that congress approve government regulations that have a significant impact on the economy or small business, lowering the tax rate for businesses and individuals to know more than 25%, passing free trade agreements with columbia, panama and south korea. they say that will create up to 250,000 jobs and increasing domestic energy production. the pentagon says the don t ask, don t tell policy in the military officially ends on tuesday. the defense secretary has been asked to hold off on repeal. congress needs more information about the policy changes they say. the pentagon says the repeal of the policy of gays serving in the military has been through a rigorous vert fiction, process. thousands of students in tacoma washington will not be in school again today. the teachers union voted to keep its strike going despite a judge s order to put the signs back and get back to the classroom. we were surprised and disappointed. we fully expected students would be arriving and teac
than the testimony in court? none. none. he s set to be put to death next wednesday unless they grant clemency. no two hours, john boehner will reveal the republican plan to create jobs and close loopholes. they said they could go along with some of the president s jobs plans until they found he would raise taxes on wealthy americans. the line for first time jobless claims jumped 11,000 for a total of 428,000. it s the highest number of first-time claims since june. the postmaster general is outlining a plan that could cost 150,000 jobs. they want to close more than 300 mail processing facilities, saturday deliver could end, first class mail would be slower to arrive. they are $10 billion in the hole this fiscal year. in los angeles today, lawyers in dr. conrad murray s manslaughter trial are going over juror questionnaires with the judge. the final phase of juror selection is next week. they say murray had a hand in michael jackson s death. jacqueline kennedy is
thanks so much. just hours from now, eight presidential candidates will square off in tampa, florida. rick perry the front-runner and also the main target of his fellow republicans. and perry may have made the bull s-eye even bigger by attacking social security, a program considered sacred by millions of older americans. jim accosta is in tampa. and let s begin with word of a new endorsement we re hearing about this morning. reporter: that s right. if mitt romney was looking for a spark to help his campaign, he may have gotten it this morning. former minnesota governor tim pawlenty has announced that he is getting behind the former massachusetts governor. so that is good news for mitt romney. but this debate comes this evening, kyra, as a new cnn/orc poll shows that there is a big lead for rick perry. the race is basically boiling down to rick perry and whoever can keep up. texas governor rick perry has ditched his cowboy boots for his running shoes, staying far ahead of th
phillips. two stories facing our political future. barack obama will unveil his plan to create jobs and his same own job may be on the line. mitt romney and rick perry faced off in a national debate. jim acosta has the story lines for that. also this hour, my interviews with two very different members of congress republican joe walsh who is boycotting the president s speech and democrat maxine waters who is invoicesing her own skepticism. we will hear from her in about 15 minutes. aeeight republicans on trad and two candidates trading the most punches. jim acosta has the highlights in los angeles. this is rick perry first presidential debate. how did he do? reporter: he felt like the republican party pinata. he was. the other candidates on the stage did their best to take a whack at the new gop front-runner but rick perry showed he can hit back. rick perry and mitt romney stood side-by-side at the reagan debate close enough for the fur to fly. first on the question of w
drought-stricken texas where strong winds from tropical storm lee are kicking up several major wildfires. you see them here. this is south of austin, texas. crews are scrambling to knock down flames as soon as they pop up. 1,000 homes are at risk, in the line of fire. the situation has been getting worse. fire officials can t tell us how many evacuations they have or any damage assessments as of yet. we ll have more ahead on the fires including a live report from the scene and also a man who may lose his home to this fire. first we want to bring you up to date on the enormous amounts of rain tropical storm lee is dumping on louisiana and also mississippi. this was tropical storm lee tearing through the gulf this weekend. this is an oil rig and the workers there, you see them leaning into the wind holding on for dear life just to find out how fast the wind is blowing. they found out fast. on land, lee has been a flood maker. parts of louisiana have gotten a foot of rain or mor