defending his reform plan as protesters voice their opposition at town hall meetings across the couldnntry. >> as we draw close to passing health care reform, political point scorers in washington are going fiercer in they're opposition. some have been using misleading information to defeat what they know is the best chance of reform we have ever had. >> nbc's mike viqueira live at white house again this morning. mike, with another good morning. >> reporter: good morning. >> let's go to what the president was saying in his weekly radio address. how do you read it? >> reporter: the president began by touting the new economic numbers. we learned the gdp was not shris shrinking to what was. first rebound of the green chutes. yesterday we found the unemployment rate had gone down and news is the unexpected as we say, and that certainly was unexpected. the president himself said it was probably going to go 10%.

the white house maintains that event actually it will do that but they, themselves may be playing the expectations game themselves. whatever the indicate may be, the president currently now using the momentum of the economy to turn that around and tout his health care reform plan. interesting, alex, he would single out misleading claims about what is in the house of representatives' version of health care reform bill, particularly euthanasia, which is not true. >> how concerned overall is the white house about the image of all of these angry folk at town hall meetings and what extefrnt extent to do they anticipate it t. >> reporter: a sign of all of the anxiety out there and strikes a cord deep within people talking about changing something that's fundamental to their well-being especially for seniors as medicare and health care coverage. the president has time and time again, including this morning in his internet address gone out of

his way to say, folks, you're going to have -- you're going to be better off in health care a result of the proposal, no caps in your coverage, they cannot deny you for preexisting conditions and that's what the white house is trying to say over and over again, to try to counteract some of the anger and anxiety that we see in town halls. >> looking at video now of the man who pushed his son with cerebral palsy. >> reporter: john dingell. >> you said you wanted me to ask the representative about that question. i've got it at top of the list. i'll do so later on. thank you. a new poll shows that a majority of americans 52% disapprove of president obama's handling of health care. 39% of those polled say they approve of the president's handling of health care. live now from washington, deputy editor for "roll call." good morning. >> good morning. >> let's look together at this quinnipiac poll. if you look at it, do you sense president obama's losing ground with the american public on health care? >> look, these poll numbers are

not encouraging for the white house. they know it. democrats know it. you're seeing a concerted effort brought on by the white house to try to reverse this. they're going to spend the next four weeks trying to convince the public these health care plans are not that negative, that they actually do have a plan, that's going to help people. try actually personalize their health care aagenda for folks. the republicans have been good winning the message war. part of the problem the democrats don't have one singular plan to sell. what they've been doing is trying to get everybody on the same page figure out what they can say to the public, how they can make this real to the american public and try to turn these numbers aaround. >> one of the town hall meetings from tampa, florida, that was where protesters are voigs voic opposition to the health care. >> we want barack. we want barack! >> hear our voice. hear our voice.

>> if folks can't make out the shouting, they're shouting you work for us. do you think the administration has done a good enough job, though, of explaining at least the points they have tackled? you make the point there are three plans out there in the house. i know there's another one in the senate. reconciling all of those points in into one cohesive minute or place to explain it is difficult. but that what they have explained, have they done a good job? >> i think anyone could argue they haven't done a good enough and job and they have acknowledged they haven't done a good enough job. i think they, like i said, trying to arm democrats as they go home for the month-long recess with the appropriate talking points. trying to make them, you know, trying to prepare them for these town halls. obviously protests that are go on across the country, a lot of them are being foremented by conversation organizations that aren't happy with the democrat health care plans and they're trying to counter that. i think they recognize they have

not done a good enough job. it's difficult for the democrats to sell something because they don't have something to sell. the republicans are armed with you know, they have the muscle, really, to say look these plans are bad, bad, bad. and the democrats don't really have the counterpun. that they need. so i think what you're seeing right now is them trying to get together, figure out what they can say, how they can coordinate, how they can unify around certain talking points to try to counterpunch, like i said, these republican -- the republican opposition, which has been pretty successful i think. >> we'll hear more from you later. a family spokes person says eunice kennedy shriver is critically ill as family members are gathering at her bedside. the sister of john f. kennedy suffered a series strokes. a spokesman for schwarzenegger says the california governor's there with the family in cape cod as well.

8-year-old shriver's a longtime champion for the disabled. she's best known perhaps for her work to establish the special olympics. the widow of billy mays says she's angry over the speculative conclusions of the florida medical examiner's autopsy report. that autopsy released friday found the cocaine use contributed to the heart disease that killed mays. the family also saying they're considering getting an independent analysis of the autopsy. billy mays died of a heart attack in his sleep june 28th. an emotional outside the fitness club in pennsylvania where three women were shot to death. hundreds of mourners gathered to pay respects and offer support to one another as the community just outside of pittsburgh comes to grips with the tragedy. >> just to be here to be with other people, to give some strength and energy to the victims of this tragedy. >> nine other victims were injured in the shooting. the gunman, 48-year-old george

sodini, shot himself to death, following his killing spree. new details on the investigation into michael jackson's death. the a.p. reports an insurance policy on jackson's london shows excluded the quote illicit taking of drugs. the payout hinging on the result of jackson's autopsy which we now know is complete. and today, those results are starting to leak out revealing jackson's personal doctor, conrad murray, administered multiple sedative as long with propose poe fol hours before the singer died. jermaine jackson says the family's not seen an official autopsy. >> i'm very surprised and very uneducated about all of these pills and all of these things like i told you before. i like it that way. but meaning not to have much knowledge about these type of things. but at the same time, i'm hear august of this stuff say, where's it going? if there was anything administered in my brother's body that was not in the proper

setting, meaning a hospital, then that would be dealt with. >> in a written statement, dr. murray's lawyer dismissed the a.p. report as, quote, ridiculous. a new report by federal raviation officials reveals the problem that could have caused air france flight 447 to crash in june and may be more swid spread than previously believed. spid sensors failed on at least a dozen recent northwest flights, making it impossible for the pilots to know how fast they were flying. all malfunctions occur on airbus a-330 jets. this could help investigators who are trying to piece together what happened to flight 447. pushing and shoving, just who's behind violent disruption at town hall meetings? we'll talk with congressman john dingell, who is front and center on health care reform. protestors disrupted his town hall meeting. sonia sotomayor will be sworn in as first hispanic justice on the supreme court.

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in less than two hours sonia sotomayor will be sworn in as newest justice on the u.s. supreme court. judge sotomayor becoming the first latina and only third woman to sit on the court. joining me live, nbc news justice correspondent, pete williams. good saturday morning to you. >> reporter: to you, alex. >> this is the first time we'll watch a supreme court justice taking the oath live, right? >> reporter: taking the oath live at the supreme court. justices take two oaths, one required by the constitution, the other required by federal law, and we sometimes have seen them take one of them at the white house. but this will be different because sonia sotomayor won't take any oath of office at white

house, she'll be entirely sworn in at the supreme court and that is something of a first. there will be some supporters on hand to watch the event but the white house says this was president obama's idea to do it this way. to do the whole thing at the court, to emphasize the point that justices are supposed to be independent even of the presidents who nominate them and emphasize that point he won't attend today's swearing in at the supreme court. and as you say a first for the court, because they'll see it on live television. so we've never seen the oath at the court. we've never seen it live on tv. >> but you're going to have to tune in and watch very quickly. it will come and go, won't it? you're there and then it's done. >> reporter: yeah, oaths of office tend to be rather short. this is. i haven't counted the word. >> i think it's 62. i think it's 62. >> reporter: you're probably right. they have to -- it's a call and response kind of thing, the chief justice will lead her through it. so i can't imagine it will take more than about a minute or so. they'll walk in together, the

chief justice will make some brief introductory remarks and do it and then she'll leave and that will be that. she won't speak today. we won't hear from her. there will be more of a reception at white house next week and the president will be there and wale hear from her then. >> she's already getting to work on her new job? >> reporter: well, yes. they never talk about this, but the prudent thing for a supreme court nominee to do especially in this situation, where it was fairly clear she was going to be confirmed by sheer vote counting is to start to do the reading read up on all of the briefs that hapiled up over the summer. an initial thing happen supreme court will have a rare summer session to rehear a big case about the involvement of corporations in campaign spending and before the primaries in general. she'll have to hire clerks and she's been interviewing candidates. >> well, lots to do. we'll take a brief break at 11:00 and let her get officially

sworn in and back to work, i guess. pete williams, good to see you. thank you. >> reporter: my pleasure. sarah palin is calling president obama's health care plan evil. the former alaska governor posted thoughts facebook friday and says, quote the america i know and love is not one in which my parent or baby with down sin dome will have to stand from front of obama's death panel so bureaucrats can disease based on judgment of their level of productive in society weather they are worthy of health care. the such a estimate is downright evil. town halls are turning into l little shouting matches. oxyge opponents claim think are trying to rash health care like they did in this meeting with representative john dingell.

>> a couple of things that the bill will do -- >> i will be speaking with the representative about 20 minutes from now about what happened with him there. but joining me live now from washington, d.c., victoria mcgrain, reporter for politico. good morning. >> good morning. i understand you were at town hall meeting in new york. what was the tenor of that one? >> i was. i was just out the rochester new york at a town hall meeting held by the freshman democrat. it wasn't, you know, nobody was shouted down. it was actually controlled. but tensions are really high on both sides people feel very passionately, either for or against, this legislation. >> and how do you think that is making our congressionally elected leaders, our elected leaders react as they go back to their districts? is it putting them on offense or defense? >> i think a little bit of defense. at the least, they are,

specially democrats, especially vulnerable democrats as eric massa is they're forced to explain away myths that people believe, you mentioned sarah palin and the so-called euthanasia, forced euthanasia, and eric masa opened his meet big reading from the legislation that language which does in no way say people will be forced offed, killed off. it just says medicare providers have to provide information about end of life options, if the patient asks for them. >> you know, the sense that you got at this town hall meeting of the levels of which people were informed of the facts, can you give me a grade on that? how much do people really know coming? >> it's really hard. i think part of the problem is it's so difficult and there's not even a final bill for which -- that lawmakers can point to and say this is what

the plan's going to look like. i really felt like people had tried to educate themselves. some of these people are convinced that the bill was going to put federal money for abortions and kill off old people says that they have read the bill and i think there's just so much information so much misinformation, so much that's confusing, that even people who are trying to get information end up confused. >> so, how difficult do you think this is going to be in august for this bill? do you think it's going survive the month of august or might one be starting at beginning come september? >> well, there's a lot of other things going on besides these town hall meetings and i think that's what's important. i also spent time with another freshman democrat in upstate new york and he was having a lot of smaller meetings with various stakeholders and then talking to regular folks one-on-one about it. so there's a lot of other activity, a lot of other

activism going on out there outside of these contentious town hall meetings. and some people i spoke to in the policy area at the local level really feel like people are more -- you know, insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, are ready for reform this time around and are willing to take something. >> victoria, i'm out of time. quickly, there's been some question about those people that gather at town hall meetings. do you get a sense the people in new york that you witnessed were actual constituents or people from the outside brought? >> yes. >> locals? >> i -- they were local constituents. i asked around. people have seen it in their local paper, on the website, and that's why they came. >> victoria mcgrane, thank you so much. the u.s. believes the taliban's top commander in pakistan has been killed. a look at what, if any, effect this will have on the terror group coming up. the latest unemployment report shows few americans than expected lost their job last

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>> the late offerest look at the hollywood box office "g.i. joe"ing expected to be the number within movie. it could gross over $50 million in the u.s. alone this weekend. but coming soon, another thriller just as much action as "g.i. joe" but a fraction of the cost. check it out. >> we're coming to you from entrance of district nine, refugee camp set up to separate aliens from the general population. >> todaying big buzz swirling around the new movie diagnosis district nine "." the summer movie that will blow you away. let's see if joe agrees. good morning. >> i think it's terrific. it's creepy, excite, thought

provoking. a triple threat, right? after three months overproduced, over cgi'd movies that cause a lot of come motion this one, surprise, surprise a smart movie caught the buzz. >> what's it about. >> it's in south africa a race of aliens, spaceships hoovers over johannesburg and they are turned into second-class citizens and put in a slum in johannesburg. 20 years late air human bureaucrat is exposed to a dna changing substance and to give anything else away would be ruin the fun. it's very fun. it's thought provoking. >> you talk about the blockbuster movies in terms of money spent which would describe "g.i. yo." >> there's a big dumb fun as special to some. this is big and dumb. fun, not so much. hidden by paramount from critics except online critics. it was sort of a, you know, internet sensation in terms of

how awful it was going to be. turns out to be as awful as everybody expects but there's a movement that people are saying it's not as bad as everybody's saying. it actually is. >> actually is, it's terrible. there's another clip we want to show about a movie out this week. let's take a look at that. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> when you flip anything, you just have got to have the courage of your convictions especially if it's a loose sort of mass like -- oh! that didn't go very well. but you see, when i flipped it i didn't have the -- >> you know, adorable. i mean, meryl strip and amy adams an tiadam an tith this. >> it's a i women's movie. a movie for anybody who has a brain who doesn't want to have watch people be blown up. meryl streep's trif pick mama

mia was a big hit for her. prior to that devil wears prada. it has julia child throwing a chicken around. >> she never ceases to amaze me. watch her in something and you're convinced you look at her, that's julia child. >> amazing. another film this christmas, where she plays you know a woman -- a woman without makeup or crazy act accident. she play divorcee and called "it's complicated" another one there throw you for a curve. >> joe, thank you. up, up and away. more than 70 hot air balloons took to the sky friday during a festival in southwest england. balloons in special shapes such as i scottish piper, a cell phone. kicked off for the core regraphed flight of balloons set to music. 3... 2... 1. ever wonder how cheez-it bakes... so much real cheese in such small bites?

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in his weekly internet address, president obama's defending his health care reform bill. the bill that's creating a fierce debate and protests at town hall meetings across the company tri. moments from a meeting in romulus, michigan. >> you see him standing there michigan congressman john dingell, who held the town hall meeting and hear a lot of pushback on the bill. congressman joins me live from detroit. thank you for joining us. >> good morning, delighted to be here. >> well, let's talk about the jeers and the anger at those town hall meetings that you held. do you understand why some of your constituents are upset and angry? >> well, my constituents right now have a lot of concerns about what's in the bill. and i think that that's a very legitimate concern and it is something to which the members

must respond. this is why we have these town meetings so all of our people will have an opportunity to be heard and say their thoughts so we can write better legislation by having full participation by our people. that's very essential part of the democratic system. and it's very important to us that we know what our people care about abo. >> there was a gentleman there, i am sure you remember the scene well, a son with cerebral palsy, he had a son with him at meeting. are you planning to meet with him at a later date? his concern is his son would not get proper treatment after health care reform. how do you answer those kind of concerns? >> well, let's address it. first of all, in those kinds of meetings you have to have an opportunity to respond and the individual concern was so busy shouting i was never able to response. first of all, we put an amendment in to make the plan deal with the kind of nervous

disorder this young man has because the particular disease is actual failure of the nervous system. so what we -- what i was trying to tell the gentleman, one we were moving plans in that direction. two, prohibitions against insurance companies using preexisting conditions to deny his son care will be expressly repealed by the legislation. in addition to that, the lifetime caps, which are applied by insurance companies, will be prohibited. and last of all, the plans will have to meet standards which will ensure that community rating goes on and they cannot exclude people from coverage because of age and things like that. but i was not begin a chance to make those statements by the shouting of his father. >> representative dingell, i'm glad you made them right here. why would a man like that be

concerned that he was going to not get health care? >> well, let's be honest about it. there's a lot of misunderstanding and a lot of information that has to be gotten to the people so they understand it. that's the purpose of these meetings. and the yelling and disorder is something which denies the citizens right so get the information that they need to they can form a right judgment and advise their congressman of what they really think of the basis of being informed. look, there were a lot of people that that room who honestly cared, wanted to know. one of the regrettable things this yes denied the opportunity to be heard by all of shouting and yelling that went on. and it has to be observed that there are a lot of people running around who are coming forward with specific planned for disruption of organization -- of meetings this kind. it is happening in at least five congressional dis tricks which

i'm aware. i think the same people are involved. and the instructions they're giving out, for example, pack the hall, put the rep on the defensive. and even given instructions as to sitting spread out in the hall, try to be in the front half. objectives to put the rep on the defensive with your questions. so, this -- some of this was organized. and the sad thing about the whole business is, responsible, concerned people were denied the opportunity to participate in the great national debate. >> representative dingell, how many people do you think in the meeting in which you participated were planted, if you will, weren't necessarily constituents from your district? >> well, we counted in some of the sign-ins, better than a hundred who came from outside the district. i heard a number of people say that they came in from far away as toledo. >> all right. representative dingell, i've had

a lot of people send me tweets, having asked people i solicited their questions. an express who says my biggest concern is that the health care reform bill will not have a public option. without it, it won't be real reform. to that answer, as you know the senate won't likely have a public option in there. the house insists upon it. yet the white house is signaling that they would accept a bill without it. >> well, you have pointed out to one of the controversies that plagues us in this matter. the harsh fact of the matter is, we have to give the insurance companies either control, so that they off air fair level of benefits and they don't put in any more fine print that denies people access to service and we have to see to it that things like preexisting conditions are no longer used to ban people from getting health care. we also have to see to it that the insurance companies get

competition and the importanter purpose of the public plan is to see to it competition is fair so people will have an honest choice. i want to make it very clear. one of the basic purposes of the legislation is to see to it that the people can make an honest, informed choice as to the health care which they will receive and that, i believe, is absolutely essential to seeing to it that the people are properly and fairly treated. >> one of the major concerns out there is that the health care that will be offered by the bill is not as good as many who have private insurance have right now. is it the kind of quality offering that even you would trade out for because we know that members of congress, employees of the federal government, have excellent health care plans. >> well, let's -- let's point it out. first of all, it has not yet been done. but there will be a commission which will be appointed to see to it that health care plans

meet a basic standard so that people can meet -- can choose a plan that works for their own best interest. second of all, if a person wanted to keep his or her current plan, they can do so. that's one of the -- that's one of the fundamentals of the legislation that's written in there. you can keep your own plan or you can choose a new plan. you are not bound to choose some plan that is selected for you. the choice is yours. >> are there any provisions in the current health offerings that worry you? >> well, right at this time, no. but one one of the purposes of the town hall is to see what our people think about this legislation. and one of my practices, for 50 years in the congress, has been to get home to talk to my people so i know what it is they want

in legislation and one of the important -- one of the unfortunate and important evil consequences of some of the events that are happening now is that people are being denied the opportunity to communicate with their representatives. it's impossible to tell your representative what you want when you're in a meeting where everybody's up there shouting epithets and nasty sayings and things of that kind to their representative. >> one final question here, because, sir, you have been fighting for health care reform since you entered congress. started up in 1957 for you. are you confident this is the best plan yet? and if not, might it be prudent to wait to get a bitter bill that might satisfy your constituents more? >> well, remember this, the perfect is the enemy of the good. the united states is the only major industrial nation in the world that doesn't have the health plan that takes care of

its people. ands a result, we're noncompetitive. look at an automobile going by down the street, in front of you, you will see that there's 750 worth of steel in it and $1600 worth of health care. if you look at situation you've got coming at you, health care is going up 17 times as fast as people's wages. and by 2008 we'll find health care will consume every dollar that's spent in the country. the entire gdp. the result of this is we have to do something to see to it that people can keep their health care and can have a decent choice. and get control of the situation that's running away from us. the average -- there are now 47 million people without health care, 950 people every day in my district are going broke and going into bankruptcy because they can't afford health care for themselves. now, beyond this, the situation has -- is aching us a upon where better than 1 million people

every year are losing their health care and not getting it back. >> all right. representative john dingell, democrat from michigan, sir, thank you very inch for your time. appreciate your talk with us on "msnbc saturday." >> thank you very much for your courtesy. >> glad you're here. conflicting reports this morning on the reported death of the taliban's top commander in pakistan. some taliban members are denying reports in a us drone missile attack wednesday killed mehsud and his wife. blamed for a wave of suicide attacks, beheadings and assassinations including the asa assassination of benazir bhutto. richard engel is in kabul with the very latest. good morning. what can you tell us about the situation? >> reporter: this was an abrupt change from the taliban. started this morning when several senior leader started to call reporters, sources that they have, in the media to say that all that was reported

yesterday, even some statements by other taliban commanders, were incorrect and that baitullah mehsud was not killed bit americans, he was not in the area in southwest waziristan. they wouldn't provide details, any evidence to support their claim that he was not killed but just to say that the americans and spak stpakistani is issene . think is either true, was embarrassing to the americans who went forward by saying they believed he was dead but awaiting final confirmation or a taliban information campaign, it is something to confuse the americans who have already said they will keep pressuring, they will continue to go after the leadership of the taliban while they are in a position of transformation following baitullah mehsud's reported death. >> okay. richard engel, thank you very inch for that.

once we get confirmation either way, we'll talk about the story. now to the economy. the national retail federation says more consumers will scale back on their back-to-school spending this year by 8% or so. to help spur sales 15 states are tacking part in a tax-free holiday this weekend. providing savings on school-related merd for customers. legislatorer t can't afford the free weekend. so i've come to this ring to see who's faster... on the internet. i'll be using the 3g at&t laptopconnect card. he won't. so i can browse the web faster, email business plans faster. all on the go. i'm bill kurtis and i'm fast than floyd mayweather. (announcer) switch to the nation's fastest 3g network and get the at&t laptopconnect card for free.

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the wife of south carolina governor mark sanford moved out of the governor's mansion. spotted carrying boxes and clothes out of the governor's residence in columbia. the governor's wife separated june weeks before he revealed he had an affair with a woman in argentina. nbc's mark potter's in miami with latest on this. what does the first lady do now? what are her plans, snashg. >> reporter: hi, alex. jenny sanford says now that

she's moving out of governor's mansion with her son she will continue on with duties of first lady but the first responsibility now is for her family. as you said, indeed a lot of people saw it yesterday, she was spotted moving out of the mansion with some om other women carrying clothing and suitcases and items. they drove away in a small convoy of cars, not going with them was the governor himself, mark sanford. he will stay behind in columbia, south carolina, as the two have separated, at least in materials of where they live. in noving out yesterday the first lady issued a statement. she said, quote i have decided to move back to our house in charleston with our sons for the upcoming school year. from there, we will continue the process of healing our family. the governor agrees with this, that this is best for everyone involved. he says it will not affect his ability to work as government mer. alex? >> okay. mark potter, thank you very much, live from miami. appreciate that. now to a new look at president obama's approval rating as he moves past the 200-day mark in

office. a new quinnipiac poll has the president's approval rating at 50%, 42% disapproving the way he's handling the job. 38% disapproving. joining me now is charlie cook, editor of the cook political report. good morning to you, charlie. >> good morning, alex. >> all right. let's take a look at president's approval ratings from just a month ago in which the quinnipiac poll showed 57% approved, 33% disapproved. why do you think his approval ratings have dropped? >> well, i think there has been a general decline. i'm not a big fan of the quinnipiac poll it's an outliar. look at all of the national polls you've had nbc and npr polls at 53% approval. pew at 54. time and cnn at 56. ipo and gallup at 58. the average is around 54%. but what you see is there is a

general trend downward. downward. and what you see is the president's numbers kind of yo yo up and down. and they -- but the pattern you're seeing is that when his numbers go up, they generally don't go up as high as his previous highs, and then when they drop low, they do drop lower than his previous lows. so it's sort of a ratcheting down effect that's happening. he's sort of within the average of normal presidents at this point. but, clearly, his disapproval ratings are consistently going up, and he's not in a good place right now. >> do the better than expected numbers on unemployment, and the stock market gains, does that do anything to help turn this around for the president? >> i think any time you have a lousy economy, whether you inherited it or not, it's basically a weight on your shoulders, it kind of keeps holding you down. and that every month, the president's in office he becomes a little more vested into ownership of that economy.

you know, at the beginning didn't have any, now he's got a decent amount. and so i think that the economy, if it is starting to really come around around, it will help him some. but a lot of these problems come from the legislative agenda. that health care, this is just a tough one. the economic stimulus package cost him some. the budget cost him some. climate change has cost him some. all of this sausage making, and it's kind of grisly, and it's rubbed off on him, no question about it. >> well, you talk about health care and specifically looking at that one, the polling numbers, 52% disapprove of his health care, the way he's handling it. only 39% approve. how much do you think this health care debate is hurting the president? and how much do you think it has to do with the timing, coming on the heels of so many other financially oriented things that are tapping into people's pocketbooks? >> well, i think you really hit on something right there. that i think americans have gotten a lot more cautious since last september when the economy

went on the rocks and the stock market plummeted and all that. what we've seen economic statistics show that people are spending less. they're saving more. they're borrowing less. they're just becoming somewhat more frugal, more conservative with their money. and as a result, they're a little more resistant to, you know, big spending government programs that otherwise they might find pretty attractive. and there's also, with health care, a bit of a ninby effect. most people recognize that our health care problem as congressman dingell said is badly damaged. but at the same time there's a little bit of a nimby there. not in my backyard. not touch the health care system but not touch my health care because i'm generally happy with it. you've got a bit of that there, too. but people are pulling back, no question about it. >> thank you very much for that. >> your sign of the economy is

recovering, but they're reporting up 25% increase in business. smielging at that one. over the past couple of months, the recent boom is a sign the economy is gaining steam. there's something to study. owners say conventions in the area are also helping to increase the sales. go figure. i'm meteorologist bill karins taking a look at the forecast. heavy overnight rains, flash flooding problems in minneapolis into wisconsin. a lot of the heavy rain today over lake michigan and through michigan during the day. that's kind of our travel trouble spot. otherwise it's hot in the middle of the country. we're dry on the west coast, and what a beautiful saturday from d.c. to boston. nature valley. ♪ the place that inspires her to go faster... ♪

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call or click today. onstar. standard for one yeprogressive. we're going to get to the economy now. the july jobless rate dropped from 9.5% to 9.4%. while this is the smallest drop in a year it was enough to help wall street finish in positive territory. "washington post" financial reporter neil irwin joins me now live from washington. good morning. >> good morning, alex. >> so what does this latest drop in unemployment really mean? when the white house and the federal reserve predict a jobless rate is soon going to reach 10%? >> well, don't read too much into it. it's true the unemployment rate dropped from 9.5% to 9.4%, but what was going on is not that fewer people are unemployed. what was happening is more people gave up looking for jobs.

the labor force shrunk. so 422,000 people said, times don't look very good, i'm not even looking for work. so that's not really a shrink. that said, it's better than the alternative. it's better than continued massive job losses. the rate of job losses has been slowing consistently as the years progressed. so hopefully that trend will continue. if it does, we could enter a period of job growth by the end of the year perhaps. >> what of the industries that are currently taking the hits? and where are jobs being created? >> the worst sectors for job losses are manufacturing, construction, you know, if you look at what's going on in the auto industry. you look at what's going on in real estate, you can understand why those sectors would be bleeding jobs. that said they seem to be not losing jobs quite as rapidly as they were. maybe the big losses in construction jobs have already happened. maybe stimulus kicks in. maybe see some increases in that area in the months ahead. the big gainers have been education and health services. so hospitals, schools have continued adding jobs through

this recession. some progress last month in leisure and hospitality. people are going to restaurants and hotels again, so there are some signs of life out there. >> taking advantage of great deals that are out there in both those areas. what about stocks rallying from the latest news on the jobs report? will that last? >> you know, we've seen some real good momentum out of the stock market the last month or so. and really going back to march, when stocks bottomed out. you know, whether that can be sustained in the second half of the year really depends on whether this sign of a recovery, whether they really sustain themselves. we have a real recovery, then the stock market looks fairly valued. if you have a double dip. if you have a return to recessionary conditions then all this progress will be for naught. >> okay. thank you, as always, financial reporter neil irwin. always good to see you. >> thanks so much. >> we're quickly approaching the top of the hour. running a little late this hour. this morning new details into that wrong-way crash that killed eight people in new york. stay with us. pollen. when i really liked to be outside, i did not like suffering

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