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California's Bay Bridge Reopens; Health Care High Noon, Congress Back To Work

Aired September 08, 2009 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We are working several developing stories right now. It is a deadly morning for U.S. troops in two hot spots. First, in Iraq. Four troops are dead in an apparent roadside bombings targeting U.S. patrols. One of the blasts came in southern Baghdad. The other was north of the city.

And in Afghanistan, four more U.S. service members are dead in fighting with insurgents there. It happened in the Kunar province just east of the capital Kabul. 13 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan so far this month.

The Bay Bridge is now open. We got some live pictures for you. You can see all of the traffic now. Good news obviously for commuters in San Francisco. An emergency repair work was expected to take another day leaving commuters really scrambling for a new way to get to work. But just a short time ago the first cars actually started making their way across the Bay Bridge. The main artery between San Francisco and all points east.

Joining us now on the phone to talk more about this is Bart Ney, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. So, Bart, what happened? This is one day early. The crews just worked feverishly to get this thing up and running again, huh?

BART NEY, CALTRANS SPOKESMAN (via telephone): Yes, it was an amazing team effort to get this done. We had some crews out there that worked almost 70 hours straight. Designers that stayed on board all of the way through to make sure the inspection would flow smoothly and a great fabrication on a piece we needed last minute was done overnight.

COLLINS: Wow, it is really incredible. Because you think about the Bay Bridge and obviously I mean, this is a very large structure. But it was described as a significant crack that was found. Quickly remind us of what was found by the crews during sort of a routine inspection, right?

NEY: Yes. That's right. We found a crack on one of our i-bars, and that's a critical support member. Although there was several others there as part of a redundant system to hold it in place, when you find something like that you have to repair it immediately before you put traffic back on it.

COLLINS: Obviously, yes, and we're looking at some really interesting video from Caltrans, in fact, about the inside structure there. It's really amazing. I don't think people sometimes realize what goes into a bridge and its structure. So everybody up and running now, any other problems? Because I think we had discussed there were some roads into the Bay Bridge that were still closed down. Is that the case or is everything wide open?

NEY: Well, last night we had to go ahead and put our contingency plan into place. So public transit and some of the detours that we put to make things easier while the Bay Bridge was out of service are going to remain in place today and then we will phase them out at the end of the day.

COLLINS: OK. Very good. Well, congratulations Caltrans to getting that back up and running. I'm sure computers are delighted with that. Bart Ney with Caltrans this morning. Thank you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I think that's a good idea to talk to the children because they need to know that it is their responsibility because apparently a lot of the parents are not taking the responsibility.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to be seeing posters of his face all over the buildings and that kids are going to be having emblems on their shirts going to school. And I just feel like that's what it's coming to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he has a hidden agenda or is promoting something else that we may not approve of, and I think we ought to be able to know or screen it before they see it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He only has a good message. Is it all about politics? No. Not necessarily. It's just about being a good person and doing the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: After days of bitter criticism, the president will finally speak to school kids. Has the message though been lost? We'll break down his talking points. His remarks now posted on the White House web site are drawing a mixed reaction. A lot of people are still critical of the speech, others say they are now comfortable that the message is not political.

Obviously, a lot of ground to cover this morning. Let's get straight to the White House now and CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. Suzanne, good morning once again. What will the president tell students this morning?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, good morning. The president has released his speech obviously ahead of time. And much of it is about responsibility. That students should take responsibility. They shouldn't be afraid to fail. They should try and try again and to make their parents and their school and their country proud. The president talks about the fact that he's tried to do the same thing. He talks about his humble beginnings and some of his failings as well and uses himself as an example. This is what is in this speech. And the White House certainly hopes by putting this out it would kind of tamp down some of the criticism and at least allay some of the fears that some parents and some teachers were talking about in not sending their students to school to listen to the president speak. And one of those people is Jim Greer.

He is the GOP, the republican chair out of Florida. He is the one essentially who kicked off this whole thing saying he thought it was a socialist ideology and there would be indoctrinating the children. And from there it got picked up by talk radio, a lot of conservatives and people who started to weigh in and asked questions.

I had a chance to talk to Jim Greer and I pressed him a bit on this. He took a look at the speech. And then said, what's wrong with this? Are some those fears and concerns, are they still there? Here's how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (on camera): Are you going to send your children to see the speech tomorrow to school?

JIM GREER, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICANS PARTY OF FLORIDA: I am. My children have been taught to have the highest respect for the presidency and this president and all presidents. So after reading the text and seeing the Department of Education have told teachers they are not to lead students in a direction that they would have a week ago, my kids will be watching the president's speech as I hope all kids will. I don't advocate children not watching this president's speech with this text.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: The thing that he says he's objected to was the lesson plan, the suggestion by the Education Department that students actually write an essay on how to help the president -

COLLINS: Yes.

MALVEAUX: But he also says too that he doesn't believe that this text is the original speech that the president was going to give to school children. Well, the White House says that's nonsense, this is the text. This is the speech. And that this guy doesn't really have any credibility anymore on this particular issue.

So, he - you know, there are some people who are uneasy perhaps with the president's role when it comes to health care or the economy or education. That's one thing that Greer said is that he feels that the government role is too big and that's one of his concerns but clearly the White House is hitting back saying there's no cause for alarm. No cause for concern. And we've seen previous presidents do this in the past. Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, do we have any direct knowledge of this Suzanne? Because I am curious, there's been a lot of talk about the fact or the possibility that the text had changed. We all know that the lesson plan is no longer going to be included. Maybe - was it the way that the White House talked about it and the way that they presented some of these ideas that they expected to include in this speech that got people upset?

MALVEAUX: Well, I guess there are two things. And you can separate it. First of all, the White House says that the text and the speech itself was not altered and that this is the original text and this has not been tweaked to kind of deal with this controversy and these fears. The thing that caught up the White House here was the language in that lesson plan where they suggested students what they could do, write an essay and what to do to help the president.

There were some who felt that was political and in nature that it was poorly worded. The White House took back that particular lesson plan. But it's exactly the same thing that the former President, H.W. Bush had called for school children to do back in the '90s. What can you do to help the president? Essentially, this White House saying it was not political but out of sensitivity to those who were concerned, they removed that essay, that suggested essay.

COLLINS: All right. Very good. Suzanne Malveaux covering the story for us out in front of the White House. Thank you so much, Suzanne. And stay with us. Because we'll have live coverage of President Obama's speech to the nation's school children. It is scheduled to begin at noon Eastern.

Summer has reached its unofficial end and so has recess for members of Congress. Here's what we know. Congress is back in session at 2:00 p.m. Eastern today and just like when lawmakers left, health care reform is, of course, the big issue. In the senate the bipartisan gang of six negotiators will talk over a possible compromise. It's a proposal by finance committee chairman Max Baucus that doesn't include a public option.

President Obama is meeting with top congressional Democrats today for a status check on how much support his plan actually has. The halls of Congress have been pretty quiet as you would imagine over the past month but the action is about to heat up on Capitol Hill where we find our congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar.

So Brianna, you have already told us that the hustle and bustle is on at the Capitol there. What about the Baucus proposal now? Have you heard anybody talking about it?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is something we're paying a lot of attention to, Heidi. This is a formal proposal put out there by the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and he has distributed it among the five other bipartisan members, this gang of six as we have been calling them, to see what they think about this proposal.

So they are going to be meeting this afternoon 2:30 p.m. Eastern. We'll be paying a lot of attention to that. And they will be react to this proposal. I spoke a short time ago with Senator Charles Grassley, the top Republican on this committee. He's part of this gang of six. And he said it is his hope that this group can come to an agreement before the president's speech on health care tomorrow night. He said it's not an ideal time line for him but he knows this is what Senator Baucus wants and he's hopeful they get that done, Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. So what's in the plan exactly?

KEILAR: As you mentioned, it does not include a public option which we were expecting. The alternative to the public option is instead a health care cooperative. So this would be a non-profit health co-op governed by the patients that it serves. Also it would also expand Medicaid. Right now Medicaid covers children up to five years old and pregnant women who are below the poverty line up to one- third above the poverty line.

Under this proposal it would cover more children and also poor adults without children because it would cover everyone - Medicaid would cover everyone up to one-third above the poverty level. And lastly, how do you pay for this? Well, one of the big - the key part of this tax on this would be on those Cadillac health insurance plans, those high end insurance plans that some say encourage consumers to overuse health care. This is a tax that insurance companies would pay, not the individual but Heidi, there are some critics, for instance, Senator Grassley raised this concern that they think it's going to trickle down to everyone who has private health insurance. It's not just going to go to those people with those high end plans.

COLLINS: OK. We'll be watching and waiting and listening. That's for sure. Brianna Keilar, in Capitol Hill this morning. Sorry, thanks so much. It's been closed for so long. I forgot.

President Obama will make his health care pitch to that special joint session of Congress tomorrow night. We, of course, will cover it for you beginning at 8:00 eastern.

In case you haven't turned on the TV lately, we have been spending a lot of time on problems with health care in this country. But today is the first day of school in lots of places and it's reminding us that the education system has some serious problems, too. In fact, our blog question today for you is this. Which needs more attention right now? Do you think it's health care or do you think it's education? You can go to cnn.com/heidi and tell us what you think.

I want to head on over to Rob Marciano now at the severe weather center. We want to get an update on a tropical storm, Fred. A short name. Does that mean it's going to be short lived?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That would be nice. I like the way you think, Heidi.

COLLINS: Got it.

MARCIANO: We'll try to squeeze the life out of Fred here but quickly developed off the coast of Africa. Cape Verde islands here, about 300 miles southwest of there and heading to the west at about 15 miles an hour. The problem with Fred is you got pretty strong overnight winds at 50 miles an hour. And forecast to continue to strengthen. You kind of see a pretty good outflow there, some of those cirrus clouds. Actually the last couple of frames don't look all that great. So that would be ideal if we can get old Fred just to kind of simmer down here before too long.

Each one of these lines represents some of our computers that forecast this thing. And all of them bring it up to the north and then some of them bring it back to the west. Forecast from the National Hurricane Center brings it to hurricane strength status here in the next day or two. And then we'll have to wait and see before too long what happens after that.

All right. Quick check on what's going on across parts of the Carolinas. Heavy rainfall yesterday across southern parts of North Carolina. Now it looks like the main threat for rain moved up towards the Delmarva. Some of this will be rather heavy at times especially around Virginia Beach and Norfolk and the Hampton roads area there. Going to be kind of washed out for you due to that.

Wichita, north of Oklahoma City, a washout for the folks in southern Kansas. A live shot if you could from Dallas. I think we should still have this camera up. Yes, not so bad. WFAA, thanks for that shot there. Seasonable temperatures for you. And rain from Wichita, I think will remain up there. So not looking too bad as far as what's going on in that part of the world.

All right. The rest of the country looking at severe thunderstorms that will roll across parts of the northern plains today. Out west you look pretty dry and cool. That's good for the fires out there in Southern California. But the pictures we've been showing you all day in Southern California, in north Hollywood near Studio City...

COLLINS: Yes.

MARCIANO: This is - you don't see this every day, do you?

COLLINS: No.

MARCIANO: Apparently, this water main break is like 90 years old or something crazy like that. So...

COLLINS: What do you mean? It just keeps on breaking and gushing?

MARCIANO: Yes, until they shut down the main valve there. But when you talk about a water main that valve is probably pretty big and may very well be very far away and with infrastructure that's this old, it may take a while. So nobody hurt. Good news. And it almost looks like a fire truck you can play with as a kid. Kind of messing around with it in the backyard -

COLLINS: Unbelievable. MARCIANO: In the old mud pit. That's going to cost a few dollars to get out but hopefully they will. You know, they could probably just hook a hose up to it, you know, and rinse her down and we should be good to go.

COLLINS: I'm hearing people screaming in my ear, wrap. All right. Rob, thank you.

MARCIANO: First time they did that.

COLLINS: I know. I know. We will check back with you a little bit later on. We'll keep our eye on the fire truck, too. Unbelievable pictures there.

To this story though, he allegedly killed nine people around the city of Milwaukee but after more than two decades, police say the manhunt for the Northside Strangler is finally over.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: He allegedly terrorized women for more than two decades but now a suspected serial killer is in custody in Milwaukee. Police say he's 49-year-old Walter Ellis. Reporter Charles Benson from affiliate WTMJ tells us how police picked up the trail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLES BENSON, WTMJ-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chief Flynn says a lot of hard work went into bringing a conclusion to several cases that were cold but not forgotten.

CHIEF EDWARD FLYNN, MILWAUKEE POLICE: Good police work and good police science have led us to Walter Ellis.

BENSON: The nine victims were all women. Many with a history of drug and prostitution. They were strangled or stabbed to death. DNA found on the victims linked them to a single suspect but not to a known name. The missing link was a DNA match with Ellis. That came from a toothbrush from Ellis during a search warrant.

FLYNN: We offer our condolences to surviving family members with the hope that today's news gives them confidence there will be justice.

BENSON: Carron Kilpatricks' family hopes so. She died three weeks after giving birth to her fifth child in 1994. Her sister does not want to be seen on TV.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the best news ever.

BENSON (on camera): (INAUDIBLE) says police recently came by to talk to her about the cold case and a possible suspect but she says she never thought this day would come.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bring closure to me, you know what I'm saying, to know what happened, you know, to my sister. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Shooting for compromise in the race to reform health care. Can holding a loaded threat over health insurance companies force them to cover more Americans or will the president have to pull the trigger?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: As we countdown to the president's back-to-school message today, coming your way at noon, check out this stat, 56 million - that's the projected number of students to be enrolled in the nation's elementary, middle and high schools this fall.

Checking our top stories now. Justice Sonia Sotomayor gets a second swearing in today. Sotomayor who officially joined the high court last month will have a ceremonial swearing in this afternoon. The justices return to the bench tomorrow. They will consider whether to over rule two earlier decisions on campaign spending restrictions for corporations and unions.

San Francisco Bay area commuters getting a break this morning. A major span supposed to be closed today has actually reopened at this hour. San Francisco's Open Bay Bridge was shut down over the holiday weekend for scheduled work but the crews discovered a crack, originally, pushing back the bridge's opening until tomorrow morning. Crews though worked through the night and were able to repair the crack earlier than expected.

It's a somber day for U.S. forces. Eight troops were killed, four of them in Iraq and the other four in Afghanistan. The troops in Iraq were killed in separate roadside bombings. The troop deaths in Afghanistan were from a firefight with the Taliban.

From town hall screamers to bipartisan bickering, seems like all is fair in the war to reform health care but can a new threat on the table force a compromise now? Jim Acosta explains the trigger option.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have never been this close.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the president delivered one more campaign style pitch on health care reform, the question remains whether he will make a play for the public option. The idea of giving Americans the choice of joining a government-run insurance plan.

OBAMA: I continue to believe that a public option within that basket of insurance choices will help improve quality and bring down costs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy? ACOSTA: During that noisy congressional recess...

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: On what planet do you spend most of your time?

ACOSTA: One of the more soft-spoken voices of the Senate, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe was quietly talking to the White House about a compromise that would replace the public option with something called a trigger. Unlike the proposal in the House, the trigger would threaten the insurance industry with a public option down the road. The idea is backed by two former Senate leaders.

BOB DOLES (R), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: We recommend that after about five years if insurance companies don't clean up their act, then there's sort of a trigger where certain things happen and we think that's a step in the right direction.

ACOSTA: Throughout the health care debate, Snowe has shied away from radical changes to the nation's private insurance system.

SEN. OLYMPIA SNOWE (R), MAINE: They obviously want to, you know, protect those who have good health care in our insurance plans and they want to preserve it, they want to maintain it and we don't want to interfere with that. Nor do we want to interfere with the doctor- patient relationship.

ACOSTA: Even though Snowe's trigger could win over Senate centrists like Nebraska democrat, Ben Nelson, congressional liberals have said in no uncertain terms - public option, no deal.

SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI (D), MARYLAND: I say there is no option but a public option. For those that say we need a trigger, I say be careful. You could be shooting down health care.

ACOSTA: Political analysts wonder whether in the end Democrats will shoot themselves.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UVA CENTER FOR POLITICS: What politicians say in September and what they do in November or December are two different things because they come to terms with reality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Aha. Jim Acosta joining us now from D.C. with more on this. So Jim, can this trigger option bring some republicans on board or not?

ACOSTA: Well, that is the key question in all of this. And it may be the last best hope of not only bringing a few Republicans onboard, and they may just be a few but also those wavering centrist Democrats like Ben Nelson.

COLLINS: Yes.

ACOSTA: There's plenty of them out there. And if they don't have those centrists Democrats, health care may go nowhere in the Senate. Now, liberal democrats will argue that the trigger has already been met. If the trigger means we give the insurance companies some time to clean up their act, you know, the liberals in the House and in the Senate will say hold on a second. They've shown that they can't be trusted. So why even have a trigger?

But in the end, it all comes down to how badly Democrats want to have a deal. This morning northern Virginia Congressman Jerry Conley was here for an interview on AMERICAN MORNING stopped to say hello on his way out and he said to me, you know, if we don't pass something, anything, We could lose 30 to 40 seats in the upcoming election like just as what happened back in '93and '94, at the end of the Clinton health care debacle. So democrats have to think about that as well, Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes. It always comes back to politics though, you know.

ACOSTA: It does. How does that happen?

COLLINS: I don't know. Jim Acosta, thank you. Appreciate that.

ACOSTA: Sure.

COLLINS: So is it time to rethink education now? One man says it is and he's challenging America's children and their parents. Hear about his campaign next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: In about 90 minutes, President Obama will be speaking to the nation's school kids. The White House hoped to quiet critics by releasing the transcript of his remarks. That posting on the White House Web site, has drawn a mixed reaction. A lot of people are still critical of the speech. Others say they're now comfortable that the message is not political. Among the main talking points, the president will stress the importance of education and encourage kids to stay in school. He'll also tell students don't let failures define you.

The president's message is just the beginning of this conversation because there are so many things to talk about on the subject of education. Some new public service announcements which you are seeing for the first time right here on CNN are challenging people to help initiate change in our public schools. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I may only be a kid, but I'm already helping the government plan for the future.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you know that many states use third grade reading exams to predict future prison growth?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that more than a million kids drop out of school before high school each year? And that these kids are eight times more likely to end up in prison? It's true. Sixty percent of America's prison inmates never finished high school, and now many states are spending more money on prisons and less on public education.

(BELL RINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the bell. I better get back inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Isn't it time we ended the school-to-prison pipeline? We can do better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Sam Chaltain is the national director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. One of the organizations behind those new ads and author of "American Schools: The Art of Creating a Democratic Learning Community." Sam is joining us to talk more about what this campaign hopes to accomplish.

So, what is that, Sam? "Rethink learning now." What is it supposed to do?

Well, first of all, good morning, Heidi. Thanks for having me.

SAM CHALTAIN, AUTHOR AND NATIONAL DIRECTOR, FORUM FOR EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY: The objective of the campaign is to spark a national conversation about what we need to do together to finally fulfill the promise, 55 years late, first laid out in Brown v. Board of Education to ensure that every child in this country receives the same opportunity to a high quality public education.

I think what makes our campaign different is that a lot of times what ends up happening, with the best of intentions, is folks inside Washington put together a fully developed plan and then try to get the rest of the country to buy into their vision. What we're doing instead is we're providing a partially painted canvas to the nation. We're saying there are three pillars we think we should focus on. Learning, teaching, and fairness. And we can do better and we know more than we think we do.

So, we're asking the nation to share stories about their most powerful personal experience in a learning community, to describe their most effective teacher and what was it about that person that made them so effective. And to think with us about what needs to happen in order to finally ensure the fairness laid out in our founding documents and that should be the birthright of every American child.

COLLINS: Yes. In fact, when you look at the PSA that we showed here, some would say that's a bunch of scare tactics for kids and their parents. But we should probably show another one here that's not maybe quite as scary. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The commissioner is making his way to the podium. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first pick of this year's teacher's draft, Oregon Middle School selects (INAUDIBLE), a science teacher from Columbus, Ohio.

ANNOUNCER: Well, no surprise there. Every school in the country was hoping to nab him. He's a veteran teacher who demands the best from his students and brings his subject to life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Obviously doesn't matter how you look at it, the ads are pretty extreme. Clearly trying to get people's attention. Why this route instead of focusing on maybe some smaller change or a series of changes that might be easier to accomplish?

CHALTAIN: Well, first of all, I wouldn't say it's an either-or. With that last piece, we're not suggesting that President Obama needs to call for a teacher draft. But what we are doing is we're looking at the phenomenon that's become the NFL draft, this event in and of itself.

But also an example of how the NFL does a pretty good job ensuring equity. The Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl; they get the last pick of the best college players. The Detroit Lions went 0- 16, they get the first.

The opposite is currently true in public education. We have sometimes some of the least experienced teachers -- I myself was one when I started teaching in New York City -- in front of some of the kids with the greatest needs. That doesn't serve anybody. What we're trying to do is at least initiate a conversation that can run right up until the next reauthorization of federal education policy and think together, how do we move from a culture of testing to a culture of learning.

COLLINS: Yes, and unfortunately, we certainly don't pay our teachers near what the NFL pays players. That would probably be a big incentive. Before we let you go, Sam, what role do parents play in all of this?

CHALTAIN: Well, I think parent involvement is something that's always stressed and often misunderstood. First of all, public education is the closest thing to a silver bullet that we have in this country. It's the only institution that reaches 90 percent of every succeeding generation of Americans that's governed by political authority. And that was founded with the explicit mission of preparing kids to be active and responsible citizens in a democracy.

And that work of using public education as a springboard to greater opportunity and the American dream begins in the home with parents. What I would like to see schools doing more often, though, is recognizing that there are a lot of different stages of parent involvement. We all want to fill the auditorium on Tuesday night when we ask parents to come in, but the first step of parent involvement is making sure that your child is fed and gets to school on time, ready to learn...

COLLINS: Certainly.

CHALTAIN: ... And the more that we can begin there, and start to think about how to work more productively with parents, I think the better we'll be in the end.

COLLINS: Yes, we certainly all hope that parents can be as involved as they possibly can for their kids making their way through school. Sam Chaltain, we certainly appreciate your time. The director of Forum for Education and Democracy. Thank you.

CHALTAIN: Thank you, Heidi.

COLLINS: Congress is back in session today after its August recess. The big topic today is health care reform. Some members of a key Senate committee are looking at a compromise overhaul. The plan does not have a public option but does include co-ops. One senator hopes a deal can be struck before the president's address to Congress tomorrow night. We'll have the president's speech live at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

But before he talks health care, of course the president is going to be talking about education. As you know, he'll be doing that today to school kids. Going to happen at noon. We'll have that live as well today.

We want to know because we like to hear what you have to say, which do you think needs more attention? Is it health care or is it education reform? Two very big topics, obviously. We have some responses right now. All you have to do is go over to our blog, which is CNN.com/heidi in order to weigh in. You'll read a little bit about the story we're talking about every day and then post your response.

This one from Mike in Texas. "Education is the most important, because without that, you don't have qualified people to administer the health care." Interesting.

And from Cindy: "Health care. Too many children come from uninsured, underinsured families. They have to be well in order to learn."

And finally, this one from Devon. "It is the chicken and the egg argument. With one, you can't have the other. A well-educated and healthy society will be the most powerful, the most influential, and the happiest."

Once again, thanks for your comments. CNN.com/heidi.

Warren Buffett is called the Oracle of Omaha for a reason. When he makes a bet, Wall Street takes notice, and so should you. Listen up. He's betting on electric cars. CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Energy Fix" now from New York. Hi there, Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hi there, Heidi. Well, he's a smart man who's made a lot of money making smart bets. He already owns through his company, Berkshire-Hathaway, about 10 percent of a car maker that you might never have heard about. BYD. It's a tiny electric car maker.

He bought that stake about a year ago. That cost him $230 million. But now there's talk that he may increase his stake. That's Warren Buffett standing next to one of those electric cars at a photo shoot for "Fortune" back in March.

Now, the chairman of BYD suggested last week that this may happen that Buffett may take a bigger stake in his company that sent shares of that Chinese company soaring, and Buffett told me this morning -- we talked to him on the phone -- he said, listen, I can't tell you whether or not I'm going to increase my stake. He said, "I'll leave that to the chairman of BYD to say." So, that's what he's indicating.

We should note, Heidi, last year Warren Buffett wanted to buy a 25 percent stake in that car maker, but they weren't willing to sell that much at the time. So, I think all signs point to keep an eye on this one.

COLLINS: Yes. Definitely. Most people have probably heard of BYO but not BYD. What can you tell us about it?

HARLOW: Is it stands for "build your dreams." What's so interesting is that this is a cell phone maker, one of the largest cell phone battery makers in the world. Then they bought a bankrupt Chinese car company so they could transfer their advanced battery technology to cars.

Well, it's paying off. They already have a gas electric hybrid out in China that costs $22,000. That will go about 62 miles on a single charge. Next year, though, they plan to bring an all-electric car to the United States that's going to, they say, go 249 miles on a single charge.

Warren Buffett told me it's pretty impressive. He said it can go about 0 to 60 in four seconds. Heidi, the timing of this is very significant. This Chinese electric car will hit the U.S. market around the same time as General Motors' Chevy Volt and electric cars from Nissan and Chrysler. That means more competition for the U.S. automakers that are already behind.

COLLINS: Fierce competition. People who want to ask Warren Buffett about electric cars or anything else -- I hear they're going to get an opportunity to do that.

HARLOW: Yes. We're going to sit down with Warren Buffett next week, next Tuesday in California at Fortune's Most Powerful Women's Conference. He's about the only guy invited to that conference of all women. Go on to fortune.com/buffett or CNNmoney.com/buffet, and tell us what you would like us to ask him. We're going to choose the best question and we're going to ask him your questions this time instead of our questions. So, again, it's CNNmoney.com/buffett.

COLLINS: It's a good article. I read it just a little while ago. So, very good. Poppy Harlow, thank you. HARLOW: You're welcome.

COLLINS: A major break in a series of serial killings around Milwaukee. Police now believe they have the North Side Strangler in custody. They arrested 49-year-old Walter Ellis at a motel Saturday. Ellis is accused of killing nine women since 1986. Most of them prostitutes. Police say DNA evidence links him to all of the crimes. He faces two counts of homicide, but more charges are likely.

For a quick progress report on the station fire that's been burning out in California. Here's what we know at this point. Fire crews say they have stopped it from spreading and expect to have it fully contained by next Tuesday. Seventy-eight homes were destroyed, but noting 10,000 more were threatened. A deputy fire chief says firefighters had done an unbelievable job here. The fire is being treated as arson and a homicide investigation because two firefighters died.

The space shuttle Discovery begins its journey back to earth later today. It's scheduled to undock from the international space station this afternoon and end a resupply visit that lasted just over a week. The shuttle returns home with seven astronauts and a Buzz Lightyear doll that was launched last year. Excellent idea.

A local Georgia girl becomes the latest star born at the U.S. Open. How a little-known 17-year-old is using determination and a vicious backhand to beat down the competition.

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COLLINS: We're a little more than an hour away from the president delivering his message to students all around the country. Check out this stat. Eleven percent -- that's the projected percentage of elementary through high school students enrolled in private schools this fall.

Rob Marciano is standing by in the weather center right now. Looks like you have some new information to share with us. Are we talking about Fred?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We're talking about Fred. I'm looking at the latest numbers from the National Hurricane Center. This is the 11:00 advisory. They upped the ante as far as the strength of this thing. We talked about it getting better organized, and in the last frame or two looks better than this.

Here's where it is, and here's where it is going. Westerly movement at last check, 50 miles an hour. 11:00 advisory, and it's 10:50, so forgive me for not being completely up to speed. Westerly movement at 14 miles an hour. Max sustained winds at 65.

So, this thing is almost a hurricane. The forecast is for it to become a hurricane. Here's the latest forecast track. Watch it with me for the first time. There it is. Hurricane 1 -- Category 1 status. Get it to about 50 -- 85 miles an hour for tomorrow and Thursday. And the track looks to be fairly similar in that it kind of stalls it out and weakens in toward the end of the period.

Let me see if there's anything glaring on here that may change that. That's just way too complicated at this point.

(LAUGHER)

COLLINS: Not only is it complicated, but it is so complicated we can no longer hear Rob Marciano very closely tracking Tropical Storm Fred that looks like in case you missed what he said there that it is almost at hurricane strength. If we need to get back to Rob, we'll do that. Probably a battery problem with the microphone there. So, once again, we'll get back to Rob in just a moment.

This story, 17-year-old Melanie Oudin from Marietta, Georgia is becoming the breakout star at the U.S. Open with shots like that. She's advanced to her first quarterfinal in a grand slam with a win over a 13th seed Nadia Petrova last night. Oudin says this is what she always wanted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIE OUDIN, U.S. OPEN QUARTERFINALIST: This is my dream forever. I work so hard for this. It's finally happening. My first quarterfinal grand slam. It's amazing. This is what I've wanted forever, and I'm finally achieving my goal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Oudin will play the ninth seed, Carolyn Woosneeaki (ph) of Denmark coming up next in the quarterfinals.

An ongoing battle with the Taliban. Four U.S. troops, the latest casualties of the fight in Afghanistan.

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COLLINS: Deadly blasts in Iraq leave four U.S. troops dead this morning. Roadside bombings routinely target coalition patrols. Three were killed in an explosion in northern Iraq. The fourth in a blast in southern Baghdad.

It's a similar story in Afghanistan this morning. Four service members are dead. CNN's Atia Abawi joins now live from Kabul. Atia, what do we know about these troops in this incident?

ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, we're getting little information at the moment. We do know that four U.S. soldiers were killed in an ongoing fight in Kunar province. Kunar province actually borders Pakistan.

I was just there on Friday with commander of (INAUDIBLE) forces, General Stanley McChrystal, as well as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry. They were there to show new initiatives from the Obama administration where they are trying to combine civilian military efforts. We did speak to certain Afghans there, including a police officer who said the area we were standing may have been safe, but just 10 kilometers in front of us was a village patrolled by the Taliban.

So, small steps being made, but a very, very long way to go as we saw today with these four U.S. soldiers killed in battle. Heidi?

COLLINS: All right. Atia Abawi for us, giving us the most information that we have been able to gather so far on this incident. Atia, thank you.

And a quick reminder. Tonight, Anderson Cooper takes you inside Afghanistan live from the battle zone. A "AC 360" special report beginning at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Money can't buy you love, but it can buy the fully remastered Beatles catalog. It took four-and-a-half years to finish this up. But you only have to wait one more hard day's night to hear it for yourself.

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COLLINS: Singers Mary J. Blige, Natalie Cole and Sister Sledge are among thirteen artists who will headline a September 26th Michael Jackson tribute concert in Vienna. Jackson's brother, Jermaine, says up to 25 performers are expected outside a 17th century palace in the Austrian capital. He says more names will be revealed. That news conference is later this week in London and Berlin.

You heard their music before but never quite like this. Tomorrow the remastered Beatles catalog hits stores. Jim Boulden tells us how engineers made a timeless sound a little more timely.

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JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was here, the Abbey Road Studios in London, where most of the Beatles' songs were recorded.

(on camera): So this was the logical place for sound engineers to spend time over the past four-and-a-half years remastering the original Beatles catalog.

(voice-over): The goal: have the Beatles sound as if they were recording with today's technology.

ALLAN ROUSE, EMI ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS: We had decided we wanted to remove or improve technical folks within the recordings that could have been a bad edit, a dropout, vocal sibilance, vocal pops. We haven't taken out breaths or little coughs or squeaky chairs and Ringo's occasional squeaky bass drum pedals.

BOULDEN: The engineers worked from master analog tapes, not the CDs produced in the 1980s, knowing of course, fans would be listening. Carefully listening.

SEAN MAGEE, EMI ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS: They transferred all the tapes with a very different combinations of machinery into the computer and then blind tested all the variations to see which one they preferred. And then after choosing that, everything was transferred track by track into (INAUDIBLE) making sure that the tape heads were nice and clean, and the tape speed was constantly monitored, so the best possible transfer could happen.

BOULDEN: The songs for a new video game, "The Beatles Rock Band," were also tweaked at Abbey Road. Giles Martin, the son of the Beatles' legendary producer, George Martin, worked on the project.

GILES MARTIN, MUSIC PRODUCEER: The biggest problem for us was that a lot of the Beatles stuff isn't recorded separately. They worked on two tracks. The (INAUIBLE) material, which is "Twist and Shout" (INAUDIBLE) is on two tracks. All of the drums, base and guitars together.

BOULDEN: Steve Turner has been writing about the Beatles for years and says these are big moves for the Beatles and the company they formed, Apple Core.

STEVE TURNER, MUSIC WRITER: I think Apple will look at ways of preserving the heritage and also getting fresh flow of income.

BOULDEN: Giles Martin says Paul and Ringo are very pleased with the rock band game. But what do they think about the final remasters? The engineers haven't heard.

(off-camera): When you haven't heard back, is that good news?

ROUSE: Basically, if the phone doesn't ring, it's probably good news, yes.

BOULDEN: And no word yet if these digital copies of the songs will also be available for downloading, as many fans want.

Jim Boulden, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Great way to end a show with some Beatles music, right? I'm Heidi Collins. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Tony Harris.