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Dimon: Can't Defend Risky Trades; Romney Accuses Obama of Delaying Economic Recovery; Bombs Explode Across Iraq; Suspected Auburn Shooter In Custody; Jury Deliberates Clemens' Fate; Trayvon Martin's Parents Release Ad; Witnesses Testify Against Sandusky; Colorado Wildfire Now 46,000 Acres; New Verizon Plan Limits Choice; New Verizon Plan Limits Choice; Obesity Measures May Not Be Accurate; New Low IN America's Image Abroad

Aired June 13, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Suzanne Malveaux.

Let's right to it.

Bombs exploded across Iraq today, killing 58 people, most of the victims were pilgrims traveling from all over Iraq to a religious shrine in Baghdad. The worst incident was a car bomb in Gila that killed 20 people.

And Colorado officials will be assessing damage to homes today in the massive fire zone. They say that the fast moving wildfire has now scorched more than 46,000 acres and it's only 10 percent contained. One woman has died. Thousands have had to flee their homes.

And when your company loses billions of dollars on risky trades, you've got some explaining to do. And today, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is explaining before lawmakers on Capitol Hill. But the hearing was interrupted by hecklers before Dimon started speaking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HECKLERS: Stop foreclosures now! Stop foreclosures now!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Eventually, the police removed the protesters and the hearing continued. Dimon is testifying before the Senate Banking Committee about his company's massive losses.

So what does this have to do with you and your finances? Christine Romans of our Money team is joining us live.

Christine, if you are not a Chase shareholder, why should you care about those company's losses?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you care, because remember we had to bail out a bunch of banks a few years ago, and the activities and the credit swaps arena almost took down the global economy, and that is exactly the arena JPMorgan had trades that went bad in. So, that's why you care.

If you bank at JPMorgan chase, that is not going the hurt you. Taxpayers today have not lost no money because of this. This has been a loss of reputation and certainly a negative headline for JPMorgan overall.

And I'll tell you that the JPMorgan chief, Jamie Dimon, says he can't defend and won't defend these trades. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE DIMON, JPMORGAN CHASE CEO: It is clear that the original intent was good and morphed into, I won't try to defend.

UNIDENTIFEID MALE: So --

DIMON: Under any name or whatever you call it, I will not defend it, because it is violated common sense in my opinion.

I do believe that the people doing it thought that they were maintaining a shore against a high-yield credit that would benefit the company in a crisis. I think and we now know they were wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: He says it shouldn't have happened, and it's against their standards and his standards and people have lost their jobs over it. But this it is a conservative bank, he says, it would not have brought down this bank. It certainly though did hit the reputation, and they will lose billions of dollars of profits out of this -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Christine, there are a lot of things that Dimon did not want to reveal or talk about. But what was he willing to tell the committee about what may have gone wrong?

ROMANS: Well, he told them that this was, what was supposed to be what they call a macroeconomic hedge against a turn in the economy, and for a while there, it looked like it was the right trade to have on board. But then it turned south, and the risk management didn't just really catch it. That was a problem. That was a mistake.

He also said that their board will be reviewing what are called claw back procedures -- meaning that the people who knew it was going on and allowing the circumstances to happen, they could lose bonuses and pay and even stock options and their compensation from the past few years if the board deems that necessary.

So they are looking into this. The issue here is: what does this mean for the overall economy in the banking system. This is probably $2 billion to $7 billion.

He points out, they $150 billion in the bank with Federal Reserve banks around the world, and they have more than $1 trillion in deposits, so this hurts the reputation and profit. It doesn't hurt the overall economy.

WHITFIELD: And what does this mean for Wall Street reform?

ROMANS: And that's the big question here. It's just another little piece of ammunition in this big fight in Washington over Wall Street reform. There are -- many people who were saying if you had the Volcker Rule in effect, that would prevent the banks from taking the risky trades, just to make profit, it would have prevented this.

Others say, no, it probably no. It probably wouldn't. I mean, this was a bad trade, that was something that had a good decent intent at the outset, and then morphed into something else.

He's going to get a lot of questions and he has been a getting a lot of questions, Fred, about what would happen if a bank that was not in as good of financial shape as JPMorgan Chase, what would happen if they did this trade, could this be something if repeated by several banks could be a problem ultimately for taxpayers? And that's what some of these senators are trying to get at right now.

WHITFIELD: All right. Christine Romans, thanks so much, in New York.

All right. Meantime, the fighting words continue over the economy on the campaign trail. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney there in Washington, D.C., talking at the Business Roundtable quarterly meeting. And apparently he just accused President Obama of delaying economic recovery.

Let's listen in on more of what he had to say.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It has to do with the economic crisis we just had. This was an overreach, taking advantage of the crisis to do a lot of things that the staff members and I'm sure the legislators wanted to carry out.

The NLRB, stacking the National Labor Relations Board with those who are in the, in the aura of the union world led to decisions like the Boeing decision in South Carolina which they ultimately had to retreat from, but also an effort to pursue card check which would force effectively impose unions on businesses where employees did not want them. And quickie elections these approaches meant to small and large enterprises.

This is not a time to be hiring people in America, and the very time that we want people to be hiring and taking risks, they were confronted with growing uncertainty coming from Washington, and pulled back. As a result, it has been harder for this economy to reboot.

Trade -- look, in a highly productive nation like ours with the most output per person of any major nation, trade is good. It helps our economy, and we want to open up new markets for our goods. During the last three and a half years, China and the European Union nations have negotiated or in the middle of negotiations for about 44 different trade agreements. This administration has negotiated none, none.

Three were finally approved by the Senate, but the president dragged his heels on them for three years before putting them through -- again I presume bowing to the demands of organized labor.

Trade is good for labor as well as for the overall economy and putting Americans back to work and yet the president took a very different view in that.

Energy -- I'm going to come back to energy, but we have it's a Godsend. The availability of low-cost natural gas should reignite our economy. Instead, this president has done through the regulators, whether it's the EPA or others, have taken action after action which is harder to take advantage of the natural gas, to understand whether we can rely upon the supply of natural gas.

Number two, it made it almost impossible to mine coal and to use coal. And, the way, we have the largest reserve of any nation on Earth. And if we don't take advantage of it, why it's going to go overseas and be used in China and the emissions of coal will be dirtier than if it is used here.

And then, of course, there's oil. The president put a moratorium on the drilling in the Gulf. We don't drill in ANWR. We don't drill in the Outer Continental Shelf.

We have these resources I think in part the president or his people want to see the cost of these sources of energy that we have in abundance come to a higher level so that other technologies, solar and wind, become more competitive.

Finally, I mention the deficit. If I were thinking off investing a major portion of my enterprise's future in this country, I'd want to know what the future value of the dollar is going to be, and if I saw deficits as far as the eye could see, I'd be concerned.

If I also saw a president who after 3 1/2 years had not put together proposals to get the budget balanced, I would make me even more concerned. And if I saw entitlements like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, again without any effort on the part of the president to address them and to find a way to make sure that they are saved, but they are also solvent, that would give me concern.

So, for all of those reasons in my view, this has been a tepid and unfortunate recovery for the American people. It means more people are out of work and more people are looking for good jobs, and that breaks my heart.

I think that this flows from the fact that the president and his people just don't understand how the private sector works. I actually think that it would be helpful for a president to have spent some time in the private sector, had a job in the real enterprise, to have a sense of what it is that makes an enterprise decide to grow or to shrink, to send jobs overseas or bring them back, to train people or not train people, to provide benefits or not --

WHITFIELD: All right. A, quote, "A tepid and unfortunate recovery" says presidential candidate Mitt Romney, blaming the Obama administration for a litany of what he believes are big complaints as to how it pertains to how the administration has r responded to or taken the lead on trade, energy and oil and the deficit.

We'll continue to watch Mitt Romney there in Washington, D.C., at the Business Roundtable quarterly meeting.

All right. Looking overseas now to Syria -- 15 months of fighting and low-end estimates of 12,000 people dead, and I'm talking about Syrians killing Syrians. Rebels on one side, and the Syrian military on the other.

Since it started, the opposition uprising and the government's violent crackdown has been called a, quote, "armed conflict or a struggle". Today things are different. For the first time in 15 months, a senior United Nations official declares that what's happening in Syria is a full-scale civil war.

I want to talk about this with Rima Maktabi. She is watching developments in Syria from Abu Dhabi.

So, Rima, conflict, civil war -- what is the difference what it's being called? Bottom line is that an awful lot of people are being killed on a daily basis. How does a classification change anything?

RIMA MAKTABI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, some people here call it sectarian war. Really, it doesn't matter. I mean, today only, and the day is not over yet in Syria, 50 people have been killed. Children are being tortured. Citizens and civilians are being besieged by the Syrian army, and they are being starved at some point.

One village was besieged for eight days, and today, the army entered into that village. So, really the label doesn't matter much.

WHITFIELD: So, why now? Why would the U.N. use the words civil war as it describes the conflict there in Syria?

MAKTABI: Because the past two months have been really, really bad. On a daily basis, we get a death toll of about 90 people killed, people and dead people have become like numbers.

And after the Houla massacre, the conflict on the ground in Syria has taken a sectarian side. It is a country that -- where a Sunni majority lives and ruled by Alawite minority. And this is the sensitivity.

WHITFIELD: By declaring this a civil war, does this now kind of create a new path for the U.N. or NATO in which to intervene?

MAKTABI: Well, so far without Russia and China on board, it seems that the international community is not able to do much.

The U.N. observers that are now on the ground in Syria, their mission is to oversee a cease-fire which never happened not one single day in Syria over the past months that we didn't hear of at least 10, 20, 30 people killed.

So definitely a new decision, a new resolution is needed to stop violence.

WHITFIELD: All right. Rima Maktabi, thank you so much for joining us from Abu Dhabi.

All right. Here's what we are working on for this hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): The war may be over, but violence is echoing through Iraq.

Then, more gut-wrenching testimony from witnesses who say they were violated by a man they trusted. The latest in the trial of Jerry Sandusky.

And if the presidential election were held on Wall Street, Mitt Romney would be winning by a landslide. Why bankers are backing the GOP.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Today is the deadliest single day in months in Iraq. Across the country, just today, roadside bombs exploded and car bombs went of in a residential neighborhood, at least 58 people died. Most of the people killed or injured had something in common. They were observant Shiite Muslims making their way to religious festivals. Well, not since January have so many people died in Iraq, and officials have reason to worry that recent history may be repeating itself.

Michael Holmes is here from CNN International.

So, Michael, you have spent an awful lot of time in Iraq. But this, and while you mention that it has been, you know, different types of violent incidents that have bubbled up kind of on the periphery, but this is the biggest and the deadliest one since the Americans left.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL: Pretty much, yes.

WHITFIELD: Who is to blame here?

HOLMES: Well, the targets were all Shiites and the focus is going to swing straight to al Qaeda, and the al Qaeda affiliate there which is called the Islamic state of Iraq. They claim responsibility for another bombing of a Shia religious head quarters the other day. And so I think that the finger will be looking that way and also pointing that way because of the organization here.

This was 10 different cities. You are talking about Gila in the south, Kurdistan as well, Kirkuk, Mosul, and Baghdad, and multiple bombs in some of those places, 10 bombs by all accounts in Baghdad, so that took a lot of organization to do.

WHITFIELD: And why do we believe those areas? Are they particularly vulnerable?

HOLMES: Well, Shiite areas where these bombs went off. So, the target was Shiite and that raises the whole sectarian specter that we are seeing in Syria as well and Iraq, it was at the worst in back '06 and '07.

So, the fear is that those behind us were trying to spark more sectarian clashes and drag Iraq backwards into the dark days?

WHITFIELD: Mike, there'd be any like to -- I guess, the political infrastructure?

HOLMES: Well, you know, this is something that's been, you know, annoying a lot of observers. When the U.S. left, there was an agreement in place to share the power, and it is called the power- sharing agreement.

This has not happened under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is Shia, and what people are saying it's him basically shutting out the Sunni side of the political scene, and the Kurdish side, and consolidating power. He controls the interior ministry, the defense ministry and the a lot of people are starting to see what they fear is an authoritarian regime emerge in Iraq where the Sunnis and the Kurds are pushed to the sidelines, margins of the political scene and that creates frustrations among them as well, and then so you these sorts of problems.

WHITFIELD: Is this enough to put the political structure in jeopardy? The leadership?

HOLMES: No, because it many ways, it might embolden al Maliki to say, look at this trouble we're having. And further consolidate power particularly in the security area.

It's very worrying what's going on there in a political sense. A lot of people are looking at Iraq and the government we thought we would leave behind when we left Iraq, and it's not the government we're seeing now. We're seeing another strongman, as some in Iraq -- I was talking to somebody in Iraq just the other day and they were calling him Saddam light.

And Iraq might need a strong hand to govern. But they are worried that this is becoming strong hand in a sectarian way, and it's very much a Shia government to the exclusion of others, and that can create all sorts of problems among the Sunni within Iraq and the Kurds in the north and the Kurdish were part of the targets of what happened yesterday.

So, the potential of more of this is very worrying. You know, during '06 and '07, where it was at the worst the sectarian killings and we would get up and 40, 50, 60, 70 bodies in the streets and that was carried out at the street level among militias. Whether this gets to that point, I don't think so, because there are not the signs of that yet, but it's certainly very worrying of those trying to stir the pot.

WHITFIELD: Yes, very worrisome. It's bad and sadly, it really could be the prelude to something else around the corner.

HOLMES: There could be more to come.

WHITFIELD: All right. Michael Holmes, thanks so much. Good to see you. I appreciate it.

HOLMES: Good to see you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. The race in the country may be tightening up nationally. But on Wall Street, Romney has a clear lead on the president. We'll tell you why.

And don't forget that, of course, you can watch CNN live on your computer, while you are at work and head to CNN.com/TV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Mitt Romney makes the case for his economic policies before a room full of the country's top business leaders.

Right now, Romney is meeting with the CEOs whose companies generate more than $6 trillion in revenues. He is attending the Business Roundtable's quarterly meeting in Washington, and live pictures right now.

Political director Mark Preston is joining us live.

So, Mark, Romney is really taking aim at the president saying it is his fault that the recovery has been so tepid, and his word, tepid. Are you surprised by the tone of his remarks or this just kind of the way sit it is going to be for the next five months?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I think it's the way it is going to be for the next five months and we will hear from President Obama tomorrow, Fred, when he heads to Ohio, where he is going to go directly at Mitt Romney as well and be critical of what President Obama says are the failed Bush policies that he says that Romney will bring back.

But Romney, as he is speaking to the powerful business leaders in the United States, of course, we are monitoring the speech as we are talking about it.

But a couple of the things that he said has really led to the slow economic recovery. He said that President Obama -- the pushing of the failed stimulus did not help the economy, and he said that there are too many burdens from the regulations on the businesses that are not allowing the businesses to grow. He says that the health care law is actually becoming very, very burdensome and tin itself is hurtful to the economy.

And he went on to talk about trade. He listed about 10 other things. But it just goes to show you, Fred, that not only are we talking about the economy today. We're going to be talking about it tomorrow and everyday until Election Day.

WHITFIELD: So, Mitt Romney and the president have been slugging it out over the economy for some time now. But independent voters don't seem too impressed of economic plans. In fact, let's taker a look this "Washington Post"/ABC News, at this "Washington Post"/ABV News poll, 54 percent of the independents have unfavorable view of the president's plans and 47 percent don't like Romney's plans either,

So what does it say?

PRESTON: You know, I think in many ways, that the American public doesn't know what either plan is. What we are really working off of and of course we never have enough time to fully explain what President Obama's plan is or what Mitt Romney's plan is.

I don't think that necessarily they know all of the specifics about how each candidate wants to turn the economy around. We really do rely on the sound bites and the voters, and the American people have so much more to worry about. They have to worry about keeping their own homes and keeping their own jobs, but they are relying on the sound bites.

So, what I think what you'll see over the next five months is both campaigns really working hard to not only get their individual basis fired up, and explain to them how they are going to turn the economy around, but you're going to see the campaigns really try to voters and try to reach the average voter, and try to explain to them how they can turn the economy around.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, finally, former President George H.W. bush is taking issue with a comment earlier this week from son Jeb that men like Ronald Reagan and his father would not fit in the today's Republican Party and saying this of Jeb Bush, they would have a hard time if you define the Republican Party and I don't of having an orthodoxy that doesn't allow for disagreement, doesn't allow for finding some common ground.

So, what is Bush 41 saying on his birthday?

WHITFIELD: Well, he is trying to be magnanimous and try to be more statesmanlike and saying that he understands what his son is saying, but he says that the fact of the matter is that he does not agree with his son. But I'll tell you, Jeb Bush has really just hit the nail on the head and it isn't just about the Republican Party, but it is also about the Democratic Party.

Jeb Bush did a follow-up on statement. He actually did it to through social media, through Twitter and said that what he is alluding to is that both sides are so hyper-partisan right now, and that's why a lot things are not getting done. Of course, Jeb Bush trying to do some cleanup work from his comments, but the fact of the matter is, Fred, he is absolutely right. The Democratic Party is very, very hyper-partisan, so is the Republican Party right now at this time.

WHITFIELD: Mark Preston, thanks so much you, from Washington.

PRESTON: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right. They trusted him and they say Jerry Sandusky used that trust to take advantage of them. We'll have the latest testimony from the trial rocking Penn State.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The man accused of killing three people near Auburn University could appear in court today. Twenty-two-year-old Desmonte Leonard, rather, turned himself in yesterday. CNN has also just learned that the funerals have been set for the three men killed at Saturday's pool party shooting. They will take place Friday and Saturday. You can see the two former Auburn University football players right here. One witness called the shooting a massacre for no reason at all.

And the fate of legendary baseball player Roger Clemens is now in the hands of a federal jury in Washington. Clemens is accused of lying to Congress when he testified in 2008 he did not use steroids or human growth hormones to improve his pitching.

Jurors begin their first full day of deliberations one hour from now. This is Clemens' second perjury trial. His first ended in a mistrial last year.

The parents of slain teenager, Trayvon Martin, have released a commercial as part of a task force to review the "Stand Your Ground" law. That's the law that allows someone to use force against someone who poses a threat. Here's a clip with Martin's dad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to come together to protect our children. I am asking you to consider sharing this message with the governor of your states with these similar "Stand Your Ground" law.

Ask them to review these dangerous laws and if we do, thousands more dads will have a happy Father's Day together with their children and not the toughest one of their life without them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Martin's parents saying they are not against stand your ground, but they want the states to review the law.

Prosecutors in the Jerry Sandusky's child molestation trial are calling more witnesses to the stand today. The testimony so far has been extremely graphic, and some witnesses have even broken down on the stand in tears.

In the courtroom this morning, Sara Ganim, a reporter for the "Patriot News." So Sara, who took the stand today?

SARA GANIM, REPORTER, "THE PATRIOT NEWS": Well, this morning, we heard from alleged victim number 10. He is the last one to come forward and he was one of two who actually called a hot line that the prosecutors set up after Jerry Sandusky was initially arrested and all of the media attention came about in November.

He testified to acts that are very similar to what we have heard from the other two alleged victims who took the stand in the previous days. Following him late this morning was the first alleged victim who testified that he actually was not forced to perform graphic sex acts on Jerry Sandusky.

What he testified to was much more scaled back, and I have to say on cross-examination, I think that it was the first time that Joey Amendola seemed to get a little bit ahead. He got to the point where he got this person to admit that it was not until after he heard that there were other accusers and that Jerry Sandusky had been accused before and that it evolved.

He was very good on the stand during direct examination, but when he was questioned by Jerry Sandusky's attorney, things started to shift a little bit. The tone definitely started to shift.

WHITFIELD: And what about Jerry Sandusky? What has his demeanor been like today?

GANIM: You know, it has been the same all three days, I have to say. He made sure to look directly at each witness. He is really not shy about that. He even threw some heart wrenching testimony that we have heard in the last couple of days.

He sits there as if like these people are talking about someone else, and listens to this. You know, they are putting pictures and the prosecutors are putting up pictures up on the screen of these boys, and pictures of Jerry Sandusky.

There was one moment where they showed Jerry Sandusky with his arm around several kids, and you know, we could see just from the testimony in the last three days I could pick out three alleged victims in the picture, and altogether with Jerry Sandusky. He looks at it and straight forward just like, you or I might look at the picture.

WHITFIELD: And then yesterday, a man identified as victim one described in detail how Sandusky allegedly sexually abused him as a boy numerous times. I understand that there were many jurors who had a hard time with some of the testimony.

GANIM: I noticed a few jurors who put their hands up to their faces during that testimony. You know, his was really the most emotional that we have seen so far. He walked in, and he is only 18 years old, and he walked in.

He had a tortured look on his face and he really seemed overwhelmed and hanging his head through a lot of the testimony. He had to catch his breath a few times, so yes, the jurors really had the most reaction on their faces when he was testifying.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sara Ganim, thanks so much. All right, Denver, maybe 60 miles away, but a raging wild fire had left the city blanketed in smoke. We'll get an update on the efforts to beat back the flames.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Colorado's wildfire has now grown to more than 46,000 acres. One thousand firefighters are fighting that blaze and one family is mourning the loss of a loved one found among the ashes of her cabin home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN STEADMAN, MOTHER-IN-LAW KILLED IN WILDFIRE: You just think that if the fire is going to happen, you will have enough time to grab things to protect what is yours, but you don't. It came so fast, and it was too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Chad Myers has the latest for us now. This is a very fast moving fire that is raging and how contained is it?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's 10 percent, which isn't a bad number. It sounds like a terrible number because being 90 percent uncontained.

But the western flank is where it is uncontained right now, and that is where very few people live and that is almost Estes Park. So we don't want to burn national forest land, but the firefighters are protecting homes.

They are protecting structures in the Risk Valley on up the big Thompson Canyon and all those areas. This is what it looked like on Tuesday. It was much worse Saturday and Sunday when the winds were ripping, 40 to 60 miles per hour.

WHITFIELD: Yes, fanning the flames.

MYERS: Yes, here is a time lapse. This is a really cool thing. You can go to cnn.com/ireport or ireport.cnn.com and see some amazing pictures. The images coming out of this fire are truly tremendous.

And 46,000 acres burned now, about $3 million so far spent, but now 1,000 men and women on the line trying to get this fire out. It's 73 square miles have been burned right now. So, what is going on?

Well, today is a good day, a good morning. We have calm winds. We have good conditions for firefighters although the smoke is kind of sitting over the fire and not as easy to see.

That is sometimes can hamper the airdrops because you don't want the smoke to sit right over where the fire is. You want the wind and the smoke to blow a little bit so that you can get the air drop right where they want and the water drop from the air.

And Estes Park higher up in the mountains winds now at 8 miles per hour. That is pretty good. Here is what it looks like all of the way here from Fort Collins here and Denver down at the bottom.

But it is a crazy line here. You have to understand that although we have, you know, 43,000 or 46,000 acres burned, you look at the line, and how much line of fire you have there and how hard it is going to be to put this fire out.

It looks like by the weekend, the winds are back up to 30, 40 miles per hour again.

WHITFIELD: Makes it even tougher.

MYERS: It does. Thunderstorms are coming. That sounds like a good thing, but many times in the mountains the air so dry that when it tries to rain. The rain never gets to the ground, only the lightening makes it and we start more fires.

WHITFIELD: My goodness, all right, well, let's hope for the best. Thanks so much, Chad. Keep us posted.

All right, smartphone users listen up because the price of the plan may be about to climb. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, in today's electronic world almost all of us have smartphones, tablets or both, and for those with multiple devices in the family, Verizon has come up with the share everything plan.

It allows you share minutes and messages and data between the phones and other connected devices on the account. Well, not everyone is happy about that.

Alison Kosik joins me now from New York. So, Alison, how does this plan work and why is it that some people are upset?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, they are getting upset, Fredricka, because it is more and more expensive just to use your smartphone. Look at the difference now.

If you have a smartphone, the cheapest option soon will be $90 a month compared that to the $70 a month right now because what Verizon is doing is moving to what they call shared data plans.

And what this does is it links multiple devices to one account meaning that you share one big pot of data. So let's say for a family of four, you got two smartphones. The kids have cell phones. You have a pair of tablets in the house.

Each device carries a monthly charge ranging anywhere from $10 to $40 and then you pile on the data. So let's say the family gets 4 gigabytes. The monthly total will come to $280. I guess, the good part about this is voice and texting would be unlimited -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: My goodness, so what about existing customers, will they have to change to this kind of plan?

KOSIK: That is a good question. So existing customers, they can keep their current plans for now even when they upgrade, but if you are a new customer, you are going to have to choose from one of the new plans.

But remember, this is the future, so you know, don't be surprised if other carriers follow because you look at what happens from the company's point of view it is all about meeting demand for more data.

That is really what we are getting from our phones and with that, Fredricka, comes those higher costs for everybody.

WHITFIELD: So what if I want a cell phone and no frills, are the calling-only kinds of plans going away?

KOSIK: Yes. So if you have a regular phone and people make fun of you for just having a regular phone, you can keep the plan there. Those new plans start at $40 a month for 450 minutes. And if you want texting and other services, that's extra. But that's dying out. You know, most Americans have those smartphones. You know, the reason why people make fun of you if you got those boring old cell phone.

WHITFIELD: OK. Let's talk about the market today. How are things going?

KOSIK: Interesting day for the market. You know, it seems to be all over the place. Right now we're seeing some modest gains for the markets across the board. Retail sales came in falling in May for the second straight month. People seem to be spending less on gas. But the problem is, they're also spending less on other purchases. We also found out that the prices that businesses pay for products, also known as producer prices, they also fell last month. What those twp reports suggest, Fredricka, is that the U.S. economy is slowing.

Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Alison Kosik, thanks so much, from the New York Stock Exchange.

All right, we know America has a weight problem, but the tool we're using to measure obesity might need to be tweaked. We'll tell you why.

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WHITFIELD: All right, pleasantly plump or obese? The difference is not a matter of opinion. Instead, it's determined by a person's body mass index, or BMI. Health officials consider anyone with a BMI between 25 and 30 overweight, while anyone with a BMI over 30 is labeled obese with increased health risks like diabetes and heart disease. But some researchers say that's not completely right, at least when it comes to black women. A 2010 study out of Louisiana State University found that black women may have a high BMI and still be healthy. Dr. Felicia Wade is the author of the book "The Heart of the Matter." She's joining me right here in Atlanta.

All right, before we get to the study and all the intricacies of it, good to see you, first of all, Dr. Wade.

DR. FELICIA WADE, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Nice to meet you.

WHITFIELD: Let's talk about the body mass index. How do you determine what your BMI is?

WADE: OK. So your body mass index takes into consideration your height and your weight. And through a very complicated equation, it determines whether your BMI is 18 between 30. And then it determines whether you are overweight or obese. And it should have taken into consideration factors about your percentage fat, your body fat, or your weight or your abdominal circumference, but it did not. But it does not mean that it is not a significant factor.

WHITFIELD: OK. So, why is it that this study would single out black women would have a different kind of BMI or a different measurement of what obesity is versus anyone else? And do you agree with the premise?

WADE: Well, you know, certainly it doesn't mean again that it doesn't have some merit as parameters. BMI is very, very significant. You need to know whether you are overweight or obese. This costs this country $300 billion a year. So it's very, very significant.

What is significant about it is whether you are considered overweight or obese at what parameter. For non-Caucasians, it's at 32. For Caucasians it's at 30. That's where the --

WHITFIELD: And what's the difference? Why is there a difference?

WADE: There's a difference because of the racial factors. And that just means that they may have to go back to the drawing board and take those factors into consideration.

WHITFIELD: And when you say the racial factors, are we talking about diet, are we talking about where people live, what they're exposed to?

WADE: We're talking about the fact that African-Americans have particular aspects that need to be considered in terms of the waist to hip ratios. Those types of ratios need to be considered. And that's very, very important.

When we talk about abdominal fat, I'm sure you know about the studies that talk about abdominal fat and cardiovascular disease. So those things are very, very important. We can't discount BMI because there may be parameters based on being Caucasian or non-Caucasian. It's still very, very, very important.

WHITFIELD: So does this mean the scale of BMI, what measures obesity or what measures being overweight, need to be revamped? Overhauled? WADE: It means just that, that it needs to be looked at again. It means going back to the drawing board, looked at again. And it means having a conversation with your provider. It means that the provider has to sit down, look at all of those factors and talks to you at a certain point. If you are a non-Caucasian, it may mean that they -- he looks at those factors and says, well, your weight is at this weight, you may be 140, and your BMI may say that you're not necessarily overweight. You may be doing all the right things.

WHITFIELD: And this is separate from your body fat, the percentage of body fat?

WADE: Yes. That's very, very different.

WHITFIELD: You hear everything from, you know, maybe optimal would be 10 or 12 percent, depending on if you're a man or woman, athletic versus 15 percent or 20.

WADE: Exactly. You're 100 percent right. And it's very, very important to have that conversation with your doctor, because when you're talking about losing weight, maintaining weight, whether you are pre-diabetic, whether you're a diabetic, those are all conversations that we need to have because people need to understand percentage body weight and how that's calculated. Many times that's calculated when somebody is sat into water and they have a percent body weight.

WHITFIELD: Right.

WADE: There are scales that you can stand on that will determine whether you have a certain percent body weight. Those are very, very important things. And you have to be able to ask questions of the doctor.

WHITFIELD: OK. And are you asking your doctor about your -- you know, measuring your BMI or it something you can do at home?

WADE: Well, here's the thing. There are BMI calculators all over the web.

WHITFIELD: You know, based on a chart.

WADE: OK. But I'm an advocate of going to your doctor. I'm an advocate, particularly if you're a diabetic, of going to your endocrinologist and sitting down and saying, hey, I don't understand this. I really don't know what's going on and I have these questions.

And the reason I'm an advocate of that is because that's why your doctor went to medical school, to sit down and tell you that based on these parameters, this is the weight that's best for you based on your height, based on your weight, based on your family history. This is where it's going to serve you best. Because he's also looking or she's also looking at your body. If the majority of your weight is trunkal (ph), it's in the abdomen --

WHITFIELD: Yes. WADE: You're at very high risk for cardiovascular disease. If the majority of your weight is in your hips, now that's a different discussion, OK. And so your doctor is the best person to take all of that information and put it in the proper parameters.

WHITFIELD: Interesting.

WADE: And so I don't want us to get lost in the trees for the forest.

WHITFIELD: Oh, yes.

WADE: I want us to look at the forest. And the reason I say that is because we owe our children a legacy of health.

WHITFIELD: Right.

WADE: That's really the heart of the matter.

WHITFIELD: All right. We've got to stay on top of it. All right, Dr. Felicia Wade, thanks so much. So good to see you. Appreciate it.

WADE: You're welcome. You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: Great to see you.

All right, from drone strikes to foreign policy. We'll tell you why parts of the Arab world aren't too happy with President Obama right now.

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WHITFIELD: America's reputation in many Muslim countries has reached a new low. What does this mean for President Barack Obama come November? Jill Dougherty explains.

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JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the streets off Cairo, some Egyptians say they had high hopes when Barack Obama became president. Now, there's bitter disappointment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We were optimistic for change after George Bush. But, sorry, it's the same politics.

DOUGHERTY: Among Americans traditional allies, however, Europe and Japan, President Obama has largely repaired America's image. But the Pew Research Center's new Global Attitudes Project shows Barack Obama's own policies are hurting him. Take the use of drones. A major complaint on the streets of Islamabad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're illegally attacking us on our soil without our permission.

DOUGHERTY: That's the opinion in 17 of 21 countries. More than half disapprove of U.S. drone attacks targeting extremists in countries like Pakistan or Yemen. Compare that to 62 percent of Americans who approve of the drone campaign. The survey questioned more than 26,000 people in 21 countries. One major finding, leadership matters.

ANDRE KOHUT, PEW RESEARCH CENTER: When President Bush was unpopular, the United States was largely unpopular.

DOUGHERTY: Three years into the Obama presidency, there's been a dramatic turnaround in how European countries, like Germany, and allies, like Japan, view the United States. But in Muslim countries, Obama's policies have damaged views of the U.S.

The biggest concern worldwide about America still is that it acts without concern for the interest of other countries. And yet, despite disappointments over his policies, there's considerable support for Mr. Obama's re-election in Europe.

KOHUT: Most of the publics in allied nations say he should be re- elected. And by large number. When you add those numbers to the United States, you do really very well.

DOUGHERTY: But in some Middle Eastern countries, it's the reverse. In Egypt, 76 percent don't want him to have another term. In Jordan, it's 73 percent. Another finding in the Pew Global survey, even America's friends in Europe think China, not the U.S., is --