i mean, you make a decision based upon your understanding of the circumstances, and you live with it. that's the best you can do. there's nothing you can do about yesterday. >> no, i guess there isn't, but like i said, no matter how bad krur day has been spare a thought for ron wayne. that's all for us tonight. killer storm. killer storm. the midwest braces for a second round. the first round, more than 100 possible tornado touchdowns. >> oh, wow. >> we're right on the edge of it, guys, we're right on the edge of it. >> cnn meteorologist rob marciano also caught in the middle of the action. >> tornado just dropped out of the clouds. this has had a history of producing clouds south and west up here.

think like a man, really? >> how do you write women so well? >> i think of a man, and i take away reason and accountability. >> women, the rage this week. outrage, too. how are men reacting? silent as usual. yes, dear. >> camera three, don. and speaking of women -- ♪ i'm every woman >> -- one-on-one with music legend chaka khan, but she's got more than music on her mind. the news you need to know right now on cnn. good evening, everyone. i'm don lemon. thank you so much for joining us. tonight, millions of people throughout the midwest are battened down as a wicked storm system threatens to unleash more deadly tornadoes on the region. new pictures in to cnn tonight showing just one of the massive twisters that touched down. about 140 possible tornadoes had been reported since this outbreak began on friday, and our own meteorologist, rob

marciano, getting way too close for comfort to not one but two tornadoes near cherokee, oklahoma. most of these tornadoes hit kansas, but parts of nebraska, oklahoma and iowa are in rubble as well. there are still tornado watches posted from arkansas to wisconsin, and it seems the threat is beginning to diminish. but for many the damage is already done. the most impacted community is woodward, oklahoma. five deaths are blamed on the storm outbreak, all of them in woodward. they include a father and his two children, two young children, who died inside their mobile home. two others died in a car. the mayor of woodward says the storms knocked out part of the emergency siren systems. some had mere seconds to act and in the middle of so much death and destruction, our rob marciano found amazing stories of survival. rob? >> reporter: it's been 65 years since the big one hit woodward, oklahoma. in 1947, more than 100 people died in a twitter and charles hogue lived 30 miles away and

remembers it all. >> i was 10 years old and i seen it when it wiped out this whole town. >> reporter: but now he lives in woodward and this latest tornado hit his home, blasting into the living room and blowing off the roof and ripping the house inside out. look how the tornado actually shoved this house off its foundation. it's tilted by a good 20, maybe 30 degrees. last night before the storm hit, though, mr. hogue and his wife though got warning. they came outside to the backyard. why? there's a valuable commodity out here, a storm cellar heavily fortified and pretty heavy to open up. he and his wife got down there. and that's what saved them. that door is heavy. how were you able to -- you're a strong man. >> just -- you just do it. >> reporter: paul's family didn't have a storm cellar or any basement, and now they are lucky to have their lives. the tornado threw paul out of

the house and on to the street. >> and i was laying down there on the curb, and i looked up and saw the house gone. i didn't know what to do, and then neighbors come in and start pulling bricks off and tilting walls up. and everybody started coming out. >> reporter: what kind of injuries did you sustain? >> i got a big gash on the side of the head with a flap laid over and laid open, and they stitched that back up. >> reporter: his grandson had deep cuts, too, after getting buried under appliances. >> that's about where the bathroom was at and that's where he was underneath in the tub and had the washer and dryer on top of him. >> reporter: ball got into a battered truck and drove himself and his bleeding grandson to the hospital. his wounds bandaged now but still stunned, the lords are getting a helping hand with the cleanup but searching for keepsakes and sentimental items are a low priority. what specifically are things that you want to find in this rubble? >> i found them. my son, my daughter, son-in-law,

my grandbabies, my wife. everything else just brick and stick and they're all easily replaced. >> rob marciano joins us now from woodward, oklahoma. rob, he was supposed to sell that house this week. probably not going to happen. and, rob, we were marveling at you, at that picture standing there between two tornadoes. what was going on at the moment, rob? >> reporter: actually that cell was one of the three that came through woodward. woodward had quite a day yesterday. they had three separate storm cells that were tornado warned. we chased two of them, and the one -- the picture that you were speaking of was dropping tornadoes up and down oklahoma and eventually went into kansas and went south of wichita, kansas, and when we caught up to it, it was a huge mesocyclone, it dropped a funnel down on one side and then a forward one. so an extraordinary event for any meteorologist or storm chaser.

certainly an adrenaline rush in there. at that point it's in the middle of grassy areas doing no harm to anything. i was not the only one out there. residents came out to view that spectacular sight, so there's, you know, a ying and yang certainly with this type of weather. the people who live out here are tornado tough, don. they do though admire the beauty of these storms, but they know the danger as well, so a remarkable couple of days here, and obviously the threat continues tonight a little bit farther to the east, and the cleanup will continue tomorrow in the days and weeks and months ahead here in woodward. >> rob marciano, great reporting. thank you. glad that you are safe there. thanks again to rob marciano. there are many areas not out of the woods just yet and i want to bring in our meteorologist jacqui jeras. which areas need to be on the lookout right now? >> more than 1,000 miles of real estate from wisconsin stretching all the way down into arkansas where those red boxes are. that means tornadoes are still possible in these areas and at greatest risk, i think, who has a chance of still seeing

tornadoes in the next few hours. southeastern minnesota into western parts of wisconsin. this line has a history of producing a lot of lightning and some hail with it but no warnings at this time, but stay alert, and then we're also tracking from st. louis stretching down just to the east of little rock. we've had about a dozen tornado reports today, but little to no damage, so that's the good news so far. so a big area for the slight risk overnight from houston stretching up over towards chicago and milwaukee. the storm system advances eastward for tomorrow, and we'll be looking at places like buffalo, new york, into pittsburgh, pennsylvania. tomorrow the chances of tornadoes are pretty slim. i think there's more wind damage that we can expect with the storms. >> thank you, jacqui jeras. did you hear this? >> guess what, his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. >> a political writer says that's a democratic strategy that backfired and reignited the mommy war. he's going to explain that.

and you'll see the only man who tried out today for an nfl cheerleading team, that's right. an nfl team.

this is really the outrage story of the week, isn't it? most people outside of politics had never heard of hillary rosen until this week, but after she said mitt romney's wife ann hadn't, quote, worked a day in her life everyone knew her but we wonder if anyone heard what rosen had to say that, which is ann romney has never had to struggle with the kinds of issues such as how to feed their children or get them to school and then go to work all on a tight paycheck. so i asked our cnn contributors and a senior espn writer for their thoughts.

>> i think she would have just offended a smaller group of women, wealthy women because i guess that's what she's saying. it's wealthy women who aren't valid to speak on the economy. that's the ones that should shut their mouths and that's i guess what she is saying and we should forgive her. you can go one of two ways in my opinion. you can say housewives should not speak on the economy. for that matter, rich women, women that work, should not speak on the economy. men that work should not speak on the economy and men that stay at home, they should not speak on the economy either because no one really understands what 300 million people are doing every second of the day in what we call the economy. even the smartest economist take that tact, no one really knows what's going on. or you can say everyone that participates in the economy has a strong voice and should participate in giving sound economic advice. that's a little touchy-feely for me. but what you can't do is say this person is sanctioned and

this person is valid and this person is invalid and this person should keep their mouth shut. that's what you can't do. you can't say who you want to hear from and who you don't when it comes to economic advice. >> l.z.? >> well, you know, i saw the interview when it actually happened the first time, and i will admit that when she made that first statement, i was like whoa, and i kind of missed the latter part because it was kind of shocking to hear but the thing that will is missing and the thing that a lot of other people are missing is that if you watch that entire interview, prior to that moment they were talking about how mitt romney was using his wife as a touchstone about what women feel in today's economy and what hillary was doing was bringing up to the fact that, you know, she didn't use the right words, let's just get that out there. she should have said ann romney had never worked outside of the house a day in her life. that's what she really meant but she didn't really say that but by clarifying that and letting people knowing she's never worked outside of the house what she's saying is mitt romney's touchstone, what he's using as his barometer to understand women isn't authentic because she's never had that experience. she's had a different experience

but 60% of the women in this country work outside of the home and ann romney was not part of that 60%, so the touchstone that mitt romney has been leaning on isn't part of that 60% and that's what hilary is talking about. >> is this a creation of political media types? i've been asking that because quite honestly i haven't heard that many women talking about it. i haven't heard any. i'm sure some women are talking about it everywhere, when i talked to my mom and sisters and women i'm friendly with, no one is saying, i can't believe what hillary rosen is saying about. most people are not saying that. most people are saying i'm worried about losing my job next week. they are downsizing this. no one is talking about this except for media and political types. we checked some of the responses here from cnn.com.

let's put some of them up. this is what darlene said -- let me start by saying i was a stay-at-home mom. i just wonder if rich people understand how hard we work just to survive. did they ever run out of food on wednesday and payday was friday? not to give any credence to what hillary rosen said, but there is certainly some truth to that. if you're wealthy, you can afford 5, 10, 15 nannies. some people don't have that choice, will. i think that was the distinction and most women understood that distinction. >> yeah, but what mitt romney was saying is he talks to his wife about women and economic issues. and what l.z. has done and your two e-mailers there have done is doubled down on the idea, no, no, no, what we didn't -- we didn't mean to offend women who stay at home, that's work. what we meant to offend is wealthy women. see, this is the thing, don, and this is why it matters. you may not hear people talking about hilary rosen because they don't know who hilary is. this is a tactic of divide and pander. you divide us on class, you divide us on one versus 99 and divide us on seniors versus those under 55 who don't get medicare and you divide us on gender and you start dividing us

so many ways, you're going to get the internal firing and crossfire and you did finally with hilary. you got crossfire between women and now you want to say it's just about wealthy women, that doesn't make it any better to me. >> make sure you catch will and l.z. with me every sunday night at 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. a new scandal rocks washington's spending agency. the gsa. now house republicans are opening hearings. you can adjust it to whatever your needs are. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. now, sleep number redefines memory foam, combining coolfit gel foam with sleep number adjustability! during our white sale, receive $400 in free bedding. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699.

this is kind of your primer now on what you need to know, the big stories in the week ahead from the white house to wall street. our correspondents tell you everything to begin your week. we'll start with the president's plans for the week. >> reporter: i'm athena jones. president obama travels to cleveland this week for a speech

on the economy and to michigan to attend campaign events. he'll also host a nascar event with sprint cup winner tony stewart and will welcome the wounded warrior projects soldier bike ride to the white house. i'm poppy harlow in new york where wall street kicks off with a bang. tons of corporate earnings coming up. we'll get the latest numbers from citigroup, goldman sachs, morgan stanley, coca-cola, yahoo!, microsoft and mcdonald's just to name a few and on the economic front the latest retail sales report is due out as well as existing home sales which make up 90% of the housing market. so investors will be watching that report very closely. we'll track it all for you on cnn money. i'm "showbiz tonight's" nischelle turner. here's what we're watching this common joins us. catching up with common. and vinny from "the jersey shore" joins us with his new book.

on to other news now. a normally obscure federal agency has exploded into the headlines with tales of las vegas training, skits, clowns, even mind readers. revelations surrounding the gsa have put a spotlight on wasteful spending and congressional hearings get started on monday. our dana bash got an exclusive inside look at how the committee chairman is preparing for those hearings. >> when we gavel the hearings, this will be a filled room instead of an empty room. >> reporter: a sneak peek at the gsa, they're supposed to look out for taxpayer dollars but held a lavish conference awarding videos like this. ♪ buy everything others can't afford ♪ >> reporter: what is your primary goal? >> our primary goal is to make sure that doesn't happen again. what often happens is an ig does their job and perhaps some people are held accountable but the culture doesn't change. >> reporter: the gsa inspector general briefed now former gsa inspector general martha johnson

and she was questioned 11 months ago about over-the-top spending and darrell issa wants to know why the administration sat on the information. >> let's remember, when you're a political appointee, you're there for two reasons. one is you have the confidence of the president to execute and, second, you're the eyes and ears of the president through the process. we want to know where that process failed. >> reporter: issa invited us from the public hearing room -- >> you've got to see some people that don't get overtime. >> reporter: -- to the committee's private offices for an exclusive look at weekend prep. >> these are just some of the men and women that are working on a sunday. >> reporter: issa's aides praised the gsa and inspector general. >> this is a very efficient investigation by comparison to the ones in which the administration is fighting us. >> reporter: but why not question past administrations, excess gsa spending in the bush years? issa insisted he'll get to that, but for now -- >> remember, this president ran saying he was going to make changes. the question is, was he well served by his political appointees when they were ordered to go in and make

this -- these cultural changes, and if they didn't make it, is it because they didn't listen to the president or because he didn't really mean it? >> reporter: yet for all its criticism of the obama administration, why did issa, who took over the powerful oversight committee vowing to expose government waste, rely on the inspector general to find it? were you asleep at the switch here? >> well, we're never feeling like we're doing enough. we have 120 people between the majority and minority on this committee. the ig is 12,000 people. >> reporter: and they found more gsa excess. issa showed us a commemorative coin from that las vegas conference. >> $6,300 on about 300 of these in velvet boxes. >> reporter: taxpayer dollars. >> taxpayer dollars. >> reporter: and a souvenir book. >> just to have something to remember it by.

>> reporter: administration sources point out that eight top gsa officials have been reprimanded. in fact, three of the gsa witnesses invited to monday's hearing are no longer in their jobs. to that issa responded, quote, too little, too late. dana bash, cnn, washington. >> all right, dana, thank you very much. the right speaks out. they have called me and this network liberal, a show for democrats and the white house, and that's the nice stuff. i'm going to ask them why they do that. it's tonight's no talking points. gas prices may have reached the tipping point. a gallon of gas leveled off at $3.90 this past week according to aaa. some experts say this could mean prices may fall short of predicted record highs. gas prices peaked at $3.94 a gallon on april 4th after rising nearly 20% so far this year. and unemployment claims are on the rise. the number of americans filing for first-time unemployment jumped to 380,000 last week, the highest level since january. this follows a disappointing

jobs report for march. and, as temperatures heat up, more consumers are reaching for their wallets. the unseasonably warm weather is inspiring some people to update their wardrobes. more shoppers than expected boosted retail sales 3.9% in march. watch for another retail sales report tomorrow, and that's this week's "getting down to business." i'm patricia wu.

well, each saturday night on this network we have those adult conversations that you have at home with your family or with your friends, but you don't necessarily see them on television. case in point, a discussion we had last saturday night. when i said that word, and i'm going to say it again, the "n" word, i just wish -- i hate saying the "n" word. i think it takes the value out of what that word really means, especially when we're reporting it, and i don't care what color the reporter is. i think someone should say that person called someone nigger instead of the "n" word no matter what their color because it sanitizes it. >> why did i say that? just about everybody jumped on the "n" word bandwagon. >> he's an anchor at cnn. >> he's an african-american which is an important distinction. >> he's a reporter. no, he's a reporter, and what reporters do is they report the news, and every time you make it the "n" word, it's cute. >> right. it's like the "n" word, but, see, i feel very strongly about the word. do not eliminate it. it's part of our history.

and every time people try to sort of make it sound better or more acceptable, let's call it what it is. >> there's a cnn anchor, guy's name is don lemon. i don't know if i want to air the sound bite. i really -- you're making the case that it's inappropriate to say quote "n" word, unquote, just go ahead and use the "n" word. >> don lemon says he doesn't support it in music and casually but supports it in terms of reporting what someone said. so those are two different things. i think you've got a point there. >> that brings us to tonight's "no talking points." all right. here we go. the "n" word, the so-called liberal media and the trayvon martin coverage. conservative dana lash is here and she is here from big journalism and a cnn contributor and conservative noel shepherd, associate editor from newsbusters. okay, noel, let's go for it here. here's what you wrote after you heard me. a cnn host is advocating the previously offensive term to be used in all reports rather than

the politically correct one. with racial tensions being ginned up by irresponsible so-called journalists, the "n" word suddenly sanitizes what that word says, what that word really means. as newsbusters asked hours ago, can the "n" word now be used on cnn if it dramatizes racism? lemon certainly thinks so. all right, noel, you have written before that the media is trying to help the president by constantly bringing up race. come on, isn't that a stretch? >> no, i don't think so at all. and let's remember that even former president bill clinton in 2008 felt that the media conceivably was using the race card against his wife when she was running against obama. so, no, i don't think that's a stretch at all. let's also remind your viewers that what occurred about 18 hours after you made that statement on saturday evening, on sunday in the middle of easter sunday at 2:30 eastern time right in the afternoon of easter sunday, national correspondent for cnn susan

candiotti not only said the "n" word specifically, but she also said the "f" word specifically prior. so it seemed a little bit peculiar to me, and i think, don, it seemed peculiar to a number of folks that suddenly cnn seems to be saying it's acceptable to use this when in the media for, what, a decade, a couple of decades, we weren't allowed to say that word. so why suddenly is it acceptable? >> well, here's the thing, noel. i'm not here to criticize or defend my colleague, what she said is separate and apart and that's her own business. >> i appreciate that. >> but my point was -- my point was more about political correctness run amok which has been a cornerstone of conservatism and you wrote this in 2010 when a kentucky fried chicken ad was pulled in australia after cries of racism in the u.s. now, remember, my point was more about political correctness run amok. you said, for our pc police to now be enforcing its ignorant

standards from thousands of miles away should scare the heck of folks on both sides of the aisle. so speaking out on political correctness is okay when you do it but not when i do it? >> no, because i think we're in a different environment now. this is 2012. this is an election year, and the nation is on the precipice of conceivably a very, very serious racial tension or maybe even, heck, maybe even a race war as a result of the trayvon martin shooting, as a result of the shootings in tulsa, oklahoma, and we're in an election year where the first black president is looking for re-election. so i like having this discussion, don. i like it tremendously. i'm not sure right now seven months before an election and in the midst of all of this racial strife as a result of trayvon martin, the tulsa shootings, i'm not sure this is the right time. i think maybe we wait until after the election. maybe we wait until after the trial is done and we know what the net result is from florida. i'm not sure it's the right time

now. >> it's interesting. it sounds like what you're saying is we should pick and choose the topics rather than let the news dictate what the topics are. but here's my thing. i have to say a race war, i think that's a bit overblown. i don't think we're on the verge of any race war here. i think we're beyond that in the united states. but i'll get back to you, noel, in just a second. >> if i may, don. i saw michael eric tyson -- >> dyson. >> dyson on "face the nation" today with bob schieffer, and he was saying that if zimmerman is found innocent, there's going to be a lot -- there's going to be a lot of problems. there's going to be a lot of uprisings. so it's not just me saying that this is possible, don. >> i don't think anyone is saying there's going to be a race war. >> i hope not. >> we need to wait until zimmerman is found guilty or innocent. that's up to the courts and the justice system. >> i want to chime in on that, don, because i think oddly enough you and i may kind of agree on something here, if i can elaborate.

>> yes. >> see, i'm one of the people -- i'm kind of a free speech purist myself and i really believe if people want to fly their freak flag, go ahead and let them fly it and let society judge whether or not you want something to do with that person. but at the same time when you talk about the "n" word is gross and disgusting and turns my stomach. i feel the same way when i see some of the rhetoric -- i've seen a lot from the left on the war on women. when i see women like sarah palin or michele bachmann or lieutenant governor rebecca clayfish of wisconsin caughted a see you next tuesday by a liberal radio talk host or by people on hbo and so on and so forth so it's kind of similar to that and i look at it when i see that word used as conservative women. i look at it like i don't want it censored because i want society to feel the full sting of that word that's being used to describe women simply because they have a different political ideology than the people using the words to describe them. >> dana, listen, i love having this conversation with conservatives, and i think there

is -- i am a free speech person as well, but i think that everything is about context. and what i said was in the reporting of a story, and if it was -- >> i'm not disputing that at all. >> i don't think there -- >> if you're a talk show host -- >> i'm actually kind of agreeing that with you, the full sting of the word -- >> you're not a journalist or talk show host you shouldn't be saying that word freely purely in the reporting of a story. but i just want to say something here just to get something clear, especially, noel, you say all of a sudden cnn is advocating the use of the "n" word, i said it back in 2011 when i was talking about rick perry's hunting camp. play it for me. tonight governor rick perry of texas is having to respond to his association with the most poisonous word in the english language -- nigger. it wasn't the first time. i've said it before in the context of a story and i'll say it again. i believe in the context of a story you should be able to use it. >> right. >> and, dana, it's not because rick perry is a republican. it's because he had a camp with that flame on it.

and i don't see how saying that is ginning up racism so help president obama. >> and i'm going to agree on one point. i think the person who owned the land that rick perry leased -- because it's kind of an old story. i think that the person who owned the land that rick perry leased that had actually had that word inscribed on the rock that the perry family painted over. it's decision -- disgusting and it sickens me just like it sickens me when i hear some of the rhetoric used to describe conservative women. if someone calls you a see you next tuesday, if you're reporting it in the context of a story, you want people to know what's being said, just like i want people to know. >> otherwise, it's disgusting, you don't want to hear it. >> by the way, don, i have to say i just got the acronym see you next tuesday. that was going beyond me. >> all right, noel. i want to talk to something about something else. i'm not going to let you off the hook. you're a contributor editor for andrew breitbart's big journalism website. you wrote don lemon couldn't criticize spike lee for tweeting out the wrong address for an elderly couple during the

trayvon martin coverage. here's the clip. >> the bigger question maybe here, even if that information was true, why would you send that out? why would you retweet it? >> yeah, yeah. all right. >> it's someone's address. >> yeah, i know, i know, i know. let's move on now. >> so, in order to get myself not to get in trouble on television, i was so disgusted by spike lee, what he did, i couldn't find the words appropriate for tv. i think most people got that. in other reports i called his actions disgusting. why didn't anyone from your side contact me -- and i'm saying this on behalf of other journalists who find themselves the victims of things like this. why didn't you contact me for a response? is that fair? is that really big journalism? >> you'd have to ask john nolte that he's my colleague over at breitbart.com and he was the one who wrote that piece. i just read it the other day, no offense to john who may be watching, because there's so many editors over there. i actually just read that the other day. maybe that didn't come across that you had condemned it earlier or something like that,

but i think we can all agree that spike lee having done something like that, it's pretty nasty and i'm glad to hear that you're -- again, we're agreeing. you're totally agreeing with us that it was pretty classless for him to do that. so that's cool. >> wow. why can't we all just get along? >> don, i'm converting you. >> noel and dana -- my twitter feed is going crazy. people are saying it's a great conversation to have. thank you all. we don't have to agree and we don't have to castigate each other just because we don't agree. thank you, guys. >> thank you for having us. >> thank you. here's tonight's no talking point. dana and i are friendly. we're not friends. we're friendly. same thing with noel and i. we go back and forth on twitter. i don't hate them because they are conservatives and i don't hate them and don't judge them for it either. i don't hate anyone. what i do find disturbing quite honestly is they and others like them, and even some democrats and some democrats assume, that because this network doesn't side with political parties that that automatically makes it a,

quote, liberal network. i work here. nothing could be further from the truth. and what i also find personally disturbing is that the same people assume i'm liberal or a shill for president obama or for democrats just because i'm on cnn or because i'm african-american or because i don't publicly wear my political affiliation on my sleeve. we all know what they say about assuming. makes a you-know-what out of you and me. in this case it's also shortsighted and in itself profiling, and that's tonight's no talking points. all right, here he is. this man wants to become a male cheerleader and dancer for an nfl team, and we'll tell you which team and talk to him live next.

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all right. sure, many dream of becoming an nfl cheerleader. they dream about the fans, the glamour, and today some of those hopefuls tried out for the denver broncos cheerleading squad. 200 ladies and 1 man. here's that story. >> today begins the process of our 2012 denver broncos cheerleader auditions. >> i'm at the denver broncos cheerleader tryouts. i'm here to try out to be the first male broncos he cheerleader ever. it's huge. i'm excited. totally thrilled. no male has ever made it through

auditions. i don't even know if a male even made it to the auditions. >> it's an open call so anyone can show up and try out. we do everything based on dance ability. >> when i dance i lose myself i used to have a sign job where i held a sign on the street corner and i would do so many dance routines for people? >> what are your thoughts on male cheerleaders in the nfl? >> i think it's awesome. whatever you want to do, do it. pursue your dreams. that's what i'm doing. >> i trust that the judges will pick the best members for the team, and, you know, if they want to come and try out, i think they absolutely should. >> that was amazing. it was great. i mean, i messed up a few times, but, hey, it was worth the experience. >> if your number is not called, thank you for coming. >> so did sasha make the cut? there he is. he joins us live next.

all right. so an elite few get to be a denver broncos cheerleader, and up until today only women tried

out to be a denver broncos cheerleader. that changed when sasha took a shot at it. sasha, you are very brave to come on tonight. you tried out today for the squad. so how'd you do? >> well, i didn't make the cut, but let me tell you, these girls are really good at what they do. i mean, they've been dancing since they were 3 years old and they're so professional. i mean, i have the energy, but the whole structure of the moves and stuff, that really takes something. >> so you're not disappointed then that you didn't make it? >> i'm not disappointed because i didn't try out to become a broncos cheerleader. i really took this on as a project to really get -- prove a point to my students at uzeki that you can accomplish your dreams. you can -- don't be afraid to express yourself and go after the things you want and just, you know, keep trying and never

give up and that's what i really did here and it was my point of doing it. >> what if you had made it, what would you have done? >> if i was what? >> if you had made it, what would you have done, if you had made the squad? >> oh, man, i would have danced my life away, man. i love dancing, i lose myself to the music. like i told you i had a part-time job dancing on the street corner with my sign job. it's so much fun. and madonna, she's my girl. i love madonna. she's my inspiration. >> let's just be clear. in our culture the way people see men and women and masculinity and femininity and all that, and they see you dancing, right? you're a good sport because we talked about it. we were going to play the will ferrell spartans cheerleading thing and you said go ahead, have fun with me. so you're not embarrassed at all by what people say? because i'm sure people said things to you and what people said to you about your sexuality or about your masculinity or anything like that? >> no, man.

people can say what they want to say. and this is the lesson i'm sending out there for the kids at uzeke. no matter what people say, go out and be yourself. just have fun. 100%, man. >> all right. >> doesn't matter what people say. >> you didn't make it because you weren't good enough, right, sacha? >> i just didn't make it because, you know, i haven't been dancing since i was 3 years old like the other girls out there. i meaning, those girls, that's their life, you know. yeah, but i love the broncos, you know. >> are you going to try out for another team? >> i'm thinking -- actually i'm going to go to the dallas cowboys next. you guys get ready for me. i'm on my way. i'm booking my ticket tomorrow. >> all right. sacha heppell, you're a good sport. good luck. thank you. >> thank you. hey, one last thing, denver broncos all the way. we're the best team in the nation, baby. >> all right, sacha. thank you very much. we're going to get back to our top story now on cnn. storms still a threat in the midwest.

our meteorologist jacqui jeras has the very latest for you next.

destruction all across the midwest. jacqui jeras, we've been following it here since last night. it was our breaking news all day. what do we need to be on the lookout for? what's the latest? >> well, today day three of that event and we'll have day four tomorrow but the good news is the threat is really diminishing

tonight. look at this. just a sliver of our tornado watches left from wisconsin stretching down into parts of arkansas. so, as you go to bed tonight, things are going to be looking better. just a slight risk then from the u.p. of michigan stretching down towards the gulf coast, and i think our best chance of severe weather then will fire up once again for tomorrow as our storm system heads eastward and temperatures warm up throughout the day and this is the risk area here in the eastern great lakes. it includes you in buffalo and includes you over towards cleveland and into pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and the risk that we're talking about more likely to see wind damage. i think the tornadoes are going to be few and far between, and one other note is that we have non-thunderstorm wind gusts that have just been incredible with this system across the plains so it will be very windy across the east today. and we'll end it on a good note, don, by saying that those strong winds will bring very warm temperatures across the east. we're talking upper 80s to near 90 degrees in places like new york city and boston tomorrow afternoon. >> jacqui jeras, thank you very much.

take a listen to this. ♪ what you gonna do for me ♪ what you gonna do for me >> legendary singer chaka khan has much more than music on her mind, and i had a one-on-one interview with her right after the break. but, first, when the mortgage bubble exploded and american home values fell under water, it triggered an economic crisis, so how can we prevent that from happening again? cnn's ali velshi has this week's "mastering your money." >> this is your new book. i can't believe it. you're telling us that we should innovate more in terms of finance. one of the things that you recommend, and the great thing about the book is you have very, very specific ideas, some of which seem attainable and some seem like pie in the sky. one of them my producers refer to as a prenup for mortgages. >> yeah. >> tell me what you're talking about. >> well, right now we have over 11 million americans who are underwater on their mortgage. the home price fell, their mortgage balance didn't fall, so

they're ruined, right? and that's part of our -- major part of our crisis, and they don't spend when they are in that state. that didn't have to happen. we want to give them workouts now, but we don't have an arrangement for that. >> the workout is generally seeing if the bank would make a deal to cut the amount of money they owe. >> ideally that's what it would be, but it's not happening very much. and i think if we want that to happen, the thing to think about now is let's plan for it now for the next time. >> which is why we think about it as a prenup. let's give an example. if a husband and wife go into a bank, they want to buy a house, they go to apply for a mortgage, basically it's an insurance product that they would buy that says, in the event that -- you finish a sentence, how does it work? >> well, i think it might be tied both to home prices and the economy, the unemployment rate, so if home prices fall, we will reduce your mortgage balance automatically to keep you in positive territory.

>> so there would be a trigger point, if the value drops below a certain point, you then get a reset on your mortgage. bob, thank you. i'm ali velshi with this week's "mastering your money." ♪ [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] zyrtec®. love the air. [ female announcer ] this week only, save up to $11 on zyrtec® products. see sunday's newspaper.

even if you don't know her music, you know her name. of course you know her music. who doesn't know chaka khan? chaka khan! someday she's going to be in the rock and roll hall of fame but music alone can't define her.

at a recent concert in atlanta to raise money for public tv, she talked about subjects that really move her. take a listen. ♪ >> my favorite song is "tomas" on the album "tutu". miles davis, mostly horn players, mostly jazz horn players like miles. you know, parker. ♪ i don't have an ipod. i have some cds, i have some cassettes still even. mostly of like miles davis, you know, sarah, joannie. ♪ what you gonna do >> we have a couple of initiatives, an educational initiative where we are educating like fifth to eighth graders. about 150 to 200 kids, you know,

from some schools that are in rough neighborhoods. bring them out of the neighborhood and take them to college in california and get them tutoring two or three times a week by the students at the college. we're also doing an initiative where -- it's called the super life initiative where we're helping a lot of women and children and people in new orleans, post-katrina victims, helping them to get jobs, helping them and assisting them in any way that we can and, of course, we're always looking for a cure for autism. i have a nephew, my sister's son, his name is talon, and he was diagnosed at about the age of 3. and i look at them as really as indigo children, as like the man

of the future in a sense. but we have to get ahold of, you know, how society is going to deal with these children and how they're going to deal with us. >> i'm trayvon, and i'm chaka. another one of our children has yet been killed. ♪ we've gotta find a way and then i got really mad about all the other babies who have been killed or gone missing, and we don't hear anything about it. so now i'm on sort of a mission, you know, to legislate. any time a child is missing or killed, that drastic and amazing action is taken. there's no reason for it. often out of tragedy, you know, comes great things, and this is what i'm expecting to happen,