American Morning
Ice cream reward for teen tennis star? Coach says 'maybe'
She missed her junior prom, homecoming too. But for 17-year-old Melanie Oudin, it's all good. Or as she might say, it’s awesome.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/09/oudin.melanie.gi.art.jpg caption="Melanie Oudin returns a shot against Nadia Petrova of Russia during day eight of the 2009 U.S. Open on September 7, 2009."]
She is a teenager from Marietta, Georgia and the toast of this year's U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York. To reach tonight's quarterfinal she beat four Russian players including the thirteenth seed, Nadia Petrova.
“This is my dream forever. I’ve worked so hard for this and it's finally happening. I'm in my first quarterfinal of a grand slam. So, it's amazing,” she says.
Brian de Villiers is Melanie Oudin’s coach. He joined John Roberts and Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
Kiran Chetry: They're calling this the Cinderella story of the U.S. Open. How do you feel that she's gotten this far?
Brian de Villiers: Obviously I’m very excited and thrilled for her. Like she said, she's worked so hard for this. It's taken nine years to get here, so she's excited. We're all excited. And I'm just hoping she performs well.
John Roberts: In terms of her development, she was a wild card going in. She turned pro in April of 2008. She was a wild card going in to last year's U.S. Open. She lost in the first round. She made it to the quarters of Wimbledon. She's in the quarters this year. What is it that has made the difference between last year and this year?
De Villiers: I think last year she felt a lot of pressure. The girl she played – she knew from the juniors and it was a wild card U.S. Open – first time in the main draw in that. And she put a lot of pressure on herself. I think coming into it this year she has a little more experience from Wimbledon. And just over the year her game is finally starting to click. She's figuring things out and she’s playing a lot smarter.
War zone ER: Dr. Gupta called to duty in Afghanistan
Program Note: Watch “American Morning” all week for more reports from Dr. Gupta in Afghanistan. And don’t miss ‘Inside the Battle Zone’ tonight on “AC360,” 10 p.m. ET.
Our Dr. Gupta is reporting from inside Afghanistan this week. And get this. While covering a story about a doctor from his hometown, Sanjay was asked to scrub in – because they were one surgeon short.
Health care tag line wars
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/09/obama.down.art.jpg caption="President Obama will deliver a health care speech to a joint session of Congress Wednesday."]
If President Obama’s summer has been one of discontent, all those tough tag lines about his health care plan may have had something to do with it:
“Rationing”
“Death Panels”
“Kill Grandma”
“We Won’t Pay for Murder”
“Socialism”
“Government Takeover”
Taken together with those falling poll numbers and it’s enough for a president to say “ouch.”
Susan Molinari is a former congresswoman from New York who now lobbies for a firm that deals in health care matters. She says the president “has seen himself, if you will, the superman falling to Earth.”
Part of the president’s problem, says Molinari, is that he hasn’t found a way to convince Republicans that reform is really needed. When the president speaks to Congress and the nation about health care, “he really needs to rise above the partisan bickering,” says Molinari. He needs to “become the leader of the United States and talk about what are those things that he needs to see in the health care bill and urge the two parties, Republicans and Democrats, to get together and make it happen as quickly as possible.”
Lower your exposure to cell phone radiation
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/09/cell.phone.gi.art.jpg caption="Environmental Working Group has assembled an online guide to cell phone radiation, rating more than 1,000 phones in the U.S."]
(PRESS RELEASE) –- Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) research team has assembled the most comprehensive online consumer guide ever to cell phone radiation, rating more than 1,000 cell phones marketed in the U.S.
With this free, user-friendly online tool, consumers can make informed decisions about which cell phones to buy. The EWG guide uses easy-to-read graphics to illustrate each phone’s radiofrequency emissions, enabling consumers to make quick comparisons of radiation output of various wireless devices.
EWG’s top 10 phones, based on low emissions:
- Samsung Impression (SGH-a877) [AT&T]
- Motorola RAZR V8 [CellularONE]
- Samsung SGH-t229 [T-Mobile]
- Samsung Rugby (SGH-a837) [AT&T]
- Samsung Propel Pro (SGH-i627) [AT&T]
- Samsung Gravity (SGH-t459) [CellularONE, T-Mobile]
- T-Mobile Sidekick [T-Mobile]
- LG Xenon (GR500) [AT&T]
- Motorola Karma QA1 [AT&T]
- Sanyo Katana II [Kajeet]
EWG’s list of highest radiation phones:
- Motorola MOTO VU204 [Verizon Wireless]
- T-Mobile myTouch 3G [T-Mobile]
- Kyocera Jax S1300 [Virgin Mobile]
- Blackberry Curve 8330 [Sprint, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless, MetroPCS]
- Motorola W385 [U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless]
- T-Mobile Shadow [T-Mobile]
- Motorola C290 [Sprint, Kajeet]
- Motorola i335 [Sprint]
- Motorola MOTO VE240 [Cricket, MetroPCS]
- Blackberry Bold 9000 [AT&T]
Obama's speech a health care 'game changer'?
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) - After months of criticism that he has failed to outline a specific health care reform plan, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night in a speech aides say will be to the point.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/09/09/obama.speech/art.obamabooks.gi.jpg caption="President Obama will lay out heatlh care reform specifics in a speech before Congress on Wednesday."]
At stake for the president: getting Democratic factions on board with his plan and convincing Americans of the need for health care reform.
"He's going into full campaign mode" with this speech, said Gloria Borger, CNN senior political analyst.
Some have even deemed it one of the key legislative speeches of his presidency to date.
"Wednesday night's health care speech may be one of the toughest he has faced," said CNN contributor David Gergen.
Obama, for the most part, has issued broad reform ideas, but he has left most of the specific legislative details to leaders in Congress, who have faced sometimes contentious negotiations.
Obama about to pull 'trigger' on health care?
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama's speech to Congress Wednesday on health care reform will probably be one of the high-noon moments of his presidency.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/09/08/congress.trigger/art.obamaflag.gi.jpg caption="President Obama has faced pushback from members of his party on a public health care option."]
Surrounded by liberals demanding a government-run public option and centrist Democrats - along with Republicans - who want to dump the option, Obama just might have his finger on something that can get him through this health care showdown: the "trigger" option.
The idea would give insurance companies a defined period to make changes in order to help cover more people and drive down long-term costs. If those changes failed to occur within the defined period, a trigger would provide for a public option to force change on the insurance companies.
Watch: Pressure on public option 
A public option is a government-funded, government-run health care option, similar to Medicare. Under the plan, people would pay premiums 10 to 20 percent less than private insurance.
About this Show
Welcome to the American Morning blog where you can get daily news updates from American Morning's reporters and producers. Join us for "the most news in the morning," weekdays from 6-9 a.m. ET, only on CNN.
On Twitter
