isn't this august, not supposed to be a lot going on. >> don't you wish one day we'd say there's nothing going on, go home. >> change the channel. a lot has to do with the economy, up first president obama talking jobs in the heartland of america. the president is in iowa this morning. no straw polls. no campaigns -- it's a campaign stop. it's a campaign-style trip through three mid western states. he'll meet with a group of farmers and small business owners today. he's been making his pitch for job growth and sounding a familiar theme that republicans are playing politics with the economy. >> the problem we have is not with our country. the problem is, that our politics is broken. [ applause ] the problem is, is that we've got the kind of partisan brinkmanship that is willing to put party ahead of country. that's more interested in seeing their political opponents lose than seeing the country win. >> well, the president was glad handing after a town hall meeting in iowa, he was confronted by tea party activists about vice president biden's terrorist comment during the debt ceiling debate. here's how this went down. >> sir, look -- >> i would like to understand that. >> i will explain it right now. he did not call you guys terrorists. >> he said we were acting like terrorists. >> no. what he said was -- for us to be willing to take the economy to the brink was irresponsible and it was. now, the truth of the matter is, considering what's said about me consistently -- >> the second person in your administration to call the right wing terrorists. janet napolitano did it first. >> no, that's -- watched out for first. >> that's true. balanced budget is reasonable. >> i didn't appreciate when this started. >> no. all he was saying was -- >> i didn't appreciate him making fun of me. >> got to win the next election. >> he wasn't objecting to the balanced budget amendment. he was objecting to almost detailsing. >> why didn't someone pass the balanced budget amendment. >> wow. >> he stayed in that for an awful long time. >> certainly did. >> sometimes on those rope lines people keep going. >> usually they move along. >> do you think the people were interested? what the president had to say? >> that's the thing about the confrontations at events like this. it used to be that it was almost all people who wanted to hear somebody they supported or learn more about somebody from their own party. now there is a lot of confrontation across party lines. >> we saw it with mitt romney's campaign the other day. a little different with the president. it's interesting. it was an ongoing discussion. it wasn't -- didn't devul v into a shout fest. no. >> but i would say the president's handlers so to speak would say he probably stuck with that too long. there's no winning. >> there wasn't. >> there isn't any winning. even if these people had a legitimate point, which i'm sure many people think they do -- >> sure. >> that wasn't going to end up with anything. >> no one was going to say you're right, i'm going to change the way it's done. >> and shake hands and kiss and make up. i don't think so. the republican candidates are returning the president's fire calling his heartland bus tour nothing more than a political campaign trip at taxpayer expense. the gop's newest entry, texas governor rick perry, he's getting plenty of face time with iowans and attacking the president at every turn. >> he's saying -- i'm saying he's got a lot of explaining to do about the economy if that's what he's out talking about. i don't think the folks of iowa are going to be real excited about unemployment rate where it is and the number of americans out of work and, you know, this president's been an abject failure when it comes to the economy. >> perry took another swipe at president obama saying soldiers would prefer someone with military experience as commander in chief and he has that. a programming note for you, wolf blitzer has an exclusive one-on-one interview with president obama. you can see it on "the situation room" at 5:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. with all the talk ability michele bachmann's -- about michele bachmann's win in iowa, tim pawlenty's exit and rick perry's entry, ron paul who finished a close second in the iowa straw poll has become sort of a forgotten man. on cnn's piers morgan last night the texas congressman addressed his absence from much of the weekend media coverage. >> my supporters are convinced they're afraid of me, they don't want my views out there, they're too dangerous, we want freedom, challenging the status quo, we want to win the war, and they're views people can't handle. they can't handle all this freedom. they want dependency and socialism and well farism. i think they don't like to hear our views. i think we'll make the best of it and do very well. i think the internet still is alive and well and programs like yours will still have me on. >> dependency, socialism and welfarism. paul's campaign team calls the lack of coverage for their candidate disappointing but not surprising. vice president joe biden about to embark on a week-long trip to asia. the vice president leaves today. he will spend most of his time in china meeting with his chinese counter part, vice president xi jinping. a man considered the likely successor to chinese president hu jintao. america's financial relationship with china is the largest foreign holder of american debt. that's expected to dominate the four days of meetings and photo ops. the chinese recently slammed the united states for its debt ceiling debacle. as the fears in the stock market subsides, stocks have started to rise. the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 have recovered all of last week's losses and then some. the three-day winning streak, the first one in a month, has been pro beld by a flurry of mergers and investors snatching up beaten down shares. the dow up more than 213 points yesterday, nearly 2%. the nasdaq and s&p 500 were also up about 2%. dramatic new video just released by police capturing the stunning violence of last week's london riots. the video shows looters running out of a clothing store. this happened last monday. you can see police chasing them down the street and then a car aiming straight for the officers, strikes two of them at high speed. one is slumped over in the street, the other collapsed near a street pillar. incredibly, though, both survived. >> go ahead. >> it's kind of remarkable to see that. we did that story a couple weeks ago about the police officer hit by a speeding car trying to get away and he gets up and runs after them. i don't know what they feed the cops in britain. >> but thank god. switching here. the hockey world mourning the loss of winnipeg jets player rick rypien. is that how you say his name? >> yeah. >> for fans and supporters of this team, they're shocked this morning. the 27-year-old forward found dead in his home in alberta, canada, early this morning. he took a leave of absence from the nhl for undisclosed personal reasons. his death is not considered, according to officials, suspicious. >> big loss. the suspect in the case of a missing woman in aruba is going to remain in police custody. a judge ordering gary giordano held for another 16 days, ruling in is enough evidence linking him to robyn gardener. gardener vanished this month. turns out clothing found in a mine during a search does not belong to her. bart is back up and running. protesters targeting san francisco's subway system. they're angry about several shootings involving bart police officers and the decision by transit officials to turn off cell phone service last week to stop demonstrators from organizing. officials were forced to close and reopen stations during the last -- during the evening rush hour last night. latino groups planning protesting in atlanta, houston, charlotte, boston and miami, upset about president obama's decision to use local police officers to enforce immigration laws. more on that as the morning continues. now your chance to talk back on one of the biggest stories of the day. the question this morning, is warren buffett's tax compromise good or just plain old politics? now that we've had a day to die gust buffet's plea to tax me more, please, it's time to ask that question. buffet is largely a twitter hero, but as far as republicans are concerned, he's a shill for president obama. buffet begs to differ. he's offering an alternative. instead of raising taxes on americans making $250,000 and up, he told charlie rose, raise taxes on the very, very rich. >> we're also in the process under taxing the very rich. what i propose incidentally would not touch the taxes of 99.7%. i'm talking about .03% of the american public. but the people from a million dollars on up, i think should be asked to share in a little bit of the sacrifice we're all being asked to share in. >> president obama embraced the idea. republicans did not. senator john cornyn tweeted for tax raising advocates like warren buffett i am sure treasury would take a voluntary payment for deficit reduction. hey mr. buffet, send the u.s. treasury a check. blogs fired back. the red dog said -- >> never mind that polls show most americans favor taxing the rich and many economists say spending cuts alone will not solve our debt woes. the talk back question today, is warren buffett's tax compromise a good idea or just politics? facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your comments later this hour. mega rich people watching us, we would love to hear from you too. >> have your people send us an e-mail. >> have your people send us. coming up ahead on "american morning," the battle for libya is escalating with gadhafi forces reportedly using a weapon they have never used before. we're live in tripoli with the latest on that. then a flash mob in action. an attack on a 7-eleven, 30 robbers working in sync. the stunning surveillance video just ahead. some unexpected thrills at the fair. 60 feet in the air. how this situation turned out ahead on thing this "american morning." releases armiesol technoloy of snowmen masseuse, who cuddle up with your soreness and give out polar bear hugs. technology. [ male announcer ] new bengay cold therapy. the same technology used by physical therapists. go to bengay.com for a 5-dollar coupon. [♪...] >> male announcer: now, for a limited time, your companion flies free, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. conditions apply.. this flash mob thing is really becoming intriguing. a flash mob in action in maryland caught on the surveillance tape. take a look. police say about 30 people walked into a german town 7-eleven early saturday morning, raiding the aisles, grabbing drinks and snacks, lasted about a minute before the thieves left as a group. police say they've been able to identify some of the suspects because you can see them, not wearing hoodies or anything. >> duh. >> and it was -- they say it was organized as a flash mob where people texted and arranged to be at this place. grabbing stuff walking out of the store. >> no one said criminals were smart. lots of extraordinary video to look at. home security video of a car smashing through a miami home. it happened last night. the homeowner said the out-of-control car drove straight through his son's bedroom wall as he was getting ready to go to sleep. amazingly enough, no one was hurt, but plenty of damage there. three men in the car got out of the car and ran away on foot. police were able to catch two of them. >> you don't think of that as a dangerous thing to do, getting ready to get into bed. >> running away from the car, wonder if it wasn't maybe their car. >> one wonders. christine speaking the unspoken. >> if it's not your car, don't run it into somebody's house and you is a better chance. a ride at the iowa state fair malfunctioning stranding two riders for about two hours. it happened on the ejection seat yesterday. the brother and sister were rescued by the fire department. they were a little sun burned but okay. apparently a big crowd around them and the first crowd around the ejection seat, not the election seat. >> there you go. >> at the iowa state fair. until then all the crowds have been around politics. >> i wouldn't be on that ride in the first place. i don't like to be high up unless i come down fast in a roller coaster. but that would freak me out. >> me too. >> i wonder. i can't imagine i'd enjoy it. oh well. >> let's try it some time. >> suspend me 60 feet in the air and keep me there for hours. >> just have a little fried twinkie. >> give me a little fried food and i can get through most things. >> send these kids to school. they're sitting in the ejection seat, pull the ejection handle. >> parachutes would come out, that would be fun. >> isn't that what the ride is about. >> it's just an expression. >> just a name. heavy rainfall across parts of the northeast yesterday. take a look at the video and we'll run through some of the numbers. derby, connecticut where the water at times was waist high and knee high and flooded the post road and some homes and businesses around that area. and same deal across the sound, hemp sted, long island, where they saw tremendous amount of rain after the record-setting foot of rainfalled a lido beach the day before. saturated soil on more rain that came down yesterday and we'll see more of that today unfortunately. some of the numbers, willow, new york, seeing almost 6 1/2 inches of rale and then go further up into new england, concord, new hampshire, seeing a record for 24 hours, 2.19, and then month peel yar, vermont, two inches of rainfall. here it is, swirl rotating on the backside is rainfall. this is generally light but it will keep things on the dreary and cool side. and wet, of course. and now we'll call some delays because of the low clouds and visibility across new york and boston. severe weather across the northern plains again. bismarck, north dakota, nice across the southeast and fairly comfortable temperatures compared to what we have seen with the exception of northern texas which continues to see the heat there. gert did not become a hurricane. it continues to move off to sea and into the northern shipping lanes. we are watching this next item of concern moving into the eastern caribbean. won't develop any time too soon but will drift into the western caribbean and then we've got something to worry about. we'll keep an eye on it. back up to you. >> thank you. we'll check in with you later. two powerful intellectual forces came together on cable television last night, in case you policed it ali a guest on "the daily show" with jon stewart breaking down the economy, congress, a pair of enlightened mind to find a cure of what ales america. >> barometer of how investors around the world feel about the way things are going and that's the stuff you've seen over the last few weeks. >> it's more of a mood ring. >> yeah. >> your job and the idea that you will earn and continue to earn is the most important. so the stock market is not the most important thing, the debt ceiling is not the most important thing, employment or unemployment we have now is the most important thing. that's what you feel good or bad about. >> people have continue -- this government can't influence anything because nobody trusts government right now. >> it's very interesting, ali velshi. you know -- >> [ applause ] >> if we were to do these things, it is as though we would have a functioning infrastructure in the country again. >> yep. >> very interesting. i will pass your words on. ali velshi. >> i want to know what happened, like take us through it, like what was it like back stage and when you came out? >> you know, he came to visit me in the green room which i believe he visits everybody. >> is it green, the room? >> that's where you go before you wait. >> i don't know that it's green. >> you were nervous? >> you know, you never know where these things are going to go with jon stewart. you think it's going to go a certain way. he's very friendly. he's legitimately curious about these things and his audience is. it was a good conversation. >> he knows more about the economy and stocks than he lets on. he's very smart about this stuff. >> whatever. i want to know dirt. when you looked out on to the audience could you see faces? >> you could see faces. there was lots of food and drink in the green room. halloween candies, chocolates. i must have had nine or ten of those and a lot of diet coke. they did actually have -- they had red bull but i thought that might be -- >> a little much. ali velshi on red bull. >> not something you want to do at night. very friendly crowd, audience. it was a great conversation. >> how much of the interview aired on "the jon stewart show" and how much did they cut out? >> everything we did. there was more to it than what you saw but it all got on tv. he has good tight questions. everybody is concerned, what does the stock market mean and what's going to happen. the questions he asks are the ones, that's the beauty of jon stewart -- >> he asks the questions on everybody's mind. >> here's the thing, it's reasonable people don't have control over the debate right now and -- or in control of the stock market or economy right now. >> yeah. >> still to come on "american morning," gunmen storm the home of an american in pakistan. he disappears along with his captors. who is he and do investigators have any leads? we're live in islamabad. [ male announcer ] get ready for the left lane. the volkswagen autobahn for all event is back. right now, get a great deal on new volkswagen models, including the jetta, awarded a top safety pick by the iihs. that's the power of german engineering. hurry in and lease the jetta s for just $179 a month. ♪ visit vwdealer.com today. with aveeno nourish plus moisturize. active naturals wheat formulas target and help repair damage in just 3 washes. for softer, stronger... ... hair with life. [ female announcer ] nourish plus. only from aveeno. ♪ for a snack like you ♪ to come into my life [ female announcer ] lean cuisine has snacks! like creamy cheesy spinach artichoke dip with warm pita. new from lean cuisine®. the eagle flies at dawn. the monkey eats custard. price-line ne-go-ti-a-tor. so, you've been double crossed by other travel sites and now you want to try the real deal. yes, is it true that name your own price... ...got even easier? affirmative. we'll show you other people's winning hotel bids. so i'll know how much to bid... ...and save up to 60% i'm in i know the lady in leather travels on three wheels. wait, is that code? that's my secret weapon... ...naomi pryce see winning hotel bids now at priceline. with two children and no way to support them. people told me i wasn't going to do anything. and i just decided i have more to offer than that. i put myself through nursing school, and then i decided to go get a doctorate degree. university of phoenix gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people's lives. my name is dr. kimberly horton. i manage a network of over a thousand nurses, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] find your program at phoenix.edu. 25 minutes after the hour. minding your business this morning, u.s. stock futures indicate stocks could trade lower at today's open. that after merger monday. a rally that recovered most of last week's losses and some. european markets are trading much lower this morning. losses of 2% or more in germany and france and the culprit there is germany, europe's largest economy stalled in the second quarter according to new estimates out today. germany's gdp, the broadest measure of all goods and services produced in any one economy grew by 0.1% for that period. that's cause for concern in both europe and the united states. in the meantime household debt here in the united states is trending lower. the federal reserve bank of new york reports that consumer debt fell by $50 billion in the second quarter. now the world's biggest retailer walmart, might be losing its edge on lower prices, at least that's what many shoppers believe. a recent survey by retail consultants show that the big box chains image as the low price leader has suffered since the recession because some shoppers are finding cheaper deals with competitors. massarotti, the ultraluxury italian car maker recalling cars in the u.s. to fix a problem with the rear suspension. 800 sedans and coups for model year 2009 are part of the recall accounting for almost 60% of the 2009 massarottis on the road right now in the united states. finally hong kong based cafe pacific airways is delaying its advertising campaign. the reason is a racy video of airline staff allegedly covortsing with each other on company aircraft which has surfaced on the internet. apparently the airline has concerns its slogan "meet the team that goes the extra mile" could be inappropriate in light of that video. "american morning" right back after this short break. [ man ] this is my robot butler. say i'm missing england... i type in e-n-g and he gives me a variety of options. would you like to have a look at a map, my lad? ah, why not? should we check on the status of your knighthood? yes. again? yes, again! please. thank you! with my digital manservant, i'll never be homesick again. would you like me to put the kettle on, sir? no! i'd like you to get rid of that ostrich. it's been here a month. [ male announcer ] the new hp touchpad starting at $399.99. ♪ while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. you know, the ones find are a who do a super job?n. superpages.com®. for local maps, reviews and videos & it's the only local search site with the superguarantee®. so next time, let the good guys save the day. get the superguarantee®, only at superpages®. in the book, on your phone or at superpages.com®. happy tuesday to you. good morning. it's 30 minutes past the hour. time for a check of this morning's top story. looking like a man in full campaign mode, president obama continues his trip across the heartland. he'll be in iowa today talking about jobs and the economy. the white house says it's official business but republican says taxpayers should not be paying for it. >> texas governor rick perry on his first campaign swing through iowa launching a charm offensive an attacking president obama. perry called the president's management of the economy an experiment that's gone, quote, tragically wrong. the suspect in the case of a missing american woman in aruba will remain in police custody. a judge ordering gary giordano held for another 16 days ruling there is enough evidence linking him to robyn gardener. she vanished earlier this month after traveling with him to aru aruba. there is a mystery unfolding in pakistan this morning. an american snatched from his home by gunmen early saturday morning. right now there is no claim of responsibility, no demands for his release, and police reportedly have no leads. re reza sayah is live in islamabad. do we know who this man is? >> we know a little bit about him, carol. a long-time expert in the field of development. he's been in this region in pakistan for a very long time. he's 60-something. one report that says he's 70 years old. works for a development company based out of virginia called j.e. austin. a lot of development companies in pakistan and in this region doing important work like social development, economic development, creating jobs. that's what he was doing here. obviously his family desperately wants to know where he is and if he's okay, but unfortunately, neither the u.s. embassy here in islamabad nor pakistani police seem to have much information about his condition and whereabouts. the only bit of new information we have is that police say they've detained his three security guards and driver at the house the night he was kidnapped but they point out they only have them for questioning, that they're not being suspected in this kidnapping and in pakistan, the law says you can detain someone for up to 72 hours for questioning without charging him. now the 72-hour window has just passed and they're still in detention, not clear why. weinstein was kidnapped early saturday morning around 3:00 a.m. still a lot of mystery surrounding his whereabouts and what happened, carol. >> so the relationship between the u.s. and pakistan isn't exactly warm and cuddly. how will that impact the investigation? >> no. well, it's not clear at this point. ideally when something like this happens you want the two governments to be getting along, of course, islamabad and washington haven't been getting along. the relationship has been deteriorating ever since the raid on the bin laden compound. the two countries adding pressure to one another. if there is any indication that pakistan is not putting an earnest effort in finding weinstein, i think that there's going to be problems. but at this point, there is no indication that they're pot putting a full effort and finding him. we should note in the past where there's been kidnappings in pakistan, the government in islamabad have worked well with international governments in finding out what happened to the kidnapping. usually criminal gangs looking for money. >> live in islamabad this morning, thank you. the fbi questioning 50-year-old paul douglas peters in kentucky. they say he's the one that strapped a fake bomb around a girl's neck in australia earlier this month as part of an extortion plot. peters is reportedly an australian native who travels to america regularly on business. it's not clear what connection, if any, to the girl's family. nearly 21 hours alone in the wilderness in utah. jared reunited with his parents on saturday. nearly one day after becoming separated from his troop during a scout outing in the ashley national forest. search crews came across the lost boy who built his own shelter. jared covered himself in dirt to keep warm when the temperatures dropped into the 30s. >> just like to say thank you for all their help that they gave. i was just glad i got here and they could hear me. >> i'm happier than i think i've ever been because i was probably as scared as i'd ever been. it's wonderful. >> good news is, jared is doing okay. no word yet on what kind of badge his parents get for enduring that experience. >> good for him, though. that's incredible. something else incredible, another scale, world of sport, minnesota twins slugger jim thome hitting one into the record books. he belted his 600th career home run against my detroit tigers last night. the two-run shot coming in the seventh inning. he hit number 599 an inning before. the 40-year-old thome becomes the eighth major leaguer to join the 600 home run club. only babe ruth did it in fewer at-bats. detroit tiger fans, they gave him a standing ovation. >> sure. they're a classy bunch. >> absolutely. >> if history is made you know in your home stadium, it's all right. >> jim thome is a great guy. he's great guy. humble. >> and pretty accomplished baseball player too. >> good he did it at 40. makes me happy. >> yeah. >> still to come, a garbage dump off the runway at new york's laguardia airport, could it pose a danger to flyers? >> kate goslin ponders life after reality tv. everything you wanted to know about kate goslin on this "american morning." sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. welcome back. the fighting in libya could soon reach tripoli. rebel fighters reportedly made advances to the capital. take a look at this. this is amateur video of rebel forces firing a missile along a highway in al zawiya. matthew chance joins us live from tripoli via skype. good morning, matthew. >> good morning to you as well. that's right. the rebels apparently taking much control of that very important town, zawiya, to the west of tripoli, effectively completing a sort of strangle hold around the libyan capital. it's going to make it difficult for things to get in and out of tripoli, put additional pressure on the regime of colonel gadhafi. outwardly that regime is being defiant. colonel gadhafi spoken to thousands of supporters in the center of tripoli over the last 24 hours, telling them to be ready to fight and, you know, even though there have been some signs the regime has taken some blows seems at the moment there's some digging in and waiting for the long haul, christine. >> matthew, we're hearing from u.s. defense officials that troops loyal to gadhafi fired a scud missile for the first time in this uprising. >> yeah. it's quite omni muss development. some could interpret that as a sign of desperation, perhaps. the scud missile which was fired to the east of the capital from a place called sert into a place called bray deya, an oil city, missed its target by about 50 miles or so, didn't injure anybody, but the fact is, that colonel gadhafi's troops have hundreds of these scud missiles and a range of about 200 miles or so, so if they do start using them, it could sort of change the face of the battle a little bit and make rebel positions that were previously felt to be safe, sort of a bit more in jeopardy. something of concern. >> all right. matthew chance, thank you so much, matthew. live in tripoli for us. back here in the united states, sanitation facility is being built off the runway at new york's laguardia airport. some people say that could put air travelers at risk because where there's garbage, there are birds and often lots of them. here's cnn's allan chernoff. >> reporter: it was a bird strike, geese sucked into the engines that caused captain sully sullenberger's emergency landing on the hudson river just after taking off from laguardia airport two years ago. large bird cans be hazardous to jet planes. even so, new york's borough of queens, construction is on a giant facility near laguardia that could attract flocks of birds. the idea is all the trash from queens would be brought to this marine transfer station where it would be shipped out of state by barge. problem is, one of laguardia's runways is only 2200 feet away. and the barges would come even closer. and if there's one thing that birds like, it's trash. >> this is a colossally stupid idea to locate a city garbage transfer station on the edge of an airport runway. >> reporter: opponents of the trash transfer site claim the federal aviation administration quietly is shortened its runway zone at the city's request to allow the project to move forward. a source with knowledge of the situation says, in fact, faa never changed its runway protection zone around laguardia. faa told cnn, the planned marine transfer station near laguardia airport is not located inside the runway protection zone at the airport. faa's parent the department of transportation, had an independent technical panel review the sanitation department's plan which will enclose the facility and have barges of garbage sealed to limit their attraction to birds. the panel gave a thumb's up to the trash center. >> the faa thinks it's safe and they're the professionals. >> reporter: as construction continues, the dispute is the subject of two lawsuits in federal and new york state court. allan chernoff, cnn, new york. elvis fans gathering at graceland to remember the king. a vigil held early this morning off presley's grave to mark the 34th anniversary of his death. elvis died in his memphis, tennessee, mansion on this day back in 1977. >> i remember it well. >> me too. i remember -- >> sad day. >> who's elvis? that's what i said. >> right. >> little young. >> the young elvis or old -- >> i know you remember kiss. >> i do. the rock band joining the lineup for the michael jackson tribute concert in wales in october. that has many jackson fans upset. kiss frontman gene simmons made some negative comments about the late pop star back in 2009. some jackson supporters say they won't be going to the concert. all right. say it ain't so, tlc canceled "kate plus 8" featuring kate gosselin and her broad of eight children. the show began as "john and kate plus 8" and then more of its current form after their divorce. the show's final episode will air september 12th. what will you do with that time? >> i can think of a few things. it's 44 minutes past the hour. we'll check the day's top sto stories straight ahead. a new texan in town, rick perry, tossing his stetson into the race, prompting jeanne moos to ask, have we seen this act before? it's 44 minutes after the hour. hi. i'm steven young and i play glen on "the walking dead," amc's zombie show. and this is my trailer. we're at base camp on our set and this is where i spend most of my time. when you're traveling and going to be there for a long while it is important to make where you're at home. my guitar has always made it feel like home because i always have something to tinker with. i have this program called sleep cycle and it wakes you up within a 30-minute window based on how much movement you have on your bed because it determines whether you're in deep sleep so you don't wake up groggy. for me there are times when we get into remote locations. when you don't have internet books are great to get away, especially when you're doing something like "the walking dead" and you just sliced a zombie in half. those are my travel tips for when you're traveling or fighting zombies. bye. also get a free flight. you know that comes with a private island. really? no. it comes with a hat. you see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but... [ man ] there's never any seats for 25,000 miles. frustrating, isn't it? but that won't happen with the capital one venture card. you can book any airline anytime. hey, i just said that. after all, isn't traveling hard enough? ow. [ male announcer ] to get the flights you want, sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? uh, it's okay. i've played a pilot before. discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, when you don't have internet ou aveeno tinted moisturizers. books are great to get away, it's 47 minutes past the hour. here's what you need to know to start your day. day two of president obama's heartland bus tour. he'll be in iowa talking to farmers and small business owners about his plans for putting american back to work. his trip which began in minnesota wraps up in illinois tomorrow. and texas governor rick perry continues his swing through iowa. perry will hold an economic round table in debuke. he says the greatest threat to the economy has been president obama's management of it. the lawyers for james arthur ray plan to ask for a new trial today. they say the prosecution didn't turn over all the evidence in the first round. ray was found guilty of negligent homicide in june for the death of three guests at his arizona sweat lodge. after gunfire last week between north and south korea, u.s. and south korean troops are conducting a military exercise near seoul this morning. it's expected to last ten days, seven other nations are also participating. vice president joe biden leaves today for a week-long trip to asia. he'll visit china, mongolia and japan and spend most of his time in beijing where he'll discuss america's finances with china's top lead years the dow rallying 214 points yesterday, the nasdaq and s&p 500 were up about 2% each. u.s. stock futures this morning are down on growth concerns in europe. get ready for "austin powers 4." reports say mike myers will sign on to play the secret agent one more time. myers is expected to produce, write and star in the new sequel. the three films in the "austin powers" franchise grossed nearly $700 million worldwide. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" back right after this. okay. talk back question of the day. time for your responses. we asked you this question. you heard about billionaire investor warren buffett, he said tax me, please, tax me, tax me. does warren buffett have a good idea or just playing politics? you responded in force. from mike, it's a shame this is something that needs to be debated. the more you get out of the system the more you should be giving back to it. >> this from skip -- this from brian -- i think it's even lower than that, isn't it? paying taxes. i don't get it. it's not your money and will never trickle down to you. what a joke. in case you're wondering f you did tax people making over a million dollar a year, if lawmakers added a 50% tax rate to taxable income of over a million dollars, it could raise an extra $34 billion, and over ten years about $340 billion. >> and we're running a deficit of 1.4 to $1.6 trillion. >> it's not actually just -- it's good to know. not the answer to our problems. maybe an answer. but it won't deal with it. >> people who oppose higher taxes what they see is the slippery slope in washington, when you raise somebody's taxes you raise everybody's taxes and they say, when you look at a number like that, $34 billion, they don't see how the rest of us are going to escape without sig ant can'tly higher taxes and lower services. the real truth no one will say everyone's taxes are going up, services down and the standard of living has to shrink to pay for what we've spent and no way around it. >> the lowest tax rate in this country since the clinton years, right? >> yeah. >> something like that. there's this conception we're very heavily taxed. not necessarily true. corporate taxes are lower in other countries, no question about that. the problem is we've not seen lower corporate taxes result in job creation. there's this whole -- a whole bunch of moving puzzle parts that lead you to believe when people say, if you do x, it results in y in the economy, that we don't know it to be true anymore. >> you mentioned politics. >> then take politics and the moving parts. >> get a little more complicated. >> keep your comments coming. facebook.com/americanmorning. we'll read more of your thoughts later. last time a governor of texas ran for president, you know what happened. >> now that rick perry has jumped into the republican race he's being compared to president george w. bush. some have described him as, i can't believe this, w2. here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: he came toting a fried pork chop, a corn dog, and an egg on a stick. a new texan in town, swigging water like it's mouth wash, with his leg on a bale of hey, spouting yal. >> reporter: dropping his gs. >> messin' and ranchin' people. >> reporter: we're thinking that texas talk sounds familiar. >> dag gone it i was looking forward to getting out there. >> reporter: some critics are saying rick perry is the mere image of another famous texas politician. >> what? >> reporter: the "new york daily news" concocted a photo illustration showing perry looking into the mirror and george w. bush squinting back out. the accompanying column called perry w2 with much better hair. hair by the way that's looked pretty much the same since his days in the corps of cadets at texas a&m university. in his first presidential campaign video. >> he wore the uniform of our country as an air force captain. >> reporter: he reminds us of president bush in a flight suit on a farm. >> we're not all carbon copies in texas. >> reporter: no less than authority than bill clinton said of him. >> he's a good looking ras call. >> reporter: he declined to say, adding that's why it's called concealed. he sure doesn't conceal his touchy-feely side. in a typical encounter he put his arm around an iowa voter and proceeded to pat and slap and squeeze her before giving a final good-bye tap. he loves to tossle the hair of kids. colin not only got his hair must, he got his cheeks rubbed. even a cnn producer got the cheek treatment. >> governor what are your thoughts about what appears to be -- >> back in. >> a photographer got a leg pat. he's got that down home charm you know who had. remember all that winking. president bush winked at queen elizabeth. don't blink or you'll miss rick perry's wink. and guess how perry pronounces this. >> i am a supporter of nuclear energy. >> reporter: they both support nuclear pronunciation. >> nuclear weapons program. >> reporter: rick perry winks while he drinks. jeanne moos, cnn. new york. >> okay. your top stories next, including an american woman missing in aruba. we'll tell you if there's enough evidence to keep the suspect in her disappearance behind bars. it's about 56 minutes after the hour. that one day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! [ male announcer ] chevrolet is honored to celebrate the unveiling of the washington, d.c., martin luther king jr. memorial. take your seat at the table on august 28th. it's pro-cool technology releases armies of snowmen masseuse, who cuddle up with your soreness and give out polar bear hugs. technology. [ male announcer ] new bengay cold therapy. the same technology used by physical therapists. go to bengay.com for a 5-dollar coupon. yeah. 24 bucks later. that hurts. it's not like i really had a choice. snack on this. progressive's "name your price" tool showed me a range of coverages and i picked the one that worked for me. i saved hundreds. wow, that's dinner and a movie. [ dramatic soundtrack plays ] this picture stars you and savings. but mostly savings. out there with a better way. now, that's progressive. an american woman missing in aruba, the prime suspect now in prison. a live report from that caribbean island ahead. and on the road in middle america, president obama on the attack against the gop. this morning the president looking to connect with angry voters in iowa. illinois elementary school doing its part to fight childhood obesity. healthy choices are the new normal. dr. sanjay gupta with a special report just ahead. a restaurant in new orleans serving up hope to inner city kids. the inspiring story of a young man who beat the odds and the woman who gave him a chance on this "american morning." good morning. it is tuesday, august 16th. welcome to "american morning." >> four days until friday, baby. good morning to you. we begin with new developments in the case of a missing american woman in aruba. the prime suspect now being held for at least 16 more days. a judge ruling there is enough evidence linking gary giordano to robyn gardener. she vanished earlier this month. cnn's martin savidge joins us live from aruba with the latest. how long are they holding this man? >> reporter: well, as you point out, it's going to be 16 days. it was exactly two weeks ago today that 35-year-old robyn gardener of maryland went missing and according to her traveling companion, the man who's now in custody, gary giordano, she disappeared as a result of a snorkeling adventure they were on on a beach not far away from the one we're standing here. yesterday gary giordano had to go before a judge and the judge had a simple determination, keep him or let him go, let him travel back to the united states. his defense attorney said look there's no evidence here. you haven't charged him with any crime and even though she's missing it only means mr. giordano was witness to a horrible accident, nothing more to suggest it was any different. the prosecution sees it vastly different than that. they say look, he's not been cooperating, we have a woman who's missing, potentially extremely serious and we've got the help of the fbi. the end result, they decided to skip just the eight-day extension went all the way to doubling that to 16 days now. does it sound like a lot, but to the prosecution that is huge. it buys them more time to make a case, if there is a case to be made. carol? >> i guess what i meant to ask you, how long can they hold this man and also, is the natalee holloway case impacting this case? >> most definitely. there is no question here that the shadow of the natalee holloway case hangs heavy over aruba. after that case had a strong impact, a downturn on tourism. they do not want to see that happen again. they don't want to have happen with what happened with natalee holloway. in other words there was no end result. we never found out what happened to natalee and never anybody who was prosecuted. the concern is na with robyn gardener again vanishing that would have no resolution, a cloud of suspicion hangs over the island, which is why they're going aggressively. he'll have to go before a judge after that, it could be an additional 60 days. but the bar of evidence that they will have to provide to get that will be much higher. carol? >> martin savidge, live in aruba, thank you. to politics and the next stop on president obama's heartland bus tour. he will be talking jobs with farmers and small business owners of rural iowa today and no doubt taking more shots at republicans. he's been accusing them of playing politics with the economy. >> there is no shortage of ideas to put people to work right now. what is needed is action on the part of congress. a willingness to put the partisan games aside and say we're going to do what's right for the country, not what we think is going to score us some political points for the next election. cnn's brianna keilar joins us live from peosta, iowa. good morning, brianna. >> good morning, christine. we're here in peosta, iowa, the single stop for president obama today for this rural economic forum. we're at northeastern iowa community college. this is really the anchor of his three-day bus tour. this is an event that the white house committed to months ago and they built the bus tour around it. and he'll be talking today with people in this community about some of the things they've been doing. it's interesting, if you look at the counties the president is going to on this bus tour, they have much better unemployment rates that the national average which is 9.1%. looking at the counties, the five stops he'll be making over these three days, they have unemployment rates between 4.8% and in the high 6s. one of the things the white house says they want to do is get a sense of what's working in these areas that maybe they could use in other parts around the country. but also, rural areas, very important as you know, christine, a place where democrats did very poorly in the 2011 midterm elections and so certainly they're hoping to make some strides coming into the presidential election. >> we know that iowa can swing in either way for a president over years. it has. it's an important place for an incumbent president to be, especially as the other party is spending so much time there in iowa, straw poll and the like. the president with a heated exchange with a member of the iowa tea party. i want to listen to that with you. >> so you caught up with that man shortly after the event. what did he say? >> yeah. christine, he isn't just a member of the iowa tea party, that's ryan rhodes, the founder of the iowa tea party and he went to this event yesterday in decorah, iowa, asking the president about some language that it was reported vice president biden had used behind closed doors, talking to rhodes just generally speaking, someone who's very frustrated with president obama, frustrated with washington in general. he actually spoke to president obama after the town hall and here's how he described their exchange. >> i think he wanted to hear what i had to say and so he stated that i didn't want to hear what he had to say. he kept saying, my vice president didn't say that. but it's been on the news everywhere he absolutely said it. >> reporter: so ultimately it sounds like and certainly we didn't get the president's point of view the gentlemen sort of agreed to disagree. this language that has been used by some democrats where you've heard hostage taking i think you heard president obama use the term brinksmanship but this language like hostage taking has been frustrating to the tea party and that's why mr. rhodes really, obviously, wanted to go and kind of raise certainly raise the issue in a public way he knew would get attention. >> brianna, forgive me, clear it up for me, the vice president did or did not say or use the word "terrorist" to describe tea party tactics? >> this is what's interesting, because it was used beyond -- it was used behind closed doors so the reporting is about what he said behind closed doors. actually some of the clearest indication that we got was what president obama said where he said, he didn't call you hostages. he was talking about sort of a change in semantics. i think it's kind of difficult exactly to tell exactly how it went down. we don't have it on camera. i think the general take away from this is that obviously this is language you've heard democrats use, terribly frustrated with that debt ceiling battle, christine, and we have heard from many people this use of hostage taking and to a lesser -- not to a lesser degree but sort of lesser language of brinksmanship and a lot of frustration from some republicans and certainly tea party republicans about that they've been in their opinion sort of lumped in with terrorists and so they're very upset about it. >> brianna keilar, thanks so much. catch wolf blitzer's exclusive one-on-one interview with president obama today, going to air on "the situation room" at 5:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. coming up in our next hour, the former iowa governor, now agriculture secretary, tom vilsack is a big supporter of the president's move through his home state, obviously. he's only been in the republican presidential race for a few days but texas governor rick perry is making up for lost time, in full campaign mode. during a swing through iowa at a visit through the state fair, perry kissed off criticism from gop rival mitt romney. >> romney took a swipe at you today saying that he has private sector experience and that makes him better equal tied to great jobs -- qualified to create jobs. >> give him my love. >> what do you think about that? >> i think oranges and apples. running a state is different from running a business. >> he will make that a centerpiece of his campaign -- >> what i would say is take a look at his record when he was governor and look at my record when i'm governor and then you got some apples to apples. >> governor perry plans to hold an economic roundtable today in debuke. >> is that how you say it. >> that's the french version. >> you wouldn't say long "u." >> it was funny. thanks for the laugh. now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. the question this morning, is warren buffett's tax compromise good or just plain politics? now that we've had a day to digest buffet's plea to tax me, please, it's time to ask that question. buffet is largely a fwitser hero this morning but as far as republicans are concerned he's a shill for president obama. buffet blames to differ. instead of raising taxes on americans making $250,000 above he told charlie rose raise taxes on the very, very rich. >> we're also in the process under taxing the very rich. what i propose incidentally would not touch the taxes of 99.7%. i'm talking about .03% of the american public. the people from a million dollars on up i think should be asked to share in a little sacrifice we're all being asked to share in. >> president obama has embraced the idea of republicans not so much. senator john cornyn tweeted -- hey mr. buffet, send the u.s. treasury a $5 million check. conservative blogs fired back. the red dog report said -- >> never mind polls show most americans favor taxing the rich more and many economists say spending cuts alone will not solve our debt woes. the talk back question today, is warren buffett's tax compromise good or is it just politics? facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read some of your comments later this hour. >> how are the multimillion airs weighing in this morning? >> i didn't get any on facebook. i'm still waiting. vice president joe biden leaving today on a week-long trip to asia. he'll spend most of his time in china meeting with his counterpart there, vice president xi jinping and this is a man considered most likely to be the successor to chinese president hu jintao. america's financial relationship with china expected to dominate those four days of meetings. the chinese just scolded the u.s. for the debt ceiling debacle. we'll see what goes on there. the indiana state fair open again this morning, two days after heavy winds brought down a stage on to a crowd of concertgoers. five people were killed, a memorial service was held yesterday. audience members observed a moment of silence and sang "amazing grace." an international manhunt may be over. paul douglas peters arrested in kentucky for allegedly strapping a fake bomb around a girl's neck in australia earlier this month. they said he was trying to extort money her wealthy parents. it's unclear what connection he might have to the girl's family. california's bay area transit system is fully operational this morning. protesters swarmed bart stations yesterday furious over several shootings involving transit police. they were also retaliating against bart's decision last week to turn off cell phone service to stop protesters from organizing. officials had to close and reopen stations during the evening rush last night. elvis fans are gathering to remember the king on the 34th anniversary of his death. candlelight vigil held at grace land. presley died in his memphis, tennessee, mansion on this day back in 1977. still to come this morning the battle for libya escalates, gadhafi forces reportedly using a weapon they haven't used before. we're live in tripoli just ahead. a flash mob in action, an attack on a 7-eleven. 30 robbers you can see them here, working in sync. the stunning surveillance video just ahead. a recipe for success. how one new orleans restaurant gives inner city kids an extra helping of hope. you are watching "american morning." it's 12 minutes past the hour. i'm robert shapiro. over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. what's vanishing deductible all about ? guys, it's demonstration time. let's blow carl's mind. okay, let's say i'm your insurance deductible. every year you don't have an accident, $100 vanishes. the next year, another $100. where am i going, carl ? the next year... that was weird. but awesome ! ♪ nationwide is on your side welcome back to "american morning." libyan rebels may be in their strongest position yet against moammar gadhafi's forces. take a look at this amateur video of opposing forces firing a missile along a highway in zawiya. they are trying to isolate gadhafi's stronghold by cutting off a major supply route to tripoli. matthew chance joins us live from the libyan capital via skype. good morning, matthew. what is the latest? >> well, as far as we understand it's very difficult for us to get up to the place where the fighting is taking place to verify the situation, but it seemed that the rebels are in pretty good position in zawiya, the important strategic town to the west of tripoli. it's important because it cuts off the main entry points into tripoli from the west and essentially along with the other advances the rebels have made in the south -- to the south of tripoli and to the east of tripoli as well, essentially puts the libyan capital in a rebel stranglehold. that could have an enormous impact on the ability of the gadhafi regime to survive separately. there's been a new development, a military development. it's been reported by the u.s. officials who have been launching a situation from navy ships off the mediterranean na gadhafi officials fired a scud missile from a place called sert into brega, the first time that colonel gadhafi's forces have used these ballistic missiles in this civil war so far and could mean an ominous development that they're prepared to deploy these very heavy weapons against the rebel fighters. on this occasion it missed its target by some 50 miles. they're apparently difficult to target and to aim. but nevertheless, it's of some concern to the rebel forces that have made huge gains in the east country and elsewhere. >> matthew, we remember from the gulf war how inaccurate and clumsy they can be. the bottom line, what does this mean? when you say it could signal an escalation, willingness of gadhafi's forces to use that kind of heavy weaponry, they have a lot more in the way of heavy weaponry? is that the kind of thing if they chose to escalate it would change the direction of the sort of stalemated battle? >> well, it's not clear. first of all, the scud missiles take about an hour to deploy and because of that, they're very cumbersome, they can easily be spotted by the nato war planes that are, you know, constantly on surveillance missions, striking these kind of military hardwares of the gadhafi forces. it's going to be quite difficult for gadhafi it use these kinds of weapons and they are inaccurate. you're right, colonel gadhafi does have an arsenal of perhaps 200, 300 of these weapons he bought from the soviets back in the 1970s. fortunately back in 2003, you may remember, the kind of chemical weapons and the unconventional warheads that gadhafi was developing were surrendered by the libyan regime in exchange for international recognition. he doesn't have those. he has the conventional warheads on top of them. they have a range of 200 miles or so. potentially if they are used in any greater numbers it could cut the kind of rebel advances they've made in areas they thought were safe, it could put them under jeopardy. >> matthew, thanks very much for that reporting. matthew chance joining us from tripoli. let's talk about the weather because rob marciano, it has been raining and raining and raining and raining here in new york. it's going to rain again. >> exactly. just today, though. ten tomorrow you will have a dry day and then back in. a lot of people need the rain. you know, it's not a bad thing. >> okay. i know. i was being selfish. i'm sorry. >> here it is. as carol mentioned, we do have more rainfall coming into new york, spiraling around a low that's been very slow to move out to sea. scranton back through binghamton and albany through the thruway into new york city. most of this is light. you've seen a tremendous amount of rainfall and some of this heavy yesterday, over 6.5 inches of rainfall and then parts of upstate and northern new england, seeing a decent amount of rainfall as well. even to the south, baltimore, a torrential downpour in the day yesterday. they had to shut down amtrak because the rails flooded quickly. obviously some trucks and some secondary roadways seeing flooding across baltimore. you will see less in the way of rain. philadelphia may see afternoon thunderstorms that may slow down air travel. travel delays today, new york city, metro airports, boston as well, leftover showers and low clouds will lower visibility and that may limit some of the travel in and out of the airports there. thunderstorms across the northern tier again. we saw heavy thunderstorms with rain and winds gusting to 70 miles an hour in bismarck, north dakota. hot across texas and the southeast seeing more in the way of comfortable weather. here is gert, tropical storm continuing to move out to sea, did not become a hurricane. that is a record. the latest we've been in the hurricane season with only seeing tropical storms. this got some potential moving into the eastern caribbean. nothing now. probably won't be anything for a couple days. as it gets into the western caribbean, something that bears watching for folks that live in and around the gulf of mexico. all the rainfall that carol has been talking about in new york city, this what is you get. this is the prize. check it out. not just one, but double your pleasure there. the rare double rainbow is seen from the top of the time warner center there in the southwest corner of central park. as that shower moved to the north and east. notice this, guys, how in that -- the double rainbow there, how the colors are reversed. >> wow. >> from red to indigo. >> i feel so much better now. >> don't you? come on. >> who cares about the rain. that rainbow has made my day and my -- >> it does look like it ends -- the pot of gold may very well be in christine's parking spot there. >> close. >> what i did, rob, on the rainiest day in new york history i took with my husband and brother-in-law and sister-in-law, six kids under the age of 7 to the statute of liberty. you know what's worse? >> six little kids at home. >> lesser of two evils. >> we were so wet. so wet. there was nobody there. there you go. >> i'm sure the kids loved it. >> thanks, rob. >> still to come this morning, what is the better bargain, buying your -- buying or representing a home. >> the new orleans restaurant serving up soul food and success for inner city kids. the story of one young man who beat the odds. next on "american morning." [ male announcer ] members of the american postal workers union handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal workers union. ♪ no, it's just for new people. hey ! chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ? chocolate ! chocolate it is ! yeah, but i'm new, too. umm... he's new... er... than you. even kids know it's wrong to treat new friends better than old friends. at ally bank, we treat all our customers fairly, with no teaser rates and no minimum deposit to open. it's just the right thing to do. >> the new orleans restaurant >> the new orleans restaurant minding your business this morning. stocks are set to pull back today as markets in europe slide in today's premarket trading. germany's dax index down more than 2% while french stocks are not far behind, down 1.5%. the culprit germany europe's largest economy stalled in the second quarter. new estimates show germany's gdp, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in an economy barely grew at 0.1%. and that has markets concerned in both europe and the u.s. okay. on the housing front, should you buy or should you rent? real estate website truly crunched the numbers and says it may be cheaper to buy a two-bedroom home in most states over renting because home prices have taken such a beating, that demand for rentals is way up driving up rent prices. the philadelphia school district has a help wanted sign out. the school system needs to fill 1300 teacher vacancies. officials say the district's budget crisis is largely to blame and more than 1,000 teachers retired this summer leaving a high number of vacancies to be filled all over the school system. the school year is about to start. and just imagine you pay more than $100,000 for a car and then it's recalled. more than 700 massarottis are at risk for real es suspension problems that could cause drivers to lose control. 2009 model year four door qua tra sedans and two door coups are part of that recall. for the latest news about your money check out the new cnnmoney.com. "american morning" will be right back after this quick break. turn left. you have arrived. sweet belt. e-reader for textbooks. gps. video camera for lectures. game pad. have you considered this ? it's got all that and more than 200,000 apps. technology to learn and play on-the-go. only at verizon. android powered. playstation certified. the xperia play by sony ericsson. only $99.99. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ but not in my neighborhood. ♪ [ female announcer ] we're throwing away misperceptions about natural gas vehicles. more of the vehicles that fuel our lives use clean american natural gas today. it costs about 40 percent less than gasoline, so why aren't we using it even more? start a conversation about using more natural gas vehicles in your community. welcome back to "american morning." in a section of new orleans where crime and violence is common there is a special place that's serving up hope for young people. >> it's called cafe reconcile a popular restaurant with a kitchen full of inspiration. >> prepares students for the work force and for the future. ed lavandera has the incredible story of -- the incredible journey of one of its success stories. >> it devastated all of our staff, everybody here. >> wanted to throw your hands up? >> yeah. >> reporter: the devastating news was the murder of 22-year-old marvin watts. a recent cafe reconcile graduate, working for one of the top chefs in new orleans. his senseless murder made sister mary lou want to walk away. >> the last thing i said to him was, i said, marvin, i love you. that's what i hear in my head every day. he said i love you too, sister. >> reporter: it didn't take long for sister mary lou to realize she couldn't give up. she sees inspiration in every face. >> sweet dreams. >> reporter: because of young people like this kid with so much talent and the biggest smile around looking for a place to blossom. ♪ i love people ♪ >> reporter: kozy is 22 years old, taught himself to play the piano. >> i feel every key that i hit is real emotion. >> reporter: his family left new orleans when he was in high school, he stayed behind and started drifting. davis said he wasted countless days smoking weed, no place to call home he lived out of a car, no future for this father of two children. he turned to cafe reconcile. the first time he failed a drug test and got kicked out. >> what did you think of yourself? >> i felt like a failure. >> reporter: you would never guess but his constant smile hides the reality of home life, living in this drug plagued corner district in new orleans. >> this is the living room. >> reporter: this is a young man who has almost nothing. >> and this is my bedroom. either it's this or homeless. it's a roof and i'm grateful for a roof. >> the people who are most vulnerable, the poorest, get judged the hardest. harshest. because i think people don't want to see the poor. >> reporter: thanks to cafe reconcile you can now see kozy davis working in a fancy new orleans restaurant and he has bigger dreams. >> i have feet. i have a strong belief that i will be successful. nothing this time will stop me. nothing. >> reporter: ed lavandera, cnn, new orleans. >> awesome. all right. top stories right now including police in london making a new arrest in the deadly riots that rocked britain over the past ten days. zain verjee has that live in london. good morning. >> good morning to all of you guys. well, police here are setting up an independent inquiry into the riots and they say they're going to come out with a report in about six to nine months. the metropolitan police released this dramatic video. take a look at this. what happens in this video, you see, is that police are basically trying to get a bunch of looters away from a clothing store. you see it on the bottom right-hand side. look at the area where it's highlighted. a car whizes by and one police officer is down. the car just leaves him there. turns out that they've taken him to a nearby hospital and he's okay. everyone is okay. police are saying based on this video if there are any witnesses to know who was behind it, to come forward. but that's pretty gruesome pictures there for that police officer who was pretty lucky, guys. >> very lucky, indeed. also zain, an oil spill in the north sea. looks like it's bigger than many had feared. tell us about that. >> they're calling its worst in the last decade. it is a royal dutch shell problem and what's basically happened is that there's something like 1300 barrels of oil that have been spilled into the north sea. just off of scotland, actually. in less than a week. now what they're saying is, is that it's actually been shut down, the well, but there still is a small seepage. experts say that situation isn't that severe because you've got the wind and the waves that are favorable in this instance and what hair' doing, it's breaking up parts of the spill. the environmental and marine life there is being threatened. birds are at risk. puff fins and other creatures. just to give you a comparison, though, if you just think about the gulf of mexico and the bp oil spill, it was something like 62,000 barrels of oil a day. here, it's about 5 barrels of oil now that are being spilled. the seepage you can see is not that dramatic but it is worrying because it was so bad. >> thanks so much, zain verjee in london. flash mob action in maryland caught on surveillance tape. take a look at this, police say about 30 people walked into a germantown maryland 7-eleven early saturday morning. they're all walk in raiding the aisles, grabbing drinks and snacks, lasted about a minute before the thieves left as a group. police say they've been able to identify a lot of people. nobody is disguising themselves. just walking through. >> just text messaging, this is the address, show up. >> it does seem to be that's how flash mobs work. i find the thing fascinating you get a message to say show up somewhere and do stuff that's bad. before they were attacking people in philly, this is what was happening. they were converging on stores and sort of walking through. what can store security or management do when you have 30 people walk in at the same time. >> maybe it's time to find the person who organized the flash mob and slap charges on that person. >> like stop it. >> yeah. >> fears of teen violence spreading in kansas city. the mayor coming up with a plan to curb the problem by this weekend. the city considering a curfew for young people and holding parents accountable while falling in line with other cities like philadelphia. the call for action after three teens hurt during a shooting on saturday night. a japanese student presumed dead after being swept over niagara falls. the 19-year-old fell while takes pictures. police say they found the remains of a man at one of the falls. the death is being investigated too. still to come, taking on alabama's top new immigration law. why one group actually it's the church, the church is suing alabama for its law. we'll talk about that when we come back. we're on to you if you think you're the only one who pretends to be on your cell phone to avoid talking to someone, think again. i know exactly who you are. people do it to me all the time. >> present company not included. >> i have a call right now. >> and we're going take you inside an illinois school trying to become the healthiest in america. dr. sanjay gupta has a special report. you're watching "american morning." it's 37 minutes after the hour. . one log in lets you monitor all of your balances and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, track the market with live updates. and execute trades anywhere and anytime the inspiration hits you. even deposit checks right from your phone. just take a picture, hit deposit and you're done. open an account today and put schwab mobile to work for you. welcome back to "american morning." it's 40 minutes past the hour. religious leaders in alabama are fighting back against what's being called the toughest immigration law in the country. it takes effect on september 1st and several bishops say if it's enforced it would prevent them from helping the needy and practicing their religion because the measure makes it a crime to transport or harbor illegal immigrants and that has those four bishops headed to court. one bishop arsly from the episcopal dioceses of alabama. he joins us. thank you for joining us, bishop. >> good morning, carol. >> good morning. you have sued the governor and attorney general of alabama over this immigration law and you're specifically concerned about sections that say it is a crime to harbor or transport an illegal immigrant. why? how will this affect your ministry? >> carol, our churches have been working with hispanic persons, immigrant persons, for many years in various ways by offering worship and sacraments, baptism, celebrating marriages, reaching out to provide food and shelter and medical care and other ministries of hospitality and care for the strangers among us. the bible's clear that we're supposed to love the stranger and welcome the aliens. we feel that this law could make some of our ministries criminal activities. >> so what you're saying -- >> why the churches have gotten involved. >> if you see someone in need on a street corner and you approach them and you put them in the car and take them to the church to council them, this law requires you first ascertain if they're an illegal immigrant. >> that seems to be what the law requires. and we feel that would interfere with the freedom of our expression of our faith and living our faith and caring for others and so we have spoken up about this law to ask for a temporary injunction while the law can be, perhaps, changed or amended or removed. >> as far as i know, and you know the governor of the state of alabama says this is just not a concern, nobody's going to go after priests or bishops or church leaders who are counselling those in need and this is something you need not worry about. >> well, the law as written does not define words like shield or transport or harbor, and we believe that it could be interpreted by certain people to interfere with the church's ministries and our freedom of expression and living our faith. so, we have some disagreement about the meaning of the law which is not very clear. i would also say -- let me also say, carol, that we believe the law is an extreme law and creates a climate of fear which is not good for our communities and the church is a place where we try to help people live together in harmony and mutual care and this law, we think, creates the kind of division and fear in the community which is not good for anyone. >> in general, with the number of immigration laws being enacted or trying to be enacted across the country, what does this say about the climate in this country for immigrants? >> well, i think many of us, i certainly believe that we need to reform our immigration laws to make them more just and fair to the immigrant population as well as to everyone else. it's important that our immigrant law -- our immigration laws be just and work effectively. so, the church has spoken up for the need for immigration reform for many years. and i recognize the frustration some people have about this. >> are they godly? >> say that again. >> are they in the spirit of jesus? >> i couldn't quite hear you, carol, but i will say this, but i think it's so important that the church be able to minister to all people, regardless of status or race or situation. that's the nature of the church. and the bible is very clear about loving the stranger and being good samaritans and being able to love and care for all people in god's name. and that's really the church's point in our complaint. that we want to be free to express and live our faith. >> bishop, thank you so much for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. >> you're very welcome. we want to get the other side of the debate right now, we're joined by mark, he's live in washington, the executive director for the center for immigration study. you support alabama's immigration law, but you heard bishop parsley saying the law is infringing on his right to practice religion freely. what do you think? >> i'm afraid this is a phony issue and the bishop at the end, sort of made clear what was going on. the opponents of enforcing immigration law and supporters of amnesty for illegal immigrants are using this as kind of an emotional issue, raising this phony idea that a nun ladling out soup to an illegal alien is going to be wrestled to the ground by s.w.a.t. team. it's complete bologna. nobody believes, including the bishop and everyone involved in this lawsuit, no one believes that any priest or nun is going to be arrested for dispensing communion or serving illegal aliens in a soup kitchen. the point of that provision in the law is to target alien smugglers and those that transport and harbor illegal immigrants for purposes of sneaking into the country. >> what if a church does that? what if they're harboring someone who is illegal and then they're doing it for religious purposes because that's the spirit of the bible? >> well, then, i mean if a church -- if ostensibly religious organization is smuggling illegal immigrant -- >> not smuggle, but an illegal immigrant in this country who is in need who needs a place to live and they happen to pick that church and religious leaders say look, this is our duty, we're doing what it says in the bible? >> no. the bible says, render under caesar what is see zoor and what is god is god's. it doesn't say anything about alabama's immigration law. this is a pernicious use of scripture to apply to this worldly laws. the fact is, the immigration laws need to be enforced. and the people involved in this lawsuit object to the idea of enforcement of immigration laws, period. this is really just a pretext, a kind of emotional straw man used, waved in front of people to make them oppose the law. let's face it, if this ever happened, if some nun ladling out soup to an illegal alien is arrested the law would be changed in ten minutes. it's not going to happen. it's a phony issue. >> you're saying that the wording in the law is not too vague and that something like this, like the scenario you put forth would never happen because the law is worded correctly? >> yeah. i'm willing to put money down it's not going to happen. anybody wants to take me up on that, you can e-mail me at our website, cis.org. >> we will. mark, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> interesting conversation. and a debate that's raised in this country for a long time with no apparent resolution in sight for the are federal government. >> it's states. this is alabama and arizona. the states feel like they haven't seen the federal government do anything but sit on their hands about immigration. >> the problem is many years or decades after a law is put into place, the reasonable view that's not what it meant, tends to get forgotten. and then we end up 100 or 200 years later with a law somebody didn't intend for that to mean that. i hear what he's saying. i wouldn't take him up on that bet right now. one day he may not be around to be the same voice of what that law wasn't meant to do? it's in the courts right now. >> it was good, though. back-to-back guests who read the bible. >> yeah. >> all right. still ahead, dr. sanjay gupta's special report, the last heart attack, the battle against heart disease, starts early. >> this is going to be good. >> the last heart attack. imagine if you could -- that's it. no more. one school teaching kids healthy habits at a young age. 48 minutes after the hour. at exxon and mobil, our smart gasoline works at the molecular level to help remove deposits and clean up intake valves. it helps your engine run more smoothly and leave behind cleaner emissions. it's how we make gasoline work harder for you. exxon and mobil. if you have painful, swollen joints, i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on p of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. get back to the things that matter most. good job girls. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. we hear about the epidemic of childhood obesity in america. more than a third of young people in the country are overweight or obese. >> one elementary school is fighting the odds. a part of his special report you have to watch this week, "the last heart attack." drichlt sanjay gupta tells us they are making healthy choices into the new normal. watch this. >> reporter: they say if you can get to age 50 without any risk factors for heart disease you have virtually zero chance of ever having a heart attack. here is the thing. trouble starts early. 1 in 5 kids isn't just overweight but obese. but things out there are working. i found a school in illinois they are doing everything they can to turn these numbers around. northeast all right school in danville, illinois. the kids here eat healthy foods. >> we had chicken sandwich and apples. >> yogurt. >> fruit and juice. >> when she got hired the school board told the principal make health a priority. >> we had lots of fried foods, we had a lot of processed food. now nothing is fried. we have to have fish several times a month. we have fresh fruit and vegetables at every lunch. >> reporter: and there are also 30-minute physical education classes every day. kids take yoga breaks during class and the an baking sale is a one-mile walk. this made this the first elementary school in the country to win a gold award from the and the changes at school are changing habits at home as well. >> they are going home and talking to their parents about the new things that they have tried and tasted at school and encouraging their parents to buy it at home. >> reporter: because you said these students are sort of a mirror of the community at large? >> they are. >> the word has gotten out this is what we have to offer here and parents have come to us wanting that further children. >> reporter: heart disease is america's number one killer and the risks start right here with children. northeast elementary is one of a growing number of schools fighting back and pointing the way toward a healthier future. i want to add something else here. when we talked for this documentary the last heart attack, mr. clinton was very candid about his own history of heart disease and how he was in the white house receiving executive level health care his heart disease was missed and how his doctors missed when he was in the white house is an amazing story and really is a lesson in there for everyone. >> i'm going to watch it. maes. you can watch "the last heart attack" sunday night at 8:00 eastern on cnn. >> eat a piece of fruit, walk somewhere. i mean, can you imagine yoga breaks when you were in school. >> i would have loved that. >> let's take one in two minutes. >> we will do a couple of downward dog in the break. >> that's it. just not the hot sweaty yoga. >> i think i can't of that right now. stop! now we have so many responses to our talk back question of the morning. billionaire investor warren buffett said please tax the rich. did he come up with a good promise or is it just plain politics. this is from warren. we have proof ten years of bush era tax cuts have lost millions of jobs and not created a single job. calling the rich job creators is one more example of prop -- i have admired mr. buffett and realize that he cannot out of the goodness of his heart contribute a gift to the working capital of this nation. why does he use the tense loopholes that need changing? he can amend taxes for himself and his company and call publicly for his friends to do the same. in other words he could put his money where his mouth is. elvin says the following. keep those comments from. we will read through some of them later in the show. your top stories are next, including wall street rallies up three days in a row. the longest winning streak in a month. can we expect good news today from the market? we will tell you on the other side. the crew from the space shuttle "atlantis" will be with us live. what it was part to be a part of nasa's final shuttle mission. [ male announcer ] get ready for the left lane. the volkswagen autobahn for all event is back. right now, get a great deal on new volkswagen models, including the cc. and every volkswagen includes scheduled carefree maintenance. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the volkswagen cc sport for just $289 a month. ♪ visit vwdealer.com today. ♪ and, just like toddlers, puppies need food made for them. that's why there's purina puppy chow... with all the essential nutrients your growing puppy needs. purina puppy chow. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. stamps.com/tv that's good for our country's energy security and get a 4-week trial plus $100 in extras including a scale and free postage to use during your trial. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. wall street wipes away last week's losses. i'm christine romans. the three-day rally now fizzling overseas. good morning to you. i'm carol costello. president obama reaching out to america's heartland voters hitting back hard at republicans and talking up his new job plan to create jobs. i'm ali velshi. how is the president going to sell his plan to create new jobs in the united states? is doing it in a new bus built from the groundup loaded with extras. we are going to kick the tires on this "american morning." ♪ gom. it's tuesday, august 16th. wow! they got more buses in iowa than i -- geez! >> they have a lot of rest stops and the big st gas statigas sta probably in that state. >> did you see that nice bus that the president is on? groovy. over to you, carol. >> let's talk about the markets. just as the market appeared to be finding its footing, a reality check of how the world's economy, well, it's still influx, isn't it? >> yeah. influx would probably be positive given what we have just heard this morning. new numbers out this morning show that growth in europe is slowing. and that is not just dragging down stocks in europe but also dragging down futures here in the united states. that is, of course, because europe is a huge and important trading partner of the united states and taken as a whole, the economy of the euro zone is about the same size is the united states. take a look at the future. a three-day rally enough to wipe out the losses from last week, the dow and nasdaq and s&p futures are all lower pointing to a lower open thong. >> america's finances including the recent debt ceiling deal with issue number one when vice president joe biden heads to asia today. he will be meeting with his counterpart. >> president obama will spend more time in iowa today on board that bus on the second day of his tour across america's heartland. he will be talking to farmers and small business owners to get them on board with his plan for creating jobs and cutting the deficit and challenging congress. >> some people have been saying, well, mr. president, why don't you call congress back for a special session? and what i've said is the last thing the people need for confidence right now is to watch folks on capitol hill arguing all over again. what they need to do is come to the core or go to can phenomenon fal fa cannon falls and understand that people are sick and tired of the nonsense and the political games and hopefully when they come back in september, they will have a wake-up call that says we need to move the country forward. you have to start folk us on -- >> texas governor rick perry continues his swing through iowa. chris steen wasn't kidding when there was a lot of campaignish buses in iowa right now. perry is criticizing president obama and insisting that obama is the greatest threat to the u.s. economy. >> i'm saying he's got a lot of explaining to do about the economy if that is what he is out talking about. i don't think the folks in iowa will be real excited about unemployment rate where it is and the number of americans who are out of work. you know, this president has been a failure when it comes to the economy. >> perry says he sees government as the problem, not the solution. he is touting the number of jobs that have been created in texas since the recession. one-third of all the jobs have been created in texas but a lot of people are pointing out it has to be the number of price increase in oil and oil jobs in texas. >> the kind of jobs the country is creating as a whole the three biggest categories is minute wage type jobs. that is the service industry. the president countering that criticism in iowa today unveiling $350 million as his three-day bus tour rolls through the midwest. agricultural secretary tom vilsack is riding with the president and joins us this morning. he is the former governor the iowa. secretary vilsack, this is the time when eiowans feel popular. is this a campaign style swing or a presidential i have a jobs plan and this is the first piece of it? what is it? because the republicans have criticized him saying that the president is campaigning. >> well, this president made a historic commitment to rural -- the first council dedicated to rural areas in our history and continuation of the council's work. he instructed his cabinet members and administration officials to travel around the country to listen and to learn about steps that we could take to put more activity, more economic opportunity in rural america, so yesterday we began the process of announcing a series of things that will be announced over the course of the next couple of weeks including what you refer to which is a doubling of sba's commitment and loan opportunities for small businesses in rural areas as well as a unique partnership we will have with the department of labor to get information about jobs out to our farm service offices that are located everywhere in rural america. >> do these -- >> this is about policy. it's -- >> i'm sorry to interrupt. do these small businesses need loads or demand? they need economy working better and is this 350 million the president's big plan we are waiting for for how to create jobs? >> this is -- this is the beginning of a series of proposals that will essentially establish a new economic opportunity within the rural parts of this country. it's not the plan. it's part of a larger commitment the president is going to make. later this afternoon, or this morning, i'll be visiting with secretary cho. you will see a series of these things over the course of the next several weeks. the combination of them is designed to say a message we are back in business and have tremendous opportunity here to promote innovation, particularly in rural areas. >> because, you know, people want a big solution. they want a big plan that they think is going to work that is going to create jobs, because when you take the debt ceiling debate, when you take all of this other political rhetoric in washington at its core is the fact we have 9.1% unemployment rate and people want to know this white house or whoever is running against this president has the solution. does this president in this white house have the solution to fix the jobs crisis? >> it does and it can be simply stated. obviously, we are going to be government that spends less but we are going to invest wisely and infrastructure and we will become a nation this will export more effectively. the proof of this concept is in agriculture. what we are seeing in agriculture is probably the best year agriculture has ever seen in terms of income, the highest level of agriculture exports. the formula is in rural america. the president is going to have component parts of that formula laid out over the course of the next couple of days here in the forum and the next several weeks. >> do you think ethanol subsidies survive in covering up loopholes? iowa farmers say they feel they have the best year in maybe history for them but they feel like the winds are blowing in a different direction. >> well, i think there will be support for the biofuel industry. i think it may look different. no question that those supports are going to end at the end of the year. there is a good idea of ending them sooner, taking a portion of it and applying it on deficit reduction and take another portion of it and building out the infrastructure of the pumping systems that will make flexible fuel vehicles more conveniently able to get biofuel. we want to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. the president has challenged us to do that. it's going to get us away from an unstable source of oil in the middle east. >> tom vilsack, thank you so much, sir. >> thank you. the white house calls it an official trip but the president's heartland tour, to some, has campaign written all over it. maybe not all over it. the super bus he is cruising around in is greyhound one. he has no 2012 campaign slogans on it at all. it's one of two armored buses ordered up by the secret service at cost of $2.2 million each. now, check this thing out. it has bullet proof black windows, puncture proofed tires and five-inch thick doors and its own supply of oxygen. >> wow! >> the two buses will be used by the president and the republican nominee during the 2012 campaign and beyond and the hub caps spin counterclockwise. no, they don't. he made that up! >> i liked it, though. riding along with the president is wolf blitzer and wolf joins us from dubuque, iowa. he has a sneak peek into his upcoming exclusive interview with president obama that will air on "the situation room." have you been on the bus, wolf? >> i've seen the bus and ali is right. it's impressive. i was not inside the bus but yesterday i did see both of those buses and they were scary looking when they drive by you in the motorcade. look. you got to protect the president. he has to be in constant communications with his adviser area national security team. a bus version of air force one or marine one for that matter. ali is right, it's very, very cool. >> i think that -- as you know, wolf, voters are frustrated with the president. they are frustrated with republicans because no one seems to have come up with any sort of big, bold jobs plan. when you talk to people listening to the president on his bus tour, are they satisfied with what he is saying? >> reporter: no. people want more action and that is why the president is going to come up with some sort of plan. i don't know what it is but i'll ask him about it. in september, he says he's got a new initiative he is coming forward. the proposals he has been coming forward with the last week or two, you know, are important, but relatively modest. for example, extending the unemployment benefits and extending the payroll tax cut, creating infrastructure bank, approving the free trade agreements going forward with these initiatives. important initiatives and will create jobs but he has something much more ambitious in mind i suspect that is what he suggested in his town hall yesterday so i'll be anxious to hear what it is. they say they will announce it when congress comes back. it's interesting that if you listen to the president closely, he is beginning to get into that campaign mode, even though the white house says this isn't a campaign trip. in the stops yesterday, the first one in minnesota and the second one here in iowa, he is beginning to find that groove, if you will, going after the republicans and, you know, he is getting a lot of heat from them and he is about to start dishing it back to the republican presidential candidates, although i think it will still build up over the coming months. >> i think you're right. we can't wait to hear your interview later this afternoon. wolf blitzer, thanks for waking up early with "american morning." we appreciate it. you can see his interview with the president at 5:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. still ahead, what do warren buffett's billion mayor friends think of taxing the rich? we will ask garrett gruener and he will tell us why he wants to give more of his money to the treasury department. guess which vintage rockers are in the wine bus now. how they are using their rockin' past to cash in. >> they are the only ones who can afford it! nasa's space shuttle crew is here in our studio. what was it like to fly on the last shuttle? throttle up on this one. every day, all around the world, energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas. and clean for our communities and the environment a mouthwatering combination of ingredients...e for you! i know you're gonna love. [ barks ] yes, it's new beneful healthy fiesta. made with wholesome grains, real chicken, even accents of tomato and avocado. yeah! come on! [ barking ] gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. another healthful, flavorful beneful. while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. ♪ are you lonesome tonight do you miss me tonight ♪ >> something else we could use? lonesome tonight? elvis presley. fans are gathering in graceland today to remember the king. a candle light vij m was held early this morning. graceland is commemorating the king's life. he died on this very day back in 1977. he was 42 years old. >> he was only 42? >> he was particularly unhealthy when he died, if you recall that. that was his low point. he was very big. >> i thought 42 was much older when he died than i do now. >> we were a lot smaller. now i think it's kind of around the perfect age. >> exactly the perfect age for you, mr. velshi. the michael jackson concert fans are outraged and revolting against the show. they say kiss front man gene simmons criticized jackson after his 2009 death, calling him a child predator. >> but when you are the marketing machine that kiss is, there's no better way to make up for having said something bad about michael jackson than bringing your marketing -- >> what they said was pretty darn bad but we will see what happens. >> it goes for an apology, don't you think? i. probably. money. let's here ac/dc, shall we? ♪ pick it up and move it >> wine? >> makes me want to have hard liquor! ac/dc putting out their own line of wine. among them is highway to hell cabernet and you should being me all night long. >> are you kidding? did you make that up? or are they really going to call them that? >> would you like another glass of you shook me all night long? >> the wines are only available in australia but who knows? rob marciano is in the extreme weather center. rob, you a beer man, wine man? >> i don't discriminate! >> you do it all? >> at times, i like to drink the good stuff but in the morning it's coffee. at least it was yesterday. check out the numbers right now as far as day time totals for rainfall we saw yesterday. that had drive you to drink! willow, with the rain across the northeast and another is damp and dreary day. parts of connecticut seeing almost 5 inches and northern new england also getting into the record books with 24-hour day time records. rotating around this area of low pressure is way up here is the moisture that has been peppering much of upstate new york throughout the past couple of days and spin down into the more populated areas and eventually spin out but it will hang around good enough time for today. severely thunderstorms possible in the spots we saw them yesterday except further east. bismarck got hit with high winds and heavy rain. quiet across the south with the exception of thunderstorm that will see thunderstorms at times. may delay you flying out of miami and orlando. low clouds and patchy rain in boston and new york slow down travel as well and san francisco no rain expected and cool morning fog. here is the tropical storm gert. not to hurricane status. latest we have gotten through the g-storm and not had a hurricane. been a lot of quantity but not a lot of quality and i suppose that is a good thing. this thing we are watching here in the national hurricane center it has flared up as far as convection goes and head into the western caribbean and when we have to worry about it. folks in south beach belt with jellyfish. you get them this time of the year. these were big. no tentacles so they don't normally sting but may irritate you. >> wow! >> yeah. the bark is worse than the bite, i think. but it could look nice. imagine just emerging from the surf there on miami beach with one of those wrapped around your head, around your shoulder? that would be a fashion statement. >> what is it you stepped on it? would it hurt? >> depends how sensitive your tootsies are. >> you just have such a positive attitude, rob. >> i try. see you guys. minnesota twins slurring jim thome hitting one into the record books. he belted his 600th career home run against, sorry, carol, the detroit tigers last night. >> high flyball. left field. hit well. young going back. to the track, to the wall! it's gone! jim thome has become the eighth player in major league history to hit his 600th home run! >> you got to love that. he's a great guy. >> eighth player. look at that. it was a two-run shot coming in the seventh inning. he had hit number 599 in the inning before. he is 40 years old. he becomes, as you say, the eighth player to join the 600 home run club. only babe ruth did it in fewer at-bats and carol's tigers, they gave him a very warm reception for it. >> a standing ovation. tiger fans are the best. >> as he deserves. someone tweeted me and say you keep saying my detroit tigers. does she own them? her uncle owns them. >> i wish. >> don't be shy about it. just tell them! >> mr. illitch is my uncle? i don't think so! >> take a look at this race in watkins glen race. it ricocheted into the tire barrier and smashes into another car which then goes airborne. basically, a mess. both drivers escaped without injury. afterwards, a scuffle broke out between the driver who caused the crash and reagan's teammate greg biffle. >> i like when you said it's just a mess. >> it was like a pinball. normally, a lot going on there. bounces in. bounces back to the other wall. then, yep, airborne. to the other side. >> do you guys like nascar? >> i don't follow it closely but i've been to daytona 500. >> it takes really diedication. >> sadly, i watch for the crashes when no one gets hurt. just telling the truth. now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. the question we are asking this this morning is warren buffett's tax compromise good or plain old politics? now we have to day to digest his plea it's time to ask that question. buffett is largely a twitter hero but as far as republicans are concerned he is a shrill for president obama. buffett is offering an alternative. instead of raising taxes on americans making $250,000 and up, he told charlie rose we ought to raise taxes on the very, very rich! >> we are also in the process undertaxing the very rich. what i propose incidentally would not touch the taxes of 99.7%. i am talking about 0.3 of 1% of the american public but the people from a million dollars on up, i think, should be asked to sayer share in a little of the sacrifice. >> senator john cornyn tweeted. conservative blogs fired back. the red dog report, quote. never mind most polls show americans favor taxing the rich more and many economists say spending cuts alone will not solve our tax woes. here is our talkback question of the morning. >> i'd like to do a talkback. this blog you just quoted red, they said everybody knows increasing taxes won't solve our economic problems. two unrelayed matters. reducing debt and solve our tax problems is not as nearly connected as people think. we have deficits in a long time when we don't have economic problems. this is the mixing up of events that grets frustrated. >> debt forgs is a great portion of our economy and becomes dangerous. >> if you set the bar if you raise taxes and our economic problem is not solved that must mean raising taxes does not work or is bad for our economy. i like to say it's apples and shampoos. >> if you look back through history, let's just take, for example, president reagan. >> right. >> he cut tax -- raised taxes more than 20 times or more than 18 times. >> in many cases the economy strengthened after it. it's not necessarily causal. tax cutting or raising doesn't necessarily have an impact on economic performance immediately afterwards. lots of things have an impact on economic performance. >> it will be interesting. >> facebook.com/americanmorning. ♪ let me entertain you ♪ let me make you smile ♪ let me do a few tricks ♪ some old and then some new tricks ♪ ♪ i'm very versatile ♪ so let me entertain you ♪ and we'll have a real good time ♪ [ male announcer ] the new hp touchpad starting at $399.99. ♪ "minding your business" this morning. u.s. stocks are set to pull back at today's market open. taking another cue from european markets reacting to news that germany's economy stalled in the second quarter. right now dow futures trading down more than a hundred poise and nasdaq and s&p futures trading much lower. some corporate earnings are coming out today. home depot the world's largest home improvement chain, reported better than expected profits in the second quarter. fueled by demand for seasonal goods and storm-related repair materials. walmart saw its sales fall almost a percentage point in the second quarter. making it the ninth straight quarterly sales drop in a row for the world's biggest retailer. ahead, warren buffett is begging conditioning to tax him and his rich friends more. what do his friends think of that idea? we will ask that after the break. "american morning" coming right back. swus. warren buffett is pleading with the white house to raise his taxes. he insists anyone making more than a million dollars a year should be taxed at a higher late. >> i decided to look around and see if any of my friends were being affected by the sacrifice and they like me are enjoying the extremely low tax rates and high percentage of the cases the very rich are paying less in the way of taxes and the people to clean their offices. >> buffett isn't alone. garrett gruener, my next guest, a founder of ask.com joins us live from san francisco. welcome to the program. >> good morning. how are you? >> i'm great! tell me, i'm curious, what is your tax rate and why do you want it higher? >> the marginal tax rate i pay is something less than 35%, probably well less actually than 35% which is the kusht top rate which is much lower than it was in the clinton administration and much, much lower in the kennedy and eisenhower administration. >> the tax code favors people like you and you say that that is simply not fair. we could raise some significant money by making very rich people pay a bigger share. >> that's right. you know, one of the extraordinary things that warren buffett didn't say in his op-ed yesterday which i think is very important is that the upper 1% got 23.5% of all the income in 2007. and the last time that happened was 1928 and i think that what happened next, you know, the financial collapse in both cases is a direct result of the fact that things have just gotten out of whack. >> doesn't the top 1% pay, you know, more than 20% of all of the income taxes? i mean,, you know, that is one of the things you hear from republicans and from conservatives and other rich people who say don't tax me more. don't tax me more. it is the top that is, you know, setting so much money into the american treasury. >> well, that's true. that's what their argument is and their argument goes on to say that economic growth is a function of the investment these people can make and if you increase their taxes, that they will be less available for investment. the problem it just isn't true. as i say, back in the '50s, the marginal tax rate was 90%. in the '60s, it was 70% and our growth rate was much higher than it is today. indeed, during the clinton era the marginal tax rate was 39% and our growth rate was significantly higher than the essentially zero growth we had during the 2,0 thousa2000s. what i do for a living is venture capital. i make investments in small technology companies and i try to help them grow and i have never once -- i literally mean this -- not once, ever made an investment decision based upon the marginal tax rate. it just isn't an important element of the investment decision. >> if we added 50% tax rate on income over a million dollars, this is basically what buffett has proposed it would bring in $40 billion over ten years. 340 billion over ten years and running a deficit that is a trillion and a half a year right now. you just can't fix it by raising taxes on the top 1% alone. i think that is what some people say. they say, look. you need a lot more than just that. do you agree? do you need taxes going up for everyone or you need very big, big spending cuts? >> well, i think, you know, there is going to be a number of elements to the solution. we have to increase revenues, we do have to reduce spending. certainly over the long haul. and ultimately, we have to make this budget balance, you know? vice president cheney was wrong when he said deficits don't matter. they do matter. and so getting really solving this deficit problem is essential. however, what we have done is over and over again, reduced the taxes for those who are doing the best in this economy. >> for you. >> it's a wrong choice economically. for me, exactly. it's a wrong choice economically and quite frankly, i don't i think it's moral either. >> john cornyn tweeted i think treasury would accept a voluntary payment for deficit reduction. garrett, are you going to be sending your money in? >> no. you know, what i'm doing is i'm getting up at 5:00 in the morning to talk to folks like you. you know, the u.s. government is not a charity. taxes are the price we pay for democracy and i think it's well worth paying for, but we have a conversation -- we need to have a conversation in this country about real shared sacrifice. when we had two wars running under the bush administration, the president said, i'm going to cut your taxes and you ought to go shopping. that isn't shared sacrifice. and it isn't actually economically what we need either. we need to invest in the middle class and invest in economic growth and the only way to make that happen in part is increase the taxes on the upper 1%. >> garrett gruener, thank you so much. we will point out this president that cut the taxes for the rich. nice to meet you. thanks. >> coming up next, the last team to fly aboard a space shuttle. the crew of the space shuttle "atlantis" is here in our studios live. 38 minutes after the hour. [ oswald ] there's a lot of discussion going on about the development of natural gas, whether it can be done safely and responsibly. at exxonmobil we know the answer is yes. when we design any well, the groundwater's protected by multiple layers of steel and cement. most wells are over a mile and a half deep so there's a tremendous amount of protective rock between the fracking operation and the groundwater. natural gas is critical to our future. at exxonmobil we recognize the challenges and how important it is to do this right. i don't always have time to eat like i should. that's why i like glucerna shakes. they have slowly digestible carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes, which can help lower a1c. [ male announcer ] glucerna. helping people with diabetes find balance. but i did. they said i couldn't fight above my weight class. but i did. they said i couldn't get elected to congress. but i did. now i'm trying to make it in music. ♪ sometimes when we touch ha ha! millions of hits! [ male announcer ] the new hp touchpad starting at $399.99. ♪ ♪ me and you i think to myself what a wonderful world ♪ ♪ >> the final mission of space shuttle lnts will n"atlantis." it really was a bittersweet moment for many people. it was a beautiful end to a program that has been going on for 30 years, but it's end of a program. joining us now are some of the crew in ebbs from sts-135. kris ferguson and doug hurley and sandy magnus and rex walheim. thank you for being here. you are officially a part of history. this was the last mission. i know when you landed, you were -- it was different for you. you've all been on shuttle missions before but that must have been a little bit different. tell me how it felt when you first touched down. >> well, of course, you have the task at hand, you have to land and roll out and think about this is it. we have to say something profound and reasonable care everybody that did it and then you have to get out of the orbiter and that is tough knowing you're the last one to leave an orbiter that wale was in space. >> we call it bittersweet. is it? >> yeah. i think the term is overused but you do honestly feel a bit of sadness the program ends, but, yet, excited of all the things we did over 30 plus years. >> what do you tell people? when we are ten years away from this or 15 years away and people say what was the big deal about the shuttle program, what would you tell them? >> i got a couple of answers for them. you know, the hubble telecope. the great pictures we continue to see and because the schultz was there we serviced it and launched it and now the international space station which is awesome. >> sandy, what is your sense of what happens next? i know that is the big question on everybody's mind and i know nasa has things planned but space has been, for many people a dream and destination and that for the moment we don't have as clearly outlined. >> we are in the middle of a debate what the destination is going to be but i'd like to everybody to pay attention what we are doing on the international space station. we have had people living there for 11 years now. and we will continue to do a lot of great work on the spais, a lot of great science, a lot of great technology development. technologies we need to go to the moon or mars or an asteroid. i think the whole portion is get out of lower owner bits. anyplace we go is excellent destination. >> what do you all do now? >> we have ground jobs in the astronaut office and some will help on the space station missions going on and others work to help new space suits and oorge people will work on the next generation's launch vehicles, the new commercial vehicles. the guys take on a big role and need help and a lot of people all at nasa know how to do this business and want to help out the new companies coming online. >> chris, tell me the thing that you never get asked. i interviewed you guys when you were in space. i know lots of people interview you. what is the thing you'd love somebody to ask you about the shuttle program that you've never been asked that you want to tell them but nobody even knows to ask? >> i tell you what, it's an amazing experience. and launch, i think, is first and foremost, the most interesting aspect of it. for example, we had a launch hold at 31 seconds. >> i remember that clearly. >> you'd like to think the astronauts are busy moving switches and dials and they are getting ready to handle whatever it is to hold the launch at 31 seconds. we looked at each other and said, "i didn't know the clock stopped at 31 seconds. >> we have a great team at the space center and we had about a minute to spare, but we launched on time, thanks to what they do. i think to answer your question, what i like people to ask me about is our launch experience. what are you actually feeling? what is going through your mind when this happens and that happens. >> we see it and it's loud and fiery and big. what is it to you? by that point, you've been strapped into a chair for two to three hours on your back. what does that feel like? >> well, you're ready to do something else by that point for sure. >> you'd like to be in space? >> yeah p. once you come out of the nine-minute hold, that usually means you're ready to go and, obviously, we had that little pickup at 31 seconds that the folks handled great and then after that, you know, when the engine start, it's vibration at that point. you're getting shook around pretty good and then eight and a half minutes later, you're in space. so everything changes drastically from what you're used to the rest of your life. it's just -- it really is difficult to describe, but it's just incredible to kind of take all that in. >> are you chatting on your way up? do you talk to each other or are you just kind of quiet? >> it depends. there is different phases. after the pad so much noise and vibration and it's sort of the very yams so you're really focused are the computers doing what they are supposed to do and doug is watching the engines and rex is keeping an eye on the systems and i'm along for the ride at that point. but so you're not really saying much. then once the solid rocket booster separates and a period of quietness and then you can chat a little bit. then as the engine throttles in different place you focus back on that. the experience changes with each launch. your first launch you're excited and part of your brain is focused i'm going to space! so cool! part of your brain is focused on don't mess up! then your second launch, you know, you've been through it, you had the experience. now you can kind of sit back and take it all in. >> who is the first person to mention food when you go up? who says send me a pack of peanuts? >> probably doug. >> or sandy. >> great to see you guys. congratulations. it's a real honor to have you here and it was a real moment in history to watch that launch and that perfect landing. >> glad you were there. >> my pleasure. >> chris ferguson and doug hurley and sandy magnus and rex walheim. our morning headlines are up next. 47 minutes after the hour. and at many of the places their summer plans take them. it pays to switch, it pays to discover. it's schwab at your fingertips wherever, whenever you want. one log in lets you monitor all of your balances and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, track the market with live updates. and execute trades anywhere and anytime the inspiration hits you. even deposit checks right from your phone. just take a picture, hit deposit and you're done. open an account today and put schwab mobile to work for you. ♪ hey, gramps, what do you got in there? well, a trout lure, a set of dentures, broadway albums. you know -- stuff. yeah. about that. that big wheel behind us... yeah? he's got a flat-screen, swivel chairs, and a fridge. oh. hey, man! can we come over tonight? it's surprising just how affordable an rv vacation can be. visit gorving.com and get a free video. or see an rv dealer. go affordably. go rving. . here are your morning headlines. markets open in 45 minutes and u.s. stock futures are down after new numbers this morning show slower than expected growth in europe. today, vice president joe biden heads to asia and spending most of his time in china talking up america's economy with that vice president and other leaders. president obama talking jobs again today on his trip across america's heartland. he'll attend an economic forum in iowa. this is the second day of his three-day, three-state bus tour. social networking app has scored a high profile user. president obama. the white house says he joined the location based social networking site to highlight places he visits and what he does there. jim thome now part of baseball history. the minnesota twins slugger belted his 600th home run in detroit last night. one of two home runs he hit in the game. thome is just the eighth major leaguer to reach that milestone. congratulations! it's awesome. elvis fans gathering at graceland to remember the king. a vigil held earlier this morning over presley' grave. he died on this day in 1977. "american morning" will be back after the break. everybody loves a good homecoming video between a soldier and their loved ones. man, do we have one that will make you go aah. it's between a soldier and man's best friend. >> hey! come here! do you not recognize me? >> oh, my gosh. >> oh! very excited! >> this note was posted with the video. it says after nine long months apart, our dog emmitt thunder paws is really happy to see his favorite person again. he smelled him in the house and ran outside to greet him. dogs are awesome. wow. that is doggie love. >> soldiers are awesome. >> soldiers are awesome too. >> very cool. >> that is nice. it was a nice image. cancer survivor jill is on a mission. not only to embrace lives but to tell others who have been diagnosed they don't have to face the battle alone. >> reporter: four years ago, jennifer's life was turned upside down. >> i was told you have a brain tumor. >> reporter: her first surgeon did not want to operate and that didn't sit well with her. >> i felt as if it's my body, this is my brain tumor, that you say is in my head and, yet, you won't treat me the way i want my course of treatment to be. >> reporter: so she got a second opinion. the new surgeon was willing to operate. the surgery went well and the tumor was out. a biopsy confirmed that the type of tumor she has will most likely come back. >> i may know that, on offering, i have ten years from diagnosis until it becomes milth and i understand what that means. but i am going with the assumption that it might be sooner than later and that is okay. >> reporter: in fact, planning to have another baby? >> this decision to have a child was probably the most difficult decisions of all of the process. it was, by far, easier to accept the fact that i probably won't see my kids graduate from college than to decide to have a child. what if you are that person that 25 years from now, your kids are getting married and you're still stable and you're living with regret for making a decision out of fear? >> reporter: having overcome the initial obstacles posed by her cancer, jennifer has decided to embrace life in other ways. in addition to being a mom to sons tucker and cooper, she has become a patient advocate sharing her experience with others who also have braned brain cancer and a runner. this year, jennifer could only participate in the walk because she and her husband decided to expand their family. in some ways equally impressive you decided to do this walk and you're pregnant. >> i'm totally healthy aside for the brain tumor! >> reporter: just two days after we sat down together, one week ahead of schedule, jennifer gave birth to a healthy little girl named harper. dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, atlanta. almost tastes like one of jack's cereals. fiber one. uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! [ jack ] yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] half a day's worth of fiber. fiber one. if you have painful, swollen joints, i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on p of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. get back to the things that matter most. good job girls. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers. ♪ ♪ they don't understand you you're from ♪ >> new york city, good morning. 64 degrees and cloudy. >> it is raining? >> going to be. thunderstorms and 77. a lot of rain the last few days in the city. >> but a double rainbow and that made it better. we asked you this question. warren buffett says tax me, please. we ask the question, warren buffett hero or political opportunist. this from ty. why is income not taxed at one flat rate across the board. >> sounds reasonable. >> it does, doesn't it? this from rick. it is a generous offer but does buffett speak for his fellow multimillionaires? any plan that doesn't fairly distribute that pain over all of us but instead favors one or another protected group at the expense of another is a nonstarter. this from eric. in my opinion, we, the american people, are running out of time. warren buffett's idea can help the economy if done right by pumping more private money into the economy but for this to work, congress has got to get their act together. and start doing something. facebook//americanmorning >> that's going to do it for us. markets look like they will be lower today so