is the cash for cluvgers program too successful? not only are the wreckers keeping busy, so are the dealers. the attempts today to keep it going. also drug addicts, how those two words reveal the latest in the investigation of michael jackson's death. hey, did you hear the "seinfeld" cast is reuniting? sort of. where you'll be able to get a few new episodes. that is darn good news on a friday. hi, i'm christi paul. welcome. have you seen this? >> touchdown. after nearly 16 days in space, touchdown just before 11:00 a.m. eastern at the kennedy space center. "endeavour's" mission to the international space station set a new record in fact bringing 13 new people in space to the most ever during the stay, the astronauts performed five space walks that included adding the final component to the module. the next scheduled launch is august 25th. that's when "discovery" will blast off in a very early morning liftoff, just after 1:30 a.m. local time. some people are saying this program might be too successful, because it could be already out of money. the program began just last week. it offers vouchers worth up to $4,500 if you trade in a gases guzzler when you buy a new vehicle. auto dealers say they've got thousands of backlogged trades that haven't been counted. that could mean the program could have already burned through the $1 billion budget. democrats say they want to keep this thing alive. >> we have agreed that we're going to work to try to continue this program, first of all, it continues as-is today until otherwise noticed, until dealer ships are told otherwise, and the house intends to pass a bill today that would add an additional $2 billion to the program. >> now, the without insists people who make clunker trades through this weekend will be eligible, so if you planned on trying to take advantage of that, they're saying, hey, you're covered. so what do you think of this program, cash for clunkers? should it be continued? do you think it's helping or hurting the economy? give us a call, or e-mail us, go to cnn.com/hln, click under your views. you can text us to the word views, and thank you so much for chiming in. there were no apologies, just a few bierce and what president obama described as some friendly, thoughtful conversation. professor gates and sergeant crowley met yet with president obama and vice president biden over some bierce at the white house. crowley is the officer who arrested gates at his home earlier this month. that confrontation led to a national debate over race, both gates and crowley promised to talk again and put this whole thing behind them. >> what was accomplished is this was a positive step, as opposed to relives the events, in an effort not to move just the city of cambridge or two individuals past this eye vent, but the whole country, to move beyond yond this and use it as a basis of maybe meaningful discussions in the future. >> gates released a statement saying, quote -- here's what president obama had to say, quote -- now, it still isn't over in the sense that the boston officer who was suspended after sending an e-mail that include a racial slur about professor gates will fight the boston police department if he's fired. office justin barrett's attorney says the e-mail was a private message sent from a private computer. last night on "larry king live" on cnn, barrett apologized for the now infamous e-mail. >> i would like to take this opportunity to offer fellow police officers, soldiers and citizens my sincerest apology over the controversial e-mail i authored in response to the i had tore in the "boston globe." my choice of words was lacking. i failed to think through the perception that others may have based upon what i wrote. i failed to realize the potential through the use of words that others would see as offensive. >> he mentioned "the boston globe" there. the e-mail was sent to the globe, then later forwarded to barrett's fellow police officers and guardsmen. a hearing on whether he'll stay on the force is expected in the next 7 to 10 days. now, the national guard is also suspended barrett pending an investigation there. michael vick could be close to signing with a team. at least that's what he's saying. no team has expressed public interest in signing vick. the baltimore ravens are the only ones to admit they thought about it, and the steelers aren't saying anything yet, but vick speaking publicly for the first time since leaving a bankruptcy hearing, says he's getting close to signing with a pro team. the latest teams that say they will not -- he could start with the upstart ufl. not likely. he'll be back in bankruptcy court again today. search warrants seem to imply that investigators think michael jackson was in fact an addict. the warrants say there's probable cause to believe the searches would uncover evidence of, quote, crimes of excess, specifically excessive prescribing, prescribing to or treating an addict and manslaughter. cnn's jeffrey toobin says if he was an adetect, prosecuting dr. murray would get more difficult. >> the fact that they were essentially saying michael jackson was an addict makes the prosecution of anybody harder, because it uss that jackson himself was the big initiator are getting all these drugs. >> sources close to the investigation tell cnn that jackson used 19 different aliases when he wanted prescription drugs. it seems like the wait is getting longer for jackson's final autopsy report as well. yesterday the l.a. coroners's office announced an indefinite any delay on the toxicology findings, says more investigation needs to be done. earlier, remember a final autopsy report was expected next week. severe thunderstorms hit tennessee. look at the pictures coming in. at least one tornado was spawned from this. it hit wind speeds between 80 and 90 miles per hour, cut a five-mile path of destruction last night. storms near nashville damaged homes and knocked down some trees, and more than 2,500 homes and businesses didn't have power. it was still raining today in east tennessee. tens of thousands of u.s. bridges are waiting for repairs, but a new report suggests it will probably be a while before they're fixed. the associated press says states are spending most of that $17 billion in transportation stimulus cash on bridges already in good shape and projects like repaving roads. the man heading you up the stimulus for president obama says the white house told states to focus on shovel-ready projects, things that would automatically put people to work right away. some transcription officials say that makes it difficult to focus on bad bridges that weren't already scheduled for repairs. at least 27 people were killed in roadside bombings near shiite mosques across baghdad today. they happened right after friday prayers ended. now, as of today, almost all british troops are being pulled out of the iraq. the agreement that allows them to be there expires today. about a dozen british troops, though, are staying to help train iraqi police. australia had a similar deadline, all of its soldiers got out tuesday, except for a detachment that's staying behind to guard the australian embassy. it took him 50 years to do it, but it's never too late to be called "ace." the mayor of hoboken, new jersey is resigning. he was arrested last week and charged with accepting bribes from an fbi informant. there he is. he's the second elected official in new jersey to step down. now, cammarano has only been in office for a few weeks. city council president don zimmer will fill in as acting mayor until a special election, which will be held in november. meanwhile, south carolina governor mark sanford predicted his affair would lead to public humiliation. that's what he wrote in a letter to a spiritual -- the associated press obtained the letter through a public records request. he wrote it on a state-owned computer, and in it he says he's committed to his wife but, quote, my heart is just not alive here as it ought to be, unquote. sanford says he is working to reconcile his marriage. he's traveling in europe in fact right now with his wife and four sons, is expected back next week. overhauling the health care system apparently will have to wait. congress is going on its summer break this weekend. the house energy and commerce committee is expected to finish work today on its version of the legislation that some house democrats are promising to provide health care to nearly all the uninsured. has a robust public option and to -- and to vow we will vote against it if it does not. >> democrats appear ready to leave town for the august recess with the so-called deal in hand. i think it's safe to say over the august recess, as more americans learn more about their plan they are likely to have a very, very hot summer. >> no reform billing has made it out of a senate committee. a 4-year-old boy is making a big recovery here. a little more than three months after he was run over by a lawn mower. preston lloyd suffered major internal injuries after his dad accidentally backed over him. bow, he's come a long way in a short time. >> then you think about what can i do to make him have a good life, you know? it's not about where he plays football or basketball or if he plays. hey, i just want him to be able to run out in the yard again, and we're real close to that. >> that poorman. a local fund-raiser brought in $30,000 to help that family. good to hear. 97-year-old john colangelo has a new nickname. he got his first hole in one tuesday, the 16th hole in amsterdam municipal golf course. it dropped state into the hole. the moment he dreamed of for nearly half his life just left him stunned. >> it was like, holy cow. we looked in the hole and that's where it was. i got up there, and john says, it's in the hole. i said, you're kidding me? he couldn't believe it. just speechless. >> here's something even more amazing. remember, 97 years old. he plays golf almost every day. well, he drew the go to jail card during a game of monopoly. the game became all too real when the cops showed up at his front door. what he's accused of doing to put him behind bars. mahmud ahmadinejad said his relationship with ayatollah ali khamenei is like a father and son, based on kindness. hardliners have cast doubt on his loyalty after he picked a controversial vice president, one who once said iranians and israelis were friends. ahmadinejad was pressured to drop him. the streets of tehran are quiet after clashes broke out yesterday they were trying to march to the burial site of netta. nato confirmed yesterday's incident, and said the marines died from wounds suffered from direct fire. the troops were in helmand province where anti-taliban offenses are being conducted. it's a booklet apparently that outlines the taliban's new code of conduct. u.s. and afghan military officials call it a joke and propaganda. the guide calls for limiting suicide attacks and civilian deaths, but u.s. officials point out with all the recent bombings and civilians killings, it's obvious they don't follow their own code of conduct. one u.s. officials si says the book is a prescriptive on how the bad guys are supposed to conduct themselves. well, the military scrambled fighter jets when a plane veered way off its flight plan last night. norad says it sent two f-16s to tail it. it crashed near henderson, west virginia, and killed the pilot. affiliate wsaz reports the pilot had apparently passed out. a woman wanted a restaurant to replace her cold french fries. she wanted it so much she called 911. the woman told the operate her order wasn't right. when police got there, one officer gave the woman money out of his pocket to eat somewhere else. >> the officer, out of the kindness of his heart, gave me the $6 so i can get my dinner from somewhere else. >> he made the situation worse by given her money after she was done eating the product. she complained about the fries after she ate them. >> people calling 911 about restaurant food? the woman isn't facing any charges for that call. a game of monopoly landed one guy behind bars. he's accused of hitting the woman as they played the board game. police say things got ugly after she refused to sell him park place and boardwalk. they say he then slapped her and knocked off her glasses. >> i thought that was, like, real violent for playing a game that's supposed to be like, you know -- like i said, i guess he takes his monopoly pretty seriously. >> he was charged with assault and battery, in fact. failed banks kept on handing out millions in executive bonuses even as profits plummeted. a study from new york's attorney general found most banks paid out bonuses that far exceeded yearly profits. now, here's just some of the numbers that have been compiled. citigroup lost $27 billion last year, but still managed to award over $5 billion to executives. b of a paid more than $3 billion to executives. j.p. morgan chase gave out more than $8 billion. goldman sachs awarded nearly $5 billion, almost two times its profits. now, the house is expected to pass a bill today that would give the government a direct role in how executives in the bailout are paid. hey, the tax-free shopping season starts this weekend. good news obviously for you in a bad economy. we're talking 15 days here and washington, d.c. offering sales tax holidays just in time to do your back-to-school shopping. discounts on clothes, school supplies, even computers in some states. it's going on right now in georgia and mississippi. the rest happen throughout the month of august. be sure to check that out. well, here's something we never thought we would see. jerry, george eo, elaine and cramer again. the "seinfeld" cast will join again in the new season of "curb your enthusiasm." larry david says a real reunion is unlikely. i guess that's as close as we'll get. bummer, right? but we'll watch. the government's cash for clumpers program could get you a new ride for cheap. is it a miss for the economy, though? your view on that. let me can you a question, could you blow through $1 billion in a week? that may have happened with this cash for clunkers program. it's only been around a few days, but auto dealers say it's so wildly popular that it might be out of cash. gerri willis is in new york right now, and i know you've been watching this. we understand at least today democrats want to keep this alive. >> that's right. news out this morning that the cash for cluvgers program will be extended at least through the weekend, and michigan senator debbie stabenow says that congress is working on a $2 billion extension of the program. here's what she had to say. >> we have agreed that we're going to work to try to continue this program. first of all, it continues as is today until dealerships are told otherwise, and the house intends to cash a bill today that would add an additional $2 billion to the program. >> all right. this program officially started on monday, yet the program is close to burning through its funding. here's some math. $146 million have already been approved to give out to buy cars, and $1.2 billion has projected to be given out by the dealerships themselves. that's what they believe is in the pipeline already. remember, congress has only approved $1 billion for the program. so the demand was simply overwhelming. 23,000 dealerships have signed on. experts say the dealersships had started declining people for the program earlier this week. the program was supposed to officially end on november 1st. christi? >> or until it ran out of money, which it looks like it's done. >> that's right. >> i know people are watching, what happens to me if i received a confirmation i'm already eligible, or perhaps for folks who were already accepted and they already have a new car. >> well, the dealerships may have had you sign a waiver that indicated if the program didn't go through you had to pay the voucher back or you had to return the car. if you did get a new car, make sure you look through your documents to see if you have this. in the meantime, any purchase this weekend will be honored, that's according to the white house. if you're in the market to get rid of your clunker, you probably want to act quickly. it's expected congress will extend the program, and if the program is extended, make sure you take advantage of it asap. there's so much demand, the new money will probably go quickly, too. christi? >> i would get. hey, gerri willis, thanks for breaking it down for us. >> my pleasure. let me ask you what you think about the cash for cluvgers program. do you think it should continue? do you believe a that it's help or hurting the economy? that's the number to call us. you can e-mail us. click under "your views." you can text us, views, plus your comments and name to hlntv. we have some news just in about the health of senator christopher dodd, according to a -- he's in the early stages of prostate cancer. now, aides say the 65-year-old dodd does plan to undergo treatment and still plans to run for reelection in november of 2010, but when that news conference happens and it's expected to be at 2:00 p.m., we're going to bring it to you live. >> the mayor of hoboken, new jersey is resigning. mayor peter cammarano was arrested last week, and charged with accepting bribes from an fbi informant. he's the second elected official in new jersey to step down since the statewide corruption crackdown. cammarano has only been in office for a few weeks and was considered a rising star in the democratic party. city council president don zimmer apparently will fill in as acting mayor until a special election in november. we have some new video of michael jackson's former chef. she talked to cnn's larry king about jackson's health, and emotional moments with his kids. >> what is this box of happiness? >> isn't it adorable? >> let's see if we can get it on camera. >> isn't that cute? paris made this for me. the children made this for me when i came back. >> after you left worked and came back. >> they missed me. it was a box of happiness. >> hey, kai, thanks for the apricots, daddy loves them. >> yes. >> he loved apricots? >> yeah, organic, yes, he was getting ready for the tour. we were -- he was eating. >> would you say just from observation that he looked in good health, except a little tired from rehearsing? >> he looked very well to me in april, yes, he did. >> meanwhile, investigators believe jackson may have been a drug addict. search warrants filed yesterday show authorities were seeking evidence of prescribing to an addict when they searched dr. conrad murray's home and office. murray has denied giving jackson anything that should have killed him. the wait is getting longer for the aunsy report here. yesterday the l.a. coroner's office announced an indefinite delay on jackson's toxicology findings. earlier, remember, a it said a final autopsy report was expected next week. let's talk about the severe thunderstorms that hit tennessee. at least one confirmed tornado spawned from this. what a mess. the f-1 twister just east of memphis had wind speeds of 80 and 90 miles per hour, cut a five-mile past of destruction. storms were near nashville. the did thissed homes knocked down trees, left 2,500 homes and businesses without power, and was still raining today in eastern tennessee. another test of the u.s. missile defense system went off last night. the defense department says it was a successful shootdown program. remember, there had been speculation north korea could launch a missile toward hawaii on july 4th. well, michael vick has been talked about a lot lately. now it's his turn. he's talking about getting back on the field, and soon. touchdown, now deploys the chute. >> oh, what a beautiful landing there for the space shuts "endeavour" after nearly 16 days in space. "endeavour's" mission to the international space station set a new record, bringing 13 people together in space. that's the most ever. during the stay, the astronauts performed five space walks that included adding the final component to the kiboh module. the next is august 25 at 1:30 a.m. local time. michael vick could be close to signing a deal with a team somewhere. no team's expressed any public interest in signing him. the baltimore ravens are the only ones to admit these thought about it. the pittsburgh steelers aren't saying anything yet, but vick spoke publicly yesterday. the latest teams to say they will not sign vick includes the bears, raiders, titans and lions. he could sign with maybe the upstart ufl, but vick will be back in bankruptcy court again later today. a woman saved her friend's dog with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. she was at her friend's house whether that little guy, little chica was found hanging from a leash, and torres went into action. >> i picked her up and just started breathing mouth to mouth. >>. >> the dog is okay, but torres says little chica could use some breath mints. a game of monopoly landed one man behind bars. the 54-year-old is accused of hitting a woman as they played this board game. police say things got ugly after she refused to sell him park place and boardwalk. they say he then slapped her and knocked off her glasses. >> i thought that was, like, real violent for playing a game that's supposed to be, like -- like i said, i guess he takes his mo nop his pretty seriously. >> he was charged with assault and battery. 97-year-old john colangelo has a new nickname, "ace." he got his first hole in one on tuesday, the 16thth hole of amsterdam golf course in new york state. the shot dropped straight into the hole. the moment he dreamed up for nearly half his life pretty much left him stunned. >> i wasn't like this -- i was like, holy cow. they went to look in the hole, and that's where it was. i got up there, and john says it's in the hole. i says, you're kidding me? he couldn't believe it. he couldn't believe it. just speechless. >> here's something even more amazing. think about this. at 97, he plays golf almost every day. that's pretty physical. the "seinfeld" cast is reuniting, sort of. we're going to let you know where you'll be able to get a few new episodes of jerry, george, eklain and cramer. we want to share some news with you just in about the health of senator christopher dodd. according to a newspaper report, he's in the early stages of prostate cancer. he's chairman of the senate banking committee, remember, and aides say the 65-year-old plans to undergo treatment and still plans to run for reelection in november of 2010. there is a news conference that we're expecting around 2:00 p.m., and we will bring that to you live on this very issue when it happens. well, as promised, president barack obama, professor henry louis gates and sergeant james crowley talked it all out yesterday while tossing back beers, but did it help the controversy? here's candy crowley. >> reporter: on a humid summer night beneath a magnolia tree, the president, vice president, the black professor and the white policeman who arrested him met together. apparently it went well. the president called it a thoughtful conversation, and you'll never guess what? sergeant james crowley says he and professor henry louis gates are planning their next meeting. >> i would like to not only discuss, but also would like to listen to the professor's perspective and he has the credentials to enlighten me a bit, and i think the professor as a willingness to listen to my perspective. >> reporter: ditto from professor gates, where he wrote on his website -- his a beer of the day, and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other. and that's really all it is. >> reporter: not exactly all. it is also the president's attempt to get out from under headlines he helped write. it was a rather routine cop call on a possible break-in at a home in cambridge. it turned into a national rorschach test on racial profiling and relations between police and minority communities. the story was elevated and propelled by five words at a presidential news conference. >> the cambridge police acted stupidly. >> it fueled the fire and knocked the president's health care message off the front pages. the president had to explain, re-explain, call sergeant crowley to personally explain an then invited both crowley and gates to the white house. now the professor and cops are working out details of their next meeting. >> i think meeting at a bar for er on a second occasion will send out the wrong message, so maybe a kool-aid orrized tea. >> reporter: the president is dying to get back to his agenda and put cambridge on the back page. >> i will be surprised if you guys all make this the lead, as opposed to a very important meeting we just had with one of our most important partners in the world. >> reporter: maybe tomorrow. candy crowley, cnn, washington. i'm jane velez-mitchell, here's my issue, he raised glasses with professor gates and sergeant crowley hoping to quell the uproar the over a couple bierce. it's being touted as a teaching moment to discussing america's racial sures. sure a grand gesture, but the same old debate. when will we have a 21st century post-racial conversation about the underlying causes of all these sorts of situations? it goes way beyond race. it's about making false assumptions, about race, gender, sexuality, education, status, class, you name it. and we're all guilty of it. this incident has brought the race issue to the forefront, but the discussion needs to go beyond race, and all the way to the human condition. for more analysis of the gates beer summit, tune into "issues toogs tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern. well, the boston cop who was suspended after sending an e-mail that included a racial slur about professor gates will fight the boston police department if he's fired. officer justin barrett's attorney says the e-mail was a private message sent from a private computer. last night on "larry king live" barrett apologized for the now infamous e-mail. >> i would like to take this opportunity to offer fellow police officers, soldier it is and citizens my sincerest apology over the controversial e-mail i authored in response to yvonne abraham's el torrie in "the boston globe." my choice of words was lacking. i failed to think through the perception of others based on what i wrote. i failed to realize the potential through the use of words that others would see as offensive. >> an e-mail was sentence to the boston globe which he talked about there. >> boston's police commissioner said his it will rhetoric would not be tolerated. the national guard has also suspended barrett pending an investigation there. inherited money isn't something you have to think about every day, but clark howard heard from a caller who's about to inherit some money from his late grandmother, and he wants to know, what's the best thing to do with this? >> for you, i think that putting the money aside in a mix of things that are very conservative, and things that involve more long-term kind of perspectives, is the right kind of mix that you should be looking at. and, i would suggest, if it were me, i would look at taking roughly a third of that money, and making it ultraconservative. things like bank cds, credit union cds. a third of it, there's no concern, no worry, or whatever. >> yeah. and the whole thing, like, it's in the credit union and the whole like $ 50,000, it's considerable more than that. so it's a little, i don't know, i'm just -- >> how much total is in the trust? >> around $2.8. >> wow. >> yeah, wow. that changes things doesn't it? get the rest of the story this weekend on "the clark howard" show at noon eastern, he's going to teach you how to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. here's something we thought we'd never see. jerry, george, elaine and kramer together again. the seinfeld crew reunites on "curb your enthusiasm." they'll do five shows about the show returning. larry david who cocreated seinfeld says a real seinfeld reunion is unlikely. it's a rare, colorful display in the gaza strip. the event was sponsored by the united nations and brought 6,000 campers to a beach in northern gaza. catching a ball at a baseball game? especially when you're holding a baby. we've got a look at two amazing catches by dads with kids in tow. is the cash for clunkers program too successself for its own good? not only are the wreckers keeping busy, so are dealers to the point of the program going broke. so will it keep going? was michael jackson a drug addict? search warrants indicate the pop superstar was hooked on prescription meds. does that mean his personal doctor is in deep trouble? and the president said it wasn't a beer summit. but did last night's meeting between obama, a black harvard professor and a white police sergeant help calm the controversy over an arrest? hln news and views. happy friday, everybody, i'm chuck roberts. we start with breaking news on the health of a very pivotal senator. democratic senator christopher do dodd of connecticut. according to a up in report he is in the early stages of prostate cancer. dodd is the chairman of the senate banking committee. he is pivotal in the health care reform debate. he will hold a news conference in about an hour. the hartford current said the 65-year-old lawmaker plans to undergo surgery during the august recess but he still plans to run for re-election next year. when that news conference occurs around 2:00 eastern we're going to bring it to you live. the cash for clunkers program may be so successful. it could be out of money. the program began only last week. it offers vouchers worth up to $4500 if you trade in your gas guzzler when you buy a new vehicle. auto dealers say they've received thousands of backlogged trades that have not been converted or counted. that could mean the program could already have burned through its $1 billion budget. democrats say they want to keep it alive. >> people are coming into showrooms. they're buying automobiles. people are actually going through a whole inventory at some car dealerships which means we have to go through automobiles, which is the whole point, putting people back to work. >> the white house insists people who make clunker trades through this weekend, though, will be fully eligible. what do you think of the program overall? good idea? bad idea? should they continue it? do you think it's helping the economy? call us toll free 877-835-5456. e-mail address cnn.com/hln, to enter your views. we're also taking text views, plus your comment and name to hln tv. standard text rates apply. the man accused of a deadly shooting at an arkansas military recruiting office has pleaded not guilty. the muslim convert was arrested minutes after the june 1st incident that left one soldier dead and another wounded. mohammed said nothing during a brief court appearance, standing handcuffed at the wrists and ankles. he could face the death penalty if convicted. trial date is set for next february. >> touchdown. deploying the chute. >> weather perfect, the space shuttle "endeavour" is home after about 16 days in space, touching down just before 11:00 eastern this morning at kennedy space center. "endeavour's" mission to the international space station set a new record, bringing 13 people together in space. the most ever. the astronauts recorded five space walks. the next schedule launch, august 25th, "discovery" will blast off in a very early morning liftoff, a little after 1:30 a.m. eastern daylight. the military scrambled fighter jets when a plane veered way off its flight plan. norad sent two f-16s to tail the plane. it crashed 300 miles away near henderson, west virginia, killing the pilot. fighter pilots never had any luck contacting the pilot. affiliate wsav reports the pilot just apparently snapped out. at least 27 people were killed in roadside bombings near shiite mosques across baghdad today. the attacks occurred just after friday prayers ended. police think they targeted worshippers who were leaving. as of today, almost all british troops are being pulled out of iraq. the agreement that allows them to be there expires today. about a dozen british soldiers are staying to help train iraqi police. traus ail yeah faced a similar deadline. all its soldiers got out tuesday except for a detachment that's staying behind to guard the australian embassy. the mayor of hoboken, new jersey, is resigning amidst federal corruption charges. he's only been on the job a few days. peter cammarano was arrested last week and charged with accepting bribes from an fbi informant. he is the second elected official in new jersey to step down since the statewide corruption crackdown. cammarano was only in office a few days. he was considered a rising star in the democratic ranks. city council president don zimmer will fill in as acting mayor until a special ee legz. search warrants seem to imply investigators think michael jackson was an addict. several doctors are being looked at along with 19 possible aliases the pop star may have used. randy kay with more on the latest details. >> reporter: we have a copy of the search warrant issued in las vegas for dr. conrad murray's home and office. the warrant states it's looking for evidence of demonstrating crimes of excess, prescribing to an addict and manslaughter. the addict in this case, apparently michael jackson. the search warrant also says authorities were looking for prescriptions and information on when medications were administered, prescribed, transferred, sold distributed and concealed, including diprivan, which authorities believe killed michael jackson, and which we know from a source dr. conrad murray gave him within 24 hours of his death. investigators seized five hard drive images, paperwork, records and two cell phones and an iphone. but the key piece of evidence that stands out, really, is a cd with the name omar arnold on it. detectives seized that and i confirmed with a source close to the investigation that jackson used the name omar arnold as an alias to obtain prescription drugs and to get procedures done without anyone knowing. so now we know he used that name and we know a cd with that name was taken from dr. murray's clinic in vegas. that is something investigators no doubt will look at. the search warrant also shows authorities believe michael jackson was using 19 other aliases. they were looking for prescriptions written in all of those names, which include the name of his personal chef, kai chase and even his own son, prince jackson. his attorney still saying dr. murray is a witness, and has not been named a suspect. but the search warrant also mentions seven other doctors that may have had correspondence with or written prescriptions for michael jackson, and any of his aliases. so it seems they're trying to match up michael jackson in any of the other names he used with doctors that they're looking at. now those mentioned in the search warrant include dr. murray, jackson's longtime dermatologist dr. arnold klein and five other doctors we have not reported on. the warrant also says they're looking for correspondence between jackson and his former nurse who told us that jackson begged her for diprivan. she said he begged her for it so he could sleep. i also spoke with a source with knowledge of the autopsy and the investigation, and he told me they are still issuing subpoenas for records, still visiting doctors offices. he says the autopsy and the toxicology report is just not done. randi kaye, cnn, los angeles. vickly to the house floor right now. live pictures. the house is voting on a motion to extend the cash for clunkers deal. the program only began on the 24th. last week. it's already running out of money. if the plan offers vouchers up to $4500 if you trade in a gas guzzler when you buy a new vehicle. it was put on hold because the money was apparently going to run out quickly. the house measure would have $2 billion to continue the program. the senate could vote on the plan next week. the house has a bit of a shorter time frame. they're expected to adjourn for their august recess this afternoon. we got a report of segregated toilets and water coolers for some philadelphia city employees. does something stink in the city of brotherly love, or are these allegations rubbish? we have both sides. several current and former sanitation workers in philadelphia claim they're forced to work under segregated conditions. three men allege in a lawsuit their supervisor kept a water cooler and a rest room off limits to black city workers. they say their boss, who is white, was to blame for the segregated conditions, and that their complaints to the city went unanswered. >> there was a water cooler in his office that he uses, and the whites go in there any time we want to. but we can't go any time. >> blacks can't go in there? >> no. you just don't walk in his office. >> it's a difference of going up one flight of stairs to the bathroom where all white employees go to go five floors down where all the blacks go. that was very degrading. >> our philadelphia affiliate asked the mayor's office for a comment. here is the statement. quote, we don't comment on active litigation. however, the allegations have no merit, and we're confident that the absence of merit will become clear as the litigation proceeds. there were no apologies, just a few beers. hopefully cold beers. and what the president described as some friendly and thoughtful conversation. professor henry louis gates jr. and sergeant james crowley of the cambridge p.d. met yesterday with president obama and vice president biden over beer at the white house. crowley, the officer who arrested gates at his home earlier this month, the confrontation, of course, led to a national debate over race. both gates and crowley promised to talk again, and to put the whole thing behind them. >> what was accomplished was just a positive step in moving forward as opposed to reliving the events of the past couple of weeks in an effort to move not just the city of cambridge for two individuals past this event, but the whole country move beyond this and use this as a basis of some meaningful discussions in the future. >> gates, a harvard professor released a statement saying thank god i live in a country in which police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day and i've come to understand their sack very nices on our behalf. the president said i always believe what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. i am confident, he continued, that has happened here tonight, and i'm hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode. the boston cop who was suspended after sending an e-mail that included a racial slur about professor gates will fight the boston police department if, in fact, he's fired. officer justin barrett's attorney says the e-mail was a private message sent from a private computer. last night on "larry king live" on our sister network cnn, barrett apologized for the now infamous e-mail. >> i would like to take this opportunity to offer fellow police officers, soldiers and citizens my sincerest apology over the controversial e-mail i offered in response to yvonne abraham's editorial on the boston globe. my choice of words, larry, was lacking. i failed to think through the perception others may have based upon what i wrote. i failed to realize the potential, through the use of words, that others would see as offensive. >> the e-mail was sent to the boston globe. the major daily newspaper, and later forwarded to barrett's fellow police officers and national guardsmen. the police commissioner said those remarks contained venomous rhetoric and would not be tolerated. a hearing on whether he'll stay on the force is expected to be happening in the next seven to ten days. the national guard has suspended barrett, as well, pending on investigation. a woman was not too pleased with her order at truck stop. in fact, she was so happy she dialed 911. wait until you hear what happened when the cops got there. according to a newspaper report, senator christopher dodd is in the remember i stages of prostate cancer. we're going to hear more about his health in an announcement he's expected to make from hartford in a little less than an hour. right now, cnn's deputy political reporter paul steinhauser is kind enough to sit in on short notice and talk about this. >> chuck, two sources close to senator dodd are confirming that hartford current report that the senator has been diagnosed with an early form of prostate cancer. he's 65 years old, and, you know, prostate cancer, especially the early forms, could be common in people that age. the hartford current is reporting that dodd's expected to undergo surgery for prostate cancer in august. when the senate is on recess. and as you mentioned, in about 45 minutes from now we're going to hear from the senator himself. a source close to dodd told us, quote, the condition was caught extremely early, and that source added that the procedure is routine and the senator's health is otherwise superb. good reporting from our ted barrett and brianna keilar and mark preston on this story. >> i red a blog that said politically he's never been more powerful, and he's never been more vulnerable. what are his chances next year? >> yeah, he is up for re-election next year. he's a five-term senator. and right now he faces a very tough re-elect. that source told us that the operation, and the medical condition in no way whatsoever affects his re-election plan. and as you mentioned, he's going to have a tough re-elect next year. you've seen a lot of dodd this year. he's been a major player in the battle for health care reform with senator ted kennedy out of the senate most of this year as he battle's brain cancer, dodd's been steering the health, labor committee. one of two committees dealing with health care reform in the that. >> and the two men are good friends. >> yes, sir. iran's president says there's no rift with the country's sue people leader mahmoud ahmadinejad says his relationship with ayatollah ali khamenei is like father/son. hard-liners have cast doubt about ahmadinejad's loyalty after he picked a controversial vice president who once said iranians and israelis were friends. ahmadinejad was pressured to drop him. the streets of tehran are quiet, at least relatively quiet today. clashes broke out yesterday between police and thousands of opposition protesters. the crowd was trying to march to the grave site of a young woman killed in post-election violence. officials say two u.s. marines are dead after a gun battle with insurgents in southern afghanistan. nato confirmed yesterday's incident and said the marines died from wounds suffered from direct fire. the troops were in helmand province, where u.s. and british forces are conducting anti-taliban offensives. this booklet apparently outlines the taliban's new code of conduct. u.s. and afghan officials call it a joke, and propaganda. the guide calls for limiting suicide attacks and civilian deaths. but u.s. officials point out with all the recent bombings and civilian killings it's obvious taliban militants don't follow their own code of conduct. one u.s. official says the book is a predescriptive on how the bad guys are supposed to conduct themselves. a woman wanted a restaurant to replace her cold french fries. she wanted it so badly she called 911. the woman told the operator her order was not right. and the restaurant wouldn't make her a new batch of fries. well, when police got there, one officer gave the woman money out of his own pocket to go somewhere else to eat. >> the officer gave me the $6 so i could go get my children something from somewhere else. >> giving her money after she's done eating the product and she complained about the fries after the fact, after she ate them. >> the woman is not facing any charges for calling 911. inheriting money isn't something you have to think about every day. fortunately. but hln money expert clark howard heard from a call here is about to inherit some money from his late grandmother and wants to know what to do with it. here's clark. >> for you, i think that putting the money aside in a mix of things that are very conservative and things that involve more long-term kind of perspective is the right kind of mix that you should be looking at. and i would suggest, if it were me, i would look at taking roughly a third of that money and making it ultraconservative. things like -- >> okay. >> -- bank cds. credit union cds. just a third of it, there's no concern, no worry or whatever. >> yeah. and the whole thing like, it's in the credit union and the whole fdi like $250,000 guarantee. it's considerably more than that. so it's a little -- i don't know. >> how much total is in the trust? >> around $2.8. >> wow. >> hear the rest of the story this weekend. don't miss it, clark howard right here, noon eastern, saturday and sunday on hln. he'll teach you how to save more, spend less and avoid getting wined off. failed banks kept on handing out billions of dollars in executive bonuses, even as their profits plummeted last year, and they lined up to take government money. a study from new york's attorney general found most banks paid out bonuses that far exceeded yearly profits. here are some of the numbers. citigroup lost $27 billion last year but still managed to award over $5 billion to its top execs. b of a paid more than $3 billion. jpmorgan chase gave out more than $8 billion. goldman sachs awarded nearly $5 billion in bonuses, almost two times its profits. and mofrgan stanley $4.5 billio in bonuses. the house is expected to pass a bill today to give government a direct role in how executives in the bailout are paid. tax-free shopping season begins this weekend. that's some good news in a bad economy. 15 states and washington, d.c. are offering sales tax holidays in time for back-to-school shopping. you can get discounts on clothes, school supplies, even computers in some states. the tax-free weekend is going on right now in georgia and mississippi. the rest of the nation will sort of be sequenced in through the month of august. the government's cash for clunkers program could get you a new ride for cheap. is the incentive a hit or miss for the economy. have you had any experience with this? we're going to share your views. we have breaking news. the house has just now approved $2 billion in extra funding for the cash for clunkers program, which was running dry. the program only began the 24th of this month, and has apparently been so popular it blew through the first billion dollars congress allocated. it's a program that offers vouchers worth up to $4500 if you trade in a gas guzzler when you buy a new vehicle that has a higher mileage vehicle. auto dealers say they've gotten thousands of backlogged trades that have yet to be counted. a key senate democrat said she wants that chamber to send it to the president. >> we have agreed that we're going to work through to try to continue this program. first of all, it continues as is today, until otherwise noticed. until dealerships are told otherwise. and the house intends to pass a bill today that would add an additional $2 billion to the program. >> and that vote has already occurred. bipartisan vote in the house. if you go to any of the 23,000 dealerships participating in this program, you'll get a good idea how popular it's been. jovanno larro heard raves about it when she checked out a dealership near los angeles. >> reporter: just look at all the clunkers now proudly on display at gal vin ford. like this dodge van turned pickup. hard to believe its owner got more than $3,000 in a trade-in deal. collectively, these rust buckets represent a huge boom in business since the government's cash for clunkers program got under way. >> a lot of these people that are training these cars in, they've got a $200 car or a $100 car, what a great thing to give somebody and give $4500 toward a new vehicle. it's doing the job. every one of those is taken off the road and at the same time stimulating the economy and giving something back to, you know, people that need it. >> reporter: nationwide more than 19,000 people have traded in their cars in just six days. the influx of buyers so large the government's website crashed as dealers across the country processed sales. >> i think it's a great program. i got $4500 for this vehicle towards the purchase of a new f-150. and it was time to turn this one in. it's 15 years old. >> reporter: an f-150 he's buying. thanks again to knbc in los angeles. regards to what happens on capitol hill, the white house says any cash for clunker trade made through this weekend will be fully honored. all right, also breaking news today, the health of senator christopher dodd, the chairman of the banking committee, according to a newspaper report he is in the early stages of prostate cancer. dodd plans to hold a news conference in a little less than a half hour. the hartford current reports the 5-year-old legislator plans to undergo surgery during the congressional august resells but will run for re-election next year. when that news conference occurs, we'll bring it to you live. several current and former san nation workers in philadelphia claim they were forced to work under segregated conditions. the men allege in a lawsuit that drinking fountains and bathrooms were for white city workers but off limits to black city work irps at the northwest transfer station. they also said the station supervisor, who is white, was to blame for the segregated conditions and that their complaints to the city were ignored. >> there's a water cooler in his office, that he uses, and the whites go in there any time we want to, but we can't go in his office when we want to. you just don't walk in his office. >>ic he said, it's the difference of going one flight of stairs to a bathroom where all the white employees go, to go five flights down where all the blacks go. that was very degrading. >> philadelphia affiliate asked the mayor's office for a comment on the lawsuit. here's what mayor street said. and we quote, we don't comment on active litigation. however, the allegations have no merit, and we're confident the absence of merit will become clear as the litigation proceeds. there were no apologies, just a few cold beers. and what the president described as some friendly and thoughtful conversation. professor henry louis gates jr. and sergeant james crowley met yesterday with president obama and vice president biden over beer at the white house. crowley, the cambridge, massachusetts, officer who arrested gates at his home earlier this month, the confrontation, of course, led to a national debate over race and racial profiling, both gates and crowley promised to talk again and put the whole thing behind them. >> what was accomplished was this was a positive step in moving forward, as opposed to reliving the events of the past couple of weeks in an effort to move not just the city of cambridge or two individuals past this event, but the whole country move beyond this and use this as a basis of maybe some meaningful discussions in the future. >> gates, a harvard professor released this statement. thank god i live in a country where police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day. i've come to understand and appreciate their daily sacrifices on our behalf. here's what the president said, again this is direct quoting. i've always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. i am confident that has happened here tonight, and i'm also hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode. the boston cop suspended after sending an e-mail that included a racial slur about professor gates will fight the police department, if he's fired. officer justin barrett's attorney says e-mail was a private message sent from a private computer. last night on our sister network cnn's "larry king live" barrett apologized for the now infamous e-mail. >> i'd like to take this opportunity to offer fellow police officers, soldiers and citizens my sincerest apology over the controversial e-mail i offered in response to yvonne abraham's editorial in the boston globe. my choice of words, larry, was lacking. i failed to think through the perception others may have based upon what i wrote. i failed to realize the potential through the use of words that others would see as offensive. >> the e-mail was sent to the boston globe, and later forwarded to barrett's fellow officers and national guardsmen. boston's police commissioner said barrett's quote was sven muss rhetoric and wouldn't be tolerated. a hearing on whether he'll stay on the force is expected in the next ten days. the national guard has suspended barrett pending an investigation. search warrants seem to imply investigators believe michael jackson was a drug addict. the warrants say there's probable cause to think that searches of the home and office of dr. conrad murray, jackson's personal doctor, would uncover evidence of quote crimes of excess. specifically it's said they're prescribing to or treating an as duct, and manslaughter. cnn's senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin says if jackson was an addict, prosecutor dr. murray would get more difficult. >> the fact that they are essentially saying michael jackson was an addict makes the prosecution of anybody harder. because, it suggests that jackson himself was the big initiator of getting all these drugs. >> sources close to the investigation tell cnn jackson used 19 different aliases when he wanted prescription drugs. the wait's getting longer for jackson's final autopsy report. yesterday, the coroner's office announced an indefinite delay on the toxicology findings, saying more investigation needs to be done. earlier it said the final autopsy report was expected next week. at one time they were pets. now a florida man thinks they're pests. he's got an unusual solution to rid the sunshine state of ig juan fwhas. touchdown. deploying the chute. >> a powerless landing. the shuttle "endeavour" comes home. picture perfect landing after 16 days in space. touched down just before 11:00 eastern at kennedy space center. "endeavour's" mission to the international space station set a record, bringing 13 people together in space. that's the most ever. during their stay, the astronauts performed five space walks that included adding the final component to the space lab module. the next scheduled launch, august 25th. "discovery" will blast off in a very early morning liftoff just after 1:30 local time. if the sight of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but was it crashed by u.s. troops? accusations around babylon are getting lots of clicks at cnn.com. virginia cha joins us with this. >> hi there, chuck. you know the famed hanging gardens of babylon date back to around 600 b.c. now, the u.s. military says it was just trying to protect that site. but the u.n. and iraq both say that they ended up damaging the area, instead. you may know this, back in 2003, u.s. troops set up camp alpha there, shortly after the start of the war. a military spokeswoman said part of the purpose of the base was to actually protect the historic area from looters who had already cleaned out nearby antiquities museums. well, in bringing the base up to standards, troops and contractors allegedly dug up the area, leveled it and caused some structural damage. a u.n. report says the well known blue ishtar gate suffered. now an iraqi official says the u.s. has agreed to pay $800,000 to help with repairs. a massive cleanup is planned for august with hundreds of volunteers. by the way, king nebuchadnezzar is believed to have built the famous gardens for his wife. it's important to know that the u.n. report says that u.s. troops were not solely responsible for the damage. to find out who else they say is responsible, go to c cnn.com/world. getting into the wrap game, what are we looking for m.c. hillary? >> you might, and i stress might, have to wait on that one. the state department is showing some serious interest in hip-hop. they say it's all in the name of diplomacy. the state department has brought over six hip-hop artists from five different nations as part of its cultural visitors program. they will rehearse. they perform as a group and a three-week tour of u.s. cities. as you know, hip-hop is born in the u.s. it's spread all over the world and become a really power much representative of the u.s. and the culture. the state department says it as a chance for these visitors to soak up the u.s. scene, and this is the important part, in exchange they go back home, spread the positive impression they get of american culture. a state department official says nothing can substitute for being in america, meeting americans, and learning customs. the group, by the way, includes performers from lebanon, vietnam, and the philippines. by the way from the west bank he says you've got to feel it. even if you don't know the language you can get involved when i'm saying. he says when he raps he asks god to bring peace to his land. so this is some serious stuff. that all at cnn.com/world. >> all right, virginia, better known as master cha. have a good weekend. when civilian contractor brad blosser went to iraq to boost morale he learned that one in seven iraqi children is living with a disability. now as u.s. troops withdraw from the region, blosser is staying to offer hope to hundreds of children and their families. >> this is cnn news. >> disabled children, they're really the forgotten ones in this war. they're in the back room, often not seen in society. i came to iraq as a civilian contractor. there were a lot of children that either dragged themselves on the ground, or had to be carried. there were so many kids out there with a need and so many people willing to reach out and touch the lives of these kids. in 30 days we had 31 pediatric wheelchairs that had hit the ground. my name is brad blosser, i bring pediatric wheelchairs to iraqi children in need. people donate on my website. the wheelchairs are brought over and i distribute them to the different military units, and help fit these children into the wheelchairs. the experience for me on our first distribution was awesome. to see the smile come across their face and look over at the mothers and fathers. they've definitely been changed. >> it's all about humanity. he wants the iraqis to feel that there is humanity in america. it makes us happy to see such a thing. >> there's no paycheck. it's not really safe here. but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. knowing that you've done something for someone that nobody else has done before. that made a difference in the life of these families. definitely the sacrifice has been worth it. >> those kids' smiles make all the difference, don't they? you can find out more about brad blauser's work and nominate a cnn hero of your own by going to kron.com/heroes. it's your last chance to tell us about your heroes. nominations close tomorrow. the man accused in a deadly shooting at an arkansas military recruiting office has pleaded not guilty. abdul hakeem mohammed, a muslim convert, was arrested minutes after the june 1st incident that left one soldier dead and another wounded. mohammed said nothing during a brief courtroom appearance. he could face the death penalty if convicted. the trial date is set for next february. at least 27 people were killed at roadside bombings near shiite mosques across baghdad today. the attacks occurred just after friday prayers ended. police think they were targeting worshippers who were leaving. as of today, almost all the british troops are being pulled out of iraq. the agreement that allows them to be there expires today. about a dozen british soldiers are staying behind to help train iraqi police, but only a dozen. australia had a similar deadline. all of its soldiers got out tuesday. save for a detachment that's staying behind to guard the embassy, the australian embassy. officials say two u.s. marines are dead after a gun battle with insurgents in southern afghanistan. nato confirmed yesterday's incident and said the marines died from wounds suffered from direct fire. the troops were in the helmand province where u.s. and british forces are conducting anti-taliban offenses. this booklet apparently outlines the taliban's new code of conduct. u.s. and afghan officials call it a joke. and propaganda. the guide calls for limiting suicide attacks, and civilian deaths. but u.s. officials point out with all the recent bombings and civilian killings, it's obvious taliban militants don't follow their code of conduct. one u.s. official says the book is a predescriptive on how the bad guys are supposed to conduct themselves. a heat wave in the pacific northwest may have claimed its second victim. medical examiners in washington's king county are looking in the death of a 66-year-old man. a man in his 50s died of a heart-related illness wednesday in tacoma. people in parts of washington state and nearby oregon have endured record triple-digit heat this week. by the beginning of next week, temperatures should be leveling off to around 85 in portland, and mid to high 70s in seattle. severe thunderstorms hit hi tennessee spawning at least one confirmed tornado. the f-1 twister hit just east of memphis with wind speeds to 90 miles per hour cutting a five-mile path of destruction last night. storm near nashville damaged homes and knocked down trees leaving more than 2500 homes and businesses without power. it was still raining in east tennessee today. the game of monopoly landed one man behind bars. the 54-year-old's accused of hitting a woman as they played the board game. police say things got ugly after she refused to sell him park place and boardwalk. she said he then slapped her and knocked off her glasses. >> i thought she was like real violent for playing a game that's supposed to be. i guess he takes mismonopoly pretty seriously. >> he's been charged with assault and battery. a woman wanted a restaurant to replace her french fries so she called 911. when police got there, one officer gave the woman money out of his own pocket to have her go eat somewhere else. >> the officer gave me the $6 so i can go get my children something from somewhere else. >> it made the situation worse by giving her money after she's done eating the product and she complained about the fries after the fact, after she ate them. >> the woman is not facing charges for calling 911. drivers in the detroit area had a chance to get gas for 99 cents a gallon yesterday for two hours. local gas station cut its prices from $2.49. the line was long. one woman ran out of gas in line so some of the other people there offered to push her to the pump. some stimulus money is going to a deep cause. why people who are cleaning up puget sound think that's a very sound investment. connecticut senator chris dodd has been diagnosed with an emergency roomily form of prostate cancer. he plans to undergo surgery but how will that affect his re-election campaign in 2010. we're expected to hear directly from the senator in just a short time and we will bring that to you live when it happens. also, president obama said it wasn't a beer summit, but did last night's meeting between the president, a black harvard professor, and a white police sergeant help calm the controversy over an arrest? drugged a mik eddrug addict words describe the investigation into michael jackson's death. police are expected to make a major announcement in the case of this missing 8-year-old boy, robert manwill. he vanished a week ago near his mother's apartment in boise. we're going to bring you that news conference as soon as it begins live, but for the meantime we're going to go ahead and continue on with some other breaking news that we've learned about regarding senator christopher dodd. sources tell cnn the democrat is in the early stages of prostate cancer. we are expecting to hear from the senator himself. he's chairman of the senate banking committee, remember. according to an e-mail from his office, the 65-year-old will have surgery early next month. he still plans to run for re-election in november of 2010. that's all we know about that so far, but again bringing you that live as soon as it happens as well. meanwhile, president obama says he's guardedly optimistic about the direction of the economy. a report out today shows the gross domestic prozukt sank only 1%. the president says the recovery act has helped turn around the economy but the true test will be job creation. >> as far as i'm concerned, we won't have a recovery as long as we keep losing jobs, and i will not rest until every american who wants a job can find one. but history does show that you need to have economic growth before you have job growth, and today's gdp is an important sign that the economy is headed in the right direction and that business investment, which had been plummeting in the last several months, is showing signs of stabilizing. this means that eventually businesses will start growing and they will start hiring again, and that's when it will truly feel like a recovery to the american people. >> the president also praised the cash for clunkers program saying it had exceeded expectations, and he's doing everything possible to extend it. the house has approved $2 billion in extra funding. but remember this began just last week, and it's apparently been so pop lehr that's it's blown through the $1 billion congress initially allocated for it. so the program offers vouchers worth up to $4,500 if you trade in a gas guzzler when you buy a new vehicle. auto dealers say they've gotten thousands of backlogged trades that haven't been been counted yet. a key senate democrat says she wants that chamber to send it to the president. >> people are coming in to showrooms, they're buying automobiles. people are actually going through the whole inventory at some car dealerships which means we have to build more automobiles, which is the whole point, putting people back to work. >> president obama's applauding lawmakers for acting fast to save cash for clunkers. congress is pulling the money from funds approved in the economic stimulus bill apparently to make this happen. but what do you think about the cash for clunkers program? do you think it should be continued or do you believe it's helping or even hurting the economy? which one? call us at 1-877-tell-hln. or e-mail us at cnn.com/hln. or text us, views, your comments, your name to hlntv. standard rates do apply. we want to get you right now to boise, idaho, where we're expected to hear a major announcement about missing 8-year-old robert manwill. >> when new developments come up and the public needed to know about our search and investigation, we would let you know as soon as possible. the volunteer search is still continuing and 8-year-old robert manwill is still missing. however, we do have new developments in our investigation into what happened to him. overnight investigators from the boise police department with the assistance of the fbi have located evidence that may, may bring us closer to finding out what happened to robert. the evidence we've uncovered shows that there are suspicious circumstances regarding robert's disappearance. but, again -- i'm sorry, robert may be injured, but again robert is still missing. it's very important that we locate robert or find any evidence that may help us locate where he is or where he isn't. as we speak, volunteers assisting in the search today are being given the information by search team officers that robert may, indeed, be injured or the victim of a tragic event. however, the direction for the volunteers remains the same. they're being asked to search for any item or anything that appears suspiciously out of place that may point to where robert is. the volunteers are currently helping us with one angle of this investigation. i can tell you that trained investigators who have been working on this case for seven days are also following the new leads that come from the new evidence. the important message for the community is your response to help find the missing little boy has been incredible. it's often the difficult times that bring us together. our officers as they search the neighborhoods and talk to the residents have had nothing but positive support from our citizens. residents are telling our officers that they support our efforts to find this little boy and to learn what happened to him. it's the response from this community, robert's family, and the shy smile of that little boy on the missing poster that keeps us investigators going. much has been happening in this investigation over the past -- >> all right, again, 8-year-old robert manwill is still missing. that is the biggest theme that the police officer there in boise wants to get across to us. the fbi and the boise police department though, as he's announcing, have located some evidence that there may be some suspicious circumstances around his disappearance. we'll keep watching this. we want to take you now to senator chris dodd who is holding a news conference about his health. >> the biopsy came back and confirmed that i had prostate cancer, and as a result of that, i've gone through a series of conversations with people in the medical field to determine what best course of action to follow. and let me just mention two or three things, if i can. one is i feel fine. as i say, this is very common. if you have to have cancer, i'm told by some doctors, this is the slowest growing, the best one to have, and the most manageable. they say many, many people have been cured. a number 6 of my fellow senators have been through it. i have had conversations with my fellow senator who is have been through this. i do feel fine. i have a busy schedule. i'm going to leave here and go over to the charter oak community health center after i leave here. i have a busy day tomorrow. joe lieberman's daughter is getting married. monday i have kathleen sebelius coming into the state, the new secretary of health and human services a busy schedule will continue next week, we're back in the senate, and so we'll go forward. secondly, i'm going to be fine in all of this. we caught this early. the great thing about the annual physical is if you get an early detection of prostate cancer, it's very, very manageable, and so the good news is i'm going to be back out and doing all the things you have to do in order to represent my state and carry on the efforts we're engaged in. thirdly, i want to mention something that i have talked a lot about over the last several weeks, but not in the context of the news today. as a member of congress, i have a very good health care plan. my health care plan allows me to get paid an annual physical. because i have an annual physical, i was able to detect this prostate cancer very early. i also then was able to take some time because it is slow growing over the last six weeks to talk to people about what's the best course of action to follow. i have developed almost an encyclopedic knowledge now about prostate cancer as a result of just reading books and talking to people, and the best course of action was recommended to me and my choice in the end was to do surgery so. shortly after we recess next week, i'll have surgery done at memorial sloan-kettering in new york to remove the prostate, and then it will take a day or so in the hospital. i will be back in connecticut at home for a couple of weeks i think after that, which they recommend as a period of recuperation. i'll be able to do work while i'm home. they recommend a light schedule. but the benefit of being in congress and having a good health care plan is not available to everyone, which is the fourth point i want to make. and that is today 100 people in this state of connecticut will lose their health care coverage. 14,000 people across the country will today in the united states lose health care coverage. for a person who loses health care coverage, that physical may not be something you can afford, and if you can afford the physical, you may not have the resources or the coverage to help you deal with this problem. i'm fortunate as a member of congress to have those benefits, and so one of the things we have been fighting for and will continue to fight for is to get this national health care reform effort passed in the congress. i know it's controversial, it's hard. we spent a lot of time in the committee i've been chairing in place of my good friend from massachusetts who is struggling with brain cancer at this time to get that job done and we did two weeks ago. while things fell apart a bit this week, i'm confident we will get it back on track again. i received a lot of calls this morning from friends. i made the decision last evening about the course of action. >> okay. so there is senator christopher dodd, who is announcing that, yes, he's confirming his diagnosis of prostate cancer saying right now he feels fine, they caught it early, it's very manageable, and it was -- now making this plea to their overhaul of the national health care reform system to see if they can pass something in congress saying, look, basically i'm an example of health care because i was able through my health care program to get a yearly physical, and that is what helped to detect this prostate cancer, but he says he's going to have surgery next week at memorial sloan-kettering in new york and he'll be back in connecticut for a couple weeks recuperating. so obviously taking advantage of the august recess to take care of this problem for him. but, again, senator dodd confirming he does have prostate cancer and that he will be undergoing surgery in the next week or so to take care of it. other news for you now, search warrants seem to imply investigators think michael jackson was, in fact, an addict. the warrants say there's probable cause to believe searches of the home and office of dr. conrad murray, jackson's personal doctor, would uncover evidence of, quote, crimes of excess. specifically excessive prescribing, prescribing to or treating an addict, and manslaughter. sources close to the investigation tells cnn jackson used 19 different aliases when he wanted prescription drugs apparently. we have a report of segregated toilets and water coolers for some philadelphia city employees. does something stink in the city of brotherly love or are the allegations a bunch of rubbish? both sides for you in a moment. well, you know, several current and former sanitation workers in philadelphia claim that they were forced to work under segregated conditions. three men allege in a lawsuit that their supervisor kept a water cooler and restroom off limits to black city workers. they say their boss, who is white, was to blame for the segregated conditions and that their complaints to the city were ignored. >> there's a water cooler in his office that he uses and the whites go in there any time we want to, but we can't go in his office. >> blacks can't go in there. >> you can't just walk into his office. >> it's a difference of walking one flight to the bathroom to five flights down where all the blash blacks go. >> the mayor was asked for a comment. quote, we don't comment on active litigation. however, the allegations have no merit and we're confident the absence of merit will become clear as the litigation proceeds, unquote. well, wind farms are sprouting up at a robust pace across the country creating clean energy, much-needed jobs. well, now the industry is calling for strong government action to keep the wind from dying down. cnnmoney.com's alison kosik has more from new york from us. hi, alison. >> hi, christi. first a little bit of background. enough new generating capacity was installed last quarter to power about 350,000 homes. that's according to the american wind energy association. the trade group says missouri was by far the fastest growing state for wind. missouri governor jay nixon has been a vocal proponent of using wind energy to create jobs in his state. pennsylvania came in a distant second followed by south dakota, washington, and texas. christi? >> you mentioned governor nixon wanted to use wind energy to create jobs. is it working? how many jobs have been created from this sector? >> you know, christi, so far it is working. the awea says about 85,000 people work in the wind industry today, and that's a 70% increase from last year, but there's concern many of those jobs could disappear. the recession has caused demand for electricity to fall, so utilities are less eager to purchase the electricity generated by wind farms. that make it is harder for wind farms to get the funds needed to build more wind turbines. in addition to those financial issues, there are aesthetic concerns from people who don't want to see those huge wind farms sprouting up in their backyards. you know, that nimby syndrome. >> what about securing funds from the government? is any federal stimulus money going to fund wind energy? >> you know, you make a good point. it sounds like just the type of project the stimulus was designed for. to date no money has gone to wind energy companies but that is about to change. today the government announced it's distributing $3 billion of stimulus money to renewable energy companies, including wind energy companies. the awea says some wind projects are moving ahead with construction under the assumption that they'll soon be able to apply for more and receive government money. in addition to funding, the awea wants congress to adopt a renewable electricity standard which would force a switch to wind and other sources of renewable energy. many countries in europe and asia already have these standards. renewable electricity standard here could potentially stop thousands of new green jobs from going overseas or disappearing altogether. even better, it could create more jobs right here in the u.s. christi? >> all right, alison, good to see you. thank you so much. you can get much more of today's business news on cnnmoney.com. he drew the go to jail card during a game of monopoly. the game became all too real when the cops showed up at his front door. what he's accused of doing to put him behind bars. well, police in boise, idaho, now say there are suspicious circumstances in the disappearance of this 8-year-old boy, robert man nis wiwill. he vanished a week ago near his mother's apartment. police said they believe little robert is hurt. they did not elaborate on that. said he may be injured or the victim of a tragic event. police searched the home of robert's mother last night, not clear what they found. we're on this story though and we will bring you more information as we get it here. also, at least 27 people were killed in roadside bombings near shiite mosques across baghdad today. the attacks happened right after friday prayers ended. police think they targeted worshippers who were leaving. and as of today, almost all british troops are being pulled out of iraq. the agreement that allows them to be there expires today. about a dozen soldiers are saying to help train iraqi police. australia have a similar deadline. all of its soldiers goes out tuesday except for a detachment staying behind to guard the embassy. two u.s. marines are dead after a gun battle with insurgents in southern afghanistan. nato said the marines died from wounds suffered from direct fire. the troops were in helmand province where u.s. and british forces are conducting anti-taliban offenses. another tax-free shopping season starts this weekend. 15 states and washington, d.c., offering sales tax holidays just in time for back-to-school shopping. you can get discounts on clothes, school supplies. the tax-free weekend is going on right now in georgia and mti mississippi. a game of monopoly landed one guy behind bars. the 54-year-old is accused of hitting a woman as they played. things got ugly after she refused to sell him park place and boardwalk. she says he then slapped her and knocked off her glasses. he's charged now with assault and battery. the government's cash for clunkers program could get you a new ride for cheap, but is the incentive a hit or miss for the economy? you sound off on that in a moment. some frightening news coming out of boise, idaho, where police say there are suspicious circumstances in the disappearance of this 8-year-old boy, robert, manwill. they believe hill robert is hurt or may be the victim of a tragic event but they didn't elaborate further. they said the boise police department with the assistance of the fbi in fact, have located evidence that may bring them closer to finding out what happened to that little boy. in fact, police searched the home of robert's mother last night, whom he had been staying with for the summer. not clear what they found or even what they were looking for, but today's news conference robert's aunt also made an emotional appeal. >> as a family and as a whole, we want everyone not to give up hope, to continue on everything that we have done, the searching, the looking. please, help us to bring robert home. >> now, 1,000 volunteers were involved in today's search for robert and that's the takeaway here. police want to reiterate that he is still missing, so volunteer searching a critical here. we'll stay on this story and bring you more information as we get it. in the meantime another big story we've been following, senator chris dodd, who has announced he does have prostate cancer. the connecticut democrat does not intend though to let it keep him off the job. deputy political director paul steinhauser is in washington where the senator just confirmed this news. so, boy, paul, what do you make of it? >> just a half hour ago senator dodd, five-term senator from connecticut, making the news, he has an early form of prostate cancer. he says next month in august when the senate is on recess he's going to have a procedure done. take a listen to the senator. >> i'm going to be fine in all of this. again, we caught this early. the great thing about the annual physical is if you get an early detection of prostate cancer, it's very, very manageable. and so the good news is i'm going to be back out and doing all the things you have to do in order to represent my state and carry on the efforts we're engaged in. >> you'll remember the senator from 2007 and '08, he made a bid for the presidential nomination before dropping out this. year you have seen a lot of chris dodd. christi, he's the chairman of the banking committee. he was one of the co-sponsors of a bill that passed in law that prevents credit card companies from jacking up your rates without telling you. just recently this summer he's been filling in as chairman of the senate health committee, which is one of the two committees that's dealing with health care reform. senator ted kennedy is the chairman of that committee but he's been out because of his own battle with brain cancer. >> obviously chris dad -- dodd sounding authoritative and confident. at this point what will voters think? how confident will they be when they go to possibly re-elect him or not in 2010? >> that's right. he is up for re-election next year, and he has been down in the polls, and he faces a very tough re-election. but today the senator said this changes nothing, that he will be running for re-election next year, and that this procedure will not change a thing. we'll have to see what the voters think when they go to the polls. >> paul steinhauser, thank you so much for the very latest. >> thank you. also in washington, president obama says he's guardedly optimistic about the direction of the economy. a report out today shows the gross domestic product sank only 1%. now, the president says the recovery act has helped turn around the economy, but the true test will be job creation. >> as far as i'm concerned, we won't have a recovery as long as we keep losing jobs, and i will not rest until every american who wants a job can find one. but history does show that you need to have economic growth before you have job growth. and today's gdp is an important sign that the economy is headed in the right direction and that business investments, which had been plummeting in the last several months, is showing signs of stabilizing. this means that eventually businesses bill start growing and they'll start hiring again, and that's when it will truly feel like a recovery to the american people. >> the president also praised a cash for clunkers program saying it had exceeded expectations and that he's doing everything possible to extend it. in fact, the house has approved $2 billion in extra funding for this, but it began just last week, and it's apparently been so popular it's blown through the $1 billion congress initially allocated for it. so the program offers vouchers worth up to $4,500. if you trade in a gas guzzler when you buy a new vehicle. auto dealers say they've gotten thousands of backlogged trades that haven't been counted. so the senate likely won't vote on the additional funding until monday. congress is pulling the money from funds approved in the economic stimulus bill because a lot of people are wondering where is this money coming from. so we want to ask your thoughts on the cash for clunkers program. do you think that it should be continued if the house voted today and do you think it's helping or hurting the economy? 1-877-tell-hln is the number to call. or e-mail us at cnn.com/hln. click under "your views." or text us "views" your comments and name to hlntv. standard text rates apply. thank you for letting us know how you feel. the house has approved a new restriction on bonuses for wall street executives this. comes after nine banks gave out millions of dollars in bonuses after taking taxpayer fn hundred dollarsed bailouts. it gives regulators leeway in setting up precise regulations so those restrictions go farther than president obama wanted, in fact. the senate isn't likely to take up the measure until after it returns from summer recess which will be in september. an international search is under way for an auburn university student who disappeared in thailand. the family of michael hairy is saying they're expecting a major break in the search today, but here is his picture. they wouldn't say exactly what they believe that break to be, but auburn says the 29-year-old veterinary student was studying abroad in japan and had told a professor he was going to vacation in thailand with friends and would return july 14th. surveillance video from bangk bangkok's airport shows him entering the terminal, then leaving again before checking in for his flight. there were no apologies, just a few beers, and what president obama described as some friendly, thoughtful conversation. professor henry louis gates, jr., and sergeant james crowley met yesterday with president obama and vice president biden you see there over a beer at the white house. crowley is the officer who arrested gates at his home earlier this month. now, the confrontation led to a national debate over race. both gates and crowley promised to talk again and to put this whole thing behind them. >> what was accomplished was this was a positive step in moving forward as opposed to reliving the events of the past couple weeks in an effort to move not just the city of cambridge or two individuals past this event, but the whole country to move beyond this and use this as the basis of maybe some meaningful discussions in the future. >> gates released a statement saying, thank god that i live in a country in which police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day and more than ever i've come to understand and appreciate their daily sacrifices on our behalf. that's a quote from professor gates. here is what president obama had to say. quote, i have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. i'm confident that has happened here tonight, and i am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode. vice president joe biden is addressing the national urban league in chicago today. there he is. the economy obviously topping the agenda. biden says one of the most difficult aspects of the recession is that job creation lags behind growth, and he went on to say there's a much higher rate of unemployment for african-americans. biden added funds from the recovery act are helping people who have recently been unemployed. a mom in massachusetts is charged with reckless endangerment to a child and assault and battery for allegedly locking her 3-year-old son with special needs in a sweltering 100-plus degree addict. one of her other children told police mommy does this when she gets angry. the boy was naked, covered in urine and feces, had bumps on his forehead. her family says she's an overwhelmed single mother dealing with a child with behavioral problems. her bail is set at $10,000. the state department getting fresh. with the government's office is suddenly so interested in hip-hop. a foundation honors the service of our deployed service men and women. first lady michelle obama wants us to remember the sacrifices of their families as well. this afternoon she spoke to military families at the norfolk navy base. >> we must all remember that when our troops are deployed, their families are left behind and faced with an entirely different set of duties. mothers who tuck their kids in at night and struggle to answer the question, when is daddy coming home? fathers who wonder how they'll keep their families together while they juggle ballet recitals and homework and mowing the lawn all while their wives are serving our country abrood. >> this is michelle obama's second trip as first lady to a military installation n march she visited ft. bragg in north carolina. it is the side of one of the seven wonders in the ancient world but was it trapped by u.s. troops. this is getting lots of clicks at cnn.com. hey, reggie. >> this is really too bad all around because the point in having the troops there was to protect antiquities and other famous sites, which is just about an hour outside of baghdad. in doing so they ended up damaging another one. so this is how the story goes. by the way, they are going to try to clean this all up, the mess that started. the hanging gardens of babylon date back to 600 b.c. the u.s. military says it was trying to protect the ancient site. in 2003 the troops set up camp alpha there. part of the purpose was to protect the historic area from looters. when they brought up the base to standards, the troops and contractors allegedly dug up the area, levels it, and then caused some structural damage. a u.n. report says the famed blue ish tar's gate suffered several smashed bricks. it also drove stakes into historic structures to secure barbed wire. obviously not the best thing to do on a historic site. now an iraqi official says the u.s. is going to pay $800,000 to help with repairs there. they say a massive cleanup is planned for august with hundreds of volunteers. the sad thing about this christi is already one side of babylon was destroyed in the past because of encroachment there. so they were trying to protect it, and now inadvertently it seems to have been at least partially damaged again. so hopefully they will be able to get that thing back up to a little bit what it looked like before. we'll see. >> okay. hey, reggie, let's move on to what else is grabbing some eyeballs at cnn.com. the state department is getting into the rap game. may i ask why? >> okay. well, this is all kind of in the hopes that we're able to spread the american message and theme around the world and to do so through the language that a lot of young people speak, which is hip-hop. so here is what they're going to do. they're actually inviting a bunch of hip-hop artists from all across the globe to come here for a cultural visitors program. they will rehearse together and perform together as a part of a three-week tour of u.s. cities. so hip-hop obviously started in the u.s. so that's what part of this is about, the fact that we were able to kind of create a new culture and an art form, spread it around the world, and now it's coming back to us. the state department sees it as a chance for the visitors to soak up the u.s. screen aene an go home and hopefully talk in a positive way about u.s. culture. the group includes members from lebanon, vietnam, and the philippines. so what will they be rapping about? one of the guys says when he raps he asks god to bring peace to his land. unconventional, yes. certainly interesting. a lot of people are clicking on that story today. >> all right. hey, reggie, happy friday. >> word. >> okay. to your mother. thank you so much. a toxicology report could reveal some answers about michael jackson's death, obviously, about you we're not getting a look at it anytime soon. why investigators say that report could be delayed indefinitely. an appeals court has ordered a shorter sentence for the former ceo of quewest communicatio communications. he was convicted of insider trading and began serving a six-year sentence in april. the appeals court said that sentence is too long. his attorneys argued the trial judge based the sentence on inflated assessments of how much he made from the insider trading. nacchio was convicted in 2007. the wait is getting even longer for jackson's -- michael jackson's final autopsy report. yesterday the l.a. coroner's office announced an indefinite delay on the toxicology findings. it says more investigation needs to be done. now, earlier remember it said a final autopsy report was expected next week. obviously, that's not going to happen. i'm jane velez-mitchell and here's my issue. last night president obama raised glasses with henry louis gates, jr. and police sergeant james crowley hoping to quell the uproar over the gates arrest. over a couple of beers. it's being touted as a teaching moment to discuss america's racial issues. sure, it was a grand gesture, but it's the same old debate. when will we have a 21st century post-racial conversation about the underlying causes of all these sorts of situations? it goes way beyond race. it's about making false assumptions about race, gender, sexuality, education, status, class, you name it, and we're all guilty of it. this incident has brought the race issue to the forefront, but the discussion needs to go beyond race and all the way to the human condition. for more analysis of the gates beer summit, tune into "issues" tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern. >> watch every night at 7:00 p.m. eastern right here on hln. we feel for those of you who are dealing with this heat wave in the pacific northwest. it may have claimed two victims. medical examiners in washington state's king county medical examiners in washington state's king county are looking into the death of a 66-year-old man. a man in his 50s died of a heat-related illness in tacoma. folks in washington and oregon have endured record triple digit heat this week. by the beginning of next week temperatures are expected to level off by 85 in portland. hopefully relief is within your grasp here. the skies opened up over tennessee as severe thunderstorms spawned at least one confirmed tornado. it was an f-1 twister east of memphis with wind speeds up to 90 miles an hour. cut a five mile path of destruction. also storms near nashville damaged homes and knocked down trees. left 2500 homes and businesses without power. it was still raining today in eastern tennessee. >> look at that gorgeous landing for the space shuttle "endeavour." after nearly 16 days in space. touched down just before 11:00 a.m. eastern today at the kennedy space center. "endeavour's" mission set a new record bringing 13 people together in space. that's the most ever. and during their stay the astronauts performed five space walks that included adding the final component to the lab module. "discovery" will blast off just after 1:30 a.m. local time august 25th. here's something we thought we would never see. jerry, george, elaine and kramer together again. they will reunite on the new season of curb your enthusiasm, appearing in five episodes in a story line about the show returning. a show within a show. larry david, who co-created seinfeld says a real reunion is unlikely. darn it. would you put your lips around a dog's mouth? a woman talks about using mouth to mouth to save her pet. esesess connecticut senator chris dodd diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer. he will undergo surgery. how will it affect his re-election campaign. president obama said it wasn't a beer summit. but in last night's meeting between the president, a black harvard professor and a white police sergeant calm. the controversy over an arrest. and drug addict. the latest in the investigation of michael jackson's death. hi, everybody. on a friday. last day of july. breaking news now. police in boise, idaho, say there are suspicious circumstances in the disappearance of 8-year-old robert manwill. he vanished exactly a week ago near his mother's apartment in boise. at a news conference today police disclosed they think the boy is hurt. but they didn't elaborate. authorities say the boise police department along with the help of the fbi and other agencies located evidence that may bring them closer to finding out what happened to the boy. police searched the home of his mother last night. it isn't clear what they found or what they were looking for. >> the investigators from the boise police department with the assistance of the fbi have located evidence that may, may bring us closer to finding out what happened to robert. the evidence we've uncovered shows that there are suspicious circumstances regarding robert's disappearance. but again, i'm sorry robert is maybe injured. but again, robert is still missing. it's very important that we locate robert or find any evidence that may help us locate where he is or where he isn't. >> just after the deputy chief made the statement, robert's aunt made an emotional appeal. >> as a family and as a whole. we want everyone not to give up hope. to continue on everything that we have done. the searching, the looking, please help us to bring robert home. >> a thousand volunteers have been involved in the search for this little boy. we're on the story. we'll bring you more information as we get it. in contract christopher dodd disclosed he had early stage px prostatepx cancer. the connecticut democrat plans to have surgery over the august congressional break. >> i'm going to be fine. again, we caught this early. the great thing about the annual physical is if you get an early detection of prostate cancer it's very manageable. i'm going to be back out and doing all the things you have to do in order to represent my state and carry on the efforts we're engaged in. >> he says his cancer diagnosis does not affect his plan to. the house approved the $2 billion in extra funding for the cash for clunkers program. it began a week ago. it's been so popular it's already blown through about a billion dollars, which congress initially allocated. they offer vouchers to trade in a gas guzzler when you buy a new fuel-efficient vehicle. auto dealers have thousands of backlogged trades that have yet to be counted. president obama says he is guardedly optimistic about the direction of the u.s. economy. he says the economic recovery act has helped turn around the nation. he singled out the program as too big a success to allow it to lapse. >> this gives consumers a break, replaces dangerous carbon pollution, and our dependence on foreign oil and strengthen the american auto industry. not more than a few weeks ago there was skeptics who weren't sure that this cash for clunkers would work. i'm happy to report it's exceeded well past all expectations. we're already seeing a dramatic increase in showroom traffic. it's working so well that there are legitimate concerns that the funds in this program might soon be exhausted. we're now working with congress to ensure that the program can continue for everyone out there still looking to make a trade. i'm encouraged that republicans and democrats in the house are wo working to pass legislation to use some recovery act funding. >> a report shows the gross domestic product sank only 1%. what to do you think about the program? do you think it's helping or hurting the economy? have you participated? call us toll free. e-mail us at cnn.com/hln. click under your views. we're also taking text messages. text "views" to hln tv. we have a story just in. authorities in florida now believe that the killing of byrd and melanie billings was part of a contract hit. the billings were killed in their home july 9th while several of their adopted children were in the house. the source says the state attorney's office believes that most of the suspects involved thought they were actually there for a robbery, but that the man believed to be the organizer of the incursion, leonard gonzalez jr., was there to carry out a hit. the source says it's unclear why the hit was unknown. just outside pensacola, florida. >> roting the nose down to the deck. >> perfect landing for space shuttle "endeavour." it touched down before 11:00 eastern on the space coast. "endeavour's" mission to the international space station set a new record, bringing 13 people together in space, the most ever. during their stay the astronauts performed five space walks that included adding the final component to the lab module. discovery will blast off in a very early morning liftoff after 1:30 a.m. local time. the military scrambled fighter jets last night. they sent two f-16s to tail the single engine plane when it flew past its destination. it crashed 300 miles away near henderson, west virginia, killing the pilot. fighter pilots never had any luck contacting the pilot. the pilot just apparently passed out. tens of thousands of u.s. bridges are waiting for repairs. a new report suggests it will be a while before they're fixed. states are spending most of the $17 billion on bridges already in good shape. and projects like repaving roads. the man heading up the stimulus for president obama says the white house told states to focus on shovel-ready projects. that would put people to work right away. some transportation officials say that makes it difficult to focus on bad bridges not already scheduled for repairs. severe heat still in the northwest. severe storms in the southeast. specifically tennessee. memphis got pounded last night. chad myers has the latest on the weather conditions. >> that weather has moved to the east, into new york city, philadelphia, d.c., baltimore, baltimore especially. big time weather for you. wind damage reported up there. i'm going to keep zooming all the way into the baltimore area. not just there. line of weather through arlington. we have a severe thunderstorm watch in effect for all of the northeast. some of the storms, chuck, have been rotating. if you see one cell coming out of the the southwest heading towards you, that storm, if it's all by itself, it could rotate enough to make severe weather to make a tornado. not just hail and wind. we really haven't seen a lot of wind today. i think you're going to see hail early. then the wind as the storms line up and charge across the northeast. that's when we'll see the severe weather. have you heard of lana? a storm in the pacific. that's hawaii. that's the storm right there. only a tropical storm at this point and not forecasted to be a hurricane. and, boy, chuck, a giveaway friday. if you can see 12 different airports, many of them orange which means an hour or more. d.c., boston, newark, atlanta, all in the way of the thunderstorms up and down the i-95 corridor. planes have to fly around them. if this is your weekend to go on the last vacation of the summer, pack more than just a suitcase. >> that little dvd. >> watch this. we have a report of segregated toilets and water coolers for employees. does something stink in the city of brotherly love or are the allegations rubbish? several current and former sanitation workers in philadelphia claim they were forced to work under segregated conditions. three men allege their supervisor kept a watercooler and a restroom off limits to black workers. their boss, who is white, was to blame for the segregated conditions and their complaints to the city were ignored. >> a watercooler in his office that he uses. the whites go in any time we want to. >> blacks can't go in? >> you don't go in there. >> it's a difference of going one flight of stairs to the bathroom where all the white employees go to go five flights down where all the black employees go. it's very degrating. >> we asked the mayors office. we don't comment on active litigation. however, the allegations have no merit, and we're confidence the absence of merit will become clear as the litigation pleads. no apologies, just a few cold beers and some friendly, thoughtful conversation. professor henry lewis gates jr. and sergeant james crowley of the massachusetts police yesterday met with president obama and vice president biden for a beer at the white house. the confrontation led to a national debate over race and profiling. both gates and crowley promised to talk again and to put the whole thing behind them. >> what was accomplished was this was a positive step in moving the forward as opposed to reliving the events of the past few weeks. the whole country to move beyond this. and use this as a basis of meaningful discussions in the future. >> thank god i live in a country in which police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day. and more than ever, i've come to understand and appreciate their daily sacrifices on our behalf. >> here's what the president said. what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. i'm hopeful all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode. the boston cop suspended after sending an e-mail with a racial slur about professor gates will fight the police department if he's fired. officer justin barrett's attorney says the e-mail was a private message sent from a private computer. last night on "larry king live" he apologized for the now infamous e-mail. i would like to take this opportunity to offer citizens y my sincerest apology. my choice of words was lacking. i failed to think through the perception others may have based on what i wrote. i failed to realize the potential through the use of words that others would see as offensive. >> the e-mail went to the boston globe. the police commissioner said the quote is venomous rhetoric and would not be tolerated. the hearing on whether he'll stay on the police force is expected within the next ten days. the national guard also suspended him pending an investigation. all of the 80,000 people urged to evacuate in texas because of toxic smoke can now go back home. a warehouse full of toxic and explosive chemicals went up in flames. the fire itself is under control. a welding job likely started the fire at a warehouse near texas a&, m university. he drew the go to jail card in the game of monopoly. the game became all too realistic when the cops showed up. overhauling the health care system will have to wait. congress is going on the summer recess this weekend. they're expected to finish work on its version of the legislation. some house democrats are promising to provide health care to nearly all the uninsured. >> we've gathered here today to demand the final health care reform legislation has a robust public option. we will vote against it if it does not. >> democrats appear ready to leave town for the august recess with a so-called gift in hand. over the recess as more americans learn more about their plan, they're likely to have a very, very hot summer. >> no health care reform bill has made it out of a senate committee. they need more time to produce an agreement. search warrants seem to imply. investigators think michael jackson was an addict. the warrants say there's probable cause to believe searches of the office and homes of doctor conrad murray, jackson's personal doctor, would uncover evidence of "crimes of excess." specifically excessive prescribing, prescribing to or treating an addict, and manslaughter. cnn's senior legal analyst says if jackson was an addict prosecuting dr. murray would get more difficult. >> the fact they are saying michael jackson was an addict makes the prosecution of anybody harder. it suggests that jackson himself was the big initiator of getting the drugs. >> sources close to the investigation tell cnn jackson used 19 aliases when he wanted prescription drugs. the wait is getting longer for his final autopsy report. yesterday the coroner's office announced an indefinite delay on the toxicology findings saying more investigation needs to be done. earlier it said the final options report was expected next week. at least 27 people were killed in roadside bombings across baghdad today. police think they targeted worshipers leaving prayer. about a dozen british soldiers are stay pg behind to train iraqi police. australia faced a similar deadline. ail of the soldiers got out of tuesday of this week except for a detachment that will guard the embassy. hundreds of infants were dropped from the roof of a mosque in western india. you got to see it to believe it. once the children who were under two years of age are caught in a bed sheet the families are guaranteed good health and pros ferty. no reports of injuries this year. it stems from an uninformed poverty stricken rule regulation with no access to proper health care. the local administration began an investigation after the protection of child rights issue ad notice. a game of monopoly landed one man behind bars. the 54-year-old is accused of hitting a woman as they played the board game. it all got ugly when she refused to sell him park place and boardwalk. he slapped her and knocked off her glasses. the man has been charged with assault and battery. we have a story just in. honda motors is extending a recall baz of problems with the air bag systems. that adds 440,000 vehicles to this list. the recall affects various models of honda accords, civics and accras. the air bag pressure could cause metal parts to hit the person behind the air bag and cause injury honda is contacting the owners of the defective cars. tax-free shopping weekend starts this week. 15 states in washington, d.c. are offering sales tax free holidays. the tax-free weekend is going on now in georgia and mississippi. the rest of the nation. the government's cash for clunkers's program could get you a ride pretty cheap. we'll share some of your views. a powerful senator, christopher dodd of connecticut, has early stage prostate cancer. he made the announcement today. the connecticut democrat plans to have surgery over the august con gregressional recess. he says the diagnosis will not affect his plans to run again next year. he's in his fifth term in the u.s. senate. he's taken the lead role in the attempt to overhaul health care. president obama says he's guardedly optimistic about the direction of the u.s. economy. a report shows the gross domestic product sank but only 1% of the most recent quarter. the president said the recovery act has helped to turn around the economy. the true test will be job creation. >> as far as i'm concerned we won't have a recovery as long as we keep losing jobs. i will not rest until every american who wants a job can find one. but history does show that you need economic growth before you have job growth. today's gdp is an important sign that the economy is headed in the right direction. and that business investment, which had been plummeting in the last several months, is showing signs of stabilizing. this means that eventually businesses will start growing, and they'll start hiring again. and that's when it will truly feel like a recovery to the american people. >> by the way, the president also praised the cash for clunkers program saying it exceeded expectations and he's doing everything possible to extend it. the house approved $2 billion in more funding for the program. it only began a week ago. it's already been so popular it's blown through the first billion dollars, which congress allocated. the program offers vouchers worth up to $4500 if you trade in a gas guzzler when you buy a new more fuel-efficient vehicle. auto dealers have received thousands of backlogged trades that have yet to be converted. a key democrat wants that chamber to send it to the president. >> people are coming into showrooms. they're buying automobiles. people are actually going through the whole inventory at some car dealerships. which means we have to build more automobiles. which is the whole point. putting people back to work. >> congress plans to pull money from the funds already approved in the economic stimulus bill. the senate won't vote on this until some time next week. not before monday certainly. what do you think about the program? have you taken advantage? should it be continued? is it helping the economy? is there a downside? call us toll-free. 877-835-5456. standard text rates apply. we'll air your responses all day. in boise, idaho, police say there are now suspicious circumstances in the disappearance of 8-year-old robert manwill who disappeared a week ago. police also said they believe the boy is hurt. but they didn't elaborate. authorities say the boise police department with the help of the fbi located evidence that may bring them closer to finding out what happened to robert. police searched the home of his mother last night. it isn't clear what they found or what they were looking for. >> overnight investigators for the boise police department with the assistance of the fbi have located evidence that may bring us closer to finding out what happened to robert. the evidence shows suspicious circumstances regarding robert's disappearance. but again -- i'm sorry, robert is maybe injured, but again robert is still missing. it's very important we locate robert or find any evidence that may help us locate where he is or where he isn't. >> a thousand volunteers have involved in the search for the boy. so far police have not i.d.'d any suspects. they believe the killing of byrd an melanie killings were part of a contract hit. the billings were killed on july 9th while several of their adopted children were in the house. most of the suspects involved thought they were there for a robbery. the man thought to be the organizer of the incursion, leonard gonzalez jr., was there to carry out a hit. the the source says it's unclear why the hit was put on the couple. we have a story just in. actually an update to a story we've been talking about. honda motor will extend a recall because of problems with the air bag systems. that adds 440,000 vehicles to the recall list. a recall first announced last november. this recall affects various models of the honda accord, civic and accra. the driver's side air bag could be overpressurized and allow metal parts to punch through the bag and hit the person behind the air bag and cause injury. one known death and six known injuries are blamed on the defect. da is contacting the owners. an international search is under way for an auburn university student who disappeared in thailand. the family of michael harry is expecting a major break in the search today. they wouldn't say what it might be. the 29-year-old veterinary student was studying abroad and told a professor he was going to vacation in thailand with friends and should return on the 14th of july. surveillance video shows harry entering the terminal, but then leaving again before checking in for his flight. no apologies, just a few cold beers and what president obama described as friendly and thoughtful conversation. professor henry gates jr. and sergeant crowley met yesterday over a beer at the white house. crowley is the police sergeant who arrested gates at his home earlier this month. the confrontation led to a national debate over race. both promised to talk again and to put the whole thing behind the them. >> this was a positive step in moving forward in an effort to move not just the city of cambridge or two individuals but the whole country to move beyond this and move this as a basis of meaningful discussions in the future. >> professor gates released a statement reading thank god i live in a country in which police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day. more than ever i've come to understand and appreciate their daily sacrifices on our behalf. here's what the president had to say. this is quoting. i've always believed what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. i'm confident that has happened here tonight. and i'm hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode. the boston cop suspended after sending an e-mail that had a racial slur about the professor will fight the police department if he's fired. he says it was a private message sent from a private computer. last night on "larry king live" he apologized for the now infamous e-mail. >> i would like to take this opportunity to offer fellow police officers, soldiers and citizens my sincerist apology over the controversial e-mail in response to the editorial in the "boston globe." my choice of words, larry, was lacking. i failed to think through the perception others may have based on what i wrote. i failed to realize the potential through the use of words that others would see as offensive. >> his e-mail went to the boston globe and was later forwarded to national guards men. the police commissioner says his venomous rhetoric would not be tolerated. a hearing on whether he'll stay as a policeman is expected in the next ten days. the national guard has suspended him pending investigation. vice president joe biden today gave a speech about the civil rights organization and its contribution in helping many african-americans out of poverty. he said one of the most difficult aspects of the current recession is that job creation lags behind growth. noting there's a much higher rate of unemployment in the black community. he said there will be workshops for veterans, women and minorities. the mayor of hoboken, new jersey, is resigning amid corruption charges. the mayor was arrested last week and charged with accepting bribe from an fbi informant. he's the second elected official in new jersey to step down. he was only in office a few weeks and considered a rising star of the democratic ranks. city council president don zimmer will fill in as acting mayor. a mob in massachusetts is charged with reckless endanement to a child and assault and battery for locking her 3-year-old boy in a sweltering attic. prosecutors say two of the three other children told police, "mommy does this when he gets angry." the was naked, covered in urine and feces and had bumps on his forehead. the family said she's an overwhelmed single mom dealing with a child with behavioral problems. the bail is set at $10,000. a toxicology report could reveal some answers about michael jackson's death and drug habits. why the report could be delayed indefinitely. officials say two u.s. marines are dead after a gun battle in southern afghanistan. nato confirmed yesterday's incident. the marines died from wounds suffered from direct fire. they were in helmand province. first lady michelle obama spoke to military families. she emphasized the importance of remembering not only the troops fighting overseas but the families they leave behind at home. >> we must all remember when our troops are deployed their families are left behind and faced with an entirely different set of duties. mothers who tuck their kids in at night and struggle to anxious the question, "when is daddy coming home?" fathers who wonder how they'll keep their families together while they juggle ballet reci l recitals and homework and mowing the lawn. >> it's michelle obama's second trip. a heat wave in the pacific northwest may have claimed a second victim. medical examiners in king county which includes seattle, are looking into the death of a 66-year-old man, a man in his 50 d died of a heat related illness on wednesday in tacoma. people in parts of washington and oregon have endured record triple digit heat all week. the beginning of next week the marine layer should return. the skies opened up over tennessee overnight. severe storms spawned at least one confirmed tornado. an f-1 twister hit with winds speeds up to 95 miles an hour. it cut a five-mile path of destruction. storms near nashville damaged homes and knocked down trees, leaving 2500 homes and businesses without power. still raining in eastern tennessee as of midday. search warrants seem to imply that investigators believe michael jackson was in fact an addict. the warrants say there's probable cause to believe searches of the home and office of dr. conrad murray, his personal doctor, would uncover evidence of "crimes of excess." excessive prescribing, prescribing to an addict and manslaughter. sources close to the investigation says jackson used 19 different aliases when he wants prescription drugs. the wait is getting longer and longer for the final autopsy report. yesterday the coroner's office announced an indefinite delay on jackson's toxicology findings. it says more investigation needs to be completed. i object earlier it said the final report was expected next week. the 54-year-old man is accused of hitting a woman after she refused to sell him park place and boardwalk. she says he then slapped her and knocked off her glasses. >> i thought that was like real violent for playing a game that's supposed to be friendly. like i said, i guess he takes his monopoly pret ss ssy pretty seriously. a woman was so unhappy with her order she dialed 911. hear what happened when the cops arrived. that's quite a sight. picture perfect landing. picture perfect day as the shuttle "endeavour" completes 16 days in space. touching down just before 11:00 in the morning eastern time, on the space coast. kennedy space center. "endeavour's" mission set a record. 13 people were brought together in space. that's the most ever. the next scheduled launch august 25th. discovery will blast off in a very early morning liftoff. actually closer to midnight. michael vick could be close to signing with a team. which team? we don't know. that's what he's saying. he may not be blowing smoke. the new england patriots are not saying no. they're also not saying yes. the ravens, the baltimore ravens admit they've thought about it. michael vick spoke publicly yesterday. the latest teams who will not sign is the bears, raiders, titans and lions. he could sign with a new upstart league. he be in bankruptcy court again today. a woman wanted a restaurant to replace her cold french fries so she called 911. the woman told the operator her order wasn't right. one officer gave the woman money out of his pocket to have her go eat somewhere else. the woman is not facing charges for calling 911. a woman saved her friend's dog with mouth to mouth resuscitation. christina torres was at her friend's house when little chica was found hanging by its leash from a swing set. >> saw her on the floor, picked her up, just starting breathing mouth to mouth. putting her fingers. >> no. >> the dog is okay. torres says she could use some breath mints. inheriting money is not something you think about every day. but clark howard heard from a caller about to inherit money and wants to know what to do with it. >> for you. i think that putting the money aside in a mix of things that are very conservative and things that are involve more long term kind of perspective is the right kind of mix that you should be looking at. and i would suggest if it were me, i would look at taking roughly a roughly a third of that money and making it ultraconservative. things like -- >> okay. >> -- bank cds. credit union cds. just a third of it, there's no concern, no worry or whatever. >> yeah. and the whole thing like, it's in the credit union and the whole fdic, like, $250,000 guarantee. it's considerably more than that. so it's a little -- i don't know. >> how much total is in the trust? >> around $2.8. >> wow. >> that changes things -- maybe. hear the rest of the story this weekend. don't miss it, clark howard right here, noon eastern, saturday and sunday on hln. investors are reacting coolly, i guess is the word that's missing to a report that shows the nation's economy shrank at a slower rate in the second quarter. a look at the big board, just about break-even. the dow is up about two points. a 97-year-old has a new nickname. his friends call him ace and he waited 50 years to earn it. he got his first hole-in-one on tuesday. he did it on the 16th hole of the amsterdam municipal course in upstate new york. his shot at the flag stick on the fly and dropped into the hole. the moment he dreamed of nearly half his life left him stunned. >> i went like this the guy said holy cow. they went and looked in the hole, that's where it was. i got up there, john said it's in the hole. i said you're kidding me. couldn't believe it couldn't believe it. >> just speechless. >> what an ace, huh? here's something more amazing. at 97 he plays golf almost every day. >> catching a foul ball at a baseball game is tough, especially when holding a baby, but we got a look at two amazing catches by dads with kids in tow. police say they're closer to finding 8-year-old robert manwill, but they also say they suspect foul play what we know about the evidence they found overnight. connecticut senator chris dodd has been diagnosed with an early form of prostate cancer. >> and crying babies dropped from the roofs of babies drops from the roof of buildings. it's shocking to some of us, but a centuries old tradition to others. >> honda motors is expecting a recall because of possible problems with their air bags systems. we are talking 440 thousand vehicles on this list. ali velshi is the man with the details. ali, recalls are not uncommon but this seems like a large number. >> it's a large number. it's honda. a lot of people have them. we're talking about civics, not all -- not every car that fits into the cat doir i'm describing has the defect. the cars involved are 2001 and 2002 accords, 2001 civics, and 2002 and 2003 acura tl sedans. there's a pressure problem in the deployment of the driver's side air bag which could cause there too much pressure and mel fragments to propel through the air bag and into the cab of the vehicle. one fatality has been reported and six injuries. 440,000 vehicles now. another 440,000. this was a recall that started in november. it was extended earlier this week, now another 440,000 vehicles have been added to it. these are very popular cars, richelle, that's where the concern lies. >> i don't drive a honda. if i did, i would be a little anxious now. you're talking about air bags, flying pieces of metal. do you need to go now. >> sounds sears use. we spoke to honda who said they will be contacting people. they say it will take a couple months, but they will contact people in terms of priority. those people who have potentially serious problems, they will get calls. they recommend you don't rush in do anything, they will contact you. while it's serious and a big number of cars, the number of incidents is small. what we found with a lot of car companies, unlike things like the bridgestone/firestone recall on the tires, car companies are conscious about dealing with these things very, very quickly and early now. so they feel they have a handle on this situation and they'll be contacting owners of those cars. if you do own one of those cars, i don't think it would hurt to call up the dealer and say is my car effected by this and should i bring it in. certain 2001 and 2002 accords, 2001 civics, 2002 and 2003 acura tl sedans. >> if anybody wants to get the information. >> it's on honda's website and our cnnmoney.com. >> ali, thank you very much. >> all right. >> sources tell cnn that authorities in florida now believe that the killing of byrd and melanie billings was part of a contract hit. the billings were killed in their home in a july 9th while several adopted children were in the house. the state attorney's office says most of the suspects involved thought they were there for a robbery but the main organizer of this, leonard gonzalez was there to carry out a hit. the source says it is unclear why the hit was put on the couple. >> disturbing developments in the case of macing 8-year-old boy in idaho. boise police say robert manwill may have been the victim of a tragic event. new evidence suggests foul play had something to do with his disappearance. robert was last seen a week ago leaving his mother's apartment. yesterday police searched his mother's apartment. melissa scott jenkins is on probation for frak churg the skull of robert's infant half brother. fbi local police and hundreds of volunteers are involved in the search. >> overnight investigators from the boise police department with the assistance of the fbi have located evidence that may, may bring us closer to finding out what happened to robert. the evidence we uncovered suggests suspicious circumstances surrounding his disappearance. >> today his aunt made a tearful plea for his return. >> as a family and as a whole we want everyone not to give up hope, to continue on everything that we have done to searching, to looking. please help us to bring robert home. >> there is a police tipline for anyone who has information on robert, this is the number, 208-570-6457. a mom in massachusetts is charged with reckless endangerment to a child and also assault and battery for allegedly locking her 3-year-old son in a sweltering 100 plus degree attic. prosecutors say two of her three other children told police mommy does this when she gets angry. police say the boy was naked, covered in urine and feces and had bumps on his forehead. the family says she is an overwhe overwhelmed single mother dealing with a child with behavioral problems. senator chris dodd has early stage prostate cancer. he made the announcement this afternoon. the connecticut democrat plans to have surgery over the august congressional break. >> i'm going to be fine about this. we caught this early. the great thing about the annual physical, if you get early detection of prostate cancer, it's very manageable. i will be back out and doing all the things you have to do in order to represent my state and carry on the earths we're engaged in. >> the 65-year-old is in his fifth term as senator. he said it will not effect his plans to run again in 2010. several current and former sanitation workers in philadelphia claim they were forced to work in segregated conditions. they allege the supervisor kept the water cooler was kept off limits and that their complaints to the city were ignored. >> there is a water cool ner er his office that he uses, the whites can go in any time they want, but we can't go in. >> blacks can't -- >> no, you can't walk in his office. >> it's the fact of going one flight of stairs to a bathroom where whites go to five flights where the blacks have to go. it was very degrading. >> the mayor's office was asked for a comment this was the response. we don't comment on the active litigation, however the allegations have no merit and we're confident that the absence of merit will become clear as the litigation proceeds. >> the mayor of hoboken, new jersey who was arrested last week charged with accepting bribes with an fbi informant. he is the second official to quit after the crackdown. he was only in office for a few weeks and was considered a rising star in the democratic party. still council president don zimmer will fill in as acting mayor until a special election. that will be in november. close call for the cash for clunk er clunkers program. congress comes up with more money just hours before it runs out of cash. president obama thinks that's a good thing. we'll hear your views on whether or not you do. the house has approved $2 billion in extra funding for the cash for clunkers program. it began just last week. it's apparently so popular it has blown through $1 billion. the coupon offers vouchers up to $4500 when you trade in a gas guzzler for a new vehicle. auto dealers say they have thousands of backlogged trades that have not been counted. congress is pulling money from funds that has already been approved in the economic stimulus bill. >> the cash for clunkers program is one of the bright spots president obama mentioned when he talked about the nation's economy today. he said he is guardedly optimistic about the direction of the economy and singled out the cash for clunkers program too big of a success to allow it to lapse. >> this gives consumers a break, replaces dangerous carbon pollution and strengthens the american auto industry. not more than a few weeks ago skeptics weren't sure that this cash for clunkers program would work. but i'm happy to report that it has succeeded well beyond our expectations and all expectations and we're already seeing a dramatic increase in showroom traffic at local car dealers. it's working so well that there are legitimate concerns that the funds in this program might soon be exhausted. so, we're now working with congress on a bipartisan solution to ensure that the program can continue for everyone out there who's still looking to make a trade. and i'm encouraged that republicans and democrats in the house are working to pass legislation today that would use some recovery act funding to keep this program going. >> we have been asking for your views on this cash for clunkers program. should it be continued? do you think it's helping the economy or hurting the economy? first up is frank calling from arizona. it's your turn, frank. i understand that you drive a toyota corolla now. is that correct? >> caller: hello, richelle. my comment is that i'm unemployed, my girlfriend is in a low-paying job. i drive a 1980 corolla. i have four shocks that are shot. now they are taking these clunkers and are crushing them when they could use these for those who cannot afford to buy a new car and trade them in for these unsafe cars. i'm totally aware this program is to help the environment. i thank you. >> i thank you, frank. i hear what you're saying. you're saying maybe all these cars shouldn't be trashed, maybe there's some people that could still use them. thank you for your phone call. earl is coming us from ohio. earl, you say that you have actually used this program already? >> caller: yeah, i bought a car yesterday. >> congratulations. >> caller: i'm happy about it but also happy because i believe it will reduce cost of fuel at the pumps. you know without the gas guzzlers, as long as opec does not shut down some production. should have an abundance of oil. everybody should benefit at the gas pump is what i'm hoping. >> what did you buy? >> caller: a toyota corolla. >> nice. what did you trade in? >> caller: an '89 gmc four-wheel drive truck. >> earl, grad it worked out for you. we appreciate your point of view on this because you have been through it and enjoy your new car. thank you for calling. >> our next caller up is david calling from north carolina. david, what's your take on this program? >> caller: well, it's amazing that the government and automakers are giving our money away for the cash for clunkers program. had legislators not looked at the figures of the new cars, more than 50% of the parts and labor are made in other countries. this is going to stimulate the economy as much as the stimulus checks that we received months ago. people are using money to buy foreign goods like big screen tvs imported from overseas. this does not help our economy, it helps our foreign economy. i suggest that they only get credit from the 35 to 4500 dollars on a percentage of the parts and labor made in the united states of america. thank you. >> all right. david, appreciate that. clearly you thought this through. it's our understanding that this money goes to dealers, but i get your drift, you wish there were more types of restrictions on it. hln viewers are sharing their views on facebook, too. stanley wrote i think it's a great concept the problem is that it's run by the government and it will be all-inclusive and underfunded. well, they did get more funding this week and there are a lot of restrictions. kevin said it's good for the dealers, good for the auto industry and good for michigan. we need all the help we get. kevin writes on my page a lot. thank you for your perspective. thanks for your e-mails, phone calls, comments. we want your comments here. at the top of the hour, there's more stories that you can comment on this is what you do fwoshgs to, go to cnn.com/primenews. >> hundreds of infants were dropped from the roof of a mosque in western india. see for yourself. once the children who are mostly under the age of two are caught in the bed sheets, the families are guarantee the good health and prosper pi. there are no reports of injuries. proponents think the ritual is not good and an investigation has been begun. at one time they were pets now a florida man thinks they are pests. he has an unusual solution to rid the sunshine state of iguanas. >> touchdown. deploying the chute. that is lovely. a picture perfect landing for the space shuttle "endeavour." it touched down just before 11:00 a.m. at the kennedy space center. "endeavor's" mission to the international space station set a new record, bringing 13 people together in space. the most ever. the astronauts recorded five space walks. that included adding the final component to the lab module. the next schedule launch, august 25th, "discovery" will blast off in a very early morning liftoff, a little after 1:30 a.m. local time. at least 29 people were killed in roadside bombings near shiite mosques in baghdad today. the attacks happened after friday prayer s ended. >> as of today, almost all british troops are being pulled out of iraq. the agreement that allows them to stay there expires today. about a dozen british soldiers are staying to help train iraqi police. australia faced a similar deadline. all its soldiers got out tuesday except for a detachment that's staying behind to guard the australian embassy. failed banks kept on handing out billions of dollars in executive bonuses, even as their profits plummeted last year, and they lined up to take government money. a study from new york's attorney general found most banks paid out bonuses that far exceeded yearly profits. here are some of the numbers. citigroup lost $27 billion last year but still managed to award over $5 billion to executives. b of a paid more than $3 billion. jpmorgan chase gave out more than $8 billion. goldman sachs awarded nearly $5 billion in bonuses, almost two times its profit. and morgan stanley $4.5 billion in bonuses. the house voted today to slap restrictions on how executives in the bailout are paid. >> the tax-free shopping season starts this weekend. that's some good news in a bad economy. 15 states and washington, d.c. are offering sales tax holidays in time for back-to-school shopping. you can get discounts on clothes, school supplies, even computers in some states. the tax-free weekend is going on right now in georgia and mississippi. the rest happen throughout the month of august. stocks didn't move much today as investors mulled the latest report on the gross domestic product. hi, allison. >> there were no fireworks on wall street today, but stocks continue to add to their recent gains helped bay somewhat upbeat gdp report. the dow rose 17 points at 9,171. the nasdaq ended slightly lower. the s&p 500 was flat. the initial estimate of second quarter gdp shows the economy contracting at a much more modest pace than it did in the previous three quarters. the u.s. shrank at an annual rate of just 1%, that's good news when you consider it had the worst quarterly declines the fourth quarter of last year it's important to note today's reading is based mostly on data from last april and may. so the numbers are a bit old and likely to be revised in the months to come. also a quick follow-up to a story we've been reporting on all day. cash for clunkers, the house approved the transfer of an additional $2 billion to keep the program alive. without the money, if there would be no cash, just clunkers, right? >> no cash for the clunkers. that wouldn't work. thanks. >> some stimulus money is going to a deep cause. why people who are cleaning up puget sound think that is a very sound investment.

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