Anderson Cooper | BIO
AC360° Anchor

Cate Vojdik
AC360° Writer

Tonight we’ll have an in-depth look at Sen. Ted Kennedy’s life, legacy and battle with brain cancer.

As you’ve heard by now, the Massachusetts senator died last night, surrounded by his family, 15 months after learning he had an aggressive form of brain cancer. Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us with details on malignant glioma and its treatment.

Senator Kennedy’s final months were not easy. He knew the odds he was facing–but he didn’t put his life on hold.

After serving for 47 years in the U.S. Senate, the issue he cared so deeply about, health care reform, is in play again. While his illness and treatments prevented him from playing as big a role in the debate as he otherwise may have, Kennedy stayed in the game as much as he could. Tonight, we’ll look at what his loss means for the health care reform battle ahead.

Allies and adversaries of Senator Kennedy have been speaking out all day, reacting to his death, paying tribute to his accomplishments. He was the youngest of the Kennedy clan, the baby brother who grew up to become the third-longest serving senator ever. He was the only Kennedy son to live beyond middle-age and die of natural causes. Tonight you’ll hear from many who knew him.

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Chris Brown appears at the hearing Wednesday. The actual sentencing will take place today.

CNN

Recent reports indicate that rates of reported domestic violence incidents are on the rise.

Many point to the economic recession as a factor causing the spike, such as the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation which found that 75 percent of domestic violence shelters in the U.S. reported an increase in women seeking help since September. The report concluded that 73 percent of these shelters attribute this rise to financial issues.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline measured an increase in calls of 21 percent during the third quarter of 2008.

Learn more about where to find help here...

CNN answers your questions about the health care reform bill.

CNN Truth Squad

The statement: Questions about whether those in the United States illegally would be covered by the health-care bill now before the House of Representatives have been a staple of the raucous public meetings some members of Congress have been hosting during their August break. At least two people raised the issue at a forum held by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, on Wednesday, and Cardin's insistence that "Illegal aliens will not be in this bill — period — the end" was met with a round of jeers.

The facts: The bill, HR 3200, specifically bars coverage for illegal immigrants. Section 246, which is included in the part of the bill that sets up a health insurance exchange, forbids payments "on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States." But critics say there is no way to enforce that provision, and the Democratic majority in the House has turned back at least one Republican effort to stiffen citizenship checks.

Henrie Treadwell, a professor of community health and preventative medicine at Atlanta's Morehouse School of Medicine, calls the issue a "red herring." The existing health-care programs Medicare and Medicaid already require those enrolled to provide "a substantial number of documents" to show they're U.S. citizens or legal residents, she said.

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At Princeton, Sotomayor co-founded the student group Accion Puertorriquena and spoke out about Latino issues.

Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNN

Sixteen years ago, after I wrote a memoir about my experience as a Latino in the Ivy League, I got a call from a retired Jewish obstetrician who saw his reflection in my words.

A book about being a Chicano at Harvard in the 1980s had stirred memories of being one of the few Jewish students at the University of Southern California in the 1930s.

Now, I feel like calling Sonia Sotomayor, although I realize that her schedule is crowded this week in light of the Senate confirmation hearings for the nominee to the Supreme Court.

I'd like Sotomayor to know that, even though she arrived at Princeton University in 1972 (the year I started kindergarten), I have a good idea what she went through in college - and, later, at Yale Law School - because many Latinos who later traveled that road experienced the same thing.

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Residents sift through the rubble of a bombed school near Peshawar.

Editor's note: Two weeks ago in Pakistan a leading anti-Taliban cleric was killed by a suicide bomber. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson visited his son at the school where his father was killed and found surprises in security and nuances in attitudes toward suicide bombers.

Nic Robertson
CNN Senior International Correspondent

I first realized something was wrong when the hand-held metal detector didn't make a sound.

There were three phones in my pocket, surely one of them should have triggered the guard's electronic wand to do something. Not a bleep, not even a twinkling LED.

It was all a little surreal. Here we were just feet from where a Taliban suicide bomber had blown himself up the week before killing the owner of the establishment and yet security was so lax his brother could have come in with a second pay load and no one would have been any the wiser until it went off.

The man the suicide bomber had come to kill was Mulana Safaraz Naeemi, the proprietor of the religious schools we were now entering.

Naeemi had built a vast network of religious schools, better known here as Madrassas, all across Pakistan. In Lahore alone he had more than 100, attended by as many as 100,000 young students. The one we were now visiting was the flagship, Jamia Naeemi.

As we moved inside, there arrayed around the open courtyard and in classrooms were his students, sitting on low benches at low tables rocking backwards and forwards memorizing the Quran. Apparently they'd taken a two-day break after he'd been killed and then gone back to their studies.

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Anderson Cooper
AC360° Anchor

@andersoncooper: Ever feel like your day is cursed? Was heading to dc today to intv Hillary Clinton and Angelina Jolie. Sounds simple right?

@andersoncooper: Last night learned Clinton was injured in a fall and was canceling. Just now my plane was diverted back to NY.

@andersoncooper: Trying to set up interview with Jolie via satellite. Stay tuned.

@andersoncooper: Oh yeah, almost forgot, mid air, a lighting flash lit up the plane. "Dear God, what was that!" The flight attendant exclaimed...

@andersoncooper: That was the same flight attendant who was seen clutching a barf bag. It was not a fun flight.

@andersoncooper: Intv is on with Jolie. That is if a bolt of lighting doesn't strike the car I'm in. Entirely possible given my luck so far today.

To see Anderson's interview with Angelina Jolie, tune in tonight to AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

And follow Anderson on Twitter @andersoncooper.

Tricia Escobedo
CNN

On Monday, the Iranian government announced it would begin to investigate reports of violence at a Tehran University dormitory. According to a CNN iReporter, a former Tehran University student, who did not want to be identified for security reasons, students jumped out of windows to escape police forces who threw tear gas and beat students early Monday morning.

While CNN has been unable to confirm the report because of the tight restrictions on international media at the moment, the iReporter shared with CNN emails he received from current students at Tehran University who reportedly witnessed the violence.

In his report, the iReporter quotes one email: "Last night they attacked the dorm, it was worse than July '99. They injured many, at least 150. Many more were injured. We don't have a good count yet. At least one student was killed, but they say up to five may be dead. Destruction was terrible."

A few hours later, around 2:30 A.M., the iReporter says he received an email from another friend at the University as the attack was occurring. Quoting the email, he says, "A few minutes ago, riot police entered the dorm. They are beating the students. They are shooting students with Winchester rifles. Some students are shot in belly, head, face. They are throwing tons of tear gases. They are coming in with motor bikes. Pray for us!"

There have been several reports of crackdowns at other universities throughout Iran. Students, the iReporter said, play a very important role in Iranian politics.