>> carter evans, manythanks as usual. we appreciate it. "american morning" starts right now. >> i'm ali velshi one hour from now occupy wall street protesters will come face to face with new york city police. cops want them to vacate a manhattan park so demonstrators can clean it up. protesters insist the city is just trying to clear them out. that's ahead. and meeting face to face. days after learning an alleged plot to kill a saudi ambassador in washington, diplomats are talking behind closed doors. details in just a minute. and i'm carol costello. texas governor rick perry trying to regain his mojo. we'll talk to the governor on what could be a make or break policy speech on this "american morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

good morning it is friday, october 14th. welcome to "american morning." it's a good morning on many levels. >> the tigers won. >> that's what i was going to say. the rangers are one game away from clinching it, and i kept think, well that means the tigers could still win. >> did you see the sixth ining? crazy. a single, a double, a triple and home run in one inning. i don't think that's ever happened in baseball before. the double kareemed off third base. the only reason it turned into a double and that was the turning point. >> there's a spring in her step. wouldn't you say? >> this week, did you watch more baseball or sleep more? >> definitely watched more baseball. >> i haven't slept all week. i'm a little slap happy now. things getting ugly, perhaps. staging a sit-in nearly four weeks and are being ordered to vacate at 7:00 eastern. the city wants to clean the

park. that's what they say. mayor blockberg says they want to clean the park quadrant by quadrant and let them back in. the protesters believe this is to clear them out, to evict them. demonstrators made it clear they don't plan to leave. bloomberg and his team made it clear this is just a temporary park cleaning. so, who's right? >> reporter: oh, who's right and who's wrong depends on who you talk to, of course. at this hour, this crowd has itself psyched up, chanting and chanting more than an hour. normally at this point when we've been down here, everyone is fast asleep. nothing like this. they're saying if they have to lock arm and sit down, they're not leaving this park. here's what led to this point. these protesters may be accusing new york of trashing the american economy, but that's not the kind of trashing that's provoking the latest clash. [ chanting ]

the privately owned now publicly occupied stage for the protest is filling up with garbage. >> "try to keep it as clean as we can. on the weekends it's flooded with everyone from the world. >> reporter: promising a clean sweep friday telling protesters to move out until the place gets a makeover. >> people will have to remove all of their belongs and leave the park a section at a time. after it's clean, they'll be able to come bakucome back, but won't be able to bring back the gear, the sleeping bags. >> protesters weren't buying it. >> it's clear it's more or less an evekz. >> reporter: but some local businesses have had itky the mess. >> they came in to ask me where i could dispose of their bags with their waste, excrement i

don't know how you want to call it, but i said this is not the place or business for that and i don't know how to handle it. >> take a broom a dust pan. >> reporter: activists from occupy wall street took the streets to clean up the trash threatening to distract from their message. >> the focus of it is economics. >> reporter: protesters say they've used $3,000 on their own money on the cleanup bringing in trash cans, mops and brooms, preparing for a cleanup or a possible confrontation. and at this hour, there are more and more people arriving on the scene. they plan to swell their ranks so when the police start arriving to assist the park's owner in the cleanup that's supposed to start in about an hour's time, these people say they're prepared to sit down and make them leave chanting things like "this is what democracy is all about." for example, reaction from, tweets this morning, from a lot of supporters including russell

simmons, of course, a business entrepreneur, hip-hop mowing 8 saying this is what democracy is about. these young people, mainly young activists, they should not have to leave this park. in fact, he's offered to pay for the entire cost of a cleanup if the city will just reconsider. >> we can hear the chanting. we can hear the loud noises behind you. keep us posted. if things get more heated we'll, of course, come back to you. we'll visit you a lot throughout the course of the morning. new developments in the plot of iran to assassinate a saudi ambassador in the united states. the u.s. ambassador to the united nations has had face-to-face talks with the iranians. state department officials say rice met with hoped mohammed

khazaee. he finds it hard to imagine arbabsiar would be able to kill anyone. >> come into our morning and look like he'd been hung over. he did strike me as the kind that would go out there and want to murder hundreds of innocent people, he didn't. that takes a callous person and he never struck me as that. >> arbabsiar's former business partner and friend said the suspect always stuck him as a happy person who loved america. and solyndra, the bankrupt clean energy company, that ceo resigned. court documents so brian harrison stepped down last week. harrison, you remember, refused to testify in front of congress last month. today there's another hearing looking into whether the department of energy broke the law when it agreed to restructure solyndra's debt back in february. house democrats are taking

their outrage over bank fees straight to the justice department asking the attorney general to investigate whether the big banks are illegally working together, colluding to charge customers these new monthly fees. some contend that would violate antitrust laws. coming up at 7:45 eastern we'll talk to the young woman leading a petition against the new $5 a month debit card. and north carolina congressman brad miller about a piece of legislation making it easier to switch your banks. governor perry may be looking for new life for his presidential contain making his first energy speech. promises 1 tony -1.2 million jobs. we'll talk to him at 7:15. he'll be our guest here in "american morning."

he'll talk about herman cain's surge and his plan to get his mojo. >> rick perry making the rounds, doesn't normally do that. >> he had that terrible debate and virtually disappeared and maybe trying to -- >> herman cain does a lot of tv appearances. >> he's everywhere. >> anytime be in asking him h shows up. and the new iphone goes on sale in about two hours here on the east coast. apple sold 1 million of the iphones in the first 24 hours the device was available for pre-order. and the national league championship series all tied up at two games apiece. the milwaukee brewers beating the cardinals in st. louis to even out by a final score 4-. the brew crew did it with a rally capped off by ryan. the big go-ahead hit. amazing. game five tonight in st. louis. the detroit tigers staying alive for me. a 7-5 win over the rangers. a lucky bounce, the top of the

shop we talked about it, two more runs by dellman young who hit two home runs last night. he's hurt. got an oblique injury. imagine swinging the bat with that, but he came through as did cabrera and as did martinez, also hurt. >> nothing bad to say about ka braer b ka br cabrera. >> should have been a sports report. what was i thinking? >> true. ahead on "american morning," just hanging out. a base jumper stuck dangling in a tree. thought twice about ever coming down, because the cops weren't too happy about it. >> bet not. and taking on the recession. excessive bargain hunting and finding a job. is reality tv becoming a little too realistic. and how this may be part of your everyday life, drones.

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a parachute failed. leapt off california's tallest bridge, forest bridge in auburn, got his parachute caught in the a tree. police used a leapt to rescue him. not easy trying to grab a moving target from a chopper. >> they were dealing with a parachute hung up in the tree. the motor wash moved him around a lot. not only the motor wash a problem, but the length they have to do to try to get away from the victim as much as possible. the longer you are away from a helicopter swinging on a line, it's like a pendulum floating underneath something. >> police say he dangled there about 90 minutes before he called 911 from a cell phone. >> wow. wouldn't your head explode,

dangling 90 minutes? >> police arrested him, because it's illegal to base jump without a permit. stupid to base jump with one. everyone has their favorite reality show, right? whether it's "survivor," "jersey shore"? an escape from your own reality. watching something different, maybe a little nutty. reality shows are taking a new turn, hitting a little closer to home for millions of out of work americans. take a look. from the kardashians to the white house hives and millionaire matchmaker. >> okay, girls. ready to meet a millionaire? >> reporter: we know people love watches shows about winning money. when did america's struggle become entertaining. >> now reflecting something so major going on in virtually everybody's life. the economic downturn. >> reporter: call it recession tv. there's pawn stars. >> 15. >> reporter: downsized.

>> okay. it says -- >> reporter: american pickers. >> a lot of people look at this stuff as their savings accounted, like, hey, i bought this. i think it's worth more money. >> reporter: repo games. >> recall it in the morning. >> reporter: a & e network shot a pilot called "job whisperer" a show about finding a job and even "sesame street" introduced lily, a muppet struggling with hunger. >> you don't know whether you're going to have a next meal or not. that can be pretty hard. >> reporter: so is reality tv becoming too real to watch? >> there will always be the escapism type of tv, whether it's scripted, whether it's reality, where people are just frivolously just spending money and having a lavish lifestyle. sometimes we need that, but i think we're redefining what life is as a middle-class american, and they're getting that information from tv. >> reporter: for now, many americans will dream of a fairy tale wedding through our tv sets.

[ playing "here comes the bride" ] >> for some that fairy tale wedding is just getting a job. i had a great conversation about what we're calling recession tv. can you koch that discussion on "your bottom line" at 9:30 a.m. eastern. i don't know if finding a job is as entertaining and they're trying to make it. >> depressing. >> repoing a car is wildly depressing and they're making it exciting. >> "the repo guy," sounds like you're out in the wild west, except you're lassoing a car. >> if they can find shows like showing your skills, trying to get a job, maybe entertaining. now that it seeped into even reality tv, money has always been there, not having money being in reality tv -- >> nice to have something in the middle, because i don't like watching the other shows, either. >> do you do --

>> i have to admit it, i do. check in with rob marciano who has his own kind of reality. >> yeah. it's not pretty. i can tell thaw. good morning. it's friday, guys. and for a lot of people the reality is that we've got a couple days off. if you don't, sorry. but the northeast will see not the best of weather for this friday, and it will last through tomorrow. we don't have much in the way of rain from new york to philly. some is heading up into the upstate new york area, parts of western mass. the back side of this, a storm gathering strength. we saw a tremendous amount of rain with this across parts of virginia. a couple reports of tornadoes in virginia and the newport news area up through just north of richmond as well. ooh, some of the video. wasn't able to see it earlier. seeing it for the first time as well. there you see some of the damage. likely a tornado touching down there. all right. the back side of this is going to have some wind with it. gusts to 65 miles an hour potenti potentially. high wind watches poach posted

east of the great lakes. some will get it, the bigger cities, over the next couple of days. that coupled with rainfall slows down travel today. thunderstorms in the new york metros. overnight delays expected especially in laguardia and boston, philly, chicago. pick then as far as the major cities are concerned. you'll have your problems. although, the detroit game yesterday, they managed to get it in without any sort of rain delay. impressive, nonetheless. all right. the dry weather continues across the midsection of the country and in the desert southwest and socal continues their stretch of very warm weather. 91 in las vegas. 71 in new york city, debuting the iphone 4s, parties in battery park. good times. >> wish you could be there. >> i'll be there on monday. >> awesome. >> my cousin rudy's getting married tomorrow. >> very good. >> congratulations to cousin rudy. >> yeah. >> see you in a bit, rob. now's your chance to "talk

back" on one of the big stories of the day. today's question, should companies require interviews with minority job candidates? the black community is hurting. 16.7% unemployment and many in the african-american community say president obama is trying, but not hard enough. robert johnson, ceo of the black entertainment television and an influential guy in the world of politic. listen. >> and i think the president and congress both sides, i'm not picking on one or the other, they need to go the extra mile to increase opportunities for african-americans. >> johnson's idea, going the extra mile? expand the nfl rooney rule tloupt the business world for executive level jobs. that's the rule requiring nfl owners to interview at least one african-american candidate when there's a vacancy in a coaching or gm position. i hear you. that smacks of discrimination. not so, says johnson. it would be strictly voluntary. >> there's no mandate to hire

anybody. it's called what i call, best practice enhanced commitment to diversity inclusion. >> especially, he says, with so many white candidates vying for the same jobs. as for how the rooney rule has changed the nfl? there are now eight african-american head coaches. before there were only two, and five black general managers. before that, only one. the rooney rule, though, is mandatory for nfl owners. the "talk back" question of the day, should companies require interviews for minority job candidates? facebook pain com/"american morning." we'll read your comments later on in the hour. an air show in china. more of this incredible video of what happened to the pilot when we come back.

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potential showdown between the city of new york and the "operation wall street" protesters averted for now. the mayor's office tells us they have pushed back, postponed the cleaning, of zuccotti park in lower manhattan scheduled for 7:00 a.m. we showed you pictures ever the protesters holding hands, assembling en masse to make sure they weren't pushed out. the city wanted to clean the park section by section because it needed to be cleaned. that it was dirty after so many people being there so long. protesters said, oh, no. this is an eviction and we will not leave the park. the cleaning postponed. it will not be happening at 7:00 eastern time. ali? >> we'll keep an eye on that. we have a presence down there. "minding your business" now, u.s. stock futures up ahead of the meeting of the financial ministers in paris today. tech shares pushed the nasdaq

higher. more bad news overnight about the stability of the euro zone. ratings agency standard & poor's cut spain's long-term credit rating by one notch from aa to aa minus and putting banks on notice for potential down grade including morgan stanley, bank of america and as well as several big banks in europe. good news out of europe. slovakia became the seventh and final country to improve expansion of the critical bailout for the region meaning the eu will now have more flexibility and power to bail out any european banks or european governments that get into trouble. you could be seeing fewer gap stores soon. the company plans to shut down 21% of its stores in north america over the next two years. about 700 locations. the combination of the lasting effects on people's shopping habits and the rise of online shopping made the past few year as struggle for gap.

mortgage sales are up. 4.12%. this week, according to freddie mac, you might want to consider refinancing your mortgage while the rates are this low. "american morning" will be right back after the break. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest...

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just about 30 minutes past the hoyer. we are following breaking news.

the city of new york will postpone this morning's cleaning of zuccotti park. >> this is relevant, because the occupy wall street protesters have been staging a sit-in nearly a month. the city ordering them to vacate by 7:00 a.m. today. >> susan candiotti downtown. the city is actually saying brookfield property, the people who own zuccotti park, have said they will postpone the cleaning and the city saying it is postponed. who made this decision? >> reporter: right now as word is getting out about this, you're hearing cheers starting to go through, like, waves through the camp. the protesters consider it a huge victory. i talked with one of their press spokespeople just a little while ago, and he said, i'm very excited. we're all very excited to hear this news, and it shows the power of dak craemocracy, as th it, that people power is more important than any one political

office or entity in this country. so at this hour, that word is slowly filtering out what does that mean for the protest? you're hearing the cheers. it means, they say, they're going to stay here -- stay here for the time being. you remember, they've been saying consistently, if they can't occupy this park, then it's not an occupation. back to you guys. >> susan, how many people are there? you told us usually people are sleeping at this time, but everyone is very much awake. there are more people than ever down there. can you give us an estimate? >> reporter: the police always stay away from estimates. certainly, you can definitely say hundreds of people are here. the park is full. this is the amount of people you normally see during the daytime or on a busy weekend or the day of the march, this kind of thing, but certainly, as you indicated, they're all usually asleep at this hour, but they were ready to do a sit-down here and not move, if it came to that. right now police remain in the perimeter of the area.

police walking up and down the street here, but other than that, everyone is very peaceful and well behaved. >> reporter: and you've got think that this decision by new york city, or whoever, you know, the decision was made by, will only fuel the fire? >> reporter: well, it's hard to say. obviously. they certainly avoided what was clearly going to be a confrontation, because protesters have consistently said that they weren't going to leave this park willingly. so they've avoided that. certainly this is a sign that this protest has grown in strength and as they put it, in people power, and they're making their voices heard. so they certainly won this battle, and it means, most likely, that they have more staying power than they obviously thought they did before. they're going to continue this campout, at least for the time being. we'll see what the next move is on the part of the people that own this park. you know, one of the main things they were worried about is the cleanliness of the park.

once that word filtered out they were going to move people out, that's when they brought out their own brooms and mops and starting cleaning this place up. so it would seem, at least, they're trying to do a better job with sanitary conditions which had been spiraling downhill as of late. >> to give a sense how many of there, can your photographer move the shot off of you so we can see how many people are down there? >> reporter: exactly. fred, if you can hear me, we'll try to pan out a little bit. because i'm tethered to a wire, i can't walk through as i normally can at this particular stage, but we'll be able to do that as the morning goes on. it's filled. this park is about the size of a city block, or at least a half block. so every square inch -- you can still walk through but it's not easy. you have to pick your way through the park. just as crowded as it normally is on any busy weekday or busy weekend when the crowds normally

swell. they did bring more people in today to help swell the ranks to try to make it more difficult for the police to move them out. >> we'll keep checking in. see how it develops. whether more end up staying or people clear out. unclear what this does at the moment, but the confrontation we were concerned about for the moment seems to have an averted. susan, thank you very much. raucous crowd. >> i would say say. we'll see if they stay galvanized through the weekend. it's postponed, but until when? the city, or copy that actually own, has control of the park, has been saying the conditions there, at some point they will not be safe for people. >> we're going to have somebody from the occupy wall street protest on and also someone from the tea party, because the tea party has been vilifying the occupy wall street folks online. they don't want to be compared to the wall street proe esteste and we'll ask what went on in

the park. switching gear, the second suspect in a 2007 home invasion has been found guilty of murder. a jury convicting joshua komisarjevsky on all 17 charge hess faced including capital felony killing, kidnapping, arson and sexual assault. he could get the death penalty, and he was seen yawning as he was led out of court. bring in deb feyerick, covering the case. it's such a terrible case to cover. dr. william petit lost his wife and two daughters in this tragedy. what did he have to say about the verdict? he's been pretty vocal through the whole thing? >> actually, he's been quite quiet and refrained, restrained, i should say. one of the reasons, he didn't want to say flig to potentially trigger a mistrial, didn't want to incite the defense. komisarjevsky had a very different defense than the accomplice who was a year ago sentenced to death row.

dr. petit described it, it's true, with great dignity, great composure. he would think of his wife poking him saying, cut that out. cut that out. stop acting like that. he didn't want to get enraged or show outrate anger. he thought, it wasn't a way to honor the memory of his wife and two daughters. one thing he did say is, it kept coming back, listening to the taped confession of joshua komisarjevsky talking about what he did during this horrible, chilling home invasion. how he molested the 11-year-old girl. it kept coming back to this weird dynamic that this now accused killer really thought he had some connection with this child. take a listen. >> i thought 1,000 times what would have been different if i had two sons as opposed to two daughters. so, you foe, i didn't make that clear and didn't want to interject myself in the trial, but i always thought right from the beginning that part of this was about sexual predation upon

women a teenager, an 11-year-old girl. >> how this crime started, the wife and daughter happened to stop to pick up groceries on a sunday afternoon in summer. who else was in the parking lot? joshua komisarjevsky. saw the wife and the daughter. he waited. he followed them home, and then hours later, he and his accomplice came back to the house to rob it. so it was clear this was a big part of the trial did he intend to actually kill this family? the jury found, in fact, he did, and there's a lot of gruesome testimony that's going to come out during the penalty phase of this trial as well. >> one of the gruesome things about the confession, he hit the father in the head and said i'd never hit somebody before and was complaining about the sounds he was making, and then he kept hitting him. i don't know how a jury could have found that he didn't mean

to kill him, wait he was describing the crime in his home. >> and when you hear his voice on that tape it is without emotion. it is very flat. it is -- there's no -- there's no highs. there's no lows. it's just very flat, and, you know, almost like you're listening to somebody that is devoid of all the motion. the doctor said he exhibited signs of a lying sociopathic personality and likely convinced himself he'd done absolutely nothing wrong. that he wasn't guilty of anything. again, the way he describesed, what he saw as a relationship with this 11-year-old child who he was torturing, you know, calling her by her nickname. he's talking about music as if somehow they're best friends, when, in fact, this child was terrified. there's something really wrong about this particular individual. >> now there's the sentencing phase? >> yeah, yeah. and he's facinged death penalty. six counts, and his accomplice is sitting on death row right now. >> deborah feyerick, thanks.

>> wow. still ahead on "american morning," has the recession changed your opinion of debt? is it still key to achieving the american dream, or is debt holding you back, or doesn't it matter? we'll talk about that.

welcome back to "american morning." ed the american dream, able to afford a house with a white picked fence, food, all with the constraints are your budget and able to grow your family a little more than your parents' family was able to grow. in the meantime, wracking up debt to sustain that way of life. that may be why a new poll talk answer this. joining me, political analyst ron brownstein brings ut that poll this morning. talk about what you found. 40% of people said encouraged them to pay off debt. it's justified. will it last? >> this feels like something lasting. first of all, christine, a

series of polls we do with allstate that looks how americans are navigating the changing economy. what you see in this poll, the reason i think it is a lasting change, people are talking about both altering personal behavior and making public policy analogies to that. on the one hand you see a clear preference in this poll, paying down debt. a strong sense accumulating too much debt at the family level and national level is a critical part of the downturn and a conviction that really to get our economy back on stable ground. both families and the federal government has to reduce the red ink. there are many economists who worry if we are simultaneously paying down debt, both the family and national level, where does the purchasing power come to drive the economy? right now i think there is an almost like the great depression, changed the way the gi generation looked at money for a long time, this event has been searing enough many people will look at the balance between

spending and debt differently in their own life. >> people also say they're very concerned about jobs, the availability of jobs and the availability to have a job. democrats tell you the way to assuage that as much as you can in the near term, spend money on job packages pshgs but others say it's just stimulus spending. they want a job but don't want debt. how do you do both? >> that is the con nundrum. contracting purchasing power and accelerating less spending, less employment, less money to spend, less spending, more focus on paying down debt. in terms of public policy, the sweet spot, you can see president obama responding to this already is that any kind of short-term stimulus has to be paid for with long-term debt reduction to pass muster with the public. in this poll it's clear the public does not accept the idea of adding more permanent debt to provide a short-term response to the downturn.

that's what they did in 2009 with the big stimulus plan. notice with this jobs plan unlike 2009, in 2011, president obama is arguing and the democrats, they're going to pay for it and it's not going to add to the debt. >> this is our great depression. i agree. it's changed how we think about money. how we think about expectations from the economy and from the job market and what a job means to our family. all of those things, but also inspired different movements and reactions to it. the tea part, for example. one reaction to the uncertainty that's happened. occupy wall street, a reaction to the growing income gap and feeling a nagging suspicion, wait. wall street came out on top and the rest of us are still really hurting. how do we heal these divisions and solve these problems, or in our version of the great depression, is it just division and divisiveness? >> i think, look, of course, this -- this new force of this tremendous downturn comes after a period of growing polarization

to begin with, with the highest level party line voting in congress since the mid-19th century. what happened in 2008 eroded confidence as we've seen in previous monitor polls in both government and business simultaneously. very unusual. the tea party is reaction to the first part. a backlash against president obama's efforts to expand the role of government reflecting that growing suspicion of government we saw after 2008. occupy wall street is really the kind of distant echo of that, which we hadn't seen before. there is tinder in the sense that public confidence in wall street, big business and the banks has also declined and no one mobilized that into a political movement. you see the new poll a continue the tilt towards more skepticism of government but the doubt about business is also there. that's the first time we've seen someone try to mobilize. >> speaking of jobs quickly. president obama we're told called john boehner to congratulate him, a rare moment of bipartisanship in washington,

quite frankly. the subject, as reported, turned to boehner saying we had a jobs plan and don't appreciate krit sedge criticism. two different world views and that is not changing? >> this is all the feel of a very bad breakup. doesn't matter the subject there's going to be an argument about it. the republican plan, really, the difference is i think president obama's plan is focused on immediate big ticket things the government it do. republicans are focused on a longer term vision, less government, less spending, less regulation, less taxes ultimately leads to new job growth. the tough question for him, that essentially was the program followed under president bush. even under president bush, before the 28 downturn, even at the best years running at half the level in the 1990s. it's not clear either side has a real answer to regaining the kind of job growth we saw both in the '80s and '90s and many americans instinctively understand that and one reason

they are pessimistic about the direction of the country. >> ron brownstein, nice see you. have a great weekend. >> a lot of information in there. very, very interesting stuff. >> i didn't even get to china. i wanted to ask him about china. an article in "the washington post," he wants it come out hard on china as president. >> sometimes i think she's joking. >> oh, no. fascinated with china. >> we worked together for a decade, but you are the nerdiest person i know. i mean that in the best way. it's 48 minutes after the hour. following breaking news this morning. new york city backs off in the face of a showdown with wall street protesters. this has just happened. we'll tell you more about it just ahead. 48 minutes after the hour. [ cellphone rings ] cut! [ monica ] i have a small part in a big movie. i thought we'd be on location for 3 days, it's been 3 weeks. so, i used my citi simplicity card to pick up a few things. and i don't have to worry about a late fee.

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all right here. wherever "here" happens to be. mobile trading from td ameritrade. number one in online equity trades. trade commission-free for 30 days, plus get up to $500 when you open an account. ten minutes until the top of the hour. what you need to know to start your day -- a showdown between police and the occupy wall street movement overted in lower mar eer manhat. ordered to evacuate so officials could clean it. moments ago new york city officials announced the cleanup is postponed at request of the company that owns the private park. susan rice, the u.s. ambassador to the united nations has had face-to-face talks with iran's ambassador to the u.n. the meeting took place wednesday as u.s. official was announcing details of an alleged plot by the iranians to murder a saudi

ambassador on u.s. soil. the transportation security administration says it will not meet a december 31st deadline to inexpect all cargo on flights headed for the united states. so far the agency has not said whether a new deadline has been set. and president obama and president lee of south korea, visiting a gm auto plant in detroit later today. last nightly and his wife were honored at a state dinner at the white house. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" is back right after this.

we asked you to "talk back" on one of the big stories of the

day. the question this morning -- should companies require interviews with minority job candidates? this from heather, no, sorry. you interview the most qualified for the position. this from angela. it's more disturbing many companies won't interview those out of work for a while no matter than background. this from paul. no way. that's so racist. equal opportunity for everyone, black, white, hispanic or me, native american. keep the comments coming. i'll read nor thoughts later. >> perfectly illegal to exclude someone who doesn't have a job and different levels of unemployment. it perpetuates some of those things, too. interesting. you think of drones, bad guys far away, and you think of saving lives. much closer to home. >> soon you may have one in your garage, a little more than one -- >> a nice drone you have there, son. >> can i borrow your drone? >> chris lawrence has the story.

>> reporter: homemade vehicles flying out of this small san diego warehouse. for under $1,000, you can buy your very own drone. >> we want to make air yo robotics available to everybody. >> reporter: an editor at "wired" magazine. this is a whiz kid partner. >> i never knew i would have the chance to be able to work for a high-tech company or even own one. >> reporter: jordy grew up in mexico able to fix anything. >> when i was 10 years old i was able to repair laptops. >> reporter: legally he couldn't work waiting on a green card. got so bored he built a concept drone. >> kicked back, amazing. keep going with your work. >> reporter: that turned into do it yourself drones which is pushes military technology into the civilian world. the company imagines a u-18

zooming into a burning building flying up ahead of firefighters, the drone's heat censors tell them instantly how hot each room is, its cameras telling about the people trapped inside. >> these things always become less expensive, but why would you really need a personal drone hovering around them? >> i don't know. exactly. security, maybe? >> reporter: saying personal drones could record crimes and instantly alert police. >> maybe cameras, the notion of them being hold is outdated. maybe cameras have wings. >> reporter: broadcasting 24/7, a mobile camera could be the ultimate extension of that desire. >> once we make it easier to put an eye in the skies, i think that the users will discover the real applications. >> reporter: chris lawrence, cnn, san diego. >> that's really cool that is cool. just ahead in the next hour -- from the "it" guy to the

underdog. governor rick perry hoping his energy plan will energize the economy and maybe his campaign in the process. we're going to talk to him live. fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere.

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breaking news. showdown in the park averted. wall street protesters about to get kicked out for cleanup told just told they could stay. talk about a showdown. the tea party versus occupy wall street. members from both sides will battle it out this hour, or will they find out they're sort of, kind of on the same side? literally a flight that fell from the sky and plunged into the atlantic. this morning, new triansscripts. the conversation from the pilots as it was going down. and a make or break policy speech, could be. moments away on this "american morning."

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning, everyone. it's frieday. one more time. it's friday. welcome. >> it's a particularly good friday because -- >> the tigers won! they go on to texas, and it was a great game, but we'll chat about that a little later on. yeah, it is a good day, ali. we begin this hour actually with breaking news pap showdown at manhattan the zuccotti park averted for now. staging a sit-in for nearly four weeks. the city ordered them out this morning so they could begin to clean up the area, but suddenly the city changed course and said, hey, the cleanup has been postponed. >> susan candiotti is live in downtown manhattan. susan, the endurance of these people is phenomenal considering there was thunder, lightning and rain all late night. these people are pretty galvanized. they thought it would be an

eviction. what's happening right now? that's not happening. >> reporter: it's not happening. put a check mark in the victory box as far as these protesters go, because they got what they wanted. the city has backed down. the property owners of this privately owned park have backed down saying that they're going to postpone the cleanup, and they consider that, of course, a full victory here. you've got chanting going on now. you've got music playing. the crowds here have swelled in the last couple of hours in anticipation of possibly being forced to move out of this park, but in the end, the mayor's office put out a statement saying the property owners have decided not to start a cleanup after all. now, protesters say they think it's in part because they've been saying consistently in the last 24 hours that were considering it a violation of their constitution rights to be here in this park. what was happening, a poorly veiled attempt, they describe it, to move them out of the

park, and not being able to occupy this place, it's not an occupation. now, to get reaction, here is eric. eric has been camped out here how long? >> about nine days out of the last two weeks. >> reporter: you work for the yankees. is that right? >> i do. >> reporter: you're a photographer. season's over. >> rights. >> reporter: why did you decide to come down? >> i came down two weeks ago with co-workers and fell in love with it, and i couldn't be anywhere else after that. >> reporter: what do you think about the property owners backing down at this hour? and not moving people out? >> i think it's bold of them. real bold of them. i think they saw a lot of peaceful people that were going to do anything to stay here, and that kind of made them bold for lack of a better term. >> reporter: are you going to stick around? come and go? what's going to happen next, do you suppose, to this movement and to the people in this park? >> we're going to occupy this park. indefinitely.

>> reporter: and where does it go from here? how do you accomplish whatever the goal is, and how do you see the goal? >> i see the goal as our federal government getting their priorities straight. as the end game. like education, like health care. being on the top of their priority lists. in my life time. >> reporter: what's on top of your list? >> education and health care in this country, in this state, in this city. state governments need to step up. the fed needs to get out. >> reporter: thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: and as the day goes on, the people helping orz this saying there are power in the people and the numbers that are here. a lot of people who offered to pay for a cleanup of this park. they've done that in the last 24 hours. they've done, from what i can tell, a very good job of that. the tarps are going to say, it looks like, and the sleeping

bag, going to stay and the protesters are going to stay. back to you. >> the protesters there, some say they really want to get arrested and that's how they sell their cause. posts these arrests online. is that what they were shooting for today and maybe the new york city police department kind of knew that and because they cleaned up the park they said, well, maybe we better not have this showdown this morning? >> reporter: well, certainly, carol, it's no separate that whenever there is a police tussle or a confrontation, people get arrested, that does raise the profile of this group. on the other hand, they would say that they didn't start what would have been a possible and a very likely confrontation today. they stead w said it was brought on, in this case, remember, by the property owner saying they would clean it up and people could come back. come back to what? because the property owner said we're now going to enforce the rules you cannot sleep in the park. you cannot put a mattress down,

can't leave a sleeping bag here. that's what protesters made them say we're going to lock arms and not leave if the police make us move. >> susan candiotti, we'll check in with you and you watch the crowds and their reaction. >> we didn't know this would be the reaction. we'll continue to follow it. this morning, the first time a look at the final conversations of the pilots of that doomed french flight 447 that went down in the atlantic ocean. as they tried to desperately and incorrectly save the doomed flight while it was plunging towards the ocean as 15,000 feet per minutes. our good friend richard quest joins us following the story from the beginning, he's in london with this startling new development. richard, tell us about it. >> reporter: well, we have already known what happened -- the disaster lasted four minutes, give or take a few secon seconds. we know what happened in the first few minutes, released transcripts, but this, if you like the bit that shows what happened afterwards. and it makes some pretty

unpleasant reading for airfrance. let me read you the pilot's final conversation. before i do this, let me just say, air france and the investigating authority, the bea, are roundly condemning the publication of these last two minutes saying it's outside the legal framework and it is an intrusion, but this is what happened. the pilot flying says, how is it we're going down like this? the other copilot says see what you can do with the commands up there, primaries and so on. climb, climb, climb, climb. the pilot, pilot flying, but i have been pulling back on the stick, all the way for a while. the captain returned to the cockpit after his rest break. no, no. don't climb. pilot not flying. okay. give me control. give me control. pilot flying, watch out. you're pulling up. am i? pilot not flying.

then, so in that short -- we get an idea that they are still climbing the aircraft and the plane is yet -- or pulling back on the controls and the plane is still in full stall falling out of the sky. then you get to pilot not flying. go back up. go back up. go back up. go back up. pilot flying, but i've been going down at maximum level for a while. the capittain. no, no, no. don't go up. pilot flying. go down, then. pilot not flying. dam p n it, we're going to crash. it can't be true. >> pilot flying, but what's happening? with that, of course, the aircraft hits the ocean. >> richard, the thing people often don't know, when your aircraft stalls and starts to go down, many people have the instinct to pull back to try to get that nose up when, in fact, the correct maneuverish push the nose back down until you achieve

the speed you need to pick the plane up again and unfortunately they didn't get to do that. >> correct. this will turn out to be, besides the confusion and chaos in the cockpit, this crash along with many others is targeting to turn into an investigation into how flyable modern airliners are in the heat of the moment with so much information, like a battle between man and machine, and that's what air france says is where this is going to be looked at in the future. >> richard, thanks very much for this reportingwe'll keep on top of the story with you. richard quest in london. >> wow. now's your chance to "talk back" on one of the big stories of the day. the today question -- should kwis require interviews with minority job candidates? the black community is hurting. 16.7% unemployment, and many in the african-american community say president obama is trying, but not hard enough. robert johnson, ceo of black entertainment television, and an influential guy in the world of politics said this -- >> and i think the president and

the congress both sides. i'm not picking on one or the other, they need to go the extra mile to increase opportunities for african-americans. >> johnson's idea of going the extra mile? expand the nfl's rooney rule throughout the business world for executive-level job. that's the rule requires nfl owners to interview at least one african-american candidate when there's a vacancy in a coaching or gm position. that smacks of discrimination. i hear you. not so, says johnson. it would be strictly voluntary. >> no mandate to hire anybody. it's called what i call best practice enhanced commitment to diversity inclusion. >> especially, he says, with so many white candidates vying for the same jobs. as for how the rooney rule has changed the nfl? there are now eight african-american head coaches. before only two, and five black general managers. before that, there was only one. the rooney rule, though, is

mandatory. the "talk back" question for you today, should companies require interviews with minority job candidates? facebook.com/americanmorning. facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your comments later this hour. still to come, texas governor rick perry trying to regain his mojo, we'll talk to the governor of what could be a make or break policy speech. we'll speak to him coming up. it's now 10 minutes after the hour. you're watching "american morning." because this is how people and business connect. feeling safe and secure that important letters and information don't get lost in thin air. or disappear with a click. but are delivered. from person to person. and, sometimes, even face to face. have a great day. you too. for some of the best ways to connect and protect... it's all in the mail. learn more at usps.com/mail. my sunglasses. [ tires screech ]

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"minding your business." tech shares pulled the nasdaq higher. more dad news overnight about the stability of the euro zone, though. ratings agency standard & poor's cut spain's long-term credit rating one notch before aa to aa minus and fitch put 13 major banks on notice for potential downgrade, morgan stanley, bank of america, as well as several banks in europe. and here in the u.s., you could see fewer gap stores. the company plans to shut down 21% of its stores in the u.s. about 700 different locations. the lasting habit of the recession and online shopping made the past few years a struggle for gap. the rise in gas and oil prices is hitting american consumers harder than ever before. the consumer federation of america says you could spend up to $600 more on gas, amounting to about $2,900 total per

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welcome back to "american morning." texas governor rick perry hoping to energize his campaign with a

major policy speech today on energy. he's seen his poll numbers fall. his wife anita receiflecting onw rough the past month has been. joining me live in pittsburgh, good to see you. >> good to be with you, thank you, sir. >> let's talk about your very, very interesting campaign. a new wall street journal poll this week shows a reversal of fortune since august, where you were on top, at 38% dropping down to 16%. herman cain, from 5%, and showing you slipping into third place? how did you blow that lead? >> these polls are going to go up and down. i've run for the governor of texas for decades. down 25 points in the last election of texas and that one turned out all right. so i don't get confused this early in a campaign that polls

are going to be all over the place, but americans are interested in not the best debater, not the slickest politician. they're interested in a leader that looks them in the eye and says, listen, here's how to get this country working again. in about two hours i'll stand up in front of america and showing clearly how the president of the united states can get this country back working again. >> and talk about energy, and you and i will talk about that. stick to the campaign for a second. your wife anita, you always, every time given a chance, you speak highly of was brutally honest yesterday in the carolinas. listen to a bit of what she said. >> it's been a rough month, i have to tell you. we have been brutalized and eaten up and chewed up in the press. we are being brutalized by our opponents, and our own party. >> down on this as anita seemed, you as down as anita seemed? >> family members always takes this campaigns substantially more personally than the candidate. i've been doing this a long

time. i understand slings and arrows and that's a diversion, frankly. this is a, the big leagues. everybody understands that. it's about the presidency of the united states and we're committed to this campaign, committed to this country. that's the reason here in a couple of hours i'm going to lay out the energy plan. people are interested in getting back to work. people are begging for somebody to focus on job creation in this country, and how we're going to get this country back working. so i'm doing two things here in pittsburgh today. not only laying out an energy plan but showing energy, secure from countries that don't particular willy have our best interests in mind. that's what americans are interested you. >> you are, you pointed out, are a very successful politician. you did say americans are looking for somebody to put them back to work not just a great debater. are you satisfied with your debate performance? another one coming up, we're hosting that tuesday in las vegas, the western gop debate. some said the not really your thing. your wife said in iowa you'd be

better prepared next time. is this not your thing or are you satisfied how you're holding your own in debates? >> i hope i make progress every day in my life as well as my debate performance's. again, americans aren't looking for a great debater. we have a slick talker in the presidency that's lost 2.5 million jobs. at the same time, we created a million jobs in the state of texas. they're looking for someone whose got that chief executive governing experience that truly knows how to get america back working. in 100 days we'll lay out a plan that opens up the federal lands for exploration that pulls back these regulations that are killing jobs that this administration has put forward and rebuild the epa where it's not a job-killing agency. that's what americans are interested in and i'm the president that's going to implement that. >> i'll get a jump on this. you'll say it in your speech. you're going to open federal lands to energy and exploration you're going to prove new prooiplines including the keystone pipe flooin canada from

the oil sands, suspend and reconsider all epa regulations that stand in the way of that and phase out industry specific tax incentives. you have said about the epa in the past a quote from you, they won't know what hit them. what about the criticism that you're going to gut america's environmental regulations in favor of the oil and gas business? >> i totally disagree that you can't have environmental quality and take care of the land and the air and have energy independence at the same time. our state environmental protection agencies, i suggest to you, will do a better job than this one-sized fits all agency that we have in washington, d.c. it's just killing jobs. look at the number of jobs that have been killed because of the gulf and the epa p decision, the department of interior's decision, to not go forward. they're killing jobs across this country, and we're sitting on a treasure-trove of energy in this country. all across this -- 300 years'

worth of energy, yet we're sending hundreds of billions of dollars out of this country every year to foreign sources of energy. americans are ready to make what americans buy. buy what americans make. and sell the rest of it to the world. >> you know, let me ask you this, then. because one 69 thithe things th is dealing with, climate change and carbon. do you believe they play a role in carbon change and hoop is supposed to regulate co2 emission, if not the epa? >> i assure you one thing, the epa should not be in the co2 emission business. >> fair enough. who should. >> that is not what they should be doing. from the standpoint, i look at carbon emissions and man-made carbon change one of the issues science is not settled on. the idea we ought to bet america's economy on some regulations, cap and trade will kill this country from the

standpoint of economy, and won't make a bit of difference in the world, because of what china and india's doing building coal plants every day, that have no technology. we need to have a president who understands that we're in a global economy, and that we have to get our country focused back on creating jobs, and not allowing an agency in the federal government to put regulations in place that kill jobs and don't have any thought about what the economic impact is relative to what the benefit is. these are minor, minor benefits. i mean, minuscule benefits to it environment at best, and huge impact on the job creators out there. there's a reason we've lost 2.5 million job, and it's because we have in washington, d.c. a one size fits all mentality that's killing jobs, and a president needs to be in place that respects that government's job is to create an environment where those men and women who risk their capital know they can have a chance to have a return on investment, and we don't have that today.

>> we're looking forward to getting your full statement on your energy plan and hopefully it will be as successful at herman cain's 999 and get talked about a lot. a lot of people are looking for your full economic plan. herman cain has a one sentence economic plan that's become catchy and mitt romney on the other side has a very long multipaged plan, 1 -- a lot of pages. he's accused you of having 114 blank page. when will we hear your full economic plan for the nation? >> well, i've been in this race for about eight weeks. the idea we're supposed to lay out full plans is -- he's been running for office for five years. i expect him to be a little ahead of us from that perspective. today is phase one, where we lay out the first 100 days of our activities and 1.2 million jobs can be created, where americans know they've got an opportunity to get back to work and have the dignity of the job. over the course of the next few weeks we'll lay out phase two where we talk about tax policy

and how to deal with entitlements, et cetera. so i hope both herman and mitt will, you know, be patient. it's coming, and then we can have a real debate about who has the vision to get this country working again. >> i want to asking awe pastor jeffress. known to make anti-mormon remarks before he called mormonism a cult when mitt romney was running in 2007. your campaign knew he has a history of this. why did he clear that introduction of you the other day and can you clear the air now? can you disagree with and disavow pastor jeffress and say mormonism is not a cult? >> we clearly said that as soon as it was uttered and were asked about it, and we're very clear on that issue. but here's a bigger issue. if we're all going to spend time defending what one of our supporters has said, then president obama's not going to get to talk about much. he's going to spend a lot of time defending statements that people has support him are going to be making. again, i think this is a huge

distraction. americans want to talk about how we're getting this country's economy back. how do we really create jobs that will sustain -- >> i hear you, governor, but are you prepared to disavow the pastor's comments? >> we live in a great country. our founding fathers gave us freedom of religion, and we certainly have that in america and i respect that. we have religions of all backgrounds, but we also have freedom of speech, and i'm not going to spend my time defending everything that is said by someone who endorses me. doesn't mean i endorse what they say, and that is the case here. >> all right. governor rick perry. thanks for joining us. we look forward to hearing your comments on energy later on today. governor rick perry, texas governor and the 2012 presidential candidate. we're taking a quick break. we'll be right back. who cuddle up with your soreness and give out polar bear hugs. technology. [ male announcer ] new bengay cold therapy. the same technology used by physical therapists. go to bengay.com for a $3 coupon.

good morning. welcome back. here are your top stories. breaking news -- a standoff in new york city between police and occupy wall street protesters averted. a salvation in zuccotti park. the city ordered demonstrators to leave the park by 7:00 this morning so work crews could clean it. that cleanup was postponed just before the deadline. the city says that decision was made by the firm that owns the park, and, of course, it's galvanized the occupy wall street crowd, because they think they have defeated an eviction from the authorities.

the pop mogul russell simmons was trying to diffuse tensions at zuccotti park. offering to pay for the cleanup. said yesterday, i will pay for cleanup of zuccotti park to avoid confrontation. i don't want to go to jail but i will be there ready. there is no way the brave, patriotic young people are being kicked out of. clean up is fine but if you clean section a and don't allow the sleeping bags and set up back to section a you're going to take us all to jail. portland, maine, denver and boston, dozens of rallies also planned for today and for this weekend across the country. carol. christine, a lot of people have been comparing the occupy wall street movement to the tee party even if they're on opposite sides of the political

debate in this country after all. both upstart groups born with frustration with the federal government. such comparison s make the tea party officials brussel. let's ask chairman of the tea party express. good morning. >> good morning, how are you? >> terrific. thank you for joining us. also in new york, the executive director of the workers party and welcome to you, dan. >> thank you so much. >> dan, i'll start with you since the breaking news over the protests down on wall street, the new york city police and mayor bloomberg were going to ask those protesters to move so they could clean up the park. the protesters say we're not moving. they didn't. it seems as if new york city backed down. 's in your mind what does this mean? >> well, it's a great day for the first amendment. that's what the protesters, never seen so many young people up this early. there must be 10,000, 15,000 people there right now beginning

around 5:00 this morning and want to freely assemble and petition for redress. what the first amendment is all about. what they're saying, shining a light on, the role wall street has played in the unemployment and housing crisis, an staying there, keeping their ground, continuing to shine this light is an enormous victory for both the first amendment and -- >> i was going to ask you that. thamp seeing this as an absolute victory? >> it absolutely is. brookfield, the firm that owns. >> zuccotti park. >> even though it's a public park, essentially. that's the largest commercial real estate firm in the world who haveprospered from the deregulation of the last decade and they've backed down, too. obviously, ate of work is yet to be done. >> amy, as you looked at the events of this morning what are your feelings? is it a victory for the protesters? >> you know, i mean if they view it as a victory, i guess that's

certainly up to them, but i personally, you know, everybody wants to compare these two movements, and we do agree that, you know, we're all mad as heck about the bailout, but aside from that, i don't see that we have a lot in common. you know, i respect their first amendment rights. their right to be there. i essential respect that, but what is their objective? that's the difference in the tea party movement and occupy wall street. we have a clear and defined objective. and, you know, i -- as i said, i respect their right to be there, but, carol, we're all mad about the bank bailouts. you know what? it was washington's regulations and policies that allowed them to be bailed out. they're against capitalism. but if capitalism -- you know, flourishes, it would have allowed the banks that weren't successful to fail. that's a free market society. >> amy, i do understand that. there is an interesting thing happening online, however. the tea party and many groups

including yours are posting pictures of the worst of the protesters on wall street and their contrasting them with the best of the protesters during the height of the tea party movement. you're even asking people for money. you're raising money this way. i mean, why are you doing this? >> carol, we have to defend our movement. the media -- i'm sorry, with all due respect, the media has demonized the tea party movement from the beginning. we have never had any arrests. we've never had -- there's never been a news report with an anchor saying, the showdown between the police and the protesters has come to an end. there's never been that. we have been demonized from the beginning. there's 700 arrests two weeks ago. this movement -- the occupy wall street is nothing like the tea party movement and we need everyday, average americans to understand that. >> okay. i'm going to -- >> completely different. >> i'm going to ask dan to respond. i know cnn has gotten a lot of pushback from the protesters on

wall street for our coverage of the events saying we've vilified the protesters? >> let's step back just for a moment. she's entitled to her opinion, obviously, there was that famous moment when pea taert protesters actually spit on congress people. let's not -- >> no, that never happened. that was never proven. >> be clear. i didn't interrupt you so i'm going to continue here. listen, this bank situation, the bailout, was a gigantic moment in american history. the tea party got mad at the government. we're saying the banks who gambles with our money, but then we're were rewarded for it should pay their fair share. we're not going to be able to reduce the unemployment. our democracy is in peril because of citizens united, the amount of corporate cash washing throughs system, it's too much. >> many americans completely understand that, but amy's saying, it's unclear what these protesters want. there is no goal?

>> no, no. it's quite clear. they've done us a great service. right? thiv changed the conversation to the problem is wall street and the way we have society in which a tiny fraction of the people are gaining immense wealth while the middle class and working class and poor pick up the tab. >> right. so what's the answer somewhere. >> obviously, you need to re-regulate the banks heavily. the reason we're in this mess was the deregulation of both the clinton and bush year. obama inherited it, made mistake, did some things right. the point is what do we do with society? our view, we're actually in this together. if we are in this together, we need to ask ourselves what are the things that can allow people to have deesens and secure lives? don't destroy their pensions. provide health care. have opportunity for young people. if you went down to zuccotti park you'd be amazed as the energy, love and good humor there. >> amy, i'll give you the last word. go ahead? >> carol, i have to say, and dan, with all due respect, you

represent a pack, and your pack has taken money from people from packs, pack to pack donations that voted for these bailouts. so i'm all for sending the right people to washington. wall street is not the problem. washington is the problem. washington has spent us into oblivion. they're drunk on spending and power. we freed to send conservatives. fiscal conservatives to washington. that's what this tea party movement is about. not about electing republicans or democrats. it's an sending fiscal conservatives to washington and when you are taking money from people that voted for the bailouts, i don't understand how you can stand there and say this. >> a fantastic debate but we have to end is now. both enlightening. this happied at least maybe expand our national conversation. that's what we're all about. amy kramer and dan cantor, thanks for joining us this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. up next on "american morning," we've told you all about the new bank fees, how

unpopular they are. one lawmaker wants to make it easier for you to switch banks so you can let your money walk out the door. we'll talk about that next. it's 39 after the hour.

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month. last month we talked with molly, an online petition calling for bank of america to cancel its $5 a month debit card fee and sparked a small movement and made the point that has been rebroadcast again and again. she's 22 years old, two part-time jobs and cannot afford to pay $60 a month to use her own money. here with us again as well as democratic congressman brad miller from north carolina. congressman miller just introduced legislation making it easier tore people to switch their banks. sorry. didn't mean to switch your party. obviously a typo. i was actually surpriseed by that typo. nice to see you both this morning. molly, you've gotten momentum behind the movement here. my last account, you were well above 200,000 people signing your petition. you've heard from bank of america. they say it would be premature to end this debit card fee. have you found a new bank? >> yes, i have. i am with a smaller community

bank in d.c. area right now. >> no fees? no scary gotchas? no fees in there and you're not worried about any of them lurking around the corner? >> no. >> tell you, molly, a lot of small community banks are looking for people exactly like you. so are credit unions. you can actually get money back at the end of the year, they're nonprofit. it's difficult, congressman, sometimes to fire your bank. i fired my bank five or six year ago and it was really a pain. one of the reasons people are mad at bank of america and mad at other banks, but it's too difficult to walk away. you want to change that? >> it really is, and intentionally sticking. a lot of what the banks do for you now or convenient, but deliberately making it difficult for you to leave. when your pay is deposited automatically into your bank account and other benefit checks, and then, you know, all of your automatic deductions, pay a lot of your bills like your mortgage, student loan, car payments, whatever else. if you want to change your banks, the bank, you really need

to have, like, a nine-day transition to make sure you don't miss paying some of your bills. >> and sometimes can close the bank account and you realize there's a $13 fee on there for something you don't understand. you have to go to a branch and fill out paperwork. then they send you a paper check in the mail. they won't accept in some case as check to close your account if you have a balance you owe them. they want a money order or something. do you think legislation is the solution here? >> well, they do intentionally make it hard for you to move your account. and the it ought to be easy. you ought to be able to walk into a new bank -- first of all, ought to be able to tell what the best deal for you is. it ought to be clear, plain english, standardized. you know what the bank's services are, what they charge and you ought to be able to comparison shop and pick the bet pank or credit union. they ought to be able to hand you the phone, call your old bank, tell them you're closing the account. then the new bank takes over to

make sure you're not missing transferring any bills. electronical electronically, if your pay is deposited in your old bank have to forward that immediately and make sure there is a smooth transition in paying your bills. there's no excuse for it being as sticky as it is. >> molly, was it stick are for you to fire bank of america? what did you have to do? >> it was. i had just deposited my rent check a couple days before. electrical bill, cable, worried about overdraft fees? >> did you get hit with any or did it work out? >> worked out in the end. >> a dirty little secret. banks know by our own behavior we complain and don't walk away. if you look what we do, our behavi behavior -- i'm not blaming the victim. look at the atm fees we pay, out of not werk. it's almost as if the banks know we have a high threshold for pain. do you think, congressman harks has changed? we're not going to -- after the

great recession we're just not going to accept pain to use our own money the way we have done for so many years? >> if we can introduce real competition? consumers figuring out the best deal and micking it easier to change. no other business in america announces what they're going to charge. they aware whether they're going to lose business. if walmart makes you unhappy, you can go down the street to target. we need to introduce real competition. the way to do it, make it easy, first of all, to tell what the best deal is and then easy to change. >> molly, online activist who has really sparked a following because of her anger at bank of america. also congressman brad miller, democrat from north carolina. very nice to see both of you today. have a nice weekend, both of you. >> thank you. >> you, too. morning headlines are next plus mom and ali ripped off. a couple scammed him and sold him a money pit. >> that's just wrong. >> yeah. also our "talk back" question ever the day, should

companies rear interviews with minority job candidates? we'll read your responses next. and today's "romans' numeral," 8%. here's a hint. it's a story with your name all over it. mr. harry pits. >> what? >> we'll explain. it's very funny. >> 48 after the hour. >> what did you say? >> hairy pits? harry pits? 50 percent more cash. if you're not satisfied with 50% more cash, send it back! i'll be right here, waiting for it. who wouldn't want more cash? [ insects chirping ] i'll take it. i'll make it rain up in here. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? sorry i'll clean this up. shouldn't have made it rain.

49 minutes after the hour. here are your morning headlines --

breaking news. a standoff between occupy wall street protesters and the city. ordering them to leave zuccotti park. justdeadline. the city does say the decision was made by the firm that owns the park. u.s. stock futures are slightly higher this morning. the recent rally on wall street took a breather yesterday. the stocks were mixed after a lackluster earnings report from jpmorgan chase. president obama and president lee will visit a gm plant. the ceo of solyndra has resigned. they received a loan guarantee from the obama administration before it filed for bankruptcy in august. the publisher in the "wall street journal" european edition forced to resign because of a circulation scandal.

"the guardian" claims they may have channeled through european companies to buy thousands of copies of its own paper to secretly boost its circulation. muhammad ali suing over his manshz. ali and his wife bought it for $1.5 million five years ago and never told about a number of problems like mold and leaks. a human rights group slamming hilary swank and sean clod van damme. the man who co-wrote "the delval went down to georgia" died. he was killed in a single car crash in tennessee. he was 60 years old. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" is back after

this break.

good morning, atlanta! it is sunny and, sunny somewhere in this country. sunny and 55 degrees and later sunny and 77 degrees in atlanta. what a lovely, lovely day to be in that beautiful city. >> i have a very fun romans' numeral for you. a number in the news, carol and ali and christine, 8%. >> it has something to do with harry pits. >> that's the number of parents

that regret the name they've given to their child. funny, right? usually the kid that regrets the name. >> actually, it's baby naming remorse. most parents say they have second thoughts because they went with the trendy name at the time. parents are now willing to go change the name more than ever because mom and dads of multiples worry how their kids sound together. they are going for trendy names and also really disappointed when they think they have a unique name and they go to the playground and everyone has it. >> gwyneth paltrow may regret naming her child apple. the only names like harry pits you can't say on television. >> ali, christine, very usual names. >> conan o'brien had something

to say about this. >> according to a new survey that just came out, 10%, 10% of all parents regret the name they gave their baby. yeah. well, i for one want to come clean here. i have no regrets about my two little angels, kanye and snooki. daddy loves you. goes to bed, kanye. >> be careful about those trendy names. >> that does sound funny. now, to our talk back question of the morning. we asked you this morning, should companies require interviews with minority job candidates. this from andrew, as a mexican american this requirement would be degrading to me and all other minorities. i don't want to get an interview mainly because of my minority status, i want to feel i have the qualifications and not just be part of some affirmative action. you should be more driven to get the job because, after all, you do have more to prove.

this from edwin, i believe a person should get an interview for a possible job based on experience, qualifications and education. i am a minority and i feel that all races should be on an even playing field. if not, then you are discriminated against one race to cater to another. how is that fair? this from sarah, the positive results in the nfl prove that there are qualified minorities who are routinely not offered a position for high-level positions. when they're offered interviews the hiring personnel realize what they have to offer to the team. mr. robert johnson is suggesting that companies voluntarily adopt the practice of always interviewing at least one minority for each position. i agree with him. top stories next, including occupy wall street protests that are staying put. those are live pictures you're watching, by the way. 56 minutes after the hour.

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showdown in lower manhattan averted. we'll take you there. live pictures of what are the protesters and the police presence around it. i'm carol costello. rick perry talking to us ahead of a major policy speech today. is he worried about 999? i'm ali velshi. first lady michelle obama going wi with deep purple at last night's

state dinner and the reviews are positively sizzling on this "american morning." good morning, everybody. it is friday. october 14th. >> and the tigers live to fight another game. >> isn't that fantastic? they go to texas. >> very happy for you. you are a fan to be happy for. >> when they lose, i'm in such a bad mood. that's why you hope that they win. good morning to you. the deadline to get out has come and gone and hundreds of occupy wall street protesters still occupying new york zuccotti park this morning. you're looking at a live picture. you see susan candiotti there sm somewhere in the crowd. susan, what's happening now? >> you know, a feeling of victory around here. that's what protesters have been saying for the last couple hours every since they got word the city -- we can pan off and show

the crowd here. ever since they got word that the people who own this park have decided not to clean it up to move it out. all these people can now stay and they are saying, we weren't planning to leave anyway. this avoids possible confrontation. wanted to talk to a couple of protesters now. what do you think about the decision by the city to back off and by the park owners? >> it was a sensible decision because otherwise it would have been a very bad sort of publicity coup, you know . >> what do you think it would have meant if they came in? >> i think it would have demonstrated they don't respect us. right now they respect us. >> what does this mean for the future of the movement and what about the sanitation they were worried about. there was a big cleanup at the park here yesterday.

will that continue? >> absolutely. we take care of our own business. >> how long do you think everyone will be here? how long will you be here? >> as long as necessary. >> why are you here? >> just to be here. >> when people talk about a movement, what does this movement mean to you? you heard a lot of people say it's not important to have the single message. do you agree with that or do you think it needs a little more focus because there are so many reasons that people are here. >> i think it's good that it's -- people can bring their own reasons. i'm here because i want more economic opportunity for myself. >> are you working? >> oh, yeah. >> what do you want to do here at the park? >> i think the number one goal right now is to hold the park and occupy wall street does not need any governmental infrastructure to regulate

anything that it does. >> it's status quo. the crowd was huge, much bigger than this earlier. it's still much busier than it normally is at this time of day and they're planning more events here in the city over the weekend and also announcing that they're going global that there will be events over the weekend in more than 80 countries. that's the prediction of the organizers of occupy main street. for now the food stations stay, the tarps stay, the sleeping bags will stay, no one's leaving. back to you guys. >> susan, we see police officers walking down broadway, i think that's where they are right now. have there been any arrests? >> not to our knowledge. everything has been peaceful this morning. there have been some marches that have stopped and started. some that are still going on. that's a normal course of events throughout the day here. they always have a march in the afternoon. there was some talk about barricading parts of the park so they would be harder to come in

and out but we're still trying to check out those reports. we had no trouble coming in and out of the park this morning. >> susan candiotti live in zuccotti park amongst many, many happy protesters at this point. >> hip-hop mogul russell simmons tweeted michael bloomberg offering to pay for the cleanup to avoid the confrontation that could have happened this morning. he said he was ready to go to jail for the cause. listen. >> the fact is that the government is controlled by corporations and the people want to power back in themselves. they want the power back to the people. simple. want a democracy that works. >> he sees himself as anti-wall street, anti-banks. he basically is a banker. he's basically a banker. he has done that in protest of wall street and banking. >> however, his card has fees. >> his card has fees. >> so, wait a minute. for those of us who aren't, hip

to russell simmons banker status, what do you mean he's a banker? >> he runs a credit card company -- >> it's called the rush card. >> he is the face of a credit card company called the rush card and you can get a rush card. if you are pushed out by other banks or don't like the banks. >> he's protesting against himself? >> his bank is the anti-bank but it is a card that does charge fee for people to use. i'm not quite sure how that is the anti-bank. 40% of bank accounts that you can get that still don't have fees in this country. obviously, this movement is a lot bigger than banking. just interesting to see russell simmons part of a movement that is focused on banks, as your discussion showed earlier, he's in the banking business. >> he sees himself as the alternative. i want to be clear, he sees himself as the alternative to wall street. >> i just wanted to clear that up because i did not know that. >> he is a financial entrepreneur, no question about

that. the occupy wall street movement has spread across the nation visit cnn.com/openstory. a new way to interact, communicate, share your voice. i want to say it again for you folks. cnn.com/openstory. these days the quickest way to anger a tea party official is to compare their movement to the "occupy wall street" campaign. the tea party has been blasting the protesters looking for evidence of union ties, fringe rhetoric and bad behavior and quickly posting it online. earlier on "american morning" we spoke with representatives from both sides to find out if the two upstart movements can somehow co-exist. >> everybody want to compare these two movements and we do agree that, you know, we're all mad as heck about the bailouts. but aside from that, i don't see that we have a lot in common. i respect their first amendment

right, their right to be there. what is their objective? that's the difference in the tea party movement and occupy wall street. we have a clear and defined objective. >> our view is that we are in this together. if we are in this together, we need to ask ourselves what are the things that can allow people to live decent and secure lives. don't destroy their pension and if you went down to zucotti park you would be amazed at the energy and love and good humor there. >> that was a fascinating conversation i had with those two people and really interesting thing about this. the tea party is so defensive it started this online thing. i mean, they're posting really vial picture of whatever protester they can find -- >> they are saying nobody was ever arrested and no reports of conferenrontation with police. >> they're raising money through this movement now and talking about the tea party and they're posting these pictures online and asking their supporters for money.

just an interesting phenomenon that's going on right now. >> occupy wall street people in some way helping the tea party raise some money. texas governor may be looking for new life for his presidential campaign today. making his first major policy speech since he jumped into the race in august, eight weeks ago. expected to laid out a bold new energy plan promises 1.2 million jobs and makes us more secure by cutting our reliance on foreign oil. we spoke to him in our last hour and whether or not he's worried about our e his slide in the polls. average of four national surveys show you slipping into third place. how did you blow that lead? >> these polls are going to go up and down. i have run for office as a decade as the governor of the state of texas, i'm down 25 points when the last election in texas and that one turned out all right. what americans are interested in is not the best debater, not the slickest politician, they're interested in a leader that looks them in the eye and says, listen, here's how to get this

country working again. in about two hours i'll stand up in front of america and show clearly how the president of the united states can get this country back working again. >> governor perry also said he hopes he's making progress every day in his debating and in other parts of his life, he says. critics have said it's not his thing and has cost him points. cnn will host the western republican presidential debate in las vegas live next tuesday august 18th right here on cnn. anderson cooper will moderate and carol costello will be here live for all the analysis planned the next morning. >> i can't let the cat out of the bag, but you have to join in next week. >> is it going to be live ani l animals? you'll have to watch. >> you're going to have to watch and see. president obama heading to mo town today. he and president lee of south korea visiting a gm auto plant in detroit. last night lee and his wife were

honored at a state dinner at the white house. >> look at michelle obama all decked out in deep purple. the first lady wearing a sexy one-shoulder number. a purple gown designed by a korean american designer and it sure turned heads. check out the accents. it's especially the knee-high slit. oh, we can't see it there. that's a beautiful dress, though. she had a sparkling teal belt on, which was a nice contrast to the purple. you wouldn't think of putting those colors together. >> is this conversation really happening? we'll continue to fall though developments with michelle obama's dressing and on wall street, as the police move into the protest area. cnn, as you can see there, is live. this is the place to be for all the breaking developments this morning. also ahead, a possible tornado in virginia, a stormy night along the east coast overnight. rob marciano will bring us the latest on that. listen to this, an oregon man surfs on the back of a great white shark. i am not kidding. he lives to tell about it. hang ten, dude, you'll love this

story. i would never in a million years, but you'll love this story. true grit exhausted facing elimination, the detroit tigers stay alive. did you see the sixth inning? oh, my gosh! >> you'll hear all about it. >> yes, you are. nextp it's ten minutes past. [ male announcer ] it's true... consumers er wanchai ferry orange chicken... over p.f. chang's home menu orange chicken women men and uh pandas... elbows mmm [ male announcer ] wanchai ferry, try it yourself. at aviva, we wonder why other life insurance companies treat you like a policy, not a person. instead of getting to know you they simply assign you a number. aviva is here to change all that. we're bringing humanity back to insurance and putting people before policies.

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some people in this country that think the baseball postseason is still going. the national league championship series all tied up at 2-2. i sort of, you know, rob and i dropped out after the yankees were eliminated. >> you poor yankee fans. >> the milwaukee brewers beating the cardinals to even it up to a score of 4-2.

game five is in st. louis tonight. but, really, that's not the big story. >> let's head over to the american league and the guttae, gritty tigers. the 7-5 win over the rangers last night. did you see the sixth inning? lucky bounce off the third base bag, maybe we're going -- maybe we'll see another home run. he hit two last night. but this weird sixth inning when miguel cabrera hit a line drive. it should have been a double play, but it bounced off third base and turned into a double. in that sixth inning, they had a single, a double, a triple and a home run. i don't think that's ever happened before in the world of baseball. and the tigers go on to win. of course, there were some nervous moments, you know, in the final innings, but that's a tigers special. >> the last few games have been really good games. game five was not a good game.

the tigers won it in the first inning. the first five minutes of the first inning. >> the only thing longer than watching a baseball game is listening to these two talk. >> i don't know about you, christine, but i've moved on. more worried about the nba lockought. ali, i believe -- >> you realize we're not going to get to move on until the tigers finish this up one way or the other. >> i may take the entire next week off. good morning. some video out of virginia where last night rough weather between a drawn out rush hour because of heavier rain to severe thunderstorms that roll through. there was some damage, probably a couple tornadoes that touched down there. a total of eight reports and two particular cells in the evening that really looked nasty. a little bit more calm, i guess you'd say today as far as severe weather is concerned, but we will see thunderstorms throughout the afternoon. but, right now new york to

philadelphia, we're sort of dry and the latest pulse of rain has moved north of the city, but d.c. through baltimore and back through richmond, this secondary rain shield lifting up towards the north and east. it's all kind of rotating around a deepening area of low pressure that is right over, actually, detroit. which managed to get away with very little during the game yesterday. but the winds will pick up with this system and winds gusting to 60 miles per hour and high-wind watches posted for parts of western new york and blustery conditions, really, will prevail across most of the eastern third of the country over the next 24 to 48 hours. because of that, plus a little rain, we'll see delays and already have 30-minute delays at laguardia and see them grow to over an hour and boston, philly, as well. detroit and chicago. western third of the country looks to be pretty good with highs, again, into the 90s. we saw records across parts of socal. 71 degrees in new york. expect more rain to incompass manhattan later on this afternoon.

guys, back up to you? >> thanks, rob. check this surfer out. he is, i think you call it extreme. he says he was out on the waves in seaside oregon monday afternoon when something knocked him off his board and he landed on what he thought was a rock. it wasn't a rock. he was riding a great white shark and he's still alive. here's the proof. >> the tail and the fin were the scariest part. i saw the fin right in front of me and then the tail snapping back, it was like riding a sea monster, you know. it felt like an hour, but i mean it was probably, probably on its back for about four seconds because i looked down and i could just feel it wiggling. >> i'm just looking at the expression on carol's face that says she needs to see pictures. >> just defies belief. >> he said he's seen sharks before. >> didn't have a camera crew out there. >> he plans to go back in the

water once the waves are worth it, again. i think that was great when he said it was like riding a sea monster. >> men, dude. yeah. now, is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. today's question for you. should companies require interviews with minority job candidates. the black community is hurting. 16% unemployment and many in the african-american community say president obama is trying, but not hard enough. robert johnson, ceo of black entertainment television and an influential guy in politics said this. >> and the congress both sides, i'm not picking on one or the other, they need to go the extra mile to increase opportunities for african-americans. >> johnson's idea of going the extra mile, expand the nfl's rooney rule throughout the business world for executive level jobs. that's the rule requiring nfl owners to interview at least one aphfrican-american candidate wh

there is a vacancy. okay, i hear you. that's smacks of discrimination. not so says johnson. strictly voluntary. >> there's no mandate to hire anybody. it's called, what i call best practice enhance commitment to diversi diversity conclusion. >> especially, he says, with so many white candidates vying for the same jobs. as for how the rooney rule has changed the nfl, there are now eight african-american head coaches, before there were just two and five black general managers. before that, only one. the rooney rule, though, is mandatory. but the talk back question for you today, should companies require interviews with minority job candidates. facebook.com/americanmorning. facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your responses later this hour. 50 bucks here, 50 bucks there. do you have any idea how much total you spent on gas so far this year? we do and it's a duzy. 21 minutes after the hour.

welcome back. it's 23 minutes after the hour. watching your money this morning. speculation in the oil market will add 600 bucks to the

average family's gas bill this year. according to a new report to the consumer federation of america. the total average gas bill will top 2,900 bucks and the direction of oil is a big part of that rise. u.s. stock futures are ahead of the g-20 ministers. that happens in paris today. financial stocks dragged down the dow and s&p 500 yesterday. tech shares pushed the nasdaq higher, though. you could be seeing fewer gap stores very soon. the company says it plans to shut down 21% of its stores in north america over the next couple of years. that's about 700 locations. a combination of the last effects of the recession on your shopping habits, as well as the rise of onon titioontionline sh made it a struggle for gap. the iphone 4s fresh in stores this morning.

apple co-founder steve wosniak was first in line for the new phone in los gatos, california. up next, who says you can't go home? a cnn journalist turns an eye on himself and his family in his new book "my long trip home." the fascinating story of his parents an interracial company who met in the 1950s. that interview, next. "american morning" is back right after the break. ♪ more and more folks are trying out snapshot from progressive. a totally different way to save on car insurance. the better you drive, the more you can save.

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new book tells the fascinating story of a couple, an interracial couple who fell in love in the 1950s in america. they raised a child through the civil rights movement and his son struggling for his own identity. his new memoir called "my long trip home." mark whittaker. mark, thanks for being here. >> ali, great to see you. >> it's important to me this interview go well. it is a memoir. you decided a year after your

father's death to go back and write the history. much of which you didn't know. you went back and found some of the reasons why the way your life was the way that it was. >> i always knew they had a very interesting story. interracial company in the 1950s. my father was an undergraduate. my mother was his teacher. it was a doubly scandalist relationship. they came from very interesting worlds. my father grew up in pittsburgh as the son of undertakers, my grandfather is one of the first black undertakers in pittsburgh and born in texas, the son of a slave and made his way north and started in the steel plants and became an undertaker. my mother had come to america in 1940 with five of her younger sisters, with a bunch of refugee children to escape the nazi occupation while her father was a protestant minister stayed behind to help organize the little village where he was the

religious leader to hide jews during the war. a tragic part about all the things that happened after my parents divorced that kept me from wroiting the story for a long time. >> when you go back to the story, what you learn of. both of your parents had remarkable histories. your father's side and your grandfather on your father's side, these were remarkably charismatic men with a lot of the faults that come along with charismatic men. they were drinkers, womanizers. >> my grandfather had suffered a stroke when i was very small. i knew him, but as a sort of, almost a cripple. but one thing i found in the process of my research was an autobiography that he had actually dictated to a nurse in a nursing home on his 75th birthday that told the story of how he had come to pittsburgh and become this very successful businessman but then, eventua y eventually, because of his wo n womanizing and because his marriage split up he lost his business and my father hated his

father basically and was in conflict with him his entire life and became very much like him. for me, part of the process in all of this was, first of all, discovering their stories, the source of that conflict, which i think explained a lot of my father's problems but also made it more important for me to come to terms and wrestle with my father's memory. that didn't happen to me. >> both your mother and grandmother had to deal with these men and they became entrepreneurial in their own ways. your grandmother took over the undertaker business and caused you to move all over the world. the universal part of the book becomes the struggle of identity. are you white? are you black? how are you identifying with this as you grew up? >> even though my parents split up, my mother took pains to keep me and my younger brother in contact with my father's family. i talk about my long trip home.

we would take this long trip to massachusetts where she finally ended up after years of temporary jobs teaching at a small college there every year to drive all the way out to pittsburgh to visit them. so, i grew up in those two worlds. but, you know, one of the things i got from my father for all the struggles with him, even though he identified very strongly with his upbringing in pittsburgh and he became a scholar of africa with black culture, he never wanted it be completely defined or confined to that. even though i had these personal struggles with him, in some ways, i thought that was a good example that i followed consciously and more unconsciously as i grew up. >> how do you identify yourself? you have kids that are more mixed. >> that's true. look, i identify myself as african-american, in fact, if you know our history, anybody who has, i mean, most black americans have some white blood and, frankly, a lot of white people have some black blood. one thing that i think is

interesting is that i grew up at a time when it was a very unusual to be mixed race and then when i was sort of a teenager in college, there was a sense that somehow you had to choose. i think increasingly mixed race people come from mixed race backgrounds are saying it's okay to be mixed race. in the latest census, more people are declaring themselves mixed as opposed to one thing or another and i think that's a positive thing. >> i can't let you go without talking about the fact that this really influenced you as a journalist. you talk about some decisions you made at newsweek, for example. your decision not to publish the story about monica lewinsky but a story of guantanamo bay. tell us about this. >> you know, my father always said to me beware of what you want because you might get it. once i became a news executive i discovered that. there are no easy choices. one thing that i talk about in the book, some of the lessons i

learned sort of professionally and some things that i did right and some things that i thought in retrospect i could have done different and i learned from. after the monica lewinsky story where i tell the story that wasn't known at the time that we didn't have a lot of time to actually make that decision. but, you know, when i had the choices to make during the gulf war later, i learned some of those lessons and i trusted my gut a little bit more and we did some very tough, skeptical coverage of the march to war in iraq a few years later. >> mark, a great read. you got a lot of great compliments on it, but full of pictures. it's a great narrative that does have a universal appeal. thanks for joining us on it. >> my pleasure. >> "my long trip home." carol? >> i'm glad mark got up early with us this morning. you feeling okay there, mark? >> it's early. top stories right now. 33 minutes past the hour. a confrontation between police and "occupy wall street" protest

has been averted at zuccotti park. they ordered demonstrators to get out at 7:00 this morning but just before the deadline the cleanup was postponed at the request of the company that owns the park. demonstrators claiming victory now and still occupying the park. also right now a big police presence at this site. new video of police moving in. things seem to be under control. so far no major disturbances there. one thing is certain, the occupy wall street movement keeps picking up steam. new york city may be the flash point, but protesters also took to the streets in cities like oakland and austin, portland, maine, denver and boston. dozens of rallies planned for today and this weekend across the country. governor rick perry getting ready to make a major speech today, the first since he jumped into the race. he is expected to lay out bold, new energy plans that promise 1.2 million jobs and make us more secure by cutting our reliance on foreign oil. he says he will loosen

government regulation to do it. ali spoke to him in our last hour. >> you have said about the epa in the past, this is a quote from you, they won't know what hit them. what about the criticism? >> sell the rest of it to the world. we got washington, d.c., and onone size fits all mentality that's killing job and a president needs to be in place that respects government's job is to create an environment where those men and women who risk their capital know they can have a chance return on investment. >> a cnn poll of polls an average of four national surveys show you slipping into third place. how did you blow that lead? >> these polls are going to go up and down. i've run for office for a decade as the governor of the state of texas. i'm down 25 points when the last election in texas. and that one turned out all right. what americans are interested in is not the best debater, not the slickest politician, they're interested in a leader that looks them in the eye and says, listen, this is how to get the country working again.

in two hours ago i'll stand in front of america and show clearly how the president of the united states can get this country back working again. >> cnn is going to host the western republican presidential debate in las vegas. live next tuesday, october 18th, 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. anderson cooper will moderate and carol will be there live for all the morning after analysis. >> it will be exciting, too. i know i keep teasing you. >> i can't wait to see what you have up your sleeve. >> that's another hint. animals up your sleeve, republican debate. you figured it out. coming up next, one father's mission to end bullying. this fight is deeply personal because his own 11-year-old son committed suicide because he was picked on all year long by bullies. kirk will join us live with his amazing story. it's 36 minutes past the hour. ♪ there's a place i dream about ♪ ♪ where the sun never goes out ♪

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it is 39 minutes past the hour. welcome back to "american morning." kirk smally endured what no parent should ever have to endure. since then, kirk has been on a mission to end bullying. he helped start the

anti-bullying nonprofit group, stand for the siline. kirk joins us now live this morning from los angeles where he's going to be speaking at schools about his son ty's story. good to see you again. >> hi, ms. costello. >> the last time i talked to you was shortly after ty died, how are you doing? >> we're making it. we're trying. >> you are trying. you've been all over the country talking about bullies, trying to educate people about bullying. how many schools have you visited so far? >> as of yesterday, we've been to 210 schools. we talked to roughly 220,000 kids. >> and what's your message, kirk? >> we're just trying to teach them that this has to stop. that they, you know, they can make the difference. these kids themselves can be the ones that bring about this change. the fact of the matter is, they are the only ones that can do

that. and we teach them that they are somebody. they have a reason to be here. they have a right to be here and a right to be who they are. >> i've seen one of your speeches. they're very emotional because you talk about your son. for you giving this number of speeches, you're sort of reliving it each time. how can you endure that? >> how can i not, carol? it affects these kids. we get the messages and the e-mails from these kids we talk to every single day that say we truly saved their life. we changed their life. how could i not relive it every day. if it changes one baby, if it saves one kid, you know, it's something we have to do. >> everyone in this country was talking about bullying and maybe enact some law that would help solve the problem.

in your mind, has something substantive change bullying? have there been any laws instituted? >> in my mind, no. we're talking about it too much. we're not doing enough about it. you know, the government and our lawmakers, they keep speinning their wheels. it's time to take some action. it's time to form these coalitions and it's time to get a collaborative effort out there between government entities and private industry and people. you know and start -- >> when i talked to you before, kirk, you wanted bullying to be made a crime. do you feel, do you still feel that way? >> yes, ma'am. someone needs to be held accountable for it. if i treated you that way in the workplace or on the street, you know, that's assault. that's a crime.

why is it allowed in our schools for our kids to be treated that way? >> i just want to talk a little bit more about the personal toll that this has taken. you are so committed to your anti-bullying efforts that you actually lost your job over this. >> yeah. we've, laura and i have been talking to schools literally every single day for months. and my employer was awesome. he was very supportive, but he needs a new employee, and i can't turn down the chance to go and talk to kids and change their lives and save a life. we have 104 more programs scheduled between today and december 20th where we're going to get to talk to another 200,000, 300,000 kids. that's almost 500,000 kids in 18 months that we will personally have got to speak to and i can't

stop. i won't stop. >> i don't think you will. and it's good that you're sharing ty's story and you're telling kids, this is what could happen when you bully. this is why you must step in and do something when you see bullying going on. just a last thought because the st. louis cardinals are doing so well. i know ty loved the st. louis cardinals. i have this picture of him watching from up there the st. louis cardinals playing good baseball. >> yeah. go, cards. you know. >> thank you, kirk smalley live from los angeles, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. on his tombstone there is a st. louis cardinals written out. that's really touching. if you'd like to learn more information about combatting bullying, check out silatand fo the silent website at

standforthesile standforthesilent.com. then cnn saturday night watch "the bullying, it stops here" a town hall led by anderson cooper that will happen at 8:00 p.m. eastern. it is 45 minutes past the hour.pt bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business. it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $7.8 billion to small businesses across the country so far this year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible.

sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. good morning. 46 minutes after the hour. here are your morning headlines. new york city officials ordered wall street protesters to get out of manhattan's zuccotti park by 7:00 p.m. eastern but just

before that deadline the cleanup was postponed at the request of the company that owns the park. a police presence near the site. a live look at the occupy denver camp. they moved in to dismember tents. pictures there in the predawn hours. there appears to be a calm standoff and denver police inching through the park and surrounding streets. markets open in 45 minutes. right now u.s. stock futures are trading higher ahead of today's g-20 meeting in paris. president obama and president lee of south korea will be visiting a gm auto plant in detroit later today. last night lee and his wife were honored at a state dinner held at the white house. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" back right after the break.

> the biggest names in fashion, the biggest secrets of the season and the shoes, oh, the shoes! alana cho is here with a sneak peek with her weekend special, which i'll make a point of watching because it is fantastic. >> we were talking about this last night, we were at an event together and i thought you sincerely meant it. >> i have sincerely meant it. "backstage pass" is going to air in bigger versions. there's more. >> expanded versions and also other elements we weren't able to get in. the hottest makeup artists and

hottest model in the world. my pleasure to introduce you to some of the people i think are the creme de la creme of french fashion. we're going to take you inside the exclusive world of chanel and its famous designer. the iconic carl. >> what makes you do that? >> i don't ask questions. i get answers, i don't know from where. when i big efforts, it's for the garbage can. when i don't, it's much better. but you cannot count on it. >> when i big efforts it's for the garbage can, too, by the way. who will replace john galliano. we're back stage with the frontrunner, marc jacobs.

dior's ceo. >> you know who has magic hands is marc jacobs. >> i heard about. and, let's see, at the moment, i'm not making any comment, but -- >> have you made a decision? may i ask you that? >> as i say, the people who know are not talking and the ones who are talking are not knowing. so, no, no, i cannot make any comment. >> he's ali's favorite man. >> i love that man. >> we will tell you when we might hear a decision. he did tell me that. also, he has a face of a cherub and the golden touch. the artistic director of the oldest fashion house in the wor world. you say your work is like a whisper. explain that. >> i am a whisperrer. i think whispering is something very personal because when

someone whispers to you, has to get really close to you and this is a very intimate relationship. >> and, last but certainly not least, the man behind those iconic red soled shoes, christian louboutin. >> ding and then it transforms the person from head to toe. a pair of shoes a bit like that. >> ain't that the truth as one buyer at barney's told me. buying one feels great, buying three feels better. someone who has been around since 2002, but who is the man of the moment and paris, he was the toast of paris this season and also my five favorite picks from the paris collection. the dress and outfits i happen to like personally that i might be wearing. >> if anybody ever asks me and interviews me and asks me, i

will say, i am a whisperrer. >> you are. >> what i like about it, people sitting out there saying what do i have to do with high fashion. like a lesson in the world of fashion. why these names are relevant and why they're out there and it makes you look smarter. >> chanel is a $2 billion business and you look at the method to the madness, if you will. >> those driving gloves on. >> marc jacobs and these people. a reason why they are successful. >> people who can buy these things. >> the 1%, carol. >> the 1%. >> you watch us tomorrow by the way, we'll all watch it. 2:30 p.m. eastern time right here on cnn. it's going to be great. alina's special "backstage pass from paris."

breaking news in denver right now. a live look where dozens of police in riot gear have showed up at the occupy denver camp outside the state capitol there. authorities began taking down dozens of tents this morning before the sun was even rising. authorities were in there taking these tents down. now, you have officials in riot gear who are in that area for the occupy denver camp. >> of course, we've been watching the tense, but calm

situation in new york zuccotti park all morning long. a protest was avoided after the park owners canceled cleanup and decided the protesters can stay. for now, the protesters are determined to hold their ground. mayor bloomberg was on the radio this morning and he suggested that politics played a part in that decision. listen. >> well, in the end, i'm not sure it is more important. we have a right to make sure that everybody, the first amendment applies to everybody. we just have to go ahead to enforce it. i think what happened is that bro brookfield got lots of calls from many elected officials threatening them and saying, if you don't stop this, we'll make your life more difficult. if those elected officials would spend half as much time trying to promote the city and get jobs to come here, we would go a long

ways towards answering the concerns of the protesters, rather than just -- >> mr. mayor, did i understand you correctly that some of the political entities called brookfield and said you leave these people alone? >> i wasn't privy to the conversation, but i'm told they were inundated with lots of elected officials who called. i don't know which ones and i assume brookfield is going to say it's personal or private and they're not going to tell anybody who. but i don't think there's any question that a lot of the, they say they got many calls. >> right okay. >> interesting developments. >> oh, that will get more controversial throughout the day. >> it will. >> yeah. let's get back to our talk back question now. the question we asked this morning. should companies require interviews with minority job candidates. you know, the unemployment rate among african-americans is 16% among latinos. >> 11.3.

>> 11.3%. tanya, the sad thing is, i knew this is one of your controversial questions that would allow people to say all the mean things they were thinking. i believe the most qualified person should get the interview and race should not be a factor. this from jennifer, the race card not the only card you were dealt but the only card you know how to play. easier for african-americans to get into school, grant, free housing. if you get to use the race card, i want to play the single mom card. th your race sadly does factor into your job interview. you have to prove that you are overqualified for the position so they pick you over the next white kntcandidate. it has gotten quite heated on the page, but, you know, a lot of people are sending thoughtful responses and just arguing amongst each other.