Transcripts For CNNW American Morning 20110907

this "american morning." good morning. >> zogood morning alina. >> it's early. >> it is early. >> not so early for you. >> always great to have you here. >> carol is off, christine is off. >> that's right. >> we've got you back, which is fantastic. >> we've got a really serious situation going on in texas. >> it's -- it seems to be getting worse although in some parts getting a little more control over it. these raging wildfires we're telling you about sweeping across the country right now. the governor rick perry is describing the disaster as, quote, a monstrous storm of smoke and flames. the flames are sending thousands of people running for their lives, showing no mercy. it's killed four people. hundreds of firefighters are on the frontlines dousing some of the fires, new ones, they're starting new ones hoping to get rid of the bone dry bub brush that goes up in an instant. this is what's left of a ranch in austin, texas. a pile of twisted metal and ash. the texas forest service says more than 700 homes have burned in the past two days. the largest fire in bastrop county is up to 30,000 acres and only a fraction of it is contained, even though the winds did slow down a bit. jim spellman is live right there now. jim, you've been following this for several days now. are things getting worse, better, what's the situation? >> yesterday, they had some -- they made some progress, 33% contained now. they took advantage of low winds and cooler temperatures to get in there and build these fire lines and get rid of some of this fuel, some of this dried vegetation to try to stop this fire. they're far from out of the woods here, though. this is still a dynamic fire. the smoke is laying down. they'll try again to take advantage of getting on top of this as fast as they can. ali, these fires are breaking out so rapidly across the state that it's -- as soon as they get a handle on one, another one pops up. yesterday the tragic news here, they discovered two people had died in this fire. we don't have the details yesterday. the governor deployed texas task force one and urban search and rescue team to start going through the rubble to see if there's anybody in there that needs help or possibly recover more people who may have been injured. for people in other fires, who are now able to return to their homes, it's tragic when they come back and find their home destroyed. yesterday cnn's david mattingly caught up with one woman as she went back. take a look. >> and that's my house. that's my house. >> right here? >> yeah. >> i'm sorry. >> are you all right? you're shaking. >> i'm okay. i feel the luckiest person in the world. my family is safe. now i need to check on my neighbors. >> reporter: the strength of these people, ali, coming back to their homes amazes me. we're going to see that same story over 500 times here at the bastrop fire, that's how many homes have been lost at this point here when people get to go back in. it's going to be a long haul to start rebuilding their lives and this town too, ali. >> jim, it is remarkable to see these people go back and that woman to say, you know, she's the luckiest person around because she did get out with her life and family. we'll keep following this with you, thank you. the wildfires in texas are visible from space. they're that big. cameras on the international space station caught these pictures here and look closely. huge plumes of smoke over texas. some of them spreading over hundreds of homes. rob marciano in the extreme weather center now with a look at the wind situation and rob, is it getting any better? >> yeah. the past two days have been okay. today the winds may kick up a little bit more. i want it to show you video of two days ago from amateur photograp photography. this is not sped up, but it gives you an indication of how fast these flames can move across the ground. look at how the flames kind of reach over to the dry grass, dry shrubs and the dry trees and just some of those trees with some of the oils explode as it does so, this from don cash, which again not sped up. this was taken on monday. sunday, the conditions were worse, if you can imagine that. here's a shot of the city skyline in the foreground with the fire just to the south and east at about 20 to 30 miles. thankfully for austin, the winds have been blowing away from the city. air quality, as you can imagine downwind from the fires east of austin and near houston is poor. temperatures will be in the upper 80s and lower 90s, warmer than yesterday, but still cooler than what it has been. meanwhile we're looking at storm that's rolling up the east coast, kind of leftovers of lee. another wet, soggy day for the northeast. will texas get rain? this could be our next tropical depression, a 40% chance of happening, aircraft probably going to fly into there this afternoon. computer models like lee have no idea what to do with this so we're going to have to hang tight and check it out throughout the day today. meanwhile, hurricane katia, we know what's going to happen with this. category 1 storm going to make a pass to the west of bermuda and a pass to the east of the u.s. that's good news. big waves, big rip currents still going to be an issue with this. next item out here, pretty far away, tropical depression number 14. this has promise as well. our computer models are thinking it's going to develop into something. national hurricane center brings it close to the u.s. but not for a week. we'll have to watch this carefully also. back up to you. >> thank you. >> busy. he's been -- a lot to cover. learning new details of president obama's jobs plan. democratic sources tell our chief white house correspondent jessica yellen that the plan will call for about $300 billion in tax breaks and extension of unemployment benefits and other spending which could include funds for laid off teachers and first responders making it hard for republicans to vote against the plan. the $300 billion price tag will be offset by an equal amount of budget cuts. cnn will have live coverage of president obama's jobs speech thursday night, 7:00 p.m. eastern. we should mention republicans are not planning to offer a formal response after that speech. when it comes to creating jobs and turning around the economy, mitt romney insists that president obama is not a bad guy, but he just doesn't have a clue. the former massachusetts governor unveiling his own 59-point plan yesterday in nevada. romney says the plan will create 11 million jobs in the first four years of a romney presidency. he couldn't resist taking a few shots at the president. >> president obama's strategy is a pay phone strategy and we're in a smartphone world. and so we're going to have to change what he's doing is taking quarters and stuffing them into the pay phone and thinking -- can't figure out why it's not working. it's not connected anymore, mr. president. >> cnn's senior political editor mark preston live from washington this morning. he's calling it day one jobs one. the plan sounds good. what's in it? >> well, there's 59 points to it. in fact, mitt romney put together a book that you can download if you want to read every bit of it. let's talk about a couple things the former massachusetts governor talked about yesterday. he talked about boosting domestic energy output. he also talked about waving the health care law, which is a very big talking point for republicans certainly running for president. also talked about cutting the corporate tax rate. a couple other things alina, that the former massachusetts governor said, he wanted to halt regulations that were put in place by the obama administration. these are regulations he said are anti-business and have stalled job growth. it's no surprise, alina, that, you know, the governor would deliver this speech out in nevada, out in las vegas, which is a crucial state to his election strategy and also one state away from california because that's where he's going to be tonight for that presidential debate. so mitt romney laying out his plan, trying to get out ahead of it, before tonight's presidential debate and certainly before president obama addresses the nation on thursday. >> both geographically and politically smart for him to do that there. mark, quick question about rudy giuliani, not ruling out a run for the white house. and he said something interesting, about maybe getting in if people are desperate? >> yeah. people are desperate. rudy giuliani has a good sense of humor and the fact of the matter is, he is seriously considering running for president. from what i hear from people close to him he wants to get into the race. he talked a little bit about it yesterday. let's have a listen to what he has to say. >> if i think we're truly desperate, i may run, which is the way i got elected the mayor of new york city. know what my slogan was? you can't do any worse. >> the problem for rudy giuliani is the fact that he is a centrist republican and when you get into the republican primary dominated by conservative voters, social conservative voters, even rudy giuliani who won't likely get into the race, understands that would be a big mountain for him to climb. >> it would make it interesting. all right. mark preston, thank you very much. a quick programming note, former new york city mayor rudy giuliani joins piers margen tonight to talk about president obama, jobs, 9/11, a possible run for the white house, at 9:00 eastern here on cnn. new this morning, authorities in nevada are trying to determine if a gunman was targeting members of the military when he opened fire with an ak-47 at an ihop restaurant in carson city. police say the suspect, 32-year-old eduardo sencion, killed four people and wounded eight others before turning the gun on himself. three of the dead belonged to the nevada national guard. three other guard members were injured. police say the gunman had mental health issues. a deadly bombing outside the high court in delhi, india. nine killed, dozens more injured. police say the bomb was hidden in a briefcase outside the gate leading to the court. the second such blast at delhi's high court complex in four months. testimony resumes in the trial of former egyptian president hosni mubarak. a hearing on monday was adjourned following clashes outside the court. mubarak has pleaded not guilty to charges he ordered the killing of nearly 900 protesters during the uprising that drove him from power in egypt earlier this year. and the state department says it does not believe moammar gadhafi was part of a libyan convoy that passed through niger this week, but they do believe that several senior members of gadhafi's fallen regime were on board that convoy. defense secretary leon panetta says gadhafi is on the run but admits he's not sure where he is. i always wonder how they come to these conclusion. they know he's on the run but you don't know where he is. >> nobody knows where he is except for gadhafi. >> lots of speculation. >> maybe his sons. >> i don't recall in other sort of manhunts of that scope, there being so many publicized clues about he's here and we're closing in on him. one day i think they'll find him. ahead on "american morning," big changes coming to airport security. welcome news for passengers. from size e to triple e. we'll tell you about it when we come back. after the attacks of 9/11 a wall street man pulls a professional 180, leaving behind a lucrative career and salary to open his own business. guess what it is? take a look. we're going to have his story. 12 minutes after the hour. we're back after this. ♪ everything you need to stretch out on long trips. residence inn. ♪ everything you need to stay balanced on long trips. residence inn. 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[ female announcer ] 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®. membership rewards points from american express. the social currency. 15 minutes after the hour. welcome back to "american morning." the u.s. may keep 3,000 troops in iraq past the deadline to have everyone out. a senior pentagon official tells cnn the administration has talked about leaving a small force there beginning next year. right now, there are still 40,000 u.s. troops in iraq. the current agreement is for all troops to withdraw by the end of the year. but the u.s. expects the iraqis do want some of those troops, a small number, to stay on to help with training and security. the official stresses that no final decisions have been made yet. nearly a decade after it was created the department of homeland security is getting a report card from congress. the grade is incomplete. the government accountability office is releasing a 221-page report at a senate hearing later today and while it says that the department is making strides protecting the nation, it has yet to reach its full potential. when it comes to airport security you'll soon be able to keep your shoes on. how about that. >> that would be nice. >> i know. homeland security secretary janet napolitano says they're finally phasing out the requirement for passengers to take off their shoes while going through security. better technology apparently will allow screeners to detect shoe bombs without putting footwear through x-ray machines. the secretary says those changes will come eventually but restrictions for carry-on liquids will continue. it's not the taking off the shoes. it's when you walk through the screener and you're -- in your bare feet. >> yeah. >> that's what grosses me out. >> a lot of places in the world don't do the shoe thing. i don't know if we're more thorough or they have better technology, whatever. looks like we're moving in a good direction. >> i hope so. this sunday marks ten years since the attacks of september 11th, a date for many people marked the beginning of a new journey. >> this morning, we want to introduce you to one man who gave up a high-paying, secure job on wall street, to start his own business. here's christine romans. >> reporter: this is the ticket that changed david's life and career forever. >> a round trip, only one way was taken. >> september 11. >> i was on my way in to basically work on 9/11. i never made it in. >> reporter: in fact, it took him three years to return to his job as a currency trader on wall street. when he did, after a leave of absence, wall street had changed. he had to. >> the culture wasn't what i wanted anymore. i didn't like the way they treated people. >> reporter: that's when he pulled a professional 180, leaving his lucrative career and salary to open his own business, sports-themed barber shops. >> you went literally from pressing a button and hundreds of millions of dollars moving around in trades, to selling $23 haircuts. >> yeah. it's $18 with a discount. yeah. that is. and there's, you know, this isn't about money. i mean, hopefully these will make good money over time, but this isn't ever going to make a ton of money. but that doesn't seem to be as important anymore. >> reporter: what is important to him now, is making a difference. >> this is me building a business. this is having employees. this is trying to have a value system that's mine. i get to enforce with my people. this is mentoring people. this is client contact. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> we'll see you again. >> okay. >> reporter: he may not actually pick up a pair of scissors, but he's hands on in just about every other way. >> i understood this was crazy. a lot of people don't get it. it's a very different world. and people forget, and people and my friends on wall street they say they get it, they don't get it. not when you're making seven figures, you don't get it. >> reporter: his wall street friends may not get it, but his family, certainly does. what did your family think about your career change. >> i was surprised that they were actually incredibly proud of me. one son came and he set up the computers for me. the other one came out one day, we were just open, he took coupons and went door to door to businesses and started handing out coupons. my daughter came and brought her friends from high school. she was proud. she wanted to show her friends what her dad had done. i was beaming. >> reporter: ten years ago on september 11th, 2001, when he began his morning commute, the ticket he purchased bought him more than just a seat on the train. >> why do you keep it? >> a memory. and every time -- i just got chills. every time i look at it, i think of what happened. >> reporter: it's a day he'll never forget. christine romans, cnn, somerset, new jersey. >> wow. >> good for him. >> yeah. there were a lot of those stories of people who made, you know, big changes at that point in their life. >> quality of life. >> it became a priority for a lot of people. >> that's right. still to come on "american morning," we're learning the new details of the president's $300 billion plan to create jobs. the question, of course, is, is it going to be enough to jumpstart the economy? >> the big-time ceo who says she was fired over the phone. then she sent an e-mail out companywide to tell everyone. 20 minutes after the hour. you'e 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®. no, it's just for new people. hey ! chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ? 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yum brands is actively lobbying in washington to add a list of its locations. they include taco bell, kfc and pizza hut. according to the usda food stamp benefits are up to about $65.5 billion as of late last year. which is double where it was in 2005. 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[ male announcer ] each of these photos was taken by someone on the first morning of their retirement. it's the first of more than 6,000 sunrises the average retiree will see. ♪ as we're living longer than ever before, prudential's challenge is to help everyone have the retirement income they'll need to enjoy every one of their days. ♪ prudential. bring your challenges. good morning. we're just crossing 28 minutes after the hour. time to bring you up to speed with some of our top stories. the biggest story we're following right now these out-of-control wildfires racing across texas now killing four people, destroying at least 700 homes in just the past two days. the texas forest service says it's responded to 181 separate fires over the past week. the death toll is mounting in those fires and i think they are about 30% controlled. >> 700 homes destroyed as you mentioned. the death toll now stands at four in a shooting at an ihop in carson city, nevada. three of the victims were members of nevada's national guard. seven were injured. police say the alleged gunman, 32-year-old eduardo sencion opened fire on a group of guardsmen yesterday morning before killing himself. the suspect's family tells police he had mental health issues. an explosion outside the delhi high court in india killing nine people, injuring at least 60 others. authorities say the bomb was inside a brief case which was placed at a gate leading into the court complex. this is the second bombing at the high court since may. no one was killed or injured in the last bombing. we're learning more this morning about the president's jobs plan, including its potential price tag. democratic sources tell our chief white house correspondent jessica yellen that the president will call for an extension of payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits. also believed to be included, spending on infrastructure, including renovating delipidated schools, funds for first responders and teachers who have been laid off. the plan would cost $300 billion, but it would be offset by the same amount in spending cuts. zero sum total essentially. joining me to talk more about the plan is perly bacon national political reporter for "the washington post," steve bell, senior director of the economic policy project. so steve, just to reiterate, $300 billion in new spending, 300 in spending cuts, revenue neutral, sounds good. will it actually work? >> it doesn't even sound good. if you want to have a net growth program, what you need to have is a substantially larger tax cut and what we've recommended on the commission is $640 billion in the form of a full payroll tax holiday, both employers and employees, for 12 months. our view is that zero, 300 up, 300 down, will not provide much of a boost to small business or to all those people who pay more in fica taxes than they pay in income taxes. >> perry, you know, the big question, of course, is this going to pass muster with congress? what do you think? >> it depends on which parts. the parts in terms of the president wants to increase infrastructure spending and also give more aid to states and local governments, i think those ideas will have a lot of trouble passing in congress. a lot of republicans view them as ideas in the original stimulus bill which they strongly oppose. the payroll tax revision, which was passed in december, and the president wants to extend, is something you could see some bipartisan support for in part because republicans in general embrace tax cuts. i think this program, some parts of it will pass, but some parts will have strong opposition from republicans in congress. >> steve, i want to talk about mitt romney and his plan. 59 points in all. said president doesn't have a clue and what he wants to do is create 11 million jobs over four years during a romney presidency. grow the economy by 4% year over year and cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%. how does this plan sound to you? >> improbable. to be blunt about it. i don't see how you, one, guarantee job growth in an economy which has the structural problems we have. and number two, i -- unless you are really willing to make a complete change in the tax code, which has to be done, and would be job creating, and take on a lot of entrenched interests, you're not really going to get there. i'm always very leery, frankly, of these grandiose job plans because i had the opportunity as a very young staffer in the senate to participate in the late '70s in such an exercise and i've heard very little new, frankly, in the last 35 years on this subject. >> perry, i'm going to get to you in a minute. steve, i want to ask you then f neither of these plans are going to work, what is going to work? what do we need to do? >> i think there are two things we do right off the bat. number one, we extend unemployment insurance and number two, we make sure we have the largest possible payroll tax cut that we can have. and with that, you talked about wildfires earlier this morning, the fact of the matter is, we should not have congress have to pass spending cuts to offset what are going to be probably 10 to $11 billion in disaster spending. if you want shovel ready projects, things that will put people right to work, repairing all those burnt homes and all the flooded homes and all those kinds of things in the tornadoes that have occurred, that's what you do. >> but, perry, you know, extending unemployment benefits, insurance, so forth, cutting payroll taxes, you know, is that really going to create jobs? >> they're going to create -- these ideas are going to create a limited amount of jobs. part of what we're seeing in the president's speech, and mitt romney's speech and the house republicans are talking about as well, these in some ways are agendas that look forward to 2012, in ways these ideas know all three sides aren't going to pass in congress and become law. they're trying to build the debate for next fall's election. some ways president obama knows some of these ideas are not going to be passed and some of the -- almost setting up the election, trying to make the argument he has ideas but republicans are blocking them. mitt romney is going to make the argument he has better ideas than president obama. a lot is not meant really to create jobs but to make an argument for political terms. >> perry, because i went to steve for two questions, i'm going to ask you one. some of the proposals we believe that will be in the bill for the president's plan will include money for laid off teachers, first responders, and fixing delipidated schools. jessica yellen was reporting just last night, you know, all of that sounds good and it's going to make it very hard for republicans to reject this plan. i mean, doesn't the president know that? >> i disagree with that. the republicans have been saying for two years, the stimulus, the original stimulus, was full of that kind of spending which the republicans say has not helped the economy. i think the republicans will straight ahead oppose those kinds of programs as being sort of stimulus too. i think i will be surprised to see them support them. they will find a way to oppose that kind of spending. >> perry and steve, we thank you for joining us today. >> thank you. good discussion. >> thank you. >> i think they both get at the point this is just complex and we are so desperate for an answer and something that's just going to work. >> that's right. >> but as steve said, he's seen this tried and tried again, since the '70s. if there were a silver bullet, someone would have fired it. >> you're right. it's complicated, not going to happen overnight. i mean the problem is people are anxious. they're out of work, 9.1% unemployment. it's not changing. we're not moving in the right direction. something has to be done. what are we going to do, right? >> the truth may lie somewhere in the middle. >> i think you're right. >> i hope we see that. new this morning, the man being held in connection with the disabarns of an american woman in aruba could go free today. we've heard that before and hasn't resulted in him going free. an appeal hearing set this morning. last week a judge ordered gary giordano be held another 60 days while the investigation continues. now giordano was the last person to see robyn gardner alive. she went missing. in fact the last person to see her at all. she went missing august 2nd. lawyers for former senator john edwards trying to get criminal charges against him dismissed. edwards has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges and violating campaign contribution laws. his attorneys filing five court motions yesterday claiming the charging documents against edwards are, quote, unconstitutionally vague and that they're politically motivated. >> i thought that was out of the news. i guess not. >> that continues. still to come, toxic dust from 9/11, is it killing first responders ten years later? one firefighter's widow says yes, and we'll have her story next. >> and the obama administration has a plan to help the postal service avoid a possible default. and avoid getting into a lot of trouble. is it going to work? we'll talk about it. it's 37 minutes after the hour. . new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. welcome back to "american morning." ten years ago randy was one of the thousands of first responders who was exposed to toxic dust after the 9/11 attack. the new york city firefighter passed away earlier this year. >> he left behind three children and a wife who believes that dust ultimately killed him. deb feyerick is with us this morning. it's unbelievable, a year ago, at this time, he was frail, but still alive. today, as we look to the tenth anniversary of the attack she's a widow with three children. >> that's exactly right. this is a family who really believed that they dodged a bullet but when the blood cancer hit, it's almost as if someone shut off a switch. this weekend madeleine weebeck will honor this anniversary for the first time as a widow. >> reporter: randy wiebicke's was that like many of new york city firefighters who answered the call on 9/11. the difference, he died ten years later. >> i was with him and talked to him and let him know it was okay to go, that i would take care of the kids. he slipped away just very peacefully. >> reporter: his wife madelin was full of hope when we met them last summer. never did she believe ten years after the attacks she, too, would become a 9/11 widow. >> never in my wildest dreams would i have imagined that. >> reporter: randy was stationed near ground zero and the smoldering debris. in 2009, he was diagnosed with a type of blood cancer, usually affecting people 20 years older. the fire department considers randy's death in the line of duty. >> these guys were down there breathing, eating, sleeping in that dust. there's no doubt in my mind that that's where the cancer came from. >> reporter: a year ago, randy took a calculated risk, undergoing an experimental stem cell transplant. >> randy was just so strong and so healthy and so larger than life, that, you know, we felt he would make it through it. >> reporter: but the viruses that subsequently attacked his weak immune system were too many and too aggressive to overcome. >> what was it like for you and randy in the end? >> we actually had special, beautiful times together even in the hospital. we would just hug each other and talk about our children. >> reporter: katie, marianne and danny, the oldest of the three. he was so strong and so positive and so good. i think 92% of their funds go directly to research. >> reporter: since randy's death in march, madelin has started a new and different future, step by step. >> i think randy would just want -- he wanted everybody to help each other, so that's why we're here now. >> reporter: she has raised 30,000 for the multiple my yes loma research foundation to help others suffering from the same cancer as randy. she walks every day, to stay strong, healthy and positive. >> so this is going to be a little powder room. >> reporter: and she's building a new kitchen, just as she and randy always planned. do you feel any residual anger? >> i don't feel angry. i feel sad. i feel sad that people are still dying from it. >> reporter: sad, too, because it's all so new. >> i wish he could still be here. >> reporter: madelin is trying to live the lessons randy taught as he lay dying, that is to live a simpler life, help others more, and, perhaps, most of all, forgive. >> what does the future hold for you, do you think? >> i'm grateful that i had randy as a best friend for 27 years. i've made a choice, i'm going to be happy. he always wanted me happy. he never held me back from anything. he was always really proud. so, he would want that now. >> now, a study by the new york city fire department finds that what something many first responders long suspected firefighters who served at ground zero are more at risk of developing cancer. for madelin, she was with randy virtually every day he was in the hospital. she is strong, she says that the thing she feared the most, has happened. and now she is focusing on the future. >> what a heartbreaking story. >> she's so strong. >> so graceful. >> incredibly graceful. to have that time with him to say good-bye is both a blessing and curse. >> that's exactly right. you look at it and you think, boy, she had ten years, many families did not have. >> right. >> but at the same time, it's a reminder that the casualties continue. >> sure. >> that there are still victims out there. >> is there any recourse? >> not with the cancers. not with the cancers. they are trying to get them incorporated within the larger bill, but -- >> that will be reviewed again next year. >> exactly right. that's exactly right. there's still that ultimate link, not just anecdotal. >> a lot of people feel that will succeed, but people are dying. >> they're not getting the help. it is, it makes a difference. it makes a difference when you know there's money available when there's some sort of -- something that can ease your way so the financial burdens are lessened. >> what an extraordinary gift that you got to spend time with them. >> really special family and really special woman. >> great. thanks so much. >> of course. >> thank you so much. okay. . it's 46 minutes after the hour. your top stories are coming up next. >> footprints on the moon. nasa is actually releasing new high-definition photos showing where man left his mark. it is extraordinary to see. 47 minutes after the hour. we're back after this. ♪ [ male announcer ] each of these photos was taken by someone on the first morning of their retirement. it's the first of more than 6,000 sunrises the average retiree will see. ♪ as we're living longer than ever before, prudential's challenge is to help everyone have the retirement income they'll need to enjoy every one of their days. ♪ prudential. bring your challenges. purina cat chow helps you well-being. we're all striving for it. nurture it in your cat with a full family of excellent nutrition and helpful resources. purina cat chow. share a better life. your nutritional needs can go up when you're on the road to recovery. proper nutrition can help you get back on your feet. three out of four doctors recommend the ensure brand for extra nutrition. ensure clinical strength has revigor and thirteen grams of protein to protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. and immune balance to help support your immune system. ensure clinical strength... helping you to bounce back. ensure! nutrition in charge! welcome back to "american morning." 48 minutes past the hour. here's what you need to know to start your day. out-of-control wildfires racing across texas, now killing four people and destroying at least 700 homes in just the past two days. democratic sources tell cnn president obama's jobs plan will call for $300 million in tax breaks, incentives and other spending. the price tag will be offset by an equal amount of budget cuts. the obama administration is reportedly pushing for legislation that would give the postal service an extra three months to make up an upcoming $5.5 billion payment to a retiree fund. coming up at 7:15 we'll talk to patrick donna how about the agency and how it may shut down. the family of yale graduate student annie le is filing a wrongful death suit claiming the university has failed to adequately protect women on campus. le was killed in a research lab in 2009, her body found stuff inside a wall. school officials say the suit has no merit. imagine going through airport security without taking your shoes off. it may soon be possible. the department of homeland security says new technology will allow them to drop the shoe removal requirement, but there's no word yet on when that will happen. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" is back right after this. donahoe. welcome back to "american morning." they are some of the most stunning pictures of the moon's surface that we have ever seen. check this out. nasa's lunar reconnaissance orbiter, launched back in 2009, captured these high-resolution images of the apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites. you can see the flags and the footprints. they're identified with a little bit of script. there you go. the astronauts made in much greater detail, along with the tracks from the moon buggy. the images were released before nasa launches its next mission to the moon. the mission is to map the moon's gravity. that launch is set for tomorrow. those rockets aren't going to land on the moon. they're going to work in tandem around the moon an get a sense of what's inside. the feeling is we know a good amount about what's on the surface. >> i think it's time for a new film "apollo 8." it's hard for me to see. explain this one. take a good look at it. floral gifts can be tricky, do you send an orchid plant, roses. >> i would ask you. >> well, you should. i'm pretty good at that, actually. so how do you know which one is just right? >> one thing we know is madonna hates -- what are they hydrangeas? >> hydrangeas. her reaction to a fan's gift caught on an open mike and got the internet all fired up. >> reporter: it's enough to make a hydrangea wilt. insulted by madonna in videos that have gone viral. there madonna is at the venice film festival when a fan among the press people gives her a flower. >> we're my princess, thank you so much. i love you. >> reporter: after madonna tells him thank you, some say she rolls her eyes and out comes the truth barely picked up an open mike. i absolutely loathe hydrangeas. >> i absolutely loathe h hydrangeas. he obviously doesn't know. >> reporter: hydrangeas of the world unite. what did hydrangeas ever do to you? the "b" word flew at madonna, the one that rimes with witch. we went to flowers of the world in manhattan to see why anyone would hate hydrangeas? >> a lot of people think it's their and go mother's flower. >> reporter: on top of that, hydrangeas grow if people's yards. >> makes it more lowy. >> i see it in other people's yards. couldn't be that great of a flower. >> reporter: these are from the netherlands and cost 20 or $30 a stem. could madonna's loathing turn it into the new broccoli. >> i do not like broccoli and my mother made me eat it and i'm president of the united states and i'm not going to eat broccoli. >> reporter: madonna may run through fields of lilies. >> you make me feel. >> reporter: she's accepted humble daisies. ♪ living in a material world >> reporter: and clutch them like a smitten school girl in the videos that have gone viral, hydrangea get no respect. >> madonna, where's the flowers that i gave you? >> oh, my assistant took them. >> reporter: madonna's spokesperson says she's entitled to like any flower she wants and she didn't want to hurt the feelings of the hydrangeas of the world. maybe. but her attitude was similar to that of the editor in "the devil wears prada." >> do i smell free shahs? >> what. >> >> do i smell hydrangea? >> no. i specifically told them that -- >> i see free shahs anywhere, i will be very disappointed. >> if i see high drain ya anywhere, i'm going to be very disappointed. from the hydrangeas' point of view, madonna stinks. >> it's an unscented flower. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn. >> new york. >> thank you. >> i happen to like hydrangeas. >> if i asked you if it was an appropriate gift for somebody, it would be okay? >> it would be on the short list. >> they seem very large. >> listen, i'm a huge madonna fan, have been since i was wearing rubber bracelets and lace in my hair, but, you know, she likes what she likes. you can't -- >> for those of you who don't know by the way, we were office mates and alina consulted me on what i would eat for lunch, how i should conduct my habits. >> usually you won with the vest. >> we're used to consulting each other. >> you found that funny, didn't you? see. anyway. ahead in the next hour, we have new details about president obama's jobs plan. a day before his big speech, including the price tag and the fight it could cause. 56 minutes after the hour. 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®. new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. [♪...] >> male announcer: now, for a limited time, your companion flies free, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. conditions apply.. fast and furious, wildfires growing by the second in texas. running over hundreds of homes. firefighters calling for help and getting it from as far away as oregon. president obama's new plan to jump start jobs. we now know how much it will cost, hundreds of billions of dollars, but will it boom the economy? an american woman still missing in aruba, the man who claims she was swept out to sea, could walk today. a key hearing in this case this morning. and yahoo! search, the company looking for a new ceo after firing the big boss by phone on this "american morning." good morning, everybody. it's wednesday, september 7th. welcome to "american morning." i'm alina cho. christine and carol have the morning off. >> i'm ali velshi. a lot going on this morning. let's get to it. we begin with the raging wildfires sweeping across texas right now. governor rick perry describing the disaster as a monstrous storm of smoke and fire. the flames have now killed four people and sent thousands running for their lives. the texas forest service says more than 700 homes have burned in the past two days. this is what's left of a ranch in austin, texas. a pile of twisted metal and ash. the flames so intense, they could melt -- they've melted glass and bottles. windshields. the largest fire in bastrop county is up to 30,000 acres and only a fraction of it is contained. our jim spellman is there right now. jim, what's the situation? >> well, they took advantage here yesterday, fire crews did, of better conditions, lower winds, cooler temperatures. today the temperatures are going to be back up in the mid 90s, but the winds will stay low. that's so essential for fighting these fires. that means that the fire will spread less and they're able to get and create these fire lines with less fear that embers will pick up, blow in the wind and start a new fire on the other side of the fire lines. they're going to do their best to do that. as you mentioned two people dead in this fire here so far. as the possibility of more injury or death is out there now, governor perry deployed a search and rescue team to get into this fire into the damage to see if anybody needs help, needs rescue, might be trapped, any of these structures. these fires have just been breaking out all over. yesterday on the other side of austin, a fire got under control, residents able to go back in and see what the damage was. david mattingly caught up with one of the woman as she went back to her home. take a look. >> my heart is pounding. it's pounding so hard right now. because i don't know how i'm going to react when i actually see it and stand in front of it. katie and brian's house. and that's my house. that's my house. >> right here? >> yes. >> i'm sorry. the oak trees are still there. >> are you all right? you're shaking. >> i'm okay. i am the luckiest person in the world. my family is safe. now i need to check on my neighbors. >> reporter: just heartbreaking, ali. even though the forecast is for better conditions here for fighting the fire, what's not in the forecast is any kind of meaningful rain to stop these epic drought conditions that have been going on here. they've been fighting fires for 295 consecutive days in texas. it's unbelievable. >> a long drought and for all those storms that have been going on, they're just not getting the benefit of the rain. they're just getting the bad part, the winds. all right. jim, we'll keep checking in with you hopefully they get this under control soon. jim spellman in texas. >> rob marciano in the extreme weather center with a look at what's ahead and are firefighters going to get help with the winds today? >> winds will be about the same as yesterday, maybe a little stronger, but will remain relatively cool compared to what she have seen in the past few days. video shot two days ago when the winds were much worse. highlights just how quickly these fires can move across the ground. this video is not sped up at all. it is shot just outside the bastrop state park there, and these flames just reaching on the ground and reaching for the grass, burj it, getting into the shrubbery and dried pines which are just going to explode. you can understand how frantic the escape must have been for those folks evacuating their homes. this was shot on monday. conditions were worse on sunday. scary stuff. all right. this picture taken northwest of the city skyline of austin. you can see the smoke just 20, 30 miles to the south and east of where that fire is. thankfully for austin, winds are blowing away from the city. anywhere downwind of not only this fire but the magnolia fire just north of houston will be dealing with some serious air quality issues. 95 the expected high temperature today. that's a little bit warmer than yesterday, but still cool compared to what they've been dealing with. 95 in dallas. rain moving up across the northeast. remnants of lee there. we're also watching another disturbance in the gulf of mexico. that one probably not bringing rainfall to texas. so, no rain in the forecast for texas until further notice. >> rob, those pictures of those pines getting devourds, it's truly remarkable. when you haven't been around firefighters -- fire, you know, those types of forest fires, and you see something like that, i mean those trees just looked as you said like they're exploding. they catch that fire and then they're gone. doesn't look like it burns through the tree. >> and it does spare some trees. some of the hard woods will, you know, be spared, but these pine trees, they've got a little more oil in them and they literally explode. this is flat terrain. keep in mind when we see fires out west in rugged terrain, when you incorporate climbing uphill which is easy to do, these fires move two, three, four times faster than that. >> what's also remarkable and rob may know this, on "ac 360" last night they were talking about -- anderson talking to the forest service woman and she said that a lot of the fires, most of them, are actually manmade. you know how they start, is that there will be these chains, long chains, at the ends of mobile homes they'll drag, they'll break off, and they're hot enough they get, you know -- they fly on to the grass and spark a fire. it's unbelievable. >> when it's that scorched anything can, rob? >> the record-breaking drought ongoing has been the main pla ur. >> thanks, buddy. check in later. we're learning new details this morning of president obama's jobs plan. he'll lay it out tomorrow night and democratic sources tell our chief white house correspondent jessica yellen it will include $300 billion in tax breaks and spending. our joe jones is live in washington for us. so joe, what more are you learning about the president's plan? >> hey, alina. we're talking about $300 billion in new spending, $300 billion in tax cuts. i think we have a graphic that shows some of the other stuff. it's revenue neutral. payroll tax cuts. extension of unemployment benefits. we've heard about money for laid off teachers and first responders. frankly, there is just not a lot that is new here that we haven't heard before and while republicans, apparently, see no benefit in doing a formal congressional response to the president's speech, we do expect this stuff to be attacked as political positioning on the part of the president, as part of his re-election campaign. the bottom line is, a lot of this stuff smacks of another round of economic stimulus. many republicans in congress have said previously they're opposed to a second round of stimulus spending. a couple things that do sound promising, at least on the face, the payroll tax cuts, that's something republicans have pretty much been on board for before. nonetheless, you're going to hear people saying it doesn't go far enough and the president has also talked just a bit about rolling back regulation, especially as it relates to the environmental protection agency. republicans are encouraging that because they see regulations that the administration has put in as burdensome and a drag on the economy. so some of this, some of that, probably a lot of it a nonstarter because it's going to be seen as political positioning on the part of the president. >> i think we know two things, joe. one is that this is probably a first draft and second, is that there's going to be a tough fight ahead in congress. joe johns, live for us in washington, thank you. the president addresses congress and the nation with his jobs plan thursday night, 7:00 p.m. eastern. our special coverage begins at 6:00 and, of course, you can watch it all here live on cnn. when it comes to creating jobs and turning the economy around, mitt romney insists that he is the man for the job. the former massachusetts governor unveiled his own 59-point plan that he claims will create 11 million jobs in the first four years of a romney white house. and he couldn't resist taking a shot at president obama when he unveiled it yesterday. >> even the president, by the way, he's not a bad guy. he just doesn't know how the economy works. he never worked in the economy. to create jobs it helps to have had a job and i have. and so i -- [ applause ] i'm looking forward to him coming back into the real economy. >> cnn political editor mark preston joins us live from washington this morning. mark, mitt romney has put out a very, very, very detailed jobs plan. >> 59 points. 59 points, ali. so many points, in fact, it has its own book and you can download it off the internet if you want to get into every detail he laid out yesterday, but let's look at three of the top details that he talked about yesterday. first of all he said he would waive the obama health care reform law. this is a very big talking point amongst republicans running for president and would cut the corporate tax rate and boost domestic energy production. these are all very big talking points for republicans nowadays. you know, when mitt romney unveiled his plan yesterday, ali, it wasn't just the obama campaign that criticized him saying that he's using recycled old ideas. it was also his rivals for the republican nomination. rick perry, the texas governor, dealing with the wildfires right now, criticized him as did jon huntsman, former utah governor. both said when mitt romney was the governor of massachusetts, he never supported these type of economic ideals. starting to see this fighting for the republican presidential nomination come out in terms of policy and tonight, perhaps, we'll see that in california when three of them will take stage with five others to talk about their future. their ideas. >> the republicans are not offering a formal response to the president's speech on thursday night as dan was just telling us, but it's pretty clear these candidates, at least the front running ones, will offer some response to it. >> yeah. there's no question in the fact of the matter is, we saw mitt romney trying to preempt that by putting out his 59-point plan already and we saw jon huntsman try do the same thing. what they're trying to do is present their plans out to be the main speaker for the republican party right now because there is a big void right now, ali. there is no real leader of the republican party of mitch mcconnell in the senate, john boehner in the house, but the leader of the republican party is going to be whoever wins this nomination, ali. >> mark, good to see you this morning. mark preston in washington. we are following new developments this morning in a massacre at an i hop restaurant. it happened in carson city, nevada. a gunman opened fire killing three members of nevada's national guard and a civilian. seven others were wounded. >> the suspected shooter is 32-year-old eduardo sencion. he killed himself. his motive may never be known. there is speculation this morning he was targeting the military. reporter nick month selly with cnn affiliate kxt be v has the story. ♪ god bless america >> reporter: there are moments in time when strangers come together for a united cause. ♪ my home >> reporter: in carson city no one really knows that cause. >> what's happened today has brought us here tonight. >> reporter: but they knew they wanted to be together. >> a little boy got pulled from a classroom today to find out his dad was killed. >> reporter: the reason they are here is because of an unreasonable act. around 9:00, eduardo sencion went on a shooting rampage starting outside of ihop and then inside where he found a group of uniform national guard members and started shooting. >> sounded like fire crackers. >> reporter: then the shooting moved outside. ralph owns the straurnts next door. >> my son went to lock the front door and that's when he noticed us and started shooting up my restaurant. we had bullets whizzing around us. >> reporter: no one in his restaurant was hurt but 11 were, and four of them are dead. of those, three are guard members. the fbi does not think this is linked to terrorism, but the county says the coincidence is high. >> obviously, with five out of 11 of the victims are uniformed national guard members, that's taking a priority interest. there has been some suggestion by his family members that there is some mental health issues. ♪ amazing grace >> reporter: those details are secondary to the pain this community is feeling, gathered in front of the veterans memorial wall, they realized new veterans were made on their own soil. >> can you imagine going through all that crap and you come home, having breakfast and somebody -- it's insane. ♪ amazing grace >> according to kxtv, authorities plan to release the names of the shooting victims later this morning. here's what else is happening this morning, a deadly attack on india's high court. at least nine people were killed, a dozens more injured when a bomb exploded outside the delhi high court complex. authorities say the bomb was hidden in a briefcase near a crowd of people waiting to get inside. there's been no claim yet of responsibility. we're telling you about this earlier, homeland security secretary janet napolitano says the government is doing what it can to make flying less of a hassle. she says travelers will eventually be able to go through airport security without taking off their shoes. it will take much longer, though, for restrictions on carry-ons, the liquids to be relaxed. >> best news i've heard all day. this is the most interesting story i've heard in a while. the search on for a new ceo at yahoo!. that's because carol bartz was fired after the board grew impatient with the company's growth. in a letter to the entire company, bartz wrote i am very sad to tell you i have just been fired over the phone by yahoo!'s chairman of the board. it has been my pleasure to work with all of you and i wish you only the best going forward. got to give her credit. >> it's better than that whole i'm taking time to spend with my family kind of thing. she laid it out there. >> got to give her credit for her honesty. the stock is up in afterhours trading as a result of that. who knows. tough world out there. make it to the top and then that's what happens. still to come, the white house working on a plan to save the post office. is it enough to save that cash strapped agency? i'm going to talk to the postmaster general about it. rising from the ashes ten years after the fall of the twin towers, a look at the incredible progress being made on construction of the new world trade center tower. i was just there yesterday. we'll have more on that next. and some footprints on the moon. nasa is releasing some new high-def photos and they actually show you where man left his mark. you're watching "american morning." it's 15 minutes after the hour. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. "american morning." the white house may deliver the post office some welcome news. the administration right now working on plans to save -- to save the cash strapped agency from defaulting on its massive $5.5 billion pension payment by giving it an extra three months to pay up. even with that reprieve, the agency warns it's still likely to run out of money. joining me is the postmaster general, patrick donahoe. mr. donahoe, thank you for being with us. >> good morning, ali. >> let's talk a little bit about this. this shortfall, explain it to me. this isn't just an operating shortfall. this is pension liabilities that you have that you don't have the money to pay. >> two things are happening. first of all, people are paying bills on-line, our volume has gone down. the second thing is, we are required by law to prepay retiree health benefits to the tune of $5.5 billion a year. both of those together have really created a very tough financial situation for usp. >> what's the thinking about prepaying these benefits? i would think the obvious thinking is that in most companies we have unfunded liabilities. you have all these obligations and no likely load of ever meeting them. the post office has the opposite situation. >> that's right. the idea behind the prefunding is this. the fact that our volume will go down over time there has been concern we wouldn't be able to pay these benefits later on so we've been required by law to prepay them. we're trying to change the process. we're proposing we take over our own health care system and pull the cost downs and in effect eliminate the need to prefund going forward. >> if you got that way, how much money might you be able to get out of the system? how much money that has already been banked would you be able to take out. >> the liability is $90 billion. we've paid $44 billion into it. we think that we would be able to offset the additional $46 billion. >> okay. what does that do for you on an operating base this? how much money does the post office lose just for being the post office? >> well, right now, our operating loss is about $2 billion. we've got a plan in place that -- we're requesting help from congress to eliminate the six day to five day delivery. we're making internal changes in our networks that will save us about $5 billion. our goal is to get profitable over the next three years, pay down our debt, and get our finances stabilized going forward. >> who's on the hook when you're not profitable? >> well, we are to a large extent. we've got a debt ceiling that goes up to $15 billion. one option is to increase that which we don't want to do. we need to just go ahead and make these changes. america's mailing habits have changed. we still do a great job with advertising. people use for that. they use us for packages. that's where we'll be focusing going forward. >> how do you bridge this gap between feeling and looking to some people like a government agency, like a civil service organization, and needing to compete as a real business? what has to change for the post office to really compete against your major competitors? >> the key thing is, we need radical change in the way that our business models is constructed. too many constraints. as i mentioned to you i've got to ask for permission to go from six days to five days from congress. no other business would do that. we have the ability to choose our own health care process so we can get away from a $5.5 billion payment every year. those are the kind of things that we need the freedom to act on right now. >> you're talking about things you want to be profitable in the next two to three years, but talking about running out of money this fiscal year. is there a plan that is being worked out right now by the white house that you think is going to be reasonably allow the post office to stay liquid? >> the white house let us know yesterday the $5.5 billion payment they're going to propose it be pushed back for 90 days. that gives congress the opportunity to work through legislative process to get some of the things we've been asking for. >> i want to ask you about this proposal floated that would involve over a period of a few years, laying off in excess of 100,000 people. i think 120,000 people. first of all, you don't -- you're not at the moment -- you don't have the authority to do that. >> well, we don't have the authority to what we call put into place a reduction of force. we have no clauses for some of our contracts. we're working with the unions to try to figure out the best way to get it to that point. what's happened over the past ten years. we've reduced the head count in this organization by 250,000 people. our people have done a great job, very productive. the problem is as that volume goes down we have to reduce the head count even faster. >> patrick donahoe, thanks for joining us to shed some light on this. it's going to be a discussion that affects all of us either workers or people who use the postal service. good to have this conversation with you. >> thank you. >> i can't imagine the post office shutting down, i have to say. >> no. >> i know it's tough times. >> you can't imagine post delivery going to five days. >> and quite frankly i'm surprised it hasn't yet. there's been a holdup. still to come, president obama preparing to deliver his big jobs speech tomorrow. but what do small business owners want to hear from the president? we'll talk to two of them next. plus, want to know where to grab the best hamburger? ali, you don't eat burgers these day. >> not before 7:00 a.m. >> we're going to tell you where you can get the best burger, the best fries, the best fast food joints and we're going to tell you which one was ranked number one. it may surprise you. you're watching "american morning." it's 24 minutes after the hour. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. 27 minutes after the hour. welcome back to "american morning." minding your business. u.s. markets down for the third straight day and since the beginning of the year, the dow is down nearly 4%. the nasdaq about 7%. the s&p 500, which you may have mutual funds that look like it, are down about 7.5% so far this year. hey, italy's at the center stage today in the european debt crisis. its parliament will vote on a new budget this afternoon as thousands of workers protested yesterday. new austerity measures that are part of the budget proposal. right now u.s. stock futures for the dow, nasdaq, s&p 500 all trading higher ahead of the opening bell. i'm sorry. lots of volatility in the markets as we've been seeing for the past few weeks. struggling automaker saab is filing for bankruptcy protection today in sweden. the goal is to reorganize the company while it waits for additional funding. this was expected as part of the company's restructuring plan. if you're looking for the best place to grab a quick bite, may want to check out wendy's. it's the number one major fast food giant according to za gats's fast food survey. want the best burger you have to go to five guys, and for the golden fries the golden arches. mcdonald's earned the bragging rights for the best french fries. for the latest news about your money, check out the new cnnmoney.com. "american morning" back right after the break. i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno. my subaru saved my life. i won't ever forget that. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. the plan to get america working again. president obama unveils it tomorrow, but what do small business owners want to hear today? we find out on this "american morning." good morning, everybody. it's 30 minutes after the hour on this wednesday, september 7th. you are looking live -- >> it's not still raining, is it? >> looking live at columbus circle outside our studios by central park. apparently it is still raining and it will be rainy most of the afternoon. i hope you brought your umbrella. >> i did. >> here's the good news, the highs in the 70s. >> there's -- >> right after labor day, just like fall. >> this is the remnants of tropical storm lee. in fact, some some parts of the northeast, where we've just dried up from irene, there's renewed flooding. in the philly area, the schuykill river, more concerns about this. wet up here, dry down south. here are your top stories. a lot going on, really dry, in fact in texas, raging wildfires are scorching texas right now. governor rick perry calling them a monstrous storm of smoke and fire. the flames have now killed four people. hundreds of firefighters still on the front lines. texas forest service says more than 700 homes have burned in the past two days. a massacre in carson city, nevada. a gunman opened fire on uniformed national guardsmen as they were eating breakfast in a local ihop yesterday. three guards men were killed along with a civilian. the gunman has been identified as eduardo sen shun. democratic sources telling cnn president obama's jobs plan will include $300 billion in tax breaks, incentives and other spending. the costs will be offset by an equal amount of budget cuts. the president unveils his plan tomorrow night 7:00 p.m. eastern. full coverage right here on cnn. if president obama wants to create jobs, he'll definitely need the help of my next two guests, small business owners. according to the u.s. treasury, they create 60% of the jobs right here in the united states, employing about half the work force. do they like what they're hearing about this new plan that the president will unveil tomorrow? joining me, patty brugilio the president of mmi public relations, a pr firm, joins us from raleigh, north carolina. and christopher zain, the founder of zain's cycles, a big bike shop in branford, connecticut, near new haven, and chris is here in the studio. chris, i want to ask you, we're told that a key component of the president's jobs plan is an extension of the payroll tax break for employees. is this music to your ears? you say the president needs to listen to main street. is he? >> he's really not. when you look at the payroll tax breaks, they're minimal. if i'm going to hire a new employee it's going to cost me $40,000 or $50,000, a thousand dollar tax credit doesn't make me want to hire a lot of people because it doesn't add up to a whole lot. unfortunately we don't have the -- there's not enough behind it to justify the pain that can be created by hiring people if you don't necessarily need them. >> patty, i know you were hoping to hear something else from the president. you say it's the same old, same old. we should point out you did not vote for president obama. what do you want to hear from the president? >> you know, i don't know where to start. the thing i want to hear most is that president obama understands that government doesn't create jobs. what the government does is create an environment that allows small business to create jobs. and that what he will do is, he will work, he will lead from the front, not from behind, and that he will work to create that environment which gives us access to credit, which gives us predictability and certainty so we can plan. that's what i want to hear. i want some leadership that gives me an environment where i can plan for the future. >> chris, interesting. i want to talk a little -- listen, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that we're in tough economic times. >> absolutely. >> unemployment is still at 9.1%. i would think that in this environment, people are thinking to themselves, i don't really need that new bike and i know you say that when there's a 500-point drop in the market your store is empty the next day. how has your store fared? and what do you see as the biggest problem for small business owners? >> i've been in business 30 years. i've been through lots of presidents and bad economies and great economies and that doesn't really upset the part. we can continue and move forward regardless of what the economy is doing. it's the uncertainty in the economy that immediately affects our business. >> you say, let the market go down, just let it keep going down. >> right. let it stabilize, figure out what -- figure out the trend and then we know what to do. one of the biggest problems of small business is they don't have access to credit. if you can't make payroll because you can't get a credit line you're not going to hire new people because you're not going to take on the risk. i've made payroll 1500 weeks 100% of the time, a lot of weeks to make payroll. without access to credit, the ability to get money to help make, you know, the -- cover the dips and the peaks, that's what's going to create jobs in the future. >> i want to talk to you, patty, about this as well. i would think, again, in this environment that companies are saying to themselves, you know what, i can cut that pr budget. i know you recently moved into a new building that's got to be tough for you? >> actually, we're doing okay. we're very tightly focused on what we do, and i'm sort of different in the sense that i saw the downturn as an opportunity to grow and i had been hoarding cash during the good times. i was doing the opposite of what everybody else was doing. what the government could do right now is cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%. we have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world and it would be better for us to get 25% of something than 35% of nothing. >> pat itty -- >> that alone -- >> chris, she brings up the corporate tax rate. you know, mitt romney unveiled his own plan yesterday, 59 points. >> right. >> one of them being cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25%. would that help you? >> it will help us but i don't know it's the thing that's going to make the change. >> what do you want to hear? >> i want to hear, one, that this is a political speech to get re-elected, that he has something that's going to give us some opportunity, and again, that they're going to look to main street to help grow jobs. big businesses don't necessarily create jobs for small business, but small business creates jobs for big business. if i buy a building or some equipment that trickles up to the big businesses. >> you said something interesting to me in the break which was this, basically you said, what the president needs to do, what the government needs to do, is just get out of our way? >> absolutely. small business, we know what we need to do to be successful and fortunately like patty, we've done what needs to be done to weather the storm. now just let us do it and stop, you know, making things uncomfortable and try to figure out how to flash trading and all the things that make everything so turbulent. if we could diminish the turbulence small business will be fine. >> patty and christopher, we thank you for joining us today. great discussion. >> thank you. >> good luck. >> indeed. excellent discussion. one of the things that president obama is expected to announce is the creation of a national infrastructure bank during his jobs speech on thursday. want to tell you a little bit about what it would do. the national infrastructure bank would fund the repair of infrastructure projects, bridges, rail, waterways, roads, through public seed money and private investors. it's actually estimated that which need -- we need to spend more than $2 trillion just to improve existing infrastructure in the united states to standard. this isn't new things, because we want newer, fancier inf infrastructure. this is keeping things going the way they should be. here's the way it works. the infrastructure bank will serve as a central source of low interest funding, but they will combine with private investors. when i say private investors, think about pension funds and things like that. providing half the investment. half the investment from here, half from private investors. the idea it would go to where these projects would employ a lot of people. the projects would only be approved after a thorough cost analysis and if you private investors in there they want to be making money. the infrastructure bank would operate independently from congress. it would need an initial seed investment of 5 to $30 billion, but the point of it would be to be profitable. and this suggestion actually has the support of the aafl-cio, u.. chamber of commerce, everybody would do it a little differently but it has broad support. the intention is it would create thousands of construction jobs. obviously the criticism here is that while we talk about shovel ready jobs, it wouldn't get up and running fasts enough to affect the jobs situation we've got right now. we'll be talking a lot about infrastructure banks. you'll be hearing more about that. and cnn will have live coverage of president obama's jobs speech, 7:00 p.m. eastern. we're going to take a quick break. "american morning" will be back. i'll be talking to the ceo of starbuc starbucks. and commitment is not limited to one's military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. from free checking to credit cards to loans, our commitment to the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. ♪ visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different. usaa. we know what it means to serve. any questions? no. you know... ♪ we're not magicians ♪ we can't read your mind ♪ ♪ read your mind ♪ we need your questions ♪ each and every kind ♪ every kind ♪ will this react with my other medicine? ♪ ♪ hey, what are all these tests even for? ♪ ♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh welcome back to "american morning." a hearing for the suspect in the death of an american woman in aruba is expected to take place later this morning. gary giordano is asking to be set free due to a lack of evidence. his traveling companion, robyn gardner, went missing on august 2nd, but despite an exhaustive search she has not been found. martin savidge is live in aruba for us, martin, good morning to you. >> good morning. yeah. this is going to be a big day for gary giordano because he's going before an appellate court, really. three judges that are going to determine if last week's detainment extension where he was extended another 60 days on the island canning overturned. in other words the three judges will listen to his defense attorneys say hey, look, there is no evidence to say this is anything beyond what gary giordano said it was, robyn gardner vanished in a snorkeling accident. the prosecution, of course, is going to tell it a little differently than that, they're still continuing their investigation. they believe it is a serious event that's happened here, but the problem is no one can say is it a crime, which is why the defense team is going to say he should be out today and that could happen. let me remind you of what happened. august 2nd, when robyn gardner and gary giordano both came down here, traveling companions on a trip to aruba. but the last time they were seen was 4:30 in the afternoon. supposedly they went snorkeling, according to gary giordano, behind a restaurant where they had their lunch. he goes in the water, she goes in the water, they get out. he decides maybe it's time to turn back. he gets out of the water looks back and she is not there. calls authorities and then a massive search is begun. the mystery is compounded by the fact that just a couple of days before their journey, gary giordano took out a $1.5 million life insurance policy on robyn gardner and he was the beneficiary. that's what the prosecution is going to point to today, remind the judges here there's a lot of money at stake and a lot of potential motivation. we should know before the day is out whether gary giordano goes home or stays. >> the story continues to be very compelling. all right. martin, we'll check in with you as soon as you have news on that, let us know. martin savidge in aruba. developments in the amanda knox retrial. the judge is rejecting the prosecution's call for a new dna assessment. >> cnn's zain verjee following developments from london. good morning. what's the latest? >> hi, good morning to you guys. this is very dramatic. i mean this is a pivotal week. it's now been adjourned until the 23rd of september, but the focus has been on the bloodied bra of the victim, meredith kercher, as well as a knife in question. and the prosecution and the defense are making very strong arguments on both sides. two critical things have happened that have turned the balance in favor of the defense most analysts would say. first of all, one of italy's best-known forensic experts came on the stand and gave a very technical explanation as to why the dna on the knife itself, he says, that it is not enough to be conclusive to suggest that it is actually meredith kercher's blood and that is a key point because the prosecution put her away based partly on suggesting that was the case. and secondly, the prosecution said look, we want to call in another witness, we want more dna assessments going on here and the judge, just a short while ago, said no, he's not going to allow that. amanda knox's father told our matthew chance this, clearly amanda no longer has a case to answer. they're keeping their fingers crossed that she could walk. >> all right. >> you're ali velshi. zain verjee, thank you for that update from london. still to come, a plea from new york mayor michael bloomberg, why he wants everyone to stop using the words "ground zero." terror in the dust. dr. sanjay gupta investigates why first responders are still getting sick ten years after the twin towers fell. you're watching "american morning." it's 46 minutes after the hour. [ cherie ] i wanted to make a difference in my community. [ kimberly ] the university gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people's lives. [ carrie ] you're studying how to be an effective leader. [ cherie ] you're dealing with professionals, teaching things that they were doing every day. [ kimberly ] i manage a network of over a thousand nurses. [ carrie ] i helped turn an at-risk school into an award-winning school. [ cherie ] i'm responsible for the largest urban renewal project in utah. [ kimberly ] and university of phoenix made it possible. learn more at phoenix.edu. a lot going on this morning. fire crews in texas fighting a an uphill battle against scores of wildfires. 181 separate fires have erupted in the past week. four people have died, more than 700 homes destroyed in just the past two days. as president obama puts the finishing touches on his jobs speech to congress tomorrow night, we're learning that his plan to put america back to work includes $300 billion in tax breaks and spending cuts. the family of yale graduate student annie le, who was killed in a research lab two years ago, is now filing a wrongful death suit. the suit claims the university failed to adequately protect women on campus. her body was found stuffed inside a wall. school officials say the lawsuit has no merit. nasa is releasing new high-definition photos that apparently show tracks on the moon from several apollo missions. they came from nasa's lunar reconnaissance orbiter which was launched back in 2009. and we knew regis philbin was leaving his show "live with regis and kelly" now we know when. regis announced that friday, november 18th, will be his last day on the program. you're caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" is back in two minutes. [ female announcer ] introducing crest complete whitening plus deep clean. you feel it working, so you know it's working. and that means you're good to go, for whatever the day brings. new crest complete. unlike ordinary toothpaste, you feel a deeper clean. it's a signal that tells you your whole mouth is clean. you're also protected. because most of life happens outside the bathroom. feel it working, know you're covered. with new crest complete, life opens up when you do. the authentic, the rare, the hard to define. to those always searching for what's pure and what's real from we who believe we know just how you feel. haagen-dazs. 51 minutes after the hour. welcome back to "american morning." it was created nearly ten years ago after the 9/11 attacks and the department of homeland security has yet to reach its full potential. the government accountability office is releasing a 221-page report at a senate hearing later today. while it says the department is making strides in protecting the nation, the grade it gets is incomplete. >> that's right. new york city mayor michael bloomberg would like everyone to stop calling the world trade center ground zero. the city is just days away from opening the new september 11th memorial. the mayor would like everyone to start calling the area the world trade center and the national september 11th memorial and museum. that's a mouthful. he will be updating construction progress at the site later today. the new tower already stands 80 stories tall. >> it looks pretty impressive in lower manhattan. take a look at the flag unveiled yesterday by new york governor andrew cuomo. it will be flown at the entrance of the new 9/11 memorial at the world trade center site. the 40 yellow stars honoring the memory of the 40 men and women who died when flight 93 crashed into a field in pennsylvania. when the twin towers crumbled nearly 3,000 people died. a lot of new yorkers believe that number needs to be adjusted higher. >> because of what they call the terror in the dust. toxins which many believe are still killing first responders a decade after the disaster. dr. sanjay gupta is investigating this and joining us in new york. you're here and you've got this dust with you in a bottle. >> this is one of the few reminders thankfully in some ways of what happened ten years ago but this is dust. researchers have been studying this for some time. and you can hold it. it's all sealed. this is a very controversial substance as you know. what exactly does this cause in terms of health effects. new study came out. i heard you talking about this morning with deb feyerick as well. 19% increase in the likelihood of cancer among first responders who worked for the fire department in new york. that is significant. they have been studying this the last ten years. a seven-year long study. the doctor who wrote the study, i asked him. for a fire department first responder who is watching this and developed cancer after 9/11 what should they take away? he said there is a very good chance that their cancer came about as a result of the dust. again, pretty significant. >> what exactly is in the dust that is carcinogenic? >> it's a whole unique substance. amalgamation of various chemicals thrust together, benefit seen, titanium, looeed. one of the doctors said i'm convinced i'm holding up the most dangerous substance i've ever held because of all the stuff in there. there were volatile compounds released at the time that simply evaporated into the air. they could not be captured or analyzed or studied. >> the fuel from the plane, the fumes that come off of metals as they melt. >> now these studies are coming out. the first responders have known this for some time or at least felt it for some time. one of the things that struck me when we were filming this, there are cancer clubs here in new york. i don't know if you're familiar with that. they get together weekly to talk about their cancers. you're looking at one of them there. in this indication, members of the new york police department. they all have cancer and all first responders and there are clubs like that around the city. there is ernie who developed cancer afterwards and didn't have any history of it in his family. >> what do they talk about? you were with them. >> they are convinced that their cancers, they were healthy guys and now they are dying as a result of what they believe is the dust. they are also upset about something that is been ongoing for some time and this compensation drill and whether or not it's going to cover some of their health expenses and compensation. >> this bill came out with research saying this dust doesn't cause some things that some people have been claiming they have been getting and therntingthey are not going to re-evaluate that until next year. >> they are looking at the big study that came out and say should we put cancer on the table and right now they say know. >> in the meantime, people are dying. >> and they will let their voices be heard. i think some of that is happening today where we are going to stay, why do we have to wait another six to ten months? look at the study. >> the administrator saying they kind of believe it's probably true but the study didn't -- their studies didn't bear it out. >> so many different studies on it. even the doctor who wrote this study saying i'm not going to to say this will change it but a study of 10,000 firefighters and continued them before 9/11 and we will continue to follow them and here is what we found. >> thank you, sanjay. >> sure. >> you will see dr. sanjay gupta's documentary called "terror in the dust" that is airing tonight. "american morning" will be right back. [ male announcer ] it's a fact: your nutritional needs can go up when you're on the road to recovery. proper nutrition can help you get back on your feet. three out of four doctors recommend the ensure brand for extra nutrition. ensure clinical strength has revigor and thirteen grams of protein to protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. and immune balance to help support your immune system. ensure clinical strength... helping you to bounce back. ensure! nutrition in charge! wildfires growing by the second in texas and running over hundreds of homes. we have new pictures of the inferno from the ground, air, and space. a blueprint to put americans back to work. we are learning new details about the president's plan and how much it's going to cost on this "american morning." ♪ good morning. it's wednesday, september 7th. christina and carol are off today. we have alina with us. good to see you. >> good to see you. it is a busy morning. we want to begin with the situation in texas. the raging wildfires sweeping across the lone star state right now. the flames sending thousands running for their lives. they have now killed four people, hundreds of firefighters on the front lines, dousing the fires. about 30% contained. starting new ones too. hoping to get rid of the bone dry brush that goes up in an instant. this is what is left of a ranch in austin, texas. take a look at that. just a pile of twisted metal and ash. the texas forest service says more than 700 homes have been burned in just the past two days. the largest fire is in bastrop county, 30,000 acres and a fraction contained. even though the winds have slowed down a bit. our jim spelman is in the thick of it and joins us now. what is the latest from where you are, jim? >> reporter: good morning. the sun just come up here. you can see this heavy haze of smoke here coming off of the fire a mile or so over my shoulder. overnight, firefighters out working. the sun is up now. they will try to assess what kind of progress they made and what kind of containment they have on this fire. yesterday was a good day condition wise. it was cooler. winds were low. it will be warmer today but rains will remain low so they will try to do everything they can like you said to get rid of the brush and fuel around the active fire and homes and things like that. hitting it can water from helicopters and trying to get ahead of it. yesterday, unfortunately, two people discovered dead in this fire. governor perry has activated a texas task force run, urban search and rescue team to get into the damaged area and go home to home and try to find out if anybody else needs help. one of the other fires on the other side of austin residents allowed to go back to home and hea heartbreaking when they go back and see what is left of their home. david mattingly tagged along with one of the women as she went back. take a look. >> and that is my house. >> right here? >> yes. >> reporter: oh, i'm sorry. are you all right? you're shaking. >> i'm okay. i am the luckiest person in the world. my family is safe. now i need to check on my neighbors. >> reporter: about more than 500 homes have been destroyed here in this bastrop fire. when people are allowed to go back in, we will see the story play over and over. >> jim, thank you very much. wildfires in texas visible from space. cameras on the international space station captured huge plumes of smoke over texas. you can see them. some of the trail spreading over hundreds of miles. rob marciano is in the extreme weather center. this has been going on 295 days where there hasn't been a day without fire in texas. >> it's truly remarkable. over a hundred thousand acres burned in the last week. that is when most of the damage is done. the past nine months, we have had a thousand homes lost to these fires but 700 homes were lost in the past week. to give you an idea of how frantic it can be to evacuate and try to escape these flames. this video was shot on monday in bastrop state park outside of the city itself. you see just how quickly these flames are moving along the ground, reaching out to the grass, getting through the shrubs and then getting up into the pine trees where it literally just explodes from some of the dry timber and some of the oils that are left over in some of those, you know, high country pines. remarkable stuff there. and that, by the way, not nearly as ferocious as were the winds on sunday. so it gives you an idea of how badly it must have been. this shot. there is austin. the fire 20, 30 miles south and east of austin. you can see that plume of ash and fire and it's sinking and not being disbursed. if you're live south of that fire, bad air quality. same in houston the fires are burning north of town. temperatures in the low to mid-90s and warmer than yesterday but below what they have seen the past couple of days. no rain in sight. as a matter of fact the bulk of the rain is with what is left over of lee and that is getting up into the northeast where they will see a little bit of flooding today. a little bit of news out of national hurricane center. this has been bumped up 60% of seeing it develop and hurricane aircraft will fly into it today and see where it is going to go. katia the track remains the same and scoot out to sea but big tides and rip tides into the eastern beaches of the northeast. >> you left our friends in the pacific northwest out. >> the heat. >> i notice you're not even including it on your maps any more. texas and southeast and northeast. >> strict laws. >> they are still sleeping. doesn't matter. >> record breaking heat across portland and seattle. i used to live out there. alina is from there too. >> that's right. see? you know rob marciano and i go way back? >> look at that. >> both from orlando. >> thank you for including portland and seattle in your weather report today, rob. >> you're welcome. >> he has been very busy with this. >> you have been. rob, i thought you did -- listen, i think rob does a spectacular job. >> i do too. i have never seen him in portland or seattle. >> he was there. we are learning new details of president obama's jobs plan. democratic sources telling our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin it calls for about $300 billion in tax breaks and, tension of unemployment benefits and other spend chg include funds for laid off teachers and first responds making it hard, our jessica yellin reports, for republicans to vote against the plan. the 300 billion price tag will be offset by equal amount of budget cuts. >> cnn will have live coverage of the president's speech on thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. republicans are not going to offer a formal response we should add. republican candidates may have something to say about it. mitt romney has started. when it comes to turning around the economy and creating jobs romney insisteds that, quote, president obama doesn't have a clue. he unveiled his claim he claims will create 11 million jobs in the first four years of a romney presidency and could not resist taking a shot at president obama when he unveiled it yesterday. >> president obama's strategy is a pay phone strategy and we're in a smart phone world. and so we're going to have to change what he is doing is taking quartake ing quarters and stuffing them into the pay phone and can't figure out why it's not working. it's not connected any more, mr. president. >> the highlights of romney's job plan is waive health care reform law and cut corporate tax rate and boost domestic energy production. there are 59 points so you can download it to your kindle later if you want to. i am a huge fan of putting plans out. until now in the campaign and in fairness, jon huntsman put out a jobs plan last week. until now, it's just talk. they say they will create all of these jobs. show me how you're going to do it. >> he will put ten points of the 59 points first day in office. a fourth person has died as a result of the shooting rampage at an i hop restaurant in carson city, nevada. police say 32-year-old eduardo sensio opened fire on national guardsmen will killing himself. the suspect's family said he had a history of mental problems. india, nine people killed and more than 60 wounded when a bomb exploded outside the dehli court building. the second explosion there in four months. amanda knox's murder especially is suspended until november. this because the dna on a murder knife would not be blood. the requests so call more witnesses have been denied so far. coming up next, i was prodding rob for a pacific northwest weather report. the ceo of starbucks, howard schultz, is joining us after the break. >> plus, the president has a plan to help save the postal service, but is it enough to keep the agency running or will it shut down? keep your shoes on. change is coming to airport security. welcome news for passengers and their feet. 9 minutes after the hour. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. my next guest is hour schultz of starbucks. he is calling on fellow leaders in industry to hit the politicians where it hurts, in the wallet. howard schultz, thank you for being with us. when you first started this, i wondered where it was going to go but you're getting some traction in convincing people not just corporate leaders, but sort of people who are like minded who don't sort of stake out extreme positions in politics to say, we sort of send you to washington to get this done. one way or the other. >> i think that people all over the country can sense that there is something wrong in washington and when we look at what happened with the debt debacle and we look at the fracturing of confidence that exists in america and now around the world, as a result of the leadership in washington, we have to ask ourselves a question and that is are these people really there and representing the values and the direction of the country that we think is best for us? last night, we had 100,000 people across the country on a tlelve conference call. >> this was online call that you were part of? >> yeah. a hundred thousand people. it's not just 140 ceos. we are getting thousands of people who are trying to say, listen, we are better than this. there is a fracturing of trust and confidence. there is a crisis in america. it's not -- it's no longer a situation we can just sit by and allow washington -- >> but you're taking a moderate position. >> yeah. >> when, in fact, typically corporations have backed positions to lobby for something that is a special interest. >> yeah. >> can you get to a point where you compete with that? there is still more ceos working to keep that gridlock that we have in washington going. >> the point is this. that what we are watching is a situation in which ideology is the rule of the day. >> yeah. >> what i'm saying, i think a lot of people are feeling, is this is more about citizenship than part sinship than any time of our history. we need congress and washington to reach a long-term deal. what i feel is this is not that hard. however, if people continue to look at every situation through lens of re-election and ideology we won't get to a deal that is good for the country. i'm saying enough is enough. there are like-minded people across the country, democrats and republicans, who feel the way i do. we are better than this. give us access to the american dream and stop leaving us behind. >> who is more to blame? or who is the most limited? maybe you can call it parties. but what is it? why are we at this place in our history that is so unattractable? >> we are at this place because we are in a situation where the lens in which elected officials look at every issue is polling, re-election, and raising money to get reelected. >> short of not having a whole bunch of people not running for office again which would be fantastic. one whole congress never running again. what do you do? how do you change that? >> i think there is such a large group of americans who have been quiet. >> yeah. >> i think the vocal people who have been loud are on the extremes of both sides. what i'm asking is a very simple question. let's have our elected officials put their feet in the shoes of americans who are unemployed, who can't make the payment on their house, who can't get access to credit, a fracturing of consumer confidence and recognize this is a sense of urgency that we need. please do your job. you took an oath of office for all of america. not ideology or one constituency over another. represent the country and i think we deserve better. >> you know, we have 14 million officially unemployed. we have all of these people we call 9 niners who have exhausted their benefits. they are voiceless. for all intents and purposes, they don't have a lobby. we are not catering to the middle of america. we are not catering to those disenfrenched. who do you go from here? how do you take this to another level and say govern for all of america, not your specific constituency that will reelect you? >> i think right now over last night, over a hundred thousand people on the call, what i recognize more than ever before is that there is a ground swell of people who, like you say, are not being heard. >> yeah. >> what we need to do is business leaders is not wait for washington. what we need to do right now is reinvest our companies revenues into the economy and create jobs and i think we can. >> yeah. >> but i also think that washington has a significant responsibility to demonstrate real citizenship and real leadership. >> because you're a businessman and because you've thrown down the gauntlet and put a line in the sand, i want to read what you have written. you said what you want to happen is you want to transparent comprehensive bipartisan debt and deficit package that sets america on a path to long-term financial health and security. i can't see there is anybody who would disagree with that but what is the measure of success? at what point do you pull back? because, ultimately, you will hurt candidates who you believe are good. >> but let me say something in addition to that. washington is talking about a 14 trillion deficit. that's not the true number. >> right. >> the true number is $47 trillion because of the obligations we have for the future. >> right. >> we are on a collision course with time here and people need to understand it. and washington needs to do their jobs! and what we need right now is that super committee, as well as the administration, to understand what is at stake. and i'm saying -- i believe this -- that this is a critical moment in the history of the country. and we need people to understand how serious it is and we need results. >> and do you feel that there is traction here? do you feel that you're getting -- >> i think a hundred thousand people last night is a huge number, given the fact that we announced this call four days ago. but we are going to be relentless in pursuing our collective responsibility to send a powerful message to washington and, from my perspective, i'm going to do all i can with like-minded public ceos to create jobs in america. >> i know this isn't your intention but are you going to run for something? has this the feel of a campaign? >> the campaign i'm running for is the future of the country. i'm just a ceo that runs a coffee company. that is not my interest. >> what is it going to make you -- i often say you're one of the most famous and most successful small business people in this country. you went through failure before you went through success. >> yes. >> you started small, you saw that growth. you've struggled as a large company with growth. what is it that makes people like you and at an earlier stage than you hire people? what can the president say? >> well, with a trillion dollars sitting on the balance sheets of public companies in america today and over a trillion dollars sitting overseas that does not come back to the united states, the reason that money is idly sitting dormant is because of the issue of uncertainty in america and washington needs to provide an understanding of where the country is going and give the consumer confidence to spend. and i think this is not that hard. this is what i keep saying. if the people in the room have one thing in common and that is let's come together in a partisan way to solve problems, this is not that hard. america needs innovation, we need transformation but we need leadership that is like minded and representing all of the country, not one specific ideology. >> howard schultz, good to talk to you and good luck on the continued campaign. if you can get people to be bipartisan, i think you'll have the whole country on your side. >> thank you very much. >> get us some starbucks cards, will you? thank you very much. the administration is working on plans to save the postal service from defaulting on this month's 5.5 billion benefits payment by giving it an extra three months to pay up but the agency warns reprieve is not enough. earlier ali spoke to patrick donohoe that the agency wants to make so it's once again profitable. >> how much money does the post office lose just for being the post office? >> right now, our operating loss is about $2 billion. we have got a plan in place that requesting help from congress to eliminate the six to five-day delivery and save us $3 billion. we are making internal changes in our networks save us about 5 billion. our goal is get profitable the next three years, pay down our debt and get our finances stabilized going forward. america's mailing habits have changed. we still do a great job with advertising mail people and use us for that. they use us for packages. that is where we will be focusing going forward. >> donahoe mentioned they would like to close 300 post offices and eliminate nearly 12,000 positions. coming up, the big-time ceo who says she was fired by phone. it's 22 minutes after the hour. so i'm glad it's with fidelity. they offer me one-on-one guidance to help me choose my investments. not just with my savings plan here at work. they help me with all of my financial goals. looking good, irene. thanks to fidelity, i can stay on top of my financial future, huh? 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"minding your business" this morning. u.s. markets down for the third or were down yesterday the third straight date and since the beginnings of the year, dow down 4% and the nasdaq down about 7% and the s&p 500 probably looks like some of the things you've got in your 401(k), your i.r.a. down 7.5% so far this year. u.s. stock futures now are all trading higher ahead of the opening bell. lots of volatility in the markets, though, as we have been seeing the past few weeks. italy at the center stage in the debt crisis. its parliament voting today. thousands of workers hit the streets yesterday in protest of the new austerity measures part of the budget proposal. yahoo! ceo kracarol bartz i out. she was notified by phone last night she was out. the oil industry getting into the jobs debate. today, industry leaders making a pitch for more drilling. saying it could add 1.4 million new jobs to the economy and increase domestic energy production by almost 50%. this is something big oil has lobbied for before and likely to face staunch opposition by lawmakers. 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[ cat meows ] ♪ [ acoustic guitar: pop ] [ woman ] so lily and i ♪ i just want to be okay ks ] ♪ be okay, be okay ♪ i just want to be okay today - ♪ i just want to know today - [ whistles ] ♪ know today, know today - [ cat meows ] - ♪ know that maybe i will be okay ♪ [ chimes ] travelers can help you protect the things you care about... and save money with multi-policy discounts. are you getting the coverage you need... and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage... or visit travelers.com. met an old man at the top asked him if he had a secret and the old man stopped and thought and said: free 'cause that's how it ought to be my brother credit 'cause you'll need a loan for one thing or another score 'cause they break it down to one simple number that you can use dot to take a break because the name is kinda long com in honor of the internet that it's on put it all together at the end of the song it gives you freecreditscore-dot-com, and i'm gone... offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com ten after the twin towers fell, first responders still getting sick. one firefighter's widow thinks she knows what killed her husband and she is speaking out on this "american morning." welcome back to "american morning." i'm ali velshi. carol and chris steen have the morning off. >> good morning. i'm alina cho. thanks for joining us. out of control wildfires racing across texas. now killing four people and destroying at least 700 homes in just the past two days. the texas forest service said it has responded to 181 separate fires in just the past week. a fourth person has died in a mass shooting at an i hop in carson city, nevada. tloo of the dead were members of the nevada national guard and another was a female civilian. seven others wounded. police say the gunman was eduardo sencion and he also killed himself. president obama's jobs plan we are told will includes $300 billion in trax breaks and on this incentive spending. the president unveils his plan tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. eastern. cnn will have live coverage beginning at 6:00. an hour ago, we talked about the story. it's hard to watch but it's so important and, in fact, so inspirational. a decade ago, randy wiebicke was one of thousands exposed to toxic defendant at the time ground zero. >> he died earlier this year leaving behind three children and a widow who believes that dust ultimately killed him. deb feyerick joins us this morning. deb, i have to say, ali mentioned this, it's so hard to watch but she is incredibly brave and incredibly graceful, i must. >> randy died of a type of a blood cancer that hits people 20 years older. you heard dr. sanjay gupta mention the cancer clubs, young guys who lives have dramatically changed after 9/11 and still many wrestling with illness and impending loss. ♪ >> reporter: randy wiedicke was like many u.s. firefighters who answered the call on 9/11. the difference? he died ten years later. >> i was with him and talked to him and let him know it was okay to go, that i would take care of the kids. he slipped away just very peacefully. >> reporter: his wife madeline was full of hope when we met them both last summer. never did she believe ten years after the attacks she, too, would become a 9/11 widow. >> never in my wildest dreams would i have emergencied that. >> reporter: randy wiebicke was smagsed near ground zero and smolder'ing degree. in 2009 he was diagnosed with a blood cancer usually affecting people 20 years older. the fire department considers randy's death in the line of duty. >> these guys were down there breathing, eating, sleeping in that dust. there's no doubt in my mind that is where the cancer came from jo a year ago, randy took a calculated risk, undergoing an experimental stem cell france plant. >> randy was just so strong and so healthy and so larger than life that, you know, we felt he would make it through it. >> reporter: but the viruses that subsequently attacked his weak immune system were too many and too aggressive to overcome. what was it like for you and randy in the end? >> we actually had special, beautiful times together, even in the hospital. we would just hug each other and talk about our children. >> reporter: katie, mariana, and danny, the oldest of the three. >> he was so strong and so positive and so good. i think 92% of their funds go directly to research. >> reporter: since randy's death in march, madeline has started a new and different future, step by step. >> i think randy would just want -- he wanted everybody to help each other, so that's why we are here now. >> reporter: she has raised $30,000 for the multiple pmyeloa cancer fund. she walks every day to stay strong, healthy, and positive. >> so this is a little powder room. >> reporter: she is building a new kitchen, just as she and randy always planned. do you feel any residual anger? >> i don't, i don't feel angry. i feel sad. i feel sad that people are still dying from it. >> reporter: sad, too, because it's all so new. >> i wish he could still be here. >> reporter: madeline is trying to live the lessons randy taught as he lay dying. that is to live a simpler life, help others more, and perhaps, most of all, forgive. what does the future hold for you, do you think? >> i'm grateful that i had randy as a best friend for 27 years. i've made a choice. i'm going to be happy. he always wanted me happy. he never held me back from anything. he was always really proud. so he would want that now. >> reporter: and recent study about the the new york fire department found the cancer risk is 19% higher in those who had been at ground zero whereas, normally for a firefighter, it's about 10% higher than the average. somebody like you or me. it also appears it's happening at younger ages. as for madeline, she understands she had ten extra years with randy. never enough time but it's time to say good-bye and time to prepare and she had a blessing that so many other did not have. >> a blessing and a curse. >> it's mixed. >> hard to say. no easy way to say good-bye to somebody. >> when she said i've made a choice to be happy, that's incredible. >> it's incredible. that's the strength that i think many 9/11 families have had to draw on, because you go around once and it is a choice and clearly if you could turn the clock back, people would want that. but to go on to be happy, to see positive, to learn lessons even somebody on their death bed, that is what gets people through these crises. >> i think it's very, very big of her to say i'm not angry. >> i'm sad. >> i'm sad, not angry. it would be so easy in the situation to just be so angry and blame people, blame what happened and she's not that way and that is extraordinary to me. >> remarkable story. >> the point you can't forget, they are still dying. there are still casualties. >> you can see the full investigation of the health fallout from 9/11 and never before seen footage of the aftermath of the disaster. dr. sanjay gupta's documentary, "terror in the dust" airs tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern. still to come this morning, one-on-one with dick cheney. our wolf blitzer sits down with the former vice president to talk about his greatest regret as vice president. we have the interview after the break. >> wait until you hear what he says. new information this morning about the future of u.s. troops in iraq. will the obama administration break its promise and leave thousands of troops there? we are live from the pentagon with some answers after the break. you're watching "american morning." 37 minutes after the hour. when your eyes are smiling... you're smiling. and when they're laughing... you're laughing. be kind to your eyes... with transitions lenses. transitions adapt to changing light so you see your whole day comfortably... and conveniently while protecting your eyes from the sun. ask your eyecare professional which transitions lenses are right for you. with a verizon mobile hotspot, you can connect up to 5 wifi devices to the internet with lightning-fast verizon 4g lte speed. a gaming device. ereader. mp3 player. connect any 5 for wifi on the go. get the 4g lte mobile hotspot now for only $49.99. verizon is the place with the largest selection of 4g lte devices. on america's fastest, most advanced 4g network. thank you for joining us. >> a pleasure to be back. >> welcome back to "american morning." u.s. may keep 3,000 troops in iraq past the deadline to have everybody out. >> which is supposed to be the end of the year. a pentagon official tells cnn the administration has talked about leaving a small force there beginning next year, but the pentagon is stressing no final decisions have been made. >> with regards to what our presence will look beyond that, that is going to be the subject of negotiations with the iraqis. i can't give you a number or tell you what the number looks like. it has to be part of the negotiations. >> barbara starr joins us now live from the pentagon. barbara, is this a real change of direction if it's true? i mean, i know we are supposed to have all of the troops out by the end of the year, but looking at iraq some people thought some might have to stay. >> ali, i think that has been the case all along. listen for a minute -- let's start with what the president of the united states said about all of this as recently as last august. have a listen. >> consistent with our agreement with the iraqi government, all u.s. troops will leave by the end of next year. >> reporter: what is the reality? we are talking about 3,000 troops staying, even though the president said all of them are getting out. that was never really the case. the bottom line is the united states and iraq were always planning to sit down and have the talks they are having right now about how many u.s. troops might stay after the end of the year. the iraqis have long agreed they may need help with some certain things like finding t ining ter and all kinds of things. how many u.s. troops would it take to do that? by all accounts, panetta is looking at an option as few as 3,000 troops staying. here is the interesting part. now he is getting criticism for that because many are saying that's not enough. not only should some troops stay but a lot more than 3,000. senator john mccain and other senators in congress saying 3,000 is too few and it would risk the gains that the u.s. has made in iraq. the bottom line now is these discussions are ongoing. they are going to come to a decision about how many troops will stay. if you thought military involvement in iraq was going to end at the end of this year, not so fast. >> this will become yet another issue to talk about as the months go on. but it's an interesting development if it's true. >> it most certainly is. barbara starr, thank you from the pentagon. eight years after the invasion of iraq, former vice president dick cheney is still absolutely certain that the bush administration made the right call. >> that's right. in a wide ranging interview with our wolf blitzer, cheney talked about iraq, afghanistan, and the war on terror and in classic cheney fashion, he was about as apologetic as ever. >> reporter: your biggest regreta relates to your time in office. >> you have to go back. that covers 40 years. >> no the years you were vice president. >> well, i think as a general proposition on the big decisions, i think we got it right. i worked for george bush. proud to have worked for him. i think a lot of the most controversial things we did that people didn't like and criticized us for, things like the terrorist surveillance program or enhanced interrogation techniques were things that allowed us to save lives. the net result, the value of our policies, is best evaluated in terms of the fact that after 9/11, there were no further mass casualty attacks against the united states that we stopped every single perspective attack on the u.s. for the last 7 1/2 years that we were there. i think that speaks well to our policy. >> certainly does, but you're a hung. i make mistakes all the time. you must have made some mistakes as vice president of the united states. >> well, i made mistakes that i talk about in the book. >> you mean -- give me an instance. >> i got kicked out of yale twice. >> i'm talking about vice president. we all make mistakes when we are in college! >> what i find in this whole operation is people want you to admit. >> what is wrong with that? you made a mistake. what is wrong with that? >> what they want is they don't want an admission of a mistake. they want you to say you did something wrong and that they disagreed with. it's all about politics and i'm -- >> there is nothing wrong with that. >> wolf, i wrote what i believe. i wrote my experiences. i talk, for example, about things i got wrong in the bush one administration. disagreed, for example with the idea of going to congress to get authorization to go into kuwait. the president overrode hee. he was right, i was wrong. i mean, there are examples like that. >> was the -- >> i thought wage price controls was serious mistake. i was an integral part of that. >> the second bush administration, no mistakes? >> i have said you'll i'm going to say about it, wolf. >> all right. >> i'm proud of the policies we put in place. i think they did the job we intended for them to do. and i'm not inclined to make any me mea culpas. >> wolf i love the value of him. he wasn't emotional. he wanted to ask and he could not get an answer out of him. >> good for him. he kept asking but that is right. cheney -- >> he would not say he made a mistake in eight years of his vice presidency. and anybody shouldn't be surprised with dick cheney's sticking to his message. >> he did say i did make mistakes. read my book. if you'd like to, dick cheney's memoir "in my time" is available in book stores. the wildfires in texas continue to spread across the state. new high resolution images showing a few small steps for man on the moon. we will explain. you're watching "american morning." 46 minutes after the hour. w. here is what you need to know to start your day. firefighters say it's like an inferno. fires burning across texas. four people died and 700 homes have gone up in flames the past couple of days. as president obama puts the finishing touches on his job speech to congress tomorrow night, we are learning that his plan to put america back to work includes 300 billion dollars in tax breaks and spending cuts. explosion outside the dehli high court in india killing nine and injuring 60 others. authorities say the bomb inside a breven case and placed where people line up to have their cases heard. second such bombing at the high court since may. imagine going through airport security without taking your shoes off. it may soon be possible! the department of homeland security says new technology will allow them to drop the shoe removal requirement. no word, though, on when that will happen just yet. nasa releasing new high-definition photos that show tracks on the moon from several apollo missions. they came from nasa's lunar reconnaissance orbiter which launched in 2009. you're caught up on today's headlines. "american morning" will be back in 60 seconds. welcome back. she saw her own hand lying on the ground. a grandmother who had a horrific accident with a power saw. >> i didn't see this one coming! somehow, this story does have a happy ending, i'm told, because of a surgery that really has stunned the medical community. our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is back with us right now. this sounds fascinating. >> it is. there are good stories that have happy endings here. the marvels of medical technology as you guys said, she was using a power saw. she had an accident and essentially cut her own hand off using this power saw. a pretty clean-cut. i think we have an x-ray to show you this. an x-ray, obviously. the bottom sort of cut off there quite literally and figuratively there. she noticed this so give you an idea of how much shock she was in. she didn't notice it was her hand until she saw her wedding ring on the hand. she said that is my hand on the ground. what happened next is important. she was able to get to the hospital where doctors actually specialize in this exact kind of thing. micro surgery being able to reimplant in this case the hand but they do feet and they can do fingers. she moved along quickly. take a look at this animation. one of the big things is reattaching the tendons to give her range of motion. they use the anchors like you see there and put the tendon through and lock that all in place. the tendon was cut along with arteries and veins and nerves. >> is this new technology? >> you can see at the end there this is the finished product. >> wow. >> you see the soft tissue swelling. >> it works just fine? >> so here -- the operation took about eight hours. 12 hours after that she was able to start moving her fingers. >> that sin credible. >> it really is. it speaks to not only the surgical technique which is not new but improving constantly but she moved quickly and you need to do this type of operation within 12 hours to get that sort of function. >> you were talking about the soft tissue swelling and one thing i'm starting to understand about any kind of reconstructive surgery or reattachment. the mechanics can be engineered but the symptoms sometimes go on for a long time. is she back to normal? does that swelling come down? >> the swelling will still be there and take her some time to get back to normal. >> she said she was a grandmother? >> i don't know how old she is but about two years of rehab she will need. >> wow. >> then they should get back. she may have numbness and may not be the same as before and, obviously, the scarring. but it is pretty remarkable arteries, veins, nerves, tendon, soft tissue and the muscles, all of that. >> i've never heard of this happening. i'm sure it has. >> we talk so much about doing hand transplants and face transplants and things like that but this is much more common. >> really? >> yeah. you have these sort of accidental injuries and it's -- >> if that ever happened to you, some limb comes or digit gets unattached, do you freeze it? do you call 911? >> the lay wisdom works here. you don't freeze it but you keep it cool. put in a ice chest. they start operating on the digit or the hand. you want to move quickly. >> what a fascinating story. >> a good ending. >> we like that. >> every now and then. still to come this morning, note to fans. madonna hates hydrangeas! a type of a flower, by the way. now the whole world knows it. we will tell you why. you're watching "american morning." 54 minutes after the hour. new s™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™. 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[ female announcer ] from neutrogena® naturals. i love this story. welcome back. even the biggest madonna fans. you preble didn't know about this. madonna hates high dan gentlemans. >> hydrangeas. >> now it is has gone viral. here is jeanne moos. >> reporter: it's enough to make a hydrangea wilt, insulted by madonna in videos that have gone rir viral. there madonna is at the venice film festival when a fan among the press people gives her a flower. >> you're my princess. thank you so much. i love you. >> reporter: but after madonna tells him thank you, some say she rolls her eyes. out come the truth, barely picked up on an open mic. i absolutely loathe hydrangeas. he obviously doesn't know. >> reporter: hydrangeas of the world unite, madonna, what did hydrangeas ever do to you? the b word flies to madonna. the one that rhymes with witch. we went to flowers of the world to see why anyone hydrangea. >> a lot of people think they're their grandmother's flower. >> reporter: on top of that, hydrangea grow in people's yards. that makes it more lowly? >> yeah, i see it in people's yards. it being be that great of a flower. >> reporter: but these are from the netherlands and cost $20 or $30 a stem. could madonna's loathing turn hydrangea into the new broccoli? >> i do not like broccoli and my mother made me eat it and i'm president of the united states and i'm not going to eat any more broccoli! >> reporter: madonna may run from fields of lilies, even accepted humble daisies. ♪ living in a material world >> reporter: and clutched them like a smitten schoolgirl in the videos that have gone viral. hydrangea get no respect. >> madonna, what did you do with my hydrangea? >> oh, my assistant took them. >> reporter: madonna's spokesperson says she's entitled to like any flower she wants and she didn't want to hurt the feelings of the hydrangeas of the world.

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