murray. he's charged with involuntary manslaughter in the pop star's death. the entire jackson family will have front row seats. don lemon is there. don, let's talk about what exactly happens today and who we might see testify. >> hey, kyra, you may know as much about this and the players as i do. this is your old stomping grounds and some of the same people may be here. you know, this is the set up. that's what's going to happen today. the jury is going to get instructions from the judge and this is a set up. this is where the prosecution and defense say, here's what happened. this is why dr. conrad murray is guilty because he did this and then the defense will say, well, this is why he's not guilty because michael jackson did this and they're going to say that michael jackson really took the lethal dose himself. he either ingested it by drinking it or gave himself a shot or put the iv into his arm and gave himself a higher dose. that's what's going to happen today. that's a set up and that will happen and then later the first witness, kyra. >> tell us about the makeup of the jury. what exactly we know. i was looking at some of the details this morning. lay it out for us. >> okay. so, kyra, here we go. we have in the jury, first seven men in the jury, always 12. seven men and then five women in the jury. and it's interesting because everyone has been talking about the racial makeup of the jury and people are like, oh, my gosh. only one african-american and they're saying that because dr. conrad murray is african-american but the person he is charged with in his death is also african american. they don't believe race is involved. one is african-american, but they don't believe that race really is a factor here because both people are of the same race. both people are african-american. what i find more interesting about this, kyra, they have picked some people in this case, the jurors, who are really, i think, smart and successful people. in one instance you have someone who has worked, kyra, works in workers compensation. you have another person who is a professor and then you have another person who runs a company. a technology associate director and product management. so, you have some smart people who can take their jury instructions and can separate the difference between being a michael jackson fan and exactly what the prosecution and defense are saying and how they have to abide by the judge's constructions here. so, i think they've picked a pretty interesting jury. >> we'll be following the opening statements right along with you. don lemon live out of los angeles, don, thanks so much. be sure to check out our sister network, hln, for in-depth coverage. your place for coverage throughout the day. all right, let's talk politics now. with only days to spare, the senate has seemingly avoided a government shutdown by passing a short-term spending bill. lawmakers were able to stop bickering and strike a compromise on a potential deal breaker, giving fema badly needed money for relief. the measure that received strong bipartisan support now goes to the house. kate baldwin is on the hill. kate, talk to us about this break through and what went into it to make it happen. >> it seems like it was a little bit of a combination of this looming deadline and also, possibly, some good luck if you will. the break through came yesterday afternoon when fema announced it would actually have enough money in its very much defleeted disaster relief fund to make it through the end of the week, which it had previously said they didn't think they could make it through the end of the week. the end of the week is the end of the fiscal year. with fema saying they could make it through without any additional money, that eliminated the major issue that was holding up agreement all along. whether or not the additional money that fema was looking for and congress wanted to give them to make it through this fiscal year whether or not that should be paid for and that was the major sticking point. so, with that off the table, kyra, the table moved pretty quickly last night to approve a short-term spending measure. the measure would keep the government running through november 18th and also give fema additional money for the coming fiscal year, you know, 2012 of some $2.65 billion. so, they wrapped it up pretty quickly once that issue was resolved. >> what happens from here, kate? >> all eyes then turn back to the house. the house still needs to sign off on this measure because it's different than what the house passed last week. the house is out this week. presumably with the major issue eliminated off the table. that was a sticking point in the house, as well. this fema funding being paid for or not. they could move quickly to pass this measure. what could also happen because they could do it quickly, kind of with the legislative maneuver. people are getting a sense of what could happen the senate passed a one-week spending extension to bridge the gap between now and when the house returns. so they could move on that and deal with the full short-term spending bill when they return early next week. kyra? >> kate baldwin on the hill for us, thanks. new jersey governor chris christie says he will not run for president, but he does have a big speech tonight. paul steinhauser, any chance of a big announcement? >> i will not say no until he gives the speech tonight at 9:00. don't count on it. a lot of people have been begging, begging chris christie to run for the white house for the republican nomination, especially in the last couple days when it seemed maybe rick perry the texas governor is faltering a little bit. perry said no all along. tonight, 9:00 eastern he gives a speak at the reagan presidential library. quite a setting, huh? i spoke to one of his advisors yesterday and she said, no, don't expect any announcements on him running for president or changing his mind. the title of the speech, real american exceptionalism and it is going to be a good speech. he has become a rock star because of his tough talk against democrats and his tough action trying to cut the budget in new jersey, kyra. >> rick perry slipping a bit, but still the frontrunner, right? >> we are all talking about the uneven performance in the last debate and saw the straw poll results this weekend, for him, not so good. this is over the weekend cnn orc poll. rick perry still ahead of mitt romney. still in first place. so, what's the deal here? right, kyra? he's having all these troubles. you watch this stuff, you and me and the activists watch this stuff closely and most americans we poll are not that glued in yet for the race for the white house. maybe it's not registering yet. that same poll continues to show that mitt romney does better against barack obama in a political matchup. kyra? >> your next political update in about an hour. for all the political news go to our website 24/7. cnnpolitics.com. in libya the new government says it will not return the lockerbie bomber to prison. megrahi was convicted of the pan am bombing. scotland saying he had more than two months to live. most of the victims were americans and lawmakers joined families demanding that almegrahi be imprisoned. what is the argument against it? >> libya says it hasn't received any official requests to return mu grau hae but regardless it says it would not happen anyway. his view is that this was a man who was tried, convicted, served time and has been released under scottish law following due process all the way, they say. essentially, he has been prosecuted once. they do not believe it is appropriate for a man to be prosecuted twice for the same crime. that's on issue. it is a blanket, case closed, they say. they will help investigators by providing new documents, access if anything is requested and they believe it could lead to the conviction of new people in this case, kyra. >> you know, phil, all of us here saw al mugrahi. now that gadhafi has been forced out. any insight to how staged that moment was? if the libyan people actually supported this terrorist. >> it's difficult to say. he is certainly someone who has a very high profile in this country. you can almost call him a celebrity. anecdotall anecdotal anecdotally, i would suggest not every libyan would be absolutely thrilled at his return or the actions that he is convicted of having taken a part in or that sort of thing. a very much pro-united states feeling. we have seen it absolutely everywhere we go. we feel it. they are very grateful to the role of the united states and other western powers at play and helping bring about the end of the gadhafi regime. so i would suggest that, no, i don't think that would be the feeling on the streets. not every libyan would worship this man as a hero. i think they do see him as a declined, sad figure now. you might recall that we saw him, cnn saw him about a month ago. he looked very unwell at that time. we had brief access to him. he appeared to be essentially comatose. very much near death. we have not been able to receive any updates since then. but he's not a well man and he's not a popular man here either, i would argue. >> phil black for us out of tripoli, thanks. after almost four years in an italian prison, amanda knox's bid for freedom is at a crucial point. her defense team giving closing arguments today in knox's appeal. zain verjee checking out some of the national headlines. zain, what are they saying? >> both sides have come out punching. what happened is the prosecution has painted amanda knox as someone who is a promiscuous, loose woman called into extreme experiences referring to the alleged sex game that they say went wrong. they also called this satanic, two-faced and what they did in court was show photos of the victim, meredith kercher and stab wounds and pretty gruesome painting of amanda knox. the defense team is saying the life of two kids, this is how they put it, are at stake. the other person being an ex-boyfriend. and they're also depending on a lot of dna evidence that has been called into question. here's what the headlines are saying for a couple of papers. "the daily telegraph" in australia says this. killer or fall guy the question whether two innocent people were jailed by shoddy investigations or a couple natural born killers who will get off on a technicality. the scotsman says court turns into theater as knox appeals her conviction. it goes on to read, "the former university of washington student has been cast by prosecutors as a cunning young woman with a penchant for extreme sex games and by her supporters as a naive victim of bumbling italian police and unreliable forensic evidence." will she get off or won't she? she gets to address the court one more time before the verdict. kyra? >> we'll follow up, zain, thanks. a topic getting more talk, should the u.s. military allow women to serve in combat? one u.s. ally is breaking down that barrier. what it means for the u.s. post-it wars in france. what is behind this paper battle in about ten minutes. these nasal allergies are spoiling our picnic. i know what works differently than many other allergy medications. omnaris. omnaris, to the nose. did you know nasal symptoms like congestion can be caused by allergic inflammation? omnaris relieves your symptoms by fighting inflammation. side effects may include headache, nose bleed, and sore throat. got allergy symptoms out of my way. now life's a picnic. 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(rawhen an investmentrsation). lacks discipline, it's never this obvious. introducing investment discipline etfs from russell. visit russelletfs.com r a prospectus, containing the investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other information. read and consider it carefully before investing. stories making new across country now. a controversial bake sale starts today at uc berkeley. campus republicans pricing the cookies and brownies acrossing to race. it's all to protest a bill that would allow race, gender and ethnicity to be considered. in indiana a woman whose same-sex partner was killed in last month's stage collapse is joining a federal lawsuit that seeks to over turn the state's $5 million cap on total damage payouts and will try to get equal treatment for gay and lesbian survivors. university of new hampshire is delaying its ban on energy drinks. administrators say they're dangerous when mixed with alcohol. the school says they need more time to study the issue and hear from students. when the u.s. military ended its ban on gays serving openly, many people said it was only a matter of time before women were allowed in combat. one u.s. ally, australia, is removing that barrier. barbara, how much pressure will this put on washington to reconsider its policy. >> leon panetta says he'll think about it, but no movement here at the pentagon on that subject. in australia, as you say, they have decided and made the announcement that all combat roles, including commando units will be open to australian military women. i want you it listen to what the australian minister of defense had to say at a press conference about this. >> and now all of them on the front line will be determined on the basis of merit and not on the basis of sex. a very significant reform announced by the government today. >> now, it will take a five-year implementation period but the australians making it very clear in their military they want all roles open to women. that will put them in line with new zealand, canada. here in the united states, the rules still stand and the law still stands. women are not allowed in front line combat units like infantry platoons and that sort of thing. it's very clear to everyone over the last ten years. so many women have served and fall on the battlefield. we looked up the latest numbers. u.s. military women, over 140 killed in the wars in afghanistan and iraq and over 800 wounded, according to pentagon statistics. so, you know, women already clearly serving in combat, kyra. >> barbara, i tell you what, i want to see you in australia going inside the training with these women. i tell you right now, we'll run that three-part series. pretty amazing. >> sign me up. >> i can see you right now doing it. the humble post-it note. why paris is papered with them. plus, a red face for nancy grace. we'll tell you about her wardrobe malfunction on "dancing with the stars" last night. it was less expensive. better technology inside. there was stuff that we have in our car that i didn't even know existed. how does your music gear fit in there? it fits perfectly. i mean, i got a keyboard, acoustic guitar, merchandise, cds to sell and it all just fits like a nice game of tetris. what would you say to a friend who's skeptical about buying a ford. do you want to borrow my keys. 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[ female announcer ] only from aveeno. all right, let's get to your "showbiz headlines." the millionaire matchmaker is dishing out apologies. manage to offend gay men by saying their capable of and most women by dumbing it down to land a guy. the huge battle between charlie sheen and his old bosses on "two and a half men" over. he sued the show's creator and he'll get 25 million bucks in show profits. week two of "dancing with the stars" and a couple missteps during the quick step. hln host nancy grace well, accidentally flashed the audience, toonks to a little wardrobe malfunction. the judges gave her high marks, though. meanwhile, chazz bony struggled with two bum knees the judge's noticed. they got the lowest score of the night. most of us use notepads for notes, but in france folks are using post-its in an art battle. zain verjee, fill us. >> there is a war going on in paris and it involves weapons of glass obstruction. let me explain what's going on here. let me explain, kyra. okay, so, what's happening is in all of these offices around paris, you know, the high-rise buildings, people are putting tiny post-it notes in such a way that it's creating something incredibly artistic and what's happened is the office building across the block or across the street that sees it kind of retaliates with their even better artistic version that can be created out of post-its. look at those pictures. hard to des have something like that across sometimes seven to eight floors. like military precision. you know, you need to plan and to be able to organize something like that because it's hard, kyra. and i can prove it to you, although i'm quite talented. i did come up with my own post-it. this is a z. >> and that would, of course, be for zain, you lost your zany mind. you're sleeping. >> it could also be an n. >> and that would stand for? this is nonsense. >> a nut. >> a nut, there you go. >> maybe something like that. but you know what, the bosses of all these companies are having different reactions. some of them are saying, well, this is really good. this is for team building because everyone gets together and plans it and what they're going to do and other bosses are like, this is a total waste of time. you cannot do this, get back to work. that's hard to do that, kyra. should we do that at cnn center in atlanta. >> i think we have plenty of other things on our plate. it's a hard time, it's a tough economy. we might get in trouble for wasting all the post-its. >> the people that produce the post-its are doing pretty well, aren't they? >> they're making all that extra money and getting free publicity. zain, you're so artistic, thank you, my friend. coming up, middle class families feeling the pinch of our sour economy, but where you live may actually determine how much you lost. we'll explain. he was there at the birth of napster, he helped facebook bewhich the world's most pow powerful social network. what's next for sean parker. checking top stories now. opening statements in the trial of michael jackson's doctor. senate republicans and democrats have worked out a compromise to keep the federal government from partially shutting down. the fema funding agreement still needs house approval before the end of the week. and fighters for libya's new leaders say they now control the port in the city of sirte. those fighters have been in fierce clashes with gadhafi loyalists. well, across the country, middle class families are feeling the sting of the great recession in the typical american household saw 1.1% of its income just evaporate and where you live may determine how much you lost. christine romans, who are the biggest winners and losers? >> some places did a little bit better than others. to say overall blanket statement middle class incomes fell. middle class financial well being is down from the great recession is not true if you look at a few places. one of them, north dakota. you saw household median income rise 11.2%. washington, d.c., up 12%. any place where you had commoditi commodities, federal government spending, those are places where money continued to flow even during the great recession. but you saw those other places like florida and like nevada where median income, families in the middle class lost ground during the great recession. one big reason there, the housing bubble. wherever there was a housing bubble, housing pain. you saw that spread over the past three years. so, in general, over the past ten years, middle class incomes are flat to lower, that's a painful place to be overall. you want to be a country that's moving forward, but that just shows you where you had energy, commodities,ing a ing ing agr spending, t