a homicide. randi kaye is live in glendale with the very latest details. randi? >> reporter: hi will, lisa. the private burial service for just family and close friends is supposed to start in about 2 1/2 hours or so from now. i have here with me the invitation that went out to close friends of the jackson family. and inside there are some really beautiful pictures of michael jackson at neverland ranch and some other pictures of him when he was a young boy. the invitation's about nine pages long or so. but just to set the scene here in terms of the media of course, the media wasn't officially invited to this, but if you take a look down here you can get an idea how much media there is covering this, about 60 outlets from around the world. the burial is supposed to cost about a million dollars. he will be laid to rest inside the great mausoleum, which is just behind those gates. we're at the main gate of forest lawn memorial park. and then over a hill. it's about a two-minute drive inside is where the great mausoleum is. it's a beautiful place inside. it has 20-foot archways, a lot of marble, a lot of maze. it's actually 11 levels. and his crypt, we understand, will be laid right under the "last supper" window. it's a massive stained glass window. it's actually a reproduction of leonard a&e da vinci's masterpiece. there's also inside the mausoleum many reproductions of michelangelo's greatest works. there is no map of where the celebrities are buried here at forest lawn. they don't really want to encourage the starstruck to come. but i can tell you that michael jackson will be laid to rest here among many other celebrities, including his good friend sammy davis jr., jimmie stewart, humphrey bogart, george burns, nat "king" cole, gracie allen, just to name a few, lisa. >> randi, will the public be able to visit michael jackson's final resting place? >> reporter: actually, no. there is a short film about this massive stained glass window, the "last supper window." the public can see that. but then they can't go beyond that into the great mausoleum. i've interviewed somebody about this, and he's been inside that great mausoleum. he says there's a lot of security cameras and a lot of guards. and he actually called them crypt keepers. but he said those are the folks who keep the folks who shouldn't inside, those crypt keepers as he put it keep them outside. >> you said a million dollars. i believe it's the family, right? who's picking up the cost? >> reporter: the family -- there had been some debate as to who would pay for this, especially after all the controversy about the memorial service and the city of los angeles picking up the tap. so actually, there was a hearing yesterday, and michael jackson's estate will be paying for np it's expected to cost about a million dollars. there was no objection on the part of the estate administrators, but katherine jackson had asked that the estate pay for this burial service. >> randi kaye reporting from glendale. we certainly appreciate it. thanks for the latest update. well, turning now to the kidnapping case of jaycee dugard, police now say phillip garrido, he is the man accused of kidnapping and keeping dugard captive for 18 years, well, that he was accused of a separate rape in 1972. dan simon is in antioch, california with the latest. dan? >> reporter: well, hi, lisa. authorities here in antioch, california saying today that phillip garrido was arrested for raping a third person back in 1972 but the case never went to trial because the girl, 14 at the time, did not want to testify. meanwhile, for those of us who have been following this case from the very beginning, it was certainly heartwarming to hear from jaycee dugard's aunt today, who explained how the family is rebonding in private. >> jaycee and her daughters are with her mom and younger sister in a secluded place, reconnecting. i was with them until recently. we spent time sharing memories and stories and getting to know each other again. jaycee remembers all of us. she is especially enjoying getting to know her little sister, who was just a baby when jaycee was taken. >> reporter: jaycee dugard's aunt providing the first firsthand account of how jaycee and her two daughters are coping after years of captivity living in back yard tents and sheds. tina dugard describes jaycee as a resourceful mother who used her limited knowledge to raise her children. >> although they have no formal education, they are certainly educated. jaycee did a truly amazing job with the limited resources and education that she herself had, and we are so proud of her. >> reporter: this is how tina would have remembered jaycee, more as a child than the 29-year-old woman she is today. >> not only have we laughed and cried together, but we've spent time sitting quietly, taking pleasure in each other's company. we are so very grateful to have her home. >> reporter: jaycee dugard was abducted outside her south lake tahoe home in 1991. the sprkuspects, phillip and na garrido, have been charged with 29 koupts including rape and kidnapping. both have plead not guilty. over the years there were emotional pleas from jaycee's mother for a safe return. >> she's a pretty, young, innocent child, and you may like her, but we love her too, and it's time that she comes home to her family. >> reporter: today her aunt describing the bond that never ended between a mother and daughter apart for nearly two decades. >> the smile on my sister's face is as wide as the sea. her oldest daughter is finally home. >> reporter: tina dugard not talking about the conditions jaycee faced, instead talking about the things they're doing now, and that's playing games, watching movies, doing the kinds of things that families do together. lisa? >> yeah. it's a long road ahead. thank you very much, dan, for that report. well, coming up, our special report, "dobbs and jobs." tonight, unemployment is at record highs, but one sector keeps on hiring. then, is president obama hitting a wall when it comes to his administration's agenda? and gunmen kill more than a dozen people in mexico. we will have the very latest on mexico's out-of-control drug violence. >> announcer: "lou dobbs tonight" continues. these are tough times for president obama. his approval ratings are plummeting. there are signs the president will drop a key component of his health care plan. and the senate has delayed debate on his cap and trade climate bill. as louise schiavone reports, president obama, well, he appears to be hitting a wall on his administration's priorities. >> reporter: the government's getting deeper in debt. unemployment is still hovering near 10%. in afghanistan more u.s. soldiers are dying, and the taliban's gaining strength. this analyst at the conservative heritage foundation says the obama agenda may be running into voter fatigue over government debt. >> this could very well be a period of an enormous mismatch between the legislative wish list in the white house on the one hand and what rank-and-file lawmakers on capitol hill are willing to do. >> reporter: beginning with health care reform, this former senior player from the other side of the aisle says the president might boost his chances with a different strategy. >> i was a republican leader for 12 years. the president, if he were republican, would send me a bill, and i would introduce the bill only after president reagan or president bush. and i don't know why they've chosen not to have an obama bill. >> reporter: meanwhile, members of the president's own party say the president's climate bill isn't ready to go. as both republicans and democrats confront the president on taxation and spending. this youtube video of the president's special adviser for green jobs, van jones, speaking in berkeley, california a month before his appointment, has been seized on by some of president obama's opponents. >> how are the republicans able to put things through when they have less than 50 senators but somehow we can't? >> well, the answer to that is they're [ bleep ]. >> reporter: top senate finance committee republican charles grassley's spokeswoman says the comment "flies in the face of the kind of post-partisan leadership promised by the new administration." while van jones himself tells us, "these comments, made before i joined the administration, were clearly inappropriate, and i apologize for the offensive words i chose to use during that speech. they do not reflect the views of this administration, and they do not reflect the experience i have had." and lisa, there's evidence that lawmakers may have some first-person interest in the issue of unemployment. a fresh poll from the pew research center reveals that only 37% of people surveyed in the last week of august would give congress a favorable rating. lisa? >> all right. louise schiavone, we appreciate that report. well, the polls show president obama, as louise said, that he is quickly losing support for his health care plan. the president, he will deliver a major speech next week to try and save the plan. but is it too late to change public opinion? that is the topic of tonight's face-off. jeffrey darren is a democratic pollster and president of the peter d. hart research institute. he says the president still has time to gain support for his plan. kelly ann conway is a republican pollster. she is also the president and ceo for the polling question and she believes support for the president's plan will continue to slip. first let's go to the numbers. let's take a look. we have a graphic we can share with our viewers on the support for president obama's health care plan. take a look at these numbers. 48% now say they favor his plan compared to 51% who oppose it, and that is down from june. let me go to you first, jeffrey. is the president -- is this a problem for the president? >> well, look, you'd rather go up than down. but the truth is that the ship has not sailed off the end of the earth here. it's a 3-point drop. and we're at intermission going into the next act of the drama. when you talk about the president's plan, the truth is that the president has been out there expressing his principles but there's really not a specific plan to go out and sell and defend. i think once that happens the dynamics change and we'll have i much clearer discussion about what is in it and what isn't in it. and barack obama will be a very effective communicator in those circumstances. >> kelly ann, it appears the democrats lost some ground over the august recess. i'll ask the same question. is this a problem? do you agree with what jeff said? >> it's a problem for the president because so much of his generic approval rating was tied up in his personality and the presumed ability to lead, and he's lost ground -- actually, so many of his negatives have increased. looking at a generic approval rating for something called health care reform is one thing but recognizing how much ground he's lost, particularly among seniors and independents in two short months. you can really tag it to when mr. elmendorf of the ceo kim out and said not only is this a cost-cutting measure as the president has promised but it will cost $1 trillion over the next ten years. it was a big blow from which they never recovered. and cnn's own polling too i found quite remark thbl this week that 25% say pass health care with few changes, 28% with major changes, but 28% said give up on health care altogether and 25% start from scratch. i can't remember a time when i've seen a public policy issue like that. >> okay, jeff, we've got the numbers that we can put up on our screen again for viewers. and i want you to comment on this, the point that kellyanne is making. only 25% say pass with few changes. people are saying, look, with the proposal that's are before us and granted it's not a single bill but with the proposals they have they either want to pass it with major changes or they want to toss it out, start from scratch or they say give up the on the idea of reform altogether. congress has its work to do. >> congress definitely has its work to do. but what does that mean when the public says major changes? there will be major changes from the bill that the republicans have inaccurately described to the public. look, good news, public, there's not going to be any death panels and there's not going to be government-run health care. there's going to be a system where if you like the health care you've got you get to keep it and that in that very same poll when asked should there be -- do you favor or oppose the inclusion of a public -- the choice of a public health care option, a majority favor that. so when people talk about major changes, what are they talking about? my guess is that when you describe the real elements of what will be the plan the public is going to be supportive of that. look, next wednesday is a very big night in terms of what it is the president has to say about how he wants to proceed. but as i said, we are in the middle of this. we are not at the end of it. you know, we're just on the basic favor-oppose numbers on the president's plan. we are talking about all of a three-point gap. it's within the margin of error. there's a long way to go before this drama plays out. >> kellyanne, do you think he can get it done? do you think president obama can get his health care plan through? >> i don't think think he can get his health care plan through. they'll get something they can call health care reform. and at his state of the union address next january he will be able to say or he will say we passed health care reform and nancy pelosi will pop up and lead the applause. but what does that really mean? the president -- jeff is saying that americans would countenance a public option, but the president himself by all accounts this week, is that the white house has said the public option's off the table. so which is it? that will really infuriate i think his liberal base on whom he relied for his presidency. the other thing that's going on here is you've got the seniors and the juniors showing up at town hall meetings. they also will show up at congressional elections in 2010. the youth who helped obama become president and in fact cnn polls 60% of youth who favor health care reform, they're not out there to be found and they're not helping him sell his plan. the president's got to make clear next week either the public option's in or it's out, but no more mixed signals. >> jeff, let me get you to spornd to that idea. public option, if it's not included, is this essentially a defeat within the democratic party? do you believe there will be members of the democratic party who will say to president obama hey, you didn't give us everything that we wanted or could have gotten? >> well, i think there will be hard choices all around and people will have to decide whether an imperfect plan is better than no plan at all. but the history of health care is littered with people who regret not having taken the deal that was on the table. senator kennedy talking about the nixon plan in 1970. president clinton talking about a deal he could have had in 1994. so that there are real important and hard choices here. i don't want to suggest that there aren't. but i also do want to say if and when president obama is able to declare at the -- at a state of the union next january that we have passed health care reform, that will be an important and meaningful event, not -- there's nothing full about it. change is hard. and if he's able to get something, that counts as a big, big victory. >> we are going to have to end it there. we appreciate it. geoffrey garin, kellyanne calaway, we appreciate you coming on the show. brooke baldwin has other stories we're following tonight. what do you have for us? >> nor violence in mexico. gunmen killed 17 people at a drug rehab center in juarez, mexico just across the border from el paso, texas, and according to the mayor of juarez authorities believe a drug gang targeted rival gang members at that facility wednesday. war ed juarez has become the deadliest city in mexico, more than 1400 people have been killed this year alone, and since mexico's war on the drug cartels really began in december of '06 more than 11,000 people have been killed. out in california more evacuations this evening as firefighters are battling wildfires raging out of control. firefighters trying to tackling these flames by air using planes and helicopters, and they are seeing some results. the fire now just about 38% contained. but officials do not expect to have the fire fully under control until the middle of september. the fire has burned through 226 square miles and still threatens some 12,000 homes. two firefighters have been killed. three people suffered some serious burns. protecting their homes from the flames. and in yazoo city, mississippi, a 14-year-old girl pulled out a gun on a crowded schoolbus. this girl began cursing, pointing the gun at other students. kids, as you can imagine, screaming, running for the exits. but one student here, one student remained calm. he is local football star caleb yuells. he did not panic one bit and said he tackled the girl and knocked the gun out of her hand. amazingly. you're looking at some of the video from inside that bus. amazingly, no one in there was hurt in that town, lisa, as you can imagine, hailing caleb as a hero. >> go, caleb. all right. football star. like to see that. thank you very much, brooke, for that update. still ahead, the president prepares to deliver a major speech on health care. but will it save his health care bill? and we'll tell you who's hiring the most workers in the country. that answer might surprise you. our series "dobbs and jobs now" is next. there's no way to hide it. sir, have you been drinking tonight? if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested. it took us maybe, what, two hours to give up the corporate life? i think it took me about ten minutes. running a b&b is not a desk job. i have to climb stairs 20-30 times a day. announcer: keep moving with new nature made triple flex. newly formulated to work in as little as 7 days. with glucosamine to support cartilage health, hyaluronic acid, known to lubricate joints, and chondroitin complex for fast joint comfort. it's like a new beginning. new nature made triple flex. learn more at tripleflex.com. nature made. fuel your greatness. also available in liquid softgels. now our continuing series, "dobbs and jobs now." as we have reported extensively, jobs in the private sector are scarce, but there have been an uptick in government jobs. as bill tucker reports, the federal government wants to hire nearly 300,000 workers over the next three years. >> reporter: uncle sam wants you. about 273,000 of you, to be more exact. according to a new report released by the partnership for public service, a non-partisan, non-profit group, 35 different federal agencies will be doing the hiring over the next three years. >> what we're seeing is both replacement for a lot of folks that are retiring. we're seeing new folks coming in to deal with pent-up demand. you have some insourcing, some effort to try to bring in jobs that were being done by contractors that probably are better done by federal workers. >> reporter: doctors, nurses, dieticians, rehab therapists, pretty much anything in the health care field is open for opportunity. health care shapes up as the number one opportunity, with more than 54,000 hires projected. the office of veteran affairs is the agency with the greatest needs. security and protection opportunities run a close second. the job opportunities are everywhere. compliance and enforcement officers. we need 31,000 of those. lawyers and office managers shouldn't feel left out. there's more than 23,000 projected legal hires and more than 17,000 office and administrative positions. while no one begrudges anyone a job, some economists, though, do worry about where they're all coming from. >> there are lots of useful purposes that government jobs can serve and that government spending can serve. but one of them is not creating wealth. the united states has to start generating private sector economic growth once again and private sector employment, otherwise the recovery will be a phony. >> reporter: the federal government, even when you exclude postal workers, is the economy's largest single employer. and those who want to work for the government, well, there's some good news. most of the jobs are not in d.c. and some 44,000 of them are in fact out of the country, lisa. >> always good to hear when someone is hiring, though. >> reporter: exactly. >> thanks, bill tucker, for that report. well, coming up, president obama is laying more political capital on the line as he plans another speech on health care legislation, despite growing opposition to his plans. we'll have the latest details on the speech and a great deal more, next. ( revving, siren blares ) there's no way to hide it. sir, have you been drinking tonight? if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested. joining me now, democratic strategist and cnn contributor hank sheinkopf. the editor of opinionjournal.com james toronto. and in washington the political editor of the "washington examiner" chris syroth. all right, gentlemen, plett ask you my first question. president obama, he is scheduled to deliver this address to congress, before congress next wednesday. who does he need to send out his message, hank in is it blue dog democrats? moderate republicans? the folks watching on tv? >> none of the people in the room. it's the folks watching on tv because they're the ones who feel angst because they don't know what the plan is. so a more specific plan that the folks back home feel better about is one that the congress will be able to get behind. >> you know, james, this president has been criticized by both sides, on both sides of the aisle of not getting in there, sitting on the sidelines too long, letting congress kind of hijack and take over the process. do you think that he needs to really step forward at this point and essentially -- i don't want to say write his own legislation, but at least give more directive to congress? >> no, i think he needs to step backward and just give up on this people talk about this as if it's a problem of salesmanship, as if -- as if it's willy lowman, and he needs to be well liked and make just a better sales pitch. the problem is not with the pitch. the problem is with the product. they're trying to sell something that the customer can't afford and has no interest in buying. >> chris. >> i think if the president can articulate this in a way that makes conservatives feel comfortable with the cost and the liberals feel comfortable with the amount of coverage, he will be able to pass it, but as james just said, that's not going to be an easy task. this would be the greatest political sales job in the history of the republic, i suppose. hank, at what point does the administration say, look, people don't want this, we just -- we're not going to push this? at what point do they stop trying to ram something through that the public doesn't want? the public does want health care reform. they don't want a plan they can't understand and don't know. sfoo instead of having a public auction be included, it would only come into effect if you don't see market reforms, if you don't see the price of health coverage coming down and the lake. what do you make of this plan? sfwoo. >> well, look, it's something that the democratic base is going to have to be sold on. it's something the president is going to have to work very hard to convince them that the trigger is a hair trigger. that if there isn't substantial reform in very short order or a substantial reduction in cost in very short order from the insurance industry, that the public option is going to surge right in and overtake the market. now, if he is successful in that pitch, he has just lost five or six senators from his party who are moderate, so, again, it's this push me, pull me that the president constantly finds himself in on this in that if he makes an argument that is convincing enough to his base for them not to revolt in the house, he always risks losing the senate. >> james. >> i just find it astonishing that we're talking about this when unemployment is pushing 10%, when there's a war in afghanistan that the president says we need to win, and he is losing support in the public and his own party for that war because he hasn't been leading on that, because he has been distracted by this health care fiasco. it's just -- there's so many more important more urgent ishsz that he needs to deal with that require the attention of the president of the united states. he needs to give this up. >> we are going to have much more with our guests next. first, a preview of what's coming up at the top of the hour wrshgs john roberts, he is filling in for campbell brown. how are you doing? >> good, lisa. good to see you tonight. tonight, is a teenage girl being brainwashed by a church or trying to escape an honor killing by converting from islam to christianity? we have the latest on this explosive custody battalions. also, jack kevorkian after eight years behind bars for an assisted suicide, does he have any regrets about helping patients take their lives. i'll ask, plus, why are some parents trying to make sure that their children won't hear president obama's address to students. i'll talk with one republican leader up in arms about that speech. a whole lot more coming up at the top of the hour. >> all right. thanks. we will have much more on wur panel right after this. ( revving, siren blares ) there's no way to hide it. sir, have you been drinking tonight? if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested. we are back with our panel. let me ask you, hank, somebody explain to me -- you know, japz was just making the point we have a $1.6 trillion deficit. there are a lot of other prirpts, afghanistan and the like. why continue to push this? i want to know why do they have to do this comprehensively? why not just break it up and do a little piece of it, expapd medicare? why do they to take on this really ambitious program now? >> the smart move would be to do this in increments and let the american public swallow this in pieces. medicare, medicare, medicine carry. he is right. >> i want to ask you -- there's this great piece out of new y k york. we talked about it, and there was an agency the internal revenue service could be in charge of shepherding and getting this plan through. explain a little bit more about this story. >> look, what myron found was there's nobody else to do the job. if you think about it, if the questions are we have to find out how much people are making, if we have to find out how good your health insurance is, do we have to find out how companies are dealing with their employees, and all of these other issues, we don't have anybody else who has the legal authority, the power, or even the bureaucratic structure necessary to do all of this work, so what happens in congress is that they determine that the irs is the fallback position for doing all of this work on health care, and the net result of that is making people rather anxious. >> although. the president likened what he would like to do with the post office. the post office will be delivering southwests, and the irs will be in charge of ens forcement. sounds great, doesn't it? >> you have to jump on in here with that, because they do have a point. you want the irs in charge of health care? take it away. >> government is trying to reorganize, beating up the president and it's not necessarily productive. >> as we move forward, you have vice president joe biden saying -- he is basic will he saying the economy is on firm footing right now, but there are a lot of things that the united states has to take care of right now. maybe the teaming on this is just not right. >> well, the timing is barack obama became president. he wants to change the world. this is a classic case of political overreach. >> all right. chris, do you want to have any final concluding thoughts? >> it's going to be very important to this administration that the stem husband is seen as having worked, but as we saw today, as the have was talking about, there's good news. consumer spending wasn't assed about as people thought it would be. unemployment is much higher than people thought it was going to be. it's, again, the situation where the administration needs credibility from the stem husband having worked, but voters, as the cnn poll showed, don't believe it yet, and it's going to take more substantial results before they agree. >> can't fix an economy that the bush administration broke over eight years in less than seven months. not fair. >> we're going to have to end there. thank you very much for joining me. and to