obama as well. the first lady is paying homage to former south african

president nelson mandela in the struggle against apartheid. zain verjee has details, live in london for us this morning. i'm sure they're thrilled but also a very exciting trip for the girls. >> yeah, it really is. it's also a very packed schedule. the focus of this trip, kiran, is to promote youth development, women in development, as well as democracy in the region. but basically, today, they are going to be meeting with president zuma's wife, then also with president -- former president nelson mandela's wife graca machel. they'll tour the nelson mandela foundation. later in the day they will see the apartheid museum, and also a speech that michele obama is going to give in the country, and then afterwards she's going to be heading to botswanna to meet with the president there, meet with women's groups there, and then time for a little bit of fun too. why not? they're going to go on a nice safari in botswanna which will be very relaxing at the end of

the trip. it's definitely a packed schedule and i'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun for them. >> so a couple other things i want to ask zain about. the whole controversy over poor venus williams. >> we know what it's going to be. everybody complains about this poor women's outfits. >> but they really were unhappy this time around, right? show it to us. lay it on us, zain. >> let's take a look at what venous wore. nobody really cared that she won her match. take a look at this outfit. the tabloids are slamming her. do you really think it's that ugly? that bad? >> no. >> basically, it's this all in one jumpsuit. a v-slit at the back. when she was jumping around, she was flashing the gold hot pants there. she says jumpers are really in right now, like lace, and she's going for the simplicity here. the fashion police were out at wimbledon and hated it. i don't think this is going to catch on. i say so what if she has bat wings on this outfit. isn't white in anyway?

>> yeah. >> tennis outfits are revealing in general, aren't they? you wear the short little skirt v shorts down there. >> i don't think you have to, kiran. >> really? you can wear a full t-length. anyway. >> i didn't think it was that revealing even. >> well, she's worn worse. remember the lacy tutu thing she wore and the nude underwear too. but i always wonder when wearing all this jewelry, she had a heavy necklace and a ring and, you know, a jewel adorned belt -- >> earrings. >> how do you concentrate and play. >> i would rip my earlobe right off. it would get stuck in there. she's obviously a pro. >> well she's been called the lady gaga of tennis, but you know what, she hasn't shown up in an egg. give the girl a break. >> that's right. >> we're going to give her a pass because of that, zain. >> only the first round. she has time to bring the egg out there. thanks. watch zain every morning, "world one," 5:00 here on cnn.

just ahead on "american morning," new cigarette warning labels display horrible health effects of smoking. will it stop people from lighting up? >> our question of the day, are we hurting kids by coddling them too much? send us an e-mail, tweet or tell us on facebook and we'll read some of your responses later in the hour.

it's 49 minutes past the hour right now. a look at your headlines this morning. the beginning of the end in afghanistan. president obama expected to make a critical speech tomorrow to announce how many troops will begin coming home as early as next month. the gop field getting more crowded this morning. former utah governor jon huntsman is expected to enter the race today.

he once worked for president obama as ambassador to china. firefighters are battling a dozen new wildfires in texas this morning. crews say 500 homes are in danger right now and hundreds of people have already been evacuated. tracy morgan on an apology tour now. the tracy morgan is going back to nashville to apologize face-to-face to the people who were in the audience when he delivered a violent homophobic rant at a live show. scary moments caught on tape as a car flies up and over a wall at a racetrack in indiana. four people ended up in the hospital. they were all volunteers who were working at that track. you're caught up on today's headlines. [ male announcer ] germs in your mouth build up

and form a layer called biofilm so strong it survives brushing. thankfully, there's listerine® antiseptic. its triple-action formula penetrates biofilm, kills germs and protects your mouth for hours. fight biofilm with listerine®. welcome back to "american morning." smokers will be in phenomenon a eyeful when they go to buy a pack of cigarettes soon. the fda is unveiling graphic new labels on the pack of cigarettes. cover half the pack and include graphic photos and warnings. cigarette makers will have to start using them by september of next year. >> really, really graphic. especially the one we showed of

the tracheotomy of the smoke coming out of the hole. it's just like -- maybe it will be effective and more people will quit smoking. that is the idea here. senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen with us right now. >> let's take a look at the current warning. all right? this has been on cigarette packs for 25 years. it is all text and it is boring. it is ineffective. so the government has decided you know what? let's do this instead. i mean, you can't get much more arresting than that. a dead guy with the caption, warning, smoking can kill you. how about this? cigarettes cause cancer. those are pretty nasty looking teeth there. you can't ignore that photo. cigarettes are addictive. you mentioned the tracheotomy hole. and smoking can harm your children. they are really hoping that this is going to stop these numbers. 1 out of 5 american adults smoke

cigarettes. 443,000 tobacco-related deaths per year. they are hoping that these photos make a difference. >> it's interesting. i mean, you talk about the warning labels. when you go to other countries, they already have this. you see some in canada and other places. they have this. is there any study or numbers that show that it actually helps when the warning labels are that graphic and large? >> you know what is interesting? i thought there would be studies that say smoking rates are cut in half. what is interesting, it's not true. there are studies that show that there may be some relatively minimal declines in smoking. possibly based on these ads. they can't -- these labels, rather. it may be based on something else. really what they know is it certainly makes people think. may not make them stop smoking or may make them think where to smoke or not around their kid. in countries these labels are

not made people think i'm going to quit smoking and the rates have not declined dramatically. >> if you're a hard-core smoker, you're going to smoke. >> they did ooed study repeatedly that showed if you have a higher education, a college degree you're less likely to smoke than those who aren't. they seem to be making a correlation between education and whether or not you will take up the habit or eventually quit the habit. >> right. the wealthier you are, the less likely you are to smoke. the better educated you are, the less likely you are to smoke. when you have a better education, i don't know. maybe you realize you have more to lose. it covers up half the pack, as you mentioned. that's huge. you're only going to do the branding here. you'll see the label there. it will be interesting to see what happens when they put these on if we will see declines in this country. >> maybe so. they could just like increase

the price of smoking. it is expensive and people still buy cigarettes. >> that is shown to have a pretty profound effect when you raise smoking taxes, that does seem to have an effect and really does seem to make people quit smoking. >> elizabeth cohen, many thanks. ahead, president obama expected to talk about the next step in afghanistan. actually he is going to do that tomorrow. it's going to be a big speech because it will be a big step out of afghanistan. thousands of american family waiting to hear how many troops will come home and how soon. what the white house is saying about this critical speech. we are excited because carson kressley will be with us. he is out with a new show and stopping by here to talk to us about it. what do you got? restrained driver...

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but i'm also human. and i believe in stacking the deck. for a hundred thousand u.s. soldiers in afghanistan and the people in america who love and miss them, the end is in sight. i'm kiran chetry. president obama announcing plans to end the war and bring our troops home. i'm carol costello. jon huntsman will be channeling ronald reagan when he launches his presidential bid this morning in the stahadow of the

statue of liberty on this "american morning." welcome to "american morning." glad you're with us this tuesday, june 21st. at 1:15 p.m., it will be officially summer! >> yea! >> ali and christine are off. carol is with us today. thousands of families have been waiting for the news they are coming home. president obama will tell us how many of our fighting men and women will return to the united states from afghanistan next month. >> there has been significant progress in disrupting or halting the momentum of the taliban and significant progress in stabilizing afghanistan and the government to allow afghan national security forces to build up, to train and prepare for taking over the lead. >> right now, 100,000 u.s. troops are stationed in afghanistan. 30,000 of them are there because of a recent surge and it's not clear how many of them will be getting orders in july to ship

out. we will know tomorrow. the mission in libya is also setting up a showdown between house republicans and the president this week. speaking john boehner believes the white house is in violation of the wars power act for not getting congressional approval for continuing the operation. >> former utah governor jon huntsman about to join the hunt for the republican presidential nomination. he will launch his campaign about two hours from now. taking a page from ronald reagan's playbook with the statue of liberty as the backdrop. >> jim as toss joins us and live in liberty state park in new jersey today with more on this announcement. it's very interesting, jon huntsman jumping into the race and what it could mean for the gop field. >> reporter: absolutely. you know, he has been a little cautious up until this point. he skipped the cnn debate about a week ago. he didn't go down to that big republican leadership conference down in new orleans. he has been sort of shrinking away from the big public events and part of that might be

because he wanted to make this big splash out here in front of the statue of liberty. not literally but he is going to launch his kickoff for his presidential campaign a couple of hours from now. huntsman is not really known for throwing out of a lot of red meat but he is going to warn mention the dire consequences he says if they do not get the economic turned around and debt under control. i will share with you an excerpt of his speech that his staff released. quote, we are about to pass down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less compassionate, less competitive and less confident than the one we got. that is totally unacceptable and totally unan american. note the last two words there, totally un-american. really taking a bit of a swipe there at president obama. he's not really known for doing that. having said that, governor

huntsman is also expected to call for a more civil tone toward the president in his speech later this morning saying that this race that is coming up here is not about who the better american is, it's who the better president will be. carol and kiran? >> how uncivil could he be? he worked for president obama. >> reporter: that's right. >> david axccessaccessleaxelrod saying -- >> when he was ambassador to china he didn't say president obama, you're not doing the right thing, i think you need to fix this! >> reporter: that's right. and that is what jon huntsman is up against. he started testing the presidential waterses a month ago up in new hampshire. i was there for that. he got a lot of republicans talking about him but he still is mired in the single digits at this point. he has a crafty campaign staff behind him, john weaver who is a notable republican strategist and helped craft john mccain's

presidential campaigns in the past and has ad maker on his side who is known for the teamon sheep ad and put out a video a few days ago. if you want to show a clip of this, we got it. shows a guy on a motorcycle. not jon huntsman but supposeded to see voc jon huntsman as a risk taking guy. i can hear that music in the background. and, you know, fred davis is known for that demon sheep ad out in california during that race and the i'm not a witch ad in delaware for christine o'donnell. huntsman is trying to take an unconventional approach here and see if it pans out for him. it's really a big open question. he is vying to be the guy who can take down mitt romney in this republican battlefield but, at this point, it's just a big question mark whether he can pull it off. guys? >> jim acosta, many thanks. >> a 19-year-old is arrested in connection with the security breach at sony. police say the teen may have hacked into a number of

international businesses and intelligence agencies, including the cia. sony playstation's network went down in april after the personal information of more than 70 million users was compromised. supreme court putting the brakes on a massive job discrimination lawsuit against walmart. at issue whether hundreds of thousands of female employees could make a unified claim they were paid less and fewer opportunities for a promotion. the court ruled the claim was too big and, therefore, not justified but does not prevent the women from proceeding with individual lawsuits. the case anthony murder trial resumes in orlando. the jury did not get seated and not a single witness called to the stand because the judge called for a recess and ordered both sides to stop the gangsmanship or else. david mattingly is live in orlando. the judge was not pleased, david? >> reporter: that's right, carol. he has one big rule in this case

and it's no surprises. if one side brings an expert to the stand, the other side is supposed to get a report detailing what they are going to talk about so they can be prepared for cross-examination. that has not been happening, according to the prosecution. they stood up yesterday and said, look, we got witnesses about to take the stand and we have no idea what they are going to talk about. they are calling it a trial by ambush and the judge was very clear when he spoke out yesterday, i'm not going to tolerate this any more. listen. >> enough is enough. and both sides need to be forewarned that seclusion exclusion, even at the price of having to do it all over again, which i don't think i will have to do it all over again, because of repeated violations.

exclusion may be the proper remedy, if it continues. >> reporter: now when the judge talks about exclusion, he is telling both sides if you try to do this again, then i could very well say, no, you're not going to call that witness to the stand, regardless of what sort of consequences, including a mistrial, there might be in this case. so he is very clearly saying, that's it, no more. if we expected to get the testimony and expected to do that now, expect to hear more about duct tape, carol. experts from the defense trying to poke holes in the prosecution's assertion that that duct tape was used by the mother to suffocate her trial making it a murder weapon. >> check back with you. david mattingly, live in orlando. a delta air lines flight returning to atlanta a spokesman says the crew experienced an engine issue. the boeing 747 was headed to los

angeles. three minors are safe. officials say the men made their way to a high spot inside the mine and then waited to be rescued. >> pump the water down and they were able to walk through the water and walk on outside. >> it's amazing, you know? you hear about the tragedies in west virginia and it's a good thing that, you know, there was just three. like i told someone else, if it had been anything any later, then there would have been 30 trapped miners. >> labor secretary plans to speak with the three men sometime today. los angeles dodges falling even deeper. major league baseball tossed out a cable tv deal worth a reported $3 billion. that voids a divorce settlement between the team's owner frank mccourt and his wife who are battling for the team.

mccourt was banking on the deal to get out of debt and meet payroll. divorce documents show the couple took more than a hundred million dollars of team revenue for personal use. >> you need those houses! the florida marlins going old school and named jack mckeon interim manager who led the team to the world series in 2003. he is now 80 years old. that would make him the oldest skipper in baseball by 13 years. he broke into baseball in 1949. the same year as mickey mantle and just two years after jackie robinson broke gable baseball's color barrier. he is not the oldest man in baseball. >> he is 80. >> you go! ahead, he robbed a bank on purpose. he wanted to get caught. he wanted health care in jail. sad tale. we will have more coming up. over a dozen gators literally tunnel their way to

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you usually think, okay, why does somebody rob a bank? because they want money. in this case, the guy actually wanted some help for his health. james monroe had no job, no money and had serious medical issues. i guess he had a mass on his chest. he thought that jail would be the best place for him to get medical treatment and a roof over his head. last week he entered a bank in north carolina, unarmed and this is the note he handed the teller. >> the note said this is a bank robbery. please only -- please only give me one dollar, because i wanted to make it known to whoever would know that, you know, it wasn't done for a monitor value,

it was done for, you know, medical reasons. >> he is hoping for a three-year sentence. he says he could then get treated and get out to collect social security. because he only demanded a dollar he is charged with larceny and not bank robbery and not probably getting as much time in jail as he wanted to. >> he needs a financial counselor to help him through this. >> and a doctor. >> breaks your heart. a homeowner is checking their pools twice in citrus county, florida. a wildlife official say 17 alligators busted out of a nearby gator farm. dug underneath the fence. eight of them still on the run. >> wait until i tell my wife eight unaccounted for. the last one that was caught on friday evening was about 53. >> a big gator. >> as tall as you, carol. >> it is. only two inches shorter.

wildlife officials say the owner of the gator farm did have a permit but they are still investigating. eight still out there. rob marciano in the extreme weather center. they are looking to cool off. they followed their buddies. one left and the other 16 followed and now look. >> if you live in the neighborhood, definitely bring the pets in is all i got to say. gators do what gators do. it has been hot. especially across florida. the southeast. the heat wave continues. look at the numbers from yesterday. south carolina, 102 and north carolina, 101. alabama 98 degrees. this does not include humidity. not a lot of humidity but the heat is baking across parts of the southwest. we have excessive heat watches and warnings out for the phoenix area. these actually stretch into parts of southern california. it's actually been a fairly cool, relatively cool spring for the southwest. now they are starting to see things heat up. we are also going to see things heat up as far as severe weather

across parts of the midwest and upper great lakes later on today. hopefully, we won't see scenes like this. monster tornado rolling through south central nebraska yesterday afternoon. my goodness! thankfully, no major injuries with this. for the most part, it's been a lot of farmland and other structures that were torn up with this storm. good video, nonetheless. over 40 tornadoes reported yesterday. we have got rough weather that is now exiting dallas and heavier rain with this and some wind damage and that should be about it for dallas today. as mentioned, most of the storms will press off to the east. this once it's through the east coast the next couple of days will cool things down a little bit now that we are entering summer officially this afternoon at 1:16 eastern time. guys? >> the seasons are all just screwed around this year:a lot of people said we had no spring. freezing and now it's boiling hot. can't win. >> and now a cool front, now that it's summer. thank you, rob. ahead on "american morning," it is the next afghanistan war, is opium? we will look how indianaing the war in afghanistan could help

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it's 20 past the hour. we're "minding your business" this morning. we start with today kicking off day two of the meeting -- actually a two-day meeting of the federal reserve, policymakers in washington. interest rates expected to stay unchanged. but all eyes will be on fed chairman ben bernanke's second-ever press conference tomorrow and what he'll say about the stimulus program ending this month. a confidence vote in the greek parliament and a key hurdle for the prime minister. the european union announcing yesterday that grease's austerity measures such as benefit cuts, need to continue to receive a portion of a second bailout package by july.

today's confidence must pass in order to for greece's aus ter ited reforms to push through. according to a report from mercer, an outplacement and consulting firm. stocks are headed up ahead of the opening bell this morning as investors look forward to the confidence vote in greece. wall street hoping for good news as well from the housing numbers that come out later this morning so, again, all three pointing up this morning for the futures. up next, there is a new billboard campaign. it's an effort to help fight child sex trafficking here in the u.s.

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welcome back to "american morning." the cnn freedom project highlights the growing efforts to stop the sexual exploitation and trade of human beings. this morning highlighteding a new billboard campaign to raise awareness of the child sex trade here in the united states. the campaign is called do you know lacy and being spearheaded by a shared help international. the group's founder and president linda smith joins us now from portland, oregon. welcome, linda. >> good to be with you. >> i know you recently wrapped up an investigation in washington state on sex trafficking. what did you find? >> we found the same thing we found all over the united states, that the child being sold is relatively young and

she's an american child and the man buying her is a pretty typical american man. the assessment is available online for washington state but i think the serious issue is that this is a natural phenomenon that i didn't know until i started investigating it five years ago. >> it's really depressing and quite sad. how widespread is it? do we know how many young girls and boys, i would think, are used in human trafficking cases? >> well, you know, bad guys don't report and buyers don't check in and say ifg buying a child tonight, so it's hard. what we do, we look at the kids that end up in the criminal justice system arrested for prostitution and those that come into the child welfare system who have been prostituted. we come up with numbers and others is spun off missing children that end up in the commercial sex industry. we say there is over a hundred thousand. i think that is comfortably a low number that are throughout the united states that go into exertion sex every year.

we found 300 to 500 children that are prostituted at any time in seattle alone and, in washington state, we found 153 in a very short period of time that were in jail for prostitution from being prostituted and the youngest was 12 and the average age was 15. >> it just hurts your heart. so you have started this billboard campaign. down lacy, that is what the campaign is called. do you know lacy will be on those billboards. who is lacy? >> lacy is any child who has been prostitute inned in the united states. i wrote her on the first children being prostitute called renting lacy. this is a real girl i worked with who was rescued by the fbi about four years ago. she and 12 other girls make up a book that was created to show what it is to be a 13-year-old in sex trafficking in the commercial sex industry in the united states. so she could be anybody's daughter. >> it was interesting, though.

because lacy was targeted by someone, so that they could sort of fool her or trick her into becoming a prostitute. >> yes. i have currently a lacy that was 13 when they stalked her at starbucks and literally over a period of months, built her trust and then she was forced into prostitution having to take several men the first night. the first one in a strip club. when i first started writing the book, i had a 12-year-old who someone built a relationship with, just a friendship as she walked to school over a six-month period. the children are stalked and tricked. >> are the young men buying these young girls aren't prosecuted all that much. we had a recent example of that in lawrence taylor, the football star. he bought a prostitute and he got six months probation.

in your mind, that's wrong. >> it's absolutely wrong. when we evaluate a state, we look at not only the numbers of children arrested like in washington state, but we look at the number of men. we could only find two cases where the man was prosecuted for commercial sex with a child and, yet, in the same period, we found 153 children who were jailed for prostitution. so there's a big problem in the united states and what we have done is developed what is called protected innocence framework of laws. they are led by rob mckenna who is the attorney general of washington state. we have asked them to take this as a top issue and attorney general rob mckenna this week in chicago is introducing this to the rest of the attorney generals as an issue he would like them to take up so it is getting some leverage and people are getting it but we in society need to understand it. i would imagine most people are hearing about this for the first time. they are shocked and they don't

know what to do. so the billboard campaign was simply to say real men are buying our kids and this is a real serious issue. >> you keep fighting the fight. thank you so much for joining us, linda smith. appreciate it. >> thank you. stay tuned to cnn for continuing coverage of our freedom project. demi moore joins the 2010 hero of the year to take you inside the fight to ends this modern day slavery. nepal's stolen children, a cnn freedom project documentary sunday night at 8:00 eastern. time to look at the top stories this morning. president announcing tomorrow the future of america's role in ofg. that will mean how many troops will be on their way home as well. another war is heating up and that is the drug war. the cash crop opium. as we are shown in a special report, a reason why many people there, farmer and fighters want to keep the violence in afghanistan going. this is something you will see only on cnn. we're heading north into the

remote hills for a glimpse of afghanistan. >> reporter: the war here is not against the taliban, but against a business so profitable, growing so fast, many worry it's afghanistan's only option when the west pulls its troops and money out. opium. afghan task force racing through the valleys to disrupt this year's hard vert, for a while, nato let opium be focusing on the surge against taliban but here expanding faster than anywhere in the country and risks getting out of control. stopping this harvest is important because the cost of opium has risen. in one year, the price has tripled. that is because uncertainty about afghanistan's future means

traders are hoarding the drug. the united nations drug control chief revealed to cnn. >> those who benefit the most are the traders which are not necessarily always the insurgents, will have a big contingenty to continue the conflict to make sure the opium business can continue to provide the huge profits we witness today. >> reporter: eradication is the simplest way of breaking the chain that puts heroin on city streets. but here it wipes out the livelihoods of people who have nothing, creating enemies where before life was simple. for villagers who huddle on a roof mourning their lost crop, it's not safe to approach, the police say, who have come prepared, in case the people behind this business take issue. mohammed who lost list leg in a blast in kabul and his 1,000

dollar opium crop to these police, still has six children to feed. >> translator: we grow poppy because of povertity. without it we grow hungry. the government gave us no help so we started again. >> reporter: mohammed won't discuss who he would have sold his crop to, but those cartels are the big worry here. the war funds about two-thirds of the economy and when nato's money dries up, it will have to be replaced with something. opium is the easy answer and along with it comes war lords and fears of a narco state. here far away from the war, growing opium is a simple economical argument. the easiest and often the only money to be made. this isn't just about money going to the insurgency. it's also about creating a whole network here of criminality, of drug pushers that can already

weakin' this very weak afghan government here. obviously people say the gap between failed state and narco state is pretty small and preventing this country from collapsing is the reason americans came here in the first place. >> it is. such a challenging issue. you're right the not only the financing of the narco war but the addicts and heart breaking to see somebody is buying these drugs, clearly. nick, thank you for being with us. still to come, we all try to be perfect parents and we all fall short but a new article that say coddling your kids too much could land them on the psychologist's couch. 34 minutes past the hour. fashionista carson cressley is stopping by to look at kiran's out of the. >> do you think he will like my

green? i also have green shoes. i wanted to be made over by carson and why i dressed this way today. >> we will ask him.

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38 minutes past the hour right now. you might have spent years sacrificing for your kids and doing everything in your power to give them the happiest, most secure, stable, and, you know, wonderful childhood possible. well, you may be contributing to a new generation of depressed young adults. our next guest wrote the cover story for this month's atlantic magazine entitled to you ho land your kids in therapy. lori, it was a fascinating article because you were a therapist. you said when you first started interviewing people and finding out what was wrong with them it was a typical i felt unloved in childhood. then you find a different generation of 20 and 30 something's who say, no, everything is great in childhood and i'm depressed. >> right. i think a lot of people came in

and said my parents are my best friends in the whole world and did everything for me but i can't figure out what career i want to do. i'm having trouble commit to go things. and they couldn't figure out, you know, why this was so. and i started to think, well, you know, maybe because they have never had to experience anything where they have had to take responsibility before because their parents did everything for them. >> how do you find this happy medium, i guess, between coddling them too much, but also protecting them from true, you know, emotional harm and damage? >> right. right. i think there is a difference between loved and being constantly monitored. i think what happens is we should love our kids, we should lavish affection on them so i'm not asking people not to do that but you also need to let them experience struggle and disappointment and sadness and the things of life. if they don't get into the school play, don't call up the school and say why didn't my school get into the school play. they didn't get into the school play because maybe they didn't get the part for a reason. >> what do you say at home to them? >> i think it's good for them to

know you're good at some things and some things less talented at and okay to say that. everybody is gifted, everybody is gifted at everything and your kid goes out into the world and they get a job and, all of a sudden, you know, their bosses aren't saying, good job! good job for everything they do. then they start to really question whether they have any talent. >> it also seems that there is a big, you know, discrepancy between people that have money and are able to make sure that their kid gets the best of everything and people are sort of scraping by and struggling. one of the questions seems to be this constant feeling like you're on this keeping up with the joness 24/7. you're the one that didn't get your kid tutored in preschool so they could be assured a great spot in kindergarten and everybody else did. how do you avoid that trap? >> you have to do what is right for your kid. there is a peer pressure but i think a different kind of peer

pressure. we want our kids to be so happy and so we do what everybody else is doing because we think they are doing it and i don't want my kid to be deprived in any way. i want my kid to be happy. so my kid, their kid is taking karate, my kid needs to. they are doing this for their kid, i need to do that for my kid. in reality your kid will probably be happier if you spend more time for your kid and play at the park. >> another question. you brought it up and interesting. you said don't call up the school if the kid doesn't get into the play. carol is over here laughing. >> the teachers don't like that! >> i totally get what you're saying. we also have had this renewed focus on bullying. what is the best way to allowing your kids to learn interpersonal conflict and learn -- i mean, i just had an experience where i got a call and my daughter got hit at a play date and i was -- it was the worst feeling and i felt a need to race over there and she is sobbing hysterically and i didn't know if i did the right thing but i yanked her out of there and brought her home

and kissed her boo-boos and said i'm sorry this happened. what do you do? let them duke it out? >> no. i think bullying is real and has to be dealt with but i think parents take it to the nth degree. when a parent got to school, she saw a kid grab the toy afrom her kid. the parent got upset saying, that is not fair! that is my kid's toy. that is not bullying but 4-year-olds figuring out social interaction. not physical violence but you do have to let them have their disagreements and learn how to deal with them and if they don't learn how to do that and mommy and daddy are always taking care of it, they won't know how to deal with it when mommy an daddy aren't around. >> no mean to butt in. my husband is an administrator at the university level. this behaviorally at this level continues at the college level. let's say the kid cheats on a

test or gets an f in a course. these are the parents calling. they don't know how to handle the work world and when you get to the work world and you complain to young people who don't take the initiative you say whose fault is that? because we haven't taught our children create with stress. >> they are calling the freshmen that come in as tea cups because they are so fragile. i don't like my roommate, i want to switch! >> didn't do anything! >> i'm just warning you! you're doing the right thing being tough. >> she does have a tea cup set but i haven't taken it out yet. maybe when she is 6. the article is great. lori gotly, great to see you. thank you so much. >> thank you so much. it was interesting. i loved it. still head, carson kressley. you might remember him from "the queer show." he is back. we will be back!  [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...

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filled with good times and great music and a lot of it here at the big house in macon, georgia. >> we thought, you know, we should go find us a big, huge house, you know? what we call a big, huge hippie crash pad. >> reporter: today, that big house is a museum. a testament to the almond brothers band. >> every time i look somewhere, it brings back a different memory, you know? things all torn apart here. >> reporter: he is here more than a just a stroll down memory lane. taping a drug announcement for hepatitis c he says he got after partying and risky behavior. >> they think i might have got it from an early at that time took. >> reporter: he wasn't diagnosed more than a decade later. >> i started getting real tired, you know? energy just ain't there. >> reporter: for years, the virus lived undetected in his system. all the while doing irreversible

damage to his liver. after treatments, he needed a new liver. >> they put me on a list. in five dayears and 29 days the found me a new river. >> your energy comes back a little bit of a time. it's so much better than it was. >> reporter: he still has hepatitis c, but he is living with it and while a liver transplant is no picnic, it's much better than the alternative and he wants to get that message out. >> it doesn't really matter how you get the hepc, you got it, and you need to treat it. >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, reporting. sensuous leather interior and modern design, jaguar has once again raised the bar. learn more at jaguarperforms.com.

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okay. we're a little -- we're a lot excited but a little nervous because carson kressley is here. he has a new show called carson

nation. >> he is dropping in on cities across the country doing what he calls not makeovers, but make betters. here is a look. >> your closet. >> this is my closet. >> fantastic! okay. oh, my god! where is your stuff? these are lonely! look at all of these! i mean, it's just -- you have all this closet space. she has nothing to wear. i mean nothing. not next to nothing, not almost nothing. she has nothing! >> that's my exact opposite problem! >> me, too! so unusual! >> carson joins us now. thanks for coming on. >> thanks for having me! >> how do you find these people? by the way, you get some great ones. >> you know what is really fun? i've always wanted to do a show and developed a show with the team at own. i said can i visit the cities and throw a dart at the map of the united states? they said, sure, why not.

all of the darts were landing in the gulf of mexico and alberta. they said we're not going to canada. i got a little closer to the map and we picked cities that way. cities in nevada, utah and texas and california. >> are people receptive of this? do they want you to come in and malign their wardrobe? >> no. any are people that actually wanted it. what is different about carson nation, it's not make you cute for your wedding, here you go. we are making peoples lives better saying you need to take care of yourself and if you look good and feel good, your potential is going to be greater. because you go out and do the things you want to do. but it's also families that have been living with hard times. maybe someone lost a be job or maybe someone in their family is sick. they need my had he. i can't help them with other areas in hair life but come in and make them feel better about

the way they are looking and feeling better about themselves. >> carol and i were having a discussion. she said it's mean to tell people -- >> no. hear me out. >> okay. >> when i see shows on the air right now similar to yours, they completely annihilate the person. >> yes. >> make them feel disgusting and throw all of their clothing away and transform them into this person you don't even recognize any more. >> right. >> then whthey are presented to their families, they say i'm glad we got rid of this ugly person in our family and got a beautiful swan. it's awful! >> that is exactly not what happens on scarson nation. i don't want to steam roll somebody into something that is not them. i spend time with them. we hear their story. i find out what is going to make their life better. what have they always wanted? what is going to be empowering for them? we really keep it the best version of themselves.

>> i like that, myself. my alternative argument to carol was, you know, a lot of times you can get in a rut. you get depressed and let yourself slide and then i tell her i wear the same pair of velour shorts every morning. i have a million other clothes. you're just helping me be perhaps a better version of myself. >> yeah. i think a lot of women especially, most moms are out there working and busy. you want to do things that are quick and's. you go for the same pair of pants and t-shirt. i'm saying other options that don't have to take a lot of time. i can show you how to still be chic and look fun and fun and sexy and sassy and embrace all of those parts with you and express it through your hair and makeup and clothes. >> i always like to be a cynic. >> i hear a gildevil's advocate the background. >> the psychology of this. some of the shows on television, they try to say you have no

self-esteem and why you dress that way. if we dress you in this type of clothing and you look great, your life will change. >> right. >> that's not exactly true. >> you know, i don't think -- you know, a makeover by its very nature is very superficial. put this on and do this with your hair, now you're different. no, that doesn't work. i have been doing this for a long time. i started out on "queer eye for the straight guy." and "how to look good naked." it's not the end result but the process. it's saying your worth the attention and worth the time and someone cares about you, you need to care about yourself. literally, my makeovers are holding up a mirror literally and saying you have the potential to change. >> you're interviewing carol. are you living in a society the bottom line is people judge you by what you look like. >> i think in our society today, people judge you too much by the way you look. and they judge you on the way you look for everything. >> but if you need a job."

it's not fair. >> if you need a job or a nice suit and need to present the best version of your efficiently, unfortunately -- you know why i like you a lot and loved you since "queer "for the straight guy" you're kind about and it not trying to get a laugh and ripping on people. >> you don't suck people's clothes in a vacuum. >> i know what it's like. the bottom line with my makeovers i want somebody to be more confident when it's over so if they like the way they look and feel good about themselves then my job is done. it's not do you look okay for your husband or do you look okay for your potential employer. it's do you like okay for you? do you feel like you're being taken care of and nourished and feeling confident and proud of who you are? i know what not being proud of yourself feels like. so that what i try to instill in these people. >> speaking of proud of yourself. i don't know what this new celebrity thing is everybody feels a need to tweet a picture of themselves from their bathroom. are we in an oversharing

situation? what the heck is going on with that? >> i don't know. i'm definitely not to do or pull an anthony weiner or anything like that. >> oh, god. >> you can follow me on twitter but there will be no nude pictures. >> you would pick different boxers if you were going to do? >> or send a picture of somebody else. get a body double. yes, it's me! >> in this case, he was saying it wasn't. hey, all is well that ends will with. >> that is what i would do. >> it's premiering on june 25th on oprah? >> it's on every saturday night this summer. saturdays and 10:00 on the oprah winfrey network and find the complete schedule at oprah.com. >> watch and try not to be depressed. >> don't. you're going to love it. >> she is. >> i'm going to be empowered by it because it is oprah. >> you're going to laugh and cry and it's better than "cats." >> carson kressley, thanks for