Program Note: Tune in to AC360º tonight at 10 P.M. ET to hear more from Erin Brockovich as she teams up with Dr. Sanjay Gupta to investigate a toxic oil spill endangering the health of the environment and the citizens of Kingston, Tennessee.

Properties near ground zero of the December 22 Tennessee spill are covered in sludge.

Erin Brockovich
The Brockovich Report

It looks like I may be paying a visit to Tennessee. Numerous residents have asked me to come to the community for a meeting on the coal fly ash disaster around Knoxville, and I think I will be going.

I know the question on everyone’s lips. What is coal fly ash, and why does it need to be contained? The folks around Knoxville are getting to know a lot more about coal fly ash than they ever wanted to learn.

Coal fly ash. It sounds like someone has been burning fly poop or airborne coal. But seriously, it is akin to the creosote that coated those chimneys and chimneysweep boys of Charles Dickens ancient London.

Fly ash comes from chimneys, specifically the chimneys of power plants. The collection point determines exactly what kind of ash it is. Fly ash apparently contains silicon dioxide and calcium oxide as well as trace concentrations of heavy metals. In other words, coal ash is nasty stuff to have floating around in your river, air, and drinking water.

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Drew Griffin | BIO
CNN Investigative Correspondent

Michael Daly
New York Daily News

To spend a week at the epicenter of the Michael Jackson tragedy, and to hear talk of the three fatherless kids, and see thousands of his distraught fans is to wonder if his death could have been prevented.

And as I watched the elaborate preparations for his sendoff today, the question came: Why is a drug considerably more dangerous than Russian roulette as unregulated as bubblegum?

The coroner’s report is not yet in, but investigators are paying special attention to Propofol, one of the drugs found at Jackson’s house, and the one that an expert says has a 100% death rate for most abusers.

“All the reports I’ve read of those patients have died,” said Dr. Paul Wischmeyer of the University of Colorado. “A cc too much of this drug can change you from being high to being dead.

“It’s not like heroin or cocaine or other drugs where there is a margin for error. There is no margin for error for this drug. It kills people.”

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Editor’s Note: Sanford denied allegations Thursday that he had improperly taken a taxpayer-funded trip to Argentina a year ago, roughly the time he began an affair with a woman who lived there, but said he would still reimburse the state for all expenses related to his visit to that country.

Peter Hamby
CNN Political Producer

Mark Sanford visited Argentina exactly one year ago as part of a taxpayer-funded South Carolina Department of Commerce trade mission, according to a copy of the trip itinerary obtained by CNN.

Sanford revealed Wednesday that he began an affair with “a dear, dear friend” from Argentina last year.

It’s unknown if Sanford spent time with the woman the during the trade mission, but the governor explained Wednesday that his relationship with her “sparked into something more” than just a friendship “about a year ago.” He said he has known the woman for about eight years.

Sanford’s office said the trip, like other trade missions, was organized by the Department of Commerce, not by the governor.

The South American swing took Sanford and several commerce officials to Brazil and Argentina for one week in June 2008, beginning on June 21.

After spending three days in Brazil, the delegation arrived in Cordoba, Argentina on June 24 — one year ago to the day Sanford emotionally admitted his extramarital affair at the state house in Columbia.

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Gov. Mark Sanford told The State newspaper he was surprised the story was attracting such attention.

Chuck Hadad

AC360° Producer

I’m sitting in the South Carolina Statehouse just outside of Governor Sanford’s office. At this moment, we’re hearing reports that the Governor is back in the city after he landed in Atlanta from Buenos Aires this morning.

We just spoke to one of his spokespeople and he is back in Columbia, S.C.

As late as last night, the Governor’s aides were telling us he was hiking on the Appalachian trail and it’s unclear who knew what and when. Hopefully very soon we’ll get some answers. His communications director is coming out to talk to me in a few minutes and the Governor is set to hold a media availability today at 2pm.

We’re following every twist and turn on this story and the Governor certainly is keeping us on our toes.

Anna Duning
AC360º Intern

Program Note: Tonight on AC 360º, we’re keeping them honest and taking a closer look at one of these projects: a $5.4 million “Eco-Passage” in Lake Jackson, Florida that protects turtles and other wildlife from becoming road-kill.

Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D., of Oklahoma has a “second opinion” about the $787 billion stimulus bill that passed in Congress earlier this year. In his recently released report, “100 Stimulus Projects: A Second Opinion,” Sen. Coburn reviews 100 projects and programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that, he believes, have the potential to fail or waste near $5.5 billion in tax-payer money.

Here’s a quick look at other projects detailed in the report that American tax-payers may find questionable:

Is your home-town receiving stimulus cash? Are those funds being put to good use? Read Sen. Coburn’s report and decide for yourself.

Road construction employees work on a project funded by the federal stimulus in May in Littleton, Colorado.

Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
The Washington Post

Expectations for President Obama’s stimulus package have diminished, with barely half of Americans now confident the $787 billion measure will boost the economy, and the rapid rise in optimism that followed the 2008 election has abated, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The tempered public outlook has not significantly affected Obama’s overall standing, which at 65 percent approval in the new survey outpaces the ratings of former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at similar points in their presidencies. But new questions about the stimulus package’s effectiveness underscore the stakes for the Obama administration in the months ahead, as it pushes for big reforms in health care and energy on top of the singular issue of the nation’s flagging economy.

Obama maintains leverage on these issues in part because of the continuing weakness of his opposition. The survey found the favorability ratings of congressional Republicans at their lowest point in polls dating back more than a decade. Obama also has significant advantages over Republican lawmakers in terms of public trust on dealing with the economy, health care, the deficit and the threat of terrorism, all despite broad-based GOP criticism of his early actions on these fronts.

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John A. Torres
Florida Today

The William Dillon story — with a heavy focus on the use of fraudulent dog handler John Preston — is going national this week.

On Monday, a crew from CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ news show interviewed Dillon and an attorney from the Innocence Project of Florida at an oceanfront hotel. The show, appearing on the “Keeping them Honest” segment, is scheduled to air Wednesday night.

Reporter Randi Kaye asked Dillon, from Satellite Beach, a dozen or so questions related to now-deceased dog handler John Preston, who was discredited in 1984. A television show in 1986 further discredited the Pennsylvania-based dog handler.

Preston’s testimony helped convict Dillon of murder in 1981. Dillon spent 27 years in prison before being released last year after DNA evidence excluded him from a key piece of evidence in the case.

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