people determined to do more with what they love doing. sometimes they find that passion by accident. and other times it is as if they were born to do nothing else. in the end, yves is merging the world of technology and humanity making him an agent of change and earning him a spot on "the next list." hello, everyone. you're in the "cnn newsroom." i'm fredricka whitfield. in boulder, colorado, huge crowds are forming and people even camped out overnight. not for a rock star but for the president of the united states. president barack obama is campaigning there today as part of his road to charlotte. athena jones is traveling with the president. will the focus be much different from the looking forward kind of concept that he delivered in iowa on saturday? >> reporter: we expect the focus to be much the same responding to some extent to what we heard from the republicans at their

convention last week. but as you mentioned, this is day two of the road to charlotte tour that the campaign is calling it. you can see the crowd behind me. they've lined up since early this morning, they are still making their way in. the president is expected to take the stage in about 30 minutes. this is an important battleground states. it only has nine electoral votes. but when you try to get to the magic number of 270, every little bit counts. it is going to be important to their calculus here. i should mention that the president has been to colorado 11 times since taking office. this is his eighth trip this year alone. so it shows you just how important colorado is to their campaign, fredricka. >> so the president clearly is campaigning but he still has to be the president of the united states and address more immediate matters, including damage from hurricane and tro e tropical depression isaac. what's his plan? >> reporter: he goes to ohio

tonight and has a labor day event in toledo. then he heads down to new orleans. we know he lands in new orleans but not what specific communities he may be visiting. but he's been getting briefings from fema and local officials. he's going to be meeting with local officials on the ground to see what can be done to see what's being done to help those people who have been affected down there. this is one of those things the campaign and the white house was asked about timing of this and they always say that the first priority for the white house is to make sure that they don't get in the way of any sort of resources. they don't want to divert resources from local governments that may need them. his team decided that monday is the day to go down there and do this. that's what he'll be doing part of the today tomorrow. >> busy travel schedule for the president. then on to charlotte, north carolina eventually for the dnc. how is the president preparing as he leads up to his night on the stage? >> well, i can tell you that the

campaign officials say that he's still working on the speech. he's been -- writing it they say working on it on the way to iowa yesterday. we're going to assume he continues to work on it. we know from the past experience that we were told he likes to work on this sort of thing up until the last minute. much of these events leading up to that day are going to be kind of preparing db previewing a little bit of his message which is all going to be about the middle class, keeping that focus on the idea, trying to argue that he is looking out for the middle class more than his republican rivals will be. so we'll get a little bit more about that today. so the stage is set in charlotte, north carolina but can president barack obama re-ignite the spark from four years ago? all the action of the democratic national convention gets under way officially on tuesday. first lady michelle obama will take to the stage. former president bill clinton will also speak and you can watch all of it right here on cnn. likely you want to know

exactly what that experience is like firsthand on the democratic national convention? from the inside perhaps, tuesday join the cnn election roundtable with wolf blitzer and cnn's political team. submit your questions, get answers in realtime in this live virtual chat. don't miss the cnn election roundtable tuesday, at 12:00, noon eastern time by logging onto cnn.com/roundtable. two days away from the kickstart of the dnc and already a gathering not far from the convention site. these people say they are part of the occupy movement. they say they want to close the gap between the poor and america's super rich who they call the 1%. we a they say they plan to camp out during the three-day democratic convention. . mitt romney and paul ryan are taking three days off from sturminsturm i stumping. it is back to work tomorrow.

the republican presidential nominee will begin preparing for his presidential debates in mock sessions this week. now to louisiana where this morning officials lifted an evacuation order for about 20 neighborhoods near the mississippi border. residents had been told to leave because the water in a canal was dangerously high. it jets off the nearby pearl river. the canal was swollen by rain from hurricane isaac and it was threatening to burst through a lock. cnn's george howell talked with some residents before the danger eventually subsided. how did authorities ultimately resolve this dangerous situation? >> fred, they were paying very close attention to this navigational canal. it runs right alongside the pearl river that you see right out there. this is an off-shoot of the pearl river. that navigational canal has two locks that hold back a lot of water, lock one and lock two. there was concern the other day that these two locks could fail.

now they've called in the u.s. corp of engineers. they are paying close attention to it. right now they believe they have stabilized the situation. they lifted that mandatory evacuation. right now it is a voluntary evacuation but we do know, fred, that where we're standing right now we could see some three feet of water. we know that this river right now is well above flood stage. flood stage is right around 60 feet. at last we check, it is 18 feet and should crest around 19.5 feet some time tomorrow. when you talk to the local out here there is no mandatory evacuation. that is a sigh of relief for a lot of people but they are still taking this very seriously. they are a's paying close attention to what happens. >> this river starts to rise. what is your plan? >> get out of here. go to my mother-in-law's. my mother's out of town. get away from the river. >> if it gets into the trailer. if we can just stay into the main trailer -- >> yeah.

if it just gets in the yard and stuff -- >> we're not going to leave. >> only thing about it in the front of this neighborhood -- >> you can't get out -- >> well they raised the roads up since then but i don't know -- usually you won't be able to get out after the water gets up so high in the front, you can't get in and out the neighbor. they had to get out in boats last time. >> reporter: so, a live picture back here in slidell, louisiana. you see the pearl river out there. some of the debris. i'm sure you can see the current. it is pushing pretty good out there. they expect the water to rise here in the next 24 hours in pearl river, a town called pearl river. that will be where it crests and within the next 48 hours we could very well see three feet of water where i'm standing right now. >> they're not at all out of the woods. >> reporter: not at all. one other thing. when the storm came through, when isaac came through, a lot of homes took water. i'm told that what we will see

here, if this rises another three feet -- i say "if." when it rises another three feet it won't be nearly what they saw when the storm came through. as long as those two locks hold this community should be as okay as it can be. those homes that took water will likely take water again but nothing like it could be if those two locks fail. >> george howell, thanks so much in slidell, louisiana. a quarter million homes and businesses in louisiana and mississippi still don't have power. five days after isaac hit. president obama will be visiting the gulf coast monday before he heads to charlotte for the democratic national convention. republican presidential nominee mitt romney visited louisiana on friday. meanwhile, isaac is still churning. on saturday the system dumped as much as six inches of rain in the midwest. that area has been fighting severe drought. flash flood warnings are in effect today for parts of kentucky, tennessee and the central appalachian mountains.

so to find out how you can help the many people devastated by isaac, visit our impact your world page. cnn.com/impact. an american journalist disappears while reporting on the conflict in syria. what this former marine was doing before he vanished. [ thunder crashes ] [ male announcer ] if you think all batteries are the same... consider this: when the unexpected happens, there's one brand of battery more emergency workers trust in their maglites: duracell. one reason: duralock power preserve. it locks in power for up to 10 years in storage. guaranteed. so, whether it's 10 years' of life's sunny days... or... the occasional stormy one... trust goes a long way. duracell with duralock. trusted everywhere. wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier, less-expensive option than using a traditional lawyer? well, legalzoom came up with a better way.

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three people are recovering after a mishap at a monster truck event in oregon. wow. right into the crowd there. an onlooker captured that video on his cell phone of that out of control truck driving straight into a panicked crowd. the driver says the rear wheels on his truck spun out and crashed through that barricade. right after the crash he got out to check on the injured. in iowa, federal investigators are trying to figure out what caused a plane to explode in front of thousands of spectators killing the pilot. everything started out pretty normal with three planes flying in formation yesterday at the quad city air show. but then all of a sudden one of the planes nose-dived into a field while attempting a 45-degree bank. witnesses watched in horror as the plane exploded into a giant fireball as it hit the ground. the quad city times website

identifies the pilot from frisco, texas. an american freelance journalist covering the conflict in syria hasn't been heard from in more than two weeks now. nick valencia has more on this journalist, the circumstances of his disappearance. who he's been filing for. all of that. >> we do know earlier this week one of those organizations that he was filing for, "washington post," they cited a senior diplomatic source as well as other people that have intimate knowledge of this matter saying that he has been captured by the syrian government. it is important to note that the lion's share of this reporting of this information is coming from, the czech republican ambassador to syria after the u.s. embassy removed its embassy from syria, the chem republic started acting in u.s. interests, in an official capacity for the united states. she went on czech republic tv earlier this week citing embassy sources saying she knows that syrian government has him in detention, they captured him and he hasn't been heard from in more than two weeks. >> what was happening potentially preceding his

disappearance? >> he was filing dispatches for places like "the washington post," mcclatchey newspapers, cbs news, he was working as a freelance journalist. he did have conflict experience. he was a u.s. marine, had been to dangerous places like the hosh horn of africa. spent some time in jordan. this was one of the first times he reported in a conflict zone as a journalist. the syrian war is among the most dangerous conflicts going on right now and the community to protect journalists are saying at least 19 people have been killed -- 19 journalists have been killed in syria since november 2011. the official line we are getting from the u.s. state department, we spoke to them early this week. jill dougherty saying that they're working through and getting information on his welfare and whereabouts. the u.s. state department appreciate the efforts of the czech mission on behalf of our citizens. they follow by saying we have seen news reports mr. tice is in

syrian custody. we urge the syrian government to respond as soon as possible. as far as we know cnn has not been able to confirm his whereabouts. he remains unaccounted for, more than two weeks last time he was heard from. there 31-year-old austin tice, his family is worried sick. keep us posted. back to the campaign trail. mitt romney has been hitting the president hard about his record on the economy but the former ceo of carmax says the president deserves more credit and he will actually be one of the guest speakers during the democratic convention. we talk with him next. ovided for every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable.

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back to the campaign trail. mitt romney's been attacking president about his record on the economy and job creation but the president will have his defenders at the democratic national convention this week. among them -- austin ligin, ceo and co-founder of carmax. i asked him earlier why he's supporting the president even though he sanity registered democrat. >> what the president did really in the first six months he was in office, first the auto

restructuring program, which really in a very short period of time took two of the biggest industrial companies in the united states and saved them. if you go back to that time, we tend to forget that when president obama took the baton he inherited a structural deficit from mr. bush, he inherited an economy that was in almost complete collapse, and he inherited an auto industry that was literally on the verge of going into the deep abyss with 2 of the 3 big companies literally running out of cash. and in about 90 to 120 days he sent a team in, they essentially assessed the management, concluded that they were incompetent, fired the management of both companies, fired the boards, brought in new people, took them through a structured bankruptcy process and got them on a path that has actually turned them both into profitable, successful

companies. >> you're also going to be responding to the republican vice presidential pick paul ryan who said during the rnc that the president failed much of the auto industry and that particularly when t.a.r.p. funds were used the u.s. did not enjoy enough of a return. so will you also be responding directly to that criticism? >> i don't think paul ryan knows anything about the auto industry. don't think he has any experience or any depth of knowledge. the reality is, we still don't know what the net cost is going to be but whatever it ends up being, you're talking about a sector that represents 21% of total retail sales. millions and millions and millions of jobs and the cost of this was a tiny fraction of what the cost of bailing out banks were. and we didn't really bail these guys out. the equity holders lost their equity. a lot of the bond holders took a big haircut. if we had done to the banks -- or for the banks what we did to the you a though industry, think that would have been a big improvement, which is the people who were responsible for the

incompetent management all got fired. they're all gone. >> you are quite the surrogate for the obama white house. how is it that someone who is not a registered democrat is so committed to seeing president obama back in office? >> well, look. i'm a businessman. i focus on facts. and not political rhetoric or anything like that. i think when a guy does a pretty good job, he deserves credit for that. the other thing i believe is, the best training to be president of the united states is to be president of the united states. i think president obama has done a much better job than people give him credit pore. >> the independent vote. it will be very pivotal in this election. what will the president need to say during this convention to kind of shore up that support? >> i've told the president several times whiff's had a chance to meet with him briefly over the last several years is -- you should take more credit for what you've done well. >> austin ligon won't be the

only ceo speaking at the democratic national convention. jim senigal from costco is set to give a speech. the convention officially begins on tuesday. "sweet home alabama" or "freed bird" and you know what clasic southern rock band i'm referring to. band members tell us how they got that name lynyrd skynyrd and it has something to do with this man right here. if you have to go out today, can you continue watching cnn from your mobile phone. you can watch cnn live from your laptop. cnn.com/tv. mom: ready to go to work? ♪

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no matter your age, chances are you know his work. ♪ what the world need now ♪ is love sweet love >> oh, you recognize that tune. hal david. the man behind these iconic tunes has died. the oscar and grammy winning songwriter was best known for his partnership with burt back rack. a spokesman for the music association says david died in los angeles from complications of a stroke. he was 91. hal david. they've been together for the most part some 40 years. their music sparking memories of weddings, proposals and school dances. "sweet home alabama," "free bird" and "what's your name."

lynyrd skynyrd. i sat down face to face with vocalist johnny van zant and guitarist gary rossington about how it all got started, beginning with the band's name. >> it was his gym teacher. i should let him explain it. >> his name was leonard skinner with a different spelling. but he used to get us in trouble for having long hair in school. it was just down to our eyebrows or touching our ears back in the '60s but we liked the beatles and we wanted to be a band. but in gym class he noticed it shaking and stuff and kick you out to get a haircut. after a while we just quit school, said no we're not doing it, grew our hair and played in a band. now you kids stay in school. >> doesn't work for everybody! >> doesn't work for everybody.

>> what does leonard skinner think about that when he finally learned that lynyrd skynyrd is actually kind after play on my name. >> we spelled it different so he wouldn't sue us. >> we weren't that stupid. >> he opened up a realty company in florida, jacksonville, and a couple of nice clubs called skinner's place. he introduced the band a couple times on the tribute tour when we started back saying i'm the real leonard skinner and i'm going to introduce lynyrd skynyrd. >> in the 4:00 eastern hour there's more from the band members. we'll hear from their invitation to the republican national convention but why they didn't appear. i'm fre fred. "your money" with ali velshi is next. i'll see you right back here in the "newsroom" after that