Burqa-clad Afghan women show identification cards as they wait to cast their votes at a school converted to a polling center in Kandahar on August 20, 2009. (Photo: BANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Here are the big stories on the agenda today:

• Report: CIA hired contracted killers.  Instead of Navy Seals or the Army's Special Ops tracking down al Qaeda, The New York Times reports that in 2004 the job of killing terrorists was outsourced.  The price tag, said to be in the millions.  And the plan was apparently a total bust.
• Right now the people of Afghanistan are picking a president.  The polls close at 7:30 am ET.  But it looks like Taliban threats are keeping many away.  What will this election mean for America’s mission in the war-torn nation?
• And halfway through a two-day summit with North Korean diplomats., New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson joins us live.  Find out why Pyongyang says they're owed a seat at the table with the Obama administration.
• You go, girl.  The new list of the most influential women in the world is out.  One European leader tops the list for the fourth year in a row.  And get this, Oprah isn't even in the top 40!  Our Christine Romans will tell you who else did and didn't make the cut.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) (L) argues with a man following a town hall meeting August 18, 2009 at the Dartmouth Council on Aging in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

Here are the big stories on the agenda today:

• Democrats say they're ready to take drastic measures, considering a "go it alone" strategy on health care reform.  Do they have the votes to make it happen?  And fed up with all the town hall hostility, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) gave it back to the crowd yesterday.  Let’s just say he lived up to his last name.
• Hurricane Bill is now a major storm – a category four with winds about 135 miles an hour.
  Rob Marciano is here to tell us whether it will be a hit, or a miss.
• Don't call it a comeback.  General Motors is upping production, calling some employees back to work, and delaying plant shutdowns.  So has the cash for clunkers program been a shot in the arm?
• Michael jackson's doctor – the man who was there when he died – the man at the center of the manslaughter investigation is speaking out for the first time and making his case in a YouTube video.  Hear why Dr. Conrad Murray fears for his own life.
• The Good Wife.  Carol Costello explores why women with cheating husbands have become "stars." And Jenny Sanford is the latest.  Would you Google your husband’s mistress and

President Barack Obama arrives on stage with Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Commander-in-Chief Glen Gardner (R) to address the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention August 17, 2009 in Phoenix, Arizona. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Here are the big stories on the agenda today:

• Is the White House wavering?  It was billed as the backbone to his health care plan.  But is President Obama considering reform, this morning – without a government-backed public option? We're breaking through the politics and getting the real answers.
• In a health care town hall in Arizona, a man was in the crowd toting, not just a gun, but two – legally.  There was an assault rifle on his back and a hand-gun at his waist.  The man says he was just exercising his rights while protesting the president's health care reform.  In fact, police say about a dozen people at the Phoenix event were armed. That has some political observers asking: is this the start of a disturbing new trend?  Or are people just exercising their rights?
• The “x-files” released.  Thousands of pages of documents detailing all kinds of alleged UFO sightings.  But it turns out, people go alien crazy when Hollywood does.  Are these really close encounters, or are we just buying the hype?
• Would you rather get a good night's sleep, or have great sex?  According to a Westin Hotel survey, sleep wins.  We do hear their beds are comfy. 51-percent of travelers say they'd rather have a perfect night's sleep than great sex.  Believe it or not, more men than women choose sleep over sex.  And "ohhh" Canada.  Our friends to the north, were the only group to pick sex over sleep.

[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/WORLD/weather/08/17/weather.severe.storms/art.claudette.destin.cnn.jpg caption="Tropical Storm Claudette is seen off the coast of Destin, Florida, on Sunday afternoon. "]

Here are the big stories on the agenda today:

• Is the White House giving ground on health care reform?  Administration officials say a controversial, government-run public insurance option isn't make-or-break for the president.  We'll look at how and why President Obama is now keeping his options open, and whether a plan without the public option is real change or a waste of money.
• The Florida panhandle takes a hit.  Tropical Storm "Claudette" is raining down on Florida’s gulf coast this morning.  It's the first tropical storm to hit the U.S. mainland this year, but forecasters are already watching another storm behind it.  The season's first hurricane just formed in the Atlantic.
• Michael Vick says he cried in prison.  The newly signed Philadelphia Eagle is getting back on the field and trying to get back in America’s good graces.  Vick gave his first interview to “60 Minutes” since his release from prison for running a brutal dog fighting ring.  We’ll talk to the man who scooped everyone else, CBS Sports’ James Brown.

Here are the big stories on the agenda today:

• Moment of disaster: caught on tape.  Brand new home video that for the first time, shows the mid-air collision of a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter over New York's Hudson River that killed nine people.  You'll see the pictures and hear the horror in the voices of people who knew the victims.  Plus, new questions about two air-traffic controllers on duty that day.
• A former Falcon – now an Eagle.  Quarterback Michael Vick, who's spent most of the past two years in prison for running a dog-fighting ring is back in the NFL, and PETA is giving a not-so-subtle reminder to people about his abuse of dogs and use of “rape racks.”  Alina Cho is looking at his new deal and fan reaction.
• Pointed questions and heated tempers.  From town to town, the health care debate rages on the road for members of congress at town hall meetings.  Today the president steps back into the fray, heading to Montana, trying to stay on message through the noise. 
• Push! And tweet! Yes. Twittering during labor is becoming a trend! Today Carol Costello’s “just sayin’,” have we finally crossed the line? Are we too wired? 

Here are the big stories on the agenda today:

• President Obama is getting ready for another road trip to pitch health care reform, but at town hall meetings yesterday in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Maryland, senators were shouted down.  Rumors of death panels and worries about “grandma” are putting health care reform on life support.  We are here to separate fact from fiction and filter out the noise.  And we’re live at the White House with the president’s plans to turn around an angry tide.
• The town hall tear up controversy.  A man takes a poster of Rosa Parks and rips it in half at a town hall meeting on health care outside St. Louis.  The man was arrested and the woman was escorted out.  A new angle of the confrontation is revealing a whole new side to this story today.  And the woman who brought that sign in will join us live with her side of the story.
• Back from the brink?  The Federal Reserve said that the economy is “leveling out,” following the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.  It's the closest to an official pronouncement of the end of the recession so far.  But it comes with a word of caution: most Americans won't feel like things are significantly better right away.  So, how do you feel.  Let us know right here or at 877-MY-AM-FIX.