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Obama Backs Down, Moves Speech; Obama to Tour New Jersey Sunday; Political Challenges Ahead for Libya; Unemployment Benefits Feel to 409,000; Smaller Versus Larger Colleges; Officer Caught in the Act

Aired September 01, 2011 - 09:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And T.J. Holmes, our good friend, is taking over in the CNN NEWSROOM. If you're good to me, I'll send you a bottle of (INAUDIBLE) as well.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: That's all right my hairy friend. I am good to go on the chest right now. All right? Good to see you guys, as always. The crew. We'll talk to you soon.

But hello to you all. I am the aforementioned T.J. Holmes, sitting in today for Kyra Phillips.

What -- Is this a bad sign, folks? They are debating about the president's jobs plan coming up, but they can't even agree on when he should deliver the plan. That's where we are now, folks. The president asking to address Congress on one night. The Republican speaker of the House says that night doesn't work for us.

You know the story by now. Obama requesting the joint session for Congress on Wednesday -- the same night, though, that the presidential candidates -- the Republican presidential candidates are holding a debate. So, Speaker John Boehner says, do it on Thursday, Mr. President.

But we got a problem there, too. That's the night the NFL is kicking off its season. Now trivial maybe you'll say, but the White House is saying that would be a distraction the White House wants to avoid, wants the country focused on what the president has to say.

But the president did, in fact, agree to move his speech to a week from today. Next Thursday, yes, the same nights the Saints and the Packers are kicking off the season.

The focus of the speech, as you know, is going to be jobs and the economy. But this bickering now raises even more doubts on whether the two parties can agree on anything.

Brianna Keilar is with me from the White House now.

Brianna, this is a bad sign or are we making too much of this? OK, they switched the day. There's a little back and forth, but this is not the biggest deal right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's not the biggest deal, T.J., but it is a big deal because this speech that the president is going to give, laying out this plan. This is intended to be a pivotal moment for him, a very important moment -- and already this setup to that pivotal moment is essentially being botched here.

It's not surprising that the White House had to bend here and move from Wednesday to Thursday because there really wasn't a lot of coordination, if any at all, with Congress. We are talking Democrats and Republicans as well.

The White House says it consulted with Republicans. We are hearing from White House P Secretary Jay Carney they were given about 30 minutes notice. I heard from a Republican aide it was more like 60 minutes notice to the speaker before this was announced yesterday, this letter that came out. But that's not really a lot of time when the protocol is something like this, a joint -- an address to a joint session to Congress, which is a very big deal, quite the spectacle, T.J., on Capitol Hill, normally, there's a lot more time that's put in to coming up with the date on something like that.

HOLMES: Brianna, the other thing here -- is this just how it's done? A lot of people don't know the behind the scenes of the president setting up an address like this, but how does it go? It seems like the president asked to come by on one day. It doesn't seem like you should have the option of saying that day doesn't work for us.

KEILAR: Well, let's talk about, say, the State of the Union, which at least -- I mean, the State of the Union is a very, very big deal and quite the formality. But what you would see with an addressed session to the Congress is very similar. And you would have the White House and Congress and in this case, the folks who are in charge of the schedule for the House and the Senate.

So, Republicans in the House, Democrats in the Senate -- you'd have them working on this for some time. They would probably go back and forth about days that worked and then there would kind of be this invite, this letter which would be the request of the president, or in this case, simply the invitation coming from Congress -- because really this is Congress, T.J. This is really Congress' imperative to invite the president to do something like this. That's why when he sent his letter, it was a request for the opportunity to address Congress.

HOLMES: All right. Brianna Keilar giving us some of the inner workings of Washington. It's not always pretty. Brianna, good to see you as always.

Let me turn to Jim Acosta.

Jim, we are talking about the night that the president originally wanted. The Republican candidates will have their debate, but they are starting to weigh in now on this back-and-forth on this speech. What are they saying?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., it should come as no surprise that this has already becoming a political football, if you will, out on the campaign trail. Take, for example, Michele Bachmann. She was at a Tea Party Express rally in Iowa last night and she couldn't resist poking the president on the timing of this big jobs speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, does this show maybe a little insecurity on the part of the president? Either A, he wants to distract the American people so they don't watch him, or B, he doesn't want the American people to hear what the next president of the United States is going to say about the president's job plan!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Another Republican candidate, Jon Huntsman, he was unveiling his jobs plan yesterday up in New Hampshire. And he was asked about the president's controversy over the timing of this speech and he said, T.J., that when you don't have a jobs plan, you sometimes resort to political theatrics -- accusing the president of basically scheduling this speech on the night originally of the GOP debate, purely for political reasons -- T.J.

HOLMES: And, Jim, this doesn't look too good right now -- the latest numbers at least on the president's job performance.

ACOSTA: That's right. I mean, there is a good reason why the president has scheduled this jobs speech or was trying to schedule this jobs speech yesterday and now finally has a date and time nailed down. And all you have to do is look at the latest CNN/ORC poll that came out this morning. How is President Obama handling the economy?

T.J., you know, we look at a lot of poll numbers every day and sometimes our eyes glaze over and we wonder, boy, does this mean anything? Take a look at this number. No eyes should glaze over. They should be popping out of the skulls at the White House when these numbers come out.

Thirty-four percent approve of the president's handling of the economy, 65 percent -- that's two out of every three Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the economy.

And how do Americans feel about the economy right now? Not very good. Even wider margins when it comes to how Americans feel about the way things are going in the country right now. Badly, 73 percent, well, 28 percent.

T.J., these are terrible numbers going into a re-election year. And the reason why people like Michele Bachman are feeling pretty good about the Republicans chances next year.

HOLMES: All right. Jim Acosta, thank you as always.

ACOSTA: You bet.

HOLMES: Six minutes past the hour now.

We will have your next political update in one hour. And a reminder as well, for the latest news, political news -- you know where to go, CNNPolitics.com.

Well, five days now since Hurricane Irene first made landfall. And still, from North Carolina to Maine, we got about 2 million homes and businesses still without power. A lot of towns and communities still cut off. Bridges washed out. Roads impassible and, in some cases, food is running low.

In Vermont, the National Guard there are providing air drops of food and water and medicine.

And on Sunday, President Obama will travel to New Jersey to view the damage.

New Jersey is where we find our Susan Candiotti now.

Susan, tell us where you are and what you're seeing.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All right, T.J. I'm in Wayne, New Jersey, right across the bridge from Little Falls. And just to give you an idea of a high water mark here. Look at the top of that car vacuum. We are in the parking lot of a car wash.

I'm going to step down this curb here very slowly because the current here runs pretty swiftly. Here is a leaf to show you how normally it floats away. I am told normally, it is very calm here.

Under normal circumstances, this is great real estate because it's on the banks of the Passaic River, but if you look over that way, we are 30 yards or so from where the river starts. And, obviously, as you can see, it's hard to tell where the Passaic River starts and where the parking lot begins.

A lot of businesses and, obviously, a lot of homes, sections of Wayne in falls river remain under water and remain cut off unless you have a boat.

If you swing over this way, you can see a street. There is a neighborhood back there that we toured yesterday because someone had a boat with them and we went down there. There are some people that have refused to leave, absolutely refused to leave.

The National Guard is also there, standing right by here. They've got boats that they are taking back to those areas. Never during the nighttime because it's far too dangerous even for them; and they will only go in now more or less to look around, but also if someone needs rescue. Obviously, it's taking up a lot of their time and effort also being out here.

So, T.J., they are hoping that the water will continue to recede and perhaps go down far enough by the weekend to allow far more people to go in and start the cleanup -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Susan Candiotti for us there -- thank you.

At 10 minutes past the hour. We're going to turn overseas where they are trying to put Libya on a path to democracy.

Representatives from 60 countries, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are gathering in Paris today. They are meeting with Libya's rebel leadership and discussing everything from establishing a constitution, to rebuilding that war-torn country. So big challenges certainly lie ahead for the Libyan people and the Libyan leadership now.

CNN's Max Foster is joining me now from London with that.

Hello to you, Max.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, T.J.

Yes, it's interesting. We had an interview earlier today with David Cameron, the British prime minister. He is co-hosting this event in France with the French president. He was very keen to point out they learned the lessons from Iraq and after the Iraq invasion, you had the situation where the reconstruction and the security wasn't handled properly. And a lot of aid money actually went missing.

So, as you say, a lot of challenges for the rebel leadership. They're really going to get this right. They've got to convince the likes of Secretary Clinton that they are safe to hold this money.

Let's have a look at what the papers are saying about this, because "The Wall Street Journal" refers to this in an editorial saying, "The Libyans are lucky. They have wealth and a favorable location close to Europe. And, for what it's worth, they have the Iraqi example of what works and what doesn't once the tyrant and his statues have fallen."

A slightly more spiky comment in "The Gulf News" in the United Arab Emirates, with the headline, "Libyans Must Fully Liberate Themselves." "While U.S. yet to offer rebuild Libya, NATO seems giddy to get involved in charting the course of the new Libya with France leading the way on that front. It might not be along before NATO's victory in Libya becomes a political-military doctrine in its own right."

So, it's going to be interesting, T.J. This is the first step really of the new future for Libya and it's going to be interesting to see what Secretary Clinton makes of those rebel leaders as the new controlling force in Libya.

HOLMES: All right. Max Foster for us in London -- thank you, as always.

Well, coming up, Steven Lynn was planning to take some pictures of his house as he flew overhead. But when he looked down, what he saw was somebody robbing him! Coming up, he is going to join me right here to tell us what he did next.

Also, Prince Harry is coming to America, but this is no vacation. He is going to be training on a helicopter gunship. All of the details ahead.

Stay with us. It's 11 past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, at 14 minutes past the hour. Give you a look at some of the stories making headlines.

And they say surf is up all the time. Usually, that's just something people say. But, no, really, but it is this time along the Hawaiian and California coastlines. National Weather Service issued high surf advisories even. Big swell should diminish, though, later in the week.

In California, solar company visited by President Obama last year has now shut down. Solyndra announcing yesterday the layoff of 1,100 employees at its Fremont manufacturing plant. The company will file for bankruptcy protection.

Also in San Francisco, here we go again. Another iPhone prototype reportedly has been lost. According to CNET, an Apple employee left the thing in a bar back in July. Apple not commenting on this story.

And this story may sound familiar to you. A similar tale happened proceeding the release of the iPhone for last year.

Well, listen to this now. Pilot David Hudson, he flew over Steven Lynn's Arkansas home. Lynn wanted to take the ride so he could take some aerial photos of his property.

But instead, when they looked down they saw two men robbing the house. The crooks took off. They followed in the plane overhead and called 911. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID HUDSON, PILOT: North/south turn on 625.

They're going north on 625?

They are just now come to 158. It looks like they see an officer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So he is giving the play-by-play there and telling the police where to go. The suspects were caught.

David and Steve are joining me now.

Gentlemen, thank you both for being here. And, did it take you a minute -- Steven, as you're looking down, did it take a moment to process really what was happening at your house?

STEVEN LYNN, PLANE PASSANGER, SAW HIS HOUSE ROBBED: Yes, it really did. I was kind of in shock when I looked down and seeing that I was being robbed. You never expect to see something like that.

HOLMES: When you saw it, I'm assuming you were naturally first angered by it. But did you feel helpless or did you feel like you had some options?

LYNN: It's a helpless feeling watching and knowing there is nothing you can do to stop them. All I could do is call 911 dispatch team and they did a good job of getting an officer there.

HOLMES: All right. Let me bring in the pilot now. David, did you have some options? I don't know how many vehicle/aircraft chases you've been a part of before, but it didn't seem like the best idea.

HUDSON: Right. No. I was thinking what could we really do? And then Steven dialed 911 and everything went really good.

HOLMES: But, David, you did give chase. We are looking at some of the video here. This is not like you're going through downtown Atlanta. This is northeastern part of the state of Arkansas, kind of a rural area.

So, did that certainly, David, make it easy for you to try to keep up with these guys?

HUDSON: It really did make it easy. It's rural Arkansas, a farming community and it rally -- it was really good.

HOLMES: All right. Steven, as you kept up this pursuit, was it easy to give the police as well the play-by-play? I assume you know the area fairly well, but you sound like a dispatcher yourself or a police officer as we listen to that 911. You know all of the streets and you tell them exactly where to go.

LYNN: Well, I grew up in the area. So, yes, it was fairly easy for me to give direction.

HOLMES: All right. Now, did you see it all go down at the end when the police were actually able to corner these guys? Did y'all see that and was all of your stuffed recovered, for the most part?

LYNN: I'd says at least 90 percent of it was recovered. Still a little bit missing. It was apparent they made two trips. No proof of that yet.

But, yes, we did get to see them get out of the car and then we had to go to the airport and land.

HOLMES: David and Steven, this is an interesting story and interesting video and interesting audio there as well to see it happen. Glad it did work out.

But, gentlemen, appreciate your time and say hello to my folks there in Arkansas, all right?

LYNN: Yes, sir.

HUDSON: Thank you very much.

HOLMES: All right. We're at 18 minutes past the hour.

And coming up, Prince Harry as already seen action in Afghanistan you may know, but he is about to see some action in the Arizona desert? He is going to be training on an Apache helicopter gunship.

Also some folks taking to the Internet, some of the message boards out there, to criticize "Dancing with the Stars" for adding Chaz Bono to the lineup. The show and now Chaz's famous mother speaking out. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Twenty minutes past the hour.

Now, I'll give you some showbiz headlines.

And after Mike Tyson's popular stint in those "Hangover" movies, Jetline (ph) now saying the creator of "Entourage" will team up with Mike Tyson and Spike Lee for a new HBO show called "The Brick." It is a show that will be based on Tyson's life.

Can I listen to this for a second?

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

HOLMES: I love that.

All right. We'll move on -- next story here. Marc Anthony is breaking his silence. In an interview with "Good Morning America," he is answering questions about his breakup, the breakup of his marriage to Jennifer Lopez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you love Jennifer?

MARC ANTHONY, SINGER: I'll always love Jennifer. Yes. Always love Jennifer. She knows that. But the important thing is she knows that and my kids know that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)\

HOLMES: Well, the couple has 3-year-old twins. They were married for seven years.

Also, the "Dancing with the Star's" executive producer is pushing back at some online message board flak they got by adding transgender star Chaz Bono. Conrad Green tells the "Hollywood Reporter" we don't have any agenda of any sorts. Bono underwent female to male gender transition in 2010 and Chaz's mom, Cher, used Twitter to defend him saying, "This is still America, right? It took guts 2 do it," end quote.

Well, as I mentioned a moment ago, Prince Harry coming to the U.S. next month. But for very different reasons from when his brother was here not too long ago.

Max Foster is live in London to tell us more.

Max, we saw -- this is no vacation here and it won't be the kind of scene we saw when his brother and brother's new bride came to the U.S. not long ago.

FOSTER: No. What we are told -- all the information is coming from the military because he is part of the military and he's training to fly Apache helicopters which pretty lethal machines and this is the final stage in his training. So, he goes over to the U.S. for two months. And he is going to be in Gila Bend in Arizona and also El Centro in California for that training.

And they are pretty lethal machines. He'll learn how to fire them. And once he is finished with that training, then he'll be qualified to fly them in battle zones.

But he is going to be there for two months and it's strictly professional. No public engagements whatever we are told, T.J.

HOLMES: So, that is going to be rough for the media maybe here in the U.S. And, again, no matter -- we forget sometimes these are professional soldiers, even though, yes, they are royals. So, the media shouldn't expect to see him at all?

FOSTER: Not a thing. No media access whatsoever. There's going to be a photo release when I arrives by the military and when he leaves, they are going to release some footage of him in action in training, and there will be a short interview.

But no interviews at all, no media coverage at all. I know there is a lot of interest in the U.S., but also in the U.K. in this. So, we'll see how they manage to field this. So, I think he may be forced into an interview at some point, although the military is controlling this and they are very anti of that.

HOLMES: All right. Well, Max Foster, who wears a lot of hats, but also our royal correspondent as well. Max, thanks so you as always.

Well, here we are at 24 minutes past the hour now.

Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week. Possibly a shot in the arm? That's the one the economy needs right now? We are going behind the numbers just ahead.

Also, in Texas, wildfires are burning thousands of acres there, as well as in Oklahoma. But Mother Nature may be the one bringing some relief.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: As we're coming up on the bottom of the hour now, give you a look at some of the stories making headlines. Partisan bickering -- surprise, surprise -- over a date for the president to address a joint session for Congress. The Republicans say they weren't informed before the White House announcement. Now, the president has agreed to move back the speech from next Wednesday when he had asked to next Thursday.

Also, the heads of the 9/11 Commission are warning of a gap in anti-terror measures. New report says nine recommendations made by the panel in 2004 have still not been followed.

Also, no U.S. service members were killed in Iraq in August. It's the first month without an American military death there since the 2003 invasion.

Days after Hurricane Irene swept the East Coast, almost 2 million people still without power. In New Jersey, some of the people evacuated their homes are now returning to check things out. The White House says President Obama will travel to Paterson, New Jersey, this weekend. He'll get a look at the damage for himself.

Also in Vermont, crews have patched almost all of the roads leading to about a dozen towns that were cut off by the flooding.

Let us say good morning to Mr. Rob Marciano.

Another hurricane, another storm to deal with --

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

HOLMES: -- right now. Should we be worried just yet?

MARCIANO: We're going to be worried about a couple of things, one more so than the other. But to put a positive spin on this, one may bring some good news.

First off, Katia, September 1st -- September 11th and 12th is the peak of hurricane season. So, we're really just getting into it. So, it's no surprise that on the heels of Irene, we have ourselves another hurricane. Katia -- good news with this -- is about a thousand miles out east of the Leeward Islands. Wind 75 miles an hour, became a hurricane overnight. Winds are westerly, or it's moving westerly at 19 miles an hour.

Here is the forecast track from the National Hurricane Center, moving under a subtropical ridge, becoming a category 3 storm over the weekend sometime, and moving in the general direction of the U.S. There are some indications that some longer range models bringing a couple of cold fronts through that may nudge this out to sea. Can't give the all-clear on this just yet, but we are certainly hoping for that.

The other big news weather-wise is a critical fire danger across parts of the southern planes. Oklahoma and Texas getting hardest hit with fires in the past few days -- video for you from Oklahoma -- at one point yesterday shutting down the interstate there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A new sign the job market may be improving just a bit. The government says fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week.

Christine Romans, what does that mean exactly?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It means 12,000 people, fewer people lined up for the first time for jobless benefits last week. And T.J., I mean, it means that the economy isn't getting worse. It means that mass layoffs are not picking up. It means that those striking Verizon workers aren't on the roll. So that has something to do with it as well to the Verizon situation.

Overall, 409,000 people filed for unemployment benefits so these are first-time filers. Not people who had been unemployed for a long time, just for new first-time filers. Anything above 400,000, people say signals weakness in the labor market and it's not as bad as it was the week before.

So I'm going to give you a word. Here's my word.

HOLMES: All right.

ROMANS: Churn. You're going to see churn, churning in these numbers, churning in stock prices, churning in general as everyone tries to get a sense of what is happening in the jobs market, what we can do to improve it, and the political atmosphere surrounding that. So I expect a lot of churn about a lot of jobs and about stocks here in the near term.

HOLMES: OK. What will our churning be like tomorrow? Expecting more numbers?

ROMANS: Yes. Expecting maybe 80,000 jobs created. So this number I was just telling you about is the weekly report. It shows jobless benefits. The big number tomorrow is the monthly jobs report, that sort of the grand daddy of them all. We want to see how many jobs were created.

In an economy that has 306 million people and 150 million people in the labor market, how many jobs did we create? The forecast is only 80,000. Positive jobs growth but simply not enough to keep up with new people coming into the work force. The unemployment rate expected to remain steady at 9.1 percent. We'll know for sure tomorrow. We'll be able to get a look in what the government says where we are creating jobs. So far it's been in health care, it's been temporary work, it's been in some kinds of businesses service. We will be able to see if that continues tomorrow and get a good sense of whether this economy is healing, whether the jobs market is healing. All, of course, before our politically charged week next week when we hear the president's big plan what to do about the jobs situation.

HOLMES: All right. Christine Romans, always a pleasure. Thank you.

ROMANS: All right. Nice to see you, T.J.

HOLMES: Now it is about 34 minutes past the hour. And some critics of President Obama say in the race to fix the economy, the president has forgotten about the poor.

Well, if you want somebody to come to your defense, it helps if he is 6'10". One of the president's supporters here to defend him and he is coming from the NBA. That is next.

Also ahead, sizing up colleges? Large versus small. Find out what students see as the pros and the cons. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's 37 minutes past the hour now.

And in this debate over how to fix the economy, some of President Obama's critics say he has forgotten the poor in America. Talk show host Tavis Smiley is one of them. He has been one of the president's most outspoken critics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAVIS SMILEY, TV TALK SHOW HOST: The president ought to do more. The poor ought to be a priority. He ought not to have signed that debt ceiling legislation that raise the ceiling that put a hole in the floor that poor people are falling through with no extension of unemployment benefits.

When you say the president wants to extend unemployment benefits, why then sign legislation that did not extend unemployment benefits? That is the question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now you see Tavis Smiley there sitting with Cornell West, the Princeton professor. They are on a poverty tour right now. But Etan Thomas says those critics don't have it right. You might recognize him. Mr. Thomas here, he's been in NBA for quite some time, and right now playing for the Atlanta Hawks. And he also does some writing for us on CNN.com. He has a latest piece in which he defends the president.

Good to have you here, my man. We know that the president, presidents get criticized, and Smiley and West have some strong criticism. So what is wrong with that? ETAN THOMAS, ATLANTA HAWKS CENTER: Well, you know, I definitely have utmost respect for Dr. West and Mr. Smiley. So this wasn't a personal attack on them at all. I wouldn't try to discredit the messenger; I kind of just disagree with the message. But I have to respectfully disagree.

I don't think that President Obama has forgotten about the poor. I don't think he has turned his back on the black community at all. I look at the specific things he has been able to accomplish through health care, through education, job creation and, you know, the evidence just doesn't support the accusation that he just has turned his back altogether.

HOLMES: So when you hear them, you hear them saying he's not just not doing enough, but you hear them saying he's doing nothing or like you just said turning his back?

THOMAS: Yes, you know, and the thing is I understand the frustration. I mean, I paid attention to their poverty tour. I read the accounts of them staying with homeless people and, you know, we have a real problem right now.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there's a 9.1 percent of the country is unemployed right now. 45 million people living in poverty. These are real issues. But, you know, don't make enemy of somebody who is fighting on your side.

Now, if you want him to do more, that is understandable, of course. But don't act like he is not doing anything. And don't act like we are better off with the opposition. I mean, if you really, you know, if you really want to have something to complain about, you know, wait and see if the opposition takes office and we would really need a poverty tour then.

HOLMES: I certainly need to say, people will probably recognize something on what you said. You have campaigned for the president. You are certainly one of his guys, but with Smiley and West, do you see this as a battle of personalities. Almost of that it's something personal between them and the president. And do you think they have a motive to try to press the black vote, keep black folks not as enthused about going to vote for this president? Do you think they want him out of office?

THOMAS: Honestly, I don't even want to deal with that. You know, I have too much respect for them to even think that petty politics and personal differences and personal offences would even take place here. So I just look at the facts of what they are saying and I respectfully disagree.

I look at what the president has been able to do, and the things that he has been fighting for, and he is on our side. He is. He is not somebody who is an enemy of us.

HOLMES: All right. Well, for folks who do want to read the opinion piece, it's at CNN.com. You can click on, Opinion, and you can also weigh in on this discussion. Etan Thomas, NDC now, but we'll look forward to having you back here in Atlanta playing for The Hawks, win the season if the season ever gets going.

Go to see you, man.

THOMAS: All right. Thanks a lot.

HOLMES: All right. Forty-one minutes past the hour now.

And coming up, choosing the right college in a tight economy. How do you do that?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you're serious about wanting to go straight to school, you know, get your education and go to your career, then the small school is great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Yes, small college versus a large college. Not one size fits all here. So what gives colleges the competitive edge? We are talking about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Forty-four minutes past the hour now.

Checking some of the stories cross-country. And this is happening near White Fish, Montana, where a 27-year-old employee of Glacier National Park is missing. Jacob Rigby never showed up for work Monday morning. It's believed he may have gone hiking before his shift. They have been looking for him ever since.

And we also have surveillance video of that earthquake that rattled much of the eastern United States nine days ago. Are you seeing this? This is coming to us from a high school in Virginia. This wasn't too far from the quake's epicenter. The U.S. Geological Survey says another aftershock was felt just a few hours ago, actually.

Fort Collins, Colorado, for a second year in a row, All-State Insurance finds the city the safest to drive based on the frequency of auto accidents. Seven of the top ten cities the safest to pick by All-State are those of a million people or less.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, college is under way, in parts of the country. Millions of students going back to school, but before enrolling students had a decision to make. Do you want to go to that big, nice, fancy school that has, you know, that college life that you wanted so badly and has that name recognition or should you settle for a smaller university?

CNN's George Howell goes in-depth to see what's affecting student's decisions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): College life on a large campus.

ELLE CREEL, STUDENT, GEORGIA TECH: There are screens everywhere that tell you the sustainability of the building so you go upstairs and you see the rooftop garden.

HOWELL: A long list of attractions made Elle Creel decide to attend a big university like Georgia Tech. And the excitement of college football.

CREEL: You go out on game day and there are alumni that have graduated two years ago and graduated 40 years ago all coming back because they love Georgia Tech.

HOWELL: All part of what the school's director of under graduate admissions describes as a diverse marketing package.

RICK CLARK, UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSIONS, GEORGIA TECH: The marketing dollars that are out there really come from a lot of different avenues and angles and that's probably something of a larger, especially a research university is going to have maybe an advantage over a smaller school.

HOWELL: From a campus of more than 20,000 students to nearby Clayton State University.

TAYLOR JOHNSON, STUDENT: If you're serious about wanting to go straight to school and get your education and go to your career then the smaller school is great.

HOWELL: Taylor Johnson decided this smaller school was the right fit with record enrolment this year of 6,900 students.

JOHNSON: And this is where you want to come for like pharmacy and biology majors; this is the place to be.

HOWELL (on camera): How do you cut through the noise and how do you get students to think about Clayton State?

BETTY MOMAYEZI, DIRECTOR OF RECRUITMENT AND ADMISSIONS AT CLAYTON STATE: How we cut through the noise is we are very active in the high schools, we go to a lot of college fairs, we do lots of one-on-one. HOWELL: The director of recruitment and admissions at Clayton State, Betty Momayezi says the university also has plenty of new and renovated facilities but there is another key factor. The cost.

MOMAYEZI: I know we are one of the least expensive schools in the university system of Georgia.

HOWELL: That's especially important during a recession and the university's president sees the difference.

TIM HYNES, PRESIDENT, CLAYTON STATE UNIVERSITY: A lot of those -- those students are older students who are also looking for an opportunity to access quality, higher education.

TODD WILLIAMS, STUDENT, CLAYTON STATE UNIVERSITY: The class sizes are very small. I have great attention from the teachers.

HOWELL: Todd Williams transferred to Clayton State from a larger university so he knows the best of both worlds.

(on camera): For some students it's all about smaller class sizes, a closer connection to their teachers. But at larger universities you can find classes like this where there are more than a hundred people in a class.

(voice-over): At the end of the day, Williams says students have to decide what's important to them, as colleges compete for their attention.

George Howell, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And also coming at 11:00 Eastern they call it "College Crack". Students illegally using the ADHD medicine Adderall as a study drug. We'll take an in-depth look at this growing trend on college campuses nationwide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, about ten minutes at the top of the hour, some stories making news later today.

At 11:00 Eastern in Paris, the international community meets on the future of Libya's transitional government.

Also at 11:00 Eastern in Washington, D.C., the staff of the National Cathedral begins media tours of the quake-damaged edifice.

Also at 1:30 Eastern Time, Cathay Pacific Airways holds its inaugural nonstop flight from Chicago and Hong Kong.

And we are following lots of developments in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's check in with our correspondents; let's start with Susan Candiotti. SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi T.J., I'm in waterlogged Wayne, New Jersey and by boat I'll give you a tour of a neighborhood that remains cut off from the rest of town. I'll have that live report in just a few minutes.

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jim Spellman in Possum Kingdom, Texas, where a wildfire has destroyed dozens of homes and is threatening more. I have a live report at the top of the hour.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elizabeth Cohen in Atlanta. Venus Williams announces she has Sjogren's Syndrome. I'll tell you what that is and why it took years for her to get that diagnosis.

HOLMES: All right, Elizabeth, Jim, Susan thanks to you all.

Also ahead, the 9/11 Commission is out with a disturbing new report that says the U.S. still has big security gaps when it comes to fighting terrorism.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Now as we get closer to the top of the hour, have you heard the news? Venus Williams is already out at the U.S. Open, but an opponent didn't beat her on the court necessarily.

Jeff Fischel has sports for us. Now this is some -- some scary, disturbing, some shocking news from Venus.

JEFF FISCHEL, ANCHOR, HLN SPORTS: Absolutely. We are expecting to see her battle yesterday in the second round and then something happened. she never even made it on the court. Venus Williams she's looking -- been looking for her first U.S. Open title in a decade. She won her first round match and now she'll watch the rest of the tournament from the side lines.

Venus released a statement saying she has Sjogren's Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that affects energy and causes joint pain. She actually did not play in her second round match. She basically resigned out of the tournament.

Venus has only played 11 matches all year, nagged by injuries early and more recently she said she has a virus. Her agents says they're all very worried right now.

A long time friend of the Williams sisters, Andy Roddick, in the far court of Art Rush Stadium last night Roddick ranked the 21st seed for the men needed four sets to beat German Michael Russell. Roddick does advance to the second round. He last won the U.S. Open in 2003.

This is a moment Ryan Braun fans will not forget and he won't forget. I mean he's an all-star right, the Brewers outfielder? He bops this one to the wall and he thinks he might just have an inside the park home run. As he comes around third, he gets up, oh.

It's the second time that really makes himself look bad. He looks, getting tagged out. He gets a little laugh about it. And this is really one of the great players of baseball and he has the worst moment of his career. The Brewers did lose, they still lead the N.L. Central by 8 1/2 games.

HOLMES: We hear this all the time, these guys aren't used to running, all-out sprints sometimes. You just have to go 90 feet, you know, sometimes -- I mean basically.

FISCHEL: You almost never see an inside the park homerun. He clearly was starting to lose his legs coming around --

(CROSSTALK)

FISCHEL: All right. Well, we all know Brian Wilson has the most impressive beard in baseball. Look what he was able to do with it yesterday, break a bat with it. Come on. Might be sneaking in there. It's cracked. It's impressive, black beard does it again. The Giants did win 4-0 without Wilson; he's under disabled right now so he can work on stunts like that.

And remember the $50,000 hockey shot 11-year-old Nate Smith nailed it for his twin brother who was outside the ring. Dad later fessed up and admitted to the switch? And the insurance company now says it won't pay out the $50,000. (INAUDIBLE) it will donate $20,000 to youth hockey in Minnesota in the boys' names.

HOLMES: Ok. Did he make the switch because he knew one was the better hockey player?

FISCHEL: The brother who won the raffle was outside the arena.

HOLMES: He just couldn't get him in there.

FISCHEL: So the other brother said I'm going to do it. They didn't tell anybody and it cost them $50,000.

HOLMES: Why did they tell somebody?

FISCHEL: They fessed up to it but just I guess -- you know, the rules of the game were this guy is the guy that has to make the shot and it was an incredible shot. That's for sure.

HOLMES: What is that dad teaching those children?

All right, Jeff good to see you as always. Thanks so much.

Well, we're getting close to the top of the hour.

A New Mexico state police officer has some explaining to do. He got caught in the act of having sex on the hood of his patrol car.

Jeanne Moos explains this one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you think they're shocking pictures.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.

MOOS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.

MOOS: Imagine the mortification felt by the state police officer caught having sex on the hood of a car with a brunette woman --

This has gone viral.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

MOOS: -- in broad daylight in uniform. At least he still had his clothes on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm glad it wasn't one of my deputies.

MOOS: The two surveillance photos were given to Sta. Fe county sheriff, Robert Garcia. It came from a camera aimed at deterring vandalism pointed at the entrance to a county-owned ranch. But instead of graffiti vandals, the cameras captured a New Mexico state police officer having sex on the hood in this desolate spot.

The state police have conducted an internal investigation. A spokesman says they don't believe there was any criminal activity, but that the action on the hood in uniform does violate the state police code of conduct.

The unidentified officer has been placed on administrative leave with pay, as his fate is being decided, but there's something else. Do you see anything else odd about this picture?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A very voyeuristic animal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at the animal watching them.

MOOS: The only eyewitness was variously destroyed as a prairie dog, a small mammal pervert. What is the creature that's watching? Is it a Chihuahua? Is it a prairie dog? What is it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was thinking what kind of dog -- it looks like a little Chihuahua.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a squirrel watching them have sex, right?

MOOS: We think it's a Chihuahua.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gathering nuts. Oh, I'm sorry.

MOOS: Either it belongs to one of the participants or it stumbled on the scene. Some even said they thought they'd recognize the Chihuahua.

The Taco Bell Chihuahua died of a stroke years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The dog is participating.

MOOS: No. The dog is not participating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's probably hot and sexy and with all of the stress in the world right now, it's somebody's fantasy and escape so obviously it's working for all three of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mucho, mucho baby.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, we're at the top of the hour here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes in today for Kyra Phillips.

And we need to start with this lingering misery caused by Hurricane Irene. It's been five days since the hurricane first made landfall but still now from North Carolina to Maine, still have almost two million homes and businesses without power.

Many towns and communities are still cut off.