we have to say good-bye, it's time for newsroom with heidi collins. thanks for joining us. >> standby. good morning, everybody, i'm heidi collins, it's july 31st, and we have a busy day in the newsroom for you today. in fact, gerri willis is following your money for us today. the cash for clunkers program is a pretty big success, so then why could it be on the chopping block? we'll talk more about that. also brianna keilar is covering the health care battle on capitol hill. one step forward, one step back, it seems, and one big delay in bringing it to that final vote. and also today, a very special program for you, focus on our forces. they fight for their country and now others are fighting for their future. more on that in a moment. but just minutes ago. i want to get this out to you, a key reading on the economy, the gross domestic product always gets lots of attention on wall street. but today, even more so. the investors want to see the

impact of the obama white house, the stimulus package, and tax cuts. stephanie elam with the latest on this. good morning to you, stephanie. >> good morning, heidi, we have new hope that the recession may be nearing an end. that's what we're getting from the latest gdp report, telling us the economy shrank at 1%, the pace it was shrinking in the second quarter and it was much better than expected. we were looking for shrinkage of about 1.5%. so here's a reason why we think it got a little bit more narrow. fewer spending cuts by businesses and more spending by federal and local governments. that helped change the trade picture. but if you take a look at the revision for the first quarter, it was bad, the economy shrank at 6.4% in the first quarter, much worse than originally reported. but there's one thing we have to point out here, heidi, this is a backwa backward-looking reading. let you know what's going on right now, this one looks back. all of the recent data that

shows the economy is getting better is not factored into this. we're about to go into august, this is basically looking at everything from june back, right? so this is not going to give us the up to date picture of recently there have been better indicators and president obama decided to focus on that yesterday. take a listen. >> there are a lot of indicators out there that tell us that job losses, although still way too high are not at the pace that we were seeing in january and february. housing prices went up for the first time in three years. the credit system, the banking system, the financial markets generally have settled down. you're not seeing the huge volatility or panic that you were seeing. >> all right. so if you take a listen to that, heidi, you can see that based on what the president's saying, based on what they're seeing,

economists expect gdp to rise later this year, now down just 1%. but this is the fourth quarter in a row that we've seen gdp in the negative, sliding, and that's the first time that the commerce department has seen that since it started keeping track in 1947. gives you an idea of how bad this recession has been, heidi. >> yeah, absolutely, i guess another thing to think about is employment compensation too. i understand that those numbers are also like the lowest that they've ever been and so clearly that's just another way of looking at the recession and how even if you have a job, you know, it's still hitting people very, very hard. >> and that's the hugest part of this whole thing is that employment is a major part of this. and keep in mind that gross domestic product, the overall growth of this economy is based on consumer spending. that's 2/3 of our economy, if people don't have jobs, don't have money, therefore not spending, and that's why this is so important. >> absolutely. stephanie elam, watching those in your opinions closely for us, appreciate it, thanks,

stephanie. >> thanks. looks like the cash for clunkers program could be in trouble. after one week, car shoppers may have burned through the $1 billion congress set aside for rebates leaving the program's future in doubt. more now from personal finance editor gerri willis. break this down for us. we've been talking about the cash for clunkers program and all of the stipulations or restrictions, i should say, that are tied to it. but now what? >> well, that's right, heidi. you said it's in trouble, it's been so successful now it's in trouble. the program officially started on monday, close to burning through all of the dough. let's take a look at the math. the federal government says some $95.9 million have been approved to give out already. that's from the administrator of the program, and yet the industry says, hey, we've probably got about $1.2 billion projected to be given out. that's according to a survey taken by the industry. guess what? there was only $1 billion allocated from the start for the program. so you see demand for the

program is simply overwhelming. 23,000 dealerships signed on and experts say that dealerships had started declining folks for the program earlier this week. the program was supposed to officially end on november 1st, but a lot of people thought, you know, it might go just to august. but now, four days into the program, it looks like it's having trouble. >> yeah, pretty amazing. because it seemed like it was going to be hard for people to be eligible for this program. but clearly, there have been enough people who, you know, have been able to figure out how to become eligible for it and they've gotten confirmation of that. so what happens to them now? >> the great question. a lot of people out there, we even heard stories about dealerships staying open till 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning, processing some of these deals. look, if you've already got a deal, dealerships may have had you sign a waiver that indicated if a program didn't go through, you had to pay the voucher back yourself or return the car. so if you did get a new car,

make sure you look for the documents and all of your paperwork, however i have to tell you, there's a lot of talk that congress could extend funding for the program. in fact, add first the federal government was going to put $4 billion in the program, but it turned out to be just $1 billion. >> where did they get that money from? >> that's the big question. we don't know where that money would come from. and the administration last night was saying, hey, we'll keep the program running, but congress has to allocate the fund. so they haven't decided yet. bottom line here, if you're thinking i want to take advantage of this program, i would not rush to the dealership just yet. you want to see if it's going to be extended, and if it is, then you will have to rush to the dealership because you have to think that money will be limited, as well, and you'll have to act quickly to take advantage. >> and a lot of competition out there. all right. >> right. >> good point. gerri, we appreciate all of that. our personal finance editor, thanks so much. i want to get to this issue, as well. health care reform, in the coming hours congress will apparently break for summer

recess with the issue still very much in limbo. democrats are logger heads with republicans, liberals at odds with conservatives, but one issue that is building support among both parties, and some consumer groups aren't happy about it. cnn congressional correspondent brianna keilar explains. >> reporter: they're the best health insurance plans money can buy. in washington, they have a name. >> super gold plated cadillac plans. >> reporter: what makes them so great? >> no deductible, no copayments, no co-insurance, unlimited choice of drugs, no restrictions on networks. >> reporter: these plans are often marketed to the wealthy, cost as much as $40,000, far above the national average of $12,000, and critics say they encourage the overuse of doctor visits and procedures. a democratic proposal to tax insurance companies that provide these pricey plans is gaining bipartisan support in the senate as a way to help pay for health care reform and keep costs down.

>> you can tax insurance companies and that will then put pressure on them to try to make sure that people look for more cost-effective health care packages. >> some lawmakers say a tax on plans with premiums over $25,000 could raise as much as $90 billion to reform health care. the insurance industry, which opposes the tax insists it would hit the policies of middle class americans and not just the rich. >> you may also find a plan that costs $25,000 because the average age of the workers is 55. and because they use a lot of health care, the cost of the plan is very high. >> reporter: labor unions, a powerful democratic ally also opposed the tax. the nation's largest union for public employees and health care workers says insurance companies will pass the cost on to consumers. >> well, we think that any plan involving taxation and health care reform should not make health care more expensive.

so alternatively, we think taxing income levels is a better way to go. another way to do this is to tax capital gains. >> brianna keilar now from capitol hill on this. you think that maybe the unions would be happier about a insurance tax. they were considering a direct tax on americans, why does it work out the same to the unions? >> reporter: they say it would work out the same to their members' pocketbooks, whether you tax the insurance companies or you tax directly the people who have the insurance. the money's going to come from the same place and obviously, you know, what we found, heidi, in doing the story it's kind of hard to figure out exactly who has these so-called cadillac plans, these pricey plans, but obviously there's a fear among the union that it's going to hit their members because they negotiate pretty nice health care benefit packages for their members. but i also spoke with orrin hatch who recently peeled off from the bipartisan negotiations

going on in the senate. and he said not just union members, but insurance companies will take that cost and they will spread it out among all consumers. he actually called this proposal immoral, heidi. so just a sense there that there may be some bipartisan support, it's not total for sure. >> yeah, as usual. brianna keilar, sure do appreciate that from capitol hill this morning. well, i want to let you know that we are focusing on our forces from the front lines to the need for care. right now, a major upgrade for the military, not on the battlefield but in the classroom, we're talking about the new gi bill that goes into effect tomorrow. giving new opportunities for better lives after their service. >> reporter: an historic change in the gi bill now gives new incentives for troops serving on the front lines in iraq and afghanistan. after they're done serving our country, their opportunities for education will be completely different. millions of veterans have used the gi bill to help pay for college since it was first

introduced back in world war ii. but a lot has changed since then. so the gi bill is adapting for today's military. >> you could have two individuals, for example, patrolling the streets of baghdad, one individual being on active duty and another individual being a guard reserve member that was called up. when they returned, they would have received very different benefits. now under this program, because it's based on active service, those individuals can't end up receiving the same benefits. >> reporter: the new bill allow veterans who serve at least 10 years to pass unused benefits on to their family. >> my daughter now who is 16 will get her first two years of college paid by this gi bill program. my daughter who is 10, veronica, she will receive the second two years. >> when i have kids and it comes their time to go to school, i'll be able to let them use the gi bill and have a paid for education using the benefits from when i served. >> reporter: then there's joe, he served in the army in world

war ii and used the benefits to learn a lifelong trade, which he's still using now at age 82. >> a lot of veterans in all fields of endeavor benefitted from the gi bill. >> reporter: back then, veterans got only $500 a year at the most to further their education via college or apprenticeship. today the bill has a cap of about $16,000 a year. the new bill can only be used toward a college or university education. but it kicks the amount of money way up. matching the cost of some of the most expensive state schools in the country. overall, the director of the program says the major changes will make it easier to get new recruits and keep the more experienced troops longer. >> well, that's just part of the story on the new gi bill. coming up later in this hour, one of the men who actually helped put the bill together, write it, that is, to find out what's behind some of these major changes.

i'm rob marciano, we had severe weather yesterday, likely will have some today, plus the space shuttle endeavor trying to land at cape kennedy. we'll tell you what the odds are weather wise when the "cnn newsroom" comes right back. nanc? where will you find the stability and resources to keep you ahead of this rapidly evolving world? these are tough questions. that's why we brought together two of the most powerful names in the industry. introducing morgan stanley smith barney. here to rethink wealth management. here to answer... your questions. morgan stanley smith barney. a new wealth management firm with over 130 years of experience. caused by a completely blocked artery, another heart attack could be lurking, waiting to strike. a heart attack caused by a clot, one that could be fatal. but plavix helps save lives. plavix, taken with other heart medicines goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death

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president obama says the controversial event that brought a harvard professor and his arresting officer to the white house makes us quote stronger. candy crowley reports from washington. >> reporter: on a humid summer night beneath the mag tree, the president, the black professor, and the white man who arrested him had a beer together. apparently it did go well, the president called it a friendly thoughtful conversation. and you'll never guess what, sergeant james crowley says he and professor henry louis gates are planning their next meeting. >> i would not like not only to discuss, but to listen to his perspective and he has the credentials to enlighten me a little bit and i think, perhaps, the professor as he expressed to me has a willingness to listen to my perspective as a police officer. >> reporter: dido from professor gates who wrote on his website that he and crowley need to

foster greater sympathy for the perils of policing and the general fears of racial profiling. heads of state have come away from the white house with a lot less, but do not call this a beer summit. >> this is three folks having a drink at the end of the day. and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other. and that's really all it is. >> reporter: not exactly all, it is also the president's attempt to get out from under headlines he helped. it is a rather routine cop call. it turned into a national shock test on racial profiling and relations between police and minority communities. the story was elevated and propelled by five words at a presidential news conference. >> the cambridge police acted stupidly -- >> reporter: it fuelled the fire and knocked the health care message off the front pages. the president had to explain,

reexplain, call sergeant crowley to personally explain, and then invited both crowley and gates to the white house. now the professor and the cop are working out details of their next meeting. >> i think meeting at a bar for a beer on the second occasion is going to send out the wrong message. so maybe a kool-aid or iced tea or something like that. >> reporter: the president is dying to get back to his agenda and put cambridge on the back page. >> i would be surprised if you guys all make this the lead as opposed to a very important meeting that we just had with one of our most important partners in the world. >> reporter: maybe tomorrow. candy crowley, cnn, washington. welcome to the severe weather center now. rob marciano talking about a little bit about the weekend. some dicey areas today too, right? >> not only severe weather, but just rain in general over

places, heidi, that have seen a bunch of rain. so thunderstorms that will at times produce torrential downpours, generally speaking in the eastern and southeastern third of the country. today on and off through tomorrow and sunday, as well. things get a little bit hung up. unseasonably cool weather driving across the western states or at least the upper midwest, but the southwest will certainly be on the toasty side. as far as what we're looking at and how much rainfall enough to produce flash flood warnings, and also across the tri-state area of new york, new jersey, and connecticut where the rain is right now it's mostly across the, just west of i-95 and will be heading to the east. this could produce severe weather, as well, on top of the thunderstorms that will produce some heavy rain. from southeast texas across dixie into atlanta is when we're seeing most of the rainfall right now. and that will fill in as we go through time. all right, shuttle's scheduled to land at 10:48 eastern time, about an hour and a half, looks like the weather is going to cooperate. there's not enough rain around

at this point to produce a situation where they would delay that landing. but they'll give the final call, probably in another half hour or so. >> cool. okay. very good, you'll let us know, right? >> you bet. >> thank you, rob. >> sure. we are focusing on our forces this morning and the challenges faced by wounded troops and their families. the uncertain economy is only making things tougher.

we are focusing on our forces today. and some of the challenges they face after the battle. more than 30,000 u.s. troops have been wounded in iraq and afghanistan. for them, a strong support system is critical to recovery. cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr is joining us live. barbara, you met one particular family who has a daily struggle. >> like so many, heidi. often when the wounded come home and they face that long-term struggle to recover, it's their family members who are left to care for them and they are losing their homes, their jobs, and their health insurance in the process. sarah married ted wade after he was grievously injured in iraq. losing an arm and suffering a

traumatic brain injury. he wasn't expected to live. >> i think every prayer i ever said was i would take him in any condition. >> reporter: but ted defied the odds and nearly five years later, sarah is ted's full-time care giver, and like other military families, looking at a lifetime of financial strain to take care of a loved one. sarah has already lost jobs, insurance, the young couple's financial security is vulnerable. >> ted and i were very lucky to be able to borrow money from some family members. a lot of people don't have that advantage. if we hadn't been able to do that, we'd definitely would've lost our house, there's no way we could've paid all of our bills. >> reporter: the wades are part of an effort to push congress to act. they want training for family members on how to care for their wounded and much needed financial aid. >> but we have to understand particularly in this economy that when family members have to give up a job or take on other

expenses, it's important that thing like this bill will help expand health insurance coverage and other needs for those family care givers. >> reporter: sarah is pressing for the legislation she says could give care givers the income they deserve for the work they do. >> a lot of parents have spent their retirements taking care of their children. they've spent their money. they've lost their benefits through their job. >> reporter: ted talks sparingly, but listens intently. they worry what would happen if sarah couldn't work. >> my gosh, i stopped paying into social security at a really young age, am i going to get any social security some day? >> ted is determined to make plans and move ahead. >> i would like to go work in a grocery store and perhaps start part-time going to college. >> reporter: but more than anything, this young wounded warrior speaks an eloquent wish.

>> the first problem is actually getting recognition as being a human alive and being able to do something. >> reporter: and as you see, ted wade, a veteran of the 82nd airborne division still recovering very significantly from his traumatic brain injury in the war. heidi, the house just last week passed some legislation trying to give these benefits to family members caring for these wounded troops and a lot of veterans hope this will soon become law. >> thanks so much, barbara starr, the pentagon correspondent. and we're going to talk a lot more about these issues and keep moving ahead as we focus on our forces. as a soldier, he served in iraq, as a civilian, fighting for his fellow veterans. a man who helped write the new gi bill.

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all right. we are listening for that opening bell on this friday, july 31st, stocks on wall street shot higher yesterday. there it is. that was thanks to those upbeat earnings reports. today the big focus on gdp. we now have stephanie elam with a look at how wall street will likely react to it. hi there, stephanie. >> hi, heidi, stocks were set for a higher opening and then we got that gdp report. stock futures are flat, but we're barely opening to the up side right now. this is even though the report came in better than expected. now we know that the economy did contract once again in the second quarter. there is bad news, as well, it's the revisions, they're brutal. the government now says in the first quarter the economy shrank at a pace of 6.4%, which sh much worse than the 5.5% drop we originally thought for this period. that's the biggest drop in

nearly 30 years and it could pressure stocks today. and now we do see the stocks are in the downside now. the economy has now contracted for four quarters in a row. that's the first time that's happened since the commerce department began keeping track of this number in 1947. also on the corporate side of things today, oil giant chevron reporting a 71% drop in quarterly earnings. the company still managed to make nearly $2 billion, and as we've seen all week, major oil companies are really getting hit by sharply lower oil prices as well as weaker demand. then there's southwest airlines, that company is looking to expand its reach. >> yeah. >> big news here, the carrier has jumped into a bankruptcy court auction yesterday from frontier, for frontier airlines. there are other offers in for the bankrupt airline, as well. if southwest is successful, the deal would move southwest into second place in the key denver market. so all of that factoring in today. let's take a look at the numbers really quickly, dow off 11

points, nasdaq off fractionally. but as you know, we will keep our eyes on it, heidi. >> i know you will. it's a hot little commodity there. interesting. stephanie elam, thanks so much. >> sure. the so-called stimulus package, your money and paying for everything from old clunkers to new roads. another one of the programs about to take you to the ocean floor. we get details now from one of our all platform journalists. >> reporter: killer whales hunt in washington's state puget sound. they are about to benefit from a sliver of the federal stimulus money. and i'm about to find out how. >> so we're about 15 miles from oak harbor, i'm meeting with a local group that got about $500 million in stimulus money to recover lost fishing nets. >> reporter: it's a much bigger problem than you'd think. the marine conservation initiative has struggled for years for funding. it says the stimulus money will help recover an estimated 3,000

fishing nets discarded or lost in the puget sound. >> taking something out of the wards that's no longer going to kill fish or birds or pose a danger to humans. >> how come it took until now to clean it up? >> imagine if you had nets strung along the streets, they're catching bunny rabbits and squirrels, we wouldn't be discussing whether we should remove them, we would have been. when those threats are down under water, you have no -- it's so much harder to know what kind of impacts they're having. >> reporter: kenny takes to the water. 80 feet below, he begins the pain staking task of cutting free a net bigger than a football field by hand. over the ship's communication system, he can tell me what he sees. >> there might be more than one. >> how long do you think it'll take to get the whole net up? >> reporter: the pieces of the net are pulled to the deck.

so is their catch. >> so this is a case in point for what we've seen out here today. this is a puget sound king crab, very rare crab protected, you're not supposed to be catching them. but the net doesn't know that. this got pulled out of a net and we're going to put it back in the water now. >> reporter: and by restoring the environment, they're also earning a wage. it will create 40 new jobs. >> well, we know we've got days of work anyway. >> reporter: many of them for fishermen who once sold to japan. that exotic market employed several hundred people hon these waters, work now gone with the economic decline. >> blue collar divers that taught themselves this profession, they depend on their own ability to earn a living and this is exactly the place this money ought to be spent because it's going to stay in the local community, it's going to support these families. >> reporter: your tax dollars at

work. under water. >> patrick joining us live from seattle. it's good that they're able to clean up these particular nets, but how are they going to keep the trash, if you will from piling up once again? >> reporter: well, heidi, some of these nets they believe have been in the water for 10 or 20 years, they think changes in technology, the fact that there's so much less fishing going on means when they pull these nets out, they expect to get about 3,000 nets over the next 18 months, that's going to really resolve this problem. from then on out, they'll be able to keep up with the nets that have been lost. >> very good. great piece, we sure do appreciate it live from seattle this morning. lawmakers have other questions about how the stimulus money is being spent, specifically why it's not being spent faster. next hour on capitol hill, the house transportation and infrastructure committee will be asking why some agencies are not spending their money fast enough. the obama administration promised to funnel the money

into the economy as quickly as possible. all this morning long, we are focusing on our forces. just over 14 hours from now, add midnight eastern, the new gi bill takes effect. it could send millions of veterans to college and some say may help shape the future of an entire generation of americans. our next guest helped write parts of the bill, patrick campbell an iraq war veteran himself and the chief legislative veteran counsel. he's joining us from washington this morning with a brand new beard there. because he just got out, right? >> yep. >> first of all, congratulations, this is really going to affect thousands of veterans and their families, now that the process is done, how does it feel? >> i feel like this is a victory lap. in 14 hours, half million veterans and their families and their children are going to go to college and be able to make that their full-time job. and this is a promise we made my grandfathers, world war ii vets and korean vets and they helped build the greatest generation and i feel like we're on the

edge of building the next greatest generation. >> and you know, that's what i wanted to get to here, we all know that the gi bill, a form of it has been in place since world war ii. there was an overhaul in the '80s, mid-80s, and now this, it's being labeled historic, why? >> it was a historic investment in 1944, they designed a benefit that paid your tuition, gave you a living allowance, and gave you money for books. in 1980s, we got rid of that and just had a monthly benefit that didn't even pay for a community college, and now we're reinvesting in our service members and paying for their tuition, their living allowance, and their books. and this is going to make people be successful in college and go on to do great things after they graduate. >> the bill was passed under the bush administration, now going into effect. from the beginning to the end, what was the biggest hurdle? >> you know, the white house was -- thought this was going to hurt retention. that they said that.

>> really? >> if we passed this that service members were actually going to college, which i kind of snickered at. the idea we didn't want a gi bill that service members would actually use was laughable to me. there was a bipartisan coalition, you had senator webb, hagel, the vfw and all of the groups working together because they knew they needed to renew this promise. and you know, in an election year, these things don't happen and the fact that everyone was able to come together and get this thing passed is a real commitment to our service members. >> and that's exactly what i want to ask you about. i think the hope was actually to be able to make recruitment easier and then retain those really experienced soldiers with an incentive like this. but how do the soldiers see it? is this about appreciation? >> yeah, i mean, one of my coworkers is currently in afghanistan right now. he just got deployed and he's called back a couple times and said all of these people are doing when they're in the humvees or marching is talking

about what they're going to do when they get back. i know when i was overseas, people were talking about what job they're going to get. but now people are dreaming, what can i become? what school can i get? in world war ii, half the people got a degree or went somewhere else and now -- the future is open, people are dreaming bigger dreams now. >> yeah, and so many of these benefits are now going to be able to be passed on to their families, the ones that go on unused which is new in all of this too. patrick campbell, we sure do appreciate the work you did on this. thanks so much. >> my pleasure. wounded warriors on vacation getting away from the hospital for some much-appreciated quiet time. it's called project healing warriors. they were just in wyoming learning and trying to land the big one. >> it was started by a retired navy captain, ed nicholson, he

was in walter reid, taking care of injuries he had medical-related, and while there he noticed all of the injured guys from iraq and afghanistan and thought, well, maybe these guys would like to go fishing. >> taking my problems away. even if it was just while i was fishing, showing me there was more to life, you know, misery and death. >> what's most gratifying to see their change in outlook of life. realizing it's not over. their injuries aren't what's going to keep them from enjoying life. >> project healing waters started out just in the washington, d.c. area, but now a local chapters have been popping up across the country. they came to victory park to remember the troops. the families of 53 members of the first infantry division who died in 2008 gathered yesterday to honor their loved ones. it was bittersweet for one young

california widow. she learned her husband's division will award her 15-month-old son a $10,000 scholarship. >> it means a lot that they take the time to talk to me and make sure i'm taken care of. >> any honor that the military does for the men and women means everything. >> the first infantry division at ft. riley is the army's oldest division. the u.s. military blows a missile out of the sky, a missile launched from hawaii. %%

the british are leaving iraq. today is the day that great britain formally withdraws all of the forces from iraq at the height of the war, 46,000 british troops were stationed in and around the country. british operation has been based in basra and southern iraq. the deputy head of the iraq mission say they leave basra in a better state than when we arrived in 2003. the military fights another success in the pacific. just before midnight eastern, a ballistic missile with dummy warhead was launched toward hawaii, it was blown up by an intercepter missile from one of three navy ships in the pacific. this was the 19th successful test out of 23 out of the u.s. defense missile system. calm reportedly has returned to northern nigeria now. battled militants who wanted to impose their laws on the region. the leader of that sect is now dead. military leaders say he was killed in a shootout yesterday

while trying to escape. other sources say he was shot after being captured and turned over to the police. walking, biking, swimming, all great forms of exercise, the most anybody can do. and you never know, you could get a shout out in a national magazine. here's dr. sanjay gupta. >> reporter: topping the list of men's fitness magazines, spanish tennis great rafael nadal. he may spend several hours a day on the tennis court, but he also hits the gym pretty heavily in the off season. also lebron james, he's called one of the best nba players today. this may surprise you, he does yoga and pilates several times a week to stay in shape. you're thinking, of course, they're fit, well, there are some non-athletes on the list, as well. singer akon, he says he does more than 500 push-ups, pull-ups, and dips before each concert. and 42-year-old entertainment

lawyer richard rall competed in the ultraman race last november, a 6-mile swim followed by 171-mile bike ride, and 52-mile run. all of it on a plant-based vegan diet. you don't have to go to extremes to get fit, bicycling can burn more than 590 calories an hour, and an intense one-hour game of basketball burns calories and hours of heavy yard work can burn about 440 calories. for today's health minutes, i'm dr. sanjay gupta. ever heard of omar arnold? detectives say that's one of the many aliases used by michael jackson when he wanted prescription drugs. some of the new information obtained by cnn as the investigation into the singer's death intensifies. this is one way of getting vitamins and minerals.

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cnn has obtained a copy of the search warrant used to raid the home and office of michael jackson's doctor, conrad murray. among other things, shows investigators were looking for

evidence he prescribed drugs to an addict. cnn's randi kaye reports, that's an apparent reference to jackson. >> we have a copy of the search warrant issued in las vegas for dr. murray's home and office. looking for for evidence of, quote, demonstrating crimes of excess prescribing, and prescribing to an addict. authorities were looking for prescriptions and information on when medications were admin strered, prescribed, transferred, sold, distributed and concealed. including diprivan which authorities believe killed michael jackson and which we know dr. conregard murray gave him within 24 hours of his death. investigators seized one hard drive, paperwork, records from two cell phones and an iphone. but the key piece of evidence that stands out really is a cd with the name omar arnold on it. i confirmed with a source close to the investigation that jackson used the name omar

arnold as an alias to get procedures done without anyone knowing and to obtain prescriptions. we know a cd with that name was taken from dr. murray's clinic in vegas. that is something investigators, no doubt, will look at. jackson was using 19 other aliases. they were looking for prescriptions in all of those names and even his own son, prince jackson. his attorney still saying dr. murray is a witness and has not been named a suspect. but the search warrant named seven other doctors that may have had correspondence with and written prescriptions with michael jackson and other aliases. now, those mentioned in the search warrant include dr. murray, jackson's long time dermatologist, dr. owner old cline and five other doctors we have not reported on. they are looking for correspondence twens jackson and

cheryl lee who told us jackson begged her for diprivan. i spoke with a source with knowledge of the autopsy and he told me they are still issuing subpoenas for records, still visiting doctor's offices. he says the autopsy and the toxicology report is just not done. randi kaye, "cnn headline news," los angeles. we have a lot going on in the next hour of the news room. our crews are in place to bring it all to you. let's check in first with brianna keilar on capitol hill. hi, brianna. >> reporter: hi, hidy. in just a few hours here, the members will make a beeline for the airport getting out of washington for their august recess. i'll tell you where health care stands at the top of the hour. i'm rob marciano. the space shuttle is scheduled to land in a little less than an hour and we will have the weather for you. >> guys, thanks so much. we'll be watching for all of that.. we will have more on our

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on our blog this morning, we've been asking you to tell us about your experience as a veteran or if you have a loved one who is a veteran tell us about them. we've been getting a lot of stories, ranging from a heartbreaking to inspiring. so we appreciate you guys writing in. i want to go ahead and share some of them with you. let's go ahead and go to this

one first. right here, you can see this is from dominick weaver. i'm a fourth generation service member. my grandfather, now 70 years old, still has nightmares and flashbacks despite his medication. my mother and her brothers, the same. the va only prescribes -- sorry, pardon me -- more or different medications and counseling. we have combat veterans. we need something more active, more involving. help us. help us to finally sleep at night without thinking of those lost, killed or missing in action. next, this one from sergeant watts. he says all soldiers should be catered to especially when they come home from a war-torn country. america should be like heaven to our troops when they come home. so once again, we sure do appreciate stories that you guys are sending in to us, once again, that you can still weigh in, of course. go to cnn.com/heidi and we'll go ahead and put more stories on the screen.

the mayor of hobokan, new jersey, has just resigned. peter komo was charged with corruption. we told you all about that story. earlier this week, he vowed to stay in office and fight to clear his name. he's been in office for only three weeks before his arrest. vice president joe biden on his way to chicago. he's the featured speaker at the national urban league's annual conference under way just before noon. health care reform is on the

minds of most americans right now and we continue to put your reform questions to our insider and chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. sanjay, let me read a question from a viewer named p.j. she posted this to our blog. she says, i work part-time so i can help raise my grandchildren and had to buy my own health coverage, which is expensive. about $213 a month when i only bring home under $700 a month. she wants to know how will this new program help me. and that's what everyone wants to know. >> i'm doing the math quickly. $213 a month, $700 a month for her income. that's hard to imagine. >> exorbitant. >> while we don't have the final details for this, i think we can start to share the potential costs. keep in mind sliding scale because a lot of this varies based on your income. so look at individuals first in terms of how much money they insurance might cost them if

you're below the poverty line. so 14,000 or below, you're not going to pay anything. >> it will be free. >> free. >> but take a look at the highest number there. $43,320, about 10% of your income. by no means free. they talk about the family of four as being a good model. let's look at those numbers in terms of overall cost. $29,106, that number or below, nothing. but $77,175, again, it's about 10% of your income. that's not free, but it covers everything, your copays, your prescription costs, office visits, all that stuff. so it's going to be a comprehensive coverage for four. >> absolutely. and then another big question that a lot of our viewers keep on asking is if this plan is so much cheaper and so much better, then well, everybody has flocked to the government plan and then my employer, who provides insurance for me, health care, i should say, which i like that

coverage will potentially say, well, forget it, everybody is going to the government plan and then i, too, might be forced to go to a public plan. >> and that's exactly what the critics are charging. they'll say the public option we're talking about will eventually crowd out insurance companies because of the reasons you're stating. what the president said is that's not going to happen. if you have your private insurance, th to keep it. when we clear the cbo about this, they seemed to back that up mainly because there are certain caveats of who is going to qualify for this. your premium for health care insurance costs has to be greater than 11% of your income. that's a high number. also, if you have access to insurance elsewhere, through your husband or through some other person that's supporting you, you also may not be able to qualify for this. >> and the cbo also said that this really, long-term, is not going to lower costs. >> you know, the costs are such a moving target, heidi. they projected in 1990, medicare would cost $9 billion.

it costs $67 billion. so the numbers will be all over the map on this. >> when these benefits start to come into play, into the pockets of consumers, if you will, is another story. >> we want to remind everybody, lots of numbers out there that we've been throwing around. everything will be on our website if you need to go and check that out to see how it would affect you. dr. sanjay gupta, our insider, thank you. i talked to sanjay yesterday on that because he had to go to his brother's wedding today. staying on top of health care reform, congress will break for the summer recess with the latest in limbo. brianna, the senate has one more week, but the house closed up shop. where does the issue stand, exactly? >> well, the house actually is probably going to close up shop here in a few hours and we're going to see that mass exodus, heidi. but in the house, it looks as if things are on track to move

health care reform, their health care reform through that third and final committee that it needs to go through. of course, there is not going away vote on the house floor. we knew that. but if things are moving slowly in the house where they are pretty much moving like molasses in the senate where last night, negotiators of this key bipartisan group, the gang of six from the senate finance committee put the brakes on any idea that they may come to an agreement before they leave for recess in another week. that's because democrats on this committee had to basically give in. you see max bachus, the chairman of the committee on the right. chuck grassley, the ranking republican on this committee and democrats had to capitulate to republicans and say, we're not going to have a vote in this committee before august recess. they had to do this, heidi, because otherwise they risked these talks completely collapsing. that's where things stand there in the senate. >> well, one of the big sticking

points is how to pay for this health care reform. what is the new buzz about? >> this is a proposal by senator john kerry and it is to tax these cadillac plans that you may have heard of. the average health care plan in the u.s. costs $12,000 for the premium every year. these cadillac plans sometimes go up to the cost of $40,000. so the idea is to obviously tax the insurance companies, but not the people who get these plans, heidi. maybe that would sound good. we talked about this last hour to unions. hey, the actual consumers of the insurance don't get taxed, but there is some bipartisan support for this plan and there's a lot of bipartisan opposition. you've got unions who say, no, no, this cost will be passed on to us. some of them members, of course, have these plans. and then i spoke with warren hatch from utah and said it's not just the people with cadillac plans that will foot the bill. this tax will be passed on

through insurance companies to all consumers. it's still a really sticky issue to determine how to pay for this proposal. >> brianna keilar, thank you so much. a key reading on the nation's economy, a new government report shows the economy slank 1% from april through june. that decline in the gross domestic product is much better than what analysts expected. and that raises hopes the recession finally could be winding down. the economy has contracted for four straight quarters. that is the longest stretch since this measure came into place in 1947. it will break down more of what the numbers mean and how investors are reacting. we can take a look at that ourselves. the dow jones industrial averages are down slightly there by about 8 points or so, still well above the 9,000 mark there by 948 points or so.

the cash for clunkers program has been a big hit. by the irony is that success could spell trouble. after just one week, car shoppers may have burned through the $1 billion congress set aside for rebates. we just heard from the white house. the program will continue through the weekend now. but what happens after that, we really don't know right now. we want to get more on this from gerri willis. ger gerri, we are going to extend this through the weekend. >> yeah. you should know that congressman fred upton from michigan is momentarily expected to announce he's going to be asking congress for more funding for cash for clunkers. clearly, he's going to have to do it quickly because everybody is going on vacation. now, heidi, i want to mention to you that the program only started on monday and yet it's close to burning through all its funding. i want to show you some numbers just to give you an idea of how quickly this thing has gone. some $95.9 million has been

approved already. that's several days old. the number is probably higher than that. and some $1.2 billion is projected to be given out by the industry. so dealerships have already sewn up 1.2 billion of these vouchers. now, the plan was only $1 billion to begin with so you can see it's probably already under water. demand for the program, overwhelming. 23,000 dealerships signed on. the dealerships started declining people for the program earlier this week and the program was supposed to go on until november 1st. >> once they've received confirmation that they're eligible for this program, you know, for people who decided to do this, what do they do if they've already accepted and have a new car? >> right. you see, the devil is in the details here. what you want to find out, dealerships may have had you sign a waiver that indicated if the program didn't go through, that you had to pay the voucher back or return the car.

now, if you did get a new car, make sure you look at any documents like this. as i said before, there's a lot of talk we'll get more money, more funding, continue the program. this is one of the most successful programs for bailing out the economy that we've seen to date from the administration. originally, the program was funded at $4 billion. congress dialed that back to $1 billion. and, you know, obviously you can shop through the weekend. but beyond that, i would wait to see what congress is doing. >> in fact, we might have more information right now. ed henry is standing by to tell us more regarding the details of this. ed, tell us how it went down and if you have any more information on what people can expect, if there's a longer extension, please do tell. >> reporter: we have important information. robert gibbs is telling reporters that the certify gerri is talking about will be honored, at least threw this weekend. cash for clunkers was suggested

to have been suspended. it's not true. the program is up and running right now. robert gibbs said if you have plans to go out this weekend, go and trade in your clunker, if you will, and get a more fuel efficient vehicle, go ahead and do it and robert gibbs is saying that the white house is saying on the record they will honor the certificates that are processed through this weekend. now, he says right now, to give you an idea, the popularity that gerri is talking about, the government estimates there are about 20,000 certificates that are still waiting on a pile somewhere in the government to be processed of people who have traded in clunkers for more fuel efficient vehicles. however, he is saying that they cannot guarantee that after this weekend the program will be able to go on simply because of the popularity of it. it's running out of money already. the big news coming out of that is that robert gibbs is saying the president wants this program not only to continue, but to be expanded. right now, top administration officials are working furiously

behind the scenes with congressional leaders to try and push something through quickly to pump more money into this program before the house heads out of session for the august rece recess. they're trying to get something done quickly here so this program can be extended and expanded at least three this weekend. robert gibbs saying this has shown to be a real boost for not only car dealers and car companies, but when you look at the environmental impact that cars that are not fuel efficient are being taken off the road in exchange for more fuel efficient vehicles, it accomplishes two goals, more in terms of energy reform and in terms of boosting the economy. >> any idea, ed, when we will hear if they're, in fact, going to put more money inspect? >> reporter: robert gibbs is saying he hopes to have more news on this later this morning. so my expectation based on the way in his body language and what not, it seems like the white house was moving extremely

quickly to get this done with congress so that people can go into this weekend not only feeling confident that the certificate that they get this weekend are good but that expanding it through the rest of the summer at the least will be good, as well. we may have more news. we'll get it to you when we know more. >> people will want to know where that money will come from, too, as i'm sure you know. ed henry, appreciate the update. now i want to get you to baghdad where at least 27 people are dead this morning. victims of roadside bomb mrafts near five shitte mosques. arwa damon, can you update us? >> reporter: the figures that we have, these were six explosions targeting five mosques. they all went off near simultaneously just as worshippers were finishing leaving the mosque after friday's prayer. what these attacks do, examine they do bare the hallmark of al

qaeda, trying to ignite fear. it begs the question ooh how can this happen in baghdad when you literally have tens of thousands of iraqi army soldiers and iraqi policemen fanned out, checkpoints where you have bomb searching detection devices and numerous iraqi security forces on foot patrol. how are the insurgents able to break through the security infrastructure, still continuing to exploit these weaknesses? and this is, of course, a growing concern as the u.s. takes more of a back seat in this war. most certainly also for iraqis raising the question of what is going to happen to them when the u.s. pulls out completely. >> arwa, i know you're aware we're doing a special show today, we're focusing on our forces. and you were recently embedded with oouts forces there in iraq. obviously, roadside bombs, i.e.d.s are still a major

concern for troops. >> they are. and a lot of the concerns right now that the u.s. troops have, of course, the concern for their own safety remains t forefront. but also a lot of concerns that they have is with regard to the iraqi security forces and how well are they going -- how well are they going to be able to maintain these current security gains because for the u.s. troops, they're so used to being on the offense, so used to being in control of this fight and now they have to take a back seat to the iraqis. so much american blood has been shed that there are serious concerns among these american soldiers that perhaps those losses will be in vain if the iraqis are not able to maintain that security. they're struggling with the difficulties of being on multiple deployments, being away from their families. and even though when they were out in the microcosms that they

control, they are able to see these small signs of improvement. there is perhaps a slightly stronger sense of optimism that the u.s. project here is going to succeed. but again, at the back of their mind is the reality that nothing here is guaranteed, heidi. >> very. good arwa, thanks so much. there are about 62,000 u.s. troops now on the ground in afghanistan, as well. our ivan watson was recently embedded with troops in one of the country's most dangerous areas. he is joining us live on this. iv ivan, what were the soldiers you were with talking about, some of their greatest concerns? >> well, compared to last year, with the u.s. marines and southern afghanistan when a lot of the marines were complaining about being on a forgotten war, now it seemed like the marines were much more confident, that they have the backing of the u.s. government, the number of

american troops on the ground have nearly doubled since last year and some of the interesting things that i heard over the last month, you had one of the largest american military operations in this eight-year war and some of the marine officers that i spoke with were concerned that the news coverage of that back in america had been overshadowed by the death of michael jackson and they clearly wanted more attention to what they felt was a history-making moment. now, heidi, many of these soldiers and marines i saw on the ground, some of them 20 years old, have already done previous tours in iraq. they were very concerned about roadside bombs. some of these young men were in junior high school when the september 11th attacks took place. they seemed very gung ho on the front line units. some of them had reenlisted, junior officers going back in the service, signing contracts again to serve for several more years.

back at some of the larger bases, away from t front line, you heard mumbling, i can't wait to get out of here. i will point out this had been the bloodiest month of this eight-month war for u.s. forces on the ground. at least 44 americans serve as men and women killed this month in afghanistan. four people died, three due to combat-related incidents over the past 48 hours. heidi. >> yeah, we are hoping to hear more next week from the top commander, stanley mccrystal, about formally asking for more troops to be put in afghanistan. ivan, thanks so much coming to us live from afghanistan today. as part of our focus on troops today, we wanted to tell you about a major change that could affect their futures. for generations to come. it's actually a new gi bill. it will go into effect this weekend and provides a tremendous jump in education benefits. jumping from the current level of about $16,000 a year to an

amount equal to the tuition at some of the top state schools in the country. and for the first time, those benefits can be passed on to family. again, the gi bill goes into effect tomorrow. four men and some beer. a meeting of the minds, the president, the vice president, a harvard professor and a cambridge police officer sit down at the white house. my doctor said the bayer aspirin saved my life. please talk to your doctor about aspirin and your heart. i'm going to be grandma for a long time. ♪ ♪ which one's me - for a cool convertible or an suv? ♪ ♪ too bad i didn't know my credit was whack ♪ ♪ 'cause now i'm driving off the lot in a used sub-compact. ♪ ♪ f-r-e-e, that spells free credit report dot com, baby. ♪ ♪ saw their ads on my tv ♪ thought about going but was too lazy ♪ ♪ now instead of looking fly and rollin' phat ♪ ♪ my legs are sticking to the vinyl ♪ ♪ and my posse's getting laughed at. ♪ ♪ f-r-e-e, that spells free- credit report dot com, baby. ♪

chatting with the president and vice president over beer. harry lieuish jr. and james crowley were special guests at the time how is white house yesterday. they came for a so-called teachable moment after the racially charged uproar that followed gates' arrest. the professor and officer say they'll talk again. >> professor gates and i bring different issues to these issues and have agreed both should be addressed in order to provide contractive outcome to the events of the past month. >> no date for a future meeting has been announced. a cambridge police officer was at the scene of gates' arrest, as well. sergeant leon wrote a letter asking to share some of his concern during the meeting at the white house.

you've seen this letter. i've seen a little bit of it. what was it all about? >> it's interesting, the different facets that this story has been taking. i got a letter just in the lead up to that beer summit from sergeant lashry, a 26-year-old veteran of the police department. i'm going to share it with you and we'll talk about it. in that letter, he says, dear jim, would you kindly share this with the president. subsequently, i have also become known, at least to some as an uncle tom. i'm forced to poernd the notion that as a result of speaking the truth and coming to the defense of a friend and colleague, who just happens to be white, that i have somehow betrayed my heritage. please convey my concerns to the president that mr. gates' actions may have caused grave and potentially actions. he says, what can i do to help the rift caused by actions. is there anything i can do to mitigate the damage done to the

reputations of two respected police officers? and then he says, thank you in advance, your friend. >> he wants to be intersected. >> to say that to the president but also some tough words to african-americans who are some of them quite frankly are calling him an uncle tom. and after -- and i can understand where he's coming from because after i read this letter on television yesterday, i got some of the same comments to me just from reading the letter and just from reporting it. yeah. so it's very interesting. so that's what he's asking. you know, this story is fascinating. it goes far beyond that but it's something that should be considered because i think his concerns are valid. >> i'm glad that you shared it. gates did not answer any questions on camera as the police sergeant did, right? >> he did. he gave an interview to the "new york times" talking about what he hopes will come from this. he dnts go on camera as sergeant crowley did with the local station there. >> don lemon, we appreciate it.

thank you. >> thank you, heidi. let's head over to the severe weather center now. rob marciano is standing by. rob. >> thunderstorms developing around the eastern third of the country and the heat is beginning to break out west. that shuttle is trying to land in the next half hour. the "cnn newsroom" is coming right back. - hi. - crowd: hi! i hate my phone. what do i do? ( shouting ) this is crazy. you. let's run a free upgrade check. see if you're due for a new smartphone. don't i need to go to my carrier's store for that? no, you don't have to. we sell phones and plans on all the major networks.

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lots of damage, but no reported serious injuries in the memphis area. severe storms, including one confirmed tornado slammed into tennessee late yesterday. today, homes and businesses are in shambles. part of the traffic light system is out and some neighborhoods are now flooded. in the nashville area, they reported fallen trees and power outages. buy, that video looks really, really messy, to say the least. looking at that, no roof in place. rob marciano is standing by to talk more about this. where are the bad parts today? >> everything has moved farther to the east. by the way, that was an f-1 tornado. so winds close to 100 miles per hour and it happened right at rush hour. here is what we're looking at

today as far as where most of the action is going to be east of the appalachians and across the eastern seaboard is where this very slow moving front is going to persist. as it does that, because it's so slow moving and this is an area that's seen a lot of rain, we've got flash flood watches posted for the appalachians. they are going to get more rain in what is shaping up to be one of their coolest and wettest julys on record. laguardia has an hour ground delay, new york, 1 hour 45. so the rain is moving in now. atlanta and philly seeing lesser amounts of delays. here is a live shot from new york. central park, not the best day to be jogging out there. rain has been falling on and off and that's going to get heavier as we go through time. as far as where the radar is right now, beginning to fill in in western parts of p. iempt and upstate new york and that will slide down to the south in new york, philly and d.c.

a line of storms is moving across the southeast. florida looking okay. they are making their way through the atmosphere and on their way to the kennedy space center is the shuttle "endeavour." in about -- well, 30 minutes, 28 minutes or so. >> cool. >> we're looking at that. that should be fun. i hope -- no promises there, but at the very least, we'll show you the tape. >> we'll keep our eye on it. thanks so much, rob marciano, we'll check back in with you. meanwhile, we are keeping the focus on our forces today. still ahead, living with the horrors of war. some veterans find their most harrowing struggles far from the battlefield. is a new technolog. being developed by exxonmobil... to remove the co2 from the natural gas... so we can safely store it... where it won't get into the atmosphere. exxonmobil is spending more than 100 million dollars... to build a plant that will demonstrate this process. i'm very optimistic about it...

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all throughout the morning, we've turned the focus on our forces. right now, we want to take a closer look at posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury and one soldier haunted by the horrors of war. chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta shows you just how serious the problem is. >> baghdad sadr city, 2005. army private chris goldsmith serving his first tour in iraq. >> my primary purpose was photo documentation of everything my platoon encountered. eventually, i started having to document exhuming mass graves and that type of thing. >> body after body, his pictures intense. >> i was a 19-year-old kid taking pictures of mutilated men, women and boys and little

girls and those are the type of images that never really go away. >> haunted by what he saw, goldsmith left iraq at the end of 2005. he knew something was terribly wrong. >> i get, like, flashes of rage, which goes hand in hand with alcoholism that i've been fighting since i got back from iraq. >> a volatile, sometimes violent temper, chest tightening anxiety attacks, trouble sleeping, suicidal thoughts. >> that's not who i was before i deployed. >> chris didn't know it at the time, but it's likely they were all warning signs of post dramatic stress disorder. according to a recent study done by the pentagon in 2004, about one in six veterans of the wars in iraq and afghanistan suffer from ptsd and more than 60% of those suffering will never seek help. >> i just wanted to get out of the army and i figured all my

problems would go away once i got out of the service. >> reporter: but when he and his brigade were stock lost it was a breaking point. >> i was going to deploy to iraq the same week that i was supposed to get out of the army. >> it got to the point where you thought you would be better off dead than to continue on. >> i chose to try and take my fate into my own hands and i tried to commit suicide. i took enough percocet to probably kill someone two or three times my size and i drank my usual poison of a bottle of vodka. i didn't imagine it being pape fobl for me to survive. >> reporter: but chris goldsmith did survive. his official diagnosis of post dramatic stress disorder at a va hospital came months after he was discharged. >> right now, i'm doing a lot better. i've been through a lot of

therapy and i've been surrounding myself with other veterans who are going through the same thing. sglis says the most important part of his therapy is speaking out against the war. his mission, now advocating for his fellow vets. dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, new york. >> wow. you just heard the heart-wrenching story of how one soldier was affected by posttraumatic stress disorder. now more is being done to help the troops and their families. joining me now, brigadier general of the united states marine corps lori sutton. hello to you, general. also with us this morning, bill white, the president of intrepid sea, air and space museum. bill, thanks for being with us, as well. general sutton, i want to start with you, as well. in that piece, we heard the numbers.

we heard a little bit about the culture. but i would love it if you would frame this for us and tell us more about how important ptsb and pbi is not only to the soldiers who are going through it, but also their families. >> heidi, thanks so much. it's really good to be with you this morning. let me start out by saying as much as i admire the marine corps, i'm actually in the army. >> forgive me. >> svms i might have thought about neurosurgery, it's a sigh kie trif kie terrori psychiatrist. first of all, when we think about posttraumatic disorder, at the far end of illness, roughly 50,000 of our troops have been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder since the beginning of this war. the vast majority of individuals

experience posttraumatic stress. here is our challenge, just as we saw with the story illustrating chris goldsmith's situation, the earlier we can intervene, the better. what we want to do is we want to prevent those individuals who are experiencing posttraumatic stress from progressing to a disorder. and so part of that is making sure that we support our leaders in transforming the culture, that we get the message out, you're not alone and we help our troops understand that you cannot drink your way out of this problem, drive, sex, drugs, that's the challenge. >> how are the services doing that? >> we are working in a variety of ways with each of the services as well as with communities all around the country. for example, the resilience building programs, that the services are launching forward. in fact, the army has just announced its comprehensive soldier fitness program. this is a program that is designed from the very first day of basic training to start

teaching troops and their family members what the role of resilience is and how tough operational realistic training will help foster that. the other services, as well, were working closely in a variety of ways with partnerships around the country. >> yeah. and one of those partnerships is a very important one. in fact, i want to bring in bill white. bill, i know you've been instrumental in providing support, fund-raising, of course, for the national intrepid center of excellence, very specific to the center of intrepid which dealt with the other wound, which would be amputation. how is this going? what is the progress? why is it going to be so different than any other facility? >> first, i want to thank you, heidi, and thank general sutton and all of the great doctors and nurses and folks taking care of our men and women returning from iraq that are suffering, suffering seriously as you saw from that piece from tbi and

pts. one of the things we want to make sure that everyone knows is this center is on the way to being built. we just finished the concrete on the second floor coming up next week. it's a $60 million state of the world facility. it's going to be the best place on the planet for these troops that are, you know, really suffering and their families are suffering, too. so we want to be able to provide them the best possible care on the planet. they're going to get that. it's going to be open in june of 2010, so less than a year from now, and it is just going to be spectacular and we're working hand and glove with general sutton and the military, so it's a public/private partnership, one that really all of america can be proud of. >> well, i think it's set to be opening in the fall, as you said, and i'm not sure how many people are going to be able to be treated. obviously, from what the general is telling us and from the piece that we saw, there are an awful lot of soldiers who are going to be requiring care. >> yaes, that's true. one of the things that's

important is diagnosing these people from the start and that's what the military is doing such a great job at now is learning how to get these soldiers, sailors, airmen, marine and coast guardmen into this facility that will be built in the future. general sutton and her group are such a great job. we raised $57 million in the last 12 no, sir from over 300,000 americans. 100% of every penny that we raise is going to this effort. the best mri machines, the best scanning machines, there's a place called central park which is right out the back window from where i'm sitting. that will be a place where the soldier and the family member can go and be one with each other and learn how to cope with this and so that chris and others don't have to take this into their own hands ever again. >> yeah. well, that's terrific. general sutton, one more for you here. when we hear about all of this very special equipment that will

be used there at the state of the art facility, what are you hoping to accomplish? i know that you're going to have a great deal to do with the national intrepid center of excellence. tell us more about what people will receive and how they will come out of that care. >> heidi, think of this as a network of networks. we are joined with the intrepid center as the hub of our national and our global network. together we are committed to not only building resilience, but maximizing recovery and promoting reintegration to our troops and their families, communities of choice around the country. so the national intrepid center will be the place where when individuals in our surrounding network of treatment facilities, both military and, of course, the va, we are absolutely linked with the va, we reach out to be able to serve those who are still in uniform as well as our national guardsmen and reservives who are all around this country and have particular risks given their remoteness

geographical. but to be able to bring in the best of what technology can offer, the fweft of what research is bringing forward as well as our integrated treatment programs to be able to make sure that we are absolutely using a team health approach that brings in the best of western medicine, the best of eastern medicine and maximizes those opportunities for recovery and then we follow up with them so that we close the cracks. >> obviously, this is a very, very big part. everybody stay on top of this and watch for this opening and watch for the soldiers who will be getting the care. brigadier general from the united states army and psychiatrist general lori sutton and bill white of the intrepid fallen hero sun and -- >> heidi, one quick thing. fallenheroesfund.org, they can get involved today because i know people want to get involved and want to help and this is a

great way they can do it. >> looking at a live picture of the ship right there. impact your world, go ahead and check out the website. >> heidi, if i could just thank you so much for your interest, it really is a tribute to the indomitable will and spirit of our american gis and their families. thank you. >> absolutely. thank you for your service, as well. the focus on our forces continues. still ahead today, he was on the front lines in iraq and afghanistan, served several tours and survived repeated bomb attacks. but the biggest struggle came after he was sent home. but jack knows that medicare part b cpders only... 80% of medical expenses. so, he got himself an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan -- insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. a medicare supplement plan... lets you to keep your own doctor, helps you budget medical costs, and it picks up some of that 20%, potentially saving you thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket.

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automatic. we didn't want to promise, but

now we're promising. we have it. there's the space shuttle. rob marciano, talking to us live about this. uh-oh, in and out a little bit, but you see the shuttle "endeavour" coming down. rob, what do we have? i guess it is about seven astronauts that are on board, right? there were 13 on the space station. >> 13 on the space station and they began their burn just over a half hour ago. there they are. makes a pretty good angle of attack o angle of decent, more so than your airliner would and you get a good glance of that with that last shot. you can lynch to the play by play as mission control chats with the pilot up there. >> we're flying at 400 miles per hour.

can see "endeavour" interacting with stations on the ground to provide the best range, elevation and atm os. >> houston copy, field in sight. >> 1:30 to touchdown. less than 10,000 feet in altitude remaining. "endeavour's" devent rate is seven times higher and steeper than a commercial airlines on final approach. one minute to touchdown. "endeavour's" landing gear will be locked down in place at 300 feet in altitude. >> so pretty cool here as we listen in to mission control guiding in space shuttle "endeavour." it's spoechd to touch down at

10:48. we have by my clock 40 more seconds. they are trying to do this on time even though they had to wait until just about the last minute because of the range hours. weather is always an issue, but we see the "endeavour" here trying to level out a little bit. >> 30 seconds to touchdown. >> 30 more seconds. let's see. coming down, obviously, to florida's kennedy space center. >> landing gear is down and locked. touchdown. doug hurley now deploying the chute. and commander mark polansky rotating the nose gear down to the deck. nose gear touchdown. "endeavour" rolling out on runway 15 at the kennedy space center rolling out a 6.5 million

mission. >> how gorgeous is that? >> it was perfect, right? >> i never get tired of that or the launch -- the launch is a little more dramatic, but that certainly takes your breath away, as well. you remember the last liner we had, we had weather problems and they tried several times and delayed it a couple of days, as a matter of fact, and then they finally had to touch it down i think over there in california. so -- and then it's a multi million dollar jockey ride to get it back to the space center. they saved themselves quite a bundle by landing it at the kennedy space center. there were some worries. this is the time of year where thunderstorms can pop up in florida, usually in the afternoon, but pretty strict criteria. the clouds have to be at least 8,000 feet. you can see the sun shining there and the rainfall, if any. >> welcome home. it was a superb mission from beginning to end. >> we're still hearing from nasa there and mission control. very good. they're at the kennedy space

center there, instead of edwards where oftentimes they have to dee veteran, if you will. spanning 6.5 million miles. congratulations, nasa. meanwhile, we continue to focus on our forces. he was on the front lines in iraq and afghanistan. he served several tours and survived repeated bomb attacks. for lieutenant colonel raymond rivas, though, the biggest struggle came after he got home. . don't you eat activia? for my little issues? they're not that bad. summer's no time to put up with even occasional digestive problems. believe me, once they go away, it's amazing how good you feel. announcer: activia is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system in two weeks. summer's a wastin'... take the activia challenge now. it works, or it's free. ♪ activia people notice my devotion to family. people notice my love for animals.

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for some troops, being wounded in combat is only the beginning of what can be another frustrating fight. in some cases, that means getting the proper medical treatment. our cnn correspondent barbara starr brings us one veteran's painful struggle. >> reporter: heart broken family and friends gather for the funeral of lieutenant colonel ray rivas, a soldier whose ip visible wounds finally became too much for him to bare. the 53-year-old soldier had dedicated his career to rebuilding war-torn countries, but war tore his own life apart. earlier this year, ray made a difficult journey to capitol hill. >> i didn't choot to get blown up. >> reporter: remember those words. ray had served several tours of duty, mainly in iraq and afghanistan and had been in repeated bomb attacks. the blast weight of each incident causing injury to his brain. yet he kept getting sent back to

war over and over. doctors finally realized his brain was being slowly destroyed. the final blast, iraq october 2006. ray was mehdevaced to germany ad convinced doctors he was okay. once again, he was sent back to the combat zone. a week later, ill and confused, he was finally diagnosed with an initial traumatic brain injury and sent home for good. he was sender walter reed army medical center where the full extent of his injuries still seemed to allude doctors. some thought he was experiencing combat stress, one of his colleagues tells cnn. but it finally became clear, ray was a soldier with a serious dramatic brain injury. >> this happens when a soldier is exposed to multiple blasts and their brain physically changes. >> reporter: at that senate hearing, his wife, colleen, did most of the talking, explaining

the devastation of ray's brain injury. >> he couldn't do simple things and just getting dressed, just feeding himself and he stuttered terribly. >> reporter: in his written testimony to congress, ray said, even when he was finally sent to brook army medical center in texas, quote, i was pretty much on my own for two, three months. ray said the only help he got with his personal needs was from other soldiers. >> when he first aretired, he just sat there in a room. finally, the military assigned a caseworker and ray goes go the massive amounts of therapy. he seemed to improve. but on july 15th, he lost his battle. he died alone in his car here at brook, an apparent suicide. there were prescription pills and notes he wrote to his family according to colleagues. ray's family declined an

interview request. the military would not discuss rivas' medical condition due to privacy issues. but cnn was given an internal military message written by those directly familiar with his case. it says at the time of his death, quote, ray was severely debilitated from his repetitive brain injuries. he showed signs of a patient with rapidly progressing alzheimer's. >> according to the army, perhaps as many as a third of wounded troops experience some level of traumatic brain injury from being in bomb attacks. >> if a soldier falls through the cracks and is doesn't get the care they need, they're not diagnosed, they're not treated for traumatic brain injury, their outlook on life is going to be -- it's going to be terrible. >> ray was also upset that after everything he had been through, three decades of military

service in both the active duty and reserve, he still didn't qualify for a full military and va pension. >> i didn't choose to get -- to get blown up before i made sure and had 20 years of active duty. >> friends say ray knew his condition would only worsen over time. >> reporter: it's not certain what happened in his final hours or how ray rivas got so many prescription pills. but rivas's war ended here, steps from the front door of the hospital where he had been treated. a colleague says his friends believe ray simply was in pain and tired of fighting those wounds that so many thought were invisible. barbara starr, cnn, washington. >> and we thank all the troops for their sacrifices and their service. i'm heidi collins. "cnn newsroom" continues with tone neep harris after a quick break. and jeep dealer, and get up to double

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