carol. the dax in germany down 4.3%. looks like it can be rough day for stocks. >> quick look at headlines. >> quickly, honda recalling 1 million cars worldwide. a lot of them are coming from the fit and crv line. they have a problem with the master switch on the power window system. apparently it could eventually cause a fire. it has not yet. they're recalling some crzs from the hybrid models. this is funny. apparently the motor can spin in the opposite direction of the transmission, your car can go backwards when you have it in forward. >> i love that happens. carter evans, many thanks as usual. "american morning" continues right now. i'm christine romans. here's what you need to know to start your day. deadly flooding and tornadoes tearing up the south while texas burns and a category 3 hurricane churns in the atlantic. extreme weather destroying homes, disrupting lives in several southern states. i'm ali velshi.

shook up. the bachmann campaign pressing on with a new man at the helm. big changes at the top and the questions they're raising about the congresswoman's campaign. >> i'm carol costello. president obama offering up one hint about his highly anticipated jobs plan. his proposal to put americans back to work on this "american morning." all right. good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, september 6th. welcome to "american morning." >> what's going on with the weather? >> i know. from earthquakes to hurricanes to wildfires. >> we need some locust. >> all we need is locus and it will complete the picture. it is going crazy. mother nature is piling on. as christine said, fires, tornadoes, flooding, across the south. in texas, dozens of dangerous wildfires are burning across the state fanned by winds from tropical storm lee and fueled by the worst one-year drought in the state's history.

nearly 500 homes have been destroyed, thousands of people have been evacuated. in suburban atlanta, tornado sirens sounded through the night, suspected twisters spawned, damaged or destroyed dozens of homes. trees are down all over the place. flooding is a big problem in jackson, mississippi. several major roads submerged and shut down. authorities say a man was killed when he was swept away by floodwaters. and all this as a category 3 hurricane now begins to approach the united states. katia, not going to get here, but it's going to have an impact. katia is churning northwest in the atlantic bringing the threat of dangerous rip currents to the east coast in the next few days. wow. a lot going on. rob marciano is in the extreme weather center tracking lee's trail of destruction. jim spellman is in bastrop, texas, south of austin. he's covering the record-breaking wildfires. let's go to jim first. jim, 3.5 million acres of texas

have burned since november. area roughly the size of connecticut. what's going on now? >> yeah. it's really amazing how many fires they've had here and that sheer volume the size of connecticut. we know this fire here in bastrop, southeast of austin, 500 homes destroyed, 25,000 acres and i would be shocked when the sun comes up and they assess this if both of those numbers haven't grown. this fire when we got here yesterday, it was amazing. this huge wall of smoke that just spread across the horizon. helicopters in the air, planes dropping water and retardant trying to get a handle on it. it was burning so fast and aggressively they were having trouble getting even a hold on it yesterday. like you said these epic drought conditions are creating the perfect opportunity for these fires to spread. heat, drought conditions, and wind. it just goes so fast, these fires spring out of nowhere. it barely gives people time to get out of the way. take a listen. >> we left our house and about 30 minutes later we couldn't even get back to it.

it's moving probably eight or ten miles across the ground. so, you know, god help us, that's all we can do right now. >> reporter: and with 90% of texas under the severe drought conditions, more people are bound to have to evacuate until they get some kind of long-term, serious relief from this drought, ali. >> all right. jim, is there some sense of when they might get a handle on this? >> yesterday when i spoke to firefighters here, they honestly weren't optimistic, said it could be days, veen a week before they could get this on hand. this morning a little good news for them, it's very cool, only about the low 60s and the winds are calm. they'll take advantage of every minute of conditions like that working on the ground to try to create fire lines between the fire and the existing fuel. and in the air with more helicopter and plane drops while they can until, you know, t the winds pick up again. >> we'll check in with you, jim

spellman in texas. let's head to atlanta and check in with rob marciano. although it seems like the worlded my be ending, rob. put this in perspective it is hurricane season, the time of year when these things happens. >> it is. for folks in texas, it's good news that it's hurricane season because the odds are they'll get something tropical to get into texas. we were hoping that would be the case with lee. adding insult to injury, it passed to the east and that just spawned more in the way of backside dry winds in through texas and that's part of the problem that we've seen the past couple days. lee is moving off towards the north and east. a cooler air mass is settling in. you heard jim speak about that. temperatures in the 60s are this morning. that's great news. lighter winds. we don't see any rainfall coming this way. but the firefighters will take lighter winds and certainly take cooler temperatures and that's what we're getting today for the next couple days. no rain in the forecast until further notice. we've seen severe weather from leftovers of tropical storm lee. we saw it across atlanta and alabama and mississippi and

louisiana yesterday. and this is parts of northern north carolina. and virginia. a couple counties in south central virginia there. under a tornado warning until 6:15. the entire area under a tornado watch through 2:00 this afternoon. you see a good chunk of north carolina and you'll also notice all that rainfall up towards the north and that is heading towards -- already in through the northeast. that's going to cause some other flooding issues. all right. quickly hurricane katia, category 3 storm. at one point last night this was a category 4 monster. still a beast. northwesterly movement at 10 miles per hour. winds of 125 miles an hour. it will split the difference between bermuda and the east coast and we still think that this strong cold front that's on the east coast will push it out to sea. but, strong or huge swells now rolling and pounding the eastern seaboard and big time rip currents are going to be a threat there as well. that combination along with leftovers of lee, are going to

create a flooding issue also. or reinvigorate the flooding issues i should say across upstate new york and vermont. we'll be watching that carefully over the next couple days. >> people in new jersey are saying, oh, my gosh, more rain. so anyway, thank you, i think, rob marciano. >> all right. >> thank you, i think. turning to 2012 presidential politics now, and a shakeup involving two of congresswoman michele bachmann's top campaign staffers. her campaign manager, ed rollins, is stepping back into an advisory role and her deputy campaign manager is leaving the campaign altogether. our peter hamby joins us live from columbia, south carolina. peter, why the shakeup? ed rollins a veteran, why is he stepping back? >> michele bachmann is really entering a new phase of the presidential campaign. she won the big ames straw poll in iowa, but rick perry has come in the race and shaken it up. really damaged her standing in iowa and south carolina, two conservative state with tea party activists and social

conservatives she's relying on. rollins went on anderson cooper last night and this was his official explanation. take a listen. >> i'm 68 years old. you know, i had a stroke a year and a half ago and so, you know, i'm -- work 12, 14 hour days, it's wearing. >> that's what rollins is saying. that's the official line from the campaign. i can tell you behind the scenes, that bachmann and rollins never really clicked. in hindsight that doesn't seem too surprising. bachmann has always been this populist, grassroots outsider. bachmann is the salty veteran of campaigns. so another deputy keith nahigian is going going to take over for bachmann and try to help boost her standings, christine, in the polls because she has slipped in recent weeks. >> rollins' intent was to get some discipline into that campaign and make her a disciplined candidate. and certainly it seems as though

she has been more disciplined in recent weeks and months than in the early stages of her coming up on the national stage. let me ask you about the five gop candidates at that forum in south carolina organized by tea party power senator jim demint. who impressed there? >> you know what, mitt romney had the highest stakes i think. not typically his wheelhouse, these tea party events. he stepped up his effort ts reach out to them in recent weeks and i talked to a lot of activists last night down here in south carolina who were impressed with his performance. he was asked about the controversial health care law, controversial among conservatives that he implemented in massachusetts. a lot of tea party folks that i talked to were impresseded with his answer there, that he delivered a state based solution, but obama care, as he called it, is a federal overreach. it was a largely friendly forum. there wasn't a debate for mat. more like they would come up, jim demint would press them how they thought on the issue and

mostly trained their fire on president obama. listen to this -- >> foreign policy. >> a lot. first, i would have one. >> i happen to believe that this administration is weakening america militarily. this is not what americans want. the world is not safer. >> the constitution does not specifically enumerate nor does it give to the federal government, the role and duty to super intend over education. that historically has been held by the parents. >> liberty and rights aren't -- don't have anything to do with entitlements. entitlements means you can take somebody else's money, you know, and the government there is to redistribute it. >> he's the most effective food stamp president in american history. >> one person we didn't see yesterday was texas governor rick perry. the republican frontrunner. we're still waiting to hear if he will participate in a debate on wednesday in california, which should be, we all expect it to be a little more contentious than yesterday's

friendly forum here in south carolina, christine. >> all right. thanks so much, peter hamby. rick perry attending to those wildfires, record wildfire season in texas. he went home. thanks so much. we're getting new details about mitt romney's plan to create jobs. in an editorial this morning in "usa today," romney writes, quote, our country has arrived at a fork in the road. in one direction lies the heavy hand of the state, indebtedness and decline. in the other direction lies limited government, free enterprise, and economic growth. i know in which direction lie the millions of jobs we need. end quote. the republican presidential candidate will outline his vision for getting america back to work at 3:00 p.m. eastern in las vegas. of course on thursday, we'll hear from the president. >> mitt romney's plan has 59 points. 59. >> wow. >> "usa today," read them all. that's your homework for this morning. >> i like there's some detail somewhere. >> a lot of detail, 59 points. president obama also gave a

brief preview of his jobs plan, speaking in detroit, the president said one way to boost employment is for congress to get on board with rebuilding america. dan lothian live at the white house. dan, mitt romney has 59 points in his plan. how many does obama boast? >> we don't have 59 points yet, and the white house being careful not to release a lot of new details ahead of the president's speech. what we know is the president will be unveiling a mix of some things that we have heard about already and some new ideas as white house aides have called them. a combination of things that the president can do on his own unilaterally, put in place right away, and other things that will need congressional approval. there will be things such as extending the unemployment benefits, also extending payroll tax cut, and making sure those trade deals with panama, colombia and south korea get completed.

what appears to be a key component as the president said in his speech yesterday, infrastructure jobs. >> we've got roads and brings across this country. that need rebuilt. we've got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building. we've got more than 1 million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. there is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. >> reporter: and, of course, this all comes as the president deals with low approval ratings, as also we've seen those disappointing job numbers where no jobs were created in the month of august. there's a lot of criticism from republicans who say this administration has not acted strongly enough in order to bring down the high unemployment numbers that what the president should be doing now is really sitting down and putting something on paper, not delivering another speech, and that he needs to create a more stable environment so some of these businesses that are currently sitting on the sidelines with their money will put that back into play.

carol? >> we'll see what happens on thursday. dan lothian live from washington, see president obama's speech before a joint sep session of congress this thursday 7:00 p.m. eastern. >> i haven't seen you for a few days. have we worked out the timing of the speech so you can watch both the football game and speech? >> yes. >> yes. it's all okay. >> excellent. the high unemployment rate we told you above 9%. winning the blue collar vote may be a challenge for president obama. he got some help yesterday from the teamster's union president james hoffa. speaking before the president came on the stage, james hoffa had some fiery words for republicans. >> president obama, this is your army. we are ready to march. let's take these son of a -- out and give america back to america where we belong. thank you, very much. >> talking about the tea party and not really republicans in general. also on sunday hoffa called american companies that don't spend their money in the united

states, he said they are simply unpatriotic. coming up next, rhode island is in a big financial bind. the state is running out of money and tens of thousands of pensions might be facing the ax. could the same thing happen to your retirement plans? we're going to talk about it. >> also a crisis at the u.s. postal service. costs are going up while business is going way down. so, is the postal service obsolete? it's this morning's talk back. >> and mr. petraeus goes to langley. the newly retired army general starts his new job today as head of the cia. it's 15 minutes past the hour.

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knee yam may and the other on its way. reports that moammar gadhafi and one of his sons were considering joining the convoy. libya's national transitional council will meet with tribal leaders today to make it clear that pro-gadhafi forces will not be harmed if they peacefully surrender. a lot of discussion about whether members of his security forces have left the country, going to niger and he has or will be joining them. >> he's had a lot towards the countries around libya. whether he was doing this anticipation of this day or just because he has friends. >> if he is on that convoy it's amazing he could get out of libya when everybody is supposedly looking for him. a senior al qaeda leader in charge of global operations has been arrested in pakistan. officials say eunice al mar taneny was captured, withheld from u.s. intelligence agencies. he took orders directly from osama bin laden and targeting american economic interests around the world.

the white house calling the arrest an example of u.s. and pakistan's long standing partnership in fighting terrorism. the david petraeus era begins at the cia. the newly minted civilian will be sworn in as the agency's director. he retired from the army last week after four stars and 37 years of service which included commanding u.s. troops in iraq and afghanistan. he succeeds leon panetta at cia. panetta is the secretary of defense. your pension, right, this is the thing that is the promise between you and your employer, you and your government. a look at our states in crisis. rhode island considering a plan to slash pension benefits for more than 50,000 workers and retirees. the state is in financial trouble. it's nearly $7 billion short when it comes to funding pension plans for its retired teachers, police officers and other public workers. the state legislature has scheduled a special session for next month. last month the city of central falls, rhode island, filed for bankruptcy because of unsustainable pension costs.

now it's your turn to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. the question for you this morning, is the postal service obsolete? neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night. it's not the post office's official motto, but it's how we as a culture have come to see our friendly neighborhood mailman. he or she is always there with birthday cards or bills from the utility company. the postal service is in trouble. not only because it's running a $9 billion deficit but because the world has changed. the rise of fedex, ups and e-mail giving mr. mailman a run for his money and he's losing. the post office delivered 171 billion pieces of mail in 2010, that's a big number, but down 20% from 2006. but that's the least of its problems. the postal service is also required to deliver mail wherever it's sent no matter what. and by law, it is forced to pay for retiree health costs for the next 75 years. i tell you this because the

postal service says it can't make the $5.5 billion payment for retiree health costs this month and is now in danger of defaulting. the postmaster general will be asking the senate for help today. maybe the answer to that plea is in our talk back question this morning. the question for you, is the postal service obsolete? facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your comments later this hour. >> in this country, congress is in charge of the purse strings for the postal service even though the postal service runs on its own budget and money. they can have savings accounts and phone cards in their post office. in a way congress has ham strung the agency. it's not as flexible. >> is it possible to privatize the postal service. >> it has been done. i think there are a lot of options. i have to say this, as far as postal services go while a lot of people complain about it, in a lot of those other countries, mail delivery is a not as

efficient in the united states. they lose a lot less, get your mail six days a week, doesn't happen in most countries. >> he would like congress to quickly let them drop the saturday mail service, and cut jobs. hundreds -- maybe 120,000 jobs. >> most don't have saturday mail service. >> and they want to cut service on saturday because of these retiree health benefits it is required to pay for the next 75 years. >> and they have no layoff clauses in some of these union contracts too, which, you know, they have to lay people off. >> tell us what you think. a lottery lawsuit. why an ohio man claims he's entitled to $2 million even though he didn't spend a penny on the winning lottery ticket. this one you will find interesting.

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minding your business this morning. european markets are making modst gains this morning after a huge sell-off in stocks there

yesterday due to rising concerns worldwide about europe's debt problems. the worst hit the german dax index which lost more than 5% yesterday. u.s. markets open after the holiday weekend. stock futures are down sharply across the board this morning. investors also concerned about europe's debt. another potential market mover today an economic survey on nonmanufacturing industries like retail, health care, and finance. economists forecasting a dip in the so-called ism index, not a good sign for growth in this economy. investors rushing to the security of gold again. gold is back over $1900 an ounce in overseas trading showing some skittishness worldwide. president obama's pick to run the new consumer financial protection bureau, richard coredri, will face his first senate confirmation hearing. republican senators are expected to grill him on what are wide reaching powers of this agency. he's the former ohio attorney general. hurricane irene could have

an effect on cotton and tobacco prices. the storm destroyed a large part of the crop grown in north carolina's. this year's crop was weak going in because of the a drought. pepsi and the nfl expected to announce one of the largest deals to date. that deal is worth some $2.3 billion over the next ten years. "american morning" will be right back after this quick break. look at all this stuff for coffee. oh there's tons. french presses, espresso tampers, filters. it can get really complicated. not nearly as complicated as shipping it, though. i mean shipping is a hassle. not with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that is easy. best news i've heard all day! i'm soooo amped! i mean not amped. excited. well, sort of amped. really kind of in between. have you ever thought about decaf? do you think that would help?

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well, it is 31 minutes after the hour. time to check this morning's top stories for you. strong winds spreading across texas. they're spreading the wildfires southeast of austin firefighters are struggling to contain a fast-moving fire that has torched 25,000 acres. 25,000 acres. it's destroyed close to 500 homes and a fresh fire fanned by tropical storm lee's residual winds is threatening homes 45 miles north of houston. >> world of politics, michele bachmann has a campaign shakeup. her high profile campaign manager ed rollins is stepping down from that position. he told anderson cooper he doesn't have the endurance to go 14 hours a day, seven days a week, due to health concerns. bachmann's deputy campaign manager also leaving the campaign. the postmaster general, expected to testify this afternoon at a hearing to prevent a postal shutdown. the agency has warned its facing

a possible default on an upcoming payment to a retiree fund. if it does default officials promise there will be no interruption in mail service. markets overseas are making up some ground this morning after a steep retreat after last week's stunner from the labor department that there were no jobs created in august and lingering concerns over europe's debt crisis and it does seem that europe was the bigger influencer on markets on monday. jim boldin live in london. u.s. markets have not had a chance to react to what happened in europe yesterday and things seem to be getting a little bit better, but what was going on? what was driving these european markets so much lower yesterday? >> well, yesterday was all worries, as you said, u.s. jobs numbers for sure, and there was no decent growth coming out of germany with numbers, no decent numbers coming out of the uk. real worry about the banks because the fha and u.s. possibly going to sue six or seven european banks over the mortgage meltdown. that didn't help. we had losses, regional election

in germany for the chancellor there, lots of worries about in debt in italy and greece. lots of people coming back from holiday and saying nothing has changed. we haven't sorted the debt crisis problems here. what we're seeing today with the markets is what they say relief rally. switzerland shares up more than 4% because the swiss national bank has intervened in the currency markets and the euro driven up by 9% against the swiss franc. it's interestings this happened. they've set a currency peg to the euro. what this might mean to viewers we could see some recovery in the u.s. dollar because of this. so it will be interesting to watch. we see the ftse up 1.5% so far today in london. a bit of a relief rally. >> whole lot of things going on. new records in gold as well. all these things intertwined whether the u.s. job situation or the debt crisis, the u.s. currency and gold. watch markets carefully. good to see you as always. thank you. >> yep.

new this morning, 38 people are dead in the wake of tropical storm talas. the storm swept through japan over the weekend bringing record rainfall, mudslides and flooding. 54 people are still missing and tens of thousands have been ordered to evacuate. four former news corp. executives will face a british parliamentary committee today in the u.k. phone hacking scandal. they will question two former lawyers, former human resources manager and ex-editor with news corp.'s paper division. they're trying to find out if news corp. engaged in corporate wide cover-ups to hide the phone hacking practices of its reporters. an ohio man is suing for a share of a $99 million lottery jackpot. 22 of his co-workers won. employees at a cabinet making firm in middlefield ohio have been pooling their money for years and hit the jackpot last month. one of the regular players, 39-year-old edward hairston

failed to contribute to the jackpot pool because he's been out of work because of a back injury. he claims he's entitled to a $2 million share anyway but not getting sympathy from his neighbors. >> sorry about your luck, i guess. you got to pay to play. and, you know, if he was part of the group at one time, i mean he was part of the group while paying. >> i feel for him, but if you didn't put into it i don't think you should get anything at all. >> last week a judge ordered the ohio lottery commission to set aside $2 million for hairston just in case he prevails in court. >> that's terrible luck. >> yeah. on your back with a back injury, out of work, miss the pool and they win. >> kind of sad his co-workers didn't put in for him. >> if you're in a pool like that -- >> it if somebody -- what would you -- our crew says -- >> we're starting a fight on the floor. christine asked everybody to say what they would do. >> but they're nodding.

>> yeah. they would cover. >> they would cover. >> i don't believe them, but they say they would cover. >> we'd cover everybody. >> there you go. >> president obama and mitt romney about to unveil dueling jobs plans. who's got the solutions and will their speeches make a difference to anybody who's looking for a job? we'll talk about it on the other side. it's 36 minutes after the hour.

all right. two days until the president's jobs speech in front of a joint session of congress. we got a glimpse of his plan at a labor day speech in detroit. let's listen. >> we've got roads and bridges across this country that need rebuilt. we've got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building. we've got more than 1 million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. there is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. >> hear all the details of the president's plan, presidential candidate mitt romney is giving his own speech at 3:00 p.m. eastern this afternoon. what can we expect from the two and are these speeches just enough to get congress to act? joining me now, cnn political contributor hilary rosen and former republican adviser robert

trainer, also the d.c. bureau chief for the comcast network. robert, start with you, infrastructure spending, listening to the president, sounds like stimulus that did tweet jobs in 2008 and 2009. can republicans get on board with more infrastructure spending? >> you know, i'm not a spokesman for the republican parties so i really don't know, but it seems to me that what the republicans are for is some type of job creation offset with some type of spending cuts. the question really becomes is when the president makes his bold announcement on thursday is how he's going to pay for it. that's the question. and then the other question becomes, how will republicans respond to that. let's say hypothetically the president says i want to spend $6 billion in green collar jobs and i'm willing to pay for it through a tax cut. ta puts the ball in republican's court and one would think republicans could support something like that. time will tell on thus whether or not the president is serious about job creation and debt reduction.

>> pay for it with spending cuts. >> correct. >> let me ask you, hillary, seems there's two ideologies and i don't see any room between them. one is the president has to do something. democrats and liberals say the president has to do something big and bold to get the job market growing. on the other side everyone saying we've got to undo everything that the president has done. mitt romney in his jobs plan, among the things, many, many points in there, undoing the regulatory -- [ inaudible ]. >> we know the spending cuts are putting people out of work and that, you know, if we enacted what the republicans wanted we would be losing something like 7 million jobs over the next year. what i think the president is going to do is two things. he's going to come up with a few things that he can do without the congress because he just has to and i think infrastructure spending they've -- they're going to be unveiling infrastructure spending that does not require the congress to pass it. they, you know, did create jobs when they started this stimulus over the last year.

all economists have said that. they need to get back there. public works the perfect way to go. >> republicans will say this is a spend thrift president. >> the republicans will trash whatever the president says. the key thing, can the president pull off some things that will work without the republicans, move this economy forward a little bit and then the republicans aren't going to have anything to say. we've got a lot way to re-election. the president is focused on the economy right now. frankly less so on re-election. >> what many of the republicans are focused on is making this a one term president. they want his job. this is -- they've been clear about undoing what many say is his legacy. talk about health care. mitt romney also saying that repealing quote/unquote obama care is among the things he thinks would get the economy going again. is health care reform bad law or was it a bad sales job by the president and the democrats and is it in danger of being really in the cross hairs here? >> i think it depends on who you ask in terms of whether it's bad

policy or not. when you take a look at the states whether republican governor or democratic governors, take a look at state court coulds whether elected by the people or put in by the governor a lot are saying this runs counter to our constitution. this is not constitutional. you cannot mandate individuals to have health care. that's number one from a policy standpoint. from a policy standpoint number two, you know, there are a lot of democrats out there, and even republicans, that said the president did not do a good job of selling this plan in the first place. there is no public option. a lot of progressives and liberals are still upset with the president he caved on that. a lot of republicans are saying not only is this a government mandate but how are you going to pay for it? there are a lot of steps there. also a lot of governors pushing back asking for vouchers to get out of this because they simply cannot afford it because they're nearing bankruptcy. a lot of different constituencies out there. republicans, democrats, elected officials, nonelected officials that have issues with this so-called health care plan. >> there's really no evidence

that the health care law is affecting the economy negatively. in fact the opposite. health care costs were skyrocketing, they were an increasing drain on the economy, and this president tackled it. he didn't make everybody happy. and some would say he made nobody happy. if you're someone with a preexisting condition you can change your job today and be -- get health care. that is a huge issue for americans across the country. the second thing is, the government is working with these states looking for vouchers and exemptions and slower ways in. the republicans are trying to come up with everything the president did wrong, talking the economy down, and i think that the american people are tired of it. i think the american people don't want this to be the election year. they want this to be the economic recovery year. >> hilary rosen and robert train, leave it there. there's so much sunlight between these two positions that it makes people wonder what kind of progress we're going to get as

we move forward with the super committee and all the important choices we have to make going forward. thanks, both of you. >> thank you. 45 minutes after the hour. we'll be right back. i'm elvis dur rand from the elvis duran morning show in new york. i'm on the road a lot. i think calling me a wacky morning deejay is an insult. there's your wacky. if we were 9 to 5ers i think we would be boring. having zero hours of sleep makes you say stupid things. >> you can be kate middleton. >> the cool thing about radio is we can do radio shows anywhere. when the show travels we have a big family. it's twice the size "the brady bunch." a lot of planning, begging for discounts at hotels. we're taking the show to london. >> i'm excited. >> i love taking the show on the road. making you rethink everything you're doing every day. >> i can't believe people take sometimes days to pack for a trip. i can get packed in and out,

boom in five minutes. it's good to get out of your comfort zone and travel somewhere and learn about someone else and what they're going through and it enhances your life when you get back home. >> thanks for joining me today. safe travels. >> peace out, everybody. thanks to the venture card from capital one, we get double miles on every purchase, so me and the boys earned a trip to dc twice as fast! oh hi! we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast... one more chariot please. ...we can bring the whole gang! i cannot tell a lie. he did it. right... it's hard to beat double miles! read my lips -- no new axes! [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one, and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? so, you're a democrat right?

48 minutes after the hour. here's what you need to know to start your day. moammar gadhafi is in libya -- unclear whether moammar gadhafi is in libya. a convoy has been seen. a libyan convoy seen passing through niger with some speculation that he might be in it. more than 60 wildfires are burning this morning in the state of texas. southeast of austin. firefighters are struggling to contain a fast moving fire that's torched 25,000 acres and destroyed close to 500 homes. hurricane katia becoming a monster category 3 and impacting the united states. brings a threat of rip currents to the east coast in the next few days. forecasters are watching the track carefully. michele bachmann's campaign manager ed rollins stepping down citing health concerns. he'll be an adviser to the campaign. bachmann's deputy campaign manager announced he' leaving the campaign entirely. dr. conrad murray's lawyers seeking a delay over the judge's

refusal to sequester the jury. they pointed to the media frenzy around the casey anthony trial saying this is going to be bigger. serene na williams and roger federer advancing to the yfls in the u.s. open. federer winning in straight sets in a match that ended around 1:30 this morning. mardy fish was ousted. "american morning" is back right after this.

50 minutes past the hour. we asked you to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. this was the question, is the postal service obsolete? from jan -- this from katie --

and this from ricoh -- keep the conversation going. facebook.com/americanmorning. >> i love my mail carrier. he's efficient. like everybody in the neighborhood, i mean there are

some good people who work in there, listening to us talk about these stories and pretty freaked out about what's going forward. >> when the italian automaker fiat acquired chrysler the hope was to bring the nearly bankrupt brand into the 21st century kicking and screaming with stylish models including the fiat 500 the subcompact. it's one of the most talked about new cars of the year. is it worth all the hype? i went out to the consumer report test track in connecticut and got behind the wheel and put the fiat 500 to the test. ♪ all right. we've seen what this car can do if you want to drive it that way. most people are probably not going to drive it that way. this is where dave will hand the car to me. let's see what it handles like when just driving around like regular folk. i would say qualifies as easy to drive. >> yes. >> what's your sense of it? what's your sense of this car? >> it's an okay car. >> right. >> it looks cute. fun to drive.

but would i want to live with it on a day-to-day basis no? is this going to be part of the comeback strategy for chrysler and work? >> i think it's going to bring a young demographic, somebody who wasn't looking at a chrysler to come into the chrysler showroom. from that point of view it's going to be a little bit of a halo card that's going to bring a totally different consumer into chrysler. >> bouncing a little bit on this road. this doesn't score as well as something else in this price category, other cars in this category. do you think it's likely to improve or this is the car they're offering? >> no. a lot of the factors that make it score poorly is the rare seat room, the ride that isn't particularly good and also, you know, the overall fuel economy is not brilliant for its size. >> what kind of mileage does this get some. >> this gets 34 to the gallon. >> okay. >> which it's okay. >> what's your evaluation of

this from a safety perspective? >> well, it comes with all the safety features, side air bags, front air bags, electronic stability control. it does well in crash tests that we've seen so far. this is a relatively small car and a bigger heavier car will impact more of its energy into a smaller car. so i would have certain, you know, concerns about the overall safety. >> for the price you pay for this car what are you competing against? >> the 500 is pretty highly priced. $18,000. you can buy an awful lot more. look at the other sort of budget cars which are in this area such as the honda, the mini, hon day accent, and ford fiesta. >> your overall view of this car? >> it's a cute little car. it might be difficult to live with. like a pair of high heels. you look good in them, they're cute, but a bit uncomfortable and you really wouldn't want to live the those on a day-to-day basis. >> thanks very much. >> thanks, ali. >> bouncing around a little bit.

how was the ride? >> it's a cute car. that's -- ultimately that's what it is. it's cute and reliable and cars, any car today is safer than any car five or ten years ago. we couldn't get that thing to slide and screech because of the electronic stability control which is common on most cars now. >> what it reminded me of? years ago i had a yugo, remember the yugo. >> you had a yugo? >> i had a yugo. >> those were dodgey. >> it sort of reminded me of that but much more expensive? in this case any car you get that's new is relatively safe and does that. but if you're spending 18 or $19,000 on a car as he said, that's a whole new market. ever since the recession, there are a whole bunch of small, cute cars that will do that job and you can pack them up. >> gas mileage really good? >> pretty good. there are those in that size that are better. if you're buying that you're buying it because you want a cute little car. >> good for the yugo too. >> that's right. >> i could never sell the thing. >> resell wasn't their biggest selling point. >> ahead next hour, the search

for the lost iphone 5. you'll never believe this new twist. in the investigation. we'll have that coming up next. [ girl ] today i tamed the wild

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september shakeup. two of michele bachmann's top advisers stepping aside, leaving some to wonder this morning whether her run may be done? plus this -- >> let's take these son of a -- out and give america back to america where we belong. >> tough talk from the teamsters. jimmy hoffa saying that the tea party has declared war on america's workers and willing to lend an army of thousands to the president. an apple prototype reportedly left behind in a bar traced behind to a home in san francisco. we're asking this was it police or apple employees who entered that home to search it? and lone star inferno. more than 60 new fires blazing through the state. some completely out of control. governor rick perry saying this is the meanest fire his state has ever seen on this "american morning."

good morning, everyone. it's tuesday, september 6th. welcome to "american morning." >> you saw rick perry canceled plans to appear with other -- >> republicans at that forum. >> yeah. >> because he was going back to the wildfires. >> he had to head back to the wildfires. start with hard core politics this morning. we begin with the shakeup in the presidential campaign of michele bachmann. it involves not one but two of her people. her campaign manager ed rollins, a familiar face to cnn viewers, is stepping back into an advisory role citing health concerns. her deputy campaign manager david polyansky is leaving the campaign altogether. peter hamby live in columbia, south carolina. what does this mean for bachmann's campaign? >> carol, michele bachmann is really entering a new phase of the campaign a month ago, she was the republican frontrunner in iowa, which is a central state to her presidential hopes.

she won that ames straw poll at the -- last month. with rick perry entering the race he's siphoned off a lot of her support in iowa and south carolina. so, you know, there have been reports of some tension within the campaign. this is the official explanation from ed rollins. he went on anderson cooper last night. >> i'm 64 years -- 68 years old. you know, i had a stroke a year and a half ago and so, you know, i've worked 12, 14 hour day, it's wearing. i have great affection for michele. i will do everything i can. it was always my plan to build a team, get to the straw poll, we won that, and make a transition a little bit to the fall when she's coming back to congress. that's in essence where we are today. >> so that's the official line from the campaign. i can tell you that in hindsight this might not have been that surprising. michele bachmann has always been

this grassroots, outsider kind of an insurgent candidate where ed rollins is a salty, campaign veteran. she's cycled through numerous chiefs of staff during her time on the hill, carol. michele bachmann really has a lot of changes to do in the coming months ahead to kind of recapture the momentum she had in the race one month ago. >> i know what the company line is, but when big-time people leave your campaign like this, this does not mean anything good for the campaign. i can't help but think of that. there was a fox poll done recently where 10% of tea party supporters thought michele bachmann was too extreme to become president. i mean, is this the beginning of the end for her campaign? is that what this means? >> i would never say this is the beginning of the end, especially in this cycle which has had a number of changes week to week. the tempo of this election cycle is pretty much like nothing we've ever seen. i mean tim pawlenty was supposed to win iowa back in the day and now he's not in the race. i would never say that. i do think michele bachmann does

have some serious hurdles ahead. rick perry kind of appeals to establishment business-minded republicans, along with tea party conservatives and social conservatives in a way that michele bachmann does not. she's not going to give up. you saw in this forum in south carolina last night, she really delivered a pretty strong performance and expect her to keep doing that in the debate this week in california. one thing you can say about michele bachmann she's a total work horse. she surprised a lot of people on the campaign trail this year, carol. >> peter hamby, reporting live from south carolina, thanks. just days before his major jobs speech, president obama is getting some strong support from teamster's president jim hoffa. speaking at the president's labor day event in detroit, hoffa said there was a war on workers and he had some fiery words for the tea party. >> when he sees what we're doing here, he will be inspired. but he needs help and you know what, everybody here has a vote. if we go back and keep the eye

on the prize, let's take these son of a -- out and give america back to america where we belong. >> the president was not at the rally when hoffa made those comments. let's bring in dan lothian live at the white house. is the administration saying anything about the sons of -- comment from hoffa? >> no. so far the white house still no comment on those remarks. what the president, though, is commenting about and other white house aides is this big push to try and turn the jobs picture around, to lower that high unemployment rate. so that's what the president plans to unveil in that speech to members of congress on thursday where aides say it will be a combination of ideas that we have heard about before publicly and some new ideas as well. also a combination of things that the president himself can do unilaterally and put in place right away and other things that will need congressional approval. some of the things that aides say that the president will be

unveiling, for example, the extension of the unemployment benefits, the payroll tax cuts, making sure that those trade deals get done, and what appears to be a key component, something that the president previewed in his remarks in detroit yesterday, infrastructure jobs. >> we've got roads and bridges across this country that need rebuilt. we've got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building. we've got more than 1 million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. >> and so this, of course, all comes at a time when the president has low approval ratings, when you those job numbers that came out, disappointing job numbers, showing no jobs were created in the month of august. so republicans have been very critical of these efforts by the white house saying that the administration has not been effective in putting any new policies out there to really make a dent in the struggling

economy and so that's the criticism that the white house is up against that the president makes. after those remarks, the president plans to hit the road. he'll head to richmond, virginia, on friday, and a white house aide saying that the president will spend a decent amount of time on the road selling his plan. >> dan lothian, thanks. you can see president obama's speech to the joint session of congress this thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. now to the battle for tripoli. a large convoy of libyan military vehicles is reportedly been spotted in northern niger. now niger shares the southern border of libya with chad. reportedly the military -- this convoy is reportedly being escorted by the niger military. there are new reports this morning from sources that moammar gadhafi and one of his sons may be considering joining the convoy. fred pligeitgen has the latest

joining us outside bani walid in libya. there had been talk earlier that gadhafi might have been in the convoy. now we're talking about them possibly joining the convoy. still no idea where moammar gadhafi is. sn>> absolutely no idea where moammar gadhafi is. the talk as you said was that moammar gadhafi either might have already joined the convoy or was planning to join that convoy which was then spotted in niger, of course. what our understanding is, apparently this convoy went from niger coming from algeria and might actually be going further on to the countries that has offered exile to moammar gadhafi should he go there. at this stage in time it very much isn't clear whether any high-ranking official from the gadhafi government or, in fact, gadhafi himself or his son might have zloinds this convoy. if you ask the rebels where i am in the desert plains between misrata and bani walid they say they believe moammar gadhafi is

probably still here in this country, although even they have no idea where he is. the big question is how many vehicles were part of this convoy? some of the information we've been getting the convoy might have been up to 200 armored vehicles, others saying far less than that, maybe a few dozen. it does seem as though a big convoy of libyan military vehicles has made their way into niger, some of them our understanding have made it to the capital of niger. what they're doing is very much unclear. whether or not this is moammar gadhafi fleeing his country, unclear at this point in time. from speaking to the guys here on the front line, they say their main goal is still capturing moammar gadhafi and his son saif al islam. >> fred, thanks very much for that. we'll stay on top of this with you. wall street right now looking to pick up where last week left off in the red. u.s. stock futures are down, despite a mostly positive day overseas. in asia, japan's nikkei did close down about 2 points, but hong kong's hang seng was up and

in europe where trading is under way london's ftse is up, germany's dax in positive territory as well. the issue here is, of course, there was a rough day on international markets yesterday. is that over or are we going to take the hangover for it here in the united states? >> yeah. the plot is thickening this morning in that case of the second top secret iphone reportedly left behind in a bar. we're now learning the extraordinary and some might say controversial lengths apple reportedly went to try to get that prototype back. our report this morning from dan lothian -- i'm sorry, dan simon in san francisco. >> reporter: a new not yet for sale iphone would be considered priceless if it got into the hands of apple competitors who would love to take it apart and find out what's inside. if reports that an apple employee lost an iphone 5 prototype are true, then whoever found it, probably had no idea what he or she had stumbled upon. >> there was an ad that appeared on craigslist offering the phone

for $200. from a vernal heights resident. >> reporter: the technology website cnet reported an apple employee lost the iphone at a bar in san francisco. >> this appears to be just you have a few too many drinks and leave it behind. >> reporter: apple wouldn't confirm the story but the san francisco police department put out a press release friday evening that says apple requested assistance in tracking down a lost item. police sent four sfpd officers accompanying two apple employees to a san francisco home and those employees went into the house to look for the lost item. none was recovered. but then the publication sf weekly reported that it had interviewed a man who consented to having his home searched for a phone last month after being confronted by people he presumed were police officers. no one in the group identified themselves as apple employees. again, no comment from apple. this whole story may seem a bit familiar. >> iphone 4.

>> reporter: when steve jobs introduced the iphone 4 last year, he joked about whether anyone had seen it in advance. >> stop me if you've already seen this. >> reporter: that's because many had. >> i'm jason chang. this is the new iphone. >> reporter: iphone 4 prototype lost in a bar and wound up in the hands of the tech blog gizmodo which paid $5,000 for the device. dan simon, cnn, san francisco. okay. what's creepy about that story is that the san francisco police supposedly let apple employees into someone's home to search it. i mean, why wouldn't the police just search it like, you know, things are supposed to -- it's like apple is big brother. >> kind of are. they have your information, music tastes and tv tastes are, know who you call. kind of are big brother i guess. either going to launch a police force with the iphone 5. >> the apple police are coming. texas getting torched. more than 60 new wildfires

burning across that state. the governor there this morning saying got a long way to go. >> the sound of tornado sirens in atlanta. in a five mile stretch more than 100 homes damaged or destroyed. and if you're heading to the beach this week, be warned of dangerous rip tides. katia now a monster category 3 hurricane, capable of producing life-threatening surf conditions along the east coast. you're watching "american morning." it's 12 minutes past the hour.

welcome back to "american morning." the situation in texas right now is both urgent and historic. more than 60 new wildfires are burning this morning, some call the blazes out of control and the fires are spreading. in the houston suburb of

magnolia at least 20 homes have burned, more than 1600 acres have been scorched a and with high winds fanning the flames another 150 homes are now in harm's way this morning. 130 miles away in bastrop near austin, the most destructive fire on record in texas has destroyed almost 500 homes and some 25,000 acres. governor rick perry leaving the campaign trail yesterday to return home to help organize the requests for federal aid. jim spellman joining us live this morning from bastrop. jim, what's the latest there? >> good morning, christine. right now the winds are calm and it's cooler. so firefighters here when the sun comes up will try to take advantage of that and get a handle on this blaze. these conditions here are so extreme that the slightest thing can set off a new fire. we learned that a separate fire a few miles away from here, did pop up yesterday destroyed 25 homes like that. it's so fast driven by the winds happening yesterday and the

extreme drought conditions. they're going to have their work cut out for them today. this fire when we arrived yesterday just this massive wall of smoke. they were hitting it with everything they could from the air. helicopters and airplanes and ground crews trying to get a handle on it. they couldn't. with 90% of this huge state of texas under these drought conditions so even when they get this one under control, another one can pop up right away. it just happens so fast, very little time for people to evacuate. very little time for firefighters to restage and get in there. as you mentioned governor perry has committed all the resources they need and they're going to need them today. they will have more crews on their way here, be able to get some federal help as well today, and try to get a handle on this. this is a really serious, serious fire happening at a place where there are a lot of people living. that's the real bad combination. a lot of the other fires in texas the last year or so have been in unpopulated areas. this is lightning up with homes and people. that's the recipe for disaster

here in texas. >> happening so fast, you know, when these flames come and gobble up homes so quickly. jim spellman, thank you so much. tens of thousands of households are waking up without power this morning in georgia. the last remnants of tropical storm lee causing possible tornados to touch down in suburban atlanta. more than 100 homes damaged. quite substantially so or destroyed over a five mile stretch. the video from cobb county northwest of downtown, high winds knocked down trees and power lines throughout the area. georgia power says 14,000 people don't have power right now across the state. we're also closely watching katia, now a powerful category 3 hurricane in the atlantic. packing winds of 125 miles an hour. the national hurricane center tells cnn the storm will create life threatening rip currents and surf up and down the east coast over the course of the next few days. rob marciano, give us locust, that's all we need. >> that's all we don't have. >> come on now.

it's been like this a good couple years now. a little job security. all eventually goes back to normal for a brief time. katia, a category 3, it was 4 at one point last night. it's gotten a little bit of banged up as it moves closer to bermuda. 400 miles south of bermuda. moving at ten miles an hour. like we've been saying the past few days we anticipate it to curve back out to sea. already banging off the east coast pretty good in the form of big-time swells and surf and also rip tides as well. couple of thunderstorms, one of which is producing radar indicated tornado just to the south of raleigh in north carolina. lee and moore counties under a tornado warning for the next 20 minutes. we saw several, obviously, warnings yesterday, after reports of tornadoes across the south, flooding in chattanooga and parts of mississippi as well and all this is heading up towards the north. this watch box for tornadoes is in effect until 2:00 local time and you can already start to see

some of these pop up. we get these often with land falling even tropical storms and this stalled frontal boundary that continues to wreak havoc across the northeast. washington, new york, boston, a decent amount of rain in this in the areas that saw the flooding from irene. flood watches have been posted. is it going to be a two, maybe three-day event of substantial rains. in the bigger cities, one to two inches of rainfall. outside of the larger cities, pennsylvania and new york and feed into new jersey and maybe parts of vermont we could see over two, three, four, maybe five inches of rainfall with this. there you go. flood watches posted up into parts of new england with this stalled frontal boundary. good news for texas, cooler, drier -- cool, still dry, but less winds. two factors have improved for the firefighters to get a handle on this. no rain expected until further notice and actually for a good chunk of the u.s. a lovely fall-like air mass, but for the east coast it is kind of a mess on this day after labor day.

>> don't put your wet vacs away just yet. take them back out. >> exactly. >> thanks, rob. >> thank you, rob. now it's your turn to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. the question for you this morning, is the postal service obsolete? neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night -- it's not the post office's official motto but it's how we as a culture have come to see our friendly neighborhood mailman. he or she is always there with birthday cards from grandma or the bill from the telephone company. but that is so almost completely over. the postal service is in big trouble now, not only because it's running a $9 billion deficit, but because the world has changed. the rise of fedex, ups, and e-mail are giving mr. mailman a run for his money. frankly he's losing. the post office delivered 171 billion pieces of mail in 2010. that's a big number but it is down 20% from 2006. that's not the least of its problems. the postal service is also

required to deliver mail wherever it's sent no matter what. and by law, it's forced to pay for retiree health costs for the next 75 years. i tell you this because the postal service says it can't make the $5.5 billion payment for retiree health costs this month and it's in danger of defaulting. so, the postmaster general will be asking the senate for help today. and maybe the answer to that plea is in our talk back question this morning. is the postal service obsolete? facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your comments later this hour. i wonder whether there's -- what you're respondents will say, but there may be this great middle ground. for a lot of people we always talk about how ups and fedex has overtaken a lot of this stuff. a lot of people just mail stuff. it's still the cheapest way to get something somewhere. >> they want to put kiosks in stores and grocery stores, they want to be able to get rid of saturday delivery.

do some more things, more quote/unquote modern things. all these things will take help from congress. >> let's be honest about things. a lot of us e-mail, a lot more of us will e-mail in the future and a lot of people pay their bills on-line. you don't even get, you know, a bill in the mail anymore. >> needs to be substantially smaller, these layoffs. >> look, a huge alliance here. pepsi and the nfl announcing one of the biggest deals in u.s. sports history. we've got the sizable dollar figure for you and what it's going to mean for your beverage and your game. >> means you're going to buy pepsi when you go to the stadiums. >> you're watching "american morning." ♪

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minding your business this morning. u.s. markets open today after the holiday weekend. stock futures are down sharply across the board this morning. investors are still concerned about the debt problems in europe and the jobs situation in the u.s. investors rushing to the security of gold. it shot up during trading overnight above $1900 an ounce. right now it's down just a little bit at about $1890 an ounce. president obama's pick to run the new consumer financial protection bureau will face his first senate confirmation hearing today.

republican senators are expected to grill him on what they say are wide-reaching new powers of this agency. he is the former ohio attorney general. hurricane irene could have an effect on cotton and tobacco prices. the storm destroyed a large part of the crops grown in north carolina. farmers are saying this year's crop was weak going into the storm because of the drought that could mean higher prices for tobacco and cotton for you. today, pepsi and the nfl are expected to announce one of the largest sponsorship deals to date in u.s. sports. "the wall street journal" is reporting this morning that deal worth $2.3 billion over the next ten years. don't forget for the latest news about your money check out the all new cnnmoney.com. "american morning" will be right back after this quick break. now, when you want powerful wifi, you've got it. with a verizon mobile hotspot,

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president obama taking on what is likely to be his biggest vulnerability in 2012, jobs. so what does the president need

to say and will it make a difference if you're out of work? we'll talk to congresswoman debbie wasserman-schultz on this "american morning." good morning. it's 31 minutes after the hour on this tuesday, september 6th. you're looking at live pictures of central park outside our studios in new york. it's going to be rainy most of the afternoon. highs only in the 60s. rob will have your full national forecast. >> what? >> later. >> highs only in the 60s? i'm not ready. >> rainy. >> look at the forecast all hours of the day it says 100% chance of precipitation. i think we're getting more rain than we did when irene blew through. >> no place to put it. that's the thing. >> but it will come down anyway. welcome back to "american morning." here are your top stories. a monster fire, 0% contained is burning near austin, texas. it is the largest of some 60 wildfires burning across texas. hundreds of homes have been destroyed, fires have caused

thousands of evacuations, and at least two deaths. high winds and drought are fueling the flames. surrender talks ongoing in bani walid, libya, one of moammar gadhafi's last strongholds. libya's national transitional council enlisting the help of tribal leaders to tell gadhafi loyalists they will not be harmed if they surrender peacefully. in the meantime there is growing speculation that gadhafi may be on the run. a huge libyan military convoy was spotted passing through niger in the last two days. and the now retired general david petraeus takes up his new position today, that would be running the cia. petraeus retired last week after 37 years in the army. he'll be sworn in today as the agency's 20th director replacing leon panetta. president obama previewing parts of his new jobs plan, it telling a crowd in detroit this country's infrastructure needs work and americans are ready to get dirty. joining me to talk more about the president's job plan, which he will present on thursday

evening, is congresswoman debbie wasserman-schul wasserman-schultz, the share of the democratic national committee. thank you for joining me. >> thank you, ali. thanks for having me. >> we are -- we were ne a bit of a cross rhodes here, the president said in response to a number of critics and what is becoming anemic and no jobs growth in august he will present the speech on thursday and i guess it becomes tough when you start wondering what is it he is going to do that can possibly satisfy americans who are desperate for something in the jobs creation way? what's the biggest thing that the president can do, notwithstanding what he might do what would you like to see him do? >> well, the crux of your question that we're at a crossroads is absolutely the case, and what i would like to see president obama do, like so many of my constituents who i heard from at town hall meeting in my district last week and the weeks prior, make sure that we

don't go in reverse and return to the same failed policies of the past, that the republican proposals like we expect mitt romney's to include today of cut cap and balance which will end medicare as we know it and cut into social security and harm education even more than republicans have in the past, we need to move forward and invest in our nation's infrastructure. you know, in south florida, ali, my constituents are sitting on clogged roads with crumbling infrastructure that needs repair and construction workers who need to be put back to work. we have an opportunity -- >> the issues you're facing -- >> infusion on the short term. >> i mean in florida you have a problem where you have the governor saying he doesn't want these stimulus dollars. we have programs for light rail. >> that's a big problem, you're right. >> mitt romney in his sneak preview is talking about changing the tax code, which i think we all agree we can change the tax code, streamline some of the stuff in there, he talks about reducing regulation,

repealing health care reform. what's your push back on that? what do you say to people who say that is going to create jobs in america? >> well, i can't understand -- i mean the bar for mitt romney is pretty high in his proposal that he's going to be releasing. if it matches what his track record is, which is 47 in job creation as governor of massachusetts and never recovering all the jobs that they lost in 2001 during that recession, then we've got a big problem. what i expect is that we'll hear more about tax cuts, more about helping, you know, big business with deregulation, allowing the fox to guard the hen house and that's what got us into a huge economic problem in the first place with massive job loss. we need to work together. we need to make sure that we focus on job creation, putting people back to work. unfortunately, ali, the republicans seem only to be

interested in one job, barack obama's, and the president has been urging republicans and democrats and that's what i think he'll do thursday night, for us to come to the table, work together and focus on everyone's job. that's what i'm hearing from my constituents. >> your constituents must be as we hear from our viewers and in our polling from americans in general who just don't think congress has what it takes to move on and get something done, whether it's about the debt ceiling or whatever it is that the president ends up talking about on thursday. what's your response to that? i mean, it does seem like you are in a somewhat paralyzed congress? >> well, it's -- it's almost like we're paralyzed on one side. it feels like congress has had a stroke and lost all their -- all feeling and ability to move on the right side of the body. the -- which is where the republicans sit. the democrats sit on the left side of the chamber and we've been ready, willing and able to

move forward together under president obama's leadership. in fact, during the debt ceiling crisis, there was opportunity after opportunity for the republicans to do that. unfortunately, they seemed strangled by their extreme right wing and the tea party. at the end of the day we need to clear out all this partisanship and focus on getting people back to work. president obama will lay out a vision on thursday night that i think will, you know, not have a long ramp, will have a short ramp to job creation and picking up the pace of recovery. all the republicans have to do is step up to the plate with us and so we can move forward together. >> you, as the chair of the democratic national committee, are going to be having to help candidates talk about what they're going to do in the next election. what do you do when they say ultimately the deciding factor is going to be that the economy is better a year from now or there are more jobs? what is that response? i think we've lost contact with congresswoman wasserman-schultz. she can't hear me. all right. i'll ask her that the next time

i get an opportunity to. debbie wasserman-schultz thanks for joining us. i guess we've lost her. >> bummer. >> i know. good discussion, nonetheless. we'll continue it again. >> still to come new questions in the u.k. hacking scandal. four former news corp. executives face a grilling today about what they knew and when. we're live in the latest -- in london rather with the latest. >> it was one amazing day for tennis great roger federer, heading to the quarterfinal after slamming, count them four aces at the u.s. open. you are watching "american morning." it's 38 minutes past the hour. [ cherie ] i wanted to make a difference in my community. [ kimberly ] the university gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people's lives. [ carrie ] you're studying how to be an effective leader. [ cherie ] you're dealing with professionals, teaching things that they were doing every day. [ kimberly ] i manage a network of over a thousand nurses. [ carrie ] i helped turn an at-risk school into an award-winning school. [ cherie ] i'm responsible for the largest urban renewal project in utah. [ kimberly ] and university of phoenix made it possible.

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wchl welcome back to "american morning." a big day in the u.k. phone hacking scandal. >> new questions this morning, form former rupert murdoch aides facing tough questions. zain verjee live in london with the details. >> good morning. this is going to be a really big deal today. it could be pivotal because at the heart of this is the question, did james murdoch lie? did he mislead people on the

parliamentary committee when he said he didn't really know about the extent, the scale of the phone hacking scandal? now james murdoch previously has said that an investigation showed no evidence of widespread phone hacking, so what we have today is four former officials, human resources chief, a former editor of "news of the world" a couple top legal guys, all in front of the committee and they are likely to challenge the fact that james murdoch didn't know. so in other words, there's an e-mail at the heart of all of this that james murdoch said he didn't see. there are a couple guys out there today talking to the committee saying he did see this critical e-mail that did say that the phone hacking scandal was widespread and it was not limited to one single reporter. >> you know what i find amazing about this, didn't james murdoch turn down a big bonus he was supposed to get because -- because of this scandal? and now this comes out.

the fact that he was going to get a bonus anyway is the thing that amazes me. >> right. well, you know, he did that. it was probably for optics, you know, in a situation that was so terrible for "news of the world," news corp., news international. that was something maybe he wanted to do to make himself look better, make the company look better. this hasn't gone away. this is a serious issue. if this committee decides that james murdoch lied to them, they're going to call him back and they're going to want more answers and it's going to put more pressure on news corp., more pressure on james murdoch who may, some analysts say, be so humiliated he may be forced to step down. >> wow. all right. zain verjee, thanks. tawdry, tabloid scandal that keeps going and going. >> juiciest and most fun kind. this one affected people's lives but it is fascinating to watch the developments. >> we asked you to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. we asked this question, is the

postal service obsolete. this from mary -- this from lori -- this from samantha -- you know

all about that, christine. >> incredibly sad to think about all the people who are listening to this story and worried about whether they're going to have a job or -- that's what worries me about this. part of the solution for the postmaster general is being able to lay off up to 120,000 people. for a lot of folks this is a foothold into the middle class that won't be there. >> exactly. >> thank you for your responses. facebook.com/americanmorning. time now for today's romans numeral. that number is 227. no, it's not that '80s sitcom. here's a price -- >> price of a quarter ounce of gold. >> not about your money and not about your job! >> what is this. >> it could affect your fantasy football picks this week. that's right. i'm taking the romans numb ral to the nfl. "american morning" back in 90 seconds.

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47 minutes after the hour. lot going on this morning. here's ha you need to know to start your day. michele bachmann's presidential campaign trying to regain its footing after losing two top strategist is. ed rollin is stepping into an advie roll and david polyansky is leaving altogether. texas a virtual tender box. more than 60 wildfires are burning across the state. the largest fire in bastrop county near austin has destroyed nearly 500 homes and killed at least two people. hurricane katia now a category 3 as it clurns out into the atlantic. the storm is expected to spare the u.s. east coast a hit, but

forecasters are warning of dangerous rip currents. and just a few hours, the postmaster general will testify at a senate hearing on preventing the shutdown of the cash-strapped post office. it may default on an upcoming payment to a retirement fund. officials promise no interruption in mail service. third seeded roger federer advancing to the quarterfinals at the u.s. open. he beat juan monaco to advance to the quarterfinals. you're caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" back in 60 seconds.

decade late nooiven still 9/11 still a tragedy that none of us will forget. thousands of responders are suffering from health consequences in the ten-year aftermath. >> dr. sanjay gupta has spent the last year investigating the health fael fallollout for 9/11 responders. tell us about this, sanjay. >> at the 10-year mark from a scientific perspective you have the opportunity now to look at science aggregate a lot of that data and figure out what exactly happened and what are the relationships between this dust and the various health effects. obviously, a lot has been made of this even recently. some of it controversial. i will tell you this, first of all, the dust itself, this was a pretty unique situation. i guess that goes without saying, but the sort of forcing together, thrusting together of these various chemicals all put together and coating dust which lingered and hung like a mist over lower manhattan for some

time. that has been the real question for some time. a lot of people have said what was in that dust? did people collect the dust and try to figure out exactly what it was? the answer is yes. a doctor is a professor at rutgers university, he works in these kinds of issues specifically. i talked to him about this. take a listen. >> you got fire retardants. combustion products and plastics and other pards of the periodic table. >> reporter: golden mercury from tens of thousands of fluorescent light bulbs. lead from thousands of computer monitors. titanium from paint on the trade center walls. asbestos that coated lower beams of the trade center buildings. there was cement, glass, carpet fibers, ceiling tiles, even human hairs. in all, 1.5 million tons of the stuff. >> you had burning aircraft. you had burning furniture. you had burning buildings.

burning material included the jet fuel. you don't know what the gases were in this niche complex mixture that was inhaled by everyone because no one could measure it. that is the great unknown in this. >> is it always going to be unknowable? >> yes. >> there will always be mysteries about the dust? >> yes. >> specifically talking about there in the immediate 48 hours after the attacks, there were these volatile compounds which were affecting people breathing it in and dissipated in the atmosphere and never collected so they can't a part of this final analysis. the papers coming out now are looking back the last ten years and figuring out who was exposed and what their illnesses are and trying to put it altogether. >> sanjay, you mentioned in your piece some of the things that were there, some of the compounds that would have combined and burned. has there been some sense of trying to emulate that to see what it would create? >> that's a great question. they have done some animal models to this extent, ali,

trying to combine these chemicals, put it on some sort of vehicle, in this case, dust, and have animals breathe it. . the problem is this unknowable part of it. i didn't expect this part of this when we were investigating, but the idea that these volatile compounds just disappeared into the air makes the final equation, the final product that people are breathing in that much more difficult to figure out. >> i can remember how the wind would shift and then you would even get the smell and the dust would be -- and the cloud of fume would be coming out of even the deutch bank building. that building, interesting enough, was one of the first buildings that had this webbing within the concrete so it stored all of this material and as that building moved and heaved, more of the stuff was coming out. first respond. it was just horrific. gosh, definitely check out the "terror in the dust." thank you, sanjay. >> thank you. can see it and rare never before

seen footage of a disaster in "terror in the dust" that airs wednesday at 11:00 p.m. eastern. time for this morning's roman's numeral. 227 is the number. >> i said a quarter of an ounce of gold but i meant an eighth. >> no. the number of consecutive games peyton manning has started. 227 games because of lingering neck pain after surgery, he is now listed as doubtful for this sunday's opening game. >> 227 consecutive games! wow. >> isn't that amazing? puts him back to 1997? >> brett favre has the record, right? so i was hoping that he would be brett favre because, you know, brett favre is irritating, but i do feel bad for peyton manning because what a great player. >> brett favre retired, so it's okay. >> we think. yeah. coming up next hour, we are following the wildfires in texas. feeding on remarkably dry conditions. the drought in texas growing in high wind gusts destroying hundreds of homes. the state may be at higher risk

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i'm carol costello. extreme weather creating chaos down south. floods and fires and tornadoes destroying lives while hurricane katia makes some big waves. >> i'm christine romans. turnover on the campaign trail. michele bachmann losing two top aids and raising new questions

about her chances for the party's nomination. i'm ali velshi. president obama giving us a hint what is inside his plan to put americans back to work. details of his proposal on this "american morning." ♪ good morning. hope you had a terrific labor day weekend. it is tuesday, september vith. up first, labor day is over and mother nature is piling op. fires, tornadoes, flooding creating chaos across the south. in texas dozens of dangerous wildfires across that state fanned by winds from tropical storm lee and worst one-year drought in texas history. nearly 500 homes destroyed. in atlanta tornado sirens sounded throughout the night. damaging or destroying dozens of homes in one four-mile area. trees down everywhere. flooding is the big problem in jackson, mississippi.

several major roads shut down. authorities say a man was killed when he was swept away by floodwaters. all this as a category 3 hurricane now begins to approach the u.s. it won't come ashore, but, boy, katia will than churning northwest in the atlantic bringing the threat of dangerous rip currents to the east coast the next few days. rob marciano is tracking lee's trail of destruction and jim spelman is in bastrop, texas. roughly the size of connecticut burning in texas. what is happening this morning? >> reporter: first, i want to show you this. look. the sun has come up here and we are starting to get a look at this wall of fire here being caused by this fire. this particular fire is about 25,000 acres that will probably grow today and we are starting to get some other numbers in and near houston, fire destroyed 20 homes in the last day. just down the road towards

austin here, another 25 homes lost on a separate fire. these conditions are just so extreme here. this drought is so extreme that the slightest thing is setting off fires and the afternoons, the winds pick up and drive them and before you know it, homes are gone and people are evacuating. the firefighters here are ready for this to keep continuing weeks or even months. they are fighting fires here for 290 days in a row in texas. a lot of these fire crews going from fire-to-fire all across the state and even starting to worry about the fatigue of these firefighters having to deal with so much fire happening so fast all over the state. right now we know they are about to do their shift change. day shift firefighters get out there and helicopters, airplanes dropping water and retardant and hope to get some containment creating bulldozers to knock down trees and create a barrier between the active fire and the fuel of the homes of the forest and the homes they are trying to save. a heck of a day here. they know while the winds are

relatively calm they have to get at it and try to make some sort of progress. >> jim, thanks. >> rob marciano, we forget texas underwent a heat wave this summer and i guess paying the price for it now. >> lack of rain. austin, texas, had 80 days when they were at 100 or higher. that is the most they ever had and that happened this year. a tremendous amount of heat obviously. no rain. lee adding insult to injuries. the backside of lee that didn't bring them any rain and brought drier and windier conditions. the winds are dying down today and the temperatures have cooled off. the front side of lee causing its own problems. tremendous amount of severe weather, flooding across mississippi and eastern parts of tennessee, including chattanooga, and the rough weather yesterday last night across atlanta where a number of tornadoes touched down north of town. front side of lee is also

entangling itself in a cool front that is moving slowly across the east coast. that's not good news because along the i-95 corridor, we are looking for the potential of seeing some flooding with this. so how much rainfall do we expect in the larger cities? could see from 1 to 2 inches. north and west brighter colors here on the forecast weather models showing anywhere from 2 to 3, maybe as much as 5 or 6 inches of rainfall with this particular system. behind it is nice. it's dry. it's cool. very cool for this time of year. but on the front side of this, we are looking at stalled frontal boundary. but that is going to help kind of katia out to sea. category 3 storm and a cat 4 last night. winds 125 miles an hour and continued to trek towards the u.s. but the same front associated with lee that is impacting the eastern seaboard right now, will nudge katia out to sea. big-time waves and rip currents

as well. dangerous conditions along the immediate shoreline and coastal flooding but katia won't make a direct hit. >> we love that classic curvature. >> we didn't get it with irene but take it with katia. michele bachmann's campaign manager ed rollins is stepping back in an advisory role and her campaign manager is leaving the campaign altogether. rollins is giving up his day-to-day duties because of health reasons. >> i am 68 years ago. i had a stroke a year and a half ago. you know, work 12, 14 hours a day, it's wearing. >> bachmann's campaign says its campaign strategists will take over for rollins. >> we are getting new details about mitt romney's plan to create jobs. in an editorial in "usa today" romney wris our country has arrived to a fork in the road. quote.

i know which direction lie the millions of jobs we need. end quote. he will outline his vision for getting america back to work at 3:00 p.m. eastern in las vegas. president obama also giving a brief preview of his jobs plan. he was speaking in detroit. the president said one way to boost employment is for congress to get on board with rebuilding america. >> we have got roads and bridges across this country that need rebuilding. we have got private companies with the equipment and the manpower to do the building. we have got more than 1 million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now. there is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. >> i think the white house would -- it says like the stimulus talk a couple of years ago, doesn't it? get out there, shovel ready. we have projects on the books.

we want to get our hands dirty. you can see president obama's speech this thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. the high unemployment rate winning the blue collar vote might be a challenge for president obama though he got help yesterday from james hoffa. he had some fiery words for the tea party. >> president obama, this is your army. we are ready to march. let's take these son of a bitches out and get america back to where america belongs. >> on sunday hoffa said american companies who don't spend their money in the united states unpatriotic. >> if you are wondering if he apologized for those remarks, he did not. if you wonder if the tea party is making money off hoffa's remarks, it is. there you have it. libya, new speculation where moammar gadhafi may be hiding.

sources telling cnn one of the convoys has reached n irkiniger capital city. libya's transition council will meet with tribal leaders today to make it clear that pro gadhafi forces will not be harmed if they peacefully surrender. new former news corp. executives face a powerful polish parliamentary committee today in the phone hacking scandal. committee members will question two former lawyers and former human resources manager and exeditor with news corp. paper division. they are trying to find out if news corp. engaged in a corporate wide cover-up to hide the phone hacking practices of its reporters. prosecutors are defending

the dna testing that helped convict amanda knox and her former boyfriend in the killing of hearse british roommate in 2007. defense lawyers claim the dna evidence used in her trial is inconclusive. david petraeus era begins today at the cia. the newly minted civilian will be sworn in as the agency's new director. he retired from the army last week, after four stars and 37 years of service which included commanding u.s. troops in iraq and afghanistan. he now succeeds leon panetta at the cia who is now secretary of defense. retire for a week after that long stellar career and on to another very big challenge. >> as a kid that term used to confuse me to retire and go to something else. i thought retiring meant to kick back and relax. now is your turn to talkback. the question for you today is the postal service obsolete?

neither rain, nor sleet nor gloom of night. so it's not the post office's official motto but we as a culture have come to see our friendly neighborhood mailman. he or she is there is always there with birthday cards from grandma or the bill from the telephone company. that is almost over now. the postal service is in trouble. not only because it's running a $9 billion deficit, but because the world has changed. the rise of fedex, u.p.s. and e-mail giving mr. mailman a run for his money and he is losing. the post office delivered 171 billion pieces of mail in 2010. that's a big number but down 20% from 2006. but that is the least of its problems. the postal service is also required to deliver mail wherever it's sent no matter what and by law it's forced to pay for retiree health costs the next 75 years. i tell you this because the postal service says it can't make the $5.5 billion payment

for retiring health costs this missouri month and in danger of defaulting. the postmaster general will be asking the senate today for help and maybe the answer to that plea is in our question this morning. is the postal service obsolete? facebook.com/americanmorning. >> it has to have smaller work force and fewer delivery days. it has to change. >> it's not so different from the discussion we used to have about the autoworkers and american auto factories. they have changed and they have become very competitive. so maybe there is an answer in there. >> right. up next, president obama says that when it comes to creating jobs, republicans must put their country ahead of their party. but will the president's jobs plan really make a dent in the nation's unemployment rate? >> why an ohio man is suing for his share of a 99 million dollar lottery jackpot even though he

didn't buy a ticket for it. let's face it. he is the franchise but now the indianapolis colts are facing the reality of a sunday without peyton manning. ouch! it's 11 minutes past the hour.

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it is 14 minutes past the hour. welcome back to "american morning." president obama offering just a hint of the ideas he'll be putting forth this thursday to create jobs. he said the country is infrastructure needs work and the time for action is now. >> there is work to be done and there are workers ready to do it. labor is on board, businesses on board. we just need congress to get on board! >> joining me now is hillary rosen, a cnn political contributor and ron brownstein, editorial director at the

national journal. >> hillary, let's start with you. we have heard that infrastructure thing from president obama so many times and maybe some people are at the point they say, oh, whatever! give us something new. >> they might be but, in fact, the last time he did push a lot of infrastructure spending it did stimulate the economy some and i think now that they are making another effort at it but it's going to be more. he has to figure out a way to get spending going without depending on the republicans. >> and get people excited about his infrastructure idea. frankly, i don't know many people are saying, oh, my gosh, we really need to improve the infrastructure in that country and get people back to work. >> people don't say it but when they go over bridges and don't work or waiting at airlines that have too few slots they understand the value of the investment. most importantly, i think what people need to hear from the president is kind of a path forward for the next several months. the president should not and i don't think will be in re-election mode when he speaks

this week. >> really? >> i think he is in presidential mode and what people need to hear from him. >> a lot of people say this is the start of the 2012 campaign, this speech on thursday but get to that in a second. ron, senator carl levin reportedly showed president obama a give 'em hell style speech that harry truman gave them 60 years ago but it seems the fire is coming more from people around the president like james hoffa. let's listen again. >> president obama, we want one thing -- jobs, jobs, jobs! everybody here has got a vote. if we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let's take these son of a bitches back and get america back to where america belongs. >> he is talking about the tea party and we just joe biden in ohio pounding on the podium saying the middle class was under attack. look at that. joe biden. is it the people around him will

use this kind of language or is the president going to join in at some point in? >> it's not his style. when people talk about the truman aanalogy, they want him to put forward a big, bold program and sharply ideological that he recognizes as he releases it the republicans have little problem of passing and use it as a do nothing congress as truman did in 1948 with great success. i don't think that is what you're going to get from the president. i think the white house is saying the speech this week is going to be ambitious in the sense that it adds up to a significant amount of job creation if it was all done, but it's not going to be some ideological litmus test. not the big, giant public works program that many on the left prefer. it's probably going to be more of a hodge-podge of ideas. tax cuts and new spending rehabbing schools and perhaps infrastructure you say the bank idea. the president isn't comfortable moving into that mode, i think, at least not yet. and there is an argument which we can talk about that ultimately that kind of populous

politics no longer reflects what the congress is today. >> that's what we live in right now. it's a culture war and going on since 2008. so you don't think even the president will look congress in the eye? he kind of did that in detroit. he said, you know, i'm going to put out these bipartisan plans and if you don't go along with me, i'm going to say it's your fault. >> that's right. i think he is going to do something like that but in a different way than i think jimmy hoffa and other democratic activists have in mind. i think what he is going to do is basically the same posture he has had during the debt ceiling and try to present himself as the adult in the room willing to give on some areas that are important to his party and asking republicans to do the same and then holding them up if they don't. >> hilary, i interviewed a union president from allegheny county in pittsburgh. he says this bipartisanship thing doesn't work. when will the president get it through his head that it doesn't work?

and he has to take the gloves off and he has to come out fighting. >> well, he is not going to get that through his head. i think he wants to fight but i think the way he thinks about fighting is fighting for people, not fighting for democrats. and this is not going to change. ron is exactly right, that this is a president who was elected with a very large independent vote, not just democratic vote, and he really believes that his role is to bring people together. he thinks he is successful at it and that that is his best shot. and i think, again, i said this before, this election, his re-election is 14 months away. yes, he knows that unless this economy recovers that he is going to have a hard time getting reelected. on the other hand, there is a long way to go and his best chance at success for his re-election is success for the country, that's what he is going to be focusing on, not partisan battles. he is going to try to stay above those. >> we will see. hilary rosen, thanks to you.

ron brownstein. >> thank you. >> i have a great conversation for you. not as significant but the ohio man who is suing for a share of a $99 million lottery jackpot that 22 of his coworkers won. employees at a cabinet making firm in ohio have been pooling their money for years. they hit the jackpot last month. one of the regular players, 39-year-old edward harrison failed to contribute to the jackpot rule because he is out of work with a back injury. he says he is entitled to the $2 million share anyway. >> because they have been doing it for years. >> they set aside $2 million in case he gets it and prevails in court. >> you got to pay to play but you have to protect your coworkers. >> that would have been a great talkback question today. should the dude harrison get his $2 million? >> i don't play consistently enough to really -- >> as they say, you wouldn't have a case.

>> i don't do it rain or shine. i only do it when the powerball is above $200 million. colts quarterback peyton manning now listed as doubtful for sunday's opening game because of lingering pain after off-season neck surgery. manning has started 227 straight games for the colts. ali velshi had hair when this guy first started. >> that's right. >> regular season and postseason games. they drafted him back in 1998. >> unbelievable. >> every game since then he has started. take a break. blockbuster deals you will guarantee the head coaches will be getting gatorade showers on the sidelines for years to come. >> we will speak to the lieutenant uharrah. her love of all things, space. 22 minutes after the hour.

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25 minutes after the hour. "minding your business." u.s. markets open today after a three day weekend. stock futures down sharply across the board this morning. investors are concerned mainly about debt problems in europe. another potential market mover today is an economic survey of nonmanufacturing industries like retail, health care and finance. economists forecasting a dip in the so-called ism index. not a good signal for growth in the economy. european markets are making modest gains this morning after a huge sell-off in stocks there yesterday. because of rising concerns about worldwide problems about debt problems in europe. the worst hit was the german dax index lost more than 5%

yesterday. big banks reportedly offered a deal to settle lawsuits related to so-called robo sign of foreclosure. some states attorneys have offered to limit the'ing bank's legal liability in exchange for multibillion dollar settlements. it is a practice of banks signing up on foreclosure documents without properly reviewing the paper work. hurricane irene could have an effect on cotton and tobacco prices. farmers saying this year's crop was weak going into the storm because of a drought. today, pepsi and the nfl expected to announce one of the largest sponsorship deals in u.s. sports history. rj "wall street journal" rortinged the deal is worth $2.3 billion over the next ten years. "american morning" back after the break. the deal is worth $2. over the next ten years. "american morning" back after the break. is worth $2.3 billion next ten years. "american morning" back after

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090611.

lieutenant uhara on the starship enterprise is with us this morning. she is talking about the "star trek" phenomena on her tv series and working with nasa as it raeeds for a new mission to the moon on this "american morning." i get the shivers saying that! >> you are looking live at central outside of our studios here in new york. it's going to be rainy most of the afternoon. highs in the 60s. rob will stop by with your full national weather forecast. >> when i came in, it was pouring. >> i know. high in the 60s. i'm not ready! fall is coming. welcome back to "american morning." a lot going on. here are your top stories. michele bachmann's presidential campaign shaken up after losing two of its leaders.

ed rollins into a advisory role deputy to health concerns and deputy campaign is losing the campaign altogether. more than 60 fires burning across the state of texas. the larriest in bastrop county near austin and has scorched 25,000 acres. governor rick perry is asking for federal assistance. first time in 37 years, david petraeus is going to work in civilian clothes. the now retired four-star general starts his new job today as the head of the cia. sworn in as the agency's 20th director and he replaces leon panetta. >> do you think he kept enough civilian suits around? >> i think his wife went shopping for him. drew driven of our special investigations unit has been meeting with eight people who woke up and went to work on that fateful day only to become part of history. his special report "footnotes of

noiven" airs tonight on cnn. drew is here with a preview. good morning, drew. >> reporter: we tried to find stories never told until now, average everyday americans who were forced into circumstances they never trained for, never could imagine. their stories are found in the footnotes of the 9/11 commission report, but each one, a story on its own. ♪ >> reporter: they came to work expecting just another ordinary day. >> this guy doesn't look like and arab terrorist. >> reporter: people living ordinary lives. >> you will i know there was trouble and i wanted to warn everybody. >> reporter: suddenly, thrust into one of the more horrific days in american history.

>> they said we have some planes. we clearly had a hijack in progress. >> reporter: 1,742 footnotes in the official 9/11 commission reported. >> they just said be prepared to shoot down the next hijack track. >> these are the stories buried in those footnotes. never, before, never told. >> they kept coming and then at one point, we got under a minute and i think terry said it's about 30 seconds out. >> reporter: of their experiences that day and the days and years that followed. >> why do i see mouhamed atta driving by me looking from a car? >> should i have said something else in be aware of cockpit intrusion. >> when i go out on a beautiful

day, i look up and i go, that sky is september 11th blue. that is what was taken away from me. >> reporter: ali, it's taken ten years for a lot of these people to discuss it and haven't discussed it with their families for the most part. the people who interacted with the suicidal terrorists that morning. the last people to talk to the flight attendants aboard doomed flights and the first to warn the pilots and one fighter pilot literally asked if he was prepared to shoot down a u.s. commercial airliner. their raw stories of what they had to deal with that day, many many told for the first time are part of our documentary on the footnotes of 9/11. >> what fascinated you the most? there were so many things that your documentary points out that did go right and that was people using their instincts to get into the right mode to do the right thing. >> reporter: you know what fascinated me and always does? is americans but i think people

across the world do the right thing when they don't ask permission or authority to do it and a lot of these stories, these people just reacted knowing exactly what was happening at that moment and they decided i'm going to act. they have regrets about how they they handled it map maybe some didn't say the right thing or thought they didn't say the right thing but they acted without authority and trying to do the right thing and at that point trying to contain the damage. >> we see that around the world. drew, i look forward to seeing it and something everybody should watch. the unseen side of what happened on 9/11. be sure to catch drew's report tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern and cnn will have live coverage of the remembrance events throughout the day on 9/11. greg mancue and glenn hubbard former advisers to president bush and jim talent and jim webber in a guest op-ed today romney presented a classic economic model rooted in he said the believe that government

cannot create jobs. cut regulation and cut taxes and he says, quote. the president gives his jobs speech thursday. perhaps not surprisingly "the wall street journal" this morning has low expectations. william says in his op-ed for the journal he expects the president to essentially try to pass off another stimulus package as a jobs plan. quote, the truth is there is practically nothing mr. obama could do to gin up better job numbers before next year's election without increasing the difficult set and republicans won't let him do that. even with the word stimulus banished from his remarks this week, no one will be fooled in new calls to invest in roads and

bridges and flnks or other hodge-podge of other proposals from extending the payroll tax holiday to tax credits. >> it is simply we have got to decide as a smart nation not to make stimulus the bad word. you may not like it. may not think it's the right thing to do but if you cut taxes or the government puts money into the economy, it, therefore, stimulates the economy and, hence, stimulus. >> and the tea party would call you something. >> i'm not saying that is what the president should do or the last thing the president should do. we will not hear the word stimulus for the wrong reason. >> we cannot argue like adults in this country any more. >> let's argue. i like to argue. >> one side what is the president going to do? he has to go big. the other side says he has to undo what he has done and where they have drawn the lines. >> rob is here to comment on

this! >> rob, could you give us a weather forecast on the president's speech? >> without using the word stimulus. >> if we are going to take money and put it into the economy, let's do it smartly, okay? let's not repave a road that doesn't need to be repaved. we don't have time for this, do we? >> common sense from the weather center. we will break down the weather for you and then back to the op-eds. rainfall across the northeast and red box is a tornado watch in effect for north carolina. continuation exists for the spin in the atmosphere. a little juice over there and associated with lee which is interacting with the cool front. trouble at the airports. laguardia 50 minute delays and bwi delays and the weather is not going anywhere any time too soon. a stalled frontal boundary and it will slow things up.

it will help keep tatia which is a category 3 storm out to sea. cooler, drier, less wind for texas it. that is good. almost fall-like in kansas city, 73 and 68 degrees in chicago. i'm being told we are out of time. >> wrap it up, will you? >> good to see you. >> see you. still to come, forget captain kirk or mr. spock. she was the real reason that "star trek" fans thought space travel was hot. the original lieutenant uhara, actress michelle nichols, joins us after the break. ♪ i've been waiting ♪ for a snack like you ♪ to come into my life [ female announcer ] lean cuisine has snacks! like creamy cheesy

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for all of us.

planet must be a natural radio source. >> out of the range. we are 40 degrees to starboard. ♪ >> ow! the look on captain kirk's face. >> i wanted to marry him as a child! >> nichelle nichols in her

breakthrough role on the original "star trek" series. a character that inspired future generations of african-americans to look to the stars. >> nichols also worked closely with the real life space program recruiting thousands of women and minorities, including the first african-american in space and, on thursday, when nasa launches a new moon mission, she will be on hand. thursday, by the way, is the 45th anniversary of the first "star trek" episode. nichelle nichols joins us from kennedy space center now. we are told that she is sitting in the actual chair, captain kirk's actual chair. is that true? >> that's true! good morning. >> good morning to you. how do you even come to terms with the fact that this is 45 years ago? we watched that clip and it feels -- it just takes us back to our childhood and it feels so current and so forward thinking. >> it was amazing. fortunate enough to live at the right time and in the right place and to have an innovative

mind of the genius of gene roddenberry to create a world in the 23rd century to become a platform, a pattern for us to create our own and wrap ourselves in that wonderful imagination and make it a reality and go forth in space where no man or woman has ever gone before. >> we love that. i think it's amazing that -- i mean, was it "star trek" that inspired your interest in working with the space program, or did that come later? >> i was always fascinated with the space program to 50 years ago when kennedy said, the moon and this decade and back again safely, and even the finest minds said we can't go to the moon and back in this decade.

but the president said it would be done and so they said, well, then we will do it. >> wow. >> and here we are today, beneficiaries of that. >> indeed. we are beneficiaries of the recruiting that you have done for nasa. i'm told that, you know, sally ride, someone that you helped recruit, also guy blud ford. the first african-american astronaut. what would your pitch be now if you're recruiting people into the sciences and these important fields? >> if i were recruiting today, i think i would do the very same thing i did to begin with. what the mind can imagine, the mind can achieve. as long as we -- as long as the space is out there, there's a background on which to paint our

genius and to go where no woman or man has gone before beyond the beyond. we have only just begun and being here at the kennedy space center in anticipation of the great rocket launch on thursday makes me know that you can do what the mind tells you, if we believe in it and go after it. >> i know you're trying to push the interest in this, because it's a little bit different now without a man space program, people have to be reminded nasa is still involved in stuff. we are sending rockets up there to take measurements of the moon and things we don't know about the moon or are trying to figure out. >> well, we are talking about the inerts of the move. we stepped on the moon several times. we know it's there. we know we can do it. now we are going back. the space program has gone --

has not -- did not die with the space shuttle program. shuttle did what it needed to be done to move us on and now we have the international space station which we have built and we are turning our attention to what is available out there that we need to attend to, and we are going to be going back to the moon and with the great old rocket, it's not the only thing that is going to take us where we want to go. >> i was just going to ask you before you go. i know i should be concentrating on these rockets to the moon, but i need to know your favorite moment from "star trek." >> oh, my goodness. i think it was just before "star trek" as i had been selected and gene asked me to have lunch with him to talk about a book that i was reading which was a treaties

on africa by rourke and was so popular. a best-seller. i walked in to the interview with and it was called uhrar which is sawahali for freedom. he was fascinated about it because he talked to me for about 20 minutes before we got into my interview about why it was there. >> that is awesome! >> that is awesome. >> great to see you. >> nichelle nichols, thanks so much. a pleasure to see you. >> come on, let's all do it! >> i can do it. >> let's all do it. >> for more information, go to kenne kennedyspacecenter.com.

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here is today's "human factor. >> reporter: jeff and dina the proud parents of children and people say they were living the good life. they were until the beginning of this year, things began to crumble and began with reports from school. >> said things are not quite right with jason. >> they took their son jason to a medical center. the diagnosis was devastating. >> jason has mpsii there is no secure and jason will probably be gone by the age of 15 years old. >> mps2 also known as hunter's syndrome. a rare and inherited disease that causes facial changes and respiratory problems and stiffness and eventually brain failure.

those who are diagnosed with it usually don't live long enough to graduate from high school and since it's genetic they feared the worse for their younger son, 2-year-old justin. >> my thoughts just kept going to justin. sorry. he wasn't even 2. and all of the symptoms and signs and things to look for that they were explaining about jason, i just kept seeing in justin. >> reporter: justin was also diagnosed with the fatal disease. they faced their challenge head-on. they were determined not to let these terrible events change their family life. they began a routine taking the boys to weekly hospital visits to get muscle juice, a special concoction of medicines that helped them fight off the illness's side effects. they tried to do their best in making their children's lives as normal as possible but it's not easy. they decided another way to overcome their setbacks is to give to others. they have created an organization known as let them be lightly times two to raise

awarren about the syndrome and provide a resources financially for those who may be diagnosed with the ms2 diagnosis. >> try to create a awareness and cure and we have doctors for mps diseases. >> stua tough story. they say live for today, hope for tomorrow, and pray for cure is sort of their mantra and what they are trying to do for their boys. >> take care of your babies and hug your family and be thankful for what you have and try to help people who don't have as much, i guess. sanjay, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> 55 after the hour. mem wi "american morning" will be right back. [ man ] behind every business is a "what if."

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just about 9:00 a.m. eastern time. welcome back. we asked you to talk back on one

of the big stories of the day. is the post office obsolete? this from phillip. this from ty. i would say yes. the only thing i get from the postal service is junk mail and i do not use it to mail anything either. why should so many of us use our tax dollars to support this service? i know. it says it's a self-supporting by stamps alone but it's yearly deficit has to be paid by someone and we know who that is. the taxpayer. this from mark. no. for less than one dollar i can send a message to anywhere in the country. my personal message payment can be carried from key west to nome for less than a dollar. quit whining, america! you pay more than that for a