jk. i hate you. jk. are you ignoring me? we're in a huge fight right now. is it something i did? i can see your lights on. i'm coming over. this isn't a joke. what did you dream about? [overlapping] is it me? i'm lonely. holla back. holla back. let's try something new. nude pics. send me some. text me. >>> new benefits. the first health care reform policies take effect tomorrow. the personal and political impact. >>> then, political push. the first lady takes her popularity on the road. will she get as much attention as sarah palin? >>> and, going solo. he helped the killers rock to success. >> we became a real live band. >> now brandon flowers' next musical move. it's tuesday, september 22nd. >> from abc news, this is "world news now." >> good morning, everybody, i'm rob nelson. >> i'm vinita nair. >>> major changes are just a day away from the nation's health care system. >> two key components of the health care overhaul go into effect and they will have an immediate impact. steven portnoy is in washington with the latest. >> reporter: later today, president obama heads to northern virginia to mark the six-month anniversary of the health care reform law, hailing some of the new protections that take effect this week. 4-year-old myra rakers' life will change this thursday in ways she's probably too young to understand. >> in the next couple of days, a sweeping set of consumer protections go into law. >> reporter: protections like a ban on insurance companies imposing a lifetime limit on essential health benefits. just four years into her life, myra has had a kidney transplant and already hit her $500,000 lifetime coverage cap. >> they won't pay the claim. >> reporter: come september 23rd the insurance companies won't have a choice. >> just a huge weight has been lifted off of our shoulders. >> reporter: insurers will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to children even if they have pre-existing conditions, or stop providing coverage to customers because of technical errors on past applications. of course, these consumer protections don't come without a cost. >> impact is likely to be fairly small, 1% to 2% in terms of overall premium impact. >> reporter: republicans say they'll try to repeal parts of what they deride as obama care if they win control of congress. they'll especially target those provisions that will require people to buy health insurance. the white house urges americans to withhold judgment. >> more protections will come online over the next few months and years as health care reform gets phased in. >> reporter: with polls showing health care reform no more popular now, six months after passage, than it was during the debate, the white house is hoping more people come around to liking it as the reforms take effect. vinita, rob? >>> president obama's top economic adviser larry summers plans to resign at the end of the year. summers is the third high-level member of obama's economic team to leave in recent months. there is speculation the president might replace summers with a corporate executive. summers plans to return to his old job at harvard. >>> big names are campaigning now with the crucial midterm elections just six weeks away. popular political stars from both parties are doing what they can to get the votes. here's jonathan karl. >> reporter: the white house calls her the closer. with time running out for congressional democrats they're sending her in. the first lady's political travel schedule reads like a who's who of endangered democrats. she'll stop in wisconsin for russ feingold. illinois for alexi giannoulias, running for the president's old senate seat. colorado for michael bennett. washington state for patty murray. california for barbara boxer. >> i think she will go out and make a forceful and positive case for what this administration has done. >> reporter: and former president bill clinton is out on the campaign trail too. now he's offering the president some free advice. >> i would say i know a lot of people are mad and a lot of people are tired. apathetic. and i respect that. because we're not yet out of the hole we've gotten in. >> reporter: mr. clinton told george stephanopoulos the president should say this to disgruntled voters. >> i'd like to see him do something i didn't do. i'd like to see him say, here's what i think this election's about, the only thing that matters is what we're going to do now? give us two more years, don't go back to the policies that dug the hole. if we don't do better, this is the last thing. if we don't do better you can vote against us all and i'll be on the ballot too, vote against us all if it's not better. >> reporter: both are more popular than the president. in a recent ap poll, 68% viewed mrs. obama favorably. followed closely by mr. clinton with 65%. in contrast, in that poll 57% viewed the president favorably. on the other side, sarah palin ups the ante, putting out a slick new web video that portrays her as a national leader of the tea party movement. the video shows her cheered on by enthusiastic tea partyers. >> this party that we call the tea party is the future of politics and i am proud to be here today. >> reporter: it could be argued the video does more to promote the palin than the republican party. in fact, it includes 28 shots of palin, but never once mentions the word republican. the new palin video, combined with her recent trip to iowa, has many republicans speculating that she's thinking more about the next election, for president in 2012, than she is about this one. jonathan karl, abc news, capitol hill. >>> the military ban on gays serving openly in the military will not be lifted because of a senate vote. the lawmakers may consider a repeal of that policy after november's elections. yesterday, senate republicans blocked the democratic plan to end the military policy. it was part of a defense spending bill. >>> a prominent religious leader in atlanta denies allegations of sexual abuse. bishop eddie long is accused of using his authority to coerce two young men into having sex. the young men claim they were then given lavish trips, cars and even cash. they are now suing long, who is pastor of one of the nation's biggest baptist churches. >>> a man from western new york is on his way back to north carolina, charged with killing a police chief's daughter. michael harvey appeared before a judge in new york yesterday. harvey reportedly told police valerie hamilton died after an accidental overdose of heroin. hamilton's funeral was yesterday at a church in her hometown outside charlotte. >>> eight city officials from bell, california, are due in court this morning on corruption charges. they're accused of paying themselves huge salaries in a scandal that triggered outrage far beyond california. here now is mike von fremd. >> reporter: a raucous crowd gathered outside city hall as word spread that officials were being rounded up and arrested. one even had his door broken down by a police battering ram. >> they used the tax dollars collected from the hard-working citizens of bell as their own piggy bank, which they then looted at will. >> reporter: former city manager robert rizzo made nearly $800,000 a year. almost twice what the president makes. city council members were paid nearly $8,000 a month for attending meetings that either never took place, or lasted only minutes. the district attorney said that is fraud. >> this needless to say is corruption on steroids. >> reporter: the 40,000 residents of bell had been paying enormous property taxes and sewer fees and were thrilled to see those in charge thrown in jail. >> i'm ecstatic. i'm glad. it's about time they caught them. >> reporter: they were not arrested for simply making enormous amounts of money -- >> getting paid a zillion dollars a year is not illegal in the state of california unless you do it by illicit and illegal means. >> reporter: officials say private citizens need to do a better job of being their own watchdogs. >> these officials thought they could get away with it and they did get away with it for a number of years. now finally people are looking at it and saying, enough is enough. >> reporter: the district attorney says the eight face significant jail sentences. this is the biggest corruption scandal to be prosecuted in california in three decades. mike von fremd, abc news. >>> buckle up, it could be a rough ride. new research shows how bad the nation's roads are and what it is going to cost drivers. the study says nearly one-quarter of major highways are substandard. that is a slight improvement from three years ago. the repair costs to the average motorists because of the poor conditions are about $402 a year. >>> here's your wednesday weather now. severe storms hit omaha, sioux city and des moines. downpours and flash flooding from the dakotas to minnesota. showers across they valley and new england. more thunderstorms in south texas. drenching rain in the four corners of the southwest. >> 79 in albuquerque. 81 in salt lake city. and 60 in billings. 80s in omaha, kansas city, indianapolis. 82 in boston. 91 in atlanta. 88 in miami. >>> my favorite story of the morning. we're going for a big record in my adopted hometown of the big easy. it's sure to be a sweet success no matter how you slice it. >> bakers in new orleans are attempting to make the world's biggest king cake. they are using 4,000 pounds of flour, more than 400 eggs, and a ton of icing. >> they plan to wrap it around the superdome twice. slices of cake will be sold to benefit breast cancer research. the bakery making the cake is a favorite of the, what willis, super bowl champion new orleans saints. >> i'm sure you've had a good number of these. >> oh, come mardi gras time and carnival season they are huge down there. a little plastic baby inside. a new orleans delicacy. >> a girl gets to be the queen and the boy gets to be the king, whoever gets the baby in the cake? >> part of the tradition, or buys the next cake if you get the baby. >> i'm all for the tradition that involves eating as much cake in order to find something inside. two of my favorite 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classified mission in laos in 1968. his three sons, who did not know about their father's top secret heroics until just recently, accepted the medal at the white house. >>> nine americans were killed when a blackhawk helicopter crashed in afghanistan. those deaths make this year the deadliest for international forces in the afghan war. >> it was also the worst chopper disaster in more than four years. nick schifrin joins us to show us how dangerous these missions can be. >> reporter: every night, dozens of helicopters fly over some of the roughest terrain in the world. transporting special operations forces on secret missions. kill or capture taliban commanders. nearly a dozen of those troops were flying in a blackhawk, the military's workhorse helicopter. just before 5:00 a.m., they were trying to land, according to one official, when the helicopter crashed, immediately catching fire. this year the military has more than doubled the number of special operations raids. but they are not without risk, especially at night. abc's mike boettcher talked with three pilots. >> i would say the biggest challenges we face are landing in brown-out conditions. at night when there's little to no ambient light from the moon. >> reporter: the military trains its pilots to fly in those brown-out conditions. when the dust kicks up so much, they're virtually blind. >> you have to pick something out on the ground. something you know that's not going to move so you can keep your eyes on it when the dust starts blowing. you know it's not going to move. that's how we keep our bearings. >> reporter: last year we flew over the same area of this crash. helicopters are the critical method of transportation here. the only way to crisscross the country full of mountains and roads riddled with mines. >> you look at afghanistan and the terrain we're confronted with, this is really a helicopter war. >> reporter: with the surge of troops, helicopters will be even more important. meaning this crash likely won't be the last. nick schifrin, abc news, kabul. >> so often the case of the taliban is that they take credit for things that exaggerate what they were and were not able to accomplish. in this case, there's no proof they shot down that helicopter. so right now the military says there's no signs of enemy fire in that entire region. >> that's certainly good. it's an awful accident but certainly they need to get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible and see whether the taliban had anything to do with it or not. >>> coming up, a new solo act for a rocker from the killers. >> brandon flowers talks about his bold musical move. that's next. >>> welcome back, everybody. back in january, the seven-time grammy nominated band the killers announced the hiatus of their lead singer brandon flowers wasn't quite ready for a break. >> dan harris sat with flowers to talk to him about his new solo album, his religion and the future of the killers. >> it's a couple of the guys want to take a long break. and i'm -- my ball is still rolling. >> you don't want to take a break? >> i'm going to have a couple of months off. i feel like that's -- that's doing it for me right now. my dad never got two months off in a year. you know. i mean, it's -- i feel like that's all right. >> how big a part of your life is it? >> it's a huge part of my life. especially as i got older. >> one of the things about mormonism is abstaining from alcohol, abstaining from caffeine, abstaining from cigarettes. as we think of rock stars living a pretty decadent lifestyle. how do you do it? >> it was rough at first for me, because it's so glamorized and you read about your favorite bands and the stories and there's kind of a rock 'n' roll mythology. there's a lot of that, that's kind of expected of you at first. >> to get hammered? >> yeah. and my mom was cleaning hotels at one time so i'm cautious of leaving messages in hotels. i guess i'm a walking contradiction. but yeah. it was difficult at first. i was young, i was 22 when we first started. >> did you have moments of real temptation? >> oh, yeah, i still do. >> did you fall at any time? >> had my ups and downs. but it's -- i'm really -- i mean, most content and happy i've ever been right now. ♪ >> how in retrospect do you view your second album? >> i love our second album. the great thing that came from it is it put -- i always had a chip on my shoulder but the chip, you know, it really got bigger. we started playing live. and i just sang my guts out. and we wanted to show them how good this album is. and look at these people's reactions. and we became a really powerful live band by the end of "sam's town." ♪ breaking my back just to know your name ♪ ♪ 17 tracks and i've had it >> one of the things i find totally fascinating about you is you have no bones about wanting to be and to stay a big rock star. >> yep. i was -- i didn't know it any other way. i think i attribute it to being from where i'm from. there's -- if i were to come up to -- if the killers were to come up in new york, we would not have existed or we would just be a very small, you know, maybe indie band. because there's so much pressure to be cool everywhere else. i have no idea, these words indie, hipster, all this stuff, did not exist in nephi, utah. i liked it because i liked it. and we make songs that we like. and it doesn't matter, you know. we don't understand the idea of discriminating people, you know, from your music if they're not wanting this group to like you, not wanting that group to like you. it's about shooting for the stars. >> did you see yourself being as big as bono? >> i don't know if that will ever happen. i don't know if i have the social skills. but it's something that, you know, you have to admire. >> you don't set any cap, any limit on how big you want to get? >> no, no. we're going for it. you know. when i sit down at a piano or when the band gets together and we are jamming, we're trying to write something better than "where the streets have no name." that's what we're -- why wouldn't we want to? ♪ >> that was dan harris reporting. the name of that series is called "amplified." it's on "abc news now." they're always doing these really cool interviews with a lot of different artists. you can always see exactly who they are speaking to if you go to abcnews.com. you can find other interviews that dan harris did. >> a very cool series. flowers plans to reunite with the band after his tour is done. they should all get back together in 2011. "rolling stone" actually gave the new album three of five stars so he's doing pretty well. a short time ago, this woman suffered from around his house. these people chose freedom over restrictions. independencecever limitations. they chose mobility. they chosehe scooter store. and this is the team of mobility experts who made it all happen. ii great news, you've been approved for payment. dr. cruz, i'm calling on behalf ofmarie stanford. and they can make it happen for you. hi, i'm doug harrison, if you're living with limited mobility, call the scooter store today. i promise, no other company will work harder to make you mobile or do more to ensure your total satisfaction. i expected they'd help me file some paperwork with medicare and my insurance. i never expected them to be so nice or work so hard to get me a power chair at no cost to me. if we qualify you and medicare denies your claim for a w scooter or power chair, i'll give it to you absolutely free. that's the scooter store guarantee. we'll wor insurance company, even help with financing. if there's a way, we'll find it. when they delivered mom's power chair, i expected they'd show her how to use it once or twice. that man stayed for hours! whatever it takes, as long as it takes. that's our guarantee. why do we go to < uch great lengths? because making you mobile is our mission. we'llwork wit your doctor. we'll work with medicare and lçur private insurance. we'll even service your scooter anywhere in the country. call the sco÷"er store today. >>> "world news now" delivers your "morning papers." >> so remember when kfc first launched the double down? >> yes. >> the sandwich everyone was talking about. the light snack. >> take a look. in case you don't remember it's two pieces of chicken that have been deep fried, in between you've got bacon and cheese and whatnot. >> no buns. >> no buns. but you know what? it looks like kfc may have found their buns. because they are now giving college women $500 a pop to hand out coupons while wearing fitted sweat pants with the words "double down" in large letters across their rear end. if you're thinking, okay -- >> that's marketing. >> exactly. in defense, they say we've taken a page out of the book of apparel companies and sororities who promoted their products like this for many years. shocker here. women's groups are completely outraged, saying this is not the way to sell anything. but they're saying that marketing chiefs are saying the biggest audience for the double down, the people that brought them back into regular menu, are men. in their eyes, catch a man's attention. >> there you go. >> read something on some woman's buns. >> it goes a long way in college. see how it plays out. probably won't last too long. just guessing here. now it's a "morning papers" follow. this incident at the ohio state ohio university game where the mascots got into it. the bobcat from ohio university pulled a sneak attack on the buckeye here in the end zone. some more information has emerged. apparently this guy who really was putting it to the bobcat, attacked the buckeye, named landon hanning. detail has surfaced. one, he's not even a student at ohio university anymore. and he all along had planned to become the mascot just to launch this attack at the game. the other mascot taken completely by surprise. apparently brandon joined the team or went out to become the mascot just to do what you're watching there. here's no longer in school there, goes to another college, actually. obviously sparked all kinds of apologies and whatnot from ohio university and all that stuff. >> i really enjoy watching the two of them go at it. >> i thought it was funny. this is a different pose than we're used to. a new study's out that says men do not notice women whether they're wearing flats or whether they're wearing pumps. i think most of us would be surprised. men always kind of notice -- pumps are a feminine, kind of sexy thing for a lot of guys. they're saying men don't even notice now. >> pumps is not a sexy term, say stilettos. >> excuse me. >> i have to say i disagree with this a lot. being 5'9". every time i wear heels, men notice. >> this is not your usual -- >> these are my work heels, these are not pretty heels, i didn't want to do this, rob made me. >> men tend to notic [vibrates] g morning, sunshine. wakey, wakey. text me back. [chattering] [vibrates] hey. did you tell your parents about us? let's skip first period together. did you get all my texts? is practice over yet? where you at? are you with your friends? that's laaaa-mee. capital "x," lower-case "o," capital "x," lower-case "o," i love you. jk jk. are you ignoring me? we're in a huge fight right now. is it something i did? i can see your lights on. i'm coming over. this isn't a joke. what did you dream about? [overlapping] is it me? i'm lonely. holla back. holla back. let's try something new. nude pics. send me some. text me. >>> making news on this
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