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New Vote for Afghanistan; President Obama Scolds Wall Street; Concern about Cancer Screenings; Tight Race in New Jersey; Schools Shuts in Pakistan After Suicide Attacks; Hearing on Capitol Hill on H1N1

Aired October 21, 2009 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: They went under cover as pimp and prostitute to sting a grassroots group. This morning, the two go public with their story.

And providing Iran nuclear fuel for civilian use, a draft agreement reached today, but will the U.S. and others sign on to the deal?

Plus, a 7-year-old Florida girl and a Virginia Tech student both missing. We'll have the latest on their cases.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. It is Wednesday, October 21st and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Tough actions, tough talk. We have a whole lot to tell you about this hour.

Our Chris Lawrence is actually in Afghanistan this morning where a runoff is on, but apparently dozens of elections officials are off. So Pakistan's military also in the news this morning, pushing forward against militants in the country's northwestern region. We'll get to that as well.

And stern words for Wall Street. Our Christine Romans has the president's message to CEOs.

First, though, the very latest on the recall election in Afghanistan. Former Afghan foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, agreed this morning to take part in the runoff. He finished second to incumbent president, Hamid Karzai, in the first round of voting.

The United Nations vows to take a closer look at polling stations in the two weeks leading up to the election. Around 200 Afghan election officials tied to vote fraud allegations are being dismissed.

The U.N. also says distribution of ballots for the November 7th election is supposed to begin tomorrow.

Now, these moves come one day after President Karzai accepted the idea of a runoff election.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence is in Kabul, Afghanistan this morning for more on those stories.

So, Chris, what's going on there by way of preparations for this November 7th vote?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, United Nations officials said they are going through lists of people right now, trying to identify some of the people who were in charge of overseeing these polling stations and scrubbing their names from the lists if they think they were involved in some of that fraud.

Also, another big challenge with the short time frame, in a country like Afghanistan with such a low literacy rate is even just letting people know that there is going to be a runoff. So tomorrow, they are launching a major radio and TV outreach, trying to let people know that the vote is on in just a couple of weeks.

In Afghanistan, getting information around the country is not easy.

COLLINS: Yes, I imagine. How many people even have televisions? We talked so much about all of the remote areas in this country. Is that going to be the best way to go about it?

LAWRENCE: Yes, that's right. And another thing -- one of the other considerations also is security for such a large country. But I'm told by a senior U.S. defense official that there are more Afghan forces on the ground now than there were just a couple of months ago for the first election.

Also that they had pinpointed some problem areas, some trouble spots that they can focus on after learning from that first election. And a U.N. official says, basically, that security is going to be a big concern, though, because the Taliban has stepped up their threats, also threatening to do what they did to the first election and the mayor of Kandahar fears that more Taliban attacks are on the way. Some say it could be an opportunity, a second opportunity for the Taliban to sabotage this election. Heidi?

COLLINS: All right. Obviously, a whole lot of challenges and we continue to stay on top of them. Chris Lawrence, live from Kabul, Afghanistan. Thank you, Chris.

President Obama gets a firsthand account of the backroom wrangling in Afghanistan today. He's set to meet with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry this morning.

Kerry spent several days with Afghan president Hamid Karzai this week coaxing him to accept the runoff election. President Obama also talked about elections with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al Maliki.

January's planned parliamentary vote could significantly impact plans to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq by late next year.

Later, the president made a stop in New York to speak to members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We all know that we're facing a determined adversary. They are resourceful, they are resilient, they are still plotting, as we have become all too aware.

No one can ever promise that there won't be another attack on American soil, but I can promise you this. I pledge to do everything in my power as president of the United States to keep the American people safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: And President Obama scolds Wall Street during a Democratic fundraiser in New York. The president said shortsightedness led to the financial crisis and he chastised the industry for resisting tighter regulations that could prevent a repeat.

Christine Romans, part of the CNN money team now, to talk a little bit for the about this.

Good morning to you, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. Well, you know, just a year after a record historic bailout of Wall Street, now we're talking about big payouts for pay and bonuses and the president sounding almost disgusted when he talks about where we are right now and what he says are mutual obligations that the industry isn't living up to.

In particular, he's concerned, when he looks at profitability for the banks, so quickly after the system averted disaster and so many people on Main Street are still hurting. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: When I hear stories about small businesses and medium- sized businesses not being able to get loans, despite Wall Street being back very profitable, that tells me that people aren't thinking about their obligations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: He said if there are members of this audience who are in the financial industry, please listen up. I would like to have new rules of the road to make sure that this never happens again, that we're not in this position ever again.

He was pushing for regulation of complex derivatives. Also a new consumer money watchdog, saying that people who oppose that are opposing him and are on the wrong side here, that we do need new rules of the road.

He also said that a crisis was averted because of action from the government. That's something that his -- one of his top economic advisers, Christina Romer, has said as well, that it was really the quick-thinking action of the government that helped stop a much bigger crisis.

Who was he talking to, Heidi? COLLINS: Yes.

ROMANS: He was talking to people there who paid $15,200 a head to hear him speak. It was a Democratic fundraiser at the Mandarin Oriental, right here in this very building, to be quite honest.

COLLINS: Yes.

ROMANS: $15,200 a head for some 200 people who heard what he had to say and he gave the financial industry a scolding. Clearly -- clearly disgusted that so many things are back to the way they were before the crisis.

COLLINS: Yes. It's interesting, though, what does a lot of this regulation do for -- or not do for small business owners that he mentioned?

ROMANS: Well, the question here is that lending for small and mid-sized business has been reined in so much because so many financial institutions are just trying to shore up their capital and shore up their own positions that that's hurting main street, even as Wall Street is showing some of these big profits.

That's part of the problem here. And also, you know, quite frankly, he is looking for this new regulation and better rules and regulation and some of that momentum, many say, has slowed.

So he's trying to pick up that momentum. We've been hearing from his aides, his big financial aides and top advisers over the past week or so. They're really pushing some of these new rules, but critics would say -- Eliot Spitzer, for example, this morning told "AMERICAN MORNING"...

COLLINS: Well, unfortunately, looks as though we not only just sort of lost Christine, but really lost Christine, unfortunately there. We will check back with her. And yes, that's right, Eliot Spitzer was actually on "AMERICAN MORNING" this morning and had a few interesting things to say.

Christine, I have to say, I've never seen that happened before, but I'm glad you're back.

ROMANS: I haven't either.

COLLINS: So finish that thought because it's interesting. We were talking about small businesses and trying to get loans, you know, to start them up, keep them going with regard to regulation. Eliot Spitzer had a comment?

ROMANS: Eliot Spitzer said something that I thought was really interesting this morning. He has been a watchdog, you know, a watchdog of Wall Street before his own sort of personal problems went to...

COLLINS: Yes. ROMANS: ... his losing his job. But what he said was that Timothy Geithner and the whole team at Treasury, that they've lost the momentum. That, look, these banks aren't doing what we want them to do in fulfilling their obligations, because nobody gave them any strings.

Nobody gave them any requirements. Nobody told them what to do with the money and what those obligations were that the president is now saying that they're not living up to. So his point was that more should have been done earlier by the prior administration and this administration to make sure the banks had specific rules to live up to. The banks are only doing what they've been asked...

COLLINS: And enforce -- enforce them.

ROMANS: Exactly.

COLLINS: Yes, understood. All right. Christine, we'll check back later.

ROMANS: Sure.

COLLINS: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

ROMANS: Yes.

COLLINS: Let's move on to Pakistan now. The government there has shut down all of its schools one day after suicide bombers hit a university in the capital city. Six bystanders died, 29 others were wounded in yesterday's attack at the International Islamic University in Islamabad. The Taliban has now claimed responsibility.

Meanwhile, Pakistani troops are now in their fifth day of a massive offensive against the insurgents. They're targeting a tribal region along the Afghan border that has long sheltered the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Rob Marciano standing by now in the severe weather center. Talking more about winter weather. Huh, Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, snow across the high plains. Good morning, Heidi. And some of that snow is turning into rain across Dallas. We have a flash flood watch in effect there. And also tropical storm Rick about to make landfall. Weather is coming up when the CNN NEWSROOM comes right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Breaking news, revealing developments, see for yourself in the CNN NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: What cancer screenings do you really need? It's a crucial question and the subject of a front page story in "The New York Times." But if you read the story, you could get the wrong idea.

Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has been working on this and is here now to give us the facts.

All right, let's talk about what this article said and what the misconception could be after you read it.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: After you read the story in the "New York Times" you might get the impression that the American Cancer Society is going to change its cancer screening recommendations. And if that were true, that would be huge news. Because everyone turns to the American Cancer Society to find out what kind of screenings they ought to get.

COLLINS: Sure.

COHEN: So the person who was quoted in the "New York Times" story, most predominantly, Dr. Otis Brawley...

COLLINS: Right.

COHEN: ... at the American Cancer Society, he says "The New York Times" story is a tempest in a teapot. He thinks that it gives people the wrong idea.

COLLINS: Yes, I mean...

(CROSSTALK)

COLLINS: The very first line, we should say, it says that the American Cancer Society, which has been a long staunch defender of most cancer screenings, is now saying that the benefits of detecting many cancers, especially breast and prostate, have been overstated.

COHEN: Yes, that may be true, but it doesn't mean that they're going to change anything. And I think people want to know the bottom line.

COLLINS: Absolutely.

COHEN: And the bottom line is, the recommendations are still the same. And that's why...

COLLINS: Which are?

COLLINS: ... they called this a tempest in the teapot. Let's get the recommendations for two types of cancer, breast and prostate. Again not changing. The recommendations are for breast cancer that women, starting at age 40, should have an annual mammogram and that mammogram can be once every one or two years starting at age 50.

Now let's look at prostate cancer screening, what the American Cancer Society has been saying since 1997, make a personalized screening decision with your doctor, because unlike breast cancer, the prostate cancer decision is very complicated and can be very different for each man.

COLLINS: All right. So getting back to the article then, if the recommendations have not changed, as we just saw, then what's new in this piece?

COHEN: Well, I think what "The New York Times" was trying to say is that there's more of an emphasis on the fact that screenings are not perfect. And screenings aren't perfect, as Dr. Brawley at the American Cancer Society...

COLLINS: That's why they call it a screening?

COHEN: Right. Right.

COLLINS: Right?

COHEN: That's true. That's true. He said look, mammography is a good tool, it is not a great tool. You can have annual mammograms every year and be diligent -- excuse me -- and examine your own breasts and go to your doctor to get breast examinations and still die of breast cancer.

COLLINS: Yes.

COHEN: It can still happen. And women need to know that. Screening is great, you got to do it. It's not perfect.

COLLINS: Yes. Yes. These are all things to do to try your best to ward off anything that could be really, really serious later on. Also prostate cancer screening is not perfect either.

COHEN: No, prostate cancer screening is especially problematic because if you get a prostate cancer screening, it could detect a teeny-weeny prostate cancer that you could be fine with for the next 30 years, but if you treat it, it can make you incontinent and it could make you impotent. Two things that no man wants, right?

So there are problems with screening because it can lead you to do things that down the line you'll regret.

COLLINS: Right.

COHEN: And that's why you have to make a personalized decision with your doctor.

COLLINS: Yes. To talk about the benefits outweighing the risks.

COHEN: Exactly.

COLLINS: As always in health care, I guess.

COHEN: Right.

COLLINS: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much for that.

COHEN: Thanks.

COLLINS: Appreciate it.

A man already in prison for burglary in California faces new charge of arson and murder. Rickie Lee Fowler has been indicted in connection with the wildfire six years ago in San Bernardino County. The so-called Old fire burned 90,000 acres and destroyed nearly 1,000 homes. Five people suffered fatal heart attacks.

Authorities say they began investigating Fowler five weeks ago. The district attorney says until three weeks ago there was not enough evidence to actually charge him. The statute of limitations on arson would have run out on Sunday.

Check back in now with Rob Marciano. Certainly not fire we're talking about today. Lots of snow to talk about, coal temperatures, winter.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: I'm sorry, I can't hear you at all. I think we just lost your battery right at the end of your hit there. So very good. But yes, the Yankees definitely won big last night. So we'll continue to follow all of that, as well as that winter weather.

Meanwhile, though, it is the birthplace of Springsteen and Sinatra. Home of the world's longest boardwalk and the site of a very tight off-year election. Why all eyes are on New Jersey's governor race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Quickly now. Top stories we're watching this morning.

It looks like there may be a deal today that would have Iran sending most of its low enriched uranium out of the country. That's the material that could be used for nuclear weapons. Under a yet to be approved agreement, Iran would send the uranium to Russia, Russia would send processed nuclear fuel rods back to Iran. The draft deal comes on the third day of negotiations in Vienna, Austria.

And there's more wrangling on Capitol Hill today as the Senate and House debate health care reform. In the Senate, it looks like Democrats don't have enough support to pass their plans to boost Medicare payment to doctors. It could have an effect on the larger health care reform plan, though.

The FAA wants to know why a Delta flight landed in the wrong place in Atlanta. The flight with the 194 passengers and crew was coming in from Brazil Monday. Instead of landing on the runway, it landed on the taxiway, which is usually used by planes that just landed or are getting ready to takeoff, of course. Luckily, no other planes were there at the time.

In less than two weeks, voters go to the polls in a handful of key elections. One of them in New Jersey. Democratic governor Jon Corzine is neck and neck with Republican Chris Christie. And today the race is getting some presidential star power.

But why is an off-year election getting so much attention now? "New York Observer" columnist Steve Kornacki has been following this race. He's joining us now live from New York.

Steve, good morning to you. So, obviously, the president will be heading to the garden state today. Is this a good thing or not such a good thing for Jon Corzine?

STEVE KORNACKI, COLUMNIST, THE NEW YORK OBSERVER: It's a good thing. He can't come enough as far as they're concerned. I mean he was here earlier in the summer, in June or July, I think, and he immediately turned his appearance, you know, a speech, in which he didn't mention Jon Corzine that much in the speech in the summer, but they still turned it into an ad that they must have spent, you know, a couple of million dollars blanketing the airwaves with.

He's very popular in New Jersey. He's very popular obviously with the Democratic base. The calculation from the Corzine campaign is really Democratic state, if we can get the Democratic base activated like they were last year, we'll win this election.

COLLINS: Yes. You think that's going to happen?

KORNACKI: Well, you know, I've been saying, if Corzine pulls this race out, I'm going to owe a lot of drinks to a lot of people because I've been predicting all year that Chris Christie is going to win this race. And if you look at it by any sort of historical measure, Jon Corzine should not win this race and shouldn't even be even -- you know, even in the polls right now.

COLLINS: Well, tell us what you mean by that.

(CROSSTALK)

KORNACKI: With his job approval...

COLLINS: Yes. Tell us what you mean by that, because for people who don't live there, I have a home there, full disclosure, so I know some of these issues that are at least talked about in the community. One of them, obviously, taxes. State and local taxes. The highest in the country.

Is this an issues problem for him, or are we talking about some of the corruption that has long since been in the realm of New Jersey politics?

KORNACKI: It's an everything problem for him. I mean, property taxes are the highest in the nation, and that's been the case in New Jersey for decades, really. You know property taxes and political corruption, it seems every four years, there's a governor's race in New Jersey and you get both candidates running every four years, promising to change it and you know nothing ever changes. And I wonder...

COLLINS: And they don't. Why not?

KORNACKI: You know, there's so many structural problems in New Jersey. First of all, you'd say there are 566 municipalities in the state, you know, cities, towns, bur boroughs. There are towns in New Jersey that have school administrations but no schools to administer.

But they actually have -- they actually pay for like a school system, even though they're combined with other towns for regional -- you know, regional services.

COLLINS: Yes.

KORNACKI: So there are all sorts of, you know, municipal madness is the term. Somebody who used to -- who is a politician in the state came up with to describe it. That's a big driver of the property tax.

COLLINS: Yes. So if you don't live in New Jersey, why do you care about this race?

KORNACKI: Well, nationally, this is -- you're going to hear from whichever party, you know, wins this thing. If Corzine survives, the Democrats are going to say, hey, look, you know, all this talk about Barack Obama's, you know, popularity kind of falling off and the Republicans sort of being resurgent, well, look, we sent Barack Obama in and he rescued this guy who never should have won.

And obviously, the Republicans, if they win this and if they win Virginia, the other governor's race, where it looks they're in a very good position to win, if they can win both of those, then they're going to start saying, hey, look, this is the beginning of the Obama backlash. This is what happened in 1993, the year before the 1994 Republican revolution.

We won Virginia, we won New Jersey.

COLLINS: Right.

KORNACKI: We did it then, we did it now. The reality is if you look back, though, at New Jersey and Virginia, they both have a history of electing the candidate, you know, not from the White House's party. Going back really decades. So it probably doesn't mean much, but that doesn't mean you're not going to hear an awful lot about it.

COLLINS: Yes. I think a lot of people are sort of looking to that possible measure of what could happen in the midterm elections, obviously.

Listen, what about this Chris Daggett guy? The independent. How does he play into all of this?

KORNACKI: That's another reason, I think, the Corzine people are suddenly feeling very optimistic and the Christie people kind of nervous. He's really -- he's very much unknown in the state. He is sort of a former Republican, a moderate Republican in the old New Jersey tradition. No real name recognition in the state.

But what's happened is Corzine and Christie have just gone after each other so hard. There's so much disgust with both of them. They're both are basically unacceptable to the electorate that this third choice that are being -- the voters are being offered in the polls is now jumping up to 10, 15, you know, as high as, I think, 17 percent in some polls and he seems to be peeling away more votes from Christie than he does from Corzine.

Because you have these voters who have decided they do not want four more years of Jon Corzine, but then they look at Christie and they look at how Christie has been portrayed by the Corzine campaign, and they say, well, we don't want this guy either, so instead of voting for Christie, we're going to vote for Daggett.

And you've now actually got the Republican Governor's Association, this national group is coming in to New Jersey and spending money to attack Chris Daggett because they're afraid if Daggett can get up to 10, 15 percents on Election Day...

COLLINS: (INAUDIBLE). Yes.

KORNACKI: ... that's going to come off Christie's hide.

COLLINS: Yes. All right. Very good. Well, listen, one of the blogs I found says this, "New Jersey governor, OK, whom do you dislike the least?" So we'll continue to follow that race, obviously. And Steve Kornacki from the "New York Observer," thanks for your time. Appreciate it.

Drastic measures in Pakistan. The government orders all of its schools closed, at least through the end of the week. We'll tell you why and what's being done about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: A weak housing report pulled down stocks yesterday and today we are expecting more losses at the start of trading.

Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange now with a preview, a look ahead.

Hey, good morning to you, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. We're not expecting the losses to be too big, though, because when it comes to today's earnings, we have a little bit of bad and some good.

Let's start with the latter. Yahoo! reported quarterly profit that tripled from a year ago. Its CEO says its major businesses have stabilized, and we should say Yahoo! because its shares are up right now 5 percent.

Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, posting its first quarterly profit in a year, thanks to strength in its investment banking unit. And Wells Fargo's earnings hit a record of more than 3 billion bucks, but there are underlying problems. Morgan commercial real estate business is losing money and Wells says losses from bad loans claimed to $5 billion. That's in a three-month period.

Boeing lost more than $1.5 billion in the last quarter. It's getting hit by production delays on some of its planes and some Boeing customers are canceling their orders because of weak demand for air travel and cargo services.

Finally, job cuts. Sun Microsystems said yesterday it would cut 3,000 positions over the next year. That's because the company's deal to buy rival, Oracle, is being held up by European regulators.

Checking the early numbers. Yes, we're seeing a little bit of losses. The Dow still above 10,000, down about a quarter, up a percent.

Did you see who rang the opening bell, Heidi Collins?

COLLINS: I did. I was going to say some of those numbers are cold as ice!

LISOVICZ: I was going to quiz you, but you're a hot-blooded woman. Does it feel like the first time, though?

COLLINS: Oh, my gosh.

Foreigner, yeah. That was interesting.

LISOVICZ: Foreigner to celebrate their three-disk set. You know, it's funny. There are a lot of musicians who ring the bell, but one of the hazards of ringing the opening bell is that the bell doesn't wait. The bell doesn't wait for them, and getting up and being here presentable at 9:30 is a hazard. And there have been some entertainers who have missed the bell.

COLLINS: Yes. Not usually for the morning people, this is true.

All right.

LISOVICZ: No, there's no velvet rope. There's no, you know -- no, they're not going to hold the curtain. It just doesn't work that way for the World Stock Exchange, though.

COLLINS: Glad you got your three-disk set, though.

(CROSSTALK)

COLLINS: Yes, very good.

LISOVICZ: Exactly.

COLLINS: All right, Susan, we'll check in later.

LISOVICZ: I'll burn some for you.

COLLINS: All right, thanks!

Back to Pakistan now. All classes are canceled and schools closed. The government issued this order after yesterday's suicide attacks on a university campus. We told you about it here on the show yesterday.

And CNN's Reza Sayah is joining us once again from the capital city of Islamabad.

So, Reza, you were at International Islamic University a little bit earlier today.

What does it look like? What's the scene?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Heidi. Pretty depressing scene. As what we're seeing is the crippling impact of terrorism. A day after two suicide bombers walked into the International Islamic University in Islamabad. That place is pretty much a ghost town. We just got back from there about 45 minutes ago. Charred debris everywhere, bloodstained floors and walls. The death count right now is about 6. More than 20 people have been injured. And many students just packed up and left today. Many of the parents came and picked them up, because the university is shut down and so is all educational institutions and universities across the country.

Government officials in all four provinces have shut them down. Many for the rest of the week as a security precaution. Of course, yesterday, after these twin suicide blasts, you had mass protests by students on campus. Not just against the Taliban, but against the government as well, who seems powerless against these attacks.

Heidi, what these militants want to do with these suicide attacks is to strike fear into the public and disrupt life, and at least in these campuses across Pakistan, that their plan seems to be working.

COLLINS: Yes.

Reza, what can you tell us about the government offensive now, an update on that, near the Afghan border.

SAYAH: Yes, they say they're making progress, but it's slow going. The eye of the storm for the past three days has been the cutky region in South Waziristan. The Cutky Region is a mountainous, stronghold of Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud and his fellow commander, Harry Hussein. This is their hometown.

And earlier, the Pakistani military have said they had captured much of this region, but now they're saying Taliban fighters are making a fierce stand for that region using heavy weaponry, antiaircraft machine guns, but the army is saying they're going deeper into Taliban territory, capturing some hideouts. And Heidi, here's what the army says they found in one hideout today. 105 bottles of liquor. Not exactly what you'd expect to find on militants who say they're fighting for Islam.

COLLINS: No. What's up with that? I mean, are they going to be looking more into this, or what impact does that have?

SAYAH: Well, the only thing the army is telling us in these hideouts, they found a lot of ammunition and a lot of weapons, and in one of the hideouts they found these bottles of liquor. This, I think, is a message from the army that despite what these Taliban fighters are saying that they are fighting for Islam.

COLLINS: Right.

SAYAH: That that is not the case. They're sending a message that these people are truly not Muslims, and they're just criminals.

COLLINS: All right. Very interesting.

Reza Sayah joining us with more on this story from Islamabad, Pakistan.

Reza, thank you.

A possible deal to lower the nuclear risk from Iran. Talks between Iran, the U.S., and a few other parties ended in Vienna earlier. Delegates have until Friday to sign a draft agreement from that meeting. It would allow other countries to enrich Iran's uranium and then return it so it can only be used in civilian projects.

Meanwhile, in Iran, a 15-year prison sentence for the only American arrested during protests over the country's June election. Keyan Tibash is a well-known American-Iranian scholar. The State Department is calling for his immediate release.

Congress trying to find out more about the H1N1 flu on Capitol Hill today. Live pictures now. The Senate Homeland Security Committee now hearing on the nation's response to the threat of H1N1 is just getting under way right now. The Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, is testifying this morning and so is homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano.

Earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," Napolitano talked about delays with the H1N1 vaccine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: This is a delay. It's not a shortage. There, ultimately, is going to be vaccine for everyone who wants to be vaccinated, and we think we'll be caught up or the manufacturers will be caught up somewhere around December.

We had said last spring that we thought a vaccine could be made available as early as October. Those deadlines are being met. They're not being met, obviously, as quickly as we all would like to see, but recognize, this is a vaccine. We want to be safe. The producers want to be safe. And it is beginning to roll out and roll out as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Education Secretary Arne Duncan is also testifying today about how schools are responding to the flu threat.

Most Americans still like the messenger. It's his message they're having problems with. President Obama losing some support in our new poll.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Checking our top stories now.

COLLINS: U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon says some 200 Afghan election officials tied to fraud in the presidential vote will be replaced before a runoff. President Hamid Karzai and his man challenger Abdullah Abdullah have agreed to a November 7th runoff. A U.N.-backed commission invalidated nearly a third of the presidential vote in the August election because of fraud.

First-degree murder charges have been dropped against one of the four teens accused in the brutal beating death of a Chicago honor student. 18-year-old Eugene Bailey was arrested two days after Derrion Albert was killed. After leaving jail, Bailey said he was sad about missing the funeral of his murdered friend.

Officials suspect foul play in the disappearance of a 7-year-old Orange Park Florida girl. Summer Thompson didn't return home from school on Monday. The around-the-clock search for the girl includes these horses, dogs, divers, and helicopters.

And a search also goes on for a missing Virginia Tech student. Morgan Herrington became separated from her friends at a concert on Saturday night. Her parents say they talk to her every day, and her disappearance is out of character.

Let's get over to the severe weather center.

Once again now, Rob Marciano standing by.

Need to talk about tropical storm Rick, who used to be -- started off as a cat 5, right?

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: President Obama still popular with most Americans, but for the first time, he's lost the majority on key issues.

Senior political correspondent Candy Crowley has the new poll numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What did I say during the campaign? I said change is hard. And big change is harder.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And he's got the polls to prove it. As the president navigates his way through a series of issues as controversial as they are vital, he's getting a yellow flag from the American people.

New polling finds for the first time fewer than half of Americans agree with the president on issues important to them. A majority, 51 percent, disagree. That's a 10 point jump since April.

OBAMA: It's all -- I love you back. CROWLEY: Despite the majority disagreement on issues, the CNN/Research Corporation Poll also found his approval rating remains in the healthy mid-50s, and two-thirds of Americans say he has the personal qualities a president should have.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: It's awfully early yet, but this president might be shaping up to be a little like Ronald Reagan, where people actually didn't often agree with Ronald Reagan's ideas, but they loved the guy.

CROWLEY: A popular president who is less popular on the issues. There's a way to work this.

KEATING HOLLAND, CNN POLLING DIRECTOR: We still like the messenger. That's important for Obama, because he'll be able to look presidential and Americans may respond to that as he's trying to make a pitch for his health care plan, financial reform, whatever he decides to do in Afghanistan and Iran.

CROWLEY: And about that Nobel Prize, even the president seemed stunned he got.

OBAMA: To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by this prize.

CROWLEY: Americans agree. Only about a third believe the president deserved the prize; 56 percent say they disapprove of the decision by the Nobel Prize Committee to give it to him.

Still, there's a hometown hero effect here with almost 70 percent of people saying they're proud an American won it. And in further proof of that old adage that Americans like their politicians most when they're not running for anything, the most popular person in the Obama administration is not the still-popular president.

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Good morning.

CROWLEY: It's his Secretary of State. You remember her, once seen as a sharply divisive politician; the also-ran of the 2008 primary season, Hillary Clinton is now viewed favorably by 65 percent of Americans, outshining even Michelle Obama.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Death in a small town. Was this man a victim of a random attack or a hate crime? That question is tearing a town apart. We'll take a closer look in a preview of the CNN documentary "Latino in America."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: A disabled veteran is now facing another problem. He's having trouble getting on buses with his service dog it's because his disability isn't visible to the naked eye.

We get the story now from Rush Low of our affiliate WFBN in Miami.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

RUSH LOW, REPORTER, WFBN, MIAMI: He's a disabled war veteran. His name is Arthur Schwartz. He has no car. He doesn't drive in part because of his disability he rides the county buses through Miami Dade, his service dog is always by his side.

ARTHUR SCHWARTZ, DISABLED WAR VETERAN: It's a real injustice. And the sad part is I know it's not just me.

LOW: Arthur says he is having difficulty getting on Miami-Dade County buses because of his dog. He says there's always an issue.

Inevitably, he is allowed to board because he's protected by federal law, the Americans with Disabilities Act. What makes Arthur's case unique is that his disability is not apparent to the naked eye. He is not blind. He does not need a wheelchair. Arthur has post- traumatic stress disorder.

So this here is Pearl, she's a boxer and Arthur has had Pearl for three years. And Arthur says "I've been in the army for more than 20 years. I served my country. And I need this dog. I need this dog to get around and to deal with severe anxiety."

SCHWARTZ: And on Saturday morning I got on the bus to go to the VA and first thing I got on and I got confrontation about I can't have a dog on the bus and if I'm not blind and I don't explain what my disability is. And I swear I'm not going to do that.

So they stop shop the bus, they get on their phone. They get off the bus. They call headquarters and we round and round until somebody decides they're going to get on and drive the bus away. And that's usually what I have most of the time.

LOW: In 2006 Arthur returned from Iraq where part of his duties was to identify the bodies of dead American soldiers. When his anxiety became overwhelming, Arthur's doctor thought a service dog would be effective. He says more and more soldiers returning from Iraq are given these psychiatric service dogs who were specifically trained to calm anxiety.

SCHWARTZ: When I start having my tough anxiety positions she'll back up until she's about ready to knock me over. Then she'll turn around and she'll look up at me and she'll get on me and then she'll try to pull me away and to get up and kind of cuddle me. She'll put her feet up on my knee.

LOW: Pearl wears a service dog vest and Arthur has identification.

SCHWARTZ: And on the back it even tells everybody what the Americans with Disabilities Act says. LOW: Miami-Dade Transit with this statement quote, "Our operators have been trained to permit service animals to board with customers with disabilities unless the service animals pose a direct threat to the health and safety of other customers... In Arthur's case this animal should be allowed to board and we do apologize."

SCHWARTZ: It's a disgrace that I can't be treated fair and live life like everyone else.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COLLINS: The National Intrepid Center of Excellence has a facility near Walter Reid Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland that is set to be able to help and treat people who suffer from traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. A $60 million facility expected to open in June of next year.

An awful a lot going on this morning; we want to get it all to you. Our CNN crews are in place to bring it to you. Let's check in with our correspondents now.

First to Drew Griffin with our special investigations unit -- hi Drew.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Hi Heidi, there's been a new indictment in that New York City terror plot. The plot investigators say it would have been the biggest strike since 9/11, had they not broken it up. I'll have that at the top of the hour.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange where we're looking at Wall Street's quarterly earnings. A new report out at the top of the hour will show us how Main Street is doing. We'll break down unemployment state by state next hour. Heidi?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elizabeth Cohen here in Atlanta. How easy is it to catch H1N1? It's pretty easy. I'll take you on a germy subway ride at the top of the hour.

COLLINS: Sounds lovely. All right, guys. Thank you.

We are also focusing on "Latino in America." Next hour: one student's struggle to finish high school despite the demands of her own family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Issues of race and hatred have created some tough questions in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. There are undocumented Mexican immigrants walking with a white girl who came across a group of local teenagers. There was a fight and the aftermath has ripped the town apart.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien has that story and takes a look at her documentary, "LATINO IN AMERICA." (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Two days after being attacked by high school football players, Luis Ramirez died. Prosecutors say his killing was a hate crime.

Do you think about the way he died?

CRYSTAL DILLMAN, LUIS RAMIREZ'S FIANCEE: Every day.

O'BRIEN: Crystal Dillman was his fiancee.

DILLMAN: I think about seeing him in the hospital bed and I don't wish that on my worst enemy. I've never been so scared in my life.

O'BRIEN: This town has a reputation for being a melting pot when you look at all of the different people who march in heritage day: Bahamians (ph), Irish, Germans.

DILLMAN: For years and years people have come here from other countries but lately if you come here from countries more down south like Mexico and that they seem target you more and I don't understand why.

CARLOS RAMOS, SHENANDOAH RESIDENT: This town is close minded. They're ignorant. To them if you're not white, you're just not right. That's why it's only been ten years since Hispanic started moving up here.

O'BRIEN: Carlos Ramos and Jenny (INAUDIBLE) live in this predominantly Latino neighborhood.

RAMOS: I've been called a spick. I've been called a brown nigger. They throw these nasty words at you.

O'BRIEN: Carlos is from Puerto Rico, an American citizen.

RAMOS: If you're Puerto Rican, Dominican or whatever; to them you're considered a Mexican. It don't matter. You're a Mexican.

O'BRIEN: There were multiple eyewitnesses to the attack on Luis Ramirez. They knew and could identify the attackers. Still, it would take authorities nearly two weeks to announce charges against four local teenagers.

Brandon Piekarski (ph) was an honor student. Another, Derek Donchak (ph), a former high school quarterback. Collin Walsh (ph) ran track and got straight A's. All were considered good kids. Two were charged with murder; all four with assault and ethnic intimidation -- a hate crime. They face decades in prison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: We are hours away now from "LATINO IN AMERICA," a comprehensive look at how Latinos are changing the country. That's tonight and tomorrow at 9:00 Eastern. It will also be simulcast in Spanish on CNN en Espanol.