investigation. the best view in washington, d.c., going to be off limits for just a little bit longer. that is because the washington monument will be closed for repairs for at least another year, maybe until 2014. it's been shut down since an earthquake hit d.c. last august. and members of congress hard at work right now, maybe. house members are gearing up for a five-hour debate on a bill that would repeal obama-care. we are talking about the health care reform law that the supreme court just ruled constitutional. so get this, when the house votes tomorrow, it's going to be their 33rd attempt to repeal this law. it passed only one time but was dead on arrival in the senate. still, has not stopped the republican-controlled house for bringing it up for a vote 29 others times already. i want to bring in our congressional correspondent kate bolduan to explain what is going on here? why the five hours of debate when we know this is going to be dead on arrival in the senate? >> well, that's right. i mean, the result of this vote, suzanne, is a fore gone conclusion, but republicans will argue this is one of the reasons that voters voted them into power, voted them into the majority in 2010, to repeal the president's health care law. just listen here first to house speaker john boehner kind of saying just that, just earlier this morning. >> the american people do not want to go down the path of obama-care. that's why we voted over 30 times to repeal it, to fund it, replace it. and we are resolved to have this law go away. and we're going to do everything we can do stop it. >> this question -- >> they also very well know, suzanne, that this bill is going nowhere. just as the 30-some-odd other attempts to repeal or defund the law have gone nowhere in the past. so why are they going through this? why are they spending five hours on debate in the house when they know if when it does pass in the house it's going nowhere in the democratic-controlled senate? well, one of the reasons is political messaging, and political trying to score political points. this is an election year and we look through the lens of politics and the election for much of what's going on on capitol hill up until, for the next four months. i mean, they know the polls. well, the american public is split on this overall. they know republican voters of an overwhelming majority are opposed to the individual mandate as well as in a recent cnn/orc poll, suzanne, they found 55%, a small majority of independents are also opposed to the individual mandate. and that is a key constituency that both sides are clambering for. so this is the beauty of being in the majority. you can hold votes on the house floor and hold three separate hearings today on an issue that you find important. >> kate, they call it messaging. they call it symbolism. it's been done on both sides for both parties. is there any concern folks see this as show boating, that they are going to have to face criticism here, that they're not addressing what people really are concerned about, jobs and the economy? >> that's something the democrats are trying to hammer home. you heard that today and heard that leading up to this vote. democrats argue, look, why aren't we talking about jobs and the economy as well as bush era tax cuts? why are you holding this vote when you know it's going nowhere? republicans, i've heard them tell me time and time again, number one, they say we can walk and chew gum at the same time. it's not like we're only focused on one thing. also republicans argue the health care law is an economic issue. just look at the statement i received from a spokesman for house speaker john boehner earlier today. michael steele wrote to me, he says "the president's health care law is making it harder for businesses, especially small businesses, to grow and hire. the supreme court ruling that it is, in fact, a middle class tax hike and last week's lackluster jobs report reinforce the need to repeal it and replace it with common sense step-by-step reforms that actually lower cost." i should point out that graphic actually has a wrong michael stee steele. that's chairman of the rnc, not the michael steel i speak to every week on capitol hill. the michael steel i speak to on capitol hill every day makes this argument. house republicans they, very quickly, they announced they're holding the vote by the end of this month to extend all of the bush era tax cuts. president obama came out yesterday to start making his push for only extending the tax cuts for middle class americans, not wealthier americans and that's the next fight. as you can see, this is an important political vote today and they say has big implications in the forthcoming election. >> all right. thank you, kate. appreciate it. >> thanks. president obama is taking the tax cut message to the battleground state obviously of iowa. he left this morning. he's meeting now with a family in cedar rapids. the president is talking to them about the benefits of his tax policy. the president came out yesterday, called for extending tax cuts for most americans. i want to snow you how it works. the 98% of americans get tax cuts. top 2% of the americans, the richest, would not get the extension, those families making over $250,000. we heard from mitt romney, at a town hall meeting in colorado. let's listen to him, and the reaction he has now to the president's tax plan. >> this week the president added insult to injury with another kick in the gut. by announcing that he has a plan he said to lower taxes. now, we were all excited when we heard that, but you have to be careful. when people in washington say they're lowering taxes, hold on to your wallet. because, in fact, he didn't lower taxes for anybody. for some people, he announced your taxes are going to stay the same. in washington, that means he lowered taxes. all right? so your taxes are going to be the same. and then for others, for job creators and small businesses, he announced a massive tax increase. so at the very time the american people are seeing fewer jobs created than we need, the president announces he's going to make it harder for jobs to be created. i just don't think this president understands how our economy works. >> i want to bring in our white house correspondent dan lothian in d.c. to talk a little bit about that. and dan, we know that the audience that president obama has, they really aren't hurting for jobs as much of the rest of the country. their unemployment rate above 5%, compared to the 8.2% national rate. how does the president sell his economic message there where folk s aren't hurting as much? >> reporter: that's a good question. it's not just iowa, and other states where the president was last week, ohio and pennsylvania, where the unemployment rate is much lower than the national average. the way the president has sort of pushed his message in those key battleground states is say, look, you know, the situation you're in now is much better than the rest of the nation, but it's because of my policies. it's because, as he points out, that he's been able to reel back the economy from a cliff. because of investments in infrastructure. he's taking some of the credit for the gains that you've seen in some of these key battleground states. but the second message from the president, today, in iowa, will be one of the fair share for the wealthiest of americans. the president is really trying to build his campaign around help for the middle class and say that the wealthy americans don't need the help. the millionaires and the billionaires, at least when it comes to this tax issue, they don't need the help. the middle class families are the ones that are under a lot of pressure and stand to gain from the extension of this tax, this bush era tax cuts for at least another year. so that will be the message from the president, but as you heard from mitt romney and other republicans as well have been saying that in this economic environment, this is not the time to be raising taxes even on the wealthy, especially on those who are creating jobs. suzann suzanne. >> you and i spent so much time last go-round in iowa there and the president obviously winning the iowa caucuses, the first contest of the nation. does it tell you anything, the fact he's going back to iowa again, the state of the campaign? >> reporter: well, it certainly does. i mean, a campaign spokesperson said that that state, iowa, means a lot to the president because it was iowa that essentially launched him into the white house. so they realize that that's a critical state and that it's very tight right now. that the latest polls showing 44% tied up between the president and mitt romney in that state. and so they still have a lot of work to do in convincing voters, especially those independent voters, to support the president. the economy, as i pointed out, alone, is not doing the job. so this tax debate they're hoping will be able to prod some of these voters, especially in states like a iowa. >> can't take anything for granted. thank you, dan. appreciate it. here's what we're working on for this hour. some college students say they've had enough of crime on their campuses. they want to pack a gun. >> if you're being threatened walking to and from your apartment, when you should be concerned about your schoolwork, that's a problem. had enough of the heat yet? a new report finds this is the hottest first six months on record in the united states. and managing the millennials. we're talking about a generation. how these young adults are very different from boomers and gen-xers. should packing for college include a gun? that is right. the long battle for concealed weapons on campuses is being reunited here, reunited in georgia because of a recent spike in crime at georgia tech. joining us to talk about it, a young man leading the effort for guns on campus, robert eager, president and treasurer of tex marksmanship club. robert, good to see you. good to have you on here. >> thanks for having me. >> give us a sense of why you feel so strongly about this issue. >> we've seen the violent crime against students escalate on georgia tech's campus over the course of the last three years. initially entering the campus we knew it would be unsafe in the surrounding neighborhoods, considered high crime areas. stepping foot on campus was considered safe. last week, a robbery of a student inside his apartment building, we feel students should have the right to protect themselves on campus just as they do anywhere else. >> does it worry there are many different studies that show if you put a weapon in hands of folks who don't know how to use them and they face a criminal, that person is going to take it away from you and it ends up more dangerous for you than it is for the person attacking you? >> yes, if the person doesn't understand how to use their weapon. we encourage them to get training to go through the licensing requirements, require a background check in georgia and licensing requirements to acquire the weapon legally and learn how to use it. it's not always a best time to take out your weapon when you're being mugged but when you're at risk of your personal well being or something you consider important to your survival that you should use a gun as a last resort. >> i want to snow our viewers how it looks across the country. georgia is one of the 22 states that ban carrying a concealed weapon on campus. the gun laws one of the more lenient in the nation. georgia lawmakers, themselves, don't necessarily believe it's going to make students safer. they believe that this is actually more dangerous in terms of putting weapons in the hands of students. >> well, clearly being more dangerous is something we're not expecting to happen. we've seen at all university of utah state schools that have allowed carry since 2006, not a single incident has occurred with a licensed weapons holder doing something illegal with his gun on campus. people are capable of doing it safely. in over six states that have allowed colleges the options to carry on 200 different campuses. >> we got a statement from georgia tech that says it follows state law that most colleges subject students travel in groups, that they watch out for surroundings, that these are the kind of common sense security measures that will prevent students from being attacked. that they don't need to weaponize themselves. >> we definitely agree. common sense safety measures are necessary while on campus. we've seen people ignore those entirely and get robbed. that's something that is critical to their safety. however, we've now seen cases where people were walking in groups, notice d suspicious people behind them and tried to get away who were unable to do so. or in their campus apartment, who were mugged at night while sleeping. there's no way to get away from that if they're able to breach that many layers of security. >> you have a facebook page. many people are liking what you're doing now. how do you get georgia to change its law? >> we're working with state legislators and georgia carry to draft legislation that allows carry on campus. we've been talking to incoming freshmen and parents at orientation sessions and work to speak with the general population on campus. we're scheduling an opening meeting to offer information about that in august and hopefully have a debate with the administration or at least with other individuals on campus who are concerned since the administration has simply told us they're following state law and don't want to comment further. >> have you faced an attack? have you been attacked personally, yourself? is this something that affects you personally? >> not on georgia tech campus. i've been approached off campus. happened to be in front of an atlanta cruiser. criminals aren't observant at all to their environment. it's not something that's affected me on campus as much as my concern for my safety and the safety of others. >> all right. thank you for joining me. appreciate it. >> thank you very much. does it seem hotter this year than ever before? you're not imagining it. u.s. has a new record for the hottest first six months of the year. sfx: loud noise of large metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange. (sfx: sound of piano smashing) roadrunner: meep meep. meep meep? (sfx: loud thud sound) what a strange place. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. all right. if you own one of the smart phones you're not alone. according to research from the pew internet and american life project, more u.s. adults own smart phones than basic feature phones but there is a problem. tens of thousands of smart phone apps like air push can hijack the phone and steal your context. tech expert and reuters columnist joining us from new york to talk about this. tell us what's happening here. >> well, there's a problem with some free apps which includes in app advertising. these are basically delivery systems for terrible advertisements that kind of take over your notifications. they change your book marks. they take your name and address and send them to the mother ship so they can send you other things. it's kind of a small problem but very annoying and potentially because mobile ads are such an important business potentially turn people off to mobile apps. >> we've seen reports of 5% of free mobile apps use aggressive ad network to make money here. what about the payouts, the ones you actually shave to, you know put out money for. >> there are a couple things going on here. these are mostly in the android ecosystem. the android marketplace isn't policed as well as the apple itunes app store. and it's also kind of limited to sort of free dumb things like wallpaper and fonts and stuff like that. silly things you really don't need. the apps that you get from legitimate vendors that you're paying 99 cents or $2 for generally speaking will not have aggressive apps that do bad things to your phone. they might have aggressive ads that are in your face all the time, but they're not going to go in the operating system and do nasty stuff. >> so is there anything, john, we can do to keep our information safe? >> yeah, well, look. it's kind of a small problem. the basic advice is, like in the old days, don't download stuff that you really don't have any faith in. keep away from those things. the problem will sort of take care of itself because the industry is very, very motivated to stamp this sort of thing out. so i think nature will take its course. >> all right. we'll have to wait and see. thank you very much. appreciate it, john. all right. anybody who's guessing that it was the hottest year on record, you probably need to guess no more because now we've got a report from the government today saying that the first six months of the year were the hottest on record in the united states. and they've been keeping these records since i guess, what, 1895, chad? >> that's right. >> wow. so what is happening here? by the way, i experience, like, this apocalyptic thunderstorm that happened last night here in atlanta. that was crazy. >> yeah. it was a lot of lightning. actually that had something to do with the heat. we have so much heat in the atmosphere now. we've had so little dry areas across the country that just got bigger and bigger and bigger. we're almost in a whole drought for the whole eastern u.s. when the sun bakes on dry land, it heats that dry land up a lot more than it would heat up a mud pile. right? if it was muddy, it wouldn't be that hot. it wouldn't get to 120 degrees because the ground would just absorb some of that. the humidity would roll off. it would be it's not the heat, it's the humidity kind of thing. it's been so dry over so much of the country that this dry dirt has given us so extra heat across the entire country. now, we talked about this hottest first six months. believe it or not, this doesn't even count the last ten days that have been brutal that have broken 2,200 record highs. we're probably going to see this hottest seven months out of the year coming up rather soon. it's not going to take very long. the heat has moved to the west. it's vegas, reno, all the way down to phoenix. and las vegas was 113 degrees yesterday. boise, idaho, wouldn't expect that, 108. that's only 7 degrees above normal today, though, for vegas. 113. you go all the way to san francisco and fresno, cooler along the coast. boise today at 102. so what's going on? what caused all that you saw yesterday was a front. this cool air here. that's a relative term because it's in the 80s. but warm air down here or hot air down here, it's a relative term, it's in the 90s. along this front is where all of the battles are happening. the up and down, the moisture. the motion going up and down. those are the storms we saw here in atlanta all the way through the carolinas. in fact, we even had an awful lot of rain out in texas. we're downloading pictures now from texas. not that far from san antonio, where weberville picked up 10 inches of rain in three hours. there has been flooding there. we're going to download those pictur pictures now. not a big area, but there is flash flooding going on. with this much heat and humidity in the there, a lot of stuff in the sky. one more thing to talk about, emilia, a strange name, a category 4 hurricane in the middle of the pacific ocean. big storm out there but not going to hit anything. good news. >> that is good news. we need good news, chad. hospital in the u.s. has given million of dollars to, it's treating patients in horrible conditions. watch cnn's exclusive report up next. don't forget, watch cnn live on your computer while you're at work. head to cnn.com/tv. homicide of young people in america has an impact on all of us. how can we save t