trip to the uk. he hasn't changed his busy schedule despite the arrest of six men suspected in a possible terror plot. we will take you live to london. but for right now, live from the cnn center in atlanta, georgia, this is cnn saturday morning 8:00 a.m. here in atlanta, 7:00 a.m. in fayetteville, arkansas. glad you're here. i'm t.j. holmes. let me give you a look at other stories making headlines this morning. bp plans to permanently seal its well today. you've been hearing a lot about this story, a lot about this well, a lot about this spill. but today is the day when we could finally see this thing over and done with and dead. they are pumping cement into the bottom portion of the well. this the same well that started spewing in april after the explosion aboard that rig. some 5 million barrels have gushed into the gulf. but today a big day that we could finally see this thing killed. also, secretary of state hillary clinton has phoned the sultan of oman thanking him for his help in the rescue of sarah shourd. we're expecting to see a press conference from sarah when she returns to new york tomorrow. the press conference, at least, is tomorrow. not sure when she will land in the united states. she'll be giving details of her captivity. the family has paid $500,000 in bail for her release. clinton calls for the release, as well, for shane bauer and josh fattal. also, voting underway in afghanistan right now. the fourth national election we've seen since 2004. the taliban has pledged to deter voters by attacking the polls. there have been scattered rocket attacks and roadside bombs that have been reported. tens of thousands of police and security forces have been deployed to try to keep the violence to a minimum. well, alaska senator lisa murkowski. a loss really isn't a loss to her. she is fighting on. finding a new way to try to keep her seat. she says she will no conduct a write-in campaign to try to keep her job after she lost the republican primary back in august. she lost it to a tea party-backed candidate. you covered the race up there in alaska. we thought it was over and done. >> you know how you're watching a scary movie sometimes and you think all the action is done and all of a sudden all the action jumps out at you. that's how you want to sum up the race. she's bringing her campaign back from the political dead. she conceded the race to this tea party-backed candidate joe miller. and now she's announcing hey, i'm going to do this write-in candidacy. she says she's heard from a lot of alaskans since she conceded. this is not making republicans happy, this is not making the tea party movement happy. she addressed that last night when she announced her decision. take a listen to it. >> so there was actually -- part of -- we don't have that sound. part of what she said last night was that she knows that republicans are not going to be happy. she's called the tea party express that came there and poured money into the extremist group. so basically this is a big thumb in their face. >> you're talking about the tea party not happy, republicans not happy. democrats, a little happy here. >> definitely a little bit happy. the reason why she's a republican. she's going to run as a write-in candidate. joe miller has the nomination. he's a republican. there's speculation she might actually split or they might split the republican vote. they might split the republican vote and possibly hand this thing to the democrat who is running. his name is scott mcadam, the mayor of an alaskan city. so democrats are a little bit gleeful this morning about the possibility of picking up a state where they had essentially written off. >> and she sounded like last night she was recharged, reenergized, reinvigorated in her campaign. we do have that sound we were calling for a second ago. last night announcing she's now going to do a write-in campaign. >> i will be the first one to admit to you that in the primary campaign we made some mistakes. we talked about ourselves, we talked about me a lot. but we didn't educate alaskans about the extremist views that were held by mr. miller. and when he swung, i didn't swing back. well, ladies and gentlemen, friends and supporters, the gloves are off! and i'm fighting for alaska. >> she says -- she heard from voters. she said that wanted her to do this. how is this being received on a larger scale by voters there? i heard people call this arrogant. >> when i was in alaska, i talked to a number of people. she does have a lot of supporters in alaska. her father was a governor and senator in there. the name murkowski name is very popular. but a lot of conservatives feel like, hey, you have had your turn and you should step aside. i talked with the chairman of the tea party express last night. and she says lisa murkowski doesn't get it. she was fired by the people. and this was alaskans. she has some supporters, but there are others who say hey, you've had your day, your time, you need to step aside. >> and still, the same time, the uphill climb. it's one thing to just get a voter to go in there and punch your name. to get someone to go in there and physically write her name down. they're saying possibly lisa m. would be okay. there's a lot of rules involved in this now. >> talk about a uphill climb. only one person has ever won a senate race with a write-in candidacy and that was back in 1954, strom thurman. she's got a steep hill to climb to make this happen. she says she also said last night that she can make this happen. i caught up with the senator the other day. but it's a very uphill climb to make this happen. can she do it? we'll be watching in november. >> there you are. chasing folks around as you often do. shannon travis, good to have you here with us. we're going to be checking in with you in a little bit on this cnn saturday morning. thank you so much. >> absolutely. sarah palin endorsed the other guy who actually won that primary, but she is headlining now the gop's biggest fundraiser. she did this last night in des moines. revved up the republican base at the reagan dinner saying we can't wait until 2012 to get our country back on track. palin didn't say anything about her plans to maybe run for president. instead she helped little-known candidates win like christine o'donnell the republican primary in delaware on tuesday. well, the iowa caucuses, of course, is always the first test of presidential candidates. we'll get you that sound, let you hear from sarah palin in just a bit. it is day two, the conservative political gathering known as the values voter summit in washington. it highlights the gop's promise and peril heading into midterm elections. bill bennett will be taking the stage at 9:25 eastern this morning. former speaker of the house newt gingrich going to address the crowd at 9:50. and bob mcdonnell speaking at 10:15. and christine o'donnell was given a big welcome on friday. she slammed the administration saying the elites will never have the last word on liberty. she is featured as part of the who's who of rising republican stars there. and as always for your political coverage, you know where to go. cnn politics.com. all right. hurricane igor. strong winds, strong surge. still a serious storm, a big storm that is heading towards bermuda right now. supposed to hit some time tonight. our reynolds wolf is where else? there. we'll be joining him shortly. also, the back and forth on capitol hill over tax cuts. we're going to be breaking all this down and show you exactly what it means if the tax cuts expire how much money are you going to be paying extra? it's eight minutes past the hour. down the hill? man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. 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in bermuda, right in the eye of the storm, if you will. right in the target line. reynolds, you always want to be where the action is happening. and looks like the action is happening this evening. >> reporter: yes, sir, smack dab in the middle, t.j. if you were to look at bermuda on a map in comparison to the size of igor, it would be reminiscent of igor being the windshield of a speeding car and bermuda would be a bug. bermuda's a small place made up of 138 islands. collectively if you were to put those land masses together, it would still be a third of the size of washington, d.c. this area is part of the uk, home to some 67,000 people. people who were preparing for this storm. and as it's been getting closer, we've been seeing it flex its muscles. well, we had some video we were going to show you moments ago. that is basically the first impressions we're seeing from the storm, t.j. the way bermuda is set up. it's a giant coral formation. outside this coral we have had waves up to 19 feet. they've been a little bit smaller. as the storm surge comes on as the storm approaches, they could be anywhere from 5 to 7 feet in storm surge, but the high tide could be topping some of the walls at this particular resort. this storm is very similar in terms of the size or at least in terms of the power as the storm that struck this area back in 2003. that storm was fabian, it knocked out the airport, caused millions of dollars in cost, four lives. four people trying to cross a causeway were swept away by the storm surge. we do anticipate this storm could be a little more damaging because it is going to be bigger in scope. wind speeds about the size, but it's much bigger than fabian. and as it pulls northward today and tomorrow night is when we should get the brunt of the storm. possibly 2:00 a.m. sunday into monday. let's send it back to you, t.j. >> we appreciate you keeping an eye on things. we'll be checking in with you plenty as you keep an eye on this storm. our karen mcginnis standing by for us here, as well keeping an eye on the remnants of this karl that hit mexico. >> yeah, it's still wringing itself out across mexico. and igor is one of those systems that is huge as you take a look at it on the satellite imagery. enhanced satellite imagery from the center of igor extending out roughly 350 miles. we've got hurricane to tropical storm-force winds. so the weather's going to be deteriorating across bermuda very dramatically. we just got an intermediate update from the national hurricane center. not a lot has changed. still supporting 110-mile-per-hour winds associated with it. so it's still a category two. but, we are expecting it to make its way more towards the north/northwest. and now they're saying perhaps as a category two across bermuda late on sunday evening and going into monday. roughly every 2 1/2 years a hurricane will either brush by or directly impact bermuda. so we're looking at a system here that is quite strong compared to in 2003, september 5th, fabian, which had 120-mile-an-hour winds associated with it when it blew across bermuda. and there were several fatalities associated with that. as we go ahead and show you what's happening in our forecast, we're looking at hot temperatures across the southern u.s., but quite cool, feels like a little touch of autumn, t.j., across the northern tier. back to you. >> well, not a touch of autumn in hot lanta just yet. we appreciate you, karen, and reynolds wolf, as well. 15 minutes past the hour, cnn saturday morning. everything you need to stretch out on long trips. residence inn. ♪ everything you need to stay balanced on long trips. residence inn. i love running my tongue across my teeth and feeling all the stuff i missed. [ male announcer ] no one really wants plaque left on their teeth. done. [ male announcer ] but ordinary manual brushes can leave up to 50% of plaque behind. oral-b power brushes are inspired by the tools professionals use, to clean away plaque in. for that dentist-smooth, clean feeling every day. fight plaque with real power. oral-b power. get 50% off oral-b power brushes for a limited time. visit oralb.com for details. we wouldn't have to worry about what's in our water. but most of us live here. so we need the brita pitcher. for healthier, clean tasting water. it seems like there's always some big battle on capitol hill right now the big battle is over tax cuts. lawmakers plan to extend the cuts from the george w. bush era, but at odds whether to continue those for the wealthiest americans. josh levs breaking this argument down for us. >> it is one of the biggest political battles facing the president right now. and this is an example of a time that the battle in washington actually does affect your wallet. the president wants to keep the tax cuts on the first $250,000 of income and then drop the bush era tax cuts on income above that. let's start off with our friendly neighborhood avatar couple. they would like to visit from time to time. here's what we got. if their income right now is right in the middle at $57,000, a little above that and their taxes right now are just over $3,400, their tax cuts if the current tax cut expired, they'd be paying a couple thousand more, about $2,000 more in taxes. that's a big chunk of change. no one's calling for that to happen, though. this couple is in the income range of which everyone's saying keep the taxes the same. let's jump their income way over that $250,000 mark to $396,000. when we plugged in these numbers, we saw their taxes at about $102,000 right now, if their tax cuts were to expire, if the president's plan were to be enacted they would pay about $6,000 more in taxes every year. and the tax policy center is factoring in a permanent patch to the amt, which the president wants. what is a big buzz word we keep hearing throughout this debate? millionaires, right? that millionaires shouldn't get away with holding on to so much money. so let's take our avatar couple, make them millionaires, why not. $1.75 million, giving them an income over $1 million. if president obama's plan were enacted, then they would be paying a lot more, about $645,000. that's another $70,000 in taxes. and this is where you get into that debate for america. which is better? to collect it for the government, maybe actually do something about the debt and the deficit or at least pay for programs that are currently being put into place in? that tension is where this comes into play. if you want to know how all of this would play out for you, go over to that tax calculator. i linked it. plug in your information and see how it might play out for you. i'm josh levs, cnn, atlanta. i want to take a look now at stories making headlines, including this heart breaking news we're getting this morning out of southeast texas. a high school quarterback died after collapsing during a game. died after throwing his second touchdown pass of the game. his name is reginald garrett. he was a star player, he was a straight-a student, but he was unresponsive when they took him to the hospital. the entire school just about turned out to that hospital. we talked to a nurse live here a short time ago talking about how the entire community right now is hurting. we don't know what caused this. an autopsy has been planned. also, toyota, settling a deadly accident, a case where a family was killed when their accelerator got stuck. four people died in this crash in san diego last year, but now it has been settled by toyota. the amount is remaining confidential. for now, what happened with this family with that stuck accelerated led to many of the toyota and lexus recalls. also, actress lindsay lohan already under supervised probation for a 2007 drunken driving conviction. well, she now says she failed a recent drug test. she tells us this in a post on her twitter page. she says she's working hard to overcome her addiction. she also says she's ready to appear before a judge if asked. she had been warned that a failed drug test could mean more jail time. that's 21 minutes past the hour. ♪ [car horn honks] our outback always gets us there... ... sometimes it just takes us a little longer to get back. ♪ well, 24 minutes past the hour now. soon you're going to be able to log on to the internet. internet explorer and you'll see major changes. microsoft promises this new browser is going to be faster and cleaner. mario armstrong, our tech guru, is that really the case? he's joining me live from washington. first of all, what does this even mean to my life that they are improving a browser? >> yeah. so the web browser is the software we use every day. so many people don't even realize that's what it is. that's what exists. and there are many different ones to choose from that are out there. safari on the macintosh. they revamped it so that we as web visitors on websites have a clone cleaner, richer, faster experience. you're going to see a clean look, less tool bars and more focus on the website you're on. >> do we have any idea what it looks like just yet. they're telling us it's cleaner, but right now we take their word for it? >> no, it is cleaner. i've seen it. there are images, it is cleaner. it does give you that sense of the focus is about the website. it's not about the web browser. and so that's a really, really big deal for microsoft because they've had to really make sure that they could shift and not lose this ground. it's very important for these companies to be able to supply website -- web tools, web software that enable us to visit websites in the way we want to. >> and cleaning it up, are we going to be losing any features unnecessarily? and people worried about things crashing. is this going to be faster? is it going to keep things from happening? >> that's a great point. there is one major thing to be aware of. if you are running windows xp, if you use that older windows operating system software, you will not be able to use internet explorer 9. that is a major shift. i think they want to kill off windows xp. but you will see less crashes, better performance out of this new browser. >> so you're killing me. we got to keep upgrading and getting something new. we go from 7 to 8 to xp. what is it now? which one are we using? >> nine. >> that's right. let's move on to twitter now. they are updating, as well. and for the twitter folks, they love this. >> yeah. they absolutely do. and i've been watching, loo