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July, 2010 Deadliest Month for U.S. Troops in Afghanistan; Army Private May Be Indicted For Leaking Government Documents to Website; Personal Finance Reporter Gives Advice

Aired July 31, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Good afternoon. Former first daughter, Chelsea Clinton gets married today. She practices one faith. Her fiancee practices another. It's a growing trend in the U.S., and we'll take a look at how couples make it work.

At 3:00 p.m., another delay sealing the ruptured oil well in the Gulf. The government says the next step is coming soon.

And at 4:00, don't let the bed bugs bite. New Yorkers have to take that advice literally. Here in the CNN NEWSROOM where the news unfolds live on this Saturday, July 31. I'm Jim Acosta in for Fredricka Whitfield.

And hour by hour, we are learning more about the army private suspected of being behind the release of secret military documents to WikiLeaks. He is 22-year-old Private First Class Bradley Manning, and right now he is in the brig in Virginia in solitary confinement.

CNN's Sandra Endo joins us live from Washington. And Sandra, I understand we have some new information about Manning. What can you tell us about him?

SANDRA ENDO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. We are learning more about the private first class who military officials say they are honing in on -- 22-year-old Bradley Manning is the prime suspect in their investigation into who leaked more than 90,000 documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan to a website called WikiLeaks.

Manning is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico, Virginia, for a different case altogether. He's facing charges of leaking a 2007 airstrike video and downloading documents from classified military systems. He is from Crescent, Oklahoma, where childhood friends say he wasn't afraid to speak his mind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHERA MOORE, FRIEND OF BRADLEY MANNING: He was probably most the most intelligent person. If he would have graduated with our class, he would have graduated with all kinds of honors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENDO: A military lawyer appointed to Private Manning representing him for the previous charges could not be reached for a comment. Manning could possibly have a hearing here in Washington as early as next month, but because of this new investigation, that timeline could be delayed. Jim?

ACOSTA: Fascinating case. Sandra Endo in Washington. Thanks, Sandra.

And this week Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the joint chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen, claimed WikiLeaks may have already gotten blood on its hands for releasing these documents. The founder of WikiLeaks responded to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS FOUNDER: We were disappointed in what was left out of Secretary Gates' comments. Secretary Gates spoke about hypothetical blood. But the grounds of Iraq and Afghanistan are covered with real blood.

Secretary Gates has overseen the killings of thousands of children and adults in these two countries. Secretary Gates could have used his time that other nations have done to announce a broad inquiry into these killings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Meanwhile, a tragic milestone for U.S. troops in Afghanistan marking the deadliest month of the war. The rise in American casualties can be attributed to a new strategy, increased fighting and the fact that there are more boots on the ground than ever before.

CNN's Atia Abawi has more on that from Kabul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIA ABAWI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: July was the deadliest month for U.S. forces here on the ground in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001 with at least 66 U.S. sorry advice members killed in the month of July.

Oddly enough, it was not the deadliest month for the combined coalition. That actually occurred in June of 2010 when we saw at least 103 NATO casualties. This month, in July, there is about 88 NATO casualties, the majority of them Americans.

And this could have to do with President Barack Obama's troop surge that he announced late in 2009. That troop surge is not even complete yet, but we are seeing the deadliest summer here in Afghanistan, a summer that unfortunately was grimly predicted back in the summer of 2009 when the then top NATO commander, General Stanley McChrystal, announced a new strategy and new tactical directives to protect civilian lives because he knew that no war in Afghanistan had ever been won without the support of the afghan people.

And the biggest detriment to NATO was civilian casualties. Many Afghans were turning away from NATO and turning to the Taliban because of civilian casualties inflicted by NATO forces. Many do believe that the casualties will continue to go on among the NATO forces as this year progresses because the fighting is intense, particularly in the south and east of the country where the insurgency is the strongest.

But, in McChrystal's strategy, he did note that as the war went on, as the soldiers followed this tactical directive, the casualties would eventually die down as the support of the Afghan people came back to the NATO coalition.

Atia Abawi, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And staying in that part of the world, northwestern Pakistan has been hit by deadly flooding. At least 800 people are dead in just one province. There are numerous deaths in Pakistani- controlled Kashmir. Flood water swept away homes, schools, and government buildings in the Swat Valley.

Look at this video, it is unbelievable. You will remember that the Swat Valley was the sight of major fighting between Taliban and Pakistani troops last year. The Pakistani air force is helping to deliver aid to those regions because many areas are completely cut off and we'll continue to monitor that situation and bring you any developments as they happen.

And turning back to the U.S., we could soon see the beginning of the end, if you can believe that, of that disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Crews are ready to seal up the ruptured well once and for all.

But there has been a bit of a delay. CNN's Reynolds Wolf is live in New Orleans. Reynolds, this delay should not be as, I guess, troubling as other delays have been in the past, isn't that right?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. This should just be a brief hiccup with what they have been dealing with long-term.

The step they are going to have to deal with is a cleaning process. A week ago, there was a little bit of silt on the ocean floor kicked up and found its way into one of the relief wells. They have to do today is a cleaning procedure to get rid of the sand and silt in one of the relief wells.

It is a time-consuming process but one they think should be relatively easy. They say it is going to take 12 to 24 hours to clean it. And that may actually push back the timeframe of the static kill operation from when they originally planned it, it was going to be on Sunday. Now it looks like Monday or Tuesday, possibly Tuesday before they are able to get to that.

The static kill procedure is basically where they go to the containment cap and they inject a combination of mud and cement which they call the static kill, because the oil is static, not able to get out because of the containment cap itself. That's step one. The second step, as you well know, is what they call the bottom kill. They use their relief well and go horizontally into the source of the oil and fire another injection of both cement and mud. That should really kill off the well altogether. At least that's the plan.

The thing is, again, we are looking at Monday or Tuesday for the static kill.

ACOSTA: But the state of Louisiana did get good news in the last 24 hours. Their commercial fishermen have been given the OK to go back to the water, to the job that they know and love. That is a very important development, is it not?

WOLF: Absolutely. It's all about restoring a sense of normalcy to Louisiana where fishing is such a tremendous industry. A lot of the fishing grounds east of the mouth of the Mississippi River are open.

We had an opportunity to speak to a gentlemen who caught a big passel of red fish yesterday. Trust me, he couldn't be happier.

ACOSTA: A lot of those fishermen ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE PETTUS, FISH EATER: They are also doing a lot of testing out there. They have tested thousands of fish and haven't found any problems at all.

WOLF: You are going to feed them to your entire family?

PETTUS: My entire family. They will fight for the food, tonight, so we're going to do well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF: You know, Jim, it is part of the lifestyle. Trying to get a little bit of that back, a little bit of a sense of normalcy is certainly great news.

That being said, though, there are some issues in other parts of the state of Louisiana, especially down in Plaquemines Parish where you have a great deal of the marshlands inundated with oil. But we do see, keeping our fingers crossed, the light at the end of the tunnel.

Back to you.

ACOSTA: And we love that Louisiana seafood, so the sooner we can get that back on the table, the better. Reynolds Wolf live in New Orleans for us, appreciate it.

You couldn't turn on the TV this week without hearing the question, where is the oil? The Mississippi River charter boat captain wonders if some members of the news media live in some other universe. Mike Burnett says if you want to know where the oil is, just take a ride with him and his crew. He will join us at the top of the hour. You don't want to miss that.

Moving on to Arizona, a federal appeals court has denied that state's request for an expedited hearing on its new immigration law. Instead a hearing to determine whether to lift a judge's stay on some of the most controversial parts of that law has been set for early November.

You will recall this week a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking key provisions of the law, including the requirement that police check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.

Meanwhile, a personal finance columnist who could not afford her rent -- you are not going to believe this story -- how a self- proclaimed "hot broke mess," that's what she calls herself, saved herself from financial ruin. That's coming up, an inspirational story. Stick around for that. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back. She is a personal finance reporter who lived through a personal finance nightmare. Nancy Trejos was a financial columnist at the "Washington Post" but had to walk to work because she couldn't afford the transportation.

She learned how to clean up her own act by researching stories for her job. And Nancy Trejos is also the author of "Hot Broke Nesses -- how to have your latte and drink it too." She joins us live from our Washington, D.C. studios this afternoon.

Nancy, I have to ask you about the title of that book, because it sounds like that advice that personal finance gurus give us, which if you cut out the lattes out of your daily routine, you will clear up your finances in a jiff. Is that essentially what that title is referring to?

NANCY TREJOS, "WASHINGTON POST" PERSONAL FINANCE REPORTER: You don't really have to cut out the lattes completely. You can still have your latte every once in a while, but you have to live on a budget. And so you have to make tradeoffs. If you are going to have a latte every day, you can give up something else.

ACOSTA: Let me ask you, in the setup to your joining us, we mentioned the fact that you had to walk to work because you couldn't afford transportation to go to work at the "Washington Post."

(LAUGHTER)

ACOSTA: And that strikes me as being pretty extreme. You were in a lot of trouble is what it sounds like, and you had to go and fix your own personal bad habits. So explain all of that.

TREJOS: I did. I was a personal finance writer and a personal finance disaster. I had made pretty much every mistake you can make. I had credit card debt. I bought a car I couldn't afford. I bought a condo I couldn't afford with a fiancee. We broke up a year later and had to sell it at a loss. I was a disaster.

And at the same time, the economy was falling apart. I was spending every single day talking to people on the verge of bankruptcy that didn't pay their bills, and I thought, oh, my, I'm not that much different. And it was stressing me out.

It got so bad that I had to borrow money from my parents. They are immigrants. They don't have college degrees and I do. And I just said, this is it. I have to stop.

ACOSTA: That was your wake-up call?

TREJOS: That was my wake-up call. I got a financial planner and got on a budget and I got on a budget and I pulled myself together.

ACOSTA: And you walked through the mistakes you made, and it sounds like the mistakes all of us, that a lot of us make -- living on credit card debt, buying things we can't afford. Is it that simple in terms of turning your finances around?

TREJOS: I think a lot of us are emotional spenders. We have a bad day at work and then we go out and get drinks with our friend and we go out to dinner. Or we break up with someone, we want to buy a nice dress. So we all have our spending triggers we have to get a hold of.

And unfortunately, we went through a time when the economy was doing really well. The stock market was at a high. It all became about consumption. We just got into this habit of spending and spending.

ACOSTA: We were all drinking the same Kool-Aid.

TREJOS: Exactly. Buying big houses and buying cars we couldn't afford.

ACOSTA: Do you still go out to dinner? You mentioned drinks with your friends. I'm not cutting that out of my daily life, I'm sorry. But do you have to give up on all of those things that all of us want in order to have financial peace in your life? Is that basically it?

TREJOS: No, and I don't. I was not living on a budget before. Now, I do. I have a spending plan. I know what's in my bank account and what I can afford in a particular way.

I still go out every once in a while, but I don't go out every single night. I find other ways to have fun. Perhaps we don't have to go out and pay for that $60 dinner every night. Maybe I just invite people over and we split a bottle of wine or we barbecue. It is a lot cheaper and it is still fun.

ACOSTA: Yes, eating out will do some damage on that credit card bill.

So what are your top tips to young professionals, folks in the same boat as you are right now and want to get control of their money?

TREJOS: I think first and foremost, you have to know what you spend your money on. So spend a couple of weeks keeping all your receipts and getting on a website and knowing what you are spending your money on. From there you can come up with a budget and live according to that budget.

Again, know what your spending triggers are, get out of those bad habits of having a bad day at work and spending money.

ACOSTA: Retail therapy.

TREJOS: Exactly. Come up with another way to deal with it. Call up a friend. Take a walk. Go for a run. There are other ways to deal with your problems.

And just live within your means. Just don't spend money you don't have. If you are tempted to use that credit card, leave it behind. Leave it at home. Put a note on it and say, "Do I really need this dress?" That's the thing. Think before you spend.

ACOSTA: It those little purchases along the way. You think, oh, $20, no big deal. You do that every day for 30 days, that's $600. The little things add up.

TREJOS: Exactly. It all adds up, yes.

ACOSTA: You have come out and explained all of this to the world. What's that like dealing with your colleagues over the "Washington Post"? Are they taking you out for lattes, I hope.

TREJOS: Occasionally, they buy me a drink to congratulate me for writing a book.

ACOSTA: Does everyone at the "Post" have a book, isn't that how it works?

(LAUGHTER)

TREJOS: Some people But everyone has been very supportive. I have really good colleagues.

ACOSTA: Nancy Trejos, it is a really inspirational story and it takes a lot of guts to come out and talk about your personal finance problems like that, because a lot of people want to pretend they don't have those problems. So Nancy, we appreciate that very much. Thanks for joining us.

TREJOS: Thank you.

ACOSTA: If you have a personal finance problem but no solution, send us your question. We will see if Nancy can answer it for you. You can send them to Fredricka Whitfield's blog at CNN.com/Fredricka.

And Nancy will be back with the best questions from our viewers on the personal budget battle. Our Josh Levs will be here as well. So stick with us. We'll have more coming up in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: All right, top stories now. Firefighters in southern California are throwing everything they have got at a big wild fire north of Los Angeles. The so-called crowd fire has scorched at least 13,000 acres. Authorities have now lifted evacuation orders in that area.

Democratic Congressman Maxine Waters has decided to face a House trial rather than accept findings of wrongdoing by the House ethics committee. The panel had been looking into whether Waters violated rules when she helped arrange a meeting between Treasury Department officials and a bank she and her husband were connected to financially.

It's all hush-hush from Hillary Clinton and her family as the former first daughter prepares to get married. The wedding takes place today in Rhinebeck, New York. I didn't get an invitation.

But the time has not been revealed. A live report coming up. More top stories in just 20 minutes.

And just a few moments ago we were talking about "Washington Post" financial reporter, Nancy Trejos. She is back with us now, and Josh Levs as promised has some questions you want her to answer. Josh, take it away. What do we have here? Some good questions?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We have a few we are going to get to. Nancy, I want to start off with this question from Ferris asking about invests. What advice do you give Ferris on that?

TREJOS: I think index funds are a stable investment. They are pretty conservative. It really depends on how much risk you want to take. People have different investing behaviors. I tend to be a little more conservative, so I probably would stick with the index funds.

LEVS: You think that's safer.

Let's get to this next one from Cheryl. She's looking to start a bill. She says -- this is something that we were looking into stories like this. A lot of opportunities out there, people want to jump in but say they don't have money to do it at all.

ACOSTA: Nancy knows something about biting off more than one can chew.

(LAUGHTER)

TREJOS: You know, starting a business is a good thing to do if you are unemployed or having trouble finding a job. But it is difficult right now. Unfortunately, we are still getting out of the credit crunch. So it could be difficult to get a business loan.

But there are some out there. So I would suggest going out. There are some community organizations, some community banks that are still willing to lend to people who want to start small businesses.

And I would just sort of look for whatever money I could possibly have. There are ways to make extra money. You can just, you know, sell as much as you can, go around your house and see what you have. Maybe you have a car that you don't need. Find ways to make money.

LEVS: I think given your experience, how do you know if you are biting off more than you can chew? You don't want to end up in a situation in which you are way, way, way in debt and stuck there. How do you decide how much is too much?

TREJOS: That's the thing. I would not get into too much debt right now. If you are getting into a lot of credit card debt and you are not able to pay off your cards every month, that's a problem. That's not a good way to live.

LEVS: I want to get to one more. This is from Sarah. It leads me to a ledge legitimate point, which is why I'm sharing it. "How do I get crazy rich in America without being a rapper, politician, or an inventor of useless garbage?" 

ACOSTA: Thank you for saying that.

LEVS: What is with those?

ACOSTA: We will get into silly bands later. But it's almost, Nancy, as if people have not gotten used to the new reality out there, right?

TREJOS: Exactly. We need to become better savers. We need to stop thinking that we can just borrow money and keep borrowing and keep paying the minimum payments. It is the wrong lifestyle to have.

LEVS: Who is getting rich in this economy, though?

ACOSTA: The rich are getting rich.

LEVS: There are rich who are getting rich in some cases. Who is becoming newly rich in this economy? Anybody?

TREJOS: I can't think of many people out there. Can you? I'm not.

(LAUGHTER)

LEVS: I will say this since we are talking about this. You and I have talked about this before. I talked with some economists and it is true if you look at history, a lot of the most successful companies in America were started by individuals during a recession. There is a reason for hope and to choose to be an entrepreneur to try as long as you keep her advice in mind. You don't put yourself way, way, way in debt when you do it.

ACOSTA: Necessity is the mother of invention, and living frugally doesn't hurt at the same time, as Nancy can attest to. Nancy, thanks so much for joining us once again from Washington. Great responses to those questions.

TREJOS: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And hopefully, we will see you again in the future. Good luck to you. Appreciate it.

TREJOS: Thanks a lot.

ACOSTA: Here is a segue for us with two guys sitting on the same set together. You are in love, you want to get married, but you are from different faiths. How do you make it work? Some advice from an expert on what you need to do before you say "I do." That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back. And in case you haven't heard, it is Chelsea Clinton's wedding day. The former first daughter is expected to walk down the aisle to her fiancee Marc Mezvinski in just a few hours. It is all happening in Rhinebeck, New York.

And that's where we find our Susan Candiotti. Susan, I'm not going to ask you that question that I'm sure you've been asked all day long, which is, where is your wedding invitation? I'm not going to do that.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Go ahead.

ACOSTA: I'm determined not to do that.

CANDIOTTI: I'm glad that you didn't. Thank you very much. We are far enough away that we obviously don't have one, a few miles from here, the venue.

What do you do to kill time while you are waiting for the big event to start? If you are people like me and visitors staying around here in the town of Rhinebeck, you look to see if you recognize any familiar faces in crowds, any celebrities.

And finally, Jim, we can report to you, we have a celebrity sighting for you, a celebrity couple, long-time friends, actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. They were here. They said they had just arrived in town so they had not yet actually seen or met with the former president and the current secretary of state, but they were happy to talk about what this day means to the former first couple as well as to Chelsea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY STEENBURGEN, ACTRESS, CLINTON FAMILY FRIEND: It has been a very personal experience for them. They are very much about family. Her family is a little smaller. She is an only child and his family is big. He has lots of siblings. But there has been so much love and tenderness around the whole thing.

That kind of gets obscured a little bit when you are talking about someone that's a public person. On the inside I can tell you it's been very much like everybody's wedding, full of tenderness and memories and laughter. And I'm real excited for them. They are great together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: And I asked her how she thinks the former president, in particular, will be tonight after his only daughter, one and only daughter, gets married. She said, he will probably be crying his eyes out.

I think Jim, you know, since Ted Danson is here, we can definitely -- it proves this is a wedding where everybody knows your name.

ACOSTA: I didn't think you were going to go there, Susan but you did. And I'm not going to ask -- it looks like a beautiful day --

CANDIOTTI: I didn't think of it myself. I give credit to my producer.

ACOSTA: All "Cheers" references are welcome with me, absolutely.

I notice it's a beautiful day out there. I am not going to ask how many live trucks are in Rhinebeck, New York, covering this. But any sightings of the former first couple, the former president and the secretary of state? And what are folks saying about that?

CANDIOTTI: So far, we haven't seen them today but last night, after the rehearsal dinner, they did come here to the hotel that's over my shoulders, the Beekman (ph) Arms hotel, and they hosted a private reception there. We saw them pull up in their vehicles. They got out to the applause of the crowd that was standing by hereby.

Both of them looked extremely relaxed. He was smiling. She was smiling. The former first couple and the current secretary of state, she was wearing a beautiful green chiffon gown, and both of them appeared to really be enjoying themselves.

We also saw the former secretary of state Madeline Albright, and you will remember Vernon Jordan, he was here as well, the former head of the Urban League, and a number of other guests.

Of course, there are rumored to be about 400 invited guests in all. We don't know who they are. We don't know any details of the event, not even Ted Danson or Mary Steenburgen would give up any details. They said that the couple wants to keep everything private.

ACOSTA: Well, a strong showing from the Clintonistas out there, those FOBs, Friends of Bill, they will all be watching tonight when the president and Chelsea have that father/daughter dance. Thanks for joining us, Susan. We appreciate it.

And the bride and groom have something in common with about a third of American couples, different religious backgrounds. He was raised Methodist -- excuse me, she was raised Methodist and he is Jewish. In the mid to late 1980s about 26 percent of couples were of mixed faith. Now, 20 years later, it has grown to 31 percent.

We are also seeing more couples where one person has a particular faith and the other is non-practicing. We are turning now to Dr. Gary Chapman, he is a pastor and relationship counselor and author of numerous books on the subject. And he joins us from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

And Dr. Chapman, this is not unusual, obviously, to see somebody who is a protestant marrying somebody who is Jewish, but I suppose along the way there may be issues that have to be ironed out and dealt with just like in any marriage. What do you say to couples of mixed faith that want to get married?

GARY CHAPMAN, MARRIAGE COUNSELOR: There are several factors, Jim, that are involved. One is, how deeply do they hold to their faith? My background is cultural anthropology. Before I became a marriage counselor I was in anthropology. All cultures have a belief system. If a person holds that belief system strongly, it greatly affects how they live their lives.

In America, for example, 75 percent to 80 percent of the population would say their religion is Christianity. But we know there are all flavors of Christians. And they either embrace the faith of their childhood or they reject the faith of their childhood or they may modify it. If they reject it, they may well choose another faith.

ACOSTA: So all of this is going to make for interesting discussions around the dinner table for couples and hopefully these are issues that they have dealt with and talked through before they walked down the aisle. That would be one bit of advice you would want to give to people, I suppose, is to make sure you have this conversation at length.

CHAPMAN: That's certainly my hope. I wrote a book that will be out next month called "Things I wish I'd known before we got married." One of them deals with this spiritual issue. Many times, because couples are in love and in the euphoric state of that relationship, they think, religion is not important, we agree on the basic things.

ACOSTA: We love each other, love conquers all, it will all work out in the end, right?

CHAPMAN: Absolutely. When they come down off the high --

ACOSTA: Let me ask you this, Dr. Chapman. This is important. Are folks who have interfaith marriages, are they more prone to conflict and divorces? Obviously, there is that issue there that may come up time and again and cause problems in a relationship if they haven't dealt with it. So does it cause more divorces and conflicts?

CHAPMAN: Well, it all depends. Let me go back to where we started. If their faith has never been embraced, just a cultural faith, they grew up in a Christian, Jewish or Buddhist home, they have never personalized it, it may not be a problem at all, because religion is on the extreme edge of their lives. But if one of them or both of them are deeply committed to their faith, it is going to create probably very real problems. It may well lead to divorce.

And where the real issue begins to come in is when the children come along and one of them says, wait a minute, I want my child to be in my church and I want my child to be here. And so often that becomes a point of contention even if they have gotten along to that point.

ACOSTA: So what is the solution? Is there a solution, Dr. Chapman?

CHAPMAN: I think there is. I think you have to treat it like you treat all other conflicts in marriage. Most people get married not expecting conflicts, because we are in love and we agree on everything. The reality is we all have conflicts.

And so I think, first of all, you have to learn to listen to each other. We are not trained to listen. We are trained to tell you my opinion. We have to learn to listen to each other, what do they really think, how strongly do they feel about it? It's OK to disagree. How will we solve the problem?

Spend your energy focusing on a solution rather than trying to convince the other person you are wrong and I am right. If you learn how to resolve conflicts, you can apply it in this area as well as all the other areas of life.

ACOSTA: Dr. Gary Chapman, that sounds like pretty good advice no matter what subject comes up during a marriage, whether it be religion or finances, or anything else, a little less talking, a little more listening probably can solve a lot of problems with a lot of marriages.

Dr. Gary Chapman joining us live from North Carolina on a very important topic, so we appreciate your time this afternoon. Thank you very much.

CHAPMAN: Thank you, Jim, good to be with you.

ACOSTA: Hundreds dead, hundreds washed away. These pictures are unbelievable, folks, watching this all day long here at CNN. A natural disaster in Pakistan has affected as many as 1 million people so far. A live report is just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: We have been talking about this all day long, the ongoing flooding disaster in Pakistan. Already at least 800 people are dead, their homes washed away by raging floodwaters. Our Reza Sayah has made it to northwestern Pakistan. He is back in Islamabad and joins us live on the phone.

And Reza, the pictures are just unbelievable. I imagine in person this looks like total devastation. REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In person, they were worse, Jim. We spent much of the day in the flood-damaged areas. A couple things stood out. For a lot of these victims, this is nothing short of a catastrophe. Rebuilding some of these communities could take years.

The other thing we noted was there is nowhere near enough help for these people in some of these areas. We spent hours in a hard-hit village about 80 miles west of Islamabad and we didn't see a single relief crew or any government aid workers helping these people.

We did see some helicopters flying up above, but they didn't appear to be landing nearby.

We saw some really heartbreaking scenes. People lost their homes walking around with their belongings, covered in mud. We saw people picking up scraps of wood they plan to use to build a new place because their homes have been destroyed.

The hardest hit region is a northwest province. The information minister earlier Saturday said 800 people have been killed there in several districts. Thousands of homes, businesses, schools, government buildings destroyed.

We saw some of these homes today. Those that haven't been destroyed are buried in mud. Also, Jim, swampland and livestock also wiped away. For most of these Pakistanis in this region, it's their livelihood. It's just a messy and tragic scene in northwestern Pakistan.

ACOSTA: And Reza, when you say you haven't seen a lot of government aid so far and government rescuers coming in so far, is that because the situation is so dire that flooding just hasn't had a chance to subside to the point where you can get rescue trucks, where you can get rescue trucks in there?

SAYAH: There are a couple of factors. One is the fact that floodwaters haven't subsided. Two, the area where the flood impacted these communities is widespread. And three, many of the roads, many of the bridges are simply not passable.

So it's a real challenge for some of these rescue crews to get there. The Pakistani government said they are getting help in these areas as fast as they can. But we spoke to a lot of people that are frustrated, angry. They are saying help isn't getting there fast enough, Jim.

ACOSTA: And we are seeing whole homes being washed away in this video. The video is unbelievable. And are those homes washing way? Is the extent of the damage the way it is because you have structures that were built right up against rivers, right up against vulnerable areas?

SAYAH: Most of the villages that are affected are near rivers, rivers like the Coppell River, the Swat River. But you had floodwaters come through villages away from these rivers as well. Many of these homes, obviously, they are not very well built.

But then we saw bridges that appeared to be well built just crushed by these floodwaters. We remind you, this is a region that's gone through some very difficult times. Most of the people who live here are poor to begin with. These were also the areas that have been plagued by the Taliban and the militancy and a number of militant operations that had already displaced people locally, and not they have to deal with another challenge.

ACOSTA: A troubled part of the world. Reza Sayah joining us live on the phone from Pakistan. Thank for keeping us posted.

And turning back to the U.S., thousands of acres have burned in the Los Angeles area from those devastating wildfires out there. We will tell you about the fire and about the hot, dry weather making things worse. That is coming up in just a few moments.

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ACOSTA: All right, there is never a good time to get pulled over. Sometimes are especially unpleasant, though. For example, if you are late for work or feeling sick. But what if you are on the phone and thousands of people are listening? That is exactly what happened to California Congressman Dan Lungren at the beginning of a telephone interview Friday. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are talking specifically this morning about the passage of the International Megan's Law. Can you tell folks about it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you get off the phone, sir?

DAN LUNGREN, (R) CALIFORNIA: I have to get off the phone in just a moment here. Can I call you back in just a second? I'm sorry. I am talking with a police officer here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes, nope. You go ahead and go take care of your business and we'll let you go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Well, Lungren joked his excitement over the radio appearance caused him to speed. A spokesman said Lungren got off with a warning, which goes to show you perhaps that excuse does work.

A judicial candidate in Oklahoma is fending off attacks from his own daughter. She and her husband took out a quarter page add and launched a website called don'tvoteformydad.com. The website lists cases in which Mantooth has been sued. The daughter says she has never had a good relationship with her dad. She says the bad blood stems from his divorce from his daughter's mother.

And he is famous for predicting winners of this year's World Cup soccer games, Paul the octopus. He never saw this one coming, criticism from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yes, Paul predicted World Cup winners by eating mussels from boxes marked with flags, but Ahmadinejad for whatever reason is unimpressed. He calls the octopus a "symbol of decadence and decay, spreading western propaganda and superstition."

Here is his quote. "Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be leaders of the global nations who aspire like Iran to human perfection." Take that, Paul.

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ACOSTA: Well, you've seen the video gallons of crude gushing into the gulf. Now some officials are saying they are having a hard time seeing oil in the water anymore. We have some residents that might have something to say about that. That's coming up.

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