new questions this morning about what police knew and when they knew it in the penn state child sex abuse scandal and the mother of one victim now saying that she was pressured to keep quiet. from the subways to stock exchange, occupy plans to shut down wall street today. police preparing for tens of thousands of people to fill lower manhattan this morning. the front-runner gets the heat. newt gingrich facing questions about a million dollar-plus payday from a mortgage giant. on this "american morning."

good morning to you. it is thursday, november 17. ali velshi has the day off. i'm carol costello along with christine romans. happy one last day until friday. >> welcome to "american morning." up first this morning, new developments in the penn state child sex scandal. jerry sandusky's tv sbrir this week where he said his behavior with young boys was not sexual abuse, just horse play, may have been the last straw for some of his alleged victims. sandusky's words led new people to come forward. sandusky charged with 40 counts of sexual abuse involving eight boys he met through the charity, on "360" last night, anderson cooper spoke to the mother of one alleged victim, victim number one in the indictment. she says it was hard for they are son to watch the sandusky interview. >> he was very upset about it. he said i watched it after that. he said he cried.

i said, why with s he crying? he said because i'm afraid he might go free. >> he is afraid sandusky might go free? >> yes. >> the mother says she wants to see is an does ski can i speuoed the rest of his life in jail. sarah joins us live from penn state, pennsylvania. jerry sandusky interview that bob costas had on nbc, it upset so many of his alleged victims they are now coming forward. you talked to an attorney about this. what did he tell you? >> reporter: he actually said he believes that jerry sandusky was trying to help himself but what happened was many alleged victims have now come forward. some dating back to 1970. that's the time frame of

which -- in which sandusky began his charity, second mile in state college where grand jurors have said that he found his alleged victims. so this attorney who is a very prominent state college attorney dealing a lot with victims' rights, known for that, said he spent yesterday in and out of the kitchens of people who are now grown adults who are saying they were victims, too, and they are contemplating whether or not they are going to go forward to police looking at what happen medical the last two weeks, looking at what allegedly happening to victim one with the teen boy still in high school, who is being bullied, as the -- as the psychologist told us yesterday. they are talking to this attorney trying to decide if they are going to move forward with this but is saying that they have several multiple victims who watched that on tv and it triggered this response they wanted to come forward and talk to somebody and in some cases it was the very first time they were telling their story. >> what really struck me about when i read your article, that

some of these victims who are coming forward now, this is the first time that they told their secret to anyone. >> reporter: yes, you know, i -- i think that's something that -- that's consistent with this case. we found that there were a lot of missed opportunities. a lot of instances where people didn't say something. and this attorney did also tell me that there were opportunities in these people that he talked to yesterday where they tried to come forward and they made some kind of signal or started to say something and weren't believed or in some cases he even said that they were silenced or told, you know, to go away. >> you say that and that's certainly -- that gives context to what one victim's mother told anderson cooper last night and describes this conversation she had with her son's principal after her first sort reported sandusky. let's listen. >> i said i want to you call the

police, call children and youth, you know, i said call the police right now. i said it three times. call the police right now. and i said -- they said no, you to think about the ramifications of what would happen if i did that. her son is dealing with the ramifications now. standing up to sandusky, family was told not to then, but now somehow he found the courage, he and his mother, to come forward. no small feat. >> reporter: well, you know, i think that this has been a really trying time for a lot of the victims. you know, they have been dealing with this for several years. and now the way that it unfolded has been really traumatic and almost second victimization. you know, i think this is very hard for them and they are all dealing with it a little bit differently. a lot of them are turning to counseling. there's a lot of services,

counseling services, that have come forward and offered free services to those victims. some of them are turning to each other. they are all dealing with it in their own way. >> just a little more on the topic of keeping this quiet at penn state. these allegations against jerry sandusky. there is a "new york times" report this morning that they write that much of second miles travel and expense records from 2000 to 2003 are simply not there. they are missing. second mile, then didn't return requests for comments on the report but you have been looking hard at second mile for some time now. how suspicious does that sound to you? >> reporter: well, i think what we are going to find is what the governor here said last week is that the a.g.'s office, attorney general's office, will have to look at that charity, what they knew and when they knew it. we have h a source tell us earlier this week thatting a second mile official did express to a person of authority some kind of concern about jerry

sandusky's behavior as far back as 2008. so it is, you know, it is not clear. it is too early to tell exactly what they knew and how much they knew, and who in the organization knew if it was, you know, rumors that everyone knew about it and talked about or if it was actual fact that the people knew. you know, so i think we have to wait a little bit. you know, this is an ongoing investigation. and it is not -- even close to over. i think, you know, i know it felt like a long time the last two weeks but really hasn't been that long. >> investigators aren't speaking at all that much for understandable reasons. many thanks to you. sfroyts coast to coast this morning are bracing for the occupy movement's day of action. mass protests are planned to mark the cause's two-month anniversary. ahead of today's rallies occupy an fran took its message straight to the tapes. they swarmed the lobby of bank of america. police were called in. it is reported more than 100 people were arrested.

in seattle the city's mayor is apologizing to the peaceful protesters who are pepper pepper sprayed by police tuesday night. a pregnant woman, elderly woman and priest were among those hurt. police say they only used the pepper spray when protesters tried to block city streets. in northbound, occupy wall street is planning its biggest protest yet. march owes wall street, subways and the brook lidge bridge today. mary snow, live in downtown manhattan. mary, the -- certainly the protesters are hoping today is going to be a day to recharge their movement after the evictions earlier this week, aren't they? >> reporter: they certainly are. good morning. and, you know, this, of course, comes two days after zuccotti park was evicted. you see some protesters gathering now. it is safe to say there are many private security guards here this morning as there are protesters and take a look at the headline of the "new york daily news." do or die for occupy. its future is at stake. protesters here plan this

morning to make a show of force outside of the new york stock exchange. really taking their message to wall street. it is going to be a day of protests, christine. later today they are -- expected to target some subway stations and then go to the brook lidge bridge that has been a site of protests in the past. and the city is bracing, it says, for -- tens of thousands of people to possibly march today. as these protesters take to the street. >> protest -- where do they see their movement going from this point? >> reporter: you know, certainly the occupy of occupy wall street was taken out of their movement the other day with this eviction since they are not allowed to bring sleeping bags into this park, allowed to protest but not stay here. what some of the protesters are saying that this march today had been planned since the two-month anniversary and want to get through this day. then really reorganize.

process of doing that, whether or not they have another place and another physical place where they are going to set up camp remains a question mark. >> all right. mary snow, did you cottic park, lower manhattan. thanks. president obama arriving in indonesia in the last hour after reminding the region the united states is still the world's number one superpower during a visit to australia. the president saying america is a pacific power and here to say. brianna keilar has the latest. >> reporter: christine and carol, president obama is the first ever u.s. president to visit australia's northern territory. he and prime minister here highlighting a new military initiative that will see 200 to 250 u.s. marines stationed here in darwin by the middle of next year that will grow to a force of 2500 nonthe coming years. >> let me say first ozziaussie,

aussie, aussie. >> reporter: on the military base president obama spoke to australian troops and 50 use marines here to begin joint training exercises. >> now here in northern australia, we will write the next proud chapter in our lives. as the prime minister and i announced yesterday some of our marines will begin rotating through these parts to train and exercise with you and to work as partners across the region for the security we all want. on behalf of the american people. i want to thank the people of this community for welcoming our men and women in uniform. we are grateful for your friendship and we are grateful for your hospitality. >> reporter: the white house chose this backdrop for its historic significance overlooking darwin harbor president obama left a condolence letter at a memorial to the an american ship sung k.

eight ships were sunk in all. mr. president met some of the survivors as he met the greatest loss of life in australian waters. darwin's significance is strategic as well. it sits on the gateway to asia where u.s. troops will remind an increasingly aggressive china the u.s. stands ready to defend its asian allies. china recently made a territorial claim to the oil-rich south china sea. home to ship lanes for most of the world's maritime commerce. president obama addressed the relationship with china during his speech to the australian parliament earlier in the day. >> we have seen the china can be a partner from reducing tensions on the korean pen lanes to preventing proliferation. we will seek more opportunities for cooperation with beijing, including greater communication between our militaries and to promote understanding and avoid miscalculation. >> reporter: the next stop for

president obama indonesian island of bali where he will be the first u.s. president to attend the east domna world's oce ocean. that's where a lot of this has to do with friction between these two countries. >> there you go. ahead on "american morning," who knew what and when in the penn state sex abuse scandal. a boy said he went to police. is he just trying to clear his name or is he telling the truth? a deadly storm system causing widespread damage across the south. spawning tornadoes from louisiana to north carolina. companies you're just a policy.

at aviva, we're bringing humanity back to insurance and putting people before policies. aviva life insurance and annuities. we are building insurance around you. [ 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. which is good... maybe we should head back to the dealership first? vegas! no, this is a test drive. vegas! [ male announcer ] it's practically yours.

but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back. and it's never been easier to get a jetta. that's the power of german engineering. get zero first month's payment, zero down, zero security deposit and zero due at signing on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com. fantastic! [ man ] pro-gresso they fit! okay-y... okay??? i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. we are now printing on the back sides of used paper and we switched to fedex cause a lot of their packaging contains recycled materials. tell them what else fedex does. well we're now using more electric trucks and lower emission planes. we even offer a reusable envelope. now, can't we at least print on the back sides of used paper? what's the executive compensation list...? [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter.

they won't be beat. oh, actually... then i'd be like, you rule! and my kids would be like, you rule! i'd be like, yes, i do rule! ohh! that rules! oh, load up the sleigh; this is going to be a great christmas. yeah. ring dinga-ding, ring dinga-ding, ring, ring, ring me up. [ male announcer ] no need to wait with our christmas price guarantee. we're so confident in our prices if you do find a lower one between now and christmas, we'll give you the difference on a walmart gift card. save money. live better. walmart. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. welcome back to "american morning."

at least four deaths are blamed on severe storms that swept across the deep south. three people killed in york county, south carolina. half dozen homes were destroyed. and there is concern more victims could be buried in the rubble. a fourth person died in georgia when a tree fell on top of a car. tornado strikes were also reported in mississippi, alabama, and louisiana. >> reynolds wolf is in the extreme weather center. rob marciano is in the extreme new parenthood of having a brand-new baby. >> isn't that something? an amazinging in. >> congratulations to rob and his wife. >> i'm sure -- everything we heard has all been thumbs up. rob and his wife are doing great with welcoming the new baby. >> tell us what we are looking at on the weather map today. >> a day that is going to be better than yesterday. yesterday was just insane. we had rough weather across parts of the southeast. you already mentioned some of the rough weather in carolinas and georgia and alabama. we have video that's not far from auburn, alabama.

you see this damage here. straight-lined winds. possible tornadoes. we will know for sure later on today when the national weather service gets out. fatalities across the southeast, delays, we have four. one in georgia and three more in rock hill, south carolina. and unfortunately that number may increase. let's go back to the weather maps as we do so you can see on radar tail end of the big weather system that pushed its way through parts of the southeast. we have residual moisture and wind, cold air with it. highest elevations, pink and white pop up on radar. that's your snowfall. could see icy conditions parts of 64 and blue ridge parkway. now in terms of your weather maker and delay maker, you are going to have delays in places like new york and philadelphia. delays over an hour. also expect backups in boston, d. d.c., atlanta. you may have a delay round around 30 minutes in tampa due to low clouds. drivers in parts of the pacific northwest are going to deal with rain in the valleys and snow in

parts of the higher elevations. same story important the northern rockies where by the time the day is over, maybe one to two feet of snow. congrats again to the marciano family. let's send it back to you guy. >> thanks, reynolds. >> coming up on "american morning," details unfolding after the suspected white house shooter was arrested. a live report from washington just ahead. >> my friends and i were trying to grow plants. we realized horse poop was the best to use. >> tom started manufacturing worm poop. packaging his organic fertilizer in used plastic bottles, selling what he calls waste in waste under the name terracycle.

>> we collect a million pieces of waste every month to close to 25 million people across 19 countries. >> reporter: juice pouchs are made into school folders and kids' backpacks and tehey give back. >> we make a donation in the country where you collect i- >> reporter: up next figuring out how to make products out of diapers and used chewing gum. 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. aviva life insurance and annuities. we are building insurance around you.

welcome back. minding your business this morning. right now u.s. stock futures flat after fear got the best of the markets yesterday. dow slipped nearly 200 points yesterday on concerns about europe. and the so-called super committee which has six days now to cut a minimum of $1.2 trillion from america's deficit. u.s. bank stocks hit especially hard yesterday. bank of america was down nearly 4%. morgan stanley dropped 8%. why? the ratings agency fitch warned that europe's debt crisis could pose a serious risk to american banks. the price of oil is above $100 barrel for first time now since july. the one market analyst telling cnn money we may not see prices at the pump skyrocket because of slowing demand in europe. big cuts at those big banks, by the way. citigroup reportedly planning to eliminate about 3,000 jobs by next year.

it is part of an effort to control expenses. french bank also said to be drawing up plans to lay off nearly 1400 employees. detroit's mayor laid out his plan to fix a city in crisis. speaking last nightmare dave warned the city could run out of cash by april. to deal with this financial crisis, the mayor is asking police and fire fighters to take a pay cut and he wants to increase the corporate tax. coming up in less than 30 minutes we will talk to the mayor about that. coming up at 8:30, we will get a new report on the number of unemployment claims filed for the first time last week. economists expect the number of jobless claims to stay around that key 400,000 level. between want to it come down further to show a growing strength from the labor market. we are going to get you those numbers as soon as they are available. "american morning" will be right back after this quick break. [ male announcer ] go beyond the brush

with listerine® total care. its multi-action formula works to restore enamel, help prevent cavities, and kill bad breath germs for a whole mouth clean. whooo... [ male announcer ] listerine® total care. the most complete mouthwash. some folks call me a rock star, some call me the mayor... and i love it. and, i make everybody happy. i keep my business insurance with the hartford because... they came through for me once,

and i know they've got my back. for whatever challenges come your way... the hartford is here to back you up. helping you move ahead... with confidence. meet some of our small business customers at: thehartford.com/business i don't think about the unknown... i just rock n' roll. can i help you? yeah, can i get a full-sized car? for full-sized cars, please listen to the following menu. for convertibles, press star one. i didn't catch that. to speak to a representative, please say representative now. representative. goodbye! you don't like automated customer service, and neither do we. that's why, unlike other cards, no matter when you call chase sapphire preferred, you immediately get a person not a prompt. chase sapphire preferred. a card of a different color. (phone ringing) chase sapphire preferred, this is julie in springfield.

it's true. you never forget your first subaru. new questions about who knew what and when in the penn state

sex abuse scandal. try to break through the wall of silence protecting jerry sandusky for years on this "american morning." welcome back. 29 minutes past the hour. your top stories this morning, police say that it didn't happen. claims by penn state whistle blower mike mcqueary he between police and had discussion was police after witnessing the alleged rape of a young boy in the shocker. police say there is no record of a report filed by mcqueary in 2002. occupy protesters are promising day of action marking the two-month anniversary. later today, they plan to occupy the subways and then march across the brooklyn bridge. president obama landing in indonesia an hour ago after announcing he is boosting the u.s. military force in australia. the president saying the u.s. is

a pacific power and here to stay. china says no, it is the pacific power. more on the search for answers in the penn state child sex scandal. drew griffin has been trying to scale the wall of silence and went directly to the police at university officials to try to find out what was known about jerry sandusky's alleged child molestations. drew is in state college this morning. >> reporter: instead of continuing our look for the records which we have been told we cannot get, we decided to go searching for the people, the officials, who should have known and most likely did know about the allegations, the investigations, and why nothing had been done for so long once these investigations were launched. the former university president graham spanier, former university counsel, wendell courtney. and the former university of pennsylvania police chief hartman. all three of the officials, most

likely knew a heck of a lot was going on with jerry sandusky and these allegations as far back as 1998. in fact, after that mother accused jerry sandusky of showering with her son naked in 1998 the former police chief had an investigation going on but somehow we are told from that grand jury report tom harman abruptly stopped that investigation. tom harman now works for an engineering firm and have an office very near the campus here. they do business with the campus. this is what happened when we went to try to find him. >> he's not here. >> he's not here. >> he works out of his home. >> does he have an office number? i mean, a number that if somebody at this office -- >> we can't provide that information. sorry. >> you can't provide that information? >> no, no. >> the former police chief did send us an e-mail saying that he could not discuss this because

of a pending investigation. we went to the university counsel's office, wendell courtney. he was the university counsel back in 1998. he gave his blessing back in 1998 for the investigation of sandusky and is not talking either. when we went into his office he had an attorney come out and tell us to leave the property altogether. graham spanier, now he was forced to resign as penn state university president. but he still lives here. lives in the mansion, lives down a private road. he is not talking, not answering any questions. continuing silence here at penn state university. many people continue to look for answers as to who knew what when and where. >> drew griffin reporting. we will talk with larena lettow. she launched a send site trying to get the school's alumni to raise money for sex abuse victims.

authorities say that he had a direct interest in the president. this morning the suspected white house shooter is now in custody. oscar was arrested yesterday. a gun linked to him was found near the white house along with two bullets on the south side. athena jones is live at the white house. good morning, athena. what's the latest on this? >> reporter: good morning. we can tell you that this afternoon in pittsburgh, federal court, on 2:00 p.m. we expect to see oscar ortega-hernandez to make his first appearance. we know the park police were charging him with carrying a dangerous weapon. let's talk about how he was tracked down. ever since friday night, there has been a national lookout for ortega-hernandez. they knew he had been hanging around indiana, pennsylvania. they passed out pictures and got a tip from a staff errata hampton inn who called

authorities yesterday morning to say that they had seen ortega. ortega-hernandez had been staying at that hotel in the days leading up to friday's incident and left and was staying with a few people and left. he would come back and that's when the -- staffers there called authorities there. arrested him in the lobby without any resistance. >> what are we learning about him and maybe his motivation here? i mean, they are saying investigators are saying he had a distinct interest in the president. >> yes. temperatures interesting. we hoped to see more revealed, maybe not today but in the coming days, but reportedly interviews with the family and friends has determined that he had this interest in the president or the white house. we expect to hear more on that. we do know that he had a criminal history in several states. idaho, texas, utah. he was arrested numerous times in idaho. and he was found guilty of a violations like a drug and alcohol violations and resisting arrest from police officers. we also know that earlier on friday, hours before the

shooting, authorities in arlington, virginia, right across the bridge from d.c. stopped ortega-hernandez because he was acting suspiciously and he was on foot and stopped him and questioned him and they didn't arrest him but did take the photos and that were later used in some of the fliers at the park police and others were handing out. so there are a lot of questions still to be answered. we expect to begin to get those answers today. >> thank you so much. expect a grilling when u.s. energy secretary chu goes before a house panel looking into solyndra. that's the california solar energy company that received $535 million in federal loan guarantees and later went bust. lawmakers want to know in the loan guarantees were politically motivated. so-called super commit why you now has less than one week to reach a deal. the only thing they can seem to agree on is the other guy's fault. >> republicans saying no to the latest democratic proposal. they are still fighting over tax increases and cuts to entitlements. the congress committee has until wednesday to come up with a plan

for at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts. failures would trigger across the board budget cuts and could lead to rising interest rates. the nation's mood near an historic low. big surprise there. new cnn poll shows 25% of people think that things are going well in the country today. 74% say things are going badly. 44% are confident that we will be able to turn things around. that number is much lower than it was last year or the year before. ahead on "american morning," newt gingrich now under fire for getting a big-time payday from mortgage giant freddie mac. surging candidate is defending his post congressional gig, denying he was doing big-time lobbying. we will have that for you. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada,

we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. that's good for our country's energy security ♪ sen♪ co-signed her credit card - "buy books, not beer!" ♪ ♪ut the second at she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for the whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ but her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪

congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the people inside them. congratulations. because when you add verizon to your company, you don't just add, you multiply. ♪ discover something new... verizon.

welcome back to "american morning." it is 39 minutes past the hour. he's surging in the polls but now newt gingrich's involvement with freddie mac is threatening to stop all that momentum. >> he said some politicians should go to jail for ties to the troubled mortgage jit. it turns out he made big-time cash during a stint there. cnn's brian todd digging deeper. >> reporter: newt gingrich had harsh words for politicians who dealt with troubled mortgage companies. listen to his comments at a "washington post"/bloomberg news debate. >> if you want to put people in jail, you ought to start with barney frank and chris dodd. let's look at the politicians that created the environment, politicians who profited from the environment and politicians who put this country in trouble. >> clearly not saying you go to jail. >> chris dodd's case go back and look at the countryside deals. barney frank's case, lobbyists

close to -- freddie mac. >> reporter: there are new questions about gingrich's own connections to freddie mac. cnn confirmed from sources in position to know that information first reported by bloomberg news that gingrich was paid between $1.6 million and $1.8 million for two separate stints at freddie mac. from 1999 when he left congress to 2002 and from 2006 to 2008. asked if the money figure was accurate -- >> i don't know. >> reporter: what did the republican presidential hopeful do for freddie mac? gingrich said at one point he offered advice as a, quote, historian. telling freddie make officials lending to people with no credit histories was a mistake. he later said he was a strategic adviser. contacted by cnn for people who worked for freddie make while gingrich was there disagreed with his characterization he was a historian. one said his role was strategic. specifically political strategy. bloomberg cites former freddie mac officials familiar with the work in 2006 saying the former

house speaker was asked to build bridges to capitol hill republicans. i spoke with bob edgar of the liberal group common cause which advocates for more transparency in government. >> what does that seem like to you? when you are paying over $1 million to build bridges with capitol hill, you are buying a lobbyist, you are buying somebody with your money that king connect you with members of congress. who don't hire historian to do that. you are hire someone just to give you polite advice. you hire somebody who makes those relationships work. that's lobbying, whether you are registered or not, that's hard-core lobbying and that's what newt gingrich was doing. >> reporter: characterization gingrich firmly denies. >> i did no lobbying of any kind. >> reporter: it would not have been illegal for gingrich to have lobbied for freddie mac unless he did it the first year he was employed by them, 1999 to 2000. asked if he would make public the records of his work forced freddie mac gingrich said he would to the degree he can. we checked federal records and

found nothing indicating gingrich was a registered lobbyist. freddie mac would not comment on any of this other than to say gingrich was a consul tan did not lobby for them. >> fannie and freddie are long notorious for revolving door between politicians, politics, and policy in washington. i mean, there's so much money. taxpayer money flows through those two agencies and now bailed them out billions of dollars. still to come, it is now or never for detroit. cash-strapped cities ever city's mayor with an all-out plan. is it going to be enough? will the city go along with mayor dave bing's plan? he is asking for an awful lot of people to give up. we are going to ask him in a few minutes. >> the usual patdowns at nfl games may soon be a thing of the past. minnesota strike lgs tray a new security measure on sunday. we will tell you what it is.

>> we were going as far as we could with it. we would share it at the cheapest hotel we could find. >> i preferred taking the bus. this is my bunk. silk sheets and egyptian cotton. i love riding the bus. it is great. it rocks me to sleep. >> really a hands-on kind of band. we pride ourselves in that. >> we each have our office jobs. this is my office. you can see all my paperwork is here. we try to pride ourselves in having the cleanest bus

possible. thanks for joining us on this grit road trip. so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? no! but it's more money. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? woah! [ giggles ]

46 minutes past the hour. here is what you need to know to start the day. exclusive reporting by sarah gannon says jerry sandusky's prime time tv interview has led several people, possible struck times, to come forward and share their story. a new judge has been assigned to the child sex case. the previous judge was removed after it was revealed she donated money to sandusky's

second mile charity. the new judge will provide over sandusky's preliminary hearing next month. new york and cities across the country bracing for mass protests today to mark the occupy movement's two-month anniversary. they are hoping to shut down wall street this morning. severe storms across the south being blamed for at least four deaths. the storm system spawning tornadoes from louisiana to north carolina. the president saying the u.s. is a pacific power and here to stay. he arrived in indonesia after announcing a shift of military power. sending 2,500 marines to australia. the nfl is stepping up fan security. minnesota vikings will begin use handheld metal detectors during sunday's game against the raiders. the usual patdown procedure will be faze e faced out. pit will be his third year in a row to host the golden

globes. he raised eyebrows last year when he hosted the show.

welcome back. d-day nearing for detroit. right now the city is on track to run out of money by early next year. there are some reports detroit is in a $209 million hole. last night in a televised speech the city's mayor, dave, said drastic action must be taken in order to fix detroit's finances. his plan to deal with the crisis, pay cuts and tax hikes for corporations. joining me is detroit's mayor. welcome, mayor, and thank you

for being here. >> surely. good morning. >> good morning. you tried to rally the people of detroit last night to your side. you still have a lot of skeptics. can you save detroit? >> i don't think it is all on my shoulders. what we are doing is trying to get everybody to come to the table. we need concessions and we need layoffs. and there is going to be a tax increase for our businesses. there are a lot things we are looking at. but we think that if we can get those things and we can stave off any really horrible situation in terms of running out of money in the first quarter. >> mayor, you are asking your unions to help you make this work. according to some reports, your pensions and health costs are enormous. 108% of your total city payroll. you know how unions and people feel about their health plans. how do you get the unions onboard to accept cuts that have to be made to save the city of

detroit? >> well, if they don't come to the table, and negotiate the concessions we are asking for, the potential of an emergency manager can come in and he can void all of the contracts. they would have no health care. they would take -- they can take all of the cuts and could -- he or she can fire everybody, quite frankly, and start from scratch. i don't think that is where anybody wants to be. we are better off trying to work together to solve the problem. >> how many city workers are you proposing to lay off, mayor? >> we have not decided on a specific number of layoffs. the first thing we have to get is to see how much -- how many concessions we can get because that's the biggest pot of money. $40 million on an annualized basis. then we will look at some of the other areas but one of the things i don't want to do is have massive layoffs because we will have chaos in the city of detroit. don't want that to happen. >> skeptics say that you must do that, though. have you no choice. in fact, some people are saying

that you should lay off all city workers and make them reapply for their jobs. >> that's easier said than done. if you don't work in the city, you don't know what's going on. there are processes in place that are so antiquated it would take us six months to get through the process. we are not about to do that. we don't have that kind of time. >> other people are saying you have to lay off at least 2300 people in the -- and that includes police officers and firefighters? are you willing to consider that? >> i think that police and fire are the last people that i want to lay off. we have a horrendous problem from a crime standpoint in this city. and as most major urban cities have. so -- the layoffs that will happen, i'm not going to say we would never lay off police or firemen that would be the last ones i would look at laying off. >> i just want to read you an editorial of the detroit news this morning. because they -- they were not too kind. this is part of what they said

about your plan, quote, it is not deep enough, not wide enough, not bold enough. and instead of swiftly and sharply reducing the cost of government, the mayor offered half measures and that may save money in the long run but will not stop detroit from running short of cash to pay its bills and employees something that could happen by the end of the current budget year. they say that you don't have the political will to make the cuts that you must. >> well, if the -- if the pundits like in the newspapers want to run -- if they can do it better than us i invite them to come in. they don't know what the helll they are talking about. >> but you can't put a number on the -- you can't put a number on the number of employees that you might lay off. and you are saying you are depending on the unions to help you through this. is there any sign that you see that the unions are going to come through for you? >> listen if the unions don't come to the table, it is not about for me. it is for the city of detroit. and if they don't want to

participate and -- participate in the pain necessary somebody else will make the decision for them. so -- we are better off coming to the table and as a city department and figuring out what we need to do what we can do to stave off this issue come first, late first quarter, second quarter of next year. >> you are willing -- if the unions don't come to some sort of agreement with you, that a city manager would step in and take care of things? >> that could very well happen. that's not where i want to go and i got voted in as mayor. i didn't get voted in as an image manager. >> thanks so much for joining thus morning. we appreciate your time. >> thank you very much. the house this morning approving a measure that would dramatically expand the right to carry concealed firearms. people with a concealed gun permit would be allowed to bring their weapon into any oer state with a similar law. every state except illinois and washington, d.c., allow

residents to carry concealed weapons. tsa graphic plans to study let risks of body scanners. officials say a soon-to-be released inspector general's report finds the machines are not harmful. a new independent study is not necessary. there's 250 x-ray scanners in use across the country and they do emit a small amount of radiation. pioneers of space flight. now four astronauts are awarded one of the country's top honors. john glenn, buzz aldrin, neil armstrong, michael collins. they accepted a congressional gold medal at a ceremony in washington yesterday. glen, of course is the first american astronaut to orbit the earth. >> this is my favorite story of the morning. check out this scene on an arizona freeway. a dog jumps out of the owner's car after the car crashed. you see the dog running down the street, a little yorkie. look. the officers, then wanted to save it. they are chasing the dog on their police motorcycles. at one point the officer gets

out and chases the dog down the freeway. come on, doggy. stop, stop, stop. finally, the dog stopped. the dog is probably terrified. right? so the police officer picks up the little guy near the freeway median and, yes, the doggy is doing fine this morning. >> terrified. he knew about the outstanding warrants. he didn ahead next hour, is pizza a vegetable? that's what congress is trying to decide. lawmakers with a big decision on their hands. healthier school lunches or healthier budget? dr. sanjay gupta will have that. what that means for your child next. life moves fast.

we're often so busy dealing with what's in front of us that we lose sight of the big picture. that's why it's good, every now and then, to pause, take a new look at your financial plan and make sure you're headed in the right direction. for more than 140 years, pacific life has been offering integrated solutions that help to create a secure financial future. ask a financial professional about pacific life - the power to help you succeed.

occupy protesters launch a day of action from coast to coast. today is the movement's two-month anniversary. they are going all out. his tv interview shocked the nation. it appears jerry sandusky's own words triggered a response from potential victims of the former penn state coach. the man tracked down the man

accused of shooting at the white house. congress thinks pizza is a vegetable and went french fries on your school lunch menu on this "american morning." it is thursday, november 17. welcome to "american morning." >> the occupy movement is preparing to show a massive show of force to mark the two-month anniversary. they are planning hundreds of cities. here in new york protesters are planning to take their message to wall street, subways, and the brooklyn bridge. mary snow is live in downtown manhattan. have the festivities begun. >> reporter: the last time we spoke, an hour ago, there was a small group. there are a couple of hundred protesters gathering this hour. these protesters are expected to head couple of blocks south here to the new york stock exchange. you are looking at a very different looking zuccotti park

than from a few day ace go after the city of new york evicted protesters and really prohibiting them from setting up anybody kind of sleeping bags or tents and staying in this park overnight. and two days after that eviction, take a look at the headlines of the "new york daily news." pretty much sums it up here. do or die for occupy with the occupy wall street future at stake. this is where the movement all started two months ago. these protesters are vowing to have a strong presence, as i said, at the stock exchange. and there's heavy security down there. heavy police presence. carol, on an ordinary day, the heavy security at the stock exchange, later today, these protesters expect to march across the brooklyn bridge around 5:00 this evening. the brooklyn bridge had been targeted in weeks past and have been massive marches and these protesters expect one more again today.

carol? >> there probably will be a great number of arrests but after today, where do the protesters go from here? >> reporter: that's the big question. will they try to -- in their words -- occupy another physical space like they had been for the past two months? talking to some people in this group saying that that's not clear. that this protest had been planned. they want to get through today. they have been meeting and reorganizing and they say they feel recharged after what happened. but whether this just becomes -- you know, movement where they are planning protests or plan to occupy a physical space, that remains unknown. >> mary snow, we will get back to you. thanks so much. in san francisco, occupy protesters took their message straight to one of the big banks. students and demonstrators stormed the lobby of the bank of america. police were called in and reported that more than 100 people were arrested. stay with us. less than 15 minutes we will talk to new york city mayor

howard wolfson to find out what the city is going to do to prepare for today's massive protests. now to the penn state child sex scandal. breaking overnight the "new york times" reporting the second mile is missing files that could be key to this investigation. investigators say a chunk of travel and expense from the years 2000 to 2003 are missing. during that time, a janitor and then graduate assistant mike mcqueary allegedly saw sandusky sexually assaulting boys. the investigators want to know whether sandusky used second mile perks to lure his victims. also break thing morning. cnn contributor sarah gannon reports exclusively new potential victims have decided to come forward. outraged after hearing sandusky's interview with nbc's bob costas. the victims, their claims date back to the 1970s. sandusky interview was hard to watch for so-called victim number one and his mother spoke to anderson cooper last night.

>> very yum supset about it. when it was on and he watched it after that and said he tried. and i said why are you crying? and he said because i'm afraid he might go free. >> sarah gannon has been covering the scandal from the beginning and is a crime reporter for the patriot news and now a cnn contributor. she joins us from state college, pennsylvania. good morning, sarah. >> reporter: good morning, christine. >> what you know is that a couple of victim rights advocacy lawyers, well-known lawyers, are telling you that look, that interview inspired other people to come to us and say that this -- this is just -- this is just wrong. those denials have inspired us to come forward and say this happened to me, too. >> reporter: yes. these lawyers were telling me that, you know, jerry sandusky may have wanted to get his story

out there when he spoke to bob costas but what happened was, it inspired this triggered response from victims who hadn't yet come forward who are now talking to these attorneys and who have a reputation for keeping struck times' rights first and foremost and exploring their options, what they are going to do. you have to remember that these victims that -- these attorneys talked to yesterday have never told their story to anyone. like many of the victims in this case, they have kept it bottled up for many, many years. and now they are coming forward and considering what they are going to do about it. >> some cases, i mean, we have seen in other cases that one of the reasons why people don't say something is because they are afraid and they have been groomed sometimes in these sorts of cases by a sexual predator who has urged them and succeeded in getting them to keep quiet. also, because they are afraid of the response, publicity, not being believed. in a way, all of that is playing out right now, isn't it? >> reporter: it is. and they are watching this. they are watching it play out on television and reading about

what is happening to some of the other victims. the response they are getting, victim one's psychologist told me he is being bullied in school. he is the youngest of the victims we know of. he's still a teenager. he's having to deal with this out -- you know, this response, backlash, towards him when he was the one that -- prosecutors say came forward, was believed, and did the right thing, and had the courage to stick to it to the end and he's getting all this negativity. it is really -- incredibly hard for that. >> he is not anonymous as far as what you are saying. people in school know he's victim one. >> reporter: i think that what happened here is it is a small town. gotten a ton of attention. and, you know, yes, unfortunately i think that his anonymity is fading. >> so gives context to what victim one's mother told anderson cooper last night as well. she describes the conversation she had with her son's principal when she realized something was really wrong here and was encouraging the school to intervene after her son first

reported sandusky to the school. let's listen to what the mother said. >> i said, i want you to call the police p. call children and youth, you know, i said call the police right now. and i said it like three times. call the police now. they said no, you need to think about what the ramifications would be if i did that. >> standing up to sandusky and in standing up in light of the empire that's penn state, when you are one little kid, i mean, that would suggest that -- that would be one reason why it took so long for this all to open up. >> reporter: yes. the attorneys i talked to yesterday said that there were some cases where the victims he talked to tried to make some mention, tried to bring their allegations forward and in some way to people. and they were either shot down or told that they weren't going to be believed. or discouraged from coming forward. i think that we have seen that

there were a lot of missed opportunities in this case. there might have been more. >> sara, thank you so much. state college. later this hour we will hear more from the mother of one of sandusky's alleged victims including what hammed to make her suspicious of her son's relationship with the accused coach. authorities say he had a direct interest in the president. this morning the suspected white house shooter is in custody. oscar ramiro ortega-hernandez was arrested yesterday. a gun linked to him was found near the white house. athena jones live at the white house with more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. you can expect hernandez to appear at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon in pittsburgh in magistrate court there. first time we will get to see him make an appearance and possibly hear more of the charges we brought against him. we know that the u.s. park police in their arrest warrant, charge was for carrying dangerous weapon. it is important to look back at

a 1994 case. the case of francisco dur and who in 1994 walked right up to the white house, front of the white house, opposite side of where the bullets were found on tuesday, and he shot at least 29 shots across the north lawn into the white house. durand was convicted of ten counts, including attempting to assassinate the president. so while it is impossible to tell this early what all the charges might be that are brought against hernandez, this could be one of them. >> any word on his motivation? >> it is interesting. we hope more of that will come out as well. maybe not today but in the coming days. as you mentioned, authorities of interviewed family and friends and determined that ortega-hernandez had what they are calling a direction of interest towards the president and the white house. sounds awkward. but others simplify it by saying heave obsessed with the president. hopefully we will find out more and do know he has a criminal history in several states and arrested several times in idaho.

and has been found guilty of charges ranging from alcohol and drug violations to resisting arrest. we also know that earlier on the morning of friday morning, 11:00, hours before the shooting, arlington police, police in arlington, virginia, right across the river from d.c., stopped ortega hernandez who was on foot and had been reported acting us is patient us and talked to him and questioned him and they didn't arrest him but were able to take pictures and those are pictures put on the fliers and that helped lead to his capture. >> as far as security at the white house, i don't know whether this guy allegedly shot from the car or outside of the car, but there are snipers on top of the white house. could they see him? >>whelm, it is hard to speculate. certainly this would have been -- supposed to have happened around 9:00 at newt on friday night. so of course it would have been very, very dark. he was at least 700 to 800 yards away. south of the white house on constitution avenue, it is quite a distance away. it is near the washington monument and so it is hard to know what kind of weapons they

have and what the scopes look like and all of that. certainly when i spoke with the secret service yesterday they said that this occurred on the edge of -- outer perimeter. always a perimeter around the white house. several perimeters. layers of security. and so this happened on the far edge. they believe in this case, security worked. one of the other layers, of course, is ballistic glass behind the white house's historic windows. historic glass. have you the other layer that will stop a bullet. bulletproof glass. it is hard to know what they saw on friday night. >> athena jones reporting live for us. thank you. all that is happening at the white house, the president has been traveling. he arrived in indonesia overnight as the pacific tour continues and in a speech to the australian parliament america is a pacific power. here to stay. the president was there to announce up to 2,500 u.s. marines will be deployed to australia in a deal with that country. the move coming as china expands its military reach into the pacific. back home, mood is not very good. new cnn poll shows that just 25%

of people think things are going well in the country. 74% say they are going badly. 44% are confidence that we will be able to turn things around but that number is much lower than it was last year or the year before. >> new reports of unrest in syria overnight explosions and gunfire rocked the syrian capital after a couple of military defectors struck a key government security complex. meantime international pressure on syrian president assad is to end brutal crackdown on protesters. that backlash is growing. >> kuwait angry protesters stormed the parliament building demanding the country's prime minister step down. demonstrators included opposition law makers who accused the kuwaiti regime of corruption. >> still to come, deadly storms ripped through the south. now search and rescue teams are looking for more survivors. and lip-locked leaders. find out which fashion labels are in hot water for their new kissing campaign. >> they are getting all the

publicity they hoped for. pizza a vegetable? congress seems to think so. it could become a staple for your kid's lunch. we will explain.

it is time for reynolds wolf. good morning, reynolds. >> good morning. we have people in parts of the southeast that are right now really trying -- cleanups from yesterday's storm. we have video to show what happened. powerful straight-lined winds, possible tornadoes. ripped through parts of alabama, georgia, into the carolinas. you can see what's left behind. unfortunately we have four fatalities talking about one in georgia and three more in rock hill, south carolina that we are aware of. we may find there are others that may have lost their lives due to yesterday's storms. what we are seeing now, though, not only the damage there but also seeing a lot of that precipitation now moving farther out to sea. right along the frontal boundary zipping into the atlantic right behind it. we have residual moisture and something else. some cold air at the surface. so at w moisture going over the cold air for -- seeing snowfall very light precipitation into portions of the appalachians. in terms of your forecast that

you can anticipate will be on the top half of the system and possibly some delays in a few key spots. up towards new york and philadelphia. could have major delays around an hour or so. boston, d.c. metro, atlanta. delays expected to be just under an hour. same lengthy del ansd an hour for atlanta, tampa, orlando, miami, and san francisco due to the low clouds. and i will tell what you, although san francisco is dealing with low clouds, pacific northwest that will be dealing with clouds, rainfall, and in the highest elevations, coastal range and back into the central and northern rockies. snow is going to be a big deal. not only that, strong winds and may top 40, say, 45 and 50 miles per hour. some locations at the highest peaks may get a foot or two of snow before we round out the weekend. could be great for skiers in the long term. trying to get from point a to be point b, tough for a lot of people. we are catching a break in parts of the central plains but certainly some cooler air in spots like minneapolis, back into kansas city and 30s and 40s. 68 in houston.

59 in denver. 60s in san francisco and los angeles. 43 in seattle. 52 in boston. 85 in miami. and new york. with 47 degrees your high for the day. you are up to speed and back to you. yo turn. >> you sure are up to speed. you covered a lot of ground. >> he did. it is being called a block party. the 1% will never forget. you are looking at live pictures near zuccotti park. protesters are gathering to answer october occupy wall street's call to shut down not only the financial district but subways and possibly the brooklyn bridge. today's so-called day of sacks to mark the movement two-month anniversary. joining me is howard wolfson, new york city deputy mayor for government affairs and communications. welcome. >> good morning. it is going to be a tough day for the city. >> it is -- it could be. we are obviously watching this very closely. the -- >> you are doing more than watch. >> absolutely. the occupy wall street movement said that this is going to be a massive protest. there are going to be tens of

thousands of people in the street. this is new york. we will be prepared. we are always prepared. this is a place where we honor the first amendment and where people come and protest all the time. we are going to make sure if people want to peacefully protest they are going to have the right to do that. if people break the law obviously we will deal with that. >> when protesters say they want to shut down wall street what's that say to you? we better exercise their first amendment rights or breaking the law? >> depends on what they do in that context. if they attempt to enter a building they are not allowed in that's breaking the law. if they want to express their concerns about wall street, that's totally fine. >> if they stay in what area, street, sidewalks, will police be trying to keep them out of wall street altogether? >> i think it will depend on where they go and what time they are there, how many of them there are. it could be a very fluid situation. police on the ground are very well trained to deal with these situations. they will deal with it appropriately and effectively. >> protesters have also said -- we are looking at live pictures here of what's happening now. and there is a big police

presence down there. protesters said they want on shut down the brook lidge lynn bridge. less time they tried to walk across the brooklyn bridge things did not go very well for them. there were many arrests. how are police handling that? >> we encourage and allow and guarantee the first amendment in this city. we are not going to let people walk across the brooklyn bridge on a roadway during rush hour. that's not legal. and knew hope is that people will act peacefully and there is no indication that they won't. and massive protest is not -- incompatible with lawful activity and we are hoping that people will observe the law. >> i just wanted to get your reaction to a column in "the wall street journal" this morning. and it is about mayor bloomberg making the decision to clear out zuccotti park. this is from "the wall street journal." occupy wall street was getting us tired as charlie sheen jokes about winning. then new york city mayor michael bloomberg played right into the occupy wall street movement's hands. mr. bloomberg's post midnight

raid on did you kotdy park swept the protesters from the spiritual home but it re-energized the movement, too. the editorial goes on to say if mayor bloomberg had just been more patient, waited for the cold weather to move in, the protesters would have gone off by themselves. instead we have this massive protest today. >> well, there are partisans on both sides, both left and right who are arguing whether what we did the other night was good or bad for occupy wall street. that was not a consideration of ours. we are were not acting against the interests of ows or for the interests of ows. we are acting on behalf of the people of the city in the rule of law. and we found the situation in which there was a danger presented by the continuing occupation of that space and fire hazards and sexual assaults, ask drnd drug use. we have to act. whether that was good or bad for the movement it is not our issue or consideration. >> in retrospect you have no re. >> the action was handed

professionally and no significant injuries and unlike oakland where you had rye otting, none of that happened here. this was exactly the right thing. >> the new york press club wasn't so happy about what happened. because police would not allow them to -- anywhere near the area to see what was going on. which seems to be a violation of first amendment rights. >> absolutely not. you know, standard operating procedure in this city, i don't know about other places, in the middle of an active ongoing police action, you don't have reporters along. and i don't think this there is any question people -- >> many times reporters observed operations like this. >> this is not an episode of "cops." we don't take reporters, busting down doors. in the middle of an ongoing action. that's standard procedure in this city. i don't know about other place. >> some reporters also accuse the police of being rough with them. simply they were just trying to get the story, trying to report what was going on and that's -- you know, of course, what we do. >> you know, there are -- there are a lot of politicians in this city who are concerned about this. and -- but what they are ignoring is the fact the central issue before this mayor and

before the 8 million people that live here was whether or not this dangerous situation in zuccotti park would continue. the mayor stepped in and acted and acted prudently and acted appropriately. and the nypd has a lot of credit and have some of the people running for mayor in the city who have compared this to tiananmen square or iraq war. totally inappropriate ask outrageous. real insult to the professionalism and people that cairoied it out. we are not going to stand for that. >> thank you for being here this morning. still to come this morning, he said/they said. did mike mcqueary really go to police to report an alleged child rape at penn state? two different police departments say they know nothing about it. no. i already called it. [ dad ] nobody's playing anything until after we get our homework done. thank you. hello? test drive's not over yet. [ male announcer ] it's practically yours. [ louder ] hello? but we still need your signature. right now during sign then drive it's never been easier to get the all-new passat,

the 2012 motor trend car of the year, for practically just your signature. that's the power of german engineering. visit vwdealer.com. that's the power of german engineering. 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. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink

welcome back. minding your business this morning. stock futures are flat after fear got the best of the markets yestery. the dow slid nearly 200 points. the reason, concerns again about europe and the so-called super committee here which has just six days now to cut a minimum of $1.2 trillion from america's deficit. coming up next hour, unemployment claims filed for the first time last week. economist expect that number hovering at that time key 400,000 level but you really wouldn't see it come down further to show growing strength from the labor market. we will get that read as soon as it is available. price of oil is above $100 a barrel for first time since july. one market analyst telling cnn money we may not see prices at the pump skyrocket just yet. why? because of slowing demand in europe. worries about a slowing economy. if you are a former or

current netflix customer, raising dvd rental and purchase prices. those eligible will receive either a walmart gift card or cash. and the italian fashion label benetton is getting heat for the latest ad campaign. so-called unhate adds has a series of pictures of world leaders kissing each other on the lips. provocative images are artwork. they are not actual photos. the company already dropped one showing pope benedict kissing an egyptian after protests from the vatican. the very latest news about your money, check out the all new cnnmoney.com.

that was some picture. top story at 30 minutes past the hour. two-month an vrsry of the occupy movement. that's near zuccotti park where protesters are gathering and planning to shut down wall street oh, just about right now. expected to take their message then to the subways and then to the brooklyn bridge just in time for rush hour this afternoon. >> police capture ad man suspected in the white house shooting. oscar ortega-hernandez was taken into custody at a pennsylvania hotel yesterday. a gun linked to him was found near the white house. no one was hurt. hernandez will appear in court this afternoon. police are contradicting claims by penn state whistle blower mike mcqueary, he went to the police after witnessing the alleged rape of a young boy. campus and state college police say there is no record of any report. sandusky's prime time tv interview was reportedly the

trigger for many of his alleged victims to come forward and share their stories. some of those cases dating back to the 1970s. drew griffin has been trying to scale the wall of silence surrounding the penn state child sex scandal to uncover details of the jerry sandusky investigation. drew is in state college this morning. >> reporter: instead of continuing our look for the records which we have been told we cannot get, we decided to go searching for the people, the officials, who should have known and most likely did know about the allegations and the investigations, and why nothing had been done for so long once these investigations were launched. the former university president graham spanier, former university counsel, his name is wendell courtney, and the former university police chief, tom hartman, according to the grand jury report, all three of these officials most likely knew a heck of a lot was going on with

jerry sandusky and these allegations as far back as 1998. in fact, after that mother accused sandusky of showering with her son naked in 1998, the former police chief had an investigation going on but somehow we are told from that grand jury report tom harman abruptly stopped that investigation. tom harman now works for an architect toural and engineering firm. they have an office very near the campus here and do business with the campus. this is what happen whether we went and tried to find him. is mr. harmon in? >> he is not. >> he's not n? >> he does not work in the office. he works out of his home. >> does he have an office number? a number that if somebody at -- >> we can't provide that information. >> you can't provide that information n. >> no. no. the former police chief sent us an e-mail, carol, saying that he could not discuss this because of a pending investigation. we went to the university

counsel's office, wendell courtney. he was the university counsel in 1998. he gave his blessing back in 1998 for the investigation of sandusky and is not talking either. when we went into his office, he actual lly he had an attorney ce out and tell us to leave the property. graham spanier was forced to resign as the penn state university president. but he still lives here. lives in the mansion, lives down a private road. he is not talking, not answering any questions. so continuing silence here at penn state university. as many people continue to look for answers as to who knew what when. and where. carol? >> drew griffin reporting. last night on cnn's "a.c. 360" anderson cooper spoke with mother of one of jerry sandusky's alleged victims. he is identified only as victim number one in the indictment. she talked about how she first realized wasn't quite right with her son. wane to mention her voice is distorted on purpose.

it is to help protect her and her son's identity. >> after a while he didn't want to -- he didn't want to see sandusky anymore. when sandusky would call he would ask you the lie, say he wasn't around? >> yes. >> that made you suspicious? >> yes. out of the blue one day he was on the computer and wanted to do to look up sex weirdos. i told him that it was megan's law. he said well, how do you type it in? i said who are you looking for? he said jerry. i was -- like, inkind of -- may heart froze. like wow. what are you looking him up for? and he said oh, i don't know. i just want to see if he's on there. i said, well, why would he be on there?

is there something you want to tell me? he's like no. don't they put those kind of people on there? i said, well, what's going on? you need to tell me. he said, i don't know, i don't know, sometimes he just acts weird so i just wanted to see if he was on there. that's all. that was tend of that conversation. >> he actually wanted to search under jerry sandusky's name on a site for sexual offenders? >> yes. >> wow. >> yeah. that was like a big clue to me. >> the mother says she wants sandusky to go to jail the rest of his life. >> still to come, clock ticking down for the super committee to find common ground on deficit reduction. is the tea party arriving to the rescue? we will talk to the man behind their plan, dick armey. it is a school lunch debate. well, at least some call it a debate. why congress wants to put more french fries and pizza on your -- on your children's tray. because pizza is a vegetable.

don't you know it? ♪

♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of a pain free holiday. this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills.

most eyes in wash are on the so-called supercommittee.

they have less an week to come up with a plan to cut the deficit. members of the tea party are putting out their own plan. they say that it balance it is budget in four years without tax hikes. cut spend big $9.7 trillion over ten years. shrink it is federal government in the process and stops the growth of our national debt. the devil is the details and we will get to those in a bit. one of the men that helped put the whole thing together is dick armey. the former house majority leader from texas. welcome to the program, sir. >> thank you for having me. >> so -- let's talk about the tea party budget if you will. and how you would achieve this, details you would repeal health care reform in its teen tire -- entirety. education, commerce, hud. you would reduce or privatize the epa and the tsa. and end student loans. cut foreign aid. and you would also get rid of other programs and agencies like legal services and the small

business administration and americorps. national endowment for the arts. with all due respect, in what washington are you going to get all of that done? how much of this is operational and how much is aspirational? >> well, actually all of it could be done if we had a conversation a congress that had the will to do it. when we put this together we had a meeting of some 250 activists and we talked this over. at the time they were forming the supercommittee and general feeling was -- among the group was these guys will never figure out how to do it. and let's -- why don't we do a commission? they elected commissioners from among their ranks and we have welcome -- we started the process of doing -- great decisions. we came up with what i believe to be quite reasonable things. certainly there are suggestions in there. it is all by cbo. in four years it gets to where these guys can't figure out how they can get a start on. and i think one of the things we

are trying to show congress, this is a bad heart. go get it done. you say that you can't cut americorps but you are going toned up cutting the marine corps. would you rather cut the marine corps than americorps? make some decisions. we have shown them a road map. it can be done. >> let's talk about the department of energy. it is something we have been talking about in the news. for obvious reasons with rick pair write. cut the department of energy, end it. you have to move -- you would move -- securing of nuclears to -- defense department. and then just end everything that's that energy does? >> well, you know, again, you can take the -- the worst agency of the government. i remember when we -- we did this with commerce back in or tried to do it with commerce. back in 1995 and 1996. there are some legitimate necessary things to be done. there's always a place to put that necessary stuff while you

eliminate the unnecessary agency. and the fact of the matter is that even if you look at the department of education, one stretches their brain, works real hard at it, i'm sure that you can find some two, three things that are worthwhile and contribute positively to the better education of our children. >> just two, three? in the whole department of education? there's just two or three things? >> well, look, this ain't no thinking thing. the united states of america was the envy of all the world. in how we educated our children for first 200 years. the late '70s, they created the department of education another the federal level. you have even a direct correlation between increasing size of the practical department of education and decreasing performance of the american education of our children. and to where we are -- we are no longer the envy of the world. now, i would -- i would put this challenge. you find me some justification

in terms of the increase improved quality of education from our children and grandchildren and we will talk about what it is that we need to keep from that agency. >> last quick question. >> quite frankly, it is probably -- it has done more to diminish the quality of education for our children than any other thing in this country. >> let me ask you about the fed. would you get rid of the federal reserve. >> no, no, no, no. if you are going to have a managed care and see which courses can be efficiency we would discipline it and we would make it ---ing in fact, confine it to its legitimate task. it is time to get it to start thinking inside the box. stay focused on the duties and let's introduce a little bit of competing currencies and so that we further incentivize them to stay focused on maintaining the quality of the dollar as they were intended to do in first place. >> another currency to be backed by gold bouillon, gold actually of u.s. stocks. you can choose which currency you wanted to use in america? >> yes. why not? i think -- right now, for

example, you take a look at euro -- europe. they went to the euro and starting to break down and if it doesn't work europe functioned fairly well with competing currencies in the past. the whole notion of competing currencies is a notion that does, in fact, bring with it the same thing you get from competition and every other walk of life. if you have five people competing, you have five people incentivizing to do a better job of what they are doing. >> all right. >> one monopoly on a government monopoly on money and it can get sloppy as our federal reserve has done. >> dick armey, chairman of freedom works. former majority house leader. out with us with the tea party budget. thank you for dropping by this morning. sir. >> thank you. still to come this morning, pizza, the new vegetable? that's what congress seems to think. it could become a staple for your kids' lunch.

>> i'm told from even like really researchers at the intel center in philadelphia that people can't do this. i can't imagine how they can't. but i'm told that they can. i -- catalog in my head, i remember them. i can pull them and start arranging them in my head without even doing anything physically. [ marge ] psst. constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium,

an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. [ professor ] good morning students. today, we're gonna...

the occupy wall street movement's biggest protest is under way today. marking the two-month anniversary. they are planning to protest on subways and the brooklyn bridge. former penn state coach and accused child molester jerry sandusky is getting a response to his prime time tv interview this week. exclusive reporting by sara ganim said several possible victims decided to come forward result of the interview. some cases going back as far as the '70s. president saying the united states is a pacific power and here to stay. he arrived in indonesia this morning. the police capture ad man

suspected in the white house shooting. oscar ortega-hernandez was taken into custody yesterday. he is accused of firing two bullets at presidential mansion friday. powerful storms ripped through the south p. at least four people killed yesterday. nasty weather destroying homes and ripping up trees and knocking out power lines. rescue teams are now searching for survivors. you are now caught up on the day's headlines.

51 minutes past the hour. you may remember president obama was declared tobacco free after his last medical checkup, well, now, he's talking about his struggle to quit smoking in the

new video for the annual great american smoke up by the american cancer society. this is the first for the president. check it out. >> over the years we made great progress in reducing the number of americans who smoke. but, today, 46 million americans are still hooked. and tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable deaths in this country. the fact is, quitting smoking is hard. believe me, i know. we also know the best way to prevent the health problems that come with smoking is to keep young people from starting in the first place. we've always known the fight to stop smoking in this country won't be easy. but people like all of you that make me confident that together we can help americans everywhere live longer, happier and healthier lives. >> wow. so, we're glad he quit smoking and finally admitted to smoking and then quitting. because he quit and started again and quit and started again but this time it seems to be like the real thing. >> i don't know how long he

smoked, but it could have been to years, we dont know if it's from college or whatever, but getting young people to not start, you know, that's the key because it's very difficult to stop once you start. >> the next step is to get house speaker boehner to stop smoking and do a similar ad campaign. >> all about being healthy in washington. if congress gets its way, by the way, pizza could be a new vegetable. and french fries a staple in your children's school cafeteria. a controversial new bill that blocks strict health regulations for school lunches. >> dr. sanjay gupta is here with all the details. so, the tomato paste or tomatoes on the pizza would qualify as a vegetable, except tomatoes aren't vegetables. >> that debate first, whether a tomato is a vegetable or a fruit. do you remember in the '80s with

ketchup, potentially, being called a vegetal. this was something they discussed with school lunches in the past. this has been a showdown for some time. we have been reporting about the new bill on your program. the healthier school lunch bill and limit starchy vegetables, for example, cut down on pizza and french fries, as you say, as a staple and make them more occasional options and try to change the way the kids eat. they've been pushing this, really, for about a year now and what we're hearing is that component of this healthier school lunch spending bill, those things will not be a part of this. this is a debate going back and forth for some time. they are saying, look, we're not planning on giving more money to cut down on things like pizza and french fries and adding things like fruits and vegetables and grains and low-fat milk. that will not happen, at least the way things stand right now. >> why? >> part of it, you might guess, part of it is money. part of it is how you define

these things and carol you're joking about the tomato paste thing, but that is a real debate. if you serve it with two teaspoons of tomato paste, it could be considered a vegetable. that's what they're saying. potatoes aren't the culprit here, the way you prepare the potatoes. these are some of the debate going on over the certain foods and then you're talking about money. two-thirds of kids get the majority of their calories from school lunches. not only important in terms of providing calories, but dictating the way kids eat now and how they might eat later in life. some of the same points you were making about smoking wistart eay in life. >> these companies that sell frozen pizzas to schools across america have lobbying money and maybe that's a reason, too, that congress is balking on this.

>> might be more lobbying money at stake than you think. this is huge money, overall. 21 million kids are getting their food from their lunch programs and school. it costs about $10 billion to $11 billion a year. they wanted to add on another 6.8 over five years. just about 1.2 every year. there is a lot of money at stake here, no question. but what they also found when you carry out the equation while it costs more money now, it could reduce costs later on some of the food costs of these other foods such as the fresh fruit and produce. >> that's long-term stuff. we're not good at that in this country. >> it's politics hits health, kids health. collision here in a big way. >> thanks, sanjay. >> you got it, guys. ahead in the next hour of "american morning." the latest on the "occupy wall street" movement headed to wall street to make their message heard. also basketball legend karekarim abdul-jabbar stops by to talk

about his battle with cancer and how he's helping others with the disease. i'm kind of a fixture in different parts of town... some folks call me a rock star, some call me the mayor... and i love it. and, i make everybody happy. i keep my business insurance with the hartford because... they came through for me once, and i know they've got my back.

for whatever challenges come your way... the hartford is here to back you up. helping you move ahead... with confidence. meet some of our small business customers at: thehartford.com/business i don't think about the unknown... i just rock n' roll.

i'm carol costello. from the streets to the subway. the "occupy" movement stages one of its largest demonstrations yet. i'm christine romans. jerry sandusky's interview. why reports have reportedly gone missing from sandusky's charity. on this "american morning." and good morning, everyone. it is thursday, november 17th. ali has the day off. >> he sure does. he's sunning himself somewhere in africa at the moment. >> he sent us an e-mail just to torture us with that information. >> it's true. but, first, a massive show of force right now on the streets of new york city. "occupy" protesters by the hundreds are converging on wall

street hoping to shut down the financial district. today's day of action is to mark the movement's two-month anniversary. this afternoon, the group plans to occupy the city's subways and then march to the brooklyn bridge. >> "occupy wall street" protesters say they want the day to be a day of nonviolent protests, although one demonstrator has been arrested for making terrorist threats. in a youtube video you can hear the 29-year-old yelling "in a few days they're going to yell what a cocktail can do to macy's." he's also threatened to burn down the city. let's go le to mary snow she's live in the crowd of people that you're seeing. what is the mood? >> it's dentense but peaceful. we're at the tail end and now the crowd has just swelled. we're on nassau street, which is right behind where we're

standing right now is behind the federal reserve, about a block away from the new york stock exchange. protesters started off at zuccotti park. they met, gathered, organized and then began marching down nassau street with the target of going to the new york stock exchange chanting, we are the 99%. again, this is just one of a number of marches they plan to hold for this day. you mentioned they plan to occupy some subway stations later today and then the biggest march is expected around 5:00 tonight when they are planning to march on the brooklyn bridge. very heavy police presence here. from my vantage point, what i've seen so far, we haven't seen any unrest. it's been fairly peaceful. >> mary, just wondered, we talked to the deputy mayor a short time ago. he said if the protests attempt to enter any buildings in wall

street, they'll immediately be arrested. i wonder if the protests will get into that area to do that, if that's their wish. >> i can tell you and christine can also speak to this around the new york stock exchange. security is so tight on any given day, so, getting into that building would really be very difficult. we haven't seen any protesters from where i am. again, i'm at the tail end of this protest. we haven't seen any protesters try to enter any buildings. we so far have just seen them on the street. but they have really just filled nassau street, which is, again, behind the new york stock exchange and the federal reserve. >> since september 11th, security in that part of the country must be the most secure of any place else. already a substantial police and private security presence around all of those places. so, shutting down wall street certainly they could occupy the area. but shutting down, it will be

business as usual at the new york stock exchange and else where. >> i think the irony here, the point is to shut down wall street and, wall street, of course, is symbolic. many of the big banks have moved out of that area. >> some have moved uptown or to connecticut and other places. mary snow, thanks, mary. more from our interview this morning. deputy affairs and communication and we asked him what the city is doing to get ready for today's big protests. >> the "occupy wall street" movement has said this is going to be a massive protest. tens of thousands of people in the street. now, this is new york. we will be prepared. we are always prepared. this is a place where we honor the first amendment where people come and protest all the time. we're not going to let people walk across the brooklyn bridge during a rush hour, that's not legal. my hope is that people will act peacefully. no indication that they won't. and massive protest is not in

incupatble and we hope people will observe the law. >> he defended the city's decision to clear out zuccotti's park saying the sit was threatening the public's safety. >> he had a direct interest in the president. this morning the suspected white house shooter is in custody. oscar ortega hernandez was arrested at a hotel yesterday. still trying to find out his motivation, but we're learning more about him, aren't we? >> yes, we are. first things first, we know he will appear in court. set to appear this afternoon in court at 2:00 p.m. in pittsburgh. we expect to hear the charges against him. we know that the u.s. park police in issuing their warrant issued a charge of carrying a dangerous weapon. but we'll have to hear, wait until this afternoon to hear more. we know that ortega-hernandez has a bit of a criminal history, mostly minor offenses in three states. idaho, texas and utah. in idaho he was found guilty

ranging from drug and alcohol violations to resisting arrest. we also know that family and friends have told authorities that he had what they're calling a direction of interest towards the president or the white house. so, that makes it sound as though he may have been obsessed with president obama. we'll have to wait and see what more we hear. it is interesting to note, though, back in 1994, a shooter named francisco duran fired 29 shots into the white house right across the north lawn behind me. he was charged with ten counts, one was attempting to assassinate the president. that is certainly one of the charges we could hear later this afternoon in court. >> athena jones at the white house, thank you. president obama, by the way, is in bali, indonesia and he arrived after pumping u.s. marines in australia in a speech. up to 2,500 marines will be deployed for joint training. he used local lingo to describe the relationship between the two

nations. >> the alliance between the united states and australia is deeper and stronger than it has ever been. spot on. cracker jack. thank you very much, everybody. >> sounds so much better with an australian accent, doesn't it? the shift in military power to the pacific coming as china expands its military reach in the region. speaking of president obama, he's featured in a fashion label benneton. the unhate ads include fake imeni imenii images of president obama kissing his court part. they're essentially artwork. they're not actual photos, everybody. but the company has dropped one of them. it depicted pope benedict kissing iman. it's brilliant because who has talked about benneton.

all this publicity. >> every time i see those pictures, i laugh. still ahead, they say hearing his voice was a trigger. several potential victims coming forward now after hearing penn state coach jerry sandusky's primetime tv interview with bob costas. one is saying the abuse went back to the 1970s. the mother of one alleged victim said he was pressured to keep quiet. also ahead, deadly storms sweep through the south. now hitting up and down the east coast. plus, snow is on the way. we'll tell you where. reynolds wolf tracking it all next. kareim abdul-jabbar the nba all-time leading scorer and cancer survivor. he's in town for a tournament that combines his two passions, hoops and cancer research. he's stopping by our studio this morning.

i'm kind of a fixture in different parts of town... some folks call me a rock star, some call me the mayor... and i love it. and, i make everybody happy. i keep my business insurance with the hartford because... they came through for me once, and i know they've got my back. for whatever challenges come your way... the hartford is here to back you up. helping you move ahead... with confidence. meet some of our small business customers at: thehartford.com/business i don't think about the unknown... i just rock n' roll.

11 minutes past the hour. good morning, new york city. cloudy, 50 degrees right now and you could see that shot behind us of central park, so beautiful because the trees, the leaves have changed colors and, central park is beautiful. >> it sure is. it will be partly cloudy little bit later. carol, if you get a run in before there's any rain. reynolds wolf is in the extreme weather center this morning. our tease said, reynolds, snow is coming. where is snow coming? >> you will see snow in a pretty good spot. back in ski country, back in parts of the pacific northwest and central northern rockies where you can have over a foot snow before all is said and done. snow coupled with winds of 30, 40, perhaps gusts up to 50 miles per hour will make things pretty difficult in terms of driving from point a to point b. speaking of strong winds, our

share in the northeast. strong storms left a trail of devastation through parts of alabama, through parts of georgia into the carolinas and right now the latest total we have, four fatalities and one in georgia and three in rock hill, south carolina. you see the damage ever where. one place that was hit especially hard was especially in alabama. look at the football field not far from auburn. it is actually part of a tree, lifted up by straight line winds and you see the damage to the goal posts and certainly take some time to clean it up and thankfully the weather should be better today. let's go to the weather maps, if you can. right here, plain as day. one line of storms and tail end of the frontal boundary that made its way through the southeast. we see scattered snow showers in parts of the appalachians popping up that white and the pink on the map. i tell you, that is not the heavy stuff. the heavy snowfall out towards the west and out in the west, some delays. but mainly in spots like san francisco. on the eastern seaboard, though, from new york to philadelphia

from boston all your airports in d.c. atlanta and tampa. even atlanta and miami, some delays. the worst of which up towards new york. the heavy snowfall that we were talking about will be in the pacific northwest, mainly in spots of the central and northern rockies. i have to tell you some of the heaviest snow, the peaks are well over a foot and the wind gusts very, very strong. keep that in mind. going to be great once the storm moves out and leaves the snow behind. for the time being, rough going and might even see some delays in denver, colorado, before all is said and done. >> thanks, reynolds. new developments to tell you about the penn state child sex scandal. jerry sandusky's primetime interview hit too close to home for some of his alleged victims. he denied sexually abusing young boys saying they were engaging in horseplay. new potential victims outraged by sandusky's remarks have decided to now come forward. some of their claims date back to the 1970s. >> the mother of the first alleged victim to come forward

in the case against sandusky is talking to cnn. her son's identified as victim number one in the entitlemeinti. she told anderson cooper it was hard to watch the sandusky interview from monday. >> he was upset about it, he was very upset about it. he said, i didn't watch it at, i watched it when it was on and he watched it after and he said, he cried. and i said, why did you cry? and he said, because i'm afraid he might go free. >> he's afraid that sandusky might go free. >> yeah. >> the mother also telling anderson cooper the first thing that something was wrong came when her son's behavior suddenly changed. >> out of the blue one day he was sitting at a computer and wanted to look up sex weirdoes. >> he wanted to do a search about sex offenders or sex

weirdoes. >> i told them it was megan's law. he said, well how do i type it in? i said, who are you looking for? and he said, jerry. i was, like, i kinda froze. like, wow, what are you looking him up for? and he's like, i don't know. i just want to see if he's on there. i said, why would he be on there? do you have something to tell me? no. don't they put those kinda people on there? i said, you need to tell, what is going on? he said, i don't know, sometimes he just acts acts weird. that was the end of that conversation. >> that breaks my heart that he went outside and just played. he's just a kid. didn't know how to handle this then or now. after discovering what jerry sandusky was doing to her son school officials pressured her to keep quiet.

>> well, when they did, the principal had called me and, in tears, and she was crying. i could tell she was crying. told me to get to the school right away. so, i went to the school. and met with the guidance counselor and the principal. and when i did. they told me that my son had said some things about, that there was a problem with jerry and that he didn't know. he didn't really admit anything at that point. he just said he thought he needed to tell somebody or it would get worse. >> that's a really brave thing for him to have said. >> yeah, it is. and then, then the principal said, oh, you know, jerry has a heart of gold. >> the principal said that to

you. that jerry has a heart of gold? >> yes. and that, i said, listen, i was very upset at this point. you know, i was extremely upset and i was basically yelling at them that they needed to call the police. i said, i want you to call the police, call children and youth, you know, i said call the police right now. and i said it three times, call the police right now. they said i needed to think about the ramifications of what would happen if i did that. >> what do you think they meant by that? >> i don't know. i guess, i am assuming what we're going through now. i don't really know. >> what do you want to see happen to jerry sandusky? >> i want jerry sandusky to go to jail for the rest of his life. >> and now another mystery surrounding this case. "new york times" reporting that three years worth of files are missing from the charity sandusky founded for troubled

kids from 2000 to 2003. coach mcqueary allegedly witnessed sandusky asoughting a little boy in 2002. they're proof that sandusky used charity resources to buy silence. two police departments, though, contradictory mike mcqueary's claims had discussions with police after witnessing a rape of a young boy by sandusky. both the campus and state college police say there's no record of a police report from 2002 filed by mcqueary. as you know, in that e-mail he said he had discussions with an e-mail to a friend he said she had discussions with police. also, a new judge has been assigned to the sandusky child sex case. the previous judge was preplaced after it was discovered that she donated money to second mile charity. the new judge will preside over his preliminary hearing next month. still ahead, the woman who

launched the website, proudto proudtobeapennstatealum. how old are you? is 80 the new 65? why this one might make you cringe. it's 20 minutes past the hour. the postal service is critical to our economy-- delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses,

but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it. 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. aviva life insurance and annuities. we are building insurance around you. and started earning loads of points. you got a weather balloon with points? yes, i did. [ man ] points i could use for just about anything. ♪

keep on going in this direction. take this bridge over here. there it is. [ man ] so i used mine to get a whole new perspective. ♪ [ male announcer ] write your story with the citi thankyou premier card, with no point caps, and points that don't expire. get started at thankyoucard.citi.com.

it's 23 minutes after the hour. minding your business this morning. we're on track for a quiet open on wall street after the dow lost nearly 200 points yesterday. right now u.s. stock futures are trading slightly lower. you're looking at live pictures right now, courtesy of live stream as hundreds of "occupy"

protesters right now making their way to the corner of wall street and broad street, right by new york stock exchange, hoping to interrupt this morning's opening bell. that bell for 9:30. u.s. bank stocks hit especially hard yesterday. bank of america was down nearly 4% and morgan stanley dropped 8% after the rating agency fitch warned that europe's debt crisis could pose a serious risk to american banks. the price of oil is above $100 a barrel for the first time since july, though one market analyst telling cnn money we may not see prices at the pump sky rocket because of slowing demand in europe. the nation's move near a historic low. a new cnn/orc poll shows that just 25% of people thinks things are going well in the country today. 74% say things are going badly and not great optimism for the future. just 44% are confident that we'll be able to turn things around. maybe this is why we're all so bummed. apparently 80 is the new 65.

according to a new survey by wells fargo, nearly a quarter of those surveyed say they have to work until they hit 80 years old because they don't have enough saved for retirement. the house passed a bill to help americans find work. this is the first and so far only piece of president obama's job package to get out of congress. the senate passed the bill earlier this week. among other things, it gives employers tax credits for hiring veterans who have been unemployed longer than six months. starbucks ceo howard schultz has been named "fortune" magazine business person of the year. the ceo is currently on a campaign to help create jobs here in the u.s. coming up, she bleeds blue and white. we'll meet a penn state alumwho is reaching oout to the nittany lion nation to help victims of sexual abuse, one doctor, one alum aalum at a time. "american morning" back right after thibreak., a stolen-vehicle locator,

roadside assistance, and something that could help save your life -- automatic help in a crash. it's the technology of five devices in one hardworking mirror. because life happens while you drive. for a limited time, get an onstar fmv mirror for only $199 after a $100 off. visit onstar.com for retailers.

>> okay, he's definitely a hero, he definitely is. he's a brave kid. for a long time we thought, he thought, we were basically just on our own and then as more victims came out and, you know, he started to feel a little bit better about that. the mother of the first victim to come forward with child sex abuse allegations against jerry sandusky speaks to cnn and says she wants to see the former penn state coach in jail for the rest of his life on this "american morning." and welcome back to "american morning." 30 minutes past the hour. top stories for you now. it is the two-month anniversary of the "occupy" movement. live pictures from new york city's zuccotti park. it's empty because hundreds of protesters are on the move and

planning to shut down wall street this hour. these are live pictures from the center of the crowds, courtesy of live stream. the protesters are also expected to take their mesage to the subways and then to the brooklyn bridge in time for rush hour. police have captured a man suspected in the white house shooting. oscar ortega-hernandez was taken into custody at a pennsylvania hotel yesterday. a gun linked to him was found near the white house. no one was hurt. hernandez will appear in court this afternoon. police are contradicting claims by penn state whistleblower mike mcqueary that he went to police after witnessing jerry sandusky's alleged rape of a young boy in 2002. both the campus and state campus police say no record of any crime being reported. in the meantime, sandusky's primetime tv interview was reportedly the trigger for more potential abuse victims to come forward. some of their claims date back to the 1970s. well, perhaps in their darkest hour, a penn state alumni group is appealing to the

nittany lion nation, all 557,000 of them, they're asking fellow alums for a $1 donation to go to the rape, abuse and incest national network. she joins us now. welcome this morning. you're trying to turn this into something positive. as an alum you're horrified, your proud alma mater. >> we have been shocked by the recent allegations and last week we basically a group of three other alumni and myself sat around and thought to ourselves, we've got to get a hold of this. there's a better spirit of penn state, the message is not getting out there and we need to take this and turn this back to the focus of where it should be focused on, which is on the victims. >> you raised how much? >> $404,000 in one week. we started a week ago this morning. >> in one week. >> in one week. >> the whole pitch, 557,000 of us and we want to put the focus back on where it belongs, which

is on the victims of this and the fact that we learned philanthropy from penn state, which is a big irony. >> we learned how to be philanthropic from joe paterno himself. he did work philanthropic itself. for pediatric kids with cancer thon every year. we learn how to give back at penn state and the wrong message is being sent about our university. we wanted to take this and use it as a teachable moment, circle back and talk about the fact that these victims have gone through a tragedy. and it's up to penn state to lift them up and, also at the same time, put the focus back on sexual abuse survivors all over the country. >> how do you feel about the administration and i guess the way, the way the university has handled all of this. >> you know, it's been difficult. it was clearly a slow response, but, you know, we are not going to sit back and allow the image of penn state to be tarnished by

this. we are bigger than the alleged allegations of the few. it is up to us as alumni, students, fans and basically anyone who has been moved by this tragedy. this is a time for us to take this horrible situation and turn this around and help victims of sexual abuse. >> it shakes what you really know. when you think of penn state alums. there are 557,000 of you and you have a common heritage that most universities don't. i went to iowa state. i will never have that common heritage that you guys do from joe paterno who was the common denominator for so long and this football program for so long, which makes it such a big story, too. people who were trusted and revered, the whole thing falls apart. how much of that is a mirage, et cetera. how do you, as this whole process goes on. we're in the beginning parts of the investigation, too. i mean, this is going to keep dragging out. how do you stay positive about your heritage at penn state?

>> we stay positive by doing exactly what we do with our proud to be penn stater movement. we had this outpouring of support and people thanking us and saying, thank you for giving us an opportunity to do something good. >> the early images were of kids rioting and lots of alums like you were like, oh, please, these cannot be the images left to the world. >> that's not penn state. a select few people who made poor choices. that does not represent penn state university. since 1855 we have been doing great things as a university and we plan to continue to do more of that and this is an opportunity for all of us, you know, out of any tragedy, there's an opportunity. there's a chance to make a difference and, you know, our first goal is $500,000. we plan to meet that today. but that's not the end. that's the beginning. this is a movement and we really are committed to getting the conversation of sexual abuse out there into america. this is an opportunity to make things better for people. >> and to make something positive out of what is just a

disaster. >> this doesn't have to happen. our goal is so that this never happens anywhere ever again. >> proudtobeapennstater.com. >> go to facebook and twitter and we launched this through social media, our only outlet. follow us on facebook and twitter. >> thanks. nice to see you. >> thank you. coming up next, nba legend kare karim abdul-jabbar. he will join us live in our studios. he's coming in next. it's 35 minutes past the hour. not white collar or blue collar or no collars. we are business in america. and every day we awake to the same challenges. but at prudential we're helping companies everywhere find new solutions to manage risk, capital and employee benefits, so american business can get on with business. ♪

so american business can get on with business. i heard they found energy here. it's good. we need the jobs. [customer:] we need to protect the environment. [worker:] we could do both. is that possible? [announcer:] at conocophillips, we're helping power america's economy with cleaner, affordable natural gas. more jobs. less emissions. a good answer for everyone. well, if it's cleaner and affordable. as long as we keep these safe. there you go. thanks. [announcer:] conocophillips.

welcome back to "american morning." looking at live pictures as hundreds and hundreds of "occupy" protesters are making their way to the corner of wall street and broad street. they're hoping to interrupt this morning's opening bell. we did get an image of one of the protesters under arrest. we did see one person being carted away by police. police are out in force and they say they won't infringe on anyone's first amendment rights. if any of those protesters try to get into the buildings, they

will be placed under arrest immediately. >> they will not be allowed to block traffic walking across the brooklyn bridge and be on the walkways and police are ready for any infringement of that, they're going to stop. on to more, pleasant news. exciting news, actually. he is the nba all-time leading scorer, lakers legend and cancer survivor. >> karim abdul-jabbar is in new york this week and hawnward a prestigious award he has done for raising cancer awareness. kick off a tournament coaches versus cancer. pleasure to meet here. >> nice to be here, thank you. >> in 2008 you were diagnosed with a form of blood cancer and since then you've been raising awareness about this. first of all, how are you feeling now? >> i'm feeling great. i'm so grateful for the results of so much that the, pardon me. that the researchers have done. you know, in finding out ways to treat cancers like the one i have. >> you're managing it and you're

feeling good. >> i feel wonderful and i'm able to live a normal lifestyle, basically, because cancer researchers have made such great strides in what they do. >> and your story has, i'm sure, inspired many, many people who are undergoing cancer treatments right now. what are you doing here in the city to give them hope? >> well, tonight, there's two basketball games that we played down in madison square garden. i'm really thrilled to be involved. basketball is such a big part of my life and now that i'm dealing with cancer, you know, it was a perfect fit for me. >> you've also been awarded by this prestigious award. tell us about this award. the cold spring harbor laboratory tuesday recognizing you and temple granden and nobel prize winning scientists, as well, for some of your work. >> coal spring harbor does incredible research into issues having to do with cancer.

so, anyone that has been able to help them do their thing, you know, they show some appreciation. i was really thrilled because the very first recipient wasuhas been tireless in trying to help other people. >> tell us about the day you learned you had cancer because for many people who have cancer it is just difficult to believe. you can be healthy all your life and doing all the right things and yet you come down with this terrible disease. >> it's terrible, it's frightening. i thought i had dodged that bullet. you know, i lived, as you say, i worked out as an athlete all of my life and now i have something that i knew could be a killer. i was very fortunate. my son is a medical student and he was able to explain what it was all about in english. so, that was very helpful. and he said, listen, you know, you don't know exactly what you're dealing with. you have to get more specific as to the type of leukemia that you have. and that really took a big

weight off. when i went to the onccologist, they said you have something that we can treat, hopefully the treatment will work and it has. i'm very lucky. >> but it's still something you have to live with every day because it's still rather unpredictable. >> well, it doesn't intrude on your life as much as you might think. you have to go to the doctor on a regular basis and consult with him and work out a management, how are you going to manage your disease. you have to take your meds and get your blood diagnosed regularly so that they can see if any changes are taking place and do what they need to do to keep you on track. >> but, you know, living with cancser the way many people are doing their job and living their lives and raising their families and living with cancer. cancer research, as you point out, has changed so much and done so much over the past 30 years. so exciting to think where it could be 30 years from now. so exciting to think what kind of progress we could make, if we keep the focus on it. >> the researchers are awesome. you know, they work seven days a

week. they're into it. it's something that they want to do. and they've, they've really hit a great stride. >> right. we want to switch topics a little bit and talk about the nba lockout. i know you've been blogging a lot about it and thought a lot about this and they're at this place where the negotiations have stalled and there's a deadlock and now the entire season is in danger of being canceled. just from your perspective in watching this, can you see both sides or is one side more at fault than the other? >> it's like let any labor impasse. completely wrong or completely right. i think the players' side, i think they've gone a little bit too far. >> they should have taken this last deal? >> i think the deal was reasonable. they might lose 5% or 6% of their salaries. in today's economic times, everybody's dealing with something like that. for them to decide that they're going to not play this season,

if necessary, 100% of nothing is still nothing. they're going to lose a year's pay. it doesn't make any sense. >> what will it do to the fans, do you think? do you think the fans will be with them next year or do you think the fans have been hurt by this, too? >> i think the fans should be the principal concern for both sides. i can't go to the supermarket without the check out lady asking, are they going to play this year? it's a total burden on everybody that loves the game and wants to see it occur. >> today's players, i mean, they make so much money. do you think when you start making that much money you sort of lose perspective? >> i think so. you know, being 1 of 450 players in an industry, that's it. the professional basketball is about 450 players. you know, think about the average person who's out there making, if they're lucky, $50,000, $60,000 a year. they can't relate.

somebody's going to -- they won't get $3 million this year, they'll only get $2.2 million. >> so much money generated by those 450e players. they are the core of this huge, multi-billion dollar industry. >> maybe they'll have to go to europe and make, what? >> a third of what they're making here. they're not really looking at it with realistic, a realistic perspective. >> right. they have a window, players have a window in their employability, right? the longer they stretch this out or they play in europe or whatever, they still lost a year of their earnings ability here. >> thank you so much for joining us. so wonderful meeting you. >> i would like to mention our websites. >> sure, yes, yes. >> facebook.com/kaj. will all give you information about the events this week and anything, anybody that wants to

learn about the disease that i have or how they can help cancer patients. they can go there and there are links to other websites. >> and we'll tweet those links, as well, and put them on our own blog here at cnn. very nice to meet you. >> my pleasure. >> thank you. >> my pleasure. >> i'm a little star struck at the moment, actually. morning headlines coming your way next. it's 45 minutes past. ford fusion has now been named the most dependable midsize car by jd power and associates. we go to kimberly. any thoughts on this news? i have no idea what's goin on. we are out. what was that? they told me it's the most dependable midsize sedan and they ran back into their little box.

13 minutes to the top of the hour. here are your morning headlines. good news for the u.s. economy this morning. the labor department announcing that 388,000 jobless claims were filed for the first time last week. it sounds like a lot, but whenever this number comes in, less than 400,000, a sign the labor market is headed in the right direction. markets open in 45 minutes. right now we're on track for a quiet open on wall street after the dow lost nearly 200 points yesterday. right now stock futures are trading slightly higher and markets getting a boost from that jobs report. and hundreds of "occupy wall street" protesters take a look right now are making their way to the new york stock exchange. they're hoping to disrupt this morning's opening bell. today's protests to mark the movement's two-month anversity. powerful storms ripped low the south. four people were killed yesterday. the nasty weather destroyed homes and knocked down power lines. rescue teams are now searching for survivors. the president saying the united states is a pacific power

and here to stay. he arrived in indonesia this morning after announcing a shift of military power in australia yesterday. and expect a grilling when u.s. energy secretary steven chu goes into a house panel looking into solyndra. the solar energy company that received $535 million in federal loan guarantees and later went bust. lawmakers want to know if those loan guarantees were politically motivated. the vatican says it will take legal action against clothing company benneton to top a photoshop picture of the pope from being published. they dropped the ad at issue, i should say, the one that showed pope benedict kissing an egyptian imam. tigers woods will be face-to-face with his ex-caddie.

he fired his long-time caddie back in july. ricky gervais signed on to host the golden globes, again. he took hot shots at the audience last year. the globes air in january. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" back after a break.

there it is, central park. good morning, new york. cloudy right now about 45. it will rain in a little bit. >> bummer. well, at least it's in the 40s. that's a plus, right? a few minutes ago we made a

promise to dr. sanjay gupta and now it's put up or shut up time. we said we would join the fit nation triathlon challenge. he is looking for a six-pack of cnn viewers and maybe a anchor or two and this year the race is in malibu. >> i'm interested. >> that's an experience that could literally change your life. cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is in atlanta. >> morning, sanjay. >> we have everything in perpetuity when you told me this and we rorred it and we saved it. we are really excited about this fit nation challenge. something we have been doing specifically with triathlons for a couple years now. we pick viewers. they write in and send us our stories. we pick six viewers who have never done a triathlon before and we train them and teach them about fitness, specifically. that's really the goal and this year, as you mentioned, in malibu this triathlon. a little shorter distance than in year's past.

a classic distance triathlon. half a mile ocean swim and 18 mile bike ride and four-mile run. >> i definitely want to do that. >> you definite lewant to? you are welcome to join us. this is something that we think helps set an example for people who are watching because i think viewers can relate to at least one of these participants in years' past and follow them along and make changes in their own lives. >> they have amazing transformations after completing the triathlon. >> who are you looking for? who are you looking to join this chal snnge. >> everyone who we picked in the past has never done a triathlon before. we thought that was an important thing because is really for everybody. we had somebody who weighed over 300 pounds and a woman in her late 50s. i want to use a triathlon to help me stop smoking. when you do these competitions, these sorts of triathlons, you see all these athletes out

there. challenged athletes who might be missing a limb and right there racing along with you. it's really incredible. we're looking for you guys, as well. in case you have forgotten specifically, christine and carol, what you said. take a listen to this. >> it's a lot when you add it altogether, but certainly doable. again, this six-pack never done this before, never thought they could do it and now they're going to do it. >> the next time you do this, i want to do it. i want to be on the team. i don't care, i do. >> if they can do it, maybe i can do it. maybe we can do it. >> ali? >> we have to take a commercial break. >> oh, the magic of video editing. >> right. >> how long did you spend putting that together? >> you have to get velshi to sign up. even a bigger challenge than the triathlon. >> he'll sign on, but he's never going to do it. >> look, there's no better motivater than cameras chasing

you around. but it's a wonderful thing if you want to make big changes in your life, this is a good example. >> i'm serious. come on, christine. >> no room for all of this. >> got eyes on you, romans. >> all right. that's very cool. >> only like if you fill out my mortgage and refinancing paperwork. >> perfect. >> sounds like a good deal. >> you run the miles, i'll do the morgan re-fi, done. >> thank you, sanjay. >> you got it, guys. >> if you want to join sanjay and race next year, check out the cnn fit nation facebook page for all the application details. it's 55 minutes after the hour. >> come join us, i am really going to do it. ♪

[ multiple snds ng melodic tune ] ♪ [ malennounc ] at northrop grumman, makthworld a feplace. th's value performance. northr gruan. so my old contact lenses would sometimes move out of place and blur my vision. my eye doctor said there's great news for people with astigmatism. acuvue® oasys for astigmatism. he said it's the only lens of its kind designed to realign naturally with every blink and created with hydraclear® plus.

i'm seeing more clearly, crisply, comfortably, all day long. now life doesn't have to be a blur. [ male announcer ] learn more at acuvue.com. acuvue® oasys for astigmatism.

and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us.

all right. a massive show of force right now on the streets of new york city. "occupy" protesters are converging on wall street hoping to shut down the financial action. mark the movement's two-month anniversary and tomorrow afternoon this group plans to occupy the city's subways and then march to the brooklyn bridge. >> as you expect, police are out in force and they're not going to allow them to march on the brooklyn bridge, but we'll see what happens later today. in other news this morning, a pilot's bathroom break turns into a temporary terrorist scare onboard to new york's laguardia airport. the pilot locked himself in the bathroom shortly before landing. a passenger near the bathroom heard the pilot banging on the door and offered to help. the pilot told them to let the cockpit know he was stuck and that's when the crew became concerned about a man approaching the cockpit and radioed air traffi