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Measure of Economy Better Than Expected; Cash for Clunkers Program May Be Out of Cash; Cadillac Insurance Plans Might be Taxed; Care Proposal Gaining Support in Congress; Major Upgrade for GI Bill; "Beer Summit" a Success; Taking Care of Troops and their Families; Stimulus Money to Fund Fishing Net Dangers; Iraq War Vet Helped Write Benefits Law; Revealing Michael Jackson's Warrant
Aired July 31, 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: Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. It's Friday, July 31st, and we have a busy day in the NEWSROOM for you today.
In fact, Gerri Willis is following your money for us today. The Cash for Clunkers program is a pretty big success. So then why could it be on the chopping block? We'll talk more about that.
Also Brianna Keilar is covering the health care battle on Capitol Hill. One step forward, one step back, it seems, and one big delay in bringing it to that final vote.
And also today, a very special program for you, "Focus on our Forces." They fight for their country, and now others are fighting for their future.
More on that in a moment, but just minutes ago -- I want to get this out to you -- a key reading on the economy. The gross domestic product always gets a lot of attention on Wall Street, but today, even more so. Investors want to see the impact of the Obama White House, the stimulus package and tax cuts.
Stephanie Elam is joining us now from the New York Stock Exchange with the very latest on this.
Good morning to you, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. So, we have new hope now that the recession may be nearing an end. That's exactly what we're getting from this latest GDP report.
It's telling us that the economy shrank at 1 percent. That's the pace that it was shrinking in the second quarter and it was much better than expected. We were looking for a shrinkage of about 1.5 percent.
So here's a reason why we think it got a little bit more narrow. Fewer spending cuts by businesses and more spending by federal and local governments. That helped improve the trade picture.
But still, if you take a look at the revision for the first quarter, it was still pretty bad. The economy shrank at 6.4 percent in the first quarter, that's much worse than was originally reported.
But there's one thing we really have to point out here, Heidi. This is a backward-looking reading.
COLLINS: Yes.
ELAM: This is one of those lagging indicators that we talk about, right? You've got those 401 -- let you know what's going on right now. This one looks back. All of that recent data that we've gotten that shows that the economy may be getting better is not factored into this.
We're about to go into August.
COLLINS: OK.
ELAM: This is all just basically looking at everything from June back, right? So this is not going to give us the up-to-date picture of -- recently there have been better indicators and President Obama decided to focus on that yesterday. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are a lot of indicators out there that tell us that job losses, although still way too high are not at the pace that we were seeing in January and February. Housing prices went up for the first time in three years.
The credit system, the banking system, the financial markets generally have settled down. You're not seeing the huge volatility or panic that you were seeing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELAM: All right. So, if you take a listen to that, Heidi, you can see that based on what the president's saying, based on what they're seeing, economists expect GDP to rise later this year, now down just 1 percent. But this is the fourth quarter in a row that we've seen GDP in the negative, sliding, and that's the first time that the Commerce Department has seen that since it started keeping track in 1947.
So, it just gives you an idea of just how bad this recession has been, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. I guess another thing to think about is employment compensation, too. I understand that those numbers are also like the lowest that they've ever been and so clearly that's just another way of looking at the recession and how even if you have a job, you know, it's still hitting people very, very hard.
ELAM: And that's the hugest part of this whole thing is that employment is a major part of this. And keep in mind that gross domestic product, the overall growth of this economy, is based on consumer spending. That's two-thirds of our economy. If people don't have jobs, they don't have money, therefore they're not spending, and that's why this is so important.
COLLINS: Absolutely. All right, Stephanie Elam, watching those in your opinions closely for us today. Appreciate it, thanks, Stephanie.
ELAM: Thanks.
COLLINS: Well, it looks like the cash for clunkers program could be in trouble. After just one week, car shoppers may have already burned through the $1 billion Congress set aside for rebates leaving the program's future in doubt.
More now from personal finance editor Gerri Willis.
So, Gerri, break this down for us. We've been talking about the cash for clunkers program and all of the stipulations or restrictions, I should say, that are tied to it. But now what?
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Well, that's right, Heidi. You know, you said it's in trouble -- it's been so successful, now it's in trouble. The program officially started on Monday. It is close to burning through all its dough.
Let's take a look at the math. Now, the federal government says some $95.9 million have been approved to be given out already. That's from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration who's administering the program, and yet the industry says, hey, we've probably got about $1.2 billion projected to be given out.
That's according to a survey taken by the industry. Guess what? There was only $1 billion allocated from the start for the program.
COLLINS: Yes.
WILLIS: So, you see demand for the program is simply overwhelming. Twenty-three thousand dealerships signed on, and experts say that dealerships had started declining, folks, for the program earlier this week. The program was supposed to officially end on November 1st, but a lot of people thought, you know, it might go just to August. But now, four days into the program, it looks like it's having trouble.
COLLINS: Yes, it's pretty amazing because it seemed like it was going to be hard for people to be eligible for this program. But clearly, there have been enough people who, you know, have been able to figure out how to become eligible for it and they've gotten confirmation of that. So what happens to them now?
WILLIS: The great question. A lot of people out there. We even heard stories, Heidi, last night about dealerships staying open until 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning.
COLLINS: Wow.
WILLIS: Processing some of these deals. Look, if you've already got a deal, dealerships may have had you sign a waiver that indicated if a program didn't go through, that you had to pay the voucher back yourself or return the car. So if you did get a new car, make sure you look for the documents and all your paperwork.
However, I have to tell you, there's a lot of talk that Congress could extend funding for the program. In fact, first the federal government was going to put $4 billion into the program, but it turned out to be just $1 billion.
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: I'm sorry. I was just going to say, where did they get that money from?
WILLIS: Well, see, that's the big question. We don't know where that money would come from. And, you know, the administration last night was already saying, hey, we'll keep the program running, but you know, Congress has to allocate the funds. So they haven't decided yet.
Bottom line here, if you're thinking I want to take advantage of this program, I would not rush to the dealership just yet. You want to see if it's going to be extended, and if it is, then you will have to rush to the dealership because you have to think that money will be limited, as well, and you'll have to act quickly to take advantage.
COLLINS: Yes. And you'll have a lot of competition out there. All right.
WILLIS: That's right.
COLLINS: Good point. Gerri, we appreciate all of that. Our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis. Thanks so much.
I want to get to this issue, as well. Health care reform, in the coming hours, Congress will apparently break for summer recess with the issue still very much in limbo. Democrats are loggerheads with Republicans, liberals are at odds with conservatives, but one issue that is building support among both parties, and some consumer groups aren't happy about it.
CNN congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're the best health insurance plans money can buy. In Washington, they have a name.
OBAMA: Super gold-plated Cadillac plans.
KEILAR: What makes them so great?
PAUL FRONSTIN, EMPLOYEE BENEFITS RESEARCH INSTITUTE: No deductible, no copayments, no co-insurance, unlimited choice of drugs, no restrictions on networks. KEILAR: These plans are often marketed to the wealthy. They cost as much as $40,000, far above the national average of $12,000, and critics say they encourage the overuse of doctor visits and procedures.
A Democratic proposal to tax insurance companies that provide these pricey plans is gaining bipartisan support in the Senate as a way to help pay for health care reform and keep costs down.
SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: You can tax insurance companies and that will then put pressure on them to try to make sure that people look for more cost-effective health care packages.
KEILAR: Some lawmakers say a tax on plans with premiums over $25,000 could raise as much as $90 billion to reform health care. The insurance industry, which opposes the tax insists it would hit the policies of middle class Americans and not just the rich.
Economist and insurance expert Paul Fronstin agrees.
FRONSTIN: But you may also find a plan that costs $25,000 because the average age of the workers is 55. And because they use a lot of health care, the cost of the plan is very high.
KEILAR: Labor unions, a powerful Democratic ally, also opposed the tax. The nation's largest union for public employees and health care workers says insurance companies will pass the cost on to consumers.
STEVEN KREISBERG, FEDERATION OF STATE CO. & MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES: Well, we think that any plan involving taxation and health care reform should not make health care more expensive. So alternatively, we think taxing income levels is a better way to go. Another way to do this is to tax capital gains.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Brianna Keilar joining us now from Capitol Hill on this. So, Brianna, you think that maybe the unions would be happier about a tax that insurance companies pay. I mean senators were considering a tax directly on Americans' health insurance after all. Why does it seem to work out the same to the unions?
KEILAR: Well, they say that it's because it would work out the same to their members' pocketbooks, basically, whether you tax the insurance companies or you tax directly the people who have the insurance.
The money's going to come from the same place and obviously, you know, what we found, Heidi, in doing the story was, it's kind of hard to figure out exactly who has these so-called Cadillac plans, these really pricey plans, but obviously there is this fear among the unions that it's really going to hit their members because unions negotiate some pretty nice health care benefit packages for their members.
But you know, I also just spoke with Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, who recently peeled off from those bipartisan negotiations going on in the Senate. And he said it's not just going to hit union members. He said that insurance companies will take that cost and they will spread it out among all consumers.
He actually called this proposal immoral, Heidi. So just a sense there that, you know...
COLLINS: Wow.
KEILAR: There may be some bipartisan support, it's not total for sure.
COLLINS: Yes, as usual. All right. Brianna Keilar, sure do appreciate that from Capitol Hill this morning.
Well, all this morning, I want to let you know that we are focusing on our forces from the front lines to the need for care. Right now, a major upgrade for the military, not on the battlefield but in the classroom. We're talking about the new GI Bill which goes into effect tomorrow. It will give new opportunities for better lives after their service.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS (voice-over): An historic change in the GI Bill now gives new incentives for troops serving on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan After they're done serving our country, their opportunities for education will be completely different.
Millions of veterans have used the GI Bill to help pay for college since it was first introduced back in World War II. But a lot has changed since then. So the GI Bill is adapting for today's military.
KEITH WILSON, EDUCATION DIRECTOR, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: You could have two individuals, for example, patrolling the streets of Baghdad, one individual being on active duty and another individual being a Guard reserve member that was called up.
When they returned, they would have received very different benefits. Now under this program, because it's based on active service, those individuals can't end up receiving the same benefits.
COLLINS: The new bill will allow veterans who serve at least 10 years to pass unused benefits on to their families.
MAJ. RON LEE, U.S. ARMY: My daughter now, who is 16, will get her first two years of college paid by this GI Bill program. My daughter who is 10, Veronica, she will receive the second two years.
SGT. NATHAN O'DONNELL, U.S. ARMY: When I have kids and it comes their time to go to school, I'll be able to let them use the GI Bill and have a paid for education using the benefits from when I served.
COLLINS: Then there's Joe Gittings. He served in the Army in World War II and used the benefits to learn a lifelong trade, which he's still using now at age 82.
JOE GITTINGS, WW II VETERAN: A lot of veterans in all fields of endeavor benefited from the GI Bill.
COLLINS: Back then, veterans got only $500 a year at the most to further their education via college or apprenticeships. Today the bill has a cap of about $16,000 a year. The new bill can only be used toward a college or university education. But it kicks the amount of money way up. Matching the cost of some of the most expensive state schools in the country.
Overall, the director of the program says the major changes will make it easier to get new recruits and keep the more experienced troops longer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Well, that's just part of the story on the new GI Bill. Coming up a little bit later this hour, we'll talk to one of the men who actually helped put the bill together, write it, that is, to find out what's behind some of these major changes.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm Rob Marciano at the CNN severe weather center. We had severe weather yesterday, likely will have some today, plus the space shuttle Endeavor trying to land at Cape Kennedy.
We'll tell you what the odds are weather wise when the CNN NEWSROOM comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: President Obama says the controversial event that brought a Harvard professor and his arresting officer to the White House makes us quote, "stronger."
CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley reports from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a humid summer night beneath the magnolia tree just off the Rose Garden, the vice president, the president, the black professor, and the white police man who arrested him had a beer together.
SGT. JAMES CROWLEY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., POLICE DEPARTMENT: There was no tension. No tension.
CROWLEY: Apparently it did go well. The president called it a friendly, thoughtful conversation. And you'll never guess what. Sergeant James Crowley says he and Professor Henry Louis Gates are planning their next meeting.
J. CROWLEY: I would like not only to discuss, but I'd also like to listen to Professor Gates' perspective and certainly he has the credentials to enlighten me a little bit and I think that, perhaps, the professor as he expressed to me has a willingness to listen to what my perspective is as a police officer.
CROWLEY: Ditto from Professor Gates, who wrote on his Web site that he and Crowley need to foster greater sympathy for the perils of policing and for the genuine fears of racial profiling.
Heads of state have come away from the White House with a lot less, but do not call this a beer summit.
OBAMA: This is three folks having a drink at the end of the day, and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other. And that's really all it is.
CROWLEY: 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 roar shock 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.
OBAMA: The Cambridge police acted stupidly.
CROWLEY: 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, and then invited both Crowley and Gates to the White House. Now the professor and the cop are working out details of their next meeting.
J. CROWLEY: I think meeting at a bar for a beer on the second occasion is going to send out the wrong message. So, maybe a Kool-Aid or iced tea or something like that.
CROWLEY: The president is dying to get back to his agenda and put Cambridge on the back page.
OBAMA: I will be surprised if you guys all make this the lead as opposed to a very important meeting that we just had with one of our most important partners in the world.
CROWLEY: Maybe tomorrow.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Over to the severe weather center now. We're talking Rob Marciano talk a little bit about the weekend. But some kind of dicey areas today too, right?
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: We are focusing on our forces this morning and the challenges faced by wounded troops and their families. The uncertain economy is only making things tougher.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: We are focusing on our forces today and some of the challenges they face after the battle. More than 30,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. For them, a strong support system is critical to recovery.
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is joining us now live.
Barbara, you met one particular family who has a daily struggle.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Like so many, Heidi. Often when the wounded come home and they face that long-term struggle to recover, it's their family members who are left to care for them and they are losing their homes, their jobs, and their health insurance in the process.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): Sarah married Ted Wade after he was grievously injured in Iraq, losing an arm and suffering a traumatic brain injury. He wasn't expected to live.
SARAH WADE, WIFE OF INJURED VETERAN: I think every prayer I ever said was, I would take him in any condition.
STARR: But Ted defied the odds and nearly five years later, Sarah is Ted's full-time caregiver, and like other military families, looking at a lifetime of financial strain to take care of a loved one. Sarah has already lost jobs, insurance, the young couple's financial security is vulnerable.
WADE: Ted and I were very lucky to be able to borrow money from some family members. A lot of people don't have that advantage. If we hadn't been able to do that, we'd definitely would've lost our house, there's no way we could've paid all of our bills.
STARR: The Wades are part of an effort to push Congress to act. They want training for family members on how to care for their wounded and much needed financial aid.
REP. TOM PERRIELLO (D), VIRGINIA: But we have to understand particularly in this economy that when family members have to give up a job or take on other expenses, it's important that things like this bill will help expand health insurance coverage and other needs for those family care givers.
STARR: Sarah is pressing for the legislation she says could give caregivers the income they deserve for the work they do.
WADE: A lot of parents have spent their retirements taking care of their children. They've spent their money. They've lost their benefits through their job.
STARR: Ted talks sparingly, but listens intently. They worry what would happen if Sarah couldn't work.
WADE: My gosh, I stopped paying into Social Security at a really young age. Am I going to get any Social Security some day?
STARR: Ted is determined to make plans and move ahead.
TED WADE, WOUNDED VETERAN: I would like to go work in a grocery store and perhaps start part-time going to college.
STARR: But more than anything, this young wounded warrior speaks an eloquent wish.
T. WADE: The first problem is actually getting recognition as being a human alive and being able to do something.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: And as you see, Ted Wade, a veteran of the very elite 82nd Airborne Division still recovering very significantly from his traumatic brain injury in the war.
COLLINS: Yes.
STARR: Heidi, the House just last week passed some legislation trying to give these benefits to family members caring for these wounded troops and a lot of veterans hope this will soon become law.
COLLINS: Absolutely. Excellent, excellent piece. Thanks so much, Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent.
And we'll let you we're going to talk a lot more about some of these issues and keep moving ahead as we focus on our forces.
As a soldier, he served in Iraq, as a civilian, he's fighting for his fellow veterans. We'll talk to a man who helped write the new GI Bill.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: All right. We are listening for that opening bell on this Friday, July 31st, stocks on Wall Street shot higher yesterday. There it is. That was thanks to those upbeat earnings reports.
Today the big focus on GDP. We told you about that at the top of the hour. We now have Stephanie Elam at the New York Stock Exchange with a look at how Wall Street will likely react to it.
Hi there, Stephanie.
ELAM: Hi, Heidi. Stocks were set for a higher opening and then we got that GDP report that came out. Stock futures are flat, although we are barely opening to the upside right now. We'll keep our eyes on it.
And this is even though the report came in better than expected. Now we know that the economy did contract once again in the second quarter but a pace of just 1 percent. That's the good news. However, there is some bad news, as well. It's the revisions, they're just brutal. The government now says that in the first quarter the economy shrank at a pace of 6.4 percent, which is much worse than the 5.5 percent drop we originally saw for this period. That's the biggest drop in nearly 30 years and it could pressure stock today. And now we do see that the stocks are in the downside now.
The economy has now contracted for four quarters in a row. That's the first time that's happened since the Commerce Department began keeping track of this number in 1947.
Also on the corporate side of things today, oil giant, Chevron, reporting a 71 percent drop in quarterly earnings. The company still managed to make nearly $2 billion, and as we've seen all week, major oil companies are really getting hit by sharply lower oil prices as well as weaker demand. Then there's Southwest Airlines. That company is looking to expand its reach.
COLLINS: Yes.
ELAM: Yes, big news here. The carrier has jumped into a bankruptcy court auction yesterday from Frontier, for Frontier Airlines. But there are other offers in for the bankrupt airline, as well. But if Southwest is successful, the deal would move Southwest into second place in the key Denver market. So all of that factoring in today.
Let's just take a look at the numbers really quickly. The Dow off 11 points, 9142, NASDAQ off fractionally. Same story for the S&P 500. But as you know, we will keep our eyes on it.
Heidi?
COLLINS: I know you will. Yes, it's a hot little commodity, that Frontier Airlines there. Interesting.
Stephanie Elam, thanks so much.
ELAM: Sure.
COLLINS: The so-called stimulus package. It's your money and it's paying for everything from old clunkers to new roads. To see another of its programs, we're about to take you to the ocean floor. We get details now from one of our all platform journalists, Patrick Oppmann.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN ALL PLATFORM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Killer whales hunt in Washington state's Puget Sound. Now they and this unique ecosystem are about to benefit from a sliver of the federal stimulus money. And I'm about to find out how.
(on camera): So we're about 15 miles from Oak Harbor. I'm meeting up there with a local group that's got about $5 million in stimulus money to recover lost fishing nets. (voice-over): Fishing nets? It's a much bigger problem than you'd think. The Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative has struggled for years for funding. It says the stimulus money will help recover an estimated 3,000 fishing nets discarded or lost in Puget Sound.
GINNY BROADHURST, NW STRAITS MARINE CONSERVATION INITIATIVE: Taking something out of the water that's no longer going to kill fish or birds, or pose a danger to humans.
OPPMANN (on camera): If this was such a big problem, though, how come it took until now to clean it up?
BROADHURST: You know, imagine if you had nets strung along the streets, they are catching bunny rabbits and squirrels. We wouldn't be discussing whether we should remove the net. We would be pulling them. They would have been immediate. But when those threats are down under water, you just have no -- it's so much harder to know what kind of impacts they're having.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Diver Kenny Woodside takes to the water. 80 feet below, he begins the pain staking task of cutting free a net bigger than a football field by hand. Over the ship's communication system, he can tell me what he sees.
KENNY WOODSIDE, DIVER: There might be more than one net.
OPPMANN (on camera): And Kenny, how long do you think you'll take to get the whole net up?
WOODSIDE: Maybe two days.
OPPMANN (voice-over): The pieces of the net he cuts free are pulled to the deck. So is their catch.
(on camera): So this is a case in point for what we've seen out here today. This is a Puget Sound king crab, very rare crab, protected. You're not supposed to be catching them. But as they say, the net doesn't know that. This just got pulled out of a net, and we're going to put it back in the water now.
(voice-over): And by restoring the environment, the divers are also earning a wage. The nets removal project will create 40 new jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we know we've got days of work anyway.
OPPMANN: Many of them for fishermen who once sold sea cucumbers and urchins to Japan. That exotic market employed several hundred people on these waters. Work now gone with the economic decline.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Either blue-collar divers that taught themselves this profession. They depend on their own ability to earn a living and this is exactly the place this money ought to be spent because it's going to stay in the local community. It's going to support these families. OPPMANN Your tax dollars at work, under water.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Patrick Oppmann now joining us live from Seattle.
So, Patrick, it's good that they're able to clean up these particular nets. But how are they going to keep the trash, if you will, from piling up once again?
OPPMANN: Well, Heidi, some of these nets they believe have been in the water for 10 or 20 years. So they think changes in technology, the fact that there's so much less fishing going on means that when they pull these nets out, expecting to get about 3,000 nets over the next 18 months, that's going to really resolve this problem. From then on out, they'll be able to keep up with the nets that have been lost.
COLLINS: All right. Very good. Great piece.
Patrick Oppmann, we sure do appreciate it, live from Seattle this morning.
Lawmakers have other questions about how the stimulus money is being spent, specifically, why it's not being spent faster. Next hour on Capitol Hill, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will be asking why some agencies are not spending their money fast enough. The Obama administration had promised to funnel the money into the economy as quickly as possible.
All this morning long, we are focusing on our forces. Just over 14 hours from now, at midnight Eastern, the new GI bill takes effect. It could send millions of veterans to college and some say may help shape the future of an entire generation of Americans.
Our next guest helped write parts of the bill, Patrick Campbell. He's an Iraq war vet himself. And he is the chief legislative counsel for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He's joining us from Washington this morning with a brand new beard there, because he just got out, right?
PATRICK CAMPBELL, CHIEF LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL, IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS OF AMERICA: Yes.
COLLINS: First of all, congratulations. This is really going to affect thousands of veterans and their families. But now that the process is done, how does it feel?
CAMPBELL: I feel like this is a victory lap. I mean, in 14 hours, half a million veterans and their families and their children are going to go to college and be able to make that their full-time job. And this is a promise we made my grandfathers. World War II vets and Korean vets, and they helped build the greatest generation and I feel like we're just on the edge of building the next greatest generation. COLLINS: And, you know, that's what I kind of wanted to get to here is because we all know that the G.I. bill, a form of it I should say has been in place since World War II. There was an overhaul in the '80s, mid-80s, but now this. I mean, it's being labeled historic, why?
CAMPBELL: Well, it was a historic investment in 1944. They designed a benefit that paid your tuition, gave you a living allowance, and gave you money for books. You know, in 1980s, we got rid of that and just had a monthly benefit that didn't even pay for a community college.
COLLINS: Yes.
CAMPBELL: Now we're reinvesting in our service members and paying for their tuition, their living allowance, and their books. And like I said, this is going to make people be successful in college and go on to do great things after they graduate.
COLLINS: Yes. I know the bill was passed under the Bush administration. It is now going into effect.
From the beginning to the end, what was the biggest hurdle?
CAMPBELL: You know, the White House was -- thought that this was going to hurt retention. That they said that...
COLLINS: Really?
CAMPBELL: If we passed this, that service members would actually going to go to college, which I kind of snickered at from the two years that we were fighting for this, because the idea that we didn't want a GI bill that service members would actually use was laughable to me. But, you know, there was a bipartisan coalition. You had Senator Webb, Senator Hagel. The VFW and American Legion, all the different veterans groups all working together because they knew that they needed to renew this promise.
And, you know, in an election year, these things don't happen. And the fact that everyone was able to come together and get this thing passed is a real commitment to our service members.
COLLINS: Yes. And that's exactly what I want to ask you about. Because I think the hope was actually to be able to make recruitment easier and then retain those really experienced soldiers with an incentive like this. But how do the soldiers see it? I mean, is this about appreciation?
CAMPBELL: Yes. I mean, one of my co-workers is currently in Afghanistan right now. He just got deployed and, you know, he's called back a couple times and he said all these people are doing when they're in the humvees or they're marching, is talking about what they're going to do when they get back.
I know that when I was overseas, people were talking about what job they're going to get. But now people are dreaming, like, what can I become? What school can I go get, you know?
In World War II, half the people coming home, came back and got a degree or went somewhere else, and now -- the future is open. People are dreaming bigger dreams now.
COLLINS: Yes. And so many of these benefits are now going to be able to be passed on to their families. The ones that go unused, which is obviously new in all of this, too, in a very big incentive.
Well, Patrick Campbell, we sure do appreciate the work that you did on this from the IAVA, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans of America.
Thanks so much.
CAMPBELL: My pleasure.
COLLINS: Wounded warriors on vacation getting away from the hospital for some much-appreciated quiet time. It's called Project Healing Warriors, bringing wounded troops together to go fishing.
They were just in Casper, Wyoming learning to tie flies and trying to land the big one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Project Healing Waters was started by a retired Navy captain. His name is Ed Nicholson. He was in Walter Reid having -- taking care of some injuries that he had, medical- related, and while he was there, he noticed all the injured guys from Iraq and Afghanistan. They thought, well, maybe these guys would like to go fishing.
Taking my problems away. Even if it was just while I was fishing, you know, showing me that there was more to life, you know, misery and death, really.
What's the most gratifying is to see their change of attitude and change of outlook in life. They realized that it's not over. You know, their injuries aren't what's going to keep them from enjoying life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Project Healing Waters started out just in the Washington, D.C. But now, local chapters had been popping up across the country. If you'd like more information about it, just go to www.projecthealingwaters.org.
They came to Victory Park at Ft. Riley, Kansas, to remember the troops. The families of 53 members of the first infantry division who died in 2008 gathered yesterday to honor their loved ones. It was bittersweet for one young California widow. She learned her husband's division will award her 15-month-old son a $10,000 scholarship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It means a lot that they take the time to talk to me and to make sure I'm taken care of.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any honor that the military does for the men and women means everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The First Infantry Division at Fort Riley is the army's oldest division.
The U.S. military blows a missile out of the sky, a missile launched from Hawaii.
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COLLINS: The British are leaving Iraq. Today is the day that the Great Britain formally withdraws all of its forces from Iraq. At the height of the war, 46,000 British troops were stationed in and around the country. British operation has been based in Basra and southern Iraq. The deputy head of the Iraq mission say they leave Basra in a, quote, better state than when we arrived in 2003.
The military sights another success in the Pacific. Just before midnight Eastern, a ballistic missile with a dummy warhead was launched from Hawaii. Less than 5 minutes later, it was blown up by an intercepter missile, fired from one of three Navy ships in the Pacific. This was the 19th successful test out of 23 of the U.S. missile defense system.
Calm reportedly has returned to northern Nigeria now. Much of the week, government forces battled militants who wanted to impose their strict Islamic laws on the region. The leader of that sect is now dead. Military leaders say he was killed in a shootout yesterday while trying to escape. Other sources say he was shot after being captured and turned over to the police.
Walking, biking, swimming, all great forms of exercise, the most anybody can do. And you never know, you could get a shout out in a national magazine. Here's our chief medical correspondent now, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Topping the list of "Men's Fitness" magazine's 25 fittest guys in the world: Spanish tennis great Rafael Nadal. Now he may spend several hours a day on the tennis court, but Nadal says he also hits the gym heavily in the off-season.
Also, LeBron James. He's called one of the best NBA players today. This may surprise you, he does yoga and Pilates several times a week to help stay in shape.
Now, if you're thinking, those are professional athletes, of course they're fit, well, there are some non-athletes on the list as well. Singer Akon, for example, he says he does more than 500 push- ups, pull-ups and dips before each concert. And 42-year-old entertainment lawyer, Richard Roll competed in the ultra man race last November, that's a six-mile swim followed by a 171-mile bike ride and 52-mile run -- all of it on a plant-based vegan diet.
The good thing is, you don't have to go to extremes to get fit. Bicycling can burn more than 590 calories an hour. An intense one- hour game of basketball burns 440 calories; and even doing an hour's worth of heavy yard work can burn about 440 calories.
For today's "Health Minute," I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Ever heard of Omar Arnold? Well, detectives say that's one of the many aliases used by Michael Jackson when he wanted prescription drugs. That's just some of the new information obtained by CNN as the investigation into the singer's death intensifies.
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COLLINS: CNN has obtained a copy of the search warrant used to raid the home and office of Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray. Among other things, it shows investigators were looking for evidence he prescribed drugs to an addict. CNN's Randi Kaye reports that's an apparent reference to Jackson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): 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, quote, "demonstrating crimes of excess prescribing, and 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 the powerful sedative, 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.
Now investigators seized five hard drive images, one hard drive, paperwork, records from two cell phones and an iPhone. But the key piece of evidence that stand out really is a CD with a name Omar Arnold on it. Detective seized that.
And I confirmed with the 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 mentioned 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 are looking at.
Now those mentioned in a search warrant include Dr. Murray, Jackson's long-time 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 Cherilyn Lee. She's 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 doctor's offices. He said the autopsy and the toxicology report is just not done.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: We have an awful lot going on in the next hour of the NEWSROOM. Our crews are in place to bring it all to you. Let's go ahead and check in first now with Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill.
Hi, Brianna.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN GENERAL ASSIGNMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Heidi. In just a few hours here, the members of the House of Representatives will make a beeline for the airport getting out of Washington for their August recess. So where does health care reform stand, I'll tell you at the top of the hour.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm Rob Marciano on the CNN severe weather center. We had some rough weather yesterday, more on top today.
Plus, the space shuttle is scheduled to land in a little less than an hour. That is coming up in the next hour.
COLLINS: All right, guys. Thanks so much. We'll be watching for all of that.
Also, we're going to have much more on our special focus this morning on the new GI bill, and how it will help troops injured or traumatized by war.
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COLLINS: On our blog this morning, we've been asking you to tell us about your experiences as a veteran, or if you have a loved one who is a veteran. Tell us a little bit about them. We've been getting a lot of stories, ranging from a heartbreaking to inspiring. So we appreciate you guys writing in. I want to go ahead and share some of them with you from the Heidi Mac here. Let's go ahead and go to this one first. Right here, you can see -- this is from Dominick Weaver. "I'm a fourth generation service member. My grandfather, now 70 years old, still has nightmares and flashbacks despite his medication. My mother and her brothers, the same. The VA only prescribes -- sorry, pardon me -- more or different medications and counseling. We are combat veterans. We need something more active, more involving. Help us. Help us to finally sleep at night without thinking of those lost, killed or missing in action."
Next, this one from Sergeant Watts. He says, "All soldiers should be catered to especially when they come home from a war-torn country. America should be like heaven to our troops when they come home, not hell."
So once again, we sure do appreciate stories that you guys are sending in to us. Once again, that you can still weigh in, of course. Just go to cnn.com/heidi, and we'll go ahead and put some more stories on the screen.
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COLLINS: Here's some of the other stories that we are following right now. The mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, has just resigned. Peter Cammarano was charged with bribery last week. He's actually one of 44 people arrested in a government corruption sting. We've been telling you all about this story. And earlier this week, he vowed to stay in office and fight to clear his name. He'd been in office for only three weeks before his arrest.
Vice President Joe Biden on his way to Chicago. He's the featured speaker at the National Urban League's annual conference. It gets under way just before noon.
Health care reform on the minds of most Americans right now, and we continue to put your reform questions to our insider and chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
OK, Sanjay, let me read a question from a viewer named P.J. She posted this to our blog. She says, "I work part-time so I can help raise my grandchildren and had to buy my own health coverage, which is expensive, about $213 a month when I only bring home under $700 a month. She wants to know how will this new program help me."
Seemingly, and that's what everybody wants to know.
GUPTA: Yes. You know, I'm just doing the math really quickly. $213 a month, $700 a month as her income. I mean, that's -- it's hard to imagine, really. I mean, she has to --
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: It hurts. Exorbitant, yes.
GUPTA: And, you know, while we don't have the final details by any means of this. And you and I talked about this, there are some number I think we can start to share in terms of potential costs.
COLLINS: OK, good.
GUPTA: Keep in mind sliding scale, because a lot of this varies based on your income. So look at individuals first in terms of how much money they make and what health care insurance might cost them.
If you're below the poverty line, so 14,400 or below, you're really -- you're not going to pay anything.
COLLINS: It will be free.
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: Free.
But take a look at the highest number there. Again, for individuals, $43,320. It's about 10 percent of your income. So, you know, again, by no means free, Heidi, they talk about the family of four as being a good model. Let's look at those numbers really quick if we can in terms of overall cost. $29,106, that number or below, nothing. But $77,175, again, it's about 10 percent of your income. That's not free, but it does cover everything. It covers your co- pays, your prescription costs, your office visits, all that sort of stuff. So it's going to be a comprehensive program for a family of four, but there's a price tag attached to it.
COLLINS: Absolutely. And then another big question that a lot of our viewers keep on asking is if this plan is so much cheaper and so much better, then, well, everybody sort of flocked to the government plan, and then my employer, who provides insurance for me, health care, I should say, which I like that coverage will then potentially say, well, forget it. Everybody is going to the government plan, and then I, too, might be forced to go to a public plan.
GUPTA: Right. And that's exactly what the critics are charging. They'll say the public option, this public option we're talking about will eventually crowd out private insurance companies because of the very reason you're stating. People will flock to it.
What the president has said is that that's not going to happen. If you have your private insurance, you got to keep it. And when we clear the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office about this, they seemed to back that up mainly because there are certain caveats of who is going to qualify for this.
Your premium for health care insurance costs has to be greater than 11 percent of your income. So that's a high number, especially if you're making lots of money.
Also, if you have access to insurance elsewhere, through your husband or through some other person who's supporting you, you also may not qualify for this. So not everyone is going to simply be able to fly. There's some important caveats there.
COLLINS: Yes. And, we can't. You know, the CBO also said that, you know, this really, long-term, it is not going to lower costs.
GUPTA: You know, the costs are such a moving target, Heidi, you know. They projected the 1990 Medicare would cost $9 billion. It costs $67 billion.
COLLINS: Yes.
GUPTA: So the numbers are going to be all over the map on this.
COLLINS: Yes, definitely, when these benefits start to actually coming to play or into the pockets of consumers, if you will, is another story.
GUPTA: That's right.
COLLINS: Listen, we also want to remind everybody lots of numbers out there that we've been throwing around so everything will be on our Web site if you need to go back and check that out, and look at how they would affect you.
GUPTA: Good point.
COLLINS: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our insider, thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Obviously, I talked to Sanjay yesterday on that because he had to go to his brother's wedding today. Took the day off, so I want to let you know where that came from.
