Stocks Move Higher; Obama's Approval Rating
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Drew Griffin, in today for Suzanne. Let's get you up to speed on this Monday, August 15th. Shall we? President Obama trying to snag some of that spotlight from Republican candidates after their game-changing weekend in Iowa. The president begins a three-day bus tour with a town hall. That's next hour. It's going to be in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. He also has stops in Iowa and his home state of Illinois. Gallup's daily tracking poll shows the economy and Washington's dysfunctional ways have cut the president's job approval rating to 39 percent. That is an all-time low. CNN NEWSROOM plans live coverage of the president's town hall in Minnesota. That is scheduled, we believe, for 12:45 Eastern. It's been a little fuzzy coming out of our White House. Dow stocks are going for three wins in a row today after a wild week of zigs and zags. Right now, the Dow seems to be up -- I'm reading without any glasses -- 136 points. A merger helped excite investors today. Google says it's going to buy Motorola Mobility, the maker of the Droid smartphone. Get this, $12 billion is that price tag.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please join in a moment of silence for all of those that were impacted.</s>GRIFFIN: And that happened this morning as the Indiana State Fair reopened. A moment of silence marking five people who were killed Saturday night, when winds as high as 70 miles an hour brought down a concert stage. Unbelievable video there. A structural engineer is going to comb through the scaffolding today to see if anything glaring went wrong, potential problems there. Authorities say there's nothing to indicate the collapse was anything but a freak accident. A witness described a rush of adrenaline.</s>JENNA GIOE, WITNESS: A lot of the men, though, had rushed the stage and rushed the scaffolding to try to get it to lift it up, but there was almost nothing that they could do to try to lift it. But a lot of people were just standing there in shock and were unsure what to do at that point.</s>GRIFFIN: The accident injured dozens of people. Several are in critical condition, some of them with life-threatening injuries. Angry crowds outside a Cairo courthouse today. Take a look. These are both supporters and opponents of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. They threw rocks at each other. Security forces caught in the middle. Mubarak arrived for today's court hearing on a gurney and was placed in a defendant's cage. The judge ruled courtroom television cameras will be turned off going forward. That's probably why. Mubarak, charged with ordering security forces to fire on anti- government protesters last winter. Moammar Gadhafi calling on Libyans to crush the "traitors" -- that's his words -- for rebels. The rebels claimed control of several cities in western Libya. That, effectively, is putting a noose around the capital of Tripoli and cuts critical supply lines from Tunisia. Still, Gadhafi remains confident.</s>MOAMMAR GADHAFI, LIBYAN LEADER (through translator): It is a great thing that you gather every night during Ramadan in the Green Square despite the air strikes. People have gathered to defy, dance, sing, and fight. The end of colonization is school. The end of the rats is also soon. They are running from one House to another as the people chase them away.</s>GRIFFIN: All right. That's what he said. All this, as Gadhafi's prime minister turned up in Cairo today. His defection, if that's what it is, has not been confirmed. There's been a wave of bombs exploding across all corners of Iraq, killing at least 69 people. The deadliest attacks took place in the city of Kut. Twin bombings killing 34 people in a busy commercial district. Most of today's apparently coordinated bombings targeted Iraqi security forces. Protesters are hoping to disrupt the ride home for San Francisco subway commuters. The Bay Area Rapid Transit System -- it's known as BART -- had its Web site hacked on Sunday. Hacked by the group Anonymous, which says it did it because BART cut cell service at some stations last week. BART took that step to keep protesters from coordinating their activities. And in case you missed it, the Perseid meteor shower peaked this weekend. These pictures from a CNN iReporter in Oregon. Beautiful sky there. Perseids happen every August when the Earth passes through the trail of dust left by the comet Swift-Tuttle. Certainly the closest and maybe clearest view of Perseid came from space. An astronaut aboard the International Space Station tweeted this picture of the meteor shower. Here is your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big issues of the day. Today's question: What does President Obama need to tell middle America? Carol Costello joins us from New York -- Carol.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm already getting an earful, Drew. Thanks.</s>GRIFFIN: I know you are.</s>COSTELLO: President Obama knows all too well that most Americans have had it with Washington. So he's leaving -- just temporarily, of course. Today he kicks off a bus tour of the heartland, the White House says, so he can hear from Americans about their economic struggles. It's worth noting he will be visiting Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa, states he won handily in 2008, but he won't visit Ohio or Indiana, swing states he won by the skin of his teeth. In the lead-up to the 2008 election, candidate Obama spent 29 days campaigning in Ohio. Last year, Mr. Obama stopped at a Youngstown steel plant that created jobs thanks in part to federal stimulus money.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Youngstown can compete against anybody. Got the best workers. There's no reason why we can't compete with anybody if you guys have the support that you need.</s>COSTELLO: Fast forward to today. Ohio is mired like the rest of the country in high unemployment, and it isn't feeling the love. Youngstown University professor Paul Sracic says, "There's clearly a perception in middle America that President Obama does not feel their pain." Sracic says that, "To win over the Rust Belt, Mr. Obama has to do more than just give a stump speech." In other words, less talking and more listening. So the "Talk Back" question today: What does President Obama need to tell middle America? Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your comments later this hour.</s>GRIFFIN: Can't wait, Carol. You better get ready.</s>COSTELLO: I am.</s>GRIFFIN: All right. Thanks a lot. And here's a rundown of some of the stories we are covering this morning. I'll speak live with South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn. His role on the super committee is going to be number one on the topic. He's charged with finding $1.5 trillion in budget savings. Also, will it be another roller-coaster week for stocks? Hear from a trader about the mood up there on Wall Street. And the trial of Egypt's former president, Hosni Mubarak, will now take place behind closed doors. Why? We'll find out. And later, how to complain to customer service and actually get results. Also, San Francisco's BART train system warning riders of another possible protest. And meanwhile, hackers disrupt the Web site, leaving these wild messages behind.</s>DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Make no mistake about it. Again, this is criminal. But the people who are doing this are very smart. They know where the vulnerabilities are. And your question, can they be stopped? Well, at this point, the answer is no.