CNN 2010-07-02

The stakes are huge and the passions are high and the hearings are sure to be contentious 1. Let's take a look at some of the issues that will likely to dominate the proceedings 2.  CNN's Josh Levs joins us now with a preview, Josh.

Hey there, Kyra. Look, we know Elena Kagan has got a lot of support on Capitol Hill. We also know she's got her detractors particularly among some Republicans.  And the way that these hearings works for Supreme 3 Courts posts, these hearings are largely dictated 4 by the critics out there who have some issues they want to raise.  We've got a taste of may be to come this morning from one of those lawmakers.

She has the least experience of any nominee 5 in 50 years. She was a Clinton operative for quite a number of years. The point person on efforts to restrict gun rights. The point person on blocking partial birth abortion 6.  At Harvard, she barred the military from the recruiting offices, demean them in violation 7 of law, and her legal brief was rejected 8-0 by the Supreme Court. There are a number of things here that caused us to believe and any American to be concerned that she would be an activist 8 judge.

All right. Let me just touch on a few issues now and then we'll show you where you can find some more information. One of the things we're going to be hearing a lot about is military recruiting.  Now, during her time at Harvard, she did, uh, launch some efforts against military recruiting on campus over concerns involving "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." She also supported some other schools in their efforts to combat a federal law that basically was pushing them to allow military recruiting or risk losing federal funding. So that's one thing we're likely to hear.  Some things about abortion is an interesting one. There's not a lot about this in her professional background, but there's something that she wrote way back when she was an undergrad at Princeton that we might be hearing about. And I have a quote here, she would have classed as a deriding 9 conservatives at the time as quote, "these avengers of innocent life."  But, you know what? Later in the Clinton White House, she took what a lot of her supporters say is a very pragmatic approach on the issue of late-term abortions 10, so they point to some documents that were recently released. So we'll take a look at what happens with that.

And one more to mention right here, campaign finance reform, because this is an instance when she argued before the Supreme Court. Now she ultimately lost this battle, but she launched these efforts are before the Supreme Court defending the government restrictions 11 on a corporate 12 refinancing of campaigns.  So this is a really good example of her involvement with the Supreme Court when she was there arguing.  This is just a handful of what you'll find at CNN.com/politics right now. If you want to learn more about some these issues and we'll be following this every step of the way throughout the hearings, Kyra.

All right, Josh. Thanks.

One person is dead and at least four more people injured after suspected tornado 13 touched down in a Michigan campground. It happened last night in Clyde Township some 60 miles north of Detroit.  Police say the twister tore through the Ft. Trod campground around 7:00 p.m. local time. Plenty of trailers got tossed. Some ripped apart. St. Claire County officials can't confirm if it indeed was a tornado. Eyewitnesses 14 disagree.

My dad came up and he said you could actually see the tornado coming down and going up. Coming down and going up. And he’d actually seen the spinning.

When I went out towards the west window and looked out that way. And all I saw the funnel 15 cloud coming right down almost right over the top of our hill over there.

Well, the National Weather Service will be checking to determine whether if it was indeed a tornado or just straight-line winds