CNN 2010-09-17

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: From Cuba and Canada to Hong Kong, we are bringing you headlines from around the world. I'm Carl Azuz. CNN Student News starts right this second!

AZUZ: First up: Congress is back in session. Members of the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives have about a month to work on legislation, because we're coming up on the midterm elections. Now, we've got a quick reminder 1 for you on those. Voters will cast ballots 2 for all 435 members of the House of Representatives, plus, around a third of the seats in the Senate. Primary elections have been running for months. There are more than a half-dozen of those today. The general election is on November 2nd.

Congressmen and women are looking at all sorts of issues, from the economy to food safety and military policies. But some analysts 3 don't think much is gonna happen on any subject, because they think members of Congress don't want to get into controversial debates before the big election. One issue that Congress probably will get into, though, is a set of tax cuts. These were passed under former President George W. Bush. They'll expire if Congress doesn't vote to extend them, meaning taxes would go up. The big debate here is what to do about the tax cuts for America's wealthiest citizens, people who earn more than $250,000 a year. President Obama and most Democrats 4 don't want to continue those cuts. They say America can't afford it, because the government needs the revenue that it would make from the taxes. Most Republicans -- and several Democrats -- do want to extend the tax cuts, though, even if it's just temporarily. They argue that the government shouldn't raise anyone's taxes while the economy is in rough shape.

Taxes were on the minds of some Tea Party members over the weekend. They got together for a rally at the U.S. Capitol building and to protest against what they see as out-of-control government spending and too many taxes by the U.S. government. The name of the rally -- "Remember in November" -- was a reference to the upcoming midterm elections.

Wildfires

AZUZ: Firefighters are battling a pair of blazes in the West. This one you see right now is in Colorado, near the city of Loveland. It started Sunday and spread fast. No reports of any injuries as of yesterday afternoon. Investigators 5 are looking into what started the fire. A local official said he hopes to get a handle on the situation "very quickly," though he added that "very quickly" probably means a few days. The other wildfire is out in Southern California. This one broke out on Sunday, too. More than 300 firefighters and emergency personnel are working to get it under control. But the weather is going to play a part in that. If the winds kick up, they can spread the flames