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Wildfire Emergency in Arizona; "Obama" for Sale; "Duct Tape Not a Murder Weapon"; Weiner Resigns

Aired June 18, 2011 - 19:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: A half million acres burned. It is the largest wildfire in Arizona history. It's just a little over 1/3 contained, and the smoke is being detected as far away as Canada.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it your testimony that the medical examiners who took this photograph at the scene took the hair and draped it over the skull for purposes this picture?

DR. WERNER SPITZ, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: It is my opinion that somebody did. I don't know if it's medical examiner or not medical examiner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Changes today at the Casey Anthony trial between a defense expert and the prosecution. At issue: skeletal evidence from Casey Anthony's daughter Caylee and the manner and cause of her death.

Also, how much would you pay for a President Obama autograph? A woman in Chicago wants to sell her special memento to avoid eviction. I'll be talking to her right here.

I'm Don Lemon at the CNN NEWSROOM in New York. There's a lot of news right now, so let's get you caught up.

(MUSIC)

LEMON: And we start with the headlines and a potentially very serious breach of airline security. Prosecutors say this man, Jophan Porter, used someone else's identity to get a job as a flight attendant for American Eagle Airlines. Police arrested Porter at Miami International Airport. Immigration authorities plan to deport him, but a spokesman wouldn't say where he's from or what his residency status is. American Eagle says this case doesn't involve any customer information.

A defense witness in the trial of Casey Anthony says someone put the duct tape on her daughter Caylee after her body had decomposed. It is a key counterpoint since the prosecution says Anthony used duct tape to suffocate Caylee after drugging her. The witness, a forensic pathologist, speculated the duct tape may have been used to keep the jaw together as the decomposing body was moved. Testimony resumes Monday in Orlando. An Italian court heard two prisoners testify today that American Amanda Knox is innocent of murder. But the two inmates differed on the identity of the real killer. One said his own brother was responsible, but prosecutors questioned his credibility. Another said that a different suspect was responsible for the murder. Knox is serving a 26-year sentence for killing -- the killing of her roommate, but insists she is innocent.

Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is back home in Tucson, Arizona, for the first time since she was shot in the head in January. Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, arrived Friday and are spending the weekend with family. She was released from a Houston rehabilitation hospital this week and will continue her outpatient treatment in Houston.

The largest wildfire in Arizona state history is more than 1/3 contained, allowing evacuees to get back to their homes in the Alpine Area. The "wallow fire" has now burned more than a half million acres. Strong winds this weekend may hamper firefighters, though. Those winds helped stoke a second fire to the south, which was torch -- which has torched 40 homes and forced hundreds to evacuate.

Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras joins now with some alarming details on the wildfire season so far.

Jacqui, what are those alarming details?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, we've seen about three times the 10-year average in terms of the number of acres that have burned since January, Don. So, some really staggering numbers that we've found here today from the National Interagency Fire Center.

Since January 1, about 4.3 million acres have burned in the U.S. The 10-year average: 1.6 million. And, currently, across the U.S., there are 36 active, large fires burning in 11 different states.

So, this is not just an Arizona problem.

Take a look at this satellite image. This will show you all the hot spots across the U.S. So, from space, they can detect all of this heat. We see areas all the way up into Washington state, stretching down into California and Arizona, and then all the way over into the Southeast.

And take a look at Florida. We've had a lot of problems so far this year in south Georgia and northern Florida.

Take a look at this video that we have for you near the Okefenokee Swamp. About 100 different homes were evacuated earlier this week, and about 200,000 acres have been burned. This fire only 50 percent contained. And this fire was likely caused by lightning.

Now, let's talk a little bit about the "wallow fire" because I have some new information that I want to bring to you. CNN has just learned that that fire has now jumped some containment lines in New Mexico. And the town of Luna is under evacuation orders as a result of that.

The air resources -- you know, they're fighting this with helicopter as well as big airplanes, trying to put fire retardants over the fires -- well, they've had to stop those efforts right now because the winds are so strong. So, this fire is advancing, unfortunately, after making a lot of progress this week, Don. And tomorrow, the wind is expecting to be even stronger. Extremely critical fire conditions, with winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour.

LEMON: Hey, Jacqui, before you go -- I mean, this caught our eyes and ears because John McCain toured those fires in Arizona today. And he made an off-the-cuff remark about how those fires might have started. I want you to take a listen and we can talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We are concerned about particularly areas down on the border where there is substantial evidence that some of these fires are caused by people who have crossed our border illegally. They have set fires because they want to signal others, they have set fires to keep warm. And they have set fires in order to divert law enforcement agents and agencies from them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Jacqui, what do you make of that?

JACQUI: Well, it's certainly a possibility. A lot of these fires are caused by human behavior, either people who have -- like camp fires that have gotten out of control or maybe a spark or a cigarette out the window can start these. Some of them are lightning caused, like the one I told you about in Georgia.

But the wallow fire and also the other fire that John McCain was talking about, the causes are under investigation. They very well may have been from humans.

LEMON: Jacqui, thank you very much.

Now this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do they do that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How come the company, a big company like that, you know, they should check that before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: I want you to be careful. The person offering you a bag of peanuts and a drink on your next flight could be a fraud. See how one case of stolen identity in airline security now has many travelers a lot skeptical.

And some of the biggest business deals take place on the golf course. Hope there are some good ones today. President Obama and the House Speaker, John Boehner, teed off over the U.S. deficit today.

And if you want to find out what we're doing, you want information on the stories we're covering, about what I'm doing, anything that has to do with CNN, whatever it is, reach out to us on social media. You can go Twitter, Facebook, CNN.com/Don, and you can check in with us on Foursquare.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DESHON MARMAN, ARRESTED FOR NOT PULLING UP PANTS: My pants were actually not even below my knees, below my buttocks. You know, they were slightly below my waist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. A college football player was booted off a U.S. Airways flight, then arrested after he refused to pull up his saggy pants. The flight crew says that Deshon Marman's sweatpants were so low that his underwear was fully exposed. The pilot ordered Marman and all passengers off the plane.

The University of New Mexico player was then jailed on suspicion of trespassing, battery, and resisting arrest. Let that be a lesson to you.

You know, we put our trust in flight attendants every time we set foot on a plane. But one attendant for American Eagle Airlines wasn't who he said he was, that's according to prosecutors and the airline. Police arrested Jophan Porter at Miami International Airport on Friday. They say he used another man's identity to sneak his way onto that flight attendant -- into the flight job.

And our very own Alison Kosik has been following this story.

So, I really want to know, and I'm sure a lot of people -- are people on our flights are who they say they are? How did this happen?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean that is really the big question is, is how did this happen. How did Jophan Porter allegedly steal a person's identity and get a job as a flight attendant with a major airline?

Now, Porter was in a Miami courtroom this morning. He's charged with six counts of identity theft and three counts of forgery in Miami, among other charges. He's being held on $1 million bond.

Now, we know he came to the U.S. from the Guyana. But, right now, his status is unclear.

Now, this is interesting. When Porter was arrested in Miami on Friday, he had multiple forms of phony IDs, driver's licenses, a passport. And listen to this -- listen what prosecutors had to say -- what they say happened when he was confronted by authorities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROSECUTOR: He would refuse to identify who he was, why he had done this, why he had assumed this role in the airline industry, which is obviously a security concern to everyone involved. Mr. Porter is a flight risk because we don't really know who he is. He was only identified by the FBI when he had a fingerprint match.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: So, it was his fingerprints that told authorities who he was. But a lot of questions still remain. I mean, how did he get past the airline's background check? The airline put out a statement saying they are actively involved in the investigation, but they aren't answering our questions about the details of his employment.

Now, we did talk with the TSA. A spokesperson there says airline flight crews are vetted against terrorist screening watch lists, but it is up to the airline to verify a potential employee's identity and legal status.

Now, we did speak an identity theft expert. He says trying to figure out a job applicant's identity actually may be tougher than you think.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS SHENEFELT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRES., INTERSECTIONS, INC.: The problem is when the airline's doing their background investigation, they're doing an investigation on the victim, not the person who's applying for the job. So, it -- the real challenge a lot of times is not just doing the investigation, but make sure the person you're investigating is the person in question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Porter used the name of a Bronx man as an alias. That man applied for government assistance and was denied that benefit because he was told he had a job at American airlines. Obviously, he didn't. It was Porter who did. So, that's apparently when he contacted authorities, and they came in to figure out what the heck is going on here.

Obviously, a huge security breach if you ask me.

LEMON: That is a huge security breach. And just think about what we have to do in order to fly. The ID, you have really -- almost get naked in order to go through security, quite honestly.

KOSIK: And he has a job.

LEMON: And he has a job. He's the guy that's there -- supposed to be taking care of us.

KOSIK: Yes.

LEMON: Disturbing.

Thank you. Appreciate your reporting on that, Alison.

A witness expelled from the stand, and an entire defense team on the brink of contempt of court. Emotional outbursts during the Casey Anthony trial. How many more will there be?

A battle over the green, on the green -- President Barack Obama and his top political rival get down to the nitty-gritty over the deficit, all while swinging 9-irons.

Those stories are straight ahead.

But, first, this -- a former controversial head of a Washington, D.C. school system now leads an organization that wants to raise $1 billion to help students nationwide.

CNN's education contributor Steve Perry sat down with Michelle Rhee to discuss her time in D.C. and what's in her future.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: You were chancellor of D.C.'s public schools for three very tumultuous years.

What do you think the root of the problems that you had was?

MICHELLE RHEE, FORMER CHANCELLOR OF D. C. PUBLIC SCHOOLS: We wanted to put a system in place where the most outstanding teachers would be paid double what they were in the old system. And, on the other side, if you were an ineffective teacher or principal you were immediately terminated.

I had the full backing of my boss, the mayor, Adrian Fenty, who said, I'm going to put my entire political career on the line.

PERRY: And what happened?

RHEE: He lost the election.

PERRY (voice-over): Recently, test scores at some schools that were under Rhee's leadership have been questioned.

RHEE: We hired an external investigator to investigate this. What they said was that in the vast majority of cases, they found actually, you know, no impropriety. And in a small number of cases that they did see that something was wrong.

Then we took the necessary actions against those people.

PERRY (on camera): Do you feel like you pressured them into doing it?

RHEE: Absolutely not.

PERRY: You seem to have landed on your feet. You seem to be doing all right, started your own organization.

RHEE: The basic premise behind it is that our kids are not getting the education that they deserve, that this nation is falling further and further behind. What we're trying to do across the country is to stop policies that mandate LIFO or last-in/first-out policies.

PERRY: What does that mean?

RHEE: When a school district is in a budget crisis and they have to lay off teachers, that the last teacher who was hired must be the first teacher fired regardless of performance.

PERRY: To the mom and dad who are watching this conversation, what's at stake?

RHEE: This group of children who are in school today will be the first generation of Americans who are less well-educated than their parents were, for the first time in American history.

PERRY: Steve Perry, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are now two years into an economic recovery. Were you aware of that? We're two years into it. Now, normally, when you go into a recovery, you begin to have a dramatic turnaround. In fact, you start adding jobs at hundreds of thousands of jobs a month.

How's the president doing? Not so great. That's right. We're now approaching the Obama trench of a double-dip recession.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, spoke at a conservative conference in Minnesota today.

When Ms. Bachmann left the stage today, and someone threw glitter at her. A gay rights group called Get Equal claimed responsibility for it.

You know, one of the things President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner talked about during their so-called "golf summit" today was the debt ceiling. The long-awaited match was played at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. And Obama and Boehner teamed up and reportedly beat Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

LEMON: This video from YouTube really shows the fervor for President Obama's autograph. You know, when it comes to Barack Obama's signature, a Marist Poll found it's more sought after than LeBron James, even Bono. One Indiana woman has even more to cherish -- not just his name, but a full note from the president. He writes, "You have such a positive spirit," and he ends, "You inspire me. I am rooting for you. God bless, Barack Obama."

But, now, Destiny Mathis, that's who the note is for, a mother of three, says she has to sell her presidential piece of history to avoid eviction.

And Destiny joins us from Chicago.

Destiny, thank you so much for joining us.

DESTINY MATHIS, MOTHER THREE: Thank you for having me.

LEMON: So, I'm hearing that you may not end up, you know, selling this note card. After all, you've been going back and forth about it?

MATHIS: I've been debating. As of right now, it is still for sale.

But I really don't want to sell it. That's my thing. I never had intentions of selling it when I got it.

It's just when I was going through all of the things that I could, you know, sell to help my family sustain the -- that's what came up, which was the letter. I'm still very torn about selling it.

LEMON: So, let's explain. Did you -- you're part of the unemployment. You lost your job, right?

MATHIS: Yes, with the birth of my last daughter in January, I lost my job. Yes.

LEMON: And you're a surgical technologist, right?

MATHIS: Yes.

LEMON: OK.

So, I understand the president wrote you a letter, sent you a letter last year after you lost your job. And what did he say in the letter to you?

MATHIS: He told me that he was rooting for me. That I have a positive spirit and that I inspire him, and that things will get better for me and my family.

And I still believe that, I still believe in his administration. It's only been three years. So, I am confident that things will get better.

It's just -- you know, it takes time. And I understand that.

LEMON: You took my next question because that's what -- you know, people will say, people who watch the economy and many critics of the administration will say, listen, he still has a lot of support, especially among African-Americans. But, quite frankly, the economy isn't improving. People are out of work, African-Americans, minorities affected more than whites. Yet you still support him.

Is that a contradiction in some ways to you?

MATHIS: No. It's not a contradiction at all because I think everyone want to see change right now because things have been so bad for so long. But I just asked him the same question. Like someone that gets gastric bypass surgery and wants to lose 100 pounds next week, it's not going to be soon.

And there are a lot of the African-Americans that do doubt him. And I am wary of the promises because I think one of the things that I read that he promised job creation within the first year, and I have not seen that. But at the same time, I understand he's under a lot of stress and under a lot of pressure.

So, I still support him no matter what anyone else says or does. But I think people are very eager to fault him when they're not seeing immediate change. And I understand it takes time.

LEMON: All right. Destiny, just real quick -- if you can go through and give me a quick answer because I think it's an important point and I want to get it on in the short time we have. Eleven thousand dollars, that's what the vendor believes he can get for it. What will that pay for you? Food, rent -- how much will that cover?

MATHIS: Eleven thousand dollars, it will get us our rent paid. It will get us actually into a better home. It will get food on the table. It will get me and my children by.

It will do tremendous wonders for us, a lot. I can't even -- I could go on and on about what it could do for us.

LEMON: All right. And last question real quickly -- how are you getting by?

MATHIS: My parents and my church, they have been very supportive of me. They've been behind me 100 percent since I had -- since the beginning. So, it's just that my parents have been behind us 100 percent.

LEMON: Destiny Mathis, thank you. Best of luck you to and your family, OK?

MATHIS: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

LEMON: Testy exchanges today between the defense expert and the prosecution in the Casey Anthony trial. The stern warning from the judge -- up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. WERNER SPITZ, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: So, based on this examination, the cause of death remained unknown for those who did the first autopsy and for me to some extent, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Testy exchanges today at the Casey Anthony trial, between the defense expert and prosecution. At issue: skeletal evidence from Casey Anthony's daughter Caylee and the manner and cause of her death.

CNN's David Mattingly is in Orlando covering the trial -- David.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Testimony had barely begun today before everything hit a snag. The judge is getting involved when the defense brought an expert witness to the stand to testify about something that the prosecution wasn't prepared for. The judge says this was against the rules and admonished the defense. He told the witness to stand down, to be brought back later. But then, he had some very stern warnings, warning the defense not to do that again.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE BELVIN PERRY, ORANGE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT: I would entertain a possible instruction if the state wants to draft one about this violation. And I would decide whether or not I will do it. I will reserve the decision whether or not I should proceed to contempt proceedings at the conclusion of this trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Testimony continued today with Dr. Werner Spitz, a nationally known forensic specialist, testifying for the defense, saying that he believed that authorities here got it wrong, that there's no way to determine exactly how Caylee Anthony was killed. He focused on that duct tape, saying that he believes the duct tape that the prosecution says was over Caylee's mouth and nose and contributed to suffocation was placed there after the body had decomposed.

Again, that is his expert opinion.

The jury will have to sort it out in the end, and testimony will continue on Monday.

David Mattingly, CNN, Orlando.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, David, thank you.

We'll talk all the celebrity gossip from elaborate auctions to the scoop from Bristol Palin.

But, first, this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PFC MATTHEW COOPER, U.S. ARMY: I'm PFC Matthew Cooper, Kandahar, Afghanistan, from 511th MP Company. I want to give a shout out to my dad, Ed Cooper, Poughkeepsie, New York. Happy Father's Day, can't wait to see you. Three more months, dad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY WEINER, FORMER NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN: I hoped to be able to continue the work that the citizens of my district elected me to do. The distraction that I have created has made that impossible. So today I am announcing my resignation from Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And that's how it ended for Congressman Anthony Weiner after an embarrassing scandal turned his personal and political life upside down. His career in Congress may be over, but there are still more twists to his story. Marie O'Connor is the staff writer for gawker.com, a site that's been all over this since it broke less than three weeks ago. So Maureen, the stories ignited - I have noticed this has been a tabloid war. And we have them up here.

So this one says - this is from "The Daily News," it says, "Stick a fork in Weiner." "Weiner's pickle." This one, "Little Weiner in the Oven." And then my favorite was when the president spoke out, "Obama beats Weiner."

MAUREEN O'CONNOR, GAWKER.COM: Unfortunately, we didn't get the "Obama confident Weiner will bounce back," which was his later quote.

LEMON: "Weiner stick it out." "Hide the Weiner." And this is your favorite -

O'CONNOR: "Hung out to dry."

LEMON: "Hung out to dry." And it goes on. And "Fall on your sword, Weiner." and "Pop goes the Weasel." And those were just the tamer ones. There were some worse than that. Yes. What's the tabloid war? People are buying these papers up I'm sure.

O'CONNOR: Of course, You think that with a name like Weiner you want to be careful what you do there. It's just too good for people to stay away from. It's all the headlines and all the jokes were just writing themselves this week.

LEMON: There was a serious story, in "The New York Times" talked about fake Twitter accounts. What's that all about?

O'CONNOR: When the story initially broke, a lot of people were skeptical about it because they said there were all these right wing bloggers that were really motivated to take down Anthony Weiner were the ones going after him. As it turns out, one of the people that it was widely publicized that Weiner had been communicating with a 16- year-old girl. "The New York Times" talked about this girl, media.com published an entire interview with her mother.

It turns out the mother, the girl, the girl's friend, all of them were fake. None existed. So somebody created a twitter account as a 16- year-old girl to bait him. He took the bait. So that, you know, that's his own thing if he took the bait there. But you know, there is a little bit of a sort of house of cards going on, too.

LEMON: Yes.

O'CONNOR: That I think we don't even know the extent of.

LEMON: Well, I started following him after this happened just to see if he would tweet about it, but he didn't.

O'CONNOR: Yes.

LEMON: So let's move on. Let's talk about Hugh Hefner. This is weird. It was supposed to be his wedding day just days ago. His fiancee, her name is Crystal or was Crystal Harris, called it off. Now she's spilling details about her life inside the "Playboy" mansion to "Entertainment Tonight." I want you to take a quick listen, Maureen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRYSTAL HARRIS, HUG HEFNER'S EX-FIANCEE: It wasn't a typical relationship. It was be here this time, you can't do, you know, I couldn't do certain things. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know. I'm used to living somewhere that has butlers and security. You know, my curfew was 9:00.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Oh my gosh, someone dissed the Hef. I'm sure that's never happened. There is no pre-nup. Is this real?

O'CONNOR: See, that's the question. Some people are saying the whole thing was a hoax. Hef has turned "The Runaway Bride" to his selling point for this issue of "Playboy." There's Mrs. Hefner. They added a sticker that she's run away. On the other hand, they did have a televised TV special that they had to cancel. So there was no pre- nup, which is why people say if he was really serious about marrying her, why didn't he have a pre-nup?

LEMON: Especially with Hef's money, right?

Yes. All right. Hey, let's talk about something else, everybody - especially . here in New York - are you for gay rights and you get people for signatures on the street trying to stop you. The bill that would legalize same-sex marriage, same-sex marriage here in New York state. And you wanted to point out there's something about the language in the bill, very important information about that. What did you find out?

O'CONNOR: So Governor Cuomo, who has always been really gung-ho about same-sex marriage, and one thing he's doing this weekend - he says he's going to have the votes to get it to pass next week. And one thing he's done is made concessions by creating explicitly outlined that churches and religious organizations don't have to recognize same-sex marriage.

And of course, you know, it - allowing civil marriage doesn't ever require that. You know, churches can do whatever they want. But the outline was a way to explicitly as a way to sort of comfort some of the fears that the religious right has. That's the same concession that the governor of New Hampshire required when his legislature was passing the same-sex marriage law. And he said "I want you to add this specific note in it before I'm willing to sign it," and he did that. So it's sort of an interesting way that the - the legislating these things has sort of changing to accommodate.

LEMON: It is a saga that has been playing out in the news here and in the newspapers and to watch, to hear the cardinal. Then you hear the Republicans saying, "I'm tired of talking points, I want to do what's right," and using the, you know, the "f" word - I was talking to someone about this and they said those are New York Republicans.

O'CONNOR: You know, it's something with the Bishop because Cuomo is also a Roman Catholic, you know, famously. So he's sort of breaking there.

LEMON: Thank you, Maureen. Good to see you.

O'CONNOR: Good seeing you. Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you very much.

I want to check your headlines right now on CNN.

The largest wildfire in Arizona state history is more than a third contained, allowing evacuees to get back to their homes in the Alpine area. The Wallow fire has now burned more than half a million acres. Strong winds this weekend may hamper firefighters, though. Those winds helped stoke a second fire in the south. The monument fire has torched 40 homes and forced hundreds to evacuate.

He says he hasn't decided if he'll run for president, but Republican Governor Rick Perry of Texas sure sounds like a candidate. He revved up the crowd at the Republican leadership conference in New Orleans today with a staunchly conservative speech. Perry called for less spending and lower taxes and urged party leaders not to "duck and cover" when it comes to social issues.

The historic military base at Paris Islands, South Carolina, has its first female commander. Brigadier General Lori Reynolds assumed command of the Marine Corps recruit depot on Friday. Reynolds recently returned from a year-long deployment to Afghanistan where she was the first woman in the corps to command units in a war zone. Paris Island has trained enlisted marines since 1915.

Have you ever wondered what gourmet chefs eat for a snack? Probably just like us, chips or something. Who knows? Ahead, we'll take you to Aspen, and we'll put the question to some of the kings of the culinary world. Yum.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking weather news. Let's get straight to our meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras. There's a tornado warning, Orlando, right?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's for Orange County, includes the city of Orlando. This is east of Disney World. We have report of 70 mile-per-hour winds and pea-sized hail at the airport there. And this is an area where storms are converging right now. So this area of storms are moving to the east. These are moving up toward the northeast. So it's a little unusual in terms of a situation. There's a very strong rotation being indicated on Doppler radar. No public sightings of a tornado, but a very dangerous situation. People need to be taking cover. And if they're watching, the airport, they need to get away from those windows, Don, and get to one of those concrete bathrooms away from those windows.

LEMON: Good advice. Jacqui, stand by. Thank you very much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a very interesting point of view.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel the breeze in the sidewalk? It's delicious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: They don't make them like that anymore. Movies or Marilyn Monroe. It is the scene that launched a generation of male fantasies, the iconic white dress that Marilyn Monroe wore in the 1955 classic "The Seven Year Itch," is now up for sale. You know, it's one of the Hollywood icons on the block. Right now as movie legends Debbie Reynolds holds her auction. It's an amazing collection.

CNN reporter Shannon Cook is live with the details and some of the headlines from tinsel town this week. So she's going to talk us through the big ticket items that Reynolds' auction. Unbelievable stuff that she has.

SHANNON COOK, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, you just shared the biggest iconic item up for sale is that Marilyn Monroe dress, which I would like to add would look excellent in my closet. But -

LEMON: Oh, on you?

COOK: Or on me, maybe. That is going to probably fetch up to $1 million or $2 million. That is a big deal dress and a beautiful dress. Other items for sale, the headdress that Elizabeth Taylor wore in the "Cleopatra" film. That is starting bid at $30,000. Also the dress that Julie Andrews wore in "The Sound of Music" when she sang "Do Re Mi," a very ordinary looking dress, however it's bound to make tens of thousands of dollars. Some really big memorabilia items here.

LEMON: What I thought was cool about that Marilyn Monroe dress is that I think people say it's not like a size 1 or 2. I mean, it's like an 18 or 12 or something like that. She had curves. Yes, curves - whoa. Curves are good. Women look good with curves. You know. All right.

How did she get these items? That's the thing. Because this is quite a collection.

COOK: She has a huge collection. She has about 3,500 costumes, not including photographs and props and other things that she has. She bought a lot of these in private sales. She's very well connected in Hollywood.

LEMON: Some of them she asked for, right?

COOK: Absolutely. But she got a lot of items in a 1970 sale with MGM Studios. They basically just got rid of just about everything they owned.

LEMON: That was Dorothy's from the "Wizard of Oz," wasn't?

COOK: Yes, her dress is up for sale. And there's Charlie Chaplin's hat. Yes. Some - you look like you want to go shopping, Don. I think you need to get -

LEMON: Is this from -

COOK: "Ben Hur" from the -

LEMON: Elizabeth Taylor movie and her husband. I forget his name. Anyway. Wow.

COOK: There's the ordinary "Do Re Mi" dress, and the guitar is also up for sale, too.

I would love to buy that dress, but it's so sort of unattractive. Anyway, a lot of great stuff for sale. It's pretty exciting.

LEMON: Why is she getting rid of these if she's so passionate about collecting costumes?

COOK: Well, she wanted to have all these wares in a museum which she wanted to build herself. But the whole plan kind of went sour -

LEMON: This just came to me, Richard Burton.

(CROSSTALK)

COOK: Richard Burton. Thank you, thank you. The whole plan for the museum went bust. And so now she owes creditors and so now she has to sell all this stuff off which I'm sure she's a little sad about.

LEMON: OK. We'll talk about a bunch of stuff. Let's see if there's something - can you give me five seconds.

COOK: Jennifer Lopez.

LEMON: Five seconds. I only have five seconds. What about - is she leaving or what?

COOK: She said that she's on the fence about returning as a judge on "American Idol." I think this is her negotiation ploy. She just wants more money.

LEMON: But she boosted ratings last season?

COOK: Oh, yes. She did. All that eye make-up, it's good for ratings.

LEMON: Shannon Cook, thank you very much. Good to see you in person instead of over, you know, the satellite.

COOK: It's nice without the delay, don't you think?

LEMON: I know. We're not cutting each other off. We are, but it's not awkward. We're doing it just like we're hanging out. Thank you.

COOK: Nice to see you.

LEMON: It's a passionate picture shared around the world via social media. Did you see this, Shannon? Today the lovebirds are speaking out about their romance amid riot police and riots. This photograph shows a young couple kissing as chaos raged all around them at the Vancouver lost hockey's Stanley cup final. The CBC tracked down the couple. It turns out they didn't fall to the ground in a moment of passion. Rather, on this video, you can see that they had been knocked down by police after getting pushed around by the rioters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX THOMAS: They were reasoning with people. They were doing their jobs. So we started -

SCOTT JONES: People were charging at us. We tried to run away, but Alex couldn't -

ALEX THOMAS: I tripped up. I'm not sure. I was starting to get really - never experienced anything like that before. It's really scary, you know, when you find yourself caught up in a situation. That's scary. I was upset. I fell down. And didn't really know exactly what was happening. I was upset. And -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then you were comforting her -

SCOTT JONES: Yes, I went back. They started beating us with the shields like trying to get us to move. I don't know why. We weren't being aggressive towards them or anything like that. But then eventually they passed over us. And that's when we were on the ground. I was just - she was a bit hysterical afterwards, obviously. And I was just trying to calm her down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, Alex Thomas and Scott Jones actually haven't been dating that long. Jones moved to Canada from Australia six months ago.

All right. Go ahead. Pile it on and grab a glass of water while you're at it. Dieticians may cringe, but we found a popular ingredient that a lot of chefs say people should eat more of.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Oh, man, there are some great weather and near Aspen, Colorado, this weekend. And just great food and delicious drinks. It's not all of it, too. There's some other stuff. It's a tough assignment to spend the weekend in Aspen. And we knew the managing editor of our food blog eatocracy.com was up to the task.

Kat Kinsman, I have to start by saying I'm jealous. She joins me from the 29th annual Aspen Food and Wine Classic. Kat, bring us food back. Who is there and what are they talking about?

KAT KINSMAN, MANAGING EDITOR, EATOCRACY.COM: Oh, Don, I wish you could be here. You if anybody would be in hog heaven. Every chef you've ever seen on television is here. We got Mario Batali, Thomas Keller, Michael Symon. Sadly, Tom Collicchio hurt himself and couldn't be here. We miss him. But they're just all excited to see each other and hang out and have a great time in Aspen.

LEMON: Yes, it's no surprise because 99.9 percent of my tweets are about food. I'm a huge foodie. So, I understand that you asked some chefs which ingredient the rest of us should be using more of, and you got a surprising answer.

KINSMAN: We sure did. You would think, oh, chefs, that's going to be truffles. It's going to be foie gras. We got something that you might - actually you do have in your very own cabinet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL CHIARELLO, CHEF: If you look at the only ingredient that goes in every single thing that you cook or bake is salt. Start with an ingredient like that. I tend to use it from (INAUDIBLE) brittney as my primary base salt and then I go up and down from there.

CHRIS CONSENTINO, CHEF: I don't use iodized salt, I use a sea salt, like an all natural sea salt. It's got more flavor and balance to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. That is a little surprising because some people say, "Oh, salt, you can't have too much of it. We're eating too much." There's lots of fancy food out there, as well, but even chefs, Kat, get the munchies, too, right? I hear you asked them about that. KINSMAN: Well, you know, they work hard and they need to chill out a little bit. Again, it's not truffles and it's not anything crazy. It's probably something that, again, you have at home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I actually like popcorn. Simple. Just popcorn. A little popcorn. Actually I use olive oil on popcorn. Popcorn, salt, olive oil, that's it.

SANG YOON, CHEF: Taco bell, popcorn, Doritos. For me it's probably Taco Bell.

SUSAN FENIGER, CHEF: I tell you, late at night, munchies or not munchies, I love buttered popcorn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: They're all after my own heart.

KINSMAN: Yes. I mean, again, when a chef gets off the line the last thing they want to do is go out for another fancy meal. They want to eat what's around them. They just want to go and get a great taco.

LEMON: You know what? You know what, Kat, when I - (INAUDIBLE) the pop and fresh dough cookies, the chocolate chip ones in the middle of the night, you just throw them in the middle of the oven and then like 15 minutes later you're in heaven. Have you ever had them?

KINSMAN: I love those things. My aunt makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the world, so that would be cheating on her. But I love some popcorn. So just really, anything with a lot of texture, a lot flavor to it puts me in a happy place.

LEMON: Hey, Kat. I have just a few seconds here. What's been your favorite thing to nosh on since you've been there? What have you tasted that's really amazing, blown you away?

KINSMAN: Richard Blaze's oyster with ginger dry ice. Unbelievable. I wish you were here to taste it with me.

LEMON: OK. Thank you. Enjoy. To my trainer, you didn't hear any of that conversation. Didn't happen. Chocolate chip cookies? I don't know what you're talking about. Kat, enjoy. Thank you.

A volcanic eruption is causing a big disruption as lakes turned into cement and houses crumble under the weight of the ash. We'll tell you where.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MSG CYNTHIA MESSERSCHMIDT: I'm Master Sergeant Cynthia Messerschmidt (INAUDIBLE) in Iraq. I would like to say hi to my dad, (INAUDIBLE) Messerschmidt in Maple Grove, Minnesota. I love you, dad, for all you've done for your country and all you've done for me and my family. Love you, bye. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We're going to check the international headlines for you. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said a brutal crack down in Syria won't stop the transition to democracy in that country. The remarks came as more protests today erupted and gunfire. A situation on the border in Turkey grew more troubling. The military moved into a town near the border and shelled the surrounding mountains. More than 10,000 Syrian refugees have crossed the border to avoid the violence.

Violence is escalating in Sudan ahead of southern Sudan's independence next month. This video, earlier this week, Sudanese warplanes drop several bombs near a United Nations camp. The people in southern Sudan voted to become an independent country effective July 9th. But border disputes have caused a mass exodus. At least 100,000 people have fled areas where northern troops have taken control.

Libya is complaining about another target chosen by NATO. The government says an air strike Friday hit a University in Tripoli. NATO not surprisingly denies the charge. Its largest update, the latest update, excuse me, said the only Tripoli targets on Friday were military vehicle storage facilities. The alliances has admitted to accidentally striking rebel forces on Thursday.

A volcano in Chile is still erupting. The ash is coating everything nearby. All you have to do is look at the video. It's causing some serious problems as well. It looks like snow piled up so high some roofs are caving in from all the weight. Officials say the ash has caused an agricultural emergency as well. Livestock have nothing to graze on and when the ash gets wet, it gets hard just like cement. Boy, what a problem.

Coming up later on tonight, a special edition of "Law and Order, Special Victims Unit" with real prosecutors who put away sexual deviants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've done this longer than I have. So many times I hear from people, you know, oh, he's so good looking and there's no way he would have done this. Had we not had this on tape to prove exactly what we knew happened, in which we don't in most cases, nobody would believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So if you're a fan of the popular crime show "Law and Order" you will want to join us tonight right here on 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN. And finally, I want you to check out this video at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado. Two-inch thick piece of glass. It's so cute. It's only thing protecting this cub from a hungry lioness. Little (INAUDIBLE) is admiring a 400 pound lioness who has one thing on her mind and that is (INAUDIBLE) at the glass. His mother said though seeing the lion is still freaky. It is freaky. I'm Don Lemon at CNN NEWSROOM in New York. Thanks for watching. I'll see you back here at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.