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Health Care Showdown Ahead; Tea Party Express; Bonuses for Bankers; Arrest in Family Massacre; Missing Boy Found in Septic Tank; Boy and Mom Found Living in a Secret Room; Civilians Killed in NATO Air Strike; Photograph of a Dying Soldier; Garrido's Unique Expertise; Tracking Sex Offenders

Aired September 05, 2009 - 17:00   ET

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

RICHARD LUI, CNN ANCHOR: Presidential pep-talk or political brainwashing? President Obama's school speech ignites debate across the country.

And a break in the case. Eight murders and now an arrest. The 911 caller and son of one of the victims is now charged in this case.

Plus, a terrifying sight off the coast of Cape Cod. Several large sharks -- can you see them -- including a great white. We've got the video and reaction.

Hello, I'm Richard Lui. Don Lemon is off today. It is the unofficial last weekend of summer, and these next few days in Washington could amount to the quiet before a major political storm. President Obama plans a prime time address to Congress next week on what's shaping up to be the biggest battle yet over the make or break issue of health care reform.

Our Kate Bolduan says the president may be working though on a new strategy. A bit of a break in this story, isn't it Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Richard. It sure is. CNN has learned the White House is quietly talking about drafting its own health care bill, a sort of contingency legislation as talks fall apart on Capitol Hill.

The White House late Friday, though, did stress that no final language has yet been written, a White House spokesperson saying in a statement, "The president has been reviewing all the various legislative proposal, but no decision has been made about whether formal legislation will be presented." Sources close to the process say the plan is still unclear, but yet another sign, Richard, that the president is getting more involved.

LUI: Yes, certainly. Here - So with the development, Kate, any idea of what might be included in this right now, though few details are available?

BOLDUAN: Few details are available, but we are hearing the key to this is that the White House is leaning against including the public option in their draft and leaning more towards something like a trigger option. This is an idea that moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe has long pushed for.

It basically comes down to that the public option would not kick in, would not be triggered unless insurance companies neglected to make necessary reforms, reforms like stopping the practice of using pre-existing conditions to deny coverage. And CNN has also learned the Obama administration could send such a plan to the Hill some time after the president's speech to Congress next week.

LUI: Well, Kate, as you know and you've been covering so many plans out there, not only the GOP side but also Democratic plans, and now this coming up from the White House. What does it say about how they're getting along the Democratic side and how the talks are going on with Congress?

BOLDUAN: Well, it is quite interesting because we are told that the Senate negotiations that were really key that they continuing. Senator Max Baucus and the so-called bipartisan "Gang of Six", they held a conference call yesterday in preparation of returning to Washington after the holiday. And in a statement Chairman Baucus said the group is going to sit down Tuesday, take stock of where they are, and he says he is committed to getting health care done soon and done right.

And sources are now telling my colleague, Dana Bash, that Chairman Baucus could distribute a proposal among these five other negotiators as early as today. So they definitely are making a move and see that this have moved into kind of an urgent season in terms of this debate.

LUI: On our top story, Kate Bolduan, Washington DC. Quite a development. Again, the White House, again, is going to be releasing its own idea of health care reform in a plan. Thanks so much, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Richard.

LUI: They are angry - related to the story that Kate's telling us about - and they want their voices to be heard. Critics of Healthcare reform are now a week into their Tea Party Express bus tour which began in California and wraps up at the nation's capital September the 12th. CNN All Platform Journalist Jim Spellman caught up with the group in San Antonio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ready for a tea party?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see the things that the Obama administration - the Democratic Congress is doing is really threatening the future of this country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe he's trouncing the Constitution.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Question everything our government is doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's something happening. We don't know quite what it is, but it's happening, and people who ordinarily wouldn't turn out into the streets to protest are turning out to the streets to protest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're the sleeping giant that has been awakened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I throw Leninism, coming to you on a silver platter. Barack Hussein Obama! He isn't a white president, people!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How dare they give ends of trillions of dollars to banks and (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It feels very grassroots to me, and I love that quality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some are feeling that they're losing control of the government, that the government's taken over control, that we're headed towards socialism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I don't want us to be a communist, socialist nation. That's what our troops died for, so we would not be enslaved by the Nazis or the Communists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have the right for the government not to control my health care and my...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I have the right to disagree with you, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm like the person that then they say, "Take a pill and go die."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, Mr. Reid, Ms. Pelosi - support our troops in the United States Military!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll sing it all night long, "You ain't nothing but a humbug, Obama, telling us all these lies."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: CNN All Platform Journalist Jim Spellman joins me by phone now from Louisville, Kentucky. And, Jim, some of those protesters, fairly angry in your piece. Words like Nazi, Afro, terrorism - those are just some of the things that I pulled from what your piece had.

Who are these protesters? Do they all sound like this?

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN ALL PLATFORM JOURNALIST: Well, you know, people are out here, they're real passionate and they're venting a lot of their anger with this administration over a range of issues, not just health care, the bailouts, the "Address to School" this week is a hot topic right now, and the demonstrations have all been peaceful. You really do see a lot of swastikas, Nazi imagery on signs.

Most of the people are, you know, fairly normal people that are here. They're working people and they're just really fed up with feeling like the government is, you know, running away without - going out of control without them having any say in it - Richard.

LUI: Let's get practical. Any suggestions that you've heard from this group?

SPELLMAN: Well, you know, the first goal that they're going to try to do is have a part of stopping this health care reform. Beyond that issue, you know, what the organizers of the tour really want to do is take this kind of relative anarchy right now of these Tea Party Events, these grassroots kind of movement, and harness it into a more lasting political movement, you know.

To do that they know they're going to at some point have a leader, a politician of some sort, and, I tell you, there's only one name when you ask people who they want, and it's Sarah Palin. This crowd just really goes nuts for her. People will be chanting "Sarah, Sarah!" The stands and the organizers a couple of days ago sent out an invitation to her if she wants to come to one of the events. No word from her yet if she's going to, you know - but you never know, I suppose, with Sarah Palin if she'll show up or not. But that's what's happening right now on the Tea Party Express - Richard.

LUI: A name being quoted there. Jim Spellman, our All Platform Journalist, on a bus with the Tea Party Express right now as they make their way towards Washington, DC. Thanks for the latest there, Jim. Appreciate it.

You know, there's another nationwide bus tour out there supporting the Obama administration's health care reform plans on the other side of what Jim Spellman was telling us about. This group is backed by an arm of the Democratic National Committee. It has attracted supporters such as Dr. Tanisha Richmond, a podiatrist who says she cannot afford health insurance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. TANISHA RICHMOND, PODIATRIST: Well, I opted out because I couldn't afford to pay for my medications, my doctor's visits and then also pay the premium for the health insurance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: The pro health care reform tour began last week in Phoenix and just wrapped up its first leg in Raleigh, North Carolina. Of course, we'll continue to follow that story. By the way, CNN will carry the president's health care reform address to Congress live at Wednesday night at 8:00 Eastern.

Okay. Now let's take to you London, where the economy of bonuses for bankers are the big issues at a meeting of G-20 finance ministers. The officials, including US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, represent the world's 20 largest and fastest growing economies. Our own Richard Quest is there as well.

Richard, what are you hearing and what have you learned so far after speaking with Tim Geithner? RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the communique was released and we now know that the G-20 ministers, what they are essentially doing is preparing the ground for the Leaders' Summit which will be the Pittsburgh Summit taking place later in the year - later in this month I should say, September, hosted by President Obama.

On this particular occasion they really first of all had to decide what is the strength of the global economy? Is it time to start taking back some of that stimulus that is just washing the world with billions, if not trillions, of dollars? Tim Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, said there is a recovery, but it's certainly not time to think about taking anything off the table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM GEITHNER, US TREASURY SECRETARY: We have brought the world economy back from the edge of the abyss and you are starting to see the necessary conditions for a recovery, but we don't have recovery yet. We have growth under way, but we don't yet have the conditions for a self-sustaining recovery led by private demand, which is what we're all committed to achieve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: If there is one issue that is bedeviling them at the moment, it is the question of bankers' bonuses. What compensation should bankers get so they keep being innovative, they keep pushing forward but they don't take unnecessary risks? The French had wanted caps on salaries. The Americans and the British didn't want that.

In the end the G-20 has agreed that bonuses should be related to future earnings and income and the success of a company but substantially if companies failed, then there could be clawbacks. This was a big development in terms of dealing with the bonus issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEITHNER: There is no risk that we will - can afford and will allow conditions and if necessary - to go back to what they were in the peak of the boom.

QUEST: But the speed at which they've gone back to their sorts of...

GEITHNER: Haven't gone back yet and...

QUEST: On the way?

GEITHNER: No. Haven't gone back yet. And I think it's important that it not happen again. You are going to see very significant reforms in compensation practice across the major financial centers. And one thing we did today, which is very important, is reach agreement on a common framework and commit ourselves to make sure that we're going to apply those standards on an even basis across our countries. (END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: So as you look at it now, Richard, the scene is getting set for Pittsburgh. Over the last 12 months the leaders, whether in Washington, Brazil, in London, they have pushed the world through the crisis. Now they have to decide what's next? Do they risk inflation or do they risk double dip recession?

LUI: And as they make that calculation here, Richard, one of the big indicators, as you know, is unemployment not only in the United States with recent reports out this last - the end of this last week, at 9.7 percent, but also for instance in Europe. Take a look at Spain. One in 5 are unemployed. What was the sort of sense of confidence behind unemployment that you got from your discussions?

QUEST: There's a perversion in the unemployment numbers in that every economist knows it's a lagging indicator. It's the tail of the recession. So even when we start growing again, unemployment will continue to rise. It's the last number that turns around.

I asked Tim Geithner, you know, I really tried to push the Treasury Secretary, when will it turn around? And all - I mean, he was quite blunt. He said he would not give a forecast, he never gives a forecast. I was just basically trying my luck more than anything else.

But substantially we will see unemployment rise in the major economies until the end of this year. It will be the - probably beginning middle - maybe towards the end -- you know, in the United States the economy normally grows at about 2.5 to 3 percent. To get unemployment down, the economy will have to be growing in excess of 3 and 4 percent...

LUI: ... to catch up. Richard Quest, live in London with the latest, speaking with Tim Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, as they had a G-20 meeting leading up to Pittsburgh, as you were telling us.

Thank you very much, Richard.

Now to take us to South Georgia, the very latest on the shocking story that we've been telling you for one week now. Funerals today for the victims of a mass killing last weekend. A ninth victim, a 3- year-old girl, is on life support right now. Police have not revealed how the victims were killed, only saying that it was an especially brutal crime.

Well, last night police charged 22-year-old Guy Heinze, Jr. with killing six family members and two family friends. Heinze had been released from jail on drug charges and was out only 90 minutes before police rearrested him on first-degree murder charges. You can see the tracking device on his ankle there.

In Western Pennsylvania a tragic end in the frantic hunt for a missing 4-year-old boy. Wyatt Smitsky's body was found stuffed in a neighbor's septic tank. The discovery was made after searchers noticed the septic tank cover had been tampered with. One person is in custody right now but no charges have been filed in this as of yet.

The search began last night when the little boy did not come home after playing outside with his two sisters. A news conference is set for this hour. We'll bring you any new developments right here on CNN.

A totally different outcome in the case of a missing boy in Southern Illinois. Police there in the small town of Royalton searched the home of the boy's grandmother and found the 6-year-old boy and his mother living in a small secret room in the house. They apparently had been hiding there for nearly two years.

Shannon Wilfong is now in custody, charged with felony child abduction. She and her son disappeared in November of 2007 in the middle of a bitter custody dispute. The boy's father said he would not have wished the last two years on anyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE CHEKEVDIA: Their efforts were diligent and I owe them a debt of gratitude. The greatest trial will be the reintegration of my son, and that's going to be the bigger challenge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: The name Ricky Chekevdia, who turns seven in nine days, appears to be in good health and said he was happy to finally be allowed to play outside.

A marine is killed in Afghanistan and the Associated Press's decision to release his photo showing his injuries is fueling a heated debate and protest from Pentagon.

Also, before his arrest last week Phillip Garrido offered some startling advice to a woman printing flyers on how to keep kids safe. You have to hear this to believe it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: In Afghanistan the NATO team is now officially investigating an air strike that killed Taliban militants and an unknown number of civilians. A US fighter jet launched the strike yesterday after militants hijacked trucks carrying fuel for NATO forces.

Now, reports say up to 90 people were killed in this incident. NATO says it was targeting Taliban militants but local Afghan officials say civilians were trying to get fuel from the trucks when the attack occurred. Now, today General Sally McChrystal, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan visited the attack site and a hospital where the wounded were taken. Before the attack McChrystal had issued orders restricting the use of air power if civilian lives were at risk.

Two US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan today, bringing the number killed this month to at least four. This comes on the heels of the deadliest month yet for US troops. Fifty two died in august.

And now a new controversy involving a photograph of a US marine killed in Afghanistan last month. CNN Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: When the Taliban ambushed a marine patrol last month, a rocket-propelled grenade ripped into Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard. The Associated Press snapped a picture of him, mortally wounded, and has now released it against the family's wishes.

JOHN BERNARD, JOSHUA BERNARD'S FATHER: I can promise you if it was their son or their daughter they wouldn't do it.

LAWRENCE: On the phone, I spoke with Corporal Bernard's father.

BERNARD: I think they were given a privilege by being assigned to that specific unit and that they were privileged to be there when my son was called home, and I think they abused that trust.

LAWRENCE: Defense Secretary Robert Gates himself, quote, "begged the AP not to release it," and in a letter to the company's president called the decision "appalling."

The controversy comes just as President Obama considers the possibility of deploying more American troops to Afghanistan. The photo was actually one of many captured by a photographer embedded in Corporal Bernard's unit, including later scenes of fellow marines honoring him. The AP says Bernard's death shows his sacrifice for his country and releasing the photo was not an easy decision. Quote, "We feel it is our journalistic duty to show the reality of the war there however unpleasant and brutal that sometimes is."

CNN has chosen not to show the photo and AP video showing similar images out of respect to the wishes of the family. Some newspapers ran it. Others refused to. One media critic says he would not have run the photo, but --

DAVID ZURAWIK, CRITIC, THE BALTIMORE SUN: That's exactly why some younger people say they don't consume the mainstream media and they go online is they don't want gate keepers and filters and people telling them what they should see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: The picture is just one part of a nearly 2,000-word story that the AP told. It includes an interview with the corporal's father, an ex-marine who complained about the military's rules of engagement. He felt that protecting Afghans was putting American troops at unnecessary risk. John Bernard told me he wrote those letters of complaint just three weeks before his son was ambushed.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, the Pentagon. LUI: Before his arrest last week, Phillip Garrido offered some startling advice to a woman printing flyers on how to keep kids safe. You have to hear this to believe it. Well, we got it for you. And what can you do to protect your own children? There are some more online tools that you might think to help you track sexual predators.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: Turning now to the abduction of Jaycee Dugard, her long time captor Phillip Garrido ran a small printing business from his home in Antioch, California. One of the jobs he did was printing flyers on how to protect children from predators. Now, the woman behind that effort, a long-time customer of Garrido's, said he had lots of practical tips.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANICE GOMES, CHIEF SAFETY ADVOCATE: He was telling me that I had left something out. You know, next time you might want to put in children should never go to a bus stop by themselves. They're no match for adult. You'd tell people to send their kids in a group, have them all walk together, that it's better that way, and he said that doesn't even matter because if the pedophile - and I can't be sure that's the word he used. I just don't remember - wants a child, he'll walk up to the group and they'll scatter and he'll just grab one.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Shocking and ironic, certainly, as you listen to that. This sensational case has heightened awareness to the presence of sex offenders living all over the country. One might even be next door or down the street.

Well, Josh Levs is here to show us some websites that you can track - you can sign up, you can track sex offenders and they will alert you when one moves nearby. Josh, what do you got for us?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. There are some you pay for and there are some that are free. Here is what I'm going to do, Richard. I'm going to show you some major websites right now that people use. Folks, you don't need to write anything down because at the end of all this I'll show you one place where you can link to all of it.

Let's zoom right in. This one's interesting, familysafetyreport.com. This is initially free, then it becomes about $30 a month, and they will send you an alert if someone who is registered as a sex offender moves into your area or any area you've said you're concerned about. It might not be where you lived. It might be where a niece or nephew lives or someone else. And you can see the kind of reports that they're willing to provide, they show you.

Now, this one over here is free. This is familywatchdog.us, and they say that there's no charge at all for any of their services. They do something similar. They'll send out alerts. You can type in address. I typed one in for Atlanta - actually, for CNN, and every place you see a red square, they show you someone who is registered as a sex offender. You can click on those to get more info.

Let me show you something else, too, because the government has put this together. Every state in the country, Crimes Against Children, this is from the FBI. All you need to do is scroll down, click on your state, any state, and then within that you can look at a city. So completely randomly I clicked on Pennsylvania. I typed in Philadelphia, and it's showing me a list of registered sex offenders in Philadelphia, and it would give you information about them, including city address. You can even get more specific.

So you have all of these together, and we've posted them all right here at cnn.com/josh. It's part of our NEWSROOM. In fact, let's show that full screen so people know how you can reach it, whether you want to do our blog or Facebook or Twitter, I posted it everywhere. Facebook.com and twitter.com/joshlevscnn.

And Richard, what we're doing is this. We're showing people these sites and we're asking you which of these work for you, which of them don't. You let us know and we're curious to hear your reactions, and then we're going to follow those and based on that we'll be back and we'll say people said this one is working or not working so well.

LUI: You know, one of the parts of the story is the outrage that's resulted, and we see a possibility and capabilities like those websites that you show us there. Is there concern or have you heard anything discussed on vigilantes or vigilantism that - where folks get that information and go after these perpetrators?

LEVS: That is a big concern. You do hear those discussions a lot. You also hear them judicially. There are cases about this. There are some people out there who argue once a person has served his time, he should no longer be in this branded, and in some cases websites have been brought to court by some groups out there that are saying this should not be done, including sometimes the government for posting these.

So far we are seeing this continuously posted. There's even a law that kicked in recently, actually months ago, that there was a deadline for states all over the country to have a lot of information up. Some are still working on that. So far we are seeing registered sex offenders, information about them, pictures, where they live, placed online. But, yes there is a big concern about vigilante actions, about what might be done, people not taking the law into their own hands and doing things that shouldn't be done about that.

LUI: Thanks, Josh, with the latest resources online to track sex offenders. Appreciate that.

There are many other aspects by the way to this story, as you probably know, that we will be exploring in greater depth actually tonight at 10:00 PM Eastern. Among the issues that we'll tackle for you, can violent sex offenders be cured? At least eight states have decided they cannot and now allow castration before a sex offender is released from prison. You don't want to miss that discussion. Again, 10:00 PM Eastern.

The outrage over President Obama's upcoming speech to school kids has been quite an education for the White House, but are the criticisms fair? And, later, California offers a six-figure reward for the person who started the deadly station fire.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: President Obama plans to give a speech Tuesday at a high school in Virginia. It's billed as a back-to-school inspiration, utterly nonpartisan, a call to work hard, set goals, be all that you can be. Now, the White House is calling on schools to show this speech live in classrooms, but some conservatives and parents are livid over this idea.

CNN's John Roberts reports for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My rights as a parent are being circumvented.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From talk radio to political circles, there's a lot of anger over the president's upcoming speech. The Department of Education says the goal is to challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. But along with that came some suggestions for teachers, lesson plans asking opportunities to, quote, "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president." That's where the trouble started.

And the head of Florida's Republican Party didn't hold back.

JIM GREER, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN PARTY OF FLORIDA: ... the parents across this country, and the uproar that occurred, the Department of Education withdrew all of that language last night.

ROBERTS: And Greer didn't stop there. In a letter he charges the president was going to use the speech to sell his policies saying, quote, "President Obama has turned to America's children to spread his liberal lies, indoctrinating America's youngest children before they have a chance to decide for themselves."

The response from the left? It's not about the lesson plans or the speech, but politics.

(on camera): Was there a little bit of a problem there with the additional materials that were provided to go along with the president's speech?

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, it's not a problem. What you have is you have some insane parents who want to bring their ideology into the table. Why is it -- I didn't see people sitting here saying when President George W. Bush went to read to students, oh, I want to see what book he's reading. I want to pull my kids out because I'm a Democrat and he's a Republican. This is absolute nonsense. ROBERTS (voice-over): The Department of Education has changed the lesson plans now. Instead, suggesting students "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."

Some school districts, in Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia, and Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech. And other schools will let parents keep their kids out of the classroom during the speech if they want.

Many parents are even considering keeping their kids home from school altogether on Tuesday.

TAD MILLER, PARENT: I may have voted for McCain and Bush in the past. I wouldn't want them speaking to my student or your student or anybody else's student, for that matter, their child. Politics is totally up to the family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So will I send my child? I don't know. Right now I'd say no. I'll keep him home.

John Roberts, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: So as you heard in that report, President George W. Bush read to children and he also talked about No Children Left Behind in 2006. His father, President H.W. Bush, also gave a speech to schools in 1991 that was similar to what President Obama is planning now. It, too, drew criticism with Democrats comparing it to a campaign commercial. And then President Reagan in '88, he talked policy with junior high students at the White House including some tax cuts.

Let's talk more about this right now. Joining us with their take on the president's speech to school kids, we have Alexander Heffner, the editor in chief of scoop44 and an undergraduate from Harvard; and Lenny McAlister with loop22.com and author of "The Diary of a Mad Black PYC," proud, young conservative.

And Alexander, we'll start with you. What do you make over the debate regarding the president's speech?

ALEXANDER HEFNER, SCOOP44: I think the president wanted to revitalize service in America and encourage civic work, and that was his plan all along. The lesson and curriculum, they don't have any kind of political bent or leaning. Yes, the president might have encouraged students to write the president. He could have said write your Congressman or Senator. It could have been a little bit sketched out differently, but the motivation behind this was a back-to-school motivational booster for students.

LUI: OK. A booster that is being seen possibly as indoctrinization of the children.

Let's go to Lenny. What do you think of that? That's been the criticism so far. LENNY MCALISTER, LOOP22.COM & AUTHOR: And I can see conservatives' point of view in regards to the timing of this. Granted, it's at the beginning of the school year, but it's also at a point in time when the president's approval ratings are going down. He's losing grip with the youth and with independents. So it can be seen as political. To me, it's also an issue of conservatives being conservative when they want to be. We, as conservatives, constantly say the family is the number-one factor over children. If that is the case, this is a great opportunity for America's school children to engage their president, get some civic pride, and then have them come home and have the real discussions about politics. because let's be frank, if it's not happening at home, that's where we lose either way. There should be no person, whether it's the president, a celebrity, or an athlete, that has more influence over the upbringing and molding of young minds coming through the school age than parents. It's the situation conservatives need to trust themselves more than they currently are when it comes to that.

LUI: Lenny, great segue, parents, and they're speaking out. Let's listen to a couple that are talking about this speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not happy about it. They are totally disregarding what the parents have the right to do and what their children should be seeing, and it's totally cutting the parent out of the picture.

JULIA FARMER, TEA PART PROTESTOR: This is crossing a line, and I'm going to use an ugly word right now, but I believe a fascist line, that the president has no right whatsoever to go into this pre-K to sixth grade children and try to somehow sell his agenda.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Let's go over now to Lenny McAllister.

So is he pulling in children into what is a very nasty political fight going on right now?

MCALISTER: It can be seen that way. But let's be honest, he's the president of the United States. He's the first African-American president of the United States. He's the first minority president of the United States. He should be inspirational -- and if we can use the office of the presidency to start inspiring some civic pride from our youth, because that's what we're going to need if we're going to rebuild this country and get us back on our feet. They're the ones that are paying the taxes for what we're spending. They have to at least believe in America. There's nothing wrong with encouraging that. But from there again, the parents should be able to be involved, talk about their political philosophies, whether they agree or disagree with the president, so that this is nothing more than a historical day in a plethora of days that these kids will remember throughout their childhood ages.

LUI: Alexander? HEFFNER: Can I just cut in there for a second?

LUI: Yeah, go for it.

HEFFNER: I think Lenny is right. The president has a very compelling voice as the commander in chief of this country and parents have a role, too. But you see here, illuminated through your point, Richard, the fact that this far right fringe has once again been galvanized and propped up to a degree by the GOP through the town hall meetings, now through those protesters. And in all honesty, this is the president of the United States, as Lenny was suggesting, and this is more a function of far right lunacy politics at work than anything more. Most conservatives have gone on the record saying they don't support this kind of protest. And if Ronald Reagan had wanted to enter high school and college classrooms for that matter, and preach supply-side economics or simply communicate with students as they were beginning the school year, that would have been perfectly fine.

LUI: So, Lenny, is it being overblown?

MCALISTER: Some of it is, but let's not underestimate what's been going on in Washington since the supermajority and President Obama swept into town. There have been outrageous spending. There's a lot of people that have been upset over the direction of government going back as far as George W. Bush as our president, and now with Barack Obama being our president. So you're getting a lot of pent-up frustration from both sides of the aisle, from Independent Americans about what we're doing in this country. This is another instance where President Obama has been a polarizing factor. So although some of it has been overblown, let's not underestimate either the polarizing figure that President Obama has been to many since he's assumed the presidency in January.

HEFFNER: And this draws an important point, too, about nonpartisan civic education. How do you define it? How do you enter the classroom in a non-polarizing manner? That's always the challenge in the give and take. Unfortunately in public school classrooms across the country today, there is a vast absence of civic education. So this was the president's effort to try to reengage America's youth.

LUI: I would love to go longer on the subject. No doubt we will over the next two or three days if that speech is given. I want to thank Lenny from Loop21 as well as Alexander Heffner, the editor in chief of Scoop44. Thank you both for stopping by. It was a good discussion of what we could fit in in four minutes.

HEFFNER: Thanks, Richard.

MCCALISTER: Thanks, Richard.

LUI: Have a good weekend.

HEFFNER: You too.

LUI: You don't have to be in school to catch the president's speech to the kids, by the way. Just tune in right here to CNN. We plan to carry it live at noon eastern on Tuesday, end to end.

A father of three becomes a savior of 47. He's a "CNN Hero" you will be surprised by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: And now our hero of the week. It's been ten years since a small Southeast Asian island of Timor erupted in a violent fight for independence. In its wake more than a quarter million people were displaced, many of them its most vulnerable residents, children. One commercial pilot was so moved by the disturbing images he saw on CNN that he changed his entire life to help them. Meet Captain Budi Soehardi.

(CNN HEROES)

LUI: To find out more about Budi's work and learn about other 2009 heroes, go to CNN.com/heroes. And be sure to keep an eye out. In just a few weeks, we will announce the top-ten heroes of 2009. It should be something else.

Firefighters are making some progress battling that massive California wildfire burning north of Los Angeles.

And a terrifying site off the coast of Cape Cod, several large sharks can be seen there, including a great white. We've got the video for you.

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LUI: It's a smoky start to Labor Day weekend in Los Angeles. Firefighters say the raging station fire is now about 50 percent contained, up from 5 percent earlier in the week. Still, some flames are moving unchecked into the wilderness areas. Two firefighters have died and 76 homes have been destroyed in the intentionally set blaze. And now $100,000 is on the table for information leading to an arson arrest in that.

Let's go over now to Jacqui Jeras in the Weather Center, as we take a look at what's happening across the country.

And of course, the concern is the weather in southern California. Is it helping them fight that fire as well as what's happening throughout the rest of the country?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's not helping them a lot, other than the fact that the winds aren't too strong but it's not hurting them all that much today either.

(WEATHER REPORT)

JERAS: Richard?

LUI: Really great holiday weather for all of us. We like it like that, especially the breaking out the beach balls on the graphics. That's good news for us. JERAS: Adding a little fun.

LUI: It has been quiet in the tropics. You've been looking into that.

JERAS: Yeah, in fact, it's been kind of a slow start to the hurricane season overall. We had a couple of storms. We had Danny. We had Bill and we had here still the remnants of what was Erika. But a lot of the storms are getting broke apart by what we call wind shear. And we're blaming this on el Nino. You've heard that name before. And we're going to hear a lot more about el Nino in the upcoming months.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERAS (voice-over): Katrina, Rita, Ike, monster storms that have made dealing with major hurricanes a regular occurrence for residents on the gulf coast. But this year seems oddly quiet. Our weather patterns are changing and it could mean good news for the storm-weary.

El Nino -- it's the warming of waters in the equatorial Pacific. When this happens, it changes the regular flow of the jet stream, bringing those strong winds through the southern U.S. and Atlantic. Jet stream winds can blow off the top of tropical systems and prevent them from developing, or from getting stronger.

Here's what el Nino has done to tropical seasons in the past. 1982 to '83, a strong el Nino episode brought the quietest hurricane season in 50 years. But one of those storms was Alicia, a brutal hurricane that killed 21 in Texas.

1997 to '98, only seven-named storms for the entire season, well below the average of 11. But it's not all good news. That season the jet stream helped support the deadliest tornado outbreak in Florida's history, one of them ripping roofs off of hundreds of homes, and killing 25 people in Osceola County.

That '97 to '98 season was also devastating for the southwestern United States. The jet stream brought storm after storm into California. Torrential rains, mudslides, washed out roads and destructive waves all pounded the state. It was one of the costliest winters on record for California, estimating $550 million in damages for February of '98 alone.

El Nino is typically bad news for the eastern Pacific hurricane season, too, generating more frequent and stronger storms. In 2006, an el Nino year, there were 18-named storms in the eastern Pacific, including hurricane John that killed five people in Baja, California, Mexico.

There's no telling what el Nino will do to the U.S. this time around, but climatologists are predicting it to strengthen and last through the winter of 2010.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JERAS: And right now we're in what meteorologists called a moderate el Nino condition. If we get two more months of those warm waters, that will put us in a full-blown el Nino episode, which could bring a similar impact.

And Richard, as for the quiet start for the hurricane season, just now we're starting to enter the peak of the season, and it doesn't matter how many storms we get. What matters is which one hits the U.S. and how strong it is, and whether or not you're prepared for it.

LUI: I was listening to your piece there, Jacqui, and based on what you were teaching us, therefore California and el Nino, it should be experiencing more water, but it's fairly dry so far, isn't it?

JERAS: Yeah, it is and the fires continue to burn. California usually starts to feel those impacts in late fall and into the winter months. And this is a huge concern actually for el Nino because of the big-burn area. We're talking over 250 square miles of barren mountains. There's nothing on there to help soak up those rains so everything's going to run off. and unfortunately, we'll be worried about mudslides in n those burn areas come this winter.

LUI: All right, we'll be watching that. Jacqui Jeras with the latest. Thank you so much on el Nino, as well as the weather across the country.

We'll have more right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: So who would you go to for advice on eating healthy in these tough economic times? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta may surprise you here with his choice in this edition of "Fit Nation."

(FIT NATION)

LUI: Got me hungry now.

I'm Richard Lui, in for Don Lemon, at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

"THE SITUATION ROOM" begins right now for you.