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American Morning

May Jobs Reports To Come Out Shortly; Palin Stealing Romney's Thunder; Weiner's Twitter Trouble; Yemen's All-Out Fight for Power; Casey Anthony Murder Trial

Aired June 03, 2011 - 06:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: In a matter of hours, a former senator who aspired to be a U.S. president could be indicted. John Edwards' stunning fall from grace -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It is Friday -- Friday, June 3rd.

VELSHI: End of a very busy week, but we still got a lot more news including the jobs report coming out.

But we begin this hour waiting to hear if former presidential candidate John Edwards is being indicted.

ROMANS: It's expected to happen some time today. Sources telling CNN Edwards' attorney is scheduled to be in North Carolina.

VELSHI: Joe Johns joins us live from Raleigh, North Carolina, this morning.

Joe, what is the latest on this story?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think you said it right there, Ali. This is a case that's been going on more than two years, and Greg Craig, the attorney for John Edwards, expected to be here. The bottom line is that this negotiation has been going on between the justice department and lawyers for John Edwards.

The question being, whether he would be hit with criminal charges, and whether, in fact, he would plead guilty, presumably, to a felony. Of course, the question stems back to the 2008 campaign for president when John Edwards received hundreds of thousands of dollars from at least two people who could be construed as political contributors. The question also is whether that money that he received was essentially to keep an affair that he had with Rielle Hunter secret and the fact that she had gotten pregnant, later had a baby, or whether that money actually was given to John Edwards to influence the presidential campaign.

So we're waiting to hear from people here in Raleigh as to whether John Edwards might be indicted or if he might plead, or even if this question could slip over into next week. It's been fluid all week long, guys, and we are hoping to get some resolution because, as I said, two years is quite a long time to wait for an investigation like this one. Back to you.

VELSHI: You're live on the ground for us. If it happens, you'll let us know and we'll get you back up here immediately. Thanks very much. Joe Johns in North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina.

ROMANS: Congressman Anthony Weiner says he's done talking about twitter. He tried once again to put this controversy to rest yesterday and now some Republicans and top Democrats are urging him to just tell the whole story.

VELSHI: Kate Bolduan live in Washington. There was like a delay in a place where nobody's ever shy to say anything. There were a few days where you couldn't get a comment out of anybody in Congress about Anthony Weiner.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Say it's been a strange couple days on Capitol Hill, not only because we haven't been -- many people don't want to talk about it, but also the topic of conversation that we're having to ask members of Congress about.

Regardless some are calling this the non-denial denial. Either way, the congressman's puzzling inability to answer clearly if this lewd photo was him or not and what has happened is keeping the spotlight on Anthony Weiner. He clearly is ready to change the subject, though.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Congressman Anthony Weiner says he's done answering questions about his twitter controversy and now wants to get back to work.

REP. ANTHONY WEINER, (D) NEW YORK: Yesterday, I think from 1:00 to almost 10:00, I sat down and did interviews with anyone that wanted answered questions extensively, made it very clear I did not send the picture that my twitter account had been hacked and this prank apparently has been successful.

BOLDUAN: But it's answers like this in his interview with Wolf Blitzer that raised more questions.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Have you ever taken a picture of like this of yourself?

WEINER: I can tell you this. There are -- I have photographs. I don't know what photographs are out there in the world of me. I don't know what things have been manipulated and doctored and we're going to try to find out what happened.

BOLDUAN: Evasiveness that, perhaps not surprisingly, drew strong words from the number two house Republican on FOX News.

REP. ERIC CANTOR, (R) HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: My advice would be to come clean and clear it up. Perhaps he's trying but there's a lot of explaining going on without a lot of clarity and again the American people are right in saying that they don't have tolerance for this repeated kind of activity going on surrounding their elected leaders. BOLDUAN: And this from the number two House Democrat who said he has spoken to Weiner. We caught up with Steny Hoyer outside the capitol and asked about the political fallout.

STENY HOYER, (D-MD) HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: He and I had a brief discussion at which time I told him he need to handle this and give the facts accurately to the public.

BOLDUAN: Late Thursday, congressman Weiner and fellow Democrats left the White House after a deficit meeting with the president out of reporter range, still trying to get back to business as usual.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: You both well know that on Capitol Hill it is about politics very often and also about controlling the message. Democratic aides have conceded, have had to had to concede the continued attention to this ongoing controversy and how it's been handled has drawn attention away to what Democrats want to be talking about, issues of the deficit, debt, issues like Medicare at the same time Republican aides have made it very clear to us they are happy to stand by and see Democrats thrown off their message. Ali?

VELSHI: Kate, thanks very much. If you get more comments, let us know. We definitely are interested in what everybody else is saying about this. Kate Bolduan for us in Washington.

ROMANS: All right. Big jobs report due at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. It's the number for May. What it shows could reveal just what's happening for all of you out there trying to get a job and keep a job. It could be pretty important for the overall outlook on the nation's economy.

The jobs situation has been showing some signs of improvement. Let me show you what labor department numbers look like. Stimulus and census jobs, big jobs gains a year ago, and then it weakened last summer, and then since then we've been seeing slow, steady job creation, a general uptrend until April of this year. Hopefully we'll see those kinds of numbers continue.

On the flip side, let's take a look at what the unemployment rate looks like. Below 9.5 percent in January, but then a down trend. You can see the unemployment rate has been falling and the most recent report for April of this year puts the national overall average unemployment rate, Ali, at nine percent. It's expected today to maybe it tick down to 8.9 percent.

VELSHI: Although a lot of people continue to tell us that doesn't tell the whole story, the unemployment rate, because there are millions of Americans out of work, represented by that unemployment rate, but there are also millions who fall into the category of underemployed. They're working part time because they can't find full-time jobs or maybe not in jobs that pay the bills.

CNNmoney's Poppy Harlow joins us live. She has been covering this closely for months. This isn't a new thing for you. We are always looking at who else is unemployed out there?

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's astonishing this doesn't get really factored into the main number at all. When we get the jobs report in about an hour and a half, I would urge you to look below the headline number of the unemployed. Look at the underemployed, college degrees, many people with lots of work experience, who are working 34 hours or less a week, many of them much less.

I want you to look at the numbers because it's staggering. These are your friends, neighbors, relatives, probably know them, underemployed almost 8.5 million Americans. Add that to the unemployed Americans you get 22 million people in the labor force right now not making enough, they say, to get by. That's about 14.5 percent.

And it's a number that could likely go higher with this latest jobs report. Companies are paying less as we're seeing the cost of our gas, our clothes, our food go up. They can hire temp workers, as you guys know. They just don't have to hire full time like they did before.

Companies are doing pretty well. The tale of two Americas we're seeing more and more. Companies, strong profits, people on Main Street hurting more and more. I want you to listen to two people we spoke with interesting to hear their take. Deborah, she has 30 years of experience in retail sales. She was once president of a company now struggling to get by. Henry, who has a degree in film, a filmmaker was doing fine until 2008, and then everything fell apart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At least try to find other work, even if it's work that's not at the rate that I would normally work at.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing that comforts me when I'm worried or upset about where my next meal is coming, there's a lot of us in the same boat, a lot of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: They're right. You saw the numbers, so many Americans going through the same thing. Speaking with an economist who told me that if we are seeing this slowdown in the economy, that we're really feeling this. The market is showing it, the numbers are showing it. This is -- does not look good for the long-term unemployed. The long- term unemployed and under employed. The harder it is for you to find a job and the underemployed will suffer more if this is that slow down.

ROMANS: And if you have 22 million to 24 million people not certainly going out and doing a lot of shopping, they're probably not buying a new car, may not be able to pay their mortgage, not helping with the foreclosure problem.

VELSHI: And not paying taxes.

ROMANS: It holds back an economy. Some are saying the economy is doing better, we have this unemployment problem. No, they feed into each other.

HARLOW: I think it is that sort of tale of two Americas, even more now than it was at the height of the crisis.

ROMANS: One thing that I think these numbers will show, what we've seen before, is that if you've recently been unemployed things are getting better for you. For the long-term unemployed it's not.

VELSHI: Poppy, thanks very much for that. We'll be covering this including at 8:30 eastern when that jobs report for May comes out.

ROMANS: Own only hours ago former Bosnian-Serb Ratko Mladic appeared before the U.N. war crimes tribal in the Hague. He remained defiant saying he defended his people, country in the Bosnian war, and intends to defend himself against war crimes charges.

He shook his head when some of the charges were read, saying he had never heard such, quote, "obnoxious and monstrous words." Mladic faces charges of genocide among other war crimes. He's been indicted over the 43 month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1992 to 1995 Bosnian War.

VELSHI: Nine minutes after the hour.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROMANS: They're going to Dallas tied at one. The Mavericks pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in NBA finals history last night. They were down 15 points in the fourth quarter and then stunned the heat 95 to 93. The winning basket scored by Dirk Nowitzki's injured left hand. Dwyane Wade had 36 points but missed a desperation last second shot to win it.

VELSHI: Did I miss the fact that Nowitzki's left hand is not his shooting hand? I thought he had this injury, something happened, but it's not his shooting hand, didn't matter. Now I'm hearing he scored with the injured hand.

ROMANS: He's ambidextrous apparently.

VELSHI: Which is a word Daniel Holt, one of our viewers, can't spell. We want to know what other words you can't spell. It's our question of the day.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie is under fire for using a helicopter to fly to his sons a high school basketball games. He now plans to silence his critics.

ROMANS: Sarah Palin, is she upstaging Mitt Romney. They were in New Hampshire at the same time. We'll tell you what Sarah Palin has to say about that.

VELSHI: All that after the break. It's 12 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: New Jersey governor Chris Christie reaching into his pocket to quiet his critics, but he's not apologizing for using a $12 million state police helicopter to fly to two of his son's high school baseball games. Critics are calling the fiscally conservative Republican a hypocrite and an elitist for not practicing what he preaches. So Christie decided there was only one way to silence them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: If you want to try to do all the things that people want you to do as governor and also be a father, and try to make sure that you get to as many of the things for your kids that you want to be at, there are times when it is literally impossible to do that by car. If me writing a check for $2,100 and a $1,200 check from the state committee to pay for these two helicopter rides will allow us to focus on the really important issues to the people of the state of New Jersey, then I'm willing to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Christie says New Jersey State police assured him there would be no cost to taxpayers if he flew on their chopper because the pilots were required to log the flying hours anyway and was the only way he could get to his son's ball game on time.

Think about executives of the states and how much -- I mean, they're working 24/7.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: And also trying to show --

VELSHI: I don't want a guy not running for governor because he says he's going to miss his kids' ball games. I'm not nearly as troubled by this as some people are. You know, you see these headlines and you see that he took a $12 million chopper. He didn't take it home.

ROMANS: No. It's a $3,500 controversy.

VELSHI: $3,500 controversy. That's fine. I think it's valid to have concerns about it, but I also think --

ROMANS: But when you are out there talking about the best use of state money and you're talking about taking money away from schools and teachers, you can see why that makes you a target or concerns or about this. All right.

VELSHI: Well, money is a big concern for people and it's going to be central to Mitt Romney's campaign. He's making another run at the White House. He made it official yesterday, but the buzz all morning is about Sarah Palin and how she stole his thunder.

The former Massachusetts governor chose a New Hampshire farm as the backdrop for his big announcement insisting he's the man to get America back on the right course. ROMANS: Meanwhile, Sarah Palin claims it's just a coincidence that she happened to be in New Hampshire attending a seaside clam bake at the exact moment Romney was making his announcement. She's denying any intent to upstage her potential rival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN (R), FMR. ALASKA GOVERNOR: If he personally would be offended by me stepping foot in a state that he is in, I wouldn't do it. But I don't believe that Governor Romney is offended at all, but we happen to have on our schedule a stop to meet some good people and have some good New Hampshire food.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to drown him out with --

PALIN: Not at all. No, not at all. And truly if he were to be personally offended by us being in the same state, I wouldn't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Well, the field is set for the first Republican presidential debate. It's going to feature Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain and Christine Romans. Well, she will be there for AMERICAN MORNING.

ROMANS: No, I'm not declaring my candidacy.

VELSHI: That's right. But you will be there, just in case she wants to, Monday June 13th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. That morning we'll get some previews from Christine as well about what we can expect.

ROMANS: Yes. It will be a lot of fun.

OK. Now that we have crowned a new National Spelling Bee champ, our question of the day, what word can't you spell? Oh, you try as you might but you always spell it wrong. And I say spell check makes it worse because it fixes --

VELSHI: Because you never learn.

ROMANS: And you never learn from your mistake.

Here's what Cameron Malta (ph) sent in on Facebook. Smorgasbord. He says everything about that word haunts me.

VELSHI: So much occasion you get to use the word "smorgasbord" or write it.

We have a lot of others though. There's some really, really good ones. We do want to hear from you. Send us an e-mail or tweet or tell us on Facebook. We will read more of your responses through the morning and you don't have to spell it correctly when you send it to us.

ROMANS: Judgment doesn't have an "e" in the middle. VELSHI: It doesn't?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Twenty-one minutes past the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning.

The markets were mixed at the close yesterday. Investors bracing for this morning's all-important jobs report. That comes out at 8:30, about an hour from now. The Dow was down by nearly 42 points. The Nasdaq was up four points. The S&P 500 was down about two.

The U.S. government agreeing to sell its remaining stake in Chrysler to Fiat for $500 million. Once the deal is complete, taxpayers will have recovered about 90 percent of the $12.5 billion they pumped into Chrysler during the recession.

Ford is planning to build its smallest engine ever, a three cylinder. The automaker says the design is to get better fuel economy without sacrificing power and performance.

Walmart about to open its first express store. The smaller stores will just be a fraction of the size of the super centers. They're going to be located in areas without nearby grocery stores.

And for the first time in the history of the "New York Times," a woman will be running the paper. Jill Abramson has been named the "Times executive editor. She replaces Bill Keller.

Don't forget for the very latest news about your money, check out the all-new CNNmoney.com. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Congressman Anthony Weiner's Twitter controversy is still trending. He tried once again to move on about this yesterday.

VELSHI: It didn't work. This whole mess may be a lesson for Congress. Call it social media 101.

Joining us now is Emily Heil. She is a political reporter for "Roll Call."

Emily, good to see you. What's going on? Is there a chill on Twitter in Washington? Is nobody tweeting right now?

EMILY HEIL, POLITICAL REPORTER, "ROLL CALL": Just some Twitter jitters, radio silence.

VELSHI: How is this going over?

HEIL: Well, you know, people haven't stopped, you know, tweeting. They certainly haven't. I don't think they're going to. But I think this has been a little bit of a wake-up call to members of Congress. Yesterday, a representative from Twitter sent an e-mail to members of Congress giving them some tips. I mean, really common sense stuff. Things they can do to protect the security of their accounts.

VELSHI: Well, let me guess. Let me guess. Top of the list, don't tweet pictures of your underpants?

HEIL: I think -- I think our mothers could tell us that better than Twitter could tell us that, yes. But really common sense stuff like changing up your password, being aware of who has your password. Those are the common sense things that people need to look at. But I think that this controversy is making people think twice before they hit send. It's making them think twice about the content and the security of their accounts.

ROMANS: Now in some cases, there are firms that do this for people. So you think you're getting, you're seeing, reading a tweet from, you know, your Congress person but it's really a strategy or a public relations firm. Are people on the Hill starting to get concerned about just who has access to their accounts?

HEIL: Absolutely. That is definitely a concern. And sometimes it's a staffer who does the tweeting. I mean, you could often tell when it seems a little too on message, and you can really tell when a member is being authentic, when they're using their own voice and when they have these personal accounts that are not their official accounts, then they are supposed to be the only one who touches that account. They're not supposed to have a staffer doing that because that's using public resources for what's essentially a personal account.

VELSHI: I have to say, though, here at CNN and a lot of major corporations, this luxury about personal versus work accounts almost doesn't exist in terms of the rules that you're supposed to abide by. So somebody here can't say I tweeted that from my personal account, that's not my official account. We work for CNN. We're responsible for anything that comes, you know, out of our accounts.

HEIL: No doubt. And clearly, this would have been OK, right? This picture would have been OK if it was just a personal account for someone who didn't matter.

VELSHI: Right.

HEIL: Or who wasn't in the public eye. But because of their position, it becomes an issue. But the sort of church/state separation going on with Twitter accounts for members of Congress is that you don't want to mix up your official congressional business with your campaign business.

ROMANS: Right.

HEIL: Because what they don't want to have happening is public dollars going to fund races, so really, the personal account is a way of taking it out of both of those kinds of categories. It's not your official business. It's not your campaign business, but it's your personal business. But now, this gets really complicated because when you have an official Twitter account, you only can Twitter about or tweet about official business. You're not supposed to talk about your personal life. But it gets into really gray areas because you can't talk about going to dinner with your family and gosh, the burger is delicious. But, if you say, "going to dinner with my family at Bob's Diner back in my district, boy, the burgers are delicious," it becomes official business because you're promoting a local business and that's part of your job. So it gets into these very strange, gray areas.

ROMANS: Emily, it's so interesting because they try to use Twitter to be more, I guess close to their constituents. So they're trying to be kind of more homey and show their real side. At the same time, wow, I mean this really, really is a big problem for Anthony Weiner.

I mean I wonder if they're going to reel it in now and they're going to be less personal. You know, or try to lessen the personal side of him.

VELSHI: Well, but the thing is these rules that Emily is talking about, these are the old franking rules.

ROMANS: Right.

VELSHI: The reason they were in place is so that you're not using government money to send postage. It --

ROMANS: It sounds archaic.

VELSHI: It's about mailing things. There's no cost to using Twitter.

HEIL: Right. Right. It's about -- it's about postage. But then it becomes about government resources. Like, is the phone that you're using to send these messages -- was that bought with taxpayer dollars? What about the staff time that's used to tweet?

VELSHI: Right.

HEIL: That's paid for with taxpayer dollars. So these rules are very archaic, they've been revised but clearly, it doesn't quite keep up with the technology. And this is something that I think Congress is going to be grappling with, you know, in terms of the rules --

ROMANS: All right.

HEIL: -- but also in terms of the personal -- sure.

ROMANS: Emily Heil, thank you so much. Political reporter of Roll Call. We have to cut in there because we do have some -- give an update on some breaking news for you.

VELSHI: We are hearing now -- CNN has confirmed that former Senator John Edwards' presidential candidate is expected now to be indicted today. He and his attorney are in North Carolina.

Justice Department is now expected to hand up a criminal indictment. The issue here is whether or not there is going to be a last-minute plea deal. It is unclear. There are some sources reporting that those negotiations have ended.

We have not confirmed that those negotiations have ended but we are now told that we should expect an indictment today barring some unforeseen circumstances.

This of course is about prosecutors contending that he gave money raised for the campaign to his mistress Rielle Hunter.

ROMANS: And that's the simplest way to describe the allegation. I mean, at its core, it was campaign funds to a mistress to keep that story quiet. But as you know, it's very sticky. This whole, whole controversy and affair literally was -- his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He's running for president. He's doing very well in the early going, and he's trying to keep this quiet, this affair quiet, with a woman who bore him a daughter.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: And his wife eventually split from him but then sadly passed away from cancer. So it has been a very, very tumultuous and sad, sad side for that family.

VELSHI: We've got Joe Johns on the ground in Raleigh, North Carolina. We will get an update from him very, very shortly.

ROMANS: All right, the rare, deadly E. coli outbreak no longer confines just to Europe. The CDC says three people in the U.S. now are suffering from the same strain. They recently traveled to Germany and it's believed they ate contaminated salad there.

Officials say the strain of E. coli has not been found in U.S. food.

American Airlines, by the way, says it's not going to serve salads on all of its flight departing from Europe.

Sixteen people have died across Europe, 1600 more have been sickened by this strain of E. coli.

VELSHI: Yes. This isn't a little thing.

ROMANS: No.

VELSHI: This is -- this is a big deal.

ROMANS: And new this hour in Syria the government reportedly cutting off Internet service from the capital of Damascus and the coastal city of Latakia as the country braces for Friday protests.

You know, Friday is Friday prayers, has turned into Friday protests across the region.

The Syrian army also reportedly shelling towns. Protesters today now rallying around the image of a young boy who was tortured and killed allegedly at the hands of the regime. VELSHI: And still in the Middle East, in Yemen, we're seeing some of the most intense violence since a political crisis started months ago.

Yemeni soldiers seen apparently firing shots in the city of Taiz. The injured and the dead are being carried away by protesters.

ROMANS: You know, and it's looking more and more like civil war.

Mohammed Jamjoom is live for us in our Abu Dhabi newsroom.

It's just really a continuing, dangerous situation there. Is it civil war?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, there's more and more concerns from within Yemen that the country is really on the tipping point of civil war right now.

Let me try to break down a very complex situations going on there. First, let's talk about one of the main flashpoints, the capital of Sana'a, where for the past 12 days there has been intense street battles going on in the capital between tribesmen from the most powerful and influential and largest tribe in all of Yemen, and the security forces belonging to the president there.

They've reported many casualties over last few days. Today even during Friday prayers residents there have said they have heard intense explosions, there are still tanks out in the streets, lots of armed tribesmen, people afraid to leave their homes and the people that are leaving their homes, we're told, hundreds of people evacuating the city of Sana'a.

Now that's just one problem in Sana'a. You also have an anti- government protest movement, tens of thousands of people in the streets of Sana'a, day after day, asking and demanding that the president there step down.

Today they're out and about, they say they're going to march through the streets, but the fear is that if they do march they might get into clashes with security forces and with these tribesmen.

That's just one part of the Yemen problem going on right now.

Let's talk also about a city in the south called Taiz. In Taiz, also tens of thousands of people for the last four months coming out day after day, demanding the ouster of the president of Yemen. In the past week there have been numerous clashes between those demonstrators, between gunmen supporting them and trying to protect them and between government security forces there.

The U.N. has condemned the government there for firing indiscriminately upon protesters. They say they have reports that up to 50 people in the last four days have been killed because anti- government demonstrators have been targeted.

A very sad situation, deteriorating very rapidly, put all these problems together and it really looks like Yemen is on the verge of all-out civil war -- Christine.

VELSHI: Earlier we talked to a guy named Patrick Simms, a journalist, one of the last western journalists to report from inside Yemen. He talks about the people, aspirational, wanting a better economy, but on the other side, this is a company neighbors -- country that neighbors Saudi Arabia. It's across the water from Somalia.

It's the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden. It's the first place where a major attack on the USS Cole, a major attack on the West took place.

What's the outcome here? Is Somalia -- is Yemen a major threat to western security? Or is it a place that could actually have a good outcome?

JAMJOOM: Ali, there are so many concerns that Yemen, not only is on the verge of becoming a failed state where there's all-out civil war that have been going on there. But the main concern is what happens with the problem of al Qaeda in Yemen?

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, that's the branch of al Qaeda in Yemen, that's been deemed the most dangerous, the most threatening al Qaeda branch in the world today, especially threatening to the West.

Now let's look at Yemen even before there's been all this political strife. Even then, even in the past two years, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been embolden, has been resurgent, from their base there. With just a few hundred members they've been able to try to launch spectacular attacks against the West, against the U.S.

So there's a lot of concern that if the political turmoil continues there, that al Qaeda will take advantage of that political turmoil.

And one more thing to add, in a city called Zinjibar in Abian Province in the past several days, Islamic militants taking over that town. There's concern that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula actually taking over towns in Yemen and government officials are worried the scenario will repeat in the next few months if the turmoil continues -- Ali.

VELSHI: Mohammed Jamjoom joining us from Abu Dhabi about Yemen.

Thanks very much, Mohammed. We'll stay on top of this story with you.

This is something. I mean it all blurs together for some people, these protests in the Middle East, this is something to look very carefully at.

ROMANS: You know the Arab spring got so much attention but things have moved into summer with an intensity --

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: -- and a boil that is dangerous and difficult.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: And does have ramifications for American security and interests.

VELSHI: Absolutely it does.

ROMANS: All right. Here's a quiz for you. What percent of American women would rather lose their ability to read than lose their figures? Whoa.

VELSHI: I was quite taken by this. The answer might surprise you. We're going to have some straight talk about how to survive in a dumbed down world when we come back. It's 38 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let's go now to the case that has Americans riveted to their TV sets. The Casey Anthony murder trial. A jury in Orlando is going to have to decide if the defendant, Casey Anthony, who you see here, killed her 2-year-old daughter Caylee and buried her in the woods. The trial is entering its ninth day and it has been nothing short of explosive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CINDY ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY'S MOTHER: There's something wrong. I found my daughter's car today and it smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car.

LEE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY'S BROTHER: Nothing was making sense to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's not making sense to you?

L. ANTHONY: Why couldn't we or anybody just go get Caylee and bring her home? There's no reason to fight with, you know, mom at this point.

CASEY ANTHONY, DEFENDANT: I have not seen my daughter. The last time that I saw her was on the 9th of June.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what happened to Caylee?

C. ANTHONY: I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure you do.

C. ANTHONY: I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen, something happened to Caylee. The longer this goes, the worse it's going to be for everyone. Everyone. The worse it's going to be for everyone. Right now everything you've told us we've locked you into a lie. Every single thing you told us has been a lie.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: That's testimony -- bits of testimony, some of it was phone calls. But this is what's going on. I mean very rarely, normally when you cover a court case there are boring moments in between. ROMANS: No boring moments.

VELSHI: This thing has just been riveting.

ROMANS: And it's been like a rush to get seats in the courtroom.

VELSHI: People -- literally people are running and tripping over each other.

ROMANS: Joining us this morning to discuss this case, why so many of us are captivated by it where it goes from here, legal analyst and lawyer Lisa Bloom. She's also written an amazing book called "Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed Down World."

Lisa, thanks for being here with us.

VELSHI: Good to see you, Lisa.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Let's start with this case. Why are we -- this is a captivating case. I mean there's a lot of crime, frankly. What is it about this case that has just captured the imagination?

LISA BLOOM, ATTORNEY: I think this is a case that grabbed us from the beginning because first this was a missing person's story. Little Caylee was missing, nobody knew where she was, and we immediately learned that her mother had lied repeatedly about the month that took place before we found little Caylee.

So what kind of mother would have a missing child, not report it, and then when the police find out about it lied about her employment, about the babysitter? I mean it was so confounding.

Then the body was found. So this is a story that has legs every development.

ROMANS: Right.

BLOOM: And it's just a story that's impossible to understand why a mother would behave this way.

VELSHI: The behavior issue -- and she was out partying while her child was missing and things like that.

BLOOM: Yes.

VELSHI: But ultimately, does that prove guilt or innocence?

BLOOM: Yes, and no. Because the jury wants a common sense explanation for why she would behave this way. I think they're going to rely primarily on physical evidence, chloroform in the car, the scent of a deceased body in the car. That's the more powerful evidence.

But they're going to look at her and say, there's no explanation for your behavior other than guilt. So while she's clearly presumed innocent and we have to hear all of the evidence.

ROMANS: Right.

BLOOM: I think there's enough there to convict her. What this case is really about I think on the defense end is saving her from the death penalty.

ROMANS: You think so?

VELSHI: Right.

BLOOM: Yes.

ROMANS: Well, her attorney was trying to paint in his opening argument this picture of this woman abused, sexually abused.

VELSHI: By her father, by her brother.

ROMANS: And how everything that she does -- you know, quote-unquote, "a healthy person" can't understand how she's thinking.

BLOOM: Right.

ROMANS: Do you think that he has lost momentum since those early opening arguments?

BLOOM: I don't think he had a lot of momentum to begin with. But again I think this is an effort to save her from the death penalty. And the reason why he's arguing sexual abuse is to give some explanation for her emotional disturbance.

I think we all agree. She's an emotionally disturbed young woman.

ROMANS: You know what? People who --

BLOOM: And I'm going to predict, by the way, that she's not going to get the death penalty. Mothers who kill their children strangely, very rarely do in this country.

ROMANS: But she's different than the other mothers we've seen. Andrea Yates and others who were -- who were mentally ill.

BLOOM: Yes.

ROMANS: Who really had a problem and didn't get help.

BLOOM: No insanity defense here.

ROMANS: One thing about this case that I think is fascinating is people who are not courtroom junkies have become courtroom junkies.

VELSHI: Yes, correct. Yes.

ROMANS: People who usually don't follow these cases --

(CROSSTALK) BLOOM: This is a new O.J. case.

VELSHI: Really. We don't typically cover cases.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Hey, listen, you are such -- you're a great friend to us and you're such an inspiration to women.

BLOOM: Thank you.

VELSHI: You've written this great book called "Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed Down World." Love the title, and we were just --

BLOOM: Thank you.

VELSHI: We found something here that was interesting. And that is the number of women who would rather lose their ability to --

(CROSSTALK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Lose their ability to read than lose their figure.

BLOOM: Twenty-three percent. Twenty-five percent of young American women would rather win "America's Next Top Model" than the Nobel Peace Prize.

You know, when I heard about that, I decided this has to be my mission. We've got to turn this ship around. I surveyed college students and I found that overwhelmingly -- get this -- college women can name more Kardashians than wars we are in.

I mean at what point in American history did our young people not even know where we are at war? So I wrote this book, although men are ignorant as well.

VELSHI: Sure.

BLOOM: And I'm not excluding them, but I think there are particular issues for women. We've become obsessed with tabloid media, we go home and we watch reality shows, which have the worst images of women.

You know women who just sit around and have cat fights, do their nails and go shopping. I mean that's not reality for any women I know. I think we have to turn away from that and turn back to substance.

And the second half of the book is how to do that. It's a step by step guide. So I'm not just giving a rant and --

(LAUGHTER)

BLOOM: I'm actually giving them the steps to get back on track because women came to me and said you're right, I've gotten off track, what can I do? ROMANS: At some point this was entraining, the reality shows and all that stuff. These things are entertaining.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: But that entertainment has overtaken our sensibility.

BLOOM: Right.

ROMANS: That's what you're saying.

BLOOM: I think that's right. And a lot of women we're so exhausted and tired than when we go home we just want some mindless entertainment. So I understand that. That's why we turn to the gossip magazines, that's why we watch the silly programming.

But what is the human cost? And I talk in the book about the cost not only to ourselves but to our communities and ultimately to our planet, from our ignorance. I think it's so important that we tune in and we regain that meaning and substance in our lives.

I know that women want that. I believe in women.

VELSHI: Yes. Great book. So great to see you.

BLOOM: Thank you.

VELSHI: The book is called "Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed Down World" by our good friend Lisa Bloom.

ROMANS: All right. You can see live gavel to gavel coverage of the Casey Anthony trial if you're interested all day on our sister station HLN.

VELSHI: All right, and morning headlines are up next. It's 47 minutes after the hour. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: A lot going on this morning. Here are your headlines.

America's AAA credit rating could be at risk. Moody's Investor Services threatening to put the rating under review if lawmakers do not make significant progress on raising the debt ceiling.

Wall Street bracing for this morning's jobs report which is expected to show a slowdown in job growth in just less than an hour. Yesterday the market was down more than 41 points, the Dow, the Nasdaq was up a little bit. The S&P was down by about a point.

And breaking news, sources tell CNN John Edwards is expected to be indicted in North Carolina today. Prosecutors claim he gave campaign money to his mistress Rielle Hunter.

Mitt Romney is taking another run at the White House. The former Massachusetts governor made it official at a farm house in New Hampshire yesterday. Some are saying he got upstaged. Potential GOP rival Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani just happened to be in the state at the very same time.

All tied up at game a piece. The Dallas Mavericks came back from 15 points down in the fourth quarter to beat the Miami Heat in game two of the NBA Finals. The series heads to Dallas.

You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING back after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Good morning, Dallas and Ft. Worth. Partly cloudy at 76 degrees today. It's going to be sunny and, whoa, 99 later on.

VELSHI: You sound surprised that Texas is going to be almost 100 degrees.

ROMANS: It's going to be hot and --

VELSHI: Why is it you chose to show the weather in Dallas this morning?

ROMANS: Me?

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: I didn't choose it.

VELSHI: A little Mavericks shout-out maybe?

ROMANS: Whoa.

VELSHI: Coming back after 15 points down.

Reynolds Wolf, our favorite Texan in the extreme weather. You're not actually anywhere -- you're from Alabama.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: He's an Alabaman, I think.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I lived in Austin for several years.

ROMANS: He's a man of the world.

(LAUGHTER)

WOLF: Absolutely. Absolutely. The world is here. I'm kind of like somewhere in the middle of it. I've been everywhere.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WOLF: You're up to speed. Enjoy the nice cool studio, guys. Let's get back to you. (LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Stay with us for a second. You'll want to hear this.

WOLF: Absolutely.

VELSHI: The spelling bee. Are you much of a speller?

WOLF: I try to be.

VELSHI: All right.

WOLF: The effort is there.

VELSHI: The effort is there. Well, let me --

WOLF: Yes.

VELSHI: Watch this young woman and her effort.

ROMANS: Yes, she's amazing. Fourteen-year-old Sukanya Roy of Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania.

VELSHI: She looks like she's like -- I would lose calories working as hard as she did to try and spell a word.

ROMANS: The third time was the charm for her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUKANYA ROY, SPELLING BEE CONTESTANT: C-Y-M-O-T-R-I-C-H-O-U-S.

(APPLAUSE)

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Cymotrichous, if you're spelling along.

VELSHI: Unbelievable.

ROMANS: And it's so cool because you could see the slow smile --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Yes, yes. She knew she'd nailed it.

ROMANS: She knew she'd nailed it but you -- I guess you have to be so careful because if you mess up and you know what it is, you just --

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: It must be so hard.

VELSHI: What does it mean? Cymotrichous. It means to have wavy hair.

WOLF: Unbelievable. Explain --

VELSHI: Unbelievable stuff.

WOLF: Explain --

VELSHI: That's why I don't know the word.

(LAUGHTER)

WOLF: Hey, I'm -- mine is barely hanging on. But you can just see the synapse sparring in her brain.

VELSHI: Yes.

WOLF: Working so hard and she nailed it. What a beautiful thing --

ROMANS: I know. It's awesome. It was her third time in Scripps National Spelling Bee, the finals. She finished 12th in 2009, 20th in 2010. She is going to get, I think, $40,000 in cash and prizes. Afterwards, she said she knew -- she said she knew you guys that she had the word right as soon as she heard it.

VELSHI: As soon as she said it.

So that brings us to our question of the day, what word can you not spell? Here are some of your responses that we've -- we have just received.

Sheriff. This is from @onemom. Sheriff. She says, "I have multiple graduate degrees, I cannot spell sheriff without looking it up, which I obviously didn't do."

ROMANS: Phlegm. Scott apparently has a hard time spelling the word phlegm, because it comes up so often in written language.

VELSHI: I totally agree. And kids in school always get the phlegm.

ROMANS: Yes.

VELSHI: That is -- you couldn't more complicate a short word.

ROMANS: He says it's the hardest short word to spell if you don't know it, in my opinion. Separate.

VELSHI: Separate. This one has tricked me up in the past. And Kay Keller also said, the person who submitted it separate said restaurant and receipt, they have trouble with as well.

ROMANS: Look at this. Onomatopoeia. Is that one?

VELSHI: Yes, why? Why do you need to spell that?

ROMANS: I don't know. I guess I always had an N and another N and I guess it's onomatopoeia.

VELSHI: Onomatopoeia. This person William said they had to Google the word before they sent it to us. It is -- by the way, it means the formation of a word by imitation of a sound that is associated with it.

ROMANS: Right. Like cuckoo.

VELSHI: Like cuckoo. Yes. Exactly.

ROMANS: OK. Rhythm. That's from Deadb (ph). "As a music teacher, I find many of my students have trouble with it."

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: I have trouble with rhythm as rhythm.

VELSHI: Yes. Exactly. Keep them coming. Really interesting words. It makes us all feel better for not being fantastic spellers.

ROMANS: Judgment (INAUDIBLE) mind. Knowing -- you haven't asked me. Judgment.

VELSHI: Because -- there's no E in the middle.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: There's E in the middle. And if you look --

VELSHI: There is or there isn't?

ROMANS: There isn't. You will see a lot of people put the E in the middle and -- you know.

VELSHI: I do.

ROMANS: You do? You put the E in?

VELSHI: Yes. Yes. I bought the E.

All right. We'll back in just a minute with top stories. It is 56 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)