decrease in hospital beds. >> reporter: this is not a cure for depression, but organizers say it's a subtle, nonstigmat e nonstigmatizing way to give some relief. the circle, the clinic, both in response to hemorrhaging hospital budgets and emergency rooms filled with patients. you going to get to a point in time when this doesn't have to be a clinic any more? >> if that happens, that means we have adequate health care. >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, new orleans. i'm heidi collins, "cnn newsroom" continues now with tony harris. good morning, everyone. it is tuesday morning, 25th day of august. washington spends more. takes in one deficit projection goes down a couple trillion and another goes down. a prosecutor will examine cia tactics did interrogators commit

crimes to keep teamericans safe from terrorists. will michael jackson's doctor face criminal charges? good morning, i'm tony harris and you are in the "cnn newsroom." the "cnn newsroom" is all about the benjamins this morning. not enough of them means washington is drowning in historic amounts of red ink. we will look at the new federal deficit projections for the next ten years and the money man, president obama wants ben bernanke to stay on a second term as fed chairman. we are covering issue number one with dan lothian and christine romans at the business desk in new york and let's start over at the new york stock exchange with stephanie elam and, stef, look, however you slice the numbers here, we are talking about an enormous amount of debt in the cbo's ten-year deficit outlook. but the number, let's be honest here, is coming in less than

anticipated, correct? >> yeah, you're still talking about numbers you can't even really fathom, tony. being less than that and being less than gargantuan. we did get two budget updates today. congressional budget office, that estimate saying they expect $7 trillion in deficit over the next ten years. now, the cbo is like congress' official scorekeeper. this number is better than previously projected and the reason why they anticipated more financial bailouts and bigger losses at the fdic because of failing banks. so, basically, what they had, they were planning for the worst, but the economy is now stabilizing and then on the other hand you have the white house office of management and budget and they expect the ten-year deficit to hit $9.05 trillion. that's worse than its previous estimate. it's hard to balance this one out. they're saying that the white house estimate for the economy has gotten worse and white house sees unemployment hitting 10% this year and economic growth being slower than expected and

that could mean that more government spending to help the economy will be necessary, but add to the deficit. but one thing that both of these agree on. both sides see the deficitt around $1.6 trillion, which will be the highest since world war ii. tony? >> again, no matter how you slice it, the numbers are gargantu gargantuan, huge. markets don't like deficit numbers and certainly not these numbers. how are the markets likely to respond to the numbers today? >> well, a lot of this, you know, it comes out to the fact that we knew that the number was going to be huge. the office of management and budget points to the cost of rescueing the economy from the deeper than expected recession but there the most part, wall street knew the number was going to be massive. that part was already there. if you look at why the deficit is so high, the deficit is the difference between what the government is spending and taking in. the government is spending a big thing, like extending unemployment, benefits, health

care, and meanwhile the government isn't bringing in as much in revenues and because people have lost their jobs and they don't pay as much in payroll taxes and not getting all that income and that starts hitting income, too. >> what is hapwing markets? >> markets are up. nasdaq has been up by 12 at 2030. we had economic data earlier and they seem to come back off of that. been in the green all day, though. >> stephanie, appreciate it, thank you. >> sure. president obama may be all about change, but he wants fed chairman ben bernanke to stay put. dan lothian is with the president today on martha's vineyard. dan, good to see you. over the last few weeks, you know, it appeared pretty clear that this morning's reappointment was really more a question of when and not if. is that correct? >> well, that's correct. a lot of speculation as to whether or not bernanke would get to keep his job. he met with flez, actually, last

week i'm told by senior administration official on wednesday where the job was discussed. at that point the president did offer the job, again, renominate him to another four years. as for the timing of it happening today a senior administration official telling me that they really wanted to sort of clear the air here because of that speculation of whether or not he would keep the job, they decided they want to put that to rest. that's why the president came out. they also felt by renominating bernanke he was someone that could really continue the stability in the market and decrease any possibility of disruption to the market and that was the reason that the president decided to renominate him, tony. >> dan, appreciate that. we want to talk more about ben bernanke and you talk about right place at the right time. ben bernanke is a scholar of the great depression and seemingly knew the right buttons to push to avoid a repeat of 1929. let's talk to christine romans, she's in new york with us. good to see you.

what did he do here, ben bernanke, what worked? >> he did so many things that we didn't even know existed. $1.3 trillion of them actually deployed in the economy everything and from backing up the commercial paper market to injecting dollars into foreign central banks in the very height of the crisis to backstopping government debt from the fannie mae and freddie mac and all kind of different things that they did to try to get money into the system to prevent a collapse and many say his efforts and the efforts of other foreign central banks and stimulus and all these other things together actually prevented a collapse and they say, look, here's this depressionary expert who helped stave off a depression but others say, others say he was too slow to recognize that this was all building and burning and i want you to listen to something that he said may 17th, 2000, tony. he was asked again and again what about this subprime crisis. this doesn't feel right, this is what he said. >> we do not expect significant

spillovers in the subprime markt to the rest of the economy or to the financial system. >> ouch. that's the fed chief who is the depression expert who there in the middle of all this happening was still saying the subprime crisises, he and many, many others say the subprime crisis will be detained. when he goes to the nomination process you'll hear some of this questioning about how do you know for sure what we're doing right now is the right way forward? >> aren't we coming up on the anniversary of the lehman brothers collapse? >> god help us, yes. >> so, my question is, you know, critics have suggested that he could have, he should have done more to save lehman brothers. what's your take on that? >> many of the people inside when that was all happening and literally going down and figuratively going down said they didn't have any other choice. they'll see the history books and write what was the fallout from lehman and whether that was the right or wrong choice and when you chart this economic

crisis, that is the point right there, the leeman crisis and when lehman went down, that's when all hell broke loose and that's when it happened. college courses written on this in mba skoochool and the like gg forward. it has only been a year. tony, we have so much work to be done. the president today was talking about bold experimentation and you heard that phrase, that's a phrase from fdr in 1932. fdr said to his critics, i promise you bold, experimentation. if this will work, i'll show you something else. that shows you the magnitude of the problem. the fed chief has to unwind all this stuff. he has to get all these trillions out without messing everything up again and also doing it in time before the dollar gets hurt and you have inflation and all these other unintended consequences. it's going to be tricky. >> that's moving forward. the real challenge. isn't that the truth, that

anything that bernanke has put in place here, could it be undermined. you mentioned it, inflation, deficits. >> we don't have inflation a problem right now, thank god. but you mentioned the deficits. those numbers are just heartstopping when you look at them. when you go to the congressional budget office, do it on the next break. on the very front they show you the chart that shows the size of the deficit in relation to the economy. that's really interesting, even more than the numbers. it's approaching 12% of the size of the economy and that's -- you can see in our lifetime it's never been like that. that gives you some perspective, i think of -- >> what's the site again? >> cbo.gov. look at the break. >> we'll put it up on the monitors so everyone could take a look. coming up in the next hour of the "cnn newsroom" ben bernanke's second act. what does he do for an encore?

i'll talk to jeanne sahadi and eamon javers. new details of the overdose that the coroner says killed michael jackson.

welcome back. i'm rob marciano in the severe weather center. a couple fronts bringing rough weather and one across the western great lakes and moving off to the east, places like minneapolis and over towards mu walky and eventually getting down towards chicago and feel the effects throughout the day today and then a troublesome front right through here and across the south and just draping across florida. this is what has given folks in nasa some fits because they tried to launch the space shuttle last night and great

nighttime launch around 1:00 in the morning and clouds and visibility was bad, they canceled that. we're already starting to see some action in the form of some thunderstorms, at least off shore right now. here's the forecast. from the folks there at nasa and the air force with a 1:10 departure time tonight, they gave a 30% probability of weather making this a no go for launch. so, we're hoping that the radar clears and we'll get this thing off the launch pad later tonight and spectacular show if you have the visibility to see it. 85 degrees expected today in chicago and 89 degrees in d.c. seasonably warm from pretty much the mississippi eastward and temperatures reflecting just that. as far as what we're looking at in the tropics. this is an item of concern, as well. with an area of development here, tropical wave has become better organized over the last day or so and now the national hurricane center is thinking this has a pretty good shot of becoming our next tropical depression and hurricane hunter aircraft en route and we'll get there later this afternoon and

send back valuableidata and pretty close to the u.s. mainland already just north of the caribbean. so, we're watching this very carefully and could affect the u.s. coastline certainly the strongter gets, the more it will be. that is the latest from the cnn hurricane headquarters.

in the hours before his death, two months ago, michael jackson was given anti-anxiety medications and a sedative, but what finally killed him was a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol. i apologize for that shot. that's according to preliminary findings from the los angeles coroner's office released an affidavit yesterday. cnn's thelma gutierrez has more. >> reporter: this 32-page document released in texas revealed there was lethal levels of propofol in michael jackson's blood at the time of his death according to preliminary findings of the los angeles coroner. dr. conrad murray, jackson's personal physician told detebtives he has been treating the star for insomnia for six weeks. giving him an iv drip with 50 milligrams of propofol every

night. he worried jackson was becoming addicted to propofol. to wean him off, murray put together different combinations of drugs that put jackson to sleep two nights prior to his death. murray told detectives what he did hour by hour. around 1:30 in the morning he gave jackson 10 milligrams of valium. at 2:00 a.m. he injected jackson with ativan, an anti-anxiety drug. at 3:00 a.m. versed. at 5:00 a.m. more ativan and at 7:30 more versed. he monitored jackson's vital signs the entire time. after repeated requests and demands from jackson, murray administered 25 milligrams of propofol and jackson finally went to sleep. after ten minutes murray went to the bathroom and was gone for two minutes.

when he returned, he says, jackson was no longer breathing. murray administered cpr until paramedics arrived but those efforts proved futile. dr. conrad murray's attorneys released a statement saying much of what was in the search warrant affidavit was factual, however, unfortunately, much is police theory. the timeline reported by law enforcement was not ubstained through interviews with dr. murray, as was implied by the affidavit. thelma gutierrez, cnn, los angeles. it's not clear why michael jackson was taking so much medication, but dr. drew pinsky tells cnn that the toxicology results indicate he had a serious problem. >> i don't make he's treating insomnia. no protocol on earth that would include these substances. however, what i also draw from this is that he probably was tolerant and potentially even addicted to these substances and maybe in withdrawn why he could

tolerate doses that would take down an elephant. >> our chief medical correspondent will show us exactly how the drug propofol is used and why it is considered so dangerous. the end of the road for cash for clunkers. the program's impact and the piles of paperwork still left to piles of paperwork still left to do. of their dreams.

top stories now. president obama nominated ben bernanke as federal reserve chairman. the president called his actions on the financial crisis bold and

out of the box. former vice president dick cheney says cia interrogation techniques at the center of a new investigation saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks. attorney general eric old er. that's after scrubbing today's early morning liftoff because of thunderstorms. "discovery" is set to deliver thousands of supplies to the international space station. if you still have a clunker at home, you might need to hold on to it for a while. the cash for clunkers program has run out of gas for now, even though car dealerships now have until 8:00 tonight to get their paperwork in. just how well did the program perform? our josh levs is here to show us. what do you have? >> they keep extending the deadline. >> a lot of paperwork to get in. >> that's one thing dealers are

concerned about. some stores that were trying to cut back and some dealerships were stopping on sunday. hey, tony, you ever had a car like this? >> you know i can't see. >> come on, zoom way in. >> oh, no, never. >> unfortunately -- >> is that a holdover from woodstock. >> 1983. so, no, this one wasn't. so, this is unfortunately one of the one that was beyond clunker and couldn't make it. we do have great stories here. i want everyone to see overall how it played out. the numbers the government had as of yesterday morning, clearly not done there. 625,000 cars already worth $2.58 billion in terms, not the cars themselves, but how much the government shelling out in those rebates. an analyst given up these stats having looked at how it has gone so far. he is expecting the total of $750,000 cars and analysts from

ford motor company and he's saying when he looks at what cars are out there on the road, that will be 2% of the approximately 42 million fuel hoggers, as we're putting it on cnnmoney that are out there on the road. clearly not like the majority of people took advantage of it. but hundreds of thousands of people doing a car exchange in this economy is something big, tony. >> do we know what the most popular cars were in this program? >> let's zoom back into the board. again, this is all from cnnmoney that put together a great spread. some trades that people made. see, i like this trade. this is someone who traded in a 1990 lincoln town car for a 2009 dodge caliber. this one reminds me of the car from hunter. now, one more example. this is the 2002 isuzu for a 2009 jetta. a lot of the most popular ones are the most popular cars on the road. toyota corolla and also the honda civic and also talking about the environment, the prius, the toyota prius.

we won't know finally until it's all tabulated in the coming days. next hour, poppy has more for us. she's looking at what happened next and how sharp a saledize cline is the industry bracing for, plus, tony, keep in mind, the government shelling out billions of dollars that we all pay for long term. cnn poppy harlow along with that next hour. >> josh, appreciate it. thank you. we're learning more about harsh interrogation techniques used on terror suspects and what the former vice president thinks about them.

our report out last month showed home prices actually rose and that was not a one-hit wonder because a fresh reading on home buying showed another increase. you know what, stephanie, look, i need existing home sales to go up and i need home sales to go up. you know what i need, i need the value of my home to increase because my home is my piggy baung. >> we just got real personal with your finances, like we did with your pinstripes a little earlier there. >> nice. >> your right.

home prices rose 3% and going up quarter to quarter there and this marks the first quarterly increase in three years. the report is from s & p schiller. prices not seen since 2003 and that prompted some buyers to jump back in the market. greatder mand for homes supports prices and that's a vital part of an economic recovery and that's why we care, tony. >> areas, maybe we can pinpoint this. what areas are rebounding and coming back the fastest, stephanie? >> cleveland, ohio. prices rose 4.2% in the second quarter there and then jump out over to the most beautiful part of the country, not that i'm bias, san francisco. i love my hometown and minneapolis prices rose more than 3% and pricedize clined in only two of the 20 cities, vegas and detroit. encouraging for sure, but we still have a long way to go. the declines hit double digits, but that report and a big jump

in consumer confidence really lifting the dow to the sixth gain in a row and there you have it, tony. >> stephanie, appreciate it, again. a threat to kill family members simulated drownings and the obama administration is investigating whether the cia interrogation techniques broke the law. dick cheney said harsh interrogations helped keep the country safe after 9/11 and elaine quijano has the details from a newly declassified report. interrogators threatened to kill the children of accused 9/11 mastermind khalid shaikh mohammed. the cia inspector general report said according to this interrogator the blank interrogator said to khalid shaikh mohammed that if anything else happens in the united states, we're going to kill your

children. the report also unveil aztec neek thought previously disclosed that an interrogator reportedly used a pressure point technique with both his hands on the detainee's neck manipulated his fingers to restrict the detainee's carotid artery until he passed out. new information about a gun and power drill accused of plotting the deadly bombing on the "u.s.s. cole." he entered the cell where al nashiri sat shackled and racked the handgun once or twice close to al nashiri's head. the briefer entered the detainee's cell and revved the drill while the detainee stood naked and hooded. the release comes after a lawsuit by the american national civil liberties union which called the detainees outrageous. >> an electric drill isn't torture and i'm not sure what

is. >> reporter: the report suggests that waterboarding got khalid shake muhammad to talk and only a few intelligence reports prior to the use of the waterboard. late monday the government released other declassified dumes that dick cheney requested arguing they would show the interrogation program saved lives. the cia analysis says information from detainee interrogations helped thwart a number of al qaeda plots and arrests disrupted attack plans in progress. what's not clear from the heavily redacted documents is whether that information was obtained through controversial techniques like waterboarding. >> elaine quijano joining us now from washington. elaine, give us more, if you would, of the reaction from former vice president dick cheney to the decision to investigate the cia interrogations. >> well, as you can imagine, it's a pretty strong reaction. the former vice president said that the cia deserves people's gratitude, not to be what he

called political investigations and he slammed the obama administration in a written statement saying "president obama's decision to athrough justice department to investigate and possibly prosecute cia personnel and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the cia to the white house serves as a reminder if any were needed of why so many americans have doubts about this administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security." pretty forceful statement there, tony. >> i'll say. if you would, talk to us about the changes the obama administration has ordered in the interrogation of the terror suspects moving forward. >> a new unit. officials calling it the high-value detainee interrogation group. this is a team made of officials from different agencies that will question high-level prisoners. the council will have oversight and this group will follow the guidelines outlined on interrogation and that manual, as you know, tony, prohibits

techniques like waterboarding. >> elaine quijano in washington, thank you. one of the youngest prisoners held at guantanamo bay is now back home in afghanistan. >> translator: i'm very happy. i can't even fit into my clothes. i spent a long time in jail. thanks to god i'm happy to be back with my family. >> he may have been as young as 14 when he was detained. a military judge found that jawad initially denied throwing the grenade but changed his story after afghan authorities threatened to kill him and his family. we're told he wants to go back to school. partial results are now in from afghanistan's presidential election. they show the incumbent harmid karzai and his challenger abdullah, abdullah neck and neck. that's on top of other alleged irregulari irregularities.

atia reports from kabul. >> reporter: intimidation, violence and ballot stuffing. afghanistan elections were marred from the start and now allegations of fraud are flying. presidential candidate dr. abdullah abdullah alleges that harmid karzai's campaign is stealing the election in front of the world's eyes and the reprecussions will be severe. >> the survival of the state and i don't see a future for this country. the level of disappointment of the people. >> reporter: already hundreds of complaints have poured into the electrical complaints commission with several dozens labeled as high priority. the ecc chaired by a canadian says it will delay result announcement until they have investigated each complaint. dr. abdullah warns that it's not just democracy that will fail in the eyes of his countrymen if fraud is not addressed but the

initial mission in afghanistan will be at stake. here at a preelection rally, the energy and excitement was overwhelming as thousands showed up in support of dr. abdullah. the fear now is this positive energy will turn into something more violent if the results are seen as legitimate. for his part, a spokesman for karzai's campaign says it had its own concerns, but it's not airing its grievances publicly. >> they're making irresponsible comments and this is disrespe disrespectful to the process and disrespectful to the mechanism which is in place, which is the institution and this is disrespectful to the voice of the people. >> reporter: here at a store in the capital, afghans are worried. if fraud was involved in the election, he says, i don't think the situation in afghanistan will improve. it will probably get worse than it even is now because everyone is looking out for their own needs, not the country's. dr. abdullah says that he will

do what the people ask him to do. if the silence breaks down, what will you do? >> i try to prevent that. i try to prevent that. but i l i can promise is that i will be with the people. >> reporter: potentially ominous words if the people choose to take to the streets. afghan and international diplomats want to prevent such a scenario and are hoping to make a deal, but abdullah says deals with the karzai government is what has prevented the country from moving forward. >> atia joining us live now from the afghan capital of kabul. what more can you tell us about today's partial results? >> well, what i can tell you is that this was 10% of the votes that were cast on the day of the election. but although it seems like president karzai and dr. abdullah abdullah are neck and neck, we have to remember where these numbers are coming from. many of the tallies are coming

from provinces that have supported dr. abdullah and provinces that have supported president karzai and no votes have been counted just yet. we may see a huge discrepancy between the two as we get figures from those southern provinces. those provinces where we see most of the american troops at the moment and coalition troops. only 1% were tallied and zero from helmand because right now too dangerous to bring the ballots back to kabul and we may see a big difference as the days go by. >> all right, atia in kabul. it is a make or break month for health care reform and we're taking you around the world to see the pros and cons. chief medical correspondent dr. san jigupta has lesson os from ireland. welcome to the now network. population: 49 million.

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a quick recap of our top stories right now. congress and the white house are out right now with new deficit projections for the next decade. the congressional budget office lowered its estimates to $7 trillion. the white house budget office raised its projection to $9 trillion. an alarming prediction about swine flu. a government panel says 30,000 to 90,000 people could die from the h1n1 this fall and winter. most of the victims expected to be children and young adults. >> the cabinet meeting i stopped in and had a lot of

correspondents that i was going through. we'll get back in the saddal and it feels good to get back. >> milwaukee mayor tom barrett. yesterday was his first day back at work after he was beaten with a metal bar, a tire iron after he intervened in a domestic dispute. the suspect in that case is due in court this week. summer is winding down, but health care reform is still a hot topic during this make or break month in the debate. emotions running pretty high inside and outside a town hall meeting in illinois yesterday. >> i am here by my own free will as my god-given right! >> an overflow crowd turned out for the meeting. it was hosted by republican congressman mark kirk in arlington heights, illinois. organizers scheduled a second meeting to accommodate the crowd and we're listening to more voices and views on health care reform. today lawmakers are holding town hall meetings in oklahoma city,

germantown, maryland, and fairfax, virginia and reston, virginia. we will bring you details of the debate and the discussion. the health care overhaul under debate in the united states right now is similar to what ireland implemented a few years ago. how is it working there and what lessons can the u.s. learn from the irish? our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta takes a look. >> hey, there, from the global cancer summit in dublin, ireland. we've been out here for a few days now, but i couldn't help but think of health care reform back home. five years ago ireland found itself in the same position that the united states is in now. trying to reform their health care system. i took advantage of the unique opportunity to sit down with the health minister to find out where ireland stands, what went right and what went wrong. in ireland, everyone has access to health care via a taxed public plan, but half choose to spend additional money on a private plan. why does that happen?

if you have access to the public system, is it not good enough for 50% of the people like you say? >> i do it for choice of facility or choice of doctor or choice of accommodation, better quality accommodation. single rooms and private hospitals, for example, and speedier access in many cases. more routine and procedures can be done much more quickly and if you've access to private health insurance. >> in the public sector, one can wait up to three years for a hip replacement or a cornea lens transplant. >> reporter: many waiting lists have been cut from years to a few months but tough choices still have to be made. >> if you look at the silos of how they predicated health reform and decreasing costs and increasing access. can you do both? can you really decrease costs across the board, as well? >> well, it's possible only if you reduce the number of procedures or the cost of those procedures. >> so i'll say that's rationing.

>> no matter how much money you put into health and you'll have more patients than you have at any one time and a question of how quickly you can prioritize and the treatments for all patients whether they're urgent or not so urgent. >> reporter: no matter what country you're from, ireland or the united states, it seems to always come down to cost. >> the medicare system in the united states is going broke. they say they will be broke by the year 2017. it's very expensive and hard to maintain budgets. same problem here in ireland? >> yes. we spend, this year we would spend over 40% of the money we will raise in taxation in the country on public health care. >> 40%. >> incredible amount of money and, therefore, if we're going to do that within existing budgets, then we have to get smarter in the way we provide treatment. >> and it's worth pointing out that every physician in ireland has to accept all types of insurance, including the public insurance. overall, the minister thinks things have gotten better here

in ireland and waiting times have gotten shorter and everyone is insured and, as you can see, it has come with a tremendous cost. >> in-depth coverage of the health reform debate on oour website. take a look at it here, you can check the facts and find a town haut meeting near you and read the proposed legislation and go to cnn.com/healthcare. here are some of the stories we're working on for the next hour of "cnn newsroom." president obama appoints ben bernanke to a second term. mind-blowing estimates out on red ink. our panel discusses deficits and money matters. sobering scenario. tens of thousands of americans could actually die from swine flu. elizabeth cohen explains what you need to know when deciding on vaccinations for you and your children. and out of work in california, the state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, but there are some bright spots.

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>> reporter: the floodwaters washed away so much here, so much lost. but they also washed away a crippling problem -- a terrible public school system. todd purvis is principal of the kip central academy. >> right now it's the louisiana and mississippi always at the bottom of public education. are you optimistic that this will change? >> i'm very optimistic, i tell the parents that i firmly believe that new orleans in five or ten years will be looked to as the model as how you reform an educational system. >> reporter: donnell bailey said before the storm he did poorly in a poor public school. he failed fourth grade and said he never thought about his future. >> i actually thought the storm was a blessing in disguise. >> reporter: the storm forced an education overhaul from the ground up. this man, paul vlass, who turned around schools in philadelphia and chicago, is driving the change, and he's in a hurry. >> in the recovery school

districts alone, the last two years we saw an increase in test scores in every subject at every grade level. >> reporter: he inherited a district where only about 4 in 10 kids graduated from high school. in fact, so many students were failing so badly, the state had taken control over about 85% of the district's schools. well, valas is now spending millions of federal dollars pouring in, giving kids laptops and offering smaller class sizes that give more one-on-one instruction, but perhaps, most importantly, he hired a small army of young, motivaivated teachers from across the country from teach from america. some of whom replaced veteran teachers that were considered underperforming. >> they bring a certain energy and personality and drive into the schools that really creates a culture of high expectations. >> reporter: as for donnell bailey, that's why he calls the storm a blessing. >> it changed my teachers. the expectations were more

higher and my teachers are expecting me to live up to those expectations. so, like, the drive that my teachers gave me has really pushed me up to that level. in fact, donnell's new public schools pushed him so hard and he learned so well that he received a scholarship to a $17,000 a year private school. it's a good story. it's a wedding formula between new schools and teachers and new laptops. but they are not all good stories here. by state law if students don't pass an exit exam at the end of eighth grade, they're not promoted to high school. she studies at home because she failed the test and can't enroll in school. her mom says kurtisha has a learning disability, difficulty retaining information, and she doesn't want the 15-year-old to attend the eighth grade for a third time. ann says the district isn't providing adequate tutoring and other resources that might give her a chance for a high school diploma.

what's your big fear? are you worried that she could fall through the cracks and get frustrated and simply drop out? >> i feel as though she's already fallen through the cracks. i mean, she's already through -- >> reporter: the new education czar said the situation is disappointing and, no, not every student is succeeding. he doesn't like graduate exams. >> i've always thought that you give the high stakes test and if the child does not pass all -- you know, all the components of that test, then -- then you conditionally pass the student if the student has hit other benchmarks. >> reporter: and the district's long-term goal -- >> who is going to college? >> we're going to college! >> reporter: for families here, that's been an unthinkable goal. only about 7% of new orleans' public school kids graduate from college. that's right, just 7%. so, some things never change here. once again, it's hurricane season. and thoughts of katrina are always here. but there is now hope, because

katrina did bring paul valas and his army of new teachers here, and there's hope of a brighter future for the kids. sean callebs, cnn, new orleans. so much work to be done and some key positions still not filled in the obama administration. the help-wanted sign is out at the white house. (mom) he needed everything for college: towels, sheets and then there was the stuff he wanted... like a new microwave. and because of walmart's unbeatable prices, we were able to get it all. ...and then some. set them up for success-- for less. save money. live better. walmart.

a whole lot of job vacancies still in the obama administration. the president has secured confirmation for only 43% of 500 senior policy jobs.

our louise schiavone looks at key positions not yet filled. >> reporter: help wanted, the director for agency of international development, customs and border protection, drug enforcement agency, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives. the latest head count from a team of academics show that fewer than 50% of policy-making positions requiring senate confirmation have been filled. >> while it means that a lot of the agencies of government that are driving important public policies that have consequences for the lives of millions of americans don't have leadership at this point. >> reporter: the white house transition project calculates that 210 days in to the obama administration with 385 confirmation-required policy-making executive branch jobs on the line, president obama has nominated 243 candidates, and the senate has confirmed 193, about half of the total. the white house concedes -- >> do we have some more hiring

to do? sure. but are we able to make a lot of progress with the team that's in place right now? absolutely. so, i think that moving forward, the president feels good about his team, and he's going to continue to put together a strong team. >> reporter: in the senate majority leader harry reid's spokesman jim manly says -- one factor slowing the process, nominees with background problems, like former senator tom daschle. his cabinet appointment was derailed by tax troubles. meantime, notes the conservative heritage foundation, the president has appointed numerous policy czars. >> t.a.r.p. czar and the great lakes czar, they have all the different czars, the car czar. and numerous other czars, who are making very important, critical decisions in the government, but they don't have to go through senate confirmations. >> reporter: and the prospect of a policy czar overriding them, says one analyst, may well discourage good candidates for some of the executive cabinet positions. the record shows the obama white

house is no farther behind on appointments than recent administrations. historians say it just reflects the massive scope of the u.s. government. louise schiavone for cnn, washington. and first this hour -- washington is on a wild spending binge to fight the recession. that means with a little surprise, record-breaking deficits this year and over the next decade. congress and the white house release competing projections today. both agree the deficit for fiscal 2009, which ends next month, will come in at close to $1.6 trillion. my! congress lowered its ten-year estimate from $9 trillion to $7 trillion, while the white house raised its from $7 trillion to $9 trillion. president obama wants his chief recession fighter to stay on the job another four years. he nominated fed chairman ben bernanke for a second term today. the president vacationing on martha's vineyard said bernanke's bold actions prevented a second great depression. >> the man next to me, ben

bernanke, has led the fed through one of the worst financial crises that this nation and the world has ever faced. as an expert on the causes of the great depression, i'm sure ben never imagined that he would be part of a team responsible for preventing another. but because of his background, his temperament, his courage and his creativity that's exactly what he has helped to achieve. and that is why i am reappointing him to another term as chairman of the federal reserve. >> the federal reserve, like other economic policymakers, has been challenged by the unprecedented events of the past few years. we have been bold or deliberate as circumstances demanded, but our objective remains constant -- to restore a more stable, financial, and economic virmt in which opportunity can, again, flourish and in which americ americans' hard work and creativity can receive their proper rewards.

>> it requires senate approval. analysts haves doubt that will happen. home prices did something nnt second quarter they haven't done in three long years. they went up. case-shiller's national home price index increased almost 3% over the first quarter of 2009. cleveland had the biggest rebound in the second quarter. up more than 4% from april to june. only two cities in the 20-city index showed declines, las vegas and detroit. coming up this hour -- we will look at ben bernanke's second term as fed chairman. what does he do forren encore? i will be talking with "fortune's" magazine colin barr and politico.com's ammeamon jav. the auto industry is bracing for a hangover. cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow has our "breakdown" from new york. hi, poppy. how bad could it actually be? >> i think hangover is a great

way to put it. we're looking at a projected steep drop-off in u.s. auto sales. right away a dealer in portland, oregon, telling us, and i'll quote him, i think you'll be able to shoot a scan none through here, talking about his dealership and not hurt anybody. edmund's.com, the experts there saying they think sales will fall 40% immediately now that cash for clunkers will wrap up, down to where they were in may. take a look at this chart and you'll see what we're talking about. sales were below the 10 million mark, 9.9 million. and thanks to the cash for clunkers program, in july the rate soared to more than 11 million. first time all year it crossed the 10 million mark. so, a big, big boost for the u.s. automakers. but the party can't last forever, tony, and it's over. >> it's over. aren't some of these dealers essentially wiped out of inventory? >> it's a great question. they are. we visited bay ridge toyota in brookl

brooklyn, not far from our studio. the manager there said toyota cannot even tell him, tony, when he might get nor cars. he said he's out of corollas and cameras and rav 4s, the dealers tell us there's a lack of inventory, so the price is pretty high. the bottom-line, takeaway here is if you didn't get in on cash for clunkers, you might want to wait a little bit until they get more inventory and the prices go down. >> what about manufacture/dealer incentives? will we see more of those to try to lift sales in the meantime? >> that's the question we had yesterday when we were looking in to this. we called gm. we called ford. both of them say at this point they're not planning to provide any extra cash incentives. it doesn't make sense that the inventory that is so low on the lots right now. analysts say when you look at all of the incentives may be coming back, what edmunds.com

said you can expect an average incentive of $3,000, but cash for clunkers was about $4,500. it's over. but the dealers have to get paperwork in tonight by 8:00. more on the story right there on cnnmoney.com. >> heck of a party while it lasted. poppy harlow, appreciate you. >> it was. to your health now and frightening redictions about swine flu. a government panel says up to 90,000 americans could die of the h1n1 strain this fall and winter. our senior medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen, is with me now. elizabeth, look, this 30,000 to 90,000 swine flu deaths number, this fall and winter, is that on top of the deaths we see with the regular seasonal flu? >> it is. right. as if it weren't frightening enough. >> yeah. >> that is true. we're talking about swine flu deaths, and we're talking about regular seasonal flu deaths. so, we're talking about very likely more deaths due to flu in general than in previous years. >> wow. >> so, you mentioned the number 90,000. >> yeah.

>> that's the worst-case, kind of nightmare scenario. what the government panel found is when they tried to estimate how many people would die of swine flu this upcoming flu season, they predicted it would be between 30,000 and 90,000. now, to put that in perspective, 30,000 people die every year from regular, seasonal flu, so the deaths in the sort of top row there would be on top of the deaths that we see from seasonal flu. let's look at illnesses now. what this report found is 30% to 60% of americans will become ill from swine flu. regularly about 5% to 20% americans become ill from regular seasonal flu. you can see they are pretty big numbers. they are on top of seasonal flu. but i would like to say that nobody really has a crystal ball. they're just estimating it. they don't really know -- >> okay. >> -- what they do know is most people when they get swine flu really are pretty okay. >> yeah, yeah. >> they're sick for three or four days, but they're okay. it's important to keep it in mind. >> you hear the number and it

sounds pretty frightening. >> right. >> but keep it all in perspective here. maybe it's a good time for you to remind us how many people in the united states have actually died from swine flu. >> right. because i think people have forgotten that number as time has gone on. so far in the united states, there have been approximately 522 deaths from swine flu. if you take a look at this, you will see what sets it apart. 41% of those deaths are in people age 25 to 49 years old. 24%, much smaller number, in older people. and even smaller when you move into senior citizens, 16% ages 5 to 24. so, as you can see, the bulk of these deaths are in people who are under the age of 50. >> yeah, yeah. >> that's notable. in seasonal flu it's usually older people that fall victim. >> help me with this, so how many -- this is stacking up to be a pretty big flu season, seasonal flu, swine flu, how many shots are we talking about here? and how do we make a decision as to whether or not we get the series of shots? >> right. if you want to be vaccinated

against both seasonal flu and h1n1, you'll get three shots. three shots. because seasonal flu is one shot. and swine flu is two shots. you got to get one shot and you have to get another shot three weeks later. the reason for that is that none of us have ever -- our bodies haven't seen h1n1 before. >> got you. >> so, it takes two shots to get a good immune response. that's easy. the second part of your question is harder, which is should you get these shots. >> yeah. >> you know what, it's not required because you don't need it to get into school or anything like that, so everyone will have to make their own decision. 522 deaths, oh, my goodness, a lot of these people are young, i'm young, i want to do everything i can, you want to be first in line to get the swine flu shot. other people just aren't -- they just don't want to get anything that's new -- >> hello! yeah. knock, knock, knock. >> and this one flu vaccine in many ways is new, because they had to -- because it's a new virus. >> sure. >> but, on the other hand, it's a flu shot, and flu shots have been around forever.

>> got you. >> so, you know, someone like not in to getting this, you may opt not to get it. but, god forbid, if all of a people drop dead from swine flu, you might change your mind. >> let's have it before we get there. i woneder, what's the best advice for all of us, we want to avoid the flu season altogether and get through it unscathed, what's the best advice? >> the best thing you can do to keep yourself from getting the flu is basic stuff. i'm going to repeat it because we all forget it. wash your hands a lot. soap and water. >> pass it on to your kids as well, right? >> yeah, kids are terrible about it. sing "happy birthday" three times while you're washing and things like that. >> and tell your doctors. hello. >> your doctors, don't let them near you if you haven't washed your hands. you will have to tell them, i know from experience. also don't go out if you're sick. don't go to work. don't sender kids to school.

some parents advil their kids up so they can get through the door. don't do that. cough or sneeze into your sleeve. some people call it the count dracula cough, do that, don't sneeze into your hand and then shake someone's hand and say, hi, nice to meet you. >> hi, nice to meet you. >> don't do that. >> but we're healthy! >> thanks. >> good details, thank you. how some cia interrogators handled terror suspects, big questions about the legal implications and what this means for the u.s. intelligence community.

welcome back to the "cnn newsroom." i'm tony harris. california has the worst jobless numbers in the country right now. we will show you how neighboring nevada is taking advantage of the golden state's problems in luring jobs its way.

necessary steps to protect the nation after 9/11, or did cia tactics used to question terror suspects cross the line? the obama administration said it will investigate whether the interrogations broke the law. the announcement follows the release of a newly declassified report. cnn's joe johns has details from washington. >> reporter: for those who say the u.s. tortured high-level al qaeda detainees and for those on the other side who call it enhanced interrogation techniques, it was more fuel for both sides. we learned that al rahim al

nashiri, the cole bombing suspect, was threatened with an unloaded semiautomatic handgun pointed at his head. at one time, a debriefer also came at him with a power drill but didn't touch him with it. the report also details mock executions. in one instance a gun was fired in a room next to the one where a suspect was being held so he would think a prisoner was being killed. then when the guards moved the detainee from the interrogation room, they passed a guard who was dressed as a hooded detainee, lying motionless on the ground and made to appear as if he'd been shot to death. there were also threats against the families of the prisoners, of nashiri's family saying we can get your mother in here and we can bring your family in here. but the report said the debriefer denied that was a threat. still, the report also said one interrogator threatened 9/11 mastermind khalid shaikh mohammed, saying if anything else happens in the united states, we're going to kill your children. all of it more fuel for the

critics of the cia, and enough for the obama administration to announce that the fbi, not the cia, will lead a new special unit of terrorists interrogators. the new information will also keep the human rights versus security debate still strong, begging the question are u.s. interrogators from the bush era now go being to prosecuted under president obama? >> well, as the president has said repeatedly, he thinks we should be looking forward, not backward. he does agree with the attorney general that anyone who conducted actions that had been sanctioned should not be prosecuted. >> reporter: the attorney general asked special prosecutor john durham who is already looking in to the cia's interrogation techniques to also try to determine whether interrogators crossed any legal line. but mark danner, the author of "torture in truth" has been pushing for the president to get to the bottom of this story, and says it's not about the interrogators, it's about the policymakers. >> the obama administration has gone far to acknowledge or at

least to tacitly agree that the things the bush administration declared legal were, in fact, legal. that it won't investigate those decisions. and that, it seems to me, is a tragedy. >> reporter: whatever the case, none of this is particularly good news for the folks at the cia, whose director, leon panetta, wrote in a letter to his troops that in many ways this is an old story. though he knows so far it's not nearly old enough to be forgotten. joe johns, cnn, wshts. vice president -- make that former vice president, dick cheney, says harsh cia interrogations prevented terror attacks and saved lives. he blasted the obama administration in a statement. cheney says, quoting now, president obama's decision to allow the justice department to investigate and possibly prosecute cia personnel, and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the cia to the white house, serves as a reminder, if they were needed, of why so many americans have doubts about this administration's ability to be

responsible for our nation's security. california's economy has take an real beating in this recession. the job market has been hit especially hard, but government jobs have escaped some of the pain felt in the private sector. the story now from cnn's casey wian. >> reporter: california has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates, 11.9% last month. since july 2008, california has lost more than 775,000 jobs. hardest hit? construction, manufacturing, and trade. yet as those private-sector jobs disappear, the number of people working for the california state government has actually risen by 1,600 in the past year. >> the private sector is always worried about the threat of failure. i mean, in the private sector, if you don't pay your bills, you go bankrupt. you lose your job. your company gets closed down. it ends up in the hands of the creditors. governments don't have those kind of pressures.

>> reporter: governor arnold schwarzenegger has ordered many state workers to take unpaid furloughs to help close the massive deficit. state lawmakers have also approved budget cuts that are expected to reduce some government jobs. but, still, the perception exists that california's state budget is an impediment from the job growth. this month, neighboring nevada despite an even higher unemployment rate than california's, launched an aggressive advertising campaign designed to lure businesses away. now, one golden state lawmaker is retaliating, with an ad paid for by his own campaign funds. >> if anything, nevada businesses should be moving to california. let's face it, what happens in vegas, stays in vegas. but what happens in california makes the world go round. >> reporter: we asked assemblyman solorio besides the ad campaign, what are they doing to spur private sector job growth? >> caller:? >> we enacted $7 pont 8 billion

in tax cuts for targeted small businesses, whether they're in the movie, tv production area, whether dealing with trying to get more small businesses to hire more workers to a very successful new home buyer tax credit that helps the home buyer but that has also helped create new jobs in the construction industry. >> reporter: nearly so, california lost nearly 36,000 jobs last month. there are new jobs in health care and education services as well as jobs in agriculture have all grown slightly over the past year. and despite the continuing growth in taxpayer-funded jobs, california has the lowest per capita ratio of government jobs in the united states. casey wian, cnn, los angeles. how will health care reform impact medicare? the truth squad is checking out that question. and added a little fiber? sweet! sweet! (together) sweet! (announcer) now for the first time,

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let's get you the top stories now. president obama today nominated ben bernanke for a second four-year term as federal reserve chairman. the president called his actions on the global financial crisis bold and out of the box. new deficit predictions for the next ten years are out today. congress cut its estimate from $9 trillion to $7 trillion. the white house budget office raised its outlook from $7 trillion to $9 trillion. either way, it is a record. you know, it is one of the biggest concerns we've heard about health care reform in america, how will it impact medicare? will benefits be lost?

our, levs is here with the answers. if you would, truth squad this for us. >> yeah, we're going to take a look at this right now, tony. a lot of people bringing this up. the short answer really is the cuts we're hearing about are not aimed at medicare benefits, but the reality is not as simple as either side presents. let's take a look at the kind of complaint we often hear -- >> what they're doing is just, you know, taking away from medicare. they are reducing medicare by $500 billion. and they're going to do away with the medicare advantage plan, you know, that's just disastrous for seniors. >> she was talking about leaving the aarp, which some people are doing. now, the aarp itself has talked about this. let me show you the website here. they talk about myth versus fact. and one of the myths they list, tony, is this idea that medicare cuts will happen -- that medicare benefits, rather, will be cut. myth, they say health care reform will hurt medicare, and they are saying that's not the case. here the other day is what president obama said they should tell seniors.

>> oh, okay. >> that we are not reducing benefits under medicare, that we think medicare is a sacred trust. in fact, part of what we want to do is strengthen medicare. >> so, which is it? are medicare benefits being cut, are we strengthening med care? what are the facts? let's go straight to the screens. there is no final bill, as we know, tony. but there is a bill moving through the house. the nonpartisan congressional budget office looked at this and said, yes, $500 billion projected funding would be cut to medicare over a ten-year period. but the key is on the next screen. the idea is those funds are not aimed at cutting actual benefits. the administration said it would rein in the growth of payments to doctors. they would cut subsidies to something called medicare advantage which basically pays private insurers. so, the idea behind it is that you can cut inside the medicare program without actually cutting the benefits that people receive. >> yeah, yeah. >> that's why the verdict here is this that we have here on the

last screen, misleading. because as currently planned, tony, cuts would not be aimed at the benefits inside medicare. butt just to show you how important and significant this is, our good folks atplity fact, they look politifact, they said they are not talking about cutting medicare benefits, they gave it a half true when they looked it on the truth-o-meter, they said it's conceivably or even likely financial changes could lead to reduced benefits particularly for people in the advantage program. basic idea if i got to summarize it into one sentence, the goal is not to cut benefits. there are analysts who are looking at this saying it's possible that could be a result. so, it's something we all need to watch out for in the coming years, if legislation even happens, tony. >> all right, good stuff, josh, thank you. >> you got it. the government banks on ben bernanke. what does the second term for the fed chairman mean for the u.s. economy and any recovery? two guests give us their views. imodium multi-symptom relief p) combines two powerful medicines

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hey, very quickly, i want to show you these pictures just in to the "cnn newsroom" from our affiliate kabc in new york. but this is from rockaway township, in new jersey. a bit of a crash landing as you can see here. this is in the parking lot of a new jersey maul. and i got to tell you, it looks like the pilot did a really good job here. no one on the ground injured. some slight injuries, we're told, to the pilot, but he certainly survived the crash landing. no cars in the parking lot were hit on this crash landing. so, a good job, it looks like, all in all by the pilot in getting this plane without hurting anyone on the ground. again, this is rockaway township, new jersey, and a small plane landing there in a new jersey maul parking lot. everybody okay. the pilot's okay, and everyone on the ground is okay.

let's, again, at this time we always like to remind you to get the latest financial news and analysis by going to our website here, it's beautiful. the work by the money team is awesome, cnnmoney.com. there again, you can find the latest financial news and analysis. quickly, now, let's get you to the new york stock exchange. three hours into the trading day. we have been in positive territory all day. and we are getting very close to triple-digit gains for the dow. as you can see, the dow is up 94 points. quickly, anyone with the nasdaq number for me? thank you, joe. the nasdaq is up 18. we are following these numbers with stephanie elam in for susan lisovicz today, all day, right here in the "cnn newsroom." well, president obama interrupted his martha vineyard's vacation today to nominate ben bernanke for a second term as fed chairman. >> as an expert on the causes of the great depression, i'm sure ben never imagined that he would be part of a team responsible for preventing another. but because of his background,

his temperament, his courage, and his creativity, that's exactly what he has helped to achieve. and that is why i am reappointing him to another term as chairman of the federal reserve. ben approached the financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom, with bold action and out-of-the-box thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic free-fall. and almost none of the decisions that he or any of us made have been easy. the actions we've taken to stabilize our financial system, to repair our credit markets, restructure our auto industry, and pass a recovery package have all been steps of necessity, not choice. they faced plenty of critics, some of whom argued that we should stay the course or do nothing at all. but taken together, this bold, persistent experimentation has brought our economy back from the brink. >> when the history of this

recession is written, ben bernanke will get plenty of the praise or blame when it shakes out. in arlington, virginia, politico.com's eamon javers. thank you for your time. eamon, let me start with you, why is the president reappointing ben bernanke? >> the reason is wall street wants him. the sentiment on wall street is really in favor for this guy and i'm told the administration was listening when they were talking to ceos and other wall street executives that ben bernanke has some support there. the other reason you got to look at the dow jones industrial average which has been on a relative tear since about march, and is up about 1500 points. clearly that's a sign of a relatively healthy and slowly recovering economy. that's the story line that the administration really wants to continue. they want to take some credit here for some of these green shoots as we've been calling them in the economy and start to send a signal to wall street that there's some continuity coming here. >> colin, for all the screaming

about what hasn't worked for this administration and what won't work, you hear a lot of that talk when it comes to the health care reform. did ben bernanke work? did he head off a deeper economic slide? >> oh, i think so. i think he definitely did a good job of -- of acting when it was time to act. one of the things that he did was he flooded the market with cash, and he did that because he didn't want to repeat the episode of the 1930s, which he studied. and when the fed stood on the sidelines. so, he was very active and very forth right about what he was doing. >> yeah. and eamon, what did he do, specifically? what did he do? >> what he did was he pumped a ton of money into the economic system, and he also participated in a lot of these bailout decisions that have been both criticized and praised. the biggest criticism coming from the administration's decision last year under the bush administration to allow lehman brothers to fail. >> that was my question. did he -- could he have done more? should he have done more to

prevent that failure? >> well, what he has said about that is that they could not have done more. that they were trying to prevent that failure, but that it was simply out of their hands. they worked all through the previous weekend to try to keep that from happening. and once it did happen, they saw the dramatic consequences. sort of sent wall street into shock when that happened. and they decided that they couldn't allow any of these so-called "too big to fail" institutions to fail any more. he found it very distasteful to bail out some of the very companies that brought us this financial meltdown, but he had to grit his teeth and do it, because he wouldn't want to be the fed chairman who presided over a second great depression. that's how bad he thought things were last year. >> and, colin, does bernanke at some point have to unwind some of the measures he put in place here? and isn't it true that anything that bernanke has really done to this point can really be undermined by the exploding deficits and inflation? >> right, that's the question, how do you get out from under

this stuff and nobody knows and i don't think ben bernanke does either. he wrote an op-ed in "the wall street journal" last month which said technically they'll do, but what he didn't address was the politics. that's the big question, how much will the american people take when it comes to inflation and those things? i think bernanke will end up in a very, very tricky position. >> eamon, why don't you pick up on that. does he have to unwind it and how do they do it? >> he does have to unwind it. they've injected a lot of cash into the system. at some point ben bernanke will have to make a call and decide to raise interest rates, which he's lowered to effectively zero percent at this point. that's going to be extremely unpopular when he does that. and the question is will the american people tolerate that politically? that's why bernanke talks so much about the independence of the fed. these decisions, he says, should be made by people who aren't professional politicians and don't really have to answer to the public. and in many ways the administration and congress might agree with that. they'd be happy to shuffle it off to somebody else and somebody else they can blame.

>> gentlemen, that was good, eamon javers of politico.com and colin barr of "fortune" magazine, thank you. >> thanks. a cocktail of sedatives topped off with anesthesia. the reason for michael jackson's sudden death becomes a lot clearer. oo 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. ♪ (announcer) you can make a bigger difference in the world.

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and this just in to cnn. five car bombs strung together exploded just a short time ago in afghanistan. officials say the huge blast rocked the southern city of kandahar, which is the spiritual home of the taliban. 33 people are reported dead. dozens more wounded. a provincial council member said the blast targeted a japanese construction company that mostly hires pakistani engineers. partial results are now in from afghanistan's presidential election. they show a slim margin separating incumbent president hamid karzai from his main rival, abdullah abdullah. election officials stress only 10% of last week's votes have been counted. the margins may change as more results are released over the coming days. our top stories now -- a small plane crash lands in the parking lot of a new jersey shopping maul. these pictures just in to cnn from -- just a short time ago. a witness said the pilot

survived and was being treated by paramedics. no one on the ground was injured. new federal deficit projections for the next ten years are out today. congress cut its estimate from $9 trillion to $7 trillion. the white house budget office raised its outlook from $7 trillion to $9 trillion. either way, it is a record. president obama today nominated ben bernanke for a second four-year term as federal reserve chairman. the president called his actions on the global financial bold and out of the box. preliminary findings from the coroner's office suggests michael jackson died from a lethal dose of propofol, the powerful anesthetic used in operate operating rooms. that information is detailed in court documents released yesterday, which also show an unsettling timeline. according to an affidavit, dr. conrad murray first administered a cocktail of anti-anxiety

medication and the sedative, but when that didn't help jackson sleep, he gave him 25 milligrams of propofol. officials believe that was the fatal dose. propofol is considered so dangerous it requires constant monitoring. cnn's chief medical correspondent, sanjay gupta, shows us why. >> reporter: so, we are here inside the operating room of dr. gershon, he's the chief of anesthesiology here. propofol is what he uses all the time. is this right over here? >> yeah. >> reporter: it looks -- milk of amnesia they call it. >> milk of amnesia. you okay? we have to monitor his ekg. we have to monitor his co2. we have to see the saturation and make sure he's ventilated. >> reporter: so, that's all typical stuff anytime you use it. >> it's the standard of care, yes. >> reporter: okay. so the prop follow -- >> we are going to start

infusing this. you'll get sleppy, vincent, okay? give me some good, deep breaths. >> reporter: take a look at his eyes. how quickly they -- >> deep breaths, vincent. doing great. may feel a little burning, okay? >> reporter: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. >> there's a reason for his heart rate increasing. uh-huh. you can see his eyes have closed. >> reporter: his eyes closed, and what else are you looking at? >> up here. if he stops breathing. so, this is watching his co2 and he's not breathing anymore and my wonderful nurse is going to help him breathe. >> reporter: take a look over here. all the breathing right now is taking place with this bag and this mask. so, that medication, he wouldn't be able to breathe on his own without those things. up there you can see part of the problem. just with that much prop foal there he stopped breathing and he will need a breathing tube.

>> easy? >> easy. >> there. >> reporter: what's so attractive about this medication? >> well, it's really been the advent of the last ten years, even more, 15 years. it's just basically a quick on, quick off. that may be why people think they can do at home, because if it gets out of hand, it goes away quickly. but the problem is if it gets out of hand and there's nobody there to resuscitate you, nobody can bring you back. >> reporter: that was pretty quick. you gave the medication and -- >> five, ten minutes. >> reporter: five, ten minutes he's gone from being quickly awake to quickly asleep. >> he's not breathing. i'm breathing for him. >> reporter: i think it's worth pointing out that this is a hospital that uses this medication thousands and thousands of times a year. but they do use this medication in nonhospital settings like outpatient clinics. the doctors here will tell you they've never heard of it being used in a home. >> whoa. dr. gupta wanted us to let you know the patient you saw going under the anesthesia is doing just fine. he woke up shortly after surgery

without any complications from the prop foal. liftoff, take two. nasa planning to launch the shuttle "discovery" at 1:10 this morning. "discovery's" seven astronauts were already aboard the shuttle when the blastoff was called off. it's set to deliver thousands of pounds of equipment to the international space station. do you know what, let's get chad in on this. chad, is the forecast better for tonight's scheduled lawnch? >> no, actually, yesterday was pretty good. it was supposed to be 80% launch and 20% chance of no. and we had a couple of showers right along the cape and we'll probably have more again for today and in for tonight. they were lingering showers. i don't see too much now. it might not be a bad time to launch, but the problem is you can't launch it anytime you want to, because the shuttle can't catch up with the space station. will there still be cloud cover left? will there still be rain showers around the cape later on tonight in the 1:00 a.m. hour? probably. maybe 30% chance of something

there. that still means 70% of a go. but, you know, when you get something around there, these launch probabilities are so -- and the possibilities are so fine and minute -- >> yeah. >> -- you can't have a cloud within 13.7 miles. you can't have a wind over this, from this direction, you know? really everything has to be perfect obviously. they want everything to go well. >> sure. >> tony, they don't want a cloud to get in the way or rain showers to get in the way. they don't rain on the shuttle. they don't want ice on the shut toll fall off if the rain gets there. all the things that we have. one other thing i want to talk, maybe the next possible storm could be danny. we'll see. right now it's just a little cloud mass. they are all running the computer models on this cloud mass. i will open them for you. so far, so good. most of them do not run at the u.s. although, i will really say this. how great the models were last time, tony, it's still too early, because we don't know how big it is yet. >> got you. >> we don't know really where it

is, because it's still kind of just a blob out there. >> right. >> the computers will have to fine-tune their forecasts. and right now, i would say, east coast, keep watching in the next 48, 72 hours, we'll know a lot more, tony? >> awesome, thank you, chad. appreciate it, sir. want to give you a quick update on the breaking news. certainly a developing story right now. five car bombs strung together exploded just a short time ago in afghanistan. our aty wa abawi is in the afghan capital of kabul. what can you tell us about this string of explosions here? "washington pos >> reporter: tony, what i can tell you the chief of police of kandahar city said the explosion kill at least 33 civilians, injuring 36 civilians. this is one of the biggest blasts, car bombs, that we have seen killing civilians in a very, very long time. in afghanistan. it occurred outside the mds

building, the intelligence building in kandahar city and other government buildings. it's after ramadan, after the fast break. around shops, around a school. killing civilians. again, the taliban's target may have been the government. at times it's the coalition. but in the end, they killed more afghans and killed more muslims than any of their intended targets. tony? >> and atia, maybe you can help us with this bit of information. we're getting reports that the blast actually targeted a japanese construction company that mostly hires pakistani engineers. is that something that you have been able to independently confirm? >> reporter: at the moment, that's not the information that we heard. we're hearing that it was in front of the nds, that's afghan intelligence. this is an organization that the taliban hates. >> yeah. >> reporter: this is an organization that has gone after the taliban. but it's also a symbol of the government. so, at the moment, what we're

hearing it was around the government buildings, but we'll check in on that as well. tony? >> we'll go with your information. atia abawi for us in the afghan capital of kabul. thank you.

here's the story for our animal lovers. yeah! a canadian news anchor takes a licking, a tongue licking, from a pit bull on live television, and we can't see it enough. cnn's jeanne moos has the tape. >> reporter: we've all taken our licks, some at a very young age. >> her hair is standing on end. it's all wet >> reporter: but licked to death on live television. >> get off. this is crazy. this is ginger. >> reporter: ginger the "up for adopti adoption" pit bull. make that kiss bull. >> ginger just mobs people. >> i love ginger. >> you don't have any makeup left!

>> okay. okay. >> reporter: ginger is removing the makeup from randy neil who co-anchors "global bc noon news" in british columbia, canada. >> they need a wee bit of train zplg you think? >> is she spayed? >> she's spayed. >> ouch! >> be nice. >> i'm really tired. >> stop that. stop nipping, that's so not good. >> no, don't jump. don't jump. okay. down, ginger, down. >> reporter: better to be kissed by a pit bull than clawed by a cat as this fox 8 news reporter in cleveland was. >> the couple is going to have to come right -- ooh! >> reporter: the cat didn't get ginger's tongue, the anchor did. >> okay, ginger. oh, ginger! >> reporter: all that licking didn't deter folks. the shelter got hundreds of calls from people interested in adopting ginger. an adoption was actually arranged, but later fell through. so, ginger is still available.

if you like your kisses wet. getting a shower like this, no wonder the anchor called for the weather woman. >> oh, stop it! stop it! >> okay. >> reporter: rear-ended to boot! >> wow. >> reporter: the sports anchored wondered if randy's husband got as much face time. >> does he get that much face time? >> really. >> reporter: you know, it's hard to watch her without thinking of a watch. >> it takes a licking and keeps on ticking. >> i've been loved by ginger! ginger loves me! >> reporter: and none too gingerly. ♪ okay all right everything >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn -- >> ooh! ooh! >> reporter: -- new york. >> don't stop until you get enough! an update now on ginger's status -- the dog who loves to lick has found a foster home.

a pit bull trainer has agreed to take in ginger until she's adopted, teach her some commands and tame that licking! >> you don't have any makeup left. so what do you think?

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breast cancer, but the fight left her with a mountain of credit card debt for medical treatment that her insurance didn't cover. our photojournalist jeff king introduces us to katherine. >> i have a great job, but i live like a pauper, because i basically spend all of my money servicing the debt that i accrued while i was sick. in 2004 i was working as a documentary film producer. i wasn't making a lot of money, but i knew that keeping up my health insurance was a priority. i was afraid that i would break my arm snowboarding or take a fall at work. i picked up the phone, and i said, "i would like to buy some health insurance, please." and this is the outcome. i ended up almost $100,000 in debt after being diagnosed with breast cancer, having surgery, chemo therapy, radiation. some of these things i just put

them on my credit card, because i thought if i don't die, i'll deal with this later. i pay something around $1,800 a month towards all my debt related to my illness, both the tens of thousands of dollars that i paid because my insurance didn't cover me. and then the, you know, not being able to work. i have this great plan through my work now, but if i went back on the open market and tried to buy myself some health insurance, they wouldn't cover me. i have a pre-existing condition. you know, once you've had cancer, i could never just go out and buy the same crummy coverage that i had before. i would be denied. i am a really determined person, and overcoming cancer, i felt, has just been my mission for the last couple of years, and getting out of debt, i guess, is another one. and just bankruptcy seemed like co