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FDA Uncovers Health Horrors at Egg Farms; Teachers: From Good to Great; 95 Percent of AVID Grads Get Into College

Aired August 31, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. Good afternoon to you. Good morning if you're on the West Coast. A new hour, a new "Rundown."

How do you take good teachers and make them great teachers? We're going to learn how to build a better teacher as we continue to try to fix our schools this week on CNN.

Plus, he was attacked in Iraq. He lost his leg. He underwent multiple surgeries. But this wounded warrior's mission is only beginning. You're going to meet him on the show this hour.

And we just heard the president minutes ago thanking U.S. troops for their service. We're going to hear from him again in about six hours declaring an end to the U.S. combat mission in Iraq. We're taking an in-depth look at that mission, its cost, its casualties and its legacy.

What we're looking at right now is for your safety when it comes to food. The Food & Drug Administration has released a report, a scathing report, findings from inspections of Iowa egg factories implicated in the recall of more than half a billion eggs.

Let me tell you about this a little bit.

First of all, we're looking at the Wright County Egg facility in Iowa. It's a series of factories. It goes under a couple different names. This is a company that has a long history of environmental, labor, immigration problems. This thing has been a rotten apple for a while.

There's also another group out there, but Wright County says that inspectors from the FDA visited 73 barns on five so-called farms. These are more factories than farms.

The other company found to have shipped tainted eggs is Hillandale Farms, also in Iowa. Three of their farms were inspected. Salmonella has been found at both of those farms. It's thought to be sort of ground zero for this salmonella outbreak.

Let's tell you what the inspectors from the FDA found. It is, without trying to sensationalize this, disgusting -- piles of manure, some of them four feet high, some of them eight feet high, streaming into areas where the hens live; a door to one of the barns couldn't close, blocked by manure, flies, maggots, to many to count; rodents and holes where rodents could get through; frogs and wild birds. Actually the frogs and wild birds seem to bother me less after hearing about the piles of manure, flies and maggots, and rodents.

Let's talk to somebody who knows more about this. Chris Waldrop is the director of food policy -- the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America.

Chris, you see things that the rest of us don't see. You know about things that the rest of us don't know about.

Does this shock you?

CHRIS WALDROP, DIRECTOR, FOOD POLICY INSTITUTE, CONSUMER FEDERATION OF AMERICA: Well, this is obviously a big problem. These farms were not living up to the standards that you would expect for the government or that you'd really expect for just common sanitation to produce eggs that consumers would want to eat.

VELSHI: If there's food coming out of the place -- let me tell you what the two companies have told us, because there's a similarity here that I want to get your take on.

Wright County Egg says, "To demonstrate our continued commitment to running our farms in the most responsible manner, and to ensuring the safety of the eggs we produce, our team has worked around the clock to address concerns that were raised verbally during the FDA's inspection, with many of those being fixed as soon as they were identified." That's Wright County Egg.

Now let me tell you about Hillandale Farms. They said, "We are in the process of responding to the FDA's written report to provide further explanation and clarification of what was observed. Several of the issues had been identified by the facilities prior FDA's inspection and were already in the process of being addressed during the inspection period. Additionally, some of the issues were immediately corrected as soon as they were identified."

Chris, what is wrong when you need an FDA inspector to come in and tell you that piles of manure and maggots and dead flies and rodents are a problem in a facility that produces food?

WALDROP: Well, you've got to remember, this is the first time that FDA had actually been on this farm. They'd never been on this farm until the outbreak had already happened.

So we have this huge recall, this huge outbreak that has sickened 1,500 people, and now FDA is on the farm and identifying all these problems. It really makes it clear that we need FDA to be looking over these companies, making sure they're doing the right thing, because otherwise you have these problems like we're seeing on this farm today.

VELSHI: Is it practical to think that the FDA can inspect every food-producing farm in America with any regularity? Or should there be some other system in place to deal with this? Or should there be -- how do you deal with this? WALDROP: Well, there's legislation pending before Congress that would really increase the requirements for FDA to be inspecting these types of facilities. And that's important.

You have to have an FDA overlooking these facilities, making sure they're doing the right thing. Otherwise, companies are just operating without any kind of oversight whatsoever. FDA needs resources to do that for sure, but they also need a mandate from Congress to be inspecting these high-risk plants.

VELSHI: Chris, is this an anomaly to you, or should we all be thinking about the fact that these kinds of dangers exist -- we've seen enough recalls in the last few years to make you wonder whether anybody cares to use common sense in the preparation and production of the food that we buy at grocery stores.

WALDROP: Well, we've really seen, as you said, a number of outbreaks and recalls linked to common everyday foods: spinach, peppers, peanut butter, now eggs, cookie dough. It really demonstrates the facts these companies need to be doing the right thing. But we need FDA to be monitoring them, to be doing inspections and making sure they are doing the right things so that consumers aren't having to witness these outbreaks over and over and over again.

VELSHI: Chris Waldrop, thanks for joining us.

He's the director of Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America.

We'll be talking to you again, Chris. Thank you.

WALDROP: Thank you very much.

VELSHI: It's what the 33 miners in Chile have been waiting for ever since a cave-in trapped them a half a mile underground three weeks ago. Engineers have started drilling the rescue shaft they hope will eventually free those miners.

The 70-year-old father of one of those miners who's been a miner all his life now waits above ground with his son's wife, and both of them talking about the son and the husband that they love. It's our "Sound Effect."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "I told my son two months before the cave-in, 'Son, that mine is sending you a warning. Stop working there.' But he said, 'Dad, I'm fixing up my house. I need to carry on.'"

"At the time, it didn't sink in that the accident had been so big. I cried a lot, but I was trying to keep my spirits up because of our children."

(END VIDEO CLIP) VELSHI: Mine officials say the rescue shaft could take anywhere from three to four months to complete. Right now essential supplies are being sent down through three narrow shaft about four inches in diameter. Also today, the miners got their first solid food, as well as some music and a book called "Tactics of Oration," and that's to help them prepare for the media blitz once they're back above ground.

There are a lot of good teachers out there, but we want to turn them into great teachers. We're trying to fix our schools next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: "Fix Our Schools," those three words will drive much of what you see on CNN this week, because as America's children return to school, CNN has a mission.

We have seen reporting teams across the country to document the education crisis in America. Most importantly, we'll shine a light on success stories that can help us give our children much more than they're getting now. You know that we have a commitment to that on this show. That's why we do "Chalk Talk" as often as we do.

Today we're talking about teachers though. More specifically, about what they're doing right.

CNN's Randi Kaye introduces us to a man who is turning good teachers into great teachers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI RAGIN, FIFTH-GRADE MATH TEACHER, ROCHESTER PREP CHARTER SCHOOL: What is the measurement of the second angle?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Take a good look inside this classroom. Notice what isn't happening. Not a single student daydreaming or doodling. Each one alert, focused, engaged.

RAGIN: What is the greatest of the three angles? Anthony C.?

KAYE: This fifth-grade math teacher at Rochester Prep Charter School uses dozens of techniques she says make hers students want to learn.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS (singing): And put in the bottom number, seven. It's tiki (ph) time, eight, nine, 10, 11,12. How many do I got? Five, and keep it lined up.

RAGIN: Instead of doing a regular subtraction problem, they get a little boring after a while. You hit them with a song, and it's so much more interesting to them.

What type of triangle is it?

KAYE: That's just one of 49 techniques Kelli Ragin learned from this former teacher and principal. Doug LeMov says he's figured out how to take good teachers and make them great. (on camera): You do not believe that a good teacher is born. You believe a good teacher is made.

DOUG LEMOV, SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: Yes. I believe great teachers are made.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I double-dog dare you to use the word "adjacent" later on.

KAYE: What do you think makes a successful teacher?

LEMOV: I think the first thing that has to happen is the teacher has to have control of the classroom environment.

KAYE: Doug has been at this for five years. He seeks out schools with high poverty and high performance, then asks himself, what's in the water? Why does this work? he sits in the classroom, takes notes and records the teachers to perfect his techniques. He already has more than 600 hours of videotape.

(voice-over): Doug shares his favorite techniques with his teachers, sort of like paying it forward. In this video, the teacher asks a question. And then calls on a student at random, even calls on the same girl twice in a row.

LEMOV: The kids really have to be on their toes.

KAYE: And in this seventh grade math class, students snap if the classmate's answer is right and stomp if it's wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two snaps or two stomps on two. One, two.

(STUDENTS SNAP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nicely done. Number four --

KAYE (voice-over): It forces the whole class to engage in the answer. Eighty percent of the students here come from poverty. This may be their only shot at a future.

(on camera): Here at Rochester Prep, some students arrive only able to read at a third grade level. Some don't even know their letters. But after just two years here, Doug says those same student are twice as proficient as the rest of the district and ten times more prepared for college.

LEMOV: One hundred percent of the kids were proficient in seventh grade in math and English.

KAYE: One hundred percent?

LEMOV: Every single kid.

KAYE (voice-over): Good odds for improving public education.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Rochester, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: I want to talk to you now about a college prep program with an enormous success rate. It's called AVID, Advanced Via Individual Determination, and it works within the public school system to get kids into college.

Now, AVID is at work in nearly 4,500 schools in 45 states, as well as the District of Columbia, and 16 countries. And it covers large urban schools and small rural ones. Get this -- a whopping 95 percent of AVID grads end up enrolling in college.

Joining me now is the founder of AVID, Mary Catherine Swanson, and also Jonathan Grant Brown. He's a graduate of the AVID program.

Welcome to both of you. Thank you for being here.

Mary Catherine, I'm going to start with you. Give me a nutshell description of AVID and how it works.

MARY CATHERINE SWANSON, FOUNDER, AVID: Yes. AVID is for students who of course have good potential, but have no understanding of how to study, the courses they should take, or how to get on to college. And so we put them into the most advanced classes that our schools offer and then give them support during an AVID elective class to do well in those classes.

VELSHI: So, basically, they can get into advance placement classes, things like that, and there's an extra class that they go that prepares them for what's going on.

Jonathan, you are a graduate of AVID. Tell me your story.

JONATHAN GRANT BROWN, GRADUATE OF AVID: Well, I got into AVID in high school in my freshman year. And high school was probably one of the times where I was starting to make that transition.

I had grown up in foster care, and so for me, turning 18 meant that I had to move and go somewhere different. So, graduating from high school at first wasn't a goal for me. It wasn't something that I wanted to accomplish, because for me, turning 18 and graduating from high school kind of meant the end.

And so I was introduced to the AVID program by one of my teachers. He actually nominated me for it. And I went into the interview and I started telling the teacher what I thought were all the right answers to all her questions.

And the conversation got a little serious and she asked me -- she said to me, "What do you want to do with your future?" And I kind of broke down a little bit and I told her, "I don't have a future." I said, "When I turn 18, I won't even have a family, so how could I possibly have a future?"

And I expected her to feel sorry for me because that's usually the response that you get when you tell someone something like that, "Oh, poor kid. Whatever you need we'll take care of it." But I never wanted anyone to feel sorry for me. And she didn't.

She kind of checked me on it and she said, "You know what? There's a lot of things in life that you're going to have to go through, but you have to be bound and determined to gain success for yourself. And one way you can do that is by going to college and getting a degree." And I believed her.

VELSHI: And that's how you got in. What a great story.

All right. I want to hear about how this all worked and how it's working for other students in 4,500 schools across the country.

When we come back, Mary Catherine Swanson joins us again, Jonathan Grant Brown. We're going to talk about how we can use this all over the country.

"Fix Our Schools," that's what we're doing this week on CNN.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: "Fix Our Schools," it's what we're doing this week on CNN. It's what we do every week here on our show with "Chalk Talk."

Joining me again is the founder of AVID, Mary Catherine Swanson, and Jonathan Grant Brown. He's a graduate of the AVID program with a fantastic story of about how he came around and was encouraged to follow -- not only to pursue a college education, but given the tools to do it.

Mary Catherine, let me ask you about this. It sounds like there are two pieces to the success of AVID which works in public schools.

One is the system, whatever that system is. Two is teachers who are able to capture students like Jonathan and just give them a little bit of a tweak.

It didn't sound like you needed a turnaround, Jonathan. You needed a tweak in the right direction.

Tell me about the role of teachers, Mary Catherine.

SWANSON: Yes. Well, there are two things that teachers always have to do. One is make certain that we're teaching rigorous enough curriculum that our students will be well prepared for the 21st century. And when teachers don't do that, students assume that we think they're stupid. So we must give them the most rigorous curriculum.

And then the second half of it is, we have to support students. We have to let students know we really do care about how they do in schools.

And so within AVID -- and actually, AVID is a teacher professional development program -- we teach all academic teachers. Have the students take notes in your classes. Have the students study those notes as homework. And the next day, let them clarify in collaborative groups with other students what it is they're understanding or not understanding before we move on with the curriculum and have lost a lot of our students.

VELSHI: OK. Tell me -- and I think that's a great idea, applying that rigor to students, because the fact is -- as Jonathan said, he's going to face things in life. There's really no point in giving him a substandard education.

But tell me what you do, how you support these students who have been put into these difficult, rigorous or maybe advanced placement classes. There's another class that helps them get through it. Give me a little of the mechanics of how that actually works.

SWANSON: Well, one of the hallmarks of AVID -- and the students always joke about it -- are the huge binders that they carry everywhere. They're responsible for going to all of their classes because we check to make sure that they have notes. And they're responsible for working with their notes within the AVID classroom or they don't get credit for that course at all.

We hire college tutors who are the same backgrounds as the students we're teaching to come in and work with these students in subject-specific study groups. And just think how easy this is to do.

Before the students leave that day, they have to be able to explain in their own words to someone else what they now understand. If they can't do that, we know they don't have the curriculum and we need to re-teach it. If they can explain it, we can move on.

VELSHI: It sounds like what we do in the news business, actually. Maybe you'll get some good journalists out of the whole thing.

SWANSON: Absolutely.

VELSHI: Mary Catherine, answer this for me -- clearly without the motivation to do that extra course and work really hard, this isn't going to work, because it just sounds like you're giving them extra work and you're motivating them. But what is the thing that gets them to want to take this AVID course?

SWANSON: Well, most students do want to do well in school. How would you like to go to school every day and feel unsuccessful? I don't think anybody wants to do that.

Within AVID, of course they work hard. We tell them it will be hard work. We tell them that hard work makes them smart and you can do this. And as long as you're working hard, we're by your side to help you get where you want to go.

That's a very hopeful thing for students. They want to feel good about themselves, and when we put it that way, "You'll have a great future if you work hard," almost all students will buy into that. VELSHI: All right. Mary Catherine Swanson, what a great conversation. Thank you for being with us. What a successful program.

What we're doing this week is trying to highlight successes and see if we can get others to pick up on it.

So Mary Catherine Swanson is the founder of AVID. Jonathan Grant Brown was with us as well. He's a graduate of the AVID program with a remarkable, remarkable story about how he was on a track to not graduating from high school and how he ended up on a college track.

Again, you'll be hearing three words over and over this week on CNN -- "Fix Our Schools." We've got more than 20 CNN teams on a mission at the start of this new school year, a mission to witness the best education in action, solutions for a public school system in crisis, continuing tomorrow morning, 9:00 a.m., on CNN NEWSROOM.

OK. Nobody wants to spend Labor Day weekend hunkered indoors, but a lot of people on the East Coast might have to. The reason is a big, scary hurricane that could get stronger. Chad has got the latest track straight ahead.

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(WEATHER REPORT)

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VELSHI: On March the 20th of 2003, former president George W. Bush launched the Iraq War. Tonight, in an Oval Office speech, President Obama will declare U.S. combat operations are officially over.

We heard from him last hour in Fort Bliss, Texas, where he thanked troops for their service. But the pressing question on his mind and others is, is Iraq ready to defend itself?

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a television speech today, gave an unqualified answer -- Iraqi forces are both ready and capable to protect the country from both domestic and foreign enemies. He also declared that Iraq is sovereign and independent. That latter point, of course, is true.

The government is in limbo. Six months after inconclusive national elections, there is no new government. Today, the White House again expressed its impatience, calling on Iraq to move forward with a sense of urgency in forming a new government.

As for Iraq being strong enough to protect itself, critics inside and outside the Obama administration aren't so sure of that and point to a recent spike in violence. One example, two days ago, a wave of 20 bomb attacks struck 13 Iraqi cities, killing 48 people and wounding more than 280.

The continued violence is the main reason that some 50,000 American troops are staying in Iraq. They'll help the Iraqi if called on to do so. Plus, special forces troops will press ahead with counterterrorism missions.

All right. Time for "Globe Trekking." And we're going to stay on Iraq right now. It's an ancient area, one that is remarkably diverse in numerous ways. Here's an Iraq 101 we've prepared for you.

Let me give you facts you may or may not know about Iraq. In the Middle East, 271,000 square miles, diverse geography. It's got mountains and plains and deserts. Between 28 million and 30 million people live there. Temperatures at great extremes. It can get up to 120 degrees in the summer and below freezing in the winter, depending on where you are in the country. Ninety-seven percent of the country is Muslim. Three percent of the population are Christian or something other than Muslim.

In terms of natural resources, I think we all know this one. Iraq has a lot of oil, natural gas, phosphates and sulfur. It's the ancient Mesopotamia. Baghdad is the confluence of the Tigress and Euphrates Rivers. Some say the Garden of Eden was in Mesopotamia.

Now, Iraq's two largest ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds. Let me show you what the size of Iraq is compared to something you're more familiar with in the United States. This is Iraq -- it is very similar to New York, let's say. Or Illinois or Georgia. It is a very small country in terms of land mass compared to something like the United States.

What I want to give you a sense of as well is who controlled Iraq? Who owned Iraq? It used to be called Mesopotamia. This is an ancient, ancient name. Mesopotamia was ruled or controlled by the Ottoman Empire, which was based in Turkey. It was a large empire that controlled much of what we now know as the Middle East. But the Ottoman Empire sided with the Axis forces, Germany, Italy and Japan during the Second World War. So when that war ended, they were defeated and the spoils of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, were split between Britain and France; Britain ended up with Iraq. France ended up with Lebanon, for instance. But they split it all up.

And Britain owned what was then Iraq. They renamed it Iraq in the 1930s. After that, there were uprisings and finally, Iraq achieved independence. It was a kingdom for a little while. The king was overthrown and the Baath Party, which was a common party through the Middle East, took power. Saddam Hussein was part of the Baath Party. He was involved for some decades before he actually became the leader in Iraq.

Subsequently, after the invasion of Iraq, it has been controlled by the U.S. and the United Kingdom. That is now coming to an end. And the hopes are that with an elected Iraqi democratic government, Iraq as an independent government, can actually succeed. That, of course, remains to be seen now that the operations -- the combat operations in Iraq are over and security is gradually being handed over to the Iraqi government.

And of course, we cannot and will not forget America's other war, Afghanistan. Fighting there has spiked in recent days. Five American service members were killed today, four of them in a roadside bomb attack in the eastern part of the country. A fifth soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in the south. Plus, three Afghan supreme court staff members were killed, 12 wounded in an attack in Kabul province. These attacks follow yesterday, seven NATO troops were killed yesterday.

President Obama is going to address the nation on Iraq tonight from the Oval Office. He'll talk about Afghanistan and the broader war on terrorism. Join us for live coverage of the speech, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, followed by a breakdown of the president's remarks and reports from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Up next, "Mission Possible." We'll meet an amazing wounded warrior who's helping and inspiring others who survived attacks on the battlefield.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Thank you. This story in to CNN. Zsa Zsa Gabor was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital today. A spokesman for her husband said she was unresponsive. So the husband called 911. The 93-year- old Gabor had been suffering complications from hip surgery. We'll keep you posted on this as more developments become available. Again, Zsa Zsa Gabor rushed to the hospital today. Her husband claiming she was unresponsive and called 911.

Checking other headlines now. Hurricane earl could brush the Carolinas' Outer Banks by Friday. Storm surges are possible. The Category 4 hurricane brought rain and high winds to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The eye of the storm did miss those islands, though. As of last report, the storm is about 1,000 miles south - south -- southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Winds are 135 miles an hour.

The Food and Drug Administration is reporting stunning violations at Iowa farms at the center of a massive egg recall. Inspectors found piles of manure - eight feet high in some cases -- rodents, uncaged birds and a vast number of flies and maggots. The violations were found at six farms. Officials say neither of the two companies involved fully followed their salmonella prevention plans.

In Pakistan, the death toll from vast monsoon flooding has climbed to more than 1,600. More than 17 million people have been affected. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports that there appears to be little organization in getting relief aid to flood victims. He also report that is in some case, desperate victims have fought each other in trying to get their hands on distributed aid.

All right. It's time now for "Mission Possible." Retired Army Captain Jonathan Pruden was wounded by an IED, an improvised explosive device in Iraq. He's since undergone 20 operations over the last three years, including the amputation of his right leg. He now serves as an outreach coordinator for the Wounded Warrior Project covering Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana. Captain Pruden, good to see you. Thank you for joining us today.

CAPTAIN JONATHAN PRUDEN, U.S. ARMY (RET.) (via Skype): Thanks for having us on, Ali.

VELSHI: One of the things you may have heard a couple of hours ago, the president at Fort Bliss sending a message to warriors and soldiers coming back, wounded or not, that you're going to be welcomed back with open arms from all quarters and that any disputes about the mission in Iraq have nothing to do with sort of the esteem in which he holds U.S. soldiers.

Do wounded warriors come back and get those open arms and get the necessary treatment that they deserve?

PRUDEN: The medical treatment from D.O.D. and the V.A. has been mostly first-rate. There are still gaps in the system. That's where the Wounded Warrior Project comes in. We're here to welcome them home, wounded and not, from Iraq and Afghanistan, and it's truly an honor to be part of this organization.

VELSHI: Let's talk about wounded or not and the degree of what wounded means. We know about 40,000 troops have been wounded in the last seven-and-a-half years. About half -- more than half have not gone back. A few have been able to go back.

But some wounds are very obvious, like yours. You ended up losing a leg. What's the range of wounds that you encounter?

PRUDEN: Everything from folks in profound comas. Poly Trauma Center in Tampa (ph), unfortunately in recent months due to the violence in Afghanistan, those have been record numbers. Actually since Vietnam.

But frankly, I spend most of my time working with wounded warriors, dealing with mild traumatic stress -- or mild traumatic brain injuries, PTSD, and oftentimes substance abuse issues.

VELSHI: Yes, and that's what we've been reading about. What I've been reading about is that's the part that's harder to see. That's the one that you don't see a limb missing, you don't see an obvious wound. But it's hard to figure that out and to deal with how to reintegrate that soldier into a normal life.

PRUDEN: Absolutely. I see the whole spectrum of wounds from (INAUDIBLE) amputees, paraplegics. And the number one thing that either keeps them going or causes them to fail is their mind and their heart. And that's tied into traumatic brain injuries and into PTSD.

And the numbers, unfortunately, are unknown. But estimates range in the hundreds of thousands affected by PTSD and mild traumatic brain injuries due to ongoing, ongoing, ongoing blast exposures from multiple deployments.

VELSHI: How do you as somebody who counsels these people deal with that? Because you're dealing with soldiers, the toughest of the tough, and yet -- so you don't want to belittle what's going on with them, don't want to make them uncomfortable. And yet are they able to identify what's wrong and how do they reach out to you for help? How do you bridge that gap?

PRUDEN: There's not a good single answer. As a project, we are working to train warriors that are coming back and being successful to reach back and help their brothers and sisters coming behind them. In fact, a stepping out from a class I'm teaching right now, (INAUDIBLE) training. I'm teaching staff and warriors good tools and techniques to be an advocate and to be a friend and a peer mentor for these returning combat troops.

VELSHI: I want to ask you something, Jonathan. The president's speech today at Fort Bliss reminded me of when a lot of people came back from Vietnam and they were faced with this idea that there were many Americans who didn't support the mission over there.

We're coming back with a lot of that. How does that play into a warrior who's been wounded, a soldier who's been wounded, maybe lost a limb or is struggling psychologically -- coming back into an environment where not everybody thought they should have been in that war?

PRUDEN: I think this generation is very fortunate. My father served in Vietnam. And the veterans of Vietnam did not receive the welcome home that they deserved. This generation, fortunately, is being supported in all sectors: the nonprofit, Wounded Warrior Project, D.O.D. and the V.A. And I think fortunately in this war, regardless of political ideology, most of our nation has been able to separate that in the warrior and are respecting their service and their sacrifice, despite how they feel about the rightness or the wrongness of our mission there.

VELSHI: I think you're absolutely right about that. I hope that's true, at least, that we separate what we think about how our troops should be deployed from what we think about those troops who are deployed. And we see them all the time, and you can't do anything but respect the fact that they are following orders and doing what they think is right.

Jonathan Pruden, what a pleasure to see you. Thank you very much for being with us. And congratulations on the good work you're doing.

PRUDEN: Thank you very much for having us on.

VELSHI: For more on the Wounded Warrior Project, go to my blog, CNN.com/ali. We'll link you to what you need to know.

And as we were discussing, President Obama is going to give his second Oval Office address of his presidency tonight. We're going to talk with Ed Henry about it, coming up next.

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VELSHI: Let's go to the White House. Ed Henry standing by for "The Stakeout." He's our senior White House correspondent. A particularly busy day for you, Ed. They're all kind of busy. But this is only the second -- I didn't realize, this is only the second Oval Office address this president has given?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. First one was in early June on the Gulf Oil spill. And the reason is, presidents only break out the Oval Office backdrop very rarely. And in this case, it is a pretty big moment. I know that Iraq is not the center of attention these days all the time. Obviously, a lot of people here at home are worried about the economy.

But this is a big day, as you've been noting during your entire show. Seven years and counting for the war. And let's face it, it's not over. It's a pivot point. It's the end of combat operations. But you were just talking to a wounded warrior. There's still going to be 50,000, approximately, U.S. troops on the ground there.

The president today went to Texas to Fort Bliss to speak to some troops about their sacrifice and said, look, this is not going to be a victory lap tonight. It's not going to be self-congratulations. Said it's going to be congratulations to the troops on a job well done.

It's interesting subtext here because you have both the House and Senate Republican leaders, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, giving speeches today. My colleague Dana Bash has a good story about that on the political ticker right now in fact, at CNN.com about how they're basically saying, we told you so today, because they think the last thing this president should be doing is self-congratulations because of the fact that in 2007, he opposed the surge in Iraq as a U.S. senator that Republicans believe helped stabilize the situation.

Republicans still not going as far to say we won the war, but they believe that the surge stabilized the situation, and it was the surge this president opposed as a senator. So, he's got a balancing act tonight as somebody who opposed the war at the start, opposed the surge but did promise as a candidate, presidential candidate, to bring combat troops home within 16 months. He's essentially keeping that campaign promise. There's a balance there tonight, for sure.

VELSHI: You mentioned they don't break out the Oval Office very often. It is the symbol of strength of the office of the president at United States. Was I reading something that you posted, that there's bit something of a makeover in the Oval Office?

HENRY: Yes, it's pretty funny. While the president was away -- I don't watch that show, but my colleague Dan Lothian was telling me the extreme makeover. When you go on vacation, they redo your house on that reality show. Well, they sort of did that - a little bit different, of course -- at the White House.

The president was at Martha's Vineyard with his family. They redid it. We want to make clear, it's not taxpayer-funded redecorating. It's done through the White House Historical Office. Money paid by the inaugural committee, those are privately raised donations. But they got new carpet in there, president's got a new sofa. Kind of spruced it up, made it a little more modern. We've got the pictures up there at CNN.com.

Maybe a little Mad Men, you know? Maybe a little bit more modern, maybe he's trying to pick up off that show.

VELSHI: Speaking of picture, I notice you keep clicking pictures of things when I'm on TV. What's up with that?

HENRY: Yes, well I was watching you earlier today. I'm glad you mentioned that. Because I try to keep up with you. You have a lot of important things to say.

But sometimes, let's say, you talk a little too much maybe. And I notice there was a ciron (ph) there earlier underneath you. And you were in what I call the "full Ali." I mean, you were really getting in there, talking. And underneath you, it said, "Manure piled eight feet high." And at first, I thought it was a mistake. And then I thought, "Maybe it fits.

So, I put it on Twitter and one person responded to me, "Also amusing the egg-like quality of Velshi's head" in that image. I think you were talking about the egg scare, in fairness.

VELSHI: I was. I was talking about how manure was piled eight feet high in one of the egg farms.

HENRY: Oh, I'm sorry. I missed that part. Now, I'm glad I have the context.

VELSHI: Because I'm really only about 5'9.

(LAUGHTER)

HENRY: I wasn't saying you were literally eight feet. But sometimes when you get into that full Ali --

VELSHI: It feels like eight feet of me.

HENRY: I didn't want to say manure. But you know -- you're good.

VELSHI: Thank you. No, I wanted to make the point. Clearly I did.

Ed, stay safe, if that weather comes up your way this weekend. Great to see you. We'll be watching very closely tonight, 8:00. We've got full coverage on this.

And of course, I'll see you tomorrow on TV. I don't know why I'm worried about the weekend.

HENRY: I know! You're jumping ahead.

VELSHI: Yes. I am jumping ahead. But we're worried about that storm.

But we'll be seeing you tonight. We'll be seeing you tomorrow again at this time for "The Stakeout." Ed Henry, as always. Today's "Wordplay" has something to do with dating but there is nothing romantic about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Today's "Wordplay" comes out of the egg recall and ongoing salmonella scare. It has more to do with numbers than with words. It's Julian Date. If you've never heard of it, you need to listen up, because it could keep you from getting sick.

Most states require a Julian Date on the egg carton to tell consumers when the eggs were packaged. Trouble is, a lot of people have no clue what that means.

The Julian date, named after Julius Caesar, is the numerical day of the year. In other words, eggs packaged on January 1st would get the Julian Date 001, January 2nd, 002, so on. All the way up to December 31st, which would be 365, or 366 if it happens to be a leap year.

Your eggs are good for a full 45 days after that date if you refrigerator them. Easy enough, right? Until you start looking at a calendar and trying to do the math. Would you have known, for instance, today, the Julian Date is 243? Eggs stamped today should be good until Julian Date 288.

An end to U.S. combat operations in Iraq and a possible new beginning for Mideast peace talks. Two major stories we're covering this week. The past has been cleared. The future is uncertain. I'll talk about it in my "XYZ."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for the "XYZ" of it. "XYZ" is the end of something. In this case, it signals the end of today's show. We start again tomorrow.

There's an XYZ of sorts underway in Iraq. The end of an era, the end of combat operations. What that means remains unclear. It's strange war when the end of combat operations is underscored by 50,000 troops remaining in the country. People can say over and over and over again that they are there to advise and assist. Bottom line is they're soldiers, not consultants in suits and briefcases with iPads. They're armed, they're in harm's way, they are in for what all intents and purposes is a war zone.

Hopefully, this does symbolize a change in the U.S. mission. But just saying so won't make it so.

Another historic event occurring this week, another chance at peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Whatever you think of that mess, whether you think the Palestinians or the Israelis are to blame, there are two facts that can't be debated. Too many innocent people have had their lives shattered, and this fight has gone on for too long. Like much of what happens in the Middle East, the truth in the Israeli/Palestinian situation has often been as elusive as peace. So, between now and Thursday, we're going to try and bring some perspective to that legendary struggle by two of the world's ancient cultures, two cultures and at least three religions that have more in common than you might think. Israelis and Palestinians have legitimate claims to land and sovereignty and self-determination and safety. But those claims overlap. And the overlap has been deadly.

Both the major stories I mentioned clearly share one thing -- uncertainty. We certainly can't predict the future, but we can have intelligent, thought-provoking conversations to help you bring some clarity to table. And we'll talk over the course of the week.

That's my "XYZ." Time now for Rick and "RICK'S LIST."