Cash for Clunkers Ending Monday; Stunning Allegations from Former Bush Cabinet Member; Murder and Dismemberment Case Shocks Phoenix Residents
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. You heard it. The program has been good for car buyers, makers and dealers but all good things must come to an end and this one ends on Monday. With the money running out, the government is pulling the plug on the widely successful "Cash for Clunkers" program. So what do you need to know about it? We are going to take you to the source. Stephanie Elam has the breakdown from the New York area there and she joins us now, live. Stephanie, all right, time is running out. So, if you want to get in on the action, what should you do?</s>STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Betty, this is a big one for people who have been thinking about whether or not this is right for them. If you got a gas guzzler, time is really running out to get some cash for that clunker. So the government said they're going to shut down the $3 billion program on Monday because it's almost out of money. Auto dealers have to submit all of their paperwork by 8:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday to guarantee it will get paid back for vouchers worth up to $4,500. some will stop offering the deals on Sunday to make sure they have enough time to get their paperwork done. So far more than 450,000 clunker deals have been recorded. That's worth $1.9 billion in rebates. Betty.</s>NGUYEN: OK. So, are we seeing a huge rush this weekend? I mean, do you expect people to really to just run out because they know that that deadline is ticking.</s>ELAM: You know, that's what the dealers are banking for. They are really gearing up for that. One tells us he's planning a big advertising push as he doesn't want to leave any dollars on the sidelines, but as you already know, a lot of dealers have been frustrated. In New York, hundreds pulled out of the program altogether. They said the government was taking too long to pay them back for these vouchers. The Transportation Department is adding more workers to try to speed up dealer reimbursements but for some dealers they just thought it was too big of a gamble, Betty and they didn't think the odds were in their favor.</s>NGUYEN: So for those who still want to take advantage of this program, specifically, Stephanie, what should they look for?</s>ELAM: Well, there are some things that people really need to be aware of. Some customers are being asked to sign a form saying you'll pay back the voucher money just in case the government reimbursement doesn't come through. There are also reports that some dealerships are asking to wait to take their new car home until the government approves the paperwork. For the record, that's not allowed. If you do have a clunker deal, they have to give you the car immediately, right then. Remember, to qualify, your old car has to get 18 miles a gallon or less and it can't be more than 25 years old and need to have owned it for at least a year. Those are the rules, Betty. But if your really think about doing it, get on it. Got to get out there this weekend.</s>NGUYEN: Absolutely, time is running out and knowledge is power. So thank you so much, Stephanie. We do appreciate it.</s>ELAM: Sure.</s>NGUYEN: OK. So what kind of deal has "Cash for Clunkers" been for the dealers? We're going to be talking to one of them in just a few minutes. Meantime, though, we want to know what you think about "Cash for Clunkers." Go to our blog cnn.com/betty for today or you can find me on Twitter, Facebook at bettynguyencnn. Lots of ways to reach out, share your thoughts because I'm going to be reading them on the air. In the meantime, though, a stunning new charge from inside the Bush White House. Listen to this, former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge says Bush cabinet members pressured him to raise the nation's terror alert level. In a new memoir, he says the pressure came just before the 2004 presidential election. Ridge says he and others objected to the arguments and the alert was not raised. The former security adviser denies these claims and says politics never played a role in the debate.</s>FRANCES TOWNSEND, FMR. BUSH HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: Tom Ridge knew very well that I greed with him that I didn't believe there was a basis to raise the threat level, but I knew there were others in the Homeland Security Council that did believe that and we agreed that we would have the conversation. By the way, what Tom Ridge's book doesn't say is that most eloquent case for not raising the threat level was not made by Tom, in fact, it was made by secretary of state at the time, Colin Powell and Bob Mueller at great personal risk. Remember his boss John Ashcroft was advocating to raise it based on the facts of the intelligence. Bob Mueller himself made an eloquent case not to raise it.</s>NGUYEN: Well, Ridge says his belief that politics fueled the debate helped convinced him to resign from his post. So far no health care measure has been debated in the full House or Senate. Still taking shape in committees but we do want to give you a quick comparison of legislation being considered. So here's how it breaks down. Let's take it to the House first, the proposed bill there. Consumers could choose among an array of health insurance plans, including the public option or the government-run program. Now the plan would mandate legal residents to obtain health insurance. It requires companies to provide health coverage for workers or pay into a federal fund to provide health coverage. Well, some companies with small payrolls could be exempt. Take you to the Senate now. A bipartisan group in the finance committee is considering a bill that is expected to include this. No government-run option, but it may include proposals for private, non- profit co-ops where individuals without coverage could join. The bill is not expected to include mandates but a penalty for businesses that don't offer coverage. Health care reform and illegal immigration, both topics stir passionate debate and one of the angriest claims though of health care reform opponents is that millions of illegal immigrants will be covered at taxpayer expense. Well, that is not true under the Obama plan and that reality fuels yet another debate. CNN's Cheryl Jackson explains.</s>CHERYL JACKSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Of course, all illegal immigrants are not Hispanic, but they do make up the largest illegal population. and like most in society, the Hispanic community is divided over whether or not they should be considered in health care reform. And divided, they say, over the costs. They are not always calculated in dollars and cents.</s>CASSANDRA SENIOR, UNINSURED: It's not as easy as everyone thinks it is. It's not will power. You need groups like this.</s>JACKSON (voice-over): Cassandra Senior is a recovering drug addict. She is getting free treatment at Health Care Alternative Systems in Chicago. Most of the patients here are Hispanic and has not insurance.</s>SENIOR: You don't have the money when you come out of it to pay for these services.</s>JACKSON: Marco Jacomi (ph) runs the mental health center.</s>MARCO JACOMI (ph): This room. This is domestic violence room.</s>JACKSON: At the Erie Family Health Center, Dr. Frank Castillo sees dozens of patients every day. He doesn't know who is legal or who is not. He says he looks into their eyes and not into their backgrounds.</s>DR. FRANK CASTILLIO ERIE FAMILY HEALTH CENTER: I just take care of the person in front of me who comes to me for help.</s>JACKSON (on camera): 84 percent of the patients here are Hispanic and 40 percent are uninsured. Now no one here is asked about their immigration status. They're treated regardless of that status and regardless of their ability to pay. (voice-over): Castillo is on one side of the debate of illegal immigrants and health care. Jessie Ruiz is on the other.</s>JESSE RUIZ, ILLINOIS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: Before we start creating any perverse incentives, and worrying about undocumented immigrants, we have to worry about the citizens who are here today and the legal residents.</s>JACKSON: Ruiz supports Obama's health care vision and thinks those in the country illegally should not benefit. But he says when life or death is an issue - there is a solution.</s>RUIZ: The great thing about our nation is we do have laws that we don't allow people to die on our streets.</s>JACKSON: Activist Esther Sciammarella says everyone, regardless of status should get treatment for contagious diseases.</s>ESTHER SCIAMMARELLA, HISPANIC HEALTH COALITION: It's like H1N1,</s>JACKSON: Senior who is now drug free says any type of medical treatment for the uninsured benefits everyone.</s>SENIOR: You have people out there who are stealing, you have people out there who are robbing. You have people out there who are committing all sorts of crimes to try to feed their addiction and the society is paying for it, whether they realize it or not.</s>JACKSON (on camera): Obama says he would like to include the children of illegal immigrants in health care reform because they're going to play on the same playgrounds and going to school with other children, making the possibility of spreading disease very high. There are several hundred thousand children in this country illegally.</s>NGUYEN: Cheryl Jackson reporting there. Cheryl also says according to the latest census figures, some six million uninsured adults are illegal immigrants. So if you want to know more about the health care debate and how the reforms could affect you and your family, check out our special health care in America section at cnn.com. You can get the latest from town hall debates, fact checks and i-report and other health care news. Just go to cnn.com/healthcare. All right. A lot of folks getting excited about the weekend, but for some you may not want to head out to the beach. Jacqui Jeras is watching that for us. Hey, Jacqui.</s>JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, go to the beach if you want to go to the beach and see the big waves, just don't get in the water. And that's the big thing we're worried about. And yes, it has to do with Hurricane Bill. This is a strong category 3 storm now, winds 115 miles per hour and you can see that it has been weakening a little bit as it moves west, northwesterly. We'll show you that track and it will show you that we're expecting it to curve away from the U.S. and head up towards the Canadian Maritimes but it is going to be making a close approach and it's bringing in some huge swells. So, some very big waves are going to be pushing into the coast and we do have a very high threat of seeing some rip currents and rip currents are just fast channels of water that will pull you away from the coast. Some things that you can do, by the way, if you do get caught in one of these and you take that risk and you decide you want to swim, don't fight that current. Even an Olympic swimmer can't out swim this thing. You want to try to swim away from it and get, you know, swim parallel to the shore and then make your way back to the beach. If you can't escape, just try floating or threading some water and wait for somebody to rescue you. You know, 80 percent of all beach rescues, by the way, are from people getting caught in these rip currents. Now, some amazing video. If you haven't seen this, this is just in from our affiliate in Canada. There you can see, this is a tornado in Ontario. There you can see that funnel and all of the debris just swirling around a transformer exploding there. This was in the Woodbridge area. There were at least three tornadoes reported across the area and hundreds of homes had been damaged and one person killed, three others were injured. And also have a lot of damage in the city of Vahn, as well. Just amazing pictures coming there out of Ontario. Now, we do have a threat of some severe weather here in the U.S. today. Right now, just some moderate rainshowers here across the northeastern corridor but later on this afternoon, you know, it's been so hot and so sticky as that cold front approaches and we could see isolated, severe weather but in exchange this whole trough or this whole front pulling in is going to steer Bill away from the U.S.. So it's kind of a little tradeoff, I guess, so to speak. Much cooler weather across the nation's midsection for today. If you are trying to travel, you are going to have trouble. Lots of delays. Minneapolis, San Francisco, Dallas, Ft. Worth, those delays getting a little shorter there. We also have some delays in Philadelphia and watch these to spread throughout the northeastern corridor throughout the day.</s>NGUYEN: All right. Pack some patience as you head to the airport today.</s>JERAS: Oh, yes.</s>NGUYEN: Thank you, Jacqui. I want to tell you about this, just in to the NEWSROOM right now. The National Association of Realtors is reporting the largest monthly increase in home sales in 10 years. July home sales surging more than seven percent. Experts say it appears to be the first time that buyers are rushing to take advantage of a tax credit that expires this fall. Again, this report just being released. July home sales up more than seven percent. Susan Lisovicz will have more from Wall Street in just a few minutes. So, did U.S. combat troops leave Iraqi cities too soon? An American military trainer explains one danger that could lie ahead for Iraqi forces.