Today's top stories:

• In a matter of hours, President Obama will put a huge stack of political chips on the line to try and sell health care reform. The president will go before both houses of Congress and a national TV audience to make his pitch. President Clinton used the same stage in 1993 but his push for health care reform died a year later. So will President Obama have better luck... And could lawmakers come closer to an agreement on health care before tonight's speech? We have a team of reporters ready to go. Suzanne Malveaux is at the White House, Brianna Keilar's on Capitol Hill and Jim Acosta's in our Washington bureau.
• Dramatic testimony from the father of a Kentucky high school football player who collapsed on the practice field and later died. His former coach now on trial for reckless homicide. Prosecutors say his "brutal practice" led to the 15-year-old's death. We'll look at how the potentially landmark case is playing out in court.
• And lifestyles of Bernie Madoff... New pictures of the homes and boats that were seized by the feds and are ready to be sold. And our first look at the New York City apartment where Madoff spent his last days as a free man. Christine Romans has that story for us.

Here are the  big stories on the agenda today:

• Congress returns to face the health care struggle.  Lawmakers are inside the beltway again this morning.  And after a month off, the fiery town halls and with many in Congress still split over a health care overhaul, can they find a bipartisan solution?  We’re speaking to one of the so-called “gang of six” about a new option on the table right now.
• Before the president takes his make or break push on health care to a joint session of Congress.  He'll face a bigger and younger crowd.  President Obama makes a nationwide address to school students at noon eastern time.  It's a speech that critics killed before they ever saw it.  Now we have it.  What he will say.  And why some schools won't be listening.
• A CNN exclusive: one-on-one with former First Lady, Laura Bush.  A Former teacher herself,  what she thinks of the president speaking to students.  She's also speaking out against the deep political divide in D.C.  Find out what she thinks of the man in the Oval Office now, and the current first lady.  Her answers may surprise you.
• Her pictures have defined an era, gracing the covers of Vanity Fair and Vogue.  Now, photographer Annie Leibovitz could lose her entire life's work.  The deadline for a $24-million loan  is today.  How did this happen to an artist who's made millions?  Our Christine Romans has some answers.

Here are the big stories on the agenda today:

• We're heading toward a final showdown on health care reform.  After months of passionate debate, the president is about to say something we haven't heard before.  Exactly what he wants to see in health care reform.  What you will hear in his speech this Wednesday night in Prime Time.
• How many added airline charges are you willing to take?  In the first three months of the year, U.S. airlines took in a half billion dollars by making you pay for checking your bags.  And now there's another way to make you pay… think of a fast pass at the amusement park.
• And what would a Labor Day show be without a trip to the beach?  Our Rob Marciano is taking his road show to Cocoa Beach, Florida.  Where the surf's up and the pros are hangin' 10.
• No sun and fun off the coast of Cape Cod.  Several great white sharks spotted off the beach, tagged for the first time in the Atlantic Ocean. And we're not reading from the script of "Jaws."  Why the beaches could be quiet this Labor Day in New England.

Here are the big stories on the agenda today:

• Hoping for signs of recovery.  The new August jobs report will be out this morning. One of the most closely-watched indicators of the economy. Meantime, Vice President Biden is saying the stimulus has been a success beyond expectations.  Our Christine Romans is here, taking a look at the hard facts.
• Uproar over the president's back to school speech.  Some parents and conservatives are angry over President Obama's plan to talk to students next week, one saying they send their kid to school to be educated, not indoctrinated.  Why some are so angry.  And where they're planning to boycott.
• And shocking new information on the sex offender charged with abducting little Jaycee Dugard and keeping her captive in his backyard prison for 18 years.  Police now say a second woman has come forward saying Philip Garrido raped her, too.  This woman says she was only fourteen at the time.  A former FBI agent will be with us to explain how a man with a sexually violent past can fall through the cracks so easily.
• There's copying your homework from the kid next to you, or trying to grab answers from your text-book during a pop-quiz.  And then came the internet.  And students learned fast that with the web and a bit of cash.  They could take cheating to a whole new level.  Our Carol Costello’s has the latest in our special "Educating America" series.
• From high school football star to hero, and not for anything he did on the field.  After a fourteen year old girl pulled a gun out on the bus ride to school, 6-foot-4, 255-pound Kaleb Eulls tackled the armed girl and got the gun.  There were 22 other children on there including Kaleb's four sisters and two cousins.  Police say there's no telling how many lives he saved.  And the hero will join us live.

Here are the big stories on the agenda today.

• The White House trying to take back the health care debate.  After weeks of fiery town halls and months of political deadlock on Capitol Hill, CNN has learned that President Obama will make a major speech to Congress next Wednesday,  just one day after lawmakers come back from their August recess.  So what can we expect to hear?  Our Senior White House Correspondent, Ed Henry, took that question straight to the president's senior adviser, David Axelrod.  It's an interview you'll only see on CNN.
• How do you miss a 60 billion dollar scam?  Well, a new report is now blaming the Securities and Exchange Commission for not spotting Bernie Madoff's multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme.  The SEC's inspector general calls investigations into Madoff “incompetent,” citing "more than ample evidence,” including six complaints, some dating to 1992 that should have set off a red flag.
• And New York’s George Washington Bridge is considered a prime terror target.  So why were two security guards sleeping on the job?  They've been punished.  And we caught up with the guy who caught them napping.
• Congress has scrapped a lot of funding for abstinence-only sex ed. in schools.  And while some are happy with the changes, critics are worried teachers are telling your kids too much about the facts of life.  Some schools are offering free STD tests.  Our Carol Costello joins us live from Washington with the latest in our "Educating America" series.

Flames from a backfire approach homes September 1, 2009 in Glendale, California. (Getty Images)

Here are the big stories on the agenda today:

• Could President Obama be getting set to ditch the controversial public option part of his health care plan?  It was originally billed as the best way to drive down health care costs.  The president is reportedly planning a speech to lay out the specifics of the changes, and what they could mean for your costs, and your monthly bills.  We’re live at the White House with the scoop.
• And the California wildfires now burning dangerously close to Los Angeles.  There are new mandatory evacuation orders in effect.  And new worries about wind making the efforts to fight it even tougher.  It's already torched an area the size of Chicago.  Our Rob Marciano is live on the front lines.
• There's a neighbor who calls her, the "real monster" in the Jaycee Dugan abduction case.  What was Philip Garrido's wife doing all those years, while a child was living in captivity in her backyard?  Nancy Garrido's lawyer will be with us live to tell us her part, in the 18 year horror story.
• “Educating America.”  Imagine in this economy, saying "no" to a raise.  We found some teachers at one Maryland charter school doing exactly that.  And they're fighting their own teachers' union, so the kids don’t pay.