you don't have to cringe about your 401(k) phillips, let's celebrate. >> that is a day to celebrate. thank you, ladies. first this hour, a terror investigation unfolding. remote controlled model airplanes that center of it. the fbi says a massachusetts man planned to pock the model aircraft with explosives and slam them into washington landmarks. we'll have more on that in just a moment, but, first, the encouraging news that christine was just talking about. digesting the latest data, which came out just about half an hour ago. christine said, okay, not such a bad day to look at our 401(k)s. >> not such a bad day after all, kyra. futures are up 141 points on the dow, but couple things we're looking at here. jobless claims. you always want to see that fall below 400,000 and it did in the most recent week. 391,000, the number of people who, for the very first time, applied for unemployment

benefits. it's been really at 400 or higher since april. that's really not conducive to cutting the unemployment rate but a good number this week. it fell to 391,000 and that's better than we had expected. another important report, the final read on how fast the economy grew in the second quarter. this is the gdp report. gross domestic product. the sum of everything that this economy puts out and it grew at 1.3%. so, for all those people who are talking about a double-dip recession, this number shows it isn't technically a double dip recession right now. in the second quarter you had economic growth and economists are telling me that for the third quarter there was growth there, as well. so, you have an economy that is growing and you have fewer people than expected who filed for jobless benefits. it sounds like a couple of nonnegatives, which is, but taken together, that's positive for the market, at least this morning, kyra. >> we'll watch all the numbers and we'll know in 28 minutes.

bizarre terror plot using remote controlled airplanes. before you dismiss it as far fetched scheme. consider this. the accused mastermind has a degree in physics. she is now a national cnn contributor, fran, how credible do you think this threat was? >> this is a guy who not only had intent, but capability and the counterterrorism world, that's where threats really, they're real serious threats. this is a guy who literally had gone to washington, done surveillance to understand di distances to the capitol, to the pentagon. he rented a storage facility. he made clear to a cooperating witness, according to the complaint, that he was driven to do this. that he had to do it. it was the only way to sort of take revenge on the enemies and so this is, i think this was a pretty serious case and the fbi, i suspect, based on reading the complaint was directed to him

from this intelligence sources, probably a cooperating witness. >> the fbi also said that the airplanes, that was just phase one of the attacks, right? tell us about part two that involved snipers. >> right, he was going to have a team of six other individuals that after the drones flew into the buildings, the capitol and the pentagon what would happen is employees would run out of the pentagon and capitol and mow down people with ak-47s when they left the buildings. by the way, this is very much an al qaeda hallmark. so, not surprising. but he had really thought this through, kyra. >> do we know anything else about this guy? his background. if there's an existing rap sheet? >> graduated from northeastern university in the united states with a degree in physics.

he had technical training and understanding. not clear, and i think authorities will want to look at this pretty closely, what drove him, what radicalized him to this view to want to plan this attack? you know, we heard a lot in the nidal hasan case, that was the ft. hood shooter, he was radicalized over the internet, but we don't know was it an internet-based radicalization. had he identified the six? i suspect the fbi will focus on all those questions in the immediate aftermath of the arrest. >> fran townsend, thanks so much. >> thank you. take a look at some live pictures right now. engineers are actually spending a second day repelling down the washington monument. still searching for any damage from last month's earthquake that rattled the east coast. they're actually scanning and recording every inch of the monument after those jolts caused some damage inside and out. we actually saw the cracks day after the earthquake. the landmark has been closed

nearly five weeks now as a precaution. we'll follow exactly what engineers are doing throughout the day. lawmakers in the house are expected to approve the spending bill that got so much attention earlier this week, as you remember, they've been bickering over the funding for fema's disaster aid. the congressional deadlock actually threatened to shut down some government agencies after tomorrow, but the senate did hammer out a comp rumize. congress has to do it all again next week because the funding actually only runs through tuesday. lagging in the polls and hasn't had much luck, but newt gingrich says he has new ways for americans to pay their taxes by health insurance and save for retirement. so, paul steinhauser, can this new contract with america reignite the gingrich campaign for the white house? >> kyra, little deja vu here. this is so 1994. let's rerack, 17 years ago, that

was then congressman newt gingrich and helped the republicans win back control of the house of republicans for the first time in 40 years and newt gingrich became house speaker. we remember what happened after all that. fast forward back to present day. american presidential candidate newt gingrich coming out today with a 21st century. where is he going to do it? iowa. the first state to vote. his spokes people tell us he typed a lot of what is in this contract on his thumbs. will it boost him in the polls? maybe, maybe not. >> all right, now, some primary date shuffling going on right now, too, right? >> you and i and the rest of us have been talking about this for a couple days. today, georgia down your way and south carolina right next to georgia, they're both going to announce when they're going to hold their primaries. tomorrow, as we've been reporting, we expect florida to say they're going to hold their primary on the 31st of january. what does that mean? that means new hampshire, iowa,

south carolina and nevada, which are supposed to go first are probably going to all move up into early january if florida actually stays with the 31 it. we're not sure where georgia is going to go. this all means for the candidates, well, they better speed things up because now they have one less month to campaign and reach out to voters in early states. for people like chris christie and rudy jewgiuliani and sarah palin who are thinking of jumping in, they better do it quick. >> paul, thanks. your next political update in about an hour. for all the latest political news, go to our website, cnnpolitics.com. witnesses describe the dramatic moments after michael jackson stopped breathing. it all happened yesterday during the pop star's death trial. don lemon is covering the death trial. we heard emotional testimony about jackson's kids and where they were when their father was dying. >> oh, kyra.

it's heartbreaking. heartbreaking, as you can imagine, as a new mom. let me set this up for you. so, michael jackson, michael jackson's assistant is on the stand and his security guard and they tell the story. they say that the personal assistant says that conrad murray calls him frantically and says michael jackson has a bad reaction, get over there. the assistant calls head of security and gives him permission to go upstairs. the head of security says he goes upstairs and what he sees is conrad murray trying to revive michael jackson with one hand and on the phone with the other hand and then he asks the security guard, kyra, is there -- do you know how to revive someone? the whole while, michael jackson's two older kids are there watching it. michael jackson laying on the floor, his eyes open, his mouth open and he is wearing a condom

cathet catheter, he's the testimony of what he said on the stand yesterday. >> paris was on the ground balled up crying and prince was just, he was standing there and he was just, he just had a real shocked, just slowly crying type of look on his face. >> those two kids doing that. finally, the paramedics do arrive. they take michael jackson to the hospital. the kids are in the suv following the ambulance to the hospital. and then two hours later, once they pronounce him dead, dr. conrad murray, according to the assistant and the security guard said, i want to go back to the house, i need to go back to the house because there's some cream there that would embarrass michael jackson and he wouldn't want the world to know. the prosecution is saying that this is what they believe is the cream. they believe that this propofol, this is an actual bottle of propofol. that's what dr. conrad murray wanted to get back to in order to clean it up so people wouldn't find out. >> so, what do you think we can expect today, don?

>> we can expect more emotional testimony. if it keeps coming, yesterday was so, there were so many things brought up. they'll bring up this demerol, arne klein he was hooked on that. you'll hear from a security guard who will say that michael jackson's speech was slowed when he visited dr. arne klein. sometimes as many as five times a week and he'd get demerol shots. we'll hear from another security guard, the chef, and then the two paramedics who arrived first and then we'll hear from, not hear from the family, but we'll see the family's arrival and then i'll see them in court and see their reactions, as well. >> don, thanks. let's go overseas now. dominique strauss-kahn went face-to-face with another one of his accusers. this time it's the french woman who claims that kahn attacked

her eight years ago. zain verjee following that story from london. zain? >> in france they call it confrontation to meet face-to-face with no lawyers and with only police present down at the station and that's basically what dominique strauss-kahn did today. she alleges that he tried to rip off her clothes and there was a lot of kicking and punching and accuses him of attempted rape. dominique strauss-kahn admits that he made advances but at no time was there any violence and he is planning on suing her for slander. so, what happens next, kyra? well, the police will file a report based on the questions that they were asking the two of them at the police station. by the way, they didn't talk to each other directly. the police were speaking to them individually, but they were in the same room. the police do a report, they hand it over to the judge and then the judge has three options

either drop the case, investigate further or go to trial. kyra? >> all right, we'll follow it. zain, thanks. coming up, license, registration and immigration papers, please. today enforcement believes on what some describe as the strictest anti-illegal immigration laws in the nation. we'll tell you where. plus, the new face of facebook. a lot of users making a big stink over the latest changes. we'll tell you what's happening and why. uh, it is, yeah, it's a chevy volt. so what are you doing at a gas station? well it still takes gas to go farther. but you're not getting gas. true. not this time. uh, don't have to gas up very often. so you have to go to the bathroom? no. yes you do. thought these were electric? yes, it's a uh, a chevy volt. so what are you doing at a gas station? [ male ] using clean american fuel is just a pipe dream. ♪

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constitutional. the law allows police to verify the immigration status as suspects already in custody. in eastern pennsylvania, more flooding woes for residents still trying to dry out from tropical storm lee earlier this month. recent heavy rains made cleanup or frustrating. concerns a hotel may collapse from the flood damage. plenty of job seekers in louisville, kentucky. yesterday ge discontinued taking applications after 6,000 people applied in less than an hour. privacy issues to dog facebook and the latest uproar has reached all the way to capitol hill. ed markey and joe barton asked to investigate the site's practicing, specifically its tracking of people's web use even after they logged out of facebook itself. the site insists it hasn't used or stored any information improperly. well, facebook's 800 million users are all a twitter, i guess you could say, over the site's

latest evolution. some changes were introduced last week, but the biggies still yet to come. just to give you a little preview, here you go. on the left, the cnn ireport facebook page, a familiar layout. more text than graphics and on the right is what your new profile page will look like once the timeline format rolls out. christina warson the entertainment editor and these are facebook's most radical changes yet. we've seen the side by side. explain in more detail the differences, if you don't mind, as soon as you'll logon and see that profile page. >> sure. what facebook has done with the timeline, they created what they're calling kind of a scrapbook like look at your life where you can highlight important status updates and important events and lay it out in a way that is easy to browse and easy to look through. it's actually quite beautiful. and it's a way you can go

through major milestones, if you had a baby or if you got married. you can also look back through the years of your activities on facebook and even add activities that didn't take place on facebook like when you were born or when you got your driver's license. >> i heard you say it is beautiful, but it's also creepy. >> the way that it works is that they go through your entire history of facebook and they're able to pick up on what events they think facebook was most important to you by how many comments and who you tagd in your photographs and other cues. but it is quite successful but can be creepy because, for instance, if you dated people throughout the years, it has a list of people you were in a relationship with, even if you never tagged them as being in a relationship with you. just because of the photos that it knows that you were tagged in. and that's a little bit creepy. also a little bit creepy that can highlight certain major

milestones, even if you weren't necessarily sure that is what you would want to be on your profile. you can, of course, hide these things but by default anyone who is your friend will look at this new timeline and see all these new major milestones in your life in a very easy way. >> a lot of people are ticked off about these changes, but at the same time, you say, they're not going to quit. >> no, no. people are upset, as they always are with facebook changes. to be clear, these are the most radical changes that facebook has had. we have been hearing doing reporting from people, i'm going to quit, this is too much. as i said, no, you really aren't going to quit facebook. i think it is too important that too many people's internet lives and the changes, although they are radical, ultimately, people will end up liking a lot of the features and if anything, maybe an opportunity for people to have bater understanding of how to control and share things with

only their friends or with only certain types of people. >> all right, we'll follow the reaction as it moves forward. christina, thanks. coming up, a letter addressed to "dancing with the stars" caused a brief scare at cbs studios. what was inside? that's next. prince william cuts the ribbon on a new cancer treatment center for children. we'll tell you the connection to his late mom, princess diana.

let's get to your "showbiz headlines" a letter addressed to "dancing with the stars" caused quite a scare. white powder was examined and tested for anthrax but it was harmless. according to "forbes" tina

fey and eva longoria are the highest paid actresses on television. the entire top ten earned $94 million. you could own the wedding ring that joe dimaggio put on marilyn monroe's finger in 1954. expected to fetch as much as $500,000 at an auction of hollywood memorabilia. also for sale, a pair of ruby slippers from "wizard of oz." the three-day auction begins december 15th. prince william and kate have picked up the baton once carried by the late princess diana, helping the youngest victims of cancer. zain verjee is here to tell us more about it. >> hi there, kyra. they're opening $25 million cancer unit for children. they're actually there right now. so much excitement. they're going to be meeting with some of the patients of the cancer unit there, as well as their parents. you know, they also are very committed to this kind of a

charity. they support many charities. but the one interesting thing to note about the royal hospital here is that princess diana was very involved in it. when she died, prince william a few years later kind of took over as the president of the royal mazdan foundation trust. he has been very hands on with this. the couple have been keeping a very low profile and in north wales and william training as a search and rescue pilot. he wants to get promoted to the rank of captain. meanwhile, kate has been going through training on how to be a royal at public events, charities and things like that. so, she's busy picking the kind of charities that she wants to support because she can really bring her star power to it and put the charities on the map. kyra? >> i can just imagine the two of them probably have so many people asking them to get involved in various charities and, it's pretty special they're picking something that was close to mom's heart. >> yeah, exactly.

it's really the things that were close to mom's heart and william and harry grew up seeing her being so selfless and spending time with aids patients, with cancer patients and things like that. so, it really is following in their footsteps, but, also, at the same time, i think that kate, at least, wants to be able to define for herself who she is and what she likes. she is taking her own time to pick her own passions and charities. bullying was one of the things that they wanted to support, to support kids who had gone through bullying and kind of campaign against that. so, we'll see what she ultimately picks. this is an important moment for kate middleton stepping out like this. zain verjee, thanks. apple is holding a big event next week and rumors are already swirling around about what will be announced. carter evans at new york stock exchan exchan exchange. all right, carter, what are you hearing? wi with. >> we all heard the iphone 5 is going to be introduced.

what you may not have heard, though, is that the ipad clasic and the shuffle might be killed off. this comes from the unofficial apple web log and it's not confirmed, but the blog sites an unnamed source that says they could be killed off and it really kind of makes sense because apple teased a product transition during its last earnings call. also, ipod sales have been falling since the iphone has been released. still, apple haez sold hundreds of millions of ipods since the first one was introduced back in october of 2001. about ten years ago. >> wow, ten years ago. hey, listen, we were talking with christine romans at the beginning of the newscast about good news on the economy. not a bad day to look at your 401(k). how often do we say that? what do you think? what kind of impact will this make on the market? >> i want to caution you, though, if you look at your 401(k) and you haven't looked at it for a long time, it will not be where it was, but better

where it was yesterday. futures popped on the positive economic news yesterday. claims tumbled to 391,000 last week. a huge drop, we have only been below the 400,000 mark two times in the last four months. we also got a final reading on our second quarter gross domestic product showing our economy grew at a rate of 1.3%. that's not good, but it's a lot better than expected. and both reports positive news out of europe are pretty much squashing recession talk today at least, kyra. >> carter, thanks so much. still ahead, an imprisoned american enters a decisive day in court. the final arguments challenging the murder conviction of amanda knox, next.

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checking top stories now updating the case of jared loughner. the suspect in the tucson

shooting spree that gabrielle giffords. "new york times" is reporting that a judge's rule loughner will spend four more months in a psychiatric facility and then a decision could be made on whether he is competent to stand trial. health officials are trying to make sure that no more listeria tainted cantaloupes are going to get to consumers. 13 people have died in the deadliest outbreak of a food born illness since 1988. dominique strauss-kahn faced off with the french woman who has accused him of attempted rape. they answered questions by police in paris. well, the trial -- the michael jackson death trial continues and the jury will hear more testimony on the chaotic minutes after the pop star stopped breathing. as randi kaye reports, prosecutors are trying to paint conrad murray as a man more concerned about hiding evidence than saving his patient's life. >> reporter: you're looking at

the bedroom where michael jackson took his last breath, shown inside the courtroom. one of jackson's security guards faheem mohammed had been called to the house and described the scene to the jury. >> when you came around to the far side of the bed, what was conrad murray doing? >> he appeared to be administering cpr. he appeared very nervous. he was on his side. he was sweaty. >> at that time, did you see michael jackson's face and his full-body? >> yes. >> and what did you observe about his face at that time? >> that his eyes were open and that his mouth was slightly open. >> did he appear to be dead? >> yes. >> reporter: mohammed said at one point murray asked michael security guards if they knew how to survive someone. >> conrad murray asked you and

alberto alvarez if you knew cpr? >> yes. >> did you assist with cpr? >> yes. >> reporter: 911 had been called, but 911 was not the first phone call conrad murray made when jackson stopped breathing. in court, new insight into murray's state of mind from jackson's personal assistant, michael amir williams. he painted a picture of a doctor on the edge. on june 25th, 2009, williams received a frantic voice message from murray which was played in court. that message was left after michael jackson had suffered cardiac arrest. murray gave no indication of that on the message, only saying "jackson had a bad reaction." murray called williams, not 911. >> were you asked to call 911? >> no, sir. >> did you upon hearing that message call dr. murray? >> yes, sir. >> did he ask you to call 911?

>> no, sir. >> reporter: in court, williams was also asked about murray's strange behavior at the hospital as news spread at the king of pop was dead. >> what, if anything, was the request of conrad murray? >> he said that there's some cream in michael's room or house, i believe room, that he wouldn't want the world to know about and he requested that i or someone give him a ride back to the house. >> did you agree to take conrad murray back to the house? >> no, sir. >> reporter: williams told the court he was so spooked by murray's behavior, he asked jackson security to lock up the house and not allow murray back inside. but defense attorney ed chernoff pointed out williams waited months before sharing his concerns with authorities. >> mr. williams, the very first time you told the police about dr. murray wanting to get some cream was on august 31st, 2009, correct? >> yes, sir. >> this was over two months after michael jackson had died.

>> reporter: williams told the jury, he frequently saw oxygen tanks at jackson's house. oxygen is required by the fda to be on hand when propofol is being used, in case the patient has to be resuscitated. >> can you describe what you personally saw in that regard? >> it was normal for oxygen tanks to be there and if they were there bring them to the bottom of the stairs and the chef or the children would bring them up, but it was normal to see the oxygen tanks the last few months. >> that would be a period of time that you knew conrad murray was coming on almost a nightly basi basis? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: even with all those oxygen tanks, michael jackson never had a chance. as the defense says, he di. >> be sure to check out our sister network, hln for in-depth coverage and analysis. it's your place for coverage throughout the day. coming up our cnn in depth series.

why is the u.s. government so broken? david gergen says our fractured politics are a result of being a fractured country. he'll explain, next. they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪

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well u.s. senate delegation just arrived to assess the situation and meet with transitional leaders. senator john mccain is part of the group. matter of fact, touched down not too long ago and we were just able to connect with him live from tripoli. senator, can you hear me okay and welcome to the program. >> thank you, thanks for having me on. >> let's get right to it. you were just telling me moments ago that you have met with members of the transitional council. what is your overall impression and how concerned are you about extremists hijacking the new government? >> well, we met with the chairman, the prime minister on numerous, quite a large number

of the tnc. my impressions are that they are making progress. they have gotten some of the money freed up that is necessary to supply goods and services to the people. they do have significant challenges in a variety of ways, including the fact that a lot of the militias that are taking part in the fighting against gadhafi forces are still not under their control. there is some islamic elements that, obviously, would like to take over this revolution, which was not a religious one. it was against a cruel dictator. we still have a couple places still under gadhafi's control and i think it's pretty clear that they've got a lot of work to do to unite the country. >> how active is the search for moammar gadhafi right now? >> i think it's very active. just recently heard a rumor that

he may be in algeria now, but, you know, you've heard all kinds of rumors. there's no doubt that he's done, but there's also associated with the capture or killing of gadhafi. >> and that was my next question. what is the feeling there? what is your feeling with regard to capturing him, dead or alive? >> i think that the people of libya, the ones that i would like to talk to would like to catch him alive. they would like to see him on trial for the horrendous crimes he has committed. every few days they come across another grave. some of them with hundreds of bodies in it. there's no doubt that this guy was hated by the people of libya and i think they'd like to see him brought to justice more than they'd like to see him dead. >> senator john mccain, we'll follow your trip there in tripoli. we rsh you talking with us on such last minute's notice. thank you, sir. coming up in our cnn in

depth series, why the u.s. government is so broken. political analyst david gergen says our fractured politics are a result of being a fractured country. he'll explain, next. ♪ something unexpected to the world of multigrain... taste. ♪ delicious pringles multigrain. ♪ with a variety of flavors. multigrain pops with pringles.

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that was weird. but awesome ! ♪ nationwide is on your side all right, let's check stories across country now. catherine gray, the 60-year-old repeated girlfriend of mobster james whitey bulger goes to court today. she's been behind bars since june when the feds caught them after 16 years on the run. in new jersey, a depressing replay for the flood victims of

tropical storm lee earlier this month. dozens of cars got carried away in yesterday's flash floods and, for unfortunately, more rain is scheduled for today. look at this picture taken by a tourist. the picture of the water surrounding the ship wreck and something else. >> i showed my husband and i didn't say anything, i just said, have a look at the photo and he said, oh, my gosh, it's a face. just sad, really sad and young. the face to me looked young. i don't know if it represents the men of that time who perished. >> more than 1,100 u.s. sailors died aboard the "arizona" during japan's surprise attack in 1941. all right, continuing coverage of our cnn in depth series. why is the u.s. government so broken? a thought to consider. "either we hang together or we

will surely all hang separately." i wish i could take credit for that great quote. david gergen wishes he could, too, but he can't because that warning was given by benjamin franklin, but, david, still applies. in your cnn.com opinion piece you used it. we used to be so unified and now one of the biggest downfalls is that we're so divided. >> we are extremely divided and there's been a tendency, kyra, to put all the blame on the politicians and they have not done a good job representing us in washington in recent years. but the fact is the politicians we have are often a reflection of the country at large and one of our central problems is that we used to have a convinces when i was growing up in this country and a lot of us when we were older can remember that there was a general consensus of the role of government. the government can't do everything, but what it did do it could do well. like world war ii and help get

us out of depression and help keep us prosperous in the 1950s and help us advance civil rights in the 1960s. but that consen census broke down in the late '60s and early '70s and we have gradually moved to more and more of a frequenttufrequenactured country. i was down at southern baptist university with bob gates and a world class statesman and he said, you know, one of the biggest threats to our national security today is right here at home. and it's the disappearing middle. the sense that there were a lot of people in the middle, who may have different views, but they wanted to make the system work and they were willing to compromise. you saw that at the grassroots level. many people belong to clubs together. there was a social, what's called a middle tier of institutions which held people together and at the national level, there were people like howard baker and bob dole and bill bradley on the democratic side. you can go through the list. a lot of those folks either went

home disappointed, they were tired or they got beat. so -- go ahead. >> what happened? what caused that disappearing middle? that fracture that you write about in your piece? >> well, the fractures really began with the vietnam and watergate period. we also have had a long period of stagnation and incomes in this country that started in the '70s and a growing sense of disillusionment. we had spikes of upward and i believe the government can get things done. ironically, one of the big spikes came with ronald reagan, the conservative who wanted to have less government. but, bill clinton got some of that and we saw that around 9/11. but over time you can look at the cnn poll that just came out yesterday and it showed just 15% of americans now have confidence the government is going to do the right thing. you know, all or most of the time. back in the early '60s and the '50s when i was growing up those

numbers were in the 70s and 80s. that's the fracturing that we have seen and the polarization that we have seen is a reflection of the growing polarization that we see among voters around the country. >> you do bring up a good point, though, at the end of your column. a generation rising. a generation saying, okay, we've got to change. >> i agree with that. the millennials are people born between 1980 and 2000 are much more, much less polarized than the rest of the country and in this coming election, i recently learn they make up as much of a quarter of the electorate. so, as the change is coming. can we get from here to the change. can we govern ourselves in such a way or decline as a country? >> i thi i think that's a big, looming question. >> that is your next column. david, thanks. is america becoming a house divided amongst itself.

go to cnn.com/opinion. our broken government continues all week. baseball playoff dreams go on for two clubs but ends for two others. we have highlights from last night's big games. sports in seven minutes. who cuddle up with your soreness and give out polar bear hugs. technology. [ male announcer ] new bengay cold therapy. the same technology used by physical therapists. go to bengay.com for a 5-dollar coupon.

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stories making news later today, 11:00 a.m. eastern the house of representatives set to vote an a temporary funding bill to avoid a partial government shutdown. at 1:00 p.m. eastern, nasa hosts a news conference and at 5:30 eastern in baton rouge, new jersey governor chris christi joining his louisiana

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baseball's postseason begins tomorrow. can it get anymore exciting than the end of the regular season? >> the answer is no. i'm not exaggerating. it had to be one of the great days in baseball history. last day of the season. four teams with a shot at the final two playoff spots. boston, 76-0 with lead going

into the ninth. sox need one strike. orioles tie the game. a ground rule double. that ties it. next batter, comes through with a single to left field. crawford cannot catch it. dives. and the game winning run slides home. red sox end with an ugly september leaving the door open for rays to take the wild card. they are down to their last strike seven runs. johnson homers to tie the game at seven. they go into extra innings. to the 12th just three minutes after the red sox lose, evan longoria, the home run to win the game and the wild card. the rays were 8 1/2 games back of boston back on september 5th and now they're going to the playoffs. how about the nl. st. louis cardinals going after the national league wild card and wasted no time against the astros. cardinals put up five runs in

the first inning on houston. st. louis goes onto win 8-0. chris carpenter a complete game shutout. cardinals just need a braves loss to make it to the playoffs. what happens? they had to wait until the 13th inning to find out. it's an infield single by hunter pence. the phillies win knocking out the braves. the cards meanwhile watching all this celebrate from ally to enemy. phillies will face the cards in the first round of the playoffs. braves go home after a horrendous 9-18 september. not as bad as red sox but two of the worst folds in september major league baseball history. incredible night. this happened in a two-hour span. all four games wrapping up a great night for baseball fans. >> you got me excited. not as exciting as your son's

t-ball. we'll watch his t-ball. thanks, jeff. another big question surrounding new jersey governor chris christi. here's cnn's jeanne moos. >> reporter: as governor chris christi's profile gets bigger, so does the issue of his size. >> all right. >> reporter: now that he's a national figure, comedians are starting to make his waistline a punch line. >> take a look. go to google earth. >> reporter: from late night to daytime talk, chris christi's weight is being tossed around. >> can you see him as president? >> you say no? okay. why not? because he's hefty. >> reporter: for a while they danced around the f word but then -- >> i don't think the country is ready for a fat president again. >> i think that's ridiculous. >> imagine this conversation about an overweight female

candidate. >> reporter: governor christi is a bonanza for cartoonist. >> i saw him the other day. i was amazed by him. he must be 300 plus. you're not going to say i'm going to cut the budget. how about supper? >> reporter: chris matthews would go to bed without his supper for that remark if mike huckabee had his way. >> to criticize is absurd. >> reporter: the amount of huckabee's skin used to be excessive. he lost 110 pounds. his weight may be the elephant in the room but chris christi talks about it comfortably. >> i'll let all of your audience in on a secret, wolf. i'm overweight. the thing i feel most guilty of, my weight. i eat too much. it's not a complicated thing. >> reporter: when it comes to portly presidents, william howard taft was america's biggest at over 200 pounds. he was famous for getting stuck

in the white house bathtub. aides had to come and get him out. he then had a new tub made big enough for four men. at a christi town hall, one voter saw beyond size. >> i think having a governor that is smart and that has the perseverance to do what's right is hot and sexy. >> reporter: contrast that with letterman's top ten ways the presidency would be different if he was president. >> no more vetoes, only cheetos. yeah. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. day three of the trial of michael jackson's doctor. we're expecting more gripping testimony about the day that he died including how dr. conrad murray reacted after jackson was pronounced dead at the hospital.

cnn's don lemon is outside of the courthouse in los angeles. tell us about the testimony. >> reporter: the testimony today we're going to hear about what happened in the final moments of michael jackson's life. we're going to go inside the bedroom. we did that yesterday. we went inside the bedroom. they showed us pictures and told us what happened when the security guard got there and he saw conrad murray trying to revive michael jackson with one hand on the phone with the other all the while his children watching. and then finally once paramedics arrived and then two hours later after around 12:15, two hours later about 2:30, michael jackson is pronounced dead. the family is there. everyone is concerned. everyone is worried. they can't believe what happened. and they said that conrad murray had one thing on his mind and that was getting back inside the house. listen. >> what, if anything, was the request of conrad murray to you? >> well, we were making small talk about how horrible this is

and both of us was tearing and he asked -- he said that there is some cream in michael's room or house, i believe room, that he wouldn't want the world to know about. he requested that i or someone give him a ride back to the house to get it so the world wouldn't know about the cream. >> to get the cream so the world wouldn't know about it? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: so that's what dr. conrad murray said. prosecutors are hammering this. they believe that this propofol, this bottle of -- not this exact same bottle but this is a bottle of propofol, they think this creamy substance is what he was going back to try to retrieve and to clean up the evidence so in essence he wouldn't be embarrassed and not michael jackson. >> what was the reaction from murray's attorney, don? >> reporter: the defense is saying that, listen, conrad

murray is not alone here. michael jackson had a drug problem. he was seeing other doctors. he had other stuff in his system. one particular drug that they are hammering home, they're talking about demerol. they say he went to arnie klein's office where he would get demerol shots. that's what the defense will hammer home. the prosecution is going to say it was all conrad murray and that it was acute propofol intoxication that led to his death. >> all right. day three and we're expecting more gripping testimony. we'll talk to you again tomorrow, don. thanks. now to that bizarre terror plot using remote controlled airplanes but before you dismiss it, some far fetched scheme consider this, the accused mastermind has a degree in

physics. he was arrested after sharing the plan with fbi agents posing as al qaeda operatives. the massachusetts man is a u.s. citizen and planned to fly the explosive laden planes into the pentagon and u.s. capitol. fran townsend is a cnn contributor. last hour she told me how serious this threat was. >> this is a guy who not only had intent but capability in the counterterrorism world that's where the serious threats are. this is a guy who literally had gone to washington, done surveillance to understand distances, to the capitol to the pentagon to use these remote drones. he rented a storage facility. he made clear to a cooperating witness according to the complaint that he was driven to do this. that he had to do it. it was the only way to sort of take revenge on the enemies of alah so i think it was a serious

case. >> the fbi said the man planned a second phase of those attacks after the plane struck the capitol and pentagon he wanted teams of snipers to mow down the people as they evacuated the burning buildings. later today lawmakers in the house are expected to approve the spending bill that got so much attention earlier this week. cnn's atheena jones on capitol hill. is it now a done deal? >> reporter: it's definitely not a done deal. this is really just a band-aid to get the govern through tuesday, october 4th and past the weekend. the house is still going to have to take up a longer short-term measure to fund the government. that would fund them through november 18th. this is a pro-forma session. they hold a session like this where only a few members of needed to be present. at 11:00, andy harris will start the session. texas representative will be the one to formally present this motion which is called a

continuing resolution to formally present that motion to be taken up. the measure to be taken up. it will be passed by unanimous consent. these are all technical terms but what it really means is that the house is giving their stamp of approval to what the senate passed last week. the compromise the senate was able to reach last week. it's all a temporary thing. as i said, it just gets us through the weekend to keep the government from shutting down tomorrow night at midnight. >> all right. thanks. from the hill to presidential politics now, gop candidate herman cain may not be winning a lot of new support from his fellow african-american voters. he says most of them are brainwashed. deputy political director paul steinhouser in washington. sharp words getting a lot of attention. what do you think? did he hurt himself? >> reporter: if herman cain's goal was to win the republican presidential nomination, maybe not. there are not a lot of african-american that are republican voters. this was 2008 exit polls. you can see african-americans overwhelmingly voting for then

senator obama against mccain. african-americans traditionally voting for democrats. our wolf blitzer asked herman cain about that on "the situation room" yesterday. here's how it went. >> because many african-americans have been brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view. i have received some of that simply because i'm running for the republican nomination as a conservative. it's just brainwashing and people not being open-minded pure and simple. >> that's a strong word to talk about your fellow african-americans brainwashed. >> for two-thirds of them, wolf, that's the case. now, the good news is i happen to believe that a third to 50% of black americans in this country are open-minded. i meet them every day. they stop me in the airport. so this whole notion that all black americans are necessarily going to stay and vote democrat and vote for obama, that's simply not true. more and more black americans are thinking for themselves and

that's a good thing. >> reporter: herman cain has a good way of making news. he did it once again with those controversial comments. the story trending online big-time. >> we'll probably keep talking about it for a bit of time. paul, thanks. later this hour we'll look at president obama's relationship with the black community. our white house correspondent dan lothian reports on that. this morning there's some glimmers of optimism in the economy. christine romans in new york. the new numbers on jobs and economic growth pretty bad but not quite as bad as we expected. >> i know. that's what this is all about. when you can find any little sign in the economic data that it might not be a double dip recession. that's something that is encouraging for investors and encouraging for people who are trying to fight a foot hold in the labor market. what we have from weekly jobless claims is 391,000 in the most

recent week that government measures signed up for unemployment benefits. anything under 400,000 is seen as a sign of improvement in the labor market. the government itself cited some technical issues that's what they called it and seasonal adjustment volatility saying that there were a couple of technical factors that might have kept it low but when you look at the four-week moving average, i looked at that too, that's also down. there was a gdp report that showed the economy grew in april, may and june at about 1.3%. that's a little better than people thought. certainly we want an economy growing more strongly than this. no question. certainly that's not enough jobs growth or economic growth to start creating a whole bunch of new jobs. it does step us back from the brink of is it a double dip recession? it certainly does that. 1.3% better than we thought shows a bit of stability in the economy and many economists this morning are telling me they think the third quarter might have been a bit better. they are hoping it was. that's one of the reasons why you have stocks up 200 points on the dow.

europe, some positive signs overnight from europe. at least for today, in the horse race that is the stock market these days, at least for today, kyra, we are winning the race at least your 401(k) isn't getting hammered today. >> we like seeing that rally and being in positive territory especially at 213 points at 10:09 eastern time. christine, thanks. in paris, dominique strauss-kahn, the former disgraced chief the international monetary fund goes face to face with another accuser. this time a french woman who claims he attacked her eight years ago. catch us up on this alleged rape first, zain. >> reporter: this idea of a confrontation in france on a case like this tends to happen often. you get them face to face in a room over at the police station. no lawyers are present. and the police is. that's pretty much what happened. they didn't talk to each other directly but the police were asking them individual questions just to see what exactly they were saying or if there was

anything incoherent or weird they could pick up that was going on. the woman is a writer. she's accused dominique strauss-kahn of rape and trying to rip off her clothes and said that she was kicking and punching him but he was trying to force himself on her. strauss-kahn says that he made advances but there was nothing violent at all. in fact, he is suing her for slander. the woman also says that she wanted to be in front of dominique strauss-kahn and look him in the eye and make sure that he knew that she didn't imagine anything that was going on. so what happens next? basically the police write a report. they hand it over to a judge. the judge will decide whether to drop it, whether to investigate further or go straight to a trial. kyra? >> all right. zain verjee, thanks so much. still ahead, an imprisoned america enters a decisive day in court. we'll tell you about the final arguments challenging the murder conviction of amanda knox.

prince william cuts the ribbon of a new cancer treatment center for children. we'll tell you his connection to his mother, princess diana. you may have seen the ad about shoes that firm up your backside, if you thought it was too good to be true, you're right. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create

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i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. cool live pictures coming out of washington for us right now. these are engineers that you are seeing repelling down the washington monument. you may remember after the earthquake some cracks were discovered there in the monument and it was closed down while they decided how they were going to assess the damage and how to fix it. so for two days now, the engineers have been repelling on

this landmark to try to figure out how bad it is and how exactly they're going to fix it. still closed down by the way hoping it will open up soon once all of the repairs are made. other stories now, the state of alabama begins enforcing what some call the toughest immigration laws in the nation. it comes amid protests and after a federal judge upheld key parts of the measure as constitutional. the law allows police to verify immigration status of suspects already in custody. more flooding woes for those trying to dry out from tropical storm lee earlier this month. recent heavy rains made cleanup more frustrating. plenty of job seekers in louisville, kentucky. yesterday ge discontinued taking applications after 6,000 people applied in less than an hour. this morning in an italian courtroom, final arguments have wrapped up in the case of amanda knox convicted of killing her

roommate. paula newton is covering the proceedings for us. how is the appeal going? >> reporter: the language that i'm hearing this morning, her defense basically saying that amanda knox was crucified, their words, in the media during this entire trial and that not only did the media crucify her but afterwards the prosecution used a lot of that opinion against her to use what they call a lot of flawed evidence. contaminated evidence. dna that doesn't make sense in order to convict her. now to remind everyone right now she's serving a 26-year sentence and what she's trying to do is to get that sentence overturned. her lawyers right now calling for her to be completely absolved of this crime. i was here two years ago for the verdict. this is a completely different defense that i see. i spoke with amanda's father briefly and he said he agrees. he believes the defense is much more sure about the way they can fight this case right now and also saying that, look, they've

gotten to know amanda. they are passionate about the fact that she's innocent and he feels that's a good sign. at the same time you watch that prosecution and they're sitting there and they want to get out of their seats and a couple of times they've actually interjected in the proceedings which they're not supposed to do. this is still an incredibly contested case and the media attention i think even more heightened than it was during the original verdict about two years ago. >> so what do you think the verdict would be handed down? >> reporter: so what's going to happen is we're really reaching a climax here. dramatic event monday morning. both amanda knox and her former boyfriend will get about 15 minutes to have this personal appeal to the courtroom. after that they start deliberations. that's monday. we do expect a ruling on monday and i'll tell you why. most times these jurists sit in a room and they take one day to sort it out and decide whether or not they reduce the sentence

or uphold the original ruling or throw out that original conviction and give her full exoneration. >> paula newton live in italy for us. thanks. a u.s. senate delegation is in the libyan capital to assess the situation there and meet with leaders. john mccain says the new government faces huge challenges but are making progress. i asked him about the old government when he joined us live last hour. how active is the search for moammar gadhafi right now? >> i think it's very active. just recently heard a rumor that he may be in algeria now. you have heard all kinds of rumors. there's no doubt that he's done. >> the other members of mccain's delegation senators mark arubio, lindsey graham and mark kirk. helping youngest victims of cancer. we'll tell you what britain's duke and duchess of cambridge

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prince william and kate have picked up the baton once carried by the late princess diana and helping the youngest victims of cancer. max foster has more on today's ceremony. tell us about it, max. >> reporter: still taking place in the hospital. this is a new ward for children with cancer. 31 beds dealing with 5,000 day patients a year. a very big unit here for the u.k. what's interesting about it is that this was a hospital supported previously by princess diana and william became president of the hospital after the princess passed away. close to william's heart and diana's of course. they arrived a short time ago. the duchess arriving and

everyone making parallels because this was a cause so close to her heart. arriving here a short time ago. this ward was paid for entirely by charity. nearly $30 million worth of charitable donations. the prince is one of its key fundraisers here to see how it went and everyone pleased to see them. >> we understand that prince william didn't get much sleep last night, did he? >> reporter: he didn't. he's an rf helicopter search and rescue pilot and he turned up looking a bit weary and we're told he was on a 24-hour shift and he only finished that shortly before arriving here and there were two rescues overnight. he rescued a young sailor from a royal navy vessel and someone mounte mounteering. we'll get pictures of him in the ward coming up as well.

>> just quickly, everybody behind you i assume those are folks that just want to get a glimpse of the royals, the very popular couple, right? >> reporter: yeah. it's interesting you say that. not on the scale of diana's day i have to say. in the back they are general public and in front you see volunteers. i have to say there's children here earlier on and duke and duchess went past them without picking up their flowers so they were crying. i arranged for children to come back out and see them on the way how the. hopefully they'll pick up flowers on the way out. >> max, you need to orchestrate that better. those kids need the love for sure. i'm glad you paid attention to that, max. max foster there in london. lets get to showbiz headlines. a letter addressed to "dancing with the stars" caused a brief scare at cbs studios inside. white powder examined and tested for anthrax but l.a. police say it was harmless. according to "forbes," tina fey

and eva longoria are highest paid actresses in television. each hauled in $13 million this last year. the top ten collectively earned 94 million. you can own the wedding ring that joe dimaggio put on marilyn monroe's finger. it's expected to fetch $500,000. and also for sale, a pair of ruby red slippers from "the wizard of oz." >> herman cain says there's a disconnect between his party and black voters. >> many african-americans have been brainwashed into not being open-minded and not considering a conservative point of view. >> we'll tackle that in political buzz next. [ woman ] jogging stroller, you've been stuck in the garage,

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outgoing joint chiefs chairman admiral mike mullen is sticking by his controversial comments about pakistan's spy service. elements in that agency are very active with insurgent groups attacking u.s. troops in afghanistan. the suspect in the tucson shooting spree that wounded congresswoman gabrielle giffords had a judge rule that he'll spend more time in an evaluation facility. political buzz. rapid fire to look at the best political topics of the day. three questions. 30 seconds on the clock and playing today are our three guests. first question. herman cain tells our wolf blitzer why he thinks there's a

disconnect between his party and black voters. take a listen. >> why is the republican party basically poison for so many african-americans? >> because many african-americans have been brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view. i have received some of that because i'm running for the republican nomination as a conservative. it's just brainwashing and people not being open-minded pure and simple. >> brainwashing. what do you think, maria? >> well herman cain always said he'll bring humor to the white house. i think this is more of a frustration from an african-american candidate who is running for a political party who has done nothing for the last 20 or 30 years but shun and methodically and systematically ignore a very important voting population which is african-american voters. instead of whining and insulting two-thirds of african-american voters, he should go reprimand

his own party and ask them to stop protecting the wealthy 1% of americans and do something for the middle class and working class voters in this country, the majority of which fall within the category of african-american voters in those. >> will? >> 85%, kyra. african-americans vote overwhelming in mid '80s for democratic candidates. that's higher than any other group. that lack of diversity of thought is not a healthy characteristic. i would use the word group think. it's frustrating as a conservative. identifying people in groups whether racial or economic groups and for a group of people, black americans, who have been so consistently denied to be thought of as individuals, i find it very frustrating this ideology would not appeal to them. >> patricia? >> i would not use the word brainwashing. i would use the word loyalty.

there is loyalty from african-americans to democrats. i think you see these kinds of accusations on both sides. what this doesn't give voters credit for is they are voting for the group that they trust and voting for the group they think they have a lot in common with. to herman cain specifically, he has an incredible life story. i think democrats would be more open to him if they paid more attention to his life story. because he's a conservative, he's not getting enough of a look from democrats. >> all right. looks like as many times as chris christi says no we'll continue to talk about him because now mitt romney is weighing in on chris christi running for the white house and tells "the wall street journal" it would be fun if he got in and would voters have as much fun or are they ready to whittle down the pack instead of having another player? >> i don't understand people that suggest we should be

whittling down the pack and frustrating by the process of other candidates jumping in. unless you are just a fan boy of rick perry or michele bachmann and you picked your candidate and you have your pom-poms out cheering for them already, i don't understand why it would be problematic to add a smart, logical principle conservative to the field. i fail to see the problem here. >> maria? >> i would find it fun but i think it represents a frustration on behalf of republican voters because they are clearly still looking for their knight in shining armor. they're not satisfied with the current crop of candidates but it's interesting that it's now to the point of harassment and almost stalking him that he doesn't feel he's ready to be president right now. if he jumps in now, he's basically already written the ad for his opponents in that very same quote. he says he doesn't have the fire in the belly. let's take him for his word. it's a frustration on behalf of republican voters.

>> patricia? >> i think he would be pure entertainment on the campaign trail. that's why reporters are writing about it so much. he's totally unpredictable. he's someone who is a competent governor. very popular in new jersey. but he also does things that you would never expect a politician to do. he had a new jersey woman call into a radio show and ask why do your kids go to private schools? he looked into the camera and said it's none of your business. it would be great for reporters if he got into the race but i don't know about the rest of the republican field. >> 20 seconds on this one. my guess is it might go longer once you see the pictures. look at a 6-foot rick perry chiera head for sale on ebay. it's 4,500. in 2009 you might remember this one, president obama got the chia treatment. i can't remember how much that went for. so let me ask you guys this. who would you like to see turn

into a chia pet and what seed would you like to plant in their head? will? >> i'm going to go with anthony kennedy. the only vote that matters on the supreme court. he's the swing vote. as of today we know that the obama care health care plan will make its way to the supreme court in the next year. that's the only vote that matters. i would plant the seed of originalism in his brain. >> a six-foot rick perry chia head is enough to give me nightmares. i think a ron paul closet cannabis seed in there or newt gingrich with fig leaf seeds. >> my gosh.

she's so clever. patricia? >> i think will should not go into the chia pet business. he would be broke. worst idea i ever heard. >> philosophical response obviously. >> i would go with -- i need a sarah palin chia pet and she doesn't need anymore seeds planted in her head. >> now, admit it, guys, each one had to own a chia pet at some point in your life? >> i never did. >> no. >> you're so boring. >> i got one as a gift, kyra, and i actually loved it when i was a lot younger. >> i'll take a ron paul cannabis chia pet tomorrow. >> all right, guys. i will talk to you again very soon. meanwhile, let's go to carter evans at the new york stock exchange where stocks are rallying thinks to positive economic reports. carter, what's the take now? >> reporter: both of the economic reports we got today

are better than expected. it's surprising because we pretty much have been set up for disappointing economic reports recently. this week we got new home sales. we got consumer confidence. that barely budged. today we find out that layoffs are slowing and the economy is still growing. good news. keep in mind that we need to see a downward trend in jobless claims. not just one week of declines. we're not there yet. and economic growth is pretty weak right now but wall street is focusing on positive today. the dow currently up about 177 points. kyra? >> i'm so disappointed. all this talk about these tennis shoes that shape up the backside, it's just not true. >> reporter: who would have guessed, right? so we're talking about these rebox shoes supposed to shape your butt. if you own those, you could get

a refund. here's why. just go to the ftc website. there's a settlement between reebox. the ad say the shoes tone your butt and legs more than other shoes. they say the claims need to be supported by sound science. no buts there. baseball's playoff dreams go on for two clubs but end for two others. we have the highlights from last night's big games next. in politics, african-american voters helped sweep barack obama into office. can he count on their support now? dan lothian reports.

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baseball's playoffs start tomorrow but no way they can top last night's excitement. what do you think? best ever regular season ending? >> i think so. unless you're a red sox fan or a braves fan. how could you possibly disagree? i don't think any sport anywhere around the world could match last night for the incredible drama and i think it will be remembered as the most dramatic night in regular season history. and this of course goes back a month when you consider how this has built up. we'll start with the red sox game against the yankees. remember, the red sox had a nine-game lead on the tampa bay rays on september 3rd. crawford dropped the ball. a run comes home to score giving orioles 4-3 win against the red

sox after an hour and a half rain delay. let's go to rays game against the yankees. rays if they won this would go into the playoffs. they were 7-0 down going into the eighth inning but evan longoria second home run of the game gave them an absolutely thrilling win there. you can see what that meant to them even though they were so far back in the wild card race just three weeks ago. they are the wild card team from the american league. >> so what happened in the national league? >> it was just as dramatic. the cardinals did it. they came from way back from just a few weeks ago. they were 10 1/2 games behind atlanta but they got an easy win last night. they were in action against the astros. they won that game comfortably and could return to the locker room to see what would happened with the braves. the braves had to win by this point but they lost a ninth inning lead. went to the 13th inning.

and then the phillies hunter pence scored the winning run in the 13th inning. you would expect that result from the phillies. they're the best team in baseball this season. the braves will be absolutely kicking themselves. they threw it away in the last month as well. you know what? both the braves and red sox if they were able to keep ninth inning leads, they wouldn't be in this mess and the red sox just suffered the worst ever september for a team that won the world series twice in the last eight years, that's pretty catastrophic. i do wonder if heads will roll at the red sox. >> kind of sounds like you're a phillies fan. >> i'm just a baseball fan and that was brilliant. >> talk to you later. president obama won the white house with overwhelming support from african-americans but now some of that support is fading. dan lothian takes a closer look. >> 9:00 a.m. >> reporter: on 95.5 fm, one of

washington, d.c.'s top urban radio stations, a blend of music, edgy morning talk and commercials. but off mike there's a more serious tone when he's asked about president obama. >> his level of expectations in the community however unrealistic is higher for him to "help" us. i think that lots of people are very supportive of president obama. >> reporter: in an opinion piece in the washington post, they say how hard can the plight of black people get any worse? the managing editor of a daily online african-american magazine has heard the exasperation. >> there's a segment in the community that feels he could have targeted more efforts toward the african-american community. i don't think politically it's feasible in this country. >> reporter: one big criticism, that the president has not addressed the high unemployment

rate among blacks, which the bureau of labor statistics puts at 16.7%. much higher than the national average. >> for african-americans it has been absolutely devastating in the last four or five years. you know, as badly as the majority community, the white community has been affected, it's been even worse for blacks. >> reporter: courting his base, the president sat down for a one on run interview with b.e.t. and gave a speech to the congressional black caucus where he acknowledged the economic crisis had taken a toll on a hard hit black community. >> you have to be a little crazy to have faith during such hard times. >> reporter: representative maxine waters was pleased the president gave recognition to a problem some feel he's ignored. >> that's extremely important that people understand that the president gets it. >> reporter: a little air leaked out of that warm feeling when the president seemed to chastise african-american leaders in the same speech. >> i expect all of you to march

with me and press on. take off your bedroom slippers. put on your marching shoes. shake it off. stop complaining. >> reporter: representative waters found the comment curious and speculated mr. obama had gone off script. a white house official confirmed it was an ad lib but insists it was meant as a rallying cry. >> we're going to talk about that whole situation coming up. >> reporter: morgan who voted for mr. obama remains optimistic. >> i think that they'll come back out again. it's about engaging them. it's about speaking to them directly or indirectly about what issues affect them. >> reporter: the question is will the president be able to joan rate the kind of enthusiasm that sent a lot of young black voters to the polls for him in 2008? if in fact the race is tight, some believe that could be the difference. dan lothian, cnn, the white

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contaminated cantaloupes are blamed for 13 deaths across the country now. dozens more people are sick and while a big recall has been issued, health officials expect this listeria outbreak is going to get even worse. joining us from cdc, dr. chris braden. tell me why you are so worried at this point. >> well, there's a couple of things about this outbreak that make it very difficult. number one, as you had said

before, we expect that there may be more cases involved and this is for two reasons. one is that we expect that cases will increase because the time period between when a person eats the cantaloupe and when they get sick can be quite long. average one to three weeks but can even be longer than that up to two months. even if people were exposed before, we would expect probably to see more cases coming and the case numbers to increase. and likely they may be more deaths even in that number. so that's one reason we think this might be getting bigger. even though the cantaloupe has been recalled, we want to make sure that people don't have this in their homes. so the way that they can make sure that they don't have it in their homes is to identify where the cantaloupe came from. if it has a label that says jensen farm, it needs to be thrown away.

don't eat it. if you're not sure, it should be discarded. other ways to find out is you could also contact the grocer where you bought the fruits to see if they know where it came from. if you're not sure, it's better to just throw it away. that way we don't get more cases because people are still getting exposed. >> this is actually the first time that we know of that listeria has been found in cantaloupe. have you figured out how the fruit got contaminated? >> that's something of an ongoing investigation and as you say, it's the first time that cantaloupe has been identified as a source of an outbreak for this deadly bacteria called listeria. it's a bit of a puzzle for us as to where in the whole process of growing and packaging and distribution it might have been contaminated and that's a part of an ongoing investigation and an important piece of the puzzle. >> isn't it just safe to toss cantaloupe out period if you have it? why take the risk? it's killing people. >> if it's not this particular

cantaloupe from this farm, there's no indication that it's a risk so if you know it's not from this farm, it's okay to eat that. so fruits and vegetables are a good thing for healthy lifestyle. we need to remember that. >> of course. thank you so much. coming up, lots of republicans hot for new jersey governor chris christie to jump into the presidential race. we'll tell you about a meeting that could spark more speculation. [ male announcer ] go beyond the brush with listerine® total care. its multi-action formula works to restore enamel, help prevent cavities, and kill bad breath germs for a whole mouth clean. whooo... [ male announcer ] listerine® total care. the most complete mouthwash.

[ woman ] my heart medication isn't some political game. [ man ] our retirement isn't a simple budget line item. [ man ] i worked hard. i paid into my medicare. [ man ] and i earned my social security. [ woman ] now, instead of cutting waste and loopholes, washington wants to cut our benefits? that wasn't the agreement. [ male announcer ] join the members of aarp and tell washington to stop cuts to our medicare and social security benefits. your nutritional needs can go up when you're on the road to recovery. proper nutrition can help you get back on your feet. three out of four doctors recommend the ensure brand for extra nutrition. ensure clinical strength has revigor and thirteen grams of protein to protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. and immune balance to help support your immune system. ensure clinical strength... helping you to bounce back. ensure! nutrition in charge!

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engineers there on the washington monument. we've been talking about this for a number of weeks now. when the earthquake happened, pretty much rocking d.c., shocked a lot of people, some cracks were discovered in the washington monument. there were tourists inside that monument when the earthquake happened. and after that, everyone got out safely but after that engineers noticed that damage did occur. what they've been doing inch by inch literally for two days now starting from the top slowly working their way down each side of that monument looking for cracks and assessing how dangerous it could be if they need to repair them or not so we're following it hoping that it will reopen for tourists soon. stories making news later today, next hour the house of representatives is set to vote on a temporary funding bill to avoid a partial government shutdown and at 1:00 p.m. eastern, nasa holds a news conference on what the asteroid

hunting spacecraft has recently discovered and new jersey governor chris christie joins bobby jindal for a gop fund-raiser. day three of the dr. conrad murray trial. today's testimony is from paramedics on the scene as well as jackson's security dpaguard expected to testify about murray's actions at the time of michael jackson's death. texas governor rick perry backtracks on something he said in last week's debate. we'll talk about it next. just m, improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula goes beyond 24-hour moisture. it's clinically proven to improve your skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. for healthy, beautiful skin that lasts. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. and for healthy, beautiful hair, try nourish plus haircare. only from aveeno.

looks like texas governor rick perry is dialing back his heartless comment. what's happening now? >> reporter: as you know texas governor rick perry has been doing some damage control this week after that debate performance last thursday and it was during that debate when rick perry said that perhaps his other challengers might not have the heart when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration. this came up because of this subject of whether or not the children of undocumented workers should get in-state tuition. it's a law passed down in texas and it's a law that haunted rick perry on the campaign trail and in debates. he said maybe you don't have a

heart when it comes to this issue and yesterday with a conservative magazine interview, perry seemed to dial back those remarks. here's what he had to say. >> for people who don't want their state to be giving tuition to illegal aliens, illegal immigrants in this country, that's their call. i respect that. and i was -- you know, i was probably a bit overpassionate about using that word and it was inappropriate. >> reporter: so there you have it. perry calling that inappropriate a sign that he knows he's got some some explaining to do on that comment that he made at that debate. another story that we're watching is chris christie. we've been talking about him all this week. the new jersey governor is flirting with a presidential run. he meets with the governor of louisiana, bobby jindal, later this afternoon and you'll have a lot saying maybe this should be the ticket for 2012. we'll have to wait and see. >> jim acost