but we want to begin with ed lavandera. he's in jean lafitte, louisiana, near new orleans. set the scene for us where you are. >> reporter: good afternoon, alina. jean lafitte is south of new orleans, on its way down to the gulf of mexico. if you look in the distance, you'll see an orange sheet on the horizon. on the other side of that, this that is the intercoastal waterway. to the left takes you down toward the gulf of mexico. to the right it winds back in towards the city of new orleans. the problem here isn't necessarily wind, which has been minimal or the rain. it's actually been tidal surge. as this storm slowly crept inland, the winds shoot out to the south. all this water is getting pushed up through here. this is already a low-lying area. the water is getting pushed out of the waterway into these neighborhoods around lafitte. mostly what we're seeing is homes where the water is threatening to go inside. and what they need here, accord together jefferson parish president, they need the winds to shift and start pointing toward the south. what you need ultimately is y

let's turn to our ed lavandera in louisiana for thus morning. ed, what have you and the folks there been seeing overnight? >> we're in louisiana this morning. we're in jean lafitte. you can still tell there are storms brewing out there. what you see back here in the darkness behind me is the intercoastal waterway, what takes you in the gulf of mexico and this takes you to new orleans. this storm has been moving so slowly but the storm and winds keep pushing inland. this town has had to protect themselves. they laid out 26,000 feet of what you call a tiger dam, if you will, a makeshift levee they've built along the intercoastal waterway. this water is pushing north and the current in the intercoastal waterway out here is really strong. it is high tide and the wind is pushing this water inland and what's happening is, it's kind of snaking and fingering its way into the community around here. as you drive around town here in jean lafitte, you see a lot of water lapping up close to many people's homes. they've had mandatory evacuations in this area.

our ed lavandera says this is slow moving. two or three miles an hour.you a perspective. the dousing and drenching rain will be the calling card with this one. financially and also just how they feel in the gulf coast after, of course, that oil spill. this was their chance to get back financially and mentally. this big huge holiday weekend. that is unfortunate. the worst timing of all. let's talk about this one more time. i want to show you what we are seeing in terms of where this is and the biggest problems with this. it is the flooding and flash flooding. here it is. tropical storm lee. here is the gulf of mexico. here's the center of circulation. it is getting its mojo back a little bit. it is poorly organized. one thing in the reds and purples are the heavy rains. 2 to 3 inches an hour will fall around i-10. maximum sustained winds at 50 miles an hour. this will not be a wind event, per se. we will have 50-mile-an-hour winds, but we are expecting up to 20 inches of rain. the current radar in new orleans. this is beginning to bring 5 inches of rain r

cnn's ed lavandera is live in crown point, louisiana. it's a strange scene still, ed. >> it has been, carol, for most of the weekend here. though the bulk of the heaviest rain has passed this area just south of new orleans already, and just kind of give you a lay of the land there's one road that takes you into these little communities. we're in crown point and another one called john hefeet. these are areas popular with fishermen, people who lived here a long time. this is what's been going on as these waters, it's not the rain that's causing the problem right now, it's tidal surge. this area that we're in is surrounded by intercoastal waterways and tributaries and that sort of thing and the wind from this storm is still pushing toward the north and that's causing the tidal surge to spill over out of the waterways and into these neighborhoods. many places it's kind of eerie because it's a heavily wooded area and it's hard to see and tell where the water is coming from. it just starts emerging from the tree lines here. there are dozens o

they're not that bothered by a storm of this magnitude. >> ed lavandera live for us. thank you very much. see you soon. jacqui jeras tracking all of the developments on tropical storm lee. she joins us now with an update. what is the latest? >> it is not moving. that's the biggest problem. it is stationary. we're given this burst here of convection near the center. as long as it stays over open water, we could see this inte e intensi intensify. look at this video we just got in. this is from overnight in mississippi. you can see big waves and this boat that was just pushing up and slamming up against this pier and the people were trying to save that. i wouldn't recommend this. let the boat go, guys. it gives you an idea of how power -- how much power we have with this storm and how big the waves are. the waves are not the biggest threat here. this is a flood stoorm. and something we're going to be dealing with for days because it is just not moving and you can see that forecast track. look at this. this is tuesday morning. it is still here in alabama. it is not moving

ed lavandera joins us from louisiana. how bad is it where you are? >> reporter: hi alina, what they are worried about isn't so much the rain because it hasn't rained for several hours and the wind is no longer a factor. they are concerned about the tidal surge, it is pushing water from the gulf of mexico into this community. you see dozens of home like this where water is threatening to go inside these homes. we've got the jefferson parish president john young joining us. what's the situation like around here? >> we're just fighting back the water from the gulf of mexico being pushed up. the threat here is tidal surge. we're outside the levee protection system and every storm we have to fight the tidal surge when the wind comes from the south. we're using sandbags, tiger dams and rock dice. >> >> reporter: do you think you've seen the worst of the flooding so far? >> we've seen the worst today. it's all connected to the high tide. hopefully the local weather authorities are predicting a change in the wind direction and pushing the wind coming from th

and we begin with ed lavandera. he is in jean lafitte, louisiana. how bad is it where you are right now? >> you know, the wind has not been an issue at all today. and the rain has been -- when it does fall, it comes in bands. they've been much more sporadic today. we had a significant rainfall this morning. since then it's been a little bit like this. but the problem here in this town, this is just south of new orleans, if you look over here, all of this is water and this is say common scene around as you drive through the main road coming into town. and the reason all this is happening if you look in the distance where that orange barrier is over there, that is the intercoastal highway, the waterway, that takes water from the gulf of mexico and winds its way back in towards new orleans. all of this is being caused because the winds are pushing towards the north. that is pushing water through the waterway up through the canals and back and it's spilling out into these neighborhoods in jean lafitte, louisiana, south of new orleans. what's happening,

ed lavandera is there for us. stick around for that.ere for us is alexandria steele who can tell us this thing is just -- i was asking you this morning, when does it make landfall? i can't see an eye. it's just a mess. >> it's kind of a mess, but the winds are now up, the flooding rain continues to come down, and unfortunately it's going to be another weekend of flooding rain for this corridor of the country. let's talk about it and show you where it is. tropical storm lee, winds now up from last observation, 50 miles per hour, 60 miles per hour. as t.j. was saying, it has been very disorganized but you're beginning to see a little better organization with this thing and also pretty interesting, here's the center of circulation. not a lot happening on the western periphery of this thing. the eastern periphery the purples and reds where the heaviest rain is. we're going to watch this rain come down around new orleans, two to three inches an hour. four inches on the docket there, and that's just the beginning of what's to come. here's a l

cnn's ed lavandera has been tracking the impact of the tropical storm all day today. tropical storm lee. he joins us now from waveland, mississippi, east of new orleans. how's it looking? >> reporter: well, you know, i think a lot of people remember waveland, mississippi, back during the days of hurricane katrina. this was a town that was simply devastated by that storm. this is the beachfront. you see as you look out into the gulf of mexico just how choppy those waters are and how dangerous it is out there. and a lot of that storm surge has been brushed up earlier this morning. we understand in many places around waveland and bay st. louis, in the lowing lying areas, there was thigh-high water. on this beachfront road, you see all of the sand that you see here is what was brushed up and pushed inland from the shoreline here earlier today. officials here tell us they anticipate that that will continue happening during the next 24 hours. but it comes in waves at this point. for the most part, when you talk to folks around town, they kind of feel like the worst of this

>> ed lavandera, thanks so much. jake i jeras at the cnn weather center with what this is expected to do overnight. as ed said, it's a big rainmaker. >> it is. it's not moving a lot. that's been our biggest struggle and makes it hard to forecast and pinpoint where some of the worst conditions are. most of it has been offshore at least in terms of the heavy downpours. we've had several areas right in the lower mississippi river valley where we've had incredible amounts of rain. there's been dry air moving into the storm all day long coming in from texas. and that's what's been weaken the storm today soon. the winds are down a little bit. 50 miles per hour. still a tropical storm. it is expected to continue to drift slowly northward and start to take a turn towards the northeast. it's going to take a couple days before it gets out of the lower mississippi river valley and then heads up into the appalachians. we've been waiting on a keyed front and it looks like the timing might not be great. this may go behind the cold

ed lavandera, cnn, austin, texas. >> be sure to tune in tomorrow night as cnn, the tea party expresser groups co-host the republican candidates debate. it's in tampa, florida, the site of the 2012 national gop convention. >>> other stories we're following. at least two dozen new wildfires are now burning in texas and other big fires are still spreading. the biggest is in bastrop county near austin. it has burned more than 34,000 acres and is only half contained. texas is under the driest weather since 1895. >>> in the northeast, it's floodwaters that are causing all sorts of problems. more than 2,000 homes in northern pennsylvania are damaged. record breaking floods there. and in neighboring new york are blamed on the remnants of tropical storm lee. >>> in the decade since the 9/11 attacks, we've been in two major wars including in afghanistan. next, why the nato commander in afghanistan thinks it's important to keep american forces there. >> dad, you're a grandfather now. my son is nearly 3 years old. and i will never let a day go by without him knowing that his grandfather was a he

ed lavandera has a closer look at perry and merck. >> reporter: the had hpv controversy has hovered over four years, but it it wasn't until the cnn tea party debate that perry's opponents really dug into the it texas governor. >> to have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat-out wrong. the drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor and this is just flat-out wrong. >> the company was merck, and it it was a $5,000 contribution that i had received from them. i raise about $30 million. and if you're saying i can be bought for $5,000, i'm offended. >> reporter: $5,000 in 2006, according to texas campaign finance documents, but altogether merck has donated more than $28,000 to rick perry's gubernatorial campaigns in the last ten years. more than $20,000 of those donations were made before the governor issued the controversial hpv executive order. >> but i do not understand why we as a people would not take this opportunity to use this vaccine that has come to us. >> reporter: that wa

ed lavandera's in dallas watching this story for us. sudden this whole story has take on new life. >> reporter: wolf, it's a controversy that's been around here in texas for quite some time. but what was interesting, and you saw this firsthand, tea party crowd should have been friendly to governor rick perry but there were a couple times where the crowd turned on governor perry and this hpv vaccine issue was one of those times. the hpv controversy has hovered over rick perry for more than four years. but it wasn't until the cnn tea party debate that paerry's opponents dug into the texas governor. >> to have innocence, little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat-out wrong. the drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor and this is just flat-out wrong. >> the company was merck, and it was a $5,000 contribution that i had received from them. i raise about $30 million and if you're saying that i can be bought for $5,000, i'm offended. >> reporte

ed lavandera takes us to a dallas school recently voted number one by "newsweek" magazine. >> i justerday. >> reporter: don't let the crayons and baby wipes fool you. this isn't child's play. these students are learning how to write a widely used computer programming language. >> we zil a quiz on thursday. >> reporter: at the science and engineering magnet school in dallas, this is considering a basic course for freshman. >> we want them to really quench that thirst for knowledge. >> reporter: the principal of the school of science and engineering. here's why it was ranked number one in america. some students take three math classes a day. >> absolutely. >> reporter: i didn't know you could handle that much math. >> geometry, calculus and precalculus all in the same year. >> reporter: most schools don't even offer. junior level labs and they run out of room to show off the trophies. >> all of these are our trophies and then we have a ton of trophies here in boxes. just everywhere. >> reporter: the school has a unique culture and sense of humor. 400 students, all completely infatuated

ed lavandera, cnn, austin, texas. >> the former new mexico governor, bill richardson, is back in theer wrapping up an intense trip to cuba. i'll ask him what happened. we'll speak live after the break. whoa! hey! [ dog barks, growls ] ♪ whoa, watch out, little man. ♪ [ male announcer ] when you take away the worry, it's easy to enjoy the ride. hey, bud. hey, dad. [ male announcer ] introducing cadillac shield. the most comprehensive suite of owner benefits offered by any luxury auto maker in the world. [ male announcer ] each of these photos was taken by someone on the first morning of their retirement. it's the first of more than 6,000 sunrises the average retiree will see. ♪ as we're living longer than ever before, prudential's challenge is to help everyone have the retirement income they'll need to enjoy every one of their days. ♪ prudential. bring your challenges. >>> he's carried out many sensitive diplomatic missions over the years, both official and unofficial but the former new mexico governor, bill richardson, says his latest mission, this went to cuba, has left him disappoi

as ed lavandera reports, it depends on who you ask. ♪ >> reporter: texas he had indicators have the countryime blues, hee haw style. ♪ >> reporter: these dallas area school officials are lampooning perry after approving 10% of the state he is education budget. alan weeks of save texas schools says the governor is gutting education. >> talking about doing things on the cheap and cutting and cutting and cutting. again, we're going to face another round of perhaps five to $10 billion in cuts two years from now. so you know, i think we do feel abandoned and shocked. >> reporter: rick perry's aides say the fear of education cuts is overblown. robert scott is the man perry appointed to lead the texas education agency and argues education is a top priority and says the governor created programs to improve math, science and engineering teaching. and that during perry's 11 years as governor, texas students score around the national average on national assessment tests in math, science and reading and writing. perry's administration says it's spending less and getting better results. >> there's a str

. >> and ed lavandera joins us now. you think perry's recent successes does he really owe to the tea party, would you say? >> well, i think that's an interesting question because if you look back at the last five or six years where rick perry has been politically here in this it texas. in the 2006 gub ernatorial race he didn't even get 40% of the vote but was still able to win. in 2010 he went up against kay bailey hutchison, senator, one of the most popular republicans in this state. he was supposed to lose. then along came this tea party and as you heard bill miller in that piece talk about, he latched onto that movement early. whether the tea party helped him or he just saw it had the political kind of thermometer there, having the right pulse and understanding what to latch onto. he grabbed onto it early and it's helped out tremendously. >> certainly seems that way. i know you'll be watching the debate and see how he performs along with us, 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on cc. ed lavandera, thank you. >>> students in

here is ed lavandera. >> reporter: cameroned to willingham was executed seven years ago, convicted ofo kill his three children. his appeals, including to the supreme court, repeatedly denied. texas governor rick perry signed off on the execution. >> willingham was a monster. >> reporter: just before willingham's death, a nationally known fire expert studying the arson investigation found it horribly flawed, that the original investigators had relied on outdated arson science. willingham supporters asked the governor to halt the execution. perry refused. >> we have a system in this state that has followed the procedures, and they found this man guilty every step of the way. >> reporter: cameron todd willingham's execution still haunts rick perry. the question is, not only did texas execute an innocent man, but did perry use his power to try to shut down a potentially embarrassing investigation into how willingham was convicted? if there was no arson, willingham would not have been executed. >> if this case went to trial today, i can't see any way that willingham would be convicted. i c

. >> ed lavandera live for us in bay st. louis, thank you so much. with lee ahead of us, we can't escape irene in our rear view mirror. get this, a week after the hurricane hit, some places across the northeast are still in the dark. more than 53,000 across new york state alone that includes long island. connecticut, 77,000 haven't had their power restored yet. 1400 in vermont. the national grid, the major utility in rhode island and massachusetts reports that 96% of the power is back on. that is good news and everyone will have their power back on in that state or those states by tomorrow. that is good news. meanwhile, we're watching tropical storm lee. jacqui jeras is in looking at that. you had a new advisory come in a minute ago, right? >> yeah. still holding status quo in terms of intensity but it is still offshore. so we're looking at 60-mile-per-hour maximum sustained winds with heavy downpours. ed was talking about how the rain wasn't too bad in new orleans, the worst of it will be to the east of there. we're talking about lower mississippi,

cnn's ed lavandera is in mississippi for us. this is such a slow-moving storm, i imagine flooding is going to be the big concern here. >> reporter: oh, absolutely. as this storm starts to make its way inland, not only just the areas along the gulf coast shoreline, but also towns further inland as this storm starts to track its way into louisiana, mississippi and even into tennessee and virginia later on in the coming days. so that flooding, the amount of rain that it brings will definitely be the concern. we are hearing pockets of, for example, around new orleans, some areas we're told usually flood, they're saying nothing out of the ordinary. a town just south of here called lafeet, there are mandatory evacuations. people being urged to get out of the low-lying areas. that's the problem we'll continue to see throughout the rest of the day as tropical storm lee makes its way inland. this is an incredibly slow-moving storm. about 2 to 3 miles per hour. so what that means is that it will leave and start just to sit over an area an

. >> cnn's ed lavandera is here to help us test that allegation. been kind of hard to figure that out exactly, john, but it can mean a wide range of things. because obviously texas is a border state and in many border states this has been an issue that's long been debated. but many ways to look at it. a state comptroller's report here in texas kind of weighed the benefits and the costs of illegal immigration in the state of texas. what it found was that overall illegal immigrants provide almost $500 million into the state economy here. however, when you break that down and look at education costs and health care costs, that's where the biggest drain is from illegal immigrants and on the state economy here in texas and, obviously, critics and those who agree with governor perry will point to that and perhaps being on the dole, that's what they're talking about. >> but health care costs going to the emergency room, the state picks up the tab. what's the difference whether you're in college or not, right? >> that's the other issue. when you look at th

ed lavandera, cnn, dallas. >>> breaking silence for the first time, casey anthony's parents, since shecleared of murder charges in july. appearing on the "dr. phil show." george admitting his daughter continue to lie after her daughter went missing. cindy telling dr. phil she is convinced her daughter is sick and needs help. >> your theory is that she is a victim in this in some way. a victim of an illness a tumor or something? >> i truly believe that, because there was never any signs that casey was an unfit mother. shep was an awesome mother. looking back now, i'm almost wondering if she didn't develop postpartum schizophrenia or some kind of issue after her pregnancy pap hormonal type of illness. that's my perception, because none of those behaviors were exhibited prior to her pregnancy. >> the rest of dr. phil's interview with the anthonys airs today. >>> in a bizarre twist, jose baez, the lawyer who's helped casey anthony beat a murder wrap, will defend the suspect in the disappearance of american tourist robin gardner in aruba. he's been hired by gary giordano traveling with gard

ed lavandera is in the city of lafitte this morning. what's it looking like where you are? >> reporter: they have shut it down because it is just after high tide here in southern louisiana. and that means that these floodwaters are going back up. many of the roadways in this area simply look like this. this isn't actually that deep but definitely treacherous enough for not allowing cars to go through. the water from the canals and waterways, coming from the gulf of mexico are being pushed over the banks and starting to threaten and have been threatening dozens of homes in this area for the last 36 hours. so, what they're waiting for here is for the winds to begin shifting from the south and go back toward the south instead of going toward the north. that would relieve a lot of this pressure here. everywhere you look, you see homes like this, where the floodwaters are knocking on the door, on the verge of going in. a handful of homes have taken on water in this community, we're told. as we drove around yesterday, we saw many, many homes that the water was right up on the doo

ed lavandera, cnn, austin, texas. >>> political buzz, the rapid fire look at the best 2topics o the daycardona. john avalon and dana loesh. rick perry and social security. take a listen. >> it is a monstrous lie. it is a ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you're paying in to a program that's going to be there. >> bomb thrower or truth teller, maria? >> definitely bomb thrower, kyra. it is the bomb to come back and land right on him. you can't call something that millions of americans depend on today as a criminal enter prize without paying a political price for it. you have republican seniors saying they're not going to vote for him afraid if he gets the hands on their social security. it's also not the way to really start the conversation about how you do fix this in the long run so i think it is going to come back to haunt him. his peers and the republican primary use it against him and democrats if he's the nominee. >> dana? >> well, i think that just because a lot of people depend on it doesn't mean still it isn't a ponzi scheme and i think it's worse t

cnn's ed lavandera joins us with the facts. ed?eresting time, because rick perry announcement he is running for governor came after a very contentious legislative session in texas and putting his education record right in the spotlight. ♪ >> reporter: texas educators have the country time blues. hee haw style. ♪ >> reporter: these dallas area school officials are lampooning perry for approves $4 billion in education cuts, almost 10% of the state's education budget. critics like allen weeks head of save texas schools group say the governor is gutting education. >> he is talking about doing things on the cheap and cutting and cutting and cutting and again, we are going to face another round of $5 to $10 billion in cuts two years from now. so, you know, i think, yeah, we do feel abandoned and i think we feel shocked. >> reporter: rick perry aides say the fear over education budget cuts are overblown. are you saying essentially it's not going to be as bad as people think it is? >> i do think it's not going to be as bad as people think