of opening statements that will be live when things get going. well, another high-profile trial is winding down. attorneys for amanda knox will make their final arguments. they are hoping to overturn her murder conviction. knox is expected to speak as well. prosecutors claim that knox slit her roommate's throat during wild sex. libyan fighters say that they have seized the port of sirte today. moammar gadhafi controls most of the city. this is one of the areas not under the control of libya's new leadership. washington dodges a government shutdown. lawmakers have a deal in hand to pay the federal government's bills through mid-november. a final vote expected next week when the house returns from break. the spending bill is upheld because they could not agree on funding for fema. president obama is pitching his new jobs bill in denver at a hollywood fund-raiser last night he refinded republicans that they were in charge in the run-up to the economy's big meltdown. >> we knew that because this has taken years to build up it was going to take some years to fix. so the question that we have to face now is not whether people are hurting. everybody knows that america has gone through a very difficult time and there are folks all across america still struggling. >> the house of blues fundraiser was one of seven that the president attended on this trip. >> joran van der sloot in a taped confession describes how he elbowed stephany flores in the head and strangled her with both hands in a hotel room. >> so it is true, and i am going to ask you this, and you can say yes or no, did you kill stephany tatiana flores? >> yes. >> you killed stephany tatiana flores, right? >> his lawyer claims that he killed her after she discovered information from natalee holloway in aruba. workers are dangling off the side of the washington monument, inspecting each block of marble. damage from last month's earthquake is worse than last thought. the monument is shut indefinitely. you can see where it shakes violently. despite the damage, the washington monument is structurally sound. for the first time, the image of a living person on the stamp will be made. the trial is going to start soon in the trial against dr. conrad murray. he was jackson's personal doctor and was with him when he died. ted is outside of the courtroom in los angeles. what do we expect in these opening statements? >> reporter: well, martin, each side will have as long as they want in the opening and the prosecution is going to try to establish early their feel here, and that is that dr. conrad murray was just agrees jously off in his care of michael jackson and he should be held accountable for his death because he was giving him this propofol, this anesthetic used in a hospital setting. he was giving it as a sleep aid. the defense will try to portray their client as someone trying to help jackson to get over an addiction and they will tell the jury that over the next weeks you will see that our client was actually trying to help him, not abandon him. but help him get through this. whether or not this jury will hook on to one of these sides early on, you never know. but it's very crucial. the opening statements in a trial obviously and we'll hear those about 8:45 local. barring a delay. a case like this delays are always possible. 8:45 local, the scheduled start time for the opening. the jackson family has not come in. we saw the defense come in 30 minutes ago. >> ted, what is the atmosphere out there? how are the crowds? >> reporter: well, we take a look around here. you've got michael jackson supporters who have been here in force for a lot of the hearings here and, of course, they were constant during the 2004 molestation trial in santa maria. there are also conrad murray supporters as well holding signs but the overwhelming majority, the media from around the world, cameras across the street. they are here, inside the courtroom. it's a madhouse with michael jackson at the center of it. >> do we know who will take the stand first. >> reporter: the first witness for the prosecution is teddy ortega. he was the producer in the "this is it" production. the prosecutors will use him to establish that jackson was in good health and it was the under lying circumstances that ultimately killed him. they will also show a clip from "this is it." the defense will try to chip away at ortega and use ammunition that didn't come out in the alternative that jackson was in horrible health and that played a part in his death. >> ted rowlands, i'm going out on a limb, but i think we will see a lot of you. thank you very much. >> we'll be monitoring the opening statements. if you want complete, live coverage, hln is there for you. here's your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. today's question is, does it matter to voters if donald trump or warren buffett endorses a candidate? carol costello has more from new york. carol? >> hi, martin. the donald is back. trump said they hit it off better than anticipated and don't forget the still to be determined it candidate, sarah palin who broke pizza dough with the candidate. take a look at their new ad which portrays romney and trump as two out of touch money man who favor the wealthy. pay special note to the private claim. >> mitt romney and donald trump are meeting today. well, they do have a lot in common. they have both done well for themselves. both support an economic plan that would help out the richest and big corporations but not the middle class. that would slash social security and medicare as we know it. cut funds for health care, research and development in schools. >> ouch. but not for the reasons thaw think. after calling the ad amateur night, trump told the wolf blitzer -- >> we're not keeping america competitive. we're not competitive at all. the world is laughing at us, wolf, and we are certainly not -- i was very insulted it at the airplane that they use. that was a great insult. >> look, president obama has his favorite rich guy, warren buffett. republicans have donald trump. so the question today, does it matter to voters if donald trump or warren buffett endorses a candidate? facebook.com/carolcnn. i'll read your answers later this hour. >> all right, carol. thank you. a rundown of stories ahead. first, a battle is raging right now for moammar gadhafi's hometown. we'll take you live to tripoli. and then a new session begins in the u.s. supreme court. what cases they have on the docket. that's always big. plus, she was inside the washington monument when it hit. park ranger nicollette relives that experience and also talks about the damage. and two and a half years ago people did not hear about propofol. dr. sanjay gupta with the very powerful drug. >> he's gone from being completely awake to being completely asleep. [ woman ] my grocery bill isn't wasteful spending. [ woman ] my heart medication isn't some political game. [ man ] our retirement isn't a simple budget line item. [ man ] i worked hard. i paid into my medicare. [ man ] and i earned my social security. [ woman ] now, instead of cutting waste and loopholes, washington wants to cut our benefits? that wasn't the agreement. [ male announcer ] join the members of aarp and tell washington to stop cuts to our medicare and social security benefits. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. a victory for libya's leadership. they have once again taken control of the port of cert while fighting rages in the city. sirte is strategically important and deeply symbolic. phil black joins us live from libya. how secure is their hold now on the port? >> reporter: well, martin, they say that they control it and we'll get a better sense of that come the end of the day. as you say, the ground here around that city has changed hands quite a few times. quite often the revolutionary fighters have not been able to hold it and will hold back again. in the east, what this now means is that the fighters are at the outskirts of the city which is progress because up until a few days ago, they were a long way from the city itself. but to put that in some context, fighters to the west of the city have been at the out skirts for more than a week and have been regulating and advancing into sirte, fighting bloody street battles and pulling back again. what those fighters on the west are now telling us, they no longer want to advance into the environment because they are taking such heavy casualties. what they would like to do is sit there and maintain a line outside of the city and implement a siege and try to wait out the pro gadhafi forces inside. it gives us a sense of what just a difficult fighting environment it is in there and how committed those pro gadhafi fighters are. what it all means is that this city is not about to fall imminently. martin? >> if they get under siege and of course tripoli has already fallen, what is left for the new leadership to concur in this war? >> reporter: wert, sirte is the most strategically important one. it's the remaining pro gadhafi hold-outs. it divides the east and the west. it means that the heavily divided area in the mediterranean is not and southeast of tripoli itself, it's a gateway to the south and country. but what they are really waiting for is to be able to take control of the city so they can say, all of libya has been liberated from gadhafi's control. it's only once that happens that the political leadership of the transitional council say that they will announce their own interim government to begin rebuilding this country. martin? >> i want to ask you one other subject. the new government says that they will not return the lockerbie bomber to prison. we know this seems to be the final response from the government. what is justifying their decision in this matter? >> reporter: this has been perhaps the most definitive answer to this question. no way will they return. the lockerbie bomber, as we know, was convicted and sentenced to jail and released from scottish authorities because he was suffering prostate cancer. we know that he's here in libya and we know that he's not well but they will not send him back to a western country to prosecute him and return to prison because he's already been prosecuted and serve time and they believe that one person cannot be prosecuted more than once for the same crime. they say that the case is closed and will help investigators who are looking to see if perhaps other people are involved and other people are deserving of charges and prosecution. martin? >> phil black, thank you very much for that update. justices on the u.s. supreme court wade through thousands of cases to decide who to take in for their new term. jeffrey toobin will profile some of the big cases, including health care reform. 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[ male announcer ] listerine® total care. the most complete mouthwash. the term for the u.s. supreme court begins on monday bu but justices met today to go through thousands of cases and decide which to review. jeffrey toobin is going to tell us which cases they are most likely to take up and one of the big ones is most likely health care reform. >> this is the super ball for the supreme court. the biggest case since bush v. gore in 2000. opponents of president obama's health care law say that it's unconstitutional to require individuals to buy health insurance. they say that's a violation of the constitution. that case has said the united states department of justice, the obama administration said they are not going to ask the full 11th sir kit and they are going to go straight to the supreme court on this appeal. it virtually guarantees that there will be a decision on the constitutionality on health care reform by next june. it will be a huge, huge case and, really, the single accomplishment of the obama administration is going to be get a thumb's up or thumb's down from the supreme court. >> no question. huge. but there are other cases and a number of them are dealing with, again, church and state. they could end up before the court and including one out of utah. what is that one about? >> you know what? these issues come up every year. the justices usually divide 5-4 on these cases. this is a case about utah state patrolman to state police officers who were killed in the line of duty. the police officers organization put up 16 crosses as a memorial on public land and plaintiffs in that community have said, no, that is a violation of separation between church and state and it is a religious memorial on public land and the court may have to decide that one. >> all right. and then we have another case that involves the state of ohio against the aclu. >> this is the one where a judge has -- is going to put the ten commandments up in his courtroom. and this is very similar to a case out of kentucky from a few years ago. this one, i think, unless the court has really changed its minds on these issues, which is possible because the court has gotten more conservative, in an almost identical case from, i believe, 2003, the court said a judge cannot put the ten commandments up in a courtroom that is too close of a connection between church and state. but it will be an interesting test to see if the court has relaxed those rules because it's virtually the same case. >> can i ask you real quick, how does the court decide what to take and what not to take? how do they make that decision? >> well, this is one of the great mysteries of the supreme court. they get about 8,000 cases a year and only take about 80 cases a year. basically, the first thing they look at is, have the lower courts split? have there been inconsistent rulings in the lower court on the same issue that, you know, we have a supreme court to resolve those sorts of disputes? the other category is more nebulous. the supreme court says, we have to resolve this issue. it's sufficiently important that we have to resolve it and health care qualifies under both of those. there have been split decisions and it's very important and we will almost certainly see those cases this year. >> jeffrey toobin, thank you very much. story affiliates are watching. cookies. all right. we'll talk that right now. there is katherine jackson, michael jackson's mother arriving. and father joe there and the rest of the family, jermaine as well. as we watch them go by, there's la toya. there's tito right now. and accepting some acknowledgement from those that have gathered outside of the courthouse. this is the first day of the trial. dr. conrad murray. so we'll show you more of this as we develop. in the meantime, let's get back to where we are. america's middle class has been hard hit during this recession. while households across the country have watched their incomes fall, there have been a few exceptions. alison kosik has more on the middle class. >> reporter: exactly. the common thread for the lucky ones is that they live in places where there is a big industry, a big demand for a product or a service. the best way to explain this, it rose pretty well in d.c. and maryland because of government spending. and d.c. we saw the biggest increase in pay between 2007 and 2010. incomes were up 21%. in north dakota, natural gas and oil agriculture is where you saw the incomes rise there. here in new york and new jersey, wall street street was the reason why you saw incomes go up in these areas. overall, when you look across the country, we saw incomes rise in 21 states. that's almost half the country. that's good news. keep in mind, though, the rise in incomes is only about 5%. the way that this economy is moving ahead very slowly, anything going higher as far as incomes go is a good sign. right, martin? >> no doubt about that. how are the markets doing today? >> markets are looking good. 2-2. nasdaq up more than 4% as well. financials are leading the way. there was a lot of worry about financials being exposed to the european debt crisis. and greece avoided a default and will go through the optimism being played out in the numbers. martin? >> great to see. let's hope that the optimism continues. thank you thank you, alison. propofol, you're going to hear a lot about that. in a moment, we'll show you how powerful this drug is. 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[ female announcer ] only from aveeno. michael jackson's doctor could get up to four years in prison. that's if the jury convicts him in the pop star's death and the trial begins this hour in los angeles and we're going to take you there live. a few moments ago, janet jackson arrived and we just saw the jackson family arrive as well, including michael jackson's mom, katherine, and other members of the family. joining us to talk about this case is cnn's senior analyst, jeffrey toobin. let's start with the charge against the doctor, dr. murray. manslaughter. why is it manslaughter because we know the family wanted to see a murder charge. >> well, the difference between manslaughter and murder is intent. i think it would have been impossible to make a case against conrad murray. why would he have wanted to kill michael jackson? that doesn't make any sense. manslaughter, as the charge says, is involuntary. through recklessness, incompetence, through just being a very, very bad doctor, conrad murray killed michael jackson. but because the intent penalty is so much less, the sentence is much less. it's a big difference between the two charges. >> the opening statements, of course, are about to begin shortly and that's a chance for both sides to lay out their version of the case. what do you expect to hear from the defense in these arguments? >> well, i think basically the difference between the prosecution and the defense in so many cases applies here. conrad murray gave him this drug, which is entirely inappropriate. the drug killed him, thus he's guilty of manslaughter. very simple. what the defense is going to do is say, no, no, no, this is a complicated case because michael jackson had a long history of drug use, demanded thighs drugs and asked for other drugs, had other drugs in his system, other people were supplying him drugs. basically this death, tragic as it was, was a culmination of a lot of different factors and conrad murray is being treated as the fall guy. that's the defense argument. >> and the defense was prevented from showing the jury a video that shows jackson being in poor health. so how do you think that is going to affect their case? >> well, that's going to play out over a long -- over this full trial. that is not the last word on that issue just because they were not allowed to use that video in opening statements. remember, the first prosecution witness is going to be the choreographer who was working with michael jackson at the time of his death. he's going to say, look, michael jackson seemed fine to me. he was working hard and in good shape. the defense will certainly be allowed to prove the alt