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CNN Saturday Morning News
Sixty Plus Buildings Burned in Oklahoma; Fighting Intensifies in Aleppo; NASA Attempts Mars Robot Landing; Inside the Drew Peterson Saga; Obesity a Potential Security Threat
Aired August 04, 2012 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN Center, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is Saturday, August 4th.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye. I'm so glad you're with us.
A half dozen wildfires burning across Oklahoma and now police may be on the hunt for an arsonist.
Syria's bloody civil war taking an economic toll on the regime, which is now asking Russia for financial aid.
And NASA scientists are facing a real nail-biter as they make final preparations to land a 2,000-pound rover on Mars.
In one of the nation's worst wildfire seasons on record, it is now Oklahoma's turn. The wildfires in more than a dozen counties are primed to get worse from low humidity, high winds and 110-plus-degree temperatures.
So far, flames have eaten through 60-plus buildings and forced evacuations. What's worse, investigators believe one of the wildfires is an arson.
I spoke earlier with a reporter from our Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATY BLAKEY, REPORTER KOCO: And initially, they were looking for a man in a pickup truck because someone called in and reported seeing that man throwing wads of paper already lit out into pasture.
So they are still working to determine maybe who that man is, what those witnesses exactly saw. But you know that's so unsettling for so many people here in Oklahoma. We already knew the conditions were bad. The Governor issued a statewide burn ban and then you have something like that take place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: The wildfires are happening as Oklahoma is shriveling up under the severe drought conditions that's hitting nearly half of the country.
Tropical storm Ernesto may turn into a hurricane before the weekend's over, while Florence has just turned into a tropical storm. Ernesto is now in the Caribbean with winds of 50 miles per hour. It could drop about two to three inches of rain in St. Lucia, which is south of Puerto Rico.
Then the National Hurricane Center says it may strengthen to a Category 1 hurricane. The other system, Florence, is now churning near the coast of Africa.
For the second time in a week, a close call for air traffic control. Two planes flew to close to each other last night as they were landing in Detroit. The rules say they should have three miles between them, but a Delta plane and a regional jet came within about two miles of each other. This happened just a day after the FAA revealed three planes didn't have enough separation among them at Reagan National Airport due to an air traffic control miscommunication.
Now to the race for the White House and the candidates' efforts to get more supporters and more campaign cash. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is attending a fund-raiser today in Indiana and he picked up a big-name endorsement at another fund-raiser last night. That would be actor Clint Eastwood.
Eastwood joked with reporters as he headed into the last night's fund- raiser in Sun Valley, Idaho.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir I'm curious why you decided to endorse the Governor?
CLINT EASTWOOD, ACTOR & DIRECTOR: I haven't endorsed the Governor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Or you're not going to?
EASTWOOD: Oh, yes, I know. I endorsed, I just, because, I think the country needs a boost somewhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Eastwood told the crowd at the fund-raiser Romney was going to restore a quote "decent tax system."
Today is President Obama's 51st birthday. He's spending the day at Camp David. He'll hold a more official celebration in Chicago next weekend. His wife, Michelle, kicked off the weekend on the campaign trail, praising her husband's economic record at three Massachusetts fund-raisers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: When people ask you what this President has done for our country, here is what you tell them. Tell them how many jobs he's created. Tell them how much money he's put back in the pockets of American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: The President returns to the campaign trail Monday with two stops in Connecticut.
Now to Syria. Fighting is intensifying in Aleppo, the country's commercial hub. Our sister network CNN Turk was able to enter an area under fire and captured this video. Today rebels stormed into a state- run TV and radio station and took partial control of the building, but eventually had to retreat because of some pretty heavy shelling.
Senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman joining me now live from northern Syria. He just met with the commander of the rebel army. Ben, what did he tell you?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what he said is that they, according to the information they're getting, there are two large columns of the Syrian army headed toward Aleppo, one from the (inaudible) on the Mediterranean Coast to the west and one from the south from the direction of Damascus.
They say they themselves are reinforcing their troops in the Free Syrian Army Forces within Aleppo itself, trying to get as much ammunition and weaponry as possible to confront what appears to be the beginning of a government offensive against the rebels in the strategic city of Aleppo.
But as they readily admit, they are severely out-gunned. At best, they have AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, some antiaircraft machine guns, very outdated, which are of little use when it comes to trying to hit back at the Syrian army and air force, which have really some of the best and latest weaponry that Russia provides to the regime of Bashar al Assad.
So, there really is a sense of growing anticipation at the possibility of a major Syrian army assault on Aleppo, which until recently was considered one of the quieter cities in the Syrian revolution, now very much at the center of the fighting -- Randi.
KAYE: So is the rebel army, I mean are they getting any help in terms of arms and ammunition from elsewhere, from anybody else?
WEDEMAN: Well, certainly, some weapons are getting to the rebels from Turkey, but the weapons coming from countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and what not in the Gulf, but certainly, compared to what we saw, where very soon into the consulate we began to see antitank missiles originally from (inaudible) and other sort of night vision equipment, uniforms, boots other weaponry.
You don't see that here. You don't see the level of support coming from the outside that the Libyan rebels enjoyed, and certainly that seems to be one of the main complaints you hear from rebel commanders here in the northern province, is that they feel they just aren't receiving the kind of support they need to fight against an army (inaudible) -- organized -- Randi.
KAYE: Ben Wedeman for us there in northern Syria. And thanks for hanging with us there. Obviously, communication is not the best it can be trying to reach him and speak with him in northern Syria. Ben Wedeman, thank you very much.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Nairobi, Kenya, today, where she is meeting Kenyan leaders, including the president and prime minister. Clinton is urging the country to hold free and fair elections. A vote scheduled for next March will be the first since a disputed poll in 2007. Hundreds were killed in the violence that followed that vote.
They are calling this Super Saturday at the Olympics; 25 gold medals will be on the line in 11 different sports. One of them belongs to Serena Williams of the United States. Less than an hour ago, Williams beat Russian Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 in women's singles tennis.
Later, Americans will be focused on Michael Phelps. He leads the U.S. men's 4x100 medley relay team. A win would be his fourth gold medal of the Olympics. Phelps says he'll retire after these games.
And 15-year-old Katie Ledecky won gold in the 800-meter freestyle last night. She is the youngest American competing.
NASA calls it seven minutes of terror. The Mars rover is set to land on the Red Planet tomorrow in a series of intricate maneuvers at 13,000 miles an hour. A lot is riding on this mission.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Welcome back, 11 minutes past the hour.
If NASA pulls this off, it will make history. Tomorrow after a series of intricate maneuvers, it will try to land a robotic rover on Mars, the biggest one ever. It is a $2 billion gamble.
Here's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eight months in space, 354 million miles traveled, $2.5 billion spent, nearly a decade of work. After all that, it will take only minutes, just minutes to determine elation or disaster.
ADAM STELTZNER, ENTRY, DESCENT AND LANDING ENGINEER: Full nights of sleep have eluded me for a couple of years now.
ROB MANNING, CHIEF ENGINEER: We think about failure every day. We think about how to avoid failure.
ZARRELLA: After NASA's "Curiosity" rover reaches the top of the Martian atmosphere, a series of precision, choreographed events will begin to unfold, events never before attempted, events so dramatic and defining, the space agency put together a short movie, calling it "Seven Minutes of Terror." That's the amount of time it will take "Curiosity" to plummet through the atmosphere and either crash or land safely. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1,600 degrees.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If any one thing doesn't work just right, it's game over.
ZARRELLA: "Curiosity" is huge, the size of a small car. Its size meant NASA couldn't use the tried and true landing methods, airbags or shock-absorbing legs. On top of that, the rover has to hit a specific spot one place NASA thinks could have hints of past or present life. That requires a precision landing; on one side, a mountain, on the other, a crater wall.
MANNING: To get there safely, though, we need to be able to land on the one big flat spot that sits right at the foot of that mountain inside the walls of the crater.
ZARRELLA: Out of necessity was born the "Seven Minutes of Terror". "Curiosity" hits the atmosphere at 13,000 miles an hour, steering her way toward the landing site.
Next, the parachute deploys, slowing "Curiosity," then rockets fire, aligning "Curiosity" with the landing zone below. Finally, the sky crane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rover is lowered below the jet's backpack, and the two together descend their way down on to the Martian surface.
ZARRELLA: Engineers say at the end of the day, this is the safest way to get a rover this size on the ground in one piece. Every component was tested again and again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.
ZARRELLA: But from the point "Curiosity" hits the atmosphere, all the scientists and engineers can do is hold their breaths and wait.
STELTZNER: In the end, she'll be on her own.
ZARRELLA: "Seven Minutes of Terror".
John Zarrella, CNN, Pasadena, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: America's drought is a natural disaster in slow motion. A government economist says it's the most severe and expensive drought in 25 years. Right now, more than half of all U.S. counties have been designated disaster zones. Crop losses could top $20 billion. And you could feel that loss where it hurts most -- in your wallet.
An accused wife-killer on trial. We'll take an in-depth look at the dramatic and oftentimes bizarre twists in the Drew Peterson murder case.
Stay -- well, take us with us with you. Just a reminder, you can continue watching CNN from your mobile phone. You can also watch CNN live from your laptop. Just go to CNN.com/TV.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: He is a former Chicago area police officer who now finds himself on the other side of the law. His name is Drew Peterson and the death of his third wife along with the disappearance of his fourth has thrust Peterson into a spotlight normally reserved for criminals.
For years, the cases have been cold, but now Peterson's very high- profile murder trial is heating up. I took a look back at the events that led Peterson to this point.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW PETERSON, ON TRIAL FOR THIRD WIFE'S MURDER: This is the holiday season.
KAYE (voice-over): If Drew Peterson did kill his third wife, Kathleen Savio, back in early 2004, he certainly hasn't cracked under pressure.
LARRY KING, FORMER CNN HOST: What happened?
PETERSON: Don't know. I don't know. I had neighbors go into the house and they found her dead in the bathtub.
KAYE: Eight years have passed since Kathleen Savio was discovered dead in her bathtub. She was naked and the bathtub was dried.
At the time, Peterson was a sergeant with the Bolingbrook Police Department outside Chicago. Just a couple of days before they were to divorce, Peterson said he went to check on Savio with neighbors but didn't go inside until he heard a neighbor scream. Peterson insisted he had nothing to do with it, and the coroner agreed. He ruled Savio's death an accidental drowning. Case closed.
That is, until the disappearance of yet another wife three years later. Stacy Peterson, his fourth wife, gone in a flash.
PETERSON: She told me she found somebody else and she was leaving.
KAYE: Nobody's heard a word from Stacy Peterson since October 2007, almost five years ago, but we've heard plenty from Drew Peterson. It was bizarre encounters like these with reporters that are most memorable.
PETERSON: Please go home. Please leave me alone.
I'm going to come, camp myself in front of your house and see if you like it.
KAYE: The couple's home was searched, local ponds dredged. And even as investigators began to close in on Drew Peterson --
CAPT. CARL DOBRICH, ILLINOIS STATE POLICE: Right now, Drew Peterson has gone from a person of interest to clearly being a suspect.
KAYE: -- his strange antics continued.
PETERSON: What do you get when you cross the media with a pig?
KAYE: Drew Peterson has never been charged in Stacy's disappearance, but he is still a suspect. With wife number four missing, Illinois state police investigators got curious and decided to take a second look at the death of wife number three.
On November 13th, 2007, they exhumed Kathleen Savio's body for another autopsy. She had been buried 3 1/2 years. The day before, Drew Peterson resigned from the Bolingbrook Police Department after three decades of service. When asked about Savio's body being exhumed, he said this on NBC.
PETERSON: It's a shame that her rest in peace has to be disturbed for something like this, when they did it once. Now they're doing it again.
KAYE: A few months after that interview, February 2008, a stunning reversal in Savio's cause of death. Two coroners found it was no accidental drowning but homicide. Two new autopsies showed Savio had a one-inch laceration on the back of her head from blunt force trauma, plus scrapes and bruising. Savio's sister said she always lived in fear.
SUSAN DOMAN, KATHLEEN SAVIO'S SISTER: We never felt that it was an accident. She always told us that, whether it was a premonition or not, she always said that it would be an accident and to take care of her children. He was going to kill her.
KAYE (on camera): Even the possibility of murder charges didn't keep Peterson quiet. He seemed to relish his celebrity.
In January 2008, during an interview with a Chicago radio station, Peterson suggested the station start a new contest called "Win a Date with Drew". It never panned out.
(voice-over): About six months later, a major blow in the pages of the "Chicago Sun Times". Two friends who had agreed to wear a wire for the state and record conversations with Drew Peterson told the paper Peterson said this about Savio, quote, "I should have had that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) cremated. It would cost me less and I wouldn't be going through this trouble." He also allegedly claimed he would be acquitted of Savio's death long before his fourth wife's remains would be found.
In May 2009, Peterson was arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this spiffy outfit. My God.
KAYE: And charged with first-degree murder in the death of his third wife. He pleaded not guilty. From jail, he kept on talking, calling that same Chicago radio station with another outlandish suggestion.
PETERSON: I know we can't do the "Date with Drew" anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes?
PETERSON: But I'm thinking what we should doing is like "Win a Conjugal Visit with Drew". Let's do that.
KAYE: Peterson's lawyer called it all a case of bad luck.
JOEL BRODSKY, DREW PETERSON'S ATTORNEY: We have a guy who had one wife who died of an accident and another one who ran off, which may make him unlucky, but nothing mischievous about either of those two things.
Reporter: Now 58, Peterson has been in jail for several years awaiting trial for the murder of wife number three. And as recently as last month, he was still chatting up reporters, telling the "Chicago Sun Times he is, quote, "sick of being called sinister".
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: And Drew Peterson's trial will pick up again on Tuesday in Joliet, Illinois.
The battle of the bulge, a potential threat to America's national security.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: 25 minutes past the hour now.
The obesity epidemic in the U.S. isn't just a threat to people's individual health, it's also, it turns out, a potential threat to the country's national security.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick explains why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is not how Mercedes Lipscomb looked a decade ago when she tried to enlist in the national guard and was rejected, told she was too fat.
MERCEDES LIPSCOMB, LOST WEIGHT TO ENLIST: I am totally happy they didn't let me in at 220 pounds. I think I probably would have died out there.
FEYERICK: According to a report releasing later this month from a group called "Mission Readiness", 25 percent of all potential recruits are turned away because of their weight. The problem is potentially so serious, commanders of all ranks who spear-headed the study describe it as a potential threat to national security.
REAR ADM. JAMIE BARNETT, MISSION READINESS: The statistic that blows me away on that is one in four Americans is too obese, young Americans, is too obese to join the military.
FEYERICK: Rear Admiral Jamie Barnett and more than 100 retired generals and admirals warned of the problem two years ago. In a new follow-up report "Still Too Fat to Fight", they contend the military is working harder than ever to find eligible recruits.
BARNETT: More and more, we're seeing that those folks showing up at the recruiting centers are not really fit to come into the military.
FEYERICK: Hundreds of recruits wind up discharged early because of weight-related issues.
BARNETT: Recruits who have not done as well, have been overweight, don't do as well in boot camp, are more likely to not complete their first term of enlistment.
FEYERICK: The cost? Some $60 million a year invested and lost in recruits and finding their replacements. Military leaders say the problem is reversible. They're now targeting school lunch programs and vending machines, pointing to the success of New York City schools in regulating unhealthy food and lowering average student weight.
As for Mercedes Lipscomb, she reapplied to the National Guard after dropping 80 pounds.
LIPSCOMB: If you're sent into a combat zone, you want to be in shape, you want to be able to maneuver, you want to be able to protect yourself and, you know, protect your fellow soldiers. Overweight, how are you going to run? How are you going to get away?
FEYERICK: The study hopes to target young generations, so when the time comes, they'll be combat-ready. The nation's leaders hoping to stem the child obesity crisis so it doesn't become what they believe could be a national security crisis.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: As kids head back to school next week, it's going to be a great weekend to hit those back-to-school sales. That's because many states are helping you out with tax-free holidays. There are 17 states that have the dates set. Most of them are this weekend.
It's a big help, of course, for parents or grandparents looking to get some back-to-school items for the kids.
It was a kidnapping with no ransom. The target, hall of famer Cal Ripken's mother. She's fine now, but the manhunt is on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Checking top stories now.
Occupy protesters smashed in a window at President Obama's campaign office in Oakland. About 200 protesters had been demonstrating in the downtown area last night. A few Obama campaign volunteers were working inside the office during the incident, but no one was hurt.
An elderly man in Houston has died from West Nile virus, the disease spread by mosquitoes. The CDC says nationwide West Nile is significantly on the rise with 241 cases so far this year, the largest number officials have seen since 2004. They don't know what's behind the jump.
The CDC also says the majority of people getting sick are in Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
Protesting Chick-fil-A with a kiss. Gay rights activists staged kiss- ins outside Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country last night. They were protesting comments made by the president of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy.
In a recent interview, Cathy said that he supports the Biblical definition of the family unit. Earlier this week, Cathy's supporters made their position known by crowding into the restaurant. Conservatives dubbed the day Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.
The manhunt is on for the person who kidnapped baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken's mom. She's safe now, but everybody wants to know what was behind this. Police are counting on a tip to crack the case.
Here's Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former Baltimore Orioles star Cal Ripken Jr. is asking the public to help find the man who abducted his mother last week.
CAL RIPKEN JR., PRO BASEBALL PLAYER: I would encourage all of you to call in and report what you know.
JOHNS (voice-over): Ripken and authorities are looking for this unnamed suspect captured by a security camera at a suburban Maryland Wal-Mart hours after he allegedly forced 74-year-old Vi Ripken from her home at gunpoint and drove her around in her own car for almost 24 hours.
She was found tied up in the back of her car a few hundred yards from her house, but so far, that video along with around 60 tips given to authorities has not been enough to track him down, which is why police are looking for more information.
They've circulated a wanted poster complete with a sketch of the suspect, put up billboards, even offered a $2,000 reward for tips. It's clear police are searching for answers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's bizarre. There's been -- there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. Most abductions are a parent or child or some kind of family relationship or somebody knows somebody and there's, you know, something going on there, but this is just bizarre.
JOHNS (voice-over): one of the things we do know, or at least we think we know, is that the guy who did this seemingly came prepared to tie somebody up. RIPKEN: The materials used to bind her were brought there, so there was -- there's a lot of evidence that shows that there was somewhat of a plan or a plan and it was -- had to be premeditated.
JOHNS (voice-over): even after being restrained for almost a day, Ripken's mother did not have any physical injuries, but she's so rattled from the experience, she's been staying away from her home, the place where it started and the place where Cal Ripken grew up.
RIPKEN: She's affected, no doubt about it. So, don't know when she will go back, but certainly right now she's not back in her house yet.
JOHNS: what we still don't know is whether Vi Ripken was targeted because of who she was or if the suspect had been planning to ask for ransom. Police say he never did that, by the way.
Police say that during the 24 hours she was missing, they are not sure where Vi Ripken was taken and they would not answer questions about the suspect's alleged use of his victim's credit cards along the way -- Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: The University of Colorado has hired a former U.S. attorney to investigate how the school handled ex-student James Holmes. He's the alleged shooter of the massacre in Aurora on July 20th. Holmes had just withdrawn as a doctoral student from the school before the attack. It's not clear how much of the report by attorney Robert Miller will be made public. Miller began his probe last week.
Think you could eat 10,000 calories a day? Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps sure does. He has to. We'll explore the unorthodox eating habits of our top athletes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: You are what you eat. That well-known phrase probably hit the American mainstream when nutritionist Victor Lindlahr wrote a book by the same title about 70 years ago.
But what are you if you consume 10,000 calories a day? Well, then you probably should be training like Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps. You may remember Phelps poking some fun at his diet when he hosted "Saturday Night Live" just a few years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")
MICHAEL PHELPS, OLYMPIC SWIMMER: Tired of suffering through a salad at lunch?
Then cozy up to a pound of pasta, three Cuban sandwiches smothered in mayonnaise, a fried turkey stuffed with molasses, a barrel of Halloween candy, and to wash it all down, a pitcher of Hollandaise sauce.
(LAUGHTER) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, that's a lunch!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Joining me now is registered dietician Page Love.
Good morning to you.
PAGE LOVE, DIETICIAN: Thank you, Randi.
KAYE: So, we have a table here of food, because not everybody can eat like Phelps, right? I mean, some people need to eat like Gabby Douglas, for example, the Olympian.
So, what would her diet look like compared to a Phelps diet?
LOVE: Well, we're looking at a 200-pound athlete versus a 100-pound athlete, so we can say he needs twice, if not three times as much, and he's doing a lot longer-distance endurance kind of swimming.
She still needs the same types of foods, but the portions would be scaled down. For example, we might be looking at her meat portion being the deck of cards or the palm of a woman's hand, and Michael Phelps' meat would be more about this 8-ounce steak.
KAYE: OK, that's really the size to go by, right, when even for the rest of us at home, is the palm-sized --
LOVE: For the petite-sized person, a petite-sized athlete, would need really close to the palm of their hand. That's a good kind of frame of reference for a meat portion size. For pastas, for example, for fueling their exercise, she might need one cup of pasta, whereas he might need three cups of pasta.
KAYE: And of course the greens and the fruit and the vegetables mixed in there as well?
LOVE: Yes, we still want to use the My Plate model, which is the new government model for healthy eating. It works great for the athletes, where three-fourths of the plate of carbohydrates and one-fourth is protein. And this is where a lot of athletes go a little bit off track, they may have half the plate or two-thirds of the plate in protein and a lot of female athletes in particular need to scale that down. Their muscle mass doesn't weigh as much. They don't need quite as much.
KAYE: And you might not have to go so heavy on carbs, right?
LOVE: (Inaudible).
KAYE: Yes. OK.
What about for an average person who's just trying to stay fit? I mean, what is the right balance between a training regimen and eating?
Because I've seen, you know, I've read a lot about this, where a lot of people will overeat because they think they're training so much that they look at it as an excuse to just keep eating. So, what is the right balance?
LOVE: Some of the things I talk about every day as a sport nutritionists are eating combinations of carbs and proteins at every meal.
For example, skim milk and a cereal, lean luncheon meat and whole grain wraps or breads. The tomato sauces and the pastas with lean ground meat inside. That combination is key for and athlete and it's key for any active person to stabilize their blood sugar and keep them fueled.
Eating frequently in small meals throughout the day, carbing up a little bit for activity and using protein and fluids in the recovery.
KAYE: You mentioned a lot of protein. We have a protein powder here, plus we have some beans on the table and a lot of other protein sources. How much protein do you really need?
LOVE: It's based on body size. And a good rule of thumb is about half of your body weight in grams. So half of your pounds in grams is a pretty representative example of what you need.
And some athletes like the size of Michael Phelps may need something like a whey protein, but --
KAYE: (Inaudible) there.
LOVE: But Gabby would really maybe just want a chocolate milk in recovery. This is something that we recommend a lot now for just the normal athlete to get this in within the first half an hour. It's a nice balance, not too high of a protein supplement.
KAYE: So, what if there is an aspiring Michael Phelps or an aspiring Gabby Douglas or anybody else at home watching? It's never really too early to get a young one started eating the right way, right?
LOVE: Definitely not too early. And what you can do is start to train your body to be able to store more fuel as you gear up towards those higher carbohydrate eating, which is so key, 60 percent of the diet coming from all these good things we've been talking about.
You want to start eating that way and you actually train your body to store more fuel. The eating frequently that I've been talking about, the hydrating well.
A good rule of thumb is hydrate until your urine is a pale, clear color, and that may mean almost like a lemonade type color. That is a sign you're hydrating well.
Maybe recording your food intake, for example using a program like NutriTiming, that allows an athlete to look at how well are they fueling throughout the day to make sure that they're meeting their energy needs, using food diary. The online applications are pretty popular right now as the athletes travel and need something convenient. And then obviously definitely working on increasing the colorful foods. We've got a lot of colorful foods.
KAYE: Yes.
LOVE: We've got the broccoli, the fruit, the deep greens, and a lot of young teen athletes aren't big on fruits and vegetables.
KAYE: Right.
LOVE: So, this needs to be a fourth to a half of the plate and they're missing the boat on some of these. And these are good antioxidant nutrients that help them stay healthy and fight infection and --
KAYE: So they can compete and just be healthy in general.
LOVE: Exactly.
KAYE: Page, thank you. Appreciate that great advice.
LOVE: Thank you.
KAYE: Great to have you.
Well, if you have kids, you know who these folks are. They are the famous Wiggles, of course. Kids have loved watching them for years, but that will soon change.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: For years, the Wiggles have wiggled, danced and sang their way into children's hearts, but now three members of the group are calling it a day. Shannon Cook takes a look at their success story and the personal struggle of the Blue Wiggle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHANNON COOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For more than 20 years, the Wiggles have driven --
(MUSIC PLAYING)
COOK: -- shimmied --
(MUSIC PLAYING)
COOK: -- and snacked their way into homes everywhere, all to the tune of about $29 million annually in DVD, album and concert ticket sales.
But in May, the Wiggles surprised fans -- yes, adults love them, too -- by announcing that three members plan to retire.
The group will continue. Replacements have been picked with Anthony Field, better known as the Blue Wiggle, staying on. Resiliency is something Field has come to know well. In spite of the success and megawatt smiles of the Australian group, it hasn't been all lollipops and rainbows. ANTHONY FIELD, ENTERTAINER: I go on stage with the Wiggles happy, yes, because I love being on stage. I always have, always will. But after the stage, getting off stage is when I fall into this heap and I was a physical and mental wreck.
COOK: You describe bawling your eyes out in the dressing room backstage.
FIELD: Yes. Quite a lot.
COOK (voice-over): In his memoir, Field opens up about his lifelong struggle with clinical depression and a dependence on painkillers to help him cope with a variety of ailments -- a herniated disc, joint pain, migraines, digestive problems and chronic infections. But after decades of failed treatments, he managed to turn his health around.
FIELD: It's a lovely way to do it. It all started with Dr. James Stoxen. He's a chiropractor.
COOK (voice-over): Popular with touring celebrities, his main advice for getting Field back on track didn't exactly sound like star treatment.
DR. JAMES STOXEN, CHIROPRACTOR: When we decided to go barefoot, he looked at me a little bit strangely.
When you wear footwear, it's a binding device that inhibits the natural motion of the human foot.
FIELD: When you give yourself a good base and you do exercising in -- with bare foot, your muscles in your feet get strong, everything gets stable and you do a better job exercising and your body gets better.
COOK (voice-over): By ditching shoes as often as possible, committing to Stoxen's lengthy treatment sessions and revamping his diet, Field says he is now free of the pain that almost caused him to quit the Wiggles in 2004.
STOXEN: Right now Anthony is just really addicted to exercise.
FIELD: I'm in the best physical shape, and I'm nearly 50 now. I enjoy my life. I can pick up my children. I never used to be able to even lift them, I was in such a bad way.
You stay like this for ages and watch the world go by.
(LAUGHTER)
COOK (voice-over): But not too long. The Wiggles are touring the U.S. through the summer. They're calling it a celebration tour, their last hurrah as the original four, with the Blue Wiggle not feeling so blue anymore.
Shannon Cook, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE) KAYE: Who knew there was such a Wiggles saga going on?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I mean, that's serious business going on.
(CROSSTALK)
KAYE: Such drama.
MARCIANO: And leading into me.
KAYE: Yes. Rob Marciano is in for Fred today at the top of the hour.
MARCIANO: You know, call me when -- thankfully the Bubble Guppies, that's my daughter's favorite, they're animated, so I don't think they'll be retiring anytime soon.
KAYE: What do you have coming up?
MARCIANO: Here's what's coming up at noon. We have got the Drew Peterson trial. We're going to update you on that. Got the legal guys in, so they're going to dissect that, also the Atlanta daycare killing trial, the Sneiderman indictment there.
And also this, a guy feeding a gator. He's a tour boat captain. Well, while feeding it, he got his hand bit off. And now he's being charged with a crime as well. So talk about adding insult to injury.
KAYE: Oh, my.
MARCIANO: We'll dissect that.
Talk about Ernesto, Florence, yes, the drought and the economics of the drought.
And we, earlier this week, we conducted an interview with Train, the rock group. And they've got a song called "Marry Me," which has taken its own life. The past few years, where people have been proposing in the middle of the concert, so now the drummer, of all things, has been ordained.
So he's actually performing weddings at the concerts. We'll interview that.
And the reason that Fred's not here, marvelous Matt Whitfield, her father.
KAYE: Her dad.
MARCIANO: 1948 Olympian, so she's over there with him in London. And she's got some interesting pieces that we'll be airing throughout the afternoon as well.
KAYE: Oh, that sounds great. Great to see her there with him.
All right, Rob, we'll check back in with you in just a few minutes. MARCIANO: Thank you.
KAYE: To so many children around the world, she is a real-life hero. Some call her a saint. This morning we'll introduce you to a woman who has made it her mission to heal the youngest victims of war.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Welcome back, everyone, to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Glad you're with us.
For 15 years my next guest has been on a mission, a mission of making miracles happen. I want you to meet Elissa Montanti. Since 1997, she has rescued more than 150 children from around the world, children who were maimed or injured in war.
So how does one woman pull off such a feat? Not alone, through a network of volunteer doctors, nurses and hospitals. Montanti brings the children back to the United States for treatment, providing them free care and a place to stay.
Her organization is called The Global Medical Relief Fund. And just this week, the group opened a brand new home for the children in New York, called the Dare to Dream House. Montanti writes about her incredible crusade to save these children in her new book "I'll Stand By You."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Elissa Montanti is joining me now, along with a very special guest.
Good morning to both of you.
Elissa, why don't you first tell our audience who is beside you?
ELISSA MONTANTI, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, THE GLOBAL MEDICAL RELIEF FUND: Kenan, who is my -- the reason I began the charity 15 years ago.
KAYE: So he sparked your whole mission?
MONTANTI: He certainly did. It was -- he's the culprit.
KAYE: Well, Kenan, let me ask you, good morning to you. What do you remember about first meeting Elissa back in 1997, I believe it was? How did that -- how did that happen? And tell me about your experience coming to America.
KENAN MALKIC, GMRF BENEFICIARY: Well, to make a very long story short, I wrote a few letters out to -- asking for help for prosthetics. I lost my both arms and a leg in the Bosnian War. And one of those letters was answered by Elissa herself, which to me was a big surprise. And I was in disbelief that one woman from United States, from New York would help me, where no other organization could.
And about a month or so later, I was here in New York, receiving help. I met Elissa, who was so full of energy and just positiveness that we became so close, and she is like my adopted mom now.
KAYE: That is so sweet.
Elissa, explain to us the process of finding these children, first of all, how you managed to do that and then the process of getting them out of their own country into America.
I mean, how long do they stay? Where do they stay? What happens?
MONTANTI: Well, in the beginning, of course, I was very small. So since then, it's really the military in Iraq, many of the requests, I would say 90 percent of the requests, come from the military. And now everyone is finding us.
So the children are out there in this fragile world that we live in, unfortunately. There are so many. So we have the new children that become follow-up. So the follow-up children come back every year, depending on how fast they grow. And then, of course, there's new children. There's earthquakes, there's war. So they're finding us, actually, at this point.
KAYE: And, Kenan, you and your mom actually lived with Elissa for four months during your treatment about 15 years ago. But you actually came back to live. Tell me why.
MALKIC: Well, I became so close to Elissa, and she saw the situation in Bosnia. And she wanted to do everything she possibly could to give me a better life, to make sure that my future is set up for me. And she had gotten me into a college in the United States, which I graduated from. I'm currently in the United States living here, working here, doing everything on my own.
And it's all thanks to her. She made my life possible.
KAYE: And Elissa, I know that you've been all over the world helping children, places like Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, just to name a few. I can -- I can't imagine how emotional it must be, but talk about the personal experience of going to some of these places. And tell us what it's like to see these children, so desperate.
MONTANTI: You know, just seeing these kids in the situation they're in, it's so much bigger than yourself. And you just know that you have to do whatever it is to do to help these children.
And a lot of the times there's a lot of red tape bringing these children. For example, a boy now, I was in Lebanon two months ago, when I had seen a 15-year-old boy who was carrying the engine on his shoulder back and forth to safety across the border. And he became a victim by stepping on a land mine.
So we're trying to get him because the American embassy denies it, because he's a refugee. So now we're going through humanitarian parole (ph). It's always a situation. The follow-up children are easier because they've been here before. But going to these countries like Haiti and Lebanon, Iraq, it hasn't been easy. But we have succeeded.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: They really are doing incredible work.
That will do it for me, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye. Have a great day. CNN NEWSROOM continues now with Rob Marciano.
MARCIANO: Thanks, Randi.
KAYE: I will hand it off you to, sir.
MARCIANO: I got it. Nice hard work there. Appreciate it.
