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New Osama bin Laden Tape Released; Unemployed Workers Organizing for Political Action; Tyler Clementi: A Young Life Cut Short; NAACP Organizing Rally at Washington D.C.; New Toys Coming Out For Christmas Season; Teacher Admits to Prostitution Past

Aired October 02, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Another purported audio message from Osama bin Laden. This is the second one in two days, and this one once again urging Muslims to take part in a humanitarian cause.

Also, let me give you a live picture of Washington, D.C. Another weekend and yes, another rally. This one, the One Nation Working Together rally is what it's called. It's billed as a social movement, and one of the organizers says this is a march for the change we voted for. We'll be taking you back there live from the CNN Center.

This is your CNN Saturday morning for this October 2nd. I'm T.J. Holmes. I want to turn to this purported tape, a second in two days, messages we're hearing from Osama bin Laden. Another one released today. In it he's urging Muslims to help flood victims in Pakistan. This is a 13-minute tape and it has a title. It is "Help Your Pakistani Brothers."

I talked to our national security analyst Peter Bergen a little earlier about the tape. He said no doubt in his mind that this in fact is Osama bin Laden on this audiotape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: He sees -- the Al Qaeda now sees himself as something of an elder statesman. But why the tapes now?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think part of it is a proof of life, T.J. He's been keeping pretty quiet. He and his number two have been releasing fewer tapes, I think, partly because they are concerned about their own security. Maybe the drone attacks in the area where they are presumed to be living are interrupting their operations.

But for them getting a tape out around the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is important. We saw Aman al-Zawari got a tape a few days after the attack and here is bin Laden now with two. I think it's just a reminder that they are still alive and that they are, you know, they want to show they are still in the game.

HOLMES: What do you make, Peter, of the message, humanitarian message of sorts? BERGEN: Not entirely surprising because bin Laden in more recent videotapes and audiotapes has been positioning himself as more of an elder statesman, talking about climate change, talking being about offering truces to countries that are not attacking Muslims.

He's been a little less banging the table, shouting about holy war and jihad. Although it is surprising, I think, T.J., these tapes are completely about a humanitarian issue rather than about, you know, usually he makes some reference to kill the Jews or the Americans. But there's not about on these.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Bergen said bin Laden has record about 30 audiotapes since 9/11. As a reminder here these oftentimes are just impossible to authenticate. So we don't know for sure. CNN working to confirm but right now have not confirmed the authenticity of those messages.

We turn to Pakistan now, still in the region, three separate drone attacks in Pakistan killed 18 suspected militants today. That's according to intelligence officials. The sources say the strikes hit north Waziristan a trouble spot near the border with Afghanistan. Missiles hit two militant hideouts and a vehicle. This country continues what has been a pattern of increasing use of these unmanned drones.

To politics here now -- we are a month away from the crucial midterm elections. If this is the year of the dissatisfied voter, as some suggest it is, consider that millions of those unemployed Americans are going to the ballot box. Democrats certainly have that on their minds.

CNN's Jim Acosta reports now from Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANGELA ORAVSKY, UNEMPLOYED WORKER: I lost my home. I spent all of my daughter's college fund to survive.

ACOSTA: They are sharing their horror stories from the great recession.

LIZ LASSITER, UNEMPLOYED WORKER: I'm looking everywhere, McDonald's, anywhere.

LINDA HILLER, UNEMPLOYED WORKER: I'm trying to keep my family together.

ACOSTA: And even though they are sitting around a kitchen table, it's clear this is no Tea Party.

ANGELA ORAVSKY, UNEMPLOYED WORKER: I don't care if I have to, shall I say scream from the roof tops, knock on doors. We have to come together as unemployed people.

ACOSTA: These unemployed workers were recruited by one of the nation's biggest unions to become part of a new political force, the idea to match the emotion and energy that fuels the Tea Party but to keep the Democrats in power in Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want to give people a choice.

ACOSTA: Organizers say this meeting inside this home of Angele Oravsky is one of many across Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a crucial swing district in the upcoming midterm election, an area that bears the scars of the recession.

ACOSTA (on camera): If you think the politicians can escape these harsh realities, consider Congressman Patrick Murphy. Four out of five businesses surrounding his Congressional office in this part of Bucks County are closed. Hard times are right outside his front door.

Murphy was not available for an on camera interview, but in his TV ad he wants his Republican rival Mike Fitzpatrick will take the country back to the Bush years. Fitzpatrick who lost to Murphy four years ago said President Obama's policies are the issue.

ACOSTA: But if there are more Republicans like you in Washington won't there be more gridlock, and nothing will get done?

MIKE FITZPATRICK, (R) PENNSYLVANIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: No. If there's more people like me in Washington we'll have a reasonable health care reform bill and lower taxes. Lower taxes will permit the business person to create jobs and put these men and women back to work.

ACOSTA: Back at Angela Oravsky's house they are writing postcards to remind voters what's at stake on Election Day.

ACOSTA: Do you honestly feel a little disappointed?

KIM MCMURRAY, AFL-CIO ORGANIZER: I think that we're a little disappointed how everyone didn't work together on this huge issue, which is the economy.

ACOSTA: The Democrats were in control.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were in control but they can't do everything by themselves.

ACOSTA: You could say she has found herself a job.

ORAVSKY: I'm so tired these people are lazy they need to gate job. They need to come off unemployment. I would do anything and everybody at this table would do anything to work.

ACOSTA: Her mission is to get out the vote.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Bristol, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Some people certainly are concerned about jobs. They're concerned about taxes as well. We've seen this back and forth about the tax cuts which are set to expire for everybody by the end the year if Congress doesn't do something. But our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is joining me now.

We know at least what they're not going to do, Paul, that is get these tax cuts, this issue taken care of before election day. They already high tailed it out of town this week before handling the tax cut issue. The minority leader in the Senate addressing that this morning.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: About two months ago tax cuts were a big issue but now a lot of people talking about it both here in D.C. and across the country. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, and this morning on the Republicans radio internet address he went after the Democrats blaming them for not holding a vote on tax cuts and basically saying the Democrats are holding tax cuts hostage. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: Too preoccupied with the rest of their agenda they neglected to pass or propose legislation that would prevent one of the largest tax hikes in history. As a result, at the stroke of midnight on December the 31st, every American who pays income taxes is set to get a tax hike the Democrats have had two years to prevent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: You can imagine president Obama and Democrats in Congress don't agree with Mitch McConnell. They say in fact it's the Republicans that are holding the tax cuts for the middle class hostage because they want to give tax cuts as well to the wealthiest Americans. You'll hear more about it in the next 31 days.

HOLMES: We'll hear a lot about it. And then they have to do something about it when the lame duck session is in play after the election. They are not going to have a lot of time. They got two more breaks, Thanksgiving break and Christmas time, so they got a lot of work to get in there.

But we're talking about right now the mid-terms of 2010. Why do you want to talk about 2012?

STEINHAUSER: 2012 the battle for the Republican presidential nomination is already under way. Take a look at this.

On the CNN Political Ticker this morning, T.J., Mike Pence, Republican congressman from Indiana, where will he be today? Iowa. Why does that matter? Two reasons -- Mike Pence may run for the Republican presidential nomination and Iowa is a crucial state. It's caucus kicks off the presidential calendar. And the next battle is already under way. Remember 8:00 you said hey where is everybody else? I've got Gobi in here already. She's writing a few articles on the CNN Political Ticker. We're heating up. We're not taking the weekends off here T.J.

HOLMES: Yes, full house. Two of you. That's awesome.

STEINHAUSER: Hey.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: I'm kidding. I know you guys work hard up there in D.C. Thanks so much.

I want to turn to a story out of New York now. I want to turn to our Stephanie Elam is standing by there for me this morning. Stephanie good morning to you. We're getting just the update here on was a shocking story we heard about this week. This young man out of Rutgers University who committed suicide after his gay sex encounter was posted online for all to see by his roommate.

What are we hearing from the university now? I know that the president trying to reach out to student body now.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's true. We're hearing from the university. They are saying this is an investigation that is ongoing at this point and so because of that, they are not going really speak with it at this time.

But when you look at this story, T.J., there's a lot of mystery about this. And we want to go through this so we can put this into focus here. But we have found posts on the internet that appear to be from Tyler on a different website. They trace back to Rutgers but at this point we're not sure they are from him. However it's very similar to what has allegedly occurred at Rutgers.

A person posting is upset his roommate taped him. He said he contacted his RA and also two university officials above him. We asked the university about that. They said at this point they can't comment on that particular part because of the federal privacy laws that protect college students. So we don't know exactly what has transpired.

We did ask the university if they could characterize how they handled the situation and did they handle it well. And here's what the university spokesperson told us. Quote, "I have spoken to virtually every principal involved in this matter and they have attempted to handle this matter to the best of their ability." That's coming from the spokesman from Rutgers University.

No doubt about it, that still leaves a lot of questions out there. The university president says he plans to reach out to the leaders of the LBGT community and see if they can help to make this so much easier and better for students who are coming in to the university, any 18-year-old kids coming in, and helping them through the situation. HOLMES: And we hearing from Tyler's family yet?

ELAM: We have heard from them a couple of times and we have a new statement from them. I'm going read you a quick part of it. It says "We understand our family's personal tragedy presents important legal issues important the country as well as for us. Regardless of our legal outcomes, our hope is that our family's personal tragedy will serve as a call for call for compassion, empathy, and human dignity.

Obviously there's no way to prepare when you find out that the body was recovered from the Hudson River and he allegedly jumped off the bridge, the George Washington Bridge a few days ago. So just a really rough time for this community, for this family and the Rutgers University as well.

HOLMES: A horrible story. Stephanie, we appreciate you this morning. Thanks so much as always.

Coming up we're going take you back to Washington, D.C. here shortly. Another weekend, another rally. It seems like a couple of these over the past few weekends. This one expected to be large as well. Just now it's not getting underway just yet, but people are starting to gather at the Lincoln Memorial. This is the One Nation Working Together rally. We'll tell you what this one is all about as we go back there live.

But first got a quick quiz for you. A new reading survey is out by the education research company Scholastic and it says many parents believe their children have to handle far more information than they did. How many parents agree with that? 53 percent, 65 percent, 84 percent? The answer is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Before the break we asked you the question how many parents out there think their children have to handle more information than they had to as kids? Is it 53, 65 or 84 percent? Well, you might have guessed this -- 84 percent of parents believe that, yes, their kids have to handle more.

The obvious difference is the massive amount of digital information and images transmitted daily over the Internet and, of course, on those cell phones.

We turn to Mexico now. They are experiencing severe flooding. It's affected thousands of people. The government declared 15 more communities as disaster areas. That's up to 35 in total now. Tent cities have been set up in many places. Vera Cruz have been inundated by six and a half feet of water standing in some places.

Estimates are that the flooding in eastern and southern Mexico impacted about 100,000 people. Lives here in this country being impacted as well by flooding in particular North Carolina got the worst of it. Seven of the eight deaths blamed on the weather that happened up and down the east coast happened there. Four deaths there happened in North Carolina happened when a car hydro planed on a highway.

Windsor is what you're seeing there. People had to be rescued by boat. They had to up by some and taken to dry land. We don't know when they can get back to their homes. City official are calling the situation there dire.

Reynolds Wolf with me here. He's been keeping an eye on the weather situation all week. The waters will go down fairly quickly and no more rain on the way, is that right?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. They may see a few more clouds. Maybe back in the mountains and parts of the Appalachians they may have a few stray showers, but certainly not in the magnitude they've had.

Isn't it weird that if you could go back in time to Tuesday, there were people getting out walking around, and then everything changes, really quickly. A lot of rain in a very short amount of time adds up. Take a look at this -- 22.54 inches rainfall since Sunday in Wilmington. A lot of it fell over the last couple of days. We you have a lot of rainfall that falls in a short duration it stacks up and doesn't have time to drain off.

From Wilmington up to New York the rain has been impressive. New York 2.9, fairly decent. In Norfolk nearly a foot of rainfall, that rain again fizzling out today moving off as that frontal boundary moves to sea. Another one developing over the Great Lakes and we'll zoom in on that key spot.

It's kind of hard to miss at this point if you're making a drive from parts of 75 going through Saginaw, Flint, making your way to commerce township, some scattered showers.

Moving over Lake Erie north of Cleveland. If you're in Cleveland looking northward you might see a flash of lightning. It's back to Muncie strong showers. That system driving off to the east. As it does so you're going have more rain develop in parts of mid-state, the finger lake states, Altoona, Pennsylvania you might have some showers.

Behind that system high pressure will build in. Give you great conditions, clear skies, a little bit on the cool side. Freezing countries in parts of the northern plains, but a different story by the afternoon -- 57 in Minneapolis, 71 your high in Denver, 84 in Dallas, 87 in Houston, 78 in Atlanta, L.A. checking in with 80 degrees. Nice day there possibly some showers in Ventura, up in San Francisco also.

Back to you, T.J.

HOLMES: Reynolds, appreciate it as always. Thank you so much.

We got just about a month to go before midterm elections. Show you the live picture once again from the one nation working together rally. It's getting started in Washington, D.C. It's supposed to get underway at 11:00 but really starts to kick up at noon. This has been billed as a gathering social movement of individuals, several, even several hundred organizations have jumped on board this.

Again another rally taking place. We'll take you back there live checking in with one of the organizers and somebody who is attending hopped on a bus to catch a ride across country to be there. It's 20 minutes past the hour. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's 23 minutes past the hour now. A live look at the nation's capital this morning where there's a little rally going on. I say little -- it's on the national mall, expected to be a big turnout and a big deal. This is a rally that has its eyes on the midterm elections where the working or unemployed say it's for people to come together and work on a positive agenda.

And a blogger is already there. In fact, he's been crossing the country. You went on a cross country trip blogging across America about hot button political issues. Thank you for being here. What are you doing there?

HAROON "BOON" SALEEM, POLITICAL BLOGGER: How are you, T.J.? Pleasure to be here as well. What am I doing here? I'm part of 400 groups being here. We're here to bring people together, to talk about the issues that are of concern right now in the country.

I think when you look at what's been going on not just in the past eight years but the last couple of years there's a little bit of frustration. I think there's a need to move beyond divisive politics. That brought all these organizations together. I see a ton of people from NAACP around the corner. They are is one of 400 groups.

Their hope is people on the Hill, our representatives will notice that we have concerns and we have something to say and that we want them to refocus on what's going on in the country.

HOLMES: You said you're upset about what happened. You also mentioned what's been happening the past couple of years. Is this rally is meant to send a message directly to president Obama that some of you all, you may be in particular, are not happy with what you've been seeing the past couple of years?

SALEEM: I'm not going to say me in particular. I do think there are people that are just concerned would probably be the right word. Other people are frustrated.

For me it's an opportunity to say hey we still -- there's still things that need to be done. I think two years is a short amount of time. I'll give the administration a little bit of credit. I think they did a lot of great things. But I think the administration knows themselves there's still work to be done.

I think this is geared more towards the Hill, though, not necessarily the administration. That's my personal feeling.

HOLMES: That's your personal feeling. Is there a feeling as well that this rally needs to in some way compete with, at least match, or maybe outdo what we saw several weeks ago when Glenn Beck had a huge rally there or with some of the huge Tea Party rallies.

SALEEM: I should have seen that question coming.

HOLMES: Is there a feeling that you have to compete in some way?

SALEEM: I wouldn't necessarily say compete. I think it's just the opportunity -- for everyone here it's an opportunity for us to just -- we want our voices heard. I wouldn't, to me, competition, et cetera. Look Tea Partiers have a right to speak as well. That is the -- that's what's written in the constitution. So I wouldn't necessarily say compete at all.

HOLMES: Well, I know you've had a long trip to get there. And you talk about some of those NAACP folks right around the corner from you. We'll be talking to them as well. We appreciate you being able. Glad you made it there safely. Enjoy the rally. A safe trip back home as well but thank you so much.

SALEEM: I'm glad they are flying me back this time.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: It's shorter that way. He did have a long trip.

But Ben Jealous, the NAACP president is standing by. He's one of those as well who, his group, the NAACP, part of the organizers of the rally today. I'm going to be chatting with him in just a second.

Also we are just two months 23 days until Christmas. Do you know which toys are out there that every kid must have? There's always that must have list. Must we have those?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back to this CNN Saturday morning. Bottom of the hour here now, and they are not too far away from getting started in Washington, D.C. Another weekend, another rally. We have seen several of these in the past weeks. Most notably Glenn Beck, the Fox News commentator who had one in D.C. filled the mall just about a month ago with a huge rally he had there.

Well, another rally today. This one billed or called the One Nation Working together rally. It's billed as a social movement of individuals, meant to send a message to the White House, meant to send a message to Congress to get back on track, that we need to be working together.

One of the organizers of the event, NAACP, one of many organizations, hundreds of organizations who are putting this thing together, and the president of the NAACP Ben Jealous joining me right now.

Ben, always good to see you. Thanks for being here.

Can people call this, they called the other one a conservative rally. Is it fair for them to call this a liberal rally today? BEN JEALOUS, PRESIDENT, NAACP: This is the most diverse march on Washington we've ever seen. You'll see conservative faith groups here with the miners and environmentalists, the LGBT community, the full range of people in this country who are concerned that they don't see themselves on the TV anymore.

This is about reflecting the mainstream back to the mainstream, people who say look, in tough times when tensions are going up and prosperity is going down, the way we reduce tensions is to increase prosperity.

That's what pushing health care reform was about that. More folks live but fewer folks going into bankruptcy. That's what saving 150,000 teacher jobs last month was about. We need to create 3 million more jobs in this country. Let's come together and put each other back to work.

HOLMES: Come together but I just want to be sure because we've seen other rallies Tea Party rallies the Glenn Beck rally in that same area where you are. Many saw that as conservative. And even on the front page of the Web site it has a article says "liberal coalitions look to reenergize voters with a D.C. rally."

I just want to make sure if it's fair to call it a liberal rally?

JEALOUS: This will be very diverse. I don't know a whole lot of library minded workers. They will be in force. We're proud of the media covering this march. That's their message not ours.

Our message this is one nation working together. When you pan the crowd, just before George Clinton goes on with Parliament to close this all out, you'll see Muslims and Jews, Christians and Buddhists, people of all faiths and colors here to say it's time to put this country back to work and pull this country back together.

HOLMES: It sounds like you have a heck of a concert if nothing else going on.

I asked the gentleman I talked to a moment ago who was there. Did you feel some pressure in putting this together that you have to compete in some way with the rally we saw a few weeks ago with Glenn Beck there or some of the Tea Party rallies to try to either match their energy or their numbers?

JEALOUS: You know, we're not the answer to the Tea Party, we're not the alternative to the Tea Party. We're very much the antidote to the Tea Party. We're a different response to the same situation.

Some folks see tensions going up and prosperity going down, and they want to inflame the tension. We say let's push up on prosperity. Let's create a tide that lifts all boats. Let's make sure firefighters, nurse, teachers, cops can keep their jobs. We need them to keep us safe and teach our kids.

In tough times there's a playbook for how you get out of the Great Depression, the same one that can get us out of the great recession, we have to focus on jobs.

HOLMES: Ben, a lot of people, a lot of Tea Party activists in this country, there are millions of them, a lot would take offense to what you just said. We're not an alternative, we're actually an antidote. That suggests you're the solution to some problem on that side with the Tea Party.

What is their problem? It sounds like you're trying to cure some poison or disease. What is the problem on the Tea Party you're trying to be the antidote for? You know some people will be offended by that.

JEALOUS: Look, we need to focus less and less on war and tax cuts for the richest one percent, more and more on jobs and schools for the other 99 percent. There's people in the Tea Party who believe in that. We want them here.

You know I've taken issue with your the extremists on the right. Most of those folks are good people. A lot of times we disagree on some very key ideas. Right now a lot of Tea Party leaders are pushing to extend tax cuts for the richest one percent and we need to focus on jobs for the other 99 percent. It's a good honest debate in this country, one that we need to have more of.

HOLMES: Ben, did you reach out to the Tea Party, anybody, any Tea Party person out there and invite them to be a part of this rally today?

JEALOUS: Actually I did. In fact, I invited Tea Party activists to speak with me, because somebody has been speaking out about the racism at the rallies. He was a bit concerned because he doesn't support the entire agenda. He's more a fiscal conservative than most folks here. But yes, in fact we're going back and forth on taxes three days ago.

HOLMES: You all couldn't agree. You're on the phone but couldn't essentially appear together because you needed each other to adopt the other's philosophy it sounds like in a way.

JEALOUS: No, no, no. I said come here. I would be happy to hook you up with Lenny. I said Lenny, come on. You can say you want tax cuts for the rich. That's fine. But let's stand up together and talk about the need for a civil debate in this country.

Again, you know, that was his choice. But we extended the olive branch. I sent multiple texts. We would have accommodated him in any way he wanted because he's been a courageous voice for inclusion in this country.

We want the Tea Party to be better. We want home them to be more inclusive. We don't want our NAACP members to be hit over the head with signs as happened in Dallas. Enough of that. You want to debate tax policy, if you really think the best solution for this country is tax cuts for the richest one percent and not jobs for the 99 percent, I'm ready to have that all day long. We can have that here.

HOLMES: Who is the person you met with at the Tea Party, or you talked to at the Tea Party again?

JEALOUS: Lenny, and I'm happy to hook you up when him.

HOLMES: OK.

JEALOUS: You and I are friends. I'm happy to connect him. If you want to talk to Lenny we can get you guys hooked up.

HOLMES: Ben I want to hear from you as well because the NAACP Tea Party we had that huge flak a few months ago. What do we have to do to get you and some Tea Party members in the same room and have a conversation ballgames clearly you're an influential group, they are influential as well. If we can get you guys in a room and talk about some civility, that could move to us a place that maybe the politicians can't right now. What will it take to do that?

JEALOUS: T.J., that happened during the NAACP convention. We have Tea Party members in the NAACP. We have Tea Party members who are active at CBC week. What we need more of is what Lenny and I have been talking about and focused on. We need more people on the Tea Party what a few have done to stand up.

There's no space for people like Mark Williams at this party, there's no space for the sort of rhetoric we saw last fall. We have no problem with the Tea Party itself beyond the fact that people push for tax cuts for the richest one percent. That's an honest debate. We stay focused on jobs for the other 99 percent.

But we have problems with people sheltering extremists who espouse racist views and demean other people. When the Council for Conservative Citizens who said that black people are not genetically equipped, that means you and me, to participate in democracy, they can show up and speak at a Tea Party rally and nobody challenges them, then we have a problem. When they are recruiting at the rally, we have a problem. When David Duke that he sees the Tea Party going by, that that's his fiesta, we have a problem.

HOLMES: OK, we'll keep working. Sorry to put you on the spot.

JEALOUS: Wait for George Clinton to perform.

HOLMES: I understand. I appreciate it. I always appreciate being table have the debate. We'll find a way to get you, the Tea Party, everybody together to move this thing forward.

JEALOUS: I'm telling you, there's some folks here today.

HOLMES: Ben, thanks as always. Good luck. Quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It seems early to me but some parents say it's just in time, the list of the hottest toys for 2010 is out. Josh Levs has all of -- well, I don't know. Do we have all of them, Josh? LEVS: There's a pretty long list, 16 of them. We have a really good selection here to show you, and we have a really great guest, Karen Kelly who is a toy expert thank you for being here. Thank you for being here. Check out this spread.

KAREN KELLY, TOY EXPERT: I'm excited to be here.

LEVS: Check out this spread.

KELLY: This is awesome.

LEVS: What I like about this is like all the toys we'll show because you say they inspire imagination.

KELLY: They do. You don't sit around and do nothing. You really think, do new things and newer things. You can do lots of different stuff.

LEVS: One trend this year is extremely miniature remote control vehicles. From Spin Master Air Hogs Moto Frenzy. This right here Mattel's hot wheels stealth rider. You press these arrows on it. That's your remote control right there. Boom, it's moving.

KELLY: That one is not moving.

LEVS: Right before air it stopped. Believe me it works. You like these because you say they are safe. What's a good age group?

KELLY: For this one, three, fours and up. This is a great toy. Hot Wheels is a great classic toy.

LEVS: This is as close as I'll ever get to being a rock star. These are paper jams. They weigh half a pound.

KELLY: They are awesome for little kids. You can see a four- year-old rocking out his jammies. Kids love to role play. This is great. They can be their favorite rock star.

LEVS: So hard to focus. You like this. You like the idea of role playing inspiring kids.

Let's do this for a second. This is Scrabble flash, and you put these together in a line. They come up with these letters. This is also for kids who are more into lights.

KELLY: Right. If you're by yourself in the back of your car, you can make this Scrabble thing work. Scrabble is being modest. This game goes younger than they said. For little kids who are learning letters and words and it lights up. There's a cool payoff.

And for bigger kids you can compete with each other so it's really cool.

LEVS: Let's get to one that you're not so excited about.

KELLY: Great colors. LEVS: I'll take one. They harmonize.

KELLY: Can you hear it?

LEVS: They play together.

KELLY: Their mouths open.

Some people say freaky, some say hottest thing on the market. What do you think?

KELLY: I think they are interesting. They are a little hard to use for a little kid, but this is great soft terry cloth and stick your hand in their mouth and they have baby teeth and they can bite you.

LEVS: They do. Ow. Some say they are the cutest things.

KELLY: And the colors are awesome. Very polite. They say please and thank you.

LEVS: They are in the range of $20, $30. This brings you up to $50. This won't stop.

(LAUGHTER)

All right, Disney Princess and Me.

KELLY: This is Princess and Me. Princesses are always popular with girls in the four, five, six-year-old set. It comes with a costume. It's that role play imagination. It can Ariel fighting off the wicked sea witch or saving the world.

LEVS: Someone told me apparently she's a princess and you cover her up and she's a mermaid.

Your favorite might be my favorite which is Tonka Tough Truck. Nothing can stop Tonka Tough Truck. Even if he falls off he keeps going. He can go upside down. He's hanging off the bridge. What do you say about this?

KELLY: I don't think there's a bad age group for this. I want to take it home and play with it.

(LAUGHTER)

What I love is kids natural experimenters. Kid will take this set and rearrange everything and see how it works and do it another way. Girls will love this toy just as much as boys. Girls love playing with trucks. Hot wheels was my favorite toy when I was a kid.

LEVS: Make this guy go again. Then I'll show you a couple of things. We have a whole spread for you on CNNMoney.com which talks you through what these websites are and it tells you where it's based this list online. We also have one that might be the top, absolutely everything in this room that our production manager said will operate right now.

This remote controlled helicopter. Talk to me about these.

KELLY: Oh, wow those are super popular. Look at that. It flies. That is so cool. It does have a camera. Where does the camera feed into?

LEVS: You can set that up.

KELLY: There you go. Then you run it into --

LEVS: When is a bad age group for this. I'm looking into the numbers more and more people are buying remote controls.

KELLY: I would say five and up. The thing I would be worried about younger kids, these are fragile parts. It works great. But I would be worried about pulling off the wings.

LEVS: Kelly, thanks you for joining us. You can see the whole list up on my page on Facebook and Twitter. We encourage you to check it out and see what you think. I think it seems early but more and more parents are buying it now. I'm thinking I should go shopping with my four-year-old.

KELLY: Thank you.

LEVS: T.J., back to you.

HOLMES: Well, I was going tease this next story, but toys and prostitution just don't go together. So we'll being right back.

(LAUGHTER)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER BREAK)

HOLMES: Here is a question for every parent out there. Stop and think about the teacher that is teaching your child, that is your favorite teacher right now. You just love this teacher.

What would you think if that teacher found out had a past as a prostitute? That's what some are having to deal with right now in New York. Melissa Festro is her name and she wrote on the Huffington Post that when she was a graduate student in 2006 and 2007 she sold sex through Craigslist.

In this posting she writes "I was, at the time, a graduate student, bored and curious, sexually uninhibited, looking to make a little money while having a little fun."

Again, she's a well-liked teacher who is now on administrative duty while they look into her online writings. We'll bring in Amelia Parry, editor-in-chief of thefrisky.com. She's been following this story.

Amelia, hello to you. What do you do here? Apparently she was a well-liked teacher?

AMELIA "FRISKY GIRL" PARRY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THEFRISKY.COM: Right. Look, here's the thing. I think a lot of people have unsavory things in her past. Was it the smartest thing in the world her to write about this on the Huffington Post? Maybe not.

The fact of the matter is she's changed her life. And the question is should her past be held against her? I don't know. I guess that's up to the administrative board to decide. Right now she's on administrative duty as they try to decide what to do. HOLMES: So Amelia, is the question more so not the fact that it's in her past but maybe a question about her judgment in writing about it and posting it somewhere?

PARRY: Yes. I mean to me I sort of feel like, I can't imagine there aren't other teachers out there that at some point during school stripped to pay their bills.

HOLMES: Oh, my goodness.

PARRY: The thing is they were smart enough not to post it on the Internet. I think maybe it was not the smartest thing in the world for her to do that without maybe sort of consulting with her superiors before doing it.

To me the fact of the matter is she's changed her life, bean a very long time since that point in her life, and now she's a great teacher. I would hope that her past isn't held against her. I do think that maybe there will be some sort of repercussions from this, but I hope she's able to keep her job.

HOLMES: Some kind of repercussions from what you've been seeing, though. There could be some disciplinary action. They are looking at the possibility of letting her go?

PARRY: Well, they haven't let her go yet and it's been little bit of time. I think they are trying to figure out a way of handling it in a way they can keep her on. I'm sure they are also talking to the parents what they would prefer.

But I would think that since she has not been sort of fired yet that they are probably going to work out something where she's able to keep her job.

HOLMES: Let's move on to another story. As we know, hell has no fury like a woman scorned. The lengths this ex went through to keep her ex-boyfriend from getting to his wedding. And I hearing this right?

PARRY: So a woman in Canada called in a fake bomb threat to Canadian police which then caused an airplane headed to Pakistan to be grounded. The woman called in this hoax bomb threat because her ex- boyfriend was on that plane heading to his wedding in Pakistan and apparently she was not too happy about that.

HOLMES: Clearly, she wasn't happy. Were they able to track her down fairly easily? I assume she's facing some charges?

PARRY: Oh, yes. They were able to track her down. What's amazing to me this woman thought she could get away with such a thing. They were able to track her down. I don't believe they have charged her yet. It would be interesting to see what they do charge her with. Being that she was on a Pakistani airline I wonder if there's any sort of legal potential for her to be charged there. If I were her, I would be a little scared.

HOLMES: Do we know, was he able to make to it his wedding?

PARRY: I think he by now made it there. This guy will go on with his life, get married, married to the woman he wants to be with. If I were one of the other passengers on this plane that had nothing to do with this relationship and had my flight grounded and my travel plans interrupted, I would be so angry.

HOLMES: If he ever had any doubt about whether or not he picked the right woman, I think this confirms he probably went the right route.

PARRY: I'm pretty sure he really realizes his ex-girlfriend was truly bananas.

HOLMES: Oh, my goodness. Do we know anything else? I'm curious. Do we know anything else about their relationship? Did he break up with her? Did he leave her at the altar?

PARRY: I haven't heard anything else. It sounds to me they probably had some other problems in the relationship. If this is the way she handled the breakup I can imagine that there were some other things when they were together that were not so fun either. It sound to me he probably had some good reason to break up with her at some point.

HOLMES: All right, Amelia Perry, thefrisky.com is the name of the blog. We appreciate you as always. We'll be seeing you again soon, and to our viewers, know you have plenty to say about those two stories. I'm going to post it on my Twitter and Facebook page. You know where to find me. I'll get those stories up.

I'm very curious to hear your comments. Do you believe the teacher should be fired because of her past as a prostitute? Also, what do you think about a woman calling in a bomb threat to keep her ex from make it to his wedding?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, be warned if you have one much these books. Publishers recalling more than half a million home improvement books because they have errors in technical diagrams and wiring instructions. And if you follow those faulty instructions those mistakes could pose an electrical shock or fire hazard. And 17 different titles are being recalled. All are out of print but still might be on store shelves. If you have one of them, return them for a refund.