newsroom" with fred whitfield. we took the fredricka out because i messed it up yesterday. >> good morning. have a good one. happening right now in the newsroom, bomb scare. terrifying moments aboard a trans-atlantic flight. a jumbo jet flying from new york to moscow makes an emergency landing in iceland. and backing biden. president obama is standing by his vice president this morning. the chain comment still drawing fire. and we have a winner. the winner of the $347 million megajackpot powerball ticket sold in michigan, beating the 1 in 175 million odds. this also means you still have to go to work today. and king felix. a perfect game and a perfect night. the premiere pitcher from seattle. felix hernandez in the spotlight. and retiring all 27 batters he faced. this is cnn breaking news. and this breaking news out

of afghanistan this morning. a nato blackhawk helicopter crashed, killing at least 11 people. seven of them are u.s. service members. this happened in southern afghanistan. but nato's international security assistance force isn't giving an exact location. here is an example of what a uh-60 blackhawk chopper looks like. among the dead, three afghan troops and an interpreter. we'll keep you updated as we get more information this morning on this downing of that blackhawk. also just in, a new measure of the economy. just minutes ago we learned of an uptick in the number of americans filing their first claim for jobless benefits. the new number, 366,000. 2,000 more people than the week before. what does that mean? we have a report from the new york stock exchange. first off, what does this say about the so-called recovery? >> good morning, fredricka. it's not bad news, per se.

of course we'd always like to see a decline. this reading was essentially flat but much better than some of the dramatic jumps we've seen a couple of months ago. jobless claims correlate closely with layoffs. so the higher the number, the more layoffs we're seeing. and we just learned a couple of weeks ago that u.s. employers added 163,000 jobs in july. so it's not a great -- in the big picture of things, but much better than what we expected. so the bottom line, fredricka, the job market overall is moving forward. but it's not a straight line, and it's pretty much a slow improvement. and we just have to hope that august report will continue to point to a rebound. >> how did this measure up with expectations? >> wall street was forecasting a slightly bigger rise, so this was a bit better than expected. but we'd like to see here claims staying consistently around that 350,000 mark to signal a slow recovery. and then ideally make their way down to 300,000. so the problem here is that we've been in this 350,000 range since november. and just haven't been able to

make much headway here. there is still roughly 13 million americans out of work. so it's not going to be an easy or quick task. we just hope for that downward trend. >> all right, maribel. appreciate that from the new york stock exchange. president barack obama's program to help young illegal immigrants to avoid deportation is facing a new herd urdle. it's now about being charllenge by arizona's republican governor jan brewer. >> they will not be entitled to a driver's license nor will they be entitled to any public benefits in response to the public overwhelmingly voting that no public benefits would be extended to illegal aliens in the state of arizona. >> many people in arizona are already protesting governor brewer's decision. she claims that the president's plan will cost her state more money. his executive order allows undocumented children and teens to get a work permit and avoid deportation for two years.

they can also be deported while their application is -- they cannot be deported while the application is being considered. miguel marquez is joining us right now. miguel, governor brewer's action could affect 80,000 people in her state alone. >> it could affect them, but we won't know for several months. it's a five or six-month process from the time they put the application in. we'll see if there's a federal test and if it winds up in the courts. it's 6:00 a.m. in los angeles, and this is an immigrant rights group. there has been a line forming here since 3:00 in the morning so they can get into workshops and figure out how to get these new benefits and how to apply for this deferred action plan. in arizona, they were doing the same thing yesterday. thousands of people lining up across arizona in order to get that plan as well. what jan brewer is talking about

is denying a driver's license and any sort of public benefits. it's not clear what they would be applying for. perhaps whether it's student loans or whether it's assistance for food and rent. but those are the sort of things she is trying to deny them. and a couple of folks in arizona had this to say. >> what jan brewer did today is bullying. she's bullying the voiceless, she's bully children that can't defend themselves, and she is bullying immigrant youth that don't have a voice. >> as an hispanic, as an undocumented person, i don't know what else to do. i live in fear. my life -- i can't go forward or backwards. i just -- we need an opportunity.

>> so this really sets up yet another fight in the immigration policy debate. the people here behind me are taking full advantage of this. we will see in the months ahead how this plays out. but most likely we'll see what jan brewer has done yesterday in the courts again. and it could all be resolved before these applications even get processed and before anyone starts to receive their deferred action notices. >> so, miguel, do we know whether there's any response from the obama administration or justice department to respond to jan brewer's comments? >> i have not seen any response as of yet. i don't know that they are even -- they are probably trying to figure out if they -- what response they should have. if they even have to have one. it sounds to me like this is something that will probably end up in the courts eventually. >> miguel marquez, thank you so much from los angeles. new developments we told you about yesterday. joe biden's campaign trail gaff

where he told an audience that romney's bank deregulation plan will put y'all back in chains, quote, unquote. now the president is standing behind what his vice president said. meanwhile, republicans used it as an opportunity to slam the vice president for what consider a poor choice of words. >> he said in the first 100 days, he's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. unchain wall street. he's going to put y'all back in chains. >> there weren't enough groans and boos when he said such a disgusting comment, really, especially to a demographic there that includes about 48% of the community being black. >> i have never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things. i mean, there's a real fear of god forbid he ever had to be

entrusted with the presidency whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it. this guy just isn't bright. he's never been bright. and people think he just talk a little too much. actually, he's just not very smart. >> our white house correspondent briana keeler is at the white house. most of this criticism is coming from republicans. but what is the white house saying besides the fact that the president is standing behind or standing along with, you know, joe biden? anything else that may kind of change the scope of the dialogue coming from the white house or even from joe biden? >> reporter: well, it's really the president in his words, fred, because he actually did speak while on his iowa bus tour to "entertainment tonight" and "people" magazine while he was in dubuque, iowa. he talked to "time the tonight" and he just kind of brushed aside the criticism here. he said we don't spend a lot of time worrying when the chatter and the noise and that. the country isn't as divided with gaffes or some stray remarks as washington is. most folks know that's just sort

of a wwf wrestling part of politics. it doesn't mean anything it. just fills up a lot of airtime. if you look at the schedule for president obama, joe biden in all of the meetings. and the white house wouldn't say this is what it is. but there's the appearance that very much he is in step with his vice president. but i think that part of this is, fred, and i have actually been down to the area where vice president biden was speaking when i was covering congressional races there. it's not really a super friendly area to tell you the truth to president obama. quite the contrary. but a lot of the support that president obama and vice president joe biden get from that area of southern virginia and also from north carolina, some similar voting demographics there, come from black voters and that's why i think so much of this criticism has come out, especially in an election where every single word is going to be scrutinized and perhaps that wasn't the best choice of words for vice president biden to use. but right now, president obama standing by him, and really just kind of saying, you know,

really, let's not focus too much on these words. >> is there even a better explanation from whether it be biden or any of the white house's surrogates as to what biden was really trying to say? >> well, they're saying, fred, that he was really talking about this in terms of wall street reform, that he was trying to point out that mitt romney's plan for how you would deal with wall street is that it would be less regulations, that the banks would be able to run the show. we did hear from one surrogate who hasn't always backed up the president, i should say. cory booker. here's what he said. >> listen to the whole speech. this was a substantive speech about how we're going to reform wall street. about how we're going to protect consumers. about how we're going to stop the overleveraging of banks. about how we're going to create a consumer bill of rights, a credit card bill of rights, how we're going to go against predatory lending. all of that is the substantive things that my majority black city in newark is concerned with.

>> reporter: so newark mayor cory booker there defending president obama, saying look -- or defending vice president biden and saying look at all of the comments that he said. but that's not the case with every single democrat. in fact, douglas wilder, former virginia governor, first african-american governor, is saying that it's inappropriate, that you can't defend it. and you're seeing from the romney campaign mitt romney himself is accusing the obama campaign of a campaign of division and anger and hate. so i think it's also interesting, fred, to point out that president obama was having these interviews where we read the statement that he said. "entertainment tonight" and "people." these are supposed to be fluffy interviews that he's doing, something that more speaks to his personality. and he ended up answering some pretty serious questions. maybe not exactly where the campaign wants to be, fred. >> thanks so much. appreciate that. all right. there's some rain in the forecast today for flint,

michigan. but it's an absolutely glorious day for the $347 million winner of last night's powerball. here are the winning numbers just in case you want to double check your tickets. 6, 27, 46, 51, 56, and the powerball number 21. the single winning ticket was actually sold in lapier, michigan, near flint. it's the third highest in powerball history. and there were more winners. eight players won the $1 million match five prize. so a little bit of something there. in sports, the mvp of baseball's all-star game is suspended after testing positive for testosterone. san francisco giants outfielder melky cabrera apologized to the team and his fans. cabrera will miss a total of 50 games. that works out to the rest of the regular season, plus five more games served either in the playoffs or next year. cabrera, who leads the national league in hits, has been a huge factor in the giants' playoff push.

a happier story from baseball now. seattle's felix hernandez threw a perfect game against tampa bay, right there. it's the 23rd perfect game in major league history. and the third this season alone. after the game, hernandez was asked how he felt about winning in front of the home crowd. >> awesome. i think they deserve it and i deserve it too. i mean -- [ laughter ] >> yeah. it's unbelievable. but you know what? i'm a little sad because my wife took a flight back to venezuela last week. she's not here. the kids are not here. and i'm alone, man. >> well, maybe they got a chance to see the replays. hernandez, nicknamed king felix, won the cy young award in 2010 and is often the topic of trade ru rumors, but he seems perfectly happy in seattle.

a chinese boy learns a very valuable lesson right between the ears as he gets stuck in a hole in a guard rail. we'll tell you how this story ends. ed aflac to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha!

more breaking news to share with you out of louisiana. cnn has confirmed a manhunt is underway after two officers were killed and two others hospitalized after a shooting that happened around 5:00 a.m. local time this morning in laplace, louisiana, north of new orleans. the police officers were conducting traffic at the time of the shooting when they were, quote, ambushed. this taking place apparently near the bayou steel plant there in laplace, louisiana. four deputies shot. two, we understand, have actually died. more information on that as we get it. meantime, other top stories we're following now, the founder of wikileaks is being offered asylum in ecuador. julian assange has been living in ecuador's embassy in london for nearly two months now. assange is accused of sexual

assault in sweden, which he denies. british police have been waiting outside to arrest him, and the ecuadorian foreign minister says in a letter that the british have threatened to storm the embassy and arrest assange. a bomb threat forces an air flight from new york to moscow to divert to iceland. the plane with 253 people onboard landed safely. crews had been searching through the passengers' luggage. all right. less than three months until the presidential election. do you think you can last that long? it seems like both sides are always on the attack. >> governor romney explained his energy policy this way. you can't drive a car with a windmill on it. that's what he said about wind power. now, i know he's tried some other things on top of a car. i didn't know he had tried windmills on top of a car. >> he demonizes some.

panders to others. his campaign strategy is to smash america apart, and then try to cobble together 51% of the pieces. >> barbara comstock is the virginia co-chair for the mitt romney campaign. barbara, good to see you. so these negative ads, both sides have been accused of such, and are guilty of such. is there any real worry that this is going to be turning off the electorate in general? >> well, what we're doing when we go door-to-door every day and make phone calls is we are talking about the issues. and that's what governor romney and paul ryan are doing, as they go around the country. what you cover in the press, i have to say i'm amazed in the setup piece you just did that you didn't even show wolf blitzer's interviews from your own network with archer davis, the man who seconded obama's nomination, and doug wilder, the first african-american governor in this country, from my state of virginia, where joe biden made his outrageous remarks, and

you didn't see their denouncements of joe biden. you just showed republicans from another network. that's the most bizarre way of telling the story that i've ever seen. wolf blitzer did very substantive interviews yesterday asking both of those gentlemen their thoughts. doug wilder said, you know, you don't make jokes about slavery. and i don't know -- joe biden is 70 years old, and he hasn't figured that out yet. but the people of virginia and elsewhere want to talk about the substantive issues. and when we had rallies this past weekend and had thousands, tens of thousands of people turn out, we talked about the 23 million unemployed. we talked about our plan to get people back to work. and we talked about the utter failure of this administration. and they want to now change this race and have joe biden making jokes about slavery. something that is so outrageous that even doug wilder had to denounce it. yet your own network can't even cover -- >> well, actually, all those sentiments have been making

airtime. we are a 24/7 news network. >> not a lot here. >> you're aware of it because you saw it on this network, right? >> yeah. but you haven't been replaying it this morning, have you? >> let's talk about what's at issue here. while we have both sides accusing the other of being negative, clearly it is kind of tit for tat. and at what point does it end? >> again, you want to ignore the fact that democrats are critical of thi president and this vice president. arthur davis, who was the man who seconded obama for presidency, has now called him out because he realizes what a disaster this health care plan is and how anti-jobs this administration is. and so you have democrats, independents, and republicans talking substance. those are two very substantive men that wolf blitzer had on yesterday. and arthur davis went into detail how issue after issue, this president has been dividing people by race and by class and not talking about 23 million

unemployed. black unemployment is the highest it's been in decades. women are at their lowest level of employment now. and you see new numbers coming out that are still low, still abysmal. and this president still is putting out tax increases and a tax on small businesses. >> and is it your charge that if the president isn't addressing this, then the candidates that you're backing are? in what way? >> of course we are. we are out there. come out and instead of following the little sound bites that you like to focus on come out to the rallies and see what people are talking about. that's not what you cover. because when you talk to people on the phone calls and door-to-door and when you go to the rallies, people are concerned about their children's future. the crushing $16 trillion debt. the president said he would cut the debt in half yet he's increased it $1 trillion every year. that is suffocating small businesses. that's why you had a small businessman just yesterday or today in virginia say, i don't want joe biden in my business. he's killing my business. what they're doing policywise is

hurting businesses. and not allowing people to start businesses and get out there and start spending again, because we don't know how much will be taken away from us. my state of virginia is ground zero for tax increases from barack obama and from guts to our military that will cost up to 200,000 jobs. yet he doesn't want to talk about that. we're talking about that every day. and i can tell you our defense community, our high tech community, is very concerned about these job cuts. >> one of the issues that mitt romney is being pressed on, and his wife ann romney was pressed on most recently in an interview with nbc news, is about tax returns and releasing those kinds of documents. and this is what that interview -- this was the crux of that interview, and this was the response from ann romney. >> we have no issues that way. and the only reason we don't disclose any more is, you know, we would just become a bigger target. so >> so it's because you'll just continue to face more questions? >> well, it will just give them

more ammunition. >> to the american people, though, when they hear about, you know, perhaps accounts with your name on it overseas, and tax shelters, they feel like you may be hiding something. >> there's nothing we're hiding. we've had a blind trust for how many years. we don't even know what's in there. it's been managed by a blind trust since before mitt was governor, 2002. forward. and so, you know, i'll be curious to see what's in there too. >> so, barbara, how long will this continue to haunt the campaign? why doesn't the romney campaign just go ahead and release more tax returns so that, you know, the questions can stop being asked? >> well, again, you bring up an issue that people out there are worried about, their own taxes and the tax increases the president is going to bring. actually, the truth is, ann didn't even point out they have gone beyond what's required by law. they have disclosed actual tax returns for two years. and this is american people again when you talk to them and talk to the voters, they are

concerned about their future, about their jobs. and mitt romney's been very successful. has been extremely generous. they give over 10% of their money to charity. to the poor. you know, and to have that be attacked. and again, that's the only thing that the biden camp -- obama-biden camp wants to talk about because they can't talk about the 23 million unemployed, and they aren't answering the issues about how to turn around the economy. mitt romney and paul ryan are. go to mittromney.com and you'll see the jobs plan. they are going to do things like we did in virginia, make jobs number one. when jobs are number one, and that's what people are talking about, and that's what you focus on, that's the way we're going to get this economy turned around and get people back to work. >> all right, barbara comstock. sorry, we're up against a break and we're out of time. virginia co-chair for the mitt romney campaign. thank you so much for your time from washington. >> thank you. >> and we'll have much more after this.

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this is cnn breaking news. good morning again. i'm fredricka whitfield in for

carol costello. we begin with breaking news out of afghanistan this morning. a nato blackhawk helicopter crashed killing at least 11 people. seven of them are u.s. service members. cnn's chris lawrence is at the pentagon with more on this. what are the circumstances of this blackhawk going down? >> reporter: well, the military still is investigating, fredricka, trying to determine how this helicopter went down. the taliban has now claimed responsibility for shooting it down. but you've got to take anything they say with a grain of salt because they have made claims in the past, many claims, that turned out not to be true. in fact, they often claim responsibility for any deaths this afghanistan of nato personnel. but right now, we've got seven dead americans from that helicopter crash as well as three afghan troops and an inner terp prettier who -- interpreter who was working with them. this area has been an insurgent hotbed, and at times the taliban has been successful in bringing down an american copter.

you remember about august of last year when the taliban shot down a chinook killing all 38 people onboard, including 25 special operations forces, in one of the dependliest days in recent -- deadliest days in recent memory for the operations community. but all in all, this has been just a devastating week for u.s. forces in general in afghanistan. earlier this week, we saw three marines shot dead by an afghan worker right on their own base. earlier, three special operations forces were shot by an afghan policeman in what looked to be a setup. so all in all, august is becoming an incredibly dangerous and violent month for all of the u.s. men and women over there. >> perhaps it's premature, maybe not, chris. is the pentagon, department of defense, in any capacity talking about reassessing, trying to, you know, further extrapolate all that's taking place right now since it seems to have been that there's been and you just spelled out one incident after

another in a very large, deadly way there in afghanistan involving u.s. troops? >> well, certainly you have to look at some of the green on blue attacks and take that into account. senior commanders have been, you know, somewhat worried about that, and they say it does have a devastating effect on morale when the afghans turn on the americans. but when they look at overall strategic plans, they don't look at any one incident or even any one month. they are going to look big picture, look at the entire year, look at what they have planned for 2013, before making those kind of decisions. not to say one incident isn't important. but it would have to be taken in context with a lot of other incidents before they would drastically change their strategy. >> all right, chris lawrence. thanks so much for keeping us posted there from the pentagon. appreciate that. >> yeah. all right. other stories that we're following in louisiana. a manhunt is underway after four deputies were shot, two of them have been killed.

it happened in laplace, louisiana, west of new orleans. officials say the men were ambushed in a parking lot while conducting traffic. and at least 70 large fires are burning in 13 states west of the mississippi river. near triple digit temperatures and winds are expected to fuel the flames. in washington state, a 22,000 acre fire has already forced more than 900 people to flee their homes. and president president obama gets slammed over leaks about the raid that killed osama bin laden. in a 22-minute web video, former special forces officers, including navy s.e.a.l.s, accuse the president of taking too much credit for bin laden's death and for allowing too much classified information to become public. and some unsettling economic news. about 30 minutes ago, we learned of an uptick in the number of americans filing their first claim for jobless benefits. the new number, 366,000. that's 2,000 more than the week before.

american voters, listen up. the men who want your vote this november might actually be talking about the issues. we'll tell you which ones. and a little fact checking along with it.

turning to politics now. and for his first few days on the campaign trail, paul ryan has singularly avoided the

subject of medicare. but those days might be over. >> the president i'm told is talking about medicare today. we want this debate. we need this debate. and we will win this debate. what i don't think he'll be telling people is that the president took $716 billion from the medicare program ehe raided it, to pay for obama care. >> cnn political editor paul steinhauser is joining me now. what paul ryan just said is that obama raided the medicare to pay for the affordable health care plan. is that right? >> we have a political battle over medicare, fred, you're right. that talking point from paul ryan yesterday has been the romney campaign theme pretty

much since saturday when ryan was named. where did they get the number? from a july 24 congressional budget report, and it took a look at repealing obama care, which most people know as the national health care law. and they said if that happened, yes, $716 billion would -- if obama care was repealed, which is what mitt romney says he would do if elected, it said that $716 billion would go back into medicare. what the report doesn't say, though, is just the opposite, which is if the president's national health care law is not repealed, that there would be a $716 billion decrease in medicare funding. so that is the difference there, fred. >> so president obama is pushing back, telling voters that if elected, romney and ryan would change medicare as it is currently known. this is actually what the president had to say during a stop in iowa earlier this the week. >> they want to turn medicare into a voucher program.

that means seizuniors would no longer have a guarantee of medicare. they would get a voucher to pay for private insurance. and because the voucher wouldn't keep up with costs, the plan by congressman ryan would force seniors to pay an extra $740 a year, and i assume they don't have it. >> so what is the president's plan? >> well, what the president is saying here, fred, is that mitt romney and paul ryan are basically going to redo medicare as we know it. is that true? well, there will be major changes, but here's what they are proposing. they are proposing private exchanges where vouchers would be used, government money would be paid for people to pay for private plans. but that would compete with traditional medicare. and the other point here is that this plan, the plan from ryan and from romney, would not affect anybody who is currently 55 or older. so for current people on medicare or about to get on medicare, this would not change. what obama says, what the president says in his campaign, is that regardless, these changes that ryan and romney are

proposing would affect current people on medicare. would make it more expensive for them. this argument is not going to end anytime soon. we'll hear it separate through november 6. >> something tells me. thanks so much. paul steinhauser, i appreciate it. the presidential race. what is being decided now could affect whether you can actually vote in november. we'll look beyond the political spin to the realities of new voter i.d. laws.

hard to believe it. just 82 days until the presidential election. and with the race too close to call, both parties are going to war over any issue that could cost them votes. the latest example, a new ruling from a pennsylvania judge. he is allowing pennsylvania to become the sixth state requiring voters to show a photo i.d. before casting a ballot.

the stakes are high, and so are the emotions. we get details now from cnn crime and justice correspondent joe johns. >> reporter: the pennsylvania court ruling is another skirmish in the country's emotional battle over voting rights this election year. more than a dozen states have passed new voting rights laws, including the one in the swing state of pennsylvania which is requiring people to show photo i.d. in order to vote. opponents went to court to try to block the law, saying it could disenfranchise up to 100,000 people, especially minorities and older or sick voters, who are more likely not to have acceptable photo identification. people like 93-year-old vivette applewhite, one of the lead plaintiffs in the case. >> and i just think it's terrible, because there's so many people that don't have i.d. and they are not going to be able to vote. >> reporter: republican commonwealth judge robert simpson ruled that the opponents trying to keep the law from being enforced did not establish that disenfranchisement of

voters was immediate or inevitable. in harrisburg, the legislator who wrote the law said that disenfranchisement was never intended. >> it only disenfranchises those trying to commit voter fraud. >> reporter: pennsylvania is also the state where a top gop legislator recently seemed to suggest that the voter law would help republicans win back the white house this fall. >> voter i.d., which is going to allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania, done. >> reporter: opponents say it just shows something other than fraud motivated the legislation. >> in the past decade, that they have found only about 10 instances of in person voter fraud. and those were mostly instances where people were simply confused and didn't know what the rules were in their area. >> so this is about voter suppression in your view? >> in my view, and in the view of the brennan center, this is

about keeping certain voters from the polls. >> reporter: the justice department now is studying the pennsylvania law, which representative metcalf, the author of the law, claims is a waste of time. >> i think it's a fishing expedition where they are really overreaching. they have demanded documents from us through our department of transportation, demanded information that many pennsylvanians would object to. >> reporter: lawyers for opponents of the pennsylvania law will be asking for an expedited appeal. they say the lower court should have applied a strict standard of review to the government action in this case, but the court didn't do that. joe johns, cnn, washington. so both parties are doing their best to spin this issue of photo i.d. for voters and gain a political edge. so let's take a closer look through the eyes of a legal and constitutional expert. jonathan turley is a professor of law at george washington university. joining us from raleigh, north carolina, however, today. so dozens of states are engaged

in the fights over voter i.d. law. we saw that in the piece. and a number of reports show that voter fraud is actually not much of a problem. so is this a solution in search of a problem? >> well, actually, a national study found that voter fraud is virtually nonexistent when they looked at the 2000 election. there are over 8 million voters in pennsylvania. and only a handful of these cases. that means that the chances that your vote is going to be stolen by someone in pennsylvania is slightly above your chances of being attacked by a puma at the polling place. so the question for the court is how does it address that. the court resolved that regardless of the statements by the gop leader, that this was to deliver the state to romney, the state still had a valid reason to require photo identification. >> and what was that valid reason? because the court did not say

this is an issue of constitutionality, but a valid reason. what does that mean? and what is at the heart of that argument? >> well, the court did a couple of things that are likely to be questioned on appeal. one is that judge simpson, who wrote by the way a very well constructed opinion. this is a well written opinion. it's going to be very difficult to reverse. but he downplayed the number of people likely to be affected by this law. they range from as high as around 780,000 to as low as 80,000. he said it's somewhere in the middle, but he doubts that top number really would apply. but he said that the state has a valid reason to assure voters that people who are voting area actually allowed to vote. but more importantly, he said, i just don't see why this is such a difficult burden for people to have to produce an identification. 30 states require some form of identification. but this is one of those states that's requiring a photo identification.

>> so during the appellate process, and i understand it could be, you know, the appellate judges could make a decision in time for that november election. so would the argument have to be made that, you know, that there is a propensity of fraud, and thereby that constitutes the election commission to make such changes? or would an argument have to be made that there are people who will be disenfranchised by the change in this law? or these rules? >> well, i think that latter part, fredricka, will be prominent in the appeal. i think they'll focus on judge simpson's decision not to use the strict execute me standard, which imposes a very heavy burden on the state. but simpson really iron plated this opinion. it is filled with factual findings. which are generally given deference on the court of appeals. it's going to be a very hard opinion to reverse. i would bet against a reversal. also remember there are three

democrats and three republicans on the supreme court. we shouldn't assume they are going to vote according to those affiliations. but if they even just split, it would uphold the decision by judge simpson. and i doubt they're going to vote along political party lines. i think they are likely to uphold it. >> and we're talking about that state supreme court. professor jonathan turley, thank you so much from george washington university, but joining us from south carolina today. much more of the "cnn newsroom" after this. [ male announcer ] let's say you need to take care of legal matters.

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hi. i'm maribel aber. officially ends one of facebook's lock-up periods. investors can sell their shares. people like coo sheryl sandberg

and those big investment banks like sold agagoldman sachs. it requires some shareholders to hang on to their shares for a 90 or 100-day lock-up period. the goebl al is stability. it prevents the market from being flooded with shares. that's the latest from here at the new york stock exchange. stay tuned. c ♪ [ 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.

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on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank. hello again. i'm fredricka whitfield. we're following breaking news out of afghanistan this morning. a nato blackhawk helicopter crashed killing at least 11 people, 7 of them are u.s. service members. this was in southern afghanistan just northeast of kandahar. pentagon correspondent chris lawrence is at the pentagon with

more on this. this blackhawk go down, was it shot down? >> well, fred, that's what the taliban is claiming, that they shot it down. but they have made claims like that before that turned out not to be true. we know that this was a joint u.s.-afghan patrol in addition to the seven american troops that were killed in the crash, three afghan troops and their interpreter were also killed, as well. again, the taliban has made claims of shooting down american aircraft. not to say they have not done so in the past, back in august of last year, they shot down a chinook, a larger transport aircraft. 38 people were killed in that crash, including 25 special forces. the area where this crash happened is north of kandahar city, actually embedded with the u.s. army there just a couple of years ago.

it's an insurgent hotbed and also one of the key supply routes through southern afghanistan. fred? >> all right. chris lawrence, thanks so much from the pentagon. other breaking news. this state side in louisiana, two people are now in custody near new orleans following a deadly shooting involving four sheriff's deputies, two of the deputies were killed. the shooting happened at a steel plant in laplace, louisiana. just outside of new orleans, officials say those deputies were on traffic duty when the incident occurred around 5:00 a.m. local time. melissa with the louisiana state police joining us now by phone. melissa, first of all, we want to extend our condolences to those two deputies shot and killed, two others who were shot and injured. you have two in custody. apparently you're still looking for one more suspect? >> that is correct. we are looking for one more suspect. we have numerous s.w.a.t. elements that are in st. john the baptist parish right now looking for that third suspect. >> can you tell me what you

believe happened? apparently these four deputies were on traffic patrol near the bayou steel plant. they were in the parking lot off highway 217 and then what? >> that is correct. there were two deputies in an off-duty capacity. those two deputies were involved. there were two on-duty deputies also involved. we're assuming the preliminary stages in the investigation. louisiana state police is handling the t shooting investigation. and again, we're in the early stages of everything. >> earlier it was reported that the deputies were ambushed. is that the language in the activity you are sticking with? >> right now we're going to say that they had an encounter. we're not exactly sure if they were ambushed. again, we're still in the preliminary stages of the investigation. we just have crime scene that is getting to this location right now to start processing the scene to kind of help us out and tell us a little bit more about how exactly this occurred. >> so this happening during a traffic stop. does that mean you have a host of witnesses?

>> at this point in time, i don't know how many witnesses that we have. i can't even tell you that it was involving a traffic stop. i can say that it was an encounter at this point in time. again, we're very in the early stages of the investigation. >> all right. melissa ma trtey of louisiana se police, thank you for that information. thank you. let's talk u.s. politics now. paul ryan continuing his solo turn on the campaign trail. he's about to speak at an event in ohio right there. live pictures at new canton. it had been a very busy few days for ryan since becoming mitt romney's running mate. the an mounsment taking place this past weekend beginning monday at the iowa state fair. and then it was on to colorado, ryan is finishing up a two-day stint in ohio before heading to virginia. then he rounds out his first week this weekend in the swing

state of florida. let's bring in mark preston. all right, so, mark, ryan is criss-crossing the country. what is the significance of these stops, particularly solo? >> well, certainly, you know, i think we heard mitt romney and paul ryan say it in their first couple of interviews when he was first announced as the running mate is that it's no longer two on one, it is now two on two. you know, for the longest time now we had mitt romney out there by himself. he wasn't able to raise money and campaign. meanwhile, you had president obama and vice president bid enebiden do that. he's been crisscrossing the country not 07only on campaign stops but to fund raise. >> so, ryan is the new name on the ticket. i wonder, just listening to mitt romney trying to defend it, it's

my policy that i'm backing. is he being also put in a position where there are kind of these dualing approaches to whether it be the budget plan or whether it be other issues that the romney camp wants to put out front but perhaps ryan is getting attention on a different direction on those same issues? >> well, i think when we heard that ryan was selected as the running mate the campaign really changed from this idea that it was going to be entirely a referendum on president obama and it was now going to be also about paul ryan's budget plan which included very tough cuts here in washington, d.c. as well as changing the whole way of medicare is done here in the united states. so now it has become a referendum in some ways on paul ryan's idea of medicare. now, mitt romney has been very careful to say that, in fact, it is going to be his policies that are put forward, not paul ryan's. paul ryan has said the same thing. but it has put a little bit of a damper on the announcement that paul ryan was joining the ticket because now they have to answer

questions on that, fred. >> while romney said it's my policy, but that we share a vision. so it sounds like it's going to be a very interesting, you know, i guess, avenue of dialogue that will continue leading up to november. mark preston, thanks so much. appreciate it. president obama's program to help young illegal immigrants avoid deportation is facing a new hurdle. it's challenged by jan brewer. the governor is issuing her own executive order stopping arizona from giving these undocumented children, teens and young adult, drivers' licenses and public benefits. 8,000 people could be effected by her ruling. as you can imagine, not everyone is happy about that decision. >> what jan brewer did today, it's bullying. she's bullying the voiceless. she's bullying children that they can't defend themselves. and she's bullying immigrant

youth that don't have a voice. >> as a hispanic, as an undocumented person, i don't -- i don't know what else to do. i feel i live in fear. my life -- i can't go forward or backwards. i just -- we need an opportunity. >> brewer claims the president's program will cost the state money. the program allows undocumented young people who apply to get a work permit and not be deported while their application is under review. president barack obama is now standing behind joe biden after his latest campaign trail gaffe. biden told an audience romney's bank deregulation plan will, quote, put you all back in chains, end quote. republicans used it as an opportunity to slam the vice president for what some consider a poor choice of words. >> he said the first 100 days he's going to let the big banks

once again write their own rules. unchain wall street. >> boo. >> they're going to put y'all back in chains. >> there weren't enough growns and boos when he said such a disgusting comment, really. especially to a demographic there that was -- includes about 48% of the community being black-americans. >> i've never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things. i mean, there's a real feef if god forbid he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he has the mental capacity to handle it. this guy just isn't bright. he's never been bright. he isn't bright. people just thinks, well, he talks too much. actually, he's just not very smart. >> the obama campaign stands behind biden's comments and insists it was about bank deregulation, not about slavery. obama addressed the controversy

saying, quote, we don't spend a lot of time worrying about the chatter and the noise and this and that. the country isn't as divided with gaffes or some stray remarks as washington is. most folks know that's just sort of a wwf wrestling part of politics. it doesn't mean anything. just fills up a lot of airtime, end quote. that from the president telling entertainment tonight. now, to an emergency going on right now in the western u.s. a busy fire season is turning even uglier this morning. wildfires are sweeping across 13 states, from california to the mississippi river. the situation is so urgent even u.s. military troops are being deployed to join in the fight. let's get the latest now on this rapidly developing story. heat rol gist rob marciano is in central washington in the town where some 60 homes have already burned. is that right? >> yeah, it's been a frantic couple of days, fredricka.

sparks flew at a construction site monday night. the flames were blown and driven by winds, 30, 40 miles an hour. isn't a typical around here. this is an area just east of the cascade mountains where there's a gap that winds just shoot right through almost every day during the summertime. for that reason they fear fire because this is what can happen. the pictures are frightening and certainly heartbreaking when you see this many homes go up in flames. many of which are primary home, both in town and outskirts of town as well. because of that some farmland as well. livestock and other animals had to flee. we've got 450 families that have been evacuated. no word on when they will be able to go back in. a little bit of a bright spot. the winds died down yesterday. they got up to 25% containment on this 23,000-acre fire. the heat is building. this is a wide spread problem across the west, not just this state but other states, including california, where a number of large fires from san diego through san bernardino,

north of napa. that heat now building into the northeast. look at these numbers as far as what kind of heat warnings we have for western oregon and western washington. areas typically have high temperature, 75, 80 grease. today and tomorrow they will be up near 100 degrees. and now we'll drop levels of humidity in the fire zone as well. firefighters are going to have to contend with that today and tomorrow and over the weekend, a threat foreseeing some thunderstorms that could kacaus erratic winds. >> hopefully those, you know, rain would not bring lightning that would spark more problems. thanks so much. new information on the shooting at the family research council in washington, d.c. we'll have a live update. we're at walmart with anita and her son brian. they buy all their groceries right here, but let me ask you, did you ever think of walmart for a smartphone? no. let me show you something. walmart has the latest technology on the biggest networks. i mean look at these smartphones. whoah! will you show them? absolutely. we've got great 4g lte smartphones

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checking our top stories we're following breaking news out of afghanistan this morning. nato blackhawk helicopter similar to the one seen here crashed, killing at least 11 people, 7 are u.s. service members. 3 are afghan troops and 1 is an interpreter. the cause of crash is under investigation. and there's something in the

water, that's what louisiana officials are warning residents in southeast parts of that state. dry weather has dropped river levels so low there's a danger of too much saltwater mixing in with the freshwater. amazing rescue caught on camera. on sunday, this young boy's head was stuck in a guardrail hole in china. firefighters used hiydraulic tools to help expand the hole. the boy was free and unhurt and reunited with a relative. teary-eyed there. back in this country. d.c. police this morning are calling a wounded security guard a hero. he subdued a gunman who opened fire at the family research council. 28-year-old floyd lee corkins is charged in the shooting at the conservative policy group headquarters. police are looking into whether corkins may have had a political motive. cnn is outside the council's offices in washington.

what more do we know about how this unfolded and the motive? >> well, we are learning more, fr about this incident yesterday and they have confirmed the identity of the victim. the security guard who was wounded in yesterday's shooting, they confirm his identity as leo johnson. we are also learning more about this suspect in this case, 28-year-old floyd corkins. we know he graduate with a masters degree in 2006 from george mason college of education and human development. law enforcement sources say they retrieved a .9 millimeter handgun he purchased legally by corkins at a nearby virginia gun shop fairly recently. they retrieved a backpack they believe belongs to the suspect and have searched his vehicle that was parked at a nearby metro station in virginia. of course, the investigation is ongoing, but we are learning more about this suspect, including that he volunteered at the d.c. center of the lgbt

community and we know from the executive director in a statement that they are outraged that somebody who volunteered at their center could perform such an act of violence. >> so, sandra, there at the scene now, is it back to business, people reporting back to work, or what is is happening there? >> reporter: yes, we have seen employees come in reporting to work. earlier this morning when we got here, there was still blood splatter we could see visibly in the lobby. that has since been cleaned up. and earlier this morning we also saw an armed security guard wearing a bullet proof vest enter the building. as of right now police have not confirmed or given us details as to if johnson was actually armed yesterday or not. but we did speak to his friend who works at a nearby building who knows johnson. listen to this. >> i met him through going to get my breakfast in the morning time. he's a very friendly guy.

he goes by leo. for the last maybe year or two, we would meet and go have coffee and just, you know, talk generally, just about life or anything, but he was a very -- he is a very nice person. >> reporter: and his friend, miss brooks, says she has never seen him arm we'd a gun. of course, police hailing the security guard a hero for wrestling the suspect to the floor. >> all right, sandra endo, thanks so much in washington. overseas, another deadly day in syria. more violent attacks by rebels. regime forces with no signs of the situation getting any better. [ kate ] most women may not be properly absorbing

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facebook's wall street start hasn't worked out the way mark zuckerberg perhaps planned. today looks like the most painful one yet for the company's ceo. flashback to facebook's ipo, may 18th, remember that? high hopes. with that debut. but then since then its stock value has dropped by nearly

half. today it really could tank. cnn's maribel aber joins us. explain what's happening with the facebook shares. why is it continuing to go down? >> good morning. today officially ends one of facebook's lock-up periods. that means investors who got in on the ipo can sell their shares. people like coo sheryl sandberg and big investment banks like goldman sachs. the lock-up period is normal for any company that goes public. it requires some shareholders to hang on to their shares, usually between 90 or -- 100-day lock-up period. the goal is simple, it's stability. it prevents the market from being flooded with shares immediately after the ipo. in most cases it keeps it from tanking. the lock-up period helps boost the company's value. today, more than 270 million shares are free to be sold. facebook has a tier block system so it will happen a few more

times this year. facebook is down 45% since ipo. shares are down about 6 1/2%. >> wow. so down nearly 7% today alone, then. you know, how can a company survive or is it an issue of a company surviving, the ceo, you know, being able to rise above what's taking place here? >> the thing is the drop that we're seeing, right now it's actually pretty normal. shares of linkedin and groupon, they also sold off when their lo lock-up was over. it's not a huge concern. some investors are confident. s that an analyst that raised his rating on dafacebook to a b and george soros reported strong revenue growth last quarter. others are worried about facebook's user model. user growth is slowing because everyone is already on facebook. and, of course, there's those ongoing worries about how it's going to make money off of mobile users.

facebook has now turned into any other stock, investors just want to know how is it going to make money. >> wow. all right. thanks so much. appreciate that. i know you will be watching it all day long. all right. court rules police can now track the gps signal on your cellphone. and that's without a warrant. we'll talk with a legal expert about what this means for you. this is $100,000. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

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a look at our top stories now. seven u.s. troops are dead after their blackhawk helicopter crashed this morning in southern afghanistan. three afghan soldiers and a civilian interpreter were also killed if taliban says it shot down the chopper because -- but the cause of the crash is still unknown. and back here at home, two suspects are in custody but a manhunt continues following a deadly shooting involving four

sheriffs deputies near new orleans. it happened at a steel plant in laplace, louisiana. two deputies were killed in the incident. moments ago i spoke with louisiana state police trooper melissa matey about where things stand. >> looking for one more suspect. we have numerous s.w.a.t. elements that are in st. john the baptist parish right now looking for that third suspect. in fact, there were two deputies that were in an off-duty capacity. those two deputies were involved. there were two on-duty deputies also involved. we're still in the preliminary stages of the investigation. >> two other deputies are hospitalized. and more than 70 large wildfires are burning in 13 states out west, from california to the mississippi. and blistering hot temperatures and hilly terrain are hampering the efforts. fire crews are calling in re-enforcements now. u.s. military flight crews will join the fight by air. president barack obama's

re-election campaign is facing a new opponent, former navy s.e.a.ls. a 22-minute long web video paid for by the group special operations opset education fund accuses obama of leaking military information and putting the lives of u.s. troops at risk. cnn's brian todd joining us now from washington. brian, what else do we know about this ad? >> fredricka, it harkins back to 2004, that swift vote campaign in 2004 which blistered john kerry as standing a a vietnam warr ehero. now president obama and bin laden raid and the controversy over the intelligence leaks this year. the president has mentioned the bin laden raid at several campaign events this year. he's taken out a political ad featuring bill clinton who praises his courage for ordering the raid. well, now, a group of former navy s.e.a.ls, special forces

officers are on the offensive. the group is called opsec for operational security and it's just unveiled a 22-minute video online, slamming the obama administration for allowing classified information about the bin laden raid and other top security operations to become public. and it blasts the president for taking credit for the raid. here's a clip of former navy s.e.a.l. ben smith in the video. >> mr. president, you did not kill osama bin laden. america did. the work that the american military has done killed osama bin laden. you did not. >> now, the obama campaign is responding strongly to this video, saying the republicans are resorting to swift vote tactics here. the obama team is again strongly denying taking part in any leakses and on this charge the president is taking too much credit for the bin laden raid, the commander of the raid, admiral recently told wolf blitz ter president deserved credit.

quote, at the end of the day, he said, make no mistake about it, it was the president of the united states that shouldered the burden for this operation, that made the hard decisions, fredricka. the obama team pushing back hard on this video. >> what do we know about the special operations opsec education fund, what kind of political motivation or partisan ties might there be, if any? >> well, that's the big question here. the group says it's non-partisan but we've checked into that. the group's president, former s.e.a.l. named scott taylor who is in the video has run as a republican for congress in virginia. the group spokesman has worked in a similar capacity for the bush administration. others in the video have told us they're republicans. we found out also that opsec shares an office space with two republican political consulting firms in alexandria, virginia. there are some strong implications they are tied with the republicans. >> brian todd, thanks for bringing us that report. appreciate that. all right, now, continuing on the campaign trail.

paul ryan, now the republican vice presidential pick, he is continuing to stump this week, this time making a stop in north canton, ohio. we're going to continue to monitor his comments there with the pretty sizable crowd. we'll bring that to you as we learn it. meant for special occasions.

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cellphone is a must have device these dpaps you likely have one. so you need to hear this. a federal appeals court says police can now track the signal on your phone without a warrant. it's a ruling that could have long-lasting implications. paul cowen is a cnn legal contributor. this is an important privacy case, but does it apply to everybody? >> well, i think it does. and, you know, the courts are struggling with this whole thing that's technology is causing in the united states. everybody has a smart phone and a computer. and these devices give law

enforcement authorities an ability to track where american citizens go, what kinds of things they're doing, what movies they're going to, that sort of thing. and the question is, when you're looking for a bad guy and this access is easily available, do you have to go and get a search warrant or can you just rely on public information? and this case is about throw-away, pay as you go cellphones that people buy in department storeand what not. no warrant was used. the cops used it to track a drug dealer. they caught him. so that's the background. >> is this likely to be usa supreme court kind of case? >> oh, i think it's definitely going to be a u.s. supreme court case because the issue here is, you know, did the founding fathers when they drafted the constitution word it in such a way that it would include something like this? you know, when the constitution said you have the right to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure, they were

talking about houses and papers at that time. now the question is if you have a cellphone and the cellphone will tell the police where you travel to, is it an unreasonable search and seizure. it really hasn't been decided in any clear way. the supreme court waits until the lower courts decide these cases and then they make a decision for the whole country. this is a limited decision that applies only to a few states in the united states. >> so far you said this kind of case also applies to those who are using kind of the throw away, pay as you go kind of phone. but clearly the law wouldn't protect just those kinds of phones. it really would mean that any kind of cellphone, if the argument is being made, any kind of cellphone could be used as a tracking device, android, iphone, blackberry, et cetera, everyone would be subject to this kind of search. >> yes. everyone would be. it doesn't matter the throw away phone. if you have gps tracking capability in your phone. by the way, virtually every phone today does. all the smart phones do. and the police are investigating

you. the question is do they need a search warrant to get this information from the phone companies. now, privacy advocates say, of course they do. that this is a gross invasion of personal privacy. and by the way, the imp mr. i indicatio -- a lot of people say, i don't care what the police do. i'm not doing anything wrong. but if you think about how it could play out, let's say you have a device that gives you the location of a local movie theater. the police later on say, well, you know, statistically, people who go to a lot of horror movies are more inclined to commit violent crimes. let's see who saw a local horror movie. all of a sudden now your television or your movie viewing habits could make you the subject of a criminal investigation. that's why these things affect ordinary people, not just the bad guys. >> yeah. >> and the courts have to look carefully as to whether warrants are required under the

circumstances. >> paul callan, thanks so much, and for that food for thought. we're all thinking now. >> all right. we're also getting a new look at the fighting going on in syria right now. this youtube video comes fro homs. a rebel group pasting this video showing their attempt to stop the regime from forcing into a neighborhood. meanwhile, the u.n. says the need for aid is growing. as many as 2 1/2 million people need some sort of assistance. so the fighting in syria is not just limited to the streets. hospitals are also being hit hard. ben wedeman shows us. first, we have to warn you that this video is graphic. >> reporter: almost an hour a syrian government jet bombed the

area, twice striking the clearly marked hospital. out of view, rebels fired back fruitlessly at the plane. in an entranceway across the street from the hospital, the blood is still wet from wounded took cover. nerves still on edge of the possibility the plane will strike yet again. >> international correspondent ben wedeman joining me now from syria. dangerous for the people who live there. dangerous for those of you reporting on this conflict as well. what can you tell us about the conflict and whether there is any end whatsoever in sight. >> there appears to be no end in sight, fredricka. what we have seen in aleppo is

the government changed tactics. a week ago it looked like they were trying to regain control of aleppo neighborhood by neighborhood. now they switched, it seems they're just randomly shelling all parts of the city controlled by the rebels. i've seen i don't know how many houses that were completely inhabited by civilians. no fighters anywhere near them, but they were hit by artillery rounds, mortar rounds. we saw this aircraft striking a hospital. and, in fact, the aircraft came back again today, the hospital and apparently started to fire. it seems to be a mercifulness war where the civilians are caught in the middle. and neither side seems to be very concerned about their welfare. people are fleeing aleppo, i think, by the thousands every day, going anywhere they can go that's just a little bit safer. >> ben wedeman, stay safe there.

we'll have much more of the "newsroom" after this.

15 34i7b under the circumstances before the hour. checking the top stories now. a four-star jen faces possible demotion. the pentagon's inspector general is investigating whether general william kent ward used hundreds of thousands of dollars for inappropriate travel expenses. ward was the first four-star general to command u.s. military operations in africa. a founder of wikileaks can

being offered asylum in ecuador. assange has been living in ecuador's iembassy in london fo two months. british police have been waiting outside to arrest him. they said in a letter the british have threatened to storm the embassy and arrest assange. an air flight from new york to moscow to divert to iceland. the plane with 253 people on board landed safely. crews have been searching the passengers' luggage. an unmanned experimental u.s. aircraft has failed. a problem with the tail fin caused the hyper sonic plane to spiral out of control before researchers destroyed it. the x-51a wave rider was supposed to fly for 100 seconds reaching a speed of 4600 miles per hour. it only flew for 31 seconds. and swimmer diana nyad will

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mosquitos, so now they're here and that's why we're seeing this. >> mere thithey're migrating an spreading. >> yes. they're supposed to died over the winter and not enough of them did. >> how do you know? when you get a mosquito bite, does your bite look different? >> no. >> wait for the symptoms? >> exactly. what's crazy is 80% of the people who get west nile don't even know it. they're perfectly fine. they don't get any symptoms. for the other 20%, they do get symptoms. it's basically sort of fluish. it's a fever, sometimes a rash. that's a little bit different. swollen lymph nodes. 1 out of 150 will get this neuroinvasive form of west nile that can kill much more likely to have to happen to older people. >> this is over a matter of days. you have to pay attention to your body, reading the signs. >> exactly. you can get bitten by a mosquito and it can take days for the symptoms to show up. >> if you get any symptoms, go to your doctor and what are

going to be the remedies or what are the real healing properties? >> there are no remedies. they can help you feel better but there's no cure for this, per se. what they're going to do, especially if you're older, if you're immune compromised, they're going to watch you carefully. for most of us you get west nile and you're going to be fine. they're going to keep a special eye on people who might have problems to begin with. >> it is alarming and frightening. to see that there are so many cities carrying out aerial sprays, there are some concerns among many people that come with that. but at the same time, you talk to and hear from victims who say whatever it takes because it's miserable to get it. >> and it, of course, is terrible to die from it. so that's why they're doing this spray. you never want to be spraying unless you need to. a couple of points about the spraying. number one, they're using a very low dose. number two, this is actually relatively common thing to spray for this. the kind of spray they're using is used quite often. and it's approved for residential areas by the epa. this is not so unusual. >> wow. incredible. thanks so much.

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a wild accusation from the lead sing we of a rock band called mega death. the lead singer says the president of the united states staged the massacre in colorado for his political agenda. entertainment correspondent is joining me now from los angeles. why is the president being accused of this tragedy and why, by this lead singer? >> you know, that's actually a really good question, fred. you know, we should first say that the singer has never been a fan of the president.

and these days he seems to be a big conspiracy buff. he was performing in singapore on august 7th when he accused the president of staging both the aurora shooting and sikh temple shooting so he would be able to pass a gun ban. that's what he thinks. take a listen to what he said. >> my president who is trying to pass a gun ban, so he's staging all of these murders like the fast and furious thing down at the border and aurora, colorado, all the people killed there. and now the beautiful people at the sikh temple. >> okay. so in the past mustaine has says he believes president obama was born in kenya. he told the crowd he doesn't know where he's going to live now because he thinks america could become nazi america. he says he might move to singapore. i would just have him keep two things in mind. singapore is actually controlled by the socialest people's action

party. not sure if he would like their politics and they have pretty strict gun laws on the book there's. cnn has reached out to mustaine but we haven't heard anything back yet. >> some of the people in the audience were in disagreement. i wonder what kind of response he's getting directly maybe from his fan base because you could hear some of the voices. all right. let's move on to somebody that a whole lot of people love and adore and watch and we're talking -- michael j. fox. he's returning to television. we kind of have seen him in a lot of different programs along the way. what's going on now? >> we had -- what's being discussed now is the fact that he'll come back to television full time. new york magazine's vulture column broke the news. fox is developing a comedy series with sony expected to debut next year. details about the plot line is sketchy. the show will be inspired by his life. all four