attention today. photos as well. take a look here in the philippines, man stands in a flooded street after a tropical storm dropped more rain in a region already under water from two weeks of heavy rain. it will take weeks for the water to rece de and this boy plays with an israeli flag sitting on a carousel while a man plays. jewish american immigrants arrived in israel to enlist in israel's army -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this hour in the "cnn newsroom" paul ryan speaking to voters in denver, colorado. we'll hear from him. first, we to want bring you a fascinating story. the military's attempts to fly at more than 4,000 miles an hour. so you probably realize if you have ever flown from flork to london it is a long flight,

seven hours or so. this could all change. the air force trying out a new aircraft that could take you across the atlantic in less than an hour. barbara starr is following the developments. tell us about this. this is more than just quick flights to europe. the military is going to figure out ways of traveling very fast and using it for very specific reasons. tell us what this technology is for. >> well, you're right when you call it technology. it is not an airplane yet. there is the old line from "star wars," fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy. think of it that way. that's what we're talking about so far. they're testing this today. it will fly off a b 52 off the coast of california, this test vehicle if you will, only centers on board, no pilot, no passengers and they'll test and see if they can make it fly through 300 seconds, five minutes or so, at a speed

unbelievably of mac 6, about 4500 miles per hours. that's what you're talking about. if this technology works, what does it really mean? you could turn it into propulsion for a missile, put a missile on target within minutes all i way around the other side of the world. make a passenger jet that could carry troops to a conflict zone within an hour or so. the whole idea for the military, you can get to the problem faster than the enemy can, that's how you win. for the rest of us, it could turn into pretty fast commercial air travel once of course you get off the ground and you're not on one of those holds on the tarmac. >> good point, barbara. first of all, tell us about, this is not the first time this wave rider test has actually been carried out, right? >> they have tried -- it is called hypersonic technology. it has been tried before. it is very difficult to achieve.

it basically involves an entirely new method of propulsion that involves taking advantage of the oxygen in the atmosphere so you're not carrying around huge fuel tanks, of course, so it is very advanced. this is just the initial phases. they have done tests before. they haven't exactly worked out the military doesn't really tell us why and what has failed. they're keeping that and really hoping today if they can take this step forward and just make this thing fly for 300 seconds, they will have made a significant advance in seeing if they can make this technology work. >> do we know, first of all, do we know when the results will come out and how much it actually cost us? >> well, some experts have said the program because again it is not an airplane is about $141 million right now. that's par for the course on one of these advanced technology programs when you are in the very initial phases. who knows when it works and when they decide to really turn it

into something. as for the test results, they will get telemetry, electronic signals back when the flight finally goes today and it will take them some time to analyze it, the parts that work, the parts that didn't, and figure out where they go from here. >> we'll get back to you and find out how it all went. thank you, barbara. appreciate it. bringing in chad myers to help us wrap our heads around this. you and i were talking about this. you fly planes and do everything. you understand all of this stuff. help us understand what this is because we are talking about something that would actually travel five times the speed of sound. >> make no mistake, the pentagon is not trying to make mother concord. >> they said it was a failure. people didn't really take to that. >> they're not trying to get you to europe. this is not about flying people really, you and me. this is about getting people or things, weapons, to places in 10 to 12 minutes. the issue is sometimes when you know you have a target and the

drones find the target, they lock onto the target and say send a missile. the missile can take 80 minutes or so. by that time the guy you're trying to get it gone. this could be there in less than ten. that's the thing. can we get armaments to places fast enough so by the time we get there the guy we're trying to get is still there. >> tell us how it works. >> it is an amazing process. it is trying to make a rocket engine like what's on the shuttle without liquid oxygen. we don't have to carry liquid oxygen in this thing like you do with the shuttle because the shuttle goes up above. there is no oxygen. this thing is grabbing, sucking oxygen from the atmosphere, combining it with the hydrogen inside and slamming it out the back. that doesn't happen until the thing is already going mach 4.5. rockets have to shoot first. this things sucks in the oxygen. it goes with the hydrogen, thrown out the back in a skram

jet and they go mach 6. there is not many moving parts honestly but it is not about flying you and me anywhere. >> if this was successful, and how soob could you actually develop something like this where it would be practical and the military would be able to use this? >> we would both be over 100 years old, i think, before we could get on the plane that does this. the military could use it a whole lot sooner than that. this technology is like when the sailor back in the 1800s would be sailing a poboat and it couldn't go fast because it was in its own wake, maybe 10 miles per hour. all of a sudden we put engines on the back of a boat and the boat could get up on plane and the plane could go 50 or 60 miles per hour on the water. our current technology for our planes use the air to fly. this thing is trying to get the air out of the way and literally get up on plane like a power boat does and get out of the way of the air and slide through it, almost break the air apart at

that point rather than use that air to fly. completely different technology. >> i love it. i love the way you explain that, too. >> it is going to go fast. it might break up in space or 70,000 feet high, but it is going to go fast. >> we'll bring you back to see if this was a success, you and barbara. thank you. appreciate it. a huge discovery, literally what are we talking about here? check it out. talking about a burmese python that weighs in at 165 pounds. the length, 17.5 feet. found in the florida everglades as you may be able to see. there are five researchers working side by side and it is still longer than all of them. it was also found with 87 eggs inside. scientists trying to figure out how to stop pythons from taking over the everglades and other areas. the problem is that the snakes have no natural enemies to even out the population. unbelievable. here is what we're working on for this hour. the presidential election is just 84 days away. the announcement that paul ryan

will be mitt romney's running mate keeps making waves. we'll hear from ryan himself speaking live in denver this hour. democrats say ryan's medicare plan will slow seniors under the bus. republicans say he is trying to save medicare. who is right? i will talk to strategists on both sides. then what is bipolar disorder ii, the diagnosis for chicago congressman jesse jackson junior. i will talk to a psychologist about it. [ female announcer ] how do you define your moment?

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want to show you live pictures here. this is breaking news from brentwood, new york here. that's on long island. these are pictures from our affiliate news 12 on long island. several fire departments, they are on the scene of what is a house explosion, described as a house explosion. they're picking through some of the debris there and we're trying to determine whether or not there are serious injuries. we have seen some emergency officials taking away somebody on a stretcher from the scene of this house explosion. there were reports, a gas smell in the area. the gas company says that the

nearest gas line is several blocks away from this home. we're still uncertain what is going on there. it is not clear if the construction was going on at the time of the explosion but we do know that somebody has been taken away from the scene. as soon as we get more information on that house explosion out of long island, we'll bring that to you. presidential candidates and running mates hitting some of the key swing states. here is a look at where they are. president obama continuing his bus trip across iowa. heard from him awhile ago and mitt romney campaigning in ohio, his running mate paul ryan is in colorado. we'll hear from him shortly. vice president biden is campaigning in virginia. president obama and mitt romney, they are locked in a virtual tie. in 2340er battleground state, we're talking new hampshire, and a new wmur state poll the president leads romney 49% to 46%. that is within the sampling error. the results pretty much the same as they were in a similar poll

conducted back in july. mitt romney says president obama wants to make america more like europe. romney is wrapping up a bus trip today. his running mate is campaigning in colorado and can moments ago romney said that president obama has not delivered on his promises. >> he said, you know, he had i measure progress by whether more people are getting good jobs. unfortunately we got 23 million americans. you think of that. 23 million americans out of work or stopped looking for work or way under employed. then he also said he would measure progress by whether people were able to have a job that paid for a mortgage. we have had 8.5 million home foreclosed on and home values down and in some community if if the major employers leave there is no market whatsoever for their homes and he said you can measure america by whether people had incomes going up or

incomes going down. guess what's happened in the last three and a half years? the average income of an american family has gone down by $4,000 a year. at the same time health care costs are up. gasoline prices are up. utility bills are up. as a result of this the people in this community and in this nation, the middle class americans, are having a hard time making ends meet. the president said he would cut the deficit in half. he doubled it. >> jim acosta is in beallsville, ohio. we hear both sides sharpening their messages and getting into more of the specifics and talking about the economy here. we know with this ryan announcement that the romney team at least had hoped for somewhat of a bump here. early poll numbers showing kind of lukewarm. where does that stand? has it made much of a difference even? >> reporter: i think the romney campaign believes they'll generate enthusiasm with the ryan pick and we are starting to

see signs of that, some of the romney ryan events that they have held since naming paul ryan as the vice presidential candidate have been a lot bigger and much more robust and enthusiastic than we have seen when mitt romney is just out by himself on the campaign trail. i have to tell you, suzanne, one of the debates we have seen since mitt romney tapped paul ryan has been on the medicare issue and both campaigns have been going back and forth over that subject over the last 24 to 4 hours, but there is a new debate emerging i have to tell you about. we're just starting to pick up on it. it may over shadow this medicare war of words and that is a war over energy. mitt romney here at the coal plant that we're standing in front of right now in eastern ohio accused president obama of waging a war on coal. he has made those comments just a few moments ago and the obama campaign is sort of firing back. we got early guidance on what the president is going to say at an event in iowa. he will be touting wind energy

and according to some of the excerpts released by the obama campaign, the president is going to talk about how mitt romney once talked about how you can't put a windmill on top of a car and then the president according to these excerpts is going to go onto say i would like to see him do that. now, it sounds like a reference to the whole shamist incident, the incident a long time ago that mitt romney is being criticized for for when he once strapped his family dog on top of the family car. it sounds like the president is getting very close to the edge of talking about that in this event coming up later on this afternoon. there is a new war of words going on you can say, suzanne, over a new subject and that subject is energy. >> and based on the people you're talking to there, the voters on the ground, do they really care about that? is that something that they are talking about? >> reporter: i have to tell you, what we're finding here in coal country is that, yes, they do very much care about the future of this industry and the people at this plant, at least a few

folks we talked to are tending to be more romney supporters than obama supporters. the obama campaign has already tweeted out a video showing mitt romney back in the early 2000s going after a coal-fired power plant when he was governor of massachusetts and making comments about that plant. this is really going back and forth and it is really kind of a new development in this campaign and it is sort of the volume i think is reaching the level of the medicare debate we have seen the last 24 to 48 hours. it is going to get interesting. >> interesting development there. thank you, jim. appreciate it. protesters as you know, it is a common sight on the campaign trail and sometimes the supporters take advantage. take a look at this, an obama supporter holding up a sign behind the president. this is at a rally in iowa. it says fund pepfarr, the president's emergency plan for aids relief started under president bush. he says that he still backs president obama but he is concerned about aids funding. >> i look at the promise that

was made versus what has actually happened. >> you remain a supporter. >> i remain a complete supporter because i think mitt romney would be even worse as would paul ryan. >> you must not be from iowa. >> paul ryan was met by a small group of hecklers during a campaign stop in iowa. one protester shouted stop the war on the middle class. ryan acknowledged the protesters and continued on with the speech. two won who tried to climb onto the platform were waerd off by police and other officials. the democrats say that paul ryan's medicare plan is going to hurt older americans. now, republicans say this program needs a change. we'll hear from stralt gists from both sides. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. you're not filming this, are you?

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all right. mitt romney's decision to pick paul ryan as his running mate either bold and courageous or a dangerous decision that spells bad news for the middle class. it depends on who you ask. we'll ask two of our favorite political players from opposite sides and tell us what they think of the ryan decision. donna brazil and alex castanios

are with us from washington. good to see you both here. let's talk a little about not republicans or democrats but independent voters, obviously who play a very big role in thissy lekds. i want to start with you, alex. you wrote about swing voters, how they would be energized because you say in your words rick santorum romney manned up and got serious. what does that mean essentially? >> it means instead of picking a safe political choice which i think is what all the political strategists probably including yours truly have recommended, mitt romney picked someone who could help him not make the sale but solve the problem. that is fix the economy. paul ryan is an expert on that. so that is i think a bold move. it is the right move. we say we crave politicians who will put -- who won't look after their own political self interests but look at our interests. i think romney has done that and over time that may play well. one of the problems we have is

when you pick a vp two weeks before the convention, you see that candidate through the prism of other people, the news media, what others think of him. we're going to at the convention see ryan himself in the debate. we'll see ryan himself. he is a very smart guy. he is a problem solver. not a kind of mean republican that wants to take things away from people. >> donna, weigh in here. the independent voters have a record. ryan has a record of promoting what is the so-cald beginning of life bill that legislation where life starts at conception and defined that way. he takes a lot of socially conservative issues. how is it that the obama administration capitalizes off of something like that? >> well, in many ways he is a radical outlaw on social issues, economic issues. i think he is more americans who are struggling with every day

bills and costs of living. if you take a look at the ryan budget passed by the house republicans, it is a radic departure from the way we have done business over the last 50 years. it dramatically cut back on investment programs like education, like health care, insuring elderly people and others. it abolishes the children's health program, something that we all believe is important and turns it into another kind of tax credit that families might or might not receive. i think this is a choice that mitt romney made in many ways because he did not have a defining issue, did not come up with a budget plan, and so he outsourced himself to paul ryan to have paul ryan's budget as the road map for america's future. the problem, alex, if you look details, it doesn't add up. it increases the deficit over the long-term. it doesn't bring us to balance. it is pretty much doubling down on tax cuts for the wealthy

while the rest of the country, the rest of americans won't have anything to live on. >> alex, howard writes an interesting article called is paul ryan a ticking time bomb as romney's running mate and he suggests as the more they get to know him, they have a lot to dig in when it comes to his record. he wants to privatize social security. i know under bush he traveled for eight miles and was a dismal failure. how does he manage to appeal to the independents and how does he manage to deal with that kind of record? >> i think you begin by pointing at the record of the economic extremists who seem to be running the country right now. i think the challenge for republicans is going to be to make this a race between austerity and just having more. the obama team is going to say, look, if you vote for those guys, those republicans, you will end up with less from government. i think what you will hear republicans say is, wait a

minute, if you vote for republicans, you will get more from the economy. will you get a growing economy which you don't have now. you will get more larger, more jobs, larger paychecks, prosperity, and by the way when the economy grows there will be more government revenue to save programs like social security and medicare. so austerity, i think, is what we have now with barack obama. change from the last 50 years, i think donna is right about that. that is what republicans have to offer. frankly, neither of the last two presidents, whether republican or democrats has changed the way things work in washington and look at the state the country is in. somebody has to change things. i think that change message is frankly a progressive message that is going to appeal to young people, that's going to appeal to women, that's going to appeal to a lot of people hurting in this economy. >> i have to give donna equal time here. i want to bring this up here. president obama was great with social media, but you have this cnn facebook election talk meter

right now that is showing that paul ryan essentially is the politician that most people are talking about kind of knocking the president off his perch. how does he get his mojo back, his facebook, social media mojo back. >> you know paul ryan is like sugar on that, sugary gum that will wear off the more you chew it. the more you chew on his policies, the more you look at his message for america, especially for the middle class, the problem with the romney ryan ticket is it is retro. it is a throwback to another era. there is no way you're going to balance the budget and get into fiscal discipline with more and more tax cuts for the few in this country. we need a balanced approach. that's what president obama and vice president biden offered the country and why we have had 28 or 29 months of conservative job growth. not moving fast enough if the republicans would get off their you know what we might move faster. >> we have run out of time.

i will have you back and we'll be debating much of this in the months to come. thank you very much. good to see you as always. the mayo clinic says congressman jesse jackson junior is responding with l to treatment for a bipolar disorder. he has been diagnosed with a less severe form. we'll talk to a psychologist about what all of this means. [ kate ] most women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. they bought all their groceries right here, but let me ask you, you ever think about walmart for smart phones? no not really. let's see if we can change that. sure. walmart has the latest technology on the best networks. look at these smart phones! oh cool! wow these are really nice. we've got the samsung galaxy siii from at&t. at&t. yeah, you can talk and surf the web at the same time.

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call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. an earthquake in russia -- i am sorry. we got a new script here, a new story. if you grew up watching tv in the 1970s you probably remember this. that was arnold horse shack on the show welcome back kotter. he died yesterday morning in florida and the show launched the career of course of john travolta. his agent said he had to move to florida to be closer to his

mother. horseshack was 63 years old. congressman jesse jacking son junior responding well to treatment for bipolar 2 depression, the update from the might have yo clinic in minnesota where jackson is receiving care. we found outlast month that jackson was suffering from a mood disorder. you might recall that he hadn't been seen on capitol hill since may and for a while there wasn't a lot of information about where he was. now we know and a lot of us don't know much about bipolar ii disorder. we are talking to our guest javier amador, the author of i am not sick and don't neat held and has written two books on bipolar disorder, two types of this disorder. we're talking bipolar 1 and bipolar 2 which is the less severe of the two. tell us about these two different types of depression. >> well, by pore la 1, people are used to hearing about man i can depression and you see

people in a manic stage where they can be very hyperand speaking a mile a minute and spending all their money in the bank account and doing other things that reflect poor judgment. it is certainly a very severe mood episode, and then there is the depressive side, and depression as we all know can be extremely disabling and the world health organization has found to be the second biggest cause of disability worldwide, so depression is very severe. bipolar ii, they say it is the less severe version and i wouldn't agree with that characterization because you still get depressed. depression is life-threatening. it is severe. it is disabling. however, the manic side is not as severe. that part is in fact true and a lot of people don't even get diagnosed with bipolar ii who have it because instead of seeing the manic symptoms, the low level manic systems, you see

somebody who is a high functioning person, somebody who is working in congress, working in industry, working well at whatever they do and you miss the signs. >> tell us how this, how would the congressman be able to do his job and function? would he have medication or how does that work where someone has bipolar ii and exhibits these symptoms? >> for the majority of people who have it, you do need to be on medication, typically for a lifetime. not taking medication is a big problem. i have a book called i am not sick and i don't need help because most people with bipolar disorder, more than half go off their medication because they feel better and they understandably feel like i don't want to take this anymore. someone with this disorder unless they're in the disabling phase of the disorder where they're really severely depressed and unable to get out of bed or having thoughts of death or suicide, are able to

function, and you would never know. in fact, it is one of the trickier -- >> javier, are you still there? we lost javier. thank you very much for explaining that to us, bipolar ii. an earthquake in russia causing seismologists in california to leap up. we'll explain why and don't forget you can watch cnn live on your computer. head to cnn.com/tv. [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day

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have, busting my back on moguls, fishing for brookies in rainbow and climbing the great peaks you have. this is one of the most beautiful states in the country. it is an awesome place. you have a big responsibility, and one of the big responsibilities you have, you have to elect joel corras to congress. now, i am so thrilled and excited to join governor romney as his running mate on the republican ticket because we are going to give america the kind of leadership they deserve to get this economy growing and get people back to work.

when you take a look back four years ago, we had a really tough economy. without a doubt president obama inherited a difficult situation. here is the problem. he made it worse. we had seen a failure of leadership, a failure of leadership to get the economy growing, to create jobs, to get our spending and debt and deficit under control. what mitt romney and i are offering the romney/ryan plan for a stronger middle class is designed to get people back to work. it is designed to create jobs. if we get this economy growing like we know we can, we can create 12 million jobs in four years.

we're offering solutions. among those solutions we're offering, our number one, make sure that we use our own energy because we have our own energy in this country. all of it. you have it all here in colorado. you know, last week when i was filling my truck up, which something tells me i won't be putting my gas in my truck any time soon, but last week when i was filling my truck up, it cost $100, and the only reason it cost $100 is because the pump cut me off at $100 because of the gas tank. enough. we have our own oil and gas.

we have nuclear. we have all of the above, winds, solar, coal, let's use it. let's make our energy independence. let's create jobs. let's stop sending jobs overseas by buying oil overseas. [ applause ] now, you have the technology here, the wherewithal here, the oil and gas here. we want to reward that. we should be tapping our resources which we know we can and in an environmentally sensitive way. we want to get the government out of the way. president obama has done all that he can to make it harder for us to use our energy.

>> that's paul ryan out of lakewood, colorado, using the issue of energy to make his point traveling to the key battleground states vying for votes. people are buying again, good signs of the economy. we'll take a quick look at those numbers as well. çtoooowl

looks like americans finally starting to spend more. found out retail sales up .8% in july, doesn't sound like much but the first time in four months we have seen any kind of

rise at all. what does this mean? >> it is a pretty good jump. i know it doesn't sound that way. it is the biggest increase we have seen since february you look look at the categories you see bigger gains. they bought sporting goods, hobby items and books and music, up 1.6% and it could be a sign they're spending more followed by online and other non-store retailers like home shopping network and ai volcano and this continues to be a growing trend, more people shopping online more often, one of my favorites as well and the hope of course is the overall jump in spending needs to slow down in gdp we saw in the second quarter and could be just temporary. fingers are crossed. there is also going to be a lot of anticipation, suzanne, as we head into august to get the retail sales number from august getting into the key back to school shopping season, the second most important period to retailers after the holidays >> love the good news. how are marketing doing today?

>> stocks are holding their own in the plus column. it is one of those low volume august summer trading days which are kind of quiet here. besides the good news on retail sales there is news out of europe that's keeping stocks in the green with both france and germany reporting better than expected economic growth for the second quarter although the overall eurozone economy shrank and there are earning from home depot that raised forecasts on hopes for continuing improvement in the housing market. california and florida are among the best performing states last quarter and that's a good sign for housing and consumer spending. we're watching shares up about 4% right now. >> thank you, allison. good to have good news there. free money advice from the help desk. >> here on the help desk we're talking about credit. with me now, liz miller and doug flynn. listen to your question. >> how do i get credit if i don't get any credit history? >> it really is the backbone for everything, isn't it, credit?

>> it is. years ago you would go get a sears credit card and it was the best credit you could build. today the first thing to do is go to your bank where you have a savings account and build a little bit and if you can't get a straight out credit card they will give you a reserve credit card. you put aside your savings behind that card and when you show a few months that you can use it wisely, then they will start adding credit to it. when you do have the credit card you want to regularly go back to your bank and ask to extend it so that you can show a record of paying it off on your credit report and getting more and more credit you can manage. ultimate patly a car loan is one of the best things you can get to build a wonderful credit rating. >> that's what i was going to ask. you sort of have to show through action, don't you? don't make any late payments, right? >> absolutely not. you don't want to be more than 30 days late and you always want to make sure you can handle the monthly payments. the car loan is absolutely a great way to get started. something reasonable. you can usually get a car loan. the car dealers want to find a way to get you in that car. another good thing to do, look at a gas card from any gas

company. they usually have a small limit and will give you a chance if you have a card to charge stuff and pay it off and charge stuff and pay it off and that's how you build credit. >> great advice. thank you. if you have an issue you want our experts to being at that he will, upload a 30-second video with your question to ireport.com. this man is about to be the millionth customer. would you mind if i go ahead of you? instead we had someone go ahead of him and win fifty thousand dollars. congratulations you are our one millionth customer. people don't like to miss out on money that should have been theirs. that's why at ally we have the raise your rate 2-year cd. you can get a one-time rate increase if our two-year rate goes up. if your bank makes you miss out, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

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democrats sounds the alarm about paul ryan a plan about the overall of health care. elizabe elizabeth cohen is here. let's be specific. how do paul ryan's plan and

president obama's plan differ? >> it's a federal program, you turn 65, you get your health insurance from the federal government. what ryan wants to do is keep that as an option but the people would have an option of getting a voucher. you can use it to to buy a private policy. if you find a nice cheap one, you get some money back. you choose an expensive one, you'll owe more money out of your own pocket. all of that would start in 2023. >> critics believe it would reopen the donut hole. explain that. >> let me explain the donut hole. with medicare you would spend a certain about of prescription drugs and medicare would help you and after that you were on your own. once you spent a lot of money medicare would help you again. there was this gap where you had to spend your own money.

president obama closed that hole so seniors get some assistance in that. what's interesting is romney and ryan want to reverse obama care. they want to get rid of it. ryan's proposal doesn't have anything for the donut hole. that comes back and seniors are left spending that money again. maybe he has something in his head that he wants to do. it's not in the plan that we looked at. >> not clear yet. talk about medicaid because that's a lot that people are talking about. >> obama care in addition to rehauling the health insurance system, it hugely expanded medicaid. it included all sorts of people. we have a woman named medicaid marlene. she used to make too much money to be on medicaid but under obama care she can get medicaid.

romney and ryan want to repeal it. we don't know what will happen to her. under obama she gets medicare. under ryan, we don't know. he wants to give block grants to state. give them money and say do medicaid and you figure out how to make it work and figure out who you want to cover. >> a lot of questions still. all right. thank you. appreciate it. did you watch the olympics? >> i know i did. more eyes glued to the screen than ever any time before. [ male announcer ] if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. [ sneezes ]

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an earthquake in eastern russia made itself felt in

california yesterday. the earthquake caused false positive reports of earthquakes across the state. the reports were cancelled. wildfires rage in the pacific northwest. 62 fires including 16 new large ones. they are burning across california, nevada, oregon, idaho and washington state. a 20-year-old firefighter was killed on duty in oregon on monday. north of san francisco two separate fires have forced the evacuations of 500 homes. one also threatening a popular nudist resort. london olympics making history as the most watched event ever. that's according to the folks at nieslesn. more than 219 million americans watched. i watched it too. "cnn newsroom" continues

right now with brooke baldwin. >> thank you so much. let's roll on. any moment now defense secretary leon panetta is expected to art address members of the media and the focus may turn to syria. first, shedding light on that bun gun battle that left three people dead. you'll see this afghanistan veteran waiting to jump into action and help out. >> you got an ambulance here yet? i'm a medic. >> it's coming. >> can i get to him? >> we're told con stable bryan served the gunman, an eviction notice. they were shot. college station police arrived.

they exchanged gunfire with the suspect for several minutes. >> officers were contacted and they were arriving to the scene on their initial gunfire they started taking shots. they returnedfire and that went on for several minutes back and forth. >> that was police chief jeff capps. i want you to watch what happens when the officers rushed the house in which the suspect was holed up. >> put your hands up. do not move? do not move. if you move, you are dead? do not move. do not move. >> you hear the army medic

talking with the police. he stood by as police rushed this house waiting to help the down officer. take a listen to this. >> i got a medic over here. we need help. hey, hey, wait till it's clear. we don't know if the house is empty. >> come on. he's been down for like 20 minutes. >> settle down. andy, is that house clear? >> all right. go. house is clear. >> and he continues toward the house. all of this was happening right around this time yesterday. take me back. you're home. you hear the shots. instead of keeping cover, here you are creeping across the street toward this fire. why?

>> shortly after i figured there were real gunshot not construction noise, i could see the college station police officer crouched behind a car taking fire. once that happened and i informed 911, i went back to see if there was anything i could do. i saw the down constable. i had to see if i could help but the gunfire kept exchanging so i couldn't get out there. >> let me begin with this con stable. you do ask permission to approach. you crawl toward the constable police officer who had been shot. how bad had he been hit? >> one of the fellow officers was trying to talk to him and he was nonresponsive. i tried to take vitals but i found none. we immediately started to do cpr. >> were there any signs of life? >> all we could identify was a

single gunshot to his chest. >> we now later learned he passed away in the hospital. all of this happening, you've been to afghanistan. you are a medic. you know what you're doing. not only do you approach the down officer, you then decide to approach the shooter who would have been playing dead. why do that? why take the risk? >> that's not really happened. i was first on the scene so before the ambulance could arrive to do their job, i was working on the constable. once they arrived they took over and the suspect needed attention. that's when i started working on the suspect until the rest of the paramedics showed up to start their level of care on the suspect. he was handcuffed and brought out by the police. they wouldn't let me approach him until he was cleared. >> he was handcuffed. he told you something. he wanted you to relay a message

to that officer. what did he tell you? >> right. he did ask me to apologize to the officer he had shot. >> he wanted you to apologize to the officer that was shot and later died. what did you say back to him? >> i said nothing. i continued to -- we were looking for wounds and making sure he wasn't bleeding out. we needed to do our jobs. >> you sound so cool, calm and collected now. was your heart just thumping yesterday? >> you know, this goes out to all first responders at college station. i've never seen a higher level of professionalism. everyone was completely focused. there was a down officer there and they treated the suspect in every level of professionalism and everyone did their job.

it's not just about one person and everyone just focuses on their job. that's what everyone did there. >> absolutely. c kudos to the officers. why record the whole thing on your phone? >> i didn't know what was happening. the initial impulse was to record it. it could have been something the police would use. even though there were several police eyewitnesss, they can follow along with, they got the raw video and pictures. >> what a story. thank you so much. >> thank you. deadly day in afghanistan. multiple suicide attacks and bombings have killed more than 40 people and injured more than 100. most of the blast happening in

zaranj. officials say it's the bloodiest day so far this year. more news developing right now. roll it. he's the man of the moment and that as paul ryan reintroduces himself to americans, i'll speak to someone that know what is inspired these political beliefs that has everyone talking. danger in the everglades. a monster python discovered in florida sets a record. a mom sees herself on porn sites after shoogt an instructional video on breast-feeding. now she's suing and she joins me live. he's saying you want to go back and drive fast through the intersection because there's a sniper. >> ben wedeman avoiding snipers in syria. you'll see this fascinating

behind the scenes look inside the war zone.

four candidate, four states. these are the heavy hitters. they are up for grabs in the november presidential election. you see the president is spending day number two in iowa. let's listen in as he tweets mitt romney on the topic of wind energy. >> that's what he said about wind power. you can't drive car with a wind mill on it. i don't know if he's actually trying but he's had other things the on his car, but if he wants to learn something about wind, all he's got to do is pay attention to what you've been doing here in iowa. governor romney touching today on america's energy future. he appeared a short time ago with some pretty burly coal miners behind him. he said the president has turned his back on coal, which is there

for the taking. he's telling the miners he needs their votes. >> i want you to find one person to convince to vote for our ticket. maybe you can do that once a week or once a month. i want you to make sure they will get to the polls. i want you to commit to get to the polls. i make that commitment to keep america strong. you make the commitment to make sure i win. together we'll take over the hope of the earth. >> that is mitt romney. here is paul ryan. he is talking energy just as well a short time ago in denver. >> last week when i was filling my truck up, something tells me i'm not going to be putting gas in my truck any time soon. last week it cost 100 bucks. the only reason it cost 100 bucks is because the pump cut me off at $100. i didn't even fill the gas tank. enough. >> again, paul ryan in colorado. now no joe biden.

here he is walking on stage in southern virginia. his first of two days. biden says that putting ryan on the ticket says romney wants to take america to place it wants to go. >> there is no real distinction between what the republican congress is pro poposing and wh governor romney plans to do. america has had a glimpse of the ryan-romney congressional budget and they have rejected it. >> biden may have gone a bit rogue there in southern virginia. we're going to hit in that. peter it sounds like the republican base responding to paul ryan. >> reporter: we knew the wall street editorial board and

conservative crowd really liked paul ryan. we're seeing on the road that ryan is energizing the republican base. yesterday in iowa he pulled several thousand people up to the soap box of iowa state fair. today here in colorado he had at least 2,000 people in a high school gym, maybe more, and they really responded when he was hitting all of his lines in the early stages of this stump speech. we are seeing big crowd reactions. >> big crowds. i hate to rain on the parade. wean the ryan plan and the romney plan, there seems to be a bit of confusion. that does it make the republican ticket open to being defined by democrats, which i'm sure the democrats are very hard to do right now. >> reporter: that's what democrats want.

the romney campaign kn by picking paul rn they would have to confront medicare questions head on because of the budget plan he put together in the house. paul ryan out on the road in colorado, hasn't really talked about medicare that much but the romney campaign when they are out there on television, one of their senior advisors on cnn said romney and ryan are 100% on the same page when it comes to medicare vouchers. while republicans are sort of figuring out how to talk about medicare, democrats are mostly on the same page. it's having an impact down ballot. republicans are trying to take back the senate. this is going to be a big issue in five or six key battleground states, places like virginia and nevada. think about ohio, republican senate candidate josh mandel as

a young guy trying to connect with voters. democrats are on the same page while republicans are still feeling out how to approach this issue. >> i know we'll watch to see how they figure out that issue and how they want to clarify the difference plans. we have to talk about a piece you just put up on cnn.com. i know we talked a l about santorum and those sweater vests. now it sounds like we're talking about paul ryan and turtle necks. >> reporter: turtle necks, the '90s, big time. he was in a fraternity at miami university in ohio. cnn got our hands on yearbook photos from ryan from his fraternity days. we post ed them on cnn.com. this is the fun part of getting to know these national candidates. this was in 1989, '90, '91, '92.

paul ryan is rocking the turtle neck in some of these pictures. kind of an interesting glimpse of ryan in his college days. he's only 42. some current frat broethers are excited. >> very interesting. glad you could dig up those important fophotos. we appreciate it. i get to anchor this show live from tampa. that kicks off august 27th. join me on cnn. he's saying you want to go back and drive fast through the intersection because there's a sniper. >> what a story this is. that's ben wedeman. he's on the streets of syria.

where this scene is daily life. you're about to see this behind the scenes look at the hell inside the war zone and how we cover it. ♪ [ male announcer ] its lightweight construction makes it nimble... ♪ its road gripping performance makes it a cadillac. introducing the all-new cadillac xts available with advanced haldex all-wheel drive. [ engine revving ] it's bringing the future forward. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays]

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there's really no let up in the misery for people in syria. at least 70 people have been killed today in the violence that's consuming that country. watch this. activists say the relentless shelling of rebel strongholds has made the growing humanitarian crisis worse. the u.n.'s emergency relief coordinator met with syria's prime minister and the u.n. says two million people are affected by this upheaval. right now leon panetta and martin dempsey. they are addressing reporters. they are expected to talk about the u.s. response to the syrian crisis. we have eyes and ears on this.

as soon as they address it we'll turn it around. syria's prime minister who fled the country last week has made his first experience since he defected. he held a conference in jordan where he insisted that the syrian regime is close to collapse. >> tnslator: i can confirm to you that the regime's morale and economy has completely collapsed. >> the u.s. government has lifted economic sanctions. the sangs were imposed last month. meantime, cnn international kor respondent returned from aleppo. we have talked so much about the fighting there. it's the largest city. very much so at the center of this intense fighting. just a stunning behind the scenes look at how our view dodged snipers to enter the city and get their story.

>> we made it. we left our safe house at 11:00 in the morning. it's ten minutes past ten at night. we findly made it to aleppo. we're going in the direction of salahuddin where all the fighting has taken place. we're going to go to the mush hud neighborhood which is a adjacent to salahuddin. the rebels say they have largely retaken but everything everyone says with a great big sack of salt.

he's saying at the intersection go faster. we're going through an interest where he says to drive fast. kind of get onto gear. we're just going through this intersection. we're good. it was just that road here. they're saying there's a sniper

that's shooting. he's saying go back and drive fast through the intersection because there's a sniper. he said get down. get down. get down. that's all right. you're fine. just get down. even if it's uncomfortable just get down.

all right. okay. we made it past that one. okay. now is a good time to get out and get our bearings. what are you doing? he's going to take us between the buildings. we'll park the car there. >> ben wedeman and that was one intersection to get the story here on cnn. our thanks to ben and our crew. unbelievab unbelievable. new york to l.a., 40 minutes. new york to london, an hour. the military testing out a hyper sonic jet that's so fast it rides the shock waves that it creates. what would this mean for the future of war and possibly air

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let me tell you something about this wave rider. this is what the air force is testing. take look at the pictures. it's kind of cool. it's not manned and launches from a modified b-52 bomber. to help us understand this a little bit, for example, let's say new york to los angeles. this will reach more than 4500 miles per hour. that will take you from new york to los angeles in a cool 40 minutes. it rides the shock waves created by traveling so fast. here is what this would do. this is where it would take off from in california and attached

to a b-52 which would then take off just off the coast. in terms of this flight here, the aircraft will launch and fly for about 300 seconds during the five minutes and travel about 370 miles and dive there into the pacific. let me talk to chris lawrence. he can explain how this works. chris, how the heck can this thing potentially fly so fast? >> that's just the thing. it may not. the previous test, it's never gone beyond about 150 seconds. believe me if this flies for five minutes they will be thrilled at this test. that tells you how long we got to go. projected out, dream big. you can imagine paris to tokyo in two and a half hours. it's always been a dream to shrink the world, so to speak and move at a faster rate. the pentagon spent a lot of money on this technology.

>> how much money? >> about $2 billion over the last ten years. at this point not a whole lot to show for it. they have been making some incremental progress. the goal is to have that capability to strike anywhere until the world within an hour without using the only available means we have right now is a hydrogen bomb which has all sorts of repercussions. >> obviously they're looking for speed. this is unmanned. if and when that works, and i know i'm jumping ahead of myself, would this be something they would look at putting someone in. . >> maybe our grand children. i think you and i will b long gone. the problem they had is the

bigger you make it, the worst it works. when talk about making it big enough to carry passengers and cargo, that's a small problem. it's a small step along the way. >> good to know our grand babies will get to europe in a snap. >> hopefully. >> we'll check in and see if this goes anywhere. one woman's routine drive turns into an emergency. >> that's when my air bag deployed. i lost consciousness. the next thing i know is i'm in the water. >> look at this picture. her tale of survival is next. police go under ground to uncover 750 pounds of pot. ♪ this is the sound of my soul ♪

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talk about a driver's worst nightmare. you're driving across a bridge

and then you're trying to escape a death trap as your car is filling up with water. she clipped the guardrail and sent flying into mobile bay. thank goodness shelived to tell her story. >> i remember swerving to miss the car in front of me and lost control of my vehicle. witnesses say that's when i hit the side. that's when my air bag deployed and knocked me out. i lost consciousness. the next thing i know is i'm in the water. >> then somehow she wound up on the roof of her car when rescue crews arrived. a sprawling marijuana farm found growing under the streets of rome. 750 pounds discovered hidden in an abandon subway in a tunnel. pot has a market value of more than $3 million. authorities believe the facility might be part of larger international drug ring. vice president joe biden

telling a crowd today mitt romney's version of wall street will put you back in chains. back in chains. that comment sparking immediate reaction from the romney camp. i'll speak live with one of adviso advisors, next. there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat.

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back to the race for white house. joining me now from walker minnesota, former republican congressman weber.

he's an advisor to mitt romney and a friend of paul ryan. congressman weber, welcome to you. i just want to start off some wonky sort of stuff. your reaction to what joe biden said this morning in danville. >> romney said in the first 100 days he's going to let the big banks write their own rules. unchain wall street. going to put y'all back in chains. >> i just want to make sure everyone caught that. the vice president said romney wants to unchain wall street. then he said he's going to put y'all back in chains. congressman weber, your reaction. >> that's ridiculous. what he is referring to is this ridiculous piece of legislation that they ran through in the first two years when the

democrats ran everything called dodd-frank. the main thing you need to know is it's so complex, so complicate and a so ill thought through that the regulations implementing it haven't been issued yet. it's taking years and years for the regulators to figure out what the heck dodd-frank even means. what governor romney said is we know we need to encourage banks to lend businesses to i thinvesd regulatory burdens. let's eliminate that and it's this horribly complex set of regulations yet to come and give the banks the encouragement to lend and invest. >> just so i'm clear, that comment was just commenting on

policy and politics? >> right. we're not talking abt undoing most of the regulations that have been put in place over years. we're talking about not implementing a piece of legislation that's not capable of being properly implemented. >> let me jump in. when i hear tim talking about cutting the national debt and deficit, we have to wonder whether selling discipline is really winning political issue. what do you think? >> i think you're right. in the past we've had a real problem and that was just selling and now we have to ask the question, this is part of the fundamental choice the country has to face right now. do we believe that the looming debt that our country faces is a detriment going forward. a little more spending might boost the economy a bit but now

we're seeing the debt to gdp rise so rapidly that it's getting to the point where investors and the bond market are questioning whether or not the united states is going to go the path of european countries and some cities and counties and states in this nation and the unable to pay it step. that may be a greater detriment. >> it's a choice whether you want the obama-biden ticket or the romney-ryan ticket. congressman ryan has become one of the faces of the house of representatives over the last couple of years. we know the house is unpopular among the public. democrats seizing upon that. i want you to listen to the man who introduced vice president biden.

>> i think it's possible that mitt romney is the only person in america who looked at the way this congress is behaving and said i want the brains behind that operation. >> you hear the big laugh that comment garnered. will voters say congressman ryan and think of him as really the face of a very unpopular house of representatives? >> i don't think that's going to happen. we still have this phenomenon that when people are asked about the congress, they don't like the congress but they like their own congressman because they know who he is. they're not going to know paul ryan as not part of the nameless, faceless group, they'll know him as a person and hear his explanation of what he wants to do. >> you think that's going to be

easy for him to change that image? >> i think it's tough in this environment to convince people. the derlying reality is you got polls out even just today that show by a two-one margin people think the country is on the wrong track. they threw out the democratic congress. >> those approval ratings for congress aren't so hot. how does paul ryan change that image? >> i'm agreeing with you. people have no confidence in the congress but two years ago they threw out the democratic era. they're going to look at these people that are running for office in the fall and make a judgment about which of them from a political class that they don't have a lot of confidence and say who can better turn around the country. i think when they look at him and make that determination, paul ryan and governor romney have an excellent chance of convincing people what has been happening the last four years

has only made things worse and need to give the new team a chance. >> it's a choice. thank you for calling in. >> thank you. great to be with you. capable and confident despite doing math. you know her as winnie from the wonder years. she wants more girls to feel this way. she's going to join me live to share why smart is sexy. with beautiful tones and highlights... no other foam lasts longer. and no other foam is product of the year. check out colorblend foam. only from nice'n easy.

on mars the rover curiosity software is updated. everything is a go. they have went over the stunning images that are still coming back from mars. this is an image that was taken from a nasa satellite. you can see the blast pattern

from the rovers dissent onto mars. also we have the rock littered surface. the rover will explore first before heading toward mt. sharp which is about four or five miles away. among the key placers are joy crisp. there's this myth that needs to be busted today that girls aren't good at math or science. it just isn't true. studies sthoe gihow girls closi math gap. more women getting their phds in math. 30% go to women. folks that's compared to 5% about 60 years ago. i like to think that's thanks in part to women like joy crisp and grace tanway and sally ride who recently past away, the first american woman in space making

math accessible to even more girls is a mission for any next guest. most of us know her as winnie cooper. danica mckeller is a certified math wiz who writes math books geared toward girls. her latest book is girls get curves, geometry take shape. welcome back. >> thank you. >> i want to ask how did you become a mathematician. >> i was pretty afraid of it in middle school. i would come home and try. one teacher came in and made a huge difference. i realized that math is about the presentation of it. math is a foreign language. if it's presented properly it doesn't have to big and scary and something you cry about.

it can be fun and relevant to your life. >> i love how you bring up your teacher. it's amazing how one teacher can change your line of thinking. right now the thought is it's our culture. it's not that girls lack smarts that keeps out the whole girls are good at math stereo type along. how many people along the way before you get your degree with highest honors from ucla said you can't do this? >> you know i didn't have too many people say that to me. >> good. >> the world we live in tells girls that the most important thing they have to offer is through how cute they are and their appearance. that's what they have to really give the world. that's their value. when i was a math major, i realized how many women would say i can't do math and this one teacher said i didn't do good and i nev looked back.

i was like what's going on. like you said in the study you talked about before, women, girl, scored just as well on average as boys. the girls confidence in math is so much lower. when they hit a stumble block, girls are see it as evidence of what they have known all along is they can't do math. this gets stuck in our head from all the things we see around us that says girls don't have to be so good at math. >> we want it to be unstuck. i love the cover of your book. you're looking fabulous. >> thank you. >> it says girls got curves. it's almost like the cover of some teen magazine that you'd grab at the store. you talk about the perfect dress and lounge chairs. you talk about how geometry

helps you approach it in a logical manner. were you ever attempted to become a teacher yourself? >> i sort of am a teacher through the books. you're right. the books look more like teen magazines and math books. why? this girl get the stereo type stuck in their head thinking i either need to be like the cute popular girl or the nerdy girl. you can be all of the above. studding math, getting good at overcoming challenges and that logical problem solving stuff that you use every day in life, that make yo makes you more fab. math makes you more fabulous. math is for you girls. you can tell because look at this book. this book is made for you. >> i took physics and i said i

don't think so. just good for you. brains and beauty. danica mckeller. your boys is girls get curves. thanks for coming on. awesome seeing you. >> thank you. coming up next, a horrifying reality of war. reports of rape being used as a weapon inside of syria. i'm about to speak with a woman shedding light on this. stay right there. can be such a big thing in an old friend's life. we discovered that by blending enhanced botanical oils into our food, we can help brighten an old dog's mind so he's up to his old tricks. it's just one way purina one is making the world a better place... one pet at a time. discover vibrant maturity and more at purinaone.com. questions. when you're caring for a loved one with alzheimer's, not a day goes by that you

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you can see here what looks to be a number of firefighters hazmat crews on the scene. this is a semitruck. it's a semi truck carrying propane. it slam into this complex. the driver told officials hs