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CNN Saturday Morning News

John Edwards Plead Innocent; Cell Phones May Cause Cancer; A Day to Remember; Wasting Taxpayer Dollars

Aired June 04, 2011 - 06:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good Saturday morning, everybody.

She has been convicted of fraud, and you might recognize her in that picture there. Yes. We're talking about the ex-wife now of Nelson Mandela. I'm going to be talking to her in a rare and exclusive interview. She invited us into her South African home. You'll hear what she now thinks of her ex-husband and why she's also not too happy with Jennifer Hudson.

Also, the question of the morning for you. A story about a Texas high school valedictorian, who's scheduled to graduate today and receiving threats. Why? Because she wants to say a prayer during her speech at the high school graduation. The controversy has now gotten the attention of the governor as well as the courts. Tell me what you think this morning. You know where to find me on Facebook and also on Twitter @TJHolmes.

Also, they are from are the greatest generation, World War II vets, of course. I get the chance to sit down with two of them. They know exact times, exact moments of D-Day that was almost 70 years ago. There was no time for fear. They just had a job to do and to try to stay alive. My conversation with them, coming up at the bottom of the hour.

We're from the CNN Center. This is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING, 6:00 A.M. here in Atlanta, 5:00 A.M. in San Antonio, 3:00 A.M. in Reno, whenever you may be, I'm glad you're right here. I'm T.J. Holmes.

But we do need to start with the president this morning. Just hearing from the president minutes ago making some new claims in his weekly address about those economic numbers we saw come out just yesterday. Take a listen to the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, we've got ways to go, even though our economy has created more than two million private sector jobs over the past 15 months and continues to grow, we're facing some tough headwinds. Widely, it's high gas prices, the earthquake in Japan and unease about the European fiscal situation. That's going to happen from time to time. There are going to be bumps on the road to recovery. We know that. But we also know what's happened here at this Chrysler plant. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: That's the president there speaking at that auto plant. That was yesterday making a trip to Toledo, Ohio.

Despite a slowdown in the job creation for the month of May, the president actually has the highest approval rating since 2009. You're seeing them there. The latest CNN Opinion Research Poll has his approval rating at 54 percent.

Republicans, as you can imagine, aren't necessarily happy with this president. Listen now to the GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney slamming the president just last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We elected someone new to be president. We didn't know much about him. Didn't have much of a track record. But he was extraordinarily gifted as a speaker, a soaring rhetoric and the promises of change and hope convinced the American people to give him a try.

And now a third year into his four-year term, we have more than rhetoric to go by. We have his record. Barack Obama has failed the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: A lot of Republicans have jumped on the economic numbers we saw come out just yesterday, the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1 percent and also just 54,000 jobs were created, that was a disappointment. Many experts had predicted somewhere around 150,000 to 175,000 jobs might be created.

Also this morning, three Republican presidential hopefuls go after the backing of a key group of social conservatives. It's the Faith and Freedom Coalition Forum. It's wrapping up today.

Our Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser is there. He'll have a live report for us starting at the top of the 8:00 Eastern hour.

Meanwhile, another politician making headlines for all the wrong reasons these days. John Edwards, the man who came close to becoming the vice president of this country, also ran for president twice, now saying he was wrong, this after he was indicted. Yes. The former Democratic presidential candidate denied he broke any laws after federal prosecutors accusing him of using campaign money to hide an affair with a campaign worker, the same campaign worker and woman he fathered a child with.

Our Joe Johns picks up the story.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: T.J., John Edwards was one of the last candidates standing in the 2008 race for the Democratic nomination. This time he was standing up in court facing a six-count indictment. The government has charged him with conspiracy, making false statements. The government also says he took illegal campaign contributions, hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations from two individuals in order to cover up an affair he had with Rielle Hunter during a time when his wife Elizabeth was sick and dying with cancer.

Edwards and his crack defense team signaled quite quickly that they were going to fight these charges. First, they entered a not guilty plea and then Edwards addressed the cameras.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN EDWARDS, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's no question that I've done wrong and I take full responsibility for having done wrong. And I will regret for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that I've caused to others. But I did not break the law, and I never, ever thought I was breaking the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Edwards was released on his own recognizance, but there were a few conditions. He's not free to leave the country, had to surrender his passport, and he was told to stay away from one of the witnesses in the case. One hundred-year-old Rachel Bunny Melon who said to have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Edwards cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter.

T.J., back to you.

HOLMES: All right. Thanks as always to our Joe Johns.

And for the first time in the Libyan civil war, NATO is using attack helicopters on forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi. These attack choppers struck military vehicles and equipment today. NATO is not saying where those attacks took place. NATO says the helicopters give the mission additional flexibility to go after government troops in civilian areas.

Also, we turn to Yemen now where the embattled president there says gangsters were behind an attack on a mosque at his presidential palace. President Ali Abdullah Saleh was slightly injured when two projectiles were fired at the mosque yesterday. At least four people were killed.

We'll have a live report at the half hour on the latest anti- government demonstrations, also talking about why Yemen matters to us here in the U.S.

Scientists also are scrambling to try to figure out the source of a super toxic new strain of E. coli. Eighteen people in Europe have died, about 1,800 others are sick. Food safety experts link the outbreak to raw produce, but - and this is important folks, they say produce here in the U.S. is safe. Still a lot of you have questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): In many cases it doesn't really matter so much whether this is new or if there have been a few cases before. The bottom line is that this is rare and that doctors in the world don't have a lot of experience with it. So, for example, they know in this outbreak that 68 percent of the victims are women, but they don't know why. They don't know if that's significant.

And just to show you sort of the situation that we're in right now in Europe, this official told me that there are more cases of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, that is a potentially deadly kidney disease in this outbreak than in any other. So this is the big complication that people worry about with E. coli, this disease HUS. More cases of it in this European outbreak than in any other outbreak they've - we've ever experienced in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, also, as many as six Americans may have been infected. However, all six have recent links to Germany where the outbreak is most widespread.

Also, a tragic story to tell you now. This is out of Wildwood, New Jersey, where an 11-year-old girl fell some 100 feet to her death at an amusement park. Witnesses say she was riding this, what you're seeing there, a giant Ferris wheel. An investigation into exactly what happened yesterday is now under way. Police say right now the indications are this may have just been an unfortunate accident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I saw was people rushing towards the Ferris wheel. I was, like, what's going on? And I ran over, and all of a sudden I see like this towel and I was alarmed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said that she was looking over to see over the ledge and then as she fainted and fell over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Again, an 11-year-old girl falling from that Ferris wheel. This tragedy closed the park for the rest of the day, but it is set to reopen today.

Well, actor James Arness, a lot of people know the name, know the show, know the music, know it all. He has died. A lot of you may not recall that name. Your parents certainly will, however. Arness played Marshal Matt Dillon in a popular Western series "Gunsmoke." Played it for 20 years, from '55 to 1975. He worked with hundreds of actors, some of whom you certainly recognize, Harrison Ford, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson just to name a few. He died of natural causes. Arness was 88 years old.

I'm going to turn now, say good morning to my man, Reynolds Wolf. Reynolds, good morning to you, buddy (ph). I was saying right before we're going into that story. You - you remember Arness? Do you remember the guy? Well, everybody remembers the show even though it was before our time, if you will.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: My memories on - on James Arness are fair to partly cloudy, over the years. It faded a little bit. I mean, it was really of our generation of a lot of reruns, thank heavens I saw a lot of them, but certainly a great American.

Hey, right across this great country today, we're going to be dealing with some incredibly warm temperatures, not all over the nation, but in the Southeast, Southern Plains, it is going to be just roasting out there. We're going to show you how high those temperatures are going to go and how high - how long this heat wave is going to last.

T.J., more on that coming up in just a few seconds.

HOLMES: Reynolds, we will see you in just a second, buddy. Thanks so much.

We have found a link between Ellen DeGeneres and al Qaeda. And the link, would you believe, is a cupcake? I'll explain in 60 seconds, Reynolds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Eleven minutes past the hour now.

Take a look at this. And Reynolds is here joining me for this. But the Missouri River shut down right now, high water levels and flooding. What's going on here? Are we talking about melting snow still and we're dealing with rain?

WOLF: Same - same rules apply. Same thing we had in the Mississippi River we've had up in the northern plains, all the snow that we've had, tons of it during the winter season. And, of course, the rainfall we've had over 600 times the amount we normally have.

HOLMES: Wow.

WOLF: All of that has got to go someplace, the place it goes, into the rivers. As it goes in the rivers, the water levels begin to rise up. There have been evacuations along the Missouri River. We always think of the Mississippi River being the one that really is the true spine of the continent -

HOLMES: Yes.

WOLF: - but the second largest, the Missouri River. And, again, rough times there to say the very least. So we're going to watch that situation for you very carefully. But, I know. Isn't - has it not been the year of weather disasters in terms of tornadoes, in terms of flooding? We've had all kinds of issues and we just started hurricane season.

HOLMES: Do we have any scary stuff this weekend?

WOLF: If you're afraid of heat, yes, it's going to be scary. HOLMES: OK. (INAUDIBLE). Still, compared to a lot what we have been seeing, we'll take the heat right now, but it can be dangerous as well.

WOLF: It can indeed. It definitely can. Today, we're going to have those conditions really high.

T.J., yesterday in Atlanta, the high is the 90s, and here at CNN, we've got this parking lot that's raised up almost like - like the top of an oven. There's a chance that later on this afternoon someone at CNN could actually walk out to the car and get vaporized by the extreme heat. That's right, T.J. Anyways, just joking on the vaporizing. I'm not - but I'm not joking although on the heat.

Ninety-seven degrees in St. Louis. What's odd about this situation, you see that air temperature we're expecting 97 in St. Louis. St. Louis is right along the river, very muggy area. We could have a heat index today around 105 in St. Louis, very dangerous heat also in Dallas, 99 up in the Stockyards, Houston, New Orleans - New Orleans also very warm. We have a live image for you in New Orleans, the Big Easy. A beautiful spot but it's certainly going to be a very warm day, the kind of conditions you would normally expect maybe in September - early September, August, definitely in July.

And in Atlanta, a similar situation as we take a look at Atlanta very quickly. We've got - oh, maybe not - 93 degrees would be the high temperature expected there, back in Denver, 80 degrees, 80 in Salt Lake City and 56 in San Francisco.

As we wrap things up quickly, one thing to notice, a chance of storms into the Western Great Lakes, the Central Great Lakes, but still fairly warm for you in the Central Plains, cool out towards the Pacific Northwest, but of course some snowfall forming up in - in tops of the Rockies, about 10,000 feet, now, could say around eight to maybe 10 inches of snowfall - T.J.

HOLMES: Reynolds, we appreciate you as always, buddy.

This is a story as well I know you had some interest in. Just kind of curious, how do you find a link between Ellen DeGeneres and al Qaeda? Nobody necessarily wants a link to al Qaeda.

WOLF: No. No, definitely not.

HOLMES: Let me explain this now, folks. We're talking about hackers here. In the U.K., they pulled off this attack, this cyber attack, on an al Qaeda website. You may have heard of this thing.

But hackers that were working for the MI6, the British Intelligence Agency, they modified the code for an online al Qaeda magazine called "Inspire." We've done stories about it before. But they replaced the site's bomb recipes with cupcake recipes. Let me explain further.

Followers went there. They tried to download 67 pages of instructions on how to make a bomb. They got instructions on how to make Rocky Road and Caramel Apple cupcakes.

Now, the Ellen DeGeneres part, those cupcake recipes were from the "Ellen DeGeneres Show."

WOLF: Explosively good flavor, on those. I mean, really tasty. I mean, especially with things like the Rocky Road sounds pretty compelling, doesn't it?

HOLMES: It does. But it was interesting they were able to do that.

WOLF: Very interesting.

HOLMES: Have you changed anything you have done about your cell phone usage after this report this week?

WOLF: I think I'm going to listen to this and I'll probably going to change everything.

HOLMES: Everything. OK, folks, if you haven't heard this yet, this week, a very respected group, the World Health Organization, came out saying that cell phones could cause cancer. They certainly caused a stir.

In 90 seconds, I'll be back. I'm going to tell you why they're saying this and whether you should change how you talk on the phone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Great shot of downtown Atlanta this morning, the home of CNN World Headquarters where I am. Good morning to you all. It's about 17 minutes past the hour.

What do we do now? We're talking about telephone, your cell phone usage. You may have heard this week that scientists at the World Health Organization warning cell phones might - might cause cancer. Now the group's not saying don't use the cell phone, but you might need to be careful. The group's new warning compares the dangers from phones to cancer-causing hazards found in lead, engine exhaust, chloroform.

The study says the radiation from cell phones is similar to a low-powered microwave oven. The wireless industry responding by saying the study is inconclusive and that more research is needed.

But listen now to Dr. Keith Black. He's the author of "Brain Surgeon." He says there's still a lot we don't know about the potential long-term effects of cell phone usage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. KEITH BLACK, NEUROSURGEON: You need to think of this in similar terms that you would a microwave oven. So those microwaves are essentially emitting microwave energy into the brain that vibrates the water molecules in the cell. And over time, you know, that can produce changes within those brain cells. We don't know the long-term consequence. We don't know what happens after decades of using a cell phone with memory loss, with aging, cognitive ability.

We also know that in the young brain, the skull is much thinner, so the radiation that goes in is much higher. Could it have some effect on learning?

So you want to keep the - the cell phone away from the brain. The best way of doing that is to use hands-free, blue tooth in the car, use speaker or use an earpiece, so that it's not right adjacent to the skull.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So you heard him there. Keep the phone away from the head, if you can. You can find out more ways to protect yourself from cell phone radiation at CNN.com/HEALTH.

Well, can you remember what you did last night? Maybe last week? Last month? Last year? Most people can't, really. But I had the chance to talk to two men who can remember exactly what happened to them 67 years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUY GUNTER, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: When you are going on an invasion, you are scared to death. You don't know what the hell is going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, we know now what happened on that day 67 years ago. It was the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler. I'll talk to two veterans who relive D-Day and why they say they actually had it easy. Our conversation, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: The 6th of June, 1944, D-Day. Thousands of allied troops poured into the beaches of Normandy with the aim to bring it in to Nazi, Germany.

Well, two men who were there that day sat down with me this week. Yes, one of them a pilot, who was in the air giving support - air support to those who are on the ground, one of them on the ground, the other man I was talking to who was literally trying to just stay alive for the next several days after D-Day.

Listen now to our conversation and listen to them also pay homage to today's greatest generation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (on camera): On the anniversary days, a lot of people, the government makes a big deal out of it, the media will talk about June 6th, the anniversary. What about you guys? What do you all do on the anniversary every year of D-Day? ROBERT "PUNCHY" POWELL, WW II VETERAN: Quite often I'm asked to make talks to various groups or participate in some of the ceremonies because - because I was a World War II veteran and we're dying off pretty fast these days and there aren't many of us around.

HOLMES: Do you like being a part of that kind of stuff?

POWELL: I feel like today's generation does not know much about the history of World War II. I was - I was introduced by an Atlanta school teacher as a fighter pilot from World War 11. So I'm determined that I was going do my best to help educate today's generations about World War II because it still has a tremendous impact on this country today.

HOLMES: What about you?

GUNTER: D-Day is my birthday, and I celebrate that with my children.

HOLMES: How old were you on D-Day? You turned what age?

GUNTER: Twenty-five.

HOLMES: Well, hell of a way to spend it.

GUNTER: I was in a glider flying over this channel, 1:00 in the morning. Well, about 12:30.

HOLMES: Both of you all as I've been talking to you have railed of stuff that happened many, many years ago now, but you can tell me exact dates, and you're even giving me exact times now. Does that stuff just never go away?

POWELL: We took off at 2:30 in the morning, completely black-out takeoff. And one of our pilots crashed into the tower on takeoff because we had no lights whatsoever. And so that's - you remember things like that.

HOLMES: What was on your mind - and maybe it was fear, maybe it was pride, maybe it was that sense of duty, were things happening every minute that kind of put you in a different mind frame?

POWELL: Actually, it was a break for the rest of us. We took off by the fire, the light of this burning aircraft.

HOLMES: Wow.

POWELL: The adrenaline was so running so good at that particular time I don't think we had any fear. We were just anticipating what we were getting into. But I don't think you had time to fear at that point.

HOLMES: Would you agree with that assessment?

GUNTER: When you're going on an invasion, you're scared to death. You don't know what the hell is going to happen, and you're not worrying too much about that. You're worrying about flying the equipment, doing the job you're supposed to do.

POWELL: That's right.

GUNTER: The rest of it comes naturally.

HOLMES: How did your day start? And do you remember the time as well when it started?

GUNTER: Took off at 12:00 at night, and we landed around 1:00, 25 miles back of the front. So we had - we had an easy deal. That was the easiest mission I flew because we didn't have - we had the element of surprise with us. We didn't have people shooting at us.

But the problem we had was, of course, we went in with the paratroopers, as you know. But the paratroopers that went in before us were oscillating, had that old parachute. And they would hit these poles and break their backs, their arms and their legs. It was awful. So we had it easy, we go in with a glider (ph).

HOLMES: It's still amazing to hear you say you had it easy with what's going on.

GUNTER: It was.

HOLMES: Did you know you were making history, I guess I should say? Did it - did it feel like that at the time? Or were you just doing your duty?

GUNTER: Doing what I was supposed to do.

POWELL: That's right.

GUNTER: They paid me. But when you - when you sign those papers you've got to do what you're supposed to do.

POWELL: That's right.

GUNTER: And you do the best job you can and you try to stay alive. Because when you land, it's either you or that guy.

HOLMES: Stay alive. How close did you come to not making it back?

GUNTER: I had several times. I could bore you to death with - everybody in the service has those times. But most of our action was in close. We did what we're going to do and tried to stay alive in a matter of hours, minutes. Because when you land, the closest we are here to the enemy.

HOLMES: Why did you want military service anyway?

GUNTER: Well, I wanted to fight for my country naturally and also it's exciting. You get to fly airplanes and you get to do a lot of things that you can't do at home.

HOLMES: Now, he just said he wanted to fight for his country. Do you think over the years, from when you guys were young men, to today, do you think that sentiment still exists in the soldiers who are going into the military now?

POWELL: Although they called us the greatest generation, I think these guys today are another great generation. They're doing - they're involved in war that we wouldn't want to fight. At least we knew our enemy, they did not. Their enemy could walk up to them and drop a grenade and blow them away.

But we - we knew our enemy. We could see those big black crosses on the airplanes we were fighting against. So it's a big difference, but we still have a great generation out there today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And thanks to those two. You'll be - you'll be hearing more from them throughout this weekend as we get closer to the anniversary of D-Day.

We're getting close to the bottom of the hour here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

And, you know all this talk about just how short we are in this country when it comes to dollar, you know, the deficit, the debt and all of that? Well, how do you feel about this now? Billions of your taxpayer dollars are actually going to waste. Find out why and find out where, when I come back after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We're at the bottom of the hour here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Welcome back to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.

For the first time in the Libyan civil war, NATO is using attack helicopters on forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi. Some see the use of the helicopters as an escalation and game-changer there in Libya. The attack choppers struck military equipments and vehicles today. NATO not saying exactly where those attacks took place, NATO say the helicopters give the mission additional flexibility to go after government troops in civilian areas.

We turn now to the unrest in Yemen, where months of protests threaten to erupt into a full-scale civil war. The president of Yemen, President Saleh is blaming gangsters for shelling a mosque yesterday at his presidential palace. Saleh arrived-or rather- survived that attack reportedly with a head injury.

Several people were killed including a Muslim preacher. Four senior officials there in Yemen were injured in the attack, they were transferred to Saudi Arabia today for treatment. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom has been monitoring developments there in Yemen. He joins us now from Abu Dhabi.

Always good to have you, Mohammed. Explain to our viewers what was behind yesterday's attack and who was behind it. MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yesterday was a very chaotic day in Yemen. Shocking development that the presidential palace could have been shelled in that way.

As far as who's behind the attack, eyewitnesses and residents were telling us throughout the day it was Hashad (ph) tribesman. These are tribesmen that are affiliated with the largest and most powerful tribe in Yemen. This is a tribe that has been fighting President Saleh's forces in the streets of the capital, pitched street warfare that's been going on in Sanna for the past 13 days now.

That's what eyewitnesses, residents and government officials were telling us. But what was interesting is the Hashad tribesmen themselves denied taking responsibility for this attack. Said that had they had done it, they would be happy to step up to take responsibility for it. There is still a lot of confusion as to who exactly was behind it.

But the fact that anybody was able to breach security at the presidential palace in this fashion, this is practically a fortress in Sanna. There is so much security. It is so heavily guarded and so heavily fortified it really shocked government officials there.

And it really left many of the officials that I spoke with fearful and wondering just how vulnerable President Saleh is, just how vulnerable his government and base of support is, and whether or not he can sustain any nor of this warfare with the tribes there in Yemen and whether or not this is the tipping point that will plunge Yemen into all-out civil war, T.J.

HOLMES: On that point, all-out civil war, why is that so disconcerting to U.S. officials?

JAMJOOM: Well, U.S. officials are most fearful of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has a base in Yemen, of it basically taking advantage of political turmoil there. Just to give you some perspective on this, for months now there has been an antigovernment protests movement going on in Yemen. There has been political turmoil, there has been violence in many cities across the country. Now that violence has spread, now there is tribal warfare going on, which is a more dangerous scenario.

When I was in Yemen in February, I spoke to the country's prime minister, this is someone who was injured yesterday in the attacks yesterday. I asked him if there was a fear if Al Qaeda, which is so resurgent and emboldened in Yemen, which has been able to launch spectacular attacks against the U.S. and West from their base there, if he believed if Al Qaeda would be able to take advantage of this political turmoil. He said he thought they would try to take advantage of that. That was a few months ago.

In the past week, you actually have a town in a province in Yemen, that is a known hotbed for militancy. There is a town that has been seized by Islamist militants. That's happening now. So that really is stoking fears in the U.S. that if that's already happening, that more towns could fall to either Al Qaeda or Islamic militants. That is really going to open p up a can of worms there nobody wants to see happen, T.J.

HOLMES: Mohammed Jamjoom with perspective. Thanks so much, we appreciate you as always.

The last thing it seems the U.S. has right now to waste is money. But that might be exactly the case with some U.S.-backed projects in Afghanistan and Iraq. Talking about health clinics to bases to training facilities, they could all at risk of collapsing after U.S. troops pull out. Well, if that happens, we are talking about billions upon billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars that would essentially be wasted.

A report released Friday by the Commission on Wartime Contracting warns that the two countries may lack necessary staffing, technical support and funding to keep the projects running. The report blames overly ambitious proposals, poor planning and inadequate follow- through by federal officials.

It is that season, graduation season, for a lot of folks, college and high school. Happy time right now, time of celebration. Would you be celebrating if today was your graduating day and you were your high school valedictorian? But one senior is raising controversy because she wants to thank her parents, she wants to thank her teachers, but the problem is she also wants to thank God in her speech. Well, now the governor and the courts are getting involved. I'll have that for you in just a moment.

Also, we want to hear your thoughts on this, you're already starting to chime in this morning. Keep those coming to us and it continue with the conversation at Facebook and Twitter. I'm right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: "Beverly Hills Cop," right?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I think so.

HOLMES: Very nice. 38 minutes past the hour, New Orleans, yes. The heat is on and Reynolds, right now we'll take heat compared to what we have been seeing the past several weeks and even couple of months with some severe weather. Heat can be severe as well, but we can manage that.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: A battle over religious freedom at a high school in Texas has gone all the way to the governor's office and even the courts because a judge banned people from praying during the graduation ceremony.

A agnostic family filed a lawsuit saying their son would suffer irreparable harm if anyone prayed at his high school graduation ceremony. A Texas judge ruled in their favor, banned people at the ceremony for asking others to join them in prayer or bow their heads. But the ban caught the attention of Texas Governor Rick Perry who called the ruling reprehensible.

Now the valedictorian, one of the people who appealed the judge's decision, is being threatened and the school is on security watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANDA HILDENBRAND, VALEDICTORIAN: My dad received actually a phone call this morning saying that there was a vague threat given to the school via phone call that included my name and so it's-I don't know, it's intimidating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've added additional staff to be there. We are utilizing staff from across the district to be there as well. We have added law enforcement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The governor, Governor Perry, he has supported an emergency appeal that was filed by the school district on Thursday. That appeals court overturned the ruling on Friday. The graduation is today. So, as of now, it appears they will be able to say prayer at the school.

Now, you have been sending in a number of comments. We are going to share those throughout the morning. But keep those coming in on this story. Should you be allowed to pray at high school graduation? You know where to find me on Twitter and Facebook. You know where to find me @TJHolmes.

Well, at about 19 minutes to the top of the hour. Maybe it's breakfast time for you. Maybe it is coming up here shortly. What are you having? What does your plate look like? Does it look like that? That's what it should look like, we're told. Remember that old food pyramid? Get rid of it. It's going bye-bye, and it's making way for the food plate. Your new nutritional guidelines, coming up.

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HOLMES: All right. We're going from the pyramid to the plate. The government's food guidelines have come a long way in the past century. Here are some of the highlights. This is put together by our friends at CNN.com. The first recommendations, take a look, actually came out from the USDA back in the 1880s. They had an agricultural chemist put together nutrient counts for all the basic foods. Between 1920 and 1940 we had the basic food groups. We had vegetables and fruits, milk, eggs and meats, the proteins. We had cereals and grains. We had sugars like honey and jellies, and finally we had fats like butter.

Then in 1940s we went to seven groups, fruits and veggies got split up, so did milk and meat. Then in the 1950s, USDA unveiled their Food for Fitness Initiative. That put us at the four food groups. It this might start to sound familiar to you now. This is the one you probably remember. We had milk, meat, breads, cereals, fruits vegetables. It wasn't until 1992 that we got that food pyramid. It made its appearance in 1992, not too terribly long ago. You know this one, too. It seems like it's been around a whole lot longer than it has. The pyramid set up the six groups, also told you how many servings of each you should have. Later we saw the rainbow pyramid and also the inverted pyramid.

Now, all of that I just told you, throw it out. We've got something new now, something else. And it's simply the plate, the food plate. So this is supposed to be a lot easier to understand. Now, we're going to show this to you. There it is. You can see the greens, the fruits, supposed to be half of your plate. Seriously? Half of my plate? OK.

Now, for most of us, we like the steaks, burgers, they take up a good chunk of the plate. That's a big reason why the American Medical Association say a third of Americans are obese.

I'm with dietician now Betsy Dietsch, joining me here. Now we've got two plates here. One is correct and one is not. Let me guess which one isn't. This is what we do, isn't it?

BETSY DIETSCH, DIETICIAN: This is a typical American diet. Americans are overfed yet they are under nourished. And they are not getting critical nutrients they need.

HOLMES: With this new food plate, are they coming out with these guidelines, changing their minds about what we should be eating, or they just came out with a new illustration for it?

DIETSCH: It's a new illustration and it's simpler. The old pyramid was very confusing, and people couldn't really visualize it. It had a lot of information. This is much simpler. And it's in an icon that's familiar to people. So when they take their plate to fill it, they can keep that in the back of their mind. And say, oh, OK, I need to use half my plate, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, a quarter of the plate, a quarter of the plate for lean protein.

HOLMES: Deidre, my director, can you put up the graphic of the food plate and look at the live one. The food plate we're talking about, the simple breakdown. You break that down for me and what this is supposed to tell me when I go eat.

DIETSCH: You want to make sure that you're looking at your vegetables and your fruits filling half of your plate, and then your lean proteins are, like, lean beef or a poultry or a fish, actually, the dietary guidelines recommend having fish two times a week. Then of course your grains, you need to make half of them whole grains. So there's some interesting grains out there you can experiment with.

HOLMES: Then a side of dairy?

DIETSCH: Then you want to make sure you have dairy. I really like that the dairy is on the side. It represents either a glass of milk or a cup of yogurt. HOLMES: We'll show this plate here, a little salmon on here. Now, the protein part of it, it seemed to be in the graphic a smaller chunk. Is that what the graphic is supposed to show?

DIETSCH: Correct. So the protein and the fruit triangles are slightly smaller than the vegetable and the whole grain.

HOLMES: OK, what is this here?

DIETSCH: That is keenwa (ph).

HOLMES: What is keenwa?

DIETSCH: It's a an ancient South American grain. It's made a resurgence. It's a great whole grain. Switch it up. You can experiment, have fun with it.

HOLMES: Yes. This looks like a blast here. This is what the plate is supposed to look like. Let me show something else, what the country has looked like, since they've been putting out these guidelines and whatnot. And I'm going to ask, is there any evidence these have actually worked? Because in this country as we can snow in this graphic, over the years, as we go through 1990, and we see the blue turn to red. These are obesity rates continuing to go up, the percentages in the country. This is a great illustration coming to us from the CDC, just over the years, how it continues to get change and get worse and worse and worse. So my question is, as the obesity rates get up, are we just ignoring the guidelines?

DIETSCH: No. I think that people were confused about the guidelines, and so this puts this into simpler terms for people. And dietitians have been using plates like this for years to help teach people how to properly portion size and how to build a healthy plate.

HOLMES: OK. Is this it? Or are they going to change it on us again in about 10 years?

DIETSCH: I hope not. I think this is a great tool that really resonates with people. You know, I have three tips that actually can help people put this into practice today.

HOLMES: Give them to me quickly.

DIETSCH: The first one is to fill your plates with nutrient-rich foods. Those are foods that are going to give you the most nutrient bang for your calorie buck. And then also rethink your drink. Think about what you're putting in your beverage p cup. The dietary guidelines recommends making all your milk choices low fat and fat free. And then also drinking water throughout the day, instead of those sugar sweetened beverages. And the last is to be a role model.

HOLMES: Be a role model, to set an example for everybody else.

DIETSCH: Yes.

HOLMES: Maybe it's the kids, maybe it's the siblings. Whatever it may be, just set the example.

DIETSCH: Right.

HOLMES: All right. Thank you, Betsy Dietsch.

DIETSCH: Thank you.

HOLMES: We appreciate you coming.

Again, folks, the pyramid gone, bye-bye. This is what the plate should look like these days. Thank you so much for coming in.

DIETSCH: Thank you.

HOLMES: We are at 10 minutes to the p top of the hour.

Nelson Mandela, you know he spent 27 years locked in prison. His marriage to Winnie Mandela was going during that time. But after he was released their storybook marriage was over in less than two years. Exactly what happened? We have an exclusive interview with Winnie Mandela. You'll hear it, next.

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HOLMES: About seven minutes to the top of the hour. Joined by Nadia Bilchik this morning, for our "Morning Passport". Fascinating topic this morning. You just came back from South Africa where you sat down with Winnie Mandela, of all people.

NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITOR: Yes, in her home, in her home in Soweto. It's very interesting. She still lives in Soweto, the historically black township. She hasn't moved to the smart suburbs of Johannesburg, and sat down with her and really spoke about her life, the struggle. And, you know, the marriage ended so she never became the first lady of South Africa.

HOLMES: How rare is this, first of all, for her to sit down and interview like this?

BILCHIK: She doesn't like giving interviews because sometimes people misinterpret what she says. And she has had a very interesting and very multicolored history. You know, she's either totally lauded, heavily criticized, as well, for things she did.

One of the things you spoke about, why the marriage ended. She made certain comments, first of all she was implicated in the murder of a young man, Stumpy Muketsi (ph). So that was very destructive. Then she said things like with our boxes of matches and necklaces we will liberate this country. Well, necklaces are burning tires.

So towards the end, Nelson Mandela decided, well, is this woman going to be good for my image? Is she someone who will take me to the presidency? It was obviously a very difficult decision. He was very much in love with her and during prison fellow prisoners said he looked so forward to those visits from her.

I once heard it say, it's fascinating, that he could forgive a country, he would forgive oppressors but he couldn't forgive her.

HOLMES: Now, what is she saying to this day, all these years later, about the breakdown of the marriage?

BILCHIK: Well, she doesn't talk openly about that. I know she has some regrets. But what she does speaks about is those years of struggle and her role in it. So let's hear that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA, FMR. WIFE OF NELSON MANDELA: Loved the type of democracy where we didn't see our people demonstrating against their own government. We not only fought on political platforms. I was one of those who were with the people, fighting physically against the apartheid regime. We took them on without arms at the time, and then we were forced to resort to the armed struggle. When we were fighting, literally fighting, a bitter war, I was there with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BILCHIK: And, remember are, she was in solitary confinement- solitary confinement for 18 months. Then she was under house arrest for many years. She suffered, too. So she considers herself as being a major part of the struggle and South Africans consider her as having played a major role in the struggle.

HOLMES: Well, is being a part of the struggle the way she was, what does she think about that nation she struggled for? What does she think about it today? Does she have comments about the current government?

BILCHIK: Many comments about the current government. She's a member of parliament. She is part of the government. There's been a concern over the African National Congress, the party she belongs to, as does Nelson Mandela, about service delivery. There's been great hope, great achievement, but also some disappointment.

But I also asked her, T.J., did she have any regrets about living the struggle, sacrificing what she did, never having a proper family life. This is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANDELA: If things reverted to what they were before and I was called upon to use what is left of my energy to fight for the total liberation of this country, I would do that all over again. Women, I believe, actually determine the type of society we live in. We could change the form of government we want, and women must believe in themselves, and never believe that there is any task they can't do because they are women. I knew that from the days of struggle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Wow. We're going to hear a lot more in this interview. So many more questions I have for you, including about the level of interaction she may have with Nelson Mandela to this today. Our Nadia Bilchik, again, just back from South Africa, not long ago, sitting down at the home of Winnie Mandela with that interview. We will have more of it throughout the morning. Thank you so much.

BILCHIK: Thank you.

HOLMES: We're getting close to the top of the hour here, folks. Quick break. We'll are going to reset this thing here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING, at the top of the hour. Stay with us.

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