>> i understand that some of you have already made up your mind. >> lawmakers continue to feel the heat from the critics of health care reform legislation. this hour, we get to the truth of one claim that stirred up protesters. also, sex in a restaurant? pregnancy, and now a payment? this is a scandal for famed basketball coach rick pitino that the whole country seems to be talking about this morning. we've got comments on the blog as well as on twitter. good morning, everybody, i'm rick sanchez, i'm going to be sitting in for heidi collins, thursday, august 13th, and you are in the "cnn newsroom." all right, we call it make or break month for health care. more lawmakers are meeting with voters during this hour, and will this resistance continue? look at this map we've put together for you. candy crowley, she's in iowa, key republican negotiators getting an earful there from hundreds of constituents.

dr. sanjay gupta's going to be looking at the lightning rods of reform. how in the world have we gotten to the point where there's even talk of quote death panels? death panels, think about that. and then ali velshi taking it to the people who are angry and why are they angry? this is the news unfiltered, folks. we're going to be taking your comments here on twitter.com/ricksanchez. can't wait to hear what you have to say about rick pitino. we're going to start with breaking news. just after 6:00 in california and already a fast-moving wildfire threatening some -- we're told hundreds of homes in the area. look at these pictures a they're starting to come in. 60 miles south of san francisco as we follow this thing. let me go over some of the details we know right now. officials say they're going door to door, they're using the reverse 911 system to tell people to get out as soon as they can. there are around 600 people who are getting the orders up until

now. that could grow. the fire started last night and already spread to more than 1,000 acres. about 300 firefighters are battling this blaze on the ground. now, at first light, that would be about 20 minutes, they're going to start to finally be able to use helicopters once again to try to help fight this blaze. let's cut over to rob marciano, he's been following this for us. as i say that, i'm thinking to myself, then if they can't get the helicopters off to first flight, what were they doing at night? were they letting this burn? what's going on? >> you know how this works, typically they work 24 hour shifts on and off and get these guys working overnight and that's when the cooler air, when the humidity rises. they can get a better handle on the fire on the ground. during the day, they attack it from the air. that's going to be coming up, sun up here in a few minutes and they'll start to get a little bit more active as far as the attack from the air. let's go over some of -- north of santa cruz, it's a mountainous area, anywhere from

1,000 to 2,000 feet in elevation, surrounded by some maritime shap rel. the winds right now generally west-northwest. not a good onshore push to get that marine layer. it's probably going to stay there if not go more northerly. they don't think weather is going to help things all that much. the redwood forests are on the northern and northeastern side of this thing. it is burning in some heavy timber. but that, those trees are actually -- have evolved to resist fire. so that's not going to be as big of an issue as some of the lower standing brush. this area, rick, had endured a fire last year, smaller fire, but they had to evacuate a similar number of residents. these folks are certainly no stranger to this operation. >> you and i have covered a lot of these things. how big is this one compared to the one in san diego? >> that one in a much more populated area. you talk about 2,000 acres in a

small populated area versus a large populated area. hopefully they'll get a handle on this one before the people will have to leave their homes entirely. >> you'll be watching the winds for us. because that's often the -- what really makes a difference in these things. we'll get back to you, man. the rhetoric of these town hall meetings is getting so heated that many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are having really a tough time even just getting their messages across. senior political correspondent candy crowley is joining us now she's in west des moines where republican leader chuck grassley has met with some of his constituents and continues to. candy, how's that going? >> reporter: well, let's call it polite, but pointed. i saw actually more interchange between different sides in the crowds that one would say were ramped up than i did towards senator grassley. nonetheless, he got some tough questions.

he says he has done about 2,800 town hall meetings since he first came to congress 30 years ago. he is really well on his way to breaking several marks this year in terms of town hall meetings and certainly they don't get any easier. >> well, if it's okay with you, i'll get started. >> reporter: winterset, iowa, he holds his 72nd town hall meeting of the year, what a year. >> we're here at a time when i sense that people are scared for our country. >> reporter: his town halls have been twice, sometimes three times as big as he's had in previous years. so many hands in the air, so many cross currents. >> i need to know what are you doing to these insurance companies that are putting everything in their pocket and laughing at everybody else? >> simple math even for this southern iowa redneck. shows that we can do -- we can cover the people who want coverage with a private policy cheaper. >> reporter: making his way through the questions, grassley

is really in a mine field. why does he support cuts in medicare? he doesn't. will he support a plan with a government insurance option? no. and about the so-called death panels, a term critics use to argue against a provision they say will put the federal government in the euthanasia business. >> at one point up here -- >> reporter: grassley, a man with knowledge of many issues stepped where he probably should not. >> i don't have any problem with things like living wills, but they ought to be done within the family. we should not have -- we should not have -- we should not have a government program that determines you're going to pull the plug on grandma. >> reporter: put him down as not on target, the program inserted in the house bill would allow federal reimbursement to doctors who give end of life counseling to medicare patients who want it. critics say the counseling may become coercive. grassley has a reputation as a seasoned and reasoned conservative. he works now with a small group of senate republicans and democrats trying to come up with a middle ground bill.

that capitol hill lawmaker for 35 years, up for reelection next year, about which he is reminded daily. >> democrat or republican, for whatever senator or congressman votes for this bill, we will vote you out. >> reporter: the senator threads his way between his core constituents angry he's trying. >> there is nothing a liberal wants that i would agree to and we have to stop giving ground. >> reporter: and others who have voted for him for three decades angry he's not trying hard enough. >> i want to ask you why you won't use your strong republican voice to clarify the outright lies that are out there about the programs that are being proposed. >> reporter: at day's end, grassley was in an open air park in adel, iowa, for his 75th town hall meeting of the year. >> i've got 16 more town meetings, i don't want to draw a conclusion from four town meetings.

>> reporter: august may not be the coolest month, but it'll seem like the longest one. the senator says he hasn't seen this sort of passion in these town hall meetings since 1989, probably not coincidental. that was when congress was trying to convince the public to buy into a plan they had about catastrophic health care coverage. so the senator marches on, but it's really clear out here what we are seeing, rick, in those national polls, and that is that we have a pretty divided public out there about what they see as obama-style reform. >> i cannot believe what i just heard in your report. i was -- my jaw dropped when i heard it. let me just ask you a very direct question. i wrote it down here as i heard it. when he says we should not have a government program that pulls the plug on grandma, is he implying that there is now that proposal in congress to have a government program to pull the plug on grandma? >> reporter: certainly that's

how critics of that particular remark took it. and it certainly sounds that way. i will tell you that the senator was asked about it afterwards and he said, listen, what i'm saying is i understand that there is fear when people read this that that might happen, but he personally didn't necessarily translate that provision as you know of aarp and the ama, american medical association all support this particular passage, which is in one of four bills that are up there. so senator grassley said that he he doesn't personally think you could translate it that way. but he understands why people look at it and come to that conclusion. >> isn't it incumbent among people like senator grassley who are the leaders of this government and of this country to set the record straight and be telling people the truth like the truth as we know it here at cnn, that there is absolutely no proposal out there for death panels or for proposals that would actually plan to decide when people die?

>> reporter: yes. and here's what i would tell you. that first of all, critics -- and this didn't come from senator grassley, but critics of that particular provision say that in the end, certainly as people get older, that that sort of counseling could be seen by those patients as coercive. having said that, i will bet you almost anything that if this question comes up in the next 16 town hall meetings that senator grassley has here, you will hear a different take on this, a more clarified version of he told reporters than what he said on the stump. >> great stuff, good report. thank you so much for that. now, let's turn to the health of the economy. the data has been encouraging lately. experts, some of them downright getty, optimistic. we talked about this last week. it's hard to pin down. there's a lot of variables going on. but are we possibly climbing out of the recession? some are even suggesting that parts of the recession may be over.

i know. what? what really matters, though, in many ways, is not what the experts are saying but what people out there are saying. they're the real stimulus in this. if they believe it's good, some say well, they'll spend more, they'll act differently. cnn chief business correspondent ali velshi is aboard the cnn express doing just that, taking the pulse of america. >> reporter: well, after driving through georgia, tennessee, kentucky, and illinois, we pulled into missouri and we're headed towards missouri near kansas city where the missouri state fair is. now the discussion's been about health care for most of the week. there was some interesting news about some prominent economists saying that the recession is over, the federal reserve saying that this downturn might be bottoming out. now this is something we've heard before, but we decided to ask people about it. what do they think about it? and what we found is while they don't disbelieve the facts, for most people, their personal economy isn't recovering nearly as quickly.

>> my personal recession is not over. >> i've already pushed my retirement ahead about five years. >> i think technically, the economists are correct. technically the recession is over, we're probably going into the next bull market. >> i look at my own 401(k) and do you know, i didn't get hit as hard as others, but it's not back where it was. >> if the recession is over as they say, i figure it's going to take me personally about five or six years just to gain what i've lost over the last couple of years. >> it's going to take six or nine months or a year before the job loss slows down and stops and we start turning around and adding jobs. >> no, we're not there. hopefully soon and i have a lot of hope that we will get through this. >> now through the course of this tour into the heartland, we have found some encouraging signs, particularly some real estate agents who feel that things have improved for them. more people signing deals. until the price of houses starts

to come up and those job losses start to ease up, most people aren't going to feel this recovery even if it's underway right now. >> by the way, not all of the economic news is good. yet another month for record foreclosures. the private firm realty track says 360,000 homeowners received the notice last month. christine romans as part of our cnn money team we're proud to say. and she's joining us now from new york. is this new? or sh this we're catching up to an old problem? >> this is an old problem that doesn't show any signs of abating, quite frankly. another month of foreclosure filings. and everything from the first notice in the mail that says look, you're two months past due, all the way to the end of the line. you're seeing record numbers of this. you look at the number up 7% from june in july, again and again, we see it month after month, 360,000 properties

getting one form of a foreclosure notice or another, and you look at it versus last year, look at that jump, up 32%. why? because some of the states that had a moratorium on foreclosures while they waited, those moratoriums have lifted now and so they're continuing the foreclosure process. where is it focussed? same old story, nevada, california, arizona, florida, looking at nevada, rick. 1 in 56 homes in the entire state has some sort of foreclosure notice. 1 in 56. down in florida, 1 in 154. that's almost double the national average. so in some of these places in the sun belt that really, really had huge developing and huge speculative bubbles, those have popped, but also you're seeing more foreclosures in illinois, other places in the midwest. so this problem is still growing here. >> hate to sound opportunistic, sounds like wonderful opportunities for real estate.

christine romans, thanks so much for bringing us up to date on that. this is also important to note. just because the foreclosures are over in an individual case, let's say you or your neighbor foreclosed on a home, that doesn't mean the problems are over for the homeowner. you don't just walk away. we're planning to show you what often goes overlooked by people who think that foreclosure is actually an end point. the cnn severe weather center, fire problems, flood problems on the east coast, and far east in the atlantic, we have a tropical depression. more weather's coming up when the "cnn newsroom" comes right back.

welcome back to the "cnn newsroom." i'm rick sanchez, filling in for heidi. a dramatic shift, a new strategy in afghanistan. a senate report is now saying that the u.s. military is going after afghan drug lords with orders to capture or kill traffickers with ties to the taliban. atia is joining us with the latest on this story.

she's in kabul. what's going on? >> reporter: well, rick, it's definitely a bolder approach than the approaches they've taken in the past, which was to just destroy poppy crops. and what we've seen in the past are provinces in afghanistan that have gone completely drug-free. but then the next year have seen a 200% increase. so now the bolder approach is to actually go after these drug traffickers, a target list of kill and capture for at least 367, 50 of those with ties to the drugs and the taliban, but what's also interesting about a report that we at cnn have obtained a copy of yet released report by the u.s. foreign relations committee, another surprise shows that al qaeda doesn't necessarily rely on the drug money here, but the taliban, they are getting money, but it's less than what we have expected in the past. rick? >> no wonder who have the prices of that drug are being seen cheaper all over the country, including here in the united states. that story in maine the other day would reflect.

thanks so much for that report. we'll keep checking back. cnn's startling investigation into the heart of a generation at the cross roads. now, christiane amanpour will reveal the struggle for the hearts and minds of the next generation of muslims. which way do they go? and how what happens in gaza and afghanistan, for example, and iraq will impact us all. again, christiane amanpour reports "generation islam," a two-hour special event tonight at 9:00 eastern. death panels, you've heard lots of people making that claim about the plans for health care reform. we're going to be cutting through all of noise and trying to break down the arguments for you.

and we welcome you back. i'm rick sanchez. a lot of claims are adding to the confusion about health care reform. so we're here to try and separate fact from fiction for you. our inside chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is here. he's going to be answering some questions. >> is it true that seniors will get counseling about end of life treatments? and what does that really mean? here's the part of the question that's most interesting.

i've heard people calling it a death panel. sarah palin. but even that confuses me. all right. i've got to tell you, sanjay, i'm kind of embarrassed as a news anchor i would have to ask you whether the president of the united states is actually setting up a panel to decide what people should be killed and when they should be killed. but that's where this conversation has gotten to, so have at it. >> you know, the hyperbole here, i think, going out on a limb and saying this is hyperbole without question. you're getting e-mails. >> that's fine. the truth is important. >> this idea that you have -- the truth is important here. and if you look at the language of the bill, which i think is very important, identify done this. page 425, for people who pay attention to that sort of thing. that's the page they're talking about what's become so controversial. talking specifically -- and i can read you some of this. advance care planning consultation defined as a senior and elderly person and a medical practitioner discussing advance

care planning, two things they don't say. one thing is you don't have to do this, number one. number two, you don't have to abide by the recommendation of the physician. >> but what you just described is, heaven forbid i love my parents so much and i can't even stop to think about what happened today, i have to do this. but if my mom and dad got to the point where it was critical for them, i would have someone that i would be able to talk to plan how me and my children and my family would deal with that. >> that's right. and the critics will charge, look, you can already do that. you can -- >> and insurance would pay for that? >> snurngs would pay for that. >> counseling. >> and, by the way, if you read the language for carefully, it should be done before your parents are at death's door. after the whole terry schiavo thing, i made a living will. that was something i suddenly thought about. living will, advance directives, how do i want to be treated if i'm in a state where i may not

potentially recover? one caveat, i've been doing so much research. you go to the geriatrics literatu literature, if a session like this does take place, elderly people are less likely to be aggressive with their own care after getting this counseling. because the doctors will lay out the options. do you want cpr? do you a breathing tube placed? and an elderly person may say after that counseling session, i don't want those things. >> or religious people. you can have religious beliefs that say, you know what? i don't want to be put on a machine. >> this idea that it conjures up this image of firing squads almost to call it a death panel, there is no mandate you have to have these meetings. >> how in the world did we get from a meeting about people getting counseling in case heaven forbid someone in their family's dying to a death panel? >> it's politics meets medicine in so many ways. >> we appreciate it. it's good to have these

conversations. all right, man. roads washed out after a typhoon, it's time for some extreme rescues. and we've got the pictures. crews use ropes and chairs to bring survivors to safety in taiwan.

hi, everybody, i'm rick sanchez filling in for heidi collins. there is another good sign from wall street. susan lisovicz at the new york stock exchange. seen a lot of good signs from wall street since march. what's going on, susan? >> you know, in march, rick, we began at the beginning of a terrific rally on the sense that things were not getting worse. increasingly that things are getting better. and the confirmation from the federal reserve came yesterday. the fed basically issuing its most optimistic statement in a year. but you know, since we've been talking a lot about health care,

rick, let me just use the u.s. economy as a patient. the patient may be out of icu, out of intensive care, but the u.s. economy -- the u.s. economy and the patient is not healthy yet. and we have some signs of it even though we're expecting a rally at the open, we're still seeing signs that the u.s. economy is sick. we have continuing jobless claims dip last week to 6.2 million people is still very, very high. and new jobless claims unexpectedly rose last week. retail sales, meanwhile, unexpectedly fell last month. auto sales benefitted from cash for clunkers, but those gains were swapped by weakness at department, furniture, and electronic stores. walmart said the quarterly profit was flat, but the world's largest retailer boosted its earnings out with walmart like other retailers is tweaking its bottom line from cost cuts, not higher sales. spending is down, why? because many people, unfortunately, are still losing their homes.

360,000 households received a foreclosure notice last month, that's up 7% from a year ago. and yet another record. those are the kinds of records we don't like to talk about. but at the open, the first minute of trading, rick, we are still seeing green arrows, the dow, the nasdaq, the s&p 500, each inching higher. there is a sense of optimism even though this recovery may be a very slow prolonged one that there are many signs that things are not getting worse. we've got a ways to go. >> you know what happens if it gets back on track too fast? that's called a steep hill or mountain, right? then it goes down just as steeply. isn't that what we're trying to avoid? these things as opposed to those things? right? >> well, you know, there's been a lot of talk about, you know, what shape the recovery will be. is it a u, is it a v? i think what you're talking about is the w. and why the fed is still administrating medicine to try to juice this economy, but

basically it says it sees an exit strategy later this fall. but it has to be careful not to pull the medicine too quickly because you could go back down again and that's basically i think what you're talking about. >> yeah. curves are good. curves are good. susan lisovicz, thank you. now to the breaking story that we've been following for you in california. we've been watching this thing all morning. now, look at this. this is a wildfire threatening hundreds of homes this morning. emergency officials there forcing evacuations in several communities. this is around san francisco. just south of san francisco, actually. firefighters are on the front lines in this thing. they're trying to stop the spread. so far, the fire seems to have the upper hand and not the firefighters. that's not good. 600 people, we're told, homeowners are being told to get out as soon as they can. now, the sun is just starting to come up over the fire this morning. these are some of the pictures we've been getting in from our affiliate kgo. it gives firefighters a pretty good look at the task at hand.

john farero with the cal fire. he's good enough to take some time to talk to us. we won't keep him too long. what's the situation right now with this fire, sir? >> well, right now, we're hopeful now that we've got some daylight on the fire we'll be able to find some ways or construct our ways in into the fire line we were unable to do last night because of the deep rugged terrain is covered with trees. >> how big an enemy is the wind for you? every time we talk to you about these things, you're telling us if the wind calms down, we'll be able to get a handle on things. >> that's what happened last night about 8:00, the wind picked up and blue the fire over a ridge above us. and pushed the fire down towards the coast and the town of davenport. this morning, we're expecting an onshore flow, which will move the fire in the other direction and, unfortunately, we don't very many resources on that side of the fire. >> uh-oh. >> we're trying to figure that

out now. looking forward to our aircraft getting overhead with the air tanks and the helicopters to give us a hand. >> i'm looking at these pictures as are many people and trying to figure out how many people will be affected by this. are there a lot of homes? >> you don't see the houses because of the trees. the houses are underneath the trees, up along narrow driveways and to the south of the fire maybe about three or four miles is the area called bonny dune which has quite a few homes tucked into the forested area. >> are we going to lose some of these homes you think? >> not if i have anything to do about it. >> that's interesting. and these are rich folks, aren't they? >> anybody in california's a rich folk. but not necessarily. a lot of these are older homes that have been here for years, maybe started out as summer cabins. but throughout the night, we requested engine strike teams from all the local fire departments in the area, marin,

san mateo counties, all the bay area. we've had them staged overnight, now we're beginning to deploy them as the fire takes on a new direction. >> well, you've got a good attitude about this. you know what you've got to do and i trust you guys will be doing a good job with it. my thanks for you for taking time to take us through this. we certainly appreciate it. we're going to be keeping an eye on this all morning long. for those of you waking up this morning in california and smelling a lot more smoke in the air as a result of this. take a look at this video now. it's from taiwan. rescuers rig up chairs on roads to bring victims of a typhoon to safety. about,000 people have been found alive in an area around three remote villages, but hundreds more are missing and feared dead. the typhoon dumped as much as 80 inches of rain on the island. this is the way they're getting them out. that's actually a chair they've tied to ropes. it keeps raining, though, which is making it harder to get some of those victims out. let's check in with rob and see

what he can tell us about this, as well. >> well, rick, particularly a typhoon had a long moisture plume that lasted for days, that's way gone. and now another push of moisture coming in not associated with that typhoon. the hits keep coming for them, and unfortunately, it doesn't look as good as it did a few days ago. what does look a little bit better today than it did is tropical depression number two, out here in the middle of the atlantic ocean. so the national hurricane center has -- not downgraded but dropped the winds on this thing. and now they're saying we're not sure this is going to become a tropical storm. it's heading into warm waters, yes, but sheer that's fighting with it a little bit. official forecast does bring it to tropical storm strength and brings it closer to the islands and eventually closer to the bahamas, but that is days if not over a week away before it gets to the u.s. no need to worry about that at the moment. a little bit more on the fires. you mentioned last night they had more of a north wind, they picked up, i had some measurements in the stations

that clock anywhere from 15 to 25 -- today they're hoping for more of an onshore, but not that typical onshore push where they get the fog, in some cases, the redwood, the drizzle, i don't see that strong of a marine push coming for quite some time. quite a bit of rain across parts of the northeast, and more today with instability and flood watch out for good chunk of all of new jersey, including parts of eastern pennsylvania and parts of the lower hudson valley today. on and off showers, yesterday in virginia, we had some torrential downpours, upwards of 5 and 6 inches of rainfall for some flooding. 67 degrees in san francisco, 77 rain cool degrees in new york, will be 88 degrees in tampa and 88 in atlanta, georgia. that's the latest from here, rick. >> hey, rob, thanks a lot. look at the smart aleck here on twitter.com. joe the mailman wrote to us after the series we did with candy crowley and sanjay gupta.

it says rick sanchez, read the bill, it does have wording referring to pulling the plug on grandma. wake up, rick. smart aleck. he is the best-selling author, one of america's best dressed men and probably the best known basketball coach in the country. but should university of louisville's rick pitino get a pass on a salacious scandal he's involved in. his shocking admission has many wondering about his media future. this married father of five said he had sex with a woman at a restaurant six years ago. here's where it gets ugly and strange. she apparently got pregnant and then he paid $3,000. now she's facing -- she is facing trial for allegedly trying to extort $10 million from him. she has pleaded not guilty. university officials say they were surprised to hear the story

but haven't made any decisions on what to do next. questions, why is she taking the heat more than him? and why is he unlike other sports figures and athletes like michael vick not losing his job? this seemed to be -- these i should say, seem to be some of the questions asked around the country this morning. so we want to know what you think about this rick pitino story. should he be allowed to keep coaching and mentoring young men? or was this just a mistake by a respected member of the community? what should happen? go to cnn.com/heidi. yes, i know, i'm not heidi. but anyway, we do want to know what you think. you could also go to twitter.com/ricksanchez. either way, we will be sharing your responses. back to those town halls. we keep hearing about the single-payer plans, what is single-payer? our josh levs is out there checking it out. single-payer means single-payer,

and the one single payer is the government. >> that would be the expectation. i've got to check out the people who are tweeting you. i'm going to check that out during the break. i have not said i was a single-payer supporter. that is what president obama told a town hall the other day and now that claim is facing the truth-o-meter five minutes from now, rick. well, foreclosure isn't -- by the way, josh, i was have a conversation -- did you ask me a question? >> no, i just said i'm going to check out your twitter page during the break, it sounds like -- >> they're having fun this morning. they're having fun. they're beings p persnikety. foreclosure isn't always the end, sometimes it's the beginning for homeowners. now some banks don't want to deal with taking the home back, leaving homeowners then holding the bag of unpaid bills, that is. also, you know, it's never too late to start exercising.

in fact, it's critical to keep your bones and muscles from waring away. >> reporter: it's 5:00 in the morning, and she's already exercising. an avid rower now in her 50s, margie says her passion for exercise has made a difference as she's gotten older. >> and i can lift easily things that i couldn't lift. and my body feels better, it gives me a lot of energy afterwards. >> reporter: when it comes to exercise and aging, there is a catch 22. exercise is crucial to keeping your bones and muscles healthy, however, too much impact can hurt you. so as you get older, it's a matter of finding that happy medium. according to the american academy of orthopedic surgeons, as we age, our bones change. around the age of 30, bones begin to lose minerals like calcium making them more fragile. as we get into our 40s, we begin to lose actual bone tissue, but exercise can help regenerate bone tissue and minerals,

slowing the onslaught of osteoporosis and arthritis. >> it's important if those with arthritis and those trying to prevent arthritis to cross train, get involved in a number of other sports so if your knees are starting to hurt or your sprain your ankle, cross train. >> reporter: also our muscles begin to shrink and the number of muscle fibers decreases. make sure to keep them limber. >> so it's important even more so in the 30s and 40s and 50s and beyond to do stretching before you exercise and stretching after you exercise to prevent injuries. >> reporter: they say it's never too late to start exercising. studies have shown people 50 or older who have never been active can improve their bones and muscles by taking on moderate exercise like walking, lightweight lifting, even rowing, just ask margie. for 30, 40, 50, i'm dr. sanjay gupta. i never thought i would have a heart attack,

but i did. you need to talk to your doctor about aspirin. you need to be your own advocate. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. you take care of your kids, now it's time to take care of yourself.

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welcome back, i'm rick sanchez. josh, you there? >> what's going on? >> the guy who i just called, he sent me a tweet, i'm not. >> you can be a little bit. i checked. >> the pitino story, by the way -- >> enough to know the basics. >> we've got comments on both sides. one says, what lesson is he teaching his players? the other one is personal. he didn't break a law. we've got to leave personal

lives of celebrities alone. so there you go. we've got two opinions on this thing. here's what i need from you. everybody -- people that watch cnn most of the day and keep hearing terms like single-payer, what's single-payer health care plan? you and i know it's the government's going to be single-payer. people want to know if you could drill down on that for us. >> yeah, absolutely. and the reason that president obama brought it up the other day. let's do this, let's start off with the latest comment that he made. first this is what he said on tuesday. >> i have not said that i was a single-payer supporter because frankly, we historically have had a employer-based system in this country with private insurers and for us to transition to a system like that, i believe would be too disruptive. >> key words in the town hall there, i have not said i'm a single-payer supporter. what a sing-payer system would be. take a look, a single-payer plan

relies on one payer to fund health care costs. technically you can have one that is not the government, but the kind everyone is talking about is the kind in which the government will be that single-payer. you go to the doctor, the hospital, that's what people are talking about when they hear that you pay through taxes and through the public system. now, this is what president obama's been asked about. this single-payer idea. and he said there he's not said he supports it, but actually, let's go back a little bit. this is what he said in 2003 when he was a state senator in illinois. >> i happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal health care. but as all of you know, we may not get that immediately because first we've got to take back the white house, and we've got to take back the presidency -- >> all right, rough video, and back then he did describe himself as supporting that idea. and even in 2008, this is what he was saying. take a listen to this. >> if i were designing a system from scratch, then i'd probably set up a single-payer system.

but the problem is, we're not starting from scratch. >> so you can see his position right now, he's not pushing this for the government. it's important to understand that as president he's not saying he wants a single-payer system. he says he's not putting that forward and does not want it to happen. that said, he has been a supporter of that idea. he has fought for it before. that's why the truth-o-meter, at politifact.com are ruling this particular claim false. saying, oh, yes he did if you're going to look at the past. and we encourage you to check out more of these. at all times, including right here, our very own cnn truth squad at cnnpolitics.com. the squad did such a great work and busy work, we're back up and running for this -- >> i'm aging myself for giving it away. but i remember the mod squad and that's what i think of when i think of the truth squad. by the way, single-payer, canada has single-payer, right? they love it, seem to think it

works for them. demographically, though, the united states is not canada. and i'm not sure it's a good analogy. >> no one in any prominence in the government >> you are hearing various governments around the world where they have similar debates, but sure a lot of support of it among canadians. >> because it's a good fit for them doesn't mean it's a good fit for the united states. although many people say that's what we need. thanks, josh, appreciate it. health care is more about medicine and form and insurance. a whole approach to life, for many people. meeting obstacles and trying to overcome them. photo journalist bethany swang is going to introduce us to a woman who inspires. this is a different way of looking at health care. she does it through example. >> hang on, i'm trying to be a an interpreter, too. this idea we had played out

really played out in the community. what i'd like to do first is a vocal warm up. my name is susie rashard. the actors tend to learn a lot about helping each other out. i am an actress, director and artistic director of open circle theater. i was born with brittle bones disease. look how tight it is for the wheelchairs to come in that way. 20,000, 30,000 people in the country have it. kind of like osteoporosis for your whole life, but a lot more complicated. fourth of four children. i had to have rods put in my leg bones to just sort of act as an infrastructure under the bone because the bone wasn't very good. having a family to deal with it helped a lot. having really great medical care helped a lot. i'm retired on disability

because i'm too sick to work and now i'm back on medicare through social security, i still have a limit on how much i can make. so, i don't own any property because i'm not allowed to. my car is also my parent's car. let's get in places. if i start doing well i get nervous because am i going to lose my benefits. i believe people with disabilities, if you want them to be a useful part of the society, you need to have medical care that you don't have to worry about having. clearly in general if you want people to be a useful part of society, they need to have medical care. you never know what's going to come of body, and you never know what will come of your body. theater has kept me sane and that has helped a lot and just be able to express myself and help other people express themselves is really important. >> that's great stuff. for more stories of inspiration

and struggle, go to our website. that's where we can help you with this. cnn.com/healthcare. ( siren blaring ) special interest groups are trying to block progress on health care reform, derailing the debate with myths and scare tactics. desperately trying to stop you from discovering that reform won't force you to give up your current coverage. you'll still be able to choose your doctor and insurance plan. tell congress not to let myths get in the way of fixing what's broken with health care. learn the facts at healthactionnow.org.

we have a lot going on and that's why we have people spread all over the country. we'll start with ali velshi. what have you got for us? >> missouri state fair in missouri. we're very close. we're going to the des moines, iowa, state fair tomorrow. i was told i couldn't wear this hat on tv too much. we're talking to people about health care, the economy and dollar day corn dogs. as you can see, rick, my day is pretty much set up. >> ali, has a great life, he gets to wear that hat and gets to have those conch dogs. i have something to help you out if you're one of the 150,000 americans who had to line up for the first time unemployment benefits last week. gets very complicated, rick, we'll break it down for you. everything you need to know at

the top of the hour. i'm elizabeth cohen in atlanta. ki parent bring their kids to thepedia titian and some parents are just saying no to the vaccine the government recommends. at the top of the hour, i'll tell you which one. we'll see you shortly. turning people away from free health care clinics. what's going on? we'll ask the woman in charge of one clinic that's faced with that decision every single day. her story.

welcome back. checking stories happening right now. thousands of mourners will attend today's wake for eunice kennedy shriver. shriver was the sister of president john f. kennedy and she founded the special olympics. she died tuesday at the age of 88. federal authorities are calling their bust of a marriage immigration ring one of the biggest ever. the 50 people charged include illegal immigrants and the u.s. citizens that they married. this ring was based in cincinnati, but reached all over the country. authorities say the illegal immigrants paid fees for the sham marriages and not to mention the documents that came with them. a former aide to bill

clinton is expected to turn herself in after a bench warrant was issued for her arrest. betsy wright is accused of smuggling contraband including a swiss army knife and a box cutter into an arkansas prison. it's a death row prison interestingly enough. wright was clinton's chief of staff when he was governor of the state. a fast-moving wildfire has grabbed our attention this morning. we have been watching it for you since early this morning near santa cruz, california. there's the map we prepped for you. right now hundreds of residents have been told to get going and leave almost everything behind, if they have to, so they can escape the fire. last hour we talked to one fire official and he told me that they're sending in strike teams now to try to tackle this fire. our rob marciano has been watching the fire for us this morning. rob, that official said, watch out for the onshore flow winds because that could change the game. what does that mean? >> usually that helps the game,

but in this particular case, it's not going to be quite strong enough to bring in a lot of moisture to knock down the humidity or raise the humidity and knock down some of those flames. so, what it's going to do for the firefighters is change the direction, that's what he was worried about. let's go further inland here and check out. north of the santa cruz, south of san francisco. kind of in the mountains. a bit of a valley but surrounded by redwood forests. when you're talking about, when you're talking about winds here, you can see them blowing the flames there. winds typically off the ocean would bring the humidity up and that's good but not quite a strong enough push to knock down the flame and just change the direction from a north to south direction which happened last night and pretty gusty winds last night and you can see the eastern plank of that smoke being lit up by the rising sun on the east. a north to south wind indicated by that smoke and later today

they indicate a northwest or maybe west wind which would push that smoke and flame a little bit farther inland. so, here it is back on the map, rick. right nuwe have this kind of wind and we're looking for more of this kind of wind. folks in santa cruz are not only smelling smoke, but seen some ash here. once this wind switches here, it will bring that fire more inland and when that happens, a few areas that are a little more populated. we don't have any rain or clouds here on the satellite imagery, again, just the onshore wind that will change the direction. no rain in the forecast, rick. marginally raising the mewmidity with this onshore push today. not a strong one where you get a lot of fog. in many cases in this part of the world, the redwoods will grab the fog and create their own rain or drizzle. not that strong enough of an onshore push and change direction of the flames and that's one thing they'll have to deal with today. >> we'll watch it, we'll watch it. i know you will, too. rob marciano taking command of

things for us at command central. thanks so much. we're talking to americans about health care, about politics and about the economy. look, this is news unfiltered. chief business correspondent ali velshi is on the cnn express. he's taking the voice of the people and not the pundits and the politicians, this hour we find him in missouri. he's at the state fair. ali, what did you find out there? >> this just happened. they have identical t-shirts that say grilled cheese and banana sandwiches, don't knock it until you try it. i'll have mine in just a few minutes. nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. we just pulled into the missouri state fair. this is not officially open yet. people are just coming in and we've been on the cnn express all week talking to people about health care and the economy and how they're doing. we're getting a lot of opinions

and those opinions i talked to you about early in the week, very similar. people are in disagreement about health care coverage and in disagreement if this recession is over. >> you know, as the that's interesting, economists say the recession is over, but are the people feeling that? i mean, when my wife and i prepare to go to the grocery store or to the mall, we're impacted by what we see on the business channels and what we hear people saying on networks. what are you hearing from people out there? >> i'm getting mixed feeling. i would say most people are not feeling it. the reason for that is this recession has been deep, it has been long, it has really cut people's house values down and that means they don't have money to get if they want to refinance their house. certainly taking a toll on the stock market, even though we've seen that market up so much since march. ultimately, rick, the problem is jobs. everybody knows somebody out of a job or who lost a job and

everybody keeps telling us we're not seeing job creation for several months down the road. most people we talked to have said they're not feeling the recovery yet. we talked to some people, particularly real estate agents who say the low mortgage rates and the fact that home prices are still so low are encouraging buyers and they're actually seeing real buyers but some time before people see a recovery. remember one thing, if this recovery has bottomed out, if this is the bottom, the flattening out, it's the worst point in the recovery, it's not going to feel good, but what will happen is you'll get a feeling things are improving and maybe that will help psychology out a little bit. rick? >> one word of advice to you, ali -- try the deep fried pickles. >> i was going to try deep fried everything. >> everything is deep fried at a fair. ali, thanks so much. we'll get back to you. new numbers, new worries on the economy. this morning we learn that

retail sales took an unexpected dip. sales other than cars that is fell 0.1%. that's far below the expected gain of the 0.7%. these are grim numbers that underscore the strength and the staying power of this recession. 558,000 americans filed first-time jobless claims last week. it's an increase from the previous week, but actually getting those benefits is no simple matter, just what you need to know. cnn.com poppy harlow. >> cnnmoney.com, rick. >> i'll do this again. cnnmoney.com's poppy harl, w. you know what my journalism professor would call that a freight train phrase that would be avoid by writers at all times. what have you got for us, poppy? >> worse than expected number when we look at the unemployment claims this week and what you need to know in every state you're eligible for those 26

weeks but then it changes, rick, when you look at the extension. it changes from about say 79 weeks in michigan where you have the highest unemployment in the country to 46 weeks in the state of utah. two extensions all depend on where you live. that's what you need to know. getting the final extension can be really tricky. that's what we found out. we talked to folks at the national employment law and they said the rules are crazy and they estimate that only half of the people that should get the unemployment benefits are actually receiving them. that's a big problem in this recession. one example, every week you've got to prove that you looked for work in three different places to qualify. how do you do that? you can do that online, you can do that over the phone, but if you have a claim that is a little different and needs some explaining, apparently, it could take hours and hours to get through to someone. little bit of good news, the situation is improving somewhat because the unemployment offices got $500 million in support from the stimulus bill, so they're

staffing up a little bit more. it's a tricky process. >> what else could it delay or jeopardize people's benefits? >> we put a question on my facebook page. sherry wrote in and talked about getting laid off from a defense contracting job. let me read in. she said i was able to accept a much lower paying job but by the time i paid health insurance, taxes and gasoline to get to work i was actually making less than unemployment. she left a job and now she's worried she won't get the unemployment. a problem a lot of folks are facing. she could lose her unemployment because of it, legally. when you file a claim, your previous employer is notified and they can challenge it and you can't get unemployment if you fire or quit. employers pay money into the unemployment fund every month. what we're hearing from the experts, 25% of any claims that

go in, they're challenged. that's a big issue. the process, delays the benefits, you have to have an arbitrator and they have to investigate it. the bottom line, file immediately when you lose your job because a lot of glitches in the system that you need to know about, rick. >> thanks, poppy, appreciate it. check out the dow by the way, the latest numbers are looking like that right now. down 30 points. at least at this point. we'll continue to check it, though. it's early in the day, we know. u.s. marines under fire in southern afghanistan. a new assault against taliban militants. chloe is 9 months old.

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i'm rick sanchez. new attacks threatening security ahead of next week's elections in afghanistan. 14 civilians killed in southern afghanistan and three of the victims were children. officials blame the taliban militants a roadside bomb also killed a u.s. soldier. meanwhile, hundreds of u.s. marines and afghan soldiers are part of a very new offensive in southern afghanistan. the goal to keep the taliban from interfering with the elections. more now from cnn pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. >> reporter: up close with marines on the front lines. >> it's good to get out here. >> reporter: part of operation eastern resolve ii the third major push this summer into the dangerous and lucrative center of afghanistan's drug trade. 400 u.s. marines and 100 afghan

troops jumped taliban lines in helicopters to take the town in helmand province. the first time the u.s. troops entered the strategic city. >> it is one of the key towns in the area. all the smaller towns are dependent on it. this is where the bazaar is. >> reporter: the marines are part of the extra 21,000 troops president obama ordered up early this year. their immediate mission, break the taliban's hold on the city and free residents to vote in next week's election. >> to the right of the wall right there. >> reporter: the taliban called for a boycott and threatened to ruin the election which the u.s. concedes is a challenge. >> holding an election in a war-time situation is always difficult, but a government needs legitimacy and this election was called for under the constitution. >> reporter: commanders predict a few more days of intense

fighting before the town is secured. >> and there's barbara now live joining us. is there a possibility that we're going to see more troops going into afghanistan, barbara? >> rick, that's really the question a lot of people are considering. what are we at right now? about 68,000 u.s. troops and every indication is that general stan mcchrystal, the newkened mar in afghanistan will, in fact, ask for more troops. maybe some specialty troops. so troops especially trained to go after those ieds, intelligence, reconnaissance troops, maybe reposition some troops. move them out of those remote mountain areas and get them into these populated areas. >> where are we going to get these troops from? we hear stories every day about how overworked our military is and they're still in iraq, right? i mean, am i crazy here or is that the question still to be asked? >> no, rick, you are not crazy. it's a very tough situation for

these young u.s. troops in the field. they are still in iraq. they are scheduled to draw down to reduce troop levels in iraq, but that's going to take time. they can draw down there, move some to afghanistan, but there's an even bigger complication, which is defense secretary robert gates is very unsettled about the prospect of too many u.s. troops in afghanistan. remember, the soviets had, what? 100,000 or better and they still didn't win there and the real thinking is that they can't let those troop levels get too high because it won't do any good, but they still don't have enough right now. very delicate balance to get it right. rick? >> it is tough. your heart goes out to the these guys that are trying to do the right thing, but some tough decisions that need to be made there. great stuff, as usual, from our pentagon correspondent, barbara, appreciate it. to really understand what is going on over there in afghanistan and why we're even there, you need to watch some of the specials we have coming your way. we want you to watch christiane

amanpour documentary. "generation islam." two-hour special right here on cnn i recommend it at 9:00 eastern. still in the region, pakistani helicopters have been pounding several taliban commander bases near the afghan border. intelligence officials say at least a dozen militants have been killed so far and several bases and hideouts have been destroyed. this assault comes as government forces turn up the heat following next week's chief. but taliban commanders are denying that the man was killed we'll be staying on top of that for you. also a shot in the arm to fight a disease. an update on one vaccine that has some parents saying, no way. ( chirp ) team three, boathouse? ( chirp ) oh yeah-- his and hers. - ( crowd gasping ) - ( chirp ) van gogh? ( chirp ) even steven.

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this is something a lot of parents don't know about and especially men, men in particular. let's pay attention, guys. lots of us are getting ready to send our kids back to school, inincluding our daughters, in my case. now, vaccinations are probably

on most parents to-do list but one vaccine has a lot of parents saying, no. or just say no. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is here with the details. what vaccine are we talking about and what does it prevent. >> we're talking about guardisil it protects against cervical cancer. who wouldn't want to protect your kid against getting cervical cancer later in life. i was talking to parents and pediatricians who are hesitant to give it at the time that they don't agree. look, my 11-year-old is not having sex, this is a relatively new vaccine, we don't necessarily know everything about it and so a lot of parents are asking not to get it, even though the cdc says get it. let me show you a little vote. i know you love online stuff. >> the twitter king. >> that's right, exactly.

here's a vote. we tweeted it, too. here's a vote where we asked parents, do you want to get the hpv sack seen from your doctor? 43% said absloutly, 40% said no way and 17% said not sure. this is over 6,000 people voting, not scientific but that's a lot of people. it's interesting to have 40 something percent, 40% say no to something the cdc recommends, that's a high number. >> help me understand what you just said. the vaccine actually gives you a disea disease? >> no. >> it's an immunization. >> no, the vaccine can prevent many cases of cervical cancer. >> which is caused by a virus. >> right. >> which is gotten by intercourse. >> men give it to women. >> the argument is from a lot of parents, i'm not going to give my daughter something which protects her against something that she's not allowed to have. >> that's one of the concerns that somehow you're encouraging

girls to have sex by saying, don't worry, you probably won't get cervical cancfer you get this shot. the concern i heard more were about side effects. vaccines can have side effects. every year more kids get it, the more you're going to see side effects come out. so, you can actually in our story today on cnn.com we have a link to a cdc website that lists all the things that have happened to girls and women after they've received this vaccine. now, it doesn't mean that the vaccine caused it, but, certainly these things give parents some pause. >> but as a dad i should consider this. we should watch your report and do the research. >> i know some parents who spent hours on the internet before getting their daughter this shot. let's look at some things that happened to the girls and women after receiving this shot. neurological disorders, blood clots even death after receiving guardasil. now, to be extremely clear merck says, yes, these things may have

happened, possibly after someone got the shot, but how do you know the shot caused it? maybe that girl was going to get a blood clot anyway. >> what do pediatricians say? >> i talked to several pediatricians who said, look, when a parents come in for polio or meningitis i tell them, you're getting this, you need to have this. for this, they're giving parent more leeway. if you don't want it, i'm not going to argue with you. if you want to wait a couple years, i'm not going to argue with you. they're treating it different from the pediatricians i talked to. >> tomorrow is going to be empower me friday and people can contribute to this. this is a whole thing about engaging the audience. >> we would like to engage our audience by having you send an e-mail to empower patient at cnn.com. we answer your questions and i should also say this gardasil callium have was talking about cnnhealth.com. >> parents need to go and need to try to make a good decision

for their doter. >> i just screwed up the introduction to poppy, so i'll get this one right. cnnhealth.com. always good to see you. a free health clinic overwhelmed and forced to turn the patients away. who are the people who rely on this as their lifeline? you know, the answer to this may surprise you.

we welcome you back. the nation's housing crisis, we're talking about another month of record foreclosures. the private firm realty track says 360,000 homeowners received the dreaded notices last month. christine romans is part of the cnn money team and she joins us now from new york to bring us up

to date on what's going on. this thing is going to be going on for some time. it's not going to be over for a couple months just because people were foreclosed on last year. >> you're absolutely right. this whole picture just shows how fragile any kind of recovery is going to be. you get a retail sales number that was surprisingly week down 0.1% and people were expecting a gain for retail sales. did you spend more money in july than you did in june? many americans are still being cautious because of the foreclosure situation and because of the job situation. they're not spending more money because they either can't or because they don't want to. they want to shore up their family finances as they wonder what the rest of this recession is going to look like. sales, if you strip out autos and even worse, down 0.6%. cash for clunkers, though, up 2.4%. so, you saw that where the consumer was doing some work was on the clunkers business. but, look, would you be spending more money, would the consumer

be spending more money if you got the foreclosure crisis. down the street you see more houses being foreclosed on is the trend here. 360,000 properties given some sort of a form of foreclosure filing in the month of july. that's a record. up 7% from june and up a whopping 32% from july 2008. we know the mortgage, the mortgage holders, the servicers have been unwilling or have been slow to rewrite and modify a lot of these, a lot of these loans. so, people are still foreclosing on these properties and it's still the same old problem spot it's florida, it's nevada, it's california. record levels there across the board, i mean, nevada 1 in 56 properties have been foreclosed on. we ran the numbers and it's something like 2,400 homes are foreclosed on a padlock that door owned by the bank every single day in july on average. think of that. that's 4 2,400 families, boom,

whose home has been foreclosed on. you can see why there's the nervousness about that situation and we just haven't been able to slow that trend and, frankly, some economists who say it maybe shouldn't be slow and there are people, there is a very fundamental shift happening here. you had overbuilding and overdevelopment in some areas and now this is the shakeout and it's going to be painful. >> some good news on the horizon, though. i've been hearing from some of the people that you talk to all the time that maybe some time in the fall, maybe winter we're going to see some quantifiable differences in the economy. just hearing that as a consumer, not a news anchor, but just as a consumer t makes me feel good and makes me want to go ahead and take my wife and kids out for dinner that friday night. >> look, the panic is passed. i think we can agree on that. that's something. we've been seeing that for a while. now that the panic is passed. i was talking to ceos yesterday and they said the panic part of this is over and now we're

making decisions and we're moving ahead and people are starting to think about hiring and a survey that said that some of these companies who have had hiring freezes for the last year, they're now talking about unfreezing those plans so that they can start hiring in the next year if they need to again. you're seeing things start to loosen up. you're absolutely right. we held these walmart numbers, though. these walmart second quarter results that show same-store sales at walmart, rick, fell 1.2%. part of that reason might be that people might want to take their wife or husband out for dinner and might want to go and buy something and they can't charge it on the card any more. they physically don't have the money to do the spending and that's what we have to see. we have to do the people who can get out there and start doing a little bit of activity in the economy and feel better and more confident enough to do that and then, of course, the restaurants, the department stores, the gas stations, they all employ people. >> i'm confident. i'll say it right here, honey, if you're watching, friday, we're going to mcdonald's after

the show. >> no, rick, no, no, no, no. >> what's wrong with that? >> take her to mcdonald's tonight and take her some place else tomorrow. >> i had a feeling you would react that way. call my wife. you guys are the same. thanks so much. we'll catch up a little bit later. more americans now are out of work, out of options in some cases and they're turning to health care. a closer look at the big lines and the big problems that free clinics. if you're taking 8 extra-strength tylenol...

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. . . i was on my way home from work last night and on my way to work this morning was this rick patino story that is grabbing the attention of so many americans.

if you don't know, here it is. one of the best-known basketball coaches in the country, but should the university of louisville coach get a pass on what is being described as a salacious scandal that he is now involved in. i was going to say embroiled in. both. the married father of five said he had sex with a woman at a restaurant right there in public at a restaurant or in the open, we should say. but it happened six years ago. the woman apparently got pregnant, he has paid her $3, 0 $3,000. now, she is facing trial for allegedly trying to extort $10 million from him. she has pleaded not guilty. university officials say they were surprised to hear the story, but they haven't made any decisions on what they're going to do next about rick patino. best had-selling author and best-dressed man in america.

why is she taking the heat more than him, some of our viewers are asking. also, why is he, unlike other sports figures that we talked about, athleeths like michael vick, for example, not immediately losing his job? a lot of variables in the p s on this. let's check heidi's blog. on this one, all i know is patino is not blameless in all of this and i have serious questions of the influence on his players. many are looked up to as role models. do we want the nba millionaires growing up believing that this kind of behavior is acceptable and in some ways rewarded? let me go over to the twitter page and show you another opinion that is different than that one. let's see if i can get that one up. look at this one here. the coach was a pig, but having consensual sex and then paying for her to terminate it is not a crime. extortion is.

so, there you have it. two comments on one story. we'll continue to filter your comments, by the way, and share them with viewers, as well. we want to look at this now. the health care crisis looked at from a completely different angle. more unemployed americans are now turning to free health clinics. and in growing numbers. they're being turned away. who in are the people who are relying on this services and what happens to them now? sherry wood faces that overwellming demand at the kansas city free health clinic and served as the president of the national association of free clinics. let me just take you through your experiences. tell us, we hear about these 47 to 50 million americans who have no insurance in this country. you deal, i imagine, with some of these people every day. who are they? what are their needs? tell us about them. >> we do deal with this every day. these are people just like you and me who happen just not to have health insurance.

most of them are people that work and now really trying just to make the ends meet and take care of themselves and their families. >> what do they come in for? >> they come in from hypertension, diabetes, we have hiv patients and we have people that are coming in from for behavioral health assistance that are really dealing with a lot of stress and issues that affecting them in how they can go through their daily life. >> a lot of people would argue, look, when you hear people say there are 47 million americans uninsured, that means they're uninsured, that doesn't mean they don't get health care. can walk into an emergency room in the united states and get care. what is the difference? >> what we're trying to do is keep people out of that emergency room because that costs everyone money if that happens. you can figure about $1,000 out of your premium for health insurance is going to cover the uninsured. if we can take care of them when

they're not as sick and it costs less plus it's much less stressful for them, it's better for everyone. >> having clinics like yours, in this case, they're free and i imagine someone has to take the burden of them. but in the future, the government might be involved in something like this. in the end makes health care cheaper because of prevention. is that what i hear you saying? >> exactly. most free clinics do prevention work. we run diabetic support groups so that we can help people learn about their nutrition. we really want to help them take care of themselves and we get people back in rue for routine checkups so we try to prevent the onset of some of the chronic dezeegzs that cost everybody so much money and so hard for people individually to deal with. >> would you like for the obama administration is to come up with a plan that puts you out of business? >> that would be wonderful. even with all the plans circulating, there are still people uninsured. right now with 47 million people in this country that are uninsured, even with the plan,

it would leave about 10 million people that are still going to need care. >> sherry wood, you're fabulous. thank you for taking time to take us through this. part of the health care debate has turned morbid in some places. all this talk about setting up a panel to decide who shall live and who shall die. here is our josh levs to take us through this on the -- i said this to sanjay gupta, but i'm embarrassed as a news anchor to have to ask you whether there actually is a plan that the president of the united states supports that would decide who should live and who should die. >> you're in a position of knowing the answer, unfortunately, there are so many rumors out there that we need to tackle them. i'm sure you're getting things on the twitter and on the blog from people. are these things true? death panel has been thrown out there, but hearing similar arguments in various ways. look at one woman said at town

hall. >> what it says is, as a 74-year-old man, if you develop cancer we're pretty much going to write you off because you're no longer a working citizen who will be paying taxes. >> well, you're just not right. nobody 74 is going to be written off because they have cancer. that's a vicious, malicious, untrue rumor. >> and a lot of the complaint we're hearing people who are concerned about this rumor are pretty much surrounding the same topic. governmental bureaucracy will make decisions about ethics. i will give you our ruling on this. let's go to this. a few key points about this, now, there is the house bill. 1,000 pages long and it will require medicare to cover consultations about advance care. but what you see on the next one here, these consultations, even

themselves, are not required. when you really drill in and look at this, the answer is very simple. here's our verdict from the cnn truth squad, simply false. nothing like a death panel anywhere in there. it isn't a rheumer and isn't accurate and has nuthing to do with what's in the bill. zoom in here for a second. i posted links for you, first of all, cnnpolitics.com. just top in my name. cnn.com/josh all these thinks will help you get the facts and i included a link to the 1,000-page bill that people are grabbing lines out of and giving meanings to and this over here is incredibly long and if you want to spend hours digging through it, i encourage you to take a look. this could be a bill that could ultimately be voted on and it also might not. we have to get all these merged together into one place and in the meantime, check out cnnpolitics.com and the truth squad will keep tackling these things as they keep piling lup

the time. >> i want you to take on this unbelievable controversy tomorrow after you tackled this one on whether or not the earth is flat. can you truth squad that for us? >> some things aren't worth our time. >> am i being a smart aleck? persnicktie? >> people tweet him and tell him if he's being a good or bad, i like it. >> no, tweet him. all right, thanks a lot, josh. talk, talk, talk. former vice president dick cheney reportedly says that george w. bush wasn't listening, according to the "washington post" cheney felt bush turned away from his advice during their second term in office. the cheney revelation came during discussions for his memoir which is due out 2011. the newspaper says that mr. bush "showed an independence that cheney just didn't see coming." a former aide to president bill clinton is expected to turn herself in after a bench warrant was issued for her arrest. betsy wright, remember her?

she is now accused of smuggling contraband including a swiss army knife and box cutter into a death row prison. wright was clinton's chief of staff when he was gurn of the state of arkansas. crews using zip lines to save lives. take a look at this. rescuers suspend ropes over raging rivers to carry typhoon survivers to safety. this is makeshift, by the way. see, that's just a chair they got out of somebody's front porch. we're showing you what's happening as it comes into us today from taiwan.

you must not watch at 3:00 from time to time. that's the whale and that's why we're shooting it. twitter is over capacity, folks. that means there's a possibility that we had some topics that we've been discussing this morning that everybody wants to talk about. certainly that rick pitino story, we'll stay on top of it and continue to share your responses. all right, time to take a look at this. look at these pictures. guess what we have just found out. these are live pictures we're getting in from just south of san francisco. this is kgo and according to fema's website, they just declared lockheed fire a natural major disaster. rob marciano has been watching this all day. the guy, mr. farraro who i was

talking to earlier today said, here's the problem. the wind was going this way and now it's going to go this way and we have all our trucks and all our gear on this side which means we have to do a flip and get everything. it sounds like these guys, these guys got their work cut out for them over the next couple hours, rob. >> the terrain they're working in is very rugged. moving any sort of equipment, you know, even if it's just a few miles away, it could be tens of miles to get to that particular spot doing the old round about. satellite imagery trying to show on-shore push but i think the push that we're going to see today is more just a change of the wind as opposed to being bringing in a serious amount of moisture that would create the fog, create the mist this area typically gets with a good onshore flow. where the fire is right now, right about here. winds have been coming from the north and northwest overnight and we've seen them gust 15, 20,

25 knots at times. now, they're worried and we think the winds will become a little more westerly. that's onshore that it's good that it brings more moisture but not enough moisture to knock down the flames. what it will do is push the flames towards the valley, which is more highly populated. these are some of the concerns that we're working on across that area. and i'm just looking at these. similar pictures you showed, rick. this is a vantage point, looks like now they're on the eastern side of the fire because we're seeing the flames lit up from this side. you can see the flames. >> i was going to say, you know, those trees are so tall, it's actually hard to tell exactly what's going on underneath them, right? >> you can see that within those flames on top of the trees, you can see how much the top of the trees are moving so, serious wind happening and fires when they get large enough can create their own wind but this particular wind looks to be generate sunaupically and it

means it is coming in driven by larger forces weatherwise. impressive pictures there and it does not look to get any better for those folks and we'll be updating that throughout the day, no doubt. they wish they could get some rain that they're getting across the northeast with rainfall here in an already saturated area. we're looking at the southeast and also the northeast, boy, parts of virginia got clobbered yesterday with rainfall. five and six inches in a short amount of time. we already have saturated soils across jersey and eastern pennsylvania and hudson valley and then one piece of good news here. tropical depression number two, rick, there it is. pretty much fizzling to nothing. so, that thing looks to be dying out at this point in the national hurricane center is keeping it and posting tropical storm any time soon. back over to you. >> rain is good. generally speaking. >> generally. >> generally speaking, as long as it's not too much.

thank you, rob. take a look at this video from taiwan. i want to share this with you. this is fascinating. these rescuers have rigged some kind of system where they took a chair from somebody's front porch, tied some ropes to it and this is how they're getting people to safety. this is pretty remarkable stuff. ingenious, isn't it? about 1,000 people have been found alive now in an area around some of the remote villages and many of them are alive because of this. that's how they were able to get them out of there. hundreds more are still missing and still feared dead. this typhoon dumped 80 inches of rain on the island and it's still raining which is making it harder to get to some of these victims. a lot of national and local relief organizations are bringing aid to the devastated communities and if you need their services, we can help you get in touch with some of them. please visit our impact your world page. again, the impact your world page on cnn's website where you'll find more details. that's at cnn.com/ impact.

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boy, i just want to let you know that we've been getting a ton of responses on the rick pitino story. the coach who is now involved in a sex scandal. we have been following it for

you and it probably is the number one story that people have been reacting to. we'll continue it get your thoughts. hit by foreclosure and then hit again. that's the reality for some families who are on the losing end as banks try and bail out, fail out, literally. cnn's alina cho takes a look at what happens when banks simply walk away. >> hey, rick. this is something that frankly surprised a lot of us around here. people whose homes have gone into foreclosure are finding out months, even years later that the very banks that seized their homes are walking away from them. it's leaving the homeowner confused and, worse, stuck with thousands of dollars in bills. when dellian and valerie sharp found out the bank was taking possession of their home after they defaulted on their mortgage, they thought it was the worst day of their lives. they were wrong. >> we could spend 45 days in jail over this housing issue. >> reporter: does that seem ridiculous to you? >> it does to me because it's

like, we don't own the house. >> reporter: they do own it. in november of 2006 a judge agreed the sharp's home was the bank's property and should be sold at auction. the couple moved out. but a year later, they learned bank of america never followed through on the foreclosure. in a statement, b of a told cnn the bank has not foreclosed on the property and the customer still holds the title. the sharps are shocked and the practice is perfectly legal. >> a number of the foreclosed properties have very little value left in them by the time they're reaching the end of the foreclosure process. if it's more expensive to follow the foreclosure all the way through and take the property, they just won't do it. >> reporter: it's happening in cities across america. banks walking away from so-called toxic titles. the sharps are facing thousands of fines from the city of buffalo, new york, from property violations and unpaid taxes. that's on top of the thousands they already paid in court fees. >> i mean, look at this. >> reporter: works as a housing

court mediator. he calls the vacant homes vulnerable targets. >> these are attractive to persons of criminal intent. >> because they're empty. >> they're empty. the bank refuses to allow anyone to move in, but they refuse to do anything to the property, as you can see. and it affects not only this property, but the properties next to them. >> reporter: the city of buffalo even filed a lawsuit alleging 37 banks that walk away from foreclosed homes are responsible for the city's loss in property tax revenue and an increase in police and fire costs. phras the sharps -- >> when you look and you find that something you thought was gone is still there, okay, now, it's what's next. >> reporter: well, what is next? >> we have no idea. >> we have no idea. >> reporter: as i mentioned, this is happening across america, but hardest hit are rust belt cities places like detroit and flint, michigan, and buffalo and cleveland, ohio.