caption colorado, l.l.c. comments@captioncolorado.com >> couric: tonight, a florida pastor vows to burn copies of the koran despite a warning from general david petraeus it will be putting american troops at risk. i'm katie couric. also tonight, a state of emergency in colorado. a wildfire in boulder forces thousands to flee as dozens of homes go up in flames. the president's new plan to cut business taxes. can that finally get the economy moving? and how a work of art is teaching teens the art of work. captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news world headquarters in new york, this is the "cbs evening news" with katie couric. >> couric: good evening, everyone. before this week, most people had never heard of pastor terry jones.

he runs a small evangelical christian church in gainesville, florida, with just 50 members. but jones has single-handedly caused an international uproar with his plan to mark the ninth anniversary of the september 11 attacks this saturday by burning copies of the koran, the muslim holy book. today the white house denounced his plan, as did the veterans of foreign wars and an interfaith group. and it touched off an angry anti-american protest in kabul, the afghan capital. general david petraeus, who commands u.s. forces in afghanistan, told the "wall street journal" burning the koran could endanger troops and the overall effort. kelly cobiella is in gainesville tonight. kelly, so far the pastor is refusing to change his plans. >> reporter: he's absolutely sticking with this right now, katie. kerry jones says he's not doing this as a publicity stunt. he says he feels a real religious calling and he refuses to back down. >> sooner or later we're going to have to say no to radical islam.

>> reporter: terry jones believes radical islam could take over america and the best way to fight back is by sending a radical message: burning a stack of korans on the anniversary of 9/11. >> we see an element of islam that is very radical and we could not get their attention by just sending some type of message. we thought this was a radical message that will get their attention. >> reporter: jones knows the actions of his small church are being felt around the world and he's heard the warnings from general petraeus that his actions could put american soldiers' lives at risk. >> we understand what the general is saying and i am sure that it has some somewhat, some truth to it. >> reporter: but he refuses to take responsibility for any backlash. >> we feel what we are doing is we are actually revealing the nature of islam. >> reporter: in washington, religious leaders of all faiths called for an end of what they called religious bigotry and publicly pressured jones to back off.

>> as an evangelical i say to those who do this, i say you bring dishonor to the name of jesus christ. >> reporter: jones admits he's not in the mainstream, but his protests reflect a growing anti-islamic sentiment in the u.s. >> i have heard many muslim americans say that they have never felt this angst or this insecure in america since directly after september 11. >> reporter: this small town preacher says muslims do have the right to build mosques and practice their religion in this country and even if they are fended by his protest he hopes they join anymore what he says is the larger message: a condemnation of radical islam. >> the fact that we offend them is the lesser of two evils. >> reporter: jones is no stranger to controversy.

he left a church in germany for allegations he misspent church money, a charge he denies. and despite death threats and public pressure, jones says he will not back down. not yet. >> the only thing that could cause us to change our mind is if we felt really a deep conviction, we felt like god really wanted us not to do it. >> reporter: apparently not all of his congregation members agree. jones says he's lost about 30 members of his church since this all began. katie? >> couric: kelly, what else can you tell us about terry jones? >> reporter: well, he runs a very small evangelical church. he and his wife sell furniture on ebay out of the church. there were some questions about the propriety of that according to tax code. but as far as we can tell, he's never been charged with anything. katie? >> couric: all right. kelly cobiella in gainesville, florida tonight. kelly, thanks very much. in other news, it was one week ago that the u.s. mission in iraq officially changed from combat to training and supporting iraqi forces. but the violence there has continued and today it was an iraqi soldier opening fire on american service members at an iraqi army base north of baghdad. two u.s. soldiers were killed, nine others were wounded before the attacker was shot and

killed. they're the first americans to die in what's now being called "operation new dawn." more than 4,400 have been killed in iraq since 2003. here at home, more evacuations are expected in colorado as a wildfire rages near boulder. the fire about 12 miles northwest of the city has doubled in size since yesterday with more than 7,000 acres burned so far. today the governor declared a state of emergency as firefighters battled the flames. rick salinger of cbs 4 news denver has more. >> reporter: the fires seem to come from nowhere. flames fed by whipping winds of up to 45 miles per hour. people literally had to run for their lives. >> the people, the houses, the pets, the... all the wildlife. it's devastating. >> reporter: as the flames raced through the rugged foothills, about 3,000 people were ordered to evacuate. >> my dog is in that house and i'm not going to let my dog burn. >> reporter: the fire moved so

fast dozens of homes in the 11 square mile area were destroyed including houses belonging to nine volunteer firefighters. tom and anna neuer got out just in time. >> came up and over the ridge, took out the house on top of the ridge, took out the little house next to us and ours was third to go. >> so from here to those trees just a wall of fire. it was the most amazing thing i've ever heard. >> reporter: the winds died down overnight, but come morning heavy smoke blanketed the area. by midday, air born tankers were able to resume dropping fire retardant. residents are desperate to return to their homes to see if they still have homes but were told it remains too dangerous. colorado's governor described what the area looks like now. >> we saw structures that had been burned. we saw entire hillsides with trees that had been burned. we saw spot fires right on the side of the road. >> reporter: the flames aren't spreading much, but the fire remains very active and more evacuations are possible.

it's feeding on pine trees and dry brush after almost a month without rain. >> what it's going to take hopefully is higher humidities and calmer winds and a very large effort. >> reporter: the wind has now shifted, moving the smoke away from town. at a briefing just a few minutes ago, we learned that 63 structures have now burned but fortunately no deaths or injuries, katie. >> couric: all right, rick salinger reporting from boulder for us tonight. rick, thanks so much. colorado could really use some of the rain texas is getting thanks to tropical storm hermine. the storm is headed north tonight and flash flood watches up across much of texas and oklahoma. hermine quickly formed over the weekend and quickly grew into a tropical storm. it made landfall in mexico last night in a region still recovering from hurricane alex in june. so far, no injuries have been reported.

turning now to politics, the midterm elections are eight weeks from today and with the economy in trouble, so are the democrats. so this week, president obama's making new proposals for turning to economy around. yesterday a $50 billion plan for upgrading roads, rails, and runways. tomorrow $200 billion in tax breaks for businesses. anthony mason is keeping an eye on all this and, anthony, what's this designed to do ideally? >> reporter: simply, katie, to give the economy a quick shot in the arm and even some republicans are applauding the proposal. if passed it would give businesses that buy new equipment an immediate tax break in the struggling economy. david campbell has been holding off buying new forklifts for his connecticut lumber business, but the president's tax incentives could make him change his mind. >> we're still being very cautious and we don't really

want to be replacing a lot of equipment so this might tip the scale on some of our purchases. >> reporter: the obama proposal would allow companies to immediately write off 100% of any new investments in plants and equipment through next year. businesses can currently write off those investments, but only over a three to 20-year period. so this would allow them to keep more cash in what the administration says would amount to a $200 billion tax cut affecting 1.5 million businesses. does this kind of stimulus have immediate effect? >> it can. if we can get it passed quickly. >> reporter: economist ellen zentner says it could provide a critical boost to a fragile economy. >> right now business investment spending is accounting for about 7-10% of economic growth. that's not chump change. >> reporter: even conservative economists embraced the idea. >> he should have proposed this right at the very beginning. >> reporter: kevin hassett of the american enterprise institute says the incentives could add as much as 10% to equipment spending, or about $100 billion.

more importantly, he says, it could change the national mood. >> i think at some point americans are going to finally say that the worst is behind us and that we're ready to boom again and this is the kind of proposal that could change the psychology and create the positive momentum we need to really get out of this malaise. >> reporter: the white house says the final cost of the incentives would be about $30 billion. the administration is also proposing a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit. katie? >> couric: all right. anthony mason, anthony, thanks so much. let's go to our chief white house correspondent chip reid. chip, obviously democrats control congress, but what are the chances the president will be able to get these proposals passed before election day? >> reporter: well, katie, i've spent much of the day making calls on capitol hill and i have not been able to find a single person in either party who believes there's a realistic chance of passing this package of tax cuts before election day. republicans say the problem is the president waited too long to propose it now that they're in the heat of election season, the two parties are at each other's throats and they're not talking about bipartisan cooperation. it's not impossible, but very,

very unlikely they would pass this before election day. >> couric: chip, it looks like the democrats are in big trouble. they could lose the house and now there's even talk about possibly losing the senate? >> reporter: that's right, katie. election day is just eight weeks away and the battle for control of congress is red hot. to take back the house, the republicans would need a net gain of 39 seats and the good news for republicans is that 52 seats currently held by democrats are considered to be at high risk of turnover. now it would be a lot harder for republicans to take over the senate. they need a net gain of ten seats, that means they'd have to take nearly all the 13 democratic seats now considered at risk plus hold on to the five g.o.p. seats now at risk. either way, democrats are running scared in both houses. katie? >> couric: all right, chip reid at the white house, chip, thank you very much. meanwhile, the president's chief of staff rahm emanuel has said he'd like to run for mayor of chicago someday. well, that day may be coming because today mayor richard

m. daley announced he will not run for a seventh term. dean reynolds now on the end of an era in chicago politics. the daley era. >> today i'm announcing that i will not seek a seventh term as mayor of the city of chicago. >> reporter: with his family at his side, mayor richard daley says enough is enough. >> i've always believed that every person, especially public officials, must understand when it's time to move on. for me, that time is now. >> reporter: chicago has had a mayor daley for 43 of the last 55 years. richard daley the father for 22 followed by a brief intermission and then the son since 1989. >> he seems to be born to be mayor. it's the most significant event to happen in chicago politics and maybe the city since his father died. >> but they're not talking about gun violence. >> reporter: in six straight elections he was never seriously challenged and among the reasons

was a penchin for giving city jobs to potential rivals. with a rubber-stamp city council he basically ran the city on his own. a surge in juvenile violence has tarnished his record and a recent "chicago tribune" poll found only 37% of voters approved of the job he was doing. with daley stepping aside now, speculation has begun about a successor, including whether obama chief of staff rahm emanuel might want to move from the west wing of the white house to the fifth floor of city hall. emanuel, who once said he wanted to be chicago's mayor would say only in a statement today that he was surprised by the mayor's decision. but daley clearly has his own reasons. he's 68 years old and his wife maggie has been ill. his father died of a heart attack in office at the age of 74. today president obama said of his fellow chicagoan, "no mayor in america loved his city more or served the community with greater passion than rich daley." katie? >> couric: dean reynolds in chicago. dean, thank you. and still ahead here on the "cbs

evening news," the art of the possible. inner city kids turning their talent into profit. but up next, preserving history. a relic of 9/11 returns to ground zero. when my doctor told me that my chronic bronchitis was copd... i started managing it every day. i like to volunteer... hit the courts... and explore new places. i'm breathing better with spiriva. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd... which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. i take it every day... it keeps my airways open to help me breathe better all day long. spiriva does not replace fast acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor right away if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives,

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the ninth anniversary of the september 11 attacks. vice president biden will attend ceremonies at ground zero here in new york. as national correspondent jim axelrod reports, the world trade center site is undergoing a major transformation. there is new building, but also a reminder of old wounds. >> reporter: they lowered a 70- foot column into ground zero today, one of two tridents, as they're known, that weigh 50 tons each and were the last pieces of steel salvaged from the wreckage of the north tower. they're now back as part of a memorial. >> as i look at ground zero today, i think we finally are seeing progress. >> reporter: four days before the ninth anniversary of 9/11, new yorkers are seeing what they've been aching for at ground zero-- progress. >> nine years is not unreasonable for something as complex politically, as complex financially given the world that has changed since 9/11, and as complex from an engineering point of view. >> reporter: 2,000 construction

workers are on the job seven days a week. the freedom tower is now 36 stories high on its way to 105. one new story is said to be added each week. 80% of what will be the largest man-made waterfall in the country is now finished. a few days ago the first 16 of 400 trees were planted to symbolize the return of life to the site. the man in charge of the 9/11 memorial promises it will be done for next year's tenth anniversary. >> a bunch of people's jobs are on the line, i would assume my own. so as far as i'm concerned, everything is going to happen to get it done and i truly believe that on the tenth we're going to open this memorial. >> reporter: but the emotion tied to this piece of land guarantees it will always be more than just a construction project and explains why for so many here rebuilding as simply taken too long. >> they fundamentally... the site is fundamentally disgraced the memory of those who perished there. >> reporter: because of how long

it's taken? >> because of the competence that's been exhibited in the entire rebuilding process. >> reporter: nine years later, the grief remains raw for the survivors of those killed on 9/11. even while the rebuilding here is now easier to see than ever before. jim axelrod, cbs news, new york. york. and brian looked at me at eight years old and said, "promise me you'll quit." i had to quit. ♪ my doctor gave me a prescription for chantix, a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] chantix is a non-nicotine pill. that stays with you all day to help you quit. in studies, 44% of chantix users were quit during weeks 9 to 12 of treatment, compared to 18% on sugar pill. it's proven to reduce the urge to smoke. ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. and find out how you can save money

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my benjamin, he helped me with the countdown. "ben, how many days has it been?" "5 days, mom. 10 days, mom." i think after 30 days he got tired of counting. [ male announcer ] talk to your doctor about chantix. find out how you can save money on your prescription and learn terms and conditions at chantix.com. >> couric: remember that fed-up jetblue flight attendant who left his plane via the emergency chute at j.f.k. airport?

steven slater was in a new york courtroom today and a plea deal may be in the works. slater faces seven years for criminal mischief but he's agreed to a mental evaluation to see if he qualifies instead for community service. the merriam-webster dictionary is calling it the word of the summer, invented by sarah palin. >> they could refudiate what it is. >> couric: refudiate, a combination of refute and repudiate. merriam-webster says it was the most searched word in the dictionary, though no one found it. palin defended it by saying shakespeare coined a word or two. you can only imagine the words flying around a cruise ship as passengers and crew were tossed back and forth. video surfaced today of this nightmare cruise in 2008. of the 2,400 people on board, only 42 were hurt. one passenger after arriving safely in new zealand said it

was like being in disaster movie. now a trip in the time machine. the date, february 9, 1964. >> ladies and gentlemen, the beatles! >> couric: 73 million people tuned into cbs to watch the fab four on ed sullivan that night. today the four sullivan shows featuring the beatles were released on d.v.d. unlike other collections, this one contains all the acts and the commercials which haven't been seen since the '60s. and coming up next, why these kids will never be starving artists. i really started to talk to them

cbs5's thuy vu reports from vietnam... next saving young women from life of >> couric: finally tonight, business can be an art form and if there's any doubt about it, michelle miller has the story of kids discovering a talent for art and business they never knew they had. >> reporter: when it comes to the art world... >> i just like to make tables. >> reporter: 17-year-old kershner williams feels right at home. >> this is the only table of its kind, that actually comes with a shelf. >> reporter: kershner's works are prominently featured at this boston gallery. his talent may never have been discovered without artists for humanity. >> these are kids from across boston who come from under- served families and neighborhoods in crisis. how are you doing?

>> reporter: 19 years ago, artist susan rogerson created the after school and summer program to teach art and the art of the deal. the kids are encouraged to sell what they make. >> we're really engaging them in real work for hire that helps to support them. >> reporter: their pieces range from $100 to $5,000. one project earned a $65,000 commission. last year alone, the teens raked in $500,000. on average, kids get half of the profits, the rest is poured back into the program and the community. >> look at this. boston right across. no other city has a bike rack like this. >> reporter: the bike racks they designed are all over boston and other art work has landed at logan airport. from here, many careers have taken off. this is real. >> this is the real deal. >> reporter: alumni stan sanon is now a graphic designer for sportswear giant reebok. >> it was about possibilities. i didn't know kids got paid to paint or do art. >> reporter: what began with just five students has grown to

260 every year. >> what i'm painting now is based on a picture of my grandmother. >> reporter: all told, artists for humanity has produced 6,500 art entrepreneurs. >> artist for humanity is basically like a home away from home. i could come here and do whatever i want. there's no limits. >> reporter: kershner found beauty and practicality in manipulating old magazines. this table was featured in "architectural digest." these sculptures have earned him more than $18,000. >> art's always going to be a part of me. >> reporter: now kershner has stronger legs to stand on. michelle miller, cbs news, boston. >> couric: and that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. i'm katie couric. thank you for watching. see you back here tomorrow. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org uz

your realtime captioner is linda marie macdonald. caption colorado, l.l.c. parent are furious but it's a matter of money. the latest bay area city faced with school shutdowns. >> a half billion dollars for three miles. is it a smart way to spend anyone's money? and the most popular restaurant chain in the known universe, not so popular in one bay area community. good evening, i'm allen martin. >> i'm dana king. they are on the chopping block tonight. several east bay schools, they could all be shut down and we'll know their fate very soon. robert lyles is in richmond where there is a crucial vote this evening. >> reporter: we have heard the phrase putting it all on the line. that's more true tonight where parents, students and teachers are expected to turn out en masse