>> little known hot spots to enjoy a stay indication and enjoy before sile anindependence. >> have a great lay beer day. see you later. captions by terry james, caption colorado, llc. send comments to comments@captioncolorado.com labor day and president obama has his work cut out for him in the health care debate. >> he believes the public option is a good tool. now, it shouldn't define the whole health care debate, however. >> so is this a do or die week for the president's reform plan? we'll talk to bob schieffer. mystery solved. a little boy who disappeared into years ago has been found alive held captive in a secret room at his grandmother's house. >> surprising hi ricky is in very good spirits. for someone who has been isolated in that house. >> we'll speak with the boy's overjoyed father. into the lion's den. a reporter climbs in to a lion's kanl an ends up fighting for his life. we'll hear from the lucky sur sifr. and she's the hottest new star in tennis. 17-year-old melanie oudin heads to the u.s. open early this monday morning, september 7th, to the u.s. open early this monday morning, september 7th, 2009. captioning funded by cbs a beautiful monday morning. it's labor day. good morning. i'm harry smith along with debbye turner bell. julie and maggie are off this morning. have you seen this tape? this is one of the great youtube videos. lovely young couple from the pacific northwest. >> i think he's a little nervous. >> and she loses it. listen to this. watch this. hundreds of thousands of people have watched this video and happy, happy, happy couple are going to chat with us. >> i wonder if she'll ever regret that. also, do you remember those big old backpacks you used to carry? well, it turns out that creates injuries ond we'll talk about just exactly the reet size for your child, the right weight and the right way to wear it so that it doesn't cause injury. first, though, president obama hits the ground running after his have i indication trying to regain control of the contentious health care debate. today he heads to cincinnati, ohio to take tuck to a union group and later this week he addresses the nation. bill plante has the latest. >> reporter: good morning. the president will tell union members that he wants health care reform and that he still favors a public option. that's what they want to hear. but the signal from inside the administration strongly suggests that the public option is not something the president will insist on. >> he believes and continues to believe that it is a valuable component of providing choice in competition. >> reporter: the public option the government health insurance program to compete with private insurers continue to draw heavy opposition from republicans. >> we don't want a government takeover of health care. >> reporter: while the house is focused on the health care debate, conservatives are focusing on this week he said's resignation of green job czar van jones. and on president obama's speech tuesday to schoolchildren, which some are arguing is an attempt at indoctrination, something the secretary of education dismisses as nonsense. >> that's silly. they can go to school, they not watch. it's going to be an 18 minute speech. >> reporter: white house is trying to move as quickly as it can past these distractions. they'll release of the president's speech to schoolchildren today so that parents and educators can see exactly what it says. >> bill plante at the white house this morning. thank you. joining us now is cbs news chief washington correspondent and host of "face the nation" bb sheafer. good morning, bob. >> good more. >> bill just read off the list of the blow back list, you've got the van jones resignation, you've got these town halls with people screaming about the public option, you've got the speech to school kids that people's hair's on fire about. is this one of those sort of tipping point weeks for the administration, is this a time when if they want to continue with their agenda had they have to reclaim it in some way? sn. >> you're absolutely right and you haven't talked about the president having to fire those guards in afghanistan for holding naked pool parties. i mean, this has been some summer for this president. his polls are down, unemployment is up. he really has got to get everybody together and regroup. and i think the way he has to do that, the way at least he has to start it, is to make a speech to the congress that shall how gets this whole debate on health care off the dime. i think you'll see him give more specifics on exactly what he wants in this plan, but he's also on a real high wire here. as michael when said the other day, polls show that most americans still don't know what is in the plan that congress is working on. mike says if he makes speech and a couple days down the line they run another poll and they still don't know, it's going to show there's real problems with the substance of the plan itself and not with the presentation and the arguments being made. he's got it all on the line here and he really has to get something going. >> i know you've asked this question, this whole notion, did he make a mistake in the first place by giving this issue to congress saying you guys come up with a plan and then we'll work it all out and you can negotiate it all out? and i went to two different dinner parties and i'm not sure too many people in the country actually understand what the president wants to get out of health care. >> i think you're exactly right on that. what the president did not want to do is what happened to the clinton administration. when hillary clinton designed a health care package, they did it in secret, then sent it up to the congress, and it just fell like a stone. it never -- it was dead on arrival. he wanted to avoid that. but -- and i've said this before. he may have learned this lesson too well. it's very difficult to get 535 people to come to some consensus on details of something as complicated as health care. they need to know what it is the president will be for at the end of the day because these are very tough votes for them to make. these are survival votes for many of the people in congress. they've got to know if the president will be with them when they vote for things like raising taxes. the hope of the white house is that he can give more details and sort of layout that and sort of reassure the congress this time and also build some public pressure on them by making this speech. but if he doesn't to that, he's going to have a hard time. i think, harry, this may well be the biggest week of the obama administration so far. if he doesn't get this going, if he suvs defeat here, he'll be in trouble from here on. >> a long, long haul. bob, thank you. we appreciate it. russ mitchell is at the news desk back from wherever the heck he's been. >> i didn't want you to know. but thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> welcome back. >> thank you so much. and good morning it to you. this labor day, the unemployment rate is at 9.7%. the highest number in more than 25 years. this morning i spoke with labor secretary hilda solis. madame secretary, good morning. >> good morning. >> the unemployment rate -- >> happy labor day. >> is it, in fact, a happy labor day? >> it is a day that we celebrate workers in america, so, yes, we have to celebrate our workers. >> the unplamt rate 9.about 7%, the highest since the early '80s. so this day, what you can say to people about the administration's efforts to get more folks back to work? >> not to be discouraged, that we still have a ways to go here. our recovery act funds will soon be made available to help many workers retrain themselves, especially in those growth industries like health care, i.t. and green technology. >> and economists expect the unfligu unemployment rate to go over 10% by the end of the year. a fighter jet called in by german jound troops bombed two fuel tankers. up to 70 people were killed including both militants and civilians. in western iraq, a suicide car bomber drove into a police check point. the blast killed accept people, including three policemen and wounded at least ten others. that massive wildfire north of los angeles is now more than 50% contained. the fire has burned nearly 250 square mile, at least 78 homes destroyed. arrest arson investigation is understand way. shawne merriman is free this morning after being arrested oer over the weekend. merriman is charged with choking and restraining his girlfriend, tee tila tequila. his attorney says he's not guilty. and melanie oudin will be back in action today. the 17-year-old went to times square yesterday for sight seeing after beating sharapova to advance to the quarter finals. not a bad day for her. it is thousand 7:09. mr. ira joe fishner for dave price. it's good to see you. >> really, where were you last week is this. >> i was here, there, everywhere. i'll tell you later. how is that is this i don't want these guys to know. >> i wouldn't want that. let's talk a little bit about our weather. we'll see really a pretty calm day in most area, although there will be showers in the ohio valuely and the real concern is a low that's lingering off the east coast that could cause some heavy seas, strong winds, 25 to 35 miles an hour, and there will be rain, one to two inches of rain. and in the northern plains, some thunderstorms will bubble up later on in the day, but look at these temperatures in america's middle. still very summer like because it's still very summer outside your window. highs will chime up into the 90s there. cooler temperatures are descending upon the pacific northwest. so pretty there. you can certainly take those cool, cool te and that is your labor day weather. back to you, debbie. >> all right, thank you so much. coming up next, the boy who was missing for two years was found hidden in a secret room. we will talk it to his overjoyed father. also ahead, how a reporter fought off a lion attack and lived to tell about it. and up in shal nuttiness. we'll meet the bride and groom who had them rolling in the aisles. this is the "early show" on cbs. cation to lower your bad cholesterol but your good cholesterol and triglycerides are still out of line? 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(announcer) introducing the only non-drowsy 12-hour allergy medicine. new claritin 12-hour. live claritin clear. the mystery of a 6-year-old boy who vanished two years ago has finally been solved. police in illinois found the boy on friday and say he had been locked in a tiny secret room at his grandmother's house. cbs news correspondent bia in. ca reports. >> reporter: it was a heated custody battle that he last saw his son, ricky. >> i gave him back it to his mother and never saw him again. >> reporter: he always says spektded his son was alive and close. turns out he was right. on on friday, a tip led police back to this house, the home of ricky's grand mother, just a few miles away near royalton, illinois. this time they discovered the boy hidden behind a false wall. >> basically it was a hidden compartment, you lose a panel. >> reporter: investigators say rigiy eye mother and grandmother kept him in a room just 12 feet by five feet with a ceiling only four feet high. i wasn't allowed to look out the windows or go outside unless it was nighttime. >> i saw him and he can't get enough of outside right now from what i can tell. >> reporter: the boy's mother, shannon, and grandmother, diane, are now under arrest. police say despite the ordeal, the boy is in good shape. >> surprisingly ricky is in very good spirits. for someone who has been isolated in that house with no other outside beings, he's very social. >> reporter: ricky is staying with one of his father's relatives for the time being as officials want to move slowly. but ricky's dad awaits anxious floi a reunion just in time for s hison's seventh birthday next week. >> now joining us from royalton, illinois is ricky's father, michael. and in washington, ernie allen from the national sners for missing or exploited children. good morning. michael, i want to talk with you. i know these last two years must have felt like a lifetime. with you describe your feelings when possibly you heard that ricky had been found? >> well, the way i described it yesterday was you could have knocked me over with a feather. i can't express how happy i am. it's inside -- i'm a less than emotional person when it comes to anything, but this has got me pretty much balled up and the emotion will come out when i see my son for the first time again. >> did you have any suspicion that some some ways he was so -- he was so close by that he was so close by at his grandmother's house? did you have any idea? >> oh, absolutely. i knew that my son was with his mother. i knew that his family had been involved. there were indications of that all along. and i knew my son was with his mother. we just did not know exactly where and there was no probable cause from what i understand from the police to actually search the location in which he was ultimately found. >> well, speaking of which, the sheriff's department did visit the grandmother's home and searched the house but didn't find him there then. why not? >> well, there what i understand, these searches were all consents all searches. the searches conducted by the franklin county sheriff eye office and illinois state police, they were consents all searches in which the police officer enters the house and they can only search what the inhabitants let them search. s can't speculate as to why they i wasn't there. >> let's me stern to you, ernie, now. parent abductions are not all that uncommon in custody battles. it's going to be a challenge to return ricky to his father because he's been away so long. talk about some of the challenges that usually happen in in kind of situation. >> well, in this case, it's been two years. and we didn't know what ricky's been told. and so these kinds of reunifications have to move very slowly. you have to be very patient. what's so important for michael is tmmo atcoun to communicate t unconditional rickien country al love and to work on it a day at a time. but young children are resilient so we think there's real hope here. >> there were allegations by the mother that there had been abuse on michael father's part toward ricky. and there was an investigation, right? >> there was. after michael was awarded custody, these allegations were made. there was an intensive investigation by the illinois department of children and family services, which determined that they were groundless. so the court has ruled and clearly ricky needs to be with michael. >> in yours experience, ernie, have these situations when the chid has been away from one parent for so long and then returned, has it turned out well? >> well, generally they do. and that's why it's so important that everybody be patient here. it's going to take time. but ricky is clearly a very right, very personable little boy and he's just got to be reintroduced to his dad and rebuild that love and that trust. >> michael, i know you haven't seen ricky yet. when do you expect to get to see him and you can imagine what that reunion had will be like? >> he'll teit's going to be a l process and i'm prepared for that process. its bean two years. i've been patient for two years and i've been tolerant for two years and i'm prepared to be patient and tolerant until the time is right for the complete reunification as mr. allen said. the process is a very, very, very important thing and moving too fast will do nothing but jeopardize my relationship with my son. so he's in a good -- excuse me is this. >> go right ahead. >> he's in a good place. he's in a good place and we're prepared to take this -- make this reun any indication take as long as necessary. we're not rushing it at all. and first thing i do when i seem a big hug and only god know what is i'll say. >> we wish you the very best. thank you on for your time. ernie allen, as always, good to see you. >> thank you, ma'am. coming up, fighting for his life. we'll find out why this reporter willingly walked into the lion's den. i really want to know that myself. this is the early ow oig on cbs. thrz this portion of "the early show" sponsored by walmart. ter. wall hart.r. paying $8 a day for lunch can add up fast. so i'm packing my own lunch now-- for less than $3. thanks to walmart. just two times a week saves my family over $500 a year. save money. live better. walmart. saves my family over $500 a year. discover gives you a cash back bonus on every single purchase. what you do with it is up to you. what will you get back with your cash back? 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