i'm t.j. holmes. the governor signed the law to make gay marriage allowed in the state of new york. >> what this state said today brings this discussion of marriage equality to a new plane. that is the power and beauty of new york. the other states look to new

i'm t.j. holmes. we want to say a special good morning to our armed forces. thank you for being with us. >>> clarence clemons has died. clemons and his saxophone were the backbone of bruce springsteen's e street band. ♪ "born to run" for you. clemons was by springsteen's side for 40 years. he was the sax of choice for twisted sister, and others, even lady gaga. he was in palm beach florida when he died. bruce springsteen posted this, and i quote, he was my great friend, my partner and with clarence at my side, my band and i were able to tell a story far duper than those simply contained in our mewesing. his life, his memory and his love will live on in that story and in our band. clarence clemons was 9 years old. >>> we turn to arizona and what we have been watch are for the past several weeks now. firefighters are saying it just can't get any worse. that's coming from one fire official dealing with the fires in arizona. the so-called monument fire has burned 20,000 acres. the head of the u.s. forest

i'm t.j. holmes. thanks for spending part of your weekend with us. my buddy reynolds wolf will be along in just a moment. but first, there's speculation this morning about negotiations for a settlement in the long-running war in afghanistan. afghan television reports president hamid karzai told a youth group today that washington is involved in peace talks with the taliban. no word on that from washington just yet, but in the last hour, i asked our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr, about the possibility of such peace negotiations. >> reporter: i think it's pretty unlikely, you know, that bob gates is sitting down with mullah omar directly across the table, you know, working out a peace agreement. not to say that this isn't a goal, to have some communication with taliban leaders and try and draw them back into the fold. one of the big problems right now is when you say the taliban, who are they? there are so many groups out there, there's so many different insurgent loyalties. just to say you're going to sit down with the taliban would be very to

i'm t.j. holmes. thank you for spending your morning here with us. >>> messages to a teenage girl from congressman anthony weiner. reports say she's just 17 years old. weiner, of course, has admitted to sending salacious pictures to a number of women on-line but his people say the teenage girl did not get any of those. despite all this, supporters are still rallying around the congressman. our jason carroll is in anthony weiner's district this morning in queens, new york. jason, good morning to you. i don't know if you've been able to get any reaction at all to the news that he maybe exchanged messages with this teenage girl but it seems like a lot of people want him to stay in the job. >> that's exactly what we're hearing out here in his district, t.j. despite even getting the latest information about what happened with that 17-year-old girl, and let's very quickly sort of go over what happened there, police in delaware have interviewed a 17-year-old girl who did have on-line communications with cong

i'm t.j. holmes, thank you for being here. >>> we need to start with developing news out of afghanistan this morning regarding reported peace negotiations. afghan television reporting that president hamid karzai told a youth group that washington is involved in peace talks with the taliban. president obama as you know expected to announce soon plans for troop withdrawals next month. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr joins me now from washington. barbara, what are we to make of this? and do we have a real indication that, yes, washington, d.c., and the u.s. government is sitting down somewhere in peace negotiations with the taliban? >> i think it's pretty unlikely, you know, that bob gates is sitting down with mullah omar directly across the table, you know, working out a peace agreement. not to say that that isn't a goal, to have some communication with taliban leaders and try and draw them back into the fold. it has long been said that afghanistan will be solved by a political settlement with

i'm t.j. holmes. the governor signed the law to make gay marriage allowed in the state of new york. >> what this state said today brings this discussion of marriage equality to a new plane. that is the power and beauty of new york. the other states look to new york for the progressive direction. >> new york is now the sixth state that allows same sex marriages. it is the most populous state to do so. the new york law doesn't have any residency law requirements. this is key. people from all over the country could now possibly go to new york and be married. this is also the first time a state senate with the republican majority has approved such a bill. the vote was close. 33-29. cnn's mary snow has more from new york. >> reporter: in the end, this historic bill came down to four republicans who broke from their party in support of same sex marriage, there was an eruption of applause in the senate gallery. >> usa. >> reporter: the republicans were able to secure protections for religious organizations.

i'm t.j. holmes. glad you spent part of your weekend with us. as always, a special good morning to the servicemen and women watching us on the armed forces network right now. thank you for what you do. we'll look at how civilian preachers are making the switch from the pulpit to combat zones and becoming military chaplains. >>> also this morning, representative anthony weiner now says that he needs therapy but he also says he will not resign despite a number of high-profile democrats calling for him to do so. >>> also take a look at this. this is what they call, where is it, where is -- the vehicle is called grave digger. the guy you're seeing is our reynolds wolf, taking a ride in that big sucker. it's 6:00 a.m. in atlanta, georgia, 5:00 a.m. in little rock, georgia. >>> an interesting day after congressman anthony weiner is asking to take a temporary break from capitol hill but the power brokers in his own party want that break to be permanent. weiner admitted sending lewd pictures of himself to women he met online. one of the girls he contact

. >>> from the cnn center, i'm t.j. holmes. good morning. thank you for being here and what you do. 6:00 a.m. in atlanta, 5:00 a.m. in minot, north dakota. thousands of people are out of their homes in minot. homes they know they may never be able to live in again. at least a third of the people of minot had to get out of there. cnn's jim spellman is in minot with the latest on this disaster. >> reporter: t.j., it's been heartbreaking for the people of minot, north dakota to watch their city fill with water over the last few days. this was once a major intersection with a train track an a tune that'll went under it. and now you'd think you're in the middle of a pond or a lake. 4,000 homes under water, t.j., 12,000 people evacuated with uncertain futures. they knew days ago that they couldn't protect this whole city from the floodwaters. the dikes they had were just too low. with the water coming fast, time running out, they focused only on critical infrastructure like city hall and police station complex here. they've built these temporary d

i'm t.j. holmes. we do need to start with the president this morning. just hearing from the president are minutes ago making some new claims in his weekly address about those economic numbers we saw come out just yesterday. take a listen to the president. >> now, we've got a ways to go. even though our economy has created more than 2 million private sector jobs over the past 15 months and continues to grow, we're facing some tough headwinds. it's high gas prices, the earthquake in japan and unease about the european fiscal situation. that's going to happen from time to time. there are going to be bumps on the road to recovery. we know that. but we also know what's happened here at this chrysler plant. >> the president speaking at that auto plant yesterday making the trip to toledo, ohio. despite a slowdown for the job creation, the president has the highest approval rating since 2009. the latest cnn poll has his approval rating at 54%, republicans aren't necessariesly happy with this president. listen

i'm t.j. holmes and glad you could spend part of your day with us.ines a teenager received messages from congressman anthony weiner and police are investigating. the congressman is under pressure to resign because he sent lewd photos of himself to women online. his representative said the team did not get any of those lewd messages, however. >>> fire fighters in arizona closely watching the wind and the humidity today. winds expected to pick up threatening to make a wildfire that's already the size of houston even bigger. it's already destroyed 29 homes and threatens 5200 more. >>> also the murder trial of casey anthony resuming today in florida. she broke down in the courtroom yesterday when the prosecution showed a video of her daughter caylee smiling with a skull and duct tape super imposed over her face. anthony is convicted of killing the 2-year-old she could face the death penalty. >>> sarah palin is not officially in the race for president, but she's still getting a lot of attention. yesterday, more than 24,000 e-mails from her term as governo

i'm t.j. holmes, in for brooke baldwin today. you remember how the week started with that cnn debate up in new hampshire, where we saw all of the potential republican candidates going at it? well, this is how the week is ending for the gop presidential hopefuls. it's ending down in new orleans. this is a live picture at a conference going on right now, the annual republican leadership conference. no, eyes are not playing tricks on you. nobody at the podium yet. someone is walking to it, but we expect to hear from a couple folks who will take the stage, one of them being congresswoman michele bachmann. she, of course, made a big splash in new hampshire, got a lot of attention. a lot of people gave her a lot of credit for her performance. also in the next few minutes, we're expecting to hear from congressman ron paul, republican of texas. now you know when he steps in front of a camera or puts a microphone on, he usually has something to say, so we'll be checking in there plenty within the next couple of hours. >>> but right now, i

i'm t.j. holmes. it's 7:00 a.m. here in atlanta, georgia. 2:00 p.m.his morning. this is happening right now, pro-palestinian demonstrators attempting to cross the border from syria into israel. not only is israel's army waiting for them, they're having to fire warning shots in the air and on the ground. there are reports of people being injured and even killed. we will have the latest straight ahead. >>> also, these so-called bounce houses you see all over the place, well they're not supposed to be literally all over the place. that is a bounce house and there are people in it. a number of injuries to tell you about after wind gusts picked these things up. we'll tell you where this was happening. >>> we want to get to the tense situation developing along israel's border with syria and also in the west bank. a large group of protesters gathered in the golan heights threatening to breach the israeli border. prime minister benjamin netanyahu says israel will not let them do that. no word from israeli forces about the number of injured or killed. these sq

i'm t.j. holmes.ad you could spend part of your weekend here with us. new york governor andrew cuomo has signed legislation that allows same sex marriage. it passed a republican controlled state senate just before midnight. same sex couples can get married starting in 30 days. new york now the sixth state to legalize the unions. >>> casey anthony murder trial resumes in orlando. should resume here in about half an hour. her brother lee testified about stains in her car trunk saying there were there before his niece disappeared. casey anthony accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter caylee. >>> a trustee in the bernie madoff case wants billions of dollars from jpmorgan chase. the trustee said the bank knew about the ponzi scheme and didn't do anything. >>> a lot of people visit dubai and before you do there's something those folks need to know. public displace of affection heavily frowned on. there's serious repercussions if you don't keep your hands to yourself and that includes jail time. those det

i'm t.j. holmes. start with the teenage girl who has apparently received messages from congressman anthony weiner. multiple reports say this girl is 17 years old. now representative weiner admitted sending pictures of his bare chest and other bare parts to women he met on-line but his representative has said this girl in particular, this teenage girl, did not get those kinds of messages. here is the statement from one of the spokespeople for the representative saying, according to congressman weiner, his communications with this person were neither explicit nor indecent. delaware police say detectives have interviewed this teenage girl but she didn't say anything about inappropriate contact by the congressman. the congressman says he would welcome a house ethics investigation into the scandal. he has apologized but says he will not resign. the investigation, the ethics investigation work presumably look into whether he used government property and phones to send many of those explicit messages. democr

t.j. holmes in for brooke baldwin.ays yet in the casey anthony trial. the jury hearing extremely graphic testimony about caylee anthony remains. it's been a lengthy battle about a photo cd over what the defense claims is disgusting. sunny hostin is on the case. let's start with you. we have a picture now of casey anthony's face. this is her face as they were showing some of those images on that cd. now, anybody could make their own estimation of what they think is going on in her mind, but what is it about this cd that has casey anthony and also her defense team so upset? >> it really is remarkable. they are trying to introduce this cd through a forensic anthropologist and it starts showing a picture of casey and caylee and then sort of through time lapse photography, portions of caylee smiling face is replaced with pictures of her skull, her remains. and then through also this time lapse photography, the jury will see, because it's been admitted, pictures of the duct tape and how they may have been positioned over lit

that brings me to my friend t.j. holmes. good to have you on the sofa, sir. >> good to be here with you. >> he was in town, part of this atlanta press club breakfast. you were there, up and at em nice and early for this. >> i know it sounds bad. you know, he's had about 20 staffers leave in the past couple of weeks. his campaign has only been up for a month. he would say to you, brooke, just calm down. i know this sounds bad, but i'm in it to win it still. you see him here shaking some hands and whatnot. he started his comments, made a speech and then took some questions. but he started his comments by giving instructions to the reporters in the room and also reminding us of some recent presidential election history. listen to this. >> i want to say one thing about the campaign and everything else i'm going to say today is going to be focused on substance. i say this in part for the reporters because i'm not going to answer any process questions. in july of 2007, hillary clinton was going to be the democratic nominee, and ru

they took journalists on a tour of the neighborhood today and a nato spokesman spoke with our t.j. holmes. >> we had on this occasion we are looking at this matter. and we have to look carefully because nato were operating in tripoli last night. they were operating in northern tripoli. and therefore, we have take it it. it was tutting a huge risk on the viflans in the area. at the end of the day our pilots are very well trained and we use sophisticated, precision guided weapons. let's be clear. you can reduce risks in every way possible. >>> else where are in libya, hospital records indicate that at least eight people died, most of them rebels in fighting. >>> robert gates today confirmed that the u.s. is holding preliminary peace talks with afghan rebels. hamid karzai confirmed it. gates described the discussion with taliban rebels as very preliminary. >> real reconciliation talks are not likely to make headway until at least this winter. i think the taliban have to feel under military pressure and believe they can't win before they are willing to have a serious conversation. we all said

cnn's t.j. holmes had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with two men who answered the call of duty on that fateful day. >> reporter: on the anniversary days, a lot of people, the government makes a big deal out of it. the media will talk about june 6th, anniversary. what about you guys? what do you all do on the anniversary every year of d-day. >> quite often i'm asked to make talks to various groups. i'll participate in some of the ceremonies because i was a world war ii veteran there. and we're dying off pretty fast these days and there aren't many of us left. >> reporter: do you like being a part of that kind of stuff? >> i have like today's generation does not know much about the history of world war ii. i was introduced by an atlanta schoolteacher as a fighter pilot from world war ieleven. >> reporter: what about you? >> d-day is my birthday and i celebrate that with my children. >> reporter: how old were you on d-day? you turned what age? >> 25. >> reporter: that was a hell of a way to spe

i'm t.j. holmes. some controversial evidence being presented today in the case against casey anthony. it all centers around what was found in anthony's car. those details for you straight ahead. >>> also, failing students and frustrated parents. hear one family's struggle to turn things around in an education makeover. >>> presidential candidates flock to a faith conference with one goal in mind. winning over social conservatives. we will take you there live. but let us start right now with the intensifying standoff in syria. anti-government demonstrators are ramping up the pressure against strongman. civilian deaths are reportedly mounting. cnn's arwa damon joins us live now by phone from neighboring lebanon. please update us, arwa, on what we have been seeing over the past 24 hours. >> well, t.j., there were demonstrations, according to activists and eyewitnesses across syria. it certainly would appear as if the most violent of them took place in humma where tens of thousands of people were demonstr

i'm t.j. holmes. new issues for congressman anthony weiner. police investigating twitter messages he sent to a delaware teenager. also, sarah palin's e-mail and a lot of it. 24,000 pages shed new light on her years as governor of alaska. also, it's june. a big month for weddings and a lot of you may be getting married this month and maybe even today somebody's getting married somewhere, but many couples are talking about the other "m" word, money. yes, you need to talk about it before you say your "i dos," if not, you might be making a huge mistake and that is just ahead, but we do need to begin with this growing scandal surrounding congressman anthony wiener. police are investigating messages and this time it involves a teenage girl. jason carroll is in the congressman's home district where the congressman made a bit of a surprise appearance just a little while ago. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning to you. so let's recap in terms of what happened between the congressman and the teenage girl from delaware. detectives spoke to the

i'm t.j. holmes. let's give you a look at some of the stories making headlines.ocker a few minutes ago in the casey anthony trial that was resuming, or set to resume here on this saturday morning. the judge came in not too long after the trial was set to resume and said there was an unexpected issue that came up that would cause them to be in recess for the rest of the day. testimony in the trial will not resume again until monday. he did not go further in explaining, at least in open court, what this issue may have been. >>> also, in 30 days, gay and lesbian couples will be able to legally get married in new york. celebrations broke out after governor andrew cuomo signed the historic legislation last night. new york becomes now the sixth state to approve same-sex unions. not everybody, of course, cheering the decision. here's a statement from the new york catholic bishops, led by archbishop timothy though daola, "worry that both marriage and the family will be undermined by this tragic presumption of government in passing this legislation that attempts to redefi

. >> she said just tell that t.j. holmes. winnie mandela. the fascinating winnie mandela.eople in south africa call her mother of the nation because she still has this enormous grassroots support. she still lives in the township. people will knock at the door and she'll invite them in and she's very hospitable and truly loved and revered along with being criticized and hated. she becomes this mythical complex and historical character who was definitely an inrgal part. she was under house arrest for 9 1/2 years, huresarassed rele s relentlessly. what was it like raising these two girls when their father is in prison. what do you tell them about your father being in jail. here's what she said. >> a little child that, in fact, it is, i'm proud of your father being in prison because he is fighting for the nation. can you imagine what goesen i o a little child's mind. chose to be with his family and didn't go to prison. why's that? so our children had a very, very difficult time. we, as parents, had a difficult time to explain to them the valus of society. >> and the children a

i'm t.j. holmes, thank you for being here. >>> just in this morning -- what a sight to see -- the first photo of congresswoman gabrielle giffords' face since she was shot by a gunman at the beginning of this year. we will share this photo and the details, again, photos just coming out this morning and we'll be sharing them with you. >>> also, we have really stirred the pot on this one, folks. a lot of you all chiming in on facebook and twitter about stories in the bible, things you think are in there, but actually are not. jonah actually wasn't swallowed by the whale. and baby jesus wasn't actually visited by three wise men. this is not coming from me, folks. we've got a biblical scholar in to go through some of the things you think are in the bible but are not really there. that's in our "faces of faith" this morning. >>> let's get right to the new pictures of arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords. they are the first up-close photos of giffords since that shooting in tucson in january. two pictur

i'm t.j. holmes. 8:00 a.m. here in atlanta, 3:00 p.m. here in syria and israel and that's where we do have some breaking news this morning where pro-palestinian demonstrators are trying to cross the border into israel. they're trying this at several points, including at golan heigh heights. not only is the israeli army waiting for them, they're firing warning shots in the air. firing warning shots on the ground. there are reports of people being killed. we will take you there live straight ahead. >>> also, if you're receiving welfare benefits in florida, well, you could be drug tested for illegal drugs. yes. we'll be talking about a new law and we'll be talking about it with a man who signed it into law. the governor of florida, rick scott, here with me live in just a couple of minutes. >>> let's start with this tense situation that is developing right now in the golan heights along israel's border with syria. also the border at the west bank. take a look. israeli troops have fired at points tear gas and warning shots at these pro-palest

i'm t.j. holmes. breaking story we are following out of pakistan this morning.it wasn't long ago we were talking about s.e.a.l. team six taking out al qaeda leader osama bin laden. many wondering who was going to step up and be the leader of al qaeda. one of the names that came up was ilyas kashmiri. word he has been killed in a drone strike in pakistan. you might not know his name, you might not know his face but intelligence officials sure do. considered by many security experts one of the most dangerous men in the world and called al qaeda's military brain. our phil black is on the ground in pakistan. >> this is a big name in intelligence circles, certainly from a u.s. national security point of view. he was very much on their most wanted list. among the key targets of u.s. drones flying over the tribal regions of pakistan and it is now believed that he is, perhaps, one of the victims of a u.s. drone strike in that lawless pakistani tribal region, particularly in the area of south waziristan, just overnight. nine people were killed by a drone strike. we under

t.j. holmes here at the cnn newsroom joined by attorney holly hughes watching it with me.ping an our on it. for our viewers catching up, what is the point, the purpose of trying to get at the bulge and when he found out she was pregnant? what is the prosecution trying to get at, and why has this become such a point of contention here? >> this is the heart of the defense's case. that this family kept secrets, t.j. they didn't tell the truth. they didn't operate like normal people. he's trying to back door that abuse excuse. the defense got him on direct, he being lee, being casey anthony's brother. were there secrets in the family? you didn't talk about the fact when she was obviously pregnant? you all didn't discuss it. what he's trying to do is get just enough evidence in that he can rg uto the jury in closing. they can infer things from the evidence. that this was a family of secret keepers. they kept things quiet, so therefore he can argue what else did they keep quiet? if he can do that, then he gets into some of the evidence he said he was going to present in his open

. >> wolf blitzer, i do want to let you than we're sending t.j. holmeshave t.j. personally ask him why he has not appeared on "the situation room." we'll see what he says. wolf blitzer, thank you so much. >> we'll get another political update for you in a half hour. now top of the hour, take a look at this. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> he's one of america's most wanted, an accused serial killer who has been on the run for years and suddenly the feds want him so badly they're making an unprecedented push to track him down and it involves his girlfriend. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. >>> another republican goes all in. i'm john huntsman and i'm running for president of the united states. >> the former utah governor says the country faces an un-american future. >> everything is at stake. >> but he's got one thing on his competitors, he's worked for president obama. so does he know the opponent's playbook? >> cigarettes kill and the government hope these new ads will prove it once and for all, but there's something different about these w

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he spoke to our t.j. holmesekend. >> our tax payers are not interested in subsidizing drug addiction. it's no different than think about it if you go to apply a job they're not saying you use drugs. in that work environment they don't want you to use drugs. in this case we do not want to subsidize drug addiction. we want to give everybody an increased incentive not to use drugs. it's better for our families, the individual and doesn't waste taxpayer money. >> democrats are slamming the law sayings the tests are anvation of privacy. >>> massive protests in greece. tens of thousands of people taking to the streets last night upset about new taxes and spending cuts required to get a second international bailout package. the first aid package to help greece bay down its debt was 161 tlm. >>> not a lot of optimism when it comes to the nation's economic outlook. to put it simply last week was not a good week and this morning many are concerned about the week ahead. i'm here to tell you not all is doom and gloom. in fa