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Man Discovers He's on Missing Persons List; Bin Laden Family Deported From Pakistan; Washington Meets Hollywood Glitz; President To Speak At Fort Stewart, Georgia; Edwards Life Under The Microscope

Aired April 27, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from the CNN headquarters in Atlanta, where it's 12:00 noon, 9:00 AM on the West Coast, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get you up to speed for this Friday, April 27th.

Space shuttle Enterprise, welcome to New York City. Shuttle arrived a short time ago in its new retirement home town. Enterprise made a trip piggyback on a 747 and did a special fly-by with the famous New York skyline, the Statue of Liberty, Big Apple landmarks, all of them. Now Enterprise is going to be a permanent exhibit at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum.

New developments in the Trayvon Martin case. George Zimmerman, the man who killed the unarmed teenager, will not have to immediately hand over Web site contributions. A judge says he needs to find out more about the account before he rules.

Now, turning out -- it turns out that Zimmerman's got about $200,000 from supporters that donated to his Web site. The money was sitting in a PayPal account when his attorney told the court that his client was broke.

The attorney spoke exclusively to CNN's Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK O'MARA, ATTORNEY FOR GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: I'm not certain that he thought, in some sense, that they were available to him because even after the bond was granted, it was the family who was trying to come up with enough money for the bond. And I guess if they thought that they had full, easy access to it, they simply could have used that.

But now that I'm aware of it, we're certainly going to deal with it in a much more transparent way, probably bring in someone like an accountant to assist me with administering it and just deal with it very openly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The attorney for Trayvon Martin's family says Zimmerman knowingly misled the court, and for that, the court should revoke his bond immediately.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BENJAMIN CRUMP, MARTIN FAMILY ATTORNEY: He knew. Whether he communicated that to his attorney, whether his attorney solicited that information from him or not, he knew what the crux of the matter was at that bond hearing. And he, like his apology, was insincere in his silence, as well as what he said to the court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Dozens of hockey fans went on a racist rant on Twitter after a black NHL player scored the winning goal in the play-offs. Here's the winning shot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) moving out front (INAUDIBLE) (INAUDIBLE) score! It is Ward! And the Capitals have moved on!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Joel Ward scored that shot for the Washington Capitals against the Boston Bruins. Well, shortly afterwards, Boston Bruins fans hit Twitter, using the "N" word over and over. The Bruins released a statement saying they were disappointed and that -- the quote here, "classless, ignorant views are in no way a reflection of anyone associated with the Bruins organization."

The largest city in Ukraine under attack today from several explosions. Now, these blasts went off over the course of about an hour, injuring at least 27 people, including many children. Authorities are calling it a coordinated terrorist attack.

Okinawa draws down, Guam beefs up. We're talking about the U.S. military. Now, the Pentagon says about 9,000 U.S. Marines and their families on Okinawa will be transferred. That is about half of the Marines stationed there. Most of them are going to move to Guam or Hawaii.

Okinawa is an island off southern Japan. U.S. troops have been there since World War II. No exact timetable for this transfer, but the Defense Department says it's going to happen as soon as possible.

Osama bin Laden's family starting a new life in Saudi Arabia nearly a year after he was killed. His three wives, two daughters and nine other family members were deported from Pakistan earlier today. We're going to take a look at what their lives are like now just ahead.

But first, we have an amazing story to tell you about here. This Philadelphia man, who was adopted 30 years ago, recently discovered he's on a missing persons list. It turns out that his real father had been looking for him for all these years.

Now, the mother disappeared with the son and never came back. Check out this. This is the missing persons picture. This is the picture Steve Carter discovered of himself on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Web site. And that is what the center thought Carter might look like at age 28 based on his baby picture. When Carter saw the picture, he contacted his real father.

This is what Steve Carter looks like today. Steve, thank you so much for joining us. It is kind of a strange story. It is difficult in some ways to follow. abut first of all, just walk us through this here. How did you discover that you were on a missing kids list in the first place, and why were you checking that?

STEVE CARTER, FOUND SELF ON MISSING PERSONS LIST: I actually have to thank CNN for that. I was on a lunch break, and one of your popping (ph) news breakthroughs came through, and it was the Carlina White story. She had found herself on the missing kids Web site. So I had a couple, three minutes at lunch and went on Missingkids.com, pulled up Hawaii, 34 years, male, and lo and behold, that was the picture that came up.

MALVEAUX: And Steve, what did you think when you first saw that photo and you recognized yourself?

CARTER: I thought minus the mullet, it was pretty much spot on, on what I look like.

MALVEAUX: How did you react to that?

CARTER: It was a bit shocking, I have to tell you, to see yourself and to realize that, You know what? People had been looking for you for that long. I was shell-shocked. At the same time, it was really the first time I'd ever seen a baby picture of myself, so to see that along with a picture of what Marx Panama would look like at 28 was pretty amazing.

MALVEAUX: And when you realized that this was you, what did you do?

CARTER: The first thing I did was, I copied the picture, sent it out to a couple friends, asked my friends, you know, Who does this person look like? Does it look like me? It was almost -- you're in a weird state at the time.

Friends said it did kind of look like me, and I eventually called my parents, sent them the picture, as well, and it was decided that we should probably call the Honolulu Police Department.

MALVEAUX: And Steve, I understand that you actually went -- this led to your real father. Tell me about how you approached him, how you found him, and how he reacted to you.

CARTER: I actually -- it took a while for all the blood tests to come back and for me to be confirmed as Marx Panama Moriarity Barnes. When it did come back, I was a little hesitant to really go forward with the news.

I've known since about October of 2011, didn't really do anything with it, you know, really wanted to figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to go forward with it. It's a lot of information and it can be quite emotional. So decided to take my time, and slowly over the months, you know, worked up the idea that I'd give my biological father a call, and also my half-sister. So February of this year, I reached out to both of them.

MALVEAUX: How did they respond to you? Tell us about that moment your father actually realized that you weren't missing anymore.

CARTER: There were a lot of awkward pauses, as well there probably should be. It was a big announcement for both of us. It's a life-changing event, I'd say. You know, we talked about me growing up, what I do now, what he did. It was very eye-opening.

MALVEAUX: Have you tried to reach out to your biological mother?

CARTER: My biological mother is actually still missing. They've actually -- "People" magazine -- Joey Bartilomo (ph) at "People" was kind enough to put an age progression photo provided by the Center for Missing Children of my mother in the article, as well, so we could possibly reach out and find her, too.

MALVEAUX: Do you have any memory at all about your past or anything that you -- you -- jolted in your mind that made you think, I don't belong here with these parents, with this family, I need to be somewhere else?

CARTER: No, I mean, not at all. I was adopted at age 4. So I pretty much knew that, you know, these were my adopted parents. I had grown up in Hawaii and had known, I mean, ever since I was little that, you know, I was adopted. So there was no real, I don't fit in here.

I fit in very well, actually. I've got two amazing parents and they did a wonderful job raising me. It was just on my birth certificate -- it was the whole instance from when I went missing to when I was adopted. My birth certificate was created a year later, said my father was a native Hawaiian, and as you can tell, don't really have many of the features many native Hawaiians do.

So I mean, you always had that -- that inkling that you might not be a native Hawaiian. So after doing, you know, some research, Missingkids.com came up and lo and behold, there I was.

MALVEAUX: Are you going to keep in touch with your biological father and this new sister that you've now discovered?

CARTER: Oh, completely. I would be remiss if I didn't take time to meet blood relatives. I think that'd be a big loss for me. So I will definitely reach out, keep in contact, and hopefully, meet them some day soon.

MALVEAUX: Well, Steve, it's really a fascinating story, a happy reunion, where I'm so pleased for you. I certainly hope that your biological mother is found at some point. But it does sound like you've reunited, that you now have two families. So thank you so much, Steve, for telling us your story.

CARTER: Thank you, Suzanne. Have a great weekend.

MALVEAUX: OK. Thanks. Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we're covering. First, the wives of Osama bin Laden -- they're on the move nearly a year after the U.S. raid killed their terrorist husband.

We call it the "nerd prom." That's when we journalists, celebrities head to the White House for the annual correspondents dinner. Well, I'm going to go there tomorrow and so is comedian Cedric the Entertainer. So we're going to talk to him about the upcoming dinner.

Then Ann Romney talks about the lighter side of Mitt Romney, his hairstyle, what he thinks about the impressions of him on "Saturday Night Live."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Nearly a year after the death of Osama bin Laden, his family is now on the move. Bin Laden's three wives, two daughters, nine other family members were deported to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan earlier today. They stayed by the al Qaeda leader's side the whole time he was on the run in Pakistan.

I want to bring in Michael Holmes to talk a little bit about this. So Michael, first of all, why the wives and daughters -- why are they heading to Saudi Arabia, of all places?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, because two of them are Saudi, and this is the interesting thing. Two of the three wives are from Saudi Arabia. The other one is from Yemen. And it's uncertain at the moment -- there was one report that the one from Yemen would go to Saudi and then to Yemen. Yemen says they're happy to have her back. But there's another report around that all three will probably stay in Saudi Arabia. The two Saudi wives have promised to look after the other one.

MALVEAUX: And what kind of life are they going to lead there? Are they popular? Are they pariahs?

HOLMES: Oh, they wouldn't be -- I wouldn't say they're popular. I mean, Osama bin Laden, of course, was Saudi, but he was disowned by his own family. The Saudi government stripped him of his citizenship. And I think this is just one of these sorts of situations where, where else are they going to go?

Pakistan doesn't want them anymore. That's for sure. This whole thing's been so embarrassing to them, so they want to get them out of the place. Saudis just sort of said, Well, OK, we'll take them.

And being such a conservative society, particularly when it comes to women, I doubt we'll see these women. I doubt -- you know, I don't think they're going to be out doing news conferences. They're probably going to be put in government housing, live a comfortable life, and be pretty much in the shadows.

MALVEAUX: What do we know about them, these wives? HOLMES: Very little, really. We know that two of them are Saudis, but it's the Yemeni one that's interesting. She's the youngest one. And it was from her that interrogators were able to get more of a sense -- a little bit of a sense about what Osama bin Laden was up to in those years that he was on the run in Pakistan, that he had four children while he was there and going from safe house to safe house. And we learned a little bit more about his movements around Pakistan before he ended up in that house in Abbottabad.

MALVEAUX: And tell us a little bit about -- we know that the anniversary of the killing, the death, the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden is next Wednesday.

HOLMES: Yes, ironic that...

MALVEAUX: Do we have a sense...

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: Yes, exactly.

HOLMES: ... all of this happening at the same time. Yes.

MALVEAUX: ... of al Qaeda and the impact of al Qaeda, the state of al Qaeda now?

HOLMES: Well, lot of people think that al Qaeda really is suffering at the moment. They really don't have that much of a footprint around the place. They haven't done anything certainly directed at this country for a very long time, and that the management style, the management is actually weak. The chain of command is weak at the moment, and they haven't been able to regroup.

There are fears that particularly in the Magreb in North Africa that they are starting to regroup in some of those troubled countries, even Sudan, certainly places like Yemen, where we've seen trouble.

But a lot of analysts sort of feel that they have been weakened over the years. You look at the -- you look at the Arab spring, which was the perfect opportunity...

MALVEAUX: Sure.

HOLMES: ... for al Qaeda to step in and seize the day. They did not. And so they were the big losers from the Arab spring.

MALVEAUX: And finally, the daughters, bin Laden's daughters -- what kind of life can they lead? Will they always be connected to their father, to the al Qaeda stain, if you will?

HOLMES: They probably will. And you know, as I say, bin Laden's own family disowned him. And the bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia, the big construction family, millionaires, you know, billionaires, and for them, his name was a stain on their family name, as well. So yes, they'll live with it forever, probably.

MALVEAUX: All right. Michael Holmes, good to see you.

HOLMES: Good to see you.

MALVEAUX: Have a good weekend.

HOLMES: You, to.

MALVEAUX: We call it the "nerd prom." Yes, the nerd prom. I've been to about 10 of these White House correspondents dinners. Quite the party. Up next, Cedric the Entertainer, who played host one year -- he's got all the juicy details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: It's a night when we journalists get a glimpse into the Hollywood glamour. Yes, celebrities, Washington insiders, politicians, athletes all get to mix with the president. It is the annual White House correspondents dinner. It is tomorrow night. We affectionately call it the "nerd prom." We are nerds. That's right. I've been to about 10 of these, and I'm going to attend tomorrow.

You never know who you're going to bump into, actually, whether it is Karl Rove or Sarah Palin or Cee-Lo or the actor from "The Blind Side," Quinton Aaron. He's a big guy!

This year's guest host is late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel. Some of the past hosts -- just take a look here -- Jay Leno. He's actually hosted several times. And then it was Jon Stewart, comedian turned senator Al Franken also on the list, Conan O'Brien, and Stephen Colbert. He was actually one of my favorites, but not the ultimate favorite.

Cedric the Entertainer hosted the dinner in 2005 and he's joining us by phone. Cedric, it was a lot of fun. What did you -- were you nervous? Were you scared? You never get really scared, do you.

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER, 2005 HOST (via telephone): Good morning. You know, it was -- it's not one of those things that actually scared me, but I mean, it is weird because you get a call from the White House, like, right away, to invite you to do this. And it's one of those kind of odd calls.

You know, I find myself not wanting to answer the call for bill collectors, but you know, when the White House calls, you just -- you know, and you kind of ask a stupid question, like, right away, like, How did you'll get this number?

(LAUGHTER)

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: But it's the White House.

MALVEAUX: Did you believe that it was the White House that was actually calling you, or did you think somebody was spoofing you?

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: Yes, I thought it was -- you know, that was during the time of pranks, you know, with Ashton Kutcher. So I thought they were setting me up, you know?

MALVEAUX: Well, I want to play a little clip for our audience here. This is part your performance. This was when you were talking about former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: There's two people, though, you know the name (ph) is (ph) broken down, it's (ph) the Condi, who's the -- that's the person you see on television with the -- you know, the nice hair and very professional. Then there's the Leezza.

(LAUGHTER)

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: She's the one with the hair wrapped up, on the phone with her girlfriend watching BET, talking about, Girl, ain't that Usher fine?

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Cedric, man, you went after her. That was so -- I mean, that was so funny! She took it all in good -- in good heart there. Was there anything that they told you that you weren't allowed to say about the president or the first lady or any of those folks?

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: No. Actually, you know, it's a pretty fun, open night. I mean, you know, the expectation is not necessarily a roast of the president, but they do want you to take some -- some -- you know, some stabs at him and rib him.

And of course, both the president and the first lady usually speak at these situations. And then that particular evening, the first lady was just really fun. She had given the president such a hard time, George W. Bush, that, you know, I had jokes where I was going to roast him even more, but you know, once she kind of gave him a hard thing about being a desperate housewife and all that kind of stuff, I just kind of took it easy on him and went after the former secretary of state.

MALVEAUX: Yes. I remember that. First lady Laura Bush was very funny that year. I want to play another clip for our audience here. I think this is when you were talking about the military and Secret Service.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: But I don't want to be in the military. I just couldn't do that one. If I did, there's one job that I could do and be the one job would be the guy that greet the president when he get off the helicopter. That's it.

(LAUGHTER)

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: You know, so I mean, you get some TV time, you know? Oh, look here, you know, Mr. President. That's it for me. I'm going to have some lunch.

(LAUGHTER)

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: You're not leaving anytime soon, are you? All right. Mahale (ph). You want me to get the dog? OK, I'll get the dog.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Do you have any advice for Jimmy Kimmel? He's going to be hosting this year.

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: Well, you know, Jimmy Kimmel is one of the best, man. He's a really funny dude. And you know, the main thing is to be prepared, and it's really kind of getting an idea of who else is going to be in the room, as well, because, you know, one year -- for this situation, you're in -- you know, approaching an election year, so you don't want to really kind of kill the president.

You want to have a lot of fun up there, of course. You know, Barack Obama is -- he's kind of cool, so it's really hard to do, like, a lot of jokes on him.

So again, feel out the room, see who else is in there, and then prepare to, you know, open up your show to kind of talk about what's going on in Washington politics or in the background. And Jimmy is really great at that. He's got great writers.

MALVEAUX: Yes.

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: So I'd expect it to be a good evening.

MALVEAUX: And I understand you've got another project that you're working on, a new sitcom starting on TVLand. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: Yes. I'm doing -- I'm doing "The Soul Man." I play an ex-R&B singer who becomes a minister late in life, and I'm kind of torn between my two worlds. I go from singing soul to saving souls.

And so it's funny about how, you know, you got to change careers in mid-life and -- but one is so, you know, irreverent, and I got to take my, you know, family along for the ride. And my wife is used to living in Vegas, drinking martinis and having a good time with her friends and riding in limos, and now we're kind of these servants of the higher power. So that's going to be -- it's a fun world (ph).

MALVEAUX: Yes. Sounds like a lot of fun. Cedric, you're always entertaining. So thank you for being with us. We'll check in with you later and let you know how the dinner goes tomorrow.

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: That'll be awesome. All right. You call it the nerd ball, so don't -- but you still dress really cool. MALVEAUX: We try. We bring it. We bring it. All right, thank you, Cedric.

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER: All right. (INAUDIBLE)

MALVEAUX: Oh, I want to bring in our political panel to talk about all things political, Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, conservative commentator Matt Lewis.

Cedric said "Let's holler," so let's do it. Let's talk about it, the nerd prom tomorrow, White House correspondents dinner. Maria, you've attended these. Give me your best -- give me your best story.

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I have a couple. So I was there in 2000, the last year of the Clinton administration when I was communications director for the INS, and we were in the middle of the whole Elian Gonzales issue.

And I remember meeting several Cuban stars whose names will remain silent. I'm not going to say who they were. And they were very, very nice to me, but I was so nervous the whole time, Suzanne, because for that whole year, I was persona non grata in Miami because of what we were doing with Elian in terms of returning to his father.

MALVEAUX: Right. Right.

CARDONA: So the whole time, I was, like, Please don't remember who I am and please don't remember what I'm doing! So that's one.

And then a couple of years ago, I kept running into people and at a couple of parties, they kept confusing me with Kate Walsh (ph)...

MALVEAUX: Really?

CARDONA: ... the actress -- yes...

MALVEAUX: Wow!

CARDONA: ... from "Private Practice," which I've been told I look like her, but it happened twice in one night. So...

MALVEAUX: Nice. Nice.

CARDONA: I guess I...

(CROSSTALK)

MATT LEWIS, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: People always confuse me with Clooney, and that's embarrassing.

(LAUGHTER)

LEWIS: No, actually...

CARDONA: Oh, I feel bad for you, Matt. LEWIS: I met Charlie Wilson. That was -- that was the highlight. I met Charlie Wilson one year. You know, the -- "Charlie Wilson's War" had just come out, the Tom Hanks movie. It was just an honor to meet him. Of course, he's no longer with us. So you never know who you're going to meet. A lot of great people show up. It's a lot of fun.

MALVEAUX: Yes, you know, I mean, people might not realize this, but there's this competition between the networks, who gets the hottest, most interesting celebrities, right?

CARDONA: Right.

MALVEAUX: And so here's the list, right? Here are what the other networks we're hearing they got. The other networks got George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, the cast of "Modern Family," Viola Davis, even the dog from the movie "The Artist."

CARDONA: Yes.

MALVEAUX: The dog is showing up. But Fox has, we understand, Lindsay Lohan and Kim Kardashian. Guess who we have? Do you want to guess?

CARDONA: I don't know. Say it, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Newt Gingrich! Newt Gingrich. I'm just saying. I'm just saying, you know? We're getting Newt.

CARDONA: But you! They have you!

MALVEAUX: All right. I think it's going to be a fun time. It's going to be a great, entertaining time.

CARDONA: It's going to be fun.

MALVEAUX: I want to talk a little bit about politics here. "Entertainment Tonight," right, Ann Romney talking about the challenges in her family, dealing with the campaigns, dealing with MS. But she also wanted to talk about her husband and the funnier side, the more real side to him. I want you to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROSSTALK)

ANN ROMNEY, WIFE OF MITT ROMNEY: They're not accurate, but they're funny.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are they not accurate?

ROMNEY: He is -- he is not -- actually, Mitt is a very funny guy. And he's not -- I mean, he doesn't comb his hair when we're, you know, not going places. It's, like, all over the place!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't have perfectly coifed hair when he wakes up in the morning?

ROMNEY: No! He really doesn't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you ever do it. Would you make an appearance on "SNL"...

(CROSSTALK)

ROMNEY: I'm not funny. That has never even crossed my mind. That would -- that's the first time. And yes, of course, that would be a great thrill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So Matt, let's talk a little bit about that because she kind of makes fun of him with the hair and all that stuff being all askew. I remember we had -- when Michelle Obama was talking about, you know, the hole in Barack Obama's socks and all of that.

Is there a danger sometimes if it's, you know, TMI, and people don't want to really see the other side?

LEWIS: Well, she did have that line about Mitt Romney unzipped, which was a little bit embarrassing. But look, I think that Michelle Obama and Ann Romney are both amazing.

I mean, the -- you know, they're on this high level where they're being interviewed on national television, and these women are, you know, arguably better than their husbands. I mean, I would almost think Ann Romney could be running for president. I mean, she's beautiful, charismatic, and she has, as you noted, a story of overcoming, you know, tragedies and illness.

I mean, wow, what an amazing political spouse. If I were advising Mitt Romney, I would say more Ann Romney. Any chance you have to put her on TV, do it. She's great TV.

MALVEAUX: Maria, would you agree that that is his secret weapon there?

CARDONA: Yes, but here's the problem, Suzanne. For somebody like President Obama -- and if you're an independent voter and you're really trying to make your decision, you look at President Obama and you say, Look, you know, this is somebody who arguably does understand what middle class families are going through, what my family is going through. He talks about middle class tax cuts, small business tax cuts, is with women on their issues. And he has an amazing wife. Wow, absolutely.

If you look at somebody like Mitt Romney, what they might think is this is somebody who is completely out of touch, talks about elevators for their cars and how rich his friends are, not somebody who's going to understand what I'm going through, which is really too bad because his wife rocks.

So at the end of the day, voters are not going to make their decisions based on the wives. It's the person, the candidate who's is on the ballot whose decision...

MALVEAUX: All right...

CARDONA: The voter's going to look at their policies. So that's the issue there.

MALVEAUX: We got to leave it there. Maria, Matt, thank you so much. I guess we can all agree that the wives rock, right? I mean, that's...

CARDONA: The wives rock. No question.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: You guys have a good weekend.

LEWIS: Thank you.

CARDONA: Thanks, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Later, finding love the second time around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As I age, I wonder will I be able to find somebody that I'm compatible with and I'm excited about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Why baby boomers are divorcing at double the rate of prior generations?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Time now for the "Help Desk" where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Gregg Olson is a certified financial planner and partner at Lennox Advisers.

Lynette Khalfani-Cox is the founder of the financial advice blog askthemoneycoach.com. Thanks both for coming in today. Lynette, first question to you.

This comes from Aaron in Michigan. Aaron is 30 years old, a reserve member of the U.S. Navy. He wants to know how he can start planning for retirement. Always good to start at 30.

LYNNETTE KHALFANI COX, FOUNDER, ASKTHEMONEYCOACH.COM: Right. And I have to say, hats off to him for starting to plan at such an early age. That's a great thing.

I think a couple things he should keep in mind. One is to go ahead and get started whatever it is you choose to do, whether it's mutual funds, individual stocks and bonds.

Sometimes people who are younger think that they have to have a big lump sum or a lot of money to invest. Take the slow and steady approach.

Also, of course, he wants to take advantage of any potential military benefits that might be available over the long haul, and those kinds of things can really add up over time.

He's got decades potentially until retirement. So just sort of take the slow and steady approach and make sure he's broadly diversified. Don't just jump into one asset class or one individual investment.

HARLOW: Greg, your question comes from Tracy in Wheaton, Illinois. Tracy wrote in that she is planning on getting married soon. How should she and her fiance merge their finances? I guess maybe should they?

GREG OLSEN, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL ADVISER: Well, as a financial adviser and a happily married man, I'm amply qualified to answer this question. I would say slowly.

HARLOW: OK.

OLSEN: Take baby steps. This is not a hard, fast rule here. This is more of a feel question. Maybe start by opening up a joint checking account together and paying the bills.

And then maybe switch to opening up an investment account together. The best advice I can give you though is do it slowly, and wait until she gets married. Planning for the wedding is really stressful enough.

HARLOW: It certainly is. Thank you guys both very much. We appreciate it. If you have a question you want answered, send us an e-mail to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com.

MALVEAUX: Who knew back in 2008 that John Edwards would go from running for president to the butt of jokes. Here is Jay Leno in today's punch line.

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JAY LENO, COMEDIAN: Have you been watching this John Edwards trial? You talk about a fall from grace. I don't know what kind of President John Edwards would have been, but I'm pretty sure he would have gotten along really well with the Secret Service. I'm just saying. They would have been like that.

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MALVEAUX: Jokes aside, we'll have the latest on the John Edwards trial at the top of the hour.

But first, President Obama has a plan to protect veterans who want to go from the front lines to college classrooms. His live remarks up next.

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MALVEAUX: Any moment now, President Obama is going to be speaking at Fort Stewart in Hinesville, Georgia. He's unveiling a new plan to protect veterans from deceptive practices from some colleges. As soon as it happens, we're going to bring you those remarks live.

First want to go to New York. CNN's Poppy Harlow. Poppy, tell us a little bit about what these practices are that the White House is tackling with this new plan.

HARLOW: Well, this is a very big move and a move on his own. The president is not going with Congress or waiting for Congress on this one. He's signing an executive order and what the administration is saying is it's a move to protect service members and their family members from what the administration is calling aggressive and deceptive targeting by individual educational institutions.

Suzanne, you're going to hear the president likely focus on for-profit universities. You have seen them advertise heavily on television and magazines, et cetera. Some of these practices are what the administration is calling deceptive or fraudulent marketing, aggressive recruiting.

And here's why it matters, a lot of federal money is going to these schools. The post-9/11 GI Bill, eight of the 10 largest recipients of that money are for-profit schools.

Also for-profit schools received almost half about $280 million of military tuition assistance funds last year. Also more than a third of the GI Bill is going to the for-profit institutions.

Here's the concern. You see the graduation rate there. It's 28 percent overall for these for-profit universities. That compares to about 67 percent when you talk about the graduation rate for public, non-profit universities and private non-profit universities, 67 percent and 57 percent respectively.

Introducing the president, this is interesting. You will hear from Sergeant Johnny Marshall that is a sergeant from that camp, from Fort Stewart in Georgia, who the administration says had -- that may be him speaking right there.

He's introducing the president who the administration said had a negative experience with a for-profit college. Also in attendance with the president and first lady, Holly Petraeus, of course, the wife of David Petraeus.

She leads up this office of service member affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which, of course, was put in place by the president. She has been a big advocate for protecting service members and their families from what she's calling these deceptive practices.

MALVEAUX: And I just want our viewers to know we're watching those live pictures of the gentleman you had mentioned introducing the president. Poppy, do we know if the industry is responding to any of this ahead of the president's remarks? Do they know what they're about to get hit with?

HARLOW: They absolutely do. A release went out from the White House at about 10:00 last night. I reached out to the industry lobbyist in Washington and got a response from them.

This comes from the Association of Private Sectors Colleges and Universities that represents a lot of these schools. Not all of them, but let's pull up what they had to say.

Part of their statement read, "APSCU is disappointed the president decided to bypass the Congress to address these issues with an executive order. Career-oriented institutions proudly serve military and veteran populations and work with congressional leaders in a bipartisan manner to address concerns about veteran education."

What they will say, Suzanne, is that they have hundreds of thousands of veterans and military service men and women enrolled. They will point to the fact that they offer flexible online education. That many service members need.

At the same time though when you have a 28 percent graduation rate that calls it into question as well as the outstanding loans associated with some of these schools. Interesting to note, Senator Tom Harkin, the Democrat from Iowa, has really led the way on this one.

He has been looking into these schools. He's held five hearings on these schools. So I would expect as we see higher education getting a lot of attention in this administration that for- profits will be at the forefront of that one -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Poppy, thank you. Once again, President Obama and the first lady visiting U.S. troops in Georgia today. As soon as the president starts to speak, we are going to take it live.

John Edwards' personal and professional life under the microscope in a North Carolina courtroom. He is on trial for misusing campaign funds.

Diane Diamond will have a live report on today's testimony coming up. Here is what she said earlier about Edwards' appearance.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he's got his impeccable suit on and his perfect GQ look, and seems very engaged at the defense table.

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MALVEAUX: Looking for a new computer? You may want to wait a couple months for a better price. We're going to tell you why up next.

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MALVEAUX: President Obama and the first lady visiting U.S. troops in Georgia today. Let's listen in. (BEGIN LIVE EVENT COVERAGE)