newsroom." back to work on health care reform. a group of senators looking at a plan right now that could be the last chance for compromise. suicide attack at the kabul airport. the deadly explosion hit where u.s. and other nato troops come in. and a georgia teenager captures hearts and wins at the u.s. open. melody oudin's coach tells us why she's succeeded when others are not. let's take a quick walk-through of with we've got for you today. cnn's suzanne malveaux is at the white house. after days of bitter criticism, the president will finally be speaking with school kids, but is his message still in tact? and josh levs will be looking at some of that criticism. we'll be talking about how schools and the classrooms are going to be handling it today. and also, our dr. sanjay gupta in one of the most dangerous places on earth. he's in afghanistan and takes us inside a combat hospital.

let's begin, though, this morning, with the president's speech. as you know, it's just a few hours from now. the white house posted those remarks on its website to mixed reaction. a lot of people are still critical of the speech. others say they're now comfortable that the message is not political. among the main talking points are these. the president will stress the importance of education and encourage kids to stay in school. he'll also tell students, don't let failures define you. there is a lot of ground to cover. let's go ahead and get straight to the white house now and cnn's suzanne malveaux. the white house has released the text of the speech. suzanne, has this helped quiet any of the controversy? >> reporter: it depends on who you talk to, heidi. some people, it seems to have lowered the temperature a bit. we do have a copy of the speech. a lot of people will be reading this, teachers as well as parents. one of the people that has read this is jim greer. he's the republican chair out of the state of florida and he's really the one who kicked off the controversy, if you will, one of the critics who said,

look, i'm worried about my four children, sending them to school. he said, it's a socialist ideology that the president was trying to indoctrinate his children and he was encouraging people not to have their kids actually listen to the president's speech. well, i had a chance to talk to him and he's had a change of heart. he has listened to the -- he has read this text and he says he thinks this is a speech that he can send his kids to coschool t listen to. but i was really fascinated by the level of suspicion that he had, as well as many others, about what is behind this speech, what is behind this day. and here's how he responded, heidi. >> i believe that the speech that he was going to give, based on the lesson plans, is different. and, you know, suzanne, we have barack obama the auto king, we have barack obama the banker, soon to be barack obama the doctor, we don't need barack obama the schoolteacher. >> why are you so -- >> and the white house should have stayed out of the classrooms. >> why are you so suspicious of the president's intentions?

>> well, the president is very aggressive and very vocal on what he believes government's role is. government should be involved in solving all of our challenges. >> reporter: and so, heidi, that's his explanation. he says he's taken a look at the speech, he doesn't mind the speech, he did object to the lesson plans that called for essays to help the president. but he says he doesn't believe this is the original speech the president was going to deliver. the white house says that is nonsense. but it does underscore a sense of unease that some people are feeling about a role of government and part of that is education. >> because in the beginning, there were some other plans and obviously the lesson plan being the main thing that it seemed like people were really concerned about. so clearly, some things have changed here and the white house has been listening. the president isn't the only one out and about on the first day of school, right? >> reporter: it's full court

press, heidi. you've got so many cabinet secretaries that are out there fanning across the country, but you've got from state from health, from housing, commerce, energy, you name it, they are out there today. they're essentially going to middle schools, high schools, elementary schools with the same message here, to encourage students on their first day of school or if they've been in school for a little bit to stay in school, to work hard and not to fear failure. those are many of the things, to tack responsibility, essentially, and help them. help the students and the schools as well. this is something that the president says in his own words, in his own speech, and it's something they want to reiterate by having members, high-level officials out there saying the same thing. we've seen this time before when the president wants to make a point very strongly. he sends out his top guns. heidi? >> all right. well, we'll be watching, certainly, throughout the day here. suzanne malveaux at the white house, thanks, suzanne. former first lady laura bush is supporting president obama's right to speak to students with an interview with cnn. bush says there is a place for

the president talk to schoolchildren and encourage them. but she also said parents have the right to keep their children from listening to today's speech. >> that is the right of parents, to choose what they want their children to hear in school. but i think really what people were unhappy about were the guidelines that went out with the -- before the speech went out. and i think those have been changed. and i think it's also really important for everyone to respect the president of the united states. >> mrs. bush also says she thinks the president is doing a good job, noting he's had a lot on his plate in the early going. so how are different school districts handling the president's speech today? cnn's josh levs has been checking in all around the country and joins us now with some details. hi, there, josh. >> hey, heidi. we're hearing from more and more schools all over the country this morning in the newsroom. and all this puts together a big picture for what is happening in u.s. schools today. we'll show you the absolute latest, coming up this hour.

>> all right. very good, josh. we'll get back to you with that in just a moment. got some breaking news here. always want to remind you, we will have live coverage of president obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren. it has scheduled to begin at noon eastern. you can find it right here on cnn. meanwhile, to this breaking news coming to us out of iraq. cnn has been able to confirm according to the u.s. military four american soldier have said killed by roadside bombs, ieds, to be specific, in northern iraq and baghdad. three soldiers with the multinational corps of iraq died this morning as well when an ied exploded, and it was obviously targeting their patrol. once again, happening in northern iraq at approximately 11:40 a.m. we'll continue to follow this and if we get anymore details, we'll bring them to you as soon as we get them. clear evidence of fraud with afghanistan's elections. that's the finding of an election commission. now, earlier this morning, they ordered a partial recount of

presidential ballots. incumbent hamid karzai leads the count right now. also this morning, kabul's main airport was rocked by a suicide attack. it happened at the military entrance of kabul's main airport, which is used by nato forces. at least two people are dead and cnn has learned that american military are among the wounded. >> reporter: a suicide blast occurred around 8:30 a.m. local time here in the capital of kabul. it happened at the kabul airport. used for both civilian and military purposes. the bomber actually within tent eastern gate, the military side of the airport, killing two civilians and injuring six others. they did have troops there who were injured, but not severely. in the meantime, it's still the talk of not only afghans, but also internationals, when it

comes to the elections in afghanistan. an election marred with fraud from even before the august 20th election day. now, the ecc, the electoral complaints commission stating they want an audit and a recount from various polling stations throughout the country. primarily at polling stations that had more than 600 votes. because according to ecc, there shouldn't have been more than 600 voters within each polling station. and on the other hand, as well, if any polling station had over 95% of the votes cast for one particular presidential candidate. atia abawi, cnn, kabul. >> and just as a reminder, our anderson cooper is in afghanistan all this week bringing you a special look at life in the battle zone. dangerous challenges for both u.s. troops and afghan civilians. you can see anderson's special reports every night, 10:00 p.m. eastern on "a.c. 360." a nightmare for commuters. san francisco's bay bridge shut down this morning. hundreds of thousands of people

now trying to find another way to work. and i'm rob marciano in the cnn severe weather center. tropical storm fred gaining strength overnight. we'll give you the path, plus, the carolinas getting soaked without tropical weather. as we count down to the president's back-to-school message today at noon, check out this stat. 56 million, that's the projected number of students to be enrolled in the nation's elementary, middle, and high schools this fall. there was a time i wouldn't step out of the house without my makeup.

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the search for a serial killer is over this morning. milwaukee police think they have found the man known as the north side strangler. 49-year-old walter ellis was arrested at a motel on saturday. ellis is accused of killing nine women since 1986. most of them prostitutes. police say they picked up his trail through a combination of old-fashioned detective work and high-tech lab work. >> a search warrant was conducted for dna evidence on august 29th at his residence and that dna was submitted to the

wisconsin state crime lab. on september 4th, we issued a warrant for his arrest, after the state crime lab returned a result that linked ellis' dna to nine homicides. his name is walter ellis, age 49. we're requesting that you not use his photograph as we still have to do possible witness identification. >> ellis faces two counts of homicide and more charges are likely. meanwhile, to this news now and actually some live pictures for you, commuters in california's bay area are probably going to have to take another route or maybe even another day off this morning because the main artery for traffic is closed today. repairs on the san francisco oakland bay bridge will not be done until -- actually, we are getting some news, we are hearing a press conference going on right now, if i understand this correctly. it is possible, and we are hearing, they may reopen the bridge this morning.

again, information into us right now, this press conference, that we are importanting. we are also hearing that other sort of arteries, if you will, into the bay bridge might be closed. so it will still be very, very tricky for the 280,000 cars that cross that bridge every day. let's go ahead and listen in for just a moment here. >> probably about ten minutes now. so that's what's going to happen toda today. >> we'd also like to ask c.c. myers president dan hemick to come up and make a few comments. >> good morning, everybody. my name is dan hemick and i would like to say last night was one of those nights where everything went perfect and the crews got it done really, really fast. it's amazing how fast they got it done. everything's hit perfect, the fix is in place, it's really constructed well. as randy said, it's been fully

inspected and it's really a nice piece of work. that bridge is safer than it was last thursday and we're fully confident of it. we're glad we got the bridge open for everybody. we're proud to be part of it. and on to the next item. >> what time did you finish? >> we finished -- well, it's still going on, we finished about 30 minutes ago -- >> so if you have been able to listen into this, what we thought was going to happen is not happening and in fact, yes, the bay bridge will be opened, as you just heard. the representatives from caltrans talking about it, in apparently 45 minutes from now. that will be perfect for the morning rush. so there you see the shots for you and pretty soon it's going to be a very, very busy place as usual. once again, that bay bridge reopening after some much-needed repairs and some work that had been done all day yesterday. so 7:00 a.m. pacific time is when it will reopen.

we'll keep our eye on that for you. meanwhile, the battlefield hospital. doctors working under tough conditions and saving the lives of troops and civilians in the war zone 24 hours a day. >> reporter: it is nighttime now in kandahar. you can see what's going on behind me, we have a couple helicopters about the land. very windy. we don't have a lot of information. we just know there are patients on this particular chopper. over there, look over there, two ambulances, all the medics over here, they're starting to run out to the chopper to see what's going on. they just got the all-clear signal, we're going to go with them.

time for a quick check of our top stories now. fire crews are stopped the spread of a massive wildfire north of los angeles. firefighters expect to have it fully contained by next tuesday. 78 homes are destroyed, but noting that 10,000 were threatened, a deputy fire chief says firefighters have done an unbelievable job. the fire is being treated as arson and a homicide investigation because two firefighters died. back in session, members of congress get back to work today after the long august recess. first, on the agenda, health care reform, so did the r&r help for the big battle ahead? we'll get more into this detail in just a few minutes. also, a slow count. 2,000 accusations of election fraud. thousands of votes declared invalid and just this morning an order for a partial recount.

it may be a while before afghanistan finds out who will be its next president. the election complaints commission now says there is clear and convincing evidence of election fraud. a state department official says the u.s. ambassador urged incumbent president hamid karzai to allow the president into possibly voter fraud. our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is in afghanistan this week. he's bringing us a special report on the challenges facing doctors as they work on the battle lines. today, he's got a closer look at role three. also, a trauma hospital in kandahar, province where doctors work 24/7 to help troops and civilians. >> reporter: hey, heidi. i'm reporting to you from afghanistan, as you know, the helmand province. this is one of the most dangerous areas in afghanistan. which is why the place i'm standing in is necessary. a dusty, desert tent. this is how they take care of people on the front lines.

i want to give you an idea of what battlefield medicine is really all about. early morning, kandahar. we've been here just a few minutes. we're already getting an idea of just how busy this hospital is. out there is the busiest airstrip, supposedly in the world, flights landing all the time. also get patients like this into the hospital. this is a very urgent case. patient with lots of bleeding, possible double leg amputation. >> he does have very weak radial pulses. bilateral tourniquets put on a few minutes ago. >> dr. hayes is communicating with the patient, translating, trying to figure out exactly what happened to him. >> reporter: we don't know much. middle aged, afghan national, but here's something. only a quarter of the patients

brought here are u.s. or coalition forces. the rest are location. >> we'll go ahead and give him so more pain medicine. yes, please, 50 again. he can handle it. compressions are good. >> reporter: you have no idea the severity of injuries here, so they've got to roll the patient, check his back, check his spine, make sure there's nothing else they've missed. >> you can see the tourniquets are still holding. >> reporter: putting big i.v.s in here. there are just a couple of tourniquets that are holding all that blood from coming kpoe ini out of his leg. 24/7, a battlefield hospital in the middle of a war zone, like this. surgeons working on a young soldier, ied, improvised explosive device attack. as you watch him wheeled out, his face is torn, his left arm

terribly damaged, and underneath that blanket, one of his legs is gone. surgeons tell me his mother received the awful call just a short time ago. it's all hard to watch and a process. they are brothers, friends, neighbors, but here is where it gets worse. that sound you hear is a drill being used to remove the skull of a child. a 2-year-old afghan boy. he fell down a cliff while playing. his name is malik and he has a massive brain injury. almost dead. doctors here are trying to give him a fighting chance. he is one of the cutest boys you'll ever meet. it is nighttime now here in kandahar. see what's going on behind me. a helicopter is about to land. it's very windy. we don't have a lot of information. we just know there are patients

on this particular chopper. over there, look over there. two ambulances, all the medics over here. starting to run out to the chopp chopper. they just got the all-clear signal. we're going to go with them. 30 seconds later, the patient is inside. as you can see, there's a lot of triage going on right now. they're placing ivs, have the breathing tube checked. there's a concern about head injury, but it's probably not that severe if he's able to do what he's doing now. and keep in mind, in the midst of all this, a young boy, malik, his life still hangs in the balance. and the story of malik is

something i'll be following along all week long. the way he was cared for may carry some lessons for all of us. heidi, back to you. >> boy oh, boy, tough, tough story. many of them there. you can see more of sanjay's behind the scenes reports from afghanistan all week on "a.c. 360." that comes your way nightly at 10:00 p.m. eastern. switching gears for a moment, because we cannot believe these pictures. take a look at that. you can only see half of this fire truck because the other half is under ground. we're looking at los angeles here, north hollywood where a sinkhole has almost completely swallowed up this fire truck. apparently, the fire truck was responding to a water main break, just gushing water all over the place. you can see by the flow of that water, it is clearly still gushing. obviously, they're working very quickly to get things wrapped up there. i don't know if there are any injuries, but as far as we can see, it doesn't seem like a scurry of activity so we're

hoping everybody is okay. once again, north hollywood, major sinkhole sort of followed up this fire truck. we'll keep our eye on that one. they went away, but our nation's health care problems did not. and now lawmakers are coming back to washington today and finding one heck of a fight waiting for them on capitol hill. [screeching] [dejectedly] oh. [screeching] [barks] (man) if you think about it, this is what makes the ladders different from other job-search sites. [screeching]

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wall street went into the holiday weekend with a rally and it looks like we could pick up right where we left off. susan lisovicz is up at the new york stock exchange with some details. good morning, susan. >> good morning, heidi. that's right, we can't call it a merger monday, but it is the first trading day of the week and investors here are encouraged by some activity overseas. deutsche telecom and france telecom plan to avoid their mobile phone units. meanwhile, cadbury has reflected a 2,600 buyout offer from kraft foods. wall street loves to see mergers

and acquisitions, because it's a sign that companies are more confident. we have certainly seen them when they are paralyzed and they're starting to make some deals and that's why you're seeing a rally in the first minute of trading. still some signs the u.s. dollar falling to a new low against the eu euro. one rural owe now gets about $1.45. it's expensive when you go to europe and use the greenback. finance ministers from the group of 20 leading economies say a global recovery is not sustainable without continued government help and when the dollar fines, investors turn to safe haven investments like oil and gold. gold topped $100 an ounce and oil is up two bucks, trading above $70 a barrel. but stocks are higher too right now. we saw the dow, the nasdaq, s&p 500, each up at least half a percent. a nice start to the trading week, heidi. see you later. >> very good, susan.

back-to-school day for many kids around the nation and this year they're getting a welcome back from president obama. he's giving an address specifically to school kids later on today. some conservatives have been suspicious about the motives behind it, though. so the white house posted the transcript online yesterday. we are also carrying the speech for you live at noon right here on cnn. even up to the last minute, some schools have been working to decide whether to carry the president's speech live and our josh levs is joining me now with a little bit more on what we are hearing from all around the country. because it's true, josh, it seems like a lot of the schools are handling things pretty differently. >> it's really instructive to me, heidi. i was taking a look at what we were getting from our affiliates over the last 24 hours. there were some schools last night that were still having meetings. i like numbers, we don't have any numbers yet, how many schools will take it, how many won't. but we'll zoom in on a couple of cities. we'll go to kansas city, missouri. that's where one of our affiliates went to a school who are going to be showing it and they spoke with some parents

there who are allowed to opt out. >> your success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality tv star when chances are you're not going to be any of those things. >> reporter: we went to a park that's been blooded with calls from parents. now the school will give teachers and parents the option to opt out of obama's school speech tomorrow. >> that is an important thing to address. >> i think that's a good message. >> i'm going to take you now over to claremont, north carolina. let's zoom out, i want to show everyone the broad picture of where we're heading. this is where our gary tuchman went to a school that's not going to be showing it. he spoke with the principal and asked him how that decision was made. >> this is what he's going to say in the speech. if you quit on school, you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country. isn't that a message you'd want your kids to hear? isn't that part of what education is all about? >> most definitely. and we've asked our parents again, going back to responsibility. a responsible parent will sit down and talk with their kids about staying in school.

>> and finally, hay dee, let's zoom in from san antonio, texas. we're hearing about a district in which there are some schools showing it, but several that are not showing it. and we heard an argument from someone about why she believes schools should not be showing this. >> it's not the message, no. the message, i think, is inspirational. >> reporter: for them, it's the way it was handled. >> it is how government is operating without the citizens being involved. it is more by edict. and that was really, really disturbing to a lot of citizens. >> reporter: north side isd, northeast isd, and comal isd are among the schools that will not show the speech. >> it's interesting to see what decisions get made after the speech happens today. we'll keep an eye out for the numbers and we'll get a sense of how many schools carried it live, how many offered versions

later, how many got in touch with parents. some schools may show it next week. >> sounds great. thank you, josh. a new school year, a new series of public service announcements hitting the airwaves during your favorite shows soon. here now, an exclusive first look at one of them. >> i may only be a kid, but i'm already helping the government plan for the future. >> did you know that many states give third grade exams to predict future prison growth. >> and more than 1 million kids drop out of school before high school each year and these kids are eight times more likely to end up in prison. >> it's true. 60% of america's prison inmates never finished high school. and now many states are spending more money on prisons and less on public education. >> that's the bell. i better get back inside. >> stnt it time we ended the

school to prison lifeline? we can do better. >> some people call it a clever ad, but what's this campaign really hoping to accomplish? we'll be asking the man who leads one of the groups behind it? that will be coming up in about an hour from now at about 10:30 eastern. well, in case you haven't turned on the tv lately, we've been spending a lot of time on problems with health care in this country, a lot going on, especially now since today, congress is back at work on the issue. but today is also the first day of school in lots of places, as you know, and that's reminding us that the education system is something a lot of people are concerned about too. our question for you on our blog today, just go to cnn.com/heidi and you can weigh in. which, do you think, needs more attention right now? is it health care or is it education? go ahead and write in your comments to us. we'll, of course, share some of them with you as we go along in the morning here. cnn.com/heidi. students aren't the only ones back from summer vacation, as i mentioned, lawmakers back in washington today, now that

their recess is over and they have to pick up where they left off in the health care battle. our congressional correspondent, brianna keilar, is live for us on capitol hill. brianna, what is the latest you're hearing right out of the gate this morning? >> reporter: well, i should tell you, heidi, the hustle and bustle seems to be back here on capitol hill. a very quiet month here last month, as you can imagine. certainly not the case out in members' opal districts and home states during this really contentious health care debate time, but folks coming back here to the hill, members of congress back here to get back to the grindstone on health care. and i just spoke with senator chuck grassley. he is the top republican on the senate finance committee, really seen as the best chance to get a bipartisan agreement on a health care overhaul and he told me that he hopes that the three democrats and the two other republicans that he's been talking with for months and months now, he's hoping that they can strike a bipartisan deal on health care overhaul before president obama's speech

tomorrow night. he says even though to him, the time line there is not ideal, he understands that this is what senator maux baucus, the chairman of the senate finance committee, what he is hoping to do, strike a deal with this -- these three democrats and these three republicans before the president's speech tomorrow night and grassley himself saying that he's hopeful. this group, heidi, is going to be meeting today, 2:30 p.m. eastern and they're going to be talking over a proposal that senator baucus put out over the weekend. this first formal proposal for health care overhaul. it does not include a public option, as we expected. what it includes is a plan for a health care cooperative. these would be nonprofit co-ops that are governed by the patient that receive care from them. and grassley has said, generally, he has a few concerns about how the plan would be executed, but he says he looks upon it pretty favorably. this is what he said on "american morning" a short time ago. >> they're consumer driven and

all the consumers benefit from it. they're organized by members. there's no federal government running the co-ops, et cetera. and that's the way that senator conrad has devised them and i've been discussing with him and along the lines of what he suggested, it's very favorable. >> sowear paying close attention to this meeting at 2:30 p.m. eastern, this afternoon, heidi, really the first chance for these key members, these six members to react to this formal proposal. >> okay. well, certainly, a lot going on, even though it's only been a couple hours since they've been there, running around the capital. brie yanna keilar, appreciate t. president obama will make his health care pitch tomorrow night. we'll cover that live for you beginning at 8:00 eastern. understanding america's health care system. after the death of his father, how one man's grief turned into

an obsession to get some answers. hear what he found out.

a major break in a series of serial killings around milwaukee. police now believe they have the north side strangler in custody. they arrested 49-year-old walter ellis at a motel saturday. ellis is accused of killing nine women since 1986. most of them prostitutes. police say dna evidence linked him to all of the crimes. he faces two counts of homicide and more charges are likely. justice sonia sotomayor will be welcomed to the supreme court this afternoon with a ceremonial swearing in. sotomayor had her official swearing in last month. president obama will attend today's events as well. the justices return to the bench tomorrow. they will consider whether to overrule earlier decisions on campaign spending restrictions for corporations and unions. a health official at washington state university says the school's swine flu outbreak

may be easing. doctor dennis garcia says 40 to 50 students a day contacted the school's health service over the weekend. that compares to 150 a day last week. the outbreak is suspected of making at least 2,200 washington state students sick. a local georgia girl becomes the latest star born at the u.s. open. how little-known 17-year-old is using determination and a vicious backhand slice to beat down the competition.

we are bringing you a number of views and opinions on health care, surgeon general the topic of many discussions these days. and this morning we have the personal story of david

goldhill. he wrote an article featured in this month's atlantic magazine called how american health care killed my father. his father died in a hospital from an infection almost two years ago. goldhill's grief left him with a lot of questions about the health care industry, so he decided to make it his mission to get some answers. david goldhill is joining us now this morning from new york to talk about what he has learned. david, our condolences to you, first off. i'm sure that was a very painful loss for you. but hopefully, from everything that i have read, including this article, you have really gained some knowledge and some insight into the health care industry, which is what we want to hear more about. i would like to read a quote from the article, in fact, as you tried to understand your father's death, you came up with this. there needs to be a business reason. why an industry year in and year out would be able to get away with poor customer service, unaffordable prices, and even results. -- uneven results, forgive me. a reason my father and so many others are unnecessarily killed.

how did you come to believe that this sort of all comes back to a business model? >> well, i think -- thank you for the condolences, first of all, and for having me on today. what i saw when my father was in the hospital was a series of things that as a business man and as a customer of any other service, i'd never seen. endle lesless numbers of errors extraordinarily sloppiness. and i think what i became aware, we're paying a very high price for this illusion that there's someone else paying for our health care. that having other government agencies may seem to have its advantages, but one of the big disadvantages is that the system lacks the type of discipline and accountability that to us patients as consumers that we see everyone else in our economy. my dad was one of 100,000 people estimated every year to die from an infection received in a

hospital. that's a number that is regarded as a preventable death. we think what an extraordinary number that is and how little outrage, reaction, and fundamental accountability thus the patient there is. >> well, we have covered this story many times here on this program regarding what you as a patient can do to feel empowered about telling your doctors or the other health care providers at the hospital to simply wash your hands before you touch my loved one. all of these small things, that you would really think are already happening in the hospitals, sometimes are not. in fact, you do talk a lot in the article about health insurance, as you were mentioning, and how it's overused. another quote i would like to put out there, we can't imagine paying for gas with our auto insurance policy or for our electric bills with our homeowner's insurance, but we all assume that our regular checkups and dental cleanings will be covered at least partially by insurance. how are we using health care insurance less, actually, seemed

to solve some of america's health care problems. >> i think insurance is the most costly and distortive form of financing anything. which is why out of health care, you only see it used for major and unpredictable events. our reliance on it in health care has been very expensive and dates from a time when health care was a very small part of our lives. now it's almost one out of every $5 we spend. we've medicalized a very large portion of our physical lives throughout our lives and that's going to require a different financing model. unfortunately, insurance, by creating a barrier between us as patients and customers and providers, has an enormous impact on overuse of care, excess care, poor pricing accountability, and we're seeing in our prices of health care for the last five decades -- >> yeah, and i wanted to, david, about malpractice insurance and this whole idea of doctors needing to practice defensive medicine, if you will. does that play in? >> i'm sure it does.

i think there are a lot of factors that play in. but what i'm arguing in the article is that there are fundamental problems with the way health care's organized and that those fundamental problems drive poor access to the system, poor quality or an even quality in very high prices and unless we start getting at some of those fundamental issues, we're not going to be able to create a real safety net for americans and we're not going to resolve the issues of quality, we're not going to get as much for the roughly $2.5 trillion we're spending as we should be getting. >> when are you going to washington? when are you going to be knocking on president obama's door? >> well, i obviously would be flattered to help the administration any way i could. i think we have to recognize that all politicians are limited by the 55% of americans that are happy with their current health coverage. what i say, if you're happy with your current health coverage, it's because you don't know what it's costing you. the average cost to a company of insuring an american is now $12,000. that comes out of potential wages. that's a lot of money.

>> well, david goldhill, a pleasure talking with you. it's a fascinating article for many different reasons. again, in the atlantic magazine this month. we appreciate your story very much. and we will continue to follow it here in the "cnn newsroom." thanks again. >> thanks for having me on. nine women dead over a 21-year period in milwaukee. the police say a break in the case means no more victims for the serial killer known as the north side strangler.

let's get you over to rob marciano stand big in hurricane headquarters because we're watching yet another tropical storm. >> this one named fred. many times they have elaborate exotic nation but just fred right now. southwest of cape verde islands by 300 miles or so. more developed over the last few hours. right now winds about 50 miles an hour. it's heading to the west at 15. what's it going to do after that? after it continues to make its way toward the u.s. which by the way is very far away at this point. these lines represent computers models which take it up toward the north and we'll hope that happens. also notice some of them curve

it back to the west. that's an item of concern. either way regardless of what it does and it is forecast to become a hurricane, regardless of where it goes over the next few days it ain't going to be for at least ten days or maybe even two weeks before it would possibly get close to the u.s. let's talk what's going on here in the u.s. we've got some action. it's been raining cats and dogs across south carolina. yesterday 10 inches of rain in 18 hours. they're looking to see more in the way of rainfall today. onshore winds keeping things cool and wet there. it will be certainly on the wet side. as far as where the rain will be elsewhere, strong thunderstorms across parts of the northern plains and heavy rain across wichita. back to the west we'll go. dry out west. check out pictures coming in from the fires now. over 50% containment. these are cool shots to give you an idea of a marine push here the last couple days. this is a combination of fog, smoke and clouds pouring down over the mountain ranges there

across los angeles county. most of the heavily populated areas have been contained but mt. wilson not completely out of the fire lines just yet. 80 degrees expected in l.a. 76 degrees in chicago. 75 in new york. a touch of fall as we have the first full week of september, day after labor day, kids back to school, kind of get that feeling. >> it's time. our kids have been back for a month. >> get them in school. >> all right. thank you. we'll check back later on. one man issuing his own challenge to america's school children and their parents. he says it's time we rethink education. you're about to hear a lot more about his campaign. you can see it right here first. [ moos ] [ man announcing ] if you think about it, this is what makes theladders different from other job search sites.

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>> the 17 year old leads the way. >> a very quick youngster from georgia. >> love it. a 17 year old from marietta, georgia, making a name for herself at the u.s. open. larry smith spoke to michelle

last month as she got ready for the open. >> reporter: it's no surprise that venus and serena are considered among the best in tennis players. to find the third best american you have to go down to 67 and 17-year-old oudin. >> melanie burst on the scene this year at wimbledon where she advanced to the round of 16 defeating the 16th player along the way. >> it's the key thing realizing in the first set she was no better than me and i was right there and whether i won or lost the match at that moment i knew that i was right there with her and i can compete with her. >> there's pressure on her now. we have to maintain that. i've seen so many kids come and

go have and have great tournament and you never hear from them again. fire from the hips. come on. do that shot again. make that. that's sloppy. make it. and again. make it. very good. >> reporter: brian has coached melanie for eight years and has a theory on why there aren't more american players in the world tennis rankings. >> too soft over here. there are too many escaped clauses as if i can go to college. many come from affluent families and they never had to really work for something for themselves and the minute the going gets tough, they bail. >> reporter: at the u.s. open, melanie will try to make her first taste of success a lasting one. >> there will be pressure. i'll go out there and play my game and hope i can play like i did wimbledon. >> hit the line again.

extend. that's better. right. >> once again our larry smith reporting. a very exciting stuff there. u.s. open. i want to show you this. unbelievable pictures we're getting out of los angeles. a sinkhole big enough to swallow -- yes, that's a fire truck. officials aren't sure if it was spawned by a broken 64-inch water main that flooded parts of studio city just miles away last weekend. no injuries reported. they are still working feverishly to get that thing out. we'll keep our eye on that for you. also, in chile a desperate search for a 1 year old that got swept away by mudslides. four other people had minor injuries. a weekend of heavy rains flooded a major river in santiago and triggered these deadly mudslides. 156 homes were destroyed. 57 others had major damage.

we are working several developing stories right now. it is a deadly morning for u.s. troops in two hot spots. first, in iraq. four troops are dead in an apparent roadside bombings targeting u.s. patrols. one of the blasts came in southern baghdad. the other was north of the city. in afghanistan, four more u.s. service members are dead in fighting with insurgents there. it happened east of the capital kabul. 13 u.s. troops died in afghanistan so far this month. the bay bridge is now open. we have live pictures for you. you can see all of the traffic now. good news obviously for commuters in san francisco. emergency repair work was expected to take another day leaving commuters a new way to get to work. just a short time ago the first cars actually started making their way across the bay bridge. the main artery between san francisco and all points east. joining us on the phone to talk more about this is a spokesman

for the california department of transportation. bart, what happened? this is one day early. the crews just worked feverishly to get this thing up and running again, huh? >> it was an amazing team effort to get this done. we had some crews out there that worked almost 70 hours straight. designers that stayed on board all of the way through to make sure the inspection would flow smoothly and a great fabrication on a piece we needed last minute was done overnight. >> it's incredible. you think about the bay bridge and obviously this is a very large structure. it was described as a significant crack that was found. quickly remind us of what was found by the crews during sort of a routine inspection, right? >> yeah. that's right. we found a crack on one of our i-bars that's a critical support member. there was several others there as part of a redundant system to hold it in place, you have to repair it immediately before you put traffic back on it.

>> we're looking at interesting video from caltrans about the structure there. i think people don't realize what goes into a bridge and its structure. any other problems? we discussed there were some roads into the bay bridge that were still closed down. is that the case or is everything wide open? >> last night we had to go ahead and put our contingency plan into place. public transit and some of the detours we put to make things easier while the bay bridge was out of service will remain in place today and we'll phase them out at the end of the day. >> very good. congratulations to getting that back up and running. i'm sure computers are delighted with that. thank you. >> i think that's a good idea to talk to the children because they need to know that it is their responsibility because apparently a lot of the parents are not taking the responsibility. >> we're going to be seeing posters of his face all over the buildings and kids are going to

be having emblems on their shirts going to school. i just feel like that's what it's coming to. >> if he has a hidden agenda or promoting something else that we may not approve of, i think we ought to be able to know or screen it before they see it. >> he only has a good message. is it all about politics? no. not necessarily. it's just about being a good person and doing the right thing. >> after days of bitter criticism, the president will finally speak to school kids. has the message been lost? we'll break down the talking points. remarks posted on the white house website are drawing mixed reaction. many are critical but others say they are comfortable that the message is not political. a lot of ground to cover this morning. let's get straight to the white house and cnn's suzanne malveaux. good morning once again. what will the president tell students this morning? >> reporter: good morning. the president has released his speech obviously ahead of time. much of it is about

responsibility. students should take responsibility. they shouldn't be afraid to fail. they should try and try again and to make their parents and their school and their country proud. the president talks about the fact that he's tried to do the same thing. he talks about his humble beginnings and some of his failings as well and uses himself as an example. this is what is in this speech. the white house certainly hopes by putting this out it would tamp down criticism and allay some of the fears that some parents and some teachers were talking about in not sending students to school to listen to the president speak. one of those people is jim greer, he's the republican chair out of florida who kicked off this whole thing saying he thought it was a socialist ideology and there would be indoctrinating the children and from there it got picked up by talk radio and conservatives that weighed in and asked questions. i had a chance to talk to jim greer. he looked at the speech. i said what's wrong with this?

what are those fears and concerns and are they still there? here's how he responded. are you going to send your children to see the speech tomorrow to school? >> i am. my children have been taught to have the highest respect for the presidency and this president and all presidents so after reading the text and seeing the department of education and told teachers they are not to lead students in a direction they would have a week ago, my kids will watch the president's speech as i hope all kids will. i don't advocate children not watching this president's speech with this text. >> reporter: the thing that he says he's objected to was the lesson plan and suggestion by the education department that students actually write an essay an how to help the president but he doesn't believe this text is the original speech that the president was going to give to school children. the white house says that's nonsense and this is the text. this is the speech. this guy doesn't really have any credibility anymore on this particular issue.

so there are some people who are uneasy perhaps with the president's role when it comes to health care or the economy or education. that's one thing that greer said. he feels that the government role is too big and that's one of his concerns but clearly the white house is hitting back saying there's no cause for alarm. no cause for concern. and we've seen previous presidents do this in the past. >> do we have any direct knowledge because there's been a lot of talk about the fact or possibility that the text had changed. we know the lesson plan is no longer going to be included. was it the way the white house talked about it and the way they presented some of these ideas that they expected to include in this speech that got people upset? >> reporter: there are two things. first of all, the white house says that the speech itself was not altered and this is the original text and this has not been tweaked to kind of deal with this controversy and these fears. the thing that caught up the white house here was the language in that lesson plan

where they suggested students what they could do, write an essay and what to do to help the president. some thought that was political in nature and that it was poorly worded. the white house took back that particular lesson plan. it's exactly the same thing that the former president, h.w. bush called for school children to do back in the '90s. this white house saying it was not political but out of sensitivity to those who were concerned, they removed that essay and that suggested essay. >> all right. very good. suzanne malveaux covering the story for us out in front of the white house. thank you so much. stay with us. we'll have live coverage of president obama's speech to the nation's school children. it is scheduled to begin at noon eastern. summer reached the unofficial end and so has recess for members of congress. here's what we know. congress is back in session at 2:00 p.m. eastern today and just like when lawmakers left, health care reform is the big issue. in the senate the bipartisan

gang of six negotiators will talk over a possible compromise. it's a proposal by finance committee chairman max baucus that doesn't include a public option. president obama is meeting with top congressional democrats today for a status check on how much support his plan actually has. the halls of congress have been pretty quiet as you would imagine over the past month but the action is about to heat up on capitol hill where we find our congressional correspondent brianna keilar. you told us the hustle and bustle is on. what about the baucus proposal. have you heard anyone talking about it? >> reporter: this is something we're paying a lot of attention to. this is a formal proposal put out by the democratic chairman of the senate finance committee and he distributed it among the five other bipartisan members, this gang of six as we have been calling them, to see what they think about this proposal. they are going to be meeting this afternoon 2:30 p.m.

eastern. we'll be paying a lot of attention to that. they'll react to this proposal. i spoke a short time ago with senator charles grassley, the top republican on this committee. he's part of this gang of six. he said it is his hope that this group can come to an agreement before the president's speech on health care tomorrow night. he said it's not an ideal time line for him but he knows this is what senator baucus wants and he's hopeful they get that done. >> what's in the plan exactly? >> reporter: as you mentioned it does not include a public option which we were expecting. the alternative to the public option is instead a health care cooperative. so this would be a nonprofit health co-op governed by the patients that it serves. it would also expand medicaid. right now they cover children up to 5 years old and pregnant women who are below the poverty line up to one-third above the poverty line. under this proposal it would cover more children and also

poor adults without children because it would cover everyone -- medicaid would cover everyone up to one-third above the poverty level. how do you pay for this? one of the -- the key tax on this would be on those cadillac health insurance plans. those high end insurance plans that some say encourage upeople to overuse health care. senator grassley raised a concern that they think it will trickle down to everyone who has private health insurance. it's not just going to go to those people with those high end plans. >> okay. we'll be watching and waiting and listening. that's for sure. brianna keilar, capitol hill this morning. thanks so much. it's been closed for so long. president obama will make his health care pitch to that special joint session of congress tomorrow night. we will cover it for you beginning at 8:00 eastern. in case you haven't turned on the tv lately, we have been spending a lot of time on problems with with health care in this country.

today is the first day of school in lots of places and it reminds us that the education system has some serious problems, too. our blog question today for you is this. which needs more attention right now? do you think it's health care or do you think it's education? you can go to cnn.com/heidi and tell us what you think. let's led over to rob marciano now for an update on tropical storm fred. a short name. does that mean it will be short lived? >> that would be nice. i like the way you think, heidi. we'll try to squeeze the life out of fred here but quickly developed off the coast of africa. cape verde islands 300 miles southwest of there heading to the west at about 15 miles an hour. problem with fred is strong overnight winds at 50 miles an hour. forecast to continue to strengthen. you can see a good outflow there of some of the seclouds. that would be ideal if we can

get old fred to kind of simmer down here before too long. each one of these lines represents some of our computers that forecast this thing. all of them bring it up to the north and then some of them bring it back to the west. forecast from national hurricane center brings it to hurricane strength status in the next day or two and then we'll have to wait and see before too long what happens after that. all right. quick check on what's going on across parts of the carolinas. heavy rainfall yesterday across southern parts of north carolina. now it looks like the main threat for rain moved up toward the delmarva. some of this will be rather heavy at times especially around virginia beach and norfolk and hampton roads area there. wichita, north of oklahoma city a washout for folks in southern kansas. a live shot if you could from dallas. i think we should still have this camera up. not so bad. wfaa. thanks for that shot there. seasonable temperatures for you. rain from wichita will remain up

there. not looking too bad as far as what's going on in that part of the world. the rest of the country looking at severe thunderstorms that will roll across northern plains today. out west you look dry and cool. that's good for the fires out there in southern california. pictures we've been showing you all day in southern california and north hollywood near studio city, this is -- you don't see this every day, do you? this water main break is 90 years old or something like that. >> it just keeps on breaking and gushing? >> until they shut down the main valve there. you talk about a water main that valve is probably pretty big and may very well be very far away and with infrastructure that's this old, it may take a while. nobody hurt. good news. it almost looks like a fire truck you can play with as a kid. messing around with it in the backyard in the old mud pit. that will cost a few dollars to get out.

they could probably hook a hose up to it and rinse her down and we'll be good to go. >> rob, thank you. we'll check back with you later on. we'll keep our eye on the fire truck. unbelievable pictures there. to this story, he allegedly killed nine people around the city of milwaukee but after more than two decades, police say the manhunt for the northside strangler is finally over. but 5 minutes ago i took symbicort and symbicort is already helping significantly improve my lung function. so today, i've noticed a significant difference in my breathing. and i'm doing more of what i want to do. so we're clear, it doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. my doctor said symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. my copd often meant i had to wait

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he allegedly terrorized women for more than two decades but now a suspected serial killer is in custody in milwaukee. police say he's 49-year-old walter ellis. reporter charles benson tells us how police picked up the trail. >> reporter: the chief says a lot of hard work went into bringing a conclusion to several cases that were cold but not forgotten. >> good police work and good police science have led us to walter ellis. >> reporter: the nine victims were all women. they were strangled or stabbed to death. dna found on the victims linked them to a single suspect but not to a known name. the missing link was a dna match with ellis. that came from a toothbrush from ellis during a search warrant. >> we offer our condolences to surviving family members with the hope that today's news gives them confidence there will be

justice. >> reporter: karen kilpatrick's family hopes so. she died three weeks after giving birth to her child back in 1994. police talked to her about the cold case and a possible suspect but she never thought this day would come. >> bring closure to me, you know what i'm saying, to know what happened, you know, to my sister. shooting for compromise in the race to reform health care. can holding a loaded threat over health insurance companies force them to cover more americans or will the president have to pull the trigger? which beneful prepared meal tonight? sions, decisions. roasted chicken recipe? - savory rice and lamb stew. - [ barks ] you're right. tonight is a beef stew kind of night. [ announcer ] beneful prepared meals. another healthful, flavorful beneful.

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as we countdown to the president's back-to-school message today, check out this stat, 56 million the projected number of students to be enrolled in elementary, middle and high schools this fall. checking our top stories now. justice sonia sotomayor gets a second swearing in today. sotomayor officially joined the high court last month will have a ceremonial swearing this afternoon. the justicing will return to the bench tomorrow. san francisco bay area commuters getting a break this morning. a major span supposed to be closed today has actually reopened at this hour. san francisco's bay bridge was shut down for scheduled work but the crews discovered a crack pushing back the opening until

tomorrow morning. crews worked through the night and were able to repair the crack earlier than expected. it's a somber day for u.s. forces. eight troops were killed, four in iraq and the other four in afghanistan. the troops in iraq were killed in separate roadside bombings. the troop deaths in afghanistan were from a firefight with taliban. from town hall screamers to bipartisan bickering, seems like all is fair in the war to reform health care but can a new threat on the table force a compromise now? jim acosta explains the trigger option. >> we have never been this close. >> reporter: as the president delivered one more campaign style pitch on health care reform, the question remains whether he will make a play for the public option. the idea of giving americans the choice of joining a government run insurance plan. >> i continue to believe that a public option within that basket of insurance choices will help

improve quality and bring down costs. >> why do you continue to support a nazi policy. >> on what planet do you spend most of your time? >> reporter: one of the more soft-spoken voices of the senate, maine republican olympia snow was quietly talking to the white house about a compromise that would replace the public option with something called a trigger. unlike the proposal in the house, the trigger would threaten the insurance industry with a public option down the road. the idea is backed by two former senate leaders. >> we recommend that after about five years if insurance companies don't clean up their act, then there's sort of a trigger where certain things happen and we think that's a step in the right direction. >> reporter: throughout the health care debate, snow shied away from radical changes to the nation's private insurance system. >> they obviously want to protect those who have good health care and they want to preserve it and maintain it and we don't want to interfere with

that. nor do we want to interfere with the doctor/patient relationship. >> reporter: snow's trigger could win over democrats like ben snenelson, congressional democrats say no public option, no deal. >> there's no option but a public option. for those that say we need a trigger, i say be careful. you could be shooting down health care. >> reporter: political analysts wonder whether in the end democrats will shoot themselves. >> what politicians say in september and what they do in november and december are two different things because they come to terms with reality. >> jim acosta joining us from d.c. with more on this. jim, can this trigger option bring some republicans on board or not? >> that's the key question in all of this. it may be the last best hope of not only bringing a few republicans onboard, but also

those waive ewaver democrats li nelson. health care may go nowhere in the senate without them. liberal democrats will argue that the trigger has already been met. if the trigger means we give the insurance companies time to clean up their act, liberals in the house and senate will say hold on a second. they've shown they can't be trusted. why even have a trigger. in the end it all comes down to how badly democrats want to have a deal. this morning northern virginia congressman jerry conley here for an interview on "american morning" stopped to say hello on his way out and he said if we don't pass something, anything, we could lose 30 to 40 seats in the upcoming election like what happened in '94 and '49 at the end of the clinton health care debacle. democrats have to think about that as well. >> it always comes back to politics. >> how does that happen? >> i don't know. jim acosta, thank you.

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in about 90 minutes, president obama will be speaking to the nation's school kids. the white house hoped to quiet critics by posting a transcript of his remarks. a lot of people are still critical of the speech. others say they're now comfortable that the message is not political. among the main talking points, the president will stress the importance of education and encourage kids to stay in school. he'll also tell students don't let failures define you. the president's message is

just the beginning of this conversation because there are so many things to talk about on the subject of education. some new public service announcements which you are seeing for the first time right here on cnn are challenging people to help initiate change in our public schools. take a look. >> i may only be a kid but i'm already helping the government plan for the future. >> did you know that many schools use third grade reading exams to predict future prison clothe and that more than a million kids drop out of high school in eighth grade each year and they're more likely to end up in prison. 60% of america's prison inmates never finished high school and now many states are spending more money on prisons and less on public education. that's the bell. i better get back inside. >> isn't it time we ended the

school to prison pipeline? we can do better. >> sam is the national director of the forum for education and democracy. one of the organizations behind those new ads and author of "american schools, the art of creating a democratic learning community." sam is joining us to talk more about what this campaign hopes to accomplish. what is that, sam? rethink learning now. what is it supposed to do? >> first of all, good morning, heidi. thanks for having me. the objective of the campaign is to spark a national conversation about what we need to do together to fulfill the promise 55 years late first laid out in browns versus board of education to ensure that every child in this education receives the same opportunity to a high quality public education. i think what makes our campaign different is that a lot of times what ends up happening with the best of intentions is folks inside washington put together a fully developed plan and try to get the rest of the country to buy into their vision. what we're doing instead is

we're providing a partially painted canvas to the nation. we're saying there are three pillars we think we should focus on. learning, teaching, and fairness. and we can do better and we know more than we think we do. so we're asking the nation to share stories about their most powerful personal experience in a learning community and to describe their most effective teacher and what was it about that person that made them so effective and to think with us about what needs to happen in order to finally ensure the fairness laid out in our foundifound ing documents and that should be the birth right of every american child. >> when you look at the psa that we showed here, some would say that's a bunch of scare tactics for kids and their parents. but we should probably show another one here that's not quite as scary. take a look. >> the commissioner is making his way to the podium. >> the first pick of this year's

teacher's draft, the middle school selects a teacher from columbus, ohio. >> no surprise there. every school in the country was hoping to nab him. he's a veteran teacher who demands the best from his students and brings his subject to life. >> congratulations. >> obviously doesn't matter how you look at it, the ads are pretty extreme trying to get people's attention. why this route instead of focusing on maybe some smaller change or a series of changes that might be easier to accomplish? >> i wouldn't say it's an ooeitr or. we're not saying that president obama needs to call for a teacher draft but we're looking at the tphenomenon that's becom a draft but how the nfl does a good job ensuring equity. the detroit lions went 0-16,

they get the first draft pick. the opposite is currently true in public education. we have sometimes some of the least experienced teachers, i myself was one when i started teaching in new york city, in front of some of the kids with the greatest needs. that doesn't serve anybody. what we're trying to do is at least initiate a conversation that can run right up until the next reauthorization of federal education policy and think together how do we move from a culture of testing to a culture of learning. >> unfortunately we certainly don't pay our teachers near what the nfl pays players. that would be a big incentive. before we let you go, sam, what role do parents play in all of this? >> well, i think parent involvement is something that's always stressed and often misunderstood. first of all, public education is the closest thing to a silver bullet that we have in this country. it's the only institution that reaches 90% of every succeeding generation of americans that's

governed by political authorities aauthority founded with the mission to have all kids be productive citizens in a democracy. that work of using public education as a springboard to greater opportunity and the american dream begins in the home with parents. what i would like to see schools doing more often is recognizing that there are a lot of different stages of parent involvement. we all want to fill the auditorium on tuesday night when we ask parents to come in but the first step of parent involvement is making sure that your child is fed and gets to school on time ready to learn. and the more that we can begin there, and start to think about how to work more productively with parents the better we'll be in the end. >> we hope that parents can be as involved as they possibly can for their kids making their way through school. sam, we appreciate your time. director of forum for education and democracy. thank you. >> thank you, heidi. congress is back in session today after its august recess. the big topic today is health care reform. some members of a key senate

committee are looking at a compromise overhaul. the plan does not have a public option but does include co-ops. one senator hopes a deal can be struck before the president's address to congress tomorrow night. we'll have the president's speech live at 8:00 p.m. eastern. before he talks health care, of course the president is going to be talking about education as you know he'll be doing that today to school kids. going to happen at noon. we'll have that live. we want to know because we like to hear what you have to say, what do you think needs more attention? is it health care or is it education reform? two very big topics obviously. we have some responses right now. all you have to do is go over to our blog which is cnn.com/heidi in order to weigh in. you'll read a little bit about the story we're talking about every day and then post your response. this one from mike in texas --

warren buffett is called the orkal of omaha for a reason. >> he already owns through his company berkshire hathaway, 10% of a company that you may never have heard about. he bought that about a year ago.

now there's talk that he may increase his stake. that's warren buffett standing next to one of those electric cars at a photo shoot back in march. the chairman of byd suggested last week that this may happen that buffett may take a bigger stake in his company that sent shares of that chinese company soaring and buffett told me this morning, listen, i can't tell you whether or not i'm going to increase my stake. i'll leave that to the chairman of byd to say. that's what he's indicating. which should note, heidi, last year warren buffett wanted to buy 25% stake in that car maker but they weren't willing to sell that much at the time. all signs point to keep an eye on this one. >> many heard of byo but not byd. >> is it stands for build your dreams. this is a cell phone maker one of the largest cell phone battery makers in the world. then they bought a bankrupt chinese car company so they

could transfer their advanced battery technology to cars. it's paying off. they already have a gas electric hybrid now the china that cost $22,000 that will go 62 miles on a single charge. next year they plan to bring an all electric car to the united states that will they say go 249 miles on a single charge. warren buffett told me it's impressive. it can go 0 to 60 in four seconds. this chinese electric car will hit the u.s. market around the same time as general motors chevy volt and electric cars from nissan and chrysler. that means more competition for the u.s. automakers already behind. >> fierce competition. people who want to ask warren buffett about electric cars or anything else, i hear they're going to get an opportunity to do that. >> we're going to sit down with warren buffett next tuesday in california at fortune's most powerful women's conference. the only guy invited to that conference of all women.

go to cnnmoney.com/buffet and tell us what you would like us to ask him. >> it's a good article. very good. pop py harlow, thank you. a major break in a series of serial killings around milwaukee. police now believe they have the north side strangler in custody. they arrested 49-year-old walter ellis at a motel saturday. ellis is accused of killing nine women since 1986. most of them prostitutes. police say dna evidence links him to all of the crimes. he faces two counts of homicide but more charges are likely. for a quick progress report on the station fire that's been burning out in california, here's what we know at this point. fire crews say they have stopped it from spreading and expect to have it fully contained by next tuesday. 78 homes were destroyed but noting 10,000 more were

threatened. a deputy fire chief says firefighters had done an unbelievable job here. the fire is being treated as arson and a homicide investigation because two firefighters died. the space shuttle "discovery" begins its journey back to earth later today. it's scheduled to undock from the international space station this afternoon and end a recent supply visit that lasted just over a week. the shuttle returns home with seven astronauts and a buzz lightyear doll launched last year. a local georgia girl becomes the latest star born at the u.s. open. how a 17 year old is using determination and a vicious backhand to beat down the competition. ever worn your clothes in the shower? if you're using other moisturizing body washes, you might as well be. you see, their moisturizer sits on top of skin,

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we're a little more than an hour away from the president delivering his message to students all around the country. check out this stat. 11%, that's the projected percentage of elementary through high school students enrolled in private schools this fall. rob marciano is standing by in the weather center right now. looks like you have some new information to share with us. are we talking about fred? >> we're talking about fred. i'm looking at the latest numbers from the national hurricane center. this is the 11:00 advisory. they upped the strength of this thing. we talked about it getting better organized and in the last frame or two looks better than this. here's where it is here's where it is going. westerly movement at last check 50 miles an hour. 11:00 advisory. forgive me no not being up to speed. westerly at 14 miles an hour. max sustained winds at 65. this thing is almost a

hurricane. the forecast is for it to become a hurricane. watch it with me for the first time. hurricane 1 status. 85 miles an hour for tomorrow and thursday. and the track looks to be fairly similar in that it stalls it out and weakens in toward the end of the period. let me see if there's anything glaring on here that may change that. that's just way too complicated at this point. >> not only is it complicated but so complicated we can no longer hear rob marciano very closely tracking tropical storm fred that looks like in case you missed what he said there that it is almost at hurricane strength. if we need to get back to rob, we'll do that. probably a battery problem with the microphone there. this story, 17-year-old melanie oudin is the breakout

star at the u.s. open with shots like that. she's advanced to her first quarterfinal in a grand slam with a win over a 13th seed. oudin says this is what she always wanted. >> this is my dream forever. i work sod hard for this. it's finally happening. my first quarterfinal grand slam. it's amazing. this is what i've wanted forever and i'm finally achieving my goal. >> oudin will play the ninth seed from denmark coming up next in the quarterfinals. an ongoing battle with the taliban. four u.s. troops, the latest casualties of the fight in afghanistan. whether i'm at the batting cages... down by the lake or... fishing at the shore. i'm breathing better... with spiriva. announcer: spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

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deadly blasts in iraq leave four u.s. troops dead this morning. roadside bombings routinely target coalition patrols. three were killed in an explosion in northern iraq. the fourth in a blast in southern baghdad. it's a similar story in afghanistan this morning. four service members are dead. we're joined now live from kabul. what do we know about these troops in this incident? >> reporter: well, heidi, we're getting little information at the moment. we do know that four u.s. soldiers were killed at a fight in a province that borders pakistan. i was there on friday with commander of forces, general

stanley mcchrystal. they were there to show new initiatives from the obama administration where they are trying to combine civilian military efforts. we did speak to certain afghans there including a police officer who said the area we were standing may have been safe but just 10 kilometers in front of us was a village patrolled by the taliban. small steps being made. a long way to go as we saw today with these four u.s. soldiers killed in battle. heidi? >> all right. thank you. >> tonight, anderson cooper takes you live in afghanistan live from the battle zone. a special report beginning at 10:00 p.m. eastern. money can't buy you love but it can buy the fully remastered beatles catalog. you only have to wait one more

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13 artist will headline a michael jackson tribute concert in vienna. up to 25 performers are expected. outside a 17th century palace. more names will be revealed. that news conference is later

this week in london and berlin. you heard their music before but never quite like this. tomorrow the remastered beatles catalog hits stores. jim tells us how engineers made a timeless sound a little more timely. >> reporter: it was here the abbey road studios where most songs were recorded. they spent 4 1/2 years remastering the original beatles catalog. the goal, have the beatles sound as if they were recording with today's technology. >> we decided we wanted to remove or improve technical folks within the recordings that could have been a bad edit, a dropout, vocal pops.

we took out breaths or coughs or squeaky chairs. >> reporter: the engineers worked from master analog tapes and not cds produced in the 1980s knowing that fans would be carefully listening. >> they transferred the tapes with a different songs combination into the computer and blind tested the variations to see what they preferred and then after choosing that everything was transferred track by track making sure that the tape heads were nice and clean and the tape speed was constantly monitored so the best possible transfer could happen. ♪ >> reporter: the songs for a new video game the beatles rock band were also tweaked at abbey road. charles martin worked on the project. >> the biggest problem for us

was that a lot of the beatles stuff isn't recorded separately. they worked on two tracks. the material which is "twist and shout" is on two tracks. all of the drums, base and guitars together. >> reporter: steve turner has been writing about the beatles for years and says these are big moves for the beatles and the company they formed. >> i think apple will look at ways of preserving the heritage and also getting fresh flow of income. >> giles martin says paul and ringo are very pleased with the rock band game. what do they think about the remastered? the engineers haven't heard. >> if the phone doesn't ring, it's probably good news, yes. >> reporter: and no word yet if these digital copies of the songs will also be available for