steve hartman's "assignment america." captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with katie couric. >> mitchell: good evening, katie is off tonight. a lot of weekend plans are about to be ruined up and down the atlantic coast, all because of a storm that's going to stay hundreds of miles offshore. hurricane bill has been downgraded from a category 4 to a category 2. forecasters expect it to turn northeast and pass between bermuda and the u.s. in the next few days. but a hurricane does not have the to score a direct hit to cause trouble. in this case, flooding, rough waves and rip currents along the east coast could be on the way. here's kelly wallace. >> reporter: for millions of east coast beach goers like these at rockaway beach on the edge of new york city, this is as close as they're going to get to the water this weekend. >> you know about no swimming today, right? >> reporter: swimming banned at beaches along much of the east coast due to hurricane bill's might. >> we're biting our bottom lips and ho

. >> mitchell: and coming up next this friday evening, steve hartman hails a very special cab drivern tonight's "assignment america." (cacophony of sounds) (announcer) excedrin pm. relieves pain fast. plus a sleep aid to help you fall fast asleep. excedrin. what ache? new carefree ultra protection liners, with wings! absorb ten times more, like a pad but feel thin and comfy, like a liner. new carefree® ultra protection™ for me to keep my bones strong but even with calcium, vitamin d, and exercise, i still got osteoporosis. i never thought i could do more than stop my bone loss. then my doctor told me i could, with once-monthly boniva. boniva works with your body to help stop and reverse bone loss. studies show, after one year on boniva, nine out of ten women stopped and reversed their bone loss. i know i did. (announcer) don't take boniva if you have low blood calcium, severe kidney disease or can't sit or stand for at least one hour. follow dosing instructions carefully. stop taking boniva and tell your doctor if you have difficult or painful swallowing, chest pain or severe or cont

steve hartman with a story we'll call "the odd couple" in tonight's "assignment america." >> reporterthey met on boston common, two men with little in common. one, a well-heeled, high-powered attorney. the other, a street-schooled, often-ignored, homeless person. rob slept on a spacewalk. peter had a swank condo in the back bay. but every morning they would cross paths here in the park, and over the course of several months, actually became good friends. >> how are you? >> oh, not bad, yourself? >> good. >> reporter: how did that happen? you'd think after weather and box scores they'd run out of things to talk about, and, indeed, they did. >> so i gave robert a copy of a book i really loved "water for elephants." and we would talk about that. >> reporter: discussing the book became their way of connecting, and a friendship was born. >> and one day i asked him, "what did you do with the book?" and he said, "i gave it to a fellow over there." >> i knew there were a lot of people that could read. >> so it occurred to us there was an interest out here that could draw people together. >> j

and a most unusual club gives steve hartman a tale with a storybook ending in tonight's "assignment america." captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with katie couric. >> good evening. katie is on assignment. for the first time in feen months we can say this-- the unemployment rate is down. the labor department reported today it fell a tenth of a point in july to 9.4%. job losses slowed to just under a quarter million, the lowest in a year. the white house tonight is cautiously opt misks. optimistic. here's anthony mason. >> reporter: the bad news is getting better for the job market and the economy. >> this morning, we received additional signs that the worst may be behind us. >> reporter: after averaging more than 600,000 jobs lost in the first three months of the year, for the past three months, the average loss has been cut by half, but the drop in the unemployment rate isn't all good news. >> the unemployment rate went down because a lot of people, more than 400,000 people, actually left the labor force for whatever reason, they've just decided to give up looking fo

steve hartman, peace. >> peace to you too. >> couric: that is the cbs evening news for tonight.'m katie couric. thanks for watching. have a great weekend. and jeff glor are be back here tomorrow night. good night. >>> this is "entertainment tonight" in high definition. >>> oprah in tears. maria shriver carrying her mother's casket. >> mommy was our hero. >> inside the funeral of eunice kennedy shriver. >> she fought right up until her very last breath. >> where was ted kennedy as he battled the brain tumor? >>> plus, is this the end of camelot? >>> michael jackson's secret drug meeting? >> the new dr. speaking

steve hartman, peace. >> peace to you too. >> couric: that is the cbs evening news for tonight.'m katie couric. thanks for watching. have a great weekend. and jeff glor are be back here tomorrow night. good night. >>> good evening, everyone. in your only local news at 7:00, i'm surae chinn in for derek mcginty. tonight, back in visit, michael vick heads to the gridiron and a former police chief does not receive a get out of jail free card and inbox full. it is the health care reform e- mail battle. >>> e-mail about health reform is inundating captiol hill. >> a lot of people who are trying to e-mail their member of congress are experiencing a slow down. >> reporter: they are working on it. >> we are in the process, right now, as we speak, of upgrading those systems. >> reporter: in the meantime, persistence will rule the day here. so it is not that those e-mails aren't getting through. if the message is very important to you and you want it to go through, try and try again. >> nor cardin's office. can pl

>> steve hartman in search of woodstock.: on this the 40th anniversary of woodstock, just released poll from the pew center says the average 20 something doesn't even know what woodstock was. now steve hartman went looking for a refresher course. >> every year thousand of people pull into woodstock, new york and find themselves asking the same who is buried in grant's tombesque question. >> this isn't woodstock? >> woodstock wasn't in concert. >> nope. >> these guys here cash in on people like you that are confusing it. >> idiots? >> yeah. >> basically. >> so i am not the first one to make this mistake. >> probably about 1 million, eight. >> 1 million, eight. >> that is tough pill for a lot of people to swallow. >> she is mayor of the woodstock chamber of commerce. >> you go to bethel where the concert was. >> you would be more disappointed. >> this is no woodstock there. >> really? >> charles verdict disagrees. >> this is woodstock, 1969. >> charles runs the one and only business on the main drag through bethel. >> a lot of

four decades later our steve hartman takes us back to woodstock. >> 40 years ago woodstock was where it was at. but today the question is, where is it? >> the woodstock concert didn't happen in woodstock? >> nope. >> guy in search of woodstock, later on sunday morning. >> charles: those are this morning's jim axelrod remembers les paul a truly inventive musician. know rocca asks if writing is on the wall for paper and we tell you about kang and the siamese . another difficult at a lies ahead for firefighters in california, nearly a dozen wild fires are burning in the mountains outside of santa cruz and elsewhere in the state. firefighters efforts are being hindered by the difficult terrain and by dry, windy weather. john has been freed, he is an american who had been imprisoned in man mar in burma after he sneaked into the home of the leading advocate of democracy who herself is being kept in house arrest. his release came after a leader to the dictatorship by senator jim web of virginia. >> a joyous saturday night turns tragic in kuwait, 41 women and children were killed, another 76

patti davis and nancy reagan wt and later steve hartman with a story for the books.atching the smell of strawberries. the smell of strawberries? tim and richard smucker grew up in a family... known for making extra-delicious jam. the secret? a way to capture the flavorful aroma... that used to escape when jam was made. hey! don't let it get away. okay, okay, don't worry. for five generations, with a name like smucker's, it has to be good. find them, share them with mastercard's priceless picks app. download it now. s with mastercard's priceless picks app. light & fit has 80 calories versus 100 in the other leading brand and a taste you'll find... [sluuurrrrpppp!] irresistible. light & fit. great taste, fewer calories. >> it's "sunday morning" on cbs and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: the 1957 film "hellcats of the navy" was the only movie in which future president ronald reagan and fure first lady nancy davis appeared together. they lived in the white house for eight years with a bitter family feud clouding their happiness. that was before their daughter, p

steve hartman's "assignment america." captioning sponsored by cbs

and a most unusual club gives steve hartman a tale with a storybook ending in tonight's "assignment america" captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with katie couric. >> good evening. katie is on assignment. for the first time in feen

this morning, steve hartman follows a trail blazed three decades ago by a dear old friend of ours. >>e at this year's chandler family reunion weren't even born the first time cbs news covered it, the event began almost identically. >> >> with much cheering and much hugging. >> the nine children of alex and mary chandler are coming home. >> charles kuralt first came here to prairie, mississippi 31 years ago and the story he found in this family was easily one of the most inspirational of his career. >> the chandler family started with near nothing as any family in america ever did. >> alex chandler remembers the time when he had a horse and a cow and tried to buy a mule, and couldn't make the payments and lost the mule, the horse and the cow. >> and about that time cleveland, the first son, decided he wanted to go to college. >> we went to town and borrowed $2 and a half and bought him a bus ticket to go up there. >> from that beginning, he became doctor chief and chandler, professor of the cleveland university. >> he helped put his brother luther in college and helped james who helped