you can't kick the can down the road any longer. deferring reform is nothing more than defending the status quo. >> critical care. president obama pushes congress to act quickly on healthcare reform. "endeavour" evaluation. the shuttle is hit by>ó foam insulation during liftoff. and interstate inferno. detroit causing major damage. >> truck just landed, boom, blew up. everything, it was crazy. captioning funded by cbs good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm michelle guillen. this morning supreme court nominee sonia sotomayor makes what is expected to be her final day of questioning before the senate judiciary committee. susan roberts has more.

>> what is the set of law in america about abortion? >> in planned parent hood versus kc, the court reaffirmed the core holding of roe versus wade that a woman has a constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy in certain circumstances. >> reporter: supreme court nominees traditionally decline to give specific answers on how they might rule. sotomayor followed that path, refusing to answer hypothetical questions about abortion. >> i probably couldn't opine as i'm sure that situation might well arise before the court. >> reporter: she also refused to give a direct answer to a question related to gun control, if citizens have a right to self-defense. >> i'm asking about your personal opinion. >> but that is sort of an abstract question. >> reporter: her answers left republicans frustrated. they fear she would be biased, but even some friendly democrats

took note. >> i think your record is exemplary, judge sotomayor, exemplary. i'm not commenting about your answers, but your record is exemplary. >> reporter: there was also a perry mason moment, thanks to the senate's newest member, minnesota's al franken. >> what was the one case in perry mason that berger won? >> i wish i remember the name of the episode, but ikdon't. i just was always struck there was one case where his client was actually guilty. >> and you don't remember that case? >> i know that i should remember >> didn't the white house prepare you for that? >> reporter: by the way, it was the case of the deadly verdict. a confirmation vote by the full senate is expected next month. michelle? >> susan roberts is in washington. susan, thanks. a two-mile stretch of interstate 75 north of detroit is closed this morning after a

massive tanker explosion. flames roared hundreds of feet in the air after the tanker exploded under an overpass yesterday. the drivers of the tanker, a semi tractor-trailer, and a car escaped with minor injuries. witnesses say they feared for their lives. >> i've never seen so much fire. i've never seen that much fire in one spot in my life. >> it was bad. >> what was going through my head, i thought that we were all going to die. >> it's not known exactly what caused the explosion. the tanker was carrying 13,000 gallons of fuel. a georgia family has some fast-acting policemen to thank for an amazing rescue from their burning van. michelle marsh has the dramatic pictures. >> reporter: it's a family roadtrip for the king family. everything is going as planned until a tire blew. sparks fly, and this fire ignites. the king family mini van erupts into a fireball. they managed to make it to the shoulder, but two of the four

family members are still inside, and it's all caught on police dash cam video. >> my door wouldn't open. michelle, my sister, was still in the van. and they were trying to put out the fire. >> reporter: as marietta police pull up, you can hear sisters stephanie and michelle king screaming for police to help their mom. she's disabled, can't walk, and trapped between the flaming vehicle and the guard rail. here you see police pulling her to safety. >> i thank all of them for helping. >> reporter: everyone made it out alive. stephanie only has this small cut. her father, david, who is also disabled, managed to escape with second degree burns on his arm. her sister and mom have march serious burns, but they'll be okay. the family asked to see the video from this remarkable rescue for the first time. but when we pressed play -- >> i can't watch it. >> reporter: eyes filled with

tears. they couldn't stand to watch. they thank god and police for saving them. >> we just thank the lord that he got us all out. >> reporter: for cbs atlanta news, michelle marsh reporting. in oregon, there was a motorcycle accident caught ob tape. the cycle spun out of control at 85 miles an hour on an interstate, sending the cyclist flying. the trooper caught the whole thing on his dash cam last month. the cyclist was not hurt but was charged with careless driving. this morning nasa engineers are taking a close look at the video from yesterday's launch at the space shuttle "endeavour." the shuttle was hit at least twice by foam from the external fuel tank. so far it appears the damage was not serious. drew levinson has more. >> reporter: it was a long time in coming, but the clouds finally parted. >> three, two, one. >> reporter: allowing the space shuttle "endeavour" to blast off from the kennedy space center. >> and liftoff of "endeavour." >> reporter: just under two minutes into the flight, several

pieces of foam insulation fell off the ship's external tank. it will take some engineers time to determine whether the shuttle's fragile heat shield suffered any significant damage. >> i think you also see in the sn video we had some foam loss event. you can clearly see on the front part of the orbiter some white indications where tiles were dinged. we don't consider those issues for us. issues will be in the back of the vehicle, and we'll take a look at those. >> reporter: "endeavour" was scheduled to go june 13th but was scrubbed twice because of hydrogen leaks and was delayed three more times because of bad weather. >> weather is just hitting us again with lightning within 20 nautical miles and within violation of our launch weather. >> reporter: the five delays were one shy of the record. two missions, one in 1986 and the other in '95 were scrubbed. they made it up on the seventh attempt. for nasa this is a complex mission to the international space station. the astronauts will replace

several vital parts and add even more. the seven astronauts will join the six already there, marking the most people ever in the space station at one time. drew levinson, cbs news, the kennedy space center. today is a historic day in nasa history. it was on july 16th, 1969, that apollo xi, the first manned mission to land on the moon, took off. it blasted off from the same launch pad "endeavour" used yesterday. four days later, neil armstrong and buzz aldrin became the first men to visit the moon as michael collins buzzed overhead. you're watching cbs news.

a horrible moment from 25 years ago caught on tape. michael jackson's hair catches fire while he's filming a pepsi commercial. this never before seen footage was posted online. it may have led to his reported dependence on painkillers. on the "cbs money watch," stock markets in asia rallied this morning. and the story of a mind boggling banking mistake. claire leka is here with more from new york. good morning. >> good morning, michelle. we'll get to that mistake in just a moment. but news of china's economy accelerated last quarter sent asian markets higher last night. japan's benchmark nikkei rose 1%. hong kong stocks jumped .5%. an intel report restarted the rally on wall street. the dow jones industrial average starts the day up 256 points. the nasdaq jumped 63.

jp morgan chase releases its quarterly earnings report before the start of trading. tech bell weathers google and ibm will roll out after the closing bell. and we get reports on manufacturing in the mid-atlantic region. foreclosures keep soaring as more homeowners continue to lose their jobs. according to realty track, the number of people on the verge of losing their homes surged 15% in the first half of the year as more people were unable to pay their mortgages. the news comes despite the $50 billion in financial assistance the obama administration has handed out to lenders to help stem the problem. walmart is planning green labels. walmart is asking suppliers to calculate the environmental costs that go into making their products. it then plans to break that information down into simple green ratings that shoppers will end up seeing next to product prices. walmart's goal is to have other retailers eventually adopt the

indexing system which will be created over the next five years. now here's a computer foul-up to make your head spin. imagine jason bryant's shock when he saw a charge on his bank of america debit card account for more than 23 quadrillion dollars. that's 23 with 15 zeros, to pay for a pack of cigarettes. enough to pay for the government's fiscal mass. >> i'm planning to withdraw all of my money from bank of america as soon as it gets direct deposited and buy a safe at the house and put it in there. i feel it's safer being at home than in the hands of a bank. >> the bank meantime has cleared up the charges, but that apparently wasn't bank of america's only foul-up. there's an almost identical bank e error for a man in manchester, new hampshire. neither bank of america nor the

visa card could explain what happened. >> well, that was just a pack of smokes. maybe he could quit smoking, and that would be the way to go. claire, thanks. straight ahead, your thursday morning weather. in sports, the british open is getting under way, and the tiger is hungry.

here's a look at the weather in some cities around the country. new york, late day thunder, 84. miami, 93. chicago, sunny and 77. denver, 88. los angeles, 78. and time now for a check on the national forecast. the latest satellite picture shows that most of the west is looking at clear skies. it's a gray and stormy morning across the southern plains. skies are turning cloudy over most of the east with a cluster of storms seen drifting across the tennessee valley. later today, thunderstorms will be scattered along the eastern seaboard. storms are also expected across portions of the southern plains. it will be breezy and quite chilly around the northern great lakes and upper midwest. some locations not even getting out of the 50s. most of the west will be sunny and hot. in sports, it's day one of the british open in scotland with ireland's pad rag harrington going for his third straight win. he'll have to beat a hungry

tiger woods to do it. woods has been practicing on the turnberry course. he hasn't won a major tournament since returning from knee surgery last year. the phillies have a new starting pitcher, pedro martinez. the phils introduced the 37-year-old right-hander yesterday. he'll start a few games in the minors before joining the big club. houston rockets center yao ming is showing you you can go home again. he's purchased the shanghai sharks, the chinese pro team where he got his start. yao missed the last part of the nba season after fracturing his left foot in may. at the halfway point of the tour de france, italy's rinaldo nocentini retains the lead. eight seconds back, lance armstrong is hanging on to third place. when we return, a look at the top stories. plus the president's turn at healthcare reform. first katie couric. >> a crucial life lesson from

kids on how to manage their money. we'll show you the innovative programs that are teaching them financial independence. it's part of our special series "children of the recession" tonight. stay healthy - and get on with my life. it comes from liberty medical. and now, it's not only where i get my diabetes testing supplies - but it's where i get my prescription drugs as well. see if you're on medicare, the cost of your diabetes testing supplies as well as your prescription drugs may be covered. liberty takes care of all the paperwork with medicare and sends the prescription forms directly to your doctor for approval. then, on your schedule, packs up this box and sends it right to your door with no charge for shipping. and liberty assures you have everything you need to manage your diabetes, including most brand name meters. call now and we'll send you a free meter. plus, a free cookbook when you join. call liberty. they can help you live a better life.

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on the "cbs morning news," here's a look at today's weather. thunderstorms will be scattered along the eastern seaboard. storms will also be rumbling across the southern plains. andnv it will be quite chilly across the northern great lakes. here's another look at this morning's top stories. >> i take every case, case by case, and my mind is always open, and i make no prejudgments as to conclusions. >> judge sonia sotomayor tried to persuade skeptical republican senators that she will not be biased if confirmed to serve on the supreme court. sotomayor refused to be specific about issues such as abortion

and gun control. she returns today for her final day of questioning. and the space shuttle "endeavour" was hit by at least two pieces of foam from its fuel tank as it blasted off yesterday. nasa is investigating, but so far there appears to be no serious damage to the shuttle. it's a step forward for president obama's efforts to reform healthcare in this country. a senate committee passed its version of an overhaul bill, the first bill to do so. three other house panels take up the issue this week. since 1999, health insurance premiums have increased 120%, about five times that of wages. about 1.5 million american families lose their homes to foreclosure each year because of sky rocketing medical bills. susan roberts joins us from washington with more. michelle, good morning. >> reporter: susan, good morning to you. democrats insist this is the year they'll make healthcare available to all americans. but party leaders have a long way to go in a short amount of time. house republicans insist democrats are taking healthcare

reform in the wrong direction. >> launching a massive government bureaucracy paid for with higher taxes on individuals and small businesses during the worst economic recession in a quarter of a century is a profoundly bad idea. >> reporter: democrats want to raise taxes on the wealthy to a 20-year high to cover nearly 50 million uninsured americans. >> i move to report the bill as amended. >> reporter: a senate committee approved their own version of the plan wednesday but with no republican support. >> for millions of our fellow citizens, those without coverage, those who have too high deductibles, this is a response for them. >> reporter: the white house says most americans would end up winners with the democrats' plan. but the republicans say it could hurt small business owners that the government is counting on to win more jobs. chris owns a mountain climbing business in washington would be hurt by the tax plan that requires companies to face big penalties if they don't offer coverage to their workers.

>> we could find ourselves in a position where a lot more small businesses are going bankrupt. >> reporter: but president obama insists it's better to get money from those at the high end of the income scale. >> if you can afford it, give your employees health insurance or pay into the pot so we're not subsidizing it. >> reporter: the president wants lawmakers to pass a comprehensive bill before going home for summer recess. he'll drive the point home today when he meets with a number of swing votes in congress. right now the nonpartisan congressional budget office is reporting this would cost around $615 billion over about ten years. >> susan, there's one top republican who's saying the price tag for this is going to be much more. what are the details on that? >> reporter: that's right. the senator says this is a real prescription for failure. he estimates it could cost as much as $1 trillion. he says right now the democrats are not including the expanding the medicaid system for low income families. he says it's expected to reach far more than the estimated $615

billion. >> susan roberts in washington, thanks. you're watching the "cbs morning news." ♪ 'cause they're gonna wash away ♪ ♪ this old heart ♪ gonna take them away [ quacks ] start your three-course meals with a shared appetizer. choose two entrees from over 15 chili's favorites, then share a decadent dessert. chili's -- dinner bell sfx: ping ping ping fancy feast elegant medleys tuscany entrées restaurant inspired dishes with long grain rice and garden greens is it love?

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good morning, maryland, now don scott, marty bass, mary bubala and traffic control with sharon gibala, it's wjz, maryland's news station. hello again, there is a touch more summer out there this morning. sharon will have your traffic after the weather. >> let the party get std