right now. what do you see on the horizon as, you know, i guess good long term and short term investments. >> i tell people often, vest in things you purchase and believe in. home depot, i like home depot a lot. people are using hope depot to do home improvements, and that's big now. and when you look at companies again that you are investing in, things you use every day, necessities, and there are certain things people need and will not stop buying. if you invest in things you use, that's a good way to look at it as a strategy. >> what other sectors might be good places for investors? >> i love technology as well. look at what happened with google. and then the purchase of the motor rolea and tablet. you have to look at friends and what is happening. some of the technology people are using, these are good indicators we're heading

upwards. technology is taking a lot of the jobs, which is a double-edged sword, but look at it if you are an investor, i want to invest in technology, and technology changes rapidly. with smart phone technology and the apps that are happening, you want to make sure you have a piece of that in your portfolio. >> gold has been a investment lately, and is it still a smart? >> yeah, i think so. we could remember when it was below $1,000, and it's going up because it's a safe investment. people are panicking and don't know what to do but want to put their money in safe investments. but this is a great time when the market is low. you buy low and sell high. but you don't want to use the money every day to live to invest in. this is not vegas, so we don't want to come to the table and

use it. >> you can get advice on the markets, just go to cnnmoney.com. critics are lining up against an expensive newest weapons program. the pentagon plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars for stealth fighter jets. but in the age of budget cuts, the program may never see the light of day. it is already plagued with problems. here is barbara starr. >> reporter: it's the most expensive weapons program ever, says the pentagon. $384 billion earmarked for some 3,000 f-35 stealth fighter jets. test is resuming after a two week halt when an electrical problem emerged. and then there is the f-22 stealth fighter, and the nearly

200-plane fleet has been grounded since may after oxygen to the pilots kept cutting off, and one pilot died. with a half trillion dollar price tag for both aircraft -- >> the question is are you getting the capability that justifies that cost. >> we cannot afford aircraft that double and triple the original estimated cost. >> i think we have to watch it carefully. >> the f-22 has never been in combat, and the f-35 may go the same way. both planes have serious limitations. >> these aircraft are relatively short ranged so they have to be based close to the area of conflict. what we have seen in recent years in countries like china and iran, building ballistic missile forces that could easily target the forward air bases. >> some say the planes are too expensive and not stealthy enough. >> against some radars it's

detectable as soon as it comes over the radar horizon, and some of the radars best at doing that are from the soviets. >> that means the f-35 which has not gone into production yet is likely to be in the crosshairs of congress when it debates the spending cuts this fall. here is something you don't see every day. it's a baby being driven around in the back of a pickup truck. yep, right there, in the carriage as well. the infant's baby sitter has been charged with child negligent. what she said about it just might shock you. ♪ [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them.

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we continue to watch the markets. the dow taking a dip there at 37 points. hopefully it doesn't go any further than this. time to go cross-country for stories cnn affiliates are covering. nebraska, baseball-sized hail as two violent storms pounded the city yesterday. they closed the airport in omaha for several hours. a pilot was slightly injured when he was struck by hail. and then a babysitter says she did not realize she was doing anything wrong when she put a baby in a carriage in the back of a pickup truck. stunned drivers flooded the police department with 911 calls. the sitter has been charged with negligent. and then a video shows women

blatenly stealing so dau and chips and candy, and then they ran out of the store. the clerk on duty called the police. and then watch the truck as it runs a red light. why is the driver's door open? it seems the 24-year-old man was trying to stop the truck with his foot. >> what he was doing -- it's so stupid he's funny. he admitted or knew he had no brakes. he said he had a long day at work, and no alcohol or drugs, just a serious lack of common sense. she grew up in the projects and went on to be a ivy league success. she could have gone anywhere after graduation but decided to go home and now she is teaching kids in her old neighborhood a valuable lesson. ted rollins has what matters this week.

>> reporter: it's hard to understand for some why 22-year-old temeka bethel came back. >> a lot of people asked why didn't i go to law school or why am i not on wall street making money. >> reporter: she graduated with honors, and instead of cashing in, she is giving back. >> she is going to be an incredibly persuasive role model for her students. they will look at her and identify who she is and who she has become and be inspired by that. >> reporter: temeka grew up in a housing project where kids often ended up going to jail rather than college. her grandmother raised all four kids. >> it was you need to be in the bed asleep by this time. you need to be up getting

dressed for school this time. she had schedules when the four of us would take showers, and when homework needed to be done. >> after attending the eighth grade, she won a scholarship for a high-priced school in lincoln park. it took two buses and a train to get there. for four years she travelled back and forth to get straight as. >> reporter: now where she used to live they have it fenced off. >> her grandmother mary still lives in public housing. she says you ran a tight ship? >> you got that right.

you have to get a good education, otherwise grandma got to take care of you. >> temeka hopes some day she will be able to take care of grandma. my family is very low income. my family still lives in public housing. that's a daily trugle for me to think that i could be somewhere for me to make a lot of money to help move us out of that, but that's not my calling or what i am meant to do right now. i belong here. a volatile day on wall street again. we will go to the new york stock exchange for an update and we will find out what the traders say the market needs in order for it to calm down. [ jon ] up in alaska, we find the best sweetest crab for red lobster we can find. [ male announcer ] hurry into crabfest at red lobster and savor 3 crab entrees under $20 like our crab and seafood bake... or our snow crab and crab butter shrimp.

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the convicted killers known as the west memphis three are in

a jonesboro courtroom this morning. there are live pictures of a crowd gathered outside that court, and they are waiting for word on whether the three will be released. there's a hearing to determine whether they should get a new trial as well. however, some sort of plea deal apparently has been struck or is being negotiated. the three men may be walking out free today. here is a rundown of some of the stories we're working on. next, what do the markets need to hear to calm things down? and then two days after she walked off the set of cnn's piers morgan tonight, christine o'donnell has more to say. and then a heart patient makes a drastic change when she was told she needed surgery. hear dr. sanjay gupta's story about a lesson we all could learn. and alison kosik is at the

new york stock exchange with another update. alison? >> compared to yesterday, it's like the markets are taking a bit of a breather today. volatility is still king. at the hopi opening bell, the d fell and then rose. it is a headline-driven market, but we're not seeing that today because there's not much news today and no economic news is coming out. it could pick up as we get closer to the closing bell, because the worries we have still will remain today and about the weekend especially about slow growth here in the u.s. and in europe. >> what are traders saying needs to happen in order to calm things down? >> there are two big things that wall street really wants to see. they want to see something concrete come out of washington and they want to see better data on the economy, and they want to see the actual figures on, let's say gdp and manufacturing jobs

improved, and standard & poor's and morgan stanley and citigroup, and the debt ceiling debate may be over but the reality is the debt issue is still a huge issue here on wall street. policymakers are still deadlocked and there's too much spending and not enough income to come in and handle all the amount of debt we have. it's not just happening here in the u.s. but happening in europe as well. and they need to see better news in the economy, like home sales and unemployment. the list goes on and on. that's why you see the market not really holding on to its gains for too long. >> thank you so much and appreciate that. a reminder to vote for today's choose the news winner. text 22360 to vote for the story you want to see. text "1" for dying industries, and we'll tell you why paul mccartney is helping record stores protest jay-z and kanye

west, and then "2" for cupcakes go global, or "3" for legends of tuskegee, to see how three airmen helped to break barriers and change history. a new explanation from christine o'donnell of why she walked out of a interview with piers morgan, and a response from piers morgan to what owe donald has to say. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag

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tea party advocate, christine o'donnell is explaining why she walked out on talk show host, piers morgan. o'donnell was on piers morgan on wednesday to promote her new book. here are the questions before o'donnell put an end to the interview. >> i was about to ask you a question i don't ask most of my guests, i still have to be

honest with you, and do you still think masturbation is wrong? >> let's not go there. >> why? you went there. >> i address it in the book. at that time in my life my goal was to reach out to young people, and there was a show "sex in the '90s" on mtv that touted the fphilosophy that anything goes. are you the pro-masturbation talk show host. >> why not? yes. >> good for you to take that stand. >> if the option is to be the ant ant anti-i would be in the prochlt department, yes. >> what my goal is to fight for the freedom of speech in america that allows you to say that. that's what my focus is right now to fight for the constitutional principles that made our country great because we do have a movement in washington that is completely

abandoning it. >> you have committed lust in your heart and therefore -- >> let's not even go there. let's get the conversation back to the book. that's why i am here. >> to me it's a natural extension to ask you for an example -- >> i address it all in the book. >> what is your view of gay marriage, for example? >> i address that in the book. >> you can't keep saying it's all in the book. >> i am here to talk about the book. >> yes, i am talking about the book. you say it's all in the book. >> so now the explanation from o'donnell as to why she got up and left the interview. >> when they are sitting you pressing on personal intimate questions and you are saying i don't want to go there, he could have said what is your mother's name, and i would have been like let's stop, i want it to stop

that borderline sexual harassment that was going on. >> okay, but the point is is that he asked a whole line of those questions and you did attempt in one way or another to answer those questions, and it was only in the moment that asked you about gay marriage, which is in fairness you raise in your book and you were there to talk about that book? >> yeah, yeah, actually i answered that question. i talked to the "huffington post" last night about it, and my position is the same as barack obama and hillary clinton and michele bachmann, that i believe in state rights but i believe the church has the first amendment right to define marriage as it wishes. it's really not about that question, it was about, you know, he put me in a position that was very awkward and very uncomfortable, and we were late. >> piers morgan has his side of the story, too. he called into the news room earlier today to respond to what o'donnell said this morning. >> her position seems to have

toughened overnight, because originally she was seeing the funny side and thought it was something to be abusmused by, a now she thinks i am being a sexist. if you study the whole interview, and because of the comments we are feeling compelled to re-air the entire interview on my show so everybody can decide for themselves, and all i do is play her her own public statements and ask her for a comment and she discusses all the public statements in her book. let me remind you, the reason she was doing my interview was to promote the book. so the idea that somehow this was inappropriate, or i think she called me creepy, and the only thing is inappropriate or creepy are the very things she discusses in her own book. i found the argument she is putting forward today tenuous to

put it mildly. i think she realizes she made a rather big mistake. >> you want to tune in to piers morgan tonight, and you can see for yourself. a reminder to vote for the choose the news winner, and text "1" for dying industries. record stores are going after some of the industries biggest artest to keep their doors open. "2" for cupcakes go global, and text "3" for the legends of the tuskegee. they made history in world war ii but told us they were just doing their jobs. the winning story airs in minutes. you heard changing your diet can change your life, but get this. >> once they start eating this way, you will make yourself heart attack proof. >> heart attack proof? >> we know if people are eating this way they will not have a

heart attack. >> a woman faced with heart surgery says no, and changed what she ate instead. wait until you hear the affect it had on her. the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! [ male announcer ] chevrolet is honored to celebrate the unveiling of the washington, d.c., martin luther king jr. memorial. take your seat at the table on august 28th.

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to find an authorized dealer near you, visit tempurpedic.com. tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america. heart disease kills more than half a million americans every year. but we're learning how to present it. chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, you spent more than a year looking into heart disease. >> part of this, i will tell you, it's a bit selfish. i have a family history of heart disease as well, and i kept hearing rumors we're getting to

the point in our society where we can eliminate most heart disease and heart attacks. that's what prompted the investigation. it's fascinating your diet alone can make such a big impact. a delight, a 66-year-old woman had a heart attack and was told she needs to go on meds and have surgery, and she said i am doing none of that and will change my lifestyle and see what happens. take a look. >> reporter: like a lot of women, she did not experience the classic chest pain, but fatigue and a pain in her jaw. >> he said you are going to have open heart surgery. he said i can fix you today. i can take you down to the o.r. and operate on you right now. my son was there and was ready to go wheel me down there because he was terrified.

>> reporter: what she did next may surprise you. turned the doctor down cold and said no. she decided she would take a chance using food as medicine. >> these are wonderful. >> reporter: like president clinton, she gave up the food she loves, like butter and cheese. she's betting her life on a diet. >> she had a heart attack. >> yeah, i know. >> you know sharon. >> oh, yeah. >> is there a downside. could she be putting herself at risk? >> no. that's an excellent question. dating back over 20 years, and the more recent study about a decade, once they start eating this way, you will make yourself heart attack proof. >> heart attack proof? >> we know if people are eating this way, they will not have a heart attack. >> he thinks heart disease is completely preventible, no matter what type of family

history you have. >> it's a food-bourne illness. we will never end the epidemic because none of it is treating causation of the illness. >> that's his point more than anything else, fred, you can become heart attack proof but you have to treat the root cause. she eats a lot of whole grains and vegetables and fruits, but she completely changed her life, and as a result, she lowered if not eliminated her risk of heart disease. >> there's a time issue. the doctor says we're seeing problems here and it's time for surgery, and that means we have to do this now. you have to give yourself enough time if you are going to go the route of diet to make an impact on your body, don't you? >> no question. sharon was right on the cusp of that. there will still be people that

need surgery, no question about it, but if their lifestyle changes earlier, and if you have plaque in your blood vessels right now, they can reverse it with the lifestyle changes. he says don't eat anything with the mother or face, no oils, no dairy, a pretty restrictive diet but she feels great doing it. former president clinton, by the way, had a very similar diet to this. he feels great. >> sit basically a vegan. >> in some ways more restrictive. no oils either. the oils that have been considered healthy, they could damage the blood vessel wall. that's the biggest change. >> thank you so much. for more on your heart health, be sure and watch the special report "the last heart attack" this sunday night, 8:00 eastern here on cnn. he talks to doctors on the cutting edge of heart disease

prevention including a former surgeon that has developed a radical diet that he says can make anybody heart attack proof in a month. more of what you just saw. meantime, this information just coming to us now. you recall it was barely a week ago you saw the incredible pictures out of indianapolis there at the indiana state fair. the collapse of the stage. well, we now have confirmation that a sixth person has died as a result of the tragic accident. a 22-year-old by the name of jennifer haskel. that information coming from authorities in indiana. all right, the months-long drought is costing farmers in texas. what do you think? $1 billion? what about $5 billion? 't act ou? [ marcie ] you keep us young. [ kurt ] we were having too much fun we weren't thinking about a will at that time. we have responsibilities to the kids and ourselves.

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this information just in. the three young men who have been known as the west memphis three, three men who were convicted of the murders of three young kids in arkansas, well, now we understand according to our reporters and producers who are there in jonesboro arkansas, these three men, you are looking at their mugshots from in '93, echols, and misskelley jr., and baldwin,

they have been declared free to go home. no word on new trials. we're still hoping to hear more information about the details of the west memphis three is what they have been known as since the 1993 mutilations and killings of three young boys. damian exannuals and jessie misskeley and baldwin were convicted of the murders of the young boys, and they are now free to go home and they are continuing to do paperwork in the courthouse. when our reporter is able to get out and give us more information about how this came to be, we'll bring it to you. now moving on to the state of texas where it is withering under a relentless drought that lasted ten months long now. ahead of the break, we asked how much it has costs farmers in that state. 1 billion to $5 billion?

the answer? a staggering $5 billion. the drought is a huge and costy natural disasters this year. and nine of the disasters costs $1 billion or more. >> that's a staggering number. 549 people have died this year from tornados, lightning, weather eventually, and also from flooding. 549. that's more than ever since the advent of radar. since 1936, there has never been that many people killed by weather. this has been an extraordinary year. and tuscaloosa, alabama. there were nine basic tornadoes that day that killed people, including the one that went up into georgia, and that was a

devastating day. and then joplin, missouri, we had coverage on and on. it was a five-day event, and then it points east. $7 billion. 177 people killed. and then you just talked about the texas drought. $5 billion right there, because there is not a cotton crop. there is basically no wheat crop in parts of that state, simply because it has not rained at all. it rained everywhere across parts of the midwest, and then the flooding down the mississippi river, and watch what you ask for, right? $4 billion it costs in revenue, and lives and farmland and then we go down to the next. five more events that had $1 billion or more, down to the groundhog day blizzard, and that was chicago. $2 billion from a blizzard. 24 inches of snow and all that rain and all that blizzard closing down the entire city, and then the upper midwest flooding, too. that's still going on.

the dakotas and nebraska water, that is still coming down the missouri river. >> withe're in august. we still have a lot to go before we close out the year. you told us what you wanted to see. your choose the news story moments away. first, free advice to help you make the most out of your money in the economy. here is poppy harlow. >> time for the help desk where you get answers for your financial questions. guys, thanks for coming in. got interesting viewer questions. the first for you, john, comes from patricia in phoenix, arizona. i am a grad student with $13,000 in credit card debt and considering take k out a student loan to pay it down. is that a good move? >> i would love to say that's a terrible move but i will not say that because believe it or not there are hidden gems of gold within that question. you are converting involvement

debt to installment debt, better for the credit score, and not tax deductible debt to tax deductible, and then dischargeable debt to nondischargeable debt. you are borrowing from peter to pay paul, and you are in the same debt but less expensive and more beneficial debt, so if she is disciplined, not a bad move. >> we're talking about 13 grand, and not 300. >> exactly. and david wrote my wife and i both have our 401(k)s set up in the same company, should we keep it simple or have a separate strategy? >> this question comes up in financial planning. people forget that women and men have different life spans, and often times an age different. for instance, i am 41 and my husband is 59.

if we were at the same place we should not have portfolios that look the same, not necessarily from a strategic standpoint in terms of value versus growth, but an allocation standpoint. my advice is to invest in target date retirement funz that are age appropriate that will adjust for any age differences they have, and to have a chicken rotisserie type of setting, to set it and forget it. >> thank you, guys. if you have a question you want answered by our experts, send an e-mail anytime to us at cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com. can i have some ice cream, please ?

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this breaking story. we want to take you straight to jonesboro, arkansas. where the convictions of three men convicted of killing three young boys in 1993 have been tossed out. we have our david mattingly who was there. these three young men about to be free. give us the circumstances of what happened in court. >> reporter: fredricka, at this most moment the west memphis three are free men. they are processing the paperwork with the department. they will step out and be free. they were charged and convicted and sentenced for the murder of three boys. what happened was the defendant's here, the west

memphis three, entered pleas of guilty, but to do so they were able to maintain their innocence and still walk out with time served. it's a complicated legal maneuver and has a name to it, and it's something they never tried in this district and the judge had a lot time to explain it, and in the eyes of the court, these three men are still guilty of the crime that they were charged with, but now they are free. the judge said it was in the best interest of everybody involved, and he said this was a tragedy for everybody involved. he says he doesn't believe this is going to make any of the pain go away for the parents that suffered their losses and it will not make any of the pain go away for the three men that served their entire adult lives behind bars. but at this moment, fredricka, the west memphis three are free.

>> for clarity, david, it's not that the convictions were overturned, and they are still guilty but they were freed. at the root of this change is dna evidence or lack there of, is that correct? >> reporter: that was one of the last things that came to the court's attention this year. there was money raised by the supporters that tested every bit of material that they could find that was collected in the case, and the dna that was tested did not connect any of the three young men, or men now to the crime scene. so that was the last bit of evidence that came to the court's attention. now, if they did not go through with the deal today, those three would have been probably granted a new trial later this year, but that trial could have taken years to complete. so the judge, again, reiterating this is in the best interest of everybody involved in the eyes of the law, they are still

guilty of that crime but allowed to go free. it's a complicated legal maneuver, and right now the judge will explain it, and it won't answer a lot of questions, but it was in the best interest of everybody. >> thank you so much from jonesboro, arkansas. i understand there's a possibility, the three young men could go to a microphone. we wilcontinue to watch that. we will continue with the news room right now with alina cho. >> we're watching the case of the west memphis three, and we're talking about the wild roller coaster ride on wall street. it went up and then back down, but that's an improvement over yesterday. how do you make sense of it all?

a very good question. to help sort it out,