acosta did get her to answer a few questions. >> the u.n. right now is considering some massive reforms, massive policies that will severely restrict our second amendment right. when i go to washington, d.c., when it's on the second amendment or any other issue, i will fight to make sure we don't continue to cede more of our sovereignty over to the united nations. >> he will have more of that exclusive interview just ahead. the latest on that mystery on falcon lake. a dangerous area that straddles the u.s./mexican border. the woman who claims her husband was shot in the head by mexican pirates is denying she did. saying she might agree to take a lie detector test. what police are saying about her story and what the mexican government is doing.

officials calling it an ecological disaster. we're live in hungary with the desperate effort to stop it. but first, new e-mails are shedding light on why the department of agriculture threw shirley sherrod under the bus so quickly. she was working for the department of agriculture in georgia when a portion of a speech she gave was posted on a website. >> ed, looks like initially the department of agriculture wanted to be careful with how they handled this. now that these documents are out, we're getting more of a look at exactly the time line and what happened. >> reporter: that's right, kiran. we got these documents late last night. we've been poring through this overnight. this is our first look inside the look of the department of agriculture in those first desperate hours they learned about the speech and were worried, panicked at first this was going to be some sort of a major scandal. but you're right, there are e-mails we've obtained. we got these through freedom of

information act. cnn and other news organizations petitioned for these a couple months back. they finally came in late yesterday, and there are e-mails between agriculture department officials suggesting that while they were worried about this story blowing up, they did exercise caution at first saying, look, you can't just take a snippet of this video of shirley sherrod, you've got to see it in the full context. take a look at this one, 3:06 p.m., shortly after this started breaking, one usda official e-mailed "we need to make sure someone has seen the video. i am quick to jump to conclusion but want to be certain it is what it is said to before i tell the secretary." so you can see right there, there was a lot of caution being exercised. no one was trying to force her out right away. but something turned rather quickly late in the afternoon. >> what was it that happened over the course of the afternoon? and suddenly this became an urgent, urgent matter to get her resignation?

>> yeah, and what's face nati g fascinating incomplete picture. there's a lot left out about what kind of contact there may have been with the white house. was there political pressure to force her out? because take a look at this e-mail exchange, you know, about 3:06 p.m. where agriculture officials, one of them said "we need to take immediate action." another person said "the s is absolutely sick and mad over the sherrod issue." another person e-mails concur, she should be fired. what turned in there? was there pressure from the white house? we don't know. there was a lot of documents we obtained from the agriculture department that are blacked out. when there's one document showing about 8:30 on that first night when the story broke, it said rahm is about to talk on the phone with secretary vilsack.

what do they say in that phone call? we still don't know. and was there other contact between this white house and the agriculture department that might have pushed shirley sherrod out? fascinating story. still unfolding. >> the other fascinating part is shirley sherrod had said, and also indicated in writing she was being totally misrepresented. she referenced the tea party. she said she's putting her resignation in but will fight to clear her name. a little bit of warning in the resignation that she wasn't going to allow this -- to allow her good name to be besmirched. >> you're right. the context here, the conservative blogger was posting this video, a part of the video, selectively edited and it was going to maybe be on fox news and other media organizations. and that's why there was pressure on the agriculture department to do something quickly. but you're right, shirley sherrod was pleading with these officials. look, this is just a snippet, you're not seeing the whole

pictu picture. this is something that happened a long time ago. and she ended up helping, you'll remember, the white farmer and the family she initially didn't want to help. and so there was a lot more to the story and that context was missed early on. >> ed henry at the white house. thanks, ed. meanwhile, the texas woman who claims her husband was shot in the head by mexican pirates when they were jet skiing on a lake says she might agree to take a lie detector test if people keep doubting her story. she insists she and her husband were jet skiing when they were approached by three boats. the incident taking place on falcon lake which straddles the mexican/texas border. gaining a dangerous reputation for the pirate-infested waters on the mexican side. so dangerous, in fact, that mexican law enforcement refuse to patrol it at night. tiffany hartley telling cnn's anderson cooper last night understands she may have to prove something to those who

think she's lying. >> we heard a sheriff say if uh you wanted to take a polygraph test, he'd support that. is that something you'd want to do? >> possibly. but i don't really think i need to. because i know my story and i know what i, you know, what the story is. but if, you know, that's what the authorities think i need to do, then that might be an option. >> mexican authorities are searching for hartley's body despite fears of a possible ambush. hartley believes her husband's attackers may have dragged it to shore. also new this morning, a jailed chinese dissident is awarded this year's nobel peace prize. for fundamental human rights in china. the first chinese citizen to receive the nobel peace prize. liu xiaobo is in prison for trying to bring about reform.

once that happens, it'll be another ten days they're estimating before all of the men are actually brought to the surface. engineers need to figure out if a 2-foot-wide rescue shaft is stable or if it needs to be lined to prevent collapse. the fcc taking aim at cell phone bill shock. verizon wireless admitted to charging some 15 million customers for data services they did not want. the agency will unveil a proposal next week to protect consumers. cell phone carriers will have to notify users by text message of sudden spikes in their bills. let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. >> what you got going up there? you've got a little peter brady thing going. >> a little what? >> he said peter brady. >> when it's time to change, you've got to rearrange. sounds like you've got a cold in your voice. >> i think i'm going through puberty again. low to high, low to high. >> it's a fun time.

>> if i could get the years back, i'd certainly appreciate the opportunity. >> wouldn't we all? one more time around. good morning, guys. hey, it's friday. we have finally changed the weather pattern somewhat. and we're looking at a drastic improvement for folks who live east of the mississippi. especially where comfortably cooler and drier air is expected to roll in with some sunshine and warm air on the backside of this high will be rolling up the central part of the country with record-breaking high temperatures, probably. in kansas city, 87 in mid-october. yeah, that's toasty. more on that plus what's going on with tropical storm otto later on in the program. >> all right, thanks, rob. well, pay attention. thanks, rob. catching up with christine o'donnell. we got jim acosta who yesterday she promised she would talk. she delivered. this is the republican senate nominee from delaware who said she was finished talking to the national media. >> when i go to washington, d.c., whether it's on the second

amendment or any other issue, i will fight to make sure that we don't continue to cede more of our sovereignty over to the united nations. >> so they talked about everything from gun rights, to health care, to the witch controversy. jim will join us with more of the exclusive interview next. it's nine minutes past the hour. what's this option? that's new. personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke.

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increasingly we're finding gas in hard to reach areas, but now we've developed new technology that enables us to access gas in hard rocks so we can bring more fuel to homes and help provide a reliable source of energy into the future. welcome back to the most politics in the morning now. for the first time since the morning after the primary, the republican senate nominee from delaware, christine o'donnell is talking to us.

>> she has told the national media, no more interviews, but our jim acosta caught up with her in delaware yesterday and joins us live from washington now. you were telling us yesterday she said call dave. did you call dave? >> exactly. i did call dave. and just to set this up. as you know, yesterday on "american morning," we played our piece basically about this event that happened wednesday night in newark, delaware, where we caught up with christine o'donnell and reminded her that she had told cnn she would continue to do interviews with us after her primary victory and she hasn't really done that. so we reminded her of that. she said call dave, call my press guy dave and we'll set it up. and she delivered. so we went over to her headquarters yesterday and asked her about a variety of subjects. obviously we talked to her about the tapes that appeared on "realtime with bill maher" on

hbo. and we wanted to delve into provocative comments she made about gun control and whether or not the united nations might be coming after your guns. take a listen. >> let me ask you about health care because you said you would vote to repeal obamacare as you call it and as everybody calls it. let me ask you about the health care reform law. there are protections for consumers that a lot of people, even republicans say are very important. such as, the law would ban insurance companies from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. would you scrap that, as well? >> what i want to do is create real health care reform. things like that are absolutely crucial. we have to make sure that people with pre-existing conditions get the coverage and care that they need. >> you would keep that? >> i want scrap the bill and start over with real reform, piece by piece. nobody's disputing that we need health care reform, but this bill is a massive government takeover of the health care

system that gives the government way too much power. uncle sam has no business coming into the examination room, getting between you and your doctor. and that's what this bill does. we need to repeal it so that we can reenact real reform. >> is that even realistic? i know the republicans say we want to repeal the bill. but the president would have to sign any bill that you pass through the congress. so isn't repealing health care reform really unrealistic? >> that kind of throw in the towel mentality is what got us to the mess that we're in in the first place. repealing obamacare is realistic. i heard a statistic this morning that 1 out of 4 democrats are for full repeal of obamacare. >> you think you can get democrats to go onboard and override a veto. >> well, here's why i think it's realistic. a couple things. number one, a lot of democrats are coming forward saying we want to start over. we want to scrap this bill. we all made a mistake, we didn't read it, we didn't know about the unintended consequences.

as elected officials our first priority needs to be taking care of the most vulnerable in our society. so we do need real health care reform. but, if the house and the senate passes a bill to fully repeal obamacare so we can clear the way to start over with true reform that helps the most vulnerable and then the president goes and vetoes that bill, when the will of the people has been made very clear, if barack obama vetoes that, the year before his reelection, he's setting himself up to be very vulnerable. and i've seen many hillary for president ads running. so if he chooses to thumb his nose at the will of the american people and ram this unrealistic, unconstitutional bill down america's throats, then there will be consequences politically for obama. >> let me ask you about gun control because you ran an event today with a gun rights organization who endorsed you. and you said at the event "i will make sure the u.n. doesn't

supercede our rights, as well." are you saying the united nations has the right to take gun rights away from people? >> the united nations does not have the ability unless our u.s. senate cedes that sovereignty to the united nations. >> but that won't happen, right? >> well, there are -- the u.n. right now is considering massive reforms, massive policies that will severely restrict our second amendment right. when i go to washington, d.c., whether it's on the second amendment or any other issue, i will fight to make sure that we don't cede more of our sovereignty over to the united nations. >> where did that conversation come from, jim? >> yeah, it's kind of strange. she was at an event yesterday with a gun rights group in delaware. was at a gun range, as a matter of fact, and we were talking about that yesterday morning. i think john said make sure you duck when you're there. >> well, i said be careful. >> that's right. she basically was talking about

something that -- authority of the united states, will on the american people and take away their second amendment rights. that is never going to happen in this country. but she was obviously trying to talk to those concerns in that community to try to go after votes. >> well, it's interesting you got a chance to talk to her. that's one of the issues. she talked a little more. we're going to play more later. jim, thanks so much. another question he asked was about another tea party candidate that's in a little bit of hot water with todd palin. >> is sarah palin qualified to be president? >> that was the question that was asked of rick scott, and his answer is what got him into hot water. how did christine o'donnell answer? we'll find out coming up next on "american morning."

and don't forget, the debate moderated by our own wolf blitzer. you can see it live here on cnn. plus complete coverage from delaware right here on "american morning." a housing crisis turns terrifying for one woman after her bank hired someone to literally break into her house and change the locks. they say it was a misunderstanding. and she said, wait a minute, my home wasn't in foreclosure. how did this happen? we're going to talk to her next. it's 18 minutes past the hour. you take just once a month. taken with methotrexate, simponi® helps relieve the pain, stiffness and swelling of r.a. with one dose once a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi® can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious and sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver or blood problems, and allergic reactions. before starting simponi®, your doctor should test you for t.b.

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21 minutes past the hour right now. you're not going to believe this next story. nancy was home alone in florida when she heard what she thought was an intruder at the front door. there was no knock. she wasn't expecting anyone, and so she grabbed her cell phone, locked herself in the bathroom and called 911. let's listen. >> my left arm is going off. my alarm is going off. >> ma'am, i've got deputies coming. >> thank you. >> okay. so there's a male outside and inside? >> i don't know. i don't know. i'm locked in my bathroom. i don't know. i just know somebody is breaking -- somebody broke into my house. >> well, as it turns out, the man who broke the lock on her front door was actually a contractor hired by her bank. it's a procedure typically used to secure a foreclosed home. the thing is, nancy's home wasn't foreclosed. joining us now is nancy along with her attorney.

thanks to both of you for being with us this morning. >> good morning. >> nancy, you could hear your voice shaking. i can't imagine how terrifying that must have been thinking someone was breaking into your house. after the police got there, what did you find out? what happened after that 911 call? >> well, when the police arrived, of course, they had to search the house to make certain that nobody else was in it. and then one thing led to another, and then we basically found out that the gentleman was there to change the locks on my home. >> and who was he sent by? >> he was sent by the bank, chase bank to change the locks without my permission. >> you say that you were about three to four months behind on your mortgage payments but you'd been working diligently with the bank to get a mortgage modification. >> absolutely. >> and you didn't receive any

notification about any impending foreclosure. >> i did not. i did not receive any information at all in reference to a foreclosure. >> basically you're sitting there and you have no idea if someone's breaking into your home to attack you at this point. >> exactly. i knew the aggressiveness was getting very severe. i was very much afraid, and it was a rainy day at the time. skip thought the person was taking advantage of the weather. there were going to be no witnesses. this person had a gun, a knife, i had no idea what was going to happen. i didn't know if there was one person, i didn't know if there was two people. all i knew was my life was in danger. >> i must have been absolutely terrifying. how the bank explains this is awe way is interesting. we're going to hear from you and also your attorney what the bank is saying the defend itself after this happened. it's 24 minutes after the hour. we'll be right back. credit card rewards are always good in theory.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. before the break we were talking to nancy jacobini and her attorney. nancy was sitting at home when somebody was breaking into her house. she called 911. turns tur turns out it was a contractor hired by your bank. have they apologized to you, nancy, for what you went through? >> no. actually, i purposely retrieved both of my messages last night to really, really try to decipher every single word, you know, while i was in private just to see if i overlooked something. and no, there was no apology.

on either one of those messages. >> what'd they say? >> it was basically an introduction of who the gentleman was, and he had mentioned that he was calling because he had received an escalation to his office and that he was calling about the mix-up in reference to the work preservation work order. and then the other message was because matt had returned his phone call in response to that particular phone call, and then the second message simply stated an introduction, of course, of who he was. and that they were basically, you know, playing phone tag and that he was just calling in reference to, you know, this situation. >> let me ask -- >> i did not get an apology. >> matt, what's your take on what went on here and what should happen moving forward? >> this is an absolutely

terrifyiterrify ing phenomenon. this is happening all across the country to people just like nancy. it's so important to emphasize she's not in foreclosure at all. there was absolutely no warning. i've made contact with them several times and haven't gotten any credible apology at all. in fact, my last phone call yesterday, they were still trying to confirm whether power was in her name, totally irrelevant. but she's been in this house for 20 years and power has been in her name that entire time. >> that's the unbelievable part. how long you were living in this house and the fact that you were not in foreclosure. here's what jp morgan chase says, they say properties in delinquent payments they can regularly visit to inspect them. and if the property's found to be open, they can work to secure it even if it's not in foreclosure. what do you think of that? >> i want to take exception to that. that's the big problem happening across this country. these banks are running wild.

it's the wild west out there. here's a house that's perfectly secured, her locks are secure, she's got an alarm system on it and power in. and the banks across the country are using that excuse as a justification for violating fundamental rights. it's got to stop. america's got to wake up and say we're not going to take this anymore. >> are you suing? >> we are in negotiations right now. but frankly this is more than suing. this is about getting this issue in front of the american people so that the american people demand it to stop. ultimately we do want this in front of a jury because we want americans all across this country to stand up and say what happened to nancy can't happen again, and yet our banks are just bulldozing all across americans, all across america, bulldozing over them. >> it's really quite shocking this happened to you, nancy. and we're certainly sorry. please keep us posted on any more information you get from the bank and how this turns out. >> thank you very much. >> thank you so much. thanks for joining us, as well.

crossing the half hour now. it's time for this morning's top stories. new internal e-mails. the rush to oust shirley sherrod after a conservative blogger posted a post. in one e-mail tom vilsack writes that the secretary is "absolutely sick and mad over the sherrod issue and wants her on administrative leave immediately." vilsack eventually apologized and sherrod declined a new job with the government. cnn exclusive with a candidate who said she wouldn't be doing any more interviews with the national media. she did sit down with jim acosta. she said she would scrap the health care law and president obama would pay a political price if he vetoed the effort to do that. in the next hour, we're going to hear what she thinks of sarah palin, whether or not she's qualified to be president. looks like red toxic mud

overtaking town after town. the chemical spill has killed four people now. one man told the a.p. it burned his uncle to the bone. and now it has hit the second largest river on the continent, the danube. it could damage drinking water supplies in five countries downstream. >> nic robertson on the phone this morning from hungary. what is it like to be there? what are these people going through? the pictures are devastating. >> reporter: you know, we talk about people who have burns all the way through to their bones, probably people caught in the initial sort of surge of that toxic flood. but we've talked to people who are cleaning their homes -- just cleaning their homes. and when their hands get in contact with the sludge even for a short time, they're getting burns on their hands. i'm standing here looking at a river now. this is the river going toward the danube and it's still heavily contaminated. and the reason i can see that is there's a fresh water spring at the site. pure, clean water and as soon as it enters the stream, it stays

clear for a few inches and then it's engulfed by this sort of red, murky river. so this -- the toxins are still flooding down towards the river. and we're hearing from green peace, the activist group says that they believe the government figures on how clean and pure the water is. they say the government figures are wrong. it's far worse than the government's admitting. john, kiran? >> what exactly is in this toxic sludge that's so deadly and so devastating to people that they get burned by it? >> reporter: well, it's got a high ph level. that was one of the initial problems, which has -- which causes this burning nature. unlike an acid, it doesn't scold and burn you immediately. these burns will come up over a period of days. but it also has other poisons and other, what are known as heavy metals. these are poisons to the body.

cadmium, chromium. we're told these are their figures not the government figures. and they say all in all, they're estimating over 50 tons of arsenic, which is a well-known poison even in tiny quantities. so there are a lot of very damaging chemicals mixed up in this toxic. >> people are wondering how in the heck this was able to happen. how was this allowed to happen? >> well, a lot of people who live locally to the aluminum plant say this was an accident waiting to happen. saying the plant was built in the '70s during the social era. and they say that this sludge pit was never strong enough, was always -- they felt it was always an accident waiting to happen. hungary for the past month has had an extraordinary amount of rain and that appears to have weakened the walls. the company themselves that produces the aluminum, they say

they passed every safety check they've had. even two weeks ago. they say they passed it. it's a matter of contest right now. the government, of course, has launched an investigation. the police are securing that right now. john, kiran? >> nic robertson for us there in hungary witnessing that firsthand. thank you. well, thousands of americans living near coal-fired power plants fear that their air and their water is contaminated by toxic ash. now the epa is considering cracking down, but there could be a backlash. lost jobs. carol costello takes a look coming up. ♪ ♪ ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ daylight comes ♪ i'm on my way [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ working my whole life away [ dogs barking ] ♪ the boss told me

♪ i'd get paid weakly ♪ and that's exactly [ bull lows ] ♪ how i'm paid ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ working my whole life away ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ daylight comes ♪ i'm on my way

38 1/2 minutes after the hour. right now the federal government is considering a crackdown on hundreds of of coal-fired power

plants around the country. that's welcome news to thousands of people who live near those facilities and claim that their air and water has been contaminated by toxic coal ash. >> if officials decide to label coal ash hazardous, there could be unintended consequenceconseq. an a.m. original only on american morning. hey, if it's toxic, call it toxic. why not? >> it's so much more complicated than that, unfortunately. the epa is deciding whether or not to qualify it as toxic waste. it contains arsenic and cadmium. but to others tit's not that simple. you'll notice it right in your electricity bill. >> coming out of the dryer or the kiln.

>> reporter: his company makes dry wall, in fact, national gypsum dry wall could be in your home right now. >> so how fast is this moving? how much product can it make in a certain amount of time? >> this is running at about 475 feet a minute. >> reporter: national gypsum is proudly green. all of the dry wall manufactured here is made of synthetic gypsum, taken directly from first energy corporation's nearby plant after it burns coal to make electricity. >> in a good year, we'll use an excess of 800,000 tons of material. >> reporter: every year? >> every year. >> reporter: but newell says that may change. his green company may go bust because the epa is deciding whether to label all waste from coal-burning power plants hazardous. >> our biggest concern is that if we are classified along with the rest of the material that comes from the power plant as hazardous, our product may be tainted. >> reporter: and here's why. this is where tons of coal waste

from first energy ends up. little blue run. the company's 976-acre retention pond. this waste is toxic. it contains arsenic, cadmium, and lead. national gypsum doesn't get any of its raw materials from little blue. but that doesn't matter to tyra collins and marcy carpenter who live near little blue. they want the epa to slap a big old hazardous label on everything that comes out of first energy because they say coal waste is dangerous. >> they told us that the stuff in there is completely harmless. >> why did we see dead trees? why is everything dead around it? >> reporter: neighbors fear the stuff is seeping into the ground water and their underground wells. >> have you noticed anything with your water? >> every once in a while i notice a smell. but we don't drink the tap water.

>> you don't drink tap water? >> no, we drink bottled water, i give my dog bottled water. >> reporter: not all waste from the burning of coal is hazardous. synthetic gypsum is not coal ash. it's produced in a completely different way. it does contain arsenic and lead, but in such tiny amounts the epa says it poses no health risks. >> there's nothing hazardous about it. it's the equivalent of natural gypsum that you mine and query. >> reporter: and this is in the offices of the epa and washington, d.c. the department of environmental protection agrees with that assessment, plus it monitors little blue and says it's not endangering the public either. it also says the epa's pending decision is causing unnecessary fear. >> we don't dismiss the possibility of a problem. that's why we have 69 monitoring wells. at the same time, it's -- also,

i think, irresponsible to sort of just fan people's concerns. >> reporter: the epa isn't budging, though, it should make a final decision on whether to label coal waste hazardous next year. >> as for the cost of changing the status of coal ash to hazardous that will cost the industry the utility industry about $1.5 billion a year, but the epa says those costs will be offset by other benefits. of course, utility companies say those costs will be offset by you. you'll see it in your electricity bill. >> and what happens if it gets labeled hazardous and you have this dry wall or something? >> well, that's what they're concerned about. they say the dry wall is not hazardous, perfectly safe to have in your home. but they don't want to be lumped in with coal waste as a hazardous material because it's different from coal waste. it's made in a different way, a different substance. and if so if they lump it in, they fear it'll be tainted with that brush and people won't want it to be put in their house. >> despite the cost, the human

toll seems enormous if it, indeed, is making people sick. >> right. but we have to -- you have to separate it out. coal ash, you know, the neighbors say definitely that's making them sick, they think it's seeping into their ground water even though the pennsylvania department of environmental protection says it's not. but then, by the same token, the stuff in people's dry wall is safe. it's a complicated issue. hopefully it'll be sorted out next year. >> hopefully. still to come on the most news in the morning, rob's got this morning's travel forecast. he's coming up after the break. and at the top of the hour, we'll be talking with julian lennon, john lennon's son. a significant anniversary tomorrow. do you know what it is? tomorrow would have been john lennon's 70th birthday. >> wow. time flies. >> and an interesting reunion there around julian lennon's new photographic exhibit. we'll talk to him about all that

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. i'm rob marciano. the weather pattern beginning to shake up a little bit and the dreary conditions in the northeast, pretty much gone. looks like a pretty good weekend. cool, not terribly cool, but certainly cool and dry for the weekend and warm on the backside of this thing. and then the storms rolling through the west coast. a couple of tornadoes touching down in idaho. here it is, higher elevation

snows expected in parts of the rocky mountains. and a decent storm rolling into the northwest this weekend. that's about 87 degrees. records fall across the heartland. 84 degrees as far north as minneapolis. let's talk about tropical storm otto. still getting heavy rain across puerto rico. that's been the big characteristic with this storm. flooding rains across puerto rico, the u.s. virgin islands. moving rapidly at about 14 miles an hour. take a look at the forecast track. we think it'll continue on that track. further north these things go, the more they head to the east and i think portugal, maybe even northern africa might get this thing before anybody else. you're up to date weather wise, "american morning" is coming right back. and buys a ton of stuff? that would be... really, really bad. [ male announcer ] with bank of america's zero liability guarantee, you're not responsible for any fraudulent charges on your card. guaranteed. bank of america says they'll credit

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coming up now eight minutes till the top of the hour. time for an a.m. original. it's hard to imagine john lennon as a senior citizen. but had he lived, he would've turned 70 years old tomorrow. recently lennon's oldest son julian made his debut as a professional photographer with an exhibit here in new york city. i sat down with julian to talk about his pictures. many of them of his half brother shawn with whom he's had a terrific relationship over the years. his two families, and his father's enduring legacy. >> reporter: it was photographing his brother, but seeing his father that gave him the inspiration.

>> it's one of my favorite shots of him. i mean, if -- he looks to me nose and mouth with the glasses looks more like lennon than lennon -- that's why it's lennon by lennon. >> after spinning his music career in the shadow of his famous father, he wanted something all his own. so in the city his father loved, he premiered his first photography. >> how did you get the bug to get behind the lens? >> i think it was probably only three or four years ago when shawn was on tour in eastern europe. and i decided to surprise him on the road. and i brought a camera along. and it was only after i got home and started editing through those pictures that i sort of went, oh, i kind of like this. and one thing led to another. >> it had just been a hobby until that point? >> until that point, yeah, absolutely. >> reporter: it led lennon to capture intimate moments through a series of landscapes and

portraits with subjects like kate hudson and the band u-2. >> this is one i want to ask you about because it's a picture of bono beneath your father. >> sure. you know, well, we've -- we did discuss this. i think it's very much, you know, a very special picture for me because he looked up to dad and i look up to him and dad. so it's -- it's, you know. that was goose bumps for me when i took that shot. >> goose bumps that surely returned for lennon the night of his opening. after decades of disagreements and infighting, the entire lennon family, including his mother cynthia and yoko ono came together for the first time. >> how did that make you feel after so many years? >> the one thing i didn't want to do was overshadow the show. the fact that we all ended up in the same room together, you know, hugging and kissing was pretty phenomenal.

>> i could imagine. >> i don't think many people thought that would happen. >> reporter: the reunion bittersweet. a stark reminder of john's absence. and more reminders are coming. >> very significant date coming up in just a few -- >> apparently so. >> what would have been your dad's 70th. where do your thoughts run? >> first and foremost i think what age am i and what age he would have been and how weird is that just to begin with. but, you know, these days i look back with a fondness and with respect and with, you know, in many respects of the achievements that he gained throughout his life. >> you know, this is a question i've asked people over the years. mark david chapman came up for parole again a couple of weeks ago was denied for the sixth time. >> yep. >> should he ever be released? >> i can't answer that.

you know, there's supposed to be room in our hearts in all of our hearts for forgiveness. my own thoughts are personal on that and my own and will remain that way. that's for me and my own thoughts and my own quiet time. >> do you think his life would be in danger if he were ever -- >> oh, absolutely. no question about it. i don't wish harm on anybody, but i think if he did get out someone would try and hurt him. that's for sure. >> that's something that i've -- a sentiment i've heard from so many people over the last couple of months as we've been shooting this documentary that's coming up in early december. but another part of this whole thing that's really tragic is john lennon didn't give julian lennon much during his childhood. he rarely saw him. and it'd be years sometimes between visits whereas he doted

on shawn. and john had said not long before he was shot that he missed having that with julian lennon, wanted to take some time in the future to try to reconnect with him. and i said to julian, do you feel cheated that you didn't get that opportunity? and he said, yeah, that part of it really, really hurts. >> i can't imagine. and so you grow up with this name and legacy looming over you, yet you didn't have the inner personal relationship with that father when the entire world adored that man. it's very strange. it must be very strange. >> your dad is some famous person floating around but didn't float home very often. programming note, our cnn documentary, losing lennon countdown to murder is premiering december 4th and 5th at 8:00 p.m. eastern. you'll be very interested to see what people remember happened 30 years ago. your top story's coming up in a moment. i don't want you going out on those yet. and leave your phone in your purse, i don't want you texting.

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(announcer) new icy hot spray. relief that's icy to dull pain, hot to relax it away. and no mess. new icy hot spray. don't mess around with pain. election exclusive. christine o'donnell, the candidate who said she's done with the national media speaks to cnn. >> is sarah palin qualified to be president? blinded by pink. a leading breast cancer doctor who says raising awareness just isn't enough. and buy now or pay later? why flying home for the holidays may break the bank this year on the most news in the morning.

welcome. glad you're with us, it's friday, october 8th, i'm kiran chetry. >> thanks so much for joining us. we have got a lot to tell you about this morning. including an election year exclusive. the candidate that everyone is talking about is finally talking back. isn't my voice so cute like this? delaware senate candidate christine o'donnell goes one-on-one with us. >> our jim acosta caught up with o'donnell and asks her how she feels about the head mama grizzly. here's a preview. >> is sarah palin qualified to be president? >> is she running for president? >> i don't know, you tell me. >> again, hypotheticals. >> i've heard you talk with her on the phone, does she advise your campaign? >> she does not advise our campaign. >> does she give you advice? >> she gives me, you go girl

advice -- >> did she tell you not to talk to fox news? >> i heard her say something like that on o'reilly. if anyone knows anything about the destruction of women candidates is sarah palin. >> everything from health care to the witchcraft controversy, the new ad her campaign put out saying i'm not a witch, i'm not anything you've heard, i'm you. first, though, other top stories to tell you about. the mystery on falcon lake. a texas woman who claims her husband was shot in the head by mexican pirates is denying she had anything to do with his disappearance. tiffany hartley telling cnn she might agree to take a lie detector test. we'll tell you what police think of her story ahead. and the race to reach 33 trapped chilean miners. rescuers have been rehearsing how they're going to bring the men to surface, in what order, how long it may take.

they are looking at this list and determining who they're going to bring up first. we will show you what the plans are just ahead. and toxic red sludge, hit at least seven towns in hungary. now making its way down europe's second largest river, the danube. officials are calling it an ecological disaster. first, though, this hour, we're learning more about the panic and misinformation that led to the rash decision to fire shirley sherrod. sherrod you remember was pushed out the door back in july when a portion of a speech that she gave to the naacp was posted on a blogger's website, a blogger who took her words out of context and made her look racist in the process. our ed henry is live at the white house. and we should just explain to people, this was a freedom of information request. you finally got a lot of those memos, the back and forth between the department of agriculture and in some cases up to the white house. >> yeah, absolutely, kiran. this is fascinating. we got the documents late last night from the agriculture

department. we'd been petitioning for them since july. and what's interesting is that for the first time we're getting this sort of fascinating look inside the agriculture department. what was really going on as this story first exploded on july 19th. that afternoon, the sort of panic inside the agriculture department what they thought was potentially be a major scandal, how they were going to act. what's also fascinating is these e-mails between agriculture department employees show that initially a lot of them were actually trying to push back on firing or pushing out shirley sherrod and saying, look, we need to see the full context. look at this e-mail from 3:06 p.m., that first afternoon, a usda employee saying look, we need to make sure someone has seen the video. want to be certain it is what it is said to be before i tell the secretary, as in secretary tom vilsack over at the agriculture department. but amazingly, something turned rather quickly that afternoon from going and looking at the

entire video, seeing the context to just pushing her out as quickly as possible, john and kiran. >> something happened over the course of the day, though. and the decision appeared, you know, to change rather quickly to she needs to resign now. what happened? >> absolutely. and you know there's still a bit of a mystery here. even though we've gotten some of these documents. others are blacked out, maybe for privacy reasons and still an incomplete picture about whether or not there was any pressure from the white house. because if you look shortly after that e-mail what i just mentioned. look, let's be cautious, not rush to judgment. another e-mail exchange between agriculture employees. one saying "we need to take immediate action." a second saying the s is absolutely sick and mad over the shirley sherrod issue. another agricultural staffer tops that and says, concur, she should be fired. again, we don't know what turned the secretary to make him want to push her out so quickly.

but there's another e-mail saying that rahm, as in rahm emanuel, was speaking later that night on the phone to secretary vilsa vilsack. was there pressure? we just don't know. the moment 33 miners have been waiting for, a drill expected to breakthrough to the trapped miners by tomorrow. and once that happens, a rescue capsule will be lowered down to bring the miners to the surface. the so-called phoenix capsule has an onboard oxygen supply, communications equipment, it's about 21 inches across, not quite 2 feet. if steel casing is needed to support the shaft, it could be ten days before the miners make it back to the surface. officials have made a list of how the rescue should go. first up, the most able, those capable of problem solving. third, the strongest physically or mentally, and last the rescue paramedics. and for the first time since

the morning after the primary, tea party sensation christine o'donnell is talking to us. she swore off national media, but our jim acosta caught up with her in delaware yesterday and convinced her to say a few things to him. he joins us now live from washington. how did you get the interview, jim? >> well, it could have been more than my suave and debonair ways. we talked to christine o'donnell briefly the other night. she had an event and we reminded her at that event when we briefly caught up with her that she had said after her primary victory she would come back on cnn and talk to us. and i said ms. o'donnell, you made this promise to us, we want to hold you to that promise. and she said talk to dave and he'll set it up. and i said you promise? and she said yes, i promise. and she delivered. she ended up giving us this interview yesterday. we covered a variety of topics from those tapes on the bill maher program that have been

unearthed over the last few weeks, which has forced her to take her campaign to underground to other issues like health care reform, the bush tax cuts, and sarah palin. >> global warming, is it manmade? does human activity contribute? >> i don't have an opinion on that. i would have to look at a specific piece of legislation when it comes to cap and trade. the bill out there supposedly out there to help. i'm opposed to cap and trade because of the economic consequences. what it will do to the individual household, skyrocketing our ewe tiutility . it doesn't address the real issue it was intended to address. >> should creationism be taught in public schools? >> that doesn't have anything to do with what i'll do in congress. >> do you think it should be -- >> that has nothing to do with what i'll do in congress. my opinion on that is irrelevant. >> let me ask you about afghanistan. the timetable for withdrawal, a good idea or bad idea? >> we need to make our foreign

policy decisions based on effectiveness, not on time. we need to take a serious look at what's going on over there. and before we make any decisions, we need to examine whether or not it's weakening our own security. >> is sarah palin qualified to be president? >> is she running for president? >> i don't know. you tell me. >> well, again, hypotheticals. >> does she advise your campaign? >> she does not advise our campaign. >> does she give you advice? >> she gives me "you go girl" advice. if anyone knows -- she didn't tell me personally, but i heard her say something like that on o'reilly. because, you know, if anyone knows about the politics of personal destruction, it's women candidates. women politicians like sarah palin. >> if the republicans take the senate, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell or jim demint? >> i don't know yet. because what i would need to see -- is jim demint running? >> you tell me. >> i honestly don't know. i love senator demint, love what

he does. he's a principled man. but what i've said when people ask me who i'll support, i don't know that as an outsider. right now i'm a candidate, not a u.s. senator. >> is the unemployment problem in this country barack obama's fault or george bush's fault? >> it's a combination of politicians in washington losing their way. like i said, whether it's republicans or democrats, our so-called leaders in washington have lost their way and are no longer in touch with the needs of the citizens. i think what we need to do to get our country back on track is replace career politicians with citizen politicians. >> i wanted to ask you, why is that? aren't they your statements? >> this campaign is about the future and not the past. this campaign is about what each candidate is going to do to address the needs of the people in delaware. how we're going to get private

business jobs back in delaware. how we're going to get our economy back on track, how we're going to empower the individual and the entrepreneur to open up those mom and pop businesses back on main street. that's what's important to the delawareans, and that's what should be important to both candidates in this race. >> so you're never going to talk about your time with bill maher? >> why, what i said or did on a comedy show, you know over a decade ago is not relevant to this election. >> there you go. well, we should note that her campaign only gave us ten minutes for the interview. so we tried to cram as much as we could in that time frame. and obviously there were a lot of questions we wanted to ask that we didn't get time to ask. but one thing i did ask her after the interview was over. i asked her about some of these allegations as to whether or not she misused her campaign funds in the past to use them for her apartment in delaware as it was alleged at one time. and those sorts of things. and she denied steadfastly that she'd ever misused her campaign

funds. and said her campaign attorney is going to be preparing a response to the media within the next couple of weeks to address that issue. >> on the substance, on the issues, the potential pitfalls that could have been inside some of those questions, she handled herself quite well. >> and that's what i told her campaign staff. they were extremely reluctant to give this interview. she feels and they feel that every time she does an interview with a national media it's going to be a gotcha interview. and i told them, look, we have to ask these questions and she has to answer these questions. what's going to happen if she gets elected and goes to washington? i tried to make the case as strenuously as i could, that, you know, there's nothing to be afraid of here. just answer the questions and everything should be fine. and then she ended up doing it. >> yeah. it was great we had a chance to hear her position on some of those things. jim, good job. thanks so much. a quick programming note, by the way, don't forget next wednesday, delaware senate

candidates chris coons and christine o'donnell will face off in a debate moderated by our own wolf blitzer. you can see it live on cnn, plus complete coverage live from delaware right here on "american morning." well, you've got to look at the calendar if you're booking a flight for the holidays. coming up, when you buy, you want the best price, of course. you start peeling off those proverbial bills, you may not get a seat at all or break the bank. and she says her husband was shot and killed by mexican pirates. now tiffany hartley tells cnn she might be willing to take a lie detector test. what police are telling us about her story coming up. to keep th. carnation instant breakfast essentials supplies the nutrients of a balanced breakfast to help build strong muscles and healthy bones. carnation instant breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start. no calorie sweetener granulated with fiber. sweet! [ female announcer ] tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking.

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♪ 16 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. to the latest developments now in this mystery on falcon lake. a sheriff is calling on mexican drug cartels to turn over the body of david hartley his wife tiffany insisting "i know what i know" claiming mexican pirates

shot her husband in the head last week while they were jet skiing on the border. telling anderson cooper last night that she might be willing to take a lie detector test if doubts about her story persist. >> we heard a sheriff say if you wanted to take a polygraph to back up the story that he'd support that. is that something you'd want to do? >> possibly. but i don't really think i need to because i know my story and i know what i, you know, what the story is. but if, you know, that's what the authorities think i need to do, then that might be an option. >> law enforcement officials are not demanding a polygraph test for tiffany hartley but they say it couldn't hurt. more now from gary tuchman on the dangerous waters of falcon lake. >> reporter: john and kiran, it's are horrifying scenario. a woman and her husband go jet skiing on a lake between the united states and mexico. the man is shot and killed by pirates, the woman escapes with her life. but other than her word, there's no solid evidence a crime occurred. there's also no solid evidence that a crime did not occur.

so what's the status of this investigation? and just what kind of place is this lake? we have an armada of protectors. this is the sheriff. >> are you 100% convinced she's telling the truth? >> 99.9%, yes. >> reporter: so 99.9%? >> sure. >> reporter: would you be willing to have her take a polygraph test just to aid in being sure? >> i cannot force her to do it. if she wants to do it on her own, sure. >> reporter: this is what tiffany hartley said at a news conference about suggestions she's not telling the whole truth. >> i know what i know. i know what i saw. and i can just tell you what i know. unfortunately, he's not here to, you know -- david's not here to verify we were chased and we were shot at.

and so it is hard to be judged. >> what's the main reason, you think, that the story's 100% true. >> the story -- well, i look at it what is there to indicate it's not true? >> reporter: there's no jet ski, no body, but you're saying that blood was found on the life preserver? and what do we know about the blood? >> we're going to try to get it analyzed. >> reporter: the sheriff department wants to believe her story. but the fact is that public officials we've talked to in this county who don't want to go on camera are doubting it. also the state's police commander in the mexican state right across the border also publicly doubting it. it's a tragedy. >> we're living yards away from actual war in a foreign country. >> reporter: is it your feeling that the mexican half of this lake is not under authority control? >> it's not my feelings, it's reality. controlled by the mexican drug cartels. >> reporter: the lake is huge. more than 80,000 acres.

some of the best bass fishing in north america. but on the other side of this border marker where mexico begins is now a no man's land. >> reporter: do the people know this is the border marker? do boaters generally know? >> boaters know. >> reporter: this woman didn't know -- >> she has said she knew she was in mexico. >> reporter: why would she do that? >> she was saying the threats were in april and may and thought they were over with. >> reporter: the mexican waters were baron while we were there. the threat is certainly not over with. mexican authorities do say they're searching their side, but so far there is no sign of the body of tiffany hartley's husband or of his jet ski. john, kiran? >> gary tuchman this morning, thanks. if you plan to fly this holiday season, forget trying to snag a great deal at the last minute because the game has changed this year. coming up, the trick to getting

the best airfare. yes, there are some and you want to know about them. 20 minutes after the hour.

♪

what's he delivering? >> a pillow. >> that's phil for you this morning. 24 minutes after the hour. if you haven't booked your flight for the holidays yet, don't wait. this year, there are fewer planes flying, which means more demand and that means higher prices also means procrastinators could get priced out or end up out of luck. you might want to hitchhike home. rick is the ceo of farecompare.com. he joins us this morning. first of all, i don't buy this there are fewer planes. i fly from new york to atlanta all the time, there are no fewer planes now than they were a year ago. what's up with that? >> actually, if you sort of look at the last two or three years, there's been a huge cutback in the number of seats. and in fact, the number of planes we have in the air today will be about the same as it was in the year 2000. so we've lost almost a decade of

domestic aviation growth. >> no question as we get closer and closer to the holidays thanksgiving and going into christmas, time is running out to get those fare deals. >> right. a lot of pent up demand from last year. people didn't take the trips worried about the economy and jobs. airlines don't have a lot of seats. basically what you're seeing is where airlines like southwest airlines used to be 70% are now running 90% full. which means there's no empty seats. you've got to be out there shopping right now. if you wait until the last minute, you're going to be buying tickets in the $600 instead of the $300 range. >> let's look at where we are now and we're about sick weeks away from the holiday? i went on a couple of websites and i found -- because i'm going to be traveling to atlanta for thanksgiving. so we'll put up my fare here. i found on delta airlines, if i were to book today, the cost i could get -- it was a little bit cheaper, but most of them were $400. our executive producer jamie

kraft says he wants to fly to dallas for thanksgiving. currently that's going to cost him $598. he's got a wife and four kids. so that's going to -- that's -- i just got one person, but he's got six. that's a huge chunk of change. >> right. and not only that, with -- with six kids you're probably going to be checking three or four bags, you can add another $25 apiece each way. >> how much are the fares going to go up between now and as we get closer to the holiday? >> you know, what happens is as planes start to fill up, the reservation system for the airlines automatically start to kick up the prices even higher. so they could go up into the $700s and $800s. we've seen this happen with high demand times. people are shopping a little bit earlier this year because they already realize they're looking at some of these prices. you know, the bottom line is that you need to be out there. you've got to be flexible on the days you travel. sunday and monday after thanksgiving are the busiest days and the most expensive

days. so if you come back on friday or saturday or leave on a thursday, those are the cheapest days. >> are there any other tricks you can deploy? i learned that delta's fares were lowest at about 2:00 in the morning on tuesday. of course, they stopped doing that. they're cheap on saturday night now. so can you kind of go throughout the week on the internet and figure out where the fares are lower? >> we actually have done a study with this. and basically the best time to shop is about tuesday at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. what happens typically is airlines file their aerofare sales on monday evening. all during the morning, the other airlines scramble to match because nobody's going to sell a ticket for $1 more or less than their competitor. so right around 3:00 p.m. eastern time is when the cheap seats hit the reservation system. and the other part of this, they're typically three-day sales. so they typically -- the window is tuesday to thursday, so you want to be shopping tuesday

through thursday. if you're shopping on the weekend, be careful, because some of those cheap fares have been removed. >> great tips. so start shopping about 2:00 on tuesday afternoon online. >> great. yeah. absolutely. >> really appreciate it. great to see you this morning. thank you so much. good luck to all of you folks out there trying to get through the woods and over to grandma's house. >> if grandma lives in cancun, you can get there for $773. >> that's a piece of change. >> this is over thanksgiving. so you know how it goes. >> i might go to toronto and right now the fares are $300. which isn't so bad. >> trying to go on thanksgiving. well, we're going to continue to follow this. meanwhile, this ecological disaster that keeps growing in hunk are you. it's this toxic red sludge. thest n it's now flowing down the danube river. we're going to have much more on what's going on. nic robertson is there. it's 28 minutes past the hour. l] tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon.

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half past the hour. your top stories now. internal government e-mails providing new details about the hasty firing of agricultural figure shirley sherrod. you'll recall she was working for the usda in georgia when a conservative blogger posted a portion of a speech she gave painting her as a racist. sherrod was quickly vindicated and the obama administration apologized after the full video was released. though toxic red sludge is spreading, the sludge is making it way down the danube. it's the second largest river in europe. at least four people have died. officials are calling it an ecological disaster. a jailed chinese dissident has been awarded the nobel peace prize. citing his long and nonviolent struggle for human rights in china. the chinese government is not happy about it. the foreign ministry says the decision could harm china's relations with norway.

>> and christine romans joins us now. you've covered a lot about china and their influence in the world economically. what does this do? >> it's no surprise the chinese are so upset about this. because the chinese find this man who is being awarded a peace prize as a threat of peace and stability in the country. and it raises a lot of questions for human rights activists and those who study the relationship between the united states and china. it's the united states' business relationship with china that has allowed the government to solidify its power through the pocketbook. it is american consumers who have managed to put trillions of dollars into the hands of the chinese and for years we were told that this business relationship between the u.s. and china, the trading relationship would be something that would bring democracy to china, but, in fact, others say perhaps it has just meant the chinese have been able to keep a tighter grip on free speech and peace activists. >> big news for us here at home. about an hour from now we get the september unemployment numbers. what are we expecting? >> maybe to tick up to 9.7%,

maybe 75,000 private sector jobs to be created. we won't know until about an hour's time. some of the stimulus-related jobs have been rolling off. so you could see that affect this number. it's an important number, it's the last big economic number before the midterm elections. and if you see a jobless rate ticking up, you can have people challenging incumbents say, look, what's going on here? we still have way too many people unemployed in this country. i'll be looking at different numbers, including how long people have been unemployed. 33.6 weeks was the last big reading on that one. and we'll also be looking at -- i want to show you quickly where some of the jobs are. computer systems and designers, biomedical engineers, nurses and home health aides. this is where we have been seeing jobs created. for people who don't have jobs, i was just mentioning, it's well over half a year they're out of work. you can see what it looks like over the summer. we made a graphic for you for that.

that number is unsustainable. that's a number -- that graph that you're seeing there, that's something that's going to resinate in the ballot box and the voting booth next month. so last big read on this. >> coming up in our next hour, we're going to talk to the ceo of panera bread and green leaf books. one whom is hiring and the other is not. >> if the president's initiatives and small business tax cuts and alike if that's going to make a difference in hiring. that's what we want to know if what the government's doing is enough. >> thanks so much for being with us. still to come this morning, sarah palin may be a tea party favorite, but may not have a lot of support if she decides to run for president. this morning's political ticker is straight ahead. t card rewards are always good in theory. sometimes i would get rewards, sometimes i wouldn't. this one card i had -- there were all these rules. rules and restrictions. oh, and limits. [ scoffs ] forget about it. but i love this card. bankamericard cash rewards credit card. 1% cash back on everything i buy. period.

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38 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most politics in the morning. we're taking a look at what's crossing the political ticker. sarah palin, she may have the magic touch when it comes to endorsements, but more than half of americans don't seem to be impressed by the former vice presidential candidate. >> mark preston live for us. good friday morning, mark. >> hey, good morning, john, good morning, kiran. we talk about president obama and how his approval rating is right around 46%. look at these numbers out from cbs. it shows that her unfavorable rating is at 48%. a very high rating, certainly for somebody who might be considering running for president. you know, cbs also asked if she -- if people thought she'd be an effective president. only 22% of americans thought

she'd be an effective president. and of that, a very disturbing number for her certainly heading into the republican primary should she run is that 45% of republicans didn't think she'd be an effective president. not very good numbers for sarah palin, certainly not now. of course, a lot of ground to cover heading into the iowa caucuses in cold 2012 januarys. moving on, talking about another rock star so to speak is the republican party, a woman rock star out in nevada, sharron angle is in a very tough fight with senate majority leader harry reid. well, angle is trying to knock off the democratic leader. things are turning very ugly out there. let's take a look at an ad that sharron's running against harry reid. >> here's the kicker, reid actually voted to use taxpayer dollars to pay for viagra for convicted child molesters and sex offenders. what else could you ever need to know about harry reid? >> wow. wow.

what a real right hook right there. in that ad, also, that sharron angle is running, she also slams harry reid for his support of the stimulus bill and also helping illegal immigrants. again, a bare knuckle fight out in nevada. >> is that unfair? are they going to do that as pants on fire? or is it true? >> here's the deal. he did vote against an amendment that would prohibit viagra for sex offenders, but really what it was was a poison pill that was offered by senator tom coburn. the reason why coburn had offered the amendment, this was last year, to try to take down the health care bill. so, you know, it's probably going to get a bit of a pants on fire. >> thanks. >> for all the latest politics, go to cnnpolitics.com. the gop has yanked a political ad off the air. here's why, shows three regular-looking guys in a diner talking about democratic governor joe manchin who is is running for the senate.

turns out, though, they're not regular guys from west virginia. they're actors in philadelphia. reading a script. a talent agency put in a casting call obtained by cnn asking for a "hickey blue collar look." costume suggestions included trucker hats, preferably ones that were beat up, a down filled vest, jeans, and work boots. the republican spokesman says they didn't know about the casting call language. >> it was interesting, ed rollins who is a buddy of ours on the show all the time yesterday said it's not that uncommon to hire, you know, actors to appear in these. and the other flip side is you bring in regular people and you don't necessarily know their background or what and then you get yourself in trouble that way, as well. >> philadelphians masquerading as west virginians. it's 41 past the hour. we're going to be talking to a doctor with a strong opinion about whether or not we're doing

enough to cure breast cancer through the pink ribbons and bracelets. do you they do enough? or do we need to focus in a different direction? 42 minutes past the hour. ♪ [ deb ] people don't just come to ge capital for money. they come to us for help. at ge capital, we've been financing taylor guitars for over eight years, helping them build a strong dealer network. bringing music to people... i like that. ♪ ♪ [ bob ] i didn't know you could play. i didn't either. ♪ [ but aleve can last 12 hours. tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours. i didn't either. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8 hour.

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44 minutes past the hour right now. time for us to check in with rob marciano for a look at how things are shaping up across the country. the leaves are falling. how's the weekend going to be? >> not too shabby. a great weekend for pumpkin picking with the exception of

the pacific northwest. i think most folks will enjoy some sunshine. check it out. this one's gorgeous. not quite a record, but they had, you know, the old pumpkin-weighing contest, that time of year, upstate new york. the winner weighed in at 1,500 pounds. that sucker's on steroids. in the height of the growing season they can grow at 35 pounds a day. don't worry, the record wasn't broken. >> you know what, though? those big ones are always lopsided and yucky looking. you need a perfect pumpkin. it doesn't matter if they weigh a lot, right? >> true. >> you can't carve that. >> but just like larger people, they're not always symmetrical. >> rob. rob, i said perfect pumpkin. come on. >> i mean, you know. pumpkins, if you grow them abnormally large, they're going to look abnormal. >> what did you say they're putting on 30 pounds a day? 30 pounds a week?

>> yeah, 30 to 35 pounds a day during the height of the season. >> yikes. >> anyway. you and ck go up and grab that 1500-pounder and it'll be a big hit for the kids. 73 degrees for a high in new york. a little bit above average. it'll be a little bit cooler the next couple of days. 87 in kansas city, that's not exactly getting you in the mood for halloween or thanksgiving or pumpkin picking. 57 was the record low yesterday in orlando, 47 in jackson. we did have record-breaking cold temperatures. and so that's certainly got folks in the mood. showers and some higher elevation snows across parts of the rockies. we did have a couple of tornadoes touch down. no damage in idaho from that system that was hitting phoenix and arizona pretty hard. that is beginning to wind up. also winding up is tropical storm otto, 70-mile-an-hour winds. this thing is not going to be anything to worry about for us. if anything, portugal will get it. but still, heavy rain in puerto

rico. dealing with flooding down there. come on down to atlanta -- i heard you were saying you were coming to atlanta. it's going to be a great weekend for pumpkin picking down here. but i don't think we grow them to 1500 pounds. >> looking for a jabba the hutkin. in today's edge of discovery, the kitchen countertop of the future answers the question what's for dinner? here's gary tuchman. >> reporter: researchers at intel lab seattle are cooking up something new. 3-d technology that turns your kitchen counter into an interactive. it's called oasis. >> it uses cameras to turn an every day work space into an intelligent space where objects that come in get recognized and give you access to a whole world of digital information. >> just put an item on the counter, a camera and computer

work together to identify it. >> there's nothing special about the objects we're using. there's no bar codes or special tags on these. >> reporter: then a projector creates a touch-screen display at your fingertips. put two items together and oasis gives recipe suggestions, timers and cooking instructions appearing on the countertop. when you finish, you can store what you've learned in a virtual drawer. researchers are taking it out of the kitchen to see what else it can do. >> it's exciting to take it and drop it down in a million other environments and see what happens. >> chess, anyone? gary tuchman, cnn. >> cool. >> very cool. >> can you clean it? can you spray it down with windex or lysol? >> you'd have to. unfortunately magic ball you can't touch it with anything.

>> we're still working out the kinks. the the scramble to get rid of former usda employee shirley sherrod even though she warned her supervisors she's been misrepresented. what happened over the course of that day. one word turns innovative design into revolutionary performance. one word makes the difference between defining the mission and accomplishing the mission. one word makes the difference in defending our nation and the cause of freedom. how... is the word that makes all the difference.

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and ribbons, showing that they support breast cancer awansness month but the next guest says maybe we need to focus on the causes. dr. susan love just published a new edition of "dr. susan love's breast book." you're sort of dipping your toe in controversial territory saying, wait a minute. the race for the cure, the pink ribbons that we have seen everywhere hasn't that done a great deal to advance breast cancer research and hopefully a cure? >> well, it certainly made a lot of -- made everybody aware and raised lot of money for research. but i think that we're aware now. for 25 years we've been doing awareness month and in some ways that makes us complacent and instead of focusing on how can we stop this disease once and for all and i would like to see us go beyond the cure and find the cause and stop it. >> so, where do you think we're

foll falling short right now? >> we still treat it, i've been in this business 30 years and treating with surgery, radiation, chemo and now hormones and targeted drugs now, as well. we haven't changed a lot an the treatments have side effects. isn't it better to find out the cause and stop it? we have a vaccine for cancer of the cervix. cancer of the breast could be a vir virus. let's focus on trying to figure that out and while we're also working on the cure. >> for example, susan g. komen foundation raise millions through the cause marketing, pink items. that is a lot of money. >> sometimes we're victims of up on success and haven't been so good to focus where it's being spent so a lot of it is letting researchers work on whatever they think is interesting and move things along instead of saying to them, we want you to

find the answer. and focusing the research on really a challenge that will stop the disease. >> susan g. komen also is the largest nonprofit funder of research saying they put $450 million in nearly 2,000 research projects r. they just missing the mark or is it misguided? >> no. they've done a great job in funding research, and i certainly wouldn't complain about that but what the way we do research in the country generally is to allow researchers to come up with whatever ideas they have and submit them an get them funded so it's like having a field and hoping a few wild flowers pop up but instead i think we need a garden and plant seeds and this is what we want you to work on. in the same way, we want to get to the moon. that's what we'll focus on. we can say we want to find the cause of breast cancer. let's fund one thing and really get it done. >> what can women out there do

to help this? >> one thing women can do is join the army of women. the love avon army of women and trying to find the cause to move that on as fast as we can. women that don't have breast cancer, women that have breast cancer. we have 340,000 women signed up right now and a lot of times we can get everybody we need in a week, accelerating the research five or six years and moving us faster. i have a sense of you are jn sy. i'm getting old and i want to see this sofed. >> absolutely. i know so many do. we have been all touched by breast cancer. it's interesting to see if we move to a cure and a cause. >> a cause. prevention. >> well, i mean, you have to be able to figure out the cause before you get to the cure, right? >> yeah. >> thank you so much for being with us, dr. susan love. we'll also link people with website for the army of women if

they're interested in finding out more. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> john? three minutes until the top of the hour and top stories after a quick break. [ female an] tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking. sweet! [ female announcer ] splenda® granulated with fiber. may not be getting the nutrition they need to keep their bodies strong. carnation instant breakfast essentials supplies the nutrients of a balanced breakfast to help build strong muscles and healthy bones. carnation instant breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start. "this car feels like everyfast other sedan on the road today." sedantrader dot com exclaimed, "it's not extraordinary. it's extra-ordinary." a.j. partners and associates gave it two-and-a-half stars. [whisper] mediocrity. the critics agree. the two thousand eleven mediocrity is here.

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good morning. thanks so much for being with us. it's friday, october 8th. i'm kiran chetry. >> good morning. i'm john roberts. coming up in a half hour's time, new job numbers will be released by the labor department, the last major report of employment before the elections. some predict that the unemployment rate could go higher. also, we are learning details about the panicked thought process to panic shirley sherrod to resign. internal e-mails paint a picture of scrambling to get rid of

sherrod and warning tom vilsack he may not have the whole story. catching up to the most talked about candidate of the midterm election, delaware gop senate nominee christine o'donnell covering everything from what she would do as a senator and what she said in the past. >> let me ask you one more thing about these video clips that have surfaced. have you been embarrassed by those clips? >> no. i haven't been embarrassed and not saying i'm proud. >> jim acosta will be here with much more just ahead. first, though, an inside look of what was going on inside the department of agriculture after an edited youtube video went viral over the summer. cnn obtained the internal e-mails and documents reveal gnat agency didn't have all the facts when they pressured shirley sherrod to resign. >> here's a series of messages of employees. they read, quote, we need to take immediate action. 26 minutes later, 3:22 p.m.,

another message, quote, the secretary is absolutely sick and mad over the sherrod issue. he wants her immediately on administrative leave. 3:43, another employee writes, concur. she should be fired. cnn chief political correspondent and host of "state of the union" candy crowley is live in washington an there were a couple of tracks on these e-mails, candy. people saying in the early going, at least, wait a minute. do we have all the facts here? let's not move too quickly. the secretary weighs in and, bang, the hammer drops. >> yes. among the people saying wait a second is shirley sherrod saying i'm sorry you cent looked at this in context who said earlier to the agriculture officials that she was in touch with, wait, if you look at the whole tape here's what i was trying to say. there are others saying, if we seen the whole tape? there was a lot going on. they acted very quickly. it's also clear, i think, john,

in these e-mails when you look at them that the overarching problem was a political one. you have someone e-mailing and saying, look, as political appointees our job is to protect the president. you have a white house-type responding the liaison saying, you know, you should know that everyone here's so pleased that there was such quick action so this was clearly a decision that was hurried because of the politics of it. they were trying to stop the news cycle. they didn't what they thought was a very damaging story to go on for another news cycle. of course what they got was a story when she went out on tv saying, wait a minute. this isn't what i said and went on for two and three an four news cycles and here we are again. >> in the end, how big of a hit is this for the white house and tom vilsack at the usda? look. >> nobody's covered in glory here. but you know, sitting around waiting for the unemployment figures. that's what matters.

this certainly doesn't help and certainly shows that like all administrations this is an administration that is worried about the politics of things. about how things look. obviously, the agriculture secretary acted hastily. he apologized for it afterwards. in general, i think it is fascinating to watch. what we don't have is a connection as in did someone at the white house say fire this woman? there doesn't seem to be any of that direct. there was praise but not a direct directive saying, listen, you have to fire this woman so that's missing so i think it fills out the story but it certainly i don't think moves the head lean lines today. >> getting it off the news cycle. do this. and then -- just like pushing the plunger down and the die mite goes. >> we called shirley after seeing her protests about it in "the atlanta journal

constitution" hey, do you want to talk? she was on the show that morning. >> by 7:00 this morning, let's go slow ourselves. what's happening on "institution" this sunday? >> a couple of topics. less than a month before the elections, we'll have on chris van hollen and kevin mccarthy, a republican, hoping to see a switchover and talking about terrorism with former cia director, retired general michael haden to get a handling on what he sees going on with the terror alert and warning in europe that the u.s. sent out and what they have done to try to figure out what's going on. >> we'll be watching. great to talk to you on friday morning. >> have a good weekend. >> you, too. check out candy on "state of the union" on sunday morning, 9:00 eastern right here on cnn. >> see her then. most politics in the morning continues. for the first time since the morning after the primary,

delaware gop senate nominee christine o'donnell is talking us to. it is a cnn exclusive. >> until now, she swore off the national media and tried to clarify the past comments about witchcraft in that campaign ad that went viral. >> i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard. i'm you. >> well, our jim acosta catches up with o'donnell yesterday in delaware and asked her to explain some of the things she said in the past and the message to get across to voters. here's a look. >> your latest ad says i'm you. >> right. >> it's as if you're trying to reintroduce yourself to voters. >> yes, yes. >> why is that? is what you're trying to do? >> absolutely. my goal is since the primary to meet as many voters as i can. i have to hear what's on their minds to know how to help in washington, d.c. my goal, my whole candidacy is about putting the political

process back into the hands of the people. i'm not a career politician. i'm not someone who's been groomed by -- for office, not someone who's been hand picked by her party elite and bosses obviously. >> right. >> i'm an average american citizen. i want to go to washington, d.c. and do what most delawarians would do. i would not have voted for obama care or the bailouts. i would not have voted for more of the spending bills putting us in bankruptcy and neither would you. that's what my message i'm you means. i want to do what you would do in washington, d.c. >> let me ask you one more thing about these video clips that surfaced. have you been embarrassed by those clips? >> no. i haven't been embarrassed. i'm not saying i'm proud. what they're trying to do is paint a picture of who i was 20 years ago. you know, i've matured in my

faith and my policies. today, you have a 40-something woman running for office. not a 20-year-old. so that's a big difference and i think -- >> having fun back then? is that basically your message? >> well, i think back then as i said on hannity's show, i saw this as an opportunity to talk about more as a ministry opportunity but voters need to rest assured that when i go to washington, d.c. it's the constitution by which i will make all of my decisions and i will defend their right to disagree with me. that's the most important thing. >> jim joins us live from washington right now. what was your sense when you did get the ten minutes to ask her questions and heard -- we had a chance to hear the answers. what was your sense of how she's doing and how this campaign is moving an i long? >> well, i get the sense she is definitely very worried that all of those clips aired on "the bill maher show" damaged her

campaign and why she is throwing a hail mary pass with the ad. i think you will start seeing her doing more of the interviews and probably more interviews with the national media. you saw there and even trying to ask the question about the clips, what were you doing back then, she eels very artfully answering that question and then dovetailing into the talking points and she did that throughout the interview. although i have to say we threw a lot of questions at her on a variety of topics to see if perhaps we throw her off and get at where she stands on a lot of critical issues of the day and, you know, from my standpoint i thought she handled herself pretty darn well. you know, obviously, if we had more time we only had ten minutes of her time, she is so busy on the campaign trail, we would have delved into other subjects but we got as much in there as we could. >> i mean, throw her off, meaning for her to trip up but throw her off the talking points? >> exactly. yeah. trying to get her off script.

exactly. because so many as you know from talking to candidates, so many of these candidates coming in scripted and they have the talking points sort of ready to go. and, you know, you try as a journalist to go through these issues that are out there and sort of mix it up and get them off of the script and we did that from time to time. she definitely does not went to talk about witchcraft. she doesn't want to talk about some of those embarrassing clips brought up on "the bill maher show." i said, is there a chance to go on the program between now and election day. he warned he'll throw out another clip every week. she said absolutely not. she won't do that. she said she viewed that as a threat and because of that she's not going to go on the show. her campaign person did say maybe after the election. >> ducking the past thing, that's just pretty standard political operating procedure. i remember asking al gore in the 2000 campaign what about this? well, john, this is about the future. it's not about the past so --

>> exactly. >> everybody does it. >> everybody does it. >> which one was it? scott brown posed shirtless in "cosmo" in his 20s. answered a few questions an people let him move on. >> exactly. that's her message as you heard in the interview. say, look, a you will of this happened ten years ago. i was in my 20s on a comedy show as she called it. nothing to do with where she is now and stands on the issues. >> no question that voters have tough questions to probably reich to ask the candidates so we'll continue to go to the town halls and see what people say. great job in getting her today. >> you bet. >> all right. no candidate's getting more attention than christine o'donnell. last night on "parker spitzer" conservative ralph reid said that might just work. >> she beat michael castle. >> there is that. >> the entire professional republican party banking on this

guy for a majority republican senate. nobody thought this would happen. she became a poster child. i think rightly so if you like her or not for the immense transformation inside the republican party. >> i think the left and the media are making a huge mistake strategically and i think christine o'donnell is the greatest decoy in american politics. while they're firing at her, she sharron angle is beating harry reid in two polls this week. nikki haley's going to be the govern nor of south carolina. susanna martinez is up in new mexico by eight. these mama grizzlies, these women candidates who are attractive and tough and smart and cable are going to win from coast to coast and christine o'donnell may surprise some people and win, too. >> i don't deny that. >> there's no question when people gang up on an individual like christine o'donnell, it has the opposite affect. there's sympathy for her. >> hasn't so far.

the last poll showed her doing quite badly behind coons, the democratic candidate, so she may be a casualty. ralph may well be right about the trend. that she is a representative of. >> don't miss the cnn show "parker spitzer" wrapping up week one tonight 8:00 eastern. also don't forget next wednesday candidates coons and o'donnell will face off in a debate. moderated by wolf blitzer. watch it right here on cnn and we will have complete coverage live from delaware here. john lennon forever changed the face of popular music and would have turned 70 tomorrow. the memories live on. i sat down with his oldest son julian at the first exhe bigs of his photographs in new york city. that's coming up. also, great news. one of the rescue shafts being drilled to free the miners trapped in chile should get to them by tomorrow morning and now moving forward deciding exactly how the rescue will work.

we're going to get a live report from chile still ahead. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands.

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but now a drill is expected to reach 33 chilean miners for tomorrow. officials say two to ten days before the men can be brought up to the surface. our karl penhaul is following the developments live in chile for us this morning. so why the big range, two days to ten days? for the families waiting, i mean, that's a huge difference. >> reporter: it certainly is. you would think that not so much having been waiting all this time for more than 62 days now but now every minute is counting. the expectation is growing. really get the sense that this is the beginning of the end. when's going to happen, once this drill breaks through, now that could be tomorrow but it could also be as soon as today depending on the speeds that drill is getting. after that, the engineers have to decide whether they encase the entirety of that shaft to prevent rock falls inside or maybe just the top of it saying

the top is worse conditions and lower down it is kind of a granite soft and should be able to withstand that phoenix rescue capsule. if they encase the only length, might take ten days to hoist them back to surface. going with encasing the first 100 meters, about the first 300 feet, then the miners will come out much sooner, kiran. >> that's amazing. i know that you have had a chance to talk to some of the families as the decision-making process is taking place. who comes up first? who's left behind. how are the families dealing with all of this as it becomes -- it looks like it's inevitable they will be brought back up soon. >> reporter: one of my questions and where we are here around here that you can maybe see below me is what they call camp hope, a tent village where the family members waiting and every night they light the campfires and man a vigil for the loved ones and i was saying to them, i

get in a bad mood waiting an hour or a couple of hours. what does it mean to wait for 62, 63 days? one lady said to me, it feels like a bad itch that's bothering me every minute of every day. there's nothing i can do about it. i can only go on and wait and she says but all i want to do is get my husband out of that mine, get him back home and forget that all of this ever happened. another lady i talked to, she said for the last two months she says i feel i've been living in a dream. the problem is every time i wake up, i realize that this is my reality. my husband is trapped and i can't do anything else. she says i have knots in my stomach. my head hurts but hopefully it will soon all be over. >> you sympathize with them. as for the miners, are they being told? do they have to information that it could happen sooner rather

than later and could be by this weekend that they'll be out? >> reporter: yeah. these miners certainly have been kept up to date with every stage of the progress on this rescue operation. and because of the -- because of the proximity of the drill bit to the roof of the tunnel where they're holed up right now, they can hear that day and night. they can hear that drill grinding away and probably no more than 200 feet away and as i say technically given the speeds of the drills reached in the course of this rescue operation, breakthrough could come as soon as today. the mine's minister saying that certainly by tomorrow. >> just amazing the progress they have made and the fact they're all still down there alive. karl pen haul for us in chile, thanks so much. john? john lennon's oldest son is bringing the lennon family

together. his personal story and his striking photos coming up next.

♪ remember to let her into your

heart ♪ ♪ and then you can start to make it better ♪ welcome back. it's 23 minutes past the hour. it's a "a.m. original" for you. it's hard to imagine john lennon as a senior citizen. but had he lived he would have turned 70 years old tomorrow. >> recently the oldest son julian made his debut as a professional photographer with an exhibit of his works here in new york city. i sat down with julian to talk about his pictures, many of them of his half brother sean and two families and his father's endearing legacy. it was photographing his brother was seeing his father that gave him the inspiration. >> it is one of my favorite shots of him. i mean, if -- i mean, he looks to me nose and mouth and with the glasses looks more like lennon than lennon. that's lennon by lennon. >> reporter: after being in the

shadow of his father, jumian wanted something all his own so he premiered the first photograph exhibit. how did you get the bug to get behind the lens? >> i think it was only probably three, four years ago when sean was on tour in eastern europe and i decided to surprise him on the road. and brought a cam are along and it was only after i got home and started ed itting through those pictures i sort of went, oh, i kind of like this. and one thing led to another. >> reporter: it'd just been a hobby until that point? >> until that point, yeah, yeah. absolutely. >> reporter: it led lennon to capture intimate times with kate hudson and the band u2. this is one to ask you about. it's a picture of bono beneath a picture of your father. >> sure, sure. well, you know, i mean, we've -- we did discuss this. i think it's very much, you know, a very special picture for

me because he looked up to dad and i look up to him and dad, so it's, you know, it's -- that was good bumps for me when i took that shot. >> reporter: surely returned for len i don't know the night of his opening. after decades of disagreements and in-fighting, the entire lennon family including his mother scynthia and yoko ono cae together for the first time. how did that make you feel after so many years? >> i selfish in that regard but the fact we all ended up in the same room together, hugging and kissing was pretty phenomenal. >> reporter: i can imagine. >> i don't think many people thought that would happen. >> reporter: the reunion bittersweet. a stark reminder of john's absence. and more reminders are coming. there is significant date coming up in just a few weeks. >> apparently so.

>> reporter: what would have been your dad's 70th birthday. where do your thoughts run when you think of that significant anniversary? >> first and foremost i think what age i am and where he would have been and weird to begin with. but, you know, these days, i look back and with a fondness and with respect and with, you know, in awe many respects of the achievements he gained throughout his life. >> reporter: you know, this is a question i've asked people over the years. mark david chapman came up for parole again just a couple of weeks ago. was denied for the sixth time. >> yep. >> reporter: should he ever be released? >> i can't answer that. you know, there's supposed to be room in our hearts and all of our hearts for forgiveness. my own thoughts are personal on that and are my own and will remain that way.

that's -- that's for me and my thoughts in my own quiet time. >> reporter: do you think his life would be in doinger? >> absolutely. no question about it. you know, i don't wish harm on anybody but i think that if he did get out, someone would try and hurt him. that's for sure. >> never told us his thoughts whether or not he should be paroled. yoko ono made a point that he should be in prison for his life. >> julian, seems so comfortable in his own skin and so self assured and really made the best of a very difficult situation. i imagine, growing up. >> very nice fellow. there were some fights a few years ago about getting a share of the estate and all got worked out and we saw the other day at that reunion, everybody came together. >> so surreal to see yoko and cynthia hugging. >> remarkable. first time that happened. programming note, by the way, the cnn documentary "losing

lennon: countdown to murder" coming up this december on the 30th anniversary of his murder, premiers saturday and sunday at 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. eastern. don't miss it. >> looking forward to it. is the economy growing? september jobs numbers are out and economists expect unemployment will rise. up next, talking to two ceos of two different companies. one hiring, one is not. what are their long-term hiring plans? of a balanced breakfasts to help build strong muscles and healthy bones. carnation instant breakfast essentials. good nutrition from the start.

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crossing the half hour. time for this morning's top stories a. jailed chinese dissident awarded the nobel

peace prize. honoring liu xiaobo for human fights in china the first chinese citizen to receive the nobel peace prize. new e-mails detail the rush to oust shirley sherrod after an edited speech. in one e-mail an official traveling with secretary vilsack said the secretary is, quote, absolutely sick and mad over the issue and wants her immediately on administrative leave. vilsack eventually apologized. a cnn exclusive with the candidate who said she would not talk with the national media. delaware gop senate nominee christine o'donnell. our jim acosta caught up with her and asks her how she feels about the head mama grizzly. >> is sarah palin qualified to be president? >> is she running for president? >> i don't know. you tell me. >> well, again, hypotheticals. i don't know if she's -- >> does she advise your

campaign? >> she does not. >> give you advice? >> she gives me you go girl advice. don't listen to them. >> does she tell you to speak through fox news? >> i heard -- she didn't tell me personally. i heard it on o'reilly. you know? because, you know, if anyone knows about the politics of personal destruction, it's women candidates, women politicians like sarah palin. just in to cnn right now, the new jobs report for september. go ahead. you can hand them to us. rice teen romans is here to break it down. literally just in. been on the phone right now. unchanged for the percentage, right? >> the unemployment rate stays still at 9.6%. a lot of people had expected -- rise a little bit. it did not. 9.6% the jobless rate. we lost 95,000 jobs in the month of september. 95,000 jobs were lost. what we've been zeroing in on

for months is private sector jobs, what are private businesses doing? are they hiring again? and they are slowly. up 64,000 jobs there. the big job loss came in government jobs. government shed 159,000 jobs, census jobs, local government jobs with the big budget cuts. we did see gains in health care jobs, an area consistently gaining jobs. one thing troubling in this report to bring to everyone's attention and something we're watching to see if it turns. people who are working part time, but want to be working full-time, 9.5 million people in this country working part time and ready, willing and able to have a full-time job to get the labor market turned around. that is an all-time high. we've never had that many people working part time and want a full-time job. that's an important point to keep watching and the last jobs report before the midterms. >> thanks. >> how does this play out? who's hiring and who's snot joined by the heads of two

companies, john shake, he says hiring about 5,000 employees in the next year and clint greenlaef, a book publisher with 38 publishers would like to hire 40 more but doesn't know about the economy and holding off for now. thank you for being with us this morning. clint, you said in a recent writing you're tired of the financial media and analysts telling you why you're not hiring so let's hear it from the horse's mouth. why are you not hiring? >> thanks, john. it's pretty clear to me at least that the reason i'm not hiring is because of the unkcertainty. there's new taxes and laws coming out and scares me. we provide great benefits. if i bring on a new staff, health insurance went up 20% alone. i won't be able to keep on the great benefits. >> ron, are you a lot more certain about the future than he is? >> no more certain about the future than clint. but here's what we do know.

>> okay. >> we can't control the economy. what we can control is our reaction to our competitors and what we have done is while competitors cut back, we have invested. we have invested in the guest experience, invested in the quality of the labor. the result is we've been able to drive sales up, comp store sales up almost dugt digouble digits. that means that we're able to hire people. we'll hire 35,000 people this year. 5,000 new slots. >> so, you're one of the organizations that's taking these down economic times as an opportunity to grow your business? >> in fact, john, this is the best opportunity to grow. our real estate costs are down 20%. construction costs down 20%. as long as you have a stable sales base, this is the best time to grow. >> so clint -- >> fortunes will be made in this time. our stock is double now. >> sounds like a great idea. why can't your organization do that? >> well, it's interesting.

we are a lot smaller. i enjoy panera glad to hear they're growing but -- >> thank you. >> for us, at least, we have 38 people and i can't really leverage the whole business. i'm the sole owner of the company and can't leverage myself that far. it's different with 38 folks. i want a business here to pay them after we're all said and done and once the recession is over. >> publishing industry is under enormous pressure. even the big ones like barnes & noble, how are you weathering that part of it? >> we have been lucky. we are up about 20% off last year's numbers. the big issue for us is e-book world is a huge opportunity and if i had a little more certainty i would be comfortable hiring people and trying to test new theories and policies. instead i'm growing 20% a year which isn't too bad and if i was more certain, i could do more with it. >> ron, i guess you could

probably apply what clint is saying to so many companies across the nation, skittish. the uncertainty is bothering them. it may blow up in their face. when's it going to take for companies to have the sort of confidence you do? >> well, it's to recognize we never, ever have certainty. and we live in an uncertain world. all we can control is ourselves and all folks like clint and panera can do is what clint is doing, be a better competitive alternative. when we do that, then we create economic growth and able to hire. >> all right. well, difficult times in a down economy but, gentlemen, we appreciate you both coming on to tell us how it's affecting you and what you plan to do in the future. ron and clint, good to have you on this morning. >> thank you. >> good luck. >> thanks for being here. >> good luck. >> very interesting to hear perspectives. >> i love to hear from people out there in the world and trying to make it happen. >> yeah. just also questions about whether, you know, the administration's policies

towards small business have helped. seem that is there's still uncertainty of where the health care debate, you know, and enacting this, what will lead the small businesses. >> they both have uncertainty and interesting to see they're each dealing with it. >> i like the fortunes will be made. the positive end of it. right? we'll see. epa is considering cracking down on the more than 500 coal-burning plants across the country. neighbors suspect arsenic have leaked into their ground water. but classifying coal ash as toxic could cost american jobs. carol costello has both sides of the debate coming up. ♪ [ engine revs, tires screeching ] we give to you the all-new volkswagen jetta. we have one more surprise for you. fifteen-thousand nine-hundred neunzig dollar?

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. federal government is close to deciding whether or not they're going to crack down on hundreds of coal-fired power plants across the country. now, if they were to classify some of the releases as toxic or hazardous it would be welcomed news for thousands of people living near the facilities and believe that the air and water is contaminated by the ash. >> if they declare it hazardous, there could be a painful backlash in lost jobs. a lot of them. carol costello back with a "a.m. original." good morning. >> complicated issue. the epa is deciding to classify coal ash as a waste. it's potentially cancer-causing substances like arsenic and

cadmium but others say it's not that simple. if coal ash is hazard us, you will notice it in your electricity bill. >> this board coming here coming out of the drier. >> reporter: chuck runs the ship in pennsylvania, his company makes drywall. in fact, the drywall could be in your home right now. so how fast does this move? how much product in a certain amount of time? >> this is running at about 475 feet a minute. >> reporter: it is proudly green. all of the drywall manufactured here is made of synthetic gypsum, recycled from material taken from first energy corporation's nearby plant after it burns coal to make electricity. >> in the good year, we'll use excess of 800,000 tons of material. >> reporter: every year? >> every year. >> reporter: but he says that may change. his green company may go bust

because the epa is deciding whether to label all waste of coal-burning power plants hazardous. >> our biggest concern is that if we're classified along with the rest of the material that comes from the power plant as hazardous, our product may be tainted. >> reporter: here's why. this is where tons of coal waste from first energy ends up, little blue run. the company's 976-acre retention pond. this waste is toxic. it contains arsenic, cadmium and lead. national gypsy doesn't get the material from little blue. that doesn't matter to these women that live near little blue. they went the epa to slap a hazardous label on everything that comes out of first energy because they say coal waste is dangerous. >> they told us that the stuff in there is completely harmless. >> well, then, why did we see

dead trees? why is everything dead around it? >> reporter: neighbors fear the stuff is seeping into the ground water an eninto their underground wells. >> have you noticed anything with your water? >> every once in a while i notice a smell. but yeah. we don't drink the tap water. but we also -- >> reporter: you don't drink tap water? >> not from my well. i give my dog bottled water. >> reporter: newell is sympathetic but he says gypsum is produced in a different way and has arsenic and lead but the epa says it poses no health risks. >> there's nothing hazardous about it. equivalent of natural gypsum you mine and quarry. >> reporter: this is even in the offices of the epa in washington, d.c.? >> yes, it is, yeah. >> reporter: the pennsylvania department of environmental protection agrees with that assessment. plus, it closely monitors little blue saying it is not

endangering the public, either. it also says the epa's pending decision is causing unnecessary fear. >> we don't dismiss the possibility of a problem. that's why we have 69 monitoring wells. at the same time, it's -- it's also, i think, irresponsible to sort of just fan peoples' concerns. >> reporter: the epa isn't budging and should make a final decision to label coal waste hassardous next year. first energy says it's safe and little blue. little blue contains no contaminants they say and no contaminants reached residential drinking well. if it's hazardous, first energy would have to close down little blue within five to eight years. as for the drywall industry, it could continue making drywall with, of course, synthetic gypsum but you heard the concern. hassardous designation may hurt

his business. lumped in with the other stuff, would you want the drywall in the house? >> you say it's the epa offices in washington, d.c. >> drywall perfectly safe. the epa says perfectly safe but they have to sort it all out. >> can you make an exception for, you know, coal ash that's captured in gypsum and put in between? >> you absolutely could. but he said even if the epa does that, he'll still be tainted or painted with the same brush and people will at least wonder whether they should put it in their house. >> a lot of sides to this argument. >> very complicatcomplicated. fantastic fall friday. warm temperatures. dry weather but subtropical storm otto could be a hurricane later on today. rob marciano's got all the details. no calorie sweetener granulated with fiber. sweet! [ female announcer ] tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. looking at a decent weekend a. lot of places, actually. that dreary low that was just putting a hurt on the northeast as far as a lot of rain and cool weather, that's moving out. kind of cool but not terrible. east coast. pretty warm in the mid section of the country. this is the low that caused the havoc in parts of arizona, so cal. little snow in the upper levels of the high country but that is about it. generally speaking, not a bad weekend. pacific northwest seeing rain. not too bad to go check out the

leaves. aspens in full bloom there or peaking as are the ash and sugar maples and northern appalachians and parts of the upstate new york and the white and green mountains, yeah, in it, too. get out and enjoy that. here's tropical storm otto. heading to the east-northeast at 14 miles per hour. flooding issues in puerto rico and the u.s. and british virgin islands. hopefully get the drier air in there but tracks eventually towards the north and east. potentially as a category 1 hurricane and i think the next stop will likely be, maybe portugal. you're up to date weatherwise. when i was 16, i was hired as a cashier

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♪ what? what do you mean? we didn't get to see what he was going to do that time. >> walking through a shot is not an antic. >> supposed to look at the shadow? >> pink. >> love it. >> got it. time for a "a.m. house call," stories about your health this hour. millions of americans wear pink ribbons and items and walk miles

for breast cancer awareness. >> they raise a lot of money but a leading cancer doctor says it's not enough. earlier, dr. susan love said we need a new campaign that goes beyond just pink. >> we're aware now. for 25 years we have been doing breast cancer awareness month and makes us complacent in some ways and instead of focusing how can we stop this disease once and for all? i would like to see us not stop doing research on the cure but also go beyond the cure and find the cause and stop it. >> she says she wants people to join her army of women campaign where you take part in research that's aimed at finding the cause because she says cure is great except that all of the modern solutions still are not much different than surgery, radiation, chemo and perhaps hormone therapy saying it's still extremely difficult for people dealing with it saying we need to look into a cause. >> yeah. find out the basic mechanisms by which all of this happens.

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♪ well, home plate if a baseball diamond about 17 inches wide. however, florida governor crist needed one about 17 feet wide. he threw out the ceremonial first pitch yesterday in tampa. and, well, let's just say duck. >> okay. yes, yes. >> oh! >> poor catcher. he almost hurt himself trying to hurt that thing. >> must have given him the grease ball, at least, at least he made it to the plate. didn't bounce it. >> right. >> came off the fingers early. >> had a lot of speed. he was going to get it far enough. >> good throw. just wrong direction. well, of course, the first thing that popped in ourad