we re learning a celebration in sergeant bowe bergdahl s hometown marking his release has been canceled. cnn s george howell is joining us from hailey, idaho. george, what are folks saying out there? reporter: it was to be called the bowe is back event. excitement about it. ribbons and balloons on many of the streets in hailey, idaho. now we know the city has canceled that event. the city of some 8,000 people basically saying this town is not big enough to deal with the number of people that could be coming to town given the national media attention on this case. basically they don t have the infrastructure to support it and as a matter of public safety have canceled that event. we know the bergdahl family, they are not talking about this point, not speaking out about what s happening. we did go through that neighborhood. at this point they re not commenting. they did get that call, though, from defense secretary chuck hagel, a ten-minute call
the town is planning a larger celebration at the end of the month, renaming the annual bring bowe back event to reflect his release. it will now be called bowe is back, and thousands are expected to gather on june 28th to honor his release. this morning, acting head of the va is promising major changes at the scandal-plagued agency. sloan gibson says his top priority is to get every veteran off waiting lists and into clinics. he blamed leadership and ethical lapses for the issues that forced the resignation of va secretary eric shinseki. the inspector general at the va is now looking into 42 separate facilities amid claims that wait times were manipulated for thousands of veterans. all right, you can smell it today. it is primary day in eight states. one state in particular is capturing the nation s attention. i am talking about mississippi. 36-year senate veteran thad cochran is defending his seat in what s really been a very close race with tea party-backed
little bit was it s true, it s true. so, it was, after that, kind of all sank in, and my whole house went crazy. and then everybody started kind of piling out of their houses and into town so that we could all kind of talk and celebrate. the town is planning a larger celebration at the end of the month, renaming the annual bring bowe back event to reflect his release. it will now be called bowe is back. thousands are expected to gather there on june 28th to honor him. this morning, the acting head of the va is promising major changes at the scandal-plagued agency. sloan gibson says his top priority is to get every veteran off waiting lists and into clinics. he blamed leadership and ethical lapses for the issues that forced the resignation of va secretary eric shinseki. the inspector general at the va now looking into 42 separate facilities amid claims wait times there were manipulated for thousands of veterans. check your calendars. it is tuesday, which means primary day in e
back event. we were in the process this week of obtaining the fifth tree and getting it planted. now we don t need the tree. reporter: stephanie o neill quickly renamed the event bowe is back. they knew their son would come home safe to them. they didn t give up hope. reporter: neither did anyone in this town. i saved it for years. i bought it specifically for when bowe was released and ready to come home. reporter: she will be waiting for him with open arms. i m going to congratulate him for his perseverance himself. that was sandra reporting from our salt lake city affiliate. no doubt the release of the only u.s. soldier held in captivity is news for celebration. but the deal it took to happen is raising serious questions. one of them, whether or not the u.s. has changed its long-standing policy of not negotiating with terrorists. just who are these five senior taliban commanders released from guantanamo bay in exchange for