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Bob Novak Dies at 78; Credit Card Rates Zoom; Violence Precedes Afghan Elections; Housing Happenings; Are Health Co-Ops the Answer?; Cubans Brace for Hurricane Season

Aired August 18, 2009 - 12:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let's begin this hour with issue number one, which is the economy and the battered housing market.

Construction of new single family homes increased almost two percent in July. That is the fifth straight monthly increase. Still, that is 73 percent off its peak in January of 2006. And when you factor in apartment construction, the Commerce Department says housing starts actually fell a percent in July. Analysts say the July numbers point to a bumpy recovery for housing.

The Fed has pushed interest rates to near zero to fight the recession, but a new survey shows credit card rates are zooming higher and higher.

CNN's Christine Romans is at New York's business desk.

Christine, who did this survey? And what exactly did they find?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The survey is from a consumer advocacy group called Pew Safe Credit Cards Project, and they did this survey where they looked at the low -- the median low credit card rate, and they compared it late last year and all the way through the first part of this year.

What they found was that the low in July was 11.99 percent. So, this is the median low advertised rate, lowest advertised rate. Compare that with back in December, when the low was 9.99 percent. So, if you have noticed that the credit card interest rate has been rising for you, this study would certainly show that that is likely the case.

Now, the reason why, as you know, banks borrow from the Fed, and then they lend money, they tack on some interest rate points, and then they lend money to you and I in the form of credit card bills. And the industry, its point of view is this -- that half of the money that's available for us to borrow, money on our credit cards, comes from something called the secondary market. And after the market collapsed last fall, there simply wasn't a way to sort of -- it got much more expensive for them to borrow money and they passed that price on to consumers. But what it tells you is that if you've noticed that those rates are rising, or interest rates, and you carry a balance on your card, you are right, they have been rising.

GRIFFIN: You know, I would buy that explanation, except for the fact that isn't Pew also reporting that the profits off of credit card debt is up some 40-something percent?

ROMANS: That's exactly what they're are reporting. So, it looks as though -- I mean, these are companies that are in the business to make money, right?

GRIFFIN: And they are making it.

ROMANS: And so they're making money, at least on the credit card part of their portfolio.

And, you know, there's been legislation and there's been a Credit Card Bill of Rights. And there's a lot of movement afoot that we'll start to be feeling. Later this week, some of the first things go into effect. But in February, you're going to get the full expanse of new rules to try to prevent some of the things that legislators and consumer advocates say have been egregious against American cardholders, and you're going to start to see those things coming into effect.

Some of your new credit card rights that start beginning this week, Drew, include your right to reject a rate increase. If they try to increase your rate, you'll say, fine, I'm going to pay off my credit card and that's it. I'm going to sever my relationship with you. You have five years to repay your balance at the current rate and a 45-day notice before they have to jack up your interest rates to give you some time instead of just doing it on the spot.

GRIFFIN: OK. Christine, thanks a lot.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

GRIFFIN: And that leads us to our blog question. Have your credit card interest rates gone up? How much? And do you think your bank is taking advantage of you? You can have your say at CNN.com/newsroom. Just go there to share your opinion.

Hey, we've got very sad breaking news at the CNN NEWSROOM, the CNN family. Bob Novak, longtime contributor, host, et cetera, has passed away.

Wolf Blitzer, one of his close colleagues, joins us up in Washington.

Wolf, you're remembering Bob Novak today. Tell us your thoughts.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Well, first, he was a great, great journalist, going back to the '50s, when he first came to Washington, not long after he graduated from the University of Illinois, and he's been here ever since.

And he really was a columnist. He was a pundit, an analyst. But he really was also a reporter.

Bob Novak, until the very end, when he was diagnosed with brain cancer, when he had a tumor, he was out there reporting. He had sources all over town. He was getting good information. And the first thing I'll always remember about Bob Novak was that he was a great reporter. He broke a lot of stories. He used to have a joint column with his friend Rowland Evans, "Evans and Novak" was the column for decades, and they had a show on CNN, as well, as a lot of our viewers will remember. And they broke news in their column all the time, so I remember him as a great reporter.

And secondly, I remember him as a great family man. He had a great, great family, a wonderful wife and kids, and he was very devoted.

And finally, I remember him as a sportsman. This guy, I used to see him -- I'm a season ticket holder for the Washington Wizards, the basketball team. He's a season ticket holder. He was a great University of Maryland basketball fan. I used to see him at Washington Redskins games almost every Sunday.

Bob Novak, you know, he had a life. He really enjoyed life. He enjoyed politics.

He loved politics. He loved his family. He loved sports. He loved everything he was doing.

It's real sad to all of us, because we spent a lot of time when he was here at CNN working together on all sorts of projects. It's sad that he has died, although we were bracing for this once he was diagnosed with brain cancer several months ago.

GRIFFIN: You know, Wolf, I met up with him late in his career, but what you said struck me, because he was breaking news really right up until the end.

BLITZER: He had that...

GRIFFIN: It wasn't like he was slowing down at all. He was involved in the Valerie Plame issue and just -- he was one of the newsmakers in this industry.

BLITZER: Right. I mean, you know, he had that instinct to get the news. He always wanted to get the news.

He wanted to get it out, get it out quickly. And he did it. You know, he was scooping major news organizations all of the time because he was well plugged in, especially with conservatives, a lot of Republicans, but across the board. He had some pretty good sources on the Democratic side as well.

And, you know, he was a plugged-in reporter in Washington, and that was apparent ever since I got to know him. I've known him for many, many years, including the nearly 20 I've been at CNN. So, it's been a long ride.

And I'm just very sad. And my deepest condolences to his entire family. I know he has a wonderful family, and he was a very, very devoted father and grandfather and husband. GRIFFIN: All right. Wolf Blitzer, I know you're going to have more on your show. We'll have more later today as we remember this -- really a true legend and also a pioneer.

Before I let you go, really a pioneer. A guy who came out of print and really jumped into this whole thing we call 24/7 news cycle, and really made it his own for some 20-some years.

BLITZER: Yes. You remember the shows he had on CNN. He had "CAPITAL GANG," which was on Saturday nights, when he had a group of pundits who sat around. And that was a very popular show.

He had "CROSSFIRE" that he used to co-host. And there was a show that he used to run on weekends, a few years ago, "Evans & Novak," in which they would invite newsmakers to come on. He and Rowland Evans would do the interviews, and they would go all over the world doing those interviews. And those were really successful shows.

And you're right, he made the transition from print. He was a newspaper columnist for all those years at the same time. He was doing both. But he also -- he got into TV and he did it very, very well.

BLITZER: Wolf, thank you so much. Thanks a lot.

Remembering Bob Novak today here in the CNN NEWSROOM, and really newsrooms all across the country.

Well, militant strikes in Afghanistan today killed at least 16 people, including two U.S. troops and two U.N. staffers. Plus, the presidential palace in Kabul was hit with a rocket strike. The attacks coming just two days now before the elections.

Live to CNN's Atia Abawi in the Afghan capital.

And Atia, what's being done to try to provide extra security for the votes are who are going to go to the polls this week?

ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Drew, this whole summer has actually been a process, operation after operation, to try to secure certain towns, villages and districts to make it secure enough so the Afghans can head to the polls. And they have completed that mission in certain areas.

There are areas in Afghanistan that just two months ago were under strict Taliban control, and now they are under coalition and the Afghan government's control. So we may see people actually heading to the polls in some of those areas.

Another thing that we've heard from today is the coalition troops and Afghan forces are calling Thursday, the day of the elections, a day of peace. They will be refraining from any offensive operations, instead focusing on securing the Afghans to actually head to the polls.

This coming after Taliban threats, threat after threat after threat, including in the capital. We've seen two car bombs in a span of four days. We saw a rocket attack at the presidential palace compound, and we're hearing about leaflets being thrown out in certain villages saying that if you go out and vote, you're putting your own life at risk because the Taliban will be attacking polling stations.

They've also threatened Afghans who have ink on their fingers. At the polling stations in Afghanistan, once you vote, you stick your finger in a bottle of ink to show that you voted and you can't vote again. The Taliban say if they see anyone with ink on their index finger, they'll be chopping it off -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Very scary, but you covered the massive political rally at the end. There was certainly nobody scared to show up there. It was packed.

I'm wondering if the average voter, the average citizen in Afghanistan, feels that the Taliban are attacking somebody else -- the U.S., the aid workers, whatever, but not me.

ABAWI: Well, the Afghan people know that the Taliban say they're attacking coalition troops. They say that they're attacking foreigners. And they are successful many times.

But at the same time, when they have that success, they have a bigger impact on the Afghan population. They kill more Afghans than they do coalition troops. And this is clear to the Afghan people.

The Afghan people know that the Taliban aren't just killing coalition troops. They're really going after the Afghans, people that are just trying to go about their daily lives, go to the marketplace, go to their jobs, for those who are lucky enough to have jobs. And in the end, they're the ones that continue to suffer -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Atia, thank you. We'll be watching the vote there, the courageous vote that the Afghan people are about to make just two days from now.

Thanks, Atia.

Well, Hurricane Bill is 300 miles wide. The newest computer model shows it may be headed to the U.S. after all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Confusion over this health care debate, and no doubt why. The Obama administration today is reiterating its support for a public health insurance option, just days after appearing to soften its position.

Well, on Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told CNN that public insurance is not the essential element of reform. Here's what she says today... (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: All I can tell you is that Sunday must have been a very slow news day, because here's the bottom line: absolutely nothing has changed. We continue to support the public options that will help lower costs, give American consumers more choice, and keep private insurers honest.

If people have other ideas about how to accomplish these goals, we'll look at those, too. But the public option is a very good way to do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: That's one day after telling our John King maybe not.

So, the debate over a public option is one of the most contentious issues during this make-or-break month for health care reform.

We're going to get details now from White House correspondent Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you talking to your friends?

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Yes!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you talking to your family?

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Yes!.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Supporters of the president's health care overhaul plan fired up in Phoenix.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every American deserves health care that they can afford.

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Freedom, freedom...

LOTHIAN: But as counter-demonstrators shouted them down, there was vigorous debate among supporters over the public option, which has been a central part of the president's push.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the public option goes away, Obama -- President Obama is already a lame duck president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm hopeful that we can compromise. It's just the right thing to do. It's a moral decision.

LOTHIAN: This comes after the administration appeared to be downplaying the significance of the public option, which has faced strong opposition from Capitol Hill to congressional town hall meetings. In response to a question from John King on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION," the secretary of Health and Human Services seemed to leave the door open to something other than a public option.

JOHN KING, HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": If the votes aren't there, it's time to come up with a plan B.

SEBELIUS: What's important is choice and competition. And I'm convinced at the end of the day the plan will have both of those, but that is not the essential element.

LOTHIAN: And the president said this at a town hall meeting in Colorado on Saturday.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All I'm saying is though that the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it is not the entirety of health care reform.

LOTHIAN: But back outside the president's VFW event in Phoenix, some said you can't have reform without the public option.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Republicans will smell blood if you know if we don't get the public option.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It means that he's lost the fight.

LOTHIAN: The administration is fighting to get health care reform done this year, promoting choice, competition and controlling cost as the key points. These demonstrators may not get everything they want, but hope they'll get what they need.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to make sure it passes because you know all of our lives depend on it in one way or another.

LOTHIAN (on camera): Linda Douglass, a spokesperson here at the White House on health reform, says, "Nothing has changed." And other White House officials insisting that the president still believes that the public option is the best way to achieve all the goals necessary to get health care reform.

Dan Lothian, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: More confusion. We're going to separate facts from fears in this health care debate.

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, examines one of the misconceptions about what the current reform proposals would do.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a term that you hear a lot when talking about health reform, and that term is "rationing." What exactly does that mean?

Well, we came here to this intensive care unit at Southern Regional Hospital to try and find out. And what we heard was the tale of three sisters.

(voice-over): At 78, Thelma is the youngest. And then there's Carolyn, who is 80, and Helen, who is the oldest. She is 82.

(on camera): Are you worried with health care reform? A lot of people have been talking...

CAROLYN MCCOY, HAD HIP REPLACED: I'm concerned with it.

GUPTA: Tell me why.

MCCOY: I try not to worry. Well, I have read some things that says that as you get older, you are liable to wait and wait and wait before you can have surgery. I've heard that they're going to look at the older people and you're going to wait longer than the younger people.

GUPTA (voice-over): It's not true, though a lot of people think so. A look at the reform bill in Congress there is no mention of that. No mention of rationing, no mention of the government making so-called end-of-life decisions for seniors.

So where is this notion coming from? From a provision in the House health care bill providing for end-of-life counseling. Republican Chuck Grassley says his Senate committee dropped that provision for fear it would be misinterpreted.

KEN THORPE, HEALTH POLICY EXPERT, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I think people are freaked-out because there's a lot of bad information or misinformation being put out there by opponents of health care reform by saying that we're somehow going to pull the plug on grandma. Those are just sort of fear-mongering out there for opponents of reform.

GUPTA: Misinformation, yes. And yet that fear is only growing.

(on camera): Are they saying that the older people aren't as valuable as any of these people?

MCCOY: Certainly, certainly.

GUPTA: You feel that for real?

MCCOY: Well, I don't personally feel that but I feel like the government thinks so. I have had two knees replaced. I've had a hip replaced. I've had spinal stenosis. And that was done at this hospital. That was back in 2000.

GUPTA: So quite a few operations.

MCCOY: Yes, I have.

GUPTA: How are you doing?

MCCOY: I'm doing great.

GUPTA: Here is where it gets a little bit difficult. Helen the older sister, 82 years old also had a hip replacement but now she's in the Intensive Care Unit with problems with her heart and problems with her kidney as well.

HELEN MCCOY, IN THE INTENSIVE CARE UNIT: I'm doing the best I can.

GUPTA: Yes?

(voice-over): The three sisters have had more than 13 operations over the years costing close to $250,000. I asked Carolyn, is it worth it?

C. MCCOY: I say if you pay your premiums you ought to get the same service that the younger person does.

THORPE: There is no change in any of these pieces of legislation that would take the power away from the patient and the physician ultimately making whatever choice is best for them.

GUPTA: Dr. Radhakrishnan Nair is Helen's doctor.

(on camera): Should there be a cutoff at some point to say look? This person is just too old?

DR. RADHAKRISHNAN NAIR, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON, SOUTHERN REGIONAL HOSPITAL: The cutoff needs to be decided based on general health, their ability to go for rehabilitation after surgery, and the ability to withstand surgery.

GUPTA (on camera): Well, I can tell you, as much as we talk about the policy, as much as we talk about the numbers surrounding health care reform, a question that keeps getting asked of us, what if this were your mother? What if this were your grandmother?

It's the art of medicine.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: If you want to find out anything about health care, go to CNN.com/healthcare. It's where you can get some of the questions answered. If you heard a rumor or been e-mailed something that doesn't sound right, you can check the facts there. You can learn about the closest town hall meetings, all the key players in the debate, try to separate fact from fiction.

You can do that at CNN.com/healthcare.

Back to our sad breaking news here in the CNN NEWSROOM, the death of Robert Novak, a 78-year-old who was a longtime player here at CNN, 20-some-odd years.

A longtime producer, Bob Kovach, who worked closely with him on the "CAPITAL GANG," is on the phone with us.

And I'm wondering what your thoughts are today as we're learning the death of this real journalist legend?

BOB KOVACH, CNN PRODUCER: Thanks, Drew.

One thing is Bob was a legend, and there will never be another one like him. He was a tireless worker. He would do several columns a week for the paper that was syndicated throughout the country, plus his work at CNN was unparalleled.

He did numerous shows, he did "EVANS & NOVAK" for about two decades, "CAPITAL GANG," which went on for about 16 years, and the last couple of years we did a segment called "THE NOVAK ZONE."

So, he was always busy. If he wasn't speaking, he was writing. If he wasn't writing, he was on TV.

And then he had many other outside interests. He was a lover of spectator sports. He had season tickets to the Wizards and the Bullets and the Redskins. And Maryland basketball, he went to every game of the season, pre-season tournament, all the way through the Final Four.

He went to (INAUDIBLE). You name it, that's what he did.

But he was also a lover of the arts. He had a subscription with the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C. He was a lover of opera. He went to the opera constantly at the Kennedy Center.

GRIFFIN: Yes, he was a guy who really lived life. Some people in this business are just married to their job. This guy was just married to living.

KOVACH: No, ,he loved to get away. He had a place on the Delaware shore where he loved to go with his family. He loved his family, his children, his grandchildren. He loved watching them grow up. His wife is a very stoic woman, and he was very dedicated to her also.

GRIFFIN: What do you know about the last year of his life? We know he died at home.

KOVACH: I saw him a few weeks ago, and we had a very nice conversation for about a half-hour. We reminisced about a lot of the people we worked with and a lot of the fun we had together.

GRIFFIN: All right. Bob Kovach, former producer, colleague of Robert Novak, who died today. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor in July of 2008, had been battling it.

We also want to bring in one of those guys we loved to watch Bob spar with, James Carville, who sat across the chair from him and sparred with him, and led to so many entertaining debates on air here on CNN.

Mr. Carville, thanks for joining us.

And your recollections of this man on the day that we're remembering Bob Novak?

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, two things. There's no wonder -- this guy, a lot of people (INAUDIBLE). He didn't. You knew exactly what Bob thought.

He really didn't much care about what other people thought. And he was fiercely (INAUDIBLE). And as (INAUDIBLE) pointed out, the other thing about Bob (INAUDIBLE) him more than maybe everybody I ever knew, he was a real sports fan. And, I mean, he wasn't a guy that, like, read about it in the paper.

We need to find out how many ACC tournament games he saw in his life. I want to say he went to over 30 consecutive tournament games.

Maryland basketball, he was passionate about Maryland basketball than anybody I ever knew. And every Redskins game, every Wizards, anything that played, he went there. And he was a really knowledgeable sports fan, too.

But his -- you know, he had a real kind of passion for politics. And he was a good reporter.

I think if anything that people don't know about Bob, don't realize, is he was a very ideological guy, he was a very opinionated guy. But he was a very good reporter, and he really tried to get his stories right.

And he had the best sources in the Republican Party. His Monday column in "The Washington Post," everybody in Washington read that, but particularly when he wrote about Republicans, because you knew that he had a story that no one else had. And he didn't make stuff up. He was a factual reporter.

GRIFFIN: Yes. James, I'm going to bring in Bill Bennett.

Because, of course, Bill Bennett, you knew him so very well as well. And he was conservative, but he wasn't afraid to take the conservatives to task.

Oh, I'm sorry. Mr. Bennett has dropped.

But getting back to your point, James, it was almost he had better insight into Republicans and the conservatives...

CARVILLE: Right.

GRIFFIN: ... and basically trying to keep them on what he thought was the straight and narrow.

CARVILLE: It was. But he knew what was going on. And people would call him. The sources were unbelievable. I mean, the people that he talked to every day, and he talked to a lot of Democrats, too.

I mean, he had very -- and people trusted Bob. It wasn't -- what you saw on television was an ideological guy, kind of fire-breathing, right-wing guy. But when he was in -- and he was a columnist, but he still had the sort of ethos of a reporter.

So, if you said, "Bob, this is off the record," then it was off the record, even if it wasn't advantageous to his side. And that was something that I think as -- people that have known Bob for a long time, I think what people are going to find out about Bob's life, what they didn't realize, was that he was a heck of a reporter and broke any number of significant stories. But his sources -- his Republican sources were pristine.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

James, we have Bill Bennett back in now.

CARVILLE: OK.

GRIFFIN: And Bill, we just want to talk with you. We were talking with James Carville about what a great reporter this guy was, beyond, you know, being a conservative kind of a spokesperson or columnist or commentator. He was really digging news in Washington, D.C., for decades.

Having a little trouble hearing you, Mr. Bennett, but I think you ...

WILLIAM BENNETT, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR (via telephone): All right. They used the phrase the dark prince yet. I mean he was a tough, tough guy.

GRIFFIN: Yes, the dark prince, it was a title that was given to him by his friends, we're told.

BENNETT: Exactly right, Drew. He was a tough reporter. Old school. Very tough. Very tenacious. And one of those guys, you know, if you were in my business, you know, in the cabinet, you called back these big time reporters and columnists. But Novak, you also had a little tremble factor, you know, because you would need (ph) something you didn't want to say. Would get you to say something that, you know, maybe was just a little more than you had intended to say. And, you know, he pushed -- he pushed hard.

But very accurate. A couple times he misquoted me. I called him. He corrected it. You could fight with the guy, but, you know, no grudges. But he -- he moved things. He got things moving. If he wanted things to go in a certain direction, he would call enough people -- I think James will agree -- until he got enough people to go his -- who had his view and then he'd print their comments, you know?

GRIFFIN: Yes. Did both -- did Republican and Democratic administrations, James and Bill, if you're both still there, use him to try to direct policy?

BENNETT: I don't remember ever using him, but I certainly had the feeling more often that he was trying to use me to advance his point of view, you know.

JAMES CARVILLE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR (via telephone): Well, I (INAUDIBLE) . . .

GRIFFIN: It sounded like crossfire for a minute there. Let's let James -- James, answer that question for me.

BENNETT: OK. Sorry.

CARVILLE: That's all right.

I was just saying, in what the secretary said, I thought was illuminating that even though Bob was a Republican and he would be -- you know, he was more ideologically comfortable, he was a reporter too. So if he -- if you told him something, he would kind of report it. Now he was looking for a story, but that Monday morning column that he wrote was a very influential column for a long time in Washington. And because people read it and knew that he had really good sources in the Republican Party. And he didn't always use the party line. And he wouldn't make -- Bob wouldn't make things up to advance his point of view. He would push it and argue it till you'd drop, but he would not make things up.

GRIFFIN: All right, gentlemen, thank you both for joining us on this day. We're remembering Bob Novak who died today, 78-year-old pioneer, longtime Washington columnist, switched to TV. Kept doing everything right up almost till the very end. He died today at the age of 78.

James Carville, thank you. Secretary Bennett, thank you as well.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Word from Los Angeles that Michael Jackson will finally be laid to rest. It's going to be a private ceremony held at the end of this month. The funeral for family and close friends only, we're told. It's scheduled to happen here. This is the Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park in California, a week from Saturday, August 29th, the day that would have been Michael Jackson's 51st birthday.

A stunt performer at Disney World in Orlando has died after injuring his head during rehearsal for an "Indiana Jones" show. It is the third death at that amusement park in less than two months. Last week, a 47-year-old performer died after falling on stage during a pirate show. And last month, a monorail driver was killed in a crash.

Well, there are a lot of great deals available as banks are selling those foreclosed homes at rock-bottom prices. Can you get in on the deal? Well, we're going to break down what you should do before you buy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: CNN, your source for money news. Check out cnnmoney.com. It's got the latest financial news, analysis, everything you want to know, including where the Dow is right now. And right now we have the latest figures for the Dow. It's turning out to be not a bad day, up 72 points. And I believe the Nasdaq up right now about 21 points.

So, fewer new homes are being built. Housing starts fell 1 percent last month. But even as demand for new homes remain sluggish, there is hunger for another kind of property -- foreclosures. Poppy Harlow has our "Breakdown" from New York.

Hi, Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hi there, Drew.

No surprise here that people want to buy foreclosures. They're a heck of a deal most times. But what we're seeing now is these homes in foreclosure are selling in a day, sometimes in a matter of hours. What we hearing from foreclosure.com is that some of these houses are actually going into contract less than 90 minutes after they hit the market.

The big driver here really is the banks wanting to get these properties off their books. They're driving the prices lower in order to do that. Because, think about it, when a bank seizes a home, it has to pay the property taxes, it has to take care of it, maintain the house. It also has to pay the energy bills. So it is costing the banks month after month to hold these homes. And what we're seeing is this is happening, they're driving down the prices even further in hard-hit areas like California and like Florida.

But this isn't just foreclosures, Drew. Homes in general are seeing their prices move down further and further right now, even though some are talking about a bit of a recovery in the housing market. One real estate tracker saying about 25 percent of the homes on the market right now have had at least one price cut. Fresno, California, sort of the exception with just a huge price cut there, about 67 percent of the homes on the market between June and August saw at least one price reduction for them.

So the deals can be even better with foreclosures. One realtor told us this story about Detroit, where he says there was a home on the market that should have been about $200,000. The bank listed it for $129,000. And, Drew, believe it or not, in this market, it got 13 offers in two days.

GRIFFIN: Amazing. You know, I mean, the deals sound almost too good to be true. And any time I hear those words, I think they are too good to be true. I mean there are some pitfalls here. What should people look for?

HARLOW: There's our investigative journalist being skeptical of a deal that's to good.

GRIFFIN: Yes, always.

HARLOW: No, you're exactly right, there are a lot of pitfalls. You want to get the home specially and carefully inspected. A lot of people get frustrated when they get kicked out of their home in a foreclosure. Sometimes they pour concrete down the drain and try to mess the home up. So have that checked. Also, the maintenance costs, you should know, tend to be higher actually for a home that you buy out of foreclosure for the first three to five years because if someone couldn't pay their mortgage, they probably haven't been maintaining the home very well.

And then, finally, what you could see is the bank setting certain rules so that they will profit more than the buyer. So hire a lawyer. It's worth the fee, Drew, if you're going to buy one of these foreclosures. But I think the lesson here is, go out and do it quickly because people are snapping them up in a matter of hours right now.

GRIFFIN: Right. Well, it's good news no matter what. Let's get those homes off the market.

HARLOW: Exactly.

GRIFFIN: Thanks, Poppy. Appreciate it.

There is a lot of talking about co-ops replacing the public option. We're talking about health reform, health plans, how you get health care. We're going to show you how one of those co-ops actually works.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: In the debate over health care, should we have a public option, or should it all be private, or is there something in the middle? Well, opponents of a government insurance plan say that middle could be health care co-ops. We get a story on one of those from Richard Thompson of our affiliate KIRO in Seattle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDY TAYLOR, GROUP HEALTH MEMBER: Just suddenly, over the weekend, it got really dry and really red.

RICHARD THOMPSON, KIRO-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Randy Taylor does not like the idea of a government-run health care plan.

TAYLOR: I don't want the government in my life. As a matter of fact, I work for the government. I don't want them running my life.

THOMPSON: But Taylor, who is a member of the Group Health Cooperative, likes the idea of health care co-ops in all 50 states, competing with private health insurance companies.

TAYLOR: I think it's a wonderful idea. I really do.

THOMPSON: In co-ops, like Group Health, each patient is a member. They pool their money together to purchase health insurance and elect a board of trustees made up of patients to run the co-op. Group Health doctors say it's a better system because primary care doctors and specialists are all together under one roof.

DR. CLARISSE NOEL, GROUP HEALTH COOPERATIVE: It is better than the current system. There's less -- let me say this, there is less waste. There is more efficiency. There is better coordination of care between physicians in different departments and specialties.

THOMPSON: One plan being discussed nationally calls for $3 billion to $4 billion in federal funds to help start health care co- ops in all 50 states. They would be required to keep certain amount of financial reserves to handle unexpectedly high claims.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No history of strep throat, but you do have a history of bronchitis.

THOMPSON: An established co-op, like Group Health, serving more than 500,000 people, has those funds, but critics worry some start-up co-ops would fail for lack of funding. Others argue co-ops could not compete against mega insurance companies the way a government-run plan could and would do little to help the 50 million uninsured people in our country get insurance.

Still, for those like Randy Taylor, bring health co-ops nationwide beats the idea of government-run health care.

TAYLOR: Everything you need's in one place. It's just a perfect way to do it. I think they've got the right idea. And I with it would spread all over the country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Well, life in the hurricane zone means a lot of worry on islands where entire communities have been destroyed in recent years. We're going to show you how people are preparing for the newest threats.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: The first storms of the Atlantic hurricane season have Cubans on edge. Many across that island nation are still recovering from last year's storms. Our Shasta Darlington reports on what they're doing this year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Erida Mercaderaz (ph) didn't have much even before Hurricane Gustav destroyed half her tiny home last year. The kitchen, then another small room are all that's left for her to share with her husband, son, and daughter-in-law. When I asked her if that made her among the hardest hit in this town, an hour and a half drive outside Havana, she said no.

"There are people who didn't even have anything left to fix," she says.

First Gustav, and then Ike, and finally Paloma. Three powerful hurricanes hit Cuba last year, damaging 500,000 homes and causing what the government says was $10 billion in losses. Fruit and vegetables disappeared from the shelves. But only seven people died thanks to the country's well-oiled evacuation plan. They get residents out of their homes early and give them food and shelter until it's safe to return.

But the first named storms of the season, Ana and Hurricane Bill, set nerves on edge.

"We don't have very much left. But if that gets destroyed, just imagine," she says.

With state aid, Rolando (ph) only recently replaced his roof blown off last season.

"Hurricanes never bring anything good," he says.

DARLINGTON (on camera): Thousands of people were left homeless just in San Cristobal alone. And if you look behind me, these are some of the new houses they're building. But then, just across the street right over here, you have one of the houses that was completely destroyed. And, right now, an entire family is living in that small room right there.

DARLINGTON (voice-over): The timing couldn't be worse for Cuba. Many crops have only just recovered from last year's destruction. The global financial crisis has further crippled the economy, making it hard for the government to guarantee basic supplies, like gasoline, and even toilet paper. And people like Erida worry they won't be so lucky next time.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, San Cristobal, Cuba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Don't you just love CNN? We bring you everywhere in the world. I mean, it's just a fantastic reporting there by Shasta Darlington in Cuba.

Well, we're going to introduce you next to a woman who is using her artistic talent to draw attention to her husband's struggles with his care.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: We're going to introduce you to a woman whose husband could not afford potentially lifesaving medical tests and treatment. He passed away. Well, now in our "Health Care Focus," she is using art to draw attention to health reform. The story brought to us by one of our best photojournalists, Lloyd Yarmuth (ph), out of Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REGINA HOLLIDAY (ph): Well, my name's Regina Holliday and I'm doing something called the Medical Advocacy Mural Project, where I'm going around Washington, D.C., painting giant murals about how we need health reform.

It's starting to run low. I'll have to go get more paint. This one, 73 cents, is specifically about the case of my husband's hospitalization in a three-month period while he was suffering from kidney cancer before he passed away on June 17th. Our experience was so horrific and so many things happen and I saw so many things happen to other people that I felt we had to do something.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think you're doing a wonderful thing.

HOLLIDAY: Thank you. I'm hopeful that we're going to get change. That it's going to change things doing this.

Anybody can do this. Feel empowered. Take control of your life. Change things. You could paint a painting. You could do a demonstration. But talk about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's with the lady being bound? Ah, a medical person is bound.

HOLLIDAY: The concept was -- yes, because of the waste in the system, she's got her hands tied behind her backs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly. And there's a patient waiting for care.

It's so accurate of what we have now and it's really tragic. It's tragic that it had to be painted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd give more if I could. Be brave.

HOLLIDAY: Oh, thank you so much.

A lot of people are like, oh, universal health care, it's all fixed. And I'm like, no. No it's not fixed. It's -- the system's got major, major problems throughout.

Would it be great to have universal health care? Yes. But if we fund a universal health care but the health care we have is abysmal, what are we doing? If a year ago, or two years ago, or three years ago we had passed health reform, if people like myself who suffered and saw what was happening had come forward, we could have changed things. And it's too late for my husband. But it's not too late for hundreds of other people. All those people are waiting in the wings to live. And we've got to do everything we can to make sure they live.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Bringing you all sides in this health care debate. That report from Lloyd Yarmuth.

Well, CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with our own Kyra Phillips -- Kyra.