we're going to speak to a former band member who stood up to the culture of hazing at that school. and the president's "view" after publicly supporting same-sex marriage. did he just put congress on notice for a fight over it? it is tuesday, may 15th. "starting point" begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com and our starting point this morning, breaking news, criminal charges for former news international ceo rebekah brooks for her role in the uk phone hacking scandal. she's accused of conspiracy to pervert the courts of justice. her husband, charlie brooks has also been charged. straight to london live to dan rivers with the latest. dan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. yes, just to sort of translate this into language that you and

the viewers may understand, it basically means that rebekah brooks and her husband, charlie, have been charged with effectively concealing evidence from the police, as they looked into phone hacking at the disgraced tabloid owned by rupert murdoch, "the news of the world." that tabloid closed down last summer but the repercussions of the phone hacking scandal continue to ripple through british society, and internationally as well, of course, but this is significant, because it's the first set of charges to be brought since the original scandal broke back in 2006, and the royal reporter, clive goodman and another were charged with phone hacking. now the ceo of the parent company, news international, and her husband and various other staff members have been charged with perverting the course of justice, concealing evidence from the police, attempting, it is alleged, to effectively cover

up what was going on from the police, specifically with removing documents from the archive of "news of the world" and removing computers or disposing of computers and phones and so on that the police may have wanted to look at. >> dan rivers for us in london, dan, thank you. lawmakers there about to get their chance to investigate jpmorgan's deepening trading losses potentially even topping that $2 billion number we've been talking about the last 24, 48 hours here. this comes as ceo jamie dimon prepares to go before the bank. shareholders at the company meeting which happens today and among other things we'll be voting on, dimon's $23 million pay package, $23 million. president obama actually addressed the $2 billion blunder on abc's "the view." take a listen. >> this is why we passed wall street reform. this is the best managed banks. you can have a bank isn't as strong and profitable making the

same bets and we might have had to step in and that's exactly why wall street reform is so important. >> speaking of that meeting happening today, we go straight to poppy harlow in tampa where the shareholder meeting is being held. poppy, set the scene. i imagine the pressure is high. >> reporter: the pressure is very high. shareholders haven't arrived yet, kicks off 10:30 a.m. around me you can see a host of media here, every network you can imagine and that is because this could not have come at a worse time for jpmorgan, the news of the $2 billion plus loss coming late last week the annual shareholder meeting being held, three big things when we're inside we expect to hear from shareholders. who knew what when? did jamie dimon know what was going on since he is at the helm of this bank? who is responsible for overseeing these losses. these came in a division of the bank that is supposed to manage risk, not necessarily take risk, so that went way wrong, jamie dimon in april said media

reports were making basically a tempest in a teapot, saying this was not such a big deal. he has since said he was dead wrong on that. we'll expect more from jamie dimon on that today. he'll also hear shareholders voting, say on pay, that's there under wall street reform on his and other top lieutenant executive pay packages, what they have to say about that. should jamie dimon remain at the helm of the bank in terms of having the chairman and the ceo role. there are some that are fighting to split that role up and they have even before this loss, so those are going to be the three big focuses from shareholders today. i think a lot of questions about who knew what when, that's key. >> poppy, you bring up pay and i know shareholders are raising the question, what about these incentives, these big bonuses that perhaps lead to some ri riskier bets. wall street may call back some of that compensation. what are you hearing? >> reporter: they might. that is what "the journal" is

reporting. any big bank in the new area of post wall street reform is doing that, looking at claw-backs. the way wall street works is that you get paid for short term gains but then those bets you made can look very bad a few years later, that's exactly what happened in the housing crisis, things looked good, they turned very sour, now there may be claw-backs, may be for some of the top lieutenants who oversaw this chief investment office that had these bets that were really hundreds of billions of dollars of insurance bets, trying to manage risk but obviously not following through on that, so that's going to be a big focus as well. i will also say expect the volcker rule to be addressed. you talked to sheila bair about this yesterday. the rule would say when it comes out this summer that banks can't make big directional markets with their own money and act like "casinos" critics would say. jamie dimon said even this move wouldn't have fallen under the

auspices of the volcker rule because he says it would be economic hedging trying to prevent risks in other parts of the banks. that will be a key we'll focus on as well today. >> poppy harlow, thank you. we'll bring in democrat senate jeff merckley of oregon, a member of the banking committee and coauthor of this rule, which we've been talking about recently, part of this wall street financial reform but yet to be implemented, volcker rule goes into effect this july. good morning to you. >> good morning, brooke. >> you have a series of financial regulatory hearings. obviously you're going to be talking jpmorgan but really, what do you expect to come out of it? what will you be learning? >> well, really, the key thing will be to emphasize and understand that this sort of portfolio hedging or market hedging is not allowed under the volcker rule. certainly shouldn't be allowed under the rules produced for the volcker rule.

that piece has been absolutely clear. this is the type of investing, proprietary trading if you will, hedge fund style investing that specifically the volcker rule was designed to prevent. if you want to be in the hedge fund business, great, sever your ties with insured deposits and take the big risks and the only people who get burned are your investors or your own funds but don't do it and try to be inside the banking system, where we subsidize operations and provide loans, liquidity to families and businesses. >> we talked volcker rule and all of the other entities who have been watching this. the "l.a. times" is reporting about these upcoming senate hearings where we're going to be hearing from federal reserve, the sec, securities and exchange commission and also treasury. i talked yesterday to sheila bair, former head of the fdic. she suggested the fed is part of the problem. here she was. >> i think the government structure of the fed's regional

banks is a real issue. the new york fed is the primary regulator of these large constitutions, yet they have industry people sitting on their boards and that's true with the other regional banks. >> having someone sitting on the board, right, perhaps a conflict of interest, i just wanted your take on that and also just when you look at all of these different agencies and you still see this $2.3 billion trade happened, can really anything prevent this volcker rule or not? >> certainly the fed is one of the major regulators. this regulation that's being put together in draft form right now is the combined product of multiple regulators, and the fed plays a lead role. my hope is that for this to happen at this time and create this discussion that will end up with regulations unlike the draft, which go on for 300 pages of guidance, it is a result of two years of intense lobbying by major wall street firms trying to carve out loopholes, trying to expand loopholes, be it in

market making, wealth management or certainly in this case portfolio investing or hedging, and so hopefully it will be a wake-up call to the entire set of regulators, saying this is absolutely unacceptable, we're going to write the clear, crisp line rule that will enable regulators to say again, if you want to be in the high risk investing business, go do it, don't do it inside our banking system. >> clear, crisp line. it's obviously very complex stuff but here is something senator merckley that people do understand, it's money and bonuses. poppy was just talking about this outside of this meeting, what's going to happen with jpmorgan in tampa, essentially shareholders calling into question the bonuses and compensation some of the folks at the massive financial institutions get. if they lose that affects the american taxpayer if these banks fail. will you be looking into those bonuses, those incentives? >> you know it may be a piece of what the banking committee looks

at and certainly it's of considerable concern that bonuses are structured in a fashion it does not encourage this type of gambling, because that's exactly what the rules were designed. >> you're saying it is gambling? >> absolutely. what we saw was jpmorgan decided to sell a lot of insurance betting that the credit worthiness of companies was better than the market viewed it. they hoped to make a lot of money on this, and turned out that the credit worthiness was less than -- they were wrong and the folks on the other sides of the swaps, the derivatives, on the steals were correct, and so they had to pay out the insurance that resulted in huge losses. this is truly high-risk gambling when you're waging which side of credit default swaps you're going to play. >> finally, since you co-authored the volcker rule, we asked senator corker who said recently it might not have applied. take a listen. >> we've been in conversations

all weekend with the occ, the office of currency, that basically the examiner in charge that oversees the book of business at jpmorgan, that they've been very adam ant that even if the volcker rule which the senator was referring to was fully implemented, that this would have been permitted activity. during the course of the day, we were just talking, they've altered their position and said that this is more complex than they thought, and they really want to hold off. >> senator merckley, this was so complex that even jamie dimon, a week ago, thought this would be fine, didn't realize the complexities that really it has as part of it. the regulators don't know if this is proprietary trading or not so when the head of this massive financial institution doesn't quite understand it, do you think anyone else can understand it? do you think the volcker rule would have stopped it? >> yes, it only allows drawing

up insurance against specific risks. it does not at all allow this market-based risk or portfolio-based risk. the rules must be written in that matter. senator corker is right, if you take the draft rules as currently written, because of the lobbying on wall street, which created a huge loophole, then he'd be right but those rules are inconsistent with the statute as it is written. this is classic example of a large bank saying okay, we're not allowed to be in proprietary trading or hedge fund business so we will hide it, take the same traders and put them in our risk mitigation unit and pretend it's about risk. if this is allowed the firewall designed as the volcker rule that says if you want to be in a hedge fund, don't be in a bank, is meaningless. this is critical as the rules are finalized and hopefully its lesson will be taken to heart and we'll have the stable banking system providing credit

to businesses and families that will help for a two or three-decade expansion as we had after the great depletion. if we don't get this right now we'll continue to have this shaky financial system and be in condition use high-risk of a meltdown. >> senator jeff jerkley of oregon, appreciate you getting up early with us. let's go to christine romans. >> good morning, brooke, thank you. france ushering in a brand new era this morning with the swearing in of new president francois holland. he's blasted austerity measures that have defined europe's response to the crises of the past two years. holland is france's first socialist president since 1995. a manhunt happening right now in mississippi. police say a killer may be posing as a fake cop, pulling people over and shooting them dead. there were two fatal shootings just 50 miles apart in the past week. the victims, a 74-year-old man,

and a 48-year-old woman, both found dead in their cars on the side of the road. police in the state are actually telling people, don't pull over in mississippi if you see flashing lights. >> the things that we want people to realize if they feel like they're going to be pulled over, the first thing you do is turn on your flashers and dial 911. >> one of the convicted felons pardoned by former mississippi governor hayley barbour is facing new charges in a deadly drunk driving accident. harry bostick is accused of causing a wreck that killed on 18-year-old woman in october. if convicted he could face at least 30 years in prison. this isn't bostick's first brush with the law. he's been convicted in three drunk driving cases. he was pardoned after his third conviction, one of nearly 200 people to receive a pardon from hayley barbour. president obama explaining to the ladies of "the view" why he decided it was time to

publicly support same-sex marriage. >> my justice department has said to the courts, we don't think the defense of marriage act is constitutional. this is something that historically had been determined at the state level, and you know, part of my believing ultimately that civil unions weren't sufficient. >> will you personally fight to repeal that act? >>le with, look, congress is clearly unnoticon notice that i it's a bad idea. >> we know what he feels publicly about the subject but what can he do about it? that's what many advocates are asking. >> christine romans, we shall see. thank you. still ahead on "starting point," florida and its marching band banned for an entire year after a drum major was hazed so badly, horrifically he died. we'll ask a former member

whether they're doing enough to change the culture at famu. she left the courtroom in tears over the course of the trial. today john edwards' daughter, cate edwards, expected to take to the stand in her father's corruption trial. we'll go there live. and watch us live on your computer and mobile phone, whether you're at home, at work, go to cnn.com/live. you hear them, we've got our guests, and christine romans' playlist, "float on." you're watching "starting point" on this tuesday. i bathed it in miracles. director: [ sighs ] cut! sorry to interrupt. when's the show? well, if we don't find an audience, all we'll ever do is rehearse. maybe you should try every door direct mail. just select the zip codes where you want your message to be seen. print it yourself or find a local partner. and you find the customers that matter most. brilliant! clifton, show us overjoyed. no! too much!

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address this hazing. the student at the center of this, 26-year-old robert champion died last november and prosecutors allege he was so badly beaten during an initiation event, remember they called it crossing bus c, 13 of his band mates face charges for his death. i want to bring in travis roberts, he was a band mate of robert champion's. i want to make it clear you're not at all accused of any hazing activities. travis, good morning. >> good morning. >> what is your reaction when you hear this band, i'm sure that you loved, so many people go to famu just to take part in this tradition, when you hear it's suspended for a year, what's your reaction? >> my reaction is that it's a great start, and that's pretty much what it is, a great start, but sometimes at some points in life we lack consistency, and i would like for us to take this year off and to revamp the laws and rules and regulations that we need to abide by within the

state of florida and also on the campus of florida a&m university. one thing that we need to make sure that we create when we're creating the laws is to create laws that adhere to different organizations, because the same things they go through and endure will not be the same thing other organizations do on our campus, let alone in the state of florida. >> let me ask you before we go any further, when you were a member of the band, were you ever hazed? >> see, and that's the question a lot of people throw out and want a yes or no answer. >> is there not a yes or no? >> no, there's no yes or no answer to the actual question you threw out to me because some things that you would classify as hazing for your son or your daughter, my mom would possibly not classify as hazing or i would not classify it as hazing. >> give me an example, travis. >> do we go through some things that some people would look at as, you know, that would be kind of crazy, when we came to school, our first year we were

told that we had to purchase white t-shirts and we were only able to wear white t-shirts. another thing told to me, i was able to go to three places that was class, practice, and my dorm. outside from the eateries and things like that but the extracurricular things like the mall and things like that, i didn't have time for. people would classify that as hazing. >> if you give those examples, did anyone ever threaten bodily harm to you? was anyone violent as part of hazing potentially or not at all? >> no. no, but that's, and that's not the only aspect of hazing as well, because you have the verbal abuse. you have different things that would constitute as hazing, standing at attention in 98-degree weather for 20 minutes at a time without moving, no wiping your per separation, things like that, so it's kind of hard to just answer your question and say yes, i was hazed or no, i wasn't hazed or bodily harm is the only thing

that actually means hazing. >> i understand, i hear you loud and clear it's not a black and whitish uto you but because of these allegations, perhaps because of what you're talking about, you do agree that you say the suspension of this band for the next year absolutely should happen, to begin discussion, new rules, but my question to you, fear the suspension will hurt school enrollment, band members will leave the school and the president of the university said two of the biggest performances bring in $1.5 million, 9% of the budget, that's a little bit of a chunk. does that concern you? >> it does not, because the band only makes up not even 10% of the population here at the university. now do some people come to this school because we have the best band and for that major? yes, it's an incentive. we have some of the top programs here in the state of florida, yet alone across the nation so the band's disappearance or ban on the field at the stadium does not, it should not make a difference.

$1.5 million, yes, that's a lot of money. imagine where the rest of the money is coming from to keep our university afloat. >> travis, do you think one year is enough? >> i think one year -- i think, too, that's not a yes and no answer. i think that if we do what we need to do within the one year, we will be okay. >> final question, 30 seconds, do you think the president of the school should step down? there are a lot of calls for him to step down. >> no. i don't think that is right. just like i didn't think that dr. wecht should have stepped down. >> travis roberts, former band mate, pleasure to meet you and thank you so much. >> thank you. still ahead we'll look at the headlines that caught our eye including stimulus dollars to study arousal? oh, yes, the jokes write themselves. and cue the panel as we talk about that and the panel heading in here with much more, margaret hoover, ali velshi, will cain, fighting over the seats.

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figures, velshi, what is going on. >> bad news. >> i haven't been here for a while so i didn't know i had to bring a newspaper so everybody else has newspapers so i'm making my newspaper called "the news" i don't know if you can see that, but it's called "the news." >> we cann't see it. >> i put europe headlines and jpmorgan as one of my headlines and i'm working on it. >> why don't you keep drawing and we're moving on. >> i just read this article a couple days ago how two-thirds of americans didn't believe the stimulus, federal stimulus programs had worked and i ran across this, you paid for it, stimulus dollars funds studies into sexual history and erectile dysfunction and america wonders $1.5 million distributed by the university of california san francisco to a study on erectile dysfunction. >> i'm going to help margaret download apps to help stories about the bridges and built and the roads that were built and

jobs saved and 2 million plus that got saved or created. >> saved or created. and the reality is a lot of the programs, the university and the nbc affiliate in the bay area has been looking into why so many stimulus dollars didn't get spent for the first two years. these were not shovel-ready programs. american see this and get frustrated. unemployment is still over 8%. >> red herring the unemployment rate. we've been creating jobs for 20 some odd months so the unemployment rate measure is a moving target. the number of jobs created is very real on a monthly basis. >> way to take a topic about erectile dysfunction and make it boring, velshi. >> hold that paper. >> contagion fears hit the markets. there's no way to overstate the importance of the story. as bonds in spain get shaken the ground underneath europe is shaking starting with greece and the ripple effects will hit this country. the united states presidential

election will have much more to do with german and greece than gay marriage. paul krugman wrote a four-step process for the way the eurozone will fall apart, it's fascinating but ends with the end of the eurozone within months, not years, months before this presidential election, i'm telling you guy, gay marriage will not be the issue. >> we'll see. thanks, we'll talk in a moment. coming up, new attack ads from mitt romney and president obama's campaigns questioning big money from big business, but are the ads hypocritical? that's what we want to ask on both sides here. plus a pro basketball player leaves the court and heads to the farm. will allen is here to explain why what you can eat can change everything in your own town. this is fascinating, wrote this book. [ sneezes ]

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this is everclear, nice job, will cain. >> thank you. >> check out our entire play list at cnn.com/startingpoint. christine romans, what's going on today in terms of other big stories? good morning. >> good morning, brooke. the father of a missing 6-year-old arizona girl has been told by police he cannot have any contact with his two sons. isabel seles has been missing for three weeks. police won't say why sergio seles is being denied contact. >> i need to report a missing child, i believe she was abducted from my house. >> how old? >> 6 years old. >> your daughter? >> yes. >> why do you think she was abducted? >> i have no idea. i withent to go get her up for her baseball game she's gone, i woke up my sons, looked everywhere in the house and my oldest son noticed her window

was wide open and the screen was laying in the backyard. >> police have been searching a three-mile radius around the family's tucson home and local landfill. authorities in mexico are helping in the search. john edwards' daughter, cate, could be called to testify as the former senator's defense team tries to convince jurors nearly $1 million used to cover up edwards' extramarital affair was gifts. laura haggard, former cfo for the campaign testified she never considered the money to be a campaign contribution. an 18-year-old fisherman from panama who survived 28 days drifting at sea is suing princess cruise lines. adrian vasquez says one of the company's ships could have stopped and rescued him and his two companions but the ship just kept going. listen to two passengers who were on the ship last month and they spotted vasquez desperately

signaling for help. >> you could see him doing this? with this shirt over and over and over. >> while we were on the ship, the feeling of powerlessness, because we would have liked to somehow gone over there and rescued them. >> princess cruises calls the incident a case of unfortunate miscommunication. vazqu vazquez's two fishing companions who were snoignaling with him a the time and seen from the ship did not survive. the end is near for ron paul's presidential bid. he's not officially suspending his campaign for the white house but the texas congressman won't be spending any more money on it, trying instead to compete in the remaining primary contest he plans to collect as many delegates as he can at the state conventions so that he could have more of a voice at the national gop convention in tampa in august, brooke? >> christine romans, thank you very much. speaking of presidential campaigns, mitt romney trying to

capture some crucial swings to get voters today. where is he headed? des moines, iowa, going to deliver what's being billed as the major policy speech on spending and the debt and check out the latest polls. they show romney is ahead of president obama. 46% to 43% among registered voters nationwide which is within the poll's margin of error. joining me now the national co-chair of romney's 2012 presidential campaign and the former candidate in this race himself, former minnesota governor tim pawlenty. nice to see you this morning, governor. let's talk about the speech today. i know last year romney introduced his 59-point economic plan, february he had that major economic speech, which he tweeted a little bit in detroit, talking about today, anything new? >> well, what is new is this. you look at this race, one of the most important issues is going to be the runaway government spending that reflects an area where president obama again has broken his promis promises. he came in early in his administration, said he was

going to cut the bumm ebudget d in half, he nearly tripled it. approximately 40 cents of every dollar the federal government spends they don't have, deficit spending in contrast to mitt romney's record when he was governor of massachusetts, balancing budgets, reducing unemployment, cutting the state workforce and president obama you have somebody who has never balanced a budget in his life, and mitt romney you have an observed leader who is not just talking about getting government spending under control but done it. >> governor pawlenty, this is will cain. i think the message over debt and deficit is going to resonate and we only have to look across the atlantic to see the potential problems but it strikes me that governor romney's opponent, president obama, is going to offer stimulus and things that he suggests will jump-start the economy. what does governor rohment know offer? what are his jumper cables he's going to attach to the engine, tax reform? what is something positive you guys can put out there? >> as you mentioned earlier on the panel discussion the

stimulus is controversial. that approach to having a government-centered approach to stimulate the economy is one of the key points of debate in this race. you look at governor romney's proposal he's talking about reducing tax rates to stimulate the economy, talking about lowering regulation, talking about revising labor laws in a way that are more friendly not just towards a labor but also towards job growth and job development, and this is somebody who has got an established record of not just working in government and taking a government-centric approach to thing but started businesses, grown businesses, provided jobs. he understands and respects the private economy, and that's in stark contrast to president obama, who has never essentially worked in the private sector, doesn't understand it, doesn't respect it, and his record as president with respect to the growth of the private economy in this country is terrible. >> mr. pawlenty you mentioned reform. romney has yet to comment on the news we've been reporting on the past couple of days with the tremendous loss that $2.3

billion loss by jpmorgan. he was calling for the repeal of the dodd-frank financial reform, part of that of course the volcker rule which many hoped, doesn't go into effect until july, would prevent something as egregious about this. last august he spoke to a roundtable in new hampshire, here he was. >> i think the extent of the regulation of the banking industry has become burdensome following dodd-frank. i would like to repeal dodd-frank and -- [ applause ] yeah. recognizing that some provisions make sense. >> so does he still want to repeal dodd-frank, after what we have seen this last week, and what would the governor do to prevent this from ever happening again? >> well, as your discussion earl whier in the show indicated, it's not clear that dodd-frank or the volcker rule would apply to the situation with jpmorgan. we need to develop more facts in that regard. governor romney said we don't

necessarily need more regulation but more effective or different regulation. he believes people should be held accountable for their decisions in a marketplace, and so when you have reckless behavior or stupid behavior, there should be some consequences for that. if you look at the effects of the volcker rule and dodd-frank, congress passed it,' been caught up in the bureaucracy, created uncertainty. they don't have a deadline for it being finished. there's a debate how it might be implied or interpreted. they've added a layer of confusion or uncertainty in the markets. when you have banks or other institutions that engage in reckless or irresponsible behavior they should suffer a consequence in the marketplace. >> we spoke with the co-author of the legislation and he said it would have prevented but you're correct and they're looking at the language and perhaps tightening some loopholes. >> hi, governor pawlenty. margaret hoover. oftentimes republicans are

categorized as not being for any regulations at all and people like you come back and say we're for smart regulations. what would governor romney be for? what are smart regulations that could be implemented that we think this market calls for? >> governor romney hasn't gotten into the details what would be more effective than dodd-frank but obviously dodd-frank turned out to be a point of missing deadlines, unclear on its face, slow, and it's created a chill or uncertainty in the financial markets, but number two, he has said let's hold people responsible for their decisions, so if you look at the auto bailout, for example, both president obama and mitt romney suggested a form of bankruptcy, but in the case of president obama, he gave special favors to one group in that process, the uaw. mitt wouldn't have done that and he's spoken against his concerns about that. at obama also provided some cash payouts as a way of distributing

money politically in that context that governor romney has taken issue with but in terms of the regulation of the finance and banking industry, governor romney said the dodd-frank legislation has created too much vagueness and uncertainty in the market and he is proposing and will propose i think a better way to do it. he's not saying we need more regulation. he's saying we need different and more effective regulation. >> ali you want to jump in but governor i had to ask you about the ads that came out. obama camp are hitting romney on the bain capital front. here is their new ad. >> if we lost, they made money. if we survive, they made money. it's as simple as that. he promised us the same things he's promising the united states. he'll give you the same thing he gave us, nothing. >> owe ba marx campaign hits. romney hits back. here you go. >> mitt romney's private sector leadership team stepped in.

>> building a dream with over 6,000 employees today. >> if it wasn't for steel dynamic this county wouldn't are are have a lot. >> both groups are going to the financial sector. obama 7.8 million, romney 18 million. isn't that a bit hypocritical here? >> well on the very day that the obama election team released that ad, he was in new york raising money from the private equity industry so to mr. obama's hypocrisy. >> what about both sides with all due respect? >> president obama is initiating the attack in this area. number two, every third party group who has looked at that attack ad on the obama election campaign has said it's misleading, false and unfair. when that set of events occurred, mitt romney had left bain capital two years removed from bain capital, was leading

the charge to restore and turn around the olympics and if you look at his record at bain overall, it's a story of net job increases, not net job losses and steel dynamics situation that the romney campaign is highlighting was a situation where mitt and bain capital grew jobs in the steel industry. overall it's a positive growth record for jobs when he was under bain capital. >> tim pawlenty i appreciate it, former minnesota governor and national co-chair of romney's 2012 presidential campaign. thank you, sir. >> you're welcome. still ahead on "starting point" probably the last person who comes to mind when you think of a farmer, but farmer, pro basketball player will allen revolutionizing the way your community grows, and the hint, eating fresh, good food. welcome sir, good morning. >> good morning. >> from will allen's playlist, marvin gay. ♪

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i know a lot of us have long battles with our own weight. imagine trying to get everyone you know not just to eat healthy but to use healthy food, to change an entire community. this started in 1993 with a

greenhouse, and this organization called growing power, which now provides enough vegetables and fish every year really to feed thousands upon thousands of people. it is run by former pro basketball player will allen, who wrote about his passion and grassroots movement in "the good food revolution" and will, good morning. >> good morning, it's great to be here. >> great to have you here. to b. >> great to have you here. you write this -- i'm fascinated by your family story which is how you begin the book telling the story about your mother who was a share cropper in south carolina who is part of the great migration said i don't want a part of this life and i want to leave and head to washington, d.c. and here you are returning to the roots of your mother that she wanted to leave. >> i had a similar story because i grew up on a farm outside of washington, d.c. and when i was 18 i had about 100 scholarship offers at different universities and at that point when i left to go to university of miami where i became the first african-american basketball player there, i said never again

will i do this farming. so you probably should never say never. >> never say never. so you end up playing basketball. you wind up playing basketball in belgium. that's when your passion for farming -- i don't want to say reignited but ignited for the first time. tell me about what happened there. >> well, one of my belgium teammates, a family had a farm. i went out one day and helped them plant some potatoes. once i touched the soil, something really came alive. i really wanted to start growing food again. i must have had some hidden passion that was reignited like you said. so from that point on i wanted to grow food. i started over in belgium actually. >> then you brought it to the milwaukee area. >> right. when i came back, i wanted to farm but i had to have a farm job and i worked for the markets corporation and then procter & d gamble and in 1993 i was driving down a street and one of my

procter visits to a store and i ran across this vacant piece of property, old greenhouse operation and the city owned it and to make a long story short i was able to make the purchase and really start the journey. >> great to see you. i remember our last conversation about this. there's a struggle here that as an african-american migration went to the north and just generally the way we live in cities, these are food deserts. you were trying to -- you ultimately have tried to change that environment. >> what typically happened back in those days and happened with my parents but for some reason my father wanted me and my brothers to learn about where our food came from and for practical reasons that we didn't have a lot spendable income so we grew 95% of the food that we ate. i'm now using those skills to teach others because we're in a situation where obesity is at an all-time high. one out of three of us by

statistics are obese and by 2030, 42% of americans if we don't change the way we eat our food and, you know, our structure of our system is that two-thirds is based on nutrition and the other two is stress management and exercise. so if we're able to get that two-thirds fixed, we would have a healthier community and healthier nation. >> what would you say is the goal? 10 years, 20 years out for good food revolution? >> i think it's reached that revolutionary stage. it was a movement. thousands and hundreds of thousands of people and it really ramped up a few years ago when first lady michelle obama put small garden on the white house lawn and estimate that 10 million people started growing food and many people of color went back to growing food. >> how can other communities do this? take what you have done in the milwaukee area and do it elsewhere to feed those who need

it. >> we're training thousands of people. each year we train over 1,000 farmers. we have workshops from january throughout the year. we'll have national conferences. 3,000 conference on urban agriculture and small farms on september 8th in milwaukee and i hope the book teaches younger people, especially high school and college age folks about the history and legacy of what happened during the great black migration to the south because much of the skill sets were left and for obvious reasons african-american folks that knew a lot about growing food over 300,000 were farmers at one time. now we have less than 18,000 african-americans that are farming in this country. didn't pass onto several generations and we're paying for it as we look at this food deserts. >> you're passing it on. you're passing it on now and so

much of this book is how you did it down to the soil but also how these greenhouses and these farms have really become safe shelters for so many young people in the community. i commend you for that. you're an inspiration. "good food revolution." thank you so much. pleasure meeting you. >> good to see you all again. >> great book. [ male announcer ] this is the at&t network... a living breathing intelligence bringing people together to bring new ideas to life.

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it was in my sister's neighborhood. i told you it was perfect for you guys. literally across the street from her sister. [ banker ] but someone else bought it before they could get their offer together. we really missed a great opportunity -- dodged a bullet there. [ banker ] so we talked to them about the wells fargo priority buyer preapproval. it lets people know that you are a serious buyer because you've been credit-approved. we got everything in order so that we can move on the next place we found. which was clear on the other side of town. [ male announcer ] wells fargo. with you when you're ready to move. welcome back. it's still happening. new calls for stricter rules on wall street after jpmorgan's $2

billion disaster. the bank ceo facing shareholders bright and early this morning in tampa, florida. calls to move the dnc out of north carolina. we'll talk to the guy who is heading up that online effort and holding hands. we all know what that leads to sometimes. one state is punishing teachers who allow so-called gateway sexual activity. it is tuesday, may 15th. "starting point" begins right now. and there we go. ♪ >> smashing pumpkins for you. we like that. very nice. smashing pumpkins.

welcome, everyone. welcome. welcome this morning. >> great to be here. >> she is with robert f. kennedy center for justice and human rights and also margaret hoover. welcome. great granddaughter of president herbert hoover and will cain, columnist at blaze.com. let's talk jpmorgan, shall we? in a couple hours jpmorgan shareholders will confront the company ceo about $2.3 billion it lost in a risky bet. you are looking at live pictures outside of the building. that meeting is going to happen this morning at tampa, florida, around 10:30 eastern time with crews on the ground watching that for you. shareholders will be voting on ceo jamie dimon's $23 million pay package along with a proposal for an independent head of the board that could displace dimon. all of that is happening this morning as senate banking committee says it will be investigating the trade. a lot of questions here and now the stunning loss by america's largest bank is really a

reminder less we forget the financial crisis of 2008. it's also shifting the spotlight on those new banking rules that were supposed to prevent this kind of thing from ever happening again. i want to welcome republican senator bob corker of tennessee joining me this morning from capitol hill. he's a member of the banking committee. he's called for a hearing on jpmorgan $2 billion trading loss. senator corker, good morning. >> good morning, brooke. >> i want to begin with this series of financial regulatory hearings. obviously you are talking jpmorgan. what do you really expect to get out of that? what do you expect to learn? >> here's what's happened, brooke, over the weekend we've been in lots of conversations with the regulators and i think it's still questionable as to whether these trades under the new laws that have been created, once they are fully implemented are banned or not. we're seeking a hearing not because we want to jump on the jamie dimon/jpmorgan bandwagon.

the fact is this is a couple months of earnings to them. but the question is are these types of trades legitimate trades or not? it is my belief that it's very questionable and to me what we need to do is have a hearing to understand exactly what generated these trades and what was their purpose. it's my belief that candidly these kind of trades that may well be okay per the volcker rule that was passed but i don't think any of us know that you have seen regulators backing off and saying that this is a very complex situation. they don't even know. i just think it's important for us as a nation and a nation that's just gone through the crisis we've gone through to understand what is legitimate, what isn't legitimate, and i'm really surprised that there's been such a pushback from the banking committee to have a hearing on this. it's something we all need to understand. >> you talk about the hearings. we know there are hearings that

will involve federal reserve, the securities and exchange commission, treasury department. i want to play sound if i may, senator. this is sheila. she suggested to me the fed is part of this problem. >> i think the structure of the fed's regional banks is a real issue. the new york fed is the primary regulator of these large institutions. they have industry people sitting on boards and that's true with other regional banks. >> so do you think anything could have prevented this? do you agree with her? >> really, i don't think anything has happened here as it relates to regulatory capture or anything like that. i think there's a question. one of the authors of the volcker rule yesterday i understand was saying that he agrees with me that the proposed rule as it is written does not capture these kinds of trades. i think what's really happened here is congress in an effort to

do something in a speedy way passed a piece of legislation that included the volcker rule. we had one hearing and that was it. it was really more of a personality based hearing. we didn't really get into the depth that we needed to on this issue. and my point is i think there's still just a lot of questions. again, you know, i think it's legitimate for us to delve in and understand. this is not something that's going to take a bank like jpmorgan down. the most important thing that we can do is make sure that banks are highly capitalize so they can absorb this and understand the most risky thing that a bank does is actually make loans and regulation is not going to take all human error out. this is obviously a clumsy not so good idea to do what they did but we need to understand again more about the trade. >> not so good and you eluded to speaking with one of the co-authors of the volcker rule. i don't know who you were referring to but i did talk to

jeff earlier this morning and he actually suggested this to me. he suggested that jpmorgan was purposely masking this trade so as to not be covered by the volcker rule. here's what he told me last hour. >> this is classic example of a large bank saying we're not allowed to be in proprietary trading so we'll hide it and put traders in our risk mitigation unit and we'll pretend it's about risk. if this is allowed, the firewall designed as voglcker rule is meaningless. >> do you agree with that characterization? does language need to be tightened? >> certainly we need to understand the language. i would agree 1,000% on that. again, i just want to say we talked throughout the weekend with the examiner in charge at the occ of jpmorgan and throughout the weekend they said these trades are perfectly legitimate under the new volcker

rule, which by the way is not implemented yet. they're not under that regime. what this speaks to, brooke, to me, this is something that again is our responsibility to understand what these types of trades are about. are they legitimately hedging risk that they have or is this a prop trade which everyone agrees the volcker rule should prevent pure prop trading where the bank is really just sort of betting for their own profits. i mean, i think we decided that's not what we want institutions like this to do. we also don't want on the other hand to make them more risky because they don't have the ability to hedge their positions against turns in different directions. >> part of the risk and forgive me for interrupting but part of the risk is you have incentives. these big risks that lead to big bonuses. i know "the wall street journal" is reporting that there may be some clawbacks and some bonuses that's in the paper this

morning. should these incentives be looked into? >> i was one of the authors of some of the clawback provisions that exist especially when a bank fails. again, these kinds of questions and the kinds of discussions that we've had over the last several days shs to me point to the fact that we all need to sit down, understand what the motivation was for these types of trades, was it just masking proprietary trading or were these legitimate hedges against their portfolio. the only way to find out is to have an understanding. not to take somebody down or run them into the ground but just as understanding so that we can make sure we get these regulations right. i think that's what we ought to do as a congress. i think that's important. >> senator bob corker, i appreciate it. republican of tennessee. i can see you, margaret hoover, you wanted to step in.

the president's taping on "the view" today and president was saying jamie dimon, great guy and jpmorgan great bank. >> he's in minority in the senate asking for these hearings up to the whole committee to decide. the federal government loves regulating these industries. there's always a balance between bankers running their business and having the kind of regulation that doesn't hurt business. >> you cannot regulate failure. jamie dimon is known as smartest guy on wall street. he made a horrible mistake. a mistake that jpmorgan will pay for to the tune of $2 billion. c >> the whole point of regulation is to stop that kind of failure. $2 billion you ought to be able to regulate away that. it might be up to $3 billion.

the point of this -- the real point of the regulation is to separate the casino from the bank. that's what's going on here. >> do you think banks are too big? >> i don't think they're too big but they do need regulation. >> the argument isn't that they don't need regulation but that you can't have a religious affiliation to regulation to think you'll find a regulator smarter than jamie dimon and keep this failure from happening. lemonade stands fail, banks stale. it's going to happen. >> final word. >> it's an argument. do you believe banks should not be so big? >> if you're too big to fail, you're too big to exist. >> thank you all very much. to christine romans we go for other top stories. >> breaking news for you this morning. former news international ceo rebekah brooks criminally charged for her role in the phone hacking scandal. her husband, charlie brooks, has also been charged. the couple releasing a

statement a short time ago. the statement reads we deplore this weak and unjust decision after the further unprecedented posturing of the cps, we will respond later today after our return from the police station. a brand new era in france. the country swearing in a new president just hours ago. the new president is expected to push for new ways to deal with that economic crisis in europe. hollande is france's first socialist president since 1995. a preview of never before seen evidence. prosecutors filed an eight-page document listing potential state witnesses. the document also details new evidence including crime scene photos of the defendant, george zimmerman, trayvon martin's autopsy report, and video from the night of the shooting including video from the convenience store where prosecutors believe trayvon went that night and another video

from a krclubhouse where he was killed. president obama telling ladies of abc "the view" why he came out in support of same-sex marriage. >> my justice department has said to the courts we don't think the defense of marriage act is constitutional. this is something that historically had been determined at the state level. and part of my believing ultimately that civil unions weren't sufficient. >> will you personally fight to repeal that act? >> look, congress is clearly on notice that i think it's a bad idea. >> the ladies of "the view" also asked the president about the popular "50 shades of gray" book which some have dubbed mommy porn. the president says he hasn't read them but plans to ask michelle obama about that. >> i never heard about that. i'll have to have a talk with

michelle. i don't know if michelle is thumbing through that book. that's for another day. thank you. >> my wife asked me 20 times have you read "50 shades of gray" yet? >> no. >> he did know about kim kardashian. >> he didn't know that britney spears had a baby which is a tough pop quiz for the united states. he's getting important security briefings every morning. >> still ahead here on "starting point," our get real this morning. a study that studied a study about too many studies. only in washington. also ahead, a petition asking democrats to move the dnc out of north carolina after the state voted to ban same-sex marriage. we're going to talk to the man who launched that online fight. here is kerry kennedy's playlist. bruce springsteen. you're watching "starting point." all energy development comes with some risk,

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a growing number of people petitioning the democratic national committee more than 64,000 to move the convention out of charlotte, north carolina, after the state voted to ban same-sex marriage last tuesday. the petition says the convention should go to "a state that upholds values of equality and liberty and which treats all citizens equally." but democrats say they're not d budging and this morning we're hearing from the man behind the petition. murry lipp started the fight. good morning to you. we know why you started the petition. my question is do you think you're going to have success in getting that convention moved out of charlotte? >> well, i think a lot has changed since i started the

petition. and the day after i started the petition, president obama came out the next day and expressed support for marriage equality. i think based on the feedback that i received from the people on the gay marriage usa page, my personal opinions about the petition have actually changed since it commenced. >> how so? >> you know, i think many of us recognize the reality that is unlikely that dnc is going to move the convention at this late stage. >> you do recognize that despite petitions and everyone liking your pages, that isn't going to happen. >> i think what is more interesting is that 65,000 people feel so passionately about this issue and i think it speaks to the anger and frustration that thousands and millions of people felt after what happened in north carolina last week. i think that's what the key issue is here. i think the democratic party needs to look at this and what does this mean for us if we have so many people frustrated about this issue. >> has anyone reached out to you

other than simply social media and anyone from democratic party, what feedback have you gotten? phone calls? >> no one has reached out to me personally. that may be in part because it's not that easy to reach me via facebook page. the page is about the issue and not me. this is actually the first time that i've kind of come out into the open and said i'm the person writing this page. >> it was an unanimous back last tuesday. this is the first time i tried googling you yesterday and i couldn't find you anywhere and i think in two minutes that's about to change. why come forward? why show your face and share your name? >> because i feel so passionately about the issue of marriage equality that i had to put aside my own anxiety about going public and think about bigger cause and there's a huge movement toward equality and if i can help that in some way, i'll absolutely do that. >> murray, i have a question for you. you worked for marriage equality in new york, freedom to marry.

the president lending his voice to the issue. it gives a lot of momentum to the direction of that. do you think that if president obama had come out and said what he said the day after north carolinians went to the polls and wrote in a ban of all relationship recognition into their state constitution, had he because he did the day before, he did -- he did it the day after. if he had done it the day before or the week before or the month before, do you think that might have made a difference in the outcome of the vote in north carolina? >> it's quite possible that it may have made a difference. it's very difficult to say maybe it wouldn't have made any difference at all. i think the terrible news that we heard last week in north carolina may have been the final push that president obama needed to make this statement and come out and support equality and perhaps if that ban hadn't passed in north carolina and perhaps he wouldn't have come out at this point and expressed support. i'm trying to focus on the positive and think about how this advances the cause going

forward. i think absolutely hearing a sitting u.s. president say i support marriage equality, that is historical. >> the impetus for the petition was to get the convention moved out of charlotte. soledad talked to the mayor of charlotte just last week. here's what he told her. >> frankly i think that north carolina still has many, many positive attributes. i would point out that charlotte and the county it sits defeated the referendum. >> so given hearing the mayor of charlotte now you say -- >> that's the opposite side of the argument. i think when this first happened on tuesday, people were really angry. when people are frustrated, they want to take action. >> people are still angry. i looked at the facebook page today and they're not going to like hearing you say keep the convention in charlotte. >> my view is how do we achieve the best possible outcome for

everyone. at this point focusing and wasting energy on trying to move the convention takes us away from the core issue here which is how do we advance the issue of marriage equality. that's where we have some leverage in arguing that marriage equality needs to become a permanent part of the democratic party platform rather than just talking about it. we need to formalize this. >> it's better to protest and run from a debate or engage your opponents and by being in north carolina you're engaging in a debate. >> that's what people on the facebook page said. i read their comments and i find it useful. they said rather than walk away, let's face this head-on and what better place than to tackle this issue than in the state that just rejected equality. >> the big problem with that is that it legalizes bigotry. it makes it much harder for teachers and parents to tell teenagers that they can't, you know, they can't tease and bully and they can't go and tackle

somebody because they think the person is gay. it also harms us when we try to do work in a place like uganda which has legislation that would make homosexual acts punishable by the death penalty. it undermines our capacity to be effective on those issues. >> that's the role of legislation. we need to support equality and that is why i started this petition on change.org to express frustration at this discrimination. >> murray lipp, thank you. >> thank you. >> still ahead, today's get real. the government spinning itself into a tizzy here in red tape issuing a study about a study on studies. you're watching "starting point." back in a moment. i love cash back.

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>> a little beach boys to get you moving this morning. courtesy of mr. will cain. you can check out our entire playlist this morning. go to cnn.com/startingpoint. now to the moment you've been waiting for. the get real segment. here's the deal. the pentagon was so concerned that it was spending too much money on studies so what did they do? our government issued a study to study whether there are too many studies. a study to study whether there are too many studies. defense secretary gates ordered the report back in may of 2010. didn't end there. the government accountability office studied the study of where there are too many

studies. you are already laughing. raising concerns that it and that 35-page study can only be found online. studies about studying studies. >> we're all studying. >> did stimulus dollars fund it? >> it's beyond farce. >> you can't get rid of the studies unless you have a study to study it. maybe this a going to diminish the amount of studies. >> you said study ten times. >> it's like having a meeting about a meeting about a meeting. i'm sure you've never -- >> not done that. >> never done that. still ahead on "starting point," strict bans on kissing and holding hands at school. teachers being punished for even suggesting birth control to teenagers. does one state's new sex ed law go too far? we'll go there next on "starting point." well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes,

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♪ -mine. -mine. -mine. ♪ mine! [ female announcer ] glidden brilliance collection paint and primer in one. available only at walmart. got a day? get some color. ♪ glidden paint makes it easy to add color to your life. glidden gets you going. >> i like it. thank you, margaret hoover. very nice this early tuesday. i know we've heard about gateway drugs, right? what about gateway sex? a new education law signed by tennessee governor bans teachers in the state from even talking about it. the bill's sponsor defended the mandate on the house floor just

a few months ago. >> abstinence has been on the books for a long time and what's supposed to be taught and based on actual occurrences in the state it's being taught but it's being taught in a manner that is very broad and encourages things that will arouse certain things and individuals. >> that's quite a word to choose. okay. so we continue. >> trouble with his language right there. >> he was vague when he said certain things. >> we're going to define certain things this early morning. the law easily passed in both of the state's chambers and imposes a fine up to $500 for teachers that condone these so-called gateway behavior but some critics say the language to your point is a little too vague and not effective. i want to bring in tennessee state representative wdeberry wo

supported this bill. in the bill it defines as instruction of the family life education curriculum may not promote gateway sexual activity or health message that encourages students to experiment with non-coital sexual activity. can i get you to define gateway sexual activity? >> sexual activity that we're talking about is defined in the code. defined in the criminal code. i think that any parent or any teacher would know exactly what they're looking at when they see it. the fact that we have sensationalized this issue and mislabeled this issue as the don't hold hands bill is really unfortunate. considering what we're dealing with in society with dysfunctionalty of the family and trying to keep kids safe. what we're talking about is activity, activity that leads to

eventual penetration. we're talking about activity that leads to touching of intimate parts. we're not talking about holding hands. we're not talking about an innocent kiss between children. >> okay. here's my next question then. if you're a teacher and you're a teacher in the school and hallway and you see kids engaging in this gateway sexual activity, we're not talking holding hands or kissing but more than that, what then happens to the teacher? >> well, first of all, i think the teachers have been dealing with this for generations. teachers know it when they see it and deal with it in an effective and affirmative manner. if they see a boy and girl coming to school to do something other than learn, school is not a pickup place. they see these children and will know exactly what to do because they are responsible adults and will break it up. they will report those children i'm sure probably to their parents or whatever teachers do and have always done. so for us to act as though we don't know this when we see this

is not not really being honest with ourselves. when a teacher sees activity that's not holding hands or a tender kiss or innocent behavior, and they see someone touching intimate parts and leading toward activity that will eventually go toward penetration, that teacher knows what to do. >> i read though that some teachers in some cases can face fines, yes? >> no. a teacher is not facing a fine for this. what we're trying to do is make sure that no outside agencies who might be contracted to come into the state of tennessee to help and assist in our sex education programs, if they do things that are not proper and corrective and if they demonstrate devices that lead to various sensations, the courts are places that deal with these issues. >> let me ask you to your point about this is statewide legislation promoting bee ininge

in the state of tennessee. it requires family life education curriculum promotes risk avoidance. we wanted to take a look at shellby county in memphis promoting abstinence for two decades. 66 births per 1,000, 15 to 19 year olds. that's twice the national rate. >> absolutely. >> now that you look statewide and promoting abstinence, do you see that as a successful rate? why not another tactic? >> the very point is this is a new tactic. we've had abstinence on the books but we haven't promoted abstinence. we've had it in the letter of the law but we haven't promoted abstinence as part of the law. >> they weren't promoting it in shelby county? >> what we're saying is it's time for a new approach. it's irresponsible for us as adults to put undisciplined

immature children whose hormones are out of order if you don't mind me saying so where there is no responsibility and no discipline and no accountability. what we say the very statistics that you just quoted say that what we're doing does not work. simply passing out condom, simply telling folks not to get pregnant, obviously that's not working. so what we're saying is change the behavior. we have to work toward changing behavior. every law that we make as a legislature or any legislature across this country, every law we make is to change behavior. what this bill does is say it's time that we stop simply talking about it and passing out condoms but that we work with training children and teaching them and helping them have self-esteem and helping them mature and become better people and helping change the behavior. i don't understand what the problem is with that approach. >> tennessee is in the top ten

of all states in the country when it comes to teen birth rates. >> absolutely. >> i know you are aware of this and what you're working on. does the law deal specifically with language that ed caucatorse allowed to use and is this a question or question of talking about what behaviors are appropriate and to what extent does the family's role play into this? teachers are only around for eight hours a day and you've got a lot of homes, people go home to their parents and they listen to their parents and their parents as role models. what role do you think that plays? >> the school is only part of the equation. the children are not supposed to be raised by the school. the children are supposed to be raised by parents. we have breakdown by family in our society. it is irresponsible to talk about societal issues and we talk about economic issues and we talk about $5 billion to $8 billion we spend every year on teen pregnancies and unmarried

individuals having babies but then when it comes time to take a strong, bold approach to do something about it, people make jokes. it becomes stuff for comedians because we have got to have the collective will to help the parents that when their children are out of their sights at the school, they understand that the school is a safe place where self-esteem is promoted and risky behaviors are taught to be avoided and where behavior changes are encouraged and that the school is just a part of the equation. the very statistics that you're quoting say that we have got to have change. >> i hear you mr. debarry. i hear your frustration. i know this is something you don't want to be on national tv talking about your state but my only wonder is parents watching at home thinking, look, my kid is going to want to find out about sex and sex education. if it's not going to be at school, beyond a conversation i may have with my child, it may

end up being google. do you want google to be a sex ed teacher if they're not getting that information at school? >> that's where there's a misnomer in the law. that's where there's a misunderstanding of the legislative intent. we want this talked about at school. we absolutely want children to understand about their bodies, understand about sexual behavior to understand self-esteem. we absolutely want these conversations to happen. but we want these conversations to happen with the understanding that the goal, the goal is avoiding the risky behaviors. avoiding the having sex. you know, this is america. we're the greatest country on earth. the only thing a person really has to do to have a decent living in america is graduate from high school and not have a child before you're able to take care of that child. you need to be married and have a job. >> this looks a bit out of touch with reality of what happens with these high school students.

abstinence works for middle school students but as kids get older and older, you want them to have the capacity to make good judgments. actually to be responsible. that's why you need to provide them with condoms. >> the question is how do we help them make good judgments? >> that's right. >> do you do that by simply giving them -- what we've done is throw up our hands and cover our eyes and mouths and pretend we don't see what we see. we see statistics rising every year. we see stds and all type of sexually transmitted diseases and statistics going up every year. we keep saying the same old thing. let them do what they want to do and let them grow and learn. we have to ask adults as responsible adults, we got to realize -- >> part of the responsibility isn't it training them to use protective behavior and use condoms properly? >> that's exactly what our

program does. it trains them. it teaches them. that's exactly what it does. >> mr. debarry, we'll have to leave it there. we'll continue this conversation i continue through the commercial break. i want our viewers to send us tweets. i know people have opinions on this. thank you so much, sir. we'll follow-up and see if those statistics at all change as a result of this. still ahead this morning on "starting point," she sat through the entire trial. today john edwards' 30-year-old child is expected to take the stand today. we'll go there live to the courthouse. greensboro, north carolina. you are watching "starting point."

>> if you are a fan of funk, you will remember charlie wilson. as dr. sanjay gupta reports, things have not always been easy for this artist. >> charlie wilson is known as uncle charlie. celebrity status has had its ups and downs. >> it got wild with success. alcohol and drugs.

it got unbearable. >> at one point wilson lost everything. >> i became homeless. i didn't have anywhere to go. >> he did eventually get sober. went back into the studio as a solo artist and then in 2008 life dropped another bomb on uncle charlie. he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. >> i thought my career was over. the word cancer just scared me to death. >> reporter: with surgery and radiation he was able to overcome the disease and realized that talking about prostate cancer was his new life's work. >> i just knew that what i had went through was very scary and i wanted to share it with somebody. >> he partnered with a pharmaceutical company and is a paid spokesman educating black men about the disease. >> we're two times likely to die from this disease than any other ethnic group and that scares me. >> reporter: for uncle charlie, the future continues to look

bright. >> i'm 18 years clean and sober. i thank god for my life and for my wife. here i am. ready to take on the word again. ♪ >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta, cnn reporting. >> still ahead here this morning on "starting point," john edwards' eldest daughter could take to the stand as early as today in that corruption trial. what does she know? what might she say? we're live outside of the courthouse next. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. ifif y youou'r're e lolookokinio lowegeget t totogegethther, yoyou u cacameme t to o ththe. bebecacaususe e heherere a at, wewe'r're e ononlyly a abob. fifindndining g yoyou u ththe e isis a allll w we e do.

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defense lawyers for john edwards won't reveal if they

plan to call the former senator to testify in his own corruption trial but we do know they will call his daughter cate edwards as early as today. joe johns, when might we see her and what might she know? >> reporter: not clear because there are a couple other witnesses that could come before her. look, the thing about cate edwards and one reason she's important is there's been a sprinkling of testimony throughout this trial that elizabeth edwards, late wife of john edwards was interested and active in trying to control information about this affair and keep it from making the jump from the national inquirer and tabloids into mainstream media. elizabeth edwards was involved in that to not affect her children in negative way.

it's one thing to read the tabloids in the supermarket and another thing to hit your doorstep in mainstream media newspapers. why is that important? it's important that maybe cate edwards could shed light on it. it becomes a question of the intent of his late wife, elizabeth. a different story that could help the defense. hopefully when she gets on the stand, we'll hear a little bit about that. >> we've talked the past couple weeks and you've said how she's been emotional. we'll see how this goes for her if it happens today. joe johns, we'll watch throughout the day here on cnn. appreciate it. and the end point with our panel is next. yeah. ♪ dave, where are we on the new laptop? it's so slow! i'm calling dave. [ telephone rings ] [ male announcer ] in a small business, technology is all you. that's why you've got us. at the staples pc savings event, for a limited time get up to $200 off select computers.

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our end point today. we want to mention kerry kennedy and the reason why she's gracious enough to sit on our panel this morning. an auction for great stuff. that's what had these guys talking all through the commercial break about what they want as part of this auction.

let me run down a couple of them. this is one i would love. mr. alec baldwin you can meet on the set of "30 rock." love that show. meet president bill clinton at a vip convention. have your child play football with nfl great brett favre. meet the cast of "mad men." i want you to go to cnn.com/startingpoint where we have a link to the auction right from our site. this will be the end point today talking about this. why is this cause so important fighting for human rights around the world? >> we do human rights education on bullying and other issues here in new york and across the country and around the world. and you know, all of the funds from this auction go to promote human rights. >> i'm going to do what will called the boring one first. for given the cover of