Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer
In these tough times, we’re all cutting back on everything from eating out to taking a vacation. But there’s one thing that millions of us seem to be able to afford: an iPhone.
We spent $1.7 billion dollars on iPhones in just the last three months.
Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones last quarter, including the new 3GS model. That’s more than seven times the number the company sold a year ago.
Sales are so strong that Apple’s having a hard time keeping up with iPhone demand. And even though iPod sales slipped from a year ago, they still topped 10 million players.
Heath care in the spotlight
President Obama holds a prime time press conference at the White House tonight amid his continued push for health care reform legislation.
So what does health care reform mean for you? More than 160 million Americans get their health insurance through work. 14 million Americans buy health insurance on their own. And 49 million Americans have no coverage at all.
How will the health care bills moving through Congress affect these groups? Will it lower premiums? CNNMoney.com has the breakdown.
Stocks churn on Wall Street
Stocks bounced in and out of positive territory this morning as investors took a breather from the recent run-up to sort through earnings reports from the likes of Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Apple.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
For New America Media
If President Barack Obama’s drive for some form of universal health care falters the biggest losers by far will be blacks and Hispanics.
Blacks and Hispanics make up nearly half of the estimated 50 million Americans who have no health care insurance, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund. But the danger signs for reform are real. A Washington Post/ABC News poll found that public support for Obama’s plan is decreasing.
This is no surprise.
The instant Obama announced he would make health care reform his defining issue reform opponents kicked their attack into high gear. The two hit points are that it’s too costly and too intrusive – meaning that it will snatch from Americans the right to choose their own doctors and health plans and dump health care into the alleged slipshod, inefficient hands of government bureaucrats. The real fear of private insurers, pharmaceuticals and major medical practitioners is that they’ll have to treat millions of uninsured, unprofitable, largely unhealthy blacks and Hispanics.
CNN
Detectives searched the Houston, Texas, medical office of one of Michael Jackson's doctors on Wednesday for "evidence of the offense of manslaughter," the doctor's lawyer said.
The search warrant at Dr. Conrad Murray's office "services part of the ongoing investigation into the death of Michael Jackson," Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Gus Villanueva said.
Murray was the doctor who was at Jackson's home when the pop star died on June 25.
Ed Chernoff, a Houston lawyer hired by Murray soon after Jackson's death, confirmed that Los Angeles Police detectives and federal Drug Enforcement Agency agents used a search warrant to enter Murray's office in northeast Houston on Wednesday morning,
Jill Dougherty
CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Another attempt to end the stalemate over the Honduran presidency moved the two sides closer on some points but ultimately failed over the issue of amnesty.
A proposal written by de-facto Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez Contreras, which would have given amnesty to outsted president Manuel Zelaya, was rejected by the Honduran Supreme Court which supports the coup and insists Zelaya must be held responsible for trying to allegedly subvert the Honduran constitution.
The counter-proposal, which was to be presented to international mediator, Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, would have instituted a six-month moratorium on legal action against either side. But, according to sources close to the Honduran delegation representing de-facto president Robert Micheletti, the Court balked.
Roland S. Martin
CNN Contributor
The YouTube video of an out-of-control woman yelling and screaming at Republican Congressman Mike Castle's town hall meeting in Delaware, demanding to see the birth certificate of President Barack Obama, is utterly hilarious.
To watch others cheer her insanity, and then boo the congressman who says the president is an American, shows you that we have a serious problem with mental illness in this country.
The nut jobs that continue to promote this story are wacky, right-wing radio and TV talk shows hosts and no-credibility bloggers. They have latched onto this story like bloodsucking leeches, and actually want us to believe this story has legs.
Last week, in a suit filed by perennial presidential loser, Alan Keyes, they even tried to claim a court victory after a federal district judge in California asked to listen to the merits of their case. I'm sure he simply wanted to see for himself how delusional they are.
From the moment President Obama entered the race, he has had to endure the so-called flag-waving American patriots who think they are the arbiters of what's right for the country. What cracks me up is that in order to justify their loony beliefs, they say, "The president could just end this once and for all by producing the birth certificate."
Eliza Browning
AC360° Associate Producer
It’s an exciting night for us at 360° and we’ve got a lot planned – here are the details.
At 8 p.m. President Obama holds a prime time press conference at the White House amid his continued push for health care reform. And then CNN’s Black in America 2 will premiere directly after the news conference at 9 p.m.
This is a major documentary we’ve been waiting for since the first “Black in America” aired last year. Soledad O’Brien continues her investigation of the most challenging issues facing African Americans in the U.S. today. Soledad will join Anderson at 11 p.m. to talk about the people she met during the making of this provocative special. Malaak Compton-Rock and Steve Perry – who are both featured in the documentary – will also join the conversation tonight.
Soledad will also talk about her exclusive interview with Henry Louis Gates Jr., the African American scholar from Harvard University who was arrested last week after trying to get into his locked home near campus. Charges against the prominent academic have been dropped, but the incident has raised a lot of questions about race in America. Hear from Prof. Gates in his own words tonight.
Reporter's Note: The President is busy fending off Republican attacks and Democratic ennui; I’m busy writing a letter each day to the White House.
Tom Foreman | Bio
AC360° Correspondent
Dear Mr. President,
Your poll numbers are eroding a bit, some of your allies are looking remarkably like enemies, heck, and even Republicans have started smiling again. Have no fear, this is just what happens to presidents; even the very best of them. And I, always ready with a fine suggestion for a better future, have a bit of advice that will help put everything back on the right track.
If I were you, I’d take a twenty-dollar bill and tape it to the middle of my desk, and every day I’d look at it and remind myself of that the number one issue in this country, and the number one thing that got me elected was concern about the economy. Then I would ask myself, what have I done today to make people feel better about the dollars in their wallet?
What is hamstringing your health care initiative? Worries about the economy. What is undermining your green energy plans? Worries about the economy. What is burrowing like an eager yard full of moles under almost everything you are proposing? Worries about the economy.
Julian E. Zelizer
Special to CNN
In response to the growing pressure for an investigation into potential abuses by the CIA and former Bush administration officials, Republican Sen. John Cornyn warned: "This is high-risk stuff. Because if we chill the ability or the willingness of our intelligence operatives and others to get information that's necessary to protect America, there could be disastrous consequences."
But Cornyn has it wrong. What chills our national security operations is not the discovery of wrongdoing. Rather, what chills our national security operations is tolerating programs that undermine the credibility of our institutions. When Americans are asked to go to war or are warned of dangerous threats, they must be able to believe the people they are hearing from.
Following the most recent revelations about the CIA, we have reached a tipping point where it is becoming impossible to continue dismissing these allegations as part of the past.
The House Intelligence Committee has announced that it will begin an investigation into the CIA's plans for a covert assassination program to target al Qaeda operatives, including allegations that then-Vice President Dick Cheney instructed the agency to hide the operation from Congress.
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