see auto worker layoffs. there might be some robust activity happening in autos because you're having fewer layoffs there. we have 25,000 gained in manufacturing jobs, which is a surprise to some people quite frankly, carol, because we've got a slow in europe and they were worried about manufacturing, but manufacturing held in there. so did professional and business services. 49,000 jobs created there, those can be higher paying jobs and then 29,000 jobs in food services and drinking places and leisure showing a consumer, perhaps, still spending money this summer. how did the major worker groups fair? the labor department says the hispanic unemployment rate, carol, fell to 10.3% from 11%. that was the biggest move within worker groups. white unemployment about 7.4%, and the unemployment rate for blacks, almost twice that, 14.1%, that's how the major worker groups break out. politically, carol, those are the numbers, politically as you know. let's see 29 months of private sector job creation is likely what the white house will be

focusing on. the republicans, the romney campaign already focusing on the 42 months of unemployment above 8%. so there are numbers for both camps to dig in on here, carol. >> yes, i'm sure we'll hear much throughout the day on this report. christine romans reporting live from new york. the latest jobs data comes as a new gallup poll shows 50% of people think mitt romney would be better at creating jobs than president obama. the president is expected to weigh in on the july report later this morning when he meets with middle class families and workers at the white house on the agenda pressing congress to reach a compromise on extending the bush-era tax cuts. if white house says if there is no extension, taxes will go up on 98% of americans in january. but there may not be too many lawmakers in washington to actually hear the president's remarks. that's because congress began its five-week august recess. yes, it went on vacation as of yesterday. the drought hurting many

farmers' fields and now the nation's waterways. take the mississippi river. in some places, the river is 50 feet lower than last year's peak flood levels. in fact, the mississippi had to be closed in two different spots because barges ran aground. the river bone dry in some spots. the shoreline up and down the mississippi looks more like a beach. rob marciano is joining me now. so lower water levels could mean that the shipping industry -- could cost the shipping industry, what? $1 billion this year? >> yeah, huge amounts of money. and when you think about the mississippi as being the thoroughfare as how we transport goods north to south across the country. and a huge difference from this year from last year. and what they're having to do. this is the second time now they've had to shut down the barges here. and this one in greenville, mississippi. the river's so low that these barges have to unload some of their gear. and for -- just to come up one

inch, a typical barge has to unload 17 tons of stuff that they're carrying. and a typical load will be 15 barges. they're shorting that load. well, a lot of barges have to come up 12 inches. so a full foot. so that is some serious weight that has to be unloaded with these -- with these barges. let's talk about the river itself. here is a look at the drought. yeah, you bet. but first, let's look at what happened last year. remember last year? we were in record floods. this is what the satellite picture looked like last year. there's memphis, there's the river looking really wide and everything around there is looking really lush. here's what it looked like on july 4th. you want to talk about some serious shrinkage there. so we've talked so much about farmers and water shortages, carol, but what's going on in the mississippi is a huge deal for shipping and eventually everyone's pocketbook. >> how much rain needs to fall to make the mississippi flow again? >> feet of rain. this is -- i don't want to say

unprecedented drought, but it's certainly a big, big drought. here is what it looks like as far as the drought monitor is concerned. this has expanded somewhat. missouri, for instance, 100% of the state is under some sort of drought. but what's alarming now is that 93% of it is considered to be under extreme drought. other states like oklahoma, similar numbers. they're at 88% considered to be under extreme drought. we have to do a lot of repair work here. this is the forecast for the next three months to answer your question. the only areas that we expect to see significant improvement is really agross the desert southwest. where you look for the drought only to get worse across a midsection of the country and that's certainly bad news for farmers. as far as what the farming outlook is looking like, we're talking about millions of acres that have been planted and some cases in illinois, indiana, iowa, the bread basket there, a large percentage of their crops

considered to be poor or very poor condition and that's where the crop yields have been diminishing. and not just now, but more so next year as we've been talking about. that's where you're going to feel it as far as your prices at the grocery store. carol? >> rob marciano, thanks. just a couple of months ago, gabby douglas' coaches thought she lacked the concentration and confidence to be an olympic medalist. did she prove them wrong. the 4'11" teenager with the winning smile captured the individual all-around event at last night's gymnastics competition. that follows her gold in the team event. this rising star can count on two families, her parents in virginia, and a family in iowa that took her in for two years while she was training. a feature from proctor & gamble tells the story. >> letting go of gabrielle was one of the hardest things i've ever done in my life.

but it's now one of the most rewarding things that i've ever got to experience in my life. because there's no greater joy than for a parent to see their child reach their dream. i've raised an olympian. wow, that's a powerful statement right there. >> she's fun to watch. gabby's mom is a single mother. she couldn't afford to send her child to iowa for, you know, there's this great olympic coach out there. so an iowa family took in gabby, they paid the rent so gabby could get the training she needed. this is such a touching story. >> it's so incredible. i mean, under the brightest lights under the greatest stage she shattered the glass ceiling. that's how one person summed it up here today. it was really incredible.

did you see the performance, carol? she was totally cool, calm, collected, her performance was absolutely electric on the vault on the floor exercises. and all the -- all the competition, actually. she was just really contained and just performed fabulously. i can't come up with enough adjectiv adjectives. her smile was dazzling too. and i think she won over so many people. what is she doing today? she woke up tweeting talking about what it was like and she's doing the media rounds today, as well. oprah sent her a little tweet saying, oh, my god, i'm so thrilled for gabby, i'm crying, and lady gaga sent her tweets and millions of other fans are so overjoyed. and it really is an incredible success story, carol. >> in reading some of her comments and she talks a lot about her own personality and her problems with concentration. she said she'd be practicing and she'd go, oh, is that a butterfly? how did it get in here? and then she'd go back -- she

couldn't keep her kons train station concentration. and she decided she was going to go for it. and it doesn't sound like she had many nerves at all. >> you know, one of the stories that i've read was when she got here, she kind of had a pain in her leg and she was really concerned about that. and then eventually her coach went up to her and said, listen, everyone here at the olympics has pain, so just put that aside. because if you don't do it now you're never going to get another chance to do it. so really concentrate and forget about the pain, focus on the performance. and especially on the bars and the fault, you know, she performed amazingly. and anything that she was feeling or thinking was obviously out of her head as she just made the performance of a lifetime. >> she did. and she did live up to her nickname, the flying squirrel. zain verjee, thanks so much. >> does she need a better one now? a more glamorous one now? >> thanks, zain. this is a town, sort of sounds like the movie pleasantville or the truman

show, it's part of an experiment. researchers using your tax dollars to study people in this town who drive the chevy volt. we're here at walmart with anita and her two daughters. is that your phone bill? sure is. let's see if we can go inside and save you some money on your plan. you ready? sounds great! can you tell them about straight talk? sure. with straight talk at walmart you get unlimited talk, text and data for only $45 a month. but do i get the same coverage? oh yeah. it's on america's best networks. sounds great to me. well we saved you a lot of money, and your girls like their new smart phones. i sent you a friend request. [ both ] we know. [ earl ] save money with straight talk wireless. unlimited talk, text and data for only $45 a month. only at walmart. ♪ [music plays]

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just about 15 minutes past the hour, checking our top stories, the jobs report shows hiring is up with 163,000 new jobs added in july. that is better than expected. but unemployment inched higher. now at 8.3%, about 330,000 so-called discouraged workers were not counted because they quit looking for a job in the last four weeks. at least 67 people have been killed in the syrian city, rebel groups call it a massacre caused by indiscriminate shelling by government troops. a 10-year-old is reportedly among the victims. the u.n. general assembly meets this morning to vote on a resolution condemning syria's government. in money news, get ready for tax-free back-to-school shopping. 17 states announced sales tax breaks before september. some experts say the tax break doesn't save you all that much money and it's more of a gimmick. it only applies to some items and it's on different dates in

every state, of course. tropical storm ernesto is expected to enter the caribbean in a few hours, the national hurricane center says ernesto could become a hurricane by monday and pass near or south of jamaica. in sports, boxing champion floyd mayweather jr. is free. served two months for pumping the mother of his children and, by the way, if you caught it, that's his friend, the rapper 50 cent picking him up in the car. and watch as this cheetah, this cheetah has broken a world record at the cincinnati zoo. the cheetah's name is sarah. she ran 100 meters in 5.95 seconds, the fastest of any land animal on record. she reached the top speed of 61 miles per hour. wow. she should be in the olympics. you could call it chevy

vau voltville. lots of people there who live there, they own chevy volts. what better place to study energy conservation thanks in part to your tax dollars. researchers call it pecan street incorporated. they're monitoring the people who live in texas to see how they use clean energies, like solar power, electric cars and energy monitoring systems paid for with $10.4 million in federal stimulus money. this project runs for five years. some say the name of the town should be changed to chevy volt-ville because it is the highest concentration of gm chevy volts in the country. gm, on-star, the university of texas, and austin energy are all partners in this research study. joining me now is the vice president of on-star. thanks for joining us this morning. >> it's a pleasure being with you, carol. thank you. >> first of all, tell us about mueller, texas. >> well, it's a great community

where about 400 residents currently -- and it's growing -- are looking at advanced technologies and business models and how people use these technologies to be more energy efficient and also cost-efficient in this new emerging space. >> so 400 people live in this -- >> no, they've been -- >> i'm sorry, 400 people live in this neighborhood in mueller, texas. why are they so energy conscious? >> you know, it's one of these things where they found themselves in this arena. and they're very focused on energy efficiency. and part of this project, the individuals have been given a chance to purchase electric vehicles. and of the 60 that have been purchased so far, 55 are volts. they've taken a look at the various options out there and they like what the volt does for them in terms of the no-compromise, no-range anxiety solution. and for us the exciting part is the connectivity through on-star to study more energy efficiency and charging control.

>> so when you say they were giving an opportunity to buy an electric car. very energetic and passionate about energy efficiency. about a third of the homes have solar panels on the roofs. and so we're looking at how all of of these technologies can work in unison to deal with this high concentration of volts and electric vehicles. we think as these technologies continue to improve over time, more people will see the benefit of such a vehicle. and we get a chance to study how concentrated geography we can nnec y manage energy efficiency.

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what kinds of trades were they making? >> on the senate side of -- apply to lawmakers and their spouses. over here on that side, the ethics committee told its members something completely different. that spouses and children do not have to report their stock trades in a timely way. >> i'm obviously deeply concerned about that. >> reporter: all of this was news to the senators who sponsored the legislation. needless to say, when we brought

it to their attention, they were not happy. >> let's say i find out some information, i tell my wife and she goes and trades on it, what's the difference? bottom line, we were supposed to have that level of transparency and have us be treated like every other member of the united states. >> it specifically says that members of congress do not have to have their spouse or children file. >> i think it's wrong and i think it's unfortunate because the reality is the whole point of this legislation is that we should play by the exact same rulings as every other american citizen. and when all of america looks at washington, they know it's broken. >> okay. so let's bring in dana. she's on capitol hill this morning. the senators were from both parties, a republican and a democrat, and they managed to get the loophole closed. so how did they do it? >> reporter: well, carol, it was really interesting, deidra and i knew this legislation ultimately was written in the office of eric kantcanadia cantor.

so we went through the legislation, saw there was something very technical that caused the spouses and children not to be included. so we went to eric cantor's office at the time we reported this two weeks ago, told them about it, took a little while, maybe a day, and they said you know what? you're right. this is a problem. it is effectively a loophole. and over the past couple of weeks they were working with scott brown and others to figure out how to close it and that's what they did. right before they left town, they passed legislation to make clear that members' spouses and their children are going to have to report in a timely way to make sure they too are not benefitting from information that members learn on the job. >> okay. so bipartisan success with a little pressure from you and deidra. thank you so much, dana bash reporting live from capitol hill this morning. chick-fil-a back in the hot seat today. protesters' plans to kiss and tell. the fast food chain they've had enough with the stand against same-sex marriage. we'll talk to the organizer

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it is kiss-in day at chick-fil-a. gay rights activists will be protesting in chick-fil-as across the country. and likely more than one same-sex kiss will be exchanged. coming two days after an unofficial appreciation day brought in record sales. that effort in support of the company's president dan kathy who told the press that his company is very much supportive of the biblical definition of the family unit. karlie mcgee is the organizer of the kiss-in, joining us from dallas. welcome, karlie. >> good morning. >> thanks for being here. the chick-fil-a appreciation day appears to have been a huge success. he apparently told pastor rick warren it set records. will you do the same? >> absolutely. i hope to have as many people

out there as mr. huckabee did. >> how many people have responded to your effort? >> well, on facebook, we have this morning when i checked we had just a little over 13,500. but then we also have, you know, friends that are coming, as well, people on twitter, and other different events on facebook, as well. so we're hoping to see somewhere in the vicinity of 15,000 people show up today. >> and that's all across the country, right? >> correct. chick-fil-a has over 1,600 locations across the u.s. and we're hoping to have someone at every single location today. >> so you're staging this kiss-in, provocative, some say that's just pushing buttons that will turn some people off. so why stage a kiss-in? why not just protest with signs the traditional way? >> yes, definitely. a lot of people have been saying, voicing their opinions about this kiss-in. and we have been -- we have been emphasizing that it's not just a kiss-in. someone can go to hug, hold

hands, but we want to show our love. we want to show that a polite kiss between someone of the same gender is just as good as a polite kiss between a heterosexual couple. i like to liken it to a married couple sharing a light kiss over a romantic meal. it's the same thing. we're here and our love is just as good. >> will people be going into the restaurants? or will they be staying outside? >> for the most part, we'll be staying outside near the sign. some people are going to go into the chick-fil-a restaurants and actually order food. some people have decided to write gay money on their cash and pay that way. as an overarching theme, we're telling people to take pictures outside by the sign. >> there are plenty of big companies that support same-sex marriage. starbucks and jc penney among them. why bother with one company? chick-fil-a? >> it's not just the fact that they don't support lbgt rights, it's the fact that this company

annually donates millions of dollars to anti-gay organizations such as the family research council. these organizations then take this money to lobby the federal government to make being gay illegal, or to export gays all together or exodus international which is a gay conversion therapy camp or pray the gay away, which modern scientists have said not only is this wrong but it's harmful. so it's okay if someone doesn't agree with us or doesn't believe in gay rights or gay marriage, but when you spend money to perpetuate hate, intolerance, and discrimination, that's what we have a problem with. >> well, chick-fil-a has commented about today's event. this is what chick-fil-a released, and i'm quoting here. we understand from news reports this friday may present yet another opportunity for us to serve with genuine hospitality, superior service, and great food. do you think chick-fil-a is

taking your protest seriously? >> well, they better. i mean, they -- they -- you know, naturally they don't probably don't want to comment too much on it because they've had a lot of bad pr in the past two weeks, a lot of which is surrounding my event. fake facebook profiles, the jim henson toy recall, the signs they put up. but i think that they need to realize that, you know, the gay population is here. we have a voice, and we're not going anywhere until we have the same protections under the law to live and love and have committed loving same-sex relationships. >> carly mcghee, thanks so much. >> thank you. a controversy over a mosque in tennessee has people taking sides. why this two-year battle may be coming to a close today.

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up, they could hold a prayer service as early as next friday. joining us with the latest, and this has been quite a battle. >> it has. and i spoke to a member of the board and planning committee this morning and he says, first of all, there's a feeling of excitement, people are anxious to put two years of wrangling behind them and looking forward to a brighter future. what we know is this building passed the electrical inspection yesterday and now the fire marshal will look at the sprinkler system and they will finally get their certificate of occupancy. finally people can go into the mosque. that's going to cause a problem, though, for some people. you get a sense of the division. we picked two sound bites here. take a listen, we can talk about this on the other side. >> okay. >> because it is a product of the muslim brotherhood, it is generally very big interest of

the security of the united states, as well. >> the people, the opposition, we love you all and we are your neighbor. and the concept of loving your neighbor is a concept existing in any religion. >> and that's the feeling there, two years of division. >> the question that comes to mind, is it a product of the muslim brotherhood? >> it's a mosque. and keep in mind, carol, this is a mosque that's been in this community. it's got a three-decade history in this community. it's not new, we're talking about an expansion here. so the mosque has not ever had a problem in the community, they don't believe there would be a problem with this expanding, but you have people in the community who say, look, this could bring hundreds of new muslim families to the community and you get a sense there that there is a division. there are people who moved into murfreesboro who are okay with this mosque being there and there are also people who have been in the community all of

their lives. >> worship services could begin next friday, right? >> yeah. >> we'll be there watching. >> thanks. >> thank you so much. america's drought is ruining many crops and costing farmers millions of dollars. but it's also a huge moneymaker for others. [ male announcer ] . is the at&t network. a living, breathing intelligence teaching data how to do more for business. [ beeping ] in here, data knows what to do. because the network finds it and tailors it across all the right points, automating all the right actions, to bring all the right results. [ whirring and beeping ] it's the at&t network -- doing more with data to help business do more for customers. ♪

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"in depth" now, the drought is killing crops and hurting the bottom line of thousands of farmers. but the record heat is also a huge money maker for some people. here's cnn's martin savidge. >> reporter: in peach county, georgia, they are plucking the last peaches off of the trees. peaches have been in the family for close to 100 years. he grows nearly 300 acres, sending to the the likes of publix, whole foods, and walmart. how is the peach crop looking? >> all things considered, i think peaches look real good.

>> reporter: the peaches themselves may be smaller due to the drought, but the demand is still high, which is why wholesale prices are up by almost 50% over last year. and they taste better. >> so we need peaches and we don't have the rains to come in here and take the sugar away, so that's a plus, is being able to have this fruit with the highest maximum amount of sugar, which is a good thing. >> reporter: if i understand you, the less rain means that a peach like this could be smaller but it's going to be sweeter and tastier. >> that's right. >> reporter: peach fans aren't the only ones smiling about the drought. in nearby marshallville, georgia, there is something else growing in this farmer's field. >> going good for you? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: a massive collection of pipes, spigots and sprayers that when finished will become a crop-sized sprinkling system. these rude goldberg-looking contraptions rotate ever so slowly in a join arc around a

central pump tied to an underground well. hence the name pivots. elton's been selling pivots since the '70s. recently, thanks to the drought, business has doubled. >> we have put in a lot of pivots in the last five years for people that never did have it before. >> reporter: systems like these can easily cost more than $100,000 each, not including the well, which could add another 80,000 or more depending on how deep they have to drill. and lately they have to drill deeper and deeper. even so, jim reed says these days farmers would have a better chance gambling in las vegas than betting on nature. >> the cost of production has gone up, and the risk of the amount of money you had invested in an acre of land has increased, then the necessity of irrigation became greater. >> reporter: which is why reid has crews working close to 12 hours a day, six days a week, just to keep up with demand. thanks to the worst drought in

half a century, whether it's peaches or pivots, both are finding business pretty sweet. >> wow. martin savidge joins me from ft. valley, georgia. how many farmers across the country use irrigation? >> reporter: you know, carol, not as many as you might think. only about 27% of the farm land has irrigation of any kind. part of that is it's very expensive, as we pointed out. the other part is access to water. there's a lot underground in georgia but out west there's not a lot of underground water to be had. that's why you haven't seen much irrigation. it could increase because some banks are demanding before you get a loan, farmer, you'll need irrigation. a growing business. >> fascinating. martin savidge reporting. should senator harry reid put up or shut up after comments he made about mitt romney's taxes? ♪ i want to win [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪

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we ask you to talk back on one of the stories of the day. the question of the morning, should harry reid put up or shut up? from heather, shut up, don't run your mouth without proof. from gary, after all the birther stuff, i think romney's tax info is fair game. why won't romney provide the returns? this -- romney needs to put up or shut up. reid has a point. let's hope it's not the truth but we'll never know until romney shows us. from stephen, fair game. sort of like obama not being born in the usa? remember that? or the outright lies about the health care reform. from delores. harry has crossed the line and needs to shut up or put up. this is exactly why i am not a democrat. keep the conversation going. facebook.com/carolcnn. more responses in the next hour. "cnn newsroom" starts right now. better news on the job front.

163,000 new jobs added in july, more than what was expected, but the unemployment rate jumped slightly up. what does it all mean? we'll break down the numbers. eliminating terrorists or massacre. in syria, heavy shelling and gunfire and dozens reportedly killed by regime forces. this as the united nations votes next hour about what to do about syria. birds mess up travel plans for passengers flying from houston to boston. their united jet apparently hit a bird during takeoff and the plane was forced to return to houston. you don't mess with the u.s. when it comes to women's gymnastics. gabby douglas brings home the gold. she is the first african-american woman to win that sport's prize. we'll talk with her mom about gab gabby's amazing win. "newsroom" starts right now. good morning to you. happy friday. i'm carol costello. we begin the nation's job

market. it's getting a solid boost last month. it got a solid boost, i should say, for the month of july, with the new jobs report out. the labor department shows 163,000 jobs were created in july and that beat forecasts for a gain of 95,000 jobs. still, the unemployment rate ended higher to 8.3% and the economy's not exactly roaring yet. christy romans is is in new york to tell us what it all means. >> and austan goolsbee said don't bring out the party hats just yet but it is going in the right direction, reversing what looked like a summer swoon. 163,000 jobs is enough, carol, to absorb all the new entrants into the lay mor market, and that is something we always want to see. let's take a look at some of the other parts of this. 25,000 manufacturing jobs created. that's pretty important because we were really closely watching what's happening to american factories because of weakness in europe. 49,000 in professional and

business services. 29,000 jobs in food services. that's a sign cop sup consumers maybe spending a little money this summer. i want to are break this down. you saw an improvement for hispanics from 11% unemployment to 10.3 with the rest of the major groups basically steady. here's where the politics comes in, carol, because the white house is pointing out that it's 29 straight months of private sector job creation, more than 4 million jobs cree yaeted over that period for the private sector and that is true. the gop is pointing out it's a record amount of time with the unemployment rate above 8%. that is true. we have three more of these jobs reports till the election, and the final one squeaks in just days before the election overall, carol. we'll have another big report just before people head to the voting booth. another number in here that gets a lot of attention in the aftermath, the days after a jobs report, is something called the underemployment rate, u-6 is

technical term on the table. that shows how many people are unemployed, they're underemployed, they're discouraged. basically, some call it the real unemployment rate. that number ticked up to 15%, carol. wow. christine romans reporting live in new york. the latest jobs data comes as a new "usa today"/gallup poll shows half of americans, 50%, think mitt romney would be bert at creating jobs than president obama. the president is expected to weigh in on the july report later this morning. he's going to meet with middle class families at the white house. on his agenda, pressing congress to reach a compromise on extending the bush-era tax cuts. the white house says if there is no extension, taxes will go up on 98% of americans on january, but there may not be too many lawmakers in washington to hear the president's remarks. that's because congress began its five-week august recess. yes, they went on vacation starting yesterday. mitt romney fighting mad over senator harry reid's tax

bomb as to why romney hasn't released his tax returns. as you know by now, senator reid claims an unnamed source at bank capital told him romney hadn't paid taxes for ten years. romney is not happy. >> it's time for harry to put up or shut up. harry's going to have to describe who it is he spoke with because, of course, that's totally and completely wrong. >> others, of course, are weighing in, too, so let's head to washington and check in with mark preston. good morning, mark. >> good morning, carol. what a bloodbath of words now we're hearing between mitt romney and harry reid over this whole tax fight. it's not even him, carol, weighing in. you're seeing senator john mccain, a longtime colleague of senator harry reid, weighing in last night on "ac 360," and he had some very sharp words for senator reid. let's hear what he had to say. >> i've known senator reid for many, many years, and occasionally he displays some

rather erratic behavior. to accuse someone of doing something without a shred of proof that the allegation has any substance is really something i frankly don't understand. i think politics are tough and i enjoy the give-and-take but i think harry might have gone over the line here. >> there you have it. senator john mccain just last night saying that senator reid has gone over the line in making this accusation that mitt romney hasn't paid taxes in ten years. and harry reid is citing an unnamed source, an up named bane who says that, in fact, he knows mitt romney hasn't paid those taxes. but harry reid, carol, is is standing by his claim that that is, in fact, true. let's look at the statement last night give on the dana bash regarding this. senator harry reid staying by and saying, in fact, that he still believes that mitt romney hasn't paid those ten years of taxes.

and the fact of the matter is what we're seeing here, carol, is he's being accused now, mitt romney is being accused of something and in many ways the only way that he can absolve himself of this accusation is to release the taxes. so it is a win-win for harry reid, carol. >> you think so? because it's an unnamed source. he can't prove the allegations a bit. why would an investor at bane know, you know, about mitt romney's tax returns? >> you know, that's a great question, and in fact there was a column on cnnmoney.com a couple days ago that said a bane investor would not know. what harry reid is doing, though, is is playing hardball politics. harry reid comes from the streets of nevada. he did not come up with a lot of money. he's considered a street fighter. he himself is a boxer. and if fact of the matter is what he has done is he has put mitt romney on the defensive and he has put this tax issue back on the table, carol. >> mark preston live in washington for us this morning.

the clock is ticking down on michael phelps' legendary career. he's got two more events to add to his record medal haul starting with tonight's 100 meter butterfly. he added to his gold collection last night beating teammate ryan lochte in the 200 individual meter medley. with that he game the first man to win the same individual event in three straight olympics. zain verjee is in london. i think you can call michael phelps a superman now. >> reporter: you can call him phenomenal phelps, superman, unbelievable, brilliant. how many morage ek tichs can we come up with for him, carol? i mean, he is amazing. everyone here in london and around the world is just gripped by his performance. so we're going to see if he can do it again. can he get another gold today in the 100 meter butterfly final. even if he gets another medal, he's going to make history. so we're just all eyes are going to be on phelps today just to see if he can do it. now, carol, just a short while

ago, i was at the souvenir store and there were so many people from the u.s. just buying some really great stuff that's out there. and i came across something really interesting. apparently this little tablet, carol, if i pour it into a bowl of water like this, something is supposed to happen. but i'm not sure what. so i'm just going to dunk it in there and see what happens. i'll tell you in a minute because apparently it's supposed to be something very cool. in the meantime, i want to introduce you to this guy, his name is wenlock, and he's basically the mascot for the olympics here. see this guy? >> what is he? >> reporter: here he goes, carol. all right. he is the mascot. it comes from a town called wenlock in the uk. that's who it's named after. he's got five olympic rings around his hands. he also has one eye, and the one eye is because there are structures like this all around london and they're filming everyone, the tourists and everyone in london and just

going to make a great piece of tape. and then here is the podium, carol. the podium for gold, silver and bronze. this is our guy, wenlock. i got you another version of it here. it's just a one-eyed bandit kind of thing. but, you know, everyone seems into this. so what happened to the result of that little tablet here, well, carol, let's see. oh, wow. take a look at this. it's magic. it's magic here. live on cnn. >> oh, geez. >> reporter: here we go. and guess who's on the tow snell. >> oh, wow. >> reporter: it's wenlock. >> that was brilliant, zain. we loved it. thank you, zain. >> reporter: i thought it was going tok like the underwater treasure box and would be empty. >> i thought the tablet would turn into gold and you could quit your job and live in luxury somewhere. thank you, zain. >> reporter: no.

just a little towel. >> zain. i think zain needs some sleep. when it comes to the middle class, which presidential candidate is the best man for the job? one group says it's not mitt romney. why that's sparking a war of words over taxes. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. [ wife ] a beached whale! lawn clippings! a mattress. a sausage link. mermaid. honey!? driftwood. come on, you gotta help us out here a little. [ male announcer ] febreze eliminates odors and leaves carpets fresh.

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13 minutes past the hour. checking our top stories now, the u.n. general assembly votes today on a resolution condemning syria's government. an opposition group, of course, 90 people were killed across syria just today. most of the victims were in the besieged city of hama. boxing champ floyd mayweather jr. is free following his release from a las vegas jail. he served two months for punching the mother of his children. by the way, that's his friend you saw there, rapper 50 cent picking him up. get ready for tax-free back-to-school shopping. 17 states announce sales tax breaks before september. some experts say the tax break doesn't save you much money, that it's more of a gimmick, but it only applies to some items and of course utd takes place on

different dates in every state. tropical storm ernesto is expected to enter the caribbean in the a few hours. the national hurricane center says ernesto could become a hurricane by monday and pass near or just south of jamaica. in sports, a huge payday for an ohio family. carl kissner was cleaning out an attic when he came across some baseball cards in mint condition that once belonged to his grandfather. the cards sold at auction yesterday for $500,000. the money will be split among 20 cousins. a close call for a new york mom and her daughter. they left their car for five minutes and came back to find it hanging on the edge of a sinkhole. firefighters worked for an hour to get the car back on the solid ground. it is the second sinkhole in two months in this same neighborhood. it's been a week since the mother of baseball hall of famer cal ripken jr. was kidnapped from her home. she was found safe several hours later in baltimore. now, this morning, ripken is talking about what happened for the first time.

he's speaking right now at the old baltimore orioles stadium, actually at the baltimore orioles stadium, camden yards. we're going to monitor this press conference. in fact, carlos diaz is doing this for us. he'll bring you the highlights later this hour. remember this woman and her shocking tan? she's back. she's lost her tan. wait until you see what she looks like now. and the first trade route to the west. we built the tallest skyscrapers, the greatest empires. we pushed the country forward. then, some said, we lost our edge. we couldn't match the pace of the new business world. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. build energy highways and high-tech centers. nurture start-ups and small businesses. reduce tax burdens and provide the lowest middle class tax rate in 58 years.

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we asked you to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. the question this morning, should harry reid put up or shut up? it's war. mitt romney is fighting mad over senator harry reid's tax bomb. about why romney hasn't released more tax returns. >> the word's out that he hasn't paid any taxes for ten years. let him move from he has paid taxes, because he hasn't. >> reid says he was told this by a former bane capital investor, an unnamed investor. so basically, reid lobbed an unsubstantiated bomb, and it's blowing up big time. >> it's time for harry to put up or shut up. harry's going to have to describe who it is he spoke with because of course that's totally and completely wrong. >> in fact, romney suggested

that reid's super secret source wasn't from bane at all but from the white house. a romney adviser accused reid of mccarthy-like accusations. as for harry reid, well, you put up, he says. in a statement thursday nigh, reid called his source at bane extremely credible. but he still did not name him. he also said romney could resolve the whole matter by being more transparent. but to john mccain, harry, it's really all about you. >> to accuse someone of doing something without a shred of proof, that the allegation has any substance, is really something i frankly don't understand. i think politics are tough, and i enjoy the give-and-take, but i think harry might have gone over the line here. >> did harry reid cross the line? and if so, brings us to our talkback question. should harry reid put up or shut up? facebook.com/carolcnn.

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to switch, and you could save hundreds. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? it's become yet another epic battle between president obama and governor romney. at issue, mr. romney's tax cut proposal, whether it's good or bad for the middle class. the nonpartisan tax policy center says it would raise taxes for middle class americans and cut taxes for the wealthiest americans. president obama pounced on that. >> we know better. they have tried to sell us this trickle-down tax cut fairy dust before. and guess what? it didn't work then. it will not work now. it's not a plan to create jobs.

it is not a plan to reduce the deficit. it is not a plan to build our middle class. it is not a plan to move our economy forward. it takes us backwards to a place we don't need to be. >> but romney's camp says that tax study is a partisan joke. so what's true? felicia taylor is here to tell us. first off, who did the study? >> okay, carol, the study was done by the tax policy center. it is a nonpartisan operation combining the urban institute and the brookings institution. mitt romney has criticized the report, though, saying the center is a liberal entity and the report was co-authored by a former obama adviser. he's referring to sam brown, who is obama's former finance chief of staff. president obama pointed out the director of the center, don marin, worked under president bush on his council of economic advisers and that governor romney has praised his work in the past. so president obama mentions, as you just said, the trickle-down tax cut fairy dust.

he's talking about the report's findings that romney's tax plan would result in a tax increase for lower and middle-income taxpayers in order to cut taxes for the highest earners. for his part, romney says the findings are a dishonest characterization of his plan. carol? >> well, give us some specifics. what exactly did this report find? >> yeah. it gets a little confusing, but basically here's the gist -- governor romney's plan is calling for a 20% cut to current tax rates. the tax policy center said that would actually decrease federal tax revenues by $360 billion by 2015. so because of those cuts, high earners will have more available cash. people making over a million dollars will see their after-tax income rise by more than 8%. for those with incomes between $75,000 and $100,000, their average tax income will increase, as well, but by a less amount, only 2.4%. and those american who is make

less than $30,000 a year would see their earnings actually decrease by about 1%. president obama has said this is essentially, you know, shifting the tax burden from rich to poor. and mitt romney's campaign is says the study was missing a key piece of the puzzle. it didn't account for the economic growth that his tax reduction would prompt. as i said, people and businesses would have more extra cash to spend because of this this. carol? >> right. because the job creators would have more capital on hand to create jobs and the romney people are saying, hey, you're not taking into account all these jobs that we're going to create after, you know, president romney is in the white house. >> well, and they'd have more cash to put back into the economy. if you reduce taxes, obviously there's more cash in your pocket. so you can put that back effectively into the economy and that makes things better. nevertheless, it's not very satisfying to people that make less than $30,000 that their take-home pay is going to

decrease. that's not good news. >> felicia taylor, thanks so much. for almost 24 hours, she was abducted, she was kidnapped. vi ripken was found in her car, her hands and feet tied up. that was one week ago. now her son, the baseball hall of famer, cal ripken jr., makes his first public comment since this whole ordeal began. >> for what we know right now, from what i know, we don't know why. and so that's -- it's bizarre on many levels, and it's unsettling on many levels, but it's strange to say the least. >> poor cal. hln's carlos diaz joins me now. what else did he say? >> yen it was -- first off, cal ripken is one of the classiest guys, not just in baseball but in sports. so a lot of people are coming to cal saying how is your mom doing, how is your mom doing? the first thing he said was i just want everyone to know she's doing as well as she can, she's okay. you can tell there's some mental trauma there. she's not actually gone back to the house that she was abducted

from on july 24th. her day began like any other day. she went to the garage to do some chores and a man confronted her in the garage at gunpoint and then basically drove her around for 23 hours. cal ripken said that they've asked her several times what happened during those 23 hours and she hasn't been able to articulate what happened at the time. >> aw. >> it was very interesting to watch cal ripken, who like i said one of the most charming guys you ever want to meet, to use that word, as far as with the press, just being very -- not stand offish, but you could see he has a little bit of anger in his voice right now. and what i was looking for was, you know, the emotions with cal ripken. he got emotional on the final question. when he was asked what was it like when he learned that his mom was okay, and he basically -- he choked up, he took a moment, and he said when you're dealing with a situation like this, your thoughts always go to the worst, and he said we began to accept the worst and when we found out she was okay,

you know, all those emotions kind of hit you right -- like cold water, you know. >> i think we have that part of his presser, so let's listen. >> i want to be able to report that mom is doing pretty good. you know, it's a traumatic situation that she was involved in, traumatic for all of us in the family, and we're trying really hard to come together and support each other in this. but mom by and large is a tough, strong woman. was able to endure this. but she's doing pretty good. >> that was a question from earlier in the press conference. like i said the last question is when he really got choked up and you saw the real emotions on cal ripken's face. basically, this man is still at large, in his late 30s, early 40s. we've been showing the sketch. there's some video you see right here of a thin man. and that video was taken at the time of, you know, the abduction. the crazy thing here as we're learning more facts about this

from cal ripken, he didn't even know his mom was missing until somebody reported the car in a strange place near a private home and they reported the license plate and then that's how they figured out that she was missing. so it was a very traumatic time for cal ripken and the ripken family. i think now what cal ripken is doing, he understands he's a famous person and his fame can help bring this guy to justice p. >> that's what he's doing. i hope somebody recognizing that guy, because you're right, part of the mother's trauma might be because this guy's still out there. >> and she won't go back to the home because he's still out there but also the fact so far we don't know why. they keep saying the word "bizarre." it's a very bizarre situation because all indications are that he had no idea that he was kidnapping cal ripken's mom. >> and then he just let her go. >> it is a bizarre situation. >> carlos diaz, thanks so much. 10:30 eastern time. the bottom of the hour. let's check our top stories.

violence intensifies in syria as the u.n. general assembly votes today on a resolution condemning their own security council's failing role in the crisis. activists say 90 people have been killed across the country today alope. and the u.s. says more than 17,000 have been killed in the last 16 months. labor department says 163,000 jobs were created last month. that's actually better than what was expected. but the unemployment rate edged higher to 8.3%, about 12.8 million americans remaining unemployed, 40% of them for six months or longer. hours before a planned kiss-in, national protest at chick-fil-a come reports that a restaurant vandalized in torn torrance, california, pictures just in. the words "taste like hate" are on the side of that restaurant. supporters of same-sex marriage are having a kiss-in tonight.

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the drought hurting many farmers' fields and now the nation's waterways. take the mississippi river. in some places it's 50 feet lower than last year's peak flood levels. in fact, the river had to be closed in two different spots because barges ran aground. the river bone dry in some spots. shoreline up and down the mississippi looking more like a beach. meteorologist rob marciano joins me now. so, wow, this could be a problem for the shipping industry. >> yeah. we've been talking so much about, you know, the farms and cattle and our food. but so much goes up and down that river. $180 billion worth of goods every year. 566 million tons of stuff goes up and down this river.

when you consider the barges that are doing most of the pushing and pulling, they'll run into some trouble. an average tug pushes 15 barges, okay? and they're having to lift these barges up because they're dredging some of the waters. all the way from la crosse, wisconsin, right throughout down through parts of mississippi. this is what's going on. that stops the traffic, and it's just been a bad situation. they had to lift a lot of these barges about 12 inches. in order to do that, they've got to unload 240 tons of goods. so you can imagine what kind of backlog that has put down on the mississippi itself. want to show you one thing that's kind of interesting. we mentioned that last year we were at record levels, but the river has dropped in many cases more than 50 feet below where it was last year. lush areas last year, this is a satellite p picture from last spring. you see the swollen mississippi, and you compare that to what's going on right now, this picture taken july, and boy, not nearly

as lush and that river certainly has shrunk. we're talking about a huge backlog of traffic, carol weather this situation there. and really we need a tremendous amount of rain in order to remedy the situation. that's not going to happen through this summer. >> i was just going to ask you, how much rain is it going to take? >> well, you know, let's look at one thing. as far as what we forecast over the next several months, as far as the drought and the improvements that we expect to see across the area. come on. get out of here. >> technology. >> come on. get off there. there you go. all right. so anywhere you see green on this map is where we see some sort of improvement. nowhere in the drought zone. so in order to -- we really need o a tropical system to come up and help remedy the situation. but we don't expect that to happen in the next week. after that, all bets are off. but missouri, 98% of that crop right now considered to be poor or in very poor conditions. illinois, 95%.

so you're talking about a swath of the country that really is in dire straits. missouri, this is updated yesterday, 92% of it considered an extreme drought. other states similar numbers including parts of kansas, 88% in extreme drought. this is not recoverable in just the next several months. it's going to take well over a year so we're in this for the long haul, carol. rob, thanks. the mom who made headlines for her jaw-dropping tan is tan no more. this is what patricia krenzel looked like before she was arrested for taking her fair-skinned 6-year-old daughter tanning, something she has denied. well, here he is now in the latest issue of "in touch weekly." she has not been tanning for a month. she told the magazine everyone says she looks better now, but she feels, quote, weird and pale. michael jackson's mother, katherine, is is once again the permanent guardian of his three

children. a judge made that decision yesterday. but t.j. jackson, michael jackson's nephew, was named co-guardian. "showbiz tonight's" host, a.j. hammer, joins was more on this story. good morning. >> good morning, carol. here's the deal. a los angeles judge reinstated katherine jackson as permanent guardian of michael jackson's children thursday after saying a court investigation found she was doing a wonderful job. the judge said that the children's cousin, t.j. jackson, who he had tapped as a temporary guardian last week, would stay on and eventually share joint custody of prince, paris, and blanket with 82-year-old kathari katharine. this is all based on a request made by the family. we're getting a bit more detail from michael's mom in court documents related to thursday's hearing. she explained those ten days that she was incommunicado in a sworn court declaration. katharine suggests she was tricked into getting on a plane to tucson, arizona, and when she arrived there, her cell phone

and ipad were taken away and she was kept from communicating from her grandchildren. she had no idea she was even reported missing. oprah winfrey has decided a portion of this will play out in prime time. la toya jackson says she's be working with oprah on a new reality series around her life. it was announced thursday describing it as a candid look inside the life of the outspoken jackson sibling. it's being called "life with la toya" and makes its debut in 2013. should be interesting. snul i can say is those poor kids. let's switch gears and talk act beyonce. she wants to direct, produce, and star in a documentary about beyonce. >> well, why not? we're going to see a whole lot more from her. "the los angeles times" reports she's been shopping around the documentary to hollywood stew owes about her life and career. the report say she's pitching a concert-style movie, which she will produce, direct, and appear

in and we'll get to see her in concert but also get a behind-the-scenes look into her life as a business mogul and mother. up until very recently she was notoriously private about her private life. she never even officially confirmed her marriage to jay-z, but look at her now. she's debuted a new website in the past year, launched her presence in social media. and with this intimate look at her life, it seems she is, well, rather quickly lifting the curtain on her life in a very big, albeit very controlled way, carol. >> katy perry did it. why not beyonce? >> why not. >> thanks, a.j. join a.j. hammer on "showbiz tonight" tonight 11:00 p.m. eastern on hln. getting serious now. the syrian opposition reports a massacre today. dozens are dead. now the united nations nears a vote condemning the assad regime. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays]

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nothing can stop me now. i feel like the sky's the limit with what i can do and what i can accomplish. my name is naphtali bryant and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. just about 45 minutes past the hour. checking our top stories, facebook wants to get rid of 83 million accounts that are either fake or duplicate accounts. that's 8.7% of all facebook accounts. some are used for spamming, others are accounts for people's pets which is not allowed. facebook rules also say people can have only one account. to china, where two tropical storms have slammed into the country, one after the other. one hit the eastern part of that country, the other hit farther south. that same storm killed at least 40 people in the philippines and

taiwan. in sports, michael phelps will swim for his last individual event in the london games later today. he's seeking his third gold medal of the 2012 games. so far the u.s. has more medals than any other country, 37 total, 18 gold. china is close behind with a total of 35 medals. look at these cars. a man in vermont is accused of using a tractor to crush seven sheriff's cruisers. some people say it was revenge because he'd been in trouble with police before. more than half the sheriff's department fleece fleet now destroyed. as you might expect, that man now under arrest. we all know texting and driving is dangerous. this next story in texas drives home that point. the man was driving. when he tried texting he drove off a cliff. his truck suffered major damage and the man himself almost died. >> you need to understand, don't do it. don't do it. it's not worth losing your life.

>> doctors in texas say they're seeing more injuries from driving while texting. so do not text while you drive. we may be near a tipping point in the ongoing syrian civil war. the opposition reports at least 90 people killed across the country today. most of them are what's being called a massacre in the besieged city of hama. an all-out battle is expected soon in aleppo, and the u.n. has a vote today condemning the regime. cnn's alese lavin is covering that side of the story from the state department. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carol. basically, the u.n. general assembly is set to vote on a resolution. as you know, the u.n. security council failed three times to pass a resolution. russia and china always vetoed the resolution, trying to impose sanctions against the assad regime. this resolution does take to tas it can assad regime for its use of heavy weaponry against the population and its threat to use biological and chemical weapons. but it also deplores the

paralysis of the u.n. security council for failing to address the crisis and also kind of points the finger. you had former u.n. secretary-general kofi annan, the u.n. envoy, resigning yesterday in frustration, saying he basically can't do his job because of this security council intransigence, carol. >> elise labott reporting live for us this morning. behind every olympic athlete there's a mother cheering her on, a mom who also sacrificed. we're going to hear from the mother of america's latest gymnastics star. and gold medal-winner gabby down las.

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you know, gabby douglas has arrived. kelloggs is now putting her picture on a box of corn flakes. the sweetheart of the gym took a

gold medal in the all-around event at the london games. the second gold for the 16-year-old with a mega watt smile, but like every other olympian, success comes after sacrifice. natalie, her mom, has put in a lot of sacrifice for her daughter. she spoke to cnn on the eve of the games. >> the competition started a long time ago. who could run the fastest? who could jump the farthest, who could jump higher on the couch? when she started expressing an interest in gymnastics, her sister ariel, said, you have to put her in mom, she is doing really good. after years of persuading me, i finally gave in and took her to a trial class. she just never wanted to come out of the gym. she loved it. she would just practice all the time. i saw the hard work.

i realized when i got into this sport how expensive it was. just the commitment over the years. sometimes it felt crushing. i didn't think i'd be able to keep her in the sport. but then i would think about it and i would say, you got to fight. if i had to sell, i sold almost all my jewelry and if i had to pick up extra shifts at work, whatever it takes. >> when she began competing, it's hard. you go through this whole range of motions. you're nervous, you're excited. even when she was like 4. we'd be on the edge of our seats. probably in about 2008, we were watching the olympics at a friend's house and she said, i think i could do that. i can do what they're doing. i'm working on that on the bars. she said, i'm going to the

olympics. i can do this. you know, if we maybe pursued a coach who had gotten someone to the olympics and kind of knew the ins and outs of what it took to get someone there, she might have a valid shot. she started saying, i need that coach. i need coach chao. i said, i can't move the family to iowa. i'm a single parent, i didn't have the resources to do something like that. my two oldest daughters got together and wrote a list and said, okay, here's all the reasons we're going to help you out here and here's the reasons she shouldn't go. the only thing on that side was that we'd miss her. it was scary. how would i be mom back in virginia when she was living in iowa. how does that work? i think it was tough on everybody because skyping is not the same as being able to reach out and touch her.

from day one she began to improve. she said it was like learning again for the first time. she just began to grow just leaps and bounds. i almost can't wrap my mind around it because we talked about it for so long and now it's here. it hasn't quite sunk in with gabrielle, either. when i talk to her, she says, mom, i'm an olympian. i'm an olympian. >> of her win, gabby douglas said i came out on top and i'm just so excited. her nickname is the flying squirrel. if you watched her performance last night, it is amazing. she just flies so high in the air. so, congratulations, gabby. you're soon to be even a bigger star. we'll be right back. ♪

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quick check of headlines. the labor department says is 63,000 jobs were created last month, better than what was expected but the unemployment rate edged higher to 8.3%, about 12.8 million americans remain unemployed 40% for six months or longer. mitt romney is firing back at harry reid, the senator, put up or shut up. the senate majority leader accused romney of not paying his taxes for a period of ten years. an unnamed bain capital investor told him that. romney is calling on reid to unveil his source saying it is totally false. national protests at chic-fil-a comes reports of a restaurant vandalized in torrance, california. we just got these pictures in a short time ago. supporters of same-sex marriage are planning a kiss-in at restaurants nationwide. they're protesting chic-fil-a's president who recently expressed his support for traditional marriage. we ask you to talk back on

one of the big stories of the day. the question for you this morning, should harry reid put up or shut up? this from norm, give them hell, harry. someone has got to smoke romney out and force him to make public his tax returns. mitt can prove me and harry wrong by releasing his returns. this from chris, what's romney hiding? the republicans made a stink about obama's birth certificate but he released ten years of his tax returns. even if you hate obama, how can you trust romney when he seems to have hidden so much? romney did release a year's tax return and will release another soon. this from team, reid is way over the line on this. throwing out accusations like this with no evidence, put up or shut up, reid. if these accusations are false romney should shut up reid by putting up his tax returns. keep the conversation go,

facebook.com/carolcnn. "newsroom" continues now with kyra phillips. >> hello, everyone, i'm kyra phillips. 11:00 a.m. on the east coast and 8:00 in the west. 45 minutes until a live address from obama. a time slot duel. gay pda at chic-fil-a. public displays of affection not aimed at the socially conservative fast food chain. move aside spirit and opportunity, a new mars rover is on the horizon and should be on the ground by monday. finally, a job's report that beats expectations. sure, expectations were low, under 100,000, but look at this official net gain for july. 163,000. that's the most new jobs since february. the unemployment rate, meanwhile, a separate survey ticked up last month to 8.3%.

christine romans watching this all-important gauge of economic vitality, shall we say. would you call the july numbers vital? i would say it's vital to the president's re-election prospects and vital to every single family in america who is trying to figure out if they can keep their job or get a job. yes, this is a really a important report. you gave the headline numbers. let me dig in a little bit. i took 40 pages of tables and graphs and put it in one graph to show you how it works. the private sector created 172,000 jobs, kyra. but the government is still a drag on overall job creation. 9,000 more government jobs lost. in the month, you have almost 500,000 government jobs that have been shed since february 2010. let's look at the trend. this is really important. never make too much out of one month in the job's market. the trend is what is important and the trend here is two years of job's growth. you can see that last summer and this summer it looked like there was a swoon and this caused concerns about heading to a do-d