Obama To Hold Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform; Lawyers Could File Jackson's Will in California Courtroom Today
MELISSA LONG, CNN ANCHOR: Here's a look at some of the other stories happening right now. The Arizona House has narrowly rejected a bill that would have criminalized any illegal immigrants living in the state. The House voted 26-15 in favor, but that was five votes short of the Arizona House requirement for full passage. The bill would have made Arizona the only state to criminalize illegal immigrants. NASA is now checking up on some of the repairs completed on the space shuttle Endeavour. Right now, engineers are looking at the fuel tanks for leaks. A hydrogen gas leak prevented the shuttle's launch, that was just last week. If the leaks are fixed, Endeavour could lift off on the eleventh of July. And the death toll and a massive car bombing in northern Iraq yesterday now stands at 35. The blast wounded 95 other people and destroyed 17 buildings in a commercial section of Kirkuk. The bombing came on the same day that U.S. troops pulled out of major Iraqi towns and cities.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now's the time for us to finally do something about health care. We have been talking about it enough, we have had commissions, we have had white papers, we have had blue ribbons. We have talked about it and talked about it, and now it's time to act.</s>SEN. JUDD GREGG (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: This bill is headed to a $3 trillion to $4 trillion price tag unpaid for, added to the debt event. And there's no reason to aggravate that with another $80 billion of basically walking around money. It just doesn't make any sense at all.</s>MELISSA LONG, CNN ANCHOR: Hearing from the president, hearing from lawmakers about health care reform and today it's your turn, President Obama is holding an on-line town hall meeting a little over from three hours from now and you'll be able to send your questions in through Facebook, Youtube and Twitter and we're going to have more on the town hall in a moment but first our Dan Lothian looks that status of health care reform.</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When it comes to health care reform, the Obama administration says there's no time like now.</s>PRES. BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: After decades of inaction, we have finally decided to fix what's broken by health care in America.</s>LOTHIAN: That pledge gets good applause in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but on Capitol Hill, the devil is in the details. Mr. Obama is pushing a government-sponsored option. Republicans and some Democrats say it's bad for private insurers, even though the White House claims it would make them more disciplined and boost competition. There's a non-profit co-op plan and other ideas being floated to provide affordable health insurance for all Americans. Whatever is settled on, the price tag is steep, roughly $1 trillion. Raising taxes on the middle class to pay for it, once a no-no on the campaign trail...</s>OBAMA: Not any of your taxes.</s>LOTHIAN: ... is now a possibility. But spokesman Robert Gibbs is projecting a positive tone. Saying the administration "feels good about the progress being made on health care reforms."</s>ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Everybody is still at the table, everybody is still talking to each other in an effort to move health care reform forward, to do so in a way that's consistent with our principals and our value.</s>LONG: White House correspondent Dan Lothian joins us live from the White House. And we know that the White House has done a series of these town halls recently, it's focusing on health care. So why is this one any different?</s>LOTHIAN: That's right. In fact, they had one as recently as last week. But what they say is different about this one, it's so interactive and the most interactive to date. You talked about it earlier, Twitter, Youtube, also Facebook and in fact, the president, himself, according to the White House made a video that was posted on Youtube trying to solicit some of these questions, the questions that they received. Some of them will be asked at the town hall today.</s>LONG: Well, you mentioned again, the interactivity, of course. It's an opportunity for the president and his administration to connect with voters, but also to connect with those on Capitol Hill.</s>LOTHIAN: It really is. I mean, when you talked to senior administration officials, they say the focus of this really is to get the voice of the public, to get them involved in the debate now and the process now not after the fact but one administration official did acknowledge that, you know, they hope that Capitol Hill is paying attention. They want lawmakers to hear the compelling stories of people who don't have health insurance and how difficult it has been for them or those who do have health insurance, but are still struggling to pay all their bills because they've had a lot of these catastrophic illnesses. Those are the kind of things that could come up at a town hall meeting and they really hope that Capitol Hill is paying attention.</s>LONG: Dan Lothian at the White House. Dan, thanks much.</s>LOTHIAN: OK.</s>LONG: President Obama still has to convince many Americans about his health care plan. The latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll finds a slim majority, 51 percent support the president's plan, but health care is still a critical issue for almost all Americans. 95 percent of those polled favor either a great deal of reform or just some reform. Again, we're talking about house care reform on our blog this morning. The question we pose, what worries you most about President Obama's plan? We hope you'll go online and engage in a conversation with us. Go to cnn.com/newsroom and click on Heidi's picture. I'm in today for Heidi, and post your thoughts. We'd love to hear from you. There are new developments to make sure you're aware of this morning about the legacy of Michael Jackson as it takes shape. Here's what we know. Just a couple hours from now, lawyers could file his will in a California courtroom. According to various reports, the seven-year-old documents contains no bombshell, and that his mother gets custody of the children. We have also learned that a public viewing is now being planned for Jackson's fans. A law enforcement official tells CNN it will be held at his Neverland Ranch on Friday. So, will that provide some closure and maybe tamp down the frenzy? Not likely, according to an attorney for the Jackson family.</s>BURT LEVITCH, JACKSON FAMILY ATTORNEY: I'm not sure how long the drama will last. Obviously, Michael Jackson is beyond an iconic figure and his life and his death are of importance to the world. And in that sense, I think there will be media attention on this set of issues for a long time. In terms of the complexity of the estate administration, you need to keep in mind that to the best of our knowledge his business dealings were quite complex and it will take quite a long time to sort out all of those issues.</s>LONG: There has been a rush of activity at Jackson's Neverland Ranch. Construction equipment, workers are streaming in, questions piling up, as well. CNN's Kara Finnstrom is just outside the gates and she joins us now live from California. Good morning, Kara.</s>KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Melissa. This part of the story still very much evolving. And you mentioned all that activity. I want to give you a look at the two-lane country road leading into Neverland Ranch. You can see the throng of media that has arrived here all in anticipation of memorial service for Jackson this weekend. On the record now, the Los Angeles Police Department saying that they and members of the California State Highway Patrol did meet with members of Jackson's family yesterday discussing plans related to memorial services for Jackson. However, they are refusing to share any of the specific details they say until those plans are firmed up. Now, as you mentioned, Melissa, CNN has been reporting that a law enforcement source has shared with CNN that yesterday law enforcement officials did develop plans to actually have a motorcade that will bring Michael Jackson's body from the Los Angeles area up here to the Neverland Ranch for public viewing, as well as a private memorial service for the family. The family itself has not made any comments about their plans. Obviously, this is a huge, logistical feat. I mean, we heard in the last 24 hours, a lot of safety concerns raised by the community here, concerns about the traffic. You know, about the huge crowds and then you've also got the feat of trying to get all these different law enforcement agencies trying to work together. So there may be some tweaking to the plans under way, but, still, CNN does anticipate to see some activity here this weekend with some sort of memorial services held for Michael Jackson and, Melissa, we're just going to keep bringing you the details as we get them.</s>LONG: You showed us the picture of all the live satellite trucks for the news media. That is a sprawling estate, what's in the area around it?</s>FINNSTROM: You know, there are a lot of ranches around here. You know, just kind of big, sprawling grasslands and not far from me, I can see some cattle. So, you know, this is a really remote, grassy area. There are also a lot of vine lands around here, you know, there are a lot of wineries and, you know, so it's really a very, kind of isolated, very quiet place and many people in this community don't want to see, you know, the big crowds come here. I can tell you they remember back in 1991 when Elizabeth Taylor was married here, they talk about, you know, the helicopters that were overhead, all the looky lous, the fans that came out and said, you know, it created quite a bit of problems back then. This, they say, of course, would be a completely different scale.</s>LONG: Oh, I'm sure. All right. Kara Finnstrom just outside the gates of the Neverland Ranch. Thank you, Kara. And we continue to focus on the pop icon for sale. Memories of Michael Jackson. Is it time to dust off that old LP or break out a single white glove? We're going to look at the skyrocketing prices of those old keepsakes and show you also some memorabilia that will have some die-hard fans drooling. This Saturday, this Sunday night, CNN's Don Lemon takes an in- depth look at Michael Jackson's life and legacy, his childhood, his music, his finances, influence. Don't miss the CNN presents special "Michael Jackson, the Man in the Mirror." Again, this weekend at 8:00 Eastern, only on CNN. Family and friends are saying good-bye to Farrah Fawcett. The actress' long-time companion, Ryan O'Neal, was among the pallbearers for yesterday's private funeral at a Los Angeles church in downtown L.A.. Fawcett's Charlie's Angels co-star Kate Jackson also attending, as did Fawcett's son, Redmond O'Neal, who was let out of jail for that service. Fawcett died Thursday after a three-year battle with cancer. She was 62. A celebration of Ed McMahon's life taking place tonight in Los Angeles. The funeral service will not be televised. McMahon, of course, was Johnny Carson's sidekick on NBC's "Tonight Show" for three decades. He died last week at the age of 86. Quite a fright for homeowners in central Florida. Tornado winds knocked over trees yesterday. One fell right between those two homes. The other across the street, no one was hurt, that's the good news. The storm did bring a good bit of rain, an inch or even more in many spots. Let's bring in Rob Marciano and more on the storms that took place there and more on the storms on the horizon. People don't want to hear about storms as we inch closer to the fourth though.</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No. And they want things cleared out, but we're in kind of a quieter trend although Tampa and Hillsborough County with pictures you saw certainly indicate that that area has seen some rough weather. That was actually a very, very small tornado with some of that damage. And they'll probably see more in the way of thunderstorms today and likely some heavy rain. Cool air trying to drip down across the western part of the Great Lakes into the northeast, and the northeast will see a fair amount of showers because of that and we're already seeing that. Everything filtering around, this area of low pressure kind of rotating in. So if it's rotating in from Canada, you know, it's on the cool side. So temperatures will be, anywhere from 10 to 15 degrees and in some cases 20 degrees below average for daytime highs across the western Great Lakes and just more unstable air expected across the northeast because of that low rotating things in. Eastern parts of New Hampshire and eastern parts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts seeing some showers. They're starting to wind down. Here you go, Tampa, certainly seeing more in the way of thunderstorms this morning and that will last through the afternoon. So we have a flash flood watch that's in effect for another one to two inches of rainfall, that is possible in that particular area. As far as daytime highs are concerned, looking at temps to be, look at that. 63 in Chicago. My goodness.</s>LONG: Chilly.</s>MARCIANO: Seventy-eight degrees in New York City and 85 degrees in D.C.. I want to show you this. A couple of earthquakes this morning. One near Crete, Greece, just off shore there about 6.4 magnitude at about 10 kilometers deep. So there was some shaking felt in Athens and actually across the river of the Mediterranean in Africa. And over to Seattle we go, where 3.7 magnitude earthquake was found just northwest of Seattle across the Puget Sound area. No word of how many people felt that but certainly at that magnitude, wouldn't do a whole lot of damage. A little shake, rattle and roll and a little bit of thunderstorm across Florida. And we'll try to keep things quiet for the fourth of July weekend. Look for that exclusive graphic, Melissa, with the fireworks and the flags. We'll probably work on that and debut it for you tomorrow.</s>LONG: When are you going to debut that for me? I'm sorry.</s>MARCIANO: Likely tomorrow.</s>LONG: I have to wait until tomorrow, Rob?</s>MARCIANO: The anticipation is building.</s>LONG: Building. Thank you.</s>MARCIANO: Ratings gold.</s>LONG: I know. Looking forward to it. All right. Thank you.</s>MARCIANO: See you.</s>LONG: State budgets in crisis. Agonizing decisions on the horizon. The recession hitting home, again, for millions of Americans.