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Same-Sex Marriage Legal in N.Y.; Judge Abruptly Recesses Trial; 20 percent of Minot, North Dakota Underwater; Excessive Phone Bill Charges; Zero Tolerance for PDA; Oklahoma Declares Emergency; Truck Plows into Amtrak Train; Americans Charged in Terror Plot; First Lady on Safari; Zany Ideas Build Businesses; Password Snafu Exposes Data; Veteran Finally Receives Medals; From Homeless to First Round Pick
Aired June 25, 2011 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: From CNN's World Headquarters bringing you news and analysis from across the nation and around the globe. Live from Studio 7, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING with T.J. Holmes.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
New York has now become the sixth state to OK same-sex marriage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ayes, 33, nays, 29.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now you hear the cheers ringing out after the vote legalizing same-sex marriage in the state of New York. Opponents, though, are being just as vocal and threatening political payback. That story, seconds away.
Also, an unexpected turn of events at the Casey Anthony trial this morning; court suddenly recessed today. We'll let you know exactly what the judge said this morning.
Also: floodwaters rushing toward a threatened town in North Dakota much faster than expected. We will take you there.
But first, it was a landmark vote in New York. State Senators have approved a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, making New York now just the sixth state where gay couples can get married. The vote happened late last night after intense and last-minute negotiations.
CNN's Mary Snow picks up the details for us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the end, this historic bill came down to four Republicans who broke with their party in support of same-sex marriage. And when that final approval came in --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ayes, 33, nays, 29. SNOW (voice-over): There was an eruption of applause in the Senate gallery.
PEOPLE: USA. USA.
SNOW: That final approval only came after intense negotiations and lobbying and Republicans were able to secure protections for religious organizations.
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo quickly signed the bill, saying that it would send a message around the country. But there were staunch opponents and New York's Archbishop, Timothy Dolan, is one of them, calling the bill a tragic presumption of government in passing this legislation.
Going forward now that the bill was signed, it will take 30 days before same-sex couples can apply for marriage licenses.
Mary Snow, CNN, Albany, New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now opponents of the same-sex marriage bill are vowing to take their outrage to the ballot box and vote against any Republican who supported that bill.
Also this morning, a kind of a shocker here to us. We were getting prepared to watch this thing, but everybody just left the courtroom. This was supposed to be another long day of testimony in the Casey Anthony trial. Then the judge came in and said, bye, go home, see you on Monday.
CNN's David Mattingly outside the courthouse for us this morning. I also have Holly Hughes, an attorney here in studio with me. She'll be talking to me in just a second about what we saw.
But David, are we still trying to put together exactly what happened in court today that caused the judge to say, hey, see you on Monday?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Quite a mystery, T.J. We were all set, ready to go, everyone was in place. There were witnesses outside, ready to be called and then the judge and the attorneys for both sides went behind closed doors, something we rarely see.
Usually they go to a side bar to discuss any sort of issues there in the courtroom. This time, they went behind closed doors, they had a private meeting. The court reporter was in there recording it all, but we don't know what they were talking about.
The judge emerged, everyone came out and took their place again, and here is the announcement that he had for the stunned courtroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JUDGE BELVIN PERRY, ORANGE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT: -- as both sides concur that a legal issue has arisen, unrelated to the issue that we talked about first thing this morning dealing with Dr. Ferden (ph) that would necessitate us recessing for today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: And that is all we got. No more explanation, no more elaboration on what this legal issue might be, T.J. And you know how much speculation there has always been surrounding every single day of this case. You can imagine how people are speculating now of what this could possibly mean.
But the fact that they went into private session to come out and then decide that they cannot hold court today, when this judge very clearly wants to keep things moving. For this train to derail in this fashion today tells us that this was probably a very serious matter -- T.J.
HOLMES: Yes and David, you said there, we don't exactly know what it means for the trial, but what about for the trial's schedule? The president -- excuse me, the judge there wanted to keep a pretty good pace here. How much does this throw off the schedule?
MATTINGLY: They really wanted to wrap things up at the end of next week. In fact, the judge and the attorneys had a very long conversation in court yesterday about how long they think this will take. The judge was actually crafting out a schedule where it looked like the jury might begin deliberating a week from today.
Well, now we just take another day out of the schedule, and that pushes it now into the Fourth of July holiday. At this point, it's anyone's guess as to what the judge might be thinking.
But we know that he was very, very mindful of what this jury is going through. They are sequestered. They don't live here. Their lives are on hold, and now something like this means that it's going to be on hold at least another day.
HOLMES: All right. David Mattingly for us, outside the courthouse. David, we appreciate you, as always.
And joining me right here in studio, Holly Hughes has been with us throughout the morning; former prosecutor, defense attorney, as wells. Good to have you here with us. And both of us, we're standing by waiting to watch the testimony this morning. He came out and said that, I looked over at you and you looked at me and both our mouths go -- what just happened? And he is clearly upset with a couple of attorneys in that courtroom.
HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Judge Perry is hot. We don't know what happened behind closed doors, but we know it's important, because he brought his court reporter -- he came out into the courtroom, what he said to her was --
(CROSSTALK) HOLMES: Yes.
HUGHES: -- we got to go work.
HOLMES: OK.
HUGHES: She picked up her machine and she went in the back. So whatever was going on behind closed doors, not about the alleged discovery violation, which happened to pop up first thing this morning as well --
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: First thing this morning.
HUGHES: -- but something else that necessitated taking the whole day off. And this is a judge who even just this morning reiterated, hey, you know what, we'll take up the issue of this expert. He won't testify today but either at the end of today or before court. We're going to keep moving, we're going to keep going.
So whatever sprang up when they went back there, it has him hot under the collar. We never see Judge Perry come off the bench.
HOLMES: Yes.
HUGHES: He usually stands up and he'll go out the back door. He strode through that courtroom this morning, T.J., and his arms were pumping and he was madder than a wet hen.
HOLMES: OK. You help me understand, and I might be putting you in a tough spot here, it might just be impossible. What in the world could have come up? Knowing this man wanted to keep this thing moving, what could possibly have come up to make him say, we can't do this for the rest of the day?
HUGHES: Well, it could be -- and I'm speculating, like you asked me too, OK. I'm not blaming either side. It could very well be that the defense was not prepared --
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Yes.
HUGHES: -- with any other witnesses or their witnesses were going to be so far delayed.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Yes.
HUGHES: It could be something as simple as a juror got sick, and while they were talking at the bench, did a deputy approach and say, hey, one of your jurors is really sick and so we can't continue on today. It could be that, you know, somebody discovered a new witness.
HOLMES: Yes.
HUGHES: And now they're all scrambling, whether it's a new surprise defense witness, which we've seen a couple of times that has come to nothing. And then we heard the prosecution say one time, you know with April Whelan, hey, we might have some new witnesses too. It was a host of things it could be. But it's got to be major for the judge to shut down for the day.
HOLMES: OK what was happening? It's here to wrap up on the (INAUDIBLE) drama today but we have a drama over the past couple of days; some of the most dramatic testimony we have seen.
HUGHES: Yes.
HOLMES: What was the defense trying to get at and trying to build by having Casey Anthony's brother and her mother on the stand? What were they trying to do?
HUGHES: What he is trying to do -- he being Jose Baez, lead defense attorney -- is have the jury understand how dysfunctional this family is. Because in his opening what he said is we understand that Casey's a liar. We understand that my client did some inexplicable things, you know, partying like a rock star for 31 days when her child is missing, or now dead, according to them.
HOLMES: Yes.
HUGHES: So he says, well, it's not her fault. She was raised to lie. From the time she was 8 years old, her father molested her and her brother molested her, and so the whole family is a pack of liars.
Well, when they got Lee on the stand, they said, hey, did they ever tell you about the pregnancy. No, they didn't tell me, and then you see him burst into tears and do the boo-hoo thing when he says you know, they didn't invite him to the hospital. They didn't tell me she's having this baby.
So clearly, the jury is sitting there going, wow, these people are really different. And that's what he wants.
HOLMES: So if you can show how different this family and dysfunctional this family is, that could lead you to believe, though, that's maybe why she reacted and behaved the way she is.
HUGHES: Right.
HOLMES: That's why she's a liar, that's why she freaked out when her child drowned in the pool.
HUGHES: Correct.
HOLMES: So you have to drag the entire family through the mud, to try to save Casey Anthony as to defend her?
HUGHES: Well, I wouldn't, that wouldn't be my defense tactic. But that's what this defense team has chosen to do. Holly Hughes, we appreciate having you. We thought we'd be watching some testimony to go this morning but it changed. But it's good to have you. It's so good to have you.
HUGHES: Yes, thank you so much T.J.
HOLMES: Thank you so much, Holly Hughes.
Well, we're about ten minutes past the hour here now. We're going to take you to Minot, North Dakota, facing the worst flooding in more than a century. Thousands of homes flooded now. Water, would you believe, is still rising. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, 12 minutes past the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
Right now the floodwaters are gushing in Minot, North Dakota. Minot, some will tell you, is about to be wiped out by floodwater. The river there continues to rise.
Let me bring in CNN's Jim Spellman. He is in Minot for us now. Jim, when are they expecting this river to crest?
JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some time later this evening, T.J. Maybe another two feet of rise, I just got back from touring the flooded zone with the National Guard, and it is just utter devastation. Block after block, where all you can see are rooftops, much like -- much like this area we've seen right here.
And this is the story all across town. The water had just spent all day yesterday and overnight coming up nearly to the roofs of maybe about 4,000 homes that are going to be heavily damaged according to the Mayor here.
They knew about a week ago, T.J. that they couldn't save all of Minot. So instead of trying to build up all of the dikes and levees around town, they concentrated on some vital infrastructure. Yesterday we were showing you city hall. Today we got a look at one of the main bridges that -- that crosses the river, the only bridge that's still left standing inside Minot.
And so far, those dikes are holding. They're still working on them and they're just digging up any open field or hill, they're digging up the clay, putting it into dump trucks, and bringing it on the site and stacking up these -- these levees to try to hold -- hold the water back.
It's an unbelievable effort that's working so far on that vital infrastructure, but for the all of the homes in this neighborhood, very bad news -- T.J.
HOLMES: And Jim, do they have the estimates? Because still, we're waiting on the river to crest, it has to crest and then it will slowly start to recede. I mean what are the estimates for when people will be able to get back into that town and get to see what might be left and salvageable in their homes?
SPELLMAN: I mean it's going to be weeks, at least, T.J. It's going to -- the water, when it crests, probably sometime late this evening, it's going to stay there for three, maybe four days of cresting and then take a long time to go down. Everything around here is just saturated. You see even all of the -- you'll see water popping up blocks away from the flood water, because all the storm drains are just full of water.
By the time -- it's going to be weeks and months at least before people can begin to really assess the kind of damage. Just yesterday, they were able to secure what they call individual assistance from FEMA, that's in -- you know, for regular homeowner to say, look, I need help. That process, of course, takes a long time to deal with the paperwork and get contractors in. Before Minot looks like Minot, it's going to be months, at least -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Jim Spellman for us in Minot; Jim we appreciate you, as always. Thank you so much.
Also this morning, the family of a missing Indiana University student hoping volunteers show up today to help search for clues; they're calling this "Find Lauren Day". We're talking about 20-year- old Lauren Spierer. She's been missing since June 3rd. Her parents are hoping today's search could possibly turn up new evidence.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Eighteen minutes past the hour now on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
Go grab your phone bill -- all right -- because you need to take a look at it. You might be one of the estimated 20 million people being wrongly charged hundreds and hundreds of dollars by your phone company. It's a practice that the Federal Communications Commission calls cramming, but it's something you can stop from happening right now by simply looking at your phone bill.
Let's talk to our financial analyst, Clyde Anderson and start by first letting him explain exactly what is cramming.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: Having unauthorized charges show up on your phone bill.
HOLMES: That's it?
ANDERSON: That's it.
HOLMES: All right. Now and the key here that we are talking about land lines only.
ANDERSON: Yes. We're talking about land lines only. But it has popped up on some cellular cases as well. Wireless providers have gone and actually settled some lawsuits when they were doing this in the past.
HOLMES: OK, what is this stuff? And I told people to put out their phone bills.
ANDERSON: Yes.
HOLMES: So what are we even looking for? Sometimes we see stuff and I assume that's supposed to be there.
ANDERSON: And that's what happens to most people. They see these charges and they look official. Usage charges, monthly service fee.
HOLMES: Usage charges, that's legit, right?
ANDERSON: No, no. I mean because your phone company -- what happened is, it happened when actually the FCC required people to start separating -- the phone company to separate these bills. In the past, they didn't have to do this, and now you see these charges that are bogus charges for the most part: calling plan, monthly fee, other fees.
You know a lot of times we'll see another fee and don't pay attention to something that said other fee. We'll just take it as what it is.
HOLMES: What is -- USBI, what is that?
ANDERSON: They look official, right? Universal service -- it's really just these letters that they're putting in these; and these third party companies are charging you. And we're paying them, because we don't want to take the time to call the company.
HOLMES: OK, now, you call the company, and they say, oh, yes, that's your service fee. Of course that's in there. How can you argue that?
ANDERSON: Well, if they're for service fee -- a lot of times they're going to tell you it's a third party charge, and that's what they have to do. If you still feel that it's a bogus charge, that's when you contact the FCC. Because you're going to contact them first and a lot of time they're going to let you know if this is a third party vendor or not or if this is a charge that's coming directly from us as your phone provider.
HOLMES: OK, they know what they're doing? Now, some of these can accidentally charge you, oh, that wasn't supposed to really be on your bill. Are they making a conscious effort to get at us?
ANDERSON: Well, some of them are legitimate charges. What they're doing a lot of times is when you set up these phone plans --
HOLMES: No, this cramming thing. This cramming -- are they legitimately and consciously doing this? ANDERSON: Well, now, some of them, yes. They're definitely -- they're targeting you. I mean you think about it, it's a big business. You're talking about 20 million people being affected by this. And so you're talking about charges that range from $1 to $19.95. You're talking about a hundred-million dollars plus; these people are making huge amounts of money.
HOLMES: Now are we just talking -- I saw some, I think, four companies that had been fined, but they were small companies like out in Pennsylvania or somewhere. But are the big dogs doing this as well, the larger companies?
ANDERSON: I think we're going to see, you know, the FCC is working on something to really work with transparency. They're not really rolling out the details yet. They really want some more disclosure and transparency to come out. So in July we'll kind of see what they're talking about and what other companies they're going to target. But so far, it's been $11 million in fines handed down for this type of things.
HOLMES: And we have seen some examples. A fee might end up being a couple of bucks here, a couple of bucks there. But there have been some cases where people have gone years without seeing this and you are costing yourself hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
ANDERSON: Exactly. And also when you set up the phone charges -- when you set up your phone account, a lot of times you have charges on there that you're not using the services. The phone company is not going to call you and say, you're not using these services either. So you need to check that as well while you're looking at your bill.
HOLMES: All right. Good stuff. I was looking for my bill before this segment, I couldn't find my bill. But I'm curious now. Because I do -- I see a lot of those things, and I say, OK, surely --
ANDERSON: And we just pay. We just pay.
HOLMES: Man, I'm a sucker.
ANDERSON: Yes, yes.
HOLMES: All right.
ANDERSON: No. Sucker no more.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right, 21 minutes past the hour now.
Coming up next, I'll tell you where holding hands and kissing could get you a jail sentence. Yes, it's happening right now. Quick break, we're right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Twenty-four minutes past the hour. Three tourists are now in jail because they got a little too friendly with each other in the wrong country. Nadia Bilchik joined me a little while ago for our "Morning Passport". Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: In December a New Zealander finds himself in a rather unusual predicament. He's in his apartment with his current lover --
HOLMES: Yes.
BILCHIK: -- who happens to be British.
HOLMES: OK.
BILCHIK: The ex-lover knocks at the door.
HOLMES: Wow.
BILCHIK: Does not get in but eventually literally pounds the door down. Gets in, sees the New Zealander with his current girlfriend/lover --
HOLMES: OK.
BILCHIK: -- and starts messing up the entire apartment and throwing things. So what happens is this --
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Hey, what are we seeing here? Explain this to me first.
BILCHIK: Right now you're seeing one of the girlfriends.
HOLMES: OK, OK.
BILCHIK: OK, so one of the girlfriends who's got a Facebook page, by the way, so we know even though she's in prison she at least has a computer.
HOLMES: OK.
BILCHIK: So he calls the authorities. The police arrive and arrests all three of them: the New Zealander, his British girlfriend and the Brazilian girlfriend -- the former girlfriend.
HOLMES: Wow, OK.
BILCHIK: And detained them.
HOLMES: For?
BILCHIK: For illicit conduct, for immorality -- and this is a big deal.
HOLMES: Wow. BILCHIK: Now what happened this week is they actually get sentenced. He gets sentenced for two months in a Dubai prison. I mean that is no joke in a communal prison.
HOLMES: Wow.
BILCHIK: And each girl gets sentenced for one month and prior to that while they've been detained the women became great friends. So it's a rather extraordinary story. But it's the fact that there is an Immorality Act in Dubai and if you are seen to have extramarital sex outside of the marriage that is against the law for which you can be imprisoned.
And in fact, on the British Embassy site in Dubai there's a warning against this kind of behavior.
HOLMES: And you talk about an immorality clause. But how much does that necessarily cover? Is it just the premarital sex?
(CROSSTALK)
BILCHIK: It's even holding hands or kissing.
HOLMES: Yes.
BILCHIK: You can only have alcohol in certain licensed restaurants.
But this is -- you know, the irony of course is that "Sex in the City II" is supposedly set in the United Arab Emirates. And originally in Dubai and Dubai said no "Sex in the City" so they say, let's go to Abu Dhabi.
HOLMES: Yes.
BILCHIK: Abu Dhabi said no, so they filmed it in Morocco.
HOLMES: Morocco. I remember this story.
BILCHIK: But it's supposed to be in Abu Dhabi.
Well, there's nothing romantic about being arrested for having sex.
Now, in 2008 there was a couple who was on the beach, a British couple who were arrested. Well, they very quickly went and got married.
HOLMES: Oh well.
BILCHIK: And put the (INAUDIBLE) shortly after.
HOLMES: So again some of these, the prison sentence or the jail sentences go for a number of months. We're not talking about years and years.
BILCHIK: No.
HOLMES: OK.
BILCHIK: And then the people are deported afterwards.
HOLMES: Wow.
BILCHIK: So right now, we have a banker in New Zealand who is a banker with HSBC Bank earning over $100,000 a year. He is going to be deported back to New Zealand along with his Brazilian ex and his British current --
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Current girlfriend.
BILCHIK: -- who have become great friends.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Now at the bottom of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Welcome back, everybody.
The wildfires still burning across Oklahoma now have compelled the governor to declare an emergency in 33 counties. Nearly a dozen fires are burning, fed by hot, dry winds and some extreme heat. At least 3,000 acres on fire and emergency planners fear that this could get worse before it gets better.
Also, parts of -- a good part of Minot -- excuse me. Let me tell you about this train derailment first. The video you're seeing. Look at this folks, this is after a tractor-trailer truck slammed into Amtrak's California zephyr.
This was in Nevada yesterday. At least two people killed, one in the truck and one on the train. You can see the smoke pouring from the train. It was on its way to the San Francisco area from Chicago.
Also, two terror suspects are behind bars in Seattle, charged with plotting a deadly attack on a military recruiting station. Federal officials say the two are U.S. citizens and that they wanted to kill military personnel in retaliation for U.S. action in Afghanistan.
They allegedly planned to use grenades and firearms in their attack. Officials say they were tipped off by a third man who the suspects tried to recruit.
Also first lady Michelle Obama is on safari today at a game reserve in South Africa. She's there with her daughters and several other family members. Yesterday, the first lady visited an aids educational center in Botswana. She wraps up her week-long tour of Southern Africa on Monday. Also, a suicide bombing, the second in as many days in Afghanistan. This one a truck packed with explosives detonates outside a hospital in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 35 people, wounding nearly as many.
Many of the dead are women and children. This attack, like the previous one, targeted civilians, comes just day after president Obama outlined plans to withdraw 30,000 troops by next September.
Meanwhile, an activist group says 20 anti-government protesters died in clashes across Syria yesterday. State-run media disputing that number, saying just seven people died, including law enforcement personnel. CNN, the only U.S. network with correspondents inside Syria and one of them is our Hala Gorani who joins us now from Damascus.
Hala, you got to speak to a high-up official in the government there in Syria. What are they saying? What is the response from the government to the violence?
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., we haven't heard much from the Syrian government since the beginning of these uprisings more than three months ago.
And I had a chance to sit down for an exclusive interview with a vice foreign minister of Syria, Fayssal Mekdad. I asked him, among other things, who is responsible for the violence that we've been seeing over the last three plus months in Syria. This is what he told me. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Why are Syrian security forces and the military, and this has been the testimony of many people in some of those cities, why are they shooting at demonstrators and in some cases can killing them? Why is that crackdown happening in Syria right now?
FAYSSAL MEKDAD, SYRIAN VICE FOREIGN MINISTER: There is no crackdown. There is a crackdown from these military groups against the government and against civilians.
GORANI: So who's doing the killing? Who's doing the killing?
MEKDAD: The killing was initiated and is still going on by these extremist groups?
GORANI: Who are they?
MEKDAD: They are extremist groups, extremist religious groups, groups that are financed from outside Syria and groups that do not want to achieve reform in Syria.
GORANI: Are they Syrians financed by outside money?
MEKDAD: I don't -- I mean, I cannot -- I'm not a security -- I don't know who is financing them. (END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, this interview fits in with the narrative, T.J., we've heard from the Syrian regime since the beginning of all of this, that outside forces are responsible for the violence, not legitimate pro-democracy activists.
That being said, as far as human rights groups are concerned, as far as witnesses, we've spoken to almost on a daily basis out of Syria and those refugees who fled Syria in the north western part of the country all say demonstrators are targeted by security forces, many of whom have intent to kill, and we've heard from human rights group that almost 1,300 demonstrators so far have been killed in Syria, T.J.
HOLMES: Yes, but at the same time, Hala, it seems that these protests continue, despite that violence. You're there now. Is there any sense that the folks who are out there on the streets and have been demonstrating are prepared to back down at all?
GORANI: Well, it doesn't seem like it, but you have to understand what circumstances we're reporting under right now. We're here at the invitation of the Syrian government. We're granted journalist visas.
And as a condition of our presence here, we're accompanied by government minders when we report outside of the hotel that we're staying in, that the CNN crew is staying in. So as a result, it's difficult for us, if not impossible, I have to say, over the last 48 hours, to go to the scenes of demonstrations, when they are active.
Syrian officials are happy to take us to neighborhoods where demonstrations have taken place in the past, to show us that things are now calm. That being said, T.J., even in this country, even in the Syrian capital, people have approached us, in whispers, and told us, don't believe everything you hear.
HOLMES: All right. Our Hala Gorani who is in Syria for us. Hala, we appreciate you. Thank you so much.
And at 36 minutes past the hour now, we do need to pass along some sad news about one of our family members here at CNN. Sports fans, as well, will take this as sad news.
Nick Charles has died. He was CNN's first sports anchor, and he along with his co-anchor, Fred Hickman, were fixtures on "Sports Tonight" for nearly two decades.
Charles died of bladder cancer this morning at the age of 64. The president of CNN worldwide, Jim Walton, put out this statement saying, "as a journalist and sports personality, Nick Charles helped put CNN on the map in its early days.
He brought intelligence, style, and heart to his work, qualities that translated to our company and inspired those of us who were fortunate to work alongside him. His passing is a loss to CNN, the sports world, and to the fans and friends everywhere who were with him to the end of his extraordinary life. Like them, our thoughts today are of Nick and with his family.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. We're about 20 minutes at the top of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
A good part of Minot, North Dakota, underwater right now. Take a look at what we're talking about. Some 4,000 homes now swamped, the worst flooding there in more than a century.
The Souris River is the problem here. It is still rising, expected to crest some time tonight or in the morning -- or overnight, morning hours.
Reynolds Wolf with give us more specifics there. Do I have that right sometime this evening?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You nailed it. I know it sounds kind of vague. If things don't work, you know, just like clockwork in nature. It's going to happen sometime around the overnight hours and you really want to nail it down, between midnight and 1:00 a.m. how about that?
What they don't want is they don't want to deal with the flooding and the heavy rainfall that may be in the forecast, but unfortunately, heavy rain is in the picture. In fact, take a look at the national perspective, all the way from the north central plains back into parts of the Midwest, rain is going to be in the picture.
Not just rain, but possibly heavy precipitation, with that, isolated tornadoes, small hail, damaging winds. It could be a mess in some spots. Out towards the desert southwest, it's an entirely different scenario.
Not really in terms of humidity, rather, lack of it. Very, very low humidity, strong winds in the afternoon that could help fan the flames. They've been battling those blazes in parts of the four corners for quite a while. They've been doing a great job.
In fact, the largest one, the wallow fire, about 50 percent out as we speak, but we're still seeing flames into portions of Oklahoma, which could be rough today with the breezy conditions, breezy and also very humid in parts of the southeast.
Sea breeze thunderstorms possible on the Alabama Gulf Coast, into, portions of Central Florida, heavy rain into parts of the north east. It's a beautiful day for much Michigan, but when you get to the west coast, pretty nice day or two from, say, San Francisco, southward into L.A. where temperatures for today are going to be pretty comfortable for your west coast.
In fact, going all the way to about 67 degrees in San Francisco, 73 in Portland, 67 in Seattle, 75 in Billings, 87 in Kansas City, but as that rain-cooled air moves through, you'll feel great.
As we round things up, Washington, D.C. with 87, 92 in Atlanta and 87 in Tampa. That is a quick snapshot of your forecast. T.J., back to you.
HOLMES: Reynolds, appreciate you as always, sir. Thank you, thank you.
Have you heard of these things called zany bands? They're brightly colored, oddly shaped. You see actually a lot of kids wearing them around their wrists. And our Tom Foreman visited the creators who are building up America with their zany ideas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the shipping line, the slap watches are running fast. Out the door, all day, every day. Another trendy hit for business partners Jim Howard and Lori Montag.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's mind boggling. It's hard to get your arms around it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've had up to 200 people, you know, a time working here in our distribution center.
FOREMAN: Their small company is making huge waves in the competitive world of gift items. For example, those oddly shaped rubber bands that kids can't seem to get enough of. When Jim and Lori put their Zanybandz on the market --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The phones did not stop ringing night and day.
JIM HOWARD, BIG TIME BRANDS: At one point, we were missing 700 to 800 phone calls a day, missing!
FOREMAN: Since then, they've sold $40 million worth of Zanybandz.
HOWARD: We just should 50,000 packages today for the Middle East.
FOREMAN: And they believe a key to their success is the economic crisis itself. Because while people have cut back on buying more expensive items, they are convinced it has spurred the market for lower cost fun products, like their watches, which go for about $20.
HOWARD: It's what's been making the economy tick lately.
LORI MONTAG, BIG TIME BRANDS: And we have stores that have even said to us, your product kept our store alive.
FOREMAN: Their company has, simply put, found a sweet spot in the sour economy, sweet enough to support 270 jobs across the country and to keep their sales building up every hour of every day. (END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. We're 13 minutes to the top of the hour and just a few minutes away from talking to Miss Fredricka Whitfield here in a second.
But first, using a password to protect your personal data online only works if nobody else knows your password. The latest security breach allowed anybody to use any password to access personal data of some 25 million people.
This had to do with something that a lot of people think is going to be the next big thing out there. It's called the Cloud. Earlier, I talked to our digital lifestyle expert, Mario Armstrong, and he explained the technological breakdown here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIO ARMSTRONG, CNN DIGITAL LIFESTYLE EXPERT: The hard drive looks something like this inside of your computer. This hard drive has programs and it has files.
Imagine if this hard drive is sitting up on the internet. Now, if it's on the internet, any device, a phone, a laptop, a tablet can now connect to this hard drive to pull down those files, to sync them together or to access them on any device.
So the bottom line is, with the Cloud, through the internet, you can access software and files on any device.
HOLMES: So, essentially, you don't have to have your physical hard drive anymore, you are trusting yourself, literally, to put it, literally, just out there in space.
ARMSTRONG: That's right, on some other company's service. That's right. On some other company's Cloud service.
HOLMES: So this is supposed to be the next big thing and I believe Apple is coming out with their version, which is supposed to give this Cloud service a boost. But what happened in this case to where 25 million people just had their stuff out there and anybody could get on it.
ARMSTRONG: Yes. So the name of this company you're referring to is called "Dropbox," it's one of the Cloud services companies. I actually like this service. I use it quite a bit.
But the problem was, they made a software update to their code, and when they made that update, they accidentally left the front door unlocked.
So that meant for about four hours earlier this week, anyone, as long as I knew your user name, I could get access to your files. I did not need a password to get access. That was an error they made on their end that they didn't catch for four hours.
HOLMES: Mario, a lot of people have some concerns about the Cloud and security, and maybe this was an error on their part. It sounded like human error here.
But, still, is this going to hurt in the future and kind of point out to some people that, you know, like I was just discussing with you, a security guy, I read a quote that said, only put something on the Cloud that you don't mind giving away.
ARMSTRONG: Yes, like, keeping your front door unlocked if you really don't have any valuables that you don't mind people walking away with.
So that whole premise of the Cloud kind of falls apart. So on one hand, I agree. At this stage in the game, look, only 40 percent of consumers according to research understand what the Cloud is.
And only 9 percent of Americans are using Cloud services. So still you're right, T.J. Lots of education to go, but a quick tip would be, number one, password protect any of your secure files.
If you have a secure file, I don't care what you put it on, your own hard drive or if you upload to it the internet, password protect that file to make it harder for anyone to access it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Bring in Fredricka Whitfield here now. It's 10 minutes at the top of hour. She's coming up at the top of the news. We were discussing people leaving their front doors open. We did it when we were younger as kids, everybody knew everybody in the neighborhood. You could leave the door open.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Right, I think these days fewer people do it.
HOLMES: Fewer people do it, but it's nice to hear there a neighborhood that exist where that's still happens -
WHITFIELD: It may be out there.
HOLMES: What have you got for me today? I was talking to Richard Herman, one of your legal guys yesterday. I said of your segments on relationships have gotten me in trouble sometimes at home.
WHITFIELD: Today, we're not going to talk about relationships as you're thinking about it with them. But there is a relationship involving -- a couple of relationships involving a couple of cases they're going to delve into.
This one involves a relationship between mom and 2-year-old and how the mother -- the Texas mom loses custody of this 2-year-old because of apparently being a little too abusive, maybe a lot too abusive.
There was also a five-year probation imposed. Our legal guys are going to talk about that dynamic and, you know, crimes and punishment.
HOLMES: This goes beyond just spanking your child.
WHITFIELD: Yes. And we're going to talk about a relationship between NFL ticketholders during the Super Bowl last year and how they want a little bit more. It made me think about it. Some people have a relationship with their television set during NFL season. Wouldn't that be you?
HOLMES: I do. But this is a great time right now. My wife is taking advantage because I don't have a game to watch. The NBA's done, no college game.
WHITFIELD: So you all can have some time together. All right, well, maybe you'll be tuning in at 2:00 Eastern time, you want to hear from financial expert Karen Lee. She has a new book out as you know, "It's Just Money."
However, she says how you treat money as an adult as a lot to do with what you learned about money growing up from your family. So we're going to talk about that. And maybe you and your wife want to go see a movie today, maybe "Cars" into it?
HOLMES: We just saw "Super Eight" the other day.
WHITFIELD: Well, for those who do want to see "Cars." They want to listen in today because we're going have Gray Grake with us. She's a critic and she's going to talk about whether it's a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
And then I spent some time with some real NASCAR drivers. Yes! Jason Levler and Joey Lagano, my gosh, they are two wonderful gentlemen and of course, stars of NASCAR. I've spent a little time with them face to face.
And we talk about everything from their passion to how - these days you have to start out at 4, 5, 6 to become what they are and do what they do. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: My gosh. That is so awesome. I love it. I so love it. Man, why didn't I start out earlier. I could be a race car driver. Danica Patrick, look out because I am so hooked. You're going to have some competition soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And you know I don't mean that, Danica. There can be more than one incredible female driver out. So maybe it means I'll be joining you at some point. We're going to take on the dudes together there in NASCAR.
HOLMES: Were you a NASCAR fan at all, watch it much at all?
WHITFIELD: No, no, no, didn't watch it a lot. I must say that knowing Jason and Joey makes me want to watch a little bit more. I did profile Joey when he was just 10. He's now 21. That's when he and I first met.
I did a story on him and NASCAR and how these very young drivers were taking it very seriously. This was kind of a reunion for him and I, but I must say that he did get me watching NASCAR a little bit more.
But I'm not a complete devotee until I met the two of them and got on the track. Now it's going to be tough peeling me away from the television set and a speedway.
HOLMES: I love it. It took me a while, but you go to one race and I think you'll get hooked. People say it's boring to watch on TV.
WHITFIELD: It's that feeling when you go to a Super Bowl. It's that feeling when you get into a motor speedway.
HOLMES: Absolutely right. Fredricka, good to see you this morning. You all will see Fredricka here in just about five minutes on top of the hour at CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you so much.
Ahead, how one man's inquisitive great granddaughter led to military medals and a new honor for a World War II veteran. We'll bring you Earl Arnold's remarkable story that is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: He fought for this country for nearly 70 years ago. This Pearl Harbor survivor, Earl Arnold, he never received his medals for his naval service. But a question from his great granddaughter helped lead to a new military honor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCKENZIE WILSON, KTVZ (voice-over): It was an award ceremony 66 years in the making. At 90 years old, World War II veteran Earl Arnold got a new hat and the medals he earned serving on the "USS Monahan" destroyer in Pearl Harbor. All these years, he'd gone without the recognition he deserved, but of course, he'll never admit that.
EARL ARNOLD, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: I appreciate them.
WILSON: It was his great granddaughter who asked the question that should have been answered decades ago.
PEGGY FORTNER, EARL ARNOLD'S DAUGHTER: She asked him about all of his medals and he said he didn't have any and that he had never received any.
WILSON: Earl Arnold's daughter, Peggy Fortner and her husband, Roy, made call after call to the World War II Veteran's Administration to get her father his awards.
Finally, they arrived at the Fortners' home in Missouri. Carrying precious cargo, the two road trip to surprise the veteran.
After three days, 1,600 miles and going through seven states, Earl finally has his medals.
(voice-over): The long-time resident recently suffered a stroke, but even that couldn't keep him from shaking hands with other local World War II heroes.
FORTNER: When Roy asked him, he said, will you be able to be out there all morning? And he says, I'll stand with them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Thanks to our McKenzie Wilson from our affiliate KTVZ with that report.
Also, one more story I want to leave you with. He may not have been the best player drafted in this week's NBA draft, but he might have the best story. Talking about Jimmy Butler, there he is.
Played at Marquette ended up the 30th pick, still pretty good. It wasn't one of the lottery picks. He's going to be going to Chicago to play for the Bulls.
But listen to this. The young man was kicked out of his own house by his own mother when he was 13 years old, a foster family took him in and the rest is history, as they say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY BUTLET, CHICAGO BULLS' FIRST-ROUND DRAFT PICK: I just believe that God does everything for a reason. He puts people in your life for a reason. He takes people out of your life for a reason.
And I took that and I moved on with my life. And the people that he put in, I stuck with them and they stuck with me and look where it got me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
