benedicts veterans center in birmingham, alabama where j.d. simpson takes homeless vets off the streets. he said the modest shipment included some useful items. 2,300 disaster blankets good for a couple days' use and some cleaning supplies. but it also included this. >> they sent us 2,600 bags of cough drops and 2,200 little bottles of sanitizer and 11,520 bags of coconut m&ms. and didn't have a lot of use for 11,520 coconut m&ms. >> here's what they posted on their website about the work they were doing in alabama. >> we send by the truckload items that these centers and shelters say they need desperately. >> for our veterans that have given so much to our country and now need our help. >> great sound bite. >> did they ever ask you what you wanted? >> no. they always call and say, we've got a truckload coming. >> everything up here on the top is a lot of the stuff that came in on the last truck. the bandages, the lotion, the hand sanitizer with -- >> it's unpacked. >> it's unpacked. >> because you don't -- >> we really have no use for it. the

and take a look at what showed up at the saint benedict's veterans center in birmingham, alabama, where j.d. simpson takes homeless vets off the streets. simpson says the modest shipment included some useful items. 2300 disaster blankets, good for a couple of days' use, and some cleaning supplies. but it also included this. >> sent us a 2600 bags of cough drops, and 22 hundred little bott bottles of sanitizer and 11,520 bags of coconut m&ms. and didn't have a lot of use for 11,520 bags of coconut m&ms. >> reporter: here is what the dvnf posted on its website about the work they were doing in alabama. >> we send, by the truck load, items that these centers and shelters say they need desperately. >> for our veterans who have given so much to our country and now need our help -- >> great sound bite. >> reporter: godid they ask you what you wanted? >> no, they say you have a truck load coming. >> the stuff on the top is what came in on the last truck, the lotion, some hand sanitizer. >> reporter: it is unpacked. >> it is unpacked. >> reporter: because they don't -- >> we have no use for it.

pretty died out -- pretty dry down through birmingham, alabama. in the next couple of days that will be heading our way. some clouds out there as there will be early tomorrow morning when you get up. temperatures in the high 60's to around 70. are futurecast gives you an idea of a simulation that there may be a few showers. once again our temperatures around washington close to average, which is 89 degrees. as we get on to work friday a bit of the humidity thundershowers becoming more of a risk out toward the mountains to our west. especially as we head on into the weekend. getting up and going out tomorrow, a nice summer morning. temperatures will be into the high 60's 2 07 the's. seasonable and reasonable tomorrow. temperatures 88 and 89 degrees with a little bit of a more southerly wind coming in. i think after last week, we can deal with 91, 92 degrees. we are tough. also the risk of afternoon showers and thundershowers. on our facebook page today we asked, what is your favorite month. we got a number of interesting responses. a lot of people

but it feels good knowing what we're doing. >> reporter: drew griffin, cnn, birmingham, alabama. >>>drew griffin on the money trail, looking at charities claiming to do good things with your donations, helping those in need, but that is not the case. why not try someplace different every morning? get two times the points on dining in restaurants with chase sapphire preferred. in every way, shape, and form. it's my dream vehicle. on a day to day basis, i am not using gas. my round trip is approximately 40 miles to work. head on home, stop at the grocery store, whatever else that i need to do -- still don't have to use gas. i'm never at the gas station unless i want some coffee. it's the best thing ever. as a matter of fact, i'm taking my savings so that i can go to hawaii. ♪ so that i can go to hawaii. hey america, even though slisa rinna is wearing the new depend silhouette briefs for charity to prove how great the fit is even under a fantastic dress. the best protection now looks, fits and feels just like underwear. we invite you to get a free sample and try one on too. good afterno

salinas to birmingham, alabama and what, 1880? that we think of birmingham, alabama today is the one hand, gleason, feeling u.s. steel and ultimately providing material for the mobile industry manufacturing industry in the 20th century history finance summit taking liberty with slavery by another name. the pulitzer prize-winning book of 2009. so birmingham has this really awful distribution that begins right around the time it also shows that. if else to for the civil rights struggle in 1963. but what is he able to do in birmingham and away the challenges that we think about this. >> he did not want to be a farmer. he did not want to be a sharecropper. this is a place that early on was that segregated. we think about earning him as the most represented -- >> psychotic place. >> but when he first appears as a homeowner had white neighbors and it was a place where someone who wanted to make his mark outside the field to do that. >> soy-based property. >> he buys property. another property owner. >> he found churches. >> in fact, you

. >> reporter: his top pick is regions financial-- headquartered in birmingham alabama. credit suisse has done investment banking and other business with regions. k.b.w.'s picks are benefiting from strong loan demand. >> if you look at banks like signature bank in new york or first republic in san francisco, they are having 20 plus percent loan growth and that's a very good back drop for a bank. >> reporter: it's not clear that regional banks stocks will outperform big money centers this year. if the pressure for increased regulation eases up from washington expect big bank stocks to surge. erika miller, "n.b.r.," new york. >> tom: between the occupy wall street movement and those big banking fees. tomorrow, we'll look at how community banks are benefiting from people's reluctance to put money in larger banks. >> susie: a boeing 787 dreamliner hit a snag during a pre-flight test over the weekend. safety regulators are investigating a problem that caused the engine to eject debris, leading to a grass fire near its south carolina factory. the plane is powered by general el

and 103 for birmingham, alabama. big numbers under a huge heat dome. it's not a technical term but here's what it is, a high pressure system that settles in and barely budges. here's how it works. high pressure compresses air to the ground, increasing the molecule's energy. that warms it up all around us. that's a science but here's how it feels. oppressive heat with no break. at a golf tournament in atlanta a gigantic fan offering relief. for this pup it took an icy treat to cool down. in washington, it was one too many overheated innings. the nationals' pitcher pulled out of the game with heat exhaustion. new yorkers escaped to the beach hoping to catch a cool breeze. back in the city, con edison workers were locked out in a labor dispute. the utility calling in thousands of managers to help. and across the river in new jersey, paramedics were responding to emergency heat-related calls barraged by 20 an hour. >> we see a rise in asthma. we see a rise in respiratory calls. >> those paramedics working hard. i want to bring back in ginger zee. you were

more than 11,000 bags of coconut m&m's is what showed up at the door of a veterans group in birmingham, alabamaakes in homeless vets off of the streets, and the director is pretty fed up with the whole thing. here is part overdrew griffin's investigation. >> reporter: he has gotten candy and cough drops and hundreds of pairs of shoes he did not ask for and now j.d. simpson has a message for them who want to help him to support the small veteran shelter he helped to found three years ago in birmingham, alabama. >> i am fed up with everybody out there saying let's help the vets and flavor of the day. don't say it, do it. >> reporter: he founded the st. vincent's veterans center with almost no money. simple that homeless vets get shelter, and hungry vets get food and they call it three hots and cot, and they need money to keep it going. >> i had $250,000 cost this year. that is not a salary for anybody who works here. we are all volunteers. >> reporter: on the shelter's front porch, he recalls the day a veteran in a wheelchair showed up. >> i came out here with a rainstorm and he showed up with no

. >> number five is birmingham, alabama. number four is nashville, tennessee. >> oh, yeah, i love me some nashville. number three is memphis, which is a lot like nashville. number two is columbia, south carolina. >> are you noticing a southern trend? >> yes. >> and number one, the manliest city in the country is oklahoma city, oklahoma. wow. okay. there you go. anything? >> my wife is from there. >> thank you for that. >> did you just call your wife manly? >> no! >> you just called your wife manly. >> i did not. i said my wife is from there. i was about to say, she knows manly men. that's why she chose me. >> why did she leave the manliest city in america to come to new jersey and marry you? >> because she got the manliest man but in the most cultured city. >> you cleaned that up good. >> saved it. >> that was nice. >> all right. >> this next story is going to upset a lot of people, we think. in germany, this mayor decided that women are not good parkers and they can't park their cars well. so this mayor decided that the tri

. >> reporter: 105 in atlanta, georgia. 103, raleigh, north carolina, 103 for birmingham, alabama. heat dome. it is not a technical term. here's what it is. a high-pressure system that settles in and barely budges. here's how it works. high pressure compresses air to the ground increasing the molecule's energy and that warms it up all around us. that's the science. here's how it feels -- oppressive heat with no break. a gigantic fan offering relief at a golf tournament in atlanta. for this pup, took an icy treat to cool down. in atlanta, it was one too many overheated innings, the nationals pitcher pulled out of the game with heat exhaustion. across the river in new jersey, paramedics were responding to emergency heat-related calls, barraged by 20 an hour. >> we see a rise in asthma. we see a rise in respiratory calls. >> reporter: the next big question is where will we find relief? where is going to come a lot later in the week, a lot later for a lot of folks. watch this -- the high-pressure system will actually back up. new heat advisories going into effect for the northern plain

max, first of all, i understand that in alabama and birmingham, alabama, where you are, the change in2011 to may 2012. sounds great. is it translating in to optimism? >> kind of. it's kind of a long answer. across the state. the unemployment rate has gone down. the state saw nine straight months of a zeep drop in unemployment and led to optimism. there's big jobs announcements. mercedes expanded here nearby. there's a new coal company moving in nearby. people feel very good about the economy. however, people have also left the workforce down here, mandy. so that has people more cautiously optimistic and hoping that things pick up over the next couple of months and maybe more. >> okay. so that's as you say sort of like a sweet and sour kind of story there. doug, what's going on in miami? the change there, unemployment dropped by 2% over the last year. is that optimism spreading out to the people? okay. i'm not hearing doug. >> not hearing me? >> we're having technical difficulties. back to doug in a second. max, more. people are leaving or have been leaving the workforce in birmingham.

the banks did deals in america, too, in places like birmingham, alabama, seat of jefferson county. >>they came down here like sharks to raw meat in the water and... took advantage, full advantage of the opportunity that was here to make a lot of money. >> narrator: jefferson county had a problem. in 1996, it had squandered $2 billion to build a state-of-the- art sewage system. people were left with sewers to nowhere and huge monthly bills. >> if my bill is $30, i now have to pay $90. most of the people in this neighborhood are on fixed income. so even if you're paying $70 a month for water and sewage, and that $700 a year, that's pretty much the sum of their checks for the month. >> narrator: in 2002, the county was looking to refinance their sewer debt by issuing another $3 billion worth of bonds. >> the jefferson county sewer financing in $3 billion worth of borrowing over a two- or three- year period would be a huge financing at that time in the marketplace. it would be a huge financing today in the marketplace. those numbers gets wall street's attention. >> narrator: one banker wh

i went to grow up in the suburbs of birmingham, alabama, at the whitest white flight suburb with confederateying over the campus. there were no white people there except those bussed in and a couple of middle class black students who had integrated into the school. when you look at the history of real estate segregation and workplace segregation and church segregation which is still as king said, the most segregated hour in the country, it's entirely possible. we put these structures in place to integrate the country in structural ways and look at racial balance of neighborhoods. we looked at it as a quantitative measure. socially we still live in very different w0r8ds. >> in the book you talk about dr. king discussing intergroup and interpersonal doing and nothing each other on a deep level, socially, on a worship level. that is the key you say to racial progress, right? >> integration is a qualitative measure of the quality of a relationship and what goes on inside it, not a quantitative measure of how black is this office? how many black people work at this company and so forth. that's th

and anton key of birmingham, alabama, submitted this one via twitter. keep them coming. the cliff segment is next. >>> and later, mitt romney's long and very twisted road on abortion. [ man ] ever year, sophia and i use the points we earn with our citi thankyou card for a relaxing vacation. ♪ sometimes, we go for a ride in the park. maybe do a little sightseeing. or, get some fresh air. but this summer, we used our thank youpoints to just hang out with a few friends in london. [ male announcer ] the citi thankyou visa card. redeem the points you've earned to travel with no restrictions. rewarding you, every step of the way. insuring that stuff must be a pain. nah, he's probably got... [ dennis' voice ] allstate. they can bundle all your policies together. lot of paperwork. [ doug's voice ] actually... [ dennis' voice ] an allstate agent can help do the switching and paperwork for you. well, it probably costs a lot. [ dennis' voice ] allstate can save you up to 30% more when you bundle. well, his dog's stupid. [ dennis' voice ] poodles are one of the world's smartest bree

. >> narrator: pastor michael jordan leads a church in birmingham, alabama.nd god has blessed it. the words was very stern, aids is god's curse to a homosexual life. i think it stinks in the nostrils of god. i do extend grace, mercy and forgiveness to that homosexual. okay, i don't close the door on you. i don't think it's the sin of homosexuality that angers god, i think it's the unrepentant arrogant spirit about my sin that angers god. >> narrator: clergy like pastor jordan cite the old testament. >> in leviticus around 18:21 it says it's an abomination. i think it interrupts god's creation and we can't be fruitful and multiply. >> he doesn't get it. he doesn't get that god loves all his children. he loves the gay member of his family. god loves the transgendered member, god loves the person that is struggling with drug addiction and gets infected by using needles. god loves them, just like god loves his members of his church that might be struggling with other issues. >> sometimes you can't teach and preach, these ear-ticklin' "god is good and tell your ne