good morning. we are expecting the u.s. state department to issue a travel alert for americans today. we'll tell you why we are being asked to be vigilant in europe. also, a moment of silence at rutgers university football stadium yesterday and a vigil today in memory of a student who committed suicide after his

intimate encounter with another man was streamed on the internet. hello to you all from the cnn center. this is your "cnn sunday morning." 6:00 a.m. in atlanta, georgia, 5:00 a.m. in fayetteville, arkansas. wherever you may be, we're glad you're here. i'm t.j. holmes. and we want to give a special welcome to our armed forces members around the world. thousands of people converged on the lincoln memorial yesterday. they were there for what was called the one nation working together rally. but many were from one side of the political aisle. we'll be taking a look. also, about 1,200 nasa employees have turned in their badges. they're being laid off as the space shuttle program wraps up. also, germany celebrating a historic milestone this weekend. 20 years ago east and west came together again after the fall of

the berlin wall. let's get back to that travel alert, expected travel alert to be issued by the state department today. the advisory is specific for americans traveling in europe and is in response to a growing suspicion of a potential terror plot by militants there. cnn's homeland security correspondent jeanne meserve with the story. >> reporter: the state department is expected to issue a travel alert to americans in europe, perhaps as soon as today, urging them to be vigilant, aware, especially when in public places like airports and tourist sites, according to a u.s. official. a second u.s. official says that military installations are taking prudent precautions. quoting an official, this is a serious situation. u.s. and european officials have been saying for several days that they're concerned about the possibility of terror attacks against targets in europe. they said they're following several threads of intelligence, one of which concerns mumbai

style commando attacks, possibly against multiple locations in great britain, france, and germany, but they've also they don't have specific information about timing, mode, or places of attack. u.s. officials have also told cnn that osama bin laden has been in communication with al qaeda affiliates within pakistan and elsewhere, urging them to act. one official says the alert to travelers is being prompted by the volume of intelligence on terror threats rather than any new intelligence. t.j., back to you. >> thank you, jeanne meserve. a growing concern in europe comes on the heels of two audio messages reportedly released by al qaeda leader osama bin laden. take a listen to how some travelers in miami took the news about this expected travel alert. >> frankly, this is all paid for. certainly, no one would turn back. you know, what can one do about it? you go. you try to be as safe as

possible. even here, there could be a bomb scare here. >> if you took it all to heart, you would never leave the house. for travelers, i would be worried. when i first went to new york after september the 11th, i was worried, but now i think everyone has learned to live with it. >> some out there are questioning the need for a terror alert at all, including fran townsend. she talked to brett baldwin last night. >> i find this really frustrating. in the end, we know there's this threat out there. it was reported earlier in the week. there is absolutely nothing new, based on what we're hearing right now about the alert, that's going to be in there. frankly, it has the ring of, look, the government knows there's this threat. it's an increasing problem. so what they really want to do is protect themselves that they warned you. we're not hearing there's any specific information in there about targets, locations,

timings, or any valuable information to americans about what they can do. so if it doesn't have that sort of information in there, you sort of have to ask yourself, why is the u.s. government even bothering to do this? >> and we are going to be taking you live to london for reaction there in just a moment. artika shubert is standing by for that. also, note this is a travel alert, not a travel warning. people are not being told not to go to europe. people are not being told to leave europe. it's not a travel warning, it's a travel alert. let's talk to atyoka shubert. a travel alert not the same as a travel warning, but still some in europe concerned about how this comes across to people who might be coming over to visit or tourism. just the thought of a travel alert as well. >> sure. this is, again, people are

asking to be made more vigilant in crowded areas, in tourist destinations, airports and train stations, and these are exactly the kinds of spots tourists are likely to go to. what i know from british security sources is this does not appear to be based on any new information of a specific threat to any specific european country or target. however, one british security source that cnn spoke to said it may be connected to france's recent decision to ban the burqa, and france has been on alert for some time now. there were two threats offend into the eiffel tower. they both turned out to be hoaxes, but it does show that europe, and france in particular, are on edge. >> atika, tell us what we have building up to this point. just what we have been seeing over the past week really. remind our viewers. we got word of this so-called

possibility of these commando style attacks that could be being planned there in europe. >> that's right. there was information taken from militants in afghanistan and pakistan of a so-called mumbai style attack. as you remember in mumbai, there was a ten gunman storming locations, including a hotel and a train station. so there was some fear this may be happening. al qaeda may be trying to do a similar type attack in europe. however, having said that, there was new information that came out. sources told cnn this was very much in the planning stages. so various european capitals were put on alert for this new information, but it's important to note the threat level, particularly here in britain, has not been raised. this is something they have sort of considered, this commando style attack, for some years now. basically, ever since the mumbai attacks happened, security officials here and throughout europe were put on alert saying let's consider, if this happens in a european capital, how can

we handle it? again, this is not a new possibility of this coming out, but the fact there is all of this information coming forward, security officials are saying they want to remain vigilant and have people look out for anything suspicious. >> atika shubert in london. we will be checking in again with you. thank you so much. cnn has learned just recently that three bullet riddled bodies were found in northwest pakistan today. pakistani security telling cnn that there were actually letters attached to the bodies that called them spies for the u.s. in the pakistani military. the area we're talking about of pakistan is a tribal region near the border with afghanistan. u.s. drone attacks have also targeted militant ins that same region. here in this country, people value freedom of speech almost above any other right we have in this country, freedom to speak, freedom to say what you want to say. but where should that stop? some would say protesting at the

funeral of a slain soldier crosses the line of that freedom. now, this issue is heading up to the supreme court. want to check in this morning right now with reynolds wolf. good morning to you, sir. >> good morning, t.j. scattered showers and storms possible for the mid-atlantic states, including portions of the carolinas and virginia area. how heavy will the rain be? i'll let you know. plus a big cooldown expected for at least half the nation. the full story coming up in a few moments. you're watching cnn sunday morning. i used to see the puddles, but now i see the splash. ♪ i wanted love, i needed love ♪ ♪ most of all, most of all... ♪

ten minutes past the hour on "cnn sunday morning." parts of the east coast still drying out after the massive flooding triggered by tropical storm nicole. eight people died in storm related accidents. seven of those killed were in north carolina. much of downtown windsor still under water and expected to remain so for several more days. 100 people had to be rescued. you can see how some of those rescues wept. here's a look at whitney point, new york. view from one of our cnn i-reporters. the last time i saw flooding on these levels back in 2006. reynolds wolf, relatively quiet yesterday compared to the previous days. >> oh, absolutely. what a comparison, no doubt about it. we definitely want to get the point across to people today. we've got so many people today

still without power along the eastern seaboard, especially in virginia, north carolina. many people who happen to be listening in on satellite radio. want to let them know later on today the skies will get dark again. they will see some clouds and feel a few rain drops, but don't freak out. it's not going to be the same intensity as it was over the next couple of days. certainly, there may be a few travel issues. now this is the deal of the day. hamburger helper...one pound, one pan, one tasty meal.

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there you go. so it should be great. >> you were saying? >> oh, yeah, we're back. there you go. >> yes, we're back. we're getting a few gremlins out of the system this morning. it happens. it gave you more time to prepare. >> our computer hs a crazy saturday night. let's just put it that way. we got our computer some coffee. i'm going to head over here. while they're doing their thing, i'm going to do our thing. we're talking about the rough stuff they've been dealing with along parts of the eastern seaboard. what we're seeing today, scattered showers and a few storms along the outer banks. if you happen to be tuning in from kitty hawk, you're going to be seeing the rain drops. you're also going to see a few flashes of lightning along the coastline. you can expect much of that to move away into the deeper atlantic. with that, the frontal boundary is going to bring in a little cloud cover along the coast. kood see scattered showers, but it will not be the magnitude we've seen the past week with rainfall. let me tell you something that's going to be really interesting. it's going to really be a

transformation from late summer into fall with the high pressure building into the eastern half of the country. cooler temperatures, drier conditions, you'd better believe it. it's going to be fantastic for a lot of folks. as we fast forward to take a look at the temperatures we're going to be dealing with later on today. take a look at this, 58 degrees in chicago. 66 in washington, d.c. 62 in st. louis. 80 degrees in new orleans, and 87 in tampa. 64 in new york. 61 in boston. by this afternoon, las vegas and phoenix. high temperatures mainly in the 80s. 101 for phoenix and 71 in los angeles. that is later on today. let me show you quickly what people are waking up to this morning across portions of the midwest and great lakes. 43 degrees as you step outside. don't step outside. stay inside and watch us. 43 in chicago. 44 in st. louis. pittsburgh, home of the steelers, at 48. and our friends in green bay in 30s and 40s. cooler, drier air coming in.

that's a wrap of the forecast. t.j., back to you. >> reynolds, appreciate it as always. thanks so much. we have been hearing all kinds of seemingly horrible economic news really over the past couple of years, a lot of people would say. some say we're maybe in a recovery, but we've certainly been in a downturn the past couple of years. would you believe there actually are some areas of the country that have been thriving. josh levs with that this morning. i say some areas, josh. you're talking about kind of one or two. >> we're going to do a funky little thing with a quiz before the break. this is exactly it. check this out. we have new figures from the census. on the weekends, i try to keep a lookout for more sells for you from cnn money, especially if it makes you feel better about the economy. turns out there's one state in the whole country and one city in the whole country in which incomes have actually been going up. literally, one state and one city. we'll start off with the states. in almost every part of the country it's gone down, but the exception, the one state where incomes have gone up, north

dakota. it's a big jump. it's jumped from 5%. what's going on in north dakota? our john king was there last year. here's what some folks told him. >> because of the industry mix here, are you shielded from some of the national dynamic sometimes? >> certainly the economy here is more influenced by agriculture than any other single source. while there's manufacturing here, it's not to the extent of a michigan or an ohio, and agriculture continues to roll on. >> so some of it is that agriculture has done well. labor experts also point to this diverse range of industries in north dakota, oil, mining, health care, forestry, hunting and fishing, and officials in north dakota say they haven't been focusing on industries with big booms. they've skipped a lot of the booms. they've stayed pretty steady the last decade. one state to keep an eye on in this economy, north dakota. now, we also crunched the numbers for the biggest 52 metro areas in the country.

income is down for all of them except one. san antonio, texas. they had a tiny little jump in income. what's san antonio doing well? well, you have a bunch of things going on there. we reported the city's made a lot of great strides diversifying its economy, tourism, biomedical, major medical center, 35,000 service members there. in san antonio, jobs have been available. they stayed realatively low. people have actually been moving into the city and taking advantage of that even in this economy. you can find out how your state and city are doing. we have a detailed breaktown. i posted it on facebook and twitter pages, josh levs cnn. there are lessons to learn from the one state and one city surviving this economy when it comes to everyone else. maybe the country could take some lessons. >> josh, we'll talk to you again here shortly. coming up, the supreme court is going to be back in session starting tomorrow. we'll tell you why a playstation 3 might play into the upcoming session.

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22 minutes past the hour here on "cnn sunday morning." a new term begins on the supreme court tomorrow with a newly

sworn in elena kagan joining other judges on the bench. one of the most high profile cases on their docket, whether federal law trumps state law on immigration. the chamber of commerce argues that federal law prohibits making use of the database mandatory. outcome could be kind of a blueprint here for dealing with future immigration issues. another issue before the court, protesters' free speech rights at military funerals. no matter how disturbing the message might be, a federal appeals court ruled it was protected speech. several states have tried to put limits on where and when protests like these can happen. also before the court, should states be allowed to ban selling violent video games to people under the age of 18? video game makers say a ban violates their free speech rights, but the state of california says it has a legal obligation to protect children. a look at some other stories making headlines right now.

the u.s. state department is expected to issue a travel alert as early as this morning. it would warn americans in europe to be on guard, to be vigilant when they're using public transportation and at tourist sites and other public places. intelligence agencies have noticed a rise in that so-called chatter about possible terrorist plots. it is not expected to warn americans against traveling to europe. a key distinction here, just telling people to be vigilant, issuing an alert, not a warning against traveling at all. police have arrested a man in connection with a quadruple murder in a boston suburb this week. a gunman shot and killed two men, a woman, and her 2-year-old son. another man still in critical condition right now. police have arrested kamani washington in manchester, new hampshire. they won't say whether or not they believe he is the shooter. they have not charged him with murder, detectives calling this an active investigation. and for the first time ever, the ryder cup is going to have to finish up on a monday.

there has been torrential rain that has washed out today's scheduled final. this is all taking place in south wales. the tournament also barred spectators from the waterlogged course, trying to prevent damage to it. this thing's been around for some 83 years. if you're not familiar, it puts america's best golfers against europe's best golfers. just about a month ago, we saw thousands, thousands get together at a rally sponsored by conservative talk show host glenn beck. well, here comes the alternative. we saw it yesterday in washington, d.c. we'll take you there, let you know what happened, what the message was. [ lisa ] my name's lisa, and i smoked for 29 years. the one thing about smoking -- is it dominates your life, and it dominated mine. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. ♪ it was very interesting that you could smoke on the first week.

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good morning. welcome back to "cnn sunday morning." bottom of the hour now. i'm t.j. holmes. tell you what we saw yesterday. a lot of people would call it the anti-glenn beck rally. this happened at the lincoln memorial. some 400 groups representing a spectrum of liberal causes organized what they called the one nation working together rally. so what message were they trying to get out? cnn's kate bolduan was there.

>> reporter: this was organized by a coalition of liberal and progressive leaning groups, including liberal groups and civil rights groups among them, focusing on a range of issues, but really talking about the need for job creation, improving public education, also talking about immigration reform -- all of this set against the back drop of the upcoming midterm elections. >> we've got to go home, and we've got to hit the pavement. we've got to knock on doors. we've got to ring those bells. we've got to get ready for the midterm exam. we can't stop in '08. we've got to get ready in '10. we're going to pass the midterm exam. >> reporter: with polls showing that democratic members of congress are in trouble in the upcoming election, people turning out here said they wanted to present a show of force and wanted to have their voices heard. why did you guys come out here

today? what's the motivation? why did you guys show up? >> we're in solidarity with everybody out here, i guess, and the agenda to make america a more progressive place. we want america to be something that represents every kind of diversity in this country. we're here because we want to show that we have a presence and that we want america to head in the right direction. >> reporr: a major theme here today was, as they call it, one nation. organizers try to rally their democratic base, rally voters with a get out the vote message, with an aim today of really trying to stir the same emotion and the same energy that they've already seen amongst conservative groups, amongst conservative rallies right here at the lincoln memorial, like the glenn beck and tea party rallies over the summer, all thf with an eye toward the upcoming election one month away. kate bolduan, cnn, washington. >> one group that helped put together yesterday's rally was the naacp, and i spoke with the naacp president about the rally. i asked him repeatedly if he would call this a liberal rally.

he repeatedly would not. he said it was not a liberal rally, and i also just asked if it was the answer to the conservative rallies we have seen by the tea party and glenn beck. take a listen. >> we're not the answer to the tea party, we're not the alternative, but we're very much the antidote to the tea party. some people see tensions going up and prosperity going down, and they want to inflame the tensions. we're saying, let's push up on prosperity. let's create a tide that lifts all boats. >> now, i asked him, again, a follow-up about that comment about the antidote to the tea party. we're going to get a response to that comment coming up in our 8:00 eastern hour. we'll have a live interview with national tea party spokesman david webb. that's in our 8:00 eastern, 5:00 pacific hour on cnn. also coming up, it's going to be our mission here on saturday and sunday morning to bring you a couple of different voices as we lead up into the midterm election coming up in november.

so today we're taking a look at a couple of pundits from what some would call the hip-hop generation. author kelli goff on the left. lenny mcallister firmly on the right. going to talk about the upcoming midterm elections, the mood, and what we have to look forward to on the road. germany celebrating 20 years of reungs this weekend. 20 years ago east and west came together after the fall of the berlin wall. we'll revisit that moment in time coming up. but we have another moment in time reserved for reynolds wolf right now. >> what a special moment in time it's going to be, t.j. much of the nation has been wondering where fall has been. fall is about to crash in on the eastern third of the country. cooler drier air is on the way. we'll let you know when it's going to get there in just a few moments.

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i want to make it out here for this thing wup of these days. have you been here? >> no, but it's definitely on the to do list. >> it's so cool. we see the pictures every year, the international balloon festival that takes place in albuquerque, new mexico. it started yesterday. it's called the world's largest hot air balloon festival. they don't have any hard figures just yet, but just by the naked eye, organizers believe this could be the largest crowd out there they've ever had. the pictures, it seemed like every time this year we share them here on cnn saturday and sunday morning. it's always cool to see. >> have you ever been up in a hot air balloon? >> i have not. >> it's a weird experience. i've done it a number of times. a lot of baskets they use underneath are actually wicker, so it's really strange. >> ooh. >> i know. so you're standing on it, and you look down past your feet, and you can see the ground below and you only have a basket holding you. >> wicker? >> i know. >> i don't feel comfortable in a

wicker chair. what's ideal weather for a hot air festival? >> you want dry and clear conditions, and the reason why they often have it in albuquerque is because you've got, again, high altitude, beautiful desert-like conditions. it's spectacular. i've often heard that area is really a photographer's dream because you really can't miss out on a great shot. and another thing you do often is a lot of times before sundown they light the balloons, the lighting ceremony with the burners inside the balloons, and it lights the entire balloon. >> next year, let's do it. >> i love how you pretend you're interested because i know you're like -- >> i'm very interested, reynolds. i didn't know about that. it's cool. >> let's talk about what's going on. let's go to the four corners first. here's where they've got the festival in albuquerque. conditions very dry. a few showers forming off into texas. a lot of this blue stuff popping up on radar, it's called virga.

it's precipitation so small and light, it actually evaporated before it hits the earth's surface. the storm here, not virga, but fortunately forming mostly off the coastline. this afternoon, we'll see increasing cloud cover for most of the eastern seaboard, but the good news is light to moderate precipitation. so it's not going to be very heavy, certainly not what they've had over the past couple of weeks in terms of flooding. what's coming is very nice. high pressure that's going to settle over the great lakes and into the ohio valley, eventually moving into the southeast, and that's going to bring a transformation of weather conditions that will be just fantastic. very cool, dry conditions. st. louis, the expected high. 70 degrees in atlanta, georgia. 80 in new orleans. 83 in houston back into dallas, where it's been a very long muggy summer, 74. it's going to feel just great. unless you're a texas longhorn fan. more on that later. 75 degrees for denver. 75 los angeles.

61 in seattle. that's a quick look at the forecast, t.j., you balloon fan. let's send it back to you. >> virga, what were you saying? >> virga, precipitation that evaporates before it hits the earth's surface. tiny little rain droplets. >> i do pay attention. >> i was just teasing you. >> i appreciate you, buddy. we'll take a look at stories making headlines right now. keep an eye on this. we're expecting at any time this morning for the state department to officially issue a travel alert for americans in europe. not against traveling to europe. just want to make that distinction. this would be a travel alert that would advise u.s. citizens to be extra careful and vigilant when visiting tourist areas. we'll have the latest on this story coming your way in about 20 minutes. passengers on board a saturday flight from puerto vallarta, mexico, to denver, colorado, filling out contact forms with the cdc.

why? a child possibly suffering from foot and mouth disease was on that plane. the child was taken to a hospital for treatment. and this is it today. last day for the boys of summer. major league baseball wrapping up its regular season, and for whatever reason, the new york yankees and tampa bay devil rays do not seem to want to win their division. they go into this last day all square. we'll see how that worked out. still a title on the line. prosecutors say a rutgers student killed himself after two other students had the web cam to spy on him. story tragic and sad, also has people wondering if they could be vulnerable to the same kind of spying. how can you protect yourself? we've got some answers next. it's 39 minutes past the hour.

rutgers university is planning to hold a individuality today for university student tyler clementi. the university observed a moment of silence for the 18-year-old yesterday during a home game against tulane. prosecutors say clementi killed himself after two other students used a web cam to publish a video of him having an ind mat moment with another man. duran ravi and molly wei are facing charges of invasion of privacy. bullying online and in schools, why do kids do it? also, take a look around. is there a computer with a web cam near you? could it possibly be recording you? how could you tell? tyler clementi's suicide reveals how these small inconspicuous

devices carry big risks. there are reports that clementi's roommate may have turned on his web cam remotely from another room to record him. he had no idea his encounter was being streamed to the internet. you don't even have to own the web cam to use it to spy. hackers can access other people's web cams. they can live stream and record victims without their knowledge. it can go on for days and months. is there a defense to this? cyber security expert gregory evans explains how this works. >> i want to make sure people understand this. just because you have a camera on your computer doesn't mean somebody could just turn on your camera just like that. they have to know exactly what they're doing. so what we're going to do is we're going to use a program like, let's say, netasploit, which is a hacking program. it's the most usable program out there in the world when it comes to computer hacking. you can download it on the internet for free. we'll use that and hack into one of our test networks, and then

we'll get a prompt where we can execute any command on that computer, including turning on the computer. once a person has access to your web camera, he gets in, he'll have all the capabilities that that camera has. so if that camera can follow you around, that person can follow you around the room. if that camera has a built-in mike, it can record you as well. it can be that easy. this is a serious situation. and what makes it really scary, again, you never know when you are a victim. >> so word of advice for the digital age, beware of lurk, web cams. coming up, when the berlin fell in 199, the world certainly witnessed a historic moment. you'll never forget these pictures. what came 11 months later was also another defining moment for germany, even though the pictures may not be as powerful as these. we're checking in with nadia

next to break down the fall of the berlin wall and the reunification of the west and east. single tank of gas. or the hundred-thousand mile powertrain warranty. over a thousand people a day are switching to chevy. they're not just trading in, they're trading up. qualified lessees can get low mileage lease on this 2011 malibu ls for around one ninety-nine a month. call for details. the switch to chevy starts at chevydealer.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t and blackberry have teamed up to keep your business moving. introducing the blackberry torch. at&t. rethink possible.

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my money. my choice. my meineke. germany, as we know it today, celebrating a milestone and a major turning point in its history. 20 years ago today, the east and the west came together, reunified, making germany once again one country and officially ending more than 40 years of bitter division. it's a far cry today from how it looked just 20 years ago when armed guards and snipers patrolled the berlin wall, ready to shoot to kill. senior cnn producer nadia belichick joins me now. many pictures remember the berlin wall coming down but don't remember what happened 11 months later. >> and remember in 1987 you

remember reagan saying to gorbachev tear down this wall. in 1989 the wall comes down, and the story behind that is an administrator announced on the radio that the wall was down, but, in fact, it wasn't yet. so you had all these people rampaging to tear down the wall. and eventually, it did come down, and then 1990 is the reunification. let's think 20 years ago. that's not a very long time ago, is it? it's the year nelson mandela was released, 1990. but up until then, you had a stark division between east and west germany, and ben brumfield, who's one of the assignment editors at cnn international, on the international desk, was saying he remembers going to east berlin and what it was like to live in this oppressive communist dictatorship. he remembers somebody who wanted a washing machine. if you wanted a washing machine, you had to apply and get the washing machine through a whole process. you had the people's police, who would spy on you.

every second person was an informant. he said he remembers how quiet it was being in east germany, oppressive communist dictatorship of east germany. then in 1990 you get the reunification, where east germany really joins west germany. and it's 20 years later. now, east germany still lags behind west germany economically, but certainly today it's a celebration. it's a national day of unity. people will be saying congratulations. >> there are still amazingly some polls that even come out, there are still some people who weren't in favor necessarily of that wall coming down and the reunification taking place. it's still small numbers, but you still have those folks. >> you did. the you had the people who were not in favor, and then you had people in east berlin who would try to flee to west berlin, and there was a shoot to kill policy. if you were caught trying to go from one side to the other, many people dies in this process.

and now what you have is you have the wall is a historic site. somebody said yesterday who had seen it is that it's disneyified. you've got a model of gorbachev and a model of reagan, and it's become somewhat of a tourist attraction. you also have the artists who, during the time of the wall, would actually draw on the wall in opposition, who were invited back 20 years later to create real art. but only 1% of the wall remains today. it's just remarkable. this is living history. this is in our time, 20 years ago, how old were you? but i remember it very well. >> it's funny to hear -- to see the historic pictures and hear it called disneyified. there's no ferris wheel out there, but it is a tourist attraction now. >> reagan, even though he was no longer president, went back to the wall, very symbolic of his famous speech at the wall, and

remember saying to gorbachev, mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. but going back to what it was like to live in east germany 20 years ago. >> nadia bilcic, we absolutely appreciate you as always. we'll be talking to you plenty. >> thank you. coming up, we told you about this earlier, about 1,200 nasa employees not reporting to work monday morning. the latest handed pink slips by the agency. we're going to meet a manager who was just 19 when he joined nasa, turning in his badge 30 years later. do what? you made it taste like chocolate. it has 35% of your daily value of fiber. tasty fiber, that's a good one! ok, umm...read her mind. [ male announcer ] fiber one chewy bars. ok, umm...read her mind. got the mirrors all adjusted? you can see everything ok? just stay off the freeways, all right? i don't want you going out on those yet.

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about five minutes to the top of the hour. the space shuttle program officially ends next june. nasa, though, already downsizing. the agency laid off 1,200 workers on friday. some of them had been with nasa at least 30 years. one of those, shuttle manager john bundy. and our john cowls, has his story from the kennedy space center. >> liftoff, space shuttle "atlantis." >> my wife, she can't hardly watch a launch. she gets overwhelmed. >> mission to build, resupply, and to do research on the international space station. >> i'm very proud of what i've done and very proud of the people that i've worked with out here. i've been out here since may of '79. i was 19 when i started as a thermal protection technician. i managed to move into the mechanical shop, and i worked there until i was promoted to manager.

>> sounds great, dan. a great effort all around. >> with shuttles retiring and its replacement constellation with problems, president obama cancelled it, leaving the united states without a future vehicle for the human space program. >> we have to have an american presence in space. this is one of the only places in the world where we put men and women in space on a day to day basis and bring them back safe, in the same vehicle they left in. >> under the shuttle retirement plan, federal dollars were given through state and local employment agencies to retrain workers for new employment. >> you're going to create several resumes within this system. >> i built several resumes. funny thing about resumes, you build one, you step away from it, look at it again the next day, whole lot of holes in it. so you've got to start again. >> first and last name only on the open red template. >> the concept behind the wall was nasa and usa's idea to go

and put up something for all the employees to leave their signature behind that were part of our nation's space program. >> we signed the wall. there's tons of pictures going around. it's like a yearbook from high school. i don't know how to put 31 years of processing into a sentence. i'm very proud that i was a part of it. and there were some very challenging times, but i'm glad i was part of this team. i've got a lot of good friends, a lot of tem mates. i wish them all the best. i'm going to miss them. >> reporter: john couwels, cnn, at the kennedy space center in florida. hello there, everybody, from the cnn center in atlanta, georgia. this is your "cnn sunday morning." glad you could be right here.

i'm t.j. holmes. big story we're keeping an eye on. at any moment, the state department could issue a travel alert for americans who are heading to europe or are already there, as growing concern that militants may be planning a terror attack somewhere in europe, targeting some spot in europe. the advisory is expected to urge americans to be vigilant, especially in public places like airports, train stations. the u.s. military is responding to the ramped up terror threat as well. military installations taking appropriate security measures. one u.s. officials saying, quote, this is a serious situation. now, for clarity we'll tell you this is an alert. it's a travel alert. it isn't expected to identify specific terror targets, and europe isn't advising americans against traveling there. not a travel warning, a travel alert, just telling you to be careful and to take precautions and to be vigilant and be aware of your surroundings. now, this comes, it's expected

to highlight the need for vigilance and destinations known for high tourist activity. those destinations are often the target officials worry about in the threat of an attack. atika shubert is live for us in london. what kind of a terror alert are they under right there in london? >> well, the threat -- terror threat level here hasn't changed. it remains the same. there are serious concerns, but it does not mean that a threat is imminent. so that's where the threat level is at here. however, after speaking with british security sources, they say this travel alert coming out really not about any new information that's been gathered in the last few days, and as you point out, no specific threat to any particular target or european city, but it's really more about the volume of intelligence and information that's been coming in over the last few weeks, particularly information that's come from militaitants in pakistan and afghanistan. also, one british security

source says this may have to do with france's recent ban of the burqa. there's been a lot of debate raging about it in europe, and france itself has had a number of bomb threats in the last few weeks that have actually shut down the eiffel tower. both those bomb threats have turned out to be hoaxes, but what's clear is that paris, other european capitals are on edge. that's the kind of context this travel alert is coming into, t.j. >> and, atika, as well you said not in response to something specific, but we did get word not long ago, just about a week ago, there could be something along the lines of a mumbai style attack being planned somewhere in europe. >> reporter: that's right. this came from a particular militant arrested in the pakistan-afghanistan area, disclosing that al qaeda was behind a sort of mumbai style planned attack where a gunman stormed certain locations. now, this apparently, according to security sources, say it was very much in the planning stages. but there is a lot of concern that the group may have already

been thinking about this, in particular, certain capitals, and that's why security officials here in london but also in other capital cities, have really considered this type of attack, not just a suicide bombing attack, as they've seen in london before or madrid before, but what would happen if a dozen gunmen stormed a particular train station, an airport, or a tourist destination. so these are things that they have already considered, which may be one reason why the threat level hasn't been raised here because of this new information. for one thing, it was only in its planning stages, but also they've already gone through these possibilities, gone through the particular operations that may need to be done. they're asking citizens to remain vigilant, but that the threat level still remains the same. >> atika shubert for us this morning in london. thank you so much. security analysts out there are cautioning against linking osama bin laden to these particular threats. he apparently released a message on islamic websites on saturday. that was the second of two messages we got in two days

purportedly from osama bin laden. in them, he did not talk about terrorism but rather tried to rally muslims to help people in pakistan, who are suffering from that devastating flooding. cnn's stephanie elam live for us in new york. she has more on air travelers' reactions to today's expected advisory from the state department. stephanie, good morning to you. this has to put people a little on edge, if they're heading that direction. >> reporter: yeah, t.j. it's true. we are here early at newark liberty airport in new jersey, so we're just across from new york city here. obviously, new yorkers are pretty used to these kinds of alerts coming through. there's a lot of people who are used to it. in this economy, people are saying, i've already booked a plane ticket. i'm still going to book that flight. the other thing to keep in mind is this is a threat we expect to here. a lot of people in miami saying, you know what, sometimes you've just got to forge ahead. >> frankly, this was all paid for. certainly, no one would turn back.

you know, what can one do about it. you go. you try to be as safe as possible. even here, there could be a bomb scare here. >> to be honest, if you took it all to heart, you would never leave the house. for travelers, i would be worried. when i first went to new york after september the 11th, i was worried, but now i think everybody's learned to live with it. >> reporter: so at this point, t.j., it's early in the morning. the airport is just starting to stretch and get moving here. there have not been any international flights that have landed or taken off at this point in the day. we're still waiting to see if people coming in are feeling a little bit on edge or if they see this as standard procedure. we're going to see if we can catch people here on their way to catch the flight and see how they're feeling about this. right now a lot of people saying, we haven't heard the alert yet. i've just got to keep on and move ahead with my plans, t.j. >> always an important distinction to make, stephanie. this is expected to be a travel alert. the state department is not

telling anybody not to go to europe, and they're not telling them to leave europe if you're there. they just want people to be aware of what's going on. >> reporter: and just pay attention to your surroundings, which i think a lot of people are already doing at airports anyway. obviously, you're going to see more of that at these large international airports throughout the country. these are going to be the ones they're really telling people to stay focused, think about your surroundings and pay attention. that's a lot of what people are doing at airports anyway in the days after 2001. >> stephanie, we appreciate you as always. thank you so much. we'll check in with you again. 30 days and counting until the midterm elections. so much at stake. the democrats and the president on the move now. we're going to get reaction from the left and the right. not the typical right you're used to hearing from. it's five minutes past the hour. stay with us. mexican soups.ur new it reminds me of guadalajara. a special man. his delicious soups. sheila?

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president obama heads to his old stomping ground to campaign for a senate candidate. a look at this "week ahead in politics." >> good morning, t.j. a busy week on the campaign trail. let's start with president barack obama. he's going back to chicago. one thing he'll be doing is helping the democratic candidate out there who's trying to keep his old senate seat in party hands. take a look at the cnn political ticker, the president will be trying to help governor o'malley of maryland to help keep his job. biden is headed to ohio, minnesota, and wisconsin to help democratic candidates. it's not just democratic surrogates who are out there. you've got top republican names as well on the campaign trail helping out fellow gop candidates. among the two i've talking about, the governor of new jersey, chris christie, he's become a rock star. he'll be in wisconsin helping republicans. and mitt romney, the former massachusetts governor, who may

want to run for the white house again, he's going to new mexico to help a republican gubernatorial candidate out there. and finally, friday, what is arguably the most important economic number in politics right now -- i'm talking about the unemployment report. on friday we'll find out the unemployment level for the country for september. remember, this will be the last employment report before the november 2nd election. that's what's going on on the campaign trail. t.j., back to you. >> thanks to our paul ste steinhauser as always. we are 30 days from the mid term elections, and every day until then, we'll bring you a political conservation. we'll have a conservative political guest and liberal political guest this time every sunday. not going to be a fight, just going to have a conversation, an opportunity for each side to present views. we're going to get started with what we could call a hip-hop duo. from new york, kelly goff, regular reporter for the huffington post and the author of "party crashing, how the hip-hop generation declared

political independents." and lenny mcallister reporter for many websites, and he's the force behind hip-hop republicans, a political blog. both friends of our show on "cnn sunday morning." let me start with you, kelly. we're going to get both of your opinions of what we saw yesterday in washington, d.c., this one nation rally. kelly, what was that, in your estimation? >> i think it was liberals and progressives coming together behind the issues they really want to define their cause. what i think was really interesting and worth noting was this wasn't about social issues that define elections and even progressives and conservatives and their differences in the past. this was not -- abortion wasn't the issue on the table. even marriage equality and gay rights. they really focused on economic issues and trying to outline why it is that progressives and the progressive agenda is better for america and is better for the

voters who are going out in midterm elections. whether or not that message is going to stick remains to be seen, but that was the goal of the march, i would say. >> lenny, you disagree with any of that. seems like she hit it on the head, that was the point of yesterday. how did you see it? >> i disagree with all of it. if you look at the website, they talk about uniting conservatives and moderate, liberals and progressives together under one nation, but you look at the splash page and the people that sponsored the rally and you listen to the rhetoric at the rally, this wasn't a rally to unite the nation in 2010, it was a rally to unite the democrats in 2010 to go from indifference to making a difference in the election. it was more about democrats than it was about uniting the nation, and i think that organizations such as the naacp that said this was about uniting people on both sides of the aisle past politics, when you got to the rally, you saw it was anything but that. it was extremely partisan. it was very disappointing to see that yesterday. >> kelli, was this a uniting cause? because it was billed as being nonpartisan. just because you see howard dean

on the front page of the website doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a partisan. sure, he's a democrat. still it doesn't necessarily have to mean. did you find it unifying? did you find it all-inclusive yesterday, kelli? >> well, look, as i said before, i'm not really sure what lenny disagreed with in what i said because this was a progressive rally. that's really what the goal was. but the goal was to define the issues and define the progressive agenda as being issues that matter to all americans. i really think that's a distinction. we're splitting hairs in terms of the semantics. does everyone want this to be viewed as a one nation rally? that was the goal, but ultimately it was about defining the progressive agenda and how it fits americans of all parties. that was the goal of the rally. whether or not that succeeded remains to be seen, but that was certainly the goal. >> lenny, she mentioned social issues. she said, didn't talk about the social issues, more so talking about the issues that can bring us together. everybody wants better jobs. everybody wants better health care, things that we can all agree on. so why can't we all get together at a rally just on those things?

what's keeping us all from getting together? what's keeping the naacp from getting together with the tea party? yes, there are some stark differences, but what is keeping us apart on the things that we clearly agree on? >> look at what ben jealous said about the rally yesterday. he said it wasn't the answer to the tea party, it's an antidote to the tea party. what is an antidote? it's a remedy to a poison or a problem. that's not unifying language of the kelli was correct, this was more to get progressives riled up, but when you invited people under the premise of being a unifying rally, it's disingenuous and even devious to get the voters there saying, look, we're looking to unite america past their differences when really it was about voter indifference when it came to the democrats and midterm elections. i know she's laughing, but you've got to look at what the website says, what the rhetoric was before, and what was said yesterday. >> i'm laughing because do you

mean it's disingenuous like glenn beck saying his rally was about freedom and equality and the legacy of dr. king? i think it's funny we're trying to have a debate over what the media agenda is when groups do big moves like this. i think we all know that there was a media intent, or they wouldn't be having rallies in the first place. there would be a group of people at their house sitting around talking. yes, is there a media agenda at play? absolutely. but were they talking about real issues that matter? sure. again, i think the bigger question is whether or not this has an impact 30 days from now. that remains to be seen. i will say this, though. there's been recent polling that was released last week that actually shows rather decent news for democrats. i wouldn't call it great. every state from the jerry brown and barbara boxer races in california to harry reid in nevada, to some of the races in other states, patrick in massachusetts, democratic polling numbers are actually going up. so i wouldn't be surprised if there's a sense they can build on this momentum. these people have actually made tremendous jump ins a lot of the races that were considered

leaning republican are actually now leaning democratic again. i think they're trying to mobilize their base to go to the polls since they have some momentum. >> kelli, both of you guys help me. lenny, i'm going to come to you. you talked about the rhetoric and the phrase like antidote. you know that's going to set some folks on the tea party off. that's just something else that kind of splits people up. whose voice needs to prevail right now? can you all help me -- help us all understand, who can we turn to? what needs to be done to keep from splitting us up? the republicans and democrats in the house and in the senate are not going to do it clearly, but where are we going to find that unifying voice, lenny, that's going to help us for the next 30 days in a ramped up political campaign? >> it's not only just about the next 30 days, j., it's really about the next 30 years. it's about the next generations filling the void of leadership. we have to move towards an american statesman model of leadership once again. as long as we're going towards

this polarization of america, and even when the president of the united states calls one network destructive to america and another network invaluable to america, and they're both polarizing networks, unlike how cnn is, you have a situation where these people are going to continue to go to one side or the other, and they're going to forget we're all americans. we have to move away from the "american idol" sound bite nature of politics and back to the american symbol of humble servership that we used to see in politics. >> lenny, i agree. we need to move to a nation that is inclusive of third parties, and i'd love to see that happen. one last thing, t.j., legislators did agree on one piece of legislation last week, and that is to stop having commercials that are too loud and to have the volume differentiation. i find that hysterical. they can't agree on health care, immigration, gay rights. they agree on that. >> that was high on my list. i don't know about the rest of the voters, but those commercials are entirely too

loud, guys. good to see you both, kelli goff, lenny mcallister, friends of our show on the weekends. we appreciate you, appreciate the conversation. thanks so much. coming up in our 8:00 hour, we're going to be talking to david webb, co-founder of one of the tea party organizations about the weekend's liberal activist gathering. the one nation together rally. stick around for that. so when you have a party and beyonce decides to crash that party, there is no way you're going to kick her out of that party, josh. >> oh, man. you've got to liven things up a bit. let's go to the tape. take a look at this. just one of the hot viral videos i'm going to show you. also, a guy flying through the air that you've never seen. coming up after this. ♪ this one thing i'll eat, any time of day ♪

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22 past the hour.

it is viral video time, which means it's josh. what have you got this time? >> the first one, we have to keep our eyes peeled to the screen because a person, a guy, is going to go whizzing by at a speed you've never seen before. take a look at this video and watch real close. whoa, that was a person. now we're going to see the video. keep going. what you see is this camera the guy is wearing. it the a guy in switzerland, jokke sommer, 23 years old. he's done over 300 of these jumps, and it's called wing suit proximity flying. skip to the next section of the video. i think this is pretty amazing. it's flying in a way that no one's ever seen before. >> where is this? >> switzerland. this guy lives in norway. and he's done about 300 of these jumps. he set this one here to some music, lady hawk, my delirium. it's just so cool. i want to do that. you guys want to do that? >> i like airplanes personally. i just feel a little safer with

those. >> would you do that? >> no. >> seriously? >> it's neat, though, but when you think about switzerland, you think of sound of music, that kind of thing, but getting on the special suit and jumping off the side of the cliff, not so much. >> i'm so into that. here's something we're all into, beyonce crashing the block party. >> here we go. >> take a look here. one of the hottest videos of the week. she just decided to drop into this block party in new jersey. apparently, they were visiting jay-z's mom, west orange, new jersey. and these kids were having a party. beyonce joins in. >> it's a common occurrence, though. we always have the tendency to want to stop by block parties. many times -- and i know we're all on our way over to see jay-z's mom to hang out with the family and that kind of stuff, you have the temptation to stop by and celebrate. we've all been there. it's perfectly understandable. >> how school is that? what a treat. for her to stop by.

she has that reputation for being a neighborhood girl, just a down home girl who would do something like that. i love it. >> look how she stands out in the crowd. you don't know who she was, you would still come along and say, who is the superstar? >> she's great. she's gemini. as pisces, i can respect that. it's good stuff. >> do we have time for one more? we'll go back to it at the end. check this out. superman water delivery service. watch this. this guy's driving. >> that's good. >> he's laughing the whole time, though. >> this video is wild. i saw it in 20 different places, and it's a mystery. no one can figure out where this started. >> it probably started at jay-z's, at the block party, and it ends up delivering water to people alongside the jersey

turnpike. >> let's make t.j. happy. go back to the beyonce video. >> that really is cool. >> she's got moves, doesn't she? >> that's beyonce. with her moves. oh, that's beyonce. yeah, that's her. that's her. >> be right back. >> wasn't sure before, but i'm sure that's her now. >> let's go to break before this gets worse. ♪

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again, reminding you of the story we're keeping an eye on today. that travel alert expected to be issued by the state department sometime this morning. this has to do with american citizens traveling in europe. growing concern that militants may be planning some sort of terror attack there targeting europe, not necessarily americans. this advisory to urge americans to be vigilant, especially in public places, whether it's airport, train stations. u.s. military also responding to the ramped up terror threat as well. military installations