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Mixed Signals on Economic Recovery; Weather Slows Taiwan Rescues; Extremist Militants Make Comeback in U.S.; Right-Wing Extremist Groups Growing; North Carolina Investigators Suspect Serial Killer; Wildfires Burn in California; Woman Vows to Read Entire Health Care Bill

Aired August 13, 2009 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It is Thursday, the 13th of August, and here are the top stories for you in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Shoppers pull back in July, an unexpected sign that recovery from the recession will be choppy and uneven.

Waiting patiently for rescue, a pilot is forced to ditch his single-engine plane in the sea.

Necklines are like political polls. Sometimes they plunge. Hey now. A revealing picture of the German leader lifts voter interest.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

So, let's start with the recovery. Some of those green shoots gave way to brown patches today. Retail sales take an unexpected tumble, while jobless numbers show a surprising increase. New numbers, as the Fed paints an optimistic picture of recovery and takes the first steps to dial back some of its rescue efforts.

To New York now. CNN's Christine Romans is at the Business Desk in New York, and our Susan Lisovicz is at her post on Wall Street.

And Christine, let me start with you. Some analysis here on the first-time jobless claims, if you would, please.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you've still got more than half a million people every week, Tony, lining up for the first time for unemployment benefits. That's a lot of folks.

And we watched. Is it 4,000 more, is it 4,000 less? I mean, we agonize over this weekly number because it gives us the best sense of real time what's happening out there with the hiring and firing decisions in American companies.

We know that 558,000 people filed for unemployment benefits for the very first time in the week of August 4th. We know that's up a little bit, about 4,000, from the week before. We know that the six million people continuing to get claims, 6.2 million people continuing to get claims, we know that that's down a little bit. Some people are kind of rolling off the end of the cycle. Tony, this is a labor market that is still very, very weak. You still have a lot of people every week for the first time finding themselves on the unemployment line, and that's the very beginning of the process for them, because we know that for every job out there that is being advertised, for every job opening, there are six people who want that job. So, that's the situation here.

It shows you it's going to be -- you said uneven and choppy.

HARRIS: Uneven and choppy. Did that work?

ROMANS: You are so right. I'm telling you, you've got to have patience the next six months or so. You're going to get a lot of conflicting data that's either going to give us glimmers of hope, or it's going to remind us how fragile this recovery, when it happens, will be.

HARRIS: OK. And remind us again of what the overall unemployment rate is in the country.

ROMANS: It's 9.4 percent. You had 247,000 jobs lost in July. That's about half the pace as it was just back in January.

So, look, this is the trend. I mean, the trend here, when we've been just slogging through all this bad economic news, the trend here is what we're watching, and we're seeing those job losses slow. So, we're seeing the unemployment rate at 9.4 percent, and some people think it could continue to go up to 10 percent.

So, even if everyone out there is telling you that there is a recovery at hand, if you don't have a job, or your house is being foreclosed on, it's cold comfort. So, remember, not everybody is in these statistics.

I mean, there are 307 million people in this country, and lot of families, and a lot of different kinds of positions and stages, and it's going to feel differently for different people. I mean, I want to be very clear about that.

HARRIS: Awesome. Christine, thank you.

ROMANS: Sure.

HARRIS: Susan, retail sales -- the number coming in, what, down .1 of one percent? Give us some analysis on that. Is that significant when you consider, what, the billions, really, in the retail pipeline?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is significant. And we can just play back everything Christine Romans was just talking about.

HARRIS: OK. And thank you and so long.

(LAUGHTER) LISOVICZ: Consumers aren't going to spend when they're worried about their jobs. I mean, really, Tony, what you're seeing here in a very short amount of time is a sea change in American behavior.

We are the wealthiest nation on Earth, we are the biggest spenders on Earth. But in a very short amount of time we are becoming savers. The saving rate is about five percent now, compared to about one percent before the financial crisis began.

So, retail sales, we were expecting a nice increase of more than half a percent. It fell .1 percent.

Now, I know you're going to ask about the Cash for Clunkers. Yes, Cash for Clunkers helped, but, guess what? It came in on July 27th. It was not enough to offset the declines we saw everywhere else -- electronics, department stores, furniture stores, you name it.

And, you know, we had Another report today, too -- the 800-pound gorilla, Tony. Wal-Mart came in with its quarterly earnings. Well, its earnings, its profits, beat the Street. OK?

And there's a lot of ways you can massage your earnings. You can cut costs. And that's what Wal-Mart and virtually every other company is doing in this recession.

You want to look at sales. How is it doing in sales? Wal-Mart's sales fell 1.2 percent. That's interesting from a deep discounter like Wal-Mart. It says its early signs of back to school...

HARRIS: Ah, there you go. There you go.

LISOVICZ: ... a huge season, showing that shoppers are focusing on replenishing basics. And that's the bottom line.

HARRIS: Don't you like the August number to be better?

LISOVICZ: Yes. Yes. In fact, Wal-Mart did raise its earnings estimate, but, you know, the fact is, people are still buying basically what they need.

And, yes, the Cash for Clunkers is helpful. If you're going to get $4,500 from the government, and you need a car, sure, that's an incentive. But, you know, bottom line in most cases, people are buying what they need.

HARRIS: Got you. Susan, thank you.

Christine, as always, thank you.

Thank you, ladies.

Despite today's numbers, you know, many economists say the recession is ending, but what about the personal recession millions of Americans are facing?

Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi is on the road with the CNN Express, hearing your concerns about the economy.

Where's the music? Why do I have to ask every day for the music? Why don't we -- there we -- thank you.

He joins us now from Sedalia, Missouri. He's at the state fair there.

Ali, good to see you.

First of all, I want to talk about what you're hearing from the people that you talked to on your various stops.

Do we not have him quite yet?

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No, I'm here. I'm here. Can you hear me?

HARRIS: OK, great. Great. I just don't see you.

VELSHI: Hello. Can you hear me?

HARRIS: OK. There you go.

What are you hearing on your most recent stops?

VELSHI: Well, listen, we are in Sedalia, the western part of Missouri. We're closer to Kansas City than the Mississippi River. We crossed over yesterday, got about 35 miles past St. Louis, into a place called Wentzville, Missouri. And there, we spoke to a number of people about how they're feeling about the economy, specifically in light of the fact that 57 notable economists have said the recession is over, the Federal Reserve says it's bottoming out.

Here's what they told me about how they were feeling.

HARRIS: Oh, we don't have it. I'm sorry, Ali. I don't know, we must have dropped the ball on that. I apologize.

VELSHI: Let me paraphrase what they told me.

I spoke to a police sergeant who said to me, you know, the recession, he didn't disbelieve that it could be over, but he said he's lost so much money on the value of his house, but, more importantly, on his retirement, that he was getting set to retire and now he feels he's going to have to work a lot longer.

We heard from a real estate angant who says -- an insurance agent who said, as far as she can calculate, she might have to work to 70 or 80 because they've lost money.

So, it's not just a matter of the economy turning around. Even if you're employed, you've lost money if you were saving for retirement. You have been set back several years.

Now, the good news is we've started to see these markets come back. We've had real estate agents telling us that the housing market is solidifying a little bit and people are actually buying and signing contracts.

The issue remains, and you and I know it. You know this. We always talk about it. The issue is jobs. If we continue to lose jobs, that worries people.

HARRIS: Yes. All right.

And Ali, look, here's a concern that I think we talked about, as well. It's worth mentioning here in light of what these economists are saying.

Hasn't this been a government-fueled recovery to the extent that we're talking about of recovery? And is that sustainable? Is it the real truth here that this recession isn't over until the consumer decides that it's over?

VELSHI: Yes, you're right, because, typically, two-thirds of the economy has been consumer spending, decisions made by consumers. Now, even if consumers shut down their spending, that includes spending on things that we can't avoid spending -- transportation, food, housing, and things like that. But that discretionary part, the part that you don't have to have, is what people stop spending.

So, the government steps in now with these stimulus programs and is doing spending in place of the consumer. That's not sustainable. It's not sustainable because our debt gets higher.

But here's the other problem. We're all getting, at least for the short term, a little more frugal. Maybe because we're lacking credit or maybe here at the Missouri State Fair there are all sorts of seminars on how to can your own vegetables and how to grow your own garden and how to save more money. We're becoming more frugal as a people.

That may end when cheap credit becomes available again. But what if it doesn't and we just actually spend less? Some say that's better for us as a society, it's tougher for us in terms of a recovery to the recession -- Tony.

HARRIS: Oh, that's awesome.

And Ali, give us a look ahead to next hour. I know you're going to try to pull together a group of people at the state fair for a little impromptu town meeting. Is that what we can look forward to?

VELSHI: Yes. We're going to bring some people back because we have not run into a place where people don't want to talk to us about health care. So, we're going to do that, but before we do that, I've to get a couple corn dogs.

HARRIS: It's a state fair. Come on. It's a state fair.

VELSHI: It is a state fair.

HARRIS: Oh, Ali. All right, terrific. We look forward to the impromptu town hall and some shot of you with the corn dogs. See you next hour.

So, ,the intense debate over health care reform spreading to more states today. This is a make-or-break month in the fight over reform.

Lawmakers are holding meetings today in Oregon, Wisconsin, Kansas, Oklahoma and New Jersey. The meetings, as you know, are attracting large and sometimes boisterous, rowdy crowds. The lawmakers are facing pointed questions about concerns over health care reform.

So many claims flying around about health care. We are focused on getting you the facts. The Truth Squad is back and focused on health care reform.

There he is. Josh Levs is here with the very latest.

Good to see you, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Tony!

HARRIS: Yes, sir. We fought for this a little bit.

LEVS: Yes, it's good to be back. I'm really glad that we have this going again.

I'll tell you something. We look at some of the big complaints that go on out there. We're also hearing directly from viewers and from lots of people out there who are saying that they are hearing these rumors, they want to know if they're true or not.

Let's zoom in for a second. This is CNNPolitics.com, where you can see our latest Truth Squad at any time.

And this right here is one of the latest Truth Squads that we have looking at health care. This came from a viewer. Take a look at this.

Mike from Bristol, Connecticut, said he's heard dental service will not be covered under the health insurance exchange, and he's concerned this means he won't have dental under health care reform.

Let me tell you some facts here. We have some graphics for you. I'm going to make this really simple so you can understand where we're coming from.

The first thing to understand is what this whole Health Insurance Exchange thing is. OK?

Under the White House plan, the plan that the president has put forward, people who don't have insurance will be able to choose a plan. And in order to choose one, there would be this system called the Health Insurance Exchange.

Now, as part of what's been proposed in the House bill, you'll see on the next screen the basic plan includes dental care only for young people. All right? Only for people under 21. So, adult people over 21, in fact, would not have dental care, if they only wanted the basic plan. So, that's where all this comes from.

You can see our ruling on this is true, but incomplete. And the reason we're giving that incomplete, Tony, is you can pay extra even under that and get dental care, kind of the way even someone who works for a company has private insurance, right? You can choose whether or not to have dental care.

What I love about this example, Tony, is that this is one thing that's coming straight to us from viewers. We're hearing these questions. We're ruling on it for you.

And this is how you can always get the latest. Take a look right here. CNN.com/Tony, or also me, CNN.com/Josh gets you all sorts of information, including where to get the facts instead of the fiction. You can see a whole bunch of links right here. We also link you to the House bill right here.

And let me show everybody the screen where you can reach me here. If you want to send us your ideas for what we should fact-check, let's click on that graphic. There you go. You've got the blog, CNN.com/Josh, on Facebook and Twitter at JoshLevsCNN.

Tony, we're keeping an eye on these literally every day, and we're using these to help decide what our next Truth Squads are going to be.

HARRIS: Nice. Josh, see you next hour.

LEVS: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: Our conversation on health care reform doesn't end here. Another issue we're tackling -- rationing health care, something critics of reform are worried about.

A little later, the 1,000-plus page House bill. Have you read it? Well, guess what? We found a woman in Georgia who is reading every word. She's not a senator or a congresswoman, she just wants to be informed, and you will meet her in minutes.

We're doing all we can here in the CNN NEWSROOM to cut through the rhetoric, the rumors, to address your concerns about the future of your health care and where the debate is leading our country.

Do you fear a big government takeover? Does the prospect of doing nothing scare you even more? Most people agree something has to be done, but what is the question?

Tell us what you think. Send your comments and questions to my blog at CNN.com. We've got a lot of blog stuff going on. A lot of blog traffic. CNN.com/Tony to get your answers.

Here's what we're doing. We're pulling together the really smart important people in our shop from Elizabeth Cohen, to Sanjay Gupta, to the CNN Money team, our Capitol Hill and White House correspondents and beyond.

We will address your specific concerns on the air right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. In fact, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen will join me to answer some of your questions next hour.

And still to come, desperate efforts to get aid to folks trapped following record flooding and mudslides in Taiwan. Look at these images. And the situation is getting worse by the minute.

We are live amid the devastation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Taiwan is trying to pull itself out of a horrible, natural disaster. Last weekend's typhoon flooded out roads and bridges and caused massive mudslides. Eighty-three inches of rain fell in some of those areas, so you can imagine just how bad some of those mudslides were. The storm blamed for at least 108 deaths.

CNN Senior International Correspondent John Vause is in one of the worst-hit areas along the southwest coast, and he joins us. He's on the phone with us right now.

And John, I could -- you look at these pictures and you can imagine just how difficult a situation this is for so many. But, if you would, describe just how dire a situation you're seeing.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's pretty bad, Tony. Everywhere you look, just mud, mud, and more mud.

I'm in a little town called Chishan, and it's in the middle of the night here. Rescue operations are obviously on hold until first light.

People who live in this town are continuing to clean up...

HARRIS: I think we just lost John.

This isn't going to work.

All right. We will try to get back to John as soon as we can get a better connection.

All right. So, let's move on, and maybe we can get John in a couple of minutes.

If you would like to know more about the efforts to bring aid to the communities devastated by the typhoon, and how you can make a difference, really, visit our "Impact Your World" page. That's at CNN.com/impact.

Mystery on the high seas. A huge cargo ship has vanished with 15 Russian crew members and a load of timber worth almost $2 million. It's been missing for about two weeks now after its crew reported being hijacked near Sweden by masked gunmen who beat them and asked about drugs. Russia's navy is leading an international search for the Maltese-flagged vessel.

The bomber of Pan-Am Flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, could be freed on compassionate grounds. Scotland's government says no decision has been made just yet, but early release is being considered. The 52-year-old Libyan man is suffering from terminal prostate cancer. He is serving a life sentence for the 1988 airplane bombing that killed 270 people, most Americans.

Armed and dangerous -- homegrown terrorists using the Internet and an opportune time in our nation's history to make a comeback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's get you back right now to CNN Senior International Correspondent John Vause. He is one of the -- in one of the worst-hit areas along the Taiwanese coast, and he's on the phone with us.

And John, just a moment ago we were sort of outlining the impact of last weekend's heavy, heavy rains from the typhoon. We're talking about 83 inches of rain in some areas, roads and bridges completely out.

How dire is the situation where you are?

VAUSE: Well, Tony, when you look around the small town of Chishan, all you see is mud. And it's the middle of the night here, it's just after 11:20 at night, and people are still cleaning up.

They're still taking mud out of stores, out of homes, and this is four days after the mudslides. This is almost a week after the typhoon hit Taiwan. But the real problems remain in the mountainous regions not far from here.

The rescue operations are on hold because it's nighttime. They'll resume at first light. And because many roads are impassable, the only way in and out to a lot of these places is by military helicopter.

They are finding survivors. They are getting people out. But there is this big concern about what they will find underneath all that mud when they finally do get in there. What will be the final death toll?

And there are a lot of questions being asked by a lot of angry people here about the government's response. Was it enough? Did they do enough? And were they quick enough to respond to this?

Tony.

HARRIS: Well, that's interesting, John. That leads me perfectly to my next question for you. You know, a lot of people absolutely count on their government to respond during emergencies like this. And, as you mentioned, there have been a lot of accusations that the government hasn't acted quickly, effectively enough.

Is the government responding to those charges?

VAUSE: Yes. And not responding particularly well.

Taiwan's president, President Ma, toured this region. He came face to face with some of the survivors who were very angry. They were accusing him and other officials of simply ignoring their plight, just not doing enough, not ordering a big enough response.

He then turned around and said, well, you don't understand the complexities of dealing with this kind of natural disaster. That caused a backlash online, and probably if he had his time over again, he may have chosen some different words.

There's even politics involved in this. They're saying this is a stronghold for the opposition parties, and that's why the response wasn't as good as it should have been.

They're even saying that there's been national pride involved. That the government here was too slow in asking for international assistance.

It's now asking for help. It wants helicopters, especially helicopters that can lift some heavy earth-moving equipment to get to those mountainous regions, as well as disinfectant and simply little things like chlorine tablets to try and purify water, because right now, Tony, hundreds of thousands of people in this part of Taiwan don't have clean drinking water. And this is almost a week after the typhoon.

HARRIS: All right.

Our John Vause along the southwest coast of Taiwan for us.

John, appreciate it. Thank you.

Four hundred U.S. Marines and 100 Afghan troops involved right now in some really fierce fighting in the country's Helmand Province. Their aim is to take the city of Dahaneh, the main city in the region, from Taliban control.

The troops want to free residents, as we've been telling you, to vote in next week's national election. The Taliban have called for a boycott and threatened to ruin the election, which the U.S. concedes is a real challenge.

It is a very difficult mission. Troops are fighting both the Taliban and 120-degree heat.

To really understand what's going on over in Afghanistan, and why we're over there, watch CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour's documentary, "Generation Islam." That's tonight at 9:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

New evidence extremist militias may be making a comeback right here in the United States.

Our Brian Todd reports on what's fueling fears of more homegrown terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A posting on YouTube attributed to the Ohio militia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen, people, things are bad. Things are real bad. And it's going to get a lot worse. So, basically, you people need to wake up. Start buying some of these, see?

TODD: The video is an example of how militias are making a comeback according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: We're at a very worrying moment, in my view. We're seeing a kind of perfect storm of factors that favors the continued growth of this movement. We are talking about non-white immigration, a black president, an economy that is in very dire straits.

TODD: A Homeland Security assessment in April said recent arrests indicate the emergence of small well-armed extremist groups in some rural areas. How dangerous are they?

JANET NAPOLITANO, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It's a number of groups, almost far too numerous to mention, regrettably so. But some of them, indeed, want to do what happened in Oklahoma City, that is, commit violent acts within the homeland.

TODD: The government's intelligence assessment said, lone wolves and small terrorist cells embracing violent right-wing extremist ideology are the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States. A leader of the Michigan militia told us members of established militia like his, which do training on firearms and first aid, shouldn't be lumped in with violent extremists who talk about mounting attacks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not something that we want to tolerate. We are not going to let any innocent Americans get hurt.

TODD: He described their ideology as pro-freedom and pro- Constitution, not anti-government.

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: I don't mean to suggest that all of these people out there with these kinds of ideas are killers. I think that's absolutely and clearly not true. But does this movement produce people who engage in criminal actions and sometimes really terrifying ones? I think that's unquestionable.

TODD: Several high profile criminal suspects have been linked to racist or right-wing ideology recently -- the alleged shooter of three Pittsburgh police officers killed in April; the man charged with killing a Kansas abortion doctor in May and the alleged gunman at the Holocaust Museum in Washington in June.

The election of the first African-American president is serving as an extremist recruiting tool, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Law enforcement sources tell CNN, while Barack Obama had a significant number of threats during his campaign, since his swearing-in, it's not been much different from previous presidents.

Still, a former Secret Service agent tells us...

WILLIAM PICKLE, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: I think the historical nature of this presidency is certainly something the Secret Service and the whole country is aware of.

TODD (on camera): Neither of these two reports mentioned left- wing extremists, but a January Homeland Security Department report focused on cyberattacks by left-wing groups, and law enforcement has charged environmental extremists who have committed arson attacks.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: OK, stocks on Wall Street were ready to rally this morning, but the enthusiasm faded before the opening bell rang. As I look at the numbers now, I think we were up 10 or 11 points. Susan Lisovicz is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with a check of the action. What's going on, Susan? Good to see you, again.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you. Well, you know, the problem is that even though the Federal Reserve says the economy is leveling out, we've still got a ways to go, no question about it. We got two economic reports an hour before the opening bell, and the sentiment got a lot more cautious, Tony.

One of them, retail sales. Consumer spending. It's all about that. We were expecting things to improve a little bit. We actually saw a decline, and if there was not that Cash for Clunkers program, things would have been even worse. We also got Wal-Mart, by the way, the 800-pound gorilla in retail, reporting its quarterly earnings. Wal-Mart, which has done well in this recession, saw its quarterly sales decline by 1 percent. The CEO of Wal-Mart says there's a new normal of saving, not spending, and it sees that consumers are using debit cards and cash instead of credit. We're reining it in.

And then also the other report, Tony, is that we saw a jump in initial jobless claims. More than half a million people filing initial jobless claims.

Those are two things that are problems in terms of getting this economy back to where we think things are real good. So, actually, the market's behaving pretty well, all things considered -- Tony. HARRIS: Yes, yes, I tell you what, I'm not altogether displeased with the fact that folks are using more cash and not using credit cards. Those credit card companies kill us.

LISOVICZ: They've learned a painful lesson.

HARRIS: Absolutely. All right, Susan, see you next hour, thank you.

Seven Bridges Road, you familiar with it? It is a quiet byway in North Carolina where police say someone is literally getting away with murder.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: A string of bodies leading investigators to conclude a serial killer is on the loose. Our David Mattingly takes us along a country road in North Carolina to the crime scenes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If someone were looking for a place to get away with murder in North Carolina, Edgecombe County's Seven Bridges Road might be the place to go.

(on camera): Nothing. Nothing but trees and pastures.

(voice-over): Since 2005, the remains of five women, all African American and suspected prostitutes, have been found here, among miles of woods and crops.

(on camera): There are any number of places you could pull off here. Like this spot right here. You could just drive off and disappear into the woods in a matter of seconds.

Sadly, that's what's been happening to these women. They disappear, never be seen alive again.

Is this the work of a serial killer?

MICHAEL TEAGUE, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: Yes, I believe it is. Yes, I think the fact that the bodies have been found close together really would argue for a serial killer.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Michael Teague was once the state's top forensic psychologist and believes the killer is someone who could have a lot in common with his victims.

TEAGUE: Their economic level, their background, again the same race. So, I think it's a person that would fit very easily within the environment.

MATTINGLY: All of the victims were last seen in the town of Rocky Mount. We went to where they came from, an area where prostitutes work neighborhood streets. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Typically this is the area.

MATTINGLY: But we found the streets deserted, cleared by fear. Prostitutes are easy targets for killers, living fragile lives on society's fringes. Still, Councilman Andre Knight says it shouldn't have taken years for the town to take notice.

(on camera): Is it just a matter of race? Or is it possibly because of what they do for a living?

ANDRE KNIGHT, ROCKY MOUNTAIN CITY COUNCIL: I think it's a combination of both. Because even what a person does, they still have human rights.

TUCHMAN: A turning point in public awareness and the investigation itself was the fifth victim, Jarniece Hargrove, known to her friends as Sunshine. Friends and family publicly demanded justice. Local authorities asked the FBI to assist.

Like the other victims, Hargrove disappeared from Rocky Mount. Her body was found in June off Seven Bridges Road.

(on camera): From the streets of Rocky Mount, it's only about a 15-minute drive to get to places just like this. For all practical purposes, it's the middle of nowhere, and this is where investigators say that the victims are being killed. They won't give us a lot of detail about what they're finding, but they do tell us that two of the victims were strangled; one was stabbed and beaten.

(voice-over): Three other Rocky Mount women who police say are not prostitutes are currently missing. The sheriff of Edgecombe County calls this a critical time in the investigation, leading many to hope that this lonely country road will soon lead to a killer.

David Mattingly, CNN, Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And here's another story we're following. A court in Pensacola, Florida, is set to arraign seven men charged with murdering a wealthy Florida couple. Byrd and Melanie Billings were really well- known in the area for adopting 13 special-needs children. Surveillance cameras captured the July 9 home invasion when masked men dressed as ninjas entered the Billings home and stole a safe. Prosecutors could seek the death penalty.

A former Clinton chief of staff is expected to turn herself in for allegedly trying to smuggle contraband into an Arkansas state prison. Betsy Wright worked for Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. Wright faces 51 felony charges. A bench warrant alleges she tried to smuggle a box cutter, a pocket knife, tweezers and tattoo needles onto death row. She denies all the charges.

Germany's election season has its first scandal -- wait for it, wait for it. Oh, yes. It's cleavagegate, and it's scandalous!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK, take a look at these pictures here. Just want to grab the latest information from the wires here from California. Rob Marciano, we're talking about -- you were talking with us earlier, weren't you, this Santa Cruz Mountains wildfire. I believe that's what we're looking at right now. No other reason to put that up there.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that was taken early this morning before the sun came up. As of 1:00 last night, they had 1,200 acres burn. That's probably up around 2,000 at this point. Three hundred or so people evacuated.

HARRIS: The number of homes threatened?

MARCIANO: About 250 as far as homes are threatened, and they think they're going to be evacuating more. Winds are going to change today, and that's the best -- the big thing. They are attacking it by air now that the sun is up. So, they got it by the ground and by the air, as well. A bit of an onshore push coming in. So, that's typically good news.

And Sean (ph), if you could throw Gustave (ph) in play, that would be sweet. You can kind of see what's happening here with these clouds. So, that will change the wind. The winds last night were more out of the north-northwest, and now they're coming in from the west, and that typically is good. But this time around, we're not going to have that deep, deep moisture.

So, the fire will continue to burn. If anything, the wind are just going to change the direction of the fire and that was going to make those firefighters rearrange (INAUDIBLE), too.

Rain across the Northeast, flood watches in effect for a good chunk of Jersey. So, feast or famine it looks like, Tony. This rain obviously not going to get to the West Coast. So, they'll have to do it by hand.

HARRIS: OK. Rob, I need you to watch this next story here. I don't know what we'll do with it after we've watched it.

MARCIANO: Is this what you talked about earlier?

HARRIS: Yes, I was just talking about it.

MARCIANO: Nicely delivered, by the way, before the break.

HARRIS: Really?

MARCIANO: I don't know if you'll have a job tomorrow, but it was well done.

HARRIS: Thank you, Doctor.

So, as you know, the wall is long gone. Now a deep gulf divides Berlin, raising the scandalous question of the day, Rob: Can a world leader be too foxy?

Here's Frederick Pleitgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERICK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the first scandal of an otherwise pretty dull German election season: cleavagegate. This unauthorized poster by Very Lengsfeld, who's in the same party as Chancellor Angela Merkel, the CDU, and running for a seat in German parliament and showing (INAUDIBLE) in a very, shall we say, open-hearted pose.

(on camera): Vera Lengsfeld sexes up the German election campaign. So, what do you think of that?

VERA LENGSFELD, CANDIDATE FOR GERMAN PARLIAMENT: I would rather say I brought more humor into the campaign, and I woke the campaign up somehow because the campaign was sleeping a little bit. (INAUDIBLE) very dour (ph).

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But just how foxy can a chancellor be?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm surprised. Very surprised, yes. It's not normally what you'd expect from the CDU, but maybe they're trying to, you know...

PLEITGEN: Yes, we know.

(on camera): What do you think of that election poster?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awful.

PLEITGEN: Why to you think it's awful?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I don't want to see the breasts of Ms. Merkel. I want to see what she has to say about economy.

PLEITGEN: What is the political message?

LENGSFELD: We have more to offer.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Maybe offering too much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not too much. She has, she can have. It's good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it has a little bit pep (ph), so I like it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think so.

(LAUGHTER)

PLEITGEN (on camera): You don't like it? Why not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the pose, they are too old for that. PLEITGEN: How did you get Angela Merkel to approve this?

LENGSFELD: No, she didn't. I didn't ask her.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): And Chancellor Merkel, the poster seems to have left her speechless. Her party says, no comment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is a very, very bad.

PLEITGEN: Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Let me just shut up.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the thousand-plus-page House bill on health care reform, have you read it? We found a woman who was going over every word because she just wants to be informed. Meet her, next, right here in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You are not going there on us.

All right, we are hearing a lot of back and forth about what the current health reform legislation does and doesn't say. One of our iReporters -- yes, one of our iReporters -- decided to find out for herself, so she's reading the entire version of the House committee bill -- health and energy?

ADRIANA MAXWELL, REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO IREPORT.COM: Yes.

HARRIS: Congressman Waxman's committee.

MAXWELL: Yes.

HARRIS: OK. Adriana Maxwell is here with a progress report. Let's start with this. What is it like, because a lot of us, most of us haven't even attempted to do what you are trying to do now, which is to read a piece of legislation as it's being crafted and formed, all right? So, how does it read?

MAXWELL: It reads like legislese. It's...

HARRIS: What does that mean?

MAXWELL: It's in its own language. You have -- they state an amendment. They state what the amendment is, and then afterwards they define each term in there. So, when they're talking about primary care, they sit and define it. They say, this is primary care. This is principal care, this is end-of-life care. I mean, everything's defined.

And then if they happen to tweak or change any previous acts, like the Social Security Act of 1935, they'll state "Security Act 1935," and then underneath it, they'll say, we're going to take out the "and" and the "or," and we're going to put this in its place.

HARRIS: Wow. So, it's -- but that still sounds like a difficult read. I mean, you...

MAXWELL: It doesn't flow at all.

HARRIS: Right.

MAXWELL: It's a lot of -- you can tell it's a lot of people writing it. It's not just one man sitting there writing the whole thing. It's a bunch of people throwing in what they think it should be and then that's why it's called a committee.

HARRIS: Staff members working on it. So, do you -- well, it is.

MAXWELL: It is.

HARRIS: It's a representative -- yes, debates happen, notes are taken and then...

MAXWELL: Yes, and then they put it together in a bill.

HARRIS: They put it together.

MAXWELL: Right.

HARRIS: So, do you find yourself reading portions, going back and rereading the portions...

MAXWELL: Oh, God, yes.

HARRIS: ... breaking it down? I mean, do you have to bring...

MAXWELL: Oh, yes. I mean, you...

HARRIS: We pull teams together to do this thing.

MAXWELL: ... you go to the end. I'm at Page 635, and they're referencing something that happened back on Page 125. So, I'm like, I took notes on 125, but I don't remember the whole thing. So, I have to scroll back, go to Page 125 and apply whatever they meant there to Page 635.

HARRIS: So, it's great that you're doing it. It would be great if more folks did it. But we -- those of us who do what we do -- could really be helpful to you if we did a lot of that work for you and actually broke out the language in these bills and what's actually being said. Would that be helpful?

MAXWELL: Oh, yes. I mean, if you guys broke it down so, A, it's in layman's terms and, B, so that way, and not allow the sound bites. It's the sound bites that kill me. People grab on to the sound bits, and they say that that's part of the bill, and it's not. I mean, it's...

HARRIS: Well, why would you take this on? Why would you do this? A lot of folks don't, but why did you decide you wanted to do this?

MAXWELL: Well, actually, I had a town hall meeting on Tuesday. Congressman Price.

HARRIS: Oh, he was here. He was here a couple days ago.

MAXWELL: He did a telephone town hall meeting, and he happened to call on me. It was completely random. And I was listening, and he was stating how the president allegedly had not read the bill.

HARRIS: Right.

MAXWELL: And he's going through it, and he's stating what he believes is on the bill. And I'm like, you know what? He says the president's not reading the bill. I'm going to find out what's really in this bill.

HARRIS: Yes.

MAXWELL: I'm reading through, and at one point in time, he says that if you have your -- if you have a grandfathered insurance...

HARRIS: Are you about to get political on us?

MAXWELL: No, I'm not getting political.

HARRIS: All right.

MAXWELL: I swear, I'm not getting political.

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: All right, very quickly. What did he say?

MAXWELL: Very quickly. OK, I'm fine, I'm fine. All right. So, he said that if you have a change in family, you add a dependent...

HARRIS: Right.

MAXWELL: ... that your grandfathered insurance, after the insurance change comes into place, insurance will drop you. That's not true.

HARRIS: OK.

MAXWELL: Your insurance will cover your dependents.

HARRIS: And that's clear in the language.

MAXWELL: And that's clear in the language of the bill, yes. No argument.

HARRIS: All right, so, what page are you on?

MAXWELL: I'm on Page 635.

HARRIS: It's almost 1,000 pages -- over 1,000, or is it...

MAXWELL: 1,017.

HARRIS: All right, so, come on back when you finish. And I want notes from you, all right?

MAXWELL: OK.

HARRIS: You've got a homework assignment here. I want notes of things that surprise you in the bill. We'll go from there.

MAXWELL: We'll go from there. Things that surprise me and things that actually are great. They have some really good ideas. I mean, everybody talks about the -- oh, all right.

HARRIS: We're out of time. Got to go.

MAXWELL: Got to go.

HARRIS: Adriana, thanks.

MAXWELL: You're very welcome.

HARRIS: You want to read that? No, no, no.

MAXWELL: No, no, oh, OK. "Out of work..."

HARRIS: No, I need a paycheck. I've got kids.

Out of work in America. It is one of the stories we're working on for you next hour in the CNN NEWSROOM. New numbers out today show an unexpected jump in first-time unemployment claims. Poppy Harlow has tips on what you need to know to actually get your jobless benefits. And a popular college basketball coach apologizes for his indiscretion. It's a doozy, too. The latest on the sex scandal involving Louisville coach Rick Pitino and a woman accused of trying to extort millions from him.

And high drama on the high seas. A man ditches his plane in the water and actually sort of waits on the waves to be rescued. Those stories and more next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Very quickly, we want to show you these pictures again. Boy, first light and beyond in California. And take a look at the Santa Cruz mountain range here. This portion, this stretch here. You can see the wildfire we understand is actually growing.

The wildfire there forced the mandatory evacuation of some 600 people. Two-hundred fifty homes at least and homes and other buildings threatened right now. Twelve hundred acres burned so far. That's expected to grow. The attack from the air and from the ground going on right now. We'll keep an eye on this situation in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. You know, critics say reform will lead to rationing health care. Have you heard that? Our chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, says it is already happening. Here he is talking with CNN's Anderson Cooper last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": It's interesting, though, hearing the criticism that people are concerned about that, but I mean, the idea of -- insurance companies make life- or-death decisions determining who gets care and who doesn't all the time.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, I mean, and that sort of gets to this idea of that issue and rationing sort of overall. And people always say is there going to be rationed care?

And I can tell you, as a practicing physician, as someone who deals with this on a daily basis, rationing does occur all the time. I mean, I was in the clinic this past week. And, you know, at the end of the clinic, I get all this paperwork that basically says, justify why you're doing such and such procedure, justify why you're ordering such and such test. And if the justification is inadequate, the answer comes back, well, that's not going to be covered, which basically is saying that the patient's going to have to pay for it on their own, which in essence is what rationing is in so many ways. So, it does occur.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right, President Obama dismisses talk of death panels. He lightheartedly told a town hall this week he wouldn't pull the plug on grandma because we decided it was too expensive to let her live anymore.