negotiations. with a week before congress takes a break, can lawmakers make some progress. plus, why the president is taking his message to a supermarket today? michael jackson's personal physician may not be a suspect right now, but he's being treated like one. police and drug agents raided dr. conrad murray's las vegas home and his office taking cell phones and computer hard drive. reports could be released on the cause of jackson's death. folks in north carolina are waking up to a story they never thought they'd hear. seven men in the raleigh area are in custody accused of causing a jihad overseas. this morning, the fbi is searching for an eighth member of the group. investigators say the alleged ring leader daniel boyd hung dry wall for a living and recruiting people willing to die as more tirs. but his wife who spoke exclusively to cnn is telling a different story.

jeanne meserve is watching this one closely. she's in raleigh this morning. jean, what a bizarre story. >> yeah, daniel boyd is a u.s. citizen, the season of a marine. but prosecutors say he was plotting to commit violent jihad overseas. amongst those he recruited, two of his sons. now the mother of those boys, daniel boyd's wife, sabrina, is offering explanations for the accusations being made by the government. >> reporter: daniel boyd fought in afghanistan in the early 1990s, but had settled in bucolic willow spring, north carolina. he and his two sons were among seven people arrested monday on terrorism charges. his wife, sabrina, tells cnn they are innocent. >> i know that my husband and my son are free of guilt and i'm hopeful the truth will come to mind. >> reporter: in court documents, the government says the group

stock piled a cache of high-powered weapons. they were only responding to news reports that guns and ammunition were becoming scarce. >> we'll say we do own guns in our home as our constitutional right allows us. and i don't think there's a crime in that. >> the government says the group trained for jihad in rural north carolina. but sabrina boyd says her husband was just trying to help his boy scouts sons with marksmanship. >> one of the merit badges they use to become an eagle scout. so it wouldn't be beyond for him to take him out and do target practice. it's not unusual. >> reporter: the government alleges wide and one of his sons travelled to israel to wage holy war. but boyd's wife says they just wanted to pray in jerusalem for another son that died in a car crash. since her arrest, she's not been able to talk to her husband or older son and the strain is showing. >> i just want to say that i'm

very proud to be muslim and i'm very proud to be married to daniel boyd. and i'm very proud of my children. >> sabrina boyd alleges that the fbi played what she calls a dirty trick on monday. she says an acquaintance showed up in the doorstep in a bloody shirt was a state policeman telling her there had been a bad accident, involving her husband and son. she said when she and her pregnant sister-in-law were take on the the hospital they were nut handcuffs and treated crudely. she said it was a ruse so the fbi could search their house unimpeded. the fbi would make no mistake. >> the story continuing to unfold. jeanne meserve in raleigh, north carolina. thanks so much for that. health care on the agenda and the president is taking his message to a supermarket in virginia today. but the people who need convincing are members of his own party.

democratic leaders sent six hours last night negotiating with house blue dogs, fiscally conservative democrats who have the most to defeat any bill that comes from the energy and commerce committee. jim acosta is digging deeper to figure out why the coalition is putting the brakes on the health care plan. good morning, jim. >> you're right. when it comes to health care reform, president obama is having as much trouble with members of his own party as he is republicans. take the conservative house democrats known as blue dogs. without them, the democrats would not have a majority in the house, something they now know all too well. >> we'll see. >> reporter: running from meeting to meeting surrounded by news cameras, the blue dogs mag be the most popular breed of politician on capitol hill these days. >> all the blue dogs have a picture of a blue dog in their office? >> they better. >> mike ross and the rest of the 52 house democrats who make up the fiscally conservative blue

dog coalition may block their party's push for health care reforms, unless changes are made to rein in the costs. >> it would not have the support to get it out of the committee or the support to pass on the house floor. >> so it would die? >> i would hope that health care reform wouldn't die. >> and today -- >> reporter: the blue dogs were born in 1995 after the republicans took control of congress. at the time, southern democrats like tennessee's john tanner thought they were choked blue, driven out of power by liberals and their party. >> with ear in the middle. when you're in the middle, you're going to catch it from the left and the right. >> reporter: you're catching it pretty good right now. >> from the left and the right. so we must be doing something right. >> reporter: as for congressman ross, he's not only the blue dog's point man on health care, he also represents hope, arkansas, hope town of president clinton. >> you talk to president clinton from time to time?

is that right? >> we talked yesterday. >> reporter: has he talked to you at all about health care? >> we talked a lot about health care. he shares many of my concerns. he understands the challenges we have in rural america. >> reporter: once the owner of a drugstore, he insists he'll get something done for the more than 450,000 people in arkansas with no health care. >> i live in the small town of 3600 people. the lady that owns the broadway cafe. she cannot afford health insurance for herself or her employees. and so -- >> reporter: does that weigh in your mind that you could let those folks down? >> no, we're not going to let them down. in fact, i'll make a prediction here. we'll get health care reform done this year. >> reporter: but what kind of reform is the question. right now, the blue dogs and democratic leaders are at an impasse over whether their plan would give americans the option of joining a government-run program. the public option. that could dash hopes for a full vote by the end of the week before the august recess.

carol? the clock is ticking. >> i was just going to ask you that. you said we're going to get something done by the end of the year but it doesn't mean it will come up for a vote in august, does it? >> by the end of the year would be the key words there, carol. it looks like this is going to happen now in the fall, certainly in the senate, if not in the house. and a lot has to do with the public option. there are polls showing 71% of americans like this idea of a public aucti public option, there's house democrats, the conservative blue dogs who are very nervous about it, carol. >> jim acosta in washington this morning, thanks. the obama administration just passed the six-month mark. time for a checkup. cabinet members and white house staff will huddle up for two days of meetings in the weekend. the white house said this is on the agenda for a while now. what's on the agenda going forward? the house conservative committee with new rules to limit executive play part of the president's plan to tighten

regulation. it would allow regulators to reject pay packages that encourage inappropriate risk. the measure is expected to be considered by the full house later this week. and swine flu may be the cause of some sick outside of capitol hill on sunday. six pages, high school interns may have kraktded the h1n1 swine flu. five people were treated at their dorm. nobody had to go to the hospital. two will go back to work tomorrow. everyone there on capitol hill, remember to wash your hands. >> that's right. there's something more dangerous than the swine flu. >> yes, i know, oh, my goodness. they want to class it in the same category as arsenic and mustard gas. >> it's -- we always knew tanning beds. they know that they're dangerous. arsenic and mustard glass. ultra violet radiation in sun lamps have been elevated to the

highest risk category. people who start using tanning beds before the age of 30 increase their risk of cancer by 75%. >> that's a pretty stunning figure. >> that would be me. i went all the time when i was a teenager. >> you fake bake? >> well, you know, i was 20. i didn't know what i was doing. >> oh, yeah. all right, we'll keep a close eye on the little dots on your arm. >> this is from the real sun which is just as bad. i apologize. the michael jackson case going in new directions all the time. now they're looking for aliases that michael jackson might have used when he went doctor shopping to get drugs. ed rollins has the story for you coming up. nine minutes after the hour.

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♪ come together right now over me ♪ welcome back to the most news in the morning. microsoft and yahoo! teaming up to take on google. it appears the two tech giants have struck a deal on a search engine partnership. details of the agreement are expected to be announced today. microsoft has been courting yahoo! for several years, including that failed $47 billion takeover bid last year. the shuttlenauts are done and they're heading home. the space shuttle en"endeavour" is heading back to earth. you know they're exhausted. the "endeavour" is scheduled to land friday morning at the kennedy space center, weather permitting, of course. one proposal for a finance committee got an endorsement from the centers of disease control. a tax on soda and other sugary drinks. by raising the price of

unhealthy food, we'll be dealing with the nation's obesity problem. the american beverage association is against the tax saying it will hit poor americans the hardest. police and dea agents are all over the las vegas home and office of the doctor who was with michael jackson when he died. agents said they're looking for, well, lots of things. they searched dr. conrad murray's houston clinic in a storage unit. they appear to be building a manslaughter case against him. ted rollins has the latest on the expanding investigation this morning. john, carol, two different stories with the two warrants that were served in las vegas, the one here at dr. conrad murray's clinic took investigators eight hours to serve. they were in there looking at medical records for all of the data. the other warrant was served at dr. conrad murray's house and didn't take long at all. one agent showed up at dr. conrad murray's las vegas home, he was there to greet them. after three hours inside, investigators left, according to

murray's attorney with cell phones and a computer hard drive. another warrant was served at murray's las vegas clinic where agents spent the entire day. >> they're looking through records and documents. and looking for any that pertain to the search warrant itself. and those documents will be seized as evidence. >> the search warrant, according to murray's attorneys, authorize investigators to look for medical records relating to michael jackson and all of his reported aliases, meaning investigators believe jackson and/or murray may have used fake names on some records. >> it's very significant to me that the search warrant refers to aliases. the doctors were charged with felonies for prescribing medications for anna nicole under a presumed name. it's a violation of california law. >> when is that l.a. county coroner's report going to come out. cnn is told it will not come out

this week. as first expected, the earliest they'll have it will be sometime next week. john, carol? all right, ted rollins for us this morning. later on in the hour, sanjay gupta is going to take us inside the operating room. we heard about this drug propofol, how powerful it is, what effect it has on the body. this is a fascinating examination of the effects of that drug as only dr. sanjay gupta could bring it to us. >> to see a person going under. >> any doctor who's been in an operating room knows about this stuff. but lay people haven't seen it before. 15 minutes after the hour. sweet! (together) sweet! (announcer) now for the first time, a gram of healthy fiber in every packet. sweet! (announcer) splenda® with fiber.

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called ttp, which has been reported rarely, sometimes in less than two weeks after starting therapy. other rare but serious side effects may occur. (male announcer) if you take plavix with other heart medicines continuing to do so will help increase your protection against a future heart attack or stroke beyond your other heart medicines alone. you may be feeling better but your risk never goes away. help stay protected, stay with plavix. ♪ go on take the money and run ♪ a lot of people have done that. they've taken the money. they ran really fast and we can't catch them. >> that song is great. a nice way to start the money. talking about the government

setting limits on energy trading, speculation and energy trading. we all saw last summer the incredible rise in energy prices. and, still, it's been volatile. you've got energy prices, oil prices that doubled, cut in half, doubled again. it has been incredible from $145 last summer, down to $34. now $67. what's the role of speculation? speculation is a good thing. it's the other side of a market for people who are using the commodity. but wild gambling, speculation based on computer trading, speculation that throws the market out of whack, excessive speculation, excessive limits, that's what the government is looking at. you might recall the commission that regulates exchange-traded commodities, they found that excessive speculation was not the reason for the big rally. supply and demand for the big, big move in oil prices. we know that it's re-examining the report from last year. may have new findings. they won't tell us what they

are. there's been speculation they'll find it has been excessive speculation which i call gambling. three kinds of hearings. hearings yesterday discussing what to do to accept limits. the hot money, the purely financial firms running in there, running in fast with a whole lot of money trying to -- trying to negotiate little price changes and make a big load of cash that that might have to be shut down. and let me be clear, that's different than plain old speculation. i love speculation. speculation is good. but they're trying to find out if there's excessive speculation that have been running through the markets. >> plain speculation good, excessive, bad. >> it's like pornography. you don't know what it is -- what is excessive speculation. that's the trouble for the government. the people don't want the government involved in what is good speculation and bad speculation. >> further reforces it. i know nothing about it. >> whatever. >> yes, you do. >> you don't? you don't think that run up of

$145 last summer was pure supply and demand in oil. oo. >> of course not. i don't know how it works. >> it was excessive speculation allegedly. >> or supply and demand. >> a little of all of that. >> romans numeral is 40%. the hearing from delta airlines saying that its general counsel actually saying this is the amount of delta's revenue that was gobbled up, burned up by fuel expenses last year, 40%. that's not speculation. that's somebody who's trying to hedge themselves in the energy market against fuel costs. on the other side of that, are the speculators who if, indeed, they ran up the prices, it hurts it legitimate consumers of energy. >> all of the airlines bought fuel in future prices and the price went down. >> you understand. >> wow. >> john. i know a bad deal when i see one. >> yeah. that would really suck to hedge your energy costs at $100 all the way down to $40. >> christine romans, minding

your business this morning. thank you so much. >> ouch. prescription drug abuse, the ads on the air all the time the kids sitting on the counter saying this is for my hip replacement and my knee. how wide spread is prescription drug abuse. what can we do about it? we'll talk to the director of the office of drug technology coming up. and the michael jackson case. chuck hilldrift lost his arms 28 years ago in an electrical accident. he hasn't used a drill since. now he can. and unlatch a door chain. and even play jenga. he can do all of these amazing things thanks to the sophisticated prosthesis created by famed segue inventor, dean kaman.

it started when darpa wanted something new for troops who lost an arm on the battlefield. >> the first time we met with darpa, they described we want an arm to do this and this. we told him, you're nuts. >> but he delivered. >> until we started this project, most people would have said this is the state of the art -- basically a plastic tube with a hook on the end of it. our goal was to replace that technology with something as a full hand with an opposed thumb and all the fingers. >> the arm is still in development. the most recent design weighs about the same as a human arm and can lift up to 20 pounds. the wrist and fingers are controlled by electronic monitors worn on the user's shoulder and sensors inside the shoes. kamen thinks he's a few years away from delivering the device to veterans and other amputees and his most valuable volunteer, chuck. >> okay, you can let go now. >> gary tuchman, cnn.

(voice 2) how bad is it? (voice 1) traffic's off the chart... (voice 2) they're pinging more targets... (voice 3) isolate... prevent damage... (voice 2) got 'em. (voice 3) great exercise guys. let's run it again.

president obama, of course, has invited henry louis gates and the police officer who arrested him to the white house for a beer. that's what he said. they're going to get together for a beer. of course, this could be trouble, because the last time obama got a few beers in him, he bought general motors. >> welcome back to the most news in the morning. conan o'brien having a little bit of fun with president obama's meeting tomorrow with the white house with henry louis gates jr. and police sergeant james crowley. former secretary of state colin powell had something to say about the controversy surrounding gates' arrest. powell sat down exclusively with larry king last night. he said even he has been racially profiled. yes, colin powell. he thought how he talked about

how professor gates should have been perhaps a little bit more patient in the situation. >> saying gates was wrong? >> i'm saying perhaps in th instance waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer. he should have reflected on whether or not it's the time to make that big of a deal. just home from china, just home from new york. all he wanted to do was get to bed. his door was jammed. so he was in a move where -- >> what about those who says he brings the whole history into that body of a black movement. >> that may well be the case. but i still think it might have well been resolved in a different manner if we didn't have the verbal altercation between the two of them. when you're faced with an officer trying to do his job and get to the bottom of something, this is not the time to get in an argument with them. i was taught that as a child. you don't argue with the police officer. in our schools today, in order to make sure that we don't have things escalate out of control

and lead to very unfortunate situations, we tell our kids, when you're being asked something by a police officer, being detained by a police officer, cooperate. if you don't like what happened or if you think that you have been exposed to something that's racist or prejudicial or something that's wrong, then you make the complaint afterwards and you sue. >> you have been racially profile? oh. >> yes, many times. >> did you ever bring anger to it? >> of course. but, you know, anger is best controlled. and sure i got mad. i got mad as a national security advisor of the president of the united states, i went down to meet somebody at reagan national airport and nobody recognized, nobody thought i could possibly be the national security advisor to the president. i was just a black guy at reagan national airport. and it was only when i went up to the counter and said is my guest here who is waiting for me did somebody say, oh, you're general powell. it was inconceivable to him that the black guy could be the national security advisor?

>> how do you deal with this? >> what are you going to do? it was a teaching point for him. yes, i'm the national security advisor, i'm black. watch, i can do the job. you have this kind of -- there's no african-american in this country who has not been exposed to this kind of situation. do you get angry? yes. do you manifest that anger? you protest. you try to get things fixed. but it's kind of a better course of action to take it easy and don't let your anger make the current situation worse. >> general colin powell last night with larry king. again, the beer bonding tomorrow night at the white house. the president wants to make this a teaching moment, the question we're going to ask this morning is it's going to be a private moment. nobody else in the nation will see it. we'll get some postgame analysis, i guess, but unless it's open to the public, what do we know? what do we learn from it, really, if we're not in on the discussion. >> we'll have to e-mail the big controversy -- i shouldn't say controversy, but the tabloids

are wondering what kind of beer they'll drink. budweiser, sam adams, a boston-based beer. >> apparently it's going to be blue moon for the washington. red stripe or beck's for the professor and the professor will have a bud, which, of course, is not american owned anymore. it's owned by the stella people so -- >> there you have it. at least they've worked that out. it's just -- 6:30 eastern time. checking the top stories right now. new federal study out this morning says pregnant women infected with the h1n1 virus are expected to be hospitalized or die from it. it was four times that of the general population, 1 in 8 people who died after contracting the swine flu virus is pregnant. it advised pregnant women to take anti-viral drugs as soon as possible. the military man in afghanistan may soon ask for more troops and equipment. a military official tells us general stanley mcchrystal is

doing a quote troop to task review to find out if there are enough troops to do the job. what he finds out, a really frank discussion could happen at the pentagon. a little kid, a child at the controls of the number 4 train on sunday and the train operator is letting it happen. the operator and conductor have been suspended without pay pending the outcome of an investigation. disciplinary charges recently filed. we've been hearing about michael jackson's alleged addiction to prescription drugs. conrad murray is said to have given jackson the powerful drug propofol to help him sleep. police believe that drug may be what contributed to his death. joining us from mexico city to talk about the abusive prescription drugs is the director of the office of national drug control policy at the white house. director kirilokowski, thank you

for talking to us this morning. thank you for taking the time. >> good morning. >> i wanted to ask this as a not a law enforcement question but from a substance abuse perspective which falls in your arena here. to use the drug propofol as a sedative for surgery, to use it as a sleeping medication, to you, would that constitute the abuse of that drug. >> i'm not an m.d. i can tell you the prescription drug issue is really significant throughout the united states. and, of course, we've seen that in paper after paper after paper. i don't have the facts about the michael jackson case, the very sad and tragic loss that occurred there, but i can tell you the prescription drug problems are a problem in this country. >> so we hear a lot about the michael jackson case began limited. and the police and drug enforcement administration are looking to whether or not he used aliases to use the drugs,

whether he was doctor shopping. we hear about people doctor shopping and prescription drug abuse. how did it get so bad in this country. >> i think it got so bad because we didn't raise the alarm. it's been bad for a while. the most recent data which unfortunately is 2006 tells us that more people have died from overdoses than have died from gunshot wounds in this country. and frankly, this is something that in many ways can be prevented. >> so, when you talk about prevention, you talk -- i guess there are two things, trying to curb demand and education from that standpoint. and then there's also enforcement. how do you effectively enforce something like this. you take a look at the fact that more than 56 million prescriptions were written for sleeping medication in 2008 alone, that's up 54% since 2004? >> well, there are two things. one is that 38 states have prescription drug monitoring

programs. these are electronic data bases and they help health officials and in some cases depending on how the law is written, law enforcement. and they can look at overprescribing by a physician but you can also look at patients who are, as you mentioned, doctor shopping. the other thing, of course, is that a lot of this comes out of parents' medicine cabinets. >> right. >> parents can do a lot. we have a website, www.theanti-drug.com. parents can get a huge amount of information. we've seen significant problems with -- with kids that have experimented thinking that hey, these are prescription drugs, these are safe. and, in fact, they are just as deadly and just as addictive as anything that comes from any place else. >> you came to this job from your former job. you're with the police chief of seattle. was it possible in seattle to effectively police this? >> it's a very difficult thing

to police. but i think the prevention piece is by far one of the most important parts. and that is parents can do a lot. as these prescription drug monitoring programs and in washington state where i just left, that is a broom thprogram. those are great programs to help law enforcement and officials to deal with the problem. >> the two things that go hand in hand too, the treatment. you're there in mexico city and the mexican government has undertaken a pilot program to establish drug courts for those found guilty of committing crimes while under the influence of drugs may not be sentenced to jail, rather they're sentenced to treatment programs, put in to treatment programs, i don't know if you call it a sentence, there's a rising call in this country for something similar. rather than put them in jail, put them in treatment programs. do you think the mexican model is something that could be repeated here? >> i think that the drug courts

are incredibly positive turn for the mexican government. they're undergoing tremendous stress. president calderon without question and i met with him the other day is by far one of the most courageous leaders in free world to take this on. but the balanced approach they're using which is tough law enforcement on the traffickers and seizures, but also, treatment. and drug courts came from the united states. we've been assisting the government of mexico with this. they're 20 years old. they're over 2,000 drug courts in the united states. and i think they've been proven effective. >> you're right. >> but, again, there are people who say we're putting too much drug offenders in jail that we need to reach out more to the treatment side of things. do we need to do a better job of that in this country? >> i do. i do. and the united states -- it's without question, a more balanced approach, a focus on prevention and focus on

treatment. treatment works. and the obama administration recognizes that addiction is a disease. a disease like a lot of other diseases. it's not a moral failure of somebody. there are treatments for it. we have seen -- i have met personally now in 2 1/2 months dozens of people who have successfully been through treatment, successfully turned their lives around. back in their neighborhoods, working, productive, paying taxes. it's a wonderful thing. >> the director of the office of national drug control policy. good to talk to you, sir. thanks for taking the time. >> thanks very much. >> carol? iraqi insurgents turned to a new type of crime. why better security at the border may be leading to more violence on city streets. - hi. - crowd: hi!

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♪ you got to keep it strong move along move along like i know you do ♪

welcome back to the most news in the morning. a quick check of stories coming up on the a.m. rundown. brutal temperatures across several spots this morning. karen mcguinness tracking the extreme weather for us today. put it this way, 106 in portland, oregon today. a little warm. you heard about the anesthetic propofol in the michael jackson case. you don't want to miss this. this is an interesting story. dr. sanjay gupta takes us inside his operating room for a look at what it's like second-by-second when someone is being put under by propofol. and the president in aisle five. what president obama is hoping to accomplish today as he takes his health care pitch to a kroeger's in virginia. well -- >> can you imagine going to the grocery store and there's the president? >> he's shopping for -- >> he said, you know where i put the pickles? never find the pickles. >> thanks, president obama. >> things are changing in iraq. iraqi troops controlling u.s. towns and forces to take on a security role there. >> security has improve in some areas. violence is a threat.

recently we heard insurgents turning to another type of crime -- bank robberies. we have the story from baghdad. >> reporter: it was a carefully coordinated heist. robbers struck here in central baghdad sometime between midnight and 4:00 a.m. on tuesday, leaving behind a trail of blood and making off with millions. an iraqi officer on the scene, too afraid to be identified or speak on camera told us, the police think it's a desperate attempt by terrorists to fund their operation. the gun mep broke the security cameras and left behind few clues. but police theorize it might have been an inside job. when the robbers entered the bank, there was no resistance. and it was the very day the bank received the funds for government employee salaries. the money was mainly in iraqi dinars and according to the policemen, the robbers would have needed a mini bus to cart their loot away. all eight of the security guards

were shot in the head and found blind folded with their hands tied. an official says, the insurgency is believed to be struggling financially. increased security along iraq's boarders and greater cooperation with the neighbors is making it more difficult to smuggle and catch. tuesday's robbery is the second such attack in three days. on sunday, government targeted a money exchange in the same neighborhood, opening fire in broad daylight, killing three guards and wounding five people. they didn't manage to steal any money, but it is well known that the insurgents often resorted to crime to fund their nominations, most notably kidnaps from money. what's disturbing is where the attacks took place is one of the safer neighborhoods, teeming with iraqi security forces. i had a feeling something like this would happen when u.s. forces withdrew, this man says. unsettling events as iraqis try to take on responsibility for

securing their country. those who carried out this attack are still at large. but what makes it more unsettling is that this neighborhood and the entire capital have tens of thousands of iraqi police officers and iraqi army soldiers patrolling them. people want to know how such a thing could have happened, especially in the air in where their sense of security, that fragile sense of security they were clinging on to has been shattered in such a brutal way, carol? >> arwa damon recording from baghdad.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. a live look at new york city today where it's 74 and going up to a high of 82. but thunderstorms could roll in later on this afternoon. it's kind of the pattern we're in right now. and that mean ifs you're flying in to or out of new york, you could experience some significant delays. >> especially laguardia. laguardia had to lay the last -- >> i get alert. >> sunday was bad, monday was a nightmare. last night had his problems as well. here's the thing too. you call ahead. you're like, oh, i don't know. you don't find out until you're on the plane. >> you have to sign up for the alerts. i'll tell you how. it was really hot here today. >> it was cool. >> and i don't know where rob marciano is. he's somewhere great and

fabulous for vacation. karen mcguinness is here for him. it's cool here in atlanta this past summer even though it was hot as hell yesterday. >> yeah, in new york, 45 straight day where the temperatures have been at or below normal. look what's going on here -- thunderstorms across the south central part of the united states. cool temperatures to the north. chance of thunderstorms rumbling in the northeast. in the pacific northwest, hot again. if seattle makes it to 100 degrees today, lit be the hottest it's been in any year. and seattle, you probably are going to look at 100 degrees. look at the temperatures from yesterday. seattle, 97 degrees. people in the pacific northwest are not used to this. temperatures should be in the 70s. looking at 90s. for days, the flip side is we're seeing quite a bit of wet weather across this red river valley region.

if you're headed a little further to the southeast, what we're looking at are dry conditions along the coast. updates from jacqui jeras in the next couple of hours. back to you. propofol, diprivan, the drug michael jackson had his inn his system in the time of his death. called milk of amnesia. but what does it look like when somebody is going under with propofol in their system. san yea gupta takes us to the o.r. coming up next. you don't want to miss this one. 11 minutes to the top of the hour. and you could qualify for an additional $3500 or $4500 cash back... on top of all other offers.. on a new, more fuel efficient chevy. your chevy dealer has more eligible models to choose from - more than ford, toyota, or honda. so save gas... and money... now during the chevy open house. go to chevy.com for details.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. we've been talking about propofol or diprivan that michael jackson's doctor gave him before he died. you're looking at it. it's dangerous to use outside of the hospital setting. dr. sanjay gupta takes us in his o.r. for a closer look at someone going under with a powerful anesthetic. >> john, carol, a lot of discussion for propofol. what does it do to the body? we'll go inside my operating room to give you an idea of what really happened. take a look. we're here inside the operating room with the chief of anesthesiology here. propofol is a medication he uses all the time. is this it over here? >> yeah. >> looks like -- milk of amnesia they call it. >> milk of amnesia. vincent, you okay? we have to monitor his ekg, we

have to monitor the co-2, we have to see the saturation. make sure he's ventilating. >> that's all typical stuff -- >> standard of care. yes. >> so the propofol. going to get sleepy, benson, give me good deep breaths. go and take a look at his eyes at how -- >> deep breaths. doing great. may feel a little burning, okay? >> ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. >> there's the reason for his heart rate increasing? >> uh-huh. >> so look, his eyes are closed. >> his eyes are closed. what else. >> i'm going to look up here. he stops breathing. this is his co-2. he's not breathing anymore and my wonderful anes thrks etist is

going to help him breathe. >> this bag, that mask. with that medication, he couldn't breathe on his home without those things. he's going to need a breathing tube. easy? >> easy. >> what's so attractive about this medication? oh. >> well, it's been in for the last ten years or so, even so, 15 years. that may be why people think it's something you can do at home. this gets out of hand, it goes away quickly. the problem is it gets out of hand, there's no one there to resuscitate you. >> that was quick. you gave some of the medication. >> phi, ten minutes. >> he went from completely awake to completely asleep. >> he's not breathing. >> one thing that's worth pointing out john and carol, this is obviously an operating room. this is a medication used

thousands of times but it can be used in outpatient medical settings. dr. gershon and other doctors here will say they've never heard it being used in the home. >> this note from sanjay, the patient you saw going under anesthesia. he came out of surgery and doing fine now. back with the morning's top stories coming up.

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good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. good morning, everyone. welcome to "american morning." i'm carol costello in for kiran chetry today. >> good morning to you. i'm john roberts. thanks for being here on this thursday, the 29th of july. the top stories we're breaking down for you. federal agents looking for a suspect accused of being part of a home grown terrorist cell in north carolina. a part of the story you'll only see on cnn. jeanne meserve talks excleese i collusively with the wife and mother. >> and the raid on the doctor

who with was with michael jackson on the day he died. dr. conrad murray gave a reaction to the drug that killed him? what are the feds looking for? the president, the professor, and the police sergeant meet over beers tomorrow attempting to cool a racially charged debate. can the three men agree on what lessons should be learned from the gates controversy? that question from the panel of experts ahead. we begin with federal agents on a man hunt. looking for an eighth suspect accused of being part of a home grown terrorist cell in north carolina. the group is gearing up for a violent jihad overseas. the eighth suspect is not named but we're told that it is a u.s. citizen that might currently be in pakistan. daniel patrick boyd faces a judge on thursday along with two sons and four other suspects. boyd is accused of traveling to terrorist camps overseas and stock piling high-powered guns and other weapons.

to raleigh, north carolina to the correspondent jeanne meserve who talked exclusively with boyd's wife. she is disputing this whole thing. >> she really is. first of all, let me tell you a little bit more about her husband, daniel boyd. he's the u.s. citizen, the son of a u.s. marine. he's supposedly at the heart of this conspiracy according to prosecutors. among the recruited, two of his own sons. the wife of daniel boyd is saying that she has an explanation for every accusation the government is making. daniel boyd fought in afghanistan in the early 1990s but settled in bucolic willow spring, north carolina. he and his two sons were among seven people arrested monday on terrorism charges. his wife, sabrina tells cnn they are innocent. >> i know my husband and my son are free of guilt and i'm

hopeful the truth will come to light. >> boyd's wife says they were only responding to news reports that guns and ammunition were becoming scarce. >> we will say that we do have -- we do own guns in our homes as our constitutional right allows us. and i don't think there's a crime in that. >> the government says the group trained for jihad in rural north carolina. but sabrina boyd says her husband was just helping her boy scout sons with marksmanship. >> one of the merit badges they use to become an eagle shout. and it wouldn't be beyond him to take him out and do target practice. it's not unusual. >> the government alleges boyd and one of his sons travel to israel to wage holy war. but boyd's wife says they wanted to pray in jerusalem for another son who died in a car crash.

since their arrest, she has not been able to talk to her husband or older son and the strain is showing. >> and i just want to say that i'm very proud to be muslim and i'm very proud to be married to daniel boyd and i'm very proud of my children. >> sabrina boyd ales that the fbi played what she called a dirty trick on her family. she says that on monday, she answered the door. there's an acquaintance there in a bloody shirt with a state policeman. they told them there had been another bad car accident involving her husband and surviving son. she says she and her daughter and daughter-in-law went to the hospital where she said she was put in to handcuffs and treated rudely. she said this is all a ruse, the investigators wanted to get in the house and do a search unimpeded. we called the fbi to get the reactions. they couldn't comment on that or any other aspect of this investigation. john, back to you. >> jeanne meserve in raleigh, north carolina. thanks. an a.m. extra, boyd is one

of many american citizens facing charges. a minnesota man pleaded guilty yesterday to supporting terrorists. he's accused of traveling to somalia to fight alongside islamic militants. last week we learned about a long island man who pleaded guilty he conspired to murder u.s. nationals. bryant n, ovenas left in 2007, joined al qaeda in the midst of participating in a failed u.s. bombing attack and the long island railroad information for a possible bomb attack on the rail system. after a string of ares across the country, how safe are we at home? 7:30, we'll be talking with terrorism expert steve emerson ahead on "the most news in the morning". >> a new twist in the michael jackson death investigation. the doctor who was at jack zorn's side when he died got another visit from federal agents. after searching dr. conrad murray's clinic in houston last week, the dea raided his vegas

home and medical clinic. ted rowlands now on what they were looking for and what they left with. john, carol, two different stories with the two warrants served in las vegas. the one here at dr. conrad murray's clinic took investigators eight hours to serve. they were looking for medical records. the other warrant was served at dr. conrad murray's house. it didn't take long at all. when agents showed up at dr. conrad murray's las vegas home, he was there to greet them. after three hours inside, investigators left, according to murray's attorney, with cell phones and a computer hard drive. another warrant was served at murray's las vegas clinic where the agents spent the entire day. >> looking through records, documents, looking for any that pertain to the search warrant itself. and those documents will be seized as evidence. >> the search warrant, according to murray's attorneys, often get investigators to look for

medical records relating to michael jackson and all of his reported aliases, meaning, investigators believe jackson and/or murray may have used fake names on some records. >> it's very significant to me that the search warrant refers to aliases. remember in the anna nicole case, the doctors were charged with felonies for prescribing drugs to anna nicole under presumed names. a big violation of california law. >> reporter: when is that lap county coroner's report come out? the office is telling cnn it will not come out this week as first expected. the earliest will be sometime next week. john, carol. ted rowlands for us this morning. thanks. attention, shoppers. today's special, the health care debate with the president of the united states. president obama is back on the road pushing health care reform at a town hall in raleigh, north carolina then at a meeting with supermarket employees at a kroegers in bristol, virginia.

correspondent ed henry live from the produce section. what kind of welcome can the president expect here at the kroger's this morning? oh. >> good morning, john. as significant -- you know the president in washington has been trying to tailor his message to people just like the employees here at krogers who have health insurance. people with insurance don't want to pay higher taxes to fund reform. they don't want to pick up the tab for the 46 million uninsured. we found that assumption might be wrong. they're rolling out the red carpet in rule virginia. but the president could get a chillry reception in the frozen food aisle where we found a mccain voter who fears health reform is being rushed just like the stimulus. >> just like the last package he pushed through, i think it was too hurried, a lot of mistakes, a lot of things that shouldn't be. >> reporter: but kathy montgomery, assistant produce

manager voted for the president and he voted with congress. >> i like the fact he's stepped up and being aggressive. i do. i'm all for that. >> thousands in this region showed up at a health expo offering free medical care this last weekend, exposing a problem all too familiar to doctors here. >> clearly we all recognize, any physician in the hospital would recognize that it's a system in crisis. but like most employees at the kroeger supermarket, steve shiftlet gets generous health benefits. despite being an obama voter, he's nervous those benefits might be taxed to cover the uninsured. >> he's going to have to spit out some numbers. and let the public know what it's going to cost him. >> if he's willing to sell it, it means he'll do something as well. >> if it means me paying taxes

to get the reform do, i begrudgingly do it, yes. >> at the frozen food aisle, this republican is ready to do his share. >> no matter what kind of plan, somebody has to pay for it. so, eventually, it comes down to us, the people that's working and paying taxes. we're going to have to pay for it one way or the other. i just hope we can come up with a plan that's worth paying for. now, it's important to note that the supermarket employees told us they make less than $250,000 a year, that's a category where the president repeated the campaign promise he will not raise taxes. one of the senate proposals would tax insurance companies and critics say the insurance company would pass it on to higher premiums to the employees. the employees said, look, we're willing to pay higher taxes and premiums if it means it's going to be a good plan and it's spread out and the rich pay as well, john. >> a number of times the

president has gone to bristol, virginia which likes to call itself the birthplace of country music. why does he keep going back to bristol. >> big reason is that when he finally beat hillary clinton in the long democratic primaries, right here in bristol is where he launched the general election campaign. you'll remember he won virginia for first time since 1964 for democrats. even though this is sort of a republican area and, in fact, tennessee is on the other side of the supermarket. standing in virginia, but the pharmacy aisle in that half of the supermarket is across the line in tennessee. not making that up, john. >> ed henry this morning. >> there's a special this morning. on cherries, $2.49. if you're paying higher taxes, you can save some money. might get some of that back in the pocket. >> is the president going to pick up the beer at the kroger store that the guys will be drinking tomorrow. >> i'm going to tell you, they sell alcohol here and i'm also told that originally the doors in the supermarket where the

alcohol was delivered was on the tennessee side. that's not allowed by the tennessee law. they move the doors on to this side, the virginia side. he could get the beer here. >> what about melons, ted? any melons there? >> i just don't want to go there. can't go there. >> we need seine vergie to do that part of the story. >> inside "american morning" joke. >> harkens back to a year or so. the man or the suit? this is michael phelps losing yesterday in 200-meter free style. you want to -- there we go, we do have the pictures. i was going to ask you to pantomime the world championships in rome, the first individual loss in four years. he was the world record holder for that event until yesterday. >> oh, yeah, a stunning loss too. some are saying his opponent had an advantage, he had a high-tech polyurethane swim suits on. those swim suits will be banned from swimming competition sometime next year. but they're not banned yet. they certainly work, don't they?

the coach is really angry at this. bob bowman is threatening to pull phelps from the sport until the suits are banned. he wants them banned right now. paul beeterman, the man who defeated phelps weighed in saying the suits make a difference. i hope there will be a time i can beat michael phelps without these suits. so he admitted that the swim suit is the reason that he was able to beat michael phelps. >> at the same time, hasn't michael phelps been sponsored by and promoting the lazr suit by speedo and the other fella was wearing a faster one. >> but michael phelps lost. >> he needs the other suit. >> colin powell. an exclusive interview. he weighs in on the henry louis gaetds jr. affair. what he thinks gates did wrong. stay tuned for that. 10 1/2 minutes after the hour.

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louis jr. and james crowley, will it be a teachable moment that the president hopes or another white house photo-op. the resident scholar for aol black voices, he joins us from syracuse this morning. michael frontroy, george mason university and the author of republicans and the black vote, he's in the washington bureau this morning. good to at a you can to you. is this going to be a teachable moment or just a photo-op, what do you think? >> you can only leave it to politicians to take a 400-year-old problem and resolve it to a bottle of beer. the situation we're seeing. the fight isn't about broccoli. there's something deeper going on. america is angry about what happened to professor gates. they're angry about what happened to sergeant crowley. but there are deeper latent racial issues in america that need to be addressed.

so really, i would say to the president, we need less beer, more brains, more boldness because it will take a lot of energy and effort to fulfill dr. king's dream. >> what do you think? >> there's no question this is a proxy for bigger issues. but from a political standpoint, if it is possible that they could have a discussion and come to an agreement on some things, we could perhaps use it as a jumping-off point to a bigger and better discussion on this issue. as boyd rightly pointed out, this is something going on. this is a much larger debate. it's my hope we will use this opportunity to get to the answers and find solutions to what i consider to be one of the biggest problems in our country. >> general colin powell was on live last night with larry king. we should point out we're getting a little bit of instability in your satellite. we hope that stays stable. he had a different take on what happened there in cambridge than the president did. let's listen a little bit to

what he told larry. >> saying gates was wrong? >> i'm saying skip perhaps in this instance might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer, and that might have been the end of it. i think he should have reflected on whether or not it was the time to make that big of a deal. >> your father was a police officer. what do you think of general powell's take? >> i think his take is correct. one of the things that needs to happen is we need more dialogue to the community and the police. in being around cops for many years, in many scenarios, disagreeing with what the cops are saying and listening and learning from them, i was able to see some of the things that others weren't able to see. i agree with dr. leon and al sharpton that really this situation is more of a civil liberties issue and we have to have a conversation about what are the limbs of a police force. how far can a cop go in terms of exerting himself in this

situation. the officer's wrong. you need to cooperate and deal with the situation on a later date. i don't feel professor gates set a good example of how to deal with the police. i don't believe sergeant crowley did either. >> there's a debate about what it's all about. race, abusive police power or the class of two egos, what do you think? >> i think this is a circumstance where it's not just one issue, multiple issues. no doubt there are racial elements, police abuse of power elements. you have an african-american man, distinguished, what may be a -- i don't know if it to be a fact but a blue collar cop. there's tension that exists in those circumstances. professor gates' problem in fact was in sergeant crowley's eyes, he was insufficiently deferential. he offended sergeant crowley and hurt his feelings. that's why he was arrested.

this is about a variety of things, not just race. >> again, the white house happy hour tomorrow. this is going to be the first big conversation about race in this administration. of course, the president had the famous speech during the campaign, but is this the right forum for the first big conversation on race? boyce, i'm thinking that the nation is not going to see this. it's going be a private conversation. we may have some opinions about outcomes and what happened, but is this the right forum for the conversation on race? >> i'll take any forum i can get. i simply wish he hasn't begun the conversation on race by saying i don't -- skip gates is my friend, because it sounds like you're defending your harvard crony and it becomes a class issue as a race issue. we need to take it back to the people. the politicians aren't going to do it. we need to leverage this moment and create parties and conversations around the country

where we can honestly talk about race. the marriage in the american family between whites and blacks is one that requires us to forgive and be honest and really talk about the real issues if we're going to make any progress. >> very quickly, would you like to see this take place at a more public forum than a picnic table at the oval office? >> i don't have a problem with the setting right now provided it leaves with something public afterwards. they don't need to have the conversation in front of the cameras because that would g et in the way of some of the honesty that i think needs to be expressed between the two men involved in this. once they can settle their differences, perhaps we can have something more public. >> we're looking forward to perhaps hearing from the principles after their meeting tomorrow. good to talk to you this morning. thanks for taking the time. carol, you want to buy a house but you're waiting for the market to completely bottom out before you do it? so, is now that time? christine romans is working the numbers for you.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. attacks on strip clubs? >> putting on something that's taking off. >> the pole tax. >> i love that. >> what about a cell phone ring tax? 6 i like that one too actually. maybe not really. you've got it. across the country, on the brink of bankruptcy. some are getting quite creative when it comes to dealing with deficits. we saw it last week on california, a tax on proceeds of medical marijuana and delaware passed legislation for a sports lottery that legalizes single game belting. in new jersey if you sign up for a health club membership, you pay a tax on it. and in kentucky, new legislation puts a tax on, yes, cell phone

ring tones. >> make no mistakes. they're going to find a way to raise your taxes because they have to get the revenue. you're going to be nickel and dimed across the country. >> they have to balance the budgets. the money has to come from somewhere. >> have to put money in your pocket. >> is now the time to buy a house? has the market bottomed out? you can get a deal of a lifetime. >> american newspapers, houses, houses, prices going up, sales going up. things are coming back. there might be a recovery. look, let's be very clear about this. there's a little bit of a bump in the housing numbers, a little bit of the bump that comes just a couple of months after the mortgage rates hit the record lows. people have a first-time home buyer credit and you also have a situation where home prices overall were down 32% from the high. low prices, investors are buying up new home sales up 11%. existing home sales you and i are likely to buy, up 3.6%. i want to look at this one.

this next chart is what everyone is talking about today. these are home prices. those red bars show you the catastrophe that has happened to the value of your largest asset -- your house. but look at that blue bar on the right. according to the s&p index, for the first time in 2006, first time home prices rose. >> huh? >> home prices in may rose. they barely rose. but look at what kind of damage has happened here and suddenly it goes up. this is happening without any kind of foreclosure relief, really the substantial foreclosure relief from the administration. the other efforts they've tried to do. this is taken as a sign. the skeptics are saying it will be a double dip. right here on "the new york times," double dip. worried about double dips still possible. but the free fall has slowed. the question is, does it continue? >> you've got a numeral this morning? >> i do. the numeral is this, 17%.

this is your perspective. that s&p price up .5% in may from april to may. but, home prices are still down 17% from last summer. in the same time last year. so that gives you a little bit of perspective. so anyone who says you're being giddy-yap about the economic data, let's not overplay it. but it's incredibly important for the value of the biggest asset it's not falling off of the a cliff. >> it's good news. christine romans for minding your business. looked like new york city wasn't going to get police officers because they weren't going to get still us money to get them. about-face. mary snowe has it up next.

homeland security director janet napolitano is in new york this morning. making a big speech on the council of foreign relations. talking about preventing terrorist attacks which she's expected to announce new york

city will receive $35 million in federal stimulus money to hire more police officers. >> just yesterday we were hearing that new york would not get federal money for police. the justice department decided the need was greater elsewhere. more on this. the message seems to be, if at first you don't receive, ask, ask again. >> in new york state, perhaps this is true. perhaps it will soften the blow. new york's new round of money is coming through a different avenue. "the new york times" is reporting it's a grant for transit security. but the police departments are relying on a boost for money specifically targeted to keep officers on the job at a time when there's so many cutbacks. some major cities were skipped, but more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies across the country even stretching to the u.s. territory of guam are getting $1 billion in stimulus money. the goal is to prevent layoffs.

and the sign of how tough the economic times are, the justice department could only provide money from a fraction of the department's requesting aid. >> we received applications of more than 7,000 cities and towns and made funding decisions based on crime rate, financial need, and community policing activities. >> and it means there are plenty of cities not getting it through the program known as cops. community-oriented police services. new york, houston, seattle, houston among those on the empty-handed list. the vice president tried to soften the blow. >> i know our friends in new york were disappointed they didn't get money. they're getting today, $6 million in additional local aid immediately add justed. >> but the new york city police commissioner said the nation's largest police force has different challenges. he said new york deserves additional money and is hoping to put more officers on the ground. >> been kind of unsuccessful here twice. eight major plots since

september 11. we know that terris want to come here if they can. >> it's not the first time new york and washington haven't seen eye-to-eye over police kos. over 2006, the city had anti-terror funds cut under the bush administration that caused an uproar. this time around, new york's major says while he's frustrated, maybe it's a compliment that new york didn't get grant money because the crime rate is down. >> it's a compliment that we got left out. it's not the compliment that i like the results of, but i do like the recognition that we're doing well. >> and to the departments that did get this money, the specific money, the attorney general says these grounds will allow for almost 4700 officers to be on the job for three years. departments then must retain the officers for a fourth year on their own. >> in this economic climate, where are they going to get the money? >> that's the big question. you have to let -- some departments had to lay officers off. so four years down the road the

economy will be better and be able to handle this. >> let's hope so. >> sure. janet napolitano will be here with us on "american morning." how she plans to make all of us safer from terrorists. of course, again, that comes out of the speech to the council on foreign relations today. 29 minutes after the hour. a new government study says pregnant women who catch swine flu are more likely to end up in the hospital or, listen to this, even die from it. as flu season approaches, the military is considering regional teams of specialists trained to deal with the potential outbreak. the cdc is also talking about the h1n1 virus this afternoon. we're expecting an update on a possible vaccine. could california make pot legal? one state lawmakers and a group of marijuana activists are pushing for the drug to be legalized so it could be regulated, grown at home, and more importantly, taxed. tickets on the 2010 ballots. the supporters need to collect

430,000 signatures. plus, the break -- allegations this morning that a little boy was at the controls of a new york city subway train. reports say a rider claims he saw a train operator watching and telling the boy how to drive the train. new york city transit officials confirm an operator and conductor had been suspended without pay and they admit they're investigating claims that what they're calling an unauthorized person was allowed to operate the train. >> this morning, the feds are searching for an eighth suspect accused of being part of a terrorist cell in north carolina. their alleged ring leader accused of hoarding weapons and visiting terror camps overseas. this is up with in a string of recent high-profile terrorists here at home. so how safe is america from home grown terrorism? let's bring in an expert, steven emerson, the executive director of the investigative project on terrorism. he joins us live now from washington. good morning. >> good morning, carol. >> so it seems like there are a

lot of people here in america alleged home grown terrorists being indicted for crimes for jihad. how scared should we be? >> seeing a new phase, carol, here, in the radicalization of american citizens as well as american-born muslim. in the past six months alone, there had been more than 40 arrests of either american-born muslims or of americans who converted to islam in trying to carry out plots overseas or in the united states. this is indicative of what's happening in europe over the last ten years where the environment there and some of the calls of the islamic roots have radicalized it. seeing american citizens who convert islam and stage operations from the safety of the u.s. overseas and carry out jihad.

>> i want to talk about daniel patrick boyd, the guy from north carolina. he looked like your average joe. neighbors said, you know, if he was the terrorist, he's the nicest terrorist we know. he seemed like such a normal guy. yet he supposedly carried on this secret life. from 1989 to 1992, he travelled to pakistan and afghanistan. what did he do there, exactly? >> well, in 19 89 to 1992, he volunteered against the soviets who occupied afghanistan and he volunteered and trained with the afghan mujahedin, the holy warriors. he kept up and was interviewed in "the washington post," actually, in 1991 where he called the u.s. an infidel country. he kept up his religious animosity to the united states even indocketrynating his own kids willing to send them on suicide operations in israel and elsewhere abroad to carry out jihad. so it shows you the extent to which he was radicalized.

what's more interesting here is to the extent that there are other cells across the country, carol, who have been involved in carrying out plots either here in the u.s. but overseas but using the safety of the united states and becoming radicalized here, even though they were not originally radical or muslim. >> i want to get to some of the psychology of this. because daniel patrick boyd allegedly plotted the terror missions overseas, not here in the united states. but then again, who knows, right? but how does one who lives in america, grows up in the american culture, become radicalized like this? >> you raise an excellent question. and i think part of the question lies in the fact that once you make this conversion to islam, and most muslims are not radical. but once you make a conversion to islam, sometimes the islamic groups, the national groups that control the distribution of literature of the media of the educational system, teach them jihad and teach them that the united states is the enemy. just the other day, letters from

congress representing seven islamic radical groups claimed to be mistreated by the u.s. government and they themselves in statements in the last ten years have been saying the u.s. government is the enemy. if you constantly are fed a diet that the u.s. government is an enemy, that the u.s. government is part of a conspiracy to suppress islam, you're going to radicalize, hating the u.s. and willing to carry out violence. >> thank you for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. >> you're welcome. we heard from colon powell on the henry lewis case jr. and the crowley case. what does he think about sarah palin and the rush limbaugh attack. thoughts from general powell coming up. ♪ (announcer) introducing new tums dual action. this tums goes to work in seconds and lasts for hours. all day or night.

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>>. ♪ summertime is finally here ♪ ♪ that old ballpark, man is back in gear out on 49 ♪ >> summertime may have come to most of the country but always summertime to places like miami. cloudy, a high of 90 degrees in that ever present chance of

thunderstorms. >> the rainy season there. >> nothing like a florida summer storm in the middle -- >> really quite something to experience. colin powell thinks sarah palin is both fascinating. >> it was a great interview, wasn't it? so much interesting thinking. he responded to criticism of rush limbaugh who questioned powell's republican credentials. listen. >> mr. limbaugh is entitled to his point of view. that's what makes this country great. he is free to criticize me all he wishes. >> of course. >> i was asking do you take umbrage, do you feel like, wait a minute? >> no. i can handle his criticism. the problem having with the party right now is he says things that i consider to be completely outrageous.

and i respond to it. i would like to see other members of the party do likewise. >> ready to take them on? >> i know a number of instances where city members in congress are elsewhere in positions of responsibility make criticism of rush. in 24 hours, backing away. a strong basic suspect. >> your reaction to sarah palin, first leaving the trip and the role? >> she's a fascinating figure. she's been the governor of the state. and she's been the mayor of a city in that state. she's an accomplished one who's been there -- and also a mom and now a grandmother. i don't think she was ready to be president of the united states last fall when she was named the vice presidential candidate. i said so at the time.

we will now have to see what she's going to have to do. >> everybody's wondering about that. more from general colin powell the next hour. including the advice for the republican party that's going to be more relevant and competitive again. >> here's what's on the a.m. rundown this morning. 40 minutes past the hour. the doctor is in. no, it's 40 minutes past the hour. but at 49 after the hour, the doctor is in. dr. sanjay gupta answering your questions about the president's plan for health care reform and what it means to you. he should know better than to pull the tricky things on a chronically sleep-debrooifed person. what is it? >> fun, though. >> see if roberts bobbles this one. and the home grown jihadists were the only network talking to one suspect's wife. and attention kroeger shoppers -- the health care debate comes to a supermarket in bristol, virginia. that's 8:03 eastern. almost 41 after the hour.

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of course, the big question on capitol hill this morning is whether or not the senate and that's on the left side of the picture there, he' going to get a health care bill done in time for the august recess which is next friday. >> want to bet? >> i think that's a sucker's bet. i don't want to take that one. overcast, 77 right now in washington going up to a high of 83 and storms today. welcome back to the most news in the morning as the president hits the road today selling his plan for health care reform. working all sides of this story. coming up, dr. sanjay gupta breaking down what the president's health care plan would mean for you as a patient. >> first, jim acosta, looking to the politics of reform.

in particular, a group of fiscally conservative house democrats who are making the president sweat. hi, jim. >> good morning, carol. that's right. the operative question this morning is who let the blue dogs out? when it comes to health care reform, president obama is having as much trouble with members of his own party as he is with republicans. take those conservative house democrats known as blue dogs. they'll tell you, without them, the democrats would not have a majority in the house. something they now all know all too well. meetings to meetings surrounded by news cameras, the blue dogs might be the most popular breed of politician on capitol hill these days. >> do all of the blue dogs have a picture of a blue dog in their snaufs. >> they better. >> reporter: mike ross and the rest of the 52 house democrats who make up the fiscally conservative blue dog coalition may block the party's push for health care reform, that is,

unless changes are made to rein in the plan's cost. >> as it stands now, it would not have the support to get out of committee or the support to pass on the house floor. >> reporter: so it would die? >> well, i would hope that -- that health care reform wouldn't die. >> and that today we're not just offering -- >> reporter: the blue dogs were born in 1995 after republicans took control of congress. the time southern democrats like tennessee's john tanner felt they were choked blue, driven out of power by liberals in their party. >> we're in the middle. when you're in the middle, you're. >> gus: to catch it from the left and the right. >> you're catching it pretty good right now? >> from the left and the right. must be doing something right. >> reporter: as for senator ross, he's the point man on health care, but he represents hope, arkansas, hope town of president clinton. you talked to president clinton from time to time, is that right? >> we talked yesterday.

>> reporter: has he talked about health care? >> we talk a lot about health care. he understands my challenges i have in rural america. >> reporter: once the owner of the drugstore, he will get something done for the more than 140,000 people in arkansas that have no health care. >> i live in a small town of 3600 people. the lady that owns the broadway cafe cannot afford health care insurance for herself or her employees. >> reporter: does that weigh in your mind that you can let those folks down? >> no, we're not going to let them down. i'll make a prediction here. we'll get health care reform done this year. >> what kind of reform is the question? the blue dogs and democratic leaders are at an impasse over whether the plan would give americans the option of joining a government-run program, the public option, as it's known, that could dash hopes for a full vote by the end of the week in the house before the august recess. john, carol, last night, rahm emmanuel was meeting with the house leaders, the blue dogs

talking about all of this. you know things are at a critical stage when rahm emmanuel is on capitol hill, guys. >> doing arm twisting or cajoling. >> have to get the camera to the sessions. for some reason, they wouldn't let us. won't imagine why. >> so unlikely. >> he should have offered him a beer. >> that's right, more beers. >> a lot of things done in this down. >> the ice chest. >> count me in. >> thanks. you know, we've been asking you to send us your health care questions. they've been pouring in to cnn.com. san yea gupta is going to answer your questions about the health care plan. that's coming up next, 47 past the hour.

50 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. we're taking an in-depth look at the health care debate this morning, and now want to answer some of your questions about the plan. we want to bring in dr. sanjay gupta. >> good morning, doc. a lot of ground to cover with this one this morning. jason is a cnn i-reporter from san antonio. >> four years ago my father was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and for 18 months we fought that disease with everything that we had because we felt like every day was precious. we felt like every day that we kept him alive we were one day

closer to a cure for that disease. i guess my question is, under a public option or government-run health care system, would that type of care be possible? is that something that ten years from now we'll have to sacrifice or come up with a tremendous amount of cash to be pay for because it would be rationed? >> sanjay, something the critics warn here is diminution of service. what do you have to say to him? >> first, jason, thanks for sharing that story. such a personal story, i appreciate you sharing it. the rationing of relt care really gets at the core issue of a lot of what we're talking about. the idea of lowering costs and increasing access, some say you can't do both of those things without creating some rationing of health care. a lot of attention is focused on a "new york times" op-ed last sunday. peter singer is a bioethicist. one thing he wrote that caught my eye, the death of a teenager is a greater tragedy than the

death of an 85-year-old and this should be reflected in our priorities. this idea of the rationing of health care, how do you assign different values to life, are some lives less valuable than others? some say we have to make those decisions in this type of health care system. with respect to jason's particular question, we decided to take your story to the white house directly and get a response from them. here's the story of jason's father. the white house gave us a statement about that. they said our heart goes out to jason and his family. we know that families across america are dealing with issues like this every day. they said there are a number of different bills making their way through congress right now but we do know that the reform bill the president signs will not lead to rationing, will be fully paid for and will bring down costs over the long term. it will cover all people of all ages no matter their circumstance. that's what the president says. >> some critics say despite what the president intends to do, these numbers -- and they're

huge -- just don't add up. republican senator jon kyl of arizona made the point you can't add millions of new baby boomers now retire into the system and save money without cutting some benefits, rationing care, diminution of service, whatever you want to call it. >> that's a very core issue. you can try and project what actual costs will be. it is very difficult to do. people talk a lot about the idea that a lot of these are just estimated costs and they are dynamic numbers. they will change. something that puts a little bit of perspective on this, going back to the inception of medicare back in 1965, according to the cato institute, the public policy institute, they say the projected costs for 1990 was going to be about $9 billion. instead it costs about $67 billion in 1990. you can get an idea of just how widely varied these numbers are. but again, as the president's talked about, a lot of this is supposed to pay for itself through prevention, through wellness and through cutting costs over the long term. >> that's the big question, how to pay for the whole thing. 53 minutes past.

hey, san francisco, wake up! i'll tell you what the weather forecast is. it is cloudy, 56 degrees. later today it will be pretty much partly cloudy and 58 degrees. talking about san francisco and california, california already has a law on the books allowing medical marijuana. oakland just became the first city in the country to tax it. that seems to have gotten one california lawmaker thinking, lethal pot equals tax dollars. our dan simon is looking at the push to make green from green. >> reporter: marijuana is california's biggest cash crop, valued at $14 billion. worth more than grapes and vegetables. but the state doesn't get a dime

from it. state lawmaker tom aviano wants to change that. >> there are a lot of very hard second looks now particularly with the economy the way it is here in the state. >> reporter: ammiano has sponsored a bill that would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana. according to the state tax board, legal pot to californians 21 and older could bring the cash-strapped state nearly 11$. billion in revenue. >> i would think you would have some retail outlet. it would be a walgreens. it could be a hospital. >> reporter: he got the boost from governor schwarzenegger who spent months trying to avert the catastrophe. >> if you study very carely what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana -- >> reporter: most lawmakers right now do not support broad legalization so advocates are also working towards a 2010 ballot initiative that would let

voters decide. according to a poll, 56% of californians support legalization. on the local level, meanwhile, the easiest wra to caay to cashy texting medical cannabis. a tax was imposed on dispensaries. los angeles, san francisco and santa cruz are discussing similar measures. it might seem odd for des pendi to back the idea and want to pay more in taxes -- >> criminals don't pay taxes. citizens do pay taxes. our hope is that the movement will be seen as a group of citizens rather than a group of criminals. >> reporter: given the political environment, if it does make the ballot, it's possible that voters could legalize marijuana in california as early as next year. of course, then all the details would have to be worked out how you regulate it, tax it, and where it would be sold. then there is the question of

the federal government. right now it doesn't even recognize medical marijuana. dan simon, cnn, san francisco. good morning. it is wednesday. we've just about hit the top of the hour, it is july 29th. i'm carol costello in for kiran this morning. i'm john roberts. here are the stories we'll break down for you in the next 15 minutes. a shock out of north carolina. a group of americans is accused of plotting a violent jihad overseas. seven suspects are now in custody. the fbi hunting for yet another. the group's alleged ring leader looks like a regular joe. his wife is talking exclusively with cnn. we'll take you live to raleigh, north carolina this morning. grocery shoppers in bristol, virginia are going to get a lot more than bread and milk today. they'll get the president, too. he's taking his health care debate to a supermarket there. we're also answering your questions about the president's plan and breaking down the politics on capitol hill. and federal agents raided

the las vegas home and medical clinic of michael jackson's physician. dr. conrad murray allegedly gave him propofol before the pop star died. >> so the propofol -- >> you're going to get a little sleepy. take in some good, deep breaths. >> take a look at his eyes. >> deep breaths. doing great. may feel a little burning. okay? >> ten, nine, eight -- >> dr. sanjay gupta takes us up close and inside his o.r. you've got to see this one. the obama administration talking about a new strategy for preventing terrorist attacks. this morning, homeland security secretary janet napolitano will unveil the president's plan in a speech in new york city. it includes more training for police to report suspicious behavior, working more closely with other countries, and sharing airline passenger

information and intelligence about potential plots. the obama battle plan is, in large part, refining and expanding initiatives that were launched by the bush administration. all of this as the fbi hunts for an eighth suspect in an alleged home-broken terror plot for a violent jihad overseas. seven men in the raleigh, north carolina area are in custody right now. investigators say the group's ring leader, daniel boyd, led a double life. he hung drywall for a living by day, and at the same time was recruiting others willing to die as martyrs. but his wife, who spoke exclusively to cnn, is telling a far different story. our homeland security correspondent jeanne meserve is in raleigh, north carolina live for us this morning. >> reporter: hi, john. daniel boyd was a u.s. citizen. he's the son of a u.s. marine. but prosecutors allege he was at the center of this conspiracy to wage jihad overseas and they say two of the young men in the raleigh area he recruited were his own sons. now the mother of those boys,

the wife of daniel boyd -- her name is sabrina boyd -- is now offering explanations to counter the accusations being made by the government. daniel boyd fought in afghanistan in the early 1990s, but has settled in willow spring, north carolina. he and his two sons were among seven people arrested monday on terrorism charges. his wife sabrina tells cnn they are innocent. >> i know that my husband and my sons are free of guilt and i'm hopeful that the truth will come to light. >> reporter: in court documents, the government says the group stockpiled a cache of high--powered weapons. boyd's wife says they were only responding to news reports that guns and ammunition were becoming scarce. >> they'll say we do own guns in our home as our constitutional right allows us. and i don't think there is a crime in that. >> reporter: the government says

the group trained for jihad in rural north carolina. but sabrina boyd says her husband was just helping his boy scout sons with marksmanship. >> one of the merit badges they use to become an eagle scout and so it wouldn't be beyond thinking to take them out for target practice. >> reporter: one of boyd's sons travelled to israel to wage holy war but boyd's wife says they just wanted to pray in jerusalem for another son that died in a car crash. since the arrest she hasn't been able to talk to herro husband o older son and the strain is showing. >> i just want to say i am very proud to be muslim and i am very proud to be married to daniel boyd and i am very proud of my children. >> reporter: now sabrina boyd alleges that on monday, an acquaintance of the family showed up on her doorstep in a bloody shirt with a stays policeman. they told her there had been

another bad car crash, this one involving her husband and son. she says she, her daughter and daughter-in-law all went to the hospital where she says she was handcuffed and interrogated, treated rudely. she calls this a dirty trick. she says it was all part of a ruse to make it easier for law enforcement to search their house. we contacted the fbi about this. they said they cannot comment on anything pertaining to this investigation. john, back to you. >> when are the court appearances scheduled for? >> reporter: they are scheduled for tomorrow. it is possible that we'll learn more about this conspiracy tomorrow. it depends probably on whether the judge asks for more evidence to support what we expect to be a request from the government that these individuals be held without bond. >> jeanne meserve on the story for us in raleigh, thanks so much. tomorrow on "american morning," homeland security secretary janet napolitano joins us in our 8:00 hour to talk about the administration's new strategy for fighting terrorism. attention shoppers -- today's special?

a health care discussion with the president of the united states. president obama's back on the road today pushing health care reform at a town hall in raleigh, north carolina. then at a meeting with supermarket employees at a kroger in bristol, virginia. senior white house correspondent ed henry is live in bristol from the produce section. ed, what kind of welcome can the president expect at this kroger? >> reporter: well, carol, few people probably know i started my first job in a grocery store. this is a homecoming for me. what the president's going to find, a pretty warm welcome from employees here. they've been working all night to get this place ready. what's significant is these kroger employees have health insurance. the president's been trying to tailor his sales pitch to people who have insurance. the assumption back in washington among the president's critics has been people with insurance don't want to pay higher taxes to cover the uninsured. we found that assumption may just be not true. they're rolling out the red carpet in rural virginia. but the president could get a

chilly reception in the frozen food aisle where we found a mccain voter, a clerk, who fears health reform is being rushed just like the stimulus. >> like the last package that he pushed through, i think it was too hurried and a lot of mistakes, a lot of things that shouldn't be. >> reporter: but kathy month gom which, the assistant produce manager, voted for the president and is pumped up he's getting tough with congress. >> i like the fact that he stepped up and he's being aggressive. i really do. i'm all for that. >> reporter: thousands in this region showed up at a health expo offering free medical care this past weekend, exposing a problem all too familiar to doctors here. >> clearly we all recognize any physician in the hospital would recognize that it is a system in crisis. >> reporter: but like most employees, back at the kroger supermarket, produce manager steve shiplet gets generous health benefits. despite being an obama voter, he's nervous those benefits may be taxed to cover the uninsured

and is demanding more specifics from the president. >> he's going to have to spit out some numbers and let the public know exactly what it's going to cost them and what they're going to have to give up. >> reporter: he says if the president steps up and sells it, that he's willing to step up himself. >> we've got to do something. if it means me paying those taxes to get this reform through, then i'd begrudgingly do it, yes. >> reporter: and back in the frozen food aisle, this republican is ready to do his share, too. >> no matter what kind of plan he's going to come up with, somebody has to pay for it. so eventually it comes down to us, the people that's working and paying taxes. we're going to have to pay pore it o one way or the other. i hope we can come up with a plan that's worth paying for. >> reporter: it's important to note these employees told me they make less than $250,000 a year. president has repeated his campaign promise he won't raise taxes on people in that

category. and there is one senate plan right now kicking around an idea that would actually tax the insurance companies, not in individual beneficiaries. nevertheless, critics say, look, the insurance companies will pass that on to ben fieficiarie who will pay higher premiums. some of these employees here say they're willing to pass it out as long as the rich pay their fair share. >> seems like the people he has to really convince are people who make above $250,000 a year. would it be much more interesting if he held a town hall with them? >> reporter: it would be interesting. i think maybe he's starting maybe from the middle class-up in trying to tell people, look, if some of these folks who are making under $250,000 a year are willing to step up, maybe the rich have to do it as well. that obviously may be part of the message we'll hear from the white house. also the president today we're told by white house officials will really stress what's in it for people who do have insurance right now. he'll talk about how if they've got a pre-existing condition

insurance companies will no longer be able to deny it. show those kinds of tangible benefits that people who have insurance will get if there is reform, carol. >> should be interesting. as we mentioned, a health care debate is dividing democrats on capitol hill. coming up, we'll talk to one who is really getting flack from the left, oregon democrat senator ron widen joins us in about ten minutes to show us why he doesn't think the president's plan should include a public option. just announced, microsoft and yahoo! are teaming up to take on google. this partnership gives microsoft access to the internet's second-largest search engine audience. yahoo! meantime hopes to recover some of the money squandered last year when it turned down a chance to sell the entire company to microsoft for $47 billion. >> wow! tanning beds just as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas? a new study says you will voo violet radiation and sun lamps have been elevated to the highest cancer risk category.

researchers say people who start using tanning beds before the age of 30 increase their risk of cancer by 75%. blue food dye, the kind they use in m & ms and gatorade would one day help people recover from spinal cord injuries. in a study when rats got a dose of the dye, they were able to walk again, albeit with a limp. right now researchers are trying to get the fda to allow crinkle trials on humans. the one problem with this is obviously your rat nose turns blue and so do your little fingers. so many things are successful in rats that just cannot be duplicated in humans. i remember i went to mass general hospital, a doctor was doing experimentation growing cells and implanting them in rats. he was pretty good at curing a rat that had a section in the spinal column taken out but when it comes to humans, it is a whole different ball game. >> it is hard to do testing on humans to see if it really works. >> but if it did heal spinal cord injuries, i'd deal with the blue nose, no problem.

>> absolutely. we've been talking a lot about colin powell. he was on "larry king live" and he gave a fascinating interview. he talked about how professor gates could have been more patient in his altercation with the police officer in cambridge. you'll hear mr. powell talk you'll hear mr. powell talk about racism in just a couple of minutes. 11 minutes past the hour now. i go down to the pool for a swim... get out and dance... even play a little hide-n-seek. i'm breathing better... with spiriva. announcer: spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd... which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. i take it every day. it keeps my airways open... to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announcer: spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, or have vision changes or eye pain. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, problems passing urine or an enlarged prostate,

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24 hours a day. call now to get the $99 installation, plus a second keypad installed free. and, you could save up to 20% on your homeowner's insurance. call now-- and get the system installed for just $99. broadview security for your home or business - the next generation of brink's home security. call now. welcome back to the most news in the morning. president obama is hitting the road again today with his push for health care reform. but on capitol hill, the plans are hitting several road blocks. democrats are divided over rising costs and how to pay the bill. one senate democrat from oregon, ron wyden is really catching heat from his own party because he wants to scrap the idea of a government-backed public option. why? senator wyden joins me live from washington to answer that. senator, are you taking a lot of heat from the left wing of the

party from this idea that your plan which you crafted of senator bennett on the republican side from utah doesn't have a public option in it. why do you not think it is necessary to have a public option? >> john, ima certainly willing to look at a public option. in fact, i'm willing to look at anything that controls costs. we have 15 sponsors of our bill, nine of them are democrats. it is the first legislation that the budget office says actually doesn't add to the deficit. the reason it doesn't is because we're promoting free choice. we give everybody a chance just like members of congress do to go to one of these farmer's markets -- they call it an exchange -- get access to a big group where they have bargaining power so they can hole their costs down. >> how do you insure the uninsured. there are about 47 million of those people in the country right now. >> you've got to make tough choices. when you're for reform, everybody takes you on. in our legislation though, we strangle administrative costs.

for example, small businesses -- that's where most of the uninsured are -- they're having a lot of difficulty getting insurance coverage for their administrative costs can be 30%. so we end that. we outlaw insurance company cherry picking. all those workers at small businesses go in to big groups, they have a lot more bargaining power, they sign up once, their coverage is portable. that's how you hold down costs without requiring new taxes to pay for the uninsured. >> so senator, if this is such a good idea, why is the gang of six in the finance committee not discussing your idea, they've got their own plan they're pushing? >> first of all, they are looking at a proposal. we call it free choice, which is at the heart of our legislation. you can even do it without changing the tax laws. in effect what we say is, let's give more options to both employers and employees. let's give them free choice. for example, right now a lot of workers and a lot of employers aren't even going to be able to go to these farmer's markets, these exchange. they set up fire walls.

they'll restrict people's choices. we say that if an employer wants to take all of their workers to an exchange, that's employer-sponsored insurance, the employer can get a discount. that's playing hardball with the insurance companies. >> your plan right now would call for a tax on employer-based health care benefits. this is something that the white house has said it doesn't really think is a great idea, but as you pointed out, the congressional budget office says that yours is revenue-neutral, doesn't add to the deficit. how do you convince the president that it is a good idea to tax employer-based health care? >> our free choice proposal that i just described has been scored by an independent authority as saving $360 billion for the health care system over the next ten years. if you do want to look at changing the health care tax rules -- and i do -- go with the proposal that gives working class people a tax cut. the president's going to be at that supermarket today. under our proposal, most of those workers are going to get a tax cut. what we do is we provide an

above above-the-line tax credit or deduction. you may $18,000, those workers are spending $13,000, $14,000 on their health care. when they shop they'll actually get a tax cut. they'll get money in their pocket. >> as you said, you've got a bipartisan group of sponsors behind your bill. you co-authored it with senator bennett, a republican from utah. we've got the finance committee with a bipartisan group that's trying to hammer out a senate bill. but over in the house, it's the democrats against the republicans. do you believe that you can get health care without bipartisan support or do you need to have the support of republicans for a plan? >> if you want to make health reform stick, if you want enduring change that the country rallies to, you ought to make it bipartisan. it is going to bring the country together. the fact is on health reform, both sides have some valid points. my party is absolutely right, you cannot fix this system unless everybody has good quality, affordable care. otherwise, you just have the

uninsured shifting their bills to the insured. the republicans have some valid points about making sure that there are choices, that you don't freeze innovation. that's why we have 15 sponsors in the united states senate, nine of them democrats, for a proposal that the budget office says will make sure that everybody in this country has quality, affordable choices, like members of congress, without adding to the deficit. >> quick question if i could. harry reid says he's going to get some sort of agreement by the recess next friday. do you agree with that? >> that's my first choice. people are putting in killer hours, sometimes i think they're being fed intravenously, some of my colleagues. what i'll tell you, the test is not just getting a deal. the test is making sure the deal is real reform, the elements that i've outlined here on the show particularly promoting free choice, more options for both employers and employees, is what is really going to make health care affordable. >> one-word answer -- deal by next friday? yes or no. >> absolutely. we're going to stay on it. as far as i'm concerned we ought

to cancel the august recess to get it. >> senator ron wyden of oregon, thanks so much. >> he was positive! there's been a lot of allegations coming out that michael jackson died from a dose of propofol, a very powerful drug that knocks you out before surgery. well, dr. sanjay gupta will take us into his operating room to show you how a doctor in surgery uses that drug to put a patient under for surgery. fascinating stuff. fascinating stuff. it's 19 minutes past the hour. r.

22 minutes after the hour. we've been talking a lot in the

last few days about the drug propofol or diprivan, as it's known, that michael jackson's doctor allegedly gave him before he died. >> doctors say it is dangerous to use outside of a hospital setting. our dr. sanjay gupta's taking us inside his o.r. for a close look at someone actually going under with that powerful anesthetic. >> reporter: hey, john and carol. a lot of discussion regarding propofol. what exactly is it? what does it do to the body? and could it ever be considered safe outside a hospital? i'm going to take you inside my operating room to give you an idea of what really happens. take a look. so we are here inside the operating room. with the chief of aen thesology here. propofol's a medication he uses all the time. is this it right over here? >> yeah. >> it looks like milk of amnesia, they call it. benson, you okay? we have to monitor his ekg, we

have to make sure he's breathing, we have to see saturation, make sure he's ventilating. >> reporter: that's all typical stuff. >> standard of care. yes. >> so the propofol -- >> you're going to get a little sleepy, benson. okay? give me some good, deep breaths. >> take a look at his eyes, how quickly -- >> deep breaths, benson. doing great. may feel a little burning. okay? >> ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. >> there's a reason for his heart rate increasing. his eyes just closed. >> his eyes closed. what else? >> he stopped breathing. antico2. he's not breathing anymore. we're going to help him breathe. >> the breathing right now is

taking place with this bag and this mask. for that medication he wouldn't be able to breathe on his own without those things. just with that much propofol there you stop breathing and you're going to need a breathing tube. what's so attractive about this medication? >> it's really been in the advent the last 10, 15 years. it is basically a quick-on, quick-off. that may answer the question why some people think they can do this at home, because if it gets out of hand it goes away quickly. the problem is it gets out of hand and nobody's there to retus tate you, nobody can bring you back. >> that was pretty quick. >> five, ten minutes. >> he's gone from being completely awake to completely asleep. >> he's not breathing. i'm breathing for him. >> reporter: it's interesting. propofol is a medication uses thousands of times in operating rooms, but also in medical outpatient settings. we've talked to doctors who say

they had not heard of it ever being used in the home. as far as that patient, he did just fine from that operation. he woke up very quickly after the propofol was stopped. that's one of the attractive things. people go to sleep quickly and they wake up quickly. >> you can see, because he stopped breathing after that initial injection, the safety window is very narrow with a drug like that. it's not a controlled substance, like other sedatives and many pain medications. does that open the door for abuse? it is interesting. john, i've learned a lot about this medication over the past several weeks. it is not a controlled substance. it was just sitting out there in the operating room. it wasn't behind a glass locked door or anything like many other medications are so you can just grab it and walk out with it. as far as abuse goes, it's been a hot topic of discussion among the medical community. we haven't heard about it being abused by patients as much, but it has been abused by medical professionals. a study came out that said 1 in 5 academic training programs reported at least one case of a doctor having abuse of this

particular medication and possibly sometimes leading to some sort of disciplinary action. it has been happening out there. we talked to one doctor specifically about this, i said why abuse this drug? it is not necessarily a sleep medication, it is sort of a hypnotic. he just didn't know why someone would abuse this, what they get out of that. >> i've done a lot of reading it, too. i've found several cases, doctors who were abusing this drug, they give themself the initial shot, they give themself a little bit too much, they stop breathing and they die. >> it has happened and if you're in a hospital setting where you have monitors and stuff like that, you can possibly be resuscitated but you're absolutely right, if it's unwitnessed, no one is around, it can be a real problem. >> sanjay gupta, fascinating look. thanks for joining us this morning, doc. really appreciate it. coming up in a few minutes at 8:30 eastern, we'll talk about developments in the michael jackson investigation. "inside edition" correspondent jim moret. we'll ask him what kind of equipment was in michael

jackson's bedroom. >> in the operating room, you have an ekg, heart monitor, a brain scan, they were following respiration. obviously you need to monitor this very, very, very closely. >> we'll explore all of that. it's 26 minutes past the hour.

30 minutes past the hour. checking our top stories now, iran's state news agency says about 20 antigovernment protestors will be put on trial sunday. those who ordered the post-election unrest will be put on trial later. the government released 140 people yesterday. new york city is buying expensive airline tickets to places like paris and johannesburg, south africa for hundreds of homeless families. they are one-way tickets out. so far, 550 homeless families have agreed to leave new york permanently. all they needed to get a free airline ticket was a relative who agreed to take them in. costs $36,000 a year to shelter a homeless family so the program

is actually saving the city a substantial amount of money. charges this morning that a little boy was at the controls of a new york city subway train. reports say a rider says he saw the operator watching and telling the the child how to drive the train. new york city transit officials confirm an operator and a conductor have been suspended without pay and, yes, they are investigating claims that an unauthorized person was allowed to operate the train. authorities now stepping up their investigation of michael jackson's live-in doctor, conrad murray, who was with jackson when he died. police in the dea searched murray's las vegas home and medical office tuesday confiscating papers, computer hard drives and cell phones and they say they were looking for medical records "relating to michael jackson and all of his reported aliases." "inside edition" chief correspondent jim moret joins us live now from los angeles. good morning, jim. >> good morning, carol.

>> i named some of the things police were looking for. what other things -- actually, what did they find? let's start there. >> well, they left with manila envelopes, they left with a cell phone, they left with computer hard drives. you're right, they're looking for basically a paper trail. they're looking for something to establish a chain of events that leads up to michael jackson's death. we believe that propofol was one of the drugs that was in michael jackson's system when he died. the autopsy report hasn't come out yet so we can't be definitive on that, but the doctor did reportedly tell police that he administered this drug to jackson the morning before he died. so they want to see if there are any records of how this doctor came in possession of it, are there lot numbers, are there purchase orders, did he have any correspondence with michael jackson, what phone calls did he make the morning of michael jackson's death. all of these things so they can piece together a time line of what happened and when. but the investigation really goes beyond that. this is the second search in

just a week of dr. murray. there was a search in texas last week. this was of his home and las vegas office last week, his medical office in texas. it is really, frankly, expanding to other doctors as well. >> let's talk about the propofol in michael jackson's system. just a couple of minutes ago, dr. sanjay gupta showed us how propofol is usually administered in a hospital with monitors all around. i mean it is a very complicated procedure. so, dr. murray allegedly administered this dose of propofol in michael jackson's bedroom. what was in there? i know there are some reports there were oxygen tanks in the bedroom, but what else was in michael jackson's bedroom to make it possible for this doctor to allegedly inject michael jackson with this drug? >> well, you're hitting on something that's very important. it is possible to inject him with the drug. the question is, did they have what was necessary to inject him safely. the only thing reported so far

in the bedroom are oxygen tanks and the i.v. what's missing in these descriptions are the various items that doctors would need to monitor oxygen, blood flow, respiration, and without those things, you could argue that you could not safely monitor anyone, let alone michael jackson. this drug is very unusual in the sense that, while it's a legal drug, it is not legal to use outside of a hospital setting, because you can't get a prescription for it. that's the problem. there's a very good reason for that. >> exactly. but let me ask you this, too. i want to get into this, too. we on "american morning" interviewed dr. murray's attorneys. they were very specific about the doctor not injecting demerol and oxycontin. they specifically mentioned those two drugs. they did not mention propofol. what does that say to you about what kind of dispenefense they be preparing for dr. murray? >> what it says is that the first drugs that investigators were looking for is demerol and

oxycontin because it's believed that michael jackson was using a combination of drugs. propofol hadn't even come to the forefront yet. dr. murray himself reportedly told investigators he gave this drug, and we know that cherilyn lee, the nutritionist that worked with michael jackson, received a phone call from him four days before he died begging for this substance. that redirected the focus on diprivan, on propofol. the doctor was, as you say, through his lawyer very specific about what he didn't give him, and he also said that he didn't give him anything that should have caused death. in a perfect setting, that's probably true. but the wild cards here are what exactly did the doctor do, did he monitor michael jackson throughout the night, did he fall asleep, did he leave the room, did he in fact give him too much. these are all questions that really investigators have to take their time in getting to the answer. the only person who can really answer most of those questions is dr. murray himself. >> i was wondering if dr. murray

says that he didn't know that michael jackson had these other drugs in his system and he allegedly like administered this propofol, which would kind of say to the doctor, well, if i had known michael jackson had these drugs in his system i would have never done that. >> you know, the doctor himself, through his attorney, said, why are you picking on this doctor? he was simply the last doctor standing when michael jackson died, the implication being there are all these other doctors involved. you know what? that doesn't get you off the hook in a legal setting. this doctor can still be held liable and responsible criminally if in fact charges are filed for michael jackson's death, even if other doctors were involved in giving him other medications. >> jim moret, thanks so much for enlightening us this morning. we all know that the problem with obesity in this country, then the attendant health care costs to take care of people who suffer obesity-related diseases. how to pay for all of that? they're going to the tax well again. wait until you hear what they want to tax. 36 minutes after the hour.

christine romans is ""minding your business"" this morning. >> i'm looking at some of the provisions and proposals in the committees about health care reform. some of them have to do with taxing soda pop, for example. taxing those sorts of things 3 cents each. there is the urban institute report that came out yesterday that says that taxing fattening foods could be a raise to raise money for health care reform, could be a way to actually deter and disincentivize people from eating bad things. before i get all this e-mail about how i'm not being nice to people who are overweight, i want to be very clear, had is not going after people who are overweight. this is obesity.

obesity is a medical condition which can lead to diabetes, heart disease, it costs a lot for society and it is not good for you. it is just not a situation that you want to see as an epidemic in this country. when you look at statistics, national center for health statistics, in 1960, 13.4% of american adults age 20 to 74 were obese. by 2015 that's targeted to be 40%. two-thirds of the american population is overweight. overweight is one thing. obesity is something that can lead to very serious health risks. here is the fat food tax proposal. urban institute says that they think that a 10% tax on food that is fattening and really just not good for you would come up with that much money. $530 billion over ten years. that would help pay for health care reform. it would raise revenue, but it would also be -- think of it a lot like the tobacco taxes. right? it would raise money and would push down rates of smoking.

24% of kids right now are obese. >> the problem with that is the tax is going to affect mostly lower income families. >> that's right. they only have access to stores that sell that. >> a conference this week said something very similar. we have to make sure there are supermarkets and good foods in all neighborhoods. there are absolute food deserts in some parts of the country where you can only get convenience food, you can't get anything fresh. that's something that has to be changed. i don't know if taxing is the way you to do. the american beverage institute told me frankly soda sales are down 9% at the same time obesity is rising. so think of that. >> the "romans numeral" this morning is 18. 18 minutes. >> it's about the number of minutes that are left in the program. >> maybe. no. 18 minutes. that's how long you have to jog off a soda. 18 minutes of jogging. this is 140 calories.

we used 150 calories, 163 pounds is the average size for a woman. that's what we used. this one is 2 1/2 servings in here, 240 calories. some people drink this -- i'm not picking on this brand, by the way. there you go. 240 calories. you got to run off your sprite. >> you could swim though. i only mention swimming because of the next story after the break. did you see it? the guy who was swimming in competition and his bum came out. >> wardrobe malfunction? >> jeanne moos did the funniest story. you have to see it. 42 minutes past the hour.

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we are taking a look at new york city this morning, near central park. it's 78 degrees and cloudy. later this afternoon there will be thunderstorms and 82 degrees. the weather of course is affecting the airports already. right now there is a 30-minute airport delay, all the airports in new jersey, philadelphia and atlanta experiencing similar delays. call ahead before you head out to the airport this morning. professor henry louis gates jr., should he have been a little more patient? that opinion from former secretary of state colin powell. he sat down for an exclusive interview last night with cnn's

larry king and he opened up with his own encounters with racial profiling in the wake of professor gates' arrest. >> he think gates was wrong? >> i'm saying that skip perhaps in this instance might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer, and that might have been the end of it. i think he should have reflected on whether or not this was the time to make that big a deal. but he's just home from china, just home from new york, all he wanted to do was get to bed. his door was jammed. sew was in the mood where he -- >> how about those who say he brings the whole history into that by the black movement -- >> that may be the case. but i still think it might well have been resolved in a different manner if we didn't have this verbal altercation between the two of them. when you're faced with an officer trying to do his job to get to the bottom of something, had is not the time to get into an argument with them. i was taught that as a child. you don't argue with a police officer. in fact in our schools today, in order to make sure that we don't

have things escalate out of control, and lead to very unfortunate situations, we tell our kids, when you're being asked something by a police officer, being detained by a police officer, cooperate. if you don't like what happened, or if you think that you have been exposed to something that's racist or prejudicial or something that's wrong, then you make a complaint afterwards and you sue them. >> were you ever racially profiled? >> yes, many times. >> didn't you ever bring anger to it? >> of course. but anger is best controlled. and sure, i got mad. i got mad when i -- as a national security advisor to the president of the united states, i went down to meet somebody at reagan international airport and nobody recognized -- nobody thought i could possibly be the national security advisor to the president. i was just a black guy at reagan national airport. it was only when i went up to the counter and said is my guest here who's waiting for me, did somebody say, oh, you're general

powell. it was inconceivable to him that a black guy could be the national security advisor. >> how do you deal with things like that? >> you just suck it up. what are you going to do? it was a teaching point for him, yes, i'm the national security advisor, i'm black, and watch, i can do the job. there is no african-american in this country who has not been exposed to this kind of situation. do you get angry? yes. do you manifest that anger? you protest. you try to get things fixed. but it's kind of better course of action to take it easy and don't let your anger make the current situation worse. >> again, beer tomorrow night at the white house. love to be a fly on the wall for that summit. >> i would, too. it will be an interesting picnic. >> a lot of health care plans making their way through congress, some in the house, a couple in the senate. what do you make of all of these and what do they mean for you? our sanjay gupta coming up to break it all down and answer your questions about the health care plans. stay with us.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. now in our look at the health care reform debate, our own sanjay gupta is here to answer your questions about the plan. >> doc, good morning to you. lots of ground to cover with today's question. this is cnn i-reporter jason rogers from san antonio. let's listen to what he asks. >> four years ago my father was

diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and for 18 months we fought that disease with everything that we had. because we felt like every day was precious. we felt like every day that we kept him alive we were one day closer to a cue for that disease. i guess my question is, under a public option or government-run health care system, would that type of care be possible? is that something that ten years from now we're going to have to sacrifice or come up with a tremendous amount of cash to pay for it because it would be rationed into our government-run health care system. >> jason, first thanks for sharing the story. as you know, i'm a neurosurgeon and there is a lot of progress being made in the world of brain cancer but not fast enough. the issue you raise strikes at the heart of all this because it talks about costs and access. the question is would we have to ration health care in order to make sure everyone gets health care insurance. it is a tough question to sort of delve into. a "new york times" editorial caught a lot of people's attention, it shocked some people, others said it was just

the reality of what was necessary. what peter singer, a professor of bioethics at princeton says, the death of a teenager is a greater tragedy than the death of an 85-year-old and this should be reflected in our priorities. it gives us this idea that are some lives more valuable than others and should we prioritize based on that. it is a really striking and sometimes scary concept. jason, we took your particular story directly to the white house to get an idea of how they would respond based on everything that's going on around health care reform. here's what they specifically said. "our hort goeart goes out to jad his family. we know that families across america are dealing with issues like this every day. there are a number of bills making their way through congress right now. the reform bill that the president signs will not lead to rationing, will be fully paid for and will bring down costs over the long term." you've probably heard the president say it won't matter who you are, or what kind of pre-existing condition you have. >> some critics say despite what

the president intends to do, numbers just don't add up. jon kyl recently made the point you can't add millions of baby boomers now retiring to the medicare system and save money without cutting benefits somewhere down the line. >> yeah. how much is something really going to cost in the long term? these are all projected, estimated costs. we've heard a lot about this idea that in the long term, prevention wellness, if we create a healthier population, that's going to cut down on costs. but a quick point of reference on medicare, specifically part a, back in the mid '60s when it was conceived, they projected costs into the long term, saying it would cost $90 billion by the year 1990. price tag in 1990 was closer to $67 billion. that's how far off they were. so we're really moving with -- dealing with moving targets here more than anything else. >> now we're talking as much as $1.6 trillion by some

estimations, too. we're way above those costs that were projected before. sanjay, thanks very much. great to see you this morning. coming up next, did you see it, the swimmer who flashed the world? he had this wardrobe malfunction at the world swimming -- he was so imbaresed. jeanne moos will have more on this story when we come back. 55 minutes past the hour.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. a champion u.s. swimmer suffers world class embarrassment during a race in rome. >> it was cheeky. jeanne moos tells us about the split that had nothing to do with his time and everything to do with his behind. >> reporter: remember janet jackson's wardrobe malfunction? consider this. a swimsuit malfunction, bottoms-up. have you heard about this?

>> no. >> reporter: u.s. olympic swimmer ricky baron split his swimsuit but the race must go on at the world championships in rome. the u.s. team did qualify for the finals, and on websites across america, his bottom was tops. >> he's got a nice bum. i'll give him that. >> reporter: unlike miss universe, 2004, at least berens has the water to partially block the view. still some websites showed such close-ups they had to be labeled not suitable for work. >> i feel to throw up all my guts. >> reporter: most women disagreed. god bless america, that's a perfect bottom. at the beijing olympics, berens won a gold medal in the relay. >> something i want to do since i was a little kid. >> reporter: but he probably didn't want to do this. we spoke with his 17-year-old brother. >> my dad said the whole stadium was pointing at him and laughing

at him. >> reporter: a couple of weeks ago the exact same brand of swimsuit split on a female italian swimmer honeded up in tears, disqualified. note how this blog strategically placed italy's flag. >> it's split but she got disqualified. who among us hasn't split their pants? it's happened to this woman a few times. but her tattoos helped disguise her nakedness. and this woman was exposed by a friend joking around. >> she took her dog leash and clipped it to my belt loop and say, ha-ha, you're a dog. >> reporter: fortunately she outran the leash. >> the pants ripped right down the seam and i had to run back to her house in my underwear, past her two older brothers and her father. >> reporter: at leak ricky berens attracted whistles on live with regis and kelly. this guy's butt is going to make his fame famous. after janet jackson's wardrobe malfunction, someone made